Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters therein.
Others found him cold, remote, reachless, a walking void. It was as if the smooth featured face was carved from stone. He was unreadable. The only emotion one could detect from the youkai lord was disgust, his absolute loathing for mortals. They were weak in every since of the word. Their lives so fragile a mere tumble could kill them. Giving themselves away by their very emotions. Yet his great father had lost his heart to one such creature. Sesshomaru shook his head in disgust and turned his vacant amber eyes to the expanse of the field below. The lumbering figure of Ah-Un was clearly visible, the creature's keen eyes following a shadow that danced and moved through the swaying high grass. The mortal girl, Rin, who had travelled with him since the tender age of 7, held her delicate hands upwards as if to embrace the night sky.
The girl was unabashed in her joy of the simple pleasures in life. She held nothing back, kept no emotion in check. A perfect balance to her lord's calm and cool demeanor. What Sesshomaru would pass idlly by, Rin would become enraptured by. His endless silence was filled with the sing-song sound of her sweet tenored voice. Perhaps her openess was her strength. None could ponder her intentions, try to decern her purpose. Rin had only one purpose in her heart and mind. To faithfully and loyally serve her kind lord who had sheltered and protected her. She could never hope to give him a gift worthy enough. All she had to offer him was her unwavering devotion. She had never asked to follow and he had never given his concent. Their's was an odd and complex co-existance.
Twelve long years had passed since that fateful day that put Rin's young life forever in the Lord of the Western Land's debt. Twelve years of mishaps, times of peace, times of war. He gave up years ago trying to establish his reason for keeping the human in his presence. She never asked anything of him or he of her. They simply...were. He protected her because her life was his now. And what was his, no one took away. Her life was his to do with as he saw fit. Whether it was to squander it and keep her as a simple amusement and servant or to cast her aside like so much fodder. Perhaps one day he would dispose of her, when her life was no longer a debt he wished to have repaid. After all, he was a youkai lord. What value could a human life have to him?
From within the high grass a wooden staff came drifting through. Jaken, Sesshomaru's diligent and faithful vassel, was scolding Rin for her noisey behavior. Warning her her scent alone was enough to bring hungry youkai sniffing around. Unable to see the young woman through the grass, Jaken missed Rin's placing her hands on her hips and making a sour face, much like his own. Sesshomaru watched as she mimicked the toad-like youkai's jabbering. Most were fearful of the Staff of Two Heads that Jaken wielded so effectively but not Rin. Rin feared only one thing. Her lord's displeasure. Slowly her head turned, seeking out the familiar ebb and flow of that silver white hair that was distinctly Lord Sesshomaru's. Amber eyes met rich earth brown eyes.
There is was. That open show of emotions that made humans so weak in the great lord's eyes. Perhaps...just perhaps he would keep her walking in his shadow a bit longer. Someday soon she would outgrow her usefulness but for now things were as they should be. Were Sesshomaru to show his emotions to the world, a scowl would have marred his features. So if that were true, if things were trully as the fates had intended...why did he find himself seeking something more? What was this thing that drove him endlessly? This invisible foe that he could not conquer? And more importantly, why did the shine in a mortal girl's eyes make him all the more determined to have this unnamed, unknown prize?