A week after the "bum rush" around the house, followed by an explanation that led to…other things…it was apparent that they couldn't hold off on telling their families any longer. There was no plan on how to go about doing that, but it was important that it was with both sides present. It had taken them so long to meet the first time, it didn't feel right to go to one or the other.
Or rather, telling her parents together, since she couldn't visit the kingdom.
Inuyasha had never spoken about how exactly his mother was introduced to Toga's first wife, and she had to assume that there were details he didn't know. It would make sense. She didn't know all of the details about her parents' history. But the fact that his mother had been human, the situation must have been similar. The thought had her asking him if this was something he was certain he wanted.
"What in the world are you talking about?"
"Human? Merman? It's not like I can go to your parent's house for Sunday dinner," she pointed out. "Even if there were strong enough equipment to dive that deep, I can't see being able to rent it for a visit." Kagome tried not to look upset as she spoke, because her next words hurt just to think about. "Do you really want to marry and bind yourself to someone that may not be able to live the life you want?"
The silence that followed was deafening. It was a heavy topic to discuss over lunch prep, but it was a thought that had taken root over the last few days. Now Inuyasha wasn't saying anything and she just knew that when he did –
Inuyasha grabbed her by the waist and sat her on the edge of the empty counter. It had happened so suddenly that she almost dropped the pepper she'd been about to slice. He'd plucked it from her hands, making her focus on him instead. "I told you that my life is where you are, Kagome. It doesn't matter where we are."
"But –"
"I said what I said. Nothing has to be decided immediately, remember? There's no countdown for making a choice." The merman bumped his nose against hers affectionately. "Why is this coming up all of a sudden?"
Kagome shrugged. "Nervous, I suppose…"
"All because you're human?"
She nodded.
"You think I'm not nervous? Your parents would be getting a son-in-law that's not human."
"Mom and Papa love you! They don't think of you any different –"
The smug look Inuyasha was sporting was extremely irritating, she decided. She'd have rather he yelled "AH HAH" or something, but he stood there looking far too proud for his own good. Kagome crossed her arms over her chest and pouted, as silly as it was. She was not going to admit he was right about this. "Keep that up," she told him. "That box of condoms upstairs is gonna collect dust."
Inuyasha kept smiling, even as he leaned in to kiss her cheek. "We'll see about that."
"Oh we definitely will."
"You can't resist all this," he replied cheekily, practically strutting back to his work.
As goofy as he looked just then… Kagome shook her head. Dammit she wasn't about to tell him he was right about that either!
Another week passed before they could nail down a time to tell their parents. Ironically, it wasn't even their doing.
Between Daisuke filling in shifts for his head cook and Touga hosting foreign guests, there hadn't been a moment that Kagome or Inuyasha could speak with either long enough. And they seemed to alternate who would be on call with every attempt, which might have been funny if it wasn't so frustrating. Kagome had almost yelled at her own mother the day she called and invited them to a cookout that weekend because she thought it was her father trying to annoy her.
It was something that Kagome kept apologizing for an hour after they had arrived.
"Mom I swear I thought Papa was calling to make up an excuse –"
"If you want to make it up to me that badly, start chopping." A chuckling Michiru passed her the large knife and the cabbage. "Trust me dear, I got onto him about that. I could tell that you've had something you wanted to say."
"Uh, yeah… now that you bring it up… Inuyasha and I do have something important we wanted to tell you guys –"
A grater was plopped down onto the cutting board in front of her, followed by a handful of carrots. "You've got the coleslaw, right?" her mother asked. "Okay good! I'm going to go see how Daisuke's doing with the grill!"
Kagome barely got to turn around before her mother was dashing out of the kitchen. "…What in the world was that about?" she muttered.
Michiru thought she was ready for this news. She really thought she was. She had even told Kagome on that shopping trip that she accepted and trusted Kagome's choices. Her oldest child was legally an adult. It was expected.
She didn't want to think about it though.
The moment she reached the front door and threw it open, she nearly walked straight into Izayoi and Inukimi, the later of which was about to knock. "You have exceptional hearing," the first-wife told her.
"Oh…oh no, I was needing some…fresh air and wasn't even paying attention!" Michiru laughed nervously. Seeing that neither woman found it as amusing as she tried to make it, she let the act drop. "I need to talk with you both."
Inuyasha entered the kitchen not a second after her mother stepped out. "Wasn't your mom just in here?"
"Yeah."
"Kagome? You okay?" When they left the house, Kagome had been a bundle of nervous excitement at the thought of telling their families the news. She had been happy. And now…now she looked lost. "Did your mom say something?"
