Well, I'm back and with another story. I know I have two uncompleted, however I have reached a dead end on them and thought if I got this one off my mind I might be able to work on the others. So here it is, The Castle of Love.
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"So are you coming out with the gang?" Lillian asked as she poked her incredibly curly red haired head into Rin's office cuticle.
Rin rolled her eyes at her friend. She had known Lillian for the past six months since she had started working at the company and every Friday she would try to get her to go to a nearby bar with some of the other employees for a drink. What Lillian didn't know was that Rin had just gotten out of the abused relationship before working at the company. She wasn't ready to try her hand and another. She was afraid of what other men were like.
She met Naraku in college and at first he seemed the nice guy, always watching out for her. It wasn't until they graduated and moved in together that things started to change. At first it was sweet having a man think so much of you that he wanted to take of care of her, but then he started demanding she stay home all the time, and then there was her mother. He started setting limits on how much she saw her. His excuse was that he didn't want to lose her. Rin felt bad about making him feel that she would leave him for someone else, that she settled with the time limits he set.
Then the beatings started. They started slow as well. The first was when she came home late from seeing her mother one day. He slapped her for trying to explain that she lost track of time and that it wouldn't happen again. She made sure she was home on time from then on. The next time wasn't her fault. Her car had gotten a flat and it took a while to get it fixed. She tried calling him to tell him what had happen, but he refused to listen. When she finally got home, he was waiting and the beating he gave her left marks that she had to hide the next day with makeup and long sleeved shirts.
Rin kept telling herself that she had to do better. He was being so kind to let her live with him and take care of her. She took the beatings as her punishments for not doing the best she could for him. The last straw was when he started hitting her for no reason at all. He came home one day. She was home, dinner ready and the place spotless. He came in slamming anything he could get his hands on. She tried asking him what was wrong and he threw glass figuring he had just picked up at her hitting her in the temple leaving a large cut.
Rin shivered at the memory trying to push it back. It was the worst night ever. He had left her bleeding on the floor barely conscious. She remembered the neighbor kneeling next to her talking on the phone, some men showing up and carrying her way. She woke up in the hospital with her mother sitting by the bed.
Her mother had told her that the police were looking for him attempted murder. When she was released, a police officer escorted her back to the apartment to gather her things only to find the whole building burning. The fire fighter said it was started in her apartment where they found the remains of a body. It was too badly burned to make a true id, but they believed it to be Naraku.
Rin of course got the insurance on the place and was able to get another place of her own. It was a month after that it had happen that she started getting the text messages. At first she thought it was a cruel joke from one of his friends, but then the flowers and gifts started showing up. She turned in all in, but they just told her it had to be a joke because he died in the fire.
It wasn't until he showed up one night when her friends where over for a movie night. He had knocked and Rin had answered the door thinking it was the pizza they ordered. She was so shocked that she screamed causing her friends to come running, but not before he shot her in the shoulder. After being released for the second time from the hospital, Rin moved in with her mother in another part of the city, telling very few people where she was and never really going out.
She only went out looking for jobs after fully healing from the gun shoot, because she was tired of being cooped up all day. She was thankful that the company she worked for had guards on all the entrances and cameras at all exits. The guards have to call up to see if the person is known to be coming.
"Not this time, Lillian. My mother's birthday is today. I promised I would take her out to dinner."
Lillian frowned, "You always seem to have other plans for Friday night, other than going out to get a drink with us. I'm starting to think you don't like us."
Rin sighed, "No, it's not like that at all. I will go out with you guys someday; I'm just busy that's all."
"Alright, but next week you're going out with us." She left without another word leaving Rin to worry over the fact that she would have to go next week. She sighed, leaning back in her chair. She wondered if she could get away with only going for one drink then leaving before any of the guys started flirting with her. She shook her head and sat back up to finish her work. She would worry about next week later. She didn't want to lose the only job she was able to get after Naraku.
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Sesshomaru frowned down at the note in his hands. He couldn't believe that the company was willing to work with him only if they could also work with the one that had typed up the reports for them. They had said that no one had ever went as far as to add graphs to show the profits they would gain by completing the project as well as the time she believed it could be done with the added time should anything happen that stalled them.
He was impressed as well, having the payment department give the typist a raised in her pay for the added effort. He wasn't one for giving praises, but this had been the most outstanding work he had ever received from the typist pool. Now, it would seem he would be giving some more praise to this typist on allowing her to work on the project.
He normally didn't work with woman since they always threw themselves at him, flirting with him more than doing their own work. Though he was thinking that if this woman was good enough he might move her to do more projects with him. He wonder though as he flipped through her employee file what kind of woman would turn down promotions to something higher up.
Something about her, even without meeting her, caused him to be interested in her. He had never been interested in woman, finding them to be only a tool and annoying. He would date only for business and to keep his father off his back. He also knew he was getting up in years and would have to marry soon to sire son to take over the company when he passed on, however he had yet to meet a woman that drew his interest and didn't get on his nerves.
Sighing, he reached out to grab the phone just as his office door opened to allow his younger half-brother to stroll in.
"Hey, bro." He sneered throwing himself into a chair before the desk. "What the dirty look for? I haven't messed anything up yet."
Sesshomaru shook his head before drawing his hand back to rest it on the arm of his chair. "What do you want, Inuyasha?"
He smiled, "Kagoma ordered me to ask you over for dinner this weekend."
"Why would I want to have dinner with you and your wife?" Sesshomaru asked. He still couldn't wrap his head around what that woman saw in his brother, but it was choice to marry the man.
"Her answer was because you're family." He chuckled, "I had to bit my tongue at that one."
Sesshomaru rolled his eyes, "Tell her not this time. I have too much with this new project going on."
"Yeah, forgot about that. How's it going?"
"The company is willing to work with us only if the typist that wrote up the plan will be completing it out. I was about to call her up here and tell her."
Inuyasha's jaw dropped, "You're willing to work with a female?"
Sesshomaru shook his head, "Have no choice. This project is the biggest we ever had. Besides, if she doesn't do her work, I could talk the company into allowing another to replace her." He leaned back in his chair. "I was just about to call her up and tell her that she would be working with me on this, but…" He waved at his brother. "…you interrupted."
"Oh, well, I will leave then and allow you to fire another good employee just for flirting with you." He stood and strolled outside leaving his brother alone again.
Sesshomaru sighed and shook his head before picking up the phone again. He dialed the number down to the typist pool gaining the floor manager. He ordered for a Rin Miko to come up to his office.