Adult-FanFiction.org : Inuyasha / Yashahime

Beautiful Stranger	By : SplendentGoddess Category: InuYasha AU/AR > Het - Male/Female Views: 4035 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Inuyasha, and the characters therein, are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. I am in no way affiliated with Takahashi or VIZ Productions, and I do not gain financially from my fanfic in any way.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
Chapter 9 – How time flies

Moving her stuff into Inuyasha's apartment wasn't as surreal an experience as Kagome had expected it to be. Instead, as he relinquished half of his closet space to her, reorganizing some of his things into a newly purchased dresser they would also both be sharing, Kagome found that hanging the clothes she didn't want to fold in her half of his closet felt as natural as spending an entire night on her side of his bed.

No longer did she have to pop over for a quickie in between classes or, if she could manage it, spend an hour or two with him while out running 'errands' before returning home for the night. Inuyasha's apartment was her home, now, and it didn't take long for either of them to fall into a comfortable daily routine. There were no surprises because they'd already quizzed each other about their habits and rituals long before then.

Inuyasha knew Kagome was no fan of being in front of the stove, and so he always made sure he had a fabulous restaurant bought dinner waiting for her when she came home in the evenings from her late classes. Quick and easy breakfasts worked for both of them, and he still met her almost daily for lunch. Inuyasha was happy to continue doing whatever few dishes there were to be done, explaining that he was already used to doing so and his high tech dishwasher also made the task a breeze. In an attempt to be fair and share the load, then, Kagome said she'd take on the 'wifely duty' of doing the laundry, but when Inuyasha said he didn't mind continuing to do his own laundry, too, seeing as she was so busy with her classes, Kagome relented and insisted only on at least doing her own.

She also joked that it was about time she finally had to do her own laundry, since up until moving out of her childhood home her mother had been happy to do it for her, but the miko also admitted that if she was going to have to do it, his top of the line washer and dryer definitely made the task much easier than it otherwise would have been.

His apartment had all the top of the line amenities. As he'd explained it, since the rest of the world kind of sucked, he'd figured he might as well make sure to enjoy his private life at home in as much luxury as possible. He could certainly afford it, and Kagome couldn't fault his logic one bit. Her favorite was hands down the giant master bathroom that had a huge shower with multiple shower heads coming out of the walls and ceiling and a separate massive soaking tub complete with air jets.

Weeks turned into months, and then before they knew it, a full year had gone by since that first fateful night at Club Taboo, and while they were engaged to appease her father but had no actual plans for their eventual wedding while Kagome was still so busy with her schooling, the same couldn't be said for Sango and Miroku, whose wedding was just around the corner. Kagome, being Sango's maid of honor, somehow found the time to do her few maid of honor duties, mostly because Inuyasha relinquished his claim on what little spare time she usually spent with him during the day, but she had no problem making it up to him at night.

Besides, just because he didn't have to help Miroku pick out a tux or keep track of the gift registry didn't mean he wasn't busy in his own way as his cousin's best man.

The bachelor party was the easy part. Sango had given her husband-to-be her blessing to have as many strippers as he wanted, and a little touchy-feely in the form of lap dances and the like was also a-okay. He just wasn't allowed to actually cheat on her, and not that Miroku had any intention of being unfaithful to his bride, anyway, but he also knew his hanyou cousin would smell it in an instant if he were, which was Sango's insurance. Inuyasha just threw some money at the best strip club in town and supervised while Miroku and some of the houshi's other friends who didn't mind Inuyasha's company all had the time of their lives. Inuyasha would be lying if he said he didn't also enjoy the party, although he stayed sober to be Miroku's ride home while the houshi got completely shit faced.

That was the easy part.

The hard part was coming up with whatever the fuck he was supposed to say during his best man speech after the wedding ceremony, and also he was just generally freaking out about the idea of being his cousin's best man when save for his mother and aunt, the entire rest of his human family wished he'd never been born.

