Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of its characters.
Chapter four: Telling the mother
Luckily for Inuyasha, the afternoon passed without issues, even if he found the boys a little too bold – maybe in Kagome's era everyone was a little bit too 'Miroku' –, and the wimp kept looking at him like he had killed his cat. "As I care," he mentally shrugged.
"It's finally over," Kagome exclaimed while she was unlocking the front door. Inuyasha sniffed the room and found that there weren't new scents, so he figured they were still alone. He grabbed her from behind and started kissing her neck. "Wait... Inuyasha..." he stopped her with a kiss on the lips.
"Shhh... I wanted to do this all day, but the noisy girls didn't leave you alone." He pulled her against his chest and started making his way under her pullover with his hands, leaving kisses all over her face. Kagome moaned and instinctively responded at his touch. He trapped her between him and the wall and caught her lips again, his tongue stroking her bottom lip seeking entrance; she eagerly complied and met his tongue. One of his hands descended to the hem of her skirt and slipped underneath, grazing the bare skin of her inner thigh and making her shiver. Kagome pushed her body more into his embrace and encouraged him; her scent spiked, telling Inuyasha that every trace of reticence was gone. Maybe they could entertain themselves for a while in some foreplay there in the hallway before he took her up to her room. His lips descended to caress the skin of her collarbone, licking her, before becoming more insistent and nibbling her teasingly as her breath became shallow.
Inuyasha was about to move her panties and touch her already wet and hot sex when he abruptly stopped and turned over. He had just heard some noises coming from outside the door, and they still were in the foyer. Confused, flushed and bothered by his actions, Kagome made to ask why when the front door opened, revealing the three missing components of the family. Inuyasha tried to put as much space as possible between them; Kagome stiffened, realizing how close they had come to being surprised by her family. She thanked every god for his canine senses and tried to be as controlled and calm as possible to not arouse suspicions.
"Oh Kagome, dear, you're home. How are you? You seem a little flushed; I hope you didn't catch a fever. Inuyasha, you're staying for dinner, right?" Kaori Higurashi said, eyeing the two.
"Inuyasha! You're here! Come, I have new games to show you," Sota exclaimed, dragging him away in his room as her sister remained alone, pinned by his mother's inquisitive gaze and his grandfather disappeared in the living room.
"Come dear," Kaori said, "why don't you help me cook dinner while you explained to me what is going on between you and that cute hanyou."
"Never mind," she thought nervously, as she followed her mother, "How on earth does she do it every time? I wish I was better at hiding what's on my mind for once."
"Mom..." she started.
"It's ok, dear. It's clear what you two were doing before we opened the door," her mother told her while laying some vegetables on the kitchen counter.
"Is it?" she didn't want to say anything more than was necessary, but first, she had to understand what her mother had seen. Her mother wouldn't be so calm and controlled if she had witnessed what she and Inuyasha were doing until a few minutes ago in the foyer.
"You were kissing, weren't you? Besides, one could have cooked eggs on your cheeks with the way they were red." Kaori turned to her daughter and offered a warm smile.
She signed with relief inwardly; her mother had no idea what had really passed between the two of them. "Is it ok with you? I mean, Inuyasha and I, together..." Kagome asked tentatively.
Kaori looked at her sternly, before smiling again. "Of course, dear, it's about time you two confessed your love for each other. Oh, you're so cute together!" She said with little heart in her eyes.
Kagome found herself at loss. Being confronted by her mother completely unaware made her feel decidedly guilty about the plan she had concocted. She knew she told Inuyasha she didn't want them to know they mated yet, but she felt ashamed after a few minutes. How could she go along with it for months? And if Inuyasha wanted to get married in the past, could she do it and not ask her mother for permission? She feared that if somehow her mother was to find it indirectly, she could damage the perfect relationship they've always had. What was she ashamed of? Would her mother judge her just because she had sex before marriage? After all, they did get married, even if it was only in demon terms. According to Inuyasha, their bond was much more important than any marriage. She could feel a large lump in her throat.
"Kagome?" no answer, "Kagome, are you feeling ok?"
