Chapter Text
She’s not exactly fond of her roommate’s best friend.
He’s grumpy. His scowl is a permanent etching on his face, arms always crossed defensively like he’s a second away from being verbally attacked. His hair is this long, silvery white fluff ball and he sheds everywhere, every single time he comes over. He either barely says a word or is so loud it makes her want to throttle him. He says rude things, eats her chips, and most of all, he refuses to call her by her name.
It’s Kagome. Ka-go-me.
Not ‘you.’ Not ‘woman.’ And hell no to being called ‘wench.’ Who even calls someone that anyways? What era is the guy even living in?
Kagome Higurashi, twenty-four and desperately wishing her roommate had better taste in friends, takes a deep breath and stares at the empty chip bag. The bag that was half-full last night but is now empty because jerkface had come over a few hours ago. He’s in the living room, right now, snacking on pizza.
This is her nightmare. She’s fed up, stressed to hell about the remaining $1.61 in her chequing account, craving chips like she always does at eight o’clock at night and honestly needs a nap. But her chips are gone and now the desire to sleep has been replaced with the desire to scream. So she makes a decision, grabs the empty chip bag and storms into the living room.
“Are you kidding me?” Kagome demands, dark brown eyes instantly falling to the annoying perpetrator sprawled on the couch.
Her roommate, Sango, blinks and frowns at her. “What?”
“He ate my chips!” she exclaims, waving the empty bag around. “Again! After I’ve told him to stop, repeatedly. It’s like he’s here simply to eat my food and annoy me.”
For all that Sango has terrible taste in friends, she’s actually a pretty great roommate. She glares over at him, the stupid silver-haired douche-canoe. Ugh, his dumb face is smirking. Like he actually enjoys this. Maybe he does. Maybe his sole purpose on earth is to ruin Kagome’s day. She honestly wouldn’t be too surprised.
“What the hell did you do that for?” Sango asks, outraged on her behalf. It only makes Kagome feel slightly better. An outraged friend isn’t going to bring back her chips. “You know not to touch her shit. You can have anything of mine. Hey—Inuyasha, are you even listening?”
Inuyasha Taisho. The devil himself. Stupid, smirking, attractive asshole. Ugh. Why did he have to be attractive? Especially when he rolls his eyes – his dumb, golden eyes, like what the actual fuck – and scowls back at them. “Kind of hard to not hear you right now. And you didn’t have anything to snack on. I was hungry!”
“Hungry,” Kagome echoes, honestly flabbergasted. “I’m hungry. For my chips, you chip thief!”
“Isn’t it a communal kitchen?”
“Not for you!” Sango cries out. And it only devolves from there. Kagome yells some more and Sango yells some more, and then her roommate’s other friend Miroku makes an inappropriate comment and Inuyasha growls. Kagome goes back to her room and does not sulk. No, she’s better than that.
She Uber Eats a meal from the local diner and ensures that it includes chips in the order. Freaking, goddamn chip cravings.
The problem is that Inuyasha is one of Sango’s best friends and Sango is oddly a social creature. She’s not hugely talkative but she clearly likes being around people, even if only to watch a movie in silence with. Often, Kagome fills that space. The two of them have gotten close ever since Kagome applied for the position of ‘roommate’ and their friendship is a solid year in the making. They’re different but not in any of the ways that matter.
“Hey, are you fine with the guys coming over tonight?” Sango asks a couple days later, glancing up from her laptop with those startling magenta eyes. She’s a workaholic, too – some kind of human resources administrator within the City – so she’s always on her laptop typing away at emails. Kagome doesn’t understand how she does it.
“Yeah, I’ll just hide my chips,” Kagome answers, grinning at her friend. “No need for another meltdown.”
“Oh god,” Sango groans, burying her face in her hands. “I’d almost forgotten. What a fucking idiot.”
“Yeah,” she agrees lightly, trying to be casual. “He’s very—” But there isn’t a word she can say that isn’t at least marginally offensive, and Kagome just isn’t that kind of person. She doesn’t like to speak badly about anyone. Think about? Sure. People who don’t indicate while they’re driving make her want to ram her ten-year-old Toyota Camry into that person’s back bumper. She’ll think the worst, but out loud is a different story.
Sango laughs but shrugs it off. There’s history there, Kagome can only guess, and not easy history either. Not something that can be easily spoken about and told to others. Even if those others were roommates who constantly suffered from your best friend’s chip-stealing ways. “You’re welcome to watch the game with us if you want, but I know basketball isn’t really your thing.”
It isn’t, but Kagome isn’t mean either. Sango asks her to hang out with her other friends all the time, and more often than not work keeps her busy. She tries to balance it and tonight she has nothing on the horizon but Netflix and zero chill. So.
“Yeah, sure,” she replies, trying for a smile. “Pizza again for dinner?”
Inuyasha sits down next to her. Kagome wants to punch him in the face. His stupidly attractive, handsome face. It’s a shame, really. Inuyasha doesn’t seem like the world’s worst person; he can’t be, if he’s friends with Sango. Sango is genuinely good, so that has to mean at the very least that Inuyasha is good-adjacent. He’s just—
He's just infuriating, is what he is. And annoying. Kagome doesn’t know what it is about him, but she always finds the stupidly attractive idiot looking at her, casual as anything. A passing glance here. A raised eyebrow there. She’s just so aware of his attention. And it’s not always good attention, either. It’s him asking her increasingly ridiculous questions, riling her up. It’s him asking her where her chips are. It’s him stealing her goddamn chips.
Kagome breathes. Whatever. Inuyasha is not worth thinking about. Moving on.
It’s been obvious for some time now that Sango has a crush on Miroku. Pretty obvious at the outset, but Sango is nothing if not terrified of feelings. She hides away all of her blushes and stutters behind a wall of sarcasm and yelling. Miroku doesn’t seem the least bit deterred, which makes Kagome think he likes her back, but it’s all too childish for her. So Kagome does the nice thing and keeps space between her and Miroku so that the obvious place for Sango to go is between them. Which she does.
But that only leaves one last spot on the couch. Her other side.
“Pass the popcorn?”
Kagome hands it over, eyes trained on the game even though she has absolutely no idea what’s happening. Sango had been excited about it, something about finals? The team never before winning? But that’s so far above her paygrade, Kagome doesn’t even try to Google it. She feels more than sees Inuyasha take the bowl, eat two massive handfuls before grabbing one more to eat later, and gives it back.
Probably the most cordial moment they’ve ever had, the two of them. Kagome ruthlessly buries whatever that makes her feel.
It doesn’t, of course, last. Not even a half-hour later during half-time – is that what it’s called? – Inuyasha gets up and starts to chirp Sango for her devotion to the team that’s playing.
“Don’t talk to me about stats,” Sango replies with, heated. “You know a grand total of three of them, and they’re useless. You don’t even care about sports!”
Inuyasha smirks again and Kagome pretends that she doesn’t find it hot. She hates him, but she’s also not blind. “Says you! Can you remind everyone here who got you interested in sports?”
Her roommate glares, but it’s obvious that Sango’s heart isn’t into it anymore. There’s that history again, rearing its ugly head. “Shut up.”
Surprisingly, Inuyasha does. He simply keeps smirking, but the effect is less I’m a dickface and more fondly amused. For a second, it’s like he has a personality worth knowing.
“Wait a minute,” Miroku cuts in, sounding almost wounded. “He got you interested in sports? How long have you known each other?”
Sango squirms a little and Inuyasha rolls a lazy head along the back of the couch to eye her. “Do you want to tell him, or me?”
“What?” Miroku asks, looking more and more panicked by the second. “What are you two talking about?”
Kagome doesn’t even know what to do. This is awkward. A weird awkward. She figured they had history, but whatever is going on right now is screaming of a kind of tension that makes her want to die inside. She’s trapped between everyone, sandwiched into what is quickly becoming the most awkward conversation of all time. There’s no way though that Sango and Inuyasha were— Like, that’s kind of what it sounded like he was suggesting but—
A vicious kick cuts across Kagome’s lap and jabs heartily into Inuyasha’s thigh. He scowls, barking out a sulky ‘Hey!’ even as he misses trying to grab her foot. She kicks him again. “You shithead!” Sango yells, though there’s an echo of a smile on her lips. Kagome is still very, very confused. “You made it sound so weird.”
“Come on, guys,” Miroku whines, blue eyes tracking between them all. “I thought we were friends!”
“We are,” Inuyasha says, though he sounds reluctant to even voice it.
“Inuyasha and I have been friends since we were, like, ten,” Sango explains, rolling her eyes. She feigns going to kick him again and Inuyasha scowls all the harder. “Dad ran a kickboxing gym and one day, out of the blue, some woman comes in asking if he’ll personally train her insanely active child.”
“Let me guess,” Miroku says dryly, blue gaze on Inuyasha. “You were that child.”
A scoff. Wow, real poignant. “It wouldn’t be much of a story about our friendship if I wasn’t.”
Kagome silently agrees but hates him a bit for such logic.
“Since Dad wanted him to have a partner, I got wrangled into it. Kohaku was too young at the time and we became friends. Ended up going to high school together, and eventually I was always at his house. Dad was always working, and Kohaku was at that age where he wanted to do anything Dad did. So it was either be alone in the house or hang out with him at his.”
“You make it sound like it was a last resort,” Inuyasha complains. Kagome watches as the tiny ears on the top of his head fall slightly. Is that a…droop? “We were friends!”
“Oh no, the manly ego has been hurt!” Sango cackles and rolls into Miroku on the couch when Inuyasha tries to kick her himself and Kagome, stuck in the middle, gets a bowl of popcorn in her face.
“Hey!”
“Sorry,” Inuyasha mutters, though he doesn’t look it nor does he try to help her. He just glares at Sango. “Tell the truth!”
“Fine! I only went over there because you had a basketball court and a pool and your mom makes the best fucking brownies I’ve ever had in my entire life.” Sango grins, triumphant. “Better?”
Like an old balloon, Inuyasha deflates back into the couch. The glower isn’t anywhere near gone but at least he isn’t attacking anymore. Kagome tries to save as much popcorn as she can before stuffing the loose pieces that fell into her shirt in her mouth. No one is going to eat them anyways. Besides, it’s not like anyone is paying attention to her. Miroku is doing this weird twitching thing where he’s making heart-eyes at Sango, but doesn’t know what to do with her half in his lap. It’s kind of hilarious.
Kagome definitely needs to try and have a love life again. Maybe when her bank account agrees with the concept of going out and having fun for the sake of it.
“Whatever,” Inuyasha mutters. “You didn’t even use our basketball court.”
Miroku stutters to a stop. “Wait, you had a basketball court? And a pool?”
“And his mother’s brownies,” Sango adds dreamily.
Wrinkling his face a little, Inuyasha nods and stares at the TV. “It’s falling apart or whatever, but there’s a lot of land. Dad had built it for my brother when he was a kid, but then he grew up despising everything remotely fun, so I mostly just messed around. I’m not any good.”
For a second, Kagome is torn between wanting to pry and demand to know how much money his parents actually have— And being a nice, normal person who doesn’t ask nosey things to barely-considered acquaintances. A basketball court and a pool? His mom asking for private lessons? Maybe that was something regularly offered but… Doesn’t seem like it. What a different world to not have to worry about money. She can’t ever remember a time her mother wasn’t at least a little bit stressed about it, no matter how well she hid it. Her grandfather had to be super involved just to keep them all afloat when Kagome was still young.
“We should play sometime,” Miroku throws out there, grinning. “See who’s better.”
“You,” Inuyasha answers, without missing a beat.
“But you have half-demon speed! Strength!” Miroku laughs. “Hell, you can hop over my head without even trying.”
Inuyasha smirks, that casual and lazy thing that Kagome tries really hard not to think about. Because it’s gross. It’s far too attractive on his stupidly pretty face.
Ugh.
“I, for one, think we should go there and you boys can play so Kagome and I can eat the brownies.” Sango hums happily. “They have icing.”
“God, that does sound good.” Kagome stares at the bowl of popcorn and feels the first tendrils of chocolate cravings shoot through her.
Inuyasha snorts. “I thought you were more of a chip person.”
“I just like things that taste good,” she answers with a sniff.
“Well maybe she can mail some over, or whatever,” he says, shrugging into the couch. “She wants me to call her this weekend.”
“Oh yes, do that,” Sango confirms. She shifts so that she’s back to sitting by Kagome, though a lot closer than before. Kagome doesn’t mind; Sango’s one of the few friends she’s made since high school and honestly? She likes her. Bad taste in friends, and all.
“Do you have any chips to eat?” Inuyasha asks suddenly. Kagome notices that he’s specifically not looking at her, no matter how hard of a glare she levels at him. Sango opens her mouth to say ‘no’, because she bought popcorn and Kagome knows this as a fact. But Inuyasha gets up from the couch like she didn’t say a thing and high-tails it out of the room.
Kagome isn’t worried. She hid the chips well this time.
Or, well, she thought so until Inuyasha comes swaggering back in, smirk firmly in place as he bites into what is undoubtedly one of Kagome’s chips.
Her chips.
“How the hell did you find those?” she cries out. “No! Bad dog, those are mine!”
Inuyasha stares at her – no blink, just prolonged eye contact – as he reaches into the bag and eats another. The crunch is loud. Maybe even overly-loud, considering the background noise of the television and Sango’s furious screaming at him.
But it doesn’t matter. The chip has been eaten and it isn’t thanks to Kagome’s own mouth.
She hates him. So, so much.
And that’s it. The extent of their relationship. Kagome hides her chip bags (much better now) when he comes over and Inuyasha inevitably says or does something dumb to her. No matter how well it starts out, it always ends in screaming. Or tears. Well, metaphorical tears. Kagome wouldn’t cry over that douche if she had any say in it.
So that’s why, on a random Tuesday in the middle of June, Kagome nearly falls over when she hears the request on the half-demon’s lips.
It starts out weird and gets only worse.
There’s a knock at the door. Kagome’s the only one in the apartment since Sango’s at work, and her shift doesn’t start until the evening. She checks the peephole – because she’s not an idiot – and then frowns at the door. It would be rude to pretend she isn’t home, right? Especially since he can undoubtedly hear her through the wood.
With a sigh, she opens it up. “Sango’s not here,” she greets.
Inuyasha makes a face and then huffs, like he’s physically pained. “I came here to see you.”
“Me?”
“You.”
No way. Kagome looks inside the apartment, just in case there’s someone else behind her that Inuyasha’s referring to. It’s a long shot, and extremely creepy when she thinks about it, but no. She’s alone. He is, unfortunately, talking to her. “Uh, why?”
“Can I just come in?” he asks. If he was less of a dick, it would sound almost like pleading. Instead, it sounds like a weird demand from a whiny six year-old. Or at least, that’s what she’s imagining. It makes her feel a tiny bit better.
“Fine,” Kagome grumbles, holding the door open further. She closes it behind him and nearly shrieks when she turns around to see the half-demon already rummaging near her cupboard. “Absolutely not! Those are my cupboards.”
Inuyasha whirls around and instead of a smirk or scowl, or anything he would normally do, he actually looks chastened. He kind of twitches on the spot, silver ears flattened downwards. It’s adorable.
Kagome hates that she thinks it’s adorable.
“Sorry,” he mumbles out, speedy quick with a glare at the ground.
This has to be the twilight zone. There’s no way around it. In the year that she’s known him, Inuyasha has never apologized to her. To Sango, probably, but never her. Is he—
“Are you dying?” Kagome asks, unable to stop herself. She sounds grossly fascinated with the question and it’s both rude and kind of enlightening. When he raises his eyebrows at her, a constipated look on his face, Kagome deflates. “I don’t understand what’s going on.”
And that’s when he makes his request. “I need you to be my fake girlfriend. For a week, maybe a little longer.”
Kagome blinks.
“What?” she demands. It’s a fair question. It’s even valid to say that it’s more of an exclamation than a question.
Inuyasha growls then, golden eyes glaring at the ceiling like it personally offended him. “I’ll pay you, for fuck’s sake,” he grits out. Kagome can’t help but feel like she’s entered some new reality. Newer than the strange reality of him even apologizing. Asshole extraordinaire who eats all her chips is now begging for her to be his fake girlfriend? And he’s going to pay her for it?
Kagome opens her mouth and says the first thing she thinks of. She’s not proud of it. “You realize you have to be nice to a girlfriend, right? Or is that why you’re still single?”
“For— Really?” Inuyasha exclaims, and there it is. There’s the scowl she’s been missing. Kagome can actually feel the tension in her shoulders relax a bit at that. “That’s what you have to say?”
“It’s honestly better than what I could have said, you chip thief,” Kagome points out. She makes the mistake of looking at his ears again, and the slight droop to them. Is it an act, or his actual feelings? Either way, they make her feel the smallest bit bad. She sighs and leans on one of the kitchen counters, close enough to talk, but as far apart as their relationship stands. “What’s going on?”
“Like hell I’m telling you,” Inuyasha scoffs, arms crossing defensively. He looks the picture of ‘hot asshole’ that she’s always envisioned – except for the damn ears.
Kagome shrugs. “Either you tell me, or the answer is a flat no.”
“I’ll pay you even more,” Inuyasha counters and Kagome doesn’t pinch the bridge of her nose in consternation, but very nearly does. She knows he has money. That was pretty evident all those weeks ago when they watched the basketball game. Even if the money isn’t his, his family has it. None of that explains why he needs a fake girlfriend, though. None of that explains why he wants her to be said fake girlfriend.
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on, but even you have to realize how much a plan like that would fail. How can someone pretend to like you if they have no idea what’s happening?”
Inuyasha grimaces but those arms are still around himself, a shield against her logic. “I’ll give you the parameters. It won’t be that hard.”
A thought finally comes to her, out of the blue. She opens her mouth before she can think it through. “Is it because of your mom?”
The look on his face is all the answer she needs.
