A/N: there is a poll on my profile, please go vote!

Today was the day.

Kagome made sure that 15-year-old Rin was presentable in the newest kimono Sesshomaru-Sama had sent for her. The young woman fidgeted excitedly- it had been several months since his last visit, but he'd sent a letter that he would be coming to fetch her if she so desired.

And she did, very much so.

"Rin, hold still," kagome scolded with a giggle. "you want to look your best, don't you?" she froze at once so the miko could finish tying the fancy knot in her obi. "there, all done." Rin twisted to look over her shoulder, smiling at the pretty design.

"it's perfect! Thank you, kagome-sama!"

"I agree."

Rin's eyes lit with joyful recognition as they darted to the source of the familiar voice- for Sesshomaru had just arrived, pushing the door screen aside. "Come, Rin." She hurried over to step past him out the door, trying not to skip and bounce with excitement. He watched her indulgently, feeling a slight smile tug at the corners of his lips. He didn't let it show, though.

"are we going to go traveling again?" she asked as they walked side by side from the village and out into the forest nearby.

"no," he said shortly, not looking at her. She seemed confused, so he explained, "we will be going to a manor house- my manor- and staying there."

"oh." She remembered a manor being one of the many places they'd stayed from time to time, and wondered idly if it was that one. Then her mind wandered to other topics as it often did around him, since he didn't really talk much. She had been pondering something for months, since she'd gotten her first blood, but didn't know how to ask, since she didn't want to offend anyone in the village.

Sesshomaru noted the silence was heavier than usual and glanced over at her, disliking the frown on her face. "if something is bothering you, Rin, you should ask it."

"hnn?" she glanced up at him in surprise, jolted from her thoughts. "ah, I don't know how to ask yet."

"well, when you do, don't hesitate to ask." She nodded earnestly and fell back to her thoughts as they walked to where jaken and Ah-Un were waiting. The imp hopped up and down in excitement to see Rin- he'd missed her and wasn't ashamed to admit it. She helped him pack up what little gear there was, still thinking hard. Finally, she broke her silence.

"milord? I've been wondering for some time…what would happen if a Youkai and a human were to be married? Do you think Kagome will have children someday?"

Sesshomaru was unable to hide his surprise at the unexpected question. "Humans and Youkai don't marry often…" he began. "Youkai must continue their own bloodlines, and cannot fool about with humans. Kagome can have children, but only due to InuYasha's inability to produce a full-blood Youkai. I must bear the weight of continuing the bloodline instead." He didn't bother hiding any information from the girl, reminding himself she was plenty old enough to be married and deserved to understand such things. She was fully grown at 5'2 and would always be slight.

Rin was shocked by the new information. "InuYasha is not a full Youkai? What is he, then?" never having been told, she knew nothing about hanyou or even that they could exist, until just now. Jaken had once tried to explain it to her, but Rin didn't like long stories or sitting still very much.

"He is a filthy, impure, half-breed." Sesshomaru scoffed angrily, scowling at the thought of his brother. "a human and demon mix- they are often frowned upon for their weak strength."

Rin looked down at the ground, keeping a hand on Ah-Un's shoulder. "oh. I see. I didn't know InuYasha wasn't full-blooded, though I did wonder why you two looked so different." If he hated cross-breeds—and humans—so much, why exactly did he keep her around? Did he simply feel obligated to her after saving her life so many times as they travelled?

He looked at her as she fell silent again. He didn't understand humans or females particularly well, and didn't realize he'd hurt her feelings. "yes. We are only related by our great father…" he turns away to start leading them to the manor. "come, Rin. We are leaving."

Rin managed to smile faintly at the proud tone in which Sesshomaru mentioned his father. "hai!" she said, keeping her hand on the dragon's shoulder as they started off. She had found a Haori he'd had made from one of his old jackets when she was younger in the saddlebags, and put it on. She loved the red hexagon-with-flowers design on the collar and sleeves.

