Obsession
Disclaimer: No I do not own Inuyasha, but I DO own a Sesshoumaru plushie now! MUAHAHHAHAHAHA!
The skyline looked absolutely beautiful as the sun was setting. I gazed out across the Western lands from atop of Ah-Un. The sky was an orangeish red fading to a purple. Oh how I wished that Sesshoumaru would be here to share this beautiful sunset. Even though he wouldn't have shown it, I think he would have enjoyed it. There is a part of him that appreciates natural beauty, which seems so obvious to me. For the longest time I thought that he hated the flowers that I always picked for him, but I came to realize that he enjoyed them more than he let on. Of course he always looked that way about everything. It wasn't until he taught me Ikebana, that I started to realize this.
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I excitedly watched as Sesshoumaru brought a shallow flowerpot over to the low sitting table. He sat down on a cushion on the floor and placed the pot on the table. My eyes eagerly followed his every movement as he chose which flowers he was going to use. Sesshoumaru had taken me the day before to pick flowers in a vast field filled with a wide variety of flowers. He chose about 9 flowers out of the pile on the table. Then he started to trim them. At the time, I was expecting him to use the hasami, but he didn't. To my amazement he used one hand and trimmed the flower stems with his claws. This really brought to my attention for the first time that he had no left arm. He had never shown any kind of inconvenience due to his lack of an arm. He delicately trimmed the stems till they were the right length and then he laid them slide by side in a line to demonstrate. He set aside 4 flowers. One was much longer than the others and has small purple blossoms on it. This one he picked up and showed me.
" Ikebana is all about symbolism and expressing the beauty of nature. This one," he emphasized the flower he was holding," represents heaven. That is why it is the tallest one." He put that flower down and picked up a shorter one of the same kind next to it.
"Because this one is shorter but taller than the rest, it represents the world." He put that flower down and picked up a red flower, shorter than the first two but taller than the last. I saw him hesitate for a second before he continued. " When most...humans practice Ikebana, there are only three points: Heaven, earth, and mankind. But as a demon, we add an extra point to symbolize us." He explained carefully as he put down the red flower and picked up the last, yellow, shortest blossoming flower. "This of course symbolizes mankind." He said simply and put it back down. He reached to the right of the table where a curious object lay. At the time, I called it the porcupine. He picked it up and placed it in the left side of the pot." This is called the kenzan, it holds the stems upright." He explained. My mouth formed a silent "Oh" as I watched.
He once again picked up the tall purple flower and placed it in the flowerpot sticking it in the kenzan. Then he took the next one, the world, and placed it next to it. Out of the pile he picked up two more red flowers and cut them the same size as the original. He placed them angled out of the pot to the left of heaven. Then he took a couple more yellow flowers and placed them around the red and purple flowers and then around the rest of the pot. Finally he picked up some of the leaves he had taken off the other flowers and placed it in the pot filling in some spaces.
"Why did you add the leaves?" I asked.
"It adds more depth."
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I smiled as I remembered that time. I wasn't gone 6 hours and I already missed him. At least I'm pretty sure we're close to Bokuseno's forest, I sure hope so. After 6 hours of riding Ah-Un, my butt started to hurt. I was quite thankful I didn't wear a full kimono anymore. I prefer wearing a hakama so I am freer to run around. Should I need to defend myself, a restricting kimono would not do. It's one of the very few things I have ever asked Sesshoumaru for. He had always provided for me, I never had to ask for anything before. But as I got older, and I wished to start learning to fight, I requested that I get a hakama. When I had asked he didn't say anything but the next morning I had a nice hakama waiting for me. He of course acted like it was his idea in the first place, but I didn't argue.
As we passed over the line of trees, I started to recognize familiar landmarks. Soon afterward Ah-Un flew downward into a thick forest. We landed and continued along a path, which I did not know, but knew I have traveled it before. We walked this path for possibly hours, I'm not quite sure since I started to doze somewhere in the middle of it. I was wakened by a grunt from Ah-Un. I rubbed my eyes and gazed upon a small clearing with an enormous tree in the middle. I quickly jumped off Ah-Un and scrambled toward the tree. I dropped to my knees and bowed with my face to the ground." Bokuseno-sama!" I said loudly. When I got no answer, I continued without looking up." It is I, Rin! Ward to Sesshoumaru-sama, Lord of the Western Lands." I said formally.
It was very quiet for several moments, and I began to fear that I had the wrong tree. But I heard the rustling of leaves and I glanced up to see a face appear in the trunk of the tree. I sat up quickly. " Bokuseno-sama!" I shouted happily. Bokuseno looked at me and frowned." You don't have to yell, I'm old not deaf." He said irritatingly. I looked at the ground, my face red with embarrassment. " Gomen nasai." I said quietly. I stood up and looked at him. He looked no different from when I was a little girl and visited him with Sesshoumaru. He seemed to be staring at me.
" Is it true that you are Rin? The young girl who followed Sesshoumaru around?"
I nodded my head. " Well well.. It has been many years hasn't it, young sapling?" I grinned at him. I was so happy that I found him that I almost wanted to go hug his trunk, but I'm not quite sure how well that would go over with him. But the more I thought about it, was it such a good idea to come and ask Bokuseno for help? I mean, he, in a way, is Sesshoumaru's adviser. Sesshoumaru always came to Bokuseno for advice. I knew that he is kind and nice, but when I think about it, Sesshoumaru hates humans, would he ever listen to someone who didn't?
" Young Sapling, where is Sesshoumaru?" He asked. I looked away," He did not come with me."
" You came by yourself?" I nodded my head," What is the importance? Surely you did not seek me out by yourself, only to play amongst my branches?"
I looked at him sadly." I have a question to ask of you, Bokuseno-sama." His eyebrows went up in an expression of surprise." What question is of such importance?"
I gathered up my courage and tried to prepare myself for his negative response.
" Bokuseno-sama, how might I go about becoming immortal?"
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Hasami- a type of scissors used in Ikebana.
Gomen nasai- I'm very sorry.
Author's note : I AM SO SORRY! I took forever to update. No this fic is NOT dead. I am just having a hectic life, and I find very little to do anything anymore. Also part of this is my stupidity. I FORGOT that I had half of this chapter already written. Thank you XtemeAuthor for bringing it to my attention that Oh yea I forgot to update. Also thanks to all of you who are still reading this fic. Once again I am very sorry It's taking me forever to update. I'm also sorry if this chapter is a little boring, but I planned on it being longer but I found no time. HOPEFULLY this weekend another chapter! THANKS FOR ALL THE VERY HELPFUL REVIEWS!