“I can’t lie to your mom without knowing why you need a fake girlfriend!” Kagome exclaims, completely incredulous. “Inuyasha, even you have to know that’s insane. The idea alone is insane. But adding in your mother?”
“You don’t know her, what do you care?” Inuyasha snaps back, rolling his eyes.
“She’s—It’s—” The whole idea just seems wrong. Kagome bites her lip, stares blankly into the living room. “Why are you doing this?”
Inuyasha rolls his eyes and stays stuck glaring at the ceiling. “Look, I know you could use the money. I need the help and I can pay you for it.”
She does need the money. Kagome thinks about her credit card bill, the one that seems to be growing larger with every week that passes. Her earnings at the bar cover rent and the few necessities she needs, though barely. More often than not, she eats free food from the restaurant – snacks like fries, or bread, or anything they have in abundance that managers don’t want going to complete waste. When she’s home in the evenings, dinner is really whatever takeout seems cheap. Or chips.
Yeah, she could really use the money.
Still, she has standards. If she’s going to do something as ridiculous as pretend to be Inuyasha’s girlfriend – and she is really not thinking this through, is she? – then she needs to know the truth. She needs to know the reasons why. Because Inuyasha is an asshole, she knows that about him, and if he’s doing this as some sort of sick payback to upset his mother or drag her into some kind of wretched family drama… It’s a straight-out no. She won’t be a part of that, no matter how much money he offers her.
No matter how much Kagome would cry over the loss of the money.
“Look,” she says gently, “I’m willing to help you out but only if you tell me what’s going on.” She holds up a hand when he tries to argue with her immediately. He’s probably going to offer her even more money, dear god, what is she doing? “I don’t want anyone to get hurt, least of all your mom. I need money, yeah, but… But it’s unfair of you to ask this of me, waving my debt in my own face, and not tell me the reason why.”
The ears droop a little more but Kagome takes a breath and remains firm. Inuyasha isn’t saying anything, but he’s not scowling either. It’s maybe the first time in the handful of times that they’ve hung out that she’s seen him consider something before. No smirk, no bullshit. A true thought process playing out before his eyes so he can make a decision.
When the silence continues, it gets to the point where Kagome can’t wait anymore. She’s not good with silences. She’s meant to talk during horrible pauses – that’s what she does. “You get it, right?”
Inuyasha’s lips are pressed in a tight line, but he nods. His eyes are the same startling shade that they always are, but when he looks at her, she feels as if it’s different, somehow. “Yeah,” he says eventually. “Look, I didn’t mean the whole…” He scowls at the floor and waves his arms in a jerky, abortive movement, like he can simply pull the right words from the air. “I wasn’t trying to wave your debt in your face, or whatever.”
Kagome recognizes it for what it is; he did mean to, but not to make her feel bad. He did it to get what he wanted. This is a boy that is used to getting his way. Yet another reason why he’s an asshole, and another reason she definitely shouldn’t even consider this.
If he realizes he’s an asshole, does that make him less of one?
Probably not. Her own excuses for him are pathetic in her ears.
“You’ll help me out if I tell you?” Inuyasha asks.
She shrugs. “Depends on why you want me to do it.”
“So you could still say no.”
Kagome doesn’t even know what to say to that. She kind of shrugs, looks at him like yeah, idiot and does something jazz-like with her hands. None of it makes any sense at all, but Inuyasha seems to take it as some kind of answer anyways.
He huffs. “Fine. Whatever. I need you to pretend to be my girlfriend because my mom is visiting me, here, next week. She’ll probably stay for a week. She’s… Worried about me.” Inuyasha finishes the sentence like it’s a death knell. “She’s always pushing for me to come home, to stay there.”
“Can’t you just…tell her you don’t want to?”
Inuyasha looks at her like she’s an idiot, which— “Would you tell your mom you would rather be anywhere else but there?”
Kagome frowns. This is clearly sensitive territory and to an extent, she sees his point. Still. “Why does any of that make you need a girlfriend?”
“Because I lied to her,” Inuyasha hisses out. He’s all tense, body strung tightly, and Kagome wonders why this is such a big deal. Kids lie to their parents all the time. “Obviously. It was just this constant request of hers and I would do literally anything for her but that. But I can’t fucking say that, and I can’t stop her worrying about me and wanting me to come home and—” He shuts his mouth firmly closed and glares again, though not at her.
“I’m sure she just wants you to be happy,” Kagome suggests gently, even though she doesn’t truly know. There’s clearly more baggage here than he’s saying. Some sort of history, something probably Sango knows, if Kagome had to guess.
Inuyasha nods and just like that, he deflates. “Yeah.”
“You could tell her that you recently broke up with this girlfriend,” Kagome offers. “Then the lie is over.”
“It won’t stop her from making me try to come home. It won’t stop her unnecessary worrying.”
“That’s what moms do, Inuyasha.” Kagome hops up onto the counter to sit, back killing her. Probably from endlessly standing while tending the bar in heels. “You can’t stop that.”
“You don’t get it,” Inuyasha tries. “My Dad built this entire property for my brother and I. It’s meant for us. His entire—” He flags his hands around, irate. “His legacy is there, or whatever. I was always meant to come home. I would go to school and I would come home. But I can’t.”
Can’t. Kagome purses her lips and figures out what to push. “Your friends are here. Your job.”
“My two friends and my easily transferable job are not enough,” Inuyasha retorts. “Sango could go back home, too, it’s not like her job is a field of goddamn daisies. Her dad would be thrilled.” Inuyasha growls and steps closer to her, one foot after the other until he’s less than a foot away. “I’ve been through this hundreds of times. There’s nothing you can say that’s a strong enough argument. Breaking up with my girlfriend would actually make her case stronger.”
“But you don’t want to,” Kagome stresses.
Inuyasha growls, nearly throwing up his hands. “But what are my wants compared to my father’s dying wish? You can’t argue with someone who’s dead.”
Oh. Kagome blinks, stunned, and Inuyasha looks just about the same. Startled, like this was never supposed to happen. Like he was never supposed to open his mouth and form those words, bring them out and into the open. They hardly know each other. This isn’t something so easily given, this kind of hurt.
The ears droop again but Inuyasha’s face turns to a shuttered wall in seconds. Kagome wants to reel at the change. She’s never seen him like this before. Usually, it’s all arrogance and smirking or maybe some scowling and eye rolls. This is…blank, like he’s mentally pulling back as much as possible to save face. “That’s all I’m going to say on that.”
Kagome nods. She still feels a bit uneasy, but this is clearly important to Inuyasha. He needs a fake girlfriend to try and hurt his mother less. It’s backwards. It’s a terrible idea. He really, really should just talk with his mother rather than do this, but Kagome isn’t in a position to make that opinion known. There’s something about the fact that Inuyasha came to her – an absolute last resort – for this. It may be lying, and his reasoning may not be the best, but it’s not—
His mother would never have to know, really, that they weren’t actually together. It would be a convenient excuse for now, until Inuyasha figured his shit out and did the right thing properly. Kagome can see all the ways that a conversation like that could go wrong, and Inuyasha’s not exactly a prime specimen when it comes to speaking well.
She hesitates, but in a flash her latest credit card bill comes to her. It’s a high number. It’s a growing number that no amount of tips is going to help any time soon.
“If I do this,” Kagome starts, and immediately his ears perk up like twin fucking meerkats at attention. It distracts her enough that she stops, blinks.
“What?” Inuyasha asks impatiently.
Right. Speaking. Something she’s good at. “If I do this, what would it entail?”
“Mom’s visiting for a week,” he answers, shrugging. “I’ll mostly distract her but she’ll want to meet you. Maybe do a few dinners. Nothing crazy.”
“That’s it?” Kagome asks. “Dinner?”
Inuyasha shifts from foot to foot and his sweater brushes against her knee. Kagome pulls her legs back automatically, disbelieving that they had gotten so close without her noticing. “Yeah, but we’ll have to pretend.”
“To be dating,” Kagome clarifies.
Inuyasha winces. “Serious dating.”
She really should have seen this coming. His story suggested it but Kagome hadn’t really thought about the specifics until now. “How long have we been dating?”
“A couple years.”
“Okay,” Kagome starts, considering, “that’s fine. That’s probably easier. Long term relationships aren’t so clingy. We’ll just have to be comfortable with each other.”
Inuyasha snorts. There it is.
“If you think it’s such a problem to do that with me, then why even ask?” Kagome demands, crossing her arms. “Hell, why even ask me in the first place?”
His scowl deepens and he crosses his arms too, mirroring her defensively. “Who else would I ask?”
Kagome eyes him like he’s stupid. “Why should I know? I don’t know who you’re friends with.”
“Yeah, you do.”
Right. His only two friends. Kagome sighs. “You must know more people than that. More girls, anyways.” She waves a hand at him. “Can’t be that hard.”
It’s a mistake. She knows it’s a mistake the moment the words leave her lips. Inuyasha stares at her for a second and Kagome has a moment of ‘oh shit’ before the half-demon rolls his eyes at her yet again. “Anyone I’ve been dating seriously would have met Sango and Miroku, and they’d have to be friends or it wouldn’t work.”
The pieces are easy to put together. “I’m already friends with Sango so it’s less lying.”
“Less acting,” Inuyasha confirms. He must be desperate, she thinks, for him to have thought it through so well. “It’s not like we’d all get together but she’ll want to see Sango and Sango is many things, but an actor is not one of them.”
“Okay.”
Inuyasha perks up again. It’s distracting. Kagome hates that she notices these things about him. “Okay?”
“Yeah, fine. I’ll be your fake girlfriend to lie to your mother.” She glares at him. “But I’m not trading any work shifts away for this. No matter how well you’re paying me.” Kagome pauses. “How well are you paying me?”
Inuyasha glares at the ceiling. “One thousand, for the week. Even if it’s just a few days, whatever.”
One thousand—
One thousand—
“One thousand?” Kagome squeaks. Her arms automatically fall to clench at the countertop. This has to be a joke. It can’t be real life.
Inuyasha either doesn’t notice her surprise or he doesn’t care. He pulls his phone out of his pocket and starts typing at it. “I’ll transfer it over now. You should get the text any second.”
“Okay.” It’s all she can say. The money he just offered her keeps pinging around in her brain, over and over and over again. One thousand. One thousand. One thousand dollars, holy shit. She can pay her bills and make a tiny dent into next month’s rent and maybe even get her mom a nice gift for her birthday this year. The possibilities seem so endless. She could be ahead.
“Great.” Inuyasha pockets his phone and then, with a completely straight face, he holds out a hand. Kagome stares at it for a second until her brain goes back online and she reaches back, filling in the space to clasp their hands together for a shake. “I’ll text you details when I know more about when she’s coming.”
Kagome can only nod. Inuyasha heads towards the front door so she follows him, but it feels surreal. There’s no way this is happening. An alternate universe, indeed.
Inuyasha leaves without a goodbye. The door shutting is overly loud and Kagome stares at it, unseeing.
One thousand dollars. He’s going to give her one thousand dollars to pretend to like him in a romantic capacity.
One thousand dollars.
It’s not until she checks her phone and sees the money transfer link that she realizes: Kagome never gave Inuyasha her cell phone number.
She would wonder how he got it – if that meant he went out of his way to ask Sango for it – but she’s too distracted watching the funds transfer into her account.
For a bit, it seems like that is that. Inuyasha doesn’t text her, and Sango doesn’t have any plans for him or Miroku to come over. Kagome feels some way about that but she can’t decide what emotion makes the most sense. Instead of doing any kind of self-reflection, Kagome pays her credit card bill and nearly cries when the total owed switches to zero.
She works, but Kagome always works. The restaurant is a decently busy one, but the food is cheap so tips are hard to build up without a steady volume of guests. Some nights are better than others. Kagome cleans the bar top again and sighs as she looks around the restaurant. Tonight is not one of those nights.
A couple chits come in through the feeder and Kagome greedily takes the distraction to make some drinks. She’s on bar tonight, with Shiori and Nazuna serving the sections. One of them will probably go home soon, considering it should be a lot busier for a Wednesday. Kagome wonders at first how she’s going to bribe the manager to let her stay the longest, but then realizes she’s already got rent secured. She could go home.
Kagome blinks at the realization.
“Kagome!” Her name is hissed by Nazuna, the woman coming to her side and nudging her hip. “Someone’s at the bar top waiting.”
“Shit,” she mutters, finishing up the last drink and sliding it over to the server before pasting on what she hopes is a friendly smile. With so many open tables, she’s not really sure why they chose to sit at the bar top but that’s more money for her so—
“You weren’t answering your cell.”
Kagome balks a little at the sight of Inuyasha sitting there, fingers tapping incessantly on the screen of his phone like proof. He’s not scowling, but he’s got an impatient look on his face, like her lack of response is her fault or something. “I’m clearly at work.”
“That’s what Sango said.” Inuyasha peers at the alcohol behind the bar before shrugging. “Rum and coke?”
Kagome nods and quickly makes it, silently wondering why he’s even here. How had he known where she worked? “Does Sango spill all of my secrets?” she asks casually.
Inuyasha smirks. It’s infuriating. “No.”
She hates him. God, but he’s the worst. “Then how’d you find me?”
“Takeout bags,” Inuyasha offers with a shrug. “You always have them folded at your house by the recycling. Either you really liked eating here all the time or—”
“Or I work here and take the free food home, yeah,” Kagome finishes. “You’re like a weird Sherlock Holmes.”
“Maybe in past life.” Inuyasha takes the finished drink and has a sip, expression clear. Kagome has a weird moment where she wishes the half-demon would be surprised by how good the drink is, but that’s stupid. It’s a rum and coke. “It was still a guess though. Sango wouldn’t tell me. In fact, she yelled at me a lot for even asking where you were.”
“Sango’s a good friend.”
Inuyasha rolls his eyes. “Yeah, whatever. I’ve talked to Mom though and I figured you’d want to know so we can figure out your schedule and shit.”
Kagome eyes the restaurant and thinks, fuck it. “Have you eaten?”
Inuyasha frowns for a second before shaking his head. “No, why?”
“They’re probably going to make cuts soon so I can ask for the first shift off.” Kagome shrugs. “Only if you want to, but it’ll be easier to talk that way.”
Inuyasha hesitates for a second before he, too, shrugs, like he doesn’t care either way. “Whatever.”
It takes more than a few minutes, but eventually Kagome wheedles the manager into giving her first cut. She knows neither Shiori nor Nazuna will mind, and she makes the deal even sweeter for them when she promises to eat in their section and not tip like a douchebag. To Inuyasha’s credit, he doesn’t even blink when Kagome drags him to a two-seater table a few feet away, menus already down with some water.
“Sorry for the wait,” Kagome apologizes. “That took longer than I thought.”
“It’s fine.” Inuyasha looks over the menu briefly before those golden eyes of his land right back on her. God, they’re pretty. It’s maddening. “We’ll be eating at a restaurant probably with my mom so, you know. Practice.”
Kagome tries to hold back her incredulity, but from the expression on his face, she fails. “This is practice?”
“We’re conversing like two normal people, aren’t we?”
“I didn’t realize the bar was so low.”
Inuyasha rolls his eyes at her. “You usually start yelling.”
“Because you eat my chips!” Kagome exclaims, maybe louder than she needed to be, but seriously, this should not be a difficult concept to grasp. “If you didn’t eat them, I wouldn’t yell at you.”
There’s a bit of disgruntled grumbling on his part, but he drinks the last of his rum and coke. “Whatever.”
Kagome sighs. “Answering me with ‘whatever’ is so not going to convince your mom we’re in love.” She sees Inuyasha freeze, the glass half-lowered to the table and his mouth parted in surprise. It takes him roughly four seconds to start scowling again. Kagome considers it their personal best.
“In love?” he demands.
Kagome stares at him like he’s crazy. “Who the hell are you dating for a couple years and not in love with?”
Inuyasha’s golden eyes widen and that’s when it hits: he has no idea what he’s doing. He may have planned for every variable in his mother’s argument, but he has no idea how a relationship actually works.
“Have you not had a girlfriend before?” Kagome asks. It sounds a little mean, and Inuyasha’s instant growl has her holding up her hands placatingly. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Then how did you mean it?” he bites off.
“Well.” Kagome shrugs. “I don’t know. Maybe I did. The point is that if we’re in a long-term relationship, our lives are going to be pretty intertwined. I thought you knew that.”
His face twitches but his ears do that drooping thing again. Kagome needs to stop looking at them. It’s going to give her a conniption and make her feel like Inuyasha is maybe more than just a douchebag with pretty eyes.
Clearly, he didn’t think this through. Kagome opens her mouth to lay down a plan, but Shiori comes over to take their order. It’s quick and simple; Shiori introduces herself with the speed in which all servers do, and doesn’t bother to mention the specials. The two of them order and Inuyasha declines a second drink, more polite than Kagome’s ever witnessed him.
So maybe it’s just her then that gets Inuyasha’s special personality treatment.
Brushing the thought aside, Kagome lays her hands flat down on the table. “Alright, planning time.”
Inuyasha has the decency to look mildly terrified. “What do we have to plan?”
“Our relationship.” Kagome grins then because this, at least, is easy. “It’ll be simple. How long have we been dating?”
“A couple years,” Inuyasha answers automatically, but that will not do.
“Specifics,” she presses. “When’s our anniversary?”
He must understand what she’s trying to do, though. He scowls but takes out his phone, thumbing through either messages or his calendar. Kagome lets him work through it, trying to put together the other pieces they’ll need.
Inuyasha puts his phone back on the table, the thunk enough to distract her from her thoughts. “I can’t remember the day but it was before Christmas. I was trying to avoid some holiday shit with my brother.”
“You have a brother?” Wait, yes. She vaguely remembers this from before.
“Unfortunately.”
