Anyone else super excited that the sequel is coming? I am. It's really exciting.

Now we have our normal chapter for this week...I can be bribed, I promise. Okay here's a few ways. Follow me on twitter/Tumblr. Go review other people's stories like crazy. Like spread the love to all the other artists out there.

OOO here's one if 5 new people review who have never reviewed on this story before, or don't regularly review.

The day of the competition has come!

Sesshomaru

I wake to the sound of hysterical screaming, crying and a plea to find her mother. She jolts away from my back, where she had slept so peacefully for the last few hours.

Rising up with her, I immediately fumble for the photobook that was left on the night stand and turn the light on. It blinds us both. She hides her eyes in my chest. I hide mine against her neck, shushing her, rocking her as if she's a child again. I reach for the kettle that was left by the lamp and flick it on, then open the photobook in her lap. I have too much pride to sing, "Baby Mine."

Kohaku warned me this might happen. That afternoon I spent closeted in his room, regaling him of the benefits of slowing down in the bedroom to extend to the pleasure of the female, somehow side tracked to Rin's anxiety. It started shortly after Rina died. Rin would wake in sweats, screaming for her mother. At the time, they knew that Henna was sick and were still hopeful she might beat it.

As Henna got worse, Rin feared going to competitions and coming home to find her mother dead. Her mother had to convince her to compete regardless and taught her to put on a brave face.

The night Henna died, Rin fell asleep in her mother arms after listening to a children's story about a child losing their parent. When she woke up, her mother was gone. At twelve she had no idea how to process it. That is when the anxiety took over and to this day, Kohaku had told me, Rin still breaks when the pressure is high. He baked cookies constantly during finals, before competitions. Like clockwork, she would wake hysterical and only calm for chamomile tea, chocolate chip cookies, the photobook and the lullaby her mother used to sing her.

I turn "Baby Mine" on my phone and set it in her lap. We open the sacred photo album, something Henna put together for her before her death and Sango and Kohaku added to afterwards. The room is filled with a tepid silence as her fingers trace the picture of her mother. Rin is a baby in this one. Pudgy hands and carrot covered face, her mother feeds her. In the next she's learning to walk and another getting dropped off at her first day of PreK.

At six, she skates wobbly on the ice with a bright smile on her face. They continue until she's twelve, private moments with her mother that she doesn't explain to me, but with each one the rapid breathing slows, the air becomes less stale and she whimpers less. I hold myself up behind her, warming her back with my body, learning this method of coping she's built to process the pain of losing both her parents. "She was so proud of me," she mutters, wiping her eyes. "She wanted me to go all the away. She told me to never to be afraid of anything. I asked her if she was. She said the only thing she feared was leaving us behind." She covers her mouth, crying anew.

I press my lips into her pulse, willing her to calm, to find comfort in my arms.

The next page is their first Christmas without Henna. They staged it by their mothers' graves. It was not a hidden fact that Sango was listed first to inherit the children. In the letter to the guardian ad litem was a desperate plea to keep the children together, despite them being only cousins and not siblings. Rina had written the same letter for posterity, that theirs was a family built and thriving on love and the bonds they had to each other.

Kohaku had told me that the deciding factor that kept them in Sango's care was both her age and determination and that overnight she and Miroku had wed at a sleazy chapel. He dropped out of college to help financially support children that weren't his.

"Sometimes I forget how quickly Shippo came to us. It wasn't even a year later. Just months. Sango and Miroku were already cleared because of us. And Social workers would rather see a child placed than left behind in most cases." Kohaku had cautioned silence. To let her speak and only listen.

When she gets to the last page, a new picture graces the glossy pockets. It's one of us on the ice, kissing I took when she didn't notice. She's wrapped in my arms, with hands tangled in my hair. A chuckle escapes her tense lips, flinging tears onto the page. "You know what this means right?"

"What?" I answer softly, protecting this hallow moment.

"That no matter what happens between us, no matter the pain we cause each other or the despair, we'll always be family."

"I love you Rin," firmly I tell her, "more than you can imagine."

"I love you," she whimpers in reply and falls against my chest crying. "Promise me you'll love me no matter what happens tomorrow?"

