"You must return," Midoriko spoke to her in a calm monotone. "Your mission in this era is finished. You must return home now."
"But I am home," Kagome whimpered. She could feel the tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "You made this my home."
Midoriko's face fell, frown lines forming at the corners of her mouth. "You cannot stay here," She stated firmly, "You have changed time, little Priestess, and balance has been attained. Your wish brings an end to the darkness in this land."
She felt the warrior priestess's hand on her shoulder, squeezing it in comfort as her body shook with little sobs.
Kagome didn't want to leave.
"Do not be saddened," Midoriko said to Kagome. "Your future is uncertain, but bright."
What use is a future without my friends?' She thought.
Midoriko smiled at her knowingly, putting her hand on the top of Kagome's head.
"You will see, Little Priestess. Just remember your power, and you will be fine..."
Kagome awoke from her dream with a groan, turning over in her bed and pulling the comforter over her head. She had dreamt the same dream for a week now, and she wanted to just forget her time spent in the jewel with the Warrior Priestess. She had given her hope, at the time, but now she was beginning to lose it all. She also didn't know what this "power" was. Her reiki? She hadn't felt it surge within her for weeks, though she could still feel demonic auras. She usually chose to ignore it, if she could. She theorized that because the jewel never existed and had never been inside her, that her Miko abilities still laid dormant with no real way to bring them out.
To top it all off, Sesshomaru was bothering her. She was debating on whether to spill to him everything that was going through her head. They had no history together, in this timeline. His silent demeanor had not changed, but he wasnt frigid like the demon she knew. And what did she know about him anyway? They hadn't exactly been close in the fuedal era. in fact, he had tried to kill her more times than she could count on all fingers and toes. Of course, that changed when he met Rin.
The little girl had softened him with her persistence. It brought a tear to her eye; she too missed the bouncing little child.
Her heart ached with longing for the past.
Her mother called her then, snapping her out of her reverie so hard she fell out of bed. With a groan she began to pick herself up off the floor, and she heard the stairs squeak as her mother made her way to her bedroom.
"Kagomeee! You have a visitor! I didnt know you'd made a new friend... What in the world are you doing?"
Kagome looked up, annoyed at her mother for making her fall, and immediately went from pale white to firetruck red.
He was standing there, bemused, staring at her with a predatory amusement he didn't bother to hide.
She tugged at her too-short pajama bottoms and growled in embarrassment, "Give me some time to get dressed next time, will ya mom?"
Her mother shrugged, a sly grin spreading across her face as Kagome ushered her and Sesshomaru out the door, closing it loudly behind them.
She steamed. He was going to start coming to the shrine now? What had she gotten herself into?
"This is so unfair," She whined, pulling off her pajamas and ruffling through her closet.
Settling on an old yellow sweater and blue skirt, she looked at herself in the mirror. The sweater, she realized, was the one she had worn her last day in the fuedal era. Amazingly, it still had singe marks, and lifting the sleeve to her nose, she smelled Inuyasha's musky, faded scent.
Kagome cried for a minute or two, ran to wash her face in thr bathroom, and then made her way hurriedly downstairs.
Sesshomaru was in the kitchen with her mother drinking tea, partaking in idle conversation that stopped as soon as her feet reached the bottom stair.
He opened his mouth to speak but froze, his nostrils flaring for a split second.
'Oh shit,' She thought, panicked. There was no way he wouldn't recognize the scent of his half brother. It had slipped her mind.
"Are you ready for our date, Kagome-San?" He asked after a moment of silence.
"D-Date?" She squeaked, swallowing the growing lump in her throat as her face grew red once more. "Yes S-Sesshomaru-Sama, I'm ready."
Thankfully her mother hadn't noticed their pause, or Kagome's growing panic. instead she raised a brow at her daughter.
"You're going out in that old thing? Don't you want to wear something a little nicer? It's your first date after all.."
"Moooom!" Kagome's face was hot. 'I'm going to pass out if I don't get out of here!'
Thankfully, Sesshomaru rose from his seat to stand beside her, just barely raising his hand with the intention to have her take it, and she did after a moment of hesitation. His hand engulfed hers, but held her tiny fingers in a warm, gentle grip.
"She looks just fine," He uttured in a low voice. "I sha'll return her later."
"Oh I'm not so sure about that," Kagome's mother teased, making Kagome groan internally.
Once they made it out the door she let out a little relieved sight, and he let go of her hand just as quickly as she had taken it. She waited for him to question her.
They were at the bottom of the long row of steps wheb he stopped and turned to her. There was something in his eyes that she had never seen there before. Fear, maybe?
"I have been quite patient with you, Miko. Now, tell me, how in the hell do you smell like Inuyasha? He's been dead for centuries now,"
Kagome couldn't hear what else he was saying.
Inuyahsa... Dead?
The world went white, and she went down.