InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A First Time For Everything ❯ "Tell Her About it" ( Chapter 23 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: MIztikal_Dragon 
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 01.11.2011 | Pages: 5 | Words: 5.9K | Visits: 349 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Hentai / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 01.11.2011 | Pages: 5 | Words: 5.9K | Visits: 349 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, Rin, Sesshomaru or Billy Joel.... but if I could, everyone would hate me.
Side Note: This story is half-way a song fic, but not really... Lol once you read it completely you will understand. Been listening to Billy Joel in my car for the better of two weeks and this idea hit me the other day, but really got a hold of me today as I was driving home.
"Tell her about it" is obviously one of my muses for this story, but if you have heard this song I strongly reccomend listening to it while reading it. This is my attempt at humor, even if only for myself.
Sleep had been almost impossible for him the last few nights, constant tossing and turning, uncertain of which he was-- hot or cold and he was certain the subconscious problem that his bed was currently supporting a party of one. Truth be told, he had not even been sleeping in his own bed for the last few nights, which could also be contributing to the dwindling hours of sleep per night. At the moment though, every muscle and bone in his body hurt or ached in someway from his head to his legs and none of it was improving on his mood.
He was beginning to question whether or not everything was silently rioting him, giving him grief for his most recent actions (not that be truly believed in fate though). The drycleaners had misplaced his clothing and instead of going to work in a day’s old clothes, he had to swallow his pride and go home. That of course was the destination he was avoiding as if it were the plague, or at least ground zero of contamination.
Rin, she was the cause of all his current problems, the epicenter and the memory of the way her eyes glared at him and when she pushed her index finger into his chest infuriated him all over. Honestly, he could admit to himself (and himself alone) that the reasoning behind the latest fight with her was ridiculous and did not warrant such attention, but he was persistent if not dedicated to his convictions to a fault. She would not and refused to understand his reasoning and he felt she was being stupid. Pointing it out to her though, had been one of his biggest mistakes as the fire he normally felt directed at him sexually had been thrown into an area he had not been accustomed to.
She was not normally an angry woman, quick to scorn and place the blame, especially so when it came to anything with him. However, that night she had become a spit fire with less than a blink of an eye, those clear blue eyes blazing with anger and at first it excited him. The adrenaline he had felt radiating off both Rin and himself had pushed him, challenged him and it only escalated both the heat and anger.
The momentary lust he had felt at her temper had faded fast and it left him only irritated and angry and when it did not look like either of them could win, well-- him primarily he cut the discussion (if it could have really been called such) short, stated the argument was moot, she was wrong and that he was not going to allow a certain someone’s temper to make a fool of them and promptly left.
It was hard he decided, designating who stayed or left during a fight, a choice he had never made before that and he had been half tempted to ask her to remove herself until she cooled down. He was glad although, that those words had been kept strictly to himself as they were most likely to get him into more trouble than they were worth. That and he did not want her to take it as he was ending their relationship and she needed to remove herself from his life. If there was one thing he knew about Rin it was that she was sometimes an extremist and he wanted to be rid of her only momentarily, not permanently.
Anyways, despite knowing that he had no clean clothes to wear while stationed at the hotel closest to his work, he did not want to have to go and fetch new ones-- well, not at least while she was there to attempt to place guilt on him. Sure he could have easily gone out and spent the money to get a new pair of clothes or two, but he did not want to give her the satisfaction of knowing she kept him from his home and yet at the same time it felt that doing the opposite would have the same effect.
When he arrived home, the decent sized flat was empty. All of her belongings were still randomly placed throughout the place and much to his annoyance, even more had been strewn about carelessly. Articles of both his and Rin’s clothing sat on the couch, countertops dressers and bookshelves and he silently wondered as he picked each piece up and put them away if they were there from tantrum or another reason. The idea of Rin being with another man made him scoff kicking one of her shoes back into the closet and shutting it, a few changes of clothing set carefully over the bed. She wasn’t the type of girl, grant it, she hadn’t been a lot of things when they had first met and he quickly crushed the thought and threw it away as nonsense.
A quick cold shower took any insane thoughts from his mind and he was gone in under twenty minutes, Rin still nowhere to be found. He left a voicemail for the maintenance man to come and fix the hot water heater as it obviously had not been working properly and after a losing battle with relentless traffic, he had made it to his office… An hour and a half later than normal.
There was no safe way of saying that the day had started off bad because anyone unintelligent enough to comment on his lateness would have suffered a pain-filled and slow torturous death and he almost slammed his briefcase on his desk. He was not a man for the dramatics, besides what he viewed in a theatre or opera (not that he cared for horrible singing anyway) and he checked his behavior at the door of his office, leaving it just open enough to let the other employees know he had arrived, but not enough that it invited anyone to take up space in the doorway.
Flipping the lights on and turning on his monitor he effortlessly checked his messages, both phone and email and rolled his neck from side to side, hoping in vein to loosen the muscles and release the tightness.
“Listen boy,
Don’t want to see you let a good thing slip away
You know I don’t like watching anybody make
The same mistakes I made”*
Curiously, he gazed at the radio on his desk playing quietly and not remembering if he had left it on before heading out the night before, he switched it off and loaded up the day’s schedule and began to work. The song bugged him, not because it was a horrible song, but because it made him think of Rin playing the artist, on days she claimed needed a ‘pick-me-up’. He hadn’t been surprised, not really, when he found her listening to Billy Joel for days on end, sometimes even Elton John, they were, he told himself, more older tunes for her, but he could see why she liked them. The usual upbeat songs often reminded him of her if he herd them in passing, but since he was not on the best terms with her and she with him, he wanted nothing to do with anything that distracted him.
And he firmly believed that Rin was a distraction.
His fingers flew like lightning across the keys as he typed, his entire attention focused on his task and the silence soothed him, coaxed him to relaxing and within the first hour he felt his spirits rising. It had not been an bad omen, his morning, but just a rough start and it lifted the corners of his lips.
