A/N: Okay, well, I know that this will kind of seem out of character and everything, especially with Sesshoumaru's being sort of...not mean, but he's only like that because I don't really ever remember him being nasty to Rin. And, this IS the first chapter. This chapter is kind of basically like a beginning blur, and then we go into more detail as we get along, but this just gets the ball rolling. It'll start to seem more "Inuyasha-y" I guess as it goes along.
Well, this story came about because I was reading this fic in which Rin marries Kohaku after running away from Sesshoumaru; Sesshoumaru still loves her and follows her as her life spreads out. Anyway, Kohaku dies, and Sesshoumaru and Rin begin their relationship again. I don't remember its name. I also heard of a song titled "Leave Him For Me." There you have it. I also started to get a dim perception of how a more mature Rin would relate to Sesshoumaru, and also how a grown-up Kohaku would act.
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LEAVE HIM FOR ME
Ch. 1 - Trumpet Drag
It was hot, August, the low afternoon. Brownstones, box gardens, small gated yards, cement, bricks, pigeons. People lolled on their porches. A small chilly breeze was coming in from down the street, but it was nothing compared to the stifling heat. Rin had her gaucho pants hiked up around her knees in the little yard outside of the apartment, gardening. A jar of lemonade was sitting idly on the stone porch, along with a watering can and a spade. Sango and Kohaku's laughing voices rang from the house like sonic scratch. It seemed comfortable inside.
Down the street someone was walking, you could hear the steps from miles away on a clear afternoon like this...a dog bayed across the road. A car buzzed by. Normal everyday things, none of them seeming too attention worthy. Kohaku let out a girlish yelp, and Sango cackled- she must have been torturing him in there...Sango was a scream.
She tossed her hair out of her face, stood straight up looking at the vines. She happened to look up for a minute, and at the moment she did a shock passed through her, tingled like leftover electricity on her skin. She hadn't noticed the figure before, but it was hard not to; he stood out red on blue. He was fair-skinned, pale-haired, but his suit was stark black and his walk was a slow stride that spoke volumes about innermost confidence. So you'd sum it up, say, he was good lookin'. She got nervous; she always did, maybe attraction generally worked that way.
Maybe a minute passed, and his steps were closer. She tried to look at him askance with a criminal's shadowy eyes, trying to steal passing glance, trying to look nonchalant. Lookin' good, alright, with his face glistening wet sweat. She felt another spark flare; she tried to look at his outfit in better detail. The suit was slick and black; he looked like he could move like a bullet in that thing, and he wore a purple tie to top it off. That was funny, but hey, there's no accounting for taste.
Rin figured he would just pass by, so she busied herself with her own work for a little bit. The steps stopped- she looked around. It was odd to realize that he had broken his proud stride and stopped right in front of her, under the shade of the little tree. It was boggling to try to reason out why he'd chosen to stop here of all places- there were trees all over the place. He looked like he was cooling down. It was damn hot, and he looked tired. He didn't notice at all the electricity that swelled in her eyes, traveled in the veins of her hands, passed from him to her. Something in her heart was hooked like a fish. She looked up at him. She decided it must have been pretty uncomfortable to wear all black in high-nineties weather. "Are you thirsty?" she asked, looking at him in the face- something was there that she was drawn to.
His eyes moved up quickly to scan her, but his face bore the impassivity of slow coming- like he was taking his time. A moment passed where he seemed to be gathering something from her, apparition on the steps. "Yes."
"Do you like lemonade?" she asked, turning to the jar on the steps. She'd already drunk from it, but if he minded, he would say so.
"Yes." His words were slow and stable, rolled out from decades of slow movement, of gathered energy. He was like something that came out of nowhere but had been generating for eons- but he was in exactly the right place at the right time. She picked up the big jar with both hands and handed it to him. He drank conservatively. "Thank you," he said, passing it back.
"No problem," she smiled, "You looked thirsty." She was searching for things to say- how do you keep a conversation about absolutely nothing running long enough to capture interest? It's easy enough to begin talking to strangers, but it's hard to reel them in on talk. "It's really hot. Do you work around here?"
