InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The (Valentine's) Heart of the Matter ❯ The (Valentine's) Heart of the Matter ( Chapter 1 )

The (Valentine's) Heart of the Matter

By Majicman55

 

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of InuYasha. I just like to play with the characters.

 

Kagome clucked happily as she used a rope to draw her overstuffed yellow backpack up and out of the well. A year ago, she never would have been able to handle the weight, but questing cross-country with the gang had built her muscles up to the point that it was almost causing problems in her own time.

 

 

************Flashback************

 

 

Kagome motined to her ji-chan to answer the phone when she saw the school's number on the caller I. D. She huddled up close to the old man so she could hear the conversation, and got a sour look for her trouble, but her grandfather allowed her to listen in.

 

“The school nurse has examined your granddaughter and the girl is in remarkably good shape for someone sick from school so often.”

 

Kagome frowned. That was inconsistent.

 

“Nevertheless, she has been sick,” insisted her grandfather.

 

“But the illnesses you claim are so outrageous.”

 

Kagome frowned again, irritating her ji-chan. Both of them knew Kagome didn't care for some of the old man's excuses.

 

“I cannot help what illnesses the poor girl suffers. She has what she has, and that's it.”

 

“But, sir. Young women just do not suffer from cryptorchidism.”

 

The old man shrugged. “Indeed. It is a very rare case.”

 

“But the term refers to undescended testicles!”

 

Kagome's ji-chan glanced involuntarily to where his own testicles were, and then turned to his granddaughter…who looked like she'd gladly see that his were removed. Not liking his granddaughter's expression, he quickly returned his attention to the phone.

 

“…which makes her case all the rarer!” The old man clacked the receiver back down on its base, no doubt leaving a perplexed school official on the other end.

 

 

************End Flashback************

 

 

“Where's InuYasha?” she thought as she shouldered her pack.

 

Usually, the hanyou would have been at the well…complaining about how she had kept them all waiting and questioning whether she understood how important it was that they find the shards before Naraku. But she had been gone for several days this time and they had not agreed on a definite time for her return.

 

She smiled as she remembered when she had attempted to teach InuYasha how to use a wristwatch. First she had tried to explain the numbers on the dial. That had been interesting, especially when she realized that the Japan of InuYasha's time was not yet using Arabic numerals. After that, she had drawn the symbols that would be on the watch when she returned. That didn't help much because the hanyou didn't have much of a concept of numbers and how the changing of them on the watch indicated the passage of time.

 

In fact, he had wrongly jumped to the conclusion that, somehow, the watch was magical and drew her to his time at a given moment. He was terribly disappointed when he learned he could not set the watch to summon her when he desired.

 

Finally, after hours of coaching, the hanyou had finally understood how the watch worked…at least enough so that it would be useful.

 

He had promptly destroyed the watch in his next battle.

 

Kagome sighed and turned towards the village…

 

<WHOOOMP>

 

…only to find herself sitting on the ground with a ball of buzzing fur in her lap.

 

“Didja bring me anything, Kagome? Didja-didja-didja?”

 

She held the young kitsune in her arms and tried to quiet him. “Indeed I did, Shippou.” Apparently, someone had been letting him have too much sugar again. “But it's getting dark and we will wait till we get to Kaede's hut to get it out.”

 

“Awwwww, Kagomeeeee.”

 

“Where are the others?”

 

A chorus of “here's!” rang out as InuYasha, Miroku and Sango came into view.

 

“InuYasha!”

 

“Oi. Took you long enough.”

 

The young miko smiled. “At least he's consistent.” She started to get up and InuYasha helped her to her feet. A slight blush appeared on both their faces as each realized the hanyou had retained his grip on her a little longer than necessary.

 

“I have brought something special.”

 

“Special, Kagome?” asked Sango. “Some new type of food from your time, maybe?”

 

“It had better not be spicy!”

 

Kagome shot the hanyou a withering look. “No, nothing spicy.”

 

The monk stepped forward. “Perhaps Kagome's mother has sent us some more of her cooking.”

 

“Ninja food!”

 

Shippou, who had wiggled out of his adoptive mom's grip, was now bouncing up and down and trying to get to the backpack. This caused the girl to turn round and round, keeping Shippou from clambering into the yellow bag until the hanyou reached out and grabbed the kitsune by his tail.

 

“Leave Kagome alone, runt.”

 

“Kagomeeeeee!”

 

“I'm not going to sit…”

 

<WHAMMM>

 

“…him…for that…Shippou.” The poor girl “eeped” when she realized what she had done. “Sorry…InuYasha.”

 

The monk took each girl by an arm, pointing them in the direction of the elder miko's hut. “We'll be back at Kaede's when that wears off, InuYasha.” The monk and the two girls started off to the village.

