This is it. Those daunting words: The End.

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I've owned nothing at all since the beginning. Still don't.

Epilogue

Hana

They all made their way back to the village, some supporting the injured ones and Meiko walking stiffly behind them, seeming to Rin extremely aimless now that she was finally released from her bond to Ishoyuki. Sesshomaru carried Rin and she carried their child even though his wound slowed him down a great deal.

Kira and her tribe were waiting for them when they returned. They had come from the familiar arms of the forest, Kira ever the proud warrior who could not bare to flee a fight for long, and had fought off as many attackers as they could to help the humans. Her men stood around her, some injured and some wiping blood from their claws and blades. Whatever demons that did not lay dead and in sickening pieces around them had fled into the forest, lost now without the guidance of Ishoyuki.

When Jaken brought the children, him looking quite overwhelmed by the squealing creatures, and saw the ember-eyed baby in Rin's arms, he fainted. They revived him and after he was seated, Rin explained in a gentle, embarrassed tone what had transpired. She told him the secrets she had kept to herself for so long.

Once she was done, he fainted again.

Sesshomaru was pestered by Sango and Kagome to remain at their home for the first day. Inuyasha had thrown such a drastic fit over this, spouting that he would not have that man near Akio, that Sesshomaru felt almost inclined to stay, if only to frustrate his insipid half-brother. This decision had made Inuyasha grow three shades of red, but he had calmed after a rather long, rather loud, discussion with his wife.

As Sesshomaru wandered through the house, his feet echoing on the wooden floors, he would catch Rin casting him anxious glances, a question seemingly on her tongue, but then Kagome would demand her attention to crush herbs and so she said nothing. She had many things to ask of him. How she would ask, or where she would make the time, she did not know.

Rin knew that Sesshomaru would leave. Once he fully healed and Kagome no longer had an excuse to keep him there, he would resume his travelling with Jaken and A-Un. He would go North, she supposed, or home to the Western Lands.

Perhaps she could keep him there? Perhaps she could persuade him to stay?

Rin discovered once while she was staring at Sesshomaru standing ascetically near the well that she was hoping for something entirely selfish. She could no more hold back Sesshomaru than she could halt a rainstorm or the coming tide.

His healing abilities granted to him by his demon blood kept the wound from worsening. Under Kagome's careful – albeit persistent – care, he pressed poultices against his side to speed his recovery. After the third day, he resumed his place in the cave in the forest. Kagome had insisted he stay close to the village in order for her to change his bandages. She pestered him to the point of aggravation. Since he would not waste the strength it would take to kill her, he allowed her to change his bandages and fuss over him. Those days required all his patience.

Rin would also change his bindings at times, but those moments were always uncomfortable and she would watch him uncertainly from underneath her eyelashes.

She almost prayed that he would not heal so that he would remain with her and then she felt so ashamed of asking the gods for such a thing. If he did not heal, he would die. She knew she could not bare it if he died – Rin would rather he live far away than die at her side. She also knew the dangers of prayer and hurried away, lest her thoughts give way to substance in front of her eyes.

A week then went by, the days overrun with bloodied cloths, aching limbs and frenzied women attempting to do hundreds of tasks at once. Kaede had joined them, doing what she could with the years of knowledge she had. Kohaku was on his feet as soon as he was able, though he would need the help of a walking staff until his limp vanished. He remarked that he would be demon-hunting in no time at all, to which Sango had given him such a fierce look that he had chosen to give himself a few more days.

Meiko had not stayed, despite the insistences that she was welcome. Once Kira's men left, the old woman had gone with them. Kira had gone with a smile and her hand on the arm of a scarred demon Rin did not recognize. Meiko had merely offered the most graceful bow any of them had ever witnessed before disappearing over the horizon.

"She's free," was all Inuyasha had said.

Outside, the moon was rising. Rin was in her own room that Kagome had insisted she take now that there was one more child in the house. "You deserve privacy," she had said, which Rin did not truly understand but was certainly not going to reject. There was an exhaustion in her bones that only came from long hours of work without rest, and even now that she could sleep, she was doing anything but.

Lying on her futon with her baby next to her, she ran her fingers through her child's hair, grinning when the infant giggled in its sleep.

During these moments, she thought of Mahako. She had been long dead by the time they managed to find her outside of that field; Tenseiga could no longer help her. With that knowledge, Rin had cried wretchedly into the raccoon's body until Sango had been forced to pull her away.

Miroku, despite still recovering from his broken arm, had followed Rin and buried the little girl. For once, he had not remarked on Rin's beauty or demonstrated any lascivious behaviour. That day he had been silent. That had been Mahako's funeral; it may not have been a proper burial, for they did not know the rituals of a demon's passing. However, Rin chose to believe that Mahako was happy.

Rin heard the screen to her room slide open and she spun around, expecting to see Kagome or Sango checking in on the new mother. To her surprise, it was Inuyasha's figure that was illuminated in the half-lit room. Stepping in, he closed the screen behind him and stood awkwardly in the middle of her room. He squirmed around uncomfortably, tweaking his long red sleeve as she waited for him to speak.

