Name Meanings! Just in case anyone cared X)
Chisaki- 1000 blooms
Jinn- Gold
Ichiro- First born son
Kaisho- fly over the seas
Hanea- Flower Blessing
Hiroki- Wide tree
Fuyuko- Winter child
Gakuuto- Educated man
Arashi- Storm
Thanks for all of your support guys! In the upcoming chapter… KAGURA STRIKES BACK! Unfortunately for the wind witch, the plan back fires…
As for THIS chapter which you are ABOUT to READ… you'll just have to read it XD
Memories, Sort-of-sleepovers and a Graveyard
Sesshomaru lay on his back, hands behind his head, staring up blankly at the ceiling. Ever since 'that' he hadn't been able to get Rin out of his head!
Seriously, he thought that seeing her naked would be no big deal, even if he did walk in on her incidentally… it was pretty much bound happen one way or another at some point in his opinion…
When he saw her… it was… different to him. Like it was his first time seeing a girl or something.
At least he had something to think about in the long hours of the night…. After all, he couldn't sleep.
Not now that the anniversary of that day was coming so close. It was only the day after tomorrow. He would have to find some way to visit their graves without having to bring Rin.
Rin shouldn't have to watch him break down like that. For both his sake and hers.
Thinking on these dismal thoughts, Sesshomaru fell into a light doze. He was remembering the day he had been left behind. The day he had been left in his own personal hell.
"Father?" Sesshomaru's voice echoed around the empty hall, usually alive with the chatter of friendly servants and the rest of the dog demon tribe. His mother had never much cared for him, she wasn't really one to play with children, but he had always had Chisaki to play with. She used to grow little peach trees for him with her powers, just so he could watch them bloom.
The slender fourth grader had been awoken to the sounds of shrieking. He now trembled in the hallway, wringing the hem of his pajama shirt in his hands.
"Father, I'm scared…" Sesshomaru whispered. He heard his mother's voice from down stairs.
"How dare you?" She was screaming. Sesshomaru began to run toward the noise. He could smell blood. A lot of it.
"M-mistress- agh!" The spattering of yet more blood on wooden floors, the sound of a body thudding to the ground.
"Fuyuko!" Inutaisho bellowed, "Leave them out of this! Killing the servants will not change my mind!"
"Father!" Sesshomaru skidded around the corner, tears in his eyes. There had been bodies… so many bodies. Gakuuto, Hanea, Hiroki and Hoshimi, Ichiro, Jinn, and even little Kaisho who was hardly more than two.
The dog demon clan had been decimated along with the servants.
"Father, what's going on?"
Inutaisho would not meet his only son's eyes.
"I'm leaving, Sesshomaru." The little boy seemed to choke on his breath.
"You're… leaving? You're leaving me here… alone?" Inutaisho nodded mutely, and Sesshomaru's mother quaked in mad loss and fury. If nothing else, she had loved her husband. He was the only thing she really had.
And now he was gone. Leaving her. Leaving her with his wretched brat, a constant reminder of him. Good.
She would keep the brat. That's why she had killed all of her family.
She knew Inutaisho cared about that child.
Every time she beat it, it would be like exacting her revenge on Inutaisho himself.
"I won't allow it!" Sesshomaru yelled, running forward to grab his father's sleeve. Inutaisho gently removed his son's hand from the fabric, looking into those mirrored golden eyes reflected in all of the Western dog demons.
"Goodbye, Sesshomaru."
"Don't… no, don't…" The dream faded into utter blackness that echoed hollowly with every movement Sesshomaru made as Inutaisho turned away from the boy and walked into oblivion without looking back.
This was the emptiness that had flooded his heart since that day.
"Don't leave me alone!" He howled to the darkness.
As his own words rebounded back upon him, with no new voices to add to the clamor, Sesshomaru realized what this was.
This was what it felt like to be lonely.
Lonely.
…
I woke with a start, Sesshomaru's voice penetrating my wall.
"Don't leave me alone!" He cried, sounding desperate and afraid. Not knowing what else to do, I got up and walked quietly to his room, opening the door as silently as possible.
I entered to see Sesshomaru sitting bolt upright in his bed on top of the covers, still in his clothes, breathing heavily.
"Sesshomaru?" I called his name in concerned tones as I walked forward. "What's wrong?"
He seemed to struggle to compose himself before answering.
"Nothing. It's nothing, just a dream." He replied, though his face said otherwise.
If it was a dream, it must have been something horrible. Probably something that had really happened. I knew what it was like. I myself had been dreaming about my brother. I was exceedingly glad that Sesshomaru's cry had woken me up.
In the dream, it played over like it always did.
Tiny little me building tiny little snowmen in the tiny little front yard of our tiny little house, counting the snowmen to make sure there was one for every person in my family.
Mama, Papa, Rin, and Arashi.
Tiny little me falling over as the gunshot from inside the house startles me. Little me running in to find the corpse of my beloved older brother in the doorway and later my parents in their room.
This time, Sesshomaru had woken me up just before the discovery of Arashi's body.
I felt fresh sorrow every time that dream came.
"Do you want to talk about it?" I murmured, fully expecting his answer.
