Three years later
Kagome bent forward, resting her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. The video on her television was paused, showing the instructor in a pose that she couldn't hope to accomplish anytime soon. She straightened and wiped her brow, pushing her bangs back and not caring that some of the strands stuck up and wild angles.
She couldn't take the teasing anymore. Her classmates had only become more ruthless as they aged. It didn't even matter that some of them were starting to become bigger than she was. All they saw was the chubby little girl they had first met in kindergarten who didn't fit in with the rest. Now at the age of 10, Kagome was already fearing what her teenage years would be like if she didn't do something to drop this weight.
Michiru had shot down Kagome's original idea of dieting. No child her age should be on a diet, her mother had reasoned, pointing out that she was already eating quite healthy. Then Kagome suggested exercise, and her mother was more accepting of that one, so long as she was taking part in an activity that she enjoyed.
So she started to take up dancing.
In the beginning it was simple stuff that she could keep up with. As months turned into a year and her interest hadn't waned, Michiru began to look for more instructional videos for Kagome to follow. Since Souta was too little still to be a decent practice partner, Kagome was limited to dances that she could do by herself. Her little brother didn't hesitate to give his opinion on her progress, sitting in a beanbag chair off to the side of the cleared living room.
At two years of practice, Kagome had become more limber than she had originally been, though she still had "problem areas" of baby fat that refused to disappear. It was frustrating to the young girl, to push herself until she was red in the face and struggling to breath, only to see pudge around her waist and in her cheeks when she looked in the mirror. Her mother had explained to her – many times now – that it would disappear in time as she aged, that it was a natural part of growing. As much as Kagome liked to believe that, she still feared that she'd forever have fat cheeks.
Each weekend she would still go down to the beach, but instead of making small talk with her family most times, she'd veer towards the boardwalk, looking for a boy with long black hair and sun kissed skin. Without fail, Inuyasha would be waiting for her at the bench where they sat and ate soft pretzels that first day. In their second meeting, he had looked just as happy to see her as she did him. Since then, they picked up conversations where they had left off like a week's time hadn't passed.
It had been a few weeks before Inuyasha had felt comfortable enough to visit Kagome at her house. He'd explained that since he wasn't familiar with the area, he wanted to be certain of how far away she lived from the beach. Kagome hadn't thought anything of it, assuming that his parents came to collect him at the end of the day. She thought it was odd that she hadn't seen them, but decided that it wasn't important. If his parents had given their permission to let him visit at her house, then that was good enough for her.
Kagome shook her arms, taking another deep breath. She reached for the remote and set the video to play, tossing the device on the couch behind her. She was determined to keep up with this instructor. It may not be that day, but she was positive it would be soon.
"How come your clothes are so big?" Inuyasha watched as Kagome demonstrated the latest dance she had learned in the back yard of her house.
It was an honest observation. Her clothes were incredibly baggy, and there were moments where he feared she would stumble in them if she wasn't careful. It was clear they were too big for her, hanging on her form like they were hand-me-downs. It would have made sense if she had an older sibling, but she didn't.
Kagome didn't look upset like he'd expected. "You remember when we first met? How I said that my classmates picked on me for being fat?"
"You're not fat, Kagome!"
"Well I'm bigger than the other kids in school!" she huffed, dropping down onto the porch next to him. "I've got more 'baby fat' than the other kids. Mama says that it'll go away, but…I don't know."
Inuyasha frowned. "Still doesn't mean you have to hide."
"I'm not hiding!"
"You are!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am n- fine, I guess I am," she relented. Kagome didn't want to argue the point with him, but she also didn't want to let him off that easy. "How come your parents haven't come around? You always leave to go meet them."
This time Inuyasha was the one to look frustrated. "My parents…are usually busy," he tried to explain. "It's just easier if I meet them at a certain place on the beach because it's on the way home."
"Oh…"
"I'd like you to meet them," he added quickly. "I don't know when, but someday."
Kagome smiled, leaning to the left to bump his shoulder with hers. "It's okay."
"You still haven't explained why your clothes are so baggy," he said.
She sighed. "I thought that if I wore clothes bigger than me, that maybe no one would remember that I'm pudgy. But since my classmates continue to tease me, I'm beginning to think that that's all anyone sees when they look at me."
"It's not what I see."
"What?"
Inuyasha looked at Kagome. "I see someone whose not happy with how things are. I see someone who is trying to please others before herself. That by hiding you're doing everyone else a service, and that's not right. You're really special, Kagome. You shouldn't have worry about making anyone happy but yourself."
Kagome was stunned. "You…see that?" Not once had any of her girl friends ever said anything close to that.
"You're perfect, Kagome. Don't let anyone make you think you're less-" He was unprepared for the girl to launch herself at him, throwing her arms around his neck, or to feel the tears hit his shoulder as she cried. "W-wait!" He started to panic. Inuyasha was never sure how to handle girls when they cried. "P-Please don't cry, Kagome! I'm sorry!"
"You didn't do anything," she said between sniffles. Kagome scooted back, feeling foolish for blubbering all over her friend. She rubbed her cheeks dry and tried to smile at Inuyasha to show that she wasn't upset with him. "You made me really happy, is all. No one's ever said that to me before."
