Dammit, where is that woman? InuYasha curses for the umpteenth time that day.

Kagome said that she would be in her homeworld for 7 days. And how long has it been? Technically 5 days, but that doesn't mean she can't come back early. He's not too sure how much more he can take of this. It's driving him insane wondering if she's alright. Is she hurt? Did some demon attack her? Beside that, they all need to get back to hunting for more Jewel shards. He's betting with himself that what's most likely happening is that she's taking her sweet time relaxing.

Especially after what happened that made Kagome go home in the first place. It wasn't that she had to be in her world for one of those test-things that she hates. It was only that . . . well, okay, she doesn't like him seeing Kikyo. Point taken, she's told him on many occasions how she hates it, but that doesn't mean that she has to scratch his ears out with her voice and pulverizes him into the ground with her 'sits'. The only reassuring thing about the whole situation, that despite pissing Kagome off, is that she says she'll stay by his side no matter what. If it wasn't for that promise he'd be panicking at every chance, more so than he already is, wondering how she can tolerate what he does. He gets that he's being stupid, but he can't help but check up on Kikyo. It's not like they're doing anything else!

"Are you going to go after her, InuYasha?" Shippo asks. The little fox demon leaps onto the open edge of the Bone Eaters Well, looking down into its black abyss.

InuYasha snorts. "Keh, it's not like I miss her."

Shippo sighs, knowing he's in denial. "You still should go and see her."

"If you want to see her so bad, why don't you go and get her?"

"You know I can't, stupid," Shippo mocks, sticking his tongue out at him.

InuYasha turns a sharp, irritated glare at the the kid. He knows that Shippo can't get through the well, he was just saying!

Knowing the look, Shippo ducks down behind the wall of the well to hide from angered half-demon with a slight yelp escaping his lips.

"Don't test me, runt. With Kagome not here, I can teach you a lesson all I want," InuYasha warns.

"At least Kagome is nice to kids," Shippo mutters in disdain.


XxXxXxX


Life is becoming an indifferent choice for Kagome. She knows she has to succeed in school to survive in her world, but she's so far behind that her confidence in scoring high on any of her tests is becoming a battle of . . . wills? No, she supposes it's more a matter of belief in herself. Sounds like a very sad concept.

She sighs, readjusting the straps of her navy blue, school backpack on her shoulders.

The sights and smells of her homeworld are a drastic change compared to the Feudal Era. The air is thick with a musty ting to it from the city pollution and the buildings of Tokyo linger high above, making the city feel like it's caging her in. Her school stands out against those monstrous structures, being plain and not appealing compared to everything else made of glass and colors meant to capture the eye. Four stories high, devoid of any color and having a brick fence surrounding the property, it screams to any teenager entering is premise that the word 'fun' is no longer allowed in the dictionary.

As she passes the entrance gate into the dry courtyard, the conversations of teenagers float around her.

"Got a tick tack?"

"Did you hear about Akane?"

"Wish I had a smoke right now."

Hearing the high pitched voices of young girls compels Kagome to walk faster to the school's front entrance.

She doesn't want her friends finding her only to talk about her fake illnesses and her "delinquent boyfriend". Any recent conversations she's had with her old friends since journeying to the Feudal Era have all been lies, pressuring guilt to settle on her shoulders. She's never liked lying to people and, to make matters worse, she was never really that good at it. Mama always tells her what an open book she is. She sometimes hates that. She just wants to keep things to herself, at times, is that so bad?

"He's looking for . . . ."

"Hey, wait!"

"Are you going to come over later?"

It's a relief for Kagome to settle into the routine of finding her way to her Jr. High third year classroom. So far, her friends are nowhere to be seen in the crowd of young teenage bodies that fill the hallways, searching for their classrooms.

She's been away from this type of interaction for so long that it surprises her at how uncomfortable it feels. It was the same for the train ride on the way here, with hot bodies pressing together to make more room, the unbearable heat of the summer air and the delirium of a once familiar route having to be questioned after such a long absence. This is what she gets for staying in the Feudal Era for as long as she has.

Gone for almost a month straight on adventures with her friends-her true friends, including the demon slayer, the perverted monk, the baby fox and the stubborn half-demon-it shocked her to realize that in the blink of a eye, time could pass by that quickly. It was the longest she ever willingly stayed in that world, mainly because she didn't have any scheduled tests to worry about and only 'catching-up' homework to do. The modernization of Tokyo left her mind for green forests, small villages, demon guts and the aching of her butt from traveling on her bike for long periods of time. The only reason she came back was because InuYasha was stupid and made her mad. Not that he can help it, thanks his amount of density, but he should understand by now that continuing to two-timer her for Kikyo is a maddening thing for the young teen.

