Standard Disclaimer Applies.  Written by Kylara.

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Tadaima – Prologue

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"It's ending soon."

"I know."

"Are you worried?"

"Not for myself."

"Then who?"

"You.  You'll never know how sorry I am.  Sorry for being unable to shove a teenage girl down a well, for her own good, just because I need her."

"You couldn't keep me anywhere or from anyplace that I didn't want to be.  Just - don't think of sending me home."

"And why the hell not?"

"Would you force me to stay there, now?"

"If it would keep you alive, I would do anything."

"You have such little faith in my protector."

"…"

"…I would like to go home, though.  For just a little while."

"…Why?"

"…So I won't have any regrets.  So I don't have any regrets."

"You won't need any damn regrets.  Your 'hopeless' protector won't let you die."

"And would I be happy if 'my protector' did that?  I won't let you – I won't let you defend me at the cost of your life.  I'd rather die myself."

"Too bad for you, 'cause it ain't gonna happen."

"…I'm still going home.  Just to say what needs to be said.  And you'll let me, because I would cry if you didn't."

"You're crying now."

"I know."

The despair and cold swathed around them, the emotions pieced together from the same material as the Grim Reaper's cloak.  For the two, there was no defense, and there was no fighting back.  There was only the despondency of death, suffocating them in all of its supremacy and in all of its vulnerability.  In the midst of it, Kagome buried her face in Inu Yasha's shoulder, clutching onto him with all her strength, tears flowing down her face in an endless stream.  He let her cry, not making a single movement to halt it.  But when the tears stopped, he held onto her - tightly enough to make another rip in her ragged, thin shirt, and it was both of them that were comforted.

When morning came, they prepared very quickly to leave.  She swung on her heavy pack, and he carried her, easily, to the well.  She swung her long legs over the side, resting them against the side.  She was tired.  She looked up at him - his eyes golden and moody, hers cloudy and sad.

"…I'll be back.  Very soon, I think.  This can't take long.  Don't go after him without me.  You can't do this without me, but don't even think of it.  We'll deal with him and the Shikon no Tama when I come back.  For the last time, we'll deal with him."

"You don't need to go.  Home, I mean," he added hurriedly when she glared at him.

"Yes, I do.  I need to go very much."

"What is your mother going to say?  Are you going to explain this to her?"

"…I don't know."

" Then your brother?  Your grandfather?"

"…I don't know."

"Gods, Kagome, what the hell are you trying to do, then?  You can't just tell them cheerfully, 'Sayonara!  I'm going off to fight an evil hanyou that's trying to kill me, my friends, and then send what's left of us to hell.  I think my chances of living are pretty damn fucking low, even though Inu Yasha keeps telling me he won't let that happen, but hell - I just want to make you worry anyway.'"

"Inu Yasha, I would never curse like that."

         
"Kagome, you know what I mean!"

"…You won't let me die.  How selfish, Inu Yasha.  Won't you let me say that I won't – can't – let you die?  Because no matter what, I won't let you die."

Silence.

"…I'm going, Inu Yasha, because I don't know what they would do if I… for some reason… didn't.  If I never came home from the Sengoku Jidai, and they were just always waiting for me, wondering where I was, wondering if I died, wondering if I forgot.  I can't do that to them, Inu Yasha."

He paused, then reached a claw forward, holding the shining, full orb that was hanging loosely around her neck.  He glared at it, fingered it, and then dropped it, letting it shine against her pale neck.  She looked up at him questioningly.

"It causes nothing but devastation.  Because of it, you might die.   Without it, you would always live, but I would have never known you, or the other woman I loved."

"That's all I ever wanted to hear, Inu Yasha."

And she vanished from where he could see her, where he could have her scent, where he could hear her footsteps, from where he could have her.

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That prologue was a very simple way of setting up the scene.  If you've noticed, Kagome and Inu Yasha seem to be 'a couple'.  In this story, they've already gotten past whatever lovely complications that brought them together as it is.  Perhaps I'll write them some day, but I'm content for now.  The next chapter is actually the entire story, and is written in a completely different style than this.  In fact, the only reason I have this is because otherwise, I would've posted a very long author's note explaining the set-up, and no one wants to read that.  However, that will be posted eventually.  It adds some other details, too.