The sky was twinkling with starlight, a vast and infinite universe that seemed to stretch on forever. The water crashed against the rocky side of the small cliff I was lying on, the chilling spray dodging my body and creating a halo around me, like a snow angel made from water. It had been hours since my tears had dried. There couldn't be any moisture left in my body, but no matter how exhausted I felt I could not close my eyes.

Everything was wrong; Genkai was too essential in our lives to just leave. What would happen to us without her here to push us into the right decisions?

The stars above me seemed to brighten momentarily, like they were winking at me. Like Genkai was telling me that I needed to stop being such a baby. I shook my head, feeling a fresh wet trail falling into the rocks beneath my head.

I breathed out, wiping at my eyes and feeling my limbs cry weakly in protest.

"What do you want, Hiei?" I croaked, pressing the heels of my hands harder into my eyes for a minute, watching the light behind my eyes dance before I pushed myself up. Every bone in my body cracked and snapped back into place. Great thanks for small miracles, I suppose.

"Your foolish cousin has been running all over this island looking for you. It is very irritating." He droned from a few feet behind me.

"Sounds like him." I dismissed, curling my knees to my chest and staring up at the stars again. They were still twinkling, still beautiful, but they were lacking that same brightness now.

There was silence for a single, tense moment. I could hear my heartbeat and the sound of his breathing. The water slapping against the rocky surface and the droplets of the soft spray on the top of this cliff. I could feel the wind pushing my hair from my face. I could feel the heat radiating off of Hiei. My senses were everywhere at once. It was... intense, setting my nerve endings on fire. It was like I was on the edge of this cliff staring down into the water below and there was nothing to save me from falling in and being torn apart by the jagged rocks below. It was overwhelming and exhilarating and painful.

I jumped at the warmth surrounding my shoulders, blinking up at Hiei. He dropped next to me like he was as tired as I was, his eyes forward and his arm on his knee. His coat was draped around me, fit like it was made for me. Guess that's what happens when someone is actually the same height as you. I hesitated, then pulled my arms through the sleeves and shivered at the sudden realization of how cold it had become out here. I pulled the lapels closer to my neck and was overwhelmed by his scent encompassing me.

We sat in silence, lost in our own thoughts. His face was perfectly silhouetted in the moonlight, crisp and sharp and masculine. I could almost see his crimson eyes glowing in the contrast of the light, which was mesmerizing in its own right. I blushed, looking down and scuffing some of the dirt with my shoe.

"So why are you really here, Hiei?" I wondered, drawing a swirl with the toe of my shoe and trying haphazardly to keep the lines from touching.

"You can't allow your mourning to control you." He stated, resting his hand down on my foot to stop my ministrations. "You've taken your time. You've remembered her. Now it is time to move on."

"You make it sound so simple." I sighed, reaching into my jeans pocket and playing with the chain hidden there, seeking the comfort it had never failed to bring me. "I don't know how to shut off what I feel, Hiei. I can't just turn off my emotions and make everything suddenly alright."

"Shutting off your emotions would be the second mistake."

"And what's my first mistake?"

"Fighting them." He removed his hand from my shoe and pushed himself up.

"I'm not fighting anything." I argued, turning to follow his movements.

"That's the one thing you excel at." He dismissed me casually, moving around and making some sort of marks in the dirt around us. "You fought your power and let it overwhelm you when it broke through. You fought your logic when you were faced with those two whelps in the woods and couldn't defend yourself. You're fighting how you feel now, and you're ripping yourself apart."

"How do you know about all of this?" I felt that surge of anger rear it's head, surprising myself with this intensity of emotion after the numbness had set in so long ago. "You never show your emotions. Ever."

"I feel the world differently than you." He stated simply.

"Yeah? And how is that?" I spat?

"You're a human, I am a demon. That alone makes us feel things differently. I've spent most of my life alone, isolated. You've spent your life in society, making friends and surrounded by your family."

"There are plenty of demons that show their emotion. I've seen that. You always shut everything out and force everything to stay at arm's length, and I can't live that way! And what the hell are you doing?!"

He smirked at me, looking up from the last mark he was making and facing me fully. "I'm going to stay within these boundaries here. I want to see if you've bothered to learn anything while you've been here."

I felt my palms tingling, drawing in the moisture from all around us without my attention. I grit my teeth and swung my arm as hard as I could, sending shards of ice at the fire demon standing there with that cocky as hell smirk. I wanted to wipe it off his smug face, something that was becoming so irritatingly common the last week.

"You can do better." He informed from behind me. I growled, whipping around and throwing everything I had at him. He kept moving, and I followed his every move, throwing water and ice and everything that I could summon at him, trying to keep him down. He bolted closer to me when my shard knicked his pants and I brought my hands up defensively. He leapt over me, taking my waist and pulling me straight to the ground, bringing my shield down with me. A strangled cry escaped from somewhere in me and I stood up gracelessly and threw a punch. He blocked me with his forearm and I followed it up with a few kicks that he pushed aside. I managed to catch his forearm and leapt onto him, wrapping my legs around his thighs and forcing him back for once.

Even underneath me he still maintained his control, something that was doing nothing for my patience, and he blocked every punch I was throwing with his forearms, parrying them off to the side. I kept throwing them until my arms felt heavy. I could barely see him when I gripped onto his shirt and weakly fell off to the side. All I felt was warmth as I clung to him, sobs wracking my body and making it so hard to breathe. I cried out of frustration and anger, out of sadness and regret, and when I had cried those out I cried because I knew that Hiei was too far out of my reach to ever really have and it scared me.

Black was fading into the edges of my vision and I swear I felt something warm brush against my cheek, moving my damp hair out of my face. That warmth traveled down to my waist and pulled me right up against Hiei's chest, and I felt air in my lungs again. I curled my tired bones into him, waiting for the darkness to take me.

"Hiei, where is your family?" I mumbled.

"My sister is from a world that has never included me." He said after a long moment, detachment ringing in the air. "She is my only family."

"Where is she?"

"She is always within my sight." He answered vaguely, irking my sluggish curiosity. "Go to sleep, troublesome human."

"Bossy." I murmured, closing my eyes and letting out one last breath before my mind slipped away into the night.