Disclaimer: I do hereby disclaim all rights and responsibilities for the characters in this pre-dawn trek… especially for the one who needs reassuring. A nod of recognition is bent towards Rumiko Takahashi for her creative prowess.

A Note of Explanation: This collection provides framework for my participation in the Live Journal community FirstTweak, which runs challenges and contests exclusively for the Inu/Kag pairing. Unspoken's drabbles and oneshots can stand alone, but they also work together to tell a larger story—a love story.

Still

It was still dark when Inuyasha ducked under the bamboo mat covering Kaede's door. Pearly skies were taking on pale hues of coral and pink, but the hanyou only glanced towards the east. Sunrises happened every day, and he was more interested in stuff that didn't come nearly as often… or as easily.

Bare feet thudded along a path that had become very familiar in the last week, though the newness certainly hadn't worn off. With long, loping strides, he covered the distance to the old well and peered into its depths. I'm just gonna check… to make sure. It was hard to explain the reason he needed to reassure himself that everything still functioned. Dropping into the darkness, he felt the tug of transition. Good.

Inuyasha didn't know why it worked, but it did, and that's really all that mattered. The Bone Eater's Well connected him to the future era where Kagome lived. Thanks to her, he was awake again. His world had altered in many small—and often frustrating—ways while he was sealed, but some things never changed. Fear. Suspicion. Contempt. People still looked at him the same way. Except for her. Maybe that's why he felt this almost compulsive urge to make sure she was still within reach.

With a stealth he knew he didn't need, Inuyasha darted across the shrine's empty courtyard and leapt onto the roof of Kagome's house. Cautiously sliding her window open, he swung through, landing with a soft thud on the floor beside her bed. Black hair spilled across pink blankets; dark lashes swept sleep-flushed cheeks. Hardly daring to blink, the hanyou crept closer. Her soft breathing, her steady heartbeat, her warm scent—they eased his mind. Kagome was real—the strange, kind, beautiful girl who looked at him with trust.

End Note: This drabble was written for the Live Journal community firsttweak and their prompt for Contest #01—Dawn. 300 words. First posted on July 1, 2009.