"And with this...I take thee..."

Chapter 2

Back in her room, Kagome was seething. "That...IDIOT Inuyasha," she growled to herself through clenched teeth. She sat at her desk, and held her head in her hands. "He doesn't get it. He just doesn't get it." Looking up into the mirror, she saw her bow and quiver of arrows, resting in the corner of her room. "Now I know why Kikyo wanted to shoot him," she thought angrily, "I wonder why she didn't shoot him more often. Sometimes I'd like to shoot him myself." Her thoughts suddenly went back to the day she met Inuyasha, hanging from Kikyo's arrow on the Goshinboku, and how her first thoughts of him were of how beautiful he looked. Then her eyes fell on the broken necklace on the floor, and she remembered the choked sound of Inuyasha's whispered "goodbye;" and suddenly, the realization of what she had done hit her in the pit of her stomach, and for a horrible moment, she felt as though her heart stopped beating.

"Oh no," she gasped, "What have I done?" Tears welled up in her eyes, and she sat numbly staring at herself in the mirror for a moment; then she dived at the floor in a panicked flurry.

"Inuyasha...oh no..." Her voice shook as she frantically scrabbled for the necklace's scattered beads. "Inuyasha...what have I done...what have I done?" She tried to gather what she could, but her hands shook so badly that she could not hold onto anything, and the beads clattered dully as they fell from her quivering hands onto the floor and rolled in every direction. She watched the beads slip through her trembling fingers with an anguished moan, and then she crumpled to the floor, utterly defeated, weeping bitterly.

There was a gentle knock at the door; it was Mama. She opened the door slowly, then she saw her daughter wracked in sorrow on the floor. "Kagome-chan," she said softly, "Oh, my poor, sweet Kagome-chan."

Her mother knelt beside Kagome and softly slipped her hands under Kagome's shoulders. She gently helped Kagome to rise, then eased her to a seat on the bed.

"Oh, Mama," Kagome cried as she hugged her mother tightly. "I'm so cruel...and I'll never see Inuyasha again! I've broken his necklace and I sent him away, and now he's gone and I don't know how I'll ever find him ... oh, no! How can I ever face him again? How can he bear to even look at me?"

Kagome's mother held her daughter tenderly, comforting her, wiping her tears and stroking her hair. "I know, dear, I know...we get caught up in the heat of the moment, and we just...say things, and of course we don't mean them, but we say them anyway. And sometimes we say the wrong things, things that we never mean, to the ones we love...because we don't know how to say the right things. But loving someone means understanding that these things happen...and that when you love someone, you can find the strength to forgive them."

Mama gently turned Kagome's face towards hers. "Inuyasha loves you, you know." ("I know," Kagome whispered through her tears.) "And you two have been through too much for him to give up on you so easily. Why don't you dry your eyes and go sit under the Goshinboku—I've always found that when I sit under the sacred tree, I am able to see the truth that my heart wants to show me."

"Thank you, mama," Kagome said, and she did her best to dry her tears, straighten her hair, and put herself in order; and she quietly slipped down the stairs and through the living room (where her grandfather and Souta very considerately pretended not to notice her) and walked out into the courtyard.

As she approached the Goshinboku, she saw Inuyasha, and the sight of him standing there took her breath away. The light of the sun was dappled green and gold as it filtered through the great tree's leaves. The last of the springtime blossoms still clung to the nearby cherry trees, and the early summer's gentle breeze wafted the pink petals about like butterflies; and as Inuyasha's beautiful long hair was tossed in the wind and his face glowed in the soft sunlight, Kagome thought that she had never seen anything so beautiful in all her life.

Inuyasha heard her walking towards him, and he turned and looked her straight in the eye. Kagome was terrified; expressing his emotions was very difficult for Inuyasha, and he usually couldn't meet her eyes when he spoke of them. She could not imagine what had given him the strength to meet her gaze, and she feared the worst.

"Kagome." Inuyasha spoke quietly, intensely. "You stood by me when nobody else would. You stayed by my side, even the times that I left yours to go after Kikyo." He turned his face aside for a moment. "Keh. Kikyo kept trying to kill you, and every time you forgave her. You even saved her life—more than once—not just because you thought it was right, but for my sake."

