Thunder rumbled in the distance.
The day was overcast and dark. It looked for all the world like it was going to pour. People inside their small houses were lighting candles so they could see. A wind blew up, kicking up dust and dirt, flinging it against faces, clothing, and huts. Most people went about their day's work with faces turned down, eyes screwed shut.
No rain came, though. It remained as dry as ever.
The four friends were seated inside the hut, sitting around a campfire. They didn't need it for warmth, although the day was oddly cool. It was for light.
Miroku was playing with Kirara, dangling a leaf on a long stem above the kitten's head. Kirara would crouch, waggle her butt, and make a leap, swiping at the leaf.
Sango lay back against the wall of the hut, resting. She watched Miroku and Kirara play, softly laughing.
InuYasha sat across the fire from them. He was oiling up Tetsusaiga with the sword kit Kagome had bought him months back. The sword already normally had a lovely gleam, but the hanyou was rightfully proud of it, and did his best to make sure it was in top form.
Kagome sat next to him, with her face shoved into a book.
Mentally, she sighed.
I'm never going to pass this year. No way. Uh-uh. I've been gone way too long. My teachers probably think I've dropped out altogether. And my friends back home. I have no idea what Grandpa is telling them now. He's probably telling them I have a rare form of curable rabies or something.
She tried to focus on the line of numbers in front of her, to no avail.
Well, I guess I can't be too hard on myself. I mean, it's not like I've been skipping off and going to mall. I've been doing something very important. And I can always go back and re-take my classes when this is over...
Kagome mentally winced. Re-taking grades. Ug.
"Put the book down, already."
Blinking, Kagome lowered her book, peering over the edge, to see InuYasha watching her.
"Huh?"
"You sigh any harder, you'll blow the pages out of it. Put it down already."
"I can't, I need to study."
The hanyou watched her, that exasperated look on his face, "If studying makes you sigh like that, forget about it."
Glumly, Kagome put the book on the floor, "I've told you before, InuYasha. Several times. School is important in my world. Without an education, I can't get a job. No job means no money, no place to live, nothing."
He turned back to his blade, scowling. He hated it when she talked like that. Like she was planning on leaving here someday and never coming back. Always preparing for her future over there.
"Hasn't DarkWind been gone a while?" Sango asked, making InuYasha scowl all the harder.
Kagome nodded, but spoke, "It's ok. He said he might be gone for a day or so. I told him to take a week, if he needed it. He's always here when I need it, he deserves a little vacation now and then."
Miroku wiggled the leaf at Kirara, "I wonder what his lands look like? We all saw what his original world looked like when Izumi showed us that time."
"He told me once, " Kagome said, "That there were so many different worlds out there. Just...worlds and worlds and worlds. He likened it to what Izumi said that time. That it was like we were living in a huge building, with thousands of floors, and each floor had hundreds of rooms. More than you can imagine."
"It makes me think of those buildings we saw in your world that time, Kagome," Sango said, "I had never seen such buildings before."
Kagome smiled, thinking of the skyscrapers in her city. Halloween had been a crazy time for her friends to discover they could cross the time gap into her world.
"Yes, like that. And he can cross into most of them on his own. There are only a few, like this one, where he has to be bonded to someone before he can enter.
Apparently, when he left his home, the Spire, he went to another one and set up a place of his own to live."
Kagome bent her knees, drawing them up to her chest, resting her chin in one hand, staring into the fire, "He's told me he's had so many adventures. I told him he had to tell me some day."
"They would be interesting," Miroku agreed.
They fell silent again for a while, then Sango spoke, "It's so dark out."
Miroku turned to her, "Are you cold?"
Sango smiled. Miroku was being so very attentive to her, "I'm fine, Miroku. Just wondering why it's so dark."
Kagome looked up to the window, "It looks like it does when it's going to pour, but still no rain."
"At least, " Sango said, "It's cool."
Finishing polishing, InuYasha lifted the sword, peering at it, looking for any mars. His face was reflected back to him, eyes bright in the low light.
Kagome smiled, "Perfection."
InuYasha grinned at her, before slipping the sword back into it's sheath. He started packing up the sword kit, blinking when Kagome stood up.
"Where are you going?"
"Our water's a bit's low, and we can use some more redfern for our firstaid kits."
