InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Beautiful Stranger ❯ Chapter 8

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

Chapter 8 – Guess who's coming to dinner

 

 

Mrs. Higurashi just stared at her daughter for a moment, her expression betraying nothing of what she was thinking, although all she was truly doing was trying to read Kagome's expression. Her daughter was nervous, but determined, her Higurashi fire showing, crackling just behind her eyes.

 

She understood now. If Kagome had confessed right away to having met a hanyou, and thinking that she'd like to date him, while she personally would have only told her daughter to make sure she was fully aware of what difficulties she might face as a result, socially, it was possible her father would have been more against it. It would have come from a place of love, of wanting what was best for his daughter, but still. Now, though, now that she and this young man were already deeply involved, already in love with one another, she could see it in Kagome's eyes. She didn't want to have to choose between them and him, but if they forced her to, she would choose him.

 

Finally, Mrs. Higurashi smiled.

 

“Kagome, honey, all your father and I want is for you to be happy. Even if you were in love with a full youkai, which would probably mean hanyou children of your own, if you loved him, and were happy, that's all I want for you. If you love this man...”

 

Pausing, she interrupted herself and asked, “By the way, what's his name?”

 

Smiling as she sighed in relief, Kagome replied, “Inuyasha.”

 

Mrs Higurashi smirked.

 

“Ah, that explains why you hadn't told me his name yet. It is a bit of a giveaway.”

 

“Yeah,” Kagome agreed.

 

It was her mother's turn to sigh, although it wasn't in relief.

 

“I do hope you know what you're doing. Not everyone is going to approve.”

 

“Oh, I've already gotten my fair share of looks at school,” Kagome admitted then.

 

Without copping to the fact that she'd slept with Inuyasha the night she'd met him, and as a result she had first received those looks several months ago, she did confess that she and Inuyasha were intimate now, and that some of her full youkai classmates could smell it. It depended on the youkai species, of course, but just about any animal-based youkai had a phenomenal sense of smell. They did not approve of her relationship with Inuyasha, if the looks shot her way were any indication, even though nobody had ever actually met him or said anything to her face about it. Besides, she already hadn't been in their clique, anyway, what with her being a miko and all, so anyone who was going to be that shallow and shoot her nasty glares while making a show of sniffing the air in her direction was nobody she wanted to be friends with, anyway.

 

Glad to hear that Kagome wasn't letting what her peers thought affect her schooling, not to mention the fact that she was glad this Inuyasha boy was supportive of Kagome's schooling and career goals, and okay with the fact that she was a very powerful miko – although she supposed having Miroku for a cousin helped in that arena – Mrs. Higurashi then told her daughter that she expected Inuyasha to be brought home for dinner and a proper introduction to the family.

 

Grinning, Kagome readily agreed.

 

Lightly scolding her daughter, then, Mrs. Higurashi reprimanded Kagome, not for loving a hanyou, but for fearing their reactions. She was a grown woman, an independent woman, a Higurashi, and after the fiasco with Hojo Mrs. Higurashi felt Kagome should have realized that if there was one thing the women of their family were known for, it was following their hearts.

 

“Don't you worry about your father,” she assured Kagome then. “I'll speak with him.”

 

“Thanks Mama, I love you,” Kagome said.

 

“I love you too, dear,” Mrs. Higurashi replied before pulling her daughter into a hug.

 

o o o o o o o o o o

 

The next morning, it was Mr. Higurashi who wanted to have a word with his daughter, before she left for school.

 

Kagome kept her head held high as her father quizzed her about her feelings for someone he'd not only never met, but hadn't even known existed until his wife told him about their daughter's confession. Mr. Higurashi was silently impressed with how well Kagome handled herself during his subsequent inquisition, too, answering each of his questions honestly and without hesitation.

 

Well, as honestly as she was prepared to answer them, at least, since when he asked her how she'd originally met Inuyasha she told him the same abridged version of the story she'd told her mother. If he sensed there was something more behind her saying that she and Sango had ended up meeting Inuyasha and Miroku during their night out and that the four of them had ended up 'hanging out together' before exchanging numbers he didn't push her on that matter.

 

Instead, he reminded her of what had happened with Hojo, asked about her schooling and career plans, asked her about Inuyasha's schooling and career plans, and just generally if she'd thought things through regarding what this would mean not only for her, but the entire Higurashi family. If she married someone who couldn't sire children then she would not be able to pass on her reiki to the next generation.

