InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Never Too Late ❯ Never Too Late ( One-Shot )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Misconceptions and lack of communication create a rift between InuYasha and Kagome. Will he go for Kagome's friend when the hanyou thinks the miko doesn't want him any more?

Anime/Manga: InuYasha Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Drama / Romance / Angst | Type: One Shot | Uploaded On: 06.15.2008 | Updated On: 07.16.2008 | Pages: 3 | Words: 3.1K | Visits: 3.5K | Status: Completed

Disclaimers: I do not own InuYasha or any of the manga/anime characters. They belong to the wonderful genius Rumiko Takahashi.

It's a bit early, but this is a birthday!fic for my wonderful beta for over the last two years, inufan625. When I asked her what she would like this year, this is what she said: Inu/Kag, modern era (as the setting - not AU), one of Kag's friends hitting on InuYasha, happy ending.

She has already received it and liked it, and I hope you will, too. Thanks very much to knittingknots for the beta job on this one after it had been approved (I couldn't ask inufan625to beta her own fic!).

Warnings: Spoilers for Manga Chapters 556 and 557.

Divergence.

Never Too Late

Needless to say, it was a shock when Kagome and InuYasha tumbled into the well house to find not only her mother, brother, and grandfather, but also her three friends standing there.

“Kagome!” The structure that once protected the secret well seemed to echo in stereo with the voices of those there.

“InuYasha!” Mama and Souta cried out together as the hanyou landed on his butt - hard. Apparently he couldn't get his feet under him when they'd been thrown from wherever they'd appeared from. He still had Kagome wrapped protectively in his arm and clutched against his body and Tessaiga in his right hand, still transformed. To say they were all surprised and a bit shocked would have been an understatement. On instinct they'd jumped back when the couple materialized out of thin air.

A very surprised Kagome looked up, and almost shouted, “What are you doing here?” as she struggled out of the hanyou's grasp and to her feet. She couldn't help but to blush at the intimate position they'd been caught in.

What followed was a hail of questions by the three school girls as well as Kagome's family. InuYasha felt helpless as Kagome was dragged away from him by the girls, and Souta took his hand and led him away. He had so many things he wanted to say. In fact he had said them - but to a bunch of youkai when he was stuck in the Shikon no Tama, not to the miko he realized he was destined to be with. He frowned as he watched her walk away. They had literally just been to hell and back, and now it was almost as if nothing had happened between them. He sighed and unresponsively followed Souta.

It was a week later, and InuYasha was falling into a deep depression. He trudged around the shrine listlessly, doing whatever the old priest asked him to do without complaint. He slept on the floor in Souta's room rather than with Kagome as he would have preferred. Kagome had jumped right back into her old life as if she'd never had any adventures on the other side of the well. Yuka had started coming home with her every day, insisting that Kagome needed help to catch up on what she had missed the first few days of school. Once that was no longer an issue, it was always for some other reason, whether it be math or science or one of their other many subjects. Kagome seemed so happy in high school. She didn't even appear to notice that InuYasha was incredibly sad.

“Hey, InuYasha?”

The hanyou looked down from his perch in the tree where he had taken to retreating to when Kagome's grandfather was done with him for the day. InuYasha was surprised to see Yuka addressing him. He jumped down and crossed his arms in front of him. “Yeah?”

“I just wondered… well… I thought you were Kagome's boyfriend,” she said shyly.

He shrugged his shoulders. “You couldn't tell it by me.”

And that was how it started. Yuka would come out and say hello to him and strike up a conversation before she headed home. Since she had learned he was hanyou and thrown here from the past, she started asking him questions. Kagome had told them all about her adventures in the Feudal Era with him and the others. InuYasha would look up at Kagome's window, shrug his shoulders when he saw her turn her back to him, and try to be polite. He didn't know what else to do - he was stuck here in Kagome's era and apparently she wasn't interested in him any more.

Kagome watched her friend approach InuYasha every afternoon as she was leaving. She couldn't bear it any longer when they started talking, so she'd turn her back and walk away, wiping away her tears. She couldn't understand what had gone wrong. After InuYasha came after her in the Meidou created by the Shikon no Tama, she was certain he loved her. And yet, since they'd come back, he appeared to do everything in his power to stay away from her. He must be angry with her. It was her fault after all that he was thrown into the modern era with her. He must feel so out of place. He didn't understand a lot of the things about her time, and she was certain he missed having his forest to run in. He hated her now, and it was all her fault. Why couldn't she have somehow included in her wish that she wanted for them to end up back in the Feudal Era? If they had, he probably would have kissed her by now. Instead, he was making eyes at one of her best friends. It was her fault he was here - she would just have to suck it up and deal with it. More than anything, she wanted InuYasha to be happy - even if it was with someone else.

