Complete and Unconditional

Title: Complete and Unconditional

Author: Personification of Fluff

Rating: R, to be on the safe side, because of potty mouths and making out

Summary: Continuing my experimentation with ways of writing and approaches to timelines, etc, I decided to pull a Quentin Tarrentino, or at least as close as I can come to that man's genius timelines. The introduction to each chapter takes place in the "present" of the story, and everything after the introduction is the flashbacks Sango and Miroku are experiencing as they reflect upon their life together.

The story, really, has very little plot, or at least nothing that I can say right now without ruining the surprises I have along the way. The story just outlines some of the trials and happy times that the two have experienced and overcome together, things like creating the demon slayers, or having children and raising them.

But first, ::grins:: I figured that we should have a moment of Kagome and Inuyasha fluff, because they play quite an important part in Sango and Miroku's future, and we should all know how they got together too, shouldn't we? Pardon me, however, for any Kagome and Inuyasha lovers, as this brief explanation is hardly sufficient.

But can I kindly point out that this isn't a Kagome and Inuyasha story, now is it? -

Enjoy the MS fluff, everyone! ::hugs everyone::

You have no idea how happy you make me, do you? ::purrs::

Chapter One:

The End

I can still remember all the details as if it were yesterday. Now that I am older, and lying here on my mat, staring up at the ceiling, it seems as if all the events of my marriage to Sango happened like a chain reaction, though I know that was far from true. At the time that all these events were happening, things were spread far apart, and at times it seemed like a lifetime would pass before Sango and I would ever get to marry.

First, there was the issue of the jewel. That, however, is a subject that my dear friend Kagome should explain. After the defeat of Naraku, during the time of healing when we mourned over the loss of Kouga, how the shards were ripped from his shredded remains, Kikyo, and to Kagura, whom none of us knew that well, but we all respected once we had discovered that she was causing as much trouble for Naraku as we were. We had wounds to heal, poisons from which we needed to recover, and before all of us were ready to make way for Kaede's village, Kagome was already holding the shard, asking what it was that she needed to do with it.

Even as I held the jewel for the first time, the question of what to do with it was more important than anything else in my mind. It was more demanding than the fact that we had finally beat Naraku, than the question of how badly injured I was. I was more aware of the little shard in my hand than I was of the blood still leaking from my body. I felt like I was in a daze, and I didn't snap out of the daze until we had taken over the mansion of Naraku's and Inuyasha and I sat in the kitchen.

He was bandaging my wounds for me, and when he accidentally touched me a bit too hard, I yelped.

"Sorry," Inuyasha apologized, his gold eyes down and his ears twitching.

"It was only an accident," I consoled, patting his head, as it was the closest thing to me at that moment. My hands brushed his ears, and we both went red. I pulled my hand back, and closed my eyes, thinking about the jewel. As hot as the topic had raged earlier, now I found myself thinking about Inuyasha. With my sense of sight momentarily gone, it felt like all my others were enhanced. I could feel the calluses of his hands and the tips of his claws touching my side gently, feel his hair cling to mine, and his strong scent wrap around me. All in all, it was comforting. I felt safe; the topic of the jewel could wait.

But as comforting as it was, I wanted to say something. I wanted… I needed to reach out, and touch Inuyasha again. His fingertips finished affixing the medicinal tape, and I thought he was going to leave. Instead, his knuckles brushed my skin, and he moved in a little bit closer. Slowly, his hand flattened up against my side, and slid around to my stomach as he moved around to my back. I leaned into his touch, my back coming up against his bare chest. His own cuts were already bandaged, but I still heard him wince when I leaned on them a bit too heavily.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"It was only an accident." I think he was smiling.

I touched the hand laying on my stomach, running my fingers overtop of his. My other hand lay on his knee, playing with the worn fabric of his hakama. I sighed, contentedly, knowing that for half a second, everything had been perfect and that no force in heaven or hell could ever take that from me. "Inuyasha… have I ever told you that I'd really like to touch your ears again?"

"Again? When did you ever touch them in the first place?" he demanded.

