A/N: Inuyasha and Sesshomaru are terrible communicators. It must run in the family. How can Sesshomaru bring Rin from her embittered, troubled state of being? Also, thanks guys for giving me a great kick in your reviews. Almost everyone answered my question regarding Innocence and almost all of you liked it. (And Simonkal, I do have to agree with your point, it is sad, but I just can't resist the fun I could have with it.) And so many of you saw my ending note of "the end" and thought I was done! Oh my! I'm sorry for the horror that caused. Wow, I'm laughing all over again. Sorry about that. Ahem…

Disclaimer: Nope I only own Miroku and Sango's kids, Inuyasha's and Kagome's.

Last chapter: Sesshomaru returned Koinu unharmed. Inuyasha told him where Rin was. When Kagome came home he shouted at her because he was still consumed with terror over losing one of their babies. Miroku and Sango dealt with their family banter. Sesshomaru spoiled the party. Rin made him promise not to harm anyone, Shimofuri included. She set Tsukiyume free and left with Sesshomaru.

The Insen

Leaving the courtyard and the inn and the small town was a blur to Rin, but as soon as she came out of the fog, she felt vertigo steal over her. The sweetness of the night air rushing over her face and through her hair, the twinkling of starlight overhead, and the sway of the grasses and trees alongside the path—they were all things that reminded her heavily of her childhood. Of the years spent walking behind Sesshomaru, picking flowers and weaving them into crowns and offering them to Jaken.

When he'd left her at Jouka to be educated she'd grown into more of a woman than a girl. She'd budded breasts, and sprouted several inches in height. For a long time she longed for nothing else but to rejoin Sesshomaru, to follow him through the forests again as she had as a girl.

Ironically, it seemed that the higher powers had listened to her desires, and they had an interesting sense of humor. They'd fulfilled her wish, but now she didn't wish to be here, not at all. In fact, she didn't wish to be anywhere.

Sesshomaru kept a steady pace several body lengths ahead of her. Rin occasionally lifted her gaze to admire his backsides, to see the glint of his armor and the ruffle of the white fluff on his shoulder. Since leaving the village they hadn't exchanged any words. As a child that had been a normal occurrence, as an adult, his mate and lover, it was a little more unusual.

Considering the situation, and her own feelings, she didn't want him to try and speak to her.

They ascended a hill, Sesshomaru climbed it effortlessly, Rin struggled for every step. At the top she stopped, sitting on the side of the path, breathing hard and with one hand wrapped around her protruding belly. Sesshomaru traveled fast, he often moved ahead of her and Jaken when she'd been a child. Traveling with Tsukiyume and with the demon slayers had been simple in comparison.

Sesshomaru continued walking ahead, seemingly unaware that she'd stopped. Rin returned the favor and ignored him, focusing instead on her own body. She breathed carefully and tried to calm her nerves, to bury her anxiety and tension. The baby sensed these emotions she was sure, her daughter hadn't stopped moving all night.

She rubbed her belly, closing her eyes and trying to calm the baby in her womb. The wind sprang up again, making her sigh as she relaxed with it. But when she opened her eyes she saw that it had concealed the sounds of Sesshomaru's return. His narrow, booted feet stood before her on the path, a few short feet away. She followed them up, past the hakama, over the armor protecting his stomach and chest, and finally to his face.

His golden eyes were distant and cold as he stared down at her. The firmness of his jaw told Rin that he was angry. "The child is fine."

Rin sneered bitterly, "That's easy for you to say."

Surprisingly he answered her words, though it was with a new topic. "You have spent too long with my brother."

He was calling her vulgar or rude. She had neglected to offer him any respect when he told her that their child was fine. Her words were direct, she'd used no titles, and she'd challenged his pronouncement. Apparently Sesshomaru expected her to treat him cold and distantly, not with open dislike or disdain.

She wondered how he'd found out, if he'd decided to check for himself and scented her there, or if some rumor had slipped, if Shimofuri had already given her away…

"You can walk?" he asked, coldly. He wasn't looking at her directly any longer.

"I can." She answered, sighing.

Without another word, Sesshomaru turned his back on her and began moving away again. After a long, heavy breath inward, Rin heaved her heavier than usual body up from the ground and followed behind him. Except for her more elevated height, and the child moving excitedly inside her, it was exactly like her girlhood.

