Disclaimer; You know it's called 'fan fiction' for a reason.

Because fan's write it maybe?

We don't own this stuff.

So why do we have to put disclaimers?

Oh well, no skin off my nose.

I don't own Inuyasha or the story of Esther.

Summary; There once was a peasant named Inuyasha, who was pulled into the competition for a new King unwillingly. As the competition continues, something happens that neither Inuyasha nor Her Majesty, Kagome expected. How will the two fair, as the rush and search for a new king becomes the only life they know?

The Story of a Peasant

Chapter Three;

(Inuyasha's Pov)

True to her word, Rin returned the next day. I also noted frowning, that following her was the ever elusive Sesshomaru. Rin smiled and easily greeted me not noticing the sudden tension in the air.

"Hi Inuyasha! Is Shippou up yet? Sesshomaru told me he wanted to meet who I had been spending my time with, since I was coming back again today. I told him you were nice people, but he just had to come see for himself.." She continued to babble on about Sesshomaru's stubbornness to not take her for her word. While I found it humorous, I couldn't begin to understand why Sesshomaru didn't react to the child's words in the least. AS if it didn't bother him that a little human girl was practically poking fun at him!

"Shippou's inside, you can go on…" I said trailing off, my eyes coming up from Rin to meet Sesshomaru's. "I'll stay and talk with Sesshomaru." Rin smiled, a quick 'thank you' escaping her lips as she jogged through the door.

It was quiet for a minute or so, before I finally spoke.

"Well she's a keeper," I said with a taunting grin. While Sesshomaru didn't say anything, I noticed how his eyes narrowed slightly. Looks like he still couldn't take anyone else picking on him. "Weird though, I never pictured you going for the humans, since you claim to hate them so. But what do I know?" I shrugged to answer myself, enjoying this quite a bit. When he made no move to reply, I sighed and dropped the playful act.

"Does she know?" I asked, knowing Sesshomaru meant did Rin know about our relations.

"No." His voice spoke without any emotion. That was Sesshomaru for you. I nodded faintly. "An it will stay that way." I smirked at that.

"Oh I don't know about that. She seems like a bright girl. If she hangs around us both, I don't think it would take much to make a guess." Sesshomaru's face darkened. While he had the cold sharp features of a full-fledged demon and I the dog ear and fangs, we still had the same golden eyes along with the strangely silver hair. Unfortunately, it wouldn't take a human with half the brains to figure out there were too strange of similarities between us, for us to not be related in some way. Hence, why we rarely spoke or got close to each other in public. Why would I want to admit that I was related to an asshole like him?

I decided to cut to the chase.

"So what are you here for you? You could have just sent the toad along with her again, if you sincerely care about her safety." I rolled my eyes here, the idea still farfetched from me.

"I'm not here for Rin, that was simply an excuse."

"Ah." No surprise there. I waited for him to elaborate but after a minute or two of silence I saw I would have to pry it out of him.

"An excuse then. So you have other motives for coming I believe?"

"Rin happened to say your name in our conversation last night. It was a perfect excuse to come over here without giving away our mindless relations."

"And why the hell would you want to come over here? Miss me already, older brother?" I sneered.

"Hardly. See, Inutaisho (heaven forbid he call him 'father') was the wielder of three swords. I came to hand over Tetsusaiga, our fathers sword which was left for you." I raised a brow. Not just at the words he spoke, but that was also the most I had ever heard Sesshomaru had said in one sitting. Sesshomaru pulled a bundle off the back of Ah-Un, the two headed dragon I had only recently noticed standing by. He tossed the bundle, and I caught it. Laying my hand on its handle, I felt the power of it reverberate through me. I pulled it slightly from it's sheath only to furrow my brow. The blade was dull, scratched, and good god what was that? I shook my head not really wanting to know.

"Gee thanks." I said my voice dripping with sarcasm. Sesshomaru actually smirked, probably feeling just a little bit more than smug towards me. I let the sword drop back into its sheath and held it loosely at my side.

"Is that it then?" I took his silence as confirmation.

Turning I entered the house, shutting the door behind me.

"Aw, d'ya really hafta leave Rin?" Shippou asked in full pout mode, his bottom lip sticking out. I kicked him in the back with my foot, shaking my head at his childish behavior. He turned and stuck his tongue out at me, Rin once again laughing at our bickering.

She had spent the week with us just about, arriving early every morning on the back of Ah-Un dragging a usually annoyed Jaken along with her, and would leave at sunset every evening, right before she was due for dinner at the palace. Sesshomaru didn't bother with coming back.

"I'm sorry Shippou, but I have to go. My home is with Sesshomaru." She gave a sad smile, ruffling her hand through the kit's hair affectionately. "But I'm sure I'll see you again one day."

Shippou sniffed, "Really?"

She nodded then looked up at me and I saw that special shine in her young eyes. I rolled my eyes at the knowing look.

It had been the first day she'd come back, the morning that Sesshomaru had shown up as well.

Her and Shippou had been playing around, and were finally back at our home crashing on the floor getting some much needed rest before their childlike energy rose up once again.

Shippou was fixing to drift into sleep, but Rin was still up, now sitting in a chair at our table watching as I flitted about my usual routine.

Finally I took a break and decided to go ahead and eat, sitting down next to Rin.

"So, you said you would tell me exactly why your hanging around with Sesshomaru? " I said between mouthfuls of food. "It can't possibly be for his personality." She gave a small laugh at this.

