InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Afraid to Love ❯ The Next Morning ( Chapter 18 )

Inuyasha…is not mine.

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18: The Next Morning

Kagome awoke the next morning with no clue of what had happened between Sango and Sesshomaru, so she had no idea why Sango was giving her strange looks. She was unconsciously checking if there was anything on her face with her hands. Why else would Sango stare at her like that? She pulled Sango aside after breakfast. "Is there anything on my face?" "No…" "Why are you staring at me? What's wrong?" Sango gulped. "Well, you seem to have a black speck near your eye. Let me get that for you." Sango brushed off the imaginary black speck.

Kagome leaned against Ah and Un thought dancing in her mind. Sure, they made perfect sense to her, but they would've made no sense to the invaders in her mind. `Oh, thank goodness Sango took off that black speck. Where is he? He wasn't at breakfast. Hmm…I wonder if Jaken lost Rin yet. Aw, crap. My `feminine products' are no longer with me and…crap. Oi, I should see if Rin is safe. No, never mind, she's over there with Sango. Why am a leaning on a dragon?' Okay, confusing is an understatement.

Sesshomaru walked into the camp and Kagome stood up immediately, knowing that it was time to return to the castle and return to her life as a servant. She walked towards Rin to prepare her for the journey home, but she felt herself being pulled towards the well by a force: homesickness. She stood over the well, looking down into it. `Momma, Sota, Grandpa…' Before she knew it, Sesshomaru stood beside her. "Is this the well?" he asked. Kagome nodded, blinking away tears. She felt…so close to home, yet so far away. That phrase had never made sense to her until today. She was a foot away from home, but 500 years away from her family.

Sesshomaru picked her up in his arms and jumped into the well, hoping that he could pass. A blue light enveloped them before Sesshomaru found both him and Kagome in the same well again. This well, though, was full of the stench of humans. Holding his breath, he leapt out of the well and saw a `house'. Kagome wiggled out of his grasp and he set her feet on the ground. "What did you do that for?" she nearly screamed. "I recall saying that I wished to visit your time."

After a few `hints' about 21st century life, Kagome led the youkai into her home. "Kagome, it's been so--. Who is that?" "Mother, this is Lord Sesshomaru of the Western Lands. I am a servant of the Western Lands now." Ms. Higurashi pulled her daughter into a warm embrace. "Sweetie, I was so worried! I thought you had gotten hurt or something! Why didn't you have Inuyasha come and tell me that you were okay? I was worried sick over you! Speaking of Inuyasha, where is he, and why are you a servant?" she asked, overwhelming Kagome with questions.

"Inuyasha…is dead to me now." Kagome growled angrily. Ms. Higurashi's joyful expression turned solemn. "What did he do this time, hon?" she asked, concern lacing through her words. "He…he married Kikyo and he…killed almost everyone." The older woman sighed heavily while shaking her head in disapproval. "That young hanyou… Why would he do something like that?" Sota ran into the room when he heard Kagome's voice. His eyes were red and puffy, but a smile lit up his face at the sight of his sister. Although they had the usual sibling rivalries, they were very close. "Kagome!" he whispered loudly.

Kagome smiled, but noticed the way Sota looked up at Sesshomaru. She winced. This was not a good sign. "Hey! Who are you? You look just like Inuyasha. Are you two related? Are you a hanyou?" Sesshomaru growled disgustedly. "I am Lord Sesshomaru of the Western Lands. I regret to say, am the half-brother of Inuyasha. Although I owe you no answers, I am a demon. Never compare me to a half-demon such as Inuyasha." he said in a steely voice. Sota merely brushed the words away. "Oh, cool."

Ms. Higurashi tugged her daughter into the kitchen while Sota introduced Sesshomaru to modern technology. "Honey, now tell me what's wrong." Kagome sat down with her mother at the table and told her about the occurrences of the past few days, including the dreams and the wounds. "You are lucky." her mother said. Kagome's eyes nearly popped straight out of her head since they were opened so wide. "Wh-Wh-What?!" Kagome's mother sighed as she stared out the window. "I…would much rather know what my goal in life is than to live pointlessly until the day that I die to find that I have achieved nothing."

Kagome nodded at her mother's words. "I guess…I guess I am pretty lucky. Still, I don't see how I can just fall in love with him. Even if I do, it's preposterous to even think that he would fall in love with me. Maybe they chose the wrong person. Maybe I wasn't supposed to bear this soul. Maybe it was Kikyo." Ms. Higurashi turned back around to look Kagome in the eye. "Things happen for a reason, dear. Everything shall end well. They chose you for a reason. They chose you because you are capable of doing it. About Lord Sesshomaru, though, that might take some time. No one can hate the world for no reason. Get to know him better. Only time can tell."

"Yeah, sure, Mother. I suppose it would be easy to fall in love with someone that has tried to KILL you." Kagome said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Yet, you fell in love with Inuyasha, did you not? I do recall you saying that he tried to kill you before. Sesshomaru didn't know you. Inuyasha knew Sango, Miroku, Shippo, and Koga, yet he hurt them and killed them for a sphere of glass."

Sesshomaru's incredible sense of hearing picked up every word of the mother-daughter conversation, even as the young human boy before him jabbered on endlessly. In truth, the boy's words were quite interesting and he was curious about `technology', but he found the women's conversation a tad more interesting. Was her really such a horrible person? Was he really so hard to love? Most importantly, how could he get Kagome to understand him more? He didn't want to sound like a lovesick puppy (A/N: …pun intended…), but Kagome was an irreplaceable person.

He inwardly thanked Ms. Higurashi for not stopping Kagome from returning to their time even though he would not have allowed otherwise, whether she agreed to it or not. After the conversation was over, he returned his attention to `Sota', who still had not noticed that he had not heard a single word.