Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha nor am I making any money from this.
The first time Inuyasha saw his own reflection in a modern mirror he was standing in Kagome's room for the very first time. They had only known each other a week or two, and Inuyasha had barged into her home expecting her to be downstairs but was greeted by Kagome's mother cleaning up from breakfast that morning.
"Oh Inuyasha, I didn't know you were coming over. Here, I have some food left." She quickly procured a bowl of miso, rice, and some pickled vegetables. Inuyasha tried to protest, even though he was deeply touched by the woman's willingness to feed him.
"I'm afraid Kagome's at school right now. Did you two have plans?" Mama Higurashi spoke to the boy as he quickly scarfed down the food. Inuyasha looked up at her, swallowed his mouthful, and responded, "No, no plans. Besides gathering shards."
Mama Higurashi smiled at him, nodding her understanding. "Well, she'll be gone most of the day. Why don't you just relax here until she comes home?"
Inuyasha considered her words before silently nodding and being escorted upstairs by the woman. She gave him a brief tour of the upstairs, ending in Kagome's room. "You can wait in here if you like. Or you are always welcome to walk around the yard. Grandpa might appreciate some help, if you want to offer. He's usually in the shed during this time."
Inuyasha was standing still, his nose working overtime, trying to take in the smells of the room. It was clearly Kagome, but it was Kagome from over the years. He was learning much of her just from being in her childhood bedroom, finding his own curiosity of the girl from the future being fueled. Mama Higurashi patted his back motherly, before exiting to return to her cleaning.
Inuyasha stood in the center of the room for a long while. He was taking in the sites and smells, realizing that Kagome was so very different from Kikyou.
Kagome's clothes were in a pile in a corner, instead of neatly put away like Kikyou always had. Kagome had pink and yellow frills on her bed, giving the appearance of being warm and inviting, unlike the simple futon Kikyou used. Kagome had images of people, other girls and oddly posed males, on her walls, a decoration he couldn't imagine Kikyou even having entertained.
Although he knew Kagome was a very different person, the very vision of her room solidified his notions.
Walking to the desk pushed up against the wall across from the bed, Inuyasha picked up the books she had all over. Some of them were carefully tucked into a spot, some were propped open, and some were even bent as they lay at an odd angle. Inuyasha gingerly picked up the book, admiring the amount Kagome owned, as he knew books to be expensive and only for the richest of people. His mother had a book that she read to him, but he cast that memory aside, not caring to realized how much he had forgotten.
There were the writing utensils she insisted on carrying scattered everywhere. There were pages of paper with odd symbols strewn and crumpled amongst the books. Inuyasha slowly picked through everything, investigating the strange girl who was beyond insistent that they were friends through her belongings.
His hand picked up a particularly messy set of papers and books and found himself looking into his own eyes. Initially startled, Inuyasha jumped back at the sudden sight of himself, but returned, wanting to know more about what had shown him his own image.
It was a rectangle with a pink casing around it. It was shinier than any water he had ever seen, and suddenly, he realized he was staring at himself. He had never really taken time to look at himself and took the time finally to study his own image.
He had large, striking gold eyes. Eyes that stood out in a crowd and saw everything. His nose was sharp and shone from the wetness. His hair was a stunning silvery white shade. He wracked his brain to think if he had seen himself so clearly before. Water never reflected quite like this.
He was standing there for a long while, which was how Mama Higurashi found him a little while later.
She approached him, placing a warm, loving hand on his shoulder, her motherly instinct telling her he was having a moment and would need to be handled carefully.
Inuyasha jumped slightly at her touch, but she spoke before he could.
"You are such a handsome young man, Inuyasha. It's easy to see how Kagome is infatuated with you already." She also took in his image in the mirror, her eyes shining just like Kagome's did when she was happy.
Inuyasha looked back at himself, trying to see what Mama Higurashi was seeing. Him, handsome? Would anyone actually look at him and think that he was attractive? Him, the boy who had no place in this world?
Squeezing his shoulders briefly, Mama Higurashi left the room and Inuyasha to his thoughts.
Kagome was insistent on being clean, but Inuyasha realized that she wasn't so fussy about her appearance like the other women he had observed. If her hair was messy or sticking up all sorts of ways, Kagome would only lean up to half-way attempt to smooth it out. Beyond that, she didn't fuss or worry.
Inuyasha thought this reflected her personality very well. She was a loving and open soul but was never worried about how people looked or cared if people were concerned about how she looked. He supposed it was from the amount of time she got stared at for dressing so odd that made it so she didn't care.
She was the first person to not comment on his appearance, or even to drag painful questions about his heritage to the surface. She simply spoke to him and paid no attention to his mixed blood. She was even known for stopping others from raising painful questions for him.
"There's more to you than what you look like, Inuyasha," Kagome had told him in a rare moment of separation from everyone else, "and anyone who doesn't care to see that isn't worth our time."
He hadn't responded, but he tucked away hope in his heart that Kagome would maybe, just maybe, care for him more than the others.
Kagome had eyes that shone bright enough to put the sun to shame. Inuyasha first saw himself reflected in her eyes on a warm afternoon day when he had presented her with a small daisy as a surprise. Kagome had been sitting on the hill, soaking in the sun, when Inuyasha held out the small blossom out for her. Her eyes lit up and Inuyasha saw himself as she did.
He was a special and beyond loved person. He was her protector and best friend. He was handsome and wanted.
He was things in her eyes that he never imagined he could be.
His flush and brisk departure didn't dull Kagome's joy at the simple action of affection and also didn't hide from her that Inuyasha was pleased with her reaction.
The first time he held his baby, he saw Kagome in the little face in his arms. Kagome's cheeks, lips, hell even her eyebrows. But the babe in his arms looked like him just as much. His ears, nose, hell even his frown.
As everyone came by to see the new baby and congratulate the new parents, Inuyasha kept mentally tally of who thought his baby looked like: mother or father.
People instantly commented on the bright silver ears on the top of the head, still pinned down from birth and not likely to perk up for some months, lowering their voices to a barely audible level as to not disturb the baby. Inuyasha was grateful for the villagers having learned something from him that would help his baby. Kagome would smile knowingly and ask them if they thought the babe had Inuyasha's frown.
Inuyasha didn't find this particular question very funny, but all the older folk who came over would good-naturedly nod their heads and say, "Oh yes, I can see that very clearly now." The younger folk who insist that they didn't see any hint of a frown, and Inuyasha knew they were lying then. The baby distinctly only looked please when eating, not that he blamed the baby. Food and Kagome where the only things that made him happy, so to have both at once must be great.
The first time the babe turned human, the waning half-moon, the babe cried and could not be consoled. He saw his child express the fears that had often seized him that he couldn't vocalize, afraid of not being able to smell or see as well as he was used to. He clutched to his mother, tears streaming down his face and now dark eyes pleading with her to ease his suffering, to give back his strength.
Kagome soothed her baby as best as she could, while knowing there was nothing she could do to ease his distress. Inuyasha looked on and wondered if his mother did the same for him when he was a baby. It was almost like looking back into his own past and seeing his own life replay before him.
Except now he could participate now and work to ease his baby's confusion and fear along side his wife. He could build a family that reflected the love shared between Kagome and him, that reflected the happiness in their home, and reflected the hopes they shared.
He could have himself reflected in all of those things, to be able to see the person Mama Higurashi and he saw in the mirror so long ago.