Now that Kagome thinks about it, is the Feudal Era becoming more important than her studies? Is that why she forgot about her home-world for so long? It is her responsible to gather the Jewel shards, seeing as she was the one that broke the little but powerful thing in the first place. Her mother and grandfather how told her on multiple occasion's how this is her destiny, her duty, but how can she leave behind in such a simple matter all that she grew up with? What about her family? They don't treat her absence with burden nor quilt. Only admiration and pride. With their constant reassurance of approval, it seems to have subconsciously told Kagome that she doesn't need to come back to her home-world as often as she should. If it wasn't for school, the one thing Mama at least asks that she keeps up with, than would she abandon this world entirely?

Kagome cringes, imagining what her life would be like without an education.

It only gets worse when she thinks about leaving her only family, setting her skin to crawl. How despicable of her that would be. She might put Jewel shard hunting as the priority, but that is only a temporary part of her life. Her family will always be there for her to return with smiles on their faces. Things could be different in the future. Sure, maybe one day Kagome will move away to some far away place and hardly see her family. That happens all the time to families. Maybe she'll move far away to the Feudal Era with InuYasha . . . .

Her emotional outbursts might tell anyone otherwise, but she considers herself a tough girl. In a sense, she has to be if she wants to walk around smelling like rotting demon flesh and watch people die on a daily basis in such a harsh environment. Things like that only prove she has the fortitude to say by InuYasha side through all. Even when he decides to be stupid and run off with the dead priestess.

"Stop thinking about that," she mutters to herself.

"Oh, Higurashi, you're doing well, I see."

Kagome stops when she hears a familiar voice calling out to her in the sea of white noise surrounding the second floor hallway. She turns to find Hojo coming up to her. A smile graces his baby round face framed by short, dark brown hair. Instinctively, they step off to the side by the windows to make room for the other students coming and going.

"Hi, Hojo, how are you doing?" she asks politely.

"I'm fine, but what about you?" he asks concerned. "I hear that your arthritis is getting pretty bad."

She almost drops to the ground from her knees giving out. Gezz, Grandpa! she thinks humiliated.

She chuckles nervously. "It's getting better . . . ."

"That would explain why you're here. You've been out so long, I was starting to think that you might not come back."

"Well, I'm still here."

"By the way." He reaches into his back pocket, digging around. "This is for you." He holds out a tea-pouch for her to take.

"Um, thanks, Hojo." She smiles, hoping he won't see the obviousness in that she doesn't need such a thing.

"Make sure you use that green tea up, Kagome. It's for the arthritis. Take this and I'm sure you'll be cured," he says enthusiastically. He turns away and lightly waves a hand, walking away down to his classroom. "Bye, Kagome. Hope to see you in school more often."

Kagome stares dumbfounded at him.

Whenever Hojo does that, she always feels so guilty. Why would he go out of his way to give her gifts like this? Not even her three closest friends in the school get her 'get well' presets. They don't so much as let her borrow their school notes, not unless she asks real nicely. Some friends they can be, at times.

Kagome tries to get through the rest of her day without being sidetracked, something that for any 16-year-old is hard. The school day is so slow that she feels like if she stood still, time would go by faster. By the time the final bell rings, her brain has become jelly.

After school, on her way home walking from the train station, she's tracked down by her friends


XxXxXxX


Kagome's happy that her friends want to talk with her and, yet, she's not. She's not looking forward to all the lies she's going to have to tell them. She can't believe that they found her, and after all she did to stay away from them for most of the school day. She didn't make eye contact with them in class, she didn't tray and raise her voice, and she made sure that during lunch period she had an excuse to leave the classroom. It's not that she hates them, or even dislikes them, it's only for their own good that they keep away, at least for today. A cliche excuse but a needed one. She's lied to them for the past four days about what she's been doing and how her hospital trips for her illnesses have been. Saying so many lies is tiring in more than one way, especially when she has to keep track of all the lies she's told them.

"Have you been avoiding us?" Eri asks, sounding agitated.

"No, no! I haven't, I just haven't had time to talk with you guys all day," Kagome lies the best she can. It's not much, as she can hear her tone go flat.

Eri and Yuka stare at her skeptically, but Ayumi seems to have bought it. Both of the skeptical girls sigh as they continue on down the sidewalk of the neighborhood they're in.

They deserve a better friend then me, Kagome thinks somber. She can no longer be considered reliable and she's always deceiving them. They deserve to be concerned over a friend that's always there for them.

"Oh, hello, dear," Mama greets.

Kagome gets out of her head, realizing that she's standing in the front foyer hall of her house and staring down at her brown school.

She sighs at her foolishness and turns a small smile to her mother. "Hi, Mama. How's it been here?"

"It's been fine. Sota just got home a few minutes ago. He's up in his room," she says, pointing a slender finger up to the ceiling.

"That's good. I'll be up in my room studying."

"Alright, dinner will be in an hour or so. Don't eat anything before then."

