Summary: "How do you tell a kid he's gonna die?" When Shippo's bravery has unforseen consequences, the kitsune is forced to grow up more quickly than he expected– literally. (Same universe as "My Brother's Keeper," but set about seven years earlier. Rated for angst, blood, and Inuyasha's mouth.)

Note: after having thought and thought about the issue of aging in this series, I've come to the conclusion that, regardless of what Takahashi-sama has said, half-demons do not and could not age at the same rate as an ordinary demon (roughly 1 year of maturity for 10 years of time). By that rate, Lady Izayoi would have to be at least sixty years old in any of the flashbacks to Inuyasha's childhood (the youngest he could possibly be in these is 40 years old by this standard), which is unlikely. More to the point, if Inuyasha were roughly 150 years old when he got pinned to the tree, and Sesshomaru no older than 200, that would mean that Inuyasha was born when Sesshomaru physically appeared to be five years old, which the third movie definitely negates. Jinenji's mother, as well, would have to be at least 200 years old as a human (given that he looks at least eighteen). The ages work out perfectly, however, if we assume hanyous ages like an ordinary humans, and it gets rid of any angsty "what-will-he-do-when-Kagome-dies?" problems. So yeah, I think that having him actually be fifteen works a lot better than having him be 150, and it makes this fic possible.

Disclaimer: I neither own the intellectual property of the InuYasha universe, nor the rights to any of the affiliated merchandise or creative works thereof, nor do I profit from this work produced here.

Warnings: Shippo getting kidnapped and hurt by a pretty evil Big Bad, some cursing. Pairings: Inu/Kag, San/Mir, the very beginnings of Rin/Shippo.

犬夜叉

"Has his fever gone down?"

"No… but at least it's not as high as before."

Sango knelt down beside Kagome, the infant child carried in the sling on her back fussing a little as he was jostled. Despite the noise, the fox-kit didn't awaken, merely tossed and shivered as before. The taijiya looked over to her friend to find that the priestess's deep brown eyes, usually so full of light and good cheer, were now dead serious, and very worried. "Kagome…"

"I just don't know what else to do, Sango. Whatever this is, it's not an ordinary poison." She reached into a nearby bowl and wrung out a cold compress that was waiting there, laying it over the kitsune's forehead. Shippo let out a tiny whimper that broke Sango's mothering heart in two, but thankfully his shivers lessened. "He must have been so brave," Kagome whispered, almost to herself. "To get out of such a horrible situation on his own…"

"And to make it all the way here. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been for him, flying all that way without falling unconscious."

Kagome didn't reply, merely closed her eyes and held out her hands over the child. A pure white glow accumulated beneath them, and then descended on the demon; rather than harming him, it seemed to be sucked through his kimono– not his usual turquoise one, but a simple brown kosode, borrowed from a village child– and into his shoulder. At this the shivers and tossing quieted, and the boy fell into a deep slumber.

Sango swallowed, thinking to the little one on her own back and how terrified Shippo's mother would have been, had she lived to see this day. At last, she managed to gather the courage to ask the question she dreaded to have answered:

"…Will he be alright, Kagome?"

The miko tucked the boy's thin blanket up next to his chin and then stood, picking up the bucket she used to draw well-water for tea. "He'll live," she said, voice wooden, and then left.

犬夜叉

The frightened sniffles echoed off the cave walls, emanating from a cage in the far back, not that it could been seen in the pitch-darkness. The small creature from whom they came had buried his head in his knees, curled up in an effort both to preserve warmth and to stifle the sounds of his tears.

Shippo had seen a lot of terrifying things in his day, things that no child should ever have to see. He'd seen his best friends nearly die more times than he could count. He'd seen the infliction of grievous wounds and fields full of dismembered corpses. He'd seen his own father's body worn as an obi and had helped dig the grave in which to place the remains himself. But somehow, as horrible as all that had been, he had accepted it in the way of a child, as if such things were ordinary facts of life. He'd been afraid before, certainly– but never as afraid as he was now.

Part of that, he thought, was probably because of the pain; his shoulder hurt awful bad, bad enough that if he even tried to move it he'd get a feeling like a white-hot bolt of lightning up his whole arm and down his spine. Shippo shivered and winced at the ache. He didn't like thinking of lightning ordinarily, and here it seemed so much worse. He'd missed his parents a lot over the years, but now, terrified and alone, it felt like he'd just lost them all over again. "Mama... Father…" He wrapped his arms around his knees and began to sob in earnest.

