"All of your Flaws and All of my Flaws" - a oneshot written for InuKag week 2016 on Tumblr
*Set sometime during canon
He wasn't sure exactly when entering through her window had become the norm. At first he'd only done it to avoid her nosy family – he still had visions sometimes of Kagome's mother finally marching up to him, grabbing him by the ear, and bodily throwing him back down the well so Kagome could study. She was the nicest person he'd ever met, but then… so was Kagome, and her temper was crater-inducing. And speaking of tempers….
Finding her irritated upon his arrival was almost as normal as coming in through her window – a fact which Inuyasha didn't dwell on longer than necessary – but she'd get over it. She always did. Planting his feet on the tatami, he closed the window behind him (hoping to mollify her at least a little) and took his usual place cross-legged on her pink comforter, staring at the back of her wavy black-haired head. The air between them was thick as she sat at her desk, hunched over a book that was much thinner and much more colorful than the ones she usually read. Whatever – she didn't seem to be paying much attention to it anymore anyways. "Oi, stupid, you ready to go?"
The glossy book was slapped onto the desk with such a crack that Inuyasha's ears ducked into his snowy hair. Before he could voice a complaint she had whipped around to face him, her lips pursed tight and eyes flaming. "Why do you do this?" She blurted, her voice more controlled than her expression, leaving the half-demon under her ire more than a little perplexed.
"What the hell are you talking about, Kagome? I ain't even been here five minutes, and already you're rippin' into me!" he frantically went over the details of his arrival, of her parting, and of the past three days trying to find any action on his part which could have set her off. They'd argued, sure, but they'd also worked those arguments out – whether by compromise, apologies, or by leaving them to die. "Mind telling me why you're biting my head off?"
"Oh I dunno Inuyasha," she started in an overtly sarcastic tone that made him wince, "maybe it's because I'm 'stupid' and 'crazy' like you always tell me I am! 'Biting people's heads off' is just what I do, right?! Well if I'm so unpleasant to be around, why don't you just LEAVE!" She had stood from her chair and was towering over him from the edge of the bed, and Inuyasha couldn't help wilting under the heat of her anger.
Damn, but she was scary when she got mad!
Realizing his less-than-assertive response, Inuyasha quickly righted himself and shouted back "I ain't leavin' until you tell me what I did! If I leave you alone now, you'll probably set somethin' on fire and burn your house down!"
"I don't need to tell you what you did, Inuyasha" her voice lilting in dangerous saccharine notes, before switching back to outright anger as she shouted "BECAUSE YOU'RE DOING IT RIGHT NOW!"
Inuyasha felt the need to retreat to a quiet corner somewhere to sort her words out. For the life of him, he couldn't think of anything he was doing that warranted this kind of response. "Just what the hell am I doing?"
"BEING A JERK!" She shouted, throwing her hands up for emphasis, "Insulting me, calling me names, acting like I'm such a bother to you! If it weren't for the jewel shards, I bet you wouldn't come back for me at all!"
At that Inuyasha stood, invading her space and forcing her to take a few steps back as he leaned over her and growled out "You know damn well that ain't true, and it ain't fair of you to say that either. I don't need to remind you of every single time I put my life on the line for yours. Honestly Kagome, how can you be so stupid?"
Her temper had ebbed at the shame over accusing him of indifference, but her eyebrow twitched again at his last comment. "You're doing it again! Inuyasha, I'm sorry… I know you care about me, but I don't get why you have to be so mean about it at the same time!"
"How am I being mean?" He retorted, feeling righteous indignation welling in him at her words, "I'm just tellin' the truth! Is that wrong now?"
His response wasn't helping; in fact it had quite the opposite effect. "The truth?" Kagome asked evenly, eyes wide and brows clenched, "So you really think I'm stupid, is that it?"
He could tell it was a trap, but traps to him were only invitations to set them off. "Right now, yeah."
Out of his periphery he noticed her hands clenching and unclenching, and she was breathing through her nose, trying in vain to calm down. He would have smirked, if he hadn't been on the receiving end. Boy, when it came to being angry, she could give him a run for his money!
