Disclaimer: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, VizMedia.
Chapter 4
Summary: Now in the midst of adulthood and recently married, Kagome Higurashi is more than shocked when she sees her ex-boyfriend from high school, her first true love who still has a special place in her heart but has also broken it. Despite her reservations, she agrees to a seemingly meaningless reunion when their conversation brings back memories she doesn't want to remember, choices she can't make, and heartache she can't handle.
Last Time…
"After everything that's happened, Inuyasha, I'd really like a fresh start. I'd think that you'd want that, too." She raised her eyebrows at him pointedly. "After all, you are the one who barged into my home."
With a deep breath, Kagome offered another smile. "Hi, I'm Kagome." She reached her hand across the table expectantly.
Throwing her a weary look, Inuyasha humored her and shook her hand. "I'm Inuyasha."
"Nice to meet you."
Smirking back at her, Inuyasha chuckled, "You know as well as I do that you didn't think that when we met."
Widening her eyes, Kagome reached over and slapped his arm. "Excuse me! We're meeting right now." Playfully darting her eyes around to search for any eavesdroppers, she leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, "For your information, my opinion of you quickly changed."
"How could I forget?"
Nine years ago…
Kagome groaned while she rested her chin on the wooden picnic table. Her honey eyes roamed the scene before her with boredom. She hated these functions— business deal after business deal, Kagome was forced to come along and help paint the picture of the happy family for her parents. It was always about getting new clients, keeping old ones, and making sure that any other firm that was a threat was conquered.
Kagome sighed again. She loved her parents. Really. But just once, she wanted to spend the weekend away from them to hang out with Sango. But no. She had to come to a stupid picnic celebrating the merger between two companies. And wear a ridiculously girly dress in order to do so. If she had to come to these things, why couldn't she wear what she wanted?
"Appearances, Kagome, appearances. When you get to my age and have a job, you'll realize how judgmental people could be and how everything has to be spotless," Kagome mocked under her breath. Lifting her head, she watched her mother laugh at a joke that Kagome was sure wasn't funny and watched her father nod enthusiastically in agreement.
"Gag."
Frowning, Kagome rose from the bench and wandered away from the picnic area towards a denser area of the woods. She relished the feeling of the sun on her face. Her mother sometimes scolded her for doing this. She kept telling Kagome how her complexion would be "marred" by freckles. Absentmindedly, Kagome lifted a finger to her face, feeling the soft skin of her cheeks that she knew was dotted by freckles. It was her mother's hope that the marks would fade by the time Kagome grew into adulthood.
Scoffing, Kagome turned around and made her way back to the party. She knew that this business merger was different from the other ones. Apparently, the acquisition of this small private practice wouldn't bolster the power of her family's. It was too small. The head of the practice was a struggling single mother who barely had anything to her name, or her son's. Actually, according to the gossip, her son was the bastard child of a well-known, incredibly powerful businessman who recently died. His current wife denied his mistress and son their inheritance through some shady maneuvering on the part of her lawyers. Even the woman, Izayoi, couldn't fight them.
Her parents took pity on Izayoi and offered a merger between her firm and theirs and the rest was… well not history. It was happening right now, as a matter of fact.
Absorbed in her thoughts, Kagome didn't notice where she was walking and she stumbled over what she thought was a tree root. Catching herself, she gasped and held her hands out in front of her in preparation for the impact that, thankfully, never came.
"Keh! Watch where you're going!"
Her face instantly twisting into a scowl, Kagome turned around and saw that the 'tree root' was actually the leg of a boy. "'Keh'? Whatever. Why don't you actually sit at a table like a normal person?"
The boy smiled smugly at her. "You should really fix your dress. I saw your granny panties."
Blushing a furious shade of scarlet, Kagome hurriedly smoothed her dress down and enviously glared at his casual outfit of a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. "What are you even doing here? This is a company picnic. I'm pretty sure that scum like you aren't invited."
Kagome's eyebrows knit together when she noticed the smug look on the boy's face. "Oh, didn't you hear? My mom and I are the guests of honor." His mouth curved into an arrogant smirk and Kagome saw a gleam from the corner of his mouth. Her eyes widened and she noticed the fang peeking out. She also began to take notice of the boy's silver hair, amber eyes, and most importantly, the triangular shaped ears on the top of his head.
