A/N: I would like to take a minute to pray for everyone who was affected by the tragedy in Japan. I hope none of you guys were but I really, really wish there was some way for me to know that you all are okay and whether any of you have suffered because of it.
Review response to Sarah – I understand what you mean by more sophisticated language but since most of the characters in this fanfic are nobles or Lords, the fanfic would be full of weird pompous speech. Besides, not all nobles of all centuries spoke in that manner and since this fic is set hundreds of years before humans became at all sophisticated, I didn’t think it would be appropriate to have that sort of speech. I have tried to have a slight difference in the manner of Sesshoumaru and his family speaking and the others speaking but not with everyone else. I am aware of some of the grammar flaws and I intend to proof read the entire story in a couple of months as soon as my finals are done. You implied you had some sort of authority to say what you did. Your email ID says uwm…does that mean you are studying at the University of Wisconsin? Anyway, thanks a ton for the critique. I really appreciate it and will try to keep it in mind. I really would like to know what you meant by authority though, so do email me if you don’t mind.
Enjoy! ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Chapter 25 – On Taming A Youkai
Miageta saki e to arukidaseru hazu
Doko made mo yukeru jibun nakusanai nara
…I should be able to step toward the path I've looked up to
I can go anywhere, as long as I don't lose myself…
-Aozora no Namida lyrics – “Tears of Heaven”
Raia waited with bated breath as Sesshoumaru stared at the two whimpering demons, contemplating. When he remained motionless for an eternity, Raia thought he was actually going to watch Inuyasha end them. She had known the young prince for years; difficult as it was for her to believe he would actually do that, one could never tell, with Sesshoumaru.
Inuyasha had his claws raised and his eyes fixed on the two demons’ throat. The Inuyoukai relished the look of fear and despair in their eyes as he raised his blood-stained claws and allowed them to glint dully in the fading light. The scent of terror and helplessness and suffering was intoxicating; for once, he would be the one with the power, he would be the predator and the bastards would know exactly what it felt like to be at the mercy of someone else.
Then he froze. There was someone who had come to close.
He looked behind him out of the corner of his eye and growled, warning the intruder, the silver haired youkai, to back off.
This demon…he had no quarrel with this one but it looked like he was planning to interfere with his kill. Inuyasha bared his fangs and growled, telling him to stay back. After what they had done, these two did not deserve pity. They deserved to die, just as they had planned to kill him. And who better to strike the final blow than the one who had been wronged?
Gaeten’s heart sped up. The demon Lord seemed to be considering saving them from the beast. It would be an ignominious end, dying by a hanyou’s hands. The gashes all over his body were already a testament to how far he had fallen. A stupid hanyou, inflicting injury in a full demon warrior- it was unheard of. Granted, this was a wild demon, and not the hanyou in his normal form but he was till the dirty little slave who had witnessed his humiliation at Sesshoumaru-sama’s hands. Surely, surely the demon Lord would not be so cruel as to allow him to die by the boy’s hands…
As if he had heard his thoughts, Sesshoumaru stepped closer to them. Inuyasha turned fully to face him and snarled, glaring at him with empty, furious eyes, blood-stained claws poised to strike.
The demon Lord gazed calmly at him.
“I believe Inuyasha has been avenged, at your hands, for all the wrongs done to him by these two. If anything can quench the thirst for revenge over, it is blood.”
Indifferent golden eyes roamed over the wounded bodies of the two.
“Defeated in battle by a hanyou,” Sesshoumaru commented, “Do you consider yourselves warriors?”
Gaeten flinched, though Jaken’s face remained neutral.
“You are strong with a poison tipped dagger in your hand against an unarmed boy but while fighting an enemy without fear, all you are capable of is begging for mercy.”
“Much as I would like to see these worthless insects die,” Sesshoumaru continued, looking at Inuyasha, “you do not have the heart of a killer. It will break the hanyou to have blood on his hands and I cannot allow that.”
Inuyasha flexed his claws and smirked. What the hell was he talking about? He wouldn’t break from killing them. It would give him the greatest pleasure to do so. There was currently something inside of him that was thirsty for blood. It would give him the highest joy to tear these two apart with his claws. This youkai was lying. He just wanted to take his kill away from him.
