Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing well. I apologize for taking so long, but I have been super busy with things going on in my personal life that I will not bore you with. But I am going to take a few moments to talk about something.
If ANOTHER person threatens me about my stories and how they are going to made, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM will be taken down and I will no longer post them up on here. As I've said in Sweet Nightmare these are my stories and I will do them HOW I want to, NOT how YOU want them. Thank you very much!
One more thing, I am barely getting feedback, if any. I would appreciate it, if not everyone, but those who read this story would please at least tell me what you think about the story. It makes every author feel amazing. And I will respond to each review, except those that don't say much, at the end of every chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any characters from the anime. I do own OC and this plotline.

Chapter 4

Sounds of people talking, arguing, and doing only kamis know what else invaded the senses of small group of four teenagers as they made their ways through the mall. Three of them were chatting away about different things while the last one of the group stood back and watched them. That is, until they reached the entrance of the store of the store they were heading to. Hot Topic was not only a hot place in the United States, but it was also very popular in their part of Japan. It just so happened that it was Rin's and Rae's all-time favorite shopping place!

"Riiiiiiiiiin! C'mon!" squealed the excitable blond as she dragged her best friend inside of the store causing Rin to grab ahold of Inuyasha, who in turn grabbed Sesshomaru's arm and dragged him along with. How the petite girl was able to drag all of them inside of the store would forever be a mystery to all of the other humans around them.

"Rae," gasped out the brunette as she tried to free herself from the blonde's girl.

"Rin…" Uh-oh. Rae was mad and Rin had absolutely no idea why. "You NEED NEW clothes!" Rae growled lowly in her throat, every bit of her normal playfulness and cheerfulness gone and replaced with an artic storm that rivalled Sesshomaru's. "I am BUYING you NEW clothes. Do you understand?"

Knowing it was better to just nod her head and accept, Rin decided to be dumb and fight back. "No. Not again! You CANNOT keep doing this, Rae Rae!" Rin argued back.

Growling at her best friend, Rae caught Rin's arm and dragged the poor brunette around the store trying to find the perfect clothes for her. It seemed that Rin would not win this battle, this time... She always lost to Rae when it concerned things like this. She would never understand it. Never understand why Rae would want to waste her money on someone like Rin, who didn't really have anything other than what Rae had gotten her and what her father would give to her on occasion.

Inuyasha just stared at the two girls curiously. He always wondered if his dear cousin was crazy or just out of her mind. She was so bipolar that she made crazy people seem sane. It was unbelievable, especially with the way she drug the human girl Rin around. Her infatuation with her was surprising. Ever since he was younger, he heard about members of his family taking on humans as pets or even as companions. Yet, he didn't know what category Rin fell under with Rae.

Not even Sesshomaru, who had been here almost two weeks longer than him knew why Rae was so protectively and possessive of the girl. It was shocking. She didn't seem like much more than the average girl. Sure, her life was different from theirs. He had overheard his aunt and uncle talking about how Rin's family was very…peculiar and did horrible things behind closed doors. Question is, what kind of horrible things did they do?

The throbbing in Sesshomaru's head slowly began to increase with each minute that passed with them in Hot Topic. His darling cousin and her antics were beginning to rub a certain part of his personality raw. He needed air and away from the two girls. This was becoming just a little bit too much to handle at the moment. Almost as unbearable as Inuyasha's insistent cussing. So Sesshomaru decided to whack Inuyasha upside his thick, moronic skull before he walked over to the other side of the store. At least over here he wasn't plagued with Rin's scent that was slowly beginning to drive him crazy.

Leaning up against one of the sections of wall that was actually bare, Sesshomaru watched the two girls making their way around the store. Rae kept shoving different styles of clothing into Rin's arm, piling the poor girl's arms up. It was actually kind of disheartening to see how she was not enjoying her time at the mall with them. Was it all Rae's fault that Rin had suddenly lost her smile? Or was there something else going on? Sesshomaru could smell and feel the sadness coming from her even though she smiled.

Rae was just chattering away about different hot guys and what kind of guy they needed to find for Rin. From the way that Rin's nose and forehead crinkled, Sesshomaru could tell that it was an old, boring topic that Rin did not like to visit often. If he didn't know any better, he would think that she wasn't interested in dating. Yet, that seemed impossible since almost every young girl her age enjoyed dating and having a boy dote on her.

