AN: Once again, thank you all SO MUCH for the kind reviews! I was absolutely amazed at the response to the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this one just as much, if not more!

Chapter 3: Of Humans and Indignities

The first sense to return to Sesshoumaru was his smell. Musty earth, the mix of sharp cedar and sweet bamboo, and the crispness of glacial spring water formed a hazy picture in his mind of Dog's Throne, the highest mountain in the Western Sanctuary.

What didn't fit in with those familiar scents was the spice of his acidic blood, the tang of antiseptic, and the stench of…human?

His sluggish brain wasn't as worried about that as it should have been. He struggled to open his eyes but found himself unable—or unwilling?—to as he tried to come to terms with what had happened.

He must have fallen unconscious. It should not have seemed like such a grand revelation, but to one who rarely slept so deeply, it was a deduction of the highest magnitude. How long had he been asleep? He needed to wake up faster. There was no telling what had happened to him in this vulnerable state.

The more his mind awakened, the more a second sense returned to him: touch.

A line of fire raced up his left arm. Pain gnawed at his right knee. The rest of his body felt like it had been trampled by a herd of horse demons.

Then his right eye opened—but not of his own accord. His somnolent mind struggled with what he saw—some blurred, peachy object poking his eye—and then it was gone.

There was a gasp, and as his vision coalesced in his open eye, he finally put all the pieces together.

Human scent. Human woman. Taking out his contact.

His mind jolted into awareness, sending an electric shock to his heart. His other eye flew open, and he reached up with the arm that didn't feel like it had been branded with an iron and grabbed her wrist.

"What are you doing here?" he growled.

When the human woman didn't answer right away, Sesshoumaru squeezed her arm tighter, and she winced, her heart picking up tempo. But she quickly masked the pain and fear with a professionally neutral look.

"Right now, I'm tending to your injuries," she replied. "That fight you got into left you in pretty bad shape."

"Who says I was in a fight?"

She looked down at him drolly. "The trees, for one. You left a swath of destruction in your wake."

The memories started coming back to him. Damn that Inuyasha. Sesshoumaru hadn't realized his younger brother was that serious.

Then what she had said earlier hit him, and he looked down at himself. Bandages covered the entirety of his currently useless left arm as well as his torso. His knee was in a makeshift splint, and there were various band-aids and plasters all over his body.

And of all the indignities—

"Where are my pants?" he demanded.

"They're not going to fit over the splint on your knee."

"I will make them fit."

"You will do no such thing," the woman answered. "If you're looking to preserve your modesty, here," she said, reaching out with her free arm to pull over his furred trench coat and lay it over his legs. "Although I promise you, it's nothing I haven't seen before."

Sesshoumaru huffed and turned his head away so that she saw no hint of his shame at being so obviously called out. "I did not ask about your sex life."

"My what—?" she almost screeched, her professional demeanor slipping. But she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "What I mean is…I'm a nurse."

Sesshoumaru looked down at his bandaged arm. That explained the professional work. Beneath the bandages, though, that line of fire seared a trail down from his shoulder to his wrist, and when he tried to move it, the skin tugged. "What have you done to my arm?"

"I had to sew it up. Your arm was torn open—you're lucky it wasn't completely hacked off."

"That was unnecessary."

"Why? Because you're a demon?"

He whipped his head back to face her and glared, squeezing her wrist even tighter. "Yes."

She still held his contact in her fingers. Had she found out what he was before or after she doctored him?

After, no doubt, he thought. No human would ever willingly help a demon.

So the question remained: why was she still here?

"What are you doing here?" he asked again.

"I told you—"

"In the sanctuary."

"Oh. Well, I came to go camping, if you must know. I just didn't expect to meet a demon on my first day."

How could she be so nonchalant about meeting a demon? She claimed to be a nurse, but was that true? What if she was part of the Demon Slayer Corps?

But if she were, she would not have hesitated to kill me the moment she discovered what I was.

"How did you get in?"

"Into the sanctuary?" she asked. When he didn't answer, she continued. "With a ticket, of course."

How on earth did this human gain a ticket to a demon sanctuary? Like the black market, you had to know someone who knew someone to be able to gain a coveted ticket. His family ran the Western Sanctuary, and they had put all sorts of protections into place to make sure that the Demon Slayer Corps never found out the resort's true purpose.

