I look down the dark well. Inuyasha and I planned that we would jump in at the same time. I wasn't really sure if it was going to help the well take us to my time but it is worth a try.

"You sure about this?" Inuyasha asks for the fifth time. I just nod because the longer I stay here the more conflicted I become. What if my plan doesn't work? The conversation I had with Kaede this morining pops into my head. I check for my sacred materials in my backpack. No, it has too.

"Bye, Kagome!" Sango and Miroku call.

"Kagome! Kagome, how long will you and Inuyasha be gone?" Shippo asks sadly.

"We'll be back by tomorrow morning… it won't take long," I mumble as I take Inuyasha's warm supporting hand and jump into the well. For the first time in a long time I feel the magic of the well consuming me over to my time. My feet hit the ground and I see a shrine around me that I haven't seen in nine months.

I can't help myself as I scream, "I'm back! Mom, Souta, Grandpa, I'm BACK!" I run up the steps of the shrine pulling Inuyasha with me. I think I hear him grumble something about how I never ran this fast when we were searching for Jewel Shards but I ignore it. I am going to see my family and friends.

I run to the backyard where there is an unlocked door. I pull it open and make my way into the kitchen that is completely dark. For the first time I realize that it's dark outside, too. I look over to a clock on the microwave to see that it's only five in the morning. That doesn't stop me from bounding up the stairs and running into Souta's room.

I jump onto the bed. "Morning, idiot! It's already 5 AM! Mom says you need to get up right now!" I bounce around on his bed laughing.

"Kagome… stop, no she didn't," he whispers drowsily and then as the reality of me being here hits him, he screams, "Kagome!" He hugs me tight and I hold him close. "Oh Kagome, we didn't know if you'd ever come back." I suppress the tears that start to form in my eyes. Of course they didn't know if I was going to come back. It has been a whole nine months… six of them I wasn't even conscious.

"We have to get up Mom and Grandpa," Souta says jumping out of the bed just as he stops to see Inuyasha in the door way. For a moment he gets distracted. "Look I've been practicing." Souta turns to the bed and slashes at the air as he says confidently, "Iron reaper soul stealer!" Then he runs out of the door screaming, "Mom, Grandpa, come quick! Kagome is here! Kagome and Inuyasha are here!"

When my mom first sees me, she bursts into tears. Now, my mom is not the crying type. When my father died in the accident, I never once saw a tear slip from her eyes. I suppose it was because she didn't want Souta and me to feel any more sorrow but it made me so unprepared for her tears now. Mom runs up crying and hugs me, telling me how she thought I would never come back. I hug her and it takes every ounce of will power not to cry, too.

I want to sob into her arms and tell her of my nightmares as I did when I was a child. But I'm not a kid anymore, now I have to be the one to listen to the nightmares. At least for as long as I can…

Finally regaining her composure, Mom lets me go and Grandpa gets his turn of holding me saying how he knew I would come back. Mom leads us down stairs. Souta grabs my hand as we go down and just for this once I won't pull away in discuss.

Mother makes us all tea as Inuyasha and I explain our story. We both decide not to make it to graphic especially with the killing Nuraku and the Inuyasha leaving me for Kikyou.

Mom tries to explain that they tried to stay positive for as long as they could but worry over powered them. The last time I came I promised I would be back by a month tops. I blush and look down because the truth is I totally forgot about that promise.

Souta eagerly changes the subject to him telling us about school, friends and his girlfriend. I laugh along trying to be fully at peace but failing. The idea of what I was going to have to do was killing me.

For the next few hours I cook with everyone and Inuyasha talks to Souta for awhile. They go outside while Grandpa asks me a billion questions about the feudal era. Souta comes in holding Inuyasha's hand.

"Can Inuyasha stay forever?" Souta asks my mom as if Inuyasha is some dog.

"Well Souta you know how busy they are. That reminds me how long is it until you go back into the well."

I sigh pondering the question. How long would I be here? "I won't be leaving for quite a long time. I think not till at least a couple of weeks. I decided that I need to stay longer with you guys every once and awhile. Especially now that we don't have to go looking after that jewel anymore."

My mom smiles at the thought we haven't been together for so long in at least a year. "Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes."

"Kagome, look! Inuyasha showed me how to do wind scar." I give Inuyasha a questioning look but he just shrugs. I watch as Souta pulls out a sword and waves it franticly through the air, "Wind Scar!" He screams and then makes explosive sound effects.

"Needs some work," Inuyasha says indifferently. Souta looks at Inuyasha, eagerly waiting for my input. "You could be a great fighter but always remember to show no emotion." Inuyasha folds his arms and walks away in his aloof attitude. Souta starts to follow him trying to copy his attitude when I grab him by the collar.

