Guuuuuuuuuuuueeeeeeesssss who!
Yup, I'm back, with yet ANOTHER story for you to complain about due to my lack of updating. But see, this time, I'm not just being lazy. No. I've been kicked off the computer for the past two months (and still am, but I snuck on right now) because of my danged science teacher. So how about if you REALLY get anxious for me to update, I'll buy you some tomatos instead for you to throw at him
I got the idea for this story after reading Tithe by Holly Black. If you haven't read it, go to the library RIGHT THIS SECOND. Actually, maybe go AFTER to read my story...It's not based on it or anything, I just thought of it, then had a messed up dream that sort of related to it, and volia, a new story:)
Anyway, enough of my pointless babble. On with the fic!
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Bright azure orbs sparkled with unshed tears. The wobbly, sniffling figure of a six year old girl stood alone in an empty room, clutching a small teddy bear tightly to her chest. The two ribbons that had previously been holding her shoulder-length tresses had become loose, and the thickness of her dark locks stuck to her wet cheeks.
Pushing a particularly obscuring strand away from in front of her eyes, her gaze swept the perimeter of the room.
The walls were a dusty pink, some parts showing patches of white where her posters of magical beings had been taken down, the tape that had held them up sticking like glue to the wall and ripping flakes of paint.
The floor was shiny and clean, no books or toys littered it, and the shelves were all bare.
The spot where her small but comfy bed had been, she noticed the scuff marks on her floor from when she had decided she wanted to rearranged the furniture in her room. A small smile graced her lips as she thought of how difficult it was to do, but she had done it.
Just like how she could reach the centre of her walls to put up those posters.
But she hadn't done it completely by herself...
"I-Inuyasha? Sh-Shippo?"
Her voice was tiny and thin, the waver making it almost inaudible and incoherent. But she knew they could hear her. They always heard her.
She stood still for a moment, holding her breath. When no one came, she let out a tiny sob as more tears spilled down her cheeks. She squeezed the teddy bear with all her might, and turned to leave.
They don't like me anymore...
But as her body made the full turn, and she took a step, she found her way blocked. Her head shot up, and she was met with an intense gold gaze.
"You came back," whispered the little boy. "...to say good-bye."
His words undid her completely, and dropping her now forgotten teddy, she dove into his arms, wailing loudly. The six year old hanyou stood dumbly for a moment before gently, if not a little hesitantly, wrapped his own arms around her trembling frame.
"Great job, baka." hiccuped another voice.
Leaving the warmth of her friends arms, the little girl looked over by her window, where the same watery eyes of a kitsune stared back at her. "You just had to make her go and cry."
She heard the other boys slight growl, but she didn't scold him. She was too busy hurtling herself at the fox child. He easily embraced her without the embarrassment (unlike their silver-haired friend) and cried just as hard along with her.
"Why Kagome?" he bawled. "Why do you gotta go?"
"I don't wanna! Really I don't!" she wept back. "Oh Shippo! What am I gonna do without you and Inuyasha?" sobbing harder, Kagome moved and outstretched one arm to silently invite the awkward looking hanyou into a three-way-hug.
"Please," she whispered when his face clouded with that "No-Way-In-Heck" look.
Sighing defeatedly, Inuyasha allowed himself to be crushed between his two hysterical friends.
"Can't you guys PLEASE come with me?" Kagome begged, finally pulling away with one final sniffle from the smothering embrace.
"Stupid," Inuyasha couldn't keep the catch out of his voice. "You think we WANT to be left behind?"
"That's just his way of saying he'll miss you lots." said Shippo with a watery half-chuckle. Inuyasha just huffed with a slight pink tinting his cheeks as he purposely looked in the opposite direction.
Kagome shot Inuyasha a smile, but she felt the smile drain away at his whispered words;
"Will you ever come back?"
She blinked, and cast a look over at Shippo, who trained his gaze on her full force. She could see the hope reflected deep within his emerald pools, and also didn't fail to notice that one of Inuyasha's fuzzy white ears was cocked in her direction, twitching in suspense as he awaited her response.
