Disclaimer: Takahashi's toys, not mine.
A/N: Forgive me. I know there are a million and one Sesshoumaru/Rin parting one-shots out there…but I needed a break from self-inspection. And from wondering if I'm writing bad fic.
Muse, thy name is Depression.
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Never Say "Good-bye"
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She reeled back, cold and helpless, staring up at the beautiful face of the man she had been with for so long, the man she had come to regard almost as a father.
The man who had just dragged her outside, told her to leave, and to never look back.
Was there compassion in that face? Was there caring? Had there ever been love in those cold gold eyes, or had they merely been a canvas for her wild imagination?
"Sesshoumaru-sama…" she stuttered, her throat closing in misery as a traitorous tear rolled down her cheek. "Why?"
He looked at her coldly, and turned to walk back inside his castle walls, back inside what had been her home for nearly a decade.
"Damn it!" she screamed after his retreating figure. "You always told me to do what I liked…why can't I now? Why won't you let me stay!"
He did not answer her as the gate closed behind him, nor did he as the scent of a young human male joined hers, the man's deep voice soothing her high one as he led her away from the youkai's den.
Not until the sunlight began to fade, not until her yelling voice and retreating scent became but a whisper on the wind, did Sesshoumaru lean wearily against the guarding wall surrounding his fortress. He sighed, his eyes seeking out the faint stars above. How many times had he sat, just outside a campfire's light, and listened to a little girl try to convince an imp that there were spirits hiding amongst those stars?
How long had it been before that little girl had turned into a little woman? How much longer before she would have left of her own volition, to follow the male who had courted her so persistently once his life became his own?
Sesshoumaru shook his head, fighting the protective urge that rose within him, that demanded he go after his young and drag her home. Kohaku owed his regained life, regained soul, to him and him alone. The young man's sense of honor was enough to ensure Rin's future well-being, even if fear of Sesshoumaru did not suffice.
A cold smile touched upon the lord's lips as he thought of the revived taijiya. It had not been the screams of the boy's sister that had touched his heart the day that Naraku fell, nor had it been the pleas of his brother's wench that had slid Tensaiga from its sheath.
It had been the grief on Rin's face as she had kneeled and cradled the lifeless body of her one-time kidnapper, had been her sobs that had struck a chord within his soul.
To stop her silent tears, he would have done anything.
He remembered the day he had given her back her life.
He would remember this as the day he made her move forward with it.
A little warmth crept into his smile, and he pushed away from the wall, away from his grief.
Someday, when Rin had grown children of her own, she would understand why.
Never say "Good-bye"
We will meet again, one day.
Never doubt.