She leaned a thin wooden toothpick against the flames of the fire inside the hut where the Shintou shrine attendants were sleeping. She observed the fire taking shape in her hand, and then placed it in a lamp, lighting it. She blew out the toothpick, the smoke taking shape around her fingers. Rin sighed, rubbing her eyes for a few seconds. She closed her long orange coat over her white wool kimono with the shrine insignia printed on its back in an orange color.
She left the hut at the back of the forest surrounding the Shinto shrine, illuminating the surroundings with an oil lamp, stepping on the mud with her geta. It was her turn to come in for the morning shift to help with the preparations for the autumn festival that would take place in the coming weeks. Just the morning that Katsura-sama revealed the situation with Makoto-sama, Nitta-san sent her and two soldiers to the outskirts of Edo, outside the city circles. It was at the edge of the forest, high on a hill that she could see the whole city when the sky was clear. She walked slowly, still sleepy, into the quiet place, bowing respectfully in front of Inari-sama beside a Tori gate.
She stopped at the top of the hill, realizing that she still had time before the miko arrived. She placed the lamp on the partially frozen grass, sitting down on a rock. The imperial castle of Edo shone with its majesty and opulence in the distance with all the pavilions lit up, being the brightest star in all that city. It was a big place like Rin had never been before.
She took a deep breath, stretching her legs together.
It had been almost a month since she had been working in this shrine, and it felt as if she had never lived in the Katsura house. Nitta-san, Yui-sama, or any of the servants had never visited her in her current dwelling, which made the girl wonder if they would really be waiting with open arms for her when the three months there were up.
She had no idea what was going on. From the way the miko was talking to Rin, it seemed that her three months would actually stretch on indefinitely. No one was saying anything, besides not being able to ask anything. There was a silence full of questions between her and all the assistants who lived there. No one dared to break it.
Rin tried to locate the Katsura estate from the top of that hill, but it was too far away.
She heard a muffled sound, as if someone approached by stepping on the frozen grass, breaking the ice. Turning her gaze quickly, somewhat startled, the almond-eyed girl located a silver glow amidst the darkness. The long silver threads danced to the rhythm of the freezing breeze of the still dark morning. Its huge figure was illuminated by the lamp slowly, as it approached the confused, almond-eyed young woman. The youkai marks on his face were sharper than the last time Rin had seen him, when Touga-sama had slapped his cheek soundly.
The amber eyes resting on Rin's small figure were partially backlit by the yellow-lit lamp, intensifying them. Dressed in a black ensemble of haori and hakama with a tanzen on top, Sesshoumaru was the last thing the young woman thought might appear in that isolated corner of Edo.
"Sesshoumaru-sama?" she called out smiling, shocked by what her eyes perceived in front of her, rising in a leap and bowing respectfully before the youkai, who merely nodded. As happy as she was to see him, she remembered Katsura-sama's words immediately, and her smile faltered. "But... how...?"
He motioned for her to sit on the stone again, as she had been before. She sat down once more, but still stared at him in complete surprise. Impenetrable as he always seemed, Sesshoumaru analyzed her for a few seconds before resting his eyes on the shining Edo below them.
"I see you're fine," he commented seriously, his breath turning to steam as it came into contact with the outside.
She blinked a few times, trying to understand what was going on. Her almond eyes accidentally focused on the outlined lips of the youkai with long silver hair, unconsciously lingering there. Understanding what she was doing, Rin shook her head as if waking from a vivid dream, feeling her cheeks heat up in shame.
"Sesshoumaru-sama seems to be well too, but I have no idea what might have made him come here, in this hidden shrine," she spoke timidly, the cool breeze bringing the woody scent of the youkai to her nostrils. She raised her almond eyes to him again, spying on him.
Still gazing at Edo, Sesshoumaru looked even more serious than she remembered. She lingered on the outline of his angular jaw, his youkai marks sharp across his cheeks. His long strands of silver hair blown in the wind with the glow of the lamplight was the kind of image Rin would not forget for the rest of her life.
'It looks... so... special,' she reflected mesmerized.
"I am the major sponsor of this shrine," he revealed after a few minutes of silence, that being intensified by the cold. Even more astonished, she looked around, not understanding how that place could be sponsored by the Shogun's heir. They were at the foot of a random forest and the whole complex wasn't even that big. "This is where Inari-sama appeared to me a few decades ago. I often come here."
