InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cursed ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

CHAPTER TWO - INTERNSHIP

“You're crazy, Rin. Certifiably insane,” Kagome's voice buzzed angrily through the earpiece of Rin's cell phone. With her motorcycle helmet on, she could hear her rather well even over the roar of her bike.

“You weren't there. You don't know how it was. I - I had to do it,” she said even as her eyes stayed on the curving, two-lane highway that spooled out before her like a length of ribbon cutting through the nighted forest.

After Sesshoumaru had made the initial statement about taking Rin, it had gone silent in her father's office. The phrase `could hear a pin drop' suddenly made sense to Rin. Then everyone was talking at once or so it seemed. Jake was shouting something about Sesshoumaru not being serious though his gaze flickered over to Rin like he wished Sesshoumaru were serious and he would give Rin over to him in a second. Steven was claiming that such a deal couldn't be legal in his dry, pedantic way. Their father was loudly proclaiming he would never give Rin over, his complexion going as ruddy as it had been gray a few minutes ago. Rin was sure that he said something like `no way!' but his voice was lost in the babble of the others. Sesshoumaru merely smiled.

“Truly, you won't even consider it?” Sesshoumaru asked his smooth as smoke and aged cognac voice rising above the others effortlessly even though he wasn't shouting.

“Give you my daughter? Are you mad?” Her father chortled.

Her brothers nodded their heads in agreement with her father's statements. Rin glowed with pride. Her father and brothers really seemed to be sticking up for her, recognizing her as something valuable, and a part of the family. For one bright shining moment, Rin felt connected to them in a way she never had before.

“For a year. A single year.” Sesshoumaru spread his arms expansively.“Think of it as an internship … and she'll even get paid, which is so very rare these days. Her payment will be your family's survival. You might even thrive.”

“I don't understand. What are you offering here?” His father's golden eyes suddenly had that predatory look he got when he was as arguing a deal.

“Dad? Why listen to him? We aren't doing this no matter what he says!” Rin cried, but a small sliver of ice formed in her belly. Could her father really be considering this? The man had just gone from `never!' to `well, wait, what you are offering?' She glanced at her brothers. Jake was looking up at her father with that faintly desperate avaricious look. Steven straightened.

They're wondering the same thing. No, they're wondering if Dad IS listening to him because he's interested.

“I just want to know what crazy plan he's offering, that's all, Rin.” Her father exuded that false bonhomie that he used on underlings that sensed they were about to get a shit job.

Her father put an arm around Rin's shoulders, but instead of feeling warmed by the action, Rin felt trapped. But shrugging off her father's arm in front of Sesshoumaru would be a weakness. It would reveal a crack in their family facade. Sesshoumaru though seemed to know exactly how Rin felt. He had pulled the hood up to more fully hide his face, but there was a knowing smile on his full mouth.

“What I am offering is simply this. Rin will stay with me for one year. She will live on my estate and do whatever I ask -”

“I'm not sleeping with you!” Rin snapped. “If that's what this is all about thinking you're going to have an easy lay -”

“You are not to my taste,” Sesshoumaru interrupted and his lips writhed back from his teeth. They were white and sharp. But the heavy-hooded looks he had given Rin since the young woman had walked into the room belied that statement somewhat. Not to mention calling her `beautiful' and 'pretty' several times.

Rin threw up her hands. “What the Hell am I even worried about? We're not doing this so it doesn't matter what little fantasies you've got going on in your head!”

Her father squeezed her shoulder and said, “Let the man finish, Rin. I think it's clear that he's not looking for - ah, companionship in all this. Please continue, Sesshoumaru.”

But Rin burst out, “We're not--”

“I notice that you keep saying `we' as if your family is involved in this decision,” Sesshoumaru said to Rin.

“Well, I guess it's my decision, but I mean, we're family,” Rin said as if that would convey some Norman Rockwell-esque flavor to her very dysfunction clan.

But I do feel this way even if they don't. Even if they'll run me out. I keep hoping that things will change. Maybe the change is acting like we're a family and they'll go along with it.

Sesshoumaru nodded. “So you are devoted to your family? You want to see them do well? You certainly don't want to see them out on the street, begging for coins with tin cups in their hands?”

