InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Teaching Rin ❯ Chapter 24 ( Chapter 24 )

Disclaimer - It’s not mine. Never was. The only characters I own are Kaida and her family. The rest belong to their original creator. No money is being made off of this at all, so don’t sue.

A/N - Okay, for all of you who haven’t realized this yet. Anything in italics is a flashback memory. And for those who don’t like the flashbacks, there’s only one more after this. So hang in there. And without further ado, her is:

-

Teaching Rin

Chapter 24

Her Side Of The Story

-

Kaida was going through her clothing and weeding out the kimonos that no longer fit her. She’d noticed that she’d been gaining a bit more weight in the past few months, and had figured that it would be prudent to separate her clothes that fit her from the ones that didn’t. And since Ronin and Kentaro would be arriving sometime tomorrow, she figured she would do the ‘proper’ thing and make herself somewhat presentable.

‘Or as Sesshomaru puts it, I need to attempt to make myself look presentable, despite the fact that it is pointless and would do absolutely no good.’ she thought grimly, shaking her head as her thoughts turned to the Western Lord, much like they had started doing some weeks ago. She’d catch herself in the middle of the day, wondering what he was doing, and if he was going to be at their meeting place outside the castle for the evening’s sparring session. At first, she had thrown it off as just curiosity, but she had finally realized something that had scared her to death.

She was beginning to like being around Sesshomaru.

And she honestly couldn’t figure out when, or more importantly why, the change had occurred. He was the same as he always had been, cold and hardly even cordial to her at times, but she seemingly had grabbed his attention lately.

‘I’ve lost my damned mind, that’s what’s wrong with me.’ she thought with a growl.

She reached into a small box that held some of her training gi’s, frowning when all she pulled out a shirt that was in tatters and shreds.

‘I thought I got rid of this one.’ she mused. ‘Guess I didn’t. Not that it does any good to keep it. Sesshomaru pretty much tore it to shreds that day he got back from patrols.’ She remembered that day all too well, and knew it would keep her company for many a year to come.

-

Kaida had walked along the half beaten pathway at a leisurely pace, watching as Rin walked along ahead of her, searching for a particular blossom that would help in thickening the blood of a demon’s body. Beside her, Sakaki was whistling a nameless tune to himself.

“She is improving more as the days pass, Lady Kaida.” he commented when Rin spied the right plant and pointed it out to Kaida after reciting the properties of herb. “How much longer until she is presented at court?”

“A few months at the most.” she had answered after sending Rin off to search for some ginger root. “She doesn’t have much more to learn from me.”

“What will you do then, after you finish here?”

“Go back home, I suppose.” she answered glumly, kicking a small stone out of her way.

“You could always stick around here a little longer, you know.” Sakaki mused.

“Doing what?”

“Teaching a few of our battalions some of those techniques you and Sesshomaru practice every morning.” he said with a shrug.

“I highly doubt he’ll go for the idea.” Kaida said dryly. She sensed a familiar approaching aura, and frowned.

“Something wrong, my Lady?” Sakaki asked.

“Speak of the devil and he shows up every time.” she muttered.

“Excuse me?”

“Sesshomaru’s coming.” she said plainly. A dark shadow appeared at their feet, covering a large section of the surrounding forest, and they looked skyward to find Sesshomaru in his true demonic form, bounding along the tree tops.

“He has arrived early from patrols.” Sakaki commented.

“Maybe there was no problems.” Rin offered, coming to Kaida’s side, shielding her eyes from the bright sun’s light as she looked up.

“Doubtful.” Kaida muttered to no one in particular. Although things had been unusually quiet for the past few months, she was absolutely certain that something was brewing in the Northern Lands. Kiyoshi and Haruto had been too quiet.

“Must you always be so morbid, my Lady?” Sakaki asked.

“Yes.” she answered dryly, watching as the huge dog in the sky slowed to standstill and looked down at them. Kaida caught a quick flash of amusement in the claret eyes of the Western Lord, and felt a sudden chill run down her spine. He started to move again, slowly circling the small group as if he was getting ready to pounce on them. Sakaki and Rin seemed completely oblivious, but Kaida had seen those careful, precise movements before.