Surprisingly, though, despite a few people's initial objections – he'd heard all the juicy gossip from Miroku, since he never actually spoke to any of those people – the family eventually relented at Miroku's insistence and accepted the fact that he was going to be front and center throughout the ceremony. No one in their family declined to attend the wedding because of Inuyasha, because that would have just been snubbing Miroku and, more importantly, Sango. That Miroku's bride-to-be came from such a well-known and well-established family, who did not disapprove of the union, his mother's family knew to be on their best behavior.

As for the martial artist's family, they were far more concerned with Miroku's family on his father's side, where there were a lot of reiki users. Miroku came from a long line of powerful houshi on his father's side and so as far as Sango's family was concerned, it was a good match. It was almost guaranteed that at least one of Miroku and Sango's future children would be reiki users as well, and so the fact that there was also an illegitimate hanyou in the family on Miroku's mother's side made no difference to them.

Though it certainly didn't hurt that Inuyasha's youkai father was so powerful – literally and financially – and that regardless of the scandal his birth had caused over two decades ago, Inuyasha was now filthy rich and engaged to none other than Kagome Higurashi.

Besides his mother and aunt nobody else in his family spoke with Inuyasha at the wedding, of course, not that any of them were rude to him, either. It was all a game of keeping up appearances, and everybody knew it, including the hanyou. For his part, Inuyasha didn't say or do anything to disappoint his family further, making no public spectacles. The actual ceremony went off without a hitch, and when it was time for him to give the speech, despite his nerves his words were professional and well-spoken, with a few appropriately placed jokes that Miroku had actually helped him write.

After Miroku and Sango shared the first dance, when it was time for everyone else to join in, Inuyasha danced with Kagome not just because it was his duty as the best man to dance with the maid of honor, but also because he was her fiancé, and the love they felt for each other was obvious to everyone watching. His family knew they were engaged, of course, and just had to be dreading the day it was time for his own wedding. They would actually have to speak to him then, and nicely, because he would be marrying a girl who came from a family a hell of a lot better than they were. The thought made him hide a secret smirk.

He was looking forward to it.

But he was in no hurry, and wouldn't push Kagome to get married before she was ready. The miko had no doubt in her mind that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, but when it came to planning her wedding she wanted to be able to give the special event her undivided attention, and she simple couldn't do that right now while she was still in medical school. He completely understood that. He had toyed with the idea of them just getting married in a courthouse to get the legality of it over with and then doing an elaborate public wedding ceremony later, but Kagome had said she wanted the ceremony to be the real thing and he understood and respected that, as well.

At least with her already living with him, it wasn't that big of a deal to him. He would wait as long as he needed to.

And time continued to fly by, as time was wont to do. Before they knew it, Kagome was finished with her second year of med school.

During her third year she received fewer dirty looks from her peers with youkai noses. Perhaps they'd previously thought her relationship with Inuyasha was more casual and had disapproved of her being a slut, but now realized they were actually more serious? She honestly had no idea what anyone thought, as none of them ever talked to her about it, and she certainly wasn't going to broach the subject voluntarily because it was none of their damn business. She did, however, rock her engagement ring to class every day, and she suspected that for at least some of them that was enough to change their opinions, either because they realized she really loved him, or that he was really rich.

She also stopped training with Sango when the martial artist took time off upon discovering she was pregnant, though at that point it'd more just been regular sparring to stay sharp rather than actual training because Kagome had already long since passed the various courses Sango's family specialized in teaching. Inuyasha had observed their routines a few times and he was a fast learner, with the physical abilities to back it up, so with Sango's family's blessing he and Kagome continued to utilize their facility with him as her sparring partner so that she could continue with her normal routine.

It didn't take him long at all to get the hang of it and learn not to hold back quite so much when, on their first day training together, Kagome had him on his back. Pretty soon he was giving as good as he got, already intimately aware of just how much of his superior strength she could really take. But unlike Miroku, who'd joked that he wouldn't be able to 'control himself' if Sango dominated him in such a way, Inuyasha was a complete professional. The worst he ever did was flash Kagome a 'look' a few times and joke that she'd pay for something later before getting right back to it.

