If you already read Instinct you don't need to read this...for a while I wanted to add something before the modern era and I couldn't think of it. So I left it out. I posted a portion in drabbles and added it to the last chapter. Sorry if anyone gets excited. If you didn't read, "Aftermath of Instinct" in Drabbles, it's in the previous chapter. Now this is ordered the way I really wanted it.

All is Revealed

Modern Era

Sesshomaru stood in front of a tall mirror. He wore plain brown slacks and a light blue button down shirt. His traditional clothing were hung in a closet off to the side. He continued buttoning the light blue shirt, covering up the white undershirt he wore beneath it. He gazed at his mokomoko, willing it's disappearance. It was finally time to approach her. The last piece of the puzzle. In the days following his recovery and Rin's defeat of the Ogre King, he had wondered how Kagome knew about what was going to happen. She came to him when Rin was four and a half months pregnant, she warned him that his life was about to change, and whatever happened was meant to happen. She said that two sons would be born to him, they had to be. She didn't say what that change was, or that it would involve destroying his own home, his relationship with Rin and everything he had worked so hard to build. She adjured him that if anyone else came along and told him what was going to happen to ignore them. It had to happen, the future depended on it. That part never made sense.

He understood now. It was himself. His older self, must have approached Kagome at some point knowing what would happen. He hadn't spent the years idly. After Rin's death, he returned to Natsuki finding a small measure of comfort in her arms. He never lived with her in the home he built for Rin. By the time his human passed away, his children were grown. It just didn't feel right living with Natsuki in that home. They lived in his mother's castle in the sky with handful of remaining Inu-yokai and hanyous.

"Where are you going Chichiue?" Taka, his youngest daughter asked him. She would come of age in another half century. It was now his turn to begin the search for a mate for her. With so few of their kind left, he knew, she would be one of the last pure blooded demons on earth. She would most likely find a mate among humans, and not in the skies where the dwindling numbers of yokai remained hidden.

"Home, then to work," Sesshomaru took a tie. He hated western clothing, but it was necessary.

"Why do you spend so much time among them?" She walked into the room. She was the image of her mother. Thin, rail like, a moon on her forehead, stripes on her cheeks. She was just barely over three hundred and forty years old, finally looking more like a woman and less like a girl.

"Why not?" He countered her.

"Haha-ue said you hated them, at one point," she fidgeted with her Kimono rumpling the fabric.

"At one point," he agreed.

"Does it make you miss her less?" She held her father's hand.

"No," he replied quietly. He nuzzled his daughter's nose, "you worry too much." Nothing made him forget Rin. Nothing comforted that loss. Natsuki once asked him after they had been together for more than a century if he loved her, he said no. He was fond of her, he enjoyed her company, but it just wasn't there.

"There are so few of us left. What if the illness comes back? It came from humans didn't it?" Taka kept her hands clasped at her sides.

He inclined his head and sighed, "it did." It wiped out three quarters of the yokai population before a cure was found, a cure that he was responsible for. "Tell your mother, I'll be home in a few days. I have meetings."

"What do you do down there?"

Sesshomaru picked up Tenseiga, he strapped it onto his back, then threw on a matching brown suit jacket to cover it. He gazed longingly at Bakusaiga. The white pearled sheathe was covered in a layer of dust. The ones that were left sometimes fought, the last battle was fifty years before. Yokai from South America attempted to invade Japan's skies. He and Tsukimaru had pushed them back. It was almost to his chagrin that he was still the most powerful Yokai of the age. There was only one who could possibly challenge his power and he was grateful that Tsukimaru never acquired the blood lust that Sesshomaru once had.

He opened the outside door to his room, he knew now why Rin thought it was so funny. His mother's castle was covered in doors that led to the sky. No balconies, no awnings, no walkways, just doors. He dropped head first towards the ground. Each time he wondered when he would stop himself. Natsuki had comforted him, but it wasn't the same. Perhaps it would have been, had she waited like she was told to, had they built a relationship that wasn't born of pain. He shook his head and pulled up, short. Home, first he would go home.

But then it wasn't really home any longer. It was a park. The hot springs still bubbled next to the ancient sakura tree. In the center was a sculpture of a white dog with red eyes that spouted water out of its mouth. It was filled with coins and wishes from people who believed that if they wished for true love in this place, they would find it. Some swore by it. The daisies were demolished long ago and replaced with fields of grass. He had managed to hold onto this place until the 1940's. War and upheaval destroyed the home that he had built for Rin. He gifted the estate to the city of Osaka afterwards and had it dedicated as a protected park. There was a bench built under the boughs of the Sakura tree. On it was carved an inscription, My Heart. It said nothing more than that, and many speculated its meaning.

Lover's Park, had its own Facebook page, and stories circulated about its origin. The story was close, a demon Lord fell in love with a human and together they raised a family. She became sick and died, and the Demon Lord removed himself to the skies in mourning. It missed the main components that he was a dog demon, and that she had died of old age, not of illness. Their children weren't mentioned by name, nor the many adventures they went on. Fools, he told himself as he watched a young couple holding hands, throwing in new coins. There are no happy endings. There is heart ache and pain, love and passion, the two always flow together.