“No! But I'm not going to be your slave for a year to -”

“I see. Your devotion only goes so far. Interesting.” Sesshoumaru leaned casually back against her father's desk.

“You've got to be kidding! You're trying to turn this around on me?” Rin's shoulder straightened. Was Sesshoumaru questioning her motives? “You're the one who -”

“Who has absolutely no duty to help your family? I have quite the opposite feelings. They are my enemies, after all.” Sesshoumaru said.

“Rin, Rin, it's all right. Don't get yourself all worked up here,” her father said.

Rin did shake off her father's hand that time and took a few steps away. Her skin was jumping between her shoulder blades. Why was her father even indulging Sesshoumaru in this way? Was he recording this conversation for blackmail later? She knew that her father had done something like that at one point.

Maybe he's letting Sesshoumaru dig his own grave. Fine. I can play along with this.

But she still felt pained. Her nostrils flared and the urge to flee was heavy upon her. Her brothers were standing still as statues while her father drifted over to the silver serving cart where the cognac was kept. He poured himself a snifter full, but didn't offer a drink to anyone else. Rin felt like she wanted to upend the decanter into her mouth.

“I don't think your daughter likes when you discount her feelings.” Sesshoumaru remarked mildly.

“I'm not. But the thing is that I already know what Rin is going to -- understandably -- say, but I admit that I have no idea what you are going to.” Her father took a large swallow of cognac.

“And you always want as much Intel as you can possibly have. Or maybe it's because you either listen to my offer or start packing your bags. Only what you can carry, of course, because the cars aren't paid for either.” Sesshoumaru's Siberian golden eyes flared.

Do we own anything? Even the clothes on our backs? Rin felt a wave of despair hit her. She had always assumed that her father and brothers understood money. But now it seemed all they understood was debt and how to rack up so much of it that it became a tsunami of bills due.

“I'm always willing to listen, Sesshoumaru. You might not appreciate my business practices, but surely you noticed that I'm not a one-trick pony. I can adjust. My strategies are not set in stone,” her father said. There was a hint of her father's old business flair.

He's really acting like this is a deal he can make.

“You are truly a fluid creature, Charles.” Sesshoumaru murmured.

“So lay out your offer in full. Let us here it.” Her father spread his arms expansively.

“Right to the point. All right. Rin works for me for one year. She lives in my estate. She does whatever I ask of her. She is at my beck and call twenty-four seven.” Sesshoumaru's gaze slid over to Rin. “Which does not include sharing my bed as that has no benefit for me.”

Jake snorted. Rin glared at her older brother. Steven made a tutting sound.

“And what would we receive for this in return?” Her father took another long swallow of cognac.

“Her payment is that the three of you will be given the chance to prove your worth to me. I will give each of you a division of one of my companies. You will have one year's time to show that you understand my philosophies and put them in practice,” Sesshoumaru ticked off the terms on one of his large hands with surprisingly delicate movements. “If you fail you will lose everything. You will be right back here, but there will be no third chance.”

Jake's head jerked up as he heard the deal. He had that hungry, lean look on his face that reminded Rin of a street kid who hadn't eaten in a long time. Steven was seemingly frozen in place while his brain furiously worked. Rin could almost see the wheels in his mind turning even as his eyes were obscured by the reflections of the desk lamp on his glasses.

“And obviously, nothing would happen to Rin? She would be well taken care of? Not harmed in any way?” her father questioned.

“She would have to actually work for a living, but I would not ask of her anything that would harm anything but her pride,” Sesshoumaru answered.

Rin bristled. What the Hell did this man know about here? He acted like Rin was some spoiled little princess! Maybe she'd had it easy compared to a lot of people, but it wasn't like she was afraid to get her hands dirty.

“What happens if we don't take your deal?” Steven asked, ever the practical one.

Sesshoumaru smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. It was a doggish grin. There was something almost feral about the man. Despite a veneer of good breeding, the remnants of a posh accent that hinted of English public school and the well cut suit, Sesshoumaru's nature seemed quite wild.

“You'll be out on the street tomorrow,” Sesshoumaru said.

“But there are rules against stuff like that!” Rin protested. She turned to Steven. “They can't just kick us out of the house even if they foreclosed tomorrow! I'm sure that's true! Steven, tell him!”

