Landing with a thud, Kagome clutched her chest and nearly cried at the coldness of Kohaku's soul around hers. It felt frozen, almost like a fog was around it, and it sent a bolt of terror through her. He was alive, though. She wouldn't be able to feel him like this if he were dead.

Near flying up the ladder, Kagome began to rush toward her house when her soul jerked. Blinking rapidly, she slowed and hesitantly followed the faint pull. It led her into the woods behind her house where a small creek was. Swallowing thickly, Kagome kept walking until she came upon a lake she could have sworn didn't exist. She knew every inch of her family's property, having been quite the explorer as a child, and she'd never seen that body of water.

Wringing her hands, the priestess went with her instincts and approached the lake. Looking into it, Kagome gasped as she spotted a great white dragon. He was curled up and slumbering deeply, his soul not stirring as she called his name.

"Kohaku, please," she yelled.

When he didn't reply, Kagome began shucking off her clothes and dove into the crystal clear water. She seemed to swim forever, her arms aching and her muscles burning with the strain. She refused to give up, however, even when the water felt like it'd turned into gelatin. Pushing forward, Kagome fought through it, crying and struggling until she finally reached her spirit.

"Kohaku," she sobbed, touching his nose.

At that, the scales around her soul shifted. Kagome sucked in a breath as large green eyes snapped open. When they focused on her, a massive shudder shook his form and the fog between their souls began to dissipate. Relieved beyond measure, Kagome wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her face into his shimmering scales. Kohaku rumbled at that, as if every part of him had been asleep and he was only barely aware of what was happening.

"I have dreamed this dream often," he sighed, "but you have never felt this warm."

Holding him tighter, Kagome shook her head. "I'm not a dream, Kohaku. I came as soon as I could. I'm so sorry!"

Rousing, the dragon frowned and then jolted as his sleep fell away. His breaths picked up and before she knew it, he had transformed into his more humanoid form. Staring at her in heartbreaking wonder, he reached out and cupped her cheeks. When he felt the realness of her form and noted the desperation flooding him from their bond, he finally believed her.

"Kagome," he whispered, his eyes shining.

Nodding frantically, Kagome threw her arms around him, pressing as close as she could. Kohaku choked with the strength of his emotions and returned her embrace just as desperately. Stretching up, Kagome brought her mouth to his, this kiss filled with only beginnings-with hellos and sunrises and every good moment laid out before them.

And as Kohaku's power exploded into life around them, Kagome shook with how much he'd endured for her.

"A trifle," he murmured, tracing her face reverently. "Once your friends passed, I slept until time caught up with itself. My river aboveground was filled in, but I have always flowed under the earth as well. I slept behind your home, waiting for you to find me, as I knew you would."

Kagome shook her head and pressed her palm to his heart. She knew the agony he'd been in, having felt it herself that time she'd returned home. It would have driven her mad. His fervent faith in her, however, made her smile brilliantly at him.

"The Jewel dissolved into me," she whispered. "There is a very good chance that it'll sustain me as long as you live."

Eyes bright, Kohaku let his powers test the validity of her words. What he found had triumph and overwhelming happiness erupting in his veins.

"I shall not lose you to time," he confirmed. "But, I have had five centuries to miss you, my priestess, I am inclined to make up for that."

Kagome tugged his head down until he kissed her again, perfectly content to go along with that idea. Groaning, Kohaku clutched her to him and deepened the kiss. This joining was a reaffirming of her bond with him, that she was honestly with him again and that she wasn't leaving. Hands tangled in her hair, Kohaku watched her eyes as he claimed her again, his own filling with tears at once more having his other half with him. Despite his reassurances to her, he'd been mad with grief for longer than he cared to remember when she'd been pulled from him. It was only the distant echo of their bond still alive that kept him going for five centuries. Still, this moment with her swept all of that away; his isolated prison finally broken.

