A/N: I do not own Inuyasha.
Rin Fujihara looked around her for what felt like the thousandth time since she left work almost twenty minutes ago. She felt like she was being watched but there was nothing and no one around. Despite that fact Rin couldn't bring herself to calm down. Her heart was pounding and her breath was coming in fast, loud pants; she was close to hyperventilating and couldn't stop seeing make-believe shadows standing under the bright street lamps.
By the time Rin reached the street that her apartment building was on, she was practically running. When she got to the door she reached into her coat pocket for the card that would let her in the building. Once inside she closed the door and power walked to the elevators. As the elevator arrived Rin put on a calm face in case anyone was in it. It was empty. Thank God, she thought.
She stepped into the elevator, pushed the button to her floor and leaned against the walls of the small compartment. Her eyes closed of their own volition and Rin wondered when the fear would go away. After all, it had been a little over eight months since she had left Shun, yet she still expected him to jump out of the shadows and attack her.
Rin got off the elevator and walked to the apartment she shared with Sango Masuda. As soon as she had the door open Kilala, Sango's demon cat, sniffed her leg and jumped onto her shoulder. Rin tiredly reached a hand up to scratch the feline behind the ears. It never ceased to amaze how her commute could exhaust her so. If she wasn't always so scared whenever she stepped out of a building it'd be a different story.
Rin took in the dark apartment and concluded that Sango must still be out. She went through the apartment turning the lights on as she went. When she reached the kitchen she refilled Kilala's nearly empty water bowl and pressed the play button on the answering machine.
The first message was one of those automated ones that bill collectors used. Rin tuned out.
The second message was from Kohaku, Sango's younger brother. "Hey sis. Hey Rin. So I'm still waiting for that celebratory party for me getting on the force. Let me know when you're free to do something. I hope it's soon. I feel like I haven't seen you in ages. Oh and Dad wants you to call him. Bye." Rin smiled. Kohaku had graduated from the training program offered by the Tokyo Police Department almost two months ago. Sango had promised him that she would put together something more elaborate than drinks at a bar but had yet to do so. Besides, both siblings were so busy with work that it would probably be a while before anything definitive could be put together.
The third message was from Kikyo, "Hey Rin, it's me. I was just calling to see how you were doing. I know that your weekend is coming up, so I thought that maybe we could do something. . . Anyway let me know. Love you. Bye." Rin sighed. Leave it to Kikyo to check up on her. As much as she wanted to be annoyed with the other woman, she just couldn't bring herself to do so. She made a mental note to call her and let her know she was free for the weekend.
The last message was from Sango, "Hey Rin, it's me. Ah, it's crazy at work so I'm gonna be home late tonight. So . . . I'll see you when I see you. Oh and could you check Kilala's kitty litter. I keep forgetting. Bye." Rin look out the window. She had figured as much. She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was nearly eleven o'clock. Usually once it hit midnight, Sango just decided to stay at work, using one of the bunk beds that were in the station's off-duty room.
Rin looked down at Kilala whose face was tilted up towards her. "It looks like it's just gonna be you and me tonight, girl," she told the cat. Rin reached down and ran her hand along the feline's back. Then she straightened and wrote down Kohaku's message on the notepad near the answering machine where she knew Sango would see it.
Rin then went to the bathroom and checked Kilala's kitty litter before getting undressed. She turned on the water and got in the shower. As the hot water hit her back, she felt herself beginning to relax. Rin sighed once more. She really wished that Sango was there. She hated being at home by herself, especially at night.
When Rin was seven years old, her mother, father and twin brother had been brutally murdered by robbers. She herself had been severely wounded but had somehow survived. Rin brought her hand up to her hair, and ran her fingers along her scalp until they came to the place where her skin had been split open. When her finger's hit the telling mark, Rin's eyes filled with tears. There were some days that she wished she hadn't survived, and other's when she wondered why she had.
Unfortunately, Rin had no immediate family members to take her in, and so upon leaving the hospital she had been placed in foster care while social services looked for a relative to look after her. Rin hadn't been in the program for a month before being taken out. Social services had found a distant aunt of hers that Rin had never met, and transferred guardianship over to her. And so, Rin was shipped out to the country where her Great-Aunt Kaede lived.
Upon arriving, she had been nervous to find another girl living with her aunt. Kikyo Matsuyama was also a relative of Kaede's. She was in fact, Kaede's niece - the daughter of Kaede's younger sister who had decided that her current husband was more important than her daughter. After a few weeks of awkwardness in which everyone adjusted to each other, the three females eventually became a close knit family. Rin spent the rest of her childhood as happy as a she could be, all things considered.
It was only after she moved to the city to attend college that Rin's troubles began. She met Sango during her freshman year where they had been roommates. The outspoken and loyal girl had quickly become one of Rin's closest friends. The duo had partied together, crammed together, cried together and laughed together. They had become as close as sisters.
Rin had dated around but hadn't met anyone she was serious about until her junior year when she met Shun Nakamura.
Shun had been a senior, head of the health sciences club and in the top ten percent of his class. Rin had fallen for him the moment she'd seen him. His long blond hair that fell to his waist and gorgeous green eyes had mesmerized her, blinding her to his cruelty.
Rin stayed with him after the first time he hit her, even though she knew it was wrong. She told herself that he hadn't meant to hit her – he'd had a bad day and she shouldn't have yelled at him. Rin had been unaware that she'd been a victim of Shun's emotional abuse long before he put his hands on her and became more tangled in his web with each passing day. Over time the beatings got worse until her friends started to notice. They all urged her to leave him, Sango leading the way, but she didn't listen.
