They were mocking him.

Each and every one of those tiny fucking chocolates in that disgustingly cute square box.

They were just sitting there… taunting him… and he hated it.

Inuyasha had stopped listened to their history teacher's lecture on the Sengoku period the second he'd realized that Kagome had every intention of giving someone in their class a box of fancy honmei choco for Valentine's Day.* It was all he could do to stop himself from stomping over there, snatching them up, and hurling them out of the closest window.

He sighed in disgust but let his glare fade some as he looked up from the small square box to the girl whose desk the chocolates sat upon. His mind drifted back to the day they'd met… Their first day of high school.

He'd walked into class alongside Miroku, the two of them laughing and shoving and totally oblivious to the fact that his entire world was about to change forever.

It took less than a second for his eyes to lock with hers.

Kagome.

It was her. He would recognize her anywhere.

It had stopped him dead in his tracks, youki surging, as though the blood in his veins had suddenly turned electric. For a moment he'd wondered if she could feel the same thing he felt, but she was human, it wasn't possible. Still, he'd felt her reiki pulse in response to his youki.

She's a Miko, he thought.

And she was beautiful. Midnight black hair that fell to her waist and wide caramel-coloured eyes that had stared back at him as though they were the only two people in the room.

That is, until Mr. Mizushima had cleared his throat rather loudly, bringing Inuyasha's attention to the fact that he was standing alone in the middle of the classroom, everyone else having already taken their seats only to stare at him like he was even more of a freak than being a hanyou already made him.

And so, when he'd arrived home after school that day panicking to his parents that his truemate was in his class, his father had tried to convince him that finding his truemate so young was a good thing. That he was lucky.

Yeah right.

There are some youkai and hanyou who went their entire lives without ever finding the one soul meant for them, he'd said.

You can wait three more years, he'd said.

Fuck.

Because there were rules about these things, especially when your truemate was a human. To bind a human too young was forbidden. He'd heard the old wives' tales about how it always backfired, stopping the human's soul from growing as it should, paralyzing their sense of self.

In the old days, many was the youkai who had lost the thing most precious to them because of it… And so now there were rules.

Not that he would ever do that to Kagome.

Never.

Just in case, though, has parents had made him promise to wait.

"If you talk to her, son, you'll want to touch her. And if you touch her you'll want to kiss her. And if you kiss her you'll want to bind her. And if you bind her, well… Best to wait. I waited for your mother and look how that turned out."

At first, it had been easy. They were both young. He could try to ignore her. Stick to hanging out with Miroku and Kōga. Hell, he'd even resorted to boring himself to death some weekends listening to Sesshōmaru drone on about the progress he'd made on his doctorate thesis.

All to distract himself from her.

And he'd done it! He'd waited almost the whole three years. Graduation was less than two months away now. His promise was as good as fulfilled. He would finally be free to pursue her.

But that was before those fucking chocolates.

His eyes scanned the other males in their class, trying to figure out which one had caught the attention of his. fucking. mate.

It better not be one of the other youkai. They should fucking know better, he snarled silently in his head.

Because his youki had always screamed his claim on her even when his words and actions had been forbidden to. It was an instinctual and unstoppable reaction and had made him the butt of many running jokes amongst the youkai population of their school.

All youkai knew the laws around binding human mates too young and thought it fucking hilarious that the hanyou was shit outta luck. Granted, they couldn't say anything about it to her either – they'd be held just as accountable under the law if they did – but it definitely hadn't stopped them from teasing him mercilessly about how predictably he ran away every time he had to spend more than a few minutes in Kagome's presence.

If it's Koga who's been flirting with her, I swear I'll tear that fucker to shreds. She's meant FOR ME, dammit! His vision swam with red and he felt his fangs lengthening in his mouth.

Miroku kicked his chair from behind, jerking Inuyasha back from his thoughts, then hissed a whisper that only the hanyou would hear. "Get it together, Inuyasha! Even an untrained ass like me can feel your youki swirling! You gotta rein that in, man, or someone's gonna rat you out to sensei."

Inuyasha was saved at that moment from having to respond to his friend by their sensei announcing that it was time to break for the day so that the girls could hand out their Valentines before the final bell rang.

Inuyasha turned to stare out the window, taking deep breaths, willing himself to calm down. He suddenly couldn't bring himself to look at her. He didn't want to see who she would give the box of chocolates to. Couldn't bear to see the happy look on the bastard's face when his Kagome gave whichever fucker it was such a meaningful gift.

The din of the other students chatting and laughing had dulled the sound of footsteps approaching his desk. But then there was something there, in his peripheral vision.

A hand. And in it, a small square box of chocolates.

His eyes shot up in shock.

❤︎

He didn't look like he had been expecting anyone to stop by his desk. Kagome couldn't blame him. He'd been in a dark mood all afternoon. She could tell.

She could always tell.

