A Broken Heart Mended...12

Title:  A Broken Heart Mended With A Touch of Fluff

Chapter Twelve:  The Heart of Texas Fair

Disclaimer: I do not own the Inuyasha characters! There, are you happy now?! (cries for a minute) I’m good, I’m good… I also don’t own the song “My World” by SR-71. However, I do own Haley, Jenna, Taylor, and all of the other characters that aren’t related to Inuyasha though.

'Whenever writing looks like this' Haley's thinking.

"Whenever writing looks like this right after Haley's thoughts occur or if no one is speaking directly" it's Haley's inner demon.

The car ride to the Heart of Texas Fairgrounds was everything but boring. What got on my nerves the most though, was how loud Sesshomaru could be sometimes! From first sight, he looks like the stoic taiyoukai he used to be, and sometimes still is, but if you get him in a cramped car with two lovebirds, his daughter, and an almost full panther demon with Kikyo blood, you have got yourself a Sesshomaru no one has ever seen before!

“So, tell me again, how can you not tell whenever you are in heat Rin?” Sesshomaru asked. Sesshomaru was not stupid, mind you, but he did not know everything. Only a few days after I had met him, his aura appeared to me that he was very intelligent and knew almost everything there was to know. This was true as of today, but he knew very little of his daughter. I asked him about this, and he said that before he met me, he saw Rin as someone he needed to protect but not question. Rin had been his little girl since she was seven and his daughter since she was ten. He cared for her deeper than anyone else except himself on the day she uttered the sentence, “I love you, Daddy”. Though this was true, he did not know how to be a father. He had never had children before, what was he supposed to do?

“I told you, Daddy, I just don’t know!” Rin replied. “But I have a question for you now. Since you have known me since I was seven, can you tell me how long I have been going into heat since I was revived from the dead?”

Sesshomaru’s face turned bright red. I could tell that this was a topic he was not used to. I had to suppress a giggle. Sesshomaru didn’t want anyone to see his face, so he sat tall and spoke in his monotone. “Rin, you have been going into heat towards the end of summer for the past two years now.”

I could see Rin’s eyes get as wide as plates at her father’s words. “Really, for that long?” Rin asked herself. “So that’s why you have not let me go near a single village at the end of summer since I was eleven!”

I could not help myself now. I burst out laughing, and Sesshomaru glared at me. Jenna shouted from the driver’s seat, “What’s so funny Hales?” I felt a tear go down my face from my laughter. I tried to tell Jenna what I was laughing about, but I just could not stop laughing.

“I understand now, Daddy. You were afraid that boys would be dropping on their knees in front of me at the sight of me.” Obviously, Rin wanted me to have a heart attack from laughter, because that sentence made me laugh even harder. I almost fell out of my seat.

“Come on now, tell me Hales!” Jenna yelled behind her. I tried as hard as possible to regain enough of my dignity to answer her.

“Sesshomaru just told Rin that she has been going into heat for the endings of the past two summers, and she realized that because of her condition, that is why Sesshomaru has not let her go near a single village during this time.” I started to giggle. “Then, get this, Rin says that Sesshomaru wouldn’t let her be near people because he was afraid that boys would drop to their knees at her presence!” Jenna joined me in laughter but had to hold back a lot of what she wanted to get out because she was driving.

“It’s only the truth,” I heard Sesshomaru say quietly. My laughing slowly dwindled and I cuddled next to Sesshy.

“I know, my love, it just sounds so cute that you worry about Rin so deeply,” I told him. Sesshomaru made a noise that sounded like something between a whine and a growl.

"Girl, he wants you right now," my inner demon said.

'How can you tell?' I asked.

"That whine was because he was annoyed, but the growl was for the longing he’s feeling for you right now."

'What should I do?'

"As soon as you two are out of Rin’s presence, kiss him long and hard."

'I figured that much out, stupid! I meant, what should I do right now to make some of that longing go away?'

"Oh, um, hold his hand and wrap your arm around his waist."

'Will do, thanks for the advice.'

I couldn’t believe that I was actually listening to my inner demon, but sometimes it was nice to have a little bit of extra information. I grabbed Sesshomaru’s hand and snaked my arm around his waist. For the first time in probably forever, I felt Sesshomaru tense and then wiggle in anticipation. How bad did Sesshomaru want me at the moment? Sesshomaru moaned quietly, just enough for my panther ears to hear.

“Ooh, is it getting hot and heavy in the back of my car, Haley and Lord Sesshomaru?” Jenna asked from her position. Sesshomaru and I froze in our seats. I had forgotten that Jenna could hear just as well as I could, (A/N: If you’re wondering how Jenna could hear just as well as Haley, even though she’s an almost full demon and Jenna is not, it’s because Jenna’s demon blood is from a taiyoukai) and I silently cursed her ancestors.

