Inuyasha walks through a thunderstorm on his way to the Higuarashi shrine and the kitchen pays the price.
It had been raining all afternoon. Kagome stood in the kitchen listening to the storm throw a tantrum outside while she stirred a pot of yummy goodness on the stove.
Inuyasha hadn’t come back yet and honestly, with how he'd been in rare form today, Kagome didn't mind that he'd stormed off in the middle of a storm. If he wanted to brood dramatically in the rain, who was she to stop him?
She gave the pot another lazy stir.
For once, there was peace and quiet. No pacing. No muttering about wasting time. No unsolicited commentary about her cooking. Just the low simmer of dinner and the patter of rain.
Still, Inuyasha had been gone for a while which was a little unusual since he wouldn't have gone back without trying to drag her back with him. Never. She was not, under any circumstances, worried though. Not even a little. He probably did go back hom...went back to the feudal era instead of sticking around here complaining about how much time she was wasting and how the apocalypse was nigh. That was the thing though. Obviously, Naraku got defeated somehow - with or without the jewel being completed. There were no demons running amuck in Tokyo. Humanity survived whatever happened or would happen. The only weird thing was that one, singular jewel shard in that mask...
Her stirring slowly and she blinked slowly at the wall as her heart began to sink.
For a jewel shard to have made it to this era, that would necessarily mean...
A thousand different worst case scenarios began bubbling in her brain as she stared straight ahead in horror completely oblivious to how the pot threatened to boil over.
They didn't complete it, did they? They lost. They all...
"Hey sis?"
Kagome nearly had a heart attack and whipped her head around so fast she gave herself whiplash. Sota poked his head in from the living room with a game controller hugged to his chest. He blinked at her like he didn't just interrupt her timeline induced existential crisis.
"What, Sota?" Kagome snapped in annoyance as she set about cooking again.
“Where did Inuyasha go?”
“He's probably went back,” Kagome sighed as she reached over to grab some herbs and sprinkled them into the pot.
“I bet he's barking at the thunder. Been hearing weird sounds that are definitely not thunder,” Sota countered sagely. Kagome let out a long, exasperated sigh.
“Inuyasha does not bark at—”
A distant, muffled woof drifted in with the thunder. Kagome pinched the bridge of her nose and Sota looked way too smug.
“See, Sis? That was totally a bark.”
Kagome glared at him.
“No. It wasn’t. Inuyasha doesn't-"
Woof.
She closed her eyes.
“Oh, for the love of—" Kagome let out a controlled breath, "He doesn't bark. He doesn't."
Another soft, indignant woof rolled through the storm, like the thunder itself had personally offended him. Kagome turned the stove down and tried to ignore the odd combination of exasperation and panic twisting in her chest.
So maybe the man barked apparently. That was the least of her problems at the moment. Besides, why should she care? Why would that bother her any more than all the other random dog things he did and denied doing? If he was out there barking, then he was here and he was fine. He probably ran off to brood in a tree, or sulk on the shrine roof, or glare dramatically into the rain like he was posing for a disaster themed magazine cover…
Kagome chewed on her bottom lip and the anxiety began to morph into nausea. The stew she'd been looking forward to eating now smelled rancid.
How had she never realized...that jewel shard was so early on in their quest too. She should've...
Another rumble shook the house, and somewhere outside, something yelped.
Kagome's sore neck got another nasty crick when her head whipped towards the door.
Heavy, purposeful footsteps splashed their way quickly across the courtyard.
The doorknob rattled.
Then paused.
Then rattled again, slower, like even the door was reconsidering its life choices.
Kagome narrowed her eyes and tried to brace as Buyo retreated behind her ankles with his fur already puffing in preemptive dread.
The door creaked open...
Inuyasha stepped in, absolutely drenched, dripping a trail of swamp adjacent misery behind him. A very distinct, undeniably canine stench immediately enveloped the house like a stink bomb. Kagome swore she could see it. Thick and green like cartoon stink lines. A pungent mix of soaked fur, stale creek water, and something else too. Something that suggested he’d wrestled a skunk demon in the rain and lost.