A twinge pain enters my heart, knowing that deep down, she fears rejection, that disappointing me might separate us. "I promise. If you get into the top four, I'll even take you on a first date."

We both break out laughing because although we've been inseparable for four months, we've never been on an official date.

I pick up the tea from the nightstand and hand it to her, then pass her a cookie. She eats it slowly, methodically. When the cup is empty, she sets it down and turns back into my chest, wrapping her arms around my waist. "Who told you?"

"Your brother."

"Thank you."

I lower her back onto the mattress, pulling the blankets over both of us. This time she's tucked into my chest. I pull my knees up against hers and rest an arm around her waist. She falls asleep much faster than when we first laid to rest earlier in the evening.

Kaede was right, her confidence was shot when she broke her knee and although I've seen it come back in practice, it's not the same as performing in front of a crowd.

We wake early in the morning to get to the rink. Rin's slated to skate the short program at 10:15, in the first group of ladies and the long program late in the afternoon. She's quiet while she grabs the bag she packed the night before and gets into the car with me. Sango and Miroku promise to follow, along with her brothers.

There's a decent crowd at the rink. Jak meets us up front, following Rin back to the locker-rooms. He's been helping Rin to stretch and ease her muscles so they heal faster. Whereas I go and make sure that she is registered and obtain her competition number.

After that, I join the other coaches in a lounge while the opening ceremonies begin. My stomach has butterflies, but not nearly as badly as when I used to compete. The coaches would say that it's like building a sand castle. You have to build the foundation before the rooms, and the towers that reach the sky. You have to master one skill before the next. Each time it gets easier because the movements become second nature. Gymnastics for me was like a second language. My body knew what to do even when I forgot.

She comes into the lounge with me, holding her skates with the blade covers on. A nervous look graces her face. Her stomach is bare in this get up making me want to finish what we had started in the morning. I woke hard, with typical morning wood. She teased my sides long enough to make me want more, but we had to get here. "You're going to be fine."

"I threw up again."

Reaching into my pocket, I hand her a snickers.

"Chocolate!" she shrieks and gobbles it down. "Oh my god that was wonderful." She wipes her hands on a napkin and then puts her skates on, lacing them up slowly, and then pulls the thick tights down over her boots.

"Go warm up. Remember to keep your confidence. You know what you're doing. This is just all muscle memory and we're having fun." We kiss briefly, something else we talked about on the way there. In this world PDA isn't frowned on, but it won't look particularly well if her coach is tonguing her during her skate.

She flies out onto the ice with the other five skaters and starts warming up, skating facing forward and then backwards and then starting with several jumps. While she does that, I size up the rest of the competition. She's on the ice with four other skaters and after her are three more groups of five, totaling twenty skaters in all. The top four will be able to go onto sectionals. They're ranked by previous high scores.

Ten of them won't pose much of a challenge if Rin can keep her head in the game, five will give her a run for the money and the other could go either way depending on improvement from last year. Three of the top five have already gone on to sectionals in the past and one of them even made to the grand prix but didn't score high enough for worlds. I make a mental note to keep an eye on Yura Ito. Her season's best last year was 200.68.

Rin passes by me and winks. I told her to throw a triple triple combination during warm up to psych the other players out and get in their heads. Around me I hear rumblings of coaches who remember her name and how she was so much more slender when she was younger and that like this there's no way she can lift high enough until she rushes the backboards and throws herself into high triple axel, ignoring my advice on the combo. The jump alone sends the other skaters reeling.

She comes off the ice as the first skaters are call to their marks. "I said a combo."

"I thought a giant axel would scare them more. That bitch Yura, she's nine years younger than me and called me a has been."

"Has been, never was," the girl comes off the ice.

"You know your season's best is nowhere near what mine was," Rin snaps back.

"And you're skating on a bum knee with a cripple for a coach, coward."

"You b—" Rin starts but I grab her hand and stop her from advancing. "Settle it on the ice," I hiss in her ear.

"Fine," she huffs and follows me off into a prep room where she keeps stretching and pacing to keep her limbs warmed.