Rin nodded once again, understanding his motivations immediately... but now understanding that that shrine only accepted her as a miko assistant, without having any experience or reference whatsoever, precisely because Sesshoumaru-sama was its founder. But an unexpected conclusion came into her thoughts.
"Does Katsura-sama know that you sent me to this temple?" she asked, shrewdly.
Sesshoumaru turned his attention to her, raising an eyebrow. Rin smiled shyly, lowering her gaze to the frozen grass around her geta.
"He doesn't need to know" the long silver-haired youkai replied, turning back to look at Edo.
Rin looked down at her hands, thoughtfully. He hadn't left yet, which indicated that she could start a conversation.
"What really happened?" she inquired without much further deliberation, playing with the orange bar of her winter clothes. "I promise I'll keep it a secret."
"Even from the Shogun?" he asked, watching her out of the corner of his eye. Rin shrugged, unsure of what to say, and perhaps for the first time since she had arrived in Edo, she decided to use the words she really wanted.
Sesshoumaru knew who she was, where she came from. He would not be offended by words from someone as insignificant as her.
"If it's going to cause trouble for Sesshoumaru-sama," she began, attracting an odd look from him. "Oyakata-sama had better not know. At least not for now. I'll say whatever Sesshoumaru-sama wants me to say, I guess. I knew Edo would be difficult, but I didn't expect intimidation coming from a Daimyo youkai. He scares me."
A silence settled between them, and she caught herself wondering if she had done the right thing in being honest.
Until eventually he sighed, creating steam around his face.
"There is a clandestine human blood market throughout the second circle of Edo," Sesshoumaru was explaining sternly. "Usually done by the Daimyo and other powerful classes of youkais. There is a quality of human blood that many youkais usually search for, and even the smell of a human can indicate the presence of this trait. The youkai who is used to recognizing this quality will know how to find it. Matsumoto Makoto has a great addiction to this. Had Katsura-san and I not made a decision, you would be in a tough circumstance."
She frowned.
That's why she never doubted her intuition. Deep down you can always know someone's intentions when you pay attention to how you feel around that same individual. Her gaze lingered longer than she would have liked on the silver-haired youkai. She couldn't believe that the Shogun had given orders for her to be away when Sesshoumaru visited them, after all, she felt good in his presence.
'He's like Touga-sama', she thought happily, feeling her heart warming up.
"Katsura-sama told me that I should choose which of the punishments I would receive," she spoke, trying to put that puzzle together. There was a feeling she was not getting the whole story. "One was to work for Makoto-sama for a month, and the other was to go to a shrine for three months."
"Matsumoto Makoto suggested the first alternative, while I suggested the second," he explained, clenching his eyes as he watched Edo from the top of that hill. Rin didn't understand what he saw that she didn't, or if it was just a reaction to his own thoughts. "Humans who cause minor problems can always exchange a punishment for shrine duties. Obviously Matsumoto didn't expect me to intervene, but that's another story."
Rin nodded, understanding the influence of each one of them in the situation.
"Did Makoto-sama want to kill me?" she asked astonished, staring at a thoughtful Sesshoumaru, being the object of study of his deep amber eyes.
The amber-colored eyes under the lamplight in the darkness caused an unexpected chill in her stomach. She didn't know if it was the eye contact, if she had eaten something spoiled the day before, or if it was simply a normal reaction of her body.
"No," he replied after a few long seconds. "He would turn you into a blood bag the first day you stepped in his estate."
This made her cheeks blush. Was he worried with her?
"I was going to be your blood bag, according to Oyakata-sama," she remembered immediately, trying to understand.
"It's different," he quickly objected, directing her a judgment-filled gaze. "You would be a blood bag with records and consent. This prevents humans from being abused or having blood extracted against their will. Matsumoto Makoto seeks to circumvent this condition to consume as much blood as he wants. He is an addict. Besides this, he could do things to you, influenced by it and using it as an excuse for such behaviour. You never know how a youkai reacts when he tastes new blood, so for this reason this relationship must be consensual and recorded."
