Chapter 17: Perfect

"The world's not perfect, but it's not that bad
If we got each other, and that's all we have
I will be your lover, and I'll hold your hand
You should know I'll be there for you
When the world's not perfect
When the world's not kind
If we have each other then we'll both be fine
I will be your lover, and I'll hold your hand
You should know I'll be there for you."

"If We Have Each Other" by Alec Benjamin

Kagome had been so incredibly excited to board the jet, just one day ahead of her birthday. There was a promise of a sweet vacation with Inuyasha, his undivided attention guaranteed. She hadn't worried about the odd hour, focusing instead on taking the sleep aid she'd packed and making herself as comfortable as she could be on the bed the staff put together for her and falling asleep. Inuyasha had arranged for her to arrive in Berlin when it was early morning, where the jet would refuel before dropping the both of them off in Paris.

She'd carefully planned for herself to sleep for the majority of the flight to fix her internal clock preemptively, and hopefully escape some of the jetlag she'd weathered through the last time she'd traveled there. By the time her pill would wear off and she was awake, she'd be well rested and able to leisurely get ready in the tiny bathroom. So, comfortably swathed in the cotton sheets and down comforter, ear plugs in, eye mask on and sleeping pill taking affect, Kagome had assumed she'd wake on her own in a few hours.

She was wrong.

It was the harsh jostling of her shoulder that ripped her from the deep sleep she'd drifted into, panic causing her to rip up her eye mask through the groggy heaviness of the sleep aid on her senses. One of the staff was looking at her, seeming to repeat the same thing over and over again with no sound meeting Kagome's ears. Blearily, she blinked up at the young woman, trying to figure out what she was saying to her, only for the blonde to get frustrated before leaning over and pulling the cord of Kagome's ear plugs.

It was a like a vacuum seal had been broken, air and sound rushing into Kagome's ears in a way that was both disarming and overwhelming in her current drowsy state, causing her to blink rapidly in response.

"Miss," the flight staff began, "we're having to make an emergency stop in Beijing. There's been a malfunction with the navigating system, and with the storms, it's just not safe to fly blind. We won't be able to get in touch with Mr. Takeshi until we land, though the pilot did radio to our dispatch to try to expedite the process. We'll arrange for you to have a commercial flight form Beijing to Berlin, but it may take some time…"

Kagome tuned her out from that moment on, trying to wrap her head around what was happening. Here she was, supposedly on her way to a romantic week in Paris for her birthday, suddenly scared and still thoroughly under the effects of whatever her mother had recommended she take.

The landing, in all honestly, was awful.

The entirety of the aircraft was shaking from unexpected turbulence, the landing gear screeched as it descended, and with the speed the pilot was flying Kagome was almost slammed into the two seats ahead of her own, her seatbelt being the only thing that caught her. Kagome wasn't shocked to see her wide-eyed expression reflecting at her from the window, panic bubbling up in her stomach. She'd flown this exact jet last time and there hadn't been any issues, in all honestly it made commercial flights look like a school bus in comparison. But now, she was almost dry heaving from the way her stomach was cramping after the inertia of landing, and Kagome wanted to get the hell off the jet and on solid ground.

But it only got worse from there.

She was flanked on both sides by staff from the private jet line, one of them hurriedly conversing in full mandarin with an airport liaison to arrange a flight for her, the other worriedly trying to get in touch with a superior. Her head was so groggy, it was hard to keep it up even in the harsh lights of the airport. God, she just wanted sleep. She watched as the blonde on the phone walked away suddenly, her face red as she spoke hurriedly in Japanese, profuse apologies lingering in the air as she moved out of Kagome's hearing range.

"Miss," the one who'd been speaking in mandarin addressed her in Japanese. "I'm afraid all the departing flights for the next several days are booked or have been grounded for repairs. The earliest we can get you to Berlin will be Saturday with the connecting flights. We could get you to Paris by Friday, if you'd rather go that route."

It was only Tuesday. Tuesday. Kagome realized, all at once, that she was alone, in Beijing, and unless Inuyasha could sweep in and magically fix everything, which was a stretch even for him, she'd be spending her birthday here too. Alone, in a hotel room, with take out and HBO her only companions. There would be dessert, no stupid hats, no embarrassing serenade by all of her loved ones.

An image of her mother singing to her over a birthday cake crossed her mind then, and a pang hit Kagome harder than she'd thought it would.

She'd never spent a birthday away from her family, away from the shrine. This year, she'd blindly followed Inuyasha's plan because she loved him. He was the other half of her universe, their own world seemingly more visceral than the one they worked in every day. But, with a drug induced exhaustion and absolutely no desire to stay in China longer than necessary, Kagome made a split decision.

Things like this didn't happen for no reason at all, she surmised.

"What about Tokyo? Do you have a way to get me there?" The man blinked at her dumbly for a moment before turning back to the airport rep, bantering back and forth for a moment before he smiled genuinely and nodded before turning back to her.

