As Sesshomaru sat before the fire, he looked through it to watch upon his rescuee. This new traveling-companion was fast asleep, her kimono's sash tied loose around her waist to allow the evening's summer breeze to pass through.
Sesshomaru cringed. Yet, for once, it was nothing of the ordinary. No demon, no pulse of the Tenseiga, no annoying hanyou.
It was the way Rin slept.
She curled into herself, morphing her body to a ball. Her foot pulsed every now and again.
It brought back a memory Sesshomaru knew he'd never be able to forget, no matter how many stars he wished upon.
FLASHBACK
The scent of blood was still think in the air. The blood of the taunting youkai and humans, all alike in one way,
They refused to leave the hanyou a day in peace.
Said hanyou was now on his hands and knees, crying his eyes out as the ones who taunted and hurt him kicked around as if he was a small stone.
"What point do you have, you filth? Huh?" One, a cat demon, spoke to it.
"Well, you think your so special with your mixed blood that you can't answer him?" A human kicked the hanyou in the stomach, finally making it tip over. "Answer him, dammit!"
The hanyou cringed, huddling into themselves and holding their stomach in pain. They began to cough and blood, mixed blood, dirt blood, trickled across his cheek.
"Look," A fox demon, "The bastard is showing off it's blood." The demon cocked back it's leg, ready for another kick to the being's stomach, when a sword came to his throat.
"Hurt him again and I will kill you without another thought." The fox demon slowly turned around and gulped at who he saw.
"Lord...Sesshomaru...of course. Please, forgive us." The group scattered, each one hearing different, yet all horrible, things about the wrath and temper of the Great and Powerful Lord Sesshomaru.
The white-haired dog demon scanned the area, but nobody but him and the hanyou who was crying and bleeding to himself. Quickly sheething his sword, he hurried to the hanyou. He picked up the equally white-haired being and pulled it into his lap. "Yasha?"
"Maru?"
Sesshomaru hugged his brother to him. "I'll protect you forever, I promise."
The promise, he thought, was never heard, for the hanyou had already fallen asleep , curled into a ball snuggled into his scruff.
END FLASHBACK
Sesshomaru had then learned, when he grew up, to never make a promise you can't keep unless you are prepared to face the consequences.
Because the day he grew up was the day he broke that promise.