"Ah… when you were still nailed to the tree?" I wondered why I'd made it sound like a question. "I couldn't help it. They were just so cute, and I'd never seen someone so good looking with puppy-ears before. I wanted to see if they were real, and they looked so soft…"

Inuyasha growled, and the sound echoed into my chest. I'd never heard anything so primal before sound so… pleasing. I cherished the way it echoed into me, the way his lips came close to my ear when he tried to be ferocious, the way his hand tightened against my stomach and the warmth that came from it. "Listen, wench, my ears are not cute, they're… manly."

"But they're still soft," I pointed out. "Can I touch them again? Please?"

He nodded. I turned around, sitting on my knees so that I could reach them. His hand went to fall from my stomach, but I pulled it back so that it lay on the small of my back. I didn't focus on his face, because I didn't want to know how he was reacting to my touch. What if he didn't like it?

I reached out, and ran the tip of my finger along one of the edges. My thumb did the same thing on the other side of his ear, and they met at the tip. There, I went down the back, scratching lightly at its base. I did it a second and a third time, and then my hand slipped down to glide through Inuyasha's silver mane. That's when I looked at him. Whatever emotion I was expecting to see in his eyes, it wasn't what I did find. Inuyasha was happy. He was smiling gently, and from the way that he was staring up at me, I knew that I was the one that was the cause for his smile.

Stopping, I settled back down again and took his hand off my back. Looking at him, I found I knew what I had to do. "We've defeated Naraku," I said simply, still wondering at that remark.

"No duh, wench," he growled back. I was about to hit him or sit him for that comment, but it was excusable. We were all still tired from battle, and he had—astonishingly—said it with a smile. Inuyasha was happy. He enjoyed fighting with me, didn't he? For all that I sat him, or the looks he got from us when he said something stupid, he enjoyed it—and hated it too—that I had this power over him which, in a way, made me stronger than him. It must have been the demon in him that enjoyed the fact that he had found somebody who could keep him from doing something dangerous or who punished him for being an idiot.

And in a way, it was kind of flattering.

Oh, but he hated it too. He hated that I had this power over him that kept him from trying to protect me at times, or that punished him when he didn't understand why he needed to be sat, or that got really pissed off at me when I did it accidentally.

"Close your eyes, Inuyasha," I said softly. He stared at me like I was crazy. That particular expression was very hard for some people to do, but I love how expressive Inuyasha was. No matter how far away from him you were, you could still see those gold eyes looking straight at you. "Inuyasha," I repeated. I gave up. Maybe somewhere during this journey, I had become able to understand Inuyasha.

I think I have been for a long time, it was just so stressful, though…

My fingers gently clasped the rosary he wore around his neck, his white hair hiding my arms from me as they disappeared around the back of his neck. Slowly, I lifted the rosary from his body, careful not to get the beads caught in his long silver hair. Inuyasha's gold eyes stared at me, shocked, and looking so painfully nervous that I wondered if maybe I had been wrong and he wanted the rosary left on. It… it was actually a little weird not seeing the rosary on Inuyasha any more. I set it down on the table, and Inuyasha was silent.

I looked back up at him, trying to smile even though I was putting my heart—maybe even more than my heart—on the line. Oh, I trusted Inuyasha. I had for a very long time. For all of his words, all of his hurtful remarks, he had never once physically hurt me. He was always there to protect me, I just didn't trust myself. What if I had always been reading too much into things, what if… Oh, shut up, Kagome!

"Kagome…"

I pressed my fingers to his lips, waiting for him to act. I wanted Inuyasha to act, not to speak. I wanted him to grab the jewel and run away with it, reach out and strike me and call me an idiot, or to take me in his arms and never let me go. God, I wanted him to hurt me because I knew that it was next to impossible for me to stay in the feudal era. If he hurt me, I could run away and nurse my wounds in the future and never see him again, and if he held me and kept me stitched to his side, I would be prevented from ever leaving him and I would be happy…

God, I'm such a foolish dreamer!

He touched my hand, pulling it away so that he could speak. He held my hand, and I clutched the jewel. His gold eyes looked purer than I ever had seen them look before. Inuyasha looked almost hurt that I had taken off the rosary. He opened his mouth, but he couldn't find anything to say. There was no calling me a stupid human, no exultation…

"Say something stupid," I growled.

