Chapter Text
If the Roles Were Reverse
Prologue
Kagome stared with wide eyes at her little brother, the package of Ramen she was about to put in her backpack forgotten as her hand froze midway to said bag.
“What did you just ask?” she asked in a disbelieving voice. Sure, her brother was little and had crazy thoughts sometimes (quite often, in fact) but the idea he had gotten in his head now was surprising even for Kagome. The young boy sighed in exasperation.
“I asked if you ever thought about what it would be like to be like Inu Onii-san,” he repeated patiently. Kagome’s eyebrows went even higher as it was proved correct that she had indeed heard him right.
“Where did that question come from?” she asked, avoiding the answer. Hell would freeze over before she told him the truth on that topic, lest he told Inuyasha about her musings. Then again, what was wrong in wondering about things that could never happen, the so-called what-ifs, right?
She had to bite back the sigh that almost escaped her throat. Of course, for normal people, wondering about the what-ifs of life was nothing new, since they never got an answer to those questions anyway. Only she had the great luck of not being normal, even when it came to what-if-thinking.
Souta shrugged. The thought of being like Inuyasha had popped quite randomly into his head and he couldn’t help but ask his older sister about it. After all, she knew Inu Onii-san better than him. So she’d know more about what it would be like to be like him.
“So, did you ever think about it?” he asked again and it was all Kagome could do not to sigh and give in. He’d been asking that for the last three days she had been home and it never ceased to amaze her that the question still kept popping up.
“Why do you want to know?” she finally relented and Souta beamed at the indirect submission. His sister was finally going to talk! For the last three days, she had always told him it was none of his business, so her asking why he wanted to know had to be a progress.
“I just want to know what it feels like to be so strong. I mean, Inu Onii-san protects you over there, right? So he must be strong. I bet there’s no one who could ever beat him. But it’s one thing to know someone’s strong and another to know what it feels like to be strong. Do you know how he feels about it? Have you ever thought what it would be like to lead the life he did? Come on, sis, tell me,” once he started talking, there was no stopping him. Kagome sighed as she heard the onslaught of questions. Once he finally calmed down enough for her to take a word in, her answer was court and simple… but didn’t answer any of Souta’s questions straight out.
“Being strong comes with the required price,” she said sadly, thinking about Inuyasha’s past or what little she knew about it anyway. But she knew enough to know one thing: Inuyasha wasn’t strong because he had always wanted to be. He first became strong because he had no other choice. And sometimes, Kagome had the feeling he hated that strength even though he would never admit it. Not that he wished to be weak… but she could tell he sometimes wished he could have become strong of his own free will not, out of necessity.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Souta asked her, but Kagome shook her head.
“Just what I said. Now forget that topic and don’t you dare mention it again,” there was something in her voice that told Souta to obey without fail, but he couldn’t help but ask one more question.
“Why?”
“He’s coming,” was all Kagome said and true to her word, ten minutes later the hanyō they’d been talking about had come to pick her up. And while Souta certainly didn’t understand why the topic was not to be mentioned around Inuyasha, he knew better than to not do what he was told when his sister sounded quite like that.
Lost in his own thoughts, Souta didn’t notice when Inuyasha and his sister left towards the well house.
XxX
Try as she might, Kagome couldn’t get Souta’s question out of her mind. Well, not the question as he asked it, but her own question that was tied to his.
‘What would it be like if I were the hanyō… and he the human? What if our roles were reversed? Would he still have had such a hard life, even in this time? And would he have ever met me if I were the one to be born in the Feudal Era?’ she thought as she jumped down the well, not hearing what the hanyō next to her was saying. Probably complaining that she took so long to finally go back with him. That was all he ever talked about when they went back.
But as soon as she jumped down the well, Kagome knew she should have banned her thoughts from her head as instead of the familiar violet light of time travel surrounding them, they fell into a pitch black void and started to float around it aimlessly. Kagome fought the urge to swear, a habit she seemed to start to be picking up from Inuyasha. The half-demon wasn’t holding back though.
“What the Hell?” he said in bewilderment as Kagome sighed.
“Sorry,” she said quietly and he looked at her.
“What are you apologizing for?” he asked and she hung her head.
“Guess I lost control… again.”
She didn’t need to say more. Inuyasha understood what she meant. Her new ability had gotten out of control again. He was about to ask her if at least she knew where they were going this time, but before he could voice the question, he saw her start falling while he himself was pulled upwards. This startled him. It wasn’t the first time they’d ‘traveled’. But never had they been separated before.
“Kagome!” he yelled after her as she vanished from his sight and then complete and utter darkness surrounded him and his eyelids slipped closed despite his efforts to stay awake.