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It was a loud place; boisterous and full of people who grinned and laughed and danced to the jazz that rang out from the stage. The sun had long since set, but the air was still hot, the whole place humid. The citizens of New Orleans didn't seem to notice, and after nearly ten years living there, Inuyasha didn't much notice either. With his inhuman ears hidden carefully beneath a bandana, he stood out in the crowd only through the pale color of his skin and silk smooth texture of his black-dyed hair.
Over the sound of piano and brass was the distinct sound of happiness; a fuzzy kind of murmur that was occasionally broken by loud shocks of laughter. Inuyasha was crummy at playing instruments, but that just made him appreciate the music more, and he tapped his fingers in time with the beats and grinned out from behind the bar.
The jazzy little joint was incredibly successful, unprecedentedly so for any business run by someone of Asian descent. Inuyasha supposed his acceptance into the local community was largely in thanks to the morals his mother had taught him, morals which Kikyou (when she'd been alive), and later Kagome, had helped to drive home. Those stupid morals said that everyone deserved to be protected, and that when you saw one person getting beat by many you stepped in.
His well honed abilities to keep human safe had made him a sort of neighborhood hero, and it had helped lessen his new neighbors' revulsion towards his Japanese roots - the second world war still being fresh in every nation's memory.
A sort of heaviness fell over the jazz bar, and Inuyasha inhaled deeply through his nose, his eyes narrowing and sliding to where a tall, dark haired man had stepped inside. The markings were gone, and so was the fluffy pelt that he had grown accustomed to seeing. Inuyasha would recognize the sharp, aristocratic features anywhere.
Sesshoumaru had dyed his hair black, as Inuyasha had done, and he thought the color suited the demon lord. It made him look deathly pale, and incredibly sharp. Gone were the kimono and hakama of the feudal days, and in their place he wore a black, neatly pressed, suit. It made him look thin and like some sort of specter of death. Their eyes met from across the room, both pairs liquid gold in the hazy lighting. No one else seemed to take notice of Sesshoumaru, but to Inuyasha the whole bar had vanished, the music had died out to be replaced by a low buzzing in his ears.
Sesshoumaru broke eye contact first and moved to sit, perfectly postured, at an empty table that had been set against a wall. Turning to a wiry kid who bounced energetically to the piano solo the performer was giving, he gave a jerk of his head.
"Take the bar," he instructed, and the boy grinned and nodded.
Eyeing his brother warily, he made his way across the crowd and slumped down into the empty chair across from Sesshoumaru, head tilted to one side as he scrutinized the demon lord. He smelled the same, and his energy felt the same, but there was something different about him that he couldn't quite place.
"What're you doing here?" he asked finally, softly, in Japanese, keeping his voice low to avoid drawing attention.
Sesshoumaru let his eyes wander around the jazz club, face impassive, "You have done well for yourself."
Inuyasha shrugged and offered him a bitter grin, "When life gives you lemons-"
"Make lemonade," Sesshoumaru finished with unsettling ease.
"Yeah," Inuyasha said, giving a short laugh, "Then find someone with vodka and have a party."
Sesshoumaru gave him an annoyed look, "You have not changed."
Inuyasha's grin turned a little more towards the smug spectrum, "Yeah, well, neither have you. Dig the hair though. Very you."
Sesshoumaru frowned, but ignored the comment, his eyes wandering to where the musicians were on the stage, "This music... I find it to be displeasing."
Now the grin was positively shit-eating, "What do you prefer, Lord Sesshoumaru? Schubert? I bet you pittle yourself for the Erlkonig."
"I find the macabre quality to be refreshing," Sesshoumaru said tartly, "This music is chaos."
Inuyasha laughed, "This music is jazz. It's not Debussy or Rachmaninoff."
Sesshoumaru dared to raise an eyebrow at him, "I find it mildly surprising you even know those names."
Inuyasha made a noise that sounded suspiciously like 'keh', "Asshole. I don't walk around with my head up my ass like you do. I've picked up a few things since the last time we tried to kill each other."
"It is unfortunate that a filter for your foul mouth isn't one of them," Sesshoumaru said blandly.
"Fuck you, asshole," Inuyasha groused, shooting the demon a harsh glare. "Why'd you come here, anyway? To piss me off?"
The demon lord stared at nothing in particular for a long moment, looking to weigh each word carefully, "I am visiting here on business. I sensed you and I grew... curious."
