Disclaimer: The characters of Inuyasha are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, but this story belongs to me.

Chapter Thirty-Five: Happy Endings?

"Now what?"

Kagome shrugged at Inuyasha's question. "I dunno."

"We could stay here and fight some more battles," suggested Shippo.

"I just want to go home and eat about a dozen cheeseburgers. Maybe gorge myself on a bit of chocolate."

"Mmm… that sounds good, Sango." The miko could do without the cheeseburgers, but the chocolate sounded absolutely divine.

"I want to go home and…"

"No one wants to know what you want to do, Miroku," interrupted the dog demon.

The monk did his best to look offended. "I was just going to say that I would like a nice long nap."

"Uh huh."

"Oh shut up." Playfully, Miroku conked Inuyasha over the head with his staff. Satisfied with seeing a couple of nice lumps form between the fuzzy silver ears, the monk turned to Kagome. "Okay, take us home."

For a couple of minutes Kagome closed her eyes. But when she opened them she found that they were still sitting in the middle of a pile of demon guts. She tried again, concentrating harder this time. Growling she stood up and gave a dismembered arm, or was it a leg, a sharp kick before concentrating again.

"Can't you hurry it up?"

When Kagome opened her eyes to glare at the dog demon they were glowing pink. "It's not like I can just click my heels together three times and wish us home."

"How did you do it last time?"

"I'm not really sure, Sango." Kagome thought about it. "Well… I remember picturing Inuyasha and a door." She blushed. "I think Inuyasha was my anchor, and the door was the way through."

"Ah," said the monk, "And now it won't work since Inuyasha is on this side with you."

Kagome sighed heavily. "Right."

Shippo chuckled evilly. "Well… I guess that means you have to picture Kouga this time since he's the only one on the other side."

The miko brightened, but the dog demon's face darkened.

"Great idea, Shippo!"

"No."

"I'll just picture Kouga."

"No!"

"And connect with him."

"NO!"

Miroku put a hand on Inuyasha's shoulder. "Would you rather us all be trapped here?"

The dog demon shrugged.

"I'm NOT giving up CHEESEBURGERS and CHOCOLATE!" yelled Sango in her most menacing tone. "So just LET HER CONNECT!

He didn't want to resort to pleading, but felt he might have no choice. Turning back to Kagome he noticed her studying him closely, trying to figure out what it was that he wasn't saying. He wanted her to know that he couldn't stand the thought of her having that connection with someone else. The others didn't know how… how intimate it was to be the one she was connecting with. For those few moments they were connected, heart and soul. It would kill him if she did that with anyone else.

Two seconds later he could tell by her eyes that she had understood what he was trying to tell her. But that sudden wicked gleam in her eyes made him a little nervous.

"Okay everyone, get ready to go home."

The others looked momentarily surprised, but quickly went back into a circle formation and held hands. With drooping ears and downcast eyes, Inuyasha squeezed Kagome's hand and looked at her, his golden eyes pleading.

"Please don't do this, Kagome."

"Your mind may be in this world," she whispered so that only he could hear, "But your body is in that one." She gave him a flirtatious wink. "I'll just have to connect with your body this time."

Inuyasha's jaw dropped open. He was pretty sure he wanted to say something, but couldn't remember what it was for the life of him. Heck, at that moment he couldn't even remember his own name. And that searing look that Kagome just gave him robbed him of any sense he had left.

"We should come back," said Shippo as he grabbed onto Sango and Kagome's hands. "This would be the coolest virtual reality game EVER!"

"We'll see," said the miko before she closed her eyes.

Blanking her mind of everything else, Kagome concentrated on her bedroom door, just like she did when she brought the others back into the real world the last time. It was their gate, their doorway, from one world to the other. She pictured it clearly in her mind, down to the very last detail, including the bottom right edge that her cat had scratched up. Then she concentrated on picturing Inuyasha just the way he was when they left on the journey. She pictured his body. Felt his warmth. Eventually she could feel his heartbeat.

Slowly she placed her hand on the door, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that on the other side was Inuyasha. She turned the knob and pushed.

Shippo was the first through the door. Sango was next, though Miroku refused to let go of her hand, so he followed next. Inuyasha tightened his grip on Kagome's hand. They would go through side by side.

"Ayame. Baby. Sweetie-Pie. Of course I didn't forget our anniversary. You know you mean the world to me. The florist must have lost my order. Don't worry, baby. I'll make sure that they get a piece of my mind. I'd never forget the anniversary of our first… uh… of our first…. Umm… the first time we… uh…. No no no! Of course I know what it was the first anniversary of. It's just that the guys are here and I… No baby! Of course I'm not ashamed of our relationship!"

Defeating Naraku had been draining. Painful and tiring and exhausting. But watching Kouga flailing over the phone was highly entertaining, and none of them wanted to interrupt the fun as they slowly woke up.

