No matter how much she loved her friends in the feudal era, it was always wonderful to come home. She missed it, the comfort of her bed, indoor plumbing, the joy of hanging out with her friends, despite the fact that she didn't fit in. Talking about boys and following the latest gossip wasn't really her thing anymore, but occasionally she would indulge in it, take advantage of her short time of just being normal.

No demons to fight, no hanyou to sit, no shards to worry about. Here, her biggest worry was studying for a test, at least when she was in school, or finding a way to avoid Hojo once again. She really should just speak with him as he was wasting both his time and hers in his relentless pursuit. But she just didn't have the heart. She didn't have the heart to crush his, and she didn't have the heart to disappoint her friends who were so eagerly looking forward to playing matchmaker every time she was in town.

But she knew every time she left the feudal era, she was coming home. One hug from her mama, and whatever was wrong in her world was suddenly right.

Which made this visit all the more special as Inuyasha had pissed her off for the final time. Gone was the hanyou that had endeared himself to her, instead stood a hanyou obsessed with one thing, and one thing only. And his attitude toward everybody was well past beginning to stink. It was downright foul. She could handle the cutting remarks toward her, and she knew Sango and Miroku could handle the cutting remarks toward them, but when he grabbed a three year old village boy who had accidentally stepped in front of him by the neck and held him high in anger, well, that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

The jewel was beginning to corrupt all who wanted it. She had no idea as to what Inuyasha wanted to wish for, but whatever it was, it was causing his heart to darken and she was beginning to become frightened of what he might become because of it.

But while at home all of these thoughts were put behind her.

Unfortunately, her visits home were not nearly long enough and she once again found herself climbing out of the well, and the further up she climbed, the more she could feel the tension and stress building up within her again.

"Miko."

She heard his voice before she saw him. She peaked over the lip of the well to see him standing there, looking quite ethereal in the light of the full moon.

"Hey," she smiled, the first true smile she's had for a while in this era. "Here, grab my bag, help me out." It took him no effort at all to lift both her and the bag over the rim of the well. "So, what's up?"

"You were gone for a while," he commented as he sat in front of the well.

"Yeah, I know," she replied half-heartedly. "I had things to do."

"You were running away," he countered.

"Yeah I was," she admitted. "I'm getting tired of it all. The hunt, the fighting, with both Naraku and Inuyasha. Everyday I'm more and more tempted to just go home and forget about the well, forget about coming back."

He took her hand in his and squeezed lightly, a gesture she found very reassuring. "Haven't you ever felt like running away?" she asked him.

He sat silently for several minutes before answering. "Once, when I was younger. My father had begun to train me and I was unused to spending several hours not doing what I wanted. I had wanted to leave and forget about my responsibility to the lands."

She smiled at him. "That's so not like you," she chuckled.

He smiled back, slightly. "Even now when I tire of one place, and I tire of whatever it is I'm doing, I just pick up and leave and find something else. Why waste the energy if it's not something I want to do."

"But your lands, you don't forget about them, and you don't shirk your responsibilities to them."

"No," he confirmed.

She lay her head against his shoulder, and snuggled closer to help keep herself warm.

"Where would you run it if you had the chance to truly run away?" he asked.

She sighed, before looking up at the sky. "I've always wanted to go to the moon. If I could run anywhere, it would be to the moon."

"Foolishness," Sesshoumaru scoffed. "Nobody can go to the moon."

"Not true," she countered. "Humans have already been to the moon several times in my era. The Apollo missions. They take a great space ship up into the sky and bam, in a few days you end up at the moon."

"Remarkable. Why the moon?"

"Oh I don't know. It's barren, desolate, quiet, the perfect place to escape reality with nothing and nobody to interfere."

"You could get that in many places here," he pointed out.

"True. But maybe it's what it symbolizes as well. It's a sign of personal growth."

"How so?"

She looked up at the sky wistfully. "The ancients used to believe the moon guided almost all we did down here. It governed the rainfall, and the ocean tides, and is associated with the idea of fertility."

