A/N: thanks for the reviews and support guys! It means a lot, and helps motivate me to write!
Three days after the arrival of Chieko, Rin was woken long before sunrise by a very loud sound. She tried to go back to sleep, but it came again.
DRIP.
DRIP.
DRIP.
She cringed and covered her ears, trying to block out the sound, and found her ears now formed dainty points. Her gasp of surprise woke Sesshomaru and he sat up as she did. "what is it, my love?"
"look!" she said, moving her hands to show him the delicate points of her transformed ears. "I can hear everything now. How can you ever sleep?" he chuckled softly at her exaggeration and kissed her forehead.
"it's the same as what happened with your eyes. You'll learn to adjust to this being normal, I promise." She twitched suddenly as the deafening dripping sound came again, turning to see the shadow of an icicle on the window-screen. She growled at the offending formation, too tired to be dealing with something she usually rather liked. It was musical and pleasant, after all, just much too loud.
Sesshomaru smiled softly at her reaction. "cover your ears," he told her softly, standing and sliding open the window. Rin still flinched at the terrible crash of the ice splintering and falling to the garden below, but the insistent dripping was mercifully gone for now. She sighed softly as he sat back beside her, encouraging her to lay back down. After she complained she was unlikely to be able to sleep again, he rose and brought back two puffs of raw cotton, the sort someone would stuff a futon with. He rolled it into a tight ball and stuffed it in each of her ears. "there. That will help for tonight."
Sesshomaru held his young mate close as she relaxed and soon went back to sleep. He smoothed her hair, staying awake to watch over her. As far as he could tell, she was progressing rapidly, and he frowned, wondering what new ways her instincts would try to take over. She looked so peaceful and gentle, sleeping peacefully in his arms. He smiled softly at the delicately pointed ear that was facing up toward him and very carefully traced it, then followed it to her ivy-like marking, tracing across her cheekbone with the pad of his finger. She was both just like he had imagined years before, and completely different, somehow truer to herself this way than how he had once pictured in his fantasies of her being a Yōkai.
At dawn, Sesshomaru was already awake, standing at the window and looking out on the snow-covered garden and lands. He heard Rin stir and turned back to see her pull the blanket tightly around her, cold. He chuckled softly and stepped back to her. "good morning. Are you cold?"
She peeked one eye open and glared at him. "I don't have fur to keep me warm."
"not yet, at least. It will come soon enough." He wrapped the tail of his moko around her until she warmed up and finally sat up, ready to start the day. She stretched and looked at her wrists, where the same green vine markings wrapped around not quite twice, matched on her ankles. She looked to her beloved's nearer arm, seeing the pair of sharp pink stripes there. "my marks look so different from yours," she observed with a slight note of disappointment.
"there's hardly anything we can do about that," he noted, slightly surprised at her seeming disappointment.
"it's not a bad thing!" she told him quickly, looking up at him to meet his golden eyes. "I just thought I'd look a lot more like you do, because that's all I'd seen before." He hummed softly and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her slightly closer.
"to be honest, I had the same thought for quite some time. But, if I am honest, I like this look much better. It suits you." He played with a lock of her hair, which would very likely remain raven-black, if her marks were anything to go by. The Yume (as he had been doing some research the past few days) had black hair and golden-brown to dark brown eyes, and deep green markings like ivy. Rin's appearance, except for the simple things like growing claws and fangs, would not change much from now on. He saw her looking at her nails, probably wondering when they would grow and harden into the claws he and all other inuyōkai, even hanyō like InuYasha, had. He noticed the puffs of cotton were still in her ears. "you should probably take those out now," he told her, reaching to pull one out. "it will only take you longer to grow accustomed, otherwise."
She frowned and tried to get away. "but I can hear just fine." He gave her a look and she let him take them out. She sat still afterward, listening closely to all the sounds she had never been able to hear as a human. The manor almost seemed alive, creaking and shifting softly to accommodate the weight of its occupants. The wind she'd thought wasn't even blowing was making the tiny flakes of dry snow rub softly across one another and the empty boughs of the trees rub and squeak faintly against one another. One of the fish in the pond made a ripple as it came to the surface momentarily, and a bird fluttered outside, settling into the cherry tree right outside the window. There were footsteps below them as their handful of servants were already awake and cooking and going about their other duties. There was even a very faint, soothing rhythm very close by, like a deep and unstoppable drum muffled by layers of cloth. It seemed so familiar.
Rin opened her eyes and looked toward Sesshomaru, hearing the drumbeat get slightly louder. No, not a drumbeat after all. A heartbeat. He raised one white brow at the look of wonderment on her face, then held still as she laid her ear against his chest, closing her eyes again, enjoying the steady, soothing rhythm. "wow…" he smiled and smoothed her hair again, letting her marvel in a level of hearing even greater than she had before, when she was a Hanyō for a few months. She remained listening to his heart until she heard footsteps on the stairs. Chieko had heard their voices and knew it was time to start the day with an examination to see how Rin was changing.
