Authors note: Okay, this chapter is a bit longer than the others, because I didn't want to give my loyal readers another cliffhanger. Because I wuv them . . So anyway, you'll find this chapter a little fluffier than most of the others, if not directly, then in a way. Also, expect the return of a dear friend. thats all I'm gonna say!

Okay, read and please do review!

The following week was full of relatives flooding into the higurashi shrine, leaving their condolences for grandpa.

Kagome nodded, smiled sadly, and deigned to keep her head down.

though her aunts and uncles, as well as cousins thought it was strange that she did not shed a tear for her grandfather, they accepted it to be a way of coping. Maybe it was...

Inside, kagome was sad, with the normal depression that would come after a loved one dies. And she felt alone, as well. Distant...

She wondered what inuyasha would do if he was there with her, whether he would comfort her, or yell at her for being weak.

Or maybe, he wouldn't do anything at all... He would brood in the god-tree, and wait until she came to get him.

"Kagome..?" She looked up, her mouth open in surprise.

"Oh, hojo, why are you here..?" Her hands remained folded in front of her, as a suit clad hojo stood beside her.

Noticing that she was sitting, he grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to her.

"Kagome... I'm so sorry." For once in his life, hojo was serious, and concerned about something other than asking her out on a date.

He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her in a sudden embrace, that caught kagome completely offguard. She yelped as she was jerked into his arms.

"I wish that you didn't have to go through this, but, if you want me to. I'll be there with you..." He pulled back and smiled at her, keeping a hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks hojo." Kagome was just getting over the shock of him hugging her, although it wasn't the most pleasant of things, it was still sort of shocking.

"I'd like to know if you want to go to dinner tonight, just with a few friends, if you feel like you can't do it, then I understand.."

Kagome shook her head in defeat and sighed, maybe if she said yes once, he would leave her alone for a while, if even that.

"you know hojo... that would be nice.." She smiled at him, watching his boyish smile return. How she wished that it was inuyasha that was smiling at her like she was a goddess.

But it was just hojo, a clueless, popular guy, that took direct interest in her. She knew it wasn't love, because she knew what love felt like, and it was so much better than this...

Kagome had changed into jeans and a t-shirt after the funeral, simply telling her mother that she was going out for a while. Her mother had smiled sadly and nodded her head, before turning back to the dishes. Hojo was right on time with his red convertable that kagome didn't even know he had. His smile was bright, the poor guy... He was saying that they were going to a small place just near her house. It was a diner...

She was quiet, the whole ride to the diner, she looked down at her feet, ignoring the idle chatter that hojo tried to use to break the ice. The diner was small, but yet busy... Hojo kept talking about his two awesome friends that he wanted her to meet.

She sighed as she looked at the building looming above her and hojo, this would be tough, tougher than facing demons with inuyasha. Because this was practically a new battle ground, she had NEVER been on a date before. And now, she was regretting even saying yes.

Hojo led her to the steps of the diner, pointing to the two guys standing in front of the door, watching kagome and hojo approach.

"Hey guys! this is kagome. And uh.. Kagome, this is daisuke-" He motioned to the one on the left, who had black hair and soft brown eyes like hojo did.

"And this is saiyoko." Hojo smiled and nodded to the other.

It was now that kagome noticed this boys insolent eyes, they were green. His dark red hair was pulled back into a short pony-tail, and he stared at kagome, like he knew something.

"Lets go inside." Hojo opened the door of the diner and stepped in, leading a very confused kagome behind him.

Soon enough, they got a table, ordered, as well as engage in conversation that only hojo and daisuke really participated in. Saiyoko kept staring at her with those insolent green eyes. Kagome felt uncomfortable, like she had forgotten something that she should always have remembered, and this boy was reprimanding her for it.

"Hey you guys, me and daisuke are gonna go get the food, okay..?" Hojo got up and gave both kagome and the green eyed boy a simple nod before both of the boys walked off.

Kagome watched them go, sighing in tired annoyance.

"So... Kagome." The boy finally spoke to her and closed his eyes, sitting back in his seat.

"your grandfather died, huh..?" Kagome almost gasped, why did this guy know about that... had hojo told him?

"As well as losing someone dear to you, eh..? Life treats you strangly I see." This boy had a strange way of talking, strangly, he sounded almost familiar. She was completely surprised that he knew about her other troubles.

"Yeah.." She managed to stutter out, almost horrified.

"Hmm" His green eyes darted to the side. He fell silent, crossing his arms over his chest, as kagome turned and saw hojo and daisuke returning with the food.

She got up before they could sit back down...

"I'm going to go to the bathroom, okay..?" She quickly ran without even saying another word to hojo. This guy, saiyoko, he was giving her a strange feeling, that she really wasn't sure she wanted to know about.

Saiyoko watched her go, and got up after her, he turned to a speechless hojo and astonished daisuke.

"I'll get her, don't worry about it."

Kagome had snuck out of the back door of the diner, not caring whether anyone saw her. What she hadn't noticed on the drive with hojo, was that there were many dark allies, with only streetlights to light her way.

It wasn't the greatest part of town, she had to say that...

She never would have done this normally, but something had told her to get away from that diner.

"Kagome..." It wes the voice of that boy!

She turned abruptly to where the voice was coming from, which happened to be the pitch black, shadowed by spindly reflections of shapes she couldn't discern.