The hours passed. Emotion came and went, but mostly the walking cleared her mind and her thoughts by draining her of energy. Occasionally Rin would look up and see her mate's backsides and have a moment of fear, or pain. Had she really rejoined the creature that she'd given herself to so loyally, so blindly?

At the same time, his otherworldliness struck her anew. As a child she had noticed it when she'd first met him, but her innocence and curiosity had drawn her to him, overwhelming the strangeness that separated them. But in the awkwardness between them now, Rin was able to remove herself and observe Sesshomaru with the eyes of a distant intimate, like an objective scientist that had spent her life studying a creature to discover some innate secret.

Sesshomaru was as distant as the sun to her, but at the same time so powerful and so intimate that, like sunlight, she could still feel his warmth. What thoughts were passing through his mind? She'd always fancied herself as an expert, able to read him like no other, but was that really true? She'd been he last to know of his wife, tucked away in the Isei…

Near dawn Rin had become a zombie, barely thinking, and unquestionably unfeeling. She followed Sesshomaru like a beast of burden, as if she'd never known anything else in her life, ever. They reached a small village, nestled in a valley between some sharply peaked mountains, the first range that climbed after the relatively flat lands near the coast.

Sesshomaru halted now at long last and summoned her to his side. In his single, long, elegant arm, the inuyoukai held out a few coins to her. "You must sleep."

Rin took them without comment and without staring into his face. He wouldn't share a room with her—that would, of course, draw too much attention—but she was certain he wouldn't be far away either. He would never let her out of sight now.

The innkeeper was cranky when he was woken before his usual time, but the money pacified him swiftly. Most people paid him not with actual currency, but with work or with rice or some other good. Actual gold was a rare, delightful treat. He showed Rin to a room on the first floor after he woke one guest and switched the rooms around. He was concerned over Rin's condition; he didn't want her climbing any stairs.

Alone, Rin crawled exhaustedly into the sleeping mats that the innkeeper provided, and fell at once into a deep, dreamless sleep. (A/N: in a short time as I write this, I plan on doing just the same thing and enjoying it very thoroughly.)

Akisame and Koinu sat quietly at the table, pencils in their hands, the English alphabet sitting in front of them. Akisame, a little older than two years old, was abruptly beginning to inherit the youkai's dexterity that seemed to pass through Inuyasha into their children. Koinu was already masterful, more so than any of Miroku and Sango's children, and better than his mother had been at a similar age.

Kagome's gaze was solemn and unfocused as she waited for her children to finish copying the lesson. The room was unusually quiet with Sango and Miroku's brood gone along with Tsukiyume and Rin. She came out of her reverie briefly to watch her son, scrutinizing his young, innocent face.

Koinu's face was bruised lightly still from his encounter with his uncle. His lips and nose had bled where he'd struggled, smashing his little features against Sesshomaru's powerful hand. His eyes were still puffy from the tears he'd cried. Akisame, in comparison, was already healthy and happy again. Her mind remained young and childish; she wouldn't remember the attack in a year.

Koinu, however, would probably carry it with him for the rest of his life. The physical marks would vanish, but the emotional ones…

The boy's sense of smell was powerful enough that he'd known from almost the moment the attack began that the creature holding him was in fact his blood uncle, his father's infamous older brother. In his innocent world, there had never been a foe that was within the bloodline, inside the family. It was a bombardment to him of the natural order.

Kagome had only made the problem worse when she tried to explain the difference between hanyou and youkai. Koinu understood it by scent, but failed to see how it manipulated things in the adult mind. Now he'd begun believing that youkai and the blood and power associated with it were given to violence. He stared at his own father with new eyes, worrying.

Sighing, Kagome reached forward and tapped her children's hands. "I think that's enough of a lesson today, don't you?" when they looked up at her, she smiled, trying to encourage them.

Akisame grinned back at her and tossed the pencil away. "Dumb." She announced, giggling.

Koinu set his own pencil down slowly, with the reserve of a true student. There were many times that Kagome saw herself in her son, in spite of the fact that he was almost the mirror image of his father. "Mama?" he asked.

"Yes, Koinu?" she leaned forward and stroked his ear, but the pup tucked it against the side of his head and frowned disapprovingly.