"How did you get a ticket?" he asked.

For the first time, she looked irritated. "What are you implying, sir? That I cannot afford one?"

Sesshoumaru furrowed his brows in confusion. "That is not at all what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

Did this girl not realize where she was?

"Why did you come to this place?" he asked, needing to figure this out. If a human had slipped past defenses, he needed to inform his father right away.

"I told you: to go camping. Do I need to check you for a concussion again?" she asked, picking up a flashlight. "Let's get that other contact out—"

"Camping?" he echoed, ignoring the rest of her words as she shook off his now-loosened right hand.

"Yes. I've been to most of the natural parks and wildlife refuges in the country, but I had never heard of this one. So when I did, I simply couldn't resist coming to see if for myself. Now hold stil—" She reached for his left eye, but he batted her hand away.

"Where did you hear of it?" This was a serious breach of security.

"From my sister. Why?"

"Your sister?" Was this girl somehow related to demons? Was that why she did not seem to fear him? But how could that be? He could smell the humanity in her. "Who is your—"

"Hold that thought," the girl said, placing his contact in his hand and jumping to her feet. "Pardon me. I need to, ah…use the facilities." And before he could say another word, she ran off with her flashlight into the trees.

Sesshoumaru tried to get up, now that she was gone, but when he moved, his entire body screamed in pain, and he gave up. He would heal soon enough—he just needed a few days of complete rest. And since this girl knew he was a demon, he might as well rest comfortably.

He took out the remaining contact and then popped off the latex molds that bent the tips of his ears into a human shape. He massaged them to get the blood flowing again, and suddenly the world was marginally louder than it had been just seconds ago. Then he pulled out the tooth veneers that disguised his fangs. He tucked everything into his coat pocket. He wouldn't be able to use the contacts again, but he had dozens at home—that wasn't a problem.

This human girl, however, was.

Humans only ever caused problems. After all, his fight with Inuyasha, his half-brother—which had left him in this pathetic state—had started over a human.

When Sesshoumaru heard from their father that Inuyasha planned to bring his human girlfriend, Kagome, to the Sanctuary and reveal the truth of his half-demon nature to her, Sesshoumaru didn't waste any time summoning him to the premises.

Inuyasha had fallen for a human once before and gotten his heart broken. Sesshoumaru did not care about Inuyasha's soft heart, but his half-brother had displayed such recklessness concerning their family's safety last time that it had taken Sesshoumaru by surprise. He did not intend to let Inuyasha get away with such an impulsive action again.

Of course, when he summoned Inuyasha, he discovered that the situation was worse than he thought.

Early that morning, Inuyasha had found Sesshoumaru inspecting the quality of the outdoor dojo's blades at the resort. The half-demon arrived looking like he had just gotten off work instead of preparing to go to it: loose tie around a partially unbuttoned shirt, suit jacket thrown wide open, and a fedora cocked over his dyed, black hair to cover his silver dog ears. The hat also helped hide the band that kept his prosthetic humans ears in place.

All demons had to conceal their looks to some extent. Only the true shape-shifters—such as fox demons—had it easy, but for the rest of them, makeup had to cover their markings, latex gave them human features, tooth veneers masked their fangs, and some even had to dye their hair. (Sesshoumaru did not envy the demons with wings; he had been told they were a literal pain to keep hidden.)

The modern era had made life a little easier—"unnatural" colors were more acceptable in some circles now, and globalization offered a new realm of possibilities for identities. Sesshoumaru had had to demean himself and dye his hair black for decades before Japan truly opened up. Since then, however, he had gone back to his natural color and claimed to be a foreigner or mixed-blood, usually of Nordic descent. (He had, in fact, learned Swedish just to toss out the occasional word to starry-eyed Japanese when needed.) When colored contacts had come onto the market, he accepted them as a small but necessary nuisance, for his golden eyes had caused him no small amount of consternation over the years.

Inuyasha himself had a closet full of hats, wore brown contact lenses and, like Sesshoumaru, usually wore gloves instead of trimming his claws daily (unless the occasion demanded bare hands). Depending upon the era and his tolerance, he also dyed his hair black. It often depended on how social he was during a certain decade and whether or not he hung out with his human friends on the night of the new moon—the time when he lost both his demon powers and looks. Whereas he used to hide his night of weakness in the old days, he now used it to his utmost advantage.

