Chapter Text
"Master Jaken, hurry up or I'll leave you behind!" Rin called into the trees as she walked through the woods expertly. Her footsteps were quiet and brisk through the brush and hardly made a sound in the night. She had learned to do this over time from walking in and out of the woods near her village at night while Lady Kaede was asleep and couldn't protest.
"Rin wait!" Jaken's high pitch voice pierced the night sending some of the sleeping birds into the dark sky. Rin sighed and stopped to wait for him. Jaken stumbled out of the bushes, further away than she had expected. Jaken's two headed staff fell from behind him and hit him in the head.
'Oh Master Jaken, you're so annoying.' Rin would have said it too, if she hadn't sensed that Sesshomaru was near. She knew he would most likely be able to hear her and be upset. Jaken was so loyal to him and was a real demon, therefor she believed Sesshomaru cared for him more than herself.
Rin began to tap her foot as Jaken scrambled through the bushes and ahead of her, where they where going at this time in the night was unknown to her, and had she not been so used to her irregular sleeping patterns, walking through this forest would have been quite trivial.
Jaken looked over his shoulder at the young woman who was now following him, her long midnight hair even seemed to shine in the darkness, and she did not trip. Even with her mortal eyes she seemed to be able to see clearly as he did. Rin's large brown eyes darted down to him in a questioning way. "Master Jaken, why are you looking at me like that? Wait Jaken-!"
Thud. Rin winced with her whole body at that one, Jaken had walked right into Sesshomaru's leg. Sesshomaru looked down at him with annoyed face, one of his eyebrows twitched. 'Oh no, he's going to kill Master Jaken.' Rin stepped around Jaken as he turned and scurried back into the brush.
"Greetings My Lord!" She said cheerfully and bowed quickly, hoping to avert his attention from Jaken. "It's been a while since we've traveled like this, will we be gone long?"
"No, we head back after tonight." Sesshomaru looked over Rin's dainty shoulder at Jaken, who was busy trying to scramble through the brush away from them. "I trust you have been well?"
"Yes Lord Sesshomaru, but Kaede's been on her death bed for about a month now. Her time is drawing near and it is beginning to make me grow melancholy." Thinking about the kind old woman made her sigh. She looked off into the shadows of the trees where something ducked back into the darkness form her gaze. "Is someone following you?"
"It's nothing to worry about," Rin looked at Sesshomaru closely as he said this, he didn't seem tense at all, and as he spoke to her he had a kind of warmth in his eyes she was so used to.
"Well who is it, a new friend of yours?" She was anxious, 'has he replaced me so easily?'
"You know full well by now that I do not make friends," The annoyed look returned to his face as he looked into the trees where she was now facing.
"Uh oh, run!" Shippo's voice followed by a pop from him transforming into a balloon could be heard from a short distance away, Rin giggled at this and tugged on Sesshomaru's sleeve. A couple of Shippo's friends scurried after him calling for him to wait. Rin found it hard to believe that they had followed her so many miles without her noticing.
"Oh, I guess it turned out to be my friends!" Rin laughed and started to walk to the outskirts of a clearing. Rin gasped as the trees opened up, revealing a perfect circle shaped clearing filled with Snowy white Lilly flowers. Their petals where shining in the night like some sort of magic was inside them making them glow just like the moon. "Oh pretty!"
"Yes I thought you might think that," Sesshomaru watched as this woman, who had grown so much in such a seemingly short time, still act like a innocent child in front of him. Rin's alabaster skin was almost as pale and bright as the flowers in an otherworldly way, as she ran around in the field her long black hair whipped behind her and was just as beautiful. It was hard to believe that this was the same little girl he had rescued, and when she turned those big brown eyes of hers to him, Sesshomaru found himself in an onslaught of emotions that where all new to him.
Yes, he had to admit that he had always loved Rin, but in a caring way that made him want to be with her and give her things, it had never felt quite... this way before.
"Lord Sesshomaru, what are these flowers?" Rin dropped backwards into the glowing flowers and looked over to Sesshomaru, who was looking back at her contently.
