Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters therein.

Kagome glanced over at a stone faced InuYasha and sighed. The news apparently had finally sunk in to his thick skull. She hadn't expected him to do cartwheels but the least he could do was be a little happy for his elder brother. None of InuYasha and Sesshomaru's encounters had ever gone well. They always seemed to part company with no ground gained or lost in the strained relationship between them. Finally Kagome elbowed in the hanyou and nodded in the direction of the great hall.

"Well? Go on. We didn't travel all this way so you could stand here and try to burn a hole through the front door with your eyes, InuYasha. Put on a happy face, knock on the door and lets see if the rumors are true!"

"Feh. What do I care if Sesshomaru found himself a girlfriend? I can't believe we had to come all the way here just so you can see for yourself that he and Rin are..." InuYasha made a sour face, "That thing we heard they are."

"Mates, InuYasha. You can say it. Its not like invoking some ancient curse. Okay, so Sesshomaru didn't seek us out to congratulate us and welcome me into the family but I think the least we can do is be polite!" Kagome replied, giving her own mate's ear a quick sharp tug.

"Yeah right. You wanted to come here and make sure he's treating her right. You are being nosey, Kagome."

"Friendly, nosey, whatever!"

InuYasha could only shake his head and watch as his strongwilled mate made her way across the sprawling fields to the great hall his father once occupied. If the Fates had worked differently he could have been raised here. The term halfbreed wouldn't have been thrown at him and maybe...just maybe he and his brother wouldn't be such enemies. No. They would have been enemies no matter how their lives had played out. Sesshomaru hated him because their father had left Tetsusaiga to him. The fact he was born to a great dog demon and a human only compounded that hatred.

"Come on, InuYasha! It won't be that difficult! He's your brother!" Kagome called back over her shoulder as climbed the steps.

"I hate to break it to you, Kagome, but we aren't exactly a tight knit family, remember? Sesshomaru stays out of my way and I stay out of his. Otherwise it just ends up with us coming to blows. Besides, if he wanted us here Sesshomaru would have sent for us. And since we both know hell would freeze over first--"

"Fine! Then we aren't here to see Sesshomaru. We are just here to pay a visit to Rin."

InuYasha rolled his eyes. And Kagome had the nerve to call him stubborn. He stood behind his mortal companion, arms folded and a look of pure defiance on his face. As Kagome raised a hand to knock the door swung open and a stunned Jaken stood in the entryway. Their eyes both mutually widened before the vassil squawked and slammed the door shut, causing Kagome to jump back in surprise. From inside Jaken could be heard shouting his lord's name and Kagome groaned.

"Great. Not even a word spoken and he's already raising the alarm!"

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The jarring sound of Jaken's voice jolted Sesshomaru awake. The way the fool was carrying on it sounded as if they were under attack. Then the inuyoukai lord heard a name that made his teeth grind. InuYasha. What could that miserable hafldemon want here? At his side Sesshomaru felt Rin stir. Carefully he rose from the bed and dressed, determined to handle his little brother before his mate could fully waken and possibly be witness to another sibling spat.

"Me lord! Its him! Its InuYasha!" Jaken yelped as he mindlessly threw open the door and raced in, "Right at our front gates as if he were wanted here!"

"InuYasha is here?" came Rin's sleepy voice as she sat up and rubbed her eyes, "If he has come...then that means Kagome is with him!"

Before Lord Sesshomaru or Jaken could confirm or deny her words Rin bolted from the bed, grabbing up her kimono and pulling it on. The joy was written so plainly on her face. Through their few and scant encounters the mortal girls had become friends. It was so rare when they saw one another that any time together was precious to them. In this feudal era there were so few young women who could understand their experience. Of being in love and loved in return by men who were not mortal...and of nobile demon blood. Completely forgetting herself, Rin stood on tiptoe before Sesshomaru and kissed his chin.

"I shall greet them, my lord! Master Jaken, we will need food and drinks! I'm sure they are exhausted from their journey!"

Jaken could only gape after Rin as she ran from the room without a backward glance. She did not honestly expect him to so hospitable to InuYasha and that mortal girl of his, did she! From beside him, Jaken heard Sesshomaru sigh. He glanced up at his lord and saw an almost bemused look on his usually blank face.

"Go and prepare something for them, Jaken. Were they coming here to cause trouble they wouldn't have bothered to approach the hall so openly. Like it or not, I believe these unexpected visit are going to become commonplace now." Sesshomaru remarked as he secured Tokijin and Tenseiga to his side.

"You mean we are going to make that halfdemon welcome here! Me lord, surely you can not--"

"Do it, Jaken. You forget yourself. Rin is your lady. You will do as she says as if it were myself giving you the order. I like this no better than you. For Rin's sake, I am tolerating InuYasha's presence here. Now go."

Jaken bowed hastily and scurried from the room on his lord's heels. So long as the swords stayed sheathed perhaps this visit would be brief and the unwanted company would be on its way.