"I'll come with you!" he slapped down the lid of the kit, jumping to his feet. InuYasha grabbed up the large water bucket before Kagome could get it, and followed her out the door.
"That was quick," Miroku murmured, and Sango laughed.
They walked along the path towards the river. They had had rain a while back - not a lot, but enough to reduce stress on some of the rivers. Instead of using the village's well, Kagome and her friends got water from the fast moving river a short distance away. They wanted to use as little of the village's water supply as possible.
InuYasha walked besides Kagome, eyes on the path.
For the last four nights, his dreams had been haunted with the face of a little hanyou child. Small heart-shaped face, pert nose. Golden eyes. Silver hair.
GinSachi.
Kagome's daughter.
Their daughter.
InuYasha knew it wasn't real. Knew it had been something Mikado had shown him, to make him understand why it was so important for Kagome to learn to use the Shikon. Because some day...he might be gone. And she would need to be able to protect herself.
And others.
But GinSachi's face was always in his head now. Her small, bright voice.
"Daddy?!"
InuYasha tightened his grip on the rope handle of the bucket.
Kagome spoke.
"I'm glad you came with me."
Blinking, he turned, looking at her. Eyes a little wide, he regarded her hopefully, "You are?"
Kagome nodded, "I'm trying to get Miroku and Sango alone as much as I can."
Deflated, InuYasha looked back to the path, muttering silently.
"I think something happened the other night," Kagome said as they walked, "Something good, I mean. Have you noticed that he's always around her now? Like...constantly."
"Well, he's glad she's back," InuYasha shrugged, "Makes sense to me."
"I don't know," Kagome shook her head, "She was really upset Miroku's put aside the robes of a Monk. I think some things may have been said that will do them both some good."
"He hasn't put them back on, though," InuYasha pointed out.
Kagome sighed, "True. But we can still hope."
They walked in silence, until Kagome stopped, "Aha."
She pulled a hankerchief from her pocket, unfolding it, and walked to a small bunch of reddish brown plants growing at the base of a tree. Crouching, she reached down, grasping each at the base where it emerged from the ground, and began twisting each off, laying them out on the hankerchief.
"What're those for?" he asked, walking over.
"Bad stomaches," Kagome said, twisting off another, "Tea made with this settles a stomach. I try to keep some around for Shippou."
"If he didn't eat so much all the time, he wouldn't have bad stomaches," InuYasha observed.
Kagome smiled up at him, "Be nice, he's a growing child. He needs a lot of food, even if he does tend to try to eat more than his body can hold."
After twisting off as many as she could carry, she re-folded the hankerchief around the plants, and carefully tucked them into her pocket.
They started on the path again.
"Hey...Kagome?"
"Hmm?"
"Have you ever through about being a healer here?"
Kagome blinked at him, "What?"
"I mean, you've already learned a lot from Kaede. If you went back to her as her apprentice, you could learn everything she knows. You could become a healer here, in this time."
"I...could, yeah," Kagome slowly agreed, "What brought this on?"
He shrugged, tried to look nonchalant, "You wouldn't have to worry about studying all the time, then. From those huge books. Worrying about passing tests, and getting a job and a place to live and stuff."
Kagome smiled, "Well, I could, but I still need to finish school back home and get a job."
He looked at her now, "Why? You can do all that here."
"It's..." she stopped for a minute, trying to explain, "Well...because that's my world back there, I guess. I want to be able to do what's right in both places."
InuYasha said nothing, just kept walking.
Kagome said nothing more for a while, then she spoke, "InuYasha...?"
"Yeah?"
"Would you like to live in that village? The one we're staying at?"
He looked at her, "Huh?"
"Would you like to live there? When all this is over, I mean."
He frowned, "What do you mean, live there?"
"Well...I mean, eventually you have to settle down somewhere, right? I mean, you're not going to wander around all your life."
She suddenly blinked, looking at him, a worried look on her face, "Are you?"
InuYasha felt uneasy, "I don't know. Maybe."
Kagome looked at him, a dismal look in her eyes, and she looked back to the path, "Oh."
"Why did you ask that?" he asked her, eyes intent on her face. Something was up.
"I just...thought you would want to have a house some day and settle down and stuff."
