InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ B & B ❯ Owner of a Lonely Heart ( Chapter 2 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Blanket Disclaimer:

Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi, or VIZ Productions.


========================






Chapter 2 – Owner of a Lonely Heart






The following morning, Inuyasha was awakened by the most wonderful smell to have ever drifted past his nose.

She has coffee, oh thank kami…

Lying in bed for a while longer, he realized he could hear the sounds of breakfast preparation taking place in the kitchen, and nervously wondered how the young woman had managed to walk past his room without her footsteps waking him up. Then again, his bed was exceptionally comfortable, and despite his lingering paranoia, there was undeniably something about her whole place that just felt…safe…so it was no wonder why he had fallen into such a deep, restful sleep. He honestly doubted that she had used any kind of magic to sneak past him. Actually, at that point, he was beginning to seriously doubt that she had any ulterior motives at all. After all, if she were going to do something about him being a youkai in the human world, well then she would’ve done it last night, right?

After getting dressed in his jeans, shirt and hat, he took a couple of minutes to make his bed, and then barefooted, he headed out cautiously into the living room. This woman was kind enough to let him stay in her home despite him being a youkai, and though he realized that letting strangers stay in her home was what she did for a living, he still didn’t want to risk upsetting or offending her. If he truly had hit the jackpot, then the last thing he wanted to do was fuck it up for himself.

Spotting her in the kitchen as he entered the living room, Inuyasha relaxed tremendously at the sight before him. If she had been planning on having him captured, would she have gotten up extra early to make breakfast for him? Logically, one would assume she should have turned him in last night, if she were going to do so at all. He was fairly certain it was no longer a concern he needed to plague himself with. As he approached, something in him stirred at the sight of a woman fixing him breakfast, though he quickly reminded himself that her cooking his meals for him was just another part of the service. Still, the woman was a sight to see, her hair, which had been loose the night before, all wrapped up in a bun, exposing the entirety of her neck in her white and pink spaghetti-strap summer dress. He was relieved to see that she was barefoot as well, rather than sporting a pair of house slippers. Truth be told, the hanyou hated wearing anything on his feet, but he’d picked up his zori somewhere along the way because in this day and age, having dirty feet in the house simply wasn’t acceptable. He understood that, and the last thing he wanted to be accused of was tracking dirt into somebody’s home like a dog.

Kagome was lost in her own little world as she buttered the toast, thinking about her unusual houseguest. He was clearly a youkai; of that there was no doubt. Even if she couldn’t sense demonic auras, a talent she’d had ever since she was a small child, there was really no way to miss his unusual hair or eye color. But even if you chalked those two things up as cosmetic, there were also his claws and fangs to consider; they most certainly looked real, and Halloween was over two months away. Besides, it didn’t really seem like he was even trying to hide what he was. He’d more or less admitted it by not denying it when she’d called him a youkai to his face, instead merely voicing his surprise over her being a miko. Kagome found herself wondering what an inu-youkai such as himself – she assumed he was inu based on his name – was doing needing to rent a room for three nights. Though she knew it wasn’t really any of her business.

“Ohayo gozaimasu.” she greeted cheerfully without turning around when she felt his approach from behind.

“Good morning.” he repeated, inhaling deeply before sighing in delight.

“Would you like some coffee?” Kagome giggled, a cup of the heavenly liquid already in her hand and on its way to him as he took a seat at the table. “Cream or sugar?”

“Black.” he answered, taking a sip of the delightfully bitter beverage before adding, “I was afraid you’d only have tea.”

Nodding in understanding, she turned back to her eggs before explaining, “These days, a lot of people prefer Western breakfast items, so I always make sure to give my guests a choice. I usually take their breakfast orders the night before, but I kinda forgot about it last night. I guess my mind was elsewhere.” she finished with a nervous giggle. Taking a sip from her own cup of black coffee, she asked, “What would you prefer?”

“Whatever you want to cook for me is fine, Kagome. Out on my own, I don’t eat hum…uh…home cooking very often, so I’m sure I’ll like whatever you prepare. Oh, except no natto, too stinky for my nose.”

Turning off the fire under her own eggs and setting the skillet on a cool burner, Kagome turned around and offered Inuyasha a warm, yet teasing grin.

“You don’t have to tiptoe around the species barrier, you know. I’m friends with a den of kitsune, remember?”

He relaxed some under her amused gaze.

“I’m just not used to people knowing what I am any more. It’s weird that you’re so okay with it.”

Of course, she thinks I’m a youkai…he thought, remembering their conversation from the night before. Figures that she has to be a miko. She’ll know the truth tomorrow night when my youki suddenly disappears, crap.

