AN: Special thanks to Araine who saved me the time of having to find my notes on Hatsuhana's name! It means 'First Flower', and now you know why he likes flowers. It was pre-ordained. Enjoy!
-8-
The following morning when I awoke, I headed immediately to the bath house. I wanted to get there before the other demons awoke, so that I could relax and soak my worries away and I could have a moment without thinking of Hatsuhana, Sesshomaru-sama, or Kaede-chan.
Right from the moment I rose from my futon, the world was against me. As I walked from my bedroom to the bathhouse I nearly ran into Hatsuhana. I'm certain that I'm not the one to blame under the circumstances, as no doubt Hatsuhana could have at least smelled me coming and moved out of my way. I was so embarrassed about running into him that it took me a moment to notice that he was not exactly very clad.
In fact, all he was really wearing was a towel so incredibly short that he had to keep it closed shut. I felt myself starting to stare at him. I couldn't help it. I had seen Sesshomaru-sama without his vestments on before. Sesshomaru-sama was a very well-defined and disgustingly attractive man. Hatsuhana was every bit as well-defined and attractive, from the broadness of his shoulders and the curves of his upper arms, to the way his torso slowly tapered to his hips and the dark, fur-like hair that ran from his belly button to below the white towel hiding the rest of him. His long hair was wet and pulled back into a ponytail, his thin bangs still dripping occasionally.
"Lor… Lord Hatsuhana!"
"Good morning, Lady Rin." I thought he would leave it at just a friendly, polite greeting, but much to my dismay, he leaned against the wall, looking fondly down at me. My eyes were drawn to his torso, watching the muscles glide under his skin, and I felt myself blush deeply, peeling my gaze away from his chest. "Did your talk with Sesshomaru-sama go well yesterday?"
"It went as well as could be expected, my lord," I replied, my voice wavering.
"Then Lord Sesshomaru does not have plans for you?"
I blushed, recalling that he had asked to spend more time with me. I hadn't asked Sesshomaru-sama what I was supposed to! I hadn't even reported to him Kagome's whereabouts! And, come to think about it, how was I supposed to get the blood Arashi-sama needed?
"I regret to say that our conversation became distracted and I was unable to ask him what he wanted me to do. Given that," I continued, taking in a deep breath, "I would love to spend the day with you, Lord Hatsuhana. I can talk with Sesshomaru-sama tonight about what to do with the result of my errands. After all, I would very much enjoy a day to myself to relax. What would you like to do today, my lord?"
"How about a picnic? We can meet at the front gate of the castle in two candlemarks, and we'll walk until we'll find somewhere nice to eat."
A picnic sounded like a wonderful idea to me. It would give me fresh air, time out of the castle and away from Sesshomaru, and I could talk with Hatsuhana. I wanted to get to know him better. He was a very odd demon. I smiled at him. "Then I will see you in two candlemarks, my lord."
He smiled at me. His smile was pretty enough to make me forget that Lord Sesshomaru and I had kissed. It reminded me very much of the monk's smile. It was a little arrogant and presumptuous, but it was a smile reserved for a single girl, to make that one person feel like they were his entire world. I briefly wondered how many castle maidens he had managed to bed with that superb expression, and I felt bitter about it. Was I jealous?
I mentally rolled my eyes at the idea. Of course I wasn't jealous! How could I be, when I had only just met him? And yet, in some strange way, yes, yes, I was jealous. Why did he have to show up now? Why couldn't he have appeared when I was some teenage girl eyeing all the pretty demons around me and wishing that someone would take even just a small fancy to me? Why did he have to show up now? Surely the smile was just for show. Surely he wasn't seriously thinking about courting me…
"Then I will see you then." He reached down and took my hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing my knuckles. His lips were just as warm and soft as Lord Sesshomaru's had been. He winked at me, releasing my hand and walking away. I stared after him…
Male dog demons were so odd!
We met at the front of the castle, where the thick outer wall was braced against the forest. The human village was half a day's walk from the castle. The demons had complained that their smell would be overpowering if they were any closer, and with how fast demons travel, it was like a walk in the park for them.
