Snap
Disclaimer: I don't own the Well or any characters associated with it.
One-Shot Parody on the Well and its Uses
Of all the times Kagome had to follow Inuyasha, this had to be the worst one.
She had followed him to nearly every meeting with Kikyou since the time he promised to protect her, when she had promised to stay by his side every time. Whether he knew or not, she followed. This time was no exception – she stood behind the trees, cerulean orbs watching the two figures in the clearing as they talked.
At least, she hoped that was all they were doing. Once or twice she had seen them embrace, arms wrapped around each other in a warm gesture. In the past, such an action had made her cry, but she had learned long ago to think nothing of it. After all, he had done the same to her as well, hadn't he? She loved hearing his heartbeat, being pressed against his warm body as he held her gently. Kikyou could love it too, she supposed. Kikyou's body was cold and dead, so perhaps she enjoyed feeling a warmth she could not feel alone.
The clearing in which this meeting took place was rather large, and Kagome was too far away to hear any of the words exchanged between the hanyou and former miko. It was times like this that she wished for senses like Inuyasha's hearing, in order to hear the exchange between them… but then again, what if it was something she didn't want to hear?
Oh wait, there was the usual hug. For some reason she had hoped this time would be an exception.
With a sigh, she picked herself up from the damp ground and trudged off to the village, missing Inuyasha's glance in her direction.
The yellow backpack was empty once again. It was time to replenish necessary supplies, which involved avoiding Inuyasha in order to go back to her time and make the necessary shopping trip.
The hardest part was avoiding Inuyasha. If she didn't know that he was with Kikyou, she would have been looking over her shoulder every other second, whispering the one word that enabled her to escape: "sit". As it was, she decided to take her time on a relaxed walk towards the well, backpack hanging off of her shoulders and a soft smile on her face.
When you travel with Inuyasha, you rarely have any time to appreciate nature. Kagome could finally watch every little flower, every plant, and every small animal that wandered by in search of food, home, or a friend. Slowing her pace to a leisurely walk, she reached out to pick a pale blue flower growing at the edge of the well-traveled path to the well.
It smelled fresh, she realized. Its fragrance combined many different floral scents into one soothing aroma. The smile on her face widened, and she tucked the flower behind her ear, the pale blue of the petals matching her eyes and bringing out the highlights of her dark hair.
I'll have to bring some of these back home, she thought. They would be a wonderful addition to the garden… To think that such a beautiful flower grew entirely on its own! You can't get these in any flower shop!
Now in a fairly good mood, she began to hum a tune to herself as she continued her walk to the well.
The good mood dissipated as soon as she actually reached the well as a sharp voice cut through into her thoughts.
"And where might you be going, Kagome?"
Her smile turned into a glare as she spun around to face the speaker.
"I'm going home, Inuyasha. I don't have any more food or clean clothes, and if you want ramen any time soon, you've got to let me go!"
The hanyou returned the glare. "Why? Sango says that there are reports of a rogue youkai to the north – you can't just run off and leave us to go on our own!"
"Watch me," she hissed. "I haven't been home since we left to exterminate the snake youkai near Nazuna's shrine! What are my children going to think if I never see them anymore?"
His mouth dropped. "Your children? Since when have-"
"Since they were born, they've been my children! Besides, I promised them I'd take them to the Spring Festival in two days, and there's no way we can defeat that youkai and be back in that time!"
"You can't do that, Kagome! That youkai isn't going to sit around all day!"
"Sango-chan and Miroku-sama can go; they're perfectly capable of exterminating a youkai on their own. You don't need my shard-seeing abilities anymore!" She turned around, throwing her backpack in the well and swinging her legs over.
Inuyasha, of course, was not to be dissuaded; unfortunately, this argument was going to end in the same way as the others had in the past. As he reached out to grab her arm, she said the dreaded word:
"Sit."
Hearing the sound of the silver-haired hanyou hitting the ground with a satisfied thud, she pushed away from the edge of the well and let the familiar feeling of time-traveling overcome her.
As soon as the spell wore off, Inuyasha raised his head from the ground to look over the edge. Neither Kagome nor her bag were to be seen.
"Damn," he muttered. "She always wins these fights."
He wasn't going to sit here for three days without her, however. Within minutes the passage through time was open once more.
"I'm home!" Kagome called as she slid the door shut behind her.
"Welcome home, Kagome. It's so nice to see you back for once," a voice floated from the kitchen. A moment later, her mother had appeared in the hallway, giving Kagome a warm smile in welcome.
Dropping the backpack on the floor and slipping her shoes off, Kagome asked, "Where are the twins, Mama? Are they still asleep?"
The older woman nodded. "I'm surprised they're still having naps at the age of three, but perhaps they simply do not have as much energy as they like to use."
Kagome smiled at the mention of her twin children. "Are you coming to the festival with us on Sunday, Mama?"
"I would love to spend more time with my grandchildren, Kagome!" her mother exclaimed. "I'm sure Souta would love to come too; he adores them as much as he adores your dear husband." A smell of food wafted into the hall from the kitchen and her mother nearly jumped in surprise. "Oh, that's right, I'm making oden for supper! It's almost ready." She turned to go back into the kitchen, looking back at her daughter with a smile. Kagome nodded and followed the older woman into the brighter room.
