A/N: I forgot to add this to the original story, so I'm doing it now. This story was inspired by Linkin Park's Roads Untraveled song. A thought popped into my head: what is Kagome moved on with her life, got a job, and was unable to return to the past? What if everyone she knew was dead, except for Shippou (I suppose Sesshoumaru would still be out there somewhere, too). What if they met at a busy junction in Tokyo, seemingly at random one day?
I took what I knew Shippou would have experienced if a lot of bad things happened to him. I took what Kagome would know… put them together and Shippou can't deal with seeing Kagome again just yet. Not only that, his rejection of her is actually accepted somewhat easily because of the guilt she feels for abandoning him in the first place.
This is a really dour look at how such a fleeting meeting (I rhyme, nice) could go so wrong. I just had to explain it better.
I may have her meet Sesshoumaru next in another random scenario, or have her meet Shippou for the final time when she is old and gray, so this may not actually be a one-shot after all. Cheers!