"There's a flight leaving around 8 pm, if you're agreeable we'll secure you a hotel room in the meantime to rest in." Kagome glanced at the large clock on the wall, surprised to see it was only 2 am. 18 hours was a long time to wait, but it was her best option.

"Alright. I'm in your care," she bowed politely to the man before impolitely tuning him out and moving to sit on a nearby bench. Unsurprisingly, just as she sat down, the phone in her hoodie pocket started going off, and she knew just who it was.

"Yash, hey," she breathed a sigh of relief into the phone. They'd been on the ground for a little over an hour now, with no response from him at all.

"Kagome, I am so sorry, I left my charger at work and only just found my spare at the house. What's going on? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, a little hung over from the melatonin, but fine. There was a malfunction with the navigation system, and we had to land because they were worried it was too unsafe to travel." Kagome felt like she was repeating a script, having heard the same words over and over from the staff as they conversed with various people. "They've been trying to find me a flight to either Berlin or Paris, but the earliest I'd get to either is Friday."

"What about the train? There should be one leaving Beijing tomorrow for Moscow, and then you could take one from Moscow to here. Or I could take the one from here to Moscow and meet you, if you'd prefer."

"Yash…I think I'm going back to Japan."

"…ah, okay." There were no emotions to the words, just an acknowledgement that she'd said something.

"There's a flight leaving tomorrow night and I just…I'd be home and safe and able to rest in a familiar bed…" She was making excuses, and the loaded sigh across the phone alerted her that he was aware.

"My bed's familiar, Kagome." She flinched. There was a resignation in his tone, like he'd already accepted that no matter what he said, she was bailing on their trip.

"I just really…if you were here, with me, it'd be different. But I'm alone, in China, and looking at either celebrating my birthday on a train or by myself in a hotel. I can be home by midnight tomorrow night, I can celebrate my birthday with family the next day, and we'll just…we'll celebrate later. When you're home."

"Kagome…" She heard his muffled exhale that signified he was probably running his hand over his face in exasperation. "I love you, so much." There as a 'but.' He didn't say it, but Kagome could hear it in his words.

"I love you, too." Kagome said it with such an assurance, trying in vain to get him to forget whatever 'but' he was about tack on.

"This isn't working."

"What?" Kagome heard her voice softly echo off of the walls and saw the jet staff look her way for just a second. She blushed deeply and turned away, carefully lowering her voice as she tried to put her thoughts to words. "Are you…are you calling this?"

"Kami, woman." Kagome heard the sound the him hitting something hard followed by a curse under his breath. "I am tired, Kagome. I am old, and I am tired. I am tired of spending every fucking day wishing you were here and hoping you'll move out here in vain. This long distance isn't working, and I'm damn tired of it."

"I know." And she did. She'd known he'd been close to reaching the end of his rope for a while, and he'd not bothered being subtle in his pursuit of getting her to move into the house in Berlin. The truth was, there was nothing holding her back.

Nothing but her own fear.

Her job and her school were both online, which already allowed her an abundance of free time in Kyoto. She wasn't overly fond of her apartment, realizing that the drawback of such an affordable unit was the not very impressive air conditioning she had to endure as the days grew warmer. Inuyasha had already sent her images of several of the empty units in his building, hedging that if his things were in her apartment, and if she was as uncomfortable as she let on, it might be a better idea to move back to that complex and not have to deal with rent. But, even as she toured the units with the familiar concierge and debated heavily on taking one, there was a bit of hesitation. She was only 23, for kami's sake. Shouldn't she be traveling the world and being irresponsible with her friends? Instead, Kagome was rushing head first into settling down with someone after just a few months of actually having a relationship, even if the entirety of it was long distance.

But, damn, did she love him. More than enough to justify saying "fuck it," and doing whatever it took to be with him.

"Damnit…" She heard the fuzzy exhale of his sigh against her ear at his words. "You want to go back to Japan?"

"Yes." She said it in a small voice, not missing the heavy disappointment in his question. Kagome didn't want to hurt Inuyasha, not in the least. But she was tired, and there was something depressing about being completely alone on her 24th birthday. Being in a fight with Inuyasha, which is what this exchange felt like, was worth it in the moment.

"Okay. Just…just send me your hotel and flight information?"

Their conversation ended abruptly after that, Kagome saying a stilted 'I love you,' and Inuyasha replying that he needed to go, and three tones from the phone indicated that he'd hung up before she could say anything else. Stuffing her phone down into her carryon, Kagome stood and rejoined the staff at the counter, pretending the call hadn't happened.

It was easy, for her, to ignore the larger problems and focus on getting home. Even after she'd settled into her hotel room, taking a short nap before waking early enough to call her mother with the change in plans, she focused solely on her next steps. Fly to Tokyo, meet mom, Souta, and Kyo at the airport, get to the shrine in time for a very late dinner, sleep in her childhood bedroom (largely unchanged and empty since the children had returned to their father's for the duration of the school year), spend the next few days visiting with regulars of the shrine, drinking tea on the back porch of her childhood home with her mother.

