A/N: He's baaaack...


She awoke the next morning feeling as light as air. A smile lingered on her lips as she tucked away her futon and combed her hair. Her mind kept returning to the previous night and the feel of the counter at her back and his lips on hers. Her heart stuttered at the memory and a faint blush turned her cheeks pink. It felt too impossible to be real, but it was no dream—Sesshomaru had kissed her!

Her eyes settled on the yellow ribbon laid neatly atop her table. It warmed her heart to think of him scouring the riverbank for it, simply because he knew it would make her happy to have it returned. A quiet sigh escaped her lips as her fingers threaded her hair into a loose plait and tied it with the yellow ribbon. Before last night, she hadn't dared hope he might have feelings for her. He'd told her in plain terms, hadn't he? That to love went against a demon's very nature? But then he'd kissed her so unexpectedly, and the way his lips lingered had replaced all of her doubts with questions.

Eager to see him, she headed for the rear yard, but he was not there. She turned down the path to the bamboo forest next, assuming he was training in the clearing, but found it empty as well. Disappointed, she returned to the house and made her way to the kitchen. Was he avoiding her? Her heart sank at the thought, but she found her answer on the kitchen table. Beneath her sheathed wakizashi was a folded slip of paper, and inside it a note from him.

I will return by midday.

She flipped the note over, hoping there might be more on the reverse, but it was blank. Five characters. Short and to the point, but not quite the romantic love letter she'd been hoping for. Still, it was nice to have another gift she might cherish—his first note to her. Smiling, she tucked it into her kosode, then set about making breakfast.

Once she'd eaten and cleaned the floorboards of the engawa until they shone, she took up her wakizashi and headed for the bamboo forest. She was determined to practice the drills Sesshomaru had taught her. She would practice for hours if it meant the two of them might stay here a little while longer, working side by side as they had.

She'd only been training her draws and stances for an hour when a voice emerged from behind her.

"I see you've been training with Sesshomaru. Did he not teach you to watch your back?"

Stifling a gasp, she whipped around. Sesshomaru's father stood behind her, with his arms casually crossed in front of his chest. An embarrassed flush crept up her neck as she realized she didn't know how long he'd been standing there; he'd completely suppressed his demonic aura. His eyes settled on her wakizashi, and she gripped it tighter in her hand.

"Are you looking for Lord Sesshomaru?" she asked, and tried her best to sound polite.

"No," he replied, wearing an amused look. "I'm here for you."

He uncrossed his arms and took a step towards her. She felt the hairs on her arms stand up in warning and quietly funneled her spiritual power into her blade. It wouldn't do more than burn him, like it had for Sesshomaru, but it might be enough for her to get away if it came to that.

"Me? But why?"

Sesshomaru's father kept his distance but began circling her, his eyes surveying her from head to toe. "Assuaging my curiosity," he answered.

"Can't you assuage it when Lord Sesshomaru is here?" she muttered, and he responded with a smirk.

"What are you to him?" he asked directly, his eyes fixed on hers. "A lover? The mother of his child?" He paused after each as if trying to gauge her reaction. "A companion, perhaps?"

"We are…" She hesitated. What were they? Friends? Something more?

"We are friends," she answered at last, deciding she liked the sound of that best. 'Friends' was safe. Anyone could be friends.

"Sesshomaru does not have friends," his father replied, his eyes boring into hers. "Especially human ones."

"Well, he does now."

The elder demon seemed to scoff at this and Rin couldn't help but say something. She knew she should stay quiet to avoid antagonizing him, but she simply couldn't help herself. It angered her that he'd dared to come to this place, Sesshomaru's escape from their world, and pervert it with his prying questions.

"Maybe you don't know your son half as well as you think you do."

He turned on her, eyes flashing. "And you do? You, who have known him a handful of months, deign to tell me I do not know my own son?"

She shrank back from the look of the ire burning in his gaze. His demonic aura enveloped her then. It hit like a tsunami wave devouring the shore: dark, relentless, and unforgiving. It brought her to her knees and suffocated her breaths into short, strangled gasps. He was trying to impress upon her she was no match for him, but he needn't have bothered. She'd known that part all along. Which meant this was about punishing her for being obstinate, for daring to speak out.

"Where did the two of you meet?" he demanded, and reigned in his demonic aura so she might recover enough to answer.