Her throat felt suddenly dry. "These… These are for you, Inuyasha." The words came out just above a whisper.

And still, he stared at her.

Oh god. This had been a mistake. A colossal mistake. She knew he hated her. Had always known. He'd never tried to hide that fact. He avoided her at all costs and always had.

Heck, it was practically a running joke amongst their classmates; just how long would it take Inuyasha to growl and bolt when he got too close to Kagome this time?

And still… She couldn't help it.

She'd never believed in love at first sight before that first day of high school, but standing here in front of him she remembered how it had been his laughter that had first caught her attention, making her look up from where she'd been meticulously arranging the contents of her pencil case on the desk in front of her.

That's when she'd locked eyes with him… and promptly stopped breathing.

Never before or since had her reiki risen like it had in that moment, not even when she was meditating and training under her grandfather's watchful eye. The power had surged in her veins until she felt like she was on fire from the inside out.

Ande then it had been over.

He'd been forced to go to his desk, publicly embarrassed on the very first day of school by their jerk of a homeroom teacher, and he'd never forgiven her for it. He'd never so much as looked her in the eye since that day.

Oh, but she had watched him.

She'd watched him with his friends. Watched him practicing with the track team. Watched him sitting in that one sakura tree in the rear quad whenever he had a spare period. Until she felt like if she watched him for even one more day without saying anything her heart would burst… or break… or both.

Because high school was almost over and then he'd be gone from her life and she couldn't let that happen. Not without at least trying to talk to him, even just once.

And so here she stood, the most expensive box of honmei choco she could afford sitting on the desk between them announcing her feelings for everyone to see.

The bell rang then and the other kids began filing out of the room. It seemed to rouse Inuyasha from his daze.

"For– For me?" He croaked.

Well, at least he finally said something, she thought.

"Uh-huh."

Her hands were fiddling with the hem of her shirt. She wanted to say something more than just a stupid "uh-huh" but couldn't seem to force any words past her throat.

"Higurashi-san, please be sure to turn out the lights when you and Akanishi-san* are done."

Kagome flushed with embarrassment as she realized what kind of idiot she must look like, standing there in the now-empty classroom. "H- Hai, Sensei."

She sighed then, ready to accept that her pathetic Valentine's Day attempt at reach out to the boy she'd secretly been in love with for the past three years was turning into a spectacular dumpster fire of a failure. She turned on her heel to leave.

"Wait! Don't go!" His voice came out strangled and sounded vaguely panicked as his hand shot out to grab her wrist.

And that was it. There was a sizzling jolt when youki met reiki, but then he was standing and pulling her into his arms, crushing her to his chest, burying his nose in her hair and inhaling deeply as though it was the first time he could breathe easily in almost 3 years.

And it was.

Kagome couldn't explain what she'd just felt, the power that had raced through her system. Nor could she rationalize how not shocked she was by Inuyasha's sudden embrace.

He hated her… didn't he?

Then why did this feel so… right?

She realized then that he was mumbling something into her hair as his clawed fingers combed through its length. She strained to hear him.

"I tried to be good, I really did. I tried to stay away."

"Inuyasha…? What do you mean?"

Kagome tried to pull back enough to look at his face, he seemed reluctant to let her go, and only pulled back far enough to whisper in her ear.

"You're mine, Kagome. I tried to keep my promise, that I would stay away, but… you're mine."

His lips ghosted over the shell of her ear, sending a shiver down her spine. She gasped.

"But… But you hate me." She stated incredulously.

That did make Inuyasha pull back, a look of horror contorting his face. "What?! No! NO! Never! What kind of monster do you think I am? Who the hell hates their truemate?"

"Truemate?!" Kagome squeaked in shock. She knew exactly what a truemate was. Every trained Miko did.

Her hands, that had fisted in Inuyasha's school uniform sleeves when he'd caught her up in his embrace, began clenching and unclenching convulsively, her mind running a mile a minute.

Shit! Fuck! Inuyasha's mind was also racing. He hadn't meant to blurt that out! She'd just surprised him, is all. And now she looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Ka- Kagome, look, I– I mean, this doesn't mean– You don't have to–"

Kagome bit her lip. She could tell he was panicking… But she, strangely enough, wasn't.

She felt oddly… calm, was it? At peace? Whole? As though some piece of the puzzle that hadn't quite fit since that fateful day they'd met had now been shifted and was clicking perfectly into place.

If she did this, she knew there was no turning back. That thought was strangely comforting. It gave her the courage to lift two fingers to his lips, damming the flood of his still-sputtering words.

"Shhhhh." She whispered, raising herself up on her tiptoes, face inching closer to his.

Inuyasha's eyes widened right before Kagome removed her fingers from his lips, replacing them with her own lips as she spoke.

"Happy Valentine's Day, my love."

A/N: Akanishi means "Red West" and I thought it was a fitting surname for a modern Inuyasha. ❤︎