"You're a hanyou." It was a statement, not a question.
Narrowing his eyes at her, Kagome saw that he obviously bristled at the observation. "What the fuck is it to you?"
Kagome felt as if she had been slapped. No one ever talked to her like that. So she did what came to her naturally. She walked up to him, reared her arm back, and slapped him across the face in return. "You asshole!" She then made to stomp away but she squeaked when she felt a hand grip her wrist and pull her back. "Let me go!"
"No fucking way! You just slapped me!"
"Inuyasha," a stern voice scolded.
Kagome was surprised that the boy instantly released his hold on her and she looked up at him peculiarly. "Inuyasha…" she murmured, liking the sound of his name as she spoke it.
"Kagome, I hope you're not antagonizing our guests and new friends."
Making a face, Kagome avoided turning around to see the look on her mother's face. Inuyasha caught the expression and smirked at her again. Gritting her teeth, Kagome discreetly stomped on his foot, forcing him to yelp in pain, which she enjoyed quite a lot. Then, she turned around to face her mother and found herself staring at the woman next to her mother.
She was one of the most beautiful women she had ever seen, Kagome was sure of that. Like her mother, this woman was petite, but she had long, black hair the color of a midnight sky with kind, wide eyes that were the color of violets.
Knowing her to be her parents' new business partner, Kagome offered a deep bow and greeted, "Nice to meet you, Takado-san. I'm glad to welcome you into the family my parents have created with their firm."
Offering her a gracious smile in return, Izayoi replied, "Thank you, Kagome. I feel very grateful that your parents were gracious enough to take my son and me in."
"Yes, Kagome. That reminds me, Inuyasha will be transferring to your school, soon. He'll be attending on scholarship. Maybe he'll be able to help you with your math," her mother added pointedly.
Kagome flushed and she didn't need to look at Inuyasha to know that he was grinning mercilessly at her back, enjoying the mortification she was being put through. Instead, she put on one of the stiffest smiles, and lied through her teeth. "I'd be so… grateful." Against her better judgment, she stole a look at Inuyasha.
She should've known. The bastard was grinning at her as if he had a new plaything. Like he was that kid who liked to take the head off of dolls. Kagome shivered in disgust but retaliated by sticking her tongue out at him. Very maturely, Inuyasha followed suit.
Izayoi and Satori exchanged similar looks. Satori, obviously not pleased, cleared her throat. "Kagome, I know that you wanted to hang out with your friends today. Your father and I decided that you can go—"
Kagome threw her arms around her mother and squealed with glee. "Thank you so much, Mama!" She pulled away and bowed at Izayoi respectfully. "It was very nice meeting you, Takado-san." With a glance at Inuyasha, she coldly gave him a curt nod before making her way towards the car, where the family's driver would finally, finally take her away.
"Kagome. I'm not done."
Her shoulders slumped and Kagome waited for the condition she knew was coming.
"You can go if you take Inuyasha with you. Seeing as how he'll be your classmate soon, I think it would be a good idea for you to introduce him to your friends."
Kagome's jaw dropped and her eyes widened in disbelief. Sensing the outburst about to explode from her daughter, Satori held a hand up. "It's either that or you're staying here."
Looking helplessly at her mother, feeling ridiculously betrayed, Kagome's face fell and she walked towards an empty picnic table. Defeated, she answered, "I'll stay. I just remembered that everyone else had plans."
Kagome's hope for wallowing in self-pity crumbled when she felt another weight settle on the opposite side of the table and she gingerly lifted her head to glare at the silver-haired hanyou stare at her with a calculating look in his eyes. He was squinting at her, as if she were some sort of math problem he couldn't solve. Damn right.
"Do you have something to say?" she snapped.
"Nope." Inuyasha's smirk grew more pronounced when Kagome stared at him with disgust. "But since we're going to be such close friends, I thought that maybe we should get to know each other."
With a harsh bark of a laugh, Kagome retorted, "You thought wrong."
She shoved herself away from the table and stormed off, heading towards the direction of the woods once more. Inuyasha shrugged and turned around, leaning against the table while he stared into the sea of mingling upper-class society. Feeling a light tap on his shoulder, Inuyasha looked up at his mother, who stared at him with disapproval written all over her face. He crossed his arms and pouted.
"What now?"
