She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good!

She writhed her hands till here fingers were wet with sweat or blood!

They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years,

Till, now, on the stroke of midnight,

Cold, on the stroke of midnight,

The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

"Rin," said her Uncle as he stepped into the room. The guards looked up, but did not make any move to stop him talking to her.

Rin looked up at her Uncle, and found herself choked as she saw his eyes—those golden orbs were so like Sesshoumaru's. They were so different in feature otherwise, and yet their eyes were perfectly alike. It took a moment to collect herself. Uncle Inuyasha was just that: Uncle Inuyasha. As he had been for years.

It was odd, she suddenly found herself thinking, that her uncle—her mother's younger sister's husband—was younger brother to her lover. And yet said lover was no more than eight years older than herself. Rin shook her head, clearing it of wistful thoughts of Sesshoumaru. She needed her wits about her at the moment—she needed to speak to Uncle Inuyasha.

He was looking at her in silence, his mouth opening and closing soundlessly. Rin knew that he had heard the accusation that she was lover to the local highwayman; naturally, Uncle Inuyasha was under no illusions as to the identity of said highwayman.

"Why?" he finally managed. Rin was silent for a moment. Dare she tell her story before the soldiers? Then again, if she didn't tell him now, chances were that she never would—she was almost ready to bet that they would all be dead by this time the following day.

"When I was eight, when I was orphaned, beaten, and starving, I stumbled across him in the woods. I tried to steal his food; he caught me, but let me have some anyway. After that, I followed him around like he was my hero. He was my protector for five years before Mama and Papa took me in here." Rin smiled at her Uncle, who was staring at her as though he had swallowed a porcupine. "I didn't want to part with him, so he agreed to come by every night that he could. So we've been living for the past six years."

"But…lovers, Rin? You and…and the highwayman?" Inuyasha's eyes were begging for an explanation.

"He fights to regain what is his—and his brother's." Rin looked straight into Inuyasha's eyes, trying to tell him what she could not tell him plainly. Then she smiled. "And we only really became lovers the year before last."

"You mentioned a brother," interrupted a guard. "Perhaps if you'll tell us who this brother is, we can let you go without further ado."

"And I suppose you think you'll use his brother as bait instead?" Rin scoffed. "I'd like to see you try." Inuyasha found himself suppressing a sort of horrified amusement at the thought of the guards trying and failing miserably to use him to lure out his brother.

"Don't get too cheeky there, girl. No one said we had to keep you nice and happy. In fact," the guard added with a calm smile, "we may even get our reputedly calm and collected highwayman to lose that calm of his if we bruised your pretty little face."

"Don't you touch her!" snapped Inuyasha.

"You'll still protect your 'niece' after you've found that she's a common whore?" asked the guard. Inuyasha's eyes flashed, but before he could even open his mouth, Rin was off again.

"You all seem to think that he's only ever been interested in me because he wanted to bed me. Well, let me tell you something: he would not bed anyone—me or anyone else—with scum like you running free and terrorizing his land!"

Inuyasha's eyes widened in horror a split second before the guard's fist came down on her face in a resounding blow.

"How dare you-" But the other guard stepped forward, brandishing a gun threateningly—and pointing it at Rin. Inuyasha held his tongue, but did not drop his glare.

"King Naraku defeated the House of Taisho in a fair and even battle. He is now ruler of these parts, and to insult him is treason."

"Like hell it was fair and even," Rin hissed, and Inuyasha was torn between pride of his niece's courage, fear of what would befall her for this, and wonder at the extent of her devotion to the brother that he had always thought to be cold and heartless.

The tip of one finger touched it; she strove no more for the rest!

Up, she stood up to attention, with the barrel beneath her breast,

She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again;

For the road lay bare in the moonlight;

Blank and bare in the moonlight;

And the blood of her veins in the moonlight throbbed to her love's refrain.