In recent years, Inuyasha had also embraced showing off the family silver—at least, until the new moon night some six months ago when he had met Kagome. From what Sesshoumaru had heard, it was an instant attraction, and in order to keep up the ruse while still seeing her on other days and nights of the month, Inuyasha had taken to meticulously dyeing his hair black and camouflaging himself as he hadn't done in decades.

Not since the last time he fell for a human.

"Well, I'm here, so whaddya want?" Inuyasha griped, crossing his arms.

Sesshoumaru did not even spare him a glance, but he frowned nonetheless. He had summoned the half-demon two days ago, after all. "I found Kagome Higurashi's name on our guest list for today's expected arrivals."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to take care of that. Turns out she couldn't come today, so don't worry about it."

"Do you intend to issue a second invitation?"

"What's it matter to you if I do?"

Sesshoumaru pulled his favored blade, Tokijin, from the wall. "You're a fool if you think I will allow you to risk our family's lives so you can stop playing pretend with that human girl."

"That's just it, Sesshoumaru. I don't want to pretend with her anymore. I love her, and she loves me. I'm not saying she won't be shocked at first, but…I believe in Kagome. So, I'm going to bring her here soon and show her who I am. And once she's had time to process it…I'm going to ask her to marry me." His eyebrows dipped into a sharp V. "Don't bother trying to talk me out of it."

"Idiot," Sesshoumaru hissed. "Did you not learn your lesson the last time?"

Inuyasha growled at him. "Shut up."

"That woman turned her back on you. She didn't love you like you thought she did. What makes you think that this one will be any different?"

"She just is, okay? I know it!"

"You know nothing. And I will not stand by this time while you jeopardize everything our family has built for centuries to keep demonkind safe."

"So what are you gonna do? Kill me? Because that's the only way you're gonna stop me."

Sesshoumaru raised Tokijin at him. "If necessary. For now, maiming you would be enough. Human women are fickle. You will discover just how fleeting her so-called love is when she realizes you are no longer whole."

And then he attacked, and Inuyasha barely had time to grab his sword, Tessaiga, from the wall to block him. Seeing Tessaiga in action once again only made Sesshoumaru's blood boil further.

Long ago, his father had asked the master demon sword smith, Totosai, to create two swords for his sons: Tessaiga, which he had gifted to Inuyasha, and Tenseiga, which he had gifted to Sesshoumaru. But Tenseiga was a useless, dull sword that didn't cut. Mere decoration. It was obvious who the favored child was.

So Sesshoumaru had commissioned Totosai's disciple to make Tokijin back in the Warring States era. Such demon blades were precious heirlooms now and had to be treated with care, since Totosai had long gone into hiding, and his disciple did not live to see the turn of the 17th century.

Even if Tokijin had been crafted by a lesser talent, it had lasted him for hundreds of battles and years.

Until it didn't.

Sesshoumaru and Inuyasha carried their fight into the forest, their skirmish knowing no bounds. They sliced through trees and blew them away.

"Give it up, Sesshoumaru! You can't change my mind!" Inuyasha shouted as he swung at his older brother.

"Stop playing the fool and grow up. You should have learned the failings of humans by now."

"Stop. Trashing. Humans!" Inuyasha roared, swinging down at him, and as Sesshoumaru blocked his strike, the force of it rattled through his whole body.

Tokijin? he wondered, worried for the first time that it would fail him.

Inuyasha hit him successively, one after the other, and Sesshoumaru's eyes widened as he found himself unable to do anymore more than block.

Where had this surge of power in Inuyasha come from?

"I am sick—" slash "—and tired—" slash "—of you—" slash "—doubting me!" Inuyasha bellowed. "And don't—" slash "—speak about—" slash "—Kagome—" slash "—like you—" slash "—know her!"

And with one last, vicious swipe, he broke Tokijin in two.

Sesshoumaru barely managed to dodge as the blade came down, but it still cut through his chest. He hissed as his blood sprayed in an arc between them.

Inuyasha had dared to wound him, the great Sesshoumaru?