“Don’t say it. Already know,” Inuyasha grumbled as the silver hair plastered to his face dripped onto the kitchen floor. Kagome bit the inside of her cheek. The words were right there but saying "you smell like a wet dog" felt cruel.
Looking back, she wondered if maybe a little honesty would have been better. Just a gentle push. A quick request for him to step outside. An offering of a towel.
It started with the ears.
They twitched once, twice then flattened like warning flags in a storm. Kagome barely had time to register the movement before his whole body went rigid, a flash of wild animal instinct flickering through gold eyes.
She was already on the move when he crouched down.
“Inuyasha, don’t—”
Too late.
He shook. Violently, completely, gloriously. Water sprayed everywhere, droplets flying from his hair, his sleeves, the edges of his haori. His mane exploded around him like a burst of silk before settling into a disheveled mess. The force of the shake made his beads swing and his bangs whip around as his claws instinctively flexed and gouged their floorboards.
Sota yelped and ducked for cover behind the couch. Kagome threw up her arms with a shriek, already feeling cold droplets patter across her face and neck. Even Buyo fled the scene with his puffed tail held high and a hiss of panicked indignation.
"There," Inuyasha sniffed as he rolled his neck and gracefully got to his feet, "Much better."
Kagome was in such shock, she was lost for words. Sota ran in clutching the Febreze bottle like a holy relic. A few spritzes cleared her mind and barely diluted the rancid stench of wet dog from the air.
And cleared her mind just enough to realize the stew she'd been working so hard on was now ruined.
CONGRATULATIONS, @kstewdeux!!! Your fanfiction “Please Just Stop” has been nominated by one of your fans for the 2026 2nd Term Inuyasha Fandom Awards run by FeudalConnection!
Your work has been nominated in the following category:
Best Humor/Parody
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Yo. I finally caved and made a thing. I keep getting nominated. To prove it’s me I posted the banner I won that got emailed.
AHH! HI! Welcome to the world of tumblr!! So happy you’re here, and you’ll find plenty of us Inuyasha fans lurking about with fantastic fics and artwork to appreciate. To all of those who are in love with kstewdeux’s work, make sure to follow them and show your love!! :D
NASA picks up some very interesting and equally impossible sounds while studying black holes.
Anxiously shuffling his papers, Dr. Tucker Morgan - who, by the way, had devoted every single moment of his life to date getting to where he was now - was about to be screwed over by the very science he loved.
The sonification project - the translation of archival astronomical data into audible frequencies - had been intended for release during NASA’s Black Hole Week. Intended being the operative word, because there was no conceivable way he could publish his findings now. All he had done was revisit previously cataloged waveform data.
There should not have been anything anomalous.
And yet.
The anomaly was unfortunately baffling, repeatable, and wholly incompatible with known astrophysics. Not merely in one dataset, either. If it had been confined to a single corrupted file, he could have dismissed it as a stray satellite emission or a processing artifact. That would have been a welcome, rational explanation.
But of course, it wasn’t that simple.
Instead, Dr. Morgan was faced with a conclusion that was going to get him laughed out of the industry he so loved. Decades wasted on a career that was going to end soon and in disgrace.
And why?
Because he had somehow documented vocalizations in regions of space where no coherent signal, much less a voice, had any physical right to exist.
The signal repeated every 88 minutes.
Every. Eighty. Eight. Minutes.
The signal repeated when the black hole’s accretion disk flared. Those voices appeared in every dataset. Without exception.
He'd had everyone in his department glance over the bizarre and impossible findings - hoping beyond hope that he'd just manifested schizophrenia. No. No, of course not. Every single person confirmed the same anomaly but not one of them would affix their signature to the report. No one was foolish enough to serve as a co-author.