“Your mom is getting hot and heavy in the back of your car!”

I turned to look at the person who had said this. Jenna laughed and said, “You have taught Lord Sesshomaru well, Haley!” I beamed at my boyfriend. He was being so childish, but I liked him this way because Sesshomaru seemed more at ease and happier with his surroundings whenever he was joking around with modern phrases.

I snuggled deeper into Sesshy’s chest. I loved him so much. He was my world now. At that exact moment, Jenna slipped in a CD and the song “My World” by SR-71 played out through the car.

'The fastest man in the world, fast asleep at the wheel

Nobody wants to be alone, so how did I get, here

When I look at you, I see him staring through

Awake and a smile, cuz he’s been inside of you

Is he all the things you, tried to change me into?

Is he everything to you?

Does he make you high, make you real?

Does he make you cry? Does he know the way you feel?

Love is all around you, your universe is full

But in my world, there is only you..'

Everyone was silent while we listened to the music. Taylor took Jenna’s hand, and Sesshomaru gripped mine like he was afraid I might float away from him.

'I can still find the smell

On my clothes and skin

I can still see your face, when you’re sleeping next to him

Is he all the things you, tried to change me into?

Tell me does he…

Make you high, make you real?

Does he make you cry? Does he know the way you feel?

Love is all around you, your universe is full

But in my world…

I had enough fears, you let them out

Now I wrap myself around you

Like a blanket full of doubt

He’s your everything…

Does he make you high, make you real?

Does he make you cry? Does he know the way you feel?

Love is all around you, your universe if full

But in my world…'

Before the last chorus, Sesshomaru let go of my hand to turn my face towards his. I thought I saw tears in his eyes, but I dismissed the idea because I knew that the Great Lord Sesshomaru would never cry. He leaned down and his lips brushed mine. He started to pull back, but he decided to take advantage of how close we were and came back with a strong kiss. A tear flowed down my face from each of my eyes as the last part of the song rang out through the car:

'You make me high! You make me real!

You make me cry! Now you know the way I feel

Love is all around you, your universe is full

But in my world, there is only you...'

Even though the song had ended, Sesshomaru had not stopped kissing me. His tongue grazed my lower lip, and I let him French kiss me. The car was quiet, I realized. I could faintly hear giggles and satisfied squeals. I guessed that we were at the Fairgrounds, but I did not want to think about anything but the man who was kissing me with a strong passion.

I heard a knock on the window behind me, much to my displeasure. I ignored it, but I could not help but hear Jenna and Taylor yell, “Come on you two! Get out of the car! Y’all are fogging up the windows!” I could imagine Taylor rolling his eyes and Jenna shrugging at his gesture. I could barely hear Jenna and Taylor walking away and telling Rin to go ahead into the Fairgrounds.

I threw my arms around Sesshomaru’s neck as soon as I could tell that no one else was going to bother us. I deepened the kiss and I thought that Sesshomaru was going to devour my tongue and pierce my flesh with his nails.

Finally, he pulled away, obviously with a fear that he might hurt me, and I saw his eyes flash red. Sesshy blinked really hard, as if trying to get the blood red presence in his molten gold eyes to go away.

“I am sorry, Haley,” Sesshomaru apologized in a quiet voice. “I got carried away.” I stifled a giggle. I opened the car door and stepped outside, inhaling the smell of junk food and farm animals. I could faintly hear horse whinnies in the distance, and I knew that Jenna would be dragging Taylor into the rodeo arena so she could watch the barrel racers.

I offered my hand to Sesshomaru while I said, “Don’t be. I got a little bit carried away, too.” He took my hand and climbed out of the car. I looked up at his face, since he was so much taller than me, and he gave me an honest smile.

“Well, come on, Sesshy! Let’s go find Rin before she gets carried away with the excitement,” I encouraged. Sesshy and I took off at a fast pace to find the rest of our group. As soon as we got through the entrance, I could hear Rin’s giggle not far. I turned to look at Sesshomaru, but he was already gone, walking off in the direction I heard Rin laughing.

I actually had to run to keep up with Sesshomaru, but what scared me was that, as I got closer to Sesshomaru and Rin, I could smell a teenage boy mixed in with the aroma of lilies and roses. My running was frantic now.

I stopped for two seconds to smell the air for Essence of Sesshomaru, but the smells of fair food and bodies thrashing against each other filled my nose instead of the fragrance of spice and power. I stood on my tip toes to find my love. Even though he was taller than me by at least a foot, I still could not find him.