He touched the tree that held so many memories as if it were an old friend. He remembered their first moments, when he had taken her virginity underneath the tree. There were days he could still feel her shaking in his hands, and the sigh of her breath on his neck. He walked away towards his clinic to begin another long day of treating the hopeless. Sota, Kagome's brother was right, there were components in his blood that could treat and resist diseases, specifically Leukemia and Cancer. Sota would be a little boy, eight or nine years old. Kagome likely had just finished their battle against Naraku, and was banished to this side of the Well for the next three years until she would make her return at eighteen. Someone else had tried to warn her, to prevent what would come, to spare Rin the heartache she would go through. That's why Sesshomaru had to find her. He knew that Goshinboku existed in this time, he watched through the ages as Kaede's village changed from a forest with rivers to the city of Tokyo.

Then one day a little girl and her family showed up at his clinic in the early 1990's. He almost lost his lunch when the smell and sense of spiritual power came into his office. It was Kagome, her mother, father, and Sota when he was a baby. Kagome's father was sick, he had Stage Four Leukemia. He was too far gone for Sesshomaru to save him with his blood. The raging fever that Rin suffered from was dangerous in patients that were too sick. His main goal was to get them healthy enough to use the mixture of his blood to save them. She would have liked that he dedicated his life eventually, to saving humans. It was impossible to continue the line of thought that he hated them, when he had loved one so deeply, when Harutoga and Tsukimaru took human spouses and before he knew it he was knee deep in mostly human grand-children and great-grandchildren.

He sighed, hands in his pockets as he opened the door, it would be a long day, with board members who wanted to shut him down.

As evening came, Sesshomaru left the building. He figured that Kagome would be finished with school by now. He exited via the alley way to hide the fact that he was about to jump into the air and turn into a bright ball of light and fly in the air. He headed towards Tokyo where he knew Goshinboku was. There were so many smells in the city, it's why he lived in the sky. He managed to ignore what entered his nose, except for when he was working. The tests were prefectural, he knew which cancer or type of leukemia a person had by the smell of their skin, but he couldn't very well diagnose it by modern standards saying he smelled it.

He landed in front of the Higurashi shrine. It looked how he remembered it. After her father had been cured, they invited him for dinner. Sota was two, Kagome was nine. He feigned awe over Mrs. Higurashi's cooking skill, fourteen hundred years old and he still hated human food. She wasn't there. He hadn't done this in a while, finding her wouldn't be hard, but he didn't feel much like ambushing her. By now they were allies, barely friends. He put his sunglasses on, then let his eyes go a deep shade of red as he followed her trail. He let his yoki reach out and rage within him. He stopped in front of a pastry shop and stared at the treats inside, Rin always loved sweets. She had the cooks in their home make them for the children, more than once his armor was covered in sticky finger prints, especially once Taiyomaru was born.

"Sesshomaru?" he heard her voice.

He let his eyes return to their natural gold. He turned around to look at her. The last time he had seen her, she was older than this, strange to see her so young. She wore a light yellow dress and a blue cardigan. It was fall, winter would come in months.

"Why are you dressed like that? Where is your mokomoko? Did you come through the well?" Her face contorted into confusion.

He removed the sunglasses, he nearly allowed himself to laugh when he saw recognition sink in.

"You're not Sesshomaru from then, you're from now?" Kagome asked him.

He nodded.

"I felt your yoki," she rubbed her arms, "I almost didn't believe it was you, I haven't been able to go back in months. Why are you here?"

"Coffee?" He pointed to a shop across the street.

"You drink coffee?" She asked him, her mouth falling open.

"No," he walked toward the shop, disregarding the cars that were blaring their horns and almost running into him. He let himself get hit by a car once to see what would happen. The car was thrown feet away from him and he only had a few scratches on his ankles. "But you do, or you will, come." He opened the door for her.

He paid for her drink, taking only a cup of hot water for himself. He led her to a secluded booth. He wasn't sure how to begin the conversation, they had a rapport before, but now…she had just fought her battle against Naraku. He could still smell a fresh injury, "you're hurt." He said plainly.

"It's kind of embarrassing, you remember that cut on my arm? The one Inuyasha gave me, it won't heal," she pointed to her arm.

"Let me see it," he didn't wait for her to agree. He pulled the sweater off her shoulder and firmly held her arm in place. He pulled down the blood soaked bandage, he could smell it, "shoki," he told her, "when we are finished here, I will heal it."

"How?"

"My blood, it will counteract the effects of Naraku's poison," he told her. "We need to talk," he knew that sentence was redundant. He took a preparatory breath and began the story, "in time, you will return through the well. Something happens, far into your future, close to twenty years from now," he couldn't remember how long it was or how old Rin was at the time, still in her twenties. "Rin will be my…wife," he rolled his eyes. He still hated human terms for relationships.

"You married Rin-chan? But she's just a little girl!" Kagome protested. "That's gross!"

"Not when she is a child, I left her with Kaede after Naraku's defeat. She stayed in the village for nine years, until she was seventeen," he thought about how much he should say, what if he said the wrong thing? How badly could he mess up the past? But how bad could it be when Kagome had already told him they had spoke? "She was seventeen, I bound her to me, something you will learn about in time. We had children together."