"Uh?"
"Kagome, I've been calling you for some minutes now. Is everything ok?"
"Oh, mom. Wait, I just need to -" that said, she disappeared, leaving her now concerned mother behind.
In matters of minutes, she had retrieved Inuyasha from Souta's room, got in hers and locked the door.
Inuyasha looked at her quizzically while she was trying to regain her breath. "Kagome? What happened? Was your mother mad or something?" he pried.
"Inuyasha..." suddenly, she was sobbing against his chest, and he wrapped his arms around, stroking her hairs with his claws while bringing both of them on her bed.
"Shh... It's ok. You can let it out. You can tell me everything."
She kept crying for a while until she was only hiccupping. He cupped her cheeks and caught some dried tears with her thumbs. She looked at his fiery golden eyes and found herself unable to look away, "I don't want to do it again."
"Do it again, Kagome?" Did she change her mind? Was marriage not even an option anymore?
"I don't want to have secrets with my mother. She's just... She's just so understanding, and she has always supported me. She was so happy a few minutes ago when I told her that we had finally confessed our feelings to each other and she thought we were just kissing before they arrived. I can't do it. I can't hide something like that from her, and I can't marry you without her consent. I feel like I could destroy our relationship, you know?" She appeared as if she was begging him and asking him permission when he was actually glad she changed her mind.
He smiled, a genuine smile, with a fang poking the bottom lip. "Of course, koishii. I'd like to tell your mother everything, and I want to ask her permission; it's the only right way. You don't want to get married without her knowing. But what about the old geezer?"
The latter was certainly a more difficult issue. Inuyasha could well imagine that old geezer opposing such a thing. He had always been the most hostile towards him, and certainly, he did not consider his granddaughter an adult, despite all the personal growth of the past year.
"We can't tell him, both him and Souta. He could have a stroke while Souta is unable to keep a secret. We are going to tell mom after dinner when they both are already sleeping," she intertwined her hands and squeezed one of his. "I need you with me; I can't do it alone."
"I am here, you know, I'm here. I'm not saying I'm not going to fuck up again because hey, it's me we're talking about." She chuckled, and he grinned when he noticed the tears weren't falling anymore. "But I'm telling you that I'm gonna try my best to be the mate you deserve. I love you so much to jeopardize something so important," he finished.
"And you aren't going to hide from me anymore, not for something like that," she replied sternly. "I love you, you know that I'm here for you too."
"I'm not going to hide from you anymore," he obliged. Inuyasha knew he had acted foolishly in the last weeks.
She grabbed one of his silver locks and brought his face to eye level. "I meant it, dog boy."
"Of course you do, wench," he told her, bringing her on her back and concluding what he had started earlier in the foyer, his hand moving frantically all over her body and silencing every sound with steamy kisses.
"Mom? I'm sorry about earlier. I just needed to clear my mind..." Kagome explained when she entered the kitchen again. Dinner was almost ready, and she only had a few minutes before everyone started gathering around the table.
"It's ok dear, I actually noticed that something was bothering you. I trust you; when you're ready, you will tell me." She smiled, and she made her feel guiltier about the whole lying idea.
"Inuyasha and I need to talk to you about something important, but it had to be just the three of us. Please, mom, we could talk to you after dinner, when grampa and Souta are sleeping."
Kaori looked at her in a rather inquisitive way, like she believed she could already get some answers just by looking at her daughter. And who knows, maybe she could; she was a mother after all. She sighed, "Ok, Kagome, just the three of us, but then I want to know everything. This doesn't seem like just an innocent little problem of the heart anymore."
She gulped and then nodded. It was going to be a long night.
Kaori had already prepared three cups of green tea and was sipping hers unfazed, even if on the inside she was a little bit worried when Inuyasha and Kagome entered the living room hands in hands.
She waited for them to take a place at the table and approach the subject; she didn't want them to feel pressed after all.
"So..." Kagome began. "You know how we defeated Naraku a few months ago?" They'd better get it over with now and not to dilly-dally.
"Of course. But you still have some shards to find; that's why you still travelling back and forth," Kaori replied cooly.
