As Rin swayed towards the flame, a force from within him propelled his body forward and sheathed her from the dancing hues. He hissed in pain and gritted his teeth as he felt the flames lick the back of his hand in an effort to tarnish her features.

He clutched her to his chest and pulled away from the flames that threatened to harm her. His heart clenched painfully in his chest as the girl he held to his chest continued to heat him in an unnatural fashion. He pulled back to look over her features for any injuries and breathed a sigh of relief as the grip of one uncertainty finally left him.

Her flushed face and dripping hair told him part of the story, while the residual smell of acid and poison told him another. He quickly realized that she must've inhaled the ogre intestinal poison but the smell of acid confused him. Nonetheless as she wheezed softly through her damaged esophagus, a familiar fear throbbed in his chest and left him breathless and frustrated.

He placed her unto the ground beside him and shook her gently.

"Rin." He called out to her. "Rin."

He gritted his teeth when she remained limp in his arms. Anger pulsed through him. She'd brought this on herself and now consequently them. She'd overtaxed her body, been injured, did not pay attention to her nourishment, and bathed in cold waters nightly.

Now she was battling a fever and poison, this was beyond the scope of a human ailment, her body did not seem capable of expelling the toxins from within and it seemed that if not dealt with properly this Rin, as he knew her, would cease to exist.

Something in him trembled and pulsated through his body at the thought.

His eyes glowed an indignant rage fueled red and his aurora pulsed out of him, enveloping them in a sickening pool of malice and contempt. He could hear the wind picking up as if to dissipate his emanation while all the wildlife that had once slept so peacefully around them, stirred and deserted their positions.


Jaken sprung up from his sleep as if he knew his master had entered into a state of rage that could no doubt lead to his imminent demise.

Ah-Un whined uneasily.

"My Lord?" he muttered in a groggy yet cautious tone. He glanced around the campsite in shock.

How did I get here? He thought feebly.

His eyes open and around once more as he recalled the long days' events. He looked around for Rin and his heart began to drum in panic as he saw no sight of her. When his eyes finally landed on the pair before the flames, his heart lodged into his throated and his eyes bulged out of his head.

The demon towered over the damsel in his arms, teeth bared, and eyes yowling of untold rage and vehemence, while his ethereal white hair acted as a willowing curtain between them and the rest of the world.

How dare she? His youkai seethed. Did she intend to abandon him now? Rin of old or new, it did not matter; she had no right, her life was not her own. She could not, he would not allow it. Did she not promise her life to him? Would the kami be so inexorable? He would not allow it.

"My Lord!" he shouted in terrorized panic. "What are you doing to Rin?!"

Sesshomaru blinked then, momentarily disoriented in the lingering daze of such intense emotion. He looked down at the girl in his arms whose head lulled back almost ghoulishly. His fingers pressed into the flesh of her upper arms and he knew, sorrowfully, that when she woke -if she woke- she would be bruised.

How long had he been his rage? When did Jaken awaken?

A sudden rush of realization gripped him again as the sound of her wheezing offended his ears.

Rin. Rin!

He placed her down softly on the earth as Jaken ran to be beside her. He looked up at his Lord in bewilderment and then back at Rin in shock and fear, he placed his small green claws on the forefront or her head.

"My Lord, she's burning up. Surely, she won't last the night, we must do something!" Jaken insisted.

Sesshomaru did not move and instead stared at the young girl. She was as still as a corpse; the only indication of life was her still thumping heart and strained breath.

Even in her weakened state there was a beauty about her that he could not bring himself to ignore.

Her fevered flush only seemed to brighten her virtuous beauty and as if the Kami sought to punish him, to prove that she did not belong beside him, her skin burned his upon contact.

Jaken was right, her fever was climbing by morning her light would be extinguished.

Her lips, usually full and moistened by her tongue, were dry and parted. Her hair matted around her temples and he could scent the still lingering combination of poison and acid as they surely burned her from her within.

He looked to Jaken and finally spoke. "What happened today Jaken? After she killed the ogre?" he demanded.

The green demon flushed, turned away slightly and began to perspire.

"Jaken." He growled impatiently.

"It was an honest mistake MiLord! Rin was poison by fumes of the dying ogre and in an effort to relieve her of its effects, she mistook a vial of acid for an antidote, but it seemed to do no harm my Lord. It had just passed her lips before she returned it to the earth in a vile display!" he swore.