Her short skate is fast paced and electric in energy. It starts with her hands over her head and legs crossed, poised like a ballerina and then a shuffle before she races for the front of the rink and throws herself into a triple-double combo. I bite my index finger, because the second was supposed to be a triple and already she'll lose points for the missing rotation.

She throws herself into a series of spins, starting with a sit spin and then rising into a camel spin. The music stops for a second and then starts again. She twirls across the ice, changing edges on the blades and then leaps into the air landing a giant triple axel. "That was always her best jump," Kaede says from next to me. I hadn't even noticed her there. "But that missed combination. The competition is fierce today."

My eyes are glued on my skater. She has another combo we planned to be a triple toe loop-double flip. She lands the first jump clean and buckles on the second, landing on her ass. "Dammit," I mutter out. "She's choking." She comes off the ice, breathing heavily. Avoiding eye contact with me.

It's not that I expected her to be perfect. She was in practice, but the two mistakes will cost her dearly. She rubs her bottom and then sits next to me with a bottle of water waiting for the scores. "The technical scores for Rin Matthews 28.98," she nods, bowing her hands into her palms. I rub her back, reminding her that it's okay. We came to have fun, whatever thoughts of doing better running through my head I keep to myself. "Artistic score 27.66, for a combined score of 56.64." She stands, waving to the crowd and then exists, hauling ass to the prep room.

I follow after, propelling myself her direction and skid to a stop just by the door. "Don't say it. I messed up the jumps."

"I wasn't going to say anything."

"Yes you were, I can see it in your eyes."

"We said we would have fun today," I remind her.

"You're also my coach."

"As your coach, you choked. Your legs were too tight and you tripped on your feet. You went into the spins too quickly and missed a rotation."

"I know," she sulks, sliding down the wall and removing her skates. "We're free for the next five hours."

"No we're not. You want the coach, fine. You choked because you are so afraid of your own success, that you would rather fail than succeed."

"That's not true."

"Then why haven't you been on the ice in ten years Rin?"

She gazes around the room nervously. "Do we have to do this here?"

"Yes here. Where else am I going to get you to confront what's really bothering you? We both know you could have done better than that. You locked up on the combinations, why?"

Her gaze shifts away from me, to the walls and the other skaters scattered around the room. "I don't know."

"That's not true." I push myself closer and lift her chin up, trying to find her face through the caked on makeup and sticky hairspray covering her hair21` .

"Maybe my heyday was ten years ago and that's as good as it's going to get. I'm twenty five now. "

"I was twenty four when I competed last. Age has little to do with. Oksana Chusovitna is in her forties and still doing double back dismounts off the balance beam."

"Maybe I'm not her."

"Maybe you should try," I say more tersely, getting more annoyed by the minute that she is clearly avoiding whatever is going on inside of her head. "Is it your mother?"

"You're being an ass."

"And you're being a child. You asked for the coach, this is the coach. When you're ready to tell me what's going on inside of your head, please do." I start rolling away until I hear her yell after me, "Where are you going?"

"Somewhere else. This is obviously not getting me anywhere."

"Maybe it's fear," she gets up and chases after me. "What if I land in the top four? What then?"

"You'll never know if you don't try Rin and your mother would not be happy looking down to see you choking on purpose. If you're going to mess up at least do it in areas where the points don't matter as much."

She growls at me and stomps her foot. "How do we fix this?"

For the next ninety minutes, we dissect her free skate program, attempting to maximize her points. Not only is she being ranked in this skate but everything rides on coming in the top four. That constant question of what if to me is a clear indicator that she wants more. She yearns for more, to take back what was prematurely stolen from her when she was fifteen.

We find out just before we adjourn to lunch that she ranked in the top six. That means she needs to dethrone two above her to get in. "Sara Asano made it to Sectionals last year but then placed sixth with a total score of 175. Koharu Smith also went to sectionals and placed tenth with a score of 169. If you want to beat them you need to score at least 176, which means you cannot make any mistakes."

"And I should land two triple axels and do a triple jump combo."