"Can we go see Grandma? And Uncle Souta? And Great Grandpa?"

Kagome nodded, smiling. "Of course we can, if it will make you smile."

Koinu nodded and his face brightened. "Do you think Uncle Souta will let me play his video game?"

Akisame clapped her hands together and laughed, "Dumb!" she announced a second time.

"I'm sure he will, he loves you very much, Koinu—and so do I, so does your father." She reached for his hair and ears again and he growled, ducking and complaining loudly.

"Mom! Cut it out! You're as bad as stupid Kasai!"

Kagome quirked her head to one side, smirking. "As bad as Kasai?"

The boy nodded, frowning. "She's always touching my ears!" the offended appendages flattened themselves on his head, as if embarrassed to be the center of attention so suddenly.

"Well Koinu, I must say I understand where she's coming from." She grinned with real mirth and reached out, trying to tease her son's ears into an upright position. "You and your father have irresistible ears."

Koinu pulled his head away from her, still scowling fiercely. "Mom! Stop!"

Kagome lifted her hands into the air in surrender. "Okay, I'm sorry." She paused, still smirking, before she turned the conversation back on its previous track. "When do you want to go see Uncle Souta?"

"How about now?" Koinu asked, raising his eyebrows hopefully and clapping his hands together in a pleading gesture, begging his mother.

"Hmm." Kagome put her fingers to her chin, pretending to consider it with doubt. "How about I let you and Aki stay with Grandma and Uncle Souta for tonight."

Koinu mimicked her earlier motion by cocking his head at an angle, inquisitively. "You mean without you? Where would you go, mama?"

"I'd stay here with your father. He needs some cheering up." Her smile had grown tenser now, darker, though she tried to hide that change from her son.

Inuyasha was still haunted by the encounter with his brother, with Koinu's near-miss. He had been distant, even evasive around her the entire day. Kagome was certain it was nothing too serious, in his own time Inuyasha would overcome his brooding, he would forgive her. That was the real issue, he hadn't forgiven her. Kagome thought she knew just how to melt the ice between them, and leaving their children in the safety of her mother's care would make her task that much easier.

It'd been too long since she'd been able to sit with her hanyou, to speak to him without the worry of underage ears or ever-curious adult eavesdroppers.

Koinu's expression darkened with mixed emotions, uncertainty, and doubt. "Is daddy okay?" his blue eyes searched Kagome's face, worriedly.

Akisame squealed happily, making Koinu and Kagome cringe at the sheer volume of it. The toddler grasped her pencil and the paper she'd been writing on before and began coloring furiously. Her pink tongue stuck out from one side of her lips as she worked. Circles, lines, and curves emerged from her scribbles, forming a loose, humanoid shape.

"Daddy's fine." Kagome answered, smiling encouragingly. "He just needs a little time, and a little talking."

"I can help!" Koinu offered, eagerly.

"Thank you, Koinu, but it's something between your daddy and me." Kagome rose to her feet, and moved around the table to wrap her arms around Koinu and nuzzle him. The boy grunted at first, resisting, then melted reluctantly into her embrace.

When Kagome reached to include Akisame in their little huddle, the toddler growled like a dog and swatted her mother's hands away. She was focused on her drawing with a one track mind. Kagome let her go for a moment in favor of kissing Koinu on top of the head and stroking his hair, his ears.

"I love you, honey, don't you ever forget it." the boy squirmed a little, snuggling into her.

Over the top of her son's head, Kagome at last noticed what it was her daughter was working so steadfastly on drawing. The humanoid shape had emerged on her page with remarkable detail and anatomical accuracy. A creature with spiky armor on one side, flowing hair that she didn't color in—meaning it was light—and only one arm.

As she watched, Akisame paused in her drawing, lifting the pencil and staring down at her work with her golden eyes narrowed fiercely in concentration. Then, slowly, with determination, she drew two lines on the creature's face, below his eyes.

Kagome reached out with one hand and snatched the paper away from Akisame, crumpling it at once. Akisame gaped at her mother for a moment, still holding the pencil, now motionless and useless. Then her face transformed into a snarl, "Mama!"

Before Kagome could speak, Koinu did it for her. "Don't draw that, Aki. It's bad stuff." Kagome felt her son's little claws grip her forearm, and then warm wet drops touched her arm as he burrowed his head against her.

