InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ For Such a Time As This ❯ At the Beginning With You ( Epilogue )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Wingson 
and everything sorts itself out!
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 12.13.2003 | Pages: 5 | Words: 7.0K | Visits: 504 | Status: Completed
and everything sorts itself out!
Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Drama | Type: Continuation | Uploaded On: 12.13.2003 | Pages: 5 | Words: 7.0K | Visits: 504 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: For the last time, me no own!!!
Warnings: Kikyo angst, Inu/Kag fluff, Mir/San fluff, VERY strong PG-13 rating, PLEASE re-read the end of the last chapter and the beginning of chapter 6 if you are confused, because it has been a long time.
Translation:
Kanji: set of characters that make up part of the Japanese language. Represents entire words. Combined with kana to form the entire language
Chit: a foolish little girl. This is an English word, but an older one, so I thought I would define it here. I could not think of another word that fit the flow as well.
Hentai: mild word for pervert or perverted
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For Such a Time as This
Epilogue: At the Beginning with You
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Inuyasha?" Sango stood at the edge of the clearing, watching the hanyou pace around the well.
It had been a strange couple of months. Since the storm, Shippo had spent more time with Kikyo than anyone else. Sango was glad that Shippo was no longer starving himself, but she was still a little untrusting of the miko. Not that she had done anything wrong, but her history was against her. She was even worried about Kohaku, though he seemed to be healing better under Kikyo's tutelage than anything she had tried in the two weeks the miko had slept.
Kikyo did nothing to earn their trust. She spent her entire time in the shrine, and only now did they regret that they did not watch her more closely. But the amount of youkai attacks had increased with the absence of Naraku, and Kikyo had, in the past month, recommended several youkai from Kagome's memory. Yet she refused to go on the journeys to vanquish them. Not that Sango truly minded. Miroku, as far as she could tell, had not looked at another woman since Kagome's death. She now rather enjoyed the time alone with the monk.
She was paying for it now. Inuyasha had practically not spoken to anyone since the storm, so they hadn't realized that Sesshomaru had shown up in the past couple of weeks every time they had been off on youkai hunts. Yet this week he did not. He had come yesterday. It was an odd battle to watch, because Inuyasha hardly seem to fight, yet Sesshomaru did not press his advantage. Sango had been prepared to aid him, but he never needed it. Then the girl, Rin, had run up, screaming something about Jaken. Sesshomaru, looking almost relieved at the interruption, gathered the child and left.
Sango should have known something was wrong then, especially when Inuyasha had revealed Sesshomaru's pattern. Or at the very least when Kikyo didn't come down for lunch. Kohaku had, and she had been a fool and given him another lunch to take up to the miko, who apparently had a difficult case to work on. Her only excuse had been that she was still tired from the fighting they had done in the past weeks. Who would have thought that a youkai tree would be that hard to kill? And this week they had battled an army of the undead. So she wasn't at all suspicious until Kikyo had not come down for dinner. This time, Shippo went up with the meal. Fairly soon he came hurtling down, yelling that Kikyo was scary when she was concentrating on a patient.
Why hadn't she remembered that foxes were tricksters at heart? It had been so long since the young fox had tried a trick that she was completely unprepared. Kaede had gone to the shrine this morning, and returned quickly, saying that the miko wasn't there. Kohaku and Shippo had looked away, shamefaced, and the manhunt had begun. Inuyasha had led them unerringly to the well.
He had immediately jumped in, but the well refused to let him though. The howl that rose up then broke Sango's heart.
And so they stood, Sango and Miroku on the side of the clearing, Shippo and Kohaku beside the well, and Inuyasha pacing and cursing. Then Kohaku stiffened, Shippo gave a cry, and Inuyasha whirled to glare at the well.
A voice drifted up. "Is anybody there to help me out?"
* * *
She woke, her head once again pillowed in her arms on top of her desk. No dreams had disturbed her sleep, and her immediate thought was that she had failed. Not wanting to confirm that truth, she stood up and wandered over to her window. If that plan hadn't worked, then she was giving up. She had no more ideas. Making a sudden decision, she stalked over to the journal. Good news or bad, she had to know. Before she could touch the journal, however, there was a tentative knock on the door.
"Kikyo?" her mother said as she poked her head in.
"Mama?" Kagome said, her face pale. "Why did you call me that?"
The realization dawned slowly on her mother's face. "Kagome?" she whispered
"Mama?" Kagome said, confused.
She was suddenly engulfed in a hug the like of which she hadn't known. Wait. Yes, she had. The one time she had shown up in the kitchen after her attempt on Kikyo had failed, her mother had hugged her like this. Gently, she removed herself from her mother's embrace.
Staring intensely into her mother's eyes, she said, "Why did you call me that?"
Slowly the story came out. How she had disappeared for over three months. How much they had worried. How the girl, Kikyo, had come back the previous day. The explanations and compliments she had given. The hope she had offered. How she had sat there for most of the day, writing in the journal. And finally, the nervous tension that her mother had felt when she had knocked on the door, and the joy that overwhelmed her at the word 'Mama'.
Kagome was in shock. The plan worked? But if it had worked, was she still in the time loop? Her mother caught her confusion, and her frequent glances at the journal. Used to her daughter's curiosity, she bowed out gracefully after extracting a promise to return quickly from the past should she feel the need to go there.
As soon as her mother left, Kagome grabbed the notebook and opened it, collapsing on the bed to read.
* * *
Dear Kagome
First, I apologize if this cannot be read. I am attempting to use your knowledge of kanji to use more modern symbols, but I might regress.
When you friends discovered what you truly meant to do, the reaction was violent. Most were lost to grief. The wolf turned tail and ran, but not before Kagura had managed to flirt and plead her way into convincing Sesshomaru to revive the wolf's kin. From other rumors, the wind child seems determined to undo all that she accomplished under Naraku.
I collapsed and slept for two weeks, restoring the energy lost by both of us that day. Perhaps if I had been awake, I could have reversed some of the events that happened after. Perhaps I could have settled down and enjoyed the life you had wanted me to have. Perhaps. Probably not.
Four things prevented me from doing this.
The first was your companions. The monk and the exterm...no, I guess I should call them Sango and Miroku, shouldn't I? They deserve that much respect, at least. Anyway, Sango and Miroku were constantly watching me, expecting me to react in certain ways, and being disappointed when I did not. Sango's eyes were usually filled with suspicion as well, but I thought that that had more to do with my care of her brother than anything else. She's blind if she can't see that Kohaku has a healer's soul. That is my one unselfish regret in doing this; I have to give up his training. I beg you to find some books on the subject and continue to teach him. But all this is truly beside the point. The two regarded me with an expectation of seeing someone I am not. But I could have dealt with that.
The second was Inuyasha. I must admit a little bitterness here, because the light in his eyes died with you. I noticed it when I first saw the two of you together. There was a gentleness in his eyes that had only just begun to show before Naraku. It had bloomed so much in the short time you had known him that it filled me with hate and jealousy. I was the one to start that change, it should have been me that completed it. Me! But there is little I can do right now about it. His eyes were dead. I tried, for two months, to rekindle the spark, to light the flame that would make Inuyasha himself again. When it didn't happen, I knew it never could. But I could have dealt with that as well. I wouldn't have been happy, but I had lived, content, as a miko for so long that I knew I could do it again.
