After dinner that night, Kagome showed Inuyasha some TV, but soon had to bring him to her room when he started to get violent and tried to attack the box. There they remained, Kagome sitting on her bed, and Inuyasha sitting on the floor, leaning back against the side of the bed.
"Kagome?" the hanyou said after an extended period of silence.
"Nande, Inuyasha?" she asked, looking at the back of his head. His ears twitched a couple of times. He looks so timid right now, she thought.
"Um…Kagome," he finally said. "I know I haven't been all that nice to you all this time. I know I've been an idiot a lot. And…I don't expect to be forgiven for a lot of it."
"Inuyasha…" Kagome said softly.
"Kagome, I meant what I said earlier," he continued, interrupting her. "I may not show it, but I need…I need to admit it. You…you mean a lot to me, Kagome. And I…I know that…that you…" He swallowed. This was harder than he thought it would be. As a man who never spoke his feelings, he was unaccustomed to these types of conversations.
"Go on," Kagome encouraged, seeing how difficult this was on him.
"Kagome…" he said softly, before turning to look at her. "I know that we've never really had anything going on. I'm not really the type to court a girl. But I think…I think that with all we've been through, it should make up for that."
Kagome held her breath, waiting for him to say what she wanted so badly to hear.
"Kagome…when we go back to my time, will you…will you live with me, and be my wife?"
Tears began to well up in her eyes.
"I know you're still young, and I…"
He stopped as she fell to her knees and threw her arms around him, tears soaking his shirt. Shyly, he put his arms around her.
"I didn't mean to make you cry," he said softly.
"No, it's ok this time, Inuyasha," she said through her tears. "It's not sad crying."
"Then…"
Kagome pulled her face from his shirt and looked at him, her face stained with tears. "Of course I will, Inuyasha. I will always stay with you. And I will…I will be your wife. When I'm a little older."
He wiped tears from her face. "Of course. You're still too young, in this time. But I'm willing to wait for you." He smiled. "Besides, I need time to find you a proper home. We can't live in the trees, the way I did when I was alone. I promise I'll take care of you. And I promise we'll stay by the well, so you can visit."
With a happy sigh, Kagome rested her head against his chest again. After a slight hesitation, Inuyasha shifted so she was in his lap, and held her protectively. She's mine, he thought. I must protect her.
He held her closer, and whispered in her ear, "Kagome?"
"Hmm?"
"Ashiteru, Kagome."
She smiled, happy and safe in his arms. "Ashiteru, Inuyasha-chan."
His eyes widened a little at the addition to his name, and then he closed his eyes and leaned back against her bed, feeling, above all things, content.
* * *
"Gomen, Inuyasha-chan, but I really must go!" Kagome pleaded, attempting to pry the stubborn hanyou's hand off of her wrist.
"I don't see the point!" he argued. "When you live with me I'm certainly not going to have to running over here every day to go to school! May as well drop it now and get used to it!"
"Yasha-chan…" His eyes briefly widened at the new nickname. "I need to go tell my friends why I won't be here anymore. I can't just leave them!"
"Kagome!" he protested, but was soon silenced with an, "Osuwari!" By the time he was able to pull his face out of the floor, she was gone.
"That girl…" he growled, climbing back to his feet. "She better not think she's gonna keep this stupid necklace on me after we're married!"
"Married?"
His entire body froze, all except for one ear, which turned towards the voice. Kagome's mother stood behind him.
Oh great, he thought, cursing himself as he turned towards her. To his surprise, she was smiling.
"Inuyasha," she said cheerfully. "So you did propose to her!"
Suddenly extremely embarrassed, he looked down at the floor, cheeks flushed. "Uh…well…"
Mrs. Higurashi laughed. "Don't worry, Inuyasha. I expected it."
He didn't think his face could get redder, but apparently it could. "You…you did?"
"Of course. That's why today I'm going to take you shopping."
Inuyasha recoiled slightly, very confused. "Huh?"
She held up his baseball cap and some sandals. "Put these on, and we'll get going right away!"
A few moments later, a rather awkward-feeling Inuyasha stood beside her, shifting his feet uncomfortably.
"Do I really have to wear these?" he asked, motioning to the sandals.
"I'm afraid so. They won't allow you inside without shoes. Oh, and leave that sword here, you can't take it with you. Come now, Inuyasha. We're going."
They walked through town for a while, and Inuyasha apologized to his poor feet, which were really starting to hurt. When he thought he couldn't take much more of it, Mrs. Higurashi finally went into a store.
"Here we are," she said, and he followed her a little timidly, trying his hardest to not bring any attention to himself, lest someone take too close a look and notice that he wasn't exactly human. Inside the building, he saw a lot of jewelry, and was confused as to what they were doing there. Mrs. Higurashi led him to a glass box that had rings in it.
