Archive of Our Own

Parking next to Kagome’s blue sedan, Inuyasha cut the engine and heaved a sigh as he exited his truck. He made a note to move her car into the garage later as he walked the short path to the side door and let himself inside. They were supposed to get a few inches of snow tonight and he knew she’d appreciate not having to brush off her car tomorrow morning before she went to work.

Kicking off his boots in the open mudroom, Inuyasha hung up his jacket and stretched as he wandered into the warmth of his house, raising his arms above his and arching his back. He grunted as several satisfying pops issued and he tossed his keys carelessly onto the entryway table before heading toward the kitchen. A few sniffs told him Kagome was either in their shared office or bedroom and the sound of running water in the kitchen provided the location of their daughter.

He rounded the corner and found the fifteen-year-old at the sink, washing dishes that were too big for the dishwasher as she bobbed her head and sang under her breath along with the music she was listening to. She had headphones in, but he knew she probably caught his scent anyway as he ambled across the tile toward the pantry. He was starving and a cup of hot ramen sounded phenomenal right now.

As he passed behind her, he laid a hand on her head and bent to press a kiss to her temple. “Hey, chibi,” he murmured and continued toward the pantry.

Turning her head, Moroha smiled and reached up with a soapy hand to remove one of her earbuds. “Hey, Dad,” she greeted and went back to rinsing the suds off a cooking pot. “Busy day?”

Inuyasha grunted in reply as he retrieved his noodle dinner and peeled back the paper covering to fill it with water. “How’d you guess.”

She grinned. “Just a hunch.”

Putting it in the microwave for three minutes, Inuyasha heaved another sigh and dragged a hand down his face as he leaned against the counter next to the sink. “Busy as hell. Barely had time to even eat half my lunch before I was running around trying to keep fucking OSHA off our asses. How any of those people successfully got a CDL is beyond me.”

Moroha snorted and cast her father another grin. “But did you die?”

“I almost died.”

“You almost die every day.”

“You try working with a bunch of freshly graduated college kids with zero field experience operating heavy machinery and equipment and not almost gruesomely die several times a day.”

“Nah, I’ll pass. Mom would kill me if I died.”

“You’re such a smartass.”

“Learned from the best,” she cheerfully pointed out and started on the next dish.

He shook his head and sighed because he couldn’t even refute that. Karma. It was a bitch. “Sorry I wasn’t able to pick you up today like I said I would. I wasn’t expecting to stay so goddamn late.”

Moroha shrugged. “It’s fine. I caught a ride with Hisui since he was waiting for Setsu anyway.”

Crossing his arms, Inuyasha looked intrigued. “Has he—”

“Nope,” she replied, popping the “p,” and grinned at her father’s groan. “In his defense, I’m pretty sure he’s scared of what Uncle Sess will do once he finds out.”

Inuyasha snorted. The microwave beeped, and he went to retrieve his dinner. “Please. Bastard knows Sango would gut him so fast, he wouldn’t even have time to pull the stick out of his ass.”

“If Gyo and Kin’u don’t get to him first.”

Inuyasha blinked and paused with the ramen-laden chopsticks halfway to his mouth. “Shit, you right.”

“I’m always right.”

“You sound like your mother.”

Moroha looked distinctly proud of that fact. Chuckling, he shook his head and slurped up some noodles. “Speaking off, where is she? Usually she comes out to say hi by now.”

Washing away the suds, Moroha set that dish aside to dry as well and started another. “Said she’d had a headache all day so after dinner I said I would clean up so she can go rest. I think she’s in your guys’ bedroom.”

Inuyasha’s expression softened as he gazed at his daughter. Their Moroha was such a good kid, and they were damn lucky to call her their own. Nodding his acknowledgment, he shoveled more noodles in his mouth and asked, “How was school?”

Moroha grinned as she recalled how her day went. “It was great. We started dissecting in science today and I dissected rat and you could see a bunch of these little seeds it ate before it died and it was so cool. Someone in my class got stuck with a cat and she cried because she didn’t wanna cut it even though it was already dead, and then we cut open some owl pellets, which are regurgitated undigested parts of food birds eat, and the one I cut into had little bones and fur in it and it was so cool.”

“That’s disgusting, Moroha.”

“I know. It’s awesome.”

Shaking his head yet again, Inuyasha tipped his head back and polished off the rest of his dinner. A good kid, yeah, but also kind of strange. He grinned. He wouldn’t have her any other way.

“Got any homework?”

At this, his daughter didn’t look nearly as enthusiastic as when she was talking about disgusting class activities. She wrinkled her nose, setting the last dish into the drying rack and reaching into the sink to unplug the drain.