Rin threw on her cloak on over the nightclothes that she knew were a luxury to even people of her Mama and Papa's status. After being with them for two years, she was perfectly accustomed to this life. Even calling Sango and Miroku 'Mama' and 'Papa', which had been terribly awkward at first, was now second nature. They were practically parents to her, though when she thought about it, she had to giggle at the knowledge that they were only eleven and thirteen years older than herself.

Over those two years, Sessoumaru had always come at least ever other night. There was the rare occasion when he would miss two nights in a row, but he avoided doing so whenever possible. Rin was finding that she was thinking of him less and less as her 'protector' and seeing him more and more as a single man—not that she would ever tell him so. No doubt he would be disgusted at the thought that a fifteen-year-old was infatuated with him.

But he had been absent for three nights; Rin knew in her gut that something was wrong. So it was that night that she snuck out her window, carefully lowering herself to dangle by the arms from the ledge of her window before bracing herself and letting go.

The impact with the ground sent a brief pain shooting up her legs, but she pretended not to feel it as she ran soundlessly into the stables. She had no patience to saddle the horse; she only secured the bridle in place, and then nimbly leapt up onto its back. She nudged its flanks with her heels and sent it galloping across the courtyard, through the gates, and then down the dark highway.

With her she carried only a pouch of simple medicinal herbs that Aunt Kagome had shown her how to use, and a lantern was clutched in her left hand to light the way.

It was half an hour before she saw what she had been seeking. It was a horrific sight—bloody bodies clad in red uniforms with black sashes scattered over the road. There was a single whinnying horse among them that would have broken her heart in any other situation, but she could have cared less at that particular moment. Rin leaped off her horse, retaining only enough presence of mind to wrap the bridle around a low tree branch after she swung off its back.

She leaned down to inspect the royal guards' bodies—the blood was hard and black, but the bodies were not yet smelling. This was a fairly recent fight. So Sesshoumaru had to be somewhere nearby.

Whenever there had been a fight, Sesshoumaru had always made an effort to keep as far away from the scene of the slaughter as possible, to keep from being caught by a second following troop, should there be one. But if he were badly wounded…

She moved to enter the trees—and then stopped and looked back. In the instance that Sesshoumaru was injured and hadn't managed to get far from here, it was best that it not be so apparent that there was a fight there.

She took hold of one of the bodies by the ankles and dragged it into the trees, depositing it in the bushes about ten strides away from the road. She did the same with the other bodies, making sure not to put more than two bodies in the same clump of bushes. She also checked each body as she deposited it in its hiding spot to see if any still lived. None did. And then she looked at the paths of crushed grass that she had made by dragging the bodies. Lowering herself to her knees, she straightened the grass as best she could; then she covered the more prominent bloodstains on the road by shifting the dust with the toes of her shoes.

When that was done, she did not even bother to look back to inspect her work, or to worry about the still-living horse before darting into the trees. Rin didn't dare call out for fear of attracting unwanted attention, but she searched behind ever tree, in every section of deep undergrowth.

It felt like hours later that she found him at last, lying motionless and pale in the thick undergrowth at the roots of a giant oak tree. Rin ran up to him—and gave a cry of dismay when she saw the blood that coated his left side.

His left arm was gone.

Rin knelt beside him, her heart refusing to beat and her lungs refusing to breathe. She could not find her voice as she dropped to her knees beside him and brushed a hand through his sweat-drenched bangs. He was cold and clammy. The coolness of his skin sent a tremor of terror up her spine.

"Sesshoumaru?" she whispered fearfully, not even noting the first time that she had ever called him by name. She received no reply.

She reached for his wrist with trembling hands, and probed it for a pulse with her thumb.

She found it. It was faint, but definitely there. But the stub of an arm was still bleeding, and Rin was not so naïve as to fail to realize that he did not have much life left should the bleeding continue. Swallowing hard, she ripped the left sleeve from the shredded coat to inspect the arm. She feared that she would make things worse by peeling dried blood from the wound, but she need not have worried about that: the wound was still wet enough that Sesshoumaru did not even regain consciousness as she peeled the remains of the sleeve from the stub of an arm. But that did not bode well, Rin realized when she saw that the stub was still bleeding far more heavily that she would have liked.

