Author's Notes: Here it is. My final (?) chapter. Thanks for reading! As always, your comments and opinions are valuable to me, and I appreciate your feedback.

Absence

Chapter Sixteen

"Do you think Inuyasha's lonely?"

It was a commonly uttered question among the group and the villagers. One with only a single possible answer.

When he wasn't traveling with Miroku to regional villages or helping around the village, Inuyasha was a common sight wandering through the fields with a faraway look on his face. Nighttime more often than not found him standing on some lone promontory, staring up at the stars as if the answers could be found somewhere in the inky depths.

He'd made the decision to leave Kagome behind. He had only himself to blame. He'd grown up in isolation from 'normal' society, persecuted and hated and feared. He knew all about being alone in the world.

But still.

Of course he was lonely.

The evening breeze was cool, the earth beneath his bare feet warm yet from the heat of the day. Inuyasha stared at the barren well. A vine had grown its way up over one corner of the slightly dilapidated wooden structure. He lifted his claws to slash it down, as he had cut down so many other plants that had attempted to take over the well. Something made him pause, some twinge deep in his heart, and he let his hand fall.

Let it go.

The words echoed inside his mind, almost as if an alien voice spoke to him. Inuyasha shook his head. Something about the moonlight, he thought. Hadn't Kagome told him some story about moonlight and craziness?

Let her go.

Maybe it was right to let the vines grow. Maybe it was time. Inuyasha wavered. Three years…Three years he'd come here on every third night, with no real hope of making it through. What would he do if he could make it through? What would he say?

Would she still want him?

But what if that was part of the whole problem? What if that was the problem? Doubts plagued Inuyasha. What if his fears were the only thing holding him back? Would the well work if he were more convinced of his…

"Of my what?" he muttered aloud to the disinterested trees. "Of my feelings for her?"

He was convinced. There were probably plenty of things he didn't know, but his feelings for Kagome were certain.

"Should've told her while I had the chance." Regrets flowed in and out with the evening breeze. "Should've done a lot of things while I had the chance."

He loved her. He loved Kagome in a way that scared him, because he'd never felt like this for anyone else. Even with all the passage of time, he didn't think his feelings had changed. Maybe he hadn't known what it was at first, but he'd come to understand he loved her long before their final parting.

Courage resolved, Inuyasha strode forward. He vaulted over the edge, made the short drop with his eyes closed. He didn't need his eyes to tell him he hadn't made the crossing. His nose told him. The scents of the forest rose around him, familiar, haunting. Inuyasha didn't bother to sigh as he hauled himself out of the well.

Shippou was waiting for him at the edge of the clearing. His face was serious in the shadows. "Don't you think it's maybe time…"

"Let's go." Inuyasha cut Shippou off. He scooped the little kitsune onto his shoulder and paced down the path to the village. Somehow, Shippou voicing his inner doubts aloud would be unbearable. "I should kick your fuzzy tail into next week for spying on me. Again. You know I hate it."

Shippou's voice was small. "I'm just worried."

There was a vulnerability there that made Inuyasha's ear twitch. "You worried she'd come back?"

Shippou's voice only got smaller. "I'm worried you wouldn't."

Inuyasha's fist clenched automatically, but he stilled the reaction to clobber Shippou as he would have once. There was nothing to say to that, and he didn't try to invent any sensible response.

Winter melted into spring, heralding a return of warmer days and shorter nights. For once, Inuyasha was as grateful as the humans in the village. While the cold didn't bother him as much, except on his human nights, there was something pleasant about the knowledge that the earth was reawakening and that there were sunnier days ahead. Life in the village, too, picked up, with planting for the coming growing seasons and repairs after winter storm damage. Youkai, too, were most active in spring mating season, and Inuyasha and Miroku were busy on the road, exterminating vermin youkai and other nuisances from local villages.

Sango gave birth to their third child, a sturdy little boy they named Susumu. She laughingly proclaimed this to be their last, but the villagers had a bet that Miroku would convince her otherwise. One way or the other. Inuyasha stayed out of it—it was their business, after all—but agreed with Shippou that there was a better chance of Sesshoumaru formally adopting Inuyasha than there was of Sango being right.

It was a bright, unseasonably warm morning, and Sango and Miroku were hanging up the laundry. Inuyasha was 'babysitting', which meant the twins were climbing over him the way a mountain goat climbs on a mountain. "Not the ears, girls," Miroku called out when one particularly enthusiastic pull elicited a grunt from Inuyasha. The girls, of course, just giggled and ignored their father, squealing in delight when Inuyasha lifted them both, one latched onto each arm, off the ground in turn.

The wind shifted, bringing the warm, earthy scent of newly tilled fields and the more distant forest. Inuyasha's nose flared, picking up each individual scent—budding blossoms, small animals burrowing, distant river water.

And…

He sat up, heart pounding. His eyes, as though by an inextricable cord, were drawn to the forest. The sound of the girls, tugging on his sleeves for more play was distant, muted. His head was buzzing, but his sense of smell was acute as ever. It can't be a dream, he thought, standing.

"Here," he told the girls, handing them over to Shippou. "Kill the kitsune or something."

Ignoring Shippou's angry protests, he started for the forest, first in a dreamy half-trance, then gradually picking up speed as he left the village. By the time he cleared the first tree in the forest, he was racing, the insistent knocking of his heart against his ribs nothing compared to the choking heat in his throat. It can't be…

He stopped beside the well, hesitant. Fearful. Let it be…Tears rose unbidden to his eyes, and he squeezed his eyes shut. Sucked in a deep breath redolent with that long-ago but never forgotten scent that soothed every harsh and ragged edge within his soul.

Stepping forward, he looked into the depths of the well and held out his hand.

Kagome took it, and let him lift her out.

The most beautiful sight in the entire world, his entire life, would forever be her, rising out of the well's darkness, tears in her eyes, eyes fixed on his face, hand warm and firm and real in his. He could be a thousand years old, life ebbing from his body, and he would think back and remember this moment, this exact moment, as one of the best of his life.

Everything about the moment was enhanced. Enchanted. The way her hair flowed over her shoulders; the way her scent swirled around him, drawing him in. The feel of her in his arms, cuddled against his heart, real and tangible. She was everything he wanted. Everything he needed. She filled the void in his heart that her absence had created, a void he'd thought would follow him to his grave.

Her voice was soft. "Inuyasha…You waited for me?"

The words he'd never said swelled in his throat, but he couldn't form them. Not now. Not when there were so many questions left.

Instead he pulled her closer. "You idiot," he muttered. "What've you been doing?"

Footsteps interrupted the moment. "Kagome-chan?" Incredulity filled Sango's voice, and together, Inuyasha and Kagome turned to face their friends. The disappointment was edged with anger at having his private moment ruined, and Inuyasha quelled the instinctive reaction. Kagome's fingers, tucked in his, squeezed reassuringly, and he grinned despite himself.

After all that had come to pass, she knew. She understood.

She was here.

~5.23.10