Huzzah! An Update! Hope you guys like it ^^
"So… how'd she take the news?"
The demon sighed as he leaned against the wall, his fingers bringing a cup of tea to his lips. He no longer knew how long he had been up for, but he had waited for his mother's surgery to finish and to continue their conversation after the fact that she passed out, though it hadn't gone as he had hoped. Despite his chastisement from his mother, the demon still found time to call Rin, and let her know how his mother was going, though he was impressed that someone actually cared for her but since she didn't know what words the demon woman was spitting, he supposed it was to expect from the young woman whose heart was big enough to care for even him.
"As well as I expected," Sesshomaru murmured, "thankfully hospitals have sedatives better than alcohol."
"Sesshomaru!" Rin chided, "this is your mother-"
"Who hasn't eaten a bite claiming that I've given her nothing more to live for," the demon grumbled.
"Couldn't it just be the morphine?" the young woman asked, clearly worried for his mother.
"Well she was screaming at me that I've ruined my life before she went for the operation-"
"I meant the diet thing," Rin grumbled, "Sesshomaru, I think you're taking this too lightly!"
"I'm not," Sesshomaru murmured, "Rin, of course I'm worried and upset for her, but when she reacts the way she does, I can't help but get a little perturbed."
"She's still your mother-"
"And you wouldn't be saying those things if you knew what she said about you," the demon interrupted, his hand tightening around his phone, "Rin, if you remember what I was like, that would give you a very good idea what I have to deal with."
"Well you still have to deal with it," the young woman murmured almost coolly, "you can't turn your back on family Sesshomaru."
"She did to me-"
"Take it from someone who doesn't have family, Sesshomaru," she told him, the softness in her voice making him still, his own tension flowing out of him as he sighed deeply, "you don't want those regrets lingering when they're not there anymore."
"I know," Sesshomaru told her, his voice mirroring hers in gentleness, "I didn't mean to bring up that Rin…"
"I know, you're tired," Rin whispered, "but she's in the clear, right? No other complications?"
"No, the doctors said she'll be fine," the demon assured her, "but… this is another thing all together."
"Another thing?"
"Well," Sesshomaru sucked in a deep breath, "my mother needs someone to care for her for the next few weeks. Since she has no one at her home save for servants I told her… I told her she could come stay with us."
"First your brother and now your mother," Rin teased, "Sesshomaru, if you want me to meet your family, what's so hard about having a nice dinner?"
"So I take it you're okay with her coming to stay with us?" the demon couldn't help but feel a smile creeping on his face, though why he was nervous about her acceptance he hadn't a clue.
"It's sort of your house," the young woman giggled, "besides, I wouldn't mind. I've taken care of sick kids before."
"I'm not about to make you her nurse," Sesshomaru murmured, "just-"
"I have no issue doing it," Rin informed him, "but… I guess that's something we'll let your mother decide."
"If she'll speak to me," the demon grumbled, "I'll go talk to her, tell you said you were okay with it."
"Alright. Let me know when you're coming back… I miss you."
The demon could help the feeling of warmth in his chest at her words of endearment, his smile now as soft as his eyes.
"I'll call you then," Sesshomaru promised, "until then, enjoy the peace and quiet."
"From the sounds of it, I think I will."
"Bye Rin, I'll talk to you later," he paused for a moment longer, "I miss you too."
Sesshomaru chuckled softly at the sound of her small laugh of delight, the phone put away in his pockets before he dawned on a sombre expression, the idea of facing his mother sobering his thoughts.
She was, at the best of times, a difficult woman to get along with. Now, in the midst of her pain and treatments, she would be nearly impossible, particularly after the shock she had received when he told her who he was with.
All things considered, the demon felt she took the news rather well, considering the only thing she did was faint until she woke and told him he'd ruined her life, something he recalled being told when he was fourteen and she complained that he had ruined her figure too.
"Mother," Sesshomaru murmured as he stepped into the room, his knuckles rapping on the door, "may I come in?"
"That depends," the woman muttered, his plastic spork spearing what looked like over-cooked vegetables, "are you my son? Or are you still the traitor?"
"Mother," the demon groaned, his fingers rubbing his temples for what was surely a forming migraine, "must you!?"
"How could you!?" InuKimi turned to him, "how could you!?"
"Mother-"
"How could you do this to me!?" she snapped at him, "you know how I feel about humans!"
"How could I do this to you!?" the demon reiterated, "mother, I am not with someone just to make you happy!"
"But you should at least consider my opinion," the woman told him briskly, "the only reason I insist on setting you up with someone is so that your heir maybe a strong demon like yourself!"
"Mother-"
"I also don't want you to be robbed blind by some… some gold-digger!" InuKimi pressed on, "I only have your best interests at heart-"
"No, you have your best interests at heart," Sesshomaru snapped, his eyes narrowing as they argued as they always did, reminding him why their visits were, at best, kept short or to the phone, "and don't treat her like that, you haven't even met her!"