"Yes. Down there," he said, nodding his head slightly to indicate. His posture was dignified.
With this ghostly figure on her doorstep, the scenery had changed. Perfume from the plants was rising. It felt like heavy velvet, crashing a train. Dizzying. "What as?" she asked, holding the jar.
Something passed in his face, but it was something that had suddenly made him very subtly lean toward her. "Daytime manager of a law office." She listened to each word, because something in his manner told her he didn't suffer fools, and that he was only answering her questions because he wanted to.
Lofty attitude or not, "daytime manager" didn't sound so hot. "Oh really? Is that exciting?" she asked, confused as to why you would want to do that.
"No," he answered. His voice was full of peace and serenity- it was still, full, and came from someplace strong. It wasn't hard for Rin to connect with strangers. Nobody believes in soul mates any more either, but something in him was hard to ignore. That something went beyond his looks and reached straight into her brain, grabbed it hostage.
"O-oh," she laughed, stuttering a little, "I guess it pays well?"
"Yeah," he said. If you really looked hard, you could see traces of amusement in his face; that was good, since he seemed so solemn.
"Are you a lawyer?"
"No," he said.
"Did you major in law?" she asked. Even with all the one-sided questioning, she didn't feel as though it were a one-sided conversation.
"Business," he corrected. His head moved slightly toward her, she realized he was gesturing for more to drink.
"Oh- oi, it's really hot," she said, giving him the jar.
After a swig he answered, "Yes."
"You don't mind if I drink from the same?"
"It's your jar, do what you like with it," he said.
Rin smiled at him. He had the right attitude, the right swing about him. A breeze picked up. She dropped the watering can- actually it slid off her wrist, because she had slipped it around her arm like a bracelet. "Oh-" she laughed, hoping he didn't think she was a big idiot. He didn't seem to. He wasn't nicey-nice, but he didn't seem judgmental...maybe she was noticing all these good things about him because her brain had high hopes. "How much longer do you have to walk?"
"Just until I meet the train," he said. The train was a long ways off...
"That's like twenty minutes," she answered with concern, as if reminding him.
"Well how much longer will you be working?"
She looked at her own hands, powdered with dark soil and sticks. "Not too much longer," she said, with the sun behind her, "I meant I just feel bad because you have to walk so long. Twenty minutes feels like a day."
"I don't let the weather change my mood," he answered, as if dusting off the comment. He was very strong, unwavering. She noticed that for a moment, and then she noticed- he had at least a foot on her. He had a stony, marble face, not showing much emotion but if you read into it, you would see wells of it.
Rin smiled at him again. "That's good." There was a pause. She let her eyes drift up to his and as soon as they did she regretted it. Something in his eyes made her completely nervous, shaken up. It was like looking into something you don't want to know about. It wasn't like she could break the glance, though, it would seem like she didn't want to look at him. "I mean, I know how shallow it sounds, everybody complaining about the weather," she half-stammered like a fool. A cat ran by, and she was never more grateful to see a cat in her life because it provided an excuse to take her eyes away. Confidence was okay to put on, but it was much better to truly hold. "Ah!" she yelped.
His attention was semi-caught; his eyes had moved to the corners. Rin looked with concern past his shoulder. "Nothing. I thought that cat was going to get steam-rolled by a car." He looked at her half-curiously.
"Ha- I wonder when it'll get cooler," she asked the street.
She did a stupid thing and tried again to hold direct eye contact. It was surprising the effect it had on her. It seemed as though the same gale had hit him, but he just knew how to stand his ground. It was almost agitating to look into those stony calm eyes, like looking into the eye of a horrendous storm. "It's time I go," he said, almost demanding a response- every nerve tingled for one, but no words could express the breadth of its release.
