Second Chances

Author: celestial-fire-angel

Genre: Romance, Angst

Pairing(s): Sesshoumaru x Kagome

Summary: Five years have passed since she's run away but now, Kagome comes back with a few secrets of her own, ready to start anew. Can she move on or will the past come back to haunt her?

Author's Note: Hello everyone~ It's been YEARS since I've been to the Inuyasha fandom and recently got back in when I re-watched The Final Act/Kanketsu-hen (I know, I'm late to the party). Anywho, this fic has been gnawing away at me, crying to be written ever since the plot bunny bit me, hard. It's been a long while since I've written anything so please excuse any shoddiness that you read but also please do let me know! I'm back, everyone~

Chapter 1

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

It was the only sound she could hear; her own rapid heartbeat. She didn't even hear the bottle of wine shatter as the bag it was in crashed to the floor, shattering the glass and leaving a dark red stain on the otherwise pristine floor. It couldn't be. Why was this happening? Her instinct told her to run. Run far away and never look back; protect herself as best she can. However, her body was frozen and would not listen to her mind screaming at it to move.

"W-Why. . ."

Her voice was weak, quivering, confused; in the same state as her mind. It would have been comical to see her boyfriend of two years desperately pulling up his pants and tripping over his own feet as he stumbled towards her but she was not laughing. In fact, far from it as she looked to the rumpled bed, the naked woman lying in her spot, pulling the sheets over her own nakedness with a silent indifference.

"K-Kagome, please listen. . ."

The voice snapped her out of her stupor and she shook her head. She brought her hands up to her mouth to muffle a scream as she turned and ran. Where…do I go? Anywhere. Anywhere but here! Her mind was torn between confusion and clarity as it struggled to comprehend. How could something like that happen? It had been two years since she and him had gotten together and yes, even though she had been the one to initiate it, he had been wonderful towards her. Yes, sometimes he was brash and selfish, but he had a tender, caring, and somewhat innocent side that she absolutely adored about him.

They had both been in junior high school, the same class. He was the son of a wealthy businessman, she the granddaughter of a much revered shrine priest. When they met at first, there had been tension. He and his friends thought her too simple-minded and boring and she and her friends thought he was a no-good, two timing jerk. Their first day had been wrought with petty arguments and by the end of the day, she had managed to subdue him to the ground.

Slowly, through the course of a year, through various projects and events at school, they opened up to each other. It was the start of high school when they made their relationship official. They had marked it by. . .

Her hand closed around the pendant she wore around her neck. The rough jagged edge pressed into her palm, leaving a deep imprint but she hardly noticed the pain. Instead, the one in her heart took over and she ran. Ran far as far as she could.

That was five years ago.

Now, Kagome was back. Freshly graduated from university abroad, she made the arrangements to move back home so she could start her career, as a nurse. She always knew she was gifted in healing others; back when she was still in grade school, she experimented on her baby brother, Souta. She would wrap him in bandages every time he had a scrape or bruise. She even made him pretend to be a patient while she was the doctor and give him "medicine" to make him better. Of course back then the "medicines" were all mud and grass and leaves.

As she stepped off the plane and into the terminal, she thought about her adventures in a foreign land. She thought about all the trials and tribulations she had gone through. It was especially hard when she had to learn to grow up quickly. Her grandfather and her mother tried to help but they both understood her reluctance to ask. She had always been strong-willed and never a quitter. She was independent, almost to a fault; never wanting to rely on anyone, even during the most difficult of times. Her trust had been broken once and she vowed that it would never happen again.

Even as she exited the terminal, she knew that the defenses she spent the last five years building weren't as strong as she wanted them to be. She still trembled slightly as she scanned the crowds, looking for her mother and grandfather, who were waiting for her with smiles and warm, welcoming hugs. Their embrace was like a warm broth for her soul. It soothed and eased her tensions and she allowed herself to relax.

