InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Returning Home ❯ Pause ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any characters there in.

A/N: This is the sequel to A Taste of Power. I think I explained things pretty well here, but the intricacies might be confusing if you haven't read the first one. It's funny, this started out as a three chapter exploration about Kagome's withdraws from the Jewels power until Sorrel jumped full grown from my head and said "I can use that!" Ah well, such is life.

Chapter 1: Pause

Kagome leaned against the trunk of a tree just outside of her school. Classes were out for the day, but she didn't feel like going home yet. It had been three days, and even though InuYasha had agreed on a week, he might get impatient and pop up at any moment, and Kagome wanted the time to think. She was just recovered enough to start to put things together in a lucid manor and she wanted that done before she had to face everyone.

She sighed and watched the sun filter through the leaves. She had endangered the quests, her friends, and herself over… what? Exhaustion at first, but then, after she began to recover, with InuYasha's help, why had she continued? Had she just wanted to kiss InuYasha that much? She kissed InuYasha!

"I can't believe I kissed him!" Kagome hid her face in her hands in embarrassment.

"You kissed him?" three excited voices chorused.

`Oh God no.' Kagome thought desperately, `Not them, they did not just hear that!'

But of course they had, and they wouldn't be deterred by the way Kagome attempted to curl up and disappear into the ground.

"Who did you kiss?" Eri asked quietly.

"Um…" Kagome uncurled and looked into her friend's shocked and curious faces.

"Was it Hojo?" Ayumi asked excitedly.

"It wasn't that other guy was it?" Yuka asked with disapproval.

"…Other guy?" Kagome said uncertainly.

The girls squealed.

"Did he finally get over his ex?"

"Did you kiss him or did he kiss you?"

"What about poor Hojo?"

Kagome stood to confront her friends, "It's not like that! It's- I don't know what it is. I wasn't thinking clearly- it was an accident! I have to go home now and… I just... I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

Kagome left her stunned friends under the tree and ran all the way home.

*

InuYasha lay on the floor of Keade's hut. He was slowly regaining the energy he lost to Kagome and during the final battle with Sorrell. The numbness was leaving him as his energy returned, and his resentment of the situation was growing.

He had thought about Kagome, about what Sorrell said to him, about what Kagome told them she had said to her.

Kagome had kissed him. She had knowingly sucked energy from his lips. Energy he refused to give her, energy she had given him in the first place. He shouldn't have kept it. He shouldn't have taken it.

InuYasha scowled, she shouldn't have given it. He hadn't asked for anything from her!

But… she gave it; she gave him energy to heal him and didn't expect anything in return. She gave until it almost killed her, and he didn't help her, he couldn't see what was going on.

Until Sorrell. Sorrell, who told Kagome how to help herself, who betrayed Kagome's trust and used her, and him, to heal Kohaku, weaken the group and tried to turn Kagome into a succubus like herself. To whom he owed the memory of Kagome's kisses.

"INUYASHA!" Shippo called from the doorway "Kagura's coming this way!"

InuYasha jumped up, grabbed his sword and followed Shippo.

Kagura was tucking her feather back into her hair when the group arrived.

"What do you want bitch?" InuYasha held the transformed fang defensively and tried to hide his panting from the enemy.

"Now, now InuYasha, That's no way to start a civilized conversation." Kagura tapped the end of her closed fan lightly to her cheek, "I'm not here to fight. I came to ask a question, what happened to Naraku?"

"… What do you mean?" InuYasha asked.

Kagura frowned, "Did you not defeat him? Don't tell me it was that weak little succubus Sorrell!"

The silence of the battered group before her was answer enough, "Shit." She muttered, "That means he's still alive."

"What are you talking about?" InuYasha growled.

"No one has killed Naraku." She answered impatiently, "He disappeared after he went to deal with Sorrell. I believe that he was wounded badly and he's hiding out somewhere, regaining his strength. Keep your eyes open, maybe you'll get lucky."

Then, with her usual finesse, she drew her feather and sped away on her wind.

"How… strange." Miroku said when she disappeared.

"Did she come here just to tell us Naraku was missing, possibly vulnerable, and that we should try to kill him?" Sango asked, she relaxed slightly from her battle stance and rested the tip of her boomerang on the ground.

"That's what it looks like." Miroku shrugged.

"Whatever, lets just get back to the village." InuYasha put away his sword and started back to Keade's.

Myouga jumped onto InuYasha's nose, "Lord InuYasha! You should be regaining your strength, not looking for fights!" he admonished.

"Where have you been?" InuYasha growled.

"I have been searching for clues to Kagome's situation." Myouga announced quickly, to avoid being squashed.

"And what did you find?" Miroku asked.