Fresh tears sprang into Kagome's eyes, but she blinked them away hurriedly. Folding her arms tightly around Koinu, she hummed, trying to comfort him. "It's okay, Koinu, it's okay…" she closed her eyes, still fighting the tears. I won't let it happen again, I promise…

Akisame watched the exchange with a darkening expression at first, and then her face broke, trembling. She whimpered and crawled to her mother and her brother, touching them and mumbling. Kagome included her in their embrace, holding her close.

"It's okay…shhh…" Inuyasha, I'm so sorry, you were right…

An unseen, unfelt instinct woke Rin from her sleep. She blinked blearily, seeing the empty, gray room around her. The screens over the windows were stained gray with soot from braziers and lamps. Light filtered through them strangely, making the air look thick and slimy.

She had to pee very badly. Rin groaned weakly and ran a hand over her face, sniffling through a stuffy nose, clogged with dirt from the long walk the day before and through the night. The room she'd woken in wasn't Inuyasha's guest room, so she knew the night walk behind Sesshomaru wasn't just another tormenting dream.

"Rin."

She sat up too fast, blood rushed out of her head, leaving her dizzy. For a moment she saw double in the room, and then she made out Sesshomaru's slim, elegant body sitting near the door. He was seated so that she could only really see his profile, the fine outline of his lips, his nose, and the shine of his eyes as he stared blankly ahead.

She knew better than to ask him how he'd gotten in. He was Sesshomaru, he could do almost anything. Rin breathed deeply, trying to settle her heart. "Yes?" she answered shakily.

"Prepare yourself. We must leave."

Her limbs felt like lead weights, but Rin pulled herself from the sleeping matt anyway. Her robe was rumpled from sleep and the bottom hem was stained from dirt and dust. It was a bland kimono anyway, luckily. She started to move toward the door, but paused awkwardly when she realized she wouldn't be able to pass easily beyond Sesshomaru.

She sighed tiredly. "I have to use the privy."

Sesshomaru didn't lift his eyes to meet hers when he replied. "There is a pan. You do not need to leave this room."

When she turned to look he was right, there was a pan in one corner, meant as a bedpan. The thought of using it made Rin's skin crawl; she much preferred the privacy away from Sesshomaru's eye in which to relieve her bladder. The privy afforded privacy, the pot didn't. Here she would have to squat and maneuver her kimono, hiking it up. It was debatable whether Sesshomaru would turn away, or if he would watch her unfailingly, almost as if he was punishing her with his gaze.

Blearily, she tried asking, "What about water to wash my face?"

"You will have no bath this day." he responded, dryly. For the first time, he met her gaze with his own, and Rin caught the down turn of his lips, the angry quirk of muscles in his jaw, and the slight narrowing of his eyes. He was angry…

Two could play that game. Rin's fists clenched up into little, furious balls. "Is the great Lord Sesshomaru frightened that this meek, thoughtless Rin will run away from him again if he takes his eyes from her?"

His jaw tightened, clenching. "You will not leave this room." He was seated so that his only arm faced the doorway, meaning that he could, and likely would, reach out to stop her if she tried to pass.

Resolutely, Rin stepped forward, staring straight ahead. She moved for the door, pressing her body close to the thin walls to slip past the quietly enraged ruler of the Western Lands. Sesshomaru followed her with his eyes, narrowed and predatory. As she slipped just past him, his single arm lashed out and strong, narrow fingers wrapped themselves nimbly around her ankle. Rin pulled and stumbled, falling against the wall with a small cry. Sesshomaru was on his feet before she could fall. Somehow, in microseconds, he inuyoukai was able to use his single arm to manipulate Rin's weight. Her body collided with his chest and stomach, taking her weight and shielding her.

He grunted slightly, and then as Rin blinked, regaining her balance, Sesshomaru's grip tightened wrenchingly. "We leave now."

Rin pushed at him, but her human body was frail, pathetic. "No—"

The long, brilliantly white sleeves of Sesshomaru's haori (A/N: is Sesshy's technically a haori? It seems to be, he has hakama too I think.) closed over her vision. Rin panicked, breathing roughly. Sesshomaru's grip on her, in spite of having only one arm to do it with, was strong. It swept her along like the current of a river, like the force of a wind in a gale.