“She’s a real nice girl
And she’s always there for you
But a nice girl wouldn’t tell you what you should do….”*
His fingers paused and he lifted his head to glance around the room. The radio was off, he was now one-hundred percent sure of it; however, his ears caught the tune softly playing yet again and threw him off. A quick glance at the clock told him it was only an hour later, with easily nine or so more to go and he sighed heavily stretching his legs under his desk before climbing to his feet.
He needed a distraction from the beginning of a distraction, a hit to his sanity so early in the morning and he allowed himself a quick walk to the break room for a cup of coffee he was certain he did not really need to drink. He did not like consuming so much caffeine before noon, and he had already finished off two cups, one upon waking and the other as he waited in traffic and this third one would easily make him feel jittery.
There were few others congregating in the small break room and he grumbled under his breath about sharing an office with several other companies and need to penny-pinch areas of his life. Why couldn’t he have bought the entire office outright and avoided the others? Why did he have to share a floor with idiots and assholes? Next time he was going to send his secretary to fetch coffee, it was what he paid her amongst other things right?
“Hey Sesshomaru!” He liked his coffee with milk and sugar, creamer if milk was not available to his disposal, but this time he took it black to leave off the extra sugar.
He ignored the person attempting to gain his attention and headed back to his office in silence, the steam from his drink instantly making him more thirsty than he had thought himself to be. Ignoring a problem was never the way to solve it, he told himself sardonically as he shut his door with his foot, cutting off another round of “Hey Sesshomaru!” that called to him, but he could smother his problems, mainly the idiot who barged into his office after him.
“Didn’t your mother ever teach you it’s rude to slam doors in people’s faces?” The voice asked seriously, though Sesshomaru questioned the sincerity.
“Hmm.” He took a sip of the hot beverage and savored the way the heat worked its way through his stomach and scraping off some of the day’s irritation, if ‘some’ was a loosely used term. “What do you want InuYasha?”
“Here’s the accounting files you wanted,” two manila folders were more tossed than placed on his desk and he glanced up as InuYasha stood in front of him. “Have you talked to Rin recently?”
InuYasha’s arms were crossed over his chest, his body language relaxed and resting against his desk (and that bugged him worse than the idiotic smile on his brother’s face). There was something in InuYasha’s stance that immediately put him on the defensive and he tightened his grip on the large mug in his hands, attempting to keep his temper in check.
“That is my personal business, none of which is of your concern.” His answer to both of them meant an obvious ‘no’, otherwise InuYasha would not have brought up the topic and Sesshomaru half wanted to growl and tell the other man to get out and leave him alone.
“It would be if Rin wasn’t calling Kagome crying every night for the last week because a certain someone has yet to find his way home,” the thought of Rin crying froze his blood for a moment and he shut his eyes and put his mug on his desk unless he wanted to break it.
“I don’t like repeating myself InuYasha,” he said calmly despite what he was beginning to feel. By the way InuYasha’s cocky grin was expanding by inches, Sesshomaru did not like the way this conversation was going.
“I’m surprised she puts up with your temper tantrums,” InuYasha went on as if he was speaking of the weather. “You don’t treat her right for her being your fiancée…” He paused coyly and if Sesshomaru had been holding a pen or pencil it would have broken in half. “Then again, I’m wondering if you agreed to her proposal just to shut her up---I mean you have been engaged for over a year now, and she was the one who proposed---”
“InuYasha!” Sesshomaru growled angrily, his fists clenching and unclenching wishing he could leap over the desk between them and rip his half brother into shreds.
“No need to get your panties in a bunch,” InuYasha laughed fanning Sesshomaru’s anger with gasoline. “I’m just stating facts. Now if you want my opinion, I think she deserves someone better than you.”
“Get out.” InuYasha was playing with a thin line of Sesshomaru’s control, dancing around it and he would not be responsible if he skewered his half brother with the letter opener in his desk drawer, and the idea was tempting, almost too tempting to resist.
InuYasha did not stay a moment longer and Sesshomaru followed behind him and this time did not hold back as he slammed his door shut, shaking both the walls and several picture frames against them, one falling to the floor and shattering the glass frame. His mind was revolting against him, plotting the ways he was going to murder InuYasha from painful and slow to other methods he did not know where mentally possible, but after several minutes of undisturbed silence he was able to calm himself down enough to think clear enough to know his brother was not worth murdering (well at least not at this point and time).
Several more quiet minutes came and went and Sesshomaru sighed heavily, trusting himself to take another sip of his coffee and pick up where he had left off. His brother was smart enough to not bother him again, unless he had a death wish and this time even their father would not be enough to save him and with that he was able shut off the anger and irritation, though not the oncoming headache.
“Listen boy,
I’m sure that you think you got it all
Under control.
You don’t want somebody telling you
The way to stay in someone’s soul
You’re a big boy now
You’ll never let her go
But that’s just the kind of thing
She ought to know”*
He paused mid-drink as the song began playing again, the third time if he was counting correctly and he would find out if someone was playing games with him. It was impossible for the same song to be playing over and over again at certain points of the day, especially when it was not some new hit on the radio. Sesshomaru could have understood if more than one Billy Joel song had played, it would have been more easily explainable, but not the same damn one and he frowned feeling a pain in his temple.
Maybe this was just torture from an unseen force, he thought glancing around his room for any other radios he might have missed. He was not above thinking InuYasha had hid another in his office, but after careful observation he came up with nothing and it grated on his nerves.
Caught up in his thoughts he wasn’t expecting the loud beeping of his phone’s intercom going off and he was unable to keep himself from jumping in his seat, and promptly spilling the rest of his coffee down his shirt and pants. Cursing loudly he fumbled around in search of a stray napkin or paper towel and finding nothing for the second time in a different search he growled and smacked the back of his head against his chair’s headrest.
