Disclaimer: Inuyasha is not my property. I only write for entertainment purposes.
Summary: Rin through the ages. Unromantic. The real story of what happens as she grows older. To the age of an old woman. What will her master do?
Rin Through the Ages
Chapter Three
Age 18 continued…
Sesshoumaru was not the type to wait for people. He was the one that made people wait for him and the people that followed him happily waited on him. He was sitting under a tree looking at the lonely crescent of a moon. Jaken had went off somewhere looking for the girl. The toad demon was grumbling all the way when he went into the woods to look for her. That had been two hours ago.
It wasn't like Rin to gone so long. Ah-Uh didn't appear to have moved. So where had the girl gone? Sesshoumaru did not think about it. In fact he was ready to leave, thinking that the girl had gone off finally with her own people. But still something in the back of his mind nagged at him. He knew that he could not be free unless he went and got over this strange feeling.
Jaken finally came back looking exhausted and said, "Forgive me Sesshoumaru-sama I could not find Rin. All I found was this sandal." He presented it to the lord. Sesshoumaru knew that it belonged to her because he could smell her scent all over the shoe.
The sandal brought back the memory of when he first presented it to her one day out of the blue.
"Rin this is for you." Sesshoumaru stated simply. Jaken was the one carrying the sandals and gave it to the girl. She just looked at her lord strangely. "What do you mean?" She was thoroughly confused, which meant she would ask questions. Sesshoumaru simply turned away from the girl and started walking in the opposite direction. Jaken followed him. The girl quickly slipped on the sandals and ran after her master.
"Thank you Sesshoumaru-sama. They fit perfectly." She smiled at him.
The memory of that time seemed to have frozen in his mind. He was a great dog demon which meant that his life would be long. The years seemed to pass by as days and barely anything memorable happened to him. But the past ten years with Rin by his side things started to become memorable.
The times when she would make rough drawings on rocks with twigs and crushed berries never seemed to bore the girl. One time they even encountered the same rock that she had drawn on. She was sure of it but Jaken kept saying that it was stupid and impossible. But it was true. All these things seemed to be so insignificant to him yet they stayed in his memory.
Sesshoumaru told Jaken to stay there until he returned. Jaken didn't know if his master was going to look for Rin himself. The great lord often had to find Rin when his retainer failed.
Rin opened her eyes and quickly rubbed the sleep out of them and slid open the door and ran as quietly as she could even with her injured ankle to the nearest exit. She found a beautiful garden. The girl still not wearing shoes ran out onto the soft soil. How delicious it felt to have her bare feet on the soil. She reveled in it for a moment. He was coming she could feel it.
It was a beautiful clear evening. She stared at the moon longer. Then she felt that someone was watching her. It was Takeo. He had saw her run out and he was taking in the moment. Rin just looked surprised. "Why are you here?" She pointed slightly. Takeo smiled gently at the girl. "I don't know."
Rin stayed quiet waiting for him to finish his thought. "I came here because I thought it would be the perfect to view the moon. The sky is so clear tonight." She turned around and looked at the moon again. "You're right it is perfect to see the moon. But it's better to see it in the forest. You can see more stars." She offered another smile.
Takeo just regarded the girl and realized he wanted her to stay with him forever. He was a practical man and didn't think he could fall in love. In fact he thought love was for fools, that did not have anything better to do. How could he, a practical man of the samurai class fall in love with a girl on the first day that he met her. He now believed that love was a mysterious thing.
"Rin." He whispered her name. She took a seat next to him on the veranda. "Yes, Takeo-san?"
"How is your ankle?"
"It's a lot better. I think I'll be able to leave very soon. Shizuka-san brought me some ointments and I feel no pain." She reported to him.
There was a silence until he spoke.
"What do you think of my household?" He asked her bluntly.
"I think it's very pretty and your people seem to be very kind. At least they were very kind to me." She stared at the moon. "Why are you asking such a question to me?" She was now curious.
"It's nothing. Why don't you stay for awhile? Until your family comes for you." He couldn't believe the words himself. "Would you stay?" He asked gently again.
"You want me to stay here? But why?"
"Because I want you to stay."
The girl just looked at him. "I don't know."
Sesshoumaru was nearby and heard every word. She should stay. It was only right. He could tell that the human felt something towards the girl. It was love. The great demon just listened in some more.
"I guess my lord wouldn't mind if I stayed a few days." She said politely. "I hope he knows where I am. I'll come back later." The last words almost as if she knew that he was there and he was.
"Who are you talking to Rin?" This caught her attention and she turned to him. "Nothing."