"Arms up and preferably nearer to the end. We'll move the triple toe-loop, double toe, double loop to the end and instead perform the two axels in the beginning. Extend the flying camel to compensate for the time and hold the I spin at the end for an extra rotation."

"Okay…I can do this. Yura came in first."

"Don't focus on that. If this is what you want, you just need to get into the top four. Sectionals are in June. That means we have another five months to train. A lot can change in five months."

"Right," she whispers. "I can do this."

Casting a glance left and right, I loop my fingers through her hair and pull her lips against mine. "You can."

She's dead last to skate at the end of the day. Meaning we already know the scores for first through forth, putting more pressure on Rin to perform. She exits, pacing back and forth in the prep room, biting her thumb, while I keep my eye on the last skater. Yura Ito is good. Her jumps are almost flawless. The two behind her are new comers, followed by Sara Asano who holds tight to fourth place after the free skate. "You're up," I tell Rin from the doorway.

She walks up to the ice, taking deep and deliberate breaths. "Sara came in at 177."

"She upped her game, you up yours. There's no way you'll make it into second or third. But you can move up to fourth if you focus and don't make any mistakes."

She nods, smiling at me and then goes out onto the ice. The air is electric with expectation. Her routine is announced. The judges prepare their ipads to rank her performance. I move closer to the edge of the ice, where I can see more clearly.

They've accommodated me by leaving the door open to the rink. Rin gets the lay of the ice once more, circling a few times before she stops in the left center of the ice and takes her pose.

My stomach clenches in anticipation. Knuckles white against the handles of my wheelchair. "You can do it Rin!" Shifting my gaze into the audience, I see her family up front, ready to cheer her on. But then I notice a familiar silver to my left. My father is here, watching her and then waves at me. There's no time to question why he is here, or ask him to leave, which is what I really want.

The music revs up, an overture to the Last Samurai. She starts with slow movements on the inside edges of her skates and then picks up speed to head into her first jump. Instead of the initial combination, we settled for the triple axel and then another one where she was meant to spin.

I nod at her, giving her silent permission to crush this competition.

She bites her lower lip and throws herself into the air, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and then lands on the outer edge. The crowd goes wild, a smile lights up her eyes, she did it. There's more circular footwork leading to the next triple axel. She takes it slow and graceful, sliding like a ballerina and then flings herself into the air and lands again, with poise and balance.

I bite my lower lip, mimicking her. So much is riding on the rest of the program. She takes the jumps in stride, but into the third minute, it's obvious she's beginning to fatigue. She misses a rotation on the camel spin and rushes the dance steps, putting her out of sync with the music. "What are you doing," I mutter to myself.

Then comes the triple pass we discussed, the only way for her scores to be high enough to uproot Sara Asano from fourth. She approaches them quickly, gaining speed and flies into a triple toe loop and to my surprise a triple loop and then a double toe.

I beat my palms together with the cry of the audience. She breaks into the flying camel, tracing an S across the ice, beaming like the sun. At the end she throws herself into a sit spin and then into a forward scratch spin, something else we hadn't planned on. She leans down, grabbing her left leg and pulls it up to her head until she's spinning dizzyingly fast. The leg drops stopping the spin, back in sync with the music and ending the program.

The crowd is on their feet. If I was able to stand already, I would be on my feet too. I clap until my hands are sore. She bows to the audience, to the judges and then comes flying off the ice, into my arms. Our pre-existing accord to keep PDA to minimum goes out the window as her lips press against mine. She sucks my bottom lip, shoving her tongue into my mouth. "You did it."

"I did."

"You improvised."

She pecks my lips and releases me, bringing herself to the bench where we wait for her scores. "I thought we said no PDA."

"I don't care right now." She cozies into my side and buries her eyes, panting against my shoulder. We wait, with baited breath and dry mouths for the scores to be announced. My father once again waves from the stands and holds a thumb up.

"The technical scores for Rin Matthews, 65.66 with artistic score of 55.63, making a total of 121.29 and a combined total of 177.93, putting her in fourth."

"YES!" she shrieks, jumping up and down, throwing herself around my neck and crying. "We did it!"

