AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, the reason I haven't updated was school and work related, I've been insanely busy I'm in my final year of college – so ya know.

But also because I only have a laptop and it crashed a month and a half ago. I got it back last week but it's apparently still having issues – I literally just typed out almost three pages and it just shut off and I can't get any of it back.

I'm beyond pissed off so this chapter will be short. Sorry guys.

But I promised to post tonight – so here we go again.

Anyway I hope you enjoy.

xxx.

It was dark.

That was the first thing he noticed as consciousness began to return to him. As well as the dull pain that radiated from his left shoulder, it was paralyzing in its relentless ache. Sesshomaru suppressed the groan that desperately wanted to escape his lips.

Instead he opened his eyes, his lids felt heavy and his vision was blurry. Frustrated he blinked rapidly but his eyesight would not focus. He grimaced and lifted his right arm over to his left shoulder, he felt thick bandages beneath his nimble fingers and sighing he slid his hand down to rest against what remained of his left arm. Feeling the rough bumps and raised skin of old scars across his skin he pulled his hand away in disgust and let it fall heavily against his side once more.

What new disgraceful obscenity have I fallen to?

He wondered in vile self-pity and would have continued to indulge himself in it had it not been for the approaching sound of bare feet and the rustle of fabric as someone sat down to his left. Lightly he sniffed the air and if his nose had not been able to tell him who now sat at his side it was the sweet voice that greeted him.

"Lord Sesshomaru, how are you feeling?"

He opened his eyes again and struggled against the sleepy blur and slowly they focused. He was in a human dwelling, a small hut it seemed.

His eyes fell to his ward who gave him a soft smile.

Instantly he was comforted and then immediately disgusted at the relief her visage had given him, he flicked his eyes away from her and stared resolutely at the ceiling above him.

"What happened?" He asked icily.

"Well," Rin paused, he could hear her fumbling with her clasped hands but he waited patiently, she would respond soon enough.

"You fought with Inuyasha and well…he um…he got you with his sword."

Sesshomaru let his eyes close, how he desperately wished he had just died then. Why could his brother not have just killed him? His existence was pitiful and he wanted nothing more than to die in midst of battle. How could his brother not have given him at least that? Was his brother's ineptitude really so debilitating he could not even kill those whom attacked him with intent to kill?

Clearly, for that priestess whore still lives…

Instead he was to lie here in shameful reprieve were his human ward was to care for his wounds, what was he, an invalid? Now more than ever, he felt so far from whom he really was, what he once was.

It was a sickening existence.

Sesshomaru's self damnation of his character would have continued but his thoughts were immediately halted by the soft touch on his cheek.

Sesshomaru's eyes widened as his eyes flicked to Rin's face that was now uncomfortably close to his own. She was now leaning over him and a look he could only identify as pity on her face made any whisp of manhood he had evaporate leaving any semblance of an ego he had seem like a dream. Her hand moved to his forehead and swiped the wisps of slivery blue bangs from his amber eyes.

Sesshomaru closed his eyes at the affectionate touch and found that his depth of self-loathing to be bottomless, as he felt his heart thud erratically in his chest at Rin's soft gesture.

"Rin, please stop,"

He heard himself beg because all his self-control, all his power, all his measured actions and reactions were gone. He felt so helpless to her touches and so hopelessly weak in his current state of pain and now emerging pleasure that he feared he might do something he would regret.

But if Rin had heard the begging in his voice she gave no indication of it as her hand slid down from his forehead to rest against his cheek once more. He opened his eyes again and stared at her, she smiled and let her thumb rub against the silky smooth maroon markings on his cheek.

Sesshomaru's eyes shut instantly and his right hand found her wrist and clasped it lightly.

xxx.

Rin looked down to his hand and frowned expecting him to pull her hand away. She was not sure why she was being so daring today, perhaps it was the fact her Lord had been unconscious for the last two days since his battle with Inuyasha.

But when she had walked back into the hut to see him staring silently she could hardly contain her bubbling happiness at seeing him awake, to see those amber orbs once more.

She had been so worried.

And now she was overcome with a warm happiness as she rubbed the maroon marking beneath her thumb because he hadn't pushed her away, at least, not yet.

Sesshomaru's grip was not demanding or painful, his deft fingers encircled her small wrist and she felt a warm blush rise to her cheek as she watched her Lord do the complete opposite of what she'd expected.

Instead of pulling her hand away he leaned into her touch and pressed her hand closer to his cheek. Slowly he turned his face to rest his lips against her palm. And Rin could not suppress the resulting squeak of surprise at what he did next.

Sesshomaru rested his lips against Rin's palm and kissed it lightly, breathing in deeply her enticing scent of strawberries and wild flowers. Rin watched as he kissed her palm again lightly, her eyes widened as the faintish shade of pink appeared beneath his closed eyes.

It was an overwhelmingly pleasing sight to the young woman to see her Lord react in such a way to her. Rin then noticed that when Sesshomaru had moved his mouth beneath her palm it had shifted her thumb to rest on his opposite set of twin markings.

She smiled warmly and began to rub her thumb across them lightly, careful not to move her hand from his mouth. And if Sesshomaru's previous response was not embarrassing enough to the young woman what he did next made her heart somersault and strange warmth radiate from between her legs.

With each stroke of her thumb against his markings he kissed her hand and soon the small, innocent, and soft kisses he had been placing intermittently upon her palm became insistent and hungry. Passionately Sesshomaru licked and kissed her palm as her thumb rubbed against his sensitive skin.

And Rin knew her face must've resembled a tomato by now.

Her thumb continued rubbing against his sensitive markings and with each new light touch his breathing became ragged and his kisses sloppier, suddenly she saw his eye brows furrow and heard a soft moan escape Sesshomaru's lips against her palm.

At that she pulled her hand away quickly.

Sesshomaru's grip on her wrist slipped away weakly as his hand fell against his chest.

After a moment his eyes opened and Rin couldn't make herself look away, Sesshomaru's normally bright amber eyes were now a dark gold and heavily lidded as he panted deeply while looking up at her, his cheeks still a light shade of pink.

Lord Sesshomaru…

She couldn't find her voice and suddenly realized how fast her heart was pounding in her chest and her own heavy breathing as she stared down at the alluring Demon Lord.

xxx.

Author's Note: Well there we go! There's something! I don't know when I'll update again, so I thought I should give you guys something good to contend with till I can update again. Plus, I'm such an angsty writer I always make people think something will happen and it never does. So here's a gift to you all, hope you liked it. I'm going to be honest and say the Hellsing fanfiction I've been reading really inspired me for this chapter. Sesshomaru's a little OOC in this chapter but let's remember he's a half demon and weak and honestly Sesshomaru as a half demon is OOC regardless! (:

Please remember to review!