Rin sighed as he bucked into her once more, filling and warming her with his passion. He grunted before bringing his lips to hers and letting his seed seep into her warm cavern languidly.

Her nimble hands toyed with the bud of pleasure hidden just within her lower lips. He pushed into her again with as much strength as he could muster and at last the bell chime moan fell from her lips.

"Good Morning." He said his deep voice gruff after their morning exercises. He brought his hand to her full perky breasts, kissing and suckling her tannish pink nipples.

Rin looked into the sedated brown eyes above her and smirked deviously before winding her arms around his neck and tucking her legs securely between his.

"Good Morning." she breathed, pecking him on the lips softly.

Kohaku's eyes closed lazily and Rin used that exact moment to turn them over suddenly and straddle him. He groaned as she moved her hips slowly enticing him.

She braced herself, placing her hands on the hard planes of his chest, and smiling.

"I need a few minutes." Kohaku confessed.

Rin laughed, "We don't have a few minutes. I have to train and you need to return to the slayers tonight. You can't hold back today."

Kohaku arched a brow at her, "I'm giving you all I've got and then some." he promised as he moved his own hips to verify his point. "You're just insatiable."

Rin ran a hand through her tousled hair, "Well you'll just have to exhaust me on the battlefield."

"Oh I intend to." He warned her in a harder voice.

Rin saw the resolve in his eyes and her smile grew more pronounced.

"Good." she said as she patted his chest and stood up, walking out of their makeshift tent and towards the stream to wash up.


"Again." Rin seethed as she pushed herself off the ground after having been thrown like a sack of rice onto the field by Kohaku.

"Give your body a break," Kohaku told her, "these things take time and you are well seasoned for someone who has only just begun."

"Kohaku," Rin said in a hard voice, "do it again."

He was reluctant, she was pushing herself like she had something to prove, like there was something more she needed from this.

"What is this about Rin?" He asked her for what seemed like the millionth time since he had begun training her

She straightened out of her offensive position and let out a gust of air before throwing her hands over her hips.

"You're right," she muttered, "I need a break."

She turned making a beeline towards the river and started peeling out of her uniform before Kohaku grabbed her by the wrist and spun her around.

"Rin, I'm serious."

"What Kohaku, what?" She replied exasperated.

Kohaku didn't reply but tightened his grip on her wrist.

"You keep doing this, you keep holding back with me she told him. I don't need protecting Kohaku and I don't need babying. I came to you because I want to escape those things, every time you pull a punch, every time you hold back – you actually leave me more vulnerable." She reminded him.

"Because you-!" He bit his cheek in an effort to keep himself from exploding at her.

He released her wrist, throwing the appendage back at her and made to storm off before Rin grabbed his shoulder blade and walked around to face him.

"Because I what?" She asked enunciating every syllable.

"Whatever." Kohaku rebuffed attempting to walk around her.

She threw her arm out in front of him, challenging him, daring him to disregard her.

"Because what, Kohaku?" she said again through gritted teeth.

"You must think I'm an idiot, you think I can't see past this façade of yours? Kami, it's so obvious Rin, this isn't about your independence from this life; it's about independence from the fact that Sesshomaru doesn't care about you anymore. Everything about you is destructive, you just don't care, you tear your body apart, you let yourself get into a blind rage mid battle, you charge in with no defense. You are looking to be killed so that maybe just maybe he will care enough to come running once he hears and he won't! Get over it! It's pathetic! You-"

SLAP!

Her face was patchy and red now, her breath coming out in short gasps. "You son of a -"

Kohaku grabbed her by the jaw and brought their faces an inch apart. His dark brown eyes flaming at the light ones in front of him, his freckled face crinkled in anger.

"Don't you dare." He growled.

Rin slapped his hand away and spit at his feet.

"Take it back." She demanded, "take it back!" She shouted, shoving him.

"No," he said "no! I won't send you out there to get killed just to spite Sesshomaru."

"SHUT UP KOHAKU! JUST SHUT UP! You don't know what you're talking about!"

"You think I don't know what a suicide mission looks like?! Me?! Forget this Rin, we're done. I've got real shit to do and I won't be responsible for your death too."

Rin gritted her teeth against the flood emotion fighting to overwhelm her.

"Fine." she whispered as the hot sea of tears trailed down her face, "Go, I don't need you, just go."

Kohaku stormed away only to make an abrupt turn and march back towards her. He glared at her for a full minute before she turned her head to glare right back at him. She watched as his hard glare softened and he just looked at her almost beseechingly.

"Why? Why shouldn't I leave you?" he asked through clenched teeth, his brown eyes glassy.

Rin roughly wiped her tears from her face, "I'm not stopping you." She told him belligerently, choking back a sob.

"I don't want to go without you Rin." He confessed. "You know that."

"And I don't want to go with you. Therein lies the problem." She replied softly.

