InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Bound For Tomorrow: Sesshomaru and Rin ❯ Forever Mine ( Chapter 7 )

Rin takes his outstretched hand, and gives him a questioning look, not in response to the offer of a hand, as that has become common place to her over the years, but in response to his statement in regards to `finding a monk',

“Sesshomaru-sama… do you mean… are you… I mean, you're really going to… DOYOUREALLYWANTTOMARRYME?” She blurts out gracelessly, so excited by the news.

He turns to her, letting go of Ah-un's reins and gives her his own questioning look. Was that not what he'd communicated by giving her the shard?

For a brief moment, fear overtakes him. Has he misunderstood something? He can't possibly fathom how he could have, given what has just happened between them, but the doubt that comes upon him suddenly tears his heart asunder and threatens to undue him.

“You… do not wish it? You may… reject this Sesshomaru, if you wish. This Sesshomaru would still allow you to travel with him.”

He has slipped back into his imperial speech pattern, aloof, and reassuring. Like a security blanket, the familiar distance is his futile attempt to hide his hurt and fear from the only person who would be able to see those two things in him. Its obvious that she has though, by the look on her face when she meets his eyes. Even though she is able to see those things in him, it does not mean that she is not shocked by them, so rare has the occurrence been that he has felt those particular emotions. He makes the realization then that the only times he has ever felt sadness and fear has been in situations that concern the girl. The common thread among each instance where his stomach has churned, his chest has tightened and his breathing has been halted is…her. She is the only thing he cares about enough, that if he lost her, the he, himself, would also be lost. He gives in to the revelation more easily than he imagined he would…

Her power over him is absolute.

The shock on the girl's face would be comical in any other situation, and all of sudden she turns her head and blushes profusely, and refuses to meet his gaze, furthering his burgeoning fear, but all is set right again when she responds,

“Of course I want to marry you! I just didn't think… I mean, I thought maybe you might not want to… I mean… I didn't know you'd make it official… I thought maybe you just wanted me as a…”

Before she can say the word he knows she's thinking, he raises the hand no longer holding Ah-Un's reigns and grips her chin roughly, forcing her to look at him. He sees her wince and inwardly he winces himself. He's fighting down anger now, and he must remind himself that she while she is no longer a child, she is still young and the things she has heard him say in the past about Inuyasha's human mother must have influenced her line of thinking. She thinks he means to take her into his heart, and his bed, but not into his life. She thinks he wants her as a whore.

Never!

Yes, this is his fault, not hers. Upon realizing this, he softens again, able to push away the anger at her, and reserve it for himself.

“A whore?” he all but whispers, the very word making his stomach churn and his tongue feel thick. Rin is his precious little girl… never once had he ever thought to…

No.

He must remedy this situation, and lay to rest this malicious self doubt and poisonous flaw in Rin's thinking.

Before he can take another step, literally or figuratively, this girl will know his heart, even if he must grind the words from throat and will his lips to move, he will say the words which must be said.

She is worth it.

“You would think I mean to take you as whore?”

There is no accusation in his tone, in fact, even though he knows the cause of this misconception, he can not help but to wonder how this girl who, in all other ways seems to read him so well, has so seriously misjudged his feelings when it comes to her.

He sounds sad, lost, and bewildered, and he knows it, and hates it, but it is beyond his control. In this single instance, he cannot help the tone of regret in his own voice.

Her slight nod, lowered eyes, and the way her cheeks burn with shame; all those things conspire to kill all the joy he was feeling only moments ago.

“Rin…”

He calls her name but she does not look up,

“Look at me, Rin.”

He tries, again more softly this time. These are not commands, not even requests, but the pleadings of man desperate to regain the connection he felt with his beloved,

only moments ago.

Yes. My koibito…

He thinks about the phrase to himself, pleased with the sound of it, but tamps down that feeling, reminding himself of the problem at hand, and steeling himself to do what must be done, say what must be said, to resolve it.

Rin…please.

Reluctantly she raises her eyes to his, and before he can speak again, before he can apologize for ever giving her any indication that she would be anything less than his `Lady Wife' and his `Life Mate' and his equal in all things, she speaks.

