My reviews inspired me to write more last time, but I got writer's block in the middle of the week! However, I kept on churning out the chapter out anyways! Hopefully the writer's block doesn't show in the story ^_^;; Have fun!

Because…Chapter Five

They finally stopped in a small clearing where a brook sang cheerfully and birds matched its demeanor.

"Stay here, Rin. I'll come back to you. Promise me you won't leave." He suddenly turned his gaze straight to Rin, and she recoiled slightly in shock. Sesshomaru, the great Sesshomaru, had never looked at her like that.

His eyes just bored straight into hers, not a sidelong, superior glance, like he usually gave her. No, his beautiful, golden eyes were staring at her with something that could have been emotion, if she didn't know better.

It took her a moment to figure something else out. He wasn't just issuing a command, this time. He was waiting for an answer. She swallowed.

"I will wait, Sesshoumaru sama. I will wait forever." She meant those words from the bottom of her heart. It didn't matter how long it took him, but she would remain there in that very spot, because life without Sesshoumaru was unthinkable.

Forever. Sesshoumaru stared at Rin. Her eyes were shining with sincerity. To her, she would wait until she died. But that wasn't forever. The word forever was a constant reminder of the girl's mortality. Forever was a lot longer to him than it was to her. While he would continue to live agelessly, she would grow old and die one day. And then forever would die.

A slight, shooting pang shot through his chest as his gaze was locked with Rin's. One day, she would be gone.

"I will be back." He said quickly. Maybe if he put enough distance between himself and Rin, these strange, annoying pangs would go away.

As he walked away, he thought, I want to tell her to go away, go back to her human village. But how could he do that? It didn't matter how much he wanted to, because something deep inside him would never, ever let him.

As soon as Rin's scent disappeared, he broke into r run. Leaping towards the hanyou, he felt a growing sense of urgency-yes, it was there, an underlying alarm, almost. Inuyasha couldn't get far because they each had their own piece of the wishing cup, but if he had two out of the tree pieces, it would be harder to kill him. And he would not hesitate.

The forest drifted behind him-now he covered rolling hilly meadows and suddenly, over the tops of one of the peaks, there he was. Sesshoumaru stopped.

Attacking from behind would be cowardly, so he stood at the top of the hill waiting for the hanyou to discover his scent.

He was strolling down the hill, holding hands with this human mate, looking as if he hadn't a care in the world. Sesshoumaru felt a small smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. Hah, he thought, Look at him. And I thought I was higher than that. That could just as well be me with that foolish human. He hated it that the hanyou was right.

Inuyasha stopped. His ears twitched a few times, then he suddenly ripped himself free of the human and lunged towards Sesshoumaru at full speed, Tetsaiga drawn.

He avoided the sword's blade easily by stepping aside.

"Why are you here?" Inuyasha demanded scornfully.

"To take back what should belong to me," he responded calmly.

"It never belonged to you," the hanyou protested sharply.

"Quite the contrary. But I believe I am better suited it than you." As usual, the hanyou-bastard was as stubborn as a mule. There was no way in heaven he would surrender it.

Drawing out Toukajin, he turned his gaze on Inuyasha.

"Don't even think about it, Sesshoumaru. You've annoyed me enough lately, and I'm sick of it."

It happened so fast that Inuyasha was pinned to the ground before he took another breath.

"Don't burden me with your idle threats," Sesshoumaru whispered, venom dripping from every word, "Tell me where you have those pieces hidden or you will die." He pressed Toukajin into Inuyasha's throat to emphasize this.

"Inuyasha! Inuyasha!" The girl was scurrying up the hill on uncouth legs, and

Sesshoumaru was overcome with a wave of loathing. He remembered why never brought Rin along on his missions- humans simply got in the way and usually ended up getting themselves killed when they interfered in the affairs of youkai.

When she reached the summit of the hill, she put her hands on her knees, panting, than raised her head.

She started talking, but he didn't hear a single word; he was too busy staring at her face in surprise. He could have been looking at Rin's face. This human had the same innocent glitter in her wide brown eyes and had ebony hair cascading down her back. Her voice even sounded a little bit like Rin's.

"Inuyasha, they won't be any good to you if you're dead! Don't be so stubborn!"

"Get out of here, Kagome!" he screamed, and Sesshoumaru pressed the blade a little harder onto his throat.

"You heard the hanyou. Get away or you'll meet the same fate as him." Inuyasha lay paralyzed under the blade, but the human still didn't leave. How foolishly devoted these humans were to the ones they loved.

He glanced at her once more before the obvious jumped out at him. Inuyasha was telling her to get away from him, which meant she must have the two pieces of the cup.

"Here," she said, confirming his suspicions. "Please don't hurt Inuyasha." She held them up, her eyes beseeching. It was hard to ignore someone with Rin's eyes.

He considered this situation. If he took them, they would increase his power levels, but the hanyou might turn on him with an enraged youki.

He decided to risk it anyways, and grabbed the two pieces of the cup. At that instant, as he suspected, the Tetsaiga's blade flew at his head.

