Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Of course, have a nice day!” Kagome plastered her best fake smile on her face and waved off her last customer, the bell tinkling on the door as it closed. The smile immediately disappeared. She hated when someone walked in a few minutes before closing and then took their sweet time perusing the shelves with no clear goal in mind.

Most people came in looking for something specific or came and asked her directly for suggestions. More often than not, people were looking to order books from small suppliers. She loved that more people were trying to support mom and pop bookstores like hers, but it did add an extra few steps to her work day when she could have stuck to used books only.

Normally she would have been long gone by now, but having to wait for the customer to leave – well after closing time – had put her more than a bit behind schedule. She glanced at her watch. Hopefully she could still catch the last bus home. She hated to have to pay for a taxi.

As she locked the door, she stared out the window at the store across the street. Or what was left of it, anyway. Boarded up and dark, it was a shell of what it used to be. A small hardware store, it had been the main place for the neighborhood to get their supplies for decades. But at some point almost five years ago, it had gone silent with no explanation.

Kagome had only taken over her shop from her grandfather three years ago, so she didn’t know the hardware store in its heyday, but she heard about it from the other store owners on the block and even some of her customers. The owner had been a slightly cranky inuhanyou who knew everything there was to know about tools. He even helped customers fix things without charging them, though he apparently complained about it the whole time. A grump with a heart of gold.

But one day the store never opened again. The power was never on and eventually the city put boards up over the glass to make sure no one broke in. He hadn’t sold the place, and the taxes kept getting paid, so no one could do anything about it. Kagome had heard many a speculation about what happened to him over the last couple of years. Ran away with a lover. Murdered. Escaped to a tropical island to finally be away from people. No one had any proof of any of these things, but they sure loved to gossip about it.

Kagome blinked, realizing she’d been staring for quite some time. Then blinked again. “Is that…” There was a light. Floating. Inside the old hardware store. Peering out through the window, she watched for anyone on the street, or cars driving by that might reflect light. The corner was even quieter than usual. No foot or motor traffic. Not even a bus going by. It was almost like the world had created a silent bubble around this street corner alone.

Swallowing, Kagome chewed her lower lip as she contemplated what to do. The light was still floating, bobbing in and out of view between the slats over the windows. Definitely inside the store then, Kagome thought. Should she call the cops? Honestly, it was probably some teenagers, challenging one another to see who was the biggest coward. Playing Chicken with a ghost.

Except something told her that wasn’t it.

As though compelled, Kagome slipped out through her rear door, locking it, then made her way into the street. Even in the alley, there were no cars. Not even a bicycle. “Where is everyone?” she wondered again. Out of habit, she looked both ways before crossing the street, but she needn’t have bothered.

The light was brighter now that she was just outside the store, but it was too dark inside for her to see who was inside. How did they get in? she wondered as she circled the back of the building. Everything looked locked up tight. At first glance, at least. When she tried the back door, it squeaked, then popped open with hardly any pressure. Well that explains it, Kagome thought with a wince at the sound of the door. If whoever was inside didn’t know she was coming before, they had to know now.

There was a mustiness to the air as she entered the service hallway. It was more or less the same as the one in her store, but the stillness and the dark definitely made it feel different. There was no rustling, no footsteps or voices that she could hear. She was beginning to wonder if she was imagining the light she saw before.

Until she saw it moving across the doorway and out of sight.

Fighting the immediate reaction to scream, Kagome pressed herself back against the hallway wall, hoping the dark would keep her invisible. When the light didn’t return, and no one came down the hall, she inched forward until she could peek around the corner.

Mouth immediately agape, she tucked herself back behind the wall, eyes wide. It took her several moments before she could muster the nerve to peek her head out to verify what it was she thought she saw. Doing everything to muffle her heavy breathing, Kagome slowly tilted her head just enough to look past the corner into the main part of the store. Nothing. The light had disappeared.

Confused, she leaned a little further, looking both ways. The shelving was all still there, which meant there wasn’t a clear line of sight through the store. Which meant it could be out of sight, but also meant she could be out of sight if she moved quickly.

She stepped gingerly onto the linoleum, now showing signs of age and disuse. There must have been a leak at some point. Given what she’d heard about the owner, she highly doubted he would ever allow it to get like this while he was there in the store. Which begged the question: Where the hell had he gone?

Avoiding the curling edges, suspecting they would crack and crunch if she touched them, Kagome made her way between the nearest shelves, ducking down so her head was not above them. It was awkward to move that way, but felt necessary.

The air around her shifted and she barely smothered a gasp, turning to look behind her. Nothing. But above her was one of the large air vents. Why would the air be on? She hadn’t heard the big motor on the unit kick on and those old rooftop units were kinda hard to ignore. The one on her roof tended to squeal if forced to turn on too quickly, or so her grandfather said. Kagome suspected it would need replaced sooner rather than later and had been trying to save up for when that happened.

Another shift in the air stalled out her movement. Something wasn’t right.

Kagome blinked.

Swallowed.

Turned.

This time she couldn’t hold in her scream.

The floating light hovered just in front of her, held within the transparent visage of a long-haired being with a menacing snarl on its face.

“Oi. You’re loud.” She had immediately fallen to her ass on the linoleum and he had a moment of sympathy for how much that was likely to smart later. It was brief, however. “What the hell are you doing in here?” For several moments she was obviously too terrified or stunned to speak. Inuyasha’s face fell into a flat line, frustrated. “I said…”

“I-I heard you,” she squeaked. “Wh-What… Wh-Who…”

“Tch. Name’s Inuyasha. This is my store. Which is locked up, as far as I understand it. So how are you inside?” She stared at him, mouth a little agape for a breath before she shook it off.

“The door just… opened.” She looked around, then back at him, squinting in the dark. “Are you… are you a ghost?” she whispered.

He couldn’t help glowering at her. “I don’t think so. ‘Course, at this point, who knows. Maybe I am.” Or might as well be, he thought furiously. “Who are you?”

“Oh… Um… I own the bookstore across the street?”

“The Book Shrine?” He looked up toward the windows, frustrated by the boards that blocked his view. “What happened to Old Man Higurashi?”

“Jii-chan?” She blinked. “He retired, that’s all. Y-You know him?”

“Jii… Wait, are you his granddaughter?” She looked a little stunned, but nodded. “Wow,” was all he could think to say. He’d heard a fair amount about this girl from her grandfather, most of which he’d assumed was exaggerated. The old man had even tried to talk him into meeting up with her once, but Inuyasha had told him to mind his own business. His praise of her beauty was not an exaggeration… But that was not something he had the energy to worry about right now.

“I’m Kagome,” she confirmed. The name immediately rang a bell from all the times the bookstore owner had said it to him over the years. “But if you’re not a ghost then…” Her voice reflected her confusion as she finally gathered the nerve to pull herself up off the floor. “And I thought you were… Hanyou.”

