Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters. And I do not intent to gain any kind of retribution for this work of fanfiction.

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Trapped

Chapter 1. Sudden Change

"Is he still up there?"

Kagome turned to face her mother's worried eyes and nodded.

"He's been there since breakfast."

The mother caressed her daughter's cheek before saying, "He needs time... it will get better. You will get through this. Little by little."

Kagome nodded again and stared out her window again as her mother exited her room.

It had been a week. Seven long days and nights since Inuyasha had come to her home to tell her -ordering her is a better explanation- to go back because Sango was about to give birth to the much-expected twins. After packing faster than usual, they ran to the well house and jumped.

Only to discover they were still on her side of the well. That day had been almost as long as her first one in the past, only this time she was not the only one lost.

The desperation in Inuyasha's eyes had appeared a couple of hours later. When it became clear that the well was rejecting them both. And that haunting look didn't go away.

That first day they had tried jumping together, then just Inuyasha. She never dared to jump alone. Then they tried again leaving behind everything that came from the modern era, but they stayed in the future. He had thrown himself into the well instead of just falling, and nothing changed.

Kagome had to stop him from attacking the well with Tessaiga. By that moment he was trembling and his eyes seemed unfocused.

She had brought her sleeping bag and covered them both as they spent the night in the well house.

The next morning there were no changes, except that Inuyasha's quiet anguish had become vocal anger.

That day he had talked more than ever. He had alternated between hopeful plans and furious failure and blaming. Many things had been said that day and she regretted most of them.

From the third day onwards he had gone quiet. Staying outside all day, only to come inside during meals and to sleep. Crawling inside through the window after the lights were out to rest against her bed and going out in the same fashion as soon as the sun came out had become his routine.

Kagome couldn't take it anymore. The silence, the impotence, the way he had shut her out of whatever was happening in his head. Squaring her shoulders, she walked to the Goshinboku, where he had been hiding since breakfast.

"Inuyasha, please come down," she said looking at the branches of her favorite tree.

No signs of his voice or presence were her answer.

"Inuyasha, I need to talk to you! I can't go up there..." she tried again.

"Don't wanna talk." His voice was deep and emotionless.

Her eyes found the mark of the arrow that had trapped him five hundred years ago. "I know you don't want to, but we need to talk."

"Later, Kagome." Were the last words he said to her that day.

She tried again, every time with a different approach, without another answer from him. Feeling like a failure she walked back to her house.

It was late at night when she saw her beloved hanyou. He had reached her window and waited a moment before walking inside, no doubt sniffing the dinner she had saved him. Only when he sat on her desk and was almost finished with his extra big serving did Kagome dare to speak.

"Can we talk now, Inuyasha?" she tried with the softest tone possible.

His change in demeanor was instantaneous. Without seeing his face, she knew he was frowning again, and the barely-there growl.

"There is nothing to talk about..." he said with the same growling voice.

She sat on the end of the bed, right behind him. "There ARE things we need to talk about, that we need to deal wi-"

Her sentence remained incomplete when she felt him move with that speed that never ceased to impress her. Now he was towering in front of her with a dark face.

"What do you want to say? The obvious? That I'm trapped here? That I can't go home? That there is nothing I can do to go back?"

She knew that he was trying to intimidate her into keeping quiet with his thundering angry voice, but it broke her heart when it didn't come out as she expected, his voice sounded hollow, and instead of anger, it carried fear.

She rushed to her feet and circled his waist with her arms and hugged him as hard as she could, burying her face in his chest without saying a word. Her heart went crazy in her chest as she waited for his answer.

After what felt like a very long time, she felt his body relax slightly and his arms came around her and his cheek rested on the top of her head.

When neither of them dared to say something, Kagome started to stroke his back in circles, getting a tired sigh out of him.

"I know you're not happy being trapped here, and I hate to see you like this..." Kagome said into his chest. "But until the well opens again, we need to decide what to do. We cannot be sitting there just waiting for it to open... what if..." She didn't dare to continue. It was a possibility that she knew would break both of their hearts.

Since they had vanquished Naraku and destroyed the jewel, she had felt a little too lucky when the well didn't close and they could come and go from one side to the other. They discovered that she needed Inuyasha to go with her to be able to cross. That without the jewel it was impossible for her to come back to the past.

Inuyasha had come up with a theory saying that maybe he could travel because of the time he had spent sealed to the tree. But now Kagome feared that the power the well had received from the jewel had slowly disappeared and it had finally rejected them both. It was a theory she was too scared to voice out loud.

She heard his soft whispered words. "There is NOTHING I can do here... I know nothing of your world. I can't even walk around with you without covering myself..."

He tried to walk away from her embrace and her stomach went cold. He was going to run away. It was his default course of action after showing himself vulnerable.

Kagome tightened her hold on him and took a couple of steps as he pulled her along with his body.

"Kagome, let me go," he growled with his hands up in the air.

She shook her head without separating from his chest. "I don't want you to go!"