Trick herself into thinking that Inuyasha didn't sound done when they'd talked. Forget that he sent her a "we need to talk when I get home," text. Ignore that part of her that was terrified that she'd made the wrong decision, that she'd been making the wrong decisions for a while. Overlook that somewhere, somehow, her heart had decided to give everything to him when her mind was still hopelessly fearful of what that would look like.

Pretend that her heart hadn't already been calling him home this entire time.

Inuyasha let his head hit the desk of his home office.

It wasn't supposed to end like this.

It being the trip, of course.

He was supposed to sweep her off to the French Riviera for the next week and a half, have too much wine, maybe skinny dip and somehow convince her to stay with him for the rest of the month before they would both return to Japan together for the summer. It wasn't supposed to an hour-long jet ride with a malfunction and Kagome hungover from some sleeping aid making a decision based on her exhaustion. It certainly wasn't supposed to include him allowing his temper to get the best of himself in a conversation with her.

A 'ping' from his laptop caused him to look up, unsurprised to see an email from Kagome with the information attached that he requested.

"You know," it was Tensho's voice from the door way that caused him to almost jump of his skin, "that was probably the worst way to handle this."

Inuyasha had almost forgotten that Tensho had asked to stay with him for a few days after having visited Tenzin in France. He and Kari, who was fast asleep in the guest room upstairs, had been in his house when he'd gotten home late from work. It was his nephew that the jet line had finally gotten in touch with, on Sesshomaru's suggestion after the patriarch had been reached in pursuit of Inuyasha. The older male had remembered that his son would be staying in Berlin for a few days, miraculously, and while Inuyasha had worked on powering up his phone to reach Kagome, Tensho had been on the line with the jet rep accompanying the young woman in the airport.

"Shut it," was all Inuyasha could manage before putting his head back down on the desk, allowing his arms to come up and act as pillows.

"You're an idiot. That is your mate, uncle, and you're just…not trying. At all. Young or not, women want to be wanted." Inuyasha was tired of Tensho pushing this topic with him, and he closed his eyes against the exhaustion before answering him neutrally.

"It's too early for that declaration, son." And it was. Things were still very new, in the scheme of things, the two of them colliding together in a burst of emotions that were both indiscernible and uncontrollable.

"It is not. You've known her for almost a year now, haven't you? That's long enough to formulate an idea on the topic. Besides, how many years of my life did you refer to her in conversation as your mate?" Inuyasha flinched at the truth. He had done that, hadn't he?

"I don't…" Inuyasha paused, righting himself to sit back in his desk chair and addressing his nephew. "I don't get a say in this."

"Uncle, you're the one who decides that." Tensho gave him the most incredulous look, like he'd grown another head. "Who else would get a say?"

"Kagome needs to be ready. It's too much, too soon. Being agreeable to the idea is one thing, wanting it is another." Inuyasha knew he was fibbing a bit, remembering how Kagome's scent held no deception when she'd said what she wanted. "It's only been a few months, son."

"I'm sure, if you were upfront with her, it would expedite things. Let her know you want her, old man."

"She doesn't….she hasn't…." Inuyasha struggled for the right words, frustratingly rubbing at his eyes while he put the sentence together. "Look," he said finally, pointing at Tensho who was now seated on the sofa in the room, "me wanting her is not the issue, me making her feel wanted is not the issue. I stop at nothing for that woman."

"You could have sold your branch of the company instead of moving here again."

"And not have an income? That's ridiculous."

"You have other ventures, do you not?" He did. There was the apartment building, a string of hotels in Paris, a few smaller companies in the Kyoto area that he owned and paid other people to operate. "You could have sold it and started a new company, or hell, use that sword and make as many diamonds from your adamant barrage as it would take to secure you this life indefinitely. But you chose to move here."

"Yes. Because it's easy to do something when you need not sacrifice. Kagome could easily move here, she has nothing forcing her to stay in Japan, but she is not ready. Pursuing her any harder will not fix it."

"Perhaps. Or perhaps, to argue on her behalf, she doesn't feel comfortable accepting such financial support from someone who she isn't sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she's going to be with long term. You haven't given her any reason to think you've made your decision, have you?"

"Look, son," Inuyasha had had enough of the conversation, and was aiming to put a stop to it. "We had this conversation when you were pursuing your mate. Humans are not like us. They need time to reach the same conclusions we can make in an instant, and even then, it requires a leap of faith. She's so young, Tensho. I can't expect that of her yet."

"What conclusions have you reached, uncle?" Inuyasha knew Tensho was fishing for an answer, but he would not give in, focusing instead on his game plan.

"I'll tell her when she's ready to hear it." Inuyasha spun his chair around to face the large windows behind his desk, starting out into the darkness.

"Allow me to be more direct." Inuyasha spun his chair around and sent a piercing glare at his nephew when he said that. "Is Kagome your mate?"