"How many?"

"Three." He left out the two he had with Natsuki.

"Boys or girls?"

He forgot how frustrating human teenagers were. The ones he saw in his office were quiet, sick and too tired for this kind of chatter, "two boys and a girl. Around the time she becomes pregnant with our third child," he paused, "no our fourth," he still remembered the little life that should have been born to them. The camellias still grew marking the space by the hot springs where he had buried their third child.

"But you said you had three kids," shock washed over her expression, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he allowed himself a moment to recover and continued, "a rival will make herself known. Whatever happens, you must let happen."

"You mean you took a second wife? What about Rin?" Kagome glared at him, "I don't understand any of this," she massaged her temples.

He should have known as a teenager she wouldn't, he let out a frustrated growl, "ok…I took a second mate, wife is such a shallow term."

"You're a pig," she folded her arms, "why should I help you?"

He folded his arms, "because someone else is going to come to you, closer to that time, thinking they can stop what happened, another who felt close to Rin and saw the pain she experienced after I bonded another."

"Who?" Kagome's eyes widened.

"Shippo."

"He's still alive?"

"He leads the small number of fox demons who survived the illness."

"What illness?"

He was getting annoyed, "if you would stop chattering, I would tell you. Are you done?"

"You're still rude," she looked out the window.

"I'm told I have no bedside manner by the nurses at my clinic."

"You're a doctor?"

He gazed at her as her eyes widened her mouth opened, then closed, "Sessho Rinata," she covered her mouth, "you saved my father."

"I didn't save him, he died during the procedure. I brought him back with Tenseiga. I did not pick up his scent at your home this morning," he leaned back against the booth.

"He died four months later in a car accident," she sighed, "stupid, to survive something like that only to get hit by a car walking across the street. Where are you markings?"

"Foundation," Sesshomaru laughed.

"Okay, this is just weird. Aren't we going to screw up the time continuum by having this conversation?"

"No, you already came to me, nearly five hundred years ago," he told her. "I am uncertain how much I can say, but what happens between Rin, Natsuki and I must happen." He paused waiting for another onslaught of questions. He took her silence as his cue to continue, "roughly three years later, an illness that yokai and hanyous were not immune to began. It raged for ten years, it wiped out three quarters of the yokai of the time. Two of my sons, one from Rin and one from Natsuki held the key to the cure. Certain components from their blood, when combined ended the illness. It saved the lives of hundreds. I must bond Natsuki, no matter the pain it causes. Tsukimaru must be born when he was."

Kagome closed her eyes, "so you're telling me I have to let you hurt Rin-chan?"

"Yes," he sighed, remembering those days, the months she was gone. "You must help her leave me."

"Why?" Kagome covered her mouth.

He closed his eyes, "after we lost our third child, she became different. Sad, less bright, her fire died. In the months she was separated from me, she regained her confidence and fire. In the end she is stronger because of it."

"What happened to her? I mean…is she?" She drank her coffee.

"Dead? Yes, centuries ago."

"How did she die? I'm sorry I shouldn't ask, she was such a sweet girl."

"An old woman, in my arms," he had held her the night she left him. They both knew it was coming, her breathing had been slowing for days. "She was with me for a hundred fifty years after I bound her."

"What? How did she live for so long?" Kagome practically yelled.

Sesshomaru took her hand and motioned her to lower her voice, "Inu-yokai create spiritual bonds with their mates. She could not return our bond. When I did it, my yoki entered her body. Over time the yoki built and slowed the cellular decay of her body. We noticed around the time she was thirty five that she was not aging as a normal human. Your brother will become a renowned doctor, or so I was told. He tested her blood, half her cells functioned as if they were mine. She was happy when she left me."

Kagome smiled, "I'm glad for you two. Wait so how many children do you have, really?"

"Five," he allowed himself to smile, "Yuki, Harutoga and Taiyomaru from Rin, Tsukimaru and Taka from Natsuki."

"Wow…she forgave you?"

He nodded again, "she will learn that I had no choice. It was instinct. You and I will become good friends," he held her hand, "you must remember to let it happen."

"I will…so where did you live with her?"

"Do you know Lover's Park in Osaka?"

"That's you two? I thought it was your father and Izayoi."

"He lived in the West, Izayoi was the Lady of an Estate. That Estate was destroyed after five hundred years ago. Lovers Park was our home for the duration of her life."

"So you were the demon Lord?" Kagome smiled.

"The story is missing a few details, she wasn't sick when she died, simply old."

"But you do miss her?"

"Always."

He walked Kagome back to her house, there was more he wished he could tell her, but for that moment it was enough. He accompanied her into her home and into her bedroom. He helped her remove the sweater, "you'll have a fever," he told her quietly. He slit his wrist open and let the blood drip onto Kagome's injury.

"Oh kami that hurts," Kagome cried.

"Bare the pain, it will burn. I never understood why before, it's your body's way of attempting to reject the foreign cells from my blood," he sat on the floor next to her bed. Kagome shook with fever minutes after the blood touched the wound. He covered her with a blanket. He lost himself in thought knowing that there wasn't much he could do for her now. The fever lasted around eight to twelve hours. It would burn out the poison left by Naraku. After the fever broke he left, back for more board meetings, for the patients he treated in the hospital. It wasn't a bad life. She would be proud of him.

