Dog Days
A Sesshoumaru/Rin Fanfic
A Companion Story to "Because of You"
Rated T for references to sex.
Disclaimer: All rights of ownership to original creator and official companies of "Inuyasha". This is a work of Fan Fiction.
Rin was tired and angry.
As much as she tried not to yell at the youkai servants, she had ordered them all out of the kitchen and she spent her day holed up there. The knife in her hand sounded like an executioners axe as she chopped her way through making her own meals. It wasn't as if the dog youkai hadn't gotten better at cooking for her, they had actually spent months together learning how to flavor and cook for their human Lady. But it just wasn't good enough.
Rin was not wearing pregnancy well.
She was over the morning sickness, much to Sesshoumaru's delight, but had moved onto mood swings that left the workers of their household running away from her with tails between their legs. It wasn't as if Rin was targeting anyone. She wasn't even yelling most of the time. But her smile had been missing for over a week and she was not receptive to anyone's attempts to help her.
"Sesshoumaru-sama," Jaken called for his master as he ran into the main meeting hall of the house. "Rin has taken over the kitchen. She's not letting anyone in."
Sesshoumaru looked up from a scroll he was attempting to read for the third time. Rin hadn't slept the previous night, so neither did he. Not that it mean he got to spend those hours lavishing her with love like he would have preferred. No, they laid there. Or he did. Rin tossed and turned, unable to settle down. Even with him. Not even with Mokomoko.
"Is she in danger of hurting herself?"
"Uh," Jaken paused his nervously dancing feet. "I don't think so? All the servants are just out the door, listening. It just sounds like Rin's cooking."
"Let her, then," Sesshoumaru commanded. The youkai would be able to help her if something went wrong. But, until then, it was best to leave Rin to her own devices.
"Perhaps," Jaken started. Then paused, fiddling with Nintoujou.
"What."
"Perhaps it would benefit to ask," Jaken swallowed tightly, "Kagome and your mother for advice."
"Why?"
"Uh…" Jaken trailed off. "To see if this is normal behavior?"
"Good idea. Go see them personally and report back to me." Sesshoumaru turned back to his work with a glare.
"Sesshoumaru-sama!"
The Daiyoukai waved Jaken away as he tried to focus. But Sesshoumaru's mind kept floating back to his wife.
Rin didn't like her mood swings. But that only made her more irritated. She was beyond happy that she was carrying her Sesshoumaru-sama's child. But if she felt irritated from the simplest thing like birds chirping cheerfully in the trees, Rin couldn't see herself voluntarily having more children. Perhaps she would have to start practicing her apologies to Mother now. Rin had, a few months before, promised Sesshoumaru's mother to give her many grandchildren to spoil. Now, it seemed like Rin would have to back out of that promise.
"Mother." Rin paused as she stirred her giant pot of soup. "Maybe I can ask Mother."
Brought back to her senses, Rin looked around her. The kitchen was devoid of any other person and it looked like she had cut every edible ingredient she could reach.
"What did I do?" Rin groaned and shook her head. Now she had to apologize to the servants.
"Sesshoumaru-sama!"
"What, Jaken?"
"Rin has come out of the kitchen. But now she won't stop crying," Jaken reported anxiously. The little imp really didn't know how to deal with the whole situation.
"Is she saying anything?"
"Rin is apologizing to the servants.
"She'll be fine. Tell me of any changes."
Jaken bowed and scampered off. Sesshoumaru closed his eyes. Was battle really so much easier than dealing with one pregnant woman? He never had headaches from waging war.
"This is worse than death," Rin wailed on the bed that night.
Sesshoumaru had gone to the dining room to find it empty. The servant waiting there informed him that, since Rin ate constantly throughout the afternoon, she had retired to the bedroom for the night. Sure enough, when Sesshoumaru arrived, his wife was flung across the bed in a loose yukata, rolling around, babbling like a madman.
"Rin."