But Steven pressed his lips tightly together as if to stop any words from flowing out and shook his head.

“You've lived in Summer Haven all your life and you still think that the rules apply equally to everyone?” Sesshoumaru asked softly. “Or perhaps you've been used to being on the winning side of those rules that you can't even comprehend how unfair and unequal they can be applied?”

“You can't do this!” Rin yelled.

She looked at her brothers and father, expecting them to show the same level of incredulity as she was. But none of them would look at her. Jake kept rubbing his mouth with the back of one hand. Steven stared down at the tablet he held listlessly, unseeing. Their father's gaze was on the floor. They believed Sesshoumaru. They believed that no matter what the rules were, that no matter what was just, that Sesshoumaru would have his way. The saliva dried up in Rin's mouth.

Sesshoumaru drew himself up to his full height again. His voice was low. “I assure you that your family will not have a home tomorrow. What little is left in their bank accounts will be frozen. No friends will take them in. If they have friends. No one will give them a job. Not even at the corner market. And even if they could scrape the coin up to go to another city or town it will be the same there.”

Rin jerked back as if physically struck by the man's words. “Why are you doing this?”

“Do you think that your own family hasn't done the same to countless others? The suffering they have caused around the globe has lined their pockets for many years. I am just paying them back,” Sesshoumaru said with a tight smile. “Think of me as Robin Hood.”

Rin swallowed the bile that had bubbled up in her throat. She had tried not to know the cost of what her family's business had done. She wouldn't even look at the news about jobs lost, lives ruined, and pensions disappeared by keeping her gaze always on the horizon and the time when she would be free.

“We're not the only ones that do business this way, you know,” Jake said suddenly. “Why pick on us? I mean it's clear to me that you were luring us in all the time!”

Their father made a hissing sound and made a snapping movement of his hand towards Jake to keep silent. Jake recoiled and seemed to curl in on himself.

“No, you're not the only ones. And you're not the only ones that I've destroyed for the same thing,” Sesshoumaru answered. His frosty golden gaze swung back towards Rin and there was something unreadable in it. The beautiful marred face seemed rather mask-like at that moment. Then he was turning away towards the windows to look at Rin in the reflection instead of head on. “But you are the only ones I've given a second chance to.”

“Why?” Rin asked.

“I don't honestly know,” Sesshoumaru answered.

“You don't seem like a man who doesn't know what he's doing.” Rin frowned. “Though I'm not sure what's worse: that you planned this out or that you're destroying our lives on a whim.”

Sesshoumaru sounded almost sad as he said, “You think one year of hard labor too much for your family's well-being? If that is your answer then …”

“No, I didn't say that! Just -- just give me a minute,” Rin begged.

Silence fell. There was nothing left for anyone to say except for Rin. Her gaze swung around the room at all of her family. What she saw on their faces was fear. Raw, unbridled fear.

There's no recording device. They aren't trying to trick Sesshoumaru into anything. This is real. This is absolutely real.

Could they all fit into Kagome's loft? Maybe for a night or two, but then what? At that moment, she could very well believe that Sesshoumaru's reach was infinite or that the businessman would make it so. Like an avenging angel he would follow them and make sure his vengeance was met out.

Is he mad or just really pissed that my family tried to take his company? Does he think of his workers? Does he care about them or is all this just an excuse to vent some anger?

Her family wouldn't look at her. She wondered then what they were thinking. If they were given this offer would they accept it to save the others? Some part of her wondered if they would. The irony that her breaking with the business and the money made her safer financially than them was not lost on her. She could walk away from them now. Begin her life alone as she had intended, as her father had said she would if she turned away from the family business. But would she be able to forget them? Would she be at all at peace with herself knowing that for one year's worth of her life she could save all three of theirs?

One year. How bad could it be?

She looked at the powerful line of Sesshoumaru's shoulders and back. She shivered in spite of herself.

“If I do this,” Rin began softly and she saw her father flinch. Was there a look of hope or dismay or perhaps both on his face?

