Hey guys! Don't worry, I don't usually put in author's notes. I just want to address Tay's comment. I'm really sorry if my updates are a bit slow. Rest assured that I'm going to try writing faster in order to update more frequently. To those enjoying the story so far, thank you so much! I hope I don't disappoint you in the future and that I get to meet all your expectations. Now back to the story.

-Ella

Chapter 3

The day went on normally after lunch and no one dared to talk about what happened with Inuyasha's brother during lunch break. Today's last period is extended homeroom and the class gets to decide who gets to be the corresponding class representatives for all the year's curricular and extra-curricular activities.

Sangaku-sensei entered the class with a stack of papers on hand, a set of printed handouts on the different schedule and guidelines of the year's events such as breaks, exams, school trips, cultural festival, athletic week, etc. He started off by distributing the handouts to the class that was now buzzing with each of their own chatter about who should be the representative for this and that.

Sangaku-sensei asked the class to settle down as the last of the handouts reached the furthest row in the room. Some students still continued to chat about who best fits certain positions, even Kagome started chatting with Sango about who's who especially in their previous years in the academy. Rin on the other hand, as much as possible did not want to be mixed up in all the chatter. Being a new student, her knowledge on her classmates' abilities was a literal zero, besides the bits and pieces she was able to put together from Kagome's stories during the earlier lunch period.

At the thought of lunch period, Rin's mind already focused on the events that transpired near the staircase on the 6th floor. Somehow, she couldn't get the image of the president's beautiful golden eyes off her mind. In her head, his intense gaze towards her lasted more than the mere seconds when it actually happened. She suddenly realized that the president has been on her train of thoughts for the entire day despite having only said two sentences to each other. To her although their encounters lacked words, she felt like his gaze was able to utter a million words, and could command her attention without even having to blink.

Rin suddenly felt a blush slowly creeping on the apples of her cheeks. She tried to blink away the image of the president in her head. The sound of someone calling her name pulled her out of her musings.

"Tachibana-san?" Sangaku sensei said as he looked at her as if waiting for a reply.

"Ha-hai?" Rin answered hurriedly.

"Alright, it's decided then. Tachibana-san is the Class Representative for the Student Council and Public Morals Committee together with Higurashi-san. You should just decide amongst the two of you regarding the division of tasks."

Rin just stared at Sangaku-sensei, dumfounded. In front of her was Kagome with the most apologetic and guilty smile.

"Rin-chi, gomen ne. I tried to stop the class from nominating you, but you didn't object so I just volunteered to work with you so I can help you out. Let's work hard, ne." Kagome said as she tried to explain the situation. As she judged from Rin's expression, her mind was elsewhere and that she has very little idea about what just happened.

Rin smiled rather weakly, internally scolding herself for zoning off during class and getting herself in this kind of situation.

"Kagome-chan, shinpai shinaide. Let's both work hard together. Also, arigatou for helping me out. I hope I didn't cause you much trouble." Rin said apologetically.

"Eh, no need to be so formal, ne? Eto, aren't we friends? Of course, it's no trouble at all." Kagome said with a huge smile on her face.

Rin's smile turned brighter at the though of being able to make her first friends in her new school.

The rest of the class went on peacefully, and Sangaku-sensei dismissed the class when the bell rang. He called out Rin and Kagome to tell them for either of them to report to the Student Council room about their appointment as representative.

"Ano, Rin-chi, can you do student council, and I'll just do Public Morals Committee? I really can't stay after classes since I still have miko training and Public Morals Committee duties are in the morning while Student Council meets after class. Onegai, Rin-chi." Kagome said with eyes pleading to Rin.

"Hai hai, Kagome-chan. I'm not very familiar with school rules yet so I think I'll be a very ineffective Public Morals Committee member." Rin replied while slightly laughing at how serious Kagome was pleading to her.

"Kyaa! Arigatou ne, Rin-chi! You saved my ass! I really owe you one." Kagome half squealed, half spoke as she jump-hugged Rin before saying goodbye and leaving for her training with Inuyasha and the rest of the usual gang behind them, each saying their goodbyes before making it out of the room.

Rin gathered her stuff and started heading towards the Student Council room. Realizing she doesn't know where exactly to go, she took out the small map provided for her when she checked in and collected her school materials. Following the directions in the map, she learned that the Student Council room is in the second floor next to the library. Finally knowing where to go, she made her way down the nearest staircase and on to the second floor.

Not long enough, she found herself in the deserted hallway of the second floor, given that most students rushed to return to their homes or to attend special training at the other side of the campus grounds. She slowly approached the door of the Student Council room, debating with herself whether she should knock or not on the door that was already slightly ajar.

Before she could reach a final decision, she was pulled into the room by a strong pair of arms and she found herself trapped between the wall and a body towering hers within a matter of seconds. Without even looking at her captor's face, she already knew who he was, with the braided tail of his hair over the crisp white linen Oxford Shirt of the school uniform. He was so close that she could smell his scent through the opening near his loosened tie and undone top buttons of his shirt. Rin resisted the urge to inhale deeply and fully indulge herself in what seems to be a mixture of Vanilla and Sandalwood.

Her thoughts about his scent were halted when she heard an aggressive low growl, almost feral in a way, coming from him. He took her face with one of his hands while the other remained in it's place beside her shoulder, continuing to trap her in her place. He forced her face to look up towards him, his claws, though remaining tamed, slightly dug around the skin of her jaw. When she was finally looking up at him, he finally spoke in an accusing tone.

"Who really are you and who among my father's enemies sent you? They must be getting more stupid. Che. Sending a human to eliminate me, a careless, unguarded, and evidently untrained girl. Do they take the power of an Inudaiyokai so lightly?"