He was done playing around.

He threw aside Tokijin's hilt. "That was your mistake, Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru growled. His demon energy surged, sending his poison blood boiling through him. His teeth and jaw elongated; his body grew in size and contorted as he sprouted fur until he was standing before his brother in his true, dog demon form.

He swiped at Inuyasha with his claws, feeling them catch on flesh as he sent his brother flying. Inuyasha crashed through several trees before he came to a stop and heaved himself up with Tessaiga. Blood soaked around the tears in his clothing, and he spat some out of his mouth.

"You're gonna regret that, Sesshoumaru," Inuyasha growled. He set off running towards the dog demon and then leapt into the air, his sword raised to strike. Sesshoumaru snapped at him, sending a spray of acidic saliva splashing against the trees and melting them.

But his jaws snapped shut over nothing, and Inuyasha jumped on his snout and over his head.

"Bigger doesn't always equal better, Sesshoumaru. It just makes you a lot slower and stupider!"

Sesshoumaru whirled around, his tail flattening a copse of trees. He looked around for Inuyasha. When he couldn't see him, he sniffed him out.

There, Sesshoumaru thought, swiping at some towering cedars. Some of them cracked under his force; he left scars upon the others. Inuyasha jumped out before they could topple on him. He raced straight towards Sesshoumaru's snout again. Sesshoumaru snapped at him and felt something hit his nose.

He stopped, trying to gauge if he had caught Inuyasha in his teeth, but he couldn't feel him. Yet his scent was overwhelmingly in his nose. He pawed at his snout and watched as Inuyasha's suit jacket fluttered to the ground.

Suddenly, something whacked into his right hind leg with such force, Sesshoumaru yipped and stumbled. He tried to stand on the leg but couldn't.

Then, Inuyasha's voice came from the left. "You wanted to maim me? Well, let's see how you like it!"

Tessaiga slashed across Sesshoumaru, and if he had been a second slower in rolling away, the slice would have taken his whole arm off. As it was, the sword still sliced across the length of it. The force of the blow sent him toppling backwards through the trees, breaking trunks hundreds of years old.

As his energy waned, Sesshoumaru morphed back into his human form, collapsed at the base of a tree. As he struggled to keep his eyes open, Inuyasha landed before him and raised the point of Tessaiga to his throat.

"I want you to remember this moment, Sesshoumaru. Right now, I could take your life if I wished. But Dad wouldn't be too happy about that, and your mother would find some passive-aggressive way to make my life a living hell, so I'm going to spare you. But if you ever doubt Kagome to my face again, I'll finish what I started on your arm. So, you just sit here and let your head cool while I go and prove you wrong about her."

Then Inuyasha turned and left, and it was the last Sesshoumaru remembered before he woke up to a human picking his contact out of his eye.

As if his thoughts had summoned her, the human woman came waltzing back into the campsite. Before he even had a chance to restart his line of interrogation, she said, "I need to get the tent set up, and then we'll get you inside, okay? Just hang tight."

He frowned. "There is no need. I will stay out here."

"Nonsense. The autumn nights are chilly. You'll catch cold—especially without any clothes on."

He could hear the smile in her words, and he gritted his teeth at the mention of his indecency. "I will not die of exposure."

"Are you sure about that? The embarrassment might kill you before the cold."

He glared at her, and she bit back a snort of laughter, clapping her hand over her mouth to hide her grin. She shook for several seconds with restrained mirth before she finally lowered her hand from a straight mouth and cleared her throat. "I apologize. That wasn't very professional of me." Her smile popped back into place like a reflex. "But you're just so easy to tease. In all seriousness, though, regardless of what you say, I'm not willing to take the chance with your health, especially with your wounds as serious as they are."

He sighed in resignation and closed his eyes, though he kept his ears attuned to her movements, waiting for her to reveal her true colors and strike.

Instead, she hummed a tune to herself while she set up the tent, and as Sesshoumaru listened, he was surprised to find he knew the song.

"'The Last Rose of Summer?'" he asked before he could stop himself.

The girl stopped humming, and he opened his eyes to find her gaping at him in astonishment.

"Yes! How did you know?"

He had lived for centuries and travelled the world over. He knew traditional songs from several cultures.