Inuyasha scowled hard at that. Not at her, though he realized that’s what she saw as she flinched back from him. “I am. For whatever reason, I can only ‘wake up’ on specific nights of the year and I appear human. It’s the only time I can try to look for the damn anchor for this seal.” No need to tell her all the nitty gritty details, like the new moon was normally his human night, and it seemed to be when the seal weakened just enough to allow him movement. Which meant his transparent image also happened to be human.

“Sealed. Wait, like someone sealed a youkai? Sealed… you? That’s really a thing?” Her confusion morphed to horror. “Why would someone do that to you?”

He snorted. “I wish I knew. I don’t… I don’t remember the moment I was sealed. Which is why I can’t find the damned anchor!” Growling, he turned and stalked off on his previous path. Interesting as it was to have someone actually in the store with him for the first time in five years, he couldn’t be distracted from his mission. Methodically checking every single item in the damned place in search of whatever vessel held his youki.

“You’re sure it’s here?”

He froze, turning to look at her. Why was she still there? “If it weren’t, I wouldn’t be.” Her face turned speculative. Inuyasha frowned. “What?”

“No, you’re probably right.” She took several steps toward him, then paused. “This light…” It was Inuyasha’s turn to flinch. What was she doing, acting like she was going to try to touch him? “Oh, does that hurt?”

“Hurt?” He looked down and noticed her fingers were essentially inside what would be his chest. “The hell…”

“Wait… can you not see this?” she asked, obviously perplexed.

“See what?”

“There’s a light. Right here.” This time he shuddered, feeling like his body was being strummed like a deep bass note string. “Oh. Sorry, was that uncomfortable?” He could only blink at her. “That’s what caught my attention in the first place,” she told him, explaining that she’d been able to see the light floating along through gaps in the boards over the windows and thought teenagers broke in.

“Why the fuck would you come in here alone if you thought it was vandals or something?!” he snapped. How little self preservation did this woman have?! “Call the cops! For…” He huffed. “Unbelievable.”

“Well excuse me! Something seemed off. Obviously I was right! Why are you complaining? Now you have someone with physical hands to help you look!” Kagome made a point of picking up several bolts from the container beside her, allowing them to clink against each other in her palm before dropping them loudly back into the bin.

He could be mad about it all he wanted… She was right.

“Fine.” Inuyasha looked down. She mentioned a light and he definitely felt something when she touched it, but he couldn’t see a damned thing. “The… This?” He pointed vaguely where she touched before. “Is it just a light? Or does it look like something else?”

She hesitated a long moment – which he really couldn’t blame her for – before taking a few steps closer and peering at whatever it was he couldn’t see. “It’s kind of round? Like a marble. But it’s hard to tell because it kind of shifts if you look at it too long.” That didn’t seem all that helpful. “D-Did it hurt when I tried to touch it before?” He realized he hadn’t answered her question the first time. “You made a face and…”

“No, it was just weird.”

“Can you feel any of these other things?” She picked up a wingnut and waited for him to open his palm to accept it. Neither of them were particularly surprised when it fell right through to clink on the floor, bouncing a couple times before settling. “I’m guessing not.”

“No.”

Kagome sighed before bending down to pick up what she’d dropped. “Anything here you are particularly attached to? Family heirloom or a favorite hammer or something?”

Inuyasha snorted, crossing his arms as much as a show if his frustration as protecting that mysterious spot in his chest. He didn’t like that she could see it and he couldn’t. “No. It’s not like this place was handed down over generations or anything. I bought it myself.” He followed her as she started walking down one of the aisles. “And I’m not some weirdo who names his tools.”

“Where do you last remember being?” she asked, now more than several steps ahead of him. “Were you out on the floor, or in the office?”

“I don’t remember,” he growled. “I woke up out here though. The office is shut, and I can’t open the door.”

Kagome stopped suddenly, her head tilting in confusion. “You can’t go through it?” He stared at her. “The screw went through you. You should be able to…”

“Wingnut.”

“What did you call me?” she demanded, fists pressing to her hips as she whirled on him. Wow. She’s kinda pretty when she’s angry… Inuyasha shook his head.

“That’s what that thing was called. That you dropped through my hand.” He held in a snicker as she visibly deflated, awkward after bristling like a cat for no reason. Even if he thought she was a little ridiculous for putting herself in a potentially dangerous situation, for sticking around when any sensible person would have run in the opposite direction, he had to admire her guts.

“Whatever. The p-point is, if that thing went through you, you should be able to go through the door too.”

“I’ve tried,” he insisted. Kagome nodded, turning to keep going down their current aisle, obviously looking for… something.

What am I doing here? Kagome wondered for the umpteenth time. It was nearing midnight, and she was still scrounging around the hardware store with what could likely be a ghost haunting her heels. She hadn’t spotted anything that screamed “vessel for a sealed youkai!” so far. It was all just… normal hardware and tools that she couldn’t name even half of if her life depended on it.

And even if she did find it! What then? She had no experience dealing with this kind of thing. Up until Inuyasha spoke to her, she didn’t even believe in this kind of thing.

She glanced again at the office door. Inuyasha swore that he couldn’t get in, and seemed to be avoiding it for some reason. It was beginning to strike her that he may not even realize that he was avoiding it. A strong clue if ever there was one…

“What are you… I told you, it’s locked.” The knob was cold in her palm. It stuck at first, then twisted with a jingly crunchy kind of sound. The door didn’t budge. “See I…” There was a pop of the wood coming free of the jamb. “...told you. The hell?”

Kagome was already through the doorway and looking around. Her phone flashlight seemed dim, especially in the dust that had kicked up at her entrance. She coughed when some of it caught in her throat. “Could use a vacuum in here.”

“Aisle four.”

“You don’t have electricity at all,” she reminded him, eyes surveying all the surfaces. An older model computer, a very old dot matrix printer, and a short stack of notebooks sat on the old school steel and Formica desk. “Wow. Not much on updated tech, huh?”

“Look, it got the job done, alright? Prints invoices.”

“Not anything else though…” Kagome nudged the notebooks, but nothing happened. Stepping behind the desk, tiny light scanning the floor and then the wall, she stopped when the light flashed back at her much brighter than before. “Whoa.”

“Oh. Tetsusaiga.” He sounded nonchalant about it, but when she saw what he was referring to, Kagome could only blink in awe. “Now that is a family heirloom. Sort of. Gift from my father, anyway.” A ragged looking sword if one didn’t know what they were looking at, it was stored on a pair of hand carved wall mounts. The blade could use a little work, but the hilt and guard were obviously well made.

More than that, though, was the aura oozing off of it.

Kagome would never consider herself spiritual. Her grandfather had a million and one stories to tell on the subject, but she had always just blown them off as things that happened to other people. He swore her family was mystical, but not once had she ever experienced anything that led her to believe that was true.

Until now.

“I-Inuyasha? I… I think that might be where you are?”

“What?”

