Hello.

This is my first InuYasha fic, and, just like with Naruto on my account, I'm not sure if I'll continue with this anime. Again, I love it and I have some ideas for it, but it doesn't feel as if it's quite my style. And, I chose to publish this on my SillyQuill account because I feel that it was a little too light-hearted and "sunny" for something that would be found under my main pen name, and because is expressly for things with romantic dealings, though the fluffiness in this fic almost qualified it for there.

Anyway, I just thought this up as being a tender showing of the bond that Sesshomaru and Rin bear. Personally, I don't see their bond as being father-daughter, brother-sister, lovers, or anything else that can be described, familial or otherwise. It's just there; the two of them are connected, and that's the end of it for me. So, that being said, feel free to interpret this fic any way you so choose to in regards to their relationship.

Enjoy the fic!

Rin sighed. Then, sighed again. The third time she sighed, Jaken had had enough.

"Quit that, stupid girl! You're soul is going to escape on one of those sighs if you keep it up, and then I'll have to go and fetch it back for you and Lord Sesshomaru will be angry," he threatened, glaring at the human child.

"Really, Jaken? Will my soul escape?" Rin asked, wide-eyed, turning to look worriedly over her shoulder at the toad.

"Well… it makes sense that it would!" Jaken defended, blushing under his green skin.

Rin sighed. "Jaken does not know… Rin does not know…"

"Rin doesn't know what?" Jaken snapped, crossing his arms across his chest. When would the child stop talking nonsense and actually begin to communicate? Other humans could do it, why not this one?

She sighed again, causing Jaken to groan and mutter to himself in annoyance.

"Jaken," she suddenly started up again. "Do you know if Lord Sesshomaru has a birthday?"

"What?" Jaken jumped. "What sort of silly question is that? Why would I even know such a thing?"

"Do you know if Lord Sesshomaru celebrates anything, then?" she continued, looking back at Jaken with wide, dark, morose eyes.

"I've had enough of your silly questions, girl!" Jaken declared, trying to avoid the shame of confessing his lack of knowledge about his lord. "Go find something to eat. Or, go find some flowers to pick for Lord Sesshomaru. He'll be returning shortly, and if you're so set on giving him something, give him those. He always accepts them from you."

Rin sighed yet again. "Okay, Master Jaken," she agreed unenthusiastically. And, she started wandering away.

"Don't go too far! I don't want to have to come searching for you, got it?"

"I got it, Master Jaken," she said on a sigh.

"And, stop sighing!" he screeched. Why, oh why does Lord Sesshomaru keep this girl?

Rin wandered to the bank of the river they were camped by. Though somewhat quick, it was shallow, only a couple feet deep, and not very wide. It barely deserved to be called a river.

Just as Rin could barely be considered grateful.

She sat down, tucking her knees up under her chin and wrapping her arms around them.

She tried, she really did, to show that she was thankful for all that Lord Sesshomaru had done for her. More than thankful.

She knew that if she were to express herself by saying 'thank you' every day to Lord Sesshomaru that he would become just as irritated by it as Jaken was by her sighing, though he may not say it. And, though the flowers were accepted and weren't as of yet becoming a bother, Rin knew they would eventually. And, what true use were the flowers?

Admittedly, it was rather impossible for Rin to come up with something practical for Lord Sesshomaru to use, so her choice of gifts was limited to inanimate, sometimes decorative things. But, there was, and never had been, any indication that Sesshomaru cared for the colorful petals and stems that Rin heaped upon him. Rin was the one who liked them, and she always hoped that that liking would run off onto Lord Sesshomaru so that she could finally know what he was fond of.

And, so that we'd finally have something in common, Rin admitted in her head.

She didn't cry, but waves of unhappiness rolled off of her, alerting AhUn to the state of mind their girl was in. The dragon lumbered silently over to her, each head coming around to nudge one of her arms.

"Hi. I'm sorry to worry you." She patted both heads, gently scratching behind their giant ears, causing each head to purr in their throats. "It's just that flowers aren't getting Rin anywhere in showing Lord Sesshomaru my appreciation for what he's done. I need to think more like Sesshomaru," Rin confided in them.

"…I don't suppose either of you know how to think like Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin asked, biting her bottom lip.

Both Ah and Un shook their heads, having no idea as to what their lord might want in the manner of a gift.

"I didn't think so."

It has to be something that Lord Sesshomaru can relate to, something that he would understand.

Rin looked out over the wannabe river, watching the sun glance off of the stones below the surface of the mildly passing water.

Rin squinted, seeing something in the water that caught her eye.

And, this time rather than a sigh of despair, Rin gave a gasp of delight.

Jaken was snoozing lazily in the afternoon sun when Lord Sesshomaru returned.

"Jaken," Sesshomaru's voice whipped out, searing his servant from his slumber.

Bumbling, Jaken fell from the stone he'd been sleeping on in alarm. "Lord Sesshomaru! You're here! I'm so glad, my lord."

