"Rin, I don't like this method of communication so listen well, I will not repeat myself. Is that clear, Rin?"

He said he name twice. In once sentence. A sentence that consisted of more than 4 words. She was so focused on him she couldn't answer, she just sent what she hoped was an affirmative. As it was he continued anyways.

"Rin, I don't know what to do in this situation. I am a helpless, hopeless mess right now. It makes me angry, and sad, and so many other things I feel like I am to implode. For this Sesshomaru would never explode, too messy."

That earned a smile from his Rin and he felt a tightness in his sternum lessen.

"I can't say those words you need me to say, I know that it hurts, but I have tried. I humble myself to tell you that. I've tried saying it out loud so many times. I get nothing. But I can show you. There is nothing I could imagine for your future but me. Nor I you. To think you mated or 'shudder' married enrages me to the point of insanity."

A deep sigh let out and Rin knew something was coming. Something…good.

"Rin, My demon has already chosen you. I am a 'ruined' demon if you understand. Good. Were I try to mate another, during the coupling, it would have killed them. Violently and disastrously. My damned pride has become a physical manifestation and yet my demon surpasses that. As my true self, it decided to keep you. When I took you from death, when I kept you at my castle, in an adjoining room, nonetheless. And even then you only just started using it in the last few months."

His pause startled Rin. She was so swept up in his voice and learning his deepest secrets and fears she felt him stop rather than heard. Somehow she felt, melded, with him. Feeling his turmoil of emotions, his insecurities became hers. She wanted to give herself as well and when she about gave up consciously trying to send him, something, a flash across his features and she was pinned under him, a snarl gracing his features. The left canine hanging over his full lower lip.

An irrational thought occurred to her. What would his lip feel like against her. The warmth of it, the smooth tooth, dangerous and…she lifted her head the small distance to his lips and pressed hers to his.

Time froze for both of them. But inside was another matter. Sensations, emotions and the true Sesshomaru almost crying with glee.

*Now, Sesshomaru. Take her now! She has given herself to us body and soul. You felt her pouring her heart to you. You felt the undeniable loyalty and passion. She will not let us go, now Take Her!*

Sesshomaru sighed and relaxed, letting his demon take over.

"Rin, do not be afraid. Be my mate. Say the words my Rin. Say it." He purred, his voice demonic in it's beauty and eroticism. Rin could do nothing but what he commanded.

"Sesshomaru, please, make me your mate. Tell me what to do. Anything, I'm yours."

"I will bite you, it will hurt. The venom I give you will allow you to bite me. Do not shy away or go easy. You must do as you feel instinctually. I will take you then. It may hurt, but I promise you My Rin, it will not for long. Turn now my little flower, let me pluck your petal."

Rin flipped to her stomach and felt a claw run down her body and her clothing fell down her arms and over her legs. A bit of skillful shifting and it was cushioning her knees and arms. She felt his arm wrap around her waist and he lifted her to lock her in place.

Rin felt no fear. Not of him, what they were about to do, or her future. But she hadn't fears for her future since that night with the wolves and Sesshomaru.

Flashback

^last flashback^

"Rin." His quiet one syllable command drew her attention away from her nightmare.

"Come." With that he started walking into the woods and if Rin knew any better, she would say toward the sound of wolves.

^present flashback^

Keeping behind her Lord she watched the swish of his hair back and forth, hypnotizing her again. It had held her sway many times on their longer tours of the Western Lands and had taken her farther than she would had been able to walk otherwise. Soon though it stopped abruptly and Rin almost tripped.

"Rin, come here. I know of your nightmares. I know how to stop them. Would you like my assistance?"

Rin nodded with a childlike eagerness he adored on the inside but outwardly dismissed.

"Rin, I will take you now to someone who needs help yet will kill you should you try. It will be your decision whether to kill or heal. Are you ready? Then follow me."

They walked side by side for a few hundred feet then there was a large clearing. It was beautiful, and yet, something was off about it. Rin scanned the field intently and found a disturbance to the right corner.

