The Muddle Puddle

Title: Falling Away Chapter 13: Parting Ways

Genres: Angst/Romance

Rating: PG13.

Pairing: Inu/Sess

Warnings: Some language

Length: 2,067 words

Chapter Thirteen

I tried everything I knew of to reason with my sister’s reincarnation, but to no avail, she refused to listen to reason. She can’t, or won’t, see the error of her line of reasoning. The girl acts as if he should have chosen to be human so he would have come to live in her time. I tried to explain to her he would not have been happy there and that with the exception of her recent disapproval he has come to accept – even like who and what he is. I also strived to explain countless times, to get her to understand how important it was that, now that the Shikon jewel was inside her, she should learn to control it; that was also a fruitless endeavor. In the end she just stormed out of my hut shouting how she was going to have what she wanted and for me to just wait and see. How I pray those were words of anger and not a forecast.

Not too long after she left did the Hanyou come looking for her.

“Have you seen Kagome, Lady Kaede?”

‘Lady Kaede’, indeed the past few years have changed him. “She left here just a little while ago, might I ask why it is ye seek her?”

I watch as his ears flatten to lay close to his mane of silver/white and slowly he took a seat on the floor of my hut, his clawed hands disappearing within the sleeves of his red haori as usual.

“What bothers ye my child?”

“‘Child’, feh, I’m way older than you.”

“Only in years,” I respond smiling at him.

“Well I’ve been kind of avoiding her since we arrived and if I am to make it to my brothers on time I need to leave at some point today. I don’t want to leave things between us the way they are now, I at least want to give my friend a hug…and say goodbye.”

There were several things wrong with that brief statement the most pointed being him referencing Lord Sesshomaru as his brother, not as ‘fluffy’, or that ‘arrogant bastard’ which was his usual way of doing so. Two, not once did he meet my eyes when he spoke, and three since when was Kagome just a friend? “Aye, I see, is there something you wish to talk about my child.”

“All I wanted to know was if you’d seen her, Hag.”

“And I know as small as this village is, you could sniff her out in no time, Demon.”

“Feh.”

That was the only response he uttered before he fell silent, so I set about making us both some ramen until he was ready to venture speech once more. When it was done, I retrieved us each a serving and returned to my place on the floor. The half-demon took a couple of slurping mouthfuls, and began to stare at the floor as if it held all the answers to the questions in his mind and would tell him at any moment. The air was so thick with tension one could almost choke on it, but I said nothing I knew he would speak when he was ready. I had no sooner stood to take my now empty bowl into the kitchen when he spoke.

“She… she broke my heart, Lady Keade, and now nothing makes sense anymore….”

His statement stopped me in mid-stride and when I turned to face him I was greeted with a pair of amber eyes that had so many emotions flashing behind them, it made my heart ache.

“Sadly my child, of all the potions and herbs in my possession, I have nothing that will heal the pain ye suffer now, but I do know of something that will help things along as time does its work and that would be your friends. I would guess ye feel alone right now but if ye would take the time to look, you will find that Miroku, Sango, Shippou and even Kouga will walk this road with you if ye let them.”

He said nothing his only response was to lower his gaze and continue his study of the hut’s floor, so I kept talking.

“I know they are not the same as the mate you had hoped to find in Kagome, but in times like these friends can be of the utmost importance, if you have one true friend you will not ever truly be alone and you Inuyasha have quite a few, whether you realize it now or not. Not only that, you now have a chance of building a bond with your brother, I know it may be hard to see all of this through your pain but it is there, all ye have to do is not push it away.”

“But they have all been though so much now that Naraku is dead they need to try to go on with their lives and be happy, they don’t need to sit around and baby-sit a moping half breed.”

I couldn’t help but sigh at his statement, his frame of mind was one I couldn’t recall ever seeing him in, it was almost disturbing.

Funny how one could stand in the face of Naraku, fearless, defiant, and headstrong but be brought to their knees by a 95lb teenage girl. Life was indeed a curious thing, wonderful in all its glory but hideously torturous at times like these.

I also find it odd that I would end up comforting the being I once thought killed my sister because he has had his heart broken by the one that now has her soul. Yes life is indeed a curious thing and nothing confirms this more than the fact that a Youkai, a Hanyou, a Houshi, a Taijiya and a Miko would find themselves in each others company long enough to become friends.

“I guess it’s just that now that all of this has happened, I really don’t know what to say to her or how to say it.”

“Goodbyes are difficult under even the best of circumstances, it will be hard child, but once it is over it will get better with time.”

“Well I guess I need to quit stalling, huh?”

