They haven't walked for very long before they were rejoined by a waiting Kagura, sitting on an old tree stump they were about to pass. She looked just like she did yesterday, outside a slightly messier bun than usual, the pins looking like they might have been slightly crooked, but she couldn't tell for certain on her current angle.

"You should have told me you were leaving instead of leaving me behind. How cruel."

The silver-haired daiyoukai made no response. He simply walked idly, seemingly ignoring the wind sorceress' complaints.

Rin had wrapped herself in a long silky cloak that gleamed in the starlight, a gift from her lord a few months back, watching the one-sided bicker occur. Her long, black hair draped over her shoulders, reflecting a fractions of the moonlight through its silky strands. The view brought by a nostalgia from years past, when Jaken was where Kagura is now. She whined a lot less and talked even lesser so compared to the green imp, but she was better company - with wittier responses and far less pretenses. She was smarter, classier - and being a woman just like her, Rin was way more comfortable being open around the wind youkai than she did with her replacement. A small innocent smile painted itself on her round, pink lips.

She missed this; the chilly breeze on her face as they walked under the starry night sky, the sore feeling on her legs as they walked further each day to some place new, the solemn silence of her lord as he led them forward every single day.

"Where are we headed, Lord Sesshomaru?"

He slowed his pace slightly, as if her question had dragged him back to the present. For a moment, he seemed distracted, and the young healer could have sworn she saw those golden eyes lingered a little too long on the wind sorceress' face at the corner of his sights but the stern tone in his voice pulled her back to her own question, dropping the subtle observation somewhere at the back of her mind.

"The West. We will be meeting with Ah-Uhn."

"Will we be passing the Western Castle, my lord?"

He eyed her on a curious note, the tone in her inquiry made clear she seemed to be expecting a literal castle. And she was.

"Yes."

You could almost see her eyes glimmer brightly in wide eyed expectation. She had heard so much stories about it from Jaken all the way from back when she was still a child; from the massive gardens filled with rare flowers, the magnificent halls adorned by only the finest and rarest items, the collection of art that belongs of the lady of the house, the magical rooms that rested legends, to the hundreds of servants needed to maintain a glorious estate. She could imagine it all now: great, majestic stone walls covered in crawling wildflowers with a massive gate guarded by huge demons that protected the castle, giant towers protruding from the sides of the great palace with huge windows and hidden rooms within the walls, gardens that doubled as a massive labyrinth of green hedges and-

"Don't raise your hopes too high, it's not actually a real castle."

She could hear the suppressed chuckle in the youkai's voice as those deep red eyes regarded her with a look of entertainment. Kagura pressed a hand over her dark, painted lips in a halfhearted effort to repress the grin that had slyly crept over her face.

"..Eh?"

"It's not an actual castle. No giant stone palace with towers and massive gates secluded somewhere in the middle of the woods, if that's what you're imagining."

"But Master Jaken-"

"-was obviously exaggerating, like he does for everything else."

"Oh."

The sparkle in her eyes faded with disappointment, her lips pressed tight and her chin dipped towards her chest. For a moment, the silver-haired demon who watched the two women's exchange regarded her with worry. The topic of reconstructing the estate had came up before but he gave it no real interest and shoved the idea off to the side, and somehow, right then, he cursed himself for not having rebuilt it as an actual castle when he had a chance. His chest tightened just watching the sullen look on her face over something seemingly so trivial to him.

Perhaps matter like such meant more to humans than it did to demons?, he wondered.

Despite the obvious hilarity of the human girl's unrealistic expectations about the demon lord's home, Kagura too had caught Rin's not-so-subtle disenchantment, as if someone had just crushed the dreams she's had for years in a single comment. The quiet scowl on the demon lord's face only made the assumption even clearer. Oops.

A soft sigh escaped the youkai's lips as she raised a hand to the healer's shoulder, patting her lightly; her weak substitute for a hug. Dark brown eyes looked down at her deep red ones, and she forced a halfhearted smile at the corner of straight-lined lips.

"It's more of a siheyuan, really. Think of it like a rich war lord's estate", she paused for a second, gathering her thoughts on how to better describe the Lord of the West's childhood dwelling. She had only been there several times before, and though she had explored some areas of the massive courtyard house, it was far too big and too spacious to tour in only a few hours at a time. "Only the main house has a double floor, so the whole area is low to the ground. No tall towers for sure, but what it lacks in height, it definitely makes up in space. The centerpiece of the manor is a huge pond surrounded by hedges of rare herbs and flowers, and though it's overgrown with weeds last I saw it, I imagine it'll still be pretty scenic during Spring..."

The twinkle in the taller human girl's eyes reignited as she latched herself onto the female youkai's descriptions, creating a new vision on her mind as her new companion filled in the details.