 

Kagome replied that she most certainly hadn't forgotten about the disaster that was Hojo and that she had no intention of giving up her schooling or career goals, nor did Inuyasha want her to. He fully supported her desire to become a doctor and eventually open her own private practice, and he was actually proud of her for having such a goal. She also told her father that while Inuyasha had no advanced education or career goals of his own, he had an inexhaustible trust fund, and so his goal was most certainly not to freeload off of her because he was far richer than they were. In fact, she also told her father that once she was fully licensed, she wouldn't be surprised if as a congratulatory gift Inuyasha actually bought her the building she wanted to open her private practice in. He'd already told her he that would help her out financially if she wanted or needed him to.

 

Addressing her father's other statements, then, Kagome also explained how of course she'd thought it through, which was why she and Inuyasha had agreed to date each other for a while before she told her family about him, just in case their relationship wouldn't have worked out. She was only telling them about him now because she knew, now, that she loved him and he was a keeper. She also pointed out how, if she had married Hojo, she would have then been joining the Hojo family. As a Higurashi daughter, she would be joining the family of whichever man she eventually married, and would at that time no longer be a Higurashi, which meant that her decision to be with someone who could not sire children didn't really affect the Higurashi family at all, since it had never been her place to carry on the Higurashi line, regardless. That job had always belonged to Souta, as her father's first born son.

 

Plus she also admitted that she didn't really want to have children, anyway, or at least not until after establishing her career first, because she didn't feel like juggling the two simultaneously. While it was true she almost definitely would have ended up having children with Hojo if she'd sucked it up and married him, it would have been instead of her career, and she would've been utterly miserable as a result.

 

“What you and Mama want most for me is my happiness, isn't it?”

 

Listening to everything his daughter said, Mr. Higurashi nodded as he went through a mental list to see if he'd possibly forgotten anything.

 

Not turning her back on future generations of Higurashis as it'd never been her place to carry that mantle in the first place, not turning her back on her career dreams as Inuyasha was fully supportive in that regard, not potentially taking in a vagrant who was only using her for the money she'd earn from said career because he was independently wealthy, not to mention she was in love with him, and he her... Kagome's father checked off his mental list of potential objections, openly impressed by each of her rebuttals. Her argument was sound.

 

And his third degree had really just been a test, of course. She was bound to face much worse if this was the path she was choosing for herself, so he'd wanted to see how well prepared she really was, mentally, to defend herself and her love life over and over again.

 

“Do you love Inuyasha enough to stand by him even if this whole thing explodes in the news as a huge scandal?” he asked her then. “A powerful Higurashi miko hooking up with a hanyou...you two might end up on the cover of a tabloid.”

 

Raising an eyebrow, Kagome avoided answering his question directly by asking him in turn, “Do you love me enough to stand by me if my relationship with Inuyasha explodes into a huge scandal in the tabloids?”

 

What was more important to him? His daughter, or his image?

 

Mr. Higurashi sighed.

 

“You know I do,” he said. He didn't even have to think about it.

 

Kagome offered him a small but genuine smile, then.

 

“That's all that matters,” she replied. “I don't give a shit what strangers think, but-”

 

“Language,” he interrupted, chuckling lightly because they both knew he wasn't really serious.

 

She just rolled her eyes.

 

“All that matters to me is you and Mama not disapproving,” she continued. “The last thing I want to do is alienate you guys, but I love him, and I plan on moving in with him as soon as I can. We don't see nearly enough of each other because of medical school, so I want to be able to come home to him every evening.”

 

Mr. Higurashi frowned a little at that.

 

“I don't like the idea of you living with any man you're not married to yet, but I suppose this is the 21st century.” He sighed again. “You two do plan on getting married, though, right? Your mother said you told her he was the one.”

 

“I mean, we haven't talked about getting married, specifically, like discussing wedding plans, but we've both said we love each other and want to stay together. He's told me he'll support me every step of the way regarding my medical career, and that's going to take years still, so...yeah, we're definitely committed to each other. Neither of us have asked the cliché 'will you marry me' but it just seems like it's kind of a given, just like how Hojo used to talk about he and I except this time, I'm in complete agreement.”

 

“Then do you think you two could do an old man a favor?” he asked her, smiling.

 

“Dad, you're not old,” Kagome argued, rolling her eyes again.

 

“Flattery will get you everywhere,” he teased his daughter.

 

She giggled.

 

Clearing his throat, he got more serious, then, and said, “If you're going to move in with him, I want you two officially engaged, at the very least. Married would be better, but I understand you don't have time to deal with planning a wedding right now, so I'll settle for engaged.”

