AN: this is an apology in advance - there's not much action happening here, and the interactions are woefully limited; a lot is going on internally and I hope I managed to convey that even a little bit. Because let's be real, there's no way Kagome's going to be able to just snap right back to where she was.
This is also a promise, because there will be (lots and lots) of Spirit Detective and Feudal Japan interaction (people not timelines) and action (as everyone grumbles finally). Aaaaand that it may take be a little bit of time; I promise that I'm dedicated though! But hey, this one is a little bit longer then normal - it started first as a challenge to myself to beat the length of the last chapter, and then I had to finish the scene I was starting, and then I really just wanted to wrap it up nicely. Ha.
Now it's past 10 pm, so clearly it's my bedtime! Wish me luck on my statistics lab tomorrow morning ;)
It sucked.
Yusuke turned towards Inuyasha, who was still staring at the revolving doors of the Spirit World operating room, where Kagome had been whisked away moments ago. He was covered in red – so much red, more than his fire rat suit accounted for, head-to-toe in the blood of his friend – and Yusuke saw fire.
"You." He hissed, blindly stalking towards the half-demon. "You were supposed to protect her."
Inuyasha didn't move, or blink, or do anything to show he had heard him. Yusuke snarled.
"You were supposed to stop shit like this from happening!"
His shout was loud – too loud, for the quiet of the waiting room. For the bright, sterile, white that covered every surface but them, but Inuyasha and his crimson robes that smelt of anguish and pain. The clock ticked steadily in the background, the place bereft of anyone but his friends and hers, and Yusuke couldn't think, this couldn't be happening, she couldn't be-
Inuyasha turned to him then, slowly, and Yusuke realized he'd fisted the hanyou's robes in his hands and pulled him forward. He made no attempt to free himself.
"You promised to protect her, you fuckwad, you promised you would keep her safe! You promised her family!"
Still too loud, everything was too loud. Blood roared in his ears and through his veins and Yusuke used his grip on the half-breed to lift him off the ground. "She's hurt because of you!"
His heartbeat screamed in his head.
Thump.
Tha-Thump.
Thump.
When he still made no move to talk, to explain or excuse or anything, Yusuke pulled his free hand back and flew his fist into Inuyasha's face, launching him into the nearest wall. The dog-demon took the hit gracelessly, his body landing with a satisfying thunk, and slumped against the floor.
Kuwabara moved now. "Yusuke!" He stood, off the waiting room chair and closer to the fighting. Still quiet. "Yusuke you can't just – "
Inuyasha coughed, blood spewing out of his mouth, and cut off Kuwabara. The red head walked forward a bit, the sentence caught in his throat.
He looked at Yusuke. "She wouldn't want you two to fight."
Boton's sobs punctuated the silence, she'd been curled up beside Kuwabara until now and with his departure her resolve had left.
Yusuke glanced down at the rumpled form in front of him. "Tch." He scoffed.
Tick.
Tock.
Tick.
"What happened?" Kurama asked, his voice deadly calm, the type of smooth register that lent itself to sociopaths and cold-blooded killers right before they turned and slaughtered a village (villages, Kagome came from villages, he'd always imagined the stories she'd told as taking place in a quiet town with nothing more than the occasional attack, not this –)
"I don't know."
Yusuke's scowl deepened, sure, now he spoke. "Whadya mean?"
Inuyasha lifted his head, stared wanly at Kurama, who sat a few seats away, and then to Yusuke. "I don't know what happened to her."
He turned away then, staring back at the revolving doors, and Yusuke was furious.
"How did you let this happen?"
Boton was still crying.
Kuwabara loomed over the detective and the hanyou, glancing furtively between the two of them as if prepared to stop…whatever it was Yusuke felt pounding within him to start.
"Naraku was attacking us…I didn't think he knew about – we never would've let Kagome back if we had known…" He trailed off, still staring, still hoping, Yusuke knew, that the woman behind them would come out smiling –
Kurama leaned forward, laced his hands together and rested his chin on them as he glared balefully at the man in front of them. "Knew what?"
Thump.
Tick.
Tock.
Tha-Thump.
Yusuke knew his friend well enough to know that he was capital PO'ed, was only keeping calm because any sudden movement meant breaking this lull, this tension that only begot violence, that quiet sometimes meant answers, but he certainly wasn't patient.
Inuyasha sighed, he sighed and it sounded like crying, looked at Kurama so bleakly that Yusuke's shoulders tensed in anticipation.
"Naraku he…he knew about the jewel. That it was in Kagome. He must've known from the beginning, because as soon as she got there…"
He blinked, quickly, and lifted a tired hand up to scrub at his face. His words were muffled, weary around the edges and full of loathing.
