In Time, Death
By Alesyira
Summary: Too much on the mind, lately. You can sit around and wallow in yesterday's regrets, or you can embrace who and what you are today and live for yourself.
Thinking Too Much
The evening air was blissfully cool on his heated cheeks. He stared down at the bottle in his fingers, aromas of vanilla and agave curling from the narrow opening as the alcohol slowly evaporated. His sight lingered on the twinkle of light along the rim of the old glass, but his attention was on the two exploring the fringes of a budding relationship in the apartment's living room right beneath him.
He was a little surprised that things had changed so quickly. She'd been so awkward and hesitant about taking something for herself, and he certainly hadn't expected Hiei to openly invite her to take that first step. He briefly wondered how far things might go if he left them uninterrupted. Given the right circumstances, the sweetness of a tender kiss could easily escalate into messy, heated passion. After that single taste of nirvana, he bet the temptation for her might be even worse, especially considering how much she'd suffered through the last few days.
His lips twitched as he took a sip from the bottle and let the smooth liquid roll over his tongue. He should have kept some of Berke's infused concoctions around. This mortal stuff tasted fine, but barely made a dent on his sobriety. He wasn't sure he wanted to be completely lucid the next time he went back downstairs.
He sighed and tipped his head back, draining the bottle in a few quick gulps.
His attention briefly drifted to a human couple on the street below as they walked home from a night out. The young woman giggled at something her partner whispered, then they shuffled into a nearby alley to exchange a series of loud kisses before she laughed and insisted they go home.
Shippo rolled his eyes, licking his lips to catch any stray droplets. He sighed at the empty bottle and briefly considered buying more from the little store down the street. They didn't have any of the fancy stuff, and even as the thought of leaving crept into his mind, he realized it would be an idiot move. He didn't dare leave Kagome alone with Hiei at this strange time in their lives.
Her broken magic was a potential threat to her peace (and his sanity).
A repeat of Hiei's odd loss of control could easily end in either tragedy or massive destruction.
He rolled his eyes skyward and stared at the glittering stars above, feeling the subtle sting of loneliness. He wanted another bottle of tequila to fuzz out the edges of his discomfort. One day she wouldn't need him anymore. His fingers clenched around the bottle, just tight enough that he could hear the crystalline structure creak under the pressure. He released his grip and stood.
It did him no good to cry about the future or to sit around and lament the way life changed. He'd dug this hole for himself by avoiding his friends so much over the last two decades to focus on his favorite humans, then buried himself in his schemes and planning while mourning the loss of Toshi.
The two humans far below finally meandered back into the street to head to the privacy of their home, and his attention slid to the somewhat suspicious silence of his living room. He chewed his lip in contemplation, feeling a little weird about leaving them alone like this with so many damned unknowns in the mix.
She was old enough to not need someone peering in on her relationships, but…
He leaned over the edge of the roof and hung on with his fingertips to peek in through the top edge of a window. Hiei slumped against the couch, his head tilted back to lean against the cushy top edge. She sat beside him with her fingers in his hair, playing with the impossibly soft strands.
A brief flash of jealousy caught him by surprise. He'd had his face buried in that hair once, and it was something worth coveting. He grinned in amusement at the look of peace on the little youkai's face.
Hiei twitched, and Shippo felt a stab of the dark youkai's annoyance pierce through his mind. Oops, he'd been caught spying. He smirked and pulled himself back up to sit in the darkness, feeling better about leaving them alone for a bit. But not too much longer. The hour grew late, and Kagome would need her sleep.
the dragon
Time passes differently when your mind is so occupied by new scents, tastes, and sensations.
It could have been only half an hour, or several. It didn't matter. Time had no meaning and she had nowhere else she wanted to be.
They ended up on the couch. He leaned back, relaxed and at ease with his eyes closed, his fingers laced with hers. Threading the fingers of her free hand through his hair, she methodically tweaked the downy soft strands out of place. She smiled in wonder and amusement as they coalesced back together into deceivingly sharp-looking spikes. "Does it ever stop floating?"