Suddenly, he was talking and the words spilled out over top of each other.

"Did my brother every bite you...during...uh..." Inuyasha could barely choke out the words. A deep blush had trickled underneath the bronze skin in his cheeks. Frustrated, he sat down roughly, his face turned away from her. "Look, did he bite you? Ever? Like on the neck?"

"He did." She tugged at the collar of her kimono and pulled it aside only enough to show him the faint scar. His face was scarlet and he was not looking at her. "Once," she said. "Before I came here."

"Yeah, I thought so." The half-demon nodded and Rin pulled the fabric back over herself. "Seems like Sesshomaru's more like our dad than he thought," he said so quietly that she almost did not hear. Then he looked over at her. "I could tell that he'd claimed you. It means he marked you so no demon male could have you. In other words, he made you his mate – well, wife, I guess."

"Oh," was all she said.

She turned away to sweep aside a thatch of hair from her baby's face, but Inuyasha could see the small little smile she wore.

The next morning, Rin did not dress in the beautiful blue kimono Kagome had given her. Instead, she slipped into her simple working kimono, her favourite, and plaited her long hair as she had done each day while traveling with Jaken, A-Un, and Sesshomaru. Around herself, she wrapped a long piece of burnt red fabric that fell from her left shoulder down to the right side of her waist, where she securely tied it like a sash. That was where Rin slipped her baby, stopping once to make sure it was secure, and, fixing her mouth, determined, she set out.

"It looks like she's going out to slay a dragon," Inuyasha commented absently from his perch on the back porch. He was, begrudgingly, watching Soichiro while Kagome was washing clothes and the baby was happily cutting his first tooth on his father's beads.

Sango, who was sweeping the porch, straightened from her bent position and made a thoughtful noise at the back of her throat. "I thought she would be more dressed up."

"This is her battle, Sango." Kagome was smiling, her own eyes focused on her husband and child. "She'll fight it the way she needs to."

"Battle?" Inuyasha's eyebrows tweaked upwards, looking confused, and was only met with knowing smiles by the women. He turned away with an annoyed growl, jingling his necklace to make Soichiro laugh. "Well," he said after awhile, "whatever it is, she'll win."

As Rin walked steadily out into the forest she knew so well, her mind was on those days before running into the arms of Inuyasha and Kagome. She thought of Kira, of the man she had walked off with, and she thought of that painful, horrible night she had cut from her the only companions she had known. Suddenly, she realized something that had not crossed her mind. The gifts. Those beautiful, wonderful gifts, each a piece of artwork, that had called to Rin. They had been for her. It had been Sesshomaru's way of providing proper engagement gifts to his mate, as was the demon tradition.

She came upon him seated cross-legged on the ground near the river, a rock at his back supporting his weight as he leaned against it. His eyes flickered to her as she came out of the forest, looking perhaps nervous, though Rin could never be positive with his guarded feelings. Beside him was where she sat, their little girl snuggled against her breast, and she smiled at the absolute absurdity that had brought them this far.

They had both been acting like such fools. He, thinking that she did not want the child, and her for supposing the same. Rin knew now that if she had simply spoken to him instead of remaining quiet, these horrible months could have been avoided. She supposed, though, that this had given her the opportunity to grow. She was truly no child now – she had become a woman as strong and confidant as Kagome.

Their stupidity caused Rin to chuckle lightly to herself. Sesshomaru stared blankly at her, as though asking, in his own way, what was so amusing. She kept to herself, however.

It was obvious in the way that he shifted his position that her silence aggravated him. There had been many times when his had bothered her, and so she simply looked at him as levelly as he had over the years, determined to play out this sort of game as long as she could.

Finally, frustrated with her not providing an answer, he stated: "You are married."

"Yes, Lord Sesshomaru."

It was a simple statement, and yet his heart contorted in his chest as though he had been stabbed. The demon lord even looked down at himself, half expecting a sword or arrow to be protruding from his torso. There was none.

His face smooth, Sesshomaru stated quickly, "To that man."

"No, Lord Sesshomaru."

A purely surprised eyebrow shot up. For once, he did not try to hide it. "Why?"

She pulled out a small lacquer box from inside her sleeve, placing it gently upon the ground between them, revealing it to be the exact one that she had admired so many months ago. Then, in one sweeping motion that took him off guard far more than he had expected, Rin reached over and kissed him.

"Because I am Lord Sesshomaru's mate," she said decidedly.

The sides of his mouth quirked up sardonically beneath her palm, but Rin had always seen through the calm mocking into what lay underneath. He was pleased.

Sesshomaru's arm swung around her waist, his palm pressing into her back and his clawed fingers gripping at her kimono, and descended his head to her shoulder, their baby pressed safely between them. In her hair, he whispered softly, "Do as you wish."

A year had passed without interruption. Many thanks and goodbyes had been said to Inuyasha and his friends and the boy Akio had cried Rin's name long after she and Sesshomaru had returned into the forest. They would live, under Rin's quiet insistence, in the cave they had spent those months in, the place she had truly been happiest. On occasion, she was even inclined to call it 'home.' Jaken would snort at this comparison, wondering how a place that was dirty and dusty could be called that name, but he made no inclination that he wished to leave.