Rin had experienced Sesshomaru's power on many occasions, often intimately, but never before had it been when he was this angry with her, when they had been apart for so long and on such bad terms. Sesshomaru was anything but human. There were moments when she was reminded of this fact, and it tried to swallow her up and overwhelm her. Fear surged through her then and she cried out, clawing at the whiteness, at the force of his hold on her, pressing her into him.

The whiteness wasn't withdrawn from her for uncountable seconds. Rin felt her body becoming almost weightless, then it tingled she was nearly overcome with dizziness.

Gravity reinserted itself abruptly. Sesshomaru released her and Rin fell forward like a sack of grains. His clawed hand caught her, keeping her roughly upright. Rin forced her knees underneath her, but they shook. Her eyes adjusted to the world around her, making her feel dizzied all over again as she saw forest around her now, not the gray walls of the shabby little inn.

"What…" she stammered, trying to speak and breathe at once, unsuccessfully.

Sesshomaru let her slip into the dust heavily, then he stepped forward, as if about to walk away and leave her behind.

"What did you just do?" Rin gasped, holding her head in her hands. There were ants in the dirt around her, scurrying frantically around her feet. They were in a hurry, flustered and panicked.

"I have brought you to the edge of the Western Lands." He replied with his back still facing her.

Rin shifted, kneeling and holding her stomach. She fought nausea as her body calmed. Sesshomaru had never transported her in such a way. They'd covered many miles, a day or two of endless walking in the space of a few breaths. Rin couldn't fathom the capacity of it, the magnitude, or the simple how. Her body reacted the same way as her mind—it wasn't a natural way for her to travel as a mere mortal.

A tremor made Rin gasp, clutching at her belly and the child inside her. Pain streaked over and through her abdomen, the muscles seized up in a spasm.

Ahead of her, Sesshomaru turned slightly, watching her silently with one eye.

The pain faded as suddenly as it'd come, leaving Rin sweating and panting. The ants around her in the dirt, darting about, blurred as she fought tears. The baby…it was still too soon. If she went into premature labor the child couldn't survive yet—and she'd been so close!

"You are in pain?" Sesshomaru asked, coldly.

Rin choked, caught between tears and rage. "It's too soon still!" she half-sobbed, her hands were spread over her belly, fingers splayed widely, as if she could catch the child, as if it were trying to leap out of her bellybutton.

Sesshomaru made one short, sniffing sound, as if surprised, but when he spoke it was removed and in a very bland tone. "You need not worry…"

Hearing this, Rin's face twisted with a snarl. "You wouldn't worry, would you?" she laughed bitterly at the ground. "Lord Sesshomaru despises hanyou." She lifted her gaze, staring fixedly on the single point of color she could see from his golden eyes. "Even his own child. And Lord Sesshomaru has a wife with an heir-to-be. Lord Sesshomaru feels nothing…"

He pivoted on one foot, turning with the simple motion to face her. His lips narrowed, his eyes glowered down at her. This was an expression almost worthy of his most-expressive brother, Inuyasha. It was a full-fledged glare, yet tinting it, hidden in the set of his chin or the crease of his forehead, or around his eyes or his mouth, was pain.

"Do not think…" he began, strongly, in a deeper voice than usual, rumbling with power—but the words died, drying up. Then his face flickered, emptying like water out of a crack in the bottom of a bowl. "I will not discuss this with you."

"But you can't stop me from saying it!" Rin hissed, thickly but under her breath. "Or would you kill me to stop it?"

Sesshomaru was unaffected, cold. "You will not discuss it." he told her, firmly.

"Lord Sesshomaru may be the Lord of the Western Lands, but he cannot control Rin." She pushed herself to her feet, wincing slightly as the dirt and rocks on the ground bit into her feet. Sesshomaru ad transported her alone, without her shoes. "I showed you that when I left you." she snarled.

"For your daughter." Sesshomaru lifted his head slightly, and Rin saw a small glow of triumph inside his gaze, "You must not upset yourself."

Rin stopped, realizing with a jolt that he was right. One hand was still over her belly, stabilizing her as she moved. The child squirmed inside her, tapping on her bladder. Her muscles continued to spurt, wrenching up with pain and then relaxing just as fast. Rin was weak suddenly as she tried to empty out the emotion roiling inside her.

