"What brings you here?"

"Naraku's orders."

"And what does Naraku ask ofme this time? Looking for my brother, I suppose."

"Not he, her."

Rose opened her eyes to see Kagura and Sesshoumaru standing near by, talking. She yawned and sat up, taking in the scene around her.

She lay under a lovely sakuratree beside a pool of water; they were in the back garden of a large palace. With the pool of water was a small waterfall that gave a tranquil feel. A stream ran from the pool into the forest.

Rose smiled as a young girl, Rin, came running up to her from picking flowers. She offered a bouquet of irises, lilies, and other various flowers. Rose took it with a smile and sniffed at the flowers. "Thank you," she told Rin.

"Play with me?" Rin asked sweetly.

"Later Rin," came Sesshoumaru's voice. "Right now, I need to speak with the demoness." The demon lord now stood behind Rin, looking down upon Rose with his usual emotionless stare. Rin nodded and ran off to find Jaken. Rose stood to greet Sesshoumaru but couldn't find her voice. At last she was in contact with the demon lord that was her mission, this truth overwhelming her. He, too, seemed to be taking her in.

Finally, Rose came to her senses and turned to Kagura. "Thank you. You're dismissed." Kagura grumbled at being treated like a servant as she readied her feather and flew off.

Rose turned back to Sesshoumaru. Without a word, he gestured to his castle then walked foreward. Rose quickly followed. He led her to a sitting area where she sat across from him. A human female came in and offered some tea tothe two of them before hurrying off. Rose kept her head bowed, her hands around the cup, as she waited for Sesshoumaru to speak.

"So you made a deal with Naraku." Rose nodded to confirm his statement. "You gained a jewel shard and were shown to my castle. I've also been informed that you held up against my half-brother until his demon blood overtook him." Rose nodded again, this time bringing her head up to look at him. "Tell me why you wished to be taken to me."

Rose glanced at him to find him studying her. She bowed her head in a submissive act as she spoke softly. Normally, she wasn't so submissive and weak; it was an act. "I heard of the great Lord Sesshoumaru, a powerful dog demon, and sought to find you. I live without a pack and need a place to stay. In return, I shall serve you." She looked to him under the cover of her hair to see a ghost of a smile form on his lips. She suppressed her own smile at this.

"Fine. You will be my servant. I will have Jaken show you to your room." Sesshoumaru stood and left. Jaken came in moments later and silently led Rose through the long hall. Finally he stopped at a door and opened it.

"You'll be staying here. I'll come get you when you are required." He spoke to her as if she was below him in heirarchy. He left her there in the room without another word.

Rose decided to explore the room. It was quite lovely, not what she expected for a servants quarters. Fine kimonos were provided as was a soft bed. The room itself looked more like the chambers of an honored guest. Finally, Rose tired of exploring her room and settled to look out the one window of the room that faced the forest. Her mind wandered to her duties here. 'What could he want me to do? Will I just cook and clean? Maybe I'll take care of Rin.'

Time passed and Rose grew bored and tired. Finally, she laid upon her bed and was about to sleep when a knock at the door brung her to alertness. Opening the door, Rose found Jaken ready to take her away.

Jaken led Rose down the long hallway, past the sitting room to a new room. Much noise and commotion reached Rose's now sensitive ears. Jaken opened the door and announced Rose before pushing her into the room and closing the door as he left. Rose saw that she had been taken to the kitchen; she was now a serving girl.

Rose looked upon the other girls in the room, all quiet and staring at her with fear. They ranged from early teens to late twenties. All could be considered pretty, even in the shabby clothes they were forced to wear. 'Why are they so afraid?' wondered Rose as she looked into thier wide eyes. 'Oh! Right. I'm a demon now.'

Rose had no idea what to do. Luckly, a dark haired girl, about the same age as she, caustiously approached. "I'm Yuki," she said to Rose. Her tone was submissive, soft, and fearful.

"Rose," Rose replied.

"Please...pardon our fearful looks." Yuki fell to her knees before Rose as if she were her master. "It isn't often a demoness serves the lord."

"And of those who did?"

"Our lord taught us that the demons are of higher rank then us. So, any demoness that comes is in charge once she learns the duties."

