“Grandpa,” Kagome queried, turning to the old man.  “Our shrine… When was it built?”  She had often pondered that question in her days as a shard gatherer, but never gave it voice.

The moment the Shikkon no Tama had been complete, the world she had been in dematerialized and she found herself standing in downtown Tokyo in her own time.  She was upset and confused at her time shift.  Was her only purpose to stay in the past to complete the jewel?  If so, why had she been allowed to stay before the jewel was shattered?  The shift had been so sudden.  One moment relief as the last shard fused with the jewel, then the next she was standing in rush hour traffic.  She cursed to herself that she didn’t have time to say goodbye to her companions… Sango, Miroku… Kaede, Myouga and Shippou… Inu Yasha.  She had looked to him as the world began to vanish.  The look on his face was that of pure grief.  His sadness haunted her, echoing her own.  She had rushed home that day and tried to return through the well, but it no longer worked.  She had been devastated.

Time flowed as it always does.  A few months passed and she graduated from high school.  The shard quest had only taken a few years to complete.  With her responsibility gone, she had no excuse to lack a real social life.  With Inu Yasha missing from her life, there was no excuse not to date Houjou.  Kagome held off her would be suitor with vain hopes that Inu Yasha would come for her.  She finally gave in the summer after graduation when he mentioned that he was going away to college and had regrets that they had never gone out.  Kagome went on one date with him and decided not to pursue him.  He wasn’t who she wanted him to be.

Life went on and she stayed at her family shrine, taking a few classes at the local university. 

One night, almost a complete year after her final return to her own time, she turned to her grandfather and asked about the shrine.

“Let’s see… I believe there are writings left over from the founding of the shrine,” Grandpa said, scratching his head.

“May I see them?”

“Of course you may, my dear.”  The old patriarch led her to an old room, used for keeping dusty scrolls.  “They are there,” he said, indicating an old cabinet.

Kagome carefully looked through the scrolls and found one of the oldest, she carefully unrolled it.  She read the words.  “Sango has provided me with an heir.  Since the defeat of Naraku, I know he will grow up curse free.  As for my own curse… My new palm still remains without creases, but it is whole again.  The Inu Youkai came to visit yesterday and he now sits beside the well.  Sometimes he stays for over a week.  He seems tamer now that he’s a full-blooded youkai.  Sango and I worry about him.  He hasn’t been taking Kagome’s disappearance very well.  I still can’t believe that he used the Shikkon no Tama to cross over.  He doesn’t seem to be any worse for it, but we still worry.”

Kagome reread the scroll before rolling it back up.  She stared at it.  “These are the writings of our ancestors?” she asked the old man.

“Of course.  I believe these particular writings are of the first temple guardian, named…”

“Miroku,” Kagome said, staring at the scroll.

“How did you know?” Grandpa asked.

“I met him during my adventures.  The Kagome he writes about was me,” she said, unrolling the scroll and pointing to her name.  “Does he mention the Inu Youkai anywhere else in his writings?”

“The Inu Youkai legend came from these writings.  Over the generations there have been sightings of him, usually after the birth of a girl-child.  He appeared for you.  He disappeared before anyone really noticed.  I saw him.”

“How did he look?” Kagome asked.

“Young and wild, with shaggy white hair and dog ears.  Didn’t you have a friend with dog ears for a few years?"”

“Yes,” Kagome responded, staring dully at the floor.

“I wonder what happened to him…” Grandpa mused.

Kagome took her leave from the old, dusty room.  She went to her own room and closed the door as the tears fell.  She thought she had purged them from her heart many months ago, but there she was, sobbing like a child.  Inu Yasha had survived at least until her birth.  Where was he now?  He must know by now how miserable she had been by her loss of the well.  She turned out the lights and climbed into bed, letting her tears stain the pillow.

“Why the tears, Kagome?” a voice, soft and gentle asked her.

She sat up and wiped her puffy eyes to see in the darkness.  “What?  Who…”

“Why the tears?” the voice asked again.

She caught a glimmer of something, crouched in the darkness.  “I just found out an old friend may be alive.”

