Work Text:
Directionally Challenged
Eri, Yuka and Ayumi were all hanging out at Wacdonalds. For once Kagome had joined them.
“—And then he ran off with his ex!” Kagome said exasperated.
“No, say he didn’t!” Eri said aghast.
“After saying you were special to him! What a sleaze!” Ayumi said.
“Wait- again? Didn’t he swear to you last time he would never do it again?” Yuka replied.
“Yeah. He did. God I just don’t even know what to do anymore guys! I’m thinking of giving up. I just don’t think he’s ever going to be over her.” Kagome huffed in defeat.
"Seriously Kag's why are you even with that two-timing jerk? Does he have even a single redeeming quality?" Eri asked.
"Well, I mean... hmm... oh, well... sometimes he acts kinda sweet... then he gets embarrassed and says something mean. Oh but he does have the absolutely cutest-"
Kagome trailed off as she saw a clock. “Oh no! Is that really the time? I need to go. Inuyasha will kill me if I’m late again! I love you guys!” Kagome the whirlwind ran out the door.
Her friends watched stunned as their sweet friend ran off to the violent two timer who verbally abused her and broke promise after promise. The one who she clearly struggled to think of anything nice about at all.
“Guys we have to do something.” Eri said.
She was met with twin nods, all three girl’s faces deadly serious.
***
Kagome looked at her phone. This was the right place right?
Directions really were not her strong suit.
She looked at the map Eri had sent her once again. It did say turn at the third trail right? Yep totally did. Then take the fourth one to the left up the ridge where the tree looked twisty. But she didn’t see a twisty tree, uhh, there was a twisty stick. Did that count? She took the third one didn’t she? Unless they meant that deer path. There was no way they counted the deer path right?
Ugh. Time to turn around.
Again.
She had been surprised when her friends said they wanted to go on a hike over the weekend. Kagome had almost said no automatically, she had shards to hunt for, but they had insisted so seriously, saying she HAD to come. They never spent time with her, and wasn’t it their friendiversary?
Kagome felt guilty. She had no idea they even had a friendiversary. The other girls had all nodded like of course it was. So Kagome ended up nodding along, clearing her busy schedule and begging Inuyasha to just give her one day, she promised him loads of ramen in return. He wasn't pleased, but it wasn't anything a few sits couldn't fix.
She was privately impressed by her friend’s excellent memories. She had recently had her 18th birthday, and she had a picture of them all at her sixth birthday on her shelf at home. It was amazing they recalled what day they met after all this time.
When Kagome saw a big tree she sighed in relief. The directions had said they were all supposed to meet under a big tree, hopefully that was the one.
Why were they not hiking to the tree together? Good question! Kagome asked it too.
Apparently, this too was part of their ‘friendiversary celebration.’ The girls remembered that the first time they met they had climbed a hill racing to see who would get to the tree at the top first. This was in kindergarten so it was a tiny little rise. The girls thought that since they were older, they could do an adult reenactment by racing to the tree in the woods alone.
So here Kagome was, out in the woods alone on an anniversary date she didn’t remember, and hiking to a tree she had never been to, in order to reenact a memory she did not have.
On top of that, if it was a race she was sure she was going to be dead last. What probably should have been an hour hike had easily taken her three. They were supposed to have a late afternoon picnic, watch the sunset and then go back, but Kagome was in danger of being stuck here all night. Maybe her friends had already left.
Of course, her cell phone had no reception so she couldn't call them to ask. Stupid woods.
To make matters even worse, she had grabbed the wrong bag this morning in her haste to leave while still half asleep. So she was weighted down with her giant yellow backpack instead of the much smaller one she had planned to bring.
Well, maybe it wasn’t the worst thing. At least this one had her sleeping bag and food and supplies if she did end up here all night. It’s not like it would be her first time camping in the woods. More like 1,000th. At least no demons would attack her in this era.
When Kagome got to the top of the hill she was disappointed. Her friends were nowhere to be found. Instead there was a red headed boy sitting under a tree reading a book.
Yep, they must have left without her. Either that or she really was lost and this was not the right tree.
After all the hiking she had done over the years you would think she would have gotten better at directions by now, but nope, not one bit.
Kagome approached the boy and smiled brightly at him. He looked up from his book, his eyes narrowing as soon as he saw her.