Rose nodded, understanding now what Yuki was doing. Rose bent down and gestured for Yuki to rise, which she did. "You have not reason to treat me like that. If I am in charge then it won't be like a master to a slave but a leader to her teammates." Rose saw a tear leave Yuki's widened eyes. "What?" Next thing she knew, Yuki was hugging her.

"Thank you. Just you saying that gives us hope. Every demoness before you has abused us with thier control, so we have feared any who come." Yuki pulled away, a happy smile upon her light lips.

"What happened to them?" Rose asked, genuinely curious.

"They disappear after a month. None of us know why." This information disturbed Rose, but she shrugged it off as Yuki showed her around the kitchen. Soon, dinner was ready, and Rose, Yuki, and a few other girls served the food to the next room where Sesshoumaru, Rin, and Jaken waited. Once the lord and his companions were served, Rose and the other servants enjoyed a meal in the kitchen of what little extra they didn't serve.

Besides serving food and keeping the other girls in line, Rose found her duties included Sesshoumaru's personal servant, meaning only she could enter his bed chambers, and a playmate for Rin, giving Jaken the occasional break; Rin soon took a liking to Rose for the demoness treated the human as if they were close sisters.

Surprisingly, life serving Sesshoumaru wasn't that hard, though Rose did suspect she was greatly favored. One such reason was whenever one of the girls messed up, they would come back from meeting with Sesshoumaru with bruises and scrapes covering thier bodies; however, Rose would be called afterward and would get lectured on what went wrong and proper punishment to be administered by her. Rose never did punish the girls, only scolded; she believed them punished enough by Sesshoumaru. She did tend to their wounds, though, so they could return to work quickly.

Exactly a month passed by without Rose's realizing. It was a shadowy and dark night, and Rose was busy tending to a couple of new girls' claw marks. The girls had just been taken from their village a few days before and were still learning. They were twins, just reached their 12th year of age. Their mistake? Walking into Sesshoumaru's chambers. Unfortunate for them, he had called for no one to disturb him moments before, so they recieved double the yelling and abuse. It didn't help that they were so young, shy, and frightened; Sesshoumaru considered such servants weak and disposable, making it much worse for the twins.

"You two are lucky he was in a good mood," Yuki said while laughing uneasily in an attempt to lighten the mood. She had become a good help when tending to the careless ones like this.

"Yuki, don't joke about this. These cuts are deep and the bruises large," Rose scolded as she cleaned the claw marks on one of the girls' arms.

"Who's joking?" Yuki asked, now serious again. "Lord Sesshoumaru would have killed them had he been previously angered. Do you know why he called for alone time?"

"No," Rose replied without interest.

"Rumor is it was about his younger brother," Yuki replied. She always had been one for the gossip of the castle.

"Inuyasha?" Rose couldn't hide the new interest in her voice.

"You know him?"

"I met him before I came here."

"Oh...anyway, word is the lord's brother is searching for one of us stolen girls. Who knows? Maybe it's you."

As Rose pondered how the gang could have learned of her whereabouts and why they would want to 'rescue' her, Yuki finished up the twins and sent them on thier way. She then walked with Rose from the main servents' quarters down in the dungeons to her room to talk some more as they often did.

Once in the room, Rose changed out of the brown kimono with green vine embordry andsash that had been supplied for work and put her white fur dress back on. Yuki was admiring the privileges of Rose's room. Rose straightened the strapless, semi-short dress and ran her hands down the soft fur, admiring how the outfit hugged her curves so perfectly. She then joined Yuki on the bed. As she ran a comb through her silvery-gold hair, Yuki began the conversation.

"You always get so dolled up for Lord Sesshoumaru. Why?"

"I do not! I always change out of that outfit and into my original dress...on nights I'm to meet with the lord." Rose bowed her head in defeat.

"See!"

"Okay, okay. I get it."

"What happens during your meetings?" Yuki inquired.

"Nothing but him lecturing, me apologizing on the girl's behalf, so on and so forth."

Silence fell as Rose continued to comb out her hair. Finally Yuki spoke. "You know all about how each of us have come to be here."

"So?"

"You never shared where you're from."

