April 13

I've been so inexplicably tired that I ended up cutting my writing short again last night. Anyway, we saved Rin but things were also fairly interesting on the way back home as well.

It was refreshing to have Rin with us for the journey home. Despite everything she had just been through, she was still her usual cheerful self. She told us a dramatic tale of how she was out picking flowers and some demons came and snatched her away, telling her that she would never see Sesshomaru again. After that, she continued to have very animated conversations about random things, much to Jaken's annoyance but there was a subtle smile on Sesshomaru's face for the whole trip. He was much happier about Rin being back than he would ever care to admit.

It was still going to be a long trip back so we camped out again for the night. The next day it looked like we would be camping out again but by evening it looked like it was going to rain. Then Sesshomaru suddenly made a sharp left.

"Hey, where are you going?" Inuyasha said as he skidded to a halt and then followed Sesshomaru. "Our village is this way."

"It's about to rain, Kagome and Rin will get sick. My house is nearby, we can stay there for the night."

"Yay!" Rin said happily.

"What's Sesshomaru's house like?" I asked Inuyasha.

"Hell if I know," he replied. "I've never been there before. It reeks of demons around here though."

"Got a problem with that, half-demon?" Jaken said.

Inuyasha growled. "Say that again and I'll knock your fucking head off!"

Inuyasha was right though. As we got closer, more and more demons appeared. However, they didn't bother us. Instead, they just seemed to be minding their own business. It kind of reminded me of our village but more spread out and the demons had their different eccentricities from different colored hair, wings, claws, and other appearances.

They were also very reverent of Sesshomaru when he passed, often bowing or relaying their respect in some way. I often forgot that as the demon lord of the west, Sesshomaru was probably very well known and had a lot of people in obedience to him.

"See, Inuyasha? That's how you should respect your brother," Jaken said smugly.

This time Inuyasha grabbed him by the head from where he was holding onto Sesshomaru's fluff and tossed him onto the ground.

"If you draw attention to yourself by attacking full demons, don't be surprised when someone gets mad at you," Sesshomaru said to him.

"Keh! I'd like to see them try."

While the demons were very respectful of Sesshomaru, it was kind of weird for us to be around them. We were very much in demon territory right now and there were no humans around for miles. They stared at us and some of them even looked kind of annoyed at us being there. Despite Sesshomaru's warning, Inuyasha snarled at a few of them, warning them not to mess with him.

After a few miles, we finally arrived at Sesshomaru's house: a huge, multi-floor villa.

Inuyasha put me down and we followed Sesshomaru up the pathway to the front door.

"Isn't Lord Sesshomaru's house beautiful?" Rin said with her usual innocent excitement.

"It's gorgeous," I agreed.

"So I'm guessing this is where our father lived?" Inuyasha asked.

"Yes," Sesshomaru replied. "I inherited this estate from him."

I studied Inuyasha's expression for a moment. He looked more annoyed than anything else with a scowl on his face and his arms crossed. I didn't really blame him. If Sesshomaru had taken him in as a child he could have lived here instead of fighting for survival on his own.

We got inside just as the rain was starting and were greeted by a female servant who was also a demon.

"Prepare rooms for my brother and Rin," Sesshomaru said. "Also have dinner made for them."

"Yes, my lord," she said with a bow before walking off.

Sesshomaru went off elsewhere and Rin was excited to give me a tour of the place since she had been here a few times. Inuyasha went to sit on one of the balconies instead of joining us. After Rin's tour, I found him still sitting outside on the balcony which was covered from the rain. I went over and sat next to him. "Dinner is ready."

"Okay."

I put my hand on his. "Everything alright? You've been so tense since we got here."

"Sesshomaru is such a prick for bringing us here," Inuyasha said. "I'm sure he just wanted to rub it in my face."

"I don't think that's true at all, honey," I said. "He wanted to get us out of the rain."

"Then what was all that 'I inherited this from our father' shit about?"

"I still don't think he was saying that to hurt you. You two have been getting along well lately. Don't let some small thing ruin it."

