"Get outta here, squirt!" Inuyasha ruffled Towa's hair as he finally released his niece's head from the (gentle) headlock he had caught her in.

"I'm gonna get you next time, Uncle Inu!" Towa squealed, before scampering away toward the rest of the kids on the playground.

Towa loved sneaking up on her uncle, pouncing on him and trying to grab his ears. She loved watching them wiggle and pin to his head, and made it her life's work to touch them. She had succeeded only once, because Inuyasha thought that humoring her would stop the game.

He had never been so wrong.

Meeting Sesshōmaru's family was nothing like he expected it to be. He was the half-demon (black) sheep, the half-demon shame, after all. But instead of ice, walking into his brother's house was like immersing himself in a warm waterfall.

That was almost entirely due to Kagura, though. She was gregarious and smart, unrelenting in her welcome, like she had made it her life's mission to undo Inuyasha's isolation.

"Half-demons look out for one another," she had once whispered to him when Sesshōmaru had gone to pick the twins up from daycare. "And one thing we can agree on about your brother is he can be an idiot sometimes."

Towa and Setsuna had been another revelation. Inuyasha would never have believed that his brother could produce normal-acting children, but here they were, spitting images of their parents, both in appearance and in demeanor. Towa was outgoing and fun-loving like her mother, and Setsuna was subdued and cautious like her father, but they both smiled freely and accepted their Uncle Inuyasha without reservation.

Though it was only Towa who fixated on the ears.

"Buy her a cat," Inuyasha grumbled when Sesshōmaru joined him on the bench. "One swipe of claws and her attempts to grab onto furry ears will be over."

"No," Sesshōmaru argued. "She would certainly stop grabbing the cat's ears." He then turned his eyes toward Inuyasha. "But she knows that you will never take a swipe when she tries to grab yours."

Inuyasha growled, but he didn't argue, because they both knew that Sesshōmaru was right.

"Need me to watch them tomorrow?" Inuyasha asked. "Give you and Kagura a chance at a romantic weekend?"

Sesshōmaru studied his brother for a moment. True, he knew well enough that the moment that Inuyasha had stepped into his life, Kagura would ensure that he was a permanent fixture there. What Sesshōmaru hadn't anticipated was how quickly Inuyasha would take up that role and run with it. Uncle Inuyasha picked up the twins from daycare on Fridays. He brought ribs or burgers or steak on Sundays for dinners. And on every other Wednesday, he would spontaneously 'drop in' and ask who wanted to go to the playground.

To the twins, he was now "Uncle Inu," and Sesshōmaru did not miss the way a faint smile came to his brother's face every time they called him that.

Kagura had been right. Sesshōmaru should have reached out to his brother so long ago, at the very moment he realized that best did not bring happiness.

"Kagura would like that," Sesshōmaru sighed. "We could use a weekend, as long as you are sure that you do not mind. We will of course compensate you."

"Don't be stupid," Inuyasha scoffed. "Just tell Kagura to… make that special dip that she made."

"A worthy compensation," Sesshōmaru shot back, a smile forming on his face. He stood up and stared at his brother, finally making a decision to say what was on his mind. "And I will hope that you, too, find the one who makes you happy."

Before Inuyasha could process his words, Sesshōmaru waved goodbye, and he herded the twins to him, leaving Inuyasha to the bench he was sitting on.

"So…" Kagome appeared next to Inuyasha, sitting down as if she had always been there. "Have you decided yet?"

Inuyasha pinned his ears back and growled. Kagome had been getting more insistent by the day that he make a choice, that he make a wish, but… he just wasn't ready. He was content now, more content than he had been since his mother died.

Shiori texted him often, asking about his day, telling him about her day, sending him snippets of herself playing the violin (she was amazing) as well as pictures of her adopted family. Now, he and Jinenji were meeting every other Thursday to play pool and have beers.

His life was filling up with color in a way he had never experienced before.
And it was all thanks to Kagome, the god that gave him the chance to live instead of just survive.

