Deja Vu

Hi again everyone. I’m glad you liked the last chapter, I hope you like this as well, even though it doesn’t contain a lot of action.
To answer your question new fan, yep, Sess is youkai in this.
Ok, I figure there may be a question about Sess’s hairstyle so I found a relatively decent approximation of what I’m talking about: http://www.angelemma.com/gallery/customer/hollyhuman5.jpg
See, he doesn’t look like a sleazy radio DJ or something. I wouldn’t mangle your Sess!

I don’t own Inuyasha.


Chapter 3

She lay there languidly in the darkest hours before sunrise, her body sunken into a deep sleep despite the fact that she knew she should still be on guard. The ground, however, was soft and smelled of damp earth, and the abstract landscapes of her dreams were a welcome escape from reality. Vaguely Rin snuggled into the warmth against her side, her fuzzy mind not bothering to take note that she possessed nothing that could create that warmth.

She heard a voice murmur her name and she jolted awake, meeting magnificently golden eyes only inches away from hers. The iridescent orbs flooded with an expression she couldn’t read as they looked into her own deep brown eyes. She gasped and moved away, noting with annoyance the fact that she’d allowed herself to be pulled into his arms. She wondered how he got so close to her that he could touch her in the first place. Not even Hanako could get near her in her sleep without her knowing. She blew it off as exhaustion. Finding more pressing matters,
she racked her brain for some sort of weapon in the vicinity and found none. She cursed her own ineptitude, wondering how she could be so stupid as to leave herself unarmed.

“Did they send you to kill me?” She whispered taking him in fully for the first time as she slowly began to edge away, not doubting for a moment that he could overtake her with ease, especially in her weakened state. If that was the case, then she was about to meet death at the hand of the most beautiful man she had ever seen. His long silvery white hair touched the ground beside him despite being pulled into a ponytail high on his head. His face was oddly tattooed, a crescent moon adorning his forehead and two stripes marking each of his cheekbones. Despite the fact that he was kneeling on the ground, he more like royalty than anyone Rin had seen.

Without warning her body betrayed her. She began to feel slightly dizzy at first, then her sight went dark and her body numb. Visions of things she didn’t understand began to float before her eyes. She vaguely registered herself toppling to the ground. Desensitized to reality and unable to move, she succumbed to watching the scenes that flew through her mind.

It was as if she were watching a movie, no, it was more real than that. It was if she were immersed in the scenes. She could not only see the flowers the child before her was picking, she could also smell them, feel the soft petals against her fingers. She wasn’t watching the girl pick flowers, she was the girl. She felt the child’s happiness as if it were her own. She reveled in the simple pleasure of the field, the soft grass under her feet, the breeze on her face.

She heard a clipped voice call her name and felt the girl’s heart practically burst with joy at the sight of the silvery-white haired man. She ran towards him, a flower occasionally falling from her fingers in her rush to get to him. “Lord Sesshomaru!” The girl called, waving her small hand. The man stood before her, his face a somber mask. He was ornately garbed and bore a style of armor that Rin had never seen before, though it looked so natural on him that she wouldn’t be all that surprised to find it was an extension of his body.

She reached him, her little body not even slightly out of breath from the run. She clumsily handed him the wildflowers and he took them without a word. His face portrayed no interest, but the mere acceptance was enough to make the girl behave as though he’d not only taken them, but thanked her exuberantly and given her a hug as well. He turned on his heel and walked away, and she followed him, chattering about the meadow and the things she had found in it. He did not answer. As if acknowledging the vision was enough to stop the barrage on her psyche, she faded into darkness.

Rin awoke with a headache. Her mind was hazy and her entire body hurt, especially her left arm and right eye. “I need a cigarette.” She groaned, sitting up as her eyes adjusted to the low light of the room.

“Ah!” She yelped as she looked around. She was sitting in a large bed in the largest bedroom she had ever seen in her entire life. On top of that, she wasn’t dead. Her clothing had been replaced by a soft gray yukata, and with some mortification, she noticed that she wasn’t wearing any undergarments. She pulled down the sleeve to look at her still throbbing injured arm and saw that it had been dressed with bandages which showed no sign of blood, meaning that they were probably fresh. She pulled the yukata back up and tied it closed, letting herself get immersed in her surroundings.

