InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Impoverished Heir ❯ The Sudden Storm ( Chapter 18 )

Dedicated to InuSkye. Less than a week before this inu is happy completely. Understand this author rarely is and good things are happening to this one's life. Arigatou, ai.

This will be the last update until after next week and she knows why.

Also dedicated to part to Inugrrrl and I don't care who knows that.

 

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Disclaimer: Penpaninu does not claim to own Inuyasha nor is getting paid to write this. Does claim to be inu.

 

“Impoverished Heir” chapter eighteen

The Sudden Storm

 

Sango lay sleeping and Miroku watched her. The priest's son scraped the edges of his nails along one cheek, feeling the rasp of stubble on his jaw. He hadn't shaved in a few days but he was too worried to focus on small details. He had put in more hours at Onikage's to sort his head, and subconsciously he knew he had to save money for his unborn child.

Sango looked so peaceful on her side, one hand pressed on the pillow next to her cheek, her long dark hair spread over her back and shoulder. Miroku's eyes softened and he leaned down to kiss her softly lest she wake. He loved Sango, it was true, but a baby was unexpected. Miroku said he was happy and he knew he should be, but he didn't know what he was going to do. He couldn't think of a future without his huntress. But he didn't have the income to take care of her and a child. They hadn't even moved in together like Inuyasha had with Kagome-san.

`What am I going to do? What to do…' Sango rolled over in her sleep and sought him out. Miroku's eyes softened and he laid his arm protectively over her. It touched him to see Sango press close against him and need him even when unconscious. `How did I ever survive without her?' Sango whined in her sleep and she pressed her cheek against his bare side. Miroku's fingers sifted through tangled hair very carefully.

`I have to stay. I want her.' Miroku tried to think about chubby infants and the baby pictures his mother always pressed on him. He was always annoyed when his mother did that, especially on the rare occasions one of the girls he had dated wanted to worm their way into his family. But with Sango… the picture changed completely. Miroku knew he could get used to having a baby. He loved Sango too much not to.

With that thought in mind, Miroku closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. Until Sango leaped out of bed like a warrior on the hunt as she hauled ass to the bathroom. Miroku opened one eye as he heard faint retching and sighed. He swung his long legs off the bed and walked to the bathroom to hold back Sango's hair.

 

* * * *

 

“He knows something is going on. I covered my trail but not as well as I thought I did,” Kagura murmured. Rin leaned close, sipping at a mug of coffee. The Onigumo Inc. logo on the side of the ceramic filled her with a fury but she chose to channel that anger into righteous action,

“What does he think? You have to tell, Kagura-san,” Rin whispered. Kagura leaned close, and smiled for the benefit of Naraku's senior partners as they passed by. To any other they would have seemed to be exchanging idle gossip at the water cooler so to speak. Little did they know that Naraku's demoted partner and his adoptive daughter had more to discuss than the color of Mariko's skirt.

Kagura leaned close, her curves intimately pressed towards Rin's shoulder. Rin stood still. “He knows one of us has been at his files when he hasn't been there. We're going to have to move fast or get out to get what we want.”

Rin flared in indignation. “That is unacceptable!” she declared. Kagura smiled, her ruby red lips curved in her par usual smirk.

“I know it's not the best course of action, but sometimes we have to be extra smart to go about our business,” she stated. Rin looked to the side. She could see the logic in Kagura's work, but after coming back to the tainted enterprise after taking her `days of leave' to sort things out with Sesshomaru, she wanted things to progress at a faster rate than they had been.

“You're right, Kagura-san. We have to be careful,” Rin murmured. She remembered how close Sesshomaru had held her close that morning, not wanting her to go. He had warned her to be careful, and to be careful again, as she left.

“You know I'm right. Come on, we better get back to work, or your father will have our heads on pikes before the evening comes,” Kagura warned. Rin gulped and felt her throat as the curvy secretary sashayed off to her desk. It was an idle suggestion, but when it came to her father, Rin knew the analogy wasn't too far off in describing Onigumo Naraku's temper.

