DISCLOSURE STATEMENT: This author has no financial or non-financial relation nor do they possess any right to "Inuyasha: A Feudal Fairy Tale" franchise. Full ownership of all characters is the sole intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi.
Wherever You Will Go
New Years Day was supposed to be about new beginnings. About making resolutions. About trying something new. It had become a tradition after the first year. On New Years Day she would try the well. She would try ten new ways of getting the well to reopen. In the six years that had passed, she had managed to graduate from college, gotten a new job, gotten her own apartment...
No matter where she was though she had always updated the laminated note tacked securely on the well-house door. Just in case he was able to come through when she wasn't there. Not once during all that time did she believe the well would never re-open. There was just some trick to it. She believed there was something she was missing so thoroughly that she majored in psychics. Surely modern day science would have some type of answer.
It hadn't.
Kagome let out a steadying breath as she looked down into the well and shrugged her shoulders determinedly. There was one thing she hadn't thought to try in all this time to get the well to reopen although why was beyond her. After extensive research through the records at the shrine, she'd found the secret to making sacred arrows and had constructed a bow with the help of one of the history PhD students at her university. The young woman had been over the moon someone had asked her since apparently not many people cared about her thesis on spiritual men and women of old.
And now it had come down to this.
Despite the passage of time, she had kept up archery on the off chance she was able to get through. With a practiced hand, she let out a steadying breath before trying to amp herself up with some medieval orders that helpful student had taught her. She let out a long steadying breath.
"Ready your bow."
In.
"Nock."
Out.
"Mark."
In.
"Draw."
Out.
"Loose!"
The arrow flew with expert precision and Kagome jumped into the overwhelming bright pink light...
And hit the ground hard.
"Motherfucker," Kagome swore softly as she cradled her wounded knee and shuddered, "Damn, I thought that one might've worked."
Smiling softly and shaking her head, she mused Inuyasha would've been proud of her word choices. She'd loosened up quite a bit in these past six years. Cursing having become therapeutic in handling her frustration. At least now she knew why his potty mouth was so rampant. And studies had actually shown that people who cursed and used filler words were more intelligent. It just solidified what she already knew. Inuyasha was more intelligent than he let on.
"Okay, next thing."
She never realized the arrow wasn't there.
It was just another ordinary day that passed by without incident. Another day watching a very subdued Inuyasha milling about the village delivering firewood and extra meat to the various huts. He had changed dramatically in the past year. Barely speaking unless spoken to. Spent massive amounts of time staring at nothing. His appetite had decreased to an alarming degree although it served to get rid of what little fat was on his already lean body. His face and abs more chiseled and defined which escaped his notice but not the notice of literally every unmarried woman under the age of seventeen and even a few of the married ones. Their obvious attempts to flirt were missed for a variety of reasons.
Reason number one was that the poor boy had never really been flirted with in the first place. Not really. Kagome wasn't the flirty type. Kikyo either. So when the young women would come up to him and bat their eyes with a coy smile, it completely went over his head. The lip stains did nothing. The rouge did nothing. When they tried to goade him into taking walks or eating the food they brought him he just thought they were taking pity on him. More than one teenager with a crush had been frustrated by his denseness.
Not that it would've mattered. He had no interest in the first place. Reason number two was what he knew the last time he tried the well. His heart was too broken and too numb to love someone else. He just didn't have it in him.
Leaping atop Kaede's hut, he rested his chin on his hand and stared despondently in the direction of the well. At least the urge to try the well again had faded. The very thought made him ill anymore. He was resigned to his fate.
A sudden beacon of pink light had him blinking rapidly and sitting up a little straighter. That scent of the sudden wind that played with a few tendrils of his hair nearly had his heart beating out of his chest.
It couldn't be. Not after all this time.
His breath began to come out in unsteady pants as he trained his ears forward. Waiting to head in that direction until he could hear Kagome's voice. It was highly possible he had finally gone insane. Dilated amber eyes watched as the light slowly faded and then he heard footsteps rushing up the base of the hut.
"What are you still doing here?" Miroku called up to him as he pointed in the direction of the well, "Go!"
"I...I don't..." Inuyasha breathed as he jumped down with effortless grace and turned wide panicked eyes towards the monk.
"Listen to me," Miroku ordered firmly as he gripped his friends shoulders, "If I never see you again, nothing would make me happier for it would mean you and Kagome-sama found each other again. Now go."
"I can't...I can't do it again..." Inuyasha tried miserably as his face crumpled, "What...what if..."
"You may not be able to feel it but I feel a disturbance in the well," Miroku urged as he shook his friend lightly, "It is open, Inuyasha. I'm sure of it and I would never lie to you. Now go!"
"Okay, so holy water didn't work. Man, I thought maybe a different religion would..." Kagome muttered to herself as she looked over the small piece of note paper and scowled, "No that was a stupid one. I'm not even counting it. Let's see. Let's see. Ah, electromagnet. Electro...ah hell, I left it at the apartment. That's okay. There's still daylight. I can just...oomph..."
It happened so quickly that she didn't have time to react. A strong pair of arms wrapped her around her middle and next thing she knew, she was rolling on the ground surrounded by heartbreakingly familiar red cloth. A woodsy, very male scent. The sounds of slightly manic laughter rank in her ears and it took her all of two seconds to associate the voice with the unfamiliar sound. She never had heard Inuyasha laugh, truly laugh, before.
Grinning wider than she ever had in her life, she turned her head to look up at him and two clawed hands gripped the sides of her face as hungry lips descended aggressively onto her own.