‘He isn’t thinking of attacking now! Not with Rin nearby!’ her logic screamed, even though her body was tense and alert.. ‘He wouldn’t…’

But her logic proved wrong, and when Rin and Sakaki had moved out of immediate danger, the dog pounced at Kaida, barely giving her time to jump out of the way before being crushed by one of the huge paws that came thundering down. She heard Rin’s yelp of surprise, and Sakaki’s order for her to get back before she was hurt, but Kaida didn’t have time to process anything else.

“Get her away from here!” Kaida screamed, simultaneously unsheathing her scimitars as she flipped away from yet another swipe from Sesshomaru.

“Yes, my Lady!” Sakaki called out. Kaida had enough trust in the guard to know that he would take Rin to someplace safe, so her mind focused on the task before her.

“What the hell is your problem, Sesshomaru?” she demanded angrily, landing lightly on the ground and stalking up to the demon that was currently towering over her. “I thought we weren’t going to fight in front of Rin? Why did you…”

Unfortunately, her question was cut short when he snapped his jaws at her, acting almost as if he was going to eat her. Kaida jumped up again, landing out of reach.

“Suffice to say you didn’t get to kill, maim, or decimate anything on patrol. So I‘m the next best thing.” Kaida grumbled, glaring up at the demon. Sesshomaru actually seemed to give her the doggy equivalent of a grin before pouncing again, forcing her back, but not quickly enough. Kaida felt his talons dig lightly into her chest when he swiped, and she had a pretty good feeling that her clothing was going to be in shreds.

“Look, you cocky bastard!” she yelled after getting a sure footing on a high tree branch, her temper finally breaking through. “I don’t know what crawled up your ass and died, but I wish you would get rid of it!”

The dog seemed to take that as a joke, pouncing again and again as Kaida blocked and dodged and swore at him, wanting to know what was wrong with him, and why he was doing this. After a half hour or so, Kaida seemed to realize that Sesshomaru was just playing around more than anything, keeping her on the run in an attempt to make her mad.

‘So he wants to play, does he?’ she thought, steeling herself to put an end to the ridiculous game. She had noticed some weeks ago that he had started refraining from purposely making her mad, and she figured he was long overdo for trying to made her find a reason to attack him right out of the blue. ‘Fine then, mutt. Let’s play.’

-

Suffice to say, that particular spar had wound up like most of their others. They had fought until they couldn’t possibly move, or pose much of a threat to each other. Oddly enough, Kaida had taken the win for the fight he had instigated when she’s slashed out at him, almost taking his nose off in the process. The bloody gash had bled profusely, despite his accelerated healing abilities. The blood had gotten into his eyes, derailing his sight, and allowing Kaida to jump onto his neck, both blades poised to take his head off if he didn’t calm down. Sesshomaru had simply growled and grumbled, almost as if he was mad and amused at the same time. She had gotten down, and he’d reverted back to his normal humanoid form, nose now intact.

He’d given no explanation as to why he’d leaped out at them, only an annoyingly superior look and left her to find Sakaki and Rin.

But that was only the beginning of his odd behavior towards her. True, there had been no more unexpected attacks, not that she could complain, but his behavior was slowly altering…a little at a time. He didn’t push her buttons as much any more. And didn’t aggravate her as long as she tried to keep her sarcasm to herself at times.

She could deal with that arrangement. As long as he didn’t grumble, growl purposely try to piss her off, she could curb the sarcasm back. That was possible. But that wasn’t the extent of his change of attitude.

He’d actually started a few normal conversations with her concerning Rin and a few other matters, and they’d managed to finish them without resorting to violence. It was a new concept for her to grasp, but a pleasant one none the less. When Sesshomaru wasn’t bitching at her for some incessant reason, she found out he was quite easy to be around.

She was seriously beginning to think maybe he had rabies.