But she did not need to know that.

Nor did she seem to care that he didn't answer, because she just kept talking. "I'm just surprised, because not many Japanese know that song. Understandably, since it's Celtic, and while I have a decent grasp of English, I don't understand all the words—and obviously, I have no idea what they're saying in Irish—but that's never really mattered to me, you know? I love how nature is a central element to their music…and you can really feel that connection in the instruments they use and their lilting melodies. While I prefer to listen to nature's own music as I hike—the wind, the birds, and the water make a beautiful orchestra, don't they?—if there's one type of music I don't mind listening to while I walk, it's Celtic music, because I can sense that same energy. Oh, I'd love to visit Ireland one day and hear it played live. It's on my bucket list."

Did this girl never tire of speaking? He hadn't asked for her life story.

"So do you also like Celtic music…ah…you know what? I never got your name," she continued.

He had no plans to give her his name. The less she knew about him, the less of a liability she would be until he decided what to do with her.

He could have just killed her, of course, but in today's hyper-connected world, that just created its own set of problems. By her own admission, her sister had told her about the sanctuary, which likely meant that her sister knew where both she and the sanctuary were. If this woman did not return home in a timely fashion, the sanctuary would be the first place said sister would think to look. It would launch an investigation, and his family would be hard-pressed to keep the resort a secret any longer.

No, he could not kill the girl, so he had to find some other way to silence her.

"You're not very talkative, are you?" she asked.

He would not deign that with an answer.

"That's alright. I can talk enough for the both of us. I've been told I have the gift of gab."

"That is not usually a compliment," Sesshoumaru answered.

"Ah, but it got you to respond to me!"

Curses.

"Would it help if I told you my name first? You can call me Rin. That's what I tell all my patients: call me Nurse Rin."

"Just Rin?" he asked, unable to help himself. The so-called intimacy of addressing her by only her given name did not bother him. It just surprised him, because it was not the Japanese way—for humans, at least. After all, demons had only possessed given names for the longest time, but when necessity dictated they meld into human society, they adopted surnames so as to not give themselves away. However, he answered to the name Nishikuni only out of reflex; it held no special meaning for him.

"I spent a year of high school studying in America, so I guess I just got used to it. I rather like the informality. It closes the distance, you know? I felt more of a connection with people because there was one less barrier to let down. Americans aren't quite as casual and touchy-feely as we like to believe they are—I hear Europeans are much more so, in certain regards—but honestly, most cultures are less formal than the Japanese. Still, I kind of enjoyed that way of living, to be honest. I've never really liked standing on ceremony, so that's probably why it suited me better."

What need was there to interrogate her when she gushed like a fount of information? No doubt she would answer all his questions without him having to ask.

"There," Rin said, standing up and brushing off her hands. "The tent's all set up. Now, just hold still, and I'll drag you in—"

"You will do no such thing."

Rin leaned over from behind his head, frowning at him from upside down. "Nurse's orders," she responded simply before grabbing the edge of the sleeping bag and pulling it backwards.

He tried to sit up and get off, so that she would know she held no power over him, but again, his body refused to obey without protest. So he lay in seething silence as Rin dragged him into the tent. She collapsed as soon as she had him where she wanted him.

"Wow, you're really heavy. I can tell you're tall, but everyone's taller than I am, so I've never been a good judge. But I figure you must work out too. No one gets muscles like that from sitting around."

Sesshomaru raised an eyebrow at her, fighting back a smirk. "I don't think it's very professional to ogle your patients as you attend them."

Rin flushed from her cheeks to her neck. "I wasn't—! I don't need to ogle you to be able to tell—" She seemed to realize her words were only making the situation worse, so she snapped her mouth shut and looked at the ground for a couple beats. Finally, she raised her head, but she wouldn't look at him, and her cheeks were still red. "Anyway…there's a slight problem."

He waited for her to elaborate.

"I wasn't expecting company…and I only have the one sleeping bag."

"I told you, I have no need for any of this. You could leave me outside, and I will survive."

"But you won't be comfortable, will you?" she asked.

He would be reliving his wandering years. He had had no concept of "comfort" then. "It is what it is."

"That won't do. You're my patient, and I have to keep you comfortable."

