InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Captive Soul ❯ chapter 37 ( Chapter 37 )

A/N: Sorry folks for the long update.

A/N: I would like to so sincerely thank my beta for helping me. autumnfire! you are the greatest! Thank you! ^_^.

Happy holidays to all!!!

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of it's characters.

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Chapter 37: What is Love?

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S he was alone. Even in the waking from sleep, Rin knew Sesshomaru was not there. Her eyes fluttered open to midmorning light shining in from the window beside her bed. Blinking, she scanned the half crumpled covers for a moment, noting his absence. With growing concern, Rin sat up in bed and glanced at the clock which read a little past nine. Where could he be? The last thing she remembered was going to sleep in the hammock with him. Obviously, he had brought her here last night, but, why had he not slept with her?

Rin slid out from under the blankets and off the bed. Silently, she padded out of her bedroom and down the hall. Upon nearing his room, Rin noticed his door was wide open. She slowed, tiptoeing until she reached the door facing. Curiously, Rin peeked around it. The first thing to catch her eye was white lace fluttering in the wind from the open window. The next thing to grab her attention was the figure standing close to the balcony door, dressed in the white flowing garment he had worn at the banquet and staring out the paned glass, expressionless.

Rin stepped into the room. "Sess?"

He did not answer, more so he did not seem to hear.

She quietly eased over to stand beside him and looked up to vacant dazed amber eyes laced with mornings light.

For several minutes those golden depths gazed past the windowed glass before he spoke. "Rin."

Rin reached for his hand, grasped the warmth of it and lightly squeezed once. "Yes?"

"You...Love me?"

Within the question, Rin sensed a softness, a deep longing for something. She smiled. "Yes."

The tall inu youkai slowly lowered his gaze to hers. He blinked once. "What is this...Love... that you speak of? I know it is a term of endearment to humans. I know that when you say it, it means you want to be my life mate....But I do not understand...what it is. Can you tell me...what Love is?"

Rin looked away for a moment, blinking back the tiny bit of moisture that threatened to blur her vision. He was a demon after all. They did have different ways. He did not completely understand what she felt, that didn't mean he did not feel the same way. He loved her. She knew he did. He just didn't understand that what he felt was...Love.

With an inward sigh, she smiled up to him. "Love is..." Rin paused, the defintion of something so...unexplainable... hindering her reply. She bit her lower lip. How could she describe a feeling that made her spirit float and her life complete? For a long moment, she searched her heart, grasping for the right words to give. Finally, Rin found them. "What I feel for you is called...Love. In human terms, Love is a gift, a presense, and an emotion. This presense overflows my spirit. This emotion moves my heart. This gift is only for you. What I feel is endless timeless and pure, beautiful sacred and real. I love you and only you."

Rin placed his hand over her heart, his palm flat against her chest. "You are here...and always will be."

He removed his hand from her heart, pulled her close, then embraced her in warmth. He whispered, faint yet determined, a delicate rumble from his chest. "This...emotion...I have for you...is...real...to me."

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Inuyasha scratched the back of his ear while driving.

Something nudged his elbow. He glanced to see the young woman dressed in miko's robes quirking a brow. "If you keep doing that you are going to rub all the fur off the back of your ear."

His cheeks warmed up. "Heh, bad habit. It started a few months ago."

The young woman shook her head. "You probably do that when you get nervous. Are you nervous about the removal?"

He swallowed while lowering his hand back to the steering wheel. "Not so much the removal as...Sess...I don't think he knows I know about his restraint. Or if he does think I know, he's not saying anything. Either way, he will not be happy about me being there."

Kagome shrugged. "He will have to deal with it. We have to get it off of him. For some reason I feel it is imperitive we do it now. The last few times I was around him, I could feel a disturbance, as if the fabric of his demon energy was....unraveling. The spell on the restraint may be getting....wary. I know that sounds weird but with magic like this... anything is possible."

