InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Possessed ❯ Chapter 8

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

 

Chapter Eight

 

 

 

 

“Wow, time flies when you’re having fun,” Inuyasha muttered sarcastically as he looked at himself in his bedroom mirror, standing shirtless in a pair of jeans. He’d been dreading this evening all day.

 

At least yesterday afternoon and evening had been nice, snuggled up with Kagome on the couch watching movies. The badger-youkai situation hadn’t taken that long to deal with and they’d been home well before lunchtime, Kagome swinging through a fast food place for some belated breakfast for the two of them on their way to HQ. They’d also watched themselves on the news last night, certain her family probably would have seen it and therefore wanting to know exactly how everything had looked through the eyes of the TV viewer.

 

He thought his and Kagome’s performances had been pretty good, if he did say so himself. The news had to bleep his f-bomb...

 

Whoops.

 

...but all in all, he’d handled himself properly, and his unexpected appearance had thankfully been described by the reporter post-interview in a positive light. It was a ‘shocking turn of events’ that their own local warrior miko Kagome Higurashi – who was still considered brand new to the job, herself – had now acquired for herself a never before heard of service hanyou, but he was ‘undoubtedly a powerful asset’ to the fighting team, and the reporter had concluded the on-location spot with a joking ‘warning to all youkai out there’ that their town was now very well protected.

 

But who’s going to protect me from Kagome’s grandfather? he thought, as he picked up and looked at the ‘ugly’ Christmas sweater Kagome had bought for him specifically for this evening.

 

Sighing, he pulled his sweater down over his head, at least thankful his demonic genetics meant that his hair didn’t frizz out all over the place as he’d seen Kagome’s hair do just a few minutes ago when she’d donned her own ugly sweater.

 

He chuckled a bit at the thought.

 

Leaving his bedroom, then, he headed across the hall and back into Kagome’s room.

“Dead hanyou walking,” he said as he entered and plopped down on her bed with another sigh, the miko sitting at her vanity brushing her hair.

 

“You’ll be fine,” Kagome insisted. “If my family’s going to kill anyone, it’ll be me.”

 

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?”

 

Glancing at him in the mirror before turning around in her seat to meet his eyes directly, Kagome said, “We have to tell them eventually. I don’t mind keeping our relationship a secret from society at large. In fact it’s wise of us to, and I probably never would’ve even told Sango and Miroku had they not discovered it on accident. But keeping it a secret from my family is another matter, and the longer we wait, the worse it’ll be, especially if they end up finding out on accident.”

 

Sighing over exaggeratedly, she blew her bangs out of her face and glanced up at the ceiling a moment.

 

“Besides, while Mom hasn’t said anything, back on my birthday Jii-chan made a comment about how difficult it’ll be for me to ‘find a husband’ while ‘harboring’ a hanyou,” she said with air-quotes.

 

“Yeah, I remember,” Inuyasha said with a small nod.

 

He’d been invited to join in Kagome’s birthday celebration back in May, and her grandfather had made the comment ‘discreetly’ – or so he’d thought – Inuyasha talking with her brother Souta in the other room at the time. The old man hadn’t really been disappointed in Kagome, per se, although you could tell he thought her ultimate purpose in life was to find a reiki-wielding husband and have a child. He’d actually sounded proud of Kagome, in a way, for doing what she thought was the right thing even though it was going to bring hardship upon herself as a result.

 

“He was so relieved when I told him about registering you with the Spiritual Forces,” Kagome continued, referring to a phone call she’d made shortly after completing said registration. “He said he was glad I no longer had to worry about keeping your presence a secret, that I no longer had to fear anything happening to you if people found out about you, and that now that you were legally allowed to live in the house with me it would, and I quote, ‘make other things a lot easier,’” she said while doing air-quotes again, “now that I don’t ‘have to worry about anyone’s reaction,’ he said, and we all know what that means.”

 

“It’s a valid concern, or at least it was,” Inuyasha conceded. “I used to worry about the same thing, you know. How were you supposed to meet a man, get married and raise a family here, if I’m here? What are the odds of finding someone willing to go along with your dirty little secret?”

 

Kagome nodded her understanding.

 

“Once upon a time it had briefly crossed my mind, as well,” she admitted. “It’s not the sort of thing that can be revealed on a first date, after all. I’d have to have already loved the man, trusted him with all my heart, to reveal a secret like that. Which would have meant never bringing any dates or even tentative early boyfriends over to my house, which would have been hella suspicious.” She laughed. “Fortunately, I realized I was falling in love with you and then the desire to try dating anyone else went right out the proverbial window.”

