Heheh, here's another dose for all those addicts I've been delighted to here from.

agent-doo: It is rather depressing isn't it? shrugs but then life isn't always peaches and cherries. AS to this Kagome. The upbeat one gets on my nerves too sometimes, but some of her best qualities is her devotion to her friends, lead her to believe she hurts them more than helps and she'd be pretty depressed I think. It's as natural as breathing, especially for someone like Kagome.

Kawaii-CherryWolf: I'm actually pretty proud of this fic, so thankyou for the compliment. the Sesshoumaru dating Kagome's mom thing just kind of happened, but then it's not as off the wall as some pairings I've seen. Is this a quick enough update for you?

scarimoi: Thank you for the compliment! I believe the answer to your question happens to be in this Chapter.

rabbitstew: I 'm glad you love the fic. how's this for an update?

Ouka-Chan77: Um I think I mentioned in the first Author's note that the story is finished. I'm really glad you like it. This chapter update should please you!

The Squabbit: Um Sesshoumaru is dating Kagome's mom? Heheh.

After careful thought and planning: Inuyasha, the characters therein, andall the lunchboxes inspired thereby,will be mine the next time someone tries to kidnap them as I have finally been employed as a permanent body guard and need only wait for the perfect scapegoat.

And now...ACTION!

Frustration

A Month! A gods-be-damned month!

That's how long it took.

No, That's not right. That's how long it took for the circumstances to be right for this to work. We had the plan figured out the day after Kagome left.

Too bad we hadn't thought of it sooner, the night she left was a full moon. I could've been with her that night. But everyone was still in shock. I have no right to talk. I'd had absolutely no idea what we could possibly do other than collect the rest of the chards, and I didn't want to wait that long.

Lucky for me, Kaede had a few ideas.

I'd never thought I'd be thankful for that retched beaded necklace. According to the old hag, it quite possibly was the only thing that made this plan possible. It and the Goshinboku, or rather, the fact that the tree still existed in Kagome's shrine. Strangely, it seemed that the old tree that was my prison warden was looking out for me in my freedom.

I had Kouga's Shards mixed in with the ones Kagome had left. The wimpy-wolf hadn't even put up a fight for them. Not after he found out we would be using them to bring Kagome back.

Kaede insisted we didn't need them, but I'd rather have more shards than we needed than not enough. Despite the old miko assuring me that we didn't need any at all. I wasn't taking any chances. If her plan failed, I planned to use the shards. I was determined to get to Kagome.

But First…

I'm not sure what spell Kaede was planning to use. I'm not sure what exactly was supposed to happen, I only knew that it would draw on the power of the tree and use Kagome's residual power in the necklace as the destination, like calling to like.

Miroku was going to assist the old hag. The reasoning being that their combined holy energies would better guarantee a successful conclusion. I don't know how much help the monk was likely to be. He'd been nothing like himself since Kagome left. Hell he hasn't even groped Sango since then. It was beginning creep me out.

Then there was Sango, standing to the side with Kirara, prepared to guard the monk and miko as well as myself should something try to interrupt. Her eyes were hard with determination. The demon exterminator had all but stopped talking, withdrawing into herself in her grief. The only time she seemed almost normal being when we were discussing our plan to get Kagome back.

Shippou sat on the ground by the fire cat. The little runt refused to touch any of the candy Kagome left. I think he believes that once eats it all, once he touches it, the possibility of Kagome coming back would disappear with it. That or he's afraid he'll forget her, the poor runt. Most of the time he wanders around like a dead person. And he cries out for her in his sleep, making sleep even more difficult to achieve for the rest of us.

Gods, I want Kagome back. I miss the way things used to be. I miss how Iused tobe around her. I miss all the things about her, her scent, her smile, her voice, the way she always seemed to get the best of me.

I place my hand against the tree as instructed. I never feel so calm as when I'm near this tree. You'd think after being pinned to the thing for fifty years I'd never want to be near it again. I look up into the branches, how could I feel that way then this is the place I met Kagome. The first place I saved her life. Kagome…

This tree, and the well, is the closest I'll ever be to her if this doesn't work. Please let this work! I know how much pain we've been through this last month. I can only imagine how much she's been hurting. After all, she still thinks I hate her.

I wince at that. I really can't blame her; I never gave her reason to believe otherwise. Shippou's been kind enough to reaffirm that everyday since Kagome left. Stupid runt, least he knows Kagome loved him, her little kit.

All I know is that she doesn't hate me. I suppose I also know that she looks upon me with more than indifference. That's not saying much though, and it isn't enough for me. I want more, I'm afraid just how much more. What if she doesn't want to give me that "more"?

I shake my head and Sango gives me a reassuring smile. If friendship is all Kagome is willing to give me, then I'll take it. I've learned a lot about myself this last month, the most important being that I don't want to continue if Kagome isn't here with me.

Miroku and Kaede begin to chant softly. My ear twitches trying to pick up whatever it is that they're saying and I have to remind myself to stand still. I can sense the building of power around me, making it hard to breathe. The tree answers their call. Its power reaches through me to caress the power of the necklace where it touches my skin.

It was the most amazing thing. The necklace responded to the tree's energy, I could feel it. Suddenly Kagome's scent was wrapped around me so thick you could swim in it. It caught me by surprise and my knees went weak with relief as the smell filled me to the brim. It had been so long, I soaked it up like a parched sponge.

The landscape twisted around me, going in and out of focus until I was forced to close my eyes with a grimace. My stomach fell to my feet briefly and the sensation abruptly stopped. The sense of energy evaporated taking Kagome's scent with it.

