Authors Notes: Well, this is my first story that I have published, so I'm open for all critiquing. I've never written any formal fanfiction and I'm excited that I finally have gotten an idea for an original plot. I have to warn everyone that there are spoilers in reference to Episode 162: With Sesshoumaru Forever.

The Fire That Brought Us Together

Chapter 1

Jaken is silly. She closed her eyes in distress and drifted to sleep after what Jaken had told her about Sesshoumaru's Empire. Will I die? No! I will not! Sesshoumaru will always protect me! I'll be with him forever! The defiant voice in her screamed in protest. It couldn't be true, that she'd die, right?

That night, whether she know or not, her Master went through a trial. He had a choice to not come to her aid like he had in the past. He had a choice to leave her behind in a human village. But after hearing her cries of desperation, he decided to win her back from the persistent monk that believed no demon, big or small, had a heart.

Remembering what the monk had said brought shivers down her spine. Humans and demons live in two different worlds. That one sentence crashed down on her like a pile of bamboo. It sent a chain reaction of things said to her in the past. You will be long dead when Sesshoumaru establishes his Empire. She had believed that she would be with him forever, but she never thought, that forever for her, would be only a few minutes of her Master's life for him.

Oh so long ago that time felt to her now. She could barely remember. The only thing she clearly remembered from that day was when she asked him if he would remember her when she passed from this world. Remembering that he called her foolish for asking such a question left her unsatisfied with that answer.

Now, as she lay on the ground of her Masters' home dying, she realized, that no matter what, she'd have to go sooner or later. Whether it be disease, or old age, something would claim her. Today was her day, she could feel it.

"He'll come..." she barely whispered as the flames came near her small figure. She replayed every moment of her life with him, from the time they met, 'till yesterday afternoon when he took leave to seek advice from the old tree about how to establish his empire. He left her to "watch" his residence, instead of coming along with him, like she usually did. Was he trying to hide her from the world?

She fluttered her eyes closed and went into a coughing fit. What a foolish accident, She thought. Being trapped under a beam of wood left her hopeless and she could now only think of what happened in her head. Why did her stomach have to be hungry at this moment? Why did she turn on that stove? Why? Why? Why?

The flames engulfed the wooden beam that she was trapped under. And so began her tragedy. The wood ferociously crackled and in a few minutes, her kimono caught fire. She glued her eyes shut and prepared for the pain. Practically feeling her soul lifting from her body, she called out to him, one, last, time.

"Sesshoumaru-sama!"

Her body became ash, and it was then mixed with ash from the wood. At 16 years old, Rin died, in the house of the taiyoukai.