(A/N: Wow. Okay. Sooo....it's been a while. Yeah. Sorry about that. I'm finding that it's REEEAAALLLLYYY hard to not fast-forward through this story. I really want to get to the point when (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER). It also doesn't help that I've been really distracted lately. First by manga, then by my birthday on the sixth, and then by the new tablet I got complete with photoshop 6.0 and Corel Painter Essentials 4, two really cool art programs. And, wait it gets better, I wrote this, and found that this chapter really sucks! So, to be honest, this has been done for almost a week, but I've been doing some major editing on it. And, it's still pretty inadequate. Go me.
INPORTANT NOTE!!!! This time, the line breaks are time skips, as you may have already noticed, but please know that the time between them gets longer at every break.)
The Light In The Darkness
Home
It was ordinary.
Rin was being wheeled around the hospital, on the way to the playroom. She was studying her surroundings—really, it never was uninteresting. Some would think that people never changed, that every day they did the same thing every day. That wasn't true. One day their smile could be brighter than the last, or more irritated, or bitterer. She was intrigued about the slight differences in their mood changes, and was always eager to study.
The hospital was a little busier than usual, she noticed. A couple of people were on their phone, some were reading magazines, others trying to calm their children, or just sitting around in one of the chairs waiting for something or someone. A flash of movement caught her eye, and Rin turned her head towards it just in time to see a woman flick her hand by her ear, as if trying to hit a fly offhandedly, maybe. Something slipped off her finger and shined in the light before landing with a soft clatter. It then rolled underneath a chair.
She looked back at the woman; she didn't seem to have noticed that whatever it was is missing. She was one of the people reading a magazine, but her attention wasn't on it. She rested her cheek on her hand left hand, skipping through the pages aimlessly, her dark brown eyes unfocused and anxious. She shifted her head to her other, and she stared at her hand her cheek was just resting on for a moment before realizing that it was missing. She quickly started looking for it, growing increasingly frantic by the second.
Rin glanced at the nurse, and to her convenience found that she was being distracted by another woman with a crying child. So, she simply took her chance and limped awkwardly to the chair where whatever it was had landed underneath. It was quite a difficult thing to accomplish, first kneeling down and then reaching with her short arms to get it, making her practically have to crawl underneath the chair, but she somehow managed. The object turned out to be a small ring, a shiny deep gold with a jewel on it. A small dust bunny had attached itself to the ring, but with one puff of air it blew away.
By the time she limped over to the woman, she was nearing hysterics. Rin lightly pulled on the hem of the woman's dress as her back was turned towards her. The woman spun around.
"Wha—?!" she started, before Rin held up the ring to her. She gently took her lost object and kneeled down to the child's level.
"My . . . my ring! How . . . ?!" she asked in astonishment. Rin smiled up at her. She blinked, bewildered, before she smiled back earnestly.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" she said, relief rushing through her. Rin's grin widened, she was truly happy that this woman could relax and be glad herself. The woman gave her thanks again before suddenly throwing her arms around the child.
Rin froze instantly.
Wha—What is this?! What is she doing?! Rin thought frantically. No one other than Sesshoumaru-sama had ever been this close to her, not even Kaito-sensei. That, and not knowing what she was doing, caused her to start shaking and her eyes become glossy.
The woman, feeling the child stiffen, pulled away and looked at her. She was shocked. To find that the child's eyes had filled with tears and painful emotions, she was taken back. Though most of all, the girl seemed to be utterly confused. She furrowed her eyebrows.
"My dear child . . . haven't you ever been hugged before?"
Rin blinked rapidly at the woman, trying to null the fear and make her mind comprehend what the woman said. A . . . hug . . . ? What is that?! What—what was going on?! she thought, still panicked, still not understanding her words.
The woman saw that her confused expression didn't change, she elaborated. "A hug is when you put your arms around someone or something, usually to show that you care about someone, or you're . . . well, in this case, thanking someone."
The child finally got was she was saying, and nodded briskly. That's why she got so close; she was just trying to thank Rin. She would wipe away her tears, but they would instantly be replaced by new ones. She smiled apologetically through them, though it was becoming fruitless to dry her eyes. The tears just wouldn't stop. She couldn't understand this sudden feeling of loneliness that washed over her. It was just a hug, what was there to be said about? The woman was just showing her thanks, why was she still crying? Why couldn't she stop?