“Yeah,” she answered, rolling her eyes. “I have that report on the Tale of the Bamboo Cutter due on Monday and I wasn’t able to finish algebra in class today.” She scowled. “I hate math.”

Inuyasha grinned and crossed the kitchen to toss the Styrofoam cup into the trash. “Your mom hated math, too.”

Moroha paused and looked over her shoulder at him. “She did?”

“Yep,” Inuyasha answered and got a soda from the fridge. “I tutored her myself throughout middle and high school. It’s how we started dating.”

Moroha’s eyes brightened as she snagged a dish rag and dried her hands off. “Do you think you can help me with my homework later, then? It’s word problems on ratios and percentages and I those are the ones I have the most difficulty with.”

Inuyasha smiled, glad his kid was reaching out for help instead of struggling to do it on her own. That had always been his problem when he was her age. It was thanks to her mother that he was able to finally seek out help when he needed it instead of stubbornly doing everything by himself. In a lot of ways, Kagome shaped him into the man he was today, and it was one of the many reasons why he loved her.

“You got it, chibi,” he said and walked over to sling an arm around her shoulders before bending down nuzzle her head. “Since I didn’t pick up you today, how about I drop you off tomorrow and we can stop by Starbucks to get one of those monstrosities you and your mother are obsessed with?”

Her eyes widened and she nodded vigorously. “Ohmigod yeeeessssss I’ve been dying to try that caramel ribbon crunch frappucinno for days now! Hah, Towa’s gonna be so jealous.”

“Sounds like diabetes in a cup.”

“Tasty diabetes in a cup. Don’t hate, Mister Black-coffee-like-my-soul.”

Inuyasha laughed despite himself. “You’re such a brat.”

“You love me anyway.”

He smiled. Yeah, he did. “Lemme know whenever you’re ready to tackle that algebra. I’m gonna go see how your mom is doing.”

Beaming, Moroha nodded. “’Kay. Thanks, Dad,” she said, her relief evident. She was rewarded with a kiss to the forehead before her father walked off to find her mother. She watched him disappear around the corner and then heaved a sigh, grabbing a bag of chips from the cupboard and a soda from the fridge before grudgingly heading to her room to start her homework. Maybe she’d work on the report first. It was already half-done anyway so might as well get it out of the way.

Cracking open the door to their bedroom, Inuyasha poked his head inside and found his wife sound asleep on their bed. His mouth quirked up into a grin and quietly he slipped inside, closing the door behind him. He set his drink on the dresser and crawled onto the bed behind her, being careful not to jostle her too much so he didn’t wake her.

Unfortunately, he’d just gotten himself comfortable with Kagome’s head in his lap before she started stirring. Her brow wrinkled as she sucked in a breath through her nose, eyelids fluttering as consciously slowly bled back into her mind. Lazily Inuyasha ran his hand through her hair, content to watch her slow progression to wakefulness.

“Mmm,” Kagome hummed and a small, lazy smile curled her lips. “Hi.”

“Hi.” Fingers massaged her scalp and she barely suppressed a moan.

“Home late.”

“I know. Sorry I missed dinner.”

Kagome sighed. “S’okay. Moro helped.”

“She said you have a headache. Still there?”

“Mm,” she said and sighed, sitting up and stretching her arms out in front of her while arching her back. “Yes, but it’s not as bad. I didn’t even mean to fall asleep.”

“Probably helped with the headache, though,” Inuyasha mused as he stretched his legs out on either side of her and slipped his fingers into her hair to start a slow massage. Kagome made a sound of appreciation and scooted back a little to give him better access, tilting her head back. His mouth kicked up into an amused half-grin.

“How was work?” she mumbled, eyes closed, her husband’s soothing ministrations successfully eradicating the remnants of her headache. God, she loved this man.

“Busy,” he answered, noting his wife was already half-way to falling asleep again. “Felt like babysitting a bunch of preschoolers in college kids’ bodies. I’m glad to be home.”

Kagome giggled. “But did you die?”

Inuyasha sighed. “You’re spending too much time with Moro.”

“Why?”

“Because she said the same damn thing.”

“Aw. I’m so proud. Proud mama right here.”

His hands abruptly dropped from her head and Kagome laughed. “Nooooo,” she protested and fell back against him, her head resting on his stomach. Blindly she reached for his hands and tugged them back to her head. “I take it back. I’m scandalized. Shocked. Outraged. Why, I never—"

“Alright, you cheeky wench.” Quicker than a blink, Kagome suddenly found herself on her back on the bed, pinned beneath her husband as he attacked her sides with his claws. She squealed and squirmed beneath him, laughing as he mirthlessly tickled her in all of the spots he knew would get her to laugh the loudest.

“Okay, okay, I yield! Stop I’m gonna die!”