Hatsuhana rose when he saw me. He was dressed in simple clothes for the day, but he still looked handsome. Nothing could dull the healthy color of his skin—so unlike Sesshomaru-sama's porcelain skin!—or the shine of his dark hair. He held in his hands a picnic basket, which he moved to the hand furthest to me so he could offer me his arm.
"You look beautiful today, Lady Rin."
I immediately blushed. I had only heard that once since being revived with the Tenseiga. It had been one of those odd occasions when Sesshomaru's path had crossed with his brother. He had left Jaken and I to scout on ahead when Inuyasha and his companions had stumbled upon us.
Jaken had tried to defend our camping spot from Inuyasha, but the other dog-demon had merely bopped Jaken-sama on the head to silence him. The demon slayer and Inuyasha ended up following after Sesshomaru-sama, and the monk and Kagome stayed behind.
I had been playing with flowers, weaving them together. Kagome saw what I was doing and complimented me on my skill at weaving. When I held up the finished crown of tiny, delicate white flowers, she took them and placed them on my head, making me giggle.
"Rin, you look beautiful," she had told me. I grinned wider at the compliment. Kagome turned to Miroku, seeing how pleased the compliment had made me. "Miroku-sama, doesn't it look beautiful?"
He opened his eyes from where he had been resting, leaning against a tree. He smiled at Kagome and I, his violet eyes tender. "Yes, Rin looks very beautiful."
There must have been something in his voice which implied something I did not understand at eight years of age, because Kagome got mad at him for what he had said, accusing him of being a lech and planning on asking me some question she referred to as "that".
"T… thank you, Lord Hatsuhana," I uncertainly replied. I didn't know what to say to a comment like that. Feeling uncomfortable, I gestured to the path that led through the forest. "Should we perhaps start? I must admit that I don't walk quite as fast as you, after all."
"A blessing in disguise, Lady Rin," he grinned, taking my hand and starting to walk. "This just means we will have to talk and get to know each other better."
And so we did. We walked to a clearing by a stream, and we sat and had a picnic lunch of fruits and vegetables, and Hatsuhana even refrained from drinking the blood-wine in my presence. Instead we had cold tea, which was quite refreshing after having walked so far. We even dipped our feet in the stream to relax them after having walked so far.
"Do you mean to travel again, Lord Hatsuhana?" I inquired, looking over at him as we began our walk back home. I smiled. "As I said yesterday, I do so love traveling, but whenever I stop, it takes only a little time before I long for adventures once more."
He was thoughtful in his answer. "I do not know, Lady Rin. I love traveling as much as you do, but I am aging. I have often thought that I might like to find myself a wife and have children."
"But what would you do if you felt like traveling again?"
"I supposed I would take my wife and my children with me."
I shook my head. "Do not do that, Lord Hatsuhana. Trust me. I was a child by the time you were already an adult. Children need stability in their life. I do not regret the life I had with Sesshomaru-sama, but sometimes thinking about it does make me sad. I had no friends growing up. I had A'un, and Jaken-sama, and Sesshomaru-sama, but no children my own to play with as I aged. Children need other children, sir. If you constantly uproot them from their home and their friends, always making them new and strange, they might someday dislike you for it."
He looked actually considerate, and then he suggested, "Then perhaps I would find a wife who could not bear me any children, and wed her. Surely she would not object to traveling with me."
I was so surprised at this suggestion that I stopped entirely what I was doing and simply stared at him. "Oh no, Lord Hatsuhana! You must never, ever do something like that!" I realized what it was I was saying and my cheeks suddenly seemed to burn with an intense blush. I dared not reprimand a demon, nor tell one what to do. I quieted my voice, and I explained. "You may think that it is a good idea now, sir. After all, it would be a marriage of convenience. You find a woman wanting companionship, and someone who doesn't mind having adventures with you. You have no need to force a sexual relationship, for what use is consummating a marriage of state, where all both of you want is companionship?
