I'm baaack!  Man, I'm some kind of updating machine these days, I'll tell you what.  Somehow I've found this whole equilibrium between trying to write, do my homework, and spend time with friends.  I am like a superhero type of student!  Dododoo!  Okay, maybe not.  Maybe I should just get to the damn story.

*****

To Finally Let Go

Part 2

*****

And every time I'm close to you

There's too much I can't say

And you just walk away.

And I forgot

To tell you I love you.

The night's too long

And cold here without you.

I grieve in my condition,

For I cannot find the words to say

I need you so.

-Sarah McLachlan I Love You

"Kagome?  Are you coming down for dinner yet?" a girl poked her head into Kagome's dorm.  "You know, that paper will still be there after you finish eating." She told Kagome in a mothering tone.  Kagome had to smile at how Melissa was always trying to take care of her.

"I'm almost finished, actually.  Just let me type up this conclusion and I'll be down right away." Kagome assured her, knowing that Melissa would not take no for an answer.  The other girl narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"Okay then, but if you aren't down in ten minutes, I'm coming up here to drag you down.  I swear, it's unhealthy for such a workaholic to get a single.  No roommate to take care of you and make sure you don't rot away doing homework all day."

"I think you more than make up for any kind of nagging a roommate would give me." Kagome rolled her eyes in annoyance.  "Now go so that I can finish this paper!"

"Okay, okay," Melissa waved her hands to ward off some imaginary force.  "I swear, you try to be a little nice and it blows up in your face." Melissa giggled before heading downstairs.

"I don't have time for dinner, dammit." Kagome finished her paper and cracked her neck as she picked up a neatly kept assignment book.  "I need to work on my lab report for next week.  And I really wanted to finish my chemistry reading before eight tonight.  Oh well."  Kagome crossed off one of the items in her book and left the room, locking the door before she headed downstairs.  She smiled at Melissa before going to get her food and bringing it back to eat with her.  She knew Melissa wouldn't be satisfied until Kagome had eaten what she deemed "enough," some vague amount that Kagome could never hope to understand or quantify.  When Melissa was satisfied, she went back upstairs to finish her homework. 

This was a typical evening for Kagome.  Ever since she'd been at college, she had redoubled her efforts to prove herself in school.  She felt that the fact that she was not going to the Sengoku Jidai at least once a week or so was also helping her become more focused and serious.  Overall, she was very proud of herself, but a lot of the other women in her dorm were a bit frightened of the highly intense student from Japan.  Only Melissa seemed oblivious to this, obviously figuring that all Kagome needed was someone to watch out for her.  Kagome was so preoccupied with her schoolwork that she never really noticed that no one seemed eager to invite her along on outings or other such things.  The others would sometimes try to talk to her, but to anyone observing, it was obvious that Kagome made them nervous.  Her sheer determination was a frightening force, and it sometimes made them feel inadequate.  Another problem was that during first term, Kagome had been in a study group, but she would always get upset with anyone who missed a meeting, saying that she was shocked that so many people at this school took education too lightly, and that she was appalled that acceptance standards were so low.  Needless to say, no one in the house wanted to study with Kagome after that.

She didn't seem to notice any of this, though.  Kagome appeared perfectly happy to study alone so that there weren't any people who would slow her down with their lack of dedication.  In fact, Kagome didn't seem to notice that all this time in college and away from her dearest, closest friends had molded her into a cold workaholic who worried more about the legibility of her date book than whether or not there were parties this weekend.  It had been seven months since she'd last seen her family or friends, but she'd begun to worry less and less about them.  Initially, Kagome had wondered day and night what the others were doing, if Inuyasha would hold out a month before he had to come see her, how her family was faring without her.  She'd been so preoccupied with thoughts of home, that she had often cried herself to sleep thinking of how far it was, and how long it would be until she saw it again.  In those days, she got along just fine with all the other people in her dorm and her classes, but then a change had swept over her.  Kagome had realized that if she couldn't concentrate better on her work, her grades would suffer, so she had decided that every time she missed home, she would take that emotion and channel it into energy to do her work.  Before long, she was obsessed with studying, and by this point, she couldn't even remember why it was that she had so much energy for it.  Now, instead of feeling a longing for home, Kagome felt a need to study, and therefore it was almost as if she didn't miss her family and friends at all.  Most of the time.

"Ech, no!  Stupid pen!  Why couldn't you wait until I was done with you to die?" she tossed the useless piece of plastic in her garbage can, reaching into her desk drawer for her package of spare pens.  "Typical." She pulled out the empty package and tossed it aside as well.  "Looks like I'll have to dig into the stock supply."  Kagome rose and went to her closet, standing on her toes to reach the shelf on top where she kept various things she just didn't have room for anywhere else.  She finally felt a familiar plastic and paper package touch her fingertips, and she pulled it forward without realizing that it had other things on top of it.  Thus, Kagome was bombarded by a shower of clothing as well as an old box.

"Kami, I'm such an idiot sometimes." Kagome sighed, tossing the pens onto her bed for later as she bent over and picked up the winter clothes she hadn't worn for a while now.  Gathering them in a hurried bundle, Kagome shoved them back into their spot at the top of the closet before she lowered herself to pick up the box, the contents of which had spilled all over her floor.  Sighing again, she turned the box up right and picked up the stack of pictures, pausing to glance at the top one before she could replace them in the box.