 

He chuckled as well at that.

 

“Can’t say I’m sorry about that.”

 

“Me neither.”

 

Adopting a more serious smile, Kagome got up from the vanity and had a seat beside him on the bed. Leaning in for a kiss, Inuyasha met her half way, gently claiming her lips with his own as his right hand came up to delicately palm her left cheek. She in turn raised her right hand to capture his left ear, and backing out of the kiss, he tilted his head into her touch, his eyes closed in simple bliss.

 

“No matter what, we’re in this together,” Kagome reassured him then. “I doubt my mother will be too upset, and in fact it wouldn’t surprise me if she already secretly suspects, but if my grandfather gets all patriarchal and makes me choose between you and the family, I’m choosing you, without hesitation.”

 

“Kagome...”

 

The look in his eyes was caught somewhere between not wanting her to sacrifice anything for his sake, and feeling so humbled and loved because she was willing to do just that.

 

“I mean it,” she assured him. “Now let’s go face the music, together.”

 

“Not Christmas music, I hope,” he joked.

 

Kagome laughed at that. That was definitely one thing she did not miss now that she no longer had her old waitressing job. A night or two of movies was one thing, but eight hours a day of carol after carol, and newfangled covers that weren’t even as good as the originals, for a month, was something else entirely.

 

Heading downstairs and out front to the car, after double checking that Shiro had a clean potty pad on the floor and enough food and water for the evening, hanyou and miko began the long two minute drive to the Higurashi shrine from their house.

 

Inuyasha was a bundle of nerves, not that Kagome could blame him one bit. Scratching at his chest while trying not to accidentally snag a claw on the ‘ugly Christmas sweater’ Kagome had convinced him to wear – it wasn’t really that ugly, in his favorite shade of dark red with a pattern of green trees in white snow – he sighed for the umpteenth time and wondered aloud if he should’ve worn his fire-rat robes instead, for protection.

 

“Nobody is going to try to hurt you,” Kagome insisted, as she glanced at him before looking back at the road again. “They’ll have to go through me first.”

 

Her aura actually started to rise a little bit as she said it, because she was actually stone cold serious. If anyone tried to harm Inuyasha there would be hell to pay.

 

“Kami, I fucking love you,” he said. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’m not giving you up without a fight. Not anymore. You had your chance, for me to sacrifice my own happiness for your sake. Too late now, you’re stuck with me.”

 

“Good.”

 

She said it with such finality, nodding in satisfaction as they arrived at the private road that took them up the hill towards the back of the shrine property where the family home was located.

 

He smiled as he stared at her while she parked the car, taking in her appearance wearing a complimenting Christmas sweater to his own. Hers was primarily dark green with red deer silhouettes and white snow. She’d bought the two sweaters specifically for this evening’s get-together, not that it was a holiday tradition of her family for everyone to wear one. In fact, knowing her grandfather, he would definitely be in traditional robes, because he didn’t go for modern clothing. But she only wore miko robes when she was performing her duties as a miko and she wore modern clothing the rest of the time, so the look wasn’t out of place for her one bit, and she’d hoped that she and Inuyasha showing up in complimenting holiday sweaters and matching dark blue jeans would actually subtly help promote the image of the two of them being a happy couple before she even managed to broach the subject. A subliminal message of sorts. Inuyasha was not only just like an ordinary man where it counted most, but he was her man, dorky Christmas sweater and all.

 

Of course, people put sweaters on their dogs all the time, too, so the miko knew that that alone wouldn’t be able to change anyone’s preconceived notions of who and what Inuyasha was. All she could do was hope for the best.

 

Heading around to the front door of the colorfully decorated family home, the protective holy barrier around the property having been lowered in anticipation of their arrival, Kagome and Inuyasha shared one last look at each other while taking simultaneous deep breaths, and then Kagome knocked on the door, below the wreath.

 

Mrs. Higurashi was quick to answer.

 

“Kagome,” she admonished playfully. “Since when do you need to knock? Get on in here you two.”

 

That said, she stepped out of the way so that her daughter and her daughter’s ‘companion’ could enter the genkan, miko and hanyou both replacing their shoes with house slippers before entering the living room where Souta was currently playing some first person shooter video game or another on the TV.

 

As she turned and headed back into the kitchen, Mrs. Higurashi couldn’t wipe the smile off her face, glad neither her daughter nor Inuyasha had seen it. She might not know all the details, and in fact if she were being completely honest with herself she didn’t want to know all the details, but as she’d gotten to know that hanyou over the last year she’d come to realize he was a warm, caring, and in fact downright charming individual. He also had a natural shyness and self-conscious uncertainty about him that she would have found more endearing if she didn’t also pity him for it, knowing quite well why it was that he behaved that way.