There was more, of course, and far worse. There were other data readings that kicked back impossible results adding to the general confusion, other...
"Dr. Morgan, I've given your department extension after extension. I'm warning you now that there won't be another so what do you have for me?" the Director sighed as he leaned back in his chair. Tucker swallowed and awkwardly set up his computer with all the quickness of a sloth.
"I had requested extensions because I believed there was a technological error," he began with a nervous chuckle, "Several others in my department are capable of corroborating. We're trying to..."
"Capable but not willing,” the Director grunted as he picked up on the odd phrasing. He inhaled deeply and narrowed his eyes, “What is this error?"
"Well..." Tucker took a deep breath and hit play. The whirring boom that the sonification had managed to pick up began blaring from the speakers and then...came the voices. The Director's mouth fell partially open as the voices continued screaming at each other. One male. One female. Voices warbled and barely audible but clearly there until Tucker hit pause.
"The vocalizations are a Japanese dialect. Sir," Tucker swallowed and stared intently at the ceiling over the Director's head, "We hypothesized, initially, that this had to be some sort of interference from a satellite.”
The Director sat back in his chair and ran a hand over his face.
”Initially?”
Tucker opened then closed his mouth as he questioned every single one of his life choices.
“Yes,” Tucker clasped his hands together and offered up a tight lipped smile, “Initially we did believe it was interference.”
The Director’s eye twitched.
”And now?”
”Subsequent research supports a claim of interference but not from a satellite. Sir.”
The Director let out a heavy sigh and tried to brace.
"Go on."
"Upon further review and cross referencing of other data collected in the same time frame, there appears to be a, um," Tucker cleared his throat and cringed, "A very small, relatively speaking, crescent shaped galaxy emerged approximately half a lightyear distance away. Newly identified. We believe the interference is linked in some way to this galaxy.”
The Director felt a migraine coming on.
”Come again?”
"We believe the newly identified galaxy is related to the vocalizations. The, um, cyclical energy it produces disappears and reappears at identical intervals," Tucker continued weakly with an equally weak gesture, "The readings are consistent going back as far as we have data.”
The Director opened then closed his mouth.
"There's more."
"Oh so there’s more, is there?" the Director echoed wearily. Tucker nodded meekly.
"Every time the voices peaked, we were able to look back and found that the energy signature would move away from the Perseus coordinates entirely. The data from the past thirty days…" a deep breath and a shuddering exhale, "The most recent data shows an identical energy signal in Japan. Sir."
The Director leaned in.
”You expect me to believe that a galaxy appears in Japan-“
“Not the galaxy. An identical energy signature,” Tucker breathed like he knew he’d dug himself a grave. He fumbled with his computer, “I-I can show-“
“I don’t give a shit what you think you have. You’re telling me that a galaxy, millions upon millions of stars, appears in Japan, at random intervals, and no one in human history has noticed an influx of the energy of a million stars?” the Director repeated back, “That is you’re telling me.”
“I know how it sounds…” Tucker tried weakly.
”I would hope so,” the Director cut in with barely concealed rage. Tucker sucked in a nervous breath.
“I know how it sounds but the…well, um,” a nervous swallow, “There was, is an identical energy signature, faint, extremely faint, that is located within the boundaries of an obscure shrine in Downtown Tokyo," Tucker licked his lips, "My research, I surveyed the data sets available, heat signatures and…” a shuddering sigh, “Well my research indicates that this energy signature surged and was at its strongest roughly twenty five years ago. In March of 2000. There were other incidents that registered , minor but still significant. Countless anomalies in 1997. One in 2004 then a few in 2014. So I would like permission to send one of our researchers to investigate. As a matter of national security. Sir."
Inhaling deeply, the Director closed his eyes and used two fingers to massage his sore temple. He let out a controlled breath and blindly reached over to hit the intercom.
“Juanita, please have security come escort Dr. Morgan off the property,” the Director mumbled wearily before making direct eye contact with the poor man, “I’ll have someone collect and deliver his personal effects to his last known address.”