Rin went about her duties for her father but she knew something was brewing. It wasn't just the far off dark clouds she had seen gather on her way to the Incorporation that morning. It was a deep feeling of ominous fear that cascaded through her being that told Rin she should flee.

“Miss Onigumo, your father wants to see you,” one of his partners came to her desk and announced. The feeling crashed down harder and Rin's legs quaked. She longed to follow her instinct and mental cursing filled her mind as she made herself stand up move towards the owner's large offices. Kagura was not at her desk outside. The feeling of dread intensified as Rin knocked and her father's voice sounded darkly from within.

“Come,” he rumbled. Rin pushed open the doors.

“What did you want, Father?” she asked. She stepped into the normally dark offices. Naraku was silhouetted by one lamp. His eyes looked as dark as an age before fire and before protection against the terrors of the world. Rin felt cold.

“I need a misunderstanding cleared, my daughter,” Naraku purred. “Please, come in.”

Rin paused. When she cleared the doors, they closed shut behind her. Rin turned to see four large men in suits of dark tones of black or brown posted. The terror was a living thing inside of her then, twisting and eating. Sesshomaru's kind eyes and his words to be careful died in her memory. There was only the here and the now of the four large men eyeing her in a way she knew his employees usually were commanded not to.

“What is that, Father?” Rin tried to stand straight and tall.

Naraku crossed his arms. His shirtsleeves were rolled up and he looked as nonchalant as if he were taking a break from a board meeting. But Rin knew there was nothing nonchalant about this set-up. The longing to flee made her leg muscles cramp up in near atrophy.

“I've questioned your dear friend,” Naraku pointed and Rin gasped to see Kagura held bodily back by two burly suited men. “And I think you have some explaining to do.”

“Kagura-san!”

Kagura was held back with large hands and muscular arms even as she struggled mightily against her male restraints. One meaty hand was clamped over her hand and she was red in the face from trying to get air. That or scream to her. Rin turned back to her smirking father.

“Let her go. She has nothing to do with this!” Rin commanded. She put a touch of Sesshomaru's steel into her words. The men behind her snickered at the wisp of a woman trying to stand up to the mighty Onigumo Naraku.

“I want some answers, my darling daughter. Why have you gone snooping into my files? Doing a little leg work for somebody?” he sneered. Rin could see Sesshomaru's naked form in her mind, majestic and bare to her tender caress.

`Run! Hide! Get away!' Rin's mind screamed. But her courage had to be held. And honesty and courage went hand in hand. You had to be brave to tell the truth. So she watched her father as apparently as nonchalantly as he watched her.

“It's over, Father. I know what you've done with Takahashi Enterprise's money and it will stop,” she said quietly. Naraku laughed. Rin shuddered.

“That boy has you snowed, hasn't he? Your father didn't want you to still work with him. You know where your loyalty lies,” he sneered.

“It's over, Father. Let Kagura go and we'll settle this.”

“I don't think so,” Naraku snapped his fingers and the men came up behind Rin. She tried not to cry out when they grabbed her arms, holding her captive.

“You need help to teach me a lesson?” Rin asked. She lifted her chin bravely but her lip trembled at the strength she felt from the men, and the lust she could smell from them. Kagura reacted sharply in the corner of her vision. She bucked against her two restraints, biting the man's hand covering her mouth.

“Bitch!” he swore. His blood flecked to the floor in spots.

“Let her go, bastards!” she screamed. Naraku laughed as the two women struggled helplessly. His smile died when Kagura managed to bodily throw her guards off of her. The men shrieked as she stomped two inch spiked heels into their faces. Kagura wiped the corner of her mouth and regarded the other four men.

“Oh don't say you're scared of a little woman,” Naraku drawled encouragement. Two of the men walked around Rin and regarded Kagura with sweeping leers of lust and confidence. Kagura didn't pay them any mind as she slammed her palm into the first's balls and her arm into the second's throat. Both dropped ridiculously easy. Rin whimpered as the two men holding her clamped their large hands over her body in a possessive manner that made her want to weep and scream. It would be like her father to let a few of his men to rough her up and use her to teach her that loyalty was to him even though he usually wanted her only for himself.