犬夜叉

Rin let out a little sigh of distress as she watched her friend shuffle around in his sleep, whimpering. Poor Shippo-chan. She'd been the first person to find him when he'd first floated back into the village, the fact that his giant pink bubble had turned a horrible shade of pale violet her first warning that everything was not alright.

Her second warning had been when he'd passed out right in front of her, popping out of midair and plummeting towrds the ground, unconscious. If she hadn't caught him, Kagome-sama had praised her, he probably would have broken something. Rin-chan wasn't altogether convinced that she'd been of much help in that regard; the amount of blood that her unconscious best friend had left on her kimono made her feel that a broken arm would have been the least of Shippo's worries right now. Her brows furrowed together, Rin gently patted her friend's forehead with a cold cloth and began to pray fervently for him. At her invocation, a tiny white sphere of light formed and settled into his shoulder; Shippo mumbled something and turned towards her, appearing to relax a bit, but Rin still felt she hadn't done enough.

"Hey." She glanced over her shoulder and quickly bowed.

"Kagome-sama!"

"It's just Kagome, Rin." The older girl smiled gently and kneeled down beside the unconscious boy. "I saw what you did. That's some very impressive spiritual power."

"But it didn't help!" She gazed, teary-eyed, upon her friend. "I just want to make him feel better, Kagome-sama!"

"I think it did help. Look, Rin. See his face?" Rin tilted her head, studying the kitsune's expression, and Kagome added, "He doesn't seem to be in as much pain now. You've helped him a lot, Rin."

"Y-you think so?"

"Mm-hm." Kagome ran her hands through the girl's hair comfortingly and suggested, "Why don't you go play outside for a little bit? I'm sure you can use a break."

Rin shook her head. "I want to stay with him," she vowed. "Until he opens his eyes, Kagome-sama, if I can!"

Her expression was so determined that Kagome couldn't help but smile, recalling similar sentiments she'd expressed in her own longing and loyalty. "Then you can stay. But don't feel like you have to, alright?"

Rin nodded, but it seemed distracted. She took the boy's cold little hand in her own, as if to warm it, and watched him with such worry and concern in her eyes that Kagome felt sure that, somewhere deep inside, Shippo knew he wasn't alone.

犬夜叉

"Fell asleep, poor child?"

Kagome nodded sympathetically, tucking the blanket up around Rin's shoulders. The young miko-in-training had refused to leave the kitsune's side and had, eventually, drifted off even while sitting next to him in her persistent vigil. It didn't feel right to separate them, so Kagome had fetched the girl's futon from Lady Kaede's house and spread it out for Rin next to Shippo's. "How is he, Lady Kaede?"

"Hmm. Better. The poison seems to be working its way out of his system, but how long it will take for the boy to awaken I cannot say."

Kagome nodded, and then bit her lip. Kaede noticed and glanced over.

"Speak, girl. What troubles you?"

The younger miko drew a deep breath. "Kaede-sama… these last three days, I've sensed Shippo's youki growing weaker and weaker… his active aura remains the same, but beneath that… I don't know, it just seems like there's less to feed into it. What– what do you think will happen? When he wakes up?"

Kaede was silent for a long while, studying the kitsune's unconscious form and, Kagome presumed, sensing his aura for herself. When she looked up, her face was very grave.

"Kagome-sama… I believe it may be best if you fetch the others. This is a discussion I would prefer to only have once."

犬夜叉

"You're kidding."

Inuyasha had been the first to break the silence; the others were all simply in too much shock. Lady Kaede sighed. "I am afraid, Inuyasha, that I am not 'kidding.' This seems to me the most plausible explanation."

"But that's not possible," he argued. "Demons live longer than humans, that's just a fact! Shippo's got at least another six hundred years left to him!"

"Sango-sama, I believe that this is your area of expertise," Kaede said sadly. "If you might explain…?"

"She's right, Inuyasha," Sango said softly. "It's long been known among demon-slayers that youkai produce their power through a certain part of the brain which humans simply lack; it's what powers their magic… and their longevity. Shippo's a kitsune, they're known for their magic; if somehow that part of him was damaged, any power he could produce would be channeled into maintaining his aura instead of his lifespan."

"Fine! Then when he wakes up we'll tell him to turn his aura off and focus on not dying!"

"That's not how it works, Inuyasha."

The hanyou slammed his fist into the floor, startling everyone. "Inuyasha!" Kagome said angrily, but he didn't seem to notice her.

