InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ 13 Ways to Kinda Say I Like You ❯ 7, Off shot, hot topic and ripped out pages. ( Chapter 8 )

In the wise words of Monty Python, and now, for something completely different….

Chapter 7, Off shot, hot topic and ripped out pages.

Dear Diary,

Okay, so it's not a big surprise that I didn't pull off Chapter 7…well, I literally pulled it OUT. Okay, okay I totally wimped out. But there was no way I could do something like that to him. Anyways, it was so embarrassing that I had to tear out the pages to keep myself from blushing too much. Every time I even thought about it I wanted to die. There is NO telling what he would have done if I had tired that, he freaked out so bad about me just touching his hands…and the whole talk about Kikyou got us absolutely no where…

But there's more chapters. I'll just have to keep my chin up and keep looking. Now, I wonder where those ripped out pages went to…

Kagome

Her foot still throbbing from the medicine, she just couldn't bring herself to do it…that blasted book had yet to work and the last strategy, albeit her idea, had only served to push them further apart. She hobbled along, Inuyasha at her side, one arm around her waist to keep her from hurting her ankle further. Cursing her luck, Kagome looked up to see the well looming in the distance. Off all the times for Inuyasha to decide that she could go home…this had to be the worst of all. She was afraid of losing all of her hard won confidence with one fell swoop if she went home. But it had been decided, surprisingly by Inuyasha that it would be best for her to go to her own time and visit the hospital to check her foot. The last thing he needed, he had said was a lame shikon detector.

And so off to the well they went. Kagome's heart sinking with every step…she had really screwed this up…she thought as the ripped out pages of the book slipped out of her bag. Now she was being all but banished to her own time. Fighting back tears of pain mixed with sorrow and disappointment, Kagome trekked as best she could while all but hanging on the hanyou.

Her state did not go unnoticed by said hanyou. He glanced down every now and then to make sure that she hadn't really started to cry. The dark crown of her head was gently pressing into his shoulder, soft hair whispering in the cold winds. He knew what she was feeling, frustration hadn't targeted only her. Sighing, Inuyasha shook his head. The girl had been acting strange. He still didn't know why or exactly what she was up to…but the next time she tried something, he was gonna call her on it. That was the plain and simple fact…something was up and to be a good protector he needed to know what was up.

Below him, Kagome squirmed in her silent misery, thoughts of being tossed alone down the well haunting her thoughts. A small smile played at the corners of his mouth.

"Come on," Inuyasha grumbled beside her, "It ain't that bad. I'm going with you so cheer up."

Kagome barely had time to look up and smiled before he had leapt down into the well.

…

Within the next two hours, the lost pages were found by small hands. Rin, her hair bound in its normal messy way, toddled back to Ah-un and Jaken, her feet wrapped warmly in scraps of fabric. "Jaken-sama…what is this?" She held out the sheets of paper to the small demon. Another wind blew cold air and snow up around them and shook the pages. Ah-un blinked their eyes and then rested their heads again, awaiting their master's return.

"It's paper you little whelp." The old demon, Jaken sneered. Damnable little child, always bothering him, never a moment to himself anymore. The runt had even taken away the small amount of favor that Shesshoumaru had shown towards him. Then he looked more closely at the papers. What in the world? Snatching the sheets out of the small one's hands, he began to decipher the strange text. His eyes squinted as Rin hopped on tip-toes behind him. "Well, it looks like some sort of spell…" He raised an eyebrow. Interesting.

Rin grabbed the pages from the shriveled creature and clambered up Ah-un's back. Swinging her feet, she tried to read the letters, but they all looked funny. She tilted her head to the side and looked down. "Jaken-sama. What do they say?"

"I would know if you hadn't yanked the thing out of my hands, you brat!" He quickly followed suit thought as his curiosity got the best of him. Settling in beside the whelp, she dutifully handed over the pages. "Hnn," he looked closely at the strange writings before him. "This is what it says…"

"Now that you have gotten used to small touches, see chapter 4, we're ready to move on to the biggie. Now don't be shy, if you have read this far it means that the one you want is a little bit dense. But fear not! Just because they aren't real bright doesn't mean they aren't worth the effort.