 

That Kagome’s heart had initially gone out to him, that she’d wanted to rescue him when she’d first met him, adopt him as a stray puppy so to speak, Mrs. Higurashi hadn’t blamed her daughter one bit. In fact, she’d been proud of Kagome. And now that she’d gotten to know the boy, well, Mrs. Higurashi also couldn’t blame her daughter if her heart had opened up to the hanyou in other ways, as well. Her performance on the news yesterday might’ve been completely professional, but that was just it, it had been a performance. The way Kagome spoke of Inuyasha when it was just the two of them told Mrs. Higurashi that her daughter definitely did not just consider the hanyou a talking service youkai.

 

It was really none of her business, she knew. Kagome was twenty three years old and could do whatever she wanted. Mrs. Higurashi couldn’t help it if the motherly part of her worried about her daughter’s happiness, but if there was one thing she’d picked up on over the last several months whenever she’d visited with Kagome, and also when she’d run those ingredients over to Inuyasha so that he could surprise her daughter with her favorite dinner, it was that Kagome, and Inuyasha, were happy.

 

With each other.

 

What all that specifically entailed was the part Mrs. Higurashi knew was none of her business, but she did plan on asking her daughter about it, minus the sordid details of course. She’d nearly braved broaching the subject with Inuyasha back in October, when she’d brought him the needed ingredients for oden, but he’d politely refused her offer of staying and helping him prepare the meal and after that she hadn’t wanted to seem pushy. She’d planned on striking up a conversation about Kagome in a natural way while they’d been cooking together, but the best laid plans and all that.

 

Still, the way he’d sounded on the phone when he’d originally asked for her help with the ingredients, and the look in his eyes when he’d thanked her for her help and told her he wanted to prepare the meal for Kagome himself, had revealed more to Mrs. Higurashi than she was sure the hanyou had intended. His feelings, at least, were abundantly clear to the older miko. Then when Kagome had called and told her about how Sango and Miroku had discovered Inuyasha’s presence, and their suggestion that she register him, and that she’d already done so and he was legally registered now...the relief in Kagome’s voice, the joy when she’d told her how he would never again have to worry about being discovered, had also spoken volumes. Mrs. Higurashi had been waiting for the right moment to broach the subject with her daughter ever since, and when no earlier opportunity had presented itself she’d made the decision that it was definitely going to be discussed tonight.

 

In fact, right now, while her father-in-law was still outside dealing with the last of their shrine’s visitors, seemed like as good a time as any. She wanted the opportunity to discuss things just the two of them before worrying about what her father-in-law’s reaction was going to be.

Back in the living room, Souta had been explaining his latest video game to Inuyasha, the young priest and future head of the Higurashi household having zero issue with the fact that the man he was talking to was half inu-youkai.

 

“They’ve sure come a long way since Pong,” Inuyasha commented offhandedly as Souta handed him the second controller.

 

Souta quirked a brow at him.

 

“Think you can keep up?”

 

“Oh, I’m a fast learner,” Inuyasha replied, as the TV screen split to show each player their character’s perspective of the battlefield.

 

Kagome watched, smiling, and it was the sort of smile her mother would’ve known anywhere when Mrs. Higurashi came back out of the kitchen and asked Kagome if she wouldn’t mind helping her with some of dinner’s final preparations. The truth was the elder Higurashi woman didn’t need any help, especially not tonight when she’d gotten takeout for dinner, but she hadn’t wanted to just ask Kagome if they could talk in front of Inuyasha and Souta.

 

“Uh, sure,” Kagome hesitantly agreed, following her mother into the kitchen even though she knew there was nothing to do except reheat and plate the KFC dinners the older miko had picked up about half an hour ago.

 

Mrs. Higurashi waited until they were in the other room and out of hearing range, of Souta, at least, and then turned to her daughter and said, “Okay, Kagome, spill,” but with a grin both on her lips and in her eyes that let the younger miko know her mother wasn’t angry.

 

“Uh-ummm...” Kagome started lamely, immediately realizing what this obviously had to be about. “I was going to wait until after dinner.”

 

“And that’s fine, for your grandfather and brother,” her mother agreed with a nod. “But I want to know now. Are you and Inuyasha...”

 

Out in the living room, the hanyou’s right ear turned back towards the kitchen, but he didn’t let Souta know anything was amiss as he continued shooting the enemy soldiers just like how the seventeen-year-old had shown him.

