InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Mother For Rin ❯ Morning musings ( Chapter 3 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Sesshoumaru awoke late in the morning, it was far closer to noon than it was anything that could be considered morning. He yawned as he opened his golden eyes, his fangs glinting in the sunlight. It had stopped storming sometime after sunrise and was only a calm rain now. Rin was still wrapped around him sleeping peacefully against him as he held her small form in his arms.

A smile shown in his eyes, the only place emotion was ever seen. His face was as blank as ever, though his golden orbs brightened and shined as he looked down upon the girl in his arms. He remembered her words from last night and felt somehow privileged that she had sought him out for comfort during her time of fear. He tucked a lock of her dark and mussed hair behind her small rounded ear and ran his claws through her dark locks, combing the knots out of her dark strands.

Sesshoumaru brushed the backs of his fingers down her silky soft cheek as he watched her sleep. Somehow in the short time that she had been with him he had found that he had come to need her presence. Her words from last night ran through his mind, and though filled with fear; when he heard her say ‘pappa' call him 'pappa’, he felt his heart swell.

Who was this human child to make him feel such things? How was it that he had come to need her? Why was it that in his own thoughts he often referred to her as ‘his pup’ rather than ‘that human child’ as he had in the beginning? He remembered shortly after he had revived her that he asked her age. She had held up her hand and spread apart her fingers and said ‘this many’ with a proud smile. Only five. This tiny little human girl had somehow become his pup. She’d been with him for nearly ten months now and it occurred to him that he didn’t even know her birth date.

He had seen in his travels that it was important to humans to celebrate the passing of their years. It was important for youkai too, but he’d always heard human children comparing their birthdates. While he didn’t understand the significance of the comparison of dates, he did understand the day’s importance to the person.

His eyes softened and he didn’t realize that his cold façade had dropped. A soft smile pulled at his lips, it was so soft that none would have noticed but it was there all the same. He leant his head forward and kissed the sleeping girl’s forehead. She was snoring softly, it wasn’t audible to human ears, but he was youkai and had no problem hearing it. Her soft breaths puff against his skin and he felt a warmth he hadn’t felt in years seep through him.

He remembered when he was younger, not much older then Rin was now, he had gotten injured when he fell from the top of the hundred year old tree sitting outside the window of the chambers he’d had as a youth. He had woken up one spring morning to see the tree outside his room, the room Rin now occupied, in full bloom. He wanted to smell the flowers of the tree, wanted to be in the tree and sit among the buds and blooms.

He had climbed into the tree and cried out when the branch he was on broke beneath him and he fell the nearly sixth feet to the ground below. He had crashed through the branches and clawed at the larger ones but was unable to stop his own tumbling descent. The ground below was what had finally stopped his fall, but by that time he had already cracked three of his ribs and broken his arm.

His father had run to his side and scooped his small form gently into his powerful arms as he rushed his son to the palace healer, the same one in fact whom Rin had become so fond of spending time around if Sesshoumaru were too busy to spend time with her. His eyes smiled as he thought of how she was learning the healer’s craft, though the female deer youkai made it a game or a puzzle to the child. Rin’s kind heart would make her a wonderful healer in her own right.

His eyes clouded over as he thought of how he had struggled not to cry when the healer had set his small arm and splinted it. He still remembered the pain and knew that the experiences of childhood were never forgotten. It had been that day that his father had told him the one thing he had never understood until now.

“Someday my son, you will have a pup of your own. And when you do, you will worry over every cut, every nightmare, and you will wonder about that pup’s care whenever you are not near them.”

“Is that why you were so worried father?”

“That is why I always worry my son.”


And that is why I worry now, Sesshoumaru thought as he kissed Rin’s hair and watched her sleep. He couldn’t bring himself to wake her, even if it was only so that she could eat. She moaned softly in her sleep and snuggled closer to him, her head turning to the side as her small fist came up to rub her eye. Her eyes remained closed as her hand fell away and she yawned widely.

A soft smile lightened his eyes and pulled at his lips as he watched her slow ascent into wakefulness. She yawned again as her body pulled tight against him and then stretched out as she stretched and rubbed her eyes with her tiny fists. She moaned again and stilled as her eyes fluttered open.

“Shh,” he whispered softly when he heard her heart began to speed up. “It’s alright Rin you’re safe,” he soothed and her heart slowed down to a more normal pace.

“Pa -” she stopped herself as she realized her folly.

She had almost called him Pappa. She had come to think of her Lord Sesshoumaru as that in her mind, but how would he react if she called him that? Would he think her disrespectful? She felt the pressure of his lips against her forehead as he kissed her and looked up thoughtfully at him. She noticed the smile in his eyes and a cautious smile spread upon her own lips.

“You may call me that if you wish,” he allowed, his voice still soft, unwilling to break the peaceful atmosphere.

“Rin can call you pappa?” she asked with cautious hope in her voice and eyes.

Sesshoumaru smiled softly at her and closed his eyes as he nodded once and looked upon her. Rin’s eyes widened and her mouth formed a ‘oh’ as she lay still for a moment in his arms. Her stillness would not last long though. She wrapped her arms tight around his neck and hugged him tight as she mumbled unintelligibly against his neck. She giggled as she pulled back.

“You are Rin’s pappa,” she said happily as she looked into his golden eyes.

“Yes,” he said and brushed her hair behind her shoulder. “And you are my pup.”

Rin’s smile brightened as she bit her bottom lip, the look all too endearing and he allowed his cold mask to drop in this moment of privacy. He smiled at her and her eyes grew large and she gasped. Her small hands came up to hold his cheeks and she giggled happily.

“Rin knew you could smile! Oh you are pretty when you smile. Please smile more for Rin?” she asked her eyes searching his and he gazed down at her gently.

“Only for you Rin. I shall only smile for you.”

Rin understood what he meant and hugged him tight against her as she smiled and giggled. She was made so ecstatically happy by his one show of emotion; just a smile was all that was needed to make her so giddy with emotion. He smiled against her neck as she continued to hug him and he soon felt her begin to shake in his arms as he felt tears on his skin. He pulled back worriedly and held her small face in his large hands as he tried to understand what it was that made her cry.

“Rin what is wrong?” he asked worriedly.

Rin shook her head and swiped at her face with her hands to wipe away her tears, though it was all for naught as more tears fell.

“Rin is happy. Rin has a pappa again. Rin will never be alone again. Rin cries because Rin is happy.”

She cried more and hugged herself tight to her new father as he pressed his face into her neck. He had long ago imprinted her scent in his mind, so strong was his knowledge of her scent to him that he never even had to think of who the scent belonged to. Flowers, sunrise, youth and spring rain that was his Rin. That was her scent. Though now he took in her scent again for a different reason. This time, instead of just acknowledging her scent as being Rin, he imprinted it as belonging to ‘his pup’. At the same time he let youkai aura out enough to imprint his own scent upon her enough to protect her and mark her as pack.

He pulled back and lifted her small hand to his face. He used one claw to press a tiny cut into her palm, just barely deep enough to draw out one drop of blood. He kissed her forehead after licking her blood clean from her palm and closing the cut with the healing nature of his saliva. He had marked her in the same way that any parent marked their pup. He and his youkai both knew the taste and scent of her now. She her blood ever be shed, or should she ever be hurt, there would never be any doubt to him as to where she was or who it was that hurt her.

She was a part of him now; his youkai drew her in and protected her with its aura, with its scent. He took her into his heart and held her close.

“No Rin, you shall never be alone again.”