The room was sparsely furnished, consisting of a pile of thick cushions for seating, three slender stands against the wall, two of which supported ornate vases, the third an elegantly simple flower arrangement. Aside from that, there was only her bed and the low table beside it which held a paper lantern with a simple wooden frame. All of the wooden items in her room had a dark cherry stain, from the double doors on her left to the table beside her bed.

Her backpack was sitting on top of the table and she grabbed it, sifting through it’s contents to make sure everything was there. Satisfied, she pulled out a cigarette from the side pocket and lit it, her nerves easing with every passing second. Bored with sitting, she extracted herself from the bed and gingerly stood up, her body aching in protest.

The polished wooden floor was cool on her feet as she walked over to the sliding doors on her right and opened them. Rin found herself on a balcony that appeared to traverse the length of her room. The view from it was beautiful, she peered into lush gardens of flowers and elegantly groomed trees, most of which she had never seen before. Hills of verdant greenery stretched as far as she could see, interrupted only by a rambling stream that snaked between the trees. She wondered if it was the stream she had washed herself in the night before.

The night before. The man. Lord Sesshomaru, her mind amended. No, she decided, that was just another dream. After all the name Sesshomaru meant “destruction of life”, and she was certain he was intent on destroying her life, which was most likely where her mind had gotten it. Once again she wondered what it meant that she was still alive, and why she was in a house overlooking the same grounds that she had taken solace in the night before. She looked at the sky and realized for the first time that it was mid evening, and she wondered exactly how long she had slept. Sighing lightly, she turned away from the balcony and went back inside.

She tried the large double doors on the far side of the room, and they opened easily in her hand. She peered out into a long, wide hall that seemed to go for a long way in both directions. There were doors on either side, and she could hear the distant chatter of several people but could not understand what they were saying. She moved back into the room and closed the door. It appeared that she was not someone’s prisoner at least, and the thought made her feel somewhat more relaxed. She was disturbed at the fact that she hadn’t seen anyone so far. It was almost anti-climactic to experience so much the night before and then wake up warm and comfortable. Rin pushed the thought from her mind with a twinge of annoyance at herself. What sort of idiot would consider the idea that she was still alive to be anti-climactic?

The thought caused her to ponder the whereabouts of her clothing. She felt extremely underdressed in the yukata, though she assumed it was more a feeling of insecurity at not having one’s clothing in a foreign location as opposed to the yukata itself. She padded over to the last door in the room, a paper screen with a sakura blossom print that matched the doors to the balcony. Upon opening it, she found herself in the largest closet she had ever seen. She laughed lightly, thinking it had been sort of a recurring pattern in her day.

The closet was easily as large as her entire apartment, and through the opened screen door on the other end, she could see a palatial looking bathroom. At the front of the closet, her clothing hung on a rack, looking solitary and out of place. She quickly grabbed it and headed toward the bathroom.

Rin had never seen a nice bathroom before to be honest, and for a girl who had during her younger years perfected the art of relieving herself in public alleys, and washing her hair in public bathrooms, she was in awe. The bathroom itself was western-style and immense. Some investigation found that the toilet was in a room to itself, and the wastefully large shower was separate from the bath, which probably could have fit both Rin and all of her friends. The poor girl couldn’t decide on whether she wanted a shower or a bath, and finally chose the bath on the fact that it would be easier to keep her arm dry.

She turned on the water and found bathing supplies in a nearby cupboard. As the tub began to fill, she eased her body into it and relaxed. She bathed for an hour and a half, scrubbing grime from her body of both a physical and emotional manner.

As she washed herself, she thought of her friends, of Hanako, and tears began to seep down her cheeks. Silently she sobbed, tears coursing down her cheeks. She remembered each of them in turn, recalling how they had made her life one worth living despite the circumstances. Each thought brought a fresh bout of tears. Her friends had been her family. They deserved better from her. She vowed to herself that no matter where her life took her, or how old she lived to be, she would never forget them. Finally she had sobbed herself out, and scrubbing the tears from her cheeks, she laid back into the water.

The bath oils made her smell of vanilla, and the hot water relaxed her. She watched the sky turn pink and then red as the sun set from the large window above her bath. Long after her fingers had turned to prunes, she grudgingly eased herself from the tub. She toweled off and dressed herself in her own clothing which she noticed had been washed.