 

Kagome just grinned.

 

“That shouldn't be a problem.”

 

“And he's coming to dinner, tonight.”

 

Her father's huge smile only made Kagome's own grin get even bigger.”

 

o o o o o o o o o o

 

Discussing everything with Inuyasha later that day during her lunch break, the hanyou was both elated and nervous as hell at the idea of meeting her family...that night...but Kagome just told him to be himself, because that was what had attracted her to him in the first place.

 

“Oh? And here I thought it was my exotic youkai features that attracted you to me,” he teased back quietly while wiggling his ears. They were currently the only patrons in the fast food burger joint.

 

Kagome giggled.

 

“Well, that too,” she admitted, reaching across the table to tweak his right ear with her left hand.

 

Smiling, he caught her left hand with his right on its way back down, turning it to look at the back of her hand.

 

“And we're gonna need to get a diamond on that sucker, too,” he said, affectionately rubbing his thumb over her bare ring finger. “By tonight, if possible. Do you think we can squeeze in a shopping trip after your last class? I'm sure your father would be okay with just my word that I'll get you a ring asap, but I'd like to show him just how serious I really am.”

 

When Kagome'd told him about her father's 'condition' on her moving in with him, his response had been to smile so wide it'd showcased his fangs, and then he'd dropped to a knee and asked the official “Will you marry me?” grinning even wider as she'd giggled before answering, “Yes, you big dummy! That's the whole point!”

 

“I'm not picky,” she told him then. “If you want to go ahead and get my ring so that I have it for tonight, that's fine with me. I wear a size seven.”

 

“Oh come on, you're gonna trust me to do shopping that important all by myself?” he whined playfully. “I can't do something like that without your help!”

 

Deliberately, and because they were still alone save for the worker behind the counter who wasn't paying them any attention, he let out a quiet whimper, allowing his ears to droop as he flashed her sad puppy dog eyes.

 

Laughing before sighing in faux sympathy, Kagome took one last sip of her nearly empty soda, her mid-day break between classes already almost over, and then said, “I just don't really have the time to...” Pausing, her eyes opened wide as a thought struck her. “I have an idea.”

 

Inuyasha's ears sprang forward to give her his undivided attention. “Which is?”

 

Kagome then suggested that he could go to whichever jewelry store he wanted to, which knowing him would be one of the most prestigious ones in town with the most expensive rings possible, she joked, which he didn't deny. She emphasized then that a ridiculously expensive ring wasn't necessary for her sake, but she also acknowledged that she understood and appreciated his desire to get her the very best his money could buy. His insecurity, she knew, was only when it came to picking out the specific design of the ring, since they varied so much those days. So she suggested her idea, which was that he pick out a small collection of what he felt were all the very best ones, and then he could text her pictures of them all and she'd make her own final selection from the choices via text.

 

Pleased with her idea, saying it was a compromise he could work with, Inuyasha downed the last of his own soda and then throwing away their trash, he walked with Kagome out of the burger joint located near his apartment and drove her back to her school. The fast food restaurants closer to the college were always swamped at lunch time and they greatly preferred the privacy of this lesser used establishment, so he didn't mind picking Kagome up for lunch and then taking her back to school again afterwards. Fortunately, she had a large enough gap between midday classes this year to make the trip feasible.

 

It was also fortunate that his apartment was about the same distance away from campus as her current home was, though granted, in a different direction. But given the reputation of Club Taboo, some people traveled greater distances to party at that club, especially considering one could just get a room at the hotel for the night if necessary. So just because they had met at the local club hadn't automatically meant they were both local, and that was one of the very first things he and Kagome had discussed during their initial text messaging sessions, considering neither of them had thought to inquire about it that first morning after in the hotel.

 

Kagome had assumed he was local, of course, considering she knew he and Miroku hadn't had their own room at the hotel, but since she and Sango had had rooms, Inuyasha had been relieved to learn that she was a local girl, as well.

 

Of course, he would've driven an hour, two, three, each way, every day, if it'd meant having a chance to date Kagome. And now that she was going to be moving in with him? He wouldn't hesitate to get a different apartment if she asked him to, if she wanted to be closer to her school. All she had to do was say the word. But already used to the approximately twenty drive from the shrine, depending on traffic, Kagome had said she saw no need to force Inuyasha to give up the apartment that'd been his home ever since he'd turned eighteen and moved out of his mother's own luxury apartment.

