A/N: A little companion piece to my story "Away From Me" that deals with Rin coming into the Taiyoukai family, I thought it was a sweet concept, really.
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Expecting What Not To Expect
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Spending four years and counting as a high school principal, Izayoi Taiyoukai wasn't surprised by anything strange, because she had most likely seen something stranger.
But strange things just didn't happen to her 16-year-old stepson Sesshoumaru Taiyoukai, he never did anything quite out of the ordinary, he always had his own special routine. Or so she thought, since his car was currently in the shop, Sesshoumaru had opted to walk everywhere.
His reasoning? Buses were filthy. Of course, not that that was a bad reason in Izayoi's eyes, Sesshoumaru preferred to stay clean, she considered it a pride-thing for him.
Her husband, Inutaishou was out of town, her son Inuyasha was at the movies with friends. She was home alone, and beginning to worry about Sesshoumaru being so late home from…wherever he had gone, he hadn't given a clear answer.
The phone rang, she jumped slightly but her hand darted out to pull it off its charger. "Hello? Taiyoukai residence," she said into the phone automatically.
"Izayoi," Sesshoumaru replied, instantly silencing the woman. "I'm down at the hospital, can you come and get me?" he asked her slowly.
"Okay, what happened?" she asked.
"I will explain when you arrive," he told her. "I will see you in a few moments, I suppose?" he added.
"I'll be right down," she agreed hanging up the phone. She rushed to the door, grabbing the coat hanging on a rack and pulling it over her shoulders to guard from the winter air and she walked out to her car.
"What's going on?" she stopped and asked herself as she fumbled for her car keys. "This isn't like Sesshoumaru at all," she added as she finally found them. "Well…okay maybe it is," she corrected shaking her head.
When she finally got to the hospital and to the front desk, the girl there smiled. "How may I help you ma'am?" she asked.
"I'm looking for a Sesshoumaru Taiyoukai," she told her, smoothing her hair away from her face and holding herself in her normal manner.
"Straight down that hall, first door to the right," she told her looking at a small chart. "He just came in about an hour ago," she added.
Izayoi nodded and walked down the hall, entering the room she saw Sesshoumaru sitting in one of the little plastic hospital chairs beside a bed. She craned her neck to see a little girl, shivering in the bed.
"What's going on?" she asked him, pulling another chair up beside the teenager.
He explained the whole ordeal to her, in detail, his expression never faltering as he did so. The girl was homeless; she was being harassed by a stray dog and was half-unconscious anyway, so he brought her to the hospital.
And Sesshoumaru had finally surprised Izayoi. Never once since she had met him had he been quite that selfless. And when they were posed with adoption papers after she had recovered, she happily signed them (of course she had to call Inutaishou first, but she knew he wouldn't say no) and they had been given custody of the girl that had identified herself as Rin.
And Sesshoumaru hadn't surprised her since.
Until, two years later, a black-haired teenager named Kagura moved into town, but that was another story.
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A/N: …Well?