Invisible Bonds

Chapter 1

Fluting twitters and chirps drifted through the air, birds serenading a fresh start of day. The barely risen sun cast a watery light over the landscape, brushing the tips of the leaves and grass with a lighter green sheen and glistening off tiny drops of dew. Other than the still-sleepy birds and animals, as well as the soft swish of swaying grass, nothing moved.

Well, mostly nothing, anyway. A splash of green, white, red and yellow, crowned with black, moved furtively among the trees, making a beeline for the clearing in which an old well dominated. Pausing at the edge of the concealing forest, Kagome squinted at the distant well and wondered if she should make a break for it.

This is ridiculous, she thought to herself, frowning slightly. I have a perfectly good reason for going home. No hanyou is going to stop me from taking my exams. Even if they were mock exams, as Souta had told her, but she also heard that these were supposed to help her get a feel of the entrance exams, which seemed a whole lot closer on this side of the year. And because her books were so heavy, it just wasn't too practical to bring them over to this era, since they were on the move most of the time.

She glanced back into the relative darkness of the forest for signs of pursuit; for a moment there, while she was getting up, she could have sworn that she had woken Inuyasha up as well. A few moments of breathlessly studying his apparently sleeping form had settled her nerves at that point (she had to resist the urge to touch those ears again), but she had this sneaking suspicion... She turned quickly as a flash of red caught her eye, but it was only a bird, fluttering from branch to branch. Right, she decided grimly, flicking another glance over her shoulder. Now or never.

Even as she dashed across the intervening distance, her nearly empty bag flapping against her back, a telltale swish of leaves and cloth confirmed her suspicions. And so, when she glimpsed for a moment the odd shadow passing over her, she shouted the first thing that came to mind.

"Osuwari!"

------

Inuyasha's light sleep was disturbed by the sounds of someone getting up, and by the smell of it, it was the break of dawn. Stupid wench, he grumbled mentally to himself as he carefully kept his breathing deep and even, his body relaxed in what he hoped was a convincing semblance of slumber.

Unfortunately, his ears perked up involuntarily, and he only just prevented himself from freezing by strength of will as he heard the sounds of movement cease abruptly and felt the light pressure of her gaze on him. He forced himself to keep the pretense up, sighing inwardly with relief as the little rustlings continued and her scrutiny lifted from him after several long seconds, then resumed quietly going down a familiar path of fuming thought. How could she? Just when time was of the essence, and Naraku could find the few remaining shards three days from now, and how Shippou would whine, the little pest..

The absence of noise, as well as of her presence, jerked him out of his thoughts. He snapped into motion, fluidly getting up from his sitting position and grabbing Tessaiga by habit, which was leaning in the corner next to him. Sliding the sheathed sword into it's usual place at his waist, he bounded out the door, noting subconsciously that she hadn't bothered to take her bicycle with her. Peering around him, he spotted her distinctive clothing from a distance and began loping after her, keeping a healthy distance and several vegetative features between them.

As soon as he judged that she had entered the forest, and thus concluding that he was in less danger of being spotted, he accelerated, passing quietly into the forest shadows not too far behind her. Following her familiar scent, he tracked her doggedly (pun intended), pausing every time he heard her footsteps, however distant. Soon, the forest thinned slightly, and he caught sight of her, standing in the shadows at the edge of the clearing, glancing suspiciously over her shoulder. So, she anticipated a confrontation, hmm? He grinned ferally to himself, ironic amusement at this odd routine of theirs momentarily overcoming his annoyance at her clandestine departure.

Climbing the nearest tree with practiced ease, he jumped smoothly from high branch to high branch, careful to keep out of her direct line of sight. Perching on one of the trees bordering the clearing, he was so close to her that his sensitive hearing could pick out her breathing from where he was. Of course, she had noticed nothing, having inferior human senses.

He was just in time, apparently, for she took a deep breath and began a headlong sprint towards the offending well.

Quickly calculating the distance, he timed his flight path to coincide with her own path to her intended destination, and leapt with a wincingly, but necessarily loud swish of branches. However, she was apparently more intuitive than he had initially thought; instead of facing her in righteous anger, he found himself plummeting prematurely to earth, facing a forced confrontation with the overly familiar dirt. "Kaaaa - oomph," he attempted to protest, rather inarticulately, as could be expected after a fall of more than five times his own height.