 

“...an item?”

 

Kagome squared her shoulders a bit.

 

“And if we are?”

 

“So the answer’s yes, then.”

 

“Mama...”

 

“Kagome,” Mrs. Higurashi interrupted with a raised hand.

 

For a second Kagome actually thought her mother was upset, but then as she lowered her hand her smile came back full force.

 

“Kagome you’re an adult, and you can do whatever you want. You’re not breaking any laws, and I’m sure there’s a reason for that. There’s a reason, even with all the rights in our society that youkai don’t have, that our government specifically did not make human/youkai relations against the law. Just because youkai, and hanyou, aren’t human doesn’t mean we don’t recognize that some of them are people, and there’s no questioning that Inuyasha is a person. If he is the person you have chosen to be with, and if you’re as happy as you seem to be, then I’m not going to forbid it. You’re my baby girl, and all I want is for you to be happy.”

 

Kagome visibly relaxed, and out in the living room Inuyasha cracked a smile Souta didn’t see, the hanyou able to fully concentrate on the game he was playing while still also hearing every word being said in the kitchen.

 

“I am happy, Mom,” Kagome confirmed then. “I’ve gotten to know him, and I love him. Turns out he loves me too, even though it took a while before either of us braved saying anything.” She then decided to open up a bit more. “Even after our feelings came out, which was less than two months ago by the way, we discussed things rationally. He was willing to not pursue anything, for my sake. What about a husband, a family? So I don’t want you or Jii-chan thinking for one moment that Inuyasha is being selfish, or manipulative, because he was willing to make the biggest sacrifice there is. I’m the one who told him I wanted a relationship between us. That I don’t want a human husband anymore, because I love him. I can’t ignore my feelings, Mom.”

 

“No, you can’t,” Mrs. Higurashi agreed, before crinkling her brow. “You two only discussed your feelings for each other less than two months ago? Oh sweetie, I’ve suspected how you two felt for each other for a lot longer than that!” she said with a quiet laugh. “I had assumed you two were already together.”

 

Kagome laughed as well.

 

“We have felt that way for a lot longer than two months, it just took us that long to brave admitting it to each other.” She sighed. “It actually took me a while before I could even admit it to myself.”

 

“I understand that feeling, too,” her mother told her then. “I might not have ever fallen in love with a youkai, but I still know what it’s like to question one’s own heart when the feelings are new, to wonder ‘is this real? is this love?’ And then when your father told me out of the blue how he felt, and proposed to me right there on the spot, I didn’t hesitate to say yes. There’s no feeling in the world quite as wonderful as realizing the person you love also feels the same way about you in return; I would never ask you, either of you, to give that up. Inuyasha is a good man, and he deserves to be happy just as much as you do. That you two can make each other happy...that makes me happy.”

 

“Thanks Mom.”

 

Pulling her mother into a hug, Kagome had to fight back the tears that wanted to spring to her eyes.

 

“Now if only Jii-chan takes the news so well,” Kagome said with a hesitant laugh after the brief hug was over.

 

“I think we should enjoy dinner first, like you planned,” Mrs. Higurashi agreed.

 

“Speaking of, you did say you wanted my help with that,” Kagome stated then, as she took the various to-go containers and started making everyone’s plates. The food was still warm but each plate would get a quick zap to get things sizzling again.

 

Part of the joy of Christmas Eve was not having to slave over a stove for dinner. If she and Inuyasha hadn’t been invited she would’ve just gotten KFC herself, too.

 

Of course, there’d never been any doubt that she and Inuyasha would be spending Christmas Eve with her family. Even though it was a romantic holiday for young couples in love she couldn’t very well have tried to excuse herself and Inuyasha from the family get-together for that reason. Not when that night was also when she’d planned on revealing they were a couple in the first place. One down, two to go, she figured, not that she honestly feared Souta would take the news badly. Not if the happy shouts of her brother and Inuyasha she could hear coming from the living room were any indication, as the two of them really got into whatever video game they were playing, as if they were best friends who gamed together all the time.

 

No, Souta wouldn’t be a problem, and at that point she could only hope her grandfather wouldn’t be, either, because she was going to be telling him either way. She couldn’t help but worry, though, and she wasn’t the only one. Inuyasha was no longer like a wary stray dog unsure of trusting humans, like he had been at the beginning of last year’s Christmas Eve dinner with her family, but instead, now, he was a nervous man afraid that his girlfriend’s grandfather was going to forbid their relationship.

