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Lazy days for Inuyasha and Kagome meant lounging beneath the generosity of a tree in refuge from the scorching, summer sun — and that was precisely what they did on their day off.
These days didn't come by very often. If Kagome wasn't tending to a patient, she was tending to her stock of medicinal herbs. If she wasn't studying plants in the neighboring forests, she was purifying yet another demon that pestered a part of town. If she wasn't doing any of those things, she'd whisk herself away to train her spiritual powers with Kaede.
For a lazy day to come around was the most precious of gifts from the stars above. The two of them were keenly aware of that. And they were keenly savoring every drop of time together that they could.
“Inuyasha, I’ve been thinking…”
The young priestess was admittedly a bit drunk off the languor of the morning. Her tongue had felt especially loose today — and she was too exhausted to stop herself.
“Yeah?”
“I don’t know if I ever told you this, but… you’re the first person I ever loved.”
Inuyasha blinked.
“Wh… what’s with that all of a sudden?”
Kagome stared blankly at him, blinking back in response. The naked alarm he bared on his face made her realize this wasn’t the best topic of conversation to bring up, right after talking about what he ate for lunch yesterday.
“N-Nothing,” she said, darting her eyes away to a sparrow nearby pecking away at a new snack.
“But I guess…”
She pleaded herself to stop talking.
“…I feel a little jealous that I’m not yours. Just a little.”
Great.
Kagome didn’t intend for Inuyasha to go quiet. She intended for him to toss her words aside with a grunt and call her a fool, like he normally did with anything else. It would've calmed her more than seeing his gaze falling softly onto the grass instead. What's worse, she wasn’t sure why her heart started beating through her chest.
She thought she didn’t care about this anymore. But, feeling her pulse throbbing through her own ears, perhaps some part of her still did.
Perhaps that was why she anticipated what he would say.
“You mean… about Kikyō, right.”
She suddenly felt bad.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t—“
“Kikyō might’ve been the first person I loved…” Inuyasha said in a low voice, “but that doesn’t mean anything less about you.”
It plunged her into silence. He squeezed her hand gently, which she had readily surrendered to him to hold.
“Kagome, I think you know this more than anyone, but… it hurt me, what happened to her. I don’t think I can ever forget it. It’ll always be a part of me.”
Her eyes softened. She knew.
“But, all of that…” said Inuyasha, “…has nothing to do with you. It doesn’t change how happy you make me feel, Kagome.
“I never thought I’d love someone the way that I love you. Whether you’re my first love or not doesn’t change that.”
He was looking at her so intently that Kagome almost felt embarrassed — embarrassed, that for a fleeting moment, she even felt like she needed to hear him say it. Yet, she couldn’t lie to herself. Maybe it was selfish of her, but there was something always comforting about feeling his honesty pouring into her through his gaze.
“You don’t have to feel that way about those things, Kagome. I will never compare you to Kikyō.”
It pulled a blanket over her heart.
“Inuyasha…”
He huffed a light chuckle into the sky. “Pretty sure I said something like that before.”
“Oh… yeah.” Kagome remembered, that day in the forest long ago. “I think I fell asleep after.”
His eyelids dropped at her. “Uh… huh. I’m surprised you even heard me.”
“Well, you know… they were just the perfect words to put me straight to bed.”
“Wow, I’m so glad,” said Inuyasha, sarcasm oozing through his teeth that rang a spirited laugh from the priestess by his side.
A sweeping desire to hold him washed over her. Perhaps it was out of relief, or gratitude, or untainted happiness. Whatever it was, all she knew was she liked hugging him, because he always hugged her back.
“I love you, Inuyasha.”
His cheeks seared with a bright crimson that gave his entire body pause in her arms. “You don’t have to say it back,” Kagome assured him quickly, as if it could douse the ardent flames that arose within his whole face.
His flustered expression couldn’t tell her if it really assured him or not, until the words tumbled out of his mouth like the last grains from the bottom of a sack of rice.
“I love you… too… Kagome.”
Her jaw dropped.
“You… you said it!”
“Wh— isn’t that what you wanted?!”
“Well, yeah... but—!”
“Fuck, I’m never saying it again.”
“Wait, no! I made things weird, sorry.” Kagome clapped her hands together in an earnest plea. “Please say it again. In the future. I won’t be weird about it.”
His lips may have twisted into a grumpy scowl, but his heart couldn’t refuse her, especially with that toothy smile she beamed at him.
Inuyasha could never refuse her.
“Hey, Kagome…”
“Yeah?”
“So, I’m really…” he mumbled, “your first love?”
She scoffed. She should’ve known he’d get a kick out of that. “Yes. Yes, you are, Inuyasha.”
The half-demon turned away in vain to hide a dumb smile clearly plastered over his face — and Kagome was smiling herself when she gave him a hearty punch on the arm.
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