Title: Deeper Than Brotherhood, Part 2: Bonds of Resonance
Author: Demitria Miriam
Rating: R
Pairing: Sesshomaru x Inuyasha (main)
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha and make no money off this piece of fiction.
Notes: Part 2 of Deeper Than Brotherhood. This would have originally been part of DTB but I felt if I made it more than 30 chapters I'd eventually get tired of it, and I didn't want that to happen (it's totally a psychological thing XD), so I split the entire DTB story up into... so far... two parts, this being the second part (which is the YAOI part, be warned!)

Summary: Part 2 of Deeper Than Brotherhood. After realizing they shared a love deeper than familial bonds, the brothers' new relationship is brutally tested by an opposing force that intends to reveal the true strength, or frailty, of their bond. SessxInu. Yaoi.

Chapter 1: Leisure

Other than a slight 'pat pat' every so often, not another sound was made as he ran at breakneck speed through the forest, leaping from ground to tree, tree to ground, switching back and forth between the two interchangeably. Finally, springing from tree branch and into a small meadow that led into nothing but a wall of mountain, he winced upon landing.

Grabbing his arm he made a quick assessment that he was slowing down due to loss of blood and that if he didn't start moving in the next second the demon whose hit list he was currently on would most definitely catch up to hi-!

A roaring crash split through the foliage from behind, a massive strength of demon nearly knocking into him with such force he'd have been smashed unconscious into the cliff rocks had he not flung himself to the side, landing on his wounded arm.

"Filthy half-breed!" the beast snarled, ready to push its massive body away from the cliff he'd run into and hurl himself at the half-blood before him.

However, said half-breed merely snorted, spitting blood out before grabbing his injured, bloody arm and yelling out, "Blades of Blood!" flinging slicing, red crescents at the demon.

A howl pierced the air as the youkai was knocked back into the cliff, his heavy body unsettling the loose stone at the top, causing a landslide to shower over and on top of the ugly brute, boulders which would hopefully bury his opponent for a few blissful moments of silence.

The hanyou heaved a breath when the last large rock fell, everything quiet around the small meadow. His knees gave out and he fell to the forest floor, blowing out another breath and checking his arm to further assess the damage that'd been done.

Moments later and he flinched when his fingers ran over exposed bone.

"Fuck," he swore, cringing as he managed to stand up.

"Inuyasha," came that overwhelmingly grating voice that still somehow sounded like music to his ears. "You look unwell, little brother."

Inuyasha whirled around, his torso not liking the abrupt movement one bit. "And just where the fuck have you been?"

The jerk before him had the audacity to look perplexed at such an inquiry. "Hn. As I recall, I could 'just sit back and watch' while you defeat 'such a measly demon.'"

"And you listened to me?"

Sesshomaru inclined his head in direct reply, and then continued. "I also recall you saying that if I interfered you'd lop off my left arm again," the youkai stated dryly, keen eyes briefly flickering toward a vibration of movement from earlier mentioned 'measly demon' that seemed to be buried under a cacophony of mountain ruble.

"...and you listened to me?"

"Inuyasha," Sesshomaru began, taking a calming pause. "You could merely lower yourself from your pedestal and ask for my assistance should you require it."

"Yeah, require it, my ass! And you could be a fucking considerate bastard and helllll-oollyy shit!" Inuyasha yelled out as a tentacle or vine or snake appendage burst through the ground in front of him and grabbed his leg, hauling him upside down and up into the air.

Had his hanyou blood not been rushing to his head so fast from the abrupt change in his directional center of gravity, the half-demon would have most assuredly made some rude gesture at the rather amused look that he could just barely see twitching about his brother's features in confined ease.

Inuyasha growled as his blood-filled head nearly burst with embarrassed anger. Pointing a condemning finger toward his sibling, the half-demon vowed, "You sick, twisted, terrorizing sonuvabitch! I'm gonna come after you once I gut this stupid asshole first!"

The beast which held Inuyasha tactlessly roared in fury, swinging the mongrel back and forth in the air, completely forgetting the alpha dog standing not too far away.

"Ack! Unggh... I think Imma... puke-!" the hanyou winced, swallowing back the rising bile, as he continued waiting until he found the perfect opportunity staring him in the face. Hand at the ready on his sword he tried his best not to lose his stomach all over the immediate vicinity and squeezed his eyes shut. Out of the corner of his wavering vision, Inuyasha was taken aback when he noticed a steady, pouting line make its way across his brother's mouth, the youkai's fingers twitching toward the hilt of Bakusaiga, though pausing before he retracted his hand, and that idea, all together.

