The night pulsated alive with the sound of their muffled giggles
Inside of the modest hut Miroku and Sango shared, the bottle of liquor emptied slowly and Kagome realized how much of an western caricature they were right then, drinking like teenagers in the parking lot of some american movie.
Except for her husband. His refusal to go anywhere near alcohol since the Master Of Potions incident remained strong after all these years, which the rest of the group agreed it was hilarious.
However, with Shippo snoring on her lap — after strongly claim he wasn't sleepy at all — and the kids sleeping next room, it was actually a good idea to have a responsible, sober adult around. Specially since her cares were casted aside from the first sip.
"Okay, I have another one." Kagome put her cup down and smiled devilishly to a cherry colored Sango.
"No, no, no!" She shook her head eagerly, but the amused expression never left her face. "Kagome-Chan, you said that was your last question!"
"Come on! This isn't fair! I didn't get to see you marry and I missed your children's birth. I deserve this, at least."
"Kagome-Sama, you can't use this to get your way forever." Miroku interfered, his enjoyment with her pleading statement way too evident while InuYasha muttered just fucking watch her under his breath. "Besides, I don't think my wife could possibly get redder." Sango nodded and took her cup to her lips.
"Please?" Kagome knew she had won when the demon slayer drank the content all at once, rolled her eyes and cleaned her mouth with the back of her hand.
"Fine!" The word came a bit groggy and followed by a smile. Kagome clasped her hands in excitement.
"When did you guys know you were in love?" The couple shared a long complicity look before Sango broke the mood.
"You first."
"That's easy!" The monk spoke with certainty, then grinned. "The first time I caressed her butt." Before Kagome could protest, Sango hit him hard on the shoulder.
"Miroku!"
"You have three children, you know?" InuYasha commented, narrowing his eyes at their friend's lecherous ways.
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." He put his hands up in defense, then sighed. "I guess for me it would be... the time we spent on that lorde's castle. Kuranosuke Takeda, was it?" Miroku looked at Sango for confirmation. As soon as he got it, he proceeded. "Well, he was in love with Sango and, as you recall, he asked her to marry him. Even though parting ways saddened me, I knew it was her best chance to have the life she deserved. It was at that moment, when I realized her happiness was more important to me than my own, that I knew I was in love."
Kagome exhaled her content then addressed Sango, whose eyes still glittered with her husband's reply.
"What about you, Sango-Chan?"
"The first time I caressed his butt." Her answer caused Miroku to choke on his drink and not even Kagome was immune to the giggles that followed.
"Three children." InuYasha reminded the couple.
After a short laugh, Sango paused and took a deep breath, then the words Mt Hakurei left her lips. Kagome would jump on her seat if it wasn't for Shippo, still using her as a pillow. She always wondered what happened back in Mt Hakurei. InuYasha himself seemed to grow interested beside her.
"Really?" Miroku raised an eyebrow. "That long, huh?" The question earned him a cocky smile from the demon slayer.
"You were such a womanizer, there was no way I'd make it too easy for you."
"That's fair."
"Enough teasing!" Kagome rushed them, her voice painted in childish enthusiasm. "What happened?"
"I got injured and he used the Kazana to keep me safe, even though there were Saimyosho around. We were surrounded by yokai and Miroku couldn't move, so he told me to leave him behind."
Sango shook her head as if to reinforce the idiocy of the idea, which Kagome could easily relate to — more than once InuYasha had put her on similar situation and she reacted with the same indignant disbelief.
"As if I ever would!" The pinch of exasperation was replaced to a much softer tone when Sango continued. "I knew I was in love because for a moment there I really believed I was gonna lose him and the thought of my life without him in it... it was one of the scariest things I have ever felt."
Their answers weren't what Kagome expected at all, especially for what was supposed to be a fun drinking night, but as she watched Miroku placing kisses on each of Sango's hands, she didn't regret asking it one bit.
"Not to brag, but I knew you guys would end up together from the start." Just when Kagome thought they were too caught up in the moment to notice her smug comment, Sango turned to her.
