Evanescent

By: HalcyonMoments11


Now all the stars have gone,
Faded into cracks of dawn,
And I'm still waiting here
Waiting for you to come home.

- Norah Jones (Waiting)


After Kagome's first successful expulsion of reiki, and despite Miroku's protests, the young miko insisted on continuing the practice. In the end, it hadn't taken much from the young woman to convince the houshi to continue. After years of raising their kitsune companion, Shippou, and befriending and caring for the hanyou, Inuyasha, Kagome had developed a rather effective puppy-dog face: batting long, ebony lashes, hands – still entangled with his own – brought up to just barely brush a slight pouting lip, and titling her head to the side just-so. Even Inuyasha had a difficult time saying no to it.

Goosebumps still lined his skin; the pleasant heat of her enticing aura still lingering between them like Miroku remembered the scent of home used to linger in his clothing as a boy. The feeling of her hot breath ghosting over his knuckles did nothing to sooth the sensation and only made it more difficult to refuse the blue-eyed girl in front of him - his craving for more, made it practically impossible.

With the puppy-dog eyes came a pleaded, "Please, Miroku-sama!"

And "Just a little longer, Miroku-sama. Please?"

It was all the houshi could do to sigh – almost exasperatedly – to put on some show of restraint before agreeing with his friend to continue.

"But, only in smaller volume, Kagome-sama. This barrier was not built to last a long period of time." Miroku had said in condition, to which Kagome agreed eagerly with a wide smile.

"Besides, honing your ability to dispel your reiki in smaller, more precise ways may prove better practice than expelling such a large quantity at a single time."

He chuckled gently as she shifted to make herself more comfortable in front of him, only now detangling her fingers from his almost as an after thought.

"Let's go back to focusing your reiki to just your hands. This time, you'll use the same technique you just used to expel your aura, just more focused."

Kagome nodded her understanding, a faint pink glow already rising around her hands.

"I'll keep the barrier up for a while longer until you can focus it in one direction."

That was all the response the young miko needed. In moments she had called forth her reiki to her fingertips and begun expelling it in significantly smaller volumes. Miroku allowed her to work at her own pace, demonstrating the technique occasionally by projecting his reiki from his finger tips to hers.

He enjoyed watching her response to his own chakra in those small moments. He wondered if it felt anything like the pure, raw passion that emanated from hers. As he watched her cobalt blue eyes widen slightly with each connection, her pupils dilating in response, he wondered how his reiki felt to her. Did she enjoy the feeling? Was it warm and comforting, or sharp and thrilling? Was it anything like hers – all of these things in one, and somehow more?

The houshi doubted it.

Still, the small smile that curved the corners of her lips when he allowed his reiki to take on the violet-silvery color that it took in corporeal form when he reached out to her with his own was satisfying in an odd way.

The pair lost track of time as they practiced on into the night, Kagome eventually shifting so she sat besides the monk. They chatted aimlessly in low voices between short bursts of reiki passed between them. The miko's voice was barely a whisper when she asked him, "Why did you wait for me, Miroku-sama?"

"I'm not sure I know what you mean, Kagome-sama?" the monk replied, looking up from their hands between them, close, but not quiet touching.

"Why didn't you go with Inuyasha and Sango-chan to look for the shard?"

Miroku tilted his head to the side curiously, unsure of where this topic of conversation had come from. "Someone had to wait for your return, Kagome-sama. So, I volunteered."

Kagome 'hmmed' and focused her attention on their hands once more. The cameo pink of her reiki was beginning to fade. She was quickly learning how to cast out her chakra without seeing the action visibly.

"I'm sorry to trouble you with that necessity, Miroku-sama" she mumbled.

He shifted his hand so that his fingers delicately brushed hers, bring her gaze back to his own.

"It was no trouble at all, and certainly not a necessity, Kagome-sama. We simply did not want to leave you without some kind of explanation or understanding of our whereabouts."

"But I've held you back to wait for me."

"Held me back?" He asked, voice quiet and eyes bright. Is that what she thinks?

"I'd spend centuries waiting for you, Kagome-sama. Only ever because I desire to, and for no other reason."

