A/N: So my writing pace has slowed a bit, I know, but I was taking some time off to read some fanfiction. I really enjoyed writing that last chapter, and I hope you guys enjoyed reading it. You can expect a lot more in about 5 days. I'm gong to visit my granddad in this small town for a while, so there's little else to do in my spare time but write. Sorry for the small chapter! Thanks again to icegirljenni for her faithful reviews. I appreciate anyone who reviews, especially because it tells me that there are people out there besides me who are interested in this story. I struggle just a bit with the third person writing style, as you may or may not have noticed, and am toying with making a fic from Rin's point of view in the first person. Hmmm, anyways, thanks again you guys, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Goodbye is for Tomorrow

Chapter 6

The glow of the rising sun roused Rin from her sleep. She was slightly chilled and nestled herself father against Sesshomaru, seeking comfort in his warm embrace. She glanced up at her Lord, expecting him to be looking at her, but instead, he was sleeping. Rin blinked in surprise. Sesshomaru slept so little that it was a strange sight. Mostly, Sesshomaru slept out of boredom or when he was recovering from a battle, or injury. She didn't know he even required sleep normally.

She remained silent, and very, very still, as she observed her sleeping Lord. His face slack with the neutrality of sleep, he looked even more beautiful. His lips slightly parted, his face was soft and relaxed. It was a rare ting to see Sesshomaru like this, and she felt unexplainable joy that it was she who saw him this way. He has so unearthly beautiful, the demon markings on his on his pale skin the only thing that interrupted his aristocratic features, and his fine silver hair that fell in a curtain around him. She could remember the feeling of his hair between her fingers as a girl. She remembered once in particular, when she was perhaps twelve or thirteen, braiding her hair after she had bathed in a hot spring, and watching as Sesshomaru emerged from the trees back into their camp site, his sopping wet hair a tangled, and soaking through his kimono. Rin had frowned and asked her Lord if she might comb his hair. After much imploring, Sesshomaru had caved to her will and grudgingly sat, cross-legged, in front of Rin. She smiled as she wrung the water from his heavy, wet hair, and set to work combing his long mane of hair. She had started at the bottom, taking care not to pull at his hair, which had been hard work, considering the fact that he likely hadn't combed out his hair since he had last stayed at the western palace. Despite looking sleek on the outside, his thick hair held a deceptive core of knots, or at least, that was the way it had seemed. Perhaps that had been the time when Rin had resolved to grow her hair long like his. When she was finally done, it was soft and shiny as silk, and the color of wet snow.

Rin sighed. She missed those times. When she could comb out her Lord's hair, or say his name with no honorifics preceding it, or touch his hand without being filled with a sense of wrongdoing, or awkwardness. It seemed as though the innocence of their relationship had been lost now. Everything action became a suspicious one, and nothing was simple anymore. Certainly this was no longer innocent, the way she lay here with him. They had done nothing wrong, but now there was a sense of taboo. It was because she was no longer a child; she was a woman, and he was a full grown man.

'Do I truly miss the innocence," Rin thought to herself, 'or do I want something else from Sesshomaru?'

Rin was roused from her thoughts as the hand at the small of her back twitched, and Sesshomaru stirred from his sleep. His amber eyes opened, alert as ever, and immediately focused on her.

"Good morning, Rin," he said to her.

Rin smiled hugely. "Good morning, Lord Sesshomaru."

Sesshomaru's brows furrowed slightly in annoyance. "In private, do not call me by title anymore," he told her.

Rin's smile softened to a gentler one. "Yes, Sesshomaru," she said, not missing a beat. A pleasant warmth spread through Rin, and she couldn't help as her cheeks flushed a bit.

Sesshomaru let head his head fall back, resting against the outside wall of Rin's bedroom. He didn't want to look at her silly smile, or her silly pink cheeks, lest her infectious mirth cause his lips to curl as well. Instead he looked out off the balcony, as the soft light of the morning sun cast the landscape below in a strikingly beautiful and somewhat eerie cast of violet and palest orange. Perhaps he would have a kimono made for Rin with a pattern just such as this on it. Or maybe he would wait until the snowfall and have Hitsuji make one for the girl then. He imagined she would look lovely in white. He shut his eyes a moment, suddenly shocked with himself. He was nearly as bad as his half-brother.

"Sesshomaru?" Rin asked.

He looked at her again. "Hn?"

"How often do you need to sleep?" she asked curiously.

He smiled for a moment. A glimpse of the child that would always be there, he thought to himself. "Very rarely do I need to sleep, though sometimes I will sleep to pass the time," he told her.

She nodded, and they sat for a while together. "Sesshomaru…" Rin said his name, as if testing it.

He inclined his head to look at her. "Hn?"

She shook her hands in front of her face frantically. "Oh, ah, sorry, no I was just…saying your name. It just sounds strange to me, is all."

Sesshomaru arched a graceful brow at her, and Rin became more frantic, immediately looking at her feet. She turned her body from his and winced as her sutures tugged painfully on the tender healing flesh.

"Let me see your sutures again," Sesshomaru told her.

She obliged, pulling down the sleeve of her kosode, bearing the slowly healing stitches to him.

Sesshomaru's nose was immediately assaulted by the smell of healing flesh and something else; the subtle smell of putrefying flesh, so faint that he could only smell it when Rin bared her shoulder. Sesshomaru thought nothing of it. Far be it from him to judge the way a human body healed when he knew nothing of it. It was amazing to him how very fragile humans were. If he chose, he could tear her asunder where she sat and she would provide no resistance. So why then, did he feel as if he wanted her beside him? Why did he feel as though he should protect such a delicate creature?

'Who do you love, Lord Sesshomaru?'

The question ran through his mind. It had been so long that she had said that to him.

"I love no one," he told the girl. He leaned back against the large rock, its cold stealing the warmth from his body in the cold night. Rin sat atop the rock and was busying herself with braiding his hair. He had eventually stopped caring what she did to amuse herself after a time, especially since most of it had to do with being fascinated in his hair, or calling to him to play childish games.

"But, everyone loves someone," she told him, matter of fact. "Not even your Mom or Dad?" she asked.

Sesshomaru distracted the girl from her question. "Who does Rin love?" he asked. What would he do when she was old enough to tell what he was doing?

"Well…" Rin began, "I love Lord Sesshomaru," she told him, "and…" she said, drawing out the word, "I love Ah-Un, and I love Master Jaken, even though he's mean to me sometimes, and…" she trailed off. "I guess that's it," she told him, in a slightly puzzled manor, as if she had thought that particular list to be much longer.

What silly things humans were. But she was just a child then, and had since grown into a woman. He had changed too, just not outwardly. Did she still love him, after the years of separation, after he had left her behind?

Rin pulled the sleeve of her Kosode up again. "A servant will soon be into my chambers to wake me," she told him hesitantly. Rin didn't want him to go, but doubtless it would not be good to have more rumors than there already were circulating.

He nodded. "Then I will take my leave," he told her.

Rin removed her stiff body from his embrace, her muscles aching, and her joints making several loud popping noises as she stood. Oh was she going to be sore today. Of course, she could not bring herself to regret it, especially as she watched her demon Lord rise as gracefully as a dancer. She couldn't help but smile.

"I will someone to fetch you later this morning." He told her.

"Why?" she asked.

"Today is the day that Jaken returns from his surveys of the surrounding provinces with Ah-Un," he told her.

"Ah-Un!" she exclaimed. "I haven't seen them in ages!" she said, paying no heed to the word of Jaken's return

Sesshomaru smiled inwardly, as he turned to leave. Such silly creatures.