Along Came a Kitsune

Chapter 5: I Can Still Feel Your Touch

Finding a fairly isolated seat on the bus, Kagome felt a sensation of relief rush through her. That Kurama…was something else.

He was cunning. He was confident. He was handsome.

Why do I always seem to go for the jerks?

He had something kitsune about him.

And yet, he didn't feel very…kitsune-ish…to her miko senses. He felt similar to how her little Shippou, but it was so faint that the first time she had felt it—when they saw each other in the waiting room—she thought it had been her imagination, that perhaps she missed the Sengoku Jidai just a little too much. But when the feeling never dissipated (it had actually gotten a little stronger) she had gotten suspicious of the green-eyed bishounen and mentally refused to let as little as possible out about herself because there was no telling whether youkai had survived through the years and, for all she knew, residual energy from the Shikon no Tama could still be on her. And yet, a small part of her told her not to worry about this man: HE didn't feel like a kitsune—not that much—it was more like he had a lot of contact with one.

Perhaps he's the reincarnation of a kitsune. Maybe even Shippou. She sighed. It wouldn't do to dwell over things like that. And if she kept having those thoughts like that, she might get attached to Kurama, and she refused to let anyone cause her to stray from her undying love for Inuyasha.

But her thought also held some ground. If he was the reincarnation of a youkai—an upper level youkai, that is—it would certainly account for his breathtaking appearance and eyes so piercing they reminded her of Sesshoumaru.

At this point in her thought process, she blushed as she remembered how he had looked at her. It was like he had a secret, one of those I-know-something-you-don't-know kind of gazes—and had his eyes gotten lighter too?

She shook her head. She was sure it was just exhaustion from the day. A good night's sleep would cure her of everything.

But first she had to eat dinner with her family.

Kagome looked between a couple heads to see the street names and sighed. With the traffic how it was at the moment, it would still be half an hour before making it to the Higurashi shrine. But that was just fine with her.

She had plenty to contemplate.

Deciding that thinking of Kurama may just give her a headache, she decided to inwardly investigate the feeling she had gotten once she had left the building.

She had felt some kind of energy, but it wasn't pure like that of a miko or monk, and it wasn't that of a youkai. It was just…somewhere in between. It was there…but not there. A pang of hunger accompanied this, but it left just as quickly as it came.

This had been happening to her for years now, but she had never been able to determine why. Mostly it came in small hunger pains or cramps. Occasionally, she found bruises that had no reason for existing and a cut or two that seemed to be from the air, for nothing sharp had been near her. A couple of appendages had been sprained before as well when she had experience that other energy. If it hadn't been for those times, she would have just thought she had bad luck or hemophilia or something like that.

She was sure her grandfather would have been overjoyed to hear she might actually possess one of the diseases he had told her friends about.

Kagome laughed lightly at this before returning to her troubling thoughts. So engrossed in contemplation was she that she almost missed the driver saying through the microphone, "Higurashi Drive, home of the Higurashi Shrine." She quickly picked up her things and exited the bus. It left quickly and she took a breath to prepare herself from the trek up the mountain of steps. All in all, living in a shrine wasn't too bad, but she could never get used to the stairs. She suspected they were the reason that Grandfather rarely left the shrine except for what he called "important meetings"—where the heads of all the shrines in the area met to complain about the "young folks" of the present days.

From the first step to the last, she could feel the pure energy from the ofudas she had placed on the shrine—after all, just because seeing demons wasn't an everyday occurrence any more didn't mean they weren't out there. Any protection she could give her family was better than nothing since she couldn't live so far away from her place of work. Reaching the top, she could feel the purity of everything around here and feel the hum from that could only come from what existed for centuries, such as the God Tree and the Bone-Eater's Well. She closed her eyes to enjoy that feeling for a moment before she turned to smile at her brother, who was running up to her just as he had all of his life. In his last year of high school (and now taller than her) it looked rather ridiculous, but Kagome didn't comment on that.

She opened her arms wide to hug him and laughed while she let him spin her around a couple times. "Okay, Souta, stop. I don't want to get sick." He did as she asked. She looked up at him and found that she just reached his chin. "That's it. You're not allowed to grow any more. I don't want people thinking I have a big brother."

He smirked and bowed, "As you wish, oh great miko."

