Sorry for the wait... hehehe... I don't even REMEMBER the last time I updated... but here ya go, the ninth chapter! This story is turning out to be a LOT longe than I originally anticipated... oh well... sigh...
Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Alas.
He never told me… Sesshomaru-sama has been so close for all these years… and Kohaku never even HINTED… he told my children to lie to me… Rin stared at the fireplace, her cheeks flushed with rage. She was actually shaking with anger. She clenched her trembling fists. Getting to her feet, she paced the house. Still distracted with fury, she went outside, and, sheer madness driving her, ran into the woods.
Brambles scratched her face, her arms, her legs… still, Rin ran on and on. A thirty-three year old woman, running through the forest at night like a foolish teenager… the irony did not escape her as she remembered the way she had come here, dragged by Sesshomaru's hand. Now she was being chased away by Kohaku's lies… just when she thought she might love him after all.
She fell to the hard ground, spent and miserable. Tears streamed down her face as the cold wind buffeted her from all sides, and her sobs were lost in its howling. It was too windy and cold a night for a woman to be out alone… especially one in her condition. Rin's hands left her face and moved to her stomach. She had been going to tell him tonight…
Tears flowed silently now, and she pressed her face to the cool stone. After Yukio's difficult birth, she had been told she wouldn't be able to have any more children. For thirteen years, she had assumed that was true. But now she knew the real truth… she was pregnant. And for the first time, she appreciated that the act that had created this child had been an act of love. Love between her and Kohaku.
She had been prepared to bare her soul and tell him she loved him… and she would have, if not for this. She had been betrayed even more horribly than by Sesshomaru, all those years ago. At least Sesshomaru had never lied to her. He had never promised her anything. But Kohaku had sworn he loved her, had vowed never to hurt her the way Sesshomaru had. Why then, was her heart torn and even more bruised by this?
More alone than ever, Rin curled into the lee of the stone and bitterly wept. Her throat and whole body ached. How, she lamented, could she have figured out that she loved Kohaku, only to lose that love the moment she accepted it?
"Oto-san!"
Kohaku looked up sharply. He had just come from Yumi oba-chan's home to find his own house empty, and no evidence of Rin or Yukio anywhere in sight. The fire was still burning in the grate, Rin's weaving abandoned. The sight of his younger son gave him a bit of relief, but… where was Rin? The look in the teenager's eyes was slightly wild, and a thrill of foreboding touched Kohaku's spine.
"Oto-san, sumimasen," Yukio gasped, falling through the doorway. His hair was mussed and his cheeks were red from the wind. "I think oka-san ran away…"
Kohaku felt the chill down to his heart. "What do you mean?" he whispered. Yukio bent his scruffy head and squeezed his eyes shut in shame. Kohaku felt an inexplicable, fear-inspired rage take hold of him and he seized his son by the collar, lifting the child into the air. "Why would she run away, you little brat?" he snarled.
Yukio twisted and struggled. "I told her about inu-sama! Oto-san, gomen nasai!" His teenage voice cracked and went up an octave. "She went all pale and then she looked mad and scary, so I ran out… and a few minutes later she ran out too. I tried to call after her, but she didn't hear me! I tried to follow her, oto-san, but… she's too fast, she ran into the forest!"
For the first time in his life, Kohaku wanted to strike one of his sons. "How DARE you let your mother go into the forest alone, you pathetic little bastard?!" he hollered, shaking Yukio by the neck of his shirt.
Yukio was crying now, the tears of a boy old enough to be ashamed of them and too young to hold them back. "Sumimasen!" he wailed, choking on his sobs and his fear. His son's terror suddenly registered in Kohaku's mind. Suddenly ashamed, he lowered Yukio to his feet.
"Gomen nasai, Yukio-chan," he murmured, resurrecting the old endearment to convey the depths of his remorse. The boy nodded, sniffling determinedly. "We have to find your mother," Kohaku said in the following hush. "Which direction did she go?"
Yukio pointed west. "Shall I get Rafu?" he offered helpfully.
"Disturb your brother on his wedding night? I think not. But maybe Ichiro…"
Yukio was off for the headman's house before the sentence was fully formed, and Kohaku ran into the woods. Rin was alone… on a night like this, she had run away. How angry she must have been to do that… how much she must hate him right now… and oh, how much he deserved it!
"Damn it," he muttered under his breath as he ran against the wind. He had to find her… he had to fins her before anything- or anyone- else could.
Rin, please don't hate me, he prayed as he ran on and on. If you hated me, Rin, I couldn't live another day. I didn't mean to hurt you. I love you, Rin!
His only answer was the screaming of the bitterly cold wind.
um... I'll get the next chapter up whenever I can, I guess... In the meantime, please review!