"Actually, I was thinking of you, Sesshomaru" he tried to quell the beastly nature purring within him at her words and the lovely shade of pink that her cheeks turned while she said them. His male ego swelling with pride was hard to squash down and he fought to not physically show his reaction. Instead, he continued to watch her, raising one eyebrow at her in question. He was far too curious now. She continued to stare out toward the horizon, only the profile of her face shown to him.

"How many times have you fought Inuyasha?" She questioned softly.

"Many" he replied simply.

"And yet he is still alive."

"Hn" he did not quite see where she was going with this conversation.

"I don't believe you ever meant to kill him. Did you? He could have been dead 100 times over by now, yet there he is down there, picking fights with a child not even half his age. All because you showed him mercy." Her eyes were now trained on the half-breed and the fox kit who was running through the forest ahead of them, Inuyasha holding shippo out by his leg as he ran.

"You give me far too much credit, little Miko. It was always my intention to kill Inuyasha, he just had to be strong first. There is no honor in killing those too weak to defend themselves" His stomach flipped as he said the words, the beast inside him demanding he take them back, not wanting to scare the female beside him. Suddenly, she whipped around to look at him, a large, serene smile on her face.

"You don't give yourself enough credit, Sesshomaru. Can you truly say you have always wanted to kill Inuyasha? He's been strong for a long time now and you've never done it. I think you are making excuses."

"I tried to kill you. And your friends. On multiple occasions" pointed out coldly. Truthfully that fact was what first drew Sesshomaru to the little Miko beside him. He had tried to kill her and she had thwarted his every attempt, even getting in the way of his battles with his half-brother and causing him more than a few troubles. Of course, had he wanted her dead he would have put more effort into it, but the fact that she had survived any of his attacks, even his weaker ones, let alone time after time was astounding to him. He knew it was foolish of him to point out such facts, especially since he had grown quite fond of the little Miko sitting beside him, but her faith in him unsettled him in a way he had never felt before.

"I forgive you. I'm sure they all do too. Even Inuyasha, though he'll never let you know." Her smile turned slightly sad. Or maybe reflective, he mused.

"I am not a good person" he expected her to be disappointed by his statement and was once again surprised by the happiness radiating off of her.

"Maybe you didn't use to be. But you are now; now that you've got something worth protecting." Her words triggered a memory in his mind and his head was suddenly filled with his father's voice.

'Tell me Sesshomaru, do you have someone to protect?' The words rang through his mind, over and over again.

"Something to protect?" He whispered to himself, eyes opening wide in realization, his gaze landing on the form of a small child clad in a bright kimono, riding on top of his two-headed dragon. He was even more surprised when he found his gaze slipping from Rin to sweep over the entire group in front of them. Remembering the way they had all treated him when they had started traveling together, staying away from him. He had never wanted to become close to any of them, enjoying his distance, the Miko was the only one brave enough to come near him, offering him food and asking him to join in on things. he always refused of course. But slowly over time, the monk had taken to meditating with him, giving small words of commiseration about his annoying half-breed brother. The slayer had taken the monk's lead and started offering to polish his armor and blades while she was doing her own weapons, something she had never done for his brother, he had noticed. The kit warming up to him had been a complete accident. He had been running from the half-breed after taunting him with, like normal. The kit eventually took to fleeing for his life, again, as usual, and had without even thinking, ran to him and scaled up his clothing to hide behind his hair. He had been surprised by the kit but had been more surprised with how pleased he was that the kit had sought him out for protection. He took his time to study each individual before landing on the small woman next to him. She was gazing up at him with a mixture of surprise and pride as she watched the realization dawn on his face. He felt a warm hand grab his own and squeeze slightly; surprising even himself, he squeezed lightly back, allowing the human the contact.

"I think I can concentrate now" She whispered, knowing his ears would have no problem picking up the words. She glanced up at him from under her bangs and smiled shyly at him, her cheeks tinted pink again. He just nodded to her, admiring the shade of pink on her normally tanned skin, his eyes staying on her face long after she closed her eyes.

Sorry it's so short. I really don't even know what else to write in this chapter. The ending kinda felt a little forced. I really wanted to write more in it, but I just have no idea what to add, so I'm stopping here before it turns to complete crap. Plus I gotta go pick up my four-year-old from school in a few minutes, we get charges $15 every 5 minutes we're late, so that sucks. Private schools are quite ridiculous.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. I really love writing them being close. I have a chapter set in the future that I absolutely loved writing because of their interactions, but it's gonna have to wait for a few chapters to get the setting right.

As usual, please review. I love reviews. Any are welcome except flames. I know that not every story is for everyone and I am far from a great writer, but if you can't be constructive and polite, please move on.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me this far and everyone who plans on sticking with me for a while yet! If you want more of my writing, you can find a few more stories on wattpad (username Kairri), I have this story on there, one of my vampire academy one-shots on there, along with two in-progress original stories. I would absolutely love some love on those since sometimes it's hard to get inspiration for them.