WELL, I told myself I was going to take a break from the fluff of my modern AU, and the I remembered that InuKag week was coming up, so I guess that makes me a liar LOL. None of these prompts will be in any sort of order, with exception to the second InuKag prompt which is a part two to this prompt.
This is for Day 1 of InuKag Week 2020: Acceptance!
Inuyasha slammed the door to his apartment shut. He didn't quite understand why he was so angry. This wasn't the first time he had lost a bit of business because of ignorant people with a prejudice against hanyous, although this one was a lot more dramatic than most. The missed business wasn't even that big of a deal to him - it wasn't like Inuyasha didn't do well enough for himself that one customer deciding to take their money elsewhere would break his business. It had happened before, and would happen again; that way just the way the world worked. If anything, Inuyasha grew more angry by not knowing why he was so angry in the first place.
Although, if he thought about it rationally for just a moment, not being able to see Kagome all week might have had a little to do with it. There had been a huge power outage in the area where she worked - unbeknownst to her or the elderly couple that ran the diner - and a lot of food wound up spoiled. To top it all off, they had several catering events planned for that week, which meant triple the work for his poor girlfriend. Kagome was so tired that she could barely keep herself awake to shower and pop a frozen meal in the microwave before utterly passing out. Inuyasha had offered to come over to cook her dinners and take care of her this week, but she was adamant that she would fine and that he wouldn't see her for very long anyways since she crashed almost as soon as she got home, and that they could wait until the following weekend when they both had days off to truly spend quality time together. That was basically code for Kagome not wanting to put him out because of a rough work week.
Which Inuyasha thought was bullshit, but he wasn't about to start an unnecessary fight over it. Sure, they had still taken the time to text every night before bed, but it just wasn't the same as actually getting to see her, to touch her soft skin, and take in her absolutely ravishing scent.
If Inuyasha was honest with himself, he found himself needing Kagome more and more each day. They had been dating for a few months now, and it scared him a little with how happy he was. Kagome was like a bubble of sunshine; she filled his life with a warmth and happiness that Inuyasha hadn't seen in a long time. However, bubbles were fragile, and easily popped. Everything was good, for now, but how long will that happiness last? When will she finally see the monster she's dating, and decide she's better off without him?
Perhaps the reason Inuyasha was so on edge wasn't due to the altercation at work today, but his own insecurities. Back in feudal times, hanyous were a scourge of the Earth; hated by demons for bearing the weak blood of humans, and feared for their demonic attributes by humans. There was no place for a hanyou to live in peace. Times changed as the youkai and humans learned to co-mingle - in more ways than one- which resulted in the population of hanyous to slowly rise. Soon enough, hanyous became a tolerated breed as fewer people continued to care about an outdated prejudice. But just because most people stopped caring if Inuyasha was a hanyou didn't mean they weren't leery of him. Or that they'd ever want to associate with a hanyou like that. And who was to say that Kagome couldn't become one of those people? Someone who would just take her leave of him when she came to her senses.
Inuyasha desperately didn't want Kagome to become another Kikyo. He wanted to spend all his free time with her, cooking and watching their favourite television shows together. Meeting Sango and Miroku for dinner and drinks. He wanted to watch the sun rise and set with her each and every single day.
These were scary thoughts for him, because he was becoming so attached to her in such a short time, and truthfully, Inuyasha didn't know if she felt the same way. She always seemed to enjoy their time together, even when they'd fight a little.
Inuyasha closed his eyes and took a deep breath in to try and exhale the tension from his shoulders. He was greeted, firstly and foremostly, with the sweet scent that was Kagome. Despite the fact that he spent more time over at her apartment, Kagome had been over enough times for her scent to linger, which was great for when they slept in their own beds. Kagome's scent was even more prominent today, chiseling away at his sour disposition until his more natural gruff temperament washed over him. Inuyasha shot his eyes open as another scent wafted in from the kitchen; the smell of cooked food.
Inuyasha immediately tensed up at the prospect of an intruder in his apartment. Normally, intruders broke in to rob people of their worldly possessions, not their fridge. The intruder hadn't seemed to notice the front door slam - something Inuyasha found odd. He slowly knelt down to slip his shoes off his feet when he noticed another pair of shoes set off to the side. One look at the primrose coloured flats was all Inuyasha needed to know who his intruder was, although he became more confused than before. The clock on the wall read 2:45, when Kagome should have still been at work.
"Kagome?" Inuyasha called out, wondering what was going on.
