Okay.  I'll update my other story in a bit but I want to get this one out because it just won't leave me alone.  This fic is Sess/Rin as always because I can't really see him with anyone else (especially Kagome: bleh: no offense to Kagome she's a wonderful person for INU-YASHA).  This story will likely be somewhat dark or at least more serious than my other fic "Ties of Blood" (yeah, yeah, I know I haven't gotten to any humor yet but I want to try my hand at writing something deep).

Also, I AM NOT SUICIDAL, but I do make some references to it here.  Why?  Because I can't stand the thought that life is just so hard and unbearable that a person has to kill him or herself. Its painful for those left behind.  Also the aforementioned attempted suicide opens up the way for a love story: grin: but nothing too heavy (this is pg-13 after all).

Alrighty then, on to the fic.

Thread Bound

Prologue

            They say that there are threads that bind you to this world.  That the ties of money and family are enough to keep anyone alive.  That…he chuckled…there's someone special for everyone and only the most extreme circumstances can bring the two together.

            The cap on the sleeping pills came free.  Nonsense he thought bitterly.

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"Rin."

            She stopped on her way up the stairs and turned to look back at her co-worker.

            Kagome had a pleading look on her face as she watched her younger friend come back down the stairs.

            "What's wrong?" Rin asked, noting the worried look on the young woman's face. 

            "I just got a call from the doctor, my husband," she sniffed", he…he was in a car accident," she choked and Rin saw tears in her eyes.  Her heart went out to her.

            She gently hugged the woman who was like the big sister she'd never had and asked quietly," is there anything I can do?"

            "I really need to get down there but Mr. Kagewaki says I won't have a job to come back to if I don't have someone else to fill in for me.  This client is worth too much money for the company to lose.  He's still upset over that time I left work without permission to take care of Taro because of his illness."

            Rin said a few choice obscenities in her head, cursing Naraku Kagewaki for being such a moneygrubber when Kagome needed to be with her family.  "Will it be alright for me to take your place even though I'm just a volunteer?"

            "Oh yes, I already asked him and he said to take all the time I need.  It was surprisingly nice of him," she said.

            "You mean unsurprisingly cheap of him.  He probably jumped at the chance to have someone work for free seeing as how I won't be able to earn a huge commission from this client…what was his name again?"

            "Sesshoumaru Toyotomi, you could say that he's…a friend of the family- a very distant friend anyways.  Just be careful, okay?  He has quite the volatile temper and there's no telling what he'll do if you upset him so please try to stay out of his way."

            "I will.  Is there anything else I need to know?"

            "Don't touch anything if you don't have permission.  He's very possessive and that house is filled with antiques.  Just clean quickly and quietly and leave the same way."

            She nodded and went to get her bucket of cleaning supplies from her "temporary" locker, after Kagome handed over the keys to the house.  Naraku, you cheap loser you keep me because I'm the best cleaner that you've never had to pay.  Honestly!  Rin sighed and fished around in her pocket for change to make sure she had enough for bus fare.  Maybe I should go somewhere that actually pays me she thought but then I won't have time to go to school or paint or read for that matter.  She glanced at the small painting that she'd hung up in her locker and gently traced the features of the woman pictured therein I'll see you later mom.

            Rin grabbed her bucket and exited the building.

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The cleaning woman is late a small voice told him and he took no more than a moment to sift it through his head and decide that he didn't care about that just like he cared about nothing else but his work.

He traced a light finger over the cover of a book, his greatest work that was as yet unfinished, and shook a pill out onto his open palm.

*           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *

The bus ride was quiet and Rin cracked open her favorite book with a smile.  It was by an author who preferred to go by a pen name.  She glanced at it- Kagehoushi -which meant something like Black Star or Shadowstar.  Such an odd name she thought but then his books are odd too.

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One for his real mother…another for his father.

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She got off the bus and walked the rest of the way to his house.

*           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *

One for his estranged brother… two for the woman he could never bring himself to call mother.

*           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *

Rin knocked on the door to the rather large house and was unsurprised that no one answered.  She fit the key into the lock and turned it slowly, hoping to be as quiet as possible.

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He ignored the knock.  One for every failed novel… two for the man he couldn't be.

*           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *

She walked through the house, looking for the owner so that she would know which room to avoid later on.  A door that was slightly ajar on the second story caught her eye and she moved cautiously towards it.

*           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *

His hands were shaking from the other pills and he felt light-headed but he needed to get rid of one last regret before he died.

            Slowly he shook out three and put them against his lips.  Closing his eyes he whispered", three for the worthless man I am now," before swallowing the last few pills.  The bottle slipped from his numb hands and he found that he didn't have the strength to open his eyes before he slipped into a blissful darkness that he never wished to wake from.

            He couldn't even feel his body as it slipped to the floor.

*           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *

A thump was her first clue that something was wrong.

            The silence that followed was the second.

            Rin's feet carried her swiftly to the room and she threw the door open. 

And nearly screamed when she ascertained what had gone on within.

"Help, HELP.  Someone…anyone…. PLEASE!!!!"

*           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *           *

How's that for a beginning.  Hope I didn't freak too many people out.  I have another story that I want to write but I'll save that for later 'kay?  Oh, and by the way, Please review, pretty please.  Don't be shy now. Any review, good or bad is appreciated because it means people read my story.