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Rin didn't come out of her room for the rest of the day. Thank God she had snacks in her overnight bag and there were glasses in the bathroom so she could drink water straight from the tap, otherwise she might have been forced to encounter the ass that was Sesshomaru.

She had sent Kagome a quick text after she had kind of calmed down, letting her cousin know that she was feeling a bit under the weather and was probably just going to sleep it off. Rin had hoped Kagome would pass along the message to others, including the jerk face, and that she could be left alone to get over the painful contracting of her heart and the sadness that had seemingly overpowered every other emotion she was capable of feeling. And over one guy?

Maybe he was right about the mate thing.

Whipping out her laptop, Rin started up the Macbook Pro and launched Safari, popping a few keywords into Google about demon mates.

Most of what she read was about bonds being formed almost instantly. The next hour or so she really dug into any research and data she could find on mates, wanting to prove without a shadow of a doubt that he knew they were mates and had pretty much cheated on her anyway. Or better yet, that they were definitely not mates and it was just some pick up line he used to sleep with tons of women. Although, it wasn't like he needed pick up lines. He was handsome and rich. But his personality did suck, which was also a huge deal breaker for Rin, even with other men. Maybe other women reacted to his attitude the same way? Perhaps THAT was why he needed pick up lines.

When she thought like that it made sense.

Sighing, Rin looked at the word document she had created with all of the various information she had copied down from her research, just so she could go over it again.

Demons are generally aware of when their mates are in the vicinity based on scent alone, but if the demon is distracted, has a strong prejudice against a type of mate, or even if the intended mate is masking their own scent, it could make it difficult for the demon to realize when the intended mate is in the area.

Rin had been wearing perfume and a scented lotion yesterday, not to mention he had already decided to dislike her whenever they first met, if his comment about rank was anything to go on...

Scent is a major factor in forming a mate bond depending on the type of demon. Example is a wolf or a dog demon, both of which rely on scent to help with hunting, mating, etc. Some demons can go days, even weeks, without being aware that their intended mate has already been encountered.

So far Rin was not liking how her research was helping the baka rather than hurting him. All she wanted to find was some website saying, 'he definitely knew who you were the WHOLE time and just wanted to screw around until you put a leash on him. Silly demon dog!'. Instead, she was finding out a lot of information she probably didn't want to know anyway.

Some demons, depending on power and age, can have a stronger reaction once encountering said mate. Some demons become excessively possessive and in some instances violent, although usually not towards the mate, when they are unknowingly confronted with their mate. This behavior is usually induced when most of the demonic tendencies can sense the bond in need of forming, but have no way of communicating it to their counterpart, thus creating irrationality and anger.

Like demanding she not spend time with any other 'suitors' but being unable to tell her why he would demand such a stupid thing. Rin wanted to smack her head into the desk she was sitting at, but instead she kept reading from the notes she had copy and pasted.

Couples are not truly mated until the mate bond is cemented in one of two ways. Either ingestion of blood by both parties or a mating 'mark' which is essentially a bite placed anywhere on the lesser demon (in some small instances humans). Once the bite is placed, the one placing it emits a small demonic aura that mists over the one bitten. In doing this, the bitten party will smell slightly of their mate, which is done to keep other demons/suitors at bay, as the mate is no longer available for others. In some cases, a type of mental 'link' is established, which usually develops within the first few weeks of a successful mating. With this, demons are able to locate their mates, depending on distance.

Like a GPS tracker?. Ew. Definitely put that into the 'cons' list she was forming in her mind. He could find her anywhere? Maybe that would have been nice a few centuries back when phones and Google Maps weren't around, but that was a bit ridiculous in 2016. Then again, Rin didn't see Sesshomaru as the type of demon to pick up a phone, call her and ask where she was.

Life expectancy is drastically increased once the bond is formed, usually involving a bite during intercourse. Some humans will begin to age much more slowly, depending on the strength and age of their mates. There are several reports on this, some of which put the oldest human mate at over 500 years old. An example is Izayoi Taisho, mate to Inu no Taisho. Reports confirm that Izayoi was born in 1492 and was mated in the early 1500s.

Rin's head swam. Izayoi was over 500 years old?! She didn't look a day over 40! Slamming the laptop closed, Rin jumped up from the computer and decided that maaaaaaaybe she was okay with skipping whatever research she had left. Besides, who knew if the information she was gathering was even accurate. It was the internet, after all. Weirdos and jokesters put stuff on there ALL the time to scare others.