"Where is Rin, Jaken?" Sesshomaru asked, eyes narrowing, a dangerous edge to his voice.

"Oh, uh, Rin!" Jaken called loudly. "Rin, come out! Lord Sesshomaru has returned!" If that human girl has wandered away, I'll be in so much trouble.

"I'm coming!" Rin's shrill voice responded from nearby.

Rather than wait for her, Lord Sesshomaru began walking in the direction of her voice, Jaken tripping and hustling along behind him.

They found her, AhUn in tow, making her way back up the low bank of the river, something nestled in the sleeves of her kimono, which were drenched up to beyond her elbows. The bottom hem of the outfit was also wetted several inches up.

"Rin, what have you been up to? I told you to pick some flowers," Jaken said in berating tones, hoping his lordship wouldn't be angry over the sodden kimono. After all, nothing was ever Rin's fault; Jaken would be the one who was blamed for letting the girl have such free range.

"I have something for you, Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin exclaimed excitedly, freely ignoring Jaken, concentrated entirely upon her goal of giving her gift to Lord Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed infinitesimally and were the only thing to let on that he was even slightly confused by the human child's actions.

Whatever she had, she was struggling slightly under the weight of it, though not hugely so. She also looked happier than she had in a long time, as if the sun had not only come out today, but also the stars visible along with it.

Curiosity prompting him, Sesshomaru took several steps forward before sinking down to one knee, awaiting the girl to make the final steps to give him whatever treasure she'd discovered in the river.

Finally reaching him, Rin's smile brightened even more, and she held out her gift. "Ta da!"

It was a stone, gray from the water though it would be white when it dried, perfectly rounded into a flat oval by the river… and, that was it.

"You stupid girl!" Jaken harassed from behind his lordship. "What do you think you're doing, giving Lord Sesshomaru a rock? That is the most pathetic gift ever thought of! I was sleeping on a rock a moment ago myself, and you don't see me trying to give that as a present! And, did it even occur to you how cumbersome a rock would be? Another thing, why would—?"

"Jaken!" Sesshomaru's harsh reprimanded sliced off the toady's verbal barrage in midflight.

The light had left Rin's face, and she now stared down at the no-longer-a-gift in her hands.

"Why, Rin?" was all that Sesshomaru asked.

"…Because… unlike Rin, Lord Sesshomaru is not like a flower." Jaken snorted and Sesshomaru cut him a fierce glance that nearly struck the pathetic excuse for a demon dead. "Lord Sesshomaru is not soft, he will not be simply plucked from where he chooses to rest, he does not feed on the sunshine, and he does not die away with the seasons. But, Lord Sesshomaru is like this rock. He is strong, he is steady, he cannot easily be moved, he can live anywhere at any time under any circumstances, he needs nothing to live off of, and he will always be there, even when the flowers are gone…"

Rin continued to stare down at the rock as Sesshomaru continued to stare at her.

Eventually, Sesshomaru reached out and took the drying rock from her.

Startled that he may actually be accepting it, Rin whipped her head up. But, as she watched, Sesshomaru stood and walked around her, out into the middle of the river, and placed the rock almost exactly where it had been before Rin had removed it from its centuries-old resting place.

Turning back, Sesshomaru saw Jaken staring smugly at Rin, as if he'd somehow won over her, while Rin herself had turned her face back down to the earth, not wanting the sun to highlight the shame and rejection she felt that undoubtedly shown in at least her eyes.

Sesshomaru, barely making a splash, stepped out of the flowing water and walked over to stand tally in front of Rin. For a moment, they stood like that, a portrait of a broken-hearted girl and the person she had disappointed.

Then, Lord Sesshomaru reached out and tilted the girl's chin up so that she had no choice but to look him in the eyes.

…

"Thank you, Rin." He leaned down and placed a kiss on top of her head.

"B-but, Rin is the one who is supposed to be thanking Lord Sesshomaru," she said in astonishment, eyes quite wide.

Removing his touch and reaching into the top of his breastplate, Sesshomaru produced a flower unlike any Rin had ever seen in the area, and held it out to her, letting her comparatively tiny hands gently, almost reverently, take it from his grasp.

"Even though a stone is sturdy and forever, a flower is vibrant and, though fleeting, enlightens everyone with a purpose and their own will to live when the flower does not. Thank you, Rin, for being my flower."

"But, Lord Sesshomaru, I was the one who suggested Rin get you more flowers. Don't I get a 'thank you'?" Jaken interrupted whiningly.

And, indeed, Jaken did get a 'thank you,' in the form of a rock to the head.

And, thank you, everyone, for reading! Hopefully, it was alright for a first attempt at an Inu Yasha fic, but I think it turned out fairly well.

I am sorry of the ending is a little abrupt, but it's four in the morning and I cannot see where to take it from here.

Once again, thanks for reading! Bye!