“Daddy, please don’t hurt him!” I pushed through the inane groups of fair goers to reach the sound of Rin’s voice. I only had to hear the word ‘him’ to know that Sesshomaru was about to kill another male if I did not convince my love otherwise. I heard a muffled apology, and, as if Moses himself was present in the area, the mortals in front of me parted like the Red Sea. What I saw made me want to tackle Sesshomaru to the ground to keep him from doing the barbaric act he was thinking about committing.

“Beg for mercy, human!” Sesshomaru commanded in his monotone. He was holding a boy that looked to be perhaps fifteen up by his throat in front of Rin. Her hands were over her mouth in shock, and people acted like nothing was going on right in front of their very eyes.

“Daddy, he was just telling me that I was looking pretty tonight,” Rin tried to assure Sesshy. I saw Sesshomaru’s grip tighten and his eyes narrow with a blood red tint. I lunged myself at my love. I jumped up and held onto his arm with all my might because I knew that as long as I had a grasp on him, his arm would stay as still as a stone statue’s. I closed my eyes tight and started crying uncontrollably.

“Please, Sesshomaru, don’t do this!” I pleaded. “Do you really think that this is the proper way to explain the boundaries of your daughter to a boy? Do you really think that killing every male that looks at Rin is the way to show your baby girl that you care about her? Do you really think that?!” I was screaming now. I was afraid to open my eyes for I feared that Sesshomaru would only ignore me on this matter of subject.

“Huh?” I opened my lake blue eyes in surprise whenever I felt Sesshomaru’s arm lower.

“Run, before I change my mind,” he said. I had no idea who he was talking to because I had forgotten about the boy. I sensed the boy’s frightened aura running away from Sesshomaru, Rin, and I. Rin did not say anything, but I imagined that she was giving her father a thankful, and yet a little bit angry, look.

“Why did you do that?” I asked.

“What, do you want me to catch him again? Because I can do that, if you wish,” Sesshomaru answered. He barely turned, but I held onto his arm tighter than before.

“No, no, it’s fine. Thank you for not killing him, but I know you wanted to so why didn’t you?” Sesshomaru ignored my question and walked farther into the fairgrounds, with me attached to him. I continued to talk to him. “I’m dead serious, Sesshomaru. Why didn’t you kill that boy like you wanted to?” He looked at me with a face I had never seen before. It was a sad face, one with golden orbs that had small rivers beneath them.

“Because you were scared of me.”

The answer touched my heart like nothing else. “What do you mean?” I asked. I understood the answer. I just wanted the whole story behind it. It was hard for me to believe that me, the girl with hip long black hair and blue eyes whose blood was eighty percent panther demon and twenty percent priestess from Kikyo, had stopped Sesshomaru from killing a male that was talking to Rin.

“You were scared of me,” Sesshomaru started. “You were crying from fear. I would have been concerned if you were crying from fear about a different person or demon but seeing you cry because you were scared of me was unbearable. I remember Rin being scared of demons whenever she was a little girl, but she was never scared of me, her lord and father. She has loved me ever since I revived her from the dead, and I have returned the love. But the love I have for you is much different. I love you like I love no other. I want you to be happy and live in a world without fear. Yet, that cannot happen if you are scared of the one that loves you more than you realize.”

I was amazed. Sesshomaru was telling me that I didn’t know how much he loved me. How could I not know? He came all the way from Feudal Japan to help me convince my parents to let me stay with him, trusted me with his daughter, altered his ways so that I was happier, and showed me that I was almost full demon. He would not have done all those things if he didn’t love me! The truth was that I thought that Sesshomaru did not realize how much I loved him.

“Sesshomaru, fear is something that I just have,” I tried to explain. “Just because I’m scared for even a moment, it doesn’t mean that I want you to leave me alone and never see me again. I would die if that happened! I love you oh so much, and I don’t want you to ever walk away from me thinking that I would be better off without you in my life. The only reason I was scared was because I thought that you were going to kill that boy. Now, I might be a little bit morbid, but I’m not that gruesome!” He laughed quietly. “Let’s just put this behind us, shall we?” He nodded and called Rin over.

“Yes, Daddy?” she asked warily. I could tell that she was a little bit upset about Sesshy running the boys away from her, just like I had assumed. He ruffled her hair, and she couldn’t help but smile.

“If you are careful, you may walk around by yourself if you wish,” Sesshomaru said. “I only have one restriction: no boys! You got that?” Rin smiled wide and nodded hard.

“Thanks, Daddy! Maybe I will find Jacey,” she thought aloud. Sesshomaru rolled his eyes. As long as Rin didn’t catch up with any boys, I believed that Sesshy would stay true to his word.

