Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.
Rating: PG-13 to be safe.
Summary: Fate has played a cruel joke on Kagome, making reality elusive. A Sess/Kag themed oneshot.
Both sides of Reality
Once there was a girl who fell down a well and landed in a time not her own.
There was a subtle shift in the air. The world had changed overnight and she wasn't sure where it had left her.
She awoke upwards with a gasping intake of air, eyes wide.
White. She saw white. Above her, beside her, beneath her. Slowly it faded into the smooth cream of a hospital room.
Confusion swirled in eddies of thought. Kagome blinked and tried to create order in the chaos.
The last thing she remembered was the touch of smooth lips as her mate -
No.
It was the heat of a battle, the rush of blood as Naraku –
No.
The light of morning in the feudal forests of Sengoku Jidai as –
No.
The warmth of an affectionate kitsune curled against her in sleep –
No. Nononononono.
Once there was a girl who fell down a well and shattered a jewel.
Kagome struggled against the crashing tide of memories. She needed to remember how she ended up here in the future when the last thing she remembered was going to bed with her mate, her husband.
Her limbs felt deadened and weak. Like she hadn't used them in a very a long time.
She pulled the arrow back with ease and fired it, rapidly unstringing her bow in a practiced motion. Her muscles no longer strained and the movements were practiced and smooth. Kagome could feel the silent approval radiating from her mate; she was good in a battle.
No.
Severe atrophy they called it. It was inevitable after the three years she'd spent in a coma, the doctors said. It would take several months of retraining her limbs to get them moving as they once did. Her mother rubbed them to get the blood moving.
Meanwhile a world crashed down around her. It left her feeling breathless and alone.
All those people, the friends, the battles, the magic, the love…
She couldn't reconcile the two worlds. She supposed that the one must have been a figment of her imagination. A vivid dream created by her mind as her body lay slowly, slowly dying in a hospital room.
But… she mourned the husband she left there, the friends and their children she would never see again. Never see. Stop. They hadn't really been there in the first place, Kagome. She berated herself.
Once there was a girl who fell into a well and hit her head.
Life moved on. But life had been moving on without Kagome for three years and it showed no signs of stopping the trend now.
Yuki came to visit her, but it was awkward and stilted. She was engaged to be married, she'd met him in college; he'd been one of the teaching assistants.
Kagome's eyes filled with tears at the news and she hoped Yuki thought it meant she was happy for her old friend.
But it just made Kagome remember.
His lips trailed over her shoulder. He smiled that tiny, tiny smile reserved only for her. He snorted in a way that meant he was amused. He laughed at her modern terminology. He taught her how to use a sword, "To defend our children." He whispered in her ear at night as he made love to her.
"Yes… well. It's good see you've woken up Kagome. I hope you'll come to the wedding." Yuki smiled gently, hopefully, eyes apologizing that she couldn't and wouldn't be able to slip into the easy friendship they'd once known.
Kagome shrugged noncommittally. "I hope you'll be very happy Yuki." Her voice was rusty and hoarse from disuse. I want to be very happy again! She screamed inside.
Once there was a girl who fell into a well and woke three years later to find out she'd dreamed a life for herself.
"I'll be fine mom." Kagome reassured her mother, hovering and protective of her daughter, as she moved into her own apartment.
Life moved on. Kagome got a job in a library. She took night classes and learned science and math and tried not remember/pretend/imagine an angry hanyou tearing up her homework.
She avoided myths and her grandpa. Stayed far away from her family shrine. Kagome avoided parks and tracts of forests. She stayed firmly in the heart of the city and tried to convince herself she was okay.
The solemn eyed, dark haired girl dated. But never the same boy twice. They never held up to her dream. They never had silver hair. They never scoffed and derisively and affectionately called her "Human." Kagome missed a mate she'd never really had. But it was worse because once upon a time she had been with him, and she had memories that were real, even if the experiences were false.
Kagome speculated that a psychiatrist would have a field day with her brain.
Once there was a girl who fell into a well and lived in a world with people that never really existed.
Until one day she realized they had. Existed that is.
It had happened suddenly. Someone had returned an ancient book on demonology, professing it 'dry' and 'uninteresting'. Kagome had been unable to resist the temptation to flip through the pages looking for such things as dog demons.
His name leapt off of the page. Sesshoumaru. Her heart felt as if it was pounding out of her chest. Her eyes widened painfully. Kagome was pretty confident she experienced a mild heart attack at that moment.
