Happy Birthday Howl-chan!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Inuyasha characters.

Lord Sesshomaru was a demon that liked to know what was going on. Knowing your enemies strengths and weakness were exceedingly important in battle, and were often the factor that could decide life and death. Knowledge was a valuable tool, almost as valuable as control and reason. For most of his life Sesshomaru had controlled many things; his emotions, his lands, his subjects, just about every aspect of his life he had under control. This was due largely to his unparalleled ability to reason and see the possible outcome of situations, giving him even more control.

However that long standing chain of control was lost when he saved that human girl. There was some reason behind it. The Tenseiga had pulsed, asking him to save the girl, but in the end what really caused him to save her was…..well…..not even he was entirely sure. He had felt something, something within himself that demanded him to save the girl. It was something that he had not felt for a long time.

Foolishly, Sesshomaru thought that everything would be back to normal after saving the girl. He knew she would probably follow them, seeing as how the wolf demons destroyed her home and he had saved her. However he didn't anticipate the child being, well, a child. He had been raised in a strict household where many things were expected of him. This child acted so differently from how he had at her age. She was joyous in all her tasks, sang to herself without a care, and brought him flowers in an attempt to make him happy. Yet she could be trusted on her own. Her care free personality did not make her depend upon him for everything, such as he would have expected from a weak human. She could forage on her own, be left with Ah-Un as her only companion, and listened to orders without question. This human child with her strong frailty intrigued him.

He had taken her. That damn Naraku had taken his charge. Sesshomaru could feel his demon blood boiling. He would not get away with this. No one, and he meant NO ONE, attacked one of his pack and got away with it. He wanted nothing more than to track Naraku down and tear him limb from limb with his claws. However he would have to refrain from such actions, for Rin's sake. If Naraku saw his emotions, then Rin would never be safe again. He had to pretend to not care, because he really did. He cared more than he should.

Many years had passed since that fateful day. They had been through many trials together. They had faced raging demons, hordes of angry humans, and even the harsh effects of Mother Nature. However nothing could prepare Sesshomaru for the fear he was feeling now. He wasn't in any danger per say, but if things didn't go right he would never be the same. His entire life depended on the next word that came out of Rin's mouth.

If you had asked Sesshomaru what he would be doing in 15 years, he would have given you a cold glare and then walked away if he was in a good mood. If he was in a bad mood, well, let's just say you wanted to catch him in a good mood. He never would have guessed that he'd be proposing to the most important woman in his life. In fact he never would have guess that Rin would become the most important woman in his life. She had been nothing to him, then she was his charge, then she was part of his pack, then when she was old enough, she had become something even more to him. He couldn't really express it in words. It was just something he felt. Much like when he felt he had to save her. He wanted to protect her from every harm, he wanted to always be with her. He loved her. Yes, love, that must be what he was feeling for nothing else could explain it. He loved her, and he wished to know if she loved him back. Not the adoring child like love that she had for him in the earlier days, he wanted her to love him as a husband would a wife. That is why he put it all on the line. He risked their relationship, his sanity, and his life to ask her a single question.

"Will you be my mate?" he asked a twenty-five year old Rin.

The beautiful young woman, who still loved to sing and collect flowers for her lord, smiled.

"Yes Milord."