"I don't understand,'' he said, "I don't. You say you want freedom but run towards bondage." He whispered. "He didn't come back Rin."

Rin clucked her tongue and shook her head, "I hate when you throw him in my face, you know that has nothing to do with anything. I told you I don't care, it doesn't matter."

"Doesn't it?" Kohaku pressed.

"No! No it doesn't. I'm an adult Kohaku, I'm not an ignorant child. We've long since been apart and I've come to accept it, but no one lets me forget it. Lord Sesshomaru has always and will always do what is best for him and I will do the same. I am true when I say I want to be free of this life whether you believe me or not."

"Then what is this?" He asked, pointing at her and then at himself. "What are we?"

"This?!" She echoed incredulously, "Kohaku-" she began.

"Don't." He told her quickly. "I'm not some fool Rin, you know exactly what I'm talking about. So what is this?" He asked again.

Rin sighed genuinely now, "I don't know." She whispered.

"You don't?" he replied in a deadpan voice.

"No," Rin breathed, "I… what do you want me to say Kohaku?

"I want you to say that our kisses have meant something these past few months, that what we have been doing in the shadows can finally come to light. I want you to say you want a life with me. I want you to want me, the way I want you, but I need you to tell me the truth; your truth. Because what I want is not what we need." He told her. "Please."

Rin ran her trembling her trembling fingers through her dark sweat matted locks, looking determinedly away from the freckled face boy turned man.

"I cannot say those things to you, Kohaku. You know that."

"I know," he sighed, "and I won't become a new prison for you to escape."

Tears welled in her eyes again, "But I do love you kohaku," she whispered, "I do."

"I know." He said as he wrapped his thick muscle bound arms around her. "I just wish it were enough."

He pressed his lips into her crown of hair and down the side of her jaw, searching, needing her silent reassurances.

Rin turned her face away gently and stood on the tips of her toes, pressing her face into his neck.

"Forgive me Kohaku, I – I." her sobs choked her.

He hugged her tighter in an effort to hold both of their broken hearts.

"I should go." he whispered before finally releasing her and heading towards home.


He looked up at the sky one more time. He swore it looked different here than it did anywhere else. He loved its uniqueness, the vast possibilities it held. He wondered if it reflected the people that lived beneath it.

As usual goodbyes were heart-wrenching. Although Sango pretended to be brave; his nieces and nephews did not. They wept, pouted, and mourned at the loss of an uncle they considered a confidant and friend.

Miroku walked with him to the edge of town and once they reached the boulder they considered the town's end they embraced one another in the most masculine fashion that they could. Miroku had truly become a brother to him over the years and though he would part silently as he always did, the force of the embrace he had given him would speak volumes of the support they gave to one another.

He sighed and began his way before he heard a low whistle in the trees. He watched as a cross legged shadow stood to its full height before tucking its body within itself to flip and land in a lithely fashion.

"I thought you were avoiding me." Kohaku admitted as he set his bag down.

Rin smiled weakly. "Are you calling me a coward?" she joked.

"Never, you are easily one of the most fearless women I know."

"Apart from being the most destructive?" she teased.

He chuckled, "Fearlessness often leads to the latter. I just pray that in this case it doesn't."

"It won't." she promised.

He marveled at how easy it was for him to reach up and push a stray hair behind her ear now, when just a few months prior he struggled with simply staring at her for too long. His palm rested on her warmed cheek while his eyes silently begged her to heed his warnings.

Rin slowly returned the gesture, bringing her soft but calloused hand to his cheek and moving to the tips of her toes, to bring their lips together softly.

"I don't understand." Kohaku told her.

Rin took a breath before stealing her nerves, "I know and it's not fair to you Kohaku. I promise I won't get myself killed and…. and I promise I won't cage you in this life either."

"What does that mean Rin?" he asked her warily.

Rin smiled weakly at him, "My affection for you is true but it is also confused. I am not here to confess or commit to you and I have come to tell you to do the same. I know you Kohaku, you are loyal and you are good, but I ….I will not trap you with unrequited love. Live your life and I will live mine, our paths will cross again and then I will have an answer for you but until then I will not kiss you or make love to you as I have in the past. I am freeing you of me, Kohaku, please be free."


Sesshomaru began to rouse slowly, he groaned softly, his head pounded relentlessly and his body ached like he had fought countless battles for at least a century.

He earnestly could not recall a time where he felt so physically weakened. It went beyond fatigue, he felt as though his soul's very essence was being whisked away and returned in a slow unending cycle. He took a deep breath through his nostrils and could smell the damp earth beneath him. The ground was hard against his side and gave no reprieve while the small loose stones that littered the floor found its way into his tender feeling muscle. The cool air caressed his sensitive ears and caused him to shudder.

Recollection hit him with the force of a boulder.

He was in a cave, the cave Rin had been housed in.

Rin.

