*A/N- For the Final Day of Inuvember 2014, Kagome Comes Home, I hope you enjoy it. To me this is the most moving and heart-felt moment in the whole series, and I hope I can do it justice.
*I do not own Inuyasha, or Come Home, by onerepublic.
Hello world, hope you're listening, forgive me if I'm young for speaking out of turn…
There's someone that I've been missing, I think that they could be the better half of me…
*Inuyasha's POV*
Three days. That's what they told me. Kagome and I were inside the Sacred Jewel for three days. The well disappeared, and there was nothing to even suggest it had ever existed. Thinking back on it, that probably happened in Kagome's time to, which explains why her family was waiting for us when the well sent us to her time.
I realized when I saw their tears, that they needed her, just like I did. They needed Kagome, and they loved her just like I did. I hung back in the well to give them some time, but when Kagome turned to me, her face changed, and she called out my name. I looked down, to see what she was seeing, and realized the well was sending me back, back to my time, without her. I reached out, trying to take her hand, but it dissolved, or I suppose it was my hand that dissolved ,and I was back in my time.
I immediately tried the well, over and over when it didn't work at first, until Sango and Miroku restrained me. Their mouths were moving, and Shippo was crying out of fear and confusion, but I couldn't hear them. Someone was screaming, shouting out Kagome's name over and over. I realized rather suddenly that it was me, and I stopped screaming, and struggling, and just looked hopelessly at the well. Surely, surely Kagome was trying to get to me just like I was trying to get to her, maybe the well couldn't work and transport both of us at once, so I sat down wordlessly and waited, not answering Sango and Miroku's questions, not even telling the brat to shut up, just waiting. One minute, two minutes, five minutes, passed without anything, so I stood and jumped down the well again. I closed my eyes as I fell, to scared to keep them open and see that the well had failed to transport me again.
"Inuyasha, what's wrong?" Sango called down the well, and I swore loudly.
"Damn it!" I cried, leaping out of the well so suddenly Sango had to leap out of my way to avoid being hit. "Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!" I dropped onto my knees and punched the ground, cursing with every impact. Shippo started crying even harder. I knew I was scaring the kid, and Kagome wouldn't like it, but DAMN IT! Kagome!
"Inuyasha, please tell us what's happening! Why can't you get through the well?" Miroku asked, and my chest tightened painfully. Don't say it, I thought, saying it makes it real.
"The well closed," I choked out, too distraught to be embarrassed when my voice cracked. "I can't get to her," I whispered as tears came, unbidden to my eyes. I didn't bother to wipe them away or pretend. I didn't care if the others knew how badly I was hurting. Hell, Naraku himself could have come back to life and said it was all a trick, and that his giant body in the sky was just a puppet and I wouldn't have cared. The Well had stopped working, and that was all that mattered.
"What do you mean, it closed?" Miroku asked, his voice taking on a gentler tone.
"I mean I can't get through." I said, I glanced up at him, and the look on his face made it obvious that he expected more out of me. "I'm trapped here, without her, and the fact that she hasn't shown up means she can't get through either."
"Maybe she hasn't noticed you're not there, she must be happy to see her family," Sango said hopefully. I shook my head.
"No, she watched me disappear, she tried to grab me, to make me stay, but it was too late." I gulped.
"Why did you leave her there, Inuyasha?" Miroku asked.
"I didn't," I said, wiping my face. I sat up and looked at him, "The well took me on it's own. I didn't want to leave her."
"Why would it do that?" Miroku asked, sitting on the edge and looking at me thoughtfully. I tilted my head, thinking hard.
"Maybe," I began, "Maybe it thought her job was done. Maybe it only allowed her to come into this world to destroy the Sacred Jewel, and now that it's gone her job is over."
"That's a possibility," Miroku said, "Another is that, maybe it thought she wanted this to happen."
"And why the hell would it think that?" I shouted angrily. There was no way no way in hell that Kagome wanted this to happen, not after- not after what happened.
"Just imagine how Kagome felt," Miroku said loudly. I sat back and folded my arms, waiting. "She was inside the Sacred Jewel for three whole days," Miroku said, "She must've been terrified, and seeing her family, it probably caused all sorts of feelings of relief that it was over, and that she was home. Maybe the well misinterpreted those feelings, and closed itself, because it thought that she wanted to stay in her own time."
"But why?" I asked, my voice sounded weak and pathetic to my own ears, so I couldn't imagine how pitiful I looked to the rest of them, what with my eyes probably red, and my cheeks flushed from crying, plus my voice sounding how it did, no wonder they were all looking at me like that. "Why, after we've been trying to use it, I know that she's been trying to get back to me- I mean us," I said, my cheeks heating up.
"Maybe it's too late," Miroku said, looking sadly down into the depths of the well.
"It can't be!" I said, leaping to my feet, "I won't let it be, I'll keep trying until the well has to let me through."
"That won't work, Inuyasha!" Miroku said, also standing. "It's closed now, the best thing we can do is try to come up with something to get the well open."
"I'm not going to sit around and do nothing while Kagome is trapped on the other side!" I said, seizing the monk by the robes and glaring at him.
