Moving On

Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha

A/N: Thank you so much to all of you who reviewed. Sorry for the delay in updating. Please R & R.

Kagome rubbed her tired eyes and leaned back away from her desk to stretch. Algebra was not the nightmare she believed it to be, just very tedious and required a ton of concentration. So far this year her grades have been pretty good, and she really had to thank Hojo for that. He had been a very supportive and understanding friend, but that was all she could ever see him as. Kagome had made that point very clear to him when he tried to get her to go out with him for the hundredth time. Luckily every thing worked out and now she had a friend who was not obsessed with her or her love life.

Kagome looked out the window at the snow piled on her neighbor's roof. Soon it would spring and in no time at all, the finals would be upon her. She sighed, no more mad cramming of textbooks this year and praying to Kami above that she would just pass and not have to take remedial courses that would certainly piss off a certain hanyou who believed that the shikon no tama is more important than her future.

Kagome sighed yet again and thought about her friends. Was Sango angry with her for not attending her wedding to Miroku? She smiled at the thought of Miroku groping Sango at the ceremony in front of every body and the bride smacking him senseless. She grinned and thought, 'Let's hope that he groped her after saying "I do" and not before.' Kagome then let her thoughts drift to her adopted son, she would never get to see her baby grow up. She wondered which lucky female got to mate her precious son. Her son had such a loving disposition and would make the most wonderful husband and father. Last, but not least Inuyasha. Kagome hoped that her wish would allow him forget all the anguish and guilt that haunted him for years. Even though she knew he loved Kikyo, the tiniest shard of hope remained in Kagome's heart hoping that Inuyasha had loved her.

Mrs. Higurashi watched her daughter looking out the window deep in thought. She shook her head, she knew that look of wistful longing that was on Kagome's face. Her daughter was thinking about her friends again, namely the hanyou with whom she had fallen and remained in love with. Would Kagome ever be able to love another? Being a gentle person, she could not hate Inuyasha for being Kagome's first love. But she wondered as to why the fates had to be so cruel to have her daughter fall in love with someone whom she was never meant to be with. It would do Kagome good to keep busy and meet new friends. At least school had kept her daughter busy, but what about during the summer? Her daughter would just be miserable if she stayed at the shrine.

"Kagome?" Hearing her mother's voice, Kagome swerved around to greet her mother.

"Yes, okaa-san?" Mrs. Higurashi walked into her daughter's room and sat on her bed. "Do you have anything planned for the summer?"

Kagome tapped her finger against her chin and answered, "Depends if I pass all my courses or not, because if I don't, then I would take remedial summer classes. However if I do pass all of them, I want to get a job."

Mrs. Higurashi breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed like that she was worrying too much about her daughter. "Well because if you want, Dr. Tomoe's friend needs an assistant at her veterinarian office not too far from here."

Kagome's eyes shone, she really liked to work with animals and had done her fair share of field first aid in the Segoku Jedai. So instead of seeing cute guys this summer, she would most likely get to see some cute animals. This arrangement would work to her advantage, since she could not let any other person into her heart, finding some non-human new friends would be nice.

Kagome hummed happily as she got ready for her first day of work. She had passed every one of her exams and now she was going to get the chance to work with some adorable animals. She had already spoken to Dr. Aki over the phone and met with her at the clinic on one occasion. Kagome had liked the friendly atmosphere of the clinic was glad that she would get to assist someone as nice as Dr. Aki.

Kagome rang the bell and waited for someone to open the door for her. She smiled when she saw the vet opening the door. "Ohayo, Dr. Aki" said Kagome when Aki ushered her into the clinic.

"Good morning to you as well, Kagome. Are you ready to learn about what kinds of pets that people keep and what usually befalls them?"

Dr. Aki smiled quirking an elegant eyebrow. Kagome laughed, she loved Dr. Aki's sense of humor. On the surface, it seemed as if this vet does not take her job too seriously, but if a person watched Dr. Aki in action, they would be taken back by her expertise and determination. Dr. Aki quickly gave Kagome a run down of how the clinic works and what would be required of her position as her assistant. Dr. Aki was happy that her new assistant was a quick learner and decided it was a good choice after all to have an assistant who possessed holy powers to help her out.

As she was working, Kagome had this familiar feeling about the clinic. She kept looking around the clinic to make sure that all was well. She blamed it on nerves for the new job and decided to temporarily ignore the sensation. Dr. Aki smiled when she caught Kagome constantly looking around. This girl's miko powers are powerful indeed, powerful enough to sense auras even though she does not recognize them yet. Aki wondered how long would it be before Kagome recognizes exactly what kind of aura that she was feeling.

In the few weeks that Kagome worked at the clinic, she finally realized what Dr. Aki had meant about the different kinds of "pets" that people seemed to keep. She still cannot understand how anyone would have a tarantula, and become frantic when the spider ate something that it shouldn't and reacted to it the way you would react to something that is actually cute. After seeing Naraku, Kagome hated spiders and she loath to touch that creature when it was brought in for Dr. Aki to look over. Thankfully today no one brought in any creepy or crawly things that should be seen in a zoo and not as a pet.

For the time that Kagome had spent at the clinic, the weird feeling that she felt on her first day did not diminish, but rather intensified. She rubbed an itchy spot on her hip that has been constantly bothering her for the past week or so. As she tried to get rid of the itchy feeling, she realized that the particular spot had been bothering her for some time. She frowned, for the year since she had returned to the present, the place where the shikon no tama resided had never bothered her before. It seemed more than coincidental that it started to bother her after working at the clinic and sensing that funny aura.