"Dammit," he seethed. "Dammit all, Shippo!" Without warning, he stood and stalked out of the hut.

"He took that rather hard," Miroku said, a little stunned.

Kagome stood and hurried out after him without glancing back to the others. Inuyasha was nowhere to be seen in the immediate vicinity, but when she heard the unmistakable rumble of earth and tree being rent, she turned and headed for the forest.

"WINDSCAR!"

Kagome drew to a halt and watched sadly as the wave of glowing demolishment rolled through, felling several trees, though it was nowhere near as powerful as usual. Inuyasha bellowed again and swung the sword as if cutting down a foe, only furthering the gorge of destruction in front of him. Again and again he let loose his fury on the innocent earth until the blast themselves dissipated on the chasm wall; when he saw that his attacks were having no further attack, his energy seemed to leave him and the sword hung uselessly in his right hand, leaving its owner huffing for air.

When those huffs turned into gasps and he buried his face in his left hand, Kagome walked forward silently and set a hand on his shoulder. Inuyasha tried to dry his eyes, but to little avail. "Dammit," he mumbled thickly. "It's just not fair, Kagome. It's not fucking fair." He turned to her, fury and sorrow clashing in his face. "The poor kid's lost so much already. How, how does he deserve this?"

Kagome didn't answer, only looked up at him with tearful eyes of her own.

"Damn stupid runt. What did he think he was doing, getting himself into something like this?" He dragged his wrist across his eyes and shook his head. "Always running into a fight he can't take on, the idiot…"

"Sounds like someone I know," she replied with an attempt at a tearful half-smile. It didn't really work, and with a sigh the half-demon pulled his beloved into his arms.

"What are we gonna do, Kagome?" he mumbled into her hair. "How do you tell a kid he's gonna die?"

She shook her head. "I don't know," she whispered, blinking; the tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I don't know.

犬夜叉

Shippo's sobs halted as a sudden grinding sound drew his attention, and he shrank back as the rock covering the entrance to the cave rolled open. "You insufferable brat!" a harsh, sneering voice hissed; Shippo trembled as a much older kitsune stalked into the cave. "Do I have to stuff your mouth to keep you quiet?"

Terrified as he was, the kit managed to summon his courage. "P-Please, let me go. It worked, didn't it? You don't need me anymore…"

The other fox-demon wheezed a laugh. "You think all I wanted to see was if it worked? I already knew it worked, you foolish boy. No, I want to see how long it takes to kill you." He grinned, showing rows of pointed teeth, as he leaned down over the cage. "And maybe when I'm done, I'll eat the meat off your bones."

"Y-you wouldn't…"

The older demon shrugged. "Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn't. Either way, you won't be around to find out." He smiled that wide, sly smile of his, and then left the cave again, rolling the stone over the entrance. Shippo relaxed an inch, but only an inch– and quickly that vanished too when the motion sent bolts of pain up his shoulder. He curled up again into a ball, sniffling and wishing he weren't so scared and alone…

And then, quite without him realizing it, the sniffles stopped, and a strange thing happened to Shippo: he realized he wanted to live. Nobody was coming to get him; nobody even knew he was here. If he didn't want to die, then it was up to him to get himself out of here.

"Okay, Shippo," he muttered to himself, "think. What would Inuyasha do right now?" Well for one, Inuyasha wouldn't be crying; no, he'd be trying to get out of this cage so he could cut something in half with his sword– probably the demon. So, first step was getting out of this cage. He tried to sit up straight only to feel his sliced-up shoulder cry out in protest; gritting his teeth, he shrugged off his fur vest and tore off a strip of the thinnest section, looping it around his shoulder with his good hand and tucking the ends under in what, he hoped, was a tight enough bandage to stop some of the bleeding. Then, taking a deep breath, he stood up, ignored the pain in his arm, and summoned all the youki he had left. He could almost feel himself growing weaker as he did so, but he told himself he'd worry about that later. Focusing as hard as he could, he scrunched up his nose and glared at where he hoped his hand was.

Out of the darkness a blue ball of fire flared to life. By its light he examined the cage, and was delighted to find that the door's whole front hinged outward; so far, he'd not been fed in the last two days he'd been here, so there'd been no reason for the older demon to open it, but Shippo was willing to bet that if he thought his captive had escaped, he'd probably make an exception. Shippo never been able to sustain an invisibility spell that long before, and he knew he'd only get one shot, but that, he told himself, was all he needed.