"Sounds scary," she commented troubled as a shiver ran down her back, hugging her own body as if to protect herself from her imagination, not going unnoticed by the youkai. The warmth of the lantern at her feet warmed her legs, protecting from the chilly early morning breeze, partially brightening the dark forest around her. "Thank you for caring about me, Sesshoumaru-sama"
It was the first time she had seen him make a face, which took her by surprise, putting a sincere smile on her lips for the first time this had all begun. She felt isolated from everything and everyone living on that hill, but after all, if it was all intended to protect her life, she understood its purpose. He shook his head, apparently disturbed by something, his long silver strands following the movement. The girl's eyes unconsciously focused on the youkai marks on his jawline, noticing that they were slowly thinning. Curious, she wondered why this was happening. His long silver hair now had an orange glow, influenced by the laterna at his feet, surrounded by the darkness.
His erect and imposing pose made her wonder what reasons this youkai had to protect her, and she couldn't understand why. Why was he there for her, and not for another human?
He was a youkai full of secrets, unpredictable, but unlike Makoto-sama, the fear was not really there.
'Sesshoumaru-sama seems... quite mysterious...,' she reflected, lost in her own thoughts.
"Don't be fooled, I'm not a better youkai than Matsumoto Makoto in this sense", he finally said, sighing and turning his back to the young woman, following him with a gaze visibly confused by it. Before disappearing into thin air, he looked back once more, landing his attention on her. "Come to this place after the Autumn Festival. I'll be waiting."
Slowly the voices died down around the Shinto shrine, fading into the darkness of the forest lit only by the typical lanterns amidst the bushes, stone steps covered with mud, leading the way to the Autumn festival. This festival used to take place on the days when the darkness of the season began, displaying the orange and reddish hues throughout the forest. The girl's almond eyes caught the light of the shintou lanterns reflecting off the reddish immensity of the tree leaves, causing a strange feeling to come over her. The skin on the back of her neck tingled. It seemed as if the trees were bleeding before her eyes. She finished sweeping the shrine's inner courtyard, leaning the straw-bristled broom against the wall.
It was a pity that the shrine staff was not allowed to attend the festival. She had always enjoyed going to this kind of festivity, both to see the elaborate decorations and the people who attended. She had never seen humans there, only youkais, and even when she spotted them, the miko would push her back to the kitchen. She looked up at the cloudy sky on that very dark night, thoughtfully. Sesshoumaru had said he would wait for her at the same place they met after the festival, and now that she realized that moment was coming, she felt her heart behaving abnormally in her chest.
She had barely made it through dinner that night, wondering what he really wanted to talk to her about.
Rin frowned, leaning her back against a wooden pilaster painted in reddish tones. One of the kitchen helpers walked past her carrying a large basket of fabrics stained with something, but the girl's almond eyes could barely discern its color in the distance. That shrine was a quiet, but unsettling place.
No one talked. Tasks were done in silence, as if it had a silent rule against sounds other than echoes from the shrine instruments. She didn't know the names of the same humans who slept in the room with her, and she had the feeling that almost everyone there was carrying out some kind of punishment or order from some youkai. It was strange to feel as if she couldn't use her voice again, which made her think about the advice Inari-sama had given her.
If she shouldn't stay in a place where her voice wasn't heard, where would she go now? She still had the possibility of returning to the Katsura residence, although none of them had come to visit her so far. Not even Nitta-san.
They knew she she was living.
She took a deep breath, straightening herself once more, stretching her arms and, consequently, shoulders. She couldn't understand why she felt as if she was about to vomit. She hadn't eaten anything bad, her routine was going on as normal. She took another deep breath, noticing her trembling fingers for several seconds.
She shook her head unconsciously, placing her palms over her cheeks, not believing that she felt nervous about the possibility of seeing Oyakata-sama's heir once again. She bit her lips as she imagined what Sesshoumaru would say about the gift she had made for him, as a form of thanks for having protected her from that other youkai, the Matsumoto-sama. She walked to one of the corridors in kitchen's basement, taking care that the wooden heels of her geta didn't hit hard against the stone floor. Rin looked up, checking to see if there was anyone in the kitchen above her, and when she felt safe, her deft fingers traced a familiar path among the loose stones in the food storage corner. When she found one of the stones she was looking for, she dragged it to the side silently, displaying a space occupied only by two cloth bags. In one of them was the jewelry that Oyakata-sama and Izayoi-sama had gifted her, hidden delicately between several layers of cloth. In the other bag was an autumn garland that Rin had grown used to making when that season was at its peak.
