"Sesshomaru-sama?"

Broken from his contemplative trance induced by the reflective surface of the river, Sesshomaru glanced up from his bath to where Rin was crouched down in a shallower area a few paces away. Rin, who was staring his way quizzically, seemed to have stopped bathing short of even washing her hair. Frowning minutely, Sesshomaru absently combed his single hand through his own length of half-submerged hair.

"Do you need assistance?" he asked with an air of uncertainty. Rin normally bathed herself without incident while Sesshomaru waited for her near the bank.

The child shook her head. "No, I don't need help. I'm almost nine," she proclaimed cheerily as though she could not possibly require any help at such a clearly mature age.

Sesshomaru quirked a brow, mildly amused by the girl's display of confidence. Rin was far from the timid mute she had been when she discovered Sesshomaru recovering from battle during the previous summer. "Indeed, you are."

Nodding, Rin beamed at his confirmation and rocked in the water on the balls of her feet. "It's just I, I was wondering… Do all boys have tails, Sesshomaru-sama?"

Tails?

Sesshomaru tilted his head a bit in confusion, having no idea where such a question could have sprung from. Something about him must have sparked the inquiry since he was the only male creature in the vicinity. After a long unblinking moment, his thoughts wandered to his currently bare right shoulder. Of course, his shoulder normally bore a length of his own fur. While he bathed he always sealed it away with the rest of his true form. Rin must have noticed its absence and contemplated his reasoning for having it in the first place. Perhaps she also assumed that other "boys" simply kept theirs hidden as Sesshomaru could. "My length of fur," Sesshomaru nodded to his shoulder, "is not a tail. It is traditionally worn by male members of my family." He decided he would not go into how he was able to seal and unseal certain portions of his other body. It would likely somehow lead her towards further questions regarding his behavioral patterns as a dog. And that was always a joy.

"Ohh," said Rin with the awed look she always wore whenever she discovered something new about Sesshomaru. For a human, the child possessed a strangely vast fascination with demonkind. Her questioning was…endless at times, but not entirely unwelcome. Sesshomaru was not lost on Rin's curiosity. The girl was constantly surrounded by creatures who shared nothing in common with her. And though it was long ago, Sesshomaru too had been a child once.

"That's amazing, Sesshomaru-sama." Rin chewed her lip for a moment. "But that's not what I meant…" With a strange look on her face, Rin glanced down at herself, at the half of her body that could barely be seen through the water's disturbed, cloudy sediment. She then glanced over at Sesshomaru briefly before turning her attention back down to herself. "I don't have a tail," she informed him, sounding rather disappointed. "But Jaken-sama has one, and Sesshomaru-sama has one…"

Sesshomaru's eyes fell to Rin's current point of interest—her nether regions.

The color drained from Sesshomaru's face.

Stupidly, Sesshomaru stole a glance down at himself, though he knew the water now hid him up to his ribs. Meeting the child's genuine gaze once more, Sesshomaru was frozen. Beyond frozen.

Truthfully, this potential situation had never once crossed his mind before this. Both he and Rin were very accustomed to the fact that there were many differences between them, being a demon and a human. Simple differences between his clearly male body and her incredibly young female body had always seemed, well, obvious. And slight in comparison to the void between their species.

It was rare for them to bathe together, Sesshomaru knew. He had only chosen to do so now because Jaken had gone to take A-Un to graze. And Rin was young, too young to be embarrassed by her own or another person's nakedness.

As a child, Sesshomaru had bathed with his parents many times. And never once had he…had he wondered about that. Not to his recollection anyway. Had the humans truly taught her nothing of her own body? Recalling the relationship she'd had with them, Sesshomaru was beginning to suspect she knew far less than a girl of her age ought to.

Gods. This was absurd. What was he to—how could he—he had never done this before.

"Never mind, Sesshomaru-sama" Rin blurted suddenly and Sesshomaru nearly started. Rin was staring hard into the water with a look of what might have been shame. Cursing mentally, Sesshomaru immediately schooled his likely telling expression. The girl was beginning to suspect she had done something profoundly wrong.

"Rin." Sesshomaru fought the urge to sigh as he slowly strode through the water and lowered himself beside her in the shallows. Rin's small arms were wrapped around her knees, her chin resting atop one of them. She turned her head a bit to look at him through a few strands of damp hair, for she always acknowledged him when he spoke, even when she clearly did not wish to face him.

"You are not wrong to ask questions," began Sesshomaru with as little hesitation as he could manage despite his undeniable dread. For Rin, and Rin only, he would set aside this nonsense and be the adult the child clearly needed. He could do that much. "I was simply not expecting that particular one from you." He already cringed at his own antics, but an appropriate amount of honesty was decidedly his best approach.

When Rin gave a nod followed by a small, bashful smile, Sesshomaru allowed himself to continue. "What you are referring to…is not a tail."

"It's not?"

"No."

"Then what is it?"

Sesshomaru breathed. He could do this. He would not continue to be embarrassed, of all things, by a little human girl. "You noticed Jaken and I have one," said Sesshomaru with remarkable patience. "And I assume you noticed the bodies of at least some of the men who lived in your village?" Rin scrunched her nose a bit at the mention of the village before nodding. "Although they are not tails, they are indeed what makes us all male. The part between your legs makes you a female."

"Oh. So… I can't grow one?"

Sesshomaru's eyebrow twitched. "No. You cannot grow one."

"Oh…"

The youkai frowned at Rin's expression. "Why would you want to 'grow' one?"

With a small sigh, Rin looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. And then she looked at herself before turning her attention back to him, as she had done before. "I'm a human," Rin said eventually. "I just wanted to be more like Sesshomaru-sama." The girl smiled up at him, though the setting sun was in her eyes.

Taken aback, a strange emotion coiled in the youkai lord's chest and his golden eyes warmed. Sesshomaru placed his hand atop her head, brushing strands of hair away from her face with his thumb. "I would much prefer you be Rin. You need not be anyone else." There was not a truer thing Sesshomaru could have said. He hoped Rin would never change herself for anything. And besides—he knew he would never survive another one of himself.

Surprise flitted across the girl's face for a mere moment before she took Sesshomaru's arm and hugged it carefully to her chest, her eyes glittering. "I can be Rin."

Sesshomaru could not help but allow her a ghost of a smile. "Good girl." He would never know why he was so easily able to earn the child's affections. Or how Rin was so easily able to earn his own.

They finished their baths right there beside each other, the strangeness of their exchange having dissipated. It pleased Sesshomaru that such a conversation had changed nothing between himself and the child. They would not need to treat each other differently, as one might expect from a conversation involving genitalia between to fully-grown beings. There was only a greater amount of understanding between them.

Any additional questions directed towards Sesshomaru were far less on the verge of further graying his hair. It seemed this whole…whatever he had with Rin was going to be easier than he first thought. He had already established that there was a great deal he would eventually need to explain to Rin. At least, for now, he had avoided being explicit and revealing the technical reasons for the stark differences between male and female bodies.

Sesshomaru would cherish all of the days to come before it was necessary to have that talk.

Hey guys! I have had a strange urge to write a short story like this for a while. When I was a child, I asked my father that very same question. I have no idea how he responded, but I asked! And I just thought it would be a perfect question for Rin to ask.

Take care everyone,

Icy Doodles