Behind Closed Doors

A.N.: Kay, just to clear this up, I stopped watching InuYasha shortly after Inu Yasha had to go get his sword the ability to break barriers, and I don't read the manga at all, so the fact that Koga was aware that his wolves killed Rin? Completely missed it. Therefore, just stick this somewhere into the story before he found out ^.^ Problem solved X3 lol Enjoy!

Koga sat in a chair in his room, his leg propped up on an ottoman, staring out of a window. He was bored out of his mind. The toad had brought his breakfast in for him, leaving with a short sputtering of how the wolf had better appreciate all of this. Koga had chased him off with a short growl. Rin had yet to visit him; He assumed Sesshoumaru had something to do with that.

It actually depressed him that the child hadn't come to see him. He had grown used to her company in the short time he'd been around her, having reminded him greatly of Kagome. To make things worse, he was bored out of his mind. He had tried to leave his room earlier, but Jaken had forced him back in, threatening to tell Sesshoumaru he was causing trouble. Knowing the demon lord was looking for any excuse to off him, the wolf prince had retreated.

Therefore, when his door opened and Rin came running in, his heart actually lifted for the first time since he had arrived, offering her a smile. "Where have you been all day?"

"With Sesshoumaru-sama. But he's left for a while, so Rin came to keep you company. Are you busy?" He shook his head, and her eyes lit up, grabbing his hand. "Then come with Rin!"

Taking care not to rush his leg, the human child guided him down many halls, ignoring Jaken's insistence that Koga stay where he was. Only now was he getting glimpses of the servants that worked her, many of them low class demons that resembled humans, with the exception of a few features. His eyes trailed over a few of the women, earning cautious but interested looks in return, which placed a grin on his face.

"Rin, where are we going?"

"To Rin's room!" He slowed to a stop at that, remembering Sesshoumaru's warning; he doubted very much the demon lord would want him in his surrogate daughter's room by himself. She looked up at him in confusion as he stopped. "You do not want to go to Rin's room?" He offered a smile to her.

"I don't think Sesshoumaru would like that." She looked confused at that, then turned as one of the servants called her name. The female demon approached the two carefully, her eyes always lifting back to Koga.

"Rin-san, why don't you let Koga-san rest? He shouldn't be moving around so much."

"But Rin wants to play with Koga-sama!" The servant looked rather unsettled that the child was giving Koga such an honorific title.

"Then perhaps you should take him to your painting room instead. It's closer." Realizing that the servant wasn't trying to take her away, but merely prevent Sesshoumaru from blowing up half the castle in fury, he looked down at Rin.

"Rin-chan, you can paint?" She looked delighted at the nickname he gave her, and quickly changed direction, nodding. He offered the servant a grateful smile before they disappeared through a door into a rather sunny room.

"Sesshoumaru-sama gave this room to Rin when he found her drawing with the wild berries she found!" She explained, running across the large room. Countless canvases were scattered everywhere, half of them covered in childish paintings, many of them depicting a silver colored figure with an smaller orange one, and an even smaller green one.

Marvelling at the fact that Sesshoumaru would go this far to indulge in the child's wishes, he held back the laughter that wanted out at the crude paintings of Sesshoumaru. It wasn't so much that she COULD paint, but rather that she LIKED to paint.

"Rin has been making this one." she called out to him, running up with a canvas half as big as her. It didn't take him long to figure out who the brown character sitting on a bench next to the orange one was. Taking it gently from her, he looked over the splotchy bushes, oversized trees and other strange looking objects he assumed were part of the garden.

Looking back at her proud grin, he ruffled her hair up a bit, grinning back at her. "Great job, Rin." He praised, smiling at the infantile depiction of himself, noticing that he was holding Rin's hand in the painting, and smiling far wider than anatomically possible.

"Will you paint Rin?" Blinking in surprise at this, he looked back at her.

"I...I'm not very good at painting." He informed, and he bit back a laugh as she puffed her cheeks out.

"Have you tried?" He shook his head, setting the painting down carefully as she pulled him along once more and gently forcing him to sit. Fumbling with the paintbrush she gave him, she sat across from him with her own paintbrush after giving him a medium sized canvas, and proceeded to start her own painting.

Figuring he may as well try, since he didn't have anything better to do, he searched through the colors of different inks for a proper shade of orange.

About an hour or so later, the two of them compared paintings. Rin had once again painted him, this time a portrait, and he once more bit down on his tongue to keep from laughing. "It looks just like me." Rin herself clapped repeatedly after setting it down, then insisted that he show her his.

It wasn't a stunning picture, but it was a decided improvement over a ten year old's, and his reward for his half decent picture of her was a full body hug that rocked him backwards slightly.

"See, Koga-sama!? You CAN paint!" Smiling, he hugged her back, handing the painting to her and watching as she ran to set it on a shelf. Looking at the other paintings on the shelf, he blinked, then struggled to his feet, limping over to get a better look. There were many paintings of Rin on the shelf already, all of them obviously by the same artist, and all were lifelike enough to be her twin.

"Rin-chan, who did these?"

"Sesshoumaru-sama painted those!" she explained, pointing to a small symbol in the corner of a fang, which must have been Sesshoumaru's version of a signature. "He paints with Rin a lot!" Picking up a painting of Rin holding a flower out, he smiled at her.

"Is it hard to stay still for that long?" She looked confused for a moment, then shook her head.