"It's just that what I sent you is supposed to be a surprise and I just know that one of these idiots would find out some way to ruin it for you. Um… yeah… I knew that… Okay, they don't actually KNOW you, but some of them are hackers and would think nothing into hacking into my database to find out personal information about my life and ruin one of the most special celebrations of our lives. Of course I'm not lying! Yes… it's VERY special." There was a slight pause in the conversation before his voice became slightly hysterical. "MARRIAGE? I didn't say anything about MARRIAGE! I just said SPECIAL!"

"Congratulations," smirked Inuyasha as he clapped a startled Kouga on the shoulder. Then he said it louder into the receiver. "CONGRATULATIONS, AYAME!"

Once Kouga got his heart rate back under control, he stammered a quick goodbye to Ayame and hung up the phone.

"Welcome back." He looked at Kagome, then at the phone. "That was my… a friend. Acquaintance really."

"Sounded like a fiancée to me," said Shippo as he sat up and stretched.

"No! Just some girl I went to school with."

"And got engaged to," smiled Sango. After a brief yawn she leapt to her feet and raced across the room. Miroku wasn't fast enough to catch her before she slammed the bathroom door shut.

"NO FAIR!" he hollered through the door. He rattled the knob, but it was locked up tight. "Why do women always get the bathroom first?"

"BECAUSE YOU MEN ARE TOO SLOW!" yelled Sango from the other side of the door.

"She's not really my fiancée…"

"Really… I don't care, Kouga. The only thing I care about at this very moment is for a very large dose of ibuprophen." She had forgotten how badly her body was hurting in the real world. Whatever pain relievers she had taken before she left had worn off. She turned to ask Inuyasha to find her some pills, but he was already hunting for them.

"We're just really good friends. She's a confused girl. A stalker of sorts."

"So, you're really good friends with a stalker?" Miroku laughed as he leaned against the bathroom door. "How interesting."

Kagome was sure that Kouga was saying something else, but she had already tuned him out. Instead, she was focusing on the object lying in her palm. It was the jewel. The whole jewel.

"Kikyo?" she whispered. The other priestess must have given her the rest of the jewel. But when? And why? She looked around the room, but there wasn't any sign that she had been in the room. Surely it would have been something that Kouga would have mentioned to her. "Midoriko?"

"You did well, my child." It was Midoriko's voice. A quick glance at her friends let her know that she was the only one who could hear the other woman.

"Thank you."

"The jewel is now yours to protect."

"What happened to Kikyo?" From across the room Inuyasha was watching her carefully. He held a bottle of pills and had picked up a glass to fill with water. She smiled at him, then looked towards the sink. He got the message and went to fill up the glass.

"She has given you the rest of the jewel. Keep it safe."

"But is she okay? And is Naraku really dead?"

Kagome couldn't see Midoriko, but she could tell that the woman was smiling. "Yes, Naraku is really dead. His body will be found shortly as the cleaning crew comes into the laboratory. Doctors will find that his heart simply quit beating."

"And Kikyo?" She felt Inuyasha place a cool glass in her hand. His hand moved to her forehead, checking for a fever. He was saying something, but she couldn't hear him.

"Kikyo wanders."

"Wanders?"

"Her spirit did not want to move on. So she wanders about this world in a body she fashioned from bones and clay."

Kagome tried not to make a face at the image in her mind. "Is she alive?"

"Not alive, yet not quite dead. You can find her, if you wish it. You can help her to pass on into the next life."

Taking the pills from Inuyasha's hand she swallowed them. She thought about Kikyo, and the life she had led. She thought about how lonely the priestess had been. Being in a body of bones and clay may not be much of a life, but at least it was a life. Sort of. Maybe, just maybe, the priestess might find a little happiness this time around.

"No. I'll help her pass on if she wants me to, but I think that for now we should just let her be."

Once more she felt Midoriko's warmth as she smiled.

"What do I do with the jewel?" Kagome looked down at the glowing jewel. "Besides protect it."

Midoriko just smiled, then faded from the young miko's mind.

"KAGOMEEEE!"

Wincing, Kagome turned around and glared at the former dog demon. "You don't have to yell, Inuyasha. I'm two inches away from you!"

The human was growling at her. "I've been calling your name for TEN MINUTES! I thought… you… you just kept moving your mouth like you were trying to talk… nothing was coming out… I thought you… we thought…" His tirade was cut short when a hand landed gently on his knee.

"I'm sorry I worried you."

He lowered his forehead to hers and took a couple of deep, calming breaths. "Keh. Who said I was worried, wench?"

"So," says Shippo, "Anyone want to play a game?"

ooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOoo

NARAKU ONIGUMO

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE

A lone figure stood by the grave, quietly reading the epitaph etched in the headstone. After a moment the woman stepped back and reached into the bag she was carrying. She pulled out the traditional priestess clothing that she had been forced to wear for nearly her entire life. Of course they weren't the originals, those had probably turned to dust many years ago. No, these were simply meant to be symbolic.

