"Each man is the architect of his own fate."

Appius Claudius

Chapter I

It's strange how one man can be so sure of his path in life and have his whole life turned upside down in a matter of minutes by a cruel twist of fate. Such was the case of Sesshoumaru Takahashi. There was nothing he hated more than not having control of his own life. The very idea of someone else having a say in how he lived his life made his blood boil, but someone making the most important decisions in life for him was something he simply could not tolerate. Unfortunately, when that someone happened to be his father, Sesshoumaru knew that fighting against his wishes was a battle he simply could not win.

Too much in his family relied on him. The oppressive weight of knowing that he had to live up to his father's expectations and surpass him hung over his head and there was not a day when Sesshoumaru did not wake from the blissful peace of sleep only to wish that he would not wake the next day. Even now as he sat in his office at the very top of the ten story building his father's company owned, he knew that all that stood between him and the end of oppressive lifestyle was a thin pane of glass. Although he wished his life would end every night, he knew that without him, the burden would merely fall on his brother, Inuyasha, and that was something Sesshoumaru knew his younger brother would not be able to cope with. He cared for his younger brother, but he would never admit it, instead letting foolish male pride come between them and drive a gap that seemed to widen with each passing day.

Frowning, he stepped away from the large windows that lined two sides of his office and sat heavily down in the leather chair that sat behind his enormous mahogany desk. He picked up the letter that sat on his desk and read it for the second time that afternoon. The problem with coming from an aristocratic family was that if he did not make his decisions fast enough, they were made for him and the fact that his father requested his eldest son's presence that evening for a meeting did not bode well for him. Sighing silently, Sesshoumaru placed the letter in a drawer and pushed it firmly closed, determined to get some work done before the dreaded meeting later that day.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

On the other side of the town, a similarly despondent figure sat hunched over a table in an ornately decorated restaurant. Brown eyes rose as the door slid open and the woman shot to her feet as she pasted a smile to her face and went to serve the new guests. Despite trying valiantly to hide it, the young woman seemed to have a heavy burden on her shoulders. She nodded and smiled at the regular customers as she passed, not once giving in the urge to turn tail and run out the exit, abandoning her home and family in the process.

Rin Ishikawa sighed as she finally left the restaurant many hours later and began the long walk home. Her parents were bound to berate her once again about her working and not being a kept woman like her mother. Frowning, Rin thought back on her life and wondered what God she had offended to get such bad luck. Orphaned at a young age, she had been adopted by a very wealthy couple, incapable of having children, but in need of an heir. Discovering she had no living family remaining, the couple chose her, but not out of sympathy as she had first thought. Wanting to keep the wealth within the family, they chose her simply because she had no family who would ask for support at every opportunity when she received the family's wealth. The couple had not treated her badly; in fact they had taken every opportunity to spoil her until she eventually refused to accept their spontaneous gifts and extravagant gestures of kindness. Wanting to remain a grounded individual, she explained that she did not need the gifts as proof that they cared and after several arguments about it, her adoptive parents had consented to only giving gifts on birthdays and Christmas.

However, as she got older, she began to realise that being a member of a wealthy was not as good as she had initially thought. Her father owned a large business that his family had been involved in for decades and her mother simply stayed at home during the day, happily tending to her precious garden. It took quite some time before Rin realised that her parents were very traditional as opposed to all the modern families her friends had. Her mother had taught her everything she knew about etiquette and social niceties, teaching her everything from a very traditional perspective. Rin was largely left to her own devices at school. She had been enrolled into a prestigious school for wealthy children and most students refused to associate with someone who had not been born into wealth, considering her to be beneath them.

Rin stopped as she faced the large gateway to her home and sighed again, not really wanting to go inside. For several years now, her mother had been complaining about her spending her day working when she should be at home while her father constantly told her that she should have found a husband by now. It happened nearly every day and it tired her beyond belief. When they weren't lecturing her on how to live her life, they were silent, ignoring her presence. Thus, she had taken to remaining in her room content to entertain herself with her books and whatever else took her fancy. Heaving a great sigh, Rin straightened her clothes and pushed open the gate and stepped inside, preparing herself for yet another lecture.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Sesshoumaru sat stiffly in his father's study, waiting for the man himself to appear. He knew that there would be words about why he had not come to visit for a while and he also knew that his father would try to play off the meeting as something that wasn't as serious as the letter had suggested. He was tempted to sigh, but the door opened and the tall figure that was his father strode into the study towards him. Rising to his feet, he returned the brief hug his father gave him before sitting down and waiting to hear what was required of him this time.

Inutaisho eyed his son silently for a moment before clasping his hands together on the desk in front of him.

"It is not often that there is something about you that I have to criticise," he said in an unusually serious tone. Sesshoumaru was surprised at the conversation starter but refused to let it show and merely waited for his father to continue. "I have always thought that you would do what you thought best so that you could continue in my footsteps, but I feel that I must now step in as you seem to be veering away from the proper course of action."

Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure I follow," he admitted quietly.

"I had intended to retire in a couple of year's time," Inutaisho said, watching his son carefully. "Naturally I was going to leave my company in your hands; I know you are more than capable of taking care of everything. However, while I understand that you have an immense pressure on you to surpass me; you are neglecting one of the key issues that a successor faces."

"What would that be?"

"You cannot be successful in continuing a family business if you have not thought about the basics of what a family business means." Inutaisho almost smiled at the looked of bewilderment on Sesshoumaru's face at that moment. "Sesshoumaru, running this business is not all about what happens now. What will happen to the company when you retire?"

Sesshoumaru frowned slightly at a seemingly obvious question. "It will go to my heir."

"Exactly," Inutaisho confirmed with a smile. "You are neglecting this duty and I have to step in unfortunately."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that we will be visiting a family in the suburbs tomorrow so you will not be going to work."

Sesshoumaru paled as he realised exactly what this meant. "A-Arranged marriage?" he asked, stuttering for probably the first time in his life.

"This could have been avoided if you had considered this first before launching yourself into a campaign to surpass me."

Several hours later, Sesshoumaru sat in his living room staring up at the ceiling as he ran through the meeting with his father. Although he could understand that his father needed to keep the family's reputation intact in order to continue doing business with other wealthy families, it still did not excuse him going and finding a woman he thought worthy of his son. It was not his choice to make. It was he, Sesshoumaru, who had to make the decision of who he would spend his life with and while he knew that he should have address that a lot earlier, he had wanted to prove himself worthy of inheriting the company. Now, he was paying for his carelessness. Sesshoumaru knew that meeting the woman was irrelevant as the decision had already been made. All that remained was to find out when they were to be married. Sighing, he closed his eyes and prayed to whichever God watched over him that the woman would at least be bearable and not like the others he had seen his friends married off to.