"… Nothing, I did discover that Sorrell was an ancient succubus and that she found many ways to use her natural powers of manipulating the energy she stole from humans. Apparently this made her an unusually powerful for a youkai of her level. She was not here long before Naraku approached her."

"Do you think Keade was correct about Kagome returning to normal in time?" Sango asked.

"I do not know." Myouga replied slowly.

"Do you know anything of use to us?" InuYasha asked impatiently.

"…No."

"Then got out there and find out about Naraku or the jewel or Kohaku or how to fix Kagome and don't come back until you know something we can use!" InuYasha threw Myouga into the forest and tried to stomp back to Keade's.

*

`It wasn't just because I wanted to kiss him.' Kagome thought, as she walked home from school on the day she was to return to the feudal era. `My mind was all fuzzy.'

She looked up the steps to her families' shrine and sighed. There where just so many! That had never bothered her before; she would just skip right up and be all smiles at the top.

Kagome took one agonizing step at a time, as she had every day this week. She made her way through the house to her room, grabbed the bag, already packed with clothes and toiletries, and walked down to the kitchen to pack the ramen, tea and other sundries.

After that she heaved her pack over her shoulders and walked to the well. She spent a good ten minutes staring into the shadows at the bottom of that well. She still didn't feel prepared to face InuYasha. But what choice did she have.

She could wait for him to come and get her. Then again, he hadn't ever stayed away this long, maybe he wouldn't come back for her. Maybe he didn't want to see her anymore.

Maybe doesn't matter, she told herself resolutely. She had told them all that she would return, and she couldn't just disappear. If InuYasha didn't want her around any more then she would say her good byes and leave. Now she just had to jump down the well and face them.

Kagome sat on the lip of the well, put one leg over, then the other, and dropped into the darkness.

*

Shippo was sitting on the edge of the well, waiting for Kagome to return. Miroku had told him that she would return today. It had been a long, boring, weird week without her, and her candy.

The well filled with a familiar blue light and Shippo hopped down squealing in glee, "KAGOME!"

Kagome put her arms out automatically to catch him, "Shippo!" she gasped when he was in her arms, "Don't do that! You could get hurt."

Shippo shook his head, "I'm a youkai Kagome." he laughed, "I'm tough."

Kagome looked up to the square of sky at the top of the well, "Where's InuYasha?"

Shippo shrugged, "I haven't seen him all day. But, I've been here. He could be at the God tree…. He's usually here when you say you'll come back."

"Maybe he forgot." Kagome sighed. Now she had to climb out of the well carrying this heavy pack all by herself, "Come on Shippo. Let's get to the village."

Eventually Kagome and Shippo did make it out of the well and back to the village. Miroku and Sango were at Keade's hut discussing Kagura's visit. It gave Sango hope that Kohaku was not back in Naraku's hands. But they still had to find him.

Shippo hopped into the hut and announced, "Kagome's back!"

Kagome smiled wearily at her friends, "I'm back, and ready to go find shards and stuff."

Miroku's welcome smile faded, "Are you sure Kagome, are you sure you have recovered?"

"Sure." Kagome sat down, "recovered as I'll ever be."

Sango traded worried looks with Miroku, "You're eyes look better." She said helpfully.

"Oh!" Kagome started to dig around in her bag, "I forgot to take them out." she pulled out a small plastic bottle and proceeded to remove her colored contacts.

"Kagome!" the others gasped as she grabbed her eye.

She looked up at them, one eye was the same beep brown they had always known, the other had a sickening green starburst surrounding her pupil, uneven rays jutting harshly into the warm brown iris.

"Colored contacts," Kagome explained as she removed the other one and put them away, "they change the color of your eye. I couldn't go to school like that. They would think I had novelty contacts and wouldn't let me attend until I removed them. It's ironic really."

"How do you feel?" Sango asked uncertainly.

"… Fine, I guess." Kagome did a quick mental inventory, "I have more energy then before. I'm not numb any more. Just a little embarrassed that I was tricked so easily."

"You weren't in your right mind." Sango sympathized.

Kagome nodded forlornly, "Has anyone seen InuYasha?"

Sango and Miroku exchanged looks again, "He wasn't at the well?" Miroku asked.

Kagome shook her head, "No, Shippo hasn't seen him all day."

"We haven't seen him either Kagome." Sango said, "I'm sure he'll be here soon."

Kagome nodded slowly and sat, very still, in silent contemplation.

InuYasha returned after the others were asleep. He crept into the hut and looked down at Kagome. In her sleep she seemed very much like she had before Sorrell had taken her, pale and vulnerable.

`She doesn't look sick anymore.' InuYasha retreated to a neutral corner, `Things will get back to normal, like it was before. It never happened.'

*

A/N: Please let me know if I misspelled anything important, and which one of Kagome's friends is the quite one. I think it's Eri.