Brothers Alternate Ending Posted

Brothers

Chapter 5

            Sesshoumaru cracked an eyelid squinting at the glare of the sun. An exasperated growl
rumbled in his chest as he realized he forgot to close the blinds before joining his brother on the
bed. As a result, the two of them were being slowly baked to a warm crisp beneath the
unforgiving rays, and the brightness was giving him a frightful headache.

            “Baka dog,” Inuyasha grumbled as he burrowed his head into the folds of his brother’s gi.
“Can’t ever remember to shut a fucking window by himself? And he calls me an idiot, keh.”

            “Watch it, hanyou, or I’ll push you out and make you close the blind.”

            “Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’ll probably end up shutting the damned thing anyway, so what’s
the difference.” He rolled over onto his back and threw his feet to the floor. “Fucking lazy dog .
. . am I going to have to wipe your ass too?” Fully restored to his demon form, Inuyasha bared
his fangs and snarled under his breath.

            “There’s a thought,” Sesshoumaru said as he shoved his brother off the edge of the bed.
“If I were you, pup, I wouldn’t be giving me anymore ideas than the ones I come up with on my
own, ne? Now shut the damn blind before I lose my eyes!”

            “Shut-up.” Inu stood up rubbing his smarting ass and favoring the Inu-Youkai with a
withering gaze. “I’m doing it, aren’t I? Satisfied?”

            “Not even close, hanyou, but I might be after you come back to bed.” Smoldering golden
eyes raked over Inuyasha’s face, slid down to his crotch for a long, hungry look, and then rose to
lock with burning amber crystals. “You have been gone too long, Inuyasha. Come to me.”

            “I–I wasn’t gone that long, Sesshou. Only a few days.” The rush of hunger he felt
suddenly rushing through his vitals almost stole his breath away. “I didn’t even stay the night at
the village.”

            “Nani? You didn’t stay? What about your human girl?” Sesshoumaru felt a stab of
concern pierce his soul and he slipped off the bed going to his brother. “What happened, Inu?
Why didn’t you stay?”

            “I–I couldn’t.” Unable to maintain eye contact with the intensity of the Youkai’s gaze,
Inuyasha turned and walked away several steps. “It didn’t work out the way I thought it would.
It’s not a big deal you know, so don’t worry about it.”

            “I think it is a big deal, Inu.” Reaching out, he put his hands on his brother’s stiff
shoulders and pulled him back against his chest. Then crisscrossing his arms in front of the
hanyou, he pressed his nose into the soft neck. “Tell me what happened at the village. Don’t shut
me out and hide your pain from me, Inuyasha. Not now. Not after everything we have already
shared. Talk to me.” Tenderly Sesshoumaru kissed and nuzzled at the pulse point under his lips,
and sighed with relief when he felt the rigidness finally dissolve from the muscular frame he held
so close.

            “You were right, Sesshou. You were right about everything.”

            “Meaning?”

            “Kagome is in love with me.” As he let the pain wash out of him, Inu’s head drooped and
fell to the side resting on Sesshoumaru’s shoulder. “I kissed her, and she kissed me back.”

            “And this isn’t a good thing, Inu?”

            “It was until . . . until everything went wrong.”

            “What went wrong? You aren’t making any sense, Inuyasha. Just tell me what
happened.”

            “I was teasing her . . . she knew I wanted her. It was more than obvious, and I could tell
she wanted me too. I was teasing her about us being together like that and . . . and she pushed
me away.”

            “Oh,” Sesshoumaru tightened his arms and laid his cheek along the column of his brothers
exposed throat. “What did you do? Something stupid I imagine.”

            “Hai. How did you guess?”

            “Just lucky. What did you do, baka-hanyou? Start in about not being good enough for
her because you’re a half-breed, or some other such rot?”

            “More or less.”

            “I thought as much. She didn’t care for your self-depreciation I gather?”

            Inu shook his head. “Iie. She ‘sat’ me, the bitch. And every time I tried to talk to her
about it after that she ‘sat’ me. I think she nearly ‘oswari’d’ me into the Hell.” He felt
Sesshoumaru chuckle more than he heard him. “Shut-up you fucking dog.” He said. “I’ll be
blowing dirt out of my nose for a month because of her.”