Their powers joined once more, just as their souls and bodies were, and they were finally whole.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"Why was it so difficult to get to you?" Kagome asked Kohaku later as they were staring at the small creek behind the shrine. "And why did I have to tow you out of the water?"

"You were piercing the veil between the worlds," he told her. "After the realms were split, measures were taken at the Crossroads to prevent beings from drifting between them. Our bond allowed you to fight through to me and I required an anchor to return to the human world. My waters existing in two realms aided our travel as well. Otherwise, we would have had a very difficult time returning."

Wrapping her hands around his arm, Kagome stared at the happily bubbling creek. "So, what now?"

He smiled down at her. "I cut out this creek shortly after you were taken from me. I can carve a narrow, but deep path from my underground river through here to a larger river not so far away. Is that acceptable to you?"

"Whatever makes you happy," she told him.

Pleased, he went to work on that, shocking the ecologists at the near-overnight transformation of a creek into a river. Kagome's grandfather was only too excited to have an actual spirit on the shrine and added the river onto his tour when visitors came. No one had the heart to tell him that it wasn't his stories that had people pouring in now; but rather the occasional glimpses people got of Kohaku in dragon form shooting through the water.

Mrs. Higurashi adored Kohaku, his care of her daughter ensuring that he had a firm supporter in the older woman.

"He's very much in love with you," she told Kagome one day as Sōta explained the rules of soccer to the dragon.

Kagome blushed deeply, but smiled. "I know. I can feel it."

Patting her hand, her mother silently let her know how happy she was for her.

As for her brother…

"Kohaku is brilliant," Sōta told her when he first saw Kohaku transform.

Smirking, Kagome crossed her arms. "Yep. He really is."

The dragon nuzzled her and then glanced to Sōta. "Would you like to fly?"

Ecstatic, the boy frantically nodded and then scrambled up Kohaku when the spirit motioned to him. After that flight, Kohaku could do no wrong in Sōta's book.

Once the frenzy of reuniting and acclimating eventually settled, however, Kagome was hit hard with the loss of her dearest friends. True to their words, her friends in the Warring States Era had, indeed left her many things over the years. Scrolls with birth announcements, tablets carved with claws to stand the test of time recounting stories she laughed over, and familiar weapons that served as death proclamations. She cried over all of them, locking herself in her room until Kohaku would no longer allow her to grieve alone. Holding onto him, she sobbed at the loss of her heart-family and the lives she'd missed out on because of the whimsy of the cursed Jewel.

That night, he carried her to his restored river and submerged them as he had the first time he'd claimed her. Kagome let him take the pain away as he once more brought her into a world where all she knew was pleasure and fulfillment. They didn't emerge for days and would have probably stayed longer, had Kagome not worried about her family. Kohaku allowed it, because she really had begun to mend and he knew she needed her family's support as well.

"I remember your friends coming to light incense at my shrine," he told her later as she lay across his chest. "They were unwavering in their loyalty to you, even if all that was left of you was me. Inuyasha found a kind of happiness with Kikyō, but they had no children and he passed shortly after she died a second time. He made sure to record your friends' lives for you, however."

Thinking over the tablets Inuyasha had painstakingly carved for her, Kagome swallowed against a wave of affection and loss. "He was my best friend. In a way, we taught each other how to grow up, you know?"

Humming, Kohaku traced the ridges of her spine and curled his soul more securely around hers. "Shippō, Kirara, and Sesshōmaru yet lived when I decided to slumber in wait. They are in the demon world."

Brightening with hope, Kagome sat up and peered down at him. "Can we go see them?"

He chuckled and stroked back her hair. "Of course. Now that you've woken me and pulled me across worlds, traversing the realms will be no great feat. My power is extremely adaptive; I memorized the spells on the veil when we were piercing it."

Laughing gleefully, she kissed him with all the love in her heart and was pleased when he returned it just as intently.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Next Chapter: Loose Ends!