I know I should be working on 'Taken' but this one shot kept buzzing around my brain like a very persistant bee... I had to write it to get it to leave me alone. Hope you enjoy!

Kaede sat staring into her fire pit as the winds howled outside, the night being held in the grasp of a truly fierce storm. It was only due to the to the unusual intensity of the weather that Inuyasha had accepted her invitation to spend the night inside… in spite of the fact that Kagome and the others were gone.

That dear young girl, lamentably torn between two worlds, was at home for the next few nights due to some exams. Sango had taken the delay as an opportunity to travel to her village so that she might visit her family's graves. Miroku and Shippo had gone with to keep her company and help with the rebuilding she was always compelled to work on while there.

Fate at last granting her the perfect opportunity to have a serious talk with the foolish young hanyou… and resolved to make use of it she looked up from the fire…

"Tell me Inuyasha… do ye still intend to follow my sister into Hell?" She asked uncompromisingly, being deliberately blunt to surprise the boy so she could watch his reaction.

He flinched.

"I guess… not like I really have a choice. Debts have to be honored…" He eventually and reluctantly grumbled, but only after a long moment of silence.

"That is true… so by your own reasoning if ye owed a greater debt to another… would ye, or would ye not, be even more honor bound to repay that debt first?" Kaede asked.

"Of course I would." He answered numbly, trying to sound uninterested but instead exuding obvious feelings of hopelessness. "If I owed someone that much, then ya I would have to pay that off first… but I owe Kikyo the most, so I have to pay her back first."

Kaede let out a cackle of laughter…

"You believe that do you?" She taunted, baiting him, knowing that Inuyasha would bite.

"What the hell are you talking about? It's the truth!"

Kaede met Inuyasha's eyes… and stared him down.

"No it's not." She stated seriously and with absolute conviction.

Inuyasha gave her wide eyed look of shock.

"Do ye doubt my words Inuyasha?" Kaede needled him even further. Seeking to make him demand to be told her reasoning, for only then would he truly listen.

"Who would I possibly owe more to?" He snapped, angry to be forced think about such painfully impossible things.

"I could name a few." She answered calmly with cool certainty.

"Wa'he hell!" Inuyasha sputtered.

"Every one of the companions ye now travel with has done more… has given more to, and for ye, than my sister ever did. Did Kikyo ever grant you the same acceptance that each one of them has?"

Fuming Inuyasha opened his mouth to rebut her, but Kaede anticipated his argumentative nature and beat him to the punch.

"Boy! Don't ye dare open that fool mouth of yours and dishonor your friends by treating what they give in FULL as less valuable then what Kikyo only ever gave ye only in part. Friends that openly and proudly claim you not simply as a mere quest mate, but as family… who are willing to stand by ye in full view of the whole world… more than that… they WANT to stand by ye. As I remember… my sister only visited with ye away from the village, and never claimed friendship to ye openly… though she also never went so far as to disavow you as a companion."

There was such a look of disbelief on his face… shot through with hopeless longing. As if he was being promised the greatest treasure in the world, while knowing with utter conviction it would never really to be his.

"Ye owe them all, especially Kagome, far more than you have ever owed to Kikyo

"Kikyo DIED for me… I know Kagome has given up a lot, but you can't seriously believe I owe her more than Kikyo's life." He snapped, but there was now a hint of hopeful wondering, a slight crack in his certainty, which Kaede was quick to seize onto.

"Kikyo was murdered by Naraku… nothing more and nothing less. Ye owe her vengeance, but ye had no hand in her death… besides Kagome died for ye as well. Because she made the choice to stay by your side, she lost her life as surely as my sister did." Kaede argued without mercy, needing to keep the hanyou off balance so that his mind would not be able to reason away the truth this time.

Inuyasha couldn't even answer… he just gaped at her, mouth open but silent.