"He took her. Naraku's had her the whole time."
.
.
.
Consciousness came in pieces, like breaking out from under water after swimming in too deep.
first––the colour red, bright, bright red, and water dripping all around her; she wasn't sure whether to recoil in fear (him, him, him) or weep with relief, but she was too tired to do either so it didn't matter.
She falls asleep again, she thinks.
second––this time it was sound, spoken murmuring in her ear ("it's okay, you're safe, you're home, my darling") that sounded suspiciously familiar, familial, and had to be a lie; like most dreams, she felt no need to rush them or to escape the kind ones, and she turned towards the voice with a soft sigh.
third––everything was golden, shining softly yet brightly and making everything she stared at a little fuzzy; the room she was in was covered in something that reminded her of warmth and fond memories that she couldn't place.
fourth––it's him again, all red clothes and silver hair and wide, wide golden eyes; how cruel, how typically cruel, it is, to show him again, and she rolls back with a strangled groan.
fifth––a sentence, then, in life-like form; a person approaching her bed and telling her she'd come home (lie), that she was recovering slowly but surely thanks to her 'little helper' (truth); like a scene played out in delayed time, the audio barely working, she was told that everything was on the up-and-up (lie –– although when had Naraku learnt her lingo?)
sixth––her eyes were open, the world was clear, but this wasn't like consciousness at all because that implied reality, and as Botan crowded closer, as Souta held her hand, as all of these people who she loved, who had never been to any other time but their own, came closer, she sunk.
seventh––better the hell she knew, than the hell she didn't; Kagome woke up.
.
.
.
The hardest part was believing, which to some extent irked Kagome. She had always been a wide-eyed kid, and had no problem adapting to Feudal Japan and all of its mysteries –– this should not have been difficult.
The second hardest part was the pain, of course. The inability to move for days on end was the third.
She'd thought it was a dream –– it had to be of her own creation, because Naraku didn't know her family or her friends from this time, and unless he had acquired some type of new, mind-reading power (the idea of which haunted Kagome throughout the long nights here, that there could still be a fall-out to this all) he didn't have their images to wear as his own. Once it became apparent that she wasn't waking up, she'd begun to interact with it.
––although of course, if it was Naraku, then she was probably giving him a lot of her trade secrets; she resolved not to be the one to say any new information.
The nurses of the Spirit World seemed kind, but distant, and occasionally they'd point at her from behind the window when they thought she was sleeping. They tended to her injuries, apologized for how slowly they were healing, and told her every time she woke that things were looking better. Apparently whatever Naraku had done, however extended her time there had been, it had hampered the innate abilities of both her powers and the jewel's effects, and that they couldn't interfere, even if it was to help, because what little energy her body still held continued to keep them out.
Somehow, that was comforting.
The first person she recognized was her mother. It was both terrifying and achingly comforting to see her family again, and Kagome threw herself into convincing these dream versions that she was okay, that she was healthy (soon) and happy (soon-ish) and safe (a far off possibility). Mama had wanted to know how she was doing, if the food was bearable, and if they would let her out any time soon. Since Kagome didn't really have any answers for her, couldn't honestly remember the last time she had eaten (although the nurses had assured her she was on an IV drip of sorts), she begged instead for stories. Souta had arrived then, with Gramps, and the three of them spent most of their time telling tales of the last few weeks spent with the detectives and of how odd it was to travel by portal.
Afterwards, when they had departed and left her with gifts and promises to return –– although Kagome wasn't hopeful on this front, dreams were notoriously repetitive –– the detectives had crowded in.
Boton cried. According to Hiei, who answered her curious look with a long-suffering sigh, she was doing that a lot lately.
Although they attempted to be supportive, to gloss over details and focus on just her, it was a difficult challenge. They were less soothing in the sense that they wanted answers, even if they tried to be subtle about obtaining them.
––what had happened to her, where had she gone, was everything still safe.
It wasn't that she was reluctant to give them what they sought; she was engulfed by this enormous sense of apathy and an extended sensation of limbo, and she could look upon her past experience with a clinical sort of disassociation. Rather, it was the overwhelming idea that somewhere he was listening. Taking in everything she said and adding it up until it led to her downfall.
(sometimes, when she was alone or barely sleeping, barely awake, she thought just what if he had found a way to take the jewel out)
(she never wished though –– she never wished it all back, although she desperately wanted to)
She couldn't shake the feeling, so she smiled tightly and said nothing. Asked for nothing. Slept a lot.