A small smile occupied her lips unconsciously, glad that her work was exactly as she had planned. Autumn garlands were not common in Edo, as she quickly understood, but in the mountains it meant another season gone by. Another year that she had managed to survive. Rin hid the cloth pouch with the jewel inside her plain kimono, under her nagajuban, and placed the autumn garland in the kimono's sleeve pocket.
When Rin returned to the kitchen, she noticed that the voices around the shrine had ceased completely. None of the assistants were circulating anymore, but oddly enough none of the miko seemed to be around either. The almond-eyed girl frowned as she walked silently along the wooden balconies surrounding the building.
Silence.
She swallowed dryly, feeling nervous about the lack of movement around her. It didn't even feel like a festival had been going on for a few minutes, it was as if something was happening that she was unaware of. Rin had a certain ease in noticing patterns in places, from the time they opened to who frequented it.
'Only youkais come here,' the girl thought as she walked down the stairs to the back garden, her geta sinking into the wet grass, making her feet even colder. A shiver ran down her back, though she couldn't tell if it was because of the feeling that something was wrong or if it was her body feeling the impact of the wind and temperature. 'All the helpers seem to be serving some sort of punishment,' she continued her reasoning as she stepped into the darkness of the forest in its autumnal hues. Rin paid attention to her feet shod in thin tabi, being almost the same thing as being with her skin bare.
As she reached the clearing on the mountainside, the same place she had last seen Sesshoumaru, a sharp cry in the distance echoed throughout the forest, causing her to turn in the direction it came from. Her heart beat fast. That scream had come from the shrine.
A scream of great horror.
The girl's trembling fingers gripped the garland tightly, as if trying to draw strength from it to continue in that strange place. Since preparations had begun for that night, strange things had happened. A miko had run away the night before. One of the shrine attendants was found covered in blood in the courtyard that morning. What disturbed Rin the most was that no one seemed to pay any attention, they even seemed to make an effort to behave as if nothing was happening. Her fingers ran through the flowers and dried fruit in the garland, her legs completely motionless.
The last time she had felt this way was when she still lived in the village, when used to spend the early hours of the morning in the dark alleys of the city of Fushizu-dono. Just the thought of those nights in the past was enough for a wave of dread to overtake her body in a matter of milliseconds. She still woke up in the middle of the night thinking she had fainted again, either from hunger, fatigue, or other even worse reasons, but as always she was ignored by the other assistants who slept in the same room as her.
She waited a few moments in silence, expecting another scream to come from the shrine, but she heard absolutely no sound after that. Turning her back reluctantly, Rin headed toward the stone that marked the place where Sesshoumaru-sama said he would appear. With only the sound of the hem of her kimono dragging small bushes while walking, she reached the place with her heart beating rapidly.
The almond-eyed girl looked around once. Twice.
She noticed that the typical light fixtures of the shintou, distributed throughout the forest and around the shrine, quickly faded one after the other... until she found herself completely immersed in darkness. Hugging her own body, Rin could only see with the help of the Edo's lights in the background. Her breath became steam as it exited her lungs, making the situation even more ghostly.
'Something's wrong', she thought in panic, taking two steps backwards without realizing it.
Now her body was shaking not knowing whether it was out of dread or cold.
"Rin," she heard Sesshoumaru's familiar voice behind her, and in a gasp, Rin turned to him with her rapid breathing becoming steam in front of her face. Her almond eyes were wide and shocked, staring at the youkai with long silver hair in a loose braid resting on his shoulder. She couldn't see the expression on his face such was the darkness of the forest, only the outline of his figure was visible.
"Sesshoumaru-sama, what is happening?" she asked in a hurried, almost desperate whisper. Her heart was beating so hard inside her chest that she could feel its vibration echoing throughout her throat and ears.
"Some youkais are more aggressive than others," his voice replied quietly, making her even more desperate internally. What did it all mean?
'...youkais...?' she repeated mentally, quickly understanding what that said. Rin took a step back, away from Sesshoumaru, without even realizing it.
"Explain to me what's going on, Sesshoumaru-sama," she began fearfully, feeling that she had experienced a similar situation in her life, although she couldn't exactly remember when. Dark eyes watched her in this brief flash of memory shrouded in darkness and shadows. "That scream... that scream echoed throughout the forest. It was as if... she was being attacked... what is this festival?!"