I nearly whimpered at the loss and opened my eyes. I made it! There was Kagome's house! There was her window! I made it!

I could've jumped for joy and howled my triumph at the brilliant moon in the sky, but I settled for climbing up to Kagome's room. I felt I would burst from the feelings inside me.

I slid the window open quietly; knowing full well the rest of the house was probably peacefully sleeping. I stepped into the hallowed shrine to Kagome's scent and breathed deep. This was it. This was what true happiness was. I could now die happy.

So lost in euphoria was I, that it took several minutes for me to realize that Kagome wasn't in her room. Where on Earth could she possibly be so late at night? I was puzzling over this question when the lights flipped on temporarily blinding me.

"What the hell…" I spluttered.

"That would be my question as well, Inuyasha," I whirled around to face the door. I knew that voice and it shouldn't be here. "What the hell happened to make a cheerful, loyal and stubborn girl like Kagome afraid of crowded places? What the hell would make her believe that she caused all the people she cared about nothing but pain? What would make her seal herself up in her head where she can't smile and won't cry? Tell me that Inuyasha," Sesshoumaru demanded.

I blinked at my brother. "How did you get here?" I demanded in return.

He sighed tiredly, " I could ask the same of you little brother, but we wouldn't get anywhere that way." Sesshoumaru rubbed his temple slightly as Kagome's mother came up behind him. Well this was weird.

"Hello, Inuyasha," she greeted me quietly.

Sesshoumaru glanced at her calmly, " I am here, Inuyasha, because Mrs. Higurashi invited me here. I am here, because I am usually here since the day I gave Kagome a ride home a couple of weeks ago."

I stared at him a minute, what can I say, I was stunned. Wait a minute…How'd he get 500 years in the future?

I heard him chuckle, "I lived those five hundred years you just skipped, Inuyasha."

"Inuyasha, why did Kagome decide to come home this time," Kagome's mother asked me. "All I know is that she feels she did something terrible, and that I got from Sess," the woman looked close to tears. "Please tell me what happened, tell me why my daughter won't talk to me anymore. Tell me why she doesn't smile the way she used to." Sesshoumaru wrapped an arm around her shoulders as she broke down in tears, "Please tell me."

I hate when women cry. I always feel like I've done them irreparable harm. It really sucks because it's so hard to get them to stop once they start.

I lower my head. I can't face her knowing I'm the reason Kagome has changed like that. It's my fault.

"Inuyasha," my brother called firmly. He certainly wasn't going to let me out of this.

"Kagome thinks…She thinks I hate her," I told her softly. "She thinks I hate her because she destroyed Kikyou."

"Do you, Inuyasha? Do you hate Kagome?" Kagome's mom asked in a whisper.

I shook my head vehemently, "No, but she thinks I do. And like the bastard I am I made it worse before any of us realized it!" I began to growl with my self-hatred. "It's my fault Kagome left! It's my fault she's acting this way! If I hadn't been such an ass, such a coward this never would've-"

"Stop it!" She cried, and I stopped, still unable to look her in the eye. She must hate me. Her daughter was in so much pain because of me. Kagome's mom reached out and I cringed expecting the blow I well and truly deserved. Instead she rubbed my ears soothingly. I looked up in surprise.

"It's not all your fault," she smiled at me sadly. "Kagome has her faults too. You've come to make it right haven't you?" I nodded; still disbelieving she could ever forgive me. "Then that's all that needs to be said. Bring back her smile Inuyasha, that's all I ask."

She left me alone with my brother in Kagome's room. He raised an eye brow at me and I scowled at him. Sesshoumaru just smiled, "Kagome's in the well house. She studies there often, almost all the time. I would've gone out to carry her in after she fell asleep, but her mother tells me Kagome doesn't seem to sleep any better in here than she does slumped over her books out there."

I blinked in confusion, was Kagome having trouble sleeping too?

"Don't wake her if you find her asleep, she needs whatever rest she allows herself," he added. Then he turned around and went the way of Kagome's mom, flicking off the light switch on the way.

I stood there in the dark of Kagome's room pondering the conversation I'd just had. I still couldn't get over my brother, hater-of-humans, comforting Kagome's mother and worrying over Kagome. Surely the world had begun turning backwards.

Even if it was, I didn't care; I was going to see Kagome. I bounded out the window and ran to the little enclosed well. She was there and somehow knowing she spent most of her time there like I did was comforting.

I slid the door open and stepped inside to be greeted by the warm light of the lamp on her desk. Kagome was slumped on her desk; her breathing was slow and steady with sleep. I found myself smiling like an idiot. Gods, but she was beautiful. And I hadn't even seen her face yet. All I could see from the doorway was the back of her shoulders as they moved with her breathing.

I paced down the steps and around the well until I could look in her sleeping face. I looked her over more closely. She'd lost weight. She could never be ugly in my eyes, but she looked fragile. I'd never known her to look so brittle. I frowned, she looked tired too. She most certainly needed me to look after her if this is the state she fell into when I wasn't around.

I watched her shift slightly in her sleep and shiver. That wouldn't do either.

I shrugged out of my haori and draped it over her. There warm and cozy. Of course I couldn't ignore how satisfying it was to see her wrapped in my clothing like she was mine. Bad Inu, now's not the time to think like that.

I sat on the floor beside her chair, resting my back against the drawers of her desk. For now, I was content to know she was safe and near. I reached up and snagged one of her hands off the desk to sniff lightly. Here's to hoping for the best, because I never wanted to let go.

I sat there and watched her sleep, content to let time pass without me.