Half a moment later, she tripped and sprawled awkwardly over his prone form, having brought him down almost right in front of her. "Gwah!" She was answered by a muffled "oof" from the already winded hanyou, who recovered remarkably fast and was soon looming over a dazed Kagome.

"And where were you going?" he demanded coolly, looking down at her, his attempt at arrogance was partly spoiled by the streaks of dirt on his face, and the odd gulping gasp for air that preceded his question. Kagome glared up at him, then got up and brushed herself off, and, ignoring Inuyasha completely, stepped around him and continued towards the well at a brisk, dignified walk. She had no time for this! School was about to start, and she had no particular wish to be late, especially this week!

Inuyasha stared after her, confused; he had been anticipating a loud argument, and this approach froze his response with surprise for several precious moments. He stood there unblinkingly for those moments, then turned to find her already climbing into the well. "Wait! The Shikon no kakera..." he sputtered, then found himself speaking to the blue glow of the activated time portal. Stomping over, he peered down into the shadowed, noticably empty well, and fumed. "Keh! Go then! See if I care!" he shouted irritably down the chasm, flattening his ears against his head and stalking away.

------

Three and a half days later, the sun set in all it's burnished glory on an era that was still Kagome-less. A certain inu-hanyou paced back and forth impatiently beside the well, hands tucked in his sleeves, the distinctly trampled grass beneath his feet looking much the worse for wear. Perched disconsolately on a corner of the well, a bushy-tailed kitsune kept him company, tossing gloomy glances alternately down the well and at his companion. Miroku and Sango, noticable in their absence, had given up waiting a while ago, returning to Kaede's hut to take their dinner.

"I bet you fought with her," Shippou muttered accusingly, shooting another dark look at the pacing Inuyasha. It had been a long time since he saw Kagome, and he missed her soothing presence terribly. "That's why she won't come back."

Inuyasha growled in warning, not pausing at all in his carefully precise steps. Stomp stomp stomp stomp, smart about-turn. He was the one that should be angry, not her! The nerve of the wench, to leave without telling anyone how long she'd be staying in her time! Stomp stomp stomp stomp, turn.

"Didn't she say when she'd come back?" Shippou tried a different tack as the light around them began to fade, inadvertently echoing Inuyasha's train of thought.

"No, she didn't," he ground out, finally stopping his rapid pacing and staring contemplatively down the well. They couldn't afford to wait any longer, and the thought of Naraku finding more fragments as they idled made his blood boil. "I'm going to get her."

"Took you long enough," the little kitsune grumped, jumping off the edge of the well and poofing into his pink balloon form. "Come back soon," he added in an oddly strangled squeak, bobbing off over the forest.

"Huh?" Inuyasha raised a questioning brow at Shippou's retreating back as he balanced effortlessly on the well's ledge, then shrugged and took the step into space. "Whatever..."

Grasses swayed slowly back into place, masking the faint trail that led to the well as the rippling blue glow subsided.

------

Dust tickled his nose in a manner almost familiar as he emerged from the well, vaulting to land on the cool dirt floor of the shrine. Climbing the steps up to the doors, he slid them open and quietly slipped out, squinting in the dying light, which tinted the world around him a smouldering orange. Inuyasha had the sudden impression that everything was on fire, but the thought was quickly dismissed with a shake of his head. The next moment, it was totally forgotten, as a presence blew past him from behind and dissipated some distance in front of the shrine.

"Who's there?" he barked out sharply to the apparently empty air, scanning the landscape with narrowed eyes, one hand instinctively going to the hilt of Tetsusaiga. A faint, tantalizing whiff of an unknown youkai's scent reached his nose, and he sniffed experimentally. The youki was dispersing extremely quickly, and in a few seconds, it was as if it were never there.

He spent several minutes sniffing at the ground, then stood up in frustration and surveyed the surroundings again. It was definitely gone, whatever it was. And it had probably followed him through the well, somehow. Though he could tell that it's level of power was way inferior to his, he still felt a slight twinge of uneasiness that he had brought a potentially dangerous youkai into this time. However, that was soon completely overwhelmed by renewed resentment towards Kagome. If she hadn't insisted on coming back...

A moment later, he sighed and his anger deflated, leaving him feeling rather weary. I guess you can't really blame her, Inuyasha thought to himself, this is, after all, the time she belongs in. She could have chosen to stay here, if she really wanted to, and he was rather pleased that she didn't, truth be told...

