InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Strictly Taboo ❯ The Heart Wants What It Wants ( Chapter 24 )

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

Kagome’s fever had abated completely by the time the sun decided to shine through the window, waking her and ending his silent perusal of her face. They stared at each other without speaking, him in relief and Kagome in he knew not what. Feeling somehow awkward, he smoothed her hair away from where it had fallen across her cheek and kissed where his fingers had touched.

“I’m going to call and tell Kikyo about Kaede’s visit, then I’m going to call your school so I can keep you here until you’re better.”

She blinked and he took that as a response. Dialing her number he had on a scrap of paper since he hadn’t yet put it in his phone, he waited for Kikyo to pick up, which she did right before it would have gone to voicemail.

“Inuyasha!” she said pleasantly, sounding surprised.

“Hey,” he said with distraction. “Just calling to say that Kagome had a fever and we called Kaede over to treat her. Thought you should know. She has a cold, too.” He had made that last assessment on his own. She had been sniffling during her sleep, cuddling up to him and sounding so pitiful that he did not rest at all.

“What?!” Kikyo said, getting as close to a shriek as he had ever heard her. Inuyasha felt his heart flutter, wondering if she was beginning to show concern for her child. “That is absolutely unacceptable. I cannot return to a place that has such a contagious illness present. In my condition, that would be all it took to finally kill me!” She was taking great, heaving breaths and he was concerned that she was on the verge of an anxiety attack.

“It’s okay, Kikyo, it’s nothing to worry about.” She had cancer, not whatever that bubble boy thing was. The air Kagome breathed wasn’t going to destroy her. He rolled his eyes at her.

His wife cleared her throat and took a deep breath. “You are right. However, I will not be able to return until she is healthy again and the house has been professionally cleaned. In the meantime, keep her quarantined in her room to avoid spreading the germs.”

“I understand,” he murmured gently, trying to hide his giddiness.

“Make sure she is taken care of and does not neglect her archery practice, even if she feels as though she is straining herself. It is a necessary skill for her to have as a Higurashi.”

“Why don’t you just tell her that yourself?” he said, his temper slipping through. Kagome hadn’t even touched a bow since she had moved in, something he had suggested and encouraged.

“I think you’re more than capable of the task, Inuyasha.” He heard a voice in the background and Kikyo sighed. “That was Walker, I’ve got to go. Don’t let her keep you from finding out about Onigumo and what happened to Shikon. Until I’ve had my revenge, I cannot rest.”

Kikyo ended the call and he rolled his eyes at her dramatic goodbye. There were no longer any problems with Shikon now that he owned it, and he had stopped the mischief at Tetsusaiga, even recovering most of his employees who had fled in fits of irrational fear. What did it matter anymore? He wanted to help Kikyo, he really did, but she seemed too hung up on things that were no longer of any concern. Would she only be happy if he brought her Onigumo’s head on a platter? The thought appealed to him and he chuckled, absent-mindedly calling Kagome’s school and explaining the reason for her absence, hinting that she might be out for a few more days. When that was taken care of, he exhaled exaggeratedly and flopped down on the bed, carelessly tossing his phone on the floor. Kagome had felt a bit warm when he had touched her skin, but it wasn’t too bad, almost normal even.

“What do you want to do, angel?” he asked, knowing she was awake even though her eyes were closed. They popped open, greeting him with that clear gray he loved.

“What is there to do?” she asked innocently. Smirking, he reached a hand beneath the covers and ran it up her bare thigh. “Not that!” she laughed, squirming away from him.

“We can do anything you want. It’s your day.”

“Hmmm…” she said, deep in thought. “Well, I’ve always kind of wanted to build a pillow fort.”

“That’s it?” he asked, surprised she wanted something so simple.

“Yep!” she nodded happily, rising but keeping the blanket to her chest. “Then we can order pizza and I’ll bake brownies so we can have brownie sundaes and we can have a movie marathon!”

Inuyasha snorted. “You want to have a sleepover?”

“Please? I’ve never been to one and they look so fun,” she pleaded.

Recalling her lack of friends growing up, he nodded and leaned in for a kiss, hoping he wouldn’t feel too emasculated by the time she felt like going back to school. If she asked to braid his hair, that would be the end of it, he decided. He could maybe handle a few girly movies, but actually engaging in the traditional slumber party activities would make him nauseous. Unless she wanted to “experiment”, then he was all up for that. He grinned into the kiss and she lightly smacked his arm, as if knowing just what he was thinking.

