Chapter 10: Beguile
Sesshoumaru was slowly becoming bored. He had followed the miko up to the clearing on the pretense of watching her practice her archery, self-admittedly eager to witness her prowess once more. Yet instead of practicing as she had initially declared, she had collapsed rather ungracefully onto the ground upon their arrival. She hadn't moved since.
He had taken a seat against the Goshinboku while he waited, eyes lazily scanning the surrounding forest. But soon enough, he had begun counting the number of petals on the tiny white flowers that crowned her dark head in an attempt to keep himself from dozing off.
He was up to a count of one-hundred-sixty-seven when the miko suddenly opened her eyes and flopped over onto her belly, making him frown in consternation as he lost his count.
"Rin wants to marry," she sighed off-handedly, idly plucking at the very same flowers he had been struggling to count.
Making a determined effort to not be upset at the loss of the subject of his counting, he replied, "This One is aware."
The miko looked up at him, a curious expression on her comely face. And he would admit she was comely, if only to himself.
"You aren't worried about it?" she asked
Sesshoumaru gave a half-hearted shrug of one shoulder. "She may do as she pleases."
The miko frowned, clearly not impressed with his answer.
"She's still so young," she countered, "Surely she's too young to be married?"
"The girl is nearly six and ten," he replied, again in an unconcerned manner. "Is this not an acceptable age for humans to marry?"
His answer seemed to upset her even further, as her frown creased even more and she threw the broken petals in his direction. "She's a teenager!" she huffed at him.
Now he was confused. What was a 'teenager'? "Is Rin not the same age as you were when we first met?"
The miko sputtered in indignation at that, and he found himself reveling in the slight fluctuations of her power around them. "It's not the same!" she insisted, "Inuyasha and I weren't dating then."
Sesshoumaru's head cocked to the side, unknowingly resembling a very curious dog as he did so. "What is 'dating'?"
An intriguing flush suddenly rose on her cheekbones. "You know…," she replied, dropping her gaze and plucking at the tiny flowers again, "When a guy and girl go out together…" She trailed off, the rosy colour intensifying on her cheeks.
Her innocence was beguiling. "We are, as you say, 'out together', miko," he pointed out. "Are we 'dating'?"