Homecoming
by Azulia
A/N- Well, hello my lovelies! Back again? Welcome to this brain child of mine. It's been all plotted and ironed and now just needs writing. I hope you enjoy it! But, beware before you read, there are some things you need to know about this story before your eyes stray any lower down the page.
This assumes that right after Naraku was defeated by the group, Kagome was forced to go home and stay there forever.
It also assumes that Kohaku was not fixed.
…Gosh, I thought there was more than that, but I can't recall.
Hmmm, I'll get back to you on this.
I was working on another little ditty, but I can't seem to find where it went to. Huh. Oh well, there's many more words where these came from. Maybe I'll get that out….yeah, but I wouldn't hold your breath though.
Mkay, let's do this, kids.
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~0~
It was a beautiful day in the Feudal Era. The air was crisp and sweet, the skies blue and clean. Through the soft breeze there were notes of children playing and men coming in from the fields as wives and mothers began the evening meal. It was surreal and simple. A picture of a different time, a small window when there was no one left to fight no new power had gained to threaten the good people of Kaede's village. It had been several years since the downfall of Naraku. To the inhabitants of the small village it was merely a forgotten nightmare, but to those who had fought on the front lines, it was a wound still fresh.
"Miroku," Sango said in her usual calm demeanor, a little outside the murmuring of the others. "I cannot love you the way you want me to, not while Kohaku suffers. I must dedicate myself fully to him before I can commit to another."
The demon slayer sat quietly with her hands folded in her lap and her eyes cast downward. It was her way of showing that she was not proud of her choice, merely resigned to it. It looked like something that she had said many times. Miroku, the monk, merely hung his head with a bittersweet smile on his face.
"As you wish, Lady Sango," he bowed slightly with a step back. "However, I will remain your faithful servant until your answer is more to my liking."
Sango glanced up at him through her thick lashes. The way she would make eyes at him seemed reminiscent of love struck girl-child, not that of a hardened war veteran. He could see her beauty, while others might have been intimidated by it. A pure and proud love showed in his eyes when he would watch her and his guard would slip. This was one of those moments. Her eyes were not filled with the same tenderness, but instead they were heavy with tears.
"That is what I am afraid of, you fool lecher," Sango murmured under her breath as he finally turned to walk away, realizing that her answer was not about to spontaneously change. She watched him go. He would not be back for several days. She would miss him terribly.
As his back shrank to her, her body trembled slightly. She acted as if she could feel a part of herself tearing away and going with him. The heavy tears finally fell to her cheeks and down into the dirt when she thought he was too far away to see them. It was a luxury to cry freely. Sometimes she would have to hold in all the ache until the deepest part of the night when everyone was too far asleep to be bothered by her weaknesses. It was her burden, and she was set on bearing it in solitude.
Sango sat a minute, giving enough time to gather her appearances. She smoothed out the wrinkles of her favorite pink kimono and pulled back the little stray hairs that had escaped from the others.
Time would heal these wounds, she was sure. It might not be the life she had always dreamed of, but it was the only one she had to live.
"Kohaku," she whispered softly, wishing to herself.
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~0~
"Are you excited, Inuyasha?" Miroku asked as he approached the tree where the half-demon was sitting casually, looking into the sky.
"About what?" Inuyasha replied dully as the monk came to a stop below him.
"Fall is almost here," Miroku said, following Inuyasha's eyes to the clouds.
"Why would I be excited about that?" Inuyasha growled, his eyes darting back to earth.
"Ah," Miroku said with a smirk. "Then the season will finally match your mood! Cold and gloomy."
Inuyasha snorted and did not respond. There was a long silence.
"Sango has rejected me again," Miroku admitted after a minute. As soon as he said them, the words hung between the two males like a silent bond.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Inuyasha said more softly then he often allowed. Miroku smiled a bitter smile. Both men were well versed in the language of lost love. Inuyasha especially, he'd lost the love of his life twice. Miroku, on the other hand, was hoping to just get his once and do it right the first time. Miroku tended to handle the heartache better than Inuyasha because he still had hope. For Inuyasha there was no hope, just memories. Perhaps that was why the half dog demon was always so cranky and snappish. He hadn't been the same since he lost her. Miroku had learned from the others mistakes.
"Oh, my friend," he said thickly. "I set myself up for these things; I knew her answer before I even asked. I'm a fool Inuyasha. It's because I know she would be with me if she could, but the cause of her rejection has not changed, or her answer because of it."
Inuyasha plucked a large green leaf from a branch in front of him and looked at it hard.
"You're not a fool," he told Miroku, not taking his attention from the leaf. "You'd only be a fool if you gave up."
Miroku snorted. "If I am not a fool, then I am at least foolish."
Inuyasha jumped down as Miroku spoke.
"I guess you're in good company then," Inuyasha murmured under his breath as he flicked the leaf away.
"Why Inuyasha," Miroku said with mock surprise. "You have decided to grace me with your presence? I'm honored!"
Inuyasha scoffed and gave the monk a little push. "You need all the help you can get."
"You're probably right," Miroku said with a shrug.
Miroku started walking and Inuyasha followed him. It was a familiar path, one that their little group had walked innumerous times. Every curve and upturn was known to them. So many times they had taken it, and every time they had never ended up at exactly the same place. It was strange to think of the places they had been to and the things they had done. What remarkable circumstances set into motion by Naraku fifty years ago. And now, here they were.
Most of them anyway.
"So, where are we going?" Inuyasha asked nonchalantly.
"Oh, to a town two days away," Miroku replied. "They've sent word to have their homes prayed over after a terrible sickness went through."
"Sounds pretty boring," Inuyasha replied, looking off into the distance. Miroku laughed and looked at his friend.
