|
|
Insomnia Chapter 4
These characters do not belong to me.
Insomnia
Chapter 4
By moonsilver
Inu-Yasha, after looking at the sky for a long time, looked down to check on his companions. Sango was curled up with Kirara. Miroku was leaning against a tree, staff firmly in his hand. Kagome was making soft sounds as she slept. Shippo... He frowned. Shippo wasn’t there. He inhaled and found Shippo’s scent leading away from the camp.
He jumped off the branch and started to track the kitsune. Wherever the kit had gone, he sure had gone farther than he should have at night.
When Inu-Yasha found him, the kit was beside a tree crying his little eyeballs out. Inu-Yasha’s ears flattened. Maybe he should go get Kagome... She was better at this than he was. No, by the time he had gotten her Shippo might have moved.
He walked forward slowly. Shippo heard him before long and turned wide eyes in his direction. “What’s wrong?” Inu-Yasha said gruffly. He made quite the picture. The tall hanyou wearing bright red amidst the dark bark of the trees, moonlight shining on his hair, staring down at the young kitsune.
Shippo’s chin wobbled. “Nothing,” he said shakily.
“If it’s nothing, why’d you leave the camp?” Inu-Yasha persisted.
Shippo tried not to cry. “I didn’t want to wake everyone.” Inu-Yasha sighed and walked to the kitsune. He sat down. He wasn’t settled before the kitsune had flung himself at the hanyou. “I miss my Pa!” he wailed.
The kitsune stopped crying reasonably quickly now that he had someone to cry on. “Does it ever go away?” Shippo asked.
Inu-Yasha knew what he was asking. Does the pain of losing a parent go away. “No,” he said finally. “It doesn’t. But you grow up and you get more distracted with other things so you don’t think about it as much.”
Shippo sighed and sat with his head resting on Inu-Yasha’s chest. “Pa was going to teach me more magic. He’d promised to take me hunting soon and teach me to track.” He looked down at the ground with the sparkling dew on it. “We used to run at nights like this. Just running.”
Inu-Yasha sighed. “You do need to learn,” he admitted. “Miroku can’t teach you that stuff so I guess I’ll have to.” Shippo looked at him. “Hey! I just don’t want you to grow up like me.”
Inu-Yasha stood up and dumped Shippo on the ground. “You coming?” he said roughly.
“Where?” Shippo asked.
Inu-Yasha looked at him sharply. “Back to camp.” He looked in the camp’s direction. His breath caught in his chest. He started to run.
Shippo grinned and he took off until he caught up with Inu-Yasha. “My Pa could run faster!” he taunted. Inu-Yasha didn’t say a word, just speeded up. Shippo squawked and ran faster.
************************************