Tell Me It'll Be Alright

"It's not like I'm a hoarder, Kagome." Inuyasha buried his face in his hands with a groan.

"Inuyasha, I know you're - " Kagome tried

"It's just. . I've been homeless before, I know I can do it, but when you've finally gotten comfortable living outside of the system, after years of foster care 'hot potato', living out of a suitcase and a backpack, the prospect of selling my couch, my bookshelves. What the hell am I gonna do with Kirara? I can't force her to live in my car."

Kagome heard Inuyasha's head hit the table on the other end of the Skype line. He had made a lot of mistakes in his life, but he had been trying these past few years. He went back and got his diploma, and he was working towards his tech degree. His part-time jobs couldn't pay the bills so he was living under a low-income housing program. He found a basement apartment close to his work and school down near Yokohama. For years it worked perfectly, even allowing his cat.

He had been trying. His life had been getting better, until the upstairs tenets moved out and the owner decided to put the house up for sale, effectively evicting Inuyasha without him doing anything wrong. He didn't deserve to have the rug drug out from under him like that. He had been the perfect tenet, he didn't like loud music, he didn't yell, he even kept up the yard at the owner's request, something that would ordinarily be the upstairs tenets' job. He had gotten comfortable living here. Now he had a few weeks to find a place that would even accept the low-income program, and he was coming up with nothing but tiny places where he couldn't even squeeze a couch and dresser in, or smelled like roaches or wouldn't allow him to keep Kirara. There was more available in other times of the year, but now, no one was reasonably wanting to move.

"Move in with me." Kagome suggested. She heard him sigh as he tilted the phone back towards his face. He looked so tired.

"Your place doesn't allow cats, I thought of askin' 'til I remembered that."

Kagome chewed her lip, trying to think of something to say. He knew something was up when her brown eyes went off to the side, looking away from her computer screen.

"I know you don't want to hear this, but she's a cute cat and - "

"I'm not going to give her to a shelter!" Inuyasha growled. He saw Kagome jump at the feedback sound from her monitor's speakers and took a deep breath to calm down and continue.

"Only kittens get adopted. She's too old, she'll be killed in a week." He laid on his back, tilting his phone at an awkward angle to see Kagome. Kirara took his reclined position as an invitation to crawl onto his belly. Inuyasha glanced down at her to stroke her back before returning his gaze to his phone screen.

" You didn't let me finish." Kagome rubbed her forehead in annoyance.

"Kirara is a cute cat," Kagome repeated, pausing with a nod, "and I'm sure my mom would take her in."

Inuyasha's face turned away from the phone as he set it on the couch next to him. All she could see was ceiling and his beltloop before a curious Kirara poked her head into frame to sniff the phone.

"That would work wouldn't it?" Inuyasha said, barely audible to the microphone near his hip.

"I hate to give her up but...your mom would take good care of her."

"Inuyasha?" Inuyasha picked the phone back up, looking at Kagome's gentle, concerned face on the other end of the video call.

"It wouldn't have to be permanent. I'm not locked into a lease, we can spend some time checking rentals as they come up for somewhere that takes cats." Kagome's eyes scanned over the monitor, looking for any change in expression on her boyfriend's face.

"Kagome, I really...would my stuff even fit in your place?"

"It'd be tight, but it would temporary. With your income added to mine, we could look for a larger place."

"Tight, yeah. The only place for me to put my futon at night would be your kitchen floor or one of the couches."

"Inuyasha...I don't want to...well, if you...I do have a queen bed. We could share it to save on space."

She watched Inuyasha blink a few times at that before a blush crept into his cheeks. He swollowed thickly, then changed the subject.

"So uh, my school is the next town over, I'd have to commute."

Kagome shrugged. He would ve finishing school this year, soon all he would have to worry about was the commute to work, whether he found a job in his field or continued working his two part-time jobs.

"Kagome?"

"You're going to be alright," she reassured him, the guy who was certain he would end up living out of his car five minutes ago. She heard Inuyasha cough, as he pulled the phone away from his face.

"Thank you." He didn't know what else to say.


...


I had some...difficulties over the summer. This was a vent piece when I was most scared.