InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Broken Fates ❯ Un-Couple's Counseling? ( Chapter 19 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Chapter 19: Un-Couple's Counseling?!

"How the hell does that work?"

Kagome was dumbfounded. She was having another session with Mika, and had just been handed the demand that she start coming to 'couples' counseling with Yasha.

Needless to say, she didn't take it well.

"Okay, first of all, we're not a couple, second, we're not a couple, and third - WE'RE NOT A COUPLE! We are FRIENDS, and last I checked, friends don't go to counseling sessions together."

Mika sighed, and sat back in her chair. "Perhaps not, under normal circumstances. But as you well know, your situation is as far from normal as it gets." She chuckled as Kagome rolled her eyes. "You both have issues from the past that need to be dealt with, together. If you like, think of it as un-couple's counseling - I honestly don't care how you look at it, as long as you do it."

She folded her arms across her chest and glowered at the older woman. "And I suppose if I don't agree, you'll get my family after me - and your father, too, right?"

"Whatever it takes," she agreed pleasantly.

"Fine. Do what you want. I don't care anymore." Kagome was getting angry. "I'm honestly getting tired of all the meddling - you all need to get your own damn lives and stop playing with mine. The kami have done that enough as it is."

Mika tilted her head curiously. "Why is it that you are so against this, Kagome?"

"Because I really don't want to dig up the past any more than we are already doing now. I get it. Inuyasha is the past, he didn't want me, and I'm back here and have to find a way to make a life. Big deal. That's what I'm doing. So why can't all you people just leave me the hell alone to find my own damn way?" she growled angrily.

"It's not as if I haven't spent the last years of my life fighting to survive and find a way to defeat Naraku five hundred years in the past - I think I can figure out how to take care of myself here just fine."

"No one said you couldn't, Kagome. We just want to help."

"Oh, right. And where was all the help when I needed it - back when I was fighting for my life, being covered in youkai guts constantly, dealing with that bitch Kikyou and her insults, and getting 'combat stress'? Now, when it's all over, people want to help?" She snorted and waved a hand dismissively. "Whatever."

"You have a lot of anger still tied up inside, Kagome. You need to get it out, so it can stop affecting you."

"I think I'm entitled to my anger, thank you very much. And while it might be there, I don't let it take over my life anymore. What all you people don't seem to understand is that for me, being left alone to deal with it on my own is the best way. I don't hold grudges for very long - as long as I'm allowed to work through it without interference, and I don't have people dredging it up every other day. All this," she waved a hand again to indicate Mika's office, "is only dragging it out. It's counter-productive."

Mika studied her for several minutes, and sighed. "I'll make you a deal. Come to counseling sessions with Yasha - and I'll let you out of the personal ones. Will that work?"

It was Kagome's turn to settle back and stare at Mika for a few minutes.

It's annoying - having to come in with Yasha and talk like we're some kind of married couple, but at least this way, I'll still have only one appointment a week - and since they're gonna make me come whether I agree to this or not...

"Fine. I'll come with Yasha - and this is the last single session."

"Agreed." Mika nodded, pleased. For these two, the couple's counseling is going to be more important now, anyway.

Kagome stood abruptly, nodding back at her sharply. "Just let Yasha know when we need to be here - he can pass the information on to me," she said, then turned without waiting for confirmation, and walked out the door.

Hopefully soon, I can get rid of this stupid couples thing, too, and get on with my life.

The way I want to live it.

---cCc---

Yasha shut his phone off, and sighed, looking over at Shippo, who was string at him quizzically.

"That was Mika. She got Kagome to agree to couple's counseling - though she said she was really put out about it. Apparently, she's decided it's 'un-couples counseling'."

Shippo burst out laughing, ignoring Yasha's pathetic look. "That's Kagome, all right. She always did have a way with words."

"That was Mika's phrase for it - but I guess Kagome took it and ran with it."

"She wouldn't be Kagome if she didn't." He cast a quick glance his direction, before turning his eyes back to the path they were on. "So what about this is bothering you, Yash?"

He rolled his eyes at the cut-off version of his name, but answered anyway. "I guess I'm frustrated. It's been almost a month since she agreed to be friends - and there's been nothing else. We're no closer, her and I, than you and I are... I wasn't expecting us to be sleeping together by now or anything - but a little softening in her towards the idea of us as a couple would be nice."

