Chapter Text
They were heading west searching for a jewel shard. It’d been several weeks since they’d searched in that direction so the decision was easy when Kagome returned from her time.
They had yet to find anything. Kagome hadn’t sensed even the slightest presence of a jewel shard.
They hadn’t encountered much of anything, be it human, demon or animal for several minutes, in fact. It was as if everything had been scared away. That, more than anything, convinced Inuyasha they were headed in the right direction. Naraku could be nearby, up to who knew what, driving away all forms of life with his foul miasma.
“Do you think this silence has to do with Naraku?” Miroku said after an hour of not even the buzzing of insects.
“I don’t sense any demonic presence,” Sango confirmed. “Do you sense the jewel shards, Kagome?”
She shook her head, frowning into the distance. “I don’t sense anything at all, good or bad but…I have a bad feeling anyway.”
“How do you mean?” asked Miroku, stepping up beside her and stopping as she paused to think.
“I don’t know how to explain it—it’s like, I don’t sense any youki or the jewel shards or anything like that but, I just have a really bad feeling. Almost like when it’s dark and you think you’re being watched but there’s no one there.”
“Keh,” Inuyasha said, shoving past them. “That’s because you humans have such shitty senses you can’t locate who’s actually watching you!”
“Inuyasha!” Kagome yelled indignantly before hurrying after him. He smelled her fear spike despite her outward anger and felt a little bad about scaring her.
“What does it say about you that Shippo’s managed to sneak up on you so many times then?”
And there went his sympathy. He scowled and heard her huff when he refused to look at her. Stupid Kagome, he thought, always getting on his nerves.
All things said however, Inuyasha understood her apprehension. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but as they walked farther and farther west he could feel himself becoming more and more agitated. Even if it wasn’t Naraku, this kind of silence and absence of life wasn’t normal. Whatever the cause was, it’d give him a good excuse to release all his pent up energy at least.
“You’re not usually so willing to face an unknown enemy if they don’t have a jewel shard, Inuyasha,” the monk said behind him. Inuyasha only just refrained from jumping. He hadn’t noticed the monk approach him and he’d never live it down if humans were getting the jump on him now too. He kept silent, wondering what the hell was going on.
“Yeah, usually you’d rather keep moving until we find a jewel shard than stop to help, and when we do it’s only because Kagome makes you,” Shippo put in. Inuyasha scowled and picked up a pebble to throw at Shippo when he turned away from him, remaining otherwise silent.
He could feel Kagome stare at him, probably with that big-eyed worried look she gave him whenever he was upset or injured, but he couldn’t find the find it in himself to reassure her or speak at all. Instead, he flicked the rock at Shippo’s head and smiled when he heard the resulting shriek.
“Can you smell anything, Inuyasha?” Sango asked after an hour that seemed to stretch forever. Inuyasha’s ears twitched and he stopped to consider it. He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes and letting his attention narrow down to what he could smell.
He could smell old animal droppings, rotting wood, flowers to the south, the scent of stepped grass and overwhelmingly the anxiety and fear rolling off from his friends. He scowled and stepped away from them, falling into a squat and sniffing at the ground.
The distinct scent of animals and humans was present but over a day old at least. There was another scent tickling his nose. It was subtle, so much so that he couldn’t discern what it was. He took another deep breath to gather more of it into his nose and sneezed, again and again.
“Fuck,” he said, standing up while covering his nose with a sleeve of his shirt. “I can’t smell anything unusual.”
Sango and Miroku looked at each other, considering.
“Are you alright?” Kagome asked him. He glared at her and the smell of her fear burned up his nose as he breathed. It was stronger than before and he berated himself for scaring her. Even Miroku and Sango’s anxiety felt like it was crashing against him.
He tsked and stalked away, pretending he wasn’t running away from the overpowering, tart smell of their collective, fear, anxiety and worry.
He heard them follow after him, discussing between themselves what they think he found and decided to hide. He rolled his eyes. If he had found something he wouldn’t be walking along with his nose burning like nothing was wrong, he’d be running towards the stupid thing to destroy it.
Hours later, they had run into no one and nothing. His friends had kept up a steady stream of words as they walked, to distract themselves but Inuyasha didn’t feel like talking—he just wanted to find whatever stupid thing was scaring everything away and kill it. Maybe he’d feel less like ripping his own skin off afterwards.
