I'm thinking this story will be around 20-30 chapters, but any time that I try to plan out a chapter count, it always exceeds it. Sigh.

I should say that the places I describe in this story are fictional (well, most of them anyway.) Anyway, here's the first chapter!

The Bride of Sesshomaru

Chapter 1: A New Day

Rays of sunshine peered through ivory curtain windows, landing on a queen-sized bed in the center of a tidy bedroom. Outside, it seemed like it was going to be a beautiful day, with a visible robin's egg-blue sky, and a few clouds painted into the backdrop. It seemed like the perfect, ideal summer day. Well, as long as it didn't go over thirty degrees…

The lone occupant of the bedroom, one Rin Miyazaki, stared to shift from underneath her yellow duvet. She could feel the warm sun hit her legs, which was its way of telling her that she needed to get up.

Opening her chestnut eyes, Rin was met with a face full of pillow.

And spit covering said pillow. Rin sighed heavily, knowing full well that she had a problem of drooling in her sleep; it was astonishing that she seemed to possess that much spit. I guess this is why you're still single, Rin thought morosely, as she slowly sat up in her bed. It was a good thing it was the weekend - there was a crap ton of laundry that she had to get done. As long as she remembered to do it.

She began to flip her long, wavy mahogany hair over her shoulders, as Rin began her morning stretches. She decided to start with her neck, and she didn't even have to roll her head one full rotation before she heard a crack. Wincing, she stopped her movements momentarily. Rin figured that she slept in a weird position again last night – or maybe someone came in her apartment in the middle of the night to perform crazy neck massages. It wouldn't be the weirdest scenario Rin's ever come up with.

Then, Rin proceeded to stretch her petite arms, and fortunately she didn't hear any bones crack in the process. She could see though, that her bare arms were covered in markings, which suggested that she had pressed herself deep into her mattress in the night. And… there was an occasional bruise on her legs, which confused the hell out of Rin. She liked to believe that she didn't wrestle around in her sleep. She wasn't that active, to be honest, even though she always made a mental note to go to bi-weekly yoga with Kagome and Sango.

But, she digressed.

Rin slowly exited her bed while stifling a yawn, and went straight to her dresser in the corner of her room. Looking down, she noticed her cell phone was blinking. It was probably Kagome.

Pursing her dry lips, Rin tapped her inbox on her phone, and lo and behold, it was Kagome.

Rise and shine, sunshine. U up for breaky? Rin rolled her eyes in amusement. Considering that Rin never had many friends, Kagome more than made up for her lack of a social life. Even though Rin was not introverted, she felt like it had been harder to make friends since she started going to school at the University of Tokyo. But she was happy that she made friends with at least one classmate, Kagome, who was only a year older than she was. And she was nicer than most of their other classmates.

Kagome and Rin were clearly meant to be soulmates. She didn't know anyone else who loved going for breakfast at a local coffee shop at quarter to 7 in the morning twice a week. Rin didn't know anyone who burst into random tangents about obnoxious, sexist classmates like Kagome did (she certainly was a feminist icon, as Rin recalled all the times that Kagome had shut down anyone trying to mansplain to her). Rin didn't think she would find a friend who loved amusement parks as much as she did.

As much as Rin wanted to remember more reasons why she loved Kagome, she was interrupted by another message from Kagome. I'll come pick u up in a few minutes.

Rin texted an affirmative reply, before putting her phone on sleep mode. Now, she needed to think about what to wear.

What was clean and presentable?

Given that Rin had been too preoccupied with classes (not that she would admit that she was also lazy af), she let her dirty laundry pile climb up higher and higher.

Well, this left her with a cute denim overall outfit, but that would only make Rin look even younger than 20. So that option was out. What else? Rin perused the contents of her dresser, and decided to grab one of her old t-shirts, and a pair of shorts to go with it. Rin wasn't going to be impressing anybody, so she could care less if there happened to be a few paint stains on said t-shirt.

Grabbing her hair brush, Rin ran it through the ends of her messy, tangled hair. She cringed in pain as she encountered some tangles. Rin contemplated getting it cut, but as she recalled a repressed memory of her with short hair, she knew that she looked far better with it long. But she supposed it wouldn't hurt to get a trim. She'd had enough with these dumb split ends anyway.

