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“Kagome?” Inuyasha called from within her hut. The young miko had returned to the Feudal Era only a couple weeks ago, making everyone elated with happiness from her return.
The first couple of nights, she stayed at Sango and Miroku’s, with their three beautiful children. Shippo and Inuyasha also stayed with them and they all stayed up late (aside from the three small kids) reminiscing about their travels all over Japan.
From when they encountered the fake water god, to the peach man, to the time in Kaguya’s castle, all the way to Magatsuhi and Naraku’s final battle, they talked at length of the times they shared together.
Kagome began to cry and Sango joined her; the gap of three years was a lot to bear and while Kagome knew and didn’t want them to stop living their lives, the three sleeping babes reminded her of how some things had definitely changed.
The only thing that hadn’t was Inuyasha. Sort of. Towards the end of their journey, he had grown more patient and more understanding. They had fought less and gotten along so much better than before. The strain of their feelings for each other seemed to make them almost more desperate to be near each other--it even showed the way for Inuyasha to find her within the jewel.
Sitting across from her those late nights as they all talked in merriment, she saw complete and utter devotion...It made the butterflies in her belly go wild. Those beautiful amber eyes haunted her nightmares and daydreams; nightmares that she was trapped in the darkness and then the golden eyes would light up her vision, only for her to wake up in her room all alone.
After the third night, Kaede had shown Kagome a spare hut that was gifted to her because of her return; the details of how and why the newer hut was so readily available were grazed over, making Kagome think it was built for her just in case she had returned by a hanyou who was lurking in a nearby tree.
But Kagome also couldn’t find herself to care as she received gifts and welcomes, along with miko attire, as well as a couple of regular kimonos and yukatas for everyday living, if Kagome decided miko training wasn’t for her.
However, the young girl from the future had returned to use her powers for good, returned for more than just being a miko. She returned to be with Inuyasha; their souls called to each other through time to be reunited.
Even though the cry was loud, demanding, and earnest, Inuyasha had been keeping his distance. Yes, he had been around and engaging in conversations with the others and even with her when they were alone--but he was definitely nervous.
Yes. They had the conversation. Something else about Inuyasha that had changed was he was more patient and careful with his words when he did speak. He had told her he had waited for her to return. He had told her that he cared about her so deeply that when she left, he was lost. But he knew that her family needed her. He knew her friends needed her. The realization that others loved and needed her made it easier for him to let go and be less broken without her. But Inuyasha knew it’d take a lifetime to move on.
Thankfully, since Kagome had come back, he didn’t have to.
On the fifth night of her stay in the Feudal Era, it was only she and Inuyasha in her hut that were awake. Sango and Miroku had left with their girls and Hisui after dinner, Rin and Kaede before, and Shippo had fallen asleep on her futon (somehow also acquired under mysterious circumstances), leaving the young miko and the hanyou to talk quietly.
“So… you’ve asked all of us about what we’ve been doin’ since you--since you were taken,” Inuyasha stuttered, still clearly not over the way the well had ripped her from him those three years ago, before continuing, “but what about you? What did you do?”
“Oh, I--” What did Kagome do that was noteworthy? Graduated high school? Slept? Cleaned the shrine? “I uh--I graduated high school.”
“Oh yea… You worked hard to get in.”
“Yea. I did, didn’t I?” Kagome said sullenly, realizing how much stock and effort she had put into her schooling, neglecting the time she should have savored and enjoyed with Inuyasha.
“What’s wrong?” Inuyasha asked.
“Just… reflecting on some things.”
“Kagome--”
“Just--how I cared so much about school, and my home and--I just… I know I told you how much I cared about you and everything but… I just--I took it for granted. I thought I’d be able to come and go forever.”
“Nothin’ to be ashamed ‘bout. I thought that too.”
“But you also made an effort to come get me, to see me when I was on the other side. I just--”
“Kagome. You had a life. Why are you blaming yourself for that?”
“Because I picked wrong!! My priorities were screwed up! What if I hadn’t come back? What if the well hadn’t reopened?? What if I had been stuck on my side of the well forever and never saw you again?? What if you didn’t know how I felt about you wasn’t fleeting?! What if you stayed here alone!? What if--” Inuyasha’s soft but firm lips cut her off from her tyranny of questioning, making her whimper. She hadn’t even realized that tears had begun to fill her eyes with how upset she was at her ignorance and selfishness three years ago.