"I'm not suggesting that you do, but there might be a way to fix this, so instead of jumping in a useless hole in the ground over and over, why don't we try to figure out how to force the well open again!" Miroku said, prying my hand from the front of his robes.
"Do you think that will work?" I asked quietly, stepping back.
"I don't know, but there is only one way to find out."
We spent the next few weeks searching desperately for an answer, visiting every monk, preistess, and holy person around. We visited libraries and demons and, once, even, we asked Sesshomaru when he came to visit Rin, which didn't blow over well. He was long past being blatantly hostile to us since we were fostering Rin, but that didn't mean he was nice to us either. Eventually we gave up searching, having exhausted every known resource, but I never gave up hope. I checked the well every three days, and slept in the branches of the Sacred Tree, because it made me feel closer to her.
Three long years passed, each day was slightly easier than the last, but still, every day was a struggle. Even after three years, I would find my eyes searching the room for her, and my legs would crouch down of their own volition, waiting for her to climb on my back. With each of these things came a pang of loneliness and grief, but eventually I got used to that pain as well. Until one day, I was watching Sango and Miroku do their laundry while the twins played with my ears, when it happened. A scent, on the wind, a scent that I hadn't smelled for three long years, but still I knew it better than my own.
Her scent…
So I say you'll come home, come home
'Cause I've been waiting for you for so long, for so long
Kagome's POV
I was so relieved when the Sacred Well took me home that I immediately flung myself out of the well and into my families loving arms. I almost immediately regretted it. It's my fault that the well closed. It must've known how happy I was to be home, and sealed itself thinking that was what I wanted. I must have tried to get through twenty times in only a few minutes before I had calmed down enough to explain to my family what was happening. After that, I read every text that the family shrine had, any lore that there might be about the well that could help me get back to Inuyasha. I went to the library over and over, checking out every historical books they had that might give me any clues, once I even tried, to my families astonishment, to open it with a sacred arrow, but nothing worked.
Eventually I had to go back to school and deal with the aftermath of what my friends had seen. My mother had, in her hysterics, told them everything, which left them thinking she was crazy, but thankfully they hadn't told anyone else what she had said. I told them Momma was telling the truth, and she wasn't crazy, but they didn't believe me, so I showed them my Sacred Arrow, which helped convince them. They had so many questions, some which I couldn't answer at first, because it was too hard to talk about, but eventually, I got used to the pain, and I explained everything. How complicated my relationship with Inuyasha really was, and what had happened the day the well disappeared. They were shocked, and relieved that I made it out alive, and sympathetic that the well had closed, but they didn't understand, not really.
I got into the habit of jumping down on my way to and from school. It might have been a bad habit, an unhealthy obsession, but at least I had good upper body strength from climbing the well so much. When school ended and summer break started, I checked less, but took to sitting underneath the Goshinboku, and even, to my grandpa's dismay, climbing into the branches when I needed to think, or be alone, or just feel closer to Inuyasha. My friends never tried to set me up with Hojo again, and eventually he gave up on me and got another girlfriend. I knew I should move on, that the well would probably never open again, now that my job was done, but I couldn't bring myself to do it.
Until one day, the day of High School Graduation, I went to the well again after the ceremony, and thought about how badly I missed Inuyasha. My heart stopped when I heard the sound of wind rushing, and saw the sky at the bottom of the well. Just then Momma came in, and I hugged her, told her I had made my decision, and jumped.
A hand reached out to help me up, a clawed hand. A hand whose arm was draped in a red kimono. A hand whose arm was attached to the torso of my best friend, my knight in shining armor, my one true love, my Inuyasha.
And right now there is a war between vanities
but all I see is you and me
The fight for you is all I've ever known
So come home.
Inuyasha's POV
I reached down and took her hand. I lifted her up, and pulled her into my arms. My body felt strangely weightless, like I was full of nothing but air. My friends had come running after me, and they cried out in shock and joy.
"Guys," She said, in her sweet, sweet, voice. I had forgotten how exactly her voice had made my heart dance. "I'm back."
I pulled her in for a kiss, and wasn't surprised when I tasted salt on her lips. I was probably crying too, but I didn't care, I had her back, I was actually holding her in my arms, which is something I thought I'd never do again. She tangled her hands in my hair, and I pulled her closer with one hand, and slid my other into her silky raven hair. I felt her hands slid up to the top of my head and tweak my ears. She giggled into my lips, and tweaked my ears again. Against my will, I let out a sigh. She giggled again, and I couldn't help but smile too. She pulled away from me and laughed out loud.
"I haven't got to play with your ears in three years, Inuyasha. I think they're fuzzier than I remember." I growled faintly at her, though I wasn't really angry. I couldn't be upset right now, I couldn't even be upset that all the others, who had walked up to us, were now laughing at my "fuzzy" ears. "Do it again," she said, gripping my arms tightly, looking happier than I've ever seen her.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Growl!" She exclaimed, bouncing on the balls of her feet a little. "I haven't heard you growl in three long years! And tweak your ears! And say something stupid, and make me angry at you, and for goodness sakes, kiss me again!" I obliged, (to the last one) pulling her in tightly and kissing her hard on the lips, determined to make up for three years of loneliness. It could have been seconds, hours, or days before we broke apart, both out of breath. "I still want you to growl, and tweak your ears, and say something stupid, and cause an unnecessary amount of damage to something with Tessaiga, and scratch your ears like a dog, and get jelous over something stupid," she said.
