Words: 7,149
Disclaimer: I do not nor will I ever own Inuyasha.
Notes: I use timestamps and write slightly fragmented moments of their trip because that's how I remember my vacations/trips with friends and family; everything is a little disconnected, kinda aimless, and I only remember certain images, moments, and even sensations.

ふたりごと
(chapter 1)
- for the mountains we leave behind -

DAY 1

東京/Tokyo
JST 10:01

They turned around almost immediately.

But it wasn't Inuyasha's fault this time. She could blame him all she wanted but he wasn't the one who brought his phone along with him when Kagome made them both swear to leave all connections to their friends, family, and work back in his apartment.

No cellphones. At. All, she'd told him all those days ago and he'd been totally fine with that! No way for Shippo to pester him about visiting Kaede more regularly, for Jaken to call about some ordeal with the family business that Sesshomaru handled, or for Miroku to rant to him about his precious engagement with his beloved Sango. Granted, Inuyasha would have appreciated a way for Sango to call him back to the precinct in Tokyo at any time, just in case they needed an extra pair of claws, but Kagome had been adamant with him.

Though she'd apparently not been strict enough with herself because less than five minutes after pulling out of the parking lot, Kagome's ringtone, some stupid old SMAP song about the world and flowers, started plunking away from inside her handbag at the foot of the passenger seat. Inuyasha heard the phone vibrate before it started ringing and rolled his eyes when Kagome squeaked and dove into her handbag to shut the damn thing off.

"No cellphones at all, huh?" he mocked, throwing her a judgmental look from the corner of his eye. His girlfriend laughed weakly beside him as he shook his head and took the next U-turn back towards his apartment.

"I must have forgotten to leave it behind," Kagome replied lamely before rejecting the incoming call and shutting the phone off.

"Clearly," Inuyasha scoffed, making a turn towards his street. Kagome bit her lip and glanced at him, a little worried that she'd managed to start off the trip on a rough note in less than five minutes.

"Sorry, Inuyasha," she murmured quietly. He glanced back at her, confusion creasing his brows before he faced forward again.

"Why? Don't worry about it. I think I left something in my room anyway," he mumbled, wanting to get rid of the apologetic tone in her voice. She cracked a small smile at him, under the impression that he was making up an excuse just to make her feel at ease, but while that was true, he did actually forget something important.

Well. Okay, "forget" would be too particular of a word. He may or may not have chosen to leave it behind.

Inuyasha didn't bother entering the parking lot and stopped the car in front of the building. Unbuckling his seat, he opened his hand towards Kagome, requesting her phone silently.

"Do you want me to come up with you?" she asked him, also moving to unfasten her buckle.

"No, stay here," he said hurriedly, and perhaps a little too eagerly. "I can go up to my own apartment alone, y'know." Kagome's eyes sparked first with suspicion before they narrowed offendedly.

"Forget I asked then," she muttered, crossing her arms and sitting up rigidly in the passenger seat, leaving Inuyasha choking on air and cursing his blasted tongue. He huffed and shut the door gently behind him before leaping in the air, squinting against the rush of wind against his face before he arced back downwards to land gracefully on the railing of his balcony.

"Nice landing, kid!" a raspy voice called from below. Inuyasha grinned, knowing who it was before he even turned to look towards the ground.

"Heh, every time, right?" he called back cockily, waving his hand in greeting to Naoki, the old monkey demon who served as one of the security guards at Inuyasha's apartment complex. It was a running thing between the two of them for the monkey to score every balcony landing whenever Inuyasha came home (he probably used the front gate once in the entire time he'd lived at the complex). With the monkey's laughter tickling the air behind him, Inuyasha walked into his apartment briskly. He placed Kagome's phone on the dining table next to his before hesitating, his hand hovering above the glint of metal resting next to one of Kagome's scented candles that stood in the middle of the table.

Inuyasha's fingers and eyelids twitched as he fought with his inner voice on whether he should or shouldn't bring the stupid thing.

He'd been planning on asking her anyway, deciding weeks before she'd even brought up this whole Kyoto ordeal to pop the dumb question. He thought it might even be romantic of him to ask her during the trip. She was into that; he was sure of it. Long walks from nowhere to nowhere under the luminescent protection of a yellow moon; romantic dinners at expensive Italian or French restaurants that he otherwise would never venture into; hours upon hours of the quiet sanctuary of skin and soothing they always built after nights of blissful pleasure and three hundred kinds of kisses.

