Response

The clouds turn to rain, tears disperse the blinding mist
Lost to the earth, the waters flow to the waves and seas

As Rin waited for the ink to dry, the two lines in her own handwriting stared back up at her from the fine paper Jaken had given her to use, but she had no idea if she ought ever to let Kohaku read them.

Earlier, Jaken had waited as patiently as his naturally impatient self could while she read Kohaku's note through eyes bright with tears, and sat thinking about it for what seemed like the entire afternoon. When the little green demon could no longer contain himself, he had finally sidled back up to her and asked: "Well? Do you wish to reply? Ah-Un and I can easily make the flight, if Sesshomaru-sama permits."

"I don't know if I will reply," she had said in a subdued voice, gazing at her lap, on which Kohaku's note, now folded up again, rested.

"You can always write something first and decide later if you want it sent," Jaken had told her, before going quickly to Ah-Un's saddlebags, which were resting against a tree while the dragon wandered about munching on vegetation. From one of the pockets, he extracted paper, brushes, a stick of ink and an inkstone, and set them down before Rin, along with a thickly folded piece of fabric so she would have a relatively flat and stable surface to write on. With a bit of water, he wet the end of the ink stick and helped her grind a small quantity onto the stone.

The kappa then strolled off to the river, taking his cue from Sesshomaru, who was standing nearby but looking the other way. Rin stared at the blank sheets before her for some time before selecting a brush and dipping it into the layer of ink on the stone. She held the brush poised over the paper for a few seconds, then dashed off the words that had come into her head without stopping to think if she truly meant them, or meant them for good.

Once the writing was dry, she folded up the paper and gazed at it for some time before handing it to Jaken at last. "Jaken-sama, please will you hold on to this for me?" was her request. "I don't know what I want to do with it yet." She retained the note from Kohaku, slipping it into a fold of her obi.

Jaken, taking her letter, suggested: "I'll put it into the saddlebag, where it will stay dry even if it rains – and it does look like it will rain this evening."

Sesshomaru had already sniffed the air hours ago and concluded that a storm was on its way. Bad weather did not trouble most demons – they sat it out under trees or in any unoccupied caves that were available, and shook the water off their fur and skin once the rain passed – but he was concerned about Rin, who had lived in human shelters for close to seven years now, and was no longer the little girl who had gamely endured all sorts of outdoor conditions when she had travelled with him.

So he was more than satisfied when he sensed Koga's rapid approach. The wolf demon greeted them and invited them all back to his caves, including Ah-Un, saying that at least one of their caves would be large enough for the dragon to fit into quite comfortably if the beast wished to remain dry.

"Thank you, but Rin is the one who really needs shelter from the coming storm," Sesshomaru told Koga. "I would be pleased if you would take her to your caves. If it is not imposing too much on your hospitality, perhaps she can remain there for the rest of this day, and through the night."

"Sesshomaru-sama, I'll be quite fine out here," Rin said. "I used to stay outdoors in all kinds of weather, didn't I?"

"It has been some years since you had to live outdoors," Sesshomaru said. "I do not want you falling ill, so I would prefer it if you went with Koga."

His firm tone of voice left her with little real choice but to obey, so she let Koga lift her onto his back and run off towards the network of caves three fields away, to try and beat the storm. Sesshomaru watched them go, and when they had disappeared into the next field, the taiyoukai spoke to Jaken: "Show me what Rin wrote."

The kappa looked surprised, but he did not question his master, hurrying to the saddlebag to fetch for Sesshomaru the sheet of paper. Sesshomaru took it from him, unfolded it and read the lines, then refolded it and handed it back to Jaken.

"Deliver it to Kohaku," he ordered. "You may fly Ah-Un to the village."

"B-but Sesshomaru-sama," the kappa said in a quavery voice. "Rin wasn't sure whether she wanted to send it to him…"

"Do it," Sesshomaru growled.

The taiyoukai almost never repeated his orders to Jaken, but would either kick him or shoot him a terrifyingly murderous glare whenever the little demon so much as echoed his commands as if he had not understood them. So when he heard the order reiterated with no physical follow-up, Jaken knew he was getting off lightly. Before his big mouth got him into deeper trouble, he shut up and scuttled off at a frantic pace to get Ah-Un muzzled, saddled and ready.

Once the dragon's tack was in place, Jaken hopped onto his back and hurried his enormous mount into the air ahead of the approaching storm, casting only one doubtful backward glance at the pale figure of his lord and master, whose instructions he wondered if it was right to carry out.

.............

The rain poured down as Koga leaped into the caves, with Rin on his back. He set her on her feet, and she froze momentarily at the sight of four-legged wolves everywhere, although none made a move towards her. Koga put an arm around her and quickly ushered her through the network of spaces within the rocky mountain into an empty den.

It was his private den, Rin realised, once she saw the deer skins near the far wall, knowing that only the tribe leader or his most important companions would be likely to enjoy such luxuries in a harsh place like this, or have such a roomy space all to himself.