The third thing was Shippo. Even more than Inuyasha, the little fox withdrew into himself. He would not eat, would barely sleep, and spent all of the day sitting on your sleeping bag. After the first shock had worn off, I ignored him, for he wanted you, not me. It almost surprises me today that I could have let him die, merely because he was youkai. You, however, wouldn't let me.
And thus we come to the forth reason. I am not sure you realized just how much of yourself you left within me. You were constantly there, not so much a voice in my head as a set of memories that weren't my own. Unlike the others, who seemed to be constantly looking for something that wasn't there, you seemed to understand by dilemma and attempted to help me. Whenever a situation go particularly difficult, whenever they seemed to expect more from me than I could handle, you would provide a memory that could explain their behavior or at least tell me what they were expecting. That behavior humbled me. How could you be so selfless? I know that, had our positions been reversed, I would have at least felt resentful, and would have tried to hinder you.
This last reason is why I am writing now, hoping and praying that you did actually die under my arrow so long ago. If you did, that would mean that the Shikon no Tama had brought you back to the beginning of the time loop. Throughout the first three reasons runs a common theme. You. They all wanted you back. I can almost see you shaking your head in disbelief. Do not try and deny it, or say it was just grief. If it was nothing more than grief, then I only exacerbate the problem by being there. When we first switched places, you gave me four reasons for your actions, reasons that, while technically accurate, are no longer true for the situation.
I will start with the most believable. You could have managed your plan while in your own body. It would have been more difficult for me to force your powers to mature, but it could have been done. Whether you could have convinced me to do it is another matter.
I was right when I said that the dead merely wish for life again. But you did not listen close enough. I said that the dead wish, 'for that which they can never have, life.' It's true that I am alive again, but it is not my body, nor is it completely my soul anymore. Even if I am really alive, and have to eat and sleep, I do not feel so. I remember being dead, remember being subordinate to you in our personality. I remember the peaceful rest it was. I might have wished for life once, but no longer.
The other two reasons are no longer valid, but for circumstances that I know, having lived with your memories for three months, you will not believe. You say you do not belong in that time. That might have been true upon the very instant of your arrival, but one you pulled that arrow from the tree, you made this time you own. If I had been revived and had pulled that arrow out, I have no doubt that Inuyasha's first action would have been to kill me. I can tell that you won't believe that, so I will give you another example. Can you imagine Sango, a youkai exterminator, willingly traveling with a youkai and a hanyou she had not, as with Kirara, tamed? She is a proud woman, yet Inuyasha is her leader. She does this because you are her friend, and you trust him. And before you start protesting that you were all working toward a common goal, I will say that she has stayed even after Naraku was destroyed. For the first couple of months, she stayed out of an irrational hope that you could come back.
When, a month ago, acceptance began to appear in her eyes, I knew I had to act quickly. I was by this time gambling everything on this night, and did not want you return home to be greeted by your friends scattered to the winds. So I used your memories to send Miroku and Sango on missions. I think you will be pleased to know that the youkai tree has been taken care of, as well as the undead army of the witch's children.
The final reason you gave me, that of Inuyasha's love for me, I will not even bother to refute. Not because it is still true, but because you would never believe me. You will have to experience that for yourself before you doubts will rest. I am sorry that you have such self doubt, but I know that I am the partial cause of it. My mere presence caused so much confusion in his mind that I do not even really blame him. When you are someone who considers any feeling to be a human weakness, how can you possibly accept that you love one girl? When that girl dies, yet remains, having betrayed you, it is practically impossible to admit your feelings for another. I do not believe he will ever say the words, but if he does, be doubly grateful, for he never relaxed enough, trusted enough to tell me. But I will stop there. I know you are shaking your head at me.
You gave me four reasons to stay. Now I give you three more to return. Three that you ignored in all your planning.
Sango, Miroku, Shippo.
I have made all the arguments in my power to convince you of your own importance; the rest lies in the past. The cause of the time loop resides in the well. Carefully climb down into the well and concentrate. The Shikon no Tama is trapped in between times, but will come if you call. Then you can travel the well as normal, and the changes you made should stay.
I wish you a good life, and know you will lead it well.
Kikyo
On the following pages I have, on the advice of your mother, written a farewell to Inuyasha. I would prefer if you do not read it, but if he cannot read it on his own, I would like for you to be the one to read it to him.
* * *
Kagome read through the journal, hardly knowing what to think. Kikyo seemed to know her well, for she predicted all of her reactions. She flatly disregarded all references to Inuyasha as too biased, yet found she could trust Kikyo's judgment on other matters. Thinking about what she had read, her heart tightened in fear over Shippo. Frowning, she flipped back through the journal, but could find no evidence that the kit still lived. The best assurance she had was that something within herself even when dead would not let Kikyo give up on him.
Once she read that part, she found herself reading through the whole of it again, slower. This time she found herself giving more credence to Kikyo's findings. If she could trust the girl on judgments on people she had barely known three months ago, how could she discredit Kikyo's judgment on someone that she had known so much better? When she got to the post script again, she felt an irresistible temptation to read what the miko had written to Inuyasha. Forcibly, she slammed the journal closed and stood up to remove herself from the temptation.
If she wanted the timeline to stay the same, she had several things to do before she could go back through the well. She quickly went down to the well house and carefully climbed down into the well. Sure enough, the Shikon no Tama was glowing on the bottom, caught in the middle of the well. She called it to her, and almost immediately felt the difference in the well. How could she have missed this before? It seemed as if the Shikon no Tama had been telling her what was wrong, but she was too caught up in her own worries to realize it.
The next hour she spent in the loving care of her family, who were overjoyed at her return. She actually paid attention to her grandfather's stories for once, and played at least two or three video games with Souta. Of course she was both thoroughly bored and thoroughly trounced by the end, but the look on their faces was worth it. Finally, her mother seemed to sense her impatience and bustled her out of the room and to her things. Exchanging one last lingering hug, Kagome gathered the journal and the jewel and went through the well.
More out of habit than anything else, and without even glancing up, she called out, "Is anybody there to help me out?"
Instantly Inuyasha appeared before her. Within the space of a thought, he dragged her out of the well and pinned her to a tree. Claws at her throat, he snarled, "What did you do to them? If you so much as touched a hair on that little brat of a brother's head, I swear I'll rip you limb from limb, Kagome's body or no."
'Kikyo was wrong about his dead eyes,' she thought inanely, staring at the fiery orbs inches from her own. "Inuyasha?" she said tentatively.
Flinching at the snarl she received as an answer, her gaze shifted towards the other in the clearing. They were no help. Sango had a hand on her sword, ready to draw it out, and Miroku held his staff at he ready. She turned back to Inuyasha and swallowed convulsively. "I haven't hurt my family, if that's what you mean," she said quietly.
The remark only caused the claws to press further into her neck. "Never your family," was the guttural response. "They are hers. HERS!"
There was a sigh from directly behind him. "This Sesshomaru did not spend four weeks fighting a pathetic creature such as yourself only to have you kill the girl when it looks like the plan has worked."
Inuyasha spun around so fast that he left four parallel scratches down the left side of Kagome's neck. Sesshomaru stood on the other side of the clearing with Rin. The child ignored the hanyou's snarl as she skipped over to Kagome. Blinking curiously, she asked, "Did it work?"
Kagome sighed as she sank down to the ground. "Did what work, Rin?"
Apparently that was answer enough for the girl, because she grinned and turned back to her master. "Kagome-nesan is back, Sesshomaru-sama. Kikyo-sama calls Rin, Rin-chan, but Kagome-nesan just calls Rin, Rin."