“Gomennasai, Sesshomaru-sama… Rin should have never doubted you.”

Then, the heavens themselves open up and shine down on her lovely face as a wide smile curves her delicate pink lips, and renewed devotion lights the depths of her expressive onyx eyes. In a beautiful moment, the burn of shame is replaced by the blush of a woman who is embarrassed by some compliment he has unknowingly bestowed. She covers their still connected hands with her other one, and gives him a reassuring squeeze, before she continues,

“Please, forget I ever said that… please, Sesshomaru-sama, let's go?”

She tugs on his hand in a childish way, attempting to bring him into forward motion once again, but he is unmoved and instead he drags her closer to his body, placing a hand at her cheek, and leaning down, brushing his lips against her other cheek and whispering,

“Arigato Rin-chan”.

He has realized that she has responded the way she has to save him the awkwardness of attempting to verbalize his feelings for her. She has, once again, read him like a book, and responded to his needs perfectly.

By all the gods and demons in the world, she is so good to me.

Rin gives a knowing smile and a nod of acknowledgement, seeming, in that instant, wise beyond her years, and he can't help but this of the contradiction it presents to the childishness of her tug at his hand only moments ago. The thought amuses him, though, he can't say why?

Deciding not to dwell on it, he grabs Ah-Un's reigns again and the two make their way in comfortable companionable silence to his brother's hut, on the outskirts of the village.

Rin gives him a meaningful, yet playful look as she disentangles her hand from his before she calls out to her soon-to-be sister in law. Instead of Kagome, who he could have told Rin from the scent in the hut, wasn't there, two sets of eyes, one gold, one blue, peak out from behind the bamboo door covering, before lighting up and bursting through in a flash of inhuman speed.

He had wondered why she had disconnected herself from him, thinking perhaps modesty or an attempt to spare his pride may have been behind the gesture, but, in an instant that possibility is discounted as two quarter-inuyoukai pups, his niece and nephew, leap out from behind the bamboo curtain and all but attack Rin, knocking her to the ground, licking her face, setting off a round of giggles for all three of them.

“Rin-chan! You're back!”

The eldest, a female, Yuri, if his memory serves, cries out as she nuzzles into Rin, and if he were of a different character, he might have smiled at the scene.

Rin sits up in the grass, carefully pulling the pups from on top of her, and setting the younger, a boy, Souta, he believes, in her lap, and smoothing over his hair, while delicately rubbing his silver puppy ears, giggling as she watches them flick under her gentle touch. The look on her face speaks of her affection for these quarter-demons, and he can't help but be relieved, as he has recently begun to dream of hanyou in his future…

How much she has changed him.

“Will you play the sniffing game with us again?” The younger pup begs. His sister interrupts him, begging to differ,

“No I wanna play `predator and prey'!”

He is inwardly curious about the games these pups wish to play, and what they might entail, but he remains characteristically quiet. Perhaps he will inquire later?

Rin giggles, again, before responding.

“Not right now, pups. Auntie Rin needs to speak with your Haha-ue.”

The pups groan in disappointment, informing Rin that Kagome is tending to a pregnant woman who has been having terrible nausea, and she will return shortly, after she has delivered the herbs that may help the poor woman's condition.

Rin looks up to him, gauging his reaction to the behavior and presence of the pups, and the news of Kagome's delayed arrival.

Only then do the two youngest pack members acknowledge his presence, and only because they have followed her gaze. The boy takes a sniff of the air, and his eyes widen in shock. He climbs out of Rin's lap and rolls onto his back before the alpha-scented daiyoukai. The female, also apparently catching a whiff of his alpha scent, looks up to him and purposely tips her head back, before lowering her eyes to the side.

The instinctual submission to a higher ranking pack member pleases him greatly, and in a very unusual show of his heritage he gives a soft growl, and then an acknowledging bark.

He almost falls to the ground in shock when he hears then, a dismissal yip come from…Rin.

His eyebrows shoot up into his bangs, so high there is a crease in his crescent moon marking on his forehead. He is openly staring at her in awe.

