"Sesshomaru," Shuichi approached him a few hours after Sesshomaru and Rin had gotten back from their trip. "Can I see you and Rin in my study?"
Sesshomaru, who was still dressed in shorts and a t-shirt looked up from the mountains of reports that had piled up over his vacation. "She won't talk to me." His gaze never left his father's disappointed expression.
"Fine, I'll personally get her." He walked down the long hallway and past his nervous wife to Rin's room. She answered to his thunderous knock and looked out at him like a scared mouse. "I need to speak with you," he informed her. She slipped out from behind the door and followed him silently to where his study was. She had never been in the room before, but she didn't really get a chance to look it over because her eyes immediately met with Sesshomaru's when she walked in the room. He too locked eyes with her and then looked away out of shame.
There was a large desk towards the far wall from the door, but in he middle was a set of couches and a chair that sat at the head of them. Shuichi took his seat in the chair, and the young couple sat on opposite couches making sure not to look in the other's direction. "I'm very disappointed with the both of you," Shuichi's voice boomed in the tall room. "I knew from the beginning that there was no attraction between the both of you, and I know that you got help from Inuyasha and Kagome in plotting out the details needed to fool me." The look on his face showed that he was now being the loving disciplining father.
"I thought that maybe you'd both work things out, and I thought I had finally gotten that chance when I heard what measures Sesshomaru was going through to protect your life, Rin. So when I offered to send you on a second honeymoon, you were to actually use that time as a second honeymoon." Tears started to pour out of Rin's eyes slowly at first but more steadily as he talked. Compassion came over him so he spoke in a normal tone of voice. "What happened to the both of you? There was a picture on the Internet today showing your embracing on the beach, but as soon as you got home you're already fighting and putting everyone in this house on edge."
Rin was crying too hard to say anything coherently, so Sesshomaru answered for you, "It was all a mistake. We let things get too far, and I had to put a stop to them."
Shuichi addressed his son, "When I told you that I wanted you to marry a human woman you loved, I was trying to teach you what love was. But if you won't allow her to love you or you to love her then it defeats the purpose. You cannot hamper things between two people if they are meant to happen."
"I am not in love with her," he informed his father causing Rin to look away. "I couldn't let her make the mistake of giving up herself to someone who doesn't love her."
"I understand that!" she fired back at him. "You just didn't have to be so rude about it. You acted like I was below you."
Now Shuichi fully understood everything happening between the both of them. Neither of them knew what they truly felt for the other. All they did know was that there was attraction between the both of them that neither knew how to control. "I see now. And I guess that there is nothing really I can do for the both of you. This is something the both of you will need to work out together. Ignoring the problem will not fix things between the both of you. I won't interject again unless I think that things need to end between the both of you. I don't want to grant a divorce, but if I have to..." he let the sentence roll on since he was afraid to end it. It was clear that the both of them had a great capacity to love the other, so ending it would only bring more heartache.
Rin wiped the tears from her eyes and walked out of the room not caring how rude it was to just leave this counseling session. She went to Kagome's room and threw herself on Kagome's bed hoping her friend could at least listen to her. Kagome and Izayoi had both been listening at the door in hopes of finding out what wrong with Rin since they both cared deeply for her. Kagome followed behind Rin and closed the door so they could have some privacy. "I'm so sorry, Rin."
Rin let a sob out as the tears flowed out faster than before. "We were starting to connect. And now that his dad will give us a divorce he'll leave me as soon as he can get the paperwork prepared."
"Rin, do you love him?" She put her hands on Rin's back to let her know she was there. Under her hands she could feel Rin's trembling.
Rin calmed herself just enough to say, "I don't know. I don't want to leave him though." Kagome rubbed Rin's back soothingly as she tried to process what little information Rin had given her. Perhaps her friend was falling in love with him and just didn't know it. Only months before she would have happily left him, so something had changed in her heart.
She suggested to Rin, "Why don't you stay in my room tonight. We'll see what he does tomorrow morning." Rin just laid there as sorrow wracked her body.
When Sesshomaru went to bed he had expected to find Rin already asleep. Instead he didn't even see her. He thought to himself, 'Perhaps it is best if she doesn't sleep in here tonight.' He laid down and waited for sleep to overtake him, but after an hour he gave up. His mind wouldn't leave him alone. The couch had been rather empty without her in it last night, and certainly their bed was even more empty without her next to him in his arms. She was his to protect.
