Chapter Text
“But please, Miss Kagome,” Hisui moaned, “I really want some ice cream for dessert!”
“I already told you, though, Hisui,” Kagome sighed, “your mom said explicitly no ice cream. Not when Kin’u can’t have it. Tonight you can have anything else, okay? There are cookies, or cupcakes…”
“I don’t want cookies or cupcakes,” Hisui whined. “I just want ice cream!”
Kagome rubbed her temples and tried not to look annoyed. When she had agreed to babysit for her former professor, Sango Taijiya, and her husband, Miroku, she had expected a little bit of mayhem. Hisui was six, and Kagome had only spent two hours with the kid, but wow , was he a smooth operator and a master manipulator. Kin’u and Gyokuto were only three, but they very clearly bent to his will. Already he had convinced them to clean up his mess in the living room, give him some of their portion of the snack AND of dinner (chicken nuggets and French fries; he basically said, “Give me three nuggets” and each girl obeyed). Sango had warned her that Hisui would try to test her boundaries, and Kagome was pretty sure she was ready for anything. She was, after all, going to be a kindergarten teacher in the fall. But Hisui was...challenging at best, and a pain in the ass at worst. Kagome had to figure out how to find the healthy balance between giving him what he wanted, and finding a good compromise.
This one, however, was something she had been instructed absolutely not to bend on. Kin’u was lactose intolerant, and had to eat a special, dairy-free ice cream, which Sango and Miroku did not have in the house. Until Sango was able to get to the store to pick up said dairy-free ice cream, Hisui and Gyokuto had to wait to have their ice cream. Because, as Sango had explained to Kagome (with a roll of her eyes) that if one had something, then everyone had to have it, and if they couldn’t...epic meltdown.
One would have thought that, at six, Hisui would have been able to understand the concept of “your sister will get sick if she eats this so just hold on a bit longer and literally you can eat anything else you want.” But, nope.
“Why. Can’t. I. Have. ICE CREAM?!” His voice was building with each word, until it became a full-fledged, piercing howl that made Kagome want to cover her ears.
“Hisui,” Kagome explained, hoping she sounded more patient than she felt, “I have explained this already. Kin’u can’t eat your ice cream; she needs a special kind of ice cream that Mom and Dad don’t have in the house. Your mom asked me to not give any of you ice cream, so Kin’u doesn’t feel bad. Could you please, please, try to understand? This is for your sister, so she doesn’t feel badly and so she doesn’t get sick if she tries to eat it. Please. How many cookies does Mom usually let you have?”
“Two,” Hisui grumbled, crossing his arms and not looking at her.
“How about if I let you have four?” Kagome proposed, disbelieving of the fact that she was currently negotiating the number of cookies with a six-year old.
“How about if you let me have some ice cream?” he shot back, whipping his head up to look her full in the face. Kagome nearly flinched, but remembered that he was a little kid and why should she be afraid of him?
“Hisui.” Her voice was getting hardened in spite of her best efforts. “I think that until you can decide on a dessert other than ice cream, there won’t be any dessert for you. When you can tell me what you would like, that’s not ice cream, I’ll be happy to give it to you. But otherwise, there’s no dessert tonight. Understood?”
“AAARRGHHH!” Hisui let out an aggrieved howl, as though how dare Kagome deny him ice cream, and then stormed off into the living room, where Kagome heard him proceed to throw a temper tantrum, slamming books and making all kinds of high-pitched, wailing sounds. Kagome rolled her eyes, then turned to the girls, who were sitting at the island on the bar stools, staring at her expectantly. “How about you two?” she asked kindly. “What would you like for dessert?”
“Ice cream!” shouted Gyokuto.
“Ice cream!” shouted Kin’u.
Kagome resisted the urge to growl. She took a deep breath, and instead said, “How about something else? Anything?”
The girls turned to look at each other; Kin’u shrugged, and so did Gyokuto.
“We’re going to find Hisui!” Gyokuto said, sliding down from her chair.
“Yeah!” Kin’u echoed, doing the same and following her sister, who was already heading back towards the living room.
“Let me know if you change your minds!” Kagome shouted after them, then turned to pick up the dinner dishes and put them in the sink. She could hear the kids playing in the living room, so as she turned on the water and began to wash the dishes, she allowed her mind to wander a little bit, to thinking about her life, and children, her career, and…
Her solid lack of a love life.
Being an education major had been incredibly time-consuming. Her state required that she major in education and a primary subject area, so that she could be certified in both. She had aced all her exams, and was now certified to teach K-8 and middle school English, and had had no trouble getting a job teaching kindergarten for a nearby district. But there had been a price for all of Kagome’s academic success, and that had been socialization. Kagome had lived on campus, had roommates, and even gone to the occasional party, but with the pressures of her education major, plus all the papers she had to write for her English classes? It just seemed like way too much to balance solid friend groups and a serious boyfriend on top of everything else. There would be plenty of time for that after college, she reasoned: plenty of time to reconnect with her friends; plenty of time to find a nice, stable relationship.