*Only when it rains, and even then not for long.*
"It really does look like it'll put someone's eye out," she murmured, running her hands along the tips to watch them wave slowly beneath her fingers like seaweed drifting in the ocean. "I could play with this all day."
He hummed quietly.
She smiled at his relaxed expression. "You don't mind?"
One of his shoulders rolled in a half-shrug.
She turned her attention briefly to the roof where Shippo had escaped. His energy hadn't moved from a spot somewhere over their heads for a while.
"You know so much about me," she said, her voice low as she looked down at their intertwined fingers. She leaned against his side and carefully placed her head on his shoulder, watching as his thumb slid once across her knuckle. "With all the human moments and the crazy things you've seen of my life, why would you possibly want to stick around?"
She felt him twitch and imagined that he might have cut off a laugh. (Then again, she wasn't really certain that he ever laughed, so it was a serious stretch of the imagination.)
*Do you want me to go?*
"Never," she admitted with a smile. She paused, thinking about how little she knew of him in return. "I want to know more about you," she whispered. "I want to understand."
She wasn't sure if every budding relationship had similar thoughts and wishes, but she wanted to understand what drove him, what made him who he was at that moment in his life, and why he seemed to find peace in her company.
She'd met many people over her travels that spanned a wide range of personalities, motivations, and characteristics. Hiei didn't quite seem to match very well with any of those. She knew nothing about why he was so reticent.
She had been raised with love and affection, sure in the knowledge that she had support of others as she stumbled her way through her formative years. It had helped shape her into a friendly and trusting individual.
Hiei didn't seem like the type to trust very easily. What kind of life had left him littered with so many old scars and in a near-constant state of cautious silence, even around people that he worked with, the people she thought he might be able to trust?
An evening of traveling with the team through the dangers of Makai had shown her enough of the group's mannerisms to pick up a few details.
He knew how to work with others and seemed to trust his teammates, but one day was not nearly enough time to really see how they interacted and know how deep that trust ran.
She had seen that they'd fight to protect each other's lives, and she'd felt Kurama's horror when Hiei's life had been in peril. Surely that kind of concern for another's well-being wouldn't merely be inspired by a physical relationship, and Hiei didn't seem to be the type of person to randomly allow just anyone such liberties.
The week he'd stayed on the shrine before she'd gone back to help Tek had filled in a few blanks. Those days had been interesting, but he'd still kept mostly to himself, not speaking very often with anyone other than her (aside from brief arguments with Shippo). He'd spent the daylight hours lending his presence, a constant figure somewhere close enough to monitor, only occasionally offering comments and suggestions during her sparring and energy practice.
Later in the evenings, once her family had retired for the night and the only witnesses were the crickets and an occasional owl, he'd been a bit more open to participating. They rarely sparred so late, opting instead for the more quiet methods of practice like meditation and exploring the oddities and enhancements of their magic due to the jewel's influence.
It was very strange that someone she had known for such a short time had held himself so carefully aloof, yet embedded himself so deeply into her life. She felt a tiny moment of hesitation. There were surely those skilled enough to slip past her caution and take advantage of moments of weakness, especially a mind reader, but he didn't feel wrong to her.
She could sense something in his demeanor grow still and cautious. His thoughts felt troubled as he stroked his thumb once more along her knuckle. *To tell you the tales of my life would be to repeat a hundred thousand atrocities committed either in my presence or by my hand.*
She bit her lip and stared down at their joined hands, feeling the truth of his words. He had left himself open to her fumbled prodding, though, and she could sense the equal parts remorse and resolve clinging to his wavering thoughts. There was another truth lying in wait beneath his words, but her grasp of how to see him as he could see her was flimsy.
