cheerfulA Place Is Just a Place
The stream widened at this point, forming a wide, but not too deep pool of clear water before it passed over the rock damming it at the far end. The pool was an isolated location, far enough away from the nearest village that it had become a favorite retreat, a place to swim, think and spend some time with Kagome, safe from everybody who seemed to want a piece of her time.
InuYasha sat along a carefully cleared section of stream bank looking at the water, then, just because, he threw a rock towards the middle. It entered the water with a pleasing splash, disturbing a trio of water birds that had landed not long before. With a squawk and a whirr of their wings, the birds took to the air and flew off.
He watched a leaf drifting on the surface of the water, moving along the sluggish current. It was a sign of the times, moving slowly towards the dam and the cascade beyond to where it would be swept downstream and onto who knew where. Taking a deep breath, he scratched behind one triangular ear, then tossed another stone.
“I’m going to miss this place,” Kagome said, walking up beside him.
“Me too,” he replied. His arm wrapped around her. “I’m glad we got to come back one last time before we move to the mountains. But a place is just a place. It’s who you’re with that counts.”
Kagome leaned into his embrace. “You’re right.”
He looked down at her, and a small smirk touched his lips. “But maybe where we’re going, there’ll be a swimming hole where you won’t try to steal my clothes while I’m swimming.”
She laughed. “You’re never going to let me forget that, are you? I haven’t done that since . . . ”
“Since last summer,” he said.
“Oh yeah,” she replied sheepishly, dropping her eyes. “I forgot about that time.”
Laughing, he bent over to kiss his wife, and throwing one more stone into the pool for luck, he turned, and together, the two of them picked up their things and went home to prepare for the next phase of their lives together.