@inukag-week | November 26th: Memories | Read on Ao3
SUMMARY:
Washing clothes shouldn't be this hard.
This was not his fault. At all. Anyone who said otherwise was selling something because it was not his fault that Kagome didn't give him instructions and nothing about this demon machine was self-explanatory. Not his fault that liquid he'd poured into the cup didn't do it's job. Instead of cleaning anything, it had just bubbled over the edge then spread faster than miasma. No amount of water helped either. If anything, it made it worse.
"Oh, Kagome is going to kill me," Inuyasha groaned softly as he took a few instinctive steps away from the mass of translucent white that was inching towards him, "Not my fault. This is not my fault."
Except maybe it was. He didn't even know what he'd done wrong but it clearly must've been something. Sure, okay, yeah, maybe he'd filled the cup too high except that was the only way that made any sense. This liquid had just...it smelled like her. That was the entire reason he was bothering with this demon machine, at all, because he wanted the scent that Kagome often had clinging to her to stick to him like glue. And yeah, okay, maybe, just for a moment, when the first wave of scent hit him, he’d closed his eyes and let himself pretend she was there. Standing behind him. Laughing. Nagging. Existing. He admittedly hadn't been paying that much attention to the stupid liquid and the stupid cup as he probably should've. The thought of being able to smell her all the time, even when she was here in this era or god forbid gone beyond his reach, was too good to spoil by things like logic.
In hindsight. he would've been better off simply stealing the liquid and cleaning his clothes back home.
Some good hindsight was doing him now.
In his defense, though, how was he supposed to know this would happen?! How? How was he supposed to know? No one told him, nobody, and he'd seen Kagome's mom do this a thousand times before so it shouldn't have been an issue.
So it was, in a way, entirely Kagome's fault. Entirely. Not his fault at all. She should've explained this at some point.
The bubbles continued slowly creeping forward. Consuming the kitchen table, the chairs, the doorway...
Well, even though he was probably going to get in so much trouble over this, there was one silver lining. Part of Kagome's stench would be on him for a long, long time.
@inukag-week | November 25: Devotion | Read on Ao3
Summary: Kagome does something suicidal and Inuyasha is pissed.
It was too early for whatever woke her up. Far, far too early.
And yet here she was. Awake. Before dawn. Propping herself up on her elbows, Kagome groggily glanced around at her friends who had all passed out in the usual way. Shippo curled up like a kitten at the bottom of her sleeping bag. Sango and Miroku sprawled out on Kilala with a respectable distance between them like that fooled anyone with eyes. Inuyasha defying physics and somehow balancing on a tree branch with his long hair reaching towards the earth.
Inhaling deeply, she turned her gaze to the empty meadow around them. The trees that were giving no auras. No immediate signs of danger anyway. There were a few not so powerful blips on her spiritual radar but they weren't close and weren't getting closer. Clearing her throat and stretching her arms above her head, Kagome rolled her neck and felt the pops that came with sleeping on the ground.
Well, if she was up, she might as well get started on making another dozen arrows since she was officially and completely out. She'd made some headway last night but not nearly enough. Rubbing at her eyes a few times, she tried to stifle her groan of pain because her fingers were still sore from affixing the arrows last night. Littered with tiny cuts because she hadn't...
She opened her eyes and blearily turned her attention to...
Her fully stocked quiver. Not just the dozen she'd planned on making but so many arrows that she'd likely have to toss a few to make it easy to pull out one. She rubbed at her eyes again and pouted when they opened to the stocked quiver that she definitely wasn't imagining. What made the entire situation more weird were all the unused supplies she'd collected. Piles of promising stones and branches.
"Wha..." her breathy question trailed off as she properly sat up and slowly extracted herself from her sleeping bag to better inspect the handiwork. Sango had helped her plenty of times in the past so she knew what knot Sango preferred. Same went for Miroku. She knew...