By the time night fell, they’d made their way deep into a forest with no signs of life and no reason for it to be such. Everyone was jumpy. Kagome and Shippo jumped at shadows and everyone else at the slightest hint of movement. It felt like the calm before a storm, except without the clear scent and pressure of the oncoming storm, only a vague sense of unease and in Inuyasha’s, and apparently Kilala’s case, a nose that wouldn’t stop itching.
Inuyasha was worse off than Kilala, who had growled and transformed so often, she eventually just kept to her large form and walked tensely ahead of Sango, ears pricked up and tail lashing about, sneezing and pawing at her nose every so often.
Inuyasha felt like his skin was too small for him, pulling tight and itchy across his muscles and bones. He wanted to pull it loose with his claws so he could breathe normally and think again. He couldn’t sit still without squirming and his forearms dripped blood under his sleeves where he’d dug his claws in hours ago.
Worst of all was the sensation in his nose, like breathing in air so cold it burned its way up to his brain, scratching at his sensitive nose. His claws twitched where they were embedded in his skin and the sudden pricks of pain dulled his sense of unease. He didn’t bother removing them from his skin, even after Kilala and Shippo’s quick show of concern.
They made camp in a clearing and the others ate faster than normal, as if they’d be attacked at any moment and their next meal was uncertain. Inuyasha refused to eat, as did Kilala. He was too stressed to stomach any food.
Instead, he kept his senses attuned to their surroundings, ears swiveling about searching for threats. He breathed as shallowly as he could, however.
They made little conversation at this point, everyone too on edge to joke around. They tried to sleep but after a couple hours of stiff movements they about gave it up as a lost cause until Kagome brought out her odd looking sleeping medicine (“It helps me sleep when I can’t,” Kagome had said, not meeting their eyes). They eventually fell into a fitful sleep.
Inuyasha refused the medicine, preferring to stay awake to make sure nothing snuck up on them. He and Kilala sat in the dark, waiting to confront a threat that wasn’t there. His foreclaw picked up a steady rhythm tapping into his skin, fresh blood coming out, congealing and clotting before the wound is reopened and the process repeated.
He felt increasingly like he’d rather kill himself than sit still another minute. By the time dawn broke and the others woke up, he was grinding his teeth and his fingers were twitching with the effort of not ripping into something where they were still embedded in his arms.
That might actually leave a scar, he thought wildly.
They cleaned up and made their way deeper into the forest without a word, moving faster than they normally would, movements jerky and tense.
There was no need to deliberate. The mood was different from yesterday morning. Everyone was afraid and tense with anticipation when there was no sign of anything wrong. They all needed to know what had scared everything off because it seemed to be doing a good job of making them lose their minds.
It was past noon by the time they made it to the edge of the forest. There was a cliff about twenty feet ahead and for the first time, there was a hint of an answer.
“Do you feel that?” Miroku whispered. Sango and Kagome nodded, grabbing their weapons. It was dulled by something but now that they were closer they could feel the youki making the hair of their skin stand on end. It felt like danger.
Finally.
Danger they could deal with; this continuous anxiety and messed up senses they could not.
Inuyasha ran up to the edge, finally pulling his claws from his flesh and barely noticing the sting that resulted.
He was breathing hard as he slowed to a walk, his heart beating fast from the anticipation. He looked over the cliff’s edge, down to its base and his heart froze in his chest.
“What is it, Inuyasha?” Kagome asked, impatient, coming up beside him to look herself. She had her bow and an arrow in hand. She gawked when she saw it, tension startled out of her body. “Is that…?”
“What, what is it?” Sango demanded. She rushed up with Miroku to see, and they both looked taken aback.
“What is that?” asked Miroku.
The cliff looked like it’d born the brunt of a Wind Scar, several deep trenches gouged parallel to each other. Right below them at the base of the cliff was a giant mass of white fur covered in dirt. It looked like it had dug itself a deeper hole to crawl into and roll around in. What looked like a tail was lashing about in agitation and a concentrated youki, not to mention odor, emerged from the creature.
“It’s Sesshomaru!” cried Shippo. Sango and Miroku looked bewildered, having never seen his true form.
“Do you think something’s wrong with him?” Kagome asked.
“Who cares?” Inuyasha said, still staring at the form below.
“We should leave before he notices us,” Sango said. “We don’t need a fight with him right now.”
Not after finally feeling relaxed for the first time in two days she didn’t say.
“He already knows we’re here,” Inuyasha said. “He’s downwind of us.”
That gave them all pause, wondering why he hadn’t yet attacked if that were the case.