"I'm sure that Dai and Seki would be overjoyed to see their father come with them to the festival," Higurashi-san suggested.
Kagome shrugged. "He might be… working," she said with a hint of sadness, "but I know he loves them as much as I do."
Her mother nodded. "He seems so relaxed with them – of course, who wouldn't be? I have the most wonderful grandchildren ever!"
The miko's laugh was more nervous than her mother's.
As if on cue, two sets of footsteps echoed behind her. "Mama!"
Laughing, Kagome turned around to pick up both children into her arms. "Have you been good for your Baa-chan?" she asked with a sneaky smile. The twins could be very mischievous when they wanted to be; at times, Kagome wondered if they took lessons from Shippou.
"Yes!" they chirped in unison. Seki even added a convincing smile, blue eyes wide with innocence.
Whenever she does the puppy-dog look, Kagome thought with a sigh, they're in some kind of trouble and they know it.
Whatever the two had done, however, was a secret kept by their grandmother. "They were absolutely wonderful, Kagome," Higurashi-san said calmly. "I took them out for ice-cream the other day, and they were so well-behaved and friendly… They were as good as you were when you were their age."
Kagome couldn't help but grin, especially when Dai nodded, the picture of innocence with his thumb in his mouth and dark tendrils of hair falling around his face loosely.
"We were good, Mama. We were better than Shippou-san!"
Higurashi-san had just finished making the oden when the sound of the door opening once more caught her attention. Turning her gaze from the steaming bowl to the door, she smiled. The figure at the door was most definitely a familiar one since Kagome's fifteenth birthday. In fact, the figure had become even more common in the past four years.
"A beautiful evening, isn't it, Inuyasha? Are you staying for dinner?"
"Ah…" He's always nervous around us, isn't he? I suppose he was always so focused on making a good impression, or something… "I'd like to, Higurashi-san…"
"You know you are always welcome here."
A tinge of pink appeared on his cheeks at her warm smile. "…Thank you."
She nodded. "Kagome should be down in a moment. I wondered what was wrong when she appeared alone – would you care to explain?"
He shrugged, embarrassment evident in his amber eyes at having to explain their argument to her mother. "We heard of a destructive youkai in the north not long ago, and… well, I thought we should go help the people first…"
"And Kagome wanted to take the twins to the festival?" she asked, sensing his discomfort. At his nod, she continued.
"I understand that Sango and Miroku need some time off to take care of their new baby, but they do understand how important children are. If you asked them to take one job for you so Dai and Seki can go to the festival, I'm sure they wouldn't mind."
"I guess…" Higurashi-san thought he was going to continue, but at the sound of Kagome's entrance, the conversation was evidently ended for the time being. The older woman picked up the oden bowl, smiling, and continued her business, leaving the miko and hanyou to talk.
"You're back," Kagome stated with no hint of emotion in her voice.
He blinked at her. "I'm not going to sit around and wait for you to come home in three days! Of course I'd come and see you."
She nodded her head in agreement. "You always have."
With that, she walked over to him, placing her arms around him as he returned the hug warmly. "I missed you," she murmured against his shoulder.
"Missed you too," he said quietly.
The room was quiet for a minute before Kagome remembered something from earlier in the day.
"What did you have to talk to Kikyou about?"
He grinned. "Oh, that?"
Her eyes narrowed, though she knew he couldn't see. "Yes, that."
He chuckled. "I was actually asking her if she could watch the twins tomorrow for us."
Kagome blinked. "Watch them?" she wondered.
"To leave us alone?"
She hit him lightly, a wry smile appearing on her face. "You've been talking to Miroku-sama, haven't you?"
"Maybe…" He grinned. "Actually, I haven't. I'm not that stupid."
"What does talking to him have to do with being stupid?"
"Kagome! One word about… that… and… you know… when Shippou asked about mating habits…"
"Oh." She thought they would all have permanently red faces after that conversation. "So Kikyou is watching them tomorrow?"
He nodded, finally resting his cheek on her head with a content sigh.
"In that case, would you like to attend the Spring Festival with me and the twins? They don't see enough of their father, you know."
"Only if you stop referring to them as yours and yours alone. They're mine too, aren't they?"
She reached up to brush her lips lightly over his. "Of course. They're our children."
"In that case, I'd love to."
"Staying for dinner?"
"When do I not?"
Outside the kitchen, two pairs of eyes watched the adults from the stairs.
"I hope they don't kiss," a voice muttered in a disgusted tone.
"It's icky," another voice responded (though this one was female).
The first speaker turned amber eyes towards the girl. "Seki-chan, do girls have cooties?"
Seki's blue eyes blinked, confused. "No," she said slowly. "Why, Dai-chan?"
"Boys don't."
"Oh." Twirling a strand of silvery hair, she asked, "How do you get cooties, anyway?"
And so, the conversation of innocent, naïve young children continued.
A/N: Writing about children is so cute!
After reading of all the situations involving the Well and Kikyou, I had to write some kind of story about it… with a twist, of course! In case you didn't understand, which I'm sure you did, Inuyasha and Kagome fight about the well again, despite the fact that they are married (and have twins, to boot. Wow).
Thought it was cute. Kind of weird, though…