I rock on my back wheels, waiting for Rin to exit the locker-room. Jak went in with her to help her cool down and stretch her legs. Her family made a reservation at steak house downtown to celebrate. She came in fourth, barely knocking Sara Asano down to fifth, but good enough for what we need. "You did good out there," my father's voice catches me. I fumble and nearly fall backwards in the chair.

Catching myself on the wall, I force the wheels back down. "Why were you here?"

"I missed enough competitions Sesshomaru. I wanted to cheer you both on."

Once again I'm left with a dry mouth, unsure of how to let him in.

"She did great. Fourth seems reasonable for someone with her background."

"She did amazing," I correct him. "She can go to sectionals now and if she can bring that score up we can close the gap between her and the competition."

"You think she has a chance?"

"If it's what she wants. We just need to find professional choreographers and a technical specialist who can help get her scores up. She'll have to devote more time to the ice."

He smiles. It lights up his eyes. "If you need a sponsor."

"We don't need your charity."

"It's good publicity for the firm, Sesshomaru and if you are going to take her further, we both know how much it cost for you to compete."

"How do you know?" I snap back at him, painfully reminded of my mother having to clean the grounds to keep me enrolled.

"Who do you think paid for the life you lived? The gym memberships, the specialty coaches?"

"Mother?"

"No, she came to me begging to pay for Selene Ballard and Jayden Wright and the extra gym time, the tutors so that you could graduate early."

"What?" I'm stunned, incapable of forming speech.

"I may have not liked what you did Sesshomaru, but I paid for it."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Would it have helped? You were keen on hating me then? I thought one day we would sit down and talk about it like men and you would have the balls to forgive me for not being the father you wanted."

"Only after you forgive me for not being the son you wanted."

He squats down in front of me, saving my neck from looking up at him. "I want you to succeed. You're good at this. I saw her fumble in the short, she came back strong. If this is what you want, then I'll support it."

"Why the sudden change?"

"Because this isn't how things are meant to be between parents and children, Sesshomaru. I'm so tired of fighting with you, expecting you to be something you clearly don't want to be. I haven't seen you this happy about anyone or anything since the accident. Let it be my penance."

It's like someone has punched me in the gut and stolen the words from my mouth. How does one go from so much anger to support in a small amount of time? We've spoken briefly over the last few months, shared meals when I wasn't busy with my life. "You really want to start fresh?" I ask him.

"I'm trying, Sesshomaru." His face is haggard, drawn and tired.

"Then come to dinner with us tonight. We're celebrating with her family at Shanahan's steakhouse at seven."

"I'd love to."

Please review!

Story Rec...OMG...bad me I really haven't been reading a lot of fanfic right now. I've been watching a crap ton of movies LOL...and working on my original. :) It's exciting.

Okay I can be bribed if we hit 20 reviews for this chapter. Just by people who would never review review. Say thank you, you're awesome, this writing sucks. LOL! Let me know what you think!

Coming Next: Rin

Responses:

Goth Banshee: Thank you so much!

Kimmigirl9: Thank you! Lemoning was fun.

Emeraldbitch: Self discovery is a bitch. I'll admit that straight up. I'm so glad you are going to read more. It definitely helps. I'm not sure that the disease will help your feelings LOL. It's the polar opposite of this story. But it's still really good.

Smmahamazing: Thank you! I thought it was fluffy. But again, this story was meant to be more fluffy than my others LOL!

Jenny Crum: Thank you! LOL my husband says that all the time when kids of the opposite gender flirt with my kids.

Vilbern: You can't blame them. Especially Rin, she's never done it before and Sess hasn't had anyone to do that with in forever.

Lovesprita: I am so glad you chose to review and that you love this story. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Angeljme: I was coerced by Vilbern and Smmahamzing. LOL...I'm willing to trade art, one for the other. I loved writing that family moment. It's so essential. They're combining two families and hoping that it brings something more.

Chylenn: I'll spoil you. Nope, not pregnant. Nerves.

Esther247: Thank you! It was amazing writing their lemon. The first one was so intense, because I was just learning how a paraplegic has sex. So I loved it.

CMK727: Thank you so much!

Shunrei Ryuzaki: Thank you! Here it is!