As she passes Mama to get to the stairs, her honed instincts kick in. Like a punch to the gut, it screams that something isn't right.

She quickly turns to the space behind her back, but she finds nothing. Looking around the house, nothing is out of the ordinary. There are no new objects or any other demonic presences near the area. Maybe she imagined it.

Kagome questions if it could of been Mama that she was sensing. Mama has always been a kind, caring woman and doesn't let things get to her easily. How could there possibly be something so wrong with her own mother that she could feel like she did moments ago?

She shrugs it off and goes up the stairs.


XxXxXxX


The day drives on until the sun is high overhead. By that point, InuYasha gives into his agitation. So what if Kagome will possibly 'sit' him, he needs to go after her. He mood has had to improved by now over their last argument.

He enters into the well and flows down into her timeline.

On the other side, after making sure the area is safe, he crosses the courtyard of Kagome's home and leaps to her bedroom window. Sitting on the open windows ledge, he peaks in to find that she isn't in her room. The nervous grip on his heart that he didn't realize he was feeling lessons.

InuYasha frowns at nobody, fuming over Kagome and how she's not here. How is he supposed to protect her if she's not here? This world of hers can be just as bad as his. That magic box down stairs proves all of that. Kagome says that her birth home is safe and happy—no, it's not. Even that stupid school she goes to can be hard to handle. With all those stupid assignments she gets, all that stupid studying and all the stupid people around her.

Sighing at her absence, he debates about going into the city and finding her, but the thought is forgotten when his previous sigh overtakes his sense of smell. Kagome scent touches every surface of her room, softly wafting out of the open window that he fills up and flowing over his body. He concentrates on Kagome's scent and comes to notice his own scent mingling together with hers, but still separate from her own. He isn't surprised by that, seeing how often he's in this room.

Without thinking, he going over to sit on Kagome's bed with his back leaning against the wall and Tessaiga settled against the bedding. He sniffs the air once more, just in case she's somewhere in the house, but he can tell right away that she hasn't been home in a while. What the hell's does she think she's doing?

Down below on the lower level floor, his sensitive ears pick up quiet voices.

"It's been fine. Sota just got home a few minutes ago. He's up in his room."

"That's good. I'll be up in my room studying."

Oh, I guess she's talking with her mother, InuYasha realizes. He'll take her being one story below him over her being five miles away doing whatever the hell she does here. Sounds like she had a rough day. Wonder what happened to her.

Kagome greeting to him is a sigh as she opens her bedroom door, getting a wide eyed expression upon seeing the boy.

"Hey, Kagome," he nods, holding his breath to see how she'll react to him.

She goes over to her desk and sets her blue backpack down. "Hi to you, too, InuYasha," she says quiet.

Going good, he thinks. "Where have you been?" he asks agitated. "We should have left hours ago."

She humors him. "I've been at school. You know. That place where I go to take my tests. Besides, I don't have to go back to the Feudal Era just yet. You're early." Personally, she thinks it's kind of sweet.

"Keh, if I were you, I'd just give it up on that school thing."

She says desperate, startling him. "If I don't go, then I'll never get into a good college, then a job—Oh, I don't even want to think about that!"

"What, you afraid of something? Those stupid demon, test, things of yours too hard?"

"No, it's not that. I just don't want to fail them."

InuYasha's eyebrows lower as he looks straight at her. "What aren't you telling me?"

She fakes surprise. "What? I'm not hiding anything."

He gets up from the bed, going over to her and crossing his arms. He says quickly. "Don't give me that crap. I know something's wrong with you. Just spill it."

She sighs irritated and turns to look at anything but him. She doesn't start talking and he knows that she isn't going to anytime soon. She's too stubborn. He thought that she trusts him, so why isn't she talking with him? She can't still be that pissed at what happened between him and Kikyo, which was nothing. All they did was talk.

Kagome can tell that InuYasha won't let go of wanting to know what is bothering her. Even if she did tell him, she doesn't think he will understand these persistent thoughts about deceiving the people in her world. Besides that, she doesn't want InuYasha to get involved in something that she feels she can deal with on her own time.

InuYasha huffs from sensing she's getting nervous about something. There aren't any demons in the area, so what's up?

He spares her. "Fine, then, if you don't want to tell me, then don't, it's not like I care." He starts to turn back to the bed but her chuckling stops him. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing. It seems to me that even if you say you don't care, it means something else entirely different," she giggles. She knows that he really does want to know, he just doesn't know how to ask. Good thing, too. She's just glad to know he cares.

"Huh, what do you mean? I said that I don't care and I mean that! You can deal with your own problems, wench. Don't come crying to me," he says pointedly.

"I think that you're really saying that you'll let me come to you when I want to and not pry," she explains.

"I didn't say that."

"I still don't believe you. And I'm not going to cry over this."