"Let me ask you something. How long do people end up being friends before they become a couple?"

"Uhhh," he looked a bit confused, "there's no set time, ya know. For some it's months, some years - and some days. Why?"

"Then why are you worried about it? Let it go, Yasha. It's not like you're on a schedule or anything. Enjoy hanging with her - enjoy just being with her. The rest will come."

His shoulders slumped. "Yeah... I guess. It's just that it seems that I've been waiting forever - sometimes I wonder if it'll ever end, you know?"
Shippo clapped a hand to the hanyou's shoulder with a wry smile. "Yeah, man, I know. I waited five hundred years to see her again."

Yasha let out a choked laugh and held out his hands. "Okay, okay, point taken. You win, and I'll try to have more patience."

"That's the spirit."

Nothing more was said as they walked in companionable silence through the park, heading for the place that was home to both their hearts.

---cCc---

Here she comes - right on time. Step one in the make Kagome jealous plan: let her see me with other girls.

Hojo had basically been stalking Kagome for some time. He was pretty much aware of everything she did - he knew when she went out with those two creeps he'd met at her place that time she'd broken his heart, he knew when she went shopping, he even knew when she went for counseling.

And it was all part and parcel of his plot to make Kagome realize that he was perfect for her, and that she really wanted him.

By flaunting other women in her face.

So, this was the first attempt. He'd planned this little 'impromptu meeting' down to the second - they'd stumble into her as she left the counselor's office, and invite her to lunch, where he would hang all over the other girl.

Hopefully, he'd see a little of the green monster.

He just didn't understand her sometimes. For years, he'd waited on the sidelines for her, hoping against hope that she'd notice him - he'd turned down every other girl that had made passes - all just for her. They would be perfect for each other - if only she'd pay attention and see him. He didn't think she ever really had actually looked at him as a potential lover, and it was time that changed.

He'd often wondered just who it was that was taking up all of her time and attention, but it wasn't until the school festival that time in junior high that he'd gotten his first inkling. Even then, he'd never been sure, because while it had seemed that the two were overly familiar with each other, he'd never seen that guy again.

Now he knew for sure that it had been that guy - and he, while not liking to say he was glad the guy was dead, was certainly glad he was no longer around. What made him uneasy, is that guys relative that was now hanging around.

She wouldn't actually date another guy from the same family, would she? In her grief, like a rebound thing, she might fool herself into seeing this guy as the one she lost. I can't let that happen.

I won't let that happen. Kagome is supposed to be mine.

"Ah! Higurashi-san! It is nice to see you," he said, with a slight bow.

Kagome was rather abruptly knocked out of her thoughts by the sound of Hojo's voice, and she looked up in surprise, noting the young man, with a woman wrapped around his arm. Her brows raised in surprise, and she smiled politely.

"Oh, Hello, Hojo-san. How are you?"

He smiled charmingly at her. "I am well, Higurashi-san." He bowed his head towards the young woman on his arm, and said, "This is my girlfriend, Fushita Kaori, Kaori, this is a friend from school, Higurashi, Kagome."

Kagome smiled widely at the girl. "It is nice to meet you Fushita-san. And you, Hojo-san, but if you will excuse me," she checked her watch, and frowned, "I am running late, and need to get moving." She turned and moved off, calling over her shoulder at an oddly frozen young man, "I'm glad to see you've found someone to make you happy, Hojo-san! Bye!"

Hojo stared after her, angry. That had not gone at all as planned. She'd taken off before he could get her to go to lunch with them, and she'd not showed any signs of jealousy at all.

Dammit! Will she never stop and look at me?

He tightened his arm around the girl with him, and stiffly moved off - leaving her wondering what was going on.

Hojo was getting himself in deep with his plans. He just didn't know how deep.

---cCc---

Panting, heart pounding and sweat dewing her forehead, Kagome sprung up from her prone position in her bed, a whimper still echoing in her room

Closing her eyes, she tried to get her heart and breathing to calm, and she lifted an arm to wipe the damp from her brow.

What was that? That dream... the well was calling me. But why? The magic's gone, it's fully sealed - it's only a well again.

