Cat Comb

A/N: A small piece about Sesshomaru and Rin was requested of me in comments section on AO3, so here you go.

Tomorrow is a short Kouga piece queued, but the next piece after it will be some Mir/San as was requested in a comment here. Stay tuned!

o0o

It was a market day and there were stalls and tables located along the main road through the village. People from neighbouring villages and a few from much farther locations were showing and selling their stuff - fabrics, sandals, yukatas, vegetables, rice, bowls, spoons, various blends of tea and much more was laid out on their tables or hanging from racks. Everyone was joyful and talking while buying stuff or just watching it.

Rin was one of those doing mostly watching. She had no money to buy stuff, she didn't need much. She could find food in the forest, her lord was seeing to her being clad properly, there was no house for her to gather things to being to. Her lord's palace was full of much prettier things anyway.

Still, everything was fascinating and Rin was curious about so many things. And since Jaken was busy somewhere and her lord was visiting an ally in a forest nearby Rin had a lot of free time to watch stuff. Ah-Un were following her closely, making sure the girl was safe. People around did their best to pretend there was no dragon-like two-headed youkai following a little girl like a puppy. The said girl went to a stall where hair pins and combs were laid out on a red fabric. A middle-aged woman was carving a comb while waiting for customers. She spared a glance at Rin.

"Would you like to buy something, girl?" she asked, but Rin shook her head.

"Rin just wants to look at the combs," the girl confessed, embaressed. "She has no money, but things here are so pretty!"

The woman smiled at her praise and looked at the girl again. She looked so innocent and there was no parent or sibling with her.

"Are you alone here?"

"Rin has no family," the girl said. "But she can take care of herself and she can always count on her lord and Ah-Un," she smiled and the woman's eyes widened when her gaze followed the little finger pointing to a youkai standing nearby, partially hidden behid a rack with pans. The woman spent an hour talking to the orphan girl with a youkai as a guardian - she could relate to Rin since she was an orphan as well until she had found a new family.

"Rin," came a cold voice and suddenly both the craftswoman and the girl looked up from the comb the former was carving with a small knife. An another youkai was standing before the stall - a silver haired man in white, his golden eyes emotionless and expression lacking emotions, a fluffy thing hanging from his shoulder.

"My lord!" Rin greeted cheerfully. "Lady Asuka was telling Rin about making combs!"

"I see. Come, Rin, we need to leave," the youkai said. The girl smiled widely at the woman before taking a few steps to follow the man. Asuka licked her lips as she saw the girl look at her combs with longing while passing by them.

"Wait!" she called out. The pair stopped. "Rin, if you want to I can give you one of my combs, as a gift to remember me by." She didn't have anything to call her own, an orphan following a cold youkai. Maybe a comb of a friendly stranger could help her keep this innocent, precious smile forever. "Please, pick one."

Rin looked at her lord who just nodded. The girl looked again at the combs and bit her bottom lip, choosing. Then she picked one of Asuka's old ones, not really pretty or detailed.

"Rin would like to take this one," she said in a small voice. "It reminds her of her lord."

"Oh, are you sure? It's an old work, I had just started and I couldn't carve emotions well..." she looked up and met golden eyes of the youkai before looking back to the comb with a cat face - the animal was supposed to smile, but the curve of its mouth was just not right to indicate a smile. "Oh, well, you're right, Rin. It is yours."

"Thank you!" Rin hugged the woman before running to join her lord. Sesshomaru looked down at the comb she was gripping. A small smirk appeared on his lips.

"Rin, you made a friend," he noticed.

"Yes, my lord!" she said cheerfully and looked from her smiling lord to her smilling cat comb.