"But trust me, sir, one day you will fall in love with her if you stay by her side long enough and if you leave yourself open to the idea of loving her. One day, you will wake up in bed, and look over at her, and you will want to have a child with her. You will want to hold and love the child that you and she create together. And in the midst of that wonderful dream, you will suddenly remember: she can't bear children. And you, my lord, despite how sweetly you love her, will hate her for her inabilities, and yourself for falling in love with the wrong woman entirely."
Hatsuhana was staring at me, a little surprised. My cheeks kept burning as he continued to stare at me from over our picnic basket. Finally, he smiled at me. He wasn't angry that I had spoken out of place, or that I had chastised his ideas. In fact, he actually seemed pleased with me for it. He reached over and he touched my cheek gently. The blush most assuredly did not go away.
"How did you get to be so intelligent, Lady Rin? I knew Sesshomaru when he was a kid. You definitely didn't get it from him," he laughed.
This caught my attention. "You knew Sesshomaru-sama when you were little?"
"Indeed I did," Hatsuhana said warmly. His hand dropped from my face so that he could lean upon the warm grass. "I knew him quite well when we were little. We are distantly related, he and I. Sesshoumaru is a cousin of mine, on his father's side. Would you like for me to tell you what he was like as a child?"
I smiled at Hatsuhana. I felt like he had given me a gift he could not comprehend. "Please!"
He nodded. "I first met Sesshoumaru when I was… oh, maybe the equivalent to six years in human terms. He was about two years older than me, I suppose, and a very sour child. He never smiled, even then. He frowned at everyone, but they all accepted him. It wasn't that he was the son of the king, you understand. It was because he was such an earnest worker. Everything he did he tried his best in, even if he failed at it. Because he didn't speak much, people always had the impression that he was listening to them, even if he wasn't. Oh, and he and his father fought. Sesshoumaru was always telling my uncle 'when I rule, I am going to do this' or 'when the throne is mine I will never do that'. He had an opinion about everything, that boy."
"Didn't his father get angry at him for saying those things?"
Hatsuhana looked up, one gold-hazel eye peering at me in amusement from behind his brown bangs. "Of course he did. Would you like your son yelling you that he knew how to rule when you were dead even if you were in the prime of life? Sometimes Sesshoumary made his father furious, but they still loved each other. They had a mutual respect for one another than ran deeper for their love of each other, which was tedious many a times. Sesshy sometimes felt that his father hadn't really wanted him because he was always looking after the affairs of the state or spending a night with his wife. But my uncle had respect for him because of Sesshoumaru's ambitions. Sesshy knew what he wanted and wouldn't stop at getting it.
"That's why things went so wrong after Inuyasha was born."
"What do you mean?" I leaned forward, interested even more now.
"All of a sudden my uncle was doting. He was spending time with a human wife who was pregnant and talking about the child non-stop. Sesshy was revolted not just because the child was half human, but because of the changes in his father. Then his father actually dies trying to save his child. Sesshoumaru was furious and the last threads of his respect with his father were severed. He couldn't imagine dying for the sake of a human wife and a crossbred child. He was jealous of Inuyasha, too. Jealous because he got the Tetsusaiga, he got his father's robes, his father affection and devotion and tenderness…"
I interrupted as he was trailing away. "Sesshoumaru-sama hasn't changed much. Especially his ambition. Even these days, more than five hundred years after Inuyasha was born, he's still going on about getting back the sword or killing his brother…"
"It's very hard to overcome a slight like that," Hatsuhana gently pointed out. "I didn't want to be around to see the family tear itself apart, so I went traveling. Many labeled me a coward for it, but I didn't see what else I could do. I could help my cousin kill another cousin, or I could disobey the king. Sesshoumaru let me go. This was his battle, not mine."
His soft face became hard and cold for a moment as he thought of those turbulent days. Then he turned to me with a smile that touched his eyes, wrinkling the corners in a way that made the gold seem brighter and burnished.
