Chapter XXIV

A ray of sunshine flashing across her face is what woke Rin the next day. Not the sound of her alarm clock, or the sound of her hyperactive daughter storming into her room in demand of food or fun. So, it was with a weary sigh and extreme reluctance that Rin greeted the new day as she rolled out of bed and headed to her bathroom. After a quick and refreshing shower, Rin got dressed before wandering down to Kazumi's room to see if she was awake and if not, to wake her.

Knocking lightly on the door, Rin gently pushed it all the way open and softly called, "Kazumi-chan ohayou." Seeing Kazumi sitting up in bed and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Rin flicked off the lights, and walked inside the lilac coloured room. Talking around a yawn, Kazumi greeted her mother with a bright, "'hayou Mommy!" before jumping down from her bed and running right into Rin's arms. Giving her a big, tight hug, Kazumi leaped out of her mother's arms, grabbed her hand, and began leading her out of the room. Saying that "Kazumi-chan 'ungry!" as way of explanation.

Faintly laughing, Rin asked, "And what does Kazumi-chan want for breakfast?" with a fond smile as she let her daughter drag her down the corridor towards the kitchen.

This caused Kazumi to pause as she thought it over before glancing up at her Mommy and, giving her a big smile, said, "Balls!"

Confused, Rin looked at Kazumi with a small, perplexed smile and queried, "Balls?"

"We make balls!" Kazumi expanded.

"Aa! The energy bites!" exclaimed Rin as she remember that they had made some the other day. "Are you sure that's the only thing you want to eat?"

"Cake too!"

"Hai, hai. Anything else?"

"'Sauce!"

"And is that all?"

"Hai!"

With that being said, Kazumi tugged at Rin's hand to get her attention back on task before continuing to drag her mother behind her with a determined yet excited look in her small face.

...

When Kazumi took her first nap of the day around ten that morning, Rin took the opportunity presented to her to call Sesshomaru and arrange a meeting with him to talk about the contract that both of their fathers made without consulting them. So, it was with a heavy sigh that Rin picked up the phone and dialed his number. It rang twice before it was sent to voicemail. Sighing, Rin left a message stating the reason she was calling was to arrange a meeting to talk about the contract and to call her back at his earliest convenience. With that being said, she hung up, looked around her living room for a moment and decided—since she had nothing else to do—to shift some things around.

Not even an hour into her given task, her phone rang. Taking in a deep breath, Rin pulled her phone out of her back pocket, and without checking the caller ID, answered.

"Koizumi-san," the rumbling baritone of Sesshomaru resonated from the phone. Pulling the phone away from her ear, Rin stared at it in shock for a moment before putting it back and, with surprise surrounding her voice, said, "Taisho-san, I wasn't expecting you to call so soon."

With a—somewhat—cautious tone Sesshomaru reponsed with, "I would have answered when you first called, however, I was in an important meeting at the time."

"Ah I understand Taisho-san."

"Would tomorrow at nine suffice for our discussion?" Sesshomaru asked.

Checking her mental calendar, Rin shook her head in the negative, forgetting that he couldn't see her, and replied with, "I have a previous arrangement at that time. Would Friday around that time work?"

For a moment Sesshomaru remained silent, to most likely check his calendar, before stating that, "yes that time is agreeable," waited a second to hear Rin's response before hanging up. Looking at her phone in confusion, Rin had just enough time to wonder at the strangeness of men before her thoughts were interrupted by the pitter patter of tiny feet walking towards her.

Glancing over her shoulder, Rin watched as Kazumi slowly toddled to where she was standing in the middle of the living room while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Did you have a nice nap, Kazumi-chan?" Rin asked with a small smile as she turned around fully to face her.

"Un," Kazumi offered around a yawn as she came to a stop in front of Rin. Gazing through sleep ridden eyes, Kazumi took in the rearranged furniture, the faint scent of cleaning products, and how disheveled her mother looked that for a moment she stood there confused before turning that bafflement towards Rin. Smiling, Rin merely said that she had an urge to rearrange some of the furniture for no specific reason.