Yeah, she was into all of that. (And, sure, maybe he was too, but don't tell Miroku that.) He'd already given her as much as he could but he had more - so much more - he wanted to offer, and this was just the first of many things she deserved.

Inuyasha simply wondered (worried, hesitated, agonized) over whether or not she would accept it.

Clicking his tongue with impatience and tired of his own indecisive issues, Inuyasha clenched his teeth and grabbed the extra key to his apartment before he chickened out. He stuffed it deep into the pocket of his jeans, ignored the growing warmth on his neck and whisked out of his apartment without a second thought.

東名/Tomei Expressway
JST 11:24

"I'm hungry."

"Keep driving."

"I'm hungry."

"So what? Keep your foot on that pedal and don't stop."

"What part of 'hungry' isn't making sense to you, woman?"

Kagome turned to her boyfriend, annoyance crinkling the side of her nose, an image that would've inspired Inuyasha to lean over and kiss it away if he wasn't so damn hungry.

"And what part of 'keep driving' is so difficult to understand, hmm?" Kagome retorted, reaching up with her right hand to grab his ear tightly and tug it, her fingers getting lost in his cropped, silver hair.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow! That's dangerous, that's dangerous!" Inuyasha yelped, his head leaning towards Kagome, dragged downwards by her petite hand. The steering wheel also turned ever so slightly to the left until Kagome released his ear and he was able to straighten the car back on the lane.

Inuyasha grimaced and reached up with one hand to rub at his ear gingerly. He eyed the smug woman sitting next to him warily and mumbled something about how she'd be the death of him (which was probably true). They sat in silence while Inuyasha waited for his ear to stop smarting and Kagome smiled to herself in victory - until Inuyasha spoke up again.

"I'm still hungry," he grumbled, not even flinching when Kagome threw her hands up in exasperation.

"It's only been an hour! We had a massive breakfast and you had, what, two cups of ramen before we left!"

"Three," Inuyasha corrected automatically. Kagome glared at him.

"Th–that's not the point!" he stammered. "Can't we get something to eat at the next service area? You don't need to take a piss or anything? No?"

Kagome made a face at Inuyasha's crude language but wouldn't back down.

"If we stop now, we won't be able to make it in time for check-in at the inn. We'll stop for a late lunch when we're closer to Kyoto, okay?" she offered, looking at the hanyou with pleading eyes. Inuyasha blew out a displeased breath but didn't argue, and he waited for a grand total of six seconds before opening his mouth again.

"But I'm still–"

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Kagome interrupted Inuyasha, her patience snapping. She surprised him by suddenly unbuckling her seatbelt, shoving the book she'd been reading into her handbag, and twisting in her seat.

"Oi! H-hey, what're you doing?!" Inuyasha exclaimed, turning his head repeatedly to keep an eye on his girlfriend, who was climbing carefully over the gear shift and making her way to the backseat of the car.

"I'm gonna make you a damn sandwich. Will that shut you up?" Kagome replied haughtily, zipping open the cooler bag with more force than necessary. Inuyasha didn't really know what to say to that but his silence must have been the right answer because Kagome didn't fire him any more threatening glares afterwards.

She climbed back into the passenger seat a few minutes later, bit into the ham, cheese and mayonnaise ("Kagome, don't forget the–" "Mayonnaise, yes, yes, I won't, sir.") sandwich she'd just made and then thrust it towards Inuyasha, chewing her mouthful with a sour look on her face. Inuyasha didn't even bother hiding the growing smile of amusement on his face as he took the sandwich from her and bit into it.

"What's with the face? You make good sandwiches, don't you?" he teased her, taking far too much delight in the tetchy way she scoffed and buckled herself back into her seat.

Inuyasha shook his head, grinning into his sandwich and pressing forward on the pedal. And when he finished the sandwich and asked Kagome for a second one, he remembered to lean over quickly and plant a grateful kiss just next to her chin.

JST 12:06

"What is this shit?" Kagome looked away from the window and towards Inuyasha curiously. He jerked his chin towards the radio, referring to the American pop song blaring from the speakers. Kagome blinked and listened to the song for a few seconds.

"I think that's Taylor Swift," she answered simply, leaning her elbow against the window and resting her chin on her hand.

"Are you listening to it?" Inuyasha asked. Kagome glanced at him quizzically before turning back to her window.

"Not really," she replied passively.

Inuyasha immediately reached down and changed the station.

JST 12:39

They'd managed to listen to one entire song - an old Japanese song from the 80s that Kagome refused to let Inuyasha skip - but other than that, Inuyasha had spent the last half hour driving with one hand on the wheel and another on the radio.