She quietly removed an arrow and glanced it over from point to perfectly manicured feathered tip. Honestly, she didn't think she could've cut the feathers that cleanly with her scissors. The nock was impeccable too. She picked up another and another. All pristine. All perfect. All uniform. Well, save the six or so she'd managed to throw together last night which were...ugly but would get the job done.
"What the heck?" she breathed before glancing over at the two potential culprits who were sleeping away then turned her gaze to frown into the forest. There was a distinct possibility she'd had a visitor last night who was probably OCD enough to gift her some things and who had plenty of borrowed time to make this many. Probably watching them. Probably cursed every single one of these arrows too.
Sighing heavily, Kagome got to her feet and began wandering into the forest to get the cat fight Kikyo clearly wanted over with before Inuyasha woke up. She really didn't want to deal with yet another hurtful fight over that woman today. Every fight was humiliating because she shouldn't care. She would technically be the other woman. She...
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Kagome called tiredly as she passed the threshold of the trees, "I know-"
Something, or rather somebody, was suddenly at her back and clapping a hand over her mouth.
"The hell are you doing?" Inuyasha hissed as he began hauling her back toward camp like a very annoyed tow truck. Kagome wasn’t just being dragged either. She was being reverse yeeted across the forest floor with her feet scrambling over roots, rocks, and what she seriously hoped was a log.
“Why would you do that, idiot? You trying to get killed?” he growled, still moving forward while pulling her backwards, because of course he could walk blind and still avoid every branch. Meanwhile, she was collecting leaves in her hair like a discount woodland fairy.
Kagome clawed at the hand clamped over her face until he finally loosened his vice grip on her chin.
“Inuyasha, I was just—”
The palm was back and Kagome fought the impulse to simple lick it if only to prevent herself from vomiting. Who knew where that hand had been? Did he even wash the guts off yesterday? Probably not.
“You walked into the forest intent on committing suicide. Come out, come out?! The hell was that?!” he hissed, “What is wrong with you?"
She cursed herself. Of course he heard it. He heard everything. Probably heard her entire thought process. They hit the meadow and finally, finally he pulled his hand back only to whirl her around looking pissed as hell.
"No, seriously, what is wrong? Because that," he pointed angrily at the forest, "That was so dangerous. You didn't even bring a weapon."
Kagome chewed the inside of her cheek as a possibility occurred to her.
"I'm out of arrows," she replied simply, "And I can use my hands-"
"You think I'm stupid? You know damn well you're not out of arrows," Inuyasha countered irritably, "Try again."
"I only have one or two," she feigned just to see how he'd react and Inuyasha looked like he might strangle her.
"Do you not have eyes?!" Inuyasha snapped so loudly a few birds in the tree line woke up and rustled out of their nesting places, "It's full! It's-"
"No it's not. I can't waste-"
"I PERSONALLY MADE SURE YOU HAD ENOUGH! WHY DIDN'T YOU TAKE THE DAMN BOW?!" Inuyasha screamed with such force that Kagome's hair fluttered in the accompanying breeze.
“Oh, so that was you then?” she replied with a bit of smugness and Inuyasha froze like he’d accidentally confessed to murder.
The tips of his ears twitched. Once, twice, then they flattened in full panic mode.
“I mean...” he sputtered as he waved his hands like he was trying to shoo the confession away, “I just," he squirmed and gestured at her general person, "Your knots sucked and you kept cutting your fingers and," he visibly panicked more and blurted out, "It was annoying, okay?! So I fixed it.”
Kagome blinked at him and smiled coyly.
“So you made all those arrows?”
Inuyasha’s face was doing something fascinating. His expression kept cycling between rage, embarrassment, and catastrophic regret.
“It’s not like it's hard,” he muttered as he fidgeted and looked off to the side like the trees had suddenly become very interesting, "You need them. I don't see why it's a big deal."
Kagome smiled.