"Ano, Takahashi-kaichou, whatever do you mean by that? I'm class 1-2's Class Representative for Student Council, Tachibana Rin. We already met twice earlier today. What do you mean by which enemy sent me? I was sent here by Sangaku-sensei to report to this room as the newly appointed class rep."

Rin tried to explain as calmly as she could, and realized that this is definitely not the time to be relishing the closeness of their bodies and the fact that his scent is now lingering around her. The feeling of his claws slowly shifting from their hold of her jaw, sliding down to grab her by the neck, reminded her that he is an Inudaiyokai and that he wouldn't hesitate to snap her neck given the slightest of doubt on her character.

"Stop this nonsense. You have already been found out. You were lingering around me thrice today, you are the only transfer student for the year, and no one has heard of you nor your family before you applied for Seibu-ryo. Now tell me who sent you and I might think about not melting your neck off your body with my Dokkaso." Sesshomaru said as he tightened his grip on her neck.

Tears are now forming on the corners of Rin's eyes. She tried to take a deep breath in but that only moved the skin of her neck deeper into his claws, she could already feel a little bit of blood trickling down to her collar bone and is probably staining the collars of her white uniform shirt.

"Kaichou, gomennasai if I have somehow done something to anger you, but I assure you I am no assassin. Spare me my life, please. I was really only sent here by Sangaku-sensei to report my appointment as Class Representative. I'm begging of you, please release me."

Rin's tears already broke free from the corners of her eyes and streamed down her cheek, some of it dropping on Sesshomaru's hand clutching on to her neck. Without a single word, he withdrew his bloodstained claws and released Rin's neck. In a matter of few seconds, Rin already dropped sitting on the floor, clutching her bloodied and bruised neck, the body of Sesshomaru that was towering hers earlier already across the other side of the room. The sudden loss of warmth around her made her vulnerable to the skin-penetrating cold winds of late spring afternoons.

She may have been released by him but she can feel his piercing gaze still on her, as if she would lunge at him at any moment, as sudden as how he pinned her against the wall earlier. Her mind was a puddle of broken thoughts because of what just happened. She remained frozen in her position, unsure of what to do next, afraid that a single wrong move on her part would get her pinned right back on the wall and no longer get out of that chokehold alive.

She fumbled her pockets with her blood-stained hands, trying to find a handkerchief she was so sure she put in there earlier in the morning when she got dressed. She looked at her shaking hand holding the white handkerchief now stained with the blood from her hands. Her face made a terror-stricken expression at the sight of the blood, thinking whether any important blood vessels were hit by his claws, thoughts of dying from excessive blood loss struck her with panic, further draining the color from her face.

As if reading what was on her mind Sesshomaru spoke and said, "I avoided any important blood vessels if that's what you were thinking. I'm not as merciless as letting you die slowly from blood loss. If you would die, you die directly from my hands so you know exactly who killed you."

She looked up at him as she applied pressure on the places where his claws punctured on her neck. It was the first time she looked at him after he let go of her. Her brown eyes met his golden ones and for a brief moment, she felt like she was able to convey her sincerity through her eyes as she noticed a slight change in his gaze. This was the first time that he sincerely stared back at her, as if reading her very soul through her eyes.

He slowly walked towards her without breaking eye contact. Rin felt her back hit the wall behind her as she unconsciously moved backwards in an attempt to maintain the distance between them. He crouched in front of her and lifted her chin with one clawed finger, his gaze lingering on the wounds around her neck. She was once again surrounded by the scent of vanilla and sandalwood, although this time, it surprised her how much his scent relaxed her, despite what just happened.

She remained frozen as he touched her like that as if lost in a trance, only to be brought back by the feeling of her neck getting licked. She pushed him back, her appalled expression evident on her face. Despite her efforts, he refused to let go of her hold of her.

"What do you think you're doing? Is it not enough that you wounded me? Must you defile my body as well?" Rin accused.

He stared at her with a stern look and said, "Don't be too full of yourself, girl. I would rather die than want the body of a human. I am simply healing the wounds that are of my doing. If you want to go home looking like you were halfway-through getting mauled by a dog, then by all means, refuse this treatment. I am simply minimizing the damage here. Once my baka hanyou brother smells your blood on me and sees your wounds, my father would definitely hear of it."

Rin relaxed a bit after hearing that. She may have only known him for a day, yet she realized that he's not the type to apologize and thought that this was, in his own arrogant way, a form of apology. She removed her hands that were pushing against his chest and turned her head to bare the parts of her neck with the wounds to her neck and said a rather low and slightly quiet "arigatou".

He continued on licking the wounds on her neck and the ones on her jaw where he first grabbed her. When he was finished, she no longer felt the sting of the wounds, all that was left was the extra cold feeling on the skin that he tended to.

He got up and walked to the table in the middle of the room where his belongings were placed. He took out a blue scarf, tossed it to her and said, "Cover your bloodied collar with this. Tell no one of what happened here."

She wrapped the scarf around her neck and stood up from the floor. When she already got to her belongings that she dropped when she got pinned, Sesshomaru was already gone, leaving Rin wondering to herself if that really just happened. The scarf around her neck did not fail to remind her that she wasn't imagining any of it.

Feeling a cocktail of emotions, she silently made her way out of the student council room, thinking that she had one hell of a first day of school. She's left confused with the mixture of fear, relief and the numerous questions she had formed in her mind about what kind of person the student council president really is. She felt the cold air against her face as she walked home under the already darkening skies, her mind filled with thoughts about the person she has come to fear but not detest. All she knows is that she has to avoid him at all cost. How? She doesn't know yet, but she assured herself that she will come up with something. Curiosity brings nothing but mischief afterall.