Except that it was July, and Kagome had been out of school since May, and her love life was still looking bleak. Plus, most of her friends had already moved on. Ayumi had moved to New York for an internship on Wall Street; Eri had gone home to Florida to work at Disney World (her life-long dream, which, whatever, good for her), and even her roommate, Yuka, had decided to go to graduate school in California, and had moved there at the end of June. So it was just Kagome, now, in her apartment, and she was a little worried about how she would make rent until the school year started. So she’d reached out to some people she knew with young children who might need a babysitter, and luckily Sango had responded almost immediately. That was how she ended up watching the two most adorable twins in the world…
And their stubborn, brilliant, sharp, and witty older brother.
Who seemed to know exactly what buttons to push to drive her absolutely insane.
Not that she was going to tell him, of course.
Kagome turned off the water and put the last of the dishes in the drying rack. She turned back to the living room; perhaps the children would have relented and chosen something else for dessert. Kagome smiled; she certainly hoped so, as they were really sweet children (even Hisui, for all his precociousness), and she hated to deny them anything.
It was quiet in the living room; when Kagome came into it, she saw toys strewn everywhere (Pokemon plushies, indicating a massive battle), but the children were nowhere to be found. Kagome wandered over to the staircase. “Hisui?” she called. “Kin’u? Gyokuto?” When there was no response, Kagome started up the steps anyway, thinking the kids were hiding from her. It wouldn’t be that huge a surprise; after all, she had just denied them ice cream, and she had just been very firm about it. The hiding could be an act of revenge.
“Hisui? Kin’u? Gyokuto?” she called again, and this time, she poked her head into the girls’ room first, followed by Hisui’s room; all seemed empty and calm—all except for Kagome’s heart, which was starting to beat wildly out of rhythm.
“Kids?” she called, going into Hisui’s room, “are you here?” She looked under the bed, in the closet, and behind the easy chair; everything was quiet, and there was no sign of any of the three children. She went back to the girls’ room, and inspected more closely; there, too, she found nothing that indicated that the children were there. She checked the kids’ bathroom; she even opened the door to Sango and Miroku’s room. Even though she didn’t think the kids would dare go into their parents’ room when they weren’t home, she still didn’t want to take any chances. She looked under Miroku and Sango’s bed, in their closet, and even in their master bathroom, but still...nothing.
An icy cold shadow was starting to take over Kagome’s heart; she felt sick to her stomach, and she was having trouble trying to catch her breath. She raced down the stairs again; she checked the dining room, the half bath, and the basement; there was no sign of Hisui, Kin’u, or Gyokuto, anywhere.
Kagome was standing in the middle of the living room, trying not to lose her shit, trying to think of other places in the house where the children could have gone, when she saw it :
The lock on the front door had been turned, so the door was now unlocked.
Kagome was 100% sure that she had locked the door when Miroku and Sango had left, just because she didn’t want…
She didn’t want the children to go outside unsupervised.
Kagome ran to the shoe rack by the front door; she swiftly put on her sneakers and opened the front door, hoping against hope that she would see the kids playing outside together in the front yard, and that things would be fine. But the front yard was empty, and Kagome raced around to the back of the house, unlatching the gate in the fence as she did so, but she already knew that the kids weren’t there; she would have seen them through the kitchen window while she was watching the dishes.
Trying to ignore the rising panic in her chest, Kagome began to pace, there in the middle of the yard, trying to figure out where in the hell the kids could have gone. The backyard was fully fenced in, and gated; there was no way the kids could have gotten in or out. So they had to have left and gone somewhere by the front yard, which meant that…
“Oh, god ,” Kagome gasped, now holding her hand to her heart, “oh god, oh god, oh, GOD.” She walked out to the sidewalk at the edge of the house’s property, so she could look up and down the street. Sango and Miroku’s family lived on a fairly busy street, and the thought of a five-year old, and two three-year olds, other there…
Kagome reached into her pocket, pulled out her phone, and, with a shaky hand, dialed 911.
“911; what’s your emergency?” a scratchy voice asked.
Kagome took a deep breath. “H—hi,” she said, her voice quavering. “I’m babysitting three small children, and I think…I think that they’re missing.”
Inuyasha Taisho sighed as he made the turn onto Shikon Boulevard. Another missing children report; another hysterical babysitter who had misplaced the kids. Nine times out of ten, the kids were playing an epic prank on the babysitter, hiding in some obscure place in the house, and not coming out until Inuyasha’s half-demon nose sniffed them out. Then they would emerge, petulant that they’d been caught, but ultimately repentant, full of apologies and remorse at the fact that they’d just given their poor babysitter a panic attack so bad they had to call the police.
