Souta, walking home from school, had experience the passing thought that it would be nice for his sister to come home again, so he could see her and possibly InuYasha. What he was met with though wasn't what he had thought. Instead of seeing his happily smiling sister and always grumpy InuYasha, he was met with blood. With horror filled eyes he saw his sister and someone he didn't know lying in blood just inside the well house, and after a moment of shock, he ran inside and fetched his family.
They dragged the two back into the house quickly, laying them out on the kitchen's tile and bandaging the best they could with what they had. And when everything was cleaned both Mrs. Higurashi and Souta transported the Kagome into her room, knowing that would be the place their family member would want to wake up at. Not knowing where to put their new face, they carefully transported him to the living room, putting him to rest on the couch and covering him with a blanket. Souta ran up to his sister's room after that, making himself comfortable outside her door. He wasn't going to leave until he knew she was alright. He owed that to her after all she did to keep people in both times safe, didn't he?
Kyo was dead. Ginta was dead. InuYasha, the monk, and the slayer had perished. He'd sent the rest of his pack back home with the kitsune. They'd left Sesshomaru to fight on his own. She'd led him to the well in InuYasha's forest... the magic had caught and then they weren't in a land he was familiar with. He'd gotten a single glimpse of the outside world when she had collapsed. His arms had gone out to catch her, but everything went black for him as well.
...Kagome.
Kagome!
He wrenched his body into a conscious state, throwing the cloth that covered him across the room and rolling off the object he had been laying on to land in a crouched position on the padded floor. Where was Kagome? Where exactly was he?
"Hey, hold up!" a young boy's voice called, the child appearing in the entrance to the room, a glass cup held in his hand, "It's alright! Calm down!"
"Who are you?" Koga growled out, not caring if he was scaring the child, "Where am I? Where's Kagome?"
"It's alright! I'm Souta – Kagome's brother. We brought you guys inside when we found you out by the well house. You guys are safe!"
"Where's Kagome?" Koga demanded, "Tell me where she is!"
"She's in her room!" Souta was frightened out of his mind. He'd only come down to get a glass of water, but he'd been met with this, "First door at the top of the stairs."
The boy almost spun around by the force the demon created when he rushed passed, the water in his cup sloshing over the top. Koga was long gone and at the top of the stairs before anything could be done, speeding passed an unprepared woman in the hallway. He wrenched the door open with a force that threatened to break the hinges, his blue eyes drawn automatically to the young miko lying on the bed. In seconds he was at her side, standing over her with his hands on her shoulders, shaking her gently.
"Kagome!" he pleaded, "Kagome, wake up!"
The girl's eyes slowly opened, sending a wave of relief crashing over Koga. Overcome with his emotions, the wolf fell to his knees at her side, bowing his head.
"Koga?" her voice was groggy, soft and weak as it always was, "Koga, are you ok?"
"I'm fine," he thought he was going to break down right there, his mind to scattered to form a complete sentence, "I'm sorry... I just wanted... thank god you're safe."
But his relief didn't last too long before he smelt the salt of her tears.
"Kagome, what's wrong?" He was quickly back up to his feet, his hands grasping hers.
He was met with the same blank stare that haunted his nightmares, the girl a million miles away. She looked exactly the same as the day he had found her tied in the back of that castle, broken and lost. It seemed as if the reality of what had happened was crashing down on her, surfacing from the uncertainty of her dreams.
He found himself sitting on the edge of the raised bed seconds later, cradling her in his embrace.
"They're... dead..." her tears could be felt landing on his bare shoulder, "They're all dead..."
His arms tightened around her. The pain was crashing down on him as well. His family members had died around him and he had abandoned his pack, getting as far away from them as possible because if he had returned he would have doomed them all. And he even felt the loss for Kagome's friends. Even for InuYasha...
"They died fighting. Protecting what they loved and what they believed," he said, trying to find comfort in the sorrow.
"...Kumo!" Kagome was suddenly out of his embrace, staring into his eyes with her terror filled emotion, "Kumo! We left him!"
"He'll be fine," Koga pulled her back into his embrace, "Kyoko has him."
"I told him... I'd never leave him..."
"You didn't have a choice." Koga comforted, "Kyoko will raise him as if he was her own, and he'll grow to be strong."
She sighed, feeling the weight of the world on her shoulders. She was tired. Tired of being tired and tired of being sad. She just wanted to find some peace. She just wanted to find something that didn't make her hurt.
"C'mon," Koga was lying her down, separating her from him gently, "You need some rest."
She nodded sadly, pulling the covers back over her.
"Stay with me," she pleaded softly, looking up into his blue eyes.
And in seconds she found that he was under the covers with her, holding her close in his embrace. For the briefest of moments she felt that the world was alright in his arms, that all the sadness she had been feeling had disappeared. In his arms, her friends were still alive. She was still in the caves, her son never too far out of her reach, and Kyoko and her son were there to help. Ginta and Hakkaku were still laughing together and practicing their idiocy, and somewhere Sesshomaru walked proudly with his two wards following close behind him. In his arms she didn't see Naraku.
When they were together, the world somehow seemed right.
A/N: Short chapter. Things will start happening again when the next chapter gets posted. And, as always, Read and Review!