"Yeah, well, that's not all. I mean, you know how I feel about Inuyasha," her mother smiled and encouraged her to keep talking, "but I wasn't sure about his feelings because he wasn't clear. Then, a little over a month ago, he started being grumpy again."
"I figured out myself," her mother chuckled, "you grew grumpier yourself every time you came back home too." Kagome gaped while Inuyasha sniggered.
"Well, that's when things started changing. You see, Inuyasha was..." she stopped, not really knowing how to say it. Her mother took her hand and patted it; Inuyasha squeezed her tight gently under the table.
"What Kagome is trying to say is that I started avoiding her because I was afraid to tell her I had chosen her as lifemate," he finally explained.
"Lifemate?" Kaori inquired, her eyebrow rising questioningly.
"Yeah, it's kind of marriage in demon terms, the souls merge, and if one of the partners doesn't have demon blood, the lifespan is increased. It requires both great love and certainty. No second thoughts are permitted."
"You're telling me this because you want to ask me permission? How does this soul merging function? When does it happen?" Her mother asked again, cautious because of the way Kagome had worded everything.
"Mom..." she took a big breath and looked straight into her eyes, "We already mated yesterday."
The silence grew in the room, and one could hear the snores of grampa from his room upstairs.
"So you are actually married in demon terms?" Kaori brought a hand to her forehead, "and I guess, since you avoided my last question, that this soul bounding happened when you two..." She looked at them, and they nodded contritely. "You're married," she repeated, "you're sixteen and married."
"No, we aren't actually; the mating is kind of different, more important and irreversible."
"Inuyasha," Kagome hissed, "you aren't helping here!"
"What? I don't want her to think we got married without asking her permission. About that, Mrs. Higurashi..." He waited for his mate's mother to raise her eyes and turn to him. "I wish to marry Kagome in my time with a proper ceremony. I know that from a human point of view it may appear that I simply took your daughter's innocence, but I really love her. If I hadn't good intentions, my soul wouldn't have called for her for the bonding. But I'm also half-human, and since we're going to settle in a human village, I wanted to make her right and give her the life she deserved. I'm going to build us a hut and provide for her, keep protecting her as I've always had, and when the time comes, I'll provide for our children too." He rose from his seat and bowed formally to his mother-in-law.
"Oh, Inuyasha," she cried, "you don't have to explain to me. I know how you feel; I've always known," she got up as well and moved closer. She cupped his cheeks and kissed him on the temple. "I know you're the right man for my daughter; I'm a little bit overwhelmed. It happened so fast, and Kagome is still partly a child in my eyes, despite everything that has happened to her in the last year and the personal growth she has gone through. The last time she came home, she was upset because you two had another fight, and now you ask me for her hand," she sat down again, sighing loudly. "You do realize that in this era, Kagome is still too young to be married, don't you?" he nodded. "If I give you permission to marry her in the past – I can't even believe I'm uttering these words – no one can know, and you will have to use protection when in the bedroom. I know how it's like to be young, and I also know that if I tell you not to have sexual intercourse, you'll eventually lie to me," she explained when their cheeks grew redder. "And you'll still have to finish school before leaving this time for good." She caught her daughter's gaze to make sure she understood; Kagome nodded and made a sign to Inuyasha that she would explain that later. "I can't believe I'm giving my sixteen-year-old daughter permission to marry her half-demon boyfriend. I must have gone crazy," she looked at them firmly and added, "No talking about all of this with your grampa or brother. I don't wanna him to have a stroke."
Kagome reached for her mother and hugged her tightly. "Oh my God, this is happening. Oh mom, thank you, thank you, thank you!" she released her and was about to kiss Inuyasha passionately when her mother cleared her throat.
"Oh, I forgot. No funny business with your brother in the house. I don't want you to scare him; he's still too young."
A/N: So this is it, I've always seen Mrs. Higurashi as a very understanding woman, sometimes too much. So in my mind, this scenario is not so inconceivable. And I can't imagine Kagome like the type of girl who keeps something from her mother, so I had to make her tell the mother.