Summary: Inuyasha promised something and now tries to find a way to fulfill the promise without ruining his relationship with a certain miko.
A/N: I know the rule is to never post when you're depressed, but I figured out if I follow it you won't hear from me at least until spring, so yeah... You can tell me what you think about this one in the comments.
Warning: fluff.
The Fourteenth Day
Inuyasha knew he was bad with words, he wasn't an idiot. And even a complete moron would realize there was something bad with their wording after the fourth 'sit'. When you tell the object of your affections she looks really nice in her school uniform you don't expect her feeding you dirt and grass in response. There should be a blush and maybe a word of appreciation from her. Kagome's reaction to his compliment attempt during their first month of travelling had been as far from appreciation of his compliment as possible. Inuyasha had made a wov never to mention that the wind was blowing her skirt up again after that particularity sitting session.
So he was bad with words, big deal. People were always bad at something. Lord Asshole was bad at being a normal person, Miroku was bad at controlling his damned hand, Sango was bad at avoiding the same cursed hand (while still being able to dodge majority of Inuyasha's punches during their sparrings) Kaede was bad at making stew... Everyone had flaws. The problem was his flaw was pissing him off right now.
The hanyou was sitting on the roof of Kagome's house, his bare foot tapping the roof in annoyance. The warm early spring sun was slowly making its way up the sky, the busy city noises dulled in the shrine area. Inuyasha was angry not only because of his problems with expressing himself verbally, but also making a stupid choice and then procrastinating.
Today was the fourteenth day of the second month, six weeks since the great celebration in Kaede's village. It had to be done today. Tomorrow Kagome and him were going to return to the past and Miroku was going to ask if Inuyasha had done what he had promised. Inuyasha simply couldn't allow the answer to that question to be "no". His honor depended on it - and his honor was the most valuable thing the hanyou had. Inuyasha cursed himself and his mouth. If he had not opened his mouth about his knowledge about the futuristic customs of courting (all acquired from the talking box and Souta) he wouldn't be sitting on Kagome's roof, trying to prepare a speech meant for a short-tempered, hot-headed miko.
A part of him would rather listen to Jaken's declamation of his poems than talk to Kagome about this.
Inuyasha shook his head to free himself from the mental image of the kappa standing proudly and exclaiming dramatically with the sun setting behind his back.
"Focus, dammit!" he growled. Kagome was going to be home soon and he still didn't figure how to approach her and express his deepest feelings for her in a way which would not earn him a backache.
...He practically could feel the taste of concrete...
The knowledge that Kagome liked him, but probably not that way, wasn't helping. She had expressed in the past she liked him as a friend, she had cried for him, had been more patient than anyone else, but she had to be crazy to return his feelings. No sane person would love a worthless hanyou. So the goal was not only express his feelings after long months of longing and daydreaming, but to do it in such a manner so she wouldn't freak out and 'sit' him. And still treat him as a friend. He had to assure her he was content with just being friends, that he didn't expect anything from her in return, that he wouldn't push himself on her or anything like that. He cursed himself and Miroku for being a sneaky trickster who was too good with words. If only he had realized earlier that the monk had been leading him to announce - to swear - that he'd confess his feelings to Kagome... But nooo, he had been too riled up to realize what had been going on until it had been too late.
And the slimy monk had witnesses so Inuyasha couldn't pretend that had never happened.
Inuyasha's ears flattened when he growled at a plane flying above the shrine grounds.
...And Kagome was going to sit him. Or - even worse - laugh at his pathetic hanyou ass thinking he could be worthy of her.
Damn, he hated the Valentine's Day.
An odd smell reached his nostrils and Inuyasha stopped cursing. He inhaled deeply, trying to name the scent. It was a human, a male, around four decades old, wearing quite fresh clothes, smoking one of those stinking cigarettes. His ears twitched - it was no wonder the man was panting while climbing up the shrine steps. Slowly the hanyou crept to the edge of the roof and stuck his head out from above it to look at the yard and the top of the shrine steps and the small mailbox located just outside the gate.
His eyes narrowed dangerously when he saw the male reaching the mailbox. The human took a few deep breaths and started to dig around in his bag, apparently looking for something.
