Sesshomaru cracked one eye open to check on the teenagers across the cave. Kenji was once again sitting to close to Rin. Sesshomaru gave a warning growl which caused Kenji to jump and scoot away a little.
Across the cave Makoto and Taro were playing a game of go. They paused and watched with mild amusement. The first time Taro had been angered and almost made the mistake of attacking Sesshomaru but saw that the youkai made no move to harm his younger son. It was only a warning to keep his distance from the fair young maiden.
Sesshomaru seemed to think three to four feet was a good distance between the two and only growled when ever Kenji got closer. And by the boy's startled appearance it seemed that each time he had not realized that he had inched closer to the girl. This time he had been sitting within a foot of her.
'This boy is really testing my patience!' Sesshomaru thought bitterly. 'Why doesn't he just crawl up in her lap and get it over with? Then at least I'd have reason to gut him like a fish!'
He couldn't help but growl loudly at that particular thought, causing all of the male humans to stare at him. They all relaxed when they realized it was his own thoughts the growl was directed at.
Rin just smiled at her father and pushed her hair back out of her eyes. It was only slightly damp now and most of it had worked it's way out of the bun and hung around her shoulders and down her back. She hadn't thought to comb it.
Sesshomaru opened his eyes to look at her. "Rin."
"Yes Daddy?"
"Your hair."
Her hands flew to the tangled mess around her shoulders. "Opps. I forgot." She replied sheepishly. She then trotted over to their bags and dug out a delicatly carved wooden comb and set about straightening it.
Rin was concentrating so hard on trying to straighten the tangled mess with out breaking to many hairs that she didn't even notice Kenji staring at her as she worked. She picked at one particularly tough knot, the tip of her tounge between her teeth and just visible past her lips.
She heard Kenji chuckle and looked up to find him watching her. Her cheeks turned bright pink and she quickly turned her face away shyly and hid it behind her long sleeve. Then she lowered her sleeve so that just her large brown eyes were visible and smiled coyly at him.
As Kenji watched her he felt his heart flutter in his chest. Even a blind man could see she was the most stunning creature on the planet. And she was flirting with him!
She finally lowered her sleeve all the way and held his eyes for a few moments. Then she looked away and resumed work on her hair while humming a little tune to herself. Every now and then she would glance at him sideways with a cute little smile.
Luckily Sesshomaru had not witnessed any of this. He was at the moment resting eyes. Which is daddy talk for doing what daddies do best, napping. He might be a great youkai lord, but he was a daddy after all.
Taro and Makoto had seen the whole thing however. Makoto had noticed his brother staring at Rin with a rather blank, stunned expression Like one who had just seen a celestial being or a ghost. He had caught his father's eye and nodded his head towards his younger brother and they had both followed his gaze to Rin who had just hidden her face.
'It is no wonder he is so over protective of the little temptress.' Taro thought with amusement. The girl must attract every single lad in every villiage they passed. Probably a fair portion of the married ones too. A father would be a little on edge.
Jaken had also witnessed it and turned away, suddenly very intrested in checking the supplies.
Kenji watched Rin work on combing out her tresses. The fluttering of his heart wouldn't slow down. He felt he had to get up and move or it was going to burst out of his chest.
He got up and walked to the mouth of the cave but the rain was still coming down in sheets. So he did the only thing he could do. He started pacing. The movement caught Sesshomaru's attention and he watched the aggitated boy.
"Do not mind Kenji. We have been in this cave a while and you know how young boys are, full of energy. Especially that one. He get restless very easily."
Kenji realized he was being watch and returned to his previous seat. He decided to occupy himself with polishing his weapons for a while but that didn't hold his attention and was not enough to distract him from watching Rin.
That left him with one option, to pick a fight with Makoto. This was not an easy task. Makoto was by nature a bit like Sesshomaru, calm and self disiplined. But after spending his entire youth with his brother he knew just which buttons to push and soon the boys were wrestling on the cave floor.
Taro would allow it for a while. It would burn off some of their pent-up energy. And besides, rough housing was good for young warriors. He just didn't want them, to hurt each other, they had on occasion drawn blood. And he didn't want their fighting to disturb the others but so far no one really seemed to mind. Infact watching the two fight was about the only amusment avalible.
Only Sesshomaru sighed in annoyance and leaned back against the cave wall with his eyes closed. When would this accursed rain ever stop?