Now then, we have worked on body language already. Now it is time to help your love relax. They have either had a hard day at work, or school or somewhere depending on your ages. So you know they have had their share of stress today. So let your fingers do the walking and let your honey appreciate the fact that you care enough to give them a back massage."

Jaken raised his eyebrow. O-okay. Well he definitely didn't need this type of girlie nonsense in his powerful hands. He handed the pages back to the little girl and with a pat on her head said, "There you go Rin. There's pictures, figure it out yourself." And in a huff walked away from their small camp.

Rin on the other hand, studied the text carefully. In her young mind she knew that there was something to be gained from reading this knowledge. She looked up as Ah-un raised their heads. Shesshoumaru was home! She bounded down and ran to him. "Shesshoumaru-sama, are you stressed?"

Carefully stepping over the snow drifts, less his immaculate clothing got dirty, the demon lord stopped and looked down at the young girl with one eyebrow gracefully arched. "No…" He settled down in a seated position near Ah-un and set his two swords down beside him. Then to alleviate the child's forlorn look, "Only tired." His eyes settled on the girl as she shoved something in the back of her obi, obviously trying to hide it from him. Curious, he thought, I will get it from her later, when she is asleep. Then he set about ordering Jaken to take care of making a fire…the child looked cold.

Night was quickly approaching and even in the thick snow, the forest came alive. The moonlight driving the night creatures to run and hunt and feed. But in the shelter of one of the old trees, Jaken, Rin and the great Shesshoumaru slept, or pretended to at least. Rin was waiting…she had studied the pages by the dying light of the fire until she was absolutely positive that Shesshoumaru was asleep. Because, once he was next to nothing could wake him up. His brother turned human once a month, but he was next to helpless when he slept. His strange eyes were closed, breathing rhythmic and as steady as a drum. Beside him, Jaken also was snoring and gibbering things about Rin being a brat and the many easy ways that he and Sesshoumaru could get rid of her. Rin grinned and patted Jaken on the head to make him be quiet. She knew that he didn't mean any of that…he was just being…well, being Jaken-ish.

As the moon reached it's zenith and Rin was desperately fighting a loosing battle against sleep. She made her move. The child crept closer. The demon was still sitting cross-legged in the moonlight, his hair shining like trapped diamonds in the glow. The pages rustled as she grabbed them out of her obi. Rin, standing like a warrior princess, reviewed her plans and began the assault.

Rin had been correct in her assumption that the demon lord couldn't be roused after falling asleep. And if he had actually been asleep, then maybe the plan would have gone without a hitch, but he wasn't asleep. Indeed he was very much awake and alert. Sesshoumaru watched all of the child's actions through almost closed eyes. He had to stop himself from raising an eyebrow as the child disappeared behind him. To fully find out what she was up to, he had to keep up a good act of sleeping.

The child crept behind the demon, her small hands held out in front of her like a cat. With a deep breath, she pushed at the demon's back, her small fingers getting tangled in his hair and the soft fur of his tail. She pushed harder. He didn't budge. Hmm, she took a step back, strange, there had to be some way to get him to lay down on his stomach…

He couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at this maneuver. Quickly he returned to his blank face as he heard the little girl creep around to his front again. Making quick work of it, Rin began to tug at his feet, carefully untangling them from their seated position. As she did so, one of his knees popped. It popped very loudly. Rin scampered behind the back of the great demon lord and remained perfectly still for about three minutes. "Don't wake up," She whispered. "Don't wake up!"

Sesshoumaru was deftly keeping the look of pain off of his face. Faking sleep was more difficult than he thought. A strange thought entered his mind…did his unworthy half-brother have these type of troubles? He too was traveling with a girl. She couldn't possibly be as much trouble as Rin was when she got an idea in her head. At least Inuyasha's wench wanted to go to her own time, all Rin wanted to do was follow him around. A small smile tugged at his mouth as the little girl began to stir again. But it made things a little more…

Rin resumed pushing at his back. It hurt. With his legs out to the side, Rin was attempting to place the great lord into a split. The back of his calves and thighs ached. Sometime during all of this the end his tail had gotten caught under one of his legs. Rin pushed and shoved some more as something else popped. Finally the tail came loose from the leg that had pinned it to the snowy ground. Again something made a low pop and Sesshoumaru hit the ground face first.