He sighed and brushed the side of his face along her hair. *The course of a life shapes the person. I cannot regret my actions, because without the choices and mistakes I've made, I would be a completely different person. I do regret that you wish to know them.* There was another long pause as they sat together in the silence of evening. *It is not romantic, glamorous, or pretty.*
She knew it ultimately wouldn't matter. He could confess any number of horrible crimes of his youth, and she'd know that his past wasn't what he was at this moment, this week, this year. His darkness had faded to nothing more than a smudge against his spirit that barely twinged when she'd flashed him with her magic. His bad thread had long since trailed off into nonexistence.
Had he made peace with his past?
It wasn't for her to ask, just like she didn't want or need others to judge her for mistakes she'd made, lives she'd affected with her poor handling of the jewel years ago. How many had died due to her ignorance? And how many innocent youkai had been twisted and corrupted by Naraku's scheming to be thrown in the path of her group's deadly attacks, only to meet horrible deaths?
Her thoughts were getting dark, and she pushed them down.
Instead of lingering in those memories or pressing him for details of his past that he wasn't ready to share, she chose a diplomatic change of subject and traced fingertips up his arm. Her interest had been drawn more than once by the jagged black marking that twisted around his limb from his hand past his elbow. It seemed to shimmer at the edges. ‟Is the dragon somewhere in there?"
He yawned, relaxing further into the cushions of the couch, the fingers gently clutching hers growing lax as he released a long, rumbling sigh. *Elsewhere. The marking serves both as a warning and a gateway. It's where the dragon emerges if it is summoned.*
As she brushed her thumb along a cool edge of black, the line wobbled. "Does it normally move?"
There was a longer pause than she'd expected for such a seemingly simple question. *The dragon is never still.*
"Oh," she replied, dragging her fingertips slowly along the dragon's back. She traced the little arm that curled over his wrist and jumped in surprise when its tiny clawed fingers twitched closed.
She glanced up as the balcony door quietly opened. Shippo crept back in from the darkness and looked at them with a strange little smile. "We should get your barrier tweak taken care of before it gets much later," he said. His bottle looked suspiciously empty.
"You finished off that whole thing? Should I be worried?" she asked, peering at him in concern.
He chuckled and put the empty bottle on the shelf beside the trash bin. "Nah. Human alcohol isn't strong enough to do much more than get me a little buzzy, and even that won't linger for long because of my super-amazing metabolism. You ready now or do you need a few more minutes?"
Hiei hadn't seemed to notice Shippo's return, and as she carefully sat up to look at him, she realized he must have dozed off. She pulled her fingers free from his, watching his face for any reaction. Odd. "Now is alright," she answered with a bit of uncertainty. She stood and leaned over him to brush her lips against his cheek.
Shippo nodded, watching Hiei's quiet and relaxed form as she stretched and flicked her fingers to loosen up before she slid to the floor, cross-legged. It was a little strange that he didn't move once she'd left his side. He turned his attention to the girl staring up at him and mimicked her pose on the futon, his feet tucked neatly under his crossed legs.
They comfortably clasped hands and closed their eyes as she reached for him. Magic flared as hair poofed, and Kagome hummed in appreciation at the distance she could focus. "I can see the shrine from here," she mumbled, a smile coloring her words.
"Can you do your boost from this distance?"
A short pause, a small sound of agreement, and a flare of magic tickled the skin of his hands.
"All done," she whispered, her fingers squeezing his.
"Let's do a bit more before we turn in tonight," he suggested, shifting his attention to the energies of the neighborhood.
Sitting with her like this was perfection. Her magic brushed his with subtle warmth and fuzzy affection as they cared for the strangers living within their sphere of protection. He quietly basked in the soft glow of her light as they slid their attentions through the neighborhoods and people that lived within their reach. He tweaked the foliage that had been planted by the city and its attentive residents. Trees that decorated the parks, shrubs that lined the streets, and flowers creeping from window boxes all sparkled happily under his brush of magic, and he shivered at the thousands of tiny green thank-yous.
She looked for and smoothed out darker emotions, nudging at lingering anger and festering hatred so that it would fade for the night, leaving those she could reach with one more evening of peace. They both knew that this artificial calm could never last unless those suffering from negative feelings confronted and solved their troubles and found their own resolutions, but it was nice to think that they could ease the burdens of strangers for a little bit longer.
