Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha not do I make aby type of profit from this story.

-So I added some stuff with Anna and Tai :) I'm sorry it's not much, but they'll be around in future chapters ^-^

"Having a place to go - is a home. Having someone to love - is a family. Having both - is a blessing. "

-Donna Hedges

o~O~o

School.

Not a big deal right?

It's just a building. No reason to be scared.

But, Rin was scared. In fact, she was not looking forward to her first day starting fifth grade at all. And not for the same reasons other demons or humans were dreading the start of school tomorrow. Whereas others were definitely not looking forward to sitting in a classroom for a few hours, school work, and of course the always hated homework; Rin wasn't looking forward to going because she was going to a new school where she wouldn't know anyone.

Well sure, there were probably others in the same situation as her, but that didn't make it any less scary for the small girl.

Besides, her last encounter with children at the foster home wasn't exactly pleasant.

Rin stared at the backpack on her bed. It was already full of a few notebooks, folders, pens and pencils thanks to both Anna and Tai. Part of her was so happy and grateful that they bought the school supplies for her, but the other part of her was slightly upset because this was visible proof school was right around the corner.

Literally.

The school was only a five minute drive from their house.

"Perfect" she muttered to herself.

"Is something wrong?"

She jumped and turned around, surprised to see Anna standing in her doorway.

"No! Nothing's wrong" she said quickly. She didn't want to have Anna or Tai worrying about her.

"Uh huh.." Anna smiled softly and walked over to the bed. She sat on the edge and patted on the spot next to her. When Rin sat on the bed also, she put a comforting hand on the girls shoulder. "Are you nervous about starting school?" she asked.

Rin nodded.

"Don't be, I'm sure it'll be fine. You'll probably have all the kids wanting to be friends with you"

Rin gave her a doubtful look. She wasn't so sure about that.

Anna smiled softly and pulled Rin close for a comforting hug. "Almost everyone gets nervous about their first day of school. You are such a sweet girl, so I'm sure you will make friends." She kissed the top of her head before standing. "Get some sleep okay?"

Rin nodded, placing her backpack on the floor beside her bed before getting under the blankets and laying down.

"Goodnight sweetie" Anna said as she turned off the light.

"Goodnight Anna" Rin replied, trying to ignore the hurt look that appeared on Anna's face before it disappeared and was replaced by the soft smile again. She wasn't sure she was ready to call her mom. She laid in her bed, looking out her window as she wondered how both Mr. Sesshomaru and Jaken were doing. She really did miss them.

She wondered if maybe they missed her.

"Listen mutt" Koga growled into the phone, "I don't know why you've been calling me but I'm tryin' to find a murderer. So unless you know who the hell is killin' people, I don't have time to deal with your shit."

Inuyasha bit back the urge to just yell at the stupid wolf, "There's a little girl missing."

There was a moment of silence before the wolf demon spoke again. "How long has she been missing?"

"About a week"

Koga frowned. There hadn't been any reports of a missing child. "I don't-"

"Her name's Rin. Sesshomaru was lookin' out for her."

'Rin?' Koga thought. Why did the name sound so familiar? His eyes widened slightly as an image of the cowering child in a closet came to his mind. His eyes narrowed for a moment, "Isn't she in the foster home?"

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows for a moment. 'Does Koga know the kid?'

"Sesshomaru went there asking where she was and the woman in charge of the place said she didn't know."

"Has he gone back to see if she is there now?" Koga asked.

"He had threatened the woman. So she filed a restraining order against him"

Koga would have laughed, but the thought of that little girl missing erased any humor from the situation.

"Alright I'll check it out."

(Monday Morning)

Rin smiled brightly as she looked at herself in the mirror. How beautiful the dress was. She had never gotten a chance to wear it and today seemed like the perfect day to.

She traced one of the white flowers with her finger, thinking about two demons she missed.

"Rin are you ready?" Anna walked in and stared at her dress for a moment. "What a beautiful sundress. Did you bring it from Ms. Suzuki's?"

"Yes, my friend gave it to me" Rin answered, still smiling as she remembered the day she got it. She missed both Jaken and Sesshomaru a lot and hoped one day she'd be able to see them again.

Anna raised her eyebrows and then smiled gently. "Well your friend has very good taste, it looks lovely on you. Come on, I'll drop you off at school"

o~O~o

Rin nervously fidgeted with a loose string on her sundress as she walked into the classroom. It took her a while to locate it, and she ended up having to ask one of the teachers for help.