With curious concern, Inuyasha glanced at the young miko. "You are highly sensitive to that sort of stuff, aren't you? You can feel...disturbances... in other demons...and...hanyous?"

Kagome looked away. "Yea, I can sense things. Kaede told me not many other miko's can do that. She said I am one of the few with that talent."

Now he was becoming nervous. He had allowed Kagome to...roam in his spirit...What had she seen? Did she know what had happened between him and Kikyo? Inuyasha caught himself before his fingers reached for his ear again. Clearing his throat, he asked. "So...uh...have you...sensed any disturbances.. in me?"

She looked back at him with a small smile. "I sensed things in you. Yes."

"Like?"

"Your human half transends your youkai half."

"I pretty much figured that, Kagome. What else?"

The young woman averted her attention away from him, past the windshield to the clouds above. "The spirit is as vast as the sky. It has...feelings coloring it. You have many colors."

Now she was acting like a true miko, talking in riddles. It was somewhat irritating. "Awe, come on ,Kagome, don't pull that miko stuff on me. Tell me what you saw...please?"

She sighed lightly. "Inuyasha, I sensed many emotions on your human half, some were bright and alive, a lone few were dark and burried. Several emotions have invaded your demon side, tainting it in a good way, but one black cloud of sadness overshadowed it all."

Inuyasha gulped in astonishment. She had seen all of that in one brief touch? What would happen if they...

His face heated up all the way to burn at the tips of his ears. What was he thinking!? Like they would be doing that anytime soon.

Then he remembered. They had kissed! Well, she had kissed him. It had been a brief chast peck of excitement, but...it had been a...kiss. It had been a nice kiss....

He mentally shook himself. He was getting off the subject. Kagome had kissed him, but nothing bad or weird had happened. When she had seen all that stuff, she had purposely delved into his spirit with his permission. At that time he had felt her within. Therefore, he would feel it if she ventured there again. But Kagome wouldn't do that without asking and she was in complete control of her powers so...she would never do it accidentally.

Inuyasha let out a silent breath of relief then glanced at the young miko who was now flipping through one of the old leather bound books she had brought. "You saw all that, huh?"

She nodded. "Yep."

"So, uh, what does your boyfriend think of you being a miko?"

Kagome turned a page then offhandedly replied while scanning. "I don't have a boyfriend."

At first, he mentally danced. 'Yes!' Then another thought struck him. Kagome was a fully trained miko. She may have been taught the old ways. He built up the courage to veil a question within a statement. "Uh, I guess you...being a miko and all...you can't really have...a boyfriend... or mate, huh."

The young miko peered up from the book, her brows drawn together in question. "Huh? Well, no, I do not follow the old ways. I can have a boyfriend or mate if I choose. Purity is measured by the soul, not by the body or flesh anymore. If my soul remains pure, I can marry."

Again, heat warmed his cheeks and face as he tried to act like it was just a normal conversation and he was just asking about the topic. "Uh, really? So, you have had...boyfriends?"

She nodded. "I have dated some."

"Did you ever think about getting mated?"

"With one, sort of, but we were not right for each other."

"If it's not too personal a question. Was he a youkai or hanyou?"

"No. He was human."

Inuyasha chanced another question. "Can you have a hanyou or youkai boyfriend or mate?"

She smiled a little in curiosity, a faint tinge of pink highlighting her cheeks. "Yes."

"Does that mean you would ,uh, have a hanyou boyfriend?"

Her brows rose and her smile widened. "Perhaps."

"Perhaps?"

Kagome tilted her head a touch to the side, her wide smile slipped into the cutest smirk. "If one asked, I might consider agreeing to be his... girlfriend."

Inuyasha smiled. "I'll remember that." Inwardly, he grinned wider, knowing exactly what he was going to do once all this with his half-brother was settled. He was going to ask the beautiful female sitting next to him to be his...girlfriend. Well, it was a first step after all. Maybe, Kagome would...say yes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ < p>Rin backed up from Sesshoumaru with a small smile. "I need to get ready. Are you hungry? Do you want me to fix you some breakfast?"

