Kagome forgot to breathe.

The borehole of the well was pitch-black. She didn't know how fast and couldn't tell how far they fell, but a rush of adrenaline flooded her veins, her eyes slamming shut as her heart pounded against her ribs. It was devoid of light, too quiet, and only the rustle of their clothing whispered in her ears as they plunged. It had been years since she'd flung herself into the dry depths, and without the magic to guide her, it was like sinking into the void all over again.

The thought made her hair stand on end.

Without a thought to it, Kagome threw her arms around Sesshoumaru as the darkness swallowed them. It was different than jumping with Inuyasha. He smelled different, felt different. The ribs encased in her death grip were broader, and the muscle that flexed against her was harder. Only the subtle tightening of his hold was something she recognized, and she took a small measure of comfort in the familiarity of the gesture as they continued to fall.

Their plummet to the bottom could have only been a matter of moments, but time stretched those out even without the aid of magic.

Youki suddenly flared and slowed their descent, and she stiffened.

"Miko?"

Kagome took a deep breath. "I'm fine. It's just been a while since I've felt that."

He didn't respond, but she felt the otherworldly scorch lighten somewhat, and she instinctively tightened her arms around him. "I'm okay. Really."

Their feet touched earth, and his youki subsided.

Shivering as his grip loosened, she didn't let go, still unable to see anything. "Why are we here?" Her voice was cracked, her throat dry. Fear mixed with dread, and she nearly sighed in relief when his arm settled more firmly around her.

"You know why, Miko."

The arm around her squeezed a bit more, and she felt the familiar burn of tears spring forth, but she stubbornly held them at bay. "To say goodbye?"

"Yes."

This still hurts him too.

Sesshoumaru didn't speak and simply stood with her. In the darkness, Kagome could feel the burden of the past weighing on him, and she took a shuddering breath, letting her head rest against what she assumed was his chest. She couldn't see his face—couldn't even see her own hand in front of hers—and touch was one comfort she could give.

She hadn't expected the sound of his heart and sighed. It was…soothing.

"Was he happy?" she finally asked. Grief razed her open with the question, and she clenched her eyes shut again, trying to stay the tide surging behind her closed lids. She wouldn't cry again. Not here. Not now. Not against Sesshoumaru's nice shirt.

"It was difficult for him at first, but he eventually learned to move on."

"Did he ever get married?" She didn't relinquish her hold on him. That hurt to think about it even though she desperately hoped he had found that joy in someone.

"Four years after you were taken from him." Sesshoumaru shifted but didn't let go. "He became close with a young woman from the village. Suna. They had four children."

She heard him pause and swallow, and she waited for him to continue.

"They rest together here beneath our feet."

Blood rushed in her ears, and she gripped his arm. "What?"

"He is here." The arm around her turned comforting rather than protective. "It is what he wanted."

She couldn't hear him anymore. He's always been here? Her knees shook, the trembling sensation becoming too much.

Her knees buckled under her.

Sesshoumaru's other hand shot under her elbow to brace her. "Easy, Miko."

Easier said than done. It felt like the world had fallen out from beneath her feet.

She felt sick.

Kagome tried to warn him but couldn't. The trembling sensation in her knees traveled upward, taking over her, and commandeering her voice. She could feel it begin to travel down her arms.

Her cheeks heated. How embarrassing. Not wanting to let on anymore just how shaken she was, she released Sesshoumaru's waist, absently smoothing the wrinkled mess she had made of his shirt before lowering herself to the ground.

Inuyasha. Unsteady hands plunged into the cool dirt, groping blindly through the dark. For what, she wasn't sure. But as she raked through the soil, she felt the overwhelming reality sink into her bones and hold her in its vice-like grip. And as the weight bore down on her, Kagome leaned forward and rested her forehead upon the graves. It wasn't supposed to be like this!

A paralyzing numbness had started to prick at the tips of her fingers where they remained buried in the earth when she felt Sesshoumaru kneel beside her and cover her hand with his own.

"Sesshoumaru?"

"Here." Something she couldn't identify rasped over his vocal cords when he spoke, making his voice rougher. But he cleared it away like it had never been there and guided her hand to the right. "I buried him here."

He pressed her palm into the dirt.

Underneath his, her hand began to tremble again. "You buried him?"

"Miko"—centuries of pain bled into his touch—"I buried all of them."

Oh, Sesshoumaru. Kagome closed her eyes against this new pain as her flesh bit into the cold beneath their fingers. This was not the reunion she had been expecting.