“Um, sir?” a scared voice drifted through the intercom and he glanced down at the red blinking light.
“What?”
“Um--InuYasha wanted me to let you know that he was going to lunch with Rin and would be back later?”’
They were all trying his patience, pushing him, picking at him and he was going to snap and then nobody would be safe.
“Tell her about it
Tell her everything you feel
Give her every reason to accept
That you’re for real”*
“Is that your radio playing?” He could feel his eye twitching and even without the third cup of coffee halfway finished he was feeling jittery.
“Tell her about it
Tell her all your crazy dreams
Let her know you need her
Let her know how much she means”*
“Um, yes?” She was hesitant and he almost growled at her fear.
“Listen boy
It’s not automatically a certain guarantee
To insure yourself
You’ve got to provide communication constantly”*
“Turn it off…” His voice was expressionless, as though the calm before the storm and his secretary squeaked before the song shut off and once again, silence.
He worked that way for a few more hours, the click of his fingers against the keyboard or his mouse and he dragged something across the screen. There was nothing to disturb him and though he had opted not to go change his coffee stained clothes, his shirt was in a heap on the floor. He would have to take it to the drycleaners after work and hope, that this time it would not be misplaced or else he would have to find another place to launder his delicates.
He rotated his shoulders as he stretched, glancing down at the clock and surprised at how much time had gone by. Lunch had come and gone and now it was early afternoon and he was seriously contemplating staying late into the night to check over the days work, as he was not sure if he could trust the numbers by his mood alone. Sesshomaru wanted to be done with it all, just blow off all of the important things he knew had to be done and get away. He hadn’t had a day as bad as he felt this one was and vaguely wondered if life could be as in those commercials with the “Easy” button and instead have it say “Do over” and restart his day from scratch, avoiding everything that pulled him into a foul mood.
“Hey Sesshomaru,” InuYasha’s voice came from the intercom and Sesshomaru would have banged his face on his desk if would have done him any good.
“What?”
“Turn your radio onto one-oh-seven-point-two,” if he didn’t it would start either an argument or InuYasha would annoy him until he did so, even more so if whatever he wanted him to listen to ended before hearing it.
Going against his better judgment, Sesshomaru flipped on the small radio on his desk, tuning it to the correct station expecting some break through news broadcast, trumpets blared and his heart dropped into his stomach before crashing to his feet.
“When you love someone
You’re always insecure
And there’s only one good way
To reassure”*
“I haven’t heard this song in ages!” InuYasha jeered over the intercom and Sesshomaru pinched the bridge of his nose fighting back the migraine now building a nest in his head.
“I hope you die a slow and painful death,” Sesshomaru spat hanging up the line.
Honestly, he did not know how much more he could take. Fate, or whatever it was that was messing with him was adamant that this one particular song was all he hear all day long and he no longer had the strength to fight against it. Obviously someone was trying to tell him something whether it be an idiotic brother or a higher power (which even now he still partly doubted) and by being bothered by it they were winning.
He wasn’t going to fight it any longer and he quietly listened to the song play out and then play again almost ten minutes later as he continued to push through his work. After the twentieth time played since his last altercation with InuYasha, Sesshomaru was able to tune out the actual music portion of the song . By the fortieth time played, he could say every line and had been humming silently the words. His work went slowly than it should have been given how long he’d been in the office and by seven-thirty, a quarter till eight, he began to ponder the meaning behind the lyrics.
Sesshomaru sometimes was a very closed off person, he knew as much and did not care to wear his emotions on his sleeve. He wasn’t saying that he did not have emotions, because that would be a lie. Although, he did keep them under lock and key, allowing what he knew he could control and what he had been raised to show. His thoughts were meant to be his own, not anybody else’s and if he wanted someone else to know, they would. He prided himself on his intelligence and being able to school his facial features in a way he thought they should be portrayed and it was one of the things that proved him to be a good businessman.
And yet today, well tonight he was questioning whether or not it was a good thing. Being reserved is what brought Rin to him, a mysterious quality she had told him, but was being too mysterious, too closed off ruining something that could be forever? He could admit to himself that maybe there were things that Sesshomaru could have shared with Rin, tiny things, but that would change the diameter of his relationship with her, change the very structure and she was territory he was unsure of how to proceed on.
She was almost literally his other half. Spontaneous, outspoken and very carefree. Rin cried when she was sad, laughed when something was funny, and she loved more passionately than Sesshomaru knew how. Her being intrigued him and there had been countless nights during the beginning when he had simply watched her sleep trying to figure her out. What was her agenda? Why was she the way she was and coming up very short on answers, he had made plans to figure them out. That had been over four years past and though he had figured some answers to his questions, more had taken their place and he could almost say that everyday was different.
Were there days that she questioned him? He wondered silently as he saved his documents and printed out others, the song still playing in the background, only to his good fortune, less frequently. Did she not believe he cared about her on bad days? Was there more that he should be doing in order to keep her by his side? They weren’t comforting questions because it led to other thoughts, thoughts that had the probability of upsetting him and tearing apart his relationship by the seams.
If she questioned him, why keep it to herself? Was it him Rin was questioning or herself? They had been together for so long, did she not know him as well as he knew her and vise versa? It was obvious to him that their problems would not be solved over night and definitely not when he was avoiding their relationship together. They would have to talk and though they could hold a conversation about historic times and places and even certain religions with ease, a serious talk like this would be harder to start and even harder to continue, but like most things that did not want to be done, they would need to be if he wished to stay with her.
“She’s a trusting soul
She’s put her trust in you
But a girl like that won’t tell you
What you should do”*
The majority of her mind was racing out of control. She had spent most of the day pacing back and forth and she was positive she had worn down the carpet to a noticeable degree and she had to make it a point to pick up a new rug to hide it. InuYasha had called her the day before stating he had a scheme that would get Sesshomaru off his high horse and bring him home and though she had not consented, she was more than worried that the younger man had put her relationship in jeopardy. The flat she lived in with Sesshomaru was quiet and dim, and she had spent the better part of the day when she wasn’t pacing, cleaning and it had only frayed her nerves even more.