            “Very likely. What happened after that?”

            “I–I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and I realized how much I wanted to come back. I
wanted to be with you more than I wanted to stay with her.” His voice cracked and he turned his
head so he could bury his face in his brother’s throat. “I want to be with you, Sesshou. And . . .
and I told her so.”

            “You-you told her?” Sesshoumaru was stunned. “Just exactly what did you tell her,
Inuyasha?”

            “I–I told her everything.”

            “Kami-sama, Inu.” The brothers were at once holding each other and clinging on for
support. “She knows . . . she knows . . . ”

            “She knows we’re lovers, Sesshou.”

            “What did she say? What did she do?”

            “I’m here instead of there, aren’t I?”

            “What does that mean, Inu?” Sesshoumaru felt the wetness of tears against his skin and
realized his brother was crying. “She rejected you?”

            “H-Hai.” He choked. “She can’t deal with what we are . . . she loves me, but she won’t
deal with this . . . with us. She told me we had to stop, that it was unnatural and wrong. She
didn’t even seem to care that we weren’t trying to kill each other anymore. All she could see was
the other stuff. But I told her I wouldn’t give you up . . . not even for her.”

            “Oh, Inuyasha. What have you done, my beloved? What have you done to your life?”

            “I told you, Sesshou. Remember? I told you I wouldn’t give you up for her, and if she
couldn’t accept us . . . ”

            “I know, Inu. I remember, but you love her. She is the mate of your heart. How can you
do this to yourself? To her? To the both of you?” Suddenly what he wanted didn’t seem so
important anymore. He could feel his brother’s pain as if it were his own and it was tearing him
to pieces. “I want you to be happy, Inu. I don’t want you to hurt anymore . . . not because of
me. Never again because of me. I love you too much to do that to you.”

            “Then don’t send me away, Sesshou. I can hear it in your voice. Please don’t make me
leave, Anaki, please. I can’t be without you again. I can’t.”

            “Where would I send you, little hanyou, when you belong here with me? You will always
belong here with me. Always, Inuyasha.” Turning the hanyou around, Sesshoumaru pulled him
close and cradled his head on the curve of his shoulder. “I won’t send you away,” he said in a
soft voice as he nuzzled into his brother’s thick silver-white hair. “I need you too much myself,
and it’s made me even more selfish than I was before. If the bitch doesn’t want you, Saiai, then I
claim you as mine and mine alone. Your place is with me, and it always will be.”

            “Aishiteru, Anaki.”

            “Aishiteru, Saiai-Inuyasha.”

            “Make love with me, Sesshou.” Inu’s voice trembled as he pulled back from his brother’s
embrace so he could look into the beautiful face. “I-I feel so broken inside...I need to feel
connected to you. Will you, Anaki? Will you make love with me?”

            “Hai, little one. I too feel the need to be connected and it has nothing to do with the sex.
I simply need to be close to you, Inuyasha. I need to feel you inside my soul and my mind.”
Gently he cupped the damp face in his hands rubbing his thumbs over the high cheek bones. “So
beautiful,” he whispered as he leaned in and brushed his lips over his brother’s trembling mouth.
“You are so beautiful and so precious to me. I do not know how I lived so long without you with
me.”

            “You promise not to send me away, Anaki?” Inu pressed his lips into the tender caress of
his brother’s mouth. “You promise?”

            “Hai, Saiai. I promise.”

            A low moan of longing and hunger slipped up Inuyasha’s throat, and he wrapped his arms
around the Youkai’s neck pressing himself close to that hard, muscled body wiggling until there
was no space left between them. The satin of Sesshoumaru’s hair brushed against his cheek and
he shivered remembering what it felt like sliding over the skin of his thighs and stomach. The
sound of his own thundering heart filled his head, and he grabbed a fistful of that beautiful hair
yanking hard. When his brother growled at the pleasure/pain, Inu shoved his tongue past those
snarling lips and began stroking the insides of Sesshoumaru’s mouth. The taste was just as he
remembered.