"Don't you ever act like that jerk," I say pointing to Inuyasha who acts as if he didn't hear me but that doesn't fool me. I can tell by the twitching of his ears that he wants to strangle me. I can't help the small smile that comes on my lips as I direct my attention back to Souta. "Or else I'm going to have to pull out my bow."

Souta looks between Inuyasha and me and then blurts out, "So are you guys in love?"

I blush and look away because even though I know we're open to each other now, it's still pretty odd to hear. Inuyasha stops walking and slowly turns to face us looking just as embarrassed.

Sensing the tension Souta mumbles a sorry and then quickly changes the subject to another touchy topic. "Will you ever take me to the feudal era? I mean I'll fight really well. I can learn to fight better here and prove myself."

Inuyasha and I share a concerned gaze. Just then my mom calls, "Breakfast is ready."

"Maybe someday kid," Inuyasha says as we go into the kitchen.

We sit down and eat acting as if nothing bad ever happened. I bring up how I want to see my friends for today and then have them come over to eat. I would have thought that my mom would be all for this idea but instead she looks up at me warily.

"Your friends… well you know how we had to keep making up diseases—"

"I would have kept doing it if your mother had let me," Grandpa interjects.

"Yes, yes but everyone was getting so suspicious. I mean you being gone for such a long time without being able to see anyone. So finally we told everyone you got so bad that the doctors said you would die. We finally had to ship you to America to have some doctors take care of you there," my mom says quietly.

I stare at her amazed. Who the heck would believe that story? There were so many flaws in it. I mean first of all how was I supposed to survive a plane ride if I was expected to die? And the doctors here are just as good as they are at America. Although I guess these people did believe all of Grandpa's crazy sicknesses.

"Well, I'm going to see them anyway," I say firmly. "It's about time that they find out the truth."

I stand up at the table and take my and Inuyasha's plate to the sink. Then I pull Inuyasha up from his seat and lead him to the door way.

"Kagome, where are you going?" My mom asks completely confused.

"We're going to go to tell the truth to my friends!" I say as I open the door.

"But honey, its 12:20 on a Monday, everyone is in school right now."

I stare at her wondering why she didn't give me this information before. I couldn't wait tell 3:20 when everyone was out. I stand there for a second trying to figure this out. If it was 12:20 on a Monday lunch would just be about to begin which means if I can get there and convince my friends to ditch I could have all day.

I run and grab my backpack, kiss my mom on the cheek, hug my Grandpa and ruffle Souta's hair. Then I grab Inuyasha's hand and we run out of the door.

"So where we headed?" He asks as we briskly walk through the streets.

"The school. I think I can get everyone to ditch and then we will tell them the truth," I explain.

Inuyasha stops in his tracks and starts sniffing at the air. When I look to see why he stopped, I spot a little boy eating a Ninja's Cup of Noodles. The little boy is pulling on his mother's pants. The mom, who is on the phone, isn't listening when the boy points to Inuyasha staring at his noodles hungrily. "Doggy," he says quietly reaching to pet Inuyasha's ears.

Quickly I look around to see that we're starting to catch people's eyes. Two kids who should be in school right now walking around, one in a school uniform and the other with toy ears on, silver hear and a weird outfit. I pull out a hat and slap it on Inuyasha's head and start to pull him away.

"Can you try not to be so obvious next time?" I whisper angrily at him.

Inuyasha, who was completely unaware of the crowd back there, shot back, "Well, I'm sorry all I wanted was some food!"

"Some food! You just ate!" I shout at him only causing more eyes to glare at us. I'm starting to realize that if we don't start acting like were suppose to be out here then there are going to be some cops on our tail.

"Well you know I love—" Inuyasha starts to say but stops because I have just kissed him on the cheek.

"Just don't say anything," I whisper in his ear while my lips still linger by his face. I drop down and grab his hand.

"Oh I'm so glad we got that off campus pass for lunch, aren't you? I don't want to go back," I say loudly so that everyone can hear me. "I told you to take off that horrible costume and wig before we left but you just wouldn't dare."

Inuyasha looks down at his hair and clothes, "These aren't horrible," he says defensively. I step on his foot to tell him to stop. It's first time that I've realized he doesn't have shoes on. I seriously was not prepared for this.

"You're so weird. I mean look no shoes on?" I sigh as if I'm so fed up with being with him.

I look up to see that the school is now just across from me. I look at Inuyasha fear flooding into me. "You know," he whispers to me, "you still don't have to go through with this."

I stare at the school, the people starting to flood different areas of the campus as lunch begins. I have gotten this far but I could still go back. I could still keep things the way they are.

"Yes I do," I say as we begin to cross the street.