"Are you just going to keep playing with that?" Kagome asked him with a bored expression on her face.

"Until I find a station that isn't playing that Swift person or that Mars person over and over again, yes," Inuyasha snarled in response, his fingers showing no sign of halting their assault on the radio's buttons.

"What about that station with those old 80s Japanese songs? Why don't we just stay on that?"

"No way, I'd feel like I was listening to one of Myouga's playlists." Inuyasha paused briefly on a station that was introducing what the jock called "one of Japan's favorite rock bands this summer" and was about to pull away satisfied until more English words accompanied by a painfully conventional and tasteless baseline rang from the speakers.

He changed the station with a quick punch of his fist.

JST 12:43

"Jazz?" Kagome asked, her finger resting on the button.

"This isn't a cafe," Inuyasha muttered.

"Hmm, how about classical?" she tried.

"If you want us to fall asleep and die, be my guest," he retorted. Kagome fired him an unamused look but pressed the button.

"Ooh, R&B? Rhythm and blues?" Inuyasha blinked once before looking away from the highway in front of him to throw Kagome a perplexed and slightly disbelieving look.

"This … isn't R&B, Kagome," he stated. Kagome frowned and listened to the song.

"Y-yes, it is," she insisted but her voice wavered, empty of confidence. Inuyasha snorted before he started to laugh over the first verse of the song that was clearly a rock song. He looked at his girlfriend in amusement and took great pleasure in the rising flush on her cheeks.

"Holy shit," he snickered in good humor. "Kagome, this is clearly a rock song."

Inuyasha shook his head lightly and didn't protest when Kagome moved to shut the radio off once and for all.

JST 12:51

A few minutes later, Inuyasha realized that they didn't need the radio after all and asked Kagome to look through the glovebox for any of his CD's. She popped in the one with the least accumulated dust and held her breath for a few seconds. When Inuyasha didn't so much as wrinkle his nose at the music and even started bobbing his head along with the bass by the middle of the first verse, Kagome ducked her head to hide an endearing smile and put the other CD's back in the glovebox. With the hanyou pacified and satisfied with the couple's current soundtrack, the tension from his earlier impatience sifted away through his half-open window and he took a moment to breath in the clean air as they drove along.

"Who are these guys? They're good," Kagome asked with genuine curiosity. Inuyasha shrugged half-heartedly.

"Some up-and-coming alternative rock group from Osaka, I don't know. Shippo's the one who gave me their CD," he answered. "You know how the kid is with computers. He knows everything about anything. Sometimes I think he knows too much."

Inuyasha snorted at his own words before continuing. "And ever since we gave him that role as our comms intern, I've been the one having to drag him home, not the other way around."

Kagome smiled at the thought of the auburn-haired teenaged fox-demon.

"From what Sango's told me, he's been a really great asset to the precinct," she said. "She also mentioned that no one works better than he does as your intel provider whenever you're on the field."

Inuyasha's mouth twitched and he deliberately tilted his chin away to avoid meeting Kagome's eyes.

"You must be proud of him," she continued quietly. From the corner of his eye, Inuyasha could see a tender smile on her lips that made his heart turn and his throat close up the way it did whenever he did something to please her and she reacted positively. He swallowed with a little difficulty and cleared his throat to banish the nerves gathering in his throat.

"Keh," he scoffed, but it lacked the general substance and roughness it usually carried. "It's definitely better than when we first knew him, running with some really shady crowds to get vengeance for his dad's murder."

"That feels like such a long time ago," Kagome mused, her eyes turning back to her window and to the green landscape of the Japanese mountainside rushing by.

"It was," Inuyasha said next to her. Kagome dragged her eyes away from the lush and picturesque view from her window in favor of Inuyasha's profile, his skin tanned from the warm kiss of the summer sun and his eyes a liquid gold, half-lidded both from contentment and boredom of the stretch of highway ahead of him.

"We've really come a long way, haven't we?" she said and Inuyasha grunted in agreement, his eyes swimming with deep thought and nostalgic reminiscence.

"We all have."

東名/Tomei Expressway Service Area
JST 14:03

"Ahh, finally!" Inuyasha sighed gratefully, slamming the car door behind him and reaching up towards the sky to stretch the kinks and strains out of his back.

"Damn, I'd forgotten how much driving can be such a pain!" he exclaimed, twisting his hips until he heard enough cracks to feel like he could stand properly.

