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Rin was still rubbing her red eyes when the old woman walked back into the hut. Rin gasped and quickly rubbed her eyes faster trying to hide the fact that she was crying. Lord Sesshomaru always advised her to keep her emotions to herself, and that if she cried it showed weakness.
"Are ye alright?" the elderly woman asked, her voice soft with concern. Rin turned up in surprise at the gentle sound of her voice. She had been used to either Jaken's nagging voice or Sesshomaru's silence when it came to her emotions. Not that she was complaining about either, but it was what she was used to.
"I miss Lord Sesshomaru," Rin murmured and hugged her knees to her chest, "and even Master Jaken,"
"I know child, and I'm sorry for my reaction earlier. It was unjust," the woman stated, "I wish to get to know ye better and for ye to like it here with me,"
"Won't he come back for me?" Rin asked, but by the way the woman's face fell and changed to worry she knew the answer.
"I don't know the answer to that my child," she answered truthfully but moved over and took Rin in her arms, "but ye will move on eventually," Rin felt uncomfortable at the closeness at first but then gave in and leaned against the elderly woman.
"Don't be afraid to cry my dear, there's no shame to cry in front of a friend," the elderly woman stated and rested her hand on Rin's head. Rin sniffled and her lower lip trembled. Then Rin pressed her head against her shoulder and started sobbing again, no longer afraid.
"That's it, let it out my dear. There's no shame, no shame at all," the woman murmured and rubbed her back soothingly. Rin cried and cried until she was too exhausted to keep her eyes open and fell asleep.
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Rin awoke a while later and saw that she was wrapped in a cloth blanket and resting against a corner of the hut. Her vision was a little blurry at first but when it focused she saw the elderly woman caring to a young man spread out across the floor.
The young man was covered in blood from head to toe, his clothes were torn and barely hung from his thin body. He seemed to be asleep, or passed out, as the elderly woman cleaned his arms with a wet cloth.
Rin yawned and stretched out slowly before rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
"So you're awake now, how do you feel?" the woman asked. Rin looked at her and she stared back with worry lines creasing her forehead.
"I feel better," Rin lied. She really didn't, but didn't want the woman to worry about her. The young man she was caring for looked in worse shape.
"That's good, my name is Kaede. What is yours?" the woman asked while she continued to clean the young man's arm.
"Rin," she replied and the woman smiled but didn't look up from the young man's body.
"Is he ok?" Rin asked trying to get a peek at his face.
"He's fine, just exhausted. He was fighting a lot of demons last night and his demonic powers are growing very fast inside him each day. With a few days of good rest and some herbal medicine he'll be just fine," Kaede stated.
"Who is he?" Rin asked and moved over closer to Kaede and the young man.
"His name is Shippo. He travels with Inuyasha and Kagome's group," she answered. Rin's eyebrows went up in surprise at the name. She remembered him, but he was a little boy when she had first met him. He was small enough then to be held like a stuffed animal.
Rin stared down at him, he looked much taller then he was when she first met him and much older. His red hair which had once been held up in a small ponytail was cut short and barely reached his ears. It was a mess and drenched in dried blood, but she could still see that fiery red hair underneath. His face had thinned from the baby cheeks he once had that he looked quite handsome. His eyebrows were thick and as red as his hair. Even though his eyes were closed she was sure those green eyes underneath would be striking.
"He's a handsome devil isn't he?" Kaede asked and Rin smiled and then laughed out loud. She had thought something along those lines, but didn't even think Kaede would be considering that she'd like him.
"But he's full of blood, how can you tell?" Rin asked trying to mask the fact that she found him attractive.
"An attractive man looks good covered in anything," Kaede said and finished rubbing the blood off his arms. She gave out a sigh and rubbed her forehead with her forearm, she looked exhausted.
"Do ye want to clean his face?" Kaede asked.
"Me?" Rin asked pointing at her chest.
"Yeah, I'm exhausted. I've been working on his arms and the blood is dried on his skin, its really hard to get off," Kaede explained. Rin looked from Kaede's outstretched hand to Shippo's unconscious face. She took a deep breath and then nodded and took the wet cloth from Kaede.
Moving over so she was diagonal from Shippo's face she held onto his chin and gently started rubbing his left cheek. Kaede let out a crackling laugh as she watched Rin and Rin sighed.
"What am I doing wrong?" Rin asked moving away from Shippo to sit back on her knees.
"Ye rub that softly and you'll never get done," she said with another crackling laugh.
"But I don't want to hurt him," Rin answered.
"You won't, he's a tough demon and he's asleep," Kaede said.
Rin nodded and bent down towards Shippo's face and grabbed his chin once again before rubbing his left cheek, but this time rubbed harder. The blood stains came out much easier and Kaede nodded in approval before standing up.
"I'll go and get some more clean water to wash that cloth with. Be back soon my dear," Kaede said while getting up and left the hut.
Rin watched her leave before returning to scrubbing Shippo's face. His real face slowly came into view as she removed the blood stains. By the time she was able to clean all of the blood from his face she had moved down so her right arm rested against his chest as support and she rested her cheek on her hand.
She set the cloth down on the floor and closed her eyes, too tired to keep them focused on anything.
Moments later she felt Shippo's chest rise a little higher then it had been and she heard a deep intake of breath. Quickly she pushed off his chest and sat upright just as Shippo opened his eyes.
"Am I dead?" he asked in quiet tired voice before turning his eyes over to Rin. Like she had envisioned his green eyes were striking as he stared into her dark brown ones.
"No, why would you say that?" Rin asked with a gulp hoping he didn't notice that her face was heating up and she had the terrible need to kiss him. It was so unnatural for her to have this kind of pull towards a guy, the only one she ever had was to Lord Sesshomaru.