His Rin only laughs, and gives him a good natured playful growl, and a long drawn out bark, which shows her amusement in surprising him.

The pups look to him for confirmation of the lower ranking female's order to `run off and play', and he gives a growl that turns to a yip mid way through, indicating a good natured, `what are you waiting for'?

The two pups get up and skip happily off, and he hears the older one's suggestion to go and find `Otou-sama'.

He extends a hand, helping Rin to her feet from her current position, still seated on the ground, and as he's helping her up he notices that she too has tilted her head back and to the side, and lowered her eyes. The gesture is the appropriate one of submission when accepting assistance from a higher ranking male, indicating gratitude by way of subtle submission.

As shocked as he is by her actions, he cannot help the warmth that flows into his chest and he acknowledges how immensely pleased he is with Rin in this moment. While he has, of course, accepted her humanity, he cannot help but be elated that she is obviously familiar with Inuyoukai customs and behaviors and he can't help but wonder why she hasn't demonstrated this for him before now.

Perhaps because you have never demonstrated these behaviors before now…

When she comes to standing he decides to further test her, and gives a soft growl of approval, and leans forward, looking her in directly in the eyes. She looks slightly away, as she should. This further encourages him and leans forward and gently licks tip of her nose, which, he notices, reflexively scrunches in the most adorable way…

Adorable?

He scoffs to himself at his use of terminology, even if it is only in his own mind.

What has this bitch done to this Sesshomaru?

There is an inward chuckle that she must have seen slip into his eyes, judging by the soft giggle he hears, as she reaches up with both hands and fists his haori at his shoulders, pulling slightly, encouraging him to lower his face and neck to within her reach. He obliges, wondering if she will do what he hopes she might…

His Rin doesn't disappoint, and he feels her tuck her head briefly under his chin, and then tilt back to lick him, from his Adam's apple to under the tip of his pointed chin.

Instinct kicks in and he can't help but to reward this level of intimate submission. One clawed hand comes up to lightly grip the side of her neck, tipping her head to side, and burying his nose against throat. He feels silken black strands brush against the tip of his nose, and he inhales deeply, resisting the urge to lick her, and taste the salty-sweetness of this vulnerable column of her flesh he is so closely pressed against.

In due time.

He reminds himself that he will have ample opportunity to do just such a thing in the near future, and some things can wait. Instead, he does growl softly against her skin and whisper to her,

“Good giiirrrllll Rin…. “

She goes limp in his embrace, and he loves it, his instincts screaming at him that she is submitting, exactly as she should do. Her going limp also gives him an excuse to support her by wrapping his free arm around her waist, and he definitely enjoys that as well.

So pleased is he with this new development and position, that he forgets himself for a moment and fails to stop the sigh of contentment at feeling her pulse and scenting her soft floral scent, and, in his immense pleasure, he mutters, more to himself than to her, and muffled against her throat,

“My beautiful bitch.”

The instant the phrase escapes his lips, he stiffens. He has momentarily forgotten that such a phrase could be terribly insulting to a human woman, as `bitch' is not the term of respect and honor among humans that it is among his kind. He fears he may have hurt her feelings. He is already planning his explanation and apology, when, once again she saves him the trouble of awkward words, and his discomfort is relieved immediately when she responds to him, her voice breathy, and in fact, he can feel her warm breath slipping into the `V' and brushing his collar bone.

“Hhhaaaiiii… your bitch…Always your bitch.”

He pulls away, still under the spell she has unwittingly cast, and confirms it for both of them once again. With all seriousness, and strong conviction his deep voice resonates in the air, as he states with an authority he knows she finds comforting,

“Hai… you are mine, Rin. Now, and forever, you belong to this Sesshomaru.”

The girl sighs in contentment, and gives him an easy smile, the one he so longs to see.

Yes, the thought is infinitely pleasing and more comforting than his pride would care to admit.

My Rin, my bitch, forever…”

She smiles wider when he looks away, momentarily lost in his own thoughts, and growls under his breath, speaking only to himself, but loud enough that she can make out the single word he has said.

“MINE.”