"Inuyasha, you really are such a brat, you know that?" Kagome reprimanded him, shutting her door and shouldering her handbag before circling the hood of the car to walk alongside the hanyou towards the restaurants of the service area. He shot back an offended retort and they tossed around harmless insults and banter until they found themselves in front of the first ramen shop they came across.

"Figures that we'd automatically walk to a ramen place without even trying," Kagome sighed, but she trudged up to the counter and waved her hand indifferently towards the seating area.

"You find a table and I'll order the food?" she asked Inuyasha. He nodded once in acquiescence and turned away to scope out a position with a good view of the scenery below the service area that rested high on the side of the mountain. Inuyasha made a small sound of approval. They were making good time and were almost finished with Tomei if they were already here at Lake Hamana. If they ate quickly and got back on the road as soon as possible (not that he was itching to sit on his ass for another few hours straight), they'd be in Nagoya in no time.

Inuyasha strode over to the tables nearest the large ceiling-to-floor windows that provided a lovely view of the lake and its surrounding town. The roads in these parts of the expressway were particularly quiet today with only a few civilian travelers and mostly trucks of different sizes and cargo surfing the roads. The service area itself was devoid of crowds, scattered families, and large, loud groups of vacationing college students, which Inuyasha was infinitely thankful for (he hated loud college students).

Inuyasha spotted a table for two right next to the window where there was a pot of bright yellow and purple flowers swaying in the wind on the other side of the glass. He proceeded to claim the spot before noticing the family of four demons sitting at the table right next to it. A quick sweep of his eyes told him they were bat demons and a sharp sniff revealed that they bred no hostility towards him though they did eye him curiously as if they recognized who he was. One of the two brats even seemed to be gearing up to approach him, judging from his excited wide eyes and the way his tiny hand clenched his father's arm on the table in front of him. They seemed to be an average youkai family on an innocent summer road trip but still, Inuyasha halted in his tracks and let out a mildly annoyed huff before turning around to find a different table.

What? He wanted his alone time with Kagome and he didn't need anyone interrupting the ramen experience he'd been waiting hours for just to give a kid his stupid autograph.

He plopped down into a seat a few tables away from the family, isolated from the rest of the other few customers in the service area but still with a relatively decent view of the lake below them. Inuyasha sat as still and as patiently as he could, tapping the tip of his pointer claw against the table lightly while he waited for Kagome. A moment later, a splotch of silver-grey hair moved into the corner of his eyesight and he let out a grumbling sigh, taking a deep breath to prepare for the inevitable conversation.

"Alright, kid, what do you want?" Inuyasha droned lazily, swivelling his head around slowly to face not just one but two wide-eyed bat-brats. One boy was about a head taller than his brother but they both flinched, their clasped hands tightening as Inuyasha quirked his eyebrow at them.

"Well? You gonna stare at me all afternoon?" Inuyasha asked, trying not to snap at them but failing miserably. Inwardly, he winced at his social ineptitude and inability to offer even one kind word to the pair of bumbling children.

A second passed before the shorter one seemed to gather enough courage to swallow his fears and speak to Inuyasha like a man. A small man, but a man nonetheless.

"You're Tokyo's Finest, aren't you?" he asked in a shaky but full voice. Inuyasha arched an eyebrow in a mixture of amusement and intrigue. The news and the media had started calling him that about a year ago and always referred back to it whenever he made the headlines with his demonic escapades. Inuyasha hadn't complained one bit. Tokyo's Finest? It had a good ring to it.

"Sure. But just call me Inuyasha," he said to the kid, turning his body more fully to face them. At the mention of his real name, the smaller boy tensed up with even more excitement, as if the honor of having Inuyasha address him directly was winding him up tighter than he already was.

"Um, okay, Tokyo–I mean, Inuyasha, sir. Could we have–"

"Don't call me sir," Inuyasha interrupted, his nose twitching in annoyance. The boy blinked and noticed when his taller brother gulped visibly next to him.

"Get it together, Tetsu! Give him the notebook!" the smaller boy scolded his brother, shaking their joined hands slightly. Tetsu lifted his other hand, which was gripping a small notebook and a blue pen tightly.

"Could we have your autograph, please, Inuyasha?" Tetsu asked timidly in a tight voice. Inuyasha stared at the two boys helplessly, wanting to look away in embarrassment but unable to break eye contact with them. This wasn't the first time a couple of kids had approached him with eyes filled with wonder and smiles full of hope. He still found it hard to believe he'd put that look on those faces, that he inspired those kids and that they actually looked up to and admired him.

