On Water and Wells
Summary: Kagome understood only too well why that mysterious boy kept jumping into the fountain.
Notes: Takes place during the 3 years Kagome is in the modern era and in no particular time in the KKM timeline, though at least after season 2. Also, both Yuri and Kagome will be using separate terminology, as spoken in the respective anime.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or Kyou Kara Maou. They belong to their respective creators.
Now this is just getting ridiculous, Kagome thought as she watched the boy jump into the fountain again, fully clothed. Every day this week as she passed by the park for her daily jog, she would see him do this. At first she was curious and a little worried, but by now she was quickly approaching annoyance. And there's no telling if he does this elsewhere, too.
He was still out of sight in the fountain, but she knew that soon he would get up, looking depressed, and leave. Seeing no use continuing to ignore him, she jogged over to give him a hand. As she guessed, he was still laying in the fountain face-down, but he was starting to get up. When he turned and faced her, she offered her hand to him to help him over the edge.
"You know, Youkai-sama" —and at this he seemed very surprised— "I find old dry wells to be much more effective for overcoming time."
"Youkai-sama? You know what I am? Does that mean you're one of the mazoku of the Earth?" He seemed so excited by this prospect that she felt bad for letting him down.
"Mazoku? No, I'm sorry to say I'm just your friendly neighborhood time-traveling miko. My name is Higurashi Kagome."
He shook the hand that he still held. "Nice to meet you, Kagome-san! I'm Shibuya Yuri, Maou of Shin Makoku."
"A pleasure, Yuri-heika. But perhaps you'd like to get out of the fountain now."
He looked down, as if just noticing he was still knee-deep in water. When his gaze returned to her, his other hand was at the back of his head and he looked bashful, and quickly did as she suggested. "Thanks. But if you're okay with it, let's keep this informal…Kagome."
"Agreed, Yuri." She looked at him, clothes dripping wet and hair plastered to his head. "Here," she said, handing him the small towel from her shoulder, "I just started my daily run, so it's still clean. I don't want you to get a cold just because you're so stubborn."
"Oh, ah, thanks!"
"So tell me Yuri," Kagome said, patting the rim of the fountain as an invitation for him to sit with her as he dried himself as much as he could, "how is it that you came to be so determinedly set on jumping into this fountain?"
Hours later, the sun hung high in the sky and their empty street vendor bento boxes were scattered beside them in the grass, where they had moved their conversation. Kagome lifted her hand yet again to wipe the tears from her eyes; it had been a long time since she had laughed so hard.
"Y'know, Yuri," she said as a lull passed over them, "It seems to me that you really love this guy, your accidental fiancé."
"I—I guess I love him." His tone and expression were bashful, confused. "I mean, just as much as all of my friends in that world. They're everything to me; they're like a second family."
"No Yuri, it's more than that. Your stories…you always return to him. And when you talk about him…" she smiled contentedly, "Your aura lights up like the sun seeing the moon for the first time."
"But it's a guy!"
"So?" Kagome scoffed. "That's a petty reason not to love someone."
"But—"
"But what? The most important thing is that you love him and he loves you in return. Do you know how long people try to find that perfect someone in their lives? To find that person and not embrace his love…It doesn't matter who he is, what he is, who came before you, or what society thinks. The most important thing is that you love each other." Here, she softened. "With that, you can overcome the most amazing things. Even time."
"You sound like an expert on this kind of thing."
Instead of answering, she looked at the boy beside her. He had said he was the Maou—the youkai king—of this other world, and with that title she assumed he had a lot of power, and greater influence over the events around him. To be a boy no older than 17 in modern days had to be a big step down. That was something she understood only too well. But there was one other thing she understood about his predicament. "What if I were to tell you I know why you can't return to the other world?"
Yuri turned to her, his downtrodden demeanor completely reversed. "What? Really? Please, tell me; I'll do anything—"
She silenced him with a finger to his lips and smiled. "I've had my fair share of experience with temperamental wells and magic. There was this one time when I was stuck here, too." She looked to the sky. "The…catalyst…for the magic in the well was taken from me by a dear friend who thought he was doing what was best for me, and I was separated from my loved ones five hundred years in the past. When I realized I couldn't get back, I was so upset; my emotions were all a-jumble. But then, just a couple days later, I had this feeling that something was horribly wrong, and I went back to the well, and dug until my hands were bleeding, wishing and praying for the magic to work again. And next thing I knew, I was back in the past." When she turned to gaze at him, his brows were wrinkled in confusion. "Sometimes, what magic needs is complete resolution, the absence of all doubt. Your magic won't let you return because a central part of you is conflicted. Until your feelings resolve themselves, you won't be able to return."
Yuri was absolutely shocked at her announcement. He at once wanted to deny it, but her words struck something in the core of his being and knew her words were absolutely true.
She raised up on her knees, put a hand on his shoulder, forced him to look her straight in the eye, and asked softly, "Just ask yourself this: Do you acknowledge his faults and accept them? Even love him for them? When he feels pain, do you? Do you ever think of something on a whim and know you have to share it with him? If he were to disappear from your life, would you still feel whole?"
Kagome could see the thoughts running through Yuri's mind as he processed what she said. From his stories, Yuri and Wolfram had gone from practically hating each other to being allies, then friends, then something more than that, something Yuri was not yet ready to admit.
Something Kagome knew as love. There was a time, after all, she said to herself, that Inuyasha tried to kill me.
She changed the subject to something more light, telling some of the funnier tales from her travels, and although he laughed and gasped at the right parts, he was distracted; he was still thinking about her earlier words. That's good; he's taking my advice seriously, as any good ruler would listen to their more experienced advisors. She continued telling stories, sneaking in points about her and Inuyasha that lined up with what she knew about Yuri and Wolfram.
It was only with the six bell tolls of a nearby cathedral that Yuri jumped up in a panic.
"Oh, no! Mom's gonna be so mad—I promised to help her out today." He rushed about, gathering up his things. "Sorry, I gotta go!"
She stood and smiled, offering her hand. "Yuri, it was wonderful to meet you."
He took her hand, squeezed it slightly, his gratitude showing in the gesture. "I really hope we meet again, Kagome."
She smiled and waved as he ran off, dropping her hand slowly when he was out of sight. "I don't, Yuri," she murmured to herself. "I hope I never see you again, because that would mean that at least one of us gets what we want."
AN: I was watching KKM a few months ago, one of those episodes when Yuri gets stuck on Earth, and my mind jumped to when Kagome was stuck, and the main idea for this fic was born. I wrote the first part and last couple of paragraphs, then got distracted for a few months, tried to write the middle part and ended up having to rewrite it several times. I think it can be improved, but overall, I'm happy with the result and I hope you guys are too.