"Oh God," she whimpered. "I haven't got enough with me to- I've got to get you back to-"

This was no time for crying, Rin reminded herself. The man who had always protected her needed her help now, and she would not fail to give it.

Well, first thing to do was to get the injured back to a place where she could take better care of him. How was she to lift him? She moved around to his right, looped that arm around her shoulder, and tried to drag him to his feet. Half way up, she looked down and saw the blood dripping from what remained of his left arm to the ground. He wouldn't make it back to the inn alive, she realized, and something twisted painfully in her chest and she thought she would vomit. The corners of her eyes stung, but she ignored it as she quickly lowered the man back to the ground.

Rin took a deep breath. If she couldn't get Sesshoumaru back to the inn to the supplies, she would have to bring the supplies herself. She glanced down at the bleeding stub—she knew very little about healing, since very few who appeared at the inn were ever gravely wounded, and she had no idea whether he could die of blood loss in the time that it would take her to go and come back.

She glanced down at the sleeve that she had torn from Sesshoumaru, but it was far too covered in hardened blood to suffice for the purpose for which she intended it. She looked down at herself—was this really a time to worry about how expensive her clothing was? So she tore off one of her sleeves, twisted it into the best imitation of a rope that she could manage, and bound Sesshoumaru's shoulder with it as tightly as she could manage, making sure to get the knot in his armpit in the hope that it would help cut off the flow from the major artery there.

Then she ran back to the road as quickly as she could manage, yanked her horse's bridle from the tree, scrambled up onto its back and kicked its sides with vigor. The horse seemed to sense her anxiety, for it leapt into a gallop without any further persuasion. Shortening the reins, Rin kicked her horse's sides as hard as she could manage all the way back to the inn. She had leapt off the horse before it had even stopped, and ran to the back door before she realized that she had climbed out her window, and the door was locked. Cursing in a vehement whisper, she ran back to the horse and led it carefully to the area beneath her window, whispering to it soothingly and trying to hide from it her own anxiety. She climbed onto its back, still murmuring soothingly—nervously—to it, and reached up, only to find that she still couldn't reach her windowsill. Suddenly she understood why the impact with the ground had hurt so much when she had jumped down.

Despair did not even cross her mind with Sesshoumaru's life at stake. She jumped up and grabbed onto her windowsill, clambering up and dropping into her room with a loud crash that she had no doubt was waking her family. But she didn't care just then. She dove at a sack under her mattress, and dragged it with her out into the hallway and down the staircase. Darting through the empty bar, she went into the back and dug into the cupboard where she knew her Aunt kept her medical supplies. Rin took a few clumps of different leaves, a handful of bark, and then dug for a jar of ointment that she knew was in there. Something cool touched her fingers in the messy cupboard, and she pulled out the familiar jar. But when she pulled the top off, it was empty.

Cursing quietly under her breath, Rin was digging for the leaves she would need to make the lotion when she heard a clatter upstairs—she had woken someone. With another curse, Rin dove for the mortar and pestle, and crammed everything into her sack as she ran across the kitchen to the back door, pulled back the bolt, threw open the door, and ran out into the courtyard. Her horse was still there, around the corner, prancing impatiently as it tried to decide whether to stay or run. Grabbing it by the reins, Rin scrambled onto its back as quickly as she could with a sack in her hands.

Rin kicked the horse's flanks, holding on with her knees as she steered with one hand on the reins. The sack was in her other hand. Never having ridden with such baggage before, she almost feared galloping—if she were to fall, what would become of Sesshoumaru then? But then again, what if he died before she reached him? Kicking her horse's flanks again, she spurred it into a gallop.