"Speaking of which, how has your training been going?" she asked as they walked across the shrine grounds to the house. Kagome knew that Souta was being trained by Grandfather so he could take over the shrine after the elder's death, but she didn't know exactly HOW he was being trained. And, although she loved Grandfather very much, she didn't think that he would be able to teach Souta more than story telling.

Souta rounded into his sister's path and shook a finger at her. "Ah ah ah, that's a secret."

Kagome sighed. "Fine. What's for dinner?"

"You're eating with us for the first time in weeks, what do you think Mama made?" he asked as he opened the door to the kitchen.

Kagome looked at the table and could have jumped up and down at what she saw. "Oden!"

Dinner lasted much longer than usual as everyone caught up with each others' life. Everyone had been especially interested in her acquaintance with the red-haired man, and Mama told Kagome that if "that nice young man" wanted to buy the ring, then let him. Kagome inwardly cringed at this, though a part of her did want to see him again. It was something about the way he said, "It's not much value to humans." It hinted that he knew there was more out there. He may even be planning my demise as we speak. But then again, he could have just been joking.

Kagome helped her mother clear the dishes and continued their conversation while washing them. Mama and Grandfather soon informed the siblings that they were tired and would be retiring for the night and Grandfather, with a malicious glint beginning to form in his eyes, told Souta that he would do well to do the same. Souta groaned but complied, leaving Kagome the only one awake.

That didn't bother her. It was exactly what she wanted. She waited for a few minutes and soon heard Grandfather's snoring. She knew it only took the others their heads hitting the pillow to put them to sleep, and so knew that she could now do what she wanted.

She softly opened and closed the door leading outside and slowly walked across the shrine grounds to the old wellhouse. So many memories were awoken at the mere sight of the building, it took all she had to open the doors and walk down those few steps. She spoke a prayer over the boarded-over well before quickly leaving. The well, now not functioning, felt so…empty.

Besides, there was one place she would much rather be.

The God Tree, as old as time itself she sometimes thought, held the memories of so many. And it was the single most important object in her life. It was here that she met her first love. And it was here that she buried him. And it was here that her best friends had informed her that they would be buried as well. In this one spot, they could all be together again.

"Kagome…" The old tree seemed to whisper to her in the voice of her loved one. "I love you…"

"I love you too Inuyasha," she sobbed, "I still love you. I always will."

She could still remember how he had touched her that night. He had hesitantly brought his hand to her cheek, as if fearing her rejection despite the fact she had returned his words of love. Then, with a little more confidence, he had rubbed his thumb across her cheek.

She could still remember exactly how his lips felt upon hers.

"I love you," were her last words before she sobbed herself to sleep.

Mama looked though her window and saw that her little girl's breathing had finally evened out. She sighed heavily. It was like this every time she returned to the shrine. Ever since she moved out, she had never once slept in her own bed. Mama worried about her almost constantly. Although she knew how deeply a dead love could affect the heart, and that they could never leave, she hoped that Kagome would be able to find another to love just as completely as she did Inuyasha. She was sure that he would not want to see Kagome suffer as she did now. But she didn't think Kagome could see that.

She sighed once again and grabbed a blanket out of the linen closet. She couldn't call herself a good mother if she let her daughter freeze.

A/N: Yay! I finally updated. I'm sure those of you who have (been forced to) read Dickens understand. Anyways, thanks everyone for your support. And I have to say that I have learned my lesson about stopping writing a chapter right in the middle; it took me forever to remember what I was gonna write!

Anywho, a while ago a reviewer for Red Flowers going by the pseudonym foxygrl asked me if I could write a sess/kag fic sometime. I have an idea for one, so that may be coming up sometime in the near or far future.

Red Flowers will be going on hiatus for a little while because I only have so much time on my hands and if I had to choose between my fics, it would be this one. Don't worry though, I won't be discontinuing it.

Reviewer Responses:

TO EVERYONE WHO HAS ASKED FOR ME TO WRITE LONGER CHAPTERS: This has no positive effect on the length. I will write as much as feels right to me. And although I can sympathize with you and appreciate that you like my writing, this is a pet peeve of mine and I will most likely make the chapter shorter just to spite you. If any of this sounded mean, I apologize.

baa baa black sheep: you asked me to post on something, but I think the site was deleted, so that it reads, "can you post this fic on ?" Did you mean to say mediaminer?

inu.-sess.fan: sorry, but I don't think I'll be needing any OC in this fic.

Well, I wish everyone luck on your finals (grr). I'll do my best to try to update sometime during the holidays!