Disclaimer: Yep, still don't own it.
Kagome hadn't meant to end up at the well, she really hadn't, because after Inu Yasha, it was the last thing that she wanted to see.
She kicked it angrily. It really was the cause of all this, shikon no tama be damned. If only it worked when she wanted it to, but noooo, the wretched thing seemed to have a mind of its own. To keep from attracting any unwanted attention, she clenched her teeth to keep from screaming out her frustrations.
How could that jerk really think that she didn't care? That she chose not to come back? She placed her palms on the lip of the well and hung her head between her arms, pulling in deep, shaky breaths in an effort to calm herself.
Kagome stood up straight and began to stride angrily around the small clearing. All this time she had waited. She had waited for him, even. And when she comes back, she sees that he didn't wait for her, and he gets angry at her? It didn't make sense! Or rather, she supposed that it did, but it simply wasn't fair!
"Running home already?" A snide voice interrupted her fuming as she paced around the well menacingly.
Her head whipped towards him, her eye alit with fury. "Wouldn't that make you happy?"
Inu Yasha's eyes narrowed contemptuously, "Well seeing you come back now, of all times, certainly doesn't."
Kagome stopped her pacing short and looked away with angry hurt, clenching her fists at her side.
Her hanyou friend realized what he said at seeing the effects of his thoughtless words, and immediately flattened his ears, "I… I didn't mean that… I'm sorry, Kagome."
She closed her eyes, feeling as if there was something tight constricting her chest. "Yes, you did."
"Hey! I said I'm sorry! I don't know why I said that and… all those other things... You know how I get when I'm angry." He groused and folded his arms across his chest.
Kagome sighed and shook her head, "Yeah, you do, Inu Yasha." Her eyes had a faraway look to them when she opened them again. She wasn't dumb. She was fully aware of what her reappearance in his life meant for who used to be her best friend. Inu Yasha… the bitter, lonely victim of scorn, evil, and treachery was now a father and a husband. He had a stable position with the village community. He now had a place and role in life… and she wasn't meant to be in it.
She looked at him with a tragic smile and welling eyes, "Things will never go back to the way they used to be, Inu Yasha…. You've changed."
"I've changed? What the hell do ya mean? Look at you! Looking all mopey and shit! Not telling us what's really going on, where you've been! I thought being here made you happy, being with me! " He yelled in retort.
She shook her head again and scoffed, "You have no idea what I've been through, and what did you expect? When I do come back, I find you with a wife and child. Don't you think I'd be a little shocked?"
"Maybe if you hadn't left when you did, none of that would've happened! You were gone for too long! Shit happened! Besides, you probably ran straight into that one guy's arms. What's his name?… Hobo! You probably never even tried to come back!" He hollered, baring fangs.
"You think I didn't try?" She shouted incredulously. "Every hour, every day, for weeks I tried! For years, I kept thinking that at any moment the well was going to change its mind and let me get back to you! I waited for you, for all these years! Inu Yasha! I waited for YOU!" She spun on her heel away from him, angry tears pricking her eyes.
Silence fell between them as the crickets continued their unaffected chirping. Kagome tried to take deep breathes to calm herself, looking up at the starry night sky to keep her tears in check. Inu Yasha stared at her back with an intense, severe gaze, wondering why he couldn't fight back like he normally would have: stubbornly refusing to believe her. He knew why, really, he always knew why he couldn't really ever fight her. He could never win. Kagome never lied. She always believed in him; even when he took her trust and threw it back in her face. She was absolutely the best thing that had ever happened to him. He would do anything… everything within his power for her. Only for her.
"Kagome, I-…" His hands raised helplessly, before falling limply back at his sides. "I didn't know." He looked down sightlessly. "I-…" It would be so much easier to make her the one in the wrong, to blame her for leaving and not coming back, for abandoning him, for leaving him without a choice. But… he didn't know, or at least, never fully believed it. Her absence was easier to deal with when he was angry.
He stepped closer and tried to speak, but stopped himself short whenever he began. What could he really say? The missing woman who was his everything finally returned to find that he had married and had a child. What was one supposed to say?
His pained expression studied the back of her head. He tilted his head and sighed deeply. He raised a clawed hand and clasped a lock of her hair between his index and middle fingers, running through it regretfully.
"Kagome. I'm… sorry." He whispered.
She whirled on him and looked up at him with angry eyes. "Yeah? Well me too." Her bitter words cut through both of them and he froze, shocked by her reaction. His expression broke through her angry, self-righteousness, and she closed her eyes, unfurling her brows and taking a deep breath, letting it out in a rush, her shoulder sagging. She shook her head and looked off to the side.
"There was nothing that we could have done." Her defeated voice passed murmuring lips.
Inu Yasha looked down at her with warm eyes and couldn't stop his hand from reaching up to run the back of his fingers down her smooth cheek. Unconsciously, she leaned in with a sigh. His breath caught as his heart thumped painfully against his chest. She was still so damn beautiful.
"Oh… what you do to me," He breathed lifting her face by her chin to look up at him. Her wide, gray-blue eyes searched his golden orbs, her heart speeding up as his proximity registered in her mind, beating faster and faster as he leaned in and softly pressed his lips against hers.