"Since when did stores like this let in trailer trash?" sneered a male voice off to Sesshomaru's right causing the demon to bristle slightly in anger. Not only did the voice set his teeth on edge but the words that soon followed. "You are going to stink up the whole place."

"Oh, well hello there, Chubaka!" came Rae's sugary sweet voice that had malice hidden underneath it. What was going on here? "What are you doing here?"

"Shut it, Rae. Why in the hell did you bring this piece of trash out in public? She's only going to make you filthy," Kohaku hissed out as one of his fingers pointed directly at Rin who looked pale and sick to her stomach. Even from this distance, Sesshomaru could smell her fear, sadness, and shame.

Rae's normally happy eyes narrow into lasers that should have killed the boy right on the spot, but Kohaku seemed to be completely unfazed. "We are shopping and are showing my cousins around, not that it's any of your business. Why don't you go back to the whore's whose legs you have just crawled you ratchet self from between and leave us alone?" was the sweet response from the short blond as she glared. It seemed that she was trying to keep this ordeal as calm as possible while insulting the boy since she could feel Sesshomaru's aura spiking just a little bit.

Kohaku scoffed, his brown eyes narrowing onto Rin who was creeping her way toward the exit. Seeing this as an opportunity he threw his hands up in the air and slowly made his way towards the door. Right before was about to walk out he snagged the brunette's arm in his hand and squeezed hard. He leaned down and whispered something that only Rin and Sesshomaru heard.

"Sweet, little Rin. Seems you have found others to wrap those scrawny legs around. I hope that you gave them their money's worth because you sure as hell did not give it to me." That was all he said before he chuckled and start to leave right before he saw a flash of silver in the corner of his eye and he was pinned up against the wall with a long pale hand wrapped tightly around his throat. A deep, guttural growl was released right next to his ear, nearly causing him to piss his pants as he stared into the red eyes of Sesshomaru.

"Never," Sesshomaru hissed," say such things to a female or else." The hand around Kohaku's throat tightened a bit more right before he slammed right into the floor. As soon as he hit the floor and started coughing Sesshomaru's foot was slammed right into windpipe holding him to the floor.

Sesshomaru raised his voice loud enough for everyone to hear and understand that what he said was a promise. "If I ever hear you or about you insulting Rin, you will wish that you never heard of Sesshomaru Takahashi and Rin Ito."

"Sesshomaru!" The demon's head snapped off to the side and looked at the male who had carelessly called out his name while he was putting this human in his place. Who would be so foolish and stupid?

"Yakunan," Sesshomaru stated coolly before removing his foot from Kohaku's throat and calmly walking towards the cat demon, his own body tense and on edge even though his movements were flowing. "What is it, worthless cat."

The language that Yakunan spoke in almost startled Sesshomaru. "Did you show what you truly are to these mortals?" the "cat" just stared at the dog demon before tilting his head off to the side in curiosity. Yakunan was on his way to the Aeropostle in the mall when he had felt a massive spike in the aura around him. He had followed here to find this scene before. Even though it greatly amused him this was not the place for something like this to be taking place. At least not in a place this public.

With a frown Yakunan turned to leave only to see that his path with blocked. A vein popped up on his forehead showing his agitation. "Nothing to see here people! Just some idiots fighting over a girl!" Flailing his arms around he yelled and told everyone to leave unless they were shopping the store.

Sesshomaru kept himself from scoffing at Yakunan's antics before he looked directly at Rin. Her naturally wide eyes were now the size of dinner plates, her scent filled with fear and worry. Hazel eyes locked with amber before Rin started to chew on her lip looking at where Kohaku was slowly trying to stand up on his feet. The boy couldn't even stand straight, he just kept moving from side to side like he was a leaf in the wind.

Wheezing and coughing, Kohaku forced himself to speak. "I-I'll ma-make you b-both p-p-p-pay." It was a weak and very pathetic threat, but it was still a threat. Before Sesshomaru could make his way towards the idiotic boy Inuyasha and stepped forward. The half-breed was blocking Sesshomaru's way on purpose. The knowledge of this had Sesshomaru narrowing his eyes at his half-brother's back.

