Chapter X

There had been no other incident during the trip and Kohaku had not come back to the cabin to see Rin for the remainder of the day and Sesshoumaru was surprised that the dark haired man didn't even come near her on the trip home on the bus as he had done before. They had never found out where Rin's glasses had disappeared to, but put it down to her misplacing them. Life returned to normal once they returned to the city and Rin found herself falling into the same routine as before. Her days were spent at the university and her evenings in Sesshoumaru's company as they finished planning the upcoming wedding.

It was startling how quickly time had passed and Rin found herself slightly overwhelmed by it all when she discovered that they had finished planning it and now simply had to wait the two weeks until the set date to see how it all turned out on the day. Many little things went wrong and required one or both of them to come up with a solution, but Rin was very glad that none of it was something that would drastically affect the wedding as they had planned it.

With less than a week before the wedding, Rin found herself walking down the corridor towards the campus head's office. The last time she had been in this man's office was when he had welcomed her as a member of the staff here at the university. Sighing softly, she knocked on the door when she came to it and entered when she heard someone call out to her. Her eyes widened as she stepped into the room and found Sesshoumaru sitting comfortably in a chair on one side of the desk with a very bored expression on his face while the head sat in his chair opposite Sesshoumaru, his hands clasped tightly on the desk in front of him and a slight frown marring his usually smiling face. What surprised her the most was the fact that Kohaku stood beside the window, his arms crossed and smug look on his face. Sighing to herself, Rin sat down beside Sesshoumaru knowing that whatever was going to happen now was probably not going to be very good.

"I'm sorry to call you here on such short notice," the head apologised and glanced at Rin. "I hope I didn't interrupt a lesson?"

"They have enough work to keep them going to the end of their lesson," Rin said as she pasted a smile onto her face.

"Why did you call us here?" Sesshoumaru spoke suddenly, his voice tinged with irritation. "I have work to do and this is sudden meeting is quite troublesome."

"I apologise," the head said sincerely before gesturing to Kohaku. "It seems that this young man had something he wanted to ask me but he wished the two of you to be present."

Sesshoumaru raised and eyebrow and looked at the younger man, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the smug look that seemed to have been on his face since his arrival. Evidently the man thought he had achieved something or was about to, but Sesshoumaru was fairly sure that the smug look on his face would not be there for much longer.

"This meeting is troublesome," Sesshoumaru repeated, his words directed at Kohaku this time. "Speak and get it over with."

"If you wish," Kohaku said with a smile as he turned his attention to the head. "From what I understand, a relationship between teachers here is not encouraged, am I right?"

"It is true that we do not encourage relationships between members of staff," the head said slowly, frowning as he spoke. "However, that rule is not strictly enforced any longer as it has caused problems in the past."

Kohaku was unmoved by the man's words. "Then you approve of teachers behaving inappropriately in the presence of their students?"

"Of course not. What is this all about?" the head demanded as he eventually lost patience.

"It is about those two behaving inappropriately during the trip we recently went on," Kohaku said calmly, gesturing towards Rin and Sesshoumaru.

The head frowned and looked at the pair who seemed quite baffled. Sesshoumaru shrugged and began tapping his long fingers impatiently on the arm of his chair while Rin looked back at the two men with a blank expression. She pushed her glasses up and sighed softly as she leaned back in her seat, resisting the urge to shake her head at Kohaku's antics.

"I see. What is this about?" the head said diplomatically, waiting for Kohaku to continue.

"I was under the impression that teachers were professionals who did not let their sexual desires get the better of them."

"In front of the students?!" the head demanded incredulously.

"In the cabin with students just outside."

There was silence in the room and Rin covered her mouth with her hand as she tried to hide her smile. So that's what this was about. Sesshoumaru said nothing, choosing instead to tap his fingers faster as he grew more irritated by the situation. Kohaku's smug smile grew as the head leaned back in his chair and sighed quietly. After a few more moments of silence, the head rose to his feet and stood beside Kohaku, placing a hand on the younger man's shoulder.

