Chapter Text
Artwork commission by kalcia
A picture is worth a thousand words. That was what Professor Hitomiko had drilled into them in Inuyasha’s elective photography class. They were words that stuck with him when he went into the dark room and began developing the first film photos he’d ever taken. It was ‘for perspective’, Dr. Hitomiko had once said, so that he could better appreciate the DSLR that he’d scrimped and saved for.
That day in the dark room truly had been special.
Because that day, he had found it. The picture.
Crumpled and discarded in the bin in the back of the space: her.
The photo itself was a well-composed black and white shot, with a soft light that touched her face just so.
Her face, which had found him in that dark room, and had compelled him to save it, fishing it out of the trash.
On her face was the same melancholy of Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Woman, staring off into the distance, some unknown but profound grief weighing on her heart.
He could never forget her once he saw her face. But, save for the photo, he was doomed never to see her again.
Until now.
Because that day, in Musashi Coffee shop, Inuyasha came face to face with the girl in the photograph.
She was the same. He could see it in the cascading obsidian hair that caressed her shoulders as she worked on her laptop. And from the lush eyelashes that decorated her soulful eyes. Her cheekbones and nose too, the same. Her lips were pink and plump, and she bit down on them in concentration.
If Inuyasha had been a braver man, he would have marched up to the woman and introduced himself. He would have asked her who took her picture 2 years ago, and why he found it crumpled in the wastebasket of the dark room. He would have apologized for freeing it, and smoothing it out so that he could look at her whenever he needed inspiration, or was having a bad day.
There was something in her eyes that captured Inuyasha, haunted him. Made him desperately want to find her and comfort away the tranquil pain buried in them.
Now here she was, her sparkling brown eyes following something intently on her laptop screen. The color of her evoked the feeling of walking deep into a forest and listening to the leaves crunch underfoot, as the black and white photo had not given away the color of her mesmerizing eyes.
“Ey Kagome!” the red-haired barista called from the counter. Her name was Kagome. “Your skim latte is ready!”
The woman—Kagome—rose from her seat and walked past Inuyasha toward the counter, throwing him a sidelong glance on her way. She smiled and picked up the green ceramic mug, then headed directly back to her seat in the corner, and back to her laptop.
Musashi Coffee was meant to be a one-time thing, to get Inuyasha through the last of his midterms. He’d popped in to get a green tea (half-demons and caffeine were usually a pretty bad combination), fully planning on heading back to the library to study some more. He hated the smell of coffee, and the clangorous sounds of the espresso machines, and the idle chatter of all the other college students that his dog-like ears could never completely drown out.
But that day, Inuyasha knew he would need to get used to going to coffee shops. So that, on the day he finally worked up the courage, maybe Kagome would be there, and maybe he could talk to her.
“Hey Inuyasha, green tea again?” Shippō asked as Inuyasha walked into Musashi.
“Yeah, fox. And… can I get a chocolate croissant?” Inuyasha scanned the room.
“She’s not here yet,” Shippō giggled, causing Inuyasha to growl. It had only taken a week for the fox to notice. Then again, half-demons were rare, and Inuyasha certainly stood out. “And no, you’re not that obvious. Just to me.”
“Oh.” Inuyasha nodded curtly, and grabbed the croissant and the tea out of Shippō’s hand. “I wasn’t looking…”
“Sure.” Shippō rolled his eyes.
In one month, Inuyasha had gone from a ‘one time thing’ to a regular at Musashi Coffee. Every day, in the afternoon, Inuyasha grabbed his green tea and usually some sort of sweet, then he sat down at the one-person high tables, one with a view of the rest of the shop, and pulled out his laptop, did his work, and waited. Most days…
“Hey Kagome!” Shippō called overly loudly as the door opened. “One skinny triple latte coming up!”
“Thanks Shippō!” Kagome’s voice was like the sighs of wind chimes in a gentle summer breeze.
Inuyasha glanced up from his laptop, trying not to make it obvious how much he stared. As Kagome passed him, she gave him a glance and a whisper of a smile. (He fucking lived for that smile.)
That was their routine. Kagome would get her drink, then settle into her corner table with her laptop. Inuyasha would pretend not to be staring soppily at Kagome, ‘working’ on his laptop (which mostly included surfing websites, often with titles like How to break the ice with someone you like). He’d listen to the way her fingers contacted her laptop keys, he’d take a deep inhale to let her scent bathe his nostrils, and he’d think about how maybe tomorrow, he’d finally get up the nerve to talk to her.
Inuyasha often pulled up the photograph (he’d digitized it, for comparison purposes only!). He couldn’t stop wanting to know when the sparkle came back into her eyes, or what it was that had made her so beautifully sad before. Today though, he actually had work to do. It was project time in his engineering class, and he was tasked with investigating different types of carbon fiber. And Kagome was there to inspire him, even if she didn’t entirely know it yet.
“See you later, Shippō!” The exclamation broke Inuyasha out of his carbon-fiber induced trance.
“Bye Kagome!” Shippō called back, and she disappeared out the door of Musashi Coffee. As soon as she was out of earshot, Shippō shot Inuyasha a frown. “You should talk to her. She doesn’t bite.”
“What? I—I have no desire to talk to her,” Inuyasha lied.
“Mmmhmm, sure.” Shippō actually managed to roll his eyes with his voice. “I’m guessing that you’re ready to head out too, dog-boy?”
“Shut up, fox,” Inuyasha barked, “and yeah. I am ready to go.”
“See you tomorrow, then,” Shippō waved as Inuyasha collected his things and left.
He might’ve been completely obvious to the damn fox, but that was fine. He’d figure out how to talk to Kagome eventually. He just needed a bit more time.
