Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

Worth Waiting For
By : inumom
Category: InuYasha > General
Views: 6484 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.
Chapter List
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Disclaimer: Still don�t own �em, but I�m working on it.

AN: No citrus yet, just even more emotional misery. It is on the way, though--next part, I think.

3. Separation Anxiety

The hanyou wasn�t prepared for the storm of questions he would face when he returned through the well. While Sango, Miroku, and the old miko were able to understand that Kagome�s mother had insisted that she spend some time in her own world, the little fox youkai kit who traveled with them was enormously upset by the loss--however temporary--of his adopted mother. Only when Inuyasha showed him the calendar and explained how to mark off the days until he would be able to retrieve the girl did he settle down.
Since none of them had the ability to sense the presence of fragments of the Shikon no Tama, there was little that could be done at the present, so they all enjoyed a brief vacation from their travels. Over a period of only a few days, the group members all found new roles in village life. Miroku spent considerable time consulting with the village miko, Kaede, on matters relating to spirituality and magic. The youkai taijiya divided her time between refurbishing her Hiraikotsu and talking to the village women about things like cooking and healing, two skills she had always wanted to learn in greater depth. Shippou played with Kirara, Sango�s firecat youkai companion, and the village children.
Inuyasha took it upon himself to start leading the village hunting parties. Thanks to his youkai senses and attributes of speed, stealth, and strength, he was able to locate and bring down game much more efficiently than the human men of the village could have done on their own. When not so occupied, he spent most of his time in the branches of the Goshinboku, studying the book that Sango had given him and thinking of exactly what he would do when he returned to the other world to retrieve Kagome.
If the girl�s mother was right, she would probably be ready to forgive him for being an ass by the time her birthday rolled around. That made him think of something. He rapidly flipped through the pages of the book, remembering some reference to the birthday of one of the characters. Scanning the page quickly, he realized that a birthday, at least in Kagome�s world, was an occasion that called for much celebrating and giving of gifts.
That custom presented him with something of a dilemma. He had no gifts suitable for the girl from the future world. As an itinerant hanyou, he had no money with which to purchase a gift. As he considered the matter further, a long-buried memory began to surface�.

*

Kagome listened to her mother in something like shock. How could she forbid her from returning to the past?! The older woman, seeing her suspicions confirmed by the expression on her daughter�s face, held up a hand to forestall any objections. �It�s only for a couple of weeks, dear. You�ve been spending so much time there that you�ve fallen behind in your studies. Also, you come home upset and take it out on Souta and the rest of us. I think you just need some time to think about your priorities. If you still want to go back, I�ll allow it the day after your birthday.�
�But, Mama, my friends won�t know what happened to me! They�ll be worried!�
�Listen, Kagome. If these friends of yours are anywhere as good friends as you say they are, they�ll wait for you. This is important.�
Bowing her head in defeat, she nodded slowly. It was, after all, only two more weeks. How bad could that be?

*

Saying only that he had to be away from the area of the village for a while, the hanyou leaped into the trees to the southwest and was lost to view. Although he had wandered for some time before finding the village that had since become the closest thing to a home he could clearly remember, he knew that the place he sought could not be too far away: after all, he had only been a little pup when he had made the trip originally.
The problem was, he couldn�t use landmarks to find his way, as he had grown considerably since that time--nothing looked the same to his adult eyes as it had when he was only four. His youkai sense of smell would also be useless, as the intervening decades would have removed nearly every vestige of his scent from the area.
Concentrating on the place he was looking for, he felt himself drawn further to the southwest, until he finally came to a small hot spring with a little waterfall dropping into one end. Looking around with something very much like excitement, he nodded in satisfaction--he knew this place! Orienting himself so that he was facing the waterfall end of the pool, he looked to his left.
Because of the decades of growth in the area plant life, his sharp eyes nearly missed the crevice in the face of the rock wall before him. Moving slowly to the small gap in the stone, he brushed aside the vegetation screening the entrance, wrinkling his nose at the scent of youkai that emanated from the cave. Sniffing cautiously, he realized that the cave was vacant, at least for the moment--whatever youkai had been using it for a den was not at home right now.
Entering the cave proved to be a bit problematic. Although the opening had been more than adequate for the four-year-old Inuyasha, it was a tight fit for his adult frame. At one point, he was stuck, but managed to force himself through the tight place with only a few scratches across his chest to show for it.
Looking around the dark interior of the cave, he remembered that there had been a small overhead hole that had admitted light and allowed the smoke from his small cooking fire to escape. If he recalled correctly, it should have been near the rear wall of the small cavern. Moving cautiously, he stepped carefully around the piles of bones that formed the remains of the resident youkai�s meals. Finally reaching the back of the cave, he looked up to see that the hole was still there, just slightly overgrown by plant life.
Using a long piece of wood that had been there for years, he managed to clear away the greenery so that light once again found its way into the recesses of the cave. Looking around, he found faint tracks in the level dirt floor indicating that the creature that had been using the site was in fact some kind of large cat youkai.
Reaching out, he laid his hand on the shoulder-high rock ledge that had held his most precious possessions when he had been living in the cave as a child. At the time, of course, the shelf had been well above his head, but it had been that very fact that had made it seem so safe as a storage place. Brushing decades of dust from the ledge, he was surprised when his claws snagged on something else. Taking a closer look, he saw that it was a small bundle wrapped in brightly-colored silk, rendered invisible by the thick layer of dust it had accumulated.
Stuffing the small parcel into the front of his haori, he left behind his childhood home to return to the village in which he now resided.
He had traveled barely a hundred meters before he found himself face to face with the youkai that had been living in the cave. Standing well above his height at the shoulder, the cat youkai roared and slashed at him with its razor claws. Fortunately, the thickly forested area left the larger youkai at a disadvantage. With a single swipe of his claws, the hanyou neatly severed the creature�s head from its body.
Looking at himself, he realized that he was now liberally covered with youkai blood. As he walked back to the hot spring to get cleaned up, a thought occurred to him, and he returned to the corpse. With the ease of long practice, he quickly skinned the youkai, rolling the thick fur to carry back to the cave along with the creature�s head.
Realizing that the processing of the skin would take more time than he could afford to spend, he carried the hide, the head of the creature, and the claws he�d taken from its massive paws back to the village once he got himself cleaned up. Going immediately to the home of the village�s master tanner, he offered the man the teeth and claws of the youkai in exchange for his services in preparing the thick fur for use as a rug or bedcover.
Once he had concluded his business, he returned to his perch high in the branches of the Goshinboku to look over the items he had retrieved from the cave. Maybe, he thought, there would be something there that would make a suitable gift.