“Take her down! What are you waiting for??” Naraku hissed. Rin scrambled back against her two captors. One let her go and confronted the confidant woman. She stood with her hand on her curvy hip as it to taunt. The suit adjusted his collar and approached her rather negligently. Kagura was grabbed up easily and her fight to get free cost her a broken lip and a sagging shoulder. The last man behind Rin huffed and pulled her back against him. Rin glowered with rage at the jut of his arousal poking her back.

“Back off, woman. You don't want to do that,” the suit threatened. Rin clawed at his wrists and reached for her keys. The suit cursed when she jabbed them into his wrist.

“Bitch!” he cursed. Naraku snarled in outrage when he flung her aside. Rin hit the wall and went down hard. Kagura ran into the man and took a hard right to her cheek. Rin cried out seeing her friend stagger under the full assault of a grown man's fist.

“Run, Rin!” Kagura insisted. Rin shook her head. Naraku advanced toward them. Kagura reached into her suit jacket and pulled out a thin cylinder. Rin shook her head.

“A fan??” she asked in disbelief. Kagura threw her a cocky grin.

“Get out before I throw you out!”

“You're not getting away, Rin!” her father thundered. Rin fled.

Her exodus from Onigumo Inc. was surprisingly easy. No thugs were waiting to grab her up, security didn't even bat an eye as she ran downstairs and out the swinging lobby doors. Rin's panicked fingers fumbled for her cell phone and clicked down to Sessh on her contact list. She hailed a cab and clambered in the back.

“Where to, miss?”

“Just go!” she barked. The driver shrugged and took off into the downtown traffic.

“Come on, Sessh….”

“Rin?” she was never so glad to hear her lover's deep voice in all of her short time with him.

“Sessh! Where are you right now??”

“I had to come home and get something, why are you on your way?” Confusion and concern were in his words. But Rin couldn't relax yet. She looked around the busy street, paranoid that Naraku would literally swoop down upon her.

“Yes! Please, please wait for me,” she begged. She heard shuffling over the line.

“I'll stay right here. Hurry, Rin,” he urged. Rin hung up with a faint cry.

“Have a fight with your boyfriend?” the driver asked idly. Rin gave a soft cry and wiped her eyes.

“My father.”

In Onigumo Naraku's office, Naraku touched his throat. Kagura had proved more feisty and formidable than he had imagined and she had stabbed him with the damn hand fan. The stick of bamboo had struck deep and he thought he was going to need a doctor. But Naraku felt his natural healing process hasten to adjust to the injury. Kagura had fled the field but not without physical retribution. He would have to be satisfied that she would never use her left knee again after he had kicked it almost out. How she had limped out and away, he had no idea.

“Onigumo-san! Onigumo-san, are you alright?” Naraku smirked as security finally made their way in, gaping at the brawny suits scattered across his office floor.

“What happened, sir??”

Onigumo Naraku clotted his fingers against the wound in his neck.

“I'm alright, they work for me.”

“Sir! You're bleeding. Do you need an ambulance?”

Naraku laughed and held his fingers away. The blood had stopped flowing and his wound was closed up.

“I don't think that will be necessary. Lend a hand to my employees, and leave me.”

“Yes, sir!”

In moments, Onigumo Naraku was alone once more. He traced the small scar the damn woman's fan would leave. He could heal himself but he couldn't take the puckering of flesh away marking injuries he could shrug off. He picked up his phone.

“We will proceed to Takahashi Sesshomaru's apartment. They're not getting out of this alive.”

Onigumo Naraku stood and smiled in the darkness. It was so hard to find good help these days. But when a daughter betrayed you, you had to take her out of the world. Loyalty could not be betrayed. He swept out of the office, his long dark hair cascading over his back.