"Oh, really? Well, something about you makes me want to see you again," she said. It was like the secret cat was accidentally let out of the bag. Then her energy just withdrew, like it had surprised itself in going that far. He paused, tall reality of him, like wind blowing through big trees, face blank, eyes illegible...Then something else came over him, but she was too confused to analyze what it was, and then he just nodded and walked steadily away.
She bit her own tongue in confusion, tapped her foot. How much can you draw from a three-minute conversation? It happens a certain way, you can say enough to pass for eons.
When he left, she didn't even turn to watch him go. She just looked down at the watering can, baffled, tremulous, surprised, and wholly weary. A strong feeling of regret, or something like it in a lovelier shade, came down and washed over her like a wave. Or maybe the wave had been that electricity, and now it had spit her back on the shores of reality. She wondered at herself and partly wished she had never said that, not because it wasn't true but because she didn't want him to take it.
If you looked at it in print it seemed like a normal enough sentence to say, but there was something about it that set it off. It might have been the swelling circumstances, or the weather. Or, you could reason it this way: she had been caught in a tempest of attraction, and it had stirred up some underlying truth, some dreamy implication of something hidden, lofty, and powerful. There had been something in her voice and the way she looked at him. Something a bit inappropriately sensual had come out in those words. She hoped it hadn't made her sound eager or easy or even worse stupid and young. She'd often griped to herself about how hard these things were. It blew up in her face.
She had been thrown to the dogs of reality, and now she realized that she had shared a jar of lemonade with a good lookin' man, said some things that were too dark, forceful, and secret to be anything but implied, and was now wondering what to do while a kid walked by.
Not to say she was in love with him or anything, but there was something strong brewing there. Something that she had felt like a gust of wind. She didn't know if other people felt this powerfully about anything, but she surmised so. Maybe. Or maybe not. But there was something there...She knew one thing though, she never wanted to see him again. That would be inexplicably embarrassing. She'd have it on her mind forever.
She pulled out some little ugly grass, tried to shake everything that had just happened out of her mind and laugh about it nervously. But nothing worked unless she was willing to spend every moment busy. She collected her things and walked up the steps back into the house.
It was cool in here. The white walls were glistening cleanly, colonial style. A table with flowers was lit by the sun. Kohaku met her in the hallway with his bushy hair and his baggy yoga pants and not much else on, except for a black band on his wrist. Something like embarrassment swelled in her and she tried to keep her mind off it by talking to him. "Hey Rin," he said scratching his head, "Thanks for doing all that work."
"Oh it wasn't anything," she said laughing small. She slipped off her shoes by the door.
"Hey, who was that guy you were talking to out there?" he asked, passing into the hallway with her. "I stopped by the window to get those bills and I saw you talking to some guy. He bother you?"
Oh, God that again. "Oh no, he was nice. It was really hot out and he looked thirsty, so I shared my lemonade with him," she said laughing again.
He stopped, wide-eyed and dumbfounded. "You drank out of the same cup as him!?" he exclaimed, stupefied; his arms sank to his sides, then he flung them out, "Baby, he coulda had AIDs!"
She paused hesitantly. "I mean...I think he would have told me if he had AIDs," she said, blinking, swigging the last of it before putting it in the sink. "Or he would have just refused."
Kohaku's eyes popped out. "Man, Rin, you just amaze me every day!"
She laughed and turned back to him. She unrolled her pants so that they hung loose around her calves. "What we doing for dinner?" she asked, whirling around him lightly to swing into the living room.
"Sango's gonna make us meatloaf, that is if you don't feel like sharing it with an AIDsy hobo," Kohaku teased, letting out his hoarse and high-pitched laugh.
She just turned around and smiled at him as they crossed into the sunny hardfloor white couch living room. Dust covered the T.V. That guy was still on her mind though, a not so distant memory of something very real, not at all the dusky ghost-memories that become of most things. She was nervous, she'd be out again at the same time tomorrow and if he came around again, she'd have to learn her fate connecting him. She moved her hair back, antsy, and turned to Kohaku, "Do you think Sango needs any help?"
