Chapter IX

When the sun rose early the next morning Rin was up and about with a cranky and moody toddler, having gotten no sleep the day before with Kazumi's endless questions about Sesshomaru and what the meaning of his scent meant. Rin, having no idea how to answer any of her questions since she wasn't a demon, opted in avoiding the question as much as possible before she just said that she could ask Sesshomaru when she saw him next time, and by that time it was already two in the morning and they were both tired and cranky. Although not satisfied with that answer, Kazumi relented and went to sleep. Sleep, however, didn't come easy for either of them and around five in the morning Rin gave up on sleep and got out of bed and opted on taking a relaxing bath until Kazumi woke up. She didn't last no more than ten minutes in the bath before Kazumi came running into the bathroom in a panic and bawling her eyes out, worried that something was wrong with her daughter, Rin got out of the tub immediately and quickly brought her into her arms, not caring that she was wet at the moment.

"Doushita?"* Rin asked as Kazumi buried her face on her neck, still crying her little heart out. All she received as an answer to her question was something mumbled into her shoulder inaudibly.

"What?"

"Want Papa!" Kazumi cried out. Surprised, Rin could do nothing more than stare in front of her, having not been expecting that, for surely Kazumi didn't know who her father was; for what one year old who had never met her father but once know who he is?

Taking a deep breath, Rin relaxed her tense muscles and spoke in-what she hoped-a calm voice to Kazumi, "Honey, sweety, I don't know who Papa is, can you tell me who he is?"

"Sessmuru!"

Taking in a ragged breath Rin replied with, "Sesshomaru is busy right now, we'll see him later on today, okay?"

"No! Want Papa now!"

"Kazumi-chan, he's busy right now, we can see him later to-"

"NO! WANT PAPA!" Kazumi screamed as more and more tears began cascading down her cheeks in rivulets as she got more and more hysterical.

Seeing as Kazumi wasn't going to be calming down anytime soon, Rin left the bathroom with a hysterical toddler and quickly walked back inside her room, where she carefully laid Kazumi down on the bed and proceeded to dry herself off, get dressed, and look for her phone at the same time. She found her phone tangled up amongst her sheets after ten minutes of frantic searching, and impatiently waited for it to turn on while she tried to calm Kazumi down enough that she'll stop screaming her little lungs out. Seeing that her phone would take a while longer to load the information down, Rin picked up Kazumi by the waist and brought her to sit on her lap in an effort to soothe her. After an endless amount of time which Kazumi cried herself sick, Rin picked up her phone and quickly looked through her contacts to look for Sesshomaru's personal number having asked Aki for it after their meeting the day before. Finding it a minute later, Rin quickly pressed call and anxiously awaited for it to be answered, after what felt like forever, though it couldn't have been no more than two minutes a high pitched, squeaky voice answered.

"Can you please put Taisho-san on the phone?" Rin asked, panic quickly settling in her as Kazumi continued to cry herself sick.

"He's busy. Bye."

"Wait!" Rin exclaimed into the phone. "Can you tell him it's Koizumi Rin calling, tell him it's important."

"Look you insolent girl I already told you that my Master's-"

"Hello."

Rin nearly cried in relief when she heard the deep baritone voice of Sesshomaru. "Taisho-san, is there anyway possible you can come to my home right now?" Rin asked over the loud wails of Kazumi, nearly in tears herself. There was a long period of time when Sesshomaru said nothing and Rin dreaded that he'll decline when he answered with "I'm on my way."

Without saying anything else he hung up the phone and left Rin listening to the dial tone in shock; however, not even a minute later she heard a loud tapping outside her balcony window, and confused, went to see what it was. As she was about to draw the curtains open she noticed that Kazumi had stopped screaming, she was just about to check on her when the tapping drew her attention to her balcony again. Pulling the curtains back, Rin bit back a scream of fright when she saw Sesshomaru staring down at her through the glass dressed in nothing but a pair of sweats. Before she could say anything about his sudden appearance, a small body slammed into hers accompanied by a high pitched squeal yelling "papa." Without a word, Rin unlocked the window and slide it open enough so that Sesshomaru could step through without a problem before closing it behind him.

After making sure that the latch was securely in place, Rin drew the curtains close before turning around and stopping dead in her tracks. For standing right in front of her was a half naked Sesshomaru with a half asleep Kazumi in his arms with a content look on his face. Not wanting to interrupt the moment she stood rooted to her spot looking uncomfortable and feeling as if she was intruding in a very special moment, if it weren't for Kazumi spotting her over her father's shoulder and calling her, Rin was certain that she would have remained forgotten in her own room and house. Cautiously stepping towards the pair, Rin uncomfortably stood besides Sesshomaru in silence not knowing what to do in situations such as these, and again, if it wasn't for Kazumi she would have stayed standing there all tense.

"U'gry," Kazumi mumbled around a yawn as she looked at both her parents with bloodshot tired eyes. Blinking into action, Rin calmly took Kazumi out of Sesshomaru's arms and brought her into her own before walking towards her bed and sitting down on the edge. With practiced ease, Rin quickly unclasped her nursing tank top and let Kazumi nurse herself to sleep, not having realized how engorged she'd been with everything happening. Once she was satisfied that Kazumi was happily nursing, Rin looked up to find that Sesshomaru was looking at her with an intensity that had her blushing in seconds, and mentioned with her hand to Sesshomaru to take a seat. Rin avoided making eye contact until she was sure she had her blush under control before lifting her gazing and searching around the room until she found Sesshomaru sitting on one of her single couch chairs to the left of her and still looking at her with that look in his eyes.

Clearing her throat Rin pinned Sesshomaru with a look before asking, "What was wrong with Kazumi-chan?"

"She's disconcerted that my scent is missing," Sesshomaru says. "Now that she knows that I'm her father from our brief meeting yesterday she expects to be able to constantly smell and see me. However, as I don't live here my scent doesn't permeate this dwelling thus, she results to crying and whining in confusion at not being able to see or smell her father. If it's not taken care of she can make herself sick, as she did earlier, but much worst."

"Oh."

Well, that was the understatement of the year. What was she supposed to do about that? Rin looked at Sesshomaru for a moment before shifting her gaze back to Kazumi and asking what he suggested she do so that Kazumi wouldn't have to go through that again.

"I can release my aura so that it shrouds the apartment, which will also release my scent," Sesshomaru suggested looking at Kazumi's sleeping form in Rin's arms for a moment before turning his gaze back to look Rin in the eyes. "However, this will only last for about a week before my scent fades and I need to repeat the process again."

"I...see," Rin said. Carefully extracting Kazumi from her breast, Rin fixed her shirt before laying her down on the bed. While looking at her sleeping daughter, Rin thought about her options carefully before coming to a decision. Turning around, Rin looked Sesshomaru in the eye and said with a firm voice, "Please do so, Taisho-san."

(*) What's wrong?

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REVISED

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