Inuyasha walked to Kagome, and looked deeply into her eyes. "No matter how much Kikyo may have cared for me, her heart was cold. She was never happy with who she was, or who I was. She was always distant...she never even held my hand. But you..." Inuyasha gently took her hand, and Kagome's heart leapt within her chest. "Your heart was warm. You never wanted me to be anything besides myself—and I've always been too scared to tell you how much you mean to me."

He gently pressed her hand to his heart. "Kagome, I need you. I can't imagine life without you. Please don't send me away. I belong at your side...and you belong at mine. I want to... tell you how much I..." His voice faltered, and he turned aside, looking at the ground. Then, suddenly, he looked straight at her. "I love, you, OK?" he said roughly; then more gently, his eyes downcast, he whispered, "I mean...I love you, Kagome. I want to be yours...if you'll have me." He looked into her eyes and said, "Will you be mine?"

She tenderly took his face in her hands. "Of course, Inuyasha...yes! I love you, too, Inuyasha. I want to be together with you...forever." She drew her face towards his, closed her eyes, and with tears of joy streaming down her face, kissed him lovingly.

She looked up into his golden eyes, and she felt like she could see the whole world glistening within them. "Take me home, Inuyasha," Kagome whispered.

He looked, puzzled, towards her house. "You are home," he said quizzically.

"No, Inuyasha," she said gently. "This is my home. Take me back to our home, our time."

Inuyasha understood. He nodded, then took her up in his arms, and she rested her head on his chest. He walked to the well, and he smiled sweetly at her as he jumped in. There was a blue flash and a sparkle, and they were gone.

From her vantage point upstairs in Kagome's room, Kagome's mother dabbed happily at her eyes as she watched the two lovers embrace under the Goshinboku, then sighed contentedly as they disappeared into the well-house. She stayed at the window for quite a while, looking at the courtyard, lost in her thoughts; presently Grandpa happened by, and seeing her faraway look, he asked, "So, where's your daughter off to now?"

Kagome's mother smiled. "She's gone home with my son."

Grandpa was puzzled. "Gone home? With Souta? What? Where? Oh. Oh. ...OHHHH!" It took a moment to sink in. "I see...Better start picking names for the children, then," he muttered to himself as he wandered back downstairs.

Back in the feudal era, Inuyasha and Kagome rose out of the well, still in each other's arms; and Inuyasha began to run with a joyous abandon, with a lightness he had never known before. Kagome rested her head against his warm red robe, breathed deeply of his dusky sweet scent, and closed her eyes, utterly at peace with him, with herself, and the world. From time to time, she raised her eyes to his face, and basked in the warmth of his smile and the gentle fondness she saw in his eyes as he looked down at her.

The shadows lengthened as day lengthened into dusk, and still Inuyasha ran. Eventually he stopped, and set Kagome down. She found herself at a high promontory overlooking a vast and peaceful lake; its calm azure surface mirrored the serene twilight indigo of the sky above, and as they watched, a gentle breeze spread shimmering ripples that twinkled and glistened in the day's waning light. The sun had just set; its dim ruddy glow still warmed the horizon, and the light of the first stars had just begun to pierce the darkening sky. The rising moon cast its gentle gleam upon the waters and on the verdant hill on which they stood, and the diamond dewdrops on the grass around them formed a lush and glittering carpet whose beauty rivaled the starry dome above them. For a long time, they stood looking at the lake in silence; then, they lay together on the grass, watching the glittering heavens slowly turning over them. The great shimmering river of the Milky Way coursed across the sky, and the fireflies danced above them, their living lights swirling amongst the jeweled stars of the night.

The evening wind eventually became cool, and Kagome shivered slightly as she lay on the grass. Inuyasha untied his robe and wrapped it tentatively around them both. She shyly allowed him to wrap her in it, and for a moment she blushed with her gaze downcast. But then, her clear eyes looked up into his, and she smiled sweetly and kissed him; and she pressed her cheek against his chest, snuggled underneath his long and silken hair, and hugged him tightly. It was the first time that they had laid thus in each other's arms; and thus it was that they passed the night together there, never once withdrawing from each other's embrace. And each reveled in the gentle perfume of their beloved's hair, the strength of their arms, the warmth of their bodies, and the beating of their hearts, which leapt with each new word and each new touch; and they tenderly caressed each other with lover's whispers, sharing the most intimate and precious songs of their hearts.