“Okay, so you probably wouldn’t tell your mom we were dating right away so let’s make it easy. We met through Sango, obviously, but didn’t really hang out until Miroku’s birthday party. We started talking then, and were official in September.”
“Sango’s birthday,” Inuyasha concludes, and Kagome shrugs.
“Not the actual day but yeah. Pick something around there. We can meet up before your mom visits and take some pictures. You’ll need at least one framed one at your place – which reminds me, why aren’t we living together?”
Inuyasha balks for a moment before running his hand over his face. “Fuck, can’t I just have commitment issues or something?”
“Sure,” she answers easily, taking a sip of water. “As long as you’re cool to tell your mom that.”
Inuyasha groans and Kagome doesn’t feel bad in the least. She’s still grinning and it’s with that look on her face that he narrows his gaze at her. “You’re enjoying this.”
“Only a little,” she admits. “What? You’re always so cocky about everything. You’ve been taken down a peg and it’s a little rewarding.”
“I hate you.” Inuyasha smirks and it rings entirely false.
“Is that language going to be, like, our foreplay?” Kagome laughs because yes, it absolutely is. “We may as well be as authentic as possible.”
Their food comes but instead of Shiori, it’s Nazuna that drops it off. Kagome can see it in the woman’s eyes when she sizes up Inuyasha and finds him golden. Working at a restaurant – particularly in the bar portion – tends to mean a bit of flirting here and there. That’s Nazuna’s flirty smile. Kagome tries not to sigh.
“Kagome, who’s your friend?” Nazuna asks, doing that weird head-position thing she does. It’s her best look, apparently, for getting the best tips. Kagome doesn’t question it.
“My boyfriend, actually,” she says, proud when it doesn’t come out all that stilted. She can’t play it up – can’t act all shy, not yet – but saying the words are a good first step. Kagome will absolutely need to make Inuyasha practice. He’s utterly doomed, otherwise.
Case in point: Inuyasha stares at her with eyes so wide, Kagome could have stabbed him in the gut for the same expression.
“Your boyfriend?” Nazuna asks, aghast. She looks between the two of them – clearly shocked, which ouch – and then starts to cackle. “No wonder you wanted first cut. Shiori and I thought something bad had happened to you. You’re always the first to start and last to go.”
Well, I’ve made one thousand dollars for a hot minute of pretending so—
“He usually doesn’t get a chance to visit.” Kagome leans her head on her hand, going for adoring. “It was a very cute surprise.”
Inuyasha stares into his empty rum and coke like it holds the answers to the universe.
“How recent is this?” Nazuna asks, because she’s nosey as all hell. She’s perfect.
“Ah, not recent, actually.” Kagome tries to act chagrined, laughing when she can’t pull it off. She’s definitely not an actress. “We’ve been together for a while.”
Nazuna just stares at her. “You’ve literally never said anything.”
“We kept it quiet at first. We met through friends and didn’t want them to be weird about it.” Kagome shrugs. “Guess I just got into the habit. How long have we been together now, Inuyasha?”
He blinks at her, and Kagome tilts her chin up in challenge, smile firmly in place. Hopefully Nazuna sees this as sexually-tensioned fighting and not, like, real bickering. Regardless of what her co-worker sees, Inuyasha gets it. He narrows his eyes at her momentarily before putting a smirk in place, batting those golden eyes at Nazuna. “Two years, actually. Kagome always makes it seem like we just started dating yesterday.”
“Funny, because if I remember correctly, it was you who asked me out.”
“Oh, I did. You just kept looking at me. Kind of got the hint quick.”
Kagome raises an eyebrow. “I wasn’t looking at you. I was looking at the bag—”
“Of chips in my hand, yeah, yeah.” Inuyasha rolls his eyes. “Whatever.”
Kagome snorts, and then realizes that Nazuna is still, in fact, there. Her dark gaze bounces between the two of them, an odd expression on her face like she’s bitten into a lemon. “What?”
“Oh, nothing.” Nazuna waves a hand blithely and takes a step back. “Enjoy your meal.”
It takes only a moment before Inuyasha levels a glare at her. “Really?”
Kagome shrugs, unrepentant. She digs into her food. “We’ll need to practice being in love. Not just, you know, eating a meal together like your terribly low-bar suggests.”
“No.”
“Okay.”
There’s a pause, and Kagome lets it settle over them. She eats her food and takes a long drink, only giving in to look at her supposedly fake boyfriend when the urge to do so is too strong. It’s worth it, to see the scowl on his face as he grimaces into his food. Kagome knows for a fact that his chicken is not the reason for that expression.
“Problem?” she asks casually.
Inuyasha growls a little, shaking his head. “When you say practice being in love…”
She stares at him blankly, making him work for it. This is his idea, after all. He’s the one that needs this to go right. If Inuyasha wants to pretend in front of his mother without so much as sitting close to one another, that’s fine. It’s not like she wants to drape herself across him, or hold his hand.
He sighs. “You’re not helping.”
“I’m only here to be your fake girlfriend,” she answers back truthfully, shrugging. “If you want to just go for it when your mom arrives, that’s fine.”
His eyes narrow. “You don’t look convinced that it would be fine.”
“Well, no.” Kagome shrugs. “Dating for a couple years means that we won’t have to be all over each other, which is easy. But it also means other, little things. Like always seeking the other out. Casual touches that don’t mean anything. You know, comfort.” She eyes him for a moment and then gives him a wry look. “Sorry, but I don’t think we’re quite there in our acquaintanceship.”
“And what makes you an expert at all of this?” Inuyasha dares to ask, bratty.
“Experience in a long-term relationship, for one.”
He rolls his eyes. “Fine, whatever. Just…tell me what the fuck we need to do. As long as this works.”
“You’re going to have to be nice, remember?”
“I can be nice.”
She sighs at him, her fork clattering loudly against her plate. “And you really need to lose the defensiveness.”
“I’m not defensive.”
“Only when you’re not being purposefully antagonistic.” She wags her knife at him, pointed. “I’m serious when I said our brand of flirting can be, like, bickering foreplay. There are just limits to how much you can push.”
Inuyasha squirms in his seat, golden eyes lowering. “I’m not trying to be an asshole.” When he finally looks up to catch her gaze, he huffs. “What? I’m not.”
“My chips tell a different story,” Kagome grumbles. “But that’s what I mean by comfort. I have to be comfortable with what you’re like. And vice versa. If I think you’re being a dick all the time, it’s not going to work.”
“Fine, we can figure that out.” Inuyasha sets his jaw, sitting up and looking her head on. It’s as if he’s going to make a great declaration to inspire. “We’ll have to hang out then. At least twice, before my mom comes.”
“And when is she coming?”
“Next Thursday.”
Basically, a week from now. Kagome shrugs, since it’s doable. “What are your work hours like?” It hits her then. “Actually, what do you even do?”
Inuyasha makes a face. “I work at a real estate investment trust. I manage our event spaces.”
She blinks at him. “What…does that even mean?”
He snorts. “Like shopping centres. You know, a big superstore that’s in the same plaza as a hair dresser, and two fast food places, and maybe a liquor store? Plazas like that are our property. We make money by having stores lease space on our real estate. My property is Transit Square.”
“You mean the Star Trek park?”
Inuyasha definitely makes a face at that. “It’s not a Star Trek park.”
“It’s a park that literally looks like it was designed from a screengrab of Starfleet Academy.” Kagome grins around her straw at Inuyasha’s continued sour look. “You know it does. Don’t lie.”
“It’s very modern looking,” is all he argues, which is absolutely a point in her favour. “Whatever. Shut up. I manage that, so it’s all like festivals and cultural events and shit. I sell the space. I help them get vendors… Crap like that.”
“Huh.”
Inuyasha narrows his gaze. “What does that mean?”
Kagome wags her fork at him. “Defensive,” she sings at him, and he instantly scowls. “I didn’t mean anything by it. I was just surprised. Didn’t think that’s what you did.”
“What did you think I do?”
“Chip thievery. Otherwise, I never thought about it.”
Inuyasha snorts. “You’re going to have to get over that.”
“It’s our origin story,” Kagome tells him. “So actually, we’re going to lean into it.”
There’s another moment of silence while they eat, Inuyasha clearly processing everything. At least he doesn’t seem irritated. In fact, like this, calm and practically glowing until the dimmed lights of the restaurant, Inuyasha is absurdly attractive. His personality could use some work, but at least Kagome will have a good view for the next little while.
“You probably work Friday night, right?” he eventually asks, breaking the silence. At her nod, he shrugs. “If you’re fine with it, I can take some personal hours after lunch. We can hang out at your place until you have to go.”
Kagome nods. “Sango will be out until at least six-thirty, so we can keep this covert. Are…we trying to keep this covert?”
“They’re going to have to know,” Inuyasha replies, grimacing. “Sango will never believe it.”
He’s definitely right about that. “I’ll let you handle that conversation.”
“Gee,” Inuyasha grumbles, “thanks.”
Friday comes in the blink of an eye. Kagome works too much to wallow on what’s to come, and any free hours she does have are spent shopping for her mother’s upcoming birthday. It’s still a small gift, but it’s a nice one. Kagome is not grateful to Inuyasha for the opportunity to give it.
The sentiment only increases when, at ten a.m. on Friday morning, there’s a very loud knocking on her door.
Blearily raising her head from her pillow, wrapped up like a burrito in her sheets, Kagome idly wishes death upon whoever is doing this. She hadn’t gotten home until three a.m. last night, and not in bed until nearly an hour later. This is terrible.
The knocking doesn’t stop.
“What the hell,” she groans, struggling to get up. Automatically she checks her phone, and then blinks at the blurry line of text messages she’s missed. There are at least five of them.
All of them are Inuyasha and the very last one reads: Whatever, I’m on my way.
No.
No way.
It takes far too long for her to get out of bed, and Kagome nearly crashes into her doorframe as she stumbles out and heads towards their apartment door. The asshole is still knocking and Kagome is going to commit homicide, it’s a known goddamn fact because this is unaccept—
Three bags of chips greet her, all floating at eye level when she opens the door. Kagome blinks, and then, confused, she blinks again. “What.”
“Repayment,” Inuyasha says, finally lowering the bags. There’s a smirk on his face, but it instantly drops away the moment he’s able to really look at her. “Uh…”
“I hate you,” Kagome tells him honestly, stepping back to let him inside the apartment. “Do you know how late I work?”
“Are you even wearing any pants?” he asks. His voice is an entire key higher than usual and his gaze, when Kagome tries to meet it, is stubbornly glaring at a spot above her head. Like even her shoulders are some kind of evil, brazen vision when paired with the thought of pantlessness.
She would roll her eyes, but they are far too tired for that. It’s a miracle they’re even open. “I’m wearing shorts.” Kind of. Boxer shorts, but for girls, so they’re tiny and hidden under her oversized t-shirt. “Why are you here so early?”
“Boss gave me the day. Had some lieu hours to get rid of,” Inuyasha says, which is entirely nonsense to her. Her brain simply cannot right now. “Thought the more time we spent together, the better.”
“Cool,” Kagome replies, dumbstruck. “Well, I didn’t go to bed until four because of work. So. I’m going back to bed.”
“What?” Inuyasha squawks and she nods.
“I know. Four in the fucking morning. Thursday is full of thirsty bitches.” She doesn’t even know what she’s saying. It’s nonsense. All of it. “I was appalled, too.”
“No, I mean— You can’t go back to bed. I’m here!”
“I don’t care,” Kagome tells him honestly. “I won’t for another, like, two hours.”
Inuyasha looks at her like she’s gone off the deep end. “We need to practice being in love. This was your idea!”
“Then watch me sleep or something, I don’t know.” Kagome heads back towards her bedroom, uncaring if he follows.
“This isn’t Twilight!”
“Your pretty enough,” she replies, yawning. “Whatever. Do what you want.”
There’s a choking noise from behind her, and then Inuyasha growls. “Kagome!”
For some reason, that makes her stop. Because somehow, even in her sleep-deprived state, her entire body decides to shiver at the sound of her name on his lips. Inuyasha’s never actually called her that, before. She is suddenly very-much awake.
This is awful.
“Why don’t you just sleep on the couch?” Inuyasha suggests, clearly realizing he’s caught her attention. “I can watch TV quietly, and you can sleep, and we can be… Uh.”
Slowly, she turns around. Her eyebrows are so high, they threaten to leave her forehead all together. “Are you asking me to cuddle?”
“What? No.” Inuyasha shakes his head. “I mean, we should be close, or whatever. Practice with being comfortable, right? I’ve been looking into it and you said it yourself, we need to be used to being in each other’s space and—”
“Oh god, I liked it better when you were mean to me,” Kagome complains, wincing. “Sure, fine. Just not too loud.”
She doesn’t flee to her bedroom, but it’s a near thing. Kagome tries her best to simply not think, to cling to the tiredness she once felt. She grabs her pillow and then hauls her entire duvet off her tiny mattress. If she’s going to sleep on the couch in the name of fake dating, she’s going to be comfortable. Inuyasha doesn’t get to say, and Kagome refuses to even look in his direction as she stumbles, arms laden with her stuff, into the living room. He’s already sitting on the couch, casual in a t-shirt and jeans. The remote is in his hands and true to his word, the volume is quiet.
Kagome sighs. She remembers the one thousand dollars and then promptly tosses her pillow onto his lap.
“Uh,” Inuyasha starts, but she shushes him briskly, practically collapsing in a huff onto the sectional. It takes far too long for her to arrange the pillow against his legs so that she’s comfortable, and then practically an eternity for that comfort to extend to wrapping her duvet perfectly around herself.
Inuyasha sits as still as a statue. Whatever.
“Don’t wake me up,” she warns him, burying herself under the covers for darkness. If Inuyasha answers, she doesn’t hear it, already drifting off into sleep.
Stunning Art by Otaku
There’s something on her head. This is her very first thought. The second is that she’s on the couch, and not in her bedroom, which is confusing for all of ten seconds until her brain reboots.
Ah, right. Inuyasha.
It doesn’t explain what the hell is on her head, though. Carefully, Kagome twists around, feeling the weight leave immediately and Inuyasha shift underneath her pillow. She blinks at him, groggy, and he stares at her like she’s done something foul.
“Was that your hand on my head?” Kagome asks, highly confused.
“I was going to wake you up,” Inuyasha replies, and yeah, yup, he sounds about as jovial as he always does. “You’ve been sleeping forever.”
“I don’t work days.” That much should be obvious. Already, this conversation has exhausted her. She rolls into the back of the couch, burying her face between it and the pillow. “Can’t you be nice for five seconds?”
“I wasn’t even mean!”
“Your tone is judge-y.”
Inuyasha growls. “Wow, this is never going to work.”
Kagome is inclined to agree. Her brain, however, is slowly starting to awaken. It rings with the mantra of one thousand dollars, one thousand dollars, until she is very much wide-eyed and up. Flailing onto her back, she looks up at Inuyasha’s scowling face. He’s – unsurprisingly – glaring at the television. “Wait, no, this is fine.”
“Oh yeah? Doesn’t feel fine.”
Maybe Inuyasha needs a nap. Kagome purses her lips and doesn’t say the thought out loud. She is better than this. “Don’t be mad,” she whines, reaching up to poke at his face. He bats at her, startled, but she doesn’t stop until his cheek has been appropriately smushed. “Inuyasha,” she pleads, “we’ve got this. It’s only the first day, right? There’s time.”
“Not much of it,” he grumbles, which, fair.
“Then we speed up the process.” With a flourish, Kagome whips off the duvet and then hops up. “Give me like ten minutes.”
Inuyasha rolls his eyes but waves her off. “I already gave you two hours.”
“That’s the spirit.”
Kagome races into her bathroom. She washes her face and brushes her teeth, jumping into the shower with her hair piled on top of her head for a sixty-second speed clean. It’s possibly the fastest she’s ever tried to get ready, but Inuyasha has a point. They’re still not getting along – more mean bickering than fond banter – and he’s paid her good money. While she doubts he’d demand the money back, Kagome has to at least try to make it work.
He does, too, but Kagome will feel far more secure if she’s at least doing her best.
She throws on leggings and a top, because it’s Friday morning and comfort is key. Her hair is a nightmare so Kagome keeps it up, barely pausing to make sure she doesn’t look like absolute garbage before heading back into the living room.
Inuyasha is playing on his phone. He doesn’t look up when she enters the room, fingers flying over the screen. He’s clearly messaging someone. It gives her a bit of time to look up what she needs to, plopping down onto the couch right beside him. At least this time, Inuyasha doesn’t eye her like she’s insane.
Kagome beams. “Look at that progress,” she hums, mostly as a joke. Inuyasha snorts. “Okay, so we basically need to speed date, right? Compress two years of knowledge into about a week. Therefore, we’re going to twenty-question this day out.”
“Oh god.”
“And!” Kagome switches to a clock app. “And, every five minutes, we’re going to switch positions.”
Inuyasha frowns at her. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Like right now, we’re sitting beside each other, not touching. In five minutes, I’ll probably lean against you or something. Hold your hand. I don’t know. Switch it up, get comfortable.”
He blinks at her, opens his mouth, and then promptly closes it again.
Kagome raises her eyebrows. “Do we need to set ground rules on what’s okay?”
“On what’s okay?” He looks horrified. “What are you planning on doing?”
“Wow, okay, no ground rules then.” She rolls her eyes, tucking her legs underneath her to get comfortable. “So we have to ask each other questions. They will be personal. We will answer them.”
“You know we’re not actually dating, right?”
“Do you want your mom to question this?” At Inuyasha’s glare, Kagome shrugs. “It’s your mom. You can do whatever you want. But you said you wanted to convince her and honestly? We’re barely more than friend-adjacent.”
He maintains his scowl for another – brutally long – ten seconds before huffing, exasperated. “Fine. Whatever.”
His enthusiasm is less than ideal. Kagome tries not to groan. “You came to me, remember? I’m not the one in the desperate position.” Well, kind of. She doesn’t exactly want the money to go away.