A sound caught on the wind reached her. A pitiful groan of agony, made only when crying out was beyond impossible. Rin stepped toward the sound involuntarily and was mid reach when she stopped and turned to her Lord. He stood there holding his sword top as the tip was in the ground, almost like he was leaning on it.

A nod and off she went tearing through the flowers without damaging one.

Sesshomaru marveled at this fact and imagined her being one with the flowers. He mused that were she a demon she would be a flower demon. Being one and being all spring had to offer.

Rin found the source of the sound and gasped. She quickly darted behind a rock and shivered. ]

A moment passed and the sounds coming from the creature of her nightmares drew her to peek around the side of her hiding place. She half expected to see snarling teeth but what she really saw hurt her little innocent heart.

The wolf was on it's side with tremors rippling it's fur making it shimmer in the sun, breathing heavily and rubbing it's body into the dirt.

Rin understood pain when she saw it. She knew pain like no other she knew of and recognized the signs immediately. The digging and shifting as if to smother the pain or just dig it out. The breath of tortured lungs, feeling as if you ran for days. The involuntary shakes that coursed over the body.

She moved out behind the rock and crouched, knees pressed to her chest, arms around her ankles. She stared at the wolf from over top her knees few some time.

Slowly, she inched closer, then paused. Shuffle, pause. Shuffle, pause. Each pause was long and each shuffle closer not noticeable to anyone but Rin; and Sesshomaru of course.

The sun was setting in the sky and Rin had come close enough to the wolf to touch it if she stretched out her arm.

The wolf had been watching her the entire day, not realizing the inching till she was so close it could touch her. Her smell had become one with the air around it. She smelled of dirt and flowers and rain. Natural scents that cause no initial cause for alarm other than she was obviously not a wolf.

With a wolf sigh and a whimper it stretched out it's head and touched her fingers with it's snout. Rin wanted to jump, scream, run away. But in the hours of sitting with this wolf she had pin pointed the problem and was well on her way to fixing it, using herbs and grasses and nature to mix a poultice for it's injury. She had even weaved soft grasses into a makeshift bandage that would die off and subsequently fall off while doing it's job of holding the mixture to the wound till it kicked in.

Taking the touch as acceptance and permission, she slowly unwrapped the bandage and green blend of healing she gently smoothed down the fur of its flank and parted the fun from the injury without ever touching the point of pain. Once it was clear of fur, Rin saw it was a painful problem, but not a serious one if treated.

Carefully she put her tools down next to the wolfs head. It understood and smelled them, then Rin thought painless thoughts and happy things as she worked, humming as she did so. On initial contact there was a flinch, snarl and snap. But both parties knew there was no heart to the snap. It was painfully far from any part of Rin's body and the whimper that followed tugged at Rin's delicate, sensitive heartstrings.

She switched her humming to light yips that sounded happy to her, creating a song in the meantime. The wolf perked it's ears and seemed to laugh when it open its jaws and it's tongue flopped out the side, dangling comically.

Rin laughed a light tinkling laugh of bluebells in the first light of day. The wolf wagged it's tail at the sound and soon was crooning with her in a wild song that only they two knew. The sun had long set and Rin felt the heat of a fire not far from her. Somehow the wolf seemed unafraid and Rin knew her presence was a part of that.

End Flashback

"Inuyasha, do you think Sesshomaru really loves Rin or is it more a demon possessive thing?"

Inuyasha sat behind his wife in their tree, holding her close.

"Kagome, Sesshomaru is not like me. His pride is not an emotion anymore. Myoga once said that it was a physical barrier around his heart that formed from nothing into something even he couldn't penetrate. But I know that his demon chose Rin other wise she would have been dead numerous times before now. So because of his physical barrier formed of his price, he may never say he loves her, out loud, but if his demon chose her as it's mate, seems the words aren't that important. At least that's my opinion."

Kagome looked over her shoulder at her mate. Huh, Sometimes he can be so enigmatic it made her wonder what happened to her klutzy, big mouthed, idiot she fell in love with.

"But then again Sesshomaru might just be a big fat idiot who doesn't know a good this if it smacked him upside his 'noble' head. Pft"

Ah, there he was. Kagome snuggled deeper into her husband and gazed at the stars, theorizing about fate.