“Whatever you want, just go easy on me,” he said laughingly, breaking away from her lips.

Kagome built the fort without any help from Inuyasha, discovering early on that his claws and impatience would cost them several pillows and sheets and blankets if she let him continue. So instead, he ordered pizza and took out all the ingredients for brownies like she requested, keeping an eye on her to make sure she wasn’t overworking herself. She was blasting some annoying pop music and bouncing around happily, making sure their fort was stable and secure, flashing him a grin every so often as if to tell him to stop watching her like a creep and buzz off.

When she finished constructing the lop-sided fort, they switched places, with her going into the kitchen to make the brownies which would eventually be placed into sundaes and him attempting to inconspicuously improve her rather sad-looking piece of architecture. The doorbell rang just as he finally got the stack of pillows that served as a column to stand straight and he jogged over to it, throwing some bills at the delivery boy and slamming the door. Inuyasha always wondered how the delivery guys managed to get to his house every time, what with him living in a pretty secluded place with no lights. Even though he gave directions to every place the first time he ordered from there, it still never ceased to surprise him when they actually showed up. Chuckling to himself, he wondered just how many kids had thought this to be their last job, since obviously only psychopaths who wear suits made out of people lived this far from another person in what was normally a densely populated area.

“PIZZA!” Kagome bellowed, leaping over to him and wrenching the boxes away, giving him a distracted kiss on the cheek before hurrying over to the pillow fort in front of the TV.

Rolling his eyes, he followed after her, gazing longingly at the brownies cooling on the counter and then determinedly opening the box of pizza Kagome wasn’t already digging into and settling next to her in the fort. She already had the television turned to a movie, and he noted disinterestedly that it was the beginning of Big. He remembered seeing it when it came out and even then he hadn’t been fond of it. He thought the entire idea was just ridiculous. Who would ever want to be older? He snorted. As soon as humans reach adulthood, they want to go back to being children. Inuyasha was quite satisfied with his own aging. He would never look older than he was now and he would never want to. Some demons changed their appearances to that of elderly versions of themselves. He had always thought they were kind of crazy. The only way to survive in the world was to be young, but not too young. Smirking to himself with a definite, comfortable feeling of superiority, he leaned back and put an arm around Kagome, his other hand fishing around in the box for another slice.

“I feel like I’m living my own version of this movie,” Kagome whispered, most of her concentration still on the screen.

“How so?”

Taking a deep breath, she explained, “Before you, I was just another girl. I know I was more, well, naïve than most people my age and that made everyone think I was even younger. But then my wish came true and my childhood is over and now I’m living this awesome adult life with you,” she finished in a rush.

“I’m your Zoltar?” he laughed, drawing her in for a chaste kiss, if anything between the two of them could be called chaste. “Just promise me you won’t take back your wish.”

Kagome’s smile was more of a baring of her teeth than a reflection of happiness. “There’s no magic in my movie. I can never go back.”

The mood was suddenly somber and he felt agitated, not knowing what had happened to change it. He stared at Tom Hanks as he jumped across the ground keyboard like an idiot, waiting for Kagome to say something. Just as he was about to crack and ask her what exactly she meant by that comment, she broke the silence.

“I’m going back to school tomorrow.”

He whipped his head to the side to look at her. “No, you’re still sick. You can go back the day after.”

She wasn’t really sick and he knew that. She had healed remarkably fast, and when he thought about it, he came to the conclusion that somehow the demon blood of his that he could neither sense nor smell in her had been what had healed her. Instead of disgust or self-hatred, he now felt nothing but pride. Pride in her for being so good and perfect, pride in himself for having contributed to her existence, and even a little pride in Kikyo.

Kagome shook her head quickly, successfully blinking back tears. She’d been having a lot of practice at controlling her crying ever since she had come to live with him. The thought made his heart ache.

“No,” she said firmly. “If I have one more day like this, I’ll want what I can’t have even more and it will tear me apart.”

“You have me,” he said in a strained voice. Inuyasha reached out his hand and tried to touch her but she jerked away, scooting the short distance to the other side of the fort.