Twenty three years later…

Sesshomaru stared out the window to his room. Natsuki lounged in their bed. The years had been kinder to her than they were to him. She didn't have to live with the pain of losing the one she loved. "Come to bed," she told him.

"I have patients," he reminded her.

"Come to bed," she pat the mattress next to her. Her hair was longer, down past her bottom, her eyes fuller. His hips had finally widened giving her proper curves.

He complied with her request if for nothing more than to get her to stop pestering him. It wasn't enough that she was physically calling to him, she was reeling him in with her yoki, pushing it against his, caressing their bond and making it near impossible to resist her. He sat down on his knee and allowed himself the pleasure of her lips, "I do need to leave."

"You spend more time below than above these days, it's getting ragged," she touched his heart.

"Tonight," he assured her. "I'll be home tonight," he touched her chin, "then we'll spend some much needed time together," it was getting ragged. He kissed Natsuki deeply, pulling her close to his chest. It never ceased to amaze him that she also felt like she fit perfectly against him, like two puzzle pieces coming together. He felt his phone buzz against his back pocket.

"Why do you carry one of those things?" Natsuki pushed him off.

"For emergencies, although it doesn't always work up here. It's the Miko, she needs me to come look at something at her home," he returned the phone to his pocket.

She grabbed his hand, "you still don't love me do you?"

He rubbed her jawline with his thumb, "you know why. I lost four months with her because of you. Her life was finite, yours is not."

Natsuki growled, "three hundred and fifty years later and I still live in her shadow, it would be easier if you fell in love with me so I could break your heart and be rid of this thing," she rubbed her breast uncomfortably.

"You could fall in love with me, and I break your heart," he laughed, "there are so few of us left," he shook his head at the cruelty of their situation. That was another conversation they had after the illness passed when he nearly lost her too. It was up to them to maintain the small line of remaining dog demons. "Tonight," he pecked Natsuki again and flew out the door towards Tokyo. It wasn't fair to Natsuki, he was fond of her, he cared for her, but the love simply wasn't there. They enjoyed quiet conversation, read books in his mother's library. His children were all grown, all bound to mates except for Taka. Tsukimaru and Harutoga had taken humans, Yuki true to her word fell in love with a pure-blooded inu-yokai and Taiyomaru was bound to one that was more than a hanyou but not quite pure blooded. He already had grand-children and great-grand children many of them looked older than he, some were already dead.

He landed in front of Goshinboku. He touched the tree lightly. He let his hand feel the old roots, it was nice to see something that was nearly as old as he was. Something hit his senses, a smell. He didn't want to believe what was wafting into his nose. He gripped Goshinboku accidentally cutting a scratch in the hard wood.

"Sesshomaru?" He knew that voice. He would know it anywhere, he had not heard it in centuries.

He couldn't stop his eyes from expanding, or his heart from racing. He turned so cautiously, afraid that it was a dream. She stood behind him, in a dress he had never seen before, most likely something from Kagome, her black hair blowing in the air. "Rin," her name left his lips like a sigh.

She ran to him, he ran to her, he pulled her to him. His lips crashed against hers, he breathed in her scent, "you look older," she laughed cupping his chin, "you have lines around your eyes."

"How?" He held her, "you're dead."

"Taisho and Kagome-sama, they're holding the well open. Together, they had enough power to push me through. She said we have an hour, then I have to go back," she wrapped her arms over his shoulders, "where's your mokomoko? Your markings? You look so different."

"An hour?" His mind was racing, until a memory came to him. Three years after they returned to their home in Osaka, Rin visited Kagome in the village with the children. When he came to spend the night with her, she smelled as if she had been in the arms of another man, who smelled like him, yet didn't all at the same time. "I'm going to be upset, when you come home," he rest his head against hers, "I missed you. How I've missed you," he was no longer ashamed of tears. He allowed several to drip from his eyes as he gripped held her, afraid that if he let go, she would disappear.

"I know, she told me," she pulled his face down and kissed him deeply again. "Show me this world? Things smell so different, what is this hard stuff I am standing on? It feels like the walls of our home, but ours are smoother."

"Cement," he told her, "everything is different in this time," he took her hand and led her from the shrine. One hour, that was all he had. What could they do in an hour?

"What happened to all the trees?" Rin was a like a child, watching the cars rush by, the people mill about, street lights, and bicycles. She held his hand, her fingers intertwined between his.

"Kaede's village is part of a city called Tokyo now," he told her. He pulled Rin back to him, "Rin…I…"

She put her finger over his lips, "it's okay. I know, you already said good-bye to me. I…" she bit her lower lip, "I wanted to give you one last memory," she grasped his neck and pulled his mouth down to hers.

"We can't," he whispered, he could already feel the yoki seeping in, the need to bond her again, "it's broken." He unbuttoned the top buttons of shirt and pulled away the material of his sleeveless undershirt. The scar was gone, "it would intrude on my own connection to you in the past. You may kiss me as much as you want."

