A/N: As one astute reader pointed out, the phrase "bated breath" comes from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice where "bated" is the shortening of "abated." But for the sake of puns, this chapter is entitled…

Baited Breath

"You don't care for it?"

Rin studied the patterns on the new kimono. And sighed.

Perhaps she doesn't like fish? Sesshomaru had never considered that her tastes might have changed. Then again the seasons were shifting, too. He should have made a better note of fashions.

Rin looked his way, wordlessly. The daiyokai wasn't sure why he found it so unsettling either, for he could still very much recall a time when she was speechless.

.

The girl rode along on Ah-Un, swinging her feet to some silent tune in her head. She had stopped humming some time ago earlier this morning and now just her scent and sense of her presence were Sesshomaru's only clues that she was there.

The daiyokai strode at the forefront of his motley little pack. And he tried not to let it bother him that there was a human in their midst. A girl-whelp of all things. But he had revived her. He had defied nature and raised her from the dead. He had needed a test subject because Tenseiga was just one headache after another. It only followed the order of things that the girl was his burden.

Her stomach growled.

And, as Sesshomaru's responsibility, that meant he had to interpret every one of her unspoken signals. Oh, she was an obedient subject, but that didn't mean she wasn't an inconvenience. For all the deference she afforded him, the girl remained timid around him. Not that Sesshomaru was unused to it, people – humans and yokai alike – had cowered in his presence for centuries. But her still as mute since the day she met him, the girl made it into a regular guessing game to interpret her needs. Her mouth would work up and down like some carp in a pond and that was the closest she got to speaking. Sesshomaru had initially tried ignoring her, making it necessity that she speak to him if she wanted something, but then she just started slipping off on her own and getting into more trouble than he had the time to waste.

Her stomach growled a second time.

He stopped moving. "You're hungry, aren't you?" Although Sesshomaru spoke in the opposite direction it was fairly clear whom he was addressing.

Out of his master's line of vision, Jaken rolled his eyes. He's acting like she's an intelligent creature. This was worse than the way some people conversed with their dogs.

"Jaken."

"I said nothing!"

Sesshomaru ignored his vassal's idiocy. Between the girl and his lackey, it felt he was having to tolerate much of late. "You will escort the girl to find proper aliments."

But it seemed no sooner had the dog-demon dismissed his minions that Jaken came hightailing it back. "Lord Sesshomaru! Lord Sesshomaru!"

He leered at Jaken. They were short one orphan whelp.

"The girl…ah, well, she's in a fix," Jaken stammered.

"And you let her get that way?"

"Well, it wasn't my idea to bring her along in the first place."

Sesshomaru gave Jaken just enough time to realize his mistake before punting the exasperating little toad aside and stalking off to find the other burden. He sniffed twice, trying to locate her. Much to the daiyokai's surprise, his sharp canine nose was not the first to pinpoint the girl-child.

Faintly, though the sound was clear enough to signal is nearness, he caught a small voice – more of an ant's than a child's – call his name. "Lord Sesshomaru."

Those were the first words he ever heard her say. His ears told him to look up. Clinging to the branch of a peach tree, the little girl smiled lopsidedly at him.

"Rin…" she said her name uncertainly as if still not quite connecting her name with the owner of the voice. "Rin needs help." She glanced around at the surrounding branches, then at the long drop down to earth, looking for all the world like a kitten caught up in a tree with no idea how to get back down.

Jaken was too small for the job and Ah-Un's necks wouldn't extend far enough for a proper foothold. Sesshomaru frowned, and gathered his yoki for an upward boost.

She held out her skinny, little arms, waiting to be scooped up. Instead, talons locked into the scruff of her collar and Sesshomaru single-handedly hoisted her from the branch. Still holding her at eye level, he arched a brow at her, wondering if the little tagalong would speak again. She pursed her lips inward, curling her mouth in on itself, and shrank into her yukata.

An anomaly then.

When they landed, he carefully set her down so that she was standing when he let go.

"Fix yourself," he instructed, flicking a claw to her rumpled clothes.

"Troublesome thing," Jaken muttered.

But before they proceeded too far, another light noise bubbled up from the back of the group. "Thank you." It was too young and girlish to be Jaken and Ah-Un didn't talk. Bringing his entourage to a halt, Sesshomaru turned to see the latest developments of the experiment he thought had stagnated. She walked up to him, stopping a respectful distance away before bowing. And smiling up at him as if he were the most familiar face in the world. "Rin would like to thank Lord Sesshomaru."

"Huh. Accepted," the dog-demon droned.

Her smile widened, showing off the glaring gap in her grin. She'd spoken and Lord Sesshomaru had talked back to her – especially her, without a direct order or question. He never raised his voice, so he hadn't yelled at her either.

"Thank you, too, Master Jaken."

The little imp, however, did yell, but that was okay. He was built like that. And no one stopped her from talking. Like learning to walk, her voice grew stronger with exercise every day.

Sesshomaru noticed, too. The girl – Rin – seized every opportunity to vocalize her presence.

"These are for you!" This was the first time she had offered flowers to him with anything more than a smile.

When Sesshomaru's nose picked up an ogre's head on breeze, Rin turned that to a subject of conversation, too. Or something like it. "Master Jaken, I'll race you!" Before Jaken could even register the challenge, the girl was off like a fired arrow.

She was Rin. Her initially self-addressed speech made that clear. But she also made up songs, babbled stories, asked riddles with no answers, and recited whatever childish rhymes she knew.

Rin talked. And Sesshomaru was her favorite subject. As she grew up, she talked a little less about her daiyokai protector and more to him. He listened – or at least gave the impression that he did, Sesshomaru was very good at it either way. She could tell him anything without fear of rebuke. He still hardly raised his voice at her. He never interrupted – if he had to go, he simply would. No questions or bars in their free and forthright discourse. Sometimes it seemed like he was happy – or as happy as Sesshomaru could appear – just to hear her speak. Rin's voice went through so many permutations as she grew up, but at whatever age it always expressed her completely. And Sesshomaru was there to hear it. He was her first confidant and no one knew Rin better.

.

So why did concern worm its way in through his unflappable confidence when the young woman before him smiled sadly and held his gaze?

"Lord Sesshomaru," Rin said. "We need to talk."

.

A/N: Thank you for reading! I'm glad I could post before the holiday. Here's wishing you all a Merry Christmas and all the best of season's warmth.

Cartoon thingy: feral-instinct. deviantart. com/#/d35idjc (please remove le spaces)