Bonds of Resonance

Chapter 4: Unwelcome

A half asleep, half-lidded Inuyasha walked through the corridors of the palace at the usual ungodly hour of dawn, donning but his night kinagashi, one hand tucked into his obi. The hanyou's sluggish movements didn't stop until a voice rattled him to wake up.

"Inuyasha?"

"Huh?" Inuyasha's head turned, body pausing. "Sesshomaru? What the hell are you doing up at this hour?"

Sesshomaru regarded him critically, eyes traveling down his sibling's body. The sight before him kept his gaze longer than he had intended; his brother was wearing the kinagashi he slept in, a more casual male form of wearing a kimono, which instantly propelled the demon's imagination into overdrive, knowing that when one wore kinagashi, the ensemble lacked both haori and hakama.

Sesshomaru looked away, a tight frown marring his face. "I was about to ask you the same thing."

"Training with Itchi-san," Inuyasha answered, shaking his head of the heaviness he felt.

"You mean, Kitachi," the demon corrected.

"Whatever."

"You are meeting with the battle master in your kinagashi? That's hardly adequate attire for combat training, Inuyasha," Sesshomaru chastised.

The half-demon shrugged, yawning hard enough to curl his tongue. "Itchi's not exactly a formidable opponent." Inuyasha's kinagashi fluttered from a light breeze that stole into the corridor from an open shoji, just enough to expose a rather broad expanse of chorded, white thigh... nearly high enough to catch a tell-tale glimpse of the half-demon's fundoshi-

-That is, if the unscrupulous half-demon was even wearing any-...

Sesshomaru's brow twitched as he abruptly turned away from his sibling and walked down another corridor toward his study.

"Perhaps one day I will find time and come by, and we shall see how formidable you truly are, half-demon," the daiyoukai said stiffly. He heard nothing from the half-demon in response, having walked far too quickly to his study to notice.

Upon entering his study, the youkai closed the shoji, eyes shut and taking a calming, deep breath of air that did not contain the tantalizing scent of his little brother.

"Hm. You have more restraint than I'd give someone of your father's bloodline credit for."

Sesshomaru bristled at the unexpected voice. He successfully composed himself the next moment before turning around to face the intruder, as if he hadn't been caught off guard in the first place. He inclined his head slightly toward the very unwelcomed guest seated before him as if he'd been graciously asked to visit in warm gesture.

"High Elder Shuguuru, to what honor do I owe this unexpected visit?"

The Elder merely looked at the youngling before him, just as, if not more, expressionless before deeming the Sectional an answer.

"Sesshomaru," the Elder began, intentionally dropping the youkai's title. "How would that... your brother, feel about becoming a Sectional of the West?"

If Sesshomaru hadn't been on high alert the moment he knew High Elder Shuguuru was in his study, he was now.

"If that what you wish to speak about, I can have my little brother summoned here."

The Elder merely smirked. "There will be no need for that. I actually came to speak with you about... the serious repercussions of your current dilemma."

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed as he now visibly stood before the Elder in blunt anger. "With all due respect, High Elder, that is none of your business."

"It is when one of my territory's Sectionals is so preoccupied he fails to notice an imminent threat at hand to the lands he proclaims he's capable of protecting."

Sesshomaru spoke out no further. The threat he heard in words that would otherwise be translated as mere reprimand in duty... was all but painfully, and aggravatingly, apparent to him.

He had no choice but to sit down and listen as was required of his station to its higher authority.

- - -


A rumbling was heard as feet padded down the corridor. Sesshomaru braced himself for the sure onslaught that sound would soon cause.

The shoji to his study slammed open, a heavy, sweaty, frantic Inuyasha leaning heavily against the doorframe.

It had been only moments before that the Elder had left his study, having said and implicated all he wished to. Sesshomaru was grateful for small miracle such as that so Inuyasha and High Elder Shuguuru didn't run into each other; that confrontation was not one he was willing to run into.

"Heard someone... say... that old... council bastard... showed up," the hanyou explained out of breath.

Both of Sesshomaru's eyebrows rose, a blank look upon his face as he regarded his sibling. "Did you run all the way across the palace grounds just because of some idle gossip you caught slipping between the servants?" The youkai turned to look at random paperwork littering his desk as if it had one simple answer to every single one of his problems, a precaution from his eyes lingering too long on his half-naked brother.

Inuyasha blew out an exasperated breath. "Hell, you're such a moody sonuvabitch, ya know that?"

