Chapter XIII

It was early in the morning and in the same bar in which they had met, Rin sat at the very back of the room and stared down into her cup of coffee blankly. On the chair beside her sat two small bags and a suitcase sat beside her feet while the manager of the bar sat across from her with a frown on his face. When she had left Sesshoumaru's apartment she had found herself with nowhere to go and the first place she had thought to come was the bar. She had hoped the manager would understand, but she was beginning to wonder if she had made the wrong decision in coming here. The man sat quietly in his chair, his mug of coffee untouched on the table in front of him as he frowned at her in much the same way a disaproving father would if their child had misbehaved.

"You are a bright girl, Rin," he said slowly, crossing his arms across his chest as he spoke. "But what you have done is unquestionably stupid."
Rin flinched at the harsh words but nodded. "I know it is."
"Then why do it? You can still go back, it's not too late. You don't need to go through with this harebrained idea of yours."
"I can't go back. He'll take me back, I know he will, but I just can't go back."
"Why not? Just because his parents look down their noses at him?" the manager asked with a frown.
"That's exactly why, Hiroto!" Rin exclaimed, putting down her empty coffee cup forcefully on the table. "Ever since I moved to the city as a child, I've always dreamed of having a family. He has one and it pains me to see the distance between them. It pains me even more knowing that he's putting that distance between them because of me! He has what I can only dream about and I'm not about to let him go through the pain of not having a family around him when he needs them just because of me."
"How'd ya know he needs 'em?" a gruff voice asked from the table nearby.
"Osamu?" Rin asked in surprise, turning to see the old man and Saburou sitting within earshot.
"Don't be daft, girl," Osamu muttered, ignoring her words.
"If the boy's willing to give up his family for you, doesn't that say enough?" Saburou asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
"You wantin' him to be with his family when he don't want to ain't gonna get you nowhere, girl."
"They're both right, Rin," the manager, Hiroto, agreed. "You might think it's for the best, but what about him? Don't you think he's old enough to know what's best for himself?"
Rin shrugged. "I'm not going back. He's just being stubborn and he'll see the light eventually. He'll forget me and move on. After all, he's rich and good looking, there'll be no shortage of women to keep him occupied."
"You're dumb as a bucket of rocks," Osamu sighed, shaking his head. "Could ya live with that? Would ya be happy knowin' he's with some other girl when it coulda been you? Ya won't regret walkin' away from this?"
"Knowing he's happy is enough."

The manager shook his head and left the group. Rin sighed, she knew this wasn't one of her best ideas, but she hated seeing Sesshoumaru torn between her and his family. He would never admit that he missed his family, but she was willing to bet that he did. She didn't want him to have to choose between them, it wasn't fair. This was the best way. If she left, his family would take him back and he would find happiness. In time he would forget her and move on with his life. He would become successful and she would simply become a memory just like every other woman who had been part of his life before her. She was sure that one day she would read in some newspaper or gossip magazine that he'd have married some famous and beautiful woman and they'd go on to have beautiful children. It would hurt to know that it could have been her, but the fact that he was happy would soften any hurt she might feel.

Pulling herself from her fantasies, she looked down at her bag and pulled open her purse. She had enough money to keep her going until she got another job and it shouldn't be too hard to find a job in another bar somewhere. The only problem she faced was deciding where to go. It had to somewhere where she could blend in and not catch anyone's attention, somewhere where she could just slip beneath the radar and simply be the nobody she once was. Sighing to herself, she closed her bag and slipped it over her shoulder, looking around the bar once more as though trying to commit it and everything that had happened in the place to memory.

"I hope you're going back to him. Can you imagine how worried he must be now?" Saburou asked, watching her through narrowed eyes as she stood up and began collecting her bags.
"Don't you be leavin' this place, girl. This is where you belong," Osamu said with a frown as she stepped away from her table.
Rin paused at the door and smiled at them over her shoulder before giving them a little wave. "Thanks, but my time here is up. It's time to go and make a life for myself somewhere where I won't be in the way. It was nice knowing you all, maybe we'll meet again."

Without another word, Rin stepped through the door into the sunlight and let the door shut behind her as she gave the bar's occupants a final smile. Once the door was shut, her smile was replaced by a look of grim determination as she made her way down the street towards the train station. It was painful leaving the life she had here and the people she had met. She had come to care for them all and was grateful that they seemed to care about her enough to try and convince her to stay, but she couldn't stay when she was separating someone from their family.