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The girls' joyful squeals at being reunited made InuYasha's ears twitch. He never was one for such open displays of affection, even after his years with Kagome. As the hanyou leaned against the wall, his arms still folded over his chest, he watched as the girls began to talk simultaneously and answering in the same manner. How the hell could they understand a thing being said? Rin thoroughly enjoyed her time with Kagome, always so eager to tell her the places she and Sesshomaru had travelled to and Kagome was always just as anxious to talk about any and all demons they had encountered. As InuYasha gave the girls their time his ears twitched once again as he caught the scent that always seemed to make his hair stand on end. His eyes quickly flew across the room and then narrowed. Sesshomaru stood there, his own eyes observing the exchange between Rin and Kagome.

"Don't worry. We won't be staying long and wearing out our welcome, Sesshomaru. Kagome wanted to come and pay her respects to Rin and then we'll be on our way." InuYasha spoke up, his tone already defensive.

"Do as you see fit, little brother. Rin appears grateful for the company. Put your hackles down," Sesshomaru said glibly, "No one here will lay a hand on the girl."

"Well from what I've heard its not someone here I need to worry about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know all about the troubles you had with the Northern Lord and his cronies. Like I could miss demon stink even if it was upwind. If they keep following me I'll be glad to show them firsthand what Tetsusaiga is capable of."

"And probably kill them and destroy the land for a mile around you in the process. Let them go about their business, little brother. So long as they do not interfere in our lives I see no reason to even acknowledge their existance."

"I don't like being followed and watched. Bad enough humans and demons alike would rather spit on me than step out of my way." InuYasha grumbled, "Kagome's travelling with me has lessened that by only about half!"

"The sooner you cease to care what others think of you, InuYasha, the better off you will be. Let their own ignorance be their burden and not yours. You have the blood of a great demon flowing in your veins. That, above anything else, should grant you some degree of respect. Father spent his life defending the race of men. Humans should be grateful to us for honoring Father's memory and not being mindless killers, destroying each and every one of them." Sesshomaru said flatly.

"Who the hell are you and what did you do with Sesshomaru! You used to always berate me because Father died for the sake of my mortal mother and now you tell me I'm worthy of respect? Rin must have really changed you."

"When she was my ward I realized I could not go about killing senselessly, InuYasha. My actions would have an impact on her. To see her guardian killing her own kind would have poisoned her against me. I was suddenly responsible for someone. Rin depended on me. I could no longer be selfish and singleminded. You changed when Kagome came into your life much the same way I did upon Rin's entrance into my life. When someone relies on you, when you have actual responsibility and accountability to someone...you change."

InuYasha nodded. Sesshomaru was right. Where once he had been so guarded and distrustful, Kagome had proven herself to be a reliable ally. She didn't care that he was a halfdemon, she had accepted him exactly as he was. The memory of Kikyo wanting him to use the Jewel of Four Souls to become fully human still troubled him. She so wanted her freedom to be an ordinary woman that she had asked him to change what he was...to make it more socially acceptable that they be together. InuYasha's eyes went to Kagome as her laughter caught his ear. Reincarnation or not, he loved her more than he could have ever hoped to feel for Kikyo. For her, he had given up his quest to become a full demon. Not because she asked him to but because she was the first to ever accept him and love him just as he was.

"Do you still damn Father for his choice, Sesshomaru? Do you still bear a grudge against his memory and against me?"

"No. The life of a demon is too long to harbor such hatred. Father chose his path much as we have chosen ours. Had our lives played out any differently I would never have met Rin that day in the woods. I would still be consumed by my loathing for a human woman who didn't even know of my existance and my anger towards Father's memory." Sesshomaru replied, his own eyes watching as Rin took the tray from Jaken and carefully placed it on the table.

"And such ill will towards ghosts serves no purpose." InuYasha said.

"Precisely. Someday Rin will be but a ghost as well...and I will resent her for leaving me alone once again. I will not spend centuries carrying that feeling in my heart towards her. She is what she is. Fate is cruel, is it not, InuYasha?"

"You could find a way to make her a demon...or at the very least immortal," the hanyou replied, looking to his brother's face, "I have thought of it myself in regards to Kagome. I didn't spend fifty damn years pinned to that tree alone only to find her and lose her."

"She has accepted you as you are, little brother. Don't insult the girl by making such an offer to her. You think to tamper with the life force of the first and only mortal to care nothing for your mixed blood. You would be a fool."

"I'd be more of a fool if I didn't at least try to find a way to keep that mortal with me indefinately rather than let her die with the guilt of leaving me all alone in a world that doesn't want me! Face it, Sesshomaru. Girls like Rin and Kagome aren't exactly growing on trees, you know! How many mortal girls have you encountered who would love you unconditionally like Rin does? I'm sorry if it makes me selfish to want to keep Kagome with me forever. Must be a flaw in that blood from my human mother."

Sesshomaru said nothing more. This arguement could go on forever. There were good and sound reasons to seek out a way to make the girls immortal but then there were so many causes not to. It would be wrong to ask Rin to change what she was since she never sought to change him. But wouldn't it be equally as wrong never offer her the chance, the choice, to stay by his side forever? The heart that once never felt anything was now torn in two.