"Enough of such depressing talk. If you're finished, Lady Rin, I should start escorting you back to the house. The last thing I want is to make the courtiers talk by giving them reason to think I was out here seducing or corrupting you." He stood up in one fluid movement and offered me his hand. It was warm. When I took it, he helped me up with such grace and strength that for a moment I felt weightless.
With the basket of food on one of his arms and myself on the other, Hatsuhana escorted me back to camp.
Hatsuhana sat with Sesshoumaru that evening. My lord had been more reserved than normal. Hatsuhana was aware of this, watching my lord closely and choosing his words delicately. Normally he preferred to display his wit and character. That evening he was matching Sesshoumaru for reservation.
He asked a few questions; Sesshoumaru-sama gave him curt answers. Hatsuhana slowly began to smile. If it wasn't the drought or the threat of invasion that was bothering him, there was only one topic left. Hastuhana lifted his cup, leaning back a little and closing his eyes. "I spent the day with Lady Rin, cousin. The more I get to know her, the more I find myself admiring her. It amazes me that someone like you was able to keep her."
Sesshoumaru stared at his cousin inquisitively. He didn't need to voice his question, or for Hatsuhana to see his face to know what Sesshoumaru was wondering. "You're so cold. How did she ever grow up around you, I wonder? It astonishes me. She's nothing like you. I think that may be part of the reason why I like her."
"I'm glad, cousin, that she didn't meet you until she was grown up. Rin has developed into a charming, responsible young lady. Meeting you when she was still impressionable might have made her resentful and rebellious."
Hatsuhana chuckled, the rich sound filling the room. "Resentful? Rebellious? Me?"
"I believe that was why you left in the first place. Off covorting with..." He paused when someone knocked on the door. One of the palace servants came in and placed warm blood-wine on the low table in the office. My lord poured it before he continued. "With humans. You were always a little odd when we were young, but now you just seem eccentric and emotional. Smiling, laughing... it is highly inappropriate."
"You can't seriously still believe that!"
He raised his eyes from pouring a second glass to stare at his cousin. His hand set the decanter back down so he did not spill a single drop. "Dogs wag their tails at their owners. They whine when they are hungry. Cats hiss their displeasure. Likewise, humans whine when they are hungry, they jump up and down and clap when they are excited. Displaying one's emotions is a trait of animals and humans, not of demons."
Tapping his fingers against his chin, he waved away the blood-wine which my lord offered him. The derision in Sesshoumaru-sama's eyes was obvious to Hatsuhana. My lord saw the declination of the blood-wine as another sign that his cousin had become far too sensitized to the humans.
Hatsuhana thought for a moment. He looked at my lord through long, dark lashes. "You love Rin, don't you?"
My lord did not even bat an eyelash at the sudden question, though he was slightly taken aback. "I have feelings for her and I care for her well beings, yes."
"So you do love her. But Rin's a human. You don't love her like you would love a pet dog or a pet cat. You love her like you would love a demon companion. Rin's quite good at hiding her true feelings and keeping on a pleasant mask, but surely it slips now and then. It's in her human nature to at least smile or laugh once in a while. When she does so, doesn't it make you feel good inside? Doesn't it make you feel happy? Proud? Doesn't it stir something in you that felt dead otherwise?"
"No." He eyes his cousin, contemplating Hatsuhana's words. Although Sesshoumaru-sama's answer had been quick and emphatic, he was wondering at the way Hatsuhana had spoken it. "You sound as if you've had experience with this kind of thing first-hand, cousin."
Hatsuhana smiled in fond rememberance. "Yes. That's why I love humans. In the time that I've been gone, I've loved many human women. It never ceases to warm my heart when I see them understand a problem that long eluded them, or seeing their first sunrise, or experiencing love for the first time. Demons were made to protect humans. You do so by leading them, Sesshoumaru. I believe, however, that we do a better job protecting them by being close to them, and by loving them."
Both Hatsuhana and my lord were silent a long time after that. The first watched the latter finish his cup of blood wine, scarce understanding how he could drink it when he had humans under his protection. He eventually asked, "What do you intend to do with Rin, cousin?"
