The Mayu Flower

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from InuYasha.

Chapter 4: Trouble with the Well

"Nothing happened! Now get off my back!" InuYasha growled, pushing a questioning Shippou off of his head. The kitsune fell to the ground with a thud and a yelp. Scrambling back to his feet, he glowered after InuYasha.

"You two had a fight, didn't you?" Shippou yelled, hurrying after the red-clad hanyou as they made their way from the Bone Eater's Well to Kaede's village. Shippou didn't wait for an answer. "I knew it! Argh! InuYasha, why do you always do this! We need Kagome here! Go back and get her!"

"Leave me alone! I'm not going back for her and that's that! She wants to stay there and she can! I don't care!" he yelled back. He sharply left the path to the village and headed straight into the forest. Shippou called after him, but the hanyou ignored him and kept going. His fists were clenched and his eyes angry. 'One damn mistake and she runs off to some other guy like without even thinking!' he thought as he waded between the trees. He forced his mind to silence as he came free from the forest and found himself on a riverbank. Glaring down into the water, he watched his reflection glare back at him. He picked up a rock and struck it straight into his reflection with a grunt. It splashed water everywhere but slowly the water's rhythm was taken up again. Suddenly his fists relaxed and he found himself sitting down on the grass. Closing his eyes for a moment, he sighed in exasperation. Opening them, he gazed once more at his reflection. 'Kagome...' he thought sadly.

In Kagome's Time...

"Kinuto...I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I can face him...he was always there for me, it always seemed like he cared for me as much as breathing. There was always a doubt, but it was small and now...now it's the only thing there is. I loved him...I loved him so much that I could barely breathe. Kinuto..." she had said with tears running down her face. All of a sudden she felt Kinuto's arms wrap around her in a warm embrace.

"It'll be all right, Kagome. If he doesn't accept you the way you want him to... I will," he had whispered into her hair.

Those words had rung through the teenager's head for two days, still making her blush and gasp at the memory. Two days of wondering if what she had thought Kinuto had tried to say was real. Had he unintentionally told her that he loved her? Or was it just a friendly way of saying, "I'll be there for you"? The possibilities made her head spin. Luckily at the moment she was sitting down.

"Kagome? Is something wrong?" Kinuto asked, looking at her as the two of them sat on the park bench, watching the shimmering lake in the bright afternoon. It was Wednesday now and afterschool. They had agreed to meet afterschool for a short walk around the park. Others were there as well. Children playing tag, shrieking delightedly as they chased each other and local students laughing at their friends' jokes. Kagome struggled to return her attention to what Kinuto had just said.

"What? Oh, nothing's wrong," she said with a slight blush and a smile. She had grown a habit of blushing very easily these days, especially when Kinuto was around. She wasn't sure if it had anything to do with what he had said on Monday, but her face got relatively warm each time he smiled at her.

Despite her smile, Kinuto did not look convinced. He frowned with sad eyes as if worried, though he didn't say argue. Suddenly his eyes grew wide in curiosity and surprise. "Kagome? Something's glowing purple around your neck," he said, nodding to her.

"Huh?" She looked down and immediately recognized the glow of the sacred jewel shards she kept in a small glass bottle around her neck. 'Why are they glowing?' she wondered confusedly. She suddenly frowned. 'They are reminding me I have to go back to the Feudal Era...that's why.' Sighing, she relaxed her face and looked back up at Kinuto. "Nevermind that, Kinuto. But I...I think I want to go home now. Could you take me?" she said.

Kinuto's expression returned to a worried frown but he nodded nevertheless. Getting up, the two of them left the park and made towards the parking lot. Getting into his car, he started it with a rumble from the motor and turned it onto the road. They went in silence, mostly because Kinuto could sense Kagome's uneasiness. He could almost hear her thoughts buzzing excitedly. Soon he pulled his car into a stop in front of the Higurashi grounds.

"Kagome?" he muttered softly. She jumped slightly as if startled that they had already reached their destination. He tried to put on a smile, but it was fairly weak. "Are you sure you are okay, Kagome?"

"Yes, I-I'm fine, Kinuto..." she replied, looking at her hands. The edges of her mouth tightened slightly as she looked up at him. "Kinuto...I...I think I have to go away for a couple of days. On...another trip..." she said hesitantly.