"Well I can see she's got you wrapped around her little finger," his mother scoffed, "I thought I taught you to see through those kind of people!"
"Then perhaps she's not like that?" the demon pressed, "Rin's-"
"So that's her name!?" InuKimi interrupted, "it sounds…."
"Are you honestly going to find something wrong with her name!?" Sesshomaru asked exasperatedly, "it's a name!"
His elder bit her lower lip at his tone, her shoulders tightening as she sighed deeply.
"Fine," she conceded, "you were saying?"
"I was saying," the demon pressed, "that she's not the gold-digging women you think she is, she's kind and caring, she's never wanted me to buy her things and is only with me for me-"
"If you believe that then I have failed as your mother."
Sesshomaru simply stared at her, infuriated by her blunt statement. His mother had, in his time living with her, always had the last word, the final sentence and anything she said had to be done her way and to her standard. Everything he did growing up, art lessons, music practice, etiquette, perfect grades; it was all done to attempt to please her. Yet, everything, no matter how well it was done, could always be done better, at least in her eyes. There was always one more challenge he hadn't taken down, his back could always be straighter, his lines could always be sharper and his attitude could always be better. It was no wonder then, when he entered his teen years, that he began to fight back with her whenever they saw each other, which was thankfully very little due to her profession.
She never made his childhood easy, the demon knowing the only reason he was conceived was to keep his father, who was beginning to stray, with her and the only reason she fought for custody was to keep him from his father. His mother was a possessive demon, having worked her entire life to be a success and refusing to relinquish her victories to anyone. Her marriage had been no different, her marriage into the Takahashi family being an arranged affair to make her own parents proud. She had, according to his father, been demanding and controlling, questioning every business trip he went on and hovering over his shoulder.
So when the time came for their divorce, Sesshomaru, their only son, was shuffled from home to home, staying with whatever nanny his mother supplied for him or with his father and his new wife whom he blamed for running his parents' marriage. InuKimi was no help in that regard, her son's views only mirrors of her own minus whatever she said about his father, the boy's idol.
"Mother," Sesshomaru started, calming himself as he looked to her, "you cannot think that little of someone you haven't yet met-"
"Why do you defend her!?" his mother snapped.
"Because she isn't here to defend herself," the demon pointed out, "and because I won't have someone say something cruel about her!"
At this the demon woman seemed stunned into silence, her eyes looking over him in surprise.
"Mother," Sesshomaru tried again for what felt like the umpteenth time, "I am here because you had a stroke, not to talk about my girlfriend-"
"Which I knew nothing about," InuKimi grumbled.
"Well if you picked up a phone every now and then-"
"My business is important to me!" The woman snapped, seemingly back in full vigour, "as yours is to you!"
"It's so important it's landed you here," Sesshomaru refuted, "mother, you're ill. Surely your company can run without you for a few weeks while you rest-"
"It most certainly cannot-"
"So you've hired only incompetent fools then?"
Once again he had managed to shock her back into silence, though it could have had more to do with the morphine she was on.
"Come and stay with us, just for a little while," Sesshomaru murmured, his voice calmer than before, "Rin can help take care of you or I could hire a nurse-"
"I can do that on my own-"
"But the doctors want someone to look out for you," the demon interrupted, "family."
"But I-"
"It's either me, father and Izayoi, or you remain in a hospital," Sesshomaru told her firmly, watching as he eyes flickered as she mulled over her options, the demon resorting to a final push, "and I'm guessing the last option will have the tabloids in a flurry."
InuKimi sat back in her bed, her tongue flicking over her lips.
"You're going to need some physiotherapy with your legs," the demon reiterated the doctor's diagnosis, "even for demons such as we there are things our bodies cannot heal-"
"Fine!"
Sesshomaru was slightly taken a back at her sudden outburst, her head turning away from him to her window.
"Fine," the demon woman re-iterated, "I'll stay with you… and her," she swallowed thickly, "when do I leave?"
"The doctors said they'll see how you're healing tomorrow and make the decision then," Sesshomaru sighed, slightly relieved that the woman had concede without much of a fight.
"Right," InuKimi nodded, "has… has your father called at all?"
Sesshomaru felt the muscles of his back tense slightly; he always suspected his mother still had some residual feelings for his father, though she hid it well under a mask of resentment and anger.
"He has," the demon murmured, "he asked me how you were and to see if he needed to do anything. I told him I could handle it but he wanted me to give you his well wishes."
Swallowing thickly, the demon woman nodded, her fingers pushing away the untouched food in front of her.
"Very well, I'll have my assistant pack some things for me and I'll prepare a list of what I'll need," she seemed to have regained her professional demeanour, "have the doctor come in and take this away, this is dreadful."
Nodding slowly, Sesshomaru moved to slip out of the room, his lungs expelling a heavy sigh once the door was shut behind him. His mother was, undoubtedly, going to turn his, and Rin's, life upside down.
Ahem... so? Reviews please!