Title: Ten Fold
Pairing: Sesshoumaru x Rin
Genre: Angst, romance?
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or its characters.
Rating: T
Notes: I was messing around with some cockney slang. Ten Fold for 'Getting old'. Rin's thirty something. I'm sorry if this may not seem to fit the theme. -Dies-
"Jaaaken…" Rin drawled with a grin. She stooped, bending her knees and clasping her hands about them as she leaned forward on the balls of her feet. The imp twitched, meeting her at eye level making him uneasy. "Where is Sesshoumaru?"
Jaken scowled. "I wouldn't know."
"Jaken…"
He turned his head to glare at a tree.
"Please, Master Jaken…"
His small fist tightened around Nintoujou.
"Please tell me, Jaken-"
"I don't know!" He cried at last, leaping away from her and towards the dying campfire. Rin scowled, pulled herself back to her feet. She brushed by him, hurrying into the trees and away from the weight of his critical gaze.
The woman swatted a mosquito from her arm, raised a hand to wipe her brow and the sweat that had collected in the small hollows there. Rin pulled her lower lip between her teeth, listening hard for the sound of water she knew had to be nearby. A long time ago, it would have been Jaken's job to scout out a place where she might bathe. She couldn't deny she missed that convenience. Picking through youkai-infested woods wasn't something she particularly cared for.
Her feet came to rest along a muddy incline. She bent to hike her kimono around her knees before edging down the slope towards the shallow stream. The water splashed around her ankles, cold and licking at the hems of her long sleeves. Rin began to work on her kimono, removing the layers and obi to fold them neatly away, tucked into the hollow of a tree; the bright cloth looking so out of place she felt a tug at the corner of her lips.
I was misplaced once, too.
The woman squatted, cupped her hands and watched the water leak in through the cracks. Her body was littered with the small scars only she – and possibly he – would ever see. A hasty fall, the knick of a fang when he grew careless, a run through unseen thorns. Ten years had managed to slip by since the first night she had crawled to her lord in the middle of the night.
Rin splashed the water into her face, tilted her head back and felt it trail down her skin. She was beginning to ache now, taking to Ah-Uhn's saddle more often than not. She could feel her lord's hesitance, and he took himself away more and more. It had been days now since he had come to her. Rin stared down at her fingers, and tried not to see where the wrinkles were beginning to show.
She finished her bath and wandered back to camp, where Jaken would be waiting with her dinner.
"You took long enough," the toad commented when she stepped from the trees. He opened his beak to say something more, but snapped it shut at the distant look in her eyes. Everything takes longer for you now.
Rin settled beside Ah-Uhn, and turned away from the campfire. "I'm sorry, Jaken."
He tried not to hear the weight in her words.
-
The sky was dark when she opened her eyes, but she could feel him near. Rin lifted herself to her feet, and did not bother to fix her disheveled kimono when she found him waiting in the hush of night air. His skin was cool, and he did not look when she slid her hand into his. A dull ache filled her, and she closed her eyes. "Sesshoumaru-sama," she said quietly, and the name left nothing on her tongue. She wondered why the suffix seemed appropriate now; it had been so long since he had commanded she not use it.
"Rin." His voice was tired, but the youkai's hand did not move to close around her own.
The woman felt a pang of loss. Hesitantly, trembling, she pulled away from him to kneel at his feet. Sesshoumaru stared down at her, his eyes dark with confusion and regret. "I'm so sorry, my lord."
"Rin…" He breathed.
"I can go away, my lord, I could live alone. I am capable."
For a long time he said nothing, and she was scared, terrified that he would let her go.
There was a movement of heavy silk as he bent to fold himself in front of her. She lifted herself up on her palms, and met his gaze. "Sesshoumaru…"
"You will never leave me," he commanded softly, an empty echo left to ring in her ears as he reached for her. She crumbled easily beneath his strength, let him pull her to him and let him kiss her.
Rin wrapped him up in her memory and tucked him away in the yawning space between what they were. A youkai and a human. And she hoped that long after she had passed he would remember her only as Rin, and not the woman who would leave him in the end no matter how long she fought against giving in to what she was.