"When did it happen for you?" Now she regretted it. Kagome should have seen this coming — because of course it was — and she owed them the same honesty they have been giving her all night. Besides, she had no problem with opening old scars.
It was with InuYasha she worried about.
"It's not my happiest memory." Kagome argued, but judging by the way InuYasha's ears flattened, it was the wrong choice of words.
"Neither were ours. It's only fair." Miroku pointed out and Kagome bit her lips. He was right and she hated it. After a quick side glance towards InuYasha, her decision was made.
"I saw them together." No explanations were asked, nor were they needed. "When he looked at me, I could tell he had made up his mind and I didn't wanna hear it, so I ran home." While her audience awaited, flashes of that day plagued into her mind — the absolute resilience on his eyes, the burning sensation on her lungs as she fled, the feeling of losing something irreplaceable escorting every step of her way. Kagome brushed them off the best she could. "I had no idea it could hurt that much, but… ultimately, my need to see him again, to be by his side, was stronger than anything else. Then I came back. You know the rest." She finished with a shy shrug.
InuYasha opened his mouth but no words were able to come out, so Sango was the one to break the silence.
"I'm glad everything worked out." She inclined towards Kagome to refill her cup.
"Me too." Kagome let her head fall on InuYasha's shoulder, happy to feel the tension he had been holding gradually melt with the contact. "I just wish it had been a little less upsetting."
"Perhaps it's an universal thing." Miroku suggested. "All romantic realizations are fated to be painful."
"Mine wasn't."
All eyes drastically fell on the half demon and he shrunk at the sudden attention, horrified to have spoken out loud what was supposed to remain an inner thought. Miroku, however, acted like his favorite show had just started.
"And when was that?"
"Just drop it."
"Fine! Don't tell us. We'll just guess it." Sango announced, with the confidence that was so inherent of her.
Kagome couldn't help but feel torn. She knew InuYasha wasn't one to talk about his feelings so openly and she wanted to respect his space. On the other hand, curiosity was killing her.
"I'm sure it was after that battle against Sesshoumaru, when we got our first real clue about Naraku. InuYasha was so worried about Kagome-Sama's safety that he took the fragments away and trapped her on the other side of the well. I recall t-"
"He did what?" The second Sango shouted, a cry made its way through the room and a very confused Shippo jumped to consciousness. Her hands flew to her mouth when she remembered, a little too late, that she should have kept her voice down.
"I got it." Was all Miroku said while he promptly rushed to his youngest.
"It's okay, Shippo-Chan. Go back to sleep." Kagome reassured the kitsune, who showed no sign of putting up a fight this time.
"Where the hell was I?" Now with a way more moderate tone, Sango remained puzzled.
"We hadn't met yet."
"It doesn't matter. Miroku is wrong."
"Right! Because it definitely happened at that time we almost died." Her words made Kagome frown. Giving the impressive frequency in which someone or something tried to kill them, the possibilities were plentiful.
"Which one?"
"The one the three of us got poisoned."
"Of course!" Miroku returned and if the lack of noise was any indication, the mission of tranquilizing their baby back to sleep was a success. "The way InuYasha cried as he held her... it has to be that one."
"I didn't cry." He lied. "And you're not even close."
"How about that time back in my bedroom? You said such beautiful things and then we almost-"
"It was way earlier! Just how fucking dumb do you think I am?"
Kagome chuckled, amazed that after all these time — with a wedding in between, nothing less — the simple mention of that episode still puts a heavy tone of pink on his cheeks.
"Sorry. You don't have to say anything, it's alright." And Kagome meant it, undoubtedly so. Which didn't change the fact that she would always wonder about it, now that her curiosity had been stirred. "I just… it would be nice to know."
Not wanting to give away how much it actually meant for her to know, Kagome put her hair behind her ear, hoping to come off as nonchalant as possible. She realized it didn't work when a clawed finger lifted her chin to demand her focus.
