Can't Touch This (Sesshomaru)

Jaken paced around lost in his own thoughts. In the past four seasons since that mortal girl arrived something in Sesshomaru had changed. The quests for power weren't as frequent, the adventure not as perilous, and the compromises for the child took priority. What in all the worlds had happened to Lord Sesshomaru?

The imp did some information scouting and drafted a plan to find out if his once ferocious lord was truly losing his bite.

"Lord Sesshomaru! Lord Sesshomaru!" Jaken squawked as though the sky was falling. Sesshomaru glared up from his accounting scrolls with no small amount of irritation.

"What is it, Jaken?" The daiyokai's words were clipped.

Jaken stammered for what seemed like an hour before he produced a message scroll. He cleared his throat and read. "Lord Torihito of the Northern Province has advanced his territories by fifty square fathoms. He intends to claim the northeastern mountains by the next moon." Jaken lowered the parchment, eyes bulging now. "Lord Sesshomaru, this means he'll soon have more land than you!"

Sesshomaru stared into the corner above the imp's head and instead narrowed his attention to the evening's sounds: a cricket chirping, the wind's murmur, Rin nearby locking up Ah-Un for the night.

"Ah, m'lord?"

He blinked. "I shall deal with Torihito in due time, but at the moment I'm better off than he."

Jaken shrugged and wandered away.

-

"Lord Sesshomaru! Lord Sesshomaru!" Jaken skidded to his master's feet.

The Western Lord shifted his eyes off Rin who was in the stream trying to catch lunch. "What now?"

"You know the eighth-century collection of the Yamato family paintings? The ones commissioned before they were exiled? Lord Kuribayashi in the South just added them to his personal art collection!"

"Oh." Sesshomaru placed a considering hand to his chin. "I suppose that's the closest Kuribayashi shall ever come to matching any of my treasures."

Jaken twitched at his lord's apathy - he'd always wanted those paintings - but he kept his beak shut...until the next moon.

-

Third time's a charm.

Jaken had to search several of the castle's rooms before literally running into Sesshomaru in one of the corridors.

The dog-demon's eyes were amber torches in the dark, and Jaken nearly balked out of his final message.

"Out with it."

"Well, uh, I thought you'd appreciate knowing that InuYasha has mastered a new technique of the Tetsusaiga called the Adamant Bar-"

Sesshomaru's foot came squarely down on Jaken's face. He then crossed into the next room and snapped the screen shut.

After peeling himself off the floor, Jaken smacked his head again for being such an idiot. Of course Lord Sesshomaru wasn't going soft! How absurd! He marched back down the hall glad to know where his master stood.

Meanwhile, in the next quarters over, Sesshomaru settled down next to a tatami mat, still contemplating the past week's events. Since when did his retainer get the nerve to come off with such boorish remarks and gossip?

He ran gentle claws over Rin's sleeping head - his one gesture of affection.

Territory, priceless artifacts, and even new power can't compare to my treasure. I'm still the richest.

-

A/N: Thank you for reading! Posting this set meant a lot to me. If you enjoyed this collection, there's also "Four Fangs of a Daiyokai" and "What Fathers Do." Happy Father's Day!