"You look like what I envisioned an angel would," he answered and Rin let out a little laugh before shaking her head.
"You're not dead and I'm not an angel," Rin said feeling a smile tugging at the side of her lips. His lips spread out into a smile matching her own.
"Could've fooled me," he replied and pushed off the ground to try and sit up, but failed and fell back with a wince.
"I guess I'm not ready for that just yet," he added with a toothy grin, "my name is Shippo, what's yours?"
"Rin," she answered.
"Rin? Oh! Sesshomaru's ward right?" Shippo asked
"Yes, but not anymore. He left me here with Lady Kaede," Rin replied her voice dropping low as she thought of her lord. Her eyes watered slightly and she wanted to cry, but not in front of him.
"Oh I see, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure he had a good reason to, he's no fool," Shippo stated and Rin couldn't help but beam at him through her tear filled eyes. Anyone who talked well of Lord Sesshomaru was an instant friend to Rin.
"Lord Sesshomaru is a great man," Rin agreed with him. Shippo gave her a once over before a large grin spread across his face.
"Ah I see now why you're here," Shippo said, "you're in love with him aren't you? He must've sensed it and thought it might be dangerous to keep you around"
Rin blushed and looked away, cursing the fact that she wore her heart on her sleeve. Her heart stopped beating when she heard him say that Sesshomaru left her there because he could sense she loved him. Would he really leave her for that? Was her emotions all one sided?
"Don't be so down sweetheart," Shippo said with a wink, "you're pretty enough to get any man, Sesshomaru doesn't know what he's missing,"
Rin smiled wider thinking Shippo got his smooth talking skills from Miroku, but tweaked them a bit. Surprisingly it was working, Rin could feel her heart beat quicken when that grin returned on Shippo's face.
"Look at me, I'm a mess," Shippo observed bringing his arms up to see the blood, "did I get all this from last night?"
"That's what Lady Kaede told me. Do you not remember?" Rin asked in return. He merely shook his head and glanced up at her with a look that shook her to the core. The thought of Shippo not knowing what had happened gave Rin the goosebumps, especially since he was a demon.
She had seen Sesshomaru's demonic side many times, but he had been in control. Rin knew she was safe with him because he could always hold back from harming her when the fighting was done. But a demon who could not control and had no recollection of what happened while in demon form was a ticking time bomb.
"Oh ye are awake, good to see that you're able to sit up," Kaede said moving over the shade that covered the doorway. Rin turned around to look at Shippo to see that he had moved to a sitting position and was very close to her. She hadn't even sensed him move, and she could sense when Sesshomaru was moving.
"It's too bad ye are still covered in blood though. Did Rin get lazy on you?" Kaede asked and smirked when Rin felt her cheeks flush.
"No, she was very nice to me. Besides I can wash all this off myself," Shippo defended and placed a hand on Rin's shoulder before giving it an affectionate squeeze. Rin felt a tingly sensation go through her arm but dismissed it as nerves rather then...something else.
"There's a pond in the back of the hut that you can wash in. I have a couple of towels that Kagome left me folded on a rock out there. I also have a kimono that Inuyasha bought for you that you can change into," Kaede stated handing him a bar of freshly made soap. He nodded his thanks before heading out the door.
"So did he say anything interesting while I was gone?" Kaede asked sitting on her knees next to Rin. She started folding up the sheet that she had placed under Shippo, Rin suspected she wanted to wash the dirty sheet.
"Nothing really. He doesn't remember anything from last night, and he seemed just as shocked as I was when he said it out loud," Rin answered as Kaede gave out a little sigh.
"I knew the boy would be trouble. I knew there was something deeper that was bothering Kagome when she dropped him off here. He had a few scrapes and a lot of blood, but nothing that she couldn't have done on her own. But overcoming a demonic spirit is very hard to do. Every demon has to go through it, as I'm sure Lord Sesshomaru did. It's sort of like demon puberty," Rin looked on the floor thinking of what Sesshomaru might look like out of control. A scary image flashed in her eyes of his silvery hair floating around him wildly and his golden eyes red in rage, with an ugly snarl across his face. She bit her lip to keep the gasp down that was climbing up her throat.
"I believe that Inuyasha had to go through something close to the same thing as well. The only difference is that he is constantly fighting the demon rather then ever being able to grow out of it and control it," Kaede said.
Rin had seen Inuyasha when his demon side took over, and while it was frightening she had been told that Sesshomaru had been able to succumb him without much difficulty. But Sesshomaru wasn't here now, so who would succumb Shippo?
"Don't worry my dear. It won't be as hard as it sounds, there just needs to be some discipline that's all. Once Shippo realizes that he is in control and not the demon he will move out of this phase. It's just the challenge of convincing him," Kaede added.
"Well then I guess your work is already done," Shippo's voice entered the room before he did, and when he did he was toweling his red hair and was wearing a turquoise kimono. Rin would've thought the color should have been kept for women's kimono's, but it really accented Shippo's green eyes and red hair, "I already know I control my demon, and I do. It's just that I have these bursts of power that take over and I lose control sometimes. It's no big deal, whenever it's happened I've ended up doing good and being useful rather than on the sidelines," he added.
Rin had always been on the sidelines, but she had never craved for the action either. She wondered what it might feel like.
"You have been doing good because you're transformation into a man has only begun. You have only felt a chip of your power. And I'm sure your subconscious has been able to control it, so you ended up not hurting anyone innocent," Kaede stated.
"I'm already a man!" Shippo shouted, but then glanced over at Rin before snarling at Kaede and storming out.
"Ugh! Now I'm stuck with two unstable adolescences! All I need is a third!" Kaede exclaimed with her hands thrown up in the air.
