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It was a hot summer's day, a hundred and nine degrees in the shade. Lord Sesshomarou, lord of the western lands was sitting in only his pants he was so hot, Jaken was wearing his tunic, but that was because he wasn't allowed to take off his shirt in public after the 'incident.'

Rin, Sesshomarou's raven haired charge, with lips as red as cherries and skin was white as Sesshomarou's fluffy tail was wearing a very thin, silk dress.

She lifted her sweaty bangs off her forehead.

"Sesshomarou-sama, I'm hot!" she whined.

Despite his best efforts she had called him that since the day he first took her in. "I'm going to the river!"

She went up to her room and put on her short kimono with lemons and flowers decorating it.

She and Jaken skipped merrily down the path. She tripped Jaken and giggled as eh got to his feet and scowled at her.

"Jaken, you look like you took a bite out a lemon!" she giggled.

Sesshomarou went to the kitchen to fetch himself a drink. All they had was pink lemonade.

"I detest pink," he said and refused to drink it.

After melting for a little while longer he followed Rin and Jaken to the lake. Rin was splashing about in the water, enjoying herself. Jaken made a sand-castle, he wasn't allowed in the water after the 'Accident.'

Sesshomarou lounged on the grassy bank, watching Rin frolic in the water through lowered eyelids. He looked and felt like a big lazy kitty, a big sweltering lazy kitty. After a time he got up and waded into the water.

He welcomed the coolness gratefully and sank up to his chin.

He opened his arms to Rin.

She swam towards him with huge grin on her face. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a wet kiss on his cheek. She grabbed his tail and started to stroke it.

"I love you Fluffy-sama," she whispered.

Sesshomarou didn't say anything, he was too stunned. This girl in his arms loved him? True he had saved her life, but hadn't being with him endangered it too? How could she ever love him? He treated her so indifferently.

No one had said 'I love you' to him since the 'Episode' with Jaken and whip cream. Jaken wasn't allowed whip cream anymore.

"I love you too Rin," he said, kissing the top of her head.

She giggled and squirmed in his embrace.

"Fluffy-sama loves me Jaken!" she called out to the little toad man, gently patting the top of a sand-castle. "Did you hear? You were right! He loves me!"

"I knew Master Sesshomarou did," replied Jaken. Jaken wasn't allowed to call him 'Fluffy' anymore. Not since the 'Unpleasantness.'

Sesshomarou stroked Rin's hair.

"It's much nicer in here then it is out there," he sighed.

"If only we could stay here forever!" she sighed, holding onto him.

"Nothing stays the same," he told her sagely. "The tides come in and out, the moons grows and shrinks, children grow."

"I know that silly!" she told him. "When you found me I was only little, now I'm all grown up."

"Yes," agreed Sesshmarou. "You have indeed grown up, quite nicely."

They frolicked in the water some more before getting out.

They returned to their castle, blasted again by the terrible incinerating heat that pounded down on them mercilessly.

When they got back to the kitchen Rin got them all a snack or lemon pie and some of the lemonade from before.

She was the only one who drank any. Sesshomarou hated pink and Jaken wasn't allowed lemonade since the 'Mishap.'

Through the rest of the day Sesshomarou turned the conversation in the water over in his head again and again and again. Rin loved him. Rin didn't lie. Of course she would tell him the truth. And he hadn't been lying when he'd said he loved her. Of course he did.

That night, when the sun had set and the air was cooler, but still stifling hot he crept to Rin's room. Hesitantly he pushed open the door.

He was suddenly incredibly nervous, his mouth was dry and he had butterflies in his stomach. He crept up to Rin's bed and found her sleeping. He let out a long sigh of relief. He leaned down and placed a feathery kiss on her forehead.

He crept out of the room and shut the door, he let out a long sight of relief.

He hadn't been in Rin's room since 'That Thing Jaken Did With The Chocolate Fudge and The Dog Collar.'

He returned to his room and past the wall where they'd been measuring Rin's growth since he'd first taken her in. For a little while Jaken's was beside her, but Jaken wasn't allowed to be measured anymore. Not since 'That Thing He did.'

Sesshomarou didn't bother changing. He flopped onto his large bed with silk sheets, spread out and stared at the ceiling.

How long had ben been alone? How had he been sleeping alone? He'd been alone for almost his entire life, even with people he'd been alone. But with Rin he wasn't alone. He'd been sleeping alone since..... since 'That Thing We Will Never, Ever Speak of Again, Jaken!!!'

He rolled over onto his side and stared out his window, curtains blowing in the breeze. He could detect the faint aroma of the lemon pin sol Jaken had once used to clean his room.

Jaken wasn't allowed to use pine sol anymore, not since that thing that 'Was So Wrong On So Many Levels!'

'I'm a good dad,' Sesshomarou thought and closed his eyes. Only Rin would be allowed to call him that though. Jaken hadn't been allowed since the 'Jaken Homemade Fetish Movie Series!'

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