Paralyzer
by Unwritten Bliss
A Drabble Series

Title: They Never Last Forever
Characters: Sesshomaru and Kagome
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters, or the ideas, of Rumiko Takahashi.
Notes: 'Goodbye' theme in way early December. Woah, it won first on that prompt. Coolness. I wonder how many of these I'm gonna be able to post tonight before having to go to bed? –U.B.

They Never Last Forever:

Kagome stared into the mouth of the old Bone Eater's Well, into her future, into her past, into everything. The old well had been the cause of the whole thing, hadn't it? She had fought for three long years, and it was finally the end—the end of everything; of the present, of what could have been. Her hands tightened around the lip of the well, the aged wood creaking under her grip.

"Is this it then," she asked it softly; "this is what you wanted to teach me?"

After the final battle with Naraku, Inuyasha had left. He had had a destiny to complete, a promise to fulfill. He had gone to Kikyo, and Kagome hadn't seen him since. She had said her goodbyes to him with a firm chin. She had known the time was coming when the night before the final battle he said:

"Tomorrow, whatever happens, don't come after me."

She missed him greatly, and at the thought of the hanyou, her blue eyes filled with tears. "Is it that? To learn the pain of love lost?"

She remembered when she had come to Sango when she had awakened that morning. Her friend had been cooking, and she seemed to know what was coming before Kagome had even opened her mouth.

"You're leaving then?" Sango had said.

Kagome had nodded her head and Sango had stood, facing her adopted sister with tears in her eyes.

"There's nothing holding me back now," the young miko had explained, her heart breaking, "My place isn't here."

In that moment, Kagome's heart had gone out to her sister. The young demon slayer had buried her face in her hands before throwing her arms around Kagome's shoulders.

"Thank you, Kagome," Sango had whispered in her ear.

"What for?" Kagome had sniffled, gripping Sango tightly.

"For bringing my faith back," Sango had explained as she pulled away from her friend.

Kagome remembered saying goodbye to Miroku at lunch time. The monk had been setting up the meal and when he had spotted Kagome at the edge of the clearing watching him, he had smiled knowingly and come in front of her.

"Kagome-chan," the monk had greeted warmly.

"I'm sorry," Kagome had said immediately and the monk's eyes had widened in surprise, "I'm sorry for everything."

Miroku had nodded in understanding and looked at his cursed hand in contemplation. "Don't worry yourself over it, Kagome-chan," he had said as he looked back at her with a grin, "I've accepted my fate. Besides, I don't believe I'm alone anymore." And he had looked over his shoulder at the demon-slayer cooking at the fire and looked back at Kagome meaningfully.

Kagome had laughed sharply, wiping her tears from her eyes and hugged him lightly before pulling away.

And the young miko remembered saying farewell to her adoptive son. It had been one of the most painful of all, watching as the kit she had patted her on the hand and told her:

"Kagome-nee-chan, it's alright. I understand. I love you."

Kagome supposed she should have apologized to Sesshomaru for his arm, should have said goodbye to Rin, and should have beat the toad one last time. But Sesshomaru and his companions were often aloof somewhere else and she had neither the energy nor the time for finding them.

She snorted. She had no time at all. Time was a mystery to her – just as much as Sesshomaru was. So detached, but she would often catch him gazing at her with a look of utter confusion. As if he were trying to figure out the enigma that was Higurashi Kagome.

As she released her grip on the old well she bent down to pick up her backpack. "Well, that's it then."

"Miko."

The voice, so cold and distant, made Kagome jump and she spun around to face the taiyoukai. "Sesshomaru!" she exclaimed in surprise as wiped the last stray tears from her cheeks, "What are you doing here?"

"Hn." Sesshomaru tucked a loose strand of silky white hair behind his ear and walked up beside her to peer into the well.

Kagome looked over her shoulder back into the mysterious darkness of the portal before looking up to meet Sesshomaru's gaze.

"You are going back to your era?" he guessed. When Kagome nodded, the powerful youkai peered back into the darkness. "When will you be returning?"

Kagome sighed and pushed herself away from the well and Sesshomaru, turning instead toward her large yellow backpack to put it onto her shoulders. "I'm not."

"You are not leaving?"