Just as Rin rounded a corner and disappeared from sight, Sesshoumaru stopped his motorcycle just outside the bar and stalked inside, pushing the door open and looking around the dimly lit room quickly before his gaze fell on a trio of men with saddened expressions. He quickly recognised one of the men as the bar's manager and the other two as the pair who had defended Rin's honour when they discovered she was living with him. They looked up when he approached their table and shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

"Sorry, boy," Osamu said sadly, shaking his head as he looked away from the tall man.
"Where is she?" Sesshoumaru calmly despite his inner turmoil.
"She just left," Saburou sighed. "We tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen."
"Where did she go?"
"She didn't say, just picked up her bags and left."

Nodding, Sesshoumaru turned on his heel and left the bar and the sorry trio of men behind as headed back to his motorcycle. As he made his way through the streets nearby, he hoped he hadn't missed her completely but with each empty street he passed, Sesshoumaru began to realise that his chances of catching her now were very slim. He knew she wouldn't go back to her old home since that was the most obvious place for him to look first and if she didn't want to be found, then she definitely wouldn't go there. Unfortunately, that didn't narrow down the places she could have gone to. It only made the list even longer. She had a limited amount of money she couldn't leave the country, but there were still plenty of places within the country for her to hide. Gritting his teeth, he resolved not to stop looking for her. He found find her and when he did, he would make sure she never left his sight again.

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Several agonising months passed and there was still no sign of Rin. Sesshoumaru began to lose hope but fiercely reminded himself that there would be no one to replace her. If he didn't find her, her face would simply haunt his dreams until the day he died or until he lost his mind, whichever came first. His family had not even bothered to hide their glee when they discovered she had left, but Kagome had been very upset. She had tried to help his search as best she could but soon left him to search alone when she realised that she was merely a hindrance. Sesshoumaru pushed aside his family and ignored their pleas that he forget Rin and find another woman.

After searching the city for weeks with no luck, Sesshoumaru took his search elsewhere. He started at the town where they had lived together in her childhood home for a brief time and once again had no luck. From then on, he slowly made his way through the towns and cities nearby before gradually moving farther afield. He worried that she may have decided to go to one of the rural villages, but he did not have contacts in such places that would help him find her. Those that he knew in rural areas were loyal to his father and had no doubt heard of the family feud which meant that they would probably not lend their help to him. As it was, his contacts were limited to people he had worked with and his close friends as they sided with him rather than the rest of his family, but he struggled to find the information he needed which made the time spent in each place even longer.

A few times he had thought he had found Rin and had been disappointed each time until eventually he began to lose hope of finding her. A year went by and then after eighteen long months, Sesshoumaru reached his limit. The hope that he would find Rin dwindled with each passing day and as he pulled his motorcycle into the parking area outside a tall building, he decided that if he didn't find her this time, it would be in his best interests to give up and deal with the emotions that would follow. He wanted to continue searching until he found her, but he knew that it just wasn't practical and there was a high possibility that he could spend his life searching and never find her. The world was a big place and with his contacts limited to those he knew personally, it was very easy for someone who didn't want to be found to disappear without a trace.

Just as he reached out to knock on the door he had been trudging up the stairs to get to, it was pulled open violently and a dark haired man stood in the doorway grinning happily at Sesshoumaru. Calling out a greeting, he reached forward and pulled the slightly bewildered man into the apartment before slamming the door shut. Sesshoumaru found himself embraced roughly by the man before he was pushed into the living room where yet another dark haired man sat on the sofa.

"Look who I found on the doorstep!" the first man said cheerfully.
"Bankotsu, you are too loud," Sesshoumaru muttered, pushing the man away but unable to resist the very vague and brief smile that crossed his face at the warm welcome.
"It's about time you came to visit us," the other man said with a teasing grin.
"I've been busy, Jakotsu."
"Yeah, yeah. I know all about it from Bankotsu. Searching for the love of your life, right?" Jakotsu asked, waving his hand dismissively.
Bankotsu waved towards the seating and sat down beside Jakotsu before fixing Sesshoumaru with a serious look. "I assume you haven't found the little lady or you wouldn't be sitting here looking miserable."
"It's like she's fallen off the face f the planet," Sesshoumaru muttered with a frown as he sat down heavily. "I've been looking for eighteen months and I've not found a trace of her."
"Don't you think it's time to give up?" Jakotsu asked hesitantly. "Eighteen months is a long time and there's no knowing what could have happened in that time."

