Disclaimer- I do not own Inuyasha, that honor belongs to Rumiko Takahashi.
A/N- For approximate ages on the characters, see the author's note at the end of the chapter. Thanks for the reviews! Please, if you're reading this, tell me what you thought of it!
Enjoy.
Chapter One- Rin's Secret AdmirerRin listened as Satsuki sadly explained to them all that her and Shippou had called their relationship off. Rin glanced at a rather tomboyish girl sitting across from her, noticing that Souten's red eyes had sparked with a sudden interest.
Inwardly, Rin grinned. She knew Souten had been waiting a long time for the two to break up. She grimaced however, when she realized that it might be soon that her friend Shippou might pursue someone else rather quickly, knowing her friend.
"Hello, Rin-chan," someone said nervously behind her. Rin stopped eating her sandwich, and turned around.
"Oh hi, Shintarou-kun!" she said cheerfully, beaming at the boy as he fiddled with a button of his uniform. "Did you want something?"
His eyes were shifty, and Rin thought he looked rather cute nervous. "Well, I was wondering if you are free Friday night."
Rin's eyes widened in realization and the girls she sat with hushed suddenly.
"Oh!" she exclaimed in surprise. "Yes I'm free."
He smiled hopefully at her. "Would you like to go see a movie with me?"
"Oh yes!" she said brightly, "but I must ask Sesshoumaru-sama first, so I might not be able to go, but I'll try!"
He beamed and said goodbye to her, and Rin turned back to her lunch, the other girls looking at her with interest.
"You've just been asked out on a date, Rin-san," one of them said, "I do hope you know that."
Rin glared at her. She was not overly fond of Jun, because she acted as if everybody was slower than herself. "Yes I did know I was asked out on a date," she bit back, trying to hold back her irritation.
It was then that the bell rang, and Rin threw out her garbage, gathered her supplies and stuffed them into her backpack. She walked to her next class with Souten and Satsuki, whom she shared gym class with.
After changing in to their gym clothes in the locker rooms, the girls made their way outside, where they would be playing volleyball. It was still a bit chilly, being January, but the weather was unusually warm, and there was no snow on the ground; their teacher had wanted to take advantage before it got cold again. Besides, their gym teacher's idea of warm-ups was something akin to a strenuous workout.
"Hello Fujii-sensei!" Many of the girls waved towards their gym teacher.
She turned and beamed at them, her hands resting on her hips. Despite her condition (her stomach was swelling), she still was in shape, and had no qualms about participating in warm-ups with her students. Rin knew the gym teacher personally, and her name was Fujii Sango. She was married to Sesshoumaru's brother's best friend, and thus, Rin was rather close to the older woman.
"Alright, class!" Sango clapped her hands, gathering the attention of all of the students. "You have five minutes to jog around the court! No cutting the corners, going inside the lines, or walking! I want to see either sprinting or jogging, no slacking off!"
The class groaned, but did as she said. They had learned at the beginning of the year that if you slacked off during warm-ups, she had you doing them the entire class without playing a single game.
Rin jogged alone, wanting to keep her own pace. Someone joined her at her right and she turned her head to see who it was.
"Shippou-kun!" she grinned at him, "How are you? Is your gym class outside also?"
He smiled at her, his fangs flashing in the sunlight. "Yes, and I'm great, how are you Rin?"
"Very well, thank you," Rin answered politely. "I'm sorry about you and Satsuki—"
Shippou waved her off. "Ah, don't be. I broke it off with her. Wasn't that interesting, between you and me."
"Oh," Rin said, her brows furrowing.
"Ah, don't waste your time dwelling on it," Shippou grinned at her. "I'm interested in someone else, and I can't be happy in a relationship if she's not the one I actually like."
Rin raised an eyebrow. "Oh?" she said slyly. He just smirked at her, not hinting her on who it was.
Sango blew the whistle and the entire class ran up to form a semi-circle around her.
"All right class!" she said loudly so she can be heard, "I have an announcement! Because of my delicate condition," she made quotation marks with her fingers at the word 'delicate' "I will be unable to actively teach gym class all of the time. So there will a substitute to take over all of the days I will be unable to. It's only twice a week class," she reassured them after they all groaned. "So you will still be seeing me! Also, at the end of class, I have leaflets for exercise sessions using equipment at the recreation center. It will be extra points towards your final semester grade! So it'd be in your best interests to give it a try!"