“Are you Kagome Higurashi?” He asked, waving some sort of letter in his hand.
She startled momentarily at him knowing her name. Had her friends left a message with him or something?
“Huh, uh yeah. That’s me.” She said dazed but acting perky.
“I’m afraid I can’t accept.” He told her sharply. “And really it’s quite rude to make someone wait for over two hours like this.” He scolded her.
“uh”
“Well goodbye then.” He said primly.
Kagome watched as the red headed boy turned to go. Clearly angry for some reason. She was very confused. Was there a message? Maybe the paper he had?
“Wait!” She called out.
He turned, still looking a bit annoyed but she had no choice but to ask. “Sorry, but did you see three girls around here? Maybe they said something?”
“What?” He said confused.
“Three girls! You said you have been here for hours right? Then you must have seen them right? Their names are Eri, Ayumi and Yuka. We were supposed to meet here.” She said.
“I haven’t seen anyone here except you.” He told her.
What? Then why did he know her name? No more importantly…
“Damn it! They must have counted the deer path! I knew that tree didn’t look very twisted, damn directions. You don’t know if there is another big tree around, do you? I was supposed to meet my friends.”
“Friends?”
The scowl on the boys face lost it’s heat, confusion replacing it.
“You were supposed to meet your friends, but didn’t you say you are Kagome Higurashi? The Kagome Higurashi who wrote this letter?” He asked waving the paper once again. This time she noticed it was an envelope covered in hearts. It didn’t look like a note friends would leave in haste saying they were leaving.
“My name is Kagome Higurashi, but I don’t recall writing any letters.” She said.
Kagome suddenly felt her phone buzzing. She pulled it out, a flood of text messages filling the screen.
****
Kurama had been waiting here for over two hours.
Another damn confession. He was so tired of these things. It was left in his locker and filled with the typical drivel about how handsome he was and how much she admired him for his grades, and how she had fallen for him. This one was only unique in that it said the girl would be in the woods at the end of a hike. She would like to hear his reply there this Saturday in the early evening. It said she wanted to watch the sunset together.
No phone number, no address and he didn’t know anyone with her name. He asked and no one at his school was named Kagome Higurashi.
What a pain.
He thought about just ignoring it. It was a completely unreasonable and selfish confession to demand someone go far out of their way, especially since he would just be rejecting her anyway. He always did. He got these things at least once a week. He was so very tired of them.
He had finally just given up on dating, resigning himself to a life alone. What was the point? How could he date some perfectly normal human girl when he was part demon? Koenma would kill him if he ever voluntarily spilled that secret, always going on and on about how the humans had to remain ignorant for peace. Though Kurama suspected he just didn’t want a spanking from his dad.
Even if he did tell, it wouldn't matter anyway. He had yet to meet even a single girl who appealed to him. They were all weak and immature. None had ever experienced real danger. They thought their tiny little problems were of huge significance when Kurama spent his days fighting with his life on the line to try to save the world. No girl he had met would ever understand.
Besides, most only liked him for his looks anyway. If they saw his true form wouldn’t they either scream in fright or think him a freak for being part animal? Of course he appealed in that form to demonesses, but they would think his human part disgusting and he could never introduce a demoness to his family.
Confessions were just the worst. They always put him in a bad mood leaving him feeling helpless and lonely.
He was sure this one was exactly the same.
Yet he found himself hiking to the spot that Saturday anyway. He maintained that it was absolutely not for her sake.
Koenma said a few powerful yokai had escaped the makai and since there had been some disappearances at night near the woods he planned to check it out in case it was related.
As far as jobs went this one suited him well. He loved the woods, and spending a bit of time in them sounded like a lovely way to spend the day. He would meet the girl, reject her soundly and then search the area while enjoying a bit of nature, speaking to the plants and relaxing, perhaps slaughtering some demons at his leisure.
According to Koenma, this kind of demons only hunted at night. Since they were supposed to be of moderate strength maybe he would even let himself transform into his full yokai kitsune form to take care of them. He hadn’t for a long time and it would be a good excuse to really let loose. Even if the human girls would think him a monster, he rather liked his demonic features.
He found the tree easily.
But the girl did not come. Thirty minutes he waited, then an hour. At an hour an a half he was starting to think he had been stood up. Perhaps she chickened out.