“It's getting dark. Would you mind walking me home?” Yuka said one evening.

InuYasha once again looked up at Kagome's window. Not seeing her there, he nodded and followed Yuka to the staircase.

They were about a block from the shrine when she tried to hold his hand. The jolt that it sent through his body was nothing like what Kagome's gentle touch did to him. Instead, it was screaming at him that this was wrong. He knew he shouldn't be rude, but he pulled away and tucked his hands into his sleeves.

“Sorry,” Yuka apologized.

“Keh,” InuYasha said.

“Huh?” she questioned.

InuYasha looked at her - Kagome always knew what he meant. Kagome was the one he should be with, not this friend of hers even if she was nice to him.

Yuka sighed. “You love Kagome, don't you?”

Not wanting to mince words, he admitted, “Yes.”

“You need to talk to her,” Yuka suggested.

“She doesn't want anything to do with me any more,” the hanyou said.

“That's funny. She said the same thing about you.” Yuka fell silent as he walked her the rest of the way home.

When they reached her doorway, she stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. “InuYasha, you're really a very nice guy, even if you were a bit rough. From what Kagome told me, you've been through a lot together. I think you owe it to each other to sit down and actually talk. You need to quit making assumptions about what the other wants.”

He smiled just a little and nodded. “Yuka… I'm… I'm… sorry. I didn't understand…”

“It's okay. I thought if you and Kagome had really lost interest in each other… I had to try. It's been nice talking to you, though. Now, why don't you try to spend as much time with Kagome as you have with me? You'd better get going. She's probably crying her eyes out right now. She'd do anything to make you happy, you know - even if it means you're with someone else.”

InuYasha's eyes opened wide, and all of those memories of when he'd gone to Kikyou raced through his head. What the fuck had he been thinking? He nodded, and like a shot he was gone.

He forego using the door as he'd been asked to do since they returned, and jumped to the roof outside of Kagome's bedroom. Even from outside, he could smell the pungent aroma of her tears. He looked through the window to see her laying face down on her bed and clutching her pillow. She must have cried herself out since she lay quietly. He slipped through her window and stared at her silent form, trying to figure out how to rectify the mess he'd created. He started to softly speak, “Kagome, since we got back, I've wanted to tell you what I told the youkai that were fighting me in the jewel. You know, those fuckers told me your destiny was to make a wish and end up in the jewel with Naraku and fighting him for eternity. But that was wrong. I realized then that your fate was to be with me. It's because of you that I have friends, that I learned to trust and rely on my companions, and that I finally understood what true strength and kindness is. Kagome, I wanted to tell you all of this when we arrived here, but you acted like none of it had ever happened. I thought you wanted to go back to your old life and didn't want me around any more. I thought our fates were to be together, but you pushed me away.” The hanyou sighed. “I just wish I could say all of this when you're listening to me. It seems like I can only say what I feel when you can't hear me. When you told me you wanted to be with me, I thought you meant you loved me. I wanted so much to tell you that I love you, but then we fell in the fucking well house with your family and those three girls, and nothing's gone right since.”

He smelled a new round of tears as Kagome turned over to face him. She launched herself off of the bed and once again into the warmth of his embrace. With her face pressed against his chest and her arms wrapped around him, she whispered, “I do want to be with you. I want that more than anything.” Looking up to meet his eyes, she added, “And I love you, more than I could ever say.”

InuYasha kept one arm possessively around her while he reached up to brush her tears away with the pad of his thumb. Then, with her face cupped in his hand, he lowered his mouth to hers.

They clung desperately to each other; neither had the will to let the other go. It was without even speaking that they silently agreed to never again make assumptions about the other. InuYasha's heart soared, and Kagome's spirits were lifted for the first time since they arrived in the well house.

Kagome finally asked the question that had been worrying her since that fateful day, “InuYasha, will you be okay here, in this era? I'm so sorry… I didn't plan…” her voice trailed away as she choked back her tears that were threatening to overwhelm her again.

With both arms wrapped around her, he held her as tightly as he dared. “It wasn't your fault - it's just the way things happened. As long as I'm with you, I'll be okay.”

She smiled for the first time in what seemed like weeks, and lifted her face to search his. All she could see was the love he held for her in his eyes and his lips before they captured hers. Together, they sealed their destinies with a kiss.