Barely Touching

I. Can't. Stop. The. Insatiable. Need. To. Write. Fanfics!
I really should finish off the ones I have already, including Flat Line – which is in the works, people, so don't fret yourselves. I've gotten half-way through the next chapter so don't panic. It's just not as emotional as I'd like it to be and a few bugs need to be worked through. Other than that, this was an idea I had way before Flat Line. Okay, maybe only a few minutes of break-through thinking before the latter came to mind.

So... No matter how bad things get, please don't shoot me. Just like Erase The Past, and just like Flat Line. I shall never for the life of me do a sad ending, because that is just desperation. I would be depressed for months after writing a dead-end fanfic.

Prepare the tissues. But not the chainsaws.

Kagome's eyes fluttered open. For an instant, her world seemed to be suspended – distant – and she couldn't make sense of her surroundings. But then the dizziness evaporated, leaving her alone in her thoughts. She sat up, putting a hand to her head.

She was lying in her bed – in the present – tucked safe and sound into warm pink sheets. She sighed and shook her head from side to side, dispelling the tendrils of sleep still trying to grip onto her and drag her back to her dreams.
Still groggy, she groaned and pulled her sheets aside – climbing out of bed and stretching. The sun shone through her bedroom window, highlighting the side of her face and causing after-images to develop in her vision as she turned away.

Her bedroom door was slightly ajar, and she made her way over to it. Rubbing her eyes, yawning and trying to get her mind to wake up, she opened her bedroom door and stepped out onto the landing. She knew what the day ahead would entail. A trip down the well back to the Sengoku Jidai, possibly another argument with Inuyasha, more desperate searching for the jewel shards – and, if she was lucky, a nice trip to a hot spring.

Kagome grinned, suddenly wide-awake. Not such a bad day ahead, after all. "Mama!" she called as she made her way downstairs. "Mama, I'm up!" Her hand drooped from the banister as she went, sliding her palm down gracefully, almost as if she were a princess. She hadn't done that in a long, long time – and she couldn't help but do a pirouette at the bottom of the stairs.

It was strange. The more she thought about today, the more it seemed to be looking up. She felt happy – knowing there was no reason for her to be happy, yet not caring. Any day with Inuyasha was something to treasure – right?
Kagome couldn't help the giggle that escaped her throat. She couldn't care. The sun was shining, the prospect of today was looking up, and she could smell her mother's wonderful cooking in the kitchen.

She'd never felt so… anchored before. She truly belonged in this world – in both worlds. With her family and her friends, and Inuyasha, Miroku, Sango and Shippo. She was a part of both worlds – with the family that fate had given her. Surely that was enough to make her happy, maybe that was why there was a huge grin on her face.

Maybe. Or maybe it was simply a warning. The dying feeling you get when something comes to an end. Because the moment she stepped into the kitchen, she wished she was back in bed – asleep. She'd been wrong all along. Because she didn't belong – not for a second.

Mama turned at the sight of her daughter standing in the kitchen. She smiled warmly. "Good morning, honey. Did you sleep well?"
Kagome nodded and slipped into a chair at the kitchen table. She massaged the muscles in her shoulder from where she had knotted it up yesterday on the other side. It had only been an overnight recuperation. She knew Inuyasha would be coming to fetch her soon.

"I can't believe how I slept, Mama. I haven't slept so well in ages! It was as if yesterday hadn't happened." Kagome grinned, removing the top plate from the stack her mother had placed on the table. She started shovelling her breakfast food onto her plate, her eyes sparkling.

Mama chuckled. "Why, Kagome? What happened yesterday?" she asked, her tone flighty as she turned back to the stove and started frying some eggs.
Kagome froze, suspicion making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She glanced up at her mother. What does she mean 'what happened yesterday'? She knows I came back to get some rest before we went looking for more jewel shards…

"You know, Mama. Yesterday Inuyasha dropped me off so I could get some rest. I'll be going back today, so…"
"Going back where, Kagome? And who's Inuyasha? A boyfriend you've been trying to hide?" Mama turned, winking with a large grin on her face.

Kagome's mind exploded. …Who's… Inuyasha?
Her world seemed to crumble around her. Who's Inuyasha? Who's Inuyasha? Who's Inuyasha?
She hastily stood up out of her chair, pushing it backwards. "Mama, are you kidding? You are joking with me, aren't you?"

Mama seemed genuinely surprised. She turned back. "Kagome… no, you haven't told me about this boy before. Is he nice?" she looked back at the egg she was frying, gasped, and put it on a plate ready to serve.

Kagome's mouth fell open, her eyes widening in disbelief. Then, all too suddenly, tears began to well up in her eyes. "No. No, no, no! Quit joking with me, Mama!" she screamed, bolting out of the kitchen and out the backdoor – heading towards the well house.

Mama Higurashi, in her shock, called after her daughter but failed to run after her. Kagome was acting strange this morning… maybe she was still asleep and longing after a dream she'd had during the night. Mama shrugged and went back to cooking the breakfast. She was sure it would all be resolved in time.