Who did she seriously think she was? First she demanded he meet her here and then she doesn’t even have the courtesy to show?
At two hours, just when he was about to leave, a girl finally walked up the ridge.
She was wearing a green and white school girl uniform and the largest yellow bag on her back he had ever seen.
The sight of her stunned him. Not because she was some beauty but because she looked completely ridiculous, like she was going to topple over at any moment from the weight of the thing.
She walked right up to him, no look of embarrassment or shame for making him wait for two hours at all.
She didn’t look like a girl here to make a confession. She had done nothing with her hair, letting the long raven tresses run wild, she wasn’t wearing makeup, and well, even if the uniform was cute on her, it wasn’t what most girls would wear when confessing to someone they liked.
Not that Kurama cared about any of those things, he rather preferred a more natural and casual look, but he had received A LOT of confessions. Girls usually were done up like peacocks and making moon eyes at him. This girl was neither.
He thought he might have the wrong person for a second, but she confirmed her identity cheerfully. She looked a bit clueless, he started to wonder if she was a bit simple.
He had planned to leave right away after he rejected her, but she managed to hold him there for a few moments with confusing words.
He watched as the girl’s phone suddenly went off. There was terrible reception in the woods around here, only up at the summit, where they currently were, got reliable reception, it seemed she had missed a lot of messages.
Her face suddenly paled as she read her texts.
“NO! Those… those… Ugh, I don’t even know something mean enough! Jerks! Big, lying, mean, jerks! Friendiversary! I knew it sounded weird!”
The odd girl looked at him and her eyes widened, then she looked back down at her phone again.
“Kuso.” She swore, cheeks going pink.
She looked at him with mortification. “Uh you aren’t named Shuichi Minamino by any chance are you? No, don’t answer that, of course you are. Damn it.” She said covering her face in her hands momentarily. She looked like she wanted to crawl into a hole and hide.
Even from around her fingers he could see her face was bright red from a deep blush.
The girl removed her hands, then bowed deeply to him. He noticed even her ears were red.
“I’m so sorry for this, uh, 'prank' my friends pulled. Feel free to like toss that letter or whatever. I’m so sorry for wasting your time, and soon I promise my friends will be too, at least once I get off this damn mountain and throttle them.” She said through gritted teeth.
“What?” He asked.
“My friends set this up. I didn’t write that. I have no idea what they wrote. I don’t even know you.” She said frazzled.
Then glancing at the letter and wincing she amended, “Actually, I would appreciate if you burn it. Knowing my friends it’s probably something embarrassing.”
“It’s a love confession.” He told her bluntly.
If anything he swore her blush only deepened.
“Kuso. I was afraid of that. I’m so sorry. I don’t have those sorts of feelings for you.” She said.
“What?” He said stunned.
“Look, I’m sure you’re a nice guy and all, but like, I don’t even know you. My friends mean well, really, but I’m really not looking to hook up with some stranger.”
He blinked. Was she seriously rejecting him? Well this was certainly a first. He usually had to practically beat girls off of him with a stick.
Looking at the letter she scowled, “Actually, I have a lighter, here hand it over. I will burn it now.” She told him.
He numbly handed the girl the note. Which she promptly burned right then and there. She did indeed have a lighter- and if the glimpse he saw in her bag was right, everything else in all of Japan was stuffed into that bag. It was packed.
He puzzled through the clues while she burned the note.
“So—let me get this strait. Your friends wrote me this confession letter using your name and told me to meet you here to watch the sunset? You had no idea and were expecting them to be here instead?”
“Uhh. Yeah sorry.” She said.
“And they said it was some sort of friendiversary?” He guessed.
“Yeah, that’s right. They said it was our 13th friendiversary. Really, I probably ought to have guessed. I mean we didn’t celebrate the last 12, I have never even heard the word. They must have made it up so I would show up. I’m usually too busy to go on something like this.
“Then why you were you so late?” He said.
“l… got lost.” She said scowling.
“Lost? It’s pretty easy to get here, it’s only an hour walk.”
“It said four paths! I swear I followed it, but I didn’t think it counted the deer path. But then there wasn’t a tree and then the next time there was but it was a branch and the third time…”
“Ok, I get it.” He said laughing at how frazzled she was in spite of himself. Clearly the girl was ‘directionally challenged’.