“I just… it’s a hunch.” She stepped closer, reaching up to gingerly touch the hilt. There was a shock and she snatched her hand back, sucking her fingers to alleviate the sting. She gasped when a cool presence wrapped around her hand, squeaking when she realized it was Inuyasha’s touch she was feeling as he cupped her hand in his. “Wh-”

“Are you hurt?” Kagome shook her head, eyes still wide at his proximity. “Good.” His gaze moved away from her though his hands still hovered around hers. “Maybe you’re onto something though…”

Inuyasha finally let go of her and moved toward the wall. Kagome watched him hesitate before finally reaching up and touching the hilt himself. There was no outward shock like when she touched it, but maybe he couldn’t actually touch it because of his… not-solid state.

Kagome stumbled back when that not-so-solid state shifted and she couldn’t see through him for a brief moment. The chair rattled and clattered against the desk, the steel legs screeching horribly on the floor. “Oh!” Inuyasha turned at the sudden commotion, losing contact with the sword and immediately shifting to translucent once more.

“What are you doing?” he growled, dark eyes a little wild in his startled face. “Kagome?”

“Touch it again.”

“Huh?”

“Touch the sword again!” He jumped at her panicked tone, but complied rather obediently. Reaching up, he placed his fingertips and then his palm on the hilt, wrapping his fingers around it. Once again, Kagome noticed how the light from her phone didn’t go completely through him. “You’re more… visible.” Inuyasha looked down at himself, obviously noticing the same. “Can you feel your hand?” she asked, nodding in the direction of where he was seemingly gripping the leather wrapped handle.

“I… Maybe?”

Kagome shook off her initial shock and stepped closer, reaching out her finger until she encountered the slightest resistance. “What about that?” she breathed.

“Y-Yea. I can.” Their gazes met and she couldn’t miss how his eyes glowed in the dim light from her phone. His gaze shifted to the office door over her shoulder as if looking at the room for the first time. “Wait…” He let go and moved across the room. “The sheath shouldn’t be…” Kagome watched him look to the wall and back to the door where she could see that a smooth wooden sword sheath was attached. Now that she looked a little closer, there was another set of mounts on the wall. A little smaller and closer together, it was obviously the place meant for the sheath to be displayed.

“Does it have… abilities?” Looking at it with squinting eyes, she felt like there was something about it. Not the same strong aura that Tetsusaiga gave off, but something…

“I didn’t think so.” But it was clear he was second guessing that assumption. Kagome screamed when he went flying backward, collapsing to the floor just short of the desk. The moment he tried to touch the sheath, he’d been repelled. “Shit. What the hell was that?” He pushed himself to his feet. “You’re supposed to protect me, you asshole!”

Kagome pressed her lips together to hold in a laugh as Inuyasha shook his fist at the sheath, grumbling under his breath. “Let me try,” she soothed, stepping past him and shining her light on it. It almost seemed like it was shoved into the wood of the door, but that didn’t make much sense. She tilted the door more open and there was no indication in the wood that there was something in it. No bowing or cracks. Closing the door again, Kagome eyed the sheath for a moment before taking a fortifying breath and letting it out slowly. “Here goes.”

“Ka-” He was stunned silent when it didn’t shock her like the sword had, accepting her fingers on the smooth wood.

It was well polished at one point, though she could feel the dust that had collected on its surface over the last several years. Hands trembling a little, Kagome gripped it in both. A wiggle, a yank… It wasn’t budging. “Ugh. Just let go!”

Pop.

Chapter Text

The trip across the street felt more than a bit harrowing. He kept fearing he would be yanked back into the hardware store and he’d be right back at step one. Or worse. What if he came un… tethered? Or something. Then he’d never be able to get back to his life!

But it seemed like reuniting the Tetsusaiga with its sheath had been a key factor in his… mobility.

“Go slow.”

“Geez, I am.” Kagome grumbled to herself and he cursed being human – or semi-human. Astral human? – for the moment because he couldn’t hear her very well. “I’ll get you in here and then we can take a second to think things through, alright?”

With Tetsusaiga strapped across her back in a poster canister, Kagome was fiddling with her keys to get the bookstore open for them. “Are you sure you want me in here?” he asked uncertainly. Something told him it wasn’t going to solve much of anything. Just a change in location for the same problem. “I’ll probably be completely invisible again come morning.”

“We’ll take it one step at a time. You’ve never been able to leave the hardware store before now. You might be able to be… visible.” She paused, staring at the door with the keys still in her hands. “Does that mean you’re going to be visible to customers? I don’t wanna make you hide all day.” He jolted. Why… Why is she worried about that? He hadn’t even questioned that he would be hiding all day. The door creaking open brought him back to reality and he followed her inside.

Not that he had much choice.

She flipped the lights on as they entered the back hallway. “Here, this way. Might be kind of messy. I haven’t been up to clean in a while…” He wasn’t sure what she meant until she opened another door into a stairwell going up.

“You have the apartment above too?” She nodded, focused on switching Tetsusaiga around to her front so she could make it up the narrow stairs. The canister was too long and she got stuck on the handrail at first but, with it in front of her, she was able to maneuver more easily.

Inuyasha on the other hand felt like he’d forgotten how stairs worked at all. It had been five years since he’d needed to use them and he wasn’t even actually there. How was it that his feet didn’t go through the treads? What if he like… lost focus and fell through the floor? “C’mon. You’re slow.” Kagome was standing at the top landing, staring at him in the yellowed light of a naked overhead bulb. “Are you afraid?”

“No!” It burst out of him before he could even think about it, a knee-jerk reaction. She didn’t seem to believe him, carefully setting the canister down and tramping down the stairs again, stopping practically nose to nose with him. Which meant she was standing on the second step while he was still on the main floor. Kagome gave him a very serious look, brows lowering over her dark eyes, then pursed her lips in thought. “Wh-What?”

“Hmph.” Without warning, she reached out, taking hold of his hand and pulling him up the stairs after her. Inuyasha was too stunned to even react, following along like a leashed puppy. It wasn’t until they were at the top and walking into the small above-store apartment that he realized he could feel her hand.

She’d been able to physically grab him.

The clunk of the canister holding his sword on a worn oak table brought him back to reality and he hissed at the rough treatment. “Oi. Careful with that.”

“Sorry.” While the remorse was clear in her voice, she was obviously distracted. Inuyasha took in the apartment with a mix of confusion and amusement.

There were stacks upon stacks of boxes lined up in semi-organized lines. Huge ledgers were stacked on what was supposed to be a kitchen counter. He recognized them as the old man’s “filing system” from the scant few times he’d ventured into the book store years ago. “Still using these?”

Kagome glanced up from where she was shifting boxes away from the saggy couch that may have once been maroon but had become some sickly shade of pinkish over time. “Oh god. No. Well… I’m still digitizing a lot of them. It’s taking forever. Jii-chan’s handwriting has gotten really bad over the last few years. Makes it almost impossible to read any of it.” She groaned as one of the boxes split at the corner, the books inside trying to spill out. “But there are repeat customers who have been coming here since they were kids or whatever and they expect there to be a record of every book they’ve ever purchased here.”

