A/N: I've finished writing this little diversion and woah – it turned out to have loads more heart and plot than it had any right to. (I'd originally thought it'd be substance-less fluff.) Updates will be regular, probably bi-monthly. Hope you enjoy!
Chapter Four – Rin Alters the Plan
Rin's distaste did not cloud her skepticism on the validity of their supposed date. She hung around for the last hour of the day, starting her homework in Sesshoumaru's office, which meant he had to watch his assistant try to hide her thrill over Saya's discovery and So'unga's true powers every time she entered to confirm new details. Had they not planned tonight to be the inauguration of their ruse, he knew she would have stayed late, donning the pair of glasses she kept in her desk drawer rather than ease the strain of eyes she had overtaxed all day.
It didn't help she had painted herself so wildly disparate from her natural disposition, or at least the one she'd displayed since arriving. For all her acting skills, being vapid or inane did not come naturally to Kagome Higurashi.
She stood behind his desk now, working her bottom lip and looking miserable. Ink from her pen stained her hands, and her right heel bounced up and down, vibrating with barely-checked anticipation.
Sesshoumaru could feel Rin peeking up from her sheet of math problems and turned in his chair, taking Kagome's wrist gently.
"Is something wrong?" He asked, thumbing her forearm. It wouldn't do for her to give herself away so early, and he wanted to draw her attention to the misstep. "You seem… agitated."
She put her back to the room, leaning against his desk and sitting on a corner of a photocopied text about Myouga. The action made her visibly flinch, but she kept her seat.
"I'm just nervous about our date," she fussed halfheartedly, unable to quite call forth the syrupy sweetness of earlier. "What if you don't like me?"
Rin made a gagging sound from her corner, and Sesshoumaru cleared his throat meaningfully, lifting the wrist he held so it was in plain view. If he was pursuing the woman struggling not to care she was crumpling something she deemed precious with her backside, she was owed untold respect.
"That's impossible," he asserted, pretending for the both of them. He would never indulge such a blatant bid for flattery – nor spend time with those seeking such – but found his next words easy to birth. "You have already proven yourself remarkable."
Kagome shifted, flinching again as she heard the crinkle of bent paper under her. "Oh Sesshoumaru," she mustered a dreamy sigh. "You say the nicest things."
A loud crack filled the air, and Kagome glanced over her shoulder. Rin had broken her pencil in half, strangled in a closed, shaking fist.
"Must've pressed too hard," she mumbled.
His assistant drew back to him, her smile more genuine this time. Ink-smudged fingers grazed the claws encircling her wrist, curling down in a squeeze. Although she didn't speak, he could see her sentiment clearly.
His daughter's willful spirit had found an appreciative audience; she liked Rin immensely, regardless if the measure wasn't reciprocated.
An inordinate amount of pleasure filled him at the thought, though he didn't care to examine why.
"I'll get you another one, Rinny," she offered, drawing her arm free. "You just wait right there," Kagome rose and turned, unable to stop herself from smoothing a crease from the document before striding for the door.
Sesshoumaru's lips quirked; his assistant might not be her authentic self in entirety around him, but her need for important projects to be handled with care was not something she'd feigned. As she departed, he mentally picked out other pieces he knew to be true, and this time, completely missed Rin's close study.
'Escorting' may have been too strong a descriptor, but Rin's decision to follow them down to the lobby, and out to the summoned town car was little short of it. As Sesshoumaru held the door open for Kagome to climb into the back, his daughter waved cheerfully at the driver.
"Where are you taking her?" Rin asked, projecting her voice so the employee would hear.
Sesshoumaru resisted the urge to utter an oath. "'Iris', I believe" he ground out.
The driver nodded from the cab. "An excellent choice, sir," he agreed.
There would be no pretense of leaving for a restaurant only to drive around aimlessly or drop his assistant off at her apartment now.
Sesshoumaru stooped and sat beside Kagome, sending Rin an angry look. "When I return home, we will review the importance of boundaries and privacy," he frowned. "Again."
Her cheer didn't falter as she twined her fingers behind her back. "Whatever you say."
He swung the door closed, and the driver turned into traffic without any more directive, deftly maneuvering into an open lane.
From his side, he could feel Kagome's nervousness flood the enclosed space – her breathing had quickened in the moments before he'd joined her, and he caught her knuckles whiten and strain as they curled into tight fists atop the mittens in her lap.
"She… is… thorough," she managed, the words almost a wheeze.
Sesshoumaru clicked a button on the door's dash, raising the privacy partition before palming the upholstery between them. "Are you alright?"
She started to nod, then reconsidered, shaking her head vigorously, sending waves of hair about her shoulders. The pompom of her hat quaked, and she opened her fists enough to yank it off as heat filled the backseat. Crumpling it in a renewed vice, her eyes drifted up to his, wide with panic.
No, he jolted. Terror.
Acts of touch and comfort had once been unknown, unneeded things to him. Fatherhood had taught him more in a handful of years than a lifetime roaming the countryside. Sesshoumaru scooted closer and palmed her back, resting outstretched claws between her hunched shoulders. "Breathe," he ordered.
Kagome gulped in a jagged inhale, lifting his hand. Her exhale was shallow, and she rushed for more air, wheezing faster.
"I will fix this," Sesshoumaru pledged, suppressing his guilt and anger. There would be time to castigate himself later. "But you must calm down before you start to hyperventilate."
"Y-You don't understand," Kagome's voice was almost a whimper. "With a restaurant, he'll f-find out."
Her thing was indeed a 'who', and Sesshoumaru's mind conjured dark images of a faceless man, trying to cow this woman's friendliness and chatter with swift, explosive blows. Words stuck in his throat, and he groped to get them out. "I will not let him hurt you," he uttered.
She shook her head again, and he saw a sheen of building tears well in her gaze. "It's not your job to protect me, sir."
"Seeing as how I thrust you into this situation, despite your protests, my role seems clear," he answered immediately. The faceless man loomed behind his eyes, doling a series of vicious kicks as Kagome tried shielding herself in a corner. A growl seized his spine, ripping its way up and out – the habits of long ago not nearly as buried as he thought. Those under his charge were his; none would threaten them. Such audacity was a personal affront. Barely aware his assistant now fell in that category, Sesshoumaru knew only that he wouldn't stand for a single strand of her constantly-escaping hair to fall prey to such violence again.
"I won't have you harmed for aiding my thoughtless whim," he rasped hoarsely. He should have been more tolerant of Rin's obsession – it was selfish, unfair, and now dangerous, to have dragged Kagome into this.
She sniffled, trying for a deeper, more-controlled inhale. "Told you I was messy," she joked weakly, easing the throttle she had choked her hat in.
His hand was still splayed across her back, and Sesshoumaru seemed unable to pull it away, staring as its rise and fall began to slow. "I believe you are just more honest about the disorder in your life than I," he murmured.
"I am that," Kagome whispered. "Honest, I mean. With you at least."
Had his earlier reflections about her presenting only a side been aloud? Or had he become so easy to read over the centuries? "Perhaps I am as predictable as you originally supposed," he mused.
"No," she wiped the corners of her eyes, swallowing down tears she refused to let fall. "You're nothing like I expected."
Sesshoumaru couldn't tell if that was a good thing or not, and, in a rare fit of hesitation, lacked the courage to ask.
