It had been five hundred, long, agonizing years since that day. Since the day he'd last heard that angelic voice calling his name, embracing him with her sweet scent assaulting his nose. He'd longed for that embrace for who knows how long now. And here he was. He stood still at the tall flight of stone steps leading to the Higurashi Shrine. He'd finally reached the right moment in time to be with her. The well was closed so his past identity couldn't come over and snatch her up at any second, and she couldn't run off to fight of Naraku, who was long dead by now.
Stealing a breath, InuYasha finally convinced himself to make the assent and approach the front door of the Higurashi home. He'd missed this place, spending the nights of the new moon leaning against her bed and listening to her sleep, her heart beat slow and even, as it should be. He relished those few moments when she'd whisper his name in her dreams and smile softly. Those were moments he'd missed.
As he knocked, he had to forcibly keep his heartbeat slow and even. Just seeing her, smelling her, holding her, might give him that long awaited heart attack. It had been broken for so long that, when seeing her, it would heal so fast it might kill him. He rethought that. His love for her might kill him.
"InuYasha?"
InuYasha was yanked out of his thoughts as Kagome's mother stood at the door, mouth agape. He smiled sheepishly.
"Mrs. Higurashi, it's wonderful to see you again." He said with his hands stuffed in his pockets, his ears flattened against his head underneath his hoodie. Tears sprang into the older woman's eyes as she quickly ushered him in and onto the couch.
"It's been such a long time," she finally said as she self-consciously wiped her tears away. InuYasha smirked.
"It's been longer than you think." He replied quietly as she went into the kitchen and began to busy herself with the kettle.
The two sat at the dining room table, Mrs. Higurashi nursing her tea while InuYasha twiddled his thumbs and glanced at his lit up cell phone screen. The clock already read 6:30 PM. Where was Kagome? InuYasha leaned forward.
"Mrs. Higurashi, don't get me wrong, it's been wonderful catching up. When is Kagome coming home? It's getting a little late…" he said, trailing off as she sighed and looked down into the dregs of her tea.
"Oh, InuYasha, she's been so alone for these past three years. I know you had to wait a certain amount of time, but I wish you could have come sooner." She murmured.
"What do you mean, alone? I thought she had friends, and a life here." He replied with a frown. Mrs. Higurashi shook her head.
"When the well sealed itself off, Kagome took to sitting up in her room and just watching the Shrine out her window. More often than not she'd try to reach you through the Goshinboku. When that failed, it was like she was empty. It wasn't just you she left behind in the Sengoku Jidai. She had another entire family in the past. It wasn't until last year when she applied for the job at the bar downtown that she finally began to come back to life."
"What happened?" InuYasha asked softly. "Who brought her back to life?" Mrs. Higurashi's eyes widened and she vigorously began to shake her head.
"No, no! InuYasha, there was never another man besides you on her mind and in her heart. It was when she ran into Shippo, then Koga and Ayame, that her life began to fall back into place. She even found Miroku and Sango. Some priestess attempted to bring them back as minions, but that went terribly wrong and Kagome used her abilities as a priestess to restore their full life. But even then, you've always been missing from it."
InuYasha smiled softly. "Where can I find her?"
Kagome Higurashi moved swiftly down the bar, taking drink orders and handing them off to Miroku before taking meal orders from Shippo and passing them off to the chef in back. Sango moved around the stage setting it up for Kagome's show in half an hour, but her shift didn't end for another fifteen minutes. Kagome refilled a few sodas around the room before making her way back to the bar and a groaning Koga.
"Have you tried calling her? I know for a fact you haven't been to my place to see her yet." Kagome asked him with a sympathetic smile. He sighed and drowned his sorrows in the last of his beer.
"I screwed up, Kagz," he muttered. "She sent the papers in the mail today." Kagome shook her head.
"I thought she was going to wait to do that," she replied honestly before replacing Koga's empty beer bottle with a glass of ice water. He'd had plenty to drink after two, seeing as his drinking and partying was what convinced Ayame to leave him in the first place. Koga smiled gratefully at Kagome for the water and gulped it down. Sango came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"It'll get better, Koga," she promised before ducking behind the bar next to Kagome. "How are you doing tonight, hun?" she asked Kagome as she wiped down the wooden surfaces with a damp rag.