I looked up at the night sky and sighed. I could not see the stars because of all the lights, but I didn’t care. I had my loved one with me, and I was not going to let anyone ruin my night. I saw a stand that had the words ‘Cotton Candy’ written above the manager’s head. I smiled like a deviant and pulled Sesshy towards the stand.

“Two, please,” I said whenever we got to the stand. The manager handed me two bags with pink cotton candy in them. I thanked the manager and skipped away with Sesshomaru’s hand clasped onto mine. He had been quiet so far, obviously waiting for me to bring up a topic.

I was not ready to talk yet. I saw Jenna and Taylor dart into the rodeo coliseum. I decided to meet up with them, so I kept dragging Sesshy along behind me. “Where are we going?” he asked.

“We’re going to watch a bunch of idiots get thrown off of a side of beef,” I said excitedly. I was not a huge bull rider fan, but I thought it was funny to see some guys get trampled by the bull after they got thrown off.

Sesshomaru was tired of me dragging him, so he stood up straight and kept pace with me. I entered the coliseum, and Sesshomaru picked up the end of his fluff so that it wouldn’t get dirty. I laughed silently that he cared so much about an accessory, even though I knew that he only cared about his fluff so much because his father had given it to him.

After I found us seats, I took a big piece of cotton candy out of one of the bags. I stuffed it in my mouth and savored the flavor. From my peripheral vision, I saw Sesshomaru smirk at my silliness. I smirked back and handed him the other bag.

“Try some, Sesshomaru,” I said. “You might like it.” He stared at the pink fluff like it was a disease. “Don’t be stubborn about this, just try it!” He took a small piece out of his bag. He barely licked it with the tip of his tongue. He stared at me with disgust, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.

“What, you don’t like it?” I asked. I stuffed another piece in my mouth, and Sesshomaru’s stare intensified.

“It’s too sweet!” he answered. “How can anyone eat something so sugar-coated?” I sighed. While his mouth was open to insult the cotton candy even further, I stuffed a huge piece in his open mouth. He twitched and swallowed. He kept twitching as he slowly lifted the rest of his cotton candy out of the plastic bag.

I watched Sesshomaru eat that piece of sugared candy with a sly smile on my face. He was licking his fingers whenever I decided that I could not keep my laughter contained. Sesshomaru crossed his arms over his chest and ignored me. “You are such a liar, Sesshy! I knew that you could not hate something as good as cotton candy!” I said after my laughs had died down enough for me to speak.

“Whatever,” was all I heard from him until I passed the remnants of my cotton candy in front of his face. Then he snatched the bag out of my hands and thanked me for giving it to him. I could not stop smiling at how cute it was that Sesshomaru loved something that was as sweet as a bunch of packets of sugar.

“Hey you guys,” Jenna’s voice greeted me and Sesshomaru. I looked up at her and covered my mouth to keep my laughter from returning. She was wearing the same outfit she had been wearing this morning, but now she did not have human ears. On top of her blonde hair, two orange scalene triangles with black tips sat. On the inside of the fox ears were white tufts.

“What are you staring at, Haley?” Jenna asked. Whenever she questioned me, her ears twitched and swiveled to listen to my answer. My returning laughter could no longer be contained, and I almost fell out of my arena seat from my giggles. “What? Sesshomaru, why is Haley laughing?”

“Perhaps you should either look in a mirror or rub your hand over the top of your head,” Sesshy replied. Jenna looked at him in bewilderment but ran her hand over her blonde hair anyways. Whenever her fingers grazed a fox ear, she gasped. She reached up with her other hand and rubbed the tips of both of her new ears.

She was smiling, but now she was looking at Taylor. “Why didn’t you tell me that these cute little ears were on my head?” she asked. Taylor shrugged.

“You didn’t ask. Not only that, though, but I didn’t notice when they showed up,” he told her. Jenna kept touching her ears. She was so surprised that she had fox ears; she had failed to remember that Sesshomaru had already told her that she would gain the ears soon after her tail had flourished.

After we all watched a few idiots fall off of some bulls, we decided that we had stayed long enough to head back home. Sesshomaru sniffed Rin out, who was with Jacey and had not caught up with any boys like she promised, and we all piled up in Jenna’s car again.

I didn’t always love the fair every year, but this year was different. As I listened to Rin talk about her evening, I was really happy that I had stayed in Texas long enough to go to the Heart of Texas state fair with my friends.

Right before I fell asleep, I realized that Sesshomaru, Rin, and I were going to have to go back to Japan in the next couple of days. I was ready though. Feudal Japan was going to be my new home soon, complete with Jaken, Ah-Un, Inuyasha, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, and Shippo.