"I was wondering when your ears would open, milady," Chieko noted, checking Rin over gently as always. "your fangs should follow quite soon, I think." Rin gave a big grin, excited at the prospect. The cheerful midwife returned the smile and gestured to the tray of breakfast she had brought along, but Rin was already behind her shade, putting on her layers for the day to go down to the dining hall. She hummed in amusement as Rin hurried down the stairs before either of the others could stand.
They were all settled and enjoying their breakfast when Rin heard something that made her sit up very straight, one ear turned toward the open door to the courtyard. There was shuffling and slight digging. A rabbit family lived under one of the trees in the courtyard, Rin knew, and she could hear one foraging through the thin layer of late December snow. The sounds of prey brought her instincts to the fore, and she was already hungry, which gave them even more power over her. She set her chopsticks down, listening closer to determine where the rabbit was, and Sesshomaru noticed her stillness. He could, of course, hear the rabbit too, but didn't think she would alert on it. "Rin, what are you hearing?" he asked her in a low tone, not wanting to startle her.
"prey…" she breathed, slowly starting to shift her weight as if to leap up and out the door. He quickly tried to get her attention off the rabbit. "you already have food, Rin, right in front of you," he told her, tapping a claw against the ceramic bowl of bean curd and rice she had been eating eagerly just seconds ago. He knew she loved the rabbits and thought they were 'cute', and she would be very upset if she killed one by accident or instinct. She was distracted by the noise for a few moments, then the shuffling and scratching came again. She had to get it. She had to hunt!
Chieko held back a chuckle with difficulty. "she has to get her first kill eventually, Sesshomaru-sama. Let her go." He sighed, looking at Rin as she tensed and shifted again, preparing to spring. "all right. Go on."
Rin was up and out the door with a speed that proved she was at least halfway through her transformation. There was a frightened squeak and some frantic shuffling, then a faint crunch and some scuffling before Rin returned triumphant with the headless rabbit in her mouth, growling softly. Chieko beamed with pride and Sesshomaru himself offered a small smile as she sat cross-legged back on her cushion, gnawing on the rabbit, though her teeth and nails couldn't get through the fur. Only her quickly increasing strength had allowed her to kill the rabbit in the first place. There was blood all down her front in a sight that would be quite alarming to a human. She suddenly stopped gnawing with a sharp yelp and dropped the prey in her lap, spitting something small, white and blood-covered into her palm with a sharp bark of pain.
"oh, dear, I was hoping it would be gentler…" chieko sighed softly.
"I-is that my tooth?!" she asked, staring at her small, unpointed canine, resting in her palm. She then noticed the rabbit. "is that a bunny?!" she asked, even more shrilly. Then she finally saw and smelled the blood. She rounded on Sesshomaru. "you let me KILL a bunny?!" she demanded, holding the limp body up by the back feet and accidentally making a bigger mess of herself.
"it was either the bunny," what a silly name for a prey animal—"or one of us. Your instincts are growing stronger as you do," he told her smoothly, only lying a little to make her feel better. Chieko, knowing what he was doing, immediately backed him up. "that's right. If we had tried to stop you, it's very likely you would have injured yourself, and we can't have that." Rin sighed, looking down at the pitiful body.
"I can't eat this…"
"well, I suppose we can bury it, if that would make you feel better?" Sesshomaru suggested with a frown. He knew full well that this was something she was going to have to get over if she hoped to live easily as an InuYōkai. It was just prey, to be hunted and eaten to give health and strength. It wasn't a friend or ally, to be mourned when it passes. He was slightly surprised when Rin shook her head and corrected her earlier statement.
"no, I mean, I can't eat this. My teeth can't get through the fur." She stuck out her tongue, showing it was coated in the rabbit's hair. He sighed and took the rabbit from her carefully. "I'll have the cooks make a stew from it, for your lunch, how about that?" she nodded eagerly and he couldn't help but quirk a brow, concerned momentarily that his vision of her as a Yōkai was coming true instead of what he had been promised. But he shook himself mentally and turned away to the kitchens. It had nothing to do with her soul, which he knew was intact. Of course she was going to change with her instincts. She was not a human any longer, and, as he had always asserted to anyone who would listen, humans and Yōkai were two very different beings. By the time he returned, she had finished her breakfast and was chatting with Chieko. She turned to him far sooner than normal, now able to hear him approach, and gave him a small grin, showing off her missing canine tooth. He remembered she had lost the last few of her milk teeth while they traveled when she was younger. He stood her up and gave her a gentle kiss on the tip of her nose, sending her off to get changed.
"she is a wonderful woman. Truly, you could not have found a finer mate," chieko told him over her cup of herbal tea. "her teeth should all come out and regrow quite quickly, within the next day, or two at most. She is very nearly complete, Sesshomaru-sama." He sighed, giving a nod at the compliment and information. She is changing so much, yet remains herself…I do not understand. But I am grateful.