Sesshomaru was watching her, keenly, having already anticipated her reaction. When she was quiet for some time, he turned his back on her, and began slowly walking. Eventually, though they were unsteady and uneven, Sesshomaru heard Rin's tread behind him, following. He buried his own anger, tucking it away like a dog might with a juicy bone. Rin's body was beginning to make practice runs, tensing the muscles of the abdomen in preparation for labor and birth. Stressing her was unwise, and he would avoid it as much as possible. He would cut days off their travel time, he would accommodate her in villages to let her get the highest quality of sleep they could manage while traveling…he would maintain the tense, unsettled quiet between them.

For the child, for now…

"What do you think will happen to her?" Shippo asked the hanyou girl, quietly.

They were on the trail again, walking steadily up a large hill, the first in a series of low-rising foothills that marked the end of the coastal plains near the coastline. The harshness of the inland awaited them. Miroku and Sango traveled with the packhorse Roba, now abandoned by her original owner. Saddlebags covered her sides, forgotten and given up by Rin. Sango carried Masuyo, shielding him from the sun with her hands. Over her own head she'd used her purple wrap skirt, leaving only her pinkish kimono. She gripped the mare with her thighs, showing the very rare expanse of muscular leg beyond the loosened hem of her kimono. Miroku guided the mare by the harness on one side. His staff jangled against his shoulder.

Their children were running about energetically, ahead of the others on the path. Weapons of one kind or another were strapped onto all of them, giving them quick protection if they should be ambushed suddenly from the brush alongside the path.

Tsukiyume sighed, staring at the ground. "I couldn't say, Shippo."

The kitsune took quick notice of Tsukiyume's dark, subdued mood, and cheerily added, "You get to see your brother again, Tsuki! And he's safe from Sesshomaru. Aren't you happy?"

"I am." Tsukiyume murmured, frowningly. "But I feel like it just can't be true. Something will go wrong and…"

"But Rin will keep him safe." Shippo told her, encouragingly.

"Rin is maddened by grief." Tsukiyume responded, letting a bitter note creep into her voice.

It was Shippo's turn now to scowl. "Tsuki?"

The hanyou girl's white ears flattened against the thick black mat of her hair. Her eyes grew shiny with unshed tears. "I just don't know…I keep thinking something horrible will happen, Shippo."

The kit shook his head perplexedly. "Like what?"

Tsukiyume looked to the sky, sighing. "Like Rin will die and Sesshomaru will come after all of us."

For a time Shippo was silent, contemplating her words thoughtfully. His face was creased with doubt, worry. But the moment passed and Shippo grinned confidently. "No, Rin won't die. She's too strong—too fierce. She should've been born as an inuyoukai woman." He laughed and nudged Tsukiyume with his shoulder playfully, "She wouldn't make a good fox though, no sir. A good inuyoukai, a horrible kitsune. Too serious." He moved into Tsukiyume's face, screwing up his lip into a facsimile of a frown, mimicking the serious faces that he'd seen the various adults wear in his lifetime.

Tsukiyume offered him a weak, half-hearted smile and then, cautiously, slipped her hand into his, seeking comfort. Shippo grinned at her cheerfully, squeezing her hand back and happily leading her down the path.

Behind them, Miroku smiled faintly and glanced back at his wife on the horse. He released the harness and brushed her thigh with his palm, signaling her attention. Sango turned her head toward him, letting him see beyond the shadow and the obstruction of the wrap skirt she was using as a shield from the sunlight. Masuyo was tucked in close to her, also sheltered from the sun. The baby was nodding off, his eyes drooping heavily.

Miroku pointed to Shippo and Tsukiyume ahead of them. "What do you think is going on there, hmm?"

Tsukiyume was taller than Shippo, and lankier, but it seemed that kitsune were never destined to be enormous in their bipedal forms. Shippo was, physically, out of boyhood and into adolescence. Tsukiyume was probably comparatively older, but not outside, age-wise of a feasible romance.

Sango shook her head and moved her thigh out of Miroku's grasp. "You pervert." But she was smiling amusedly at him. Love lit her face, brightening her eyes.

"My Sango, wife, you wound me!" he grinned up at her, laughing.

