A/N: I've been mulling over the time travel aspects of Inuyasha and this idea popped into my head today. Just a short one-shot taking a closer look at how Kagome's travels and decisions affect Mama Higurashi. Let me know what you think :) Enjoy!
She was dropping Sota off at school, which was not far down from the shrine. It was his first day after summer vacation, and though he told her he was much too old to have his mother walk him to school, she insisted.
"Bye, Mama!"
"Hopefully she does better with the boy."
"Bye, dear." She kissed him lightly on the head. "Have a good first day of school."
"Can't believe she let her daughter marry so young! And to a delinquent no less!"
"Thanks, Mama," he beamed up at her.
"How do you know what he's like?"
"I'll be here to pick you up at 3, alright? Same spot."
"I overheard Eri talk to Kagome on the phone once, while she was still here. Poor Sota, what kind of role models are those to look up to? A bad mother, a hoodlum sister, and a delinquent brother-in-law?"
"Yes, Mama. Gotta run or I'll be late! See you later, Mama!"
"It's a wonder Kagome even graduated."
She waved and watched as he ran inside the building. Throat tight, vision blurring, she turned and began the short walk home.
She was used to the whispers, the side glances, the head shaking. It had been a few years now after all.
It had all started when Kagome was missing so much school. Although teachers and administrators didn't question it, mothers did. They began speculating as to the real reasons Kagome was absent, and then the whispers began. Sota's friends were no longer allowed to sleepover. The requests for her to babysit came less and less. What kind of mother let her daughter jeopardize her future like that?
A bad one, that's what.
The moment she ascended the steps to the shrine, she rushed to the wellhouse and descended the ladder into the well like her life depended on it. She sat at the bottom of the well and cried. She cried because she had just said goodbye to her only daughter two months ago and the bottom of this dirty old well was the closest she could get to her. She cried because she wouldn't get to see Kagome grow old, see her marry Inuyasha, meet her darling friends that she spoke so much about, help her raise her grandkids. She cried because she would never see Kagome's smile again or hear her voice, or watch her marvel at a bath after spending weeks in the Feudal Era or wolf down the meal she had so painstakingly prepared in anticipation of Kagome's arrival. She would give anything for the disappointment of Kagome returning home later than promised than the heartache she was experiencing now.
"I miss you, Kagome," she whispered brokenly into the empty space. "So, so much."
Her words bounced off the walls and she felt small inside the well. Sadness had a funny way of making time feel so much longer than it was. She must have been in there for 30 minutes, though the pain in heart made it feel like an eternity. She sighed. This was no time to wallow. She needed to check in on Pop and make sure he was feeling alright after his recent fall, begin preparing dinner, and then pick up Sota from school. Life must go on. She would probably have to shower or change at the very least. The dirt from the bottom of the well had gotten all over her clothes.
She ascended the built-in ladder slowly, hesitating to distance herself but knowing it would make no difference. As she neared the top of the well and reached for the last plank of the ladder, her hand went a little too high and she touched something smooth and plastic tucked just under the lip of the well. Hoisting herself over, she leaned over enough to find and feel around for the plastic. After a little pulling, she held in her hands something rectangular and flat, protected by a small, opaque plastic bag.
She opened the bag and pulled out a paper, slightly crumpled but solid, that withstood the test of time.
Thank you, Mama. We love and miss you.
Kagome and Inuyasha