Inuyasha sat in silence for a moment, having expected the question. He had reached a conclusion some time ago. It wasn't some life altering moment where he looked at her at saw her in a shining halo of light, where rainbows flowered around her like they would off a prism. He'd been washing the dishes, alone, having just returned to his house after dropping Kagome at the airport thinking over their week together, and then it just clicked. He just…knew.

It wasn't a shock to his system to accept it, it wasn't like he had to force his demon out to tell him the answer. He'd been remembering the way she'd admitted, with heavy trepidation, that she wanted to be his mate, the sadness that had accosted his nose when she'd feared he thought she wasn't, and all he could think, all he could articulate was how lucky he was to be so wanted by his own mate. Before he could even acknowledge his misstep, mentally, his demon had purred a loving 'mate' back at his thought process. It had been all he needed, the weight of the choice lifting off of his shoulders like a much too heavy coat. And he'd just…known.

"Who else, Tensho?" Inuyasha sighed, crossing his hands under his chin as he assessed his nephew.

"Tell her." With that Tensho stood from his seat and made to leave the room before pausing in the door. "I've arranged for you to travel with us to Kyoto in the morning, we leave in a few hours and will arrive mid-morning. That should give you enough time to formulate a way to tell her and still drive to Tokyo, yes?"

"Stupid fucking meddling nephews," Inuyasha muttered under his breath, already standing to pack the few things he'd need that he didn't keep in the apartment in Kyoto.

"You're welcome." Tensho said it sarcastically before treading up the stairs to where Kari was resting.

Perhaps his nephew was right. Maybe the best thing he could do was tell her the full truth and let her decide what she wanted to do from here. He was too old to play games anymore, cared much too much to be anything less than sincere with her. He needed to tell her, Tensho was right.

With a quick text letting her know he wanted to talk to her once he was home, Inuyasha set about getting his things packed, contacting the hotel to cancel his reservation, alerting the restaurants that he would no longer be coming.

It was time.

Kagome was standing under the goshinboku, admiring the way the light played through the branches. Despite being swathed in a very oversized cardigan she'd found in the back of her closet, a relic of her father's she'd forgotten she'd stashed there, she still felt naked. It was as if being home was revealing all the truths her heart had been trying to get across for months.

Her flight was upgraded as soon as she'd emailed the jet staff to check on its status, and she was home earlier than expected. It suited everyone much better, her family having left for Tokyo as soon as she'd called that morning. They'd had a nice lunch out, with a cake and an embarrassing video of the entire restaurant singing her happy birthday. Now, she'd elected to hang back at the shrine while everyone else went to go check out cultural day at the school Aunt Hana's oldest would be at next term. She'd been tired, she'd explained, and the noise wouldn't help her headache from the sleeping pill she'd taken the night before.

It was a front, really, for wanting to take comfort in the familiarity of the shrine. She'd been down for a while, and the conversation with Inuyasha had been replaying in her mind endlessly since she'd boarded the commercial plane that morning. She had made the wrong choice, but she'd been so exhausted she'd made the only one she wanted, which was to go home. She should have agreed to take the train to Moscow and meet him there, should have made it known that she was willing to sacrifice for him. He'd sounded so…finished, so tired of this fight.

She was tired, too, if she were being honest. It was exhausting being so far away from him all the time. It's why she was so angry with herself. For months now, Kagome had been in a perpetual state of "down in the dumps," a feeling only relieved when one of them would travel to see the other. She knew she should have moved to be with him, she was well aware of that, and yet she still held out. It may have been the right thing for their relationship, for their happiness, but it wasn't the right thing for her self-worth. No matter what, she would not move to be with him unless she knew for sure that she would be his mate. She had to protect her heart.

Kagome had once heard that the problem with men and women is that women just expect men to know what they're thinking and wanting, when the man will easily do whatever it is the woman wants if he's told. How could she just expect him to make a choice when she hadn't voiced that it was why she was holding back?

Looking at the goshinboku didn't help. All it did was remind her of what she'd lost before, of all the pain she'd carried for so long in losing Inuyasha. It felt…like she was coming full circle, and it made her feel so dejected. Her emotions were all over the place, and she was still just so exhausted, but the depth of the sadness that hit her overwhelmed everything else she was feeling.

Sighing, Kagome wrapped her arms tighter around herself before closing her eyes to burning sting that typically proceeded her tears.

Sometimes, to distract herself in moments like this, Kagome would allow her thoughts to wander down a dark path. The path where she'd jumped into that well, where Inuyasha had immediately taken her as his mate, where they were bound just like Rin and Sesshomaru and she lived 500 years of history by his side. To be fair, there were infinite possibilities, and most of her daydreams were spurred by well shot love scenes in movies and television shows.