"There used to be so much magic," she whispered, her fingers flexing underneath his. "I had thought…hoped." Her shoulders sagged in defeat. "I had hoped." Even though it was dark, she turned her face toward him and smiled weakly. "Is that stupid?"

"No." There was a soft swishing sound, and she realized it was his hair as he shook his head. "It is not stupid."

Kagome let out a bitter laugh and almost lost her fight against her tears. "Then what is it?"

For a moment, he didn't answer, but when he did, it knocked the breath from her.

"Bereavement."

She began to shake again. Ten years. For ten years she had been in a state of mourning, but she had never fully acknowledged it for what it was, always clinging to the hope that one day the magic would return and so would she. But that wasn't what happened. Instead, she had spent ten years existing on this side of the well, unable to accept what was in front of her. It wasn't fair and it wasn't what she would have chosen, but it was the reality she had ignored.

No wonder she couldn't move on with her life.

"Did she love him?" Her breath started to come short, and for the first time since jumping into the well, her voice choked. She slapped her free hand over her mouth, her eyes squeezing shut until she had some semblance of control again. "Sesshoumaru, please, tell me that she loved him."

The fingers covering hers moved, digging narrow trenches into the ground as he folded his hand more firmly through hers.

"She loved him, Miko."

The air rushed out of her, relief pushing back some of the heaviness. He was loved. And really, she couldn't have asked for anything else.

She found herself nodding, unable to say anything, and suddenly his hand rubbed vigorously between her shoulder blades.

"Breathe, Kagome."

The unexpected contact served its purpose. Blue eyes opened wide in the dark, and Kagome greedily sucked in the lungful of air she hadn't realized she needed while trying to ignore the feeling of her ears warming.

"Again."

Sure she was glowing in the dark now, she did as he said.

"Good."

Shoving aside her embarrassment, Kagome pushed up to stand and gladly leaned into Sesshoumaru as he caught her arm and helped pull her up.

"Thanks," she murmured.

"Hn."

The familiar, noncommittal noise brought a small smile to her face. Bracing against his biceps, she let him steady her on her wobbly feet and thought for a second how their proximity didn't seem all that strange anymore. But she supposed a shared grief would do that.

"There is still something you wish to ask me."

Kagome froze where she stood. His words and the truth in them made her stomach roil with the final dread she knew she was avoiding. But at this point, she also knew that it wasn't something that he would let her walk away from.

A nervous tongue darted out to wet her lips, and she tilted her chin up, hoping it was his face she looked up at in the darkness. "Who's buried on the northside?"

It was less than a whisper, her fear of his answer diminishing her courage while she waited to face the last truth she needed.

When he didn't answer right away, her anxiety peaked and the sick feeling in her stomach with it. It was all too much. The truth, the dark, the smell of freshly turned earth, the feel of it under her nails—it was too much.

But so was suspense.

"Sesshoumaru?" Unsteady legs propelled her forward, and she curled against his front—boundaries and the past be damned. The last dregs of her courage hung by a thread in the darkness between the past and present, and she couldn't take it anymore. Her hands clutched at his shirt, her voice desperate. "Who's buried on the northside?"

She didn't expect his arms to surround her and pull her closer.

"No one."

Her breath caught, hope stirring. "What?"

"Your kit is alive."

Then, before she could ask anything else, he swept her up and leapt from the well.

oOoOoOo

They landed and Kagome stumbled away from him back toward the well.

"Kagome—"

"I need just a minute," she gasped, reeling from both his revelation and the sudden jump out of the well. She bent and wrapped one arm around her stomach, using her other hand to brace herself against the wood. Shippou was alive.

Suddenly, arms and legs felt like lead, and she leaned heavily against the well. "I think I need to sit."

Relief flooded her bones when he took her under his arm and kept her stable as he led her to the stairs to sit.

Mumbling another thanks, her hand grasped his as she bent shaky legs and seated herself next to the forgotten wine bottle. She eyed the dark glass. The smell of fermented grapes wafted out of the opening, teasing her nose with the promise of blissful relief, but she resisted the urge to take another drink.

Sesshoumaru sat beside her, not even trying to hide the smirk on his face.

She scowled. "I know when to stop."

A single brow lifted in amusement, and he picked up the bottle, putting it to his lips. "Then it is good one of us does."

When the deep sound of his chuckle echoed in the bottle as he sipped from it, Kagome brightened. He has a nice laugh. Who would've thought?

For some reason, it made her nostalgic. She brought her knees up to her chest as history shimmered in the dark around them. "This is hard."

