Satoru jerks awake. His hand feels around the bed. Where the hell is Kagome? He tosses the cover off him. Did he dream it? Dream seeing her again? He tugs at his hair and sucks in a breath. This room isn't familiar, but he swears he saw it yesterday. A door opens and closes. He jumps to his feet.

Kagome pauses and then blesses him with the biggest smile. Satoru stares. It is her. His Kagome. He advances on her and takes her into his arms.

"I didn't want to wake you," she murmurs. "You seemed like you needed the rest."

Satoru tightens his arms around her and inhales. "No, I need you more than I need sleep. I thought I was back in that prison again." He pulls away and looks at her. Her bump is definitely bigger. There's something so soft about her in pink. The pink knitted dress accentuates Kagome's growing bump. He eyes her breasts and bites his lip. "I'm tempted to keep you locked in here," he admits.

Kagome laughs. "No way, I'm already going stir-crazy as it is."

He hums. She thinks he is joking, but he's not. He wants to keep her locked in this room, away from everyone else. Satoru runs a hand down his face. "I'm hanging by a thread here."

"Huh?" Kagome touches his face and caresses his cheeks with her thumbs. "Did it mess with your mind? The prison realm?"

"Sort of. It was a combination of that and the locket." Kagome drops her hands, but he catches them and keeps them on his face. "I got out because of you." He closes his eyes and sighs as he enjoys the warmth of her touch.

"What was it like? Inside the prison realm?"

Satoru lets go of her hands and brushes his knuckles down her cheek. His eyes darken. "Cold. Except for the locket you gave me. That was the only warmth in there. The only light. After a while, I started seeing things."

Kagome frowns as she holds on to his hand and arm, pressing her face into his palm. She looks up at him and all he wants to do is kiss her.

Satoru smiles. "I lived a thousand lives in there and in each one of them, one thing remained constant. You. I never stopped fighting to make it back to you."

"Satoru," she says, blinking rapidly.

"It's okay, Gome-chan." He pulls her into an embrace and breathes in her scent. "Doesn't matter if it's one life or thousands. I will always find a way back to you." What matters is that Kagome is in his arms.

His Kagome.

"How long was I gone?"

"Ten days," she murmurs. "A lot has happened since you've been gone."

Ten days? That's it? Satoru pulls back. Kagome's bump looks far larger than it did the last time he saw her. He doesn't know much about pregnancies, but ten days doesn't seem like enough time. Kagome sighs.

"We're having twins."

Satoru nods. So Koushi will be born next…."Did you just say twins?"

"Yes, twins. One of them likes to hide and sometimes masks themselves. But we are having twins." She smiles. "InuYasha actually—"

Crash. Something falls on the ground.

Satoru averts his eyes. "He knew before me." Kagome grabs his face and forces him to look at her.

"I didn't know either until he pointed it out." She presses her lips together. He hates the worried expression on her face. She shouldn't be worried about anything. "The only reason he mentioned something is because there was an explosion…. on Halloween. I'm fine. The twins are fine. But that's the only reason he mentioned it, because he was listening to their heartbeat."

Satoru gnashes his molars. He's glad Kagome and the babies are fine. But he's pissed that InuYasha was close enough to listen to their heartbeats. She wraps her arms around him and lies her head on his chest.

"Tsumiki is resting. Sesshomaru left last night to provide Koga and Choso backup."

"Who is Choso?"

"Uhh." Kagome pulls back and looks up at the ceiling. "He's like Yuji's brother. I guess. He was one of the cursed womb paintings."

Satoru's eyes twitch. The guy that helped the curses to seal him away?

"He wants to go after…. Ken…. Kenjaku? The man with the stitches on his forehead, Suguru?"

Satoru smacks his face and tugs at his lips. "We're having twins. The cursed womb painting is now on our side. And something happened to Tsumiki, but she's okay now?"

Kagome nods. "Sukuna is out too. Sesshomaru wasn't going to provide backup at first, but I guess he knew you were breaking out of the prison realm because he sent me to my room." She rolls her eyes. "If I had known you were in the middle of breaking free, I would have got everything set up." She waves her hand in the air as if to punctuate her point. Satoru grabs her hand.

"You said yes?"

"Okay, now you're scaring me. You asked me last night to marry you."

"I thought it was a dream." He sucks his teeth. "I love you," Satoru tells her. "There is nothing. No one that can keep me away from you. No matter what, I will always find my way back to you." He kisses her. Much sweeter than he did last night. He kisses her slowly. Deeply. Kissing Kagome is the only thing keeping him sane right now. "I love you," he repeats. "Tell me you love me."