            “Take me back to bed, Sesshou,” Inu growled as he raised his legs and wrapped them
around his brother’s waist. “Help me fix what’s broken inside. Make the pain go away again like
you did before. Make it all go away.”

            “I will.”

OooooOooooOooooOooooOooooOooooO

            “What do you mean ‘he’s gone’?” Sango stared into Kagome’s stricken face while she
fumbled with her boomerang and then sat on the ground next to her friend. “Where did he go?
Doesn’t he know that we have shards to find, and demons to fight? What happened? When did
he go?”

            “He left the same day he came back. He didn’t even stay all night.”

            “The same . . . I thought . . . I mean, Miroku and I thought you were both just taking a
few days off to be together. You telling me, he’s been gone all this time?”

            “Over a week,” Kagome nodded and wrapped her arms around her raised knees. “He said
he couldn’t stay . . . ” A tear traced down her face and she let it fall into the cushion of her hair.
“He went back to his brother.”

            “Nani?!” Sango grabbed Kagome’s arm and pulled her around to face her. “He went
back to Lord Sesshoumaru? Is that what you said?”

            “Hai. He went back.”

            “But . . . but I thought . . . he loves you, Kagome and you love him. Isn’t that what I
saw when he came back? Didn’t you two finally wise up and admit it to each other? That is what
Miroku and I thought you did. Didn’t you do that? Isn’t that what that kiss was all about?”

            “It was, but . . . but you don’t know what happened afterwards–after we got back to
Kaede’s hut and everything.”

            “Then tell me because otherwise, I can’t believe this is happening. You two were
perfect–weren’t you?”

            “I–he upset me, Sango-chan. He said some really suggestive things to me and I froze up
on him. I didn’t know what to say or what to do, and I just went blank and said we needed to go
back to the hut.”

            “What kind of things?” Sango reached down and took Kagome’s hands in hers. “What
did that rotten hanyou say to you?”

            “He’s not rotten, Sango . . . I just wasn’t prepared for all the big feelings and changes that
happened. He started acting funny and saying things like ‘I was one of his new favorite foods’ or
something like that. Anyway, it was the innuendo that he was going to . . . that he meant to . . .
that we were about to . . . ”

            “That he was going to mate you?” Sango’s voice was gentle and she watched as
Kagome’s face turned bright red. “Was he referring to ‘eating you’ in a specific way, Kagome-chan, or a specific ‘part’ of you?”

            “I–both I guess.” Her eyes darted away from her friends face and she stared across the
stream trying to keep her breathing normal. “I knew what he was getting at anyway, and I didn’t
know what to say. He had this smoldering like look in his eyes and this cocky smile and my
insides were turning to jelly and then I . . . I . . . ”

            “You blew it.”

            “Hai. I pushed him away without meaning to and he started going off about being a
worthless half-breed or something and I just got mad.”

            “Did you ‘sit’ him again?”

            “Hai. And every time he tried to talk to me about what happened, I ‘sat’ him again. I
must have thrown him into the dirt six or seven times. He was so mad he finally just walked away
and left me alone. I figured he’d calm down, so would I and then we’d work it out. But that isn’t
what happened.”

            “What happened? Didn’t he come back?”

            “He came back after the sun went down. I was in Kaede’s hut and he walked through the
door telling me he was going back to Sesshoumaru. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing from
him. What would make him want to go back, Sango-chan? The two of them have been trying to
kill each other for over a hundred years. Why would he go back? I don’t understand.” More
tears washed down her face and she squeezed her eyes shut. “I asked him why, you know. I
asked him to tell me why . . . ”

            “Did he?”

            “Hai, but now I wish I never asked to know. I wish he never came back and we found out
we loved each other. I wish . . . I wish he was dead.”

            “Kagome! You don’t mean that. Kami-sama, what are you saying? This is Inuyasha
you’re talking about. Why would you wish him dead even if he did upset you like this? That is
not normal. You’re in love with him.”