“Tell me again what we’re dealing with here, Waseda?” Inuyasha said.
His partner, Kagura, a full demon with ruby-red eyes and a penchant for making windstorms when she lost her temper (which was often), looked at her phone for her notes. “Three children, last name Taijiya: Hisui, age six; and twins, Kin’u and Gyokuto, age three. The babysitter, one Kagome Higurashi, left them playing in the living room while she washed the dinner dishes. When she went back into the living room, they were gone. She searched the whole house, and the front and back yard, and there was no sign of them.”
“Did she search the fucking neighborhood?” Inuyasha asked, already annoyed. The kids were probably somewhere in the house.
“She said she was nervous about leaving, in case they came back and no one was there,” Kagura reported.
That...was actually a reasonable idea.
Inuyasha pulled into the driveway of number 1107. A modest-looking two-story home with a front porch and a decent-sized front yard. He admired the snapdragons that formed a cheerful garden in front of the porch. Inuyasha got out of the car, made sure his badge was easily visible, and waited for Kagura to get out of the car, too. She did, slowly and deliberately; if she had grunted and groaned every step of the way, Inuyasha would not have been surprised. His partner was totally badass, and completely not cut out for finding kids. She could clothesline a burglar, but god forbid she had to talk to a child.
That’s why she and Inuyasha were such a good match. She hated kids; he found them at the least, tolerable, and at the most, adorable. He hated paperwork; she would rather do anything than deal with missing children, and that included filing all the missing children paperwork. So together? They were a good team.
Kagura taking her time behind him, Inuyasha walked up to the front door, his nose already sniffing the air, the white, fluffy ears perched atop his head swiveling around and around, listening for anything that might tip him off to the location of the children. He detected several scents on the property: two were old, as those they hadn’t been there for several hours (he reasoned those were the parents); three were fresh, but seemed to be leading away from the house (his eyebrows immediately raised and he knew that these kids had, indeed, wandered off); and one was…
Well, one was the most divine scent he’d ever experienced in life.
Like fresh morning dew, and sunshine, and violets.
How could those three scents rolled into one smell so incredible?
How could they belong to just one person?
Inuyasha had to know.
He turned around to look at Kagura; she immediately looked anywhere but at him and started to whistle, tapping her foot impatiently. He let out a low, warning growl, and turned back to the front door. He lifted his hand, and knocked on the screen door.
Almost immediately, a pale, shining face was pressed up against the mesh. “He—hello?” It was a young woman, and Inuyasha had to blink at least two times to make sure that he wasn’t seeing things. Because that scent—that beautiful, luxurious scent, of dew, and sunshine, and violets—came barreling over him, and he knew immediately that this was the owner of that scent. And the moment Inuyasha laid eyes on her, he understood why.
Because the young woman, like the scent, was absolutely beautiful.
Her long, dark hair was tied back in a high ponytail, giving Inuyasha the great pleasure of seeing her entire face. And even through the screen, he could tell that it was a lovely face; her eyes were a blue-gray, a color he’d never seen before in human eyes, and swollen with the tears she must have been crying from worry and from fear. Her cheeks were red, and a little puffy, but her face was heart-shaped, and her lips were plush and a rosy pink. Even though she was clearly upset, she was still beautiful.
Inuyasha immediately felt a rush of desire to protect her, protect those kids—to find them, wherever they were. Because this beautiful young woman, with the most perfect scent?
Inuyasha never wanted to see her crying again.
“Can I help you?” she asked, the screen door still closed, and Inuyasha realized that he’d been standing there, staring at her, open-mouthed, for at least ten seconds. He cleared his throat and held up his badger for her to see.
“Detective Inuyasha Taisho, Musashi Police Department,” he said. “And over there’s my partner, Detective Kagura Waseda. You called about some missing kids?”
Inuyasha could see the relief wash over her face. “Oh, yes,” she said, her voice now trembling, “yes. Here.” She opened the door to allow Inuyasha and Kagura into the house, “please come in.”
Inuyasha accepted the invitation, and with a fierce glance back at Kagura, went into the house. Kagura followed him, and Kagome closed the door. The three of them went into the living, where they stood around, somewhat awkwardly, for several moments.
Because Inuyasha was supposed to be doing his job, yet all that he could do was stare at the beautiful girl in front of him.
“So,” the young woman said at last, her voice quavering, “missing kids?”
Shit. He’d forgotten.
“Yeah,” he said, trying to sound official and probably failing, “you’re Kagome Higurashi, I take it? The babysitter?”
