Dying to Live
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
A week passed and Rin and Sesshomaru said almost nothing to each other. At least, nothing of any substance outside of what was absolutely necessary. They mostly avoided one another, only awkwardly passing one another in the halls while he took his daily exercise.
When Sesshomaru became strong enough to stop taking his meals in bed, they began occasionally eating together, although it was typically a dour affair. He also ceased drinking the medicinal soups left for him by Miroku, having realized they were mainly fowl tasting and probably had none of the magical healing properties he originally mentally assigned them. It was then, one night that he sullenly asked to eat whatever Rin was eating for dinner. The girl naturally struggled to decide what to serve him, as he had never eaten human cuisine and could request nothing. That first night that he ate her cooking, she felt absolutely ridiculous with nervousness only to realize that worrying about what he might think of her skills was purely outrageous; she had forgotten that he would dislike anything she could set before him. However, if she was really honest with herself, she had come to find it very entertaining to watch out of the corner of her eye, as he tried new things during each meal. With every wince, wrinkle, and scrunch of his nose, he automatically showed his appraisal of each distinct flavor. She just had to remember not to take it personally.
Even now, as they sat at the breakfast table she stole a glance at him, as he chomped rigidly down on a piece of pickled radish. Predictably, the sour taste hardened his lips into a tiny, thin line before he disdainfully retuned the remainder of the little, yellow disk to his dish. Having finished chewing, he stiffly set his chopsticks down on the rest in front of his plate. Then, he spoke, "So you said it was my brother's monk that did this to me?"
A little surprised that this was where they would be starting their mealtime conversation today, Rin swallowed what she was eating and replied, "Yes."
"Then we will go find him. In three days, we will depart for my brother's village," he announced and rose from the table.
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Three days later, they set off. At this point in the season, it was quite cold, so Rin had spent the intervening time preparing things for their trip while Sesshomaru rested a bit longer. From around the manor, she gathered blankets and heavier clothes to layer. At the market, she used the money Sesshomaru had approved for her use and picked up dry rations and useful medicines. She ordered the rat demons in the stables to groom and dress two of Lord Sesshomaru's best horses and instructed the little demons to follow the usual protocol for during their lord's absence. If the little rodents were aware of Sesshomaru's recent transformation, they did not show it and went along with all of the instructions, as usual, having been assured that they would still be paid while the master was away.
The young man and woman mounted their horses in the early hours of the morning. As Rin settled into her saddle, she shivered slightly, not yet acclimated to the chilled air. Yet, she also felt strangely comforted. Travel had become most natural to her over the years, and as they departed now, it reminded her of the hundreds of times they had done it before during better times. Times when Jaken and Sesshomaru had taken care of her, and not the other way around.
She realized now that all that time she had been wishing to be treated like an adult, she had never expected the hardship and responsibility that could come with that. Over the past two months, fate had dispensed adulthood upon her, and while she now felt slightly soothed back on the road, she knew the effect was only residual, the mildly carefree feeling artificially produced by her memories. Their lives had changed completely, totally altering them as a pair and as individuals. The shelter of childhood had fallen away that autumn, and she learned that her "protector", her Lord Sesshomaru, was neither all-powerful nor irreproachable in his behavior. Rather, he would clearly bare his disadvantage with a vengeance. She would have to begin making her own strength in her life from now on.
Still, she resolved that she had not yet given up on him. Yet, she was going to do her best to live a happy life, because she deserved it. If she could pull him out of his pool of self-pity and convince him to do the same as a result of her own positivity, then all for the better.
Therefore, on the morning of January 2nd, as the first rays of dawn glimmered off the morning frost, Rin made the following pact with herself: Because apparently no one else can or will do it for me now, whether I do it for others or not, I am truly going to look out for my own protection and happiness from this point forward.
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Note: Hey, everybody! A series of mini, set-the-scene-type chapters, like this one, are coming your way. Hopefully, this will help me post a little more regularly too. Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of moving right now, so updates might be a little patchy for a couple of weeks. Hang in there, though! I haven't forgotten you guys!