His sense of smell lead him to Kagome's room. He knew that if he disturbed Kagome Inuyasha would throw a royal fit, but he just had to get Rin. The door was unlocked and Rin laid closest to the door, so he was able to easily get her out of the bed without disturbing Kagome. He took her back to their room without waking her and wrapped his arms around her body as she laid next to him. He buried his nose in her hair and smelled the sea still in it.
The next morning Rin was woken up by something moving next to her. She opened her bloodshot eyes to see Sesshomaru's face next to hers. How had she gotten into his bed, or how had he gotten into Kagome's bed? He opened his eyes only seconds later and neither knew what to say. Finally Rin found her tongue and asked, "Are you going to divorce me?"
His eyebrows shot upwards in shock. Did she think him so low as to assume he would divorce her now after all they had been through? Didn't she appreciate the fact that he had stopped them from making that big mistake? "You are my wife," he answered her as if all the answers were in one statement. She assumed it to mean that he had every intention of at least trying to get through their problems to bring them back to a point where they could at least get along again.
And slowly things did get back to a semi-comfortable state for the both of them. They had little time for each other, but it didn't seem to bother each of them at first. Yet at Shuichi's urging they decided to spend all Saturday with each other. Rin would attend public events with him acting like the ever loving and doting wife, and in the afternoon he would go with her to play with the kids at the orphanage. And in the evening they would go out for dinner and some sort of activity like a movie or a sporting event.
And things never seemed to phase Rin as being anything out of the ordinary. Then a newspaper article brought her attention to what she was truly doing. They had been out of college only seven months, so she found it difficult to understand how the columnist could made such broad assumptions, but in some way it made her understand that nothing she did was ever out of the view of the public. In essence, she did influence the public even when she never meant to.
The newspaper article simply read:
The Lord and Lady of the Western Lands have only been out of college for seven months now, but what a change it has been for the country. When they were first married it was doubted that such a marriage truly existed or was a stunt of the Emperor Shuichi to make Lord Sesshomaru look more compassionate. Lady Rin was the poster child for a the type of person who would need the most help being an orphan in comparison to being a part of the wealthiest and most powerful family. She did everything she could to thwart the presses, and when she did speak it was to politely ask the media to leave her alone.
But now we can see that perhaps this sham of a marriage was actually real or Lord Sesshomaru has been transformed by this lowly human woman. Seven months they were pictured taking a vacation and openly being affectionate, but since then they have tolled down the affection. Nevertheless, they have been seen all over the country, she being the ever faithful wife who sits by and watches idly as her husband conducts public relations for the aging Emperor.
But don't think for a moment that the Lady Rin is anything but the typical Lady of the Western Lands who is there mostly to look like a trophy wife and to bear the next generation. After nearly a couple years of marriage she has yet to bear Lord Sesshomaru a son much less any child. And as for being the doting wife she has quite the mind of her own. Instead of sitting at home like Empress Izayoi and Princess Kagome, the new wife of Prince Inuyasha, she actually works. But from what I have heard most of her salary actually goes to pay for the salary of her bodyguard, a friend of hers from college, the lovely Sango Ito. And a small portion goes towards the orphanage that raised her for most of her childhood.
But this extraordinary monarch doesn't just stop there. She is known to sport the latest fashions seen in middle class stores instead of the higher end stores that most of the monarchs chose to buy their clothes from. In essence, Lady Rin makes herself like the middle-class women who idolize her so much while snubbing the upper-class ladies who think themselves wholly above her humble roots.
And this giver also spends part of her week serving at the bread line and on Saturday's playing with the children at the local orphanage. But she is never alone at the orphanage as Lord Sesshomaru is often spotted entering with her.
If this is the new face of the monarchy, may the gods bless us all. Not only will she one day bear a future emperor who can understand the needs of humans and demons alike, the children will hopefully also be brought up to understand sexism and classism issues in today's society. So in the worlds of this never humble columnist, I say that today I would give Lady Rin two thumbs up and a warning not to to soften Lord Sesshomaru too much. He is still a demon with a feral rage that made his father and grandfather successful in building their empire and holding the enemy at bay.