InuYasha shrugged uneasily, "I never really thought about it."
His mind went swiftly to the trap he and Miroku had been caught in, long ago. A trap a kindly old man had set, to make sure his remains, and a powerful gem he guarded, would never be disturbed. A trap that had him live out the old man's life, to experience it. In that trap, he had had a house, had grown up as a hanyou child in an orphanage. He had known love though another orphan, grown up. His own memories had put Kagome's face to that woman, her voice. In a way, he had lived a long life with Kagome, had children. Had watched them grow.
"You've never thought about the future?" she asked.
InuYasha looked at her again, remembering again the child's face. Her voice. Kagome, in her early to mid-twenties. The mother of that child.
"Not ... really," he lied.
Kagome spoke, "Well, that village would be a good place, I think. Everyone there likes you. Seems like a good place."
"Keep all the hanyou in one place, huh?" he grinned.
Kagome turned to him swiftly, her face dismayed, "No! I didn't mean that!"
Blinking, InuYasha looked down at her, "I know you didn't, I just..I was joking."
Kagome watched him for the space of a heartbeat, and looked away. He saw she was upset.
"I know you didn't mean that, Kagome. It's ok."
She nodded.
They walked in silence for a second, then InuYasha spoke again, "It's funny. Within one year, I suddenly have two places to choose to live in if I want. This place, or Sango's village. If you had told me that a few years ago, I..."
He fell silent.
He had been pinned to a tree a few years ago.
InuYasha shook his head. Sometimes, he forgot how much time had passed. It felt like he had been with his friends for years now, not just a little over one year.
Been with Kagome.
"Yeah?" she asked, waiting for him to continue.
InuYasha shook his head again, and she watched him, worriedly.
Kagome looked back to the path, now able to hear the water of the river.
InuYasha's face was so expressive. And his moods seemed to jump from one to another within seconds. One minute he'd he about to say something funny, then...a look would cross his face, and he'd be silent.
And they say teenage girls are supposed to be moody.
"Here we are," Kagome said, as they walked out of the bushes to stand beside the river.
It was lower than normal, one could see the line of dried mud along the bank where it would normally flow, but it was still high enough to be a series of rapids.
"I'll get the water," he said, and turned.
Kagome watched, bemused, as he leapt from the riverbank, easily arching out, long silver hair trailing behind him, to land as light as a bird on a partially submerged rock.
He always makes it look so easy, she thought, smiling, Like anyone could do it.
InuYasha crouched, dipping the bucket into the river, letting it fill swiftly.
When it was full, he jumped again, angling back towards her.
And he won't spill a drop, she thought proudly, watching him. She had forgotten how graceful he looked when he was moving like that. He might be all mouth sometimes, but he had a natural, wild grace around him that popped up from time to time.
She was suddenly struck by how much she had missed seeing him do that.
No! she said firmly, No. Forget it! No way! I'm not getting back into that. You admire him all you want. He...he's good-looking, attractive, her face flushed in the low light, strong and...and...powerful. You can look and admire all you want. It's nothing else. Nothing.
InuYasha landed beside her, and as she predicted, he hadn't lost a single drop.
InuYasha put the bucket on the ground for a second - the harsh rope of the bucket handle was graying and a sharp little piece was poking him - when he met her eyes, and paused.
Kagome blinked, looking away, her face red. InuYasha watched her, noticing the color of her face.
Why is she blushing? Did I do something? He mentally checked himself over, going over everything he had just done, but couldn't find any reason for her to blush.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she said quickly, "Let's go back."
"Yeah, ok, I-"
From the corner of his eye, InuYasha saw something metallic flashing, hurtling towards them.
InuYasha stepped forward, raising his arm to shield Kagome's face. He felt his claws strike something, knocking it away with a loud Ting! before it ricoched to the side, sinking deep into the ground.
A sickle.
Kagome hadn't seen anything, but had seen InuYasha move, had heard the impact of claw on blade. She flinched slightly, turning when he lowered his arm.
"What..where did that...?"
Suddenly, she felt InuYasha move towards her, and grasp her by the upper arms, tightly. Blinking, she looked up at him, to see him looking away, up towards their right, a hard look on his face, eyes hard.
Kagome turned.
There, hovering about 10 feet off the ground, were Neith and Xether.