"Just take it. My coat will be enough. You, however, could freeze in your sleep." And while that might serve his needs, it would also launch that investigation he needed to avoid.

Rin bit her lip in frustration before she relented. "Very well."

Sesshoumaru's abdominal muscles screamed as he tried to lift himself, so she helped him shift just enough to let her slip her sleeping bag out from underneath him while sliding the open coat into its place. The fur around the collar acted like a pillow, and she arranged it beneath his head as best she could. She had only cut off the left sleeve of his coat, so he wriggled his right arm into the other; however, she made him keep his left arm tucked against his body as she buttoned up the coat. The trench coat only reached down to his knees, and as much as he wanted to put his pants back on for modesty's sake (not warmth), she insisted again that the one pant leg would not go over the splint. But at least he finally convinced her that he would not die of cold.

The only reason he relented in having his coat against him was that it brought his fur back into contact with his body. The fur had always been a part of him when not in his true form, but he had had to adapt its looks over the years so that it blended in. He was aware that the fur-lined coat gave him a vintage appearance that straddled the line of being called a "dandy" nowadays, but it was the closest he could manage, and he didn't care what humans thought of him anyway.

Once she was finished, Rin sat back and clapped her hands together. "Alright, done. Now, let's see about something to eat. Unfortunately, I only have some light rations, since my plan was to supplement my meals with fish and foraging." She dug through her backpack. "But I do have a can of beans. I suppose that will have to work for now, and it will get rid of some of the weight. We can share."

"There is no need."

"Of course there is. Eating will replenish your energy, which will help you to heal faster. I don't care what you are—plant, animal, human, or demon. The same concept applies to them all."

"I prefer not to eat human food."

"And what do you prefer? Humans?"

He cut her a dark look. "You're rather cheeky for a human who doesn't know whether or not she is on the menu."

"If you were planning to eat me, you would have done so by now. Your grip on my wrist was strong enough to hold me in place."

So she had noticed. She wasn't so stupid after all.

He turned his head away again. "I find humans unappetizing."

"Well, that's good news for me then. So what do you eat?"

In truth, he was a very picky eater. His mother had bemoaned the fact for centuries. Even when demons had free reign of the land to consume humans, he never did so. He killed them if they got in his way but otherwise left them alone. She assumed he had the same compassion his father had for them, but in truth, he had tried human as a child (when she forced him to) and not found it to his liking. Nor had he ever cared to eat human cuisine. However, in today's world, where blending in was paramount to survival, he had grown to tolerate it. After all, he could not be the only one to refrain from eating during business lunches with human colleagues. It would make him stand out when he needed to lie low.

"Why do you care whether or not I eat?"

"I told you, I'm a nurse. It's my duty to help those in need to the best of my ability."

He closed his eyes in resignation. "Do what you wish."

She was quiet for several seconds—before interrupting his peace again. "So…does that mean you'll eat these beans like a good little demon?"

Sesshoumaru's hackles rose, and he whipped his head around, baring his fangs. "Do not treat me like a child," he hissed.

She jumped, her heartbeat kicking up a notch, and her eyes widened as she stared at him.

He should have known it wouldn't stop her from speaking.

"Did you know your eyes turn red when you're angry?"

He growled in annoyance and turned away from her again. Her heartbeat resumed its normal pace.

This was going to be a long, long recovery…even if it lasted only a few days.

She left the tent, and the moment she opened the can, the tangy, saucy scent of those infernal beans wafted over. It only grew as she cooked them over the fire.

Should he pretend to be asleep when she came back so that he didn't have to eat them? Nurses usually let their patients sleep, didn't they? Or would she wake him up to force-feed him the vile-smelling legumes?

He didn't have time to make a decision, because it took her only a few minutes to heat up the beans before she came ducking back into the tent with that nearly ever-present smile on her face.

"Ready?" she asked, holding up a utility knife that had an attached spoon.

He was not.

"Eat your fill. I can have what remains," Sesshoumaru said, trying to delay the inevitable.

"Nonsense. Your health is more important right now. I can survive a night without eating much, but you need the strength." She looked at him then and frowned. "But it would certainly be difficult to swallow lying down. You need something taller than that fur pillow…." Her eyes lit up with an idea, and she scooted over next to his head.