Sesshomaru turned to leave, but Kagome stood hurriedly. "You distracted him?" she called. "You fought with him so that she could check the well?"
The lord paused, then nodded, no more than a brief inclination of his head.
"Thank you," she said.
Without even acknowledging the remark, he left the clearing, Rin scrambling after. The silence after his departure did not last long, for with Rin's declaration, Shippo could not restrain himself from launching himself at Kagome, screaming her name.
"I knew it would work!" he cried as Kagome caught him. "Kikyo said it was only a small chance, but when me and Rin could convince Sesshomaru, I knew it would work! I missed you so much!"
Kagome could not find a response to that, so settled for hugging the kit close and nuzzling in his hair. Their moment was interrupted by Inuyasha.
"Stupid brat," he said, "can't you see that they're in league together? That isn't Kagome, it's Kikyo, and she's working with my bastard brother to-"
"No!" Shippo cried. "It's Kagome!"
"Idiot!" Inuyasha screamed. "Kagome is dead! She's not coming back!"
"Inuyasha!" Something in Kagome snapped. "OUSWARI!!"
The cry rang through the clearing, but there was no resounding thump to accompany it. Belatedly, Kagome remembered that she had removed the rosary from Inuyasha before she had gone to confront Naraku. Inuyasha stared blankly at her for a second then grabbed her arm.
Kagome was so startled that she actually squeaked and dropped Shippo. For the second time in fifteen minutes, she found herself pulled close to an emotionally unstable hanyou. This time, however, his eyes weren't clouded by anger. He was afraid, she realized suddenly, afraid and the tiniest bit hopeful.
"Kagome?" he whispered.
His own voice seemed to startle him and he dropped her arm and bolted. Kagome exchanged a glance with Sango and Miroku. Sango was grinning madly, but waved her on to follow Inuyasha. Miroku walked up behind her friend and, grinning wildly, enveloped Sango in a hug. Raising her eyebrows both at Sango acceptance and how Miroku's hands did not stray, she nodded and ran after Inuyasha, pausing only to pick up the journal and the jewel. Stuffing the jewel in the pocket of her skirt and letting her senses guide her, she soon found herself at the Goshinboku clearing. Peering up, she could barely make out Inuyasha amongst the foliage.
"Inuyasha?" she called.
There was no response.
"Please say something," she tried again. "Yell at me if you want, but please talk to me."
Still no response, and Kagome was running out of ideas. Suddenly she remembered the journal in her hand. Bringing it out, she flipped to the pages with Kikyo's message to the hanyou.
"Kikyo wrote you a message," she said. "Would you like to read it?"
Silence.
"She gave me permission to read it to you, if you couldn't," she continued, gathering her courage. "Would that be ok?"
Taking the silence as an affirmative, and indulging her own curiosity, she began to read. It was slow going, and not only because Kikyo had switch back to an older set of kanji characters.
"Inuyasha
"Let me start off with what is easiest. I love you. It took me three months now to discover what took six months to realize fifty years ago. Even after all of the betrayal, misplaced trust, and months and months of hate seeking vengeance, I love you. It makes me hurt to see you hurt, and I want to do everything in my power to fix it. But my love is not enough.
"For you are hurting. Three months you have been hurting. I can see it as clearly as I can see the other's pain, though you are not as obvious as Shippo. You are hurting, and my love is not enough, may even make you hurt worse. It takes great courage to say this. I love you, but I know that you do not love me."
Here Kagome paused, unsure if she really wanted to continue. A glance up at the tree convinced her otherwise. Inuyasha had moved down a couple of branches
"I know you loved me once. I would not have agreed to give you the jewel if I did not know that. But I also know that your love for me is less now than it was before. Or if not less, then it has changed. You do not love me as deeply as before, neither of us do. Nothing could compare to the light that shines in your eyes when she is around. That light has been gone for three months. That light has always proven to me that you are alive, and is part of the reason I am doing this now.
"You know, even as I write this, I am bombarded with images of the two of us, together. It is almost as if Kagome's memories hold out more hope for our relationship than we do. There is the other half of my revelation from these three months. She loves you."
Kagome slowed down even further as her voice got clopped with tears.
"She loves you so much more than me. She loves you as you are, as a hanyou, which even now I have reservations about. She only wants to see you happy. She put it so concisely that night three months ago, but she struggled with the concept for months beforehand. It was incredibly hard for her to do, but she was convinced that you would be happiest with me. Three months have convinced me otherwise, and so now I sit in her time and hope to undo a great deal of the work she so carefully planned. There is something more at work here, greater than her blindness, your idiocy, and my hate. Something more that has kept the two of you apart, made her feel unworthy.
"Ahh, yes. She has told me, through memory. There is a memory there, though I don't know if you'll share it. At one point in time you decided to protect me over her, and the foolish chit decided to stay with you anyway. It was then that she decided that she could never compete with me, because she was alive, while I had refused to use the Shikon no Tama to stay alive. That was true, but circumstances have changed. Her sacrifice was so much greater than mine. Her death saved so much more. Shippo, Kouga, Kirara, Sesshomaru, Rin, Kagura, Kana, even Kouga's pack.
"I died because I could not, even in the midst of your betrayal, be parted from you. She died because you could not, even in the midst of her love, be parted from me."
Kagome could read no further. The journal dropped from her hands, and she fisted them at her side, holding back the tears. She heard a sound from in front of her and looked up to find Inuyasha on the ground, staring at her.
"I'm sorry," she burst out when the silence became too much. "I wanted her to stay, so that you could be happy. I'm so sorry!" She started to bury her head in her hands, but remembered something. "Here," she said, and held the Shikon no Tama out to him. "You can wish for her back! It's yours to do with as you please, and-"
She gave a little shriek as Inuyasha pulled her close for the third time that day. But this was not the threatening gesture that the first two had been. This was a desperate hug, and all Kagome could do was stand there as Inuyasha buried his face in her hair, sniffing deeply and thoroughly. Dimly she could hear him whispering, but it was so soft that she couldn't understand.
"Inuyasha?" she said a little stiffly. "What are you saying?"
He backed up enough so that he could stare into her eyes, but kept his arms around her. Resting his forehead on hers, he began to speak quietly, "You slept for two weeks, and I began to hope. I knew we'd buried you, but just seeing you lying there, I allowed myself to hope. It was useless. When those eyes opened, it wasn't you looking out. It was her. Her eyes in your body. I hated her, resented her for staring at me with her eyes. She even stopped smelling like you..."
He trailed off and closed his eyes. Fisting his hand in her hair, he said fiercely, "But this is you. You have your eyes back. You're here."
Startled, all Kagome could say was, "Yes, Inuyasha, it's me. I'm here."
Her arms crept up to hug him back, and he buried his face in her hair again. His shoulders began to shake convulsively, and she realized that he was crying. She began to murmur nonsense syllables, rubbing his back in a soothing manner. Suddenly, he stiffened, and sniffed curiously around her neck. Cautiously, he licked her neck along the scratches. She stiffened in shock.
"I hurt you," he said as he continued to lap up the blood his claws had left earlier.
Kagome relaxed under his ministrations. The cuts had only just begun to hurt, but Inuyasha was making them feel better. She tilted her head to allow him greater access, and Inuyasha gently smoothed her hair away. The feel of his tongue on her was soothing. He used long strokes all the way up her neck, making sure to clean all of the wounds. Eyes closing, she unconsciously began to sway with the rhythm of the strokes, and clutched at his clothes for balance. In response he gathered her even further into his arms and began to explore lower, tracing the line of the longest cut with his tongue. When he got to her collarbone she shivered.