"I don't think he's so bad…, but I'll tell you if you want, if you tell me something." She said leveling her eyes with mine, her smile still quite apparent on her face.

"A trade off then, sure. Shoot." I said, taking another bite of food into my mouth.

"Are you related to Sesshomaru-sama?" I very nearly choked on my food, hacking on what I had been in the process of swallowing.

"Excuse me?" I said when I could breath again.

"Don't play dumb with me!" She said placing her hands on her hips in that huffy female manner. "Are you related to Sesshomaru or not?!"

I sighed, and looked at her, trying hard to control whatever expression was on my face. And there I was, having said just that morning that she would figure it out. But I hadn't figured it would be this quickly!

I thought quickly. Sesshomaru would be pissed that I'd told his ward that was growing closer to us his deep dark family secret. But it also wouldn't be anything I couldn't handle if he found out…

I scoffed and dropped my head, my hair falling over my shoulder.

"Yeah… I guess you could say we are."

"I guess?"

"We're stepbrothers. Sesshomaru's mother died when he was about twelve by human standards, although he was much older than that… Our father, Inutaisho, fell in love with my mother, a human and mated her. And here I am." I slowly tried to sort my thoughts out. It wasn't everyday that someone guessed one of my few secrets.

"So why do you guys keep it a secret?" Rin's eyes were wide as she soaked in this new knowledge.

"Well, I can't speak for Sesshomaru, but he's never liked me… I think he might feel bitter towards me because after his mother died, our father found my mother.. Maybe he thought it was a replacement." I shrugged. "But like I said, I can't speak for him. It could also just be his arrogance towards the human race. He was raised to think of emotion as a weakness. And humans were just full of emotions, or as he saw it weaknesses. With no strength or added demonic sense, I think he thinks that they have nothing to make them strong." I watched her carefully, seeing if it had offended her in the least. She nodded, not seeming to really care. I cracked a smile. "Which leads us to the baffling phenomenon that he's let a small little human girl live with him. Now this should be a good story." She laughed a bit at that. Still smiling she looked up at me once again.

"I was 8 years old. The village I was living in with my family was attacked by wolves… supernatural inhuman things. I'm not sure if they were demon or not, but the were frightening things." Her voice grew quiet, the happiness that was always surrounding the young girl diminishing. I didn't know how to comfort, but I had a feeling I was fixing to get a crash course in learning.

"Anyways, my father got me out of my house and told me to run, run as fast as I could. So I ran into the forest, torn up from trying to get through the mess of the village. Wolves were still around occasionally getting a bite out of me. But I got away somehow. I was tired, hungry, and bleeding. I probably had a broken bone or two. I collapsed and.. And I believe I may have been dead." Her tone was quiet.

"Sesshomaru came along. He had just acquired his sword from your father, Tensaiga. He couldn't figure out what the sword did, for it wouldn't cut anything, although the blade was sharp. But it reacted when he came upon me in the forest. So, he used the sword… turns out that his sword brings life instead of death." She pulled her head up. "He thought it was a waste. That's why your getting your sword now, even though it's been years since he discovered your father's will and the swords. He wanted the blade, Tetsusaiga because it's the sword that could kill a thousand demons with a single blow. But he never figured out how it worked, so he finally handed it over."

"And how did you know I got the sword today?" She smiled.

"It's not like you kept it hidden." She said and pointed over to the corner where the sword and it's sheath laid leaning against the wall. "Which gave me even more evidence into thinking there was some connection between you and Sesshomaru-sama. I just wanted to hear for myself what that connection was."

It was silent for a little while as I cleaned up my dishes, Rin sitting there content. Finally I sat back down.

"So that doesn't really explain why your still hanging around 'em." I stated matter of factly. Rin sighed.

"I'm not really sure why he keeps me around either. I wouldn't let him leave me when I was little, I thought I should stay with him, because he brought me back. I had no one else anyways." She smiled. "Life hasn't been bad. In fact, I've enjoyed it. I was named Sesshomaru's ward when I turned 13, and am now legally under his care, and under jurisdiction of the demon laws."

"I see." Still in disbelief. Sesshomaru simply kept the girl around, no strings attached?

Rin looked up at me, simply staring.

"I know Sesshomaru doesn't treat everyone… well really he doesn't show anyone any emotion at all except maybe anger, or frustration. But I do know that he has never spoken hatefully to me, and he's made sure to take care of me almost like a father." She drew in a breath. "I couldn't leave him, even if I wanted to. I care about him, in some twisted way.. And I think that maybe somewhere deep deep down in him, he'd be sad if I left to." She looked up and smiled. "And that's what keeps me there. Why he keeps me around, I don't know. But I'm glad he does."

And that had been our conversation.

I had to admit, that the story baffled me a bit. So no one, but Sesshomaru, knew why he kept the girl around. Well that was fine with me, because I also couldn't doubt that she wasn't being cared for, possibly better than she had been.

Now it was time for them to leave, and she knew my secret and I knew about my brother's weakness.

I'd promised not to rub it in his face if she promised not to spill that I had told her about my brother and I's relations. After that, Shippou woke up, and lo' the day went as it did with Rin around. She made Shippou and me laugh, brightening up our monotonous routines.

It had been a productive week indeed.

A/N; Huzzah! Another chapter completed.

I didn't feel like putting in a spoiler this week.

I'll get the next chapter up soon.... I hope. School starts next Tuesday. Maybe I can get some writing time put in before then.

R&R?