Title: Comforting Presence
Theme: Set #2, Theme #36, Tear
Genres: Drama
Pairings Represented: Sesshoumaru/Kagura

Word Count 1107

Rating: G

Summary: Sesshoumaru comes back after visiting the field in which Kagura died. For the first and probably last time in her life, Rin comforts Sesshoumaru as he mourns her. Companion piece to Carried on the Wind. OOC.

Comforting Presence

Sesshoumaru had been gone for quite a while now. The battle with Naraku was over and done with and most of them got out of the battle alive, but there was one who didn't that Sesshoumaru had cared for. Someone who had died before the final battle, before Sesshoumaru had become…whole. Kagura, the wind youkai.

He hadn't said where he was going, but Rin had seen the sad look that come across his face more and more often now that Naraku was dead and knew that eventually he would want to go visit the place where Kagura had died.

As day slowly turned to night and the time seemed to crawl by, Jaken slipped off to sleep, but Rin found she was too worried to drift off and sleep herself.

It was very late for her by the time that she spotted the white form of her lord moving towards her. Not caring if he knew she was awake or not, she got up from where she was laying against Ah-Un's side and ran to meet Sesshoumaru before he could get to the camp.

"Rin…" came the slight voice of her lord, as he let himself sit down near her, and she did something she never thought she would be given permission to do, she crawled onto his lap and held him close.

Even more out of place was when Sesshoumaru's arms wrapped around her in return. Thankfully the heavy and uncomfortable armour he usually wore was left at the camp, so it was comfortable.

"Rin is worried for Sesshoumaru-sama," she said, putting her cheek against where his heart beat strongly in his chest. It was good to hear that sound. It was very reassuring. She had been afraid many times that Sesshoumaru would be killed before even the final battle. But here they were, alive and well.

"Why?" he asked back, slightly tickling her ear with the word, as his head was lowered to speak almost directly into her ear.

"Because you are sad and miss Kagura. Rin sometimes cries for her family still. Sesshoumaru-sama is hurting, here." She pulled back and laid a small hand where her head had been seconds before.

"I told her about Naraku's death, and what happened to the others," Sesshoumaru said softly, his gaze locked on the images in his head rather than the tree he was staring at. His eyes always got that glassy look in them when he was thinking of past events. A frown fell upon his face. "I forgot to mention the kitsune. Hn."

Rin smiled. Shippou lived. He had been sent hiding with her, and they had become friends during that time. More so than the time she had spent in the miko, Kaede's home. Half of her had been terrified that Sesshoumaru wouldn't return, the other half laughing at the antics of Jaken with Inuyasha's friends, especially the monk.

"Did she hear?" Rin asked, looking up into yellow eyes that seemed to glow and shimmer in the dark.

"Yes, she heard," was the short reply she got, barely above a whisper.

Curling up in his lap to get more comfortable and fiddling with a stray bit of silver hair, she glanced up at him. The longing on his face was terrible to see. That it was so openly being displayed at all was scary. Sesshoumaru hated to show emotion.

It was instinct, pure and simple to comfort him, from having lived her first 5 years with caring parents, ran around with older brothers, and spent the other 3 trying desperately to hide any emotion from everyone around her. It had been a very big shift, but she was allowed to be open once again. She wondered if Sesshoumaru had ever known what it was like to be able to feel things fully. What were his parents like? Did they raise him to hide his emotions, his feelings? Did he learn that the way like she had?

She shivered lightly at the thought of what it would have been like to have had people telling her she couldn't feel. It would have been bad and horrible and…and…

"It's alright now, Sesshoumaru-sama," she said quietly, as she looked up at him, smiling slightly.

"What is alright, Rin?"

She laid her head back against his chest, still playing with the silky strands of hair. "Feeling. Rin won't tell you not to. Rin won't tell Jaken-sama, either."

Strong arms wrapped around her tighter than before, pulling her closer and shifting her into a more comfortable position against his fur. "…I cried…" he whispered to her, and she saw his eyes close tightly.

Smiling, she reached up and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled herself up, his grip on her shifting with the move. She laid her head on his shoulder and lowered her voice as low as she could make it so as not to hurt his ears. "It's alright to do that too. Rin won't tell."

It seemed like in most things even this Sesshoumaru did as quietly as possible. The only clues she got to know that he had let himself cry was the sound of his breath changing near her ear and the slight shake of his shoulders as she held him.

He stopped himself after a few minutes and she held him, content to just be there for him. He had always been there for her and she had thought she would never get the chance to pay him back for all the wonderful things he had done for her.

This seemed the kind of thing that was a once in a lifetime opportunity to get, she wasn't going to waste it by letting go now.

He did it for her. After a half hour or so of silence, he let her go and nudged her off. She frowned, looking up at his face, but he blank look that had begun to fade nearing the end of the battle seemed to once again be in place. He wasn't pleased with something.

Rin looked at the ground and bowed slightly. "If Rin did something to get you mad…Rin is sorry."

"I am not angry at you. It is time to go back to camp. Jaken has woken up."

Rin was puzzled for a few seconds until she looked back into his eyes and then smiled and nodded. "Alright."

It wasn't her he was angry at. With Jaken waking, it had stopped the special moment they had been having. Sesshoumaru had liked her hug. Maybe soon he would let her do that again?

It would be nice to have a next time.