"Inuyasha! I'm in the kitchen!"
Inuyasha shuffled into the kitchen towards her voice, the smell of caramelized onions and simmering meat flooding his nose. The sight before him, though, was far more intriguing than the delectable food she was cooking. She was dressed simply in yoga pants, her ebony locks were tied up in a messy bun, although the bright pink chef's coat she sported drew most of his attention.
Kagome had a rainbow of chef coats, one in practically every colour. They were almost exclusively worn at work - Kagome had her own cooking apron at home that her mother had made for her - but Kagome would don the jacket whenever she was making an important dish.
Looking over her shoulder, she gave him a warm smile. "You're home early, was it a slow day?"
Inuyasha was puzzled to see her standing there, but he'd be lying if seeing her didn't immediately lessen the weight in his chest. Damn if he was starting to think that he was falling for this woman. Hard.
"Naw, just a rough day. Decided to split early before I decided to start knocking heads," Inuyasha grunted, his voice coming out more gravely and low than he expected, and he winced slightly as the smile that had lit Kagome's face fell. She gave her pan a quick stir before walking to the fridge. She pulled out a beer and handed it to him.
"Well, first things first: have a beer. Why don't you go get dressed into something more comfortable and you can tell me all about it afterwards."
He took the beer from her with zeal, giving her a quick kiss before heading off to his bedroom to change. Inuyasha had no plans to talk about his day with her, but he would make himself look more presentable for his girl so she could entertain him with her day. He sauntered back into the kitchen about ten minutes later, donned in a pair of clean sweats with a freshly washed face, feeling immensely better than he had when he got home. Somehow in such a short period of time, whatever Kagome was cooking had managed to smell even better, causing his mouth to water.
"Whatchu makin'?" He asked, wrapping his arms around her waist to embrace her from behind. She hummed a little at his question, resting the back of her head against his chest.
"Nothing special, just a stew. My local market had the meat on sale, so I thought I would treat my wonderful boyfriend to a good home cooked meal."
"Woman, everything you make is special." Inuyasha grinned at the blush he knew covered her face. He placed a kiss on the top of her head before letting her go to have a seat at the bar that separated the living room and kitchen. "So how come you're here and not at work? Did things finally slow down?"
"A little. Things are back to normal anyways. My boss surprised me this morning and gave me the day off!" She turned from the stove to look at Inuyasha, her gaze softening. "I really missed you this week."
"Me, too," he agreed, warmth flooding his chest at the soft look she was giving him. She turned away to add the onions to the stock pot before lidding the pot and joining him at the bar.
"This is actually an apology dinner of sorts."
"Apology for what?" he asked, a small sense of dread poking it's way through.
"I sort of blew you off this week about coming over to help take care of me when I should have just taken you up on your offer," she began, her eyes darting around as if she was afraid to look directly at him. " I just felt like it would be selfish of me to shove all of my own responsibilities on you just because I was busy with work. I didn't put any consideration into the fact that you actually wanted to come take care of me, and not that I was a burden.
"You were right. This week sucked, and I would have been a much more tolerable person to be around if I had my big, strong hanyou helping me out." Kagome lifted the corners of her lips in a smirk that was very reminiscent of the silver-haired hanyou sitting beside her.
Inuyasha was floored. He wouldn't deny that Kagome's refusal to help her this week had irritated him in more ways than one, but he never would have expected an apology from her. She was a grown woman who was more than capable of taking care of herself, and no matter how much he would rather do that job himself, he would never try and take her independence away from her.
"Kags," he started, not quite knowing how to respond. One one hand, he didn't want her apologizing, but he decided that not accepting her apology would be just as bad as her not accepting his help this week. "It's alright. You're here now, and that's all that matters."
He took her hand, pressing his lips to her knuckles. Kagome smiled at him, thankful that she didn't have to force her apology on him. She was slowly starting to learn that Inuyasha was the type to brush off any form of apology, no matter how much he deserved it. She had a feeling that Inuyasha ended up giving apologies more than receiving them, which left a doleful emotion in her heart. It was the same impression she got from him when she heard him slam the front door, and now that talking about her day was out of the way, she fully planned on ascertaining what happened to him today.
"Now, let's talk about your day," Kagome said, standing up to grab herself a glass of wine before they opened up the proverbial can of worms. She noticed how Inuyasha instantly tensed out of the corner of her eye and made the quick decision to grab him another beer from the fridge. She had a feeling he would need it in the next couple of minutes.
