Kagome managed to keep it together for the four hour train ride back to Tokyo. She was holding on to her sanity for dear life on the cab ride from the station to the shrine. With each step up those infernal stairs, she felt reality catching up to her. And finally, when her mother opened the door, rubbing her eyes and sleepily demanding to know what time it was, Kagome broke down.
Catching her sobbing daughter, Yuu Higurashi steeled herself for what felt like the umpteenth time and gently but firmly guided the distraught young woman to the kitchen. She made her a cup of tea, sat it in front of her and waited for Kagome to tell her what the story was this time.
When all had been recanted, Yuu stared at the shell of a person before her. She wondered what more the gods had in store for her little girl and if at one point, some good would come of it all.
To the family's surprise, Kagome was quick to bounce back this time. She busied herself around the shrine as she had done when she just got back from Feudal times. Sure, she had her hard days when even getting out of bed felt like running a marathon and she wouldn't always finish the race. She genuinely believed, however, that the trip truly had helped her with her grief more than it had piled on. Her mother said she was in denial, but she brushed that off and continued sweeping the stairs.
She quit her job after consulting with her boss. Daily runins with children undergoing radiation therapy would test her coping mechanisms more than she dared at this point. She had an amicable last get together with her coworkers and was made to promise to think of them should she ever feel able to work again.
This subsequently meant she had to give up her apartment, however. She dreaded going over there, but after eating into her meager savings for some time, there was nothing else for it. Kagome tried to get her mom to get all her stuff for her, but the woman was adamant she did it herself. Cursing her mother for her exposure therapy, she found herself standing in her apartment one sunny Saturday, armed with boxes and bags.
The first thing she did was close the curtains. Then she surveyed the place and tried to figure out where to start. As she stood looking around her, the image of a shirtless man picking up banana peels came unbidden to her mind. It had been little over three months since he had appeared on her balcony to drag her out of her depressed state and onto the roller coaster that was their trip. Everything in the apartment was as she had left it the morning they had departed, down to the cleaned and folded gray shirt on her bed. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and squared her shoulders before decisively turning to the kitchen.
Starting with her plates, cups and silverware, Kagome soon found a rhythm. Before she knew it, the cabinets had been emptied, her bathroom was bare and her clothes were stuffed in a big suitcase. She'd faltered a bit when she picked up the gray shirt. The smell of his detergent had brought to mind the morning she had found herself in his bed, but she shook her head clear of the memory before the subsequent onslaught of feelings could overpower her.
She made several trips down to the car she had rented for the day to transport her stuff back to the shrine, cramming the boxes and bags inside before going up one last time to check if she didn't forget anything. After checking the cabinets and closet one final time, she realized she had, however knowingly, skipped over the balcony. It would be littered with bottles, she knew, because she hadn't cleaned it since long before her last bout of depression, and because it was pouring rain when Sesshoumaru had helped her, they hadn't done it then either.
Kagome worried her lip while she pondered her options. On one hand, she really didn't want to revisit the balcony. She'd experienced her worst moments there, barring Hiroshima, let alone the possibility of being spied there by the demon across the street. On the other hand, she didn't want to saddle up her landlord or new tenant with her responsibilities.
Finally, her sense of duty trumped her self-preservation and with a growl of frustration she yanked open the curtain and balcony door. She began shoveling the bottles inside, bent over and eyes fixed on the floor, keen on completing the task as quickly as she could without breaking any of the bottles. It didn't take her more than five minutes, but as she righted herself and cracked her back, her eyes were drawn by the stark splash of white behind the glass several stories up.
Kagome froze as her brain caught up to her visual senses and pieced together the silhouette of the demon that had made it possible to vent all those old feelings, and had at the same time piled on a whole new set of emotions to sift through. He was too far up to discern any expression, but it was unmistakable that he was looking down at her. She stood transfixed for all of a heartbeat, before resolutely closing the door, only breaking eye contact as she drew the curtains shut once more.