He hadn’t been home in almost a week, if you did not count earlier to get a few more changes of clothes while she had been out running errands. And him leaving with more clothes did not bode well to her either. InuYasha had reassured her while they were at lunch that his plan was in action and working perfectly and she contemplated calling Kagome and begging her to leash her boyfriend, and maybe even his mother or father for damage control because anything involving InuYasha had a one-hundred percent chance of getting out of control.
So here she was forcing herself to sit down and keep calm and failing miserably. She did not want to think about the repercussions of InuYasha’s actions, not when it could mean driving Sesshomaru away from her even more. She had spent years getting him to trust her, not only with himself but his heart and though she thought herself to be close, she understood that there was more to Sesshomaru. He was stubborn and when he put his foot down there was no point in screaming at him until the cows came home, that would only drive him further away and she had been able to curve around both his temper and his stubbornness (which most times were exactly the same) and come out clean, but not the last time.
Finally giving into the truth that Sesshomaru was not coming home and only thing she had to look forward to was another night spent alone, she grabbed a thoroughly read romance novel and settled herself onto the plush couch with a heavy sigh. She doubted she would sleep and if she did it would be on the couch she was sitting on as she did not think she could stand spending another night in an empty bed, not when it should have been shared with Sesshomaru. The five pound boom box stereo she had brought out from deep within her closet sat on the coffee table playing music she hoped would cheer her up. It normally would and she desperately needed to get her mind off of ‘doom-and-gloom’ because she did not want to sink any lower than she currently was.
She was drowsing when the click of the door woke her, lost some place between chapter four or five and shaking her head she yawned tiredly. Rin was sluggish as she watched Sesshomaru close the distance between us, an almost murderous look in his eyes and the hardcover book in her hands slipped onto the floor as he slapped opening the CD compartment of her boom box and took out the CD playing, promptly breaking it in half.
“Hey!” Shock filled her as the halves dropped to the floor, her temper immediately flaring as she rushed in a fluid movement to her feet. “What is y--”
Sesshomaru’s mouth crashed against hers hungrily, his hand sweeping behind her hair and cupping the back of her neck and pulling her against him fully, his lips parting and tasting her. He swallowed her gasp and dominated her, filling her abdomen with heat and butterflies. She felt hot but cold as gooseflesh covered her bare arms and when he finally pulled away, she was breathless.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered against her lips and though it took her a moment to process his words, as they registered she could not hold back her laugh.
She was almost certain he was not apologizing for breaking her CD, but after a kiss like that, she wasn’t too worried, it could be replaced. Instead, she dragged Sesshomaru to her, shutting down any other window of opportunity for talking. Neither of them wanted to waste words that could be said other ways. There would be time for talking at a later time, but now she was desperate to feel naked flesh against her as she striped him with eager fingers.
His hands held her, teased and touched her and she arched into him as he claimed her as his own, building her pleasure and the tension before knocking it down like a tower of building blocks. His body had ached for her and he quivered as he came, his hot breath against her neck and his weight settled against her chest. Rin panted heavily trying to get her heart to quit thundering in her ears, her fingers still clutching the long strands of Sesshomaru’s long silver hair.
“Sesshomaru,” she whispered softly as his hand ran down the side of her body making her shudder. “You’re heavy.”
His lips feathered soft kisses down her neck and across her collarbone, his body sliding down hers seductively and telling her what was to come. “Ignore it.”
“Huh?” her breath hitched as she struggled to put his words together under his torturous tongue and after a moment she could hear her cell phone ringing from the living room where she left it. She cursed under her breath and pushed herself onto her elbows. “It’s InuYasha.”
Rin hissed as Sesshomaru bit her chest, his teeth slightly hurting, but pooling heat between her legs. She would have continued to ignore it like he had said; however, when it began ringing again she groaned loudly, Sesshomaru’s muscles tensing slightly. “If I don’t answer it he’ll keep calling.”
They both knew he would too, just to be an ass and Sesshomaru abruptly pulled away, his amber eyes watching her unblinking. Sliding out of bed, she scurried to the living room and grabbed her phone, smashing her finger over the button that would pick up the call.
“What do you want?” Rin snapped exasperatedly, pulling her hair behind her ears.
“A little busy are we?” She could hear the cockiness in his voice and wanted to take it away.
“InuYasha,” She chided in a hushed tone. “As much as I appreciate you wanting to help my relationship with your brother. The next time you try to do anything I’m going to tell your mother.”
She did not wait for him to reply, instead she hung up and turned off the sound, tossing the phone onto the couch before heading back to where Sesshomaru was. She had a feeling she was going to be tattling on him anyway, but right now that was not as important as the naked man not in her bed. Sighing heavily she went into the bathroom where she could hear the water running and debated cursing her luck or pulling out her hair, both of which were close to happening anyway.
Steam rose from behind the fog-plated door and hesitantly she bit down on her lower lip. “Are you upset?”
“No,” his voice gave no ground on his emotions and it felt like she had taken one step forward and three steps back.
“Can I join you?” She asked softly, unsure of what answer he would present her with.
The door opened and steam poured out silently inviting her and she slipped in as a silly smile found its way onto her face. Sesshomaru stood underneath the rain of water facing her, arms crossed over his chest and closing the door behind her she slid her arms around his waist and placed as chaste kiss on his mouth.
“I love you,” she told him ignoring the butterflies in her stomach for a moment.
And he rewarded her with a smile of his own before pulling her under the stream of hot water. “I love you too.”
End.
*Lyrics -- "Tell her about it" by Billy Joel.