“Well I grew up on a shrine, so I learned a lot from my grandfather about the various youkai of the world.” Kagom began to explain, pulling Inuyasha from his thoughts. “He even put my fat ol’ cat Buyo on a diet, afraid he would turn into a bakeneko since he weighed over a kan, and then Buyo went and turned into a bakeneko anyway after his thirteenth birthday. That was shortly before…”

Pausing, it took Kagome a moment to calm herself, wondering what had possessed her to start spilling her guts to a total stranger. “Well…Buyo never harmed anyone, but he ran off one day and I haven’t seen him sense. I’m sure he’s doing well.”

With those words, Kagome walked forward and placed some plates on the table in front of her guest. Having decided to prepare for him a combination of traditional Japanese breakfast items with some American elements thrown in, she sat down a bowl of miso soup, some rice and a small plate of grilled fish, as well as one fried egg and some buttered toast. Inuyasha watched her work with a silent, thoughtful expression. He would have to be blind to miss the sudden melancholy atmosphere to her demeanor, not to mention the fact that her scent suddenly reeked of sadness.

“Something happened to your family.” he stated softly, it wasn’t a question.  

Sitting down across from him with her own plate of toast and scrambled eggs, plus a bowl of miso soup, Kagome nodded solemnly before forcing her smile back in place.

“I’m sorry.” she giggled again, waving her hand as though she were being silly. “Listen to me, just blabbing away. I’m sure you prefer quiet mornings, especially if you’re used to staying by yourself.”

“Actually…” he confessed after taking a few bites of food. “Since I’m usually by myself, I really don’t mind it if you wanna talk. It sounds like you could use the opportunity to get it off your chest.”

Plus, I’ll know if you’re lying…he added in his mind, mentally tapping his nose.

Kagome didn’t know what it was about the canine man sitting before her that compelled her to be so open and honest about everything, but after his reassurance that he didn’t mind listening to her tale, she found herself telling him everything. How she’d grown up on her family’s shrine in Tokyo, learning from an early age that she possessed spiritual powers, and that it was supposedly her destiny to become a great shrine miko. How her grandmother from her mother’s side had purchased the Yukiyama Inn and how she’d stayed there for a week when she was fifteen, feeling it in her bones that that was where her future lied. How her family’s beloved pet cat that they’d had since she was four had turned into a fabulous bakeneko, and that she hadn’t feared him, and how Buyo had continued to be like a member of the family until the horrible day her family had been taken away from her. She had spent over a month in the hospital, and when Kaede had come down to get her, helping her go through the shrine house for her things, Buyo had been nowhere to be found. Kagome had figured that he’d probably assumed they had all been killed, and so he’d simply moved on. At least as a bakeneko she knew he could take care of himself. Kagome then went on to tell Inuyasha of how her life had first gotten started in her new home, her temporary job as a waitress, meeting and befriending the kitsune, and her grandmother’s untimely passing from cancer. She was all alone, now, though she knew the spirits of her family were still watching over her. It still saddened her, at times, and sometimes she felt a bit lonely, but generally speaking she was a happy person, and he knew that that was true, remembering her warm smile from when she’d first greeted him yesterday evening. Actually, he knew that everything she’d just told him was true, not having once picked up even the slightest trace of dishonesty in her scent. No matter how good a liar somebody might think they were, nobody could fool his nose. Kagome was for real.

“What about you?” she asked him suddenly, her tone innocent and unassuming. “Anything you’d like to share?”

“Uh…”

Inuyasha was saved by the bell, literally, when Kagome’s cell phone suddenly went off.

“Oh! Excuse me.” she exclaimed, jumping up to make a grab for her phone.

“Moshi-moshi, Yukiyama Inn.”

“Tonight and tomorrow night?” she asked, furrowing her brow when she glanced Inuyasha’s way, unable to miss how he visibly stiffened at her words, his face growing nervous. “I’m terribly sorry, but I’m booked through until tomorrow night. I will have full vacancy after that. Yes, Mmm-Hmm. Okay! I’ll put you two down for next weekend, then. Great, see you then. Bye.”

Pushing ‘end’ and setting her phone back on the charging plate, Kagome jumped a little when she turned around again only to suddenly find Inuyasha standing less than two feet in front of her.

“Why did you do that?” he asked her, truly perplexed and more than a tad suspicious. “You can’t possibly make very much money during off-season, so I’m sure you could’ve used the extra income.”

“W-well, they’re coming next weekend, so no harm done.” Kagome answered nervously.

“But you didn’t know they’d be okay with delaying their getaway when you first turned them down for this weekend.” he pointed out.

“I…uh…y-you didn’t look too thrilled at the idea of more people showing up, so I figured that since you get to be yourself in front of others so rarely, I didn’t want to spoil your chance to relax without worrying about someone else discovering what you are.”

“You don’t even know what I am.” he told her matter-of-factly, and with a hint of warning.

Kagome took a step back at that, startled by his sudden change of demeanor and momentarily finding herself worried if perhaps she’d made a terrible mistake. What if he was a serial killer or something? But no…she still detected no maliciousness in his aura. His youki pulsed with power, much stronger than that of the kitsune, but it was not dark. He was a strong youkai, but he was not an evil man.