Rin was often told that she was pretty, but sometimes she wondered if that only meant that she looked like a teenager. With her doe-like eyes, a few freckles sprinkled on her cheeks, and no laugh lines, Rin was always assumed to be at least fifteen. Kagome always told her that it could have been worse – she could have been mistaken for someone's mom, like Kagome apparently was.

Rin supposed that she was lucky that she never experienced as much acne problems as other girls her age did. And she barely did anything with her hair. But it didn't help that she was short in stature; she didn't think that she reached five feet, and she knew that Kagome had a good few inches on her.

Everything about Rin was inherently small; her height, her foot size, and even her hands were tiny, compared to everyone else's.

And she had yet to meet anyone who would appreciate these fine features. Rin was aware that even though she was slim, no boy was going to like her tanned complexion, or even her little freckles. She made that assumption based on how she viewed her classmates. She saw how some of them were tall, and many of them had assets that Rin never had.

They seemed to be more mature in comparison to Rin.

Rin, on the other hand, watched Disney movies, and would prefer going hiking rather than tailgate parties. She liked eating cookie dough straight from a tub rather than dining out. It was pretty obvious that she wasn't going to catch anyone's eye if they viewed her as a kid.

But Rin supposed the other major reason why no one wanted to socialize with her was that she exuded 'orphan' energy. Growing up in the foster care system was not nightmarish per say, but there were times when she would have wanted a family of her own. She didn't want other people to believe that girls like her – with the background she had – would only bring bad luck.

Again, Rin counted herself lucky that Kagome didn't care about those superstitions.

Rin's phone buzzed, causing her thoughts to evaporate. Shaking her head, Rin put down her brush, and took another peek at her iPhone. I'm here. U ready?

Widening her eyes, she quickly texted a reply to Kagome, saying she would be down in a minute.

Now, could she beat her world record in changing to her day clothes?

:3 :3 :3

"This croissant is to die for," Kagome said with a muffled voice, wiping her mouth with a napkin. "Can life get any better than this?"

Rin giggled, as she dove straight into her own breakfast goods; she ordered two Belgium waffles – extra whipped cream – and some bacon, with a nice full glass of orange juice. Yes, Rin could say that she was perfectly content.

Kagome and Rin usually got breakfast at this one western café, and it was not a stretch to say that the food was heavenly. They stumbled upon it one day, when they were having trouble deciding what to eat. Rin wasn't feeling picky, but Kagome was. But once they started going here, there was no other breakfast joint that could ever compare. It certainly beat having food on campus – that was for sure. It was hands down cheaper for the both of them to come here, even though technically Kagome was a little more better off financially than Rin was.

It also helped that there never was a lot of people who came here, so Rin could even come here to do her meditation if she wanted.

"I swear, you just order the same thing every week," Rin commented, taking a sip of her juice. "Why don't you order bacon and eggs next time? Or even flapjacks?"

Kagome shrugged, strands of her black hair escaping from her sloppy ponytail. Even on weekends, Kagome always looked like she could take on the world; wearing a simple white t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants didn't make her look less glamourous.

"Maybe. But the croissants are so good. I feel like I would be cheating on them." Ah yes, croissants are apparently Kagome's one true love. For all the time that Rin knew her, she always wanted croissants, and it was impossible to survive without them. They were her go-to snack in between classes. It was a staple part of her personality, it seemed.

"How can you manage, indeed?" Rin scoffed, before going back to eating her waffles.

"I'll try a waffle next time. As long as you use less whipped cream." The words 'diabetes' remained unspoken.

"I'll have you know that whipped cream is amazing," Rin argued. "It just completes me."

Kagome sighed, as if she believed that Rin was entirely hopeless. "It just… you put so much on. And on the weirdest of foods too – like who puts whipped cream on fries?"

"It's a fantastic combination."

"Yes. But only if you have pregnancy cravings," Kagome replied sarcastically, but it wasn't enough to damper Rin's mood by a long shot.

Rin snickered, finding Kagome's reaction to Rin's eating habits hilarious. Apparently, she was the only person who ate this much processed sugar on a regular basis. "So I've turned you off from whipped cream forever? Nice."

Kagome stuck out her tongue in response, but had no witty retort to hit Rin with. "So what are you up to today?"

"I've got papers to write, laundry to do…" Rin trailed off, like she was trying to think of what else she was putting off. "You know, just another weekend." When she put it like that, it sounded boring. But then again, what kind of university student actually had a life?