E/N: My muse tells me that often my stories do not end happy and yes, it's true. XD But I hope that you liked this, even a little! And always, please leave comments, good or bad I appreciate them, Mucho mucho!
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Side Note: This story is half-way a song fic, but not really... Lol once you read it completely you will understand. Been listening to Billy Joel in my car for the better of two weeks and this idea hit me the other day, but really got a hold of me today as I was driving home.
"Tell her about it" is obviously one of my muses for this story, but if you have heard this song I strongly reccomend listening to it while reading it. This is my attempt at humor, even if only for myself.
“Tell Her About It” ---Billy Joel
It was one of those days.Sleep had been almost impossible for him the last few nights, constant tossing and turning, uncertain of which he was-- hot or cold and he was certain the subconscious problem that his bed was currently supporting a party of one. Truth be told, he had not even been sleeping in his own bed for the last few nights, which could also be contributing to the dwindling hours of sleep per night. At the moment though, every muscle and bone in his body hurt or ached in someway from his head to his legs and none of it was improving on his mood.
He was beginning to question whether or not everything was silently rioting him, giving him grief for his most recent actions (not that be truly believed in fate though). The drycleaners had misplaced his clothing and instead of going to work in a day’s old clothes, he had to swallow his pride and go home. That of course was the destination he was avoiding as if it were the plague, or at least ground zero of contamination.
Rin, she was the cause of all his current problems, the epicenter and the memory of the way her eyes glared at him and when she pushed her index finger into his chest infuriated him all over. Honestly, he could admit to himself (and himself alone) that the reasoning behind the latest fight with her was ridiculous and did not warrant such attention, but he was persistent if not dedicated to his convictions to a fault. She would not and refused to understand his reasoning and he felt she was being stupid. Pointing it out to her though, had been one of his biggest mistakes as the fire he normally felt directed at him sexually had been thrown into an area he had not been accustomed to.
She was not normally an angry woman, quick to scorn and place the blame, especially so when it came to anything with him. However, that night she had become a spit fire with less than a blink of an eye, those clear blue eyes blazing with anger and at first it excited him. The adrenaline he had felt radiating off both Rin and himself had pushed him, challenged him and it only escalated both the heat and anger.
The momentary lust he had felt at her temper had faded fast and it left him only irritated and angry and when it did not look like either of them could win, well-- him primarily he cut the discussion (if it could have really been called such) short, stated the argument was moot, she was wrong and that he was not going to allow a certain someone’s temper to make a fool of them and promptly left.
It was hard he decided, designating who stayed or left during a fight, a choice he had never made before that and he had been half tempted to ask her to remove herself until she cooled down. He was glad although, that those words had been kept strictly to himself as they were most likely to get him into more trouble than they were worth. That and he did not want her to take it as he was ending their relationship and she needed to remove herself from his life. If there was one thing he knew about Rin it was that she was sometimes an extremist and he wanted to be rid of her only momentarily, not permanently.
Anyways, despite knowing that he had no clean clothes to wear while stationed at the hotel closest to his work, he did not want to have to go and fetch new ones-- well, not at least while she was there to attempt to place guilt on him. Sure he could have easily gone out and spent the money to get a new pair of clothes or two, but he did not want to give her the satisfaction of knowing she kept him from his home and yet at the same time it felt that doing the opposite would have the same effect.
When he arrived home, the decent sized flat was empty. All of her belongings were still randomly placed throughout the place and much to his annoyance, even more had been strewn about carelessly. Articles of both his and Rin’s clothing sat on the couch, countertops dressers and bookshelves and he silently wondered as he picked each piece up and put them away if they were there from tantrum or another reason. The idea of Rin being with another man made him scoff kicking one of her shoes back into the closet and shutting it, a few changes of clothing set carefully over the bed. She wasn’t the type of girl, grant it, she hadn’t been a lot of things when they had first met and he quickly crushed the thought and threw it away as nonsense.
A quick cold shower took any insane thoughts from his mind and he was gone in under twenty minutes, Rin still nowhere to be found. He left a voicemail for the maintenance man to come and fix the hot water heater as it obviously had not been working properly and after a losing battle with relentless traffic, he had made it to his office… An hour and a half later than normal.
There was no safe way of saying that the day had started off bad because anyone unintelligent enough to comment on his lateness would have suffered a pain-filled and slow torturous death and he almost slammed his briefcase on his desk. He was not a man for the dramatics, besides what he viewed in a theatre or opera (not that he cared for horrible singing anyway) and he checked his behavior at the door of his office, leaving it just open enough to let the other employees know he had arrived, but not enough that it invited anyone to take up space in the doorway.
Flipping the lights on and turning on his monitor he effortlessly checked his messages, both phone and email and rolled his neck from side to side, hoping in vein to loosen the muscles and release the tightness.
“Listen boy,
Don’t want to see you let a good thing slip away
You know I don’t like watching anybody make
The same mistakes I made”*
Curiously, he gazed at the radio on his desk playing quietly and not remembering if he had left it on before heading out the night before, he switched it off and loaded up the day’s schedule and began to work. The song bugged him, not because it was a horrible song, but because it made him think of Rin playing the artist, on days she claimed needed a ‘pick-me-up’. He hadn’t been surprised, not really, when he found her listening to Billy Joel for days on end, sometimes even Elton John, they were, he told himself, more older tunes for her, but he could see why she liked them. The usual upbeat songs often reminded him of her if he herd them in passing, but since he was not on the best terms with her and she with him, he wanted nothing to do with anything that distracted him.
And he firmly believed that Rin was a distraction.
His fingers flew like lightning across the keys as he typed, his entire attention focused on his task and the silence soothed him, coaxed him to relaxing and within the first hour he felt his spirits rising. It had not been an bad omen, his morning, but just a rough start and it lifted the corners of his lips.