Rin turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. She grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself. No, she had refused to listen.
Rin gradually began to pull away from her friends, tired of hearing them say only negative things about Shun. They didn't know him, at least not the way she did. They didn't know how charming he could be, how funny and sweet. They only saw the bruises. Rin graduated from college, started nursing school and in time, got engaged to who she thought was the love of her life.
It was only after the first beating that landed her in the hospital that Rin truly began to fear Shun. While it was true that she had feared him before, it had always been a fleeting type of fear. This new fear was constant and intense. She was afraid to do anything without first getting his permission, lest it upset him. Rin cringed whenever she thought back to how she had given up her voice, her hobbies, everything – just to keep him happy. But it had never been enough for Shun. He always wanted more. Despite that, she always found reasons to stay: she was in nursing school and she couldn't just pack up and leave, what if she left school and never finished, etc.
Eventually, not even her excuses could keep her with him, so she had run away. The first time Rin ran away she had been on her own for six weeks before Shun caught up with her. She hadn't seen him in town, but when she got home she found a bag in front of her door. When she opened it, she'd found the dog that she had adopted from the local animal shelter inside of it. The dog was dead. Rin had packed up her things and headed back home without a fight, too scared to do anything else.
The second time she ran away only three weeks had passed. Shun had waited until they were home before he broke both her legs. And the third time Rin hadn't even been gone for a week before returning home, terrified that Shun would kill her if her found her.
It would have continued in the same manner if something drastic hadn't happened: Rin had gotten pregnant. She'd thought that Shun would be happy but instead he'd been livid. Rin towel-dried her hair vigorously while blinking back tears.
Shun had been unwilling to believe that he was the father of her child, despite Rin's assurances that he was. He screamed that he wasn't going to be made into a fool and slapped her so hard that she fell to the floor. He then proceeded to kick her in the stomach until the cops stormed in. Rin was rushed to the hospital, but it was too late. She lost the baby. After that, all of Rin's love for Shun disappeared.
As soon as she was capable of putting two thoughts together she had called Sango, and after apologizing and crying for what felt like hours asked for help. Sango, being the kind and loyal person that she was, agreed and was by Rin's side within the hour. Rin then called Aunt Kaede and Kikyo. When Kaede arrived she had become so hysterical that the hospital staff sedated her. That had been a frightening experience for Rin – she'd never seen her aunt lose it like that. Kikyo on the other hand had been livid. In fact it was difficult to say which one was more livid – Kikyo or Sango.
Rin walked to her room and pulled on a ratty t-shirt and some pajama bottoms. She smiled as she remembered the scene that had occurred when Shun had the audacity to show up in her hospital room. Kaede had been out, thankfully. Rin didn't know what would've happened if she'd been there. Kikyo had slapped Shun. Twice. Sango drop-kicked him in the nuts. In the end, Sango, Kikyo and Shun were escorted out of the hospital by security.
Her remaining time in the hospital was rather peaceful after that. Rin refused to press charges against Shun. She felt that would be pressing her luck, besides all the law would do is slap his hands and send him on his way. The justice system didn't give a damn about what men did to women.
By the time Rin left the hospital she and the others had developed a plan. She would go with Kaede back to the country and wait there until Sango found an apartment that was close to Rin's job. The four women had decided that Sango would be the safest person for Rin to stay with, seeing as she was a cop. Having an apartment that was close to her job was also important, because it would limit the time Shun had to snatch her off the street, should he choose to do so. Sango also planned to enroll Rin in a self-defense program upon her return. Throughout the whole ordeal, Rin had been grateful that she had such wonderful people in her life.
In the end, everything worked out perfectly. Sango found a place that was only twenty minutes from Rin's job and twenty-five minutes from her own. Rin also took the self-defense class, though it didn't make her feel that much safer than she'd felt before taking it. Rin had spent her time in the country learning about the nature of abusive relationships. One of the things that she learned was that the most dangerous time for a woman in an abusive relationship was the first year after she left her abuser, which was why Rin felt so uneasy. Shun had always let her know that he knew where she was as soon as he found her. Rin wasn't so naïve as to think that he didn't know where she was. She still worked at the same place, so it would be an easy matter to just follow her home from work one day. So then, why hadn't he made a move yet? It couldn't be that he had moved on. Rin knew that he would never let her go without a fight.
Rin pulled back the covers on her bed and got into it. She was about to turn off the light when she remembered to check the house. So she got up and walked through the house, turning off all the lights and making sure that all the windows and doors were locked. It was probably silly to make sure the windows were locked when she lived on the twelfth floor, but Rin wasn't taking any chances.
Once she was satisfied that everything was locked, Rin walked back to her room. Kilala had settled on the few pillows that Rin hadn't taken off the bed. She smiled, turned off the light and tried to go to sleep.
Across the street a man lowered his binoculars as the window that he had been watching went dark. He had been standing in the park across from the apartments for the last hour, ever since he'd followed her home.
He lifted the binoculars to his face once more and smiled. "Sleep well, my love."
A/N: Sesshomaru and Rin should meet within the next two chapters. Thank you to those of you who have stuck with me so far. I promise that the story will speed up now that I've gotten just about all of the background info out of the way.
Your reviews are always appreciated and valued, so feel free to let me know what you think of the story so far. Thanks.