“Inuyasha…” Kagome said. It sounded like a question. Inuyasha was glad she didn’t finish her sentence because he wouldn’t have known what to say. Reason seemed to have left him—what other reason could there be for him suddenly jumping off the cliff?
He heard Kagome yell his name, but knew she’d stay where she was. She had a better, safer shot up there. They all did.
He landed a few feet from Sesshomaru’s shoulder. He didn’t acknowledge his presence in any way, though he must have known who it was that had just dropped in on his solitude. For some reason, this pissed Inuyasha off. He’d been feeling so fucked up because of this bastard all this time and he didn’t even bother to acknowledge him?
“Hey asshole,” he kicked the dog demon in the shoulder. “Answer me when I’m talking to you.”
The tail paused for a moment before continuing its movement. The bastard refused to turn his head.
“Oi! What the hell are you doing here stinking up the place?”
That got him a full body twitch and the tail kept swinging.
“What happened to that little imp and human kid of yours? You get bored and eat them?”
This time he got a growl.
Inuyasha did not understand what could cause his proud brother to put up with being kicked and mocked by his hanyou little brother but the lack of response was pissing him off beyond reason.
“Or maybe she left you after finally realizing what a shithead you are. Probably found a better, stronger guardian than a one-armed bastard that looks like a girl.”
Inuyasha found himself suddenly lying on his back, face-to-face with a growling Sesshomaru, his heavy paw laying on top of him. He heard the whoosh of an arrow and glanced at it over Sesshomaru’s giant shoulder, watching numbly as it dissolved to nothing several feet before touching Sesshomaru. He heard his friends try to come up with a plan but ignored it because—oddly enough, he didn’t feel like he was in danger. Which was ridiculous.
Sesshomaru was looking down at him but he was no longer growling. Inuyasha could see his tail was moving and he breathed easily even though the large paw should have cut off his ability to do so.
He stared at Sesshomaru, now at a loss.
Sesshomaru stared back before seeming to resign himself to something, shaking his head and laying it down next to Inuyasha, even closing his eyes. It was several minutes before Inuyasha could do anything but stare, the behavior only adding to his confusion. The markings on his face were a stark contrast against the white of his fur, even covered in dirt as it was. Inuyasha felt the inexplicable urge to touch them.
He paused, wondering what would happen if he did. Then he mentally shrugged and reached for the magenta mark around his mouth. Sesshomaru opened his red eye the moment he dug his fingers into the fur and his tail finally stopped but he didn’t otherwise react. Inuyasha took this as permission and ran his fingers through the fur. It was softer than he expected though there didn’t seem to be a textural difference between the white and magenta strands.
When he brushed against a spot under his jaw Sesshomaru chuffed and pressed against his hand. Inuyasha’s mouth fell open even as his hand kept running through his fur. It was so soft…
The white fur was turning red where he was rubbing and he frowned, pressing his face towards it. A quick sniff said that it was his blood staining Sesshomaru’s fur and he blinked, looking down at his hand. The backs of his fingertips were covered in his own dried blood.
The absurdity of the situation finally knocked him out of his stupor. He looked around for his friends, doing a double take when he realized he couldn’t see them through the haze of youki and something else that surrounded them. He frowned, sniffing carefully, trying to figure out what it was.
It smelled strongly of Sesshomaru and power—like electricity and ozone. Inuyasha swallowed with difficulty, his throat suddenly tight. The smell wasn’t unpleasant and it was clouding his thoughts. He shook himself and tried to breathe shallowly, surprised into a gasp when he felt Sesshomaru shaking. He looked over to see—he stared.
“Are you laughing at me, you asshole?” he demanded. The idea that Sesshomaru could laugh was mind-blowing enough that it came out more breathy and awed than he’d intended. Sesshomaru seemed to notice and chuffed, rolling his head in a very dog-like manner before laying it down again. He kept his eyes on Inuyasha this time. It was unnerving but not threatening; Sesshomaru watched him but he made no other moves and he didn’t smell angry.
Inuyasha was having a hard time forming a complete thought, stuck somewhere between wonder and wariness. Perhaps the last two days were catching up with him all at once, fatigue clouding his mind and slowing his muscles. Perhaps Sesshomaru was intentionally lulling him into a false sense of security in order to trick him later on. Maybe Inuyasha’d lost his mind and was hallucinating. Whatever the explanation, what he did next would make him confused and embarrassed when he thought about it afterwards.