Looking up, he found that his feet had brought him to the foot of the ancient tree which Kikyo had sealed him against for fifty fleeting years, old memories overwhelming his recent, more tentative thoughts. A familiar yearning swept through him as he gazed unseeingly at the string of fluttering white twists of paper encircling the girth of its trunk. Kikyo...

...was dead and gone, fifty years ago, killed by Naraku in his scheming plots. He squelched down the potent rush of hatred and grief and shook his head again, reminding himself forcibly that the Kikyo present in his time was a shell baked of ashes and graveyard dirt and sustained by the souls of the dead, and that the only part of the true Kikyo lived on in Kagome's soul.

But that didn't alter the fact that it looked so much like the Kikyo who had sorrowfully told him that she was never to show weakness, never to be human... Kikyo who would give up the Jewel she spent her life protecting so that she could spend the rest of her life with him... Kikyo who had shot her final arrow in mistaken betrayal and sealed him to the tree, then gave up on her own life to join him in death.

Immersed in a tightening spiral of memories and conflicting emotions, he didn't hear the calls until someone tugged on one of his sleeves. Eyes snapping back into focus to see a patch of sky rapidly fading from orange to a dusky blue, with waving branches partially obscuring the sliver of a waning moon, he looked down to see Souta peering up at him in concern.

"Inu-niichan?" Souta said uncertainly, as if he did not expect a response. When he saw that he had finally got one, he brightened immediately. "Mama noticed you standing out here, so she sent me out to see if you wanted to have dinner with us..?"

"Uh.. uhh--" Inuyasha replied vaguely, still trying to struggle free from the tangle of his thoughts. Souta took it as assent and began pulling his sleeve towards the house, Inuyasha stumbling after to prevent the eager boy from ripping it off entirely.

Regaining his senses as he was dragged through the house, he glanced about the table, laid out with food and the other shiny dinner things that he had never gotten the hang of using. The old ji-ji was already eating; Souta had climbed back into his chair and had returned to eating his half-eaten bowl of rice. A place, presumably his, was being set at the table by Kagome's okaasan; she smiled at him in welcome, which he acknowledged with a hesitant nod, folding his arms and unconsciously tucking his hands into his sleeves. He glanced round the room again, then sniffed the air.

"Where's Kagome?" he asked the room at large, tilting his head slightly in an inquiring manner. Sota looked up, tried to speak with a full mouth, and immediately began to choke.

"She's gone over to a friend's house to study," the hacking boy's mother supplied helpfully, hurrying over to her son to thump him unsympathetically on his back. "Souta, you know you shouldn't try to talk with your mouth full."

The boy in question nodded contritely, coughed a few more times and subsided. Swallowing carefully, he added, "Oneechan won't be back for about two hours, yet."

"Huh," Inuyasha replied absently without consciously registering the words, his eyes focused on the food on the table. It sure looked good.. the last time he had eaten was early that morning, and he had spent the rest of his time pacing at the well. Good exercise, to be sure, but his stomach protested. Was protesting. He reddened slightly at the audible rumble, but thankfully no one showed any sign of noticing, though he could have sworn he could detect a laughing twinkle in her eyes as Kagome's mother shooed him towards the empty chair, rice piled high and steaming gently in his bowl.

He sat and began eating enthusiastically. Two bowls of rice and most of the food on the table later, Inuyasha was comfortably ensconced in Kagome's room, seated in the middle of the floor and playing with Buyo. Within fifteen minutes, the cat had managed to escape his grasp, shooting out of the window yowling in outrage, as per usual, and the hanyou was left alone.

Prowling about, he sniffed appreciatively at the familiar scent suffusing the room, then set to investigating the smells more closely, a routine he had developed a habit of doing when she wasn't around and he was. Close to the table, the anxiety and stress she suffered because of her all-important studies was evident in the slight sour spiciness of her scent; her bed was a balm of calm in contrast, the soothingly mild undertone of peace and relaxation blending with the freshly washed and sun-dried fragrance of the sheets. Buyo-smell.. sniff.. Souta-smell.. sniff.. those-three-girls-smell.. sniff..

That-Hobo-smell..!

Inuyasha sniffed more closely, a growl starting up unconsciously, deep in his throat. It was old, good.. all clear. He settled back on his haunches and only then noticed the rumbling growl. He terminated the sound with a slight flush that was comprised partly of embarrassment and shame; what right had he to be possessive when Kikyo still walked the earth?