Inuyasha hadn’t meant to frighten his host, and he was mentally kicking himself for the instant spike of fear in her scent as he got up in her face about why she’d just lied to potential clients on his behalf, but then just as quickly as it’d come, the stench of fear began leaving her in waves, and suddenly, she was offering him that same warm smile she’d bestowed upon him the night before.

“Then why don’t you tell me?” she asked him then, and for some reason, he felt the sudden urge to pull the wool cap from his head…so he did.

Kagome gasped, the sound causing the exposed ears upon his head to flatten backwards in apprehension. He was convinced, having grown up on a shrine and learning about youkai from an early age as she had, that she would know what the ears meant. Now he would see how she truly felt about allowing a freak like him to be in her home. Better to get it out now if she was going to have a problem with it, considering he wouldn’t be able to hide his transformation from her, and he couldn’t risk getting kicked out while in his human form. This way, he still had time to find himself shelter somewhere else if he had to.

Kagome was stunned speechless, unable to pull her eyes away from the twin fuzzy appendages flicking nervously upon her guest’s head.

“You’re…hanyou?” she asked quietly, wanting to be sure.

He nodded curtly, his face unreadable.

Of course! It all makes perfect sense now!

It hadn’t really made sense to her that a youkai would want to play human like that for no reason, renting a room from her for a few nights when there was truly no need to. Youkai were beings of magic, of energy, and while a lot of them liked living in the physical world, it wasn’t as if they were truly stuck there. Hanyou, on the other hand, were stuck in the physical world. They were still mortal, in a sense, comprised of genuine flesh and blood. Her grandfather had taught her several different things about youkai, and one of them was how an animal-based hanyou would almost always possess a physical trait or two from their youkai side’s animal form, a trait they could not change, because as a hanyou, they could not magically alter their appearances. They were truly a cross between a human and their youkai parent’s animal, as if a human and a normal animal had somehow interbred, but then with some youkai magic thrown in for good measure. A youkai’s humanoid form was merely a glamour created by their energy, their animal form being their true nature, and the one that supplied the genes to their offspring. But while a youkai was also made of flesh and blood, in this sense, their flesh and blood, even in their animal form, was still an illusion in a way, created from their ability to turn energy into substance. That was why if you killed a youkai with a purifying arrow they poofed away into nothingness, because by destroying the energy that sustained them in life, there was also nothing left to leave a body behind. They were what Shippou had taught her were called ‘real illusions’, as contradictive as that concept might seem. But a hanyou wasn’t an illusion. A hanyou was a human being that happened to be half magical animal. Though of course, society didn’t view them that way. But hanyou were so rare, Kagome had honestly never thought that she would ever one day meet one. She remembered reading about a case, once, where a woman had reported being raped by an oni, and then it’d turned out that she was pregnant. The unborn infant had been aborted and then studied, like some sort of bizarre genetic experiment. The scientists had all jumped at the chance to study how human and youkai DNA could function together in a single life form. But the fact that, if allowed to grow up, a hanyou was essentially a person was a fact that the human world deliberately overlooked.

Inuyasha’s voice suddenly asking “Well? Are you going to say anything?” snapped Kagome out of her trance in that moment, as she realized with horror that she’d just been openly gawking at her houseguest for the last couple of minutes.

“Gomen-nasai…” Kagome apologized immediately, bowing submissively. “I didn’t mean to stare, it’s just…wow.” She cringed at her poor choice of words, though he didn’t see it since she was still bowed.

“Stand back up, would ya?” he asked her then, lifting his right hand to rub at the back of his head, embarrassed for having flustered her so. “I can handle staring, I’m used to staring. I wanna hear the words.”

“Um, what words?” she asked as she rose to meet his gaze, her brow furrowing in confusion.

“The next words to leave your mouth, whatever they may be.” he replied.

“Ano…” Kagome mumbled, still mildly confused. “It makes sense to me now.” she decided upon.

What makes sense? he thought. Suddenly, he was the one who was confused.

Perhaps reading it in his eyes, or perhaps having simply already known that she should elaborate upon such a vague statement, Kagome continued in that moment.

“It makes sense why you would need to rent a room.” she explained, and his eyes immediately widened, truly surprised that she would know that much about hanyou, having grown up on a shrine or not.

“Being hanyou, you cannot project yourself into the land of the youkai. You cannot co-exist with our timeline safely tucked away in another dimension. You’re stuck here, on Earth, just like any full-blooded human. But being unable to truly live like a human, it must be so hard for you, constantly wandering from place to place, always afraid of letting people know what you are.”

He relaxed somewhat as her explanation sank in. So…she didn’t know everything about hanyou, after all. Of course, part of him had actually almost hoped that she had known, because now it meant that he would have to explain it to her. But why do today what you could put off till tomorrow, right?