The soldiers' horse was still whinnying as Rin once again dismounted and tied her horse's bridle to a tree. But Rin paid the creature even less attention than she had before, running straight for Sesshoumaru.

Kneeling beside him, she checked the bleeding. It had slowed somewhat, and she allowed the slightest bit of relief to flow into her mind. Then she realized that slowed bleeding could also mean the worst—grabbing his right wrist, she probed desperately for a pulse—and found it.

This time, Rin did not allow herself a moment of relief. She dug through her bag for one of a particular leaf and the string. A glance at Sesshoumaru told her that he wouldn't be able to chew the herb, so she placed it into her own mouth, chewing until it was practically fine enough to swallow. Leaning over him, she then pried open his mouth with a finger, pressed her own mouth to his, and pushed the numbing herb into his mouth with her tongue. As soon as she registered that he had swallowed, she spat out what remained of the herb, digging through the sack for her water skin to rinse out her mouth: numbness would be soothing to her mind, but not helpful to Sesshoumaru for what she was about to do. Taking the string, Rin tore off a piece with her teeth. Reaching for the stub of Sesshoumaru's left arm, she tried not to think about what she was doing as she rinsed it off with the water in the water skin. She found the primary source of the leaking blood, and somehow managed to get the string around it. Tying it up tightly, she then pulled the rope from her sack and tied it around Sesshoumaru's arm, as close to the end of the stub as she could without having to worry too much about it coming off. This finished, Rin removed her sleeve from Sesshoumaru's shoulder and pulled out generous amount of various leaves with the mortar and pestle. Grinding them into a powder, she added the slightest bit of water and continued to grind until it became a paste. She spread this over the open wound of Sesshoumaru's arm, leaving herself a small amount for later. Once she had finished that, she placed some medicinal bark and leaves against the wound and bound it with a large amount of bandages.

Here she finally allowed herself to heave a sigh. Then she looked Sesshoumaru up and down—he was still covered in a number of wounds, though none of them looked nearly as critical as the arm. With a small smile, Rin began to tend for them.

"Rin?" Her name was almost indistinguishable—and of course it would be, the way his mouth would be feeling after that numbing herb.

"It's alright," said Rin as soothingly as she could, given her own state of anxiety. "Don't worry, I'm here. I- I'm healing your wounds for you, as best I can."

"Why-"

"You hadn't come in three days, and I was worried, so I came looking for- Wait, are you talking about why you're feeling weird? That was because-" Rin stopped herself in the nick of time. Aunt Kagome had said something about people often not remembering their conditions when they were like this, and how it was best not to remind them, if only to keep them calm.

"…Because I had to give you some medicine. Don't worry, the strange feeling'll go away soon." Rin mentally cursed herself, but that was all she could do at such short notice.

"Don't lie," Sesshoumaru muttered far more intelligibly than he should have been able, "I know, my arm-"

"Don't think about it," Rin hastily interjected, trying to do the same herself. "Just sleep and get better."

Sesshoumaru looked at her with hard eyes, and she knew that he would defy her. So Rin did the only thing she could think of and leaned down to press a kiss to his forehead. "Sleep. I love you, I won't let anything happen to you."

Strangely enough, Sesshoumaru closed his eyes at this. Rin shrugged at went back to tending to his wounds. It was not till she finished that she remembered what she had said and turned red to realize that she did, indeed, love the man who had once been her knight in shining armor.

Then she remembered the horse on the road, and the footsteps upstairs when she had left the inn, and the anxiety came flooding back. She grabbed her sack and rushed back out to the road, where she inspected the horse. It had a gash across its stomach, and one of its legs was broken. Rin treated it as best she could with the materials that she had brought with her, improvising where she had to.

"You poor thing," she cooed to the horse as she finished treating and bandaging the gash on its stomach and turned to its leg to attempt to gauge how bad the break was and whether she should attempt to treat it on her own, or call Aunt Kagome for help. When she realized that the bone was displaced, she knew that she could not set it on her own. "Just wait here a moment, all right?" she said as she stood. It was not as though the horse could go anywhere, but some reassurance could not go amiss.