"Why do you say that?" He set the bottle down.

"Everything is different now." A sound caught between a laugh and a sob stuck in her throat, and she dragged her hands down her face. "They're dead, and you're…" She trailed off, not sure if she could finish.

Claws tapped against the bottle as he fixed his attention on her. "I am what?"

Something too difficult to describe pricked behind her eyes, and she exhaled shakily. "Here." She smashed her fist against her mouth. "Alive."

Under the cover of night, Sesshoumaru's expression gentled. "That I am."

A harsh laugh devoid of humor broke free then, and Kagome wiped her eyes. "Down in the well"—she paused to swallow—"I could hear your heart beating under my ear."

"Hn." He flicked a bit of unsettled dust from his sleeve. "Is that so?"

She almost smiled at his nonchalance. "Yes."

Long legs once again stretched out before him, but he seemed lost somewhere in the obscurity of the old building. "Surprise," he said, his voice almost tongue-in-cheek.

Her brow furrowed. "Surprise?"

His eyes slid to hers, and he gave her a mock gasp. "I have one too."

Kagome pressed her lips together, trying not to smile. "I hate to break it to you, but Tenseiga gave that away a long time ago."

A short, sharp bark of laughter rang out in the small building. "Indeed?"

Snickering, she finally gave in and took a bit more of the wine. "Oh yes."

They sat in silence then, the wine bottle once again passed between them without words as they each succumbed to their own thoughts. The companionship was peaceful, and she marveled not for the first time that night at the unexpectedness of it all.

Still, after a decade alone and years of wondering about all those she had left behind, there was only so much quiet she could handle. And the new curiosity she found in him was too much to leave to the ghosts.

"What about you?" she asked, breaking the stillness.

Sesshoumaru tilted his head. "What about me, Miko?"

"Did you ever fall in love?"

Memory fell like shadow over his face. It made him look older, the ageless benefit of his heritage not capable of fending off the indiscriminate burden of a long life, and her heart instinctively broke for him.

He knows too much loss.

Melancholy bled into nostalgia, and he finally turned a peaceful smile to her. "Twice." He dipped his head slightly. "But that is perhaps a story for another time.

She smiled at that. "You saying I can see you again?"

He stood, grasping her hands and pulling her up. "It would appear so."

That bit of hope was what she needed. "I would like that," Kagome admitted quietly.

He pulled her arm through his. "Come."

The well house doors closed with a soft click behind them, and they walked arm-in-arm, moonbeams weeping with a spectral silence around them as they made their way back to the house.

It was fitting, this hush that swept over them. Behind them, the well lay quiet with the bones of their companions, final goodbyes not yet embedded into the disrupted earth.

She knew she wouldn't go back until the dust had long settled and returned to peace.

A new kind of grief lodged in her throat as they slipped back into the house. Sesshoumaru set to collecting his belongings and then casually began to gather his hair back into a low tail at the nape of his neck, his clip suspended in his mouth as he did.

Squashing the urge to cry, Kagome watched him, something unfamiliar stirring in her chest as she did. After five hundred years, she had finally gotten a glimpse of him—of who he really was. And after ten years, the loneliness finally wasn't so heavy.

She didn't want him to leave.

Sighing, she gave him a wan smile. "I'd offer to drive you home, but we went through two bottles."

Sesshoumaru chuckled around the clip, pulling it from his mouth to secure the tail. "Your tolerance is impressive."

"Yeah." She scrunched her nose. "Probably not something I should be proud of. Can I call you a car?"

"I will walk. I do not live far." He straightened then, eyes closing for a moment as the spell he used to conceal his nature slipped back into place. When he opened them again, a rounded pupil looked back at her.

She hated it.

Pocketing his keys, Sesshoumaru tossed some cash down on her console and motioned to it. "For my tail." He gave her a half-hearted glare, the guise breaking into a quiet smile when she laughed. "Thank you for dinner."

Kagome swallowed, the lightness between them wavering as she fought through the gut punch of the past once again slipping away. "Anytime." Clearing her throat, she forced the melancholy back. "Really. I mean it. I—I had fun."

Don't leave.

He approached her then, standing only a few feet away as he looked down at her. Studying her. "I did as well."

Unable to look away from his face—that wrongly human face—Kagome just nodded.

He continued watching her for a moment, and then pulled a pen from his pocket along with a card from his wallet. "Here," he said, scribbling something quickly on the back.

"What's this?" She took the card from him, eyes widening slightly. It's his contact information.

