Author's Notes: Thanks to Tamakia'gss for the rhyme suggestion!
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, or any nursery rhymes.
The Mother Goose Escapades
No. 6
Hickory dickory dock
The Mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one,
the mouse ran down
Hickory dickory dock.
Inuyasha stared at the object Kagome had given him. It sat in his hand, his ears picking up the soft ticking sound. Kagome had explained to Inuyasha what it was, but he didn't quite understand. There were numbers, she had pointed out, and lines, and things moved, all of their own accord.
He remained fixated on one number Kagome had pointed out. She had promised to be back at what she called one o'clock. Pointing to the lines, she said when the short line was pointed at the line she called one, she would be back. She had warned that the short line would pass the one line twice. It would be the second time it passed that she would return. This made sense, Inuyasha decided, as the first time it passed, it was the middle of the night.
But now waiting was tedious. After staring at the watch for something like seventeen hours (although Inuyasha didn't know that's what it was called, he just knew it had made a complete circle and then some) Inuyasha realized how slowly time can go. Heck, the time he spent sealed to the tree seemed much shorter, compared to watching the quickest line ticking away.
The short hand was currently at the double long lines, still one figure left before it would hit the line called one. And Inuyasha was bored. The more he watched the device, the more he was certain the line was moving slower and slower. If he listened to it, the ticking seemed pretty consistent however. Inuyasha shook it anyway. Nothing changed. He shook it harder. Still nothing. He contemplated throwing it on the ground and jumping on it, but decided that might be a bad idea. Kagome might want the annoying thing back, though he had no idea why she might.
Inuyasha strapped the thing to his wrist, like Kagome had shown him, and settled down next to the well. As annoyed as he was with the slow moving lines, he wasn't as anxious about Kagome's return as he normally felt. Now he had something to tell him when Kagome would came back, something connected them across time. The sun shone down, warming his face, and Inuyasha sighed. Even though Kagome wasn't with him, he felt a content in knowing he had a way to keep track of her.
Time passed, and Inuyasha half dozed, ears lazily flicking one way or the other. He was still bored, but he didn't have much else to do. Then, without warning, he bolted upright, catching his hand and looking at his wrist. He couldn't read it, it was facing the wrong way! Fumbling for a bit, he managed to get it off without tearing the band, and turned it right-side up. The short line was almost on the one line. Closer and closer it ticked until...the line moved directly onto the one line.
And Kagome didn't appear. Panicked, Inuyasha leapt for the well and dove down. The transportation was taking forever, but he made it through and leapt out of the well, into the dark well house of Kagome's time. Throwing open the door, Inuyasha raced out, barely stopping himself from barreling into an approaching Kagome.
"Hey Inuyasha!" she said cheerfully. "Sorry I'm running a little late."
"You said you'd be back at one!" Inuyasha growled, holding up the object and pointing to it. "I was worried, I thought something had happened."
"Oh Inuyasha, it was only an approximation," Kagome rolled her eyes, then giggled. "Here, take this, we'll go back together." Inuyasha grudgingly took her overstuffed backpack from her hands and together they leapt back through the well.
"I was only worried about you," Inuyasha mumbled quietly to himself. Kagome didn't hear him as they sped through time, back into the past.
Author's Notes: Hope you're still enjoying the reading! To let you know,I'm moving updates to only Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. This is in order to keep my sanity while the last month of classes wraps up. After that...well, we'll see won't we: )