Work Text:
Artwork commission by clementinesgulag
“Kagome?!” Mama Higurashi was actually making anime eyes at the envelope in her hands. “How did you—you’re the best daughter a mother could ever have!!!”
“Happy Christmas, Mama,” Kagome beamed; she had gifted the perfect gift.
Kagome had been listening to her mother go on and on about some underground jazz saxophonist who only played on the night of the new moon, and she had scored tickets! Yeah, some elbows had to be thrown (who knew that middle-aged women could be so vicious?), but she came out victorious.
The Silver Hound, playing exclusively at the Shikon Lounge.
It was the coup d’etat of Christmas presents; Mama deserved it.
“You are in for such a treat!” Mama put her arms around Kagome, waving the tickets around.
“...Treat?...” Kagome looked at her mother.
“The best present you could give me is joining me for the Hound experience!” Mama answered.
When she bought the tickets to the Silver Hound, she had assumed Mama would take one of her pinochle friends. Kagome had not anticipated accepting the invitation herself.
She’d heard enough of the Silver Hound’s album to know that, while he was enjoyable to listen to, his music was just not quite her style. Her mother insisted that she could hear an impishness in the notes. He’s keeping a secret from us! Mama would declare, and Kagome would roll her eyes a little bit.
Okay, there was something strangely familiar about the music, but Kagome always just attributed that to the fact that Mama had the Silver Hound’s albums playing all the time: while she cooked, while she cleaned, while she read, while she worked, and Mama would hum along, and sometimes even sway her hips to the beat.
It was hilarious, and Kagome could not wait to watch her mother fangirl over the mystery man. The Silver Hound’s picture was in silhouette, with the bright saxophone in the foreground sparkling like a finely polished weapon. All one could decipher about him was that he had long hair.
“So, will you come?” Mama might have been asking, but Kagome knew better. There was only one answer to that question, and that answer was…
“Yes.” Kagome never could resist her mother, especially when she was this excited.
Mama deserved the world. When Kagome’s dad died, Mama stepped up. The bags under Mama’s eyes were the only sign of how hard she worked, because somehow, she always seemed to have time and gentleness for her children. There was always food on the table, and always a present under the Christmas tree.
It took Kagome a long time to understand the sacrifices that Mama made for her children, but now that she understood, well, it made sense to spoil her mother rotten, didn’t it?
And that was the story of how Kagome scored a hot date to a secretive saxophonist’s concert with her mother.
“Mama, this is stupid.” Kagome frowned at the mirror, at the grin and the soft hazel eyes that were so like her own. “I don’t need to dress up… because… you’re hoping that this Silver Hound notices me?”
“But honey…” Oh no, Kagome could hear the sound of her mother’s meddling from a mile away. A ‘but you deserve happiness’ lecture was right around the corner. “It’s been over a year since you and Bankotsu—”
“I know, Mother…” Kagome hated this conversation. “I just haven’t been… ready.”
Ready. That was not exactly the right word, but it worked and it kept the prying questions away. Bankotsu and Kagome fell apart in exactly the sort of way that made you never want to date again. With gaslighting and accusations of cheating and even a little sprinkle of birth control sabotaging (...yeah…) when it was clear that the relationship was nearing its end. No one wanted to repeat those types of fun things, so Kagome had decided she would only get in a new relationship when she met the perfect man.
…whose name was Inuyasha Taisho.
Crushes on coworkers were dangerous.
Crushes on beautiful half-demon coworkers with prickly exteriors that hid meltingly sweet centers were downright deadly.
But that was where they were. Kagome had it bad for the IT guy.
Bad enough to intentionally open a suspicious attachment (she got yelled at for that one).
Bad enough that she “spilled” coffee all over her keyboard on a near-monthly basis (okay okay, that one was mostly the Kagome-talks-with-her-hands-and-gets-excited’s fault).
Bad enough that she refused to upgrade her old jalopy-of-a-work-computer, because it was dysfunctional enough that she got to see Inuyasha at least once per week.
“What is it this time, Higurashi?” Oh, how Kagome loved the sound of his incredulous amusement. Hell, she had even started to see how many different and new problems the computer could have. If it meant seeing Inuyasha at least weekly, it was worth it.
