Sesshomaru watched from his window as the coach along the side of the building was prepared and loaded. A few moments were all it took before Rin was, bundled and wrapped, ushered from the side entrance and into the bed set up inside. The coach was quite similar to the one he'd fooled his brother with the only real difference being that Ah-nun would be pulling it.
He wasn't so foolish as to think this departure would go unnoticed. He was aware of multiple presences in the shadows that were eyeing and analyzing this event. That is what the smarter demons did of course, analyzed every situation and weighed what the benefits that they could reap from each possible course of action. There were several rumors going around that Jakken had informed him of and he hadn't bothered to disperse. The first being that Rin no longer interested him in her injured state and instead of simply killing her he was showing that weak willed compassion and sending her away. Others suggested, rightly, that he was sending her to be healed while countless more were formed from variants of those.
He refused to move from his window. Let them see him, it would decrease the likelihood that they'd try to take advantage of the almost unguarded human girl. Either his presence had been noted or they were far more cautious then he gave them credit for as the carriage rose into the air and away under the pale light cast by the moon nothing attacked. He continued to look up at the moon long after the carriage had gone out of sight.
****************
Rin arrived in a small clearing and peaked through the curtains. The small versions of Jakken, hand picked by him, set about opening up the curtains, un-harnessing Ah-nun and lifting her into a seated position. She'd rather have just been left with her and Ah-nun but taking care of him was impossible in her current state. She'd discovered that her bones might have healed but her insides still felt oddly liquidy and she ran out of energy often. Jakken had informed her that the grizzled demon who'd healed her hadn't expended any of his own vast amounts of energy, he'd simply drawn her own to heal the bones. Energy she hadn't had to spare and was now trying to earn back as well as finish healing. Sesshomaru had apparently, this part was explained with great vigor, neatly decapitated him for being so foolish. His head would grow back, it'd just take a while to do so, giving him ample time to think about trying to vex the most power and graceful of all demon lords.
She couldn't really focus on that though, most of her energy was spent trying to think of a way to apologize properly to Jakken. He'd stormed into her rooms in a huff and woke her up with a number of almost but not quite slamming of the trey on the table. He'd glared at her when she'd asked why he'd been so covered in bruises. Finally he'd turned on her.
" You! You fell asleep next to the table. Sesshomaru-sama came into the room when I told him you'd awakened and he found you in a pile on the floor. The floor! You were put right back in bed might I add, but falling asleep on the floor? What were you thinking?" His tone was grouchy all the way through until the very end when it turned almost pleading.
" I'm so sorry," she'd managed to whisper. Well that was an improvement, she could whisper now instead of rasp. He'd flomped off and informed her he wasn't ready to forgive her.
Rin was pulled out of her musings by Ah-nun's growl. She peered out in time to see a silver haired figure step from forest and head straight for them. InuYasha stopped a short distance away from them and holding an odd metal configuration.
" You going to let me come get you or do I have to beat up your pet?" He had a hand on his hip and the other suggestively placed on the hilt of his sword.
****************
He sat on his patio overlooking the courtyard. Another attack on his palace, this time by a handful of monks. He'd known that they would rally when such a 'pit of demons' showed up but he was getting quite out of patience with the repeated assaults on his home. It'd been years and they'd yet to give up and he was quite tired of splashing that smelly human blood around.
She'd never shown a problem with him killing other humans. True it'd always been in self defense but he had been slightly surprised that she'd been so calm about it when he'd come back smelling of blood to high heavens.
His eyes narrowed, as did his mouth, as he contemplated the tea in the cup before him.
" My lord?" The lovely courtesan with the cat eyes and full lips smiled up while holding up a tea pot questioningly. Jakken had told him of this one, one of the more stubborn spreader of rumors and someone who'd often tried to slip into Sesshomaru's rooms to wait for him there.
" No," he turned his head away from her. " You're not needed here any longer." Why tolerate someone who would not follow his rules? Why deal with a jealous female at all?
" My lord," she bowed low before straightening up again. " Will you require me...in any form this evening?" She licked her lips suggestively.