And the most surprising part was that she actually found herself liking being around him as of lately, even if the rabies were the reason why. His sense of humor was so buried underneath the façade of coldness and apathy that when he did manage to make a joke out of something she said or did, she’d congratulate him on being somewhat humane.

Well, as humane as a demon like Sesshomaru could get, anyway.

‘He’s just acting so weird lately.’ Kaida thought grumpily, throwing the ripped clothing into a pile to be disposed of. ‘I’m beginning to think father may have had a talk with him when we went to the festival. But that was months ago.’

Something was off with the Western demon then, and it had only gotten more pronounced as the past few months had went by. He was more…something. She couldn’t put her finger on it exactly, and it even made her head hurt worse the more she thought about, but something was going on.

The biting, snarling, grumbling, bitching Sesshomaru she’d first met was only seen during their spars. And it was starting to scare her because she found herself somewhat fond of the new attitude he was having.

‘Then again, complete apathy would have been better than us trying to kill one another all the time.’ she thought, folding up another pair of pants and tucking them away, only to come across a dark blue kimono that she’d had on the other day when trying to teach Rin the court waltzes of the ruling families.

‘That’s when all this really started coming to a head.’ she thought. ‘I asked Sesshomaru to come out to the dojo and help me teach Rin the waltzes since he already knew them. It just went downhill from then on.’

-

When she had asked Sesshomaru and Sakaki to assist her with that particular lesson, they had agreed without complaint. Rin had met the three demons in the dojo that afternoon to begin the lessons.

It was not long into the instruction when Kaida realized that Sakaki knew as much about court waltzes as Rin did, which wasn’t much. So, in an attempt to show the both of them how it was done properly, Kaida had partnered with Sesshomaru.

Kaida had felt odd, being so close to the taller demon and not fighting for her life. She absently noticed for the first time exactly how much taller than her he was before she put herself into gear and got down to work. Her stomach had started to twist itself into tense knots when they began the slow, deliberate steps that opened into the waltz of Sesshomaru’s family.

“Relax.” he had said quietly, leading her around the dojo. “You are too tense.” She had said nothing to that, only forced her instincts into dormancy while she allowed Sesshomaru to guide her actions, since her mind seemed to be more than just a little fuzzy at the moment. She felt like she was a piece of fragile, priceless porcelain in his hands and arms as they continued the steps.

When she had asked Sesshomaru and Sakaki to assist her with that particular lesson, they had agreed without complaint. Rin had met the three demons in the dojo that afternoon to begin the lessons.she thought.

‘I’m used to him trying to strangle me.’ she rationalized quickly. ‘Of course I would feel odd when he’s handling me so carefully.’

But deep inside her, a long buried part of her femininity crowed in delight at the feeling of someone stronger and more powerful holding her so carefully. She’d danced with Kaze and her brother’s before, and never felt this surge of feminine pride.

‘Oh, wouldn’t Leiko and Kei like to kill me if they’d see this!’ she thought gleefully, just imagining her two half-sister’s faces if they could see her waltzing around with the Western Lord. But the thoughts of her sisters quickly sobered her, and she stumbled slightly before regaining her composure. A quick look up at Sesshomaru proved that he had been aware of her five second daydream, and she flushed slightly when he smirked down at her knowingly, his alarmingly bright amber eyes boring down into her green ones.

“Problem?” he asked. “I was under the impression you knew these dances.”

“I do.” she said, her feather’s thoroughly ruffled by the amusement in his voice.

“And yet you stumble?” he asked. “Surely partnering me is not so horrid that you would purposely make mistakes in the hope that I would leave you in Sakaki’s hands.”

“I never said dancing with you was the reason I made the mistake.” she hissed quietly, looking over at Rin and Sakaki, who were watching them with thinly veiled interest. “I stumbled, that was all. You think too highly of yourself.”

“So I’ve been told.”

His hand fell to the small of her back as they walked back across the dojo, and Kaida could feel her skin warm to the touch. She quickly put some space between them once they got back to Rin and Sakaki, and that seemed to help. But she caught the look he was giving her as she moved away, and another unwelcome chill ran down her spine.