Rin realized that he nodded slightly, his silver hair moving. She sincerely wished for some illumination to see Sesshoumaru's face in front of her. Even if only to give her some reassurance.
"She agreed to put herself in this position, although some youkais are less in control over their actions than others," he explained, lessening the distance the girl had put between them earlier. Rin's heart was beating strongly, now no longer knowing what kinds of feelings dominated her. "All the helpers in this shrine are blood bags that do not belong to a noble lineage, and this is exactly why they are hidden here. As soon as the forest lamps are turned off, the festival begins. Each youkai quenches its thirst as it wishes, while respecting the protocols, yes."
Rin's hazel eyes widened as Sesshoumaru concluded his remarks, swallowing dryly. The outline of the youkai's figure was now easier for her human eyes to make out, adapting to the darkness of the forest.
Something snapped in her mind, a flash of sobriety erupted in her.
'He wants my blood,' she concluded in her thoughts, her cheeks burned red by the freezing wind. A sound of something muffled reached the girl's ears, realizing that her fingers had lost their strength momentarily, causing the autumn garland to bang against the wet grass.
"So that's why Oyakata-sama doesn't want to let me near Sesshoumaru-sama?" presumed Rin, lowering her gaze to her own hands, thinking about how much time she had wasted braiding the gift for that youkai. She felt like an idiot for thinking his intentions mirrored her own. The youkai's outline remained still, with a few long silver strands escaping the braid with the help of the wind.
"How do you know this?" he asked, without showing much feeling, emotion or even surprise. "Who gave you this information?"
Rin shrugged.
"It doesn't matter how I found out," she replied in a thread of voice, feeling tears fill her eyelids quickly. With blurred vision, Sesshoumaru-sama's figure joined the darkness, becoming incomprehensible. "I thought we were... friends."
"I have no human friends," he spoke in the same tone of voice, unfazed and seemingly unabashed. "I don't care about human life."
A tear slid down her cheek swiftly, tracing a wet, freezing trail across her delicate skin. She bowed her head, not knowing what to do next, hoping that the youkai would go away. There were several kinds of heartbreak that someone could carry in this world, and perhaps the one that hurt Rin the most was having to face the fact that no one cared about her enough to stand by her side. She had had a momentary happiness in the past few weeks about this feeling, now seeing that it had been nothing more than an illusion created by her own mind.
'Illusions make life less unpalatable, I guess,' she reflected, lost in her thoughts and feelings.
"What makes Sesshoumaru-sama different from Makoto-sama?" asked Rin impulsively, even in a tone of voice that defied his authority, and when she understood what she had spoken, she put her hands over her frostbitten lips and took a step back, widening her almond eyes.
"Don't compare me to that drug addict," warned the long silver-haired youkai in a tone of voice not quite as serene as before, almost as if it were a threat to her ears. "Human blood is not something I consume often. We have that substance in abundance in the castle, we don't need to hunt humans or actively act on behalf of any."
Every word made her feel even worse.
Her existence as a person who felt, suffered and existed was being ignored by him.
Rin's heart sank deeper and deeper into her own darkness. She was an object, a commodity.
But before she could go deeper into her inner chaos, the warm touch of Sesshoumaru-sama's hands struck her like an arrow. The youkai's long fingers closed around her bare wrist, slowly pulling her to himself. Rin shivered with cold, with fear, and with sorrow. His warm breath came in contact with that intimate layer of skin that used to be covered with the help of the kimono, causing a strange shiver to run through the girl. Certain parts of the body could be more intimate than those that people should hide.
She watched him bring his nose closer to the skin of her wrist, finally being able to see the youkai's eyes, which before had been an intense shade of amber, now took on a strong scarlet color. A measureless dread took over Rin. She had heard of a similar reaction youkais had when they began to lose control, though had never witnessed anything of the sort. "Eyes become like blood, birthmarks sharpen like a katana," she remembered in a snap. The girl didn't know where she had heard that phrase, but someone had said it.
A strong freezing wind blew through the trees of the forest, the silver strands of Sesshoumaru's hair carried along by the movement, dancing with the wind. He seemed to linger in that odd gesture in which he apparently consisted of studying the veins beneath her wrist, sniffing them with his eyes shut for a while.
