Authors note: Please remember to leave a review, if you're reading along! I'm so sorry it was so late today.
Chapter 32 - Radiating
The rain did not stop all night, it poured and hammered on the small shack. Sometime during the wee hours of the morning, it began to storm. Thunder boomed overhead, the lightning illuminated the interior of the human shelter. Rin slept through it thankfully. Except for the one corner where the roof leaked, the inside of the shack remained dry.
Sesshomaru stood before the door, gazing out the slats of the makeshift bamboo door. Watching the torrential rain. When the storm hit, it lit up the gold in its eyes with each flash.
Something sinister is driving this storm.
Jaken dozed in the corner, with his staff leaning against the wall. He woke with a squeal when the thunder hit close by. Outside the building, Sesshomaru heard a tree crash to the ground. The imp stood trembling and panting, his hand on his chest.
"My goodness. This storm is so strong!" Turning to his master, Jaken walked closer. "It certainly doesn't seem like a natural storm. Euhh… what do you think, Lord Sesshomaru?"
Sesshomaru didn't respond, but continued to gaze out on the storm. The branches lashed back and forth wildly under the windy torrents. Water covered the ground in massive puddles. At the moment, the yokai was glad that they had not decided to stop in a mountain cave. The likelihood of mudslides would be high after such a strong storm. They were far enough from the mountain, they should be safe.
"It is not natural." He responded finally.
No one in their right mind would be out in this strong of a storm. Human or demon. Though it was really more of an inconvenience to demons, than true danger.
Sesshomaru had not often seen storms as a young pup. Unoshiro was above the clouds, so it was rare to have any sort of storm at his mother's castle. But there were other kinds of storms, which were harder to bear. Inkimi's ice, and alternately, her rage — were far more terrifying to a young boy than anything a storm could conjure.
Blinking, Sesshomaru glanced down at Jaken who now stood beside him in silence. The imp's big bug eyes gazed out at the muddy puddles that saturated the ground all around the hut.
The night passed as such. Two silent figures standing guard, while the little human girl slept peacefully. At some point in the night, Jaken dozed off, sagging against the wall. Curious enough, that night Rin had no nightmares to disrupt her sleep. Dawn did not bring much light, but the rain had dulled from a roar to a steady drizzle. Rin woke soon after, her side ponytail askew as she sat up.
"Oh! Good morning Lord Sesshomaru!" Her voice was bright and perky.
The yokai turned to meet her liquid brown gaze with his own. She smiled and stood, brushing her hands at the sleep wrinkles in her yukata.
"Is it still raining?" She joined him at the doorway. Looking out at the wetness thoughtfully. "My mother always told me cover my belly button during storms, so that the storm god wouldn't come and eat me." Lightly she chuckled, then her smile abruptly faded. "It seems silly now. Like something you'd tell a little child."
Sesshomaru did not point out, that she'd likely been a small child at the time. Trauma had aged her mind inordinately, only her body had not yet caught up.
Turning, Rin smiled at him. "Did your mother ever tell you any funny stories when you were a child, Lord Sesshomaru?"
The question surprised him. No one had ever asked him about his mother before — Jaken surely knew better than to ask him personal questions. Sesshomaru looked down, Rin's face was upturned, expectant and smiling.
Had Inkimi ever told him funny stories? He pressed his lips together. If she had at any point, it was when he was too young to remember. Now, with so many ages passed… all he remembered were the bad times.
"No. She did not."
Rins smile fell. "Oh… that's too bad." She was silent for a moment. "I think mothers should be cheerful and sweet to their children. That's what mother's are supposed to do, right?"
Sesshomaru's gaze still lingered on Rin as she talked. His eyebrows drew together in consternation. Is that how mothers were supposed to be? Certainly that's not how Inkimi had been. He'd never given it much thought, as to how mother's rightfully should be.
Rin was looking out at the rain, her thoughts clearly far away. A wistful sort of smile on her face. "I hope someday, when I'm a mother… that I will love my children like my mother loved me. And that my children will love me back."
Some unknown sensation flashed through him. It was akin to irritation, but there was a pain to it that troubled him. Rin wanted to be a mother, some day? Turning his head abruptly, he looked out into the rain again. Confused strange sensations causing internal torment. Which irritated him further. He'd thought he'd tamed these feelings. So… Rin wanted to be a mother. That would mean she would leave. Eventually.
Had that not been his plan all along? Yet, in all these months traveling with her, it had somehow seemed that… she was a permanent part of his world. Somehow, Rin had become… family. In a way he could not describe.The idea of her leaving, utterly tormented him. Hadn't she just wished on a star, that she could be with this Sesshomaru forever? He didn't understand.
"Are you alright, Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin was gazing up at him, her eyes wide with concern.
He didn't meet her eyes, or respond. Confusion muddied his mind. Sesshomaru didn't trust his ability to speak. Rin reached out to touch his right hand, but he stepped away. With one motion, he swept the screen out of his way and stepped out into the rain.
"Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin called from the doorway behind him.
He didn't stop, or look back. Whatever these sensations were, he had to crush them back into submission before he returned to the hut. He refused to yield to emotions. Unstable, needless, human emotions. He would not have it. Ignoring the rain that saturated his clothing, he marched into the forest alone.
Sesshomaru lost track of time. He didn't know how far or how long he'd walked, when finally he came to a ridge, which overlooked a valley below. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, attempting and failing to release all the pent up tension that he felt radiating through his body.