 

* * * *

 

When Rin ran into his apartment crying, Sesshomaru was surprised and shocked, but ready. He opened his arms and Rin flew into them.

“Sssh, tell me what happened. What's going on, Rin?” Sesshomaru soothed. He kissed her brow. Rin sobbed and clung to his waist.

“My father… my father…”

“What did Onigumo do?” Sesshomaru growled.

Rin lifted her tear-stained face. “He KNOWS. He knows and he tried to get me. We may never see Kaze Kagura-san again!”

Sesshomaru sighed, no loss there for himself. But it obviously had upset his lover and the fact that Onigumo Naraku knew Rin's position was not blessed tidings at all. He tightened his hold over Rin's back.

“This one is safe to assume that our way into Onigumo Inc. is now closed to us,” he said. Rin clung to him, taking comfort in his touch.

“It just happened so fast, Sessh,” Rin said tearfully. Sesshomaru lifted her face in his hands and kissed her softly.

“We're going to be fine. We'll find a way and he can't get to you,” Sesshomaru declared. His calm demeanor meant to reassure his lover but he looked around for his cell phone over Rin's shaking shoulders. Myoga-san should be informed and measures taken to ensure both of their safety.

“But what if he knows where you live?” Rin asked and bit her lip. She hadn't been too careful in her comings and goings to her lover's even when helping her father, and for all she knew he could have had someone tailing he always. She cursed at herself silently.

Sesshomaru's face set into a grim expression. “Then he will be hard-pressed to leave my home if he happens upon here.” Rin felt a small hope as her lover let go of her and went to his bedroom to retrieve an ancient katana. As he returned, triumph in his face, pounding ensued on his front door.

Rin and Sesshomaru stared at each other. Without a word, Sesshomaru lifted his sofa cushions, and set his katana down. He perched the cushions back on top and reached for Rin. The door was knocked down off its hinges and five men in gray suits piled in. Sesshomaru thrust Rin behind him and held his large hands up. He felt his golden eyes sharpen to take them in, his nose thrusting to inhale their sweat and the stink of their confidence. Then his gaze shifted to red as Onigumo Naraku followed them in.

“This is my home, Onigumo. You've already had enough of my family,” Sesshomaru intoned. Rin clung to his broad shoulders, his muscles powerfully flexed through his suit jacket. Naraku shook his head almost sadly.

“You say that, Takahashi, yet you steal MY family? You youngsters don't know a thing about respect these days,” Naraku complained lightly. His goons swept into the room and surrounded the Takahashi heir and his lover. Sesshomaru's fists clenched. His nails lengthened and pierced his palms. Rin watched the locks of his white and black hair almost hypnotically.

“Rin doesn't belong to you,” Sesshomaru growled. He could hear the katana's faint song in the corner of his mind, but he ignored it. If the legend said Tenseiga couldn't cut, why had he reached for it? He should have taken Tokujin from the back of his closet. Sesshomaru knew he didn't have time enough to reveal the katana and attempt to use it as the goons pulled out guns and trained them on him. Rin gasped behind him.

“No! Father, please don't do this, I'll do whatever you want, but please don't kill him!” Rin cried out. Sesshomaru growled.

“Stay back, Rin!”

“Oh, we're not going to kill him,” Naraku promised. Rin eased down a fraction of a second, daring to hope.

“We're going to kill you. Take her,” Naraku commanded. Sesshomaru felt panic slam into his soul and he rode the crest of its blind fury.

“No!” he yelled. He pushed Rin back a foot and sprang forward. It was a quick fight but he couldn't hope to engage five burly men all at once. While three intercepted his blows and gave back even harder, the other two sidestepped him and grabbed up his girlfriend. Rin's shrieks pierced his heart worse than the most lethal of misunderstandings. “Let her go! Naraku!”

Four shots rang through the apartment and Sesshomaru felt his heart die even as his head turned to see the guns trained on his lover. Four points of red blossomed from her breast and her face was riveted with pain and shock.