Kagome's cheeks flushed faintly in response and she turned her gaze away from his towards the small fire at the center of the hut. For a moment, he was glad for the reprieve from her eyes – eyes that he knew often saw more than he would like them to. With that statement came a fluttering sensation in his stomach that he hadn't expected, with uncertain meaning. He was sure his confusion and any other emotion that accompanied that feeling had crossed his features in that moment.

A slightly uncomfortable silence stretched between them then, and Miroku feared making any sort of movement, even one to pull his fingers away from hers. He was surprised then, when she leaned back towards him, resting her head on his shoulder carefully.

"Kagome-sama?"

Her fingers shifted against his, entangling them as she squeezed them between her own.

"Thank you, Miroku-sama."

Amethyst orbs glanced down at the head of raven hair on his shoulder, a small smile gracing the corners of his lips. He squeezed her hand gently in response. They remained in that position for some time, until Miroku felt Kagome's weight shift more thoroughly onto his shoulder and he realized by her steady breathing that she had fallen asleep.

He chuckled noiselessly and shifted so that his head fell gently on hers. Her weight was comforting, and her proximity enticing in a way that it had never been before – during late night conversations, or beneath the sound of coals popping and hitched breathing as he tucked her head beneath his chin comfortingly, waiting for their hanyou friend to return from another venture seeking the undead miko.

There's certainly no harm in leaving her there for now, he mused, watching the fire crackle and burn.


The sun had just begun to breach the horizon, bringing with it a dusty dawn when Inuyasha and Sango finally pulled the bamboo flap of Kaede's hut aside to enter. It had been an exhausting trip, but fruitful. The difficult part had been returning to Edo with a tainted shard – its cursed call, albeit its minuscule size, seemed boundless. The pair had had little rest since obtaining it.

They entered the hut to find Kaede restocking a small fire, sparks rising into the air as she prodded the coals to life with a stick. Kirara jumped silently from Sango's shoulder and stretched with a quiet mew before joining Shippou who remained asleep, huddled in one of Kagome's blankets on Kaede's cot. The taijiya nodded a silent greeting to the village elder before turning her gaze on Kagome and Miroku who still slept by the door of the hut.

Inuyasha's amber orbs followed her gaze, widening slightly in confusion and anger at the sight they found. Kagome's head still rested gently on Miroku's shoulder, and his head on hers, their fingers entwined partially between them, both sleeping soundly.

"What the hell is this?!" Inuyasha protested loudly, earning himself a glare from his taijiya companion and a scolding from Kaede.

"Hush, Inuyasha!" the elder demanded, eyes falling on the pair who barely stirred at the hanyou's outburst. "They were awake late into the night, awaiting your return."

"Feh."

Despite his reply, Inuyasha's ears twitched and lowered slightly with the elder woman's words. "Only one of them needed to keep watch," he muttered, moving further into the small hut at Kaede's insistence that the two of them settle down and rest themselves.

Sango nodded slightly in agreement, noticing the way the shard in her possession pulsed with Kagome's proximity, the darkness that tainted it fading slightly.

Carefully, she moved to Kaede's cot, which the elderly woman offered her, and curled herself around the sleeping kitsune and her bakeneko. Noticing the small glare her hanyou friend cast in the direction of the sleeping pair, she too turned her gaze in their direction. Her stomach tightened uncomfortably at the sight the two made, but she shrugged it off quickly. It wasn't the first time she had woken up to find the two of them sleeping soundly so close to each other. The two had an undeniably close friendship, and there were often times when even she, as Kagome's only other female companion, could not comfort the futuristic miko the way the houshi could.

Sango sighed and allowed her weary body to rest, having given the tainted jewel shard to the elder miko and relieved herself of the weight of it. The purification of the shard seemed to put Inuyasha slightly at ease as well and the two quickly fell asleep like the rest of their companions.


A/N: Well, it's been far too long since I updated this story, and I sincerely apologize for that. I hope you'll all forgive me for my absence and any future stretches of time between future updates. I'm in a MA English program at the moment and a lot of my time has been consumed by projects for school and outside work. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter regardless. Best wishes for the New Year!

-HM11