That night Sesshomaru left again for what used to be the war zone. He wasn't supposed to return until the reconstruction was finished. In the meantime Rin kept herself just as busy cleaning up refuse and learning how to build houses. She would also spend time at the bread line giving food to people who were still homeless as the construction was going on.

The construction in the country finished much quicker than in the capital since the part of the country war ravaged was not as well populated. Sesshomaru came home to find his wife had been spending the nights at Sango's house. He hadn't spent a month and a half with her while he searched for the jewel, and now he hadn't seen her in three months while the reconstruction was going on.

After a couple of days he called her from his desk in the evening as most of the humans were getting ready for bed. At the time he was the only one in the study. "When are you going to come home?" he asked her sounding desperate to see her.

"I don't know. There's so much to do," she answered him. She was lying on her back on her bed with the phone pressed up against her ear. "I miss you though," she said sorrowfully.

"I miss you too," he said with sorrow also in his voice. "Life seems so empty when I don't see you."

Rin smiled as her heart started beating wildly. She felt kind of like a teenager in puppy love. "I wish I was there too, but this is my responsibility. And you're busy also with your responsibilities."

"My first responsibility is to you." He didn't know why he sounded so sappy at the moment except that he knew it made her feel better.

"I'm just one person, and there are hundreds of people out there needing help."

"You're the only one that matters to me." Rin giggled on the other side of the phone letting him know that he had pleased her. "I promise that when you come home we will spend a whole day together."

"That may be hard since I'm supposed to return back to work as soon as they open back up in a couple of weeks."

"Then save the first open Saturday for me."

"I plan on it." She turned over onto her stomach and plopped her self up with her elbows. "I can't wait to see you again. Maybe this time he can actually start taking our relationship to the next level."

Sesshomaru had seriously been thinking about how he was going to tell her the words that would forever seal their fate, but he had been coached well enough to know that he had to do it in just the right way to make it romantic for her. "I can't wait to either." Just then Shuichi entered the room. "I think I ought to let you get some sleep," he said in his usual stoic voice.

Rin knew that when he changed tones it was usually meant to hide something from someone else. "Is Inuyasha in the room now?"

"No."

"Your father?"

"Yes." His father glanced at him as if knowing what they were suddenly talking about. "Please call me tomorrow and let me know how you are. I just want to make sure you're being taken care of."

"I will call you tomorrow about this time. Maybe tomorrow you can talk to me on the portable phone though so that we can talk privately."

"I will," he promised. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight," she said as she hung up the phone. In her excitement she started dancing in place.

Shuichi watched as Sesshomaru hung up the phone and asked, "Was that Rin?"

"It was." He picked up a stack of papers and set it in front of him.

Shuichi tried to pretend like he was not interested as he asked, "Is she okay?"

"She doesn't know when she will return home though."

"Oh," Shuichi said taking a sip of his sake. "And how are you taking the separation?"

"I'm not a child anymore," he pointed out to his father without even looking at him.

"I'm not saying your a child," his father reprimanded him. "I'm just asking how you are taking being away from your wife for so long."

"I'm fine."

Shuichi took another sip of his sake and sat down in his chair. "That's interesting. I had thought that after all that happened about three months ago that you were in love with her, but I guess I was wrong."

"I never said I didn't love her." He was trying his best not to look at his father in case his father could see in his eyes that he was holding information back. "But that doesn't mean that I can't live without her."

"When I first knew I was in love with Izayoi I couldn't go more than a day without seeing her. It was like I wasn't complete without her." He reminisced about the days he and Izayoi carried on their affair. "But you wouldn't understand that. And I suppose it was she who was calling you."

"You aren't going to go back to your work until I answer you, are you?" He turned around and gave his father an annoyed look which was only met with a blank face. "What exactly do you want to know?"

Shuichi got up and sat down in a couch in the middle of the room. "Do you love her, or you still playing with her?" His voice was harsh as he spoke the last half of the sentence.

Sesshomaru looked down at his desk afraid of his cheeks showing a tint of color as he felt the heat rising to them. "I'm not playing with her emotions."

Shuichi put the sake on a table in front of him before crossing his legs and resting one of his arms on the back of the couch. "After all of these years I had always hoped that some day you would come to me for help with something." He sounded disappointed. "But you seem to be better at being a Lord than I ever was. You're also stronger than me since you were able to defeat me at swords and hand-to-hand combat at a young age. So I guess I hoped that some day you might come to me about being a family man. I had at least proven myself to be superior to you in that field."

Sesshomaru knew his father was laying a guilt trip on him, and he felt like he needed to indulge his father. Getting up from his seat he closed the door to the study and then sat down on the couch across from his father. "I want Inuyasha to hear nothing about this."

"I fully understand," Shuichi assured him.

"I guess it all started with that professor at the university. I don't think we ever got along before then, but when I had something to protect and she came to rely on me we started getting along." He sat there rather stiffly. "And obviously we have plenty of sexual tension between us. And I think she will make a great mother to my children some day."

"Children?" Shuichi questioned him. "Up until I had Inuyasha our family has only produced one male child in every generation. And even now I have only one child for each wife I've had."

"Rin wants at least a couple of children. She did come from a larger family than I."

Shuichi nodded his head as he said, "Ah. I understand now."

"And I can't help but think about her every day. And hell, the last thing I wanted to do was change her into anything besides what she is. I guess that's love."

"I think that's the start of love." Shuichi leaned forward with his legs now spread apart. He gestured as he explained, "Love is something you build up over a long amount of time. It's something really romantic when you first realize you are starting to possess it, but it will not always be so easy. You both will have a lot more days where you'll despise each other, but during those times you need to remember what it is about her that you love."

Sesshomaru nodded understanding full well that his father had been through plenty of that with Izayoi. When Sesshomaru was growing up there were plenty of days that he and Izayoi could be heard screaming and shouting at each other behind closed doors. He had always assumed as a child that his father would divorce again, but it just never happened.

"Have you told her yet?"

Sesshomaru snapped out of his memories and said to his father, "I thought I'd tell her as soon as I got back, but I don't know when I'll see her next. But I know that women like being told in some overly romantic fashion."

Shuichi smile as he bragged, "I know you learned that from your old man."

His smile would soon we wiped off his face when Sesshomaru informed him, "Actually, I've seen it enough on TV and in the movies."

"Uh huh," Shuichi said slowly.

Sesshomaru got up and sat down at his desk again. "I guess I've got plenty of work until then. After all, she is too busy to come back here."

Shuichi put his hand on his son's shoulder as he said to him in a compassionate way, "She wants to be home with you, but she knows that there are plenty of people out there that need her right now. As soon as she feels that she's done her part, she'll be back home and in your arms again." He pat Sesshomaru's shoulder a couple of times and then walked out of the room.