No more dreams came to her for the rest of the night. A part of her was happy to forget the whole thing and just get back on the road. The other part of her, a small yet somewhat demanding part, wanted to experience more of these strange fantasies. She fought with herself as she drifted off to sleep, and when she woke, her stomach joined the fray, loudly calling for something, anything, edible. Her hunger grew as she did her daily practice with her persuaders.

Finally, she secured her baggage to Hermes, checking and double checking everything, as usual. She pulled one of her protein bars out of a bag to munch on as she started down the road. Just as she slung her leg over Hermes and sat down on him, did her dream come back. Instantly it brought back too much to think about while sitting on the subject of said dream, human or not.

"Are we going to go or not?" Hermes whined, snapping Kino out of her thoughts. She quickly set him down the road without a word.

Hours later, they finally arrived at another stopping place and Kino rubbed some feeling back into her backside. She set up camp and fixed a quick yet awfully quiet dinner.

"How far do you think we went today?" Hermes asked over the cracking of the fire.

Kino thought for a moment and replied, "I'd say about seventy-five miles or so."

He seemed to be happy about this. "That's pretty good. You must be tired." In response, she flopped on her sleeping bag and turned her back to Hermes.

He chuckled. "Good night Kino. Sweet dreams." She drifted off to sleep, the flames of the fire dancing before her closed eyes.

He was there again. Clothed this time, she noted, but it was still that boy from before. Hermes smiled at her and she tried to control her blush.

"So where to next, Kino?" She had no clue where and was going to tell him that, but she got distracted by how dark and beautiful his eyes were. Kino knew this was a dream and it was starting down the path the last one took, but she couldn't, wouldn't, stop it.

Hermes raised one eyebrow. "Um, Kino? You look like a fish on fry land."

She blinked back at him. "Fry... land? Oh, you mean dry land?" His face shifted to a pout and quickly replied "That's what I said." Even in her dreams, Hermes was still Hermes. She laughed, happy that she had such a good friend.

All of a sudden, he raced towards her and held her tight in a strong embrace. It knocked the breath from Kino as she slowly placed her hands around his waist, returning the hug. Then she felt something wet on her shoulder and pulled away from him.

Hermes was crying. "Hermes? What-what's wrong?"

He gasped, trying to talk around his tears. "Ah, I thought I wouldn't actually start crying over it, but I had a crazy dream last night." He laid his head back on Kino's shoulder. "I was some sort of object, trapped, not able to smile or breath, only talk. You were there, and I so wanted to hug you or touch you, but I was stuck, I couldn't move. I don't even think I had arms or legs, but somehow I was there. So were you, you were so close but you couldn't be any further." His tears subsided, but instead Kino felt her heart grow heavy with the sadness of her partner. So she held him tight, comforting him until they both fell asleep.

Her eyes shot open. It was still night time, the darkness thick all around her. She jumped from her bed, eyes searching. She needed comfort, but she wondered if he could give it.

Hermes squeaked with surprise as Kino jumped at him, arms circling around his handlebars, face pressed against his cool gas tank. Tears streaked down Kino's face as she clung to her mottorad.

"Kino? What's wrong?"

Slowly she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself but knowing it wouldn't work. "It's nothing much. Just I love you more than you could ever know."