She smiled, the one that he knew and loved. The smile that melted his heart with that silly toothy grin, that lit up her eyes, that started it all. "What are those things?" She pointed at the cars on the road.

"Cars," he told her, "you see the circle in the front, it lets you drive."

"Do you have one?" She asked him.

"I prefer flying," he meant both on airplanes and on his own.

They walked around the city. Rin stayed close to Sesshomaru gripping his hand. She followed as he led her through the streets, down a few blocks. She paused by the pastry shop, her eyes lusting after all the sweets, "these look good."

"Do you want one?" He tugged her into the pastry shop.

"It all seems so expensive," she looked at the menu, "at least menus seem the same."

Sesshomaru let himself laugh, "money is different here. I have plenty, what do you want?"

"That," she pointed at something that was smothered in chocolate and whip cream, "what is it?"

"It's an American treat called a donut, there's a cream filling inside. We'll take six," he told the vender.

"Six?" She asked him.

"For the children, and if memory serves, I enjoyed the aftertaste of chocolate in your mouth," he couldn't stop holding her hand. He kept her head close to his nose to breathe in her scent.

"You speak differently," she giggled as he paid for the pastries and led her out of the shop.

"It's a different world," if only she knew how different.

"Kagome-sama said you are a doctor?"

"I study a disease called cancer and another one called leukemia that affects blood," he told her as they resumed their walk down the city. "They are deadly to humans. I help cure them."

"I like that, I'm proud of you Sesshomaru," she hugged him.

He removed one of the donuts out from the bag, "taste it." He held it up for her to take a bite. He watched mesmerized as she bit into the pastry. She bit into the pastry until the white cream covered her nose. Her mouth came back with a chocolate ring around the lips and white frosting on her nose.

"It's so sweet," she tried to wipe her nose.

Sesshomaru did it for her, he ran his tongue along her lips, and nipped the frosting off her nose, "chocolate hurts my stomach," he wrapped his arms around her waist, "we know chocolate hurts dogs in this time. I find it strange a human food can affect my stomach. It's why I never ate it."

"I would have killed you for touching my chocolate," Rin held him, "your eyes were so sad when I first saw you. Is she still alive too?"

"Yes," his stomach pitched the same way it did when they first spoke of Natsuki.

"She doesn't comfort you?" Rin's eyes seemed sad now.

"It's not the same," he touched her heart, dreaming that he could feel their connection again.

"What about our children?" She couldn't help herself, she knew she wouldn't live long enough to see them become adults. She wanted to know what happened to them.

"Do you want to see pictures of them?" He removed his iphone from his pocket. The damn thing came in handy. He had managed to organize the pictures by family. He started with Yuki, "she bonded a yokai named Katsumoto, pure-blooded, like she always threatened," the both started laughing.

"She's beautiful, look at her, she looks older," Rin traced the lines on Yuki's face. Her skin was wrinkled, she easily looked like she was forty years old, "she's aging faster than you."

He nodded, "half the yoki, half the life-span. They have three children together," he flipped to the next picture. "Two girls and one boy. One of the girls, Shizuka bonded a human, their children had children, and their children," he chuckled. "It's not all of them, many of the human ones have already passed away. Then there is Harutoga, this is his second human mate. The first passed away of old age. He fell in love at two hundred, that would be around the 1700's, she was with us until around 1850's. Seventy years ago, he found another, he has eight children total. Five from his the first and three from the second. I don't have pictures of the first five, they passed away long before cameras like this existed. I've managed to keep track of most of their families, there are many generations. From the first he had four boys and one girl and the second, two girls and one boy."

"This machine is fascinating," Rin touched Harutoga's face, "he still has the stripe. And his eyes, remember when we first noticed that one was brown and the other gold?"

"I remember," Sesshomaru flipped to the next folder, "Taiyomaru bonded one like Hisato. More than hanyou less than pure blooded. She is still with us. They had three children, all girls. Their oldest recently bonded a human mate, she's expecting in the spring. We're all very excited."

"Who is this?" Rin pointed to a young white haired female inu-yokai.

"My daughter, Taka," he answered her as they continued walking.

"Natsuki's?" Rin held his hand again.

"Yes," he felt guilty all over again.

"Yuki finally got the sister she always wanted," Rin chuckled, "she's beautiful Sesshomaru."

"She and Yuki do not speak," Sesshomaru closed the phone and put it back into his pocket.

"Why?" Rin stopped at another shop that was full of modern dresses.

"Yuki was angry with me, for returning so quickly to Natsuki. Our bond was ragged, aching," he shook his head, he could still feel the ache. He had not expected Rin to live for as long as she did. In the end it was painful for both of them to keep their distances from each other. "She had been in heat for weeks, I think is what it would be termed, for yokai periods of fertility. They come once a century or so, after the female comes of age. She was in so much pain and delirious from not having the heat resolved, she was unable to calm me. We both walked away with injuries. Taka was conceived from there."

"You went back after I died didn't you? Immediately after I died?" Rin arched her eyebrows at him.

"The day after, she had been sending for me for weeks, begging for me to return to her and resolve her heat. Does this hurt you?" Sesshomaru ran his fingers through her hair.

