I got the inspiration to write this one-shot from a picture by Megu. It's such a cute picture of Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, and Naraku napping together. I love it and just got an idea to write something about it. So enjoy!
Sleepy Time
"Naraku!" the young light hanyou screamed from the top of his lungs.
"Inuyasha!" the dark half-demon growled back with the same volume.
"Let go!" the silver-haired boy cried, both his hands grabbing and tugging at the arm that belonged to Sesshomaru.
"No! You let him go this instant!" the raven-haired one barked violently, his own two hands pulling at the other arm that belonged to the taller silver-haired boy in between his rival.
"He's my Brother!" Inuyasha exclaimed, grunting to pull at Sesshomaru's poor arm, while the other just pulled harder, making the young demon lord sway side to side constantly.
"So!" Naraku roared, his small face scrunched in stress from trying to win this tug-of-war. "He doesn't like you anyway!" the black-haired boy stated.
"He doesn't like you either!" the small hanyou retorted, his little fangs showing and even his cute ears were stiff. "Let my Brother go!" Inuyasha barked ferociously, pulling harder at his older brother's arm, not having the slight intention of giving up.
"No!" the other growled back. "Stop it! You let him go!"
"No! You!" Inuyasha pulled harder.
"You!" Naraku grabbed Sesshomaru back to his original space.
"You!" the silver-haired hanyou glared at his opponent.
"Baka! Let him go now!" the black-eyed boy screamed loud.
"You the baka! You let him go!" the shorter of the two rivals barked back.
"Ahhhh!" Sesshomaru finally cried out fiercely. "Why don't you both let me go!" the oldest demon yelled before knocking both the boys away to free his two suffering arms.
Both hanyous landed on their little bottoms on the floor because of the much stronger youkai. Inuyasha peered up at his older brother, face in a pout and eyes watery. Naraku winced and then his eyes were watery too. They both gave out a cry and then whined, both feeling hurt.
"Hm...it hurt, Sesshomaru," Naraku whimpered, remaining on the floor, his wavy black hair spreading over his shoulders and in front of him untidily. Then two teardrops fell from his dark eyes and down his smooth cheeks.
"Big Brother," Inuyasha cried, tears already down his face and he raised one hand to wipe them away and rubbed his swelling eyes. His tender nose reddened whenever he cried and it was red now. The little half-demon began sniffing, he too still on the floor, seemingly not wanting to get up.
Both Naraku and Inuyasha's cries could be heard, both their whimpers echoing through the room. "You're so mean..." the second oldest boy wailed, both his hands now rubbing his eyes, and Sesshomaru could see the tears.
Inuyasha's softer voice got his brother's attention next, complaining "Why do you hate us so much...?"
'Oh God! Again!' Sesshomaru thought. He was the victim in this constant battle between the two half-demons, but now he was turned into a bad guy, like everything was his fault. Now, it really wasn't his fault. The demon lord did nothing to provoke such behavior, but nevertheless this still happened a lot. The two fought over him too much. There were many reasons, like who got to sit next to him while eating, who retrieved the items he had asked for, who brought to him a book in which he would read to them everyday, who got to say 'Good morning' to him first, and even who walked beside him when they were strolling. There were just too many things. If the young lord did not have his gifted patience he would have been out of his mind long before now.
But the young youkai did not ever find out why they behaved like this. Why were they always fighting over him? It's not like the silver-haired boy asked for them to. He didn't like the noise they made; he didn't like being pulled this way and then that way. He tried, he really tried to remain calm but eight out of ten times, he would crack and do to them just as he did. He would push them away, and thus making them cry. And that wasn't a good feeling, seeing them cry. They always manage to cry, whine, and whimper in the same way, making Sesshomaru feel like he had done something so completely wrong.
'They're such little runts' Sesshomaru complained in his mind. They always acted this way, but he never knew why and this aggravated him more. They were so unreasonable in acting the way they did.
"You didn't have to push us..." the dark-haired hanyou said, through his muffling cries.
"We just..." Inuyasha began but didn't finish.
Somehow the 'we' and 'us' in their sentence seemed odd, like they were teaming against the young demon lord. But it also surprised the young youkai because of the fact that they used 'we' and 'us' which means they knew what the other was thinking, they knew and understood each other. But then why were they fighting? It seemed almost like a great mystery that they knew and Sesshomaru did not.