“And that makes you sad?” the voice queried.

“It makes me sad that he knew how much I missed him, but never appeared to me.”

“Maybe he was afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

“That you wouldn’t like the change in him.  The steps he had to take to find you again…” the voice responded, breaking off into silence.

“Inu Yasha…” she whispered hopefully.

“Shh… That name hasn’t been said to me in so long.”

“You came to my birth.”

“I have been waiting for you.  I watched you grow.”

“How about when I was pulled though the well by the centipede?”

“I knew you could handle it… and me,” the voice sighed.  The crouched figure stood and walked to her bedside.  He knelt on the floor beside her.  “I watched you cry when you found out the well wouldn’t let you pass… My heart broke again at your misery from our parting.”

“Then why didn’t you comfort me?” she asked of the shadow beside her.

“What would you think of me to know I didn’t interfere with our parting?  That I gave you no warning to say goodbye?  That I wanted my younger self to live through the pain because I had?  I was ashamed.”

Kagome reached out into the darkness.  She found a warm body beside her.  Arms enfolded her and held her close.  “Inu Yasha…”

“I have waited so long for this moment,” he whispered.  “You crossed time to be with me, and now I have crossed time to be with you.  Everything I wanted to tell you, but never had a chance to say.”  His breath was hot against her ear.  “My love… My soul mate.”  His lips touched hers.  They were warm and a little dry.  His tongue rolled across her lips and she opened herself to him.  He clung to her like a drowning man.  His kiss was passionate and yet gentle.  He pulled away from the kiss.  “Look at me.  Turn on the light and look at me.”

Kagome turned on the switch and blinked to focus on the one beside her.  Long, white hair cascaded down his back.  Fluffy, white dog-ears poked up from the top of his head.  Amber eyes seemed to change color for a moment.  Prayer beads were still around his neck.  His cheeks held one stripe each.  His hands had long claws.  Aside from the stripes and the slightly malnourished look, he seemed the same, whole and intact.  “You look like I remember you… except with these,” she said, tracing a stripe with her finger.

He caught her hand and his eyes flashed red for a moment.  “No… I’m no longer human.”  He stared at her lips.  “I gave it up to wait for you.”  He closed his eyes and frowned.  “I am demon now.”

“So?”  Kagome asked, frowning.  “Your father was demon.  Your mother was mortal like me.”

“You will grow old and die… and there will be no chance for me to see you again.”  He hugged her tightly.  “I don’t want to live without you.  For four hundred years I’ve waited for this, for you.  I wish time would stop now so I won’t have to let you go.”

“Even if I leave, I will come back to you…” she reassured him.  “Like Kikyou, before me…” She lay in his arms, contented and safe.  “I will return to you, always.”

Decades passed as they always do.

A youkai stood in the pouring rain next to a fresh grave.  He was young by demon standards, only around five centuries and yet he looked old… as old as the woman he had shared a lifetime with and whose body now lay in eternal rest.  He had watched her age and die, a frail husk of the young girl who had once crawled out of a well so many years ago.  The same girl had tamed his wild spirit and captured his heart with her bright smile.  He had lost her before and regained her, but this time it seemed a little more complete.  When she returned she wouldn’t be the same.  His children stood behind him as he paid his respects to their mother.

“Papa,” the young male half-youkai said, stepping forward to take his father’s arm.  His sister took the other.  Both gazed intently at their sire.

“How I loved her,” the youkai whispered, gazing at the picture of his wife.

“We know, papa,” his daughter said with a bright smile, the same as her mother’s.  “But soul mates never part for long.”

The youkai thought on this.  It was true.  During his four hundred-year wait he had sensed her birth many times, but he never went to her.  It almost felt like betrayal until he found the one he lost.  Maybe next time…

The youkai allowed himself to be escorted away from the grave.  “Did I ever tell you how we met?” he asked.

“Tell us again,” his son laughed with his mother’s laugh.

“Tell us, papa,” the girl encouraged with her mother’s enthusiasm.

The youkai began his tale.

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