Inuyasha sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Remember?”
“Yeah, yeah,” he grumbles. “Whatever. Let’s just…get this over with.”
“Fantastic,” she lies, pasting on a smile. She pulls up the questions, sets the timer, and then goes. “What would be a ‘perfect’ day for you?”
He blinks at her, lips twisting like he’s about to snarl something sarcastic. Kagome raises her brows, going for earnest. This is what he wants. His mom, his lies. Kagome’s just along for the all-paid-for ride. “Fine. Fine. Uh, I guess I would have the day off from work. I’d sleep in and – I don’t know – be lazy until I wanted lunch. Play some video games. Go for a walk along the Peace Trail. It’d have to be a bit cloudy, or like, a cool day. I hate it went it’s hot.”
“So April 25th,” Kagome comments, because she knows that she’s hilarious.
Inuyasha shoots her a glare. He clearly is not Miss Congeniality, though Kagome could have told him that. “What? That’s my perfect day.”
“That’s…it?”
“New ground rule,” he states. “No judging.”
“I’m not judging,” Kagome argues, near whining, “I just thought you’d have more!”
“Like what?”
“Like…talking to your friends? Or, I don’t know, a movie.”
“A movie.”
Kagome coughs. Yeah, okay, so she’s not much better. She flips the phone around. “Fine. Your turn.”
Looking pained for all of a second, Inuyasha manages out, “When did you last sing to yourself? Or to someone else?” There’s a pause, those golden eyes of his extremely judgemental. “Yeah, please. Tell me.”
She snorts. The answer, ridiculous as it might seem, comes easily enough. Most of them do. They’re such strange, random questions, but they do make them talk. It’s the most she’s ever heard come out of Inuyasha’s mouth. Oftentimes, he’s somewhat grudging, but all it takes is Kagome’s alarm going off for him to be distracted from the inanity of the questions, more focused on the way she cuddles up to him.
“Are you comfortable?” he asks dryly.
Kagome is half in his lap and frankly not comfortable in the slightest. It’s fine, though, because even after being at this for twenty minutes, it’s the first time he hasn’t immediately scowled or twitched from her. “Not at all,” she answers honestly. “Now tell me more about how close and warm your family is.”
“We’re not.”
“Elaborate, darling.”
“Fuck off.” She laughs, shoving her phone into his face. Inuyasha is undoubtedly scowling now, but it’s fine. This is…if not physically comfortable, it’s at least…companionably comfortable. Closer to ‘friend’ than to ‘friend-adjacent.’ “We’re not. It’s just Mom and I. I have a brother but we don’t get along. At all. Never have. He’s eight years older and has the personality of a robot.”
“Sounds like a great time,” Kagome tells him, nodding along. “Okay, what’s mine?”
“How do you feel about your relationship with your mother?”
“Aw, come on,” she whines. “This would be like the perfect question for you! It’s your mom I’m meeting. You’ll never meet mine.”
Inuyasha mutters something under his breath, but Kagome’s too lost in her own complaining to really hear him. Whatever, it’s fine.
This is progress. Good, solid progress. By the time they finish all the questions, Inuyasha is holding her hand and only sighs a little when they have to stare into each other’s eyes for four minutes.
“You’re the worst,” he tells her, gaze unflinching.
“So are you.”
Inuyasha smirks, Kagome smiles, and maybe – just maybe – the situation isn’t so dire, after all.
This is weird.
Very, very weird.
Work has been a hassle since the second she stepped foot in the restaurant’s door. Saturdays are always the hardest, but the weather tonight is cold and the wind is strong. Despite what non-food-service workers would think, this actually makes it busier. People pile into the restaurant, looking for a cozy spot inside. The dining room is packed before long, making the bar the natural place for spillover. Kagome’s tending bar, and they’re short-staffed. She’s taking food orders and making drinks and chatting up customers until her throat hurts.
When she gets back to her apartment, she expects Sango to be sitting on the couch, watching television. What she doesn’t expect is to come into some sort of popcorn war, where Inuyasha is holding back Sango from committing what looks to be potential homicide.
Kagome blinks, shutting and locking the front door. “Um.”
“Let me go, Inuyasha,” Sango hisses, completely unaware. “I’m going to strangle him.”
“Okay, even I know that you’re being crazy.”
Sango freezes for an entire second before she turns her glare to Inuyasha. “Say that again.”
“Sango, can’t we talk about this?” Miroku begs, blue eyes wide. “It’s not as bad as you think!”
“And what do I think?” she snaps back, angry.
Kagome eyes her bedroom door, noting it will be absolutely impossible to get to without being seen. It’s a fleeting thought, silly, because Sango looks genuinely distraught and that’s terrible. They’re new friends, but still friends. “What’s going on?”
Miroku looks at her like she’s some sort of angel. “Kagome! You’ll be honest, won’t you? Inuyasha’s opinion doesn’t count and Sango thinks I led the girl on but I didn’t.”
“Wait—What?”
“As if you didn’t lead her on,” Sango practically growls. She pushes away from Inuyasha, who is glaring at the ceiling. This really isn’t what she wants to deal with right now, coming home from a long day at work. Why can’t things just be easy?
“Sango, I swear I didn’t.” Miroku looks oddly devastated, but Kagome doesn’t know him as well as the other two. She could be wrong. “I didn’t know she had a thing for me, okay? I thought we were just friends. I didn’t ask her to kiss me!”
Oh. Oh.
Inuyasha sighs, that intent golden gaze finally landing on her. “Yeah, it’s exactly what you think.”
Sango rolls her eyes. “Oh shut up, Inuyasha. You’re on his side.”
“I’m not on anyone’s side,” he argues, hands up. “But you’re clearly pissed off and he’s clearly an idiot. So it’s probably best if you two either separate or decide to talk shit out.”
Kagome can hardly believe it. That’s…almost good advice. Is good advice. It’s probably from a lack of hanging out with the three of them that often, but there seems to be an actual balance between them. Sango huffs and crosses her arms, glaring at the floor. Miroku continues to look miserable. Not sure if it would make it better or worse, Kagome holds up her plastic bag, her mom’s old method for making her and Sota get along whirling in her brain. “How about this?”
Getting one of the larger, plastic bowls from the cupboard, Kagome opens up the bag of chips she bought and dumps a fair amount inside. Popcorn probably would have been a better idea but – and she eyes the floor critically here – it’s probably best to move on from that.
“Okay, so this is a bowl of Be Good Chips.” Her mom always gave them those tiny mini-cookies, but beggars could not be choosers. “Only one person can eat a chip at a time. While one person eats, the other talks. You can’t yell at each other or talk over each other. You go back and forth until the chip bowl is empty. If you’re still mad, then we go to plan B.”
Miroku eyes the chip bowl skeptically. “What’s plan B?”
“Nope, you have to try plan A first.” Kagome gently pushes the bowl into Sango’s hands. She still doesn’t look any better, but she’s not raging against Inuyasha anymore, so it’s probably a small win. “Did you want to use my room, or something?”
“No, it’s fine,” Sango sighs. “We’ll use mine.”
Miroku watches her go with an incredulous expression. “We’re actually doing this chip thing rather than just—”
“Shut up and go talk to her, idiot,” Inuyasha hisses. When Miroku turns, he whacks him on the head for good measure.
Kagome eyes the mess in the kitchen, grabs her back of chips, and goes to sit down on the couch. Miroku and Sango will be busy for at least twenty or so minutes. She can sit down and figure out what the hell is going on first. “Want to explain what that was?”
“Their will-they or won’t-they dance sometimes blows up in their faces,” Inuyasha grumbles.
Flopping down on the couch, she eyes the TV for a moment before ignoring it. She has no idea what sport is playing, but she doesn’t care. “Someone kissed Miroku?”
“Not just someone.” Inuyasha sits down on the couch, and it startles Kagome for only a moment at his closeness. They’re not practicing, or anything, but it does make sense, she guesses. Better that they come together naturally than have to think about it all the time. She eats another chip. “Koharu. She’s some girl that’s had a crush on Miroku forever. He denies it which is idiotic, even for him.”
“Was he leading her on?”
Inuyasha rolls his eyes. “How should I know? I’m shit at this whole thing, remember?”
Point conceded. “And so this girl just – what? – kissed him out of the blue? Where were you guys?”
“Just that bar on the corner,” Inuyasha sighs, and before Kagome can react, he steals her bag of chips and eats one.
Which.
Absolutely not.
“I didn’t say you could have any,” Kagome cries out. “Give them back.”
“It’s like five chips,” Inuyasha replies, incredulous. “And our popcorn was ruined because someone thought it would make a good projectile.”
“Not my fault but those are my chips. Give them back.” Kagome tries to get them, but Inuyasha holds his arm out, making it impossible for her to reach. Even pressed up against his side, she can’t grab them. Ugh. He’s the worst. The worst, the worst, the worst. “Inuyasha!”
“Kagome,” he replies, mimicking her tone. He rolls his eyes and pushes her back a little, which is just—mean. She’s about to verbally destroy him with a few choice words when Inuyasha smirks and tosses the bag back at her. “Relax. It’s chips.”
“It’s my dinner, actually.”
Inuyasha blinks at her. “You didn’t eat?”
“At what point while working would I have a chance, while I’m making mojitos?” Kagome grabs a chip and waves it at him, mock aggressive. “It’s fine. Whenever I got a chance to sneak to the back, I grabbed some fries. Don’t worry.” Inuyasha looks, if anything, more stunned. “What’s with the face?”
“Why not have dinner now?”
“At one in the morning? No, thanks.” Kagome happily eats another handful of chips. “So, do you think they’ll talk it out?” she asks, changing topic and gesturing towards Sango’s closed bedroom door. “Or just fight some more?”
Inuyasha scowls at the thought. “Both.”
“Sango’s never told me point blank, but she likes him, doesn’t she?”
“For reasons unknown.”
“He’s cute.”
“He’s annoying.” Inuyasha rolls his eyes. “But it’s worse now because all he wants is Sango’s attention and she won’t give it to him.”
“Why?”
He raises a brow at her. “You think all I do is act as a therapist for these two?” Snorting, he shakes his head. “I can only guess it’s because Miroku’s a raging flirt, and so when he flirts with her, she thinks it’s just him being normal.”
“But he likes her?”
“Duh. You can see that shit from space.”
Kagome frowns. “If they both like each other, then why—”
“You think I haven’t asked that?” Inuyasha groans and holds his palm out, looking all angry and pathetic. Like a tiny, furious puppy. He wags his fingers and Kagome gives in before she realizes, handing the chip bag over. “Fucking insufferable, they are.”
They sit like that for a few minutes, lost to the low tones of Sango and Miroku speaking in the other room. Kagome wonders if Inuyasha can properly hear what they’re saying, but doesn’t ask. That’s generally rude and besides, whatever her roommate and Miroku are talking about is private.
“I’ve never heard of Be Good Chips,” Inuyasha says then, eating another.
Kagome eyes the bag, wanting it back. “Mom used to do that for my brother and I when we were younger and fighting all the time. Only she used cookies.”
“Seems kind of weird.”
“Well, it worked,” she answers. “We’d both want cookies, but Mom would watch us to make sure we talked things out. No yelling. If we yelled, the cookies would be removed and by that point, you’re kind of hooked.”
Inuyasha scoffs, but eats another chip anyways. Kagome wants the bag now, thank you very much, so she holds out her hand. Inuyasha, because he’s an idiot, fetches two chips from the bag and places them in her palm.
She glares. “Bag please.”
Maybe there’s a reason he’s doing this, Kagome thinks a little wildly, as he smirks at her and shakes his head. There has to be some reason. It’s absolutely absurd because he knows she’ll fight him on it.
Maybe it’s part of their…fighting foreplay thing. He’s not actually saying anything stupid. He’s just…sitting close and eating her chips.
Kagome takes in a breath. “Please give me my chips back, Inuyasha.”
“But I gave you some.”
There’s no teasing voice, but it’s his expression. It’s the way he’s looking at her like this is maybe fun.
So whatever, if Inuyasha wants to play this game, Kagome will play. And she’s not going to lose.
Without thinking, she launches herself over him, grabbing at the chip bag. He’s startled enough that one of her hands closes around it, but then he’s got another arm snaking around her waist to pull her away. No, no, absolutely not.
“Inuyasha, don’t be a child,” Kagome hisses.
He laughs, a short bark of amusement, before he tries to force her away. She gives in for all of a second before using the living room table as leverage, sending it scratching across the floor as she straddles his lap. The chips are just the slightest bit too far, and she could dive for them with ease, but Inuyasha is smirking at her. Challenging her. Like this whole thing is less to be a dick and more to pull her damn metaphorical pigtails. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“Inuyasha,” she says, glaring at him.
Unrepentant, he leans closer. Their faces are absurdly close. “Kagome.”
Absolute idiot. Kagome brings her hand up and flicks his forehead, a tiny thwap against his warm skin. He blinks at her, stunned, while she grabs the bag of chips back and crawls with as much dignity as she can off the couch.
Miroku and Sango are staring at the both of them, confused. Ah, apparently, they’ve finished. That’s— That’s just great.
“Well, I see my Be Good Chips have at least brought you together,” Kagome says faintly, clapping her hands as best as she can to distract them. “I’m going to bed, then. Good night.”
She doesn’t flee into her bedroom. If anyone were to ask, Kagome would deny it.
But it feels – just the tiniest bit – like fleeing.
“Why is your apartment the Arctic?” Kagome whines. It’s justified, though. Extremely. No home should ever be this cold. She doesn’t understand how anyone can live in here. All she’s been doing is scrolling through her phone, checking out the photos she and Inuyasha took all day at various places. It wasn’t a ton, but it’s enough to cover their bases if necessary.
They are four days away from Inuyasha’s mom – Izayoi, Kagome tries to remind herself – coming to visit. The plan is for the two of them to pick her up from the train station. She doesn’t drive, apparently, which is part of the reason why she doesn’t visit nearly as often as she would like – and why Inuyasha is so suspicious about her visiting.
“It’s really not cold,” Inuyasha replies, hollering from his bedroom.
“It absolutely is.” Kagome buries herself further into the dark green blanket. It’s supposed to be for show, or something. It looks pristine, but she doesn’t care. This blanket is the only thing saving her from hypothermia. Which—
The whole situation is ridiculous, really. They spent the day together, learning their backstory and trying their best not to squabble. It’s been mostly working. Now, the jabs are more to tease, mainly because forced proximity is making them gain some sort of understanding of each other. It’s bizarre, but good. This is what she’s been paid for, in part.
All she hopes is that it works.
Now, they’re back at Inuyasha’s apartment. It had been to show her the place, considering most of their faking dating time was likely to be spent here. If Kagome’s supposed to be his long-term girlfriend, then she’s likely supposed to know where the hell cups and plates and things are. Basic stuff.
Miroku and Inuyasha share the space, so she had figured it would probably be easy to pick up. Of course, she hadn’t really expected this kind of place.
“This is a very nice apartment,” Kagome had complimented the moment she stepped inside, eyes roaming the big windows. There were even paintings on the walls. A kitchen with a real counter. It was small, but it was there. “How.”
At the time, Inuyasha had snorted at her expression. “This is all Miroku. He knows a guy who knows the owner, or something. So we managed to get a corner unit, but we’ll see. They keep hiking up rent. You know, same bullshit.”
Kagome felt that to her very bones. Which, even now, several shivering minutes later, is surprising, considering that her bones are already suffering because of how cold it is in this damn apartment. “Seriously, why is it freezing in here?”
“It’s not.”
“It is. Bring me a sweater.”
Inuyasha’s head pops out of his bedroom. He is, of course, scowling. “What? No.”
“A real boyfriend would.”
“No.”
“This is what I was talking about earlier, you know, about the being nice thing. No wonder you don’t have a girlfriend,” Kagome shoots back. She sighs a little when she realizes that Inuyasha’s phone has locked itself again. “Inuyasha! I need the passcode.”
“Again?”
“Stop complaining and tell me.”
“364327.”
Kagome makes a face, even as her numb fingers enter it and successfully get back in. “What does that even stand for?”
Entering into the main room, Inuyasha is the epitome of comfort. He’s got low-hanging sweatpants and some very soft-looking t-shirt on. His hair is a little wispy, probably from changing, and Kagome hates him a little bit. Inuyasha really is ridiculously hot. It’s just unfortunate that their personalities really don’t mesh all too well. “Nothing,” he answers, and it takes her a moment to remember what she had even asked. “Did you send the photos?”
“Just finished. I still need a second, though.”
Kagome had airdropped their little adventure shots to his phone. Most of them were selfies, or random snapshots of Inuyasha when he was least expecting it. He complained – loudly – the entire time, but whatever. This is a part of selling the relationship. She finds the best shot of the two of them: a picture at the park, where Kagome had smushed their faces together and grinned unbearably bright to Inuyasha’s startled, wide-eyed expression. He doesn’t look mad, though. Just— Surprised. Kagome’s gathered that closeness isn’t really a thing for him. His complaints about it during their little get-to-know-you game on Friday made that evidently clear.
Making it his lock screen image, she declares herself done and hands it back. “Here, check it out. And the album. You can’t let your mom see that these were all taken, like, today.”
“I’m not actually an idiot,” Inuyasha growls, but he sits down beside her anyways, his thigh pressed against her knee. “Did you really have to pick this one?”
“Well, obviously. It’s part of our plan.”
“How?”
“You said the reason that you like me so much is because I’m – and I quote – friendly. There is no friendlier photo of me than that. You look at this picture and you think to yourself, ‘yes, my girlfriend is the friendliest, it’s why I like her so.’ And there you have it.”
Inuyasha makes a face at her, irritated. “That sounds stupid.”
