Chapter 17: Courting Love

A/N: I'm sorry about the long update but my computer had five viruses on it and was out of commission for awhile.

Ai walked around her room, picking up things to aid her in finishing dressing in one of her favorite furisode, it was light pink and had purple butterflies going up the sleeves and circling around the bottom, and with it she wore an obi of a light blue color. When she was fully dressed, Ai unpinned her hair from it's loosely pinned bun and began combing it out and making it into a neatly woven braid, leaving two pieces of hair out on either side of her face. When she got to the end of her braid, Ai carefully plaited small white flowers in with her hair. As she walked over to her nightstand she took a small box from out of the nightstand draw and walked over to the mirror with it, carefully opening the box as she arrived to her chosen destination. As she sat down she began carefully applying a small amount of black eye liner to her eyes, the only makeup she ever wore. As Ai exited her room and descended down the stairs to eat breakfast, she secretly hoped that Hito would not be a carbon copy of his cousin Sesshoumaru, she loved the demon lord but at times one Sesshoumaru proved to be one too many and handling two would prove to be an impossible feat.

As she kneeled down at the table, she took a quick look around incase Hito had arrived earlier than expected. Directly across from her was Rin and to her left Sesshoumaru was seated as the head of the table, upon realizing that he had not arrived yet, Ai sighed and sullenly began eating her breakfast. Sesshoumaru too focused on the fact that his cousin Hito was looking for a wife and being fully aware of how Ai might appear attractive to men, was too preoccupied to notice that Ai was eating as if she had disappointment on her chopsticks rather than rice.

The sun had moved to a higher position in the sky as the morning had disappeared and afternoon had come to take its place. For the demon lord time had moved much too quickly but for his human ward, Ai, time had moved as slowly as it does for a child on Christmas morning waiting to open his presents. As soon as Ai heard the bustle of servants running about in the hall outside her room, she knew the time of Hito's arrival had finally come. She exited her room as quickly as a woman dressed in full kimono and geta sandals can and descended down the main staircase to one of Sesshoumaru's larger studies where she was certain the two demon lords would be.

When she opened the door the only person occupying the study was the demon lord who owned it. Ai closed the door behind her and counted on the demon lord's sensitive hearing instead of her voice to acknowledge her presence. Sesshoumaru who was standing in front of the window spoke to Ai, not bothering to face her as he let a small command roll of the tip of his tongue.

"Ai, sit down"

Ai was almost startled by his voice that seemed to be booming in contrast to the nearly silent room, but the young woman did not let that show in her reply.

"No thank you I'd rather stand"

Sesshoumaru's frustration which had been growing increasingly throughout the course of the day had suddenly reached new heights when Ai's comments had reached his ears.

"That was not request it-"

Again with a new found confidence or as some might call it a loss of all common sense Ai cut Sesshoumaru off in the middle of his sentence, which would only prove to intensify the already heightened situation.

"I know, it was an order, but dogs take orders not people"

Sesshoumaru didn't need long to process her comment, he seemed stoic and placid on the outside but on the inside he closely resembled an over boiling pot.

"You are a human; the lines of difference are vague"

Before Ai got a chance to shout back an angry reply at the comparison between humans and common house dogs not being that different from each other the door to the study opened and then closed again, leaving Hito standing in the middle of two angry rams about to butt heads.

Sesshoumaru turned around promptly and the raging inferno within him quieted at the sight of his cousin, as the stress and anger he had from the small argument with Ai and other stresses that a demon lord would have were replaced by a feeling of relief at seeing a distraction standing before him. Ai relaxed as well, as the spotlight was now taken off of her and moved onto Hito. She acted as if the argument between her and Sesshoumaru had never taken place but on the inside how Sesshoumaru had said the things he did had left a scratch, a small scratch, but still a scratch none the less.

Hito spoke, giving his greetings to Sesshoumaru and then turning his attention to Ai, putting her in the spotlight once more. He took both of his hands in his and bowed at his knees, only to rise thereafter. Ai tried to fight the urge to blush but a small amount of red still escaped onto her cheeks, as no man had ever touched her save for Sesshoumaru. She looked at the man standing before her: he was of average height with short white hair and amber eyes that in color were very similar to Sesshoumaru's. Still holding her hands in his he spoke, his voice was smooth and gentle and contained a flirtatious tone that luckily only a woman could pick on. "You must be Ai-san"

Ai replied somewhat nervously but made a small failed attempt to sound somewhat competent and less like some giggling school girl with a mild case of spring fever.

"Uh. yes, yes I am"

Hito then did something very unexpected and boldly touched two of his fingers to Ai's cheek, who turned to face Sesshoumaru who was no longer facing the window but was instead looking at the scene taking place before him. As Hito opened his mouth Sesshoumaru was hoping for some kind of explanation to his outrageous behavior.

"Sesshoumaru, why didn't you tell me she was this beautiful?"

Hito removed his fingers and Sesshoumaru noticed the content look and small blush on Ai's face and for a nanosecond the fact that she had blushed and dressed in her best furisode and had done her hair and makeup so perfectly for Hito ate away at him, but as quickly as the feeling came it had left, and Sesshoumaru spoke once more, with his trademark dignified tone.

"Ai, you're excused"

Ai looked over at him and muttered under her breath as she left the room, just loud enough for the two demon lords to hear.

"I leave on my own free will"

Her footsteps echoed loudly in the hall as they were filled with un-vented frustration, but they became softer and more lady like when she met up with Rin, all anger seeming to wash away at the sight of the small girl's innocent smile. The two girls exited the main hallway and made their way to one of the palace gardens, which was visible from Sesshoumaru's study window.

Hito walked to Sesshoumaru, and they both turned to face the window, where both their eyes fell upon the site of Ai and Rin. Ai was sitting on a bench, she was beautiful but resembled a doll as her face contained no emotions, she seemed hollow and empty, but her face was not flawed in any way. Ai was sitting on a bench, her bangs would occasionally blow as a result of a soft breeze, and when the wind became strong enough her brad would sometimes move from one side to the other, almost as if the wind's only purpose was to linger there.

Rin about the garden collecting flowers, sometimes the small girl would sit down and try to act as serious as Ai, causing the older girl to laugh at such a young cheerful girl acting so serious. Not being as emotionally detached as his cousin, Hito felt a small smile grace his lips as he watched the antics of the two human girls down in the garden. Sesshoumaru on the other had only looked at them as though this was a daily occurrence (which it was not) and not something that should be appreciated, and even though he felt something as he watched the two girls, it was a feeling that was buried deep within his subconscious.

Hito finally broke the long silence between him and the other demon lord by asking the one question that had been burning inside of him ever since he had first laid eyes upon Sesshoumaru's blue haired ward.

"Is anyone courting Ai-san?"

Sesshoumaru took his hawk like gaze off of the window and turned his head to face Hito in what seemed to be an intense possessive gaze, and even though his answer was plain and simple it held standoffish undertones.

"No"

Hito turned his attention away from Sesshoumaru's glaring eyes and back to the young girls in the garden. AI looked up at the window and stared at the demon lord gazing at her. Rin ran over to the older girl and looked up trying to find Ai's point of focus but failed and seemed perfectly content with going back to picking flowers. Hito took one final look at Ai and at that moment he decided that she was the woman who was to become his wife.