"Inuyasha, I know that Kagome is a very nice girl. And I know how you act sometimes in certain situations." Pointedly looking in the direction Kagome took off, she continued, "We're making a new life for ourselves. Let's try and have a fresh start with everyone. Please."
"Keh!"
Izayoi nodded and returned to talking with her new business associates and when Inuyasha was sure that she wasn't looking, he walked back into the dense trees, following Kagome's scent, easy to discern from the smell of the dirt and trees. He finally found her walking along the creek, atop old stone steps that didn't look reliable. It also didn't help that with the slightest step out of balance, Kagome could either tip off of the steps into the creek or tumble down the steep hill. Inuyasha sighed and jogged towards her, a bad feeling creeping up on him.
Just as he was within hearing distance of her and he was going to call out her name, his eyes saw it. They saw everything at once. Kagome became distracted, staring at the creek below her. She took her next step. Her foot became tangled in the hem of her dress. She fell forward and started to roll down the hill, a rocky outcrop waiting for her at the bottom.
"Shit!"
Using his speed, Inuyasha was able to get to Kagome in time, not enough time to grab her and stop her fall, but in enough time that he could grab her arm and pull her towards him. As he wrapped his arms around her, he tucked her head under his chin and the momentum of her fall finally overtook the both of them. He landed on his back and they began rolling. Keeping his hold on Kagome, Inuyasha grunted as they slid and bounced down the rough hill before he managed to resist gravity long enough to claw at the dirt, slowing them down just before they rolled into the dangerous rocks at the bottom.
Managing to have stopped with his back to the ground, he was able to make sure Kagome was okay, for the most part. He couldn't completely stop her from hitting the ground while they rolled down. His hands gently rubbed her back while he craned his neck up to look at the dark-haired girl cradled in his chest. He took notice of the various spots of mud and dirt caked onto the back of her dress and the tangled mess of her inky hair, but he couldn't see her face. Hesitantly, he touched a hand to her face and he was relieved to see her respond to the touch when she gingerly lifted her head.
"Are you okay?" she asked worriedly.
Inuyasha almost laughed. "Me? I should be asking if you're alright. Keh. Weird girl…" He looked over her face. Besides from a small scrape on her cheek, she seemed to be fine. "How bad does that hurt?"
She shook her head. "It's nothing. It's my wrist; I think it might be sprained."
The two of them looked between them and took notice of the swelling on her left wrist and how she delicately supported it.
Carefully, taking her arm into his hand, Inuyasha cursed when he saw it. Slowly, he lifted himself into a sitting position and rearranged his hold on Kagome so that he carried her while he stood up and began walking back up the hill. Kagome blushed and looked away from him.
"This isn't necessary. I can walk."
"Yeah, but this is faster." Proving his point, Inuyasha quickly began leaping back through the woods and to the picnic site.
"Inuyasha?"
He was startled to hear his name coming from her mouth. He gulped and nodded in reply.
"I'm sorry for being rude. I'm really grateful for what you just did."
Looking down at her face, Inuyasha saw that she was still slightly pink in the face and he couldn't suppress a small smile.
Kagome and Inuyasha smiled together, fondly remembering how they met. Kagome laughed to herself. "My first broken bone," she sighed wistfully. "Could have been a lot worse if it wasn't for you."
"Yeah. You have a lot to be thankful for."
Kagome shook her head and bit her lip to fight the smile on her face. "You know, I think I might have fallen in love with you the moment I looked up and realized what you had done to save me." Seeing the look of incredulity on Inuyasha's face, she laughed and continued, "No, really! Call me an idiot all you want, but when I was younger, I was very much a sucker for finding a prince to save a damsel in distress." With another sip of coffee, she added, "Thank goodness I grew out of that."
Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "Sure you did," he managed to rejoin coolly. His tone of voice didn't betray the breathlessness that overcame him and the feeling in his chest when he heard Kagome talk of how she loved him. Absorbed by the sudden yearning he felt, he nearly missed her next comment.
"Ugh. What's that supposed to mean?"
"You married a cop, Kagome."
"Inspector," she corrected.
Rolling his eyes, Inuyasha blew her off. "Keh! Labels. You still found your very own Prince Charming, didn't you?"
Flippantly, Kagome waved the thought away. "Fine. Moving on. What have you been doing in the past five years, Inuyasha?"
"Do you remember my major at university?"