"Souta…" she breathed, letting her fingers drift over the face before flipping through the pictures of her small family.  She'd forgotten that she had these.  Not wanting to forget her studies, Kagome put the pictures back in the box before spotting the other object that had fallen out of the box.  "The rosary…I couldn't recall where I'd put it." Kagome picked up the familiar necklace that had controlled Inuyasha for such a long time.  She wondered momentarily if he had simply forgotten all about her since she left, and she supposed it was possible.  She had freed him of the rosary and given him the Shikon no Tama, effectively giving him the only two things he could ever want from her.  He was probably a full youkai now, with no care for silly human girls.  That, or he'd used the jewel to become a human so he could finally be with Kikyo.  She supposed that was probably his plan all along.  She'd played her part, and now he was through with her.  Angrily, Kagome slammed the box shut and went back to finish her homework.

----------

Melissa paused as she passed Kagome's closed door.  That door was always closed off, just like the girl inside.  But Melissa remembered when Kagome had first come here.  She had been a different person then, full of life and love for her friends and family.  Often times Melissa wondered where that girl had gone, why she had hidden deep inside herself.  Unconsciously smoothing her short red hair that always seemed to do as it pleased, Melissa continued on her path back to her own room.  Maybe she could help Kagome, but sometimes she thought it was too late already.

----------

Inuyasha fingered the Shikon no Tama he wore around his neck.  Somehow, he couldn't make himself use it.  Not yet.  It was the only physical tie he still had to Kagome besides the well.  He supposed that if he used it, though, the youkai attacks would stop.  They had been persistent ever since Kagome had left.  Somehow they all knew that the strange priestess from another world had left it with the "lowly hanyou."  Though they had never voiced it, Kagome had made them nervous.  Not because she was Kikyo's reincarnation, or even because she had helped kill Naraku in the end, though that was part of it.  In the end, it all came down to a sense of mystery that she carried with her.  She had come from another world, tamed the behavior of two youkai, even if one was a hanyou and the other a child, and had gathered around her an unstoppable group of warriors that no youkai could last against, not even Naraku.  Inuyasha figured that the remaining youkai had thought she had some kind of magic stronger than that of a priestess, something they couldn't quite define, and that had kept them from being brave enough to try and take back the Shikon no Tama.  But now that she was gone, the spell was broken.

"I should bring her back." Inuyasha muttered to himself.

"You'll never learn to sleep, will you Inuyasha." A voice behind him startled Inuyasha, and he jumped, turning to stand in a defensive position, but it was only Sango.

"Dammit, don't do that.  I could've killed you." He hissed angrily, letting his pulse slow down as she moved to stand beside where he had been resting on the banister just outside Kaede's house.

"You wouldn't hurt me," Sango gave him an amused smile when he glared at her challenge.  "But I'm sorry I surprised you.  I thought that no one would be out here."

"Well you're here, aren't you?" he asked angrily.

"I suppose that's true.  Miroku was flailing around in his dreams, so I couldn't sleep." She explained.  "What's your excuse?"

"Feh." Inuyasha crossed his arms, affecting a pout.  "As if I need to explain myself to you."

"Fair enough." Sango sighed, watching him for awhile until she noticed that he kept unconsciously reaching up to touch the Shikon no Tama where it rested under his robes.  "You miss her, don't you?"

"W—what do you mean?" Inuyasha stood up straight becoming defensive immediately.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Inuyasha.  We all do."  Sango assured him, smiling at the hanyou warmly.  "And don't bother trying to hide it.  We've all learned to read you, even Shippo-chan."

"Well, maybe I do." Inuyasha admitted.  "What about it?"

"Why don't you just go see her?" Sango wanted to know.  "We've all been wondering, but no one's worked up the nerve to ask you yet.  What's stopping you?"

"I just…whatever, it doesn't matter."  Inuyasha suddenly switched back to his normal, guarded personality.  "She'll be back to see us soon anyway.  Didn't she say she needed to go off for herself and live her own life.  If I—any of us were there, that'd mess it all up.  She doesn't want us there."

"Are you sure?" Sango asked.  "A lot has happened since Kagome left, and I wonder if she's changed as much as you have.  Maybe she needs you there to make her remember who she is."

"I haven't changed!" Inuyasha shot back angrily.  "And I can't leave so that Miroku and you have to deal with the youkai all by yourselves."

"You have changed, and you know that the only reason they attack is because you're here and she isn't.  They see better than even you do that you need Kagome."  Sango paused and gave him a small, mocking smile.  "Besides, we're all sick and tired of your pouting and moping.  We don't want to deal with it."

"You're not funny." He told her, glaring.

"I just thought that maybe you'd matured enough by now.  I thought you would be ready to be with her for good." Sango shrugged, pointing to the round lump under his upper robe.  "You still have that, though, so I suppose I may have been wrong."

"What's that mean?" Inuyasha hissed.

"I can't stand out here all night explaining everything to you.  You're just going to have to figure some of it out for yourself." Sango sighed in fatigue.  "Good luck." She told him before going back inside.

"I don't need anything." Inuyasha pulled the Shikon no Tama out so he could hold it in his hand.  "Damn woman doesn't know what she's talking about."  Just because he was miserable with Kagome gone didn't mean that he needed her, didn't mean he wanted her to need him, didn't mean he loved her in the least.  "Feh!" he snorted at no one in particular as he clutched the jewel and made off toward the well.  He spent more time at the bone-eater well than most any other place.  He had even slept there some nights, arguing with himself over whether or not he should go see Kagome.  Over whether or not she'd want to see him.  He looked at the jewel in his hand thoughtfully.

"I promised I'd be careful, and I have.  But now, I'm not sure of what I want." He spoke to the jewel, almost expecting Kagome to answer.  What would she want him to do with it?  What was Sango hinting at?  "To be with her for good…" Inuyasha mused when an idea suddenly hit him.  Without hesitation, he swallowed the jewel before jumping down the well.

I'm coming.

*****

The End (Of Part 2, That Is)