“Do you need help getting back?” He offered politely. His annoyance had faded.
It’s not like this was her fault. His own friends had certainly subjected him to plenty of annoying situations. Besides which, he had enjoyed the quiet peaceful evening and sunset by himself.
“No, No, I’m fine, you have already been through way too much over this.”
“Are you sure? My home is the opposite path, but if you are going to get lost again, I can head that way.” He said.
“Nah, it’s not that far, I doubt I will get lost, and worst case I can just camp in the woods if I do. I have everything I could need” she said gesturing her giant bag.
He believed her. She could probably spend two weeks out here with that thing. Talk about over prepared.
“Err, anyway, really sorry about this.” She bowed once more.
She turned and left so fast he wondered idly if she was related to Hiei.
She looked really embarrassed.
Too bad she had left so soon. He had been annoyed when he thought she had done this, but she had just been an innocent victim. Really, she had been kind of cute the way she blushed. She also seemed rather interesting. She hadn’t flirted with him, or seemed compelled by his looks at all.
He also happened to be partial to green. That uniform really did suit her. It would have been fun to at least chat a bit.
He was thirty minutes in the opposite direction, the woods growing dark, when he realized something alarming.
It was full dark now, the paths would be getting harder to see. If she got lost before, there was a high chance she would again.
Did she really say she would just camp in the woods if she got lost? With it so dark…
This was… not good.
He had forgotten about the demons.
He turned around in a rush, running in the opposite direction. Hoping the girl was not about to die because of her friends meddling.
****
It got so dark so fast.
She sighed, yep she knew this was gonna happen.
She made it to the twisted tree, but with the deer path and all that- ugh. Yeah, there was no way.
She decided to just set up camp. It would be a lot easier to find her way in the morning.
Well that had been her plan.
When the two men approached her at first she was relieved. Maybe she could ask directions!
That was until their human guises melted off of them like wax figurines dropped into a fire, a horrifying scene.
When she looked again instead of two humans there were two demons.
They looked humanoid, but with the bright green skin, horns, claws and red eyes it was hard to miss.
What scared her most was that they looked decent. These were not grotesque animalistic or insect like creatures.
As someone well versed in demons she knew what that meant.
Good looking= powerful. Usually the prettier the more powerful.
Case in point, just look at Sesshomaru as a prime example. They don’t come prettier, or more deadly than the demon lord of the west.
These were no Sesshomaru, but they were no Jaken either.
One she might be able to handle, but two?
Another rustle came from the right.
Shit were there three?
“I sense power from you human. Give us the necklace and we will make your death swift.”
Despite the growing danger, Kagome wanted to roll her eyes.
Could they be any more unoriginal.
If she had 10,000 yen for every time a demon threatened her for the jewel shards… well she wouldn’t be able to retire, but college would be set.
“I’m gonna go with no.” She said.
Then she did what any sane individual would in this situation.
She turned tail and ran like her life depended on it- which it probably did.
“Come back here you damn wench!” One called out to her.
“It’s Ka-go-me you jerk- what’s it with demons calling people wench anyway? Didn’t your mother teach you any manners?” She huffed dodging behind a rock.
She had been running for a long time now.
Thank god these assholes were not very fast or things would have gone poorly for her. If it were only a matter of speed Kagome would have long gotten away. She had a lot of practice running from demons in the feudal era.
*Crash** Crash*
“I see light over there!” Another called.
Damn it!
The problem wasn’t speed.
It’s that Kagome was blind in the woods at night. She had no choice but to use a lantern or she would run face first into a tree.
Also speaking of trees.
*Crash*
She winced.
Also whereas she was forced to go around the trees these assholes had zero respect for nature. They were plowing directly through the trees in their path.
She was also lost.
She finally managed to pull out one of the two items she needed from her bag, slinging it over her shoulder. Then off she had to run again as another of the demons found her.
The scenery flew by in a blur.
Then the trees thinned.
Kagome for a split second was excited, maybe she was almost out.
Nope. Not a chance.
Instead of the woods clearing she saw the worst possible thing she could reasonably expect at this moment.
The red headed boy from earlier. Somehow she had run right to him.
He looked momentarily relieved when he saw her, but as the crashing noises continued to get closer, she grabbed his hand and bolted.
“Don’t just stand there, run!”