“That’s insane.”

“That’s Gramps for you,” she replied with a defeated shrug.

“And here you were making fun of my printer.” The sharp look she shot his way made him grin. She was kind of fun to irritate. Inuyasha cruised along the boxes, looking at the labels. Many had scribbles in Japanese that he could only barely read with bold handwritten script underneath to clarify. She has nice handwriting, he mused, translucent fingertip running across the swoop of a few letters on one of the labels. “Is this all inventory?”

“Uh. A lot, yes. But there’s a lot a lot of trades or less popular books that I just haven’t gotten around to cataloging yet. There’s receipts for them, but I haven’t been able to add them to the system yet so I can actually sell them.”

Inuyasha blinked at a box that was actually full of scrolls, not books at all. “What the…”

“Oh! Yea, probably don’t… touch those.” He took a step back. Something told him to listen to her. “They’re Shinto writings. Jii-chan swore they held spiritual power. Which, I dunno about that, but better safe than sorry. At least until we can get you back to… being you.” He looked away, staring out the small window at the faintly brightening sky.

“You really think you can?” he asked, voice rough.

“I found the anchor for your seal and got you out of that store, didn’t I?” His gaze went back to where she stood in front of the now clear couch, half a stack of books in her hands. She looked tired, determined, and maybe a little pouty. Cute.

“I ‘spose you did, yea.” She brightened considerably.

“See. Look on the bright side. At least you’re not still stuck there by yourself. You’ve got company here!” Her smile was bright, her eyes crinkling just a bit in the corners.

He’d never really been worried about being alone before, but Inuyasha could admit that hearing her tell him he wasn’t anymore was… Reassuring.

“This was a mistake. I should have stayed alone in my damned store!” Inuyasha growled as he chased down yet another small youkai that had taken up residence in one of the books stashed in the apartment above the book store.

For some reason, his presence had woken up slews of tsukumogami, pests of the youkai world that inhabited inanimate objects. They were everywhere! Inuyasha found they liked to wait until Kagome was busy downstairs to come out, then hide when she came up to see what he was yelling about, only to make him look like he was losing his mind. Inuyasha had yet to catch one of the damn bastards long enough to show Kagome what he was dealing with.

They were ultimately harmless… until they weren’t.

“Where did all you assholes come from?” he growled, ears flicking back and forth as he tried to listen for movement. The one in his hand was in a teapot. Not the most mobile of objects, even when it sprouted legs, but the other one was some kind of umbrella… or what used to be one. It should have been easy to find and catch and yet…

“Another one?” Kagome’s voice called up the stairs. Inuyasha flinched, almost fumbling the teapot he was clutching so tightly it squeaked.

“Couple of ‘em, yea!” He decided it was more important to show her the one he held rather than catch both of them right now. “C’mere!” He heard her feet on the stairs, the little youkai in his hand trembling as she approached. As soon as the door opened, it tried to scrabble out of his hold, but he didn’t let it go. “See!”

“Oh! How cute is that?” Kagome’s eyes were wide and bright, sparkling with delight.

“Keh. Not cute! They’re a menace.” The teapot squealed in protest.

“Don’t hurt it…”

“Kagome, they are like rats. And if you leave them be, they turn into human-eating rats.” She pouted up at him. Why did seeing her look like that not feel great? He sighed. “They will overrun your store. They break stuff and they’ll run off your customers.”

“But… They have to have been here a while and I never noticed them. It’s not like they all just showed up because you’re here now.” She had a point, but he wasn’t entirely sure that was true. If she hadn’t noticed them before, either they hadn’t been causing problems, or they’d all been sleeping undisturbed up in the upper level until he was brought in.

She didn’t wait for a response, going over to a box full of older books. “What are you looking for?” Inuyasha asked with a sigh. While her curious streak was kind of endearing, right now he just wanted to get rid of this thing and get back to figuring out the seal that kept him in this odd incorporeal state where Kagome could see and touch him but he couldn’t go more than about fifty feet from his sword.

The small triumphant sound Kagome made startled him into almost dropping his catch, the lid of the teapot rattling. “We need to release the spirit from the object so it can move on.”

“Huh? That’s… a thing?” Not that he’d had much experience with them in the past – he’d never really had anything long enough to have it acquire a spirit before – but he wouldn’t have guessed that there was any solution other than destroying it. “How do we do that?”

Kagome read several paragraphs from the book in her hands aloud, listing the suggested steps for removing the tsukumogami from the object so it could be free. “Sounds simple enough.”

Inuyasha stared at her incredulously. “You’re kidding, right? What are you gonna…” Kagome approaching him as though on a mission startled him into silence and he took a step back reflexively. She only had eyes for the teapot, though.

It was with still widened eyes that he watched her whisper to the teapot, the little thing animating it gurgling in delight. And then it was gone.

“See…” Kagome stiffened as she looked up at him, the smile freezing and melting off her lips. “You…”

“Me what?” he wanted to know, almost dropping the now lifeless teapot as he looked down at himself. Which was easier to do than usual.

“You’re less see-through.” Inuyasha blinked, looked again, then twisted to try and look at the rest of himself. Sure enough, he was noticeably less transparent. He jumped when he felt Kagome’s finger in his shoulder. Usually it was a vague warmth. That time, it was a poke. “Did you eat that spirit?” Kagome whispered, half awed, half worried.

“No! I… I don’t think so.” Other than being able to feel Kagome’s touch a bit more clearly, he didn’t feel any different. But it was pretty obvious that something about releasing the tsukumogami had changed his situation. “Do you think it might help if we do it again?” he whispered, afraid to disturb the current balance. Kagome’s face turned thoughtful, going back to the book in her hand.

The bell downstairs startled them both and she apologized as she took off down the stairs. He called after her to quit running. If she falls, there’s nothing I can do…

Except, if he could get more and more solid until he was free, then maybe he would be able to keep her safe.

It had been over a week of him catching little creatures and Kagome setting them free once she could take a break from work. They didn’t tend to come out at night for some reason. Maybe it’s because they spend all their energy during the day terrorizing me, Inuyasha thought with a sneer.

Inuyasha sighed at the sun setting through the window. Kagome would be up soon to say goodbye for the night. She made a point to let him know he was not alone here, that she still could see him. It had exasperated him at first, but now he had come to anticipate that time with her. In the calm after the store was closed and the tsukumogami were settled, they could talk.

With her dinner in hand, she came up the stairs just as predicted, calling out to him so as not to startle him. As if he couldn’t hear her coming a mile away and his nose didn’t twitch to try to catch the scent of what she was going to eat. Not that he could smell it. The instinct was too strong even if he didn’t have an actual physical body nor the senses that went with that.

“Any more tonight?” she wanted to know as she put the tray in the microwave and dug a spoon out of a box on the counter. Because of the recent history of tsukumogami taking over kitchen things – namely the teapot, a dish set, and at least one sake cup – Kagome had been sticking to disposable utensils with her dinners lately. Inuyasha couldn’t blame her. He couldn’t imagine trying to take a bite of mashed potatoes and the spoon trying to bite you.