"Or have you forgotten that when Urasuway stole her soul to animate that clay doll she made of my sister's ashes and grave soil, Kagome was dead for a time. Her heart may have still beat, though only barely, and her body might have still drawn breath… but her mind and spirit had been removed, the essence of who she was having been stripped away, leaving only an empty shell. Kagome died to grant Kikyo this unnatural and borrowed mockery of life. Even now that girl lives with a piece of her soul missing, uncomplaining because Kikyo needs that piece to remain in this world, and Kagome could not bear to force ye to endure the loss of your first love yet again. But none of that, worthy though it may be, is what makes your debt to Kagome greater than your debt to Kikyo… it is not that Kagome died… or that she lives now incomplete simply to spare you further pain. Though that would have been enough in my eyes, Kagome did far greater than that… she overcame death itself to save your life… when it was Kikyo who attempted to end it."

With eyes that had grown impossibly wide, Inuyasha shook his head back and forth faintly in denial. Not yet able to wrap his mind around her reasoning.

"When Kikyo was first awakened she fired a purifying arrow at ye… as ye will well recall… aimed right at your heart. First it would have banished your youki blood, and once ye had been reduced to a mere human the wound would have proven fatal. I saw your face in the moment the arrow began to pierce your chest, ye were facing death, and ye knew it. Ye knew it then and ye know it now... do ye recall as clearly what it was that saved ye?"

Looking dazed, with his mind lost in deep turbulent thought, Inuyasha answer came soft and slow.

"Kagome."

"Yes, Kagome… she found her way back from deaths embrace to answer your call. It was your cry of pain that awoke her, she had been unable to save herself the same way, but for ye she did what should not have been possible. She didn't merely die for ye… she defeated death for ye."

This time Inuyasha didn't even attempt to respond as his mind raced through his memories of that day, reliving them through new eyes.

Kaede was right.

Kagome had reclaimed her soul not to save herself… but to save him, even though it was his fault she had lost it in the first place… if he hadn't called out Kikyo's name…

He really did owe his life to Kagome… more than anyone else… even Kikyo… for that day and so many other things before and since… how could he be such a baka that he didn't realize it back then, when he should have?

Maybe… because it was what he wanted more than anything else in life, an excuse to stay with Kagome forever without losing his honor… and life had long since made Inuyasha believe that want he wanted was not what he could have. So his insecurities had led him to the certainty that he was doomed to punishment with Kikyo rather than redemption with Kagome. It made sense…

'I don't have to go to hell?'

The realization slowly filled Inuyasha's mind with joyous elation. He didn't have to leave Kagome, he didn't have to die… as long as Kagome wanted him to stay with her, he was happily honor bound to stay by her side.

Never had a life debt been more welcome. He could think of no greater future for himself than to always be with the beautiful and clumsy human girl that accepted and cared for him exactly as he was.

Kaede watched the emotions dancing across Inuyasha's face with satisfaction… he had finally heard truth through all of his self-created lies. With just the beginnings of a grin she waited for the inevitable…

"I have to go." Inuyasha stated as he abruptly stood up and raced out of her hut into the storm.

Kaede's smile grew until it nearly split her face in two.

'and off he goes… Kagome my girl ye are in for quite a shock… but a welcome one I wager.'

Knowing that Inuyasha would not be back that night she banked the fire and made her way to bed, falling asleep listening to the storm that had finally given her the chance to speak the words she had been waiting far too long to say.

At the same time, five hundred year into the future a young girl was being abruptly awaken by a very excited… not to mention soaking wet… hanyou, who was happier than she had ever seen him. Moments later… just long enough for him to rush through a rather bumbling explanation… so was she.

Three days later when the new couple returned through the well, the hanyou carried an oversized lunch box… intended for a certain elderly priestess… in one hand, while the fingers of the other one where twinned together with those of his mate, smiling brightly at his side.

Beaming every bit as brightly, Inuyasha marveled over the workings of fate… how it had turned his greatest debt… into his greatest reward.

Plopping the lunch box in front of the priestess, he surprised her far more with his words than with the food.

"Thanks… Kaede-sama."

Pleased with the dumb-struck look on her face, as well as the openly loving and proud look on Kagome's, Inuyasha honored his vow to never call the woman who had saved him from himself babaa ever again.

Yes… debts must always be paid… but sometimes that's not a bad thing.

And now I am off to try and climb over the very tall walls made of writers block that stand inbetween me and my other story... Wish me luck.