"This place is called Chiaki's garden, the story of this place is that a beautiful woman who lived in a nearby village loved to go out into the woods on the full moon. One night a ray of light shown on her from the moon itself. Glowing flowers began to grow all around her and a god appeared before her. He had watched her walk, bathed in moonlight for a long time and had grown to love her, but she had already fallen in love with a human man and dismissed the god's affection. The woman's name was Chiaki, and now every time the moon is full, these flowers grow in the clearing and glow in the night."
"What a sad story for such a beautiful place, this woman must have been something to turn the eye of a god." A subtle breeze blew through the trees and over Rin, making her unruly bangs flop into her face. She glowered in frustration at the locks of hair on her forehead.
"You see that shrine there?" Sesshomaru pointed to a small red shrine that Rin hadn't noticed in the shadow of a tall tree. An old silver urn sat in it. "When we leave, pay your respects to Cheaki."
"Yes My Lord." Rin watched Sesshomaru from her spot in the glowing flowers, he seemed to be deep in thought staring into the trees away from her. 'Now's my chance to stare at him while he's not looking!' Rin liked to imagine herself groping Sesshomaru starting from head to foot, she looked at his hair and fantasized about just how soft it would be to run her fingers through it. Of course she had felt his hair before on her face when he used to carry her, but she wanted to just stick her hands in and use her fists to pull him close. His face was so pale, aside from crescent moon on his forehead and the red markings on his high cheekbones and eyelids.
Rin imagined what it would feel like to run her fingertips over all those markings, and what the feeling of his long black eyelashes would be like brushing her skin. Sesshomaru's mouth was closed in a hard line, making him seem unhappy, but Rin knew better by now that when he was lost in his mind, he simply made that face all the time. He seemed to have full lips for a man, they where probably soft too. Rin continued to run her imaginations hands along his body and clothes. She yearned badly to be able to do that, but Sesshomaru would have none of that. Rin knew she smelled like the human she was, and Sesshomaru would never be able to let her touch him and rub that smell onto him.
Rin looked away again. Sesshomaru had seen her there, staring at her for so long in silence. But the look in her eyes as she did this was pleasing to him, and he never let on to that he knew. Sometimes the twitch of a smile would start to break his facade, but then he would stop himself and keep looking away, watching her from the corner of his eye. He wondered what he would see if he delved into her mind and looked while she did this. The fiery look in Rin's dark brown eyes told him he might like it.
"Oh, Lord Sesshomaru, where is Ah-Un?" The two headed lizard demon suddenly came into mind and her attention was averted. The beast often came to visit her in the village without Sesshomaru or Jaken because he missed her. This made her smile thinking about Ah-Un,and the way it felt to sleep on his saddle as he followed Sesshomaru and Jaken on their travels.
"I don't know, sometimes he just takes off." Sesshomaru gazed at her from across the clearing, a look in his eyes she didn't understand lingered there as he looked at her. Confusion maybe? Sesshomaru looked at her long enough it made her uncomfortable.
"Lord Sesshomaru, you said that if I choose I can go with you on your travels again. Well, I put a lot of time into thinking about it, and I still haven't changed my mind. I still want to be with you weather I die or not. I do understand that it's dangerous but I've always known that." Rin sat up and looked directly at him as she spoke. "I trust that with you around me I will always be safe."
"If you want me to promise I will protect you I won't." Sesshomaru walked over to where Rin was sitting in the flowers. "I can't promise you'll be safe, or that a demon wont come along and kill you before I have a chance to kill it. I won't tell you I'll always be with you and you need to understand this to be the way it will be with me."
Rin looked up at Sesshomaru, the weak breeze was moving his hair again. She had made a decision long ago to always be by his side, and it had hurt her greatly when Kaede convinced Sesshomaru to leave her in the village for so long. He only asked her to travel with him for short two or three day trips at most now, like this one. And it was usually to a somewhat nearby place like this shrine. She wanted to travel the world with Sesshomaru, not a short distance. Rin began to stand up so that Sesshomaru would no longer be towering over her. Even though he was taller than her, when Rin stood she was now only a little more than a head short of his size. Sesshomaru had wondered a moment ago if this would be the perfect height to...
He pulled Rin to his body wrapping his arms around her, her soft embrace around him was warm and he gently put his chin on top of her head. He had been thinking if she was tall enough to do this, and he had been right. It was a pleasant feeling to have Rin next to him like this. His eyes half closed as she stroked his back with her palms, even through his cloths he could feel the heat of her touch. Rin's pulse was beginning to rise in reaction to their embrace, and Sesshomaru let go of her before he could cause her to become too aroused to him. 'I wonder if I would even stop myself if she were to try,' Sesshomaru thought silently.