"I don't know," Sesshoumaru-sama admitted.
His cousin smiled. "Normally human girls get married and have children."
Sesshoumaru-sama glowered. "I suspect that you have helped many humans with that goal, haven't you, Hatsuhana? How many bastard children do you have?"
"That's none of your business, but the answer is none. I have slept with human women, yes, but never fathered a child with one. If I knew I was going to stay around to raise one, I would. I won't lie about that. You still haven't told me what you are going to do with Rin, Sesshoumaru."
There was a slight edge to my lord's voice. "That's because I already told you that I don't know what I plan to do with her. Human girls should be married, but Rin is already getting on in years. I doubt that I could find someone that wants to marry her. She has also requested that whomever she marries allows her to continue working for me. Rin's skills with the humans are indespensible to me."
"Have you ever told her that?" Sesshoumaru-sama glared at him reprovingly. The corner of Hatsuhana's lips curled up almost imperceptably. "I guess not then. You should find her a husband who can help her with your work, then; someone's whose skills and knowledges compliment her own."
"Agreed. Thank you for your suggestion. It would be more helpful to me if you were able to just find someone to wed her rather than complicating my wild goose chase."
"I do have a suggestion, Sesshoumaru-sama." My lord was surprised by the honorific. It made him suddenly wary of Hatsuhana's suggestion. Nor did he like the twinkle in his cousin's eye. It was far too jovial to be honest. "I should be the one to court Rin."
"You?" His voice was full of disdain, as if Hatsuhana had suggested something dirty.
"You want someone who will let her work. I will be more than happy to do so, and my own experiences interacting with foreign humans may prove helpful to Rin's work. She needs to be able to travel to do her work properly, and I grow tired if my feet aren't moving. You know that I am adequate protection for her--or did you forget that time I trounced you when we were younger? I enjoy Rin's company, she seems to enjoy my stories. Marrying her into your family means that she can continue to be close to you."
Sesshoumaru-sama's face said nothing. His body was as tight and rigid as it always was. His gold eyes, in comparison, were tempestuous. Hatsuhana noticed it and again that coy smile and almost flirtatious gaze crossed his face. "What else would you do? Marry her yourself, Sesshoumaru? Confine her in a gilded cage? She loves you. She worships the ground you walk on, cousin. You should marry her yourself."
"Marry a human?" He snorted.
"At least marrying her into your family gives her power. The humans are the people you protect as well. What better way to show them that you respect them, even if it may be a lie, than by taking one as a wife, or by giving one to your cousin to wed? It would solidfy your alliance with the humans."
Sesshoumaru-sama turned away and thought hard. It was a good political move, he had to agree. But he also disliked it. It made something in the pit of his stomach gnaw at him. "What about children?" His voice dripped with venom. "I want no child to come out of the marriage. Should I not wed and reproduce, your child would be the closest to the throne. I will have no half-human sitting on my father's throne."
"Your father saw the benefit to being with a human woman. Had Inuyasha the desire or the temperament to rule, do you really think he would have been a weak warlord? He had the strength of arms to keep order, the looks to play political games, the compassion for the humans, and the arrogance and pride to gain respect from the demons."
Sesshoumaru-sama was glaring at him in full-out anger now. Hatsuhana knew he had overstepped his bounds, kinsmen or not. He backed off gracefully. "I will give Rin no child. She is past the age of safe childbirth anyway. Perhaps we might adopt, but no child will result from the union, I can guarantee you that if that is what it takes to gain your approval."
My lord was quiet as he contemplated their conversation. His deep voice was gruff and commanding. "You have my permission and my blessing to court Rin. I will not order her to marry you. She will make her own decision in the matter. But know this: I have watched Rin grow up since before she came to my thigh. Rin does still show emotion, and should I see her cry because you have squandered her honor or broken her, in anyway, I will have your head hanging from my front gate, irregardless of your relationship to me. Are we agreed?"
Hatsuhana nodded, still smiling, almost triumphantly. "Perfectly."
To be Continued.