She loved Inuyasha so much that it, honest to god, hurt. The time they spent away from each other was miserable. Inuyasha said he was lost--and Kagome had found herself in the same kind of predicament. The high schooler had felt out of place--similar to how Inuyasha felt in a discriminatory village. She found herself eating alone on the rooftop at lunch time, walking remorsefully home because she knew there’d be no flash of red or silver to jump out from behind her. She found herself always in restless slumber, scared that when she opened her eyes, she wouldn’t see Inuyasha, and too scared that when she would close them, he wouldn’t save her from the darkness.
Their lips moved together in a slow and gentle dance. Her hands clenched onto him, pleading and begging for this all to not be a dream, and if it was, that it never would end.
He was the first to pull away, gasping for breath, shocking Kagome as her hanyou never got that winded in a fight. She found herself straddling his lap, one of her hands laced behind the nape of his neck, threaded with his silver beautiful silky hair, while the other was gripping the coarse texture of his haori tightly.
Her lips felt swollen, her eyes were glossy, probably glazed over with the want and desire she felt for him that she had kept buried for so long. Now that Inuyasha was there in front of her, the box that she kept her heart in, to protect it from the hurt that she had experienced in the separation, to never allow anyone else in, to never allow herself to feel the pain of losing anyone else she cared for so deeply again.
“Inuyasha.” Her voice trembled in her ears.
“Can’t go living a what-if-life, ‘Gome. I lived like that for too long; you’re the only one who’s been able ta get me thinkin’ about the here and now.”
“The here and now?” she echoed as his clawed hand came to rest upon her cheek.
“How I’m here. How you’re here. How you don’t hate I’m a hanyou. How you accept me for me… How you’ve always been my home,” he thoughtfully expressed, his eyes shining with the most unfamiliar vulnerability she had ever seen.
That time they visited Jinenji on his farm, to get medicine for Kirara--the moment in which they were leaving the village popped in her mind. Inuyasha mentioned he had never had a home before and she had said how happy it had made her that he was willing to open up to her. It had meant he felt safe with her--but those words--the words that had remained unspoken because they’d only been with each other for two moons at that point--they were being revealed now.
Kagome was Inuyasha’s home. And that’s why he had been lost without her.
To be fair, Inuyasha, somewhere along the way, had also become her own place of refuge. Kagome had fought it, tooth and nail--thinking she had to finish school, get a job, go on with her life once the jewel was completed and Naraku was defeated, but she had been utterly and completely wrong. Her era had become a foreign place to her.
All she wanted was to see the stars again that were lit up so brightly in the night sky, and be next to the lazy lounging hanyou who needed to be explained the beauty behind it all.
“You’re--You’re my home too, Inuyasha. Fate brought me here… It wasn’t a coincidence that you and I met,” Kagome stated with confidence as a smile crawled onto her moist lips. “There’s always been a pull to here--to you. This is where I belong.”
“Kagome…” Inuyasha said hoarsely as he pulled her back in for another kiss.
The rest of the evening, they exchanged heated moments, but always pulled away before going any further. The time wasn’t right. Especially not with a kit snuggled deep within her bed. Instead, they remained up all night, slowly talking, expressing little by little whatever they were comfortable with. Inuyasha still wasn’t overly talkative, still slightly more willing to listen, but Kagome appreciated everything and anything he did share. She also made sure to validate and show him that everything he said with her was safe, and that he could be alright communicating with her.
The next day, Kagome had fallen asleep with the twins outside in Miroku and Sango’s garden while Sango had been doing laundry, and had woken up to find a couple of beautiful, bright red gifts, like the color of Inuyasha’s haori lying by her face.
Little gifts like that (though he never took credit for them, and often would shy away from the attention Miroku, Sango, or even Shippo would try to give him regarding the items) kept appearing. Some appeared after she finished picking herbs with Kaede, some when they were leaving Sango’s hut after dinner.
The thing Kagome always looked forward to, though, was the sweet kisses her hanyou would give her privately. The soft graze of his fingers when no one was looking. The gentle caress of his claws when he wanted to take her hand when they were completely alone.
Inuyasha’s love language had always been acts of service and gifts. Words were never his thing. How could they be when no one had listened to him in the centuries he had spent alone after his mother had died?
But Kagome willingly made sure that what he had missed out on--touch and words--was given back to him fully.
Two weeks later, they hadn’t really progressed any further. Not that the young miko was complaining, or trying to force something that needed to be taken slow. Three years was a long time to try and pick up right where they left off.
