Chapter three

It had been weeks since Shippo had been attacked, and still it haunted him. He had nightmares of a silver haired demon coming in the dark of the night, of bright yellow eyes staring into his soul and tearing it to pieces, of sharpened claws raking his back until it bled rivers. It seemed that it would never end, his savior, Rin, was no longer a part of his dreams as she had been the first night, now she was no where to be seen, he cried out her name on more then one occasion, and every time he was let down by her absence. Often he would wake up screaming in delirium with a cold sweat at his brow and gasping breaths from his lips.

His day life was no better then his night. Inu Yasha and Kagome had decided to stay until they figured out the problem behind all this. When Shippo tried to convince them that they had to go back to their own era for their work and school, they both said that they were off, it was summer and they were both out of school or work. (Kagome was a fifth grade teacher and Inu Yasha had decided to be a firefighter, both to help people, and so he could keep wearing red, fireproof outfits.) The fox tried his very hardest to avoid Inu Yasha at all costs, he hated how his eyes matched his brothers, he hated that his hair was only shades darker then his older half brother and, most of all, he hated how much the dog demon wanted to help him all the time. The fox demon felt that he couldn't tell Inu Yasha that it was his brother who committed this heinous act.

After many fearful days and restless nights, the red haired demon finally found a quiet place to relax, in a grove of trees much like, but far away from, where our story began. He checked around himself, sniffing for any whiff of a predator, when he was at last sure of himself, he laid back and, for a few minutes at least, was at peace. Then he heard a twig snap, or the rustle of leaves being upturned, he wasn't sure what it had been. He would start slightly, feeling the need to fly, to run from the unknown source of noise, instead he found himself holding his ground and peeling his eyes for any sign of life in the woods. After fifteen minutes of nothing, he shrugged to himself, thinking it may be a squirrel or mouse, some small mammal.

"Hey, Shippo. Why're you up there?"

The Fox demon nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of the dog demon's voice. He scrambled desperately to keep a hold of his tree branch, to no avail. He plummeted toward the hard forest ground, landing with a dull thump at the feet of a white haired demon clothed in a fire-red kimono.

Shippo looked up at Inu Yasha. "Fuck, Inu Yasha! What the hell are you doing!" He got to his feet, quite ready to rip out the dog demon's hair out by the roots. "Shit! Are you tryin' to scare me to death or somethin'?"

Inu Yasha quirked an eyebrow at the boy, he wasn't really that used to having the little fox curse at him, not even when he hit him… really hard… with rocks… He lent out his clawed hand to the boy, only to have it be ignored. Shippo stood up on his own and started to walk off bad-temperedly. The dog demon followed close after him, "Hey, kid, I don't know what your problem is, but if it's something with me, you're going to have to tell me, I'm a demon, but I'm not psychic you know." He leapt in front of the read haired demon and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well."

Shippo stood there, his face toward the ground. He could feel the tears well up in his eyes, but he refused to cry in front of the dog. He wanted so very badly to just tell him, to let it all out, but that was impossible, tell Inu Yasha? He'd just laugh arrogantly, saying that he must have become weak if he had succumbed so easily to his brother.

Inu Yasha's stance became less hard as he saw the boy's body start to shake violently. He let down his arms slowly, trying to asses what was going on, he took another step closer, holding out his arms. For a moment he embraced the little demon, he became a father figure again, shushing him and telling him it would all be okay…

Shippo fell into the strong dog-demons arms, weeping and bawling like a child. He buried his face into the bright red kimono, inhaling the sharp scent of the dog. As he inhaled this scent, an image arose in his mind, the image of Sesshomaru. There was the slightest bit of a difference in the two scents, but that didn't matter to him, he all but threw Inu Yasha away from him, yelling out as though he had been burned. "Get away from me Sesshomaru!" And with that, he bounded off deeper into the forest.

Inu Yasha stood there, dumbfounded, once he got his bearings back he hissed out a single word, "Sesshomaru."

