"But in the garden of simple, where all of us are nameless, you were never anything but beautiful to me."

— Ani DiFranco

A distance away from the village, further than they had intended to really go, a little way up a relatively small mountain, was a couple that had found themselves unfortunately stranded in the snow. The two hadn't planned for this, though the Lord in attendance would never have admitted that, and they stopped for a moment to collect themselves. Huddled up under the tree, Rin cupped her hands around her mouth and blew warm air onto her stiff fingers. She stuck them back under her arms and lifted her eyes to the bland grey sky, large puffs of snow falling onto her upturned face and melting quickly.

Wrinkling her nose, and wiping it against her shoulder, she turned to look at where they had come from and noticed that their footprints had already started to become fuzzy divots as they filled and slowly were erased. She watched with mild surprise, realizing that she hadn't really noticed that the snow was falling so fast. Not that she was worried, she would never consider herself lost if she was with her Lord.

She slanted her eyes over to where he was standing, a couple of strides or so away from her scanning the forest through the static vision the snow made. She idly glanced around in the same direction as him but she saw nothing and went back to looking at the real eye candy here in the relative protection of the tree. He was so pale, his long silver hair so fair, that if she let her eyes unfocus then she could almost lose him in the white of their surroundings. Rin pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and resting her cheek against there as she continued to study her fiancé.

It was so interesting to her how he never seemed bothered by the cold. Or the heat. Honestly, he seemed to not even notice the weather around him unless it was so windy that his hair became a bother, but even then it was always respectful enough to never blow around in his face. Rin smiled absently at him and shivered a little. How nice would it be to not need to worry about wearing a coat, she thought ruefully as she clenched her teeth to stop the chattering. Sesshomaru turned to look at her over his shoulder, probably alerted by the creaking of her jaw. She smiled sweetly and wiggled her fingers at him, wondering what was on his mind.

"You're cold," he pointed out, voice even, feeling almost too loud in the silence that the fresh snow created.

"Yes," she agreed, still resting her face against her knees. He stared at her and she knew that he was weighing his options, because he had never made an observation of her discomfort that wasn't closely followed by a solution. As he did his thinking, Rin also let herself also parse through what they had available to them, just for fun while she waited for his verdict.

They could walk back, but the reason that they had stopped to take cover was because the quickly falling snow was getting to be a little too cumbersome for her to get through with her little human legs, not to mention the whipping wind that made it impossible to stay warm. They could fly back, but as a semi-experienced flier, she knew that it was much, much, much colder further up in the air as well as flying through it quickly. She would be an icicle before they reached the warmth of the village. Honestly, the safest bet for her was that they stayed where they were and started a fire.

He seemed to come to the same conclusions that she had because he adopted a very tight-lipped expression that he only used when Jaken really irritated him or if he was presented with an option he had no choice but to take. He walked over towards her, coming more fully under the cover of the tree, head tilted up towards some of the lower hanging branches. She turned her head and began to look around for her pack as he extended his arm above him and snapped off a whole branch that just happened to be so unlucky as to be growing too close to his reach. Rin peered around the contents of her pack trying to see inside, as the sounds of the branch being broken echoed around the silent area like fireworks. She pulled out her flint just as he dropped a pile of differently sized sticks a few feet away from the trunk of the tree where she had been leaned up against.

"Thank you, my Lord," she smiled over at him as she hauled herself to her feet, flint clutched in numb fingers. He inclined his head silently while he watched her arrange the mess of sticks he had bestowed upon her and fumble around with her flint, dropping it once, before finally getting a fire started. Shivering, Rin rubbed her hands against her arms, trying to generate some warmth as the small fire slowly started to grow.

The sound of crunching snow came from behind her and she turned to look over her shoulder at Sesshomaru as he walked closer to the tree before lowering himself down to sit up against it. With equal parts dismay and excitement, Rin took that to mean that they weren't going anywhere any time soon. Which meant that she was going to have more time to spend with him… alone. She grinned a secret, mischievous smile at the thought of monopolizing more of his time all to herself but as she wiggled her cold, numb toes, she realized that also meant she wasn't going to be warm any time soon either.

Unless…

Rin swiveled so that she could look at him a little easier, staring at him as he reclined back, eyes closed, seeming so unbothered by everything. Her eyes slid down to his lap, his warm, cozy-looking lap, the incredibly plush looking pelt he wore, and she wondered if he would let her tuck herself into him. At the thought, the mental image of her pressed up against him, surrounded by the soft fur, held in his strong arms… You're so cold, the Sesshomaru in her fantasy whispered, nose pressed against her blushing cheek, Let me help you with that…

"Rin," his voice reached her through her dream and it popped, dissolving around her back to reality. She jumped, squeaking a bit, face flushing bright red, realizing he had just caught her staring very intently at his lap and making wistful sighing sounds. His amber eyes had opened, head lifted back up, looking at her impassively but she could have sworn that one of his eyebrows was pitched up at her, barely and delicately arched, and she swallowed.

"I—I wasn't…" She trailed off, wondering if she could just throw herself out into the snow and save herself from the mortification. Biting her lips, Rin swallowed and then lifted her chin deciding to go for broke since she had no more pride to lose, anyway. With her cheeks still dusted a light pink, she looked over at her soon-to-be life partner through her lashes and whispered shyly; "Would I be able to sit with you, please? To help stay warm?"

