InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ That's My Girl! ❯ Little Sesshoumaru Gets a Little Sister ( Chapter 6 )

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Disclaimer:  I do not own the characters of Inuyasha – but as of Tuesday I do own the first 13 episodes of the English dub of The Final Act!  Yay!  Only one more DVD and my collection is complete!

~oOo~

Kagome sighed as she looked at Sango, who shook her head and echoed her little friend's sigh.  Then they both looked across the playground at the group of kids on that side, who were all huddled together and muttering and staring across to this side of the grounds, just like the kids on this side were doing in return.

It had all started with Little Kouga and Little Naraku's divorce scheme.   That had really made her Sesshoumaru angry, and he had started making sure they knew they weren't welcome anywhere he or Kagome were.  And as each child on the playground had his or her own special friends, as well as enemies, it had soon spiraled into this – a polarized playground where everyone stayed on their side  and scowled and glared at everyone on the other side.

On their side was Sesshoumaru, who was, of course, the leader of their group, followed by Kagome.  His little brother Inuyasha was next, and then her best friend Sango.  And of course, because Sango was on this side, so was Miroku – everyone knew that those two went together, just like she and Sesshoumaru – mostly because little Miroku had finally gotten little Sango to give up trying to get away from him, since it never worked.  And then there was little Shippo,  and Kagome's other friends little Ayumi, Eri, and Yuka.  There was also little Ayame, who was still the only wolf that Sesshoumaru actually liked.   Last, and definitely least, there was the little mini-toad Jaken, who wasn't really part of the group as a friend – no, he was more there for comic relief and to run and fetch for Sesshoumaru, who he spent most of his time on the ground before, groveling and praising.  When it would finally start to get to be too much, Sesshoumaru would boot the toad across the playground to a neutral area, and for as long as it took the toad to recover and then make his way back, there would be peace again.

On the other side of the playground, there was Kouga, the little wolf-prince, and his underlings Ginta and Hakkaku, and little Naraku, and his underlings, a towering – to small children, anyway - and misshapen hanyou named Goshinki, and a weird little youkai named Byakuya, who was an illusion-youkai.  He had a long way to go before he was any good at them, though... most of the time, his attempts at illusions backfired – spectacularly.  Then there was Kagura and Kanna, of course, Kagura still determined to break little Sesshoumaru and little Kagome up so that she could have him.  And there was another little girl, one who didn't seem to like clothes much, since she was always stripping down to barely anything at all, named Yura.

They were the baddies, as Inuyasha called them, and it was true – they always did seem to be causing trouble in one way or another.  Sesshoumaru was quite diligent in keeping any of those troublemakers away from Kagome, and she was very glad that was so – after that nasty trick that Kouga and Naraku had played on her, telling her that her Sesshoumaru didn't want her anymore and was cheating on her, she didn't really want to hang around them.  But it was just too bad that they were like that – it kind of sucked that the playground was so divided in half the way it was.  She really preferred it when people got along.

“I wonder what trouble they're cooking up this time over there, since that's all they do, anyway,”  Sango muttered, and Kagome shook her head while Ayumi, Eri, Yuka, and Ayame all nodded in agreement.

“It does not matter.  They are beneath us, so do not pay them any attention,”  Sesshoumaru's lofty voice commanded, and the girls all turned to look at him in curiosity.

“So what else should we do, then?”  Ayame chirped.  “I'm getting bored.”

A chorus of voices agreed with the little wolf princess, Inuyasha's the loudest (of course), and Sesshoumaru sniffed.  “Are there not many other things to do?”  he asked.  “Must I always think of everything?”  When no one said anything, he sighed.  “Fine.  We may play Tag.”

It didn't take long for the group to take up the suggestion, and within minutes, their side of the playground was quite noisy with the sounds of children having a good time – including Sesshoumaru, as surprising as that still was to his sire, since, as a predatory inuyoukai, he quite enjoyed chasing things – or people, especially Kagome – down.  (Of course, whether he was it or not, he was always chasing Kagome around, anyway, and having a blast doing it, laughing wholeheartedly.  Touga hadn't even been sure that Sesshoumaru knew how to laugh – at least, not without it being loaded with sarcasm.)  

All was good on their side of the grounds for some time as they all played, none of them noticing the advent of a new child onto the playground.  

Little Rin was a year or so younger than most of those already in this particular playgroup, and a little naïve for all that – meaning she didn't seem to know how to tell the good guys from the baddies.  And just as it always seemed to happen, the sweet, innocent little girl found herself suddenly surrounded by baddies – and Kouga, who was feeling the need to flex his nonexistent muscles, decided she would be the perfect victim to bully to make himself feel better.

