World Enough, And Time

She would always be a little more timid than the first Kagome. Her priestess' powers would never be quite as immense as her ancestress', or Kikyo's. She would never come anywhere close to being as skilled a markswoman either. But none of that mattered a whit to Shippo, because he loved this girl with all his demon heart. And even if he hadn't been so besotted, he had learnt over the course of the past three-plus years that this Kagome was a delight in all her own ways – from her understated playfulness to her profound gentleness to her determination to always find a better way of doing something, saying something, and showing love to her family and friends.

None of her differences from the first Kagome mattered a whit either to that family of demons and part-demons who had steadily deepened their connections with this branch of the pack that had been thought forever lost for hundreds of years.

Now, on this spring afternoon, several of the most close-knit members of that large group surrounded Kagome as she came home to the shrine on the day of her university convocation, proudly holding the certificate for the degree she had worked so hard to earn. The family had decided that the two places that each student was allocated for guests at the university ceremony ought to go to her mother and grandfather, but everyone else would wait at the shrine to congratulate her and prepare for the family gathering on this significant day.

So there they all were in the courtyard, milling around between the Bone Eater's Well and the Goshinboku tree, as Kagome bowed and laughed and thanked everyone for their support, encouragement and help. Shippo hung back a little, on purpose, to take in the entire gorgeous picture of Kagome and this Higurashi family in the circle of protection formed by the ones who had become their nearest and dearest – Inuyasha, Sesshomaru, the first Kagome's children and grandchildren, Koga, Ginta, Hakkaku, a few of the Tokyo-based mostly-human descendants of Miroku and Sango, and of Rin and Kohaku, who had grown close to the Higurashi family after being introduced to them, and even Byakuya of the Dreams, who had turned out to be a loyal friend, and who was actually able to talk to Grandfather Higurashi about anything under the sun with genuine enthusiasm.

A few minutes of enjoying this tableau, and the picture got even better for Shippo when Sota, who had detached himself from the group for a minute to go into the well house, came running back out with his right arm raised, a small item clutched in his hand.

"Nee-chan!" the teenager called out as he sprinted back towards the group. "This is for you!"

Kagome turned and smiled as her not-so-little brother reached her and put the item he had been clutching into her hands, as their mother took the university scroll from her so that she could have her fingers free to deal with the item that Sota had delivered to her.

The young woman unwrapped the beautiful package, read the card that came with it, and opened the small blue box nestled amid the fine paper to reveal a pair of diamond earrings – discreet enough to wear every day, but brilliant enough to be admired when noticed.

"Oh, they shouldn't have!" she cried.

"It's an important day for you – let your human ancestors mark it with a gift that they feel is fitting for the occasion," Inuyasha told her.

"And it is a perfect gift for the occasion," Mrs Higurashi said, looking approvingly at the earrings. "You're leaving your life as a student behind, and are ready to make your own way in the world. Jewellery like this would go beautifully with your work clothes – or your casual ones, if you don't eventually work in an office."

Shippo stopped hanging back then and took his place beside Kagome, to admire both her and the pretty earrings that the other Higurashi family had just sent her – yes, through the Bone Eater's Well. It wasn't the first item that had crossed time between this Higurashi family and the other, and it wouldn't be the last, all thanks to the wish that Kagome had made to the well more than three years ago. She had talked to the magical space during her return from the other timeline, asked for a favour to be granted her, and left it up to the well to… as she said… think about it.

Then a few days later, she had put a letter into the well, and it had disappeared before her eyes. She had tried entering the well herself – she and Inuyasha too – but no living beings, it seemed, would be transported by the mysterious entity. But that, too, was a test on Kagome's part, because in her "conversation" with the well, she had agreed that it would be risky if people were to travel back and forth like the first Kagome and Inuyasha had, because there was a danger of splitting timelines again if circumstances developed in the wrong way. However, she had bargained with the well to accept the passage of "small things" – like letters, and little packages, and photographs – things that represented affection and love and family unity.