The closest castle to the border with the Middle Lands was the Insen, but the journey to it was at the same time the hardest. The climb was steep and treacherous for a mortal, heavily pregnant woman. To make matters even worse, the weather had changed since they'd begun traveling. The warm, humid heat had waned into pummeling seasonal rains. Heavy rain clouds brooded overhead for several days, pouring out their contents on the miserable Rin and the cold-hearted Sesshomaru.

As was normal for him, Sesshomaru didn't stop their walk just for a little rain, no matter how hard it poured. Somewhere in the distance, his far-reaching senses told him the rains were brought as a sign of the first typhoons. They had arrived in Japan as they did every year in high summer. But this year things felt earlier, grittier, harsher. The setting was ripe for a disaster.

When the rains had begun, Sesshomaru had provided Rin with money and, at the first village they came across, they stopped and acquired thicker clothes, shoes, and a very large, rounded hat. It wasn't anything more than a sunhat, and its weave was of poor quality. Within an hour, Rin's new hat was leaking. Raindrops soaked through and dibbled onto her head.

Miserable and soaked to the bone, Rin shivered but marched on like a soldier, bound for war. At the end of the first day, inside yet another inn that Sesshomaru had picked out and paid for, Rin tossed aside all of her disheveled, wet and wrinkled clothes and slept naked on the sleeping mat, beneath a pile of thick blankets.

She woke fitfully in the night, her abdomen convulsing with a powerful, gut-wrenching pain. She whimpered, gritting her teeth. The screens over the windows allowed a thick, milky gray moonlight to fall inside the room. The scene blurred before Rin's eyes as tears sprang unbidden into her eyes, brought on by the pain. The tinkling, dripping sound of the rain also faded away, forced out by the pain.

And then, as suddenly as it had been there, it was gone. Rin was left shivering beneath the blankets, holding herself as if she were a child again.

As she struggled to calm her breathing and wiped at the cold sweat that had beaded on her forehead, she became aware of a change in the room. The light passed through the windows in the same way that it had moments before, and the rain was still pattering outside on the eaves, spilling in droves onto the ground. Yet, nevertheless, Rin felt the change, like a whisper of air over her cheeks, like the puff of warmth and moisture from another person's breath in her face.

Sesshomaru had entered the room. As a youkai there were things about him that Rin feared over and over, in spite of herself. One of these traits was his way of coming and going like a phantom, or a ghost. None of the hanyou Rin had known in her lifetime had been able to do the same thing, so it must've been a trait that was lost the moment human blood was added to the mix. It was a comforting thought—Rin didn't like the idea of her own child flitting about like a spirit.

"Why are you here?" she demanded, frowning when she heard the quiver in her voice.

"Dress." He ordered her, stiffly.

"Why?" she twisted her head on the sleeping mat, halfway trying to see him, though she knew she couldn't, he was near the door, she wasn't facing it.

"We must reach the Insen."

There were still days of walking as far as Rin was concerned. She sighed and closed her eyes, pressing the palm of one hand into her face. "In the rain? In the middle of the night?"

"Dress." Sesshomaru repeated, blandly but with firmness.

Rin gave in and pulled herself up from the sleeping mat, dragging the heap of blankets with her. She turned to stare into the darkness of the room near the door, searching for her mate. Sesshomaru was standing in the corner, stiffly. He stood out against the darkness in his immaculate, white, red, and blue hakama and haori. The armor looked, casting strange shadows, making him look other worldly, something spawned from the depths of the earth, or from time.

Chilled all over again, Rin pulled herself to where she'd laid out her clothes. It was a thin, coarse light blue kimono with some gray peasant pants and flimsy sandals. Rin's face twisted with effort and frustration as she pulled on each article of clothing while struggling to keep the blankets around her shoulders to maintain her dignity. The clothes were freezing and still damp. Rin felt the energy leaking out of her as the wetness of the clothes coated her skin, making it clammy.

Her abdominal muscles seized for a split second, making Rin tense and gasp. The world faded away from her just long enough that when she was aware again, Sesshomaru had moved soundlessly to stand directly behind her. Rin could feel the solidness of his presence at her back, like a wall. The smooth, silken fabric of his hakama brushed her backsides.