"I love you," she says. "If you want to stay here, we can. I can have Jaken, or someone bring food to us." Kagome motions to the small table off to the corner. "We've got a table, a couch, whatever you want, really."

The offer is tempting, but his mind circles back around to what she said earlier. "Sukuna is out? I want to see everyone if I can."

"Sure. We can go see them in the dojo. Everyone is here since you're out." Kagome pulls away, and he nearly snatches her back into his arms, but he holds himself back. "I can ask Jaken to bring some food here while you get ready." Kagome grabs her phone off the table and holds it up to her ear.

Satoru lets out a breath of relief. For a moment, he was worried she was going to leave again. Satoru heads to the connected bathroom and washes himself quickly. The jets of water are amazing on his back and the sound calms him, but he wants to return to Kagome's side as fast as possible. He dries off and wraps the towel around his waist.

"So why is everyone in the dojo?"

Kagome looks up and her mouth opens slightly. She swallows. "Because Sesshomaru likes to kick them around when they're here. Calls it training." Kagome wets her lips. "We could always catch up with them later." She gets up from her seat at the table and approaches him. His heart rate increases.

It beats faster with every step she takes towards him. There is one thing he knows, and that is how hopelessly in love he is with her. Stars could fall from the sky right now and his only concern would be how to save her. The world be damned. He meets her halfway and picks her up bridal style.

"You shouldn't be on your feet," he says. Something moves on the bed. Satoru tightens his hold on Kagome. What the hell is that? Another Buyo? He narrows his eyes. No, it's definitely some kind of cat, but it has wings, and it doesn't feel like a demon.

"That's Kuro," Kagome says. "She's my shikigami. Sorta." Kagome huffs. "Okay, she is mine, but Megumi takes her from time to time. He already claimed Shiro." Satoru sets her down gently on the bed. Kuro, the cat shikigami, yawns and stares at him. It tilts its head to the side and then stretches out its small wings. "Kuro can do some barriers, but she's better at calming people down and luring them to rest."

Satoru nods, though he truly has no idea what is going on. It's only been ten days and yet it feels like years' worth of time has been lost. He walks over to the closet and slides on some clothes. "How do you know it's a she?" He grabs two cinnamon rolls off the table and stuffs one in his mouth.

"Because she has a human-like form, but she likes to stay in this one." Kagome picks Kuro up and pets her. "Ready to go?"

No.

"Lead the way." He side-eyes the guards as they walk by. Those fuckers sniffed the air last night. Sniffed Kagome. Satoru stuffs the other cinnamon roll in his mouth to stop himself from punching them in the face. "So, you've been up here this whole time?"

"Yeah," Kagome says, looking over her shoulder. "More security than at home. I strengthen the barriers around the estate. I would like to do more, but…" She shrugs. "Just been doing what I can from here. I wanted to get you out myself."

"You did get me out," he assures her. "If I didn't have this locket, I would still be in there." He touches the locket. There's still some energy left in it. "In those visions. Well…it felt like different universes. Some things were different, but the only constant is that we were always together in some fashion."

"Are you saying that you universe hopped?" She taps a finger to her lips. "I mean, I came here from another world, so that's not the craziest thing."

He smiles. "Luckily, I didn't have to go through too many changes to get your help. Each verse I went to, the locket needed an extra boost. I think that's what ultimately wore the prison realm down. It didn't like the locket the first time I pulled it out." He eyes Kuro nestled in Kagome's arms. It's just a cat. A shikigami.

But he doesn't want it there in her arms, which is ridiculous. He knows this, but the anger and jealousy swirling in his gut is a dangerous combination.

"How far is this dojo?" he asks, needing to change the subject. Dwelling on his adventures is the last thing he wants to do. Some of them were fine, but others…others made him seethe. "I might need to spar with Sesshomaru while we're there."

Kagome snorts. "You've been itching to spar with Sesshomaru. We're here," she says. Satoru moves in front of her and pushes the doors open. He bites down on his tongue and clenches his fist.

InuYasha.

Doesn't look as though InuYasha is guilty or even upset that he is here, but Satoru isn't ruling InuYasha's involvement out yet.

"Sensei!" Yuji exclaims, jumping to his feet. He rushes over and waves a hand at him. There's a scar on his face now.

Wait.

"I thought Sukuna was out now?"

"Fucker took over Naraku's body," InuYasha says, crossing his arms. "But we haven't been able to find him. He covers his tracks well. Give him that."

Sukuna is hiding? Satoru's brows furrow. That doesn't make sense. Kagome heads over to Megumi and sits down next to him. Satoru frowns and trails after her.

"Why would Sukuna be hiding?" He reaches for Kagome and pulls her into his lap. She shouldn't be sitting on the floor. Megumi looks at him and then looks away. Satoru squints. "What are you embarrassed about?" he asks Megumi.