It was not until Kurama, logical, rational Kurama, had finally seen through her, when the days had continued for long enough in a clear frame that she had begun to doubt everything she'd told herself, that she began to believe.
("Kagome, walk yourself through it. How did you get here?")
("Dreams are fluid, there is no beginning or end, there is but a moment.")
("This is not a dream. Remember how it started.")
(This is not a dream).
She cries.
.
.
.
"Where's Inuyasha?"
She couldn't move her body off the upper portion of the bed, and was only able to turn slightly to glance at Yusuke. Between taking progress reports back to her family, who could not make it as often as they liked (something about the negative effects of civilians travelling through realms) and spending time with her in the recovery wing of the Spirit World hospital, the young detective was wearing himself a bit thin.
Kagome made a note to ask Keiko about taking a break the next time she was in.
Yusuke was currently unpacking one of the lunches Mama had sent with him, and took the opportunity to avoid eye contact. "He's around."
"Not here." She pointed out.
He sighed, not saying anything, still carefully arranging the dishes. It wasn't really like he was risking them falling by placing them on her lap, since Kagome didn't move any part of her body unless absolutely necessary, but he was paying an awful lot of attention to it.
"Yusuke."
"Kagome."
"Yusuke."
Another sigh. "Look, he really is around. He's just…worried."
She frowned, annoyed, and wiggled her legs. Yusuke looked up. "What do you mean?"
It wasn't that she was feeling a lack of self-confidence, because of course Inuyasha wanted to see her –– he was her best friend, her biggest confident throughout some of the most troubling years of her life, and she knew now that he was also her first responder, her rescuer even when she had almost given up. But it hurt, just a little, to have seen nary a hare nor hide of the hanyou.
Abandoning the task of setting up their food, Yusuke sat down fully in the chair that was permanently situated towards her bed. "Look, it was his duty to keep you safe. And he didn't."
She huffed. "It is not his fault what happened."
"He might see it that way."
He was looking everywhere but at her, and she narrowed her gaze. "Yusuke. What aren't you telling me?"
He shuffled a hand to rub his neck absently. "Nothin'."
"Has anyone ever told you you're an awful liar?" She asked.
Yusuke scoffed. "I think that's a good thing."
Silence filled the room for a moment, and Kagome let it wash over her, soothe the unease that pooled in the pit of her stomach. She counted back to the start of this conversation, when Yusuke had walked in, a wide grin on his face, and a steaming box of something delicious in his grasp. She counted back further still, to waking up this morning to a nurse taking her temperature, telling her she'd had an episode the night before, counted back to the days that had slowly burst into reality.
She looked at Yusuke again. Real. "I want to see him. I won't ask you why he isn't here, where he should be, but I need to see him Yusuke."
The detective arched an eyebrow. "You aren't mad at him?"
"No."
"You're sure you want to see him?"
She cocked her head at him. "Why wouldn't I?"
He shrugged. "No reason."
"What?"
He was quiet, looking at her careful. Assessing. Trying to see if she could manage the news –– she knew they'd been keeping stuff from her, god knows she'd been keeping almost everything from them so she couldn't blame them for wondering if she'd be alright.
But still…
She struggled now, to sit up more in her bed. It hurt, but it was the good sort of hurt, the kind that ached instead of stung. "Tell me."
Yusuke rushed forward a little, to still her in her place. He was scowling. "Stop that."
"Tell me."
He was still frowning, hands on her shoulders to keep her from making any sudden movements. "Kagome…you don't know how bad it was when you got here. You were covered in blood, he was covered in your blood. You were unconscious for weeks."
She held her tongue, bit down on the sentences rising (of course, she knew, she'd lived it, cursed it, sometimes wondered if it was still here), and glared.
Yusuke looked down at his hands, resting on top of her, and then slowly sat back in his chair. "You weren't really uhm…all-here, when you first came to. Inuyasha refused to leave your side, once the docs were done with ya, and was right beside the bed when you woke up."
Something on his face made Kagome think this wasn't the most popular of ideas, but it fit. That's what Inuyasha would've done. He cared about her. He did.
She hated having to remind herself of that.
"You shouted at him," Yusuke continued "you told him to go away and leave ya alone."
"I did what?" She whispered, aghast.
He nodded. "Like I said, you were pretty out of it."
Kagome felt the coil of unease burst, the pinpricks settling against her skin. Yusuke looked at her with sad eyes, pitying eyes, and she was horrible.
"Anyway, that's what he did. He left. He's been hangin' around here mostly, sometimes goes back to tell your friends how it's goin'. I don't think he's been goin' to your house to do more than pass through the well."