            “Hai, and he’s in love with his brother.”

            “N-nani? What did you say?”

            “He’s in love with Sesshoumaru, Sango-chan. He went storming off to the Palace to kill
his brother and ended up becoming lovers with him instead. They’re . . . they’ve . . . they’ve
done things together, Sango. Sexual things. He told me so.”

            “Iie! I don’t believe it!” The demon huntress sprang to her feet and glared down at the
distraught Miko. “You heard him wrong. That is not what happened.”

            “Iie! I did not hear him wrong!” Kagome shouted and stood up facing her friend with tear
filled angry eyes. “He betrayed me and the love I have for him, and he betrayed his love for me
too. He’s lain in Sesshoumaru’s arms like a whore and made love with him!”

            “Iie!”

            “Hai! It is true! Would I say this to you if it wasn’t?” Furiously Kagome swung away
from the gapping huntress. “I never cared that he was a hanyou. I never even cared that he
wasn’t completely human or that I’d die long before he ever got old, but this . . . I can’t handle
this, Sango-chan. He’s betrayed everything that life stands for. He’s become his brother’s whore
and I can never forgive him for that.”

            “Kagome-chan, he told you this thing?” Sango was bewildered and frightened as well as
angry. “How can this be? He is meant to be your mate.”

            “I don’t want him anymore, Sango!” Kagome cried as the tears flowed free. “I hate him
for this and what he’s done to us. I hate him and never want to see his face again. Never!”

OooooOooooOooooOooooOooooOooooO

            “Uncle Inu? Is that you?” Rin tugged at the blankets as she crawled up onto the large
bed. There were two silver heads nestled down in the pillows and the multitude of lumps beneath
the covers were far to many to be just her beloved guardian. “Did you really come back like
Sesshoumaru-sama said you would? Is that you under there? Uncle Inuyasha?” She pulled at the
blankets again and gave a sudden squeal of girlish joy as she finally uncovered the two sleeping
faces. “It is you!”

            “Huh . . . wha..?” Inu rolled onto his back only to find himself the victim of an enormous
hug as the little girl tackled his head and shoulders. “Hey, wait a minute!” His voice was muffled
inside the riot of her hair and he couldn’t help but laugh a little. “What do you think you’re
doing, midget? I was sleeping here, you know.”

            “But it’s time to get up now.” Huge brown eyes danced over his face as she plopped
herself on his chest. “The sun is out and everything. Are you guys going to sleep all day?”

            “Perhaps, Rin . . . if a certain child I know would learn to knock before entering a room
that isn’t her own, and if she would further learn that if this Sesshoumaru wanted to be awake, he
would be, ne?” Sesshoumaru opened his eyes and peered at the happily bouncing child where she
sat astride his brother’s chest. “Otherwise, she may find herself confined to her room for more
than the customary length of time.”

            “Chill out, Sesshou.” Inu growled at his brothers feigned strictness. “She’s just playing
around. No need to go all Lord Dog on her. She’s just a little kid.”

            “I know,” the Inu Youkai threw an arm over his face and stretched. “I’ve been dealing
with her for three years I think I would know what she was by now, don’t you?” He chanced a
peak out from beneath his arm to see if his disdain was having any effect on the little girl and
smothered a smile when he saw it was not. “She’s a burden of mountainous proportions.”

            “I am not a mountain!” Rin groused as she clamored off Inuyasha’s chest and hopped onto
Sesshoumaru’s. “And you don’t deal with me, Sesshoumaru-sama–you’re raising me. At least
that’s what Jakin says.”

            “Really, and what else does lord Jaken say to you, koishii?” Sesshou reached up with a
careful claw and tucked a wayward strand of Rin’s dark hair behind her ear. “Does he tell you
that I’m going to shuffle you off to the first descent humans I find? Eh?”

            “Iie. He says you love me and that you’re a better daddy than any human. So you can’t
go shuffling me anywhere. I belong to you and you belong to me.” Rin sat up straight and folded
her arms across her thin chest staring hard into those fierce eyes. “If you weren’t my daddy, I’d
marry you, so there.”