Drawing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, she sighed. “I think we need to face reality, just for a moment. You are married to my mother, someone you used to be madly in love with. I’m a millennial and you are over half a millennium old. You are a half-demon and I have what seems to be super demon killing powers which for some reason didn’t work on you, but that doesn’t mean they won’t. Even if Mother… If Mother dies,” she choked out, “the odds are against us. And being together, even after all that, it still won’t be right. I’m your step-daughter. People will talk. Your business would fail at worst, suffer a significant loss at best.” She took another deep breath and turned her watery eyes to him, for once letting him see just how much she was suffering. “I love you. I love you. I want to be with you, but I don’t want us to end up hating each other because of circumstances we could have seen coming. Where does that leave us? A fling. A taboo fling. Always unfulfilled, always wanting.”

Gaining back his ability to speak, something her words had taken away, he rose to his knees, hitting the top of the pillow fort and making half of it collapse. “No!” he yelled, desperate, his heart beating faster than he could ever remember. “That’s not going to happen to us. What I feel for you cannot be ignored or forgotten. Believe me, I’ve tried. Not very hard, but I did try. There’s a way.”

She shook her head, her tears falling freely. “No, Inuyasha, no. There’s nothing. We need to face facts.”

Inuyasha grabbed her by the shoulders and shook as hard as he dared. “There fucking is,” he hissed, angry that she was so determined to end everything, her lack of faith in him the most emasculating thing he had ever experienced. “We will become two halves of one whole. I will mark you.”

He was breathing hard and she was staring up at him, her eyes wide, obviously shocked by his declaration. He had been planning on marking her ever since he realized the depth of his love for her, around the time he had killed the janitor. A mark was forever and would prove his devotion and, more importantly, prevent her from ever really leaving him. He started to become nervous when she didn’t respond and just continued to stare at him as though waiting for him to continue. He glared at her, his eyes asking what more do you fucking want?

“Uh, you’ll what me?” she asked in a confused whisper.

Stunned, he released her shoulders and sat back on the balls of his feet. “You don’t know what a demon’s mark is?” he asked incredulously.

Kagome shook her head and he sighed, once again both cursing and blessing Kikyo for keeping her so sheltered. He could explain mating to her without having to deal with whatever pop culture was currently saying about it. All humans were obsessed with mating marks, not understanding anything beyond that it made one young forever. There were magazine articles in Cosmo and Seventeen, tips on how to get a demon to make you his own. People sold potions to make one “irresistible” to demons, which never worked for the intended purpose, usually getting the idiot eaten by some minor being that barely qualified as demonic. Humans all longed to preserve their youth and had since the dawn of their existence, and a demon’s mating mark was the only way they could. And here was Kagome, accomplishing what nearly the entirety of her race desired, and she didn’t even know what it was.

“It binds us,” he explained. “Our souls. I give you part of mine and you give me part of yours. We will always be able to vaguely experience one another’s emotions. You will also share my lifespan, unless I die before my predetermined time, in which case you will revert back to your human lifespan, right where you left off. The age I mark you is the age you will look for the rest of your life with me.”

She blinked rapidly, absorbing the new information. “How… What—“

“When you turn twenty-one, whether your mother still lives or not, I’m going to make you mine completely,” he promised.

“Inuyasha,” she whispered, her love and awe shining out at him from her eyes. Feeling safe again, his heart beat calmed and he leaned over to kiss her forehead.

“The humans will talk once it’s known, but that will die down quickly. Everyone both covets and respects a mating mark, especially one of a wealthy, powerful demon. Or half-demon,” he finished with a smirk.

“Braggart,” she said with a laugh. Then, turning serious, “And what about Mother?”

Inuyasha sighed. “Telling her would be awkward but unavoidable. Remember, though, she has Suikotsu. I will build her company back up for her, well, for you, really, and pay her a large allowance until her death. There will be a brief scandal, but it’s not as though something like this has never happened before.”

“But Mother… Mother loves you,” she whispered.

“I’m sure she doesn’t,” he scoffed. “Don’t keep telling yourself that. I want you and I will have only you, no matter what,” he swore, more to himself than to her.

“And I want you, more than anything!” she said earnestly.

“Then say yes.” He ran his fingers through her hair and caressed the nape of her neck.

“Yes. Yes. Yes.” Kagome gave him a light kiss in between each “yes” and his heart soared. Everything would be alright. “So, can I go to school tomorrow?”

“Sure,” he breathed, his eyes half-lidded, still slightly dazed from the passion of her last kiss. Kagome smiled and snuggled into him and they turned back to the movie, ignoring their collapsed pillow fort.