He was practically dragged along by her.
“Wha—“
“Umm- there are some bad people so—“
Just then a very green demon with horns jumped out at them from the opposite direction.
She pushed the boy hard out of the way of the demons claws. Another demon was advancing with a club menacingly.
Shit, now she had to fight three demons with no weapons while protecting some random boy.
Could this night possibly get any worse?
As if to mock her Kagome heard crashing coming from two more directions.
Scratch that, four demons, in the dark with someone to protect.
And not just anyone, but someone who was only here because of her idiot friends.
“Run!” She shouted.
She grabbed the clueless boy by the elbow who for some reason had been just standing there with his hand in his hair.
Seriously, who fixes their hair in this situation? There was a time for self care and this was not it! Clearly her friends hadn’t picked him for his brains.
***
Well now what was he supposed to do?
Koenma was going to throw a fit that a human had seen demons but it’s not like he could easily play off creatures shredding trees like paper as actors.
As they continued to run, dodging the demons attacks he found himself increasingly impressed by the girl. She was doing a surprisingly good job not freaking out. The fact that she had even survived this long was a surprise.
Thinking of Koenma and his shouting he forced himself to open his mouth.
“Umm, so about the uh ‘bad people’ chasing us…” He tried to start.
She cut him off.
“Demons. Those are demons. Real ones.” She said.
“Yes, demons exist- don’t ask me how I know, if you want to freak out you can do it later, now is so not the time.” She said breathlessly.
Well so much for trying to say this was some sort of elaborate film set. It sounded lame even to him, but it was Koenma’s protocol and he would get in trouble if he hadn’t even tried.
He had no time to dwell on how she knew they were demons. Well besides the obvious green skin and horns.
Her light was drawing the demons to them like a beacon, it wasn’t long before the next attack came. He couldn’t see any better than any other human in this form, and the crashing noises were so loud even direction was hard to guess.
Suddenly the girl dodged yet another incoming attack, ducking skillfully. Unfortunately, she was just as blind as he was. She didn’t see the one hiding from behind to strike with its claws. He acted instinctively.
Kurama expertly moved, kicking the opponent in the stomach hard. While simultaneously pulling her away. He winced as his foot connected, his ankle twisting painfully on contact.
The demon toppled over and missed the girl, much to his relief.
Kurama meanwhile hissed in pain. It felt like kicking a two ton rock.
No wonder they were tearing through the trees like paper. Koenma’s intel had said nothing about this. He really needed to transform, his human body was a liability.
“Thanks, are you ok? I should have warned you, these seem to be some kind of rock demon, it’s better to dodge if you can.” She said.
Kurama tested his ankle.
“Just stings.”
It was mildly sprained, but he had had worse.
She nodded relieved, then pulled him forward, once again moving to run. Each step set a jolt of pain in his ankle, but he did not show it.
“Just let me know if you need to lean on me, I can take it.” She said worriedly.
Not unless he lost his entire damn leg would Kurama lean on a tiny human girl already overloaded with a bag nearly as big as she was. He had once fought with huge weights on his arms and legs, another time with a demon plant growing in his body, yet another with ice spikes inside of him.
One sprained ankle was nothing to him.
It still hurt though.
“I’m fine.” He said instead.
After they put a little more distance between the demons he spoke again. “You’re really good at this.” He complimented her.
He meant it. She had been dodging the demons quite well. Even with no weapons and while holding a huge bag on her back she was making it through the woods expertly, not to mention how well she had dodged attacks. She was skilled.
She laughed bitterly. “Practice.” She said. “I’m probably an expert on running for my life by now. This is like a typical Tuesday for me.”
Running for her life?
Typical Tuesday?
She been through something like this before? Multiple times? How?
She tried to open her bag, an action he had seen a few times so far, but once again before she could find what she was looking for, another demon came upon them, they had to dodge its lumbering attack and then they were running yet again.
This was getting them nowhere. He had no choice but to reveal what he was. He would have to deal with the aftermath and Koenma’s shouting later.
If worse came to worse he would slip her something. It wasn’t very nice, but better her trip on eating some mushrooms that made her think today a dream than let her put his human family in danger.
Of course he would only do that if necessary, he would bet a tail this girl was anything but normal. She seemed oddly well versed in demons and danger.
He pulled his hand away from her.