Sesshomaru did continue his travelling, leaving his family in the care of A-Un, Jaken and all the other humans that so cared for her, however he travelled much less and seemed to return as fast as he could. Though she did so miss the exotic lands she had seen and the promise of adventure, Rin much preferred to remain inside of their cave. Even when Sesshomaru suggested that she move into his estate in the West, he was aware as well as she that she was not suited for life inside of a grand house's walls. The days spent in Inuyasha's home had saved her life, true, but she had no desire to feel that trapped again. She had also made such close connections to Inuyasha's wife and the female demon-hunter that he could not force himself to further broach the subject of leaving. At times, when the boy Kohaku visited Rin after an extermination in the forest, Sesshomaru considered dragging her to the West, but still they remained.

Most expected that the great demon would not stand to spend his days in these conditions for long – Inuyasha frequently made such comments. Much to their disbelief as well as his own, Sesshomaru was satisfied with life inside of a dark, damp cave. When he came across himself wondering if his wife should have more, Rin would look over at him from whatever she was doing and smile, and then he would find that his surroundings hardly mattered at all.

What perplexed him the most was Hana. Sesshomaru did not know what to think of his child.

It was an emotional, excitable little beast that burst into giggles at the most unexpected moments. He had raised Rin, but Hana was considerably younger than his wife had been when he found her and a great deal more talkative. She babbled her unintelligible baby talk at whatever caught her eye – quite different than Rin, who had been mute, and even when she had regained her voice, spoke only when she needed. Though a trait Hana had definitely inherited from her mother was the excessive fascination with his hair. Hana often pounced on her father when he was not looking, running her small hands through his hair over and over, squealing in utter delight at the silky white tendrils that slid between her fingers.

And Rin frustratingly encouraged it.

Actually, she tended to encourage quite a bit of Hana's odd, rather human, behaviours. Hana did not call him "Father" as he wished, but "Papa," to which Rin had clapped her hands and cooed over the first time it was said.

Since discovering Hana's birth, Jaken slept permanently outside with A-Un. However, during the colder months of winter, Rin insisted that the poor frog demon be able to seek shelter within the cave before the falling snow could freeze him to death. He may be a demon, but he was a frog, and he could not survive the cold for long.

It was in winter that Sesshomaru found himself now, sitting idly by the flickering fire that so reminded him of the night before Rin had left him. His gaze wandered from the flames to outside of the cave entrance where his mate was playing in the snow, looking more the infant than their daughter.

"Papa!" Hana called gleefully. She was lifting her hands up to the sky, her fingers closing around the soft white flakes that fell from the grey clouds. Confusion was on her face when she looked and saw only her palms and not the snowflake she had captured. She had on no extra layers of clothes, having toddled out into the cold faster than her mother could catch her.

Sighing, he tolerantly got to his feet. Though he had never been one to make such a noise, that it was a human characteristic made only by the long-suffering, Sesshomaru realized that fatherhood had become the cause.

Even as she smiled at the little toddler's actions, Rin wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. One hand went lovingly to her stomach, absentmindedly caressing the area as she hummed to herself. There was a bump there, so small that Sesshomaru's palm could envelop it.

There would be no leaving with this child. He would see the baby grow inside of his mate; he would watch her grow and blossom over the next months until its birth, for which Hana could not wait. There had been tears in Rin's eyes the night she whispered this secret to him, but ones of happiness, not despair.

This single, small woman had given him one child, another promised in eight months, that were half-demon and viewed as abominations by his kind. He lived in a cave, surrounded by a chatty vessel and a two-headed dragon. Humans now pestered him wherever he went and he had made acquaintances with demon hunters.

It was far from what he had wanted but it did not bother him what his life had become. Rin still did not cease to confuse him. She made his mind and his heart constantly war with each other with each turn of her head and wave of her hands. And Hana was a walking, gibbering piece of him that tugged on his clothes at whatever chance she could grasp, also throwing him into chaos with her ember eyes and chocolate hair.

It was as though he had woken up and found his minutes and thoughts wrapped up entirely in a single, impractical human woman – a woman who wore no shoes and tied her hair back like a peasant, with tanned skin and calloused hands, and who laughed whenever she pleased.

Though, Sesshomaru found that he rather preferred it no other way.

"You'll catch your death, you silly girl!" Jaken called to them, pointing his staff not at Rin, but this time at Hana. A-Un, who had proclaimed himself her guardian, snorted in agreement.

His mouth twitching in humour at the outburst, knowing full well how the frog demon cared no matter how he persisted otherwise, Sesshomaru stepped out into the snow.

Rin was catching the downy flakes on her fingertips, that ever-peaceful expression on her face despite the cold that reddened her ears. The demon lord sighed again and slipped his fur around her shoulders, upsetting the crystal drops caught in her hair. Rin turned to look back at him, offering one more smile before kneeling down to work Hana's little arms through a cotton robe. As he watched the two who had so interrupted his life, Sesshomaru paused to wonder at a warmth that had suddenly gripped his heart.

He knew then his journey had only begun.