"I'm going to get myself out of here," he vowed, his determined glare illuminated by the blaze of blue fire in his hands. "I'm going to save myself. This time, nobody gets to rescue me!"

犬夜叉

"Rin, you're exhausting yourself."

The girl paid no attention to the priestess, merely closed her eyes and held her hands over the kitsune. A white pinpoint of light appeared– smaller than her earlier attempts, but much stronger– and then settled into the boy's shoulder. Shippo relaxed a little, but Rin still didn't look satisfied. Kagome sighed. "Rin…"

"I won't leave him, Kagome-sama." Rin's dark eyes were fixed on the boy, unmoving, and her small pale face was deadly serious. "I won't."

Kagome bit her lip, and then sighed. "Alright. You can watch him a little while longer, but I don't want you using any more of your spiritual power. I won't have you passing out too, understood?"

Rin spared her a moment's glance to nod, and then returned to watching the kitsune. Kagome restrained the urge to scold her more and said, "I'm going to go fetch some more water. Send for me if his condition changes, alright?"

"Yes, Kagome-sama."

The priestess ruffled the girl's dark hair fondly and then left, carrying the bucket with her. Rin watched the boy under the blanket, now lying much more quietly and peacefully, and bit her lip hard, feeling tears burn in her eyes. "Please," she pleaded with him. "Please, Shippo-chan, you have to wake up." She sniffled and blinked, wiping her eyes as the tears escaped. It didn't help, as new ones welled up in their place. "Y-you're my best friend. If you don't wake up, who'll color with me? Who'll play tag with me or show me how to use your toy tops?"

The boy didn't reply, and a small sob escaped her mouth, the tears rolling down her cheeks. "You have to wake up, Shippo-chan! You just have to!" She leaned down and kissed his forehead, the way her Mama had for her whenever she was sick, all those years ago.

And perhaps it had worked, because as she pulled away, she saw his face twitch, reddish brows furrowing slightly. Rin held her breath in hope. Slowly, ever so slowly, his green eyes fluttered open.

"…R…Rin…?"

The girl gasped, pinking a bit at the cheeks but more than anything overjoyed. "Shippo-chan!" She scooped him up into her arms, embracing him fiercely– at least, until the kitsune let out a little yelp, and she blanched, setting him back down. "Oh no! Your shoulder! I'm so sorry!"

"I-It's okay…" He grimaced a bit, putting a hand to his shoulder and finding it neatly bandaged under a borrowed kimono. "Kaede-sama's hut… how did I get here?"

"You don't remember?" He shook his head. "You passed out once you got back to the village. We were all so worried!" As if suddenly remembering something, she leapt to her feet. "Oh! I have to go tell the others!"

Shippo watched in surprise as the girl dashed out of the house. We were all so worried… He felt pretty guilty at that; he hadn't meant to cause so much trouble. Within a few seconds, the mat-curtain was flung aside and a number of people came rushing through the door: first Kagome, looking rather breathless; then Miroku and Sango, her little one on her back; then Inuyahsa, with an expression Shippo couldn't identify; then, last of all, old Kaede-sama, hobbling in with her usual serious expression. "Shippo!" Kagome exclaimed, kneeling down beside him and hugging him gently. "Thank goodness!"

"Kagome!" Suddenly all the kitsune could feel was relief; he hugged her as tightly as he could with his injuries. When the priestess let him go, he looked around at his other friends, smiling, only to find them watching him with very uncertain expressions: a strange combination of relief and nervousness. "Hey, what's with all the long faces?" he asked, frowning a little.

"We were worried about you, kid!" Inuyasha retorted, the odd emotion on his face conveyed as well in his voice: forceful, relieved, and somehow also saddened. "You've been out for three days; scared the living daylights outta us!"

"Three days…?" Shippo felt a little unnerved at that; he'd never been unconscious for that long before. Still, he shook it off in the undaunted optimism of youth and said with pride, "Well, I'm fine now! And you shoulda seen that miserable old fox when I ran off!"

"Miserable old fox?" Kagome quoted, frowning. "Shippo, what happened to you?"

Suddenly realizing just how foolish he'd been, the little kitsune flushed and ducked his head. "Well… it was my fault, really. I was being stupid. But no one else would do anything, not even Headmaster Shizuei!"

"Do anything about what, Shippo?" Sango pressed.