"It will be very boring,'' Miroku stated with a bit more of his old self. "However, it is the right thing to do and it gives me the opportunity to leave the rest of life's uncertainties behind."
"I don't know where I could go that would make me leave this mess behind," Inuyasha remarked bitterly, kicking a large piece of rock out of the path.
Miroku looked at Inuyasha out of the corner of his eye. As hopeless as his situation with Sango was, he had hope that maybe someday they could find a way to help Kohaku and finally be together. Inuyasha, however, did not have the luxury of seeing his loved one on a regular basis. He had to live with mere memories of what he had once upon a time. The idea that Kagome would ever come back was almost as ludicrous as Naraku coming back.
"Just as nothing good lasts forever," Miroku told Inuyasha patiently. "Just as nothing bad will last forever, Inuyasha."
Inuyasha snorted.
"Keh," he said, his eyes downcast. "Whatever, Monk."
Miroku smiled.
"There are many anomalies in life, Inuyasha," the monk said surely. "But know this, as long as I and Sango and the others have a place in this world, you too will have a place among us."
Inuyasha looked pleased at the words, despite his best efforts to hide it.
"Inuyasha, you blush like a woman!"
Inuyasha glared at him.
"You talk like one, Miroku."
"We could learn a lot from the fairer sex," Miroku said, looking down at his hand where a curse once lay. To the untrained eye it might look like he was thinking of his wind tunnel. Inuyasha knew he was just thinking of all the things he had groped with it.
Inuyasha just rolled his eyes and they kept walking.
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~0~
"Don't you want to play?" Shippo asked enthusiastically to Kohaku as he jumped over what appeared to be a pile of sticks.
"Not really," Kohaku said, not looking at the young kit. Shippo had heard the rejection many times before, but it never stopped him from asking again. Kohaku was resolute in his inability to get past what had happened. Not that he remembered much that occurred with Naraku, he didn't. He did vividly recall massacring his family. No one knew exactly how, Kaede thought it was from the frequent nightmares he suffered from. Sango saw to him as best she could, and Miroku would occasionally bring him back trinkets from his ventures, but for the most part he was content to sit in his solitude and ignore them all.
"Aw, c'mon Kohaku," Shippo said, bounding toward him. "It's fun!"
Kohaku cast Shippo a dark look. Where Miroku and Sango had applied themselves to Kohaku, Inuyasha had applied himself to Shippo. It seemed that, despite the young trickster having the least likely of mentors, he was the one possessing more sympathy and good humor. His constant faith in his friend's little brother was testament to the success of the half-demons attention.
"I'm not in the mood for fun right now," Kohaku answered lowly. He was typically rather surly. Shippo typically chose to ignore the glum nature of the young demon slayer. He beamed.
"Young Shippo," interrupted Kaede from her hut. "Should ye not be preparing to go be with the other fox demons?"
Shippo glanced at the older woman. "I don't have to be there until this afternoon."
"And why aren't ye off with Inuyasha, then? I thought he was teaching ye to hunt."
Shippo shrugged. "He left with Miroku this morning."
Kaede looked between the young boys, both so different from each other. One was bright and bubbly, the other dark and grim.
"Why don't ye assist me in the garden then, Shippo?" Kaede asked calmly. "I need young eyes to see the weeds."
"Oh," Shippo said looking out into the day as if he would rather be playing than gardening. "Alright, I'll help."
"Thank ye, Shippo."
Kaede turned and started walking around the outside of her hut. Shippo followed dutifully. The old miko kept her garden in the back, behind her hut. There was a little plot of land with herbs, foods and flowers. She even had a little fence up to keep out various animals and people. It was small, but functional. Many of her plants were used in her remedies. She was trying to teach Kohaku and Shippo a bit about the healing arts, but both seemed more interested in other things. Shippo had his fox studies, which he enjoyed and excelled at. Kohaku, on the other hand, was too preoccupied with his guilt to be much use to anyone. Despite this, he did attempt to be useful by doing many chores. Although he was clearly at a loss with his own demons, he tried to not add any more to his sister's burden.
"Tis a funny thing today," Kaede said to Shippo as they knelt in the first patch that needed tending. "The wind speaks of great things coming to us Shippo. If ye listen ye can hear it whisper-"
Shippo looked up from where he had just massacred the first bunch of weeds. It was windy out, that was true. It ruffled his fur as it swept through. No whispering though.
"Did you get into the wrong tea again today, Kaede?" he asked, remembering the last time she had.
Kaede knocked him upside the head with a trowel-like gardening instrument. "No, young kit," she said with a straight face. "Great things, I can feel them."
Shippo looked at her a long time. He had a fond spot for the old woman and didn't want to watch her deteriorate in front of him. She had been forgetting things and acting strangely a lot lately. He was starting to wish he had gone to face the sickness with Miroku and Inuyasha.
"Alright," he said as he pulled at the ground with more fervor. "Great things, Kaede. Got it. I'll keep an eye out."
"See that you do," Kaede wisely advised as they both continued to work in silence.
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*Fall is my favorite season!
A/N-Fox Magic, my other story, is on hold. Originally I wanted to revert Inuyasha to his child form to see what kind of chaos would ensue when Kagome had to look after him. Now I think that it would be too much like the MTV tv show Teen Mom, lol. Anyway, I will either salvage it and make Kagome the one that reverts to her child-self, or scrap it.
I hoped you like this story so far. It is one of the few little guys I have outlined right out until the bitter end. Next chapter coming as soon as I can type it. Luv you guys, leave me a tasty review if you like my stuff.
Oh, and hey, if there are any awesome InuKag recs you guys have, I'd love to read them. I feel like I can't find any that suit me lately. Catch you later!