Wordlessly, Sesshomaru enveloped her, throwing the long, white expanse of his haori sleeves over her. Rin made a small sound, terror. She pawed at the sleeves, but her vision had changed, the world had faded and blurred together. The same feelings of dizziness and weightlessness took hold of her. Rin felt her lungs straining as if the air were thin. Her flesh broke out in terrible tingles. When she made sound, working her throat to do it, no sound emerged.

The white receded suddenly, and her weight returned heavily. Sesshomaru's arm was wrapped around her waist now, supporting her. Rin coughed, doubling over.

The world swarmed at her, overwhelmingly. Pine trees towered overhead, a moist, wet wind blew on her face, through her messy, dirty hair, and over her damp clothes. Her skin prickled with gooseflesh, her stomach cramped up.

Sesshomaru's grip on her hadn't lessened; in fact the power behind his hand had increased. He forced her upright and began to walk forward. Rin's lower legs and her feet dragged over the ground. Her sandals slipped off.

She dry heaved into the air, more coughing than vomiting. Her body quaked afterwards, shocked. Faintly, her feet tried to work beneath her, beginning to take her weight instinctually as Sesshomaru forced her forward.

They were on a well-worn dirt path, heading steeply uphill. A strong wind brought mist and rain hurtling at them through the thick canopy of pine trees above. Ferns and mossy stones lined the side of the path. Through the rolling mists, Rin could see mountains and cliffs scattered around them, lower in elevation than they were.

As they rounded a corner, she recognized the small, squat form of the Insen castle. It was not a resort, not a place one would take a pregnant mate. It was more like a position to keep a prisoner, a hostage in a time of war.

Rin felt her body break out in hot and cold waves. "Why…" she swallowed the word, still trying to calm her stomach, "Why have you brought me here?"

"It is secure, it is closest." Sesshomaru answered her simply.

His answer made sense, but Rin distrusted it. She might've asked more about it, but in that instant her abdomen convulsed and she cried out. Her feet stalled beneath her, dragging now in earnest. Her hands dug at Sesshomaru's arm and his thighs, searching instinctually for something to clamp onto.

Sesshomaru made a small sound of difficulty in his throat, not a growl, but a short grunt. "You must walk, Rin."

She didn't hear him. One hand clutched at her belly, the other at anything she could reach on Sesshomaru's body. The pain twisted through her, rippling like a living thing, then it died without warning, leaving Rin gasping and sweating.

The single guard watching over the Insen castle in Sesshomaru's absence, had by now taken notice of the strange situation outside. He mounted a horse and rode to meet his visitors. The stallion he rode came up short, rolling its eyes and whinnying when it scented the inuyoukai. The guard grumblingly dismounted and approached the on foot then, falling immediately to a bow before Sesshomaru.

"Lord Sesshomaru." He kept his face very low to the wet, muddied earth, purposefully not looking at either the inuyoukai or at Rin. He was only about five feet from where Rin was partway collapsed into the mud, trying regain her breath after the pain had left her.

Sesshomaru completely skipped the ritual greetings and acknowledgements between servant and lord. Instead he ordered, "Bring her inside."

The guard nodded without lifting his head. "Yes, Lord Sesshomaru." He moved forward on his knees and reached tentatively out toward Rin. He refused to look at her, as if seeing her would bring down some sort of curse on he or his family.

Dazedly, Rin accepted the guard's help. It wasn't long before she was inside the Insen's walls, tucked away inside a tiny bedroom with a dusty, old futon waiting to be pulled out and covered properly with blankets. The guard left her there awkwardly, then moved to play maid by fetching blankets for her, but Sesshomaru stopped him before he got very far.

"You." the inuyoukai lord called, gruffly.

The guard stopped, falling into a low bow. "Yes, lord?"

"Ride to the nearest village. Hire women as maids. Find a healer."

"Yes, lord." The guard bowed again for good measure and hurried off, disappearing down the Insen's gloomy, musty hallway.

A/N: more to come, that's all for now. I felt a little blah about it, I hate traveling chapters, and I've been busy. Summer's already winding down. For a short time I was emotional (which leads to writer's block for me) over some stupid girl I thought was hitting on my boyfriend. I'm fairly soothed now, I think I was just being paranoid and she's over two hours away anyway. It's raining outside, at last. We're in drought, all the trees are changing their colors early because they don't have enough water to endure. How depressing is that?