A/N: This is the last chapter of Songs of the Heart. Thank you all for going on this journey with me.
Valse Sentimentale – Tchaikovsky
Miroku held back a laugh as he watched Kagome flutter around their modest home in nervous excitement. Today was the day that they would be going to visit her family for the first time in almost exactly five hundred years. Kagome had been stressing about this moment ever since she found out it would be happening, and it was highly amusing to watch her clean their home as if her family would be coming here to visit, instead of he and she heading to Higurashi shrine to visit them. His gorgeous little wife really was silly at times, but he adored that about her, and so would never complain. They would be leaving very soon indeed: in only about five minutes; but, as Miroku looked at the clock upon the wall, he decided that there was time enough for him to calm his lovely koishi down some.
Smiling, he walked over the large and top-of-the-line stereo system that was hooked up, not to their television, but to their CD player or their record player, whichever was in use at the moment, and turned it on. Miroku agreed with Kagome that vinyl was far superior in quality to CD's, so he decided to use it at this time – especially because the song he had in mind was one that Kagome tended to listen to any time she thought about meeting her family again, and so he was well familiar with the record and knew where to place the needle so it played the song he wished. It took very little time to rifle through their immense collection and find the record he was looking for, after which he placed it on the record player, hooked the stereo system up to it, and placed the needle where it needed to be on the spinning vinyl of the record.
As sound bloomed into his ears, he grabbed his wife and began dancing with her, smiling sweetly as the first strains of "Valse Sentimentale" by Tchaikovsky filled their home. Kagome smiled at him and they began to waltz around the living room.
The first sound was quietly plucked strings, before a slightly lonely and almost tense tune was started up by a single violin, with the counterpoint of more plucked strings beneath it. Miroku dipped Kagome as a few horns played a single note and lifted her up as more strings took up the tune, and he pulled her close for a kiss. She was giggling softly now, and he could not take the smile off of his own face even had he wanted to, which he did not. He adored dancing with Kagome, especially waltzes.
The violin slowed just for a time, before the music sped up and changed in tune, becoming something light hearted and happy, before it went back to the beginning of plucked strings, a single violin, and another violin playing yet another counterpoint for a short time. Then the tune changed again, yet again becoming sweet and almost joyous, so he spun her around and smoothly ended the spin with a dip, then bringing her up for a twirl. Kagome always told Miroku that he was a fantastic leader, and that it followed that he would lead well when dancing – he supposed she must be correct, since she never once faltered as he spun her around the room smoothly.
The song continued on, rising in happiness, which Kagome followed as always, smiling the entire time, before it slipped back into the beginning tune once more, and he twirled her around a second time, their feet smoothly gliding across the wooden floor as more strings played in their ears. Then the single violin played a rising trill, before the song ended on a few lovely, but bittersweet, notes.
Kagome smiled softly at him as he ended the dance, stepping into his open arms and embracing him happily. "Thank you, Roku. I needed that. I'm not too nervous any more – shall we head out?"
Miroku nodded and grabbed the keys from the hook beside the door as they slid into their shoes, stepped outside, locked the door behind them, and headed into the car. It was time to meet his in-laws.
Kagome had been nervous and almost terrified before her wonderful husband played exactly the perfect song to calm her down, and managed to calm her even more by dancing with her, which was always exciting to her. Kagome had always loved to dance, but had never learned how – until her new lease on life, that is. Miroku and Kagome had travelled for most of their lives, first around Japan, and then around the world. They had lived in Europe for quite a long period of time, and Kagome had learned many dances over there, both simple and complex, as well as having been able to see many of her favourite artists in concerts. It was enthralling, really, to have lived through history in such a way.
Of course, there had been those terrible wars, which she and Roku – Kagome having the foreknowledge about the wars enough to be able to know exactly when they needed to escape – had deftly avoided getting mired in. Life had been fun, although by no means had it been easy. However, her friends and family had made her life one worth living. They still did, in fact. Sesshōmaru-ni was a wealthy businessman who owned the land her shrine was on, as well as the forested area behind it, which was – although she had not known this growing up – actually a nature reserve, one of five he owned around the world. Shippō had a rather different job, travelling all over the world and making sure that yōkai and hanyō were safely disguised so they could blend in with human society without getting caught out. It kept him busy and used his extremely complicated illusions rather regularly.
Her son had had several families over the past four centuries, all of whom she still kept tabs on from afar, although he had not settled down with a mate as of yet. He might never, which Kagome was fine with – he was a kitsune, after all; variety was the name of the game for kitsune.
Her other children… Well. They had flourished, and she had descendants all over the world – literally all over the world, as her wonderful male couldn't keep his hands off of her and inevitably got her pregnant again once their children had grown into adults and had their own families. Their first family began shortly after she married him when she was sixteen, and they had had ten children over those first years, living in Edo as the resident miko and monk. Whenever one of them was called away to deal with a yōkai problem, the other stayed behind to watch over the children – most amusingly it had generally been her wonderful husband staying behind – and keep the village safe.
Not that there had been much necessity of that, as her wonderful ani-san had patrolled by Edo regularly, not only to visit her and teach Shippō those things that only a yōkai could teach him, but also to make sure the area was saturated with his yōki, declaring it under his protection and driving the majority of yōkai away because not a one of them wanted to get on Sesshōmaru-ni's bad side. Inuyasha aniki, on the other hand, had continued to live in the forest, going travelling for about four months every year just to meet up with friends and get a move on with his life. He had been given a new lease on it, one in which he was not rejected and constantly attacked, but a respected figure and accepted by those who knew him. He eventually mated Shiori, the bat hanyō they had met at the beginning of their journey together, and they had lived a long life together, dying only half a century ago.
A hand touched her arm, and Kagome was pulled from her musings as they pulled up to the shrine. Nervousness bloomed in her chest before Miroku kissed her, and she smiled sweetly at him as they left the car and began the trek up the many steps leading to her old home. She placed a hand on her stomach, smiling again, and Roku caught the gesture at the top of the steps, asking her, "Are you going to tell them?"
She nodded, and he chuckled softly. "I bet your family will be thrilled, koishi."
Kagome did too. Mama would be so happy to know she had a grandchild on the way.
Giving her husband a loving look, she knocked on the door of the house she had lived in during her first year of adventuring in the past, and smiled vividly as her mama opened the door and stared at her in shock. She had a story to tell – and a family to catch up with.
Her life was amazing. And to think, it had all begun with a song.