Sheer Cruelty by Hairann

Ch-ch-changes

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Title: Sheer Cruelty

Subtitle: Ch-ch-changes

Author: Hairann

Theme: 50 Ways to Torture a Taiyoukai by Danyealle-sama.

Genre: Humor

Rating: T

Warnings: Not to be taken seriously

Word Count: 1112

The evening sun was setting behind the hilltops, the warm rays that still covered the land surrounding a lone figure in an ethereal glow. Any who did not know any better, when they looked upon him they would rush home to inform their friends and family they had just witnessed a Kami's walk upon the Earth. Those that did know better, would run and hide, fear for their lives. Pray to the Kami that the passing figure was too occupied to bother stopping to end their mortals lives.

It would seem, to any who might happen upon the figure, that the Kami were smiling down on them as the figure was in fact too busy to bother stopping to deal with any who may have come upon his walk. Though you could not tell from outward appearance, he was ready to be home. For the last three seasons he had been patrolling his land and with Winter threatening to arrive any day now, he was anxious to be within the walls of his home. No he wasn't uneasy due to fear of danger, but eager.

Eager to have an entire season to relax before he was once again setting out to patrol his lands. Eager to sleep upon his own futon, to be able to fall into a deep sleep without having to keep an ear out for any who would be so cowardly to attack him while he slept. Eager to see the familiar walls, hallways and rooms of his ancestral home. Eager to see his mother's paintings hanging in the office that once belonged to his great father, the office that was currently his.

To have his meals prepared and waiting for him instead of having to hunt each time he got hungry. Not that he minded hunting, it was just rather hard to make sure none of his meal's blood ended up on his pure, white clothes. Eager to have servants tend to his every need rather than having to do everything for himself. He liked being independent and self-sufficient, but he did enjoy being pampered whenever he was home.

Normally he would return at least once a season, but with all of the recent up-cropping of problems on his land, he had not been able to spare a single day to go home since he had left at the beginning of the Spring. Yes, this visit was long overdue, he felt. And so he continued his trek through the woods, over the hilltops, across the long fields paying no attention to anything around him, other than to keep an eye out for incoming danger.

Ignoring the way the dry, brittle leaves threatened to crunch beneath his boots. The way the cool air began to drop as the night wore on, chilling the air with the promise of snow. The way the scent of the air changed from the dying trees and plants of Autumn to the brisk, frozen smell of Winter. He ignored the way the first snowflake of the year seemed inclined to land upon the tip of his nose. He crossed his golden eyes to look down his nose at the offending object and watched as it melted against his warm skin.

Watched as the now liquid drop slid down his nose before dropping and disappearing as it hit the ground with an almost silent plop. Had his ears been any less of what they are, he would have never heard the sound. But even this he ignored. Over hills, in between trees, around large boulders he walked, paying only enough attention to what was going on around him to notice it was now snowing quite freely.

The faster the snow fell, the harder his warm body had to work to melt it as soon as it touched his person. Soon enough he felt his own body temperature begin to cool as the snow began piling upon his shoulders instead of melting all together. He could feel the weight of it on his head and shoulders, but like everything else he considered to be beneath him, he ignored it.

Just as the last rays of the sun disappeared in the horizon and the evening's moon began it's trek across the sky, he spotted his home in the distance. Had he been anyone else, he would have sighed in relief, instead he merely picked up his pace slightly. Fast enough to get him home all that much sooner, but still slow enough that outwardly it seemed as if he didn't care if he ever arrived. Deciding he was in no mood to see anyone before getting a decent nap in, he turned his feet in the direction of his own personal entrance.

Sensing no one watching, and deciding he truly didn't care at that moment if they were, he leaped gracefully into the air, landing a great distance away outside the door to his home. Making sure there was no one around to spot him, since he didn't really feel like dealing with anyone right then, and didn't want to have to procure new servants to replace any that he might have killed had they spotted him, he pushed opened the door quietly and entered his home.

The changes around him went unnoticed as the only thing on his mind at that moment was crawling into his warm futon and sleeping for a week, at the least. As he made his way down the long hallway and entered his own courters, the changes that had been made by his ward in his absence remained unacknowledged. It wasn't long before he was laying under the furs place along his futon and closing his eyes, allowing his body to relax in ways that was never permitted outside of these walls. In mere moments he was within a deep sleep, completely lost to the rest of the world that existed outside of his dreams.

...

Early the next morning the servants were scurrying around trying to get their morning duties done in a timely manner. The morning meal needed to be fixed and served, shelves needed dusting, floors swept, the walkways outside cleared of the night's snow. Everything was going as any other day had been, and would have continued to do so, had a certain lord not come home the night before. Had he not just awoke to see the changes within his own room.

The changes that he had been too preoccupied to notice the night before. The changes his young ward had been so kind to set up and oversee during his leave. The changes that had Sesshoumaru asking one simple question...

“Why is everything pink!?”