Disclaimer: Inuyasha franchise is not my property. Enjoy the story.

You Needed Me

by Ichigo2491

In all the centuries he has stalked across Japan, he has never needed anyone.

He didn't need his father. Why should he? The old dog never needed him, never gave him more than perfunctory attention.

He didn't need his mother, with her cool glares and icy, stinging quips.

He sure as hell didn't need the human whore and the half-breed whelp his father cared so much about.

He didn't need the toad, though sometimes he found the company amusing.

But the human child… he needed her.

When he found her dead on the forest floor, he needed to test his sword and revive her. He needed to see her infectious smile one more time.

He needed to keep her with him.

He needed to keep or get her out of trouble.

She was kidnapped, and he needed to retrieve her.

When she was harmed in any way, he needed to avenge the trauma she had suffered.

When she wanted to learn how to read and write, he had to teach her.

When the child grew into a young, beautiful woman, he began to have other needs. He ignored them until it was no longer possible.

From that moment, he needed her body, her heart and her presence beside him forever.

But therein lay the dilemma: he would last forever, but she would not.

It wasn't long before he needed to reassure her that her fading beauty still pleased his youthful gaze.

It seemed only minutes before he needed to check her heartbeat at night to be sure she was still with him.

Not long after, he needed to dig a grave for her.

He stood beside the patch of freshly turned earth, alone in a freezing wind.

He could never explain how much she had meant to him. But he needed to try.

"You were always there, Rin. No one ever made me feel the way you did. Like I was special. Like I mattered. Not as the Lord of the West, but as me. Myself. This Sesshomaru."

He scattered a handful of flowers over the grave.

"I suppose…. I needed you because… you needed me."

The moan of the wind in the trees is the only answer he receives.

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