"Inuyasha, do you know what my friend Yuka's boyfriend calls her?"
Inuyasha racked his brain to try and recall who Yuka was and why the hell he should care.
"Uh… no?"
"He calls her princess."
Still coming up with nothing but blanks as to why this information was pertinent to the argument, Inuyasha voiced his confusion, not having anything else really to say. "Does she own land or something?"
Kagome actually rolled her eyes at him for that one, and he let his mouth gape in shock. He couldn't even ask legitimate questions now? "NO, Inuyasha. Obviously." Lifting a hand to rub at her aching forehead, Kagome continued "And you know what Setsuko's boyfriend calls her?"
"I don't give a damn what-"
"He calls her angel, Inuyasha, ANGEL!" She was really mad now, and upon seeing a glimmer of sadness in her eyes, Inuyasha decided he'd better start paying attention, or he'd have a crying Kagome on his hands. And that was never something he wanted.
Swallowing his anger and reaching out to gently grasp her shoulder, Inuyasha tried to put on as gentle a voice as he could, saying "Kagome, what does that have to do with anything I did?"
"Oh honestly Inuyasha, don't you get it?" Her eyes were swimming as she angrily shrugged off his hands, and Inuyasha belatedly realized he was heading down the wrong track if he wanted to avoid waterworks. "Their boyfriends call them all these sweet, wonderful things all the time, and what do you call me? Stupid, lazy, idiot, crazy, woman when you're feeling especially eloquent, and I don't think I've ever heard a single compliment about my looks come out of your mouth!"
Oh. Oooooh. So that's it: she was comparing them. Of all the stupid things she'd done lately, this one had to be at the top. "This is ridiculous, and you're being ridiculous. Those 'boyfriends' sound like idiots – what kinda sappy mumbo-jumbo is that? If you're waitin' around for me to say those things to you, you can forget it, cuz you ain't dead, and you sure as hell ain't a princess."
Before he knew what was happening she was dragging him by the hair out into the hallway. His nightmares of Mrs. Higurashi tossing him down the well replaying with Kagome in her place, but the younger Higurashi woman stopped once he was outside her door and then promptly slammed said door in his shocked face. Huh… maybe he should have rephrased that. Bracing his palms against the door, he leaned his ear flush against the wood, listening intently for the emotional state of his volatile friend. Hearing the bed springs creak and some tell-tale sniffles, Inuyasha sighed heavily, trying with all his might to think of a way to salvage their relationship while sticking to his guns. He'd meant what he said, just… not quite in the way she'd taken it.
"Kagome" he called out, his voice low and tone patient, "C'mon Kagome, can we talk about this? It's not what you think!"
He heard another loud sniffle, and then a muffled reply of "You gonna take it back?"
Inuyasha snorted in response, answering back "Hell no! I'm gonna tell you what I meant by it!"
After all he got back was a growl of frustration, Inuyasha plowed on "Look, if you're bein' stupid, I'm gonna tell ya. Someone's gotta tell you when you are, and if I don't do it, who will?"
But sniffles were once again his reply, and just as Inuyasha was rolling his eyes and about to walk away and give her some space, he caught a faint whisper which only his dog-ears could have picked up through the thick wood door.
"I bet you never called Kikyo stupid."
To hell with her temper, he was going in there even if she sat him into the hill beneath the shrine. Opening the door, he quickly skirted her bed and came around to the side where she was sprawled on her stomach, her face jammed in her pillow. Ignoring the blush at what he was about to do, Inuyasha deftly reached under her to haul her up off the mattress as she gasped, and then sat himself down on her mattress with the girl nestled in his arms. He could see the water smudged around her eyes as she stared up at him in shock and confusion, and he cursed himself over his inability to say things properly. "Look" he began, willing himself to talk slowly and think things out so he'd only need to do this once, "just because I call you stupid, and just because you are stupid sometimes… it doesn't mean I don't like you."
