InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A new beginning, a new hope ❯ Love conquers all ( Chapter 24 )

Hi all,

 

Isn't Tomoko (of course not her real name) just the most amazing girl?

 

I'm still waiting for her exam results. Hope she does better this time.

 

Maybe you would have guessed it already. That lousy pianist was none other than myself. Ha Ha. I've learnt the piano all my life but it always feels like I'm playing it with my feet.

 

Next time, I'm going to pay for a better pianist for her. Anyway, she would have gone to a much higher grade. I think I'll kill myself playing it. *stick out tongue*

 

 

 

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Rin pushed at the door knob and stepped into her bedroom finding that Sesshoumaru was there sitting on her bed looking right in her direction. She let her gaze travel over his well-built frame and then paused for a moment to capture a mental photograph of him with her eyes, not intending to leave out any single little detail. In this way, she'll never forget how he looked. This might well be the last time she'll see him.

 

She will tell him her decision tonight.

 

She wasn't sure how long she'll be able to hold out long enough to complete what she meant to say.

 

The faster the better, Rin knew this internally, before she had a change of hearts.

 

Taking a deep soothing breath, she braced herself.

 

No tears, she warned and reminded herself.

 

Sesshoumaru did not speak, preferring to observe the girl's moods a little more. But he had no luck. He couldn't tell a thing. She must have caught on some of his dispassionate traits after all these years with him.

 

Rin kept her silence as well, not knowing how to initiate this all-too agonizing conversation. She paced swiftly to her chair, sat down and began drying her hair, inelegantly fumbling as she covered the areas owing to the intensity of her inner torment.

 

She felt a hand clasping hers. Without much consideration, Sesshoumaru had moved up and took over, like he'd always done. Still, neither spoke.

 

A rational part of her wanted to stop him but yet another force wrestled and drew her back.

 

Just this last time, she comforted, trembling and fighting back her tears, let me remember him doing this one last time.

 

While at it, Sesshoumaru did not fail to concurrently register all that the girl was displaying with his amberish eyes. He shook his head, let go of the towel and brought her cheeks to rest on his soft downy fur.

 

Rin did not have much luck rebelling against that too.

 

Gosh! She was so weak in his presence. Will she have the strength to mouth all those words she had planned?

 

“Why Rin why?” Sesshoumaru stroked against her hair while heaving an inaudible sigh. “Is my Rin truly unable to endure a little setback as this? I do not recall her being so easily defeated?”

 

Rin cringed at that over sympathetic remark with a hidden tinge of accusation.

 

“I've failed Tomoko. She had so high hopes and I crushed it with my own hands.” Her voice was observantly strained.

 

“You have done your best, haven't you?” Sesshoumaru crooned earnestly, but not knowing what else he could say at this moment. He was never good at words, especially in counseling.

 

“Yes. But, what if my best isn't good enough, Sesshoumaru-sama?” Rin stared blankly at him, as though lost in a strange world. But the demon picked up the lack of sensation in her tone.

 

She's more affected by this than I thought, he pondered somewhat fretfully.

 

He held her by the shoulder close to him and raised her chin so that he could search her eyes thoroughly.

 

His brows creased as Rin continued.

 

“What happens when my best isn't good enough? It wasn't good enough for Tomoko. Neither will it ever be good enough for you.” She choked on her last statement as her throat started lumping up.

 

What? Why is she talking like this? What's she getting at? A sense of disquiet unrest congregated in his chest.

 

“Who dares say that you're not good enough for me?” His feral eyes flickered with unrestrained agitation.

 

Rin just gave him something between a resigned snigger and a strangled sob, looking away self consciously at the same time.

 

It was clear as day now to the demon lord that the girl was not adapting well in this new age. He'd never seen her so disheartened except…. that same look of despondence on the day he found her at the flower meadow, the one he swore to his own blood silently he'll personally see to it that it shall never occur again.

 

“Ikuzo, let's go. We'll return home now. You will not stay here any longer.” Not waiting for any form of acceptance on the girl's part, Sesshoumaru was all ready to carry her, heading straight for the well.

 

Rin clenched her teeth, a mass of suffocated air stuck in her chest.

 

“I can't. I told you. I'll not make a befitting mate for you.” She insisted defensively, still avoiding direct visual contact.

 

“That is for me to decide.” Sesshoumaru answered with an obvious hint of assertion.

 

Rin shrugged free from his grip, not convinced.