Sesshoumaru turned away and started to head back where Jaken was. So she would stay with the human. Most likely she would stay there forever. Even this Takeo person knew that Rin would stay forever if he only he got her to stay a few days. Eventually Rin would fall in love with him and she would get married and she would leave her master's side, that's what Sesshoumaru was expecting. Still the idea that she would no longer be by his side left Sesshoumaru empty. Almost like back in the days before he had Toukijin. He felt like he was missing something.
The next few days were one of Rin's most happiest days of her life. She spent almost all her time with the lively house of the Uchiha clan. Takeo was the master but everyone knew him since he was a child. They told embarrassing stories of when he was a young boy and Takeo would only blush in embarrassment. Jiro the stable boy would blush every time he saw Rin and he would run out of the room saying that he had something to do. Rin was puzzled at his behaviour and asked Shizuka about it. Shizuka had become somewhat of a mother to Rin.
"He's probably in love with you Rin-chan." Shizuka teased the girl.
"What?" The girl just smiled at that. Takeo only watched the whole scene unfold. Never in his life had he felt this peaceful. He knew that she had to stay here forever. Everyone in the house needed her warmth and life. Things never were the same since his younger brother had died in the war.
Rin seemed to make things less painful. Everyone had fallen in love with the lively girl.
The girl was determined to make friends with Jiro and so she went to the stables. She saw him feeding a horse. Takeo acting very unlike himself followed her. He wanted to see what she would do.
"Jiro-kun?" The boy turned around at his name. Rin the always smiling girl smiled at him. "Hey what are you doing? Can I help you?" Rin walked up to the boy. "It's all right Rin-san. I'm fine." He turned away because he was blushing. Rin was slightly discouraged. Takeo had a mind to go to the boy and yell some sense into him. A beautiful girl was offering help to him and he was turning it down, had Jiro learned nothing from his master?
"Hey Jiro-kun why do you always turn away from me?" She had to ask.
"Because…" It was very obvious that he was very embarrassed. "Because I think you're very pretty." He spurted out.
"Huh?" She was surprised at this answer. All this time she thought old lady Shizuka was just teasing her. "Jiro-kun you'll grow up to be a very handsome young man one day." She patted him on the head.
Jiro just smiled but was still blushing. "This is how he likes it." He showed her how to stroke the horse. Takeo was outside of the stable and just smiled at the exchange. So he knew that Rin was good with children.
Jaken was left to take care of Ah-Uh. It was probably the most boring days of his life since ever. He wondered where his master went. He wondered where Rin went. It seemed like everyone was abandoning him. But why him? He was a great demon as well. Well he wasn't as great as Sesshoumaru of course. Jaken wanted to move from his spot to look for the others but he knew better than to disobey an order from his lord. So he waited and waited.
Sesshoumaru had been keeping a close eye on the Uchiha household. Every night for the past four nights she had snuck out of her room to go to the garden and she would talk to herself. She was in fact talking to her master. Sesshoumaru heard every word that she said. Mostly Rin recounted what she did that day. She seemed to be very cheerful. But every night before she went to bed she would say that she missed the open field and missed Sesshoumaru, Ah-Uh and even Jaken.
No one knew about this odd habit of Rin's except Takeo who always heard her leaving her room. He reasoned with himself that she was sleep walking. He didn't think much of it. But he noticed that it was strange that she always brought up this Sesshoumaru person. Who was he? He was determined to find him and get his approval for marriage between him and Rin.
Rin yawned to herself. She was helping Shizuka with the chores. It seemed like she had always been a part of the household. Shizuka knew something was happening because she was old and therefore knew the ways of men and women. Eventually the girl would be a part of the family and all would be well. Takeo's smile would return to the Uchiha family and everyone would be happier. Eventually Shizuka would have to take care of Rin and Takeo's children. She smiled happily at the daydream.
"Shizuka? What's so amusing?" Rin was curious as to why she began to smile for no reason at all. They were both sewing clothes. "It's nothing. I just thought of something wonderful that's all." Shizuka answered back to her.
"Well aren't you going to tell me about it?" Rin wanted to know.
"I just imagined what it would be like to have little children running around once again. It's been awhile since I had to care for little ones."
"Really?" Rin asked eagerly.
"I thought that eventually you and Takeo would get married and have many children."
Rin just stared at her in shock. She was speechless. For the very first time the talkative girl was speechless. This was when Takeo heard the last bit of conversation. He remained hidden trying to hear more it. He waited for Rin's response. He would die if Rin did not want him. But he couldn't imagine it. She wasn't like that.