Shippo scowled deeply, startling them all; such anger was an expression they rarely saw on the ordinarily cheerful child. "We heard word at the academy about a fox-demon named Hinuki who was going around killing people," he growled. "Real nasty guy; he developed this poison that could steal your youki and then kill you!"

"Steal your youki?" Inuyasha repeated.

"Yeah. Talk about a dirty way to win a fight!" He crossed his arms, huffing. "I thought for sure Headmaster Shizuei would go out and stop him; he's the strongest fox-demon there is! But– well, he didn't. I don't know why." He paused, and then muttered, "Maybe he was too scared to."

Kagome and Inuyasha shared a look; they knew Shippo greatly admired the headmaster of the Kitsune Academy. The boy had probably been crushed that his hero was too afraid to go after the fiend. Then Inuyasha seemed to realize something, and he suddenly flared with anger. "Wait, are you telling me you went after this guy?!" Shippo shuffled his feet and didn't answer. "Shippo, you idiot! What the hell were you thinking?!"

To his surprise, the kitsune rounded on him fiercely. "He dishonored the name of fox-demons everywhere! Somebody had to do something!"

"Not a little kid like you!"

"When adults don't fix the problems, then kids have to!" He scrambled to his feet, full of an indignant fury that the others had never seen in the boy before. "He was killing people! Wiping out whole villages of demons, all for his dirty experiments! If I'd sat there and let it happen, I'd be a coward!"

"Shippo," Kagome said, stunned, but the kitsune wasn't done.

"Well, I'm not a coward! Not when I can stop some kid from losing their mama and papa like I did!" He shoved a finger in Inuyasha's direction and declared, "You'd do the same thing if an inuyoukai were dishonoring your clan and you know it! And I beat him, so don't look at me like I'm some stupid little kid!"

"You… beat him?" Miroku interjected before Inuyasha could reply. "You mean you killed this Hinuki?"

"No," Shippo said, looking a little disappointed with himself, before rallying again, "But I did destroy all his poison and the recipe he used to make it!"

"But– how?"

At this, the kit hesitated, sitting back down. "I… well, I did get caught," he admitted. "I tried to fight him but… he was too fast." He winced in memory, rubbing his injured shoulder. "He got me with his poison claws and then shoved me in a cage. Said he wanted to see how long it'd take me to die." Shippo fell quiet for a moment, remembering something they couldn't see, and then seemed to shake himself out of it and looked up, green eyes blazing. "But I was too clever for him! I made myself invisible so that he'd open the cage to investigate, and then snuck out and set all his stuff on fire! Then I ran for it."

"But you were already badly poisoned by that time," Miroku pressed. "How did you manage to get all the way here?"

"I knew if I could just get home that Kagome would be able to fix me. And she did!" The kitsune turned to the priestess with a broad grin. "I knew you could, Kagome! You healed me up and now I'm all better!"

To his surprise, the miko didn't reply, only stared at him with stunned eyes. Shippo realized that they were quickly filling with tears. "Hey, what's wrong?" he demanded, jumping over to her. "Kagome, don't cry! I'm okay now!"

This was apparently the wrong thing to say, for Kagome covered her mouth, choking back a sob. "Oh, Shippo… I'm so sorry, we did the best we could, but…"

She didn't finish. Shippo was baffled. "Kagome?"

"Shippo, you're… you're not 'okay,'" Sango said softly, drawing his attention. "When… when Hinuki poisoned you, he made your youki very weak."

"Yeah, but I've got it all back now." He snapped his fingers, lighting up a little ball of blue flame. "See? Foxfire and everything."

"No, Shippo," the tijiya replied gently, taking his hands in hers; Shippo looked up at her, confused. "You… you were very baldy injured, and… Shippo, you're not as powerful as before. You can't produce as much youki as before."

"But that doesn't make sense; I can still do all my magic…" He trailed off, having noticed, for the first time, that he felt… different. He wasn't exactly sure how, just different. Weaker, almost, but not in his magic, like he did after a long examination. This was a different kind of weakness, something deep in his bones, and its strangeness frightened him. What had happened to him? What were they trying to say?

"You're mortal, kid."