"Listen, guys, I'm on a—"

"Of course he can!" Kagome appeared seemingly out of nowhere, her hands clutching her wallet and the ramen store's beeper. "He'll be happy to give you guys something as simple as his autograph, won't you, Inuyasha?"

The wide, toothy smile she gave him then was a little terrifying and Inuyasha found that he wasn't the only one who thought so. The bat-demon brothers in front of him took a step back away from Kagome and closer to Inuyasha, as if her energy and overly eager exterior were overwhelming them.

"Yeah, okay, okay," Inuyasha gave in, giving Kagome a weird look that silently asked her to calm down. He reached up for the notebook and the pen and Tetsu handed it to him with a small smile.

"So you're Tetsu and you're…?"

"Hiro!" the smaller boy piped. "I'm Tetsu's older brother. We're bat demons!"

"Yeah, I can see that," Inuyasha said dryly only to have Kagome kick his ankle sharply and give him a berating look.

"What!? For gods' sake," he grumbled, scribbling his name onto two sheets of paper in the notebook, one signed to Hiro and one to Tetsu.

"You want to know something, Tetsu?" he said contemplatively, shutting the book and clipping the pen onto the cover. "My sword sort of has the same name as you."

If Tetsu's eyes were already as wide as ¥500 coins, they only grew wider, almost bugging out of his head. For a split second, Inuyasha wondered if he should have said anything at all.

"Woah! Really?" Hiro asked in amazement. He took the notebook from Inuyasha's outstretched hand but didn't lose eye contact with the hanyou.

"Yeah," Inuyasha chuckled, offering them a half-hearted grin. "It's called Tetsusaiga, and it was made years ago out of my father's fang."

"So Tetsusaiga helped you defeat the Hokkaido Bird Clan last month?" Hiro asked enthusiastically.

"Yep."

"And that poisoned and rabid bear last November?" he added. Inuyasha and even Kagome, who hadn't even been there, shivered at the memory of that cold day.

"Heh, especially that one."

"And even those weird koi people who were eating all the seven-year-olds from surrounding towns?" Inuyasha frowned at the mention of the koi incident, which had happened two years ago and hardly received exposure in the news, and turned to Hiro suspiciously.

"Yeah…" he answered, "that too."

Hiro and Tetsu shared grins that threatened to break their cheeks but before that could happen, Inuyasha spoke to Hiro.

"Oi, kid," he growled. "How the hell do you know so much about me?"

Kagome delivered another sharp kick, this time to Inuyasha's shin and he yelped at her.

"Well," Hiro began bashfully, "we've both been huge fans for a long time. We saw you on TV one morning when you first made the news about that guy Naraku and ever since, Tetsu and I always make sure to know whenever you win. And lose."

Inuyasha twitched.

"You're kind of our role model, Inuyasha," Tetsu added in a soft voice. "Hiro and I both decided to study really hard to get into police academy so we can become good detectives like you."

Inuyasha blinked at them incredulously before the angles of his face melted into a blank, emotionless facade. His lips tightened firmly and a split second later, he scoffed quietly and turned away from the kids with a soft scowl creasing his brows.

"The police force isn't some kind of joke or game," he said quietly. He felt Kagome's eyes on him from where she stood by his side (always by his side) but tried to ignore her as best as he could.

"It means a lot of–a lot of hell and a lot of danger that you could avoid if you just studied to be–I don't know, a doctor or something. You guys seem like you could be doctors no problem." Beside him, Kagome's eyes softened but her gaze still pierced into the side of his head relentlessly.

"But we've really thought about this–" Hiro insisted.

"If you're gonna fight, you should only do it to protect someone," Inuyasha snapped at the boys, who flinched simultaneously. "Do you have someone to protect?"

Hiro and Tetsu both frowned at him defiantly, actually frowned, with cute scrunched-up eyes and noses, and lips twitching in irritation. Inuyasha rolled his eyes, unfazed by the disappearance of their fawning and praising. In fact, he might have been a little pleased with their newfound hostility.

"Well?" he said impatiently. Kagome gave him a look that he blatantly ignored.

"Inuyasha…"

"Yes," Tetsu answered clearly. He looked at his brother, who nodded and gave him a small, sloppy grin, and they both faced Inuyasha. "We do have someone to protect."

Inuyasha didn't miss the looks the gave each other, nor the glances towards their parents, who were smiling anxiously at their direction. Inuyasha sighed to himself and rubbed the side of his face with one hand tiredly.