"What are you doing?" he asked, not liking how far she was encroaching into his personal space.

Not that this woman hadn't already invaded every inch of it.

She placed a few fingers under his head and nudged upwards. "Can you lift you head at all?" He did so, if only to keep from touching her, but then she scooted closer towards him and placed his head down onto her lap.

"Now, your right arm appears to have enough strength to lift a spoon, but I can feed you if you'd prefer."

"I do not require your assistance," he answered, grabbing the spoon from her. She held out the pot of beans over him, tipping it so that he had a better view and ability to scoop. His nose crinkled as the smell assaulted him at full force. He took one small scoop of beans, put it into his mouth, and chewed through the mealy mixture as quickly as possible. Then he held the spoon back out to her. "There, I have eaten. Now leave me be."

"No, sir. That was hardly enough. Ten spoonfuls, and I'll let you off the hook."

Confound this woman. "You cannot force me to eat."

"They're only going to get cold if you keep talking instead of eating. Come on now, stop being a baby and just get it done and over with."

He gripped the utility knife so tightly, a little more force would have snapped it.

How dare this lowly human continue to treat him like a child.

But if it would shut her up, he would eat the damn beans.

He did as she said: ten spoonfuls. No more, no less. When he finished, she took the spoon from him and leaned over, looking at him upside down. "See, was that so hard?"

"If you continue to test my patience, human, you will regret it."

Rin sighed, lifting his head up so that she could slip out from under it. "You did well, so rest now. I'll go finish eating outside to give you some peace." She left the tent, and he finally had some quiet.

Except for the constant sounds of her scraping the pot of beans outside. After a while, though, she got up and left. She was gone longer than she had been the last time. Had she gotten lost in the darkness of the forest?

But soon enough, she reappeared, clambering back into the tent. "Good thing I spotted the cascades earlier. I needed to wash out the pot so we don't attract bears or something."

Sesshoumaru huffed. "You will not be bothered by any such creature as long as I am here." The same went for the few demon visitors on the property, although he was fairly certain that their guests were either at the resort or staying in other habitats around the sanctuary. It was the slow season, so he was able to keep track easier.

"And why is that?" she asked, putting the pot back into her oversized backpack.

"If not my scent, my demonic energy will keep any creatures at bay."

"Ahh, so you're the big baddie around here, is that it?"

It was a crass way of putting it, but it was true. However, his reach only extended so far. If she went beyond it, she was out of luck.

Rin crawled over to the sleeping bag she had left beside him and slipped into it. He watched in astonishment.

Granted, the tent was not large, but why wasn't she putting as much distance between them as possible?

She shuddered as she pulled the sleeping bag tight around her. "Oooh, that's better. It's gotten quite chilly outside, and the spring water was so cold! I'm going to sleep now, but don't hesitate to wake me if you need anything. We never did figure out the, ah…bathroom situation for you—"

"That will not be necessary."

Rin's eyes widened. "Really? Demon anatomy must be truly remarkable. I'm envious."

He scowled at her. "I mean that you will not be assisting me in any such endeavors." He would drag himself out of the tent by one arm, should it come to that. But demon metabolism was slow. He did not foresee a need until he was mobile again.

"Well, regardless, if you need me, just wake me up," she repeated with a yawn. She closed her eyes and snuggled further into her sleeping bag, still facing him.

What a naïve girl, he thought, listening to her breathing and heart rate settle. She was asleep within minutes.

Even after decades of hiding, he had not rid himself of the constant need to be alert and watching for danger. Demons no longer fought physical battles with each other for domain anymore—out of a tacit agreement that they needed to keep up what numbers they had—so they instead put that energy into business competition, which had its own way of keeping him apprehensive. And, of course, the need to keep his family hidden from humans was another worry keeping him constantly vigilant.

Yet this girl could fall asleep in front of a demon so easily? He wondered at her level of trust and knew it was something he would never have—especially for a human.

After all, how could you trust the species bent on your complete destruction?

The seemingly immortal lives of demons had once been a boon, allowing them to partake of pleasures for centuries; now, those same lives had become nothing but an endless masquerade as they pretended to be humans.