She couldn't have…she wouldn't have…but Kagome remember a half-baked dream, remembered feeling disgusted…
"Is Mama upset with him? It's not his fault Yusuke, you have to tell him that. No, wait, I do, I will, please––"
The words came out faster than she could think, and in her panic she shot up from where she was and reached out to grab at Yusuke. The movement caused her unbearable pain, tugged and tore and the bandages and stitching that criss-crossed her back, blooming bruises that burst into agony. She groaned.
"You can't just –– shit, Kagome, sit back down. You're not super-human anymore." Yusuke reached for her hand, wrapped it in his own and used his other to push her back down. Again.
"Great," he muttered "you tore your stitches – I can smell the blood."
She didn't back down from the glare he sent her way. "Yusuke, please, go find him for me. Tell him I need to see him."
"You need to rest."
"I don't care if you're upset with me, you need to ––"
"I'm not upset with you!" He burst, growling at her for all he was worth. She fell silent. "I'm not. I'm angry with him, and with Naraku, and with that fucking jewel."
"You can't be angry with Inuyasha––"
"I can. I am." He said, cutting her off. She was growing weary of being unable to speak, on top of all of her other limitations. "He should've stopped this from happening, but you got tortured because he couldn't. And now you're injuring yourself again because of him."
"I told you, it isn't his job to protect me!"
He shifted in his seat. "It is."
She didn't want to be arguing with him. Not now at least –– her energy depleted so quickly, she only had one good fight in her for the day, and she couldn't just waste it on a circular and pointless argument. So she let that tidbit go, even though it was preposterous and presumptuous, and downright rude towards her, to think that it was anyone's fault but Naraku's, and maybe hers, for getting herself into such a vulnerable situation in the first place.
Yusuke wasn't the person she needed to be telling this all to.
"It's not just that."
"No?"
She shook her head, looking at him with eyes as open as she could make them. Let him see the plea in them. "It's for me too Yusuke. You don't understand what I went through––"
"I might if you ever spoke about it." He interrupted.
She sighed. "Stop that. Look, it's…difficult to think about. But Naraku he used Inuyasha against me…" she trailed off, shut her eyes, shut out the images as quickly as she could. "I need to talk to him, I need to make sure everything is still the same, everything is still real. I just…I need my friend."
If he was insulted, he didn't show it. Instead he slowly picked up the food that lay forgotten at her feet, a few pieces tossed aside from her earlier panic. "Yeah, okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay."
"Soon?"
He nodded. "Soon. But first, you need to eat. The nurses said you're still on the nutrition drip."
Kagome took the lunch box he offered her, wrinkling her nose at the strong smell. It was a difficult reintroduction. "Yeah, okay. Deal."
"And no more freaking out. Botan told me you almost took out a nurse the other day."
"That was a misunderstanding." She defended.
"Well it's not healthy."
"I know."
"So don't do it."
"I know."
"We want you to out of here as much as you want to leave."
"I know."
"Good. That's all I ask then, okay?"
She smiled softly. Real.
"Okay."
.
.
.
She went home a week later.
It was technically eight days, but Kagome liked to cut off that last little anomaly and account it to the overly paranoid nature of the hospital staff. Koenma had evidently impressed upon them that their clientele was of some important nature or another, and that she wasn't to die off because of inadequate care. On one hand she appreciated the (excessive) worry the little demi-god had for her; he'd been fussing by her bedside for days after she'd first woken up. On the other hand, she was ridiculously eager to get back home, for any small semblance of normalcy, and all of said fussing was keeping her from that.
But, she digressed.
Mama had greeted her admittedly slow approach to the front door with keen joy, tearing up the moment Kagome had gotten in sight (she'd made the detectives land the portal a little farther away, despite it being the middle of winter and downright freezing). Souta had assembled a makeshift room for her downstairs, since she wasn't allowed to climb anything, really, on her own, and everything had been cozy and warm and just lovely.
She allowed everyone to stay for the first night, piling into the living room and settling down for some tea and movies and firm mind numbing-ness –– Kagome was still not up to talking about everything that had happened.
By the fourth day though, she kicked everyone out.
By the tenth day she was able to walk around on her own, so long as she didn't try to run or jump or do anything that normal humans did.
By the fourteenth day she'd secretly packed her bags (she'd put in extra pocky for Shippo, and ramen for Inuyasha).
(but she couldn't jump through the well)
It only took until the twentieth day for her to confront Mama.
.
.
"I don't understand why you want to go back." She went to the toaster, the oven, then back.
"I told you, I need to see Inuyasha."
"Why don't you wait for him to come here?" Now over to the dining room table.
Kagome shifted the bag on her back –– it was uncomfortable against her bandages. "Because he's clearly not going to. It's been over a month Mama."