Rin hurried back into the trees, though she no longer had the energy to run. Sesshoumaru still lay exactly as she had left him, and her heart broke to see him unmoving—and then leapt to see that his eyes were open and following her.

"How are you doing?" she whispered, kneeling beside the man and stroking his bangs back from his forehead—and was horrified to find that he was burning up.

"Perfectly all right," came the reply. He wasn't being sarcastic, Rin knew—he was trying to keep her from worry.

"No you're not," Rin sighed. She reached for her sack and pulled out a few more herbs, which she crushed with her fingers—she could not use the mortar and pestle without rinsing them, and the contents of her water skin were far too precious for that. "Can you swallow?" she asked as she held out a small portion of the two crushed plants before his mouth.

He gave her a nod that she knew must have been painful, and she pressed the herbs through his lips and onto his tongue, watching closely to be sure that he swallowed. She repeated this a few more times, ensuring that he received a good dose of the medicine. She then took a piece of cloth from her sack, which she wet with water from her skin, and placed that over Sesshoumaru's forehead.

"Rin," Sesshoumaru said. He always said the same thing when he was injured, so Rin didn't bother to reply. "I don't need your help," he always told her. Today, however, perhaps because of the pain, he said no more.

Mama and Papa would be worrying, Rin knew, and while she could use the wounded horse as her excuse, it was not nearly valid enough for her to stay away for too long. But she could not leave Sesshoumaru with the knowledge that he was burning up with fever. After a moment of thought, she dug into some of the bushes where she had left soldiers' bodies, and trying not to think of the disrespectful atrocity that she was committing, she removed three of their jackets. One she folded into a pillow, which she placed carefully beneath Sesshoumaru's head; the other two she rolled up and placed on either side of him before removing her own cloak and covering him with that.

"Drink," Rin murmured, propping his head up on her knee as she held her water skin by his mouth. He obediently drank a little. She set his head down, slipping the makeshift pillow beneath it as she did so. "I have to go now, but I'll be back."

She did not wait for a reply before springing to her feet and starting off, mentally listing the things she would have to bring him—and continue to bring to him until he was well enough to move around again. But Sesshoumaru's voice behind her stopped her in her tracks.

"Thank you."

Rin turned and stared, but to all appearances, the man was fast asleep. "I love you," she whispered again, quietly enough for none to hear but herself. "I really do." And she ran off, knowing that she would have to come back as soon as possible, or she would fall ill with worry.

Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horse-hoofs

ringing clear;

Tlot-tlot, tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did

not hear?

Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill,

The highwayman came riding,

Riding, riding!

The red-coats looked to their priming! She stood up strait and still!

Rin received no more visits; nor had she expected to. She even hoped that she would receive no more—she wanted her family to remain safe.

But even more than that, she wanted Sesshoumaru to come out of this alive. That was why, though her arms were already aching with all the effort that he had put into attempting to get free of the ropes that bound her hands behind her to the bedpost, she began her struggle anew. Still, she had been working at the ropes for hours at least, and the knots held good—nothing even loosened.

What could she do anyway? She obviously wasn't going to get free—her hands could bearly move, and she had no doubt that even if she somehow managed to free them, they would be far too tired and in pain by that point to even begin working on the other ropes that bound her waist and ankles. She needed a way to warn Sesshoumaru—a way to get him out before he was too close. Shouting would probably alert Sesshoumaru to the fact that Rin was personally in danger, which would be countereffective, and it would be too late by the time that he was in shouting distance anyway. If only she had something that was loud and signified danger... Like a cannon, or a pistol.

Rin looked at the two men guarding her, helpless. They were now sound asleep, one on either side of her. Both smelled terrible, and both were snoring so loudly that her ears were ringing; but Rin was tremendously grateful that they had fallen asleep. No further attempts to force her had been made after the first, but she wouldn't put it past them to try again if they got too bored.

