The Life After

5/29/07

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or the characters of Inuyasha. I do not own Naraku, Inutaisho, Inuyasha, Sesshoumaru, Jakken, Rin, or Ah-Un. I also do not own Ayame, the Elder, or Kouga. Nor do I own the lunar rainbow promise. I do not own Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Kirara, or Shippo. I do not own Kohaku, Hachi, Kaede, or Kikyo or ANY of the characters or happenings from Inuyasha. Rumiko Takahashi is the wonderful creator and owner of said characters, manga, and show. I do not make money off of her characters or this story. Anything that is not owned by her is still owned by the people who own the Inuyasha show and movies. I give them credit for their work as well. I do not make money off of their ideas or episodes. This Disclaimer applies to this and all following chapters.

HOWEVER!!! Riki and Uki are MINE ALL MINE!!! *hugs them* And anyone who tries to steal them away will have Sesshoumaru's wrath upon them!!! XD

Author's Note: Hey all…yeah I know I'm terrible. I've been gone for like a year!!! But I just got real busy at the end of summer and then school and by then I was totallllly uninspired. *sighs* BUT NOW I'M BACK! And with the great review Lord Roushijin just gave me *hugs him* I'm suddenly insanely inspired to WRITE SOME BEAUTIFUL NEW CHAPTERS! I don't think I'm gonna add much more to the story in the CURRENT time…I think I'm gonna skip ahead to when Riki and Uki are older. Yeah they definitely are inspiring me. Now I'm PROBABLY gonna get beat over the head for where I think I'm going with them…………but I can't help it. It's just the way I see it….besides it's not as bad as like what Angel Sanctuary did and people still love that! *shuts up before giving more hints away* So hopefully everyone will still love my story too! Alright so I've got to go finish rereading my story that I wrote a year ago lol and then expect a new chapter within the next week or so. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

P.S. There's a new picture for Chapter 18. Yeah ok so I know Sesshoumaru's not wearing those clothes there…and it's not a very good picture….but it's still a picture, right?! I drew this last year when I wrote this story…but I never got around to coloring it til now…perhaps that also inspired me to carry on. Let's hope so!!!
http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h213/renai_unmei/The%20Life%20After/SesshyRinUki-1.jpg

P.S.S. GUESS WHAT! I actually wrote a short chapter today. Hope you guys don't hurt me with where this is going...but it's how I've planned it all along. So after a year of absence...and without too much further ado...I give you CHAPTER 20!!! Oh and um...Can't promise when the next chapter will be...probably soon....maybe not? Oops lol.

Thanks: Not sure where I left off with reviews...so I'll start here: Sorceressofthenight- Yes Sesshoumaru now knows he will always love Rin. . . pleaseeee don't hate me for what I did to her.....This is just where my inspiration took me! music for the masses- Sorry about that....didn't really update soon, did I? leyren- I think I did respond to this before...but yeah! WOW can't believe you read it all at once. It took me even longer than that to reread it lol and I skipped the first few chapters. Uki and Riki are my favs, that's why I've skipped ahead to focus on them. *nods* Sarah- But I LOVE Kouga, of COURSE she got help from him. He's changed with Kagome completely out of his reach. lol. And where else was she gonna go? I guess smart wise she shoulda gone to Tuu-Yen....but she was just running, and ummmm I'm gonna just say that Ah-Un didn't know how to get to the panthers. *shifty eyes* angel- thank you soooo much!!!! sorry it wasn't a quick update...i'm terrible when i lost my inspiration! :( Lord Roushijin- YOU! You have inspired me to continue writing. I was only considering it, but I went to check my reviews and saw yours and just HAD to write more. So I'm gonna work on this for a while, and THEN I think I'd like to write a RikuxSora story....that would make me smile. . . but for now, Uki and Riki call to me, and I must honor their call! For I am the ONLY ONE who can tell their story.

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Ukiyomaru sat up in bed. He stretched his arms and blinked his brown human eyes. It was the night of the half moon. Riki had used to complain of his human night, but seeing as Ukiyomaru had TWO human nights every month, he had quickly stopped his whining. The current human rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He had been dreaming of the past, and he was rather disoriented. He ran through everything that had happened, trying to set himself firmly in time. Let's start with Dad's return, he thought silently, though that had been a very long time ago.


So Dad came back…and then we defeated Shen. There was that awesome big party, and….Dad stayed with us for a few weeks. Then Uncle Inuyasha allowed Riki to come with me and Mom to the castle. Boy, that was awesome. I can still remember how huge it seemed back then! We ran around all evening, bothering all the servants, and we got to meet Jakken and Ah-Un! So we alternated between going back to the village and staying at the big castle…and that's how we grew up! Dad even gave us our own personal room in the castle. Mom helped us decorate it with all these neat things she played with when she was little. It's such a great room, with that one big old bed. The one we've shared through all these years…


Uki paused in his thoughts, looking over at the older man sleeping soundly beside him. We've been together for so long, our whole life. The castle sure isn't as happy since Mom passed on. I can't believe it's been that long! 100 years…It was so weird watching Mom get old, while we hardly aged at all! Poor Dad. It hit him the hardest. She'd finally gotten him to open up. He laughed and smiled just as much as she did! But now…he hasn't smiled once since she passed on. I think his whole domain would have fallen into a depression right along with him…at least if not for me and Riki. The hanyou princes. Maybe it's just cause of how we were raised…Mom always told us that no matter what happened, we should always look for the good in life. We always go on these long journeys throughout our eventual domain, spreading cheer and just trying to learn how to be good rulers. I don't know if I'm ready to be a Lord…but if Riki will be right by my side, and we can be Lords together, then I know it'll be ok. It always is ok...when Riki is there..., the young man shook his head, why was he telling himself all these things?

