Up until the night of the new moon, he had managed to avoid the dreams. A fortnight without sleep was something he was familiar with. But in his human form - not a chance. As soon as he had curled up in the corner of Kaede's little hut, where he had found shelter this night, sleep had taken him.

He had awoken to the, due to his human eyes still blurry, concerned face of a certain little fox demon. "Inu Yasha?" A cool, tiny hand was very carefully pressed against his cheek. "Are you okay?", Shippou whispered.

Inu Yasha tried to sit up but couldn't, the dark hands of sleep still had him in a vise like grip .

Was he okay? No, no he wasn't. The dream he had so dreaded in the past fortnight had finally come and, just as he had thought, it had been the black, endless world inside the Shikon no Tama all over. Only this time, he could not reach her, and Kagome was damned to forever fight within the jewel, never returning, never... The blackness eating him up, his lungs sore from screaming her name, but they were all alone, she couldn't hear him, he couldn't even sense her, they were all alone in the blackness, forever trapped inside this never ending nothingness...

Inu Yasha had a hard time breathing. He seemed to suck in endless amounts of air into his lungs, but couldn't release it. His head was still swimming in this endless black hell...

"Inu Yasha?!", Shippou's voice was urgent now, though still a whisper. "It's me, Shippou! Please look at me!"

Dark eyes danced around in the dark until they finally found bright green ones.

"Now breathe!" Shippou urged, and Inu Yasha could finally breathe out. And in again, slowly, and out again. He repeated the motion for a minute until he could feel his cramped up muscles relax again. He had to get out of here. It was a wonder that old Kaede hadn't woken up, she was still fast asleep on her futon in the other side of the hut.

Swiftly, he stood up and got outside, looking up at the dark night sky. Stars were twinkling above him, and he took a deep breath of fresh air. As if he didn't have enough reason to hate his human nights...

The little kitsune had followed him outside and was now crawling onto his shoulder. He was a bit heavier for Inu Yasha in his human form, but he was still small. Such a little thing and yet he had seen so much pain and loss in his short life. Inu Yasha knew how it was to grow up with no parents, understood how lonely the kid must feel without this anchor in his life. At least he still had people to turn to: Kaede, Sango, Miroku... himself. As if on cue, Shippou buried his face in Inu Yasha's hair, embracing his neck tightly with his tiny arms. "I..." the litte kitsune started to stammer, and that's when a sob escaped him. "I mi-miss her s-so bad!" he cried into Inu Yasha's dark hair. The man closed his eyes in agony and brought his hands up to hold the little fox demon tightly. "Y-you were say-saying he-her name a-all over again..."

So that's why Shippou had woken him up.

"I know kid, I miss her too.", Inu Yasha said with a coarse voice. "Real bad."

He sat down on the cold ground at the outer back of the hut, leaning against the wall, all the while holding the sobbing demon child. He couldn't say anything else, he didn't really know what to say, if he was honest. He'd never been good with words, so he just hoped that being there would be good enough.

After the sobs had quieted down, it didn't take long for Shippou to succumb to sleep in the man's arms.

There was no way Inu Yasha would let himself fall asleep that night again, so he just held the little furry ball until the sun came up.

He relished hearing the sound of the birds chirping, and of the whole village slowly waking up again.

As his black hair rapidly changed back to silver, Shippou stirred, rubbing his eyes, without a doubt sensing the youkai engery coming to life again.

He looked at Inu Yasha from under his bangs, clearly afraid of what the hanyou had to say about his sleeping place.

But the half-demon just looked him calmly, softly in the eyes, like the little demon had never seen him do it. "It's okay to be sad, you know?" he said to Shippou. "I know what she was to you. But there are a hell of a lot people still here who care for you. You'll never be alone, I swear." he akwardly ruffled the kitsune's hair and sat him down on the ground.

Shippou just looked at him, his chest suddenly feeling very warm. The way Inu Yasha had just looked at him... the look was so familiar - he had often recieved it in the past, only had it been grey eyes that had bestowed it upon him.

"Go to Miroku's." Inu Yasha suddenly ordered. "I gotta get outta here for a bit." After a short pause, he added: "I'll be back soon."

And without another glance at Shippou, he jumped into the nearest tree and off he went, a blur of silver and red.

He jumped from treetop to treetop, ducking and doging his way through, going at breakneck speed. He was trying to outrun the last ripplets the damned dream had made as it had dropped deep in his mind, but he couldn't completly shake it off.

He was behaving like a madman, and he knew it, but even though, he couldn't stop running. He kept racing through fields, woods, propelling himself over rivers until he didn't know where he was anymore. Finally, he reached some cliff, its other side so far away he couldn't jump over, so he stopped and just stood at its edge and stared off into the distance. Fields, trees, rivers, villages... everything seemed so small and far away.

His thoughts were revolving around Kagome, she was the sole thing on his mind and all he felt was loneliness, so deeply carved into his heart it physically hurt. Since when had solitude began to feel like this? He had always relished it, cherished the tranquility of silence, but now it just felt hollow and forced.

And, there in this absolute solitude, surrounded by fresh air and only the busy rustle of animals around him, with sudden, absolute clarity he knew that he would wait for her to come back, or, fuck it all, he'd just wait five hundred damned years, and even if it were the last breath he'd ever take, he'd take it with her sweet smell in his nose.

It was the first time he let himself think about what she might be doing just in this moment on the other side of the well.