Inuyasha let out a dry and bitter laugh. "Where am I 'going to go'?"

"I don't know!" she looked up to his face, her eyes getting misty. "I feel like you will go and I'll lose you too."

His face turned to the side with a pained expression and his arms went around her, pulling her back into his chest.

"Ain't going anywhere, woman."

His words were slow and his voice deep enough for her to feel it reverberate in his chest.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The morning sun was already filtering through the window when Inuyasha woke up feeling weird. For the first time, he had woken up after sunrise since the well had closed. The weird-but-not-bad feeling of Kagome nestled in his arms.

They were resting on their sides, facing each other. Her head was tucked against his chest and one of her arms was thrown around him, the other between them, with her hand still holding a fistful of his haori.

His eyes closed on their own as he took a deep breath, letting himself feel comforted by her presence. The way she had clung to him the night before had both made him happy and broke his heart at the same time. Inuyasha knew he had been behaving like an asshole, but until last night he had been only thinking about everything he had lost after the well closed.

Deep down he was sure the well was not going to open again. He hadn't dare to say a word before, but after the jewel disappeared the jumps had felt different. Each time they traveled taking longer, and that last time he used it, the free fall that had always been part of the time traveling thing had become like diving into water. There had been a split second when he had felt asphyxiated and had automatically started to thrash his arms and legs around as he remembered Kagome had tried to teach him months ago.

And even if Kagome hadn't said a thing, he knew the well hadn't let her through on her own during the last year.

Without noticing, the hand that had been resting around Kagome moved up her body and started to play with the soft strands of her hair, still lost in his thoughts.

The fact that he felt relieved that his last trip had been to the same side where she was had become another object of his anger. How could he be glad to be where he was when it also meant his friends were alone with no one to protect them.

Just like he had no real place there. What was a hanyou supposed to do in the modern era? He couldn't even go beyond the shrine's grounds without covering himself. He could barely read Kagome's books; her world was full of things he didn't understand. Her family didn't need someone to protect them, there were no youkai or monsters to defeat. They didn't need him.

She didn't need him. Even if she didn't want him to go, there was nothing he could do for her.

His train of thought was interrupted when along with a mewling sound Kagome started to stretch against him. Inuyasha couldn't suppress a smile when she rubbed her face on his chest groaning as she hooked one of her legs around one of his. And the smile stayed there when she seemed to realize what she was doing and her eyes shot to his face and the blush on her cheeks was not from sleeping.

"Good morning," she bashfully smiled at him.

"Morning," he answered with something he hoped didn't sound as much like a purr as it did in his ears.

Kagome opened her lips again at the same time a knock sounded on the door and Kagome's mom's voice said, "Breakfast is ready, sleepyheads," before he heard her walking away.

They got out of bed slowly, Kagome with that redness still in her cheeks and Inuyasha without knowing what to say.

He settled with a "Let's go," before walking to the door. His smile returned when he felt a slight pull on his sleeve when Kagome held onto him again.

-.-.-.-.-.-

After breakfast, Inuyasha decided to go back to Kagome's room instead of jumping outside as he had been doing. She followed closely and sat on her desk chair as he took the place he liked the most in her room. Her bed.

"I'm going back to school tomorrow..."

Her voice sounded weird, it was not the way that Kagome used to announce things to him. It was almost said as a question.

"Figured you would," he answered.

Her head tilted to the side and she looked at him quizzically. It was one of those looks that he hated, as if she was trying to see inside him.

"What?"

"I don't know... thought you would say something like 'you don't need that!' or 'that's a waste of time' as you always do..."

Inuyasha made a dismissing sound in his throat but she kept looking at him that way, making the little hair on the back of his head stand.

"Now's different!" he blurted.

Kagome looked confused when she asked, "Why?"

The room started to feel too small, too hot. And why has the room so freaking pink? Why couldn't it be blood red? Or black? Why did it have to be so... Kagome? There was no place in that room that he could safely stare without finding something that reminded him of her. Something pink, soft and cute. He wanted to hit himself on the head.

His eyes darted to the window, thinking that he could make it there before Kagome had a chance to sit him or grab him. It was the only way to escape. If he made it there she wouldn't make him say stuff that sounded stupid.

But the woman beat him to it and she came to stand before him, staring at him with those bright eyes of hers. In the back of his mind he realized they were in the reverse places of that morning.

"I just want to know why it's different... that's all." Her voice was a soft whisper in his ears, which started to flick nervously.

He eyed the window one more time before his golden eyes centered on Kagome... and couldn't hold her stare for long before staring at the wall beside her.

"Keh! It's different because everything is different now."

From the corner of his eye he could see she nodded but remained silent and that made him even more nervous. He jumped to his feet, and held her by the elbows so she didn't trip on her feet and pushed her a couple of steps back. With his eyes still glued to the wall he started to speak.

"I cannot promise you everything will be alright anymore. I don't even know how this world works! You brother said you need to go to school so you can have a good life! And I want you to have a good life!"