Maybe someday she’d get up the courage to ask Inuyasha out for coffee. Maybe.
“But, don’t you want to have a night out with your mother? Two smokin’ ladies on the town?” Mama resorted to the guilt voice: the voice that all mothers seemed to natively know how to use the moment that they gave birth.
Though it was not the way Mama said it that got Kagome to relent; it was what Mama said. It was why she was laughing so hard it was hurting her diaphragm. It was why she loved her mother. It was why…
“No one can say no to you, can they?” Kagome had already turned toward her room, toward her closet, to change into something cuter.
“Mom’s superpower,” Mama called back.
Kagome rolled her eyes and changed into an emerald green cocktail dress. Despite being tight on the top, the bottom flared out when she twirled. She bought it on a whim, thinking maybe there would be a holiday party at work she could wear it to (maybe in the line-of-sight of a certain sexy half-demons), but no such occasion had come about. Wearing it to be her mother’s wingman at a “sexy saxophonist” concert sounded like a good use of the dress, even if it felt a little silly that her mother was daydreaming about setting her up with said sexy saxophonist.
When Kagome finished twisting her hair into a pair of hair sticks, she emerged.
“There, was that so tough?” Mama grinned, twirling around in her (more modest) cocktail dress. “Now people will mistake us for sisters.”
Kagome shook her head at her beaming mother. Mama’s light heart was part of the reason that she had not been broken by her dad’s death. Because Mama had held her children all night that night, letting them cry, letting them mourn, and in the morning she said “today’s a new day.”
Every night from that moment on, if Kagome or Sōta needed to, they could come to their mom and cry. Then each morning, Mama would wake them up with a “today’s a new day.” It was so subtle, but somehow, outside of her notice, those soft reassurances helped Kagome heal. Hell, she still said “today’s a new day” to herself each morning, an affirmation that would forever be spoken with Mama’s voice.
“Well then, mother, we better get moving or we’re going to be late!” Kagome nudged Mama playfully, then pulled up the rideshare on her phone. “After all, we don’t want to leave the dashing Silver Hound waiting…”
“You say that now, Ka-go-me,” her mother teased. “But you’ll fall under his spell, too.”
“Mmmhmm.” Kagome put on her jacket and headed out the door.
Like she was going to fall in love with a mysterious sax player that every book club in the state whispered about. As if it was even in the realm of possibility that said mysterious sax player was going to see her wearing a green cocktail dress that twirled in the sea of ladies and think to himself, wow, I am falling in love with that girl. (...Maybe Kagome should wear said cocktail dress to work ‘because she didn’t have a chance to do laundry’ the next time her work computer needed a repair…)
The rideshare came quickly, and as she and Mama climbed in.
“Just you wait, Kagome,” Mama chuckled. “Once you’ve heard The Silver Hound in person, you will be changed.” Mama leaned over and whispered in Kagome’s ear. “Maybe we can even get him to sign autographs after the concert… Guess that’s a good reason to buy you a CD!”
When Mama set her mind to something, it was a sight to behold. And Mama’s persistence in the face of incredible odds was another one of the wonderful things about her, usually.
Mama seemed to believe that she was going to be getting a saxophone-playing son in law.
She just worries that you’re lonely, Kagome thought to herself.
…and Mama wasn’t wrong.
A year wasn’t a long time, especially with the need to get back on her feet. It was a year of trying to find all the fissures that Bankotsu had left—in her bank accounts, in her credit score, in her ability to trust—and filling them in one-by-one. Moving back in with Mama had at least helped with the bank account and credit score, but not the trust.
Maybe that was why she was so fixated on Inuyasha Taisho. Because she could flirt with him when he came to fix the next terribly wrong thing about her dying work computer. She could keep it light, stare at his gorgeous silver hair and the two scoops of ice cream ass and… his ears. He often wore hats at work to hide them under, much to Kagome’s dismay (she might’ve expressed disappointment at not getting to see the sleek silver dog-ears on the top of his head once… and at least he never wore a hat around her again).
When Inuyasha teased her about her computer in the breakroom, or tromped over to her to demand to know what she did this time, or inconspicuously slipped the hat he wore off his head when he headed to her cubicle, she felt safe. And… well… she absolutely couldn’t try with some other man until she actually tried with Inuyasha.
