Ridiculous

When the wind breezes through this Sesshomaru's hair, dishevelling it, it is so easy to believe. With Rin humming softly behind as we walk, occasionally chattering in that non-sensical, musical way she has – why does she follow me? Why do I allow her to follow one such as myself? Why is it that I desire to care for her? Love is too simple an answer. I do not love. But small as she is, she has penetrated my armour deeper than any foe. Much in the same way that woman did.

Once more the wind teases my hair, and the patter of Rin's footsteps gives way to her exclamations of delight – apparently, she has found a butterfly. That woman, with her clever eyes and knowing smirk made a mockery of this Sesshomaru. As if I would deign to kill Naraku because of her – preposterous. I hunt him because – my reasons are my own. And yet she stood there, shameless, and asked for my favour. With the exception of Rin, she is the only one to walk away with such familiar impertinence unscathed. I still am unable to answer myself sufficiently as to why.

Regardless, walk away she did, and Rin's normally perceptive eyes were for once mistaken – One such as myself, lowered to lusting after Naraku's spawn?

Preposterous.

And yet when the wind comes again, I close my eyes and inhale, breathing in the scent she once carried under the taint of Naraku. Freedom, she would say, had I ever asked her. I want to be free. I wanted that once, to be free from Father, the pressure his position put upon me. I was to defeat him, and in doing so he would pass to me the empire he had ammassed. But you died, Father. You died for the bastard Hanyou you whelped, and then gave me your useless fang of healing.

Rin's footsteps race to catch up with me, and I hear her calling to me, reminding me that, were it not for the fang, she would not be here. So perhaps the sword is not so useless as I once believed. Indeed, seeing that woman fall from the sky certainly made me reach for it before I remembered myself. As if I would deign to save the daughter of my enemy, no matter her power or beauty or the damnable hold she seemed to have over me. The thought that she needed me did strange things to me, things that I would prefer not to scrutinize too closely. As for the thought that I could need her...

Ridiculous.