Inuyasha tried to wiggle out from Sesshomaru’s paw, glaring at him when he was pressed into the ground. He didn’t bother yelling or struggling, just glared and waited until Sesshomaru moved his paw away and instead of moving away from the jerk, he moved towards him, crawling over to the crevice between the leg and the neck.
He sat down with his back against the fur so he could see Sesshomaru blinking at him, then wiggled about until he was comfortable. The clouds in his mind were expanding, softening his attitude and relaxing his muscles. The last thing he saw before he fell asleep was Sesshomaru’s bewildered expression.
Inuyasha woke slowly, feeling the safest and most comfortable he’d felt since he was a child and his mother would sit with him until he fell asleep, hugging him through nightmares and tears. He inched closer to the missed warmth of a kind hand, nuzzling his face against it and inhaling the familiar scent. He sighed, utterly content.
He felt a hand combing through his hair and hummed at the pleasant feeling when it started massaging his scalp. The hand stilled but when he whined and nudged his head against it, it continued its work.
It worked its way towards one of his ears, rubbing the base of it with gentle fingers, eliciting a gasp from Inuyasha. It brushed along the edge of his ear, right up to the tip and then down again before rubbing it between the thumb and forefinger. Inuyasha was practically mewling, squirming around and clenching and unclenching his hands.
He hated people touching his ears because they were so sensitive. Most often, people were too rough with them, the children of the villagers of his childhood curiously yanking his ears came to mind. The rest of the time, when someone was gentle like his mother was, he was reduced to a pile of goo; vulnerable and weak. Either way, he didn’t like people touching them, and yet he couldn’t deny that he was rather enjoying the attention.
A sudden warm, wet sensation on his ear had him jerking his eyes open and he only had a glimpse of amber before he felt teeth on his ear and his world exploded in white.
He was breathing heavy when he came down again, coated in sweat and feeling utterly sated and confused. The haziness of sleep was gone and he realized he was lying on his back, staring up at the sky, or rather, the rays of the sun breaking through the mist still hanging over them. Was it dawn again? How long had he slept?
Inuyasha forced himself to breathe, his fingers twitching. He realized with a shock that there was an arm flung over his waist and one of his hands had a tight hold on it. His hand spasmed as he became aware of it and he forced himself to let go, scrambling to get up as the situation became abundantly clear. Unfortunately, the arm around his waist had a different idea, tightening around him like a noose and pulling him close again even as he struggled to get away.
He was growling and red in the face when a voice in his still sensitive ear made him freeze.
“Cease your movement, Inuyasha. I still require rest.”
He tried to ignore the wet spot in his pants spluttered an indignant response. “W-Well you can bloody well do it without me!”
Inuyasha more felt than heard Sesshomaru rumble an insensible reply, sticking his nose (his nose!) into the crook of Inuyasha’s neck. He stiffened before renewing his efforts to get away; he couldn’t make sense of this madness in this position, dammit.
His endeavors resulted in a leg encircling his own and pulling him close. Inuyasha gave a final, desperate lurch and when he failed to move more than a few inches away, he shut his eyes at the unfairness of it all.
Fuck it, he thought.
He turned around in the hold, intent on releasing some anger in the form of yelling but having his face so close to Sesshomaru stopped his tongue and he stared at him instead. His eyes were closed, showing off the magenta markings on his eyelids, matching the ones on his cheeks. He was about to touch the crescent on his forehead when he realized what he was doing. He froze, somehow feeling safer with a giant dog demon oozing poison than a humanoid Sesshomaru that was wrapped around him.
Something about that thought niggled at him but Sesshomaru chose that moment to open his eyes and Inuyasha, inexplicably, blushed. He brought his arm down between them, trying to create some space.
Sesshomaru, the freak, made the situation worse by not. Saying. A word.
What do you say in this situation? Inuyasha wondered. He opened his mouth and—
“W-What are you looking at, a-asshole?”—would have worked fine if his voice hadn’t sounded like Shippo’s.
“You.”
The frankness was unexpected and the continual staring inspired more blushing on Inuyasha’s part.
“Well don’t!” he yelled. And that was good, anger was good, he could use that. Anger was his lifeblood, the only thing that had kept him going some nights after his mother died, wrapping it around him like a blanket to keep the world away.
“I don’t want you looking at me, or touching me or-or talking to me! I don’t need anything from you,” he said hotly, leaving out the not anymore, not now that burned a hole in his throat.