"After what we done for her, let her do it herself," he said, something attractive in his tone, but after she smiled lopsided he shrugged. "I mean, even if she does, stay here with me a while," he continued, "We can read those magazines, anyway, or see what's on tee vee."
"Okay," she agreed, sitting on the couch opposite the T.V. Kohaku looked relieved to have gotten what he wanted. They sat down until dinner, and even though it was peaceful and sunny here, thunder was still rolling somewhere in the distance, and it came like the premonition of something powerful and impossible to move aside.
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Rin had almost forgotten about it the next morning, and moved around like normal sunshine. Sango hadn't stayed the night, but she had drunk with them until it was late- "And don't be bad!" she said before she left. Sango was a scream. Yesterday had only come back to her in the most unexpected moments, and filled her with a nervous sickness at the bottom of her stomach and a quick and confused urge to get it out of her head. She could have actually gone out to water the plants earlier, but maybe she wanted to be there and that was what made her nervous. She had breakfast with Kohaku, Kohaku left for work, she cleaned the house, talked to her sister on the phone, then made some plans for the weekend, then listened to the radio. She made more lemonade.
She had the radio on, that chicka-boom rhythm of "Hey look yonder comin', Over that railroad track/ Hey look yonder comin', Over that railroad track/ It's the Orange Blossom Special...Bringin' my baby back..." She tried to move through thoughtlessly. It was like being a kid and making a bad kick in soccer and being sore about it after. She reasoned that she thought too much about things.
Around three or three-thirty she rounded up the gardening gear and headed outside into the blazing sun. There was no promise of fall today, except in the undercurrent. Today it was shorts. It was so damn hot that it felt like being next to a furnace that you were bolted to for life. You couldn't escape it, and not even the shade offered respite. Maybe tempers were high because of the weather.
She started to work, and then not a little bit later, she heard the steady tap of walking shoes. Her heart almost tripped over itself trying to skip a beat, and another shock of recognition mixed with the annoyance of high feelings. Today he was wearing a black suit, white shirt- he looked like a Beatle with an ivory tie. He didn't wear sunglasses, she liked that about him, too. All this hopeless anxiety, just to decide whether or not she had been an idiot yesterday- because she wanted to impress someone you talked to for five minutes. She knew no one would understand if she told them, but just because her feelings were stupid didn't mean they weren't real. When he came near, he seemed to acknowledge her, and then he stopped directly at her gate and leaned against it. She looked him over again. "Hi," she smiled.
"Hello," he answered, with the underlying tone of a grin. Everything he said, you had to really look for it down in the grooves. Like tearing through a dark amazon jungle.
"Are you thirsty?"
"Yes."
"I have more lemonade," she answered, giving him his own cup. In almost a snap, she figured he wouldn't mention yesterday. She grinned at him. "I hadda give you your own cup, because my boyfriend was complaining about it yesterday." She just kept on doing things she regretted- she wished the words hadn't flown out of her mouth.
There was a sudden change in his demeanor. It appeared subtle but it was drastic. "Oh really?" he asked. It wasn't offended, though- it was more- competitive. Aw shit.
"Yeah, I live with him," she said, sighing inwardly. It made her look as though she was implying something by mentioning Kohaku, but as she looked at him leaning against her fence, his expression became serene again and the worry left her. "How was it getting home yesterday?"
"Fine," he said, shrugging. "Hot."
"It's a little cooler in the morning, not much, though," she said. She put down her tools, moved back her hair, and sat down on the porch. He stood against the gate, seeming cool in his indifference. She felt more at leisure to look him over. He had a straight, regular nose, light brown eyes, weird colored hair, fair skin. And he dressed super nice. "Hey, where do you work? I don't remember a law office being there."
"Down there- a red brick building," he answered, "There aren't any signs." He seemed chattier today, and that wasn't saying much considering he was about as vocal as a turtle.
"Do you have weekends off?" she asked. The sun made her squint.
"Yes."
"That's good. Where do you live?"
"Upper East Side."
"Wow, for serious? That's kind of far," she said. "Do you have any plans for the weekend?"