“So it really doesn’t bother you?” he asked her then, his expression and tone akin to something like wonder. “That I’m a half-breed freak?”

Kagome crinkled her nose at his words.

“I guess ‘half-breed’ is an accurate term, but I don’t like it, it sounds insulting. Freak? No way. You should see some of the people I get as guests from time to time. I have seen my fair share of freaks, and believe me, you’re not a freak.”

He chuckled a little at that, her mirth contagious as she giggled quietly.

“I am surprised, though.” she admitted after a moment, the atmosphere between them relaxed as she sat back down to finish her breakfast, Inuyasha quickly following suit.

“Oh? Didn’t expect the ears, huh?” he teased, wiggling them back and forth, and actually smirking as she giggled again, her eyes following their every movement.

“No way.” she confessed behind a laugh. “I had pretty much figured out you were hiding your ears with the cap, but I just thought you were hiding pointy elfin ears on the sides of your head, you kept the cap tugged down so low.”

“I had to keep it tugged down that low so that no one would notice that I had no ears on the sides of my head.”

“That makes sense.” Kagome said with a nod, refilling her cup of coffee before offering him a warmer, which he readily accepted.

“But your youki is so strong…” she added after a moment, her voice taking on a hint of wonder. “I’m really having a hard time believing that you’re half human, with a demonic aura that powerful. Your youkai parent had to be insanely powerful.”

He just shrugged.

“My father was an ancient daiyoukai.” he told her, confirming her suspicions, before giving her a brief, highly edited rundown of his own life’s story.

While he obviously wasn’t ready to completely open up with a woman he’d known for less than twenty-four hours, he figured it wouldn’t hurt anything to explain a thing or two, considering she already knew what he was. So he told her a few key points, like how his father had fallen in love with his human mother, and how he had died protecting her and her entire hometown from a terrible dragon attack before he was born. Because everyone had borne witness to his father’s good deed and sacrifice, taking the dragon out with him and thus assuring their town’s safety, when they later discovered the secret that his mother was pregnant the townspeople had willingly, albeit reluctantly, allowed his mother to stay and raise him among them. He’d been the victim of prejudice, ridicule and taunting growing up, but he had at least had a safe childhood, raised by a mother who loved him. He told Kagome in passing of his sword and fire-rat fur kimono, explaining that they were mementos from his father that the daiyoukai had given to Izayoi as gifts for their child upon first discovering that she was pregnant, though he didn’t elaborate to the human woman before him the secrets of just what powers those objects truly contained. Kagome smiled to learn that, although the hanyou had never met his father, he knew that the full-blooded inu-youkai had loved him, just as his mother had. She figured the demonic sword was probably very dangerous, but she still held no fear for the man sitting across from her at her kitchen table.

Inuyasha then went on to tell Kagome, briefly, of his various escapades after his mother’s passing, as he lived with the taijiya for a time before being more or less excommunicated from that community, and how he’d been a nomad ever since, just doing whatever he could to get by. He didn’t tell her anything of his failed relationship with Kikyou, it was none of her business, after all, and he also didn’t tell her, yet, about the secret of the new moon, though he knew that that was one secret he would have to divulge before too much longer.

“It sounds like your life has been even lonelier than mine.” Kagome replied with a sigh once he finished telling her his story.

He merely shrugged again.

“You get used to it.” he brushed off, rising from his chair to take his empty dishes to the sink.

“Oh I’ll get that. You’re my guest, after all.” Kagome insisted, shooing him out of the kitchen while she did the dishes.

Deciding to take advantage of having a washer and dryer at his disposal, Inuyasha went back to his room and changed into his old fire-rat robes, his demonic outfit – complete with spider-silk kosode and fundoshi – being the only clothing he owned that never needed to be washed. He then bundled up all of his ‘human’ clothes, consisting of four pairs of jeans, five t-shirts and two wife beaters, and headed past Kagome into the washroom. Turning the machine on and adding the detergent, Inuyasha couldn’t help but feel strangely relieved to finally have somebody to talk to. Truly talk to. Although he didn’t feel comfortable opening up to Kagome about anything emotional, refusing to let the hardened wall around his heart crumble away completely, he found he didn’t mind temporarily removing a brick or two from that wall. It couldn’t hurt to let a little fresh air in now and then, right? He hadn’t met a soul who had been okay with him being half inu-youkai since his days in the taijiya village, and while a part of him was dreading having to reveal his most intimate secret to her, another part also told him that she would accept that part of him as well, just as she seemed to accept everything else about him without issue. And that acceptance was so odd in its own right, Inuyasha couldn’t decide if he was thrilled to have met Kagome, or terrified. Already he wasn’t looking forward to leaving her establishment the day after tomorrow, and that was bad, very bad. There was nothing for him there. Sure, the place carried with it a sense of security, but how long would that security truly last? He was bound to eventually find himself on his own again, so what was the point in delaying the inevitable? What was the point in opening himself up only to be hurt again? Besides, it wasn’t like he was staying there for free. If he were just living with Kagome for free it would be a different story, but he was paying for his time at her inn, and he needed to save his money for his human nights. He wasn’t rich, and paying to stay even longer at Kagome’s B & B would be downright foolish, no matter how badly a small part of him wanted to stay in her company. Still, he was there for the next two days, so there was no harm in enjoying it while it lasted, right?