Immediately he stopped. "What's wrong?" he said, drawing his head back. "That didn't hurt, did it?"
Slowly Kagome opened her eyes, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She couldn't find the sense to form words, so she settled for merely looking at him. Whatever he saw in her gaze must have satisfied him, because a fire lit deep within his eyes. In that flame, Kagome saw desire, and yearning, and something that he would never say. Love.
Finally allowing herself to believe, she cradled his face in her hands and raised herself up to kiss him softly on the mouth. Lowering herself back down, she smiled up at him. He gazed down at her in wonder. Slowly, as comprehended what actions meant, a positively wicked light came into his eyes.
Kagome had only a short time to wonder what that light meant before he leaned in to claim her lips in a manner that was anything but soft.
* * *
"When's Kagome coming back?" Shippo whined much later.
"You must give them time," Miroku said. They had all retreated to the hut once Kagome had left the clearing.
"Inuyasha and Kagome have a great deal to discuss," Kaede said softly, having been brought up to date.
"Indeed," Miroku agreed. "In fact, we should be grateful that they haven't returned yet."
Sango looked at him askance form her seat next to him. "It means," he explained, "that they have not gotten into and argument. They might actually be talking."
Sango nodded. Shippo still looked a little dubious, but went back to playing with his top. Miroku took the opportunity to lean over to Sango and say in a lone tone, "I can think of other things that they could be doing. Several of which I would like to try with you."
Sango blushed and forcibly repressed a shiver. Not too successfully, for Miroku felt it and grinned broadly. Sango gave him a cool look. "Hentai," she said just as softly.
Miroku felt a stab of pain run through him. He had been nicer to her for the past two moths, but nothing he did seemed to help. He shifted away slightly and whispered, "If we were married, it wouldn't be hentai."
A soft gasp from beside him warned him that his comment had been overheard. He looked up to find Sango staring at him incredulously. "Would it be hentai?" he asked a little louder and with a touch of anger. "Would it be hentai to touch a monk who for the sake of a curse has flirted with anything in a skirt, and can't tell the woman he loves his feelings because she won't believe him? Would that be so hentai?"
Sango's eyes, if possible, widened even further. Reviewing his speech, Miroku winced. Better to retire the field now than face the rejection his words were sure to bring. How could he have been so stupid? He had wanted to tell her, but in a bit, when he had proven himself worthy of her. Something stopped his movements.
Sango was shaking her head form side to side. "No," she whispered slowly. "No, Miroku-sama, it would not be hentai to touch the man you love."
Miroku nearly stopped breathing when he heard his name from those beautiful lips. Gathering up all of his courage and throwing caution to the winds, he picked up her hands in a manner eerily reminiscent of his proposals to village girls.
"Sango," he said. "Will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?"
Tears sprang to Sango's eyes, and Miroku's heart stopped beating. It was a mistake, a horrible mistake. He had misinterpreted her signals and spoken too soon. He had blown his chance, and now she was throwing herself at him and nodding and sobbing.
Wait a minute. Nodding. She was saying yes!
Shippo squealed in excitement. "I'm gonna go tell Kagome!" he yelled as he ran out of the hut.
Sango and Miroku stood and ran to stop him, but paused at the entrance. Kagome and Inuyasha were walking back to the hut, holding hands. Miroku surmised that they had worked things out, because Kagome's hair was decidedly windblown on the calm day, and Inuyasha's clothes could use some straightening. He shared his conclusions with Sango, who snorted softly.
"Only you would come to a conclusion that way," she said.
"But you love me for it anyway," Miroku said, "Right?"
Sango paused, considering. Miroku groaned and lifted her into a hug.
* * *
Kagome looked across the field at the scene awaiting her. Shippo was running directly at them, full of important news. News that she could guess, given the position that Sango and Miroku were in. She almost blushed as their embrace became even more intimate. She HOPED that Shippo carried the news that her friends were going to get married.
Inuyasha caught her stare. "What are you looking at?" he asked.
She smiled brilliantly up at him. "Home."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
And that's the end! For real this time!
A/N: I throw myself upon the mercy of the court!!! I was sick for a week, then had to perform in a play for a week, then Thanksgiving happened and I was required to make an appearance in front of family, then I had to catch up on three papers that were due at the beginning of this week, as well as perform in a series of choir concerts. GOMEN NASAI!!! LO SIENTO!!!! DESOLE!!! I'M SORRY!!!
Having said that, I think that I am getting the hang of writing in Kikyo's voice. (Darn, and it's over now!) I am truly saddened by this, but never fear! I have two or three more ideas, and might be persuaded by kind reviews to work on them first! (As opposed to Fushigi Yuugi, Fruits Basket, Ranma, Labyrinth, Lord of the Rings, and two original ideas that I am working on.)
It has been a great run, and I love all my wonderful reviewers. Thanks for your support!
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Review responses:
FF.net
Kaagome: Exhausting? Did I put you to sleep? I personally really like that chapter, even though I was NOT looking forward to writing it.
Aamalie: I am the queen of the typo demons!!! I command all, fo I make no mistakes!!!! I am so sorry that you had to wait so long for this chapter, but here it is!
Ghoul King: I am glad that I have hordes of ghoul minions that love me. Really.
A horde means lots of people, right? I feel so loved! (What's a ghoul again?)
LewsTherinInsanity: Wham-Bam-thank-you-ma'm? That's good, right? J/K. Thanks for the support, and I hope you like this chapter!
SakuraSpring: Hell, I went a little crazy just writing it! It's bad when the author gets confused in the plotline, and I did that a couple of times. Hee hee
Noname: I hope weird is a good thing. I would prefer my stories to be understandable, but this one seems to defy convention, no matter how hard I try.
Mockingbird917: This chapter is shorter than the past couple have been, but it is still longer than the first few! As to timeline, Kagome get thrown back to a time in the third season about a week after Inuyasha goes youkai and kills off a bunch of bandits. In my timeline, they defeat Naraku three months after that. Some things went the same, like the battle over the youkai tree, but some things went different, like Rin's kidnapping. That's the best I can place it for you.
Kamikurai: YAY for first time reviewers!!! Love to hear that you like the story. I don't think that I am as good at angst as fluff, but I hope that was a happy enough ending for you.
Sakura: I want your friends to review too!!!!!! (Yes I am a review hog) *grins shamelessly* If you are addicted then I feel bad, because this was the last chapter. But I am glad you liked it while it lasted!
Alden Hawke: I hope this one was worth the wait as well! I hated to do that to Shippo. I literally cried every time I read it. He and Miroku are my favorite characters, so I hate it when anything bad happens to them, even if it is necessary.
Elyndewen Startree: I am glad that I could maybe change your perspective a little on Kikyo. She seems to get all the bad breaks in fanfic, which is sad, because there is so much more to her than what is written about her. (I discovered this while writing the last chapter. Sometimes Kikyo spoke without me realizing it.)
The Four Cousins: I am sorry I made you cry. I had a cold then to, so I know how that feels. Here is your happy ending, which is necessary after all that heartbreak.
Mediaminer.org
Aditu: *Blushes* All those compliments!!! I don't quite know what to do with them, but I love them. I pay my deepest respects to my most wonderful and earliest reviewer on mm.org. It's been a wonderful time, and I will be back for more!
Kitsune_Bi: Wheee! Three reviews!! I can guess who your favorite character is......maybe. I am really glad you like the fic!