She’d be ready… someday, she really would. She just needed a sign.
“Dear, we’re here!” Mama unbuckled her seatbelt before the car had stopped, leaning her head against the window and looking at the marquis that was coming into view like a child gazing into a toy store’s Christmas window displays. “Come on!”
They tumbled out of the car, allowing Kagome only a moment to mumble thank you to the driver before she was being tugged toward the Shikon Lounge.
Tonight Only: The Silver Hound! sparkled in the night lights, beckoning a sea of well-dressed women inside.
He only plays on the new moon!
No one knows who he is… he’s like a superhero!
Do you think he ever brings a lucky lady home after the show?
Apparently, it wasn’t just his music that seemed to attract droves of women to the Silver Hound. Kagome wondered if she was the only “lucky lady” at the show whose mother was not angling for the Silver Hound herself, but instead as an opportunity to set up her daughter?
“He doesn’t seem to stick around after his shows to meet his fans,” Mama whispered as the queued up to be led to their table. “But who knows? When he sees you in that dress, no red-blooded man wouldn’t swoon.”
“Mama…” Kagome nudged her mother one last time. “How about we just enjoy the music? That's why we came here, right?”
“A mother can want the best for her child,” Mama teased as they were led to their table: right in the front. As they sat down, Mama’s eyes turned light, and she touched Kagome’s shoulder. “Thank you so much for this. I feel like the world’s luckiest Mama.”
“Well, I’m already the world’s luckiest daughter,” Kagome beamed. “So sounds like we’re even!”
As a waiter took their drink orders, Kagome looked around the room. It was packed, pretty much only with women, though there was the occasional flamboyantly coiffed man. Everyone was dressed to the nines, as if they were all there as extras to a speakeasy movie, with zero doubts about who the star was. Every person in that lounge was whispering excitedly, comparing their favorite songs by The Silver Hound, talking about his lush black hair, the way that he flirted with the audience, how his sultry sounds had brought life back into their bedrooms…
“He sure has a dedicated fanbase,” Kagome murmured, taking a sip of the overpriced old-fashioned she had ordered.
“You’ll see why soon enough,” Mama murmured back, just as the lights began to dim.
Kagome narrowed her eyes as a silhouette strolled onto the stage, saxophone in hand. The room dropped into an exuberant silence as he found his way to the stool. As soon as he sat, the stage lights brightened until…
“Hello to all my kitty cats, are you ready for some jazz?” The Silver Hound’s gruff voice was near immediately drowned out by applause and whistles spurring him on to play. “Okay, okay, I know better than to leave you sweet kitties waiting… Let’s do this.”
There was one person in that room that had not cheered, had not whooped, had not whistled, one Kagome Higurashi.
Because she was the only person in that room who knew exactly who the Silver Hound was.
Mama’s dream about setting up her daughter with the Silver Hound was one step closer to coming true.
Three years ago, if someone had told Inuyasha that the new moon was going to become the night of the month he most looked forward to, he would’ve punched them.
When his yōki receded, his senses all dulled, and he became weak and lethargic; it felt like coming down with the flu. Human nights sucked.
Then… his best friend Miroku made a suggestion. One that involved Inuyasha’s secret love of playing a saxophone (something he had been doing since high school, when he was in jazz band… not like he told anyone about that hobby…). One that he could do under a secret identity because he, as a half-demon, had a single night of the month where he literally was someone different.
That was how the Silver Hound was born.
And it was fucking amazing.
Who knew that playing the sax and flirting with well-to-do housewives would get him a following. And he didn’t realize that his mysterious persona would add to his appeal, scoring him an actual record deal!
The Silver Hound was suave and secretive.
Was he secretly royalty? Perhaps.
Was he currently courting a supermodel? He’d never tell.
The Silver Hound was interesting and fun… and divorced from Inuyasha Taisho.
Inuyasha Taisho was an awkward half-demon who knew about computers.
Was Inuyasha going to fly into a rage because Tsubaki yet again downloaded a spyware game onto her work computer?
Was Inuyasha going to do something dog-like because he was a mutt?
The Silver Hound didn’t need to deal with being called a half-breed. The Silver Hound didn’t have to hide his ears or nearly puncture his hand with his fingers to suppress the instinctive growl that sometimes wanted to break from him, because his growls could make people scared.
