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Chapter 7

Tears streamed down Rin's narrow face as she scampered into the safety of the trees. She could hear Kagome behind her, calling her name, and Inuyasha's voice telling the priestess to leave her be.

At least one of the brothers understood her.

Rin had not meant to hurt her Lord. She adored Sesshomaru, would do anything for him, would die in his stead without a second thought. And her true desire was to be with him, to take a place as his wife, to bear him children and make him happy. What he mistook as embarrassment at him was merely Rin's own shame. After all, she was a child compared to him, and a pathetic mortal one at that. Just having him look her way was a gift highly undeserved, more or less taking her in his arms and speaking to her as if she was an equal. Her Lord was owed much more than a stupid little human girl.

Why did she pull away? Rin did not even fully comprehend the idiocy of her actions. She just knew that it felt wrong to be so intimate in front of others. Those things are best kept private, not announced to the world, and especially not Inuyasha. Apparently her Lord thought otherwise. All she knew is the that when the enraged demon glared at her, eyes a flaming hurt that no apologies could soothe, Rin felt a part of her heart rip into a jagged gash, Sesshomaru's words the single way of stemming the blood flow.

Finally collapsing on the cold earth, Rin tucked her arms behind her knees and buried her face in them. All of this began its trek many months ago and not had become completely clear in the time since. Sesshomaru put Kaede in charge of Rin, and instructed her to stay put and not wander off. The girl was terrified he had tired of her and had decided to dump her to be another's problem. She pleaded to go with him, one of the only times she bucked her Lord. She remembered the exact words he'd spoken, his hair dancing in the wind. "Do you wish to stay with me, Rin?"

The question was so unexpected, a far-fetched dream that she long cast aside. Rin was only a mortal, the acceptance of her fate having long ago settled in. "Yes, Sesshomaru-sama," the girl whispered. Why was he taunting her with this?

"I am leaving and will return. Stay out of trouble." These were his vague words before departing on a journey she never learned the details of.

One month went by, then two, and then a third. Rin clung to hope that Sesshomaru would return, never doubting his word, his word being his bond. When the seventh month came and went Rin's hope still remained. She would sit for hours at the village's edge where she used to wait for him all those years ago, patiently awaiting his arrival. The townspeople had long been wagging their tongues, but Rin paid them no mind. Stupid when she was a child, their brains had obviously not matured since then, so why bother? Her Lord would return, if she only be patient.

It was on the tenth month on a bright and sunny day when her Lord reappeared, a bloody mess. Clothes in tatters and body the same, he'd materialized in the doorway of Rin's hut. Eyes dark, he'd clutched her hand and forced an odd looking vial into it, the contents somehow liquid and solid, a swirling black and gray mass that writhed and roiled, him ignoring her pleas to sit down. "Before night fall, drink this." That was his demand before falling to the ground in a beautiful heap, Rin's cries reaching unconscious ears.

After getting Lady Kaede and tending to her Lord, she drank the foul liquid, falling into fits of agony never felt before. Her body burned like invisible flames were consuming her, her skin bubbled and oozed blood, the whole while the torture rendering her immobile. For nine days she fell into a sleep, fevered dreams her only company. Even in slumber there was no escape. Every pain felt when she had been conscious carried into this strange sleep, symptoms increasing with each setting sun.

When she was able, the girl took her place by the injured demon, curled up closer to him than he had ever allowed and prayed to the Gods above that They would deliver a miracle.

For three weeks Sesshomaru was as animate as a corpse. Discolored wounds served as a block to any magical healing, gruesome burns and cuts that churned Rin's innards inside out. The terrified girl never left his side, rarely slept, and guarded him with her life, refusing all but Kaede and Miroku entry to the hut. Reluctant to anger her vulnerable Lord, though he lay sleeping, she did all the healing that she could, leaving only the serious administrations to Lady Kaede and Miroku. She knew her Lord's sentiments for humans had changed somewhat, but he still would not like strangers caring for him during such a weakened period.

And then his amber eyes opened, bringing the light back into Rin's. After nearly a year he was home and on the path to recovery, now treating her as a lover of sorts. But then she screwed everything up by being a flustered idiot, enraging the one man she put above all else, his fury damning her for such disrespect.

Tears rose in her eyes and streamed down her cheeks, but this time there was no one else to brush them away.

...

Author's Note:

Sorry to everyone for not posting this story all at once. I always gripe about sporadic updates, so I apologize for being a hypocrite. I'm actually done (technically) with this story, excluding a few places that need a patch job, so y'all are owed an even bigger apology.

Thanks for your support and please read, rate, and reply!

Sincerely,

Angels and Immortals