Some people just wanted to watch the world burn.

Rin looked reluctantly at the door to her bedroom, unsure if she should leave to go mingle with the others or keep herself safe inside. Sighing in defeat, Rin stood up and stretched before grabbing her iPhone and leaving the bedroom, sending a quick text to Kagome before heading downstairs.

Kagome responded back with her location (SEE, NO CREEPY DEMONIC GPS TRACKING SYSTEM NECESSARY) and Rin followed the instructions until she came to a large gaming room on the second floor. There were a lot of twists and turns before she made her way to the appropriate door, which had thankfully been left open so she could find the party easily enough. Although Rin knew from experience that finding anything in this mansion was anything but easy.

She smiled happily at her cousin, waving to Inuyasha, Miroku and who she was assuming was Sango, based on the irritated expression of the other woman's face whenever Miroku looked away from her. The woman smiled at Rin before popping Miroku upside the head when he stared for too long, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. He only took the hand Sango had used to swat at him and kissed her open palm before placing her hand in his.

"This place looks amazing," Rin called out from the entrance as she took a nice long look around her. It was almost like an arcade! Mrs. PacMan, which was her all time favorite, was against a wall along with air hockey, foosball, and a racing car game. On the other wall was a TV that was literally an entire wall by itself. On a table in a corner was an Xbox One, PS4 and various games which Rin also had at her own house. "Do you play, Inuyasha?" Rin nodded to the gaming systems.

"Oh yeah. How about you?"

"Definitely. We should swap gamer tags and maybe play together sometime. I'm pretty decent." Actually, she was insanely amazing. Especially when it came to first person shooter games. Rin's friend in high school had recommended it to help with her anger issues as an adolescent and Rin hadn't been able to give up the hobby whenever she had entered into adulthood. Besides, it wasn't like she had much of a love/social life anyway, so it was a great way to pass the time in-between writing.

"Come sit! What do you want to drink?" Rin took the open seat closest to the door, grabbing a deck of cards and shuffling.

Without waiting for an answer, Kagome moved behind the little bar, taking out a shaker and a few bottled liquids before combining them, shaking them and then distributing the liquid into a cup. "How about a margarita?"

Rin took the offered cup, thanked Kagome and took a sip before making a face. "Are you sure this isn't just straight up tequila?" Rin asked through the burning in her throat. She coughed slightly before taking another sip. Yeah, Rin was almost positive there wasn't any margarita mix inside of her cup, which was hilarious because Rin had just seen Kagome mixing it all together. Hopefully she wasn't as bad of a cook as she as a mixologist.

"Oh, kami! I always put too much of the alcohol in."

"Feh, the alcohol is the best part anyway, Kagome." Inuyasha reassured her as she moved back to the table. Inuyasha reached out and snatched her waist, ushering her over to him until she was sitting on his lap, drinking her own margarita. Rin smiled at the happy couple, wishing she had something like that in her life. Instead, she had a too proud, arrogant, man whore who most likely would have preferred ignoring her existence than actually doing anything about it.

Eh. It was neither here nor there, Rin decided. She just wanted to forget like the first half of the day never happened.

After a few more drinks, Rin was relaxed enough to truly enjoy herself. The more she drank, the warmer the room got, which had led to her removing her sweater. Luckily she was a wearing a black spaghetti striped tank top underneath, but Rin was too the point where she wouldn't have cared so much if she was only in a bra. It was that warm.

"Gin Rummy!" Hollered Miroku, tossing his cards onto the table and dancing around the room in some sort of victory celebration.

"Congratulations, Miroku. You have won one came out of twelve." Sango deadpanned before the rest of the group laughed loudly.

"Do you think you should invite Sesshomaru to the party?" Kagome asked sweetly, her eyes bright with alcohol and what Rin would have said was mischief if she had been around her cousin longer. Instead, she brushed off the look and focused on what Inuyasha planned to say next.

"Probably not a good idea. He's been in a separate wing of the house drinking for hours. Some reason he's in a more foul mood than usual."

"Really?" Rin piped up, accidentally knocking over her empty plastic cup in the process. Inuyasha looked at her oddly, as if he was trying to figure her out.

"Oh yeah. I mean, he's always in a bad mood. He's been like that since humans took over everything, but today it's been especially gruesome. Which I wouldn't have expected, since I heard him fucking some demon for nearly an hour this morning. I've always assumed sex fixed anything." Kagome swatted his arm before kissing his cheek and standing to make another drink for everyone.

