so here is chapter 29, do enjoy. Sorry this one is a bit on the short side, but I'm starting to have trouble with this fic and I am enjoying my new one more.

Chapter 29 – Kicking and screaming

Kagome walked humming a rather tuneless song. She did not know whether it existed or whether she had made it up to break the silence. One thing she did know was that it sounded awful, but she kept humming anyway. The silence of the forest around her was eerie and a little frightening now she was all alone. The wind blew through the trees and the birds sang in the trees while little animals scurried through the underbrush, but still she hummed. While making noise she assured herself she was going to be okay. She did not know why humming assured her so, but it chased away the fear that accompanied isolation.

Sesshoumaru had left her about a mile back and sped back to the castle in his true from to get there quicker and not be killed by his father. If he suspected Sesshoumaru had a part to play in her disappearance then he may not hold back his claws, and this time she was not there to restrain him. Now she was by herself Kagome started cursing herself silently. Why had she asked Sesshoumaru to leave her so she could do this last stretch by herself – did it mean anything? It was not like this was some quest she had to complete on her own or anything like that. She just did not want to bring anymore pain to the people she grew to love.

She knew she was not in danger – that was not what was frightening her, she just did not like silences and being all by herself. Should a youkai come and threaten her, she knew that her miko powers were strong enough to send it packing, or just eradicate it completely if it presented a danger to her being. Her aura and scent were hidden at the moment though, she did not want to attract attention and kill unnecessarily. It was not fair on the youkai she would have to purify if she basically called to them.

As confident and powerful as she could be, there were some demons she could not face. The glacial face of a certain Taiyoukai with his trademark smirk popped into her mind. She felt a stab of pain in her chest that she knew was formed by guilt. She would not regret leaving him though; she had to go back to her own time. It was not like she was abandoning him while he needed her; she had waited until she had nursed him back to health. She had left him a letter explaining all of her feelings, and it turned out to be a very long letter in the end in the end. He was a good man deep down, he would accept it.

She did not need to face him right now; he would take her back to the castle, never let her out of his sight again, and would probably never forgive her for leaving him. She could not ask him to forgive her either, he was not that sort of person, all she could do was hope he came to understand in time why she did what she did enough to bear her no ill will. It may take him a long time to come to terms with the fact that she did not belong in this time, with him, she never did and never will. It may take decades for him to forgive her too, she had grown to like him a little, but as long as he did so eventually, that was all she asked for.

Suddenly, the bone eater's well came into view and she squealed in delight as she sprinted towards it. She had been here or about four months now and had grown close to so many people in that time too, namely to dogs, a cat and a fox. She would miss them, but it was not really goodbye, she looked forward to seeing them again, in the future. Of course, she could not say the same for Yamazaki or Touga; she did not know for sure whether she would see them once more. She hoped so, but everyone had their time to die, and if death had grabbed them and taken them to the otherworld, then obviously it was meant to be.

Yes, she would miss this time and the ones in it, but she missed her family and the ones in the feudal era even more. She had a quest to complete the jewel and she longed to see her friends and family again. Faces of everyone she knew flashed through her mind in front of her eyes, soon, she thought as the well loomed ever nearer, soon. Just before she reached it she slammed into a brick wall and fell over backwards, landing on the cold, hard forest floor. She rubbed her head with one hand as she cursed inconveniently placed walls. Then a thought hit her, there were no brick walls, or even just bricks at this point in time.

She looked up fearfully into the burning eyes of the Inutaisho. She gulped as her blood ran cold at the sight of his expression. He was definitely pissed, it seemed she was always having that effect on him, and this time it was not because she had run into him. She had a sense of déjà vu wash over her as she rubbed her bruised backside– this was how the whole crazy adventure had started; her sitting on the forest floor looking up at a demon who promptly claimed her. It was not exactly something she had wanted to happen again.

"Hey there. You're not meant to be awake so soon. Although it figured this is the exact point you reach me." She remembered saying words to that effect when this whole thing started too, 'figures this is the exact moment you manage to get down from the tree.'

All she received was a snarl in response. Yep, he was not happy, and her conversational tone was not doing much to help matters really.

"Are you feeling better now?"

"You left again, I would have thought you would have learnt after last time and stayed during the nights until I awoke and granted you permission to leave."

Kagome thought it in her best interests to try her best to not get angry. "I know I have said this before, but obviously I wasn't clear enough to imprint in your brain. I am my own person; it is time you learn that. However hard you try, and whatever you do, the only person I will ever belong to is me, and no one else. I am not a anyone's plaything, or anyone's pet, I am just Kagome and that is never going to change, whatever you may want."

She sighed as she looked at him, maybe this time she would finally get it through his thick skull. "I never accepted to be yours and I do not need your permission to do anything. If you care about me at all you will let me go."

"Nobody deserts pack."

"That may be true, but,"

"You are pack," he interrupted.

Great, now he was delusional, spouting anything to keep her where she did not belong. Damn Inus and their frickin' possessiveness.

"Listen Touga, I am honoured you think of me that way, but I really do not live her, I come from years and years away, and I have to go."

"You are pack, I would not mistake this, and an alpha knows his pack."

She did not know how to answer.

"I cannot trust you, Kagome. I thought I could leave you to yourself, but obviously I was wrong, you cannot be left, or your will run off and abandon pack."

"Touga, since when did I become pack?"

"You saved me; you brought me back to health. When I was in my demon form, you brought me back. You treat me and my son as equals and have earned our respect in return, yes, I respect you, and we accept you, which make you pack."

"Well then I'm sorry, but I've got to go, it's not really goodbye forever, I'm only leaving for a little while, but I will be back, I just do not belong here."

"You belong where you are needed. Home is not a place, it is not even a time, it is where you are needed, where your pack is."

"I have a pack, two in fact, my blood pack and my travelling companions. You talk to me about how I must not abandon pack, but you are forcing me to do just that."

"Those packs do not even exist yet. You owe no one else any obligations."

"I owe myself that. I miss them and want to go back to them. Please."

"Unacceptable, you will not leave me."

"Please Touga, I do not mean to abandon you, but I need to see my family."

"The West is your family now."

"Dismissing my own family by blood is not so easy," she argued.

"I have one more question for you."

"What?"

"Calmly, or kicking and screaming?"