Taking off his armor after a long battle that was well fought and righteously won, washing the blood of others off of his skin before he would sweep her into his arms and onto his lap with an intent spurred by the desire to forget brutality of his actions throughout that day. Bathing in the hot springs deep under a snow-covered mountain together, the sounds of their love making reverberating against the walls. All too pressing haste as he rid her of the many layers of a silk kimono that depicted her status as such an important man's wife, the jingling of her hair ornaments as he roughly devoured her in a barely discrete location. A sharp rip of his nails through a thick dress and impossibly tight corset, the snap of her hoop skirt as he broke it in impatience. The way an undershirt from the same period would billow around his body like he was a pirate, the wild ferocity in his eyes echoing her own reckless abandon. Their adventures and escapades filtered through her mind like steady flowing water.

But, in that moment, she thought of the now. The way he'd roll over and pull her to him when he woke up, how he'd nuzzle into her neck from behind while she was cooking, the way he'd kiss her at least five times before heading out the door for a meeting when she was in Berlin, each one lingering a little longer until he finally had to pull away or be late.

Sure, it would have been hot to experience the other life, but she would miss the funny way her stomach flip flopped when he walked through her door for the first time in weeks, or how cute he was while doing a very terrible impression of a character on a tv show they were watching. Kagome didn't want to give that up.

The thought of losing him again renewed the onslaught of tears that had been threatening her already that afternoon, and she brought a sleeve covered hand up to press against her eyes preemptively.

Arms wrapped around her shoulders from behind, then, and she stiffened until she recognized the watch that obscured her vision as her hand was pulled from her face.

Inuyasha. It was as if her whole body sighed in relief at his presence, and that emotional shift was what inevitably pushed the tears over the edge of her eyelashes, which were quickly caught by warm fingers.

"Why are you crying on your birthday, baby?" A warm kiss was pressed to her right cheek and then her left, and she closed her eyes against the feeling. "Who do I need to hunt down?" Kagome sighed, wrapping her hands around his forearms and leaning into his touch, unsurprised when his face found purchase in the crook of her neck, his lips pressing a melting kiss right where her neck and shoulder joined. It must have killed his neck to lean down so much, Kagome mused, but still he kept his lips just behind her ear as she leaned her face against his bicep.

"No one," she said softly, turning her head to press a kiss to his arm. "My mind's just a mess right now." Leaning up and dropping a kiss to his cheek, Kagome decided to address the issue at hand. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see you." He said it simply, tightening his arms around her. "That's reason enough to be here, isn't it?" Kagome 'hmmed,' before opening her eyes and turning her attention back to the tree of ages. "What's on your mind?"

Kagome allowed herself to mull over the question for a few moments, content with the feel of the familiar body surrounding her and the equally familiar brush of the breeze from the goshiboku against her face. How did she best put it into words? She was sad, first. A little embarrassed that she had pushed him away unthinkingly, slighted him by implying that she wanted to be in Japan more than she wanted to be with him. Mostly, she was crushed. Crushed that it was looking more and more like the wasn't going to be spending the rest of her life next to him.

"I'm not…this is as far as we go, isn't it?" Kagome felt him exhale against her neck, but she didn't wait for him to respond. "You would have figured it out by now, right? With all the time we spent together, with how close we are… you'd know by now."

"Kagome," there was a warning in his tone, but she cut him off before he could go any further.

"That's what you wanted to tell me right? I'm not it. I'm not your mate, and we have to end this and now I have to move to another country-"

"Kami, woman, would you stop?" Inuyasha had clamped a hand over her mouth. "I didn't come here to tell you that." He used the hand that had been covering her mouth to grab her left hand then, pulling it above her head where she couldn't see and fiddling with something. She felt something foreign brush against her hand before a somewhat familiar slide of cool metal along her ring finger, familiar enough that her heart started pounding as soon as she realized where she knew it from. "I came here to tell you the opposite. Look."

And she did, once he lowered their hands back to where she could see, both surprised and unsurprised to find a ring gleaming back up at her. Surprised, because she had spent the majority of the day convincing herself that he was going to let her down easy the next time she saw him. Unsurprised because even if had been a long time since she'd last worn one, she knew what the weight of a hefty engagement ring felt like on her finger from the second he slid it on. She couldn't even process it, merely staring at the piece of jewelry slack jawed, her heart doing its best to pound its way out of her chest as the implications settled in on her mind. His fingers reached around to trace where it was resting on her skin, but she didn't have the strength to do more than watch, her body numb to his touch.

"I should have asked first, but I wanted to see it on you once, just in case," he piped in suddenly. "I've had it for a while, and I think today is as good as any to give it to you. Don't worry," he pressed a kiss to her temple, "I provided the materials myself. No Ethiopian children died for this."

"Daichi told you that?" She mumbled it distractedly, completely enraptured by the way the stone caught light as her knuckles shifted minutely. Stunning, she thought, admiring the way little rainbows shot off the ring all around her. She'd never seen such a mesmerizing piece of jewelry in her life.

"He did." Inuyasha tangled his fingers with her own then, pulling them back to her chest and the ring out of her line of sight. He pressed his nose to her hair, inhaling in a way that always stilled her heart, and she closed her eyes in an attempt to reign herself in, still unable to draw in a full breath. "You are the one meant to be my mate, Kagome," he whispered it into her hair with an intensity that sent her heart right into her throat, "and when you are ready, when you feel the time is right, I will make that happen. But until you're ready, this," he squeezed her left hand then, "is in your care. I am all in. It's your choice when we go further."