“No. Been quiet for now.”

She nodded and it wasn’t hard to miss the extra droop of her head after. She was tired.

Inuyasha glanced around. The couch was probably alright for sleeping on for a short time. A nap, maybe. He lay there at night even though he didn’t sleep because he couldn’t actually feel it. Kagome on the other hand would be sore come morning if she tried to sleep on that thing. “Where did someone sleep when they lived in there?”

The slightly uneven blink of her eyes as she turned to look at him was too much. “Uh… There’s a futon in here somewhere.” She almost didn’t set down her food before turning. Inuyasha crowded her back until she sat at the table, motioning that she eat while he went off in search of it himself. He couldn’t move any of the boxes or other objects – unless they had a tsukumogami in them, he’d discovered earlier that day – so all he could do was look for it. “Why? Do you want to stretch out more?”

“Not me. You. You’re not making it home like that, Kagome. You’ll fall asleep and miss your stop.” Or worse, something could happen to her because she was vulnerable. “Did you see it while you were moving stuff?” Kagome stopped mid bite, spoon hanging out of her mouth as she concentrated on trying to remember. As she was thinking, he watched her eyes scanning the apartment as though mentally cataloging everything in it. She did something similar when looking for certain books and he wondered, not for the first time, if she had a photographic memory.

“I’ll be fine!” She tried to insist, her indignation only making him more sure that she had no business being out in the city alone. “I… I’ve only ever missed my stop once.”

“You realize that’s the opposite of reassuring?” Inuyasha peered around several boxes in the last place he’d noticed Kagome’s gaze and, sure enough, spotted a dusty rolled futon. The lumps along the surface said it needed to be fixed or replaced, but it would still be better than the sagging and squeaky couch. “It’s here. You’ll have to move a couple boxes, but there’s almost enough room to roll it out.” He hated that there was nothing he could do to help.

When she finished her food, she came over to investigate. She let out a yawn before setting her shoulders and putting in the effort to at least shove the boxes out of the way so she could unroll the futon. The dust set her to coughing for a moment until she followed Inuyasha’s instructions and laid a cleaner sheet over top, trapping most of the dust. “I’ll open the windows in the morning,” she mumbled.

“Yea. Right now? Bed.”

“Hey. Who made you the boss?” she pouted, elbowing him in the ribs. The faint warmth of her touch made him blink, looking down at his torso in surprise. “I’m not doing this because you told me to,” Kagome told him with mock sternness, wagging her finger in front of his nose. She must have completely missed his stunned expression in reaction to feeling something different, too focused on her waning defiance.

“R-Right. Of course not.” Inuyasha followed after her without thinking about it, stopping short when she did just before kneeling on the edge of the bed. Were he more solid, he would have knocked her over, but as it was, all he felt was the warmth she left across his front. “Just get rest, Kagome. I’ll make sure you’re up in time to open the store.”

She was already curled up on her side. “Mmm. Thanks, ‘Yasha.”

Watching her drift off, Inuyasha felt himself floating downward to the futon beside her. Would she feel it if he touched her? She hadn’t reacted before, but she had been taking so much of their situation in stride, it was hard to gauge if she was actually surprised by any of it. What’s more, she was so tired, it was entirely possible she didn’t even realize that she’d bumped into him not once, but twice.

Softness. That was all he could really feel, though he suspected that might be psychological more than anything. Kagome’s hair curled and slipped around his fingers. No warmth there, but he hadn’t expected to feel that from her hair alone. “Sleep well, Kagome,” he murmured, drifting away again to keep watch.

It had been another busy week in the store and Kagome was exhausted. Trudging up the stairs with the yellowed light above her head, she tried to brush off how creeped out she was. She kept meaning to replace that bulb with a brighter, more efficient one, but it was so high up… Odds were she would end up hanging a flashlight at the bottom of the stairs and use that instead when the bulb finally gave out. Maybe Inuyasha will be free soon and he can do it, she thought with a slight grin. He would complain about it, but he would do it for her if it meant she wouldn’t be climbing a ladder to try and do it herself.

Over the last several weeks, they had been going through the old objects in the apartment, looking for anything that might have become – or arrived as – a tsukumogami. It would figure Jii-chan would accept creepy old knickknacks without really asking why people were so desperate to get rid of them. When Kagome called to ask him about it, she could almost hear him shrug. “I cleansed the bad luck from those things for them.”

“No. You really didn’t,” Kagome grumbled under her breath as she got to the top of the stairs.

“Didn’t what?” She squeaked in surprise as she ran headfirst into a far too sturdy chest. At least… far sturdier than it had been a couple weeks ago. It was slow progress, finding and releasing all the spirits that had accumulated in the apartment, but it was rewarding in several ways. The almost gleeful noises the little youkai made as they turned to energy and disappeared warmed her heart every time. As their numbers dwindled, so did the ominous sensation she’d always felt in the upper apartment. It was more and more comfortable up there which allowed her to get more done in cataloging all the books that had been, and needed to be, sold.

Most importantly, each one made Inuyasha more and more substantial.

As of a few days ago, he was able to move objects that were not infested with youkai. Not very far, but he could do it. It was a huge improvement over the first day they’d met when the best he could do was let her know he was there with a cold presence on her skin. Waking up the next morning – feeling hungover from the stress and lack of sleep – Kagome had been startled to only hear his voice and not be able to see him at all. It took a few nights before he seemed “charged” enough to be even slightly visible.

In hindsight, Kagome wondered if in moving boxes those first few days to make space for him, she had unknowingly set some of the weaker tsukumogami free, which in turn gave Inuyasha the ability to be more visible. They might never know. And even knowing that it helped now didn’t mean they had figured out how to fully break the seal on Inuyasha.

“Nothing,” she murmured, rubbing her forehead and lightly nudging him back so she could actually enter the apartment. She had been sleeping here most nights lately, too tired to make it all the way back to her actual apartment. Inuyasha had commented that maybe she could get a real mattress there instead of the old futon in desperate need of restuffing, but she hadn’t the energy nor the time to do that. “Catch anything while I was downstairs?” She hardly listened for the answer, still plodding her way toward the kitchen table.

A not so gentle tug redirected her toward the bed before she could even adjust, unceremoniously plopping down with her head just barely making the pillow.

“Hey!”

“You’re falling asleep on your feet, Kagome. Go the fuck to sleep.”

“Excu – yawn – se you, I am…” His golden eyes stare was hard. “Alright, I’m a little tired.”

His mouth pressed into a thin line. “This is taking it out of you. I don’t know how, but I can tell.” She blinked up at him blearily. “You look… lifeless sometimes. I don’t like it.”

“I just need a long weekend.”

“Close up shop for a few days then. People can wait for their books.”

“Nooo….”