She looked up when the woman pulled her hands away from her face. Very lightly, very gently, she began to brush them away. Rin felt so happy . . . just because someone who she's never going those again is drying her tears? She was suddenly so sad, and she didn't really know why. Was it that knowing that this woman would be forever without a name, doomed to just be another face among the other millions, bothered her that much? Maybe.
It ended much sooner than Rin wanted; for the nurse discovered that her patient had escaped and come to look for the child. She was placed back into the wheelchair and was taken away, and although she tried to take one last look at the woman, it was too late.
She had already disappeared onto the crowd.
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She was lonely.
And she couldn't figure out why.
It was exactly four days after she met that woman, and still that face won't leave her alone. She was still sad, in fact, that feeling of abandonment had yet to leave her. Even so, she wouldn't let it show. She didn't want people worrying over her when she was perfectly fine. Just being a little sad isn't worth fretting over. Everyone here had already done such a great deal for her . . . anything more would just be too much.
So, she went about those four days, and nothing out of the ordinary happened. And she didn't expect anything to. It was on that fourth day, however, that the normalcy was disrupted.
It was nearing the evening, dusk was just settling down in the sky. Sitting on her bed, she was glued to the television. Although not all of her attention was robbed by the glowing electrical device; a part of it was always directed towards the door, the sounds of footsteps behind it. The many different sounds were no longer a bother to her, she was used to it. However, she was slightly surprised when those footsteps stopped at her door.
She was extremely stunned when that woman – the one from a few days prier – entered the room shyly. Behind her was a man—no, a demon. He was very tall, at least a head taller than the woman. He had long, olive-green hair that went down just above his knees. He had red markings too; one was going in a line from his hairline straight down to in between his eyebrows, and two that mirrored each other on each of his cheeks, starting at his jaw line and ending just before his nose.
Rin was tremendously confused as to why they were here, but was also . . . happy? What was she doing here? Why did she come? Who was the man?
It wasn't like she was scared; merely curious. The only other time she had visitors was when Sesshoumaru-sama came with this parents. They came in slowly, anxiously, nervously. The child felt slightly pressured, so she did the only thing she knew that would help. She smiled.
They were slightly startled, probably expecting her to be very shy, and to be truthful, she still was. They shared a look, and then the woman came forward and sat down next to her on the bed. Rin glanced behind her at the demon, and she noticed that he was slightly irritated about something. Looking around, she realized that it must be the television. She flicked it off with the remote, and turned back at him. He gave her an odd look, but didn't say anything. The woman started to speak.
"Hi, I'm Aoyama Tsukiyomi, and this is my husband, Houshiyomi. We met the other day, remember?"
Rin nodded eagerly. How could she forget?
Tsukiyomi-san shared another look with her husband. She was still very nervous, she could tell, and she toyed with the hem of her skirt.
"Well, this may sound funny, but I decided that I'd like to spend more time with you. Would you like that?"
Rin could hardly believe her ears. She was so happy! She couldn't believe that Tsukiyomi-san wanted to spend time with her! Of course she'd like that! She smiled again and nodded her head.
The woman let out a nervous little laugh, dispelling the rest of the tension in the room. "That's good, really good."
"Well, Rin," Houshiyomi finally spoke. His expression was firm, but his eyes were smiling. "I'm glad that we can get to know each other.
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"So Rin-chan, when do you get your casts off?"
She tilted her head to the side, confused at what Houshiyomi-san just said. Tsukiyomi-san, who was sitting to the left of her husband, chuckled at Rin's expression.
"Yes, silly, these things,"—she knocked on her leg cast for extra measure—"do eventually come off."
"Although that does answer whether or not she knew when," Houshiyomi-san added. "I'll go ask a nurse."
He got up to go ask, while Tsukiyomi-san continued playing checkers with the girl. Rin was a naturally fast learner, and she caught onto the game fairly quickly. The couple was impressed with that fact; making Rin very happy. What would happen is that the woman would make a move, and the child would sit and decide what move to make for a long time before finally choosing one, one that would actually work out very well in her favor. This is making her into a formidable opponent, Tsukiyomi-san was finding out.
"Well, the nurse said that she has about a week and a half left," Houshiyomi-san said, sitting back down where he was sitting back before, which was just on Rin's hospital bed. His wife turned to him, surprised.
"Really?! So soon?"
Her husband nodded. "Yeah, I guess by that time we'll get to go out with Rin, too."