"What?"

"Say something stupid so that I an hit you for it and not feel guilty and you'll still see that I… Oh, fuck it." I placed the jewel in his hand, and pulled his hand down. I wrapped his fingers around it before I folded my hands in my lap, sitting back down. My voice was almost bitter and indifferent, my words were definitely curt. I didn't know why I was acting like such a bitch at the time. But now I know that it was because I had always fantasized that Inuyasha would rejoice at how much I trusted him, and he would kiss me and I would know that he really did love me. I didn't need him to ever say it, just a kiss would be enough… a kiss that he didn't end up denying when it was over.

"You wanted the jewel. It's yours now."

His hand opened, and he stared at the jewel a moment, then looked down at me. "Kagome…" He glanced briefly at the jewel again. "What am I supposed to do with this?"

I shrugged. "You wanted to become a full demon, didn't you? If that's still want you want, the jewel is yours and you can become a full demon."

Silence. I spun around in my chair. My voice softened, and my eyes fluttered back and forth from the ground to his face, too prideful to meet the ground and too shy to look at his face and see his reaction.

"But before you decide to change yourself, you should know… that I love you." I blushed, and looked down at the floor, my eyes trying to look up at him so I could see his reaction, but the rest of me was too afraid. "I love you just like this: as a half demon, with silver hair, and gold eyes, and… manly dog ears. I love you when you have black hair, and brown eyes, and you hate yourself when you're like that and I wish that I could show you what I see when I look at you. I don't know what you'll look like as a full-demon, but I'll love you anyway, as long as you continue being brave, and strong, and you keep on trying to protect the little person, even though you pretend you're too macho for it."

He stared at me like I was crazy. No doubt he was trying to process what I had just admitted to him. It was more than a little confusing, wasn't it? My heart beat calmed a little bit. "I just thought that maybe you might like to consider that fact before you decide to use the jewel."

Inuyasha stared a moment longer at the jewel, and then he slipped the jewel back into my hands. He touched my hair gently, like he expected me to bite him away. "I already knew that you love me. I overheard you say it once, but I never wanted to ask you about it in case it had been a spur of the moment announcement and you… didn't mean what you said. I didn't know that you loved me… because of all of that."

"Oh, I don't." I said with a grin, touching his face lightly. I smoothed out his bangs for him, clutching the jewel tightly. "I love you for more than that. I just… love you for being you. Inuyasha…"

I had been planning on asking him what we should do now that he didn't want to use the jewel, but instead he leaned down, his lips covering mine and stopping any of my questions. I was taken completely by shock, so I didn't move. I didn't even close my eyes… I know I didn't close my eyes, but for the life of me, I can't remember anything but how it felt. It felt… nice.

He pulled away, and I worried about what I was going to say. Inuyasha took that weight from me, though. He smiled at me. "You have no idea how long I have wanted to kiss you again," he sighed, slowly straightening back up, though he still stared at me.

Shaking my head, I gently touched my lips, still trying to come to grips with the idea that he had just kissed me. "I liked it."

I couldn't say anything else beyond that. I couldn't seem to say that I wanted him to do it again, that I had wanted to kiss him for a long time, that I thought his kiss was sweet. However, my few words seemed to be enough, and the life in his gold eyes was overflowing. "If you don't want to be a full-demon, what do you want to do, then?"

The response I received was deadly simple. "I want to be with you." His hand was placed on my shoulder, and he looked a little sad. It was times like these that I had to remember he wasn't always the bull-headed knight he was in battle. There were times when he was sweet, and when he was uncertain… it seemed that self-confidence was a trait with which demons also had trouble. Then again, if I had been an outcast for most of my life, and then I had found someone who loved me and happened to be a reincarnation of someone who killed me, then I would be a little shy and wary too.

"Good. I want to be with you too. But, Inuyasha, how are we going to do that? I mean, there are so many ways. I can't travel between times without the Shikon jewel, and that has to be destroyed. I can't allow what you and Kikyo went through to happen to anyone else, and I can't allow good, innocent people like Kohaku to be taken over by a single shard. The jewel needs to be destroyed."