“Hey, I told you to pick a better reason to love me. You were the one that was firm on the friendly thing.” She grins, bursting into laughter seconds later when all he does is scowl. “I love you because you care so much about me, and do such a great job taking care of me.” She flashes her cell phone at him, towards the photo of Inuyasha handing her an ice cream cone. It was one of the unsuspecting shots, but it caught the moment right before he realized. Instead of irritated or incredulous, he simply looks…soft. The sunlight even glinted off of his beautiful silver hair. His eyes are practically glowing.
Kagome should ditch her job as a bartender and take up photography. Clearly.
“I can’t wait until this over,” Inuyasha groans, flopping deeper into the couch cushions. He looks incredibly comfortable and nearly—It nearly hurts to say it, but he looks approachable like this, more open. It’s a blatant lie, Kagome knows. But it’s a lovely view all the same. “Fuck, I still haven’t talked to Miroku and Sango about this.”
“Better get on that,” she warns. “If they blow the secret, this was all for nothing.” Checking the time, she realizes just how late it is. Ten o’clock is barely anything compared to how normally late she’s up with work, but Sundays are her day off. She wants to sleep. Besides, her and Inuyasha were out all day walking and trying desperately to get along. She’s exhausted. Kagome deserves her bed, a warm apartment, and sleep. All the sleep. So much sleep. “I should probably go. What time are Miroku and Sango getting back?”
“Who knows.” The words are a little muffled, and when Kagome looks over she realizes that he’s practically falling asleep, an arm thrown over his face. “I think the movie gets out soon. They’ll be here soon.”
“At least they made up.”
“Right, because that makes my life so much easier.”
“Do you complain about everything?”
“Fuck off.”
Kagome sighs. “If you had told Sango already, I would have just stayed so we could head home together.”
“You still could.”
She laughs, shaking her head. “Hell no. I don’t want to be involved in any part of the conversation. This is your mess. I’m not going to help you convince them of this so-called brilliant plan.”
Inuyasha groans. “I hate you.”
Her next breath is a sigh, and Kagome knows that she should go but it’s so…quiet. Their apartment is ten times nicer than her own – she has literally no idea why Miroku and Inuyasha always come to theirs – and the couch is ridiculously soft. It hugs her. Plus, the blanket has cocooned her effectively against the Arctic frost of the apartment, and Kagome knows that the moment she shifts out of it, she’ll want to die.
“Get me a sweater.”
“No,” he mumbles out.
“Worst boyfriend ever.” Kagome buries herself deeper into the blanket. She just needs to work up the courage to step into the cold. She can do it. She will do it. All she needs is, like, five more minutes. Resting her head against the back of the couch, curled very slightly towards Inuyasha – he’s heavy, okay, and he’s making the couch dip, it’s not her fault! – she takes a slow, calming breath.
Five minutes, that’s all she needs. Five minutes and she’ll get up, go home, and get the sleep she deserves.
Only a minute passes, but suddenly, everything is much, much heavier and there’s— Is that a—
“Kagome,” a familiar voice whispers, but it’s hurried, rough. She squints, bleary, and it feels impossible to raise her head because there’s something resting on it, and resting on her shoulder. It’s shaking her, she’s being shaken and—
“Oh.” And that is Sango, Kagome thinks confusedly. That’s Sango’s voice.
“Oh my god, he did it,” Miroku breathes, and wait a second, weren’t they—
“Shut up, you two,” Inuyasha growls, but it’s too late. Kagome is most definitely awake and most definitely confused. It doesn’t take long for her to realize as she struggles to get up that she’s no longer sitting in an upright position. In fact, she’s curled over with her head in Inuyasha’s lap. This is extremely mortifying all on its own, but so, so much worse because her roommate is standing on the other side of the living room, staring at her like she’s some kind of bizarre stranger.
“Did…we fall asleep?” Kagome guesses, still a little dazed.
“Yep.” There’s an imprint of the couch’s cushion on this cheek. That answers that question, at least. Inuyasha sighs up at their friends. “It’s not what it looks like.”
Sango, strangely, laughs. It’s a short, unsuspecting fit that makes Miroku instantly burst into a larger spat of giggles. “It looks like something, alright. So I guess you two finally got together, huh?”
Oh yeah, they finally—
Wait.
Kagome shoots her roommate an incredulous glance. “What? No!”
“Definitely not together,” Inuyasha adds, rather unhelpfully. Kagome eyes him into divulging more, mostly because it’s what he’s supposed to be doing now anyways. Mind you, not while she’s here but she kind of ruined that for herself, apparently.
But Inuyasha keeps his mouth shut.
“How…” Miroku shakes his head. “You’re telling us that you two – you two, with the sexual tension so thick not even a knife could cut it – are just randomly hanging out together – which, I may add, you’ve never willingly done so before, to our knowledge – and cuddling, but are not, in fact, dating.”
“That is correct,” Inuyasha replies. And then shuts his mouth again.
“Inuyasha,” Kagome hisses, hitting him with her blanket. “Tell them!”
“That you’re dating?” Sango asks, also unhelpful.
“No! No, we’re just— God, Inuyasha, this was your job and you are sucking so much. No, guys, we’re not dating. We’re pretending to date.”
Sango laughs again. “Pretending for who? The walls?”
“Inuyasha’s mom!” Kagome whines. She tugs the blanket tighter around herself. This place truly is a frozen hell. No wonder she snuggled closer while asleep. Her body absolutely thought she was dying. “Long story short, Inuyasha’s mom thinks that we’re in a long-term relationship and since she’s coming to visit on Thursday, we have been attempting to be friendly with each other for the sake of the lie.”
“Yeah,” Inuyasha adds, “that.”
He is, Kagome realizes, completely and utterly useless. “You’re the worst,” she tells him honestly.
“You drool when you sleep,” he shoots back.
And that, as they say, is the end of that.
Kagome gets home earlier than Sango, mainly because Inuyasha had explaining to do and she point-blank refused to stay. Not after that drooling comment. Inuyasha can suck it.
The problem, she realizes as she drives home, is that Sango is undoubtedly going to have questions. Good questions. Questions Inuyasha will likely ignore or dismiss or…say something dumb about. What exactly is he planning on explaining that they didn’t already do? Kagome basically spelled it out.
This is going to be bad, isn’t it?
It takes a solid thirty minutes for Sango to return to their apartment. It’s giving Kagome far too much time to worry; her chip bag stash is disgustingly low, and her shower’s burning hot water doesn’t even have the audacity to distract her. She’s in her pajamas, trying – and failing – to pull her long hair out of its topknot when the front door opens.
Oh no.
“How much is he paying you?”
Kagome ponders lying, because the whole thing is a bit weird. Inuyasha is Sango’s long-time friend. He was her friend first and money can always be a touchy subject. She doesn’t want Sango to think badly of her, even though that thought alone is wild. Why should she feel bad for taking money freely offered? It wasn’t like she forced him.
In the end, it’s probably just easier to be honest. “One thousand dollars.” Sango’s eyebrows shoot so high, her bangs hide them. “Plus, you know, expenses.”
“Huh.” Sango sits down on their couch, a considering look on her face. “He really is an idiot.”
Kagome isn’t going to argue with her there. Truly, there’s only one question to ask. “Was it a stupid idea?” she asks, feeling silly herself. “Like, I know the idea itself is stupid. I mean, him and I. Do you think we’d even be able to sell it or am I doomed from the start?”
“It fooled me,” Sango replies and that’s—
That’s brutally honest.
“I would never just date your friend behind your back,” Kagome explains, a little horrified. “Sango!”
“Oh, no, I thought it was just a sex benefits thing.” Sango scrunches her nose at that. “I wouldn’t really want to know, if that was the case.”
“Cool,” Kagome says, even though it’s very much not. “Cool, cool, cool.”
They stare at each other for a moment, and Kagome’s either going to burst into giggles or sobs.
“Bedtime?” Sango asks. She’s smiling, and it’s the familiar, gentle one that Kagome’s long acquainted with. It’s the one that greets her every day, who lugs half the groceries and laughs when Kagome struggles to put the couch cushions to rights. No matter what happened tonight, the two of them are good.
The relief is overwhelming, even though she hadn’t known she’d been this scared.
“Yeah,” Kagome murmurs, giving her a hand up. “Bed.”
“And what’s my work schedule like?”
“Every day but Sundays and Mondays.”
“And…?”
“The odd Thursday for your weird roommate nights.”
Kagome beams. “Well done. Now, where the hell do you keep the coffee and tea?”
Inuyasha points to a small corner cupboard, and she taps at her forehead in irritation. Right. Obviously. They had been through this already. “And you’ll be fine for tomorrow?”
“Yeah, my shift is a late one, too,” Kagome answers, opening up another drawer to try and remember what’s inside. Today is a bit of a surprise, mostly because Inuyasha had sent her a text late last night, seeing if she was free. It was the day before Izayoi was to arrive, so they were rehashing their story, their likes and dislikes.
It’s not perfect, but it’s enough, Kagome thinks. They should be able to pull this off.
“I’ll pick you up at your place tomorrow. Ten a.m., okay?”
“I’ll be awake.”
Inuyasha looks doubtful, but he doesn’t say anything. He checks his phone instead. Kagome finds it strangely amusing to see that his phone background is still the ridiculous photo she selected of the two of them. “Food should be here soon.”
“Thank god,” Kagome groans, grabbing her stomach. “I haven’t eaten in forever.”
“No dinner last night?”
She shoots him a look, unimpressed, but Inuyasha only rolls his eyes and leaves the kitchen to head for the living room. “Hey, wait, you know what you can show me?”
“What?” he calls out. He’s not even looking back at her, the idiot.
“Your thermostat. It’s seriously cold in here. Your mother is going to become a popsicle instantly. I’m doing her a service by correcting it now.” There’s only a growl in response, but there are likely a few words he’s muttering under his breath. Whatever. Kagome will find it, and she will change it. The place is an icebox. “Just give me one of your sweaters,” she says, flopping onto the couch. It’s not a carefully calculated closeness, no. Kagome thinks that they’ve had enough of it. Tomorrow will be the big day, after all. Better not to overdo it.
“I’m not giving you a sweater.”
She pops up on her elbows, glaring at him. “It would add to the boyfriend experience.”
“Yeah, no.” Inuyasha turns the television on. “I think we’re good.”
“It’s a frozen tundra in here, you monster.”
She gets the big, green blanket thrown at her face in response. Shouting in outrage, Kagome nearly rolls off the sectional. This man is absurd. “Really? Like the blanket is warm, but it’s unrealistic to have all the time. We’ll be eating soon!”
“Are you a child?” Inuyasha retorts, which— No. If anyone here is a child, it’s him.
Gathering up the blanket, Kagome gets up and throws it back at him. He catches it – what a dick – and then lunges at her with his stupid, half-demon speed. In seconds, her arms are trapped and her face is covered and – yep – she’s being tossed back onto the couch like a sack of potatoes.
“Inuyasha!” she yells.
“You started that one,” he accuses. Bright light gets into her eyes as Inuyasha tugs down the part of the blanket that had been covering her face. He’s got that dumb, horribly attractive smirk on his face that Kagome doesn’t really want to think about. She wiggles her arms, trying to get them free. “Not so snarky now, huh?”
“Ugh, you’re the worst.”
He sticks his tongue out at her and Kagome, finally freed from her blanket prison, reaches up to flick his forehead yet again. It backfires spectacularly when Inuyasha catches her wrist, midair, like some freaking ninja. “You really thought that would work again?”
“Ah, so you do have more than one braincell.” Kagome bats her eyelashes and smiles, all false adoration. “Inuyasha, you’re so strong.”
Immediately, he grimaces, and Kagome only has about a second to feel pleased with herself before he practically dives at her, grabbing and twisting the blanket back around so she’s trapped and pressed into the couch.
“Get off,” she grumbles, fighting. “You’re heavy!”
“I am not.”
“I’m suffocating!”
The doorbell rings. The food. Inuyasha gets off, his mocking laughter filling the room. “Saved by the bell.”
“Ugh,” Kagome groans. She sits up and gets out of the blanket monstrosity just in time to see Inuyasha’s still horribly attractive – damn, damn, damn him! – smirk before he whirls away. God, he’s annoying. Her desire to take him down a peg is overwhelmingly strong, and she wonders just what she can do to irritate him more. Whatever this is they’re doing is—
It’s whatever. It’s not the worst, like she tells him. It’s almost fun. He’s annoying as hell but there’s an odd little thrill to getting him on the defensive.
Maybe, if Inuyasha hadn’t ruined his first impression by stealing and then eating her entire bag of chips, they could have maybe been something resembling friends from the get-go.
Maybe, after all of this is done, they can be something like friends to finish.
With the blanket shoved off, Kagome immediately gets cold. An idea strikes her, her gaze landing on Inuyasha’s open bedroom door. Pleased with herself, she goes inside and opens his closet. Everything is…somewhat neat. Both messier and less messy than her own room. It’s just organized in a different way, but Kagome can easily see an extremely large sweater that sticks out. It looks soft, worn and warm, which is absolutely everything she wants and needs.
Inuyasha is going to be so irritated.
Kagome smiles to herself and zips it up, even putting the hood on. She’s serious about how cold his apartment is. She was stupid to forget this morning. Next time, she’ll just bring a jacket.
Or steal another sweater. Hmm.
Time to irritate him. Kagome tugs out her hair so that she doesn’t look weird with the hood on, hearing Inuyasha’s voice. He must think she’s still in the living room to hear him. She’s just gotten herself fixed and in prime condition to see Inuyasha’s absolutely exasperated scowl when she walks back into the main room.
And nearly runs into a woman.
An older woman.
A familiar woman. From a photograph. That Inuyasha showed her.
Kagome blinks, opens her mouth, and then finds herself looking away only to stare into Inuyasha’s very wide and very worried eyes.
Oh no.
“Oh, you—” Izayoi seems completely startled to see her, mouth parting in shock as the two of them stare at each other. And stare. And—
“Mom,” Inuyasha starts, but his mother laughs then, a strangely quiet, tinkling sound. She’s a fairy. She has to be.
“You must be Kagome,” Izayoi says warmly then. Her expression is so soft and so kind, Kagome kind of immediately wants to cry. She is a liar and a thief and she’s so going to hell for this. “I’m so happy to finally meet you! I honestly never thought I would ever get the chance.”
“Ah,” Kagome says, because what the hell do you say to that? There is so much earnestness in his mother’s gaze, she’s pretty sure it’s dictionary definition perfect. Oh god, Kagome is definitely going to hell. “I know! I’m so excited you could come here,” she tries to choke out, smiling her very best. “My work schedule is absolutely the…the worst.”
“And Inuyasha is a terrible son,” Izayoi adds, smiling despite Inuyasha’s immediate and horrified exclamation of Mom! “He never visits me. Or it’s very rare.”
Oh god, oh god, oh god. This is so not the conversation Kagome wants to have. She can see it now, the gears shifting to the fact that Inuyasha never comes home because Kagome never can come with him. It’s a slippery slope, being the girlfriend. She’s about to get murdered if she’s not careful.
“Mom, don’t lie, you’re stressing Kagome out,” Inuyasha retorts, going so far as to wrap an arm carefully around her shoulders and lead her into the living room. “So tell me again how you got here?”
Stunning Art by Otaku
“I took the train,” his mother answers, like this is obvious. “One of my little clubs got cancelled, so I figured why not come visit you a day early? You said you had it off work.”
Inuyasha looks about a second away from perishing. “If you had called, I could have come and picked you up.”
“I don’t want to be a bother,” Izayoi says gently, smiling at him. She’s so tiny compared to him, tinier even than Kagome. Her hands cup his cheeks, and the expression on her face is pure, unadulterated happiness. “I’m just glad to be here visiting you. I’ve missed you.”
He’s blushing. He’s one hundred percent blushing. His tiny little ears are pressed against his head and Kagome finds the entire thing extremely cute. Far too cute. “Yeah,” Inuyasha grumbles, glaring at the floor like a naughty child, “I missed you, too.”
Patting his cheek lightly, Izayoi beams at Kagome. “And this is lovely, too, to meet you. Come, please, sit with me. Inuyasha, will you make some tea?”
“Oh, I don’t want to ruin your time together,” Kagome tries, feeling very underprepared and overwhelmed. Izayoi is just so nice and sincere. Inuyasha hadn’t given her the full picture, obviously. “I’ll make the tea, you two catch up.”
“Nonsense,” his mother argues. She shoves at Inuyasha’s shoulder, the boy giving her an incredulous expression as he stumbles towards the kitchen. “I would much rather speak with you. Do you know how hard I’ve fought to learn anything about you? A whole year and Inuyasha only gave me your name a week ago. I had to practically pry it out of him.”
Kagome’s honestly just surprised he hadn’t given a name before. Apparently, he does have more than two braincells. When it comes to lying, at least. Oh well, time to throw him under the bus, as per their carefully calculated plan. “That’s weird, I don’t know why he would do that.”
“He’s always been slow to warm up to people, but frankly I thought it was ridiculous.” She huffs before smiling once more, patting the seat beside her. “Come, sit! Tell me all about you!”
Kagome is…very aware of how she looks right now. This is not the impression she wanted to give. She’s in dirty leggings and Inuyasha’s sweater. She’s still wearing the hood, oh god. Ripping it off, Kagome laughs and tries to smooth out her hair as she sits down.
Wow, Izayoi is just very pretty up close. Older, yes, but still with a glow that Kagome is pretty sure she lost back when she paid her first month of rent. She’s very human, with her soft brown eyes and long, pin-straight black hair. Kagome is jealous, especially right now when her own hair is an extreme mess. She hadn’t even washed it yet; she’d been planning on doing that tonight.
God, worst first impression ever.
Kagome is going to kill Inuyasha. This is still his fault, even if it isn’t.
“I’m not very exciting,” she tries. “Has Inuyasha told you anything else…about me?” He said no, but Inuyasha also said Izayoi was coming in on Thursday and today is clearly Wednesday. So. Any privileges are gone, obviously.