"I don't think it's best for you to go back to that place when you're still not healed." Mama was pacing around the kitchen, pointedly cleaning up still, as if by ignoring what Kagome was saying she could stop her from doing what she threatened.
"My powers have kicked back in, so that's not really it, is it?"
This was not technically a lie. She had felt the faint surges of the jewel, fighting back against the beating her body had taken –– she'd felt it the entire time while she had been held captive. But the loophole in whatever it was the shikon had with her that kept her alive was that it did not include keeping her comfortable. Kagome was not the first person to notice that mild injuries, or the ones that did not threaten her life (she hesitated to declare them merely mild) were not really the jewel's concern.
"That doesn't mean you should go jumping down wells."
"It isn't a rough landing Mama."
"You shouldn't go back there Kagome."
"I have to."
"Well I don't want you to."
"Why?"
"Because!" Mama said, slapping down the cloth she held in her hand. There were tears in her eyes. "Because…I didn't realize before. How dangerous it was."
Kagome sighed. She walked over to where her mother stood, braced against the kitchen table, and took her into her arms. "Oh Mama…"
She leaned into the hug, gratified when her mother wrapped her arms back around her, behind the backpack, speaking into her hair. "You were gone for so long Kagome."
"I know." She said soothingly. "I know."
When they broke apart, after a moment of quiet, the kind Kagome had begun to learn to enjoy and revel in (real, real, real), she'd stopped crying. "You could die."
Lying had never been her strong suit –– half truths were okay, sometimes, but outright lies… "Yeah, I could."
"You shouldn't have to face that sort of thing."
Kagome's answering smile was soft and small and reluctant to disagree. She didn't want to go through anything like that again, she had yet to be able to convince herself that this was the right decision, but she knew that it was only an eventuality that she returned. "I have a duty Mama. I made a promise."
And because Kagome was her mother's daughter, Mama smiled too. "I – I know that." She lay a warm hand over Kagome's chest, over Kagome's heart. "I can't decide whether to thank the gods that you're okay because of it, or damn them because it put you in danger in the first place."
"I like to do a little of both."
"Ah."
She laughed –– because why not –– and shifted the bag on her back once more. "I won't be gone for long. Just long enough to make sure everyone knows things are…okay."
It was the middle of the morning, which meant it was bright and crisp and cold and Kagome was bundled up tightly enough that it was impossible to make out the goose bumps littering her skin.
"I understand dear, I know they're important to you."
Kagome smiled (had a flash, of Shippo, screaming at her) and nodded her head. "They are. And I know Inuyasha's been reporting back to them but I want to make sure for myself."
When Mama only stood there, lifted her hand to lightly drift over Kagome's face and tucked it under her chin, through her hair, she continued. "And maybe don't tell any of the detectives about it? They don't need to worry any more than necessary."
"They might pop by you know."
Kagome had kicked them out a little over two weeks ago and she knew that there was a limit to the amount of space they were willing to give her. How odd, friends, on both sides.
It didn't feel real.
"You don't need to lie to them. Just don't mention it first?"
Mama nodded. "Alright. Although I wish one of them could go with you."
"Me too." Kagome adjusted her stance, farther back so that she was facing the doorway out. "But they don't need to."
"Because you have family on the other side?"
She turned around, was already walking away from the situation at hand to face the next one, and shook her head. "No –– but because I'm enough."
Before Mama could say anything more, and Kagome did feel bad about rushing out, she ducked around the corner, out the front door and into the cold. It wasn't that she wanted her mother to worry, she never did…but some days the fight to stay still and reassure was a little too hard.
She sighed –– it'd been months since she'd woken up, and months since she'd seen anyone from her travels. The nightmares that had been used against her, the warfare on her mind, was the hardest to dissipate, and she knew she needed to see them again to lay this whole thing down to rest. She couldn't just stop fighting, and more than ever she had a sense of purpose, and yet…
The walk to the well house took her thirty seven minutes. Having the courage to leap took twenty.
.
.
She waited by the well, because contrary to her best intentions the climb up had not been fun, and she was breathless. The scenery around her was familiar for all of the most terrifying reasons, and being exhausted and in pain and on the wrong side of delirious, here of all place, wasn't her best plan.
It passed.
While breathing in the fresh air (it was winter here too, and she'd wrapped herself more tightly in her scarf) and waiting for the panic to pass she counted back.
––Packing her bag. It was still the same, which had seemed odd somehow, as if the bright yellow should be dimmer in her eyes. Talking to Mama. Walking through the snow –– reminiscing about the last time she'd experienced such a harsh winter, when it wasn't supposed to have happened, when Kikyo had locked her out of the past –– and sitting on top of the well, much as she was currently. But facing it, facing inwards, trying to drum up the guts to jump.