The young woman— Kagome —blushed, and the tears formed at the corners of her eyes. “Yeah,” she said quietly, “that’s me.”
“Can you tell us how you know that the children went missing?” Inuyasha continued, his nose now working overtime to make sure that scents he’d detected outside the house, trailing away? That they were, in fact, the scents that belonged to the children.
“I—I was washing the dinner dishes,” Kagome said, sniffling prettily (how was that even a thing?), “and I had left them in the living room, and they seemed to be playing fine by themselves. And I thought, I’m only in the next room, so surely I would hear them? But apparently...I didn’t.” Her voice quavered again; she wiped at her eyes, and Inuyasha wished to god that he had a handkerchief or something elegant that he could give her so that, when she gave it back, he’d have a bit of her scent to carry with him.
Stop it, he admonished himself. She called for help. And you...you’re gonna fucking help her, not sit here and salivate over her scent.
“And you searched the whole house?” he asked, eyeing her carefully.
“Of course I did!” she exclaimed. “I looked in their rooms, their parents’ room, the bathrooms. I looked in the bathroom down here, the basement. I checked the backyard. They’re—they’re—” her breath caught, “—they’re not in the house. And I thought for a moment about going to look for them, but what if they come back and I’m not here? How would they get in the house? What if it were locked?” Her breath hitched again, and her whole body shook. “I—I’m really scared,” she confessed. “And I am terrified of telling their parents. They went to an event in the city and are unreachable until about 11:00 tonight. I—I don’t want them to get out of their event and find a message that their children are missing.” The tears were starting to fall now, and Inuyasha was fumbling around in his pockets for a tissue or fuck, something, anything, anything that he could fucking give her, but he didn’t have a goddamn fucking thing. “Do—do you—” Kagome’s blue-gray eyes raised to meet his golden ones, and they were just as stunning as the rest of her, “do you think we’ll find them?”
“Don’t worry, Ms. Higurashi,” Kagura said from behind Inuyasha, suddenly business-like and not at all her usual grousing self when it came to missing child cases, “Detective Taisho is one of the best on the force at finding lost children.” The grin on Kagura’s face nearly split it in two. “He’s got the best nose, after all.”
“Watch it, Waseda,” Inuyasha growled. He turned back to Kagome. “Detective Waseda’s right, though, you know,” he added, “I do have a knack for finding missing kids.”
“It’s the nose,” Kagura coughed, and Inuyasha ignored her this time.
“Can you take me up to the kids’ rooms?” Inuyasha asked Kagome instead. “I’d like to get a sense for their scents, and if there’s anything else up there that’s out of the ordinary.
“Of—of course,” Kagome said, and led him up the stairs to the second floor—the whole time of which, Inuyasha couldn’t help but notice what a round and supple ass the babysitter had. She filled out her jeans perfectly, yes, but…
Kids. Find missing kids. Fawn over the babysitter later.
“This is Kin’u and Gyokuto’s room,” Kagome said, pointing to the first door on the right at the top of the stairs. She pushed open the door, and Inuyasha cringed at the vibrant pinks, purples, and yellows that decorated the walls, the beds, and the dressers. He paused for a moment, and took a deep inhale: one of the girls was lilies and rainwater; the other was lilies and ocean water.
“Twins, right?” Inuyasha asked Kagome. When she nodded, he nodded back. That was why their scents were so similar.
He had also definitely detected these scents outside the house, leading away, down the street.
Fuck. They needed to hurry.
“The boy’s room, too?” Inuyasha asked, trying to keep the urgency out of his voice. He didn’t want to scare Kagome.
“This way,” she said, leading him out of the twins’ room and across the hall. The boy’s room was painted a navy blue, with a wooden bed in one corner; it had a comforter with sharks on it, and in fact, when Inuyasha looked around, he saw that the entire room had a shark theme. Inuyasha couldn’t help but grin. But to be six again, so he could also have a room full of sharks. He stepped into the middle of the room, and paused, inhaling…
Fresh pine, and something crisp, almost like snow.
“Hisui,” Kagome said, gesturing around.
Inuyasha nodded, filing the boy’s name away for future reference. “All right, Ms. Higurashi,” he said, drawing her attention back to him, “I can tell you with certainty that when Detective Waseda and I arrived this evening, I detected three scents, which were fresh and trailing away from the house. Being in their rooms confirms for me that those scents belong to the children.”
“Wh—what?” Kagome exclaimed, clapping her hands to her chest.
“It’s okay!” he said quickly, trying to reassure her. “That’s actually a good thing. It means I’ve got a lead, and I’m going to go after them immediately.”
“I’m going with you,” she said firmly, and even as he took off down the stairs, Kagome was close at his heels.