The rest of the evening, Kaida managed to teach Rin the basics of what she needed, only having to partner with Sesshomaru two more times. By the time the sun had set, she called a halt to the lesson, letting Rin go for the evening, and thanking Sesshomaru and Sakaki for their help. The soldier had only nodded, grinned, made some sort of catty remark about helping pretty ladies anytime they needed him, and then left to go do evening patrols.

Sesshomaru, however, seemed to watch her like a hawk for a few moments while she gathered up a few things and stuck them in a bag. He didn’t say anything, but Kaida could feel his gaze burning a hole in her back as she moved around. There was a substantial amount of tension in the air, and Kaida was utterly confused as to why. Things had been peaceful between the two of them for a while, so she couldn’t put her finger on why she felt so tense now, being around him was something she had become use to.

“When will her next lesson be?” his deep voice asked.

“Two days from now.” she said quickly, suddenly in a hurry to get away from the imposing figure he presented.

“You are alternating days with the shielding and archery?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“Will you be requiring my assistance once again?”

“I think I’ll just ask Sakaki to come down.” she said calmly. “I’m sure you are busy with whatever you usually do.”

“I am not.” he said. “Unless something critical comes up, I will be here.”

“That’s fine.” Kaida said, nodding.

“You are on edge this evening.” he commented suddenly.

“Thanks for noticing.” Kaida remarked, rolling her eyes when she turned away from him.

“What is the matter?”

“Excuse me?” she asked, turning to him with unadulterated surprise on her face.

“What is the matter which has you on edge?”

“Careful…people might start thinking you care.” she said, before she could stop herself.

“The problem, Lady?” he demanded.

“I don’t know what the problem is, per say.” she admitted ambiguously. “I haven’t felt right since we started this earlier. I’m just being…”

“Overly critical?” he supplied.

“Something like that.”

Sesshomaru simply nodded and walked past her without another word. When they had left, Kaida shrunk down against the wall.

‘Nothing happened.’ she thought, in a desperate attempt to rationalize her reactions to being around Sesshomaru. ‘It’s all a figment of my imagination. I’m imagining things. Nothing is there.’

-

Of course, at the time, that had worked, and she had convinced herself that whatever was wrong with her that evening had been a fluke, a one time thing. But when the same thing had happened again the next time they had the dancing lesson with Rin, she was beginning to wonder exactly what was going on with her. And why she suddenly felt so shy around the proud Lord.

But the latest in her string of awkward moments had happened the last time they had sparred in the evening. Things had gotten a bit out of hand on Kaida’s part, and it had not ended prettily.

-

“Next time I tell you to move, do it.” Kaida grumbled as she hefted Sesshomaru’s arm around her shoulders and hauled him to his feet. The Western Lord frowned and used his good leg to steady himself as Kaida bodily tossed him onto Ishika’s back. “Kami knows I don’t yell at you for my own health.”

“That has yet to be proven to my satisfaction.” he said coldly. “Your aim with those arrows are atrocious, despite what I have tried to show you.”

“Well you’re not master when it comes to throwing daggers, either.” she said dryly, rubbing her leg where one of his ill aimed blades had lodged in her thigh, then scrambling on top of Ishika. She signaled for Ishika to take the to the fortress, and the dragon took to the sky. It did not take long, and they were touching down in the courtyard.

Night had fallen hours ago, and it was nearing midnight now, so Kaida figured the inhabitants of the fortress were already asleep. She dismounted, wincing when her bad leg hit the cobblestones. She reached up and threw Sesshomaru’s arm around her shoulders, helping to stabilize him as he slid off Ishika and to his feet with a grimace.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Is that a rhetorical inquiry?” he said, the sarcasm clearly audible.

“You’re fine.” she said. “Come on, let’s get those wounds taken care of.”

“I do not need your assistance in such mundane matters.” he said coldly. “I am perfectly capable of….”