But he had no energy to think about that complicated matter right now. Wearily, he wondered how much of the two hours had passed. He glanced briefly at the odd contraption that made irritating noises in the morning and sometimes in the middle of the night; Kagome had informed him once that it told the time, but he hadn't figured out how the little thing did that yet. Obviously, until he did figure it out or when Kagome deigned to tell him, he would remain forever puzzled by it, so it didn't help much. Or at all. He sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, still savouring her scent...

------

Kagome pored intently over her textbook as she picked her way home, relying on the regular pools of lamplight to reveal the text. Hojo-kun had been most helpful; he had a useful knack for explaining things that she did not understand, in terms that she did. She was contentedly confident that she would not fail the next test.

Absently humming a tune under her breath, she climbed the stairs, walked across the grounds, slid the front door open, called that she was home, climbed the steps to her room, flipped the light on and slung her bag against the side her desk, all without taking her eyes off her book and amazingly without incident. The bag slid down with thump and an abused sigh, resigned to such treatment. Ignoring its complaints, Kagome retrieved the pencil she had tucked away behind her ear and scribbled thoughtfully. That went there.. so you carried this number down and multiplied the equation by the other thing.. and.. she flipped to the back to check her answer. It didn't match.

She gave a strangled cry of frustration and sank heavily down into her chair, squinting at her workings in disgruntlement. What the h - ah! Galvanized, she corrected an errant number and scrawled the correct answer with a forceful flourish, ending it with a triumphant stab. Putting down the pencil and slumping back in relief, Kagome allowed herself a luxurious stretch and sighed, rubbing her temples. Given time she could probably get the numbers out of her head, but since those were actually needed at the moment, she would have to try and cope with the accompanying nightmares. Spinning about-face, she launched herself at her bed for an indulgent roll. It was otherwise occupied, the back of her mind told her belatedly, just as her eyes found out the same thing.

Kagome flailed helplessly as she dove headfirst into familiar crimson cloth, the momentum too great and the time too little for her to do anything else. Inuyasha, who had been sleeping peacefully just the moment before, thrashed awake, convinced in the muzzy haze of half-consciousness that a youkai was springing a sneak attack upon his hapless self. He grappled instinctively with his opponent, pinning the body down against the bed with his own before he realized where he was. And who might be struggling beneath him at the moment.

"Ka - Kagome?"

She freed a hand and swatted the folds of his sleeves off her face. "Yes?" she questioned archly, wriggling in her own attempt to attain freedom of movement. The front of her mind scolded the back for not telling her earlier that Inuyasha was there, but was countered with the reason that she had been otherwise preoccupied.

"What the hell were you doing?"

"Trying to get into my own bed, what else?" she muttered defensively, pulling her head free and discovering the hard way that her hair had somehow tangled with his rosary. Whoops. "Don't move!"

"What?" Inuyasha took a stab at pushing himself off her, with painful results.

"Get down," Kagome hissed. "Now!" When he showed signs of confusion, she purposefully knocked one supporting hand out from under him, which relieved her aching roots of the pressure. "Do. Not. Move."

"Why the hell not?" He was getting uncomfortably aware that she was much too close for his peace of mind. Looking down in a bid for distraction, the hanyou finally realized the problem. "Oh."

"Yes, oh," she grumbled, fingers busily unravelling strands of snarled, entangled hair from between the beads. "Kindly do not make any sudden moves."

"Keh." Inuyasha wasn't sure if Kagome was so absorbed in untangling her hair that she didn't find their position rather awkward, but he wasn't otherwise occupied like her. He coloured, hoping that she would not take much longer. A corner of his mind piped up that he didn't mind and that it hoped she would take much longer, but he suppressed it ruthlessly. Though unfortunately not before his face began to rival his haori in colour. He hoped beyond hope that Kagome wouldn't notice.

Just as she went to work on the last bit of snared hair, Inuyasha heard the door creak open. At first the sound didn't register fully in his head. The next sound did, however.

"Oh, my," Mrs. Higurashi murmured faintly.

Yay. A story idea I've had for a while. I'm gonna have lots of fun with this, hope you will too! Please remember to comment on what you liked and what you didn't, it'll help tons, and motivate me as well.. Until next time!