The curse of the dragon

CHAPTER 1 Sanity

Rain tapped gently on the windshield of the silver Mercedes as it sped down the dreary highway. Launia stared out emotionlessly as she ploughed down the road, dusting the moving trucks behind her in a mix of dirt and road worn rain. They had to be two miles still behind them and losing the battle of keeping up. Her gray eyes stared at the bland landscape as her mind focused on more important matters at hand. Two of these matters resided in the car, a reminder of the constant struggle it was for her to remain sane, and those were the two teenage boys that sat in silence.

Her nineteen year old son, Sesshoumaru, sat next to her in the passenger seat staring with a defined lack of interest out at the world that passed them by, his narrow golden eyes void of any emotion. His long silver hair was tied tightly into a braid behind his head that lay resting just over the top of the headrest. Ever so often he would glance at the clock or at Launia's odometer, then return to his uninterested state of attention, glaring at the countryside of Japan. Though he was a boy of few words, those that came from his mouth were venomous and denouncing at best. He regarded his mother as one would regard a stray dog; with a glare he would kick her to the curb and continue wreaking havoc on the lives of those who would cross him, namely his seventeen year old half-brother InuYasha.

InuYasha was Launia's other struggle. He was in a category all of his own, so she felt. He was the outcome of an affair that her husband, the great Inu no Taisho, had with another woman, a human woman for that matter. When Launia's husband had died, which was more than ten years before hand, he had left half of his inheritance to his half-breed of a son. Not long after that, Launia's world seemed to crash down around her. It was only another year before the boy landed on her doorstep. His mother had died of cancer and she was now left to care for the bastard of a child. He had been a thorn in her side for nine years. All she had to do was wait for him to turn of age for her to rid herself of his inhabitance in her home. The boy was a savage, to say the least. Rude, obnoxious, and blatantly disrespectful to the chain of command, InuYasha constantly questioned and tested his limits. The reason for the move seemed to focus on this fact.

The teenager was sitting behind his brother, slumped against the left side of the car door looking rather perplexed. This was the third time within two years that they had upped and moved across the countryside. More than he hated changing schools, he despised being in the car for a long period of time with the wench he had to call Mother. Being near Sesshoumaru wasn't much better, but he was more relaxed than she was. Besides, he could fuck with Sesshoumaru and not get blasted for it. The woman tried for years to control every aspect of InuYasha's life and was coming to realize it was a futile task. Why the woman loathed him so much was beyond InuYasha's understanding. She claimed he was so different from the family and stuck out like a broken claw, yet he looked so much like his half-brother that no one believed they did not come from the same parents. He too had long white hair, much like his brother, yet he hardly took proper care of it. His golden eyes were always plagued with an untamed wildness and anger that was the being of InuYasha. The difference between the two was the set of small triangle ears that sat on top of the boy's head. Normally covered by a bandana, the ears were the blatant sign of his mere half-breed state. Today they were covered by a simple black bandana that contrasted miraculously with his hair. Whipping out a cigarette from behind his left ear, the scruffy teen lit it up and took a deep drag, inhaling the smoke deep within his lungs. With a cocky smirk, the teen counted silently backwards. 'Three…two…one…'

"What in the seven hells do you think you are doing?" Launia's high-pitched voice dug into InuYasha's sensitive ears like a thousand needles, as he flattened the two triangles hard against his head. Despite his pain, he grinned. The woman in the front seat growled deeply at the boy in the back seat. "Put that out right now, you piece of shit!"

InuYasha sneered at the name then leaned forward so that his face was inches away from his mother's. Pursing his lips, he blew the smoke directly at the side of her face, catching it on the wind that blew through the car so it would encircle her head. Earning himself another annoyingly shrill scream of frustration, the woman slammed on the break, sending the boy hurtling into the back of the seat in front of him. Satisfied with the low groan, she slammed on her gas pedal and threw the boy yet again against the back of his seat.

"Arrogant little shit." She muttered as she stared at the road. Her gray eyes narrowed as she turned to look at her son. "Are you not going to act on what he just did?" She gently brushed a piece of her white blonde hair behind her ear and gave her son a trademarked fake smile. "Stand up for your mother boy."

Sesshoumaru turned from the window, as if nothing had transpired in front of him, to glare at his mother. He blinked and then with a very deep sigh, he pulled the lever on the side of his seat that threw the entire backrest of the seat catapulting backwards earning a very loud yelp from the boy in the back. When Sesshoumaru was decently sure that InuYasha was pinned between the two seats, he turned around to face his younger brother. He reached back and ripped the cigarette from the boy's mouth and turned back around and pulled the lever again, his seat returning to its upright position.

"Mother fuckin' asswipe…" Sesshoumaru heard growled from the backseat but paid no mind to it. He lifted the cigarette to his mouth and took a deep drag, lowering down the window to release the poisons into the fresh air. His bangs blew around his face in the wind, cluttering over his dark eyes.