"I'm afraid this is nothing like what you're used to in the village," he apologised, looking around the rather bare cave and seeing it through her eyes. "We don't exactly live comfortable lives out here."

"Please don't apologise," she quickly responded. "I am honoured and grateful that you would give me shelter in the dwelling place of your tribe. And our village is so humble that I could not imagine how you could think of it as being better than this."

"You're very polite, but I know this is only a rough cave, with none of the comforts that humans are so good at making for themselves," Koga said, smiling ruefully. "We demons rest easily on just about any surface, but it can't be pleasant for a human."

"I spent a year roaming the country and sleeping in whatever forest or under whichever tree Sesshomaru-sama chose to stop at, when I was a child," Rin said. "I'm used to it. Maybe Sesshomaru-sama thinks I've grown soft after living in the village for more than six years, but I don't think I have."

"You know," he said. "This was one of the things that made me hesitate before asking your father if I could get to know you better with a view to making you my mate. I had nothing grand to offer you – no castles or palaces, not even a hut, for that matter. I didn't like the picture of you having to put up with me in one of these caves, but I liked you, and I was selfish enough to give it a try."

"Koga," she murmured, moved by his honesty. "If I love someone, I won't care what he has or where we live. The issue is that I hardly know you, and I do not know if I will grow to love you."

"I know that," he said gently, coming right up to her and encircling her arms with his fingers, just above her elbows. "That's why I wish I had more to show – to have a bit more in my favour when it comes time for you to make up your mind."

"You think I would be swayed by a pretty roof over my head?" she asked archly.

"Hmm, I don't know what an unusual and beautiful girl like you might be swayed by," he mused playfully, slipping his arms round her waist. "Other females have been influenced by a lot less than the prospect of a pretty roof over their heads, but as you seem not to mind having no roof over your head, I'm rather at a loss… unless… I might somehow persuade you to find me devastatingly attractive…?"

As he said that, he kissed her neck and was pleased to feel the vibrations of a tiny, wordless utterance deep in her throat, without further mention of the disturbing idea of herself as food. He kissed her mouth then, meeting her timid tongue with his bold explorations, and literally sweeping her off her feet to lay her down on the deer skins. There was a hypnotic rhythm in the depth of his kisses that lulled her while making her heart race. Her hands glided up his arms and her fingers worked into the fur on his shoulders as his lips moved to her left earlobe, then along her delicate jawline and chin, and down her neck till he was scorching her throat again with kisses along the neckline of her kimono.

He tore off his own armour before loosening her sash and parting the layers of fabric with his fingers until he was able to cup her firm, small but perfect right breast in his left hand. Her naturally modest nature led her to instinctively try to tug the fabric back over her exposed skin, but he took her wrists and held her hands down – not harshly or crudely, but in his male animal-demon way which sought to dominate a female he wished to mate until she became willing.

His mouth closed over the rosy-hued nipple and teased it with his tongue until her modesty and apprehension gave way to her body's first real sensations of sexual arousal. The softest of moans escaped her as she arched her back and submitted to the suckling, tongue-flicking, heated attentiveness of Koga's mouth, drawing on her flesh as if it could give him sustenance.

When he felt her yielding to him, he released her wrists and slipped an arm around her to hold her upper back off the ground and draw her closer to him, while at the same time baring her shoulders and her left breast, to which he now turned his attention. The gentle tracings of his claws and fingertips over the sensitive skin of her chest, arms and shoulders sent tingling, sweetly aching shivers right through her belly and stirred that secret place between her legs – the hidden spot that her modest young self had never so much as fingered or explored except to clean herself when she bathed. Koga must have picked up the scent of her arousal, for one of his hands soon made its way under the skirt of her kimono and up her legs, until she panicked and struggled, and he had to leave off for a moment to pin her down with his body.

Looking into her flushed face, he whispered to her: "Don't be afraid – I won't rape you. I wouldn't take you unless you were ready. I'm not that kind of demon. But with your permission, I will touch you. May I touch you?"

What a question to ask, she thought. Saying no would be a lie, because she was curious about what he could do, and breathless from the waves of arousal he had elicited from her body; but saying yes would also be a lie, because she was unsure of her heart and afraid of all that could happen if she submitted further to him.

"Koga, I… I don't know what I want…" she whispered back.

"Then it's about time you had a chance to decide," he said softly, as he undid her sash completely and opened her kimono. She trembled when he undid the waist ties of her trouser-like undergarment and slid it down her legs and past her feet. "There's nothing here I haven't seen before," he continued. "Although I did my best not to stare when we were in the bear's den, as you were unconscious and hadn't given me permission, I couldn't help but see how beautiful you were."