"Now, pick one that you think Kagome would like," she told him. He looked at her quizzically.
"What for?"
"For an engagement ring. Now that you two are engaged, she should have a ring from you."
"Oh." He'd never heard of this tradition. Of course, he thought. Even if humans did this in my own time, I wouldn't know. Youkai don't do things like this. They just claim their partner and that's it.
Of course, he would do that too, when the time was right. But Kagome was human, and he was half human, so he had to follow the human traditions as well.
Kneeling down, Inuyasha pressed his hands against the glass and looked hard inside. He carefully examined each ring as Mrs. Higurashi watched patiently, and grew more and more frustrated as each one he looked at just didn't seem right. He was nearing the end of the rings, when he finally spotted one that really caught his attention.
"That one," he pointed. "Can I look at it better?"
The man working at the shop took the ring out of the box and handed it to him. Inuyasha examined every little part of it, and then, satisfied, handed it to Kagome's mother.
Looking at it, she was surprised at what he'd chosen. It was white gold, and the top was shaped into a crescent and lined with very small diamonds. It was very unique.
"This is a very pretty ring, Inuyasha," Mrs. Higurashi commented. Inuyasha grinned proudly.
"Of course," he said cockily.
"Any reason why you chose it?"
Some of the cockiness faded. "It's the mark of my family. My youkai side, that is. My brother, Sesshoumaru, wears it on his forehead. The line of youkai I'm from has a connection with the moon, though I'm really not sure how."
Well, I know MY connection to it, he thought somewhat bitterly, recalling his human transformation during the new moon. I can't be bitter about that, he told himself. I used my wish on Kagome. I can deal with being human once a month.
Soon, Mrs. Higurashi had handed Inuyasha a little box. "Give this to her tonight when you see her," she instructed as they walked back to the shrine. "Be sweet about it to. You need to make her feel special."
A rude remark attempted to get out, but he forced it back, telling himself to be polite with Kagome's mother. Instead, he simply said, "I will," and the rest of the walk was silent.
Mrs. Higurashi smiled happily as they walked up the shrine steps, stealing glances at the young man beside her. Hanyou, she corrected herself. I wonder if my grandchildren will have his cute ears? Then, another thought occurred to her.
"How old are you, Inuyasha?" she asked. He cocked an eyebrow at the strange question. Kagome had never asked him.
"Well, let's see," he said, thinking out loud as he tried to remember. "I was a little over fifty years old when…" he paused and considered his words. "When I was enchanted. Then I spent fifty years asleep, so I didn't age. I guess, if you count years, I'm somewhere over one hundred, but since I was under a spell for fifty years, I don't think those years count."
"You certainly don't look or act like you're fifty years old," Mrs. Higurashi said lightly, receiving another cocked eyebrow. Inuyasha once again had to resist the urge to say something rude.
"Youkai age differently than humans," he finally said, finding no other way to respond to that. "I guess, if I was a human, I'd probably be around seventeen years old. I'm still a young hanyou."
"You mentioned a brother. How old is he?"
For a second, Inuyasha froze. That idiot, Sesshoumaru. I can't believe I'm having to think about him at a time like this. "Uh…I'm really not sure how old Sesshoumaru is. Maybe three hundred years old, I think? He never really told me…"
Mrs. Higurashi laughed softly at his confused face. "Apparently the brothers don't get along."
"Keh," he muttered. "He's an egotistical idiot who thinks that just because he's a youkai lord he can run everyone's lives, and ruin mine."
"Surely he's not all that bad now, Inuyasha."
"Heh! You'd believe me if you met him!" Inuyasha huffed. Then, he remembered something. "Actually, I'm not sure why, but he hasn't been so bad lately. And he's been dragging this little girl around with him…actually, she's following him. I don't know what his problem is now, but he's not acting like himself."
"Everyone has some good in them, Inuyasha," she said cheerfully. "Who knows? Maybe one day, the two of you will get along."
"Maybe," he said lightly. And I'm really a cat, he thought, disgusted. Why in the world are we talking about that idiot?
At that moment, they reached the house, and Inuyasha immediately kicked off the sandals and took the hat off, letting his poor ears perk up again. He bolted straight for Kagome's room, and made up his mind to stay there until she got home so he wouldn't end up in anymore stupid conversations about people he didn't want to talk about.
* * *
A/N – A quick note about Kagome using "chan" at the end of Inuyasha's name. I know in the show you only hear her call other girls and Shippou that; she usually calls guys "kun" (like Hojo-kun or Kouga-kun). But "chan" is also used between boyfriend and girlfriend, so her calling him that is a display of affection. Also, I know most people would give Inuyasha the nickname of Inu-chan; the reason I didn't is because Kagome would literally be calling him "dog", and I don't think he'd appreciate that. So he's Yasha-chan.