*

After the first three days, Kagome was ready to scream in frustration. Although she had always believed that her schoolwork was important, she now found it largely irrelevant to her life as she had come to know it. Even though she had complained endlessly about missing her friends from her own time, she now realized that she no longer had much in common with the other high school girls.
After five days, she pretty much gave up on homework, as she couldn�t concentrate on the subjects at hand anyway. She found herself endlessly speculating about the doings of her friends in the past, and wondered why the hanyou had not yet appeared, breathing fire and demanding that she return with him immediately.
Finally, she asked her mother for her insights on the matter. The answer surprised her. Yes, the young man had come to take her back, but had been sent away. He had been told when she would once again be permitted to use the time portal and had left, saying that he would return at that time. At the news that her friends in the Sengoku Jidai hadn�t forgotten her after all, Kagome returned with a lightened heart to the routine she had established for herself, studying traditional healing, teaching herself sewing, and learning the traditions of the shrine from her grandfather in the evenings.
Still, these activities weren�t of much help when the darkness closed in around her as she lay awake waiting for sleep that would not come. Even after a week, she still cried herself to sleep every night, knowing that the one thing that could bring her comfort was beyond her reach.
It came as no real surprise when she stopped attending school. She no longer bothered to keep up the pretense of being ill as an excuse. She had come to understand that the path on which she had been traveling for most of her life would not serve to take her to where her destiny was calling. She took to spending much of her time in the family�s shrine, poring over old, barely legible records, trying to find some hint of her ultimate destiny.
When her friends came to visit she was polite, but they could see that she was becoming more and more distracted, more removed from the experiences of everyday life in modern Tokyo, more obsessed with the history and workings of her family�s shrine. Even the persistent Houjou stopped coming by after a while.
While the others watched in shocked silence, Kagome�s mother simply nodded with a knowing smile.

*

Finally, the last square was marked off on the calendar pages. The hanyou was nervous at best. He had spent weeks trying to decide exactly what he would say when he went to her, and still had no definite plan in mind. All he knew for sure was that he could not allow the torment of the past weeks to continue.
Though only late afternoon, he could stand waiting no longer. Dropping through the well, he found himself at the bottom of the structure in the Higurashi shrine�s well house. Checking that the small objects he had placed inside his haori were still where he had left them, he leaped from the well, scampering across the shrine�s courtyard to the large tree near the house. From there he could watch the people come and go before darkness allowed him to approach the house.
He watched as a mixed group of people similar in age to Kagome entered the building. Although he had seen most of them before on his visits, he had only met a couple of them briefly. For the first time he wondered if he hadn�t been introduced to them formally because the girl was ashamed of him, or whether she really didn�t know how to explain him to the people of her world. A short time later, a boy of about the same age appeared at the door. A low growl escaped him as he recognized him as the boy who had helped her with her schoolwork when she had been sick once.
Although he had never met the boy, he instinctively thought of him as competition and realized that they would never be able to be friendly.
Glancing at the angle of the sun above the trees, he settled back against the trunk of the tree to wait.

*

The hanyou emerged instantly from the half-dozing state in which he had been waiting at the faint sound of the young people leaving the house. Though he could not distinguish their individual scents, it was apparent that they had all left. Shifting his attention to the upstairs window that was his usual access to the building, he waited until the light came on before dropping silently from the tree branch to the ground and making his way to the front of the house.
Easing the door open, he found himself facing Kagome�s mother, who smiled and led him into the kitchen. Sitting him down with some ramen, she explained that her daughter was taking a bath and would be back in her room within a short time. �So,� she continued, �What have you learned in the past couple of weeks?�
�Not a damn thing,� he snarled. �Just that I�m miserable without her around.�
The woman nodded, pouring them both tea. �Good. That�s what I was hoping for. For whatever it�s worth, you�re not the only one who had a rough time of it. It�s obvious to me that you two don�t do very well apart. If you can convince her to go back with you, I certainly won�t object.�
He hung his head. �Is she still mad?�
�I wouldn�t say that. We had quite an argument when I told her she couldn�t go back the next day. The whole idea was that you would both use this time to decide exactly what lives you both wanted. As near as I can tell, you�re the life she wants more than anything else.� At the sound of soft footsteps above their heads, she went to the refrigerator and pulled out a large bunch of roses. �Don�t forget these.� Putting the dishes in the sink, she said, �I�ll see you in the morning,� then went up the stairs.
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Worth Waiting For	By : inumom Category: InuYasha > General Views: 6484 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

Worth Waiting For