She sighed and relaxed, slumping into a terrible posture over her crossed legs.
He laughed and poked her in the cheek to get her to sit up straight. "You wanna try working with your broken thing one more time tonight?"
She bit her lip and tugged at a loose thread she'd spotted. "I'm afraid to try again. I think the only reason I've been able to hold myself back today is because of Hiei. With his connection, I've been able to see and feel where things are wrong. Without that, what if we are right back to where we were the last few days? I'll know something is wrong but I might not care."
Hiei had told him he lacked faith, but it felt like too much to risk on their own. He nodded in agreement. He'd already had too many close calls that day, and didn't want to tempt fate (or himself). He ruffled his fingers through her hair, mussing her bangs. "You're right. You have some pajamas? I have a pretty fancy shower."
She pursed her lips. "Are you telling me I smell?"
He laughed and plucked at the corner of her shirt. "No, but you have sauce dried on you, and I don't think this sticky stuff is a very good look in your hair," he added on, tugging at a chunk of her hair that was out of sight. "You could traipse through the woods and roll in bushes for a week and I'd still like the way you smell," he winked. "Where'd the fox-print set go?"
She frowned. "They're tucked away in my pouch. I got such grief wearing those in front of important people."
He slapped a hand to his mouth and tried to hold back his laughter. "Which important people?"
"I'd rather not say," she muttered, standing with a scowl. "It happened on accident during a bad time," she said, her thoughts flicking back to the entirely unexpected insanity of the realms splitting and her spirit being broken into dozens of pieces. She blinked a few times, remembering where she was before she looked up at Shippo, who watched her carefully.
"I have some other stuff you can wear instead. Plain, no frills or cute prints," he offered, the hint of a frown pulling at the corners of his mouth.
She nodded gratefully and he fetched a pair of drawstring shorts and the smallest t-shirt he owned from one of the drawers. As he pressed them into her hands, he looked at her seriously. "I don't mean to cause you trouble with my silly gifts," he said quietly. "I just hope they might make you smile."
She gripped his hand before he could draw away. "I don't mean to complain. I like the things you've given me." She grinned a bit ruefully. "It just ended up with such silly timing that Sess and…" she trailed off. "Well, nearly everyone saw me with those pajamas on," she said, turning pink. "It's fine. They probably wouldn't remember what I was wearing with everything else that was going on."
"Everything else?"
She gave him a look, amusement warring with both chagrin and irritation. "I was wearing those pajamas when the realms split."
His laughter didn't calm until after she'd shut herself in the bathroom to shower and change.
His amusement at her pajama plight faded as he nudged and straightened the bedding, casting concerned glances at the dark youkai passed out on his couch. It was such a strange sight to see him asleep. He was deathly still, his head tilted at a sharp angle that left his pale throat exposed. An easy target for a quick kill. He wanted to hide such weakness from others. He seemed so damned vulnerable like this.
Hiei's chest barely moved with slow, shallow breaths. He looked almost like he could be dead, but Shippo could hear the gentle thrumming of his heart even over the rumbling spray of the shower.
He wasn't sure he should be disturbing him, but something felt wrong. He stood and stepped closer, keeping just enough distance to escape in case he woke an angry dragon. "Hiei?"
Nothing. Not a twitch. He repeated it a little louder, but it fell on deaf ears.
Kagome did not linger in his shower despite how fancy and soothing it was. She quickly dressed and emerged from the bathroom, her food-stained clothes tucked under her arm. "Where…?" she started to ask, trailing off as she noticed where he was standing. He left Hiei's side and took them from her.
"I'll do laundry tomorrow morning. Go get comfy." He waved at the bedding and took a single step toward the sink before he noticed the look on her face. He paused and grinned down at her. "So, what did you do, drug him with some black widow lipstick?"