"The chance of starting something new," he replied.

She smiled, thrilled that he understood. "Precisely. Nevermind sex and having kids, although I'm sure that's great and all, but the rain and tides will wash everything away and fertility is the idea of starting something new, of having the ability to start something new, something completely separate from everything else."

"And to get all this you would go to the moon," he mused with a small smile on his face.

"If I could," she sighed again and reached over for his mokomoko-sama, stroking it lightly with her fingers. "If I could get there, I would and I'd forget everything here and just start fresh. A while new life."

"Without Inuyasha."

"Without Inuyasha," she confirmed.

"And your friends?"

"As far as friends go, and they go pretty far, they're fantastic, but I can't help but feel something's missing when I'm with them," Kagome confessed. She knew what it was, the fact that they had each other and she had nobody. More and more often she was beginning to feel like a third wheel.

"You're not alone," his baritone voice broke the silence. "No matter what you think, you're not alone. You don't need them on this moon of yours, but even if you go by yourself, you wouldn't be alone."

She beamed at him. "I know."

"I would go to the moon with you." It was his turn to confess.

"You would?" she nearly jumped to her feet, startled.

"Yes. You could pretend right now you're on your moon. I'll be here with you. Spend the night, get some rest and know that nothing will interfere with your dreams."

"You won't leave me?" she whispered, her eyes suddenly feeling heavy.

"No. I won't leave you." He unfurled his mokomoko-sama, and covered her bare legs with the piece of fluff in an effort to keep the cold away. He could hear her snoring lightly, and instead of finding the sound repulsive, he found it endearing.

"You'll never be alone," he said into the night as his eyes fell upon the moon once more.

END

AN

Needed something to brighten an otherwise bad day. We all get those once in a while. Anyway, the moon is another one of my favourite celestial objects. The first time I looked at it through my telescope it took my breath away. But there's so many phases and each phase will reveal something different. And then don't forget the terrain. You can look at the moon however many times you want and it'll never look the same way twice. There's so much on there between the craters, mountains and basins, you'll find something you've never seen before every time you look up.

But nevermind the musings of an amateur (very amateur) astronomer. Look at astrology and their symbols of the moon, or religion, and in each religion you'll probably find several different references to the moon. You can see it holds just that much more value to humanity.

I'm a little bummed at the moment. For those interested the Perseid meteor shower is this weekend and as with every other major celestial event this year (the lunar eclipse, the transit of Mercury), the weather forecast is saying the evenings and nights will be cloudy. I'm crossing my fingers that the weatherman is wrong. But if you have clear skies Sunday night, early Monday morning before sunrise, take a moment to look up in the sky and see if you see any meteors. They're spectacular.

For those of you who are reading Mirrored Pasts, you can look for an update this coming Sunday. I have it written, but I'm letting it sit for a few days before any editing so I'm not so familiar with it.

A big thank you to everybody who reviewed

ASS: Wiccan (You're right where the vignettes are meant to stand alone, but you're also right about the fact they're all interconnected. I, too, can't wait to see where this series goes and how the characters will develop and grow as we go along). Jean, trihn, Libertine (I love going up North as I get the unimpeded view of the stars. I could sit for hours, without any optical aid such as a telescope or binoculars, and just stare at the sky. In Toronto, we're lucky if we see two dozen stars in the sky at night. We can see all the really bright stars, but that's about it), and ElegantPaws. Ingi-doo, GYY, LadySafire, (I always find it funny how kids always want to grow up, and adults want to take a moment once in a while and be young again. I was forced by circumstance to grow up way too young, so now I try to take a bit of time every now and again to be young. It's a good compromise, the wisdom of my years and experience and the joys of being young again. I quite like standing in the rain, although with the pollution in the air, I'm quite reluctant to stick my tongue out to catch any) Bert8813, rachelandthecupcakecrusades and LuciferSpades.