Kagome, though, was having a harder and harder time with her subject. As the days marched on, Inuyasha's smile grew wider, and his laughter came more easily. He preened at being called Uncle Inu and shared the endless stream of twin pictures that Kagura sent him. He showed her Shiori's texts and regaled her with the funny stories that Jinenji told him.

And he never asked for his last wish.

Soon she was waking up and looking forward to seeing his smile. She was staring down at the phone she had bought to receive Inuyasha's texts, and… she was feeling the pull of the Earth ever-more strongly.

Kagome never really interacted with anyone outside of Inuyasha. She never appeared by his side when he visited Sesshōmaru and Kagura, even though she was always there. She listened to Shiori's music, and rolled her eyes at Jinenji's terrible jokes.

And even though no one could see her, Inuyasha always did. He shared a secret smile with her when Towa tried to grab his ears, or when Jinenji made it to a punchline, or when Miroku and Sango got extra snuggly at their Tuesday wings night. Inuyasha liked that Kagome was there, with him, living by his side.

It was guaranteed not to end well for Kagome.

Gods did not consort with mortals. Gods did not worry themselves with a single soul. Souls were prizes to be won, not shining lights to be cherished.

No, further association with Inuyasha was not going to end well.

But Kagome couldn't help it. Even as she tried to put distance between them, she found herself drawn to the half-demon with the golden eyes and the silver hair.

Why was that?

She didn't have to stay near him. The second that he was ready to make his wish, it would summon her to his side. The second that his mind was made up, she could be there in a flash, ready to grant the third wish and deliver his soul to the underworld.

Inuyasha was being so damn stubborn.
And Kagome didn't keep her distance to wait.

"You ask me every fucking day if I've decided yet." Inuyasha glared at the stormy gray eyes of his keeper. "What's the big deal anyway? Didn't you say that you got my soul for eternity?" He pinned his ears back. "What's a month or a year or a fucking decade to let me decide the right thing?"

Inuyasha also had a secret. One that he didn't want to say out loud because it was foolish and desperate.

He didn't want his third wish. Because wishing his third wish would take Kagome away from him. He liked seeing her sit in the background of his life, a wry smile always on her face. She was always there with him, even if he was the only one who knew it.

Kagome had brought happiness back to his life. Not just through the wishes, but also through her just being there. And maybe it was because Inuyasha never minded the idea that everything had a price, and he had sort of expected to go to hell as it was (half-demons usually did), that he chose Kagome and her wishes so quickly.

Did his refusal to make his last wish mean that he had taken advantage of Kagome's generosity?
Was she waiting for him to get on with it so she could return to Hell?
Somehow, he didn't think so; smiles like Kagome's could not be faked, especially when she tried to hide them.

No, he was certain.
Kagome liked being on Earth.
Why else would she spend so much time hanging around him?
Even after he told her for the hundredth time he had not figured out his third wish?

"Hey…" Inuyasha nudged the still irked-looking Kagome. "What is one thing that you haven't gotten to do while you've been in Seattle?"

"Are you going to wish for it?" Kagome snapped.

Inuyasha had gotten into her head. Not because he was clever, or because he was duplicitous, but because he was kind. Because he was the type of idiot who wished for things that were trivial, that eventually would have returned to him anyway. Because… he made Kagome feel like she had somewhere to belong.

She had known he was going to be trouble, from the moment that she leaned into that damn hug. Now she was listless, wanting to gain his soul and prove to herself that his last wish would nullify the good of the previous two and prove that he truly had selfish desires at the heart of him.

Yet…

When Kagome thought about it, Inuyasha's wishes were selfish. They were the wishes of a man who wanted to recover things that he had lost: a friend, and family. His wishes were pure, but they were selfish.

He lacked the shame of asking for his wishes, and instead of putting distance between himself and Kagome, he was always finding ways to close it.

Inuyasha was the only one who would think to pack an extra lunch for her, or to order one more glass of wine to give to her, or to pick her up a silly knickknack that he claimed reminded him of her.