"...The rooms are generally massive, meant to house the inu daiyoukai it was built for even in their full demon forms, so the ceilings are raised high. The sleeping quarters are connected to the main court through stilted outdoor hallways, and the estate expands for way over a mile in diameter. Obviously, a property this big requires hundreds of servants, but since the previous lord died and the new one here had little to no interests in maintaining the residence and distrusts most of everyone, it's severely understaffed and most of the unused areas are being reclaimed by the earth. In my opinion, only the main hall and the central quarters are still well kept, but I doubt they're even close to their former glory - not that I'd ever know for sure considering I wasn't alive yet during the reign of the Inu no Taishou."

Wow. It was was even better than what she had originally imagined it to be. A home so entwined with the earth sounded more befitting to someone like the silver-haired daiyoukai than a tall, cold palace made of stone.

"You sound like you've really explored the whole place. Was it beautiful?"

Beautiful? When the wind demon first explored the area, 'beautiful' wasn't what came to her mind. It was desolate, grim, and dying. The paint on the walls had long started fading and the smell of mold was apparent even in the chambers farthest from decay. There was hardly anyone in sight; the very few servants that still worked for the estate were thinly dispersed over the spacious grounds - the rest of the household attendants had long switched over to serve the Lady of the West in a different, personal manor in a far off area. The ceilings creaked and moaned under strong gusts of wind and rain water dripped and leaked on the soaked carpets that lined the inside of the dusty guest room that she had stayed in. The trees that framed the clearing in which the manor was built had long gone untrimmed; their overgrown branches and thick leaves blocked the sun even on the finest days, leaving a musky odor of stagnant mud and decomposition in areas less visited. The rare collectibles and rich items that decorated the halls now lay encased in an inch of dust and cobwebs, leaving her with a shiver on her spine at the mere reminder of a spider.

But Rin didn't want to hear that, and she's already crushed one too many dreams tonight - the last thing she needs is to drop another shattering revelation and have the prissy daiyoukai pissed in the process - not that she was scared to anger him, of course, but he's always given off a vibe that his human ward was the one thing about him that was off limits, and messing with her would likely be something even the fuujin* cannot get away with.

"If you're into that, I suppose. Wasn't much my style."

Rin grinned in response, turning her attention back to the demon lord that had just picked their camp for the night. The chilly wind had started to blow similarly to the night before, but luckily not as harsh. The bite of the cold breeze was more forgiving and the dark sky was mostly clear, letting most of the bright moonlight through to illuminate the small glade in which they were to settle for the evening. Dropping her small sack bag on the ground, she proceeded to scrounge for dry wood for fire, squinting her eyes in a vain effort to see better but to no avail. It took sometime, longer than she intended, but she gathered enough for a small bonfire. The wind sorceress had picked a spot farther back across her lord, sitting lazily against the a huge rock she pushed up as a make-shift seat with eyes closed and her arms folded across her chest. She seemed fast asleep. The demon lord, on one hand, kept to his classic spot of sitting with his back idly against the bark of a tree, though unlike the female youkai, he was wide awake, watching as she pulled out a box of matches from her pocket. With a gentle grip, he watched intently and curiously as she held the minuscule stick by it's midpoint between her thumb and her index, holding the box out with her other hand. Swiftly, she dragged the match down against the striker one, two, three times and just like magic, a small fire lit the head of the wood and fascination wrote itself in his usually impassive expression.

He needn't say anything; she caught the faint change in his expression as always and she understood exactly what he wanted to know. She lighted the dried leaves to start the fire before tossing the half-burned matchstick into the now-growing flames.

"It's called a 'match', my lord. Lady Kagome had brought it with her from her era on her last visit", she stood up, holding the box of match in her hand as she walked over to where he sat, gingerly sitting right next to him. She was careful to put space in between them, as if some sort of invisible barrier kept her from getting any closer, making sure his personal space was well respected - something Kagura, he noted, did the exact opposite of. She was fine and proper, her posture alone evident of her good manners and proper upbringing; the old priestess Kaede had taught her well.

Raising the small cardboard box up on her hand for him to see, she tilted it to the side slightly, pointing at an even smaller, red strip that was plastered on its edge.

"This is the striker. The tip of the match is coated with dried chemicals that ignite with friction. So when it gets dragged across a rough surface like the sticker, it lights up and creates fire. It's a lot a like magic, except anyone can do it."

He nodded in understanding, the aloof expression back on his face though his eyes still gleamed with interest. She opened the palm of her hand in lieu of handing him the matchbox, an offer he took without hesitation.

Taking out a single stick, he stared at in observation for a few seconds before mimicking his ward's previous actions, keeping the information she had just disclosed in mind. In a small, rapid motion, he dragged the head across the red strip striker, setting the tip of the match on fire. Satisfied, he handed the box back to Rin, watching the small fire in his hand curiously for a little while longer before tossing it into the burning campfire, his curiosity satiated. She smiled sweetly in return, amused by the demon lord's childlike curiosity.

As the twilight grew deeper, the temperatures began to drop slowly, leaving the wind with a mild chill in their wake. The fire faltered and swayed, threatening to die out under the occasional gusts and blows but alas, it didn't. The healer raised her hand over the crackling flames, the heat barely warming her body. She silently cursed herself for not thinking to pack something warmer; years of idle waiting had made her forget the essentials of living in the woodlands.