"Let's go home." Her mother's voice was soft and gentle but Kagome knew how strong her mother was. She had raised her and her brother by herself after her father had been killed in an accident when she was a child. Many times, while she was abroad, she called home just to hear her mother's voice. It would tide her over the rough times and if things ever got too much, her mother always manage to fly over and see her. For that, Kagome was forever grateful.

With Souta to help with her luggage, Kagome shifted her purse and her carryon bag on her shoulder.

"Mom…is he alright?"

Her mother took her hand and held it gently. "Don't worry Kagome, he's just fine. He's waiting for you at home with Grandpa."

"You sure he's okay then, Mom?" Souta piped up, pushing the luggage cart towards the taxi.

"Oh hush, Souta," her mother said, giggling.

Kagome smiled. "I want to get home. I've missed him."

"No worries, Sis." Souta loaded the bags into the trunk and ushered both his mother and his sister into the waiting car.

Kagome sat in-between them, chatting about her final days abroad and the stress of moving her life back to Japan. Her landlord had given her a hard time about moving out simply because she had been such a good tenant and the people who wanted to move in didn't seem as nice. She had promised to call and catch up with her as often as she could and tell her about resettling in her home country. In a way, living in the apartments where she did, Kagome had felt completely at home, especially since her landlady was a kind old woman who spoke Japanese with her. It eased the homesickness she felt from time to time. They would stay up on Kagome's days off from school and work and chat about various traditional medicines, which Kagome was very interested in. She tried some of the herbal remedies old lady Kaede had talked about and was surprised to find that it worked just as well as the pills of modern medicine.

"I'll have to call her once we get home and let her know I got here okay."

"She sounds wonderful," her mother said, "We owe her a lot."

"I do owe her," Kagome agreed. "It was like having an older version of you around, Mom. Her advice, pep-talks were what I needed."

"Well it's good to have you home again. Your room is exactly the way you left it."

"Well, I think I could change the pink sheets and comforter now," Kagome said with a small laugh. "My tastes have changed a little and I think I've finally outgrown my pink stage."

"It's a shame we can't reuse those sheets. Souta is a boy after all," her mother said.

"Moooooom," Souta groaned. "We're not going through that again are we? I told you, I was too young to know the difference when I went for the pink blanket when I was a kid."

"It was cute, Souta. No need to be ashamed."

"I wasn't ashamed until you brought it up. During an inconvenient time too; my first school dance in front of the girl I liked."

Kagome giggled and patted her brother's shoulder. "Maybe she thought you had a sensitive side, Souta."

"Sis…" Souta gave a sideways glance. "No girl ever thinks a guy is sensitive because he likes the color pink."

"Oh, so you do like the color pink! Perfect, we'll just give you Kagome's sheets."

Souta was dumbstruck and slumped back in his seat, grateful that he could see the entrance to their shrine coming up. He needed to get out of the car and do something with those sheets. Maybe burn them. Yes, that was a good idea.

As the car pulled to a stop, Souta scrambled out of the car, busying himself with unloading the bags so he didn't have to see the smug look on his sisters face or the annoyingly sweet and innocent smile on his mother's face. Pink, bah! He grabbed the two largest suitcases and began to trudge up the steps.

"Souta, you be careful. I'm going to go and get dinner started." Kagome's mother said after paying the driver. "Kagome, you should head in and have a bath. It was a long flight."

Kagome slid out of the car and grabbed her rolling suitcase. A bath sounded good. Her muscles were tense from both the flight and the knowledge that she would be back in the same country as him. She touched her chest gently. There was still a dull ache there. Time hadn't healed all wounds quite yet.

Up the steps, Kagome started across the courtyard when she suddenly heard the door slam open. Startled, she looked up in time to see a blur rushing towards her. It sent her luggage clattering noisily to the ground and it nearly sent her flying as well. Smiling, she wrapped her arms around him.

"Did you miss me?"

"I missed you, Mommy!"

Author's Note: Eep, hopefully that didn't suck too badly . Please let know how it was~ I do have the second chapter partially typed so it should be up relatively soon! In the mean time:

READ AND REVIEW!