Sorry, so sorry about the delay! I feel so terrible about the long wait. My life has been rather hectic and stuff lately. I'll try to get the next chappie up sooner, I really will!

Disclaimer: If I owned Inuyasha, do you really think I would be here? I would be living it up in Tokyo. So there.

The Guardian: Chapter Seven

(by Ichigo2491)

"Oka-san! Guess what happened to me today?"

Rin looked down at her small son Yukio, whose black cowlick was slicked back with water. The little boy was dripping water all over the ground around the clothesline. His eyes were alive with excitement. "Why, Yukio-chan, what happened to you indeed? You look like you fell into the river!"

Yukio nodded. Rin felt the blood drain out of her face. "What? You could have drowned!"

"But I wasn't," four year old Yukio said importantly. "You see, what happened to me was…"

"You little twerp!" Rafu, nearly ten and very furious, came charging around the bend and seized his little brother, thwacking him soundly. Ichiro, eleven, and two girls from the village followed. "How dare you make up lies like that?"

"Rafu, put your brother down this instant," Rin ordered, "what is going on?" After seeing nothing helpful in the angry faces of her two sons, she turned to the other children for answers. "Ichiro? Chiyo? Minako? Can any of you tell me what happened?"

The children shook their heads. "I didn't see what happened, Rin-san. My head was under the water," pretty Minako said, her eyes wide and earnest.

"I don't have a clue!" plump and cherubic Chiyo cried.

Ichiro tossed his brown forelock. "I was focusing on other matters."

Rin turned her attention back to her sons. "I'm waiting!"

Rafu looked sullenly up at her. "He just fell in the water is all that happened. He was under for about a second. He just wants to scare you is all."

Rin glanced at Yukio, who was crying silently. She bent to peer into his crumpled face. "Yukio-chan," she murmured, wiping his tears, "is that true?"

Rin saw Yukio nod shamefacedly. What she did not see was Rafu making threatening gestures compelling his younger sibling to lie.

"Why did you tell me to lie to oka-san?" Yukio asked his brother later, as they lay in bed. Their parents were outside talking.

"Oto-san told me that we must never tell her about Inu-sama. If she knew about him, she would be scared."

"But why, ani-ue? The white demon saved me from drowning! He did it so fast too; none of the other kids even noticed it happening." Yukio regarded his older brother with curious eyes that shone in the moonlight. "He must be nice. Why would oka-san be scared of a nice inu-yokai?"

Rafu heaved a sigh, for this was something he himself had pondered often in the dark nights since the day five years ago when he had first encountered the white demon. His own terrifying experience had stayed with him, and he had not gotten into trouble since that day. But today Yukio had been the one in trouble, and Inu-sama had been there to save him.

"I don't think he really is very nice, Yukio-chan," Rafu answered finally. "He saved you, that's true. But who knows why? He might not be nice to other people… just us."

"Why?"

"I have no idea. But if you need to tell someone about Inu-sama, tell oto-san. He knows."

"Did you tell oto-san about today?"

"I did. He was angry."

"Why?"

"He doesn't like Inu-sama."

"Why not?"

Finally Rafu grew irritated and threw a pillow at his brother. "Shut up and go to sleep!" Grumbling, Yukio did just that. But, troubled by the questions in his own young heart, it was a long time before Rafu slept.

It was a peaceful, warm summer night. The stars twinkled overhead, and Rin and Kohaku sat outside the small hut, staring into space.

"I wonder how many there are," Rin said dreamily into the quiet.

"What?" Kohaku said, startled. He turned his head sharply to stare at his wife. She looked back with innocent eyes.

"Them," she said, gesturing at the sky and the thousand… nay, millions of stars that sparkled there. "Haven't you ever wanted to count them?"

"Not really," said Kohaku, "who has time?"

Rin pouted. "When I was a child, I would stay up sometimes at night and count them." When I was waiting for Lord Sesshomaru to return from somewhere, she added in her mind. But to say it aloud would have too cruel. She could not remember the last time that she had spoken Sesshomaru's name aloud.

"I wonder how it is that our children are so lucky," she said a second later, to fill the awkward silence.

"What?" Kohaku's voice was sharp. His eyes fixed on his wife and bored into hers like daggers. She stared back, bewildered by the sharp edge of his voice. Regret filled Kohaku as he saw that he had hurt Rin's feelings. "Forgive me, I didn't mean to be so rude," he murmured, moving closer to her and giving her a hug. He was thrilled when she returned it.

"All I mean is," Rin continued as she stroked his hair tenderly, "is that our boys are rather accident-prone, and yet they have never come to any serious harm."

Kohaku froze. This didn't bode well. Rin was curious. No, this wouldn't do at all. "Perhaps," he said quickly, "the gods are watching over them."

"I suppose," said Rin quietly. And though nothing else was said on the subject, Kohaku still felt ill at ease. Could Rin possibly be suspicious?

Something had to be done, without a doubt. Things couldn't continue as they were.

But what to do? Kohaku thought desperately as he and Rin made their way back inside; quietly, so as not to disturb the children. He could do nothing but wonder, and sleep came with no little difficulty.

It certainly would not have helped his rest to know that outside his family's hut, a white figure perched in a nearby tree, and a pair of fathomless golden eyes watched over them even in sleep.

More to follow!