Last Time:

"Miroku, don't hide from me."

He blinked then looked away. His shoulders slumped.

"I never could hide from you."

Now:

"You've never had to. Now, I have a feeling I know what you're trying to tell me, but I'm not one to jump to conclusions."

"Since when?" He chuckled. She paused and grinned back at him.

"I'll tell you once you tell me." She missed this back-and-forth banter with him. She wiped her palms on her jeans and froze. Jeans? She looked down at herself again and noticed that her attire was the same she left home with. She peeled the light jacket off and pulled the bag from herself and put both next to her yellow bag a few feet away.

A pain surfaced in his eyes again and she steeled herself.

"I caught Inuyasha and Sango… two nights ago. I… She blamed me for her running into his arms. She… said some… no, she said a lot of things to hurt me, and he agreed with her. I can't get her words from my head. They've been on my mind. On repeat."

Kagome felt the ache in her chest resurface. She knew, long ago, that at some point Inuyasha would move on when she didn't come back. Yet, she had hoped, prayed, that he had not. Turned out that he had moved on before she had left.

"For every hour I was gone was a year for me. I returned to the other side of the well before I had even left. I was still that innocent girl at fifteen. I spent a decade going to school, learning archery, then, I went to America to study there."

"A decade? So, you technically are older than me?" He grinned, "I always fancied older women."

She snickered, "Sure, sure, and all the others in between too. I'm sure. Wait, how old are you then? I don't think we've ever discussed it."

"You're right, we haven't." He contemplated the question for a moment, "I'm turning 19 soon, at summers end, just before the harvest season. What is America?"

"Another country. We'll celebrate. My birthday has passed, but we could do a group celebration. Or… me and you can celebrate on our own. Just let me know what day you think works best at the end of summer!" She smiled excitedly once more.

A resounding knock startled them, and they jolted around.

Inuyasha was banging on the barrier yelling something. Kagome twisted her hand and the barrier's color lightened a shade.

"We have to get going, how long are you two going to be in there? Let's go already! I'm hungry, we need to get food going!"

Kagome narrowed her eyes at Inuyasha and his behavior. She looked past him and noticed Sango looking bored.

"No." Kagome stood, and her barrier adjusted with her.

"No?" He was taken aback.

"We're having a serious conversation here and you're being a child. Go away. Go back to her." Kagome pointed to Sango.

His ears flattened and he spared a glance over his shoulder, but he turned back to her just as fast.

"Wh… What do you mean, Kagome?"

"Inuyasha, I knew you were sleeping around with Kikyo, but since she perished, I thought you would come to your senses and keep your promise to me. Instead, you went to Sango. Instead of me. Sango. So, I'm telling you, here and now, Inuyasha, I'm done with you. I no longer want to be promised to you." Kagome kept her expression as stable as possible. "Shippo, come here."

The kit dove out of the underbrush and darted over quickly. He entered the barrier with no problems and the shock of it caused him to tumble into Miroku's lap.

"I'm going back to my conversation. You both will be gone by the time we're done. We have to decide if we're staying with you or not after all." She twisted her hand and the barrier solidified completely. A dome of pink surrounded the three of them.

Banging could be heard but it was more distant than the first time.

"What's going on 'Gome? I'm so confused."

"Inuyasha made his choice on who he wanted by his side. He thinks I'll forgive him again, but I won't. When he chose Sango, they lost us."

"Oh." The small kit looked away ashamed, "so you found out."

"You knew?" Miroku picked him up and turned him to they were eye to eye. Shippo refused to look at him and Miroku turned him once more. "I'm not mad at you. I understand that you didn't want the team to break up, did you?"

Shippo's small form started shaking and he nodded.

"I kept his secrets… He said if I didn't tell anyone who I knew he was with nightly, we would stay together as a group." Shippo sobbed. Miroku cradled him and let the small boy cling to him.

Miroku and Kagome shared a look before both sighed in defeat.

"This has been a lot. One shock after another. I'm so tired…" She muttered.

"You are taking this better than I thought."

"When I went back to my time. My Era," she paused to gather her thoughts. "The well stopped working. I couldn't come back and I… was back in my fifteen-year-old body as if I had never come to the Feudal Era. I took a week off school, feigned sick. I couldn't face anyone. I grieved you, all of you, for years. I moved on, dated a few guys. I was engaged for a while when in America. In the end, after I earned my degree, I came back. I had to. There was so much I've held in and internalized because I couldn't tell anyone – who would believe me? At some point, I realized while I had friends and my family, I was alone. I longed to come back."

"To Inuyasha?"

She shook her head, "no, to you, to Shippo, to our promise of completing the jewel and defeating Naraku. Along the way, I realized that Inuyasha and I were never meant to be. I learned a lot in my ten years back home. I would enjoy the opportunity to show you what I learned." She grinned at him.

"Like your barrier?"

"Among other things. I found someone when I went back who trained me. He didn't have spiritual powers of his own, but he was an expert on the subject. I also did a lot of research on this time and demons. I can't tell you the future, but a lot more of what happens in the next 500 years makes more sense to me."

"I feel as if I don't understand what you mean by ''degree and 'going to America'." He tilted his head in confusion but the interest in his eyes hid the pain she knew was waiting below the surface.

"We have various levels of school, like I've told you before," she began.

"Which I still don't understand…" He cut in quickly.

With a grin she shook her head and laid out the grass below her. She held her hands out and he passed Shippo to her. He lay next to her.

"I won't go into detail, but what I was studying before? I was in middle school. After that was High School until I turned 18. After that most people tend to do two things: Go to university for higher education or start working immediately. I did the first option, but instead of staying in Japan, I travelled to America, across the sea to the far east. We have transportation in my time that allowed that trip to take a few days instead of months or years." She turned on her side to face him and tucked Shippo in her light jacket. He started snoring, his tears wiped him out and she felt bad to cause that anguish in this boy.

"How are the levels different at these schools?" He lowered his voice to not disturb Shippo.

She matched his volume as she stroked her hand through Shippo's hair. "Middle and high school are basic studies in general courses. Math, English, History, Science... High school allows you to explore more of specialized classes so you can be prepared for the future. University is where you study a specialized field of study. I doubled down, I got two degrees while I was there, school in America was laid back compared to here. It was difficult, and a lot of work, but I made it work."

"What did you study? What are you experienced in?"

"I'm a Chiropractor, and a Reflexologist. If I had stayed in Japan, I would have joined a specialized few in the field of being WHO certified."

"Who?" His brows furrowed and he didn't understand who would be certifying people that wouldn't be named.

"W.H.O. It's short for World Health Organization. It's an acronym. They love shortening titles in the future." She chuckled softly.

"What is a Chiropractor?"

"Do you remember working on my arm… I guess it was last night, right?"

He nodded and gently touched her arm. She stopped stroking Shippo's hair as he fingered a fresher bruise. It was a small oval, the size of his thumb.

"Last night. Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you." He breathed as he let his hand fall to the ground between them.

"It's not your fault. I understand why it happened. I have that knowledge now. But, to answer your question, a Chiropractor is one who adjusts a persons skeleton, usually in their back, and a Reflexologists… to put it in simple terms is a massager that uses pressure points and body specific locations for healing. You massaged my arm to work out tense muscles. I know how to do that for the whole body."

She watcd as he smirked, a flirtatious comment imminent but he shook his head with a grin instead.

"Why did you choose that profession?"

"Because of you." She winked but he wasn't looking.