Kagome sat at her desk in defeat, textbooks, notes, and homework strewn across every inch of its surface.
She had spent all day flipping through countless pages of numbers and symbols she still couldn’t make sense of despite having woken up early to study, even going as far as prohibiting everyone in the house from approaching her room. Nonetheless, her efforts to cultivate peace and quiet had been in vain, and she was no smarter now than she had been in the morning just before she opened her first textbook.
Keeping up with her studies was quickly becoming another aspect of her life in the modern era that she was losing control of. The longer she devoted her time to fighting demons and hunting jewel shards, the faster her life on this side of the well was falling apart, and it seemed like there was nothing she could do to slow it down or stop it.
Kagome groaned in frustration and leaned back in her chair, her tired eyes wandering aimlessly around her room. Where once it had been her private sanctuary, it suddenly felt foreign to her now that she hardly spent any time in it.
Sometimes it even felt like her family and friends were leaving her behind. They would go on trips and make memories without her. She’d come home to find new pictures she wasn't in tucked into the pockets of their photo albums and hung up in shiny, new picture frames on the walls all over the house. Every time she came across another, she was struck with a profound, indescribable loneliness. It was devastating not to see herself beside her mother, brother, and grandfather in those photographs, to suddenly feel like an outsider looking in.
Things weren't any different at school. On the days she attended, her friends would chatter on and on about all the current events and drama, and not even a minute into the conversation Kagome would find herself unable to keep up.
Kagome never imagined feeling this lonely and out of place in her own world.
Her heart constricted and tears welled up in her eyes at the thought of slowly disappearing from the lives of the people she loved the most. Soon she would become someone that existed only in their memories, someone they barely even remembered, or worse, a complete and total stranger.
The thought filled Kagome with a profound gloom, and she curled up into a tight little ball in her chair, burying her face in the circle of her arms where her tears finally broke free.
She desperately wished that she could split herself in two so she could keep up with both the lives she was living knowing full well that it was impossible.
Would things ever get easier? Would she ever find a balance between living in both worlds before it was too late and everyone she loved moved on without her? What if she failed miserably? What then?
Her lack of answers to those racing questions only fueled her sobs, and she would have cried all night if the sound of someone turning the door knob and flinging the door open hadn’t interrupted her anguish.
"Hey, Kagome, are you—" The remainder of Inuyasha's question evaporated the moment he laid eyes on her face.
Without hesitation, he rushed to her side, crossing the distance between them in half a second.
"Kagome, what's wrong?" He asked, his voice ringing with panic. “Why are you crying?”
He squatted down beside her, his concerned gaze searching hers.
Unable to speak through her choppy breathing, Kagome turned her head away from him and hoped he would understand that she didn’t want him to see her like this and just needed a little time to be alone and compose herself.
Whether it was because he hadn’t gotten the message or because he simply refused to leave her to suffer alone, he didn’t budge.
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s wrong,” he said, the determination in his voice sending chills through her body.
Kagome took a deep breath, but it wasn’t enough to deliver a steady, confident response.
“It’s really nothing. I’m fine,” she lied, her shaky reply sabotaging her attempt to reassure him.
Kagome felt a breeze pass over the top of her head and immediately Inuyasha landed in front of her, once again lowering himself to meet her eye level.
"I'm not stupid, Kagome, and I'm sure as hell not leaving you like this. Now tell me the truth. Why are you crying?"
Seeing as how she couldn’t deceive him or hide from him, she opened her mouth to speak, but just thinking of the words she was going to utter caused her lip to tremble and a fresh set of tears to stream down her face.
Through her teary eyes and blurred vision, she saw Inuyasha reaching his arms toward her, and scooping her out of her chair, he lowered her gently into his lap.
As he enveloped her in his embrace, Kagome instantly felt safe and cared for. Inuyasha was always warm, making his hugs incredibly comforting, his heat soothing her tired, aching body.
Kagome clung to him and his warmth with all her strength, gripping his haori and pressing her head deeper into his chest
There, cocooned securely in his arms, she mustered the strength to speak.
“What if— What if my friends and family move on without me? What if I can’t keep up with my life here and they get tired of waiting for me? What if they forget about me?”
Inuyasha let out a gentle snort, his chest giving a slight bounce that nudged her head as if he was trying to knock some sense into her.
“Idiot,” he sighed softly, ”you really think they’d forget about you just like that? You’re everyone’s whole world around here.”
Kagome tilted her head upward, curiosity momentarily poking through her emotional turmoil.
“What?” she whimpered, her eyes glistening with tears.
"Well, yeah. Don't you know how much they miss you when you're gone? You’re all they can talk about when you’re not around.”
A potent mixture of joy and relief shot through her at his words, piercing the earlier gloom that had pervaded her.
“Really?” She asked, her voice taking on a higher pitch.
“You really think I’d forget the three or four earfuls I get a day just from your family? Your friends get pretty excited when you’re around, too. Doesn’t seem like you have a whole lot to worry about.”
Kagome beamed, quickly realizing it was the first time she’d smiled all day.
It was such a beautiful and invigorating feeling to be missed by the people she cared about the most in this world. That reminder that she was loved and needed, that she was essential to their existence and couldn’t be easily forgotten served as her anchor, keeping her feet on the ground.
Kagome sighed contently, her body finally releasing all the tension it had been building up since she she woke up.
“I really needed to hear that. Thank you, Inuyasha.”
Inuyasha too was her anchor, his touch and the sound of his voice bringing her back down to Earth when her fears and doubts clouded her mind, flinging her into the dark places of her mind where she’d rather not go. Kagome could always count on him to jump after her and bring her back.
"Bah, it’s nothing.” He shrugged, a small dose of pink tinting his cheeks.
He swallowed before continuing, as if he was building up the courage to say his next words.
"You, know. If it bothers you that much to be away from your family, then maybe you could start spending a lot more time at home than on the other side of the well." There was an undertone of hesitation in his voice, like he was pushing out the words against his will.
Her eyes widened slightly in realization. Was Inuyasha worried that spending more time in her world meant spending less time with him in the Feudal Era? That she was choosing her life in the modern world over her life on the opposite side of the well? Did he think that he was less important to her than them?
If he did, he couldn’t be more wrong.
Over the short time that she had known him, Kagome's definitions of family and home had quickly expanded to include him, and she had come to need him in her life just as much as she needed her family and friends. He was her piece of home away from home, her safe place, and she was forever grateful that whatever supernatural force had brought them together allowed him to be part of this world, too.
“Maybe I can work on spending a little more time at home,” she agreed. Then looking up at him she said, “Just promise me you’ll always come along, too."
“Keh, as if you even have to ask,” he huffed, attempting to conceal his relief behind a flimsy air of annoyance, but Kagome saw right through it. “Now, come on. I promised your mom I’d bring you downstairs for dinner.”
Inuyasha helped her to her feet and started wiping her tear-stained face with the sleeve of his haori, erasing all traces of worries and fears that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Kagome was loved and cherished by all the people in her life, and she would always be.