His smell was causing Inuyasha's inner beast to growl and flex its claws. Inuyasha knew he couldn't pounce on the mailman, even if he really, really wanted.
"Ah, the letters to the shrine keepers," the man murmured to himself, unaware of the youkai wanting to chase him down the stairs.
Suddenly all Inuyasha's desires to maim the mailman disappeared when an idea came to his mind. He was so excited and proud of his idea that he almost jumped off the roof and hugged the poor man. Luckily for the human the hanyou decided to immediately go to Kagome's room and make his idea real.
.
Kagome returned home after a quite boring day in school.
"I guess after so many crazy adventures in the past sitting in one place for eight hours with only a threat of being asked a question sounds rather dull," she murmured while opening the door. "I'm back!" she called while taking off her shoes. She was glad the snow was gone now and she didn't have to wear a jacket or a coat. The hot days had started roughly two weeks ago, just after the end of February.
She found only Souta was home - the boy was sitting in the living room, cackling behind his hands while keeping his game on pause. The young miko shrugged at her little brother and went upstairs to put her bag down and look for her favorite hanyou. He hadn't been waiting for her at the school, which was unusual for him.
She opened the door quietly, partially prepared to find Inuyasha sleeping on her bed. To her surprise he was nowhere to be found and the room was in a relative order. Only the bin under her desk was full of paper - some paper balls around it.
And there was an envelope on her nightstand.
And, oh boy, it was such a nightmare. It was obviously a creation of an insane person who had heard once about hand-decorated romantic envelopes, but didn't quite grasp the concept. It was originally white, but it was hard to see under the crooked red, blue and yellow hears of various sizes. Further inspection of the bin proved that there were pieces of colorful paper mixed with balled sheets.
When the miko picked up the envelope she saw it was signed with her name, but there was no stamp, no address, nothing indicating it had been mailed.
To be on the safe side Kagome sat down before opening it and sliding out of it a folded sheet of paper. She took a deep breath before unfolding it and laying her eyes on the most beautiful calligraphy she had seen in her whole life. It was much rounder and written with a much steadier hand than Miroku's sutras which until now had been the most beautifully written things in Kagome's opinion. The writing was simply amazing, even if the words were rather simple.
"Kagome.
It's the fourteenth day of the second month of the year today. I know you're aware that this means it is the day of this lovers' holiday your brother told me.
So I figured out I would tell you this today.
Just do not freak out on me, wench!
I am in love with you."
The letter was longer than this, but after reading this line Kagome's brain shut down and refused to process any more information. Her gaze just slid over the round letters painted with a brush and red paint, put in straight lines. She barely noticed the long explanation that the one who had written the letter valued their friendship, that they didn't expect her to return their feelings and that they fully expected to pretend nothing had happened if she wanted them to. She totally missed the part where the person who had written the letter said they knew they were a half-breed and had many issues, that they were bad with expressing themselves. She barely noticed the part where they asked not to be sat and for her not to leave their side, she was staring at the name signed under the whole confession.
After a few long minutes of just staring at the letter Kagome snapped out of the daze and reached for her notebook, her eyes glued to the handwritting she'd never expected to see.
.
Inuyasha was sitting high in the Sacred Tree, invisible to people on the ground despite his white hair and red robes. He was anxiously digging his claws in the smooth bark of the tree limb he was sitting on. Kagome had came back almost an hour ago and there was no shouting, no laughing. He was straining his ears to hear anything, but there was only silence in Kagome's room. From his branch he couldn't see inside her room and he was regretting he had sat so high.
But he was too nervous to move now, his muscles too tense, his thoughts running in circles while his heart was beating faster than ever. A part of him was cursing in impatience, wanting to already know her reaction to his letter, another part wanted to never know. He swallowed thickly when he heard her call her brother's name. His ears flattened against his head - why was she doing this?
Could it be she hadn't noticed his letter? It was impossible, the envelope was too flashy to miss against her pale pink pillow. Souta had assured him she'd notice it immediately after walking in her room.