Sesshomaru's eyebrow twitched at the assessment, remaining silent, his back still toward Inuyasha, eyes and imagination safely averted away from temptation.

The hanyou invited himself further into the study, falling down onto the cushions in abandon.

"You also suck at changing the topic. I do have a nose, ya know. That snooty ass's scent's all over your study. What the hell was he doing here? What'd he want?"

Sesshomaru sighed, turning around to face the too-curious-for-his-own-good hanyou, leaning against his desk coolly.

"You, apparently."

"..." Inuyasha blinked a couple of times, the element of surprise all but coherent. "Come again?"

"He wishes for you to take my place as one of the West's three sectionals. Though he did not state it directly."

"...Okay, let's try this one more time. Exactly what do you mean by m-"

"Inuyasha," Sesshomaru gave into the overwhelming urge he'd been fighting the moment the hanyou started pestering him on purpose; he pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath. "I am equally confounded by his..." the youkai paused, searching for a fitting term.

"His... -buncha crazy? Complete lack of mental capacity? Stupidity that no half-demon or even a human could achieve? Farthest thing since-"

"Inuyasha."

"Keh. Just trying to lighten the mood." At Sesshomaru's inquired look, the hanyou continued explaining further. "You've just seemed... I dunno, distant... angry. Withdrawn. Anxious. Confused. Moody. Temp-"

"That will be enough," the daiyoukai stated, a frown marring his dangerously angelic features.

"-eramental," the hanyou coughed-finished. Sesshomaru glared pointedly before he, too, continued finishing what he wanted to say.

"And this... change in my disposition, it irritates you?" the demon asked curiously.

Inuyasha didn't answer right away, instead chewing on his handful of answers mentally and deciding which reply would be less likely to be accompanied by a cuff to his head. "Well, it... doesn't make me happy. I mean, sure, I like torturing you and all, and trying your patience-"

Sesshomaru's frown remained. "-And every last nerve I'm in possession of."

"-Yeah, and that, too,- but I'm... only okay with you being your usual, moody bastard self when the reason is me. I don't like it when I know it's somethin' else, even if I'm some kinda extension of it unintentionally And I know it wasn't something I did this time. For once. So what the hell is bothering you?" At Sesshomaru's very slight look of shocked awe, the hanyou felt inclined to continue even though his brother hadn't given him an answer yet, and probably wouldn't. "I feel like I know what it is, but at the same time..." Inuyasha shook his head, as if to clear whatever path he'd been wandering down. "And then there's this whole Council bull shit biting us in the ass. I know that has something to do with your... uh... pissyerness, if not all of it."

"That's not even a word, Inuyasha," the demon pointed out, amused all the same.

"Shuddup," the half-demon grumped, itching behind his ear.

Sesshomaru found the obtuse gesture endearing, faltering in his focus and allowing his face to soften.

Inuyasha shook his head like a common canine before he turned his attentions back to his sibling, only a small trace of appreciation left on the youkai's face.

"So?" the hanyou prodded.

"So?" the youkai countered, questioning what his sibling was fishing for exactly. If the annoyingly persistent, endearing hanyou wanted answers then he'd have to at least work for it. And Sesshomaru could think of so many ways in which his brother could pay that debt.

"What's going on with you?"

Sesshomaru looked out into the gardens, wondering if he should really burden his sibling with his own weaknesses and an evil he couldn't exactly dispose of.

"Gah. Fine, be a prickly, stubborn bastard. Let's start with something more recent?" Inuyasha tried. "What was that High Codger doing here?"

Sesshomaru relented that he could at least give this information to his sibling. Well, some of It.

"I know not of what his intentions entail with his wanting you to ascend to, and effectively replace, my position In the hierarchy. However, there is one thing I am aware of that is absolute above all else regardless of the outcome, should he get his way."

"And that would be?"

"For some... unfathomable reason, he abhors my very existence. That, in and of itself, stands to show at least one of his reasonings behind this situation."

Despite the seriousness of the topic at hand, Inuyasha couldn't help but try his best (and failing) to hold back a throaty snort. "Wonder why..." he mumbled to himself, fighting against a fit of chuckles aching in his belly.

"Indeed." Sesshomaru regarded him with a dry look. "Perhaps though, it's a senseless trait that skips a generation."

"Eh? What's that suppose to mean?"

A pause.

"Hn. I thought you'd have known by now," Sesshomaru said, genuinely surprised.

"Known what?" Inuyasha asked.

"High Elder Shuguuru is my grandfather."


~ * ~


Author's Note: You'll find out what they talked about in, I believe, Ch6, promise!