“Kagome… Yes. You need to.” Kagome tried to roll over and off the futon but found herself weighed down. “Nuh uh. Go to sleep. In the morning you can put a sign up that you’re closed for a family thing or something.” Blinking, she tried to remember to breathe. Is he… holding me? Looking down, sure enough, Kagome could see and feel his arm over her waist. Almost like he was entirely there. “Sleep,” he growled, and she swore she could feel the vibration of it. The rumble persisted and it didn’t take long – despite her internal panic – to fall asleep.

When morning came, she was alone and Inuyasha had either snuck off somewhere in the apartment she couldn’t see or willingly made himself invisible. He didn’t do that often, but he had a few times when he was particularly frustrated with his situation and didn’t want to be perceived for a while.

Kagome was a little glad for the opportunity to collect herself before seeing him. What happened the night before was… uncharacteristic, to say the least. Or at least a lot more forward than she would ever have expected him to be. Not that anything had happened. But him openly touching her that way was very rare. He had been protective, sure, scolding her for not being careful on the stairs or being too close when releasing even the most aggressive tsukumogami. The ones that tried to bite with whatever part of the object stood in for a mouth were the funnier ones to her, though she could see why Inuyasha would be worried. He saw the danger because that’s what he had always been told the true nature of youkai was. But physical affection seemed to be a foreign concept to the hanyou.

His parents had been gone for some time, a fact that Inuyasha had revealed rather reluctantly, but it was obvious that they had loved him very much. His mother especially held a soft place in his heart. After they passed, he was left in a world that didn’t truly understand him for being a part of both the human and youkai cultures, leaving him to be neither.

He made his way on his own, showing his resourcefulness and resilience, but it had not been an easy road. Vocational school had been recommended to him because “a hanyou wouldn’t get into college” but it ended up being the right path for him. He learned all about electrical and plumbing, even basic carpentry, setting him up for “a life of odd jobs.” But it paid his bills. He was good at it and it allowed him to save up rather quickly until he spotted the rundown hardware store in this neighborhood and decided to buy it off the old man who could no longer keep it up.

The customers had been wary of him initially, but warmed up over time as he continually showed how competent he was and by doing small favors by printing off invoices and then never accepting money for them. It became known as the place to go if you weren’t sure how to start a project, or if you needed help finishing it, and Inuyasha was the one to ask if you needed a specific tool and didn’t know where to get it. More than a few people still talked about that one thing they couldn’t do themselves that he came by, got it done, and then didn’t even charge them for it.

He’s a really good guy.

Inuyasha had been surprisingly accepting of her occasional – purely accidental, of course – signs of affection in the past couple of weeks. He looked like maybe he felt a little awkward after she hugged him last week in relief when a more ferocious tsukumogami had tried to make a run for the stairs and he managed to catch it (and stop her) before going down them. She had caught him playing with her hair more than once, but she mostly chalked that up to him seeing what he could and couldn’t do depending on the incremental change in his form.

Though he did seem to do it when he thought she was asleep and wouldn’t notice.

Kagome flushed as she remembered that he’d gone quite a few steps past touching her hair last night. The fact that she could feel him almost as though he was completely solid still threw her for a loop, but she wouldn’t be able to test it any further until he reappeared from wherever it was he was hiding.

She heard a noise down the hall, sitting up to peek down into the dimly lit passage. “Inuyasha?”

Chapter Text

A rattling in the closet perked his ears, golden eyes narrowing.

Here he was, trying to have an existential crisis, and some stupid haunted broom or other bullshit was interrupting. He tried to ignore it for a bit longer, but the noise was beginning to get loud enough that it would end up waking Kagome. Which he didn’t want for multiple reasons. She needed the sleep, for one, and for two, he wasn’t ready to face her quite yet.

Inuyasha snarled to himself when the rattling became a crash. “Dammit. What the hell are you…”

The door burst open, the knob sticking into the plaster wall with the force of it. Out crawled something that had probably been some kind of mannequin but now looked like a beast that had dragged itself from the depth of one of the many hells. “Eat,” it groaned, lurching into the narrow hallway toward the main part of the apartment. Inuyasha threw himself out of the bathroom where he’d been having a pretty solid sulk until this point, chasing after it.

“Kagome!” he shouted in warning. “Youkai!” It was almost into the living room by the time he caught up to it. He tried to catch hold, only to be batted backward like a rag doll. “K-Kagome,” he coughed. His chest felt tight. He didn’t have a physical body, yet it felt like maybe that thing had just knocked the wind out of him. He didn’t have time to think about that though. He needed to get to Kagome!

Her screech was enough to have him flying, throwing himself bodily into the side of the creature so that it canted sideways just as it was about to try and grab her. “Inuyasha!” Not even sure how it got there, just knowing it felt right, Tetsusaiga was in his hand. It slid free of the sheath, feeling heavy for only a moment. It was second nature to swing it in front of them protectively, keeping Kagome at his back. “Is that…”

He didn’t have time to answer her, keeping the now huge blade of his sword between them and the creature that had just crawled out of the hall closet.

“That looks like that old dress form that was in the… oh,” Kagome murmured as she glanced down the hallway. “Guess that’s exactly what it is.”

“Thing reeks of jealousy.”

“You can smell that?” she asked incredulously. It didn’t occur to him until much later that he hadn’t really been able to smell anything the entire time he’d been sealed. Except Kagome. But he could definitely smell the stench of obsession and envy all over this thing.

He scoffed, dismissing her question. The dress form had been on a single metal pole, but the youkai inhabiting it had split it into two slightly uneven limbs. Calling them legs would have been far too generous. Inuyasha snarled when it leaned toward them, no discernible face to focus on. Was it even looking at them? “Just go quietly like the rest, alright?” Kagome started murmuring the little chant she had been using with all the other tsukumogami under her breath, as though practicing her lines. The creature screeched at them, lunging forward. Inuyasha swing his sword, missing the thing entirely and only narrowly avoiding a kitchen chair. “Kagome, you need to…”

“I’m not leaving you here alone, no matter what you say.”

“How do you know that’s what I’m gonna say, huh?”

“I know you, idiot. You were going to tell me to make a run for it while you distracted it!” Refuting her assertion would be futile because it didn’t matter now and she was – frustratingly – right. “Inuyasha!” A ringing sound followed by an earsplitting squeal made him cringe as the Tetsusaiga caught the edge of a pair of fabric shears the youkai must have found while in the closet. “What do we do?”

“Keh. Gotta subdue it first, then you can do your hocus pocus.”

The fact that she didn’t say a word should have been his first hint that something was wrong. The deranged dress form lunged again, his attention solely on protecting Kagome from that thing. When he suddenly realized that he no longer felt her warmth at his back, he finally turned to look over his shoulder.

The blood he didn’t currently have rain cold in the veins that were still technically transparent.