'Red color in his pupils... is he aware of it?" the girl reflected, still. The youkai's warm touch on that part of her wrist was a fresh sensation, immobilizing her.
She didn't know how long that went on, the silence that had settled between them broke her heart as she tried to convince herself that at least Oyakata-sama and Izayoi-sama considered her as a person with feelings, validated her existence. But there was something nagging within Rin that sought Sesshoumaru's approval.
He parted his lips and let out an indiscernible noise, almost like a whisper, and then the sharp pain of his canines opened the layers of her delicate skin, causing the almond-eyed girl's blood to surge through those cuts, contrasting the hues on top of each other. Rin closed her eyes in pain. As much as she had cut herself before with sharp objects, there was something different about being bitten by the fangs of a youkai. She locked her jaw in an attempt to stifle a groan of pain, feeling her own blood burn around Sesshoumaru-sama's reddish lips.
He let out a moan of pleasure so low it might have gone unnoticed by her had she not been so close. The youkai's wooded scent mingled with the scent of blood, reaching her nostrils in a strange way. Sesshoumaru's lips were now stained scarlet, the drops of blood that escaped from there ran down his chin, contrasting with his fair skin. Opening her eyes again, Rin saw the blood dripping down her raised arm, making another grimace of pain as she felt his sharp canines penetrate yet another new layer of flesh. The sleeve of her kimono along with her nagajuban exhibited reddish hues just as the foliage of that forest in the height of Autumn stained.
Rin closed her eyes, squeezing them shut in pain as he deepened his canines into yet another region of her wrist, until a movement in the wind pushed her away from the youkai. Her blood splattered around her as she found herself losing balance and falling backwards onto the grass, onto her butt cheeks. The impact made her open up her eyes in shock, even though she still felt dizzy from the amount of blood Sesshoumaru had sucked from her, taking time to notice that there was someone positioning itself between the girl and the youkai.
The fabric of his tanzen was thick and at the same time seemed soft, being heavy enough not to be carried by the wind blowing through the forest. It seemed to be completely black, although the darkness of the forest didn't help at all, but what Rin's almond eyes managed to spot first were the long silver strands tied into a high ponytail that so distinctively characterized that youkai who had saved her countless times.
Oyakata-sama.
Stepping back, his eyes still red, Sesshoumaru wiped his lips with the help of the sleeve of his own tanzen, leaving a red trail all over the fabric. His eyes were still fixed on Rin, even with Touga-sama in front of him, as if she were prey.
"Get out of my way," Sesshoumaru ordered his own father, without much subtlety or respect for his position.
"No", Touga-sama said in a grave manner, sounding extremely determined. His right hand rested on the hilt of a katana attached to his hakama, beneath the tanzen. "I warned you, Sesshoumaru, and you disobeyed me."
The younger youkai straightened up menacingly, also placing his right hand on the hilt of his katana with the youkai marks still tapering over his tense, blood-smeared jaw. His scarlet-colored eyes were trying to trace the almond-eyed girl, but Touga-sama used his own body to avoid eye contact of his son with Rin.
"For what reason are you protecting an ordinary human like her?" inquired Sesshoumaru containing his anger at being interrupted so abruptly. Rin wondered if he had sensed her father's presence or not. 'Perhaps Sesshoumaru-sama was too... absent minded...' she reflected, feeling tears slide down her frostbitten cheeks. "It was your idea to make her my blood bag, as far as I remember".
"As a title, yes, but not in practice," clarified Touga-sama visibly angered. "You have already taken her blood, leave her alone."
Sesshoumaru clenched his gaze, this one slowly turning amber once more.
"I'm not done," he argued, regaining his typical facial expression of impenetrability.
"Yes, you're done", Touga-sama said and sighed exhausted, then turned his attention to the almond-eyed girl sitting on the grass, her kimono stained with blood and mud. Rin didn't know how she looked like at the moment, but from the look in Oyakata-sama's eyes, perhaps would be better if she doesn't spend time thinking about it. There was a certain amount of pity that she hated to locate there, hidden in the Shogun's amber orbs. "Rin-chan, are you well?"
Rin hesitated for a moment before nodding, still feeling the pain tearing her wrist apart. Unable to put it into words, she realized that her throat was closing up. She wanted to cry, but not because of the pain. She wanted to cry because she knew she had deluded herself, had trusted someone who didn't see her the same way.