He looked at her puzzledly, but only nodded. She forced a relieved smile on her face and made to get out of the car, but before she could, he grabbed her shoulder. "Kagome..." he said slowly as she watched him. "Take care of yourself, okay?" This time her thankful smile was real. She nodded her head and got out of the car.

"I'll see you in a few days, Kinuto."

"For sure," he answered with a smile. Kagome shut the door and began to walk towards her home as she listened to Kinuto's car drive away.

She knew what she had to do. To tell the truth, she had made up her mind about it two days earlier but had never acted upon it. 'I'll just have to live with it. I feel like such a fool, trying to believe InuYasha cared for me for who I was,' she thought. 'At least I still have Shippou and Sango and Miroku.' The attempted comfort was no help, her heart still felt as if half of it had been smashed away, leaving the empty space empty and cold.

Kagome slipped into the house and grabbed her large yellow backpack. She said goodbye to her mother and grandfather and Souta (who had finally come home from the hospital but had to use crutches to get around) and hurried back outside towards the well. Sliding the door shut behind her, got into the well and slowly began to descend the latters. Once she was near the bottom, she jumped off of them and onto the ground. She waited for the blue light to surround her, but nothing happened. Opening her eyes, she looked back up the well and saw the thatched roof of the shrine. 'What's going on?' she wondered. Stomping her foot on the ground, she growled, "Let me through!" When nothing happened, she took out her jewel shards and stared at them as if it were their fault she couldn't get through. The pink fragments shimmered innocently, which made her frown worriedly. 'Why can't I get through? I have the jewel shards, why won't the well work?' Kneeling down on the ground, she shifted some soil stubbornly. This was really starting to worry her. 'If I can't get through...then I can't see Inu--I mean Sango and the others!'

Giving up her digging, she wiped a stray tear from her eye with her sleeve and decided to try the well again later. Climbing up the well, she got out and made her way back to the house. Her mother asked if she had forgotten something. Not wanting to worry them, she just said that she decided to take a shower before she would go back.

"What's going on?" she muttered to herself as she ascended the stairs towards her room. Slipping inside and shutting the door closed behind her, she slid to the base of the door and put her head in her hands. Another tear threatened to push its way free, but she forced it back. "I'll try in an hour and if that doesn't work...I'll keep trying until it does." 'But what if it still won't work?' she wondered. Shaking her head, she refused to think of the possibilities.

In the Feudal Era...

Two days...nearly five all together since Kagome had last come to the Feudal Era. 'Stupid girl, she can really hold a grudge,' InuYasha thought. 'Then again...she still thinks I said that I only cared for her because she looks like Kikyou...' He sighed. 'She's probably too angry to come back...even if I came for her she'd probably just push me away.'

"InuYasha?" said a female voice. The hanyou sturred from his thoughts to look down from the tree he sat in to the demon-slayer. Concern and worry were in her dark brown eyes.

"What?" he snapped sharply, looking away from her.

"Don't you think you should go get Kagome now?" she asked. After a few moments of no reply, she continued. "I know something happened between you and I don't want to have to pick sides, but you are the only one that can travel to her time. We haven't moved from this village in five days. Naraku could have done anything in five days." She said everything in a soft, understanding tone, trying not to upset him.

"Feh," was all he said. Sango sighed sadly and walked away, leaving InuYasha alone once more. He could feel the shape of the Mayu pendant he had bought days earlier in the fold of his haori.

In Kagome's Time...

After an hour had passed, Kagome said goodbye to her family members once more and made for the well. This time she held a determined face and grasped the bottle of jewel shards tightly in her hand. Descending the latter, she stopped a few feet from the ground and looked at the bottom of the well with weary eyes. 'Please work...' she thought desperately.

Jumping from the latter, she closed her eyes and readied for contact of the ground. But it never came. Opening her eyes, she stared into blue nothingness with the jewel shards still tightly held in her fingers. She felt like shouting with joy as she soon saw the ground reappear beneath her. Landing softly, she looked up the well to see a deep purple sky as night began to fall. Quickly climbing out of the well, she looked at the familiar landscape and smiled broadly. Wasting no time, she hurried from the forest towards Kaede's village.

"Kagome?" InuYasha muttered, spotting the teenager running from the forest with a smile on her face. Apparently she didn't see him sitting in the tree as she rushed along towards the hut.