But each soldier had a musket out in plain sight. They were both held pointing at Rin, just in case she attempted anything. Her hands were bound to the right side of the bedpost, and so Rin judged that the right musket was closer.

She struggled against the ropes, this time for the musket rather than freedom. The ropes were holding her as tightly as before; but, she realized, it was not as difficult if she twisted her body just so, and pushed her arms into the rope.

It was a painful and uncomfortable position, but at least her fingers were nearer their goal than they had ever come before.

Still, she couldn't reach the musket.

As silently as she possibly could, Rin continued her struggle in the darkness, keeping her eyes on the road all the while. Everything would be lost if he appeared before she reached the musket.

Something trickled down her fingers, and Rin wondered if it was sweat or blood. But then she put the thought from her mind, because it didn't really matter all that much.

Her silent struggle went on for what felt like hours—she kept her eyes fixed on the window, silently begging Sesshoumaru with all her heart to not come until she had the gun.

And then something cool touched the tip of her finger, and Rin's heart leaped—she looked around, and saw that she had managed, by some miracle, to reach the trigger. A tired smile adorned her face, which was wet with sweat, and she ceased her struggling. All she needed was the trigger; the rest of the musket was of no consequence.

Rin turned her eyes back to the window, now alert and ready.

But unlike the previous night, the night was dark, and she could not even see the road through the open window. So she listened; Rin could almost hear her own heart, and was painfully aware that all her effort would be for naught if the guard beside her woke and moved away from her in the slightest, taking the musket with him. She worried that he would hear her painfully loud heart.

And then she heard the tlot-tlot of a horse's hooves and stood up straight, attempting to press her finger more firmly against the trigger. The hooves were coming closer almost faster than she could bear, and Rin thought of Sesshoumaru as he rode: expressionless, but with that triumphant glint in his eyes that he always wore after a particularly successful conquest.

She stared at the darkness outside the window, praying for one—just one—sign that it really was Sesshoumaru riding toward the inn. Like the heavens had heard her prayer, the cloud cover unveiled the moon.

It only lasted for a brief moment, but it was more than enough for Rin: she saw the glint of silver hair on the ribbon over the hills as the man approached on horseback.

The guards were waking; but they did not distance themselves from Rin. In fact, they pressed closer to get their muskets flush against her sides. Rin stood, straight and silent, watching the darkness out the window. The hoof beats were getting closer.

Then she smiled, and before the guards could think to react, her finger moved in the darkness.

The musket gave a resounding crack and Rin slumped over, held upright only by the ropes that bound her.

Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night!

Nearer he came and nearer! Her face was like a light!

Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath,

Then her finger moved in the moonlight,

Her musket shattered the moonlight,

Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.

"I said tell me!"

"And I said that it does not concern you."

"You always come back wounded!"

"Again, a matter that is none of your concern."

"I always have to tend to your wounds afterwards!"

"You insist upon it, as I recall. I care not whether you or I tend to them."

"Someone has to, they're nothing small!"

"Then I shall, as I have always done."

"You're terrible at treating yourself! And you actually intend to wrap bandages with one arm?"

"Bandages are, strictly speaking, an unnecessary waste of cloth."

"You'll kill yourself one day if you live that way!"

"If it does, it still shall be none of your concern."

"I couldn't bear to see it!" The deep brown eyes filled with tears at the mere thought.

"Very well—I shall not come again." Sesshoumaru turned and began to walk out of the stable calmly. Rin stared at his coldly retreating back for a moment, and then her anger flared.

"Don't you dare walk away like that, you cold, selfish, heartless, spoiled brat of a prince!"

Sesshoumaru turned to glare at her piercingly, only to find that she had chased after him as she spoke, and now darted around to stand in front of him, blocking his way.

"You know better than to shout at people, Rin."