 

“What about me?” asked Shippou.

 

Miroku looked back over his shoulder. “You can remain here and return with InuYasha, if you wish.”

 

Shippou looked at InuYasha, who had recovered enough to start up a long and quite impressive string of invective. “I don't think so.”

 

The four of them made it a point to be well away from the cursing hanyou before the subjugation spell wore off.

 

 

 

 

 

It was one angry hanyou who threw aside the mat that hung over Kaede's door. “You've got to be more careful, Kago…me?”

 

The young miko looked up from where she was sitting on a mat with Shippou, who was drawing Kanji symbols on some oddly-shaped pieces of paper. Kagome had decided to use the occasion to start teaching the kitsune how to write.

 

“That's right, Shippou. That symbol means `love.'” Kagome looked up. “Oh, hi, InuYasha. Sorry about that si...uh…sorry about that.”

 

The hanyou stopped cringing, walked over and crouched down beside Kagome. “What's that?”

 

“They're hearts, InuYasha.”

 

The hanyou looked skeptical.

 

“Kagome says they're part of a holiday in her time,” said Miroku, who was holding up one of the larger hearts and looking past it towards Sango…who was kneeling on the ground while drawing on yet another heart. “Apparently, it's a celebration of love.”

 

InuYasha picked up one of the pieces of paper. “I dunno. I've cut out plenty of hearts and none of `em looked like this.”

 

“InuYasha!”

 

The hanyou looked towards Kagome, who was glaring angrily.

 

“They're symbolic, not realistic. You think people would give each other actual hearts…maybe with blood dripping off `em?”

 

InuYasha drew back slightly. “Actually, among certain youkai, that would be a part of courtship.” The hanyou wondered at Kagome's expression, which seemed to be an odd mix of hope and revulsion.

 

Sango, the resident expert on youkai behavior, spoke up. “What InuYasha says is correct. Among certain youkai, the suitor would rip the heart out of his intended's worst enemy and present it to her. If she eats it, she has accepted his courtship.”

 

“Ewwwww.” Kagome had a momentary image of InuYasha standing over Hojo's body, holding his somehow-still-beating heart out to her. Not that Hojo was her worst enemy, but he could be a pest. She shook her head to clear the image. “You'd better not ever present me with a heart, InuYasha!”

 

“Huh? Why would I?” snapped the hanyou.

 

Both InuYasha and Kagome blushed heavily…a fact not unnoticed by the monk and the taijiya, both of whom smiled.

 

When Kagome gave him a withering look, the hanyou retreated to crouch beside Miroku. “This is all a waste of time,” he grumbled.

 

“Not so,” said the monk, who was still holding up the heart and looking past it towards Sango. In a flash of inspiration, he turned the heart upside down and held it up beside his view of the taijiya's posterior. “I think I know where they got the shape.”

 

<WHAM>

 

Both the girls and Shippou looked up to find an angry InuYasha standing over the crumpled monk.

 

“Hentai!”

 

“What did he do, InuYasha?” asked Sango, an angry look on her face. The taijiya had no doubt Miroku was being perverted again.

 

Kagome hopped up and walked over to stand beside InuYasha. “Yes, what did he do?”

 

InuYasha picked up the heart Miroku had been holding and held it out, upside down. “He was looking at this and Sango.”

 

Kagome looked at the upside down heart, at Sango, and then at the heart again. “Huh? I don't get it.”

 

The hanyou actually growled and, seizing Kagome by the shoulders, spun her partway around, and held the upside down heart by her butt. “He said he knew where they got the shape.”

 

Kagome began to blush as InuYasha continued to hold the upside down heart next to her.

 

For his own part, InuYasha had noticed that Kagome's bottom really was heart shaped…and that he was beginning to appreciate the funny pieces of paper Kagome had brought with her.

 

“InuYasha?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“I get the point.”

 

InuYasha spun around and crumpled the heart cutout. “Feh!” Without turning around, he walked to the door. “If anyone wants me, I'll be outside.”

 

 

******************

 

 

“Is this okay?” Shippou was holding out a heart that had the Kanji for “love” and “mother” on it.

 

“It's very nice, Shippou.” Kagome was flattered that Shippou thought of her as his mother, but she was worried about InuYasha and the mood the hanyou was in. She supposed he'd get over it eventually.

 

She looked over to where Sango had arranged the unconscious Miroku into a comfortable position. “Need any help, Sango?”

 

“No thank you, Kagome. I can handle him.”

 

“Kagome?”

 

“Yes, Shippou?”

 

“You haven't made a Valentine.”