“She’s a real nice girl
And she’s always there for you
But a nice girl wouldn’t tell you what you should do….”*
His fingers paused and he lifted his head to glance around the room. The radio was off, he was now one-hundred percent sure of it; however, his ears caught the tune softly playing yet again and threw him off. A quick glance at the clock told him it was only an hour later, with easily nine or so more to go and he sighed heavily stretching his legs under his desk before climbing to his feet.
He needed a distraction from the beginning of a distraction, a hit to his sanity so early in the morning and he allowed himself a quick walk to the break room for a cup of coffee he was certain he did not really need to drink. He did not like consuming so much caffeine before noon, and he had already finished off two cups, one upon waking and the other as he waited in traffic and this third one would easily make him feel jittery.
There were few others congregating in the small break room and he grumbled under his breath about sharing an office with several other companies and need to penny-pinch areas of his life. Why couldn’t he have bought the entire office outright and avoided the others? Why did he have to share a floor with idiots and assholes? Next time he was going to send his secretary to fetch coffee, it was what he paid her amongst other things right?
“Hey Sesshomaru!” He liked his coffee with milk and sugar, creamer if milk was not available to his disposal, but this time he took it black to leave off the extra sugar.
He ignored the person attempting to gain his attention and headed back to his office in silence, the steam from his drink instantly making him more thirsty than he had thought himself to be. Ignoring a problem was never the way to solve it, he told himself sardonically as he shut his door with his foot, cutting off another round of “Hey Sesshomaru!” that called to him, but he could smother his problems, mainly the idiot who barged into his office after him.
“Didn’t your mother ever teach you it’s rude to slam doors in people’s faces?” The voice asked seriously, though Sesshomaru questioned the sincerity.
“Hmm.” He took a sip of the hot beverage and savored the way the heat worked its way through his stomach and scraping off some of the day’s irritation, if ‘some’ was a loosely used term. “What do you want InuYasha?”
“Here’s the accounting files you wanted,” two manila folders were more tossed than placed on his desk and he glanced up as InuYasha stood in front of him. “Have you talked to Rin recently?”
InuYasha’s arms were crossed over his chest, his body language relaxed and resting against his desk (and that bugged him worse than the idiotic smile on his brother’s face). There was something in InuYasha’s stance that immediately put him on the defensive and he tightened his grip on the large mug in his hands, attempting to keep his temper in check.
“That is my personal business, none of which is of your concern.” His answer to both of them meant an obvious ‘no’, otherwise InuYasha would not have brought up the topic and Sesshomaru half wanted to growl and tell the other man to get out and leave him alone.
“It would be if Rin wasn’t calling Kagome crying every night for the last week because a certain someone has yet to find his way home,” the thought of Rin crying froze his blood for a moment and he shut his eyes and put his mug on his desk unless he wanted to break it.
“I don’t like repeating myself InuYasha,” he said calmly despite what he was beginning to feel. By the way InuYasha’s cocky grin was expanding by inches, Sesshomaru did not like the way this conversation was going.
“I’m surprised she puts up with your temper tantrums,” InuYasha went on as if he was speaking of the weather. “You don’t treat her right for her being your fiancée…” He paused coyly and if Sesshomaru had been holding a pen or pencil it would have broken in half. “Then again, I’m wondering if you agreed to her proposal just to shut her up---I mean you have been engaged for over a year now, and she was the one who proposed---”
“InuYasha!” Sesshomaru growled angrily, his fists clenching and unclenching wishing he could leap over the desk between them and rip his half brother into shreds.
“No need to get your panties in a bunch,” InuYasha laughed fanning Sesshomaru’s anger with gasoline. “I’m just stating facts. Now if you want my opinion, I think she deserves someone better than you.”
“Get out.” InuYasha was playing with a thin line of Sesshomaru’s control, dancing around it and he would not be responsible if he skewered his half brother with the letter opener in his desk drawer, and the idea was tempting, almost too tempting to resist.
InuYasha did not stay a moment longer and Sesshomaru followed behind him and this time did not hold back as he slammed his door shut, shaking both the walls and several picture frames against them, one falling to the floor and shattering the glass frame. His mind was revolting against him, plotting the ways he was going to murder InuYasha from painful and slow to other methods he did not know where mentally possible, but after several minutes of undisturbed silence he was able to calm himself down enough to think clear enough to know his brother was not worth murdering (well at least not at this point and time).
Several more quiet minutes came and went and Sesshomaru sighed heavily, trusting himself to take another sip of his coffee and pick up where he had left off. His brother was smart enough to not bother him again, unless he had a death wish and this time even their father would not be enough to save him and with that he was able shut off the anger and irritation, though not the oncoming headache.
“Listen boy,
I’m sure that you think you got it all
Under control.
You don’t want somebody telling you
The way to stay in someone’s soul
You’re a big boy now
You’ll never let her go
But that’s just the kind of thing
She ought to know”*
He paused mid-drink as the song began playing again, the third time if he was counting correctly and he would find out if someone was playing games with him. It was impossible for the same song to be playing over and over again at certain points of the day, especially when it was not some new hit on the radio. Sesshomaru could have understood if more than one Billy Joel song had played, it would have been more easily explainable, but not the same damn one and he frowned feeling a pain in his temple.
Maybe this was just torture from an unseen force, he thought glancing around his room for any other radios he might have missed. He was not above thinking InuYasha had hid another in his office, but after careful observation he came up with nothing and it grated on his nerves.
Caught up in his thoughts he wasn’t expecting the loud beeping of his phone’s intercom going off and he was unable to keep himself from jumping in his seat, and promptly spilling the rest of his coffee down his shirt and pants. Cursing loudly he fumbled around in search of a stray napkin or paper towel and finding nothing for the second time in a different search he growled and smacked the back of his head against his chair’s headrest.
“Um, sir?” a scared voice drifted through the intercom and he glanced down at the red blinking light.
“What?”