She shook her head, dumping the sliced carrots into the container. "I have no idea what's going on," she replied. "All I said was that we had something that we wanted to tell them, and she got all weird on me!"
Kagome hacked the head of cabbage into quarter pieces without effort, which made Inuyasha all kinds of nervous. He dove for the wedge that she picked up the moment he saw her reach for the grater. "Why don't you go ask her if she's okay and I'll do this?" he offered. "She could be distracted by something. It may not have anything to do with our news."
"Are you sure? I didn't want to dump this on you…"
Inuyasha went a step further and wedge himself between Kagome and the counter. "This is clearly upsetting you, and I'd rather do it than not be able to put a ring on my fiancé's finger."
She looked at him, perplexed. "You're exaggerating, Inu –"
"Am I? You cleaved this hard as a rock cabbage like it was a potato, Jason Vorhees!"
Izayoi and Inukimi were taken around to the backyard. Michiru was looking around to be sure they were actually alone, which only made their curiosity increase. What in the world was this woman so anxious about?
"I'm pretty sure that Kagome intends to tell me that she and Inuyasha…" She couldn't do it. She couldn't say the words. Michiru looked at Izayoi, who simply blinked in response. "I think she wants to tell me that they're…you know…"
"Mm…no...?" Now she looked confused.
Michiru looked to Inukimi, hoping she might be the one to say it, but she was growing more amused as each second passed. Of course she wouldn't be of help. She thrived on watching people squirm. It took making her hands into fists and bumping them together before realization kicked in for Izayoi, and Inukimi snorted with laughter. "You could have helped me!"
"Darling this was funnier! I wanted to see how you'd demonstrate it."
Izayoi turned on Inukimi. "I know what you were hoping and frankly I'm glad Michiru didn't!" She looked back at the human woman and smiled apologetically. "If it makes you feel any better my mind has been distracted lately as well."
"You didn't sound surprised, though."
Izayoi gave a small shrug. "I think…I'm not really? Are you?"
"I…" Michiru sighed. "I shouldn't be. I think it's because Kagome is my first born, you know? Seeing her grown up and knowing that she's grown up in more ways than is obvious, it…it's a shock to the system."
Inukimi put an arm around each woman's shoulders in a half-hug. "Ladies…we're getting older. Our children are getting older. But there's something to look forward to in all of this."
"What's that?" Izayoi asked dryly. "Wrinkles?"
"Gravity setting in on our bodies?" Michiru added, thinking about her butt drooping, among other things.
"Grandchildren, you two pessimistic pieces of seaweed!"
Kagome felt bad leaving Inuyasha to pick up the task that her mother had set her up with, but he wasn't going to let her slice her fingers up with the grater because she was anxious. The older woman was acting strange, and she feared she'd done something. Kagome sprinted through the house, but couldn't find her. She poked her head out the front door to find the porch vacant, which had to mean that her mother had gone into the backyard. 'Maybe she went to check on Papa,' she thought on her way back through the house.
Going through the back door, she didn't expect to see Izayoi or Inukimi with her. Or for all three of them to turn as a unit. "Mom?"
"Kagome! Did you get the coleslaw finished?"
"I…uh…Inuyasha stepped in to help me, Mom. He didn't want me to hurt myself…" Kagome winced before the sentence was even finished, because she knew her mother would be concerned. "Nothing's wrong," she added quickly, "I was worried about you, Mom. You flew out of the kitchen so quickly when I started to talk to you. Did I do something wrong?"
Michiru looked embarrassed. "Of course not, dear! I…may have panicked, when you told me you had something you wanted to say. Just a part of accepting that your firstborn is an adult," she chuckled nervously, twisting her fingers. "Adults do…adult things."
From behind her mother, Kagome heard Inukimi sigh and mutter something about "that was painful". Izayoi reached out and swatted the mermaid's shoulder. Kagome looked back at Michiru. "That's a broad area, Mom?"
"Oh for heaven's sake!" Inukimi groaned. "Your mother is saying that she's accepted that your mattress squeaks at night now! There, Michiru was that so hard?"
With the silence that followed that outburst, a pin falling could have been insanely loud. Kagome stood there, mouth agape, trying to process what had been said. She knew, but that was what had her mom acting weird?! "M-mom… you thought…"
Michiru nodded. "I wouldn't have put it that way, but yes."
Kagome couldn't decide if she wanted to sink into the ground and never come out, or go back inside and get Inuyasha to make him experience this new level of hell. How did she even respond to that? Should she ask if there's some kind of tell? Was it a wild guess? It was probably better that she didn't ask, because she didn't know if she could handle a full blown discussion about this. "Okay then," she smiled, feeling like a sociopath all the while. "That wasn't what Inuyasha and I wanted to say. I mean we are – we're being careful obviously – but I wasn't going to announce that to the entire families –"
"Good to know!"