Even as she fell, Sesshomaru knew he couldn't dwell on her loss. “MRAAAA!” he turned with blind fury onto his opponents and slammed down with a fist as heavy as iron. The man in gray went down twitching. Sesshomaru slammed his leather shoe into his face. He was not satisfied even with the audible snap of his nose beneath his heel. The other men pistol-whipped him and grappled him but Sesshomaru was not going to be taken down. Rin needed him. It was going to be okay… she was going to be fine… Sesshomaru's red-soaked mind tried to cling to that feeble note of preservation when the most agonizing pain he had ever experienced ripped through his chest. Sesshomaru stood stupidly and stared down at the katana blade protruding from his front. He gasped, blood filling his mouth.

“No….” he muttered slowly. The world slowed and he touched the end of the katana blade. Naraku grunted behind him and pulled the blade back out through his body. Sesshomaru sank to his knees, quivering with shock as adrenaline slammed through his veins, trying to work his body to an area of safety. Away from this, away from what the world gave him and his beloved…

“Rin…” he croaked. The goons brushed themselves off and touched Rin with their shoes. She was not moving. “Rin…!”

Naraku growled and slashed down. How dare he say his daughter's name so familiarly! Sesshomaru felt the perfect cut through his left shoulder and a piece of him self fall away. Then he noticed his left arm severed in front of him. His mind worked slowly, thinking about how much of a bitch it was going to be to clean all that blood up from his tatami mats. The nails on the hand were long, the fingers articulate. The limb was housed with the sleeve of his Armani jacket, and recognizing that made Sesshomaru realize blood was soaking his side. He looked at the stump and sank down to the floor in shock.

“He's about done, boss.”

“Shall we finish him?”

Onigumo Naraku laughed. “No, I don't think he's long for this world as it is. Leave him. He'll be dead soon enough.”

The world stretched a century of short inhale and gasping exhale. Sesshomaru could feel his energy leaking away in the essence of his life-liquid. He stared wide-eyed at the floor and blinked. He couldn't die this way… he couldn't die… oh, kami, Rin!

Sesshomaru blinked and pushed up with his remaining hand. The couch was pulsating, calling to him. What was that? And why was he drawn to that instead of his lover's still body? If he looked at her unmoving bullet-ridden form, he would lose his mind. He would lose himself to insanity as he bled to death. Focus on the glowing, focus on what was real and he would keep a moment longer.

It took an eternity to crawl and stumble to the sofa. Sesshomaru grunted helplessly, whining as he shoved at the cushions. Tenseiga laid nestled in a cocoon of white light, calling to him to unsheathe. Sesshomaru's hand trembled as he picked up the ornate scabbard. It was warm to the touch, calling to be used. This was madness. Even if he could draw, with one hand, how would he know to use it? Sesshomaru moved past thinking and pressed the bottom of the scabbard into the floor and held it with one knee. He grunted and hissed then cried out for help as he unsheathed clumsily. The ancient blade scraped against the inside of the scabbard, protesting. But it pulsating and waited to strike. Sesshomaru rose to his feet shakily, his side wet. His blood was soaking his side down to his waist, coating into the fabric of his slacks. Strands of blood-soaked hair clung to what was left of his shoulder.

Finally, he turned to look down at Akiyama Rin. His eyes seeing her were cold and dead to the world of the living. She was gone, cold as his gaze and he could not live in a world without her. His hand trembled, clenching Tenseiga's hilt. And he suddenly knew what he had to do. Sesshomaru lifted his arm, the blade poised. He trembled, almost faltered. Strike his beloved? Even if she was already…. His mind worked past that fact and proceeded lest he damage himself. Even if she was… he could never strike her!

But if he didn't, nothing would change. Sesshomaru gave a cry out to the heavens and struck his girlfriend's body. The cut was perfect. He felt his pasts and his future align to one proper path. For one moment, he was whole once more. He could feel the changes grab that spark and shift with it. His insides shifted even further. His ears pointed, his black hair paled to pure white completely. It was done.