Jumping. The familiar blue; she hadn't felt it the last time, when Inuyasha had pulled her through.
Inuyasha.
She waited by the well because she needed to. Her friends needed to come to her.
(They did)
Shippo was the first figure to crest the horizon, and her heart contracted painfully. He was running towards her, so that was a good thing, she reasoned to herself, tightening the grip on her jacket. She'd dumped the bag by her side moments ago, and it sat in a pile of snow, soaking up the moisture.
She saw two more figures jogging slowly into sight, but before she was able to clearly make out who it was, Shippo was leaping and soaring and burrowing into her.
"You're here." He breathed, and when that wasn't enough he tucked himself under her chin and she could hear the repetitious words on his lips, MamaMamaMama, and curled her arms around him. Nothing shattered or broke, no one was trying to get away from her, and she hugged him tighter.
"Inuyasha told us you were okay, he did, but you weren't coming back and––and," he sobbed, drew himself into her "you're here."
She blinked quickly and ran a hand soothingly over his back. She didn't say anything.
In the quiet her answers lay clear and easy to grasp –– this was her Shippo, not a figment, not a lie, someone who loved her. But in the noise and the thrum it was easier to forget, and she focused on the details.
"Kagome." Another voice whispered, this one female, and Kagome opened the eyes she hadn't realized she'd closed and peeked over Shippo's head.
Sango.
Behind her Miroku stood, hovering closely in the little enclosure their bodies made. It was cold out, but then, Kagome couldn't really feel it.
She couldn't force the words out, she just couldn't seem to (hadn't realized it'd be this hard), but she nodded softly and tried instead to smile. Sango gasped and it was throaty, as if buried inside too deeply, and ran closer, closer, until she'd surrounded Kagome and Shippo in a hug.
Miroku smiled and waded through the emotions easily, was the only one who could smile and wrap his full body around them all.
It was in the midst of everything, of the feeling of rightness and clarity, that Kagome finally allowed herself to believe. Real, real, real. Something inside of her shouted, it screamed, and Kagome let out a giant sob.
She was warm –– she was so, so, warm.
"I'm home." She croaked. "I'm home."
Shippo was saying something that sounded more like crooning, and Sango was crying, and Miroku was the only one able to answer. "Welcome home Miss Kagome."
They stayed this way for a while –– Kagome liked to imagine they were doing the same thing she was, touching skin and smiling faces and reassuring herself that this was all happening. When they finally did break apart Shippo refused to leave his place in her arms, and despite the fact that he was still far too heavy for her to cart around all the time, she let him.
She leaned back against the frame of the well, tucking her head atop of her kits, and smiled again. "It's good to see you guys."
Sango reached out a hand to smooth across Kagome's hair; it reminded her of her mother, and a great swell of sentimentality washed throughout Kagome, bringing a soft blush to her cheeks.
"It is." Miroku agreed, leaning into Sango.
Her friend nodded slowly, robbed of words, everything seemed so slow-motion still. Kagome shivered.
"Oh," Sango said, her hand now fluttering around Kagome's head, drifting down to her neck where the scarf wrapped around her was tucked away "maybe we should move this inside –– I'm sure Kaede will want to see you as well."
At the mention of her tutor –– and the idea that there were others out there –– Kagome stood up. "Yeah, that'd be lovely…but where's Inuyasha?"
It was blunt, and it served its purpose straight away; Miroku's smile stilled around the corners, and Sango flinched ever so slightly. Shippo, who was still pressed against her tightly, his entire body melded against hers, stilled.
The two in front of her shared a looked. "Well, he's in the village." Miroku said.
Shippo mumbled something into her neck, but Kagome couldn't hear it. She bounced a little on her feet, adjusting the weight. "Why isn't he here?"
"He's been patrolling the perimeter a lot lately." As if this was an explanation.
Sango was still staring at her with wide eyes, eyes that took everything in with a touch of disbelief (something Kagome could relate to), and Kagome levelled her with a look. "He has to know I'm back."
For heaven's sake, if Shippo, a demon half his age, could find her, then so could Inuyasha.
(the unease settled in again)
Sango shifted, leaning into Miroku, and blinked. Kagome glared. She yielded. "He's not sure you want to see him."
"What, does one little episode erase three years of –– gods. Yes, I want to see him."
Miroku was holding a hand out now, tucking the scarf neatly around her, and belatedly Kagome realized her bandages were probably showing. When Shippo had jumped up on her, he'd pulled at the loose cloth around her, and she was still was still covered in gauze and what-have-you to keep her wounds from becoming infected, if that possibility still existed.