"Well thank you," she offered. Inuyasha flushed pink as he scratched at his nose.
And then his face abruptly morphed into anger again.
"Wait, is that why you just tried to kill yourself?!"
Kagome's smile turned strained.
"I wasn't trying to kill myself. I just thought maybe someone...else might've brought them," she admitted, "So..."
Understanding clicked behind golden eyes.
"Holy shit, you thought it was Kikyo, didn't you?" he breathed in horrified disbelief, "YOU THOUGHT IT WAS KIKYO AND YOU WENT TO FIND HER?!"
Kagome cringed.
"I mean...yes?"
Inuyasha looked even more murderous.
"You seriously thought it'd be a great idea to go confront her?!" he snarled as he jabbed a finger at the trees, "What if she wanted to kill you, huh? She'd make damn sure I couldn't get in to save you. You'd just be dead and there'd be nothing I could do! Why would you do that?!"
Kagome pursed her lips in silent accusation.
"Oh really?" she scoffed sarcastically, "You'd come save me from her?"
Inuyasha stared at her like she was the one who'd just committed the ultimate betrayal.
"YOU THINK I WOULDN'T?!"
Kagome winced.
"I mean...technically speaking..." Kagome groaned before blowing out her cheeks, "You do pick her over me. A lot. Even, um, when she's tried to kill me. In the past."
"EXACTLY! SHE TRIED TO KILL YOU! SHE ALMOST DID! BELIEVE IT OR NOT, MURDER'S A DEAL BREAKER FOR ME!" Inuyasha bellowed, "THE ONLY REASON I ANSWER HER AT ALL ANYMORE IS TO HEAR HER LATEST BATSHIT SCHEME! SO I KNOW TO PREPARE AND TO-"
Kagome blinked at him and her heckles started rising.
"Now wait just one second, you-"
“No! YOU wait!” Inuyasha barked, throwing his hands up so dramatically a squirrel bailed out of a nearby tree, “Do you seriously think I’m out here having fun dealing with her?! Like I go, ‘Oh boy, can’t wait to listen to my homicidal ex describe her new murder plot!’”
Kagome’s mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.
“Well—”
“NO,” he stabbed a clawed finger at her chest in time with each correction, “No well. No technically. No in the past. No anything. She is out of her damn mind. Every time she shows up she tries to either kill me, kill you, kill someone adjacent to us—”
Kagome bristled.
“That’s not fair—”
“Oh it’s VERY fair. Remember last time? She didn’t even speak. She just materialized out of the fog like ‘surprise bitch, time to die.’”
Kagome winced.
“…Okay, that did happen.”
“YES IT HAPPENED!” He threw both arms toward the forest in an outraged flail, “And yet you just strolled in there at dawn like a willing sacrifice!”
“I wasn’t—”
“You WERE! I saw you march in like ‘la la la, guess I’ll go die now," he mocked.
Kagome spluttered.
“I wasn’t marching to my death, I was going to talk—”
"WITH WHO?!” he roared, “You want tea next time? Should I pack you a snack?!”
“That’s not—”
“And that's another thing,” he snapped, pivoting back on her like he’d been waiting years for this moment, “When have I ever picked her over you? EVER?”
Kagome threw her hands up.
“Um, I don’t know, maybe the DOZEN TIMES you vanished after her?" she scoffed acidly, "Or all those times she asked you to accompany her into the woods and you said yes without even LOOKING at me?”
“That was reconnaissance!”
“That was STUPID!”
“WELL, YOU ARE TOO! You went in there with no weapon! Not even a stick! A STICK, KAGOME! THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!”
"How would a stick help?!" Kagome shot back.
“It's better than nothing!” Inuyasha snapped before jabbing a thumb at the trees again, "Same shit. Different day. Just marching into the murder forest unprepared.”
Kagome’s hands went to her hips.
“I was investigating!”
“You were skipping off to die!” he corrected, “There’s a difference!”
