A/N: For everyone who's wondering about Rin's wish since chapter two – I haven't forgotten.

Kipper out of Trouble

"Can't I come with you?"

Sesshomaru recalled the first time little hands had tugged on his sleeve in supplication. Then how sharp claws showed them their place, seeking out the downy-white dog ears which had sat atop that child's head.

"These are a disgrace." He wished to leave no doubt in Inuyasha's mind. The bastard son of their mutual father held no place in their family, much less at Sesshomaru's side. The day following their first encounter, the young Western Lord had regretted his impulse; the halfling's tattered ears would heal – he should've used poison.

Many years later, though, Sesshomaru decided his actions may have been extreme. But he could do nothing about the blood that seeped under his claws that day. And yet the daiyokai couldn't just shove the memory away back into the recesses of his mind as he had before. Not when it offered a sickening insight. From the corner of his vision, Sesshomaru glanced at Rin, her eyes still cast to the ground. He had to exhale slowly. He knew just how cruel and wretched the world was for hanyo and for the women who bore them.

The soft lush grass of spring slipped under heel as they neared the end of their trek. At least Rin followed this time. When they reached their old training grounds, Sesshomaru stopped. Without a word exchanged, he designated a spot for Rin to stand. Then slowly, without any sudden motions, he took the customary three paces toward her, unsheathing Tenseiga on the third step.

"Draw," he commanded when Rin didn't.

It took Rin a few seconds to register the actual events. We're sparring? Right now? Dumbly, she drew the venom blade. Well, Sesshomaru had told her to bring it along. What? Did she expect to have a conversation with him?

I guess not.

There was a high, keening KLANG! as Sesshomaru knocked her sword aside, striking the air above her head, and completed one combination. Rin still stood motionless. He shoved against her blade, hard enough to make her stagger. "Wake up," he barked.

It hurts too much to. "Yes, Lord Sesshomaru."

Rin gave one half-hearted shove. Sesshomaru didn't budge – it was like pushing against stone. His knuckles felt cold and hard. So she pushed again, this time with more force, and anger. Fractionally, ground was given.

Rin pushed again, took a step back, and swung at what looked like an opening. Sesshomaru blocked it easily. But she didn't feel threatened or even afraid that she wasn't performing as Sesshomaru expected. Or maybe this is what he wants. Rin just attacked again. No words were needed on this battleground. Each collision was a keening shout. Why, Lord Sesshomaru? Why? Why? Why? The dissonant clashes of steel on iron-fang grew loud and grating. Dimly, Rin was aware that she might be damaging Sesshomaru's precious gift to her if she kept swinging like this. But she wasn't tired yet.

A disappointed frown creased Sesshomaru's mouth as he watched how Rin's anger reduced the fine blade into a dull piece of metal. All the care with which he had trained her splintered into only a short series of enraged strikes. Is this all? He canted his head to one side as she took another swing. Rin returned his unvoiced question with what would have been a glare. Except she falters. No, she was missing his question completely, too clouded in her own thoughts. Rin's expression instead asked one of her own. And the daiyokai recognized it on sight.

"Why, Father?"

Sesshomaru backpedaled. He recovered quickly enough to deflect the next strike. Will you continue to ignore me? Sesshomaru already knew the answer to his own question.

Fluidly, he continued to take her sloppy strikes. Finally, with her breath coming in short gasps and sweat slicking her bangs against her brow, Sesshomaru let Rin come at him one last time. He shuffled aside and she missed him entirely. He had moved slowly enough that there wasn't even an afterimage to blame.

When Rin tripped and stumbled this time, she didn't clamor to her feet again. On her knees, she closed her eyes, trying to keep the ground from spinning. Only the knotwork on her sword's hilt provided an anchor to the world.

"Get up."

Rin nodded. But that was the only motion she made. Trying to catch her breath, she focused on inhaling slowly. There was no pride in gasps that shuddered like sobs. But she was tired and alone. Sesshomaru always understood everything, he wasn't supposed to abandon her like this.

There was a soft crunch of grass as someone knelt beside her. "Does it hurt?"

Again Rin nodded.