“No way,” he shot back at her. “I move fast, and I can’t be held back by some human girl.”
“I’m not some human girl,” she snapped, grabbing her shoes off the shoe rack and starting to put them on, “I’m their babysitter, and I’m the only one here who knows them.”
“The one they ran away from,” Inuyasha pointed out—unhelpfully, he realized immediately, as Kagome stopped mid-tie of her sneaker, dropped her head, and began to silently sob. “Hey,” he added frantically, hopefully, “it’s really okay. I’m sorry—I’m so fucking sorry—I didn’t mean...that is, I didn’t think that…”
“No,” Kagome sighed, taking a deep breath and then continuing to tie her shoes, “you’re right. They didn’t trust me; they didn’t like me; they didn’t listen to me. And look where it got us? I had to call the fucking police because they decided to run away.”
“Why exactly did they run away?” Inuyasha asked (the information might be useful later).
“Because Kin’u is lactose intolerant,” Kagome said with a huge sigh. “And she can’t have regular ice cream. And Sango gave me strict instructions not to give one of the ice cream, because it meant that all of them would want ice cream, and that meant that…”
“That the girl would get sick on your watch,” Inuyasha finished.
“Right,” Kagome confirmed. “So Hisui—the oldest, the boy—asked, and I said no, and he threw a temper tantrum. I let him have his fit, instead of going in and giving him the attention that I know he wanted, and I washed the dishes. But when I was done with the dishes…” Her voice cracked, then went silent.
“They were gone,” Inuyasha finished for her.
“Yes,” she whispered, “they were gone.”
“So let me get this straight…” Inuyasha was maybe having a hard time wrapping his head around this one, “...you say no to ice cream, and the kid runs off?” When Kagome nodded, Inuyasha let out a low growl, because seriously, what kind of kid fucking did that?
“All right,” he said at last, trying to keep the irritation out of his tone, “let’s go track those kids down. And yeah,” he added when Kagome opened her mouth to protest, “you need to come along. It sounds like the Taijiya kids are....” He paused, trying to find the right word to describe them.
“Challenging,” chirped Kagura from her space in the corner of the living room, where she was checking out the various books and vinyls the family had in a built-in bookcase in the wall.
“Challenging,” Kagome agreed. “He’s definitely...challenging.”
“Do you have house keys?” Inuyasha asked Kagome.
She nodded. “I’ll get them,” she replied, “and then we can head out.”
“Perfect.” He wanted to hurry. They’d wasted too much time there already. He should have just relied on his instincts and gone after the kids as soon as he and Kagura got to the house, but he had wanted to do things right, and make sure he was right, even though his fucking nose never lied.
“Here they are,” she said, the keys jangling in her head. Inuyasha jerked his head towards Kagura, who followed him out the door. They waited on the front porch as Kagome locked the door, and then Inuyasha paused, sniffed the air, and took off down the street to the left, pounding the pavement, Kagome and Kagura close behind. He wasn’t running at his full speed, because he didn’t know how much Kagome could keep up, He found that the pace he’d set, she was matching fairly well, so he decided to keep it where it was, and concentrate instead on the children’s scents, and tracking them carefully.
They followed the scents for several blocks, at which point Inuyasha took a hard left, Kagome and Kagura still following. The scents were getting stronger; it didn’t seem like it would be much more time before they would…
“Oh, Detective!” Kagome cried out, drawing his attention. “Here!”
Inuyasha and Kagura turned their heads in the direction Kagome was pointing. There, to their right, was a playground—a playground to where the kids’ scents went right in that direction. Inuyasha immediately turned, and rushed right into the playground.
“Hisui? Kin’u? Gyokuto? Are you here?” Kagome’s voice—soft, musical, worried—made his breath stutter and his own heart race. The way that she was calling for them—as though they were her own—filled him with a rush of emotions he hadn’t quite been prepared for. He looked around anxiously, his ears twitching and his nose on high alert, and both of them drew him across the playground, to a large, plastic jungle gym, where there was a small play area underneath one of the slides. There, all three of them could hear voices: children’s voices, one of them sharp, and shrill, and irritated, the others quiet. Kagome gave a quiet cry of surprise, and made to rush towards them, but Inuyasha gently took her arm to get her to pause.
“Hold on,” he said, so quietly he saw Kagome dip her head towards him so she could hear. “You sure those are the kids?” When she nodded, he frowned. “We don’t wanna scare them. But I do want to make sure that we’re ready in case they try to bolt. So, Waseda,” he said, nodding at Kagura, who grimaced, “make sure you’re back at the entrance to the playground. There’s really only one way in or out, so if they try to run, you can stop them.”
