I do not own Inuyasha.

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Sesshomaru strode through the dark woods toward Inuyasha's village. Jaken had fallen behind, but Sesshomaru knew the kappa would catch up later. Sesshomaru would not enter his brother's town at night, while the villagers slept. He would stop nearby and enter at first light.

He was late. Sesshomaru had told Rin he'd return in 2 to 3 weeks, but it was almost a month. Rin would understand, but not being able to keep his word irked him greatly. Also he needed to see that that Rin had recovered an Melissa was adapting well.

He had not meant to be gone so long, but he had underestimated his enemy. The battle had lasted for days, and he'd been injured. The injury had required him to recuperate. Sesshomaru was fairly certain his recovery would have been quicker had his mother not smelled his blood and had him dragged to the palace. But the dragon was dead and Sesshomaru still lived.

The smell of smoke was strong on the night wind. And as he drew nearer he picked up the smell of blood. He began to run. His ears picked up the screams of women and children first. Then the clash of weapons and the pounding of hooves. The village was under attack.

He crested a hill and saw bandits, some on foot and others riding, were fighting with the town's men. Women were running, trying to avoid the bandits and keep the children and themselves out of the way. Some of the houses were smoldering, but the recent rains meant the fire refused to spread quickly and several homes had remained mostly intact as the fires burned themselves out.

The bandits lit Keade's house on fire and the children taking refuge inside were forced out as it filled with smoke. Rin was the last out and she carried Sango's infant son in her arms. One of the bandits spotted the young girl and ran toward her with his sword raised. She had nowhere to run.

Sesshomaru picked up speed, she couldn't die again. A figure in blue and white got to her first, Melissa thrust Raven in front of the child and blocked the bandit's blade. Raven was parried out of her hand. She had a split second to flee, but instead she shoved the children to the ground and curled herself protectively over them as Sesshomaru split the man in half.

"Rin." Both Rin and Melissa looked up. He looked from Rin to Melissa. Rin was shook up, but unharmed. Melissa had a black eye and her lip bled freely but otherwise appeared uninjured. His girls were ok.

Another bandit came up behind him with a raised sword but Sesshomaru turned and grabbed the man's wrist in one hand and his face in the other as his claws started to glow green. Melissa pulled Rin closer and tried to shield her from the gory spector as the man's flesh began to dissolve and drip into a puddle at Sesshomaru's feet. Craning her neck as she shushed the children and rubbed Rin's hair she watched as the man's hand bones fell to ground, melting in the puddle and Sesshomaru's finger sank into an emptying eye socket and met with liquefying brain. He let the remains of the arm swing down and the ligaments in the mans neck gave out, the body dropping with a thud as the skull continued to warp and melt in his poisonous grip.

Sesshomaru looked back at his girls. Rin had he eyes tightly shut and her face pressed into Melissa's chest as the baby screamed in her arms. Melissa held the children tightly, but her huge wide eyes were on the lump of bone in his hand. She pulled her gaze away from it and met his eyes as he tossed it casually to the ground. Then she closed her eyes tightly and turned her face away.

He turned, where was his brother? Scanning the village he spotted him scuffling with two of the bandits. Tesseiga hung useless at the hanyou's side, his eyes were chocolate brown, and his hair was dark as night. His brother was human tonight.

Then he saw his sister-in-law get pushed to the ground. She curled protectively around her middle as a kick connected with her head. He dashed forward and grabbed the brute by his neck. He locked eyes with the man, giving him just long enough to realize he was looking into the eyes of demon before snapping his neck and tossing the body at another bandit. It was at this point that the bandits realized the town was being protected by a youkai and retreated.

"Miko." Kagome opened her eyes and looked at him. She was ok. He turned away as his brother and the slayer knelt down and tended to her.

"Hey, Sesshomaru." He looked back at his little brother. "Thanks."

Sesshomaru turned back to where he'd left his girls, but they weren't there. He looked around and spotted them. Rin huddled with a knot of other children while Melissa looked over them one by one. She then looked around until she spotted the young Miko.

"Kagome, Shippo?"

"He left for school this morning. Are the children ok?"

"Yes."

Kagome had spoken in Japanese. Melissa could understand Japanese now? She flagged down another woman and gestured to the children. "Watch?"

The woman nodded and she pointed to herself then to Keade who was patching up the wounded. "I help." She then ran up to the elderly miko and repeated "I help."