"Are you crazy?" I asked, "I can't do all of that right now! And what am I supposed to destroy? And I never get jelous over stupid things!" I exclaimed. Kagome laughed out loud. It was a wonderful, invigorating sound that made me ridiculously happy. My ears perked up at the sound of it, and Kagome squealed in delight.
"Do it again! Growl! Anything!" I was bewildered, how was I supposed to respond to her asking me to do totally weird and normal things?
"Well what about you! I haven't seen you in three years, either, why don't you do something!" I asked, sounding angrier than I meant to.
"I can't growl or tweak my ears! What do you want me to do?" She asked, then she got an evil look on her face. I followed her gaze down to the beads around my neck.
"Kagome, no-"
"SIT BOY!" She cried, sounding delighted. I cried out as I smashed into the ground.
"What the hell was that for?" I asked as I heard Shippo say,
"I can't believe they are already fighting!" But the rest of that conversation was lost to me as Kagome crouched down and kissed me again, while I was still in my crater in the ground.
"Well you did ask me to do something," she said.
"Keh." Kagome squealed delightedly again.
"Do it again, Inuyasha, scoff! Just like you always do!" I spluttered at her, what on earth was going through that womans head? "Close enough!" She declared, and kissed me again. I pried myself out of the ground, and sat down across from her.
"I know what you can do!" I said.
"What?" Kagome asked nervously. She obviously thought I was going to make her do something awful.
"Say 'I have an important exam I have to study for!'" I grinned at her, proud of my impression.
"I do not sound like that," She said.
"Yah, yah, whatever, just say it."
"I HAVE AN IMPORTANT EXAM I HAVE TO STUDY FOR, INUYASHA, SO BE QUIET!" She shouted, unexpectedly. I hadn't expected her to scream at me. I flinched, and everyone, including Kagome, howled with laughter.
"I had no idea you missed being scolded so much Inuyasha," Sango chortled.
"Sounds like Inuyasha likes punishment," Miroku said, rather predictably.
"Shut up Monk!" I snapped, but Kagome laughed loudly. She got on her feet and hugged Sango and Miroku tightly.
"Surprisingly enough, Miroku, I missed you being a pervert all the time, and I missed Sango slapping you for it." Sango obligingly reached out and slapped Miroku in the face. His jaw dropped, and Kagome howled with laughter. "Sango, you didn't have to do that!" Kagome said.
"Well that was rather… Nostalgic…" Miroku said.
"Well I wanted to, and he deserved it for talking like that in front of the kids."
"The K- OH MY GOODNESS YOU HAVE KIDS!" She cried kneeling down to the twins and asking their names. She introduced herself to them and gave them both hugs.
"And we have a newborn son, too," Sango said, turning to reveal the baby strapped to her back. Kagome squealed and looked from the baby to Miroku.
"He looks like you Miroku!" Kagome exclaimed, smiling widely. She turned back to me and embraced me again, this time just hugging me tightly.
"I missed all of you so much!" She whispered.
"I missed you, too," I whispered, kissing the top of her head. She looked up at me and simply said,
"You still have to growl." I growled in frustration. Did she ever let things go? But she hopped up and down on the spot, and kissed me briefly on the lips.
"That wasn't so hard, was it?" She asked, and I rolled my eyes. "Now destroy something! Go on! And for kami-sama's sake someone get me a bow and arrow!"
"Come down to the village," Sango said, "Everyone will want to know that you're back, and Kaede will have a bow for you somewhere." Kagome nodded, and took me by the hand.
"Let's go!" I allowed her to pull me along for a bit, but after that she became distracted. Shippo had, until now, given us space to ourselves, but it seemed he could no longer hold back. He leapt into her arms, sobbing.
"Kagome I missed you so much!" He cried.
"I missed you too, Shippo!" She said. They hugged and cried all the way back to the village, where Kaede greeted her like she always expected Kagome to come back.
Later that night, when all of her greetings were said, and the sun had went down, we were both still reeling from what had happened that day. As the last tinges of pink left the sky and the runt fell asleep, Kagome pulled me out of Kaede's hut and into the forest. I didn't need to ask where she was taking me, I knew we were going into the Sacred Tree. When we got there I took her around the waist and leapt into the branches. We sat together, laughing, crying, kissing, and exchanging stories of what our life had been like in the last three years, until morning, when we fell asleep wrapped in eachothers arms.
All was well.
I'm Home.
*A/N- Haha funny story I cried when I wrote this. I made it funny and cute to make myself stop crying, and also I just thought that whole thing was adorable. I'm so happy that this is finished, and I'm so happy that a thing like Inuvember exists. I CAN'T WAIT FOR NOVEMBER NEXT YEAR SO WE CAN DO IT ALL AGAIN!