Sesshomaru made himself look down, his heart cut in two by his own action. But the legends, at least, were true. Tenseiga did not cut Rin. In fact, her wounds seemed to be healing…

Sesshomaru gaped down at Tenseiga and knelt down heavily. As Rin stirred, he smiled, and tried to focus. She was going to be okay. She was alive. But he had to move fast. His slip on consciousness was faltering and he had to get help. His fingers shook then let go of Tenseiga's hilt.

Sesshomaru didn't know how he found his cell phone, and his fingers clumsily found the contact he was seeking and punched in `send.'

“Who is this?” his younger brother's obnoxious voice rang out. Sesshomaru felt his eyes go dark.

“Help me, Inuyasha. Help me…”

“Sesshomaru??”

Sesshomaru fell to the floor in a pool of his own blood. His white hair cascaded around him. When Rin sat up and found him, she screamed.

 

* * * *

 

When Inuyasha snapped his cell phone shut, he raced across town on feet born of flight. He hadn't been in touch with his older brother since the night they had quarreled, but he knew where to go. Inuyasha raced inside the apartment one step ahead and his world threatened to be undone at the sight that greeted him. A wisp of a woman with long dark hair was clutching the stump that was his left arm shut with her small hands, her face streaked with tears. She sniffed sharply as she whispered and talked to his unconscious aniki, mucus clogged in her nose. Blood coated her knees, her hands, his body and the floor.

“Sesshomaru?” Inuyasha asked numbly. Rin looked up, her eyes red and tear.

“Help him! Please!” she pleaded. Inuyasha knelt down at his side, not caring who she was. She obviously was upset even as he would not show.

Inuyasha whipped out his cell and dialed paramedics. He fetched up an envelope on his brother's coffee table for the address and readily gave the information.

“The ambulance is on its way,” he reported. Rin sniffed and clutched Sesshomaru. His blood drenched her fingers. “Hey, it's going to be okay!”

Rin nodded numbly, holding onto her lover. When the paramedics burst in, she went with them as far as they would allow.

“Are you related to the victim?” one elderly man asked Rin. She numbly shook her head, biting her lip. Inuyasha sighed and clenched her shoulder.

“She's with me and I'm the victim's brother. Now let us in the back with him.”

Even as Rin smiled gratefully to him, Inuyasha had to wonder with dread to what he was getting himself into.

 

* * * *

 

“You're where??” Kagome asked. Inuyasha held the phone from his sensitive ear and rubbed a finger inside.

“I said I'm at the hospital, Kagome! And I really need you to come here,” Inuyasha insisted.

“Are you okay? Tell me what's going on!” Kagome shrieked. Inuyasha sighed.

“My brother's been attacked.”

“I'm on my way.”

Inuyasha snapped his phone shut and looked in on Akiyama Rin. His brother's apparent girlfriend was beside herself, brushing off doctors as she prayed and waited for Sesshomaru to come out of intensive surgery.

“You remember being shot, Miss Akiyama?” another doctor persisted. Rin frowned and looked up from her clasped hands.

“I told you yes!”

“Yet there's not one bullet in you and you're fine.”

“My boyfriend just had his arm cut off!”

Inuyasha swept in and gave his best glare to the doctors. His golden stare made them back off the petite woman and he relaxed slightly.

“It'll be okay, Rin-san. Just have to let them know whose boss.”

Rin wiped her eyes and looked up at the pepper-haired young man. “I knew you would come if something happened.”

Inuyasha stiffened. “What's that supposed to mean?”

“You're all Sesshomaru would talk about. He said he had to make it right.”

Inuyasha crossed his arms. “He did huh?” His tone said he didn't believe her.

“Please, you have to be there for him. What if….” Rin's eyes welled with tears.

Inuyasha sighed and patted her shoulders. “I don't think he's going to die, at least not of this.” Rin shook. “Hey, it'll be fine. I'll stick around for a bit.”

When Kagome found her lover, he was seated beside a tear-eyed young woman. Rin stood and bowed ackwardly.

“I'm so sorry to intrude,” Kagome said softly. Rin wiped her eyes.