Sesshomaru stayed silent as they travelled the rest of the day, as normal. His mind kept going back to his conversation with Rin, replaying his choice of words as if trying to point something out. After hours of pondering, they reached the manor, and he felt he had realized why Rin wasn't smiling as she normally always did. He told Jaken to take Ah-Un to the stable and turned to Rin, catching her arm to stop her from going inside yet. "Rin…Something is bothering you."

She had managed to mostly forget the conversation from earlier, but at his statement, it came rushing back to her, and her normally cheerful face fell again. "oh, it is nothing to concern yourself with, Milord," she said evasively. "I am fine."

"your happiness does concern me when you choose not to show it. What is bothering you, Rin?"

She looked away from him, refusing to look him in the eye, or, indeed, at all. "I wonder, sometimes, why it is you keep me around. After all, I am nothing but a weak and fragile human girl." There was both worry and hurt clear in her tone, and she crossed her arms, holding her upper arms as if she were cold.

Though he didn't understand humans or women very well, it was obvious she was hurt by his earlier words. Now was not the time to guard his pride, if he wanted to fix this. Before he had died, his father tried to teach him the value of a woman. At the time, he thought it ridiculous- he had no need of someone to protect and care for. Weakness creating strength? It was preposterous. He understood it a bit better now. He stepped a little closer to the young woman and took her chin gently, tilting her face up to look him in the eye. "when compared to a Youkai, Rin, you are weak. It is natural. But you are strong. You stayed with me no matter what happened as we travelled, and I knew you were the strongest woman I had ever met from the moment I laid eyes on you." He looked into her brown eyes. "I apologize for any offence I may have caused you…"

Rin stared up at him—not that she had much choice!—with a bit of awe. He had never spoken so bluntly to her, nor had she had the chance to look at him as closely as she was now able to. The sharp pink stripes on his cheeks, the moon on his brow…and those beautiful golden eyes were enough to get lost in…then her mind registered his apology. What had gotten into him? This was Sesshomaru-Sama, wasn't it? Her cheeks grew hot, but she couldn't bring herself to look away from the golden depths of his eyes…

"Rin?" he frowned and furrowed his silver brows in concern at her unresponsiveness. "Rin~?" he released her chin and stepped back a pace.

When he let go of her, she came back to her senses with alarming speed. Looking alarmed- just short of horrified- she turned tail and fled indoors, running up the stairs to her room, unable to deal with the new emotions welling up inside her. When she reached her room- next to Sesshomaru's, sharing a wall with a sliding door- she knelt on her small futon and covered her face, breathing hard. What were these feelings? She couldn't call them BAD feelings, certainly, but they were alarming in their strength and suddenness…

Sesshomaru came in after a few moments, settling into his room and going to his study, sighing at the desk covered in scrolls and papers- land treaties, mostly. This was the downside of choosing to stay in one place. Rin was able to calm herself and changed her clothes and got dinner, choosing to eat in her room.

After a short while, Sesshomaru was already bored of the treaties and decided to go and see how Rin was doing. He didn't like her earlier flight and hoped she wouldn't make a habit of it. Rin was munching and staring up at a tapestry on the wall of her room, depicting a massive InuYoukai standing on a cloud, snarling. There were jagged purple marks above his mouth, and she wondered who it was supposed to be. She turned at the sound of her door sliding open and swallowed her mouthful of fish quickly. "good evening, Milord," she mumbled.

"I have come to check on you." He glanced up at the tapestry, recognizing his father.

"oh, I'm fine, Thank You," she said in an irritable tone she normally reserved only for jaken on a very bad day.

He immediately frowned at her tone, raising an eyebrow. "Rin…"

"as you can see, I am settled in well, and I have food." She was even using the more formal language Miroku and Kagome had taught her to cause more obvious distance between them. She deliberately stared at the tapestry rather than Sesshomaru. He stepped up beside her, crossing his arms, his armor and more colourful sash of Rank gone since he was in a place he considered safe. Sensing him move closer to her, she looked up sharply at him, looking distinctly irritated- but only for a moment. In spite of herself, once she looked at him, her face smoothed into a contented look.

"Rin, I don't like this new attitude of yours. If you don't tell me what's wrong, I can't fix it."