'He doesn't even consider my existence', thought the sad young woman.
She had been so wrong.
But the Shogun didn't seem convinced, turning his attention to Sesshoumaru-sama once again, frowning.
"What do you really want, Sesshoumaru?", he asked bitterly, as if it were a well-worn topic between them. "Is your problem with me, or with this girl? Do you want to challenge me, challenge my authority, or have you simply become a low ranking youkai who needs human blood to feel powerful?"
Another silence fell over them, but before Rin could follow the conversation to try to understand what was going on, she noticed that the wound opened by Sesshoumaru-sama's youkai canines was still gushing blood across the grass. Not only that, there was a dark green liquid that made the whole place burn painfully. Rin let out a grunt of pain as she grabbed her wrist, closing the eyes for a few moments. She was surprised when Touga-sama knelt in front of her, analyzing the wound on her wrist not with concern, but with astonishment.
"As I said before," Sesshoumaru began softly, walking over to them, also lowering himself so that he was at the same height. His silver hair moved as the cold wind blew. There was still a drop of blood at the corner of his lips, and his tongue quickly wiped it away. "I'm not done. Give me the wrist."
Rin looked at Touga-sama, startled, checking to see if this was really what she should do. The Shogun nodded slowly, as if absorbed in his thoughts, but if there was something wrong, he said absolutely nothing. The almond-eyed girl peered at Sesshoumaru again, uncertain if she could trust him once more.
Her voice was caught in the back of her throat.
She offered her wrist hesitantly, hands trembling for countless reasons, and then Sesshoumaru-sama's warm touch reached her once more, bringing warmth to her icy body. Instead of using his canines, he brought the skin closer to her mouth, covering the wound. Her heart began to beat fast as she felt the warm and wet touch of Sesshoumaru-sama's tongue passing through all the points that that dark green liquid touched. What once hurt, now seemed to have normalized as if no wound had been opened in that place.
When his soft lips pulled away from her skin, there was no more blood. It was as if there was no wound of any kind, as if nothing had happened. Rin analyzed the skin of her wrist in astonishment, looking at Touga-sama next. Something was making her avoid eye contact with Sesshoumaru, she wasn't feeling ready to face him. Not now.
"Are you feeling better, Rin-chan?" the Shogun asked gently, removing his own tanzen to place over her bony back. Only now did she realize that she was shivering with cold.
"I think...yes," she replied hesitantly, still confused. "What happened?"
She realized that Sesshoumaru was getting up, but still couldn't find the courage to direct her gaze at him. Oyakata-sama followed her son with a wary gaze, watching him walk away into the woods.
"Every now and then poison from youkais escapes through the fangs, nothing you have to worry about," Touga-sama replied, rubbing her ice-cold hands together to create some warmth. "You are freezing, Rin-chan. Let's go home."
Those last words woke her up in utter shock.
"Home?" she repeated, puzzled. "Oyakata-sama...I don't have a home."
But he smiled warmly, something she could only see in him. Now without the tanzen, it was possible to see that he had come out of his properties wearing extremely casual clothes. 'He clearly wasn't expecting something to happen this early in the morning', Rin thought in a snap. A discreet wrinkle on Oyakata-sama's forehead caught her eye.
As much as he was conveying affection and warmth to her at the moment, Rin felt that something was bothering him. She knew him very little, but she trusted her own feelings and intuitions. The Shogun's amber eyes were warm, but they also appeared to have an adjacent concern.
Rin had learned a long time ago not to doubt her inner voice.
"Now you have it", he replied at last, gently taking her in his lap taking care that the tanzen did not leave her body exposed to the cold. Still surprised by the act, Rin unconsciously grabbed onto the collar of his striped nagagi to keep from falling off... and then let go, completely embarrassed. As much as he was the most caring and friendly person she had ever met, with the exception of Izayoi-sama, she didn't want to be disrespectful. "Hang on, Rin-chan. When we get to the castle there will be a meal waiting for you, I'm realizing they didn't take care of you as well as I ordered."
Her cheeks heated up, and when she noticed the enigmatic look Sesshoumaru-sama was giving them both, she bowed her head in shame. She would rather not have to look at the youkai who, just a few minutes ago, was sliding his warm, moist tongue across that intimate part of her wrist, making her shut the almond-shaped eyes.