"No, I want you to be happy. Tell me about Taka, does she have anyone on the horizon?"

"She'll be of age in another sixty years, I'm not sure what we'll do. She's one of the last pure blooded Inu-yokai, besides her brother, Natsuki, Katsumoto and I. Most likely she'll be forced to take a human mate. Many humans carry the blood of the old ones."

"What happened to Tsukimaru?" Rin asked.

"Don't think I did not know that you had Natsuki visit home when I was not there," he tapped her nose playfully. "He bonded a human seventy years ago, he had four children with her, insisting he needed to outdo me." He stopped and stared into Rin's eyes. Part of him wanted to take her somewhere private, to make love to her all over again, he could feel the yoki in him boiling. It still recognized her as his, he yearned to feel their connection. "Can I touch your soul?"

She nodded.

He held her hands in his, pulled her close to him, he bent his neck and kissed her, taking in her scent, the taste of her mouth, the warmth of her skin. He let his yoki reach out, it wrapped around her soul without binding her to him again. Deep within, he found their bond he let it wash over him for a brief moment, long enough to heat his heart, he pulled his yoki back quickly, "it doesn't feel like that when I am with her. Perhaps if we had met on different terms."

"Your still angry with her? Did she approach you again, in my life-time?"

"No," he said quietly, "she kept her distance. We should begin our walk back," he looked at his watch, "twenty minutes."

"I feel like it's not long enough. I get to go back to you and leave you here."

"I'm satisfied here. I enjoy what I do and you are a grandmother, a great grandmother, great-great grandmother. I visit their families often."

"Did we have more children?" Rin asked excited.

"No."

"Did I get to see any of my grand-children?"

"You will live longer than we both expected," they came to a stop in front of the shack that contained the well.

"How do I die?"

"Old age," he pressed his lips against hers, "an old woman, in my arms, next to my heart. Where you belonged." Another memory came to him. When Yuki and Harutoga fell ill with the non-stop fevers from the disease, Rin was stalwart, strong. It was the first time Sesshomaru had used the medicine he learned from the books, coupled with herbs from Jinenji and blood samples from Tsukimaru and Taiyomaru. They never became ill, "very soon our children will become sick. Very, very sick," he set his forehead against hers, "close to death. I will find the cure," he told her, "do not fear their deaths." He handed her the bag of pastries.

"Ok," she tried to smile, "they'll be ok?"

"They'll be stronger for it."

"Do you get sick?"

He nodded, "very sick, I will survive."

"So we live happily ever after?"

"We have many adventures together. After the illness," he shook his head, "the world is different, in a way it was safer for you. There are so few of us left," he sighed.

"And you're still the strongest?" Her eyes lit up. He loved that about her, she always believed he was the most powerful, the strongest. Even when he was weak and beaten.

He shrugged his shoulders, "Tsukimaru may outmatch me one day." They strode up the stairs towards the shrine.

"Which means you had less enemies to come after me?" That made her smile, "we really did get peace."

"We did at a price. Now I know why my kind do not exist in this time."

"It must be hard for you," Rin tried to comfort him.

"Different, to be one of the last pure blooded demons alive." It gave him a strange sense of responsibility.

"You haven't called me your heart," Rin giggled holding his hand.

"I haven't said that in centuries," he moved a tendril of hair over her ear, "my heart," he brushed his lips against her again, "you understand why I called you that?"

"I gave you emotions," she touched his cheeks, "I gave you feelings."

He nodded.

She hugged him, "promise me, you'll love her."

"She is not you," he said.

"I know," Rin kissed him one last time, "I love you. Even from the grave, you know that right?"

"I know," he answered quietly, not wanting to let her go.

"I can't come back."

"I know," he sighed, "there is something I should have done then, I will do it now."

"What?" Rin couldn't stop smiling, every time she did, he did. There was something lighter about this Sesshomaru.

"Sing to you," he put one arm around her waist and the other held up her hand, he pulled her into his waist and started singing, MAD Sayonara. He twirled her around, swayed with her back and forth to an invisible beat. She laughed against his neck and followed his steps. She even stepped on his toes a few times. He drank in the sound of her laughter until the last refrain, then leaned down and kissed her tenderly again. "I love you, so much. I'm sorry, for all the pain I caused you bonding Natsuki."

"We're both stronger for it," Rin wiped her eyes, "why does this feel like good-bye?"

"Because for me it is," he said quietly. "I've already lost you. We've already said goodbye." He brushed her hair out of her face.

"I'll wait for you," she nuzzled his nose, "for as long as it takes."

"Your soul could have already come back into this world," he whispered, "don't wait. Start the cycle again."

"Then find me," she kissed him, still holding his hands. "Wait, I brought something for you," she picked up a bag from next to the well and handed it to him.

He opened the red tattered bag and pulled out an album. Inside were pictures of Rin, their children, when they were actually child-like, baby pictures and one of all of them together. He touched her face in that one, "I remember when this was taken. At Sota's wedding."

"I asked Kagome for pictures," Rin wiped tears from her eyes.

"Thank you," he held Rin one last time, "two minutes, you must go now."