She knew her request was a little scandalous, especially because he did not exactly seem like the cuddling type, they weren't married, and sitting in the middle of the wilderness literally anyone could walk up on them…there was a myriad of reasons but she did not expect to get the reaction that she got out of him. Looking at her, he seemed to almost… disconnect? Go blank? She wasn't even sure how to describe it, because his neutral facial expression was always a little bland, but she knew him well enough to be able to read the little tells there and this was definitely new. This was very honestly nothing, and he continued to look at her until she shivered so violently that she almost fell over.

"You may… do what you think is necessary." He told her, his face clearing up and turning away from her to look out into the snow around them. With a relieved sound, Rin pushed herself up and walked over to him, heart racing. Standing over him, she squinted down at him and tried to figure out how she was going to do this. He hadn't moved around to make room for her, just keeping his one leg stretched out in front of him and his other pulled up close, and Rin felt like this was a very dangerous puzzle she needed to solve with her propriety on the line.

"Would you… that is, uh," she stuttered pointing to his leg and making a motion with her hands to indicate that he should lower it. He looked at her hands and did so, making a small crook with his bent leg that would do just fine for her. She smiled, making a happy sound at the sight, and delicately stepped in, turning around to perch herself on the seat he made for her. Rin sat very primly, swallowing hard and doing her best not to think too hard about the fact that she was sitting on him.

Silence fell around them, and a tension rose up thick in the air. Rin looked away from him, feeling too embarrassed to really even get close enough to benefit from the warmth that he said was hers for the taking, and she knew he was still staring out in the opposite direction. She crossed her ankles, balling up her hands on her knees, and felt like she was going to explode. He was so close, if she leaned over she would be laying on him and she wanted to do that so very badly but she also didn't want to make him even more uncomfortable than he already was.

Glancing at him, she saw that he indeed was still very deliberately looking away from her, shoulders rigid, and she noticed that the hand he had draped over his other leg was balled up into a fist. I shouldn't have done this, Rin thought to herself, looking away as the sounds of the wind whipping and fire crackling filled the silence. With a start, Rin noticed that the fire had gone from a small flicker of flame to something a little more substantial while she had been agonizing over her life choices. Almost a little too substantial…

"Ah, maybe it's too big," she murmured, worried that soon a bunch of smoke was going to start blowing in and making this little hiding spot they had unbearable. Sesshomaru jerked his head around quickly when she spoke and his sudden movement made her jump a bit. She looked at him, bewildered, before looking around for any unexpected visitors. "W-what?" She asked him nervously peering into the snow. Rin felt him hesitate and let out a large exhale of breath. She watched him with a general shock as he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the tree trunk, a small wrinkle in between his eyebrows.

Looking at him, Rin bit her lip and began to feel a little bad. She hadn't taken into account that her doing this might make him feel uncomfortable because she just had never seen him be uncomfortable. However, she could see it plain as day in his body language and she worried that she had pushed him into doing something that he didn't want to do. She had hoped that she could ease him into being okay with casual physical contact because there was no way she would be able to keep her hands to herself once they were married and in the privacy of their home. I should have started with something easy, like hand-holding…

"My Lord," Rin whispered, waiting patiently for him to look at her. He opened his eyes and lifted his head, peering down at her and she fidgeted her fingers in her lap as she tried to figure out how to convey this thought she had. Be brave, Rin, she ordered herself and she took a breath and grasped her kimono in her hands to stop her fidgeting. "I love you very much," she blushed, still not used to saying it aloud, and his expression softened so she continued, feeling bolstered, "I want to be able to show you the love that I feel in the way that I do, I want to be able to hold your hand and hug you when I feel the urge but, my Lord," she hesitated, "I also want you to know that you don't need to indulge me if it makes you unhappy."

She trailed off, feeling like her passionate outburst had a bit of a lame ending, but satisfied that she said what she wanted. Head high, back stiff, eyes down, she waited to see if he would say anything back to her. The silence stretched on for what felt like a thousand years and she wondered if she had made a mistake by bringing attention to the situation and she was thinking about standing up and going to sit over by the fire when she heard him let out a small hm.

Suddenly, his leg raised up, bending at the knee, and she tipped over, sliding down his thigh. With a small yelp, her hands flashed out, and caught herself against his chest, her shoulder butting into his. She gulped and looked up at his face as he stared forward impassively. With a grin, Rin cautiously laid her head down against his shoulder, situating herself so she was pressed up a little closer, the fur of the pelt tickling her cheek. Just as she was thinking how nice it would be to be wrapped up in the fuzzy comfort, she felt that exact thing happen.

She lifted her head to look down as the long tail of the pelt that normally flowed behind him was pulled up around her, propelled by his hand. She could feel his arm mold to the contours of her back and come to rest around her hips even through the heavy pelt that separated the two.

Rin let out a cheerful giggle and laid her head back down against him, her heart pounding happily and cheeks flushed. She noticed, with no small measure of wonder, how good it felt to be held like this by him. I will be able to do this forever, she realized suddenly, burying her face into the silk of his kimono, the tip of her cold nose warming against him, feeling his warmth even through the layers of his clothes.

In no time, held safe up next to him, she warmed up to something so cozy that she was actually in danger of falling asleep. She felt herself relaxing, muscles going limp, her shivers stopping. Her breath began to even out and her eyelids kept dipping down as the crackling of the fire and the steady rise and fall of Sesshomaru's chest left her barely able to string together a thought. The last thing she noticed as she drifted off to rest until the weather was good enough to travel safely in was the barest sensation of lips brushing across the top of her head…

But, surely, it was just the wind.

We're getting into it, now! I hope you enjoyed it and thank you so much for reading!