Hey guys!
I'm kind of nervous since this is my first story and english is not my mother tongue.
If you'd leave me a review, so I can imrpove my style of writing, or just tell me what you think, I'd be ecstatic!
That was all for now, I guess, since i really don't like long A/N.
OK on with it and enjoy!
A/N #2: This oneshot has been broken down into shorter chapters to make it easier to read. It is the exact same story as before, so if you have read it already then nothing has changed.
Disclaimer: Inuyasha is no property of mine but of the amazingly talented Rumiko Takahashi. All characters you recognize are hers and the ones you don't are mine. I don't make any money from this and write purely for entertainment purposes.
Christmas was Kagome's most favored holiday. She loved the atmosphere of Tokyo at that time of the year, the smiles on the people’s faces, the whole town covered in a blanket of glee and joy. Even without the snow to accompany it, it was still beautiful. She did not know if it was her that was glowing with this glee, which was more probable since the Japanese did not really celebrate Christmas, or if it really was the city, either way she did not care. Absolutely nothing could take away the feeling of anticipation and inner peacefulness she always connected to this special holiday. Walking slowly towards the midnight blue car, that would bring her to the grocery store, she thought about everything that has happened since she was dragged through the well so many years ago.
When she was first pulled through the well, she was 15. First Kagome was confused to no end. She had been thrown out of her ordinary life only to be threatened and sought after because of her relation to the Shikon no Tama. It was hard to face the fact that not only was she host of the sacred jewel that possessed so much power without ever noticing it, but it was even harder to fathom that now she was responsible for what happened with it. Absolutely overwhelmed with all the responsibility, she was desperately trying to find some kind of ground to stand on. So much that in fact she made herself believe she was in love with the stubborn hanyo who has a mouth too big for his own good, when in fact she was just in love with the idea of being in love. She had lived through so many heartbreaks given to her by Inuyasha, that she never really considered that he may not be the one for her. She was stuck in the situation she herself created by being too narrow minded to think about the possibility of ever loving someone else and ending both their misery. But the time in the feudal era brought good things to come her way, too. She never thought that the feelings of friendship could be so intense or strong and during her travels she not only learned the true meaning of that and companionship, but of motherhood as well. Shippo was something that just stumbled into her life and she knew from the first moment he wouldn’t leave it for a while. Shippo was the one who taught her what it was to be like when a being fully depended on you for shelter, food and protection. And with the years of travel he became her son in all respects that mattered.
There were many lessons along the way and she had to master every single one of them. One of the most important lessons was, that nothing is as it seems.
The last lesson was specifically taught by none other than the great Taiyoukai of the West, Lord Sesshoumaru. Never in her live would Kagome have thought the scary dog demon could be anything but an enemy, and oh boy was she wrong.
Lightly giggling, she put one foot on the gas, closing in on her intended target. Sopping at a traffic light, she scanned through her shopping list and made sure to remember Ramen. Even after 500 and years the hanyo could still not get enough of his favorite traveling dish. Kagome remembered all the times she had to fight with him to share his worshipped noodles with the group. She swore he would ruin the company if he ever stopped eating them, not that the miko would ever suspect anything like it in the near future. He was raising the company’s sales by thousands, she suspected. Making a sharp turn to the right, Kagome could not help but feel a little sting of sadness run through her as she thought about her beloved Kaede. The old Lady helped her so much during all those years of hard travel, taught her everything she had to know and helped her with anything she could. As she died just a few years after the final battle, Kagome felt so terrible, she did not know what to do.
It was then that she realized how precious her mate really was.
He was the one helping her through those times without even recognizing the amount of help he gave her with his friendship. They were not mates back then. Inuyasha was to upset with himself for not defeating death itself for the woman he considered a surrogate mother, so she leaned on her mate at times when life was hard to live just as he leaned on her shoulder when his precious Rin left for the realm of death, after a long life full of happiness and love. She had married not long after the final battle, a handsome young lord, and they were very happy. The only thing that wasn’t granted to them was a child of their own. It became clear pretty soon in their marriage that Rin seemed to be infertile. No one knew why, but her mate thought it was his fault, that maybe he did something wrong as he brought her back to life. After long nights of talking and soothing him, Rin made it clear to him, that even though she will never have pups, she doesn’t make him responsible for it. It was not his fault for bringing her back. One night, not long after Rin passed away, he told her that the reason he stopped feeling guilty was, that Rin came to him and told him that she would rather live a long life full of happiness but without kids, than a short one full of despair and angst. A very long time later they found out, that the inner injuries that were caused to her damaged her uterus and even though he was able to save her and heal all life-threatening injuries, this was not considered such and was not being fixed to the point of functioning. After her husband passed at the age of almost 50, which is pretty old for feudal era, she followed him not long after, at the age of 42. Those were not happy times for them, but life could not always be peachy and they had connected on a level they would have never guessed, instantly feeling when the other is in pain, distress or irritated, or the opposite, when one of them is happy, then so is the other.
She would have never guessed, that Maru would be the one that would finally take her heart from her and claim it as its own, and she would have laughed outright, if someone told her that she would be claiming his in just the same way.
But after Sesshoumaru lend a helping hand in the final battle, returning her to life, after she died from one of Kikyo's arrows, who thought she could get her soul back by killing her, and later killing Kikyo for harming her, she wondered if the scary taiyoukai was really as heartless as they all thought him to be. And Kagome had set out to find out herself, just as was expected from one with a heart as big as hers and stubbornness without end. In the months after the final battle, Kagome, much to Inuyasha’s dislike, traveled with the Lord’s group from time to time, getting to know the members and slowly, without realizing it, further melting the ice around the taiyoukai's heart. What she didn’t know was, that she had captured the taiyoukais’ respect and later on his heart when she was the only one who would speak to him like he was just Sesshoumaru and not the Lord of the West. Of course everyone thought that every time she would argue with him, his eyes would start turning red because he was irritated, but the truth was he was just sorely turned on.
When the well closed after the last visit to her time after the final battle, Kagome knew that this era was the one she was supposed to be in. Yes, she did indeed miss her family a lot. Late night hours of crying were on daily schedule and sometimes she regretted coming to the feudal era all together, but at that time her friends were the rock she needed. And little Rin, who insisted on calling her “sister” after the final battle, did help a lot, too. Even if, at that time, the lord seemed rather distant (because he still didn’t know that she finally gave up all hopes of ever being with his younger sibling), he also helped her, unknowingly, by providing a riddle she could not seem to figure out and she was all the more eager to puzzle it together.