A/N: This story was kind of inspired by the song The Last Night by Skillet. Please R and R!
"Rin, come with me."
Rin looked up from the flowers that she had been weaving for her lord, love, and master. But, he didn't know about the 'love' part. Ordinarily, he would have Jaken do all the talking to her, but he had died a while back. And quite mysteriously too. So now Sesshomaru-sama talked to her, albeit very little.
"Yes Sesshomaru-sama." she said, standing up.
She followed him into the woods surrounding the field they were in. They had been traveling for days trying to get away from the Cave of Mysteries.
-Flashback-
Rin was hiding behind Sesshomaru in a large underground cavern. She was shaking with fear, but the elegant dog demon stood calm, with Bakusaiga, his sword, in his hand. He had been rescuing Rin from a snake demon by the name of Fynharusatha.
"You cannot win, demon lord" hissed the female demon. She was staring intently at Sesshomaru. "Just give me back my lunch and go back to your lands, where you belong."
Sesshomaru smirked. He was used to being ordered around by someone who he was about to slay. Rin's fear got even more intense. She knew, like most other people, that when he smiled at an enemy, it meant certain death to the recipient.
"As if I would lose to you, pathetic snake demon. You should learn to respect your betters."
"Make me! I dare you! Just try it! And then watch what happens!" Fynharusatha snapped
He did. Or, at least, he tried. When he swung his sword, Fynharusatha blew on her palm, and suddenly, the young dog lord froze, completely turned to stone.
"That'll teach the ahhhhhhhhhhk!"
Rin had cut her off in mid sentence by sneaking up behind her and plunging Fynharusatha's own sword into her heart.
"You? But how?" Fynharusatha stammered before she fell dead to the ground in a bloody heap. Rin ran over to the statue of her lord. Tears streamed down her face. Fynharusatha had done the impossible. She had taken down the mighty Sesshomaru-sama without trying.
"Impossible. Sesshomaru-sama! Please don't leave me!" Rin practically screamed as she flung her little, 16 year old arms around the cold, stone figure. But, as soon as she did, she flew backwards in shock. The cold, gray stone was warming up and regaining color before her eyes. After a few short seconds her lord was sheathing his sword and looking up at her calmly. But, there was something different in his beautiful amber eyes, she couldn't quite put her finger on it, but there was something different. She just wiped the thought away.
"Rin, lets go." was all he said.
-End Flashback-
"I have put this off for too long." Sesshomaru thought to himself. He would never admit that only his body had been frozen, leaving his mind perfectly clear. He had know all about what rin had sai to him. And about her tears and her embrace.
'You know you can't do it' his inner demon told his consciousness.
"But if I don't she could get hurt." he argued back
'Nobody would ever dare with you around! And besides, that little display the other day made it obvious that she loves you as much as you love her!'
"That's not what I meant! And her love, my love, our love cold get her hurt more than we could imagine. I need to do this"
'Alright. But I'm gonna count how long it takes you to run back to her begging forgiveness like some lost puppy who ran away!'
He led her into the the forest. They walked for an hour until they came upon a small village. Rin stopped, confused and scared at the same time. She had lived with humans for a few years when she was younger and hated it. Afterward he had promised that he wouldn't ever do that again. She trusted and loved him with all her heart, but she was still awkward when it came to human villages.
"Will he send me away again? No. Sesshomaru-sama promised. He would never break a promise." she told herself in her head. She looked at him curiously, he had stopped as well.
"Rin, you must stay here. I cannot look after you any longer. You belong somewhere safe in a village with other humans around you. You can't stay with me. I'm afraid this is the last time you will ever see me. Good-bye, Rin." And with that, he turned and walked back into the forest.
Rin stood rooted to the spot. A huge wave of pain ame from her chest, right where her heart should be. He had just broken his promise. What had she done wrong? Had she displeased him? Could it be that he had found someone else?
"Why, Sesshomaru-sama? Why?" Tears streamed down her face. She loved him. She should have told him. Maybe he loved her back? Why else would he, the great, powerful, strong, beautiful dog demon Lord of the West let her, a pathetic, weak, foolish human girl let her follow him around all those years? She quickly turned and ran in the direction he had walked, calling his name over and over.
"Sesshomaru! Sesshomaru! SESSHOMARU!" She kept this up for a long time, tears running down her face as she did. Suddenly, she fell hard to the ground, tripping over a tree root. Instead of getting up, she just lay there in the mud and cried. Cried for her foolish love and her immense stupidity for thinking that he could ever love her back.
When she awoke, she was in a large room. An young woman in a fancy kimono was clucking in disapproval as she wiped Rin's forehead with a cloth.
"Who are you? Where am I? What am I doing here?"
