Time is forever moving like the tides in the sea. It may change direction or the speed it moves, but it never stops. Forever it trudges forward, you can either bend to it's will or you can fight it and as long as she stood on the earth's hard surface, she would fight it with every fiber of her being. Not because she was simply looking to be defiant to the gods or to fate itself, but because she just didn't have it in herself to give up. Not on him. Not on herself.
A sigh slipped between powdery pink pouty lips. Brows furrowed together, she stared at her family's well house. Her enormous bag was resting against her thigh just below the hem of her black shorts. She should have been back by now and she knew that her hanyou friend had to be going nuts pacing in front of the well waiting impatiently for her to appear, but she just couldn't cross over yet. There was too much on her mind, too many things to consider. Bringing her elbows to her knees she placed her face in her hands her dark hair lightly flowing around her in the warm summer breeze as it passed by.
Three years. She had been running around in the past chasing down jewel shards and bringing hope to the small villages that she helped. Time had been put aside to build bridges of trust between humans and demons back in the feudal era, yet there was nothing to prove it. Three years she had been putting in so much work to bring the two species together and yet something still stood in the way of letting demons being present in her current time. It completely boggled her mind. To her it seemed only logical that demons should still be around, a feat she was hoping to accomplish by getting everyone to work together in the past, but she was still coming up short.
Having often dreamt of how far society could go with youkai and humans supporting each other. Helping one another in the growth of technology, pharmaceuticals, perhaps in ending world hunger or even bringing about world peace. Sure, she was sure that her made up society would have its flaws and obstacles to overcome, but in the grad scheme of things he made up world sounded way better than the world she was living in. Both her day dreaming and her irritation at the lack of progress with making sure youkai made it to her time had brought about a rather impulsive decision. One that she wasn't a hundred percent sure she should go through with as the outcome of what she was thinking of doing was unknown.
Deep blue eyes lazily roamed to her backpack, running her finger along the edge of the well-worn fabric she thought of the history books she had tucked deep inside. She had originally wanted to read them to see if there were any written traces of demons within them, but now she was considering handing them over to whatever demon lord would listen to her. Most of which she knew would declare her insane and have her escorted off of their lands, but out of every youkai walking the ground beyond that well someone had to listen, right? It was only fair to believe in the slight chance that someone would believe her. But her biggest issue would be convincing InuYasha that what she considered to be an issue actually was one.
Sighing once more, she stood tall on tan legs. Her height wasn't all that impressive, in fact she was still the shortest one of her ragtag group, besides Shippo of course but he was still a child and had yet to hit a growth spurt worth mentioning. Her greatest accomplishment since all of this had happened was her ever growing knowledge of healing and the herbs to do so, as was her spiritual growth. The power that laid within her below the surface of her skin was completely and utterly under her control. That is as long as the door she kept it locked behind wasn't suddenly flung open, but she hadn't experienced a mishap such as that in eight months or so. Her fighting was still something to be desired, but she was working on that both in the past and here in the future when she was able to be home.
Scooping up her bag she made a split-second decision to gather information, data, before approaching any demons of high standing about their absence in years to come. The walk across the yard was quick as she gripped the wood trim of the doorway into their old well house. The smell of dirt and dust was thick as she moved into the small structure. The room was dark as the building held no windows or a light fixture, not that she needed one. You could probably blind fold her and she would make it through just fine from years of practice.
Finding the cold stone of the well, she gripped her bag tightly before flinging herself over the edge to be swallowed by the rush of old magic. It was cold, not like jumping into a pool of cold water but more like stepping outside on a fall night. It was crisps and the feeling matched well with the ice blue it was colored. Before too long she found herself on the dirt floor of the well and looked up into the bright blue sky above. As if on cue, an angry aura smashed into hers causing her eyes to roll as a scoff left her.
Knowing that he wouldn't help in a petty attempt to get back at her for being late, Kagome grabbed onto the vines crawling down the stones around her and began the long climb up. Every foot that she climbed more of her skin became sun covered chasing off the chill from the time traveling she had just done. Reaching the top, she hauled herself over the lip of the wall and sprawled out on her back in the grass. Fully covered by the sun, she closed her eyes and soaked it up.
"It's about time wench! Why do you always take so long knowing we have shards to find! I swear if you weren't so lazy, we would have them all by now!" His harsh words went over her head as she had accepted that there would never be more than friendship between the two of them. It had been a hard truth to swallow, but she had done it.
"Would you shut up! If you would have helped me out of the well, we could have been on our way thirty minutes ago!" Growling to herself in a very inu fashion, she pulled herself to her feet with the help of the very well she had spoken of. Glaring at him, she shook her head and after slipping on her backpack she headed into the forest in the direction of Kaede's village. The others would be there and at least they would be happy to see her.
"Keh, I didn't even know you were down there, so don't go pointing fingers at me. Besides you need to do more stuff for yourself anyway." He had been in step with her until he had opened his mouth. Now he was a few paces ahead only turning to face her when he had finally noticed she wasn't next to him anymore.
"Are you, serious right now?" The stupidity that had just slid from his mouth astonished her. He had to be joking, there was no way he meant any of that. However; his blank expression and lack of a response to her question proved otherwise. "Have you forgotten that I can feel your aura, your youkai? Do you seriously expect me to accept the lies you just told me? I knew you were there; I knew you are angry with me and I knew it the moment I landed at the bottom of the well!"
Moving forward she refused to look at him or even acknowledge the rest of what he had originally said. Sure, when she had first freed him from the tree and his own personal little prison, she had been weak and uncapable of taking care of herself. But now she was different. She had learned survival skills from Sango, who was also teaching her fighting skills most of which was hand to hand. InuYasha refused to teach her how to use a blade so she had been 'killing' trees during their down time at camps while they traveled. Was she absolutely perfect? No, she was far from it, but she was getting better and just because he couldn't see it didn't mean anything.
Breaking through the trees, Kagome entered the village and made a straight-line for Kaede's hut. But before she could get too close, a ball of orange tackled her to the ground pulling laughter from her as they rolled around in the dirt. Her fingers finding their home in a little rib cage, she began to tickle drawing out squeals from her adopted son. The two soon came to a stop, both catching their breath.
"It's glad to have you back Kagome! InuYasha has done nothing, but complained since you left." The demon slayed rested her small hands on her hips as she turned her attention to the blushing demon just a few short feet away from her.
"Keh, nothing but lies. I swear that's all you humans do is lie and be slow." Grumbling to himself after his short insult, he turned his head away and shoved his hands into his sleeve. The action caused a giggle to pull from Kagome's lips.
"You are such a child sometimes. Let's get going so his mood can improve." Shaking her head she pulled herself up out of the dirt and brushed off her clothes before opening her arms for her son who readily jumped into them snuggling into her chest.
"Yes, I will say that finding a shard soon may in fact be what he needs. Though I will say that he won't be pleased with the small amount of ground we will cover due to the late hour of the day." Miroku's voice took hold of the small amount of conversation going on. Nodding her head in agreement, the small group made sure they had everything they needed before heading into the woods behind their dogeared leader.
A/N: Haven't written a fanfic in such a long time that I had to make a new account. Please leave me your thoughts! I'm open to anything that you want to say and I'll try to have more up soon, if anyone wants more that is. I know it's a bit slow right now, but it will get better. I have to get back into the rhythm of writing this again.