Inuyasha gave a bark of laughter, "Curious?" His face lit up with a deviant smile, "You missed me, didn't you? Japan's not as fun with all the demons playing human, is it?" He leaned smugly back in his seat, "I know I'm fucking amazing, but couldn't you have bugged Kouga instead?"
Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed, burning with rage, and he let a low growl rumble up through his chest, "Cease your ignorant self adulation, half breed."
Incensed, Inuyasha growled back, his fingers curling into tight fists, "Fuck you. You have no right to even be here. You practically kicked me out of Japan, and now you come here and act like a stuck up bitch? Do you have any idea how hard it's been? I had nothing; no money, no name. Just a Jappo accent and three words of English."
The rage drained from Sesshoumaru so suddenly that Inuyasha was taken aback. The demon lord actually looked... guilty. They regarded each other in silence.
"It was not my intention for you to leave Japan," Sesshoumaru said at length, "Hiroshima was in ruins, and many of our kind dead..."
The demon lord seemed to cast around words, twitching slightly in the closest thing that he would ever do to a fidget, "I was angry."
Inuyasha snorted, his ears twitching beneath his bandana, "I'll say you were angry. I don't think you've ever been so close to killing me."
"My anger was misplaced," Sesshoumaru said softly, and that hint of guilt had morphed into sudden and vulnerable sadness.
Inuyasha crossed his arms and sank further down into his seat, looking away from his brother with a shrug, "What's done is done."
The change that came over Sesshoumaru happened so quickly that Inuyasha thought he might get whiplash. The sadness was wiped away, hidden behind a carefully constructed mask of indifference, and the demon lord gave a succinct nod as he stood to leave. Sensitive fucker, Inuyasha thought with no small amount of annoyance. For being the proud and "emotionless" demon lord of western Japan, Sesshoumaru was surprisingly easy to read these days. Either his control was getting sloppy, or Inuyasha was growing up. The half demon hoped his brother was just getting sloppy; he wasn't one for maturity.
Giving a long-suffering sigh, Inuyasha rolled his eyes, "Sit your ass down."
Sesshoumaru turned to look at him, and Inuyasha smirked at the annoyed, slightly angry look that flitted across his face. Yeah, way too sloppy, but still the same asshole as ever. Quick to anger, impossible to reconcile with. The half demon tried to school his features, as he'd seen Sesshoumaru do so often, and raised a single unkempt eyebrow.
"Are you gonna sit, or are you gonna stand there blocking customers from the exit all night?" he asked, trying to sound as pompous as his brother ever had and failing when the words came out laced with laughter instead of venomous dislike.
Sesshoumaru inhaled a deep breath and reclaimed his seat, crossing his legs and taking a moment to casually flick stray hairs over his shoulder. Inuyasha chuckled, shaking his head and waved at the boy who was manning the counter, "Two whiskeys!"
He got an energetic nod in return and turned back to his brother, offering him a crooked grin. "That kid is a piece of work. Genius at the piano but he refuses to do anything that might take him away from his mother."
Sesshoumaru said nothing, just stared at him, and Inuyasha sighed again, "You know, when you came in I had the strangest urge to hug you."
Sesshoumaru's eyebrows twitched and Inuyasha grinned, "I know, but it gets lonely, being alive for so long and not being able to see someone who you've gotten used to. Kagome would think I was growing up, or something. Really, I thought that after a good hug it would be nice to beat the shit out of you up and down the street."
That earned him a droll expression from the demon lord, who looked sorely tempted to roll his eyes, "You astound me at times, Inuyasha."
"The audacity of the seasons changing without your permission astounds you," Inuyasha said, his voice snotty but his eyes bright with humor.
They lapsed into silence, soaking in the good mood around them and regarding each other with interest. Inuyasha thought Sesshoumaru looked tired, a weariness that only revealed itself in a tightness around his eyes. Closer inspection showed that his markings were still there, barely concealed beneath powdery base that Inuyasha had grown used to seeing on women as the years progressed. In the humidity the makeup had begun to cake.
The boy-who-would-be-bartender forced his way through the crowd and set their drinks down, then quickly disappeared. Behind Inuyasha a new song had started up, this one with brushes on drums and soft upright bass. The slow bass was soothing.
"Look," Inuyasha said, lifting one of the glasses, "I forgive you, okay?"
In the hazy light of the bebop club, Inuyasha thought he saw some the ever present tension vanish from Sesshoumaru's shoulders, and the demon lord reached out to slowly take up the other glass.