"You're not getting away with this!" Inuyasha screamed. His rage was blinding him, Sesshoumaru noticed with much amusement, and it was making his swordsmanship sloppy. He pulled out Toukajin, ignoring the mad protests from the girl behind him.

"But Sesshoumaru sama told us to stay here!" Jaken stated as she quickly untied Ah and Un.

"He's acting strange. I want to know what's going on!" Rin replied as she leapt onto the huge youkai. "Come, now! I'm leaving!"

"Matte!!!"

He grabbed onto Ah's tail at the last second as the beast was borne into flight.

"I'd better stay a small distance away so he doesn't catch my scent," she mumbled to herself. As she fixated her eyes on the small speck in the distance, she struggled to keep up. He was covering more distance than usual and moving faster than he usually did.

Finally, he stopped atop one of the peaks of a hill far after they'd left the forest behind.

There were a few sparse trees scattered upon a neighboring hill, and it was here where she landed, making sure she was hidden from view.

Her eyes widened in horror as she saw Sesshoumaru draw out his sword and in one swift move press it to Inuyasha's throat.

Fear pulsated in her veins as she held her breath. Don't kill him, Sesshoumaru sama, she pleaded mentally, please don't.

As she continued to watch, Kagome ran up the hill and appeared to be pleading with him. After a small pause she took out two golden pieces of metal and handed them to him.

Rin let out her breath in relief- maybe now, there wouldn't be any bloodshed. The fiery air she'd felt earlier radiating off of Sesshoumaru sama had alarmed her.

But the second he took the two pieces of the cup, Inuyasha attacked and the brothers began to battle with so much intensity that she almost felt it from her spot.

Rin stifled a gasp as she watched Sesshoumaru sway himself around and cut a huge gash in the hanyou's arm. Even from a distance she could see bright red blood glistening.

Watching Sesshoumaru in action was like nothing she'd ever seen before. He dodged each blow with such elegance that Inuyasha stumbled in his absence. Before he could even recover, Sesshoumaru was before him, baring his sword in attack.

A strange combination of awe and the slightest tinge of fear replaced her abhorrence at the sight of blood.

This was the Great Sesshoumaru sama, the warrior, the killer. At his mere presence, people cowered in fear and ran away. The world knew this Sesshoumaru sama, but he was still a mystery to her.

She found herself thinking of the day before- the feel of his lips on her bleeding forehead and his beautiful, golden eyes on her.

Surely, protested a voice in her head, surely this had not been the same Seshoumaru sama. He's not ever like that with anyone else.

The increasing violence of the battle made her stomach turn over. Why do you fight, Sesshoumaru sama?

All these years he'd kept this side of himself away from her, sheltering her from the front of the battle. Why? Why did he hide himself away from me? What it because he didn't want me to be afraid of him?

For years, she had been well-aware of his loathing of humans and his awesome power. She'd always felt safe around him.

Once again, the annoying question popped into her head, like it usually did during her train of thoughts. Why me? He could have killed me easily a long time ago. He hates humans. So……why?

He was drenched in blood; it covered him; his head, his chest, and his arms. The human that looked like Rin had shot arrows mercilessly at him when she saw he had been attacking her precious hanyou. She looked like Rin, but she certainly did not resemble her in any other ways.

He pulled out the arrows that had hit him and flung them aside carelessly. His body stung all over, but he ignored the pain. Later, he thought.

After he'd cut the hanyou's arm, he'd had problems wielding his sword, but that was when the human began to interfere.

It was time to exterminate him, once and for all, now that he was weak. He gathered up the remainder of his strength and drew his sword back. Then he lunged.

It all seemed to happen too fast for his eyes to comprehend. The hanyou was growing closer and closer, and turning around with a horrified expression in his eyes.

Then, suddenly there was not a red-clothed being in front of him, but a small, petite female pulling Inuyasha's hand away. Her eyes, which were panicky at first, flickered from fear to anger to a wise, sage old knowledge. She knew she was going to die.

Then there was the sickening thud of flesh splitting open and two shrill screams filled the air, one a cry of agony, the other faintly calling his name.

Sesshoumaru stopped and stared at the scene before him, his eyes disbelieving. The girl's black hair splayed across her pain-stricken face, her hands covering her mouth in pain. Blood spilled across her shirt. Rin. It was Rin.

Then she turned towards him and he saw that it was not Rin, but Inuyasha's human. He closed his eyes and let out a breath of relief.

But…..hadn't he heard Rin's voice calling him?

Then suddenly, her scent.

He whipped around and saw her then, and their eyes locked. She looked like a rabbit about to get shot by a hunter- this solitary, frightened creature somewhere she definitely did not want to be. What was she doing here?

Even from that far away, he could still see the expression in her eyes.

Tears clouded them, leaking out as her small body convulsed with sobs. But she kept her hands tightly locked at her sides with her mouth set firmly and continued to stare at him with the tears dripping down her cheeks.

The manner she held was almost defiant, but the predominant emotion in her eyes was anger. Rin was angry. Angry at him.

I have about half of the next chap written, but this seemed like the best place to stop *Grins wickedly* tell me what you think!

x~Aurora chan