"Better than what?" Rin asked and looked around. "This? For the first two years I hated all the noise, all the cars and lights and pollution. Then I started liking stuff. I did my hair different, I got to dress in jeans and skirts and pretty dresses. I got to use makeup and learned how to dance in their time. But I knew I didn't belong and knew I would come back one day." Rin thought about the girls she knew, even the boys she knew and felt a small amount of pain knowing she never told them goodbye.

"Did you want to stay there?" Sesshomaru took her sad face as a sign that maybe she didn't want to come back.

"No. I don't belong there." She said it quick, worried that he was going to try and send her back.

"So you're staying here. Where?" He asked and waited for a response. She turned her head and looked out and around their surroundings before she looked back at him.

"I don't know anymore. I thought maybe after I've been in the future it would be better for me to stay in a village but I'm still worried something will happen like before. I'm still an outsider. And now I have all these demons and men thinking I'll just submit and be their wife." She shook her head and saw the first he had on his knee clench hard. "Do you want me as a servant Lord Sesshomaru?"

"No. I want what I have always wanted. Your happiness and safety." He meant what he said. He wanted her happy more than he wanted her to be his mate. "Was there anything you hated?" He asked, hoping she would say something big.

"Rarely got to see the stars. Too many people. Humans were everywhere and no more demons." Her eyes shifted from the sky to him and she paused. "Then there was the revealing clothes that barely hit my thighs for school uniforms. Dirty men who tried to touch me." She shivered in disgust and heard him growl. "Kagome's mom and brother we're kind enough to get me into self defense classes early, and I moved up quick. Any man who touched me walked away with a broken wrist."

Sesshomaru didn't know the feeling well, but he could imagine anything broken would be a sufficient amount of pain for touching something that isn't theirs.

"So what are you looking forward most to now that you're here to stay?" Sesshomaru was being a bit presumptuous but he couldn't let her know he didn't want her here. She was going to stay, he had to believe that.

"Kimonos, stars, fresh air. Finding out what I want in life." She told him and looked over his face, wondering if she should mention that she was most looking forward to him being around if that was his plan.

"And how are you going to do that?"

"Explore Japan again. Like you helped me do when I was a child. Maybe find a place to live and have everything I need close by." She shrugged and his face gave nothing away. He wasn't sad, impressed, or interested in what she was saying. "What did you think I would want?"

"To come home with me. Jaken has missed you. He was always asking when the day you would come home would be. When I sent him home to prepare for you he was running around in a craze." Sesshomaru gauged her reaction to his honest words and waited to see if that was enough for her to come home with him now.

"He expected us both already?" She assumed and he gave a stiff nod. "Master Jaken must be worried then."

"You know you don't have to call him that anymore." Sesshomaru was reminded about how she called him Lord when she tried to calm him down. "Rin, you don't have to use titles with me either. Even when you try and calm me down."

"So I should leave you alone when you're angry?" She nodded and Sesshomaru took a moment, wondering if that was the better option since he never wanted to hurt her, but also knowing he couldn't.

"No Rin." He gave her a look, wishing he could convey exactly what he felt for her. "Use my name, that's all you'll ever have to do."

She nodded slowly and smiled softly before she looked back at the view and sighed. "I missed this kind of view." She stood slowly and walked to the edge. Sesshomaru got up as well, walking to stand beside her.

"I have missed you." He told her, swallowing hard and waiting to see what she would do when his admission was done processing.

She turned slowly, the ground under her crumbled and she started to fall, and Sesshomaru reached out and gripped her waist, hauling her close, and turning her so she was on the other side of the crumbling dirt.

She had grabbed him back and held on tight as he swung her. She reached up and cupped his face, instead of pulling away, he closed his eyes and leaned into her. His inhale of her skin was so noticeable she had to bring her other hand to his other cheek and he moved down closer to her.

Moving forward she kissed the corner of his mouth and pulled back. "Thank you." She whispered and moved to pull away but he grabbed her hand, and moved to keep it against his skin.

"Come home with me. Make it your home too. Jaken will see to your every need. You may explore like you want, even have those others there with you, even my little brother."

"What will I do at your home?" She asked and he looked at her, seeing her eyes soften and he raised his own hand, tipping her chin up and then moving his finger over her cheek, swirling it around until he was cupping her cheek.

"Be a Lady. Tell me more about your time away. Make sure I know what a mistake it was to make sure you were safe and sound. Let me make up for hurting you. Explore Japan with me again." He held her head up high so she was looking right into his eyes so she knew he meant every word.

"You want to marry me?" She asked and for a second her eyes hardened. "That's what you want... what every other human and demon want. The prophecy crap. I'm not going to be a queen." She pulled away, shaking her head and moving back. "So you'll use me, just like you used people before. How you use Master Jaken. How you used Kagome and her family to take me away."

"No Rin-"

"Why did you keep me around at first? Because you used your sword on me and wanted to test how long the effect lasted?" She asked moving farther away before turning on her heel.

"Rin-"

"You're like every other man. Using women to get what you want. Leave me alone." She kept walking, going down the steep trial as fast as she could without breaking her bones.

"Rin that is not what I meant. Not at all." She huffed and kept walking knowing that the village was at least a mile walk.

"Rin, stop. I've known since you've helped me that day, treating me like a human, giving me water and food like I needed it. You were human... but meant to be mine."

"Oh all of a sudden I'm yours? You sent me away for years, never coming to see me, never sending words... I had not one sign you would want me back. Now there's a rumor going around that I'm going to be queen and you want me. Just as every other power hungry male despite the species."

"Is that what you think of me? That the only reason I want you is because you're powerful. Do you forget I know you have no power. I know you're a simple human who doesn't want to be some kind of queen for humans. I know that you can't stand being in that village. I've known you since you were a little girl Rin. I've know you're my future since I first laid eyes on you and scared you. I hadn't sensed danger but I knew you were there. You looked at me Rin... and you flinched and I knew... I knew I had to make amends."

"That's why you kept me around?"

"I kept you Rin because you're mine, and I am yours. You were scared and hated humans and would never be safe. I'd never let anyone here care for you." He moved to stop her walking, standing close now and she looked anywhere but at him. "You're my chosen Mate Rin. And now I realize I must let you choose your own future."

"And what are my choices?"