“Hmm,” was all the response he got as his idiot brother kept staring at his face. He stared so intently for so long Inuyasha lost his grip on his anger, becoming unnerved instead. Just when he was about to blow and try another escape attempt, Sesshomaru said, “I still require rest.
“You came here.”
And he said the latter in such a weird way, accusation, confusion and something softer that had Inuyasha blinking. Sesshomaru closed his eyes, apparently not needing a response, and seemed to fall asleep, his breath condensing in the air.
Inuyasha stared at him. It wasn’t cold enough for his breath to be visible. He narrowed his eyes, trying to recall what he’d been thinking about earlier that had bothered him.
Sesshomaru had been in his dog-demon form when he’d first found him and now he wasn’t. The last time he’d been in that form he’d drooled acid and breathed poison. But this time he hadn’t. It slowly dawned on Inuyasha that there was a mist that smelled of Sesshomaru hanging around them that Sesshomaru was maybe exhaling, and that Kagome’s arrow had dissolved in midair and he startled, because he couldn’t hear or smell his friends and they wouldn’t have left him, and for some reason he wasn’t a pile of liquid flesh and—too many pieces that didn’t form an answer.
Inuyasha frowned and shook his head. He nudged Sesshomaru, trying to wake him only to get a warning growl. He glared and punched him in the shoulder.
Sesshomaru opened his eyes, glaring down at him. Privately, Inuyasha was happy to see a familiar expression at last.
“What the hell did you do to me?” he said, thinking of his malfunctioning senses. Unexpectedly, Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow and glanced from his ear to his groin, and fuck! He was blushing again. “Not that, bastard!”
And then he paused because, “Actually, that too.
“What’s going on with you?” he asked accusingly. “You owe me some kind of explanation.”
“Later.”
He scowled. “Fuck that! I want to know now.”
Sesshomaru gazed back at him and Inuyasha glared in return.
“What exactly do you want to know?” he asked finally.
“Why were you just sitting around in your other form?”
“It had been too long since my last transformation.”
Inuyasha waited for more because what the hell was with that vague answer? But nothing else was forthcoming.
“So you hadn’t transformed in a while and what, your youki decided ‘fuck you, I’m gonna turn whether you want to or not?’” Inuyasha scoffed but the infinitesimal twitch of an eyebrow caused him to gape. “Wait, seriously? You lost control just like that?” That was actually hilarious! Inuyasha grinned.
“So big ol’ Lord of the West was beaten by his own fucking youki, eh? Well that’s just fucking per—yeep!” Inuyasha yelped as his poor ear was painfully pinched. Sesshomaru was looking at him in reproach and Inuyasha struggled to get his abused ear out of his brother’s hold.
“Let go, you utter shit!”
The fingers squeezed harder at the curse and Inuyasha exploded in expletives. He freed an arm and tried to pull the fingers away from him. He succeeded only in yanking his ear.
“Dammit,” he muttered, wondering what would make Sesshomaru release. He was struck with an idea, stilling in his struggles and looking speculatively at Sesshomaru who narrowed his eyes at him.
Inuyasha pulled his innocent face on, the one that tricked Shippo and Myoga every time, and counted to five in his head. At the count of five, he struck out with his free hand, going for Sesshomaru’s ear. His brother seemed to expect that though because fur wrapped around his arm and pulled it over Sesshomaru’s shoulder in a forced embrace.
That was just as well, Inuyasha thought, because that wasn’t his real target. He grabbed hold of the cloth on Sesshomaru’s back, using it to pull him down while he used his legs to push so that he forced Sesshomaru on his back with him landing on his chest.
Sesshomaru grunted at the sudden shift of position and Inuyasha saw his eyes widen as his knee wedged itself between Sesshomaru’s legs and he used that momentary surprise to wiggle his other arm out and grab hold of one of Sesshomaru’s ears.
Gotcha, he thought smugly. He squeezed the pointed ear experimentally and was gratified to feel Sesshomaru jerk. He saw his eyes narrow further and only had a second to think, oh shit, before he was suddenly flipped around. The combination of meeting the ground and Sesshomaru falling on top of him knocked the wind out of him.
He was still trying to catch his breath when Sesshomaru stuck his nose to the crook of his neck. Inuyasha froze, feeling his hot breath on his throat and hoped he wasn’t about to have his throat torn out. The feeling of cool skin against his own was a shock but he was still alive so that was a plus.
The bastard’d also finally let go of his ear.