 

Speaking of Izayoi, Kagome had managed to squeeze in meeting her in person about a month ago. It had been much easier for Inuyasha to tell his mother that he'd found 'the one' and that she was a miko. Izayoi had been thrilled to meet Kagome, and had understood her hesitance to tell her parents, not making her feel guilty in the slightest for worrying about what they might think.

 

Still, looking back on her fears from only the previous day, until she'd finally come clean with her mother last night, Kagome did feel guilty for worrying about how her parents might react. She should have known they weren't racist assholes. It was always 'image' this and 'propriety' that, but never once had she ever heard either her mother or father speak ill of the existence of hanyou or interracial couples. And indeed, she hadn't necessarily been worried that they specifically wouldn't approve because they didn't approve, but rather, she'd feared they'd have an air of 'but what will society think' about them, the more casual racism of shifting the blame and claiming that they'd be fine with it if society as a whole was, but because society wasn't okay with it, she needed to think about her reputation because they wanted what was best for her, yada yada yada.

 

She had never been so happy to be so wrong.

 

And while the idea of society as a whole disapproving was, unfortunately, true, she'd known that going in and had already been doing a lot of thinking on the subject, wondering how difficult it might become to open her own private practice if snooty human parents didn't want to take their children to see the miko doctor who was married to the hanyou. Fortunately, she'd already thought of the perfect solution. She'd own it and become a pediatrician that, while not excluding human and youkai children, would specialize in hanyou children. So there.

 

“Fuck society,” she muttered under her breath during the drive back to school, probably too quietly for a human man to have heard her, or at least understood what she'd said.

 

“Don't know what you're thinking, but I agree,” Inuyasha chimed in, not reminding her of his superior hearing because she hadn't forgotten.

 

She flashed him a brilliant smile at his comment and jokingly said, “Just thinking about the design for my business sign, and wondering if your mom's got any cute baby pictures I could use.”

 

“What?” he laughed, completely confused.

 

As he pulled into the parking lot of her university, she told him what she'd actually been thinking about, since she hadn't yet shared that idea with him, and he let her know what he thought of her modified career plans by pulling her into a heated kiss that earned them a few disgusted looks from other students milling about the parking lot, youkai and human alike.

 

They both knew they had an audience and neither of them cared.

 

Later that afternoon, Inuyasha, having known when Kagome's next short break between classes was and coordinating his shopping trip accordingly, sent her ten different text messages, each one containing a picture of three rings, giving her a total of thirty designs to choose from.

 

Jeez, he wasn't kidding when he said he couldn't decide this one on his own, she thought with a chuckle.

 

And he had not included their prices, so she couldn't try to pull one over on him like choosing the least expensive one. He'd already warned her not to let price be a consideration. He could afford it. He wanted her to have the ring she wanted most of all, regardless of whether it was the most or least expensive from his selections.

 

And what selections! They were all gorgeous, and suddenly Kagome could sympathize with his inability to choose because she found herself having nearly as difficult a time of it. But still, flipping through the pictures – which his text messages had all numbered, with the individual rings being numbered as they appeared, one through thirty – she didn't take too long to pick out the one she decided she liked the very best among the choices. They were all beautiful, and honestly she would've been just fine with any one of them, but still, she picked the one she honestly thought of as her favorite in the bunch.

 

He had it waiting for her as he met her at school again at the end of her last class, and she didn't hesitate to let him slip it on her finger.

 

He followed her back to her parents' house, then. He momentarily contemplated just leaving his car at the school and riding with her, but it'd take too long to walk back to his car afterwards without using his youkai speed, which was frowned upon the same way human kids on skateboards zipping in between people on the sidewalk would be frowned upon, and so he figured he'd just better follow Kagome to the shrine in his own car while she drove hers.

 

Traffic wasn't bad, so it took them a little under twenty minutes to reach the Higurashi shrine. Arriving at the shrine grounds, Inuyasha could feel a tingling against his skin from the holy energy in the earth and air around them, but it wasn't painful and didn't feel threatening. In fact, the area almost seemed to welcome him, as if the local kami knew who he was and why he was there.

 

Perhaps they did.

 

Passing the area where visitors always parked, he followed Kagome onto the small road off to the side with the 'private property' sign. It curved up and around the hill the shrine was built upon to arrive at the back of the massive property, where the private residence was located. Parking his car beside hers, they both got out of their vehicles and each could see it as the other took a shaky, reassuring breath.

 

They needn't have worried.