Sesshoumaru stepped closer still, till he was almost within reach of the demon’s claws.
Inuyasha’s claws twitched, itching to tear into this demon who was so arrogantly stepping into his territory but his fearless, utterly tranquil aura gave him pause. His instincts told him to be wary of this particular demon.
But then caution was thrown to the winds as Sesshoumaru moved to step in between him and the two youkai cowering against the wall. The demon launched himself at Sesshoumaru, claws raised, lips drawn back in a snarl, unmindful of any damage that it might bring upon itself in the process. The important thing was to win, after all. If the silver haired demon believed he was stronger than Inuyasha, then he was simply over confident.
Sesshoumaru stood stock still as demon Inuyasha leapt towards him, but when he was within reach, he raised an arm and backhanded Inuyasha hard enough to send him crashing into the wardrobe.
Jaken and Gaeten gasped as Inuyasha’s back hit the wood with a sickening crunch, then crumpled down to the floor and lay still.
Gaeten turned his eyes back on the demon Lord in fear and relief as piercing golden eyes turned their attention back onto them. Sesshoumaru-sama stopped the demon from killing them…that had to mean he was sparing their lives, didn’t it?
Jaken, however, understood that he had not stopped the hanyou for their sake but for his. He glanced at the unconscious form of the hanyou. Sesshoumaru-sama cared enough about the slave to not soil his soul with the burden of death. Inuyasha was more than a mere replaceable slave; he had misjudged his worth to the demon Lord. A servant could be replaced quite easily, unlike a favoured pet. His miscalculation would cost him his life.
“Jaken,” Sesshoumaru said, and the toad demon looked up at him calmly. He had risked his status, his life of luxury, everything to get close to this demon Lord. He did not, for one second, regret what he had done. All his life, he had gone after what he believed in without holding back, doing whatever it took, and trying to get rid of competition was part of it. It was this that had helped him survive in the harsh land of Hideyori and it was that same trait that was going to be the end of him today.
He glanced out the open balcony door and thought that he would have liked to spend his life in these lands. True, discipline and decorum were stricter here but the atmosphere was not stifling, unlike the land he had been born in. It was unfortunate that he was to lose to a hanyou child but had he not done everything in his power to be where he wanted to be, he would have lived with the regret for the rest of his life.
He took a deep breath and met Lord Sesshoumaru’s piercing gaze.
It was better this way.
“Jaken,” Sesshoumaru said, “You thought to get away with this crime because the life you wanted to take is that of a hanyou and a slave. You come from a different land and do not know our ways. In the Western Lands, the murder of a slave deserves the same punishment as the murder of a noble.”
He glanced contemptuously at the tiger demon.
“You, on the other hand, know very well what happens to traitors and connivers in the Western Lands. For a slight you perceived to be mine, you attempted to harm my slave because you were too cowardly to stand up to me.”
Clawed fingers wrapped around Gaeten’s throat and the demon gasped as he was lifted off the ground.
“You were given a warning, a second chance to mend your ways and repent. Instead, you harboured hatred against a defenceless hanyou in your mind, for the punishment meted out by me. You allowed your own shortcomings to poison your mind until they took on a hideous form – a spineless coward who would murder a child.”
Gaeten panicked, bringing both his hands against the demon Lord’s wrist to attempt to pry them off but his grip was like steel.
“A person who makes a mistake may be shown mercy if he begs for a chance but someone like you, who has lost his sanity…you are incapable of change for fear of life was insufficient to detract you from attempting a thing as foolish as this..”
Golden eyes turned to Jaken’s and the toad demon looked up at Sesshoumaru’s impassive face in awe. There was no anger there, no passion no emotion. Nothing, except pitiless judgement.
“Death is a punishment not to be handed lightly. You who have lived your life surrounded by justice and arbitrary punishment find it difficult to comprehend the laws of this land but you will learn. A criminal deserves a chance at redemption; you have yours. But watch him and see what happens to those who abandon the path of justice and become slaves to their base passions.”