It also didn't take long before some of the dojo's other clientele realized they liked the idea of having a demonic sparring partner, themselves, and while at first they were informed that Inuyasha did not work there, it also didn't take long for everyone involved to realize that that actually didn't need to be the case. It would at least give him something to do with himself while Kagome was in class and, truth be told, since everyone had a different fighting style it was fun to mix things up a little bit.

Inuyasha required no salary, of course, and insisted on merely volunteering his time, but Sango's family made him an 'official' volunteer, including him on their liability insurance. Not that he'd ever seriously injure anyone, but accidents could happen and it was just a legal necessity. He wasn't considered 'higher risk' for being hanyou, and in fact he was the one taking the risk whenever he worked with people still learning how to control their reiki. Being half human, though, meant that at least it was impossible for even the strongest blast of reiki to cause him serious harm. His youki would automatically go dormant in self-defense before it got to that point, turning him temporarily human. Even the strongest reiki user in the world wouldn't be able to permanently purify a hanyou; centuries ago, before the humans and youkai had made peace with one another, some groups of humans had actually tried it.

It was probably a good thing they had failed, Inuyasha reflected, or the human laws regarding hanyou, back when those laws were being written, could have turned out a lot differently.

He shuddered at the thought.

While he thought society's view of hanyou was fucked up, he definitely did not want to become human. He knew that first hand from already becoming human one night a month. A detail he'd shared with Kagome along the way with them getting to know each other, although she hadn't actually gotten to see him in that form until after she'd moved in with him.

She'd known all hanyou had such a time, of course; the secret had merely been when it was. That first new moon night together, although she'd known in theory what to expect, it had still been a shock to see him like that, but he was no less handsome to her that way, of course, and she'd made sure to prove it to him too.

He'd been with professionals on his human nights too, of course, women who'd had no idea he was really a hanyou, but with Kagome his human emotions had gotten the best of him, as he'd cried and gushed about how much he loved her. For Kagome's part, she had felt a little overwhelmed, herself, and in no way thought less of her future husband for revealing his vulnerabilities to her, both physically and emotionally. The next morning, she'd made sure to prove to him that she didn't prefer his human form, and he definitely hadn't had any complaints.

Kagome's fourth year of medical school seemed to zip by. Sango and Miroku were now the proud parents of twin girls, Sango was on extended leave from her family's dojo, and Inuyasha continued to keep himself occupied while Kagome was in school by filling the void at the dojo Sango's absence had created. He had a few regular clients of his own, now, some reiki users, some not. All knew he was kin to Sango's husband and engaged to a Higurashi, so nobody ever acted like he had no business being there.

Once Kagome graduated from medical school she decided to take a year off before starting her residency. Finally, it was time to start planing their own wedding. Having lived together for two years now, there was no lingering illusion of them possibly rushing into anything. They were more than compatible as a couple.

They returned the favor to their friends by having Sango and Miroku function as maid of honor and best man, which meant Sango's job was made easier by Inuyasha and Kagome opting not to have a registry for wedding gifts. People would be free to give more personable items as they saw fit, but there was nothing the preestablished couple actually needed regarding their home life together, and if there were, Inuyasha would just buy it.

Sango and Kagome's other girlfriends did come up with quite a few 'personable' items to give Kagome as gifts during her bridal shower, though, and most of them qualified as gifts for Inuyasha, as well.

The hanyou, meanwhile, against his better judgment, allowed Miroku to take him out for his own bachelor party, with Kagome's blessing of course. She knew he wouldn't stray. The 'leash' jokes got a little old after the fourth person made them, but he still had a great time running up one hell of a bar tab in order to consume enough alcohol to actually get him wasted. Miroku responsibly stayed sober in order to drive Inuyasha home at four in the morning, and Kagome got to find out that even shit faced, alcohol did not 'hinder' Inuyasha's body the way it could a human male.