"This is a big birthday gift," Kagome mumbled against where his forearms were crossing across her upper chest, still stunned form the direction her day had gone.

"It isn't a birthday gift. It's been…nine years, right? Since you feel down the well, eight since we were last together, for you at least." Kagome had never told him that her birthday had been the day she'd fallen down the well, and she turned around to make eye contact with him.

"How did you know that?" Looking at him was a mistake, because the sincerity in his expression was making her knees feel weak. This wasn't at all what it was like when Hiro proposed, she thought. She hadn't been overcome with this shaky sort of excitement, hadn't felt her body affected like this. She'd merely taken the ring and said and excited "yes," afraid to say anything else while surrounded by a crowd of people they'd called their friends.

This was different. This was private, not some big scene where she had any sort of pressure, quiet and serene more than boastful and overly excited. It was…special. It felt special. It just made sense for it to be this way, here, where things had begun so long ago. Inuyasha was in a league of his own, and nothing and no one would ever, ever compare to him.

It made her breathe a little easier to think that. It was Inuyasha, after all. What was there to be worried about?

"I made sure to know when you left." He said it simply, pulling her arms up around his neck. "Happy anniversary, sweetheart."

"Kami," Kagome breathed, thoroughly overwhelmed. "But an engagement ring?"

"Accepting me as your mate means becoming my wife," Inuyasha explained easily. "I will not settle for less than all of you. This is my formal proposal." With those words, Kagome watched as he slanted his eyes over towards the stairs before tightening his grip on her. "Hold on," he warned a split second before he crouched minutely and propelled himself, and her with him, up.

The feeling of her stomach dropping to her feet overtook her then, and she immediately clutched onto Inuyasha's shoulders and she squeezed her eyes against the force of his leap from the ground. It was only a split second before their feet touched down on a wide tree branch, and Inuyasha pulled away from her to almost tightrope his way back to the trunk of the tree, one hand clutching hers to carry her along.

"Sorry," he apologized as he arranged them more comfortably, his back against the trunk and her back against him, "people are coming, and I'm not ready to share your attention yet."

"S'okay," she muttered, eyes trained back on the sparkling ring on her finger. Little fractures of light were beaming off of it onto the branches above and next to them, rotating like a kaleidoscope and she moved her finger. It was beautiful, but that wasn't why she was staring. It stood for something, it wasn't just a shiny adornment on her body, it represented all the care and love the man behind her held for her. The stone was made from the adamant barrage, per his words, and the more she inspected it, the more she recognized his distinct aura coming from the metal of the band. His fang, she realized then. This wasn't some ring bought after thirty minutes of wandering through a jewelry store. It cost him nothing, she assumed, aside from labor, and was probably the most sentimental piece of jewelry she'd ever been gifted.

"You don't have to keep that on," Inuyasha warned, his left hand reaching out to brush against where the ring sat on her finger. "I know you aren't ready for this yet."

"What if…what if I don't want to take it off?" Kagome angled her head to where she could catch a glimpse of his face, watching as he himself admired the ring.

"You don't have to," he admitted immediately, "you'll just have to tell me when you're ready, then."

"Alright," she agreed softly, leaning back into his warmth and allowing a meditative quiet to fall over them.

Inuyasha was still inspecting the rock on her finger, and she was content to watch him run his fingers over it, carefully testing each stone on the band with the tips of his digits for something. It was an emerald cut diamond, she observed, large and rectangular but beautiful. It was surrounded by lots of little stones, a halo she remembered, with more covering the entire band. The same scroll work that sat on her cuff was what made up the setting, and she caught tiny kanji with Inuyasha's name there, something that sent warmth through her. It probably held the same properties of her cuff, she decided, which is why his name was there, but there was something sweet about seeing his name stamped on the finished product. It was like a blazing 'I made this for you,' to remind her of the gesture each time she saw it.

"My dad proposed to my mom here, you know." She blurted it out, having just remembered that fact, not quite sure why it was slipping off of her tongue in the moment.

"Your father grew up here, right?" Inuyasha pressed a kiss to her temple. "I'm sure it was special to him, same for us."

"Maybe," Kagome conceded, allowing them to fall back into a comfortable silence as a group of people walked under the goshinboku. Kagome recognized them, a group of boys from Souta's old kendo team. They bypassed the tree completely, heading back behind the sheds where they used to all practice together. Souta would be here soon, she decided, if their appearance was any indication. She watched as they disappeared completely, the telltale sounds of them warming up echoing across the relatively empty shrine.

"Would you still like to go on a trip this week?" Inuyasha interjected into the quiet. "It'd be less planned than the other one was, but there's a resort I think you'd like-"

"Why do you think I'm not ready?" Kagome had cut him off completely, but the question had been burning on her mind too loudly to care. She carefully turned herself around, bringing her legs up and sitting criss-crossed.