" I will not require you." He turned his cold yellow eyes on her so to let her have no guess on his meaning.
" My...lord?" Her eyes were dangerously narrowed and it was far too easy to tell what she was thinking. It was too bad she hadn't just left when he'd told her to, now he knew she'd try to cause more distractions and trouble once she'd left the castle. He leaned foreword.
" I will no longer require your services," he said slowly and clearly before standing up and tossing the heart he'd ripped from her chest into the garden. He stood up and walked away as the body slid limply to the ground.
****************
Rin had hobbled outside to sit with Ah-nun that evening. The short walk still tired her greatly but she took heart in the fact that she could walk at all. She was enjoying her time with Sesshomaru's younger brother but being introverted seemed to run in his family and Kagome seemed to enjoy talking to Rin almost as much as Rin enjoyed talking to her. Rin stroked Ah-nun's side gently and closed her eyes, if she concentrated she could almost imagine she was having a quiet evening at home...
" Rin," Kagome's voice came out of the dusk behind her, " do you mind if I join you?"
" Please," Rin patted the ground next to her and Ah-nun made pleased growling sounds in its throats as Kagome settled herself.
" Are you feeling better?" Kagome reached out with her left hand and scratched Ah-nun's flank.
" Yes. I still get tired though." Rin always looked at Kagome as a sort of opposite of Sesshomaru. She was human, she was open and free with her emotions and having her right arm partially gone seemed to cement that image for her. " I am getting hungry more often then I used to."
" That's a good sign." Kagome patted Rin's leg and then looked out at the purple and pink sky that was settled over the now dark woods. " Missing Sesshomaru?"
" Yes," Rin said after a moment, " I always miss him when he's gone, but this time seems harder."
" I can imagine." Kagome was quiet for a few more moments, letting the crickets chirp. " You're in love with him aren't you?"
This time it was Rin's turn to be quiet and she let it stretch out for more then a few moments before she flopped, as gently as possible, backwards onto the grass. " Yes."
" You're sure that's what you want?"
Rin smiled, turning her head to look at Kagome's silhouette. " Did you want to be in love with InuYasha?"
" Oh good god no," Kagome laughed and leaned back on her hand, looking up at the night sky. " I was absolutely horrified when I discovered I was." She sighed heavily. " Truth be told I was thrilled a little when I realized he had emotions for me too...though it was a little more complicated then us just liking each other. I'd wanted to tell him all along but I also thought I wanted to live an ordinary life more then anything."
Rin mulled over this before replying. " When I was younger I wanted, just a little, to live in a village with other people. I wanted it very much. My lord gave me many chances to leave, many chances to go and live with regular people. I think it was those chances that made me realize how much I didn't want to leave him." She sat up again, brushing off her back before continuing. " It was those times that helped me realize just how much I wanted to be with my lord."
" You've thought about this." Kagome stated it more as a fact then a question but Rin nodded into the dark anyway.
" There was always time to think about it. Sesshomaru-sama always made sure I was cared for. He'd tell me to go off and find my own food but he always had us near a place where it was easy to get to. If he couldn't do that then he'd have Jakken do it. Jakken hated having Sesshomaru say 'I do not want to be kept up all night by a growling stomach'." Rin laughed. " My lord was always very caring and he was always very patient."
" He doesn't come off that way," Kagome pointed out.
" No," Rin's voice took on an edge of sadness and frustration, " I suppose he doesn't. It's only because I've been with him so very long that I can even tell when he's happy or not and he's got to be that way because emotions in demons are considered a weakness."
" I can see why he always thought InuYasha was weak then," Kagome stated. " He's a giant seething pot of them at the best of times."
" Yes," Rin stated slowly, a little shyly, " but he doesn't think so anymore."
" That's good," Kagome said. " That could help keep some possible problems at bay. I imagine it's harder being in love with Sesshomaru then it would be to be in love with InuYasha though."
" Maybe," Rin positioned herself so that she could lean up against Ah-nun's side, yawning a bit before continuing. " InuYasha is everything I wish Sesshomaru would open himself up to being. Sort of. I just wish..." She stopped for a moment. " I know he thinks of me as his ward and that's it. I wish sometimes he felt things the way InuYasha feels things."
