Night fell, a thick blanket over the land. Creatures too frightened to be seen in the light of day took the opportunity before full darkness caught them to forage for food. The village too began to settle for what would hopefully be an eventless night. Neither man nor beast noticed the hanyou that moved among them, his path set and determined.
His step was unhurried though; there was no rush now that he was out of the hut. Shippou had detained Kagome, unknowingly giving InuYasha the window and time needed to see to the well. The kitsune would side with Kagome once he discovered InuYasha had used his tears as an excuse to trap her in their time, but in the end it was for the best.
The Goshinboku Tree loomed overhead as he passed it, its leaves dancing in the sudden breeze that had picked up through the forest. For a moment he paused to study it, the place where it had all begun. Kikyou's magic arrow imprisoning him, Kagome's innocent touch freeing him; the dead miko's demand that he honor promises made long ago, Kagome's tears at his betrayal.
That's what it was and he knew it fully now. Hojo had made him realize that. They'd hurt one another deeply, and though he was sure, given time, his own heart would trust again, he could only hope hers could too. Hope and pray.
It was a simple jump to the well from here, but knowing it would be one of the last times he'd ever go near the well site again, InuYasha walked. He was within view of it when that same breeze turned violent, as though sensing his intent. Leaves and small branches rushed in strong gusts, picking up dirt here and there.
Raising an arm to shield his eyes, InuYasha faintly heard her voice over the blowing. Kagome was calling him, coming closer. She must have figured it out, that he'd gone for the well, that he would keep her here. It was now or never, and he knew she would make good her earlier threat and leave. It had to be destroyed.
Cracking his knuckles, InuYasha launched towards the well, one arm raised to slash the wood and earth. He was within ten yards when Kagome broke into the glade.
"InuYasha! NO!!" Her shout was lost in the wind, a swirling cylinder of the forest with the well at its eye.
He knew she was there, had heard the infliction of her voice though not the words themselves. The well was only a swipe away, the storm be damned, but he'd never make it. InuYasha knew, just as he felt the ward necklace gain weight as it had before, that the well would protect its mistress.
Now he knew what it was that had kept him from reaching Kagome that morning, the morning he began to lose her. The magic of the well, Kagome's magic, was protecting her heart, and in this case itself to some extent.
His body slammed into the ground, as though he'd been sat, but the force didn't relent so he concentrated on his breathing. All around him the debris caught in the well's wind tunnel fell to the ground. Next silence set in, and still he was caught to the ground.
Kagome starred in shocked amazement. She hadn't even said SIT, but he was down. And the weather, talk about strange. For the first time since seeing InuYasha with Kikyou, she began to wonder if there wasn't some deeper evil responsible for everything.
"Can you hear me?" He mumbled. Her brows quirked in confusion but he wasn't facing her so he wouldn't see that.
Coming to stand over him, Kagome tilted her head. "Yes. Why wouldn't I?"
"Last time I went hoarse screaming to you and ..."
"Last time?!?" She knelt next to him, able to see his eyes and so he could see her expression. "When..."
"The morning after you saw me with Kikyou," his gaze shifted from her face to avoid the anger that would probably be there. He'd had a chance to tell her earlier and hadn't. "I went back to explain and you were with him. I thought he'd pinned you to the tree, and was going to kill him to free you, but the ward stopped me." He attempted to shrug his shoulders but it was hard to do pinned to the ground. "I yelled alot but you didn't hear, just cried on his shoulder and walked away."
The forest's silence descended for a moment again. He chanced a look up to her face and was momentarily stunned at what he saw. Tears, two tracks already on her cheeks and more pooling in her eyes, but a small smile played on her lips.
"You came for me?" She whispered the words, and though he doubted she expected an answer, he nodded yes.
"I meant to tell you the other night but it got away from me."
In a characteristically Kagome move she bent over and hugged him. It was awkward and a little dusty, but a true hug nonetheless. He struggled to turn and hold her in his arms but it wasn't to be.
