InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ His Wish ❯ Closure ( Chapter 3 )

His Wish

Chapter 3

Closure

 

 

Kagome listened distractedly to her friends prattle on about the test that they'd had in their last class.

 

“Geez, Ayumi-chan, just make us all feel bad about that test,” Yuka was chastising the curly haired girl across from her.

 

“But that test was so easy, right, Eri-chan?” The shorthaired girl glanced around, then pointed at herself in a `Who, me?' attitude. Ayumi sighed and changed tactics. “Never mind. What about you, Kagome-chan?” All three girls turned to the fourth, who was staring out the window of their favorite WacDonalds in a very depressed manner. The schoolgirls immediately drew into a huddle to debate battle strategies.

 

“What's wrong with her? She's been doing that all day.” Eri stated.

 

Yuka agreed, “Totally. It must be that boyfriend of hers. I wonder what he's done now?”

 

Ayumi threw in her two cents as well. “Maybe it's not him.” With the incredulous looks of the other two girls on her, she explained, “I mean that one time we met him, he seemed really nice, don't you think?”

 

“Point taken,” Yuka nodded. “So then what could it be?”

 

Eri sighed, “I don't know. Maybe she's sick again.”

 

“Or maybe you could just ask me, instead of talking like I can't hear you.” The three girls whipped their heads up so fast that they nearly brained each other. Kagome just watched with one eyebrow raised as they tried to straighten themselves out. She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Never mind, you guys. I'm gonna go home now.” She stood up to leave.

 

“But Kagome-chan…” All three chimed in unison.

 

Kagome raised her hands in a stopping gesture. “No, I just have some stuff to think about. I'm fine really. See ya later.”

 

As she left, Kagome heard Yuka say, “Man, she's only like this when it has something to do with her boyfriend. He must have done something really bad to get Kagome-chan that depressed.”

 

Kagome rushed out the door with Eri and Ayumi's agreements flooding her ears and tears starting to flow.

 

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`God, I'm such an idiot.'

 

Kagome had raced home, completely disregarding the fact that she still two classes left in the school day. Fortunately, Mama hadn't even questioned her when she burst through the door with tears still on her face. All Mama did was give her daughter a supportive hug, make her a cup of tea, and remind Kagome that should she need to talk, her mother was always open to conversation. With that reassurance, Kagome was able to calm down enough to tell Mama what had happened.

 

Now, Kagome was up in her room, still pondering her memories.

 

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They had finally arrived back at Kaede's village. It hadn't taken long to find Sesshoumaru after the final battle, seeing as how he had been on his way to the fight as it was. It had been almost laughably easy to get the stoic dog-demon to agree to their favor, although having his human ward, Rin, making puppy dog eyes at the mention of Kohaku was the epitome of cuteness and irony. With one sweep of Tenseiga, Kohaku was revived and Sango was overjoyed at having her little brother back in her arms.

 

A pleasant, if not slightly disturbing, side effect of the resurrection was that a majority of Kohaku's horrific memories had been repressed. Sesshoumaru explained that the boy would remember in time, but only when his mind was capable of accepting the guilt that would undoubtedly surface. Still, while not a perfect solution, it was better than nothing.

 

Now, the victorious group returned to the village to inform Kaede of her sister's fate.

 

Kagome had insisted on speaking with the old woman alone, since she felt a familial connection towards the woman. “So we brought her ashes back to be reburied at the shrine.”

 

Kaede nodded. “I'm glad she found her peace. I was beginning to wonder if she ever would.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Although, I must say it is surprising that she relinquished her claim on Inuyasha.” Kaede stared into her cooking fire as if it would provide the answers to her queries.

 

“Yeah, I'm not entirely sure why, either. It was like she was giving us permission to be together or something.” Leaning against her backpack, Kagome puzzled over the enigma that had been Kikyo. After a few moments of contemplative silence, the young miko shook her head in discouragement. “Anyway. What I really came to ask you was what to do with the Jewel, now that it's complete?”

 

The old woman started at the question, “Why ask me? You are now the guardian of the Shikon No Tama. It is yours to do with as you see fit.” She paused for a moment. “I suppose you could retain the Jewel as it is now and protect it from falling into the wrong hands ever again.”