The well had granted her wish, and it seemed "happy to do so", Kagome had said, as she checked in with the magical space regularly, to continually assure the well that its favours were deeply appreciated and needed, and would never be taken for granted. Oh, and how the messages and photographs and gifts of love had flown back and forth between that timeline and this one, so that the first Kagome's mother, grandfather and brother were now very much a part of the daily lives of this Kagome's family and the inuyoukai pack. The first Kagome's children wrote regularly to their grandmother and great-grandfather, and the two Mrs Higurashis exchanged recipes and their own versions of traditional remedies for coughs and colds.

"The other family has chosen well – these will look beautiful on you," Shippo said to her now as he slipped the diamond earrings out of their velvet holder in the box and carefully put them on for her while removing the plain gold studs she had worn to the convocation. "There you go. Perfect."

"Thank you, Shippo," she said to him, giving him one of her special glowing smiles that were his alone to receive.

"You look terrific, kid," Inuyasha told her, sounding as proud of her as if he were her father. "And you've done very well."

Sesshomaru nodded in agreement – he never would be one for many words, but he had expressed his approval for the first-class degree Kagome had earned after her hard work with generous gifts that were at this very moment waiting in her room for her to discover.

Two of Rin and Kohaku's descendants – a pair of siblings named Daichi and Hatsuko – called out from the house that the food and drinks were ready to be served, and everyone in the courtyard started making their way indoors.

Kagome and Shippo, however, walked instead in the direction of the Bone Eater's Well – a pattern familiar to the family by now at all their gatherings – to stand together in the well house to thank the ancient magical structure in the ground, and to spend a few quiet moments together.

After Kagome had spoken to the well and promised to put a note of thanks into it for the earrings later that afternoon, she and Shippo stood side by side, hands resting on the wooden well casing, just as they had so many times in the past.

"You've finally done it – you've graduated with a degree you actually want," Shippo leaned over and whispered into her ear before planting a soft, lingering kiss on her cheek, then another on her lips.

For Kagome had changed her previous intention of studying for a Business and Marketing degree purely for the sake of the shrine's commercial needs, and had instead followed her heart to major in Literature and History. She had once imagined that such subjects would only lead her logically to a career in teaching or perhaps journalism, neither of which would have made business sense for her family. But finding her huge clan, finding Shippo, and finding herself had made her realise that time was precious, passion was vital, and she should do what genuinely resonated with her heart. Business skills could always be picked up along the way in shorter courses, but the experience of thoroughly enjoying her university studies and campus life might not be so easy to recover later.

"I'm really, really happy," she whispered back to Shippo, returning the kiss. "Happiest of all that I can share this moment with you."

"Just one of many, many more significant moments over a long life together."

"Will it be a long life together?"

Shippo drew back and looked at her in mock alarm. "Hey, I thought you agreed just last month to officially be my mate once you'd graduated from uni."

She laughed softly and caressed his cheek with her hand. "Just checking that you remember – you were pretty drunk at the time."

"I was nervous."

"You knew I'd say yes, though."

"Yes, but it felt unnerving to formally ask you."

"I didn't think demons could even get that drunk," she chuckled, still stroking his cheek.

"Well, it seems that I can."

"I learn something new whenever I'm with you," she smiled. "But seriously, I'm thrilled with the idea of becoming your mate and your wife, and I want to start a family with you very soon, because… because I want to spend as much time as I have with my half-demon children – they'll still be so small when I get really old, and…"

"We'll find a way," Shippo said firmly. "We've talked about this in detail, and we'll find a way."

"No one in our family has found a way in five hundred years," she replied, a little sadly.

"We know there was a spell in the past that could have worked, but it could never be stabilised or made safe enough to use on humans. But even if no one has found the means of stabilising it to be safely employed on mortals in all these centuries, it doesn't mean that it can't be perfected now."

"Inuyasha-sama and Sesshomaru-sama and everyone who loved and cared for my ancestress had every motivation to find a way to perfect it, but none of them ever could, despite their best efforts – no one has found a safe way to bind the lifespan of a human to his or her demon mate so that the mortal one won't die centuries before his or her mate."

"Byakuya has been working on aspects of the spell that only he can refine with his own brand of skills. His own kind of magic – and it has nothing to do with the sort of evil spells Naraku used to hurl about – is very different from our clan's, and he may be able to come up with something. It's going to be a hard slog, but as you know, he's grown very fond of you, and I think he'd like to know that you'll be around for him to tease even three hundred years from now."