Rin cleared her throat, no doubt trying to distract them both. "Lord Sesshomaru is it alright if I pick some of these flowers?" her tone was horse, she cleared her throat again feeling a lump there. Rin reached up and touched her neck, where to her surprise she could feel her fast pulse.
"Even if you were to, the moment the moonlight is off of them they will wither and die."
A familiar grunt from far away made them both look up at the sky. Rin could faintly see Ah-Un's two headed body riding towards them at a great speed and coming up fast. He landed in front of Rin with a loud thud and his speed sent a gust of wind blowing the skirt of her kimono and her long hair. She reached up and stroked his scaly head.
"I'll be back in a little while Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin jumped onto the high saddle and grabbed the reigns of Sesshomaru's two headed riding lizard. She expertly snapped them to send him flying into the night sky. Sesshomaru watched as they went back and forth above the trees and did not bother to fly up to watch them. Rin was a remarkable human, for some reason she had absolutely no fear. Was this because she had died before and no longer feared a mortal death? Sesshomaru mentally shook his head to make sure he didn't begin another journey into his analytical mind.
Rin's laughter was warming him, but Sesshomaru knew for the time being that he would still have to take Rin back to the village. It would only be a few months before Kaede would succumb to her old age, and once Rin was on her own again Sesshomaru had decided he would be there to take her as a companion again. Although things would most likely be different this time, he didn't know how many more times he could see her without taking her and finally claiming her as his.
As the possessive thought crossed his mind he realized that it really wouldn't be long. It was the simple fact of her mortal age that stopped him now. Ever since she had turned seventeen he had started to feel the physical pull to her, but how long should he wait? He had waited two years now with no problem and could probably wait longer, but he didn't want to.
And then there was the question that was Rin. Sesshomaru, of course knew of her humanly body reactions to his touch by the smell she emitted when he embraced her, along with the rise in her pulse and body temperature. But lust alone was not something that Sesshomaru wanted for the woman. Leaving her in the village would let her have a strong chance of finding a human male and being able to feel the whole of being in love. Wanting to give a single being everything you could, simply because they were that person, and wanting nothing in return. An unconditional feeling he now knew well.
"Alright Ah-Un, take me down now." Sesshomaru heard her say a little to the north. The sound of Ah-Un landing was just outside the clearing. Sesshomaru started to walk in that direction to see what they were doing. He heard the sound of splashing water as he closed in on the spot where they had landed. Rin was sitting on a large rock next to a wide creak. She kicked her bare feet in the water and splashed Ah-Un with it, in return Ah-Un used one of his large heads to splash water back at her. Sesshomaru stood in the shadow of a tree watching them like this.
He had been so used to her being like this around him that it seemed only natural for her to be at his side again, Sesshomaru found himself thinking of not returning her to the care of the elderly priestess and taking her with him, but he wanted to know if she really had the undying resolve to go with him. Having to be with the humans and see what it was like to watch a loved one pass on into the nether world would do her well to teach her another lasting life lesson.
"Lord Sesshomaru, I wish to sleep in that clearing for the rest of the night." Rin said as she put her sandals back on and walked towards him. Her hips moved in a way that made Sesshomaru watch her as she walked. 'So graceful for a mortal, it is strange.'
"Do as you wish, I will not stop you." Sesshomaru watched as she passed by him to go back to the clearing. It wouldn't be the first time she had slept on the ground, even though Sesshomaru always made sure to bring her blankets she seemed to prefer sleeping with nothing around her and somehow never felt cold. Rin and Sesshomaru walked back to the clearing, she hummed a melody the short distance and once the trees broke she fell into the flowers as if they really were snow.
It was when her quiet snores could be heard that Sesshomaru knew she was in a deep sleep. He had secretly watched her sleep in her home with Kaede before, for some reason she did not sleep as soundly in her room as she did in the open night air or on Ah-Un's saddle. Even though it was only several miles away from the village Rin lived in, it was still an escape to her.
