A/N: Ta-da! Here it is: the start of that new story with chapters that I've been promising. Let me know what you think, please. Should I continue or is it a dud?

With Intensity

chapter 1

Life and new beginnings.

The creation of new life is a miracle, indeed. That's what Kaede would say.

Would've said. Had she still been alive.

Rin did not disagree. It's just that -with the new babe's warm, solid weight in her arms and its (his, her mind corrected) miniscule ears flicking placidly atop his head- she did not have words so eloquent or readily disposed. So, instead, she clutched it tighter into her bosom and smiled a brilliant smile.

"Oi, don't squish him!"

"Inuyasha," Kagome chided, still sweaty and weak from having given birth. "Don't be so melodramatic."

"Keh."

But there was no weight behind his dismissal so Rin was not offended.

"What will you call him?" she asked politely.

"I dunno," Kagome answered, sitting straighter on her soiled futon. "I was thinking (she gave a sly wink) Sesshoma-"

"Fuck that!"

"Sit, boy."

There was a sound like a small explosion, during which, Inuyasha's face met the floor's rough wooden planks, the babe twitched and began to cry, and Rin tried to withstand the moment without giggling.

"Ah, now look what you've done! You woke our son! Sit!"

"May I hold him now?"

Rin jumped. Sango was so quiet sometimes that she forgot the older girl was there. Kirara abandoned her master's shoulder and took up point by her leg.

She wondered fleetingly if her lord would come to visit, given the special occasion, but soon dismissed the thought entirely. Of course he wouldn't. Celebrations were not his scene, even despite his and Inuyasha's tense history. Watching Sango coo and fawn over Kagome's baby, however, had Rin wondering about more strange things. It was Inuyasha and Kagome's first child, but Sango and Miroku already had four of their own. Though she did not envy them, the fact nonetheless draped a veil of forlorn over the otherwise happy scene...

Would Lord Sesshomaru ever have children?

Rin couldn't imagine such a thing -for it would surely be a grand event- happening within her lifetime, but perhaps one day he would take a pretty demoness for a wife and have young with her. That thought, too, brought sadness for altogether different reasons.

Soon enough, Rin found that she could not stay in the quaint little hut that was now her own and escaped into the fresh breeze outside.

When her thoughts grew turbulent, a changed environment was a remarkable remedy. Kaede had taught her that, as well.

She ascended the many steps that led to Kikyo's rebuilt monument, and -at the top- she spread out her arms. The fingertips of her left hand hovered over the ruts in the road that led away from the village. Her right spanned the glassy surface of the rice fields just before the land devolved into forest and brambles. With her arms outstretched like this, it was easy to imagine she held the entire village within one giant hug. Safe, protected...

"Rin."

She jumped even worse than when Sango had startled her earlier.

But -then again- Lord Sesshomaru was much, much stealthier than the demon slayer.

"My lord!" she spun on her heel, excited.

He quickly grabbed her arm which was still outstretched and guided her toward him.

"Do not stand so close to the edge."

"Yes, my lord."

She followed the direction of his caution until she had twined his arm around her in a hug. He stiffened for but a moment before allowing her to continue. She sniffed him discreetly (an odd gesture that she was glad to have picked up from Inuyasha) and relaxed further into his scent of fresh linens and clean animal fur.

"I did not expect to see you today, my lord. Have you come to see the baby?"

She nuzzled the bit of haori above his fanged armor with her forehead before looking up to confirm the answer that she already knew.

His eyes were as cool as always when he regarded her, and she stepped back.

"No," he said, turning in the direction of Inuyasha's Forest.

Rin followed.

"He's such a cute thing. His ears are like your brother's, my lord!"

He ignored her as she gushed but didn't ask her to stop. So she continued down to every last detail.

"I was afraid for Kagome-chan," she confided later on. "I've never seen so much blood before, Sesshomaru-sama. I thought she might...but she didn't, thank kami."

When they'd passed both the Goshinboku and the well, Rin turned around and noticed something.

"My lord, where is Master Jaken and AhUn?"

He was silent for many long seconds. So long, in fact, that she thought he might not answer.

"They are away, Rin."

It was admittedly cryptic and slightly unsettling, but she did not question him further.

"Are we going somewhere, my lord?"

He turned then, and she almost pulled a Jaken -smacking into him headlong- but caught herself a hair's breadth from his chest.

"My lord?" she asked, stunned. "Are you...okay?"

"Rin," his fingers reached out and caught a strand of her hair, which was black like ichor against his pale skin. "You..."

"Yes?"

He dropped the strand, caught himself, and looked away at some point over her shoulder.

"My lord," she grabbed the flowing sleeve of his haori and tugged. "Please, what is wrong?"

It got him to look at her again, but his expression was pained.

Abruptly -even considering the demon- Sesshomaru turned and began a series of long, determined strides.

"Lord Sesshomaru, wait!"

She called after him when he'd disappeared from her sight, but he didn't return.

Rin contemplated setting up camp in the forest that night (just in case her lord would suddenly return and spew his feelings in an uncharacteristic rant) but ultimately decided against it.

The village was warm, rid of monsters, and home to a newborn who might -at some point- require her scant medicinal knowledge.

-=}{=-

Inuyasha curled his lip.

The bastard had been by the village at some point that day. He could smell him all over Rin.

Kagome knew her husband's many varied expressions well enough to know what this one meant.

"You mean he didn't even stop by and say hello?" she teased.

"Feh, that degenerate won't get within ten feet of our baby. Not if I can help it. Besides, he came to see her," he jabbed his thumb across at Rin, who seemed preoccupied with her own thoughts.

"What's the matter, Rin? You look worried," Kagome said.

"It's nothing, just...Lord Sesshomaru acted strange today when I saw him."

"Maybe he's dying," Inuyasha said, eyes hopeful.

Kagome prodded him hard in the ribs and narrowed her eyes. "Don't make me say 'it'."

His ears flattened, and he left the hut in a cacophony of muttered curses.

"What do you mean by strange, Rin?"

"He just...I dunno," she grabbed either forearm beneath the rough fabric of her miko sleeves (also a habit gained from Inuyasha) and turned toward the window. "He wouldn't tell me where Jaken and AhUn were, and then when he left, he did so in a hurry. I've never seen him look so troubled before."

"Troubled," Kagome frowned. "Hmm."

This was news, indeed, for she'd never seen the demon lord look anything other than totally detached and apathetic.

"Perhaps things are tense in the Western Lands. Maybe there's a war approaching."

Rin considered this. She did not want to tell the other girl that she'd never seen her lord so much as flinch in the face of a battle, much less give such a thing enough power to crinkle his brow. No, she decided silently, the truth must be something much, much worse...

Hm, wonder what's troubling Sesshy...To be continued?