Disclaimer: Well, I own this new shirt I got. And the thousand dollar check I got for my graduation--O.o omfg!! But I still don't own Inuyasha.

...The Past...

It had been three months, and he still wasn't back yet. Kagome had gone back to the Well every day since, despite the fact that the morning after the fight, it had crumbled into ashes. Still, she came, and watched, and left in tears. But life went on...

Even if his didn't...

NO! She would not allow herself to think such things! He was perfectly alive, just delayed...somehow. Anyway, she had to get to school, where there was no time to think of the Sengoku Jidai. After all, she'd been gone for nearly five months, missed a ton of homework, and bypassed exams altogether, so she needed to get to work! Or so said her impossibly practical side.

Regardless, it was something to do with the seemingly endless hours of the day. Hours that should have been spent in the past...

Not thinking about that!

She walked on.

ooOooOooOoo

"You did WHAT?!"

Miroku took a deep breath, trying to gather his patience while simultaneously calming Koga's aura. Not an easy task.

The Ookami Clan had beat an early retreat when they saw Kagome's light, not wanting to get purified along with Naraku. But now they were back, and their chieftain was not pleased with the recent turn of events. "Koga--" Miroku began...

Koga cut him off. "I lose my shards and this is what you do with them?! Kagome is gone?! Where is that mutt, I'll tear him apart!" He sniffed the air for a moment, then took off like a shot.

Even without the power of the Shikon shards, Koga was still the fastest thing on two legs.

Miroku looked at Ginta and Hakkaku. "Aren't you going to follow him?" he asked them wearily. He wasn't worried about Inuyasha, who was more than a match for the wolf. He was more worried that one of them would do something stupid...what, exactly, he didn't care to think about.

"No," said Ginta, "He has to be without us on this one." Hakkaku nodded. "This is something those two need to resolve on their own."

ooOooOooOoo

"Kagome! How have you been? Are you over that pnemonia?"

"And the carpal tunnel, how's that been?"

Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi all shreiked and took turns squeezing the life out of their sickly friend. With their help and Hojo's math notes, Kagome had squeaked by the entrance exams and was now walking with her friends to her first day of high school. The girls modeled their new uniforms for each other as they walked: it was the same basic pattern with the pleated skirt, sailor collar, and ribbon, but the skirt was slightly longer, the collar had two white stripes instead of one, and the main color was a pale blue-grey. The ribbon at the chest was black. Kagome thought she looked rather morose, but the girls insisted it was lovely on her. "It matches your eyes!" they said.

It matches my mood, she thought.

"Higurashi!" called an all-too-familiar voice.

Oh gods, do I ever not need this right now! Kagome put on her best fake smile and turned to face the deluded boy behind her. "Hi, Hojo," she said cheerfully. "How've you been?" Why did I say that? It just prolongs the conversation!

"Alright," he answered. "But I wish I could have seen you more over the summer. Did your grandfather give you the flowers I brought over?"

Behind her, Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi started giggling like--well, like teenage girls. Kagome resisted the urge to tell Hojo that the flower basket had ended up in the trash. She had hated those gaudy flowers. Instead, she said (through gritted teeth) "Yeah--they were really...nice."

"Well," Hojo finally said, oblivious to her annoyance, "since we're just starting high school, I thought we could celebrate, just you and me. We could go see this new movie that just came out. Are you interested in something set in the Feudal Era?"

Hojo had absolutely no idea of the knife he had just stabbed into Kagome's chest.

He did see that she began shaking like a leaf. "Kagome?" he asked, "Are you alright? Are you really over your pnemonia?" Kagome's face was hidden, but she did shake her head slightly. Hojo instinctually gripped her by the shoulders, as she looked like she was about to keel over, but she shrank away from his touch.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" Hojo asked her. Kagome shook her head, more forcefully this time, and walked back toward her house. Her friends were left staring at her back, wondering if she would be alright.

But as soon as she was out of their line of sight, she let the tears flow.

ooOoo

In the Well-house, Kagome was wracked with dry sobs. She had cried herself out half an hour ago, but she still couldn't bring herself to leave her post. She had tried every miko trick Kaede taught her to make the Well work again. What was left of the Well, anyway. But it was all in vain. Kagome just sat at the bottom of a hole that was once her way into another world.

Inuyasha, she thought, Where are you? How is everyone? Are you alright?

Of course, there was no answer.

She could almost pretend that it was just another normal day...until Hojo brought up the Sengoku Jidai. She could almost pretend that she was here in the modern day of her own free will, and that she could cross through the Well at any time. She could almost pretend to care about school again, even though there were much more important things going on just beyond her reach.

Almost.

Almost hope you're in heaven so no one can hurt your soul
Living in agony cause I just do not know
Where you are

Maybe...maybe it was better if he really was... Because if he was in as much pain as she was in right now...she didn't want that for him. As horrible as that thought was, as much as she wanted to see him again, she truly did not want Inuyasha to suffer any more than he already had. She almost hoped he was beyond the reach of those who would hurt him.

Almost.

ooOooOooOoo

Inuyasha was sitting by the Well's remains when there came a sharp blow to the back of his head. "What the hell did you do with my woman?!" said an annoyingly familiar voice. He gave Koga a withering glance before saying, "I didn't do anything. In fact, I tried to prevent it at all costs. Think before you shoot your mouth off, fleabag."

"Think of what?" Koga shouted. "Think that you did all you could? Miroku told me what happened, and I still don't know the whole story. All I know is that Kagome is gone, and you were supposed to be protecting her! If you really--"

"You think I don't know that?!" Inuyasha finally snapped, "You think I don't know that I was supposed to stay by her side? You think I don't know I was supposed to keep her safe? You think I don't know that I'm the one who dropped her down the Well?" That last one was barely a whisper.

Koga stared at him for a moment, taking in everything about his posture, tone of voice, and scent, and was blown away by what he found. Not for the first time, he was reminded of the night Kikyo died. Kagome had been grief-ridden that she couldn't save the miko, and Koga had marvled at her sheer goodness and light. It was that night Koga decided that Inuyasha needed Kagome more than he did.

With a sigh, Koga sat down beside his hanyou friend. "You have no idea what it's been like for me for the past few days," Inuyasha said wearily.

"At least we know she's safe in her world," said Koga. The monk had told him about the magic Well, and where it led to, but it was pretty obvious that it didn't work anymore, not in the state it was in now.

The hanyou scoffed. "My one consolation." He paused, then said quietly, "I'm going to wait for her, Koga. That Well leads to a time five hundred years in the future, so if I just wait five hundred years, she'll be there."

Koga thought for a moment, about Inuyasha, the Well, and the Shikon no Tama, and added all the facts up on a lever deeper than instinct. Abruptly, he stood up. "You know where to find me," he said simply. Then he ran off to join his pack.

For the first time in a week, Inuyasha smiled.

I'll find you somewhere
I'll keep on trying until my dying day
I just need to know whatever has happened
The truth will free my soul

ooOooOooOoo

Yeah, both of them are strong, and they'll get on with their lives. For as long as they need to wait to find each other again.

Coming up...The Search.