"And what does? Be exact." Sesshomaru's words remained cold and clipped.

Even in the warm sunlight Rin couldn't stop a shiver. "Everything. Everything hurts…It's like…I'm broken. Are you pleased now?" Rin wished she had the nerve to look Sesshomaru in the eye rather than the dandelion before her. But it wasn't worth it. She didn't want him to see her crying.

Sesshomaru could smell the wet salt on Rin's face. It was a reminder of why yokai weren't supposed to interfere. Why humans didn't coexist with them. Too much pain at the end of it. Slipping a pair of claws under her chin, Sesshomaru tilted Rin's face up. Her brown eyes, all puffy from crying, slid in the other direction. But Sesshomaru wasn't focused on that.

"So…everything hurts?" he asked casually. Still cupping her jaw in one hand, the daiyokai took the excess of one sleeve and, with a gentleness at odds with his claws, mopped up Rin's perspiration and tears. Cheeks, eyes, forehead, temples – he completed the circuit carefully. He could have been lacquering pottery. It should have been a trivial thing. But Rin's pulse was slowing. In smooth, even tones, Sesshomaru continued his explanation, and tried to polish out some of the confusion marring her expression. "This perpetual pain is merely a sampling of what awaits. Anger and confusion become your diet. Yokai may hunt you, but humans will exile you. They will never look past the choice you have made."

"Those are the consequences?" Rin's voice was a little muffled as Sesshomaru dabbed at some stray spittle.

The dog-demon nodded. Though his gaze mostly surveyed his work. At least Rin's face was clean, even if she still insisted on donning the cloth of commoners in her senseless rebellion. No, rags were never becoming of this girl. Ever so slightly, he eased back on his haunches. Even though Rin had grown big, Sesshomaru could still manage to cradle her as he had when he first revived Tenseiga's "test subject." But no need to stoop to the ridiculous. And decided Rin's hair needed fixing. These emotions weren't new to Sesshomaru, but they were somewhat estranged. There was something different about giving attention, especially where a girl-child was concerned. When he finally had come to a truce with them, it was with careful vigilance. Watching Rin die a little every day since autumn wasn't how it was supposed to be. So he tried to explain his actions – even if they should have been self-explanatory. But Father had left only riddles and half-messages in his passing – Rin deserved better than that.

"And you wish to make the choice for me?" she asked.

Dragged back to the present, Sesshomaru's nose wrinkled into a barely checked snarl. And he dropped his hand from Rin's face. Maybe cryptic riddles were the way to go. It didn't seem like adolescents listened to much else. "I'm doing my job."

Now a bit more composed, Rin jutted out her chin defiantly. "And that would be…?"

Protecting you and your better interests, little fool. Sesshomaru stood up rigidly. "Save the petulance."

If he wished to express the whole of his affection it meant putting the very bearer of it in jeopardy. That was pure lunacy. Only a fool would endanger his most cherished person. Rin had shown him that, in this whole damned world with constant warfare and hard hearts, there was something good. Like a rosy carnation amidst the carnage of a battlefield. Sesshomaru was troubled enough by the eventual prospect of her mortality, but to condemn Rin to suffering before certain death…

Unacceptable.

Safety, security, surety – she wanted for nothing. And yet she wants more. For once, something which Sesshomaru couldn't provide her. By the same token, he knew that if he let her chase after it he may never have her back. A chunk of his soul, if not the very whole of it, irretrievably lost in some deep forest. "You are going to cast off your affiliation with me for a demon?"

Slowly, trying not to make any sudden motions, Rin rose to her feet. Replacing the Shadow Teeth into its scabbard, she strapped the sword her side before looking at Sesshomaru again. "Would you throw away yours with me because I chose a yokai spouse?"

Sesshomaru took in Rin's expression, the wavering in her scent, and quickly gave her his flank. Amber eyes glimmered for a moment, but not before Rin could read the mirrored message in them: Will you forsake me?

Sesshomaru wasn't sure. And not at the prospect that Rin might, but the idea of uncertainty at all…

"No," he answered straightaway. "…But aren't you content as it is?"