In his need to be the big bad wolf, however, he had kind of forgotten that human children were quite a bit more delicate than youkai children, and within moments, the little girl was on the ground, bleeding and unconscious – and he and his little minions suddenly couldn't get away from her fast enough.  True, it wasn't as bad as it looked – she'd fainted from fear, not injury, and she didn't really have much in the way of injuries, either – just a few scratches that would heal quickly, even for a human.  But they didn't know that, and it didn't take long for the scent of blood to catch Sesshoumaru's attention.

Scenting wolf – his least favorite smell, not counting Ayame – mixed with terror and blood, the mini-daiyoukai tracked down the source of those scents at about the same time as his father did, and Touga scowled angrily just as his son knelt down next to the little human child.  His father disappeared for a moment and then reappeared and was just about to bend down over the child to press a cold compress to her forehead when the rest of the playground surrounded them, curious children staring with big eyes at the little girl on the ground.  Before he could even speak, every kid on the playground turned en masse and pointed at the little wolf cub trying to hide at the back, and yelled,  “He did it!”

Frustrated, the inuyoukai was about to snarl out orders for the other kids to go play so he could take care of the little girl, since he could smell quite well who'd done it, when his son took the cloth from his hand and said,  “You should go catch that smelly wolf so he doesn't scare her again.  I will take care of her.”

Surprised, Touga stared at his son for a moment and then nodded.  “I think I'll just do that,”  he agreed with a nasty smirk on his face at the thought of getting his hands on that irritating wolf cub – and his father.  With Kouga's actions – and Touga's videotape - his father wouldn't be able to defend him, and this time the obnoxious little brat would get his due.

After making sure all the other kids disbursed, Touga went after Kouga, while Sesshoumaru pressed the cloth to the little girl's head and waited for her to wake, while little Kagome and little Sango also came over and helped to clean her up a little, gently wiping her scratches up so at least she wasn't getting blood on her clothes or anything.

It took a few minutes, but just as little Sesshoumaru lifted the girl's torso up a little to protect her eyes from the sun, her lashes fluttered and she opened her eyes, looking straight up into the golden ones of the youkai above her.  Sesshoumaru braced for the scream he was sure was about to come, but instead, the little girl just smiled up at him with huge trusting, brown eyes that he couldn't seem to look away from.

They looked the same as Jaken's always did – swirling with something very close to worship, but he found that, unlike when Jaken looked at him that way, he wasn't annoyed.  Instead, it made something inside preen, and he puffed up a little as she smiled at him.  

“Hi.  I'm Morita Rin,”  she whispered,  “what's your name?”

“I am Taisho Sesshoumaru,”  he said kindly, surprising his father once again as he approached after having taken a cringing Kouga to the parent's circle, where the parents who were staying to watch the kids could sit and mingle.  The boy would be kept under very stern eyes until his parents could come pick him up.  “Come, sit up now.  Are you okay?”  he asked.

The little girl obliged him readily, sitting up, though her smile faded as she remembered what had happened earlier.  She nodded unsteadily, trapping her little lip between her teeth as she tried not to cry.  It was then that she caught sight of little Kagome and little Sango, and Touga, as well.

“I'm okay... but that wolf... where did he go?”  she asked fearfully, looking around hesitantly.

It was Kagome that answered.  She flounced closer with a scowl on her face as she flicked a fierce glare towards the parent's circle, where she could see Kouga looking their way.  The little boy paled and flinched at the look, his little tail hanging behind him limply as he realized that his actions had seriously pissed off the object of his affections.

“Don't you worry about that little bully, Rin-chan,”  she said as she knelt down next to Sesshoumaru and the little girl, Sango following.  “He won't ever come near you again if he knows what's good for him!  I'll sic Ayame on him – in fact, I'm going to do it anyway.”

“W-who's Ayame?”  Rin stuttered, and then belatedly asked,  “And who're you?”

“Oh!”  Little Kagome blushed as little Sesshoumaru smirked at her.  “I'm Higurashi Kagome, and this is Takeda Sango.  And Ayame is the little girl over there wearing white – she's a wolf, too, but she's not like Kouga, she's really nice,”  she hurried to console the girl who had started to look frightened again at the mention of wolves.  “Kouga actually belongs to Ayame, but he's being a jerk lately, and she's going to be really, really mad when she finds out that he did this to you.”  She snickered, actually finding the thought of what Kouga was going to get from little Ayame funny, though she usually wasn't like that, this time the little brat really deserved it.

