Author's note: Final part. Hope you enjoy it!

The next night he was there again, slumped casually against one of the roof supports smoking, as if he were simply there by chance and not through choice.

Tanyuu sat down near him but didn't speak. She couldn't help but be a little embarrassed at her actions from the night before...yet she trusted that Ginko would never mention it again unless she chose to bring it up. A small smile crept across her face, even then he would probably pretend that he had no idea of what she was talking about. That was Ginko's way...and his actions the night before were far from the impassive, indifferent character he liked to present.

After a while Tanyuu let her hand rest against his, then gradually snuck her hand into his, her cheeks flushed and her heart racing for fear that he might reject her touch. But instead his fingertips tightened briefly around hers before relaxing.

They sat in silence long into the night with just that one point of contact between them. It was enough...it was more than enough to get her through the long months of loneliness. Tanyuu didn't remember falling sleep, but when she did it was with a smile on her face.

Tanyuu woke with a cold certainty in her heart; Ginko was gone.

She knew it even before she pulled back the doors of the guest room to find his futon neatly folded or saw the single set of footprints in the freshly-fallen snow leading to the gate and beyond.

Ignoring the threat of snow beginning to fall once again, Tanyuu made her laborious way to the gate, leaning heavily on her stick. There, not far along the path, she could just make out the shadow of Ginko's back and catch the faint tune of his strangely tuneless whistling.

She took one step past the gate, lurched and almost fell. Some tiny part of her almost expected Ginko to catch her as he always seemed to have a sense of her movements...but he didn't. He was already too far away for that.

Tanyuu took one more tiny step, drew in her breath to call and then stopped. The call died in her throat before it could take flight; she could not ask the impossible.

Back straightening with determination she turned away from the retreating figure and began to make her slow way back to her home, her refuge, her cage.

He hadn't said goodbye, just as he never said goodbye everytime he left.

She tried to take it as a reassurance; no goodbye meant that he would come back. If he ever said goodbye it would mean that he really was going to disappear, just as her nightmare had prtended.

Her mushi were restless again, as if waking from a long sleep and it almost seemed as if they were reaching out, looking for the man now walking away from them. Tanyuu pushed them down savagely, focusing all of her attention on taking each step back to her room without faltering.

The sky was already dark and heavy with clouds promising snow so Tanyuu lit the lamp and folded herself painfully onto the cushion before her desk and began to write once again. If tears fell to smudge the ink it was no-one's business but her own. She would keep busy and the time until his next visit would pass swiftly...so she told herself every time he left...the pain of parting made every meeting more sweet...or bittersweet.

At the top of the next ridge a silver-haired traveller stopped to look back at the warm glow of the lantern through the grey morning. His face was unreadable but he seemed poised on the knife-edge of decision; continue or turn back? Once upon a time he had been strong enough to not even look back...but now...as he turned his back on the lonely house once again, he resolved not to look back again until the lantern was long out of sight...or else it would be too difficult to resist its pull.

Tanyuu looked with longing eyes into the distance as he faded into the forest.

Silently, it began to snow once more.

Author's note: Hope you enjoyed it and all feedback will be welcomed with open arms. Thank you for reading!

Chrikaru