"Alright then," he lifted his hands and shaking his head in defeat. "I … guess I'll see you brats in Tokyo."

He reached over just as the ramen store's beeper started going off and ruffled Tetsu and Hiro on the head, messing up their grey hair before getting up and taking the beeper from Kagome to retrieve their food.

"Now stop bothering me. I'm on vacation with my girlfriend," he said, getting up from his seat while Hiro and Tetsu's eyes snapped to Kagome.

"Lesson number one? Never disturb an officer when they're off duty," Inuyasha called over his shoulder, leaving Kagome to laugh weakly in the face of brothers' curiosity.

Hiro and Tetsu's family left the service area shortly after Kagome and Inuyasha sat down to eat their meal. Inuyasha had to shake the parents' hands but another kick in the shin, courtesy of Kagome, ensured that he did so with enough etiquette and filters for his filthy mouth. When the couple were (finally) left to the peace and quiet of their own meal, Kagome giggled into her can of soda. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her, immediately knowing what was coming next.

"What're you laughing about?" he mumbled anyway, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Nothing, nothing!" Kagome smiled. She paused. "Just that you're gonna be the perfect father to my perfect children."

Needless to say, Inuyasha choked on the rest of his ramen and was totally incapable of looking Kagome in the face for the next hour without blushing like a fire hydrant.

京都/Kyoto
JST 16:31

They made it to Kyoto without killing each other, or anyone else for that matter. Inuyasha only ticked Kagome off three times in the last two hours of the drive (a new record), Kagome only went batshit crazy twice (they had to pull over and take a breather on opposite sides of the car the second time), and they only got lost once, while they were looking for their Kyoto inn ("You said turn right!" "I meant my right!" "Wh–your right is my fucking right!").

They both agreed that they didn't want to look at Inuyasha's car for at least twenty-four hours, gladly leaving it in a cool, dark corner of the inn's garage, locking its doors and then dashing away as quickly as possible.

JST 17:05

Later, Inuyasha decided that he was glad Kagome ordered three whole boxes of bottled tea and kept one box iced the entire drive to Kyoto. After checking into the inn and unloading his car, he and Kagome set off to explore a bit of the city and find a restaurant to eat dinner after their long journey. As soon as they stepped out into the heat of Kyoto, even if it was five o'clock in the afternoon, Inuyasha hunched over heavily, dragged down by the humidity of the air. Thank goodness Kagome had packed a few bottles of cold green tea in her apparently bottomless handbag, otherwise Inuyasha would have dashed right back into the chilly inn and never stepped foot outside again, at least not in that sweltering heat.

"And you were complaining the whole time about my boxes when here you've already gone through two bottles and we've just started walking!" Kagome laughed and skipped a little ahead of him as if the heat wasn't bothering her at all.

"Ahh, shut up," Inuyasha growled back but he was clearly all bark and no bite in the way he lagged behind Kagome and didn't continue arguing in favor of chugging down half of his third bottle of cold tea. When he lowered his chin after the drink, Kagome was standing in front of him again but the teasing in her eyes was gone and was replaced with a glimmer of worry.

"Are you feeling okay, Inuyasha? You didn't push yourself too hard again today, did you?" she asked, reaching up to place her palm on his sweaty forehead. Inuyasha was tempted at first to slap her hand away gently, or angrily insist that he was fine and that all he did today was drive a little and lift a couple of boxes of fucking tea. But he didn't even lift a finger when the cool skin of Kagome's hand made contact with his forehead and he could practically feel the dizzying heat that had gathered in his head dissipating just from Kagome's touch.

"Of course not," he grumbled, a shiver tickling the nerves in his neck and making him lose his concentration for just a second. "It's just … I was … it's just really fucking hot."

Kagome seemed to misunderstand his discomfort and annoyance because she beamed at him, a wide, beaming grin, and took his hand, tugging him forward.

"We'll just get dinner and see a bit of the area before calling it a day, okay?" she said promisingly, swinging their arms as they walked.

"I want ramen," Inuyasha mumbled and Kagome promptly dropped his hand, practically throwing it from her grip.

"We just had ramen for lunch," she said with a little bite behind her words. "I'm choosing where we eat tonight."

There was enough venom in her voice and heat-induced fatigue swamping Inuyasha's mind that he didn't even bother debating the issue, opting instead to reach over and snatch her hand up again, lifting it to his mouth and pressing his warm lips against her fingers.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," he apologized. "Just get me somewhere with an iced cold whatever and I'm all good."

