Title: Ode to the Stars (1/1)
Author: Paola
Disclaimer: Ode to the Stars is based on characters and situations that belong to Rumiko Takahashi (and other production affiliates that have the right of ownership). No money is being made, and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Considerations: Similarities to other stories/events/passages are purely coincidental unless otherwise cited.
Ode to the Stars
Sesshomaru came into her life in the most unexpected of ways. She had been the child who was too curious for her own good, already aware that there might be bandits in the woods or the same thieves that had murdered her family, but still braving the forest to skip about and play by herself. That had been when she found him, lying in the middle of a tiny clearing, prone, but startlingly alert when he suddenly swung up with eyes the reddest she'd seen. He had initially regarded her with murder in his glare, with fierceness in his hiss, and with barely concealed wary in his weakened state, but Rin had been too innocent then, ignorant of the power he wielded, the danger he possessed, because he looked too beautiful to be a murderer, and curiosity of this strange being clawed at her insides and made her walk over to him. He must have thought her too foolish then, approaching a demon made volatile by his vulnerable state.
His impression of her might have not improved when she left him food he would not touch and drink that could satiate not his thirst. But curiosity won over again, and she came back and offered him what she'd thought then was food for his kind.
She'd been bruised by her lack of insight before she returned to his side, and he'd asked how she'd gotten herself hurt. Although he'd said he didn't care and was only curious, she'd smiled, not because she could understand him entirely, but because those words, the smooth cadence of his voice, were like gentle waves that washed over her and cleansed her in the process.
The villagers had taken pity on her, but their pity had been useless because they acted upon it with a suspiciousness that fueled them to mistrust her. They shouted at her, used the harshest of tones, but this ethereal creature — a demon, she had later come to know — the entity that should have been cruel, satanic…inhuman…had acted more humane than his mortal counterparts. He fascinated her, that even at the grip of imminent demise, he was the one that crowded her mind.
Not her family, let alone the villagers.
She knew she had died that night, but she learnt later on that he had taken a swing of his Tenseiga and vanquished the imps of the underworld. Since he'd returned the breath in her lungs, the life in her bones, she had followed him, obeyed his every order, respected him with all she was capable of, and he rewarded her with his company, his protection, his silent promise to always come back to and retrieve her whenever it was necessary for him to leave her. And that was enough. She hadn't been alone since then. She always had her Lord, her deliverer, her salvation, her Sesshomaru-sama.
Rin gazed at the stars as she waited for the arrival of her great dog demon. They had come a long way. She wasn't the child that chased butterflies and fleeting fancies anymore. She had matured. She had learned the ways of the world, the harsh realities, separations…death.
Death.
She was still many a year away from a natural, endless sleep, but she'd seen Thanatos at work during their travels, and she knew that one way or another, she would die again, once more be at the mercy of the Grim Reaper that praised no mortal. That was what she was afraid of, her ultimate fear realized, the coalescence of all her nightmares. She was afraid to grow old and wither away as time took its toll on her. It scared her to think that she was an ephemera, as transient as the snow in winter, as the flowers she grew to love picking for her Lord. She couldn't stand the thought that one day, she'd be too old for their voyage; that one day, she would lie in her deathbed and would wish that she hadn't met him — it wasn't because he would leave her to die alone, but because she would leave him to live on his own. He didn't always talk, didn't always heed her, but she knew him. She had observed. She had learned. Sesshomaru was a solitary creature, keeping her in his company for functional purposes, if for nothing else. She knew he would not ever say he needed anyone, that her absence would scratch his reserve, but in her heart, she knew. She knew he would miss her if she were gone.
She trusted him to miss her.
"Rin," she heard the even accent of Sesshomaru's voice float across the glade to ring in her ears in a pleasant rhythm.
She looked up, and there he was, standing a distance away from her, bathed in the pale glory of the full moon, the breeze dancing in his hair, his aura swishing around him in invisible waves that somehow, just somehow, she could see. And at that instant, a smile blossomed on her lips, as radiant as the cloudless night, as pure as the stars that twinkled above them.
"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru!" She hopped off the rock she was perched upon, putting one foot ahead of the other then quickening her gait as her Lord started to walk away, a graceful demon that made even the wind around him unworthy to graze his skin.
The mortal and her sempiternal knight walked in silence, the latter ahead, leading them to a destination Rin didn't know and didn't care to ask. She was just happy to be in his presence again, trailing him with the loyalty he evoked from her.
Before long, she finally caught up with him, fondly eyeing the fluffy pelt that always hung from his shoulder, that always swayed subtly with his movements. She'd only felt the softness of the pelt once, twice, she couldn't remember, but only when he was the one who held her, deigned to touch her, and she didn't dare stain it with her dirty hands, not without his consent. But for some reason, she felt compelled to touch it, to run her fingers through the white fur, and she did, unconsciously.
She belatedly became aware of her actions when she noticed that Sesshomaru had stopped walking to look at her over his shoulder. Her hands stilled, wondering if she'd violated his personal space, if she'd disrespected him in some way, but before her concern grew, her Lord nodded at her and continued in his stride like nothing happened. Rin smiled, keeping up with his pace as she ran her fingers across the softest thing she'd ever felt, bewitched.
It was a simple action, nothing grand even in its barest simplicity, but she'd deciphered what his permission had meant. Sesshomaru was skeptical by nature, raised to not trust so easily, but here he was, showing a measure of faith in her. His trust was a viable entity that cherished her littlest fancies, and it kindled a flame in Rin's heart. Then and there, her love for her Lord amplified, soared to heights she hadn't known it could reach. She wasn't entirely too sure if she were deserving to love a being too exquisite for the likes of her, but she loved him nonetheless, with every beat of her pulse, with every pulsation of her heart, with every surge of her soul.
Death… It was an abstract thought that every now and then would plague her mind, but the presence of her Sesshomaru-sama had always been enough to distract her from her wayward thoughts, to ease her discomfort with her disheartening ideations. She wasn't eternal, but she would continue to love him until her dying breath, until she would die the second time.
Rin drew a deep breath, and right there, under the illumination of the stars, she swore that she would always love her Sesshomaru-sama, until the stars lost their twinkle, until the universe lost its magic.
And somehow, she knew, that somewhere in his heart, no matter how walled it was, how carefully guarded he kept it, a tiny pulse beat for her.
-The End
A/N:
I didn't put any genre because I don't know what to put. Lol. It's an open fic. It can be romantic love that Rin felt, or platonic love for a father figure she missed in her life. So…which one do you want to interpret this with?
Again, this is another experiment for this fandom. I've only written one other Inuyasha fanfiction, so I'm still getting a feel for it. You really only have to say if it's a thumb's-up or thumb's-down, so click that submit-review button…or I'll sic Fluffy on you, Toukijin, Tenseiga, and all! Wink.