She placed the neatly folded robes beside the headstone, hiding the last sentence of the epitaph. Yes, he was gone and would never be forgotten. Personally she hoped that his soul would be in eternal torment, but she doubted that the engravers would have put that on the stone.

Kikyo turned her back on the grave and turned her face up to the sun. For the first time that she could remember, she felt joy. Real joy.

ooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOoo

Houshi4Hentai: Kagome is dead.

DemonSlayer18: again?

DogDemon01: KAGOME!

MikoMaiden: What?

FoxFyre: she can defeat naraku, but can't navigate one little pit of doom without falling in?

BigBadWolf: cut Kagome some slack there, runt.

DogDemon01: hey kouga, how's AYAME? how are the wedding plans going?

FoxFyre: where's my invitation?

DemonSlayer18: you can come with me, shippo. after all, ayame asked me to be in the wedding.

BigBadWolf: THERE IS NO WEDDING!

Houshi4Hentai: That's not what my invitation says.

MikoMaiden: I just got my invitation yesterday. Congratulations Kouga!

Kagome sat back and grinned as her friends chatted back and forth about the wedding next month that Kouga still refused to acknowledge. Two weeks after they got back to the real world after defeating Naraku as the first time Kagome met Ayame. At first the red-head hated her guts. But after they hung around together for a few days, the other woman realized she had nothing to fear from Kagome. Part was because of how she didn't treat Kouga as anything other than a friend. But the biggest part was because of how she seemed glued to Inuyasha. Kouga still claimed Kagome as his own, so Shippo suggested couple's counseling.

The jewel twinkled at her from the chain around her neck. She picked it up and looked at it. Sometimes it seemed like she could hear Midoriko's voice coming from the jewel. Midoriko was the only soul, besides Kikyo, who did not choose to move on. Midoriko stayed within the jewel, and no one was sure where Kikyo was. Kagome smiled, it sure was nice not hearing all those voices in her head. It was a little disconcerting. Of course, the voices were a lot of fun for weirding out the boys.

Looking at the calendar, she realized that they had been apart for nearly a month now. Each had gone back to their own lives. They still kept in touch through emails and IM's, but it wasn't quite the same. Shippo and Inuyasha were both in college. Kouga and Ayame were busy preparing for the wedding, regardless of what Kouga claimed.

Miroku, however, had decided after two days of separation from Sango that it was time to make a life change. He quit his job and moved. Sango had been surprised to find him standing on her doorstep, asking if there were any available apartments in her complex and where the best place to get cheeseburgers was. Kagome smiled as she recalled the phone call she got from Sango… three days after he showed up. She was sure that their own invitations were probably on the way to the engravers.

DING!

IM: DogDemon01: You're awfully quiet tonight.

IM: MikoMaiden: I miss you.

IM: DogDemon01: I miss you too. It is actually painful not having you around.

IM: MikoMaiden: Have you turned into a demon lately?

IM: DogDemon01: Nah, that only happens when you are with me. You have to hurry and get your paperwork finished so you can get over here for classes. I miss my ears and fangs.

IM: MikoMaiden: lol I miss them too. But I like your human ears. And eyes. And teeth.

IM: DogDemon01: Keep going.

IM: MikoMaiden:oP Vain puppy.

IM: DogDemon01: Did I tell you that the dorms are going co-ed?

IM: MikoMaiden: Really? Maybe we can get into the same dorm.

There was a pause. A long pause. Kagome stared at the IM box, wondering if he had gone to go get a snack or something. Finally he wrote back.

IM: DogDemon01: Or we could get an off campus apartment.

Oh my.

IM: MikoMaiden: Are you asking me to… cohabitate with you?

IM: DogDemon01: Does that mean marry?

OH MY! Kagome's fingers trembled. Eventually she got them to work correctly again and she typed.

IM: MikoMaiden: Are you asking me to marry you?

Pause.

IM: DogDemon01: If I was, what would you say?

IM: DogDemon01: Never mind, don't answer that. Not yet. Let's talk during Spring Break. I rounded up enough money to come visit. If you still want me to.

IM: MikoMaiden: I still want you.

IM: DogDemon01: I'll see you then.

IM: DogDemon01: Sweet dreams, Kagome.

IM: MikoMaiden: Sweet dreams, Inuyasha.

IM: MikoMaiden: Hey, Inuyasha?

IM: DogDemon01: Yeah?

Kagome grinned and typed in three letters that would forever change her life. Then she clicked on the SEND button.

IM: MikoMaiden: YES

ooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOooOOoo

Author's Notes:

I want to thank everyone for your reviews and for sticking the story out to the end. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks again to Shoomy2003 for proofing for me. I'll be starting a new story soon, hope you guys check it out.

Thanks again for your wonderful reviews, constructive criticism help make the stories better. :o)