Rose didn't reply right away. She didn't know how explian. How do you explain to someone who trusts you that you weren't captured for slavery but came on your own free will? How do you explain that you wanted to be the servant of the master your comrades feared? Rose set aside the comb and turned to Yuki. "Yuki...I haven't been entirely truthful. I...I was a wanderer before--"

A knock on the door interrupted. Jaken entered before even being called in and asked that Rose join him. Yuki quickly left for the servants' quarters as Rose followed Jaken. The halls he led her down were familiar to her; they led to the main wing of the castle, the wing Sesshoumaru's private rooms as well as Rin's resided in. But the door Jaken stopped at was slightlyunfamiliar even though Rose had been within the room a few times.

Jaken instructed that Rose enter on her own then left her there. Rose gently knocked upon the door, hearing Sesshoumaru's welcome within. Rose entered the room that was filled with warm steam. The room was small and humid. Rose's hearing caught the sound of water as someone shifted nearby in it.

"Over here, Rose," Sesshoumaru's voice called. Rose followed the sound to find him sitting in a deep hot spring in the middle of the room; he looked quite relaxed. He gestured to the edge near him where Rose immedietly sat, knowing better than to refuse.

While silence eveloped the two of them, Rose took the time to let her eyes look over her master. He was naked, obviously, but only his upper half could be seen; nevertheless, it didn't make the sight displeasing with his well toned muscles. His long silvery-white hair was drenched and clinging to his back and shoulders, the ends of the strands reaching below the water's suface. His face was relaxed, for once, yet held a hint of worry that was barely traceable. His amber eyes watched her as a smirk rested upon his wonderful lips.

Realizing Sesshoumaru had been watching her as she checked him out, Rose turned her gaze to her hands in her lap, a warmth rising to her cheeks. Unknown to Rose, Sesshoumaru's smirk changed to a gentle smile at her blushing before his face returned to its emotionless mask.

"Do you know why I called you here?" Sesshoumaru asked.

"Because of Kia and Kai's behaviour, my lord."

"That is one reason."

Rose's head shot up, her eyes locking with his as she bowled into her explination and apology. "They did not mean to, Lord Sesshoumaru. I had sent them to light the candles in the sitting area since the others were busy, and I was overseeing the clean-up of dinner. Jaken had just came to me moments after they'd left so I was unable to tell them that you commanded that no one disturb you. I had also made the mistake of thinking that Yuki had shown them around, but she had not, so they got lost and--"

Sesshoumaru raised a hand from the water to silence her. "Enough. You always stick up for those worthless human servants. I also know you do not administer punishment."

"I'm sorry, my lord, but--"

"No. I will here no more apologies tonight. I do not care if you punish or not for I must admit that under your command the servants have been quite efficient; much better than previous demons. Also, you have been in my service for a month. Normally, I would leave you in the wild far from here, but seeing as everying is going so well...I will let you stay."

"Thank you, Lord Sesshoumaru." Rose gave a slight bow.

"Now, Rose, if you will wait for me in the hall, I have more I need to speak with you about."

Rose nodded, stood, and left the bathing room. Out in the hall, she leaned against the wall, her back to the doors of the bathing room. She had been worried about the fact that today was the end of her first month of service, but now Sesshoumaru's kindess had relieved her.

A hand touched Rose's shoulder, startling her. She turned to see Sesshoumaru behind her. One hand still rested on her shoulder while the other held a towel about his waist. The fact that he didn't just say something as he would to any other servant struck Rose as odd, but she shrugged it off and followed him as he gestured for her to do after removing his hand from her.

Soon they were in his bedroom. His was the largest sleeping quarters in the palace; Rin's lay just a little way's down the hall and was the second largest. Sesshoumaru's room was extravagant, but he was the master of the castle, so why wouldn't it be?

Sesshoumaru moved to one side of the room where lay his clothing, armor, and swords. Rose moved to the window that overlooked the back garden, fighting the urge to sneak a peek of Sesshoumaru as he got dressed. After a few moments, he came up behind her and looked out at the cloud-covered night. The clouds seemed to threaten rain to the thirsty land.

"Rose, I need to know something," Sesshoumaru said, breaking the silence.

"What is it, my lord?"

"What is your connection with my brother?"