Jaken watched, eyes riveted to the morbid scene before him, as Gaeten’s neck snapped clean in half in Sesshoumaru’s grip. The demon Lord allowed the lifeless body to drop to the floor and turned to him.
Tears gathered in his eyes as he looked at his Master.
It was not the demon Lord’s strength alone that had enchanted him, because he had grown up watching displays of strength and dominance all his life. What was different was a quiet humility mixed with his arrogance that he had never seen before. The demon Lord had the calmest, most clear aura of anyone he had ever come across – the kind of aura only a person who was sure of himself and his actions could have. He, who had lived his life chasing after what he had thought he wanted, never ended up finding it in the end. Even with Sesshoumaru-sama, he had taken it for granted that a Lord like himself would obviously take precedence over a hanyou brat. It had stung his pride and bruised his ego to be treated no better than a common servant. Justice that didn’t serve his end was inconvenient and unfair.
But it was that same sense of justice that had saved his life today and he bowed his head low before the demon Lord, humbled by the mercy he had been shown.
Mercy…no warrior in Hideyori who wished to stay alive knew the meaning of the word and Jaken had always thought it equal to weakness – women were merciful and weak, not real men, not warriors. But looking at the lifeless body of Gaeten next to him, the toad demon realized it was not weakness that had led the demon Lord to save his life. If he tried something like this again, it would be his body at the prince’s feet.
“Forgive me,” he muttered, overwhelmed by the kindness shown to him. “I know I have done nothing to earn your trust but I give you my word I will be worthy of you, My Lord.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
When demon Inuyasha opened his eyes, he was lying on a soft, very comfortable bed. He shot up straight in bed as he felt the aura of the silver haired youkai close by, the demon who had knocked him out.
He turned towards where the demon Lord was standing calmly. The youkai bared it fangsand snarled.
Sesshoumaru was amused. “I mean you no harm, little one,” he said.
Inuyasha gritted his teeth. If that was so, then he wouldn’t have come in between him and his prey. On top of that, he had knocked him unconscious and he had the gall to say that he meant no harm?
Sesshoumaru read his intent in his furious red eyes. “It is not in your best interest to fight me,” he told the smaller youkai.
Inuyasha snarled and launched himself off the bed, aiming for the smug youkai’s throat. This male had challenged his dominance, tried to be his alpha and he could not let it go without a battle. The hanyou may have been a whimpering idiot but demon Inuyasha knew better. Dominance among youkai meant slavery, meant defeat and dishonour, meant giving up; he had seen it far too many times with his own eyes. All those claims about finding safety with your alpha, about being protected were fairy tales designed to cheat children. To allow someone to dominate was to give up your pride and Inuyasha would die before he did that.
Sesshoumaru stopped the oncoming youkai by gripping him neatly by the throat and dangling him casually off the ground.
“A full demon,” he murmured, looking curiously into flat red eyes that did not show any emotion but yet seemed to react to what he was saying. The youkai was a curious little thing, a mix of child and fierceness.
A youkai, till maturity, lived under the safety and protection of its parents, till it was strong enough to look out for itself. A youkai who was forced to grow up on its own, without elders to look after and guide it, inevitable turned out more unstable by nature.
He did not know about hanyou but he could guess that the human and youkai blood flowing in his veins would make the demon that much more volatile, making him more akin to a youkai that had lost its sanity, rather than a normal full-blooded youkai. He could feel the demon’s bloodlust. He had no doubt that, if left to its own devices, it would fight and kill whatever it came across till someone ended his life.
Inuyasha struggled in his grasp, swiping at him and his arm, with razor-sharp claws, unmindful of the fact that he was strangling himself, that if Sesshoumaru’s claws, whose latent poison he could feel running beneath his skin, pierced the tender skin of his neck, he would die a slow agonizing death.
Sesshoumaru stood there, unmoving.
Wild demons were supposed to be beyond reason. One of the reasons they were usually either heavily sedated or killed was because there was nothing that could reach them anymore – not any reasonable arguments, not fear of pain or life nor the pleas of loved ones. A wild demon knew nothing of love or affection. They had been known to remorseless rip the heart of their own mates – something that any demon in his right mind would sooner die before even contemplating.