 

The miko smiled, quickly wrote a Valentine for her adoptive son and presented him with it.

 

“Thanks, Kagome, but didn't you want to make one for InuYasha?”

 

Sango smiled at the deep blush that overtook the miko. “Yes, Kagome. Don't you want to make a Valentine for InuYasha?”

 

“I…I…”

 

“It's okay, Kagome. We won't look.”

 

Kagome looked at Shippou, who obviously didn't understand the full import of what he was saying. The kitsune probably just thought Kagome didn't want to be teased about what she wrote, but the real issue was much deeper than that.

 

`O…okay.” The miko picked out what she considered a special heart and began to write in Kanji.

 

If Miroku had been awake, he would have seen a glow coming from the Kanji symbols written by the young miko. Kagome didn't notice it, either. She thought the tears in her eyes were just catching some of light from the fire and the lamps in Kaede's hut.

 

 

******************

 

 

“InuYasha?”

 

“Feh!”

 

Kagome looked up. InuYasha was sitting on the roof of Kaede's hut. She put her arms up and gasped when she felt them seized and herself pulled up to join the hanyou. The miko and the hanyou sat down together. “I have something for you.”

 

“Keh. Let me guess. One of those stupid hearts.”

 

“They are not stupid!” Kagome caught herself. She might be revealing a little too much by her reaction. “There's something written on it. I don't know if you can read it.”

 

“Feh. Youkai eyesight. I can read it.”

 

“Before I give it to you, I want you to know that, in my time, Valentine's Day celebrates all kinds of love.”

 

“Meaning?” then hanyou responded gruffly.

 

“I'd you-know-what you if it wouldn't damage Kaede's roof.”

 

“Feh.”

 

Kagome took this as a cue to continue. “It celebrates the love between mates, but it can also celebrate the love between parents and children…or even just between good friends.”

 

InuYasha's visage softened. “You know I'm your friend, Kagome. I will protect you with my life.”

 

Kagome's eyes were getting a little tearful again. “And you are my best friend, too, InuYasha.” For a moment she held onto the Valentine, unsure over whether she should give it to him. She had carefully crafted her words so that nothing she didn't want revealed would be. “I guess I've been careful enough.”

 

She handed the hanyou the heart.

 

As InuYasha accepted it, she noticed a slight glow from the Kanji symbols. “I wonder.” She thought about Miroku's sacred sutras…the Kanji-filled strips of paper that could carry so much power.

 

But it was too late. InuYasha held her heart.

 

 

 

******************

 

 

The heart felt warm.

 

Well, Kagome had been holding it, so that was no surprise, yet it seemed to grow warmer as he held it. He looked at the Kanji and read the symbols. InuYasha was not completely ignorant. Even if he had had to fend for himself from the childhood, he had still been born into a noble family and had received some education.

 

Kagome had worded it carefully. The girl had expressed her love, but not in a way that could embarrass either of them. He was grateful for that. He cared for her, too, but knew he couldn't express his feelings to her. Hell, sometimes he didn't understand them, himself!

 

Why did the heart still feel warm?

 

He thought about all the time they had traveled together, and how she had grown on him. How she had changed in his view from a whiny child into a woman worthy of respect. He thought about the heart Miroku had held upside down…but this time his mind saw Kagome's bottom presented to him. He whined.

 

“InuYasha?”

 

The damned heart was feeling warmer.

 

“Feh. It's nothing.”

 

“If you say so.”

 

Was it imagination, or had the Kanji symbols glowed for a moment? He could swear he could feel…loved…as if holding the paper heart conveyed…Kagome's?...feelings to him. A feeling of being wanted, even desired, washed over him. He closed his eyes and first blurry, then clean, images came to him…a naked Kagome crawling up between his equally-naked…

 

“KEH!”

 

“What is it, InuYasha?”

 

InuYasha looked over to a fully-clothed Kagome.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

“Y-yes.”

 

“Do you like your Valentine?”

 

InuYasha looked away from Kagome, blushing, and looked again at the heart. He closed his eyes and held it against his chest.

 

Again, an image of a very naked Kagome appeared and began crawling up between his also-naked legs.

 

His eyes snapped open and he looked back at Kagome. “Feh. Yes, I like it.” And with that, the hanyou got up and bounded off into the forest that carried his name. “Thank the kami for loose hakamas!”

 

Kagome stared after him until she realized something.

 

“In-u-ya-shaaa!”

 

She was still on Kaede's roof.

 

“You can't leave me like this, InuYashaaaaa!”

 

 

 

A/N: There…my now annual InuYasha and Kagome Valentine's Day story. I hope you like it. Please read and review. Thanks!

 

I'm sorry if I haven't written much. I think I'll be writing more now.