The Demon's Love

IV

In the days that followed, Kael kept a close watch over Rin and Lucretia. He wasn't sure if the boy was trustworthy. He believed that he was telling the truth about not wanting to obey Naraku, but that still didn't mean this wasn't a trick. If Naraku had taken over the boy's mind once before, he could do it again. Kael didn't want to kill the boy, but if he attacked Rin, he would do so. However, it didn't seem like the boy would have a chance since he seemed to be avoiding her, regardless of Rin's attempts to spend time with him.

Kael watched Rin make Jaken chase her. Sweet little Rin. She was so trusting, so kind. Perhaps that was why he cared for her. She melted his icy heart and he came to love her as if she were his own daughter. He didn't want anything to happen to her. And right now his main concern was the boy she had become so fond of.

"Naevia."

She turned to the demon lord. "Yes."

"Tell me of the boy you came with. Is he a danger?"

"Lucretia?" asked Naevia. She threw her head back and laughed. "He is the last person you need to be concerned about."

That didn't convince the dog-demon. "He has fought against me before. And he did try to kill Rin."

Naevia waved it off. "That wasn't him. It was Naraku working through him."

"This Kael is not concerned of the boy's action. What worries me is the chance of Naraku possessing his mind again."

"Ah." Naevia replied in understanding. "That you will have to talk to him about."

Kael growled in annoyance. "Very well. If you will watch Rin, I will speak to the boy."

Naevia shrugged. "As you wish. Hey, Rin!"

The girl stopped, causing Jaken to crash into her, and turned to the wind-demon. "Yes, Lady Naevia."

Naevia held out her hand. "Lets go have some girl time."

Rin beamed. "Ok!"

Lucretia blinked in confusion as he watched Rin skipping away with Naevia, holding the wind-demon's hand. He knew this wasn't about 'girl time'. One glance at Kael proved him right, especially when he told Jaken to leave them and to take Ah-Un with him.

Kael locked eyes with Lucretia and motioned for him to approach. He did so carefully, uncertain of the demon lord's intentions.

"Is there a problem, Lord Kael?" he asked.

Kael was silent for a moment as he thought about what he wanted to ask. "This Kael has some questions, and he expects you to be truthful. Be careful of how you answer, for I shall know if you lie."

Lucretia nodded, indicating that he understood. "I will answer each question as truthful as possible, unless I am unable to give out certain information."

Kael seemed satisfied with that. "How and why did you enter Naraku's service?"

Lucretia sighed. He really didn't want to get into that, but he had very little choice in the matter. He had no choice but to confess. "It happened about a year ago. My father, sister, several other slayers, and I were called to exterminate a demon. After the job was done, Naraku possessed me and forced me to kill everyone. Only my sister survived. I was killed in the m******e. But Naraku brought me back to life with a shard of the sacred jewel."

"Why would he need a human?" Kael interrupted.

"It was because of my sister. She joined Inuyasha's group. Naraku knew that they wouldn't harm me, so he sent me to do missions for him, not having to worry about them killing me."

Kael growled. Naraku was such a manipulative bastard. He enjoyed toying and using others. It was despicable.

"At first he was just controlling my mind." Lucretia continued. "Then he gave me back control, but erased all my memories of my life. He ordered me to do his bidding. Obeying him was all I knew how to do. But even when he ordered me to kill others, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I even hid things from Naraku because I knew they were wrong. During these times, Naraku would control my mind again.

"One day I broke his spell. I freed myself from his control and regained my memories. I vowed from then on to kill Naraku. I pretended I was still his servant in order to get close to him, and I also stopped his plans without being discovered."

Kael nodded. "I see. Tell me of when you found Naraku's heart."

Lucretia smirked a little. This part always made him smile. "Since I was 'dedicated' to Naraku, he trusted me. Enough to allow me to know the location of his heart so I could guard it. At this point, Naevia and I were already working together. I was unable to retrieve Akago, so Naevia did it. We both tried to kill him, but couldn't. So we decided to leave. We knew that Naraku would figure us out after that. Only someone close to Naraku could have gotten to his heart. Only I knew where it was and was willing to tell, and only Naevia was capable of retrieving it at the time. He would have known that I told her where to find Akago. Had we stayed, Naraku would have killed us."

So that was the boy's story. He was innocent in all of this. But that didn't mean that he wasn't still a danger. Which left him with his last question. "Can Naraku take control of you again?"

Lucretia shook his head. "If he could, he would have by now. I broke his spell. He can't control me."