"Rin doesn't pose for Sesshoumaru-sama. He says it's easier if he paints out of his head." She explained, placing his painting on the middle shelf. Having Koga's mediocre attempt next to Sesshoumaru's caused the wolf's chest to warm a bit, pleased that she felt it deserved to be up there. Hearing his stomach growl, he looked down at her as she laughed.

"Lunch time, then?" He asked, to which she nodded.

After the skies had dimmed, and Koga had steered the half asleep Rin into a servant's arms, the wolf found himself settling into a well deserved bath one of the handmaidens had drawn for him, the gesture far too much appreciated to be taken as a sign that he was starting to smell. Enough fragrance was in the water to wash away any foul smell; of course, he wasn't too pleased with that, since it was screwing up his own sense of smell. The hot water greatly made up for it as it soothed away any aches and pains he had been dealing with in order to keep up with the hyper child.

Of course, the moment his injured leg hit the hot water, the marginal pain was replaced with severe burning pain, but he didn't care. The leg needed cleaning anyway, and he refused to give Sesshoumaru anything else to jab at him about.

As his thoughts flitted to the silver warlord, he mused over what he had learned from the past few days. There were far more sides to Sesshoumaru than anyone could have considered. The fact that the cold demon actually took the time to sit with a human child and paint with her was what had stunned him the most so far, him having met much kinder demons who would NEVER have done that.

Hearing the door open, he smiled as he decided it was time to act on the intrigued looks the servants were continually giving him. "I can't get over how big this bath is. I'm actually starting to feel kind of lonely in here. Do you mind keeping me company?" When he got no reply, he frowned slightly, but it turned back to a smirk as the sound of fabric dropping to the floor was heard. "Is that a yes?"

"Only if you keep at least 5 feet away from me at all times." The voice had Koga almost jumping out of his skin, as well as sliding almost all the way into the water, only his head visible as he glared up at Sesshoumaru, who was in the middle of removing the rest of his clothing, his upper half bare already. "Otherwise I'm going to kick you out of my bath. The only reason I'm letting you stay in there is because you do indeed need it."

Ignoring the growl he got as an answer, Sesshoumaru stepped into the hot water a good distance from the wolf, the water coming to mid waist on him. Koga leaned back against the side once more, still not able to support himself on his leg. "If it bothers you so much to share a bath with me, why not wait til morning?"

"Because I have had a trying enough day as it is, and I am not to wait any longer to get this scent off of me." He snapped, surprising Koga a bit, since the demon lord usually had a good rein on his temper. Wisely staying quiet, he resumed his soaking, combing out his hair now and then and doing his best to ignore the other demon. Only when Inuyasha's scent worked it's way over the scented water did he dare to look at Sesshoumaru.

He was relieved to see that not only was there no blood on the other's scent, but that Kagome's was missing as well. The human woman was quickly forgotten as he got a look at Sesshoumaru's left arm, or rather, his lack of a left arm.

"What..." The question died as soon as it started, the wolf changing his mind to ask very quickly, though he bravely met Sesshoumaru's stony gaze, his blue eyes trailing to what remained of his arm for a moment.

"It's rude to stare." Sesshoumaru remarked simply, causing Koga to break the contest first, the wolf looking down at the small bubbles floating by his arm. After a while, Koga hoisted himself backwards out of the water, sitting on the edge in order to continue soaking his leg, while beginning to dry off his upper half with a towel. Once he was entirely dry, other than his legs, he leant back on his elbows, his eyes closing with a sigh. His contentment only lasted a few moments, the silence between the two of them unnerving. He was far too used to his pack, where everyone chatted about every little thing. There was never silence; even while sleeping, there was loud snoring.

"What were you picking on the mutt for?" He threw out randomly, looking over at the demon lord. Sesshoumaru kept his back to the wolf, busying himself with cleaning his hair. Well that topic wouldn't get very far... "Rin showed me your paintings of her. Never took you for the artistic type. Of course I guess since you're NOBLE and all, you were taught all that artsy, fancy stuff as a child, huh?"

Sesshoumaru's shoulders stiffened slightly at the mention of the paintings, and Koga instantly regretted letting his sarcastic mouth run again. He tensed himself, ready to dodge any attack as well as he could. To his surprise, Sesshoumaru didn't attack; rather, he walked over, slowly and calmly, a deadpan look on his face that scared the wolf more than one of fury would have.

Once he was in front of the wolf, his hand snaked out to seize his throat and yank him forward into the water, ignoring the yelp of pain that came from the other man as his injured leg was jarred.

"First of all, Shut. Up. You rattle on more than that irritating, whey-faced human that tags along with my brother." Koga's ire rose at that, but he found himself lacking the air needed to snap as Sesshoumaru's grip tightened. "Second, I never recalled giving you permission to strike up conversation with me, LET ALONE discuss what goes on between me and my charge. I've tired of your presence. Dry off and go back to your room, before I decide Rin's tears will be more bearable than you."

Koga's eyes narrowed, and he seized Sesshoumaru's wrist with both hands, managing, to his surprise, to pry the grip away from him. "You know what? I'm getting REAL sick of your stuffy arrogance. I can only care so much that you're the Western Lord. In case you forgot, I'm kind of the alpha male of my pack. It may not give me as MUCH rank as you, but I'm no low classed demon that can be bossed around! I'm trying as hard as I can not to step on your toes or push the limits while staying here, but I'm about ready to start biting back if you don't show me at least a LITTLE of the respect I deserve!"

The adrenaline that had rushed through him at the rant died very quickly as he noticed that Sesshoumaru's eyes had flooded red...

((Nyah! lol yes I'm leaving you here!! Review a lot, and I'll get the next chapter up sooner! X3 ))