"You're young, Kagome." He was studying her, his eyes not leaving her face.

"My parents were two years younger," she argued, "and Sango and Miroku were still teenagers."

"That was a different time, you can't expec-"

"We met in a different time, Inuyasha." Her words silenced him and his eyes indicated for her to continue. "I would have married you at 15 after just months of knowing you, why is it that now I'm too young, or now I'm not ready?"

"We were different people then," he hedged. "And you've been very clear on your thoughts of marriage."

"Yeah, but that was when marriage to you wasn't an option!" Kagome huffed before looking down at their clasped hands. "Are we really all that different now?" Inuyasha was quiet for a moment, and the burning heat of his gaze on her drew her own line of slight up back to him. He was intently analyzing her, his eyes roving over her entire face before settling on her own.

"Why do your thoughts on marriage change when I'm the one you're marrying?"

"Because it's you!" Kagome threw her hands up in exasperation.

"I need more than that, Kagome."

"You're the one asking me to marry you, why am I the one making the argument for it?"

"My entire being recognizes you as my mate and my match. That's the most sound argument anyone could make." Kagome sighed at his words, planting her face in her hands. "I want to hear your reasons, Kagome. Why do things change when they involve me?"

"Because it's you." Inuyasha huffed, and Kagome preemptively held up a hand to stop him from interjecting. "No, hear me out." She waited until he nodded, the man seeming pacified for the moment. "I feel differently because of you, because of how I feel about you. I have always wanted this, always. Even after…" Kagome hesitated in saying Hiro's name, but felt it was necessary. "Even after Hiro, I still wanted this. I thought I didn't, and I was wrong, because I've never felt more sure of anything in my life. I am in love you with, and I want to be with you for as long as I can. What if it's been a few months? What if I'm young? That's all the more time I get to spend with you."

"How do you know you're ready?" His arms were crossed over his chest, his expression questioning, testing.

"I was ready the minute I closed the well, Yash. I've been ready." Kagome watched as he sighed across from her, his head leaning back to clunk against the tree of ages.

"If I said I wanted to go sign papers tomorrow, would you?" He pulled his head back upright, gold eyes burning into her own as he asked the question.

"Absolutely." He quirked an eyebrow up at her quick response. "What? I don't want a wedding."

"We'll have a wedding, Kagome, there's no escaping that. Not with this family." Kagome flinched, remembering the array of wedding catalogues on Rin's coffee table. "Marry me tomorrow. Let's sign the papers, go on a trip, tell everyone we're engaged after and plan the stupid wedding for next Spring. The family will be none the wiser." He gripped her hands again, using them to pull her body closer to him. "If you say you're ready, then those are my terms."

"Fine," she said without hesitation, locking her arms around his neck. "I'm not backing down from this."

"We're moving to an apartment in my building." He said it with a bit of bite, and Kagome hid a smile on his collar. "And we're getting rid of those damned yellow plates."

"Deal," she agreed. "But only if you move all of your stuff from Rin and Sesshomaru's."

"You're still changing your name," he warned, but there was a smile in his voice. "I'm not waiting a year for that."

"Sure," she conceded, "but you get to explain it to anyone who figures it out."

"I'll do that," he promised, pulling her impossibly closer to him. "We're getting married tomorrow."

"Yes, we are." With that, Kagome allowed herself to give in to the overwhelming exhaustion that was plaguing her, eyes drifting shut as Inuyasha's contented growls lulled her to sleep.

Inuyasha peered out over the lake from their balcony, watching the ball of fire slowly rise on the horizon. It was an odd sort of contentment that had befallen him from the moment he'd awoken in the early hours of the morning, one that he'd never felt before. He'd always felt pressed to do something, but for the first time, he found that the only thing he had to do was drink coffee.

So, this is what it felt like to be a man who had everything, he surmised.

They'd actually done it, him and Kagome. They'd actually gotten married.

He'd settled her in the room that used to be hers when he'd scented her brother coming up the shrine stairs, reminding her to be discreet with the ring until they were back from their trip, to which she simply handed it back over to him in response. Over text, they'd arranged a time for the next day, and when 9 am came, he was at the base of the shrine stairs to pick her up. An hour later, the papers were signed and stashed away in his briefcase as they made their way to this little mountain resort a friend owned.

It had all been so easy.

The metallic clink of his ring on the coffee cup make him smile. It was cheap, a stand in until one was made that would have the same properties of his glamour, but it felt nice to wear it. It would suffice, and the real one would detract unwanted assumptions away from them. He'd already thought up his argument, he was tired of cuffs, in anyone asked, and wanted something to wear that marked him as being taken, just like Kagome.

He'd already given her the two thin bands designed to go with her ring, one to go on either side of her engagement ring. He'd add another for arguments sake when they had the ceremony for the family, but he wanted them on her just as bad as he wanted to wear his own.