Her crazy behavior is starting to confusing him. He sighs. "It couldn't be possible for you not to cry. You're a girl, all girls cry over the simplest things."

She rolls her eyes. "Not all girls cry over simple matters, you know." Then she mutters to herself, "Although, I didn't get so lucky."

Yeah and it freaks him out. He just had to be one of those men that hate to see women cry. He can see blood and guts but not a woman's tears—especially Kagome's.

She says. "In any case, thanks for asking what's wrong, even if you did demand to know."

His golden eyes narrow. "Don't think this is over."

While InuYasha sticks around for most of the day, trying to stay out of trouble, Kagome continues to think so hard to herself that she manages to burn ramen, forgetting to add water to the pot and only putting the hardened noodles alone above the hot stove coil. When eight o'clock rolls around, she can see outside her bedroom window the waning moon on one side of the sky and the setting sun on the other.

Really, she's happy that InuYasha's around so much. Not because he can protect her, but for the plan fact that he's here with her. His presence alone is enough to sooth her. She feels wanted whenever she looks into his deep, golden eyes. She feels dazzled whenever his silver hair flows in the wind. His face is cute when he pouts and can be so serious that he looks almost like a wild animal, feral and very proud of himself. It's also very hard to ignore his ears. They're so cute! She wants to touch them again, like the first time she met him pinned to the Sacred Tree, but she doesn't know if that's perverted, hence she's never tried since then.

Kagome sighs, getting away from the window. Grabbing her blue jacket from her bedpost, she heads out to sit on the bench by the Sacred Tree, taking in the warmth of its presence in the twilight. Then there is the Bone Eaters Well that sits on the courtyard inside the old shrine house.

Its the well she and InuYasha can always connect one another to.

InuYasha watches her quietly from his spot on the roof of her house.


XxXxXxX


Being home isn't very relaxing when it cames to Kagome trying to do her math homework. She kind of wishes that InuYasha would come and see her again, but after she sent him away yesterday by confirming that she will be staying for another two days, making a total of 7 days gone like she said, she doesn't see him coming back. Deciding to conquer her homework later on, she figures with a little time on her hands, she'll to go for a walk in the nearby park. Maybe going out will ease her mathematical mind.

"Mama, I'm going to go out," she calls, coming down the stairs.

She turns the corner, going into the kitchen and finds Mama standing in front of the sink.

"I don't think you should go out," Mama says softly.

"Why not, I'm only going out to the park?" she says confused.

When Mama turns to her, Kagome almost gets a shock of surprise. Her mother is wearing a smile that's laced with honey, too sweet to want to believe it's real.

Why is she smiling like that? Did something happen to Sota or Grandpa? No, Kagome can see Grandpa through the open screen door into the living room. He's sitting down and reading a magazine, looking fine. She doesn't know where Sota is. Is he okay? She absentmindedly hears Grandpa give a raspy cough, but all of her focus is on Mama.

"Are you alright?" Kagome asks concerned.

"Yes, dear, I'm absolutely fine," she smiles.

"Is Sota aright?"

"Oh, yes, hes' fine to. He left a little bit ago out with a friend."

"So . . . then why don't you want me to go out?"

"I just think it's better if you stay here. You haven't been around a lot lately and I miss my baby."

A fresh wave of guilt slaps Kagome across the face. She looks to her feet, saying quietly. "I know that I don't stay around a lot, but you know why. I try and come as often as I can."

That honey smile remains plastered to Mama's face. "Instead of leaving again, why don't you come over here and help me?"

"Yes, go and help your mother, you two could use some bonding time," Grandpa calls absentmindedly, half-listening to the conversation and not getting it's full context.

Her unease over what's wrong with Mama overtakes everything else. Automatically on instinct, the roles reverse and Kagome becomes the concerned parent with a defensive child. She stays where she is though, because that honey smile makes her feet stuck to the floor. Her mother has never acts like this. It's in such a way that she can't express in her mind the right word of what she's seeing out of Mama. Stiff shoulders, eyes that dare her turn her back and that permanent honey smile.

The static of the TV in the background gets louder the longer Kagome hesitates.

"Um, sure, Mama, I'll help," she says apprehensively.

She doesn't mind spending time with Mama, seeing how often she's not around, but for the first time in her life, she doesn't feel comfortable around her own mother.


Author's Notes:

Edited in late 2017 / early 2018. (As of 12 / 15 / 17 I am still editing the story. If you decide to read Breaking Glass and get to a point where you suddenly find that the grammar, sentence structure, characters and overall plot begin to, well, basically suck then I have not edited beyond that point yet)

It's amazing to see how far my writing abilities have come since I first wrote this story back in 2013.

Fun and embarrassing fact: I indeed burned ramen the same way Kagome did in this chapter. It's what happens when you think too hard.


InuYasha (C) Rumiko Takahashi