Vesca: Not really all that original, but I tried to make it different than others. I am glad you enjoyed yourself, because that is why I write.
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I love you all, and hope you enjoyed the story.
Wingsong
THE END!
Warnings: Kikyo angst, Inu/Kag fluff, Mir/San fluff, VERY strong PG-13 rating, PLEASE re-read the end of the last chapter and the beginning of chapter 6 if you are confused, because it has been a long time.
Translation:
Kanji: set of characters that make up part of the Japanese language. Represents entire words. Combined with kana to form the entire language
Chit: a foolish little girl. This is an English word, but an older one, so I thought I would define it here. I could not think of another word that fit the flow as well.
Hentai: mild word for pervert or perverted
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For Such a Time as This
Epilogue: At the Beginning with You
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"Inuyasha?" Sango stood at the edge of the clearing, watching the hanyou pace around the well.
It had been a strange couple of months. Since the storm, Shippo had spent more time with Kikyo than anyone else. Sango was glad that Shippo was no longer starving himself, but she was still a little untrusting of the miko. Not that she had done anything wrong, but her history was against her. She was even worried about Kohaku, though he seemed to be healing better under Kikyo's tutelage than anything she had tried in the two weeks the miko had slept.
Kikyo did nothing to earn their trust. She spent her entire time in the shrine, and only now did they regret that they did not watch her more closely. But the amount of youkai attacks had increased with the absence of Naraku, and Kikyo had, in the past month, recommended several youkai from Kagome's memory. Yet she refused to go on the journeys to vanquish them. Not that Sango truly minded. Miroku, as far as she could tell, had not looked at another woman since Kagome's death. She now rather enjoyed the time alone with the monk.
She was paying for it now. Inuyasha had practically not spoken to anyone since the storm, so they hadn't realized that Sesshomaru had shown up in the past couple of weeks every time they had been off on youkai hunts. Yet this week he did not. He had come yesterday. It was an odd battle to watch, because Inuyasha hardly seem to fight, yet Sesshomaru did not press his advantage. Sango had been prepared to aid him, but he never needed it. Then the girl, Rin, had run up, screaming something about Jaken. Sesshomaru, looking almost relieved at the interruption, gathered the child and left.
Sango should have known something was wrong then, especially when Inuyasha had revealed Sesshomaru's pattern. Or at the very least when Kikyo didn't come down for lunch. Kohaku had, and she had been a fool and given him another lunch to take up to the miko, who apparently had a difficult case to work on. Her only excuse had been that she was still tired from the fighting they had done in the past weeks. Who would have thought that a youkai tree would be that hard to kill? And this week they had battled an army of the undead. So she wasn't at all suspicious until Kikyo had not come down for dinner. This time, Shippo went up with the meal. Fairly soon he came hurtling down, yelling that Kikyo was scary when she was concentrating on a patient.
Why hadn't she remembered that foxes were tricksters at heart? It had been so long since the young fox had tried a trick that she was completely unprepared. Kaede had gone to the shrine this morning, and returned quickly, saying that the miko wasn't there. Kohaku and Shippo had looked away, shamefaced, and the manhunt had begun. Inuyasha had led them unerringly to the well.
He had immediately jumped in, but the well refused to let him though. The howl that rose up then broke Sango's heart.
And so they stood, Sango and Miroku on the side of the clearing, Shippo and Kohaku beside the well, and Inuyasha pacing and cursing. Then Kohaku stiffened, Shippo gave a cry, and Inuyasha whirled to glare at the well.
A voice drifted up. "Is anybody there to help me out?"
* * *
She woke, her head once again pillowed in her arms on top of her desk. No dreams had disturbed her sleep, and her immediate thought was that she had failed. Not wanting to confirm that truth, she stood up and wandered over to her window. If that plan hadn't worked, then she was giving up. She had no more ideas. Making a sudden decision, she stalked over to the journal. Good news or bad, she had to know. Before she could touch the journal, however, there was a tentative knock on the door.
"Kikyo?" her mother said as she poked her head in.
"Mama?" Kagome said, her face pale. "Why did you call me that?"
The realization dawned slowly on her mother's face. "Kagome?" she whispered
"Mama?" Kagome said, confused.
She was suddenly engulfed in a hug the like of which she hadn't known. Wait. Yes, she had. The one time she had shown up in the kitchen after her attempt on Kikyo had failed, her mother had hugged her like this. Gently, she removed herself from her mother's embrace.
Staring intensely into her mother's eyes, she said, "Why did you call me that?"
Slowly the story came out. How she had disappeared for over three months. How much they had worried. How the girl, Kikyo, had come back the previous day. The explanations and compliments she had given. The hope she had offered. How she had sat there for most of the day, writing in the journal. And finally, the nervous tension that her mother had felt when she had knocked on the door, and the joy that overwhelmed her at the word 'Mama'.
Kagome was in shock. The plan worked? But if it had worked, was she still in the time loop? Her mother caught her confusion, and her frequent glances at the journal. Used to her daughter's curiosity, she bowed out gracefully after extracting a promise to return quickly from the past should she feel the need to go there.
As soon as her mother left, Kagome grabbed the notebook and opened it, collapsing on the bed to read.
* * *
Dear Kagome
First, I apologize if this cannot be read. I am attempting to use your knowledge of kanji to use more modern symbols, but I might regress.
When you friends discovered what you truly meant to do, the reaction was violent. Most were lost to grief. The wolf turned tail and ran, but not before Kagura had managed to flirt and plead her way into convincing Sesshomaru to revive the wolf's kin. From other rumors, the wind child seems determined to undo all that she accomplished under Naraku.
I collapsed and slept for two weeks, restoring the energy lost by both of us that day. Perhaps if I had been awake, I could have reversed some of the events that happened after. Perhaps I could have settled down and enjoyed the life you had wanted me to have. Perhaps. Probably not.
Four things prevented me from doing this.
The first was your companions. The monk and the exterm...no, I guess I should call them Sango and Miroku, shouldn't I? They deserve that much respect, at least. Anyway, Sango and Miroku were constantly watching me, expecting me to react in certain ways, and being disappointed when I did not. Sango's eyes were usually filled with suspicion as well, but I thought that that had more to do with my care of her brother than anything else. She's blind if she can't see that Kohaku has a healer's soul. That is my one unselfish regret in doing this; I have to give up his training. I beg you to find some books on the subject and continue to teach him. But all this is truly beside the point. The two regarded me with an expectation of seeing someone I am not. But I could have dealt with that.
The second was Inuyasha. I must admit a little bitterness here, because the light in his eyes died with you. I noticed it when I first saw the two of you together. There was a gentleness in his eyes that had only just begun to show before Naraku. It had bloomed so much in the short time you had known him that it filled me with hate and jealousy. I was the one to start that change, it should have been me that completed it. Me! But there is little I can do right now about it. His eyes were dead. I tried, for two months, to rekindle the spark, to light the flame that would make Inuyasha himself again. When it didn't happen, I knew it never could. But I could have dealt with that as well. I wouldn't have been happy, but I had lived, content, as a miko for so long that I knew I could do it again.
The third thing was Shippo. Even more than Inuyasha, the little fox withdrew into himself. He would not eat, would barely sleep, and spent all of the day sitting on your sleeping bag. After the first shock had worn off, I ignored him, for he wanted you, not me. It almost surprises me today that I could have let him die, merely because he was youkai. You, however, wouldn't let me.