"Do you know who I am..?" A figure stepped out of the shadows, the light played across him, to reveal that it was saiyoko.

"What do you want?!" Kagome clutched her purse, trying to inch away from the boy.

"I want to know, why were you out with hojo-san..? Don't you love another..?" His face wasn't full of malice like she expected it to be, it was thoughtful.

"I do... but.." She looked down. "I know that he would... I just... I love him so much, but I lost him, and I can't find him. I miss him, and I wish that I could see him again." She slowly fell to her knees as her depression again hit her like a wave. Her tears fell, as they always did, and she felt regret for bursting out in front of a total stranger.

"Oh.. okaa-san... please don't cry..." The boy knelt down next to her and hugged her.

"Wait, huh?! mom?! is that what you just called me?!" She looked up at him in disbelief.

He looked down at her as well and smiled.

"It's me, shippo."

Shippo...

Her eyes widened, her heart sped up, and as she looked up into the boy's eyes, she realized that it was true. Completely true...

"Shippo-chan??!" She reached up and hugged him tightly, holding onto him to the point that he was gasping for air.

"Kagome, you're choking me!!" Kagome abruptly yelped and let him go, sitting back and looking down at the ground lamely.

He smiled and bent down, throwing himself into her arms.

"Mama!" Kagome smiled as she caught him, just like old times, just like she had longed to.

"Shippo... How did you... where is inu-" She looked down and sighed.

"Nevermind... It's a stupid question." She looked over at shippo.

He had grown, he was as tall as inuyasha was, witht the same lanky yet muscular build. He still had his pony-tail, and now that he had ceased his fox magic of disguise, he had large padded fox feet. His tail was smaller, although not too small. He wore the same style of clothes that he once did in the feudal era.

"Otou-san, I don't know where he is, but I know that he's alive. And we'll find him, mama, we will." He smiled in confidence and looked on ahead towards the woods.

"Kilala and I made our home in the woods, after sango and miroku passed on, we just went on living, hoping to find you again."
He led the way into a small path leading through the foliage that they were entering.

"And it wasn't a stupid question... I would wonder the same thing..." Kagome looked nervously around her, rubbing her arms.

"You... loved otou-san, right..?" Shippo glanced back at her.

"Yeah, of course I did." She looked back down, ignoring the look in his eyes, it was pity. She knew it...

Her thoughts were interrupted, as a ball of fur came at her, mewing in joy.

"Kilala!" She laughed happily and petted her, smiling at the fire cat.

Shippo sat down on the ground, watching silently as his dear second mother hugged his best friend close.

He almost wished that inuyasha was here to see her, no, he DID wish that he was... Inuyasha had loved her so much, shippo knew how much he had loved watching kagome in the morning. Smiling in a bittersweet way, just loving her...

He bent his head down, remembering the pain in the hanyou's eyes when he had asked shippo that question, yeah, that question.

He had looked shippo straight in the eye and asked,

"Why do I feel so complete... and yet so empty..? Why do I feel like she's my heart..?" It had been after inuyasha had dropped her back into the well. He had cried, he had wept for her.

As if she was dead...

Inuyasha had forgotten about kikyo, shippo knew that the minute inuyasha had disappeared, was the same minute that kikyo allowed herself to rest. So that she was no more...

Inuyasha had always wanted her to be happy, for her to live, and to live well. That was why he wished that he had never even met her, because then, she wouldn't have gotten hurt, because of him. When she hurt, shippo saw inuyasha in the same torture, walking around, and watching her like one who was almost dead. But she had always brought him back, making the light shine, making the tears go away.

It was so simple to say that inuyasha would gladly have given his life for her, but it was hard to say that he would leave truly. Because then, there would be no one left to keep her warm, to keep her light shining. He wouldn't have died if he had wanted to...

Maybe it was because she was gone, that he had left, disappeared without a trace. because a part of him, still remained with her, and he was trying to get it back.

Shippo had heard the rhyme, and he had puzzled it in his mind, for the 500 years that he had to endure. Inuyasha hadn't tried to fight against the witches, because he knew that he was already almost dead.

"Shippo.. Why don't we go back to my house..? It'll be a bit warmer..." She eyed him, and pleaded with him silently, her brown eyes searching his soul for a clue.

"Yeah... that would be good." He smiled.

But he had come to one simple conclusion, they were lost, without each other. And he did not want to see them lost any longer.

Authors note: I hope you guys don't mind, but I will no longer be responding to reveiws, because it just takes too much time, and emotional gusto to do so. Although, all of your reveiws help me write, I appreciate every one of them!

I wrote this chapter, to 2 blink182 songs, that I feel are very deep and thoughtfull. Just very angsty!

They are...

I miss you.

and

I'm lost without you.

In respone to one particular reveiw though, I'd like to say, that I found the lyrics to the evanescense song on a website that you'll have to ask for in a reveiw, because they don't show the websites on stories.

I was sort of angsty, and very squishy from a little inuyasha-kagome fluff that I read in an awesome story that I think was called, My inuyasha. I'll confirm in the next chapter, but if you like my stories, you should read this one. It brought me to tears! And thats hard to do, for me, the master of angst! (In my world anyway).

Okay then, I'll keep writing if you guys keep up the good work and keep reveiwing, I wuv all you guys!!!