As she entered her room, she realized that the man from the night before was sitting on a floor cushion against the wall. As soon as she saw him, a wave of vertigo threatened to overtake her. She steeled herself, and refused to allow it. She took a staggering step and the man was at her side in an instant. Elegant fingers wrapped around her arm.

“I’m fine, sorry. The bath must have made me a little dizzy.” She said, disengaging herself from his grasp and carefully walking over to the bed. He resumed his place on the floor cushion.

“What is your name?” He asked her as she sat down. Though it was phrased as a question, she felt as if it were more of a command.

“Akimura... Rin.” She said hesitantly. If he recognized the name, he showed no indication.

“Why were you on my property?”

Now that, she thought, was a question with a long answer. “I was walking and I got tired, I’m sorry, I didn’t see anyone around, I didn’t know it belonged to anyone.”

He frowned slightly. “Did you not see the wall?”

“Well yes, but...” She trailed off helplessly.

“How did you get those injuries?” He asked, changing the subject mercurially.

She hesitated and he met her eyes with his piercing golden stare. She felt as though her lies would go right through him. She bit her lip thoughtfully. “I was defending my friend.” She answered finally.

“From whom?”

“A man named Fujigawa who was attacking her.”

“I see, and where is your friend and this man now?”

She bit her lip until she drew blood to stop the fresh tears trying to escape from her eyes. “They’re both dead.”

“You killed him then?” He asked flatly, his voice betraying neither interest, empathy, or disgust.

“Yes.” She said, bowing her head and staring at the threads of her jeans.

“Take off your sweater.” He said, standing up.

“Excuse me?” She asked, startled. Her face flushed a light crimson red.

“I am going to change your bandage.” He said, picking up a medical kit from the side of the cushion that she hadn’t notice before.

“Oh.” She said, feeling like a fool as her face flushed even deeper with embarrassment.

As he opened the kit and began to unwrap the bandage, Rin struggled to make conversation. She felt completely flustered by him, in a manner that was unusual for her. Every word that came to her lips died before it left them. She felt so inadequate and grubby sitting next to him, despite the fact that she was still somewhat wet from the shower. He smelled incredible, and each breath she took filled her nose with him. She quickly stole glances at him out of the corner of her eye as he unwrapped the gauze.

He looked pristine. His silvery-white hair was opalescent in the light from the wall sconces. Every movement brought a shimmer of reflected colours, and Rin felt that if she were to look at it for too long, it would dazzle her eyes. The clothing he was wearing, black business pants and a white shirt, would look ordinary on anyone else, but on him, they looked like perfection.

He finished unwrapping the gauze and Rin got a good look at her arm for the first time. The area around the wound was a yellow twinged purple that matched the colour of her bruised eye. She counted thirteen angry looking stitches on the front side of the wound, and on the back, she saw eight. For some reason, looking at the injury made it hurt more, and her arm began to throb full force. He gently covered the wound with a clear salve that stung a little, and began to wrap new gauze around her arm.

“May I ask your name?” She finally said, hesitantly.

He glanced up and met her eyes. “Inutaisho, Sesshomaru. You may refer to me as Sesshomaru.”

The knowledge flooded through her, and brought dozens of questions to her mind. How had she known his name? Then it hit her that he’d ask her to call him by his first name. She blushed furiously and looked away, not understanding his mixed signals. He seemed entirely uninterested, yet at the same time, he wanted her address him in a very familiar manner that almost seemed inappropriate for the short length of time they’d known each other.

“Do you have anywhere to go?” He asked as he finished wrapping the gauze and lightly taped it down.

“N-no.” She stuttered and went back to memorizing every minute detail of the threads on her jeans.

“You may stay here. I will send up the head of my staff in a few moments. You are free to do as you wish.” He said, standing up. “You may not smoke any longer.”

Fury flooded Rin and she jumped to her feet. “Excuse me?”

He tilted his head at her. “I do not wish to repeat myself.” He then turned and walked towards the door.

“Wait, why are you letting me stay? Why are you doing this for me?” She asked, her tongue finally untied now that he was no longer looking at her. He merely ignored her and continued out the door.