Focused on the dress form, they had missed the dress that must have been on it. It was long sleeved, a ball gown in the works, with red fabric that probably shined at one point. Now it was drab and filled with the envy of who knew how many people. Envy it was now directing at Kagome as it encased her and used the sleeves to try and strangle her. Her face was terrified, but she couldn’t say anything, no air entering her lungs to cry out. Only the hum of Tetsusaiga in his hands and the look in her eyes alerted him to the sharp shears just before they would have sunk into his shoulder.

With a roar, Inuyasha swung the great blade in a horizontal arc, cleaving the dress form in two. He couldn’t wait to see if the damage was permanent, taking the reprieve to sheathe Tetsusaiga and go after the dress with his bare hands. His claws ripped into the sleeves, tearing them away from Kagome’s throat until she could take in even the barest gasp of a breath.

It was not enough.

The bodice of the dress was compressing her ribs now too, keeping her from taking anything more than a sip of air. “I-Inu…”

“I’ll get you out, Kagome,” he promised. With a snarl, he tried to grab any part of the skirt, the youkai whirling Kagome around and out of his reach.

The lacing up the back of the dress caught his eye and he slit his claws through it, catching the youkai off guard just enough that it allowed Kagome to take in a full and desperate breath. When he was able to get hold of the dress itself, he flinched. Needles!

Pins, he realized, when he got a better look. Old pins that had to have been left in the dress when it was being formed on the mold he’d already dealt with. Was Kagome getting stuck all this time too?

All the more determined, Inuyasha didn’t let go of the dress, pulling the bodice as wide as he could to allow Kagome the chance to breathe again. “Rip it,” she gasped. Easier said than done. Still, there had to be a weakness somewhere.

A loose seam!

Right where the lacing ran back and forth through the back, there was a seam with the threads showing. The problem was, it was right over Kagome’s shoulder blade and he ran the very real risk of cutting her too. He debated it for only a second before his index claw was sunk into the top of the seam and he was yanking downward.

The dress screeched in pain, but its writhing to get away from him allowed Kagome to take a full enough breath to begin shouting the incantation… prayer – whatever it was – that had allowed all the other youkai free. Twice. Three times.

Finally on the fourth, the dress went entirely limp and loosened from Kagome’s frame, falling to the floor. Inuyasha was left staring at her still form as her shirt back fluttered apart and tiny pinpricks of red began to well up all over her.

“K-Kagome?” She nodded but didn’t move. “Are you… Did I…” None of the blood was because of him, but still, he was terrified he’d hurt her with how rough he’d had to be to get the dress to let her go. What if she was afraid of him now?

“They’re gone,” he almost didn’t hear her whisper. “All of them.” Without thinking about it, Inuyasha sniffed to catch the scent of anything that might have snuck by them. He was nearly bowled over with all the smells in the small space, just now realizing that his sense of smell had returned.

Looking down at the floor, it was hard to miss that he could no longer see the floorboards through his bare feet. Nor could he see Kagome when he lifted his hand up in front of his face. “Kagome, I’m…”

Inuyasha jolted when her head popped up and she turned sharply to look at him. “You’re…”

Free.

Neither of them could say it aloud.

Inuyasha’s feet hesitated to move, to bring him closer to her, as if the spell might be broken and return him to a ghost if he got too close. The smell of her blood compelled him far more strongly than his fear. He needed to stop it, to make it go away. He gently clasped her arms, nudging her past the fallen dress form and down the hallway to the bathroom. Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror was a bizarre experience, seeing as he hadn’t in five years.

He fumbled in the medicine cabinet, desperate for something to clean up the pin pricks.

“I… I can do it.” Her voice was soft but it still rang in the small tiled room. Maybe it was because his hearing was back to normal, but he felt like there was a tone he didn’t recognize. Kagome didn’t normally sound like that… “I’ll just shower,” she said to clarify.

“But…”

“They’re kind of everywhere,” Kagome whispered and he could see the flush up the back of her neck and her cheeks. Which didn’t hide the beginning redness that would likely turn to bruises from where the youkai had tried to strangle her.

“Alright,” Inuyasha conceded reluctantly. He didn’t want to just let her take care of it on her own, he wanted to help. But Kagome needed him to respect her space and she was telling him she didn’t want him in it right now. “I’ll start cleaning up.” When she didn’t react, he found his fingers brushing hers, jolting her attention to him. “Are you…”

“I heard you. Thank you.”

Inuyasha stepped out, carefully closing the door behind him. She was acting so stiff. Though, given what she’d just been through, maybe it was to be expected. The inuhanyou hesitated a moment longer until the sound of the water starting told him she was actually following through.

The living room was an even bigger disaster than usual. Normally it was some kind of cozy chaos. Stacked boxes and carefully piled books sitting next to sorted knickknacks and other antiques. An organized mess. Now?

Now it looked like some idiot was swinging a too large sword around.

Sighing as he started with the remains of the dress form and the dress, Inuyasha made his way through the room to clear a path between the hall and the futon and then worked his way outward until the floor between the futon and the couch was walkable. I’ll help her with the boxes once things are a little more settled.

A partially opened box caught his eye and he paused. Dusty VHS tapes sat haphazardly, the label peeling off of one of them. Tapes.

Inuyasha’s ears rang and his head pounded. “Tapes. There’s… There’s tapes!”

The tinkle of the bell above the door only brought her head up for a moment. Another elder lady with a stack of books up to her nose that she wanted to sell. Kagome accepted the pile, murmuring her little ditty of a spell over them as she put them in a box. There was the faintest sigh, hardly more than a breath, and whatever tiny spirit had begun taking residence in one of the volumes of Pickling: An Anthology took off for a likely more interesting life elsewhere.

She promised to evaluate the worth of the books and contact the woman, handing her a hand printed receipt so she could come back for them if she didn’t like the offer.

“You should charge extra for the exorcism.” Kagome jumped, but kept her back to the desk. “You’re an old pro at that part now. Pretty amazing skill, if you ask me.”

“N-No one asked you,” she murmured. “What are you doing here?” she wanted to know.

“Can’t I come see you?” Inuyasha wanted to know. “You stay open later than I do.”

The hardware store was back to business and bustling almost like nothing had happened. It was almost like Inuyasha hadn’t been through a horrible thing for the last five years and Kagome had never been a part of his life to begin with. Worth nothing more than a note scribbled on a torn piece of paper.

I have to tie up loose ends. Be safe.

- Inuyasha

She heard him shift his weight, the old floorboards creaking. “I’ll wait until you’re closed…”

“What are you doing here?” she asked again, setting down one of the books in her hand with a snap.

“They caught her. The miko that sealed me.” Kagome whipped around in spite of her determination not to. “I told you I needed to tie up loose ends.”

“I thought I was the loose end.” The inuhanyou shook his head. “You just… left. What else was I supposed to think?” Warmth. Strength. Despite the change in temperature, the sensation of his hands enfolding hers was the same as that first night in the office of his store.