“No, but not for a lack of trying, I’m afraid. He’s so tight-lipped about it.” Izayoi’s mouth presses together, displeasure finally showing through. “What’s been going on between the two of you that he doesn’t want to say anything?”
Wow, okay. Kagome blinks. Valid question, sure. After supposedly two years, Kagome would be pissed if her own son did the same thing. Valid, valid, valid. They really should have nailed this down a little better. All the preparation feels useless now. Why the hell did she try to learn where the tea was? She’s not even the one allowed to make the tea!
“Well,” she tries, uneasy. “We’ve been together for a while but I think at first—” Commitment issues. That’s what Inuyasha said to say. Which…sounds ridiculous, but this is his gamble, right?
Izayoi waits, fully turned towards her and listening. She’s so clearly trying and Kagome can’t.
“I think he was worried we weren’t going to make it,” Kagome lies, breathless at the realization that she’s going absolutely off script. “We didn’t have the greatest first impression of each other” – not a lie – “but he’s best friends with my roommate. We kept seeing each other, and then, I don’t know. There were a few parties and we thought to try going out just the two of us. I think—I think maybe he was waiting for it to not work out. Until we tried dating, we hadn’t really gotten along.”
She’s doing a terrible job at this. Inuyasha is going to murder her, never mind the other way around.
“He can get in his head about things,” Izayoi murmurs, but it seems mostly to herself as she looks in towards the kitchen. “Well, I’m glad we’ve finally had a chance to meet. I’d like to get to know you.”
The doorbells rings and that is probably – actually – their lunch. Kagome wants to stand, to escape the conversation if only because of the sincerity that oozes from Izayoi. She’s so sweet, and Kagome is lying to her.
“I’ll get it!” Inuyasha grouches from then kitchen, so. No means to get away, then.
Kagome takes a deep breath, trying for a smile. She’s surprised by how easy it comes and how it doesn’t even really feel that forced. “And I’d like to get to know you, too. Inuyasha does talk about you. He says your brownies are to die for.”
And there, a tiny twitch at the corner of his mother’s lips. She was smiling before, but this is far more reminiscent of Inuyasha’s pleased smirk. It’s not the same, not exactly, but Kagome can see in an instant that they’re related.
“Well, Sango always thought so.”
“Sango’s the one who first mentioned them,” Kagome tells her. “We’re roommates, by the way. I’m not sure if Inuyasha explained that or not.”
“Inuyasha has said suspiciously little.” Izayoi picks at a spot on her pants, and it’s a saddened gesture, rather than nervous. “But I believe he mentioned it. I’d rather hear it from you, anyways. I’m sure you won’t be grumping at me the entire time.”
Kagome laughs. “I will try my very best.”
“Here!” The word, as simple as it is, practically screams desperation. Both Kagome and Izayoi turn to watch as Inuyasha comes into the room, an actual tray in his hand. There’s a single cup of steaming tea, along with two takeout containers and cutlery, which he places down on the living room’s ottoman. He eyes Kagome then, golden eyes vaguely suspicious, before he makes some sort of face at his mother. “What were you talking about?”
“You,” she answers simply, but only gives a little grin when Inuyasha’s expression gets so much worse. It’s funny, this interaction that’s both strange and unfamiliar to Kagome. Izayoi seems pleased with herself though, leaning over to get her tea. “It’s been a while since I’ve been here. You and Miroku redecorated.”
Inuyasha narrows his eyes. Despite their recently spent days together, Kagome doesn’t know him all that well. This expression, however, is obvious. He sends it Miroku’s way far too often. He can sense danger coming, and is trying to assess how. “Not really,” he answers, slowly.
“The paintings,” she shoots back, easy as anything. “They’re very nice.”
“Miroku’s doing, not mine.” Inuyasha shifts, looks like he’s about to go sit down on the couch, and then hesitates to give Kagome one of the containers of food with cutlery.
“Thanks,” she murmurs, smiling at him as gently as she knows how. Girlfriend mode has fully been activated. They’re in it now, a whole day early.
She can see the way Inuyasha has to physically stop himself from rolling his eyes. Instead, he does…something with his face. He turns away too quickly for her to really see. “Do I need to call your hotel?” he asks his mother.
“Already handled, thank you.” When he moves to sit down on her other side, Izayoi shoos at him. “Inuyasha, why are you being so awkward? Sit beside Kagome.”
“I’m not being awkward,” Inuyasha grumbles, but he moves towards the corner of the sectional, sitting close. Kagome can feel the heat of him, despite how cold the apartment is. He makes a grab for his own food, and she opens her own too, digging into it.
God, all of this stress is making her hungrier, not less. She’s utterly doomed.
Izayoi shakes her head, still oddly amused. “You’ve been together for years, Inuyasha. I was young once, too.”
“Don’t need that reminder.”
“I just don’t want either of you to feel weird since I’m here.” Kagome instantly feels bad, because Izayoi looks genuinely bothered and upset at the thought. She looks over, and Inuyasha is more panicked than she’s ever seen him. “I just want to spend time with you. Both of you. Please don’t feel like you have to act different. I would actually prefer it if you…didn’t.”
“Oh no,” Kagome promises, ditching her fork into her food and reaching out to press her hand against Izayoi’s arm. “We’ll be normal, it’s just—Different. But I promise we’ll be good.”
None of that made any sense. At all. Were they even words? What’s different? Why ‘be good?’ Oh god, she’s not even an hour into this and it’s a disaster already.
Inuyasha, in a fit of inspiration or because he’s thinking the same as her, snorts loudly. Kagome can’t help but smile a little, still watching his mother. “See? We’re already getting there.”
“Speak for yourself,” he grumbles. “I was fine.”
“You were not.”
He pauses, and Kagome registers the way he clocks the fact that she’s wearing his sweater, oversized and baggy around her. He can’t say anything, though, and it’s so brilliant that Kagome can’t help but grin at his blatant irritation.
“See, I would be so sad if I missed this!” Izayoi says. “I’ve never gotten to see my son in love before.”
Oh wow. That’s—
That’s something.
Kagome laughs, but Inuyasha groans. “Mom, please.”
“If you had introduced us sooner, sweetie, we’d be over this phase.” Izayoi hides a smile into her teacup, but Kagome knows. “So tell me again how you met?”
“Mom,” Inuyasha repeats, uselessly, because Izayoi is smiling sweetly at Kagome and she has no choice.
In a strange way, it’s easy. She and Inuyasha had gone over this again and again, so the practice has done them well. Kagome explains how they met when she and Sango first became roommates. It wasn’t too often and their first impression – she mentions yet again, despite Inuyasha’s subtle pokes to her back – wasn’t all that great. She extrapolates when Izayoi’s eyes gleam with something like mischief, and Kagome laments the loss of her chips that he always stole, and the way he’d refuse to call her by her name.
“Inuyasha!” Izayoi scolds once, horrified.
Kagome laughs, vindicated, as Inuyasha shoots her a look so furiously betrayed that her sides nearly hurt from the cackling.
“And then at Miroku’s birthday party, Miroku got absolutely wasted with a bunch of his work friends. Sango was trying to take care of him, but everyone started getting way too rowdy. One of the neighbours complained and Inuyasha was trying to kick everyone out.”
“Then that dick threw up on my bed.” Inuyasha is still angry about it, because this part, at least, is all very much true.
“So I got his sheets all washed and fixed while he dealt with the rest. The whole place was a mess.”
“I wanted to kill Miroku.”
Kagome rolls her eyes. “You always want to, a little.”
“Not the point.”
“No,” she admits, looking back at his mother. “So we kind of teamed up to save the evening. It was the first that we actually properly got along.”
This is the lie. They hadn’t actually talked all that much at all. Kagome had washed his sheets, but she’d also been washing Miroku’s clothes and helping Sango to clean up the bathroom and kitchen. There was no getting along to be had.
“And then, I don’t know,” Kagome murmurs. Inuyasha is watching her, far too intent for a story he should know like the back of his hand. It’s too much, right then, so she presses against him. It’s a reminder, but the action looks like a seeking of comfort, of familiarity and fondness. Kagome pats his knee and keeps going. “After that, we just started talking.”
Kagome stops, realizing that Izayoi is looking pointedly at her hand on Inuyasha’s knee. She instinctively goes to pull it away, but stops herself. Normal. They’re supposed to be normal. That’s what Izayoi wants. So why is she…watching?
She’s never seen her son in love before, right. That.
Kagome is honestly not going to make it out of this intact. When her phone goes off – a reminder for her work shift – she nearly sighs in relief. Inuyasha lets his hand drag across her back as Kagome gets up, collecting the takeout containers. All of her stuff is sitting in the kitchen, and it feels like some kind of moment because Inuyasha and Izayoi follow her.
“Well,” his mother starts, “I’m excited to spend the day with you tomorrow.”
“Me too,” Kagome tells her honestly. She waves her phone at Inuyasha. “I’ll text you.”
Inuyasha nods and Kagome heads towards the door. It’s a very short hallway, so usually she just sees herself out. But no.
No, because even though she can’t see them with her back turned, she can hear the hissed whispers that can only be coming from Izayoi and Inuyasha. Suddenly, he sighs from close behind her, opening the door.
Kagome bites back her smile. “Have fun with your mom.”
“Yeah,” he replies, but it’s rueful and stressed. She doesn’t envy him. Kagome has never been so happy to have to go to work. She looks back into the apartment and Izayoi is there, smiling and…waiting.
Waiting for what?
“Well,” Inuyasha says, like an idiot, “bye.”
“Bye,” Kagome echoes, confused.
Inuyasha’s ears twitch, and Kagome has half a second to realize that Izayoi must have whispered something super quiet that only he can hear, because he suddenly looks mortified.
Oh no.
Oh no. They have to be normal.
They have to kiss.
This is…a massive oversight. They never practiced kissing! They’ve never—
Oh god. Oh god, wow, how stupid could they be? She learned where he kept the fucking tea but she didn’t once even remotely think about kissing him.
No way but through. Kagome tilts her chin up and steps in close. Inuyasha’s golden gaze is panicked so she knows he’s going to be absolutely useless. Fine, then. It’s up to her. This is what he paid her for, after all.
“Bye, love,” she says quick, and then goes up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips. It’s not a bare brush, either. This is a two-year-long love story. She knows him, even though she very much doesn’t. But Kagome can’t let that show, can’t give in to any desire for hesitation. Her hand brushes against his hip, and that—
That must do something to Inuyasha, or at least he remembers that this isn’t one-sided because his hand sinks into her hair, holding her there, and that’s—
Stunning Art by Otaku
Kagome pulls away, stunned and breathless. It’s a peculiar kind of horror, watching Inuyasha open his eyes and to see the way he stares, gaze heavy and—no.
She needs to leave, right now, because Izayoi is going to take one look at her face and know. Know that this was a first kiss, not a thousandth. Know that this has taken Kagome’s heart and done something strange, moved it two beats down and to the right, to the core of her. And that’s weird, right, because this is very much fake but that was very much real. “Yep, bye!” she cheers, idiotically, disappearing towards the elevators with a heartbeat that thunders in her ears.
Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god.
What – and she can’t emphasize this enough – the fuck.
“You okay, girl?” Nazuna asks, hip-checking Kagome behind the bar.
Ah, yes. She’s just been cleaning the same spot on the counter for the last…seven minutes, probably. The bar is dead, and Kagome expects the manager to make cuts at any moment. She’s dreading looking at her phone. Will Inuyasha have texted her? What would it say? Thanks for the kiss?
Kagome is going to burst into flames.
What if he didn’t text her, though? Is that better? Worse? It feels worse. It definitely feels like that will be significantly, horrifyingly worse.
Oh no.
“Kagome, you’re freaking me out. Souten, what the hell did you do to her?”
Souten flips Nazuna off, dropping her tray unceremoniously to the bar top. “Why do you always think I did something?”
“It usually is you,” Nazuna replies.
Kagome shakes her head, knowing she needs to cut in before Souten starts bitching and Nazuna starts arguing. The two of them together are the worst. “No, Inuyasha’s mom is in town. It’s been…a day.”
“Oh wait, the boyfriend?” Nazuna gives her a conciliatory pat on the shoulder. “Is she horrible?”
Kagome shakes her head. “The nicest soul around. She’s so earnest, I want to die.”
“Honestly, embrace it,” Souten says, pointing a finger her way. “It’s so, so much worse if they’re terrible. Shiori’s grandfather still thinks I’m the devil, so, you know. Take the earnestness.”
Grimacing, Kagome nods. “I just don’t know how to react? She came an entire day early and Inuyasha had no idea what to do. I could tell he was panicking and then I was panicking, and I looked like crap, so I was panicking even more.”
“Oof.” Souten props her head in her hands. “That’s rough.”
“How long is she around for?” Nazuna asks.
“A week.”
A week, that was the deal. Surely, she and Inuyasha did an okay job at lunch today? They were caught off guard, but at least they were together. Kagome was even wearing his sweater. They had to have looked like a couple, even if they weren’t the most romantic or whatever.
It’s fine, she tells herself. It’s fine, it’s fine, it’s fine.
Oh god, they kissed.
“And there she goes again,” Nazuna murmurs to Souten, but Kagome doesn’t care.
She just kissed her roommate’s best friend. For pretending purposes.
But it was good.
“I’m screwed,” Kagome whispers.
“You’re something alright,” Souten replies, and then, in a fit she waves a tiny chit into her face. “Are you going to make drinks or should I just jump back there?”
There is a text message. It is…confusing.
[Incoming: Inuyasha – 10:56 PM]
Mom bought it.
Kagome stares. Of all the things Inuyasha could message her about…this is it? Nothing about their little impromptu kiss? No further details on what his mom thought of her, specifically? Just “Mom bought it.”
Well.
[Outgoing – 11:21 PM]
I’d freaking hope so. She was literally waiting to see if we’d kiss.
There. Some direction towards the true problem, here. Kagome still doesn’t really understand how they never even thought of the fact that they would have to kiss. How had she forgotten? Somehow, planting photos and holding his hand and learning his kitchen layout were all there, but kissing? Not so much.
How. How, how, how?
[Incoming: Inuyasha – 11:22 PM]
Don’t be weird.
“You dick!” Kagome squeaks, outraged as she glares at her phone screen. Don’t be weird? Don’t be weird? Izayoi – bless her soul – had been watching. Don’t be weird?!
[Outgoing – 11:22 PM]
I really hate you.
[Incoming: Inuyasha – 11:23 PM]
See you tomorrow :)
Colon and parenthesis. Not even the real emoji.
God, he’s just the worst.
So the initial plan had been pretty simple: when Izayoi came in, Inuyasha and Kagome would pick her up from the train station and then take her to an early lunch. Izayoi, apparently, paints on her free time with a few other ladies who live near her, which is why they planned on taking her to eat at this fancy restaurant located inside of the city’s art gallery. After lunch, they would take it a bit by ear: if Izayoi was tired, they would bring her back to her hotel room, or maybe Inuyasha’s apartment. If she wanted to explore, they’d purchase tickets and do a bit of that. Eventually, Kagome would leave when it was time for her to go to work, and that would be that. A simple, easy day of getting to know each other, without any pressure since they would be – mostly – in public.
Considering yesterday, this plan is very much out the window.
Kagome sits in her car, waiting and checking her messages. Inuyasha had said they were a bit behind, so now she’s alone in the parking outside of the art gallery. The sun is especially hot today, without a single cloud in sight. Happily roasting inside of her own car, Kagome closes her eyes and tries to relax. Yesterday had been fine, so today was going to be fine. Izayoi is incredibly kind and clearly loves Inuyasha. All they have to do is survive a meal and some art perusing, and everything will be lovely.
They’d have to kiss – twice, at least – but this time Kagome’s prepared. She’s not going to let those – beautiful, enticing, golden – eyes ruin her again. This is pretend and in a more secretive way, this is war. His hand in her hair? What kind of prince charming crap was that? No, absolutely not. Kagome is not going to fall for this kind of acting, and she’s going to up her game until Izayoi practically weeps from the fake love emanating from them.
Yes. Good.
There’s a knock on her window, two quick raps that nearly send her into the roof. Kagome gasps, instantly glaring out the window where Inuyasha stands, smirking at her. “Rise and shine,” he greets, muffled from the layer of glass.
Ooh, she’s going to get him good.
In what Kagome considers to be a bountiful amount of enthusiasm, she gets out of her car, locks it and then grabs the stupid idiot’s red t-shirt to tug him closer. She plants one on him like kissing is going out of style. Still very PG, obviously, Izayoi is clearly right there and – yep – watching.
This time, when she pulls away, it’s Inuyasha that looks shocked, eyes wide.
If Kagome could pull out her phone and take a photo without being obvious about it, she totally would.
“Hey,” she says, staying nice and close for another moment before letting go and bounding towards Izayoi. His mother is no longer looking at them; instead, she’s gazing towards the art gallery with a pleased smile on her face. “Have you ever been here before?”
“No,” Izayoi responds. She seems, in that moment, even happier. “I had no idea this was here. Inuyasha, this is such a wonderful surprise. Thank you!”
He kept it a surprise? Kagome grins at Inuyasha, who’s scowling and blushing. “It’s not a big deal. Come on, or we’ll be late.” He goes on ahead, arms crossed.
Izayoi laughs quietly, leaning towards Kagome. “He’s always been like this. Even when he was little. I don’t know what he gets so embarrassed about.”
There’s no point in saying anything to that, especially since they have to try and catch up with him. In truth, Kagome’s never been to this gallery either. It’s small, a beautiful stone-faced building in the middle of a forest. Trees surround the gallery on all sides, tiny brick pathways edging around and in between for people to explore. It’s beautiful, peaceful. Kagome wonders how Inuyasha found it, or if he’d discovered it specifically when looking for ways to treat his mom.
