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Blood : Lust

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It happened during their battle.

Savagely intent on the fight, on the kill, they traded blow after brutal blow until Inuyasha was gasping for breath, claws flashing with youki, swords clashing and singing with the pure note of combat. Palms slick with sweat, eyes burning with violent intent, they met each other head-on with no holds barred.

This was to be the last.

The hunt for Naraku was over. It was done. The only loose end left to be tied up was to discover which of them was stronger. Inuyasha fought with the wild abandon of a feral animal; using claws when his sword was parried, teeth when his claws were blocked. It was blood, it was pain and sweat and I’m not gonna lose to you, asshole, I’ve already lost too much.

Time became meaningless. Clothing shredded, hair in disarray, Sesshoumaru’s eyes were sunlit death, betrayed by the trickle of sweat running down his temple. Teeth bared, fangs on vicious display with no care for decorum, composure lost, they fought until swords turned into claws turned into teeth, and defeat was no longer an option. It was victory or death.

So intent they had been that the consequences of discarding Tetsusaiga in a fight like theirs hadn’t even occurred to Inuyasha until he felt the blood in his veins ignite like a net of fire.

Eyes rolling uncontrollably, he felt lengthened fangs pierce his lip as the world began to turn crimson.

Oh god, not now. Not yet.

But Inuyasha could already see Sesshoumaru’s poison-misted hand rushing toward his face. The feral beast inside his head threatened to consume him completely, but he refused it, slamming stone walls down inside his own mind. Arm striking forward like a javelin, he grabbed Sesshoumaru’s wrist and yanked as hard as he could, throwing himself forward in the process. Positions reversed, and distance restored, Inuyasha had a split second to try and gain control of his wild youkai blood.

I have to—to hang on—

“You seem distressed,” Sesshoumaru said, his lips curled in a snarl. His imperious tone was ruined by the slightly breathless delivery. “Do not be so arrogant as to believe you can fight me and your wild blood at the same time. You will die here.”   

Inuyasha was already losing his internal battle; a red haze had settled over his vision, his teeth almost aching with the need to sink them into yielding flesh. It felt like every raw youkai instinct he’d ever denied was rising up through the very pores in his skin, stealing through the cracks in his defences until he was breathing power, tasting hunger, his senses filled with the primal heat of being. Running his tongue along his teeth, he strained to leash the animal inside him, but the fist tightening around his chest was begging him to give in. Give in, and destroy—

Inuyasha tossed his head, one sweat-slick hand splayed over his eyes. No. No. He would win this, fair and square—

But the world was fading from his grasp, and Sesshoumaru’s eyes had lit with triumph. The youkai lord flexed his fingers, the crack of each knuckle sounding like a death knell to the struggling hanyou. Fear unfurled in his stomach like an icy serpent, swelling into panic as the transformation of his own body forced him to his knees.

“Enough now, Inuyasha,” Sesshoumaru said, sounding impossibly calm. “This is the end.”

And he struck.

“Wait.”

It was the first word he’d spoken in their deadly battle, and it was a plea for mercy. It was pathetic, and Inuyasha knew it, but he couldn’t help it any more than he could stop the churning waves of insanity threatening to grip his mind. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

Had his mind been clearer, the hanyou would have been stunned by the abrupt halt of his brother’s death-stroke, claws so close to his throat that his eyes watered from the acid rising off Sesshoumaru’s long fingers. But Inuyasha just opened his eyes and stared up at his brother, whose eyes flickered with a chilling resolve that didn’t match his actions. “Wait?” He repeated coldly. “You would beg for your life like a pathetic mongrel?”

Shuddering with the effort of trying to push back the change, the rolling wave of desolation that crashed through Inuyasha nearly washed away his resolve. Why not give in to his youkai blood? Why not let that power thunder through his veins, sealing his conscious mind, allowing him to forget for a while that the cost of winning the war against Naraku was more than he’d been prepared to pay. Alone again, left to drown in the old memories and wait by a well for a girl who would never come back—

Why not forget?

