Blurb: Sesshoumaru has problems. His father is a serial monogamist, his latest stepmother is out to destroy the family, and each new sibling is worse than the last. Worst, the girl of his dreams doesn't know he exists. Can Kagome help? [SessKag, AU]
No Such Thing As Free Lunch
Prologue:
The first time Father remarried, Sesshoumaru had screamed and begged him not to do it. Mother could not and should not ever be replaced. Ignoring the rants of his four-year old son, Touga had tied the knot with Izayoi.
Eight years later, Izayoi had died in a housefire, leaving behind a son named Inuyasha and a devastated family. Well, all except Sesshoumaru, at least. He was not disappointed until the next marriage, two years later.
The second time Father remarried, his half-brother Inuyasha had cried and begged Father not to do it. A fourteen-year old Sesshoumaru had looked disdainfully at his half-brother and thought viciously – Ha! Now you know how it feels!
The third woman that Touga had married, Asako, already had a daughter by another marriage named Rin. Amazingly enough, Sesshoumaru realized with dismay, each one of his new siblings was worse than the last. If Inuyasha had been a spoiled brat, then Rin was an unholy terror.
For instance, his first memory of Inuyasha was of a wailing newborn that threw up all over his Power Rangers t-shirt. (Yes, Power Rangers. Four-year olds don't have very discriminating taste.) But his first memory of Rin was far more unsettling. In retrospect, he should have appreciated his half-brother while he had the chance, because the first thing that little six-year old Rin did upon meeting him was declare him to be her future husband.
And instead of correcting her, his Father and that woman (version #2) merely laughed. They had laughed! Like it was funny! It was not funny to be engaged to a step-sibling at the tender age of fourteen, especially when the girl was annoying and barely old enough to enter first grade.
Three years later, Rin had yet to outgrow her obsession, although the latest shock to their family dynamics almost did the trick. Asako, Rin's mother, had recently died in a car accident. And now, Touga was sitting in front of the children with yet another potential mother figure. It was as though the man could not bear to be single for longer than 15 minutes.
Faced with the fourth woman that Touga wished to marry, Inuyasha crossed his arms and rolled his eyes, grunting in disapproval. Sesshoumaru, who knew the routine better than anyone by this time, merely closed his eyes and counted backwards from 1,000. Rin outperformed them both by miles. She did not shout or cry or beg, she only smiled.
"Sesshoumaru-husband says that when someone annoys me I should threaten to cut out their heart with a spoon, like in that movie about Robin Hood," announced the girl, now a full nine-and-a-half-years of age. "But Inu-nii-chan says threats are no good unless I intend to follow up on them."
Touga beamed like this was the most charming thing he had ever heard.
"Oh," replied the latest potential mother-figure, "Did they say that?"
"Yes," nodded the tiny girl resolutely. "Do you have a spoon I could borrow, ma'am?"
Sesshoumaru pondered his youngest sibling's words. Come to think of it, perhaps Rin wasn't all bad. Borrowing the murder weapon from the murder victim did sound like a wonderfully evil twist of fate.