The Passage of Time
Chapter 2: Reunions
…O8O…
Truthfully she didn't know what she had expected. The aging wolf had refused to tell her much after she told him about her 'time travel' reason for being in the sengoku jidai. It was her path to follow and he'd have nothing to do with changing that.
Kagome resorted to begging of course, and the old man who was Kouga obviously still held something of a soft spot for his former love, and caved a little.
"If I told you anything I might end up changing my own future, and despite the lack of your presence." He gave a polite bow of his head to assure her no insult was intended. "I am a happy old wolf." He gave her his signature wolfish grin before flipping the hanyou boy trying to sneak up behind him.
"Try to out-wit your old grand'da, eh? I may not have those Shikon shards anymore, but I'm still pretty damn fast!" He proved this by tripping the boy with his own momentum after a failed attempt at tackling Kouga.
"If you have a grandson I can assume you're happily married… errr, mated." Kagome corrected quickly. She'd perhaps been too long around humans that she'd forgotten youkai manners? "Do I get to know who the lucky girl is?"
"Ha!" Kouga let out the almost barked laugh while holding Kuroga's head under one arm despite the boy's growled protests. "She's off hunting… Sometimes I wonder how she adapts to this strange metal world…" Kagome almost sensed the 'back in my day' speech coming on. She'd heard it often enough from her own grandfather, and the audible groan from the pinned Kuroga verified her theory.
The wolf-youkai gave a snort of amusement, but refrained from telling tales. He rose from where he was, and escorted Kagome to the lip ravine. "I can't tell you anymore. Please visit any time, Kagome." The dismissal was not rude, but his tone left no room for argument, and the girl left for what she felt wouldn't be the last time, but what he knew would be.
…O8O…
Souta simply stared at the figure in red for a few long minutes as they took each other in. Inuyasha wondered in awe at the changes in the place he thought he knew. Time had worn it slightly, and the boy before him was almost a young man now. How? Only two weeks had passed, so how was this all possible?
Souta swallowed his fear and confusion, and took an angry step forward. "Why'd you do it?" He demanded, scrapping the bottom of the barrel for every last ounce of courage he had to face the hanyou. Inuyasha merely looked confused
"Why'd you seal the well?"
The words cut into his dazed confusion like water on a sleeping man. "Me? But she sealed the well!" Something about the hatred in that once adoring tone made Inuyasha wary. Two weeks was not enough time for all of this to have changed… That meant… Oh, Kami.
It had always confused him somewhat that Kagome was nearly five hundred years in the future, but whenever his brain started to hurt thinking about it, he'd put it aside. Something he couldn't do with the girl herself. This new predicament made his head swim. Two weeks had passed for him, but how much longer had it been for her?
Recognition, and a sort of slow understanding inched its way across Souta's face. "Y-You mean it hasn't been two years for you?" He said shakily, that courage he had managed to muster a moment before fading fast.
"Two years?" His voice was barely above a whisper, and his eyes grew wide as he took in all the implications of that simple statement. Every possibility ran through his head until it didn't just swim in chaos, but drowned in it. Somehow an equally shocked Souta managed to get the hanyou inside to his mother, hoping she would know how to sort this out.
For some reason all Souta could think about was how he was going to explain this to Kagome. He was no longer innocent of his sister's pain, and he knew that she'd just recently recovered from the staggering loss of the hanyou. What was Kagome going to do?
…O8O…
Kagome returned home to utter and complete chaos. As soon as she stepped in the front door she almost wished she'd stayed in America. Her friends were practically screaming, though about what she had no idea, and then she saw him: The center of the chaos, and trying to escape from the girls asking question after question.
"Inu…Yasha?"
He caught her scent amongst the other's, taking in every nuance of change, and the meaning behind it. She said his name, a whisper not even he would have heard had he not been attentive for its presence. He tried desperately to assimilate it all, but his attempts were cut short by Kagome's downward plunge. He moved with blinding speed, and caught the girl before she hit the ground. She… fainted?