“Got it,” Kagura said, and Inuyasha could hear the relief in her voice. They both knew: she was awful with kids (like she’d made more than one runaway actually to try to run away again when she’d talked to them), so it was better to keep her on the periphery, and use her strength (and her powers as a wind yōkai) as needed.
“Ms. Higurashi,” Inuyasha said.
“Kagome,” she supplied.
“Ka—Kagome,” he repeated (and her name sounded perfect coming off his lips, why?), “why don’t you circle the other side, and be ready if they want to run?”
“O—okay,” she said hesitantly. “What’re you gonna do?”
“Me?” Inuyasha cleared his throat lightly. “I’m gonna go talk to the kids.”
“You?” Kagome looked him up and down—approvingly, if he could tell anything by the way that her scent spiked when she stared at him—but also, a slight sneer on her face. “Pardon me for asking, Detective, but what do you know about children?”
“Are you making assumptions about me, Ms. Higurashi?” he asked her, purposefully using her last name. “I could be married; I could have children; I could…”
“No wedding ring,” she said immediately, “and no offense, but you kind of look too young to have children.”
Inuyasha opened his mouth to let out a scathing reply, but he immediately clamped it shut. Because…
Godfuckingdammit, she was right.
He wasn’t married. Never had been. Fuck, never even had a serious relationship—not really, anyway. So kids? No kids. Just him, and a forty, and bad television.
Although, when he looked at Kagome Higurashi?
He could kind of imagine all of that—the kids, the life…
The wife.
He shivered in spite of the warmth of the evening.
“Right,” he said, trying to bring himself back to reality, “let’s surround them, and then, let me do the talking, okay?”
He saw her slight nod in the twilight that was beginning to fall over the playground, and Inuyasha knew that they needed to hurry. They needed to get the kids home.
Just...hopefully they would go easily.
Inuyasha straightened up, saw Kagome walk to the other side of the jungle gym, and then he took his spot on the opposite side. He had to play it cool: kids liked him, kids liked him, kids…
“Hey!” A sharp little voice grabbed his attention. “Just what do you think you’re doing here? This is our spot. Go find your own, you hobo!”
Him? A hobo?
Oh, fuck, no.
“Who’re you calling a hobo, kid?” Inuyasha said casually, coming up and leaning his hands on the steel girders that held the jungle gym in place. He hoped that he sounded more casual than he felt.
“You,” the little boy shot back, and Inuyasha stiffened to hear the harshness in the boy’s voice. “If you don’t get out of here right now, I’ll...I’ll…”
“You’ll what?” Inuyasha asked casually, dropping his hands from the steel and leaning back into a pillar. He crossed his arms and glared at Hisui. “Take me out? I’m like ten times more likely to take you out, kid.”
“No,” the boy said, “I’ll call the police and get you arrested.”
Inuyasha started to laugh, hard, at the fierceness and the earnestness in the boy’s face. “Is that so?” He chuckled. “I got news for ya, kid.” Inuyasha took out his badge and thrust it down to where Hisui could see it. “I am the police.”
Hisui leaned in, took a careful look at Inuyasha’s badge. He sniffed. “Could be fake,” he said.
“Sure,” Inuyasha agreed, “it could be.” He paused, looking the boy over. He was tiny, even for six; his dark hair stuck out every which way, and he was starting to shiver a little in his t-shirt and shorts. The little girls were huddled together behind him, as though they would obey his every command. Inuyasha thought maybe he’d try a different tactic.
“You see your babysitter over there, kids?” he asked, gesturing over to Kagome, who stepped out of the shadows and into the fluorescent light that lit up the playground. His breath caught at the way the light reflected off her hair and skin, making her glow like some kind of ethereal goddess. Her face was still teary, but she smiled when she saw the kids.
“Miss Kagome!” one of the girls cried out, but a devastating look from Hisui silenced her.
“Yeah,” Inuyasha said, “Miss Kagome.” He chanced another glance at her, and saw she’d taken the smallest of steps forward, her hands clasped together, her beautiful blue-gray eyes swirling. He looked back to the kids. “She was pretty worried about you three,” Inuyasha continued. “So worried that she called the police to help her find you.”
“Really?” said one little girl.
“She did?” asked the other.
“Really, and she did,” he told them. “She was very scared and was crying because she misses you so much.”
The girls toddled out from under the jungle gym; Inuyasha could see just how tiny they were, and how cute, with their matching pigtails and dresses. They looked at their brother, who scoffed and turned away, his arms crossed. The girls looked from Hisui to Kagome, who took another step forward and dropped to her knees, her arms outstretched. “I was so scared,” she said, her voice wavering. “I don’t know what I would have done if you were gone. I—I was terrified, girls, and I’m so, so happy, to see you again.”
“She’s lying,” Hisui warned, but the girls were already off and running, launching themselves into Kagome’s waiting arms.
