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Red Strings of Fate	By : northstar Category: InuYasha > Het - Male/Female > Sessh?maru/Rin > Sessh?maru/Rin Views: 11810 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
*Thoughts*

[Character]

~* Chapter 8 *~

[Kisika]

I could tell he was angry by the way he stalked about the room, but the fact
that his foot falls were audible meant that he was more upset than angry, so
much so that he was forgetting the training that was ingrained into his being.

He had pounded on my door, demanding entrance. Once I let him in, he had
prowled around my room silently, as if looking for some enemy to slay. Out of
long habit, I curled into my favorite old chair, knowing he would open the
conversation whenever he was ready. At first, dread had eaten away at my
insides. But looking back, I could not see myself doing anything different. I
made peace with my actions, and would make no excuses to soften their impact.

"Why was Rin in my room?" Sesshoumaru asked, a
weariness in his voice.

"She intended to give herself to you," I answered quietly.

"Why?" He asked again, his voice raw with regret, pain, and self
denial.

"She loves you," I told him, sure beyond a doubt that my words were
true.

"She doesn't," he denied.

I cocked my head. "It isn't improbable that she loves you. For years you
have been her guardian, her protector, the most important person in her life.
You have commanded her to find a mate, and since you are the one she loves, she
has chosen you."

"I told her to choose a husband!" he growled.

My eyes met his, cool yellow against heated amber.

"Did you ever ask her if she wanted one?" I shot back.

Surprise made him pause and think about it for a moment.

"I am her guardian. I know best." He fell back on the words as if he
had repeated them to himself many times, making himself believe them.

I quirked an eyebrow of him. "What do you know of
a young girl's dreams?"

There was no answer he could give, so he switched tactics.

"Do you know she's been sleeping around?" He said it like an accusation,
wanting me to deny it so that he could blame my guardianship.

"The only one I gave my consent for her to sleep with is you. Since you
rejected her, I will be over seeing her care from now on."

"What?" His shock would have been comical,
if it wasn't underlaid by the insecurity that came from the final rifting of
all he thought was stable.

"Did Rin say anything?" I asked.

"She said she would keep her promise," he conveyed her words
reluctantly, sensing that he would not like what they meant.

"Ah," I sighed. I hadn't been entirely sure that Rin would keep her
word. Seeing the impatient, thunderous look on his face, I sought to clarify.

"Rin gave her word to me that she would marry Lord Toushi. She had
renounced all ties she has to you." I studied my cousin, knowing that my
words must be tearing him apart, but determined to see this through. The sooner
Rin was settled, with a husband and perhaps a child to distract her, the sooner
she would get over my cousin. How soon my cousin would get over Rin was another
matter. Yet this course of action would force his hand one way or the other,
and he would have to choose whether to let Rin become mate to another, or to
take her for himself.

The look on his face was between shocked outrage and fresh pain.

My sympathy threatened to undermine my resolve, but I tucked it aside. If
nothing else, I had learned that from him. There would be time for sorrow and
pain later.

"I will act as her chaperon until she is married," I paused, met his
eyes. "I would like for you not to see her again, unless you are willing
to claim her."

This time his shock and anger was too much, and he lunged for me with a growl.
I stood still as his hand wrapped around my throat, and when my eyes flickered
to his, I was not afraid.

With the lack of fear to feed it, his killer instincts subsided. He whirled
away from me, and when he turned back, it was only a half glimpse of his face.

Imagining the pain he must be feeling, my sympathy at last broke free,
softening my voice.

"I believe it's best for Rin," I admitted to his back.

"Do you?" he asked, sounding lost and resigned.

"I do," I said with all the conviction I didn't feel.

He nodded sharply, then excused himself. By the next
morning, he was gone.

[Rin]

I watched the animated face of my fiance, feeling dead inside. We sat at the
head of the table, with Toushi sitting in Sesshoumaru-sama's seat, receiving
all of our guests well wishes. He had replaced him in
more ways than one, as my lord and protector, as my future mate, as the one who
filled my life with his presence.

It was hard not to react to his tender show of love. A thousand little touches,
a thousand little looks, and I soaked it up like a long dead flower, all my
emotions bittersweet as I thought of all I would have given to have one such
gesture from Sesshoumaru-sama.

The shock of him leaving was almost redundant, insignificant after last night's
rejection. I had offered him both my love and myself, but they hadn't been
enough for him. I had thought my world would end, that there would be nothing
left of the girl called Rin. Instead, I had woken next morning's celebration, a
dull ache in my chest and my eyes red from crying.

Hisai had been supportive and sympathetic, but there was a subtle withdrawal in
her that I could not understand. Kisika, for her part, avoided me except for
curt commands, and in a moment not clouded by self pity, I realized she was
setting herself up as the villain. That revelation burst the ill feelings I had
harbored towards her, and I gave up the effort of hating her or
Sesshoumaru-sama, preferring the comfort of non-feeling. So it was without
protest that I was swept up in the bustle of planning the wedding, making no
protest as I was measured for my bridal kimono, leaving the details in the
capable hands of Hisai and Kisika.

My only rebellion happened when it came time to move to Toushi's castle. As
they took my stuff and packed it, my torrent of tears fell. I did not want to
leave the garden and the memories it held, no matter that the story had not
ended happily.

Kisika found me there, sitting on a rock.

Lovingly her hand trailed through my hair, and she offered her embrace.
Surprised, I looked up, stunned to find tears on her own
face. Cuddling together, we cried into each other's arms.

The quiet between us went a long way to healing some of my pain, knowing that
there was someone else who cared.

"Do you hate him?" she asked, daring at last to open the subject.

I sorted through my feelings. "No." I said quietly.

"I asked him not to come back," she admitted into the silence. "Unless he was serious about you."

Some of the anxious questions that I hadn't dared to voice,
subsided at this new insight. I sank lower into my depression, knowing now that
his rejection was total and complete, forever. Part of me hurt anew, and I was
able to put some of my tormenting hopes to rest. I found I still had a few more
tears to shed.

We stayed in the garden long after the last servant had taken the last bundle
away. When I emerged to face my fiance, I was able to smile a little. My insides
were peaceful for once, and for the first time in a long time, I turned my eyes
and feet towards the future.

[Hisai]

I rode beside the girl in the wagon, wondering how I could have become so
attached to a mortal.

*No wonder the dog demon has come to lover her so* I thought knowingly.

I fingered the shuttle in my pocket, a nervous habit I had developed of late.
My specific job was to weave the tapestry of the present, and to leave the past
and future to my sisters. But in a rare act of defiance, I had peeped into the
future. And instantly regretted it.

I eyed Rin again, my fingers twitching in the urge to reweave the tapestry, to
spare her more pain.

*No* I thought to myself. *This is the path they have chosen.*

If I interfered, if I intervened, then I would cease to exist, having violated
my goddess contract. I had already walked the line, already played with things
I shouldn't have.

Subconsciously I had withdrawn from the girl, putting emotional distance
between myself and the coming pain. Hating myself for it, I stayed by her side
physically, determined to at least be there for her rely on.

Vowing never to part the veils of the future again, I sat down to my loom,
ready to weave the present as it happened. If my hands shook as I did, the
tapestry never showed it, the threads beautiful and even as I wove the shuttle
through.
- 8
- 9
- 10
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Red Strings of Fate