He struggled to sit up and snarled as he realized that his arms and legs were bound by ropes which had been layered with sutras. His effort was met with a violent purification surge emanating from the rope. He snarled again though not out of pain but frustration, his body had not rested enough to break through the otherwise bothersome rope.

Bleary amber eyes cracked open as he began to take in his surroundings in earnest. The cavern housed only wisps of light but was otherwise consumed by a chilling darkness. It was night - how long had he been unconscious?

A soft sigh pulled his attention towards the back of the cave, where he could see a makeshift tent of sorts. His throat was suddenly parched.

Rin. He could all but taste the blood soaked earth that housed her scent.

Did it work? The scent of her blood was still so overwhelming but given the state she was last in, this was to be expected. He could pick out her fluttering heartbeat amongst the steadier slower ones in the cave. He could feel the unnatural heat that came off her body in waves as her soul tethered and fed off of his own.

He strained his neck in an effort to see her and was met with another violent shock from the holy rope. He huffed in annoyance and allowed his demonic power to build, he could feel his eyes redden and fang sharpen as his jaw began to lengthen.

"I wouldn't if I were you, Lord of the West." A quieted raspy voice told him.

His blood colored eyes tracked across the cave and met flat brown eyes belonging to the woman slayer from earlier.

"The sutra rope will only absorb the power you release and feed the holy power that serves to bind you." she said.

He tested her theory and released a modicum of power only to be met with a purifying shock of the same level of intensity.

"I told you." she smirked. She stood to her full height and moved lithely across the cave, her footsteps light and practiced before kneeling before him with a blade in hand.

Sesshomaru appraised the woman before him with little apprehension, if she were under the ill impression that these ropes could hold him even as weakened as he was then the mistake would be hers alone.

Sesshomaru closed his eyes and leaned his head against the wall,his next course of action obvious. Rin was still healing and the slayers were skilled at looking after their own. She would stay here until she recovered, the only real question was whether he would stay with her.

All logic told him it was not necessary, she was no longer capable of serving her purpose and so it only made sense to leave her behind. Yet the throbbing on the left side of his chest and the rigidity in his body made it clear that he would not be going anywhere without her, he was tied to her now, a prisoner of hers.

The vassal had become the master. In bonding himself to her, he would crave her physical proximity and assure that her will would submit to his. She in turn would always house a store of his power that would sustain her life and would be fiercely protected; once they sealed the bond that is.

Seirin leaned in and took in his features, he was beautiful.

It was the only way to describe the moon kissed creature before her. His eyes were a solid golden amber color that reminded her of a molten sun. His lips were pale and thin; his nose slender and pointed. His jaw was well defined, his flawless skin curved gracefully around the strength of his neck that spoke to the centuries of training his body has endured. The corded muscle just below the surface of his skin that shaped his entire body; strong arms, bold thighs and calves, a firm chest and abdomen whispered tales of death and danger.

One look and she could understand how both women and men swooned at the sight of him in spite of the lack of words that passed from his lips.

For a moment too brief to be acknowledged her body succumbed to the unadulterated lust her body possessed for him. As the scent of her lust reached him, he brought his eyes to meet hers.

He glared back at her and she found herself gasping and falling back on heels in response. If the muscle on his body whispered of death then his eyes certainly promised it and not for the first time Seirin found herself truly angry at the demon.

She brought the blade to his throat and narrowed her eyes, "Pray demon, that no lives were lost here or you'll find that you'll soon be meeting them in the next world. You and your little consort." she sneered.

Sesshomaru blinked as if he were seeing the woman in front of him for the first time. He felt the corner of his mouth flinch but otherwise remained unmoved by her vain threat.

She watched him for a moment longer before damning him under her breath and making her way towards Rin and the crumpled slayer beside her. He watched as she changed dampened towels on their heads and fed them what little water she could.

She brought the slayer's head to her knees gently, like a lover would have and fed him patiently.

He looked over at Rin's parted lips and flushed face; her lips were dry and cracked; still caked in her blood from her battle. He knew just looking at her that her body was burning up and that what little water the woman would give to her would barely keep her through the night.

He steeled his stomach and grit his teeth in disgust at the words already forming on his lips.

"She needs more water." He said aloud.

The slayer woman looked at him in disbelief before scoffing.

Before she could retort the Lord of the West, renowned for his silence was speaking again.

"Be assured that if she doesn't see the next sun rise, no one here will." He promised, his blood colored eyes meeting hers.

Seirin's gaze narrowed infinitesimally, "You-"

"He'll die first." Sesshomaru promised, referring to Kohaku.

"Your threats-"

Her words were halted by the sounds of rope tearing and the beast snarling as the sutras attempted to shock him. She watched with wide eyes as he began to successfully tear at his bindings and immediately gave into his demands.

"Okay!" she said quickly.

He watched her and intently now as she flushed but silently hastened to give the unconscious woman more water.

"A truce until morning then." she muttered under her breath.

With that, the Lord of the West let his eyes closed as he gathered his strength.