Some students looked interested, some apprehensive.
Sango beamed at them, and twirled a volleyball that she seemed to have pulled out of thin air on her finger. "Now, let the game begin!"
Rin stared at the orange-yellow advertisement in her hands as she automatically made her way towards Sesshoumaru's study. Not watching where she was going, she bumped into a creature that came up to about her knees.
"Watch it, you foolish human!" grunted Jaken; clutching that ridiculous two-headed staff he always carried around with him.
"Sorry Jaken-sama," she replied automatically, her feet still guiding her on their own accord to her intended destination as she continued to read the leaflet.
"Hmm, maybe I will go to these sessions, there're only twice a week for six weeks" she said, folding the paper in half and then again before stuffing it in her back jeans pocket. "That's only twelve sessions."
She knocked on the door of the study, taking a deep breath.
"Enter," replied her guardian from within coolly.
She opened the door, peering in before she entered the room all the way. Sesshoumaru sat behind his desk, reading something from a manila folder while Kagura stood to the side, looking miffed. Both appeared rather tense, as if Rin had interrupted one of their many disagreements.
Rin had remembered when Sesshoumaru and Kagura had held a deep attraction to one another, no matter how well they had hidden it. Rin had seen right through the act and kept dropping hints to both that the other liked one another. In the end, they both had married. Whether they were happy about it or not was anybody's guess. Sometimes, they appeared to be but at other moments, they seemed like they wanted to kill each other.
"Sesshoumaru-sama, may I ask you something?" Rin began. He grunted, not looking up from the document he was reading.
"This boy I know," Rin began, and Sesshoumaru's golden eyes averted themselves from the paper to look at her face, the only part of his body that moved. "And he asked me if I would like to go to the movies Friday. So—may I go?"
"No," Sesshoumaru immediately replied, his attention shifting back to the document. Kagura grunted in what seemed to be irritation as she turned to look out the enormous window. Sesshoumaru chose to ignore her.
Rin wilted with disappointment. "Oh—okay," she said, "I-I'll be sure to tell him then."
Without another word, she left the study. Sesshoumaru merely grunted, returning the document to its manila folder and pulling another one out.
Thwack!
Sesshoumaru paused in opening the second folder, his eyes closing as his left brow developed a tick.
"Was it necessary to hit me on the face with the fan?" he asked, his eyes still closed.
Kagura snorted, tapping her closed fan against the palm of her hand. "Of course it was. Do you want this girl to become a hermit?"
"I let her socialize with others," he replied, his attention now on another report. His eyes narrowed as the fan hit him again, this time on the back of his head.
"Let her go out on the date," Kagura snapped. "She's nearly seventeen years old and she hasn't been on one yet! How is she ever going to find a mate and have kids if she doesn't get to know how to interact romantically with a male?"
"You are an incessantly annoying being," he grunted, his right hand scribbling his signature against the document before he put it away also.
Kagura rolled her bright red eyes. "Right back at you. Why are you being so stubborn? Let Rin live a little. It's just the movies—"
Sesshoumaru turned to her. "Do you know what they do in theaters?" he asked her with a blank look. Kagura sighed, moving to lean against the desk and awaited his answer.
"They share saliva, molest each other, and when the movie's over they're fornicating in the backseat of an automobile with no recollection of what the plot of the movie was," he stated, as if he were reading from a textbook.
Kagura rolled her eyes, resisting the urge to hit him with her fan again. "Well if that's what you were doing at the movies—"
"Don't be impertinent," he interrupted.
"Rin is not that kind of girl," she finished, as if he had not cut her off.
Sesshoumaru was silent for a moment. "Fine," he gritted out from clenched teeth, abruptly opening a drawer to his desk and riffling through it. "Have it your way and inform her she may go, but we need to discuss ground rules before she does so. Now in the meantime, leave; I have work to do."
Kagura grunted, muttering, "Sure you do," under her breath as she excited.
Rin waved cheerfully back at the drugstore owner as she exited, her paper bag filled with personal items in her hand. She made her way down the sidewalk, carefully avoiding bumping into other people. She hummed a little tune to herself, until she noticed a green car pulling up in an empty parking space beside her. The car's window rolled down.