Yet, staring into Inuyasha’s eyes, Sesshoumaru thought he could see feeling beyond anger and bloodlust. There was hurt there, and anguish and a certain childlike vulnerability. Inuyasha had so far not responded to anything he had said, except by trying to kill him but he had a feeling that the demon could understand what he was saying even though he refused to obey.
“Inuyasha,” he whispered, fingers loosening their grip on the boy and the demon froze momentarily before renewing his struggles with even more force.
This was what the slavery had done to him. Denying this part of him had wedged the anger deep inside his heart where it now remained, poisoning him from within, not allowing him to understand the consequences of his actions. Hanyou Inuyasha had been mocked and jeered every time he stood up for himself with the result that that part of him was pushed deep, deep inside him where no one could see, where no one could hurt him for it any longer.
And the demon in his blood, that was supposed to fight for him and help him survive, became this mindless beast that revolted against any hint of submission, even if it was to save its own life. The hanyou had given up his dignity and pride every day of his life and now, demon Inuyasha would fight for that pride even if it meant his own death.
The breath left demon Inuyasha’s lungs as he was slammed onto the bed and pinned down with an implacable hand between his shoulder-blades. He snarled and kicked out until the silver haired youkai pinned his legs as well.
The smaller demon felt the clothing being ripped off his body and he howled, deep and long, arching his back to throw off the demon above him. Inuyasha had undergone a lot of atrocities during his life as a slave but rape was not one of them. The main reason was that no one found a scrawny, dirty little hanyou desirable. Even those who wanted only a hole to fill usually preferred either a human or a demon, never a half-breed. An unresponsive, submissive little hanyou was of little interest to anyone; he had long ago lost the spirit that sadists loved to break.
But this silver haired demon was stronger than him. Demon Inuyasha was fully prepared to die fighting as long as he hurt his opponent in the process. But being pinned down like this, forced to take whatever was being done to him was something he could not bear. He could feel his heart speed up, mind wavering from consciousness; he was not strong enough to handle his pride being broken one more time.
“Relax,” a husky voice whispered in his ear and the demon snapped out of his dangerous haze at the calm tone and the warm breath on his ear.
Glancing over his shoulder as much as his position would allow, he tried to gauge the other youkai’s intention. He did not seem excited or angry or even aroused. His scent and aura held no lust; it didn’t seem like rape was something he got off on. Then why was he being taken like this, if not for this demon’s pleasure?
“I will not hurt you.”
Demon Inuyasha gasped at the words and whipped his head around, glaring at the youkai. The demon had pinned him down, had ripped his clothes off, had knocked him unconscious earlier and he was supposed to believe him?
“It is not my intention to harm you,” Sesshoumaru continued, “But you will submit to me, one way or another.”
The demon snarled and thrashed. He tried to twist his body to claw at the youkai but Sesshoumaru grabbed his wrists and pinned them behind his back. Inuyasha froze as the demon Lord’s aura flared, pulsing with power. It took every ounce of Inuyasha’s will to keep a submissive growl from forming in his throat in response to the almost overwhelming dominant aura around him.
“It seems you are unused to accepting dominance, though you are not alpha,” murmured the demon Lord. “Your resistance to me is hurting Inuyasha. Let it go, little youkai. Allow me to protect you.”
The pinned demon paused reluctantly, the deep, sure voice calming him despite himself. He did not want to hurt the hanyou. The hanyou was a part of him; they were different but also each other. But the hanyou did not always know what was best for him, was not strong enough to fight and he had learned to ignore the pain and fear in order to fight hard enough to survive. Years of looking out for himself had made him almost forget to want someone when in danger. It did not help to pine after a saviour when one’s ass was in danger. Kindness was not something that a slave came across very often, especially from powerful demons. There had been a few stray humans and demons who had been nice to the hanyou, but no one had ever offered to protect him before.