Rin held out her hands in an empty, supplicating gesture. "Lord Sesshomaru, contentment isn't equivalent to happiness."

"And short-lived self-delusion isn't worth a life's misery." Unable to stand in one place any longer, Sesshomaru paced away from the village. When he realized he was going toward the confounded brook, he whirled around and quickly changed course. Rin trotted after him, mostly hoping that keeping up with the daiyokai would keep him from frying the next poor creature in his path. Sesshomaru spoke as he walked. "When your cravings for companionship stir, there will be none found."

"Then maybe such humans would not be worthy of my time anyway. Because those that would turn me away for one yokai would then never truly respect my Lord Sesshomaru."

The daiyokai remained silent. But he stopped walking. "You will suffer loneliness." It should have been a question, but Sesshomaru knew better than to sugarcoat a fact.

"Since you've been aware of" – she waved her hand in lieu words – "all this, I've lost your support…Right now, I am alone." Rin bit her lip willing her words to come out steady. "He made me smile."

Sesshomaru frowned. Such a triviality was no grounds for a partnership. His father had always acknowledged what a privilege it was to wed an intelligent female and she the opportunity to share ties with the New West. There was never any mention of smiles. "I think your pragmatism needs further development. If you can survive being bereft of your first selection."

You mean your first selection. "Kohaku never made me feel the way Kichiruka does."

Sesshomaru's invisible hackles rose at the name. "He's yokai, Rin. Your senses have probably been corrupted by it."

"Kichiruka wouldn't take advantage of such a thing," Rin huffed, taking umbrage on Kichiruka's behalf. "You witnessed it yourself. He's not like that."

The mane on Sesshomaru's shoulder visibly bristled. "Both parties were in a mutually compromising position."

"Is that what you really thought?" she challenged.

"Don't stray from the matter at hand," Sesshomaru snapped, then fell back into silence. "Rin." Sesshomaru turned. His face was schooled into its regular impassivity – simple lines of mouth and eyebrows and plains of patterned cheeks and forehead. But the guard on his gaze dropped. And it should have scared Rin to see the uncertainty and sadness that shook Sesshomaru's unflappable confidence. "You expect me to exile you."

"Because of one yokai?" Rin blinked…and laughed. It was short and a little abrupt, but it was still genuine laughter.

Sesshomaru frowned. "I fail to see what's so amusing."

"Lord Sesshomaru, what are you?"

In a very canine manner, the daiyokai cocked his head to one side.

With a smile, Rin gestured in his direction. "Last I checked you were a daiyokai, right? Then there's Master Jaken and Ah-Un…not to mention Shippo and Kilala. I don't think one more demon in my company will much difference."

It could. It ought. Any yokai to who had an impact on another's livelihood…What am I? Sesshomaru had always considered himself…special. Not that he ever stopped being his species around Rin, it just seemed…inconsequential. He knew there was a time when it was an issue. "Who's the mortal brat?" "All this fuss for one human girl?" He knew that the reason he left Rin in a human village was because she couldn't survive the lifestyle of a demon. But wherever they went, visited, strolled, practiced and sparred – he was less the Western Lord and more simply Rin's Lord Sesshomaru. As far as he was concerned, everyone seemed to know that, too. And if they didn't…really, what did that matter?

Now stark reality bit into the dog-demon's world. He could arm Rin to the teeth, but in the end Sesshomaru knew he was powerless in the minds of men.

"There is no guarantee you will find the happiness you seek," he said, soft and somewhat resigned.

"Then let me pursue it," Rin rallied for the point.

Sesshomaru folded his arms. "You have no inkling of the course you're choosing."

"I know, but please…"Rolling her shoulders, she readied herself, blade in perfect form. Then with the brightest smile she could manage, Rin recited Lord Sesshomaru's favorite words. "You're in my way."

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A/N: I don't know if I'll be able to promise an update for next week. I'll try, but finals are on the very near horizon for me. But I always finish a full story. I also thank you all for reading! I reply to all messages and reviews, just please make sure your private messaging settings are on. Also, since I don't own any of the InuYasha characters, I really don't mind what you do with these fanfics so long as story concept is credited to me (shout out to Maaai). Thanks again!