Title: Deeper Than Brotherhood
Author: Demitria Miriam
Rating: R
Pairing: Sesshomaru x Inuyasha (main)
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and make no money off of this piece of fiction.

Summary: His comrades had all but dispersed, all safe in their rightful places in the world (or eras, considering). Sesshomaru had offered Inuyasha his rightful place back in the family's palace, the offer of brotherhood abound. However, one morning things change drastically when both discover a love deeper than familial bonds. SesshxInu. Shonen-ai.

Chapter 1: Recourse, an Intro

It had been one year after Naraku had been disposed of and the Shikon no Tama had been wished to vanish into the darkness in which it originated, never to return again. The land had celebrated, and had fought off demons that had gone rampant after the destruction of that which they had a longing for. However, that was the easiest thing to deal with for a certain hanyou warrior.

The hardest things had been letting go of his pack and allowing them to move on in life. It still hurt tremendously when he thought of the day Kagome had left for good. But at the same time he felt a happiness that he couldn't really describe in allowing her to go her own way, to live a life that wasn't so primitive to what she knew, even if she did love him (as he did her).

He was thankful that he was at least able to see her to her own time... even if he, as well as their friends, had not been able tot give her a proper farewell... The well... or perhaps it was the will of the Shikon no Tama, that had sucked him back into the well before he was able to say goodbye, or even... convey how he felt about her... It was one thing to have closure with someone regarding a feeling, never mind having the piece of mind with oneself, but to be hanging between knowing and not having that closure... it was maddening, frustrating... tiring.

But at least he knew that she was more than likely living her life to its happy potential back in the modern world, the Bone Eaters Well having all but caved in, never to allow re-admittance to, or emerging from, again. However, regardless of that, Inuyasha had sat by the well days, weeks, months after, a deep sort of depression that could only be described by his friends as "a man with a broken heart" emanating from his very soul.

It had been sad to watch, but even though his friends had tried everything they could to coax the hanyou away from, metaphorically, Kagome's grave, that's really all they could do, at least until their wayward friend found something, anything to live for again. Sure, he'd wander away from the place the girl from the future had emerged from for a while, but it was never truly with purpose, and he'd somehow always manage to find himself there again in the morning.

However, while it took a few months, the half-demon slowly yet surely left the grave by his own will, whether it was because he had to save his village from destruction from a roaming youkai, or visit his other friends while they went on with their lives as well.

And soon Inuyasha had begun to find his own life, first by protecting the village and other ones that had ties and treaties with them, then moving up a notch with roaming a little wider, traveling to visit Sango and Miroku and their small army of a family over in the Demon Slayers village.

Throughout the year since the Shikon no Tama had been completed and Kagome had left, Inuyasha had run into his brother periodically, since the youkai did a great deal of traveling from his home and roaming the world, to visiting Rin. The girl had been staying with Kaede for only two weeks at a time before she'd return to her lord's company for the following month. She had slowly yet surely been learning the ways of the miko and would continue to do so until she finished her studies and was ready to become a woman. And through those brief moments where they'd run into each other, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru would stop to converse a little more and more each time, as if feeling out the others presence and who they were even though they were blood related by fact and knew the other through history. Each time Inuyasha could sense that Sesshomaru meant to say more, but the cold youkai would always stare at him before slightly inclining his head and bidding the hanyou goodbye.

That is, until the day that Sesshomaru had asked Inuyasha to stay with him, to come back home.

Author's Note: So this entire fic is... basically a "recollection" or "past story" of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's first steps into a more than familial bond. 8D