And thus we come to the forth reason. I am not sure you realized just how much of yourself you left within me. You were constantly there, not so much a voice in my head as a set of memories that weren't my own. Unlike the others, who seemed to be constantly looking for something that wasn't there, you seemed to understand by dilemma and attempted to help me. Whenever a situation go particularly difficult, whenever they seemed to expect more from me than I could handle, you would provide a memory that could explain their behavior or at least tell me what they were expecting. That behavior humbled me. How could you be so selfless? I know that, had our positions been reversed, I would have at least felt resentful, and would have tried to hinder you.
This last reason is why I am writing now, hoping and praying that you did actually die under my arrow so long ago. If you did, that would mean that the Shikon no Tama had brought you back to the beginning of the time loop. Throughout the first three reasons runs a common theme. You. They all wanted you back. I can almost see you shaking your head in disbelief. Do not try and deny it, or say it was just grief. If it was nothing more than grief, then I only exacerbate the problem by being there. When we first switched places, you gave me four reasons for your actions, reasons that, while technically accurate, are no longer true for the situation.
I will start with the most believable. You could have managed your plan while in your own body. It would have been more difficult for me to force your powers to mature, but it could have been done. Whether you could have convinced me to do it is another matter.
I was right when I said that the dead merely wish for life again. But you did not listen close enough. I said that the dead wish, 'for that which they can never have, life.' It's true that I am alive again, but it is not my body, nor is it completely my soul anymore. Even if I am really alive, and have to eat and sleep, I do not feel so. I remember being dead, remember being subordinate to you in our personality. I remember the peaceful rest it was. I might have wished for life once, but no longer.
The other two reasons are no longer valid, but for circumstances that I know, having lived with your memories for three months, you will not believe. You say you do not belong in that time. That might have been true upon the very instant of your arrival, but one you pulled that arrow from the tree, you made this time you own. If I had been revived and had pulled that arrow out, I have no doubt that Inuyasha's first action would have been to kill me. I can tell that you won't believe that, so I will give you another example. Can you imagine Sango, a youkai exterminator, willingly traveling with a youkai and a hanyou she had not, as with Kirara, tamed? She is a proud woman, yet Inuyasha is her leader. She does this because you are her friend, and you trust him. And before you start protesting that you were all working toward a common goal, I will say that she has stayed even after Naraku was destroyed. For the first couple of months, she stayed out of an irrational hope that you could come back.
When, a month ago, acceptance began to appear in her eyes, I knew I had to act quickly. I was by this time gambling everything on this night, and did not want you return home to be greeted by your friends scattered to the winds. So I used your memories to send Miroku and Sango on missions. I think you will be pleased to know that the youkai tree has been taken care of, as well as the undead army of the witch's children.
The final reason you gave me, that of Inuyasha's love for me, I will not even bother to refute. Not because it is still true, but because you would never believe me. You will have to experience that for yourself before you doubts will rest. I am sorry that you have such self doubt, but I know that I am the partial cause of it. My mere presence caused so much confusion in his mind that I do not even really blame him. When you are someone who considers any feeling to be a human weakness, how can you possibly accept that you love one girl? When that girl dies, yet remains, having betrayed you, it is practically impossible to admit your feelings for another. I do not believe he will ever say the words, but if he does, be doubly grateful, for he never relaxed enough, trusted enough to tell me. But I will stop there. I know you are shaking your head at me.
You gave me four reasons to stay. Now I give you three more to return. Three that you ignored in all your planning.
Sango, Miroku, Shippo.
I have made all the arguments in my power to convince you of your own importance; the rest lies in the past. The cause of the time loop resides in the well. Carefully climb down into the well and concentrate. The Shikon no Tama is trapped in between times, but will come if you call. Then you can travel the well as normal, and the changes you made should stay.
I wish you a good life, and know you will lead it well.
Kikyo
On the following pages I have, on the advice of your mother, written a farewell to Inuyasha. I would prefer if you do not read it, but if he cannot read it on his own, I would like for you to be the one to read it to him.
* * *
Kagome read through the journal, hardly knowing what to think. Kikyo seemed to know her well, for she predicted all of her reactions. She flatly disregarded all references to Inuyasha as too biased, yet found she could trust Kikyo's judgment on other matters. Thinking about what she had read, her heart tightened in fear over Shippo. Frowning, she flipped back through the journal, but could find no evidence that the kit still lived. The best assurance she had was that something within herself even when dead would not let Kikyo give up on him.
Once she read that part, she found herself reading through the whole of it again, slower. This time she found herself giving more credence to Kikyo's findings. If she could trust the girl on judgments on people she had barely known three months ago, how could she discredit Kikyo's judgment on someone that she had known so much better? When she got to the post script again, she felt an irresistible temptation to read what the miko had written to Inuyasha. Forcibly, she slammed the journal closed and stood up to remove herself from the temptation.
If she wanted the timeline to stay the same, she had several things to do before she could go back through the well. She quickly went down to the well house and carefully climbed down into the well. Sure enough, the Shikon no Tama was glowing on the bottom, caught in the middle of the well. She called it to her, and almost immediately felt the difference in the well. How could she have missed this before? It seemed as if the Shikon no Tama had been telling her what was wrong, but she was too caught up in her own worries to realize it.
The next hour she spent in the loving care of her family, who were overjoyed at her return. She actually paid attention to her grandfather's stories for once, and played at least two or three video games with Souta. Of course she was both thoroughly bored and thoroughly trounced by the end, but the look on their faces was worth it. Finally, her mother seemed to sense her impatience and bustled her out of the room and to her things. Exchanging one last lingering hug, Kagome gathered the journal and the jewel and went through the well.
More out of habit than anything else, and without even glancing up, she called out, "Is anybody there to help me out?"
Instantly Inuyasha appeared before her. Within the space of a thought, he dragged her out of the well and pinned her to a tree. Claws at her throat, he snarled, "What did you do to them? If you so much as touched a hair on that little brat of a brother's head, I swear I'll rip you limb from limb, Kagome's body or no."
'Kikyo was wrong about his dead eyes,' she thought inanely, staring at the fiery orbs inches from her own. "Inuyasha?" she said tentatively.
Flinching at the snarl she received as an answer, her gaze shifted towards the other in the clearing. They were no help. Sango had a hand on her sword, ready to draw it out, and Miroku held his staff at he ready. She turned back to Inuyasha and swallowed convulsively. "I haven't hurt my family, if that's what you mean," she said quietly.
The remark only caused the claws to press further into her neck. "Never your family," was the guttural response. "They are hers. HERS!"
There was a sigh from directly behind him. "This Sesshomaru did not spend four weeks fighting a pathetic creature such as yourself only to have you kill the girl when it looks like the plan has worked."
Inuyasha spun around so fast that he left four parallel scratches down the left side of Kagome's neck. Sesshomaru stood on the other side of the clearing with Rin. The child ignored the hanyou's snarl as she skipped over to Kagome. Blinking curiously, she asked, "Did it work?"
Kagome sighed as she sank down to the ground. "Did what work, Rin?"
Apparently that was answer enough for the girl, because she grinned and turned back to her master. "Kagome-nesan is back, Sesshomaru-sama. Kikyo-sama calls Rin, Rin-chan, but Kagome-nesan just calls Rin, Rin."
Sesshomaru turned to leave, but Kagome stood hurriedly. "You distracted him?" she called. "You fought with him so that she could check the well?"
The lord paused, then nodded, no more than a brief inclination of his head.
"Thank you," she said.