            “M-marry me?” Sesshoumaru coughed and nearly unseated the child. “Are you out of
your mind, Rin-chan?” He glowered at her but she didn’t flinch. “You’re human and I’m Inu
Youkai. They do not marry . . . ”

            “But you said Uncle Inu and Kagome were goi . . . ”

            “That’s different.” He growled and sat up moving her down to his lap. “Inuyasha is part
human. It would be a good match for him.”

            “But . . . he’s part Youkai too and you said . . . ”

            “Rin!”

            “Gomen.” She hung her head for a moment and then shrugged. “I don’t think I’d like
being married to you anyway, Sesshoumaru-sama.”

            “Oh, and why not?” He looked at her not sure if he really wanted to know or not.

            “Because . . . you’re all growly and stuffy in the mornings, and you hardly ever smile . . .
and you never laugh. What fun would you be to be married to? We’d never have any good
games to play because you don’t ever want to play.” She humphed and looked at him with an all
too female expression on her face. “Besides, you like telling everybody what to do and you never
have time for anything else . . . except fighting. Who’d want you for a husband anyway? You’re
no fun at all.”

            Inuyasha had been doing a great job of keeping his laughter at bay by stuffing a corner of
the blanket in his mouth, but the little girls’ tirade was just too much. He burst into guffaws and
hooting howls that sent tears rolling down his cheeks. This little one was more than just a handful
for his big brother. She was a basket and three barrels. He laughed until his sides hurt and he
couldn’t breathe.

            “Shut-up, hanyou.” Sesshoumaru snapped as he felt the rising blush crawl up his neck.
“That is entirely enough out of you for one morning.”

            “Keh, I’ve never seen anything funnier in my whole life. To think that the Great
Sesshoumaru is henpecked by the universes smallest hen . . . Kami-sama! I had no idea you were
so blessed, brother. And here I was under the impression you would be lonely and alone out here
with just Jakin and this girl. Oh Ho! Was I ever wrong?”

            “I said, shut-up.”

            “Can I say just one more thing?” Inu wiped the moisture from his cheeks as he rose into a
sitting position.

            “Iie!”

            “I’m glad she’s your problem, Anaki, and not mine. I’d have drowned her in the river
years ago.”

            “You would not!” Rin’s cry of anguished horror rose above Inu’s laughter and sent him
into more peals of uncontrolled mirth. “You would not drown me!” She screamed and pounced
on him again. “Sesshoumaru-sama wouldn’t let you–would you, Sesshoumaru-sama?”

            “I...ah . . . ” The strangest look passed over the older youkai’s face as he thought about
the possibilities, and when Inuyasha spied him more laughter ensued along with a not so playful
shove that landed him on the floor beside the bed. “Baka hanyou!” He snarled and bounded to
his feet. “You’ll pay for that.”

            “Run, Uncle Inu!” Rin shouted as she shoved the hanyou off the other side of the large
bed. “Run before he kills you!”

            From there it seemed to the chase was on. Inuyasha raced through the palace with a
squealing Rin glued to his back laughter marking their progress as he dove past overstuffed
chairs, couches, and all other manner of furniture. Right behind him was the mock ferocity of a
fuming Inu Youkai who kept pace without missing a step. The visions in his head were not his
usual early morning variety but this obnoxious, spontaneous brother of his was beginning to teach
him all sorts of new and interesting things. Perhaps a fine game of chase was just what he needed
to work up a good appetite for breakfast . . . or for bedding the delightful creature one more time.

            They would have to divorce themselves from Rin’s company if that happened and at the
moment, as appealing as the thought of warm hanyou flesh was, Sesshoumaru wasn’t entirely sure
he wanted to stop the game. Maybe Rin was right. He didn’t know how to play and it was a
certainty that he rarely indulged in anything that might make him look foolish. As he sped around
a particularly tight corner and nearly caught the flying mass of Inuyasha’s hair, Sesshoumaru
allowed a grin of simple pleasure to curl his lips.

            Perhaps there was something to be said for ‘playing around’ after all.

TBC