Authors note: Thank you for being patient with me. Work has been difficult the last week. We were doing hospice end of life care for one of our canine residents at the sanctuary. He passed away sunday afternoon.

Chapter 98 - Blush

Traveling had always calmed Sesshomaru's inherent restlessness. Walking, especially at night, under the full moon which shone into the depths of his canine soul. The tactile sense of the breeze in his hair, the sound of the swaying grasses as he passed through their midst, and the scent of the wild land in his sensitive nostrils. That was usually. Tonight… nothing seemed to settle him. The uneasy tension in his chest did not ease, even now with as much distance as they'd put between themselves and the destroyed Mount Hakurei. He was beginning to believe that the unsettled feeling was not due to Naraku at all.

Sesshomaru glanced over his shoulder, gold eyes sweeping over the shadowy figures of his companions. Jaken wearily trudged a few feet behind, A-un carrying the sleeping Rin, walked just behind the imp. The moonlight shone silver highlights along the inky darkness of her hair, falling softly across her cheek. She hardly looked like a child in the moonlight — and with a startled jolt, Sesshomaru came to the realization that Rin was on the verge of becoming a youth. The shape of her face had altered slightly over the last months of travel, losing some of its childlike fullness.

For just an instant, Sesshomaru's thoughts trickled back in the moment with her, the one that had occurred only hours ago…

Under the gentleness of Sesshomaru's innocent touch, Rin seemed to both freeze and melt simultaneously. Her face flamed with heat beneath his fingertips, shifting it from a healthy pink, to a flaming crimson.

"Ahh!" Rin pulled away, squeezing her eyes shut as she put her hands to her burning cheeks. "Lord Sesshomaru!" Twisting, she tried to hide her face from him by turning away. "You… weren't supposed to hear that!"

In the present, Sesshomaru pressed his lips together, as he did when he was puzzling out something he didn't fully understand. Recently, he'd begun to realize that Rin was the most complex mystery he'd ever come across. She was a dichotomy of opposites that somehow came together perfectly. Gentle with all living things, yet brave beyond comprehension in the face of things that terrified her. Sweet, but tenacious. The expressions— the emotions, she so freely offered, always piqued his interest. He allowed his mind to wander back again.

Sesshomaru's eyebrows lifted a fraction, his gold eyes fascinated by the shifting expressions and colors of Rin's face. Curious, as only a canine could be, he leaned forward slightly as she hid behind her hands. He could smell and feel the heat emanating from behind her fingers. Gently, he grasped her wrist, pulling her hand away from her burning cheeks. Embarrassed, Rin peeked open one eye at him.

"You've never been afraid to say anything to me." It was half a question, and half a statement. Rin had always been extremely candid with the yokai. Sometimes to the point of being brazen, in her sweet effervescent way. Tentatively he released her wrist and stepped back. "Rin… you should never be afraid to say anything to me." He stated, as if clarifying. Sesshomaru took a breath, realizing that his chest had begun to ache… it had begun the moment that he'd heard her say she'd prefer to die instead of see him injured. Trying to ease the ache, he took a breath. His fingers itched to reach out and touch her again, as if to validate she was there and safe. He denied himself the permission, instead he balled his hand into a fist at his side. "Rin—"

Whatever he had been intending to say, was cut off by the shrill squawking from Jaken as he came waddling up. "How very cruel you are to me Lord Sesshomaru! And after I have been your faithful servant for so many centuries!" Jaken huffed, his arms crossed over his tiny chest. "It's as if you care more for that human child than you do for your loyal Jaken!" The fist struck so quickly, that the imp never saw it coming. The small green imp fell sideways with a groan, and a lump pulsing on his forehead. "Ohhh…"

"You really ought to know better than that by now master Jaken." Rin gently reprimanded, her cheeks still stained a pleasant pink, but no longer crimson. She cast a shy look up at Sesshomaru, not realizing that his eyes were intently on her face. Embarrassed by his scrutiny, she ducked her face away again.

The ghost of a smile tilted Sesshomaru's lips. Something about her shyness was… sweet. The pain in his chest eased slightly. He couldn't quite put his finger on why he liked seeing the flush on her cheeks. He didn't even quite understand her reason or sudden shyness with him. Turning, so that Jaken wouldn't see his smile, Sesshomaru angled south west. Inland. Back toward their home in Musashi. His eyebrows drew together at the thought. Home? When had he begun to think of the rundown human shack as a home?

"Let's go."

Still, hours later in the present, the thought still irritated him. Sesshomaru had never really felt any one place was "home". Being with Rin, and their strange little traveling band, was the closest thing to family that he'd ever had. At least since Toga had been killed. Even Unoshiro, his mother's castle in the clouds, had never truly been "home". Why now, did his brain recognize the tiny rack-shamble hut as a special place?

Sesshomaru's eyes lifted, noting the faintest colors of dawn touching the darkness of the horizon. It would take several days travel to return to Musashi. He had not shared what their destination was. There would be an unavoidable sparkle that would light Rin's eyes, when she saw the hut again. He found himself looking forward to making her eyes light up again... and perhaps he would get another glimpse of that odd but entrancing pink heat in her cheeks.