The inu youkai seemed reluctant to let her go but released her from the embrace. He straightened and blinked once, his features were calm, almost void of emotion. "No."

With a nod, Rin turned and left, heading for her room. She needed a shower. Kagome and Inuyasha were due in an hour and a half.

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He had been so very quiet. It was beginning to worry her. For the past hour, he had stood in the garden, staring up to the cloudy sky. Rin watched him from the window above her sink as she dried some dishes. The wind danced about his tall form, whipping his silver hair which had dulled to a grayish blue under the absense of the sun. The sun had chosen to hide from them this morning. It had disappeared behind dark gray clouds leaving the feel of an approaching storm to hang in the air.

A frown tugged at her lips. What could be going through his mind? He seemed to be separating himself from her, putting a distance between them. Was he worried? Probably. He had changed so much in the past week. His demeanor had... strengthened. The inu youkai she had met in the marketplace was not the same one she was watching now. No longer did he bow. No longer did he kneel at her feet. No longer did he cringe in fear. His stance radiated power and regal beauty. A part of her felt good that Sesshomaru had come out of that fog but another part of her felt..differently. Would he always be this reserved? Would he always be so...separate...from everyone? Obviously he was a loner at heart. Probably had been before he was subjugated. Maybe he would warm up after the collar was removed. Maybe and maybe not. At least he showed emotion around her. It was strange how when anyone else came around, his countenance went frigid and his features became unreadable.

Rin sighed.

The doorbell rang.

She placed the dishtowel on the counter by the sink then left the kitchen, heading for the front door.

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Rin opened the door to find Kagome in her miko robes, smiling, with Inuyasha standing behind her. Her sister was shouldering her bow and quiver of arrows. "Uh, sis, is all of this...necessary?"

Kagome gave a nod. "Well, it may help, in case of an emergency."

Rin shrugged, not really wanting to ask what kind of emergency they may run into. She was nervous enough.

Backing up, Rin gestured for them to enter. "Come on in. Sess is in the garden, waiting."

When Inuyasha followed Kagome into the foyer, Rin couldn't help but stare.

The hanyou smiled sheepishly, his perky cat-like ears flattening against his head for a second. "Uh, heh, it's my fire rat robe, it's kinda old, about six hundred years old. It's for...protection."

Rin smiled and shook her head. "I guess I am the only one not dressed for the occasion. You, Kagome and Sess all look like you have slipped through a hole in time while I am wearing blue jeans."

Kagome turned to her. "Are you ready, Rin?"

Rin let out a heavy anxious breath. "As ready as I'll ever be."

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As Rin stepped out the sliding glass door with Kagome and Inuyasha close behind, a solid gust of wind warmed her face and brushed against her clothes. She glanced up to the sky. The clouds were dark and swollen as if threatening to spill their heavy burden at any moment. They rolled with rising turbulance.

A hint of thunder rumbled in the distance.

Even though the clouds threatened with dark brooding rumbles, it did not feel like it was going to rain. It only seemed to be a whispering warning, the sweet wind from the very edge of a restrained storm.

While they walked down the path that would take them to the center of her garden, Rin wondered why the weather had taken such an odd turn.

Rin spotted Sesshomaru in the large cobblestone circle, motionles while rigidly staring at the surging sky. The wind thrashed about him, coursing over the billowy ivory that he wore and sifting through the silvery blue strands of his hair.

She stepped up to the reserved inu youkai then stopped. "Sess? It's time."

His gaze did not falter from the swelling chaos above. He spoke, his words cold and flat. "What is he doing here?"

Biting her bottom lip, Rin peered up to him apologetically. "He asked to come and Kagome agreed."

A scowl of annoyance darkened his features for an instant. "Very well." The ice cold depths of gold fell from their steadfast watch of the stormy sky. The moment the icy gaze locked with hers, it secretly warmed.She gave him a questioning smile. "Ready?"

He inclined his head forward a touch, an almost unnoticable nod. "Yes."

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