" I think he might disown you if he heard you say that," Kagome pointed out.
" Probably."
" I think you should get inside before I have to have InuYasha carry you inside."
" You're right," Rin mumbled, pushing herself slowly to her feet with Ah-nun's help and shuffling slowly back towards her small hut. It had been such a nice surprise when InuYasha'd carried her out to see it.
" When you get better kid you can have a little more privacy."
She thought, a little sleepily, that he was probably half and half on getting some of his own back along with giving her some.
****************
Sesshomaru's normally disdainful demeanor had frayed visibly with Rin's absence. Jakken was thankful that most of the courtiers attributed the sudden increases in bodies to the increased amount of time Sesshomaru actually spent in the castle.
Sesshomaru sat on a porch, a small cup of...something...near him, and wondered about the burning emotion he was feeling in his chest. He studied it, analyzed it, contemplated it and still it wouldn't give up what it was.
{A combination? Anger is there, I feel it smoldering in my chest but it holds others as well.}
Perhaps...lust? He would not contemplate love but lust was something more understandable, more open to thought. Humans and demons were compatible physically, sexually, it'd been proven time and again.
A lust for her.
He could accept that it was there. He acknowledged it, felt the slight increase in pressure in his chest as it seemed to grow stronger and throttled it down again. So now he could not deny the fact that he had feelings of desire. Not only to posses her body against his but to protect her from harm and cradle her against him. The desire to feel her need him in her life. She depended on him in a trusting way so filled with passion and sweetness that he could not admit it to himself unless he was willing to accept the fact that he was likely to hold her and never let her go. He wanted both to tumble with her in his sheets and to walk with her through the rain. He wanted to have her stroke his hair and temples. He wanted, with a deep feral passion, to feel her skin under his hands and to nuzzle and cuddle and comfort.
{Is this what father felt for InuYasha's mother? Is this strange desire what he could not resist? What he threw away his life and kingdom for?}
He wanted desperately to ignore those around him and indulge but more then anything that had to be pushed away.
He got up and stalked across the bridge in the garden. It was easier to escape these thoughts when she was here, a solid form whom he could easily avoid and those troubling thoughts with her. He was finding that now the thoughts lurked around every corner, popped up with every whispered rumor. The ladies who pawed cautiously at him didn't even begin to arouse any desire anymore. There was no freedom in their movements, only calculation. He had enough of that for many people and was sick of it surrounding him.
" Jakken," he swiftly moved up behind the small demon in the kitchen. " When will the ocean house be ready?"
Jakken stared up at him. They'd just started on it less then two weeks ago. Even with the strength and skill of many demons it would take at least a month to get ready even the most barely habitable of houses for his lord.
" You should be able to visit in two weeks or so my lord, and it should be fully done in another six."
" That," Sesshomaru said with no hint of emotion in his voice, " is not acceptable."
" Of course my lord," Jakken bowed low as Sesshomaru disappeared around the curve of a hallway.
{ Hmmph! I suppose next I'll have to make Rin show up whole and healthy too}
Agitated, Sesshomaru stalked the halls of the palace, sending any in his path scattering for safety. Once the thoughts had slid out of control there was no way to simply ignore them. He desired to protect Rin and he'd failed. He desired other...things that he could not give in to. Simply impossible unless he wanted to view his father's history and ignore it.
{Those that ignore the past are doomed to repeat it}
He stepped into his rooms and retreated to his sleeping chamber. There had to be some kind of deficiency that his father had passed to him or he would never feel these things at all. They disgusted him. They used to disgust him, he admitted to himself, and most of them still did. The fact of the matter was that at this point he only felt his old disgust for those who acted like the monsters that prowled the forest, little better then beasts. No pride, no honor, no civility at all.
The rage of the past had been set aside and he wasn't sure when it had happened. He had hadn't been acting on the urges it caused quite as much when Rin showed up and the battle with Naraku started but that was simple logic. Being ruled by your emotions around people who couldn't handle them and when those who would strike were watching for weakness was insane and invited nothing but trouble. No, sometime in the past years the emotion had mostly gone from him. He didn't have quite the wanderlust, the desire for power, the need to prove his superiority. He was confident with himself.