"Not as of yet."
"Do you dance?"
"Depends."
"Do you drink?"
"Who doesn't."
"Smoke?"
"Sure."
"Do you ever come around here?"
"If I'm invited."
She smiled up at him, then bit her lip. "You look hot. I'd invite you in, but..."
"Your boyfriend," he said, finishing her sentence. The way he said it, it was as though he was above it- as though "boyfriend" was a concept that he personally transcended. It was intimidating to think this, but she kept on anyway. It wasn't like she didn't want to.
She paused and looked at him, but then she laughed. "Yes." He understood, at least, and he didn't take it personally. "But do you want to sit down?"
He examined the stoop for a moment, and she took his silence as a yes, and undid the latch. Rin's mind was confident. She began to see it as nothing more than becoming friends. If she was falling into some kind of trap, she'd decide what to do...He came inside the small yard and sat down next to her, one step above her actually to accommodate his height. "Where is he now?" He reclined like a dissatisfied cat.
"He's at work."
"Hmm. Does he normally work this late?"
"Yeah, until six." Anyone might have thought that she was giving out her information to the adultery bureau of the Lying Hearts brigade, but Rin was confident in her ability to maneuver out of a sticky situation..."Except on Tuesdays and weekends."
"Hmm," he answered, drinking more.
"I work, but only sometimes," she mused, looking up at the rooftops and the sky and the windows, "When they need me at Freddy's, that's a bar...Or when the secretary at my friend's office is sick."
"How often is that?"
She laughed. "Too often for the way it sounds. Usually two nights at Freddy's, then down to the office maybe five times a month."
"Doesn't sound like a good secretary," he answered, mildly.
"Maybe- he kind of likes her a little bit," she laughed. She pondered this. "Yeah, he's kind of mervy to begin with..."
He'd seen the humor in it and hadn't ignored it, but he wasn't the type to laugh or smile. They drank there for another twenty minutes and talked about the birds that went by, his house, and his work. Then he got up, without a word as to where he was going, but all the meaning was carried in his actions. He was very subtle- he left the cup on the stoop to signify he was going, and he got up slowly, so that she knew. "Hey, what's your name?" she asked, stretching out as they got up.
"Sesshoumaru." The implication swung that she should tell hers.
"Mine's Rin," she answered. She stooped to pick up her watering can. "Be seeing you, then," she said, figuring "tomorrow" would be too pretentious.
"Bye; thank you," he answered, slipping back into his jacket and fading into the trumpet drag day. See, there had been nothing to fear; a connection passed between them, but it was also strong enough to mold a platonic kind of relationship, least for a little bit.
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She finished straightening up the house, taking the papers off the tables, envelopes mostly, and putting them in one place for later. And, rearranging pillows so that they would look better for later. Kohaku came in around six-thirty five.
When he came in, he went directly to her, cold like wind, and wrapped his arms around her loosely, and sighed heavily. "Man, what kind of rough work is."
Her touch to his shoulder was calm, comforting, no trace of passion but lots of wind, like him. Her gesture almost made it look like she was saying "stop," but there was tenderness in its distance. "I know you have a rough time," was what she only half-said because no words could adequately match her shelter-like touch.
He looked at her with grateful eyes. "Rin, I am so glad to be home," he breathed seriously, disgusted with the outside world, holding her wrist.
She moved freely, as if not even noticing his hand. "I'm just making dinner. Sit down, if you want." Kohaku loved her for her sense of space and independence, also, something about her fascinated him- maybe that same sense of space.
He sat down on whitecouch space, flicked on a low light, thumbed through the magazines on the coffee table. The kitchen sounds were low, but consoling. Why break something that works so well?
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The sun was shining bright and truthful, as though it were a desert outside, and it was high noon. Gunslingers, general stores, buggies and saddles. Dust on leather. Rin shook a hand through her loose hair, pulled on a shirt and made some more lemonade. She took two glasses out and started on the garden work.