One large hand landed on his hip and demon Inuyasha felt the Lord’s cock nudge against his entrance. The grip that held his wrists pinned against his back was strong but not painful, unless he struggled. The youkai held him so he was unable to move but so far, he had not hurt him. Inuyasha tensed at the large, blunt appendage at its ass and shut his eyes, fighting against every instinct that told him to try and buck the intruder off.
He tried his best not to cry out as the giant member entered his ass in a slow, even thrust. Every muscle in his body was taut with tension, a low growl came from his throat at the pain and the pressure. The markings on his face elongated and became more jagged in response to the pain. Finally, instincts won and Inuyasha thrashed, trying to get the painful thing out of its ass.
But the demon Lord’s grip was unyielding; had it been weaker, the small demon would have thrown him off and hurt himself severely in the process. The steel hand that had felt like shackles did not feel so much like a hindrance anymore. The hold, coupled with the demon Lord’s strong, powerful aura felt…comforting.
A small smile appeared on Sesshoumaru’s lips as the demon beneath him relaxed minutely. He did not want to hurt the boy but the demon was too young, too fragile to be on its own without an alpha. An unclaimed demon had no one to lean on when things went wrong and it was not in a slave’s nature to fight everyone off alone and be content. Already, years of slavery had left its mark – the demon was suspicious of any and every one that offered help. A few years more and the demon would become unresponsive to words, incapable of distinguishing between those who bore it ill will and those who wished to help. The demon had to know it had an alpha that it would obey and who would, in turn, protect it from harm.
A mix of a growl and a whine emerged from Inuyasha’s throat and the dominant youkai released his pinned wrists. Instead of trying to claw him, Inuyasha’s hands merely went to the bed. Sharp little claws fisted the sheets. The intruder in his ass did not feel so weird anymore. The pain was almost gone, replaced by a feeling of being full. The demon could have ripped him to pieces while he was helpless and impaled but he had merely stayed still. Maybe it wasn’t so bad.
A large warm hand landed on his head comfortingly.
“You are doing well, little one,” the youkai above him whispered and Inuyasha tensed momentarily. Was the demon mocking him?
A curtain of silver hair fell around him and sharp fangs nipped his ears. Demon Inuyasha flushed as the act of leaning forward pushed the demon’s cock deeper inside him. This – this did not seem like rape at all. True, the youkai had taken him without consent but it had not been for his own pleasure; he could have simply thrust into him without regard for his body if all the youkai wanted was release. But he had merely stayed still, holding him in place, not allowing him to pull away. And he had kept his promise of not hurting him too.
Inuyasha glanced back hesitantly at the demon Lord above him. If this was not about sex, or torture or humiliation, then….is this what dominance was like?
Maybe…maybe this one was not like the others.
He clenched his fist at the thought. By now, he should know better. Better than to believe in false words and a show of kindness. The hanyou was a gullible brat but he should know better. And yet, here he was, having faith in this demon Lord. Maybe it was his plan to humiliate him by making him submit. Maybe all he wanted was the satisfaction of seeing him break.
Sesshoumaru frowned as the demon tensed once again. His scent was suddenly of agitation and confusion.
“Youkai,” the demon Lord murmured, voice suddenly dark. “Someone so weak as you cannot hope to protect him from those who wish him harm.”
Demon Inuyasha’s eyes widened and he tried to turn around to snarl at the arrogant youkai above him but a hard weight on his back kept him pinned in place.
“The hanyou has suffered enough to have no anger left and you, in turn, have little else. I will not have my pet destroyed because of your foolishness.”
Inuyasha growled as the cock speared him again and Sesshoumaru’s aura flared even more until it was above him, all around him, inside him until all demon Inuyasha could feel was the urge to give in, to accept the protection of this strong alpha who had truly done him no harm. The pulsing, electric aura surrounding him identified the demon above him as a taiyoukai. How stupid would he have to be to continue this fight and how much stupider still to refuse the protection and safety that was generously offered?
But even as his body wished to give in, the untamed part of him, the wild part that had broken away from normal consciousness because of too much pain and too much loneliness refused to allow him to submit. Because to continue fighting was easier, safer. It was all he knew – to fight and to die. It would be so much simpler to go down fighting than to take a chance on this strange youkai who offered him something he had long since forgotten. To be betrayed after giving his trust to this youkai…it would be much more painful than death.