"Well, the evening could've been worse," Kagome stated with a thoughtful expression. Sango raised a brow in question. Kagome shrugged.
"A couple guys hit on me. Shippo dropped another tray of dirty dishes, and I'm performing in twenty-five minutes. Nothing but the usual around here." She said before giving Koga's hand a squeeze and going for the back door to her locker. Her eyes scanned the room as she turned and she stiffened. For a brief moment she thought she'd spotted the same topaz eyes that had haunted her dreams for the past three years hiding beneath a red hoodie, but then as quick as it was there it was gone.
"Must have been my imagination." She murmured before going in the back.
He'd seen her! Her chocolate brown eyes had met his for a split second before he ducked into a corner to hide. Her long, ebony hair had been pulled up and out of her face as she moved around the bar and room. InuYasha had spotted Koga and wondered at the state of him. He guessed he was getting some trouble from Ayame on the home front. He'd spotted Sango, just like Mrs. Higurashi said, and Shippo was off somewhere apologizing about a spilt soda on a female customer's shirt while her boyfriend cussed. But he was more focused on Kagome. She'd turned back around and left the room. Where did she go? He was about to stand up when Shippo approached with a notepad and a menu. He'd gotten plenty taller since InuYasha had seen him. He was five foot nine at least, with short red hair and those innocent green eyes. He'd gotten gangly and thin with his height, making him awkward, but the girls were still flocking around him in the bar. How the hell did he do that?
"May I take your order?" Shippo asked InuYasha without looking up from his notepad as he scribbled furiously.
"I'll just have a beer," InuYasha replied over the sound of random conversations around them, and Shippo dropped his pen. His wide green eyes slowly rose to meet his grin with a gaping jaw.
"InuYasha!"
Suddenly the bar had grown quiet as Kagome had approached the stage and the entire room heard Shippo exclaim his name. Some people just stared, but Sango, Shippo, MIroku, and even Koga were grinning at him. Kagome was on stage with a guitar in her arms as she sat on a stool in front of a microphone, eyes wide and her lips formed in a frozen 'O'.
"So, you went to the Shrine first?" Kagome asked awkwardly as she heated up some leftovers from the night before. InuYasha was sitting at the breakfast bar watching her move. She turned to face him.
"Yeah, I did. I didn't know you'd moved." InuYasha replied. She nodded.
"I graduated early and moved here to be closer to my job. Ayame moved in three months ago. I think she's filed for a divorce with Koga." She explained.
"So you've said. I saw how he looked at the bar tonight." He said. She sighed.
"The separation has been hard on him. He knows he screwed up and every day is practically killing him. He always comes to the bar after work to hang out because he doesn't want to go home to an empty house and he's hoping to hear word about Ayame."
InuYasha nodded and leaned closer, neither realizing just how close they were getting. It was as if they were gravitating towards each other.
"Being apart from the one you love for so long can be agonizing," he murmured. She nodded slowly.
"You don't have to tell me twice." She whispered, their faces mere inches away. InuYasha suddenly remembered her kiss in the void, and oh how he longed to feel that way again. As if she read his mind, she walked around the breakfast bar without breaking eye contact and brushed aside a strand of silver hair. InuYasha slid a hand to the back of her neck and gently pulled her lips to his to initiate their first real kiss in 3/500 years.
"I've been waiting five hundred years for that," InuYasha murmured after and Kagome smiled softly before tugging his hand and pulling him out of his chair. She led him back to her bedroom door before he pulled her in again, kissing the breath from her lips. She wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on tiptoes attempting to reach his height. God, she was still so tiny. InuYasha simply lifted her in his arms and she hooked her legs around his waist before he turned the knob on her bedroom door and stumbled into the room. Kagome kicked the door shut behind him.
InuYasha rolled over onto his side, his topaz eyes watching Kagome sleep. Her heartbeat was even as she slept soundlessly, save the one word that fell from her parted lips.
"InuYasha," she whispered with a sweet smile. He traced her bare curves through the sheet, grinning. She was even more beautiful with her clothes off, and he loved seeing her this way. As she murmured his name again, he kissed her shoulder and sighed.
Yes, these were the moments he had missed.