Inside is even more stunning. Kagome spins in place, impressed by how despite its size, the gallery feels like the inside of some rustic cottage. It’s all wood panelling and massive, stone archways. A hand stops her mid-twirl, Inuyasha pressing against her side. “By the way,” he says quietly, “we planned this together. Technically.”
Ah yes, the girlfriend experience. “This place is so cool, of course I’ll take credit.”
Inuyasha, predictably, rolls his eyes, his hand sliding down to grab her wrist and drag her towards where both the restaurant and his mother are. She beams at Kagome, happier still, and it seems to only grow more and more pleased as they’re brought to their table. Everything is massive floor-to-ceiling windows and bright lights, the view a stunning shot of the forest that surrounds the gallery. Kagome is impressed, nearly speechless with it.
“It’s beautiful,” Izayoi murmurs, trapping Inuyasha’s arm in a hug as she leans on him. It’s cute, made cuter by how Inuyasha shoots Kagome an embarrassed glance. He really is shy, huh. Kagome’s never noticed, but then again, they’ve never really been in situations that would show this part of him. She wonders, vaguely, if Sango knows.
“Yeah, yeah, don’t get all sappy until you’ve tried the food. Who knows,” Inuyasha grumbles, pulling out a chair for her and impatiently waiting for her to sit in it.
Kagome really wants to take a photo now, if only for evidence tomorrow morning when she undoubtedly disbelieves her own memory. She sits down across from Izayoi and grabs a menu for a distraction. Inuyasha sits down beside her and steals her menu.
Of course.
“Have you ever been here before, Kagome?” Izayoi asks.
“No, never. But it seemed so pretty in the photos,” she lies. “This was all Inuyasha’s idea though. He said you like to paint?”
“Oh, just a hobby.” His mother smiles sweetly, tucking her hair behind her ears as if nervous. “It’s for fun. I used to do it with a group of others every week, but there have been so many changes where I live. Everyone’s moving, it seems. We haven’t had the time, lately.”
Inuyasha frowns. “Why is everyone moving away?”
“They’re retiring, sweetheart. Heading for warmer climates or, you know, downsizing.” Izayoi raises a brow at him, pointed. “You know what the neighbourhood is like.”
“Inuyasha’s told me so much about your home. I can’t imagine having that much space. I can barely keep me and Sango’s apartment clean.”
Izayoi laughs. “Well, it’s different now that everyone’s grown up and moved out. Toga loved the property. He wanted Sesshomaru and Inuyasha to have a space they loved and felt safe in.”
“Do we have to bring up Sesshomaru?” Inuyasha groaned. “It’s not like he spends any time at the house anyways.”
With a noncommittal hum, Izayoi brings her menu up with a flourish to study it. “You’re going to need to speak with him soon enough, you know.”
“I know.”
“The wedding—”
“Yes,” Inuyasha groaned, “I know. I’ll be good.”
Izayoi lowers the menu just enough to shoot Kagome a commiserating glance. It feels in the strangest way like a win.
Kagome pats his knee, leaning into his space to steal his attention. “What are you getting?” she asks, gently changing the subject. She knows very little about Sesshomaru, other than that he’s Inuyasha’s older brother and the two of them really don’t get along. This is the first she’s heard about a wedding; maybe he’s getting married?
“Probably just a sandwich,” Inuyasha offers, pointing to a couple things. His arm drapes around the back of her chair as he remains close, and Kagome holds herself still, makes sure to stay in his space. When the server comes to take their order, somehow, Kagome still has her hand on his knee and Inuyasha’s fingers are poking at her shoulder, a repetitive tapping motion that is slowly driving her insane.
Also, he smells good.
That is an extremely weird thing to think.
“So Kagome, Inuyasha says you work at a restaurant, and that’s why you’re always disappearing around dinnertime.”
As far as openers go, it’s pretty harmless. Kagome nods. “Yeah, I bartend and that’s really more of an evening-into-the-night job.”
“How long have you been doing it?”
“A few years?” Kagome knows the exact number of months, but she’d rather not think about it. “I was working while at college so I could do my day classes and then work nights.” Now, she’s sticking with it until she manages to get something else. She wants to go back to school, but that requires money she doesn’t have.
“I remember Inuyasha applied for a job at a restaurant once.” He groans, but Izayoi is undeterred as she reaches out and pats Kagome on her other free hand. “I think he was found to be too grumpy.”
“You’d make a killing if you could just—” Kagome waves her hand at his face, which is – predictably – scowling, “learn to not do that 24/7.”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“Oh no,” Kagome mock-whines, “what will we do if you never smile again?”
Inuyasha glares at his mother. “You started this.”
“I was just learning more about her,” Izayoi replies, unrepentant. “If you had told me more, this wouldn’t have happened.”
Kagome can’t help it. It’s the second time Izayoi’s thrown this particular grenade into his face and it’s funny as all hell. She snorts, hand coming up to cover her mouth while Inuyasha looks horribly betrayed at them both. “She has you there.”
“I’m still very confused about it.”
Inuyasha hides in his hands for all of two seconds before he sputters. “Mom, I told you to let it go. I knew you’d be like this.”
“You’ve never brought me a girlfriend before, how would you know?”
There’s a sparkle in her eye that Kagome can’t ignore, so she pokes him in the face, feigning haughtiness. “Yeah, why didn’t you just tell her about me, Inuyasha? Don’t you love me?”
And oh, that’s a look.
Kagome has to bite the inside of her lip to stop from laughing.
“This,” Inuyasha mutters, glaring between the two of them. “This is why.”
“I can easily turn the tables, if that would make you happier,” his mother comments lightly, and Kagome gets all of five seconds of superiority before that particular statement lands a blow. “Kagome, why don’t you tell me why you love my son?”
“Ha,” Inuyasha barks out.
But he has grossly miscalculated. Kagome shores up her nerve, and shoots him her most besotted look. Her hand is still on his knee and so she raises it slightly, more towards the meat of his thigh as her fingers toy with the seam of his jeans. Izayoi can’t see any of that, but it makes Inuyasha blink at her, owlish and off-kilter.
Good.
“He’s just…really good,” Kagome breathes, holding his gaze for a moment longer before she shows him mercy, leaning forward on the table to take up all of Izayoi’s attention. “At first, I didn’t see it. The whole bad-first-impression thing kind of ruined it, but Miroku and Sango always used to pester us about this so-called tension.” She laughs, as if recalling the memory. “You know Inuyasha best. He’s…really hard to get on your side, to open up about anything. I’m kind of the opposite, I guess. I just jump into things. I talk to everyone, give help if it’s needed. I assume it’ll always be worth it.”
As much as she’s trying not to, Kagome remembers the little things Inuyasha slowly – albeit only willingly for the sake of pretending – shared with her while they did all those quizzes to get to know each other. She thinks about the way Inuyasha holds onto Sango, protecting her and Miroku both. She remembers the way his face looked when he asked her to pretend to be his girlfriend, and how she had eventually said yes. How she had let him through the door in the first place, had seen an empty bag of chips and lost her shit.
“And since we’ve started dating, there’s just someone I can trust to always bring me back down to earth. If I’m stretching myself too thin, Inuyasha will tell me. If I’m overworking and not eating dinners properly, he’ll get concerned enough for the both of us. It’s the little things, like bringing me a bag of chips when I’m down, or wrapping me up in a blanket when I’m cold. He’s just…the part of me that fills the gaps I’d otherwise miss for myself.”
And: end scene.
Kagome beams, proud of herself. That absolutely deserves some sort of Oscar. She hadn’t even planned it, not really. Everything was true, to an extent. Just…exaggerated. Made more flowery. A lie without being a lie. Smug, Kagome twists around to shove that in Inuyasha’s stupid face. Take that, you chip th—
It’s like being slapped in the face, déjà vu practically drowning her with the look on his face. Inuyasha’s staring at her like he doesn’t know what to do, mouth parted yet speechless. It’s the first kiss all over again, so Kagome quickly turns back to his mother, desperate for something to keep this train on the tracks.
“Oh,” Izayoi whispers, feather soft. She’s tearing up.
“Oh my god,” Kagome blurts out, slapping her mouth. “Was that too much? Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
His mother shakes her head, but it’s not Kagome she fixes her gaze upon. It’s Inuyasha, and the expression on Izayoi’s face can only be described as desperately happy. “I’m so happy you found each other,” she says, and it’s watery and sweet and so earnest that the sincerity threatens to choke her.
Oh no.
Oh no, no, no.
“Thanks Mom,” Inuyasha murmurs, and when she sniffles a bit, he scoffs at her and pulls out a tissue from somewhere to give over. “You’re being dramatic. It’s not a big deal.”
“I know,” Izayoi replies wetly, “but you have no idea what it’s like, being a mother. Worrying about your kid.”
Kagome’s not a part of this conversation, and that’s more than okay with her.
Because she’s fucked up. She’s fucked up big time. The lies that once tasted like victory now are singed to ash. Kagome’s gone too far, has made this too much. Inuyasha needed a girlfriend to get his mother off his back, and in that, she’s succeeded. There’s no doubt now, no seed of discontent.
When Izayoi reaches out to pat Kagome’s hand, she feels success and misery alike hum in her veins. Discordant. “I’m glad I’ll be able to get to know you this week.”
“Me too,” Kagome lies.
Inuyasha’s hand brushes through the back of her hair, an innocent touch that’s far too fond. It sends an unsuspecting spark throughout her chest, warm with his approval. This is success, she reminds herself. This is a good thing. Kagome just can’t understand what feels so off.
When Izayoi distracts herself, looking into her purse for something, he noses at her temple. “That was something,” he murmurs, but his tone is all rich with amusement, with something that sounds suspiciously pleased.
Somehow, during her declaration, they’ve become close, their chairs now together. When his arm wraps around her, Kagome can’t pull away. Not just because of the act, but because there’s a strange comfort to this. It’s better, isn’t it? Being this close means that it’s not so much a lie. Kagome isn’t going to devastate Izayoi in the future, but she and Inuyasha – right now, together – are a couple. Couples touch each other, hold each other, kiss each other.
They’re doing these things. It’s a lie, but it’s not.
Kagome takes a breath, and puts a smile on her face to words she’s barely processing. Her entire body is alight. Warmth lingers in every spot he touches.
“Kagome, what about this?”
“I don’t need new dress shirts, Mom.”
“I’m not asking you, sweetie. Kagome, red, right?”
There’s no contest. Between the light blue shirt and the red one, the winner is clear. “Red.”
Izayoi beams at her. In fact, this entire shopping trip she’s been invited to has been nothing but happy smiles and cheerful exclamations. Apparently, Inuyasha never shops for himself because Izayoi loves to shop for him. Kagome has to pretend that this is information she knows, ribbing Inuyasha about it even as she wraps an arm around his waist.
She grins at Inuyasha, pleased with her colour choice, and finds her gaze drawn to his lips. They can only be classified as pouting.
They already kissed hello, earlier.
Kagome drags her gaze away.
It only works to an extent. Izayoi happily tosses the shirt to Inuyasha and then disappears through the racks and racks of clothing. Kagome can only stare, helpless. They’ve been at this for only two hours, but she has no idea how much longer they can go.
“I probably should have warned you,” Inuyasha comments, stepping up to her side.
Kagome sighs, and ignores the helpless, absurd feeling her body gets, like it wants to press back against him. She pretends to flick him instead. “Yeah, some warning would have been nice.”
“To be fair, she stole my cell phone to invite you today. It wasn’t me.”
Yeah, right. “Sure.”
“I’m serious.” He bumps her, and the separation is good for two reasons: less incentive to lean against him, and more reason for her to look at his face when she glares. “After that little stunt you pulled Thursday, all she does is talk about you. It’s fucking annoying.”
Well, then. Kagome ignores the fissure of worry over lying to Izayoi – can’t do much about it, can she? – and flips her hair over her shoulder. She’s an actress now. She can get away with anything. “What can I say, Inuyasha? I’m the best girlfriend you’ve ever had.”
“Never had,” he growls out. “And stop acting so goddamn cute to her. She’s going to fucking adopt you.”
Cute? Kagome does not delight in this compliment, coming from him. She doesn’t. That would be patently insane. “If she bakes me those brownies, I may just let her.”
Inuyasha groans, pained. “No, god, she’s already going to make a batch for Sango. Not you, too. My apartment is going to become a freaking bakery.”
“Accept it,” she tells him lightly. “Your mom is going to make me brownies and love me forever and you, my friend, are screwed.”
His scowl would make a lesser woman cry. “I’m going to make her watch you eat a bag of chips. Trust me, she won’t think you’re all that after she witnesses your crazy.”
Wow. Shots fired. Incredulousness bubbles out of her, shocking laughter ruining what was otherwise a half-decent threat. “I’ll never get the chance to do that since you steal them all the time.”
Inuyasha sniffs, haughty. “I can make a sacrifice for the greater good.”
“Ooh, self-control. Congratulations.” Kagome pokes him in the chest. “Don’t you feel the least bit bad about lying to your poor mother? She loves you!”
That definitely gets a glare, but it’s not teasing. Kagome hadn’t realized just how much softer his glares had gotten, when he sent them her way. “Leave it alone, Kagome.”
Fine, whatever. Not her business, and he paid her after all. It’s not like Kagome’s going to have to deal with the fallout when they inevitably ‘break up.’
“Kagome!” Izayoi calls out. “Kagome, come here!”
Inuyasha rolls his eyes – so that’s what he thinks about that – and Kagome ignores him in favour of finding his mother hidden between two over-sized and mildly exploding racks. With a flourish, Izayoi wraps a beautiful silk scarf around her neck, tying it lightly with a smile.
“It’s red, too,” she says, smug as anything with a sparkle in her eye. “Couples should match every once and a while.”
“Should they?” Kagome asks faintly.
“Toga and I used to match all the time, especially at parties.” Izayoi pulls out another scarf, a dark green one made of a thin, soft material that probably costs as much as Kagome’s last paycheque. “You do dumb things to attach yourselves to people you love.”
There’s nothing she can say that won’t give herself away.
Izayoi smiles at her like this sort of admission is easy; comparing herself and Inuyasha’s father to…well, to her and Inuyasha. “So tell me, then, why you and Inuyasha haven’t attached yourselves more permanently.”
That’s— That’s a question. Kagome blinks at her, shocked and a little terrified because there are some implications there, and maybe she’s misreading the situation. There’s absolutely no way that Izayoi is talking about…about…
“Why aren’t you living together?” Izayoi demands then.
Ah. Thank god, for one. What the hell, for another. “Oh, you know.” Kagome lets out a nervous laugh and wonders where the hell Inuyasha is hiding. He’s always gone for these sorts of stupid questions. Kagome is going to murder him in his sleep.
His mother shakes her head sadly. “I really don’t, and he’s very good at deflecting when he wants to. Got that from his father. So I only have you who I can trust.”
And if there were ever words that could stab a hotter, crueler knife into Kagome’s ribcage, she doesn’t know them. “Ah, well, I think he just… I think he likes living with Miroku. It’s not like we don’t spend a ton of time together.”
“But it’s been years.” Izayoi seems strangely distraught by this, like something is wrong just because they don’t live together. Kagome wants to highlight that they’re both still quite young and it’s only been two years. Two. Not, like, five. “Have you talked about it?”
“Here and there,” she hedges, needing to be as vague as possible. Who knows what Inuyasha has said? “I’m sure we will someday. There’s no rush.”
Izayoi hums, but Kagome gets the feeling she doesn’t particularly agree. This is only reinforced when his mother nods once, firmly, like something has been decided in her head. “I’ll see what I can do to speed things up,” she promises. “You both clearly love each other. It’s an important step to take. Especially since I can’t imagine he won’t propose before too long.”
Kagome opens her mouth. Shuts it.
Noticing this, his mother laughs. She still sounds like some sort of ethereal fairy, but there’s a gleam in her eye when she smiles at Kagome that says otherwise. “Inuyasha loves you,” she declares, grabbing onto Kagome’s hand. “It’s so obvious. The way he looks at you would be embarrassing if you weren’t already together.”
He—
Inuyasha—
No—
Gently tugging the scarf off of Kagome’s neck, Izayoi primly folds the red silk with the dark green one already in her hand. “These will be my treat,” Izayoi announces, and then flounces away before Kagome can open her mouth to protest.
When Inuyasha steps back up to her side like a shadow, Kagome hides her face in her hands. “We’re going to match.”
“Yeah.”
She thinks you’re very much in love with me. The words clog up in her throat, refusing to come out. Kagome breathes through the tightness and tries again. “This is absolutely your fault.”
“…Yeah.”
She glares at him through her fingers. “You don’t deserve your mother.”
The pause this time is longer, but Inuyasha isn’t looking at her. He’s staring off at the bouncing head, lost in the sea of clothes. “Yeah.”
Things get…worse. Better, but worse.
Kagome doesn’t know whether she should laugh or cry.
It’s Sunday, which means they are four days in on Izayoi’s visit. Yesterday’s shopping trip still makes Kagome’s stomach plummet as much as it does flutter. The two scarves Inuyasha’s mother bought hang on Kagome’s mirror, accusatory.
“I’m serious,” Izayoi says from across the kitchen table. “I’ve loved spending this time with you, but I have friends to call. Plus, I’m sure you both want some time alone.”
“Mom,” Inuyasha groans. “Can you not?”
“Your father and I—”
“Mom!”
“Loved being with just each other. Watching television, listening to music, dancing.” Izayoi breathes out a burden Kagome can’t understand, and she catches Inuyasha’s eye, sees the way his previous irritation melts into something a little sadder.
Kagome grabs his arm, steadying. “It’s not everyday we can see you, though,” she tries, but Izayoi just waves her off.
“And I’ll be seeing him tomorrow.” She stands up, plate in hand, and Kagome has to practically vault over the table to take it from her. “Kagome!”