Kagome crossed her arms and glared at him. "Of course not! We were talking just before you came back in. He seemed really relaxed before I got up to work on the barrier, but not this relaxed." She bit her lip as she turned away from him to watch Hiei's lax form. "Maybe this kind of rest is normal every so often for him when he feels safe."
Shippo shrugged. "I don't like not knowing for certain. He's really out cold." He stepped closer and waved a hand in front of the youkai's motionless face. "I don't wanna try moving him in case something like earlier today happens." He straightened and pressed a hand to his chin. Maybe they were worrying over something simple or easily explained… if only they knew him better.
"Well, it wouldn't be the first time someone slept on a couch," she said, hugging herself as she leaned against his tall warmth.
"Hey, hey now, you can't go to sleep with wet hair," he complained, pushing her away with a laugh.
She absently gripped his wrist and let the swell of energy poof the water out of her hair as a fine mist before crouching to rearrange pillows.
"You just increased the humidity of my apartment by one thousand percent. Thanks," he muttered with a teasing grin. He tossed her laundry in the sink to wash later. "Maybe his energy is low and he needs a boost like that," he suggested, kneeling on a futon at her side.
She shook her head. "I reached for him while we were… ah," she blushed and ducked her head. "Anyways. No, his energy shouldn't be low, even after everything we did today... unless he somehow can block the energy given by the jewel?" She tilted her head and examined his energy signature. "He still seems quite bright."
Shippo nodded slowly, paying attention to the ebb and flow of his magic. "You're right." He patted the fluffed surface. "Come rest. I'll guard you both tonight in case something changes. Maybe things will look different in the morning."
She hummed in agreement, but she didn't relax easily.
A cricket broke into song as silence fell. It chirped for a long time as she played with the edge of her blanket and stared at Hiei's unconscious form. She'd seen Sesshoumaru sit quietly for hours with his eyes closed, but he was aware of his surroundings, and even got annoyed enough to arch an eyebrow when she'd stared too long. She didn't feel like Hiei was aware of very much, if anything. Her worry grew as the hours ticked by, and sleep evaded her despite Shippo's quiet cajoling.
He eventually played dirty and released the magic hiding his tails. Five lengthy fluffs flicked into sight and draped over her, encasing her with impossibly soft and perfectly warm fur. She was unable to resist such a tactic and finally dozed off just past midnight.
thoughts
Sometimes his nights were spent like this, in quiet contemplation of things outside of his control. The world, the neighborhood, the humans living here, their proclivities, tendencies, and preferences.
Kagome and her sweet, short life… He reached out and brushed fingers through her bangs, watching as she slept under the weight of his tails, her fingers curled in the fur of his newest addition.
She might be amongst the living for a few short years or she might live another fifty, but all too soon she'd be lost to him. He dipped his face into the crook of her neck and lingered there with his eyes half-closed, the soft scent of her skin curling through his senses like the first tender blossoms on a young hyacinth. He draped an arm across her waist, careful to not disturb her rest as he drenched himself in this moment of connection with his favorite person.
Her scent, like others he'd grown very familiar with over the centuries, was unique in its makeup, but he could detect small traces of her parents in its undertones. His throat clenched against the brief stab of loss as he thought of her father.
Toshi had been precious to him; his other half from the day he'd met him. They'd had little adventures, played games, laughed and shared stories of their daily life, and whispered long into the night about tales from his past disguised as fanciful myths he'd read in some book. Toshi had always looked at him with barely veiled admiration, and he'd been hard pressed to not preen under the attention and affection the young male had bestowed upon him. He'd never judged Toshi for his shortcomings like the occasional temper or his impatience with the family patriarch.
He'd indulged even the idiotic whims while guiding his actions to grow into the adult he knew he could be.
And Aiko, the sweet young woman that they had stumbled into quite by accident… He'd loved her pure, supportive heart, her endless patience for Toshi's youthful behaviors, and her unique method of juggling surprises when something completely unexpected happened. (The unexpected happened quite often when a centuries-old old kitsune was living in disguise amongst the humans.)