Inuyasha sighed as he watched her grab her drink and a bottle of beer - the latter he assumed for him. He really didn't want to talk about what happened today; the thought of sharing a delicious home-cooked meal and maybe watching a movie sounded far more appealing to him. But if he knew anything about Kagome by now, it was that she was stubborn as hell. No doubt she would poke and prod until he was singing like a canary, so he gave in to her request, downing what was left of his first beer to give him some sea legs to stand on.
"Today, we had a customer come to the shop to get his brake pads looked at. I was in my office at the time when he came in and spoke to Takai at the front desk."
Inuyasha paused, keeping his eyes locked on his beer. She might want to know what happened, but that didn't mean she needed a play-by-play. He just needed to keep it short and simple. "He was just about done talking with Takai when I stepped out of the office, and as soon as he saw me all hell broke loose."
"What did he do?" She asked.
"Had a hissy fit. Spotted my ears and immediately knew what I was. Demanded to speak with the manager, and when I told him I was the owner he got all huffy and walked out. It's not that big of a deal. Takai told me he'd lock up tonight so I could come home early."
Kagome furrowed her brows. "I don't understand. Why did he make such a fuss? Did he know you from somewhere?"
Inuyasha looked up from his drink at her. Did she really not know why that asshole freaked out? He didn't really take Kagome for being a naive girl, but could see her confusion as he stared into her eyes.
"Kags...he saw that I was a hanyou," he muttered, hoping he wouldn't have to elaborate anymore on the subject. She stared at him for another minute, the wheels slowly turning in her head.
"So," she started, gazing into her drink. "He walked out because he didn't want a hanyou working on his car?"
Inuyasha didn't respond to her. He didn't need to anyways. Everything suddenly clicked into place in Kagome's mind as her confusion turned into anger. She couldn't believe that someone would be so petty as to walk out of an establishment because of something so….archaic. So what if Inuyasha was a hanyou? His heritage had nothing to do with his work. He ran a respectable auto shop with fair prices and good online reviews; what more could you ask for? She was about to let her thoughts on that sorry excuse for a human fly when her mind fully processed a part of his story.
"What do you mean 'it's not a big deal'?" She rounded back at him, fire burning in her eyes.
"I mean, it's not a big deal, Kagome. It ain't like he's the first asshole to tell me how pond scum are better than me, and he sure won't be the last!"
"But that's awful! He doesn't even know you, how could he just - "
"The don't have to know me Kagome, that's the fucking point!" Inuyasha shouted, causing Kagome to flinch at the sudden loudness that permeated the air. He instantly regretted his sudden outburst, feeling himself get sick, his stomach wrapping itself in an endless knot. He didn't want to fight with Kagome - or scare her, if her reaction to his shouting told him anything. All he wanted was to forget about what happened today. "Look, I'm sorry - "
It was Inuyasha's turn to get cut off as Kagome reached out and took his hand, giving it a gentle, but firm squeeze.
"Don't apologize Yash. We don't have to talk about it anymore," she spoke quietly, her thumb caressing the top of his hand as Inuyasha let out a deep breath. "I'm sorry that this happened to you today. I've never seen youkai or hanyou as different. At least, not in the negative sense. I forget that there are still prejudiced people in the world."
Kagome brought her other hand up to hold onto his own as they sat in companionable silence. Inuyasha wasn't very good at expressing his feelings, so Kagome focused on his body language. Inuyasha's eyes were trained on their interlocked hands. He maintained a gentle grip on her hands, every now and then giving them a harder squeeze in an almost reflexive sort of way. Other than the miniscule muscle movements of his hand, Inuyasha was still as a stone.
'It's almost as if he's afraid…'
"Inuyasha," Kagome said fondly. "You know I accept you as you are, right?"
Inuyasha balked at her, finally taking his gaze off their hands. She gave him a warm smile and one last squeeze before standing to go check on the stew, leaving him with no time to answer her question. She didn't need them to have a long, drawn out conversation about it - unless he wanted to, of course. As long as Inuyasha took her words to heart, she would be content. There would be time for words later; tonight was for good food and snuggling up on the couch, holding each other until sleep came for them.
Inuyasha watched Kagome putz around the stove, stirring the stew and adding spices here and there. To hear her say those words, I accept you, was almost more than he could bear. And in that moment, Inuyasha decided he could care less about the asshole from earlier, and wasn't about to let him take up any more of his time or thoughts from his girl.
Kagome accepted him, and that's all that mattered.