A smile carving into her face, Kagome shook her head. "Of course. Undeclared."
Inuyasha's eyebrows came together in confusion. "Oh yeah…" He offered her a mysterious smile and he reclined in the seat, leisurely taking a gulp of coffee, relishing the warmth of the liquid as it slid down his throat. "Well you wanted to know what I've been doing in America." Smirking at her, he revealed, "I'm a cop."
"Inspector," Kagome automatically replied. Then, after finally hearing what he said, she raised her eyebrows at smiled at him disbelievingly. "You're joking."
Her eyes widened and Kagome scoffed when Inuyasha offered a smirk in reply. "No way." Kagome then narrowed her eyes at him and challenged him, "Then why did you buy this café?"
"For sting operations," he answered matter-of-factly. Calmly, he took another gulp of coffee and looked back at her unrelentingly.
She still didn't believe him.
Rolling his eyes, he amended, "Okay. It's just business. Investing in some real estate for some extra money. Some of us weren't exactly born with the ability to live in a fancy house and go to a fancy school. As much as I enjoy my job, it doesn't exactly pay for luxury. I needed money." He gestured to the full café, lightly humming with the quiet conversations of its inhabitants. "And from the looks of it, it looks like this was a good investment."
"If that's all there is to it…" Kagome commented warily. She watched him over the rim of her mug and she shook her head. "You're really a cop?"
"Inspector," Inuyasha teased.
Now rolling her eyes at him, Kagome deadpanned, "Spare me."
"That's not fair. Kouga gets to be an inspector and I'm just a cop?"
Shrugging nonchalantly, Kagome smiled at him innocently. "Well I don't know just how honest you're being, Inuyasha." Kagome got that uneasy feeling in her stomach when Inuyasha offered her a cocky grin.
Mimicking her sugary tone, Inuyasha offered, "Why don't you just call Kouga at work and ask if there are any new transfers? I'm sure that would be easy enough for him to find out."
Frowning at him, Kagome bitterly acknowledged how infuriating it was to be talked to in that manner. But then again, that was the exact reason she used it when she spoke to him, wasn't it? Sighing, she ducked her head and spoke in a quiet voice, "Do you think that this is ever going to work out?"
Raising his eyebrows at her, Inuyasha crossed his arms and asked, "Do I think what is ever going to work out?"
Lifting her head, she shook her head, looking up as if she wasn't sure either and sought the answer from the heavens. Shutting her eyes tightly, she shrugged and shook her head. "I don't know… this! You. Me. Together without being together. Inuyasha, we haven't really functioned like that before. As soon as we met each other…" Kagome visibly struggled to find the words that could convey her confusion and internal conflict at this convoluted attempt to be Inuyasha's friend. As if that were possible. "We were never really friends. We just fell into other's laps… as a couple."
Shyly, she looked up at him and saw him staring back with a familiar tenderness in his eyes. For the quickest of moments, Inuyasha's hand inched towards hers on the table and brushed her fingers softly and Kagome couldn't help but enjoy the gentle motion and frown when his hand drew back.
"I disagree. And even if that's true, there's a first time for everything, Kagome."
A small smile lifting her lips, she looked up at him and murmured, "Well if you say so…" Her heart traitorously warmed to the smile he returned and she felt comfortable, uneasily comfortable. There were too many moments like this in her memories. Too many easy smiles between them. Too many unspoken words. Too many touches.
Too much love.
And of course, too much hurt.
Flinching, Kagome leaned back against her chair. Noticing that it was just around Kouga's lunch break, she offered, "Would you like to have lunch?"
Taken aback, Inuyasha's golden eyes widened substantially before they narrowed in suspicion. "What's the catch?"
Kagome was already rising from her seat, placing a bill on the table for her drink, and putting on her coat. "There's no catch, Inuyasha. I just think that we could have a nice, friendly lunch and do what you said: catch up. I'm sure that Kouga wouldn't mind hearing about you've been doing for the past five years—"
"Hold on."
Inuyasha grabbed her arm as it was going through her coat's sleeve and he pulled her back down to her seat. "You want me to have lunch with you and your husband?"
Making a face, she snapped, "Why do you have to make it sound like that? In case you forgot, I invited you to stay over for dinner last time, but you insisted on leaving."
"Because you didn't mean it."
"That's ridiculous, Inuyasha. Why—"
"Don't lie to me, Kagome."