It was cold, the snow was starting to melt under him. This was not a pleasant thing…indeed this was somewhat of an unrefined position for a demon lord to be in. Still, he was curious as to what the girl had in mind. So unrefined position or not, he remained in his state of mock-sleep and waited for the child's next move.

Rin clapped her hands together and wiped her brow. That had been hard work. Those popping sounds would have woken the dead…thankfully Sesshoumaru slept better than anything dead. Granted, she supposed that anything alive would sleep better than something that was dead…dead things don't sleep. She nodded her head at her own train of though, proud of the way her brain must be growing to give her such good idea. She consulted the sheet again. Okay, step one, all done. The subject was on their tummy with their back exposed…well, almost.

Rin began to work on untangling the fluffy mass that was Sesshoumaru's tail. Her small hands rumpled the soft fur and the demon sighed at the thought of getting those tangles out… slowly the tail unrolled and was tossed aside by the child. Rin was ecstatic by this point. Not only had she triumphed in getting Sesshoumaru to lay down, she had also beaten the tail! She giggled and swept his hair off his shoulders and let it too fall into the snow. "Good, puppy!" She whispered and quickly looked around to see if Jaken or Sesshoumaru had stirred. Neither had, although if she had looked closely, she would have seen the demon lord gritting his teeth to stay calm.

She again stared at the pictures, okay, steps one and two were done. Now she could start. Her small hands flexed and she popped her knuckles. She didn't really know if this would work, but she was willing to try to get Sesshoumaru to relax. With a deep breath, she raised her fists and began to beat them up and down his back. Granted they were little girl beats, but they were still strong enough to be painful. Still, he remained silent and still. Confused as to the child's actions, but slightly amused as she continued to pound on his back. Strangely, he felt the muscles in his shoulders, so long cramped and tired, begin to relax. Was that paper some sort of spell? His eyes drifted shut again.

Rin stood, time for the last part! Her mind reeled but the papers had been right so far, she hoped that this would also be correct. Another deep breath. She watched as the moon cast shadows on the snow and on Sesshoumaru's hair. She backed up three steps and swung her arms. "Sei, no…" And leapt into the air. She flew for the space of a heartbeat and then landed feet first in the middle of the great demon's back. The child proceeded to stomp up and down the demon's back until she had heard at least sixteen pops. All the while said demon was grimacing and trying very hard not to kill the child. Finally, the small feet disappeared and the demon was free to move again. He waited until he could see the child curl up on her blankets on Ah-un's back. He waited another handful of minutes until the tired child fell into a light doze. He stood, stooped as a catch in his back flared to life, then straightened…he felt his spine shift and then snap into place. He rearranged his tail, throwing it back over his shoulder with practiced ease. Careful not to wake her, he took the sheets of paper out of Rin's hands. His eyebrow, long neglected its rightful pose, rose to a graceful slant. How in the world did she get these…?

About an hour later, Sesshoumaru appeared at the door to Kaede's hut. Miroku was the first to wake and see him and rose to his feet, staff ready. "Hold, Priest. I have no business here that requires fighting. I came only to return these to you." He held out the papers. "I would appreciate it if you did not let this kind of material slip into the hands of children." He turned and walked away without another word. Miroku only blinked and stared at the torn pages. Interesting…

About five minutes later, Miroku's face sported a fresh red color the shape of Sango's hand. He also faced a cold night alone outside of the hut…

So, what'd ya think? I know it is a little OCC but you rarely see Sesshoumaru with Rin when she hasn't been kidnapped or something…we all know he's fiercely protective of the girl. And she acts pretty open with him, so I think that she can get away with just about anything when it comes down to it.