Title: A Helping Hand
Summary: Their hearts are in the right place, but they don't understand her the way he does. In which Souta digs into his sister's past… so that she can move forward with her future.
They watch her day in and day out, their eyes trailing her movements like a hawk. Every time she goes to the grocery store, they hold their breaths as she passes the aisle full of Inuyasha's favorite food without a backwards glance. They discreetly redirect her to the neighboring shelves full of chocolate when she gets too close to the cherry-flavored suckers Shippo always requested.
This isn't what she wished for, Souta thinks, but he can't do anything when his mother and grandfather are always there next to her. They smother her with attention and affection and Kagome is confused by all of it—but not suspicious. Over time she comes to understand how close they were to losing her.
Or so they say.
More than hiding the truth, there is a feeling of disgust for being an accomplice (however unwillingly) to the farce of a life his family has created.
She would want to know, and the guilt of not being able to help his sister after all she has gone through nags at him daily.
"We found her at the bottom of the well a few hours after she chased our family cat Buyo into the shed," his mother lies smoothly to the doctor as they sit in the seats beside her bed. "How is she?"
Souta looks at the cast on her left leg and the bandages wrapped around her head, a serene look on her face.
There is the beginnings of a smile there.
He doesn't know what she has to be happy about right now.
"Fortunately, Higurashi-san only suffered a mild concussion and a broken leg," the doctor responded. "There are no other physical injuries but until she awakens, we do not know if she sustained mental trauma."
A slightly louder beep from the heart monitor sounds.
His mother and grandfather are furiously whispering to each other. The name "Inuyasha slips" from his mother's lips just as her eyes flutter open, and they pause and lean over the railing of the hospital bed, a precursor to the fussing and lecturing they're about to give her… only the first words that she says shuts them both up.
"What's an 'Inuyasha?'"
Watching her is akin to watching the younger sister he never had discover the world once again. Coincidentally—or maybe not? He can't even begin to guess what goes on in his sister's mind anymore—her favorite thing to do is read beneath the Goshinboku tree.
She sits there and reads yet another historical fiction novel or a random ancient scroll she requests from their grandfather. Sometimes, she spaces out, her eyes glazing over with a peaceful smile on her face as she stares up at the branches of the Goshinboku. And sometimes, he goes over and asks her what she's reading during those moments, and it's like a bubble pops in front of her face, whereby she comes back into reality. Each time there's a skeptical expression on her face, as if she's thinking did that just happen?, but the next moment it is gone and she merely shakes her head with a disbelieving smile before answering his question.
It's those moments when she has a lapse in attention, when she's spacing out and happy, that makes him believe what his family is doing is wrong.
He discovers the worn, yellow backpack one day while cleaning out the storage shed behind the well.
The bottom has frayed to the point where he can see his fingers through the material, the faded grass marks dyeing the bottom even after it's been washed. He hides the backpack in the bottom of the box of cleaning supplies and brings it back to his room. Whenever he gets the chance, he stuffs Shippo's favorite snacks and jumbo packs of ramen into the bag. For good measure, because he's a little wistful and envious of the lives his sister led, he adds in a disposable camera.
And then he waits.
Three months have passed to the day and, really, he has nothing left to lose.
Funny enough though, before he has the chance to offer up the backpack and somehow get Kagome into the sealed-off well house, Buyo once again finds himself stuck at the bottom of the well, just like he had four years ago when it all began. He hears the meows when he goes to fetch a scroll for his grandfather in the neighboring storage shed.
But that's not all he hears.
He hears a young, feminine voice that could be no other than—
Then there's a screech of surprise that gets cut off.
Before his brain can process what he's doing or where he is, his feet pound the ground of the just-cleaned stone path back into the house upstairs, into his room, and inside his closet where he hides the faded yellow backpack. He grabs it roughly by the strap and there's a noticeable rip as it starts to tear but Souta doesn't mind this—he doesn't mind this at all when he's running as if a demon's chasing him.
(And who knows? Maybe an imaginary one is—the same one that caused him to feel all this guilt on his family's behalf.)
His bare feet slap the stone floor once more and he's off again, ignoring how his mother's eyes widen and how her mouth starts to open to reprimand him. She's wiping her hands on a dish towel as he ignores her and runs out the door.
The door to the well house is just slightly ajar and there's a fading blue light coming out of the well.
He knows what to do; this time, he won't hesitate.
He slings the backpack over his shoulder, drops it into the well, and watches as it follows his sister back into the past.
Maybe when she returns in the future her life can start moving again.
Maybe she won't return.
But those maybes don't matter when he knows that time has finally started moving for her again.
A/N: Trying to go for non-pairing stories right now—my romance mojo is just not quite here with me.
So, what do you think?