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“Are you certain?” the adoption counselor with the bald head and the rat-like face asked Inuyasha for the fucking hundredth time. “Because dogs can be much more—”
“I’m certain,” Inuyasha interrupted the man.
Why the fuck did this sniveling man with the bone-shaped nametag proclaiming “Renkotsu” to the world care that Inuyasha was not adopting a dog?
Was it the goddamned ears?
The fact that his name literally meant “dog half-demon?”
Truth be told, he had wandered into the Musashi Humane Society thinking he would be coming out with a loyal canine companion. It made sense: dog for dog demon. Dogs adored their owners, so maybe a dog would fill his empty apartment with joy. Maybe it would fill that empty part of his heart, the part that kept Inuyasha up at night, staring at the ceiling and begging the gods to end his loneliness.
But something called him to enter the little room called The Cat Room, where his golden eyes met bright green ones. The cat, named Shippō, stared at him, challenging him to make a move. The red fluffy tabby flicked his tail and hissed.
“Yeah, yeah, look at you, so big and tough.” Inuyasha didn’t know why he was talking back, but he had to. He had sat down in the corner of the room, blinking slowly at the puffball (Shippō had decided to look as big and mean as he could). “Better be careful which demons you hiss at though, buddy, because there are some wolf demon-pricks who would take that as a challenge…”
Before Inuyasha knew it, Shippō was curled in his lap, purring so loud it echoed in his skull. The other cats had given them a wide berth, though that seemed to be more about Shippō growling at any other cat that approached than about cats’ innate fear of dog demons.
Apparently, Inuyasha had been chosen.
That was why he was sitting across the table from the blank-eyed prick who seemed to believe that being chosen by a cat was not something that happened.
“Well, cats are delicate and temperamental…” Renkotsu’s lecture was making Inuyasha temperamental, but he knew that he needed to keep himself in check, because if he didn’t, Shippō would not be going home with him.
“I understand but… Shippō chose me,” Inuyasha reasoned—he was not going to growl, he was not. He pictured the bright green eyes and the red fluff, the purrs, and the way that Shippō proudly proclaimed mine while they sat together in that room. He could do this. “So I want to adopt him.”
“Are you sure?” Renkotsu’s tone had taken on an edge of contempt, which he was having a tougher and tougher time disguising. “I could see signals getting crossed for half-br—”
“I’ll take it from here, Renkotsu.” Had an angel descended upon that place? Because if Renkotsu had finished that sentence, Inuyasha would not have been able to control his reaction.
Warm brown eyes turned cold the moment they shifted from Inuyasha to Renkotsu. And the soft smile that seemed made for Inuyasha turned into a frown the same second her gaze redirected.
“B-but—” Renkotsu tried.
“One of the dogs managed to eat something that is not agreeing with them and is making quite the mess. Could you go clean that up for me, Ren?” The mockery in her tone also suggested that she had some supervisory power over Renkotsu. Inuyasha liked her. A lot. “Now?”
“Yes… ma’am.” Renkotsu sounded incredulous, but he stood up and headed out the door, not uttering a single additional word to Inuyasha.
In his place, the woman (whose paw-shaped name tag declared her Kagome) took a seat, and smiled again.
“Shippō has been with us longer than most everyone else,” Kagome said. “He hisses and swipes and chases the other cats.” She chuckled to herself. “More than once they tried to get me to send him off to be a barn cat, but… I had this feeling… that he needed to stay here and to wait.”
Suddenly, her hand shot out and grabbed his; it was as warm as her eyes, and as her smile.
“Thank you.” She whispered it so softly that Inuyasha would have missed it without his half-demon ears. “I… watched you. In the Cat Room. The way you laughed at Shippō’s bravado, and how you sat down and let him come to you.” She squeezed his hand. “He chose you, and you accepted him.”
“Even though I’m a half-breed dog demon?” Inuyasha scoffed; he wanted to make it absolutely clear that he had heard and knew exactly what Renkotsu was going to say.
“What does that have to do with anything?” Kagome sounded almost offended by Inuyasha’s words. Then, her posture slumped and she tugged her hand away. “I’m—I’m sorry. The last manager loved Renkotsu. He’s been hard to get rid of.” Inuyasha could see the anger in Kagome’s face. “I’m going to feed the rottweiler a bean burrito for this one.”