“I remembered what happened that night I was sealed, and I remembered that I had cameras. I had to get the evidence to the cops before the tapes broke or something. Luckily I had old ass CCTV tapes and not the new digital kind that overwrite themselves after a set period of time.” The tiny curl of his lips told her he was trying to tease her about how she’d made fun of him for his outdated equipment. “Kagome? I had to make sure they weren’t coming back before…” He reached out to her but paused.

“Who?”

With a sigh, he began explaining the mess he’d gotten himself tangled up in over five years before. One of his customers was a restaurant owner in another part of town. The part of town often held in the grip of one organized crime group or another. The restaurant owner tried to get out, to move his shop to a different neighborhood, but over and over he was threatened into staying. The organizations liked his ramen but even better was that the environment allowed them to have meetings without raising immediate suspicion with the law. And even if they were suspicious, there was little they could prove other than the ramen was good and worth coming back for.

So after several failed attempts at moving, and more than a few black eyes for his trouble, Inuyasha had had enough of seeing his friend suffer. He stepped in, apparently beat up a few of the guys, and told them to let the ramen guy go or else. Except they decided on “or else” and that they were going to set the rules. They hired a dark miko to kill him, broke into his shop late at night, and planned to do the job.

They didn’t expect him to fight back so hard, nor for his sword to have the ability to protect him even when he wasn’t touching it.

“So that’s how I was sealed instead of… dead.”

“You could have actually been a ghost,” Kagome whispered. Inuyasha nodded. Reaching out, she pressed her fingertip into the top of his hand where it rested on her register counter.

“I’m still real,” he said gently. Her eyes flicked to his. They glowed in the light reflecting off the glass case holding small trinkets, all tsukumogami free. “Kagome, I’m sorry I left so suddenly and didn’t come back to explain. I was worried once I reappeared, those thugs would come after you when they saw us together.”

“Weak,” she sniffled, pressing her finger into his hand again. “You need a better excuse.”

She caught a glimmer of a smirk on his lips. “You don’t want to believe the truth? I had to defeat two whole youkai to be with you, but street thugs are no big deal, huh?”

“You don’t want to be with me,” she pouted, twisting to go back to the thick tomes featuring pages upon pages on radish preparation and the correct color and size of cucumbers for the perfect snap. She stopped short at the grip of a large hand on hers.

“Says who?” Kagome swallowed. “Pretty sure that’s not up to anyone but me and you.” Inuyasha vaulted the counter in one smooth movement, his much bigger frame crowding her in the tight space. “Kagome Higurashi. Go on a date with me.”

“Wh-Why should I?” she questioned him, entranced by the playful yet determined glint in his gaze.

“You rescued me from rotting away in the store and then unsealed me.” Warm palms cupped her elbows, bringing her closer. “I was ready to protect you with my life, use of the rest of my youki if I had to if it meant you were safe.”

“Don’t you think that might be what set you free? Releasing your youki into your sword to defeat the…”

“I only picked up Tetsusaiga to protect you. That rusty old thing has never done anything like that before. It transformed to protect you.” Kagome blinked back tears she didn’t ever realize were there.

“Why?” she needed to know.

Inuyasha did truly grin this time, leaning down and pressing his nose to hers. “Because you’re the most important thing I need to protect.” His whisper brushed over her lips, emphasizing how close he was. “Just one date, Kagome. If I annoy the shit out of you, kick me to the curb.”

She tossed him an annoyed look. “You’d give up that easily?”

“Of course not. Still giving you the option though.”

“False choice, huh?” He shrugged. Kagome chewed her lip in thought. “I guess one date would be alright.”

“It’ll be the best date you’ve ever been on.” She snorted, barely smothering laughter. Now was not the time to laugh, she was supposed to be mad at him. “I mean it. You tell me when you’re free and…”

Kagome wasn’t sure what exactly possessed her, but she kind of just wanted him to stop talking. He was digging a deeper hole with each ridiculous statement he made. Kissing him seemed like the most efficient way to get from point A to point B. Inuyasha’s lips were stiff at first, obviously startled, then softened to accept hers. A deep breath through his nose filled his chest as his arms came around her.

They were so… solid. He was so solid.

An odd thing to think about, but it was novel. His cheeks were warm against her palms as she cupped them, sighing against him as his lips kept her entranced. A slight opening deepened the kiss and Kagome whimpered faintly. When he finally backed off, it was only so far as to allow her to breathe, their noses still lightly touching. “The bar is pretty low, you know?”

“Wh-What?” he stammered, jerking back and looking hurt. “I know it’s been a long time since I kissed anyone but…”

Peals of laughter startled him silent. “N-No. Not that. Sorry!” Kagome couldn’t help the giggles that continued to escape her. “I meant for dates. I’ve… I’ve never really been on one before.”

He seemed perplexed by that. “How? You’re…”

“The granddaughter of a retired shrine priest turned bookshop owner who apparently thought he was exorcising bad luck from cursed objects for decades.” She pressed her lips together to hold another laugh. “Knowing what I do now, there are a bunch of times something must have interfered. I had a lot of… bad luck with men.” Inuyasha’s mouth curled ever so slightly with a sly grin. “You better not be thanking the tsukumogami right now.”

The inuhanyou’s grin only grew. “So what if I am? What are you gonna do about it? Go rescue some more of them so they can’t trip us up?” Kagome opened her mouth to protest, then pouted. “Win win situation for me.”

“How’s that, exactly?” she grumbled, poking him in his very solid chest.

“Well, either you need my help to set more of them free, or they get in the way of you seeing anyone else.” He shrugged. “Either way, I get another chance.”

“Who says I’ll give you one?”

She was a little startled by the way his smile softened. She’d never seen him make a face like that before. “You stuck by me when you thought I was a ghost. I think the real me stands a much better chance than that, right?” Kagome flushed. He was right, of course, but she wasn’t about to tell him that out loud. Not yet anyway.

“You better come up with a pretty amazing first date for this Saturday night.” Smothering a grin at the way his ears perked forward and the way his spine straightened, Kagome noted his golden eyes brightening. He was very pleased she was accepting his demand for a date.

“Best date you’ll ever go on. Until our next date, that is.”

She couldn’t help her giggle then. “Awfully confident you’ll get a second date, aren’t you?” The inuhanyou leaned down, nuzzling her nose again before taking her lips in a soft kiss. She smiled against him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, relishing the solid strength there.

The wet warmth of his tongue tracing her mouth had her opening to him, the heat between them rising. She hesitated a little, never having kissed anyone like this before. Or it felt different anyway… The fangs certainly added something new, she noticed, as she traced one with her tongue. A growl rumbled in his chest just before he lightly nipped her lip.

“You’re not getting rid of me, Kagome Higurashi. Not ever,” he whispered, heated and panting. His soft confident words had her chest feeling all fluttery. While she wanted to deny his claim, she was beginning to feel he was right.

And she was pretty alright with that.

“Planning to haunt me forever?” she teased lightly.

Inuyasha grinned. “The rest of my life, if you’ll let me.”

Kagome shivered at the thrill that went down her spine. “We’ll see after that date this weekend.”