This has been a fic in the making since last summer and I'd always planned for this to be a gift fic, but it kept growing and growing and now... happy birthday, Roseheartwhitefox!
Michiru Higurashi did her best not to frown as she filled the kettle with water again. The hot water heater had stopped working a few days before. Or rather, it was still functioning when she flipped the breaker to it off. It was eating away at her electricity bill but it wasn't heating the water like it should, so she put a stop to that.
She might've muttered something along the lines of "What use are you in my life" along with some colorful choice words as she did it.
Immediately after, she'd called the handyman. He'd asked her a load of questions, even had her check the label on the heater and repeat to him what information he needed. Said it might be a couple of days because he was finishing up a project and wanted to know if that would be alright with her. Even offered to recommend another handyman if it would be a problem, but she'd declined.
She didn't want anyone else, even if they came with high regards from the one she called. She'd worked with him in the past many times, and he'd never let her down. She would be fine waiting.
Waiting also meant cold water. Which, in some instances wasn't so bad. It was warm enough to wash dishes with just cold water, as long as it wasn't anything greasy. That called for heating up water, just as it did to wash hair, or any other part of one's body. It was warm outside but not enough to jump into the shower without an ounce of hot water.
That's how she learned the hot water heater had quit.
It was an inconvenience and not the end of the world, she kept reminding herself. The was a point in history where people likely bathed in colder water in the dead of winter. She could hold out a few more days if necessary. It's not like he wasn't sending her updates through text on the regular. That was another reason that she liked this handyman and his business. He didn't give an estimate and not follow through. If there was a complication he was upfront about it and he made good on his word.
An uncharacteristic groan echoed down the hallway, alerting her that another member of her household was due to pop in the kitchen.
"I'm going to be so glad when the hot water heater gets fixed."
Her left eyelid twitched. Michiru didn't have to turn around to know it was her oldest child that came into the kitchen, dropping down into one of the chairs. "You do know that you could have rented a hotel room," she reminded her daughter.
"Mama I'm not going to do that unless you went with me!"
"Then try to have some patience dear. The handyman will be here this afternoon."
"Why are you not more upset about this? It's your house!"
Michiru turned away from the stove and crossed her arms over her chest. "Of course I'm upset, but there's no reason to moan about something that I have no control over. He told me that he would be a few days, and it's been a few days. If it had been longer I might have considered renting a room, but since that's not the case, I will deal."
Kagome flinched back at the words, not because they had any bite to them, but at the realization that she was doing exactly what he mother wasn't. "Sorry Mama. I'm frustrated, that's all." She kept her gaze down at her fingers, flicking her nails against each other and further chipping the shellac off. It was something she'd been meaning to do, and just…couldn't be bothered to care.
"Have there been more complications?" All Kagome did was nod. It was so miniscule that if Michiru hadn't been paying attention, she'd have missed it. "Do you want to go with another contractor?"
"At the rate I'm going…I'll be in the red no matter what I do," she sighed. "There's always something going wrong, Mama. I'm worried it's my luck." 'And this doesn't even count work…'
"Nonsense. It's…a setback. It's not like this is a permanent thing."
The younger woman had to resist scoffing at that. Her life was a calamity of insane proportions lately. She'd just moved out of her mom's house two months prior, into a cozy little starter home. Came to find out that it was not up to code as the realtor had said, and she discovered this as she went to use her shower for the first time. The shower head had broken off, then the faucet handles. She'd had to run out into her front yard to turn the water off at the meter, soaked to the bone because they chose to break after water had come rushing through the pipes.
Some fucking inspector the guy had been. Kagome still wondered if somehow the realtor had paid him under the table to say that everything was "just fine" so she could close on the house quicker. Though given that look he'd given her before he left, she might have been doing something else under a table.