He hesitated for a moment but finally sighed. "Alright fine."

We went inside for dinner. Sesshomaru joined us. He seemed to be in a good mood during dinner though and I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that Rin was here now. He and Inuyasha got along well and actually laughed together. I was really surprised. It seemed to put Inuyasha in a much better mood for the rest of the night too.

The room we were given for the night was very big, much like all of the others around here. Unfortunately, I'd been fighting off a headache and nausea for most of the day and it was starting to catch up to me as we were getting ready for bed.

Inuyasha seemed to notice the look on my face and he came over and put his arms around my waist. "Are you feeling okay, love?"

"Yeah, just tired," I replied.

"It's been a long few days." He placed a kiss on my lips. "Let's go to bed."

We turned off the lamp by the bed and crawled under the covers. It didn't take long for us to fall asleep although we did wake up in the middle of the night to have sex. I guess we weren't as tired as we thought.

The next morning we were served breakfast in the dining room and Sesshomaru joined us again. Afterward, we were planning to head back to our village but before breakfast was over we had an unexpected guest.

"Sesshomaru, you're home!" The demon woman who came into the room was tall and pale with white hair pulled into two ponytails and a crescent moon on her forehead matching Sesshomaru's.

"Hello, mother," Sesshomaru replied. "This isn't really a great time…"

"Nonsense, I haven't seen you in weeks." His mother pulled out a chair and joined us. "What is this? Rice? Soup? Is this what you eat now?"

"It's really good," Rin said. "Do you want to try it?"

"I'll pass, darling. I'm not a very big fan of human food." She turned to Sesshomaru. "I'm still surprised you've kept this girl around for so long. I thought for sure you would have eaten her."

Sesshomaru rolled his eyes. "Not likely."

His mother then turned to Inuyasha. "So you're the half-demon!"

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"You're Toga's other son, I've always been curious about you. Where are my manners, I'm InuKimi."

"Nice to meet you," Inuyasha said through his teeth, still put off by the half-demon comment.

"So your mate is a human, huh? You take after Toga in more than just looks I see. What's your name?"

"Kagome," I replied.

"Kagome. That's lovely. If only Sesshomaru would settle down with a mate," she said, throwing a pointed look at Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru sighed exasperatedly. "Whenever I get a mate is none of your business."

"Both of you are so grumpy," InuKimi said, shaking her head. "That's one thing you have in common I guess. Your father wasn't like this. I don't know where you get it from."

"What was he like?" I asked curiously.

"Oh, where do I begin?" InuKimi swooned. "He was so brave, gallant, charming. Incredibly handsome, but that goes without saying. He was just a really wonderful guy. So much so that I can forgive him for running off with the human woman. At least his other son turned out to be such a cutie."

"Mother!" Sesshomaru scolded.

"Stop being so jealous, Sesshomaru. You're cute too," she said with a laugh.

Inuyasha was still glaring at her and Sesshomaru was tapping his claws on the table in annoyance. I thought InuKimi was nice though. Rin seemed entertained by the conversation too.

"I think it's about time we go back to your village," Sesshomaru said. "Are you all done?"

"You're leaving so soon?" InuKimi said.

"We've been on a long journey the past few days. We were really just stopping here for the night to get out of the storm," Sesshomaru replied. "You're welcome to stay mother, I should be back this evening."

"Alright, fine," InuKimi said with a slight pout. "It was nice to see you again, little Rin. And it was nice to finally meet you and your mate too, Inuyasha."

"Likewise," Inuyasha replied.

"It was nice to meet you," I said. "Hopefully we'll see you soon."

We followed Sesshomaru out of the house.

"My mother can be a little overbearing sometimes," Sesshomaru said

"It's fine," Inuyasha said. "She wasn't too insulting."

We started to take off again. Sesshomaru carried Rin and I rode on Inuyasha's back again. I found myself feeling a little sick again but I tried to ignore it. Instead, I kissed Inuyasha's cheek as he started running. He looked back at me and there was a smile on his face. Despite how up and down our time at Sesshomaru's house had been, I was glad he was happy again.