He looked over, stunned, to see Inuyasha watching him, tight-mouthed. He was about to laugh at the ridiculousness of the statement, when the giggles died in his mouth, for Inuyasha's eyes were wet. Inuyasha hardly ever cried, and only for really serious reasons. Shippo looked around at them, and realized with shock that Inuyasha and Kagome weren't the only ones. Everyone– Miroku, Sango, even old-Kaede sama had tears in their eyes. They're all crying. Crying for me…

The five adults watched as the kitsune withdrew from Sango's grasp and looked at his hands, studying them as if he expected them to change before his very eyes. What thoughts were going through his mind, none of them could guess, but what stunned them all was when he looked up at them and said, very quietly, "I think I want to be alone for a while."

They'd been expecting tears, or maybe even a tantrum– anything suited to a frightened little boy his age. Somehow, the fact that the child had exhibited such an adult reaction made the situation all the worse. Without another word, Shippo walked over to the door, pushed aside the mat and slipped out into the warm summer evening.

犬夜叉

The sun was setting, and Shippo had yet to return home.

"Do you think he's okay?" Kagome asked for what must have been the hundredth time, and the hanyou, who'd been waiting for nearly an hour outside the hut she and Shippo shared with Lady Kaede, replied by shaking his head.

"Of course he's not okay. How could he be?" He glanced back over his shoulder and said honestly, "Kagome, the kid just found out he's gonna die, a helluva lot sooner than he was expecting. How would you take it if someone told you y'only had a couple of years to live?"

Kagome nodded sadly, standing beside him and peering out into the red-bathed countryside. Shippo was nowhere to be seen. "You'll bring him back, won't you? I don't want him sleeping outside all night…"

Inuyasha hesitated, an then nodded. "I'll go get him." He pecked his worried beloved on the cheek and added, "Don't worry. I'll make sure he's safe." She nodded, squeezing his hand in gratitude.

It didn't take much for him to locate the kit; the wind was in the right direction, so he simply followed his nose until he found the boy sitting, perfectly balanced, on one of the topmost limbs of the tallest trees in the area, spinning his toy top with expert accuracy on the rather thin branch. Inuyasha debated for a moment whether or not to give the boy his peace, but when Shippo said quietly, "Hi, Inuyasha," he decided it was safe to jump up.

He sat down beside the kit, nearer to the trunk so as not to break the limb, and for a while didn't say anything, merely watched the young demon until Shippo got tired of playing with the top and gathered it up into his hands in favor of watching the sun go down.

At long last, it was the kitsune who broke the silence. "How old are you, Inuyasha?"

"Hn? Oh, uh– eighteen, I guess, give or take fifty years." He was hoping the joke would get Shippo crack a smile, but to no avail.

"I'm eighty-four. Father was three hundred and two, when he died." He paused, and then added quietly, "That didn't seem like a big deal, until now."

"Kid…"

"What's it like?" He glanced back at the hanyou. "Living so quickly, I mean."

Inuyasha shrugged. "Dunno. It's the only life I've ever known." Shippo looked away, so he added, "But it doesn't seem all that bad, at least not to me."

"Right." The word came out very soft, and no more followed. The kitsune's eyes were fixed on the distantly setting sun, but it was only when a cold wind blew past and the boy sniffled that Inuyasha realized he could smell saltwater.

Without asking, knowing that the proud child would refuse, he reached forward, scooped the boy up into his arms and held him tight. Shippo's breath hitched once, and then again, followed by a sort of whimper. That was the last sound Inuyasha heard, but the kit began to shudder and he knew that the boy was doing his best to suppress his tears. "I'm– n-not– crying–" Shippo hiccupped.

"'Course not," Inuyasha replied gruffly, leaving the boy his dignity. He swallowed the lump in his own throat, blinking hard. The violent quaking grew stronger and stronger until at last the sobs broke through, and the child wept openly into his haori. The half-demon gripped him tightly and stroked his hair, just like a father should, until at last the heartbroken sobs quieted down to nothing, and the hanyou realized that the boy had cried himself to sleep.

Gently, careful not to wake him, Inuyasha leapt down from the branch and carried the kitsune the whole long walk home. Shippo didn't move, aside from to burrow himself deeper into the warmth of the fire-rat robe, yet when the hanyou handed him off to Kagome, he could have sworn he heard Shippo mumble softly, "Thank you, Inuyasha," before drifting off again.

The half-demon smiled ruefully. The morning would come, and with it there would be a lot of difficult conversations and realities for Shippo to accept. But right now, at least for the moment, the boy could find peace in sleep. After all, he thought as he left, children deserve at least that much.

A/N: An angsty oneshot to explain how and why Shippo is mortal in my "My Brother's Keeper" Universe. Please review and tell me what you thought!