Now Izayoi and Michiru were smiling, and to Kagome it looked a bit frightening. Good god was that what she looked like?
Inuyasha wished his mother would stop looking his way and laughing. When Kagome had come back to finish the coleslaw, she was a mess herself. Every time she looked at him she'd blush and start laughing, and if he'd done something to get that reaction it would make sense. The more he tried to ask what happened when she talked to her mother, Kagome would absolutely lose it. The most he learned was that they talked it out, everything was fine, and that his mother and Inukimi had been present. They were collecting the other sides to bring out to the patio table, so he had to get his answer before all privacy was gone for hours.
"Did Mother show you my baby pictures?"
"Nope."
"Did Inukimi make a crass comment?"
"…Well…"
He didn't really want to play twenty questions but Kagome was being stubborn. "Was it about us?"
The blush intensified. "In a sense."
"Was it bad?"
She shrugged. "I laughed."
Inuyasha felt his hands get clammy. If Kagome laughed, and it was about them, it could be anything. He was growing a reputation for being ridiculous. "Did you tell her about chasing me with the box of condoms?" he whispered.
"No!" she shrieked. "Although I may tell Sango, because she'd appreciate it."
"Kagome, please…" he begged. "What happened out there?"
She leaned in, which did nothing to ease his mind that it wasn't bad. "Mom was afraid that I was going to tell her that we're…doing stuff now."
"Stuff?" Unknowingly his expression mirrored his mother's earlier, even down to the look of realization. "Oh that. Oh…oh shit. I'm dead. This is my last supper."
Kagome patted his cheek. "No it's not, and no you won't. No one's telling Papa, and if Mom came to that conclusion on her own he'll figure it out eventually if he hasn't already. Just act normal –"
"My brother? Act normal?" Both turned to see Sesshomaru enter the kitchen. He made a path to the refrigerator, pulling out a number of condiment bottles and jars that Michiru had sent him for. "You can relax, little brother. No one needs to know about what you do or don't do in your bedroom. They'll be more happy to hear that you're engaged."
"H-how do you know that?" Kagome asked. Neither of them had told a soul, so how –
"You're not as secretive as you believe you are," he replied, smirking when Inuyasha's expression went from terror to annoyance. "It doesn't take a fool to know that it was only a matter of time."
Sesshomaru left the kitchen, arms loaded, not once looking back at the younger couple. Inuyasha made a noise in his throat that Kagome could sympathize with. It was the universal sibling dynamic, and it didn't matter which side of the age scale you landed on. There was always a moment where you wanted to throw a chair at your sibling, and some days the urge was greater.
Kagome looked back at Inuyasha, reaching out for his free hand to give it a squeeze. "Want to face the music before we eat? Or after?"
He tugged on her hand, and if she hadn't been gripping the bag of chips so tightly they might have been eating crumbs later. Inuyasha marched out to the backyard. Both of their families were scattered about the space, talking or arranging the selections of food.
"Something wrong, Inuyasha?" Toga asked.
"No, but Kagome and I have something we want to tell everyone." That had the desired effect. Even Souta, who was engrossed in his handheld game looked up. He glanced at Kagome, getting a nod of encouragement. "I asked Kagome to marry me –"
"– And I said yes," she beamed.
The delight that spread across both of their mother's faces was something they'd never forget. Both Izayoi and Michiru swarmed them, leaving Kagome to toss the back of chips at her little brother and hope he caught them. As her mother hugged her so tight she could barely breathe, Kagome decided that it really didn't matter if their parents might have assumed this would happen. She was happy and they were happy –
"Sesshomaru's got a big damn mouth!" her fiancé blurted out.
– and once Inuyasha got his rage out, she knew he'd be happy again.
"I only state the facts, little brother. It can't be my fault that you're as obvious as a sitcom."
As Inuyasha continued to argue with his brother, and her brother joined in out of excitement of getting two new brothers, Kagome kept reminding herself that this was what she wanted. She loved Inuyasha. Even when he was swinging a bag of hot dog buns at his brother's head like a morning star.
A/N: oh my god I didn't realize it's been a YEAR since this last update I am SO SORRY
I legit thought that I had updated this story earlier this year...only to realize it was a oneshot for the Sugar and Spice tumblr event...
I could give a long list of reasons, but in short - ya girl got distracted. XD Work, other art/writing wips, and the Mating Fever doujinshi I started in January. Someone needs to bully me into finishing this main story first before I add on more oneshots, seriously.