Without even acknowledging the remark, he left the clearing, Rin scrambling after. The silence after his departure did not last long, for with Rin's declaration, Shippo could not restrain himself from launching himself at Kagome, screaming her name.
"I knew it would work!" he cried as Kagome caught him. "Kikyo said it was only a small chance, but when me and Rin could convince Sesshomaru, I knew it would work! I missed you so much!"
Kagome could not find a response to that, so settled for hugging the kit close and nuzzling in his hair. Their moment was interrupted by Inuyasha.
"Stupid brat," he said, "can't you see that they're in league together? That isn't Kagome, it's Kikyo, and she's working with my bastard brother to-"
"No!" Shippo cried. "It's Kagome!"
"Idiot!" Inuyasha screamed. "Kagome is dead! She's not coming back!"
"Inuyasha!" Something in Kagome snapped. "OUSWARI!!"
The cry rang through the clearing, but there was no resounding thump to accompany it. Belatedly, Kagome remembered that she had removed the rosary from Inuyasha before she had gone to confront Naraku. Inuyasha stared blankly at her for a second then grabbed her arm.
Kagome was so startled that she actually squeaked and dropped Shippo. For the second time in fifteen minutes, she found herself pulled close to an emotionally unstable hanyou. This time, however, his eyes weren't clouded by anger. He was afraid, she realized suddenly, afraid and the tiniest bit hopeful.
"Kagome?" he whispered.
His own voice seemed to startle him and he dropped her arm and bolted. Kagome exchanged a glance with Sango and Miroku. Sango was grinning madly, but waved her on to follow Inuyasha. Miroku walked up behind her friend and, grinning wildly, enveloped Sango in a hug. Raising her eyebrows both at Sango acceptance and how Miroku's hands did not stray, she nodded and ran after Inuyasha, pausing only to pick up the journal and the jewel. Stuffing the jewel in the pocket of her skirt and letting her senses guide her, she soon found herself at the Goshinboku clearing. Peering up, she could barely make out Inuyasha amongst the foliage.
"Inuyasha?" she called.
There was no response.
"Please say something," she tried again. "Yell at me if you want, but please talk to me."
Still no response, and Kagome was running out of ideas. Suddenly she remembered the journal in her hand. Bringing it out, she flipped to the pages with Kikyo's message to the hanyou.
"Kikyo wrote you a message," she said. "Would you like to read it?"
Silence.
"She gave me permission to read it to you, if you couldn't," she continued, gathering her courage. "Would that be ok?"
Taking the silence as an affirmative, and indulging her own curiosity, she began to read. It was slow going, and not only because Kikyo had switch back to an older set of kanji characters.
"Inuyasha
"Let me start off with what is easiest. I love you. It took me three months now to discover what took six months to realize fifty years ago. Even after all of the betrayal, misplaced trust, and months and months of hate seeking vengeance, I love you. It makes me hurt to see you hurt, and I want to do everything in my power to fix it. But my love is not enough.
"For you are hurting. Three months you have been hurting. I can see it as clearly as I can see the other's pain, though you are not as obvious as Shippo. You are hurting, and my love is not enough, may even make you hurt worse. It takes great courage to say this. I love you, but I know that you do not love me."
Here Kagome paused, unsure if she really wanted to continue. A glance up at the tree convinced her otherwise. Inuyasha had moved down a couple of branches
"I know you loved me once. I would not have agreed to give you the jewel if I did not know that. But I also know that your love for me is less now than it was before. Or if not less, then it has changed. You do not love me as deeply as before, neither of us do. Nothing could compare to the light that shines in your eyes when she is around. That light has been gone for three months. That light has always proven to me that you are alive, and is part of the reason I am doing this now.
"You know, even as I write this, I am bombarded with images of the two of us, together. It is almost as if Kagome's memories hold out more hope for our relationship than we do. There is the other half of my revelation from these three months. She loves you."
Kagome slowed down even further as her voice got clopped with tears.
"She loves you so much more than me. She loves you as you are, as a hanyou, which even now I have reservations about. She only wants to see you happy. She put it so concisely that night three months ago, but she struggled with the concept for months beforehand. It was incredibly hard for her to do, but she was convinced that you would be happiest with me. Three months have convinced me otherwise, and so now I sit in her time and hope to undo a great deal of the work she so carefully planned. There is something more at work here, greater than her blindness, your idiocy, and my hate. Something more that has kept the two of you apart, made her feel unworthy.
"Ahh, yes. She has told me, through memory. There is a memory there, though I don't know if you'll share it. At one point in time you decided to protect me over her, and the foolish chit decided to stay with you anyway. It was then that she decided that she could never compete with me, because she was alive, while I had refused to use the Shikon no Tama to stay alive. That was true, but circumstances have changed. Her sacrifice was so much greater than mine. Her death saved so much more. Shippo, Kouga, Kirara, Sesshomaru, Rin, Kagura, Kana, even Kouga's pack.
"I died because I could not, even in the midst of your betrayal, be parted from you. She died because you could not, even in the midst of her love, be parted from me."
Kagome could read no further. The journal dropped from her hands, and she fisted them at her side, holding back the tears. She heard a sound from in front of her and looked up to find Inuyasha on the ground, staring at her.
"I'm sorry," she burst out when the silence became too much. "I wanted her to stay, so that you could be happy. I'm so sorry!" She started to bury her head in her hands, but remembered something. "Here," she said, and held the Shikon no Tama out to him. "You can wish for her back! It's yours to do with as you please, and-"
She gave a little shriek as Inuyasha pulled her close for the third time that day. But this was not the threatening gesture that the first two had been. This was a desperate hug, and all Kagome could do was stand there as Inuyasha buried his face in her hair, sniffing deeply and thoroughly. Dimly she could hear him whispering, but it was so soft that she couldn't understand.
"Inuyasha?" she said a little stiffly. "What are you saying?"
He backed up enough so that he could stare into her eyes, but kept his arms around her. Resting his forehead on hers, he began to speak quietly, "You slept for two weeks, and I began to hope. I knew we'd buried you, but just seeing you lying there, I allowed myself to hope. It was useless. When those eyes opened, it wasn't you looking out. It was her. Her eyes in your body. I hated her, resented her for staring at me with her eyes. She even stopped smelling like you..."
He trailed off and closed his eyes. Fisting his hand in her hair, he said fiercely, "But this is you. You have your eyes back. You're here."
Startled, all Kagome could say was, "Yes, Inuyasha, it's me. I'm here."
Her arms crept up to hug him back, and he buried his face in her hair again. His shoulders began to shake convulsively, and she realized that he was crying. She began to murmur nonsense syllables, rubbing his back in a soothing manner. Suddenly, he stiffened, and sniffed curiously around her neck. Cautiously, he licked her neck along the scratches. She stiffened in shock.
"I hurt you," he said as he continued to lap up the blood his claws had left earlier.
Kagome relaxed under his ministrations. The cuts had only just begun to hurt, but Inuyasha was making them feel better. She tilted her head to allow him greater access, and Inuyasha gently smoothed her hair away. The feel of his tongue on her was soothing. He used long strokes all the way up her neck, making sure to clean all of the wounds. Eyes closing, she unconsciously began to sway with the rhythm of the strokes, and clutched at his clothes for balance. In response he gathered her even further into his arms and began to explore lower, tracing the line of the longest cut with his tongue. When he got to her collarbone she shivered.
Immediately he stopped. "What's wrong?" he said, drawing his head back. "That didn't hurt, did it?"