Keeping that last thought in mind, it was with a nod of determination to not let his usual pessimistic outlook on life get him down that he exited the washroom, finding Kagome dusting in the living room. She looked up his approach with a mild look of surprise that quickly turned into a broad grin, as she told him she thought he looked very ethereal in his vintage suikan and hakama, like a celestial being from a Noh play. He blushed at the unexpected and unusual compliment. Having taken the tie from his hair, it was loose and free flowing, and with his canine ears exposed and erect on the top of his head, he looked every bit the creature of legend that he really was.

The rest of the day was spent lazing about. Since neither of them really had anything to do, Kagome volunteered to watch TV with him out in the living room. Although he wouldn’t admit it directly, she could sense from him that he was starved for attention. While he’d told her of how he occasionally managed to land himself a random room with some random person for a month or two here and there, this time was unquestionably different because he could finally be himself.

Since he obviously wasn’t following the storyline behind any kind of drama or sitcom on TV, Kagome turned it to the game show channel, and they spent the rest of the morning going into early afternoon laughing at the contestants on Majide and Human Tetris. She then made them a quick pair of bento boxes for lunch, and after eating she offered to take him on a walk through the forest to meet the kitsune. Kagome explained that Shippou and the others had been told long ago not to approach the property if she had any guests, so it was unlikely that they would show themselves of their own accord while he was present, hanyou or no. Not wanting to be argumentative with his host, Inuyasha had already told himself that he would go along with just about whatever she suggested, though if he were to be honest with himself he actually was mildly curious about the kitsune.

Introductions went well, and Inuyasha found that he could understand why Kagome had decided against selling her grandmother’s fairly new business to return to the shrine of her roots after Kaede’s passing. He saw the way her eyes lit up when the kitsune children showed themselves. Though Kagome hadn’t said as much, Inuyasha was sure that the fox cubs were the real reason why she had decided to stay in her new home rather than move back to Tokyo. He had to admit, in that moment, he was almost as grateful for her decision as the kitsune.

Dinner that night was a peaceful affair. Once again dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt after taking a brief shower, Inuyasha left his hair loose from its tie upon Kagome’s insistence that she preferred it that way. Of course, fair was fair, and so Kagome’s raven locks were also free flowing about her shoulders since he also preferred her hair that way. The fact that they were each styling their hair according to the other’s preference plagued him momentarily, but since that fact didn’t seem to faze Kagome any, he quickly decided to let it go. Having plenty of eggplant in her vegetable garden, the would-be miko decided to make them a traditional yakinasu with harusame salad on the side. Inuyasha had had grilled eggplant before, but quickly decided that he liked Kagome’s the best. For dessert, she surprised him by producing a carton of cactus ice cream from her freezer, and taking her word for it he gave it a try, and was very pleased with that decision.

Going to bed for his second of three nights in Kagome’s house, Inuyasha felt more relaxed than he could remember feeling in a long time, at least while sharing a roof with a human. If it weren’t for the nights of the new moon, he would probably avoid human beings indefinitely. With his fire-rat robes he didn’t really need any other clothing, and since he could hunt for himself with little effort he truly had no reason for money whatsoever, aside from purchasing shelter for his human nights. The forests were not as void of youkai as most humans liked to believe, and while it was true that they were few and far between, and generally left him alone on most days, the sensation of his youki fleeing him as he became human would function as a beacon for all the hidden youkai of the wilds, a giant neon sign with an arrow pointed at his head, reading ‘Come and get it!’