"In the forest," she gasped once her breath had returned long enough for her to rise unsteadily to her feet. She took a cautious step backwards to put some distance between them and stumbled over a small depression in the dirt.

She wasn't sure where she hoped to go. It wasn't as though she would be safer inside, or anywhere really, from a demon as powerful as he was. But her instincts were screaming at her to put as much distance between them as possible, so she couldn't do anything but listen. Her heart was hammering hard inside her chest and she was fairly certain his father wouldn't entertain this visit for much longer without resorting to some kind of violence.

Sesshomaru, where are you?

"What was he doing in the forest?"

"He was injured, so I helped him."

"So, he owed you a debt," he said thoughtfully, as if this answered some question that had been troubling him. "Consider it repaid and leave."

Leave?!

"What? That's not…" She tripped over her words as her mind struggled to adjust to this new impression of their relationship. Had this all been about repaying a debt to Sesshomaru? Maybe at first, but not now. Especially not since…

"He doesn't owe me any debt," she insisted, her eyes burning. "Besides, even if such a debt existed, he's paid it back a hundredfold by now."

His father's brow quirked with interest. "Oh?"

"Rin."

The familiar sound of his voice made her heart heave a great sigh of relief. She turned to find Sesshomaru standing just behind her, directing a murderous glare at his father.

"Return to the house."

She didn't need to be told twice. She scurried down the well-worn path but didn't get far. Sesshomaru's father appeared before her, blocking the way. Before she could even take a breath, he'd grabbed her by the throat and pinned her against his chest. She struggled against the fingers wrapped firmly around her throat. He wasn't choking her, but the pressure was uncomfortable and she longed to be free.

"Release her," Sesshomaru growled, his expression more menacing than she'd ever seen it.

This wasn't how she'd planned for their first meeting after their kiss to go. She'd thought they might shyly dance around one another, having awkward conversation until one of them tried to kiss the other again. She'd thought about it all morning, in fact. And not once, in any of those daydreams, had she envisioned Sesshomaru's father arriving to hold her prisoner.

"What is this human to you?" his father demanded. "I've watched you slaughter an entire village of these creatures without so much as blinking. What is your fascination with this one?"

"It is not your business," he replied coolly.

Belatedly remembering the wakizashi still gripped tight in her hand, she focused on pouring her spiritual power into the blade while Sesshomaru and his father glared daggers at one another. It wouldn't be enough to hurt him, or cause any real damage, but if she could surprise him he might just loosen his grip enough for her to slip free and create an opening for Sesshomaru to attack. She pressed the blade of her wakizashi against the bare skin of his forearm. The blade hissed against his skin, but he did not flinch. Instead, he calmly tore the sword from her hand and tossed it aside.

"That is quite enough from you," he chided with his mouth close to her ear. In the next moment she felt a sharp prick against her side and his next words made her blood run cold.

"I will run her through."

Sesshomaru's eyes widened in shock, but he did not move from his place. "Enough."

"You have my fang, do you not? Simply use Tenseiga to revive her when I am finished."

The sharp point of his sword pressed deeper into her side and she couldn't hold in a gasp. The pain was like redhot fire being thrust into her and she froze in place, scarcely willing to breathe for fear that it would nudge the blade tip deeper.

His father must have been convincing because Sesshomaru relented and looked away. "I cannot."

His father responded with a grunt, and the burning pain eased from her side.

"Because you already have," he stated calmly, then released his hold on her. She collapsed to the ground and touched her hand to her side. Blood bloomed beneath her fingers and down the side of her kosode.

"I understand the novelty," Sesshomaru's father said, sounding resigned, "but it is cruel to keep them close. Return her to her own kind and be done with it."

He spoke as though she were not there, as though she were so inconsequential he could not care if she heard his words or not. Sesshomaru's scowl deepened and her head began to swim.

"You know I'm right," his father said in parting, then turned to leave. Looking down at her, he added, "How odd that Tenseiga would have chosen you."

Without waiting for a reply from either of them, he burst into a brief run, then leapt into the air. Rin was still staring up at the treetops, trying to follow the small orb of light the demon had become, when she felt something press against her side. Sesshomaru was kneeling next to her, pressing a cloth firmly to stop the flow of blood.

"He cut you deep," he tsked as he pulled the cloth away to inspect the wound. "It will need to be stitched closed."

Wonderful… she thought dimly, then felt her head come to rest against the cool perch of his shoulder. Did he intend to carry her then?

