Chapter 13
A/N: I felt a tad bit bad for Sesshoumaru in the last chapter—what with making him eat all alone. I know he seems a bit OOC, but I think it fits the plot. So, to make up with for his loneliness, I shall give him someone to have fun with in this chapter. Mwahahahahaha.
Also, if it means anything, I was listening to "Her Legacy" by With Broken Wings. It doesn't have any words, but I highly recommend you download it. I mean buy it…because we all know that downloading music is illegal. winkwink.
There were two things in life that he always had a hard time figuring out. One was how to work the DVD player that his uncle had given them for Christmas the year before. The other was the maddening idea that he no longer had control over his younger brother. He knew that things would be difficult when their father passed away, but he didn't expect Inuyasha to disown him completely. And that's exactly what it felt like.
Methodically rubbing his thumb and forefinger over his eyes, Sesshoumaru let out a low groan and leaned back in his leather chair. There were bills littered across his desk and a pile of papers he had to fill out by the end of the day. But his mind wasn't on any of this.
"Where did I go wrong with him?" he muttered slightly, he voice barely above a whisper. With strength that no human man possessed, he slammed his fist down on the desk causing the ornaments on the corner the rattle before falling to the ground with a slight thud.
Sesshoumaru was about to walk from the room in need of a break from his work when the phone rang out amongst the silence. He was going to ignore it and let the machine pick it up but after three rings he decided that it could be important.
"Sesshoumaru speaking," he spoke briskly into the receiver, an air of sophistication flowing from his lips. He knew immediately that it was just another business call and let out a silent groan of annoyance. The man on the other line relayed him the news of some meeting next weekend with a shaking voice and sharp breaths. He was intimidated by Sesshoumaru, and that's just the way he liked it. "Just give this information to my secretary, she'll tell me about it later."
Without a formal closing, Sesshoumaru slammed the phone down on its base and walked from his office. He needed some coffee, and there was a small bistro down the street that he liked to haunt on his spare time.
As he expected, the small café wasn't very packed. There were only two tables being occupied when he walked in, and he quickly recognized one of the regulars. With a slight nod of recognition Sesshoumaru sat down in his own seat.
He didn't need to see the menu to know what he was going to get. The young waitress took his order with her normal cheery smile before heading off towards the kitchen.
It was places like this that allowed Sesshoumaru to escape from the fast-paced life of a businessman trying to raise his little brother. The bistro itself looked like something out of a movie. With a white picket fence lining the small outdoor seating area and the yellow walls, it looked more like his grandmother's house than it did a café. And, he had to wonder; maybe that was exactly what he liked about it.
The sound of his coffee being placed in front of him snapped Sesshoumaru out of the slight daze that he had stumbled into. Looking up to thank the waitress, expecting it to be Cathy—the waitress that always served his table, Sesshoumaru had to do a double take at the young girl standing before him.
"Is there anything else I can get you?" she spoke her rehearsed words with a smile and pulled a few napkins out of the pouch on her hip. She was going to ask again when he finally blinked a few times and responded.
"No, I'm fine," Sesshoumaru spoke briskly, returning his eyes to his coffee. "Thank you."
"Well, my name is Jessica, so just call on me if you change your mind," with practiced agility, she turned on her heels and walked back to the counter, all the while shaking her hips seductively. Sesshoumaru had to clear his throat to snap himself out of perverted thoughts.
'That was different,' he thought absentmindedly. This was the first time that Cathy didn't wait on his table, and although it wasn't that big of a deal, it did have Sesshoumaru in a bit of an excited mood.
He recalled a time when Inuyasha argued that he was so uptight because he never got laid. Sesshoumaru knew that his brother was just speaking out of rage and arrogance, but he couldn't help but think that part of it was true. Maybe what he needed was a girlfriend. Not a one night stand, mind you—that just wasn't his style. What he needed was someone that he could talk to, someone who would make it clear that he had a life outside of work.
Sesshoumaru didn't even realize that his coffee had gone cold in his hands, the steam no longer rising and the smell growing old, until Jessica returned—the same smile on her face.
"Was there something wrong with your order, sir?" she asked, a concerned look flickering across her face for the briefest of moments.
"Oh, no, I just lost track of the time," he smiled back. He realized that this Jessica girl was only a few years younger than he was, with hair as black as the darkest night held up in one messy pony tail on the side of her head. There was an innocent glow in her eyes that made her youth seem endless, a trait that he had only seen once before in the eyes of Inuyasha's mother.