Not only was her plumbing not up to code, but neither was some of the electrical. The meter box wasn't the correct wattage for her home, and according to the new – like hell she was going with the realtor's choice again – home inspector, it was a miracle the place hadn't caught fire years before. That had been the first thing she'd taken care of. The plumbing was an easy fix, albeit a little costly, but then her meter box replacement had nearly run a grand on its own. The mess she was in now was all because of the lingering effects of the plumbing not being repaired sooner.
Parts of the floors in various rooms were showing signs of water damage. There was soft spots in walls. She'd even detected mildew in a couple places, but at least that she'd been able to take care of herself. The rest, she'd had to call in a contractor. A recommendation of the home inspector, but not from personal experience. It had been word of mouth. The "I know a guy who knows a guy" kind. Only in reality it was "I know a guy who knows a guy whose estranged uncle knows a guy that's looking for work and has a crew on speed dial".
She'd been so distressed about the soft spots becoming holes that she'd agreed after hearing the words "they can be here today".
The result had been that they did decent enough work, even if the running bill she had to watch grow wasn't living up to their business name, The Thrifty Fixers.
Her nest egg that remained after buying the house was going to run out soon, and then she'd have to dip into her savings account, and she wanted to avoid that if she could. Her income would tide her over month to month, but there were too many things she'd have to trim – and most all of them were necessary for her job. "I should rename this house to the Money Pit," she mused, scraping the last flakes of her nail polish off with her thumb onto the napkin.
"More like Money Pothole, since it's not as big as the house in the movie," Michiru joked. It at least made her daughter crack a smile. "I've started a kettle for tea, or if you want to wash up..?"
Kagome shook her head. "It's not like I'm going to be going anywhere or seeing anyone today. I can wait until later."
"Alright, if you're sure. It's warming up either way. I've got to run into town to get the vegetables for dinner this evening, so you'll be here to let the handyman in?"
"Yeah sure."
It could have been an hour later, maybe two, when Kagome had heard the knock at the door. She'd procrastinated doing her work by picking at the flakes of polish, and now the handyman was here to fix the hot water heater. Or she hoped he was. She wasn't feeling very positive.
'I still don't know why Mama asked if I wanted to wash up,' she thought, heading to the door. 'It's almost like she thought I would want to impress some old guy with a beer keg for a gut and sagging jeans with a hairy butt cr-'
The moment she opened the door, she realized that she was very much the frumpy disaster of a female in those rom coms that got magical makeovers. Her hair hadn't been brushed, just pulled up into a messy top knot that had ends sticking every which way. The Aerosmith tour t-shirt from high school had a coffee stain on the left boob, and her jeans had rips in them that…weren't in fashion at all. Even her toenail polish matched the condition of her fingernails – and that was the closest she had on to makeup.
She expected to see some squat old man, wider than he was tall. Dressed in coveralls or old stained jeans that would've made her feel better about her choices. Probably balding with a mustache that resembled one of those wide push brooms used in stores. Oh no, she'd have been lucky if that was what met her on the other side of the door.
She expected the grandfather, but she got the grandson.
He was tall, at least a head taller than her, and broad shouldered. The dark heather grey Henley stretched across his chest and arms so well that it was a sin. Alright probably not but it should've been. His jeans and sneakers were worn with wear and faded, frayed, and scuffed. A tool belt hung from his waist, so it wasn't hard to tell that this was the handyman.
But it was above the shoulders that nearly had her doing a double take.
Short, shaggy silver hair fell to his shoulders and framed sharp features. His face had the barest hint of five o-clock shadow forming, and the golden eyes that watched her curiously started sending off bells in her memory. The slight twitch of the furry ears up top was the icing on this clusterfuck of a day in her life.
This wasn't just a half demon standing in front of her. Oh no, she couldn't be that lucky. No, she happened – by coincidence or some god's cruel sense of humor – to come face to face with Inuyasha Takahashi, former classmate and alumni from high school.
This was the handyman that her mother had called to fix the hot water heater.
'Fuck me,' Kagome thought, not entirely sure which way she meant it.