No, what drove him mad now was the fact that he wanted something that he couldn't have. InuYasha's sword had never been his, would never have consented to being his, but this was different. He had his own sword now but...
Rin had, in a sense, been 'his' since she had started traveling with him. Yet here in his own house, where his way was law, she was his charge and servant and could be nothing more.
He mentally shook himself. Rin was quite obvious in how she felt about him but, unlike his younger brother's wench, had the good sense to keep it completely hidden in even the possible presence of others. That did not make this sudden acknowledgment of things he'd kept safely submerged any easier.
{I need something to distract me. If I continue down this path it is only a matter of time before I convince myself to do something truly foolhardy}
****************
Rin glanced nervously around the hanging scroll that blocked Kagome's doorway. In the distance InuYasha stood with a bunch of strangers that had come marching in carrying swords and shields. Rin had retreated quietly back into the hut at Kagome's urging but had peeked immediately. Kagome stood off to the side, talking to someone who was obviously a priestess but she turned as InuYasha grew really agitated and stalked off into the village.
Rin narrowed her eyes. Something was wrong, really wrong. Men well equipped with swords and priestesses in their ranks as well, the way they appeared to have deferred to InuYasha and the way Kagome kept glancing back towards her hut all added up to something brewing. The feeling in the air caused the hairs on the back of her neck to rise.
Kagome said something, gesturing towards the temple that had been built near to the God Tree and the strange priestess bowed and called forth a few more, younger, priestesses from the group that had been around InuYasha. They talked to Kagome for a few more moments before they and the men headed in that direction.
Kagome walked slowly back towards where Rin waited. Slipping quietly past the screen Rin met her halfway.
" Something's wrong Kagome," she put her hand on one of Kagome's shoulders and forced their eyes to meet, " I don't need to be a priestess to tell that where there's war armor and priestesses there's something that involves demons."
Kagome brought her hand up to rub the bridge of her nose for a moment. " I think you'd best sit down inside for awhile Rin, and I'll let you know what those people have brought to our doorstep."
****************
The large room felt crowded with all the bodies pressed into it. Sesshomaru gazed at them all calmly before reaching out a hand smoothing and placing a finger on the map that was splayed out in front of him.
" The humans are amassing here?" He turned his gaze too a rat demon who's eyes glittered at the recognition.
" Yes my lord," the voice was surprisingly mellow, " right here. Armor, weapons of fine quality and priestesses in war readiness. There's no doubt they're planning on attacking this place."
Sesshomaru rested his hand on this thigh and pursed his lips slightly. " If we know they're there then they know that we do."
" My lord?"
" Jakken." Sesshomaru turned as the small demon came scurrying into the room. " Prepare a spy. I wish to know their true intent and I wish to know they're abilities."
A fist came down on the floor across the room. " Foolishness," a heavily armored demon snarled, " we should attack now before they bring in reinforcements. A small force of..."
As the head rolled across the mats, Sesshomaru stood up from his low stool. " That is not their main force." His eyes glided across the careful neutral faces of everyone there. " As much as we mock them the priestesses may be a force to reckon with. It is in all of your best interests to know everything as you," he made eye contact with a few of them, " will be who tests their strengths."
****************
Rin pulled her robes tighter around her as she shivered against the night air. She peeked around the edge of the hut and, seeing no one, ran as lightly as possible across the clearing and into the woods towards where Ah-nun waited.
{Sesshomaru-sama, I'm coming}
She stopped, breathing heavily, as Ah-nun raised its heads and blinked at her. She was much better but that sprint had still managed to knock the air out of her quite thoroughly. She sank to her knees and wrapped her arms as far around Ah-nun as she could reach.
" So where do you think you're going?"
She spun at the noise, her reaction to pinpoint the sound immediately. A flash of white.
InuYasha leaned against a nearby tree. " Going to run off to my brother and save him?"