While his friends changed the topic of conversation and proceeded to chat happily, Sesshoumaru's mind ran in circles as he was now faced with something he hadn't considered before. Jakotsu had been right. Eighteen months was a very long time. There was a possibility that Rin had found another man to replace him, someone her age and not quite so reclusive and possessive of her. If that was the case then he would simply be causing her problems by suddenly turning up, but despite this, he wanted to see her. He needed to know that she was alive and well and if he couldn't be with her, then he would at least be content with that knowledge. Not knowing what had happened to her was torture.

"Don't worry, Sesh," Bankotsu said cheerfully later that evening. "I'm sure you'll find your girl."
"And what makes you so certain?"
The other man shrugged. "Call it a hunch."

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Sesshoumaru spent a long time searching the town where his friends lived. If he didn't find Rin here, he would give up and try to move on. Bankotsu and Jakotsu had tried their hardest boost his spirits when they realised that he was struggling with the knowledge that there was a very strong possibility that he would not see her again. It was one of the days when Sesshoumaru had left the apartment to search for her alone when he reached the end of his tether and sank down heavily on a bench in a park. Sighing, he leaned back against the bench and covered his face with a hand as he let his mind wander. In his mind he could still picture her face, the way her eyes shone with happiness and for a brief moment he could have sworn he could even remember her voice. Smirking to himself, he began to wonder if he had finally lost his mind. Did he want to see Rin so much that he was hearing her voice in his mind? Opening his eyes slowly, he looked out over the small park and watched a few parents play with their children while two women walked down the path with a pushchair. As he watched, Sesshoumaru couldn't help but wonder if he would ever have a child and quickly pushed the thought aside. The one woman he would have wanted to be the mother to his child had vanished from his life and left not a trace.

A gasp of surprise brought him out of his musings and caused him to look towards the source of the sound. The two women he had spotted earlier were nearby and as he looked closer, he felt as thought his heart had stopped for a moment. The two women were staring at him and as he stared back, there was no doubting the fact that one of the women was Rin. Her hair was now short and barely touched her shoulders, but everything else looked the same. She stared back at him, her eyes wide with shock and her mouth opened and closed a couple of times as though she was trying to find the words to express what she was thinking but failing. The other woman seemed to sense that the air between the two needed to be cleared and wisely left them alone after bidding Rin farewell and promising to call her later that evening. Sesshoumaru watched her leave before turning his attention back to Rin. Aside from the almost comical look of surprise on her face, she didn't seem to have changed at all since he saw her last. His gaze fell to the pushchair that she was gripping as though her life depended on it and when he saw a sleeping child with a mop of brown hair sitting comfortably in it, he had to bite his tongue to hold back the curses that threatened to spill from his lips. Sitting forward he ran a hand through his already tousled hair and sighed. Jakotsu had been right. She had moved on and the child was proof of that. Now came the awkwardness as he wondered what he should say.

"Sesshoumaru?" she asked quietly, sitting beside him and staring at him as though not entirely sure he wasn't a figment of her imagination. "It's really you?"
"Who else would I be?" he asked, raising an eyebrow as he spoke.

He never got an answer to his question as Rin had thrown her arms around his neck moments later and buried her face in his shoulder as she wept with joy. Taken aback by the sudden contact, it took Sesshoumaru a moment to react and after a moment he wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly against him as his mind was flooded with memories from the past when he had done the same. His arms tightened possessively around her as she clutched his shirt, but after a moment he came to his senses and put a respectable distance between them. Rin looking disappointed but soon looked away when the child woke up. Sesshoumaru didn't spare the child a glance and watched Rin tend to it instead before deciding that it was time to speak.

"So this is where you've been for the last eighteen months?" he asked, looking away to watch the people on the far side of the park.
"No," Rin replied. "I've been in several places, I've only been here for about six months."
Sesshoumaru sighed and looked at her, deciding not to beat around the bush. "Why did you leave, Rin?"
"You know why," she said sadly, looking down at her hands. "It was painful for me to watch you push away your family who clearly love you just for me. I was flattered that you would go that far, but I don't want to break up a family."
"The family was already broken."
"It could have been fixed if I wasn't there."
"It was not fixed. I cut all ties with them shortly after you left. I've not heard from them since."
Rin gaped at him. "You mean I left and you didn't try to patch things up?"
"Why should I? If they weren't so stubborn, I could have had both them and you. They wouldn't change their minds so I chose you, but it seems your life has changed since then," Sesshoumaru murmured and nodded at the pushchair.
"You mean Mei?" Rin asked in surprise and looked down at the child who smiled toothlessly at her. "Kagome never told you?"
Sesshoumaru frowned. "Kagome has not been part of the family for nearly a year. I have heard very little from her. What should she have told me?"
"I assumed she would tell you, I'm surprised she didn't," Rin said quietly before raising her eyes to meet his intense amber gaze. "Do you know who Mei's father is?"
"Your current beau?"
Rin giggled and shook her head before her expression became slightly apprehensive. "No. There is no current beau."
"Then who and why should I care?"
"I think you will care when you know," she murmured and reached out to turn the pushchair round so he could see the child. "She's your daughter."

