Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait! School is over tomorrow and the last few months have been jammed packed preparing for final exams and end of the year projects. To be honest I could have had this chapter up a month ago, but I kept changing it and changing it, until I couldn't look at it anymore. I hope this chapter is satisfactory because I'm done.

Anyway, enough rambling! Here's the long awaited chapter 18! Be warned though that I haven't reread it so if there are any mistakes, please ignore it, I'll fix them later.

Chapter XVIII

By the time Sesshomaru had everything cleaned and put away, Kazumi was running low on energy as she ran around in circles, laughing to herself as she slowly tired herself out. Sesshomaru, having been watching all of this for a while now, quietly called her name to gain her attention. Once he had it, he calmly told her it was bedtime.

Kazumi-tired and cranky at the prospect of bedtime-slowly began to whimper. When that didn't seem to work on her Papa, she began the water works until she was bawling her little heart out.

She didn't want to go to bed yet! She wasn't tired! Her Mommy still wasn't here!

Having been expecting this from one of the many notes Rin had left him, Sesshomaru let out a harsh bark to make Kazumi stop the racket she was making. He stoically watched as Kazumi's cries slowly dwindled to soft whimpers, then to sniffles, and then to nothing as she realised that her Papa wanted her to listen and that her crying wasn't getting her anywhere.

Looking down at her red, snot ridden face, Sesshomaru felt both a small twinge of disgust and something else go off in his chest. With a mental sigh and roll of his eyes, he calmly walked over to where she was and knelt down to look her evenly in the eyes. Grabbing the end of her shirt, he brought it up and cleaned all the snot on her face with it. Once all evidence of her small tantrum were gone, he looked into her golden coloured eyes and told her that, that behaviour wasn't acceptable.

"Why?" Kazumi asked as she tilted her head slightly to the right in confusion.

"It is grating on the ears," Sesshomaru replied as he silently ordered her to follow him. Walking a few steps and looking back to see if she was following, and seeing that she was, made his way to the bathroom he took Kazumi to earlier.

"Gratin'?" Kazumi's soft, inquisitive voice called out.

"Hn."

For a moment Kazumi was silent before she tugged on the hair that was swinging in front of her and asked, "What gratin'?"

Stopping dead in his tracks, Sesshomaru waited for her to release his hair, and when she didn't, took a deep breath before turning around slightly and gently removing her hand from his hair and said, "It hurts the ears," in answer to her question.

"Oh."

Pushing all of his hair over his shoulder, Sesshomaru again began leading Kazumi towards the bathroom once he was sure he had answered all the questions she had at the moment. It wasn't long before Kazumi was skipping up to his side and taking hold of his hand. Looking down, Sesshomaru was greeted with a head full of black hair bopping up, down, side to side to a song only she could hear.

They came to a stop in front of the bathroom, and when Kazumi let out a whimper at the sight of the bathroom, Sesshomaru let a low growl resonate in his chest warning her not to do what she did earlier. Urging her in and pass the toilet area, he watched as she reluctantly began taking off her pants, and once those were on the floor she looked over her shoulder as if to say, 'well are you going to help?'

Finally stepping into the bathroom, Sesshomaru quickly got rid of the shirt she was wearing and started the water on the tub. Grabbing one of the stools pushed up against the wall, Sesshomaru sat down and mentioned for Kazumi to stand in front of him. Pulling the hand held shower head off the wall, he silently turned and adjust the water to an appropriate temperature before pointing it at Kazumi.

Sesshomaru watched with a small smirk as Kazumi squealed in excitement before running away away from the water. For a few minutes Kazumi ran around the room, dodging and avoiding the spray of water not knowing that she was getting lessons on ways to outmaneuver any enemy she may battle in the future. Before long, Sesshomaru was calling Kazumi back to his side so that she could be quickly washed off and then placed in the tub to relax.

After a few minutes of trotting around the tub, Kazumi was finally nodding off. Standing up from where he had been sitting, Sesshomaru grabbed a towel from one of the cabinets outside the tub area, before walking over to Kazumi and picking her up. Quickly wrapping the towel around her, Sesshomaru brought her close and began a quiet growl deep within his chest to make her fall moments, Kazumi was snoring her little heart off as she drifted off the dreamland.

Sliding the door open, Sesshomaru walked out of the bathroom and started towards his bedroom only to stop when he realised that he didn't have any of Kazumi's belongings in hand. Making a quick detour to the kitchen he grabbed her bag, then continued onward to his bedroom.

Placing Kazumi on top of his bed, Sesshomaru finished drying her before going through her bag and picking out something that looked decent enough to sleep in. Placing the outfit on the bed, Sesshomaru looked up long enough to see that Kazumi had fallen asleep. Releasing a quiet sigh, Sesshomaru picked up the shorts up from the bed, he carefully lifted Kazumi's legs and slipped the shorts on her. Picking her up slightly from the bed, he slipped the shirt over her head and her arms through her sleeves, before lying her back down.

Seeing that she had no way of falling off of bed, Sesshomaru backed away and proceeded to exit the room. He had some work to do now.

It wasn't until hours later that Sesshomaru was brought out of his work by the ringing of his office phone. Briefly glancing at the clock, he picked up the phone and waited for whoever was on the other said to speak.

"T-Taisho-san?"

"Hn."

"This is the front desk. A Koizumi-san is here."

"Send her up," with that said Sesshomaru hung up. Setting the document he was working on down, Sesshomaru leaned back on his hair and closed his eyes for a moment before getting up and walking out the door of his office. Within moments of setting foot outside his office, the flashing light of the elevator opener keypad announced that Rin was waiting for him to let her in. Pressing the button that let her in, he walked over to the door to await her arrival.

It wasn't long until the sound of heels clicking on the floor caught his attention. Straightening, Sesshomaru watched through narrowed eyes as Rin surveyed her surroundings with wide eyed wonder. He couldn't help taking note that she looked rather pleasing to the eye the way she was dressed. The skin tight, halter top style dress clung to all the right places, the stilettos that graced her feet added a couple inches to her height, added to her appeal. It was the woman he remembered from so long ago.

Subtly shaking his head to clear it of such thoughts, Sesshomaru shifted slightly from his stop against the door, and waited for her to notice him. It wasn't long before Rin was walking towards him, although she was looking at everything but him.

Rin came to a stop in front of him, and looking up into his eyes, asked where Kazumi was.

"Resting," was his abrupt reply.

Humming in the back of her throat, Rin rocked on the back of her heels as she scrutinized him. Tilting her head to the side and narrowing her eyes in thought, Rin took in every detail of her daughter's father. Nodding and looking pleased with what she found, she politely asked Sesshomaru to go get her; she did after all want to be home at decent time.

Without saying anything, Sesshomaru turned around and disappeared into his home. A couple minutes later he returned with Kazumi a sleeping draped over one arm and her bag in the other. Stepping forward, Rin took the bag first and slung it over her shoulder before reaching toward Kazumi. Both Sesshomaru and Rin were extra careful when they transferred her from one to the other.

Once Kazumi was safely and comfortably arranged in her mother's arms, Rin nodded her head in thanks to Sesshomaru before turning around and leaving his apartment. Watching them go, Sesshomaru couldn't help but feel an ache in his chest. Rubbing the area subtly, he turned around and ventured into his apartment.

Rin's dress: miniimg . rightinthebox dot com / images / 384x384 / 201310 / mjogee1381372245902 . jpg (remove spaces and of course actually write dot com)

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