Kagome was broken out of her reverie when she heard Dr. Aki come out of the examining room escorting the last patient and owner to the door. Kagome smiled at the group that was heading out, it was no wonder that the clinic has a wonderful reputation because Dr. Aki seemed to understand the animals who are in pain and seemed to know exactly what was ailing them. Dr. Aki turned around to face Kagome after locking up the door and smiled at her assistant. "Another job well done. Don't you think so, Kagome?"

Kagome smiled at the woman and said teasingly, "As if you need to ask. Your appointment book is constantly filled and looking at how happy the owners are, I think you have your answer."

Dr. Aki smiled at the bright cheerful girl whom unknowingly had contributed to the healing of the animals and calm owners at her clinic with her miko powers. Despite her happy disposition, Dr. Aki detected sadness whenever she looked into the young girl's eyes and wondered what would it take to lift the sadness.

"I may be the one who's the licensed one, but I would have to contribute part of my success to my wonderful assistant as well." Dr. Aki teased back. "I've seen you work some miracles over the animals and the owners as well."

Kagome blushed at the compliment. "It's really nothing, bandaging up a dog who was in a fight. I mean anyone can do that." muttered Kagome.

Dr. Aki walked over to the receptionist desk and looked deep into her assistant's eyes, "No, Kagome. It takes a great deal for an animal, especially a wounded one, to trust a complete stranger. These animals trust you and heal faster because they know that they are not in any danger. Besides, I give credit where credit is due, and my dear, you deserve credit for your hard work." With that, Dr. Aki released the girl from her glaze and shooed her out of the clinic.

As Kagome got into bed, she pondered at the words the vet had said and the feeling being in such close proximity with Dr. Aki evoked. It was a familiar yet unfamiliar feeling, something about the doctor's eyes struck her as being odd when she was looking into them. 'I was probably tired out and imagining things' Kagome thought as she drifted off to sleep, 'but then why did my hip burn when she did that?'

Dr. Aki sighed as she reached her apartment and locked the door behind her. She extended her senses to ensure that the coast was cleared and dropped her concealment spell. Stripes emerged on her cheeks and her fingers elongated into claws. She grimaced at the scent of disinfectant still residing on her hands. "Thing about being youkai, your nose is extra sensitive to these kinds of thing." Dr. Aki grumbled as she prepared to take a shower that would wash away the last of the scent.

Feeling better after her shower, she sat down in front of the television but did not flip it on as she usually does. She sat there thinking about the conversation with Kagome and berated herself for dropping her concealment spell while looking into Kagome's eyes. She had felt Kagome's miko powers reaching out to her, testing her. She knew if she didn't appease that power by allowing it to sense her youkai, she would have been fried by the power trying to protect its mistress. She had vowed to herself when she hired Kagome as her assistant not to have any intimate contact with her until she is certain Kagome was ready to face the consequences and here she was violating every oath she made to herself. Dr. Aki groaned and wanted to bang her head against wall for her own stupidity. Luckily the phone rang at that moment preventing her from taking action. Aki picked up the phone and nearly jumped out of her skin at the voice on the other end.

"Hello Aki, it's been a long time."

"Shippou?" breathed Aki into the phone. "How did you find me?"

"Surprised?" Shippou laughed from on the other end. Aki had not talked to her friend for over fifty years and had changed her name many times and moved around a lot, so for Shippou to find her was completely unexpected. "I'm back in Japan and if you will kindly open the door, I think we can chat more comfortably." Aki dropped her phone, ran to open her door and found a grinning Shippou holding a cell phone in his hand standing on her doormat. "You going to invite me in or not?" asked Shippou still grinning.

Aki recovered from her shock and ushered her long time friend into her apartment locking the door behind him. She was going to have to find out what had brought her friend back to Japan. "Still the vet, huh, Aki?" The woman nodded, unlike the youkai who had wealth in the form of lands, she had to learn to make her own way into the world. With her ability to communicate with animals and her empathy, she decided to become a veterinarian where she could treat youkai and animals. Because she had to personally meet with people to treat their pets, it would not do for her to always remain in the same place. Besides she cannot afford to draw too much attention to her clinic and herself. So she had to constantly move around and change her name. Luckily for her, all she ever had to do was pretend that she was a foreigner coming to Japan to practice and pass the qualifying examination when she assumes a new identity.

"Why are you back, Shippou?" asked Aki.

Instead of answering her, Shippou looked at her and asked, "Does Kagome know what you are yet?"

Aki shook her head, but she should have realized that Shippou would have known that she had hired Kagome to be her assistant since he found out where she lived. "No, but I think she is starting to sense something unusual about my clinic and me." Aki said, ruefully, thinking back to what happened today.

Shippou cocked an eyebrow, so his surrogate mother did retain her miko powers. Shippou knew that Kagome had complained that being a powerful miko and keeper of the shikon no tama was a curse from heaven. He had heard her say once that maybe if she wasn't a miko, then she could have lived a normal life and not be hounded by youkai always trying to get a piece of her, an perverted monk, and a loud mouth hanyou who was always on her case about being weak and school.

"How is she?" Shippou asked Aki. The neko youkai sighed and told him what she saw. Shippou frowned, so everyone got the chance to live out their lives and be happy except for her. Aki was in deep in her own thoughts when she sensed Shippou moved from the sofa he was sitting in, she looked up at him inquiringly. "I have to meet Sesshoumaru tonight. I'll call you again soon." He said. Aki nodded her head and walked Shippou to the door.

Shippou gave Aki a big hug before going out the door. He turned around and grinned at the neko youkai, gave her a little wave before stepping into the elevator. Aki smiled at her old friend's antics and whispered, "It's good to have you back Shippou." a blush appearing over her graceful features.

Shippou turned once more to look up at the lighted window of Aki's apartment before starting his car.

"It's good to see you again, Kilala" Shippou said into the night and drove off to his meeting.