She looked at him confused as he pulled a rose from his hair.
Then he planted his feet squarely in front of her.
“You run ahead, I will take care of this.” He said confidently.
***
Kagome blinked at the human boy holding nothing but a pretty red rose in his hand, standing in a pose like some sort of super hero.
Who did he think he was? Tuxedo Mask?
How he intended to defend them with nothing but a rose, against four demons whose bodies were as hard as stone she had no idea.
Clearly the poor guy must have snapped. Maybe he thought they were in a movie or this was a dream and he was a super hero.
“What are you do—“
She stopped her shout mid sentence as the rose turned into a huge thorny whip.
He looked back at her with a wink, then lashed out at the demon with supreme confidence. The whip hit the demon made of stone with a loud clang.
She had no time to see what happened next, because two demons charged at her at once, and Kagome no longer had any room to worry about the boy with the rose whip.
She ran then dodged and rolled. After some back and forth finally the moment she had been hoping for took place, both demons charged at her from opposite directions, and this time when she stepped out of the way at the last moment the two slammed powerfully into each other with a thunderous crash.
Kagome wasted no time while they were momentarily stunned.
She tore off her bag and ripped it open, spilling ramen and text books onto the ground, then finally she saw it!
She pulled out her prize.
It was a bow! Perfect and lovely and her salvation.
The only thing odd about it was it was about 8 inches long. It was tiny, sized for a child Shippos size. Not surprising as she had bought it to give him as a gift.
It looked completely pathetic and useless against monsters but Kagome pulled it out and pointed it to the two demons still on the ground, a tiny arrow pulled from her mini quiver which she had pulled out earlier.
She planted her feet and pulled the string laughing in triumph. “You’re so dead now!”
The demons looked at the ridiculous girl. “What do you think a little toy is going to —“
Kagome released the arrow from the tiny bow. The demons eyes widened in horror.
“That’s impossible.”
“Aaaaaaahhhh” they both screamed together as the bright pink glow of her arrow struck, going through the both.
“Ha! Two for one special!” She said with a smile.
It was small but Kagome had made sure to get Shippo a functional bow. The range was a little low, but it worked just fine.
She heard a crashing noise in the distance and then bolted back in the direction to save the red headed boy who may or may not also be either a magician or super hero.
As she got to the clearing her mini bow to the ready Kagome’s jaw dropped once again.
Pretty. They were so pretty.
There were two of them, they were so big, and silver and fluffy.
She had never seen anything as majestic in her life.
Inuyasha’s were just so tiny compared to these.
Such
Perfect
Ears!!!!
She just wanted to touch them!
She watched as the owner of the most beautiful, perfect, dazzling, fluffy ears lazily dodged an attack from the demon, a self assured smirk on his face like this was no more than child’s play for him.
He countered with an attack of his own using his claws, and the demon whose skin had seemed so hard to a regular human shredded like a hot knife through butter and the rock demon cried out.
The second demon which she now saw was to the side on the ground stood on shaky legs, one of his arms gone. He turned to flee, but the silver haired demon lashed out his whip, and the fleeing demon was cleanly cut in half.
Wait whip?
She looked at the whip and realized it looked a lot like the one she had seen the red head holding before.
This was also definitely where she left him.
Was it the same exact whip?
The same person?
Fluffy ears, fluffy tail, ability to transform….
Before Kagome could finish her thought process the silver haired demon cried out.
“Look out!”
***
Kurama was just finishing up the one that was trying to get away when he noticed the girl.
She was standing there holding what looked like a child’s size bow. He had no idea what she was intending to do with a toy.
Was that seriously what she was looking for in her bag?
While he was distracted by the absurdity that was Kagome Higurashi the pathetic demons made their move.
The one next to him attacked once again, foolish creature couldn’t it tell it was far outclassed?
He lashed out with his whip, and knew his whip would ring true, but then in the dark another demon dropped on the girl- literally from above.
Damnit. There had been a fifth neither of them had noticed.
He called out to her, but he could already tell there was nothing that could be done.
She wouldn’t be able to dodge in time, and those things weighed a ton. It would crush her, soon she would look like the human equivalent of a flattened watermelon.
He dared not even blink, watching in a horrified fascination as the girl raised her dinky little bow into the air swiftly.
Faster then he could blink she let the tiny projectile fly.
