Chapter 6- #23- Candy

I'm so sorry guys! I'd give you a long list of excuses, but that'd take too long, so whatevs: on to the next chappie!

This is part one of a two-part installment using two of the required prompts and subtitled "The Pull." I don't know if that's technically legal in the Sanjuu Kisu world, but I've already broken the two month time limit rule, so who cares. ;P Part two won't be the next chappie though, Ima spread it out. And the reason for "The Pull" title will be explained in part two.

Songs: "Suite Judy Blue Eyes"- Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, "I Can't Lie"- Maroon 5, "Man I Love"- Ella Fitzgerald

Setting: Modern day USA

Rin: Late twenties

Sesshoumaru: ?

'Thoughts'

On to the fic! :D

The Pull, Part I:

Candy….

…. She loved it. She loved chocolate, to be more precise. As a kid she poured, powdered, and doused everything with it, baking her first perfect chocolate croissant at the age of six. She was a natural cook and a fantastic pastry chef, and she had the diploma to prove it. It was her proudest moment when she opened the small chocolate shop; she said it was like her fairytale dream-come-true, and everyday she was surrounded by the smell of chocolate.

"Fairytales aren't made of chocolate, Rin-chan," her mother would say, "Happy endings are made of true love, not sweets."

Rin tried not to let those words sink in too much ('somehow I don't think other women's mothers tell them to reach for a fairytale and not a career….') but occasionally, when business was slow or when she was tucked up in bed alone at night, she mourned her loneliness. But she always kept her chin up, sticking to the idea that there was someone out there just for her.

She didn't know if she believed that, though.

Wiping the counter down, she relished the silence in the shop for a moment. She always got a bit frazzled during lunch rush when she and her three employees churned out so many mocha beverages they could barely count them all. Rin took a deep breath, smiled to herself, and reached into the display case. She removed a dark chocolate covered cherry and popped it into her mouth.

A buzzer sounded in the back. Rin made her way to the kitchen, inhaling the smell of chocolate happily. Walking past her employees, who were playing cards around a chocolate-stained countertop, Rin shut off the timer on the large oven, and gingerly removed a fresh batch of croissants from its open maw. Moving them all to a cooler tray, she swept back into the storefront, setting them on the counter. Just as she slid the tray into place on the lowest shelf of the display case, the bells on the door rang happily. She stood up to greet the customer.

The afternoon light followed him in, wrapped around his figure like a halo. Rin would've said he was an angel had she not known any better. He would've said Rin was some form of divinity, like a siren, standing perfectly still with the light playing shadows across her face.

The sun continued its descent, hidden momentarily behind a building across the way. The two figures stared at one another. Rin could find no words to describe him other than "beautiful". His pale, chiseled face was marked in several different colors, his hair a stream of elegant silver falling down his back, his eyes the color of the sun. Rin had always thought youkai looked exotic, but she had never been so incredibly attracted to one before.

He looked at her and saw innocence mixed with wit and a clever tongue. Her brown hair seemed to shimmer like threads of bronze and her lightly freckled face was beset with a beautiful pair of tawny eyes flush with long lashes. He could not for the life of him understand what drew his eyes to her so strongly. What made this human woman so impossibly attractive to him, what about her had his youki running wild within him? He swore she could feel it, sense his unspoken attraction just as he could smell hers.

A car horn blared outside.

Startled, Rin laughed softly and shut her open mouth. Her customer did nothing but blink.

"Ah… hello," said Rin cheerily, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. She was hopelessly aware that her face felt rather warm…

The businessman merely nodded, still gazing at Rin intently. There was an awkward silence. The man suddenly realized he was staring and turned away quickly, perusing the display case. There was another awkward silence before Rin got up the nerve to speak again.

"I don't think I've seen you before," she said. The man did not answer for a while as he examined the truffle selections.

"…And why should you have seen me before?" He replied at length never taking his eyes off the case.