If she hadn't already been so flushed, she would doubtless have blushed further to be reminded of the time he had held her naked in his arms, but it also reminded her that he had not molested her then, and it told her that even if his hot-blooded male demon ways were much, much more forward than those of a decent, honourable human man's would be, he was being proper in his own manner. She was in demon territory now, and she would have to make some compromises.

As he ran his hands slowly down her waist and up her thighs, and she felt herself grow wet between her legs, she started to breathe so fast that she feared she would end up panting, so she held her breath as his fingers touched the almost painfully delicate lips that shielded the core of her physical being. To keep his claws from nicking the unbelievably soft skin there, he arched his fingers backward and caressed her tenderly with the pad and flat of his index and middle digits, until he had spread the clear wetness from her centre over the rosy lips and that tiny, raised, gently rounded point beneath where those nether lips met.

She exhaled then, trembling and stifling her cries as he kissed her way down her body till his tongue darted out to taste and stroke her, drawing its hot, moist, lightly rough yet smooth-muscled texture over her clitoris and then thrusting it inside her before returning to that point of pleasure again, sending waves of sensation through her that she had never felt before, keeping up the rhythm until she felt those waves crashing against the shore of her soul at ever-closer intervals, and finally washing over her entire being in a climax that seemed to lift her up to the skies before sending her down in the sweetest imaginable way into the embracing warmth of the sea on the hottest summer day.

.............

Kohaku greeted Jaken at the edge of the village in the evening, after being alerted by Kirara's mews that someone they knew was approaching. In the twilight, he saw Ah-Un's great shape landing in the forest behind the village, and soon after, the little kappa emerged from among the trees and handed over a folded note. Kohaku thought Jaken seemed hesitant, and curiously quiet for someone who was normally so garrulous, but it seemed impolite to question him about his behaviour. The sky in the direction from which he had flown was dark with rain, and only Ah-Un's swiftness had helped them get here ahead of the storm.

"Jaken-sama, would you like to rest in one of our huts for a while? The rain is approaching – you'll get wet if you fly back now."

That offer finally got Jaken's tongue working. "Silly boy," he snapped. "I am a water sprite, and as for Ah-Un, all dragons in our part of the world have an affinity for water, do they not? So we do very well in the rain!"

"I just thought you might be more comfortable with some shelter."

"Thank you, but I must return to Sesshomaru-sama at once." With that, and with another of those odd, hesitant glances at Kohaku and the note he had given him, Jaken turned and headed back into the forest. He rose up into the air on the dragon and they flew back the way they had come, but this time into the rain.

Kohaku tucked Rin's note into his sash to keep it dry as he sprinted back to his hut, trying to dodge the raindrops that were just starting to fall over their village. Fortunately for him, his sister, Miroku and the children were visiting Kagome and Inuyasha that evening – he was supposed to join them there for dinner later – but for now, he and Kirara had the place to themselves.

He unfolded the note to reveal Rin's elegant handwriting – and the clear refusal in the words she had used. He could not really say that he was surprised to be rejected, but it still hit him in the gut, like a physical blow.

She had responded to his poem using the same imagery he had employed, so even if Jaken had not delivered it, he would have known it anywhere and from any messenger as a specific reply to his missive. In his note to her, he had used the image of clouds blowing away from him to represent her departure, and to allude to the times they had spent out in the fields watching clouds go by, as well as to remind her of how they had often flown together on Kirara, whose name contained the character for "cloud". His using the earth to symbolise his own situation was meant to express not only that she had flown away while he remained bound to the village, but also to refer to his own name, which meant "Amber", a substance that emerged from trees, which were rooted to the ground.

But she had refused him. Her lines told him that she, the cloud, had dissolved into rain from all her tears for him, tears which had finally revealed how blind she had been to have loved him before. And more to the point, the rain she had turned into would fall not on the earth where he was, but into the sea instead. And she had hinted at the one she had chosen over him in her peculiar choice of the character for "waves" – it was not the character that people in their land normally used to symbolise ocean waves, but was instead the one more commonly used by people on the mainland in the west. While the left half of the character was the component related to water, it was the right half that was telling, for it was the same as the right half of the character for "wolf". No doubt the two words were different and meant entirely different things, but knowing the writer, and knowing the demon who was courting her, he knew that the character was intended to create a visual allusion that his own eyes would pick up at once.

So she had chosen Koga, and there was no hope for him. He closed up the paper again, carefully, along its original folds, and slipped it back into his sash, feeling that a vital part of his life had been torn from him.

He deserved this outcome, truly he did, to have been so obtuse for so long, and to have refused her when she had declared her feelings for him. He had deliberately treated her like a child, and now that he realised he wanted her, she had grown beyond his reach.

She was probably angry with him for bothering her now with his belated sentiments after she had forgotten him and moved on. And his rival – how could he compete with him? A powerful demon who led his own tribe and who had never been lacking in self-belief in anything that he set out to do – it was hopeless.

The rain had come down, and it would no longer seek the embrace of the trees and the earth that were thirsting for it.