“We’re so sorry, Miss Kagome!” one of them said.
“We didn’t mean to make you cry!” the other said.
Inuyasha watched as Kagome began to sob all over again and hugged the girls tightly. “Kin’u,” she cried, “and Gyokuto. I’m so glad to see you. And you too, Hisui,” she called over the girls’ heads to their brother. He scoffed and tossed his head.
“If you think I’m coming home with you,” he shot back, “you’re mistaken.”
“And what’re ya gonna do, kid?” Inuyasha asked him.
“Stay here,” Hisui said confidently. “This is like camping! It’ll be great.”
“And when you get hungry, what’ll you do?” Inuyasha asked.
Hisui shrugged. “I’m resourceful,” he said, and Inuyasha nearly snickered at the kid’s correct use of the word. “I’ll figure it out.”
“I’m sure that you would,” Inuyasha replied, “but it’s getting late, and Miss...Kagome’s…been so worried about you. Why don’t you come on home?”
“No!” Hisui shouted. “She doesn’t like us!”
“Hisui,” Kagome began, “I can’t let you have what you want, but I’m sure we can compromise on something else. Please? Just come home.”
“No!” he shouted again, his arms crossed. “You’re mean!”
One look at Kagome’s face told Inuyasha that Kagome could maybe be a lot of things, but mean didn’t seem to be on that list. Her lower lip was trembling; her eyes were swollen again with tears; and the look on her face was quiet, tired, defeated.
Inuyasha’s rage began to mount. He crossed his arms and peered down at the kid, who gazed back up at him defiantly. “Listen, kid,” he growled, his sanity teetering, “Miss Kagome is a nice woman who wants to help you and take care of you. If you don’t want to go with her, you’ll have to come with me. And that lady over there.” He nodded at Kagura, who scowled. He saw Hisui shrink back just a little bit, and he decided to take a chance.
His ears perked forward to catch Hisui’s every reaction as he continued to speak. “She’s the real mean lady, Detective Waseda. She hates kids. That’s why she’s over there, by the park’s entrance. Because if you’re bad, and try to run? She’ll catch you, and you don’t want her to do that.”
“Why—why not?” Hisui asked. His heart rate was picking up, and his breathing was becoming short and quick. Inuyasha looked back at Kagura, and she took a step forward; Hisui gasped.
“Because,” Inuyasha said, thoroughly enjoying this moment, “she’ll call your parents.”
The look on Hisui’s face was priceless. Inuyasha could see the thought process as Hisui considered the implications of Kagura calling his parents, and as the terror took hold, Inuyasha knew that they had him.
“Ummmm,” Hisui stammered, “I—I think that I should maybe go home with Miss Kagome?”
Inuyasha chuckled. “That is a really good decision, kid,” he said. He reached out for Hisui, and after a moment, the boy took Inuyasha’s hand and together, they began to walk over to Kagome, whose face, to Inuyasha’s utter delight, was shining with relief and joy as she began to cry all over again.
“So, kid,” Inuyasha said as they walked, “What the hell where ya thinking, worrying your babysitter and making her cry?”
Hisui appeared to consider the question seriously, his little face scrunched up in thought. “Number 1,” he said at last, “I am sorry. And Number 2: I should have thought it through.”
Inuyasha had to fight back a laugh. “I—I’m glad you’re sorry, kid,” he said, “and yeah, ya definitely should have thought it through.”
“Will the mean lady still call my parents?” he asked Inuyasha.
Inuyasha looked up at Kagome; her beautiful face was bathed in a sincere, bright smile. She was still on her knees, her arms around the girls, but when she held out one hand to Hisui, he ran to her and allowed her to hug him, too. Inuyasha stood there for a moment, watching the reunion. He could detect Kagome’s immense relief, and he felt a rush of warmth at the fact that he was able to help her.
As he approached, Kagome got to her feet, still keeping the children close to her. “I don’t know how to thank you,” she said breathlessly, the smile still decorating her lovely face. “I—I just—” He could scent the tears coming again, and without thinking, he rushed forward and clasped a hand to her shoulder.
“Everything is okay, Kagome,” he said, as soothingly as he could manage. “We found the kids, we’ll take you home, and Hisui will eat whatever dessert you want him to, right ?” The last bit he directed towards the kid, who grunted, but nodded. “Good.” He looked back to Kagome; she was gazing at him strangely, as though seeing him for the first time. Which, he supposed, was accurate, given that with what she’d been through, she probably hadn’t had the space to be able to consider either him or Kagura.