She nodded, "Good-bye, Sesshomaru," she held onto the tips of her fingers. He hated seeing her cry. His younger self would return to her shortly after this visit, they would fight, and then make up.

"Good-bye, Rin," he said with a heavy heart.

He helped her into the well. He stood next to it, until she disappeared again, gone to him forever. He wondered if he could find her soul, reincarnated into the body of someone else, would that person know who he was? Would she have their memories. Would it even be worth it?

There was one more memory that surfaced. That visit when Rin smelled different, Kagome had pulled him aside and plead with him, "something is wrong with the well. I can't get through. Promise me, you'll take care of my children that are stuck there?" It didn't make sense then. She never said that it was him who approached her. In two weeks' time, they would discover the well stopped working, the same time the first victim of the disease was claimed. Kagome would lose Inuyasha to a fever that lasted for weeks, and it would spread from there. No yokai or hanyou was immune to it, the ogres, the dog demons, the cats, three quarters of their village. They lost Akari, her family, Hisato and his mother. Although he had never seen anyone happier to die than the day he said good-bye to his mother. He had asked her how old she was, "Sesshomaru you know better than to ask a Lady her age," she took her last breath after that, "I've forgotten, it was so long ago. Don't bring me back. Don't save me. Let me rest with him." He had contemplated stopping all the deaths with Tenseiga, but even Tenseiga couldn't heal the ones that fell ill. He had tried, it didn't work. The end of their kind had come.

They nearly lost Jaken and Shippo. After several years of it spreading like a wildfire, Yuki an Harutoga fell ill. As they lay on their death beds, it was Jaken who asked if Sesshomaru's blood could save them somehow. Then a light went off for Kagome. Taiyomaru and Tsukimaru had been around those who were sick but never became sick themselves. Natsuki fell ill, but somewhat recovered after being bit by Tsukimaru during a fit. It was then they finally put it together, the ancient fable of the sun and the moon saving what was left was true. Tsukimaru and Taiyomaru held the cure. Sesshomaru was grateful that Kagome had brought her brother Sota's notes back with her. She came to live in his home alongside Rin after Inuyasha's death. She went back weekly to the Well, ten years later, in keeping with the time the cure from the disease was discovered, the well opened again and she was reunited with her adult daughters. He wondered what happened to them. They only came to visit once the well was open, they didn't live with him in his home in Osaka. They must have been happy with me. He thought as he understood what happened. For two weeks after that visit Kagome had tried to get the well to open, it wouldn't.

Sesshomaru turned towards the house, already smelling his two nieces. He walked with his hands in his pockets, a habit he acquired mostly to hide his claws. There was a benefit to keeping them long. He dressed in a way that screamed money, wore designer labels to blend in. He had been the victim of several muggings that typically ended in holes in his best shirts, him laughing then dragging the mugger to the police station. He let them live as long as they confessed to their crimes. It only took a flash of his eyes and the feel of his claws along their necks to end a mugging.

He knocked on the door, "Higurashi-san," he greeted Kagome's mother.

"Rinata-sama! What are you doing here?" Mrs. Higurashi was a plain woman. She wore a white apron around her waist that tied in the back.

He looked past her at Mayumi and Izayoi who were at the table. Izayoi would stand out like a sore thumb in this world. She had the same white hair he did, tiny pointed ears on the top of her head and golden eyes. She even had a moon on the top of her forehead similar to his own, "I came for my nieces." Natsuki would be shocked when he returned home with them.

"Excuse me?" She looked at him confused.

"Forgive me, I have not been honest about who I am. My real name is Sesshomaru. I am the first son of Inu no Taisho, the brother of Inuyasha," he pushed his hair away from his ears, so she could see the full effect of his long points, "Mayumi and Izayoi are my nieces."

"Ojisama?" Mayumi came running forward, "why are you?" She stopped, "are you Ojisama?"

He smiled and pat her on the head, "do you remember the day in the forest when I taught you hijin tesou?"

Her face lit up, "Soba-san this is our Uncle!"

"What about Kagome and Inuyasha?" Mrs. Higurashi placed her hand over her heart. He could hear it pounding, "what happened?"

"The well is closed, it will be for the next ten years. This is not a place to raise children like this, they will come with me, to my home," he said it firmly but kindly, "Higurashi-san, they will be safe with me."

"What about Ka-san and To-san?" Izayoi asked, tears in her eyes. She was seventeen.

Sesshomaru knelt down on one knee, "you will see your Haha-ue again."

Mrs. Higurashi brushed tears out of her eyes, "you're really their uncle?"

"May I use your sink?" He asked her.

"Please," She invited him in.

Sesshomaru walked into the kitchen. He leaned over the sink and washed the ridiculous paint off his face, revealing his stripes and the crescent moon on his forehead. He came back in. He allowed his mokomoko to be visible to give the full effect.

It was like she finally saw it, "I guess you are their uncle. Those are real? They aren't make-up?"

"They're real, so are these?" He pointed to his ears, he raised his right arm and created a whip. It looped around the room and cracked.

Mrs. Higurashi smiled, "that's longer than yours Izayoi!"