“Um--InuYasha wanted me to let you know that he was going to lunch with Rin and would be back later?”’
They were all trying his patience, pushing him, picking at him and he was going to snap and then nobody would be safe.
“Tell her about it
Tell her everything you feel
Give her every reason to accept
That you’re for real”*
“Is that your radio playing?” He could feel his eye twitching and even without the third cup of coffee halfway finished he was feeling jittery.
“Tell her about it
Tell her all your crazy dreams
Let her know you need her
Let her know how much she means”*
“Um, yes?” She was hesitant and he almost growled at her fear.
“Listen boy
It’s not automatically a certain guarantee
To insure yourself
You’ve got to provide communication constantly”*
“Turn it off…” His voice was expressionless, as though the calm before the storm and his secretary squeaked before the song shut off and once again, silence.
He worked that way for a few more hours, the click of his fingers against the keyboard or his mouse and he dragged something across the screen. There was nothing to disturb him and though he had opted not to go change his coffee stained clothes, his shirt was in a heap on the floor. He would have to take it to the drycleaners after work and hope, that this time it would not be misplaced or else he would have to find another place to launder his delicates.
He rotated his shoulders as he stretched, glancing down at the clock and surprised at how much time had gone by. Lunch had come and gone and now it was early afternoon and he was seriously contemplating staying late into the night to check over the days work, as he was not sure if he could trust the numbers by his mood alone. Sesshomaru wanted to be done with it all, just blow off all of the important things he knew had to be done and get away. He hadn’t had a day as bad as he felt this one was and vaguely wondered if life could be as in those commercials with the “Easy” button and instead have it say “Do over” and restart his day from scratch, avoiding everything that pulled him into a foul mood.
“Hey Sesshomaru,” InuYasha’s voice came from the intercom and Sesshomaru would have banged his face on his desk if would have done him any good.
“What?”
“Turn your radio onto one-oh-seven-point-two,” if he didn’t it would start either an argument or InuYasha would annoy him until he did so, even more so if whatever he wanted him to listen to ended before hearing it.
Going against his better judgment, Sesshomaru flipped on the small radio on his desk, tuning it to the correct station expecting some break through news broadcast, trumpets blared and his heart dropped into his stomach before crashing to his feet.
“When you love someone
You’re always insecure
And there’s only one good way
To reassure”*
“I haven’t heard this song in ages!” InuYasha jeered over the intercom and Sesshomaru pinched the bridge of his nose fighting back the migraine now building a nest in his head.
“I hope you die a slow and painful death,” Sesshomaru spat hanging up the line.
Honestly, he did not know how much more he could take. Fate, or whatever it was that was messing with him was adamant that this one particular song was all he hear all day long and he no longer had the strength to fight against it. Obviously someone was trying to tell him something whether it be an idiotic brother or a higher power (which even now he still partly doubted) and by being bothered by it they were winning.
He wasn’t going to fight it any longer and he quietly listened to the song play out and then play again almost ten minutes later as he continued to push through his work. After the twentieth time played since his last altercation with InuYasha, Sesshomaru was able to tune out the actual music portion of the song . By the fortieth time played, he could say every line and had been humming silently the words. His work went slowly than it should have been given how long he’d been in the office and by seven-thirty, a quarter till eight, he began to ponder the meaning behind the lyrics.
Sesshomaru sometimes was a very closed off person, he knew as much and did not care to wear his emotions on his sleeve. He wasn’t saying that he did not have emotions, because that would be a lie. Although, he did keep them under lock and key, allowing what he knew he could control and what he had been raised to show. His thoughts were meant to be his own, not anybody else’s and if he wanted someone else to know, they would. He prided himself on his intelligence and being able to school his facial features in a way he thought they should be portrayed and it was one of the things that proved him to be a good businessman.
And yet today, well tonight he was questioning whether or not it was a good thing. Being reserved is what brought Rin to him, a mysterious quality she had told him, but was being too mysterious, too closed off ruining something that could be forever? He could admit to himself that maybe there were things that Sesshomaru could have shared with Rin, tiny things, but that would change the diameter of his relationship with her, change the very structure and she was territory he was unsure of how to proceed on.
She was almost literally his other half. Spontaneous, outspoken and very carefree. Rin cried when she was sad, laughed when something was funny, and she loved more passionately than Sesshomaru knew how. Her being intrigued him and there had been countless nights during the beginning when he had simply watched her sleep trying to figure her out. What was her agenda? Why was she the way she was and coming up very short on answers, he had made plans to figure them out. That had been over four years past and though he had figured some answers to his questions, more had taken their place and he could almost say that everyday was different.
Were there days that she questioned him? He wondered silently as he saved his documents and printed out others, the song still playing in the background, only to his good fortune, less frequently. Did she not believe he cared about her on bad days? Was there more that he should be doing in order to keep her by his side? They weren’t comforting questions because it led to other thoughts, thoughts that had the probability of upsetting him and tearing apart his relationship by the seams.
If she questioned him, why keep it to herself? Was it him Rin was questioning or herself? They had been together for so long, did she not know him as well as he knew her and vise versa? It was obvious to him that their problems would not be solved over night and definitely not when he was avoiding their relationship together. They would have to talk and though they could hold a conversation about historic times and places and even certain religions with ease, a serious talk like this would be harder to start and even harder to continue, but like most things that did not want to be done, they would need to be if he wished to stay with her.
“She’s a trusting soul
She’s put her trust in you
But a girl like that won’t tell you
What you should do”*
The majority of her mind was racing out of control. She had spent most of the day pacing back and forth and she was positive she had worn down the carpet to a noticeable degree and she had to make it a point to pick up a new rug to hide it. InuYasha had called her the day before stating he had a scheme that would get Sesshomaru off his high horse and bring him home and though she had not consented, she was more than worried that the younger man had put her relationship in jeopardy. The flat she lived in with Sesshomaru was quiet and dim, and she had spent the better part of the day when she wasn’t pacing, cleaning and it had only frayed her nerves even more.