“Wait. You seriously feed the dogs things that give them—“
“Nothing that hurts them,” Kagome interrupted. “Momo will see it as the best treat in the world and… well… making Ren clean up after it makes me feel better.” Kagome fingered the pet adoption application in front of her. “Because he was trying to keep Shippō from getting a loving home.”
“I’d bet good money Shippō scratched his face,” Inuyasha smirked; he really liked Kagome. “Shippō’s got good taste like that.” Was he going to say it? Was he actually going to try to flirt? “Bet Shippō likes you.”
Apparently the answer was yes. He wondered if his face was as red as it felt.
“What can we say; Shippō has good taste,” Kagome giggled. “Though he definitely shows his fangs before he lets you pet him.”
“He’s just worried,” Inuyasha mused, “that people are faking it. Gotta make sure that they’re the real deal somehow.”
Artwork commission by alerialblu
“You think he does that because he wants people to take time to get to know him?” Kagome was filling out the pieces of the application for the Humane Society. “I always have liked those types. My cat Buyo is the same way—well, he was when I first got him.”
“What made him change?” Inuyasha asked. He was more interested in Kagome’s answer than he wanted to admit.
“It was slow at first. A lot of food to coax him out of his shell—probably why he’s a bit of a chonk now—and me just… being there. So that he realized I wasn’t going to leave him, that he wasn’t alone…” Kagome was looking away from Inuyasha, and he swore he could see a fat cat reflected in her eyes. She then peered directly at him. “What can I say, I love the grumpy ones.”
“Most people don’t like the grumpy ones.” Inuyasha tucked his hands under his legs. His ears were probably pinned back, but he wasn’t willing to lift his head to see if that was what Kagome was looking at. “We—they’re harder to get to know.”
“Well, most people don’t know what they’re missing out on!” Kagome laughed, then passed the paperwork across the table, back to Inuyasha. “It sounds like you and Shippō are a match made in heaven!”
“Keh.” Inuyasha’s ears were definitely not pinned back anymore. “Hopefully he knows what he’s getting into cuz…” Inuyasha swallowed. “Cuz I need to learn some stuff, too.”
God, he should not be admitting this. He was telling Kagome, the adoption counselor who saved him from putting a Renkotsu-shaped hole in the building, that he had never owned a cat before and he didn’t know what the hell he was doing.
“Oh.” Kagome’s brows knitted and she brought her hand to her lips. “I see.”
“Don’t worry! I did a fu—shi—ton of research before I came! Uh, it was about dogs, but I can do it again! I’m a quick learner and don’t really have much goin’ on, so—” Inuyasha could feel the panic building in him again.
“So… only you at home? No girlfriend?” Kagome asked it so casually that it caught Inuyasha off-guard.
“N-n-no, just me. I would never adopt a pet without letting everyone I live wi—” Inuyasha needed to sew his damn mouth shut.
“I don’t doubt that.” Kagome was laughing again, and something in her bright brown eyes had changed. “Cats are… well, you already showed that you understand Shippō when he decided to make your lap his personal bed, but…” The way she took a deep breath was almost as if… she was psyching herself up for something. “If you… could use any pointers or just… help… I’d be happy to.”
Wait.
Kagome’s eyes weren’t full of stern or even motherly attention. And the bridge of her nose was pink again, as if—as if—she was asking him out, for her, not for Shippō.
“Pointers, huh?” Inuyasha hoped—prayed that he had read the signs right. He signed the paper, just to make sure that Kagome couldn’t renege if he was wrong, but he was so lonely that he needed to give it a shot. “What about over dinner?”
“Yes!”
He hadn’t read the signs wrong! Fuck yes!
“Here’s my number,” Inuyasha passed a piece of paper across the table to Kagome. She knew that she could have reminded him that it was right there, on the adoption application, but she recognized the gesture.
Kagome folded the number as if it was a precious cipher and tucked it into her pocket, before taking and writing her number on a scrap and handing it to the handsome and earnest half-demon who sat across from her.
When she saw the way that the man had immediately earned Shippō’s trust, Kagome realized that she wanted to get to know more about him. And thank god she got there before Renkotsu could do any more damage. Maybe racism would finally get that fucker fired.
“And Kagome?” His golden eyes shimmered as he looked down at the paper. “Thank you.”
Shippō was getting a home.
And maybe—hopefully—Kagome was getting a boyfriend.
After all, she always did love the grumpy ones.