Second Chance

Sesshomaru growled in frustration as he leaned back against his bedroom wall, an elegant hand decorated with crimson stripes rising to brush aside silver-white locks. He turned his head to the side, his nose scrunching itself up in a sulky manner as he encountered the sympathetic look on his friend’s face.

Sesshomaru and Naraku had been the best of friends since they were very small and were as inseparable many years on has they had been when they first met. The close friendship had surprised many, but none more so than Sesshomaru’s own father, Lord Inutaisho of the Western Lands.

Inutaisho was a strong and fierce leader, and as his sole heir Sesshomaru had always known he would one day take his father’s place. The daiyoukai lords, Sesshomaru and his father, were dignified, greatly respected, and stunningly attractive. Sesshomaru himself had only ever known the life of great privilege and wealth in which he had been raised, and not once in his life had he gone hungry for lack of food or gold. Sesshomaru was the poster boy for youkai of Feudal Japan; an icon of greatness and poise upon which all other demons should aspire to.

This was a far cry from the manner in which Naraku had been raised.
The son of a spider youkai, Naraku was born to a lowly human, making him only half demon; a hanyou. Both humans and hanyous were looked down upon amongst demon society, and as his father was a poor commoner, Naraku’s childhood had been rough to say the least. Naraku wasn’t considered attractive, or elegant, or strong. His father’s poverty meant food was hard to come by, and as he wasn’t overly strong himself, Juromaru no Kumo was rarely able to capture enough for the both of them. These lean early years attributed to Naraku’s overall lack of weight, and years of living as a forest nomad ensured his lack of political and social grace. He was intelligent though, and possessed a curiosity and a thirst for knowledge that none of the scrolls borrowed from the Western Castle library could quench. No answer was expansive enough, thorough enough, and he refused to let a matter or question rest until he had complete understanding of it.

The only attribute that rivaled Naraku’s quest for knowledge was his loyalty.
His friends and family were the most important thing to him, and if somebody he cared for needed him he would drop everything (yes, even his beloved scrolls) and run.

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad.” He insisted, a warm smile forming on his pale face as he attempted to console his best friend.

Sesshomaru huffed at this. “How can it be alright with my father insisting on mating that…that…” a vicious look of scorn tainting his face as he spat out the words like a foul piece of meat, “human whore?!”

He felt Naraku stiffen next to him, and when he looked over in confusion he was confronted with a pained grimace in place of the soft smile the hanyou usually wore.
Oh shit. He felt a sickening sensation as his stomach seemed to plummet and his face was an odd combination of cold and clammy, yet heated and uncomfortable.

“Naraku…” He started hesitantly, his father’s affair with the human princess completely forgotten as he reached out to Naraku slowly “I…I didn’t mean it like that. It’s different…you’re different.” This seemed to reach Naraku, as the head of dark, wavy locks turned slowly and scarlet eyes seemed to bore into his own golden orbs.

“Is it?” The soft, shaky reply would have been missed by him if it weren’t for his sharp hearing. “Is it really? Or is this just your own bitterness and jealousy over your mother’s death, and your father daring to find happiness once more a whole hundred years later?”

Ouch. Okay maybe he deserved that.

But Naraku wasn’t done. The spider hanyou had pulled himself up into a crouching position, and was now leaning face to face with Sesshomaru as he continued hissing the scathing, yet true remarks. “Your father has given you everything, everything! And yet it’s not enough for you?! You want him to sacrifice his second chance for love for…for what?”

He wasn’t saying it, but Sesshomaru had realized instantly what the real problem was. “You’re not worthless.” The words slipped unbidden from his mouth, but they stopped Naraku mid-rant just the same.

“P-pardon…?” The expression of hurt and bitterness quickly melted into surprise and the beautiful scarlet eyes widened dramatically. Wait…had he just thought that about Naraku’s eyes?

He quickly pushed these thoughts aside as he realized Naraku was still waiting for clarification. “I…” He paused, brows furrowing as he tried to arrange his thoughts into some kind of logical order, “I’m not better than you, nobody is better than you, even if you aren’t a full demon.”

That seemed to make everything better, as those eyes Sesshomaru had caught himself admiring quickly glistened with tears containing so many emotions mixed together that Sesshomaru had to look away in fear of invoking a headache and soft, full lips, reminisant of rose petals, opened in a soft gasp.

He was dimly aware of Naraku stuttering as he doubtlessly tried to find words appropriate to respond to such a declaration but Sesshomaru wasn’t listening. His traitorous eyes were fixed on the unbearably tempting lips as his mind flooded with wonderings (oh, how soft would those lips feel against our own?) and daydreams (hey, lets find out for ourselves!).

For the first time in his adolescence he was completely unaware of everything around him. Time itself had seemed to quickly slip out of existence, so he wasn’t entirely sure when he had finally captured those taunting lips, or even how long they had remained locked together. The only thing he was sure of was the gentle sigh from Naraku when their lips had first pressed together, and as he idly watched the scarlet eyes flutter closed he wrapped his arms around the hanyou, bringing the two of them closer together as the kiss deepened.