So then it worked like this: she'd been talking to Sesshoumaru for around a week or so, forgot his name a couple of times but that was okay since he'd forgotten hers too. She didn't think much of it, but some neighbors cast puzzled looks. He'd usually come around and they'd have a drink. It always seemed like they were meeting each other for the first time. He was so darn blank, she wondered why he kept coming round. But then that shameless first meeting came back to her in flying colors, and she remembered why.
She needed to work in the garden every day because of the heat; the plants retained little to no water, and there had been a dry spell since two weeks ago. The rain would never come. The sun was even insistent- like hand slapping on an animal skin drum.
As Sesshoumaru approached, she waved to him and unlatched the gate. He didn't bother to wave back; but again, he was extremely subtle, and his actions had to be read under the lines, and not between them. Anything that even resembled a nod from him would say novels about the way he felt. People would probably consider him cold, but she saw him as just not being vocal, wanting things to be tacit. He didn't seem as though he wasted words. He didn't seem like a wasteful person at all, or a careless one. Not someone who squandered his energies.
He leaned up to the gate. This was intimidating: he didn't lean, but he implied leaning. That was probably the scariest thing about him, the leaning thing. Anybody who made come-ons was kind of puzzling to her, though. The last seven or so times she'd met him, he was very relaxed, respectful of personal space, placid. But sometimes that implication came back. It ran chills up her spine, and a nauseous, dizzy feeling. She didn't want to give the wrong impression.
"I have more lemonade- I made it with strawberries today," she said, "Sometimes people mix it with iced tea and call it muddy water."
"Hmm," he answered, drinking a little more greedily. It was even hotter today than it had been yesterday- it had gone from ninety-seven to a hundred and two. Talk about fire. It was raging through the city.
"I tried it- it's pretty gross," she said, speculatively. "Tastes like watery lemon juice."
"Good," he answered, indicating the lemonade.
She grinned. A look of recognition passed his face, and he opened the gate to come in- now the thoughts were gone, but every time he came near, brushed past, gave closeness, a magnetism flowed out and- the initial reaction was a spark- then a flood, like a deluge of energy, rushing under the bridge to the open sea. But attraction is attraction, doesn't mean much more than what you do with it.
"Do you do this every day?" he asked disinterestedly, sitting on the steps. She got the impression that he tired easily, or that he liked to lounge around. His hair moved over his shoulder.
"Not in fall, but it's wetter then. The sun dries up the soil," she answered, "And sometimes I find insects, so I have to get rid of them quick before they chew everything up." She found herself speaking at ease around him; he was all ears, it seemed. It was weird that she should need another friend. She wasn't a nerd starved for friends, but she just liked him. She tried not to overanalyze it.
"What kinds of plants?" he asked. Sometimes from the corner of her eye she'd catch on to a glimpse of him; relaxed, a black suit with a cigarette-gray shirt underneath, French cuffs. And then a glass of lemonade making the picture look ridiculous.
"I have an aloe plant out here, ferns, lots of ivy, and these are pansies," she said, pointing to each. He'd taken a small notice of her outfit today- black t-shirt and almost gray denim shorts cut to the knee, tight-fitting. But nothing more. "Hey, is it Thursday today?"
"Yes."
"Oh," she said. "Can you dance salsa?" Her questions seemed to come out of nowhere, but she was trying to figure out some things about him. And he didn't seem to mind; social norms meant nothing to him. He seemed to triumph over all of it.
"No."
"Oh...today I have to work," she said, looking up at the sun, "At Freddy's. They need someone at the counter today. Oh yeah!- I forgot, you can chew this plant." She broke off a piece of one and gave it to him. He looked at it somewhat suspiciously, but didn't give it a second thought.
His mouth parted- then he said, "Is this legal?"
"I'm not sure," she laughed, "I guess so, I've never heard anything about it."
His eyebrows almost raised for a moment, and she was about to laugh more when he leaned back and changed the subject. "What do you work as?"
"Bartendress," she said, busy with garden work.
"Oh?" he replied.