"It was shortly after yours." For the first time that night, she felt sober — as if his words had injected cold water into her veins, fresh attentiveness taking the place warm torpor once was. Still, Kagome looked at her husband without comprehend.
"W-what? How?" The more her mind played the phrase back, the less it made sense. She was there. It was years ago, but she remembered every second vividly. How could something like that went by unnoticed?
"I never thought I had a choice, I knew what I had to do. But I just couldn't bring myself to let you go. At first I figured it was because I didn't want to see that sad look on your face again. It was only when you came back that I understood the real reason."
Suddenly, Kagome was taken back. She could almost feel the wind caressing her hair and hear the birds singing as she sat on the edge of the well waiting for him.
"I had finally summoned up the courage to go after you, but when I got to the Honekui no Ido, you were already there." Kagome blinked, idly wondering if he was as lost on the memory as she was. "You asked me to stay, and to this day I can't tell how relieved — or grateful — I was that you did." InuYasha smiled. "Then you took my hand and in that moment I knew... that in the end of the day, I would always let you take me wherever you wanted."
"InuYasha…" Nothing Kagome could say would do justice to the way she felt. Maybe it was the liquor, or maybe it was the way the gold on his eyes seemed to be liquefied, inviting her to drown in it, but she had never wanted to kiss him so desperately. Kagome leaned in slowly, delighted to notice his parted lips and held up breath.
Before she could go any further, though, Miroku cleared his throat and the spell was broken, tossing them back on reality, where they were not alone and to behave accordingly was probably a good idea.
"Keh." InuYasha looked away and crossed his arms. "Now you know. Happy?"
"Yes!" Sango replied.
"Very much so." Her husband agreed at the same time.
The rest of the night passed by in a blur. No matter how hard Kagome tried to focus on the present, her thoughts inevitably kept coming back to the things InuYasha said. It didn't take long for her to caught herself remaking her footsteps on her mind, from the day they met to now, trying to fathom what other signs she had missed while absorbed on her own feelings.
Then they finally decided to call it a night.
"Shippo-Chan, wake up, we're leaving." The kitsune grumbled and turned about, but didn't get up.
"Should've known the brat would make me carry his lazy ass all the way home." InuYasha grunted. It was hard not to laugh of his facade. Shippo barely weighed anything, even if InuYasha hadn't hanyou strength.
"InuYasha, why don't you just leave him here? He is more than welcome to spend the night." Miroku suggested.
"The twins love when he is here." Sango added. Nevertheless, InuYasha declined their offer with a shake of his head.
"If he wakes up and Kagome is not there I'll never hear the end of it."
There was no counterpoint, no condescending comment, just silent understanding. From time to time she would get glimpses of the wounds her three years absence caused and it never ceased to break her heart a little.
Way more gentle than his previous tone suggested he would be, InuYasha picked Shippo off her lap, nesting him on his arm, and after an affable exchange of thank yous and goodnights with their hosts, they walked through the door.
A million questions still burned on her head. Why didn't he tell her about his feelings then? Why didn't she noticed? Wouldn't have been better if they hadn't wasted so many time? If they were then the people they are now?
Kagome knew the answers would remain a mystery, but as she contemplated her husband under the moonlight, starting to lead their way home, she realized it didn't matter. Kagome would have gone through everything again, as many times as necessary, if she knew her life would become exactly what it is now.
InuYasha stopped a few steps later and turned, making Kagome note she has been wonderstruck in the same place when she should had followed him.
"Kagome, are you alright?" The genuine worry on his face got her nodding a emphatic yes until InuYasha got convinced. "Come on." He held out his free hand.
Then you took my hand and in that moment I knew... that in the end of the day, I would always let you take me wherever you wanted.
And without thinking it twice, she took it.
A/N: yeah, you guessed right... Shippo is only on this so I can have some Inukag Parenting™ time and I regret nothing.
Anyway... I really had fun writing this! Do you guys agree with me or think they fell in love in some other moment?