He was on his back again, giving him a clear view of that mist once more. It seemed to be thinning out now as he could make out some of the blue of the sky.
“What’s with all this fucking mist?” he asked, his voice embarrassingly hoarse.
It was silent for a moment. Not the unnerving, unnatural silence of the previous day’s trek through the forest, thankfully. He could hear breathing and a heartbeat and the shifting of cloth and the faraway sound of footsteps and voices.
“New poison,” was mumbled into his neck and Inuyasha shivered. He coughed to cover it and quickly asked,
“What kind of poison?”
Sesshomaru lightly bit his neck in response and Inuyasha’s whole body spasmed. He was breathing like he’d run a marathon, his heart feeling like it was about to explode and he was staring at the sky in a panic. Was he going to have his throat ripped out after all?
“What the hell was that?” he managed in a strangled garble.
Sesshomaru shifted slightly and holy shit. Inuyasha’s eyes widened as he realized he was hard. He quickly shifted again and hoped Sesshomaru hadn’t noticed it.
“Sesshomaru, dammit. Get off me!” he was afraid to try throwing him off until his erection died down.
He tried to will it down, thinking of the aftermath of a slime monster’s death, a battlefield and sick tents, Kaede and that kappa kissing…that last one proved the most effective. His face scrunched up in disgust and he even felt bile tickle the back of his throat. He swallowed it back and was surprised when he heard Sesshomaru sniff him.
Oh shit. Inuyasha forgot about his nose.
He cursed and knocked his head against the ground. The pain helped him focus on how to get out of this stupid situation. He should’ve listened to Sango and left as soon as he got there.
He felt Sesshomaru exhale and pull away. His hair brushed against his face as he stood up and the unexpectedness of the act had Inuyasha staring before crawling back and pulling himself to his feet.
He watched Sesshomaru carefully in case he did something weird again. His brother wasn’t wearing his armor. Inuyasha stared hard. He’d never seen Sesshomaru without his armor. Without it, he looked…softer.
His brother was the most relaxed he’d ever seen him, standing in profile with his eyes closed and his fingers carding through his long hair. He was still coated in dirt and it was strange to see his usually immaculate brother dirty. Inuyasha wondered if maybe this whole thing was a vivid hallucination and this was actually a trap set up by Naraku to humiliate him or something.
“I am leaving. Your humans are that way.” Sesshomaru pointed ahead of him and Inuyasha looked over, hearing the faint sound of voices again. He looked back at Sesshomaru and frowned.
Sesshomaru seemed to be waiting for something. What, Inuyasha didn’t know. Inuyasha had had so many questions and now that he was about to leave, he couldn’t think of a single one. Not that he’d get a clear answer anyway, Sesshomaru seemed to love being vague.
He huffed and put his hands in his sleeves. The sudden pain surprised him and he pulled a sleeve up to examine his forearm. The crescent moon wounds scabbing over on his skin reminded him of how shitty he’d felt before. He wanted to know why but that’d mean admitting weakness to Sesshomaru and he wasn’t willing to do that, even if it was probably the bastard’s fault. Especially if it was his fault.
Sesshomaru appeared in front of him and grabbed his arm, bringing it up to his own face. Inuyasha went to snatch it away but Sesshomaru had a death grip on it and he’d have to break one of their arms to get free, preferably not his own.
“The fuck do ya want now?” he said. Sesshomaru was just staring at his arm before bringing it up to his face and putting his freaking tongue on it. His fucking tongue!
Inuyasha stared as Sesshomaru licked at the scars and they disappeared. He grabbed his other arm and did the same while Inuyasha stood limply by and watched like an idiot. When he was done, Sesshomaru stepped back and dropped his grip.
“We will speak another time, Inuyasha.”
Sesshomaru breathed in deeply, the mist seeming to rush back into his body, disappearing completely from the area. Sound and smell reappeared so suddenly Inuyasha was shocked at the sudden inundation to his senses. He heard his friends yelling only twenty feet away, rushing towards him. The birds and insects had returned to the nearby areas, things he had not at all sensed.
He stared at Sesshomaru, watched him coalesce into that orb of youki and fly away.
What the fuck kind of poison was that? He wondered as his friends caught up to him.
Kagome and Shippo threw themselves on him, sobbing, and Miroku and Sango patted his shoulders, holding on to reassure themselves he was actually alive. He let their relief wash over him and tried to let his own confusion and uncertainty wash away.
He was only somewhat successful.