Sesshoumaru's head rose. “If you do this …”

Rin tried to read the businessman's expression in the glass. The full lips were slightly parted as if Sesshoumaru wanted to capture Rin's next words with his teeth. The Siberian golden eyes gleamed in the low light. The puckered, ruined skin seemed to glow.

“If I do this, they'll be okay?” Rin gestured towards her brothers and father.

“They will be given exactly the things I promised.” Sesshoumaru answered.

“And you'd give them a real shot, right? It wouldn't be the deck stacked impossibly high against them or anything?” Rin pressed and she saw a flash of Jake's eager face, wanting this chance, wanting to prove that he could do the impossible.

Sesshoumaru let out an earthy chuckle. “The deck is always stacked against people somewhat. But yes, they will get a fair chance.”

“And whatever you're asking me to do won't be illegal? It won't be to hurt someone else or myself? And it won't be to sleep with you - because believe me that so isn't happening.” Rin sliced her hand through the air.

Sesshoumaru let out a sharp laugh. “From the sheer amount of times you've brought up sleeping with me, I might begin to think that you protest too much against it and perhaps are interested.”

Rin's cheeks flared. “Ah, no. But that's usually what is the main part of these arrangements. It's normally the reason for them, okay?”

“You've heard of many of these arrangements?” Sesshoumaru suppressed a laugh.

Rin flushed hotly again. “Not in real life, no. But … but I'm sure they happen all the time.”

Sesshoumaru chuckled. “The rich and powerful always have someone under duress, don't they? I'm sure you have seen lots of that.”

Rin bridled at the implication that her family was completely avaricious. “My family has never had a live-in slave -- or should I say intern, thanks.”

Sesshoumaru lifted his hands in the air as if in surrender. “I see. I am lower than them then in your eyes.”

Steven gripped his tablet tighter and Rin knew that he was worried Rin was going to blow it if she kept up being so aggressive. She said, “I just want things to be clear between us.”

“You have been crystal,” Sesshoumaru said the word as if it had a taste.

Rin advanced on Sesshoumaru. She saw the man's large shoulders stiffen in surprise as she approached. Her family shot worried glances at her, but she ignored them. Sesshoumaru slowly turned to face Rin. The young woman stopped a foot from him. Sesshoumaru was so much bigger than she was. The man could engulf her in a hug. There was the slightest scent of sandalwood and cinnamon. Exotic spice. Other than the terrible wounds to his face, Sesshoumaru was handsome. Sensual is the word that Rin found when she searched for it. Sesshoumaru was compelling. If Rin had met him under other circumstances she wasn't sure what her reaction would have been.

I wouldn't have known that he's the type to take an indentured servant. Now I do. So no matter how handsome he is, he's still ugly to me.

Rin looked up into that hooded face and didn't blink. “And if you break any one of your promises to me or to them, you forfeit my family's company. It all goes back to them. Are we crystal on that, too?”

“You think you are in a position to make any terms?” Sesshoumaru's heavy-hooded golden eyes stared right back into her.

“I think that you fancy yourself honorable in some weird twisted way,” Rin guessed and the slightest flicker of emotion on Sesshoumaru's face confirmed that. “I think you don't intend to break any of your promises so what's the harm in putting that on the table, too?”

Sesshoumaru studied her for long moments. “All right. Agreed.” The businessman was suddenly spinning away from Rin and heading towards the doorway. He called over his shoulder, “Your father has my estate's address. I expect you there this evening. Do say your goodbyes. Your family's new positions will be emailed to them in a few hours.”

“But what about a contract? Surely, we should write this all down!” Her father cried, reaching out towards Sesshoumaru.

Sesshoumaru laughed. “A contract? In writing? Your daughter in exchange for a job? I think not. Your daughter is wise. I will honor my promises so long as you and she honor yours. That is more than you deserve.”

Sesshoumaru then turned and strode from the room, without a look back, as if he was certain everything would go exactly as he wished it. And they probably will. Rin realized she could smell a faint trace of sandalwood on the wind.

What happened next with her brothers and father, Rin didn't want to think about. She glossed over their grateful yet hollow words to Kagome as she had explained to her what had happened and why she wouldn't be at her place that night or any night for a year. She didn't even tell her how her father had promised to pay her way through art school and get some of his art dealer friends to take an interest in Rin's undoubtedly incredible photography after the year was up. She didn't tell her how then the three of them had turned their backs on her to feverishly check their email and research Sesshoumaru's companies to try and see which ones they would be put in charge of. She didn't tell her how they hardly noticed when she went away. She didn't want her to think that she had done this for her family's love. Because it couldn't matter either way.

