InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Enough ❯ Enough ( Chapter 1 )

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Wish I had what I needed

To be on my own,

`Cause I feel so defeated

And I'm feeling alone…

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Pale sunlight streamed across her still form, reaching out to her with quiet fingers of pearly gold and stirring her gently from her sleep in the softest way possible; the serene incandescence of the morning was untouchable, too deep to be disturbed by brash alarms or harsh wake-up calls.

Slowly opening her eyes to the hazy dawn, she languidly pulled herself into a sitting position, allowing the sheets to pool around her waist and the sunlight to brush her face in a fuller and more warming manner. It illuminated her frame and haloed her dark hair with a calm, quiet light, consoling in a timid attempt to lift the weight that hung in the air. But the morning was young and tender, the wan yellow of its atmosphere baring the slight undercurrent of a dull, familiar despair.

The girl felt the tired ache renew itself within her chest upon recalling her surroundings, surroundings she should have long since become accustomed to. There were no sounds of birds in the distance, there was no scent of smoldering firewood, there was no comforting feeling of slumbering companions nearby, no pleasant hums of their sleeping breaths…

In their places were cold, unattached mechanics of the modern world, noiseless and empty. Convenience dissipated any warmth toward the items, and despite their commonness she could not help feel slightly dismayed at their familiarity.

She was home. She remembered now. This was where she belonged, with the other forlorn, loveless objects of her era.

She had made her choice and she'd accepted the consequences.

Kagome closed her eyes with a sad smile.

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And it all seems so helpless

And I have no plans-

I'm a plane in the sunset

With nowhere to land....

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The silence of morning was beautifully melancholy. He had watched it come, something inwardly compelling him to stay up all night to see the first moment the stars began to fade away to a milky amber sky. It wasn't like he needed the sleep anyways-he was strong enough to go without.

Dawn's chorus had not yet begun its symphony, and its absence weighed heavy in the air. Left in its stead was a dreary feeling of longing, a feeling that gnawed on the pit of his gut and left him feeling achingly empty. An ethereal still had settled over the vast landscape; it was as if the world had stopped spinning to take one last wistful gaze into the past.

The dawn radiated nostalgia.

Eyes the same pale wine color as the sunrise blinked somberly, the boy's face dappled with sunspots filtering through the leafy canopy of the Goshinboku. He stirred on his branch of the God Tree, folding his arms into the sleeves of his hamaka and turning an unreadable expression on the world.

He missed her. He could still see her face in his mind's eye, clear as day.

Even now, after he had accepted his path and knew fully well what to expect, Inu-Yasha couldn't help but turn an ear towards the well in hopes of hearing sounds from within. Deep in his heart, part of him still longed for a telltale sign of her long awaited return.

But for a year the well had remained silent.

And her scent had long since dissipated from the Sengoku Jidai.

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And all I see;

It could never make me happy.

And all my sandcastles

Spend their time collapsing…

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She rose languorously from the warm folds of her bed, stretching in a cat-like manner and making her way toward the slightly open window. A silent sigh escaped from her as she trailed a slender finger along the sun-warmed sill; there would be no one climbing through it anymore. Heck, it had been unused for a year already.

Outside, the world was still sleeping beneath a pearly dawn curtain-not a breath of wind disturbed the tranquility of the hour. Kagome's smile faded slightly as her eyes followed the lines of her backyard, tracing the outline of the mini-shrine and the abandoned well-house.

The well-house had long since been sealed-the ofudas crackled almost audibly on the windows and door, faithfully sustaining the magical barrier that protected her family from monsters that might crawl out of the well. It had been the only way she could think of to keep the demons in the feudal era, where they'd be easier to deal with… too bad the ofudas couldn't differentiate between enemy and ally.

They had banished him from her world forever.

Familiar tears pricked the back of her eyes, but she blinked them away with ease-her love was an old wound, and she knew how to swallow the ache...

Beyond it all, erected near the back of the temple, the Goshinboku stood proud and silent, its scarred face paling in the morning light.

Kagome's heart ached, longing to run her fingers down the smooth length of that bark-less mark. Making her way over to her dresser, she changed unhurriedly out of her night clothes into a comfortable sweater and skirt.

Her full-length mirror offered her little reassurance or counseling; she smoothed the skirt with splayed hands and smiled weakly at her reflection. Her appearance hadn't changed much in the past few years, but if one looked close enough they could detect a hint of remorse behind her grins.

She had made her decision a long time ago, but she couldn't help think that with her eyes so full of weary, weighted smiles, Inu-Yasha would have shouted at her for looking like Kikyou.

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Let me know that you hear me,

Let me know your touch,

Let me know that you love me,

Let that be enough...

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Gods be damned if he didn't regret not loving her when he had the chance. The girl had been the one to pick up the pieces of himself and put them back together again in a way no one else could. After all they had been through together, he couldn't help but care for her; she had become his entire universe. It was because of her that he was the person he was today.

And he hadn't told her until she was leaving.

But part of him figured she probably already knew. She was smarter than many gave her credit for, and she knew him better than he knew himself.

Still, so much time was wasted, and he would have given anything to get it back and put it to better use. All the bickering, all the temper tantrums, all the times he'd made her cry… oh, how he wished he could change it. Their love had so little time to blossom…

But she had to go.