It didn't work…
…O8O…
They all felt the changes as surely as they saw them. The memory of the cheerful girl they knew had not dimmed at all in the short time she'd been gone. This Kagome was different, tangibly so. Her eyes held the look of someone who'd known madness, and staved it off, though not without cost. She'd grown, blossomed, no longer the girl, but almost a woman. There was an independent strength, and commanding air that had never been Kagome's, not before…
This new Kagome lasted all of a few hours. She broke down rather quickly after being reunited with her long lost friends, and recounting to them what had happened to her over the past two years. They listened with interest at her tales of the demons who attacked her, and politely asked no questions when she skimmed over her three attempts at dating. Before anyone was ready she was weeping and hugging everyone(earning a certain monk a good beating from both Kagome and Inuyasha). The cold removal melted away, and if perhaps that confidence and strength seemed to fail her as well, she was none the wiser.
For the next few days the group was inclined to readjust. Kaede was endlessly pleased with Kagome's growing skill, and managed to get the girl to confess she had had some training in the present, though she refused to reveal the identity of her sensei. Then of course, came the 'girl talk.' Kagome and Sango planned an outing to the hot-springs, which was interrupted by Inuyasha chasing after Miroku and everyone ending up in the water, which earned each male his punishment.
"So, what caused the problems with these other boys?" Sango asked carefully. She herself didn't think that anyone could date that many men in the span of a few months(Kagome admitted that she had mourned her friends long over a year before even attempting to exit her social exile).
"The first one I got to the third date with…" She said with some chagrin. "Before the fact that I still wasn't over Inuyasha became apparent…" She said, lowering her voice as if she somehow thought he'd hear all the way from where she'd left him in that sit-dug hole.
Sango gave an 'I see' sort of puff before daring to go on. "And the next?"
Kagome let out a gusty sigh. "He really was a nice guy…" She admitted, somewhat reluctantly. "But… we never fought; everything was always flowers and candy." She smiled sheepishly. "It may sound weird that way, but what I mean is… there was no passion." The most affection he showed outside of a bouquet was a kiss on the cheek…
She saved Sango the breath of asking about the last and skipped right into it. "The last actually came close to working out. I thought perhaps he was someone I could like…" He was so much like Inuyasha… "To be honest, I think I had a problem with his lack of," Kagome blushed. "dog ears…"
"Do you think would have ever gotten over him? Given time, I mean." Sango said, rushing out the question as thoughts of her own 'him' were suddenly diverting her mind.
"The way the well just sealed? With no explanation? Leaving me to wonder if maybe it would open again some day? No, I don't think I would have… I mean, maybe if someone came along, and it was meant to be, but short of a miracle I was doomed to spinsterhood" Kagome smiled at the last comment, getting Sango to smile back.
"You do know Inuyasha's been listening the whole time don't you?" She said grinning from ear to ear now. Kagome visibly paled. She must have been so preoccupied with the conversation she'd missed his aura!
Whirling around, she met the guilty-looking hanyou. He braced himself for a sit, or perhaps some harsh words, but all he got was a very blank stare. He inched his eyes from the ground to meet hers. There wasn't an exact description to what those eyes revealed. Confusion, lots of that, a slow emergence of realization, and something else he wouldn't let himself dwell on.
The awkward silence drew onward, and it became slowly evident to Inuyasha that Kagome was waiting for him to say something, and he'd have to take the initiative. But what was he going to say? 'How about kissing her?' came that despicable little voice in the back of his mind. This brought his attention to the way she was chewing her lower lip, her nose occasionally adding a twitch into the dance of movement. It distracted his mind enough that the silence wasn't quite so uncomfortable, but Kagome noticed.
She blushed, turning her head the way she used to when embarrassed and trying to look mad. All her carefully practiced lessons in maturity failed her in his presence, and that only added to her frustrations. "So?" She said, letting him insinuate the question behind the simple word.
"You just kinda walked off, and I was gonna apologize…" He muttered under his breath. The words continued but she'd only caught that much. So, he thought she was demanding an explanation for his actions. It faintly reminded her of what her mother always did when she or Souta misbehaved, and the thought brought a bubbly giggle to her throat.
She was… laughing? Kami, how was he supposed to figure this girl out? First she was shocked, then mad, then… laughing! He was in front of her in the blink of an eye, glaring with red-hot furry as a snarl reached his lips. "What's so funny?" He asked dangerously. She stopped laughing immediately, but the smile didn't fade.
"I didn't ask you for an explanation." She said, unable to wipe the somewhat giddy grin from her expression. She made a noise of stifled laughter as he was caught off-balance by her statement and stumbled with an answer.