“Oh please,” she scoffed, “you act like I can’t handle myself.”
Inuyasha’s face did something violent and involuntary like every muscle tried to form a new emotion at once.
“HANDLE YOURSELF?! KAGOME, YOU CAN'T! YOU TRIPPED OVER AIR LAST WEEK TRYING TO AVOID A SQUASH!”
“It wasn't a squash. The rock was just camouflaged!”
“It was GREEN and SQUASH SHAPED!”
“NO IT WASN'T!
“It was a squash, Kagome!”
She gasped.
“It was NOT a squash!”
“It was...” he took a massive breath, hands balled into fists, “A squash.”
Kagome’s eyes narrowed and her face flushed crimson.
“Well, well that has nothing to do with this!”
“It has EVERYTHING to do with this!” he barked, “You trip around gourds but suddenly you’re skilled enough to negotiate with the undead?!”
“I wasn’t negotiating! I thought she left the arrows! I was trying to find out why!”
“Oh my god,” Inuyasha groaned before dragging a hand down his face so hard his claws left tiny furrows in his cheek, “You really thought Kikyo woke up this morning and though I'm going to craft Kagome some beautiful arrows made with love. That, to you, was more likely than me doing that."
“I don’t know!” Kagome threw up her hands and completely missing the not so subtle declaration, “Maybe she was feeling generous!”
“Kikyo isn't generous anymore. She's psychotic!”
Kagome sputtered.
"Well how was I supposed to know you could make arrows?! You never-"
“THIS ISN'T ABOUT ME!” Inuyasha thundered, genuinely offended, “Your suicidal ass just walked into a demon infested forest ALONE and WITHOUT SHOES ON.”
Kagome blinked then looked down at her socks.
“Oh,” she muttered sheepishly. Inuyasha flung an arm skyward like he was appealing to the gods for strength.
“DO YOU SEE THE BULLSHIT I’M DEALING WITH?!”
Her cheeks burned.
“Okay, so I'll admit today was my bad," she cleared her throat, "But that doesn’t mean you don’t pick her sometimes...”
“I DON’T PICK HER,” he growled as he took a menacing step closer and his ears flattening in frustration, “I do not pick her. Not anymore.”
Kagome's temper faltered again. Just a fraction. Just enough.
“Then why?” she said quietly.
Inuyasha froze like she’d swung a blunt emotional weapon straight into his ribs.
His voice dropped, rough around the edges.
"If anyone needs to ask why, it's me. You see me go after her," he exhaled sharply through his nose and gestured helplessly, "But you never see me come back because of you. If I wanted to leave with her, I would. Fully capable of doing that and I don't want to."
The silence that followed wasn’t awkward.
It was dangerous.
It was toeing a line neither of them had the guts to acknowledge.
Kagome opened her mouth to say something, anything...
Inuyasha panicked and did what he did do.
“EITHER WAY, YOU’RE STILL AN IDIOT FOR GOING IN THERE!” he blurted at maximum volume, “A COMPLETE SOFT, SQUISHY, EATABLE IDIOT!”
Kagome’s jaw dropped.
“Are you kidding me!?”
“ME?! WHAT ABOUT YOU?! I’M OUT HERE DOING MY BEST TO PROTECT YOU FROM DEATH!” he shouted, looking wildly betrayed by his own feelings and lack of communication skills, “YOUR FAULT FOR MAKING THIS SHIT HARD!”
Chest heaving with all sorts of emotions, Kagome narrowed her eyes then glanced around. She picked up a nearby pinecone and threw at him. For what reason she wasn’t even sure.
He didn't dodge.
It bounced off his forehead.
He looked at the pinecone.
Then at her.
“…Did you just throw a pinecone at me?”
Kagome folded her arms across her chest and nodded.
"Yeah because you're annoying too."
His lips twitched upwards and he looked oddly touched.
“…You’re such an idiot,” he muttered. His voice was soft.