It was for that reason, and that reason alone, that he interacted with humans as often as he did, doing work whenever work found him. Usually, those odd jobs would include free shelter for at least a little while, so he usually tried to time it right so that he would spend his human night with his temporary employer, tucked securely away in his room for the night, of course. The money he would make at those times paid for shelter during the months when he did not have a current job, and every so often, he would treat himself to a couple of extra nights, like he had done this time around. That was partially because he was spoiled, and preferred sleeping in a bed to a tree more than he was willing to admit, but mainly, it was to help avoid suspicion, should anyone ever think to make a connection between a youkai suddenly needing a hotel room for one night and the lunar cycle. With the moonless night falling on a Sunday this time around, it had made perfect sense to seek a room for the entire weekend. No one would suspect a thing, and since he could afford it, why not? He had a whole month to worry about adding more money back into his ‘bank account’, which was code for one of the inside pockets of his backpack. He presently had enough money on him to pay for seven more nights in an average hotel room, so if he switched his game plan to budgeting his funds being more important than alleviating suspicion, he was good for another seven months, at least. If he headed back into the nearest big city and spent a few moonless nights in a capsule hotel, he could probably even make his money stretch for an entire year. If there was one thing he had learned in his long life, it was to always plan ahead, and to always have a fallback plan after the main one. Worst-case scenario, he knew he could always head to the busy streets of Tokyo and simply wander around all night, the endless sea of drunken humans functioning as his shelter. As unappealing as it was, it kept him alive for another month.

```

Waking up the morning of the night of the new moon, Inuyasha grimaced as the smell of freshly brewed coffee reached his nose. Not because he suddenly found his favorite Western innovation unappealing, but because with the coffee came instant thoughts of the woman who had brewed it. He wasn’t looking forward to telling Kagome about tonight.

Ordinarily, it wouldn’t have been a problem. Without her miko powers, even if she had still managed to figure out what he was based on appearances, she could’ve remained none the wiser as he merely excused himself a little early that evening. He had yet to take advantage of the washroom’s inviting bathtub, which could have functioned as the perfect excuse, stating that he’d like to unwind in a bath before bed. How could she argue him that? Then he could have stayed locked away in the washroom until he was certain she had retired for the night before sneaking back to his own quarters. Yes, that would have been the perfect way to avoid her during his transformation. Unfortunately, the kami weren’t that merciful toward hanyou.

Kagome was a miko…a real miko. Professional or not, it didn’t matter. She had the gift. She could create wards, and he would bet his entire bank account that she could fire purifying arrows. Miko, even in this day and age, were still trained with the bow for meditative purposes, so there’s no way she didn’t know how to handle one if she’d been raised to be a miko before her family’s death. Being able to sense youki, and having already commented on how powerful his aura was, meant that there was no way she wouldn’t detect its sudden absence during his human transformation. He also knew that his youki didn’t just disappear in one swoop, as if he had suddenly vanished, but rather, it actually pulsed a few times, steadily growing weaker and weaker in waves until the change finally consumed him. He already had first hand documentary – from another miko he tried not to think about – that the pulsing and extinguishing of his youki as he gradually turned human felt to a spiritualist as though he were dying. If he didn’t tell Kagome in advance what was going on and just tried to hide out in the washroom or his bedroom all night, she would probably run in on him, frantic that something terrible had happened to him.

Okay, so she might not actually run in on him in the bathtub, but he could certainly picture her banging on the door, crying his name and frantically asking if he were all right. Of course, he would be obligated to answer her, especially since silence would almost guarantee her eventual entry, but then as he shakily tried to tell her that he was fine and to leave him alone, she would undoubtedly pick up on the agitation in his voice, not to mention the change in pitch as even his vocal cords lost some of their strength.

Oh yes, he had thought the entire scenario through.

How she would react afterwards he couldn’t be certain of, figuring it could be anything from embarrassment on her part for having stumbled upon such a private time for him, to feeling hurt that he had failed to tell her something so important, like he didn’t trust her. Of course, it wasn’t really as if he did trust her, but he also knew he didn’t really have a choice in the matter. The bottom line was that she would fine out, one way or another, and he was mature enough at that stage in his life to comprehend the fact that, regardless of the outcome, it would be better for him if he just came clean and told her in advance.

It was with that last thought in mind that the inu-hanyou finally dragged his ass out of bed. Running his claws through his hair for a moment, he pulled on a faded pair of jeans and a gray wife beater, smiling a little to himself as the scent of Kagome’s ‘spring time’ detergent reached his nose. It was nice to have clean clothes again. Making the bed, Inuyasha headed out past the living room and into the kitchen, smiling at the different, yet familiar scene.

Kagome had left her hair down this time, a simple ribbon pulling it back so that nothing got in her way while cooking. Instead of the white and pink floral sundress from yesterday, she was once again wearing a pair of light blue jeans, similar in shade to his own, with a white short-sleeve button-up blouse completing her casual look.

“Hey, we match!” Kagome giggled in greeting as she turned to offer him his cup of coffee.

“How about that…” he commented absentmindedly, the scent of food making his mouth water.

Kagome’s mouth was watering for a whole different reason.

He looks…really good in a tank top. Stop it! Bad Kagome!

“I’ve got to do some weeding today.” she told him conversationally as she placed his breakfast before him, hoping to distract herself as she explained her reason for the denim, since she would be on her knees out in the garden. She quickly turned around to hide her blush at the blunt statement of her being on her knees, but her embarrassment went unnoticed by him as he took another sip of coffee, politely waiting for her to join him at the table with her own food before taking his first bite.

“No problem, you do whatever you gotta do.” he told her then, nonchalantly eating his fish while mentally kicking himself for his cowardice to start the much needed conversation.

Inuyasha was so caught up in his inner nervousness about how to approach her regarding the secret of tonight that he was completely oblivious to the fact that Kagome was also harboring her own secret anxieties.

Despite outward appearances, Kagome was a nervous wreck. She had done a lot of thinking last night, as she’d lied awake unable to fall asleep, staring up at her ceiling.

I don’t want him to leave…she had realized, shocked and confused over where such a feeling had even come from. Yes, he seemed to be a relatively nice man, and yes, her heart could most certainly go out to him, given his plight, but that didn’t really mean that she knew him.

Still, Kagome had always prided herself on being an excellent judge of character, and there was just something about Inuyasha that told her he was a good man, a man deserving of a decent life. She wasn’t really sure what she could offer him, or even if he would be interested, but after his telling her of how he frequently bounced around staying with random strangers for a few months at a time as he earned his keep with the occasional odd jobs, Kagome was certain she could put him to work with some kind of chore or another so that he wouldn’t feel like a charity case. She got the feeling that he was too prideful to accept an offer to stay without earning his keep in one fashion or another. She also supposed it would be better to start small, telling him he could stay for ‘a while longer’ if he wanted to, that he didn’t have to run out right away. The way he’d made it sound, that he’d stay with whomever until he wore out his welcome – which translated as either completing whatever job he had been hired to do, or his employer discovering his youkai status, whichever came first – struck Kagome as meaning that he was always trying to find shelter for himself in one way or another. Not that she could blame him. Despite being half youkai and undoubtedly having some sense of comfort out in the wild forests, she could only imagine that it was his human half that kept him coming back to society time and time again, seeking some semblance of normalcy.

Now all she had to do was find the courage to extend her offer before he actually left, though she supposed there was truly no hurry since he was there for another day. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to start subtly making the man feel needed and appreciated.

“If you want to just kick back and watch TV or whatever, you’re more than welcome to do whatever you want, but if you’re bored, I could certainly use an extra pair of hands out in the garden, if you wouldn’t mind.”

Inuyasha froze mid-bite, his chopsticks suspended in the air with his next bite of fish immediately forgotten as he stared at Kagome with surprise and confusion.

Does she normally recruit her guests to aid her in the garden? he wondered.

Somehow he didn’t think so, but the girl had already admitted to feeling lonely at times, and it’d probably been months since the last time she’d had anyone staying with her. He could understand her being torn between needing to do her obligatory chores and wanting to visit with him. Besides, if he were to be truly honest with himself, he wouldn’t mind remaining in her company, either, and he also kind of felt like he owed her one, allowing him to stay in her inn considering what he was. Sure, he was a paying customer, but he’d lost track of the number of times he’d been shown the ‘We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone’ sign before being asked none too kindly to leave.

Shrugging as nonchalantly as he could after regaining composure of himself, Inuyasha ate his bite of fish, taking a sip of coffee before finally stating, “Not like I had any plans. Sure, I’ll help out.”

