30 Shards

Title: #5 Memories
Character pairing: Inutaisho + Sesshoumaru
Rating: G
Words: 229

Late at night, when his retainers were asleep and the only thing audible was the great liquid snufflings of Ah Un, Sesshoumaru would let himself think on the past. Here were the hours, days, weeks, months, years of training, his skills progressing with each passing season. There were the injuries he had obtained, each of them serving as lessons to move quicker, strike harder, to never underestimate his opponent.

In the middle of them all, his father was always present. Sesshoumaru let his mind wander, sifting through each.

“Remember, my boy,” his father had said once. “This sword may allow you to kill a great deal of enemies in a single blow, but it takes a truly wise person to know when to harness this ability and when to stay your hand.”

That had been many decades before a human woman had come into the picture, when he had been the sole son and there hadn’t been a question as to who would get his father’s legacy. He often wondered just when his father had come to the decision to change all of that.

It didn’t matter, he concluded, rubbing at the remains of his left arm as a phantom pain pulsed, making him believe for a brief moment that he still had a hand that could hurt. In the end, he would own that blade, he was certain.

Title: #6 Victory
Character pairing: Inutaisho + Sesshoumaru
Rating: G
Words: 62

“I have nothing more to teach you.” The words should have made him happy; that he had learned everything he possibly could from his father, that perhaps now he could surpass him in knowledge. It should have been a victory of sorts.

Instead, he watched his father’s image fade away and wanted nothing more than to know how to keep him there.

Title: #7 Longing
Character pairing: Inutaisho + Sesshoumaru
Rating: G
Words: 107
Note: Slight companion piece to #19 Jealousy.
“You don’t even know what Father looked like,” he had spat at Inuyasha, anger coloring his words and erasing the careful façade of indifference he had worked so hard to create. He had known what their father had looked like. He had been the one to grow up at their father’s side, to absorb everything he had to teach. He had spoken with him, known what made him angry and what had made him laugh.

He shook his head bitterly. Times like these, he felt as if Inuyasha was better off being ignorant; he never knew their father, therefore he could never miss him as Sesshoumaru did.