Another cold breeze blew, sending a shiver up her spine and a tingling on skin, the lick of air chilling her to the bone. She looked up his right shoulder daintily, her mind exploring the imaging on just how warm is moko-moko might have been on frigid nights like this.

Of course, the observant daiyoukai noticed.

"Rin."

She turned her gaze towards his gold-colored eyes, the reflection of red from the embers highlighted the honey framed his heterochromic irises. Their gazes met, and after a moment, he closed his eyes in the pretense of an interest in resting.

"You may sit next to me, if you so wish."

The sparkle on her eyes only shone brighter.

"Thank you, my lord!"

She pushed herself up from the dusty floor. taking small, swift strides to his direction. Gleefully, she took his generous offer, placing herself on his right side, the warmth of his fur seemingly radiating from his body. She had intended to keep the few inches of space in between them - the thought of invading his sacred space was just something she just couldn't imagine doing anymore - but the chattering of her teeth made the resolve a little too difficult to uphold. She had done it often as a child, but Jaken's dismay after he found out had taught her to distance herself a little further back, to respect that little barrier between him and everyone else in fear of invading his personal space and making him uncomfortable. The imp had made it clear her lord had only let it slide because she was a child who didn't know any better, and perhaps, he was right.

Another gust of cold breeze blew across her face, her hair mingling closely with his silver strands. The woods were filled with an ominous brittle silence as the wind penetrated the polyester fibres of her kimono with absurd ease. Cold licked at her face and crept under her clothes, spreading across her skin like the lacy tide on a frigid winter beach. With slightly parted lips and gently chattering teeth, she wrapped her thin cloak around her tighter as she closed her eyes to try and sleep the night away but to no avail.

His warm hands on her shoulder jolted her wide awake. Hesitantly, he pulled her close, pulling her willowy body against the warmth of his moko-moko that lay just slightly in between them. He didn't look at her as he did so; he simply kept his gaze straight forward almost as if he was purposely avoiding eye contact as unlikely as it seemed. This close to him, she could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed and the pounding of his heartbeat. His subtle invitation wasn't lost on her: gingerly, she scooted closer, her own heart racing as the adrenaline of the moment gave her the courage to lay her head against his chest, feeling the warmth that emitted from his body. His shoulders were rigid and his posture was stiff. She could feel the rasping minty breathes from his lungs as he inhaled and exhaled unnaturally deep. Then tension was apparent, but she was no better. Her heart pounded hard that she could almost feel it in her ears and there was a knot in her stomach she could hardly ignore. Minutes passed and yet neither of them had barely relaxed, their seemingly forced enfold felt as unnatural as it was surreal. Finally, she looked up, her dark brown eyes met directly by his austere stare, and for an instant, she had almost backed off thinking she had taken far too much liberty with his generosity, but his arm around her had kept her still. The solemn silence between their wordless exchange calmed her nervousness and just for a moment, she found herself able to articulate something she had been long waiting to say.

"I missed you, Lord Sesshomaru..."

He simply regarded her in thoughtful silence making no response, but she knew he heard her. He always did.

"Sleep. We leave at sunrise."

She nodded slightly in response, closing her eyes as she huddled closely to his chest, savoring the warmth of the dreamy moment that she had only long visualized in her fantasies. A yawn escaped her lips as the wind swooped up, over the heights, rushed and rustled through the tough mountain grasses, and gradually ebbed away through the crags to silence.

As her breathing slowed and her tense posture relaxed into deep slumber, he raised his left clawed hand to her face, parting away the long black locks that had strayed over her closed eyes. He peaceful sleeping face reminded him of times long gone, and in a low, deep voice, he gave her his answer.

"I've missed you too, Rin."

In the corner of a protruding boulder, lay the female fuujin in her feign state of relaxation. She heard everything, saw everything. And while the cold winds chilled her body the same way it did the human girl, Sesshomaru didn't notice. His eyes only focused on Rin, and in that moment, Rin alone. She felt like the third wheel, the crowd to the trio she only earlier thought she was favored member of. Her knuckles were ash white from her clenched fists so tightly gripped onto themselves that her palms were sore and burned as her nails dug deep and hard against her own skin. The heartbreak felt cold and heavy, like concrete drying in her chest. Their solemn exchange and the heartfelt emotions that lingered on their lips undeniably broke her heart and she could almost hear it shatter like glass in her ears.

He loved Rin. And she loved him back.

The realization hit her like bucket of cold water to her face as the gentle breeze's brisk bite clung onto her tingling skin, but she no longer noticed. There was no pain or discomfort worse than the one that made her regret ever wanting her heart back.

In the end, it turns out, she loved him too.


A/N: *Fuujin = wind demon/Japanese wind deity. I'm running out of synonyms and repetition is killing me, so I'm gonna start using more Japanese terminology just for something different.

Additionally, there will be some delays on the next chapter (sorry guys!) since it's been a little busy with work and I'm going out on a trip this weekend. Ideally, it should be up by this Friday before I leave, but I can't make any promises. It's currently... about 1/3 of the way there. So I still got some more ways to go.