“…bitching at me until I get angry and let you go.” she said, bodily pulling him towards the entrance that led into the medical ward. “Yes, I know this already. Doesn’t mean I’m going to listen. Now come on.”

“You presume to give me orders, woman?” he demanded. Kaida looked up at him with a frown, figuring he was being so hostile because she’d hurt his pride and his ego all in one sweep by knocking him off the cliff they were sparring on with one of the grappling moves Kaze had taught her.

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.” she said firmly. “Get over it. No one has to know that you, mighty Sesshomaru of the Western Lands, actually listened to some half-breed bitch like me. If anyone asks, I‘ll tell them you stalked in here like you normally do, dragging me behind you only because it would cause a massive civil upheaval if you let me die from blood loss.”

“I did not say….”

“But, if we don’t do something about that bleeding, they’re gonna wonder why there is a trail of our blood all the way to the medical rooms.” she finished calmly. He seemed to ponder her words for a minute, noticing the blood that was dripping from his clothing, as well as her own.

“Proceed.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Getting to the medical treatment rooms was a bit harder than she had expected. Sesshomaru was nearly on the verge of passing out from blood loss, but still conscious enough to hurl an insult at her every few steps. And she was still fighting to keep her leg from going dead.

The spar that evening had escalated to a more serious level than they had working at. And with both of them using weapons they were unfamiliar with, something bad was bound to happen eventually.

One wrong move, and Kaida had fired an errant arrow at the same time Sesshomaru had thrown a dagger to pin her to the ground. Both combatants had moved, and Kaida took the dagger in her thigh, while Sesshomaru had take the arrow through the stomach, where it lodged him into a tree.

“Sit down.” Kaida ordered, somewhat surprised when he complied without a word of protest. After washing her hands in a bowl of water, and gathering a few quick bandages from where Keisha kept them stores, she walked to him, handing him some bandages. “Take your top off.”

“Why, Lady Kaida, just because your modesty is nonexistent does not mean my own is in absence.” he said, the slightest hint of wit in his voice. Kaida just growled and walked behind him. His newfound sense of humor towards her was starting to grate on her nerves more than just a little.

“Your sense of humor leaves a bit to be desired.” she ground out. “Off with the shirt.”

“So demanding. One would believe you were in a hurry.”

“Sesshomaru!”

“Very well.” he conceded, untying the haoiri and letting it slip off his shoulders. Kaida grimaced at the result of her attacks on him. There were marks where her nails had scratched him from neck to waist, and a deep diagonal gash starting at his left shoulder and ending somewhere on his right side.

“You take care of the front, and I’ll tend to these.” she muttered, getting to work cleaning the clotted blood off of him. She could already see his body working as it healed over the lighter scratches and abrasions on his skin.

“You have a wonderful bed side manner.” he said, the sarcasm thick in his voice.

“Yeah, yeah. I know.”

“It was not a compliment.”

“I didn’t take it as one.” They fell into an uneasy silence as Kaida worked to staunch the blood flowing from his shoulder where she’d tried to rip him apart. “You’re unusually quiet this morning.” she commented idly, rinsing out the piece of cloth she was cleaning his back with.

“You are possibly the only living woman who has ever dared to stand face to face with me, and accuse me of lying.”

“And come out alive, you mean.”

“Precisely.”

“Comes with the territory.” she said sassily when he growled in pure aggravation. “Come on, I couldn’t have hurt your ego that badly when I threw you.”

“It was not the toss which angered me.” he said flatly. “The arrow was not a welcome intrusion.”

“Yeah, well, now you know what Inuyasha felt like, being pinned to a tree for a couple decades.” she said nonchalantly, waiting for the antiseptic wash to clean out the wound.

“Inuyasha lost his heart to a human miko, and she pinned him to a tree when she believed he betrayed her.” he said. “Your basis of comparison is highly dubious. I am nothing like my hanyou half brother, and you are no miko.”

“Good thing for you I‘m not.” she said.

“Or bad, depending on your point of view.” he countered. “If you were a miko, I could get rid of you easily enough and have no questions to ask. I could claim self defense.”