```

Weeding was a surprisingly fun pastime, at least when a gaggle of kitsune got it in their heads to make things more…interesting. And ‘gaggle’ was an accurate term, considering the fox kits had all flown in wearing the guise of white-fronted geese. Suddenly, for every weed Inuyasha pulled, two more grew in its place, each with cartoon faces blowing raspberries at him. Kagome couldn’t stop laughing, assuring Inuyasha that it meant the kids liked him. Shippou broke away from the pack after a few minutes, defecting to their side as he declared to Kagome that he would protect to two of them from further assault, to which Inuyasha snorted, though he had to admit a large part of him actually liked the runt. It had surprised him that none of the kitsune had had a problem with his hanyou status, though he supposed it wasn’t that unusual since kitsune were among one of the few races of youkai that truly liked humans, and not as a snack. It wasn’t all that uncommon for female foxes to fall in love with human men, though such interracial coupling almost never led to hanyou children when the female was the youkai. They were instinctively very aware of their body’s fertility cycle. It also wasn’t all that uncommon for male kitsune to take on human female appearances, though there was no need to worry about conceiving in those cases for a whole different and obvious reason.

After finally ridding Kagome’s vegetable garden of every real and fake weed it contained, Inuyasha was caught off guard by the strange smile the miko sent his way. The way she gazed at him, as if they were friends, as if they’d known each other for longer than just two days, immediately reminded him of a very important conversation he needed to have with her.

“Kagome…” “Inuyasha…” they started at the same time, causing them both to blush and turn their heads.

Shippou picked that moment to remind the adults of his presence, having sensed the awkward moment between them though not understanding it.

“What’s for lunch, Kagome?” he asked, his tail swooshing as he looked up at her expectantly.

“Keh, you mooch her food, too?” Inuyasha asked, his voice only half accusing and half amused.

“What would you like for lunch, Shippou-chan?” Kagome asked the boy, sending Inuyasha a quick wink.