Sango and Kagome stood there, both of them shocked at this new information. Sango was the first to speak, "So, that's why he's been avoiding you lately? Because of your brother?"

The Dog nodded wearily, he had told and re-told that story so many times now… He couldn't understand why these humans were taking so long to take action. It had taken him all of two seconds to decide to kill his brother, it seemed to be taking two years for these girls to decide to follow him. "Come on guys, we've got to kill him, I can beat him, I'm sure of it." He held out an arm to show his strength to the others.

Kagome shook her head and smiled kindly to her husband. "Yes, Inu Yasha, you may be able to beat him, but what about us? You've only aged about five years, while we have aged twenty five. How could we just allow you to fight him alone honey?" Kagome cocked her head to the side with her question.

Inu Yasha sighed heavily, "You're right, and for as little as I've aged, my brother has aged less." He sat himself down on one of the many futons that littered the room. "But what else can I do? I mean, we can't just sit here and do nothing, can we?"

The room was completely silent as everyone contemplated that very question.

Shippo sobbed into his large sleeves. He hated himself for being so weak and vulnerable as to run away and start when one of his oldest friends had tried to comfort him. He wiped away his tears, only to have them replaced with others just like those previous. He sniffled, trying to force himself to stop crying.

A small, timid voice 'ahemed' above him. When he looked up, he was confronted with a white, clothe handkerchief, and a young woman whose features where blurred and distorted by his tears.

Shippo took the clothe and wiped his eyes and blew his nose, saying simply, "Thank you, thank you, I'm sorry, this is terribly-" and he was cut off in surprise, "Rin?"

The young woman nodded, "Yes that is my name, little one."

Indignance toward his title blocked out the surprise he had felt, "'Little One?' I'm older then you are by far, kid. Just cuz I look young, doesn't mean a thing. You should never assume such things, or you'll make an ass out of u and me." He crossed his arms over his chest in hopes to sound more serious.

Rin giggled in her hand, finding the fox to look quite comical in his current stance. This set Shippo off balance so that he tumbled backward a bit, only causing the girl to giggle more furiously. He propped himself up on his elbows and made a face at her. At that she stopped, "I know who you are!" She smiled, "You're the little boy that used to always fight with my Master's brother."

At the mention of Sesshomaru, Shippo turned on the defensive, "Yeah? So what? You going to work for your master and kill me?" He glared daggers at her, waiting for a response.

"No, I haven't lived with the Master for several years now. He said it wasn't good for me to live with a demon. Every once in a while I see him or talk to him. He still protects me." She smiled at that moment, a smile that radiated the innocence only attained by the highest of angels.

The young fox looked away from the girl. "Yeah, well, good for you. It must be nice to be protected, rather than hunted."

Rin also looked at the ground, "Yes, I saw what he did to you… I'm sorry."

The red haired demon looked up, his eyes burning with an angry fire. "You were there? You saw what that monster did to me? And you didn't do shit? You're fucking sorry? You think sorry is going to cover this?" As he spoke that word, her lifted up the back of his shirt, showing the wounds on his back that had only recently been rid of their bandages. "Well, now I guess I won't have to stay up nights, afraid for my life. I guess I can just continue with my life now huh?" He all but spat in her face, his stance growing larger and more fierce. "I suppose you think that 'sorry' is going to just fix everything right?"

Rin backed away from him, not fearing for her life, just making sure that if the enraged fox decided that yelling wasn't enough she would be out of harms way. "No." was all she said in the tiny voice of reason.

Shippo's anger died away, faded slowly from his face, "Well, good… cuz it's not…" tears welled into his eyes again, threatening to drop from his already red and puffy eyes. He wiped away those tears, not allowing himself the weakness of crying a second time.

Rin looked away, realizing that he didn't want to be seen crying. "I came to make it feel better though."

Shippo didn't realize, at first, that she had said anything. When she looked up at him expectantly, it registered. He squinted in confusion, "Make it better?"

She nodded simply, "I found you, to help you kill Sesshomaru."