This piece of information floored him and he stared at the child in question as though he could find something about her that would prove Rin was joking, but he found none. Despite the fact that the child had Rin's hair colour and skin tone, when she turned her gaze to him there was no questioning who the child's father was. Amber eyes that were an almost exact replica of his own stared back at him. Sesshoumaru inhaled deeply and looked at Rin who smiled.

"How is this possible?" Sesshoumaru asked bluntly, frowning at Rin.
"I was 4 weeks pregnant when I left," she said with a sad smile. "Looking back, if I had known that then I wouldn't have left, but I felt like a fool returning to you after abandoning you."
"So you chose to go through the pregnancy alone and were intending to raise the child without ever telling me I had a daughter?"
Rin shook her head. "I would have told you, but it's hard trying to adjust to life looking after someone other than myself and especially someone so small."
"What do you expect me to say to this, Rin?" Sesshoumaru queried, feeling slightly overwhelmed.
"I don't expect you to say anything. I don't expect you to forgive me to running away and I don't expect you to want any sort of relationship with me. All I ask is that if you truly believe what I've just told you, be a good father to Mei and don't judge her by her mother's mistakes."
"That's foolish. Why would I judge her by your actions? You are completely different people and she is clearly not capable of making her own decisions yet."
"You believe that she is your daughter?"
"Had I not seen her then I would have suspected it was a lie, but I do believe you. I know you would not lie about such an important matter."
Nodding, Rin looked at the child and then back at Sesshoumaru. "So what happens now?"
Sesshoumaru looked at her seriously before leaning towards her and capturing her lips in a brief but passionate kiss. "I would very much like it if you would move in with me again. I see no reason why we cannot continue from where we left off."
"I ran away!"
"I found you and are you not the one always talking about family? Do you want this child to grow up with parents in separate homes just because her mother ran away from her father?"

Rin paused to think. The offer made sense. She wanted nothing more than to pick up where they left off. The very thought of it was appealling, but she had grown attached to the little town in which she now lived and had no desire to leave.

"Can we stay here?" she asked shyly, looking up at him from beneath her lashes.
"In this town?"
"Yes."
"If that is what you want. I have nothing that requires me to remain in the city. However, I will only consent if you promise never to run away again."
"I promise," Rin said with a cheerful smile and wrapped her arms around him.

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Rin and Sesshoumaru took to parenthood easily and Mei accepted Sesshoumaru as though he had been there from the very beginning. They soon established their family home and their friends from the city paid them regular visits. True to her word, Rin never ran away again and she pushed all thoughts of his family from her mind. After hearing that the couple had a child, Inutaisho had promptly disowned his son but despite this, Izayoi visited the pair from time to time and became the perfect grandmother to Mei. The pair were eager to expand their family and when a son was born three years later, Sesshoumaru realised just how lucky he was. The happiness he felt now would be out of his reach if he had not persisted in looking for Rin and every time he looked at his family he knew that he should be counting his blessings. It was obvious to anyone that the pair were very much in love. Sesshoumaru loved Rin as much as she loved him and he never missed an opportunity to tell her so or to show her how much she meant to him. If the family expanded in the process it wouldn't be a problem as every child born would be loved and considered a blessing.

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AN: Apologies for not updating anything for so long. I've been working on this for a while and I hadn't really intended to finish it so soon, but it didn't seem to be going anywhere and as I was writing I just arrived at the conclusion that it was probably best not to drag it on. I struggle with ending stories so hopefully this ending is alright even if a little cliché. I'll be starting work on the next chapter for Far From Home soon and with any luck that'll be updated soon as well. Thank you so much for all the reviews, they're greatly appreciated. I have limited free time so I cannot respond to every review individually, but I do read them and it makes me very happy to know that others enjoy my fics :)

Thank you again!

xMxAx