Satisfied with the boy's answers, Kael decided that he could trust the boy, for now anyway. But he could see something within him. While the boy had told his story there had been deep sadness, guilt, and self-hatred. Though everything he did had not been his fault, technically not even his doing, he felt guilty. He hadn't forgiven himself. Kael thought about this for a moment and decided that he knew of only one person capable of healing those kinds of mental wounds.

"Lucretia."

The boy jumped. "Yes."

"When Rin returns, this Kael is going to speak to her. I want you to hide and listen to our conversation."

Lucretia was confused by the dog-demon's request. "Why?"

"Do not question this Kael." Was all he got as an answer.

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Rin skipped happily along, gathering flowers as she did so. She loved picking flowers for Kael and Jaken. Now she had two more friends she could pick flowers for.

"You sure have a lot of flowers there, Rin." Said Naevia, smiling.

Rin nodded happily. "Yup, Rin likes picking flowers. This one is for Lord Kael. This one is for Master Jaken. These two are for Ah-Un. This one," she blushed, "is for Lucretia."

Naevia chuckled. "That's very nice."

Rin held up a flower to her. "This one is for you, Lady Naevia."

Naevia blinked. She looked down at the beaming child in confusion. As she accepted the flower she felt tears prickle her eyes.

'Why do I feel like crying?' she wondered. 'It's only a stupid flower. It's not important… Still… she picked it… for me. No one has ever given me a gift before.'

Rin was unaware of the conversation Naevia was having with herself as she put the last flower in her hair. "And this one is for Rin!" She smiled up at Naevia and noticed the look on the wind-demon's face. "Lady Naevia, are you alright?"

Naevia snapped out of her thoughts. She smiled at the girl and placed the flower in her hair as she did. "Yes, Rin, I'm fine. Thank you."

Rin smiled. "You're very welcome, Lady Naevia. Rin is very glad you and Lucretia are with us."

Naevia frowned. 'But why? After what I've done. I haven't even apologized to her. But I've never apologized to anyone before. Guess this is a good a time as any to start.' "Rin, I owe you an apology."

Rin's happy face became a confused one. "For what, Lady Naevia?"

Naevia looked away. "For the time I kidnapped you. I never wanted to hurt you, Rin."

Rin laughed. "Is that what you're worried about, Lady Naevia? Don't worry, Rin has already forgiven you. Rin knows you didn't want to hurt Rin. Naraku made you do it."

"And you forgive me, just like that?"

Rin nodded. "Of course! Do you not want Rin to forgive you?"

"Of course I do!"

Rin chuckled. "Then no more feeling sad? Ok?"

Naevia smiled and nodded. "Ok."

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"Lord Kael, we're back!" Rin cried happily. "Look, Rin picked flowers for everyone!"

Kael accepted the flower, resisting the urge to smile. He watched in amusement as she skipped to the others, handing each of them flowers. He noticed her blush when she handed one to Lucretia and was also aware of the color rise in the boy's face as well. He frowned, not sure how he felt about this. He would think on it later and decide what to do then. First he wanted to talk to his ward.

"Rin, come with me." He said.

"Coming, Lord Kael!"

As she hopped after him, Kael gave Lucretia a look, making sure he remembered what they had spoken about. Lucretia nodded and began to follow them.

"What did you want to talk to Rin about?" the ever cheerful girl asked.

"It's about your friend, Lucretia."

"What about him?"

The demon lord's eyes glanced towards Lucretia's hiding place. Good, so he was listening to them. "Why are you friends with him?"

Rin frowned, looking confused. "Why wouldn't Rin be friends with him?"

Kael raised an eyebrow. Did she forget about what happened in the past, or was she really that trusting and forgiving? Most likely it was the latter. "Have you forgotten that he used to work for Naraku?"

Rin shook her head. "No, but so did Lady Naevia. But neither of them wanted to. He forced them. They're good people. Rin really likes them."

"He tried to kill you." Kael reminded her.

"No, he didn't." Rin insisted. "Naraku did. He was just using Lucretia's body. Rin knows that Lucretia would never hurt Rin. He's too good of a person. He even saved Rin. Lucretia is Rin's very best friend."

Kael heard Lucretia gasp in surprise. Good, perhaps the boy will stop blaming himself now that he heard someone he nearly killed say these things.

'Why do I even care?' he thought. He looked back at the girl beside him. 'I'm doing this for Rin. She wants her friend to be happy.' Or so he told himself. "So you hold no grudge against him?"

Rin shook her head. "Rin has no reason to."

"You don't hate him?"

"No."

"And you forgive him."