JST 17:23

Kagome did just that after spotting a lovely little cafe-restaurant that looked like a fusion of French and Japanese dining. She was drawn to the restaurant's front display: the shining plastic assortment of the menu laid out behind the window, multiple pots of small white and carmine flowers lining the path to the front door, and the paper lanterns casting an orange glow that was pale and soft compared to the vibrance of the setting sun.

The first thing she did was order Inuyasha an ice-cold glass of soda that he downed within seconds as soon as the waitress - who could've been a tanuki demon or a rabbit demon (or both) - set the glass on the table. After a few minutes of soaking up the cafe's air-conditioned atmosphere and relishing the coolness of the soda sliding down his throat, Inuyasha perused the menu with Kagome leisurely and asked her what she wanted to do the next day. As far as he was concerned, the entire trip's itinerary was simply: Follow Kagome.

"I thought we could go see the big tourist spots," Kagome said, flipping to the pasta dishes of the menu. Inuyasha eyed her carefully over his menu.

"…Which ones?" he asked warily. There were a lot of "big tourist spots" in Kyoto and he wasn't sure he'd have enough patience to see all of them, no matter how much he adored this woman. Kagome seemed to realize this without missing a beat because she threw him an amused look from over her menu.

"Don't worry, Inuyasha, it's really only a few places," she laughed, putting the menu down and taking his hand placatingly. "I only want to see the Golden Pavilion in the morning and we'll see from there. Nothing stressful, I promise."

For a moment, Inuyasha suddenly felt terribly guilty; that he was just weighing her down and killing the entire mood of the trip. She'd wanted to go on this vacation to spend time with him, just the two of them, not as a doctor-to-be with boundless spiritual power and a hanyou who quite literally clawed and bit his way to where he was now, but as two people with nothing holding them back. She was being so patient with him and all his whining insults, and here he was, holding her back and ruining the trip by being a salty, complaining baby.

"No," Inuyasha decided. He snapped his menu shut and slid it to the side, pulling his chair forward so he could lean over the table. Kagome threw him a pretty if not confused frown but he gave her a small, perhaps slightly bashful smile and continued. "I promise I'm going to be on my best behavior from now on. I - I'm sorry - about being so impatient today. I promise I'll try harder to give you a vacation you deserve."

Kagome's eyes softened. She licked her lips and took his hand into both of hers.

"A vacation we deserve," she corrected him gently. "And you have nothing to apologize for."

Inuyasha regarded her with shining, grateful eyes before bringing up their joined hands and pressing his lips to her knuckles softly, watching her breath stutter in a soft gasp. Inuyasha might have followed the feeling in his gut telling him to stretch across the table to replace her knuckles with her lips instead, a way to seal his promise to her, but was interrupted by a meek cough next to him.

"Would you like to order now?" a petite human waitress asked them timidly, eyes darting between the two of them as if she couldn't possibly hold either of their gazes at the moment.

Inuyasha quickly lowered his and Kagome's joined hands back onto the table and cleared his throat.

"Yeah. Yeah, sure," he stammered, releasing his hold on Kagome's knuckles and fumbling with the menu in front of him. Kagome sat back in her seat comfortably and let Inuyasha order for them both, smiling to herself.

When the waitress left them alone a moment later, Kagome reached over for Inuyasha's hand, brought it up to her lips to drop a fleeting kiss on his knuckles - an acknowledgment of his promise - and relished the soft blush that graced his cheeks.

JST 20:07

They found themselves only returning to the inn a few hours later after a slow dinner and an even slower walk around the town that they both agreed they needed after their drive. Once in their room, Kagome excused herself to use the bathroom to wash up and turn in for the night and Inuyasha grabbed their duffle bag of clothes and dropped it on the bed. Tentatively and careful of the almost-but-not-quite healed scar on the rightmost area of his abdomen, he peeled off his t-shirt to inspect the injury. He clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Goddamn birds," Inuyasha muttered to himself, spotting the mirror on the opposite wall and twisting his body to get a better look at the scar. He reached down with one hand to press his fingers gingerly on the pale pink edges of the scar that coiled away from the center of the injury where one bird demon had gotten a lucky shot.

His ears flicked towards the bathroom door when it clicked open and Kagome walked out dressed for bed in nothing but a t-shirt two sizes too big for her. She stopped in her tracks momentarily at the sight of his injury but walked over slowly, if not a little hesitantly.

