nocturne two: the ladder to the roof
(just how many stars will I need to hang around me, to finally call it heaven?)
Rin revels in the feeling of the stalks brushing against her skin as a pair of strong arms push her onto her back. They're in a field of susuki grass near a river bank and the swaying reeds grow tall around them. The wild marshland is prone to frequent flooding from the heavy, seasonal rains, along with nightly insect infestations. Probably not the place some would suspect an elegant, refined daiyokai to be entertaining a paramour but people had many ideas about the western lord and his chosen companion that wouldn't stand up to scrutiny.
Never mind that the son of the great dog demon had long rejected palatial comforts in favor of wandering the forests and countryside. To the misinformed, the assumption is that it's the barefoot peasant alone who prefers untamed nature to a stately bed chamber. They say she's dragged him down to her earthly level and to be fair, they may be partly correct.
Sesshoumaru is on his knees with his cock inside of her. His long silvery hair hangs down over his shoulders and tickles her bare breasts. The sky is a mixture of purple and orange. The sun is no longer beating down on her, but Rin still feels the heat of summer.
Her lord runs his long, clawed fingers down her thigh and pulls up her knee to make it easier to thrust into her. Rin tries to push her fingers into the little nub between her legs but when they reach the dark thatch of hair that covers it, Sesshoumaru catches her hand and brings it back to her side.
"Mmmmm...Sesshoumaru-sama," she mewls in frustration.
"You're not ready yet," he rasps, stroking her knuckles with his thumb.
"My lord, please. Please let me touch myself." In her normal state of mind, she'd probably be abashed at the sound of her whining. The impulse is unbearable though, like having an itch she's not allowed to scratch.
"Rin, be patient," he whispers, the 'trust me' implied in his tone.
Despite his command, she's unable to resist the urge to touch herself. Her fingers repeatedly return to the spot just above where their bodies are joined only to be batted away at every attempt. Sesshoumaru finally grasps her hand in his and holds it immobile. Needing to touch herself somewhere, she uses her other hand to grab her breast. She kneads it with her palm and methodically passes over the hardened nipple with her thumb.
"Mmm...ahhhh...ahhh!"
His thrusts are starting to come harder and faster now and Rin pulls her legs up so that her feet are planted on the ground and her knees are boxing his hips. She squeezes the hand that's holding hers, wordlessly imploring him to let go and when he does she wraps both of her arms around his neck.
She—Finally—feels the drag of a claw toward the spot she's been so desperate to touch and she shivers in anticipation. It's where she wants attention the most and the intensity of her pleasure hurriedly builds with his circular motions. The short gasps and moans that have been escaping her mouth turn to eager panting. She digs her fingers into the middle of his shoulder blades, tangling them into his hair.
"Sesshoumaru-sama...Sesshou—ahh!" she wails. "Sesshoumaru-sama... Sesshoumaru-sama…" Rin can't contain his name from her lips as her body thrills at the sensation.
The double efforts of Sesshoumaru's stimulating fingers and his cock slamming inside her finally pushes her over the edge. She comes with her head pressed into the crook of his neck, her body convulsing beneath him. Through the pleasant fog that follows, she can feel the pace of Sesshoumaru's thrusts speeding up. He pushes into her repeatedly, sounding like he's ready to come already. His breathing is heavy, ragged, and mixed with low, muffled growls. The uneven gasps for air fill her ears with every dogged thrust until his body jerks abruptly and he spills into her.
She holds him and strokes his hair while nuzzling her face into his shoulder.
"Rin had a dream about you last night," she breathes into his ear. "We were decorating for a big festival and I was on a ladder hanging stars. You were just kind of floating there and Rin would try to count how many stars there were and you'd keep messing me up and making me start over. And then it changed and you were the one counting the stars and it was me starting you over."
She laughs. "It made me so frustrated!"
She giggles again, running her fingertips across his skin. His back is pleasantly cool from sweat.
"Don't you think that's funny? Hmm?"
He doesn't respond and his body is so still that it's like he's passed out. His weight would overwhelm her if that were the case though, and right now he's more like a heavy blanket than a boulder.
Slowly, he lifts himself up, bracketing her shoulders with his arms. His head hangs low, making it so his bangs cover his eyes. Hers focus on the crescent moon in the middle of his forehead.
"How many stars did you want?" he asks in a mellow, post-coital drawl.
"It doesn't matter," Rin says, shaking her head. "It was just a dream."
One clawed hand slides up her thigh and his thumb swipes at the sensitive flesh between her legs.
"No," he replies. "How many?"
Rin opens her eyes and is struck with the sensation that she's very far away from where she's supposed to be at that moment. She's back in Kaede-sama's house, on a floor mat next to the sleeping older woman.
"Rin," a deep voice says her name from outside. Sesshoumaru-sama?