"He taught me to make it," Izayoi demurred to him "What about To-san?" Izayoi asked.

Sesshomaru shook his head, "very soon, he will become very sick. He told me tell you, that he loves you very much and that he missed you. I'm sorry. I saved him once already with Tenseiga, I could not save him again."

Izayoi and Mayumi nodded their heads, trying to be brave.

"Poor Kagome," Mrs. Higurashi covered her mouth.

"She is well cared for Higurashi-san, during that time I had a large home. She moved in with my family, we made a wing for her and her children," he wondered if he should mention that she saw her grand-children and great grand-children and although Sota and Taisho had died centuries before as elderly men, Sota's wife and their children were still alive. They lost their firstborn to the disease, but afterwards had three more in quick succession.

"You will bring them to visit?" Mrs. Higurashi asked.

"Often, girls, come," he held out his hand again, "we'll return." He led his two nieces out into the courtyard. He glanced around to make sure no one was watching and bounded into a white light that flew into the air then hit the ground in a giant form of a dog. He lowered himself onto his stomach and motioned with his head for them to get on his back. Both girls scrambled on, he bowed his head to Mrs. Higurashi.

She bowed back, "he's so dashing," she covered her mouth.

Izayoi and Mayumi laughed, "we'll visit soon Soba-san!"

Sesshomaru bounded into the air, towards his mother's home, with two new children to raise. Somehow it made him feel as if he was coming full circle. As if he was finally going home.

The End

What's next if you were curious?

I am working on finishing Trafficked. It's "real" form will be on AO3. The edited less traumatic version is getting reposted on FF. Link to my AO3 profile is on my FF profile.

I am currently uploading my stories onto Wattpad and AO3. Sesshomaru's Heart already has an Exemplary Rating. 333/4000 stories. I'll take it. If anyone wants to find it on wattpad and give me a vote I would be super happy! I have also added a lot onto that story. It's roughly 2x as long as it was before.

I am uploading Sesshomaru's Fear onto AO3 right now and editing it as I go. No major changes yet, but it is longer and more detailed.

I am highly contemplating writing a reincarnation story and the story of how the disease came and wiped out all the demons. I'm just not there yet. I have to make sustainable plot lines or I will be one of those people that starts something I may never finish.

I want to take a moment and thank all of my wonderful reviewers! I am going to try to thank everyone...lets see if I can manage it.

Gogox2: Thank you for the defense. I know the frustration of waiting for people to finish their stories. I was on FF in the early 2000's and even then people would start a story that was really good, and most of them never finished. I don't like cheaters either. But technically remember according to demon standards he did not cheat. I did want to reflect real life with this, because when one partner does something like this, there is fall out. Then recovery.

Guest: I am giving very real thought to a reincarnation story. It's formulating and I am writing notes. If it turns into a sustainable plot line that won't take me more than a few months to write I will write it.

Tay: I ditto your sentiments on it taking forever for people to write and finish stories. The harsh comments come from what has become a fandom norm. People just don't think Rin can be a strong character which is where the whole Sess/Kag thing, became a thing. I wanted to write a strong Rin that was capable and voiced her own opinions, stood on her own two feet and complimented Sesshomaru. That is what I did.

Shante Kinney: Thank you! I know, I cannot stand uncompleted fan-fics. I wish people would just finish them...it makes me nuts.

Emeraldlynx2: Trafficked is back up. I am trying to put the milder version here on FF, the one that you won't want to read is on AO3. Thank you so much for your compliments!

Guest: It's formulating. I am getting there with the reincarnation idea. I think they would fall in love, but I would want to give credence to the idea that the woman might have Rin's memories but is not Rin. So we would have to start over completely and of course deal with the fact that Sesshomaru and Natsuki are pretty much the only remaining pure blooded demon couple. So there would be drama over that.

Old Reader: Blushathon, thank you! It was a weird ending wasn't it? I really wanted to make an ending that gave me peace with this series. I may write the story of the disease wiping out all of demon-kind but whew...that would be a sad story too. There would be some severe drama if I do a Rin reincarnation.

Kimmigirl9: You and me both, I had a hissy fit when I wrote this part. All plausible ideas for a reincarnation story.

Consistentguest: Yes I wanted some finality when I wrote this story. Lost Memories left me hanging. Rin wasn't herself and wouldn't be. I needed to complete her story arc in this plot line. I may write the story about the disease, because that could totally be a plot line. Or a reincarnation story, and drabbles will of course continue.

Lucy: I made me cry!

Guest: Very plausible idea. I am coming up with a plot line. I am slightly distracted by Trafficked...

Guesswho: Thank you! I loved writing these series. I am in the middle of editing them and getting them on Wattpad and AO3...and even re-reading them I am having fun.

Mommadonna: Here is your virtual box of tissues. This story killed me too emotionally. Thank you so much for the compliments!

Estherale274: I hope you finished. It gets better!

Okay I just got a Reincarnation Question: It's so in my head like really, I would love to make a reincarnation story. When I write these they have to be sustainable. At the moment I have not been able to think about what I would want it to be. If people want to review ideas based off all four stories please send me ideas. It could happen.

Trafficked is now up on AO3 if you would like to read an AU story written by me.