She heaved a sigh, turning away from him once more. "gomen ne. I can't tell you because I don't know myself."

He frowned and turned away to leave. "then I cannot help you."

"ah!" she reached after him as he left the room, though she had nothing else to say and nothing worth keeping him for.

"Father…I will never understand women." He went back to his desk full of treaties with a sigh. Rin grumbled to herself, thinking hard. She had to figure out what was wrong with her, so she could explain it to him. And she would do it, even if she had to embarrass herself asking questions of others. Once she was finished eating, she cleaned up her leavings and decided she had enough information to attempt a conversation. She stopped at Sesshomaru's door, tapping lightly on the frame.

"Enter." Sesshomaru did not bother to look up from the document he was poring over, knowing by scent who it was.

Rin opened the door and stepped inside, feeling as if the fish she'd just eaten was back alive in her insides.

When she didn't speak immediately, he looked up at her. "can I help you?..."

"ah, I wanted to talk with you. I've been thinking, about earlier." She stepped farther into the room, settling down on a cushion a few feet away from him.

He nodded, setting down the scroll he was reading and weighting it with stones for later. Then he looked up at her, giving his full attention.

She swallowed nervously and began, "you see, I think it has something to do with me being a woman now. I'm not a little girl, even though sometimes I feel like one." She wasn't quite sure how to phrase it right, but hoped he could get the meaning behind her jumbled phrasing.

"alright," he nodded again, encouraging her to continue.

She paused, looking at her lap. "a-and I keep having the strangest of feelings when I'm around you- that didn't happen before," she continued, her cheeks a deep pink. She was ashamed of the feelings and what they made her (sometimes) think about doing.

He looked closely at her and took a breath through his nose, scenting discreetly. It confirmed what he thought she meant. She's in heat…

After a longer silence of several loaded seconds, she looked up worriedly. She wasn't sure what was more frightening in that moment- her strange feelings, or the look of complete understanding she could see in his eyes…

"it is nothing to worry about, Rin. It may seem foreign to you, but it is merely a natural change, and a part of maturing."

Rin breathed a sigh of relief at his reassurance. "then they won't go away? These feelings?" she asked after a moment's hesitation. Not that she didn't like the feelings, sometimes- the warm fuzzy ones in her chest were best- but they could be unpleasant or at least very distracting to her.

He shook his head gently. "it's very unlikely they'll ever go away. But they can be sustained until a certain time."

She looked confused. "what do you mean? IS there something I can do to make them go away?" her eyes sparkled with hope that this was true, and she would be able to rid herself of the distracting and more unpleasant feelings without having to leave Sesshomaru once again…

"yes," he told her quietly, looking at her. "but you are too young to use it."

That confused her even more than before. "too…young?" she mused aloud, but mostly to herself, looking back at her lap. "for what?"

Sesshomaru had to remind himself once again that the young woman before him was no longer the little girl who'd followed him after he saved her, and that there were things about the world she needed to know. Things he had to tell her before someone else did. "Intimacy with a man," he intoned shortly, looking at her with a serious gaze.

Rin's head snapped up in surprise and she immediately turned a deep and painful-looking shade of red in shock at the words she had only heard a few times, whispered in passing by older adults. "W-w-what?!" she blurted, seeming horrified. Her mind immediately agreed with his earlier words- she was too young. Her hormones had quite different ideas, but she ignored the feelings.

"until you know exactly what happens between a man and a woman in bed I will enforce that nothing happens to you." He was clearly deadly serious and set on protecting her innocence as long as possible. She bowed her head, unable to meet his eyes any longer from embarrassment. "ah…th-thank you, Sesshomaru-sama."

He glanced back at the scroll on his desk to give her a break from having to meet his eyes, letting the intense moment pass. "remember, Rin, any questions you have are welcome, if they will help you."

"questions? But what could I possibly think to ask you?" she wondered aloud to herself. You know as much about humans as I do…and I am one… she thought.

He shrugged and lifted the stones, holding the scroll up as if to read it more closely. "just simple advice or information."