"If this happened in a cabin, it does not breach the rules," the head said seriously. "No students are to enter a teacher's room without their permission so they have done nothing wrong."

"But…" Kohaku gasped, staring at the older man as though he had sprouted an extra head.

"What couples do in their spare time has nothing to do with me or the school."

"What about the rules about teachers having relationships?"

"Even if the rule was still enforced, which it is not, that rule would not apply in this situation."

"Why not?" Kohaku demanded, beginning to get angry when he realised he was losing to Sesshoumaru once again.

The head tried in vain to get the younger man to calm down while Rin and Sesshoumaru looked on silently. Since the true reason for the meeting had revealed itself, they had said nothing, deciding that it was a matter best left to the head. Kohaku glanced at the pair and glared at Sesshoumaru before turning a softer gaze to Rin who shifted her shoulders slightly as she adjusted her seating position.

"Why would the rules not apply to them?!"

"The rules do not apply to them simply because only one of them is a member of staff here," the head said as he sat down again. "In any case, it wouldn't matter much even if both worked here considering the engagement."

"Who's engaged?" Kohaku demanded, frowning as dread began to build within him.

The head frowned and looked at Rin. "You have not told your students?"

"It's none of their business," Rin said simply, shrugging as she spoke. "But, considering the current situation, it would perhaps have been better if I did tell them."

"Tell us what?" Kohaku asked, his anger fading as he realised that he had lost again even though he didn't know how.

"These two are engaged and will married soon," the head with a smile at Rin and Sesshoumaru.

Rin watched with concern as Kohaku's face paled as he heard the words and she wondered briefly if he would pass out from shock, but he remained standing where he was and sighed softly. If Sesshoumaru had been in a better mood, he might have pitied the man, but as it was, the man had disrupted his day and therefore was not deserving of any pity. Rising to his feet, he looked at the head expressionlessly.

"Is that all?" he deadpanned.

"Yes, thank you for your time and I apologise for the inconvenience," the head said with a slight smile.

Without a word, Sesshoumaru strode out of the office and Rin apologised to the head quickly for causing such trouble before hastily following him out. Sesshoumaru was nowhere in sight when she left the office and Rin was left to slowly make her way back to her own department. She would never have guessed Kohaku would go to such lengths to get her attention, but she supposed she had never spoken to him about anything other than what they studied so she knew very little about him. She stepped into the class that she had left earlier and noticed that all the students had left which wasn't much of a surprise, but what was a surprise was the neat pile of work that they had completed and left for her to grade. Shaking her head, she picked up her small pile of books and placed the work on top of it as she headed towards the café. It had been a long time since she had been there and seeing Rika would be nice.

As the wedding day drew ever closer, Rin found herself spending more time withSesshoumaru than alone although she really didn't mind. She had been given time off from work and Sesshoumaru left his fellow chefs to man the kitchens at the restaurant while he accompanied Rin and an esate agent as they searched for the home they would share after they married. He didn't really mind what kind of house it was as long as it was big enough to house all their belongings. Izayoi had spent a long time talking to Rin about what she should look for in a house and Sesshoumaru could tell that Rin had been overwhelmed by the sudden influx of information. The pair had been referred to the same person who had found a home for Inuyasha and Kagome and then elderly woman had been overjoyed to hear that he would be helping the other Taisho son find a home for him and his fianceé.

Rin took an immediate liking to the elderly estate agent and enjoyed the time the trio spent together even though she was quite sure that Sesshoumaru would have much preferred to do this alone. The man was patient and eager to help wherever possible. He frequently made comments about how good it was to see Sesshoumaru finally settling down and getting married which made Sesshoumaru shift uncomfortably in his seat before the man would turn his eyes to Rin and compliment her until she blushed prettily.

"This is one of the best houses on sale at the moment," the man said as he pushed a sheet of paper with a house on it towards the couple. "It's a very good price as well considering its size."

"Is it not a little too big?" Rin asked, looking at Sesshoumaru with a frown as he looked at the picture of the house.

"It'll be perfect for children!" the estate agent said with a grin.