"It certainly looks a lot better than last night," she offered, her hand rising to touch the sensitive flesh before stopping mid-way for her to look at him questioningly. Inuyasha nodded - as if she had to ask - and her hand finished its journey, her cool, experienced fingers brushing the scar delicately. The muscles in Inuyasha's stomach tensed at her touch and he lowered his eyes to catch her expression, only to frown slightly at the storm brewing in Kagome's eyes.

"Kagome?" Inuyasha asked worriedly.

"Those birds almost took you from me," she muttered a delayed response. In some other context or at some other time, perhaps if the sun was out to cast its golden glow reassuringly onto Kagome's world whenever he couldn't, Inuyasha might have laughed. It wasn't the kind of sentence an average person used every day but it was the kind of thing Inuyasha heard and Kagome said on a regular basis.

He wondered if it took its toll on Kagome sometimes, and how she dealt with it.

"Almost," he confirmed. "Those birds should've known what was coming for them."

He tried to sound more confident than he actually felt but the truth was that he'd been on the brink of death and he'd never been closer. Sometimes when he wasn't actively trying to ignore the lasting effects of the battle, he could still smell the iron of his own blood, seeping through his torn and tattered uniform, and the stench of petroleum and ash that had bathed the street. The absolute truth was that the incident with the Hokkaido bird clan had scared the living shit out him then, and it scared the living shit out of him now. And Kagome knew it.

When she didn't show any signs of looking him in the eye, he clicked his tongue in frustration.

"Kagome, would you look at me? Please?" he winced inwardly at the desperation in his voice but figured honesty was the best policy, especially in such a tender moment as this one. It seemed to do the trick and Kagome looked up towards him, her eyes wide and worried with unshed tears.

Aw, fuck, Inuyasha thought.

"You know I'm hell of a lot stronger than my enemies think I am, right?" he asked slowly. Kagome nodded. It was true. Honestly, it was still a little insulting but if it kept playing to Inuyasha's advantage, then he wouldn't complain.

"And you know I only get stronger every day, right?" he added. Kagome nodded again. That much was true, too, if all the times he'd run into one of their dates fifteen minutes late due to training was any proof.

"And you know," Inuyasha swallowed, encouraging the words from his throat even as his fingers started trembling as he reached up to touch Kagome's chin gently. "You know it's mostly because of you, right?"

Kagome blinked at him, slightly dumbfounded.

"Right?" Inuyasha repeated. A sliver of a moment later, Kagome was blinking again, more rapidly this time and mostly to keep her tears at bay. She was very familiar with how much her tears made Inuyasha feel uneasy and guilty, even when he'd done nothing wrong. But Inuyasha was impatient for a response so she reached up, her hands leaving the warmth of his abdomen and up to the sides of his face. Standing on her tiptoes, she nodded and smiled at him fondly, lovingly, and peppered his face with tiny kisses, from one cheek, across his nose, to his other cheek.

"You know I love you, right?" Kagome whispered, planting a kiss under Inuyasha's eye. He offered her the humblest of smiles and moved forward to brush his nose against hers.

"Too much," Inuyasha replied. Kagome gave him a soft, pained look before her eyes flashed with purpose and she shook her head at him.

"Not enough," she corrected him, her hands suddenly at the waistband of his jeans. In the next second, she was unzipping the front and simultaneously pushing Inuyasha's pants down his hips and him onto the bed to show him just how much his "too much" was "not enough" for her.

JST 23:11

A little tangled in blankets, a little too sore for his liking, and a lot satisfied, Inuyasha only started falling asleep a few hours later with the moonlight in his eyes and a satiated Kagome in his arms. If he'd had any doubts about enjoying this small getaway at the beginning of the day, he had absolutely none now. Perhaps a vacation was what he needed after all, no matter how short it would be or how little or long the distance they'd have to drive, walk, or run.

Tomorrow would be a good day. He'd make sure of it.

Before sleep overtook Inuyasha's senses completely, he caught a glimpse of the small key from where it peeked out from the pocket of his abandoned jeans. The glimmer of metal reminded him that while he was here in Kyoto, he had a job to do, and for Kagome's sake, he was going to do it right.

to be cont.

Notes: Kagome's stupid SMAP ringtone is "Sekai ni Hitotsu Dake no Hana" aka the only SMAP song I remember from my Japan days. • Inuyasha's opinion of Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars ≠ my opinion of Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars. • Tetsu and Hiro are loosely based off of my two favorite genius bruisers, Edward and Alphonse Elric. • Bless you for reading this whole thing. If you have any comments/questions, I'd love to hear them! (All of them.)