Chapter 8: - That Which is Uncontrollable

Rin wondered for the millionth time why she'd turned down the self defense classes her dad had adamantly offered when he realized that she would be around men for the rest of her life. Oh—The classes were at the same time as her computer graphics class, which was obviously more important.

"You know, we didn't appreciate being interrupted the other day."

She looked around desperately, but she knew that nobody would be looking for her. She tended to wander out for hours and she couldn't exactly pull out her phone and tell them to hold on. She stepped backwards, doing her best to stop her need to bolt.

"Ne, you aren't trying to leave are you? We came all this way to find you."

"Yeah? Well, I don't remember sending out the invitation."

Her fingers were numb as she pressed all the buttons on her phone and her mind was frazzled with all of the adrenaline pumping through her veins out of sheer fear. She'd begged for years to get her dad to let her wander around without guards. He'd never let her take a step without one if she made it out alive.

"Hey, hey sweetheart."

Her heart froze as he caught her arm and pulled her forward.

"My family had a company once and I was in your class too. All of us were. Then your dad decided to fucking blow a circuit in his old head and blamed us for some stupid crash in his mainframe."

Rin remembered that crash quite well. Her father seemed convinced and armed with proof when he'd blamed the Nokuga Systems company of crashing his company systems. The rest of the family followed blindly, they honestly couldn't be sure with both Rin and Shippou having been in the building at the same time as the accident.

"We hadn't done a thing but the judge was your dad's old best friend from college."

One of the other guys laughed, "It was suddenly all about politics and anybody that dealt with Nokuga Systems was out on the streets too."

"So we've decided to hit him where it hurts too."

Rin felt herself propelled in two directions as he landed a punch to her stomach.

***

Sesshomaru stared at his ridiculous phone, another anomaly in his life begging the question: what did they expect to happen when they called him? Like now. He looked at the phone and was slightly surprised to see that it was one of the numbers logged on his phone, Rin. He rolled his eyes and picked up, just for the hell of it. They all expected him to hit 'ignore' and let it go to voicemail because 'sometimes, Sesshomaru, you just need to hear the human voice'. His heightened hearing picked up the jabbing of different numbers and realized she must be sitting on her phone somewhere and had, as she'd grotesquely called it, butt-dialed him.

Hey, hey sweetheart.

He glared at the phone. She wasn't supposed to be out gallivanting with males, coming from her overprotective older brother of course. Suddenly he was much more interested in her misplaced call, which had obviously been routed to him by the Gods who knew that she was much too young for the things that were going through her head, like holding hands.

My family had a company once and I was in your class once.

He squeezed the phone because he knew that voice and he recognized the intent behind it. He'd heard it many times before, and once quite recently.

Kagome turned around in circles in the hallway in her dark blue wrap dress as she admired her boots. She was a sucker for winter fashion and was enjoying her rare moment of femininity. Suddenly she was tripping over her boots in an attempt to change direction.

"Sesshomaru! What the bloody hell!"

She ran disoriented and let him lead her most of the way and screeched when she met the cold air at the front door.

"You have to invite people out first," she shouted at his back. "Do you need a notepad and a fucking pencil?"

Her mouth shut when he turned slightly to glare at her and opened the door to a beautiful sports car and all but shoved her in. She pulled her legs in quickly and watched as the door caught part of her dress. She was about to open the door to release it when she felt gravity punch her backwards. His arm was across her in an instant pulling her seatbelt across her chest and clicked it secure.

"Okay, okay. I'm a sucker for some mystery and this is a pretty car."

***

Okay, so she hadn't expected to actually see somebody come to her rescue, much less know where she was. She'd forgotten that Sesshomaru was obsessive and had probably installed a chip in her head while she slept once. Or in her phone, that would be much easier, but not quite as sadistic. She'd been on the floor and had felt a couple of kicks, the pull of her arm out of socket when they'd pulled her up only to slap her down again. The park needed softer pavements, honestly. She'd make sure to reroute a couple of those government funds soon. Ridiculous amounts of money for carpeting in the park. She spread herself on the concrete, it's cool surface offering her a little bit of comfort.

And alright, he had expected to see a tiny woman from the States launch herself like an animal at three Japanese men. He was startled out of his frame of mind, forgetting that this was supposed to be his fight. He looked down at Rin's demented smile as she fondled the pavement. She had to be delusional from loss of blood alone. He pushed the hair from her face and dialed for an ambulance. Did he need the police? Would they still be there? He looked up and blanched.

Fine, she realized she had no self restriction at some points in time, but honestly it had all begun with Sesshomaru. He'd stretched the delicate fabric of her midnight blue dress, batted her around a little, and then brought her to see these ridiculous excuses for men beating on a defenseless girl. One she quite liked, mind you. She'd kicked everything she could reach, used them as leverage, knocked them around a little to vent her own frustrations. She hadn't been able to work lately either. She had failed in her earlier attempt to steal Sesshomaru's work again, which had been humiliating in itself. He'd caught her hand in the proverbial cookie jar without looking up from his stupid book and then glared at her from above his stupid reading glasses. The attractiveness of the scene was not lost on her, but she'd been enraged nevertheless. One for the loss of her dress, another one for the horrible interruption, and the last for her failure to find productivity while Sango was gone. She bent down and tied their shoelaces together. She walked around them individually and stepped on their hands, respectively.

"One hand so that you remember it's impolite to hit ladies," she told their painfully confused expressions, "and another one so that you can't untie the laces. Practical."

"I need an ambulance and police at the Gakusen park."

Kagome whirled around and damned the wind for blowing away his voice on the wind. He glared at her and she waggled her finger at him with an infernal smile. He backtracked as he realized her nose was intimately meeting his.

"I've heard your voice."

He was obviously losing his grip on reality and his promise to his late mother. She was throwing every bloody thing out of balance. Honestly.

**And it shouldn't have honestly been this short, but it was so amusing to read it in its entirety.