Apparently the snake was so low that the daiyoukai wasn't going to waste the strength of Bakusaiga on it, and instead narrowed his eyes as he cracked his claws before they started glowing an eerie green.

Inuyasha sprang to action the next second, pulling Tetsusaiga from its sheath and slicing diagonally downward. His pendulum-like movement ceased as the snake froze, its awareness trying desperately to catch up with what its body already seemed to know.

The next moment and Inuyasha fell rather ungracefully to the ground. Directly and heavily onto his face.

Once he pushed himself up onto his elbows with a moan snake residue covering him in a slimy, frothy something, the hanyou spit dirt and debris this way and that, grumbling, "Gah! Even with no enchantment on these beads to S.I.T. me anymore, that face planting felt way too familiar." Inuyasha stood, shaking loose twigs and rock from his hair as he smiled lopsidedly at the painful, yet cherished, reminder of day's past. "Heh, good times, good times."

"I'd rather hope that your embrace with the ground hasn't rendered your half-human brain dysfunctional, little brother."

Inuyasha turned around to face his brother's haughty attitude with some attitude of his own, but stopped short when he saw, in his opinion, a rather misplaced, angry expression pinching the demon's fine features.

The hanyou nearly fell over from all the mood swings his brother went through within a few scant moments. "What the hell is your problem NOW?" he stressed, sighing as he walked in the direction of the castle, kicking a snake entrail off here, a green looking organ there.

Sesshomaru had stopped where he was, watching his sibling walk off in a disgruntled state.

What was the problem? It was only now that the daiyoukai had noticed the bone protruding from his sibling's arm, blood staining not only the ground but the hanyou's entire right side as well.

Sesshomaru cursed himself. Had he interfered with the battle, regardless of Inuyasha's pride and his warning not to interfere, the half-demon wouldn't have been injured so...

The youkai made a frustrated sound through his nose, instantly dismissing the matter for the moment, knowing his anger and hurt pride would do nothing to help the grievous wounds his sibling had sustained already.

"Hmph," was the only reply he gave then as he made to follow his sibling back to the palace, either brother in thoughtful and or fatigued silence.

It was hard to believe, yet two months had passed since Rin's return ball, and still the girl had yet to reveal the name of her suitor whom she claimed to be engaged to, a notion which angered and aggravated both inu brothers to no end.

It was one thing not knowing the name of her Chosen and an entirely different thing for her to withhold such pertinent intel for the sole (well, mostly likely) reason that had the brothers known the guy's name they would surely go and hunt the male in question down. And, once they had, they would probably then use various means in which to retrieve the information they so desired from him until he cried like a little child.

Though the one thing that irritated the brothers the most about the whole situation was the simple fact that it was absolutely unheard of for their young Rin to hide anything from either of them, never mind for such a long period of time (ie, more than a day).

Until now.

And the stress of knowing they wouldn't be able to find out anything until she was ready to talk was nearly their undoing and just a little infuriating.

It did not help matters that neither brother was able to utter a word in mention of it for fear of the outcome. An example of such an occurrence was only a few weeks ago when, during dinner, they had all been in the dining hall and Inuyasha had opened his mouth to ask Rin once again who her Intended was. As he did so he had then made the mistake of making eye contact with the young woman, and one look... ONE LOOK... was all it took and the hanyou was nearly sent cowering behind his brother's seated form.

A similar such situation had happened to Sesshomaru as well, one which Inuyasha was expressly forbidden of ever talking about and or mentioning again. Even to himself.

Inuyasha shivered at the memory as he sat outside his brother's study, waiting for him to finish some remaining paperwork for the day as the hanyou picked at petals on the surface with the arm that had been broken by the ugly snake demon he'd been in a scuffle with two days earlier.

While his injury had long since healed, he still couldn't shake the feeling of having seen a BONE, his BONE, protruding from his ARM. It was weird enough having seen his brother's hand through his stomach, or Naraku's tentacle thingy through his throat, but his own BONE? That was just freaky!

But he supposed that he was rather lucky being part demon, a strength which enabled him to heal excessively faster than any human could (though it still took him a while longer to heal considering he was still part human, too).

After that battle two days ago, and upon returning to the castle, Sesshomaru had nearly dragged him to the Healer's quarters to have the injury checked out regardless of Inuyasha's protests that'd he'd be fine in a day or two. The hanyou, however, eventually gave up after a while of bickering, if only to make his sibling shut up and leave him alone about the entire thing. The Healer, Kenji, had set his arm and assured both brothers that Inuyasha would more than likely be fully healed in the morning if he was able to keep himself from getting into any more trouble. The hanyou stuck his tongue out at the old healer, disregarding the comment his sibling made of "I will keep him out of it even if I have to bound and gag him to a wall," and high-tailed it out of there.