Maybe it was a very good thing that he was able to stay in Berlin as long as he wanted. Kyoto was easy to manage long distance, and he'd always have a place there, but hiding this would be harder than he thought. Besides, as much privacy as he could get was welcomed. Turning, the rising sun at his back, he inspected his bride.

He never thought he would live to see this. She was facing him, the thin sheet barely obscuring her form from view and her ring gleaming as light filled their private little cabin. Her hair was disheveled around her, something he'd grown accustomed to, her mouth parted as she took quiet breaths in and out. She was perfection, her scent wrapping around him pure bliss. The ring on her finger would never hide her true scent from his nose, would never hide the blazing mark on her neck from his eyes.

It was everything he could have hoped for.

Inuyasha never thought he would live to see her carrying his mark, his scent, his soul bound to hers in a way that he never imagined his soul would ever be bound to anyone's, but here they were. For all that he'd struggled to admit this to himself, getting here was effortless. Just like he'd predicted months ago, it'd had only taken one night, one intimate moment, to seal them together.

And what a moment it was, he thought to himself, another long drag of coffee punctuating his thoughts.

Kagome hadn't wanted to let him go after, not that he wanted to either. She wrapped her arms around him, her legs tangled helplessly with his own as a fragile silence had fallen over them both. What a feeling, what an experience. He had felt whole, really whole, for the first time in his life, afraid that even one too harsh exhale would shatter the moment. They'd fallen asleep like that, in utter silence with the screen doors to the balcony wide open.

He would have gladly killed anyone who dared interrupt them with his bare hands.

The tell tale sound of Kagome's waking groan reached his ears, and he watched as she rolled onto her back and stretched like a cat before turning her head and pinning him with her eyes to the railing he was leaning against. A sleepy smile covered her face, then, and he couldn't help but smile back, setting his cup down on the porch railing before making his way to her.

"Good morning," she spoke softly, her hands running up his arms once he reached her, "husband."

"Good morning," he greeted back, lips already finding purchase in the mark on her neck, "mate."

Whatever happened, he decided as they lost themselves to the blissful warmth of making love in the light of rising sun, wherever life took them, whatever they encountered, all of it would be worth fighting if this is what he was fighting for.

Fin

A/N:

Hi all.

Months and months it took me to write this, and by that I mean countless chapters I discarded in this process. One where they ran off and eloped, one where Kagome made some huge confession and that was how Inuyasha knew, one where she basically seduced his demon into control and that was that. But none of them fit, mainly because in rereading the entire piece I felt this was rushed, like suddenly they were all about each other and it seemed…not real? And then I thought about my own love life, and how I had just known I was going to marry my now husband a week into knowing him, how I stopped at nothing to make it work (almost transferring universities, but he ended up just working harder for scholarships to stay at the one where we met). I wanted to somehow make this feel like that, in the end, this acceptance of love and fate and how sometimes it's not all fireworks and shooting stars, but the equally amazing, soft warmth of a fire that never burns too hot and still makes you melt.

At any rate, I desperately needed this to be over. It's been a dark cloud on my personal life, and I don't think something like this should feel that way. I've enjoyed growing with all of you, I've enjoyed having companions in my first real endeavor in writing, and I'm so sad that now I'm going to retreat back into my little writing space off the internet.

I've grown a lot. I've learned a lot about myself, and about what I want to create. I honestly haven't watched Inuyasha in ten years, guys. Nor any other kind of anime. I'm still confused as to why this is the easiest place for me to create interesting plot lines, the one place where I find myself escaping to for another story about the same characters, but I've learned I have a high demand for literature. I soak it up like a sponge, tearing through three novels in a day recently. I think this site, and this medium, allows for that. It's easier to instantly feel transported to a different world from the first line, to be just as absorbed as you were with the last piece you read, if it's something familiar.

Thinking I may do a series of one shots from another story that's rolling around up in my mind, but it'll be a while before I post anything. Or I may just do one shots in general, who knows? My heart really wants to write something Sakura centric from Naruto, mainly because I am a cardiac nurse in my real life. Not that I've watched that any either, just read the recaps one day and love the fanfiction. It would be therapeutic to actually get to share some of my experiences in a place where I don't have to worry about HIPAA violations. Cardiac nursing is a drug for me, and I would love to share what I assume are some of Sakura's inner thoughts on medicine as well. Maybe one shots there? Or Spirited Away. 100% STILL watch anything from Studio Ghibli, and I love the idea of playing with traditional fantasy (dragons, sprites, witches, etc.).

I love literature.

Also, for anyone who follows that series, what a fucking joke that she ends up with Sasuke. What a cop out, from a character development stand point.

In short, I love you all. I am grateful for all of you, and from now on I have no idea what I'm doing. I'll continue working close to 60 hours a week, I'll continue living in paradise here at the beach, I'll have way too much of an Ariana Grande obsession, and I'll probably try to put a harness on my cat again today to take her for a walk, but from a creative stand point it's up in the air.

Thank you all for everything.

À bientôt.

K. Marjorie