If he thought about her statement too long it would likely make him mad, so he said "Then I'll have to tell you. However many times it takes for it to sink in."
A comfortable silence fell between the two. Kagome took the opportunity to calm herself down. Was she so low that a few kind words had her in tears? Probably, and that realization made it a hundred times worse. Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi were good friends. They may not have been the best of friends all the time, but until Inuyasha appeared, they were what she had.
"Oh, I just remembered something!"
Inuyasha didn't get a chance to ask what it was before Kagome grabbed his hand and drug him back into her house, up the stairs and into her bedroom. It wasn't the first time he had been in her room, but it still felt awkward. Among their people, it wasn't proper for unmated mermaids to allow mermen entrance into their private quarters if they weren't kin. If the mermaid had promised herself to another, that was an exception, but was still met with frowns from older generations. Inuyasha had never kept anything about his visits with Kagome from his parents, including being in her bedroom alone with her. They trusted his judgment on the matter, just as Kagome's parents trusted him. What bothered him the most was why exactly he felt awkward in her room. There wasn't a specific reason he could think of, which made the feeling more exasperating.
Kagome never noticed how unsettled Inuyasha was as she searched around her desk. It never failed, each time she cleaned her room, she could never find what she was looking for. Her desk had been the most untidy thing, and she had cleaned it the day before of all the things she had been working on. Not finding the item on top or in any of the containers that sat on the desktop, she began to open the side drawers, pushing bits and pieces back and forth. She let out an unladylike grunt as she shut the first drawer, pulling open the second. "Here it is!"
"What?" Inuyasha turned at the gasp from Kagome and saw her walk back to him holding something in her hands.
"I've been working on this for a while," she explained, "Down at the boardwalk, there's that basketball game where you try to get the ball in the hoop? I've won a few pieces from that game, but I didn't like how they looked on their own, so I took them apart and made this." Kagome held up a beaded necklace. Most of the beads were a dark purple color, almost black, broken up with the occasional bleached shell that curved into a blunt point.
"It looks nice, Kagome."
"Good," she beamed, "Because I want you to have it, Inuyasha."
"K-Kagome! I can't- You worked really hard on that-"
"I made it for you, Inuyasha!" Kagome was insistent. She reached under the collar of her t-shirt and pulled up a puka shell necklace with a charm on it. Inuyasha's eyes widened slightly at it, but she missed the look of recognition. "The day we met, I was playing that basketball game. I made two of the three shots required to win a prize, but the guy that works there said that this was meant for me. I didn't understand what he meant at the time, but I think it was a sign that we were supposed to meet. You've been such a good friend to me Inuyasha, that I wanted to make you a necklace too. I couldn't find the right one among what he had, so I picked what I liked best out of those I've won and made my own."
Inuyasha was still apprehensive. He didn't see where he had done anything to deserve the gift, and told her so as she slipped the beads around his neck.
"This way you can remember me when we're not together," she said.
"Like I could forget you," he grinned. "Thank you, Kagome. I'll treasure this."
Kagome's smile was nearly ear to ear as she absentmindedly played with the stone that hung from her neck. That was something he'd have to remember to ask his parents about one of these days. Surely it had to be a coincidence.
Hours later, when Inuyasha returned to his home, he knew he should have brought up the resemblance of the necklace to the old tales he'd been told, but something else was weighed heavily on his mind. The necklace could wait for another day.
"Mother, how do you make someone see that they aren't what they claim they are?"
Izayoi looked up from her project and frowned. "What do you mean, sweetheart?"
"It's Kagome. She…she doesn't think very good of herself."
He'd mentioned briefly over the years that she'd been picked on by her peers for her appearance, but that evening he went into great detail about what she'd told him and what he'd observed in the few years they had known each other. Izayoi's frown became more pronounced as he continued to talk, and by the time he'd brought her up to speed with the day's conversation, she looked downright troubled. Inuyasha didn't leave anything out, and she had been informed that this girl's parents were aware of the situation, so it's not like things hadn't been hidden from them. It still bothered her that there was little that could be done to stop these children; this Kagome sounded like a sweet child that didn't deserve such harsh words. What was more upsetting was how it had begun to take its toll on the girl herself, if she had broken down in front of Inuyasha for the kind words he said.
"I don't know what to do, Mother." Inuyasha was frowning now. "I keep trying to tell her that there's nothing wrong with her, but today really freaked me out. She's never cried like that in front of me before."
Izayoi reached over and pulled her son into her side, running her fingers through his hair. "I know, sweetheart. You have to understand that Kagome might not have had anyone aside from her family say such things, so it could have been overwhelming to her."
"I told her that if I had to, each time we see each other I'd tell her that she's perfect," he mumbled. Had he looked up, he would have seen the knowing smile cross his mother's lips, but her touch was soothing and distracting at the same time.
"Have you told her about us?" she asked suddenly, breaking him out of his daze.
"Only that you and Father are busy. That you pick me up at the beach when you're returning home."
His mother hummed lightly, nudging him to look up at her. "I think perhaps we should consider telling Kagome the truth. About everything."
"A-Are you sure, Mother?"
"We'll need to discuss it with your father, of course, but I think he'd agree. You can't keep telling Kagome that she's perfect as she is if she doesn't know that you're perfect as you are."
