He groaned through clenched teeth as her used heat encased his stiff and ready member, her shrill moans of pleasure assaulting his sensitive ears as his girth stretched and filled her to capacity, the remnant smell of a previous mixed euphoric scent still in his mind spurring his actions on. He folded over her pale body and pounded into her, his claws sinking into the soft flesh of her hips as he planted her body in submission to his.

Her nails tore at the soft ground beneath them as her body surrendered to his, she reveled in his possession, in the way his lean and firm muscles lined her back as his weight crushed hers, the firmness in which he held her, and the way the bass of his growls sent torrents of pleasure up her spine and back down to her toes, while the very air he breathed by her neck made her hairs stand.

A gasp turned sob of violent pleasure, escaped her throat as he increased speed, the youkai in him beginning to surface and tear into her. Her muddy brown orbs glanced back at him as his marking became jagged and eyes crimson with titillation. Her long white limbs could hold out no longer, her thoughts scattering as she began to near her peak, finally she screamed as the stars exploded behind her now closed lids and bliss overwhelmed her senses.

He growled furiously as he released his searing hot seed into her, filling and satiating her until she could take no more and fell limb beneath him. She could hear the deafening breaths she felt sawing into her lungs, after such vigorous exercise, envelop her auditory ability and lull her into a much welcome sleep. Though it was not to be as the regal Lord of the West pulled her hindquarters back into alignment with his length and began to take her again. She screamed as her entered her without warning and nearly blacked out as he picked up the pace between them as if they had just started this dance, though they had been at it for hours. She wouldn't complain, never. If this was her only calling in life, her only place, she would never complain.

He grabbed her hair, circled it around one hand and pulled her head up towards his lips. Her heart beat unevenly as she let herself hope for a moment of meaningful passion between them; a kiss.

"Be. Quiet." He ground out before pulling her onto him and penetrating her deeply; the best punishment one could receive she reasoned.

She nodded her consent lazily as her head lolled back in uninhibited pleasure.

He had no qualms with her noise making, it would have in any other occasion inflated his ego, but as he glanced towards the direction of the small camp he'd left earlier that morning he knew even if he refused to acknowledge that the silence between them was for neither parties satisfaction; it was for hers.


"Does the shepherd have a name?" the slayer asked as he sat uncomfortably upon the two headed dragon that flew towards a source of water he had yet to see. The woman before him rode the beast expertly, her legs on either side of the beast, her body bouncing while the ebony locks flowing behind her danced on the wind.

She acted as if she were not the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, as if her mere presence was not proof of the kami and their favoritism. All the while, he watched as the sun caressed her face and brightened her features.

Favoritism.

It was not a gift he had been granted in life, like the many of the slayers he called family, he had been orphaned at a young age due to the meddlesome and vile nature of low-level demons with no remorse or regard for lost lives.

"My name is Rin." Rin replied absentmindedly as she gently tugged on the reigns of A-Un to get him to descend slowly.

Her name was simple but not commonplace, it was one he had never come across in his travels if one could call them that. He spent most of his life struggling to survive, stealing, fighting, hunting in towns he would walk through as a child until he was old enough to live by other means.

"Yun, my name is Yun." The slayer replied.

Rin turned back and smiled softly, "Nice to meet you Yun. I hope we can grow to be friends."

He chuckled blackly, "You've given me no alternative my Lady, I might as well make the best of it. I don't have many lady friends, tell me, are they all as conniving as you?"

"No." She promised.

"That's a relief." Yun replied.

"They are usually much more vicious except they are more subtle I would say and the more subtle they are, the more weary you should be. After all, an enemy in the light is easier to defeat than an enemy in the shadows."

"What pitiless words for the sex that claims you." He observed.

"They are more so for the race that claims me." She replied in earnest.

"Is that why you consort with demons?" he asked.

"I thought I warned you about questions." Rin mused as they landed softly on the ground and she began to dismount the loyal beast. She patted the demon softly on both heads before turning away.

"Perhaps if you answered some, I wouldn't have so many." Yun smiled amused at the thought of having vexed her.

"I have a sneaking suspicion that if I answer the few, it will only be followed by the many." She retorted as she began to lead them towards the water.

Yun opened his mouth to argue with her and then realized that she might actually be right, everything about her confounded him and seemed so far off from what he thought she ought to have been. Unlike the many ladies he had met in his life, she seemed completely disillusioned, she seemed to see everything as it was and seemed better for it. So he decided he would answer her honestly, perhaps it would better their understanding of another.

"You are not wrong, you confound me." he confessed. "And I wish to understand and not judge you."

Rin looked at him, her facial composure now revealing her shock.

"What a difference a mere flight makes on a man." She said. "Are you so afraid of A-Un that you would place us on the same celestial plane?"

"Is your tongue always so sharp?" he laughed. "You did not seem so cynical when I first laid eyes on you, your beauty is a farce."

"And yet so if your bias, slayer." Rin countered.

His laughter was cut short as his eyes danced mischievously.

"And what, pray tell, do you mean by that?" He asked.

"You do not hesitate to call me a whore and a charlatan, but you seem to be the only one between us that is so concerned about my handsome features. If you must know, the beauty you refer to is absolutely meaningless to me. Though I am sure it has aided me in this life, it has certainly condemned me many times over."