"Nothing!" Megumi scoots back. Shippo chortles. "It's not funny, Shippo."

"It's hilarious."

"…Don't mind them," Kagome sighs. "Shippo did something to traumatize Megumi."

"I was building character," Shippo says. "Besides, what matter is, is that Naoya's bum ass is dead. I did nothing wrong."

"YOU BIT HIS DICK OFF WHILE PRETENDING TO BE KAGOME-SAN!"

The room goes hush. Satoru's body is hot. It feels like he is having an out-of-body experience. Shippo did what?

"I'm not surprised," InuYasha mutters.

"Okay, in my defense," Shippo says, holding up his hands in front of him. "Naoya wanted Mama to come down to the Zenin estate. They were holding Maki and Mai hostage or whatever. It was a trap, clearly. So, I was like, ya know, let's just go down there and see what the man wants. It's not my fault he was thinking with his dick."

"You wore the shortest skirt possible and said hoes don't get cold right before you threw yourself at Naoya," Megumi says.

"First of all, I got that skirt from Mama's closet."

Megumi whips his head around at Kagome and his face goes as white as the Satoru's hair.

"Shippo traumatized me too," Yuta says, raising his hand. "He called me a curse fucker."

"Where was the lie?" Shippo scoffs.

"He tried to feed me to a dragon," Yuji says.

"I did not."

"He burned me with fox fire," Maki says.

"You attacked me first. That was self-defense."

"He cheated in blackjack," Kinji says.

"Okay, this is just slander now. Everyone wants to gang up on me now that Papa is back."

"I want another shikigami for my trauma," Megumi announces.

Satoru scratches his head. The hell is going on? "Megumi, if you want another shikigami, go tame one."

Kagome shakes her head. "No, he's asking me for another one." She huffs. "Hold on." Kagome closes her eyes and holds her hands out in front of her. Frankly, Satoru isn't quite sure what the heck she is doing, but everyone is watching her with some expectancy. A black egg appears in front of Kagome. It's huge.

Megumi grabs the egg so quickly that Satoru does a double take.

"You make eggs now?"

"It's a shikigami egg," Kagome says.

Megumi rubs the egg. "Give me something cool," he tells it. Satoru rubs his eyes. This is not the Megumi he knows. He glances to the side where Shoko and Nanami are, and neither of them seems shocked by this. Okay. What the fuck happened in just ten days? It's as though everyone has lost their minds.

"One of these days, something is going to come out of one of those eggs and eat us all," Yuji groans. "It's the start of a horror movie. Like freaking aliens!"

"Hush!" Megumi glares at him. "Don't listen to Yuji." He rubs the egg. Nobara walks over and stops at the look on Megumi's face. She rolls her eyes and sits off to the side, not directly in front of the egg.

Crack.

Satoru tenses.

The top half of the egg shoots off and large yellow eyes stare at Megumi, who peels off the rest of the shell. It stands on two legs with a solid blue body. Its arms are small with feathers at the end that look like a cape. On its chest are black markings, but with the markings and the black feathers, it looks as though it is wearing a tuxedo.

"WE'RE DOOMED!" Yuji exclaims. "THAT'S A DINOSAUR!"

"It's not like I know what is going to come out of the eggs," Kagome huffs. "It's like a shikigami gacha."

"Stop summoning shikigami," Sesshomaru says, "Before you summon one so big, we have no room to house it."

"…Hi?"

"Awww!" Kagome coos. "It talked!"

"Time out," Satoru says, "You make shikigami?" Kagome nods.

"And Megumi takes the shikigami?" Satoru continues.

"Yeah, he like imprints on them and they go with him."

"They can go in my shadows," Megumi answers, picking up the tuxedo-wearing dinosaur. "What's your name?"

"Name?" It roars, showing off its fangs.

"Ryuren," Megumi says, holding the shikigami like a plushie. Buyo Jr. leaps out from the shadows and wails. "Buyo, it's fine," Megumi says, reaching over to pat his head.

Kagome leans back against Satoru and touches his face. "Welcome home."

He bends his head down and kisses her. Yeah, it's good to be back, though it would be nice if Buyo stopped wailing.


A/N: Gentle reminder to go back and read the Multiverse side story if you haven't already. Hope you are having an awesome week so far. Thank you all for the fun facts. It really does help me during the week because work has been stressful. Gonna need to take another staycation soon.

Next update will be Wish I Could, but that will be next week since those chapters are longer than the others. Though if you see an update later tonight for a side story, you were just dreaming and should go back to bed lol.

Take care. Get your rest. Stay hydrated. And make sure to get up and move around. A body in motion stays healthy or something like that.