"Well," said Rin, "because I own this place, and I don't forget many faces, leastways not one like yours…"

She was a bit shocked to find her thoughts dribbling out of her mouth and into the room, but tried to pass the comment off as one of intrigue for his markings. They made eye contact silently.

"I have never come here before… I do not like chocolate." He replied, tearing his eyes from the curve of her figure in her rich brown apron and focusing his attention on the pastries.

Rin laughed. "Don't like chocolate? Please, nobody doesn't like chocolate!"

He sent her an arrogant, cheeky look, one that emanated from his eyes but didn't touch his face. "Double negative," he quipped, head cocking to the side ever so slightly. Rin fought the urge to bite her lip- how could such a small movement be so sexy…?

She recovered with a roll of her eyes. "No one dislikes chocolate- you've probably never had the right kind. Some people have picky palettes. You look like you have a picky palette," she said with a quirky smile.

He glared at her softly. She chuckled.

"Perhaps," he said.

"Well there's a chocolate for everyone, even snotty chocolate haters like yourself," said Rin. Had she just sassed a customer…?

"Saito," He said, moving back towards Rin, "Saito Sesshoumaru."

Rin smiled, an exquisite smile as far as Sesshoumaru was concerned…

"Araki Rin. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Saito-san, chocolate hater," Rin said happily with a perky bow of the head. She was about to tell him that she liked his suit when her employees Joy and Buunza waltzed in from the kitchen.

"Hello!" they said simultaneously, smiling at Sesshoumaru. He bowed his head quickly looking irritable.

"We can take over if you'd like, Rin," Joy whispered pleasantly.

"Oh," said Rin, eyes darting to Sesshoumaru as he moseyed away from the counter and back towards the pastries. "I'm okay, Joy: why don't you guys take a break…"

Joy looked at her quizzically, "But Rin… we just took our break."

The whisker's twitched on Buunza's lynx-like face as he caught the scents of attraction lingering on the air. He looked at Rin as she tried to tell Joy to take another break while frequently glancing over her shoulder at Sesshoumaru. Buunza grabbed Joy's wrist.

"C'mon, Joy, let's not pass up that extra break, heh!" and with that he dragged her back into the kitchen, a bounce in his step, eager to tell the old sous-chef Yuko about this latest development.

Rin turned her attention back to Sesshoumaru. He continued glancing around the shop as though nothing interested him, trying not to look at the beautiful woman before him. He failed.

"I think I have just the one for you," her warm pink lips said with a smirk, and it was a while before her words registered in Sesshoumaru's mind. He glared at her suspiciously when she donned a pair of plastic gloves and removed a piece of chocolate from the display. Smiling proudly she held out her hand to him. Sesshoumaru's brows knit slightly and Rin laughed at his ridiculous reaction to being offered candy. He was so intriguing…

"Here," she said. Cautiously Sesshoumaru took the chocolate.

"I will not like it," he said snobbishly. Rin laughed again. He was frank and cold to the point of rudeness, and yet somehow this amused her and attracted her to him even more.

"You will, I promise," she said, folding her arms. "Are you scared? Don't worry, I only poison the ugly businessmen…" She winked without thinking. Sesshoumaru could not stifle his smirk in time and, flooded with a strange warmth in the light of her grin, he popped the chocolate into his mouth.

Ginger. He almost laughed. Ginger was a food he truly enjoyed, something that never bored his taste buds, and coupled with such a smooth and bitter dark chocolate and what tasted like a hint of salt… it was like perfection. He would never say so of course; his pride would be instantly squandered. His efforts at hiding his affection for the sweet were in vain: Rin was laughing, quiet but triumphant, her eyebrows raised in proud defiance.

Sesshoumaru sighed. "It is… good."

Rin laughed loudly this time. "Such high praise! But I expect coming from you I should be honored: you don't seem like a man who gives compliments on a regular basis…"

"On the contrary: this Sesshoumaru stopped here merely to tell you what a hideous shop you have, though I am sure you have been told so before," He said as impassively as he could.