When he found Toshi (and later Aiko), he mostly abandoned the community and his friends from centuries past. He hadn't meant to drop everyone he'd known like a tray of hot potatoes, but his priorities shifted quicker than he'd meant. Only a few understood his lingering (and growing) fascination with the human realm, but most of them had families of their own and didn't care to spend so many days, weeks, and months hovering on the fringes of society in disguise like Shippo.
Then again, if they'd known who he was waiting for, maybe a few of them might have been more interested. Sesshoumaru had been the only one to know what he'd been up to, and while he'd been curious, he'd kept his cards close and left the reconnaissance to the troublesome kitsune that had been anxious for her return for five centuries. Shippo smirked as he rubbed a lock of her hair between his fingertips.
He knew now that the old dog had seen her more than a few times over the years he'd been waiting. He couldn't believe he'd missed her by moments more than once. He'd had no idea she'd been so close. He sighed and flicked another glance at the elemental, wondering when (if) he'd wake from his odd rest.
A new friend to add to his collection? Maybe.
His other friends hadn't really been able to understand his fascination with the human realm. Living as part of the Communities meant they had interactions with all kinds of beings, mortals and immortals alike. But the humans that lived in this realm were blind and ignorant to magic, and living amongst them meant long bouts of secrecy and disguises. They'd tried to understand his motives, but most couldn't fathom putting forth so much effort into hiding, especially so much lying to the people you met and the friends you made.
Times were changing, though.
Maybe they didn't need to understand his motives.
Maybe their days of hiding would soon be a thing of the past.
He bet Hiei would understand his fascination with the mortal realm. His lips curled in another brief smirk. Maybe not all mortals. He was a little too obvious at keeping his distance, but he bet Hiei would agree with his interest in this particular human.
His eyes closed as he listened to the lonely cricket on his balcony. He hoped the singing would attract a friend before too long.
Loneliness was one of his greatest fears, and the last few days it had seemed like the possibility of such a terrible thing had been growing more intense. The longer Kagome's busted magic tortured them, the more his thoughts slipped into regret and concern he'd made some terrible choices in the last two decades.
It hadn't been just that he'd abandoned his old friends for his interest in the humans, he'd pushed everyone away to hide from the pain of his loss.
Even though he hadn't been intimate with either Toshi or Aiko, when one had died, he'd been horrified by how broken he'd been, like his heart had fallen out of his chest and could never be put back. The emotional blow had been awful. He hadn't just run away from Aiko; he'd run away from all of his friends and put everyone at arm's distance.
He'd felt like he'd lost a life partner, a treasured loved one, more precious than anything he'd lost in the last few hundred years, maybe as painful as losing his father.
It had affected him deeply, more than he had ever cared to admit. He hid from the pain, shied from any other relationships, and buried himself in his work. He devoted himself to tracking down brewing troubles while putting the finishing touches on the plans set out for Kagome's return. Peeking in on his favorite human as she'd grown had been awful, like recurring torments of self-deprivation.
He knew he'd feel infinitely better with one hug from the small child or a smile from her mother, but he couldn't.
He hadn't been able to handle it anymore. He wanted to keep his treasures, the people he loved, but so many of them lived such terribly fragile and short lives.
He still believed he'd been right to leave Aiko behind after reflecting on the behavior he'd fallen into. He would have taken his comfort too far, would have left her heartbroken when he'd come to his senses, and any kind of time spent around Kagome's family would have been even more awkward and painful.
He was certain he'd spared her from additional grief by running away. He still felt like a bastard for it, though.
He'd tried to justify distancing himself from his old friends by thinking that it might help avoid any jealousy once he dropped everything else in his life to put all of his attention on the one human that had remained in his thoughts for centuries, his favorite.
He realized now that all it had done was cause him unnecessary discomfort.
He'd been alone too long.
What the hell had he been thinking? How could he have ever believed that he could keep her at arm's length forever, that he'd be satisfied to stand beside her as perfect friends, cuddling like children for the rest of her life?
Fucking madness.
Maybe it could have lasted longer. A year? Ten?