 

Kagome pondered this option briefly, before dismissing it entirely. “I don't think I want to do that. I mean, look what happened my first time around. The thought of the Jewel shattering again makes me shudder.” She demonstrated and Kaede chuckled.

 

“Well then, your other options are to either purify it with your own powers,” Kagome's look of `yeah, right' put that idea down as well, “or you, or someone you trust, could use it to make a wish.”

 

The girl sat up a bit straighter as the suggestion began to take hold. `Yeah, that's what was going to happen originally, so why not finish the story that way.' She smiled as she pictured what Inuyasha would say when she told him her plan.

 

“Oi, wench”

 

`Yup, it'd start off with something like that.' Then she realized that she hadn't heard that just in her head, but from outside the hut. Smiling warmly at Kaede and thanking her, Kagome scampered to her feet and out the doorway.

 

“Yes, Inuyasha?” she called pleasantly once outside.

 

The hanyou was perched on the fence surrounding the small herb garden next to the house. He impatiently waved Kagome over to him.

 

“Hey, what's taking so long? I thought you had something to tell me, too?”

 

Remembering that she had asked to speak with Inuyasha after she finished with Kaede, Kagome grinned at the new information she had to give him. “Yeah, sorry. It took longer to explain than I thought it would and I had a few other things to ask about, too.”

 

Inuyasha peered at her curiously, “What sort of things?”

 

Kagome giggled at the way he cocked his head to one side. 'Just like a puppy,' she thought affectionately.

 

She grabbed his hand and began pulling him in the direction of the well. They walked in silence for the few minutes it took to reach her real destination, the Goshinboku. She halted at the base of the enormous tree and stared up into its branches, thinking over all possible scenarios.

 

“You want to go up?”

 

Inuyasha's question startled her into spinning around. Unfortunately, since neither of them had dropped the other's hand, this caused her to slam straight into him and send both of them crashing to the ground, with her sprawled on top of him.

 

“Okay. That hurt.”

 

“Baka, if you hadn't scared me, I wouldn't have knocked you over,” she snapped, leaning forward, to better make her point.

 

“Maybe if you had been paying attention, instead of daydreaming, I wouldn't have scared you,” he growled back, as he craned his head up, their faces now inches apart.

 

Suddenly, the concept of their proximity hit the bickering teenagers. Their reactions were mirror images of each other. Eyes wide at first realization, then a fiery blush erupted over cheekbones and nose, all followed closely by scrambling as quickly as possible from the object/person of embarrassment.

 

After a couple of minutes of awkward silence, Kagome decided this was as good a time as any to begin their conversation. She glimpsed over to the hanyou sitting next to her.

 

“I-Inuyasha?”

 

She caught the ear flick that indicated he was listening. “Ano, I'm not quite sure how to start…”

 

“Just spit it out.”

 

His tone wasn't gruff as usual. It sounded like he almost knew what she was going to say and was just waiting for confirmation. Kagome swallowed the lump in her throat as she realized what she was going to tell him. These were Kikyo's last words. `This is going to be harder then I thought.'

 

She started fidgeting her hands in order to try to calm down. It wasn't working. Then, she felt the warmth of his hand settle over both of hers and give them a sympathetic squeeze. Inuyasha knew how hard it was for her to speak of Kikyo and his relationship, even though their relationship was nowhere near as shaky as it had been over a year and a half ago. He had been good at not always running off to see the dead priestess every time one of her soul-collectors came near, even when Kagome urged him to go.

 

These thoughts gave her courage. He needed closure almost as much as she did, and Kikyo had given her the means with which to do it.

 

She cleared her throat; “Kikyo spoke to me about you just before I fired that arrow. She said you deserved someone who could love and trust you completely. She regretted that she had been unable to trust you back then. She felt that dealing with Naraku was her responsibility and personally taking him to Hell was the action she decided to take.” She paused, waiting for Inuyasha to react. When he didn't, she continued, “I think she was truly sorry for causing you so much pain after her resurrection and was trying to find a way to apologize.” Kagome risked a glance at the hanyou.

 

Inuyasha was staring at the ground, eyes hidden by his bangs. What he was thinking was anybody's guess. `Perhaps he's beating himself up for not having saved Kikyo again.'

 

“Inuyasha.” He brought his gaze up to meet hers. The emotions playing across his face surprised Kagome a little. Of course there was sadness and guilt, but not as much as there had been months back just after a newly transformed Naraku had mortally wounded Kikyo. However, the prevalent emotion today was relief. `Relief for what?' she thought.