"If you touch Rin or my brother, I will make YOU pay, you fucking idiot," he snapped out before punching the guy in the face, sending Kohaku into the nearest clothes rack where he curled up on the floor. To anyone who was looking on it would seem as if Inuyasha was calm and defending Sesshomaru and Rin but it was quite the contrary. It was having to fight off his own demon. Already he could feel the red starting to ring around his normally golden eyes. His lips twitching up into a smirk as he watched Kohaku struggle to his feet before hightailing it out of the mall faster than you could say, "Bless you."

"Rin," Rae whimpered softly as she reached out to touch her best friend's shoulder, who in turn just stared at her. The blonde's heart clenching and tugging hard in regret and sympathy. This was not how the day was supposed to be at all. "Are you gonna be okay?"

All that Rin could manage to do was nod her head slowly. Her human mind still in shock at everything that went down. First Kohaku shows up and starts insulting her, which wasn't all that new since it happened on a regular basis. Then Sesshomaru stands up and defends her and practically attacks Kohaku but without doing too much physical damage. Rin would have been happy if he had done something damaging to Kohaku, but still. Sesshomamru… An inu-daiyoukai, a very powerful one at that as you could tell from his markings, attacked someone and defended her. She was not sure whether she should feel honored that he showed favor towards her or if she should be scared because he might ask for something in return.

"Riiiiin," she heard his silky voice softly purr against her ear causing a series of shiver to escape down her spine. Lean, muscular arms slipped under the crook of her knees and the middle of her back before she was hoisted up into the air and pressed close to a hard chest, which caused her cheeks to flame a deep, scarlet red.

"Riiiiiiiiiiiiin," he purred again before the tip of his nose nuzzled the top of her head as he looked at Rae, the warning in his eyes evident to the blond haired female. "Pay for what you have come for."

Sesshomaru walked out of the store heading in the direction of the food court. The entire short walk there he kept arguing with his inner demon about what he was doing. This was not something he had expected himself to do, but the look in those hazel eyes of hers just woke something up in him. The sadness, the pain….the betrayal. It was almost too much for him, yet he did not understand why. Rin was a human, one he barely knew, yet he was already wanting to protect her and care for her as any male demon would want to protect those he considered family and worthy of protection.

As soon as they reached the food court Sesshomaru spotted a booth in the back corner where he gently set Rin down in of the chairs. Before he could stop himself he asked Rin if she wanted something to drink. All she did was sit there, just staring at the wall. It took her a full two minutes before she finally found her voice and mumbled out that she wanted Sprite. He stared at her for a couple of seconds before going and getting the beverage for her. After getting it, he came back and set the cup down in front of her with the straw.

"Thank you," came the soft whisper that escaped Rin's lips right before she sipped on her drink. Her hands wrapped around the cool material of the cup with her eyes averted to the stare at the top of the table. Strong white teeth tugged on her bottom lip as she chewed on it in indecision. "Why?" she finally asked, her voice sounding stronger than how she felt.

The only thing Sesshomaru did was sit there before he leaned back against his seat, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger as he letting out a soft sigh. It was one of the few times Rin could actually recall him showing some type of emotion.

"Hn?"

The brunette suddenly looked up at the silver-haired demon in front of her, understanding what it was he was asking her: Why what? "WHY did you do that to Kohaku?" she ground out, biting her bottom lip a little hard that she should have as she stared at him, his golden eyes gazing back into her showing just a little bit of emotion.

"No female, human or demoness, deserves to spoken to as if she is nothing when she has yet to do anything wrong," was Sesshomaru's reply as he reached his hand across the small square table and cupped one of her hands that were still holding the cup. "You do not deserve to be treated as such, Rin."

Hazel eyes widened in surprise at his words. Why was Sesshomaru acting like this? Ever since she has met him he has been nothing except cold towards her. Yet, here he was stroking her hand with his thumb and staring at her with a strange look in his eyes. His eyes…the one and only way to truly know what he was feeling.

"Riiiiin," his voice purred out, causing her to shiver once again. What was going on with him? Sesshomaru could not control himself as he slowly leaned forward, watching as Rin did the same, his free hand coming up and cupping her delicate cheek.

"Yes," she squeaked out in surprise which caused Sesshomaru's inner demon to howl in excitement.

"This Sesshomaru would like to…" he spoke softly as he slowly leaned closer and closer with each passing second. His eyes watching as her widened before slowly started to close, his own following in response.

Taraah36: As always, it is amazing to hear from you, my dear! And you will just have to read to find out! You should remember from the original story! Haha, but this one is going to be just a little different. I hope you continue to enjoy reading!