So why these nightmares?

Swinging her feet off the bed, she sat on the edge of it and sighed, bracing herself on her hands, then standing and heading for her window. Moving the curtains to the side, she stared out at the wellhouse, a dark shadow among others in the bright moonlight, and sighed, leaning her forehead against the cool glass and closing her eyes in tired sadness.

The pain just doesn't stop, does it? Will I ever find a time where everything stops hurting? Or am I doomed to re-live the hurt every night for the rest of my lie?

As bad as it sounds, I'm almost hoping it isn't a long life. I just want peace...

And if the only way to find it is death, then I'm willing to beg the kami for mercy.

Mercy. Heh.

Mercy for what? A tortured timeline, that's what. I'm getting tormented as a punishment for doing what? Oh, yeah, for my previous incarnation causing me harm.

Why does that sound so fucked up? Funny enough, it sounds like modern-day justice - blame the victim. Kikyou tortured me, so now the kami torture me for her torturing me... damn. How do they even keep track of crap like that? That's more twisted then even Naraku could have figured out.

With another tired sigh, she opened her eyes again, and stared out at the night, idly watching the moonlight flash and twinkle as the breeze moved the trees to and fro.

I just want to be empty. Take this broken soul and leave me with nothing. No past, no future, just this present right here - in the deep of the night, silent and calm, no one to draw me from this peace.

Voice a merely a whisper of a whisper, she softly began singing.

"Empty spaces, fill me up with holes..."

"Distant faces, with no place left to go..."

Heh. Isn't that the truth?

"Without you, within me, I can't find no rest..."

Damn you, Inuyasha... why can't you just leave me alone? Get out of my mind, out of my dreams...out of my heart. And take that bitch you chose remnants with you - I want every part of both of you out of my life - out of my memories.

She chuckled, a sour sound in the dark room. "I must be the most contrary woman alive - when I have my memory, I wish I had amnesia - but when I had amnesia, I wanted my memory back. What a fucked up life."

Shaking her head, she pulled away from the window and laid back down in her empty bed, back to the room as she faced a blank wall.

And there's me. Nothing to show for all the years I've been alive so far, she reached out and touched a spot on that wall - a blemish, except a few million scars, inside and out.

So much for life.

---cCc---

Sesshoumaru watched silently as Kagome stared out into the night, and he could easily see where her glance rested first.

The wellhouse.

Beginning and end of her problems - it had taken her to the past, to a sealed half-demon, and then brought her back several years older, and far more scarred than a young woman her age should ever be, and left her here, tired of life already.

That was something that he could understand.

His life had always, from almost the first year of his life, been about duty. His duty to his parents, then his duty to his position. Never had there been a search for happiness - it was all about what he had to do for others sakes.

If he were to ever be given the chance to find something for himself, for his own happiness and no one elses, he would have chosen the miko he was watching. He'd wanted her for centuries... and he knew full well he'd never have her - not even in death. She was always destined for another.

He could understand the point of the kami in putting her in his path and letting him love the one woman on the planet he could never have.

Payback, plain and simple. Karma.

For all the harm he had caused in his earlier years, this was the price he would pay. As far as he was concerned, it was worse than eternal damnation...

Or maybe it was eternal damnation.

It certainly seemed as though it were so from where he was standing.

He had often wondered what she would say if he were ever to tell her how he really felt about her.

Probably die laughing - a hundred years from now. The mere idea of me, the Killing Perfection, loving a ningen female...

And yet, it is no more than the simple truth.

He sighed as he picked up the soft whispers of her voice, even through her window, then a sad smile flirted with one corner of his mouth for just a fractio of a second.

Amnesia. It would be welcome, indeed. To forget this life - to forget her. I am weary, truly, and ready for rest.

Soon.

Perhaps once I have fulfilled Inuyasha's final wishes, and watched her marry Yasha...

I have a worthy heir to pass the responsibility on to - I am no longer really needed, and I think I have seen enough of the endless centuries passing by.

Even youkai can only stand so many years...

Before they break.

---cCc---

A/N: The couple of lyrics above are from an old Backstreet Boy's song (yes, them) simply because those few words fit so well. I do not own that song, the 'Boys', or anything else. Just to let everyone know.

Amber