Inuyasha chuckled at the memory, brushing strands of hair out of his face as a gust of wind blew past him. While he was lapping in the luxury of silence, he hadn't actually deserved it... he had actually been kicked out of Sesshomaru's study since he'd kept fidgeting with everything or talking about nonsense, finally having irritated the youkai into banning him from the immediate vicinity.

But silence was silence, no matter which way you got it, even if it was your brother kicking your ass out for not letting him do his boring, lordly work.

A yawn pulled itself from Inuyasha's chest as he scratched under his chin. A small sound was all it took to draw the attention of his furry ears, before they swiveled at a noise that came from behind him.

Mizumi smiled as she greeted him, kneeling down beside her friend with two cups of tea. They enjoyed their drinks for a while before she asked how Rin was doing in her new lessons since neither saw each other very often. The hanyou grumbled before going Into explanative theories of why the girl was refusing to tell Sesshomaru or him of certain things they wanted to know, and why it seemed so difficult to do so.

He explained how he was nearly twitching with aggravation from how hard it was not being able to ask Rin a simple question like, "Who is your Intended, what's their name, where do they live, has he ever touched you, if he has I'll kill him and then get Sesshomaru to bring him back to life with Tenseiga and then we'll kill him again, when did you become engaged?" and so on. Seriously. Why were such questions so difficult for the girl to answer!

Mizumi laughed quietly at her friend and his irate way of talking (it was much like someone's way of thinking had his thoughts been vocalized; the sentences, while making sense generally, usually didn't fit with the preceding or next sentence, topics having no tangible range within grasp). To someone who didn't know the person that spoke as they thought, they would seem uncoordinated, messy, preoccupied,... and perhaps that was sometimes true. Yet, for whatever reason it worked for the person, and eventually those around them soon came to understand and "catch up" during a regular day of topic jumping. And if anything, it was amusing and endearing in the end. That's how Mizumi saw Inuyasha, and she was sure her Lord Sesshomaru saw his younger sibling the same way (though he also seemed to get annoyed with it to at times which was amusing to witness in and of itself).

"I don't get it, Mizumi," Inuyasha's words cut into the girl's thoughts. "Why the hell is it so hard to ask that little brat to elaborate and answer us! We have a right to know, don't we?" the hanyou grumped, huffing.

Mizumi giggled. "Inuyasha-san, have you tried sitting down with Rin-chan and asking... in a... more considerate way?"

Inuyasha stared, befuddled.

Mizumi sighed, suggesting, "Take interest in how she feels about the match, ask her if she's missing him and when they would be able to see each other next..."

Inuyasha's eyes twitched. "You gotta be shittin' me. No way in hell!"

Mizumi tilted her head, the question on her lips evident yet not needing to be vocalized. Why not?

"She's... and if you tell a soul about this, Mizumi, I swear I'll make you eat Tenseiga's sheath, but... she gets this look when we try to ask her about it. It's... it's EVIL." Inuyasha shuddered as his companion burst out in laughter. "It's not funny!" came the hanyou's indigent squawk.

"But she's just a child, Inuyasha-san..."

The half-demon gulped as he sat up a little straighter, avoiding eye contact with his friend. "You don't get it... she's like Kagome... Yeah, sure, she's 'just a girl,'... she's tiny... and a girl... and she still has some terrifying power to make my own brother and me shut up the second we ATTEMPT to say something! She's tiny and fierce!" Inuyasha sniffed, trying to get the image of how similar Kagome and Rin really were, yet weren't. Keh! He didn't care who laughed at him, they wouldn't have understood the terror he had to face... the terror he HAD faced...

Inuyasha gulped.

Yeah, all Kagome had to do was say "SIT!" and he'd be six feet underground, while all Rin had to do was give him a sideways LOOK and he voluntarily planted himself six feet AWAY from her.

"Mizumiii!" came a ringing voice from the other side of the gardens.

"Ah! That's probably my sister! I'd better get going, we need to get dinner ready! Goodbye, Inuyasha-san!" Mizumi waved, flittering off.

Inuyasha waved absently, still caught up in his thoughts of tiny, fierce women and their ability to control him, not noticing his stomach grumbling in anticipation of the evening meal.

Author's Note: Wahh. Intro chapterrrr. The fun begins next chapter, as does the plot of this second part. ^^ Remember! This is a drabble fic, just like part 1. Oh, also, if you liked Deeper Than Brotherhood, part 1, I'm currently making a comic/doujinshi/manga or whatever of it which you can see at y!Gallery, my LJ and or dA! Check it out!