"Rin!" Jaken called out. "Where is that silly girl?" He mumbled to himself stumbling along the rock bed that ran along the hot springs.
"I'm over here Master Jaken!" Jaken looked in the direction of Rin's voice and saw her waving at him.
"I've been looking for you everywhere," he lied coming towards her.
"Wait! Don't come any closer!" Rin called out running to Jaken. "Lady Timmain isn't descent."
"I don't want to look at that demon slayer," Jaken exclaimed offended. "Here!" And he shoved a dark green kimono into Rin's arms.
"Thank you, Master Jaken! Now Lady Timmain will have something to wear while her clothes dry." She took the kimono humming to herself and skipped back to where she had been scrubbing Timmain's clothes clean. "This will look so pretty on her," Rin said quietly to herself.
Jaken watched Rin skipping away and shook his head in disgust as he turned away to head back to his Lord. Why Lord Sesshomaru is wasting time on this demon slayer, I will never understand, he thought to himself.
Timmain opened her eyes as she heard Rin approach calling out to her. She sat up and saw the green kimono in Rin's arms.
"What's that?" She asked Rin indicating the kimono.
"It's a kimono for you to wear while your clothes dry," Rin answered happily.
"Why are my clothes wet?" Timmain asked sitting up quickly ready to get out of the hot springs.
"I washed them," Rin grinned proudly. "They didn't smell so good," she added quietly not wanting to offend Timmain.
Timmain sat back down in the hot spring suddenly feeling a little embarrassed and self conscious about the fact that she had smelled so bad. She thought it was just the demon trying to humiliate her more than anything.
Rin set the kimono down and sat behind Timmain at the edge of the hot spring and started to comb the tangles out of her wet hair. Timmain sat quietly as Rin ran her fingers through her hair and listened to her humming. The little girl reminded Timmain of her own niece that she couldn't stop a tear from escaping the corner of her eye. She quickly wiped it away trying to keep the sadness from the memory of her family's death from overwhelming her.
"Rin," Timmain said quietly. "Where are you father and mother?"
Rin stopped untangling Timmain's hair and froze for a minute before swallowing to answer. "They died."
"Did the demon kill them?" Timmain, without seeing Rin, could sense her first question had upset the little girl but she needed to know. She needed to know why this little girl was traveling with a demon and what the demon's intentions were.
Timmain was mildly surprised to here Rin come to Lord Sesshomaru's defense.
"No!" Rin exclaimed proudly. "Lord Sesshomaru saved me from the wolves that were chasing me. My village was attacked by them." She added sadly.
"Why did he save you?" Timmain asked suspiciously.
"Because Lord Sesshomaru is very kind. He takes care of me and protects me. He's rescued me several times from mean demons who wanted to hurt me."
"That never would have happened if you hadn't been with him," Timmain said under her breath.
"What was that?" Rin asked not hearing what Timmain had said.
"Nothing. Just thinking out loud." Timmain stopped her questioning and allowed Rin to continue combing through her hair allowing the little girls gentle touch relax her. The warmth of the springs felt good on her tired body and she soon felt her self drifting off to sleep despite the questions and suspicions that still plagued her about Sesshomaru. Her experience with demons told her they never did anything out of kindness. This demon confused her. He allowed a little human girl to travel with him out of what seemed to be kindness, yet he had saved Timmain to get answers and now allowed her to travel with him to use her ability to sense the jewel. Either this demon was really kind but didn't want his weakness to show or he wasn't and had some motive behind all his actions. Timmain believed it was the latter.
"Do you have a family?" Rin asked breaking Timmain out of her thoughts.
"I did, they were killed by the demon that killed me," Timmain answered sadly before smirking at the thought that she had been dead and here she was now. Very much alive but not her family. Her family who had been innocent. They should have been saved, not me, Timmain thought.
"I'm sorry," Rin said quietly hoping she hadn't hurt Timmain's feelings. Timmain turned around and saw the sad look on Rin's face.
"Don't feel bad for me," Timmain explained. "It's part of life as I've learned the hard way. We just have to be strong and be grateful for our lives. To live in a way that would make our families proud." Timmain quoted part of a prayer that was chanted during the burial of loved ones in her land. She smiled gently at Rin when she saw that Rin was comforted by her words. "I'm ready to get out now. Will you hand me that kimono?" Rin nodded and fetched the kimono for Timmain. Timmain got out of the hot spring, took the kimono from Rin and put it on. She looked down at Rin and found the little girl staring wide eyed at her.
"What's wrong?" She asked wondering what could have gotten into the girl.
"Lady Timmain you're very beautiful," she breathed. "Like a princess." Then she ran off, picked a flower and ran back to Timmain. "Here, for your hair."
Timmain bent down and allowed Rin to place the flower above her ear. She was amused with the girl thinking she looked like a princess. Timmain knew she could be intimidating but had never considered herself as beautiful. Being beautiful was not a useful trait for a demon slayer so Timmain never cared how she looked to others. But she soon found out it made her uncomfortable to see that people would look at her differently now that she was cleaned up.
Rin looked up at her more often with admiration and even Jaken, when seeing her emerge from the trees into the camp, couldn't keep his mouth from dropping in shock. Only Sesshomaru didn't give any indication that he noticed.
To Rin, Timmain reminded her of Lord Sesshomaru. She carried her self with an air of dignity with her back straight and shoulders back. Like a noble lady. And like a noble lady she held her head high and her light brown eyes and thin nose made her look unapproachable yet allowing others to admire her from afar. The green robe and Timmain's short hair cut revealed a long thin slender neck. The dirt washed from Timmain's hair had also revealed that her hair was actually lighter than the dark brown that it had seemed before. The dried blood and hardened dirt washed from hands made her slender hands look like they never did any hard work unless you looked at the palms and saw the calluses from carrying a heavy sword.
Timmain immediately grew tired of the way Rin kept looking at her but was happy that for once it had shocked Jaken enough to keep him silent. The only good thing was that when Timmain and Rin came into the camp to sit by the fire a rabbit was roasting over it.