He blinked in surprise, understanding from my words what I was implying. "You… you want me to stay here?"

Sad, I nodded.

"But... why in the hell would you want me to do that?" Now he was angry, which was understandable. It was always in the little ways that I always hurt Inuyasha, when I told him that he didn't need him to protect me, when I fought with him, confused him… sat him. "That's stupid! Look, Kagome, in case you haven't figured it out, there are going to be demons in your time too, and somebody needs to be there to look out for you! I can understand you not wanting to leave your family, but how can you just leave our friends?"

"I can't! I mean, I don't want to, so I'm trying to find a way not to, but I can't do it alone! What, Inuyasha? Do you want me to stay here with you? Inuyasha, I would love to, but I can't do that either. It's not just that my family is there, it's that my time is there!" He was confused, and my anger began to diminish. I softened my voice. "Inuyasha, I love it here, and I love our friends. I could do a lot of good things here, with the things I know, but I could do a lot of damage too, and that's what concerns me. How long until I do something that could disrupt the timeline… if that kind of thing is even possible. I'd rather not take the risk and find out. Besides, I am still a priestess, jewel or not. Like you said, Inuyasha. The moment the Shikon jewel came into the future, there were demons ready to take it, and without me to watch over my family, how can I save them? You've seen Grandfather's spells. I love him dearly, but they don't work. It's time the Higurashi shrine had a priestess again." I looked up at him slowly. "I had my chance with you in this time when I was Kikyo. And I blew it. But I'd like to have my chance with you in the future."

He was quiet for a long time. "That's something that always bothered me. How come you're a reincarnation of Kikyo, but you trust me so much? Even when I start becoming more demonic, you always trusted me. Sometimes I wondered if you were even unafraid of me when I became like that."

"At first I was really scared. It wasn't the physical things that scared me... those were a little disturbing, but what really bothered me was just how you acted. It was you, you were still you, you were just… the other you. Look, one of the people from the future suggested that everybody has three sides. One is the person that they show to the world. The other one is a mediator, like your conscious, that negotiates between the part of you that is aware and the part of you that is unaware. Then there's the dark part, the shadow self. It's the part that no one wants to acknowledge, but that everyone has to beat if they want to know themselves completely. The things that you show when you're a demon, like laughing when you kill, that's the dark side. What scared me was how deep that side of you goes… because I'd never seen it in anyone before. It probably goes just as deep in me, and Sango, and Miroku. Even in little Shippo.

"But I still trusted you, because I've seen the good parts of you, and to have a shadow self that's so deep, you have to have an equally matching good side of you. You would think that because of what happened in my last life that I might be less trustworthy of you, but it's the other way around. I trust you explicitly. Right from the moment I met you, I thought you were a good person. I thought you were a jerk, but I thought you were a good person. In fact, if you hadn't tried to kill me, I think that I would have warmed up to you a little quicker. But even then, you didn't hurt me. And you never have." My voice was almost perfectly still as I added, "Not even when I was Kikyo."

He was quiet, contemplative, and eventually his arms wrapped around me, and held me in a hug. I could still remember the last time he gave me a hug. I like his hugs. His body was nice and warm, his touch enough to make me feel secure and not trapped. It was Inuyasha who asked the question that was plaguing my mind. "So what are we going to do?"

"I was thinking about it a lot. One question I have is, how fast do you age? If you age like a full demon, you could stay here. Someone needs to protect the village, the shrine, the people, and I can't ask Sango and Miroku to do it because they are going to start up the village again. Shippo needs someone to watch over him. What else are we going to do with him? Pass him down from kid to kid in Sango's family like an immortal pet? I would have asked Kou… Kouga-kun, but I can't anymore. And if you don't think that you could fall in love with anyone else, then you could stay here, and I'll be in the future waiting for you. Of course…"

"I age like both of them, Kagome. Maybe slightly more demonic because that part of me is stronger than the human, but it still isn't slowly enough when you think about it over five hundred years. By that time, Shippo will be in his early twenties, but I'll be… forty, maybe sixty, somewhere between there. If I don't die first. It's taking a lot of risks, don't you think?"

