Basically the entire point to this chapter is to start to show more of the characters and how they are involved. Kagura's father being Naraku is the big thing to notice here. And more Rin putting an uneasy Sesshoumaru in his place… AGAIN.

Sesshoumaru pulled into valet and soon he and Rin were ushered inside the sashimi restaurant, to a back room with long low tables in the traditional arrangement.

Sake was brought in by waitresses and sweet sake for Rin. The young women pouring drinks kept to background, not saying a word… Unusual. Most of the time they flirted with him.

While he'd expected some strange looks regarding his bringing an eight year old girl out to dinner at almost seven o'clock at night, no one even met his eyes, tonight.

"Is something wrong, Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin asked quietly.

"It's nothing." He replied, trying to shake the strange feeling of being watched.

Rin sat down in seiza while Sesshoumaru sat crosslegged and a multitude of dishes were brought out, all raw fish and rice and various sauces.

The two ate companionablely, Rin's skill with her chopsticks and decorum far outclassing most children, which earned quite a few whispers Sesshoumaru's ears could now detect.

"Is it true?"

"I don't know? I've never seen her before."

"But then, who is she if its not true?"

"I highly doubt it. No one is so traditional anymore, and why should the Taishou family engage in such… antiquated behavior."

"Money is supposed to buy freedom, and yet here they are… She's just so young."

"Kagura-sama said…"

Rin, feeling uneasy got up asking to use the restroom and was ushered off while Sesshoumaru sat contemplating a beer after so much sake, when his stomach was already acting somewhat unrealiable.

"Taishou-sama…" a waitress, one he actually didn't mind so much approached him, looking around wearily, "Is it true?"

He cocked his brow and tilted his chin, "Is what true?"

"Is it true… That little girl… Your family has decided to force a marriage to her when she comes of age?"

He could have choked on his food. "Who said that?"

The waitress lowered her voice even more, "Kagura-sama's father, Naraku-sama was in here yesterday talking while he was drunk… He had wanted for you and Kagura-sama to be matched, but then… Kagura-sama told him about… that girl."

"Rin." He almost snapped, feeling defensive… Of her, of himself, he wasn't sure.

"Yes, about Rin… sama…" She hesitated with the honorific, not sure what to call the child, "and how she's supposedly living with you."

"She is living with me, however no one tells me who to marry. There is nothing like that going on with my family."

The young woman's smile faultered just a bit, but she nodded, cleared his dishes and left, "Have a good evening, Taishou-sama."

Rin returned from the bathroom and sat next to Sesshoumaru formally, noting his troubled expression. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head without answering… That these people… they would see him next to Rin and assume that… Suddenly, he recalled the incident on the couch and how disturbed he'd felt… Or rather, how disturbed he'd felt at his own lack of feeling any disgust.

Reincarnation or not, (and, thinking about it now, that seemed utterly ridiculous to him anyway… after all, she sounded like some kind of delusional otaku or something), she was still an eight year old child.

That's all he could see when he looked at her, and yet…

His step-mother (that crazy old bat) had insisted they could not be seperated.

"I'm going to adopt you as my daughter." He said out of nowhere, and Rin looked up, absolutely horrified at the idea.

"But… That's…" Rin felt herself go a bit green in the gills at the notion. He wasn't her father, he was her mate and for her to have to try and see him in any role but that one… it was rather disgusting to her.

"We will not discuss this further here."

"Oh, we are discussing this, Sesshoumaru-sama."

"Otou-sama." He corrected.

Rin could feel steam coming from her ears at that little quip. She was not calling him that. She'd had plenty of fathers (nine, to be exact) and he was most certainly not one of them.

"You know what? This is stupid. You aren't even old enough to be my father! You're twenty-three!"

He glared at her, then moved very close to her face, "But you're too young to be my wife and I won't have the rumors."

Rin glared right back, "I'm older and wiser than you are, apparently. Don't you understand? Trying to see me as your daughter for now will only make you even more of a hentai when the time comes that we…"

"Shut up." He glanced around making sure that no one was evesdropping.

Rin shook her head, "I never knew you to care so much what other people thought… How weak."

He wanted to strangle her, at that moment… But he didn't. He couldn't.

The fact of the matter was, she was right.

"The old you would dispise this 'you'… Selfish, philandering, and a lazy lay-about, without a single goal to work toward, just coasting through life on the merits of your family's money and prestige."

"Was I not the son of a great dog demon before, born into royalty?" He rolled his eyes a bit.

"Yeah, and you gave it all up to go wandering around in search of your own path… As soon as you stopped looking for your daddy's swords, and the power you thought they would represent, you got your own sword, your own power, and you never lived your life in his shadow again."

"I did too." Sesshoumaru argued, and even though he didn't know much about what he was talking about, those words came so fast he didn't have to think, and they felt true.

"Oh? In what way?"

"I had a weakness for human women." He looked away, his head aching again.

At that, Rin smiled. "No. You didn't have a 'weakness for human women'. You had a weakness for me."

He almost growled, "What makes you so great?"

Rin flashed a smile and a wink, "Wait a few years… You'll find out."

Sesshoumaru pinched the bridge of his nose, "I can't deal with this right now… Waitress! We're ready to leave!"

Rin giggled, covering her hand with her mouth and wishing she could capture the look on his face right about now. Sesshoumaru had never before shown embarrassment of any kind, and yet here was this dark haired (mostly), dark-eye'd (mostly), yet beautiful man that looked more and more like her Lord… Blushing like a schoolgirl.

Life might be complicated, but complicated was good… How else did one relieve the boredom after five centuries?