He hadn’t been home in almost a week, if you did not count earlier to get a few more changes of clothes while she had been out running errands. And him leaving with more clothes did not bode well to her either. InuYasha had reassured her while they were at lunch that his plan was in action and working perfectly and she contemplated calling Kagome and begging her to leash her boyfriend, and maybe even his mother or father for damage control because anything involving InuYasha had a one-hundred percent chance of getting out of control.
So here she was forcing herself to sit down and keep calm and failing miserably. She did not want to think about the repercussions of InuYasha’s actions, not when it could mean driving Sesshomaru away from her even more. She had spent years getting him to trust her, not only with himself but his heart and though she thought herself to be close, she understood that there was more to Sesshomaru. He was stubborn and when he put his foot down there was no point in screaming at him until the cows came home, that would only drive him further away and she had been able to curve around both his temper and his stubbornness (which most times were exactly the same) and come out clean, but not the last time.
Finally giving into the truth that Sesshomaru was not coming home and only thing she had to look forward to was another night spent alone, she grabbed a thoroughly read romance novel and settled herself onto the plush couch with a heavy sigh. She doubted she would sleep and if she did it would be on the couch she was sitting on as she did not think she could stand spending another night in an empty bed, not when it should have been shared with Sesshomaru. The five pound boom box stereo she had brought out from deep within her closet sat on the coffee table playing music she hoped would cheer her up. It normally would and she desperately needed to get her mind off of ‘doom-and-gloom’ because she did not want to sink any lower than she currently was.
She was drowsing when the click of the door woke her, lost some place between chapter four or five and shaking her head she yawned tiredly. Rin was sluggish as she watched Sesshomaru close the distance between us, an almost murderous look in his eyes and the hardcover book in her hands slipped onto the floor as he slapped opening the CD compartment of her boom box and took out the CD playing, promptly breaking it in half.
“Hey!” Shock filled her as the halves dropped to the floor, her temper immediately flaring as she rushed in a fluid movement to her feet. “What is y--”
Sesshomaru’s mouth crashed against hers hungrily, his hand sweeping behind her hair and cupping the back of her neck and pulling her against him fully, his lips parting and tasting her. He swallowed her gasp and dominated her, filling her abdomen with heat and butterflies. She felt hot but cold as gooseflesh covered her bare arms and when he finally pulled away, she was breathless.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered against her lips and though it took her a moment to process his words, as they registered she could not hold back her laugh.
She was almost certain he was not apologizing for breaking her CD, but after a kiss like that, she wasn’t too worried, it could be replaced. Instead, she dragged Sesshomaru to her, shutting down any other window of opportunity for talking. Neither of them wanted to waste words that could be said other ways. There would be time for talking at a later time, but now she was desperate to feel naked flesh against her as she striped him with eager fingers.
His hands held her, teased and touched her and she arched into him as he claimed her as his own, building her pleasure and the tension before knocking it down like a tower of building blocks. His body had ached for her and he quivered as he came, his hot breath against her neck and his weight settled against her chest. Rin panted heavily trying to get her heart to quit thundering in her ears, her fingers still clutching the long strands of Sesshomaru’s long silver hair.
“Sesshomaru,” she whispered softly as his hand ran down the side of her body making her shudder. “You’re heavy.”
His lips feathered soft kisses down her neck and across her collarbone, his body sliding down hers seductively and telling her what was to come. “Ignore it.”
“Huh?” her breath hitched as she struggled to put his words together under his torturous tongue and after a moment she could hear her cell phone ringing from the living room where she left it. She cursed under her breath and pushed herself onto her elbows. “It’s InuYasha.”
Rin hissed as Sesshomaru bit her chest, his teeth slightly hurting, but pooling heat between her legs. She would have continued to ignore it like he had said; however, when it began ringing again she groaned loudly, Sesshomaru’s muscles tensing slightly. “If I don’t answer it he’ll keep calling.”
They both knew he would too, just to be an ass and Sesshomaru abruptly pulled away, his amber eyes watching her unblinking. Sliding out of bed, she scurried to the living room and grabbed her phone, smashing her finger over the button that would pick up the call.
“What do you want?” Rin snapped exasperatedly, pulling her hair behind her ears.
“A little busy are we?” She could hear the cockiness in his voice and wanted to take it away.
“InuYasha,” She chided in a hushed tone. “As much as I appreciate you wanting to help my relationship with your brother. The next time you try to do anything I’m going to tell your mother.”
She did not wait for him to reply, instead she hung up and turned off the sound, tossing the phone onto the couch before heading back to where Sesshomaru was. She had a feeling she was going to be tattling on him anyway, but right now that was not as important as the naked man not in her bed. Sighing heavily she went into the bathroom where she could hear the water running and debated cursing her luck or pulling out her hair, both of which were close to happening anyway.
Steam rose from behind the fog-plated door and hesitantly she bit down on her lower lip. “Are you upset?”
“No,” his voice gave no ground on his emotions and it felt like she had taken one step forward and three steps back.
“Can I join you?” She asked softly, unsure of what answer he would present her with.
The door opened and steam poured out silently inviting her and she slipped in as a silly smile found its way onto her face. Sesshomaru stood underneath the rain of water facing her, arms crossed over his chest and closing the door behind her she slid her arms around his waist and placed as chaste kiss on his mouth.
“I love you,” she told him ignoring the butterflies in her stomach for a moment.
And he rewarded her with a smile of his own before pulling her under the stream of hot water. “I love you too.”
End.
*Lyrics -- "Tell her about it" by Billy Joel.
E/N: My muse tells me that often my stories do not end happy and yes, it's true. XD But I hope that you liked this, even a little! And always, please leave comments, good or bad I appreciate them, Mucho mucho!
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