Nodding in agreement, I snuggled closer to him, my worries smoothed over by the sense of touch. "I agree. Which means that there's another choice. We have to use a wish to purify it, right? But it's supposed to be a selfless wish. I want to wish that we could travel back and forth between the well. I want to be able to see Sango and Miroku and Shippo whenever I want. I want to see Kaede. I want to hold Sango and Miroku's kids. I'd like to have kids one day, and I would like them to meet our friends here. But will a wish like that purify the jewel? Nor did I know if you wanted to come and live with me in the future or not."

"Then there's all the other questions, like what to do with my looks. There are demons in the future, but not many." He paused, and this time I knew that he was smiling. "Maybe that means that Sango and Miroku will have lots of success at rebuilding the school, and the bad ones like Naraku will all be dead. They'll have more kids than rabbit demons, those two."

Quieting, he was very slow to suggest what he was thinking. "Kagome, I don't know how much of a wish we can make. But if we can make a large one, I will wish to become human. I'll look like one of them, age like one of them, heal like them. Even if wishing we could still travel back and forth isn't a selfless wish, maybe that one would work." I looked up at him, and he was being completely serious. "I would, Kagome. I'd do it for you, if you wanted me to. It might be our only chance."

Reaching out to him, I cupped his cheek in the palm of my hand, thinking about it. What would it be like to do this when he was human? Would he feel differently? How long would it take me to realize that he was going to be human three hundred and sixty five days, for the rest of his life? What would it be like to never see those gold eyes looking at me again, flashing at me and reminding me of all the times he was my knight in… well, my knight in fire rat armor.

How long would it take Inuyasha to realize he couldn't be foolhardy, how long to make him feel weak and pathetic, and a shell of the man I love? If he were human, I would still love him. The problem is, would he love himself?

I shook my head violently. I couldn't allow him to do that. If it meant that I could never go to a fancy dinner with him, I would do so. Instead, I would make something and light candles on the table and around the kitchen, and play soft music. If I couldn't go with him to the movies, I wouldn't care. We'd rent. We'd rent a lot of movies, and make flavored popcorn, and cuddle under a throw rug. It wasn't that I didn't like his human form, because I loved it, as it was a part of him. I simply couldn't allow him to become something he hated.

"I'm not Kikyo, Inuyasha. Half-demon, demon, human, I'll always love you. I don't want you to become anything. I would never ask that of you. I… Think about it, Inuyasha. Think about what you're giving up here, and what life will be like there. That's all I'm asking of you."

I wanted to move out of his grasp, but he wouldn't let me. Instead, he held me tighter, and he did think about it. I could all but hear the whirring of his mind as he thought about his friends, and me. "I know what it would be like. I'd be with you. So I'd be happy."

I sniffled. I hadn't expected so quick a response. I didn't need Inuyasha to tell me how he felt. Everything he said and did told me. He loved me. That's why he was willing to physically change himself, why he was willing to move to a whole new time. My family loved him too. I burst out laughing when I thought of how Souta would react. I leaned up and kissed him again, throwing my hands around his neck. "I love you, Inuyasha."

He grinned in response. Gripping me gently, his mouth covered mine, his lips brushing mine, and this time I eagerly responded. Holding the jewel tightly as my other hand brushed his hair, feeling the silver strands slide easily between my fingers. Damn his hair, I don't think that his hair ever tangled. At that moment, I made the wish that would purify the jewel. Maybe it was selfish, but as I made it, I felt the jewel grow hot, and then it vanished in my very hand.

I wished that we would all be together. Not Inuyasha and I, but all of us. The people that had fought Naraku. I wanted to see Shippo grow up, to meet Kagura's incarnation and apologize for ever having to call her an enemy, to see the children of two of my closest friends, to see the boy that Kohaku could have been.

It wasn't fair that what could have been wonderful was ripped apart by something so insignificant as hatred, jealousy, lust, and a little jewel. It's ironic that it was so vile a man that had ended up bringing us all together, because without Naraku, we never would have met. Maybe our love and friendship were the good… that had come out of the bad.

If that was the case, then I could never allow a love that had overcome so much, felt so much, and encompassed so many people….

I could never let something like that die.