Like any half-demon in the last fucking century had had an out-of-control episode.
Half-demon Inuyasha fixed computers and kept to himself, living for that special night each month that he got to be someone else—someone human—away from the bullshit. The man that might’ve been able to get Kikyō to stay.
She likes your ears.
Inuyasha started to see the blaze of green in her hazel eyes, the sheepish grin that came to her face when she saw him appear at her cubicle, waiting for him to resurrect her dead work computer.
“This time I swear I was good!” Godfuck she smelled amazing. And the fact that her eyes twinkled when he took his beanie off and she could see his ears. And how her heart raced a little bit when he got close to her and how she exuded warmth and actually looked forward to seeing him. Yeah. Inuyasha was a goner for Kagome Higurashi.
Hell, he was keeping her dead computer alive solely because it meant weekly visits to her cubicle.
Kagome’s work computer needed to be put out to pasture. Its hardware was failing so badly that a day without a hard drive click was a good day. The operating system she was forced to use for it was about to be disallowed by his employer for being so old and buggy, and the amount of billable hours Inuyasha put just into trying to figure out what was wrong and fix it was at least twice as expensive as just buying Kagome a new work computer.
But Kagome kept refusing.
And… Inuyasha never pushed.
Because Kagome’s terrible computer meant that Inuyasha got to see Kagome so much, and he fucking loved that. (Plus… nothing felt better than declaring that he yet again resurrected the death’s door computer than watching the way Kagome beamed at him.)
Gods, he was hopeless. Someday he was going to need to replace that computer, and on that day, maybe he would actually ask her out like he thought about all the time, channeling some of the Silver Hound’s charisma to get up the courage to do it. Hell, sometimes he half-wished that Kagome would come to one of his shows, and he could flirt with her there as the Silver Hound, but Kagome didn’t like jazz… and honestly, that was probably for the best.
…because Inuyasha wanted to ask Kagome out as himself…
“Hello to all my kitty cats, are you ready for some jazz?” He started his act, letting the squeals and swoons of the crowd bathe him and spur him on; it was almost time for some magic. “Okay okay, I know better than to leave you sweet kitties waiting… Let’s do this.”
Just before he had pressed the saxophone to his lips, someone in the front row caught his eye. Someone in a green cocktail dress. Someone with a blaze of green in her hazel eyes.
Kagome Higurashi had found her way to one of his shows.
Damn him being human. He couldn’t hear her heart; he couldn’t smell those subtle shifts in her scent that betrayed her emotions; he couldn’t even see clearly enough to know if her face showed recognition or not.
Who the hell was she even here with? Kagome had gone through a rough breakup the prior year, and she said she moved back in with her mom to get back on her feet…
She even told him that she ‘was not actively looking or dating—she wasn’t ready’ more than once. Shit, was she ready now?
He needed to get a grip. The person sitting there with Kagome had the same face structure, the same eyes, the same warmth: her mother. Kagome had brought her mother to a Silver Hound show.
…or maybe it was the other way around…
That would make more sense. Kagome’s mom was definitely the Silver Hound’s target audience, and this was the first time that Kagome had been to one of his shows (...What? He needed to carefully survey all the patrons to… be sure he was giving them the best show he could! It had nothing to do with looking for an individual…)
Now’s your shot, Inuyasha thought to himself, letting his lips finally make contact with the mouthpiece. You’ve been dreaming that this would happen, and now it has.
“This one is dedicated to the little filly who captured my heart,” Inuyasha cooed, and he signaled to the band to start playing.
He would give the show of his life tonight, because finally, there was someone in the audience who liked him as a half-demon. Someone he actually did want to take home and serenade.
“I didn’t think you’d want to stay,” Mama teased, chewing on the stick of maraschino cherries she had sweet-talked the bartender into giving her.
Sure, Kagome and Mama were standing outside now that the show was over. They had defied the Silver Hound does not do autographs announcement, and the sad smile on the bouncer’s face while they were corralled out of the building. And they watched as everyone else trickled away, CDs in hand, hopes dashed.
“I had a change of heart.” Kagome shivered in her jacket.
She knew who was on that stage that night. She could hear it in the way he spoke between pieces, she could see it in the way that he fingered the sax, she could feel it in the way that his eyes kept finding her.