Launia turned her attention to her son next to her. She reached over to grab the cigarette from his mouth but was slapped, rather hard, across her hand by the smoking teen. She recoiled as if burnt and stared at the boy as hard as she could without crashing into a tree.

Sesshoumaru looked into the side view mirror and smirked at the pissed off InuYasha then took the cigarette from his mouth and turned to stare at his mother. "Just drive and mind your own business, wench." His voice was nearly as emotionless as his eyes.

An uncomfortable silence perused as it always did. InuYasha knew the feeling all too well…aware that to break it, another event much similar to what just happened would have to yet again transpire. Sighing, the boy took out his lighter and played with the dangerous flame, staring intently on his brother's hair. Smiling to himself, he thought, 'One day…. one day I will get my revenge for these years of hell.' He reached into his black book bag that lay at his feet and pulled out his mini-disk player. Popping in his heavy-metal mix, the boy lost himself inside the angry songs, hoping to find a piece of himself somewhere along the trip.

They arrived at the new house after an agonizing ten hours of silence. Both brothers inwardly marveled at the estate that had once been their father's first home. The mansion was based on one hundred acres of forest, farmland and rivers. An Iron Gate fence surrounded the mansion itself and two marble dragon statues marked the entrance and exit from the driveways semi-circle that wound its way around a small pond that contained a center-piece made from beautiful stones and marble figures. The house was made of red brick and other materials that InuYasha hadn't seen before. Beautiful flowers of all kinds lined the house, mixing with the vines that climbed the sides of the mansion.

As the three exited the car, an older man rushed from the house to greet them. He was in his late sixties, InuYasha would have guessed. He was bald on the top of his head, with white bushy parts of hair around his ears. As he got closer to the family, InuYasha couldn't help but to scoff at the man. He could not have been any taller than five feet. He was very round and reminded InuYasha of a bug. His brown eyes were large and unfriendly. He scowled at the two sons before putting on a better fake smile than the boy's mother could ever accomplish and began to rant. "My dear lady Launia, it has been so long! Why, you don't look like you've aged a day since I last saw you." The bug man took Launia's hand in his own and kissed the back of it. "Au Chanute…"

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow at the old man and cleared his throat. He towered over all those who stood outside by a good half a foot. He then went about smoothing out his white silk shirt as all eyes turned on him. Without looking at the man, he spoke, "Are you going to introduce us, mother, or be swooned by this dimwitted toad?"

Launia turned to glare at her son and scoffed, "Sesshoumaru, this is Myouga. He was your father's servant when he lived here. He has been keeping the house for family for the past ten years now in the wake of your father's death. I had a feeling this dump would come into our lives again." Her eyes filled with anger as she turned to glare at InuYasha. "He deserves your utmost respect. Treat him well." Her eyes traveled back to Myouga and she smiled a friendly smile, something that earned a gasp from both sons. "Myouga, I'm sure you remember my son Sesshoumaru. He was but a pup the last time you saw him…that was at his father's funeral. He has grown into quite the sarcastic bastard." She gave her son an evil eye before drifting her gaze to InuYasha. "This…boy…is InuYasha. He was my great husband's last failure in life. You can act like he doesn't exist…that's how I live with him." She cast a harsh grin at the boy and grasped the old man's arm. "Come Myouga, whisk me away from my troubled age and reacquaint me with memories from this château." The two entered the château leaving behind two disgruntled boys.

Sucking his teeth, InuYasha turned to scowl at Sesshoumaru. "When she says whisk me away, that either means she's going to get wasted and fuck him or just jump to the fucking…" His eyes glittered in mischief as he held up a pair of car keys that he magically pulled out his back pocket. "What do you say to us getting the hell out of Dodge?"

Sesshoumaru shoved his hands into his black pleated pants and stared at InuYasha for a moment. Then, using lightning speed, he snatched the keys away from the boy. "I say you're shit out of luck." He turned and walked to the car and got into the driver's seat. He turned to find InuYasha manning the seat next to him, smiling a shit-eating grin at his older brother. He stared at the boy for a moment then started the car. "If you talk to me, I will kill you. If you look at me, I will kill you. If you touch me, I will…"

"…Disembowel me and feed me to the local wolf tribes." The boy's tone was filled with mocked anger. "Christ Sesshoumaru, you act like I haven't heard this a fuckin' thousand times. I don't give a rat's ass about you…just get me the hell out of here!"

Sesshoumaru contained his urge to smirk and slammed on the gas, spinning the wheels against the hardly used blacktop pavement, engraving skid marks down its surface and speeding out of its gate. They sat in silence driving down the strange highways of their new home until InuYasha reached inside of his cargo pocket of his black pants and pulled out a joint. He lit it up and sighed happily after the first drag. "So…do you think they have good clubs in Tokyo?"

Sesshoumaru answered just as quickly, "Is our mother a whore?"

Both boys grinned at the shared knowledge.

Enjoy and R&R.

-A blanket disclaimer to the InuYasha characters: they aren't mine so don't sue! Those that are OC's…they are…so don't use.  Ja ne!