"There's nothing to forgive."

Kael nodded, satisfied. He turned back to the tree Lucretia was hiding behind. "You can come out now, boy."

Rin looked confusedly in the direction Kael was looking in. After a moment's hesitation, Lucretia stepped out from behind the tree with a look of amazement on his face.

Rin waved. "Hi, Lucretia." She said, not seeming to care that he had been eavesdropping.

"You two may talk if necessary." Said Kael. As he walked by Lucretia, he paused for a moment. "Perhaps this will help you to stop blaming yourself." He told him before he left the two alone.

The two children were silent. Lucretia seemed to be deep in thought while Rin gave him a confused look. "Lucretia?"

The boy jumped when he heard his name. He looked at Rin in disbelief. "Rin, am I really your best friend?"

Rin nodded. "Yes."

"But I tried to kill you."

Rin giggled. "Silly Lucretia, didn't you hear what Rin said? It was Naraku that tried to kill Rin." She frowned. "Oh no, you blame yourself, don't you?"

Lucretia looked away, ashamed, and nodded. Rin walked up to Lucretia and touched his arm. Lucretia jumped as if her touch hurt him. Rin seemed very upset by this. She looked up at him with pleading eyes.

"Lucretia, please don't blame yourself. You're a very good person. Anything bad you've done was because of Naraku."

"I still did it." Lucretia replied, blinking back tears.

Rin frowned, trying to think of a way to make him feel better. "Lucretia, you know about Lord Kael's brother, Inuyasha, right?" When he nodded she continued. "Well, when his demon blood takes over and he because real scary and does bad things, he's not in control of himself. Is that his fault? Should he blame himself?"

Lucretia thought about it. "No, I guess not."

"Well, it's the same thing with you. Only instead of being taken over by demon blood, you were taken over by Naraku. See, it's not your fault."

Her words actually had him smile. "How did you get to be so smart, Rin?"

The girl giggled. "Rin just sees things that other people have a hard time seeing. So no more feeling bad, ok?"

Lucretia frowned again. "I don't know. The things I've done… My sister, how can I ever face her again?"

"Rin is sure that she's forgiven you." said Rin. "Your sister knows you're not bad. Even when you were working for Naraku you tried to do good. Remember how you saved Rin from the demons at Mount Hakuray? You risked your life to save Rin."

Lucretia hung his head. "Yeah, about that, those were Naraku's demons. Since I was working for him, they were under my control. I was never in any danger."

Rin seemed unfazed by this. "But if they weren't under your control and they would have attacked, would you still have protected Rin?"

"With my life."

Rin smiled. "Then it's the same thing. See, Lucretia is a good friend to Rin. Rin knows he would never hurt her."

Lucretia laughed humorlessly. "I don't even know how you can stand to be in my presence after the things I've done. Aren't you afraid that Naraku will posses me again."

Rin shook her head. "No, Rin knows Lucretia broke Naraku's spell. And even if you didn't, you still couldn't hurt Rin even when Naraku was controlling you. Rin is not worried." Lucretia turned away. Rin seemed confused for a moment, but then a look of understanding crossed over her face. "You're afraid Naraku is going to control you again. That's why you've been avoiding Rin."

Lucretia winced. So she had figured it out. "Yes, Rin, that's why."

"But you broke the his spell."

Lucretia nodded. "I know, and I know that it's not logical to worry about it, but I'm still afraid." When he turned to look at her, she saw that he had tears in his eyes. "I'm absolutely terrified of it. I don't want to hurt you, Rin. I know that there's nothing to worry about, but in the back of my mind, the fear just won't go away."

Suddenly Rin surprised him by hugging his arm tightly. When she spoke, she too sounded close to tears. "Please don't be afraid to be around Rin! Rin really likes you, Lucretia! Rin doesn't want you to be afraid!"

"Rin…"

"No, Lucretia! No more being afraid! Rin wants to spend time with Lucretia! Rin wants to play with Lucretia! She doesn't want you to worry! Please stop!"

Lucretia just stared at her, lost for words. Rin was so kind and caring. He would do anything for her.

"Rin, please don't cry. I don't want to see you upset."

Rin turned her tear stained face up to meet his. "Then you be happy too."

Lucretia couldn't help but smile. "Ok, I'll try, Rin. For you."

Rin smiled and wiped away her tears. "Thank you, Lucretia." She said. Then she surprised him by kissing his cheek. When she stepped back she was blushing, but she looked happy. "Now come play with Rin!"

She ran off laughing, leaving a stunned Lucretia behind.