But these were her friends from forever, friends who knew Inuyasha the way the detectives didn't. They didn't doubt him.
Shippo leaned up now, and as his body moved away from hers in this miniscule manner, she pulled him closer. "The idiot wouldn't tell us what happened over there, but he took your disappearance pretty badly."
Reminded of this fact, he rubbed a cold nose under her chin, and Kagome compensated for the added momentum by leaning back against the well –– it was hard to keep upright for so long, but she was reluctant to give it up. She threaded a finger through his hair and murmured reassurances into his ear.
After a moment, she turned back to Sango and Miroku. "What happened was a…misunderstanding. I confused him with someone else."
Either they were colder than she'd imagined, or something had happened while Kagome had been otherwise indisposed –– Miroku tucked his arms around Sango and pulled her closer. "Once we managed to defeat the distractions Naraku had sent, Inuyasha told us what had happened, that you were…gone." He gulped, his grip tightening enough the crinkle at the edges of Sango's winter outfit. "We could not find you for a long time, and we all feared the worst."
"It was just like the last time only instead of wondering if you'd died for a moment, we were left for a month." Sango said, the words bursting out of tightly clamped lips. She frowned, although Kagome wasn't sure who it was directed at.
Miroku nodded. "Inuyasha searched relentlessly for you – I mean, we all did, but he went the farthest I think. He even asked his brother for help."
"Lord Sesshomaru?" She asked, disbelievingly.
"An interesting story for another day perhaps." He said, and then shivered. "We can find Inuyasha however once we're back where it's warm?"
Shippo made to shift to her shoulder, moving in her grasp so that she could keep a hold of him, but Kagome shook her head. "He's going to have to come here."
"Miss Kagome?"
They were looking at her strangely, she knew, but she kept her eyes ducked down to Shippo. She traced back to seeing him for the first time, in the way he smelt faintly of pine and smoke, how soft his hair way…and smiled wanly.
"You can find him for me right? Tell him I'm waiting for him here, and that I won't move until he comes to get me himself."
Shippo cocked his head and tightened his grip, small claws pricking her skin through the winter jacket she wore. "You want me to leave?"
"Of course not, darling. But you've reassured yourself I'm safe, right?"
He swiped his nose into her neck before leaning back again to face her. "You're hurt, but you're healing."
"Right. Well now I need to let Inuyasha figure that out."
Sango interjected. "Kagome…why can't you do that where it's warm?"
"Yes, Miss Kagome, surely Inuyasha would rather come to find you somewhere safe."
It was almost dusk now, and the dimming light lent the snow-capped hill an eerie beauty. She looked out at it with a grim expression, her knees knocking together until she gave in and sat on the lip of the well.
It'd been a long day.
"Inuyasha has been refusing to find me at all." She spoke calmly, clinically, but let a hand go from where it was tucked around Shippo to brace herself on the wooden surface (reminded herself that this is nice but I need to see everyone first). "If I'm the one to approach him, then all of this might not be real. I…was under an illusion. You were all there, and I'm not saying this to be sentimental or pushy, but you were, and I just…I need him to come to me –– he might be more willing to do that if he knows I'm out here waiting."
And besides, she still hadn't convinced herself that the best course of action involved leaving her quick ticket home.
Shippo wiggled out of her grasp until he was sitting on her lap, but she could see that although he wasn't clinging onto her as furtively as before, he was unwilling to break away from her. Similarly Sango and Miroku had allowed for a small breach of space between them and Kagome, but had not moved farther away.
Miroku sighed. "Oh my."
"Yeah."
He reached out towards her, but stilled. "And you are certain this is the best course of action?"
She nodded, leaned back against the well and breathed slowly into the night sky. "Yeah."
"You would like us all to leave?"
A smile. No. "I would follow you as soon as possible."
Shippo shook his head. "I'm not leavin' you alone."
"Shippo––"
"I'm not."
She inhaled deeply, and then pushed forward until her weight rested on her feet rather than her lower back. "You can wait around until we sense him getting here. But Inuyasha needs to come here alone, okay?"
With a reluctant nod, he agreed.
Kagome looked up at her friends. "Believe me, I am grateful to see your faces, and I know you must have questions about everything that's happened, but this needs to be done first. Would you please do this? For me?"
When Sango appeared unable to answer –– face too tight, skin too taunt with tears or anxiety or something –– Miroku accepted. "Of course we will."
She grinned ruefully. "Thanks guys."