"It happens to the best of us," she was trying to make conversation, but her nerves quickly got the best of her. She winked at him then, a glow to her face, "I can get you another cup if you'd like, and don't worry, I won't charge you. Just promise not to tell the boss."
He nodded, not wanting to seem too forward, and handed her the now cold cup of coffee. With that same smile she turned back to the counter up front, leaving him alone at his table once more.
Looking around he noticed that he was the only customer left in the small bistro, the other tables already cleaned and their chairs stacked neatly on top. He felt a little embarrassed, knowing that they wanted to close up and that he was so far gone into his own little world that he didn't notice what was going on around him. Leaning back in his chair, he attempted to peer over the counter to see who was still working.
The only person he could see was Jessica, her legs dangling carelessly as she sat on the counter, waiting for the coffee to brew.
"So what brings you in?" she asked casually once she noticed his gaze. He picked up how relaxed she seemed, her stance was calm and she actually seemed to want to hear his answer.
"I just needed to get out of the office," he laughed sourly, a smile tugging on the edge of his lips. "I don't recognize you, how long have you been working here?"
She seemed to think for a moment, her index finger rising to tap her lips playfully. "About a week, I suppose. You must be a regular, huh?"
"I guess you could say that," he was going to say more when the beeping of the coffee machine sounded between them. Jumping down from the counter, Jessica sharply sucked in air as she landed on her ankle the wrong way. In seconds he was by her side, an arm wrapped protectively around her waist and helping to steady her. "Are you okay?"
She couldn't hide the blush that spread across her cheeks as his hands snaked around her midsection, his grip tightening as she stood up. Brushing a rogue hair behind her ear, she smiled up to him. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you."
He suddenly realized what he was doing and snapped his arms to his sides almost embarrassedly. A slight blush graced his cheeks, but he quickly replaced it with a scowl.
"Is something wrong?" she asked when she noticed the look on his face. Turning to retrieve the coffee, she pulled out two mugs and poured herself a cup. Adding two creams to hers, she handed him the cup and asked again.
"No, it's just…I wasn't thinking when I grabbed you just then," he said modestly, turning his eyes to the window and bringing the cup to his lips.
"Don't feel bad, if it wasn't for you it could've been even worse." There was that smile again, that smile that seemed to trap Sesshoumaru in a warm box of good feelings. He found himself staring again, but this time he didn't bother pulling away. "It's Rin, by the way."
Her comment threw him off slightly, and Sesshoumaru was stuck with a confused on his face. "Come again?"
"My name—it isn't Jessica, it's Rin. Rin Yuukaku." He glanced at her name tag, which he just realized read Christine. But he knew that she was being honest, and, somehow, the name Rin seemed to fit her perfectly.
"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Rin." He smiled, extending his hand as a friendly gesture. "I'm Sesshoumaru Takahashi."
"The pleasure's all mine," she smiled wickedly, and he knew that she wasn't as innocent as she seemed. "We should get together sometime."
"I think that would be great," they sat for a moment, both drinking their coffee but their eyes locked firmly on the other's. There was a heated tension between them that Sesshoumaru faintly picked up between his jumbled thoughts.
The next thing he knew her fingers were entangled in his hair and her lips were pressed ferociously over his own, the coffee mug that was once in her hand lay strewn across the floor. The air was sucked from his lungs as they both fought for dominance, not a coherent thought running through either of their minds. They were caught up in the moment and both of them were determined to make it last as long as possible.
In a desperate move he shoved her into the opposite counter, a few pots rattling at the force of the impact. She let out a gasp as her back collided with the wall, but her mind quickly became fogged as his lips found the crook of her neck. Both of their breathes were coming in ragged pants and he moved up to capture her lips once again, cutting off any air supply she could have been relying on. Moving quickly, she wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him closer to her.
She clasped her arms round his neck in a vice grip as his right hand slid up her shirt and his other pushed firmly on her hip. Pulling back for hair, he suddenly faltered. He didn't know this girl, and yet here he was—pinning her to the wall of a café and ravishing her. This wasn't right.
He pulled away sharply, causing her to drop awkwardly to the ground with her hand clasped to the wall to steady her.
"I'm sorry, I don't usually act that way," he blurted out quickly, his breaths still coming in short intervals.
"Me neither," she answered honestly, trying to straighten out her now ruined ponytail. "I don't know what came over me just then."