"Hey Rin!" Higurashi Souta greeted, giving her a bright smile. She grinned in return, walking up to the window.
"Hello Souta-kun, how are you?" she asked politely, leaning in towards him.
"I'm great," he said. "Hey, do you need a ride home?"
"Oh don't worry," she said. "I have no problem walking home."
"And I have no problem driving you either," he said with a smirk. "Come on, get in," he said as he shifted books that were on the passenger's seat to the back of the car.
Rin hesitated slightly, then shrugged and walked around the front of the car, opening the door and letting herself in.
"So," Souta said after a few moments of silence as he drove down the busy street. "What's new with you?"
"Oh, nothing really," Rin said. "Oh! I'm going out on my first date Friday night, isn't that exciting?"
Souta didn't reply right away. Rin looked towards him to see if anything was wrong and was surprised to see that he looked a little upset, although he tried hard to mask it. She suddenly remembered Kagome telling her that Souta and his long-time girlfriend, Hitomi, just recently broke up. Rin assumed that the idea of dating made him sad.
"Yeah, it's great," Souta said with forced cheerfulness.
For the rest of the ride to Rin's home, they remained silent. Souta pulled up the curving driveway of Sesshoumaru's gigantic house and stopped just by the front steps leading up to the door. He got out, walked around the front of his car to Rin's side, and opened the door for her.
"I'll see you later, Rin," he said softly, his face sporting a small smile. Rin beamed back at him in return and hugged him.
"I hardly see you anymore, Souta-kun," she said, pulling away from him. "Now that you attend college classes. We should talk more often."
His smile widened a fraction, and he nodded before entering his car and driving away. She waved as he pulled out, and he lifted his hand to her in response.
Rin charged upstairs to her room set the paper bag she had on her nightstand, and dumped the contents of her backpack on her bed, setting on doing her homework right away. From the time that he had first sent her to public school, Sesshoumaru had made it known to her the first thing she did when she got home was to complete her homework. Rin liked this routine, because she found more time to do other things the rest of the day.
An hour later, just as Rin was finishing her last math assignment, there was a knock on her door.
"Come in!" she replied quickly, not pausing in working on the problem.
"Rin," the voice of her guardian distracted her from her work. She looked up, and smiled.
"Hello, Sesshoumaru-sama!" she greeted exuberantly.
"Rin, we need to discuss this—date of yours," he said, with a hint of disgust in his usually guarded tone. Rin's eyebrows rose in question.
"What would you like to discuss, Sesshoumaru-sama?" she asked.
"Rules," he replied curtly, taking a few steps further into her room before crossing it and sitting in the chair at her desk. "First off, you are to be home no later than…ten," he said, as if he had originally wanted it to be earlier than the time he prescribed, but a certain woman had argued to make it later.
She nodded, thinking that this was reasonable.
"Second," he continued, "there is to be none of him touching you in inappropriate areas of your body, and vice-versa," he gave her a stern glare. "I believe I do not have to describe what the consequences will be for the both of you if the two of you engage in rutting."
Rin felt her entire face, neck, and ears heat up. "Sesshoumaru-sama!" she choked embarrassingly, her eyes darting to a corner of the room away from him. "Please, I wouldn't do that!" she pleaded, wanting him to not discuss this any further with her.
Sesshoumaru did not move for a moment before he nodded. "Very well," he said, "that is all."
He left without another word, leaving Rin horribly mortified.
Since Rin was off of school on Friday because of a teachers' meeting, she sat with Sesshoumaru and Kagura in the dining room while all three of them ate breakfast. There was a knock on the front door, and they heard Jaken bustling to answer it.
They heard muffled voices, and Sesshoumaru straightened up in his seat, his eyes narrowing as he looked towards the entranceway that could be seen through the open doorway of the dining room. Rin and Kagura, not having as good as hearing as he did, looked at him in question.
Grumbling, Jaken entered the room with a bouquet of pink flowers. He shoved them in Rin's face.
"Here, brat," he sneered, "someone delivered these to you."
"Oh!" Rin's face lit up as she bent her face down to smell the flowers' intoxicating scent. A card fluttered to the floor, unnoticed by her.
Sesshoumaru pushed back his chair, and strode over to her, stepping on Jaken on the way. He bent down, picked up the small piece of paper. His eyes scanned the typing on it, and they narrowed minutely.