She didn't really look angry anymore, but she still looked far from pleased, so he sighed and carried on "It's not that I wouldn't call Kikyo 'stupid' because I care more or anything… it's that she'd never do something 'stupid' in front of me. You see?" She didn't see, if her quivering lip and drooping eyes were anything to go by, so he growled and continued "Kagome, you're impulsive and too damn emotional, and you sometimes say things and do things without thinking them through, and that's okay! It's honest, and… and raw, and I'm… I'm glad you let me see that side of you." He trailed off, his eyes dropping to his clawed hands around her thighs, and tried to force himself to keep going. Talking about how he felt was harder than fighting demons, but Kagome needed to hear this, because apparently she'd never been able to figure it out for herself. Flexing his fingers against her skin and fighting the distracting thought of how nicely squishy she was, he said "I never have to worry that you're hiding things from me, not like you could if you tried, but… aw dammit all. Honestly Kagome, what's the big deal? You're a real person, and real people ain't perfect!"
He dared to look over at her face, and saw her glancing off to the side, staring blankly at his rosary with a pensive look on her face. Distractedly she reached up to finger the beads, and Inuyasha smiled; at least she was thinking about what he'd said. Maybe he could do this. "You're not the only one who acts stupid" he ventured, keeping his smirking smile in place, "You already know how often I act like an idiot. And you… you don't like me any less for it, do ya?" It must have been the slightly unsure tremor in his voice that finally got her to look at him, and he was happy to see that her expression was amused… and understanding.
"No" she said softly, but genuinely, "I guess I see what you mean… after all, if you weren't an idiot sometimes, you wouldn't be Inuyasha."
"Finally!" He breathed out with relief, dropping her legs so she could sit across his lap and he could hold her with both arms in a comforting hug. "You get it now, don't you? Without your temper and your acting stupid sometimes, you wouldn't be Kagome, and that would just be weird! I don't… I don't want you to be anyone else."
Sighing happily into his embrace, Kagome reached up to grasp a handful of his fire-rat shirt, and Inuyasha smiled broadly as she snuggled down further into his embrace.
After a moment or two of content silence, Inuyasha found there were still a few things bothering him. "Kagome" he asked, and at her light humming response, he dared to go further "Why would you wanna be called a princess anyways? They're useless! All they do is sit around all day in big lonely mansions and deal with unhappy peasants. Why would a girl want to be called that?"
He felt more than heard Kagome chuckle against him, and then her soft voice spoke up "It's just a romanticized thing… girls want to be waited on and treated like they're something special…" he felt her shift, and he moved back slightly as she lifted her head to look him in the eye. Her expression was becoming sad again. "Inuyasha, don't I deserve to be treated special?"
Looking into her big brown eyes, Inuyasha was lost for a reply. 'Of course' was the obvious one, but… then he realized why she had been so upset, and his guilt kept him from saying it. He squeezed her a little bit tighter, clearing his throat and working up the courage to say what he knew he needed to. "Sorry."
He felt Kagome lean into him more, and after a moment she mumbled against his shirt "It's okay… I know what an idiot you are… and I still love you."
Inuyasha wasn't ready to address that directly… not yet anyways, and Kagome must have known, because she wasn't bothered when his only response was "I bet none of those prissy boyfriends would take a hole through the gut for their girls. And… you don't… you don't need to be a princess to be special. You're special just being you. I'm… sorry if I don't always treat you that way."
She tugged slightly at the red fabric in her hand and giggled softly. "Well… I'd say that right now, you're not doing too badly!"
He smiled over the top of her head and adjusted her slightly for a more comfortable fit, determined to stay there as long as she wanted, which probably wouldn't be long enough for him.
*Author's Note:
This is meant to showcase both of their sets of flaws, and to show how those flaws work in their relationship and make them who they are. It's not really meant to excuse their faults or make light of them, just meant to show how two imperfect people can love each other while still being imperfect.
Also this was heavily inspired by the Bastille song "Flaws" which is probably one of my favorite songs ever it's so good.