She glances over at Kaede and then slowly gets up as not to disturb her.
"Child, where do you think you're going at this hour?" comes the miko's voice.
Rin blushes at being caught sneaking out and starts to turn back.
"Nowhere," Rin says, inching back towards her bed when she pauses. She was a married woman. She didn't need Kaede's approval to meet her husband; she could come and go as she pleased. With that revelation, Rin begins to creep out of the house.
"Child, where do you think you're going at this hour?" came the miko's voice again.
Kaede is still lying with her back turned, facing the wall. Only, it's not Kaede somehow. Rin peers closer at the still form. The slivers of light that cast through the window illuminate the woman's sleeping figure just enough that Rin can notice there's something not quite right. What Rin thought was the miko's hair are pieces of straw protruding from the woman's scalp. Whatever lay in that bed was not Kaede but a scarecrow meant to look like her.
"Child, where do you think you're going at this hour?"
"Nowhere," Rin repeats. "My head hurts," she lies. "Rin is going outside to get some air." She doesn't know why she's bothering to lie to a scarecrow, especially when she has every right to go meet her husband, but she continues with the subterfuge anyway.
She makes her way out of the house, Not-Kaede's repeated question faintly audible ("Child, where do you think you're going at this hour?") as she steps into the warm night. Everything appears normal except for the sky above. The stars are unusually numerous and bright and...bigger, even, like they've collectively descended closer to Earth.
"Sesshoumaru-sama?" She calls out.
Rin's eyes search around for a billowing white figure among the darkened landscape. She suddenly thinks of the obvious place and she's proven correct when she turns around. He's on the roof, feet hovering slightly above the roof's surface. It causes her to recall Inuyasha complaining about how unnecessarily dramatic it was ("Why can't he just stand there," her future brother-in-law would grouse). She approaches the ladder at the side wall, intending to climb up and join him.
"Don't," he warns.
She pulls her hand away from the rung as if it would burn her. "Why?"
"It's dangerous up here. The stars are too low."
Rin can see them; twinkling and burning behind him.
"I'll be careful," she insists, beginning to ascend the ladder.
She's halfway up when she senses a third presence; one malignant and unsettling.
"Don't reach for the stars, Rin." She pauses. It's a female voice; one she doesn't recognize and can't place among her physical surroundings.
"They'll come crashing down around you."
"Rin." Sesshoumaru-sama says her name with that tender inflection that is meant for her and her only. It makes what he says next even harder to bear.
"Stay where you are. You don't belong up here."
She continues climbing in spite of the admonitions. "Why did you call me out, then?" It was his voice that had drawn her out of that house. "Why did you say my name?"
"Can't you take me up there with you? You said you would," she pleads. He has to let her up there with him. If he doesn't she'll be lonely again. She doesn't want to be lonely anymore. She can't be.
The ladder begins to shake and Rin momentarily loses her footing. She tightens her hold on the rung and manages to get both her feet back on. She looks down to see who's shaking the ladder but the figure she sees at the bottom is just a blur of movement with indistinguishable features.
The shaking of the ladder eventually becomes so violent that Rin loses her grip and falls. She braces herself for impact, expecting to hit the ground but instead she finds herself plunged into dark water. She thrashes around, desperately kicking her legs as she swims towards the water's surface.
She breaks the surface, gasping and spitting out water. As she crudely treads water, Rin sees that she's in a flooded field of susuki grass. Seeking something to hang on to, she grasps at some of the tall blades sticking out above the surface. She clumps the blades together and squeezes her palms around them but the grass is too weak to help keep her afloat. A hand grabs hold of her arm—Sesshoumaru's hand. He's wading in the water, naked as far as she can tell, his bare chest starkly pale against the darkness.
"Oh, Sesshoumaru-sama!" She cries in relief as he pulls her into his arms. She clings to his naked chest like it's a buoy.
"Rin...Rin...everything is fine now," he tells her gently.
She pulls back from him a little and that's when her eyes take in the luminescent sky above them. The stars. The stars, Rin thinks. They must have descended even closer to the Earth. Close enough that she could climb onto A-Un's back and race around them. They appear huge and mesmerizing in their blinding brightness.
The sight inspires a disquieting thought. What will happen when all the stars have been dragged from the heavens?
"Rin, it's extraordinary," Sesshoumaru says, eyes glinting in a joyous excitement that seems so unlike him it unnerves her. "You need to look at it. You need to see how big it is."
She puzzles at that. "What is?"
He grants her one of his rare smiles and his lips part. "The star of love."
He gazes off in another direction and Rin follows, expecting to see a familiar distant star. What she's met with is a stone's throw from where she and Sesshoumaru wade in the dark lake; a blinding sphere of white light whose frightening mass takes up her entire field of vision. How did it get so close, so soon? She wonders, as the star crashes upon them and swallows them whole.