Alpha by Lyra
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Drabble Collection Alpha
CXXII
Prompt From Priestess Skye’s Bi-Weekly Challenge
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The eyes of the Inu no Taisho went wide with surprise, and he stood momentarily straighter, peering down at his son. His irritation gave a flare of power to his aura; disenchanted or not, Sesshomaru could not deny his father’s strength, watched it warily.
“No? You say no to your father, Sesshomaru?”
Sesshomaru’s eyes grew heated with youki, but his expression remained preternaturally calm.
“My father? Perhaps – but if not for the resemblance between us, how would I know you from any other Inu?”
Something shifted between them as Sesshomaru spoke, something in the balance of power. His father had been surprised and immediately angry with his son’s denial of his instruction; now he looked merely...thoughtful. Sesshomaru took a single step forward.
“What gives you such arrogance, my son? Do you have a will to self-destruction?”
“You think me arrogant? No – but for six years I have made my own path; I will not abandon it now. And as to my life, or my death – is it not late to be speaking words of concern, father?”
Slowly, holding at bay an obvious and enormous rage, Sesshomaru looked down at his claws, studied them with careful nonchalance. His father let out a great sigh, and seemed to shrink, losing his legendary aura.
“I have waited too long, Sesshomaru? That is what you are telling me? Perhaps you are right; you have grown up far too quickly. But I am proud of you, my son. You begin early the work of making a reputation for yourself, a reputation of strength.”
“You make it sound as if I had a choice.”
Only the tonelessness of the words saved Sesshomaru’s response from sounding scornful.
In the moment of silence that followed as each of them, father and son, studied the other, Naraku spoke, his breath cold and fetid on Inuyasha’s cheek.
“Do you see, Inuyasha? There - what you always wanted, what you always desired; to be close to your father, showered in his attention, his...pride. Your brother is being offered all those things, but he wants none of them. He throws them away, tosses them aside like they are nothing.”
Naraku smiled viciously.
“Do you feel cheated, Inuyasha?”
He received a growl in response; Inuyasha was intent on Sesshomaru, on his father – his father, who he had never known, who he was now learning for the first time. He couldn’t see why his brother was so angry at his father’s absence – almost twenty years, yes, the twenty years of his youth...but now he was there. He was there, so...
Inuyasha’s own experience, a perceived abandonment, an endless regret for something that was not even his to wish to do differently...he had no memory of his father at all! Didn’t Sesshomaru know what he was doing, what he was giving up by forcing his father away?
A flicker of the understanding that had been intended for him awoke in Inuyasha then.
~~~~
A/N: 500 words! Sesshomaru meets Inupapa! Inuyasha meets the truth! Let’s see how they all get along, hmm? [premonitions of great evil]. Might be a few hours before the next one – it’s almost done, but I’m trying to figure out how to post Skye’s tokens in my profile. I epically fail at the using of such things...oh well!
Revisions complete!
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