 

“But… I'm not the same anymore. I've changed after these years. I don't know if I can…”

 

The demon placed a finger on her lips, preventing her to carry on such doubtful self depreciating speeches.

 

Enough of this kind of talk. He'll seek to appease her and end it this night!

 

“I don't care about how you have changed. To me, you'll always be the same Rin that I brought back, the same Rin that I care for, the Rin that I…. love.” He finished with his eyelids significantly lowered, his last word so hushed, almost shy.

 

He said it again. He said he loves me. Rin gulped as a renewed heated emotion cruised through her veins. But she forced herself to dismiss it

 

“But my lord, I'm but human. My life force is weak, prone to age, sickness and death. I'll be taken from you sooner than you know it.” Rin couldn't restrain herself from making known her greatest concern.

 

For a split second, Sesshoumaru was taken aback by this untimely reminder of reality.

 

Perhaps the girl felt that he was only after her youth and beauty? Was he that shallow to her?

 

Sesshoumaru was tussling between an uprising of indignant anguish and hurt.

 

Then why? He posed the question rather solemnly back to himself. Why was he attracted to her then?

 

And he had the answer.

 

Since she was a child, Rin had delighted in the simplest things of life, not at all captivated by power, wealth or extravagance like most others he'd seen. That was what set her apart from the very beginning he had encountered her. She wouldn't be with him because of his status and even if there come a day where he would lose everything that he had, there'll be comfort in knowing that she'll never be shaken.

 

More importantly, though the demon lord's pride will never allow himself to admit, he was deeply hurt as a pup when his most honored and respected father had chosen a mortal woman and her half breed son over him. Since young, he was left to survive on his own without a real family that was there for him. Still his chauvinistic pride made him hold his head high, as though he possessed the world in his hand, never once revealing the very weakness that had empted his heart and soul.

 

If even your closest keen can discard you, leaving you to struggle through all elements, then how can he ever trust another person, especially one who has absolutely no relations with him? What more can he expect of others?

 

That was precisely why he had never felt he needed a partner, a mate. He didn't have the confidence and most of all, deep within, he feared just like any other little boys, he feared to suffer that same heartache again, the headache of being disposed of after being fully exploited by one he loved.

 

But Rin, she was different, he had grown to be sure of that. He had watched her all these years as she waited ever so patiently and fervently each time he left her to go in battle, deliberately not giving her details of what he was doing and when he would return. No doubt he had her safety in mind. But on the other hand, a part of him was eager to test her out. But never once had she disappointed him, never had she left her spot, no matter how long he took, he'll always find her where he had left off.

 

At this point, a sudden realization struck him.

 

No, he countered.

 

Sesshoumaru understood what the girl was trying to voice out. It wasn't her frailty she feared and it wasn't him she did not trust. She wasn't worried about a possible sorrowful end for herself.

 

It was him she was considering for.

 

She was troubled and torn about not being able to be there for him through his long youkai life!

 

Sesshoumaru threw her an incredulous look filled with a contrasting unspoken tenderness.

 

“Rin, do you have so little faith in me, in us?”

 

With that, he reached into one of his sleeves and retrieved one tiny glowing object, holding it up to her level.

 

Rin gasped, her hazel eyes bolted so wide that her elongated lashes were curled up against her skin.

 

The dreamer's stone. And it's….

 

With immense curiosity, she took the pebble in her palm and studied it scrupulously. It was no longer just half but a whole piece sealed together and strung as a necklace. The fine line between the two sections was still indistinctly visible. However, the craftsmanship was exquisite.

 

How did he find it? She kept repeating that same question again and again in her mind.

 

 

“How did you….?” Rin tried to mouth her enquiry. She couldn't suppress the urge to find out.

 

Sesshoumaru was silent for a moment, his crimson strips were flushed and turned to a darker red.

 

“I…,” He stuttered but did not carry on and Rin waited. He seemed a little…. embarrassed, she noted.

 

“That morning, I went back for it.” He finally confessed. “And it had been with me since.”

 

What? He went to look for it after he rescued her that fateful day? He had kept it with him secretly all these years? Then… like herself, he too kindled that faint hope of their future together.

 

Rin couldn't believe what she'd just heard. No doubt, she was greatly moved.

 

Before she could control it, a tear drop fell from the corner of her eyes, and then, another followed. Soon, Rin's cheeks were completely drenched with the uncontrollable fluid.

 

The dreamer's stone… Will it really unite all who are truly in love? If so, then, is there hope for them?