 

Inuyasha spoke, as if answering her mind`s question, “I'm glad that she was able to finally find peace. Her heart is now free from her hatred and I can be free from my guilt.” He stared up into the branches of the sacred tree at their backs, a minuscule upturning on his lips.

 

Kagome smiled softly at the hanyou. `Free from his guilt. Guilt that was holding him back from living his life. Thank you Kikyo.'

 

“Did she say anything else?” His question startled the girl out of her reverie. His eyes were still tilted to the treetop, but his face was slightly turned towards her. With the sunlight filtering through the leaves and highlighting his silver hair and golden eyes, Kagome thought he had never looked more beautiful than right now. She blushed pink as the rest of Kikyo's words returned to the forefront of her mind. `She practically shoved him at me. But there's no way I can tell him that. He'll think I'm making it up.'

 

“Kagome?” Inuyasha was now peering curiously at her, which only made the poor girl blush even more. Before the hanyou could ask her what was wrong, she stuttered out a response.

 

“The o-only other thing she m-metioned, was that I was her reincarnation and that through me, you would have her.” When she finished, Kagome buried her face in her hands and desperately prayed for the earth to swallow her. `Okay, that wasn't exactly what she said, but it's close enough that he won't think I'm leading him on.'

 

A hand on her shoulder brought Kagome's head back up to meet Inuyasha's eyes. Gentle amusement flooded his face as he clasped her face between his hands. With wide eyes, Kagome held her breath as he leaned in. Her eyelids fluttered shut when he was bare centimeters from her lips.

 

“Liar.”

 

“Wh-what?”

 

“I said, liar.”

 

Kagome's eyes flew open and settled the glare of her life on Inuyasha. “I am not a liar.”

 

The damn inu-hanyou had the gall to smirk at her. “Yes, you are.”

 

Well, at least he had the good sense to look scared when Kagome's aura flared around her like fire. “Okay, maybe liar was harsh. But you have to admit that you left something out.”

 

As quickly as her anger had flamed, it was doused. “Why do you think that?”

 

“I know both of you. You would never tell me something that made her look bad or you better by comparison. And Kikyo knew that my feelings towards you were different from the ones I had for her fifty years ago. But that's not important right now.” Inuyasha rolled to his feet and stepped away from the Goshinboku. “The question now is what do we do with the Jewel?”

 

Kagome's mind and heart had stopped working properly after Inuyasha had said 'feelings towards you'. 'Does he mean what I think he means? Oh please let it be that.' Her brain jumpstarted into order at the 'not important' line, while her heart kept beating a tattoo in her chest. He had asked her a question after that lovely revelation and he expected an answer?

 

“Kagome?”

 

Her head snapped up for the third time that day and her neck was starting to hurt. 'Oh, well. A hot bath will cure that.'

 

“I'm sorry, Inuyasha. What did you say?”

 

“I asked what we were going to do with the Shikon no Tama?”

 

Kagome slapped her forehead, which managed to get her brain rearranged into working order. “I forgot about that. You kinda threw me for a loop back there.” 'There's that damn smirk again. One of this days I'm going to wipe it off his face.' She clambered to her feet and started towards the hanyou. Upon reaching him, she removed the necklace that the Jewel hung from. “Here,” She said, as she placed the necklace over his head, “I want you to have it and make any wish you want.”

 

Inuyasha lifted the Jewel to his eye. “Any wish? Even full youkai?”

 

Kagome frowned at his query, “Yes, Inuyasha. Although, I thought you were happy as you are now. If being a full youkai is what it takes for you to be happy, then go ahead.”

 

He just stared back and forth between the Jewel and the miko. Comprehension dawned on his face, right before he crushed her in an embrace. She had no idea what he was thinking until he whispered in her ear, “Thank you for trusting me. I'll make you proud of my wish.”

 

Kagome smiled as she returned his hug with one of her own. 'I know you will, Inuyasha'

 

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A/N: That was my first mushy scene. Hope it turned out alright. Let me know what you thought.

 

Oh, guess what? I kidnapped Inuyasha! He is currently tied up in my basement. Wait a sec. I don't have a basement. (wanders off in search of dream interpretation book, grumbling all the way.)