"Should you require it, you can reach me at that number. As I said, I do not live far." He took a step toward the door and paused. "Your kit's number is on the back."

Her head snapped up. "Shippou?"

"Mm. He lives in the States currently." His hand grasped the doorknob, his voice quieting. "It is not quite night there yet."

She stuffed the card in her pocket and left her hand there so he wouldn't see it shake. "No, I guess it isn't." She looked at him meaningfully. "Thank you."

He simply inclined his head and went to leave.

"Wait!" Not thinking a thing of it, she grabbed his shoulder. "You forgot your tail."

"Hold onto it tonight."

"What?" Letting go, her head whipped around to look at the mass of fluff resting on her couch. "You're serious?"

His eyes were severe. "You have been confronted with a great deal tonight. A piece of the past may be…helpful."

Kagome just stared, temporarily rendered mute by the oddly kind gesture. But she found her voice quickly enough, choked as it was. "Even after you had to chase me down for it?"

The corner of his mouth lifted. "I think I will survive." He pulled the door open and then hesitated, his eyes dropping as he warred with his thoughts. His brows knit, and for a moment it looked like he might say something, but then he hesitated again.

She took a step forward. "Sesshoumaru?"

"Dinner." His eyes slid back up to hers. "Tuesday."

Kagome found herself nodding without a second thought. Dinner? After years alone? Dinner where she didn't have to pretend the past didn't exist? A smile spread over her face. "Just tell me when and where."

The line of his shoulders seemed to relax then, and he nodded to the card in her hand. "The address is there. Seven o'clock."

"Can I bring anything?"

He shook his head. "Just yourself." He turned to go again only to suddenly spin back around. "And my tail."

He smirked.

She laughed. "Deal."

There was a quick flash of teeth when his smile broke free, but he squashed it as if it had never happened. "Goodnight, Kagome."

"Goodnight." She didn't pretend to hide her grin. The door closed, and Kagome smiled a little bit bigger as she closed the latch and locked it after him.

That was…

She couldn't even say.

For a minute she just stood there, leaning on the door with her grin still stuck on her face. Nothing that day had turned out as she had been expecting it to. And perhaps most surprisingly, neither had Sesshoumaru.

Her eyes softened. I really enjoyed being around him.

Looking up, she caught sight of the mokomoko laying on her couch. Something tingly and warm trickled down her arms as she looked at it, and she walked over, letting her fingers drift across the soft fur.

"I can't believe he left this," she murmured to herself. And really, she couldn't. Almost laughing out loud as their bidding war over the item came to mind, she scratched her fingers along the pelt as if petting it. "Who would've thought?"

A sudden blush filled her cheeks, and she pulled her hand back.

"Remember that that's him, Kagome." She smoothed the ruffled fur and headed into the kitchen. I wonder if he can feel when it's touched?

The thought stuck in her mind as she pulled out her cell and sat down, but she decided to shake it off. Whether he felt it or not, she knew she was cuddling with it later. The scent of the forests that she desperately missed was too strong and too tempting not to wrap herself up in it as she fell asleep. As she remembered.

Kagome frowned. Later…it would hurt.

She looked down at the card.

Everything suddenly ran hot and cold all at once, and she pressed a hand to her head, willing away the wave of dizziness that threatened to topple her.

Your kit is alive.

The revelation hadn't been something she had been able to fully process earlier, and now, in her kitchen, another piece of her past was a mere phone call away.

She flipped the card over and stared too long at the number written there. A quick glance at the clock showed it to be nearly three in the morning. So about two in the afternoon or so there, so…

Eyes steeling with determination, she unlocked her cell.

Her hands shook as she dialed, and when she put the device to her ear, she immediately thought about hanging up. But then it rang, and a long, cruel decade spent alone shrank down to the span of minutes as she waited with bated breath for it to be answered.

It rang some more, and Kagome began to give up hope. She sighed. "He's probably at work. I should—"

"Hello?"

She gasped, slapping her hand over her mouth as tears sprung into her eyes.

"Hello? Someone there?"

"Sh-Shippou?"

A pause.

"Kagome?"

A/N: This story isn't over yet! Still a bit more to go. This chapter was a beast to write. I stared at it, started over, stared at it some more, rewrote bits, and drove a million fanfic friends crazy with bits and pieces that ultimately got edited to get this out. I'm looking forward to moving onto the next bit, lol.

Thank you for reading. Your thoughts and comments would be greatly appreciated. Here's hoping that the next chapter doesn't take two months to get out! Stay safe, everyone!