Sesshomaru narrowed his eyes in disbelief. Though he would be hard-pressed to admit it, the girl seemed was a seasoned slayer. She would not have made the mistake of drinking acid under the impression that it would be antidote. They would have carried different smells, potent smells, ones that even humans could differentiate. Only a bumbling fool that couldn't know the difference would have made that mistake, but he had no time to argue with Jaken's chain of events.

He'd make him pay later. Now, he had to needed to focus on saving Rin.

Sesshomaru eyed her again thoughtfully as he contemplated what to do. He'd never had to take care of the sickly before. Sure, he'd taken care of Rin in her youth, but she always managed to stay in good health, she even saved Jaken when he was poisoned once.

There was only one thing Seshomaru could think to do, something that had been done to him once, the one and only time he'd fallen ill as a mere pup.

"Jaken." He said decidedly.

"Yes my Lord?" Jaken replied hesitantly as he awaited the barrage of insults and abuse, he knew was rightfully coming his way.

"Fetch her some water and be quick about it." He ordered the imp.

"Yes milord." Jaken cried gratefully before scampering off towards the water.

Sesshomaru grabbed the girl and shifted her onto his lap, bringing her closer to his chest than she had been in years. Her warm cheek lay against the crook of his neck and her body easily molded to fit his own, as if she'd grown for the sole purpose of being there.

Slowly he brought his fur around her tightly keeping her sheltered from the winds and pressed against him even more.

Her body weak in his arms and unease crept into his heart while one thought plagued his mind.

He was going to lose her, again.

It seemed that no matter how hard he tried to keep the girl alive, fate would always intervene and attempt to take her. She'd died twice already, once as a child attacked by wolves, and the second as a lost soul in the underworld revived only by his mother, and now it would be human ulnerability that took her.

Although he was pained to admit it, the thought vexed and tortured him. Hadn't he done enough for the girl to stay alive over the short span of time that was her life? He protected her, assured that she was clothed and fed in her youth, he'd even returned her to her own kind when he was sure she would be safest there.

He'd done all he could think of to keep her life long, at his own expense and never once did he complain, after all it was for Rin. The Rin he knew, the Rin he understood. How could he do anything less for her? The once girl, now woman, whose warm smile had even entranced him to serve her.

He sucked his teeth in frustration and held her tighter to him as another soft gust came and left.

Since the moment he'd revived her with the Tensegia, he had unknowingly fallen under her charms, he'd been her constant companion, her protector and provider, her Lord, and somewhere along the line her friend.

She was his greatest weakness and greatest strength, seeing in him the redeemable qualities he could not even see in himself. She confounded him, her strange, wild, and yet kind ways seem to coexist in her perfectly, even now it was what drew others to her, both demon and human alike; like moths to a flame.

How could anyone be so kind and yet so strong? How could anyone be so small and yet so brave? She knew fear better than most having been brought up chasing Naraku alongside him and yet, it was never fear that would stop her from doing what she considered the right thing. It made her all the more fierce, loyal.

She saw good in him. Believed in him. Just as his father had. She was his last hope, hope for benevolence.

When had that changed? When had her perception of him gone from protector to predator? When had she seen him for the first time….as a demon?

And when had he grown so foolish as to think he could be the one to instigate her death as a form of retribution?

Jaken waddled back to the campsite with a bucket of water in tow.

"Here is the water my Lord!" he announced before turning to face them and nearly falling over in shock.

His mouth fell agape as he watched his Lord cradle the young woman in his arms like a mother and child.

"Bring me the water Jaken!" He snapped.

Jaken looked back at the small bucket of water and at the woman in his master's arms. "I-I do not think she is well enough to drink it herself my Lord, she is too weak." He informed him unnecessarily.

Sesshomaru ignored his squawking and took a small ladle of water bringing it to his lips. Jaken was right, she'd be too weak to part her lips, but that did not mean her lips could not be parted. Carefully as if she were made of the finest silks, he took the water into his mouth bowed his head in a stern concentration just before pressing his lips to Rin's, gently parting them, and feeding her the water slowly so that even in her weakened state she would not choke but drink softly and without effort.

He'd done it once, twice, and as he went to do it a third time Jaken fainted.