"I should have come sooner," he said, lamenting the fact that he hadn't arrived in time to prevent his father from hurting her.

It's not your fault, she thought and summoned her strength to say the words aloud, but it was as though he could not hear her at all. He brought her to the engawa, which offered welcome shade from the afternoon sun, and laid her down atop his fur stole.

"Keep this pressed against your side," he instructed and waited for her nod of understanding before he headed inside to find supplies to stitch her wound closed. She closed her eyes, intending only to rest them for a moment, but awakened some time later to the sound of cicadas in the trees and the tickling sensation of thread being drawn through her skin.

"I'm nearly finished," he said, his eyes briefly flicking to hers. She watched him tie off the stitch by pulling the length of thread between his teeth before continuing to the last one. She whimpered softly as his needle passed through her skin one last time, and the movement of his hand immediately stopped.

"It's fine, I'm alright," she insisted. His eyes lingered on her for a moment, then he returned to his work. He tied the last stitch efficiently and used his claws to slice the extra length of thread clean away.

Rin examined his handiwork. The cut had been larger than she thought it was. It took five stitches in total to close it.

"You stitch more neatly than I do," she confessed.

He responded with a quiet 'hmph' and covered the wound with a bandage. "Are you able to stand?"

"I think so," she said, and rose unsteadily to her feet with his help. Sesshomaru placed her hand atop his shoulder, then set to work winding the length of bandage around her bare midsection. She realized, somewhat belatedly, that she was perfectly capable of wrapping the bandage without help. But she enjoyed being this close to him and feeling the whispering brush of his fingers against her bare skin.

"Was it true what your father said? About Tenseiga choosing me?"

He kept his head bowed and his hand continued to wrap the bandage around her midsection.

"It is," he said in time.

She recalled then what he'd said the previous night, about Tenseiga having a will of its own. Was that why he'd been in the forest the day he'd saved her life? Because Tenseiga had willed it to be so? It opened up a whole new range of questions that left her wondering just what role Sesshomaru's will play in all of this. Did he answer to Tenseiga, or was it the other way around?

Her eyes remained fixed on him, her mind racing.

"Tell me if it begins to hurt more than it does now," he instructed once he'd finished wrapping her bandage. He occupied himself with packing up the small tray of supplies he'd brought out to mend her while she fumbled for words. When he noticed her silence, his eyes darted to hers.

"Rin."

She nodded emphatically. "I promise I will."

He seemed to exhale a quiet sigh of relief and resumed packing up the supplies.

"This isn't your fault," she said, hoping to reassure him. "I tried to tell you earlier, but I didn't have the strength then. What happened today wasn't your fault. I think he intended to do it all along, to force you to confess to using the Tenseiga to save me."

His eyes met hers and the look in them was one she hadn't seen before.

"My father can be relentless," he commiserated. "I never should have left you unguarded. He will not have another opportunity to harm you." He said it as if he were making a vow, and she believed him wholeheartedly.

"He wanted to know about our relationship," she told him, seeing no reason to keep it a secret.

Sesshomaru titled his head. "How did you answer?"

Rin felt a blush rise into her cheeks and fumbled for the right words. "I—I told him we were friends."

"Friends…"

The word sounded foreign the way he said it, as though he'd never considered the term as being one that could apply to them. Then she remembered what his father had said: 'Sesshomaru does not have friends.'

Friends… She supposed it was the correct word to define them, but it didn't feel whole. That one word alone could not encompass what they shared. Or maybe it was only in her mind that they were close like family without being kin, and she decided she liked that conclusion even less.

"Should I not have done that?" she asked.

They looked at one another for a long moment, then he said, "You did what was necessary to buy time until I arrived."

He stepped down off the engawa without elaborating and returned a moment later with her wakizashi. He returned it to her, and she slipped it into its sheath. He hadn't answered her question. Then again, maybe his lack of an answer was his answer. Maybe he didn't know how to define what they shared, either.

"You should rest. I will be nearby should you need anything," he said, then retreated down the stairs and headed to the bamboo forest.

Rin watched after him until he disappeared from view and pulled his fur stole closer around her shoulders. It comforted her like a hug, and for just a moment, she imagined it was his arms holding her instead. Even though Sesshomaru had returned, she couldn't seem to shake the sense of foreboding that now hung in the air. With one visit, Sesshomaru's father had broken the tranquility of their home and she couldn't help but wonder if it would ever return.