Slowly Kagome opened her eyes, her breath coming in ragged gasps. She couldn't find the sense to form words, so she settled for merely looking at him. Whatever he saw in her gaze must have satisfied him, because a fire lit deep within his eyes. In that flame, Kagome saw desire, and yearning, and something that he would never say. Love.
Finally allowing herself to believe, she cradled his face in her hands and raised herself up to kiss him softly on the mouth. Lowering herself back down, she smiled up at him. He gazed down at her in wonder. Slowly, as comprehended what actions meant, a positively wicked light came into his eyes.
Kagome had only a short time to wonder what that light meant before he leaned in to claim her lips in a manner that was anything but soft.
* * *
"When's Kagome coming back?" Shippo whined much later.
"You must give them time," Miroku said. They had all retreated to the hut once Kagome had left the clearing.
"Inuyasha and Kagome have a great deal to discuss," Kaede said softly, having been brought up to date.
"Indeed," Miroku agreed. "In fact, we should be grateful that they haven't returned yet."
Sango looked at him askance form her seat next to him. "It means," he explained, "that they have not gotten into and argument. They might actually be talking."
Sango nodded. Shippo still looked a little dubious, but went back to playing with his top. Miroku took the opportunity to lean over to Sango and say in a lone tone, "I can think of other things that they could be doing. Several of which I would like to try with you."
Sango blushed and forcibly repressed a shiver. Not too successfully, for Miroku felt it and grinned broadly. Sango gave him a cool look. "Hentai," she said just as softly.
Miroku felt a stab of pain run through him. He had been nicer to her for the past two moths, but nothing he did seemed to help. He shifted away slightly and whispered, "If we were married, it wouldn't be hentai."
A soft gasp from beside him warned him that his comment had been overheard. He looked up to find Sango staring at him incredulously. "Would it be hentai?" he asked a little louder and with a touch of anger. "Would it be hentai to touch a monk who for the sake of a curse has flirted with anything in a skirt, and can't tell the woman he loves his feelings because she won't believe him? Would that be so hentai?"
Sango's eyes, if possible, widened even further. Reviewing his speech, Miroku winced. Better to retire the field now than face the rejection his words were sure to bring. How could he have been so stupid? He had wanted to tell her, but in a bit, when he had proven himself worthy of her. Something stopped his movements.
Sango was shaking her head form side to side. "No," she whispered slowly. "No, Miroku-sama, it would not be hentai to touch the man you love."
Miroku nearly stopped breathing when he heard his name from those beautiful lips. Gathering up all of his courage and throwing caution to the winds, he picked up her hands in a manner eerily reminiscent of his proposals to village girls.
"Sango," he said. "Will you do me the great honor of becoming my wife?"
Tears sprang to Sango's eyes, and Miroku's heart stopped beating. It was a mistake, a horrible mistake. He had misinterpreted her signals and spoken too soon. He had blown his chance, and now she was throwing herself at him and nodding and sobbing.
Wait a minute. Nodding. She was saying yes!
Shippo squealed in excitement. "I'm gonna go tell Kagome!" he yelled as he ran out of the hut.
Sango and Miroku stood and ran to stop him, but paused at the entrance. Kagome and Inuyasha were walking back to the hut, holding hands. Miroku surmised that they had worked things out, because Kagome's hair was decidedly windblown on the calm day, and Inuyasha's clothes could use some straightening. He shared his conclusions with Sango, who snorted softly.
"Only you would come to a conclusion that way," she said.
"But you love me for it anyway," Miroku said, "Right?"
Sango paused, considering. Miroku groaned and lifted her into a hug.
* * *
Kagome looked across the field at the scene awaiting her. Shippo was running directly at them, full of important news. News that she could guess, given the position that Sango and Miroku were in. She almost blushed as their embrace became even more intimate. She HOPED that Shippo carried the news that her friends were going to get married.
Inuyasha caught her stare. "What are you looking at?" he asked.
She smiled brilliantly up at him. "Home."
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And that's the end! For real this time!
A/N: I throw myself upon the mercy of the court!!! I was sick for a week, then had to perform in a play for a week, then Thanksgiving happened and I was required to make an appearance in front of family, then I had to catch up on three papers that were due at the beginning of this week, as well as perform in a series of choir concerts. GOMEN NASAI!!! LO SIENTO!!!! DESOLE!!! I'M SORRY!!!
Having said that, I think that I am getting the hang of writing in Kikyo's voice. (Darn, and it's over now!) I am truly saddened by this, but never fear! I have two or three more ideas, and might be persuaded by kind reviews to work on them first! (As opposed to Fushigi Yuugi, Fruits Basket, Ranma, Labyrinth, Lord of the Rings, and two original ideas that I am working on.)
It has been a great run, and I love all my wonderful reviewers. Thanks for your support!
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Review responses:
FF.net
Kaagome: Exhausting? Did I put you to sleep? I personally really like that chapter, even though I was NOT looking forward to writing it.
Aamalie: I am the queen of the typo demons!!! I command all, fo I make no mistakes!!!! I am so sorry that you had to wait so long for this chapter, but here it is!
Ghoul King: I am glad that I have hordes of ghoul minions that love me. Really.
A horde means lots of people, right? I feel so loved! (What's a ghoul again?)
LewsTherinInsanity: Wham-Bam-thank-you-ma'm? That's good, right? J/K. Thanks for the support, and I hope you like this chapter!
SakuraSpring: Hell, I went a little crazy just writing it! It's bad when the author gets confused in the plotline, and I did that a couple of times. Hee hee
Noname: I hope weird is a good thing. I would prefer my stories to be understandable, but this one seems to defy convention, no matter how hard I try.
Mockingbird917: This chapter is shorter than the past couple have been, but it is still longer than the first few! As to timeline, Kagome get thrown back to a time in the third season about a week after Inuyasha goes youkai and kills off a bunch of bandits. In my timeline, they defeat Naraku three months after that. Some things went the same, like the battle over the youkai tree, but some things went different, like Rin's kidnapping. That's the best I can place it for you.
Kamikurai: YAY for first time reviewers!!! Love to hear that you like the story. I don't think that I am as good at angst as fluff, but I hope that was a happy enough ending for you.
Sakura: I want your friends to review too!!!!!! (Yes I am a review hog) *grins shamelessly* If you are addicted then I feel bad, because this was the last chapter. But I am glad you liked it while it lasted!
Alden Hawke: I hope this one was worth the wait as well! I hated to do that to Shippo. I literally cried every time I read it. He and Miroku are my favorite characters, so I hate it when anything bad happens to them, even if it is necessary.
Elyndewen Startree: I am glad that I could maybe change your perspective a little on Kikyo. She seems to get all the bad breaks in fanfic, which is sad, because there is so much more to her than what is written about her. (I discovered this while writing the last chapter. Sometimes Kikyo spoke without me realizing it.)
The Four Cousins: I am sorry I made you cry. I had a cold then to, so I know how that feels. Here is your happy ending, which is necessary after all that heartbreak.
Mediaminer.org
Aditu: *Blushes* All those compliments!!! I don't quite know what to do with them, but I love them. I pay my deepest respects to my most wonderful and earliest reviewer on mm.org. It's been a wonderful time, and I will be back for more!
Kitsune_Bi: Wheee! Three reviews!! I can guess who your favorite character is......maybe. I am really glad you like the fic!
Vesca: Not really all that original, but I tried to make it different than others. I am glad you enjoyed yourself, because that is why I write.
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I love you all, and hope you enjoyed the story.
Wingsong
THE END!