It did, however, make him arguably even more emotional than his human night.

His slurred apologies for 'enjoying the view' at the club quickly morphed into reassurances that she was the only one he wanted from here on out, and that the only reason he had enjoyed himself as much as he had was because he was fantasizing about her. Kagome's response was to drop the robe she was wearing to the ground, revealing the bright red see-through negligee Sango had given her along with the matching red lace thong panties.

It was one hell of a night before the wedding.

The wedding itself was absolutely beautiful, though if you asked Inuyasha it wasn't as beautiful as Kagome in her fabulous designer wedding gown. The ceremony went off without a hitch, of course, the ceremony itself being held on the shrine grounds while the reception was held at a nearby hotel. Not the same one where our couple had first met.

Inuyasha let Kagome's father pay for most of it, since Mr. Higurashi insisted on keeping with that particular tradition, but the holy man did permit the hanyou to blow some of his own money on extravagant extras, such as the ridiculously beautiful ice sculpture of the same holy tree, the Goshinboku, that the ceremony had been held at the base of. The five-tiered wedding cake was also ridiculously fancy, and it made Kagome want to roll her eyes, but she and Inuyasha had discussed it beforehand and she knew that such showing off was less about him wanting to impress her – because he knew she didn't care – and instead it was more about proving himself worthy in everyone else's eyes.

There were many extended Higurashi family members who attended the reception, not to mention the hanyou's own family. Not only was Inuyasha's entire human family (reluctantly) in attendance, but his father and half-brother had also accepted their invitations, and while he was obviously not trying to impress them by showing off his money, he definitely wanted to advertize the depth of his love and devotion for Kagome. Even Sesshoumaru had to admit the hanyou knew how to do things the right way. And while Sango's family had concentrated mostly on Miroku's lineage on his father's side and had been willing to overlook the houshi's hanyou cousin on his mother's side, Kagome's family were directly linking themselves to Inuyasha's family on his father's side, so it was important for the inu-hanyou to embrace his demonic lineage as a Taisho.

Toga Taisho had frankly been amazed that the well-known shrine family had been so open-minded, although he'd known of Kagome even before their engagement because Izayoi had told him the good news shortly after the first time she'd met the young miko. He had been both hopeful and doubtful that her family would approve of the union, and the daiyoukai had never been happier for the latter worry to be proven unfounded.

The newlyweds spent their wedding night in the hotel that hosted their reception, in the penthouse. Inuyasha didn't let Kagome get much sleep as they spent the night trying out more of the 'gifts' she'd received during her bridal shower, but he made it up to her the next day by letting her sleep in as long as she wanted. They had the room for two more nights and he planned on spoiling her rotten, whether that meant making her hoarse from screaming her pleasure or letting her laze in bed chowing down on gourmet room service.

When it was finally time to rejoin the real world it wasn't much of a sacrifice, since it meant going back to the luxury apartment she shared with her husband.

Husband.

She liked the sound of that.

Continuing with her schooling, it wasn't long before Kagome started her residency in a local hospital's children's ward. She made no effort to conceal who – or as some would say, what – she was married to, but neither did she go out of her way to advertize it. Her demonic coworkers could once again smell him on her, but she was married now, and everyone was a bit older and more mature working in the hospital compared to her fellow students back in her second year of medical school, so she received far fewer nasty glares as most of the people she interacted with remained completely professional, at least on the outside.

Even when her marriage to Inuyasha actually did appear in the grocery store tabloids – “Higurashi miko marries hanyou!” – she didn't let it get her down. A couple of the receptionists at the hospital she worked at even pointed it out to her, but only to congratulate her on looking so hot in her paparazzi photos. One of the two receptionists, both of whom were human women, even told Kagome that Inuyasha was hot, too. That made Kagome smile. There was hope for the rest of the world, yet.

