Criticism

"It was everything I wanted it to be. The small wedding, the perfect white dress, the handsome groom." Finally, she looked at him. "I thought it was my happily ever after; I thought I could never be happier than I was in that single moment as he put his ring on my finger."

The look in her eyes, of desolate loss, of a shattered naiveté, would stay with Sesshoumaru forever.

"I was looking at the world with rose colored glasses and I was pleased with the view. Everything was on track for me; I was top of my class at University and was going to graduate a year early. I met Shippou, and then Rin. I helped mother secure a grant for the Shrine and Jirōbō helped sign off on it."

She curled further into the chair, her eyes getting darker with each passing emotion. "He used to be quick to smile, to laugh; I always knew where I stood, where our relationship stood. Then he said he wanted children."

He watched as she paled further, as her eyes nearly drifted shut, from pain or weariness, he couldn't tell. Fascinated, with both her and her story, he was unable to interrupt.

"I tried, so hard. At first, nothing was happening so we started watching my cycle, planning, waiting for the perfect time. We'd only been married a year when he decided he wanted them and I had just graduated college and was eager to start a family. I brushed off his comments about it being my fault, didn't think much of it when he started offering up nasty criticism. He'd already been saying that kind of thing to me for a while. It didn't click, even then, what was happening."

o.O.o

Word Count: 290