Sometimes, Sesshoumaru wondered if all the hiding was worth it. However, he was not so cowardly as to throw his life away, and he was stubborn enough to believe that one day, demonkind would make its comeback. After all, as with everything, the modern age had made their ruses easier, so he had hope that in continuing to hold out, demons would someday be able to turn the tide in their favor and live more freely.

Still, that didn't make this current life of hiding easy, especially when they were such a proud race. Even if humans had created horrendous new weapons with which to destroy them, on a biological level, demons were still superior in every way.

So, if they could not lord this fact over humans in public, they would do so in private.

Nishikuni Corp., the human-facing parent company of Western Sanctuary, boasted a wall of CEO portraits. For Sesshoumaru's family, it was like a public trophy display of their 150-year-long successful ruse.

There were a variety of photos that rotated mostly between Sesshoumaru; Inuyasha; and their father, Touga. They started in vintage sepia and black-and-white, displaying the men in kimonos and dyed black hair. Those photos eventually gave way to colored ones; with them, "foreign" blood had been introduced into the family, so the three posed with white hair, contact-colored eyes, and suits.

It was amazing how some different hairstyles (including the addition of facial hair), clothing, and eye colors could confound all the humans who walked past. The hardest part to disguise had always been their lack of aging. In the past, humans had found their ever-youthful features suspicious. The Nishikunis had had to stage deaths and retirements so much more frequently.

As such, the birth of the motion picture special effects industry last century had been a boon to their kind, and Sesshoumaru's father had started buying latex facial masks to give their family wrinkles on demand. Touga, the once-feared Dog Demon General, seemed to enjoy the process (when his role called for it), claiming it was like sculpting—he wanted to see what he unearthed from the clay that was his face.

Sesshoumaru only saw it as a degradation, but he nevertheless fulfilled his role dutifully when the time came for him to "age."

Of course, people still noticed the strain of resemblances in the portraits, but since Nishikuni Corp. was family-owned, the concerns were easily dismissed. Despite being in the age of cameras, humans appeared to notice less than their ancestors had. Sesshoumaru figured that they were so bombarded with visuals nowadays, nothing seemed to faze them anymore.

Still, that was no excuse for demons to slack on safety, so he, Inuyasha, and Touga would continue to play each other's fathers, brothers, nephews, and cousins for as long as needed.

From the start, his family had concocted a plan for how to remain in Japan for the long term but create new lives for themselves. They rotated identities and business positions every few decades, sometimes skipping out for a few years to live elsewhere. When one of them needed to bow out from the public sphere and Nishikuni Corp. for a while, he managed Western Sanctuary.

A few years back, Sesshoumaru had taken over the resort from Inuyasha after announcing his "retirement" from Nishikuni Corp. and moving up his "successor," Touga. It had been a strange several years to appear in the same meeting rooms with his father, he wearing the wrinkle masks and his father looking his fresh, young self.

Now Inuyasha—who had attended college once again near the end of his interim at Western Sanctuary in order to "get with the times" and reintroduce himself to modern society—had moved into the successor position at Nishikuni Corp. Their father would begin to "age gracefully" in a few years.

In this way, they had succeeded in living in plain sight for a century and a half. No human could ever find out the scope of their ruse. Both Nishikuni Corp. and Western Sanctuary employed dozens of demons; each company also did close business with other covert demon operations. Touga believed it was their duty to help demonkind stay alive and prosper. After all, he had once ruled over the Western Province, so the need to protect so many lives was ingrained in him.

Luckily, it seemed like Rin had no idea just what she had stumbled onto. For the next few days, at least, he would be able to keep her occupied by being her patient. Once he recovered, however, he would have to find a way to ensure her silence before releasing her back into the human world. The best way was to figure out her weaknesses and threaten her. But it would have to be done delicately to keep her from running to the Demon Slayer Corps with that information.

So, he would do his best to find out everything about her in that time—all while making sure she found out nothing about him.

AN: Poor Sesshoumaru. Humiliation upon humiliation: a beat-down from his brother, being stripped nearly naked AND having to eat beans—all in one day? I've just tortured this poor baby. XD As if that wasn't enough, adult Rin is so much harder to scare off and refuse than child Rin, lol. What did you think of this re-imagined scene of their meeting (and Inuyasha's part in it)? Let me know in the comments/reviews!