Satisfied, Inuyasha heeded her plea and stopped, however he didn’t bother moving. Instead he made himself comfortable right on top of her, laying between her spread knees and wrapping his arms around her waist to rest his head on her stomach. As he knew they would, small hands found his ears and stroked the soft flesh, eliciting a deep, content rumble to start in his chest.

Smiling and flushed, Kagome sighed and alternating between rubbing her husband’s ears and racking her fingers through his hair. For a while they were content to lie there, enjoying the peaceful quiet and reveling in one another’s soothing company. Eventually Inuyasha started pressing kisses to her stomach and Kagome hummed, closing her eyes as her hands fell to his shoulders. He nosed her shirt up and out of the way so he could kiss the bare skin of her belly and grinned when he heard her breath hitch.

Sitting up, Inuyasha dipped his head and unhurriedly pressed a line of soft kisses along her neck up to her jaw. Kagome sighed and turned her head to catch his lips with her own. He growled, Kagome smiled, and for the next several minutes kiss after kiss was exchanged, lazy and slow and sensual. With her arms around his neck and his hands caging her waist beneath her shirt, both of them were content to get lost in the haze of relaxed bliss, murmuring endearments to each other as hands found bare skin.

Leaning his forehead against his wife’s, Inuyasha released a heavy sigh and brushed one last kiss across her lips. Kagome smiled, an impish curl to her lips, and suddenly Inuyasha felt a dainty hand slide into his unfastened jeans. What the—when had she—

“Hey,” he said, unable to keep from grinning as he yanked his mischievous wife’s hand out of his jeans. She giggled. “You sneak.”

“Who, me? Never.” Her free hand tried slipping into his pants that time and he caught that one too. She laughed as he pinned them down above her head and had the audacity to flutter her eyelashes innocently at him. The nerve.

“Seems I got myself a wily one,” Inuyasha murmured, using one hand to secure her hands while his other started tugged at the ties to her scrub bottoms. “Wonder what I should do with her.”

“Hmmm.” Biting her lip, Kagome half-heartedly tugged at her hands and lifted her hips to aid him in removing her scrub pants. “I have a few ideas.”

“Yeah?” Carelessly tossing the pink garment to the side, Inuyasha smoothed his hand from her knee up to her hip, gently squeezing, deliberately grazing his claws against the soft skin. “I have one of my own.”

“Tell me,” she whispered, tilting her head back and parting her lips in a silent plea for a kiss.

Skimming his lips against hers in a teasing caress, he grinned at her pout and granted her what she wanted. He pulled away far too soon, however, and Kagome whimpered in protest as his fingers grazed the inside of her thigh.

“I think,” he murmured, lips brushing hers with every word, “that you should lay right here, half-naked and beautiful, while I…go take a shower because I reek.”

Kagome’s eyes shot open. “What—Inuyasha!”

Having already rolled away from her, Inuyasha laughed as he hopped off the bed and ran out of their room. Kagome didn’t even bother putting her pants back on as she chased after him, calling her husband not so friendly names between bouts of breathless laughter.

Inside her bedroom, Moroha looked up from her laptop where she was finishing up the conclusion to her report. She listened to her parents toss taunts back and forth as they chased each other through the house and she rolled her eyes. Shaking her head, Moroha went back to typing. Her parents were so weird.

“Can’t catch m—fuck! Ow, Kagome!”

“Hah!”

“Hey, wait a minute—! What are you doing?!”

“Trying to take your jeans off!”

“Why the hell—!”

“Because I’m not wearing any and you won’t need them where you’re going anyway, you mutt!”

“Where the hell are you taking me where I won’t need pants?!”

“I’m taking you to the vet to get neutered!”

“What—! Hey, no, stop—dammit, Kagome—!”

Maniacal laughter.

“Moroha, help! Your mom’s trying to pants me!”

“Victory is mine!”

Heaving a sigh, Moroha saved her report – it was about done anyway and just needed to be printed – and got up to go save her dad from being pantsed by her mom. Yeah, her parents were really weird.

She smiled as she followed the sounds of a struggle and breathless laughter. But she loved them anyway and wouldn’t change them for the world. She was, however, going to make her dad buy her a frappe and a chocolate chip muffin tomorrow in exchange for his rescue.

“Morohaaaa!”

“I’m coming, keep your pants on—uh. I mean—”

“Not funny, Moro.”

“It kind of was.”

“Wasn’t.”

“No, it totally was.”

A groan. “Betrayed by my own kid.” Pause. “Kagome, what are you doing?”

“Looking for your wallet.”

“What—hey—don’t you dare—!”

“Run, Moroha!”

“Dammit, you two! Get back here!”