To her embarrassment, it seemed as if all the other students were already there. So when she walked in, all eyes turned to look at her.

"Oh, are you in this class dear?"

Rin looked up to the woman that was to be her teacher and nodded shyly, hoping everyone would take their eyes off her soon.

"What's your name?" the teacher asked, glancing at the paper in her hand.

"Rin"

The teacher wrote something on the paper before saying, "I was just taking attendance. You can sit in the second row, okay?"

Rin nodded before walking over to an empty desk and taking a seat. After the teacher finished taking attendance, she placed the paper on her desk and spoke to the class.

"Okay everyone, as you know I am your new teacher, Ms. Masami" she smiled at the children before continuing. "I thought I'd try something different today to maybe get to know one another"

No one looked particularly excited about the idea, not that she expected the children to be. "When I point to you, you will stand and tell the class your name and something you like that begins with the letter of your name. For example, my name is Masami and I like...monkeys"

A few of the students smiled.

"Okay" Ms. Masami clapped her hands together happily. "Let's start with you" she said as she pointed to a student in the first row.

The student, a girl with short curly hair and bright blue eyes, stood and turned to face the class confidently. "My name is Fujiko and I like fashion" she pointed to her pink skirt and matching pink shirt. "Obviously." She smiled and sat back down.

"Very good" Ms. Masami said before pointing to the student next to Fujiko. "Next"

The next student, a boy, stood and turned to face everyone with a bored expression upon his face. "My name's Seito and I like sleeping." He yawned and sat back down as a few students giggled.

The 'getting to know you process' continued like that.

"My name is Tomoyo and I like Tigers"

"My name's Yukito and I like Yugio"

"I'm Erika and I like elephants"

Rin shifted in her seat nervously. She was next. She had wanted to say she liked flowers but her name didn't start with an 'f'. There were flowers that started with 'r' right?

The teacher then pointed at her and smiled encouragingly, almost as if she sensed her nervousness.

Rin stood and nervously faced the class, blushing slightly. "My name is Rin..." she said softly, her eyes looking down at the floor so she wouldn't see everyone staring at her. "And" she searched her memory for something that started with an 'r'. "I like roses" she finished quickly, smiling because she had remembered the name of a flower that began with an 'r'.

She sat back down in her seat and turned to the girl next to her when she felt a poke on her arm.

The girl, Erika, smiled and whispered so she wouldn't disturb the student who had just stood up and had begun to speak. "I like roses too" she told Rin.

Rin smiled, and took a deep silent breath. She hadn't talked to another child since her time at the foster home. But she knew that if she wanted to make a friend, she'd have to speak.

"I like elephants" she said.

Erika nodded enthusiastically, "They're awesome right? And the baby elephants are so cute. Do you wanna sit with me at lunch?"

Rin couldn't help the huge smile that spread across her face. This was her chance to make a friend. "Okay I'll sit with you" she said happily.

o~O~o

"Hi sweetie! How was school?" Anna asked from her seat in the car. Tai sat next to her, on the drivers side.

"It was great" Rin said honestly. At lunch she had sat with Erika and a few of her friends and they had all been really nice to her. "I made a new friend" she said as she got into the back seat of the car.

"How nice, what's your friends' name?" Tai asked as he pulled out of the parking spot.

"Her name is Erika. She likes flowers just like me! But she likes elephants more. Oh, and she had a brownie for a snack, and broke it in half to share it with me" Rin said , smiling widely the whole time she spoke.

"That's wonderful" Anna said.

"And to celebrate your wonderful first day of school, we're gonna go out to eat" Tai said.

"Yay!" Rin was glad she had having a good first day of school. She had expected to be made fun of or picked on but no one had been mean to her. Maybe it had been pretty silly that she was terrified of going to school today.

"She's what?" Inuyasha asked, wondering if maybe he didn't hear the wolf demon correctly.

"She was adopted." Koga said as he sat back in the seat of his car. He felt extremely tired today. All he wanted to do at the moment was go home and go to sleep. He hoped his mate Ayame had cooked dinner, because he was hungry too.

Inuyasha wondered why the hell the woman at the foster home had told Sesshomaru she didn't know where the girl was. Him and his half brother didn't really get along, but even he could sympathize with the bastard. He of course didn't truly understand the relationship Sesshomaru had with the child, but it was obvious that the cold hearted demon had, by some miracle, grown attached to her.

