Hello again!
no, I'm not dead yet. merely struggling to keep up with real life... anyway, this is a small drabble that sprang to mind a while ago, which I thought you might enjoy.
hope you like!
I do not own Inuyasha.
What do little girls smell like?
"Sesshoumaru sama, what does Naraku smell like?" she asked him after a rather nasty encounter with said hanyou.
"Putrid." He told her. He doubted the six year old knew what putrid was, but she didn't ask, simply nodded her thanks for his answer. She never asked him anything else. Just – 'what does this smell like, Sesshoumaru sama?'
He remembered the first time she had asked him such question. It was soon after he had brought her back from the dead, and she was playing in a field of flowers. Picking one of them up, she brought it to him. "Sesshoumaru sama, what does the flower smell like?" he looked at her, but he didn't know how to respond. A flower smelled like a flower.
"Don't bother Sesshoumaru sama with your silly questions!" Jaken had yelled at her. "Even foolish humans like you can tell what a flower smells like!"
Rin looked uncertain for a moment, before sticking her nose into the flower and inhaling. She did so a couple more times, before whispering, "It smells like home."
That first time had started a trend.
"Sesshoumaru sama, what does the grass smell like?"
"It smells green."
"Sesshoumaru sama, what does the waterfall smell like?"
"Power."
He found that she was happy with his one-word responses, but he couldn't help but wonder over this fascination with scents.
"Sesshoumaru sama, what does the wind smell like?"
"Fickle."
"And what does the fire smell like?"
"Warmth."
"Sesshoumaru sama, what does Jaken smell like?"
That had been the first time – after the flower question – that she had asked him about something she should have known already. Jaken tended to get stinky.
"Stale water," he responded eventually.
"Rin," he asked her one night, after she asked what the stars smelled like (he told her they smelled distant, because he didn't want to tell her he couldn't smell that far). "Why do you ask?"
"I just wanted to know." And then – "Sesshoumaru sama, what do questions smell like?"
Sesshoumaru blinked, glad that neither she nor Jaken could see his face in the darkness. Questions had no smell. But he could see that she was waiting for an answer, and realized that it didn't really matter if the one she got was the correct one.
"Responses," he decided eventually, and she smiled.
When she fell asleep, Sesshoumaru scented the night. There were many different scents, but he knew, if she asked, he would say that it smelled peaceful.
'Maybe,' he thought to himself, 'there are no correct answers.'
That, too, had started a trend – not in her questions, but in his answers.
"Sesshoumaru sama, what does Kohaku smell like?"
"Sorrow."
"And what does Inuyasha smell like?"
"Regret." He admitted finally.
"What does Kagome nee chan smell like, Sesshoumaru sama?"
"Change."
He didn't tell her that Inuyasha actually smelled like a forest fire, or that his Miko smelled like water lilies, because it didn't matter.
"Sesshoumaru sama, what does the rain smell like?"
"Cleansing."
"Sesshoumaru sama, what does the sun smell like?"
"Life."
"Sesshoumaru sama, what do humans smell like?"
"Their coming demise."
"Sesshoumaru sama, what do I smell like?"
He paused in his walk, taking a whiff. The first time he saw her, she smelled like other human children – like decay and innocence. Now, however, it was different.
"Mine."