“No, no, you made dinner,” Kagome says, wagging a finger at her in mock-consternation. “I do the dishes. That’s the rules. Inuyasha will help me, anyways.”
Izayoi smiles at her son, then, and Kagome lets them have a moment while she gathers plates and stacks them with a skill only restaurant workers have. She disappears into the kitchen, turning the water on hot and rinsing. Just barely, she can hear the two of them talking. Not the words themselves, not with how the water splashes against the metal tub, but the way Inuyasha’s voice keeps rising and Izayoi goes quiet.
Hm. Maybe she should offer tea. Kagome worked really freaking hard to learn where Inuyasha kept tea in his apartment, and so far, it’s not been useful at all. Then again, if they’re talking about anything sensitive – like Inuyasha’s father – then maybe it’s best to let them be. Good girlfriends do that, right?
Only, Izayoi startles her in the next moment, apparently close. “Kagome, when will I see you next?”
“Whenever she doesn’t have work,” Inuyasha interrupts, gently wrapping an arm around his mother’s shoulders to steer her towards the hall. Kagome watches, mildly confused as to what’s gone on. “Why do you want to see her so much, huh? I thought you came here to see me.”
“I came here to see you both,” Izayoi argues. It makes Kagome smile, and she turns off the water to go and say goodbye.
There’s little fanfare. Izayoi kisses her cheek and does the same for Inuyasha. She does this thing – Kagome can’t quite understand what it is – where she holds him by his cheeks and just smiles at him. It’s some kind of conversation she’s not privy to, because Inuyasha always blushes, or rolls his eyes, or sighs dramatically just before she pulls away.
“I don’t know why you won’t just let me drive you,” Inuyasha grumbles.
“Because then you’d leave Kagome alone, and that’s not the point.” She pats his face once, and then very clearly winks at them both. “You should enjoy a quiet evening together. Your roommate is out. I’m gone. It’s important for couples—”
“Oh my god,” Inuyasha nearly yells, opening the front door. “Stop talking!”
Izayoi laughs. “Have a good night, you two.” It’s just as sly as the rest of her imparted wisdom. Inuyasha does some weird, growling screech and slams the door, effectively cutting her off.
Kagome shakes her head. “Wow, you did not get any of her playfulness.”
“Fuck you,” Inuyasha replies, crossing his arms. “I’m playful as shit.”
“Uh-huh.” Kagome rolls her eyes and heads towards the kitchen. There’s a tension in his shoulders and an edge to his voice. Whatever’s going on, she’s going to leave him be. Not her problem.
Too bad Inuyasha doesn’t seem to want that. “Why does she like you so much?”
Kagome feels a pang at that, a blossom of strange emotion taking root in her gut. “I don’t know. I’m a nice person. She likes asking me things because I’ll answer her. Which, actually, is going to be a problem soon because at a certain point your commitment issues aren’t going to be good enough cover.”
“You think I don’t already know that?” Inuyasha scowls. “She asks me shit all the time.”
Raising a brow at him, she gestures towards his bedroom. “Has she asked you about our sex life yet?”
The horror on his face would be hilarious, but Kagome’s thrown now. Off-kilter. She’s going to finish the dishes and go. Izayoi leaving is a blessing in disguise. Maybe she can actually clean up her room and get things done at her own apartment.
“She fucking wouldn’t,” Inuyasha grouses, bringing her back to the conversation. Unfortunately. Kagome is getting irritated with it, that feeling still sitting heavy in her. She doesn’t know what it is, but it’s mean. She just wants to go home. “That would be totally insane of her.”
“Well, I’ve gotten the living together talk and the proposal talk. It’s going to be babies soon,” Kagome answers frankly. She turns the water back on to prepare for washing, but Inuyasha is suddenly there, turning the water off with a quick slam of his hand.
“If you deflected better, she wouldn’t feel like she could talk to you about that stuff. I mean, she’s already bought that you’re my girlfriend. You don’t have to keep selling it. At this point, she’s going to be so fucking pissed at me when we break up.”
“I’m barely trying,” Kagome replies, exasperated. “I don’t have to, anymore. But now that she’s bought it, she’s trying to get her money’s worth.”
“Again, your fault.” Inuyasha leans against the counter, all haughty annoyance, and with his arms crossed he’s like some very broad, very beautiful dickface.
He’s being weird. Antagonistic, even. Kagome doesn’t get it and she doesn’t like it. She doesn’t want Izayoi poking and prodding this much, either. It makes the guilt worse, first of all, and it makes Kagome forget sometimes. That, too, is stupid. Talk about being totally insane. “Do I need to remind you that this is exactly what you paid me for?” she asks, that feeling in her worsening. “You wanted her to buy it!”
“Not like this.”
“Then like what?”
“Less!”
Kagome takes her wet hand and jabs a finger into his chest. “That’s vague and you know it.”
“Someone has to be vague in this relationship because it’s certainly not you!” That’s yelling. That’s yelling and Inuyasha doesn’t yell and Kagome knows this is weird but she’s hurt a little, too. They were doing so well. They were maybe approaching friends, even. It makes it worse. It makes it so much worse, and she can feel her own temper flare.
“What else was I going to do?” Kagome demands. “You’ve built up this two-year relationship with an imaginary girlfriend your mother is desperate to know about. I had to live up to that expectation or she’d never, ever buy it. Our cover story wasn’t good enough, and that’s on you. You never told her a thing about this girlfriend! How do you think your mother felt, huh?”
“Fuck off. You’re just covering for the fact you didn’t stick to the damn plan. What we had was fine. Here’s a newsflash, but we’re not actually dating,” Inuyasha snarls. “You’re not my girlfriend.”
Kagome shrieks, furious. “But you’re paying me to be your girlfriend, you irritating jerk-off, so I don’t know what you want from me!”
“You’re impossible,” Inuyasha hisses, and Kagome shakes him a little, both of her hands somehow clenched in his t-shirt. “I have no idea why I find you so goddamn—”
She kisses him. She’s lost her mind, she’s kissing him, and Inuyasha makes this raw, urgent sound as he pushes her back against the countertop. The edge digs into her back, but it’s nothing compared to the way his clawed hands roam, one sliding through her hair and the other smoothing down her hip towards her ass. Kagome’s gone insane, and it’s the only way she can explain the way she wraps her arms around his neck and lets him lift her, until she sitting on the counter and he can press between her legs.
It’s just like their very first conversation, back at Kagome’s apartment, when he asked her to play pretend with him. This isn’t much different, a conversation of a kind that’s far more vicious, desperate, as Kagome opens her mouth and lets Inuyasha lick inside to claim every bit of her. They’ve been building up to this all along, maybe; a fire stoked and stoked as they’ve been pushed together by lies. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t allow for hesitation now. Not with the way he pushes her sweater off, tugs up the t-shirt underneath. Kagome is lost in cotton, in her hair, and she barely gets her sight back when those warm hands of his slide up her ribs, teasing along the edge of her bra.
“Yes,” Kagome tells him, tells the room at large. She wraps her thighs around his hips, tugging him closer as he unsnaps her bra. It’s one thing after the other: a thumb swiping over her nipple, his teeth sinking into her lower lip, the heady rush of what can only be his erection pressing against her. It’s like a circuit overloading, consuming her, throat choking on a keen. Kagome would be a liar if she said she never thought of this, but it had never been something she considered a serious option, not even at the start of all this pretending.
This—This— What are they even doing?
Kagome slides a hand down his chest, his stomach, sinking lower until she can feel the hard length of him against her palm. This, obviously, is what they’re doing, and Kagome doesn’t care to think on it more. It feels good. It feels so good and makes that hurt go away, and so when she whispers, “Take me to bed,” she only clings harder as he carries her away.
She’s not tossed onto the bed. Strangely, given how this has all started, Kagome kind of expected it. Instead, Inuyasha lowers her, ungainly, and the two of them fall back against messy sheets and an unmade bed. She clings still until they’re rolling, Inuyasha’s hands clutching across her back, in her hair. He loves her hair, she thinks, or he loves the feel of her pressed up against him, unable to move. Kagome kisses him, breath and heat and slick, open mouths.
“Off,” Inuyasha says and yes, yes—
It’s a scramble, all hands and quick glimpses. His jeans are tight, hers are tighter. Inuyasha flips her and Kagome nearly goes flying, head landing partially on the pillow and laughing with it. It’s like bubbles up her throat, taking up the last remaining spaces in the haze that is her mind.
“Off, off,” he growls, each word with a tug, and finally her pants are gone.
Oh. Kagome blinks up, seeing the ceiling first and then…him. The room has abysmal lighting, but it’s framed behind him, his silver hair glinting gold. It’s nothing compared to his gaze though, all liquid and molten heat, roaming across her naked body. She’s almost completely bare and the vulnerability hits her in the softness under her ribs, sporting.
“Are you going to keep staring at me?” she challenges, breathless with it, “or are you going to take me apart?”
Bold, bold, bold, bold, but Inuyasha makes a sound that boils her blood, sets her aflame. He’s on top of her, kissing her like it’s a bite, and Kagome moans into it and shifts her hips up, dying for friction. His teeth find her neck, and she should tell him not to make a mark but fuck, she wants it. The sweet drag of his cock presses against her entrance and she’s wet, so wet, just from the thought, from the promise of what’s to come.
“Condom,” she pants out, fingers grabbing greedy for his boxers. Inuyasha freezes and Kagome groans. “No.”
“Wait, wait,” he says, pushing himself off the bed. Inuyasha looks nearly wild, hair askew and chest heaving. Just this look has her reaching down, dipping her fingers underneath her underwear, seeking friction. Inuyasha watches, eyes riveted, and then he shuts his eyes hard. “Miroku’s room. He has to have them.”
“Hurry up.”
“Fuck,” Inuyasha spits and then dashes from the room.
This is happening. This is absolutely happening. They are not dating, but Kagome’s going to fuck him regardless. She lets her fingers tease, near gasping at the feel of just how wet she is. God, it’s been way too long. Way too long since she’s done this, and way too long since she’s had someone in bed with her.
Biting her lip, Kagome whines as she drags her fingers heavily over her clit, smearing her wetness. Not even Inuyasha coming back into the room stops her, not even the way he zeros in on her and practically leaps onto the bed. His boxers, tight, do nothing to hide the bulge he’s sporting, the way it jumps as he licks his lips and tugs at her underwear.
“I want to see,” he says roughly, and there goes the last bit that covers her. Kagome whines, desperate, made more so by the heat in his eyes. It makes her feel shy, ridiculous, but just as she goes to pull her fingers away he’s dipping in, licking the space she leaves behind.
“Oh god.” The words break out of her, shocked and rough. The unexpectedness of it has her legs parting without thought, mind a whirl of fuck, fuck, fuck. She looks down, feels his tongue flicking lightly – too lightly – against her clit, but god, he’s there at all. Shivers of pleasure wrack up her spine, heat bursting through her. This is insane. This can’t actually be happening but—
Inuyasha’s tongue lowers, and Kagome gasps at the tantalizing brush of it within her, the wet heat that he drags up, and up. She’s not normally so easy to get going, but this is doing it for her. Far too quickly, far too good for such clumsy exploration but god, god, this is Inuyasha between her legs and that’s mind-bending. Mind-breaking. Kagome keens as he sucks, just barely enough pressure, and she reaches down. Her fingers card through his hair, a little sweat-damp, and she clings, and Inuyasha makes a sound, filthy.
Oh no, Kagome thinks, brain lost and long gone, as it feels like every muscle in her body contracts, tightens, electricity running up and down her spine until she breaks, shatters, coming so hard the sound that leaves her throat is little more than white noise. It’s all a dazzling, drunk-like haze until there’s pressure on her thigh, breath on her stomach, and a tentative brush against her clit. It’s too much – far too much – and Kagome kicks at him while her breath stutters in her chest, her throat.
“Ow,” Inuyasha grumbles, indignant, and Kagome opens her eyes just in time to watch him attempt to dry his chin with the back of his hand. His golden eyes are still – incredibly, unendingly, intently – focused on her. “Really?”
It’s not hot, it isn’t, but Kagome can’t stop herself from looking anyways. His face is still wet from eating her out, and she whines a little before she reaches out, “Come here.”
“So you can kick me again?”
Kagome rolls her eyes. “Come here, you big crybaby.”
He makes a face at her, but it disappears as quickly as it appears. Kagome grabs his face, hardly gentle, and lifts up just enough to kiss him and drag him back down. Collapsing against her, Inuyasha groans, and she wastes no time dragging her hand down, cupping his dick through his boxers.
“Fuck, Kagome,” he mouths, barely audible, against her throat. It breaks into a shuddering, shivering groan when she tugs at the elastic of his boxers, shoving them down just enough. She skirts her fingers teasingly along the underside, feeling the undeniable heat of him, the hardness that makes her imagine what it would be like to be fucked by him.
“Damn it, Kagome,” Inuyasha whines, and Kagome bites at his neck the same time as she grips him, a slow, heated slide that makes him gasp and keen. He growls when she pulls her hand away – glare boring into her and mouth parted on what she’s sure is a scathing remark about teasing – but it dies in his throat the second she licks at her palm, just enough to ease the slide before jacking him again.
His head nearly bumps into hers; the sound he makes sends a shiver down her spine. “Fuck, fuck.”
“We should.”
Inuyasha raises his head, rolls his eyes, and then kisses her hard, kisses her like he’s shutting her up. These are claims, tiny ones, and Kagome sinks into the mattress until her lungs are screaming for air, for breath. Breaking away is both better and worse: he leaves, but comes back with struggling fingers opening the condom packet. She pushes him onto his back, watches as he finally gets it open and rolls it on. His chest is flushed, rising and falling with exerted breath, and Kagome can’t help but grab his chin and kiss him, stealing all of his attention back.
It doesn’t leave her, not for a moment, not even when the kiss breaks. Kagome wastes no time climbing on top of him, too far up but getting distracted as he licks at her breasts, his big hands gripping her thighs so tight against him. It feels far too good again, rutting against his stomach, nerves blazing with the feather-light press of his cock teasing at her entrance. It’s not enough, but he’s holding her there, stopping her from taking him in, and Kagome rocks back, her hand at his head, frustration leaking from her throat.
This has to be his plan, she thinks wildly, but it’s doing it for her. Kagome is wet, sliding against him, clit throbbing at the pressure. Inuyasha sucks on her breast, tongue teasing the nipple, and she’s unsure if she wants to scream yes or no or something far, far worse. This is sweet, brutal torture, and she can’t believe it’s Inuyasha underneath her, making her feel this way. Or maybe it’s fitting; he always has driven her to impossible lengths of fury. And that’s what this is: fury. Fury that of all people, it’s a man who drives her insane. Fury that this feels so fucking good. Fury that builds within her, all slick and desperately ready, and Kagome’s so close – so stupidly, horribly close – and he won’t fucking let her—
His hands slip – or maybe he just gives in, lets go – because Kagome’s able to shove herself down, twisting her hips as she ruts against him. The thick head of his cock fills her and fuck, shit, that’s it. Kagome’s alight, soul fucking ascending and she’s so goddamn furious about it but it’s so, so good. So good that as Inuyasha thrusts within her, all she can do is make soft, broken moans, cutting off again and again with each slap of skin. It’s far too much, an overload of sensation and pleasure, but Kagome doesn’t want it to stop. She pushes her hips down, shoves his cock so deep within her that it’s an honest, torturously good kind of pain.
Inuyasha spasms beneath her, breath ragged in her ears. His arms wrap around her, tight and tightening. It’s not a hug but a claim, binding her close, and Kagome falls and lets him consume her, lets her head tuck into his neck and sighs as he lets go only enough to grab her hips and fuck her. It’s fast, deep, and Kagome whines at the feeling of too much, too much, but she doesn’t tell him to stop. She pushes back into it, hands clenching in the pillow above their heads, so little leverage but desperate for anything. She hears him, hears the way Inuyasha shudders and groans, clawed hands gripping her tighter and he’s falling apart. She can feel it, can hear it, thrills in it.
She bites at his shoulder, clings to him, and Inuyasha comes with a shout that rings in her ears. It feels like he comes forever, pulse after pulse. His chest rises and falls, shaking her, but Kagome only sucks at the mark she’s undoubtedly left on him, vaguely pleased.
Inuyasha’s arms come around her, that same wrapped-up claim as before. She settles into it, warm. Sated. Far too content, but that’s fine, isn’t it?
“So,” he says, because he’s the worst. He’s the absolute worst, and Kagome got off with him and thoroughly enjoyed it. The room falls into quiet, but she settles heavier on his chest, hears his heartbeat thundering away. The squirming makes Inuyasha gasp, his cock kicking inside of her, and Kagome squeezes a little just to hear him whine. “Kagome.”
“What.” It’s not really a question, just like that wasn’t really an admonishment. His arms are still around her and Kagome’s definitely tired now. She always is, after a good couple of orgasms. And he’s warm. Ridiculously warm. Just another thing about him that makes her irritated.
He asks something, but she’s not paying attention. He says her name, and Kagome whines, smacks at him. “Why are you talking so much?”
There’s a second of silence before she can feel him shift, like he’s tilting his head up or something. Is he glaring at her?
“Are you falling asleep on me?”
Maybe so, Kagome thinks, and gives him a sound that probably makes sense. Possibly.
His arms dance along her spine, gentle. That’s nice. She could get used to this. Their strange, bantering back and forth, and the way he so easily, so casually touches her. Kagome could get used to it, could anticipate it, could revel in the way Inuyasha pokes and prods at her so that her rise is as explosive as the way they come together.
A silly thought. A strange thought.
Kagome lets out a breath. Her eyes are already closed and she’s not sure when that happened. She feels comfortable, though, and warm. She doesn’t want to move or leave. She likes this. She likes him, like this.
Oh no, she thinks, but it’s a very far away thought. Oh no, oh no—
Inuyasha says something but it’s far, far too late. Kagome’s asleep.