He expected the child like arrow to ding off of the hard skin of the demon completely ineffectively.
Instead every hair on his demonic body stood on end as a huge and terrifying force that shook him to the very core surrounded that little child like arrow, a pink light engulfing it. The arrow whizzed cheerfully and the rock hard demon didn’t even have time to scream before he was purified to dust, his entire existence completely erased.
Kurama’s instincts said to flee, his hand holding his whip shook.
A miko.
A terrifyingly powerful miko.
One who could purify him in an instant if one of those child sized arrows so much as grazed his skin in this form.
The girl spun toward him, the arrow now pointed his way.
Kurama slowly raised his hands dropping his whip.
“Please don’t shoot” he said.
He dropped his yokai form, silver hair turning to red quickly. The whip that was on the ground turned back into a rose.
Much to his relief, and slight embarrassment he realized the arrow was not trained on him.
She had turned to point it at the demon he had just decapitated, in the rush she hadn’t seen its end.
Seeing both demons he was fighting dead she lowered the weapon.
Kurama lowered his hands but dared not move. She looked skilled with that weapon, tiny or not. He wasn’t 100% sure she couldn’t hit him if she tried, and he had no idea if his human form was immune from miko energy or not.
He couldn’t exactly test if because if he was wrong he would be vaporized like a fly hitting a bug zapper.
The girl frowned at him.
“You’re a Kitsune!” She accused looking thoroughly displeased.
“Ah… kind of.” He admitted.
“You… You… jerk!” She said.
“I’m sorry miss miko, but please don’t kill me.” He said. “I swear I’m not evil.”
“Kill you? Obviously I saw you help me! I didn’t want to kill you!” She said voice cracking.
“You… don’t?” He said.
“Of course not!” She said still upset. Her voice reaching a pitch of near hysterics. She looked on the verge of tears now.
“But you’re a miko….”
“So what? If their can be demons who get along with humans why can’t there be miko who get along with demons?” She sniffled. A tear fell.
He really had no rebuttal for that. He didn’t mean to make her cry.
“Then why are you so upset?” He said.
“I wanted to pet your ears!” She said sniffling again.
He blinked sure he had misheard.
She dropped the bow and pouted piteously.
“I mean have you seen your ears? They are soo big! And cute, and fluffy! The silver fur looks so sleek and soft! I bet they are even softer then lord Sesshomaru’s tail! They are way cooler than Inuyasha’s little puppy dog ears.”
She sniffled again.
Kurama felt his cheeks go pink.
He closed his eyes. He couldn’t believe he was doing this even as he felt himself transforming once again.
****
Kagome, feeling content and happy, stroked the big, fluffy, soft, silver ears of a certain fox demon.
They were every bit as soft and smooth and sleek as she imagined.
There had never been a better pair of ears in the whole world she was sure.
A contented purring noise escaped the fox demon when she found a spot he especially liked. He sighed in contentedness as she dutifully rubbed the spot.
So cute.
She looked at her phone, a notification popped up. Kagome’s eyes widened.
“Hey, happy 13 year anniversary.” She told him.
The silver haired fox, who was also her husband smiled beautifully at her in return.
“Happy 13 year anniversary.” He said.
“We have now been married as many years as your ‘friendiversary’ was on the day we met.” He said amused.
Kagome giggled.
What started as a disaster had turned out a blessing in disguise.
“I have good friends.” She said proudly
“Yes. You do.” He agreed.
“I really like your ears.” She said.
He laughed. “I know.”
“I like you even more.” She told him eyes full of love.
He smiled, eyes just as warm.
“I know that too.” He said pleased.
Kagome stroked an ear one more time eliciting another purr from him.
She never tired of his ears, and he never tired of her petting them.
“What would you do without me and these ears?” He asked.
“I would be lost.” She said.
He hummed.
Then he pulled the woman he loved, his wife, and his biggest fan into his arms.
He kissed her sweetly.
“So would I.” he said.
-fin-
***
A/N This work was made for r/Kagomecrossovers for their land travel prompt using “wrong turn” as the inspiration. If you like this pairing you may want to check out my other works, either Miko’s & Kitsunes (long fic complete), Thorns of betrayal (long fic in progress), or Falling kisses (another prompt one shot). Please let me know if you enjoyed.