Chapter Nine: Bedwarmers

Rin breathed slowly, in through her nose and out through her mouth, as she jogged swiftly through the forest undergrowth, branches of trees snapping at her as though alive. As soon as she had taken leave of Sango, she'd taken what she needed from Ah-Un's saddlebags and dashed into the forest, stopping briefly to change out of her kimono into a pair of worn hakama and a light under-layer. At the first stream she'd covered her face, neck, and arms with thick mud in an attempt to hide her scent. It wouldn't be completely effective against inuyukai senses, but she reasoned that Inuyasha's senses might be less effective than Sesshoumaru's anyway.

Aware that she did not know where Sesshoumaru had gone, and knowing that he had likely went by air, leaving no trace, her plan was to track back to their den to see if there were any clues among their stored belongings. It was also likely that she would encounter Jaken there. If Sesshoumaru was going somewhere and not intending to return, the imp may have been left behind.

After several hours of travel, Rin was breathing harder. Although life in the forest had strengthened her, she was not without her limits. As the sun set and darkness filled the forest, Rin was obliged to stop and make camp. She avoided lighting a fire for fear of the attention it could attract if Sango or Miroku had decided to attempt to retrieve her. Instead, she drank water straight from a nearby stream and ate a strip of dried meat from her travel rations. Bedding down behind a fallen tree, Rin arranged leafy branches over herself for the warmth and to cover herself. Trying to ignore the dried mud caking most of her exposed skin, Rin slept.

Catching Rin's scent was no problem for Inuyasha. As he bounded after her through the forest he admitted to himself that he had been enjoying her scent for quite some time without realizing it. The smell wasn't exactly floral and delicate, like Kagome's had been. After the first mile or so, the scent trail deepened and got stronger.

He caught up with her before nightfall, but didn't announce himself. He hid in the branches of a tall tree and watched her, wondering where she was intending to go.

Not far, apparently. After eating and drinking she made herself a small hovel behind a fallen tree and covered herself with plants to sleep.

Inuyasha crept forward, listening for the slowed breathing that would indicate she was asleep. He figured once she was asleep he could grab her and get her back to the village. Hopefully he and Sango and Miroku could manage to keep her there.

Minutes wore on and Rin did slip into sleep. Inuyasha didn't grab her, though. He told himself he was just waiting to make sure she was deeply asleep before he got her. He crept a little closer, drawn to her scent even though he couldn't exactly see her. After a few minutes he noticed the branches she'd covered herself with moving. She was shivering. Inuyasha scowled, and his insticts stirred. He couldn't deny how much he wanted to crawl into that hole and warm her up. He tried to push the feeling aside, knowing that should he indulge his instincts he would probably be greeted with one of those poison-tipped knives. He stuffed his arms in his sleeves, grumbling quietly to himself, fighting the urge to move in. Then Rin sniffled, and shuddered, and he detected a change in her scent that indicated fear. A nightmare?

That did it. Inuyasha didn't consider himself to be the most sensitive hanyou around, but he wasn't going to stand by and just watch a girl suffer from a nightmare. That would be just cruel, wouldn't it?

Creeping as silently as he could, he hopped down the last few branches of his tree and landed softly on the forest floor. He moved forward on all fours, following Rin's distinctive scent even as her camoflauge effectively hid her from his sight. He found the hovel and moved the branches aside to reveal Rin's form, curled with her face away from him. Holding his breath, he fit himself against her quivering back, curling his legs against hers and cautiously placing his arm over her slim waist. She stopped shivering, and Inuyasha snuggled even closer, allowing his eyes to drift slowly shut. He felt her stir briefly, as though she might wake up. He held his breath, but all she did was sigh quietly and wriggle back further into his arms. He snuffled her hair and, unable to help himself, growled low in his chest.

Rin woke in the predawn light, quite warm and comfortable save for the mud caking around her face and neck. Something behind her was vibrating, humming even. She opened her eyes to see a clawed hand grasping the fabric of her shirt, attached to a red-clad arm that seemed to be draped over her waist snugly. Inuyasha? Why was he snuggled up against her? How had he found her? A feeling of tenderness flitted softly across her sleep-fuzzy thoughts and she smiled. Then she noticed his breath on the back of her neck, and realized his face must be buried in her hair. Inuyasha stirred and woofed softly, as though in the process of waking himself up.

The woof did it. Rin's eyes snapped open as her mind sharpened focus and she remembered that she had been deliberately running away from this intrusive hanyou and had even gone to some pains to hide herself, and yet here he was! Her heart rate sped up as she felt her face flush in anger, but she didn't move immediately. She waited for Inuyasha to wake, moan, yawn, and sit up slowly. He kept one hand on her hip, infuriating her even further. When she felt him sleepily stroke from her hip down to her thigh, she pounced.

"Inuyasha!" She shrieked as she pulled away from him and snapped upright, turning to face him. His reaction could not have been more comical.

"WAAAAAAAAHHH!" He yelled, recoiling and jumped backwards a few paces.
"What the hell did you do to yourself?"

"What do you mean what the hell? I should be asking YOU what the hell were you doing sleeping all cuddled up to me!" Rin roared right back at him, a little insulted at the way his lip curled in digust when he looked at her.

"No, you, you're covered in something—ick!" Inuyasha responded. It was only then that Rin remembered her plan from the day before. She angrily wiped a sleeve across her dirty face, which painfully displaced some dried dirt and clay from her skin.

"It's just mud." She told him, irritated. "No need to look at me like that."

"Why the hell did you put mud on your face?" Inuyasha said, brows furrowed.

"I was trying to get away from YOU," Rin said accusingly. "I knew you could follow my scent so I was trying to mask it."

"You tried to mask your scent with mud?" Inuyasha asked incredulously, "That's just stupid!"

"Oh, screw you. It has worked for me before!" Rin spat at him, sitting up and scrubbing her face a little more, wincing at the chalky dust coming off of her skin.

"Well it wouldn't work this time. Mud." He barked a short laugh. "I mean, it only made your scent stronger. You already smell like mud."

It was possible, Inuyasha was able to reason later, for Rin perhaps to misunderstand this statement as an implication that she smelled dirty or unpleasant. He knew, in the moment, that he had made a mistake when he saw her eyes practically give off sparks.

"I smell like mud, Inuyasha?" She said, low and dangerous.

Perhaps he should have explained to her that she did not smell like mud, but rather like earth warmed by sunlight. A deep smell, like the forest after the rain. It was one of his favorite smells. But he said, instead (and stupidly)

"Yea—yeah, like dirt. Not in a bad way...it's just...it's a...muddy kind of smell...so the mud didn't—"

"You son of a bitch!" Rin shouted. She hiked up her hakama and for one weird, dizzying moment Inuyasha thought she was intentionally baring her sleek leg for him. The second he felt a prick on his hand he realized that she had extracted one of her sharp knives.

"Ouch! This one had better not be pois—" Inuyasha smiled serenely and slumped to the ground, and this time Rin did not bother cushioning his fall with her lap. Let the hanyou wake up in the dirt. She needed to find a hot spring to wash off the infernal mud, since it wasn't doing her any good anyway. If he decided to follow she could always poison him again, although he might be useful as a bedwarmer if he managed to catch her by nightfall.