Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any of the gang...or the Band of Seven...although Bankotsu has a great voice.
Rin burrowed deeper into the covers as she heard the door to her's and her lord's chamber open. Maybe if she pretended to be asleep he wouldn't ask her any questions and she could keep up this charade for one more night. So long as she didn't hear that hypnotic voice like silk ribbon caressing ivory, Rin would be fine. She kept her eyes shut but she could still picture Sesshomaru moving about the room as he prepared for bed. The soft russeling of clothing, the barely audible sound of Tokijin and Tenseiga being placed on the table at his bedside. Now he would slip into his nightclothes and come to bed...wait a moment...he was simply coming to bed! Naked! Rin squeezed her eyes tightly shut and surpressed a low groan.
'Oh just great! Now what do I do? If I scoot away, he'll know I'm awake and aware of what he is doing. If I continue to lay as I am he'll press up against me and then...'
Then she felt it. At first Rin wasn't sure if she had imagined it but then it came again. Fingertips...tracing her spine. Dammit! Why had she chosen to lay on her belly? The feel of those potentially deadly claws of his lightly scratching her skin made her want to scream. Part of her urged her to squirm but she forced herself to remain still. The motion continued and with each sweep would come closer and closer to the base of her neck. Sesshomaru knew, a simple touch or a kiss there and Rin would be helpless not to respond. His fingers crept beneath the thick blanket of her hair, a single claw tracing a slow lazy circle on the very spot and Rin jolted.
"Rin, you cleverly avoided my question earlier. This time I shall be more direct with you. What is it that dwells in your mind that has you on edge?"
Her fingers dug into the pillow beneath her head. She could tell him of so many things that lingered in her conscience and caused her to look ready to bolt. However, she also knew if she did not give him the answer he already knew, this torment would continue throughout the night. Rin opened her mouth answer when suddenly Sesshomaru lightly swept his nails down her back, his middle finger following the path of her spine. A small whimper was all she could utter. Her brain shouted at her not to betray her friend but her heart told her if she lied once to Sesshomaru he would never trust her word again.
"I have b-been considering what you asked of me, my lord. About becoming immortal."
"I see. Nothing else is troubling you?" Sesshomaru asked softly, gliding his fingers over her ribs, a whisper soft touch against the swell of her breast.
"Why all of these questions, my lord?" she countered as she tried to block out the skill with which he touched her.
"Because my mate has been as fearful as an animal sensing danger. I know you would not lie to me, Rin. You never have in all our years together. Even when you knew your honesty would make me cross. As you have never lied to me, I would never lie to you."
With that Sesshomaru gently grasped Rin's hip and rolled her over. He loomed over her on one elbow, his amber eyes so intense, the spill of his silver white hair flowing over the pillow behind him and over his shoulder and chest. Rin's breath caught in her throat. As her body came to rest closer to him, Rin could feel the heat radiating from his skin, feel the muscles of his belly pressed against her hip. Her hand lay spread over the plain of her belly as the other lay curled in the tangled length of her hair on the pillow. The shifting of positions had caused the covers to move and now they only covered Rin from beneath her navel to her ankles. As was her lord's wish, she slept nude. He prefered it as he seemed to find comfort in stroking her bare arm in the night. Cupping her chin in his palm, Sesshomaru watched her face, waiting for the tiniest flicker in her countenance that would tell him she was lying.
"Please...my lord, do not ask me to betray a friend."
"I am asking you to tell your mate and lord the truth, Rin. What are you and the girl, Kagome, planning?"
"W...we are going in search of something."
"In search of what?"
"Lord Sesshomaru, please--"
"Rin, I know what you are going after. I had rather hoped your loyalties to your lord would run deeper." Sesshomaru snapped, rising from the bed.
Rin bolted upright, kneeling in the midst of the twisted sheets, her face pale, "You knew! All along you knew and yet you played my body like an instrument to try and break me. You dare speak to me of loyalties when you were willing to deceive me into believing you desired me!"
"Never," Sesshomaru said evenly, his tone deadly as his pointed a finger at her, "Never question my methods, Rin. Why the secrecy? Did you feel you could not trust your lord and mate with such an undertaking? Perhaps you feared I might try and stop you. I fear at the end of your journey you would have been sadly disappointed, Rin."
"What do you mean? I wanted to tell you! Kagome begged me to keep it a secret, that we might surprise you and your brother with our immortality!"