As for the hanyou, Inuyasha continued to keep himself busy while Kagome was at work by working his volunteer shifts at Sango's dojo, but he also figured it wouldn't hurt to get the ball rolling on his wife's eventual private practice. On her days off he and Kagome shopped around for available buildings until finding what felt like the perfect location. He had no need to take out a loan and bought the building outright, Kagome unable to argue because now that they were married, his money was her money, and he'd told her he wouldn't hear a single peep about her not wanting him to spend 'his money' on her in such a way.

For her honor's sake, and because she had asked it of him and he would do whatever she asked, he let her work on paying her parents back for the money they'd spent on her education from her own paychecks. At least it was much easier for Kagome to afford paying back the private loan when she didn't need any of her paychecks for any other expenses. He was quickly making her quite spoiled, she joked, a claim he refuted because she was such a hard worker, but the truth of it was he enjoyed spoiling her because he knew she wasn't after his money.

Time went by at a steady pace, our happy couple falling into yet another comfortable routine. While Kagome built up her real life doctoring experience, Inuyasha worked on securing the necessary construction and licensing for the building that would eventually become her private practice, as well as the computers and all necessary medical equipment. It was a slow process because they took the time to research everything first, but all the more reason why he wanted to work on it while Kagome worked at the hospital. The idea was to ultimately have the place be ready to take on staff and open to the public so that when the time came that Kagome's residency was over, instead of either staying on at that hospital or picking up a job anywhere else, she would be able to transition straight into running her own practice.

As her time at the hospital progressed she spoke more openly about her endgame with some of her coworkers, too, offering some of the newer residents jobs when their own residencies were up. She made it no secret that while her pediatric practice would cater to all children, she was going to specialize in hanyou children, so if anyone had a problem with that then they weren't the right people for the job, but she wanted a mixed staff of humans, youkai and hanyou if at all possible.

In fact, it turned out to be very possible. When her practice opened, 'Dr. Taisho' had her mixed staff, including a horse hanyou who'd just graduated from nursing school and had been having trouble finding a job elsewhere due to his unusually large stature. Fortunately, the building they'd chosen had been fairly large to begin with, and enlarging the doorways to every room had already been something Kagome and Inuyasha had taken care of in the initial stages of conversion, since hanyou as well as full-blooded youkai came in many shapes and sizes and they'd already known they needed to be as accommodating as possible.

Kagome didn't receive too much criticism for becoming so publicly pro-hanyou. While she was technically a Taisho now, her Higurashi heritage, not to mention her standing as a very powerful miko, still carried a great deal of weight in the public eye, and whenever her choice of husband and/or career was brought up around her parents they expressed nothing but their utmost pride in their daughter. She did have her naysayers, but she never let it get her down. Society as a whole wasn't going to change with a single miko doctor, but Kagome was definitely leaving her mark in the history books. Especially by also accepting poor patients without insurance and not requiring any cash payments up front. They could send her monthly payments of whatever they could afford, and worst case scenario, if someone defaulted on their medical bills, she just wrote it off without a fuss. It wasn't about the money, it was about helping the children.

That was even a quote she gave when someone interviewed her on the subject.

All in all, she and Inuyasha had a good life. She would say she owed Sango one, but then, the martial artist had also met her own husband on that outing, and was now a mother of three, so as far as Kagome was concerned the woman had already been sufficiently rewarded for her role in Kagome's happiness. Perhaps it was to Hojo that she truly owed her thanks. If he hadn't been such an asshole then she probably would have married him. Last she'd heard he'd eventually gotten married to some other miko, and because she was not a vindictive person, she sincerely hoped that they too were happy. Still, the giant billboards with her smiling picture on them did make her chuckle at the thought of Hojo having to possibly drive by one on a daily basis. That was good enough in the 'in your face' department for her.

Life was good.

Fin

This could go on forever so I had to end it somewhere. Story already ended up being way longer than originally intended, LOL. Hope you all enjoyed it! No, I will not be making a sequel! LOL
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