"Yeah, I went to bartending school when I was in high school," she answered. She smiled. "I graduated with a Masters in Mixology."
He caught the joke and recognized it; she laughed. "Hmm." They talked some more- like usual, as the conversation went on, less and less could be remembered.
"Oi, it's so hot," she yelped, though it was less like complaining than happy observance. She remembered what he said about weather changing moods...
"The nights are cooler."
She paused. "I haven't been out at night for a while- I have to work tonight though. Do you go out a lot?"
"Not so much."
"Like where do you go?" she asked. Finished with the work, she dusted off her hands and leaned against the fence next to where he sat. He passed her cup over to her.
"Bars...restaurants," he said, shrugging.
"After a while that gets boring," she said, "I remember when it was just dinner parties all the time...after we moved in. Dinner parties, everywhere. It got so lame after a while."
"It gets redundant," he agreed evasively.
"You get bored?"
"After a short while."
"Do you hang around Manhattan?" she asked, trying to add up the facts.
"Unfortunately," he replied.
The connection was so made that it was final. A whirlwind of thoughts ran through her mind along parallel lines. She paused, put her hands on her hip. "Well, do you want to go with me and some other people to some clubs around here? Well, mostly at Crocodile, which is big, looks like a warehouse, and near that Thai restaurant- actually we might eat first..."
Sesshoumaru's face was still as stone. "If I'm welcome to," he answered neutrally, his tone shrugging.
She smiled like a pirate then got serious. "I'm sure you'll be," she answered, nodding. The sun was truthful today. Sometimes it lied completely, should have hid its shameful face behind a cloud. Sometimes it was bright and hopeful.
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The low lights and white clean of Freddy's Bar and Grille; Rin was wearing a crisp white shirt, black vest, dark tight jeans. Kouga was at the bar, too; tonight was a busy night (Thursday night was discount night), crowded with murmuring masses, dancing people, the clatter of pool sticks. Somebody asked for a Collins, whereas on Kouga's side, somebody wanted a blazer, and wanted it quick. People were wont to treat Rin kinder than they treated Kouga, but he didn't mind because his salary was so damn high.
But he had looked worried, almost distressed, when Rin walked in. Those eyes weren't the same, but they reminded him and it hurt. He asked Rin almost in despair, "How's your sister?"
"She's okay, she's in Vegas," she answered, trying to be careful of what she said.
"Oh. Oh man. Is she taking classes there or something?"
"No, just visiting friends. She's going to the canyon in Arizona, next weekend," she said, shaking the Collins.
"Wow...well, I hope she's happy," he said, almost like a whiny little baby. Kouga and her sister had had a bad history, mostly or him being too eager and her not noticing that sometimes she came off as though she wanted him. But it was all innocent mistakes.
"Seen Miroku lately?" he asked, snuffing out the flames on that blazer.
"No- his secretary hasn't really been gone lately," she shrugged.
"How's Kohaku?"
"Doin' fine," she answered. "Here you go," she smiled at the man, who smiled back.
"That's good," he said, smiling wisely and nodding his head, like a smug, approving sage. "Things are the suckiest they have been in a while. Tch, not like it affects me too much," he almost murmured, preparing the next drink. Rin looked at him, almost wondering and puzzled, underneath the dusty fans revolving.
Then she while she was rinsing out the shaker she heard someone say at the end of the bar: "Fuckin bitch was two-timing me with that fuckin sleazy Pete guy who fixed our sofa that one time..."
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When she got home Kohaku was in bed, drooling like a baby. She laid out an outfit for tomorrow, wiped her forehead almost in complete weariness, sighing heavily, putting the money in the collective piggy bank, washing up, feeling like a ghost in bright bathroom light surrounded by darkness, trying to shake this haunting unnamable midnight feeling off. She crawled next to him in bed and led out a dizzy yawn. Scared angel, crashing into dirt, moving from one plane to another- a sick blind horse tied to intuition seeing only black clouds. Feeling lonely is almost inexplicable. She finally slept after half an hour...