"We're not planning to have children just yet," Sesshoumaru stated as he pushed away the paper. "Is there something a little smaller?"

"Certainly! We have two available, would you like to visit them?"

"Please."

Rin followed the two men towards the first of the two houses and fell in love with it the instant she laid eyes on it. It was a bit bigger than her own two bedroomed home but it was very quaint. The large garden that surrounded it was beautifully tended to and the house itself was spotless. There were three bedrooms which the estate agent mentioned would be useful for children who didn't like to share bedrooms before leading them into the master bedroom. Rin gaped at it as she looked around the enormous bedroom. She swore it was about the same size as her living room. Sesshoumaru looked around it and nodded appreciatively as he stepped into the room. Large windows lined one side of the room overlooking the gardens while a doorway stood opposite the windows and led into the en suite bathroom that was impossibly big. Rin could only shake her head at the scale of everything. She was used to small things as they were all her meagre budget would allow, but this simply floored her. The man left the pair alone in the empty bedroom and disappeared down the corridor to the kitchen just as Sesshoumaru turned to look at Rin.

"What do you think?" he asked, looking at her seriously.

"It's incredible," she murmured with a vague smile as she looked out the window.

"Would you like to live here?"

"Shouldn't we see the other house first?"

"It doesn't really matter," Sesshoumaru said with a shrug. "This is the cheaper of the two."

"Do you like this house?"

"I do. I believe I could live here quite happily."

"So could I."

"Then we will get this house."

Later that day, Rin smiled to herself as she walked into her own home and looked around her. She decided that she should probably make a start on packigng away her belongings if she was going to move after the wedding, but decided to leave the task until the next day. Picking up the mail she had carelessly left on the table before leaving the house that morning, Rin sat down in the living room and flipped through the small pile of envelopes, sighing as she saw several bills. Looking up from the mail, she sighed softly to herself as she thought about the next few days. In just two days time, she would be a member of the Taisho family and would be married to one of the most eligible bachelors in the city. It was an amazing thought and until now, she hadn't stopped to consider just how lucky she was even though they weren't marrying for love. She was nervous about the prospect of what it would mean to be married to Sesshoumaru Taisho and excited about seeing how the wedding would turn out after all their planning. Rin desperately hoped it would turn out well, but she suspected that the Taisho family would take steps to make sure nothing went wrong.

Smiling to herself as she thought about the people who would soon become her family, she turned her attention back to the mail that sat in her hands and decided to finish going through it before she went to bed. A short while later, all the relevant bills and letters had been piled neatly to one side while the junk mail sat opposite it with a tiny pile of interesting looking envelopes in the middle. Rin got to her feet and scooped up the rather large pile of junk mail and deposited it in the bin before returning to her seat and looking through her bills. Sighing at the never ending demand for money, she neatly piled the bills and made a mental note to pay them as soon as possible before turning to the remaining pile. There were only two envelopes in this pile. One of them was a letter from an old school friend, but it was the second envelope that caught Rin's attention. It was white with not a single smudge on the clean surface of the envelope. Her name and address had been printed neatly in the exact centre of it and Rin wondered who would put such care into addressing and envelope. Shrugging to herself, she turned it over and slid her nail under the edges as she opened it carefully. A wad of papers sat inside and Rin drew them out with a frown. Opening them up, she glanced at the sender's address at the top of the letter and her frown deepened as she started to read. By the end of the letter, her mouth was hanging open in shock and she could do nothing but stare at the letter as though it were a bomb about to explode. The contents of the letter were unbelievable. Casting it aside hastily, Rin stood up and walked down the corridor to her bedroom. This had to be a mistunderstanding of some sort. Perhaps she would wake up in the morning and find that she had simply imagined it all?

AN: I know this chapter is shorter than the others and I apologise. The events in the second half don't really flow very well, but never mind. I wanted to start the next part of the story in a new chapter so that's why this one is so short. I'll start working on the next chapter tomorrow and hopefully it should be up the same day.

Thank you for all the reviews so far! I'm very glad this story is well received. I was worried it might be too much like the others I've been writing recently. Thank you again!

xMxAx