"No." Kagome whispered, trying to dig through the bottom of the well. "No, no, no, no, no…" She knew she was muddy – her pyjamas were cloaked in dirt and dust and her fingers were bloody from where she'd had to pry the seal from the well. It had been covered… but why? Why, when she uses it so frequently? Surely it couldn't have all been her imagination!

"I'm coming, Inuyasha – I'm coming," Kagome whispered, knowing she was hurting herself more and more by saying this. The point was, she wasn't going through the well like she should be – she wasn't there, in the other time. She was stuck here, in the present.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome cried at the top of her lungs, flinging dirt aside with her fingers. She was surrounded by shadows and darkness, not only in the real sense but in her mind too. Everything was foggy, clouded up inside her mind. She couldn't make any sense of what was going on – she only distantly realised that this had happened before, but she'd been trapped in her own mind. A curse…

She clenched her fists, bowing her head in defeat. She couldn't get through… it was hopeless… "Inuyasha…"

Had he really not existed? Had he only been a dream? Or was Mama just joking – was it all a lie? Then why is the well not working? Why aren't I back in the Sengoku Jidai?
Part of her expected to look up and see Inuyasha hovering over her like a shining knight, a grin on his face – his amber eyes shining like the sun. But when Kagome looked up, all she saw was darkness.

Tears spilled out of her eyes. No… how could I have imagined so much time in so little time? It couldn't have been a dream – it couldn't have been! But then… why? Why couldn't she return to Inuyasha? Why did her own mother not recognise his name? Why had she suddenly felt so blessed this morning – if not to feel worse afterwards?

Kagome curled up into a ball, cradling her legs with her arms. It was all over. Everything – everything had been a stupid hallucination. Inuyasha didn't exist. He had never existed. She knew that now. Why? Because the whole thing had been farfetched to begin with. Youkai and hanyous didn't exist; neither did sacred jewels or reincarnations.

No.
Kagome, for the first time, felt alone. It had all been a cruel, cruel lie – set up only to break her heart. "Gome na, Inuyasha," she whispered under her breath, shivering at the bottom of the well as she recalled the silver-haired boy who had meant so much to her… yet had been nothing more than an apparition.

"I'm sorry…"

Inuyasha flexed his fingers, his eyes slowly opening. He had been asleep? How could he have done that? He had to protect Kagome! He had to–. No, Kagome had returned home yesterday to rest. She wasn't here. But still, how could he have lowered his guard?

He felt an ache in his shoulder, and he suddenly looked down at himself. He was… hovering in the air? What? And he was up against something… a tree. Go Shinboku, he realised. And then it occurred to him what the pain in his shoulder was. An arrow.

"N-Nani?" Inuyasha reached up to touch the arrow, but as soon as his fingers brushed the wood he cringed as a bolt of power coursed through his body. Hissing, he drew his hand away. How is this possible? How am I still against Go Shinboku? Where is Kagome?

"Miroku! Sango! Shippo! Anyone? What the hell is going on here?" Inuyasha screamed, trying helplessly to kick his legs. He couldn't. There were roots trailing up around his legs, locking him up against the tree. He was trapped.

No one replied to his calls. The forest was silent, with nothing but the chirping of courting birds and the leaves of the trees blowing in the wind. But he was not alone in the clearing. A figure moved amongst the many trunks of the trees around him, curious yet afraid.

"He has awakened?" a familiar voice croaked.
Relief swept over Inuyasha. "Kaede!" he cried. The old woman stepped into the clearing, carrying a basket of herbs. She stared up at him in both anger and shock. "Inuyasha?" she dropped the basket in her arms, staring at the hanyou with wide and disbelieving eyes. "No… Sister's spell should've held…"

"What are you talking about? Get me down! Where's Kagome? I need to see Kagome, where is she?" he yelled, hopelessly trying to remove the arrow slightly below his shoulder blade. "Kaede, where's Kagome? Where is she, is she back yet? What the hell is going on?"

Kaede took a hesitant step forward. "K-Kagome? Inuyasha, you–? Who's 'Kagome'?"
Inuyasha's eyes widened. "'Who's…'?" he repeated dumbly, confused. Then he lurched forward. "What do you mean 'who's Kagome'? You know very well who I'm talking about! Now get me down! Where is she?"

The thing was, Inuyasha knew very well where Kagome was - or should have been. She was in her time – wasn't she? But then, if that were true, then why was he still sealed to this tree? Kaede was acting like she'd never heard of Kagome's name before… but that wasn't possible!

Unless… Unless he had woken up from a 50 year sleep in which Kikyo had trapped him to the Go Shinboku. Unless Kagome had never really existed; unless she had only been a dream.
Inuyasha clenched his fists, going numb. "No… No, it can't be…"

Kaede was staring at him, confusion across her face. He appears to have changed… but how? She wondered, seeing the change in his expression. He looked lonely, confused, agitated… afraid. Desperately searching for something… someone. This 'Kagome' person.

She didn't know what to believe. Instead she kept watching him, with an odd look on her face. The half-demon that had slain her sister and destroyed her village… blinded her in one eye and stolen the Shikon no tama. A monster.

Yet here he was, fretting over a girl who had no face. Just a name that Kaede didn't recognise. Kagome…