"Yikes. How many?"

"My philosophy one is due next Tuesday, and my Japanese history one is due next Friday." In hindsight, the workload didn't sound too bad. But considering that Rin was taking a full course load this semester, she was getting closer to feeling overwhelmed.

"How long do they have to be?" Kagome took another croissant, and split it in half, intending to butter them. "They're not like sixty pages each, are they?" Gross exaggeration, but Rin knew what she was saying.

"Well, my philosophy one is ten pages. My history one is supposed to be around 15. Double spaced." Rin was about half-way done writing the draft for her philosophy one, and she was almost done with her Japanese history essay. Rin had somewhat been putting off the former essay for a couple weeks, and it seemed like she was about to pay for it. It was obvious that Philosophy was the worst of her classes. But it was either that or a math class – and Rin sucked at math.

"GG."

"Did you just say 'GG'?" Neither Kagome or Rin were gamers, but Kagome's little brother was; so it was clear where Kagome picked up the term.

Kagome groaned, as if those words were equal to the weight of saying something like she was having an affair with an older professor. "Sorry. I've just heard Souta saying that all the time at home." Rin burst out into laughter. "I swear I'm gonna take his XBOX and sell it to a pawn shop."

"Good luck with that," Rin snickered. Feeling the need to change subjects, Rin asked, "So what are you up to for the rest of the day?

"Not much. Sango and I might go shopping today," Kagome replied.

Sango was the oldest of the trio of characters, and Rin always thought that she was a complete badass in everything she did. Ever needed a ride home if everyone else was drunk? Sango was the one to call. Need someone to go biking with? Sango was your girl. She was pretty protective of her friends, and Rin couldn't count the number of times when there was a creep on the street that wouldn't leave her alone unless Sango swooped in like a vulture. All in all, Rin was glad that she welcomed her into the small group with open arms.

Sango was smart as well; she was close to graduating university, to become a teacher – a profession that definitely needed more appreciation, in Rin's opinion.

"I know, just another weekend. It would be pretty great to do something."

"It's not like we can leave the country for a week, you know," Rin pointed out; she knew how Kagome wanted to do some travelling, but it wasn't like either of them had the time or the money to do so. At this point, they could only dream.

"I know. Hey, have you been to the Taisho Sanctuary?"

The Taisho Sanctuary wasn't exactly a national park, but it was a space just outside of Tokyo that was designated sacred and protected for wildlife, way before Rin was even born. It was supposed to be a tribute to some dog deity, but Rin couldn't remember it off the top of her head. She heard of the Sanctuary in the news frequently; for a couple years, some company was attempting to take over the land for development, but the bid was unsuccessful.

Rin hadn't been to the Sanctuary for years – she only had fractures of memories of when she went with her kindergarten class. Sadly, she couldn't remember much from that time. She used to dream about it when she was younger, but even those dreams were gone from her reach. But now that she was a lot older, Rin was open to going there again, even if it was just to take a hike around and partake in the beautiful forest, and even cleaner air.

Sometimes she felt like Tokyo was suffocating her.

"I haven't been there for years," Rin admitted. "I would have went when I was… five? Maybe?" The pitch of Rin's voice indicated that she was uncertain. "You get the gist."

"Well, there's no time like the present. We should go tomorrow," Kagome proposed, her own brown eyes sparkling with excitement. "It's supposed to be nice tomorrow." Rin could have protested that she had her essays to finish, but fuck that – Rin knew that she needed a break. Even if it was just for one day.

"Define nice. If it's gonna be over thirty degrees, I'm not going." Rin was smart enough to know what her limits were; she didn't want to go out if there was a high chance of dehydration

"I'll have your back. Literally, I'll spray a whole bunch of sunscreen on. I promise."

"Gee thanks." Kagome was definitely the MVP friend of the year.

"According to my phone, it's supposed to be around 30, but not until later in the day. I'm assuming we'll be spending the morning there at least?" Kagome inquired, not taking her eyes off her phone.

"That would be the best time to go," Rin reasoned, just before she took another bite of her last waffle. She ignored the fact that some of the whipped cream dripped off unto her shirt. Well, that's what she got for putting an insane amount of whipped cream onto her waffles.

"Perfect. I'll pick you up around 7."