“No one would believe you.”

“And your point is?”

“I’m not that bad, now am I?” she asked, pouting good naturedly. “At least with me you’ve got a fighting chance. A powerful miko can just blast you with some purification energy and turn you into a human, or ashes depending on her mood. That‘s why you should be nice to Inuyasha. He‘s mated to the miko who purified the Shikon jewel. He could just get her to do away with you if you make him mad enough, now. ”

“And you say I have a morbid sense of humor.”

“You don’t have a sense of humor.” she clarified. “It’s more along the lines of morbid sarcasm.”

“There is a difference?”

“Yes.” she said.

“I will make note of such.”

“Please do.” she said. “I wish this would stop bleeding. You’re going to bleed to death before long if this keeps on.”

“I will hardly cease to quit living because of decreased blood flow.” he said calmly, although his words were starting to slur together a bit.

“Right.” she said. “You just keep telling yourself that.” He became quiet after that, only muttering out threats and curses under his breath while she worked to staunch the blood flow. It took a few more minutes, but it finally did stop, and Kaida watched as his skin healed over, leaving nothing in its wake to show that there had been a gash, only smooth skin stretched taunt over the muscles in his back and arms.

‘You wouldn’t think he was this well built underneath all that armor and heavy silk clothing he wears.’ she thought absently, her hand gently running over his shoulder, searching for any abnormalities in the healed skin. She caught herself lapsing off into some unknown plane of existence, but managed to fly back to reality before Sesshomaru noticed her lapse.

She wrung out the rag one more time and wiped the remaining claret colored liquid off of his back, making sure to be extra careful. Sesshomaru sagged a little and Kaida looked around a him in worry.

“Did we just converse without inflicting bodily damage?” he asked, the lids of his eyes drooping slightly as the trauma of blood loss finally began to overtake him.

“We did enough damage earlier.” she said, grinning. “But yeah, I guess we did.”

“Will wonders never cease?”

“I won’t tell if you won’t.” she said teasingly.

“Agreed.” he said, falling the rest of the way to the futon, finally passing out.

-

Kaida just shook her head and smirked in remembrance. She had taken care of her own minor wounds and left him there in the medical area for Keisha to find the next morning, even though she went back down there a few times to check on him and make sure he hadn’t contracted a fever from the wound.

These little twinges of concern had led her to driving herself crazy. She’d never been concerned with what Sesshomaru did before, why was she starting now? Her reactions when he was nearby ranged from utter anger when he aggravated her, to complete elation when she managed to get a wayward compliment from him.

Needless to say, she was more than just a little confused.

She’d dealt with her sisters lusting after Sesshomaru for nearly two decades, and was beginning to think that maybe she was falling into that particular category.

They would talk about how handsome he was, how he was the perfect candidate for a mate, how they would love to be the one who was the center of his attention.

She found herself drawing comparisons based on what her sister’s had speculated about him, and what she knew for a fact after living under his roof for nearly seven months.

Kaida would have to agree with them on a few counts. He was good looking, that was for damned sure, now that she’d taken the time to realize it. But she wasn’t so sure he’d be a good mate for anyone considering his personality type. And the only female that was going to be the center of his attention anytime soon was Rin. Now, who it turned to after the girl was gone was anyone’s guess.

Kaida frowned and shook her head to clear the familiar thoughts from her mind. She had things to do. Ronin would be arriving in the morning with Kentaro, and she had a gut feeling that it had something to do with the upcoming Lord’s meeting, as well as Kentaro’s request of courting Rin. As such, she had better things to do than stand around daydreaming about Sesshomaru and his little vices.

‘I’m starting to think like Leiko and Kei. That’s proof enough that I’m losing what little bit of sanity I have left!’ she thought grimly as she left her rooms and headed towards the kitchens to find Rin.

-

A/N - Hey, hope everyone enjoys the newest chapter. Since school will be starting up in a week or so, I’ll try to get the next few chapters posted before I have to go back.

Until next time,

A.A.

Oh, and remember to review. I want to know what you think.