InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Feni's Snippets ❯ Autumn ( Chapter 14 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Sesshomaru; Rumiko Takahashi does. I always give him back, especially when he's grinding his fangs and flexing his claws in my direction.

 

A/N: A musing on the price of hesitation, inspired by two excellent Sess/Rin fics recently written by Liliesformary/Helena-Marko (`Burned Fish') and Little Foxglove/Litele-One (`Shades') for LJ's `MF-Sanctuary' community and its week 29 prompt, `Unrequited'.

 

Warnings: Character death, angst.

 

First posted on LJ, August 22, 2008.

 

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Autumn

 

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He waited too long.

 

He watched her grow from laughing, awkward child to smiling, graceful young woman, but still he hesitated.

 

It was no longer pride that kept him from declaring his choice; for her sake, he had set that aside long ago, when he followed her into the hellish depths. It was no longer a desire for conquest, either, which would endanger her frail human flesh; the battle against Naraku had tempered him, like Bakusaiga's enchanted steel, and cooled the fire within.

 

He watched as Rin moved into his brother's lively household upon the death of the elderly miko, where she was welcomed as a younger sister by his brother's wife and a cherished auntie to their brood of children. He watched her crooning to the youngest as she slowly walked the drowsing babe to and fro in the twilight, knew her yearnings as if they sprung within his own chest, but still he did not act.

 

That autumn, the village was swept by plague.

 

While he watched, Rin worked alongside Kagome to treat the sick. His first urge was to snatch her up, take her away from the immediate danger, but when he saw how desperate the need was for her help, he resisted his impulse. He sent Jaken to assist Inuyasha with the funeral pyres, watching the smoke curl upwards into the crisp air, but Tenseiga remained silent so he did not move.

 

However, when his brother's children were struck down, and Rin along with them, he smashed open the hell-gates to bring them back. Kagome, somehow healthy in the midst of death, sent her resurrected children to their father and crept to where he stood until she knelt beside Rin's still form. Taking the young woman's pale, white hand in her own, she turned hopeful eyes up to him, waiting for the life-giving stroke.

 

Sheathing Tenseiga, he allowed her a brief glimpse of the devastation within his soul as he met her confused gaze. “I cannot,” he said, then swept from the room and took to the clear, starlit sky.

 

He keeps Rin close to his heart, her memorial tablet tucked into his robes against his skin. Sometimes, as he cradles the tangible reminder of her life in his palm, he can almost feel her slender fingers warming his skin, and see her sparkling smile as she looks up at him.

 

He waited too long.

 

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