It was no secret among the kitsune that Shippou had more or less adopted Kagome like a surrogate mother. His own mother had been killed years earlier, and while the boy loved his father and all of his friends, there was just something nurturing about spending time with the human woman that the other foxes didn’t begrudge him. It was also no secret among the kitsune that to Kagome, Shippou was her favorite. Everyone knew of their history, of how they’d met.

“Grilled rabbit!” the young kit piped up enthusiastically, earning a chortle from the inu-hanyou before Kagome spoke up with all seriousness, “I’m afraid I’m fresh out of rabbit.”

Thinking to play along, and also to get back at the wench for laughing her ass off at his earlier predicament with the weeds, Inuyasha offered in that moment, “I could go hunt us down a rabbit.” But instead of the glare or exasperated eye roll he had been expecting from Kagome, she beamed at him with genuine gratitude.

“Really? You wouldn’t mind?” she asked. Inside, she was doing a little mental happy-dance. She would like to pat herself on the back for such a simple yet ingenious way to show him what he could do for her, but the truth was she hadn’t fed Shippou that line about asking for rabbit, and the whole thing was an honest coincidence.

The fact of the matter was that Shippou had brought her a dead rabbit once, his animalistic way of offering her a gift. She had been mildly disturbed at first, and he had immediately sensed that he’d done something wrong, but then she’d brushed off the boy’s concerns and had proceeded to skin and gut his catch, grilling the rabbit meat to perfection and offering to share her meal with him. Ever since then, every once in a while he would bring her a freshly killed rabbit, saying that it was the least he could do, to pay her back for being so kind to him, for being willing to put up with him and his friends, and their occasional pranks. She’d long ago gotten used to her freezer containing wrapped packages of rabbit meat along side the beef, pork and poultry she’d buy at the local market, but the truth was that she was out of rabbit meat at the moment. It wasn’t anything she could get more of at the store, after all, or at least not the little market in her neck of the woods.

Inuyasha was once again stunned into silence. He couldn’t decide if Kagome was serious or just trying to take his teasing to the next level. Would she and Shippou start laughing at his expense if he ran off to go hunt? Or worse, would she be appalled to be reminded of his animal status in such a way, disgusted by his appearance afterwards as he stood with a dead animal dangling from his claws like the monster he truly was? Kagome struck him as the kind of girl that cooed over how cute a ‘bunny’ was, not the kind willing to actually eat one. But he quickly realized the miko was completely serious when she proceeded to tell him how he didn’t have to worry about taking the time to prepare the animal for cooking before bringing it back to her. That she was used to bleeding, skinning and gutting small animals by that point and had managed to convince herself that preparing a rabbit in such a way was no different from preparing a fish.

“You…I…really? O-okay. I guess I’ll go fetch us a rabbit, then.” he said rather sheepishly, before suddenly turning and bolting into the forest. The run would do him some good.

Kagome did laugh a little to herself, but only at his surprise and fluster.

It didn’t take him long at all to return to her inn, dead rabbit in hand, and to his utter relief, she merely thanked him for going through the trouble, telling him how it was very nice of him to have volunteered such a thing. In turn he assured her that it was no big deal, that he hunted small game for himself all the time, and that he was honestly glad he could help. His assistance didn’t stop there, either. Though Kagome insisted that she had gutted and skinned rabbits before, when Inuyasha offered to do it for her anyway, she was visibly grateful for the offer, and didn’t argue with him over it. It wasn’t too long before diced rabbit meat was once again grilling to perfection, and after enjoying his share of the midday meal, Shippou announced that he had better get back home for the night, thus relieving the hanyou of his growing worry that his pending secret was about to be discovered by more people than just Kagome.

When he had started thinking of her as ‘just Kagome’ he couldn’t be sure, but as evening approached, Inuyasha admittedly didn’t feel quite as nervous about revealing this side of himself to her as he had previously been. He felt oddly comfortable around Kagome, and while his confusion over that unexplainable comfort ironically made him feel uncomfortable in return, he still felt about as good as could be expected, all things considered.

“Kagome…” he started suddenly, as the pair watched some random hidden camera show on TV.

“Hmm?” she asked, turning her head to glance his way.

Her anxiety about trying to figure out how to extend her invitation to him had returned tenfold after lunch, though the sudden nervousness to his own voice strangely had her relaxing somewhat in that moment. What else could he possibly have to be nervous about? If he were about to ask her himself if he could stay with her longer, she would readily agree.

“There’s something…I need to tell you.” he started instead. “There’s a specific reason why I seek shelter at times. It is because I’m a hanyou, but not solely for the reason you guessed yesterday.”

That confused her. His tone almost sounded like he was trying to confess something to her. Was he truly a criminal, after all? Had he originally been planning on robbing her, only now he couldn’t go through with it because he had grown to care for her?

Listen to me, typical female imagination…she mentally snorted. I need to lay off the romance novels, she told herself then, silencing the TV to give him her full attention. Whatever it was he was trying to tell her, it was clearly important.



Converting /tmp/phpAbj6Vy to /dev/stdout