Kagome took a breath, and shot them one of her best smiles as she puffed up her chest importantly.
"I PROMISE that someday I'll come back to you guys." she declared in her best grown-up voice.
Inuyasha slowly turned back to her, emotions flickering in his eyes like koi in a pond. "You better," he growled softly, but Kagome knew him so well that she could detect the well hidden insecurity in his voice.
"I will. I cross-my-heart 'n' hope-to-die." she swore.
Shippo burst out crying again, and Kagome gave him her biggest, bestest bear hug ever.
"I'll miss you, Shippo. I'll miss you a lot." she whispered, giving him one last squeeze before letting go.
She looked over at Inuyasha, feeling slightly embarrassed at her actions now that her waterworks were under control.
"Oh, just come here, dangit."
Inuyasha stepped forward, and pulled Kagome into a warm (if not slightly crushing) hug.
"Kagome? Where are you?" a familiar tone echoed throughout the hollow household.
"I'll miss you lots too, Inuyasha." she murmured, and on impulse as she pulled away, pecked the hanyou lightly on the cheek.
Inuyasha stared at her dumbly and she gave a final wave to him and Shippo (who was grinning slyly at Inuyasha) before turning and heading back towards her door. Footsteps pounded up the stairs, and seemed to jog through the upstairs hall.
"Kago–! Oh, there you are!"
Kagome blinked up innocently at her stern-looking father.
"We were looking all over for you. It's time to go."
Taking her dad's outstretched hand, Kagome gave one last glance over her shoulder.
Inuyasha and Shippo had already disappeared.
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"What were you doing up there, anyway?" her father was still scolding her as she climbed into the backseat of the family van. "We wanted to be out of her by 4, and it's now 4:30. What was so important that you had to go running off like that? Your mother and I were worried–"
The car door slammed and her father's tall figure strode around the perimeter of the car one last time, making sure everything was in place before hopping into the drivers seat.
"–Were worried sick about you!" he concluded as he started the ignition.
"I had to say good-bye." Kagome grumbled, looking miserably out the window at their home. Her one year old baby brother cooed beside her.
"Good-bye? To the house?"
Kagome kept from rolling her eyes at the stupidness of her father's question. She imagined one of Inuyasha's rude come backs to answer that, but instead she chose silence.
"Were you saying good-bye to you friends?"
Kagome smiled as her mother's soft voice cut in, gentle as a feather but a smooth as a knife. He father didn't respond.
"Yah...mommy, how come they couldn't come with us?" Kagome didn't understand. If they could go everywhere else with her, why not to Kyoto?
"I don't know, sweetie. Maybe they have laws, just like we do. Maybe they have to stay in Tokyo."
Kagome loved it when her mother believed in her "imaginary" friends. Her daddy always told her she was too old for such nonsense.
"Do you think they're going to be lonely?"
"Well, grandpa is taking over the estate while we're gone. You father's company should be transferring us back in another year or two." her mother was smiling. Kagome couldn't see it from where she sat, but she could feel it.
"But Inuyasha never liked grandpa. He always said he was a crazy old fart that needed to be put in a retirement home for the safety of others."
Kagome's mother laughed, but that didn't mean Kagome didn't hear the disbelieving snort from her father.
"Yes, grandpa IS a little on the zany side, but Shippo likes him, right?"
"Yah, Shippo thinks he's funny..." Kagome paused. "But we'll come back to visit, right?"
Her mother remained silent. Her father sighed.
"Hon...it's gonna be hard to drive between two cities all the time. Not to mention expensive. But like your mother said, we should be transferred back to Tokyo in a couple years time."
"So we're not even gonna visit?" Kagome couldn't keep the panic out of her voice. She could last maybe a week, a month a most, without Shippo and Inuyasha. But a year! She thought she might die.
"I'm sorry, baby." her father's words were quiet as they pulled onto the main expressway. If Kagome knew any better, she would have thought he actually sounded sorry. But she did know better.
She was never going to see Inuyasha or Shippo ever again.