"For the sake of God! Why do you two always do this!" Sesshomaru shouted at the two, feeling frustrated and annoyed at being put in the bad guy's position over and over again without doing much more than suffering from their actions. "Both of you! Inuyasha! Naraku! Why!" he asked the most common question in the world. The two boys didn't speak, their tears stopping, and they wiped them on the sleeves of their hakamas. "Why? Do you two hate me or something?" the silver-haired youkai demanded. He looked at his younger half-brother and then at the boy, whom he and his brother currently played with, ate with, and lived with. There were no answers from the two. Suddenly, Sesshomaru became even more agitated and he remembered something that steamed him even more. "You two really must because I don't even have a single idea of what you two are fighting about! The two of you just barged in here and started tearing my arms apart! Why! God, why!" There was still no answer from the hanyous as they still sat on the floor. Seeing this, Sesshomaru let out a defeated and angry sigh before starting to walk out the door. Seeing this, both of them stood up.
"Mother and Auntie told us to take a nap," Naraku began to say, stopping the older boy in his tracks.
"We fought because both of us wanted to sleep with you," Inuyasha explained looking at the ground, feeling quite ashamed from his brother yelling at him just a second ago.
Sesshomaru turned around and looked at the two skeptically. That still didn't answer why. "Why?" he asked calmer than before. There seemed to be a long moment of hesitant silence. Neither Inuyasha nor Naraku wanted to speak and answer that question. After the youkai thought he waited long enough he said, "Well, if you don't tell me, then I will not ever read to you two again," before turning smoothly to pretend to leave, knowing that one of them would say something to stop him.
"Uh!" Inuyasha gasped, feeling conquered already and without words.
"Wait!" Naraku pleaded. It was needless to say that neither of them wanted Sesshomaru to be mad at them. Both felt too attached to the demon to want anything else but to be near him.
"So...?" Sesshomaru asked from the corner of his eye, just barely seeing the two expressions of distress and hurt.
"It's because..." Naraku began to say, afraid that the older demon would get impatient again.
"It's because we like you," Inuyasha finished for the other, but his eyes did not dare to look at his older brother.
Sesshomaru stared at the two younger boys. He felt a mixture of things—realization, surprise, confusion, and maybe even a little disgust. "You what...?" Sesshomaru asked to affirm what he had just heard.
"We like you, we like you so much," came a very soft and possibly even shy voice from the dark hanyou. The light hanyou had the courage to look up now, but he still felt uncomfortable looking at his brother's face.
'You could have fooled me' the demon lord thought skeptically, looking at the two for more answers.
"I'm sorry, Big Brother. Please don't be mad," requested the youngest demon in the room.
It was at this that the young demon lord did not know what to say. What was there to say? Should he tell them what he thought of this? That their confession gave him a strange feeling of relief? That he felt both disturbed and happy with them saying that they both liked him? That he was just so wordless right now?
And then there was this space between them, the two hanyous and the youkai. While Inuyasha and Naraku stood side by side, they were about a yard and a half from Sesshomaru. This space became somewhat annoying and dislikable. It made them feel uneasy, all three of them. So to ease the pain, all three began to shut away that space, taking steps ever so slowly.
"Inuyasha is your brother, and so you must think of him better, so I was so jealous," the dark half-demon said softly, his eyes barely looking at the one he was addressing to. "And I knew...Inuyasha liked you...but...I like you so...I wanted you...to like me," Naraku explained slowly, a bit hesitant in between words and his voice so low in volume that only the three could have heard.
Sesshomaru just stared and listened to the wavy-haired boy's confession. He noticed the blush this caused to form on both the younger ones' small faces. He looked at both of them, seeing Naraku's blush more visible because of his paler skin. But Inuyasha had such a difficult expression, he seemed to want to say something but then he was too shy to say it. His timidity was both adorable and odd to see because it was rare to see. Sesshomaru could very well say the same for Naraku also. "And you...?" the oldest demon asked, directing it at his younger brother.
Inuyasha looked up straight at his brother, a little shocked and afraid at being asked now. "Me too," he began slowly and softly just as Naraku had said it. "I...I like onii-chan a lot...so I don't want Naraku to...take you away from me," Inuyasha finally finished with his blush gracing much more visibly across his adoring face. And it was when Inuyasha finished his own confession that all three were now as close as they could be without touching.
