Here by thetroll

Chapter 1

InuYasha finds Sesshomaru past the shrine.

"There you are." He tucks his hands into his sleeves as he approaches his older brother. He isn't surprised to find Sesshomaru here—it is the one place his brother will always return to.

Because of them.

Sesshomaru does not answer, but InuYasha does not expect him to. He places one hand on his brother's shoulder as he says, "She wouldn't want this, you know."

He doesn't need to specify who. The answer is the same for both.

"She is not here," Sesshomaru says then, his voice almost inaudible, "to say otherwise."

InuYasha sighs as he settles down beside Sesshomaru. He knows this feeling of loss all too well. Even after all these years, even after InuYasha has mated another, thinking of Kikyo still brings a pang to his heart. "No," he says then, "she ain't. Which is probably a good thing, 'cause she'd call you an idiot for mopin' like this. Your kids ain't seen you in a week, Sesshomaru. They need you."

For the moment, InuYasha and his mate are caring for them, but they need their father more than they need their uncle. They're hurting every bit as much as Sesshomaru is.

Sesshomaru does not reply. His hand reaches out to the stone graves, first touching Rin's, and then lingering on the smooth surface of Kagome's. Time did not stop for humans just because they'd mated a yokai, nor did disease. 

Rin and Kagome had both passed from a disease that had claimed half the village. Tenseiga could not work on Rin, not a second time.

It had worked on Kagome. They had believed the worst of it over.

But the disease had returned. Kagome had said something about a mutation as she'd fought to save herself and the others inflicted. She had fought so hard, but in the end, it seemed, fate would not be denied.

And Tenseiga could not work twice.

"She's not here," InuYasha says then. His heart aches for the loss of his friend, but it's nothing akin to how Sesshomaru feels over the loss of his mate. 

"It is the closest I can be," Sesshomaru says then, his voice quiet, "to where she is."

InuYasha cannot think of a response to that. Instead, he sits down beside his brother. "You know," he says then, "I don't think she ever told yah about the times I went to her time. It was fucking weird," he says, and though his brother doesn't respond, he seems to listen. "Buildings as tall as mountains. Everything stank. I hated it. But," he says, with a small smile, blinking back a few tears of his own, "she made it feel like home." He then laughs as a memory comes to him. "Once there was this tiny little bug. She screamed so loud. Thought it was a yokai or somethin'." He grins. "I 'bout destroyed her house."

Sesshomaru turns to InuYasha then. There's a hint of a smile at his lips, but it's a fleeting one.

InuYasha decides then he's going to tell Sesshomaru every story he can think of about Kagome. And when he's done, he promises himself, he'll bring Sesshomaru home to his kids.

After all, he thinks, blinking back the tears, it's what Kagome would have asked him to do.