Kagome was so worried.

It had been two nights, now, since her babies had gone missing, and she was determined not to make it two days.

She recalled with dread that afternoon, cursing herself for not keeping a better eye on them. Michi and Izzy had been out playing in the woods around their home, not an unusual occurrence in the slightest, and Kagome had been so busy with new baby Kiotsu, she just assumed they'd be all right and return for dinner, like they always did…

But they hadn't shown up for dinner, to her annoyance, nor by sunset, at which point she really began to worry. She called their names. Inuyasha joined her, a fear so rarely seen in his usually-amber eyes surfacing in what was now a dark indigo. It was the new moon. He couldn't track them. They considered using their dog, Mei, but the youngster was hardly out of puppyhood and wasn't trained in tracking on command. She didn't seem to understand.

The hanyou had left at daybreak the following morning, bolting out of the hut the moment he regained his enhanced senses. But it had rained in the night—not enough to wash out the scents completely, but enough to dull them, to blend them in to all the other places where their scent lingered—they played here often, after all.

Even so, the couple searched all day. Well, not quite all day—they still had three other kids to take care of, after all, and their frantic worry was beginning to rub off on them. Yukio seemed markedly crankier than usual and Kikyo had thrown a fit about having to take a nap while her missing sister didn't. Even Mei whimpered and whined, a mixture of empathy knowing that her masters were upset, and indigence for not being played with.

They ultimately decided to leave Kikyo and Yukio with Miroku and Sango and their family. Kiotsu, who still drank only milk, couldn't be without his mother and simply had to come with them, strapped securely to Kagome.

"Are you sure you don't want us to help look?" Sango asked earnestly as the couple prepared to head back into the forest.

"That would be great, but I think it'd be better if you just kept an eye on the others," sighed Kagome.

"Well…alright, then. But we'll be here if you need us."

"Thank you," said Kagome. "We'll be back to pick up Kikyo and Yukio as soon as we find Michi and Izzy…or," she sighed, "or around dusk if we…if we still can't find them." Her voice trembled slightly.

Inuyasha cleared his throat.

"Let's go," he said, slightly tensely. And they left.

They decided to bring Mei on the search after all, encouraging her to take deep whiffs of some of Michi and Izzy's clothes and toys before heading out. They weren't sure if she'd understand they wanted her to track the scents, or if it would even make a difference now that they had Inuyasha's nose back in business, but at this point they were ready to take any measures that might help.

Alas, the search remained in vain. The scents were still too muddy to find a decent trail, and they were slowed, too, by having to stop to feed or change or comfort Kiotsu every so often.

Mei put her snout to the ground from time to time, but never followed anything very long before bounding up again, or else chasing after some small animal. As the afternoon waned, Inuyasha had grown frustrated with the dog's inattentiveness and reached out to grab her collar, intent on bringing her back home and tying her up so she couldn't provide any more distraction. But Mei, thinking this was some kind of game, wagged her tail and scampered away, hiding playfully behind a bush. Inuyasha growled in annoyance and leapt towards her. Mei bounded gracefully out the the way, tongue lolling joyously, and Inuyasha landed face-first into the bush.

"Are you ok?" Kagome gasped, rushing over to her husband. Inuyasha didn't respond at first, though he had suddenly gone stiff as a board. He inhaled deeply. This…this smell…

"Kagome," he whispered hoarsely. "I've got a scent trail!" he looked up, taking in the scents leading away from the bush. It wasn't the clearest trail he'd ever followed, but it was there.

"Do you? Oh, thank goodness!" Kagome exclaimed, sinking slightly in relief. "Where—" But just then, Kiotsu's little whimpers turned into cries. "Oh, no," murmured Kagome, lifting the baby from his little pouch and rubbing his back consolingly. She glanced at the horizon. She hadn't even noticed that the sun had nearly set. She bit her lip, eyes stinging.

"Go on and follow the trail, Inuyasha," she begged. "I'll take care of Kiotsu and pick up Kikyo and Yukio. Just…bring them home, ok?"

Inuyasha nodded resolutely, and they went their separate ways.

.oOo.

Kagome waited with baited breath for her husband to return from his solo search. Kikyo and Yukio had gone to bed surprisingly easily, likely having worn themselves out playing with Miroku and Sango's kids all day. Kiotsu, too, was currently asleep, slumbering peacefully in his blanket-laden basket.