 

One thing Inuyasha had going for him, though, was the fact that Kagome had registered him with the Spiritual Forces. That the hanyou had been willing to come out of hiding, publicly, and in fact declare his loyalty not only to Kagome but to mankind as a whole, willing to literally risk his own life in the protection of humans against rogue youkai, said a lot about his character.

 

It was true that Kagome’s grandfather had been glad to learn of the registration because it meant that, theoretically, Kagome no longer had to worry about hiding Inuyasha’s existence from potential suitors, as if her grandfather honestly thought of Inuyasha as some sort of exotic and previously illegal pet, but yet, she’d witnessed the two of them having normal conversations together in the past. Her jii-chan had talked to the hanyou about trivial things as if he were a normal man on more than one occasion, and so to hopefully get them talking like two men again she planned on incorporating talk of both their field training exercises, and now also yesterday’s incident with the badger-youkai, into tonight’s dinner conversation.

 

She and Inuyasha had originally discussed it a few days ago, and Inuyasha knew she wanted him to join the conversation as naturally and enthusiastically as possible, when it came to discussing the various shikigami Miroku had made them fight thus far, to hopefully get everyone at the table talking about it together, just one big natural conversation a bunch of people could have over dinner. It would only be natural, now, to also include discussion of what’d happened yesterday, and Inuyasha could talk about the incident from his own point of view, of tracking down the badger kit and finding the poor thing with that ofuda on his back.

 

There was no point in tiptoeing around what he was, of course, so the hanyou knew he didn’t have to try to not mention tracking the badger kit by scent, or using his youki to attack the various shikigami, but while Kagome didn’t want Inuyasha pretending he was human the whole point was to illustrate that he was a perfectly normal person, even if, as her mother had just pointed out, he wasn’t human. Not all people were humans, and that was simply a fact of life in their world; it was just that most humanoid youkai kept to themselves, and out of sight, out of mind.

 

Kagome hoped that, with Inuyasha also being a member of the Spiritual Forces, now, and what all that entailed, it would help her family, specifically her grandfather, to see Inuyasha as a fellow spiritual warrior. He just happened to have youki instead of reiki. If her grandfather really did see Inuyasha as a person, and a good friend/roommate turned battle partner of his granddaughter, then maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t be as huge of a leap in Jii-chan’s mind to accept she and Inuyasha being more than just friends, roommates and battle partners.

 

She’d find out soon enough, as her grandfather came in for the evening just then, announcing that the last visitor to the shrine had departed for the night and also that all of the protective holy wards and seals were back in place.

 

Great, that means I’m trapped here, Inuyasha thought even though he wasn’t really that afraid, and continued to play his game with Souta as if his focus wasn’t split.

 

The holy wards were normally always up, of course, because shrine grounds always had to function as a safe haven in the event of an emergency, but that her grandfather had never once expressed any disdain over the idea of having to temporarily lower the wards in order to allow Inuyasha entry onto the property went a long way to show that the holy man had already at least had the mindset that not all youkai were wicked beings. Indeed, one of the first things Kagome had told Inuyasha back in the beginning was that her family knew that not all youkai were evil, and that she had been raised since childhood to not harbor prejudice against youkai.

 

Didn’t mean they’d raised her to harbor youkai, but they’d taken the news of his existence amazingly well, all things considered.

 

Now here’s hoping it stays that way, Kagome thought, before quickly throwing on her most cheerful smile to greet her grandfather, so that he would hopefully not suspect anything was amiss.

 

Souta shouted his hellos from the couch, and Jii-chan grumbled something about video games and youth these days, but when he entered the living room and saw Souta and Inuyasha playing together, the game set up in two-player mode as the hanyou and his grandson worked together against the enemy soldiers controlled by the computer, he just asked, “You two gonna finish saving the day before or after dinner?”

 

“We’re almost-” Souta started to say, before Inuyasha reached over and put the gaming unit on pause. “Hey!”

 

“We’re not online, so this can wait,” Inuyasha said to Souta with an amused grin, the seventeen-year-old’s eyes flying up to meet his own in overly dramatic, shocked betrayal at him having paused the game.

 

Jii-chan silently nodded his approval before making his way to his room to put away his outer most priest robes and put on something more appropriate for a casual Christmas dinner. Not one of those gods awful sweaters, though, he thought with a mild snicker. What had Kagome been thinking, dressing herself and her hanyou in those kami forsaken things? Reemerging from his bedroom a few short minutes later dressed in black hakama over a dark green kosode, he made his way over to the dining table just as Kagome and her mother started carrying out everyone’s plates.