"Sesshoumaru-sama!" Rin leapt up, hoping he hadn't heard her talking, and held open her arms like a child begging to be picked up. At least she was still happy to see him.
What Sesshoumaru saw beyond her hopeful arms was a slice of exposed breasts where her poorly worn yukata was falling open and a face that he interpreted as one begging for sex. But he knew better. She had that expression often now, but it didn't necessarily mean what it used to mean.
Instead of pouncing on her to mate like he wanted to, Sesshoumaru walked over calmly and pulled her as close as his armor allowed.
"How are you, Rin?"
"Sesshoumaru-sama," Rin nuzzled into his neck and bit under his chin, "I yelled at the servants today and I feel really, really awful about it."
"I heard you apologized."
"That doesn't mean I don't still feel badly about it happening," Rin snipped and then sighed. "Sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama."
"It's alright, Rin," Sesshoumaru combed through her hair. "You're right. You are allowed to feel apologetic that it happened. But, since you apologized and they understand the situation, I don't think you need to let it plague you over much."
"Nee, Sesshoumaru-sama," Rin played with the tip of his long hair. "Can I visit Mother? I have some questions I hope she can answer."
"If you want," Sesshoumaru acquiesced. "When would you like to go?"
"Tomorrow? I can take Jaken-sama or someone else if you're busy." Rin had calmed down and seemed more like her old self as she cradled herself between the spikes of Sesshoumaru's armor.
"I can take you tomorrow. Ah-Un will be happy to take us." Sesshoumaru brought up the two-headed dragon steed that always made Rin smile.
She did.
The tension in Sesshoumaru's gut released for a moment as Rin's smile washed over him. It had been a while since he saw her like that. On occasion, she grinned, but her smile was a memory, not a regular sight, and Sesshoumaru was worried that she was losing it completely.
Something must have shown on his face or in his body language, because Rin was reaching up to trace his markings on his cheeks. Softly, she said, "I'm sorry, Sesshoumaru-sama."
"Why are you apologizing?" He looked down at her and saw her smile waver. With a gentle hand, he cupped her face as she fought from crying.
"I'm a mess now. I can't control myself. I'm angry and rude. I'm crying and sad." She paused. Looking up at him, she also confessed, "I'm horny all the time. I don't sleep well and I know you're not sleeping and it's effecting your work. I don't want to do that to you."
"Oh, you're horny, are you?" Sesshoumaru replied, raising an eyebrow. "All the time?"
"Pretty much," Rin answered in a quiet voice. She bit her lip at the possessive glint in his eyes.
"Like now?"
Rin nodded.
"Take off my armor," Sesshoumaru ordered.
Rin unclasped the breastplate and Sesshoumaru lifted it off. He handed Mokomoko and Bakusaiga to her while he left the bed to remove the rest of his clothing.
Sesshoumaru had to remind himself as Rin pounced on him that, not only was his voracious mate human, she was also pregnant. And no matter how much she asked him to go harder, he had to restrain himself from hurting her. That didn't mean that she went easy on him. He ended the night using his youki to heal the long scratches on his back and the bite marks Rin gave him.
With her limbs tangled with Sesshoumaru's, Rin finally got some sleep. Even though she had been running around on barely an hour of rest the previous few days, she hadn't been able to sleep. Now, appetite sated, Rin fell into a deep slumber of exhaustion. Relieved that Rin was finally resting, Sesshoumaru joined her in the blissful oblivion of unconsciousness.
"Ah-Un!" Rin greeted the dragon cheerfully the next morning.
The dragon bobbed its heads enthusiastically as Rin approached. Rin cooed to her old time friend as they waited for Sesshoumaru to finish speaking with his officials.
"Rin."
She looked to the looming shadow of her husband and let him help her onto Ah-Un's back. Sesshoumaru climbed behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Wait for me!"
Ah-Un snorted and danced away from Jaken as he leapt up onto the saddle behind Sesshoumaru. Before he could settle himself properly, Ah-Un took to the sky, trying to knock the imp off its back.