 

“Will you…,” Sesshoumaru knew this was the right moment. “… be my bride?”

 

He spoke in a faint whisper and guided both her palms to hold on to the stone as he wrapped his own round hers. Even when it was totally concealed, the radiant glimmer from the pebble was still clearly perceptible through the crevices of their fingers.

 

Rin was now stifling her sobs. She had one more query, one last thing she just had to clarify.

 

“What about our children? You'll never have heirs of purest blood. They'll be hanyous.”

 

“Yes, they'll never be the most powerful youkais.” Sesshoumaru sounded too bland, too discerning and Rin wept all the more profusely.

 

Sesshoumaru brushed off her tears ever so gently and locked her gaze with his.

 

Hanyous eh? He laughed to himself. Even he was impressed how this did not seem to matter anymore to him. He could live with that. The only thing he couldn't live with was without her.

 

“But, they'll forever be dearest in my heart.” He finished in the most assuring tone Rin had ever heard.

 

Sesshoumaru bent forward seemingly wanting to kiss her and Rin instinctively backed off a few inches. But he wittedly placed his hand behind her head and brought her shivering form in as he sealed his lips with hers, half teasing and luring her, deepening his caress gradually by the second.

 

Rin's resolve softened, her protective walls crumbling about her and she was sinking … and sinking…

 

Then, all of a sudden, he felt it.

 

Rin… she was responding. She was kissing him back!

 

At that, he pulled her closer into a tight hug with uncontained exhilaration as their lips continued to catch and mingle with increasing sureness.

 

Is that a yes? Sesshoumaru was trying to mask his all-too-soon excitement.

 

He released her mouth and found that Rin was looking down purposefully shunning him. But he caught a glimpse of the redness at the corner of her ear. This time, Sesshoumaru made a formal proposal.

 

“Rin, would you be willing to take the status as the daughter-in-law of the eldest son and heir to the Great Inu no Taisho, Lord of the Western lands?”

 

Rin made up her mind and the moment she did that, there was an indescribable lightness and peace in her heart. And she knew--- that was the right decision. She had never felt so sure about anything before.

 

“Yes.” The word was extremely muffled but Sesshoumaru heard it all the same.

 

Rin was now looking straight into his eyes, no longer turning away, and she presented him the most beautiful smile he was sure he'd ever seen.

 

For several minutes, they merely regarded each other with a profound serenity and contentment, both wishing to cherish this treasured instant in their hearts forever.

 

The silence was abruptly broken by something Rin had to add.

 

“I know my inadequacies that I'll never be like you. I can never change who I am and I understand that.”

 

Rin looked up and found Sesshoumaru appear to be listening intently.

 

“I was meant to have died, but you brought me back. Many times, I have asked myself why was such a gift bestowed upon me, the gift of renewed life, the gift of you? But I realized that my meeting you was not just a stroke of coincidence. I live because of you but now… I want you to live too.”

 

Sesshoumaru nuzzled her chin lovingly, still wishing to hear more.

 

“Sesshoumaru, I want you to be happy, to smile a little more each day, to feel a little more. I don't know what else I can do for you. But… you'll always have me by your side, till the day I breathe my last.”

 

The girl found herself in Sesshoumaru's encircling embrace again as she nestled closer into his chest.

 

Rin, she was indeed the warmest, most satisfying woman one can ever have. Sesshoumaru felt the brilliance in her soul influencing and filling his entire being.

 

What had he ever done to deserve her? She was his greatest victory, his most precious possession, his most endearing….. gift???

 

Sesshoumaru's breath hitched with an instant enlightenment.

 

Chichiue. His father!

 

If he hadn't inherited the Tenseiga, if Chichiue hadn't left him this source of healing, then he would never be able to experience all this. He would never have her.

 

Suddenly, everything seemed all so clear to him now, the mysteries hovering round his father's queer will.

 

His crimson cheeks stretched out a smile.

 

How stupid he had been all these times, allowing himself to be so blinded so quickly, and wallowing in envy, hate and self pity. In the midst of all these resentment and disgust, he had failed to see the most important point.

 

The gift of life is much more powerful and valuable than the ability to take it away.

 

He was never short-changed.

 

His father had never favor Inuyasha over him.

 

All these while, HE was the one with the better sword.

 

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Hi,

 

For those who hadn't read the first part Kagura's resolution, Sesshoumaru's heart, the dreamer's stone was something that was brought over from there. So if you wanna find out more, you could check it out.

 

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