Sesshomaru said nothing. He strode to a massive wooden cabinet that dominated one wall of the chamber and threw open its massive doors. Rin had never seen the enclosure opened before and soon understood why. Weapons of ever conceivable kind adorned the walls of the cabinet. Sesshomaru lifted a whitebladed dagger from the midst of the arsenal and tossed it onto the bed before Rin. His look was unreadable as always.
"Go on. Touch it. Pick it up. Its what you and Kagome would have gone after. That blade will no more grant you immortal life than Tokijin could save a life. The blade and its fable were a cruel trick created and written by a demon who loathed humans and his own kind. Human after human sought it out and died by it! Demons wielded it against one another, thinking if they kept it in their possession, they could save themselves."
Rin's hand shook as she slowly reached out and lifted the dagger. Its curved blade was the size of her arm! The bottom of her stomach seemed to have dropped out. A chill raced up her spine and the heavy weapon tumbled from Rin's fingers. She would never allow Kagome to touch it. She was no priestess like her friend but even Rin could feel the evil pulsing within the hilt of the dagger. Sesshomaru's words were true. The dagger would never give the gift of eternal life. It fed of the life and blood of its hapless victims, those seeing it as a last hope to be forever.
"We would have followed you, protected you, watched over you until the dangers drove you back here," Sesshomaru said flatly, retrieving the dagger and placing it back in its hiding place, "Don't look so defeated, Rin. There is still a way for both of you to become immortal if you so choose. Those damn scrolls in Kagome's time are filled with half-truths and some are total lies. Lucky for you and Kagome Jaken is an eavesdropper or you might have gotten yourselves into danger before InuYasha or I could aid you."
"Poor Kagome...she is going to be so heartbroken! My lord, she wishes with all her heart to become immortal."
Rin wrapped the covers around her, tucking her hair behind her ears and wishing for all the world the bed would just open up and swallow her whole. It all could have gone so horribly wrong! Slowly her head fell forward as her shoulders slumped. How would she break this news to Kagome? Being at InuYasha's side was all that mattered to her dear friend. For Kagome, it was as if that was her purpose in life, her place in life. What only moments ago had seemed like such a promising possibility now a doomed failure. Deep inside her own heart, Rin was saddened that the dagger was a false hope. A part of her had held on to the belief that the choice to be immortal would always be there. Now...it was gone.
"Nothing, in any life, is simple, Rin. Not the choices we make or the path we walk. The quest for immortality is equally as difficult. Time and again, I have seen it in your eyes. One moment your heart longs to live forever, that you might never resign yourself to death and risk my forgetting you. Yet at other times, I see how you cling so tightly to your mortality, fearing the possibility of somehow outliving me."
"Is it so awful, my lord, to have someone in this world who wishes to never be without you?" Rin asked, that same pure and innocent tone she had since she was a child.
"It is not something I ever thought would happen, Rin. Then again, since you came into my life, a great many things I never thought would happen have come to pass."
Rin gave him a gentle smile.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KeithKnightsGirl: I am REALLY straddling the fence on whether or not to have Rin become immortal. I don't want to play copycat and do as so many others have done. Then again, it would seem cruel to both Rin and Sesshomaru if she remains mortal and thereby limits their time together. And so, I am at a crossroads. The keep her mortal leaves the opportunity for so much more angst, tension and drama. I worry if I make her immortal...well...then I might run out of story and stuff to feed on. All the internal struggle and strife will be over.
S.J. Kidd: LOL I know what you mean about the chapters being so short. Some of them are written in the half an hour I have before I go into work and others are written once I am home from work. I don't want to pack too much into a chapter and run the risk of making it too confusing. I never thought this story would get to be so popular but I am grateful that it is. I am going to try and lengthen my chapters. I don't know how long I will have this story go. I am already thinking up a Kagome and InuYasha story in my head. However, Adored will always hold a special place for me.
Freaky Krazer: I'm going to give it my best shot to give Rin and Sesshomaru some more "quality time" together. LOL It can be a real challenge sometimes because I don't want to go too OOC with him. Our beloved dog demon lord is hardly the "Lets cuddle" type.
Odi et amo: GOD, I wish had enough forethought to plot this storyline out! ; ) I warned folks before, I make this up off the top of my head as I go. But I am so glad you are enjoying the story! You folks trully do keep me going on this project of mine. I read everyone's feedback and try my best to utilize it in my writing. I hope I don't disappoint!