This is the right thing to do. If I do this then I am truly free of them no matter what happens.

“What could I have done?” Rin asked out loud to Kagome.

“Ah, how about not becoming an indentured servant! How about that?” She could imagine her shaking a fist in the air in front of her as she paced her loft apartment in Summer Haven. Though she heard her anger, she heard the worry underneath it. This was how people who loved you were supposed to react. She hardly felt the miles between then even as she had left the city far behind as she traveled into the countryside. Vast forest were interspersed with farmland. In the moonlight, everything looked magical and full of possibilities.

“It's an internship, Kagome. That's all," she said.

“Internship in what? Wait, don't answer that! Because you'll tell me again how you're not sleeping with him!” She let out a harsh exhale of hair. She imagined that it would puff up her black bangs. “I thought that the worst that could happen tonight was that you would lose your nerve and give up your dream to be a photographer and become a vulture like your brothers -”

“I would never do that,” Rin interrupted her. She gripped the handles of her bike harder. She felt the leather gloves squeak in protest. Her photography seemed more like a lifeline than ever before.

“Oh, what a relief! You'll never give up photography, but you will give up your freedom!” She was quiet for a moment before she said, almost despairingly, “Rin, I can't believe you've done this. Maybe you can undo it.”

“Unless you want my father and two brothers crashing at your place forever, I'm pretty sure that's not a good idea. Besides Sesshoumaru may destroy your EBay business for helping us.” Rin said the last with a sardonic smile.

“Doesn't that freak you out a little bit? That the guy would go to those lengths? I mean it's crazy! Almost pathological!”

“Considering I'm crazy, too, in your mind, Sesshoumaru and I should get along swimmingly.” Rin reminded her.

“How can you be so calm about this? It must shock. It's got to be shock!”

Rin watched as the moon rose up before her. It silvered the trees on either side of the road. The only sound besides Kagome's voice was the roar of her bike. The vibrations from the road and the pleasant warmth of the motor flowed up her body. She was calm. More than calm. She felt at peace.

“Maybe it is shock,” she answered her, surprised at her own feelings. “Or maybe now I get to live my life without guilt or what it is.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I was going to leave my family before, I felt like I was letting them down,” she said. “I felt selfish about it like I was taking something from them.”

“Oh please! Those three don't care - all right, I'm not going to say it. I'm not going to argue with you about it. Go on.” She imagined her pulling her red sweatshirt tighter around herself as if it were a straight jacket on her feelings about her family.

“They may not deserve what I did, but I did feel it,” Rin explained. “And now … there's no more guilt. No more worry. One year of cleaning Sesshoumaru's toilets and I'm done with my family's business for good. I feel free, Kagome. Seriously, free.”

“You think Sesshoumaru is going to make you clean his toilets?” she asked.

Rin laughed though it wasn't a happy laugh. “From what he said about how he views me - essentially, as a rich pretty girl who was waited on hand and foot - my guess is that he's going to have me cleaning his toilets with my tongue.”

Kagome made a gagging noise, but then she heard another serious huff of breath. “I really hope that's the worst thing he makes you do, Rin. You've given him so much power--”

“I didn't give him anything. My family did. I'm just cleaning it up this time.” Rin corrected her.

She followed what she guessed to be a final curve of the road before her destination. She knew she was getting close from the directions she had looked up online before she left her father's office.

“Well, I'm going to come see you this weekend,” Kagome said. “I need to make sure you're okay.”

“Let me ask and see if it's okay for you to come,” Rin cautioned. “I don't -- holy shit!”

“What? What is it?”

The screech of the bike's brakes drowned out every other sound as Rin skidded to a halt in front of an iron gate wrapped nearly completely around with ivy. But it wasn't the gate she was looking at or the drive beyond it. It was the house.

“I've found it.” Rin whispered.

“Found what?”

Rin actually laughed as she answered her, “A magnificent ruin!”

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R and R as you like.