Yu Yu Hakusho Fan Fiction / InuYasha Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ The Evil In Us All ❯ Midnight Conversations (Finally, some more waff!) ( Chapter 8 )

A/n- No author's notes for this chapter, I'll get straight to the story, which I may have to finish typing over the course of tonight and tomorrow, I'm really tired…

Midnight Conversations

"My father was once the most feared man in Japan --" Kenji began, and was cut off by Yusuke, who as usual, had no tact whatsoever.

"Whoa, all we wanted to know was how you got so bloody back in that alley!" Kenji flushed slightly.

"Yes, but since you all are obviously not from around here, I thought I might tell you a little about myself." Botan shot Yusuke dead with eye bullets and asked Kenji to continue.

"Anyway, my otousan fought during the Bakamatsu and was given the title of Hitokiri Battousai. After the Bakamatsu, my father wandered for about 10 years away from his home in Kyoto, pledging never to kill again. I'm not sure what brought on his sudden transformation because my parents were always vague about it. All I know is, after those 10 years, they first met. To make a long story short, they married after about a year and a year after that, I was born."

 "My uncle Yahiko was actually their adoptive son so he's more like a brother to me. Here's where it gets complicated though. I had grown to about the age of two, when my father suddenly left me and my mother. He had to return to his cause of helping all the people he could and he left to help the sick people of some far off city, or something like that. When he finally returned, which was about two years ago, we found out he had contracted some kind of new, fatal disease. My mother willingly became infected with it shortly after and they both died within a month of each other. I was fourteen."

 Kenji's throat swelled and he could not continue for a moment. Even now, when he was sixteen, reliving the almost, in his view, selfish decisions of his parents was hard. He gulped down the rest of his tea and finished his story in a monotone.

"Uncle Yahiko is the only one I have left. Just a while ago, we were coming home from a late wedding-party at the Akabeko, a nearby restaurant, when we saw some shadows moving strangely on an alley wall. When we got there, we found a huge group-maybe twenty men-all demanding payment from a young girl."

 "We thought it was strange why such a big group needed to collect from a helpless girl. Now that I think about it, she did look very weird. She might have been a demon or something. The younger, rowdier members began to try to force themselves upon her. You can guess what happened from that point on."

 Rin stared at him in awe. For the first time, she spoke to someone other than Sesshomaru or Shizuru.

 "You must be very strong to defeat so many men at once." Kenji reddened again at the beautiful girl's compliment. His brilliant blue eyes kindled with fierce pride.

 "Uncle Yahiko and I are both masters of my mother's and my father's sword styles. My mother's family practiced Kamiya Kasshin and my father practiced Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu." He frowned a little.

 "But those gangster types didn't fight fairly. Normally, even then, we could have beaten them easily, but Yahiko-sama (for the sake of hating to type `uncle' over and over again, I will use the suffix -sama instead) had been very… distracted. At the cost of several broken limbs and a lot of pain, a couple of them were able to stab Yahiko-sama through the stomach. He was weakened after that and it wasn't long before he passed out from blood loss. He's going to be furious with himself." Here, Kenji gave a boyish grin.

 The tantei began to yawn and they soon parted into their separate rooms. Yukina peeked out the door to announce she elected to stay with Yahiko, just in case.

 There weren't many rooms, so Shizuru and Rin shared one; Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Kurama shared the larger one; and Genkai shared the smallest one with Botan.

 Sesshomaru left the dojo and leapt into a sakura tree to think. The image of himself strangling Shizuru played over and over in his mind.

 His heart; yes, he did have one of those, didn't he?, hitched slightly every time he saw the bruising marks on her lovely, pale throat. Almost without thinking, because if he had thought, he surely would have strangled himself for being so pathetic, he returned to the dojo and drew open the shoji of the room Shizuru shared with Rin.

 The girl with sandy brown hair was still awake and sat leaning against the wall where Rin lay slumbering. She quickly glanced up in surprise when he entered.

 He was strangely disappointed when her shocked expression changed to wariness. `Perhaps,' he thought, `She ought to be wary of me…'

 In fact, she was preparing to go out the other door when she heard him speak.