They stood opposite of each other for a second—a second that dragged on for an eternity—neither of them looking the other in the eye. The tension was so thick it was almost tangible. Sesshoumaru knew that someone had to make the first move, and when he realized that she wasn't going to, he stepped forward.
"Listen, I would appreciate it if you didn't judge me off of this little…situation," he said after a moment, searching his brain for the right words. "But I meant it when I said I'd like to meet up with you sometime."
"Same," she answered simply. She met his gaze then, noticing that he was just as flustered as she was, and couldn't help but smile at him. "There's something special about you, Sesshoumaru Takahashi."
She couldn't lie to herself; she had seen him around town a few times before. Always in his pin-stripe suit and an entourage at his heels, she could tell that he was somebody important.
When he walked into the café she asked Cathy if she could take his table, knowing that she may never get the opportunity to be this close to someone of his status again. And, as fate would have it, it proved to be a very good idea.
With practiced ease, she wrote her number down on a stranded napkin and slid it into his hand. As he clutched the small paper between his fingers she turned and began to clean up around the small kitchen, signaling that the conversation was over. He got the hint and, albeit reluctantly, left the bistro without another word.
The second he was out the door she collapsed against the counter, he legs turning to jelly and her arms grasping the linoleum for support. A long sigh escaped her lips as she got the sudden urge to do the happy dance right there in the kitchen.
Composing herself, only to jump with giddiness and have to do it again, Rin grabbed the shop keys from the small rack on the wall and headed for the door. With a jangle of the keys, she locked the door and walked off into the crisp Tokyo night, smiling at the first signs of autumn graced the surrounding trees.
She meant it when she said there was something special about Sesshoumaru. He was different from the other guys she had known; he was powerful, forceful—almost demonic. In a good way, of course.
As she walked towards the apartment she called home, she couldn't help but wonder if he would actually call her. She felt like a schoolgirl again, but she had to admit that it wasn't a bad feeling. For the first time in a long time, she felt alive. She felt as if she could accomplish anything—that was, until she dropped her cell phone in a puddle.
Maybe things were the same as they always were, maybe she would just stay the same clumsy Rin she had always been—or maybe, just maybe, they were about to change.
Inuyasha could have sworn that Sesshoumaru come home with a bounce in his step that night. He was two seconds away from skipping when the hanyou shouted a few obscenities over his shoulder.
"What's got you all keyed up?" he spat, turning his gaze from the TV for a second before realizing that the infomercial was far more interesting.
"I guess you could say that I met somebody," Sesshoumaru smiled, taking off his coat and sitting beside his younger brother on the couch. "What are you watching?"
"An advert for some body lotion," he smiled wickedly as the scantily clad lady came back on the screen. "So what do you mean by you 'met somebody?'"
"Exactly that," Sesshoumaru seemed less interested in the TV as he started to tell the events of the night. "Her name is Rin and she works down at that café I always go to. She's a really nice—"
"Save it," Inuyasha interrupted rudely. "I don't really care what you did. I'm just waiting for this chick to take her top off."
"Well, I'm going to tell you whether you like it or not. Actually, I think you might be quite proud of me," he paused when he heard Inuyasha scoff. "I almost took her right there in the kitchen."
"Right," Inuyasha didn't bother holding in his laugh. "If that's the case, then why didn't you?"
"Because I'm a gentleman, and I realized that I barely knew the girl."
"Don't come in here making up stories, you Republican Boushwa Princess," Inuyasha turned to give him a mocking look before focusing on the TV again.
"What the hell does that mean?" Sesshoumaru laughed, knowing the he had his brother pegged.
"I don't know, but it sure sounded cool," he shrugged.
Sesshoumaru sighed and stood up, preparing to head off to bed. "Whatever," he mumbled with a smile. Taking one last glance at his brother, he made his way to his bedroom.
"There must be something in the air," Inuyasha muttered bitterly before turning up the volume on the TV. A happy grin spread across his face as the camera zoomed in.
AN: Hmm…it was a bit short, and I think Inuyasha was a bit OOC. But I just wanted to make him seem like your average guy. Also, I know that most people don't usually attack each other in a fury of kisses when they first meet, but I wanted they're relationship to be different from most. Plus, Sesshy seems like a pretty forceful guy.
Oh, and also the word Yuukaku means orchid in Japanese (or at least that's what an online translator told me). I figured that since Rin seems to be picking flowers for Sesshoumaru all the time in the anime, naming her after one of the most exotic flowers around would be appropriate.
Anyway, thanks again for all of you who have reviewed (or even simply read) my story! It means the world to me!