The sound of bare footsteps and click-click-click of clawed paws caught Kagome's attention. She looked up hopefully as the door to her hut slid open. Mei trotted into the room, tail wagging, and curled up contentedly next to the fire. Inuyasha followed, eyes lowered and expression somber. Kagome's hope extinguished like an old flame dying out.

"Lost the trail," he said horsely. "I tracked it for quite a while, but it just vanished in front of this old ditch. Not a trace left."

Kagome gave a sharp intake of breath, bringing her hand up to her mouth.

"B..b..but," she stammered, "a disappearing scent like that…that's what happens when…" she couldn't finish her sentence. That was what happened when the source of the scent took to the sky. Surely…surely their children couldn't have flown off…couldn't have been taken by, say, a flying youkai?

Inuyasha's jaw tightened in distress, but he nevertheless sat down next to his wife, slouching in defeat.

"I don't know," he said heavily. "Mei went a little funny 'round the ditch, though. Maybe we can go back t'morrow, see what we can find…" his voice was beginning to slur off, giving in to a mix of sorrow and fatigue. Kagome bit her lip. She wanted to go now. But it was late, so late, and everyone seemed exhausted. A few tears threatened to fall. But she nodded, and the pair settled down to sleep as best they could.

And now, here they were, having been missing their oldest two babies for two nights and one day. They had left Kikyo and Yukio with Miroku and Sango once more, and this time decided to tie Mei up in their yard to prevent her distractions.

"Ready?" asked Inuyasha.

"Let's go," said Kagome, and immediately the set off towards the location Inuyasha had discovered yesterday.

"Here we are," said Inuyasha as they arrived at the ditch. The sight was nothing extraordinary, merely a few scrapes of earth dug out of the forest floor. It didn't even look fresh; in fact, it may well have been there for several years.

Nevertheless, Kagome could tell why it had disturbed Mei.

"This…this aura…" the priestess murmured. Inuyasha glanced up in surprise.

"Aura?" he asked. "I didn't sense anything…"

Kagome shook her head.

"You wouldn't, I don't think. This is a very specific kind of aura…it might well be something only I can detect, it's…" she looked up at her husband. "Inuyasha, it's the same kind of aura given by the well!"

Inuyasha's eyes widened as the impact of her statement sunk in.

"You don't think…" he began.

"Only one way to find out," she replied.

They started at each other for a moment, then turned to the ditch. And then, with one more glance and a nod, they jumped in.

.oOo.

Kagome's eyes fluttered open as light flooded the hut—Kaede had opened her windows. The teenage priestess stretched, trying to sort out some stiff muscles—she wasn't used to sleeping sitting up.

Her stirring woke Inuyasha, who slowly opened his amber eyes. The kids were awake, too, rising from Kaede's spare futon to join the elderly priestess as she handed the each bundles of cloth.

"Here's yer clothes, nice and dry," she was saying. "Why don't yeh put them on?"

"Thanks, Gramma Kaede," said Michi, accepting the bundle, while Izzy only grinned and nodded, quite unabashedly stripping off her borrowed nightclothes right there.

"Izzy!" groaned Michi.

"What?" said the girl, slipping on her now-clean pink kimono. "Jus' changing." Kagome found herself having to stifle a giggle at the child's innocent bluntness.

"Shippo," said Kaede, interrupting the siblings' mini squabble, "I had some fruits collected the other day, there's a basket of them in the storehouse on the edge of the village. Could you go grab that for me?"

"Sure," said the young fox, darting out of the hut.

"Oh boy, fruit!" exclaimed Izzy happily. "Fruit is yummy. Mama, can you help me with my obi?"

"Ah—alright," said Kagome. "Come here…"

Izzy pranced over hand handed the long sash to Kagome. She didn't have a ton of experience tying kimonos, but she'd had to wear a few before and knew the basics. After a moment, she managed a decent knot.

"There you go, I think," she said, stepping back to admire her handiwork.

"Thanks!" said Izzy, skipping back around the hut.

"Real professional knot there," Inuyasha murmured in Kagome's ear. His tone was mildly sarcastic, but he was grinning.

"Oh, hush," said Kagome, though she grinned back. "I didn't see you offering any help, Mr. Obi Expert."

"I wear one every day," said the hanyou.

"Pfft," argued Kagome, "You never take the thing off. When would you need to tie it up?"