It had only happened one time before. He actually walked into Musashi Coffee at the same time as Kagome, and today, unlike that other time, she gifted him with a big, bright, sparkling smile. He thought he smiled back, but was worried it came off more as a grimace, because Inuyasha really really wanted to avoid baring his fangs at her.
“Thanks,” Kagome said as Inuyasha held the door open for her. He nodded, afraid that if he tried to say words he’d scare her.
“Hey Kagome; hey Inuyasha!” Shippō called. “Let me guess. A skinny latte and a green tea. Either of you want anything else? Kaede’s new recipe for spanakopita is really good. You should try it!”
“Sure Shippō!” Kagome chirped; Inuyasha pursed his lips to keep himself from grinning at her voice. She could make reading a cookbook sound appealing.
“Y—yeah, I’ll… take one too,” Inuyasha mumbled, trying to not pay attention to Kagome looking at him (probably because this was one of the first times she’d ever heard him say anything.)
“Okay, I’m on it!” Shippō sounded entirely too chipper as he said it, but maybe that was because Shippō really liked Kagome (Inuyasha could relate).
Inuyasha settled into his regular table and watched as Kagome found her way to the corner table. Carbon fibers weren’t going to research themselves after all. Shippō had delivered his drink and his spanakopita to him just as he opened his laptop up to get to work.
“Here ya go.” Shippō placed the plate and the to-go cup down next to him. “I’ll be in the back if you need me.”
Inuyasha waved Shippō away, not paying attention to the mischievous sparkle in his eye (perhaps he should have) and returned his focus to his carbon materials report. The spanakopita did smell lovely, and pungent. It overpowered his nostrils in a way that bordered on unpleasant. Inuyasha wasn’t hungry just yet, but was ready for a little caffeine boost.
“Excuse me, Inuyasha?” A light tap came to Inuyasha’s shoulder. He knew that scent. He knew that voice. Kagome. “Um, looks like Shippō got our drink orders mixed up. I got your tea and… I think you might have my latte?”
“O—oh.” The fucking fox set him up. “I—I do. Uh, sorry about that.”
“Wh—what are you studying?” Kagome leaned over him to look at his laptop. God, she smelled amazing: like cherry blossoms and vanilla.
“C—carbon fibers,” Inuyasha said. “Not… the most interesting thing ever.”
“Mind if… I join you?” A little dash of pink blossomed across the bridge of Kagome’s nose as she asked, and her eyes sparkled with hope.
“Yeah… uh… no… I mean—” Inuyasha was not doing well with words. “Yes, I—I’d like the company.”
“Okay,” Kagome chirped, relief laced in her voice, and she headed to her corner table to grab her laptop and cafe wares.
Had Kagome, the girl that haunted Inuyasha for 2 years and 1 month really just asked to sit with him? He’d been whinging and stressing out about saying two words to her and here she was, asking to spend time with him?
“So… why green tea?” Kagome asked as she sat down across from Inuyasha, and swapped their drinks.
“Coffee is too much for… dog demon senses,” Inuyasha said honestly, “add to that, caffeine really affects me, so… I try to limit myself.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. Musashi has some of the best coffee around,” Kagome said, a soft smile on her beautiful face. “So, why are you studying carbon fibers?”
“O—oh, for a class project,” Inuyasha answered; holy shit, Kagome was asking him questions and trying to get to know him. “I’m a material sciences engineering student. Working on understanding what sorts of carbon fiber are optimized for what types of jobs is my part of the project. So, lots of carbon in my life right now.”
“Good thing life is carbon-based, huh?” Kagome chuckled, then stopped herself, a blush coming across her face. “Oh, god. I’m not usually that corny.”
It was then that it dawned on Inuyasha that Kagome was not just being nice, not just in it for some company, but was flirting with him.
“I… I thought it was a cute joke,” Inuyasha admitted—that wasn’t the only thing that was cute. “So, what are you working on?”
“Promise not to laugh at me?” Kagome raised an eyebrow. At Inuyasha’s nod, she continued. “I’m writing… a novel.”
“That’s fucking awesome!” Inuyasha could feel his ears perk, confirmed by the little glance Kagome took up at the top of his head, followed by a smile. (Kagome liked his ears!)
“It’s… something,” Kagome sighed. “I’m in this independent study class with an English professor, and part of the course is to write something. I’m… I’m writing about my life.”
“I bet you’ve lived an interesting life,” Inuyasha blurted before he could stop himself; her sad and accepting eyes in the photograph he still had stashed in his apartment spoke of that.
“Y—yeah, I guess,” And suddenly, there it was. The quiet grief of the photo, right there in front of him, living in Kagome’s eyes.
“S—sorry. I didn’t mean to pry,” Inuyasha backtracked. “I mean, I’m a half-demon. And let me tell you the shit I had to put up with because of that.” He was oversharing. “I’ll shut up now.”
“How about… we talk about this some more. Maybe,” Kagome paused, gulped, then brought her eyes to Inuyasha’s. “Maybe over dinner sometime?”
Inuyasha needed to wipe what he could only imagine was the dumbest look in the history of looks off his face at the fact that Kagome, the girl he’d been thinking about for two fucking years had just asked him out. Him, a half-demon who couldn’t keep his trap shut.
“Y—yeah, I’d like that,” Inuyasha was definitely baring his fangs at the moment from the size of his smile. “Can—can I get your number?”
“Sure,” Kagome chortled, taking Inuyasha’s phone from him and entering herself in his address book. “And saved.” Then with a wink, Kagome hit a couple more buttons, eliciting a friendly ping from her phone. “And now I have your number.”
“Awesome!” Inuyasha could feel his damn ears wiggling, but he really didn’t care. He was going to get to plan a date with Kagome, the girl in the photograph.
Shippō just stood and watched, rolling his eyes prolifically. He really should have thought to switch their drink orders sooner.