 

Kagome's mother greeted them warmly at the door, and Inuyasha, who was dressed immaculately in a dark gray suit, bowed respectfully as he properly introduced himself. Then it was Kagome's father's turn, and much to the miko's surprise, he was the one who insisted they drop formalities, when the hanyou addressed him as Mr. Higurashi, telling Inuyasha that since they would be family soon enough he could go ahead and just call him by his first name.

 

“That is, if you don't mind me just calling you Inuyasha,” he added.

 

“Not at all,” Inuyasha replied without hesitation.

 

Slipping off their shoes as Inuyasha and Kagome entered into the rest of the house, he met her younger brother Souta next, who shook his hand without showing any hesitation regarding the hanyou's claws.

 

Dinner went off without a hitch.

 

Kagome's parents and brother were curious, and Inuyasha was honest, regarding the scandal surrounding his birth. Mrs. Higurashi had asked if his parents were still together, so he'd confessed about the affair, and that although his father's marriage to his half-brother's mother was long since over, his father had never actually married his mother. But Toga Taisho did love Izayoi, and he was still there for her to the best of his ability.

 

Kagome's family not only did not look down on Inuyasha for being a bastard child from an affair, they were shocked and appalled to learn the true extent of animosity his human family, save for Miroku and their mothers, felt for him. Kagome's father even said that, while he could understand why Izayoi's parents would've been disappointed in her, at the end of the day she was still their daughter and Inuyasha, their grandchild. He, especially, did not deserve their ire, Kagome's father expressed, since he was guilty of nothing except being born the way the kami had made him.

 

“And no, I'm not disappointed in you, either,” he elaborated without prompting, meeting Kagome's eyes for a moment. “Your situation is completely different.”

 

Mr. Higurashi then looked Inuyasha in the eyes again and said, “The Higurashi name can survive whatever people try to throw at it, so like I told Kagome this morning, we will stand by her even if your relationship makes the tabloids. We will stand by both of you. I don't care about gossip, I care about my little girl.”

 

Unsure what Inuyasha might or might not already know about Hojo, he added, “I had actually wanted her to marry someone else, whom I'd thought would be the perfect match for her. He came from a good family, was a powerful reiki user, but then he turned out to be disrespectful of Kagome and I supported her decision to break it off. At the end of the day, her happiness is what matters most to my wife and I. So if you are who she wants, your heritage is not an issue. The only thing that's going to upset me is if you end up breaking her heart.”

 

Kagome's father was being diplomatic, but then Souta chimed in with, “You hurt my sister, I hurt you.”

 

“Souta...” their mother admonished, but Souta wasn't racist, he was just protective of his sister. He'd wanted to deck Hojo for his assholitry until Kagome had shared with him the public humiliation she'd dished out in the busy restaurant.

 

For his part, Inuyasha wasn't offended in the slightest.

 

“As a reiki user, you actually can hurt me,” he admitted, “and if I ever hurt your sister, I would want you to.”

 

Mrs. Higurashi grinned at the sincerity in Inuyasha's eyes, as Souta merely nodded his approval. She could see it, plain as day. Inuyasha loved her daughter, and one glance at Kagome confirmed the feeling was mutual.

 

One glance at the ring on Kagome's finger confirmed Inuyasha's finances, too, not that she'd have disapproved of the union if he'd been poor. Not so long as his love for Kagome was real. It was reassuring, though, to know that not only was he not possibly using their daughter for money, but he could actually provide for her if need be.

 

The entire evening was a relatively pleasant affair. Inuyasha stayed for a while longer after dinner, continuing to speak with Kagome's parents, answering every questions they had, but it did not feel like an interrogation and he didn't get the sense he was unwelcome. He could understand why they wanted to get to know him, since while he and Kagome had spent several months getting to know everything about each other the rest of her family had been unaware he even existed until the previous night. Considering their relationship had been a huge surprise all the way around, the hanyou thought his miko girlfriend's parents were actually handling everything remarkably well.

 

Fiancée... he corrected himself in his mind, grinning goofily at the though as he made his way out to his car at the end of the evening. Yes, they were engaged to be married, now.

 

Kagome's parents had given them their blessing for her to move in with him, but for tonight she would be staying at the place that was currently still her home. Especially since she had an early class in the morning. The actual act of moving in could wait until she had a day free. It wouldn't take that long for her to bring over her possessions, but then beyond that, to help make his apartment their home, he was also willing to change out anything she wanted him to. Different dishes, different furniture… That sort of stuff could be done bit by bit though, a little bit at a time in and around her schedule. The most important thing was just getting her there. He was looking forward to it.