Why I Return to You

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Inuyasha.

~oOo~

"How can you take it when he leaves you like this, Kagome-chan?" Sango asked, her eyes drawn to the same spectacle as Kagome's; Kikyou's shinidamachu. "It's not fair to you."

It was silent for a moment, and then Kagome said, "I used to think that way, too. Because it does hurt when he leaves me to go to her. Badly. But... then, one night I watched him come back from seeing her, and I realized that it hurts him just as much to leave her to come back. And I have no right to ask him to stay with me instead of her, so I decided that the only thing I can do to ease his heart is not show him how much it hurts me. Sometimes, silence really is golden," she finished quietly, her eyes still pinned to the glow over the trees in the distance, even as they began to fade away.

"Why do you think I always return to you, though, Kagome?" came the voice of the hanyou of her heart, and she turned to see him coming out from under the trees like a ghost. "Why do you think that I go to see her, yet stay by your side? I could go travel with her, you know," he finished quietly, his golden eyes shining brightly in the dark.

Sango, not wanting to interrupt, stayed silent and motionless while Kagome tilted her head at his question, obviously confused. "I don't know, Inuyasha. I've never really thought about it. Why do you stay?"

"Because leaving you to go with her would hurt worse than leaving her to stay with you does. That's why, no matter how many times I go to see her, I always come back to you. I can live with only seeing Kikyou occasionally, making sure she's alright. As long as she's okay, then I am okay with only seeing her sometimes. I just want her to be safe. But I can't live with only seeing you every so often. I have to see you everyday. All the time. That's why I hate it when you leave me to go home. Because it hurts me to see you walk away from me to go to those other people in your world," he replied, and Kagome's eyes opened wide as he continued. "But... I know that it hurts you to always leave your family, and so the least I could do is let you go, even though I hate it and argue about it with you."

Stunned, Kagome couldn't help but stare at Inuyasha, her mind almost a complete blank. "I... I never thought of it like that! He sees my going home in the same way as I see him going to Kikyou...

"Inuyasha," she breathed, taking a step towards him, not even noticing as Sango, with a smile on her face, disappeared back towards the camp. "It's the same as you said, though. I'll always come back. That's why I said I would stay by your side. Because I can stand to see my family and friends only sometimes... but I can't stand to see you like that. I want to see you all the time – to be with you all the time... so I will always come back to you, no matter what."

"I guess maybe we should have talked about this sooner, then, huh?" he chuckled sheepishly after a moment, a slight blush on his cheeks as he watched her from under his bangs.

Kagome stepped closer to him, not looking away from him as she smiled shyly in return. "Yeah... I'm sorry I would get so mad at you before and fight with you about Kikyou," she said softly.

The hanyou took the final steps towards her and reached out to pull her into his arms as he held her to him tightly. "And I'm sorry that I always fight with you when you want to go home. I guess... I have to understand that just like I have other obligations that I have to go off to take care of at times, you have the same. As long as we always come back to each other afterward, it's okay," he finished.

Kagome nodded against his chest as she hugged him back. "Aa. It will always be okay, as long as we are together."

Neither one was aware of the four pairs of eyes watching them from the shadows...

But it wouldn't have mattered if they were, because this was their time. There was Kikyou time, and there was home time, but at the end of all that, there was always their time.

And their time was always the longest, and happiest of all the times.

~oOo~

A/N: This is set somewhere between Kikyou's revival from Naraku's miasma, and her final death, with it being a little closer to her death. Just a little somethin' I thought up on how Inuyasha hates her going home the same as Kagome hates him going to Kikyou.

Amber