"No. You should go to bed, Rin. You won't be able to stay awake tomorrow." His voice was dull, and his eyes not fully focused, like he was distracted by something else. I bit my lip, seeing my own brand of loneliness reflected in his eyes. It might have been selfish, but I didn't want to be alone anymore.
Never again.
"Can I… stay here?" I squeaked. He blinked at me in mild surprise before standing up.
"If that is what you want." He sat down with his legs straight out in front of him next to the baseboard. "You can have the bed."
I shook my head gently and sat next to him, stretching my legs out before me to match his posture. "I'll stay here." Though he didn't say it, I could see the gratitude shining through his amber diamond orbs.
We were symbiotic; we leaned on one another as a crutch in away, used one another as medicine for the lost, forlorn emptiness in each of our minds.
I nodded off to the lullaby of Sesshomaru's heart beat as it pounded to the rhythm of his breathing.
…..
I opened my eyes the next morning to see Sesshomaru eyeing me in a highly uncomfortable and uneasy manner.
"What?" I mumbled, blinking up at him.
"You're…. strangling me…" he said hoarsely. I now came to realize what position my body was in.
My legs were wrapped tightly around his torso and my arms were locked around his throat as if I was a baby koala clinging to its parent. I stiffly pulled myself off him.
"Sorry…" I yawned. He cleared his throat uncomfortably, shifting a bit before standing.
"I'm going to go take a shower… unless you want the bathroom first of course." Sesshomaru offered politely.
"No," I waved him off, "you can have it. Thanks for letting me sleep in here." Sesshomaru shrugged in a somewhat embarrassed manner before leaving. I stared after him for a moment and then got up to start my day.
Tuesday passed without incident, but when Wednesday morning came, things were… weird.
Seven o'clock and Sesshomaru wasn't up. Seven thirty… eight…. Eight fifteen…
I knocked on his bedroom door, and hearing no answer, I entered. He was sitting up in bed and looking out the window with an oddly blank expression.
"Um, Sesshomaru? We're leaving in like, two minutes!" I cried, waving my arms through the air.
"I'm not coming." Sesshomaru's voice was stiff and lifeless, betraying no emotion at all.
"Wha… you're playing hooky?" I yelped. "Truant? No way!"
"I don't feel well." I became somewhat concerned now. I really wasn't experienced in this field, but I had never heard of a demon getting sick…
"W-well, alright then, be sure to rest and get well soon I suppose…" He made no reply as I closed the door to his room. Something was off with him… maybe he really was sick!
…..
The moment Rin's footsteps faded from the steps outside, Sesshomaru rose and groomed himself, brushing his hair and dressing more appropriately. A black oxford shirt and matching slacks that contrasted brilliantly with his pale skin and bright hair.
He went to the florists to pick up a bunch of roses to lie on the graves after that.
"Oh, red roses!" the pink haired flower demon commented as she bundled them together, "For someone special? Your girlfriend, maybe?"
"For special people," Sesshomaru replied flatly, "but not for a girlfriend. For a grave." The florist looked horrified and quickly shut up, handing Sesshomaru the flowers. Twenty two roses of red, and two of black.
Upon arriving at the graveyard, Sesshomaru walked a well known path, arriving at the corner solely dedicated to the dog demon clan. Every head stone had the same date of death: November 24.
Sesshomaru stood before the rows of the dead with the flowers drooping in his hand, wanting already to leave. It was painful to be here. Painful to remember all those chess games played with his uncle Gakuuto, all those friendly skirmishes with his cousin Ichiro, almost hearing Jinn's laughter echoing down the hall as she called, "Come find me, Sesshomaru! Can you? We'll see!"
Sesshomaru bowed his head with the weight of his sorrow.
"How long has it been?" He whispered, "Since I was last among my own kind?" A lone tear traced down his face as he stepped forward to lay a single red rose on each grave. He came to the final headstone, only the two black roses left in his hands.
"How goes it with you in the afterlife, Father?" He murmured to the stone. "I've found a new home now, you know? How strange that I can think of her house as 'home', when I never thought of my birthplace like that?" He gave a humorless smile before laying a black rose across the front of the grave, the only one that read 'December 27', Inuyasha's birthday.
Sesshomaru kept the other black rose clutched in his hand even as a cold gust ripped one of its petals from the whole.
"One for you, Father, and one for me that I might remember you by it. That I might remember myself." The boy turned away to walk back out the iron gate, passing Inuyasha on the way; They said nothing to one another until they were just beside each other and facing opposite directions.
"You observe this day as well, brother?" Sesshomaru asked quietly. Inuyasha gave a small nod.
"I come for those who died today. I'll come again for father on my birthday. I may not have known them, but they were still my family, Sesshomaru."
"Incorrect, half-breed. None of them are related to you by blood. They were my mother's family."
"Does it matter? We share blood between us, so even if we are not blood relatives, those people resting here are still connected to me."
"So be it." Sesshomaru said softly, passing Inuyasha and leaving him there in the yard full of stones.
He returned to Rin's house to find her waiting for him in anger. Well, he owed her no explanations.
After all, where he went was his business.
Too bad she didn't see it the same way….
Too be CONTINUED!
A/N: Yeah, didn't want this chappie to get too long, so you guys'll just have to wait till next time to see Rin get pissed at Sesshy!