~Chapter Thirteen~

Reunited

"Kagome."

Kagome stopped dead in her tracks. Was she hearing things? She'd had a long day at work, perhaps in her exhaustion she was hallucinating. She'd imagined that voice so many times... she was afraid to look up, and have it be her imagination once again.

But she had to. She had to look. Slowly, she lifted her eyes to the figure that stood twenty feet from her, gazing at her with a scowl.

She dropped her bag, her hands flying to cover her mouth as tears sprung to her eyes. Long white hair, sharp golden eyes, bright red haori and hakama pants. His feet were bare, his ears visible. It was really Inuyasha.

"Inu...yasha...?" She asked, her voice cracking a little as she took a hesitant step towards him. He looked just as tired as she was... he looked a little ill. But she didn't care right now. She could only stare up at him as a tear tracked down her face.

He couldn't believe he was standing here, looking at her in the flesh for the first time in months. How often had he imagined this moment, this encounter? He never dreamed it would be only months after he had lost her; he thought he would be standing here, having lived through five hundred years to see her. But he hadn't. He had crossed time for her.

Without preamble, he grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her, pulled her in tight, held onto her like he was terrified that she would slip away from him again. He dropped his face, pressed his cheek against her temple, inhaled her, took her in, memorized her. She was so real, so perfect right here, like she belonged. He could feel her little hands bunch in his haori top, her face press into the fabric and all was suddenly right in his world.

"I'm… I'm sorry," he told her. He had worked over what he would say to her when he saw her again. He practiced it for hours, rolled it around and around his head. And yet, all that effort blew away on a gentlest breath of wind. She rattled him and tied his tongue up, "I…"

'Tell her you love her, baka, that you want her in your life,' his youkai demanded.

But he couldn't. Somewhere between his brain and his mouth the connection was lost. And he didn't have the patience to try and link back to fix it.

"I… I need you. You're my best friend, Kagome and I need you around," Gods help him, he was terrible at saying what was on his mind. That had been hard enough. How on Earth was he ever going to tell her he… that he loved her?

'You are so stupid…' his youkai mumbled.

"Inuyasha, I need you too," she said quietly. Best friends… the term lingered like a tinge of sour in the back of her throat, and yet, best friends was better than not having him. She was content with that if it meant he was at least in this time plane with her.

"I've missed you... I'm sorry I yelled at you," she continued, sniffling back her tears as she stepped back to look up at him, to memorize his face with her eyes. "My temper got away from me..." she said mulishly.

"How...how did you get the well open...?" Kagome asked after a moment, reaching down to pick up her bag.

She looked up at him and he touched her face, wiped her stray tears away. He hated it when she cried, first that he didn't really know how to deal with a female's tears, and secondly that when she cried, it meant that she was upset, whether she was mad or sad, it didn't matter. He didn't like her being upset.

"Uh, well..." he took her bag from her and slung it over his shoulder, holding onto the strap, "I didn't... the well isn't open..." he gave her a guilty look before shuffling his feet a little, "I stole the jewel again... but I used it to make a wish. So Midoriko brought me here like I asked... and uh, I'm sorta stuck here with you now..." though, his tone sounded like he didn't mind at all being stuck here with her, despite his language choice.

They had started walking back to the shrine, which wasn't all that far away.

"So the jewel is whole... that must be why the well closed..." Kagome murmured, walking next to him quietly.

He noticed that she was walking slowly and carefully. With a quick movement, he scooped her up, "Can't do anything without me, geez," he grumbled, typical Inuyasha.

She smirked at him and slapped his chest playfully, letting her hand rest there for a minute. Her expression sobered a little.

"I'm sad that I won't get to see the others again..." Kagome murmured as she stared at her hand, "I would have liked to have said goodbye..."

"Well, see, about that..." he started slowly, taking the stairs up to the shrine two at a time, "They uh... they wouldn't let me come here without them..." he shouldered open the door into the house and placed her on her feet.

They were hardly in the door long enough to draw breath when a ball of brown fur came barrel-assing over to Kagome, launching himself at her and wailing, "Kagome!" Shippou cried, burying his face in her shoulder, "We've missed you!"

Miroku smiled at her and from the living room, Kohaku turned around and gave her a shit-eating grin before yelling at the video games again.

"How was work, dear?" Mama Higurashi asked, her fingers dancing over her lips as she bit back her humor.

Kagome stared in shock at Miroku, Kohaku, and Sango, and at the little fox nestled into her arms. They were here. For good.

Tears misted her eyes.

"I've missed you all too." She told him, glancing at Inuyasha, and then back to her mother. Happiness was making her light headed. She walked slowly towards the house as she absorbed the information that these people from the feudal era had come forward 500 years for her.

"You guys are amazing!" She told him, hugging Shippou tightly. Sango smiled and shrugged, saying, "We heard so much about this world, and we would rather be together than without you."

"Well I'm really glad..." Kagome said.

"Sango and Miroku will be sleeping in the guest house until we can figure things out for them. Kohaku and Sota will be sharing a room. Shippou can sleep in your room, dear." Mama Higurashi told her as she finished setting down the food on the table. They were ready for dinner, and it was set for everyone.

"Where will Inuyasha sleep?" Kagome asked, glancing back at the half-demon as she slowly sat down at the table, feeling like if she moved too fast, everyone would disappear.

"Wherever he wants," Mama Higurashi said with a smile. "Sota, Kohaku, turn off the video games, and come to dinner." She added over her shoulder, turning to get the rice.

Sango led Miroku to the table, sitting down. Everyone was looking around at all of the modern appliances with aw, and Shippou was absolutely in love with the cat.

Kagome smiled, picking up her chopsticks.

It was very early in the morning when the phone rang. It rang and it rang until finally, Kagome answered it.

"Miko," came a deep voice from the other end, "Give the phone to my idiot baka brother. I can smell his putrid half-breed scent from across this god-forsaken city."

Inuyasha's eyes opened slowly. He could hear the conversation very clearly on the phone and if he wasn't mistaken, he recognized that voice like a buried nightmare.

A/N:

Well, nice little cliff-hanger for my fellow readers.

Inuyasha and Co belong to Rumiko Takahashi. The script is mine.

Credits:

Kagome, Sango: Goldensomething

Inuyasha, Miroku, Koga: Jesachi

Sub-characters: Combined effort