Always small, but always thoughtful.

He truly was one of a kind.

"Keh! Even I'm not stupid enough to make a wish like that," Inuyasha scoffed, but he did not quite manage to keep the hurt out of his voice.

Because Kagome kept returning to the wish.
Because it was the only way she could distance herself from him.
Because merely being in his presence made her long for more: more lunches, more knickknacks, more wine.

Gods did not long for such things. They turned their backs on mortals and only involved themselves in affairs of the soul, in affairs of eternity. They saw their time on Earth as a necessary chore before returning to their spheres. They didn't want the mundane, the normal, the—

"A picnic." Kagome was almost embarrassed to admit it. "I've never been on… a picnic."

Kagome had spent millennia on Earth finding souls and competing with her sister. She'd scaled mountains and traveled to the farthest reaches of the world, sometimes because she was bored, and sometimes because there was work to do.

But Kagome had never laughed until her chest hurt at a poorly told joke, and she had never loafed around with ice cream and old movies, gossiping with friends, and she had never sat on a blanket, under the sunlight, enjoying a meal with another.

"Would ya look at that!" Inuyasha's smile bared his fangs. "Looks like I get to grant one of your wishes, Ka-go-me."

If Inuyasha had thought that that would make Kagome feel better, he was sorely mistaken. Mostly because he was right, and that irritated her.

When had Kagome started looking longingly at the mundane, the earthly?

When you started to look longingly at Inuyasha.
Realizing that made it all worse.
She didn't know when it happened—that damn hug—but it hardly mattered; it was there now, even if it took a while for the reality of it to set in.

(If Kagome had never met Inuyasha, this would not be happening to her.)
That was a lie, and Kagome never lied.

Inuyasha wasn't so much the great agent of change; he was more the catalyst: his ability to celebrate the life he had, not the life he wanted. And he seemed to relish in forcing Kagome to see his joy, too.

It made Kagome realize that, were she to be granted wishes, a picnic with a friend would have been on her list. And she hated that.

"Stop thinking whatever dumb thing is making you frown, and come with me." Inuyasha grabbed Kagome's hand, clearly not taking no for an answer. "We need to pick up food and a blanket."

"You're not going to ask me to snap my fingers and make it all appear?" Kagome was feeling extra prickly after giving away that she wanted a picnic.

"How is me asking you to voodoo a picnic not making a third wish?" Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Now, shush; we'll do this as if we're normal."

Kagome hated that he made her smile.

"Whatever," she huffed, but she let Inuyasha take her hand and tug her along.

Kagome didn't go to grocery stores, or squeeze avocados to determine which were ripe. She didn't stand in front of a deli counter to order an egg salad sandwich while Inuyasha added stuffed grape leaves and a chicken caesar wrap. She didn't enjoy holding someone's arm as they debated whether a wool or flannel blanket was better for sitting on, and she definitely didn't laugh when Inuyasha snarled and bought both because he couldn't decide either.

Except that she did.

Inuyasha kept shooting her those damn looks as they walked, too, telling her about the time his mother set a picnic outside in the rain for him, because the kids had uninvited him to a birthday party.

"…and there we were, soaked to the bone in that downpour but Mom refused to go in until we'd eaten our soggy desserts…"

When had his voice and his stories become so endearing?
When had his hand in hers begun to feel so natural?
When had… she realized that demanding his wish was her way of running away from her own?

"Damn, the sun really came out, huh?" Inuyasha shook the blanket out and set it onto the grass. "I wasn't expecting that."

"Fancy that," Kagome smirked; okay, the sun was a weensy bit of divine intervention, sue her.

Inuyasha handed Kagome her sandwich, and grabbed two paper cups, pouring wine from the paper bag-disguised bottle. Kagome's first picnic.

"I always loved going out on a sunny day and just… listening to the ocean." Inuyasha's gaze was out into the deep blue water. "It's a sound that you can't hear over the rain and… I just love it."

"Why not move to a place that has more sunlight?" Kagome couldn't help herself; she was interested.