Fortunately for Jaken, they all made it safely to Mother's house.
"Son! Daughter!"
"Mother!" Rin called out, the only one happy in their gathering. "I'm glad you're home."
"You look awful. Is Sesshoumaru treating you poorly? Stay here with me," Mother criticized Rin.
"Mother, don't insult my wife."
"Look at her. It looks like she's only recently had a good night of sleep." Mother sniffed delicately. "Sex as a sedative will only work so long, Daughter."
Rin blushed as she approached.
"Mother, I have some questions. May we speak?"
"Of course." She then glared at her son. "Stay."
Sesshoumaru froze at the foot of the stairs as Rin continued up.
"Don't you think I should be part of this conversation?"
"No," Mother replied blandly, taking Rin inside.
Sesshoumaru paced the garden, fervently looking up to the house every several steps. Jaken sat on the bottom stair and swung his feet in boredom. Off to the side, Ah-Un napped, perfectly at ease in waiting.
Inside the house, Mother laughed.
"Oh, poor Human," she patted Rin on the head. "No, I never suffered mood swings like yours. But from the sounds of it, you are just portraying the traits of us. Of the dog youkai."
Rin looked confused.
"I suspect there's a human aspect you're experiencing too, but I don't know about any of that," Mother waved it off. "But your aggression. You're showing off your alpha bitch side."
Now, Rin looked horrified.
"Bitch as in female dog. Though, I guess the other definition also applies here."
"But I don't like being angry and yelling at everyone."
"Think of it as practice."
"For what?"
"Yelling at your child. I know I had to do decades of it."
"You had to yell at Sesshoumaru-sama, Mother?" Rin asked in surprise.
"Oh, he was a devil." She then went on to tell of Sesshoumaru's curious and destructive youth. "Thankfully, he eventually learned how to control his transformations."
"I never would have thought," Rin trailed off, dazed by the revelations she heard.
"Don't think any more poorly about my son," Mother asked. "I just thought you should have an idea of what you might have to deal with."
"Thank you, Mother. And you really think these mood swings is because the baby is part dog youkai?"
"If I bothered to wager, I would win."
Rin bowed farewell to Mother before leaving to rejoin Sesshoumaru outside. She felt better knowing a possibility to her mood swings.
"She really doesn't want to talk to me."
"You didn't really want to talk with her either," Rin retorted, but gave him a kiss for being patient.
"You want something."
"Not," Rin held up her hands in surrender, "right away. But, I would like to see Kagome-sama sometime?"
Rin gave him a hopeful smile.
"Might as well do it now."
"Sesshoumaru-sama!" Jaken squawked.
"What, Jaken. Want to stay here instead?"
Jaken shut up and climbed onto Ah-Un without further complaint.
"Rin-chan!" Kagome exclaimed when she opened the door.
"See, Mama! I told you!" Genji said as he bounced in the house. "You didn't believe me."
"Says the boy who claims every week that he smells Rin-chan at the door," Kagome lightly chided. To Rin and Sesshoumaru, she said, "Come in."
Sesshoumaru looked skeptical. He may have complained about being excluded before, but he also wasn't sure he wanted to be included, either.
"Genji, why don't you show your uncle your progress in your training?" Kagome looked at her son and jerked her head towards Sesshoumaru.
"Really? Papa-no-niisan, let's go!" Genji grabbed Sesshoumaru's hand and saved the Daiyoukai from a conversation he really didn't want to overhear. Instead, he learned what it might be like to have a child near him. The little boy leapt in long gliding jumps towards the open fields to show off his fighting skills.
"Thank goodness for Genji," Rin sighed. "I don't think Sesshoumaru-sama would like to know what I wanted to ask you about."
"Embarrassing questions about sex?" Kagome grinned.
"No," Rin blushed, "we've… got that part figured out. Though, did Inuyasha-sama warn you about tying before it happened?"
"Tie? Tying? What's that?" Kagome asked, oblivious to dog-like portion of mating.