As Kagome neared the hut, she slowed a bit, breathing heavily from her run. Bursting into the hut, she beamed happily at the sight of Miroku, Sango, Shippou, Kirara, and Lady Kaede sitting around a boiling pot of stew eating supper. Her friends put their food down and scrambled to their feet at her entrance. Shippou was the first to jump up and cling to her in a long-missed hug.

"Kagome! I'm so glad you're back!" he squeaked enthusiastically.

"We were so worried when you were gone for five days!" Sango said with a relieved smile.

"It's good to have you back, Kagome!" Miroku smiled broadly and patted Kagome on the shoulder.

"I missed you guys too!" she replied. It was so wonderful to have smiling faces around her once more. Faces that she knew cared for her for who she was and not for who she was reincarnated from. For a split second Kagome was surprised that InuYasha was not there, but she forced herself to push it out of her mind with sharp pang in her heart. "I'm so sorry I was gone for so long! Listen--something's wrong with the--"

She was suddenly cut off as the silver-haired hanyou entered the hut with a stoic expression. Everyone turned to look at him with a sudden tensity. He stared at Kagome without moving, seeming as if he was barely aware that anyone was in the hut except for her. He looked as if he were about say something, but Kagome continued on without even greeting him. Turning back to the others, she repeated her sentence. "Listen, something's wrong with the well. I tried to come here an hour ago and I had the jewel shards with me, but the well wouldn't let me through! It just wouldn't work so I decided to try it again just a few minutes ago."

At her announcement, the tensity of the hut vanished and was replaced with shock. "Are ye sure, child?" Lady Kaede said at the same time Sango exclaimed, "The well didn't work?" and as Shippou and Miroku shared a loud, "What!"

"Yes, I'm sure! I came down the well and I jumped onto the ground and I had the jewel shards with me, but nothing happened. That's never happened before!" Kagome answered, anxiously cupping the bottle of jewel shards to her chest. InuYasha made no sound or word as he took a seat in the far corner of the hut.

"That is impossible, my child. The well is made of the wood from the Tree of Ages! It would not simply begin sealing itself off with no reason," Lady Kaede insisted. "The Tree of Ages is a magnificent thing made from the fabric of time. The only way to stop its power, according to my knowledge, would be to destroy the wood."

"It's sealing itself off! But that means..." She gulped in fear. "That means that eventually I won't be able to get through the well at all!"

"Apparently so. But it is my understanding that the wood of the Bone Eater's Well also reacts to human desires. For example how your brother summoned InuYasha to your time when you were in danger. It was reacting to your brother's desires," Lady Kaede explained. InuYasha's ears twitched at the sound of his name mentioned, but no one paid any heed to him. "It is possible that you couldn't get through the well because you didn't entirely want to come back."

"That's just silly, why would I want that?" Kagome answered puzzedly.

"Maybe it's because you really want to stay with that boy from your time more than you want to come here!" InuYasha suddenly yelled, jumping to his feet. He was glaring at Kagome with anger in his eyes.

Kagome blinked in surprise, but it suddenly switched to fury. She climbed to her feet as well. "What would you care! You don't even care if I'm here or not!" she yelled back. Suddenly something came to her mind. "How do you know about him anyway? You were spying on me, weren't you! You jerk!"

"So you admit it! You're in love with that stupid human!" he growled.

"He's not stupid! He's sweet and kind and considerate--he's like your exact opposite! Just what I've always wanted!" She was half-surprised at her own words.

InuYasha looked shocked for a moment, but then he lowered his head so his bangs covered his eyes. "Just what you've always wanted, huh? Fine then." With that he turned and left the hut without a word. Kagome huffed and sat back down with her arms crossed. A twang of guilt pressured her. She may be mad at InuYasha, but what she had said was a little harsh, especially considering it was she that had said it.

"Kagome?" Sango said softly after a moment's silence.

Kagome looked up at her and sighed. "His name is Kinuto," she began. "It's the guy I told you about before that saved me from some robbers. I've been seeing him a lot lately and I guess InuYasha saw us together once. But he's just a friend, nothing's going on between us!"

Lady Kaede grimaced at the floor. Her hands were tightly woven together in thought. 'That was not friendship in young Kagome's voice just now. Affection has jumped into their relationship, even if she hasn't realized it completely yet. Hopefully my suspicions of the mystery of the well are wrong,' she thought.


Another chapter down! Forgive me for taking so long. School has kept me annoyingly busy. Just so you know my plan for this fanfiction is to be roughly eleven chapters. I will try to write the next one as soon as possible. Enjoy and please review!