"'I didn't have the courage to tell you the other day,'" he read out loud," "but I have feelings for you. I hope you appreciate these roses. They smell sweet like you. Love, Someone-who-likes-you.'" Sesshoumaru let out a small growl, dropping the card in front of Rin. "What is this rubbish? Who is it from? Who's been smelling you?" he demanded.
Rin looked at him in surprise. "I do not know," she answered. "It is probably from Shintarou, although he could have put his name. I know he likes me, now." She frowned slightly, but then beamed as she abruptly got up from her seat.
"Oh, I must put this in a vase with water right away!" she said, running out in to the hall to grab a vase from one of the small tables. They heard running water from the kitchen and her humming, before she reentered the dining room without the flowers.
"Well someone is very sweet," she stated, resuming in eating her pancakes. Kagura chuckled a little, giving Sesshoumaru a pointed look that he ignored.
"Thank you for the flowers you sent me, Shintarou-kun," Rin said graciously as he walked her to the front door right after their date.
He gave her a confused stare. "Flowers?"
"Oh—uh, never mind, then," she said, giving out a nervous laugh. They stopped right outside her door. She fidgeted with her hands awkwardly as she waited for him to leave.
He paused, hesitating slightly as he leaned forward slowly. Rin felt her eyes close, waiting for the contact.
The door opened. "It's late, Rin."
Both teenagers jumped about a foot away from each other, looking wildly towards the source of the interruption. Sesshoumaru stood in the doorway, his tall frame towering over both of theirs. He looked especially menacing since the light next to the door illuminated his face in an eerie yellow glow, casting some areas in shadows.
"R-right," Rin stammered. "I'll see you at school, Shintarou-kun." She quickly hurried inside.
Sesshoumaru waited until he heard her running up the stairs. His gaze then flickered to the trembling boy in front of him.
"If you try that again I will personally tear your spine from your body," he said without emotion before he shut the door in the frightened young man's face.
Rin watched from a bench nearby as Shippou tossed another flat stone across the pond, counting as it skipped six times. She turned back to her math, working out another problem.
"So how are you and that girl doing?" Rin asked. "She's the one that owns that cat like Kirara, right? Her name's Koume?"
"Yeah," Shippou replied, skipping another stone. "She's real sweet. I'm just not sure if she'll last any longer than Satsuki, though."
Rin allowed a grin to cross her face. "If you keep this up you'll be like Miroku-sama," she teased.
Shippou let out a sharp laugh. "Yeah, well at least he found himself a nice woman who'd put up with him in the end."
Rin nodded, smiling. "Yeah, he sure is lucky he found Sango-chan."
"Did Shintarou ask you out again?" Shippou said, turning to look over his shoulder at her. Rin frowned slightly.
"No," she answered. "It seems as if he's been avoiding me."
Shippou looked thoughtful. "Maybe it's because Sesshoumaru scared the shit out of him."
"Shippou-kun, watch your language!" Rin admonished, but she thought on what Shippou had said. It seemed like it would be a likely reason for him to avoid her. She sighed in disappointment.
"Someone also sent me flowers," she said after awhile. Shippou shrugged, skipping another rock. A smiling couple passed between them on the stone path in the park.
"Lots of guys like you, Rin," Shippou stated, "and it's because you're pretty and kind-hearted. You don't bully anybody or discriminate against the youkai or the hanyou, like some people do. There are guys who admire that."
Rin blushed slightly. "I'm not that much of a saint, Shippou."
Shippou cracked a fanged grin at her. "You're pretty damn close."
He skipped another rock, and they fell in a comfortable, companionable silence.
A/N- Is the little girl's name in "Shippo's First Love" named Satsuki? I can't find this anywhere.
Ages on characters that have appeared thus far:
Rin- 16, just two months shy of her 17th birthday, a junior in high school
Shippou- 16, born in the same month as Rin, a junior in high school
Sesshoumaru- 36 but looks the exact same as the series…in his mid-twenties
Kagura- 29 but looks the same as in the series…in her early twenties
Souta- 19, has graduated from high school and now is in college
Shintarou- 18, is a senior in high school
Souten- 17, a junior in high school
Sango- 25, just three months shy of her 26 birthday