Rin thought for a moment or two, staring at her lap once more. She needed a question to ask, but they all seemed like the wrong one, and there were just too many. Finally she thought of a good place to start. "why is it men go after women all the time, but women don't chase men?"

He lowered the scroll and one eyebrow in thought. "hmm…well…men are more physical by nature. So, I suppose they tend to go more in that direction. Women, on the other hand, are more emotional, and wish for a relationship first."

Rin nodded. That did make a lot of sense. After all, it had been the women of her old village who'd only scolded her for stealing, while the men beat her whenever they caught her. She supposed she always knew men were physical. "a…relationship? Is it like a friendship? Or like marriage?"

"it is an in-between. Less serious than a proper marriage, but something very like it."

"oh, I see." Rin paused and turned a little pink again. "ah, I have been wondering…do all men have those…" she didn't know the proper word for it, so made a vague gesture between her legs- "things?"

He nodded shortly, surprised the miko or someone else never explained it to her. "yes. It is part of the body for males."

Rin pulled a face of disgust. "what for? All the boys do is see how far they can relieve themselves in the river outside the village."

He stopped himself from making a similar face. "it's a part of the intimacy process. Besides urine, there is other…stuff that comes out."

Rin blinked at that, so grossed out her face had gone completely blank. That hadn't quite been something she wanted to know. "…and that's how a man helps the kami give a woman a baby?"

"along those lines, yes."

"hmm." Rin scratched her head thoughtfully. She got up from her cushion and moved to the end of his futon, because it was closer to Sesshomaru and she could see his table of papers more easily in the candlelight. "have you ever-?" she began, then decide she did not want to ask that question. She didn't want to know, and it was no doubt a very private thing.

"I will neither confirm nor deny." He wasn't offended at the almost-question, knowing she was only curious.

"ah-I didn't really want to know anyway!" she insisted hurriedly. He simply nodded and looked back at his papers, preparing to write a reply to one of the treaties.

Rin stifled a small yawn and leaned over onto her side on the futon. "Youkai aren't like humans," she observed. "are the differences between women and men the same as humans?"

"if they are using a humanoid form, then yes, they are exactly the same. But if they are within a 'true' youkai form, they may look different, but are still the same concept."

Rin nodded understandingly, quickly stifling a slightly larger yawn before he could hear it and order her to bed for the night. She might not get another chance like this. "and do all youkai hate hanyou as much as you do?" she asked, clapping a hand to her mouth in horror right after, fearing she'd offended him with the offhand question.

He stopped writing, setting the brush down carefully and not looking at her. "just go to bed, Rin. You need sleep."

Though her instincts yelled at her to comply as she always did, she made a decision and sat up straighter, looking directly at him. "you didn't answer my question." She was very quiet and her voice was small and timid. She was scared of defying anyone, but especially him. But she felt she deserved an answer.

"I don't need to answer it. I told you about Hanyou mere hours ago. Can you not remember what I said?"

"I remember," she told him, voice a little more even, though no louder. "I just don't think it's actually true, that's all. Your brother looks very strong to me- just not nearly as strong as you are."

He let out a soft sigh of resignation. "they are frowned upon by all. But not many youkai do actually care very much."

Rin nodded softly. "thank you for answering," she murmured, laying back down and curling into a ball, as usual. She was full from dinner earlier, and tired from walking and riding most of the day, and didn't want to move, so she wouldn't until she was made to.

He glanced up from his papers again when she fell silent but didn't leave and found her curled up in his bed. He shook his head slightly and stepped over to her, picking her up bridal style. "if you aren't warm you're going to catch a cold. And you can't stay in here." He took her back to her own room next door. She curled into his chest a little as he carried her and relaxed to the point she was almost asleep before he put her down in her own futon. He looked at her and sighed softly, his gaze troubled.

"what am I going to do with you, Rin?" he pulled the quilt up over her, tucking her in securely.

"care…" Rin mumbled dreamily, already asleep. He shot her a surprised look, then turned away, assuring himself he was just hearing things. She wasn't replying. He put out her candle and left, closing the door carefully behind him and returning to his papers, the faintest ghost of a smile on his features.