"Rin? Why are you so surprised?" Shizuka couldn't bear the silence.
Rin just looked at the old woman, then at her hands. She remained silent. "Excuse me." She got up from her seat and walked out of the room. Takeo pretended to be walking past them as if nothing happened. Inside his heart was breaking. This wasn't the answer that he expected from the happy girl. He thought that she would be the one that would make his life complete. He thought she would be the one.
As he walked by her she didn't even acknowledge his existence. That was completely unlike her. Takeo entered the room where Shizuka was. "What did you say to her?" He asked even though he knew exactly what she said.
Rin went to her room and quickly got changed into her original clothes and looked for her sandals. She went to the front door and still she could not find her sandals. Thinking nothing of it she ran out of the house with no shoes. She had said nothing to the others. Rude wasn't something she liked to be but she had to in this case.
Takeo being the foolish man that he was, had hidden her shoes. It was very immature and selfish. But he thought that if she didn't have shoes then she couldn't go anywhere. He really thought that she would stay there with him.
Rin ran through the large village as fast as her healing ankle could take her. It had taken her almost an hour and a half to find the forest.
Takeo had searched the whole village for the girl and knew that she must have returned to the village. He was very puzzled by the girl's actions. In fact he just realized that he didn't really know anything about the girl. He knew that he was in love and it seemed to him that anything she did wasn't wrong.
Riding horseback he hurried to the forest. Looking for her.
He caught a glimpse of a burred orange and yellow figure. Takeo jumped off his horse and ran to the figure as fast as he could. "Rin!"
The girl turned around. "Takeo-san?"
"Where are you going?" He asked her desperately.
"I'm going away. Sorry I left so rudely." She smiled at him like she always did.
"But why are you going away?" Takeo had to ask or he would regret it the rest of his life.
"Why am I going?" She thought for a hard moment. "I guess I don't really know why." A small apologetic smile on her face.
"I thought you wanted to stay." He walked closer to her.
"That would be nice. But I can't." She turned away from him. But he grabbed her wrist.
"I love you."
Rin remembered a time when she was a child and she had asked what love was. Many people gave her strange answers. It all came back to her. Sesshoumaru was the one that called it a foolish emotion but it did mysterious things to people, it had that power over people. All sorts of thoughts went through her mind because this was the first time someone said those three words to her. No one in her life had said them to her. But she knew that her master and maybe even Jaken loved her.
"Rin say something." He couldn't bear the silence.
"Takeo-san. You've been very kind to me. But it's time I went back home. I'll never forget the time we all spent together. Please tell the others I'm sorry I had to leave." Rin said politely and left him standing there. He lost his grip on her.
Love really did do strange things to people. In fact it was even more strange when only one person loved another and the other not returning it back. She decided that if she ever did fall in love it would be completely both sided. But the love that she had for her lord and his retainer was enough for her.
Takeo stood there frozen. He hadn't expected her to leave him standing there. He didn't expect any of it. For a moment he thought that she must have been a spirit that he often read in books. The spirits would haunt the living and leave them feeling completely heart broken. He didn't even know if she was real. She had to be real because he still had her sandals.
When he returned to the household he went straight to his room. It was like the time before she was there. This time it was worse because he had lost someone important to him again. Takeo never spoke of Rin again and forbade anyone to utter her name.
Rin walked carefully because she didn't have sandals anymore. She felt really bad for losing them. A familiar green figure was leaning against a rock. "Jaken-sama!" She cried out happily. The green toad jumped up in surprise. "Rin it's you!" He seemed to be happy.
"I came back." She happily stated. A hint of sadness as she remembered Takeo. But she couldn't help it. All she wanted was to be by her lord.
"Where is Sesshoumaru-sama?" The girl asked the toad demon.
Just as she asked that question the great dog demon appeared behind the two. "Rin, Jaken let's go." He said it in his usual tone of voice. It was like nothing happened at all. Nothing was said about the separation.
"Sesshoumaru-sama. I came back. I'm really sorry but I lost the sandals you gave me." She said sadly.
"I guess they don't suit you very much." His voice gentler than usual.
"Well I guess I should get another pair. Hm." She stood there looking pensive deciding whether or not she wanted to get them or not.
"Do what you like." He said to her once again.
She nodded happily, "Uhm."
Jaken followed behind the two.
TBC
AN: So what do you think? You know I'm beginning to not care about what others have to say about my writing. I guess I'm growing up. All I want to do is write this story because I had an idea. I don't care if people read it or not but I just wanted to share with people. So it's your choice to write a review or not. It won't matter to me because I will write for me.
Meryl Lee