Looking at the cute little frown gracing Kazumi's face as she tried to make sense of her messed up logic, Rin held in her giggle as she bent down to Kazumi's level before saying, "wasurete kudasai,* Kazumi-chan." When all she received in response was a tiny scowl and a frustrated, "I don't get it!" Rin finally gave into her urge and laughed for a good second before stating that it was of no importance and that she shouldn't worry about it. With that said and done, Rin gathered Kazumi into her arms, stood up from her bent position, looked into Kazumi's beautiful golden eyes, and calmly asked her, "Do you want to help Mommy make lunch?"

Kazumi, pleasantly distracted by the thought of helping her mother in the kitchen—forgetting all about Rin's lapse in sanity—gave her a brilliant smile that showed her sharper than average canines as she exclaimed, "Hai!"

For the next few hours until her lunch date with Ayame and the girls, Rin kept both herself and Kazumi distracted with fun and games. She had no problem diverting her attention away from both Kazumi's appointment tomorrow or her meeting with Sesshomaru the following day. She wanted to treasure this moment with her daughter and think about the future later.

With Sesshomaru

"Sesshomaru," the gentle caress in which his name was uttered made Sesshomaru look up from the document he was reading to see, that, standing in the entrance to his office was a woman that couldn't be a day over thirty and almost an exact replica of him. Scowling at the sudden interruption her visit caused him, Sesshomaru asked, more like demanded, "Haha-ue, what are you doing here?"

"When I received a phone call yesterday morning from your father I was expecting his usual irksome antics, but, unexpectedly the first thing out of his mouth was your name and that we have a granddaughter," as she was speaking, Sesshomaru's mother had been striding towards him until she came to a stop in front of his desk. Looking her nose down at him, she continued in both a playful yet stern voice, "Being as this is your father, at first I brushed it off knowing the kind of son I raised...However, as your father continued speaking of how wondrous and devious this granddaughter of ours is, he sent me a picture. Now, at the time I didn't know what to feel...astounded that my own son couldn't tell his mother that he had fathered a child...disgruntled that I now have a grandchild at my age...or dismayed that I couldn't participate in any of the bonding ceremonies. Nevertheless, all of that is rather irrelevant to the point I'm about to make...why is this the first time I'm hearing about this?"

Holding the bridge of his nose to ward off a migraine, Sesshomaru closed his eyes for a moment as he let out a sigh of annoyance before locking his gaze onto his dissatisfied mother and harshly stated, "Sit down haha-ue." Watching through narrowed eyes, Sesshomaru saw more than heard his mother huff at his manners before she pushed a strand of snowy, white hair over her shoulder and taking a seat. Once seated, Sesshomaru laced his fingers together and explained all he knew and learned in the past week about both Rin and Kazumi, ending with, "the neglect of performing any of the bonding ceremonies, however, is...troublesome." Behind the coldness in his molten golden eyes, Sesshomaru's mother saw true worry being reflected through. With a hum to show her own discontent, she settled back in her chair—and while not as comfortable as the ones back in her home—she grasped Sesshomaru's attention and stated, "Tell me the symptoms...Kazumi has exhibited since you've come in contact with her."

As his mother patiently waited for Sesshomaru to gather his thoughts, Sesshomaru silently mused over all his interactions with Kazumi these past few days. "The first day we met she was just inquisitive of me and wanting to know the reason I smelt like her mother. The second time was when I received a distressed phone call from Koizumi-san saying that she was inconsiderable. When I arrived at her home, Kazumi had vomited up everything she had, her eyes were glazed over, her heart was beating erratically and she smelt of a fever...I feel that if I had arrived a moment later that...the symptoms would've worsen and Kazumi would've been a different child than the one I know now...or if she would be alive."

The sound of a sharp inhale and the slight widening of her eyes was the only thing that indicated that Sesshomaru's mother was shocked. In all her years of living, she had never encountered such a thing. She knew of people who had gone through a pregnancy and bore a child without the child ever experiencing the ceremonies...this however, is the first time she's heard of symptoms so severe. It makes her wonder what's so different about this child and her mother.

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