They stared at each for another pause, because after weeks of distended reality even this seemed surreal, before Miroku tugged on Sango's midline and turned them away. It only took this small jolt to have the slayer reeling for something to say, landing on, "Are you coming back?"
Kagome blinked. Cocked her head. "Pardon?"
It was the odd shuffle that the normally confident woman had in her steps that gave her anxiety away. She took a deep breath and strode a little bit closer. "Are you coming back now?"
She was confused. "I am back."
"No, I mean…" the slayer let her words end but her thoughts continue, willing Kagome to understand –– which she did with a sudden, sharp clarity.
"Coming back here?"
Sango nodded. "I know that…whatever you went through, it must have been really frightening, and that you probably don't want to come back…and you absolutely have better options than travelling around and risking your life…but uh, you know that we want you, of course you don't have to either…"
She trailed off, staring hesitantly at the hand Kagome know held out –– she took it, thankfully, with little question, and Kagome smiled.
"Sango," she started, and then because there were no words for everything, not yet, she pulled her into an embrace, Shippo tucked underneath "Sango, I love you, you know that?"
From beside her ear Sango inhaled quickly. She nodded.
When she did take a step back, Kagome still held her hand. "I am coming back." She promised. "It might just take me a little while to get back up to speed, okay?"
Sango smiled, wiped a tear that had trickled down her cheek. "Okay."
"Good." With one last tight tug, she let go of the tight grip on her hand. "I will see you two later then."
Miroku took Sango back into his arms with a grateful smile. "We shall leave the lights on for you Miss Kagome."
They turned around then, monk wrapped around slayer, and Kagome found she could watch their departure with a fond smile. It might take her a while, but she'd have to ask what had gone on whilst she'd been recuperating.
––and then there was two.
She talked to Shippo mostly about mundane stuff –– how crazy it was to wake up in the Spirit World hospital and be addressed by an ogre in a nurses' outfit, the little gifts Souta had taken to bringing her each day he visited, and even how Koenma had actually hugged her in front of his entire team when he'd first stopped by. In turn, the young fox wove little tales about the time she had missed, taking thoughtful care to leave out any explicit mention of what had happened to her, or of the dog-demon she called her friend. And all the while he tucked and nudged and manoeuvered until he was as physically close as possible, his breath hot against her collarbone.
Kagome let him, for both of their sakes.
The trek to the village was not a long one, and with Miroku's spiritual powers and Sango's penchant for catching demons who didn't want to be found, it was not long however before Shippo's head had popped out from where it was pressed under her chin, and he stared off into the distance.
She sighed. "I will be back before the night is over Shippo."
"Promise?"
Holding out a solemn pinky, she wrapped it around his. "Promise."
Shippo smiled, but it wobbled at the edges, and she brought him close for one final hug. "We will be okay my darling."
"Yeah." He said, then decided that there had been enough gravity for one evening, he grinned. "Besides, I'll have your bag –– you'll have to come down."
Kagome giggled, which only deepened as the kit jumped down and propped her enormous yellow monstrosity on his back. It was only possible because of his small growth spurt, but the thing was definitely still too big.
"There's pocky in there you know. Help yourself."
He tapped his nose. "I know."
Before she could say another word –– and perhaps because the only thing left to say was a goodbye, and it was too morbid at that –– Shippo was bounding away, hopping down the small hill that led away from the well.
Likely on purpose, Kagome mused, as scarcely a minute later another familiar figure was slowly walking up it.
It was as if the weeks on end of coddling and soothing and reality checking had all bubbled into this one meeting, for the moment Inuyasha looked up and she caught sight of golden eyes, her entire body sagged forward, caught by the breath that she was finally able to let go of.
Here.
She must have looked worse than she'd thought (she'd tried to dress warm, but getting down the well had taken her a long time, and waiting here even more so) for as soon as he caught sight of her he was jogging forward.
Kagome could feel the jewel reacting to whatever was going on in her head, for he'd barely reached her before a pulsating wave of energy pooled underneath her skin and engulfed her, building and building until the pressure was almost painful. She stopped breathing, stopped beating, stopped everything, for that one great pause in which he slowly held out his hand.
––he made contact with her cheek, a wondrous look on his face, and everything in Kagome cried exultingly real, real, real; the balloon burst, pink light flew outwards and careened over the hilltop.
She sighed; grasped his hand still on her face within hers and smiled. "Inuyasha."
It was the only reaction he needed (for now, she knew, it was only for now, but it was enough) because he grinned back at her, one of those rare honest smiles, and tugged her forward into his chest. Their next sigh moved their bodies together.
"Kagome," he whispered, because everything else would be too loud "you're back."
.
.
.