The aforementioned child perked up from studying the board game. Go out? Go out where? She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She had only been outside once; on her way from that house with Sesshoumaru-sama. She couldn't really remember what happened before that, it was like it was just a giant blur. Even when he was carrying her, that was as if someone had tried to wipe away the image but only managed to smear it. In fact, the only thing that was clear to her was that first image of him, when he broke open her door. That with sound of his voice, the feeling of when he touched her head, those were also still with her. Everything else; however . . . they were distorted visions, at best.
But sometimes hazy images can be the scariest.
"Yes, we'll go out," Tsukiyomi-san said, bringing Rin out of her thoughts before she was too absorbed in them. "Like, go to eat, or see a movie."
Rin was completely lost.
"Eh . . ." the woman started, looking slightly frazzled.
"You don't know what that means, do you?" her husband asked.
Rin shook her head.
"We have a lot of work to do," Tsukiyomi-san sighed.
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It was here.
The day finally came, the day where she would finally get her casts off. She was bubbling with excitement, though she was also very nervous. It helped that Tsukiyomi-san and Houshiyomi-san came with her. They had already explained to her exactly what the process for removing a cast was, though they – meaning mostly Tsukiyomi-san – still looked at her with worried anxiety about how she would react to it.
The nurse who was there explained just as the couple did; the saw would be loud, but it would only cut through the cast and not her skin. She blinked at the noise when she turned it on, and started with her left leg. Slowly she made her way down, and when she finally extracted the child's leg, the limb was very pink and numb.
Then the nurse moved on to the next leg, and finally her arm. All hurt when they came out, really achy and sore. They then moved her from the bed she was laying on to a bathtub where they gently washed the unused limbs.
Even though the casts were off, she still couldn't walk on her own. She may have been able to limp awkwardly with something supporting her legs, but now she would surely collapse if she even tried to put any weight on them.
In fact, Rin could do little more than move her head. She couldn't even lift her arms, and most she was able to do was bend her achy fingers a little. She pouted, disappointed. Wasn't it supposed to be that after she got her casts off she would be able to walk around and never have to ride in a wheelchair again?
She heard Tsukiyomi-san chuckle. "It'll take a little while for you to gain the strength back into your legs, so until then, you're stuck in the chair, kiddo."
She grinned. How could she be sad if Tsukiyomi-san was in such high spirits? In fact, she seemed to be just plain giddy.
Houshiyomi-san was outside waiting for them. His eyes widened, amazed, for a moment. "I didn't realize just how tiny you were, Rin. You sure look different with all those casts off."
His wife nodded in agreement and smiled. "Uhuh! Now we can finally take her home!"
Rin blinked.
Home . . . ?
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I know. Bad. But, you should've seen it before. I did you all a favor by keeping it longer for editing purposes. From now on, the space between the breaks are going to only contain the most important moments in Rin's life. It won't go day by day. The story would be over fifty chapters if I did that. So, anyway, the next chapter will be out soon. I hope.
Responses:
Obradyroxmysox: If only this chapter was as good. I so dearly apologize for this inadequate beast of a chapter! Next time will be better!
New Fan: This chapter is just a big pile a poo, sorry!!! And, well, you are partly right . . . they will have to get older first . . .
Shadowmaiden3: Uh . . . found it again? *Is slightly confused* But thanks for the fav! Thank you so much!! And . . . to be honest, I don't know. I guess I have about three. One which I am about eighty percent of the time, it's my Lazy-Go-Lucky one. I am very lazy, a procrastinator, over all a very mellow person. The second one is my Emoness side, about fifteen percent. Basically it's the artsy side of me. I enter this state when writing a story, usually, that's why everything turns out dark. _;. And then there's my Demon side. Whenever I get super pissed off, I find that not even my friends will come near me. Scary, huh?
Locainlove: I already dealt with your reply, and frankly, I just don't feel that spontaneous as to write another slightly random reply. Although I did take your advice with the shorter paragraphs. I send my love, and my hate I will direct to that flame you got!
OvelordKakashi: Alright, one question. If you hate all stories based on an anime, then why are you reading fanfiction? Though I'm very flattered with your compliments, it really doesn't make much sense to me. About the conversation part, were you talking about the one at the end of the chapter or the one in the review reply? Because if it's the latter I know that person and we always communicate like that. Although if you're talking about the one from the story . . . well, I didn't think that it was that weird. *scratches head*