Chapter VI

~A couple hours before with Rin~

"Mommy! Mommy! Lo'k what I fo'nd!"

Rin turned her head to where she saw Kazumi playing in the sandbox with all the other kids in the park and was walking towards her to get a closer look at what she found, when her small body collided with her legs, stumbling a bit, Rin quickly steadied herself and Kazumi before they could fall and hurt themselves.

"Sowwy, Mommy."

Looking down at the little girl she had her arms around and-not for the first time-couldn't help but feel pride at the beautiful, polite little girl she raised. Her beautiful black hair that fell just below her shoulders bounced off the early morning sunlight making it look like it was blue in colour instead of black, her cheeks were pink from running around in the playground with her friends, but what hypnotized her the most about her daughter were her eyes. From the light brown eyes she had at birth to the golden hue she has now, made her feel as if she was being stared right through her body and straight into her soul, which held all her secrets. Smiling brightly at Kazumi to show her she wasn't in trouble and waited patiently for Kazumi to show her what she found. Smiling up at her, Kazumi held up her tiny hand to show her that she was holding a small branch that had two Hawthorn berries attached to it. With a smile on her face, Rin nodded in acknowledgement at her finding and with a quick warning not to eat the fruit, Kazumi sprinted back to her friends to continue playing.

Rin walked back to the bench she was sitting at earlier, sat down, and watched as Kazumi ran around the park-always in her in her line of vision-searching and playing with the other kids, in general having the best time of her life. From the corner of her eye saw a flash go off in the distance and assuming it was the paparazzi since they were everywhere she went, called for Kazumi, it was time to go. The paparazzi had so far left her alone when she ventured out of her home, either not knowing it was her, not recognizing her-since she liked to keep her privacy-or never in sight when she was around. So far her life's been calm and she wanted it to remain that way, for both her and Kazumi's benefit. Rin watched as Kazumi tilted her head a little to the side in her direction to show she heard her, before saying goodbye to her playground friends and vanishing from their sights for a moment before reappearing in front of her.

Blinking a few times in astonishment, Rin looked down at her petite daughter in wide eyed wonder before shaking her head and sliding down the bench to kneel in front of her.

"Sweetie, though I am impressed with what you just did, you can't do that again in front of other people," said Rin.

"Why?"

"Because they don't like it."

"Why?"

"Because they don't understand it."

"Why?"

"Because they've never seen it before and can't comprehend it."

Kazumi tilted her head a little to the side to show her confusion before nodding and wrapping her small arms around Rin's waist. Wrapping one arm around her back and the other under her bottom, Rin pushed herself up off of the ground and began walking out of the park.

"Where should we go next?" Rin asked with a smile on her lips as she looked at her sleepy daughter.

"'Ome's!" Kazumi exclaimed in her cute childish voice though toned down because of her tiredness. Smiling into her hair, Rin continued to walk to the park's exit with a sleepy Kazumi in her arms. Although Kazumi's intelligence is ahead of everyone her age, she still acted and talked like a one year old child.

"'Ome's it is, after you take a nap," Rin said. She received no reply from the one year old, for she was already in the land of dreams.

...

When Rin arrived at Kagome's house with Kazumi it was just a little after twelve o'clock. Gently knocking on her apartment door, Run shifted Kazumi in her arms to a more comfortable position as she waited for Kagome to let them in. It was a few seconds later that she heard the loud stomping of footsteps running to the door before it was pulled opened by a smiling black haired blue eyed girl, wearing a lime green dress and white slippers.

"You came just in time," said Kagome as she stepped out of the way to let Rin and Kazumi in. Giving her a slight nod and a smile to let her know she heard her, Rin stepped inside the apartment and stepped out of her shoes and put them against the wall along with the others. Once done, Rin followed Kagome to the living room where she mentioned for her to set Kazumi down.

Following her silent instructions, Rin set Kazumi on her feet, quickly fixed her blue colored princess dress, and stepped back just in time for Kagome had slid open the shoji screen, and an exclamation of, "Surprise!" echoed throughout the room.

Rin watched as Kazumi took a step back in shock before a happy squeal sprang from her lips and she was running towards her friends. Turning towards a smiling Kagome, Rin embraced her in a hug of appreciation before pulling back and saying,

"Thanks for doing this, Kagome."

Waving off the comment, Kagome said, "It's not a problem Rin, you know I like doing these sort of things, besides, it's not every day that one turns one."

"But thanks anyway."

"Don't mention it. Now, go in there and enjoy the party."

With a wide smile on her face, Rin walked inside the room to enjoy the festivities of her daughter's first birthday.

When the party came to an end three hours later, and all their friends left, both Rin and Kagome were exhausted. With a sigh of weariness Rin sat down on one of the couches looked at a similarly worn out Kagome across from her. She had a moment to close her eyes before a small squirming body climbed onto the couch and sat across her legs. Opening her eyes, Rin looked at Kazumi with a small smile and asked,

"Did you enjoy yourself?"

"Yeah! I's gots lots of presents!" Kazumi exclaimed with a wide toothed smile.

"Was that everything you liked?" Kagome asked as she joined the small family on the couch.

"No! I's like food!"

"And what else?" Rin asked this time.

"Games!"

"That's all?" asked Kagome.

"A-and playing friends!"

"That's it?" Rin asked with a huge smile on her face as she listened to Kazumi talk about her day and everything she liked about it.

It was another hour later when the apartment was clean and Kazumi was down for a nap, that Rin was saying goodbye to Kagome and promising to come pick up Kazumi right after she was done with work, so that she could rest. Waving goodbye, Kagome watched as Rin disappeared down the hall of her apartment complex and heard the sound of the elevator going off. Sighing in exhaustion, she closed the door and disappeared back inside her home. It was going to be a long night.

~Present time with Rin and Sesshomaru~

"Please, take a seat, Taisho-san," Rin said in greeting, face calm and expressionless. She watched as he calmly and gracefully walked towards a seat in front of her desk, once seated, Rin opened her mouth and asked, "Shall we begin?" Without saying anything, Sesshomaru opened his brief case, took out a manila folder, and presented it to her.

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REVISED