"Because… Seattle is where…" Inuyasha stuttered, "where my family is—well, was."

"Is," Kagome corrected. Sesshōmaru was back in Inuyasha's life, thanks to her.

It brought her pride.
That was bad.

Kagome thought about her own family. About Kikyō, and how much she adored their moments on Earth, teasing and cajoling. It made the unclaimed souls Kagome's favorite souls, because it brought her together with her sister. And Kagome thought about Midoriko, and how much she missed seeing her mom, even though they did not see eye-to-eye.

Then Kagome thought about Inuyasha, who had lost both his mother and his father, and clung so desperately to the family that still lived on Earth that he was willing to sell his soul to the devil to see them again.

It made her sad. Because, if she were being honest with herself, if Kagome had appeared to her to ask what she wanted for her wish, it would have been the same. Family. Doing normal family things. Like having picnics.

Even if she would never be able to reclaim the family that she lost to the split between heaven and hell, Inuyasha was showing her, through his doting uncle habits toward Towa and Setsuna, that families could find their way back to each other. And his affection for Shiori taught her that families did not need to be bound by blood

"Is," Inuyasha agreed. "Yeah, damn. I have the squirts now." He began to laugh. "And even Sesshōmaru doesn't want to punch me anymore." Inuyasha's airy smile then gave way. "He and Kagura look really happy, huh?"

A haunted look appeared on Inuyasha's face.
It was a look that Kagome knew so well, one that told her that his soul was about to be hers, but the thrill of what was about to happen gave way completely to terror.

It was sitting there, with Kagome, teasing and talking and smiling, that Inuyasha finally understood. Maybe, if he asked his third wish just right, it would be okay… maybe it would give him the thing that his soul had been secretly crying for.

"I… think I know what my third wish is." His golden eyes were earnest and sad. He was breathing deeply, psyching himself up to follow his heart, to ask Kagome for one last thing. He looked into Kagome's eyes, the storms of detached amusement that he sometimes saw when he closed his own eyes, and down at the pink lips that truly were sculpted by gods, then to the hands that were always warm to the touch, then back to the lips he daydreamed would gift him with the affectionate smile he saw Kagura so often wear for Sesshōmaru. "I don't want to be alo—"

"STOP!" Kagome lunged for him, covering his mouth with her hand. "Please, don't say it."

Inuyasha stared at her, astounded, but obeyed. She had managed to cut off his words just in time.

She couldn't do it.

She couldn't let him make that wish.
I don't want to be alone was a wish that Kagome shared with Inuyasha, one that had bound them together all these months ago. One that… Kagome would not reap his soul to grant.

"Give me your hand," Kagome commanded, "and don't say a thing."

When Inuyasha did as he was asked, Kagome took one of his claws—the ring finger of his left hand—and she pierced her palm with it. Inuyasha was about to cry out but stopped himself at the look that Kagome shot him. She cupped the blood that had pooled from the puncture, then turned her hand toward the ground, toward the Earth. The second the first drop made contact, Kagome felt the change blaze through her.

"I couldn't let you make that wish," she whispered. "Not when… not when I have the same wish." She leaned into him, letting her newly acquired tears stream from her eyes. "I don't want to be alone anymore either." She swallowed. "I want to live a normal life."

Inuyasha's eyes widened as he gawked at Kagome. Something—everything—felt different about her. She was still ethereal, but the aura of otherworldliness had disappeared. Her eyes no longer contained that detached amusement, but instead shone with something different, something deeper: something human.

Inuyasha pulled Kagome into his arms and squeezed her as tight as he could. He didn't know what had happened; he simply knew that at that moment, more than anything, it was what Kagome needed.

I don't want to be alone anymore; I want to be with you. I want to be your family, and I want you to be mine.

"Kagome?!" Kikyō's loud shrill voice pulled them both away from the moment. "What did you do?!" She tore up to her sister, her eyes shooting from Kagome's embrace of the half-demon down to the ground, where the stain of Kagome's blood still lingered. "You're human!"