Bye-Sickle by supurin
Summary:
Rin never wanted anything more than to stay by Sesshoumaru's side. That is, until she set eyes on Kagome's wheeled metal contraption.
And what Rin wants, Rin gets.
Everyone is more than happy to oblige.
[Post-Canon]
Rin crouched over a row of medicinal herbs, taking a pinch of dirt between her fingertips. She went through her mental checklist according to everything Kaede had taught her so far. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she tried to remember what came after inspecting the soil.
All she got from her efforts was a yawn.
Ring-ring! A metal chiming rang out, interrupting Rin mid-yawn.
Sleepiness forgotten, Rin leapt up from her herbs when she heard the familiar bell of Kagome's wheeled metal steed.
"Morning!" Rin beamed up at the miko, bright as the newly risen sun.
"Good morning, Rin-chan," Kagome said, dismounting. Shaking her head to clear the mess of hair from her face, she led her bike to rest near Kaede's hut. She watched as Rin leaned her face in close, giggling at her stretched reflection in the curved lines of chrome and admiring the pink paint of the frame for the umpteenth day in a row.
"It's just a bicycle," Kagome said, running her fingers through her hair to coax it into some semblance of order. She smiled at Rin's fascination with her well-worn bicycle. "I have to warn you, though. Don't lean in too close or it'll bite!"
Rin's eyes grew wide in wonder. "It can bite? Cool!" The little girl admired it with even greater enthusiasm. "Where is its mouth?"
Kagome let out a giggle. This is the girl who had a great—if somewhat curious—affection for a youkai lord prone to violence and an imp prone to swinging around a fire breathing staff. It would be unnatural if she wasn't drawn to something that was at least a little dangerous.
'Takes one to know one,' Kagome thought, smiling wryly to herself. "Ah-Un can bite too, right? And really, riding a bicycle is definitely not as exciting as riding Ah-Un. My little brother would kill to see a dragon, let alone ride one!"
"But Ah-Un is always with Sesshoumaru-sama. And Sesshoumaru-sama is so busy nowadays." The smile reflected in the metallic parts of the bicycle lost some of its shine. "Rin can't just ride Ah-Un anytime Rin wants."
"I think I understand the problem." Kagome bent her knees a little to get on the girl's eye level. "What do you like the best about my bicycle, Rin-chan?"
"First of all, it's pink. And you can travel faster than just walking. You could go wherever you want."
Kagome looked down into a set of wide, trusting eyes. "If you had a one, where would you go?"
"Rin would visit Sesshoumaru-sama, of course!"
Turning swiftly around the corner of the hut, Kagome had to dig her heels in to prevent herself from colliding with Sesshoumaru's back.
"You almost gave me a heart-attack, you know! What's the use of youkai stealth and speed if you're going to let some unsuspecting human girl walk right into you?"
Sesshoumaru stood completely still, attention drawn to something besides the unsuspecting human girl. Kagome followed his line of sight to a smaller girl, who was busy patting both of the heads of a two-headed dragon. Her usual kimono was replaced with a pink, flowery affair.
Kagome squealed. "That is too cute!" It was moments like this that made her wish she had a camera. "Honestly, she's always cute, but that kimono makes her even cuter." She turned to Sesshoumaru. "Did you pick that out yourself?"
"Rin expressed an unnatural preoccupation with the color pink the last time I saw her." He looked at Kagome accusingly from the corner of his eye. "It seems to have something to do with you and a metal contraption she calls a…" He paused, marking the only hint of uncertainty Kagome had ever heard in Sesshoumaru's voice. "…bye-sickle."
Tickled by Sesshoumaru's discomfort with the unfamiliar word, Kagome couldn't help but let out a giggle. It was met with a huff of displeasure.
"A bicycle! Yes. I have one those," she said, bringing her amusement under control. "Mine happens to be pink."
"Bring to me one of these bye-sickles Rin can't stop talking about. One small enough for her to use."
"Yeah, sure," Kagome started, not quite comprehending what was being asked of her. Then the wheels in her brain started to move a little faster. "Wait, what?"
Was the aloof Sesshoumaru really asking her for a favor? Though it sounded a bit more like an order.
"It is exactly as I said."
She drummed her fingers against her arm, pondering. Her fingers halted as she came to her decision, smiling more to herself than to Sesshoumaru. "Okay. On one condition."
"Condition, you say." He raised a single eyebrow at her challenge. "Name your terms, miko."
"Sesshoumaru's been coming to see Rin a lot more often than he used to." Kaede said to Kagome as they walked on the road running along the rice fields. Kagome and Kaede followed a little behind the youkai and his young ward. "He even requested that you obtain that wheeled contraption for her?"
The girl in question careened dangerously over the road on her shiny new bicycle, her hair flying out from under a helmet. The frame of the bike glittered a rosy pink through a haze of dust.
"Yup! Inuyasha almost refused to drag it out of the well for me when he found out that Sesshoumaru had asked for it," Kagome said, shaking her head. "I had to threaten him with the thought of Rin's disappoint—"
"Sesshoumaru-sama!"
The two women snapped their heads up at Rin's cry of distress, hands automatically reaching for weapons that weren't there. They spotted the youkai, hovering near the rice paddy with Rin held securely in his arms. The bicycle laid half submerged among the rice plants.
"I suppose we must remove it ourselves and apologize to the farmers." Kaede sighed.
"I don't really mind," Kagome said, seeing Rin gaze lovingly up at her savior, bike forgotten. "As long as my terms for getting that bicycle are being met."
Author's Note:
Did I make Kagome's terms too vague? Or did everybody get that her terms were spending more time with Rin?
I guess the only possibly non-canon thing that's going on here is that the well stays open even after Kagome goes back to the Feudal Era after she graduates from high school.
Thank you for taking the time out to read this! I'm trying to write more short stories to practice writing. I'm finding it kind of hard, but practice makes closer-to-if-not perfect.