"What? Oh, nevermind then," Rin mumbled. "I guess there are differences between full and partial youkais."
"Why? What's going on, Rin-chan?"
"Well," Rin said, "I'm pregnant and I need help figuring out what's human and what's youkai."
"Should we get Sango-chan?" Kagome inquired after letting out a squeal of happiness for the girl.
"Probably?" Rin buried her face into her hands. "I'm just so embarrassed. This has been my most stable day in over a month and I'm still freaking out."
"Don't worry," Kagome calmed her. "It's different with everyone. I'm just going to get Sango-chan and we can enjoy each other's company and have some tea. It's going to be fine."
From his position in the field, Sesshoumaru saw Kagome run over and call Sango for their famale council, but turned back to his nephew as he practiced his jumping skills. As he was mostly human, Genji would never be able to truly fly like Sesshoumaru, nor go as far as Inuyasha, but with practice, he would be able to project himself far further than any normal human. He also had acute hearing for all that his ears looked human.
"Rikka has better hearing because of her ears," Genji said about his sister. "But she doesn't have cool white hair like us."
"Ah," Sesshoumaru agreed.
"Nee, Papa-no-niisan, will you show me your sword?"
Sesshoumaru didn't want to be used as entertainment for his nephew and was saved by the interruption of Inuyasha.
"Oh-ho! Sesshoumaru, huh? I thought I caught a whiff of you. Rin visiting the women folk, then?" Inuyasha ruffled his son's hair as he smirked at Sesshoumaru.
Rin came out of the house and hour later feeling much better about her situation. Until she heard Inuyasha yelling.
"Oh, no," Rin and Kagome intoned as they rushed to the field.
"Go, Papa!" Genji cheered for Inuyasha as the brothers fought claw to claw in the sky.
"Osuwari!"
"Sesshoumaru-sama!"
Inuyasha plummeted to the ground and Sesshoumaru floated down after.
"Aw! Mama, they were just getting into it," Genji complained.
Kagome stormed off to yell at her husband and son while Rin waited for Sesshoumaru to approach.
"All done?"
"I am. Are you?" Rin crossed her arms and glared up at Sesshoumaru.
"Yes." Sesshoumaru whistled and Ah-Un flew in.
Rin could only wave goodbye to an observing Sango as she climbed onto Ah-Un. It was clear that Kagome wasn't going to finish her tirade any time soon and Sesshoumaru wasn't going to wait.
"Can we go home now?"
"Yes, we can," Rin looked at her disgruntled husband. "You don't get praise for waiting because you fought with Inuyasha-sama."
"But-"
"No buts," Rin said sternly.
"Genji asked us to," Sesshoumaru finished anyway.
"You are terrible at telling jokes," Rin stated. "Where's Jaken-sama?"
"Sesshoumaru-sama! Rin!"
"Do we have to get him?"
"I think we should," Rin said as she patted Sesshoumaru's leg.
"Can I have a kiss?"
"For going back for Jaken-sama. You still misbehaved at the village." Rin pulled him down for a peck on his lips before steering Ah-Un to land so Jaken could climb on.
Over the next few weeks, Rin still had bouts of barking anger, quickly followed by meek apologies, but since she knew, at least some of, the reasons, she didn't allow it to loom over her afterwards. Her appetite was still wildly inappropriate and spent most of her time in the kitchen cooking for herself instead of trying to explain her bizarre cravings to the still learning youkai staff. Each time she couldn't figure out what the exact craving she was experiencing, she chanted, "Don't crave human." Since the youkai diet, in fact, was humans.
"How are you, Rin?"
"I am not a cannibal."
"That's good, Rin."
Sesshoumaru wasn't sure what she meant by that until she saw him looking puzzled. Explaining her desires for certain types of foods, Rin said that, with all the other youkai-like tendencies she was showing, she hoped she didn't end up eating a human.
"Did Kagome say anything about it?"
"No," Rin trailed off, "but she said that she and Inuyasha never tied together during mating either-"
"I don't want to hear about their sex life."