He ran a hand through his short usually silver hair, now black as coal. Nearly all the demons he had ever met had long hair, but he just hadn't been able to bring himself to grow it out. He had tried once when he was ten, but it just tripped him up. It was a lot easier to keep it short. He rubbed a palm against his blank forehead; the moon and stripes disappeared when he was human. His fangs were blunt; his ears, pointless. Even his claws had faded away. He felt so weak, except…except that Riki was right next to him, snoring softly. Somehow, no matter how human he was under the half moon sky, he felt perfectly safe and protected. He gazed gently at the moonlight glistening over Riki's calm face. The older man's ears twitched softly, high on his head, and he opened and closed his mouth once in his sleep. Uki's attention was drawn to those soft shimmering lips. Quickly he shook his head, breaking the trance the handsome boy's features had put him in. The poor half demon could not understand what had been happening to him recently. All through their younger days he had easily called Riki his brother, but now? Maybe it was just that they were basically adolescents in demon years. With his hormones raging, perhaps Uki's deep love for Riki was getting all jumbled up and amplified. Still, it didn't make sense to the poor young man. Living in the village and at the castle he had learned only one thing: men and women were supposed to fall in love. Not once had he seen two men in love together. There was his mom and dad for one. Then there was Inuyasha and Kagome, Sango and Miroku, Ayame and Kouga, even Shippo and Kirara. Whatever he was feeling, he was certain it had to be wrong. He lay his head against his hands, covering his eyes, wondering what on earth was wrong with him.

Riki had been able to stay asleep through all of Ukiyomaru's thoughts and questions. Now, however, as the scent of tears hit his keen nose, the older hanyou opened his bright yellow eyes. “Uki?” he whispered, sitting up and turning to face his cousin. Seeing his dear friend's head in his hands, he quickly put a hand on Uki's shoulder, “Uki?! What's wrong?!”

The younger gasped, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, “N-nothing. I'm fine.”

“Ukiyomaru!” and Uki knew he was in trouble, Riki never used his full name. “Do you think for one second I believe that crap?! I've known you your entire life, and I know perfectly well when something is wrong. Now you look me in the eye and tell me what's up!” Riki's silver hair glistened from atop his head in the ponytail he never let down. He'd used the same tie since his hair had been long enough to put up, and he had never taken it down. Not once. The hanyou's dog ears twitched angrily. When Uki still wouldn't face him, Riki put a hand under his chin and forced him to meet his eyes. “Uki, what's got you so down? Is it cuz it's the half moon? Don't worry about it! You'll be right as rain in a few hours! You know that. And I'll totally watch out for you until you're back to normal. I'm your best friend. You can tell me! Promise!”

Uki whimpered. Riki's kind words were only making his heart beat faster. How could he possibly tell him that he thought he might be in love with the older man? He wouldn't dare chance ruining their close relationship. “Please, Riki,” he closed his eyes, unable to stare into those entrancing yellow ones any longer, “Please don't make me tell. Please. I just can't. I-I…I just can't.”

“Uki, you look at me.” The current human obeyed, though he was shaking slightly in fear. “Uki, you don't have to tell me anything. But I want you to know that someday. Someday you're gonna realize you need to tell somebody about whatever this is that's got you so scared. And I want you to know that I'm gonna be there. And when you need to talk, you just yell out my name and we'll go somewhere real far away. Maybe to that secret waterfall we found when we were nine. And we'll go somewhere all alone and you can tell me everything. And I'll keep it secret. I won't let no one know. And I'll help you through it. Cuz that's what friends do! They help each other and look out for each other. And we're BEST friends. Kay? So promise me. When you DO decide you gotta tell someone. Let it be me?”

It was such a moving speech that Ukiyomaru was unable to hold the tears back any longer. He buried his face into Riki's kimono, crying his eyes out, “It IS you, Riki! It's ALWAYS been you!”

“Best friends,” he smiled, wrapping his arms around his cousin.

“Best friends,” Uki whimpered, trying his hardest to slow his tears.

Finally Riki put his hands on the present human's shoulders and pushed him gently away from his chest. “Now you get some sleep, Uki. You're gonna wear your little human self out,” he smirked.

Ukiyomaru gave him a playful shove, but nodded. “Yeah.” The boys clasped hands as they had done so many years before after defeating an evil wolf demon. It was their special handshake. It showed that they were brothers. Maybe more than brothers? Uki thought as they lay back down among the sheets. He wasn't as frightened. Even if what he felt WAS wrong, Riki would always have his back.

Riki opened one eye and looked over at his sleeping friend. His slim form moving gently with his steady breathing. Uki had never been a muscular man. In fact he was very skinny, and not very tall. Riki, on the other hand, was rather tall, nearly a head higher than Ukiyomaru, and his strength showed all over his chest and forearms. Uki used to joke that he had a rock instead of a chest. Despite the clear strength difference, Riki had never felt that much stronger than his cousin. Ukiyomaru had much greater powers and control over them than Riki had ever been able to grasp over his own. He was a man of fists, never very fond of weapons. Uki also did not like swords or the like, but he wasn't very good at hand to hand. It was his poison that had proved most useful in the few battles they had had against lesser evil demons. Very few demons dared to cross into Sesshoumaru's domain…unless they were actually a part of it. Riki let out a deep sigh. He wondered what could have Uki so down. He wished there was something, anything, he could do for the boy. He brushed Uki's long bangs out of his eyes, then closed his own and drifted away.