Or maybe she had problems reading it? He had learned hiragana from his mother, what if it changed during all those centuries? This had to be it! After all he had problems reading most of the words in her textbooks. Oh, gods, it had to be this! Now she was sitting there, trying to translate his confession. Or - better - she was too tired from school to do it and had put it for later. It would be great, he could destroy it! His ears perked at the thought of destroying the letter, but then drooped. He still would have to confess his feelings to her, but would have less time.
Or maybe she was thinking how to punish him for writing the letter...
He gulped. She could be angry at him for not telling her in person. He knew, he was a coward. He'd battle a thousand youkai without a flinch, but facing this one petite woman and battling his own tongue to put his feelings in words which wouldn't prompt her to 'sit' him was a totally different thing.
"I'm a pathetic coward. A weak half-breed," he growled in agitation, angry at himself. He felt hot and cold at the same time, and he dragged his claws through the poor branch to release some of the tension in his body.
He was so caught up in his thoughts that he almost fell from his perch when a young boy stood under the Sacred Tree and called to him.
"Dog brother!" Souta called while looking up. He was grinning like a mad man and holding an envelope above his head. "Sis wrote baa-aargh!"
He didn't have time to jump back in surprise when the hanyou practically materialized in front of him, jumping off the tree with inhuman speed. He snatched the envelope from his hand and froze, his golden eyes focused on it.
It was signed with his name.
It was from Kagome.
Was he brave enough to open it?
He was staring at the object for a long minute until Souta grew impatient and tugged at his sleeve.
"Read it!" he encouraged his hero. He had helped to create the envelope for Kagome's letter after finding Inuyasha growling and destroying another sheet of paper with the draft of his letter. The boy wasn't sure what exactly Inuyasha had written to Kagome, but he suspected he'd have an amazing big brother soon. He couldn't wait to tell his mom about it.
Inuyasha swallowed again and grunted. He freed his sleeve from Souta's grip and jumped to the tree yet again. For some crazy reason he always felt safe and calm while sitting on the Sacred Tree's branches. He rested his back against the trunk and opened the envelope. To his surprise he found not one, but three sheets of paper inside, all signed with numbers. He unfolded the first one.
"It's March, baka. Valentine's Day is in February. The calendar works different here and there, I can explain it to you later."
His heart stopped for a second, he was sure of it. So... He had it all wrong, he was late... It was just an ordinary day to her, not this lovers' holiday where people were supposed to confess love or get engaged and stuff. He really made an idiot of himself. His ears drooped and he grit his teeth while unfolding the second paper. What could be worse?
"It doesn't count when you aren't here to tell me this, Inuyasha."
This - this could be worse. The paper slipped between his suddenly limp fingers and fluttered to the ground. His ears plastered against his skull and he felt a lump in his throat. She was right, he shouldn't be hiding in the tree like a coward. And she still didn't tell him what she thought about his confession... Maybe she wanted to be nice and keep their friendship? This thought gave him hope - she didn't tell him to go to hell in none of the two first messages. Or maybe she was going to in this third one? His heart started to beat even faster when he gripped the last paper.
He felt like approaching Naraku without Tessaiga at his side and during the new moon when he unfolded the last piece of paper. He suddenly felt cold, his muscles tense and his thoughts running around like a bunch of panicked chickens. He could hear only his own blood rushing through his veins.
"I love you too, my silly hanyou. My window is open and I have ramen."
.
Souta jumped up and caught the third piece of paper as it fell down, almost missing the red and silver streak moving from the Sacred Tree to the window of his sister's room.
He put the letters from Kagome in the envelope and put it in his pocked, right where the envelope with Inuyasha's letter had been since the moment he had grabbed it from Kagome's bed. Souta smiled widely when he saw his mother reaching the top of the stairs, bags with food in her hands.
"Hey, mama, you won't believe what I have!" he exclaimed excitedly. 'Better don't kiss, sis, when mama goes to congratulate you two,' he cackled in his mind.
A/N: I'm aware the calendar stuff in this fic is kinda off. I read that Japanese New Year was not always in January, and according to Google in the first half of the 16th century it was in February, so yeah. Don't dig too much in the matter, OK?
And tell me what you think. I'm really curious if this is worth anything.