"You're too kind," Rin replied coyly, pressing a hand to her heart in mock flattery. They locked eyes again and Sesshoumaru had the most intense urge to wrap an arm about her neck and kiss her with reckless abandonment. He felt certain that Rin would not mind in the slightest. He also felt certain that the phrase "reckless abandonment" had never once entered his mind before.

"Well," said Rin, breaking the silence again, "Other than to ridicule my business, what did you come here for Saito-san?"

"A gift." He replied.

"Oh?"

"Yes. For a baby shower."

"Well, all my chocolates are 100% organic and made with no preservatives, so nothing she should be afraid of eating: does she have any allergies?"

Sesshoumaru shook his head.

"Do you know what she might like?"

Sesshoumaru sent her a look that said "no" among many other things.

"Okay… tell me about her, then." Said Rin, leaning her elbows on the counter. Sesshoumaru sighed quietly.

"Kagome is a miko… my half-brother's mate. She says she likes chocolate, the shower is tonight, so… I am here."

Rin shook her head. "Tell me what she's like as a person."

"Annoying," Sesshoumaru responded.

"And?" Rin asked.

"Annoying," He replied. Rin laughed. Sesshoumaru liked the sound more than he cared to admit, and the more they spoke, the more at ease he felt. It felt to Rin as though they were old friends chatting for the first time after a long absence, hopelessly glad to be in each other's company again.

"And?" Rin asked again.

"And… what else is there?" Sesshoumaru blinked.

"You clearly lead a fascinating social life filled with fascinating people," said Rin and Sesshoumaru didn't know why he let her say it: he would never let anyone else speak to him in such way.

"So… is she really girly, your sister-in-law? Uh, bold or meek? Opinionated? Selfish? Selfless…?"

Sesshoumaru paused a moment. "She likes candy, is… loud and boisterous… always gets her way. Very opinionated, typically generous and ignorant enough to consent to be InuYasha's mate."

"InuYasha's your half-brother, right?" Rin asked. Sesshoumaru nodded. Rin furrowed her brows and put a finger to her chin, nodding slowly.

"Alright," she said, "I think I've got the general idea…how many would you like to get? I've got boxes of 20, 40, 60…"

"60," said Sesshoumaru. "Okay," Rin said as she set about filling a box with ginger rounds, dark chocolate covered orange rinds, dark chocolate covered cherries, earl grey truffles, her special mini peanut butter cups and a host of other delicious confections. When she finished, she wrapped the box in gold paper and tied an elegant bow with a pretty brown ribbon bearing the label "Araki Chocolates".

"It'll come to 65 total," she said.

"And a dozen of those," said Sesshoumaru as quietly as he could, pointing at the ginger rounds with as much dignity as he could muster.

Rin positively beamed. "Just in case Kagome-san wants more, right?"

Sesshoumaru said nothing as Rin happily rang him up. Once Sesshoumaru had signed his name on the receipt and Rin had handed him the plastic bag full of chocolates, she realized that they would have to part ways. Her heartbeat quickened dramatically and she hoped to God the taiyoukai wouldn't notice.

They looked at each other for a moment, quiet and studious, trying to memorize every detail of each other's faces. Then Rin handed Sesshoumaru his bag, thanked him for his business and wished him a good day, and Sesshoumaru jerked his head down in a make-shift bow and swept out the door and into the afternoon sun, the strand of bells on the door ringing in the empty shop long after he'd disappeared; the sunlight kissing the place where he had stood mere minutes before. Rin sighed and looked longingly at the door, feeling suddenly certain about the reality of love at first sight. It was mere seconds before Yuko burst through the kitchen doors waving a tray of eclairs and talking loudly about shameless flirting, but Rin was too preoccupied with staring out of the front windows, wondering which car passing the shop was his.

Thanks for reading y'all, hope you enjoyed! Until next time. :D Please review!