Together

Graduation.
Kagome didn’t feel happiness. She looked inside her heart, why isn’t she happy? She had dreamed of graduating, of finally stepping into adulthood …
But she was not happy.
As she gripped her diploma, she imagined holding her bow in her hands, but the memory seemed to slip off, to evaporate. She was startled to find tears welling in her eyes.
Sitting in the bed, she relieved the graduation ceremony, trying to persuade herself that she was happy.
And suddenly pictures of Inuyasha floated into her mind. She saw him laughing, arguing, snarling and eating. She saw the images, but they seemed to fade a second after they had appeared into her mind.
Two years.
Had it really been two years since she’d seen him last? Two years since the endless darkness and then finding herself back at the well?
She was a coward. She didn’t go right back to Inuyasha for the simple reason that she was afraid he’d reject her. When the jewel had broken, the shards disappearing into nothingness, when the darkness lifted and there was no Inuyasha, she had felt liberated. Liberated from the responsibility of keeping the jewel pure.
But her love for Inuyasha had been true.
The tears spilled from her eyes, dripping down her cheeks. She sat there, numbly, trying to recall Inuyasha…
The feeling of herself being folded into his arms…
His intense eyes looking into her…
She couldn’t bear to forget him or their adventure together. She couldn’t bear to be away from him any longer. Two years were enough.
She had to make a decision. But it wasn’t going to be an easy one.

“You have all you need, Kagome?”
Her mother smiled at her.
Kagome nodded, unable to speak.
“Goodbye, sister.”
“Goodbye, Kagome.”
Kagome swallowed the lump in her throat. She looked down at the well, breathing in its dank smell. She tried not to cry as her mother, brother and grandfather all hugged her. She had told them she had wanted to go back, and they were sending her off.
“I… I’m sorry—“
Her mother cut her off. “Kagome, you must follow your heart.”
Kagome looked at her. Wordlessly, they embraced.
She went to the lip of the well then turned around.
“Go on, Kagome.”
“We love you,” said her brother.
“I know. I will always remember you.”
She jumped into the well.

Inuyasha sniffed.
He sniffed again.
Shaking his head, he started to run towards the smell.
Can it be.... could it be…?
Kagome was standing before him. He stood still.
They stared mutely at each other, unable to speak.
And in a seamless motion, they were hugging each other.
They could feel their pounding hearts against each other.
Kagome looked up at Inuyasha. “Were you mad?”
Inuyasha stared down at her, intense amber eyes boring into her own.
“I love you,” he answered simply.
Kagome felt so relieved, her knees went weak.
“I love you, too,” she whispered.
Their lips met. Each loved the feeling of their lips against each other.
“I’ll stay with you forever and ever,” Kagome said, breaking the kiss off.
“Thank you,” Inuyasha replied.
They walked off, together, to live their lives.
Together.