But the implacable hand pinning him to the mattress and the cock in his ass would not allow him to struggle.
“Inuyasha,” the demon Lord whispered, voice low and deep, and the demon was startled to be addressed by the name. “You will submit to me…because you are already mine.”
Then there were teeth on his neck, sharp and unyielding. The cock in his ass thrust even deeper till the youkai above him was fully sheathed inside him and Inuyasha’s head rolled to the side helplessly, offering his throat to the youkai above him. The pleased growl that rumbled through Sesshoumaru’s chest caused him to relax his muscles, almost involuntarily.
The tension in his body relaxed and a soft, low whine escaped from his throat. The teeth on the back of his neck held him like a naughty puppy and the youkai, for the first time, revelled under the claim of another. Yes, it felt right. The aura around him no longer felt oppressive but only warm and comforting, the kind of comfort that the youkai had not felt since its birth, the kind that turned its bones to jelly.
The cock inside his ass began to thrust in faster but this time, the youkai was so relaxed, there was no pain. Sesshoumaru thrust in at a slightly different angle and the demon arched and growled as the cock in his ass struck something that sent electric pleasure coursing through his body. Sesshoumaru growled, pleased at the display of pleasure from his beta.
Establishing dominance traditionally took on a myriad of forms, ranging from extremely painful rituals where the alpha took the submissive within inches of his life and pulled him back, thus laying claim to his existence, to humiliating rituals where the submissive was forced to give up all forms of dignity and pride and unconditionally obey the alpha’s every command, no matter how unreasonable or unjustified.
With someone whom the alpha did not wish to cause undue humiliation or pain, usually someone from the family or from the pack, sexual domination was the preferred method. It was an act of intimacy, allowing the dominant to breach their every defence and have them entirely vulnerable. The submissive learned trust and obedience and embraced the safety and protection that only the alpha could provide. There was no foreplay, no preparation of any kind for the uke. The submissive’s position was under the alpha, every movement under the seme’s control. There would be no gentle touch on any part of his body, no hands, fingers lips caressing the skin. It was like a strictly choreographed dance, an established ritual at the end of which, the alpha showed the submissive that he belonged.
The whines and moans and low growls coming from the demon conveyed his acceptance of the alpha, of the pleasure that could be gained by giving in to the dominant male. That demon Inuyasha did not try to resist the cock in his ass any longer, nor the pleasure of the act showed that he was accepting his position in the pack, under the stronger male’s protection. The care the elder displayed in focusing only on the submissive demon’s pleasure and not on his own, by thrusting in slowly and evenly conveyed to the uke that in return for obedience and submission, the alpha would look out for the beta’s interest before his own.
Soon, the demon attained its release with a shout, without a single touch to its own member, with only the alpha’s cock in its ass. The demon Lord withdrew from the youkai’s body and pumped himself swiftly a few times and released on Inuyasha’s ass, staking his claim on the pup.
The demon’s eyes were hazy and half-lidded with pleasure. The aggression humming under his skin had found an outlet and the demon lay on the bed peacefully. Sesshoumaru looked down at him and thought that in this moment, he could see his hanyou, his puppy in this red eyed demon. The hanyou and the demon, different as night and day, had both lived lives completely out of balance, each rejecting the other half of himself.
But that would change. They both belonged to him now, as did the puppy’s human form and he would bring all three together till they were no longer separate. A small smile appeared on his lips as he lay down on the bed next to the exhausted demon and drew the sheets over the both of them. His hanyou would most likely not react well on knowing the havoc he had caused but he would worry about that tomorrow.
With the heavy weight of exhaustion forcing his eyes shut, the smaller youkai closed its eyes and whined quietly, content in being pulled flush against the demon Lord’s chest and having the silver haired youkai’s arm draped over his midsection. For the first time, the youkai allowed sleep to come unimpeded, secure in the knowledge that the demon Lord would not let any harm to befall him.
Beneath closed eyelids, red eyes slowly faded back to gold.
…Tears of Heaven, overflowing
Someday, it will change into a smile…