At that point Touga stepped in, though he also fully loved the idea of Kouga getting his comeuppance from the fierce little white wolf princess who was rapidly approaching once again, determined to find out what was going on and why Kouga had been led away.  “Hello, little Rin-chan,”  Touga said, his deep voice calm and soothing to the little one whose eyes had widened on him.  “Are you okay?  Do you need to go see the nurse?”

Rin slowly shook her head, awed.  This youkai was big, but he felt... nice, for lack of a better word.  Safe.  She knew he wouldn't hurt her, just like the younger little youkai male that had held her and helped her.  She could tell that the big youkai was Sesshoumaru's father, and that made him safe.  Anyone connected to Sesshoumaru had to be safe.  And in the mind of a tiny little girl, adoration was born.

Sesshoumaru was just what an older brother should be – something she'd missed having since her own older brother, Seishiro, had died protecting her.  It had happened barely a year ago – they were in a car crash, and her brother had thrown himself on top of her, which had saved her life – and ended his.  He would always be her hero, and now Sesshoumaru was placed next to him on the pedestal she'd put him on.

“I-I'm okay,”  she finally managed to squeak out, as Touga chuckled at her wide-eyed stare.  

“Do you wish me to call your parents and have them come and get you?”  he asked then, frowning at the sudden sad look on her little face.

“I... I don't have parents anymore,”  she whispered, to his consternation.  “My parents died in a car crash.  I've been staying with different people a lot.  After they get tired of taking care of me, they send me to other people, or sometimes back to the orphanage.  I'm staying there now because the last lady that I stayed with... um... she hit me.”

Normally, she wouldn't tell anyone all that, but with these two, she just felt safe and like she could tell them without getting in trouble.  She saddened, then – she wished with all her heart that she could stay with these two, where she would be safe like she hadn't been since the day her family died.

Sesshoumaru growled at that, for some reason feeling very protective of this little human girl – like he was of Kagome, but for different reasons.  He didn't see this little girl as a future mate, as he did with Kagome, but like a little sister – which he would have much preferred having to his rotten little brother.  

Touga was also bothered greatly by what he'd just heard, and he crouched down to the level of the little girl, her brown hair bunched up in a little side pony tail that was actually cute, and looked her over.  His sharp eyes did not miss the signs of neglect on her once he was actually looking – she looked hungry, and sad, and her clothes were not the best, slightly ill-fitting and definitely donated.  And she had a few fading bruises, as well.

“Father, you must do something about this,”  Sesshoumaru said, standing and helping little Rin to also stand up.  Kagome and Sango also stood up to join the avidly listening Ayame, and the girls added their pleas to Sesshoumaru's demand.

“Yes, Inupapa, please help Rin-chan!  It's not good to not have anyone to take care of you,”  Kagome added, big blue eyes blinking up at him pleadingly, and Touga immediately folded, not able to deny his future daughter-in-law anything.

“I will take care of everything, don't you worry, little Rin-chan.  I will call my lawyer and you will come and live with me and my family,”  the daiyoukai said, knowing that his wife would also agree, and would have been throwing her voice in with the children had she been there, too.  He smiled inwardly with affection at thought of his wife.  “In the meantime, children, why don't you take Rin-chan and show her around the playground and introduce her to the other children, eh?”

The girls nodded and, chattering happily, took the little girl's hands and led her off, leaving Sesshoumaru behind.   Touga looked down questioningly at his son.

“How are we going to prove what that wolf did to Rin-chan to his parents, father?  They are always making excuses for him, especially if there's no proof he did something,”  the little boy growled.

Touga smirked wickedly, then, his eyes twinkling.  “Oh, don't you worry about that, my boy.  How do you think I knew something was wrong and came running?  I was videotaping the playground and caught it all on tape.”

Pleased, Sesshoumaru didn't even think to ask why his parent was videotaping the playground, too caught up in the enjoyable thoughts of what was going to happen to a wolf that had been caught in an indisputable way being a terrible bully.  He simply nodded to his sire and turned and wandered off after little Kagome and the others, leaving Touga to get busy calling his lawyer to get an order of custody for little Rin.

“He what?!!”  was the first thing to assault Sesshoumaru's ears as he approached his group once more, only to see a very agitated little Ayame listening with a fierce glare to what little Rin and little Kagome were telling her.  “Where is that little brat?”  she yelled, taking off and disappearing into a mini-dust devil as she sped across the playground, tracking Kouga's scent as the rest of the group watched in wide-eyed amazement.