"I am Lady Natayumi. You are in my village. One of my men found you in the woods while he looked for the demon presence that had disturbed the air. You seem troubled child. What is wrong?" the pretty woman asked Rin.
All Rin could do was shake her head a try to keep back the tears. Unfortunately, she succeeded because she had a lot of practice. She had never cried or showed discomfort around Sesshomaru, and it felt strange to let it out now.
"Hmmm. Well then, if you don't want to tell me that is alright. It is you business, not mine. But, I'm sure I could help. Meanwhile, eat this rice. I have business to attend to. I will be back in a while to check on things."
Rin took the bowl of rice from the lady, thanking her for her kindness, and watched as Lady Natayumi left the room.
She obediently ate the rice without tasting it or even acknowledging what she was doing. Her mind was preoccupied thinking about Sesshomaru.
A year had passed since that horrible day. Lady Natayumi had befriended Rin and Rin was made a Lady as well, being Natayumi's new adopted sister. Natayumi's father had also seen Rin's secret broken heart and pitied her. The two adopted sisters would walk together everyday in the garden. And even though Rin said that she was perfectly happy in their little village, even though she smiled and laughed and talked and joked in her special happy manner, Natayumi had seen Rin's scars. A month after Rin had been found in the forest, Natayumi had seen words scarred into Rin's wrist. It was only three words, but it made Natayumi all the more determined to get her friend to open up about her past. The words said: Why? You Promised.
Over in the western territory was a beautiful shiro. Sitting in a large study was none other than the young demon lord himself. Sesshomaru was arguing inside with his mind and his heart about leaving his love.
'Go apologize! Take her back! Tell her you love her! Your such a damn idiot! Just GO TO HER!' his inner demon and his heart would scream at him.
"She will never forgive me. She wouldn't understand. She will hate me. She has probably already moved on anyway by now" The thought made his heart clench. He didn't want her with anyone else. He just wanted her safe. After that incident t the Cave of Mysteries, his inner demon had been harder to control. He was sure that he would hurt her, even if not intentionally. All he wanted was her happiness. She couldn't be happy if she was dead, especially by his own hand. It would kill him inside to see her hurt like that.
'Then at least give her an explanation! She deserves at least that much! You smelt the salt water mixed with her scent! You and I both know what that means! Just go to her, damn it!'
"Fine. I will. By the way, you said you would count..."
'11 months, 30 days, 23 hours, and 0 seconds and counting. You have 1 hour before the anniversary.'
"Yikes."
'Don't you have somewhere to go?'
And with that Sesshomaru leapt out of his window, in the direction of his Rin. And saddest moment of his entire demon life.
Back at the village, Rin was alone, wandering the garden full of beautiful spring flowers.
'I used to love to pic these for him. His silver hair always made them look prettier.' She thought sadly.
She would never use his name anymore. It always made her cry. He had truly broken her heart that day. It still hurt, even though it had been a very long year ago. A flash of silver caught her eye. She turned to see something tall and silvery-white looking at her through the trees. It then turned and walked away, back to the woods. As if in a trance, she followed it. When they were a good distance away, the tall silver creature spoke in the voice that haunted her dreams, and found herself staring into his honey-amber eyes.
"Rin, I..."
"What are you doing here demon? Have you come to hurt someone else or are you just here to taunt me?" As she said this, Rin's chocolate eyes held an emotion I would have never imagined they could hold. Pure hatred.
"Rin? What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean, you wicked beast! I HATE YOU! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"
Tears made their way down her face as she said this and when she was done she turned and ran all the way back to the village. Not once stopping until she was in her room on her futon. She just wanted to forget him, and her whole life with him before, but she couldn't. She loved him with her whole being and wanted to hear what he had to say but it hurt too much inside even to think his name. She would neve survive it.
'He must hate me now. I'm so stupid. I should not be allowed to live after what I said to him'
An idea came to her aching head. She decided it was he only way to get to him. And let him know how much he had truly hurt her.
Back in the woods, Sesshomaru hadn't moved an inch since her words. She had said she hated him, but he had smelt her pain and sadness and confusion from a mile away. It stung his heart in ways words couldn't explain. He saw more of the puzzle pieces in his head come together. These puzzle pieces were of his Rin. Ever since she had helped him in the forest when she was 7 years old, that little girl had been a mystery to him. He now saw that she had loved him but had merely been unsure about his love for her.
"Damn, I'm so stupid!"
'Go after her! She wants you to explain!'
Sesshomaru froze. He smelt blood. Familiar blood. Coming from the river. Rin...
Rin stared at the sword in her hand. Soon, very soon he would know her pain. He would know exactly how much he had hurt her, how much pain he had caused her. She raised the gleaming weapon and brought it down fast towards her neck.