"Certainly, you jest." Yun supplied.

Rin shrugged, "No, I do not. You are a testament to this, you are so blinded by my features that during our first acquaintance you thought me an angel of death, now this same beauty has led you to believe that I must be a concubine or enchantress working alongside a demon to ensnare men as prey. But yet and still you risk both of our lives to coddle me in the dead of night while the same demon slept not 15 paces away."

Yun flushed and sputtered about before composing himself and repeating an old proverb. "Beauty is power, a smile is its sword."

Rin cocked a brow at him and considered his words as she brought A-Un to kneel by the water.

"It is not your beauty I study, but your choice of weaponry." He concluded.

At that Rin had to laugh.

"I see." Rin conceded. "You are not without reason."

"And you are not without sense." Yun admitted. "So give me a reason to trust you, to pledge my allegiance to this cause of yours."

Rin opened her mouth to remind him of her previous statements.

"A reason that does not threaten my life." Yun challenged. "A man needs something to live for aside from survival. He needs a place, a purpose in the world."

"I'm afraid I have no purpose to give you, I am still seeking my own." Rin confessed as she helped him dismount the dragon.

"So, you expect me to repay my debt to you for eternity? You save me and so I am bound to follow you and your cause until my last breath?" he argued. "That hardly seems fair and its certainly no reason to live."

"So you'd rather I kill you or leave you for dead?" Rin asked.

"No." Yun said firmly.

Rin smirked, for a man that seemed adamant about having a life worth living and not surviving, he sure was afraid of the alternative she noted.

"That isn't what I meant. There you go being obstinate again, I simply don't believe you've thought this through. What creature loyal or no, could follow someone to possibly the ends of the earth with debt being the only thing at heart? It's not feasible."

"Tell me Yun, what more do you have to live for? You are alone in the world, all you know have been slaughtered in battle, you are wounded, and at the mercy of myself and my Lord. You say living for nothing is hard but let me remind you that dying for nothing is easy. If not the cause I've laid before you, what have you to live for?"

She watched as his face became somber and his eyes serious, "You." He breathed.

Rin gasped.

"Do not think me a fool or a sentimental creature Rin, I am neither. It is neither your beauty nor your kind words," he said joked dryly, "that have led me to this conclusion but my purpose in life. In the same way that you have saved me, I will save you. You claim that you and this demon lord share the same cause, but how can this be? He is using you, even if you are unaware, you must know that no good can come from your acquaintance with him. He has meddled with your mind and has made a puppet and a mockery of you. What can a demon want with a maiden like you? Slayer or no, his power is unmatched, his status is unthreatened, if he seeks to annihilate the ogre threat than let him do so alone."

Rin frowned. "I don't need saving." She started.

"You don't understand." Yun told her vehemently, cutting her off in the process.

"No, you don't understand. The demon you speak of has saved my life not once but countless times. Serving him now would never be enough to express my thanks to him-"

"You foolish girl, the debt you speak of can never be repaid! If he did indeed save your life, you would be wise to leave his service now while you still can or should you bend to his will, you'll find yourself in his service until your dying breath." Yun snapped at her.

Rin could feel her patience thinning.

"Lord Sesshomaru is not like that." She replied.

"The demon abuses you in your sleep, takes your affections without hesitation and you think he aids you?! You are already under his spell!"

"Enough!" Rin cried. "He would never-"

"Oh but he did!" Yun continued. "While you succumbed to your exhaustion, he bruised your lips again and again, I could only watch as he just narrowly avoided taking you there and then! It was divine intervention that he seemed to lose interest in an unconscious partner to warm his lions."

Rin felt her tongue run over her lips as she brought her finger tips to her lips.

"Whatever it is you think you bore witness to last night, I assure you was not as it seemed. You would do well to remember your position slayer." She said in a hard and steady voice.

Yun opened his mouth to speak and she brought her hand up to stop him.

"You are mistaken Yun." She told him outright. "I will not hear one more ill word about him, you could not possibly understand."

She watched as his tawny eyes narrowed in their sockets, "I only tell you what I would tell a friend."

"Then perhaps aspiring to a friendship is too ambitious a task for us." She replied coldly.

"Friends can disagree." He maintained.

Rin looked at him in confusion, "What is it you're after?"

"I told you," he said, "I want to save you as you saved me."

"And if I don't require saving?" She pressed.

"Then we've nothing more to discuss aside from what we will do once we put an end to this crisis alongside your Lord." He said simply through stiff moving lips.

Rin didn't budge or say a word.

"I would like to be your friend Rin and if your Lord is as benevolent as you say he is I have no wish to sway your opinion otherwise, I would even be willing to follow him as loyally as you do, but I would like to make that judgement myself. It's only fair."

"Fine." Rin breathed. "But just is not the same as nice and you would do well to remember that in your dealings with him."

"I've already learned that with you." He said dryly.

Rin forced a smile, "Yes, well better with me than with him."

"So, what now?" Yun asked as she held him to sit down at the water's edge and knelt before him.

"Now," Rin said as she smiled cheekily and grabbed the lapel or his slayer's wear, "we bathe."