"Ye can wash the wounds of those men while I finish here." The old Miko told Melissa gesturing to a group of men. She nodded and quickly found a clean cloth and a pail of water and set about wiping blood and dirt from bloody cuts and scrapes on the men.

Most of the men spoke words of thanks to her. Others merely nodded to her. One rudely stated "Oh, you're going to do women's work for once? Realized you have boobs did you?"

He was the last she tended. She merely cleaned his wounds then smiling sweetly she picked up her bucket and poured the contents over his head. He yelled and started to stand angrily, but then noticed the youkai standing behind her glaring at him.

He looked over to his sister-in-law who was now having her head looked over by Keade, one hand on her head, the other over her stomach. He looked back and Melissa was already gone. He didn't have time to wonder where she'd gone as Rin ran up at that moment, her face positively glowing.

The monk approached Inuyasha with several shovels and leaned them against a fence. The hanyou nodded and raised his voice, "We need volunteers to bury the bodies."

"I help." Melissa volunteered popping out of nowhere and grabbing one of the shovels.

Inuyasha nodded and smiled "I had a feeling I could count on you. We'll start in the morning. I won't ask anyone to go to the cemetery in the dark."

"You will bury your enemies?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Gotta." Inuyasha replied. "It's not like killing in the middle of nowhere. We can't have bodies rotting in the street. It would cause disease. Plus we don't want the spirits to haunt us. I can deal with men and monsters easily enough, but ghosts..."

Melissa had been standing nearby listening with her shovel in her hands. Suddenly Kojo stormed up to her.

"Shouldn't you be in a kitchen somewhere, give me that!" He grabbed the tool and tried to wrestle it from her hands. She fought back, trying to keep the tool and yelling in English at him. Then he pushed her down. How. Dare. He.

Inuyasha yelled at him. Sesshomaru fought down his ki though his blood was boiling. He wanted to disembowel that man, but his brother was taking care of it. It was his village, his people. Luckily Rin distracted him at that moment.

A moment later The argument between Inuyasha and Kojo caught their attention again. "Perhaps your woman should explain to the wench that she has a cunt!"

"Sesshomarusama, what's a cunt?"

His eyes widened and he looked down at Rin "What?"

"That word Kojo just said, cunt, what does it mean?"

He didn't answer, instead he strode over to where Kojo still argued with his brother. His anger was palpable and all present fell silent as he turned a killer glare on Kojo. "Rin just asked this Sesshomaru what a cunt is."

His punch knocked Kojo to the ground and when he sat up he spat a mouthful of blood and on of his jaw teeth on the ground.

"This Sesshomaru took into account that you are a human. If I ever hear that Rin has learn more such language I will not be gentle." He turned and walked back to his young ward.

"Sesshomarusama. I understand it must be a really bad word, but Rin still doesn't know what it means." She looked up at him with such innocent big eyes.

"It is an obscene word for part of a lady's anatomy, Rin."

"But what part?"

Fatherly panic flared up in his chest, he didn't want to tell her it meant vagina. Sure, Rin knew what a vagina was, she was close to 12 and training to be a midwife. She'd seen more of them than he had. But Sesshomaru didn't want to say vagina. Not to his little girl.

"It means her flower."

"Flower?"

Dammit. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "It means vagina."

"Oh. But why would Kagomesama have to tell Melissasama that she has a vagina. She knows, doesn't she?"

This wasn't happening. How had this happened? How had he come to be standing in a smouldering village, at two in the morning, discussing Melissa's vagina with Rin? 'I should have punched him harder.'

Inhale. Exhale. "Yes, Rin, I am sure she knows."

"Good. All women should know that about their bodies." Kagome came to Sesshomaru's rescue by calling Rin to go back to bed.

Inuyasha walked over as Rin trotted off. "Her flower, Sesshomaru? I didn't know you were so poetic! Maybe you should take up writing, you can write all about women's pretty pink flowers."

Inuyasha was the second person Sesshomaru punched that night. He chuckled as he sat up rubbing his cheek. "O.K. I deserved that. Kagome invited Rin and Keade to spend the night in our place, we'll assess the damage to Keade's house once we've buried the bodies. Everyone should get to sleep soon, but I know your girls would like to spend a little more time with you if you want to come in and say good night."

"I would like to do so."