But at the same time, Kagome wanted more from the hanyou. She didn’t want them to get married, but she did want to show him she was ready for… things. Physically to move forward. Which, she knew he was interested. Very. Call it intuition… or a very noticeable bulge that was hard to look away from when they had pulled away from their heated kissing.
So. Kagome got the wild idea to try and coax Inuyasha into making a move…a more poignant display she needed to make by stealing his haori. She was tired of him always asking her if she was ready to head back to her hut. It was theirs. They slept together--not on the same futon, because Inuyasha had a line of propriety. It shouldn’t have surprised her; he was always fairly respectable to women.
Inuyasha’s mother had been a princess, and obviously taught him some manners. Said manners were not always utilized, usually out of distrust, but he did possess them with her. And that was why he’d wait until she fell asleep in his arms before laying her down on the futon and then taking his place against the wall nearest to her in the hut.
But Kagome was ready for more. So, when she awoke in the morning and her beautiful hanyou was still deep within his slumber, and Shippo was gone for his fox-training at the kitsune academy, Kagome rose as quietly as possible and went to the door of the hut. There, upon a hook Inuyasha (yes, she knew it was Inuyasha as he had included special shelves, window enhancements, hooks, and other metal things forged that were early advancements of this era) had installed was his haori. Some nights they took the long way home and ended up on the hill just past the Goshinboku and would gaze at the stars.
With the autumn chill, it would get cool, even with her miko clothing. Inuyasha always laid his robe of the fire rat upon her shoulders to keep her warm. Some things never changed.
Kagome honestly missed being within his musky scent-filled haori. It always made her feel safe, secure, protected, and back when she had no idea how Inuyasha felt, hopeful--hopeful that he did actually return her feelings.
Now? Now she knew.
And now she was going to tease him and hopefully force the half-demon into admitting that everything she owned was also his--and that they should move forward and actually be a ‘them’. Define the relationship.
Okay. Maybe that wasn’t totally fair. Inuyasha had confessed his feelings for her, how she was his home, how she was born to meet him, and he was born for her. Kagome knew there was no one else for him, just like there was no one else for her, but…
Words seem to fail him in defining what was between them. Maybe he was nervous no one would give them blessings? Maybe he was nervous that she was a miko and that they wouldn’t be able to go further??
No. The young miko knew it was within her hands to clear up any hesitations, any misunderstandings--anything that was holding Inuyasha back from marrying her. Because it was going to happen. Whether it would be a secret, whether it would be a small gathering like she wanted, or whether it would be a big village event. It. Was. Going. To. Happen.
So when her inu-hanyou came out of her hut, in just his kosode and hakama and she was wearing his haori over her miko garbs, she saw his eyebrow raise and she tried to play it off coolly. Kagome was diligently picking the weeds from her already planted garden. When he emerged and ambled around to the side of the hut, he originally looked confused, and then it shifted to amusement.
Leaning his back against the hut, Inuyasha smirked, letting one of his fangs dip below his lip, as he crossed his arms over his chest and asked, “Uh--not that I’m complainin’, but why you wearin’ my robe of the fire rat?”
“Your robe? You mean ‘our’ robe.”
“Huh?” His demeanor shifted to pure perplexity as he uncrossed his arms.
“What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is yours,” Kagome said in a singsong voice.
“What--I--”
“So that means,” Kagome informed Inuyasha as she began to rise from the ground to her feet, trying to be graceful and teasing as she made her way to her hanyou to stand before him, caressing his chest with her hands; as she looked into the golden hues, she was so happy to see him, everyday now for the rest of her life, “that my hut, is your hut. That your sword, is my sword. That my food is your food. That your smile, is my smile. That my bed, is your bed--”
“Kagome--”
“That your life, is my life. That my body, is your body--”
“Kagome--”
“Do you get… what I’m trying to tell you…?” Kagome asked nervously. Her arms were wrapped around his shoulders, her body smoothly molded to his, but she was nervous of his rejection.
She was seriously foolish. Kagome should have known this was silly and that she should have been patient and let Inuyasha work his way up to proposing. Her head dipped away and she bit her lip in anxiety of her boldness. Gods. What was wrong with her??
But when Inuyasha’s hand caressed her hips, and then the other cupped her cheek to bring her eyes back to his, Kagome saw his face and nearly sobbed in relief.
“You wanna be fully a hanyou’s wife? Are--Are you sure?”
“Inuyasha--I want nothing more!”
Inuyasha smiled in relief and then took her lips in his, donning upon her kiss and kiss. Kagome grinned and laughed in merriment into his mouth. Thankful. Happy. Content. And both types of excitement that he wanted to be hers.