"Look, Inuyasha, I'm genuinely inviting you to lunch with my husband and me." Inclining her head, she added, "Unless, of course, that interferes with your plans of enticing me and seducing me. Or maybe you're lying about being transferred to Tokyo and you don't want me to find out by asking Kouga."
"I'm not lying about that and— what the fuck? How am I supposed to entice you Kagome?" Inuyasha looked at her incredulously.
Laughing, Kagome stood up again and waited for him. "It's a joke. Although your reaction makes me think otherwise…" She rolled her eyes. "Now will you please stop stalling?" she huffed. "You and Kouga were really close in high school. I'm sure he'd be glad to see you," she included softly. At Inuyasha's lack of a response, Kagome pouted in disappointment. "If you change your mind, you know where the station is. That is, if you're telling the truth."
Inuyasha watched her walk out, feeling the challenge in her last comment. Grumbling, he threw on his jacket and marched after her. He nodded briskly at the employees greeting him and made it through the doors just in time to see Kagome pull out of her spot and disappear out of the parking lot into traffic. Inuyasha continued his grumbles while he slammed the door of his car and sped off, towards the precinct. "Can't believe she thinks I'm lying… what, she doesn't think I have what it takes?"
He scowled at Kagome while he pulled the car into the lot, noticing her smile at him as she leaned casually on her car, as if she won something. 'Well she did…' he conceded bitterly. 'I get to have lunch with the both of them.'
Stalking towards her, he yelled, "So where's Kouga?"
"Right here, mutt."
Inuyasha watched as Kouga cheerfully walked towards them. Inuyasha fought the urge to flinch when he saw Kouga kiss Kagome on the top of her head endearingly. It was more than the urge to just flinch, actually. He was also fighting the urge to gag and dry heave. So he stomached the uneasiness and smirked at Kouga. "Hey, wolf breath."
Making a face, Kouga teased, "Is that the best you can come up with, you albino runt?"
Chuckling weakly, Inuyasha replied, "I'm out of practice. It's been a while." He glanced at Kagome, who didn't betray whether she felt conflicted at being with both her ex-boyfriend and husband.
Kouga extended his arm and shook Inuyasha's hand. "Glad that you've moved back to Tokyo. Kagome also called while she drove over for lunch. She said that you're transferring to this precinct?" He grinned easily at him, as if this wasn't the most awkward situation of either one of their lives.
"Yeah, I start tomorrow. I got back to Tokyo last week, but they let me have a week to get situated— find a place to stay, meet with the chief, check up on my mom."
"How is she?"
Inuyasha looked down at Kagome, surprised to hear the affection in her tone. He nearly forgot. When they were younger, still teenagers in high school, Kagome had to deal with the fact that her mom was diagnosed with cancer and then was hit with a huge blow from fate when Satori passed away. During that time when grief nearly consumed her, Inuyasha's mother, Izayoi, did everything she could to help Kagome. Eventually, she had come to see Kagome as a surrogate daughter. It was an affection that was sincerely reciprocated by Kagome.
"She's doing great. Enjoying retirement— all she does is take care of that damn garden."
Smiling tenderly, Kagome asked, "If you don't mind, could you ask if she'd like to have lunch with me sometime this weekend?"
Inuyasha's expression softened and he nodded earnestly. "Of course."
Kouga added, "Well why doesn't everyone join in? We can call up everyone and have a big feast to celebrate being back together again. Well actually, there's a lot to celebrate."
"Like?" Kagome asked, somewhat nervously.
"You know that I've been working a lot lately because of the fact that my caseload keeps increasing. When you told me about Inuyasha, I talked to the chief." Kouga nodded at Inuyasha, "Hey I hope you don't mind, but once I heard you were transferring, I thought that maybe you wouldn't mind if I asked the chief if we could be partners."
Kouga didn't notice how Kagome stiffened and looked between him and Inuyasha, who looked equally shocked for a split second before remaining his composure. "Partners?"
"Yeah, partners! The two of us, just like back in high school."
Sarcastically, Inuyasha muttered, "Great. Now I have to spend all day with this bastard."
Inuyasha and Kouga laughed raucously as they kept throwing insults at each other, but Inuyasha worried. How could he work with, risk his life for, and count on someone who was the only obstacle between him and Kagome?
Edited May 2019