" Of course not," she caught herself and forced herself into taking deep ordered breaths. " I just thought..."
" Thought what," InuYasha looked at her, his eyes not unkind but certainly holding steel in them. " That somehow being with him will make everything better?"
" He's going to be in a battle," she looked up at him as he walked towards her. " I just want to support him."
InuYasha flumped cross-legged on the ground in front of her. " Support him in killing humans? Is that really okay with you?"
Rin grimaced. " He never kills anyone who doesn't attack him first," she said staunchly. " He's never gone out of his way to kill humans."
InuYasha sat still for a moment before replying. " Sure, he only kills in defense...but they're still human. Do you abandon them so easily?"
" Did they care for me half so much as Sesshomaru has done? Should I weep for those who wouldn't and didn't weep for me?"
He leaned back with a cocky grin on his face. " Heh. You're too much like Kagome for me to argue with you and think I'll win. The point I'm trying to make," he leaned foreword again, " is that you are a liability and your presence will only serve to make a bad situation worse."
" I know that but I'm..."
" A human. A human in a place full of demons when Sesshomaru is distracted, gone most of the time, and during a ripe time for a 'stray' to sneak in and get you. That isn't even mentioning the fact that these humans would grab you in a heartbeat and try to use you against my brother."
" But Sesshomaru-sama..."
" Could do nothing without losing everything. Then, when they find they can't use you they're more then likely to kill you for defiling yourself by associating with a demon."
Rin bit her lip as she twisted her fingers together. " I cannot go and support him but I can't stay here. It's no big secret who I am among the villagers and it's only a matter of time before the army..."
" I," InuYasha stated, " have already gotten that figured out."
****************
Sesshomaru sat in his bedchamber during a now rare moment of peace. He heard the footsteps long before the knocking on the wall just outside the entrance to his rooms announced Jakken's presence.
" Enter." This should be one less wait off his shoulders. Jakken should have Rin on her way to the partially completed ocean retreat and safely out of the way of any humans or demons that would see this as an opportunity to take advantage of his distraction.
" My lord," Jakken bounced from foot to foot nervously, " please forgive me I..."
" What Jakken," Sesshomaru interrupted in a smooth tone, " is it that you want to tell me?"
" Rin my lord! I couldn't find her! Your brother said he'd sent her into hiding and he wouldn't tell me where," his eyes shone with tears, " please my lord, I couldn't get him to talk. He..."
" Has interfered for the last time," Sesshomaru interrupted again, standing up and stalking past the startled Jakken and out the door.
" My lord! I will come..." Jakken rushed out the door but trailed off as he looked in both directions and saw no one.
****************
" You've got a visitor," Kagome announced from where she was stirring rice on the stove.
InuYasha was sitting against the wall, fiddling with a handle for a regular sword. " Yheah, he's not even trying to hide. Dumb, he should know that there's an encampment not far from here that wants his head on a platter."
The door slid smoothing open and Sesshomaru stepped inside.
" Yo," InuYasha flashed a wave at his brother.
" You will tell me where she is if you wish to live."
InuYasha scowled at him. " You really aren't a very polite guy. You ignore my wife and you make death threats when you walk into someone else’s home."
" You will tell me now."
" She's safe."
Sesshomaru cracked his knuckles. " That is not a suitable answer."
" Both of you," Kagome stepped between the two of them, " calm down. InuYasha you may not like your brother but Rin isn't yours to decide when to divulge information." She fixed him with a glare before turning to Sesshomaru. " Can I get you something while we discuss this?"
****************
A dark shape hiding in the bushes and small tree's nearby was joined by another one.
" He's in the house?"
" Yes, we saw him enter a while ago."
The soft noise of a hand rubbing leather. " A pity we cannot attack him now and end this before it starts..."
" Sir?"
The taller of the dark bodies straightened. " It would be suicide to attack him as we are. No, keep an eye on InuYasha. The odds are good that he's here to seek out his brother's aid. If that's the case we'll kill InuYasha but if not then we need to keep trying to get him to join us. Keep watch and see if you can figure out what's going on here."
" Yes my lord."