 "I…" gods, why was it so hard to apologize? "For Rin's sake, I will apologize."

 Shizuru's features chilled. She looked at him boldly, with her head held high so she could make eye contact. If he hadn't been carefully guarding his expression, he would have flinched. Her bruised neck was clearly visible.

"I can't accept your apology then." He stared at her sharply. How dare this mortal female refuse his request for forgiveness when he, lord of western youkai, offered it to her?

 As if reading the expression that was not on his face she continued.

 "A real apology can only take place when the person asking for it, really means it."

 She never once broke the stare. She knew he would not admit he was wrong; it was Hiei all over again.

 "Then I am sorry… for when I hurt you before." Dead silence as she digested this…

 Her mouth nearly dropped open in shock. She couldn't help spitting out another question.

 "Why do you care all of a sudden?!" He didn't answer and for a long time, they stared at one another.

 With the sakura trees behind him, Shizuru admired his beautifully long hair that glimmered silver and his face that seemed too flawless to be real.

 Sesshomaru watched the woman's face soften and with the moonlight glinting through the open shoji door, reflecting off her earthy tresses, she looked like an ethereal temptress.

 After a while, he finally answered. "I… disliked it when you feared me." Sesshomaru then felt like a complete fool. `What in the seven hells does a YOUKAI care if a ningen fears them?!'

 As she watched the conflicting emotions travel across his eyes, Shizuru boldly went up to him and placed her hands on both sides of his face.

 "I do NOT fear you, Sesshomaru…"

 He forced himself to leave, abandoning her soft hands. She also felt like she needed some air and left through the opposite door to go outside the other way.

 * * * * * * * * * *

 Rin awoke to the shutting of the shoji door. She scrambled over to it, but saw no one there. She felt very much alone.

 Staying in a room without Shizuru there until she fell asleep again would be impossible. She was very used to feeling watched over and protected while she slept since she always traveled with Sesshomaru.

 Rin crept into the dark hallway of the dojo. There was a door in front of her and she paused before she timidly knocked on it.

 It was a minute before anyone answered, but eventually, a disheveled (dum dum DUM… who can it be? ^_^ *gets hit with random keyboards* Owtch!! *_*) Kenji appeared.

 She blushed, looking down when she realized he once again was wearing no shirt. (hehehe… clichéd, I know, but I couldn't resist doing it again! All right, that's the last note thingie now. No need to throw anything…)

 He was, in short, surprised to see her there in her sleeping yukata. In the pale light filtering through his window, her long, bouncy waves of chestnut hair were illuminated. Her large, brown eyes and gently flushed face made him think about innocent angels.

 Rin didn't notice him staring at her because she was too busy staring demurely at the ground. Kenji reluctantly quit gawking at the beauty before him.

 "Are you all right Rin?" She finally looked up. Looking at his eyes that were so much wiser than his years, Rin suddenly felt stupid at coming here, afraid of the dark.

 "R-Rin is fine." He looked confused and she flushed further. Her head felt as though it were on fire now. "Rin w-was getting water and she f-forgot which room was hers…" She stammered.

 She looked up and was relieved to find him smiling. "I'll take you there."

 Kenji thought it was incredibly cute the way she spoke in third person. The only other person he had ever heard do that was his father… He strode forward abruptly.

 They padded down the way Rin had come up and she wondered why he didn't just point it out. Suddenly, she gasped as he tilted her chin up so she could meet his gaze.

 He looked at her so intensely she could not breathe, nor could she break the gaze.

"Sweet dreams Rin." He murmured and just as quickly went back to his room and shut the door behind him.

 It took her a moment to respond, and she crept into her room to come face to face with Shizuru. The girl's adopted okaasan smiled widely telling without words that she had heard everything.

 Rin slept that night with a very red face.

 A/n- All right, I m perfectly well aware that Sesshomaru is almost laughably out of character, and that I may have overdone the waff in this chapter. But I felt like writing waff at the moment so screw off!

 Just Kidding!!! Well, if you must screw off, please leave a review first!! ^_^ you know I love you guys!!

 *gets Hiei plushies pelted at her* ooh! There's a Youko Kurama one in here! ^_^

 ~~aliya~~