It was the soft and smushy tone in which Kagome said his name that made him want to jump from the window again.

Because it was her way to agree with what he said. That it was the only thing he could do to help her. He couldn't protect her here, he couldn't provide for her, he couldn't even build her a home here. He was relegated to the sidelines and both knew it.

"Start studying your shit," he said before he finally reached her window.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Kagome tried to tell herself that it was a little improvement. That he had actually spoken to her this time, and that he had stayed when she asked him to.

She tried to smile, convincing herself that she was happy, that Inuyasha had finally said the words she had always wanted him to say. That her studies were important and that he supported her efforts... but somehow it didn't feel right.

"You're overthinking this, Kagome!" she told herself, jumping face down on her bed.

Because she was overthinking it, right? Inuyasha was just trying to help her in the best way he could. He was trying his best. And she was going to do that herself!

Kagome turned around and jumped out of bed.

"We will get through this! Little by little."

Her mind traveled to the past as she sat on her desk and got ready to start her homework. She was certain that her friends were parents now. She only hoped everything had gone as planned with the delivery.

Imagining them holding their two babies was something she could do all day with a smile on her face. The possibility that her imagination was far from their reality was eating her alive. The not knowing was the worst part.

Were they making sure Kaede was not alone all day? Were they helping her with the tasks that Inuyasha used to do every morning for the old lady? Were they making sure Shippou was eating right? That he was not lonely? Did they invite them to Miroku and Sango's hut to meet the babies? Were they making sure the little boy didn't feel orphaned once again?

A sob came out of her. She tried to muffle it but more kept coming.

"Please don't let him feel like he lost his family again."

Kagome wiped her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. She needed to stop that kind of thinking. It didn't help any of them and just made it more difficult to do things there.

She was sure they were taking good care of Shippou as they had always done. She needed to believe that. She needed to trust in them all.

And she needed to study!

Since she had entered high school her studies had become increasingly difficult and the fact that she was gone for weeks didn't help at all. Now she was on her second year of high school and if the well didn't open soon she was going to find a way to support them both.

Her eyes flew over the pages a couple of times before realizing she was not paying attention to the symbols... she tried again and again. She was not going to let this stupid subject win!

When she started to fall asleep, she didn't know. She only started to wake up when she felt someone moving her.

"Keep sleeping, just taking you to bed," she heard Inuyasha's voice through the sleepy fog.

She felt her body fall on the bed and her arm shot out to his suikan again.

"Don't leave," she whispered when she didn't feel his body follow her.

"Ain't going nowhere, woman... I need to turn off the light."

If she had been more awake she would have been mortified about her neediness of him. But she was only relieved when after the click sounded and the light went out she felt him lay beside her and a long sigh sounded in the room when he pulled her close. Whose sigh it was, it didn't matter. They both felt the same.

-.-.-.-.-.-

"You need to come home..."

"What if they come and we're not here? What if they think we don't care?"

The monk stared at the little kitsune who was looking down the well as he had been doing every day and night since Inuyasha and Kagome had not returned.

"If they come here and you're not here to welcome them they will know it's because I dragged you home... they won't think we don't care," the man said with the gentlest voice he was capable of using.

Shippou looked one more time down the well before nodding to it as if he was making a promise to himself. Then the kid jumped to Miroku's shoulder and the man started to walk back to his home, where Kaede and the Kitsune had been crashing since their friends hadn't returned.

The official reason was to help them with the two newborns but Sango and Miroku were only doing what they knew Inuyasha and Kagome would have asked from them.

"They didn't abandon us, right?" the quivering whisper was barely registered by his ears.

The man pulled the little boy to his chest without looking at his blushed and teary face.

"If they aren't here it's because they can't come. They would never stay away like this..."

The child's tears remained unacknowledged as they kept walking.

"They will come back, right?" Shippou asked with the hope and pure expectation that only a child can muster.

"I'm sure that they will come back if the well lets them through again."

"The well will let them through again!" Shippou insisted as he hit the monk's chest with his little fist.

The monk looked down for the first time trying to smile to the little boy. "I will pray on it, Shippou."

The boy nodded and wiped his tears before looking back at Miroku with a determined look in his eyes. "They will be back!"

They didn't say anything more before reaching their home.

To be continued.

N/A:

So this is what came to life after someone asked me about what I thought it would happen if Kagome and Inuyasha got stuck on the modern era. This is the darkest fic I've thought of and I really hope it's of your liking.

This fic will be bittersweet and will have some very stressed main characters. Adapting to something you never even wanted to happen is difficult, more so when you don't want to burden your loved ones with it.

I hope you guys like it and thank you sooo very much for reading, liking and reviewing. Knowing what you think about it is always amazing.

Lastly this is my super belated birthday gift for Danie, one of the people that got me back into the fandom. I hope you like this, and I'll try to make next chapter a little more fun.

Love,

Nanna