The Silver Hound was Inuyasha Taisho.
But the secret of his identity was not why Kagome was watching her breath crystallize that night with her mother. It was… something else: a feeling. As if that night when they met eyes, he started playing his set directly to her. It was the ‘filly that captured his heart,’ and the ‘I dedicate this song to a girl who knows the real side…’ that really did it for her. Because Kagome dared to hope that he knew that she was in the audience, and that those dedications were there because she was in the audience.
“Mama… has Inu—erm, the Silver Hound—ever talked about a girl before?” Kagome inquired.
“I… don’t know.” Mama’s eyes searched Kagome’s, as if she knew solely from the question that Kagome was hiding something. “This was my first live concert.” Here it came: the lean, the eye-narrowing. “Why?”
Because I think that The Silver Hound is secretly the coworker I have a giant crush on and that he recognized me and maybe his little dedications to a girl were actually all for me.
Kagome was definitely not going to be saying that, so she settled for, “His music is really good live, and—”
“I thought that there was an announcement about autographs, ladies,” the silken rasp of The Silver Hound interrupted Kagome before she had to come up with more explanation.
“Ohhh, wouldn’t you make an exception for a widow and her daughter?” Mama immediately batted her eyes and laid it on thick.
But the Silver Hound’s eyes had barely registered Mama. They were fixed on Kagome, holding a combination of disbelief and amusement.
“I… suppose… it could be our little secret,” the Silver Hound replied, stepping closer to Kagome, reaching out his hand to take the CD that she had bought.
He smelled of sandalwood sweat, and the black braid that roped behind him swayed as he walked. His face had not changed at all: still as handsome, but gray had replaced golden irises, and his grin revealed perfectly uniform teeth instead of fangs, and his ears were entirely human, motionless shells instead of the delightful downy triangles that always projected his mood.
“You sure you can trust me with a secret that big?” Kagome probed.
“Uhh…” There it was, the realization. That his secret wasn’t so secret. That he wasn’t The Silver Hound right now, not to Kagome.
“Don’t worry, I’m great at keeping secrets,” Kagome giggled, and she handed the CD to Inuyasha. His face was still twisted in surprise.
She should have left it there. She should have waited for him to sign the CD and said thank you, then turned up Monday at work playing it when her computer inevitably broke again, when she could talk with Inuyasha as if she didn’t know it was him but also ask for jazz recommendations and…
But she didn’t.
“So, that girl you were talking about tonight…” Kagome’s face burned; her throat hosted a lump the size of a grapefruit. “Is she—” She could do this! “...bad with computers?”
Kagome would never forget the smile that came onto his face at that moment, or the way he scratched the back of his head.
“Y—yeah…” Inuyasha replied, his human features strained and worried.
“I know how she feels.” Kagome’s words were gaining confidence. “I’m bad at computers. I have this coworker too… he helps me out so much.” The way Inuyasha’s face was changing, lightening: Kagome was witnessing hope manifest as she spoke, and it encouraged her on. “I r-really like his ears.”
“Is that so?” Inuyasha’s smile was all Kagome needed, he knew and she knew. “Maybe you should tell him…”
“I thought I just did,” Kagome cooed, and finally, tension squashed and truth revealed, she and Inuyasha broke out in uncontrollable laughter.
“Damn me Higurashi.” Inuyasha reached out his hand to take Kagome’s. “If I’d’ve known all I had to do was get you to come to one of my shows… I absolutely would’ve—”
“I think this is where I take my leave,” Mama interrupted, far too elated to delve too much into what was going on. Kagome would tell her later. “You crazy kids go enjoy a milkshake.”
“You sure, Mama?” Kagome turned away from the Silver Hound, though she did not release her grip on his hand.
“Definitely,” Mama chimed, and she waved the two away.
Mama watched as her daughter and the Silver Hound turned and headed away, hand-in-hand, laughing and joking as if they had known each other for a lifetime. She pulled out her phone and summoned a rideshare to take her home.
Never doubt a mother’s intuition, Mama chuckled to herself, and she waved goodbye to her daughter and her future son-in-law, before putting in her earbuds and turning on the Silver Hound’s cover of Feelin’ Good.