Unable to resist, Sesshoumaru rushed over to the fence closest to the parent's circle, determined not to miss out on any of the action even as the rest of the kids all followed.  Kagome and Rin crowded right next to him against the fence avidly watching as little Ayame dropped out of her speedy little funnel cloud right in front of a cringing and now definitely terrified little Kouga.

“What did you think you were doing to that little girl, Kouga?!”  Ayame shouted fiercely at little Kouga – a little Kouga that was now trying to get far, far away from a little wolf princess that was quite irate – and holding onto his tail with angry little claws that wouldn't budge no matter how hard his little legs churned.  “That was totally mean, and I'm gonna tell my grandfather, and he'll make sure your parents punish you!”

“I was jus' tryin' to scare her a little!”  he shrieked finally in abject fear, as he cowered before the fuming white mini-wolf.  “I didn't mean to hurt her!  I swear!”

That made little Ayame so mad that she clonked little Kouga over the head with an  - apparently – heavy fist, twice no less, raising two nice big lumps on his head as she screamed,  “You bully!” and it was his turn to go lights out and land face first in the dirt.

That was a day that no one who was there would ever forget; a tiny, red-headed little wolf princess peeling the hide off of a terrified and whimpering little wolf prince for his transgressions.  Not even his parents knew what to say when they arrived and saw what was going on – and they didn't dare to try to claim that their son was innocent, either – not with little Ayame screaming her head off at him for daring to bully a little human girl, drawing her blood and making her faint.  

In the end, they didn't even ask to see proof, they just took Ayame at her word, and you could see the angry glares the wolf Lord and his wife were soon sending their son, who by that time had woken from his Ayame induced faint and was a puddle of terrified goo on the ground.  His downfall was the fact that Ayame attended the same playgroup as he did, because no matter how much the Wolf Lord and his wife didn't like to ever admit that their son might have done something wrong, they didn't dare call Ayame a liar – tiny or not.  She was not only their son's betrothed, but she was the princess of her clan – a much larger clan than Kouga's, with more power.  To offend Ayame's grandfather, the leader of that clan, would be a very bad thing.  Not to mention that the little girl their son had harassed was about to be adopted by the powerful Western Lord – and no one wanted to be on his bad side, Kouga's father gulping at the glare Touga was sending him as he dragged his whimpering son off.

As for little Rin?  That day, besides the rather terrifying beginning of it, ended up being the best day of her life, for on that day, she found a most wonderful big brother, and a loving, caring family that took her in and and treated her like she was born to them.  And the best part was that they didn't just take her in as a foster child, but they actually adopted her.  Touga, after finding out her background, and how much her family had loved her, honored her with his last name – but didn't take her parent's name from her, instead, he hyphenated it, naming her Morita-Taisho Rin.

Touga patted his little camcorder as he looked across the playground at a smiling and laughing Rin, a smile crossing his face at the sight of the little girl playing so happily, surrounded by her new brothers and their friends.  I'll never forget today... and someday, I'll bring this video out and let the kids see it and remember this day, too.

He chuckled.  And to think, the only reason that today will be preserved forever is because I've been videotaping the kids so I'll have blackmail potential on Sesshoumaru.  In the end, that's all because of Kagome, too... so I've got Kagome-chan to thank for everything wonderful that's happened this summer.  She's socialized Sesshoumaru, helped he and his brother to get along better, showed Satori up – he snickered at that, wishing he'd caught that moment on camera – made my life interesting as hell, given me loads of blackmail for later use against my sons, and even given me the gift of the daughter I've always wanted and never thought I'd get after we learned that Izayoi could never have another child.

Yes, today has been quite the day... I wonder what's going to happen here tomorrow?  

“Hm... I think that's actually a dangerous question.  I'm almost afraid of the answer,”  he chuckled to himself as he answered his ringing phone and spoke to his lawyer, who was letting him know that as of this moment, he had temporary custody of one Morita Rin, and within the week adoption proceedings would be closed and he could officially name her his since she had no living relatives and the government would be quite pleased to hand her over to someone of such standing.

Quite the day, he thought once more as he called his wife and told her all about their new daughter.

This playgroup was the best idea I've ever had.

~oOo~

A/N:  Okay, this one's more sweet than actually funny, but hey, I tried to introduce Rin into the story in a way that was as close to canon as possible in this way far out A/U.   Next up... Sesshoumaru and posse meet the 'Band of Seven'!

(That one should be a LOT more humorous than this one.)

Amber