Kagome closed her eyes tightly. She wanted desperately to say she wanted to stay—she wanted so much to have a reason to stay. "No, I'm not coming back."

Sesshomaru was quiet a long time and finally he stepped away from the well to gaze at the priestess in front of him. "You are needed here, miko," he said.

"No, I'm really not. Everyone's got their happy ending, Sesshomaru; it's time I get mine, too." She stared at her pack blankly, "Besides, I have no reason to stay. And I don't belong here. If I were to stay…well, the past is not a place for a girl like me."

Sesshomaru turned his face to the sky and watched the sunset's flame light across the sky, turning it different shades of orange and purple. "This is regarding the hanyou, then?"

Kagome snorted softly and ran a hand through her dirty hair, brushing it away from her face as she glanced back at Sesshomaru sadly. "I never thought I'd say it, but you're very talkative, Sesshomaru." She bent down and began to rummage through her pack, making sure she had all her necessary belongings.

"Hn," was his only reply for a while, turning his face back up at the flame-tinted sky.

Finally Kagome faced the taiyoukai with a strained smile. "Well, I guess this is goodbye."

"Only for a diminutive time," Sesshomaru seemed to promise as he stared down at the small miko, the one he had grown attached to since joining his brother's small band of humans.

"No," Kagome said, choking on her voice, "When I get home, I'm closing the portal. Kaede…she…Kaede showed me how a miko might close a portal. I'm not a real priestess, but I can do that much."

His eyes narrowed slightly and for a moment, just a moment Kagome thought she had angered him in some way. But then his facial features changed, turning back into stone, and he looked away from her.

"Goodbye, Sesshomaru-sama," she breathed his title as she bowed to him quietly, the first sign of respect she had ever given him. And for some reason, he didn't like it; he didn't want her to give him respect.

"We will see each other soon, miko," he told her.

As Kagome bent down and hefted the pack onto her shoulder she laughed bitterly and swung a leg over the lip of the well. "Please," she said softly, "just this once," she looked back up at him with a sad smile, "Please say my name."

When he did not acknowledge her, she nodded her head in understanding, "Goodbye, Sesshomaru-sama." Because of course he wouldn't say her lowly human name; it was beneath him.

So as she swung her other leg over and jumped into the well, tears stung her eyes as she heard, "I will see you soon, Kagome."

The tears floated above her head as she cried, floating between time and space for that moment. And she cried.

She cried for Inuyasha. She cried for Sango. She cried for Miroku. She cried for Shippo. She cried for Rin.

But most of all, she cried for Sesshomaru.

And as her feet finally touched ground, the tears that had floated above her head finally fell around her like glistening silver raindrops and she fell to her knees.

She sat there for a long time, and when the tears finally stopped, she placed her hands against the ground and willed her miko powers from her heart, through her arms, down to her fingertips and suddenly the well glowed brightly in a purple light.

And when it vanished, Kagome was no longer sitting inside a portal.

She was sitting inside an old broken well inside her family's shrine, and she stood on shaking legs. The magic was gone; the static feeling that used to raise the hair on her arms – that delicious feeling of warmth – was gone. And she cried.

She dropped her backpack to the dirt covered ground and began to climb her way back up to the mouth of the well. As she climbed, she peered down into the well from over her shoulder, her tears stinging her cheeks.

Finally her hand gripped the railing of the well and as she hefted one leg over, he spoke.

"Hello, Kagome."

She looked over at him in shock, and when she saw Sesshomaru standing there inside the well house, casually dressed in a suit with his silver hair tied into a ponytail, she cried harder. He took three long strides toward her and cupped her face between two big hands and made her look at him.

"Didn't this Sesshomaru tell you?" he said his voice husky with what seemed like repressed love, "Only for a diminutive time." And as she smiled up at him, still crying, he finally captured the lips he had been dreaming of for five hundred years with his and kissed her with all the love he possessed.

He had waited five hundred years for this – This one moment, to prove to her that she was needed. He had waited five hundred years. And it had been five hundred years too long.

As he rested his forehead against hers, his golden eyes took in her beautiful blues a ghost of a smile danced across his lips at her flushed expression, "Did you not know, Kagome?" he breathed, "Goodbyes never last forever."