The breeze began to pick up again making the leaves in the trees rustle around the clearing. Sesshomaru looked at Rin, who was still quietly snoring, not one goose bump raised on her pale uncovered arms. He walked over to Rin silently and dropped his fur pelt next to her. She moved and hugged the fur in her sleep muttering his name once and becoming still again.
The brightness of daylight was blinding to Rin, she would have liked nothing more than to climb up onto Ah-Un's saddle and fall asleep while they walked back to the village, but than she remembered that once they got there Sesshomaru would most likely leave again. She wanted to make the time she had with him last as long as possible.
"Lord Sesshomaru," Rin started the conversation this way hoping this would coax him from his thoughts. "If I were to ask you for something, anything, would you give me it?"
Sesshomaru thought about a number of things he could say to her, and than decided. "Don't ask me such silly questions Rin." He looked ahead as he could hear and smell humans bustling about the village a mile ahead of them. He had chosen to walk because he wanted to prolong their time together as much as he could, before leaving her in the village again.
Rin's face turned beat red, she had heard him answer her like that many times before. As she got older she had come to realize that this was what he said when he honestly wanted to say yes, but his own pride gets in the way and he answers her this way instead. She looked up at Sesshomaru and stopped a little ways from the edge of the forest.
"Rin, are you coming?" Sesshomaru stopped and turned to her, Rin was looking at him with a determined and bold look in her eyes. Sesshomaru walked back to where she had stopped and waited for her explanation, but she was silent. He was about to say something when she finally spoke.
"I want to touch your face." Rin said a little louder than they both expected.
"Mm," Sesshomaru leaned in closer to let her reach up and touch him.
Her fingers were soft, tracing the light crescent moon on his forehead and brushing some stray hair from his face. Her skin was so soft and warm, before he realized it he had leaned into her gentile caress. Rin still had that determined look on her face, as she moved her hands and fingertips along Sesshomaru's face to lightly brush his lower lip with her thumb.
"Okay," Sesshomaru watched as Rin backed up a little from him, viably letting all the muscles in her upper body relax as she let out a breath she had been holding. "I'm done, let's go."
Some of the villagers eyed Sesshomaru as they walked along the dirt road, glancing from him to Rin. A few even went so far as to stop what they were doing and glare at him behind his back. In Rin's mind, she was giving them all rude gestures and making faces at them, but on the outside she did her best not to make an offensive move. She didn't want to risk embarrassing Sesshomaru or else he might not come back soon. Rin mentally sighed.
As they approached the shrine where Rin and Lady Kaede lived they noticed Kagome standing at the top of the stairs speaking with InuYasha. Kagome noticed them and waved excitedly. She yelled something that made InuYasha's face turn dark in obvious irritation towards her, but Rin didn't care to know what it was. Kagome always seemed to be saying something silly.
Sesshomaru turned and began to leave, Rin didn't expect a goodby from him, especially since he'd seen InuYasha already. Rin stared after him as he took off into the air in the direction of the mountains. He seemed to always go that way when he left her here, 'I wonder what it is he's doing while he's away.' Rin thought to herself, but than again, often times when they had been traveling before, she found that Sesshomaru simply liked to move at random, not caring where he was going.
Rin finally let her shoulders drop as she walked up the shrine steps, she wished InuYasha hadn't been here, than maybe Sesshomaru would have stayed longer. A little girls head poked out from behind Kagome. Her silvery hair the same slightly dark color as InuYasha. Keiko, their daughter looked up at Rin, she had such big black eyes and fat cheeks that made it hard for Rin to stay in a bad mood in front of her. Rin patted her soft head, feeling one of her dog-like ears on her palm. Keiko shyly latched onto the sash of Rin's kimono and began to follow her.
"Oh hey Rin, how are you?" Kagome asked as she passed her and InuYasha.
"Fine," but she really didn't feel that way. Rin looked down at Keiko and smiled. "I'm going to go to sleep so you really cant follow me inside today, alright Keiko?"
The little girl nodded and skipped back to her mother's side.
"Huh," InuYasha grunted and folded his arms. "I don't get why Sesshomaru plays with her like that. He doesn't even come by that often anymore."
Rin gasped, 'even a man with a rock for a brain noticed!' She darted into the house and closed the door loudly behind her. Kagome glared at InuYasha's clueless face.
"InuYasha..." Kagome's voice showed her anger, InuYasha gulped. "Sit!"