Sesshomaru quickly jumped from the trees and grabbed her wrist and twisted he blade out of her hand before she could kill herself. Her free hand suddenly reached behind her and grabbed a hidden dagger from the back of her obi. He grabbed that hand as well, flinging the little knife to the side. Rin was shaking, looking at him with such hatred and pain in her eyes that he wanted ti crawl in a dark hole and get slain 1000 times. Rin struggled in his grip but his demonic strength was nothing compared to her human muscles. As she did so though, her kimono sleeve fell down revealing her forearm, and her scars. Sesshomaru stared at her arm, where her scars had been reopened by her dagger sometime before his arrival.
"I'm such an idiot! She went as far as cutting herself to try to rid the pain!"
A noise took him out of his thoughts. He turned to see the face of an angel broken and crying. Rin had her now free unscarred hand over one side of her beautiful face, and she slowly fell onto her knees at his feet. Her scarred hand left his and covered the other half of her face and she began crying harder than he even thought possible for any creature. Between sobs he heard her say the same word over and over; why?
Seeing his Rin in that much pain, pain that was caused by none other than him, ripped his cold heart and soul into millions of pieces. He knelt down in front of her and touched the side of her face. She looked up at him, her eyes sending rivers of salty tears down her cheeks. There was no more hatred in them, instead all Sesshomaru say in Rin's eyes was pain and an overwhelming sadness that crushed his heart until he wanted to kill himself for it.
"I'm so sorry, Rin. What have I done to you?"
His apology made her shattered hard skip a beat. Her lip quivered.
"You promised." she whispered, only to see the hurt crash into his golden eyes "you promised."
He pulled her close to him, wrapping his arms around her tightly, and stroking her hair. She buried her face in his shoulder and let out all her sorrow. She didn't even register where she was, or who was trying to comfort her, she just wanted to let him know how much it hurt. She only wanted to be by his side again.
She cried like that all night. And the entire time he just held her against him, telling her how sorry he was. Eventually, sometime around dawn, she fell asleep, albeit a restless one. He stood up and carried her to a tree, which he sat down against and set her sideways in his lap with her head on his shoulder and a hand on his chest. Tears still came from her eyes even in sleep. He wiped her cheeks with his hand and looked off to the distance.
"Damn it! I never wanted to hurt her! That was why I left her here! I'm so stupid!"
'So why did you do it huh? How are you going to explain that?'
"I don't know. But I'm still going to try"
"Sesshomaru?"
He looked down at her. She had opened her eyes, but they weren't seeing anything. A single tear ran down her cheek.
"Tell me why you l-left."
Sesshomaru sighed. He was sure Rin wouldn't understand. No one could. But then again, she wanted to know why he had hurt her so much. So maybe...
Pulling her closer to him and closing his eyes he said "I only did it to protect you. I was afraid you would get hurt if you stayed around me. If I had known that I would hurt you like this by doing so I would have never done it. I was afraid that something would happen to you and I wouldn't be able to save you. I was afraid that I would lose control and attack you and then...I'm so sorry, Rin. I only did it because I-I love you."
At the end of his explanation, he felt something extremely cold and wet slide down his cheek and he felt that his breathing was irregular. He didn't need to hear Rin's gasp of shock to know that he had finally broken inside. He was crying. Shedding tears for his only love because he had ripped her heart and soul right out of her body because he just couldn't trust himself with her life. Shedding tears for a demon was the worst of all the shameful things one could do, other than be turned into a human, but he didn't care, Rin was his only exception. Only when he felt a soft hand brushing away the icy-cold tears from his eyes did he turn to look at her.
Rin was staring at him, an expression he didn't quite recognize in her big brown eyes. Her hand rested on his other cheek and he gently put his hand over hers, holding it there.
"I love you too, Sesshomaru."
That was all he needed to hear. He suddenly leaned forward and softly pressed is lips against hers. She kissed him back wholeheartedly. After a while they broke apart and she reseted against him, a small smile graced her lips. The first one since she had come to the village. He still held her hand in his, but now he held it over his heart instead.
"Please come with me, love. Back to my lands in the west. I need you by my side." Sesshomaru whispered.
"You don't have to ask me. You already know my answer."
Natayumi had gone out before dawn to look for Rin. She had finally found the two lovers right after Rin had fallen asleep crying out her heart and soul. She had seen and heard nearly everything that had passed between the two.
"So thats why she wouldn't tell me. She loved a demon, no, THE Demon Lord of the West, but he had broken her heart." The lady spoke to herself quietly so as not to disturb the couple.
Natayumi sat on her horse and watched as the demon stand with Rin in his arms and take her younger sister and friend westward. She made a mental note to tell her father only that Rin had won back her happiness and would probably not come back, if only ever to visit her friend. She slowly turned and left the spot.