"I believe I can make an exception for an arrogant, pompous, m-"

When he grabbed her by the waist and his lips seized hers, she acted as though she had expected it all along—without a moment's hesitation, her lips pressed back against his vigorously as her tongue shot out to meet his. It was a battle, each trying to gain advantage over the other. Rin's hands had made their way into the silky silver hair that she adored so, and now fisted in it as she attempted to crush his mouth harder against her own. Sesshoumaru's single arm around her waist pulled her closer to him.

Suddenly, the roughness that made it seem as though they were trying to murder one another with their mouths melted. Their lips remained together in a much softer kiss. Rin's hands had released the fistfuls of hair, and one arm wrapped about his neck; the other combed through his soft locks. Rin found this a great deal more overwhelming, and felt her knees buckle. Sesshoumaru's arm tightened around her waist, keeping her from falling as he gently broke the kiss.

"Sesshoumaru…" the whispered name fell from her lips without a single conscious thought behind it. Her arms settled around his neck as she snuggled into his chest.

"Well, well," Sesshoumaru commented dryly, "it appears that you do know my name after all."

"I've always known it," Rin replied contentedly. "I've just never seen the need to use it."

Sesshoumaru let out a small, rare chuckle as he rested his chin atop Rin's head.

"Your mother may not approve of this," he pointed out softly after a long silence. Rin smiled into his chest.

"Which part?" she asked. "The age, the criminal, or the general idea of a male after her daughter's virtue?"

"I am not after your virtue," Sesshoumaru snorted, though he made no move to pull away.

"It's not a matter of the intention," huffed Rin, pulling away just enough to glare up at him. "It's the principle of a man sneaking around in the middle of the night to spend time with her daughter, most likely to do things that aren't that innocent." Sesshoumaru cocked an eyebrow elegantly. Rin began to redden. "I'm not suggesting anything!" she blurted defensively, her face going red. Sesshoumaru raised his brow further. "Not that I'm protesting against anything either!" she quickly added, now as red as a tomato.

A hint of a smile tugged at Sesshoumaru's lips, and she sighed in defeat. When the hint of a smile became an actual small smile, Rin found herself helplessly flustered, and searched for what they had been talking about to distract herself. Right. Mama's reaction.

"The age shouldn't matter—I'm seventeen and you're five-and-twenty. That's not so much of an age gap. You're a criminal for your own justifiable reasons, and only Naraku's men are in any danger from you. And I've lived through a lot over my seventeen years of my life—I think I can make my own decisions. Besides, I know you—it's not like I just took up with anyone."

"I should hope not," growled Sesshoumaru, tightening his arm around her. Then he looked down at her seriously. "You know that we cannot marry. That we cannot…do anything, as begetting children is out of the question."

Rin smiled. "I know." And she leaned up to place another light kiss on his lips; he caught her mouth in a kiss far deeper than any she had intended, and again Rin found herself depending on Sesshoumaru's one arm for support.

He had gifted her with a true smile: something Rin knew that no one was graced with but herself. She knew that he loved her as much as she loved him. And for her, that was enough.

He turned; he spurred to the West; he did not know who stood

Bowed, with her head o'er the musket, drenched with her own red blood!

Not till the dawn he heard it, his face grew grey to hear

How Bess, the landlord's daughter,

The landlord's black-eyed daughter,

Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

Sesshoumaru spent that night sleeping restlessly in the trees. He had turned from the inn because of a gunshot, but Rin's wellbeing was nagging at him, gnawing on his gut. He forced himself to wait, knowing that Rin would never forgive him for leaping into danger on her account.

He waited until the horizon was beginning to grow lighter; no longer. He had reached the inn by dawn, where he leaped from his horse...and stared at the pile of dead soldiers' bodies at the center of the courtyard.

A certain foreboding welled up in him as he ran around to the back of the stable, and thought his heart stopped at the sight before his eyes.

