Smile like You Mean It
Inuyasha informs Kagome on how his family isn't the most attractive looking bunch when it comes to smiling sincerely.
A loud groan escaped from a certain hanyou's mouth. "Why are you so…?"
"So… what?" Kagome asked, irritated, as she deleted some photos on her digital camera. As she went through them, it was all photos of Inuyasha changing his expressions in front of the camera at the last minute. As she passed photos that had him either scowling or ruining it, she hesitated and contemplated on deleting the photo, but ultimately decided against it/
Inuyasha let out a small squeak and coughed. "N-nothing." If there's anything he learned over the months he'd been traveling with Kagome, it's to not get her pissed off. Especially at himself.
"Thought so," Kagome mumbled before letting out a heavy sigh and pointing the camera at Inuyasha. "Now smile."
"That's very funny Kagome," he chuckled, still not smiling.
"C'mon, just once! A sincere smile!" She begged. "I wanted to show how the feudal era's like to my family, and they've been wanting to know how the people I travel with look like."
Inuyasha scoffed. "They can see me face to face, so this is completely useless. Why do you insist on taking one anyways?"
Kagome frowned and began to think of a reason why. It wasn't like she planned to hang it up anywhere in her room back in the modern era or anything. No, that'd be too risky. She'd have to take it down if any of her friends would visit, plus if Inuyasha caught her doing that he'd bug her all day asking why. And she wasn't even the type of girl who would seclude the photo of him in her own little diary or anything. So Kagome merely shrugged. "Memories. To remember you by."
"Yeah, like you'd forget about all of this and me," Inuyasha huffed as he crossed his arms. He wasn't trying to sound conceited or anything, but it was actually kind of true.
Suddenly, an idea sparked into Kagome's mind. "Kouga wasn't being all huffy about this when I asked him if I could take a picture of him."
That got him. "You did what!?" Kagome tried to hide her smirk.
"He was all for it, actually," It was true. Earlier, Kouga had stopped by to greet and check in with Kagome (and also to check her out) and he saw her holding the camera. He was curious about the strange contraption, so Kagome demonstrated the power of the camera to Kouga by asking if she could take a picture of him. And of course, he let her, and she showed her. As this was going on, Inuyasha was off hunting food, so there were no arguments at that time. He only came back when Hakkaku and Ginta passed by, and Kagome took their picture too. The topic of Kouga wasn't brought up since.
Well, until now.
Inuyasha was scowling more than ever, as thoughts began racing through his head—when did that wolf stop by and how did he not know about it? Why did he not know about it? How long did he not know about this? Oh this is why he had so many trust issues with this woman. He shifted and heard the beads bump into each other. Those things too.
"Why don't you just smile for me?" She asks. He doesn't have one good reason to, that's why.
"I don't know if you've noticed, but my family's not so good when it comes to smiling sincerely," Inuyasha pointed out to Kagome. "In fact, we're so shitty at it that it's just the world's natural order for us not to smile. It's… what was that thing in your book?"
"A natural law?" Kagome sighed exasperated—this guy was gonna make all the excuses he wanted, didn't he?
"Yeah! It's just unnatural for our family to smile—plus we've been told that we're better off scowling than smiling," Inuyasha added. "We're not… what do you call it? Photogenic when it comes to this stuff. It's not in our blood."
"Well that's just sad," Kagome muttered. She may have missed half of her classes of the year, but she knew enough about DNA, Punnet squares, and all that jazz. Inuyasha had the idea of it, but not quite. Although, Inuyasha's lack of better knowledge on DNA was not what she referred to as sad. "I bet you'd look better smiling than scowling."
She bet that he'd look pretty damn cute if he smiled, but saying that out loud would be too awkward for their own good, so she kept shut.
Inuyasha's ears perked up, but he remained calm and brushed it away. "Don't be stupid, Kagome."
"Just once?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"How can a please be pretty? Hell no!"
"What if I never see you again?"
"N—what are you getting at?"
Kagome's eyes widened, realizing what she said. "Never mind, forget about it."
"No," Inuyasha grabbed her wrist as she was putting away her camera. "Talk."
She could never win with him, could she? "It's just… I've been thinking about it… since the jewel is almost complete and all… What if, hypothetically…"
"Quit stalling."
Kagome held her breath until she let it out. "What if the well just stops working? I know I'll never forget about you or the others Inuyasha, but I just want to make sure that I won't forget."
"Stupid," He lightly flicked Kagome's forehead. "I ain't letting the well close up for good."
Plus, he made the promise of letting her stay for as long as he wanted, and truthfully, he would like that time span to be forever, but that's saying too much for one moment, so he kept shut about that.
He pressed the button on the camera to turn it back on and handed it over to Kagome. "Just hurry up, will you?"
Did she actually get him to smile for her? Kagome nodded and began positioning the camera to take a picture of him. But he stopped her. "I'll only smile if you take it with me."
She only hoped that her cheeks weren't as flushed as she thought they were as he said that. The photo was difficult to take, but she managed to do it anyways. When Inuyasha inspected it, he grumbled. "I look stupid."
Truthfully, he looked perfect in the picture.
This time, she let him know that.
He had no comments, except for a snort, a turn of the head, and a small grin.
When she wasn't looking, of course.
A/N: I love Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, but 83% of the time they smile, it's not a good thing. Especially Sesshomaru. Maybe I should do a sequel of this with Rin and Sesshomaru? Maybe.