Kagome's mind blanked as she felt his once familiar lips grace hers. A kiss. It had been so long… she couldn't move. The kiss was brief and chaste and he moved to wrap his arms around her tightly, bowing his head to her neck and inhaling deeply, burying his nose in her hair, sending a shiver down her neck and spine as his warm breath fanned across her ear. He pressed her securely against his own body, so tightly that they could feel each other's heart beating rapidly and the air expanding their chests with each desperate breath.
"God, Kagome… I've missed you so much." His gruff voice was even rougher with emotion. His arm around her waist kept her pinned to him, and his hand cradled her head to his in an almost frantic attachment. "You don't know how long I waited for you at the well or how many times I tried jumping through or how many times I imagined seeing you again and holding you, like this."
Kagome was stiff in his warm embrace, before she relaxed as his familiar scent and touch wrapped around her. He had never held her like this before but it felt so… right? She hesitatingly raised her arms to limply return his hug. No, it felt nostalgic, like the first warm breath of summer after the snow.
Tears flooded her eyes and glistened in the moonlight, brimming brightly before making the short trek to his shoulder.
"Did you… miss me…?" The tremulous, fearful tone of his question broke her heart. She couldn't help the self-depreciative chuckle, and hugged him tighter.
"You have no idea." His body seemed to sag with some sort of relief, and he snuffled against her neck, rubbing his face against her. "I don't think that a single day went by without me thinking of you." She admitted and pressed her face into his shoulder, muffling her words. "It was just too much. I-I couldn't handle it."
He petted her soft hair, relishing in the feel of her, "Let's just pick up from where we were, Kagome. "
She froze and shook her head, "Inu Yasha, we can't. Too much has changed in both of our lives."
"Of course we can. Nothing has changed between us! I… I still care about you, a lot Kagome. You can live in the village, with Kaede for a while until we can build you a hut. Or, you can stay with me and Hana-"
At the thought of spending her time in the same hut as the woman and child of the man she loved, Kagome grew rigid and withdrew from his arms. "…What…?" She looked at him incredulously.
"Or we can just start over, Kagome? You say so much has changed, so let's just get to know each other again. Stay with us." His eyes seem to light up with the prospect of Kagome staying near him. Kagome got along and loved everyone. She would certainly accept his son, and it might take some time, but surely Hana and her could be friends, just like with Sango!
"Inu Yasha… no, that… I just… no, I can't." She took a few more steps away wondering how he could suggest a thing. "You have a family now, Inu Yasha. One that I can't just step into." She continued shaking her head. She couldn't believe he'd suggest such a thing.
"C'mon Kagome, it's not as if they don't know who you are. They know all about what happened. Hell, Hana was there, she remembers you. She likes you! And Denjiro, the brat's just like Shippo," He crossed the distance between them and grabbed her shoulder.
"But I don't know them!" Kagome gasped. "I can't do this, Inu Yasha, please." She jerked her shoulder out of his grasp.
He looked at her for a moment, appraising her with a hard look, "You have nowhere else to go, Kagome. Rin's still shacked up with Kaede, Miroku and Sango barely have room for their brood, and while the villagers like ya and everything, you're not exactly a good omen." He smirked at her, crossing his hands across his chest again.
"What about Kouga? I could go and visit him for a while." She countered, not really partial to the idea, but it was somewhere.
Inu Yasha immediately growled and snarled at her, "Kouga? Why the fuck would you want to go stay with that mangy wolf? And not me?"
"Why not Kouga? He was a good friend during those years searching for the shards. Besides, it's not you that's the problem…" She turned away.
"Oh… I see, you're jealous," He grinned at her, pleased when he saw her ears turn red, "Cuz I've got Hana, you thought you'd move onto someone who's still free, well guess what sister, Kouga's already mated. To Ayame."
Kagome scowled ferociously, unsurprised that her wolf friend and the Princess of the White Wolves had gotten together, "You really are an idiot." She began to walk back towards the village. Now that she was a little older and wiser, she realized what it was that she sometimes felt around him. It was a heavy feeling, making her head feel like concrete, and arms droop towards the ground as if pulling along barbells. She felt suffocated.
"Kagome, stay with me." He insisted again, easily catching up and walking behind her.
"No, Inu Yasha."
"Why?" He shouted imperiously.
"Because I'm not going to do that to her!" She turned to him and shouted. "If I live with you, how do you think Hana will feel? How do you think I will feel? Yeah, it sounds great on paper, but seriously think about it, you moron! You can't just go around and start making these decisions on your own, Inu Yasha." Her voice gradually lowered and she gazed upon his face with all the stubbornness that he missed. "I appreciate the offer, Inu Yasha…. I really do. But, I can't do this. I won't." With a last lingering look, she began to head towards Kaede's hut again. "I can do this on my own."
"I will do this… without you."
AN: Poor Inu Yasha... if only life and relationships were that simple. Don't worry, this is strictly a SessxKag story, but I'm not rushing it. Inu Yasha... and maybe someone else... will certainly make it interesting for Kagome though... ;)