Rin rolled her eyes. "No need to elaborate on that. I caught a front row seat when I was exploring earlier." And there went her good mood.

Kagome and Sango gasped at her news. "Oh gross!" "You definitely need another drink for that."

"Yeah, it wasn't really how I thought my day was going to go. I mean, it got a little worse after that because he followed me to apologize, but eh. What can you do?"

"Wait. What did you say?" Inuyasha sat up with interest.

Rin ran her hands through her long hair, taking a second to enjoy how silky it was. Was her hair always so silky smooth? Inuyasha cleared his throat to gain her attention. "Oh! Sorry. But yeah, I mean. What can you do in that kind of situation?" She put on her Sesshomaru voice. "I am sorry to have caused you pain. Blah, blah, blah. We are mates. Blah, blah." She cleared her throat. "Really, though. What can you do? So I just told him to fuck off." She cleared her throat again, unsure if it was thick with emotion or she was more drunk than she realized.

"Men are such jerks!" Sango said as she jumped up. The movement jarred the table and the woman flew backwards and would have fallen, if Miroku hadn't caught her in his arms.

"And I think Sango and I are going to call it a night." Miroku swung the woman into his arms, who protested the move but held onto him like her life depended on it. "Good night everyone." And with that, there were only three of them left.

Inuyasha stared at Rin, seemingly dumbfounded. "He said you were mates?"

"Well, he said my pain was understandable as it was 'the way of mates' or something like that. Do we really need to talk about it?"

"Really, Inuyasha. Just drop it, okay?" Kagome came back around with drinks, handing Rin an even stronger 'margarita' than she'd been having throughout the night. She drank it more quickly than she intended, mostly to keep herself from talking any more about the situation.

"Sesshomaru is many godawful things, but disloyal isn't one of them. I just can't believe he would sleep with someone else if he knew who you were to him."

"Yeah. Well. I don't think you could call what I saw upstairs as 'sleeping'."

"I just mean, he wouldn't have purposely betrayed your trust or your bond."

Talk about a bro code. Kagome rolled her eyes and Rin laughed sadly. "It's what it is. The damage is done. How could I want to be with someone who, not only is a jerk, but who would betray the trust of some sacred mate bond, unknowingly or not? It doesn't matter anyway. As soon as the roads clear up we're all going to be out of here and I highly doubt I'm going to see him again aside from the occasional family get together, if he can bear to attend due to all the humans who will be around."

Inuyasha snickered. "If you're the reason he's drinking in the East Wing for the first time in about 30 years, I doubt you'll be seeing him on occasion." Inuyasha pondered something for a moment before speaking up. "Hey, Rin? When he starts groveling for your forgiveness, will you do me a favor and take a photo of him begging on his knees. I always wanted to know what that would look like."

Kagome swatted Inuyasha's arm. "Knock it off, Inuyasha! This is serious. Right, Rin?"

"No, it's not serious. Nothing is going to happen with me and your new brother. I'm over it already." Inuyasha's eyebrows shot up at her words before he laughed again and shook his head. "Hey, I'm serious! Mates or not, I don't need a man in my life. Especially that kind of man. He's too bossy anyway. And how old did you say he was?"

"I didn't. But since you asked, he's well over 700 years old." Rin's jaw dropped before Kagome reached out and lifted it up for her.

"Thanks, Gome." He was that old? Add that to the cons pile. Definitely to the cons pile. Rin stood up and waited for the room to come to nice halt before she began walking towards the door. "I think I'm going to call it a night. If I don't see you guys before either of us leave tomorrow, just know that you are both super awesome, your wedding was great and you are a wonderful couple. Oh and if you cheat on her, Inuyasha, I'll cut off your balls and give them to your brother."

"Jesus Christ."

"Rin, you're such a great cousin!"

And with that, Rin waved behind her and left the room.

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure she went the wrong way." Inuyasha said quietly after Rin departed.

"Oh, kami. I should go get her!" Kagome tried to jump up but was held down by Inuyasha's strong arms at her waist.

"Nah. Leave her alone."

"What, why on earth would I do that? She could get lost for literally days in this maze your parents call a home!"

"Well, as she is heading to the east wing where Sesshomaru is currently drinking away his sour mood, I say we just let the chips fall where they may. He isn't going to leave her all alone and lost in the house." Kagome snorted.

"That is extremely diabolical."

"Isn't that why you married me?"