But it was the way she was looking at him that made him slightly unsettled: her gaze was deep, and piercing, starting at his ears, going down to his hair, then his eyes (which he was sure she’d never seen eyes quite his color before), to his nose, his mouth, then down the rest of him. When he cleared his throat, she blushed, and snapped her eyes back up to his, a soft, embarrassed smile playing on her lips.
Did she...could she…?
“Thank you, Detective Taisho, for helping me find the children,” she said quietly. “I can’t say enough how much this means to me.”
Inuyasha found himself wilting a little under her gentle gaze, and he cleared his throat. “It—it was nothing,” he said simply. “But, should you run into any more trouble, especially with that one —” He pointed at Hisui, who grunted and snuggled himself closer to Kagome, “—don’t hesitate to let me know, okay?”
“O—okay,” she agreed. “How—how can I—?”
Shit. “My card,” he said, offering it to her with his free hand (the other was still holding her shoulder, and he was having a hard time letting go, he was finding). “If you need anything.”
Kagome smiled, and detached herself from Hisui long enough to accept. She looked at it for a moment before slipping it into her back pocket. “I will,” she promised, and tucked her face away for a moment. “And really,” she said, “really, thank you.”
She brought her eyes back up to meet his, and standing there, in the soft glow of the lamplight, and the early evening, with her, touching her, scenting her sunshine and morning dew and violets, gazing into her beautiful eyes, Inuyasha thought that he’d never seen a better resolution to a case.
It had been a week since Kagome had seen the handsome police detective who had helped her find Sango and Miroku’s children. A week since she had last gazed into those deep, soulful, golden eyes. A week since she had felt his strong, yet gentle, grip on her arm as he tried to comfort her.
A week since he had given her his card, and she had realized that it had his personal cell phone number on it. A week of longing; a week of debating.
Did she dare?
What would he think?
Did he maybe...like her too?
She thought that maybe he did. She thought that...based on how kind he was to her, and the children, and the way that he had comforted her...maybe he saw something in her that was akin to what she saw in him. She had thought at first it was something of like a hero worship, or something like that; he had, after all, found the children for her, and he had, after all, been so kind. But the more days passed, the more Detective Inuyasha Taisho flooded her mind.
Quite frankly, she couldn’t stop thinking about him.
About his golden eyes, so gentle and glowing; about his flowing silver hair, and how it shone brighter than the moonlight. About his adorable ears that she longed to touch. About his handsome face, and the flash of fangs she’d gotten when he spoke.
About the way his body filled out his leather jacket.
For three days, she’d tried to convince herself that this was a passing fancy. When that failed, for three days, she’d tried to convince herself that there was no way a police detective could be interested in a girl like her: recent college grad, kindergarten teacher, babysitting to make extra money (and, after the whole “Hisui made the girls run away from home” incident, Sango and Miroku had actually decided to hire Kagome as their exclusive babysitter, since she was apparently the first one who Hisui hadn’t broken—Kagome giggled a little to think about how repentant the child was the next day when he woke up and learned that his parents knew everything).
When Sango heard that Kagome had the handsome police detective’s cell number, she immediately told Kagome to go for it, because of course Sango would. Kagome’s former professor didn’t believe in waiting for fate to come to you; she believed one had to rush forward to meet it. Her words of encouragement bolstered Kagome, though, and so there she sat, on day seven, on her living room couch, her thumb hovering over the Send button with a short message:
Hi, Detective. This is Kagome Higurashi. Thank you again for helping me with the Taijiya children. Could I maybe buy you a coffee to help express my thanks?
Simple; short; to the point. Nothing untoward.
So why did Kagome feel as though her entire life were riding on this one moment?
What if she pressed Send, and he didn’t respond? What if she pressed Send, and he did , but not with the answer that she wanted?
You can do this, Kagome told herself. It’s just one push of a button. Just fucking do it.
For seven days, Kagome had agonized over whether or not to write to Detective Inuyasha Taisho. And on the seventh day?
She pressed Send.
And watched her text fly off into the ether.
She closed her eyes, pressed her phone into her chest, and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
She didn’t have to wait long.
Within five minutes, her phone pinged, and Kagome lifted it to look and see who it was.
It was Detective Taisho.
His response?
Hey, I was hoping to hear from you. Coffee sounds nice, but to be honest not enough time. How about if I take you to dinner first, and then you can buy me a coffee afterwards? How does this Friday sound? I know a great Thai place a few towns over.
Kagome took a deep, excited breath, as though disbelieving what she was reading.
He wrote her back.
He said coffee wasn’t enough time to see her.
He...he wanted to see her.
The rush of emotions that flooded her system was nearly too much for her to bear. Relief; excitement; desire.
And potentially, love.
Kagome held her phone firmly and began to type back:
Dinner sounds lovely. I’ll be ready at 7. I can’t wait to see you, either.
This time, there was no hesitation when she pressed Send.