Inuyasha set his teeth and snarled, blood from his punctured lip spilling down the corner of his mouth. Because, he thought feverishly, his eyes on his brother. If he was going to die, he wanted to know it was because he wasn’t strong enough. Good enough. And if he was going to win, he wanted to see it in Sesshoumaru’s eyes—that moment when he realised exactly how strong this pathetic mongrel really was.

But he was crippled under the knowledge of his own death rising up to greet him, the seal on his blood broken by the loss of his father’s fang. Inuyasha was going to die like this, and that was the stupid, bitter truth of it.

“Answer me, Inuyasha.” Sesshoumaru’s expression was darkening, his gaze deepening with the silence. “Is there a reason I should not kill you?”

That his brother actually asked that question should have confused Inuyasha, but his mind was too clouded to notice. His eyes dropped to the ground.

A reason?

No.

No, there wasn’t.

Helpless frustration built up like a tornado in the hanyou, stinging his eyes and baring his teeth. “It’s not fair,” he burst out bitterly. Youki pounded through his veins, hunching him over with the agony of holding it back. No. If he was going to die, he wasn’t going to do it like a rabid dog. “There’s nothing left. If I—if I beat you, then maybe I’d have something to show for—for all of that. And if I lose, fine. But I can’t die like this, like—like some fucking useless dog!” The words were ripped from him on a pure note of desperation, his voice cracking. Burning golden eyes saw the dirt swim beneath his gaze as a haze of salt water hung in the cradle of his lashes. Pathetic, he thought viciously, panting. Nothing but a pathetic, cringing—

White-clad knees hit the dirt in front of him, the only warning he got before a hand fisted in his hair, pulling his head up to meet Sesshoumaru’s gaze. Inuyasha’s hand flashed out automatically, claws accidentally sliding under the youkai lord’s collar, pricking the skin in the crook of his shoulder. Neither of them seemed to even notice the scent of blood and youki mingling; their eyes were locked on each other.

“What,” Sesshoumaru said, eyes scanning his brother’s anguished face, “ever made you think I would be fair?”

Inuyasha refused to blink; refused to give his brother the satisfaction of seeing that moisture fall. Beaten and humiliated he was, but the hanyou still had pride. “Nothing,” he said hoarsely. “So just. . .get it over with.”

It was as Sesshoumaru took a breath to reply that they both froze.

Their youki was merging. This close, the scent of blood, their blood, rose up like a warm wind that made Inuyasha shudder, his mouth watering in a way that had nothing to do with his appetite. Eyes suddenly fixing on the bead of blood rolling down Sesshoumaru’s collarbone, the hanyou couldn’t suppress the sound of confused need that emerged from his throat. “What is this?” He whispered, inhaling deeply. Every hair on the back of his neck was standing on end, his tongue rubbing restlessly against the roof of his mouth. He wanted to—

Oh fucking shit.

Sesshoumaru seemed to have the same problem. Lips trembling and bleached with strain, his narrowed eyes held the look of a starving animal. “Bloodlust,” he said through clenched teeth, his canine teeth lengthening slightly. His markings became slightly rougher, more jagged, but that was all. Sesshoumaru was still. . .Sesshoumaru.

Only he wasn’t, Inuyasha realised blindly, because he was leaning into him, drinking in his scent. His eyes were on the blood dripping down his torn lower lip. “What’s. . .that?” The hanyou panted, feeling shuddering ripples of hunger wrack him from head to toe. It was the scent, he thought frantically. Like blood and heat and youki, like power and need and oh fuck, oh no, this couldn’t be happening, it was some trick—

But it wasn’t Sesshoumaru’s doing, he realised with a stab of cold realisation. Not when his older brother was trembling with restraint, his eyes sick and starving as they flashed over Inuyasha’s ragged, sweat-slick body. Somewhere amongst the stomach-dropping horror of their situation, Inuyasha realised their clothes were hanging off them; shredded and exposing a striped marking here, a warm hollow there. It would be easy to lean in and attach his mouth to the salty curve of Sesshoumaru’s neck, right there, where he’d torn the skin. To bathe the wound with his tongue, taste that power, rich with youki and that scent and—