Rin glared at the interruption as she finished.
"-so things are clearly different between full and half youkai. And therefore, Kagome-sama carrying only a one-quarter blood youkai would be different than what I'm going through."
"I see," Sesshoumaru replied and petted her hair in hopes to placate her anger.
"Talking with Mother, I understood a youkai pregnancy. Talking with Sango-sama, I know what to expect as a human. Comparing myself with Kagome-sama tells me that I'm going to be dealing with more youkai stuff than she did." Rin sat on the bed and patted it so Sesshoumaru would join her. After a few minutes of peaceful silence, she asked, "Sesshoumaru-sama?"
"Yes, Rin?" He sat down and let her curl up to his side.
"Do you want a boy or girl?"
"Either."
"Hair color?"
"Yours."
"Eyes?"
"Mine."
"Ears?"
Sesshoumaru contemplated. Thinking about Inuyasha and his children. "Mine. The second one can have dog ears."
"You want another one already?"
"We need both a son and a daughter," stated Sesshoumaru, matter-of-factually.
"Were you going to tell me this?" Rin moved his hair behind his ear, but didn't touch the sensitive lobe.
"I was just going to mate until we rounded out the set."
"What if I want the whole collection?"
Sesshoumaru looked down at his little bundle of spontaneous wrath and apologies and asked, "You really want to go through this? That many times?"
Rin frowned and thought about it. "Maybe it gets easier?"
Doubting that theory, Sesshoumaru just played with her hair.
"I still want to have sex with you."
"Good," Sesshoumaru replied immediately.
Laughing, Rin took his free hand into her own. "I'm glad you feel the same. I don't want to lose having sex, just because we don't want any more children."
"Rin," Sesshoumaru leaned into her ear. "I told you before. Anytime. Anywhere."
"How about now? Here?"
"I can do that," Sesshoumaru kissed her as he rolled her onto him.
Just like the dog days of summer, after a while of agonizing torture, everything settled down into a calmer lull. Of course, all of that changed with the birth of a son, black haired and with eyes that gleamed like coins.
Holding onto their child, Sesshoumaru could not describe a better feeling. Stronger than that of victory in battle, or the ecstasy of mating with Rin. The drooling, crying, pooping hanyou son of his was the embodiment of a truth he dared not believe for centuries.
"I love you, Sesshoumaru-sama."
For the first time in over a hundred years, Sesshoumaru cried. In the arms of his wife, Sesshoumaru cradled the proof that he was able to love and be loved in return.
"I love you, Rin. I love you too, Kennosuke."
In response to his father's words, Kennosuke yawned and stretched, exposing his belly for a rub, which he received.
Rin watched her family with a peaceful smile on her face. The road to that point had its bumps, but Rin was thankful for where it finally led. Petting Sesshoumaru's head where it rested on her shoulder, Rin felt that life couldn't be better.
"Rin."
"Yes, Sesshoumaru-sama?"
"Let's make another one."
-The End-
Author's notes: The name of their son, Kennosuke, is "dog" with the historical male name ending "-nosuke" which can be roughly used as "this" and "to mediate/be in between". At first I just wanted to use a "-nosuke" because it's one of those old Japanese Samurai era style names. But then I found out that it would mean quite a bit for a hanyou to have that name. Kennosuke, to me, is the mediation between dog youkai and human. Besides that, it just is a decent sounding name to me. I spent about half an hour looking up kanji and definitions to figure it out, so I hope the name works for you as it does for me.
Genji using the term "Papa-no-niisan" to refer to Sesshoumaru is similar to Miroku and Sango's kids calling Inuyasha "Inuyasha-papa". Because Sesshoumaru would not want to be called "uncle", Genji calls him how Kagome (in my head would) refer to Sesshoumaru as "Inuyasha's older brother". Therefore, Genji uses "Papa's older brother".
Also, I would love to read your comments! Love it? Hate it? Can't believe someone is still writing fanfiction for a series that is really old? Let me know! Makes me happy.