Right.

School.

Kagome has never skipped a day of school for anything other than serious illness in her life.

" - how many days did I miss?"

"Just two! Grandpa called in and told them you were sick. If you wanted to skip again I don't think it would be a problem."

"But I have to go to school! I have to get into high school next year! It'd kill mom, if I didn't graduate!"

"Bit late for - "

"I can't just drop out of middle school." She gets up and paces. "I'll just have to - "

....clean up her massively life-threatening mistake exclusively on the weekends? No, that's also insane.

" - I'll - okay, I told Kaede that I'd be there for training tomorrow afternoon. School also lets out tomorrow afternoon. I think that time is somehow progressing at the same speed on both sides of the well. - is that right, Inuyasha, do you know about how long it was between when I left and you got me again?"

"Maybe a couple hours?"

Is there any food left? Inuyasha is feeling kind of itchy. The sounds are all unfamiliar and there's flimsy walls that any demon can smash through but that block sightlines everywhere. But Lots Of Food is good.

Well, Kagome keeps getting more of it out of that big white box, although she's too distracted to bring him more of it right this second.

"Okay. If time is flowing the same on both sides, then maybe I can bring my schoolwork with me and do it over there, sometimes. Then I can make up the points on test days, as long as I keep up on doing the work myself." She's always tested well, at least. "So I'll - go to school tomorrow, since I need a day to recover anyway, and try to figure out what the most important days to be here are."

"If that's what you want. Now, then, are you too busy for cake? You look like you could use some cake."

"....I'd like my cake. I guess."

"How about you, Inuyasha? Any cake in your world?"

"Nope, but I'm always game to try." Inuyasha is distracted because this is a really weird environment but he is perfectly happy to eat food. There's so much food.

"All right, then, let's do this right."

It's not a big cake; there are only the four of them living here. (Grandpa's gone to bed early, after two days of focusing on rituals that she doesn't understand.) Ayako lights the candles, all fifteen of them.

"We'll skip the song. Go on and make a wish, though, okay?"

Kagome is too old to believe that birthday wishes are real wishes, if such a thing exists. But just the same, it feels momentous, deciding what she most wants out of this year. To get the sacred jewel back? No, too specific. To save the past people and fix her mistakes? No, that's not right either. To come to understand the well, and the jewel, and the world they've brought her to? You probably can't ask a birthday wish for that. To graduate from middle school and get into a good high school? More appropriate for a birthday wish, but no, that's not what she most wants, either. For her parents to be proud of her? No, too depressing.

Kagome wants.... 

Kagome wants to be brave. To face the tasks ahead of her, without flinching or turning away. To know that she gave this year her all, and didn't fall back out of fear. Maybe there are better wishes, but there's no point in workshopping a pretend wish. You can only ask them for things that are already in you. All they offer is an opportunity to decide what that is.

She looks into the candles for a couple seconds, silently decides on her wish, and then blows them all out in one breath.

"All right! Cake!"

And she can cut pieces for everyone.

It is SO TASTY he is going to INHALE it and then GRAB MORE it is SO DELICIOUS 

.......well, he's probably never had refined sugar before at all. 

She probably doesn't want an entire quarter of this cake anyway. She's gonna silently push the rest of her cake towards him when she thinks she's done. It just seems like the thing to do.

SO GOOD

MORE CAKE SO GOOD

(the threat-detection part of his brain is active because that doesn't shut down, but the rest of his brain is basically busy enjoying CAKE.)

"Well, the modern day has some things to recommend it, doesn't it. Kagome, did you want any more?"

"Uh-uh, he can have it."

She's kind of curious whether he's going to fill up before they run out of cake. She's guessing no, there's not that much left.

Nope. CAKE.

"...good?" she asks, completely unnecessarily, because she feels weird totally ignoring the fact that he's acting like a starving orphan but cannot actually think of anything both reasonable and polite to say about it.

His face and fingers are covered with frosting and three seconds ago he was staring like a desperate man.

"Eh. I've had better."

"Sure. Sure."

"We have, uh, a bathroom, if you want to get cleaned up at all. I can show you how it works, I am gonna take a wild guess and say you've probably never seen indoor plumbing, either."

His HONOR is being DOUBTED.

"Yeah, like I need your help! I can manage on my own!"

And then he'll superjump out the nearest door (slamming it open in the process) to go find a river and clean up.

(And he can be somewhere the sightlines exist, so he can see any demons creeping up on him.)

- it had somehow not occurred to her, since before they got through the portal, that he might decide to leave. 

" - hey, wait!" she calls, and rushes out the door behind him.