“You came when Sessh called you the other day. Thank you,” she said.

“Either way, I'm glad to see Inuyasha here,” Kagome said, giving her lover a look. Inuyasha shoved his hands into his pockets. Spots of his brother's blood blotted his wrists.

“I would be an ass if I didn't, okay?”

“Takahashi-san, Akiyama-san,” a grave doctor swept into the room. Rin covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide. Inuyasha did not move. “We've staunched Sesshomaru-san's bleeding, sewed up the wound. He's lost a lot of blood, even more than someone could stand to lose, but he's survived the surgery.”

“Is he going to be okay?” Rin asked softly. Kagome's heart went out to the petite woman.

“We're not in the clear yet, but he's stabilizing fine for the moment,” the doctor snapped his folder shut. “He may see someone, but only for a moment.”

Rin turned to Inuyasha and he smiled. “You go. I'll wait out here.” He watched Rin dash off with the doctor and turned to Kagome. “What?”

“Your brother was hurt and you came to help,” she said in wonder. Her heart went out to the selfless gesture her lover had given. Inuyasha scowled and shrugged.

“I'd go to hell if I didn't,” he insisted. Kagome touched his hand gently. He was wound so tense, stressed by this attack… slowly Inuyasha's fingers went lax and softened. She took his hand in hers.

“You did a very good thing and I love you for it,” she declared. Inuyasha's eyes softened.

“He didn't look too good, I have to admit,” he said. Kagome wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed.

“Well you still did the right thing…”

Inside the hospital room, Rin pulled a chair close and touched her lover's hand. The arm left was bare to the shoulder, iv's fixed into his veins feeding him pain relievers. His left side was a frightening affair of bandages hiding the closed off wound from her. Sesshomaru's face had been washed and his countenance was pale as his eyes fluttered weakly. Rin touched bangs of his hair. It had gone completely white. When his golden eyes opened and stared into her dark ones, she smiled with relief.

“Sessh…” she breathed. Tears filled her eyes as his fingers twitched. She didn't pick up his hand for fear of jarring his iv intake, but she stroked his fingers lightly letting him know she was there.

“Rin…. You're here…” he whispered huskily. Rin nodded and brushed her palm over his cheek. She leaned down to kiss him lightly.

“I am. I would never leave you,” she promised. Sesshomaru watched her with exhausted eyes.

“Where is Inuyasha?” he asked softly. Rin told him she would get him and kissed him again. Sesshomaru's eyes closed and he moved his lips up to touch hers.

“Thank you…”

Rin ran quickly to find the second Takahashi son and urged him to see his brother. Walking inside Sesshomaru's hospital room was one of the hardest things Inuyasha had had to do.

“Hey, you're alive,” Inuyasha said nonchalantly. But the needles and the bandages filled him with fear. Sesshomaru watched him with eyes as golden as his own. So it wasn't just happening to him…

“Inuyahsa, come here. We have much to talk about…”

Inuyasha sat in the chair Rin vacated and leaned his elbows on his knees. “Your hair went completely white,” he noticed. Sesshomaru looked up at his bangs and chuckled weakly.

“Not just the changes, there is work to be done.”

Inuyasha frowned as Sesshomaru filled him in on Onigumo Naraku's dealings with their father's money and with his girlfriend.

“So you're saying you NEED me to help you with the business?” Inuyasha sneered. Sesshomaru nodded faintly.

“Father wanted us to have it both. He wanted…”

“Well I don't want it! You can have it.”

“Inuyasha…” Sesshomaru said weakly. His hand moved over his middle.

“Just like that, you want things to be fine between us. Well, they're not,” Inuyasha snarled. He got to his feet and paced. Sesshomaru watched him.

“You won't let me have a chance?”

Inuyasha stopped and looked over his shoulder at his pale-haired brother. He looked like an angel that had taken a dive to earth and had not had a good time with the experience.

“I'll think about it.”

 

End for now

 

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Most sincerely yours penpaninu sesh 6/10/06