"I'm not afraid of dying, in itself, when I'm old and grey, but I am afraid that, just like your Mama, I'll be forced to leave my little children behind – they won't be anywhere near grown by that time – at least my ancestress had one child who was largely human, thanks to Inuyasha-sama also being part-human – but you and I don't have a chance of that happening. Your pure demon blood would mean that all our half-demon children will take a really long time to grow – and I'm also worried that I won't be able to do as good a job as your brothers and sister have of keeping the slow growth of their children secret from the rest of the human world."

"Don't worry about that part of it, at least – as I've assured you before, our pack has had centuries of practice where that is concerned. We've refined our methods for this modern age too. We know how to do these things – hell, I'm the one who handles most of the complexities – the magical covering of tracks of computerised and paper records, the changing of identities, timing the changes of identities to coordinate everything for an entire nuclear family, the spells to alter physical appearance when we have to be out and about, and even convincing the children themselves to keep things secret… I can do all that with my eyes closed. Our children will be fine, just as their cousins have always been fine. They won't be lonely either – don't forget that you're now part of a sprawling pack that seems to keep spawning new pups."

"I'm glad to know that we have such a large and close family, and that my children will be very loved and very well looked after even if I'm not here."

"You will be here," Shippo said, forcing himself to swallow the lump in his throat. "I won't let you fade away… I won't… I just won't allow it."

He held her close then, but let one of his hands drift down from her side to touch the balustrade of the well, and he begged the well silently in his head: Help us, please – you're so closely connected somehow to Byakuya, and to Kagome – help Byakuya find some insight into the spell – maybe he will glean inspiration from you, if you permit it…

Then he hugged his Kagome even more tightly, and decided, as she had done before, to let the well mull over things.

As if she was reading his mind, Kagome whispered against his neck: "You're right – we'll be fine, somehow – I feel as if the Bone Eater's Well is blessing us right here and now – I think it kind of likes us being together. Between our pack, and Byakuya's magic, and the well's mysterious powers, and us, something good will be worked."

She lifted her face off his neck, and with him peering over her dark hair, they looked together into the depths of the Bone Eater's Well and saw it as it truly was – a magical space that had done so much for the first Kagome, both the Higurashi families, Byakuya, and the whole inuyoukai pack. Perhaps it had even more surprises in store for them. "Maybe one day," Kagome murmured, "the well will even bridge time within the same timeline again, and give us a message from the first Kagome, while she was in her prime in the past, to Inuyasha and her children, in the future? Inuyasha would be so overwhelmed… and I would love to tell my ancestress how much we owe her, and how much I love everyone she left behind, both in this timeline and the other."

But that was a wish for another day, and another time, and for now, Shippo smiled at this Kagome, and kissed her, and said: "Unselfish as always, only thinking about other people. So let me be selfish on your behalf and say with the greatest sincerity and respectfulness to this well and all the benevolent powers in our realm that I love you, and I want you to be able to spend many hundreds of years with me, and I hope with all that is in me that my wish will be granted."

"That's your selfish wish?" she smiled as she gazed into his green eyes out of her dark ones that, Shippo noted now, were uniquely beautiful eyes that he would never – could never – mistake for those of his mother. "For us to be in love together for a long time to come?"

"A long time to come."

"Selfish fox."

"Well, you do love this selfish fox, don't you?"

"Goodness only knows why, but I actually do."

"To us, for a long time, then," he said, taking her hand, interlacing his fingers with hers, and placing their joined hands on the wood of the well casing.

And perhaps the well that could span time, and the tree that had sheltered the ancient forest for centuries, and the shrine, and their demon's and priestess' magic, and every benevolent power that was in their realm, would bless this fox and this young woman, with all the time in the world.

- END -

Author's Note: I doubt if anyone is still reading this story, what with a two-year gap between the previous chapter and this one, but I had promised once to finish it, and I've finished it. I won't go into a long, painful tale here about how work and real life have derailed my fanfic writing and fanfic-site interactions for longer than I care to think about - and I cannot promise that I will continue to write fanfics with regularity - but I can always hope for the best. Anyway, thank you to whoever used to or recently read or is still going through this story - I appreciate any and all the time that you have given to reading it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, of course.