Cursing the magic that held him to the ground, InuYasha used all his might to begin pushing up and away from the well. Kagome released him and watched as the hanyou was able to regain his feet by moving just a foot back from the well. Her eyes widened in wonder at the power locked within the well beyond its capacity as a travel gate.
"Amazing," she said in a soft voice, looking down at her own hands in wonder. "What makes it do that? I mean, it was fine earlier..."
"Maybe," InuYasha finished dusting himself off. "I didn't get this close to the well then, otherwise I might have taken off his head." He mumbled the last part under his breath and then winced. It was a thought he hadn't meant to voice aloud.
The hanyou was fully prepared to take a verbal beating from Kagome for saying something against Hojo, but the girl was still studying her hands. She was thinking he realized, contemplating their situation and a way to solve it. The previous night he'd asked if things could go back to normal, and standing there, Kagome and him together trying to fathom out a problem or regain something they'd lost, it was almost normal. He just wished he could touch her.
"It must be the arrow," she exclaimed after a few full minutes.
"The arrow?" He was still a little lost in his own thoughts.
With a slight blush she nodded, "The one I stabbed in the tree. It must be what's keeping you from destroying the well... what kept you from reaching me that morning." Her mind drifted to that scene, the feelings that had been rioting through her, and the way Hojo comforted her. It struck her as strange now that he'd been there, a valiant knight to sooth her aching heart and attempts to mend what InuYasha had broken. It seemed too convenient.
"I'm going to go release you," she said, rising to her feet and turning to the well. He reached a hand to stop her but she evaded his grasp and InuYasha stumbled to his knees when he took a step towards the well to correct the overbalance.
"NO!! Don't go, Kagome!" InuYasha moved back again, regaining his feet. If she didn't come back to him he had no way of reaching her. "You can't go alone, it's too dangerous."
Kagome cocked her head to the side and gave him her best don't-pull-that-macho-crap-with-me look. "Then what do you suggest we do? We can't leave things the way they are." He opened his mouth to respond and she cut him off, "No, wait, don't say anything yet, okay?"
Sighing, she rubbed her temples mildly. What to say and how to phrase it, Kagome thought.
"This was a royal mess and a half, InuYasha," she began, pausing to gather her thoughts. "But if you're not able to fight with the freedom you need to get around, then we'll never be able to finish the Shikon-no-Tama."
He was beyond caring about the jewel and not a second away from telling her that, when she drew another breath and beat him to it.
"Plus, I really need to talk to my family and let them know I'm going to be okay, and if I don't go back now then it'll just wait until we need more supplies and they'll be even more worried by then, and you know the tree is not a dash from the well." She gestured to the Goshinboku where it grew behind him, opening her mouth to continue.
He raised both hands to stop her, "Alright, okay, okay... I get the picture." Sighing once, he looked at her with his best puppy dog eyes. "Just come here first."
Kagome swallowed with uncertainty. "Please don't lie to me now, InuYasha. I need you to promise if I come over there you won't grab me and fly off somewhere."
"I promise," he said, serious eyes never leaving hers.
Slipping carefully off the well rim, Kagome walked to him. She came to stand exactly in front of him, their bodies close to touching, and looked directly into his face. So much emotion swirled in his eyes, tension radiated from his form, but he didn't move to hold her, didn't touch her at all. She wanted him to grab her, Kagome realized, or push her away, but to make a decision somehow or another and not to stand there and look at her in this way. Anything but this way.
"Come back to me, Kagome," was all he said in a voice deepened with passion, restraint, and love. He couldn't say it yet, was still not able, but he knew it and so did she.
She stepped away before she did something like kiss him or touch him in any way. Kagome stood over the well, looking down into its depths and felt the reality beneath the illusion. "I have to, InuYasha," she climbed on the rim and looked back to him over her shoulder. "I still love you."