“Indeed…”

He rose to his feet and headed towards the door; he put one foot outside, stopped and turning to me once more. “Thank you Lady Kaede.”

“Anytime my child, and remember no matter where life takes ye from this day on, ye are always welcome here.”

He smiled, bowed and was gone.

(Inuyasha’s POV)

Finding Kagome didn’t take as much time as I would have liked it to. “It’s about time you decided to talk to me,” she griped, the instant she spotted me, her hands shooting to her hips.

“I didn’t come to argue with you Kagome, I came to say…goodbye.”

“Goodbye!?”

“Yes, I’m leaving the village for Sesshomaru’s today.”

“So just like that everything’s peachy keen and you and him are pals now?”

“No, but I hope this is the beginning of that.”

“So where does this leave us?”

“I hope this leaves us as friends.”

“Friends!? Now, after all we’ve been through, you want us to be no more than friends!?”

“Don’t turn this around on me, Kagome, you are not happy with me the way I am and I don’t want to become strictly human, so as far as I can see it, we really can’t be anything more.”

“But I thought you wanted to be with me!?”

“And I thought you were happy with me the way I am.”

“I was, but it’s not necessary for you to be like this anymore.”

If my face was anywhere near as contorted as it felt, I would have to assume she knew how I had taken her statement. I didn’t come here to fight but I couldn’t just let that slide either.

“So what you’re saying is, it was fine for me to be a demon when it was keeping you safe, but now that you have no use for that part of me, you just want to be rid of it!?”

“You’re making it sound worse than it is; besides you were going to do this for, Kikyou.”

“Yeah and how many times did you remind me that you are not her?”

“And how often did you listen?”

“Enough times to fall in love with you and become comfortable with myself.”

From the expression on her face you would think I’d just slapped her. Tears welled in her eyes, the priestess backing up a few steps before she responded, the shock faded from her eyes, replaced with resentful anger.

“Well if you love me so much, looks like you would want to do anything you could to be with me.”

“But if in doing so I have to become another person, is it me you really want to be with?”

“It not like you don’t become human every new moon.”

“And you should know more than anyone how much I dread that night and how dangerous it is for me. You don’t get it do you Kagome? I like being a demon.”

“How…why, what’s so wrong with being human?”

“Nothing, when you’ve always been one, but would you like to be transformed into something almost completely opposite of how you are use to being once a month, then have someone want you to stay that way permanently?”

“But how else did you expect to come to live in my time if you didn’t plan on becoming human?”

“I like how you had everything planned out for us,” he growled sarcastically, “when were you gonna talk any of this over with me?”

“Why are you fighting me on everything?”

“I’m not fighting you; I was just asking you when I was going to get to have my say in all of this!”

“Are you trying to say I’m a control freak?”

“You and you alone have decided when we hunt for shards, when we camp, what we eat, how long we stay, when we stop for breaks, you tell me if that makes you a control freak or not.”

“Osuwari!”

I should have seen it coming, but I walked right into it anyway. It was hard for me not to be angry at this point, once again things weren’t going her way so it’s, send him face down in the dirt so I get my way’. When the spell wore off I didn’t bother to stand I just sat there and looked at her, her chest was heaving in and out like she had been running. She was looking at me expectantly so I finally spoke.

“I guess this damned necklace was going to be a permanent fixture in the world you planned for us as well?”

“You were asking for that one Inuyasha.”

“I’m sure it does seem like it to someone who always has to have their way. What the hell was that if it wasn’t controlling?”

“You…you were…”

“‘I was what Kagome? Not agreeing with you? So that’s reason enough to hurt someone over!?”

“’Hurt you?’ I just sat you.”

“And you think it feels good to be slammed face down?”

“Well you’re the one always bragging on how quick you heal.”

“So just because I heal quickly you think I don’t feel pain? If that’s what you think then that school thing you go to doesn’t really teach as much as you say it does.”

Her face was blood red, fists clenched at her sides. I could sense another osuwari was on the tip of her tongue, but she caught herself. The bad thing about that was I don’t feel she caught herself because she didn’t want to hurt me, I think she just didn’t want to prove me right about her being controlling.

“Go ahead and say it Kagome, I’m prepared for it this time, why did you think I didn’t bother to stand up.”

“SHUT UP!”

“NO! Why is it always ‘shut up’, ‘behave’, ‘do this’, ‘don’t do that’, ‘sit boy’, I’m so confused and sick of it to the point where I didn’t know if I was going to end up your lover or your slave!”

I don’t know who that statement shocked more, me or her, I hadn’t even realized I felt that way until I heard it pass my own lips.