There was no way he could convince her otherwise-he finally accepted that he had no tact whatsoever and that when Kagome's mind was set on something no one would persuade her to go back on her decision.

It wasn't like he disagreed that her choice was right-Naraku was dead and thousands of lives were avenged, the Shikon jewel had been used to put Kikyou to rest and would no longer fuel the time portal at the bottom of the Bone Eater's well. He couldn't ask her to leave her family and live 500 years from the life she was born into; she couldn't ask him to leave the friends that accepted him and live in a world that couldn't even handle the idea of his existence.

Their love wasn't enough to keep them together. They needed to be in their own worlds to survive and nothing - not even love-could change that.

So with a tearful goodbye, she packed up her things and sealed the well, taking his heart with her to the 20th century and leaving hers to be trapped in Feudal Japan.

With a sigh, Inu-Yasha leaned his head back against the trunk of the Goshinboku, her name escaping his lips in the form of a soft sigh: "Kagome…"

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It's my birthday tomorrow--
No one here could know

I was born this Thursday,

Twenty two years ago...

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Kagome made her way out to the God Tree, slightly surprised at how unearthly silent the world was. The trees and grass usually rustled with her movements, but it was like she was living with her life on mute, and nothing made a sound.

The Goshinboku was unchanged despite its astounding age-it was one of the few constants that carried the Sengoku Jidai over to the present, and in a way, it also carried her friends and adventures from the past as well. It was her only link to Inu-Yasha…

Reaching to touch the fang-studded rosary around her neck, she rolled the cool beads between her fingers.

She had cried when she took it off of him. It was a sign of finality that really struck her-their adventures had ended, and she would never see him again. He had given her a hard, smoldering look that bordered on the lines of angry and distraught-but at her tears he relented and wrapped his arms around her.

"Inu-Yasha," she had pressed the beads into his hand and folded his fingers over them, "promise me you'll be happy."

"Gods, Kagome…" His response had been to kiss her swiftly and pull her closer, slipping the beads back into her small hands. "Idiot. I wouldn't waste your love by being unhappy."

That promise had made all the difference in Kagome's life. The one she loved more than anything in the world loved her and was happy, even if they were apart. That thought alone warmed the loneliness from her heart.

Leaning up to run her palm over the arrow-scar high on the Goshinboku's trunk, she closed her eyes, feeling the faint thrums of miko power left in the flesh of the tree from where Inu-Yasha's fifty year sleep had occurred.

This tree was Inu-Yasha's tree. It was their tree. It was where they first met.

`Would he be there now?' Kagome wondered, seating herself at the base of the massive relic. `Would he be up there now, right at this moment, looking down here and wondering if I'm sitting down here?' The possibility that he was nearby was soothing.

She sighed and relaxed against the thick trunk with an honest smile, imagining Inu-Yasha's form in the branches above her, and in the brief instance before she fell into a doze, she thought she heard him whisper her name…

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And I feel stuck

Watching history repeating.

Yeah, who am I?

Just a kid who knows he's needy...

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The silence was deafening. His own whispers seemed cacophonous against the still backdrop of the newborn morning.

It had been so long since her name was spoken aloud-many found her memory desperately missed and thus tried to avoid conversing about her. It saved many the heartache of having to think about her.

But it was never like that to Inu-Yasha. When Kikyou had died, he'd gotten bitter and angry whenever anyone brought her name up in a conversation. Her memory was a tragic one, and it only brought about feelings of lost love and betrayal. However, the very thought of Kagome made him feel calm and needed, and though every fiber of his being wished for another chance with her, he knew that shunning her memory meant losing her more than ever.

There was no way in Hell he'd ever let that happen.

He felt something within him stir. Leaping from his perch high in the Goshinboku, he landed noiselessly at its base. Something about the tree's aura had changed without warning-had become comforting and soft in a way it had never quite been before.

With a wordless grunt, he sat at the throat of the tree where the gnarled roots created a cradle big enough for two. He and Kagome had sat there once upon a time, her head upon his shoulder and his hand in hers. Distantly, he wondered if maybe it were possible for he and Kagome to sit by each other again, if he sat just so and she sat just so beneath the heavy branches of the God Tree… Perchance they could be together again…

Kagome's face in his mind's eye smiled at him, filling his body with her soothing aura and embracing him with a loving memory and the rich scent of cherries.

The soil had grown soft over the years and the scent surrounding the tree felt familiar and welcoming-Inu-Yasha stifled a yawn. Perhaps the string of sleepless nights was finally catching up with him.

So, allowing his guard down a fraction in the warmth of Kagome's smile in his mind, he shut his eyes and relaxed into a light sleep, drifting off in the faint aroma of Kagome's scent.

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Let me know that you hear me,

Let me know your touch,

Let me know that you love me,

Let that be enough...

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And so they stayed until the stillness faded, feeling each other's presence and basking in its intimate warmth, giving into a love that was meant to transcend time.

In two separate worlds they shared a single, silent instance of unspoken understanding, reaching out with comfort and reassurance that they would not forget each other…

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Let me know that you hear me,

Let me know your touch,

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… and it was enough to remind them that they were not alone.

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Let me know that you love me,

Let that be enough...

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