"Rin?" he whispered. The first to see him was a man with long, black hair that seemed strangely familiar. Sesshoumaru felt vaguely surprised at how it took him a moment to recognize his brother, but then he looked past him again to the makeshift wooden box—not even a coffin, but a box—that contained Rin.

"Rin," he whispered again, approaching the box numbly. He stared down at Rin's pale body for a moment, then looked at the faces around him. A glance was all that he needed to know that he was the cause of this tragedy. "How?"

"The King's men," hissed Sango. "Why? Why did you let her get involved with you when you knew that this could happen?" Sesshoumaru did not reply. He had questioned their relationship so many times, yet always came to the conclusion that their connection ran so deep already that if the King's men came for Rin, it would not make any difference what sort of relationship they had—and whatever happened, Sesshoumaru could protect her.

How silly of him, to think that he could protect a woman when he turned and ran away at the first sign of trouble at her residence. A brown-haired boy was kneeling over Rin's body, running his hand over her hair as tears ran down his cheeks. A glance at his expression told Sesshoumaru more than a thousand words ever could: this boy had betrayed Rin—and he had done it out of his own love for the girl.

If Sesshoumaru had let Rin go, would she have loved this boy? Would she have graced him with the same smile that she gave Sesshoumaru? Would she have loved him the same way? Would she have forgotten Sesshoumaru and lived a life of bliss with the boy as her husband and father of her children?

Perhaps—but at the very least, she would have lived.

"The soldiers meant to use her to lure you out." Sesshoumaru recognized Inuyasha's voice at his back as he knelt beside the box. "She was bound—and we think she shot herself...to warn you."

He had heard Rin's death with his own two ears. And he had turned his back on it.

Sesshoumaru reached out to Rin, and the other boy sprang back like he had been burned. Sesshoumaru's hand paused, then brushed a stray lock of Rin's hair behind her ear.

Then he stood and looked at Inuyasha, who stood with his arm around a very pregnant, sobbing woman. This must be Rin's Aunt Kagome. He turned to look at the brown haired couple that was glaring at him, the woman looking positively murderous, a blonde little girl in her arms—Rin's adoptive parents and sister.

Rin had promised that Sesshoumaru would meet them someday. He had never dreamed that it would be her death that would make the promise come true.

In some part of his mind, he supposed that he had expected to defeat Naraku, take his rightful place, and bring Rin to his side as his wife. He had considered that he might die on the way—but never that Rin might. Sweet, innocent Rin had just seemed far too removed from death that she had seemed immortal; somehow, he had expected her to live on long after he was gone.

Yet he was looking down at her empty corpse, and her soul had been robbed by her own hands—and for him. Why? he pleaded to her silently. I would have happily died to save you. You knew that I wanted you to live!

But then again, Sesshoumaru suddenly realized, Rin must have felt exactly the same—and she had supported his cause as much as he had. She never would have let him die while she could help it.

"Brother," Sesshoumaru spoke steadily, never allowing his expression to waver or his voice to fail. Inuyasha's eyes widened fractionally—never before had Sesshoumaru acknowledged that they were even related. Then his eyes shot open as wide as they could go as Sesshoumaru swept into a bow to him. "If I serve my purpose—then long live the King."

"Wait—no, Sess, you can't mean to-"

Sesshoumaru halted at the entrance to the stables. "I told you that I hated that name years ago. Nothing has changed."

"But-"

"Rin deserved to be a Queen."

"Of course she did, and you- Wait—Sess, you can't mean that you-"

"She will not be remembered as a common whore—you be sure of that."

But before Inuyasha could say another word, Sesshoumaru was gone, and they were left with nothing but the sound of hooves clattering over stone, distancing more rapidly than they had ever known a horse could run.

In the East, the sun was just beginning to rise.

Back, he spurred like a madman, shrieking a curse to the sky,

With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high!

Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,

When they shot him down on the highway,

Down like a dog on the highway,

And he lay in his blood on the highway, with a bunch of lace at his throat.

———Continues in Epilogue