“Fight it, you idiot,” Sesshoumaru snarled, his fist clenching tighter in the hanyou’s tangled hair. “It’s merely—youkai phenomena. Blood calling—blood.” Sweat was rolling down the side of his neck, Inuyasha’s crimson-stained eyes following it with fascination. The hand in his hair yanked again, before it splayed, cradling the warm curve of his skull. “Enough.”

Panting, Inuyasha tried to nod, biting his lip to control his breathing. To try and stop that heady scent from filling his lungs, to keep his eyes on Sesshoumaru’s.

Then he felt the coppery warmth of his wounded lip spill anew. It ran a small line down the corner of his mouth, gathering at the curve of his jaw.

Ravenous golden eyes followed the trail with almost agonised fascination. Against his will, Inuyasha’s tongue darted out to lap it away.

Sesshoumaru’s control snapped.

Jaw clacking shut, the hanyou felt the hand in his hair arch his head back the instant a stroke of wet warmth ran up his chin, catching the blood and latching onto his lower lip in one surging movement. Inuyasha thumped backwards in the grass, taking Sesshoumaru’s weight as his brother’s mouth closed over his, hot and hungry for his taste. Groaning, the hanyou returned the forceful kiss with equal desperation, his hands clenching roughly in the silver hair tumbling around him, yanking the youkai lord closer.

It was messy, it was wet and unbelievably hot. Inuyasha’s heart was pounding fit to burst in his chest as Sesshoumaru growled against his lips, tongue sinking deep inside Inuyasha’s mouth to stroke and explore so thoroughly the hanyou’s cheeks flamed as a groan tore from his throat; embarrassingly needy in its plea. Clumsy with urgency, his hands tore at Sesshoumaru’s ruined kimono, palms sliding beneath the material to skate along pale planes of warm skin, slipping around his ribs to map the muscled arch of his brother’s back—

Inuyasha’s rational mind came surging back the moment the youki phenomena vanished.

They both froze, lips still fused in a searing kiss.

Huh, the hanyou thought dazedly, his hands slowly retreating out of Sesshoumaru’s kimono. If it was ever possible to die of embarrassment, this would be the time.

Seeming to come to life, the youkai lord snapped back from Inuyasha as though he’d burned him, shoving his younger brother away. Both of them were breathing raggedly, but Inuyasha was the only one whose face was flushed with colour. Asshole’s blood probably isn’t even above freezing point, he thought nastily, knowing it to be a lie. Blinking, he rubbed his lips, trying to ignore how swollen they felt. Shit. Shit.

“Is this the part where you kill me so I’ll never talk?”

Sesshoumaru stared at him for a moment, before shooting him a filthy glare. “I am not your executioner,” he spat, “no matter how much you may wish to die at my hands. That matter can be settled another day.” Surging to his feet, he jerked the shoulder of his kimono back into place, though Inuyasha wasn’t sure why he bothered. Damn thing was in shreds. Jeez, he could see pretty much all of the muscles in his stomach through that ripped side seam—

Inuyasha snatched his gaze away. Huh. Shouldn’t that have gone away, too?

Realising after a brief silence that he wasn’t going to receive an answer, Sesshoumaru scowled and turned on his heel, deigning the whole matter beneath his attention.

The hanyou suddenly realised he felt better about things. Possibly because he had enough dirt on Sesshoumaru now to bury a small human village. Suicidally amused, Inuyasha couldn’t help but call out as soon as his brother was out of killing range.

“Just so we’re clear, you made the first move!”

Stopping dead, Sesshoumaru clenched his fists by his sides, seeming to ponder the pros and cons of coming back to slaughter him.

Inuyasha used that time to run for the fucking hills.

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