But no, she returned from her very first trip back in time with this new strangeness, this new curse afflicting her.
He couldn't have imagined she would ever turn a gaze of longing in his direction. Even knowing it had been out of her control, he'd never be able to wipe from his memory that look in her eyes or the sounds that spilled from her throat as she'd fought against the magic plaguing her.
The more he saw, the more he heard, the more he wanted.
He closed his eyes and sighed, rubbing his face into the hair spilled across her pillow.
It wasn't fair. He wanted things to go back to how they were.
The peace, the calm, the simple.
A sound drew his attention and he glanced up to see Hiei twitch in his strangely deep sleep. His dilemma had been made worse by the fact that he was interested in the first male she'd shown a preference for in the years he'd known her. (Well, the first since she'd been lovesick over her first crush, Inuyasha.)
His fingers flexed along the edge of her torso, a small gap between her borrowed shirt and shorts exposing pale skin where a deep scar puckered the flesh. It was a permanent reminder of where the jewel had spent 15 long years waiting to throw a wrench into all of their lives. They'd hidden it with a spell. Couldn't they have stopped it from causing so many problems? The thought drifted away as quickly as it had appeared.
Time always found a damned way.
His fingertip stroked into the edge of that scar as he watched the dark youkai slumped on his couch with a small frown.
They might both be interested in the same person. How ironic. She'd struggled for years knowing that the deep affections she had for another wouldn't be fully returned as he couldn't let go of his first love. Did fate mean to give her things she had to fight for? He glanced down at her peaceful expression, her lips parted as her eyelids fluttered in the beginnings of a dream.
He'd give up the next few decades of his own fun to see that she had everything she'd ever want.
But damned if Hiei didn't make it hard to remember his resolve.
What the hell was he doing?
shiver
A few hours after Kagome had drifted off to sleep, Shippo noticed Hiei twitch again, pulling him fully from his dark musings of potential loneliness. He'd resigned himself to always do his best for however many years Kagome had left. He wouldn't waste it pining over something he didn't need.
He watched him carefully for a less than a minute as the tiny movements became more pronounced. A dream?
Hiei's hands clenched and his eyebrows tilted down in anger as his lips curled into a sneer. A nightmare.
Shippo narrowed his eyes when Hiei's magic started to spark with odd vibrations of that strange violet magic. Without moving his arm, he flicked his fingers and tossed an acorn across the short distance between them, knocking the hybrid in the shin.
Hiei jerked awake from his slouched spot on the couch. His gaze was unfocused and confused, and Shippo watched as he shivered and wrapped his arms over himself with a furrowed brow. He blinked and squinted at their pile of blankets and pillows, then haphazardly slid off the edge of the couch to land on his hands and knees. He tilted sideways and barely kept his balance against the furniture, shaking his head as he stared at the floor for a moment. He crawled to their bedding and plucked at the edge of a blanket, surprising Shippo as he slid beneath the covers to curl against Kagome's side, his face pressed against her shoulder.
Shippo watched him shiver and drift back to sleep, then sat up a little to tuck the blankets around him. Hiei shouldn't be so tired, and he definitely shouldn't be that unbalanced. He cautiously traced fingers along his temple at the edge of his bandanna, feeling a slight sheen of sweat and strangely warm skin. If Hiei were human, he'd have guessed he had a fever of some kind, but with an elemental that could control and survive extreme temperatures, he wasn't sure how accurate that might be. Perhaps Hiei wouldn't go mad with rage if he gave him a little boost of energy like he'd done with Kagome several times that afternoon, but he didn't dare risk it. He'd keep watch over them until morning, and then he'd decide if something more should be done.
He knew of at least one person who might be able to shed additional light on the oddities of their little friend.
AN: It's been over a month since the last update. Sorry! I had a few crises. Writer's block, stress about stuff, etc etc, then the laptop not charging. Scary. Anyways, thanks for sticking with me. Next chapter is going to be a bit of a mess as things change in everyone's lives. Er, I mean the story. Not my life.