Sesshomaru felt so incredulous, he had no idea. He didn't know that there were these feelings behind all those fights and events. He didn't know that they could harbor such feelings. He didn't even consider what they just said as an option but now it would have to be, wouldn't it?
There was silence and all three demons felt uncomfortable. What could any one of them say to stop the unease? They wondered what the other was thinking, well, Sesshomaru thinking about what could be in both Inuyasha and Naraku's mind, while Inuyasha and Naraku wondering about how Sesshomaru felt. It seemed like chaos, a triangle but not quite.
"Big Brother," Inuyasha finally spoke, making their silence a thing in the past. "Tell me," he requested weakly, "do you like Naraku?" In his tone, one could sense a bit of pain and the hiding of sorrow-filled thoughts.
Sesshomaru's mind registered the question but could not bring himself to say or determine an answer. He also thought that his brother's question was a little different from what he expected. Instead of 'do you like Naraku?' why didn't he ask 'do you like me?' From this indication, Inuyasha had told his brother that saying yes was ok. Sesshomaru can sense it in his brother's smooth voice. And so it was for this reason that he felt indecisive. Did he like Naraku? Well, the dark hanyou was as troublesome as Inuyasha and probably just as easy to let out his emotions. They weren't like a full-demon at all. But, of course, there were differences, no one is the same. Sesshomaru could see that Naraku was the wiser of the two and see that more of the demon blood in him than Inuyasha. But did that mean Sesshomaru didn't like Inuyasha? The light half-demon can be unreasonable and irritating but Sesshomaru can sense a great deal of sympathy in him and humanity. Inuyasha would never be the one to harm someone if he didn't think he absolutely had to. There were some things that he didn't like about his brother but there were equally as many things that he didn't like about Naraku. So what could he say? He still couldn't find anything to say.
"Please tell me, Big Brother," Inuyasha asked. Both hanyous' faces were of the ones of pleas and anticipation.
There was another moment of silence until Sesshomaru finally declared rather calmly, "Stop the interrogation already. I'm getting tired. Mother and Auntie told you two to take a nap, right?"
The two looked at each other for a second, finding Sesshomaru's evasion disappointing. They nodded, faces to the floor, their lips in a pout that was not visible to the young demon lord at the moment.
Using both his hands, Sesshomaru picked up their chins, making both boys look at him as he asked, "Well?" Both expressions showed the same confusion. It almost made Sesshomaru laugh to see the mirror feelings of the two. The silver-haired youkai released his hold on both of them, walking to the corner of the room where the futon lay. He sat down, back against the firm wall. He sighed, feeling the stiffness of his body beginning to relax.
The two boys' eyes had followed the young demon lord but they did not move from the places they stood. Their faces were still the same until they both changed at the same time when Sesshomaru spoke again, "Is no one going to join me?" The two hanyous looked at each other, wondering the meanings in the older demon's words. Sesshomaru just closed his eyes, resting his whole body.
The youkai sensed the movements of the two younger boys, not much longer, approaching. Even though his eyes were closed he could almost see the hesitant and nervous faces they both must have held from the sounds of their footsteps.
But then moments later, Sesshomaru had two little hanyous cuddled on either side of him, Naraku one his left side while Inuyasha rested his head gently on his brother's right shoulder. Naraku's two small hands were cupped together, laying his elbow comfortably on the silver-haired youkai's leg, and his head nuzzled on Sesshomaru's chest rather than his shoulder, showing just a bit of the affection he felt for the demon. Sesshomaru could also feel a small hand stretched across his chest, making him feel the attachment of the one which the hand belonged to, which was his little brother.
Sesshomaru's eyelids peeked open one by one, seeing first Naraku sleeping comfortably on his left and then his brother, Inuyasha, napping cozily on his right. His eyes lingered on both of them in about the same amount of time that Sesshomaru didn't know which one had more of his attention. He didn't know. He probably would not find out any time soon. But at least he found out something before he dozed off into a pleasant sleep as well. He liked both of them for the time being.
Author's notes: I usually don't do this but I just wanted to make sure that people didn't misunderstand my last sentence. It means that he likes them, as plain as that. He doesn't love them, it didn't say that. Just liking is enough for now. My babies are still too young...hehe...