"Well, I've got to, y'know, do my business, don't I? And I bathe too, you know!"

"Do you?" asked Kagome, raising an eyebrow, a teasing gleam in her eye. "I wouldn't be able to tell!"

"Why you—!" scoffed the hanyou, though he couldn't suppress his grin. Before he could finish his remark, however, Shippo stuck his head through the door of the hut, a very odd expression on his face.

"Uh…Inuyasha? Kagome?" he said. "You might want to come out here and take a look at this…"

Inuyasha and Kagome glanced at each other, amusement evaporating, replaced with confusion and a bit of curiosity. Slowly, they stood and followed the young fox out of the hut.

What they saw made them freeze.

There, standing next to each other near the hut in equal shock, were…themselves.

They weren't perfect replicas; these versions were notably older. Inuyasha, still dressed in his trademark fire-rat robe, was more similar, though he was an inch or two taller than his teenage counterpart, with slightly broader shoulders and more refined features.

Kagome was a bit harder to recognize immediately dressed in the billowing red-and-white priestess robes rather than her simple green school uniform and with hair seemingly slightly longer, but her face was definitely the same, albeit obviously more mature. The adult was also rather more shapely than the teen, likely due to having borne a number of children, and strapped to her back was a tiny sleeping baby with dark hair and pointed ears not unlike Shippo's.

The stunned silence was broken as a pair of voices broke out from behind the teenagers.

"Mama!"

"Daddy!"

The adults broke their gaze from their younger selves and expressions of relief and joy burst across the faces, kneeling down to embrace their children as the kids ran towards them.

"Oh, thank goodness!" gasped the older Kagome as she held Michi close to her, a few tears of joy leaking from her eyes. "We were so worried about you! Are you alright?"

"Yeah," squeaked the boy. "But you're not mad at us, are you? It was an accident, we didn't meant to get lost, we—"

"No," whispered Kagome, "No, I'm just so glad you're ok…and you…" she turned to Izzy, who let go of Inuyasha and embraced her. "Oh, thank goodness, thank goodness…"

"What the heck is going on here?"

The kids and both Inuyashas and Kagomes turned to see Miroku and Sango staring in shock at the scene. The younger Kagome gave a slight cough.

"We…ah…found their parents," she said as her friends' eyes slid back and forth between the older and younger pair.

"How did you find us?" asked Michi.

"Did you two happen to fall in to a weird ditch while you were out playin'?" asked the adult Inuyasha.

"Yeah, Michi pushed me into it," said Izzy simply.

"It was an accident!" Michi hissed.

"Well," said the adult Kagome, interrupting the spat, "I don't know how it happened, but somehow that ditch gained its own time slip, not unlike the well."

"The youkai!" Sango gasped suddenly, causing the group to look up in surprise.

"That youkai we fought the other day!" she continued. "The one that kept opening up fissures in the earth…"

"Of course!" said Miroku. "Its corpse fell into one of them in the end, didn't it? Kaede always said that part of the lore of the Bone Eater's Well, other than the whole time thing, was the remains of youkai ending up in it…"

"But then how come it hasn't caused problems until just now?" piped Shippo.

"Well, it was only the other day we fought that youkai," reminded the younger Kagome.

"Maybe for us, but not for them!" the fox reminded, indicating the older Inuyasha and Kagome.

"I don't know exactly how it happened," said Miroku, "but such a delay is not unheard of. Sometimes youkai or their energy can lie dormant for years before coming back to cause trouble…"

"Well, however it happened," said the younger Kagome, "the question it what we're going to do about it. The well is one thing, since the times it connects are so far apart, but with this one…" she glanced at her adult counterpart. "I feel like this one's more dangerous…paradoxes and all…"

The older Kagome nodded in agreement.

"I think…I can do something about it. You'll find," she said, meeting the eyes of her teenage self, "that you have a unique connection with the well and with time magic. Once we get back to our proper time, I think I'll be able to close off the slip in the ditch."

And so, that became the plan. The kids took a moment to say thank you and good-bye to Miroku, Sango, Shippo, and Kaede, then turned to accompany their parents back to the ditch.

The younger Inuyasha and Kagome had elected to go with them. This was, after all, a little more personal for them.

They didn't say much on the journey, despite it being long. It was simply difficult to put to words what they wanted to say.

Finally they reached the ditch, and everyone paused.

