#singingbell

Her answer was prompt.

"Everything."

"That’s a broad thing to ask, Suzu."

"But I do," she pouted, her lip protruding just the exact amount her mother used to, craning her neck up and resting her head against his chest. His heart clenched and his eyes softened, hands running through his daughter’s silky brown hair. Finally, she offered a resigned sigh, rolling her head along the nape of his neck. "Ah… What did she look like?"

"She was a beautiful woman," he answered immediately. "Her eyes were a warm and kind brown; kind of like your own."

She gasped. “I look like her?”

"Yeah…" he confirmed, smiling nostalgically. "A lot like her."

"She had freckles too…?"

He grinned. “No. Those are all mine.”

"You cursed me with them!" she complained. "The other kids tease me all the time!"

"Your mother loved my freckles," he informed her, promptly silencing her as he recalled all the summers when the bridge of his nose and his cheeks would completely fill up with the little dustings of spots all along the surface. He tilted his head to the side, closing his eyes to remember. "I hated them, of course, but she was fascinated by them. Rin always made a habit of counting every single one on my face; she always knew when and where a new one would appear," he recounted. "She said it was like counting stars in her personal universe. I never really understood why she liked to, but it made her happy so I never minded."

"Did you know her for a long time?"

"We met when she was around your age," he confirmed. "And she agreed to marry me when she was fifteen with Sesshoumaru-Sama’s blessing." Suzu perked at the mention of the youkai lord; he’d always fascinated her. "I wasn’t as close to him as she was… But he loved her very much," he admitted, finally looking at Suzu again. "Rin had this uncanny ability to find the heart in everyone she met - Sesshoumaru-Sama wasn’t very kind when he first met your mother.

This is what she told me, but… She was apparently a young orphan when they met. Her parents and brother had died at the hands of bandits and a village took her in and allowed her to live in a hut by the river. It was hard to live with them; she stopped speaking and resorted to stealing when she was hungry. She’d been wandering around when she found Sesshoumaru-Sama injured by the roadside.” - Suzu took the time to gasp, it was hard to imagine the daiyoukai in such a state. He hushed her, reminding her that she’d asked. Suzu promptly closed her mouth and made a locking motion. Chuckling, Kohaku continued.

"He hissed at her at first. He refused to eat what she brought him, insisting her did not eat the same food humans ate. Still, she persisted, stubbornly taking care of him."

"She sounded very kind."

"She was," he hummed, agreeing. "The kindest soul you’d have ever met."

Suzu tugged at his sleeve. “What happened next, Chichi?”

He rolled his neck along his shoulders in thought. “She died.”

"What?! Chi-!"

"Don’t worry! Sesshoumaru-Sama revived her with his healing blade," he grinned. "She warmed him with her kindness and he felt he couldn’t simply leave her be, so he revived her and she never left his side for a whole two years- At least  not until she came to live in Kaede’s village to learn how to live with people again and yet he continued to bear clothes and food for her every time he visited; she was provided for lavishly under his care."

Suzu had to ask. “Then why didn’t she marry Sesshoumaru-Sama?”

Kohaku frowned a bit, remembering those old wounds as well.

That one stung a little. “Well… Sesshoumaru-Sama was her adoration; her idol. He loved her and she loved him too. They saved each other and so their bond was very precious,” he admitted to his little girl. “But… When I asked her the same question - she was always so cryptic - she told me (exact words): ‘I heard of a flower that blooms under the moonlight. Under it, it shines and blossoms and grows but when the sun comes out, it goes to sleep. But I wondered what would happen if it didn’t go to bed when the moon went away. If it saw the sun, how it would react. How beautiful it must think the daylight is and how it’d like to stay out with the sun.’”

"… That sounds confusing."

"I thought the same," he agreed, unable to help his laugh as he continued to recall. "It drove me insane, trying to figure out what she meant. I spent well over a month trying to decode what she meant by what she said (since, on top of being cryptic, she hated explaining what she meant) and when I finally decided it should be that I was the sun she’d grown to desire to see…"

"Did she say yes?"

"No; she said it was your uncle Miroku."

"Wha-?!"

He laughed at her reaction. “Rin had a twisted sense of humor.” - “Obviously!” - “But I knew it was exactly what she’d meant,” Kohaku muttered, idly continuing to play with his daughter’s hair. “She just liked getting reactions from me; said something about it reassuring her.”

"And you never minded her making you upset?"

"No; it helped me feel like I was very much alive," he answered, tickling her ear with a lock of hair and grinning at her giggle. "She saved me too, Suzu. Except she saved me from my head whereas she saved Sesshoumaru-Sama from his heart."

Suzu sighed pleasantly. “She sounded so heroic with the way you put it. Was she a taijiya too?”

"No; a gardener."

"That sounds so boring!"

"Don’t you go speaking ill of your mother’s profession, Suzu," he scolded. "Her garden saved countless lives on many occasions. Your brother tends to it to this day, continuing her legacy."

She pouted in resignation. “Well… What did she like to do?”

"Play all day… Fish in rivers… Gather flowers, make crowns from the flowers she picked, force people to wear her crowns… Make friends… Smile… Laugh…" he counted off. "Live like no one else could." Kohaku looked up. "She was very, very strong but so, so fragile."

"What do you mean?"

"She knew she was going to die." Suzu fell silent. "I figured it out after she’d already passed. Rin never told anyone. She simply loved everyone as she always did and made sure we were always with her. She made sure we knew how much she loved us. She left us with finality." Well - finality for everyone except for him. "And I had you to focus on, so I couldn’t just forget the world and mourn." He supposed she’d known him well enough in that aspect as well.

She closed her eyes. “Will you tell me more?”