"Who adopted her? Where is she now? Is she still here in Shinjuku?" Inuyasha asked quickly. The faster he found this girl, the faster Sesshomaru would stop acting like more of a bastard than usual. Inuyasha did not want to be punched again, nor did he want to take his half brothers place at some boring meeting again.

"I can't tell you th-"

"What the hell do you mean you can't tell me?" Inuyasha growled.

"You're not a part of her family Inuyasha. You're not related to her, so I'm unauthorized to tell you"

"What the fuck am I supposed to do about Sesshomaru?" he muttered.

"Just let him know she's ok. She was adopted, and honestly, if she or the couple that adopted her wanted him to know where she was, don't you think they would've found a way to contact him?"

Inuyasha stayed silent for a moment, thinking it over. Did the girl really not want Sesshomaru to know where she was? Jaken had said that Rin had enjoyed spending time with both of them, so why didn't she tell one of them she was going to be adopted? She had to have known. The couple would have talked to her beforehand. Maybe she just didn't want him to know. Well, Inuyasha wouldn't share that thought with his bastard of a brother. The demon would probably try to kill him.

No, he'd just let him know that she was okay and had been adopted. Perhaps he'd be relieved that she wasn't missing like he thought.

"Thanks Koga" he said before hanging up.

"You, young lady" Tai said as he put down his menu and looked at Rin, "should try some kayu"

Rin nodded her head absently as she looked over the pictures on her menu. The udon looked pretty good. She leaned toward Anna and pointed to the picture. "Can I have this please?"

Anna looked at the picture and nodded, "Yaki udon? That looks good"

Rin placed the menu back on the table before looking around the restaurant, her eyes landing on a small boy that looked to be about six or seven. He was staring at her, so she did the only thing she could think of doing. She smiled and waved. The boy's face lit up as he smiled and waved enthusiastically before looking away to stare at someone else.

"Rin, no dating." Tai said teasingly.

"I know, I'm not old enough" she said. She wasn't interested in dating yet anyways. She was only ten and thought of boys just as friends.

"That's right" he nodded his head approvingly. "No dating until you're fifty."

"I don't think that's fair. I started dating when I was seventeen. It might be at that age when boys will start asking you for permission to date Rin" Anna said. She couldn't help but giggle at her husbands' expression.

"I'll shoot them."

Rin laughed while Anna shook her head disapprovingly. "Tai"

"What? I'll warn them not to even ask to date her, and if they don't listen then it's their fault." He shrugged before grinning evilly, "Shoot the first one and the word will spread."

This time both Anna and Rin laughed.

'I'm so happy' Rin thought. She loved her time with both Anna and Tai and was grateful that they had chose to adopt her. She truly loved them as a mother and father. She had never called them 'mom' or 'dad' because at first she felt guilty because she had already had a mom and dad. But now she realized that she wasn't replacing her parents. She would always love and miss them.

"Rin? Are you okay?" Tai asked.

"Huh?" Rin looked up and smiled after seeing the concerned look in Tai's face. "Yes, I'm ok"

He returned her smile and looked around before his smile grew larger. "Good, because it's time to eat"

o~O~o

As usual, Anna came into Rin's room to tuck in the little girl.

Rin watched as Anna walked over to her, all the while smiling gently. She enjoyed when Anna would come to tuck her in. Even if she had already pulled the the blankets on herself she noticed that whenever Anna came and shifted the blankets, it felt so much more comfortable. How did she do that?

After fixing the blanket, Anna placed a gentle hand on top of Rin's head and smoothed down the dark hair. "Goodnight sweetie" she said softly before leaning down and placing a kiss on the child's forehead.

Rin was about to say 'goodnight Anna' but decided against it. She felt so loved when she was with both Tai and Anna, and she knew she loved them as well. It didn't matter that they were not her biological parents. They considered her to be their daughter...and Rin considered them to be her parents. She was not replacing her mom and dad; she would always love and miss them.

She watched as Anna walked toward the door and hesitated only a moment before saying softly, "Goodnight...mom"

There was a small gasp as Anna turned to face her. Unshed tears glistened in the woman's eyes before she smiled happily and walked back to Rin and gave her a tight hug.

*Kayu (or okayu) is Japanese rice porridge. It tends to be thicker than other types of rice porridge or gruel.

*Udon is a type of thick wheat flour noodle of Japanese cuisine. Udon is often served hot as a noodle soup in its simplest form

-So there wasn't much with Anna and Tai, I know, but they will be in future chapters :) Especially since I think overprotective Tai should meet Sesshomaru at some point :3