"Well, here we are," said the adult Inuyasha. But still, no one moved.

The adult Kagome finally turned around.

"I suppose you have a lot of questions, huh?" she asked, though her tone was more stative. The teens nodded. The older Kagome smiled, though there was a slightly regretful look in her eyes.

"I'm afraid we can't answer most of them, for fear of the…paradoxes and all," she nodded towards her younger counterpart. "But we can say that…as hard as things might seem right now, in your relationship with each other or in the battle against Naraku or the quest for the jewel…we can't give you the details, you must understand, but don't worry, because things will work out. Ok?"

"Ok," said the younger Kagome. "…thank you."

"We should be thanking you," said the older Inuyasha. "You took care of the kids for us, though it gotta've been a bit awkward."

There was a brief pause.

"Can we see the baby?" the younger Kagome blurted, her face turning a bit pink as she said the words aloud.

"Oh!" said the older Kagome, who hadn't even thought much about Kiotsu being on her back but not introducing him. "Yes, of course…" she maneuvered a bit to bring his little pouch around to the front and lifted him out of it. She smiled. "Would you like to hold him?"

"…yeah," breathed the younger Kagome, and she gently took the baby in her arms. As softly as she could manage, she stroked the tiny boy's downy back hair. The child squirmed slightly as his slumber ended, but though he opened his little eyes he didn't cry. His eyes were a deep russet brown, like Kagome's and Izzy's. Kagome noted that none of the three she'd met had Inuyasha's golden eyes; though Michi's indigo was technically inherited from his father, it wasn't as striking a shade as the amber.

"I toldja he was really cute," said Izzy smugly. The younger Kagome smiled.

"Yeah, he is," she said softly. "Do…any of them have gold eyes?"

The older Kagome laughed lightly.

"So you were told about the others, huh? Yes, Kikyo and Yukio both have gold eyes,"

"Kikyo…" murmured younger Kagome. "I suppose that name would be too much of a spoiler to ask about?"

"I'm afraid so," agreed older Kagome.

Another pause.

"Do you intend to have any more?" asked younger Kagome at length, face going pink again.

"Kids?" said older Kagome, laughing. "No, we're planning on Kiotsu being the last. But then, that's what we said about Yukio, so who knows?"

The corners of younger Kagome's lips twitched in what could have been the beginnings of a smile, but a look of worry still echoed in her eyes.

"Doesn't it hurt to give birth?" she asked quietly.

"Yes," said older Kagome. "But it's worth it. You'll understand one day." She grinned knowingly. "Trust me; I'm you."

The younger Kagome smiled back, still a bit unsure, but feeling better. She turned to her hanyou friend.

"Do you want to hold him, Inuyasha?"

The younger hanyou went red, stepping back nervously.

"I…uh…I'll pass," he said, eyeing the delicate child.

"I'll take him," volunteered the older Inuyasha, smirking slightly at his teenage counterpart as he stepped forward and took his son, holding the baby securely but tenderly against his chest. Kagome's eyes softened at the sight.

"Well," said older Kagome, "I supposed we'd best be getting back. The others are waiting for us."

"Ah, I'm sure they're having a great time playin' at Miroku and Sango's," older Inuyasha dismissed.

"Yes, well, even so, we did leave Mei tied up; I'm sure she'll be wanting loose. Our dog," she added at the look of confusion the teenagers gave. "It's a long story. But anyways, we should be going. Thanks again for keeping the kids safe."

"Ah…of course," said the younger Kagome, younger Inuyasha simply nodding.

"Bye!" said Michi as he and his sister waved.

"Get married soon so you can have us!" said Izzy cheerfully.

"Izzy!" groaned Michi.

"What?"

And with that, the family leapt back into the ditch, vanishing from sight.

.oOo.

The whole ordeal felt more and more like a dream as time went on, Kagome thought. Perhaps that was for the better—after all, their lives would never be able to progress naturally if they were too focused on getting to that point in their peek into the future—they might accidentally wind up trying to force it rather than letting it develop as it should.

But, dream or no dream, she kept in mind the words her older self had spoken to her. As hard as things may seem right now…don't worry, because things will work out, ok?

Kagome didn't know what trials lay ahead in her journey, but she knew that she would make it through, and that one day, even if it were perhaps very far in the future, she would get her happy ending. And Inuyasha, too, and all their friends. Things would work out.

And that was enough.