It was just a simple story; the great Lord of the West had been relegated to an ancient fairy-tale, barely a blip in a footnote in the pages of history. But still, it buoyed her and cheered her. But Kagome was scared and timid and wise and didn't throw herself into searching madly for an old life. She wanted to avoid seeing a psychiatrist; she didn't want to drive herself insane.
She felt like she'd finally closed a chapter on her life. Some nameless doubt and twisted question had been resolved in her mind. Kagome changed a little bit.
She walked a bit more and her eyes shone a bit brighter. The dark haired young woman ventured into a city park for lunch one day. She visited an old god-tree and didn't step carefully around an old well house. Kagome made jokes and teased her little brother. She laughed.
Once there was a girl who fell into a well and at the bottom found her soulmate.
Kagome was finally happy and settled, she'd moved on. She'd started dating a nice man who didn't think she had issues and loved how she smiled a little wistfully at fairytales, even as he scoffed.
He liked everything about her and he showered her with candy and kisses and warm affection.
Kagome liked him dearly, and she tried not to think about how all she used to want was a tiny smile, a glimpse of fang, and an arrogant sniff of disdain when she'd done something well.
She was doing well at forgetting what had used to matter, until one day a demon walked into her life.
Once there was a girl who fell into a well and discovered a world full of demons.
Kagome didn't know him, but she was sure that he was a demon. She'd thought that being a miko had been a part of her dream world.
But when her powers flared to life and she pinned a pure gaze on the old man who was really a demon, she couldn't deny that some parts of her were true on both sides of the well and reality.
He looked at her with confusion in his eyes. And then someone walked between them and the next time she looked he was gone.
She had to break up with the man who loved her after that. He didn't believe in magic.
Once there was a girl who fell into a well and into a world where she fought a great evil.
Life became something close to ordinary. She made friends with a woman whose husband was a sort of monk who threw ofuda at demons when they intruded into human life. Myth existed in reality and Kagome felt even more at peace.
And there was normal. For a while, life was normal and good. But she still dreamed of silver hair and golden eyes and tiny smiles.
And then it happened.
And the bottom fell out of her world.
Once there was a girl who fell into a well and into a realm of possibilities.
Kagome was sitting in a café, watching the busy street when it happened. A tall man with black hair and golden eyes and her lips and Sesshoumaru's nose took off sunglasses and stared at her from across the street.
Her cup clattered to the table from nerveless fingers. He approached.
Her son had grown up without her.
Once there was a girl who fell into a well and made a family on the other side.
"We waited, and waited. And didn't know if you'd ever return to us."
"Us?"
Her son had looked at her and Kagome had felt so very young to his five hundred and some odd years.
"Of course. You didn't think The Lord of the West would let you go that easily, did you?"
Kagome was pretty sure that she was developing a heart problem after he said that. Because as she sat there across from him, her heart had pounded louder and louder as she wondered and wondered and tried to find the strength to ask him what had happened.
And when he said it, "Sesshoumaru is waiting." Her heart must've stopped.
She would get it checked out. Later.
Once there was a girl who fell into a well.
It was a paradox, she supposed. She'd lived a life that had taken three years and then been pulled back through the well through no machinations of her own. Pulled back to the exact time, that fateful moment when she'd first fallen in. She spent the next three years in a coma.
Once there was a girl who fell into a well.
There were strong arms around her waist as she woke up to the sun –
Yes.
There was a kitsune all grown up and still leaving mushrooms in trails as -
Yes.
There were old epistles, yellowed with age, from Miroku and Sango –
Yes.
There was a hanyou who'd lived 500 more years to see his friend before joining his soulmate in hell.
Yes.
And there was a mate and children who'd waited 500 years for her return.
Yes.
"But I don't understand why I would be taken back to the beginning to sleep through the next three years…" Kagome puzzled late at night while Sesshoumaru tried to convince her to sleep.
"Does it matter? You are here now. And I refuse to let time play with you anymore." If he'd been awake enough, perhaps he would've scowled at a clock.
"I think it was more fate that played with me."
"Regardless. You were thrown about the ages. It does not matter why or how or when. What matters is the here and now." He rubbed her cheek gently and she burrowed into his hand.
Undeniably he spoke wisdom.
Once there was a girl who fell into a well and ended up finding herself.
AN: Well. This is my first posted Inuyasha fic. I've got heaps more in my computer, but I think I won't get around to them for a long time. This is fairly different from my normal writing style. I'm not sure how it turned out. But I think I'm satisfied. Leave a review, let me know what you think!