Rin's Choice (Sesshomaru x Rin)

A Fake Proposal

Sesshomaru

So, the Servants of the Daiyokai believe that I have taken Rin as my mate. This explains much.

Earlier they were not trying to kill me. No, they sought to incapacitate me long enough to get to Rin. They did not account for my ability to negate poisons, and they did not account for Jaken and A-Un. That is why they sent so few.

I glance down at the woman I hold to me, mind racing with multiple scenarios and possibilities.

There is little chance they would believe me even if I wished to correct their assumptions. I do not. The fact that they would do this is telling. Their loyalty is fickle. They are a liability, one which I will remove shortly.

Unfortunately they will not be the only ones to misunderstand Rin's place with me. As long as she remains by my side, she is in danger just as if she were my mate. Assassins will come. Armies will form. Purist will challenge me.

...her happiness, her safety, or your legacy....

This then was what the tree prophet referred to. As long as Rin remains with me, her life will be in danger. Yet, to not be with me would make her unhappy. Where my legacy fits into this I do not yet understand—

Or do I?

If I accept the title waiting for me as Lord of the Western Lands, I will be expected to find a mate befitting my station, a mate who is nearly equal in power to my own so that our offspring will then rule when my time ends. If I take the title while Rin is with me...

My arm tightens around her as we continue gliding through the sky, my mind whirring.

If I take the title, Rin would be seen as an obstacle which female yokai needed to overcome in order to get to me. The number of creatures trying to kill her would increase exponentially.

Just like father's woman.

I doubt anyone knows that I followed him that day, that even after I walked away, the smell of blood and death played on my conscience until I decided to follow him.

The grim scene that met me will be forever etched in my mind. Even now, if I close my eyes, I can see the charred remains of my father's palace, smell the smoke, taste the salty-sweet tang of blood and death on the wind.

Then the building collapsed, and that woman screamed, drawing every human and yokai within hundreds of meters. I quickly lost count of how many I killed that day in my shamed need to keep them from slaying my father's woman and child; no matter how much I hated the two of them, my father had died to protect them that day. And I'd let him.

I wonder what he would think of this situation I now find myself in. I wonder what he would advise.

Tell me, have you someone to protect?

I didn't understand what he meant back then, was insulted by the very suggestion that I would make myself vulnerable by choosing to protect some weak, worthless creature as he had. But have I not done the same in allowing Rin to follow me? Have I not had to fight many times to save her? Have not enemies used her (or attempted to use her) against me?

Then perhaps what I should ask, if I am following in my father's footsteps--however loosely--is what if I someday find Rin fleeing rogue armies? What if I return to find Rin choking on flames as she tries to claw her way free from underneath burning rubble?

Fury sweeps through me at the thought, radiating around me with power.

For Rin to be in that kind of pain, for Rin to be that afraid, is unacceptable.