Chapter Text
“Potentially evil. Potentially good, too, I suppose. Just this huge powerful potentiality waiting to be shaped.”
Crowley in Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnus Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
ON A STREET SOMEWHERE, Year 2020
A child stood before a door.
He had vivid red hair and chubby cheeks. His eyes, sparkling like emeralds, took in his surroundings as he imagined adults did. It looked like an ordinary house. Neutral brick with a big black door. The lawn was meticulously cut, all perfectly even like someone had taken a ruler to every inch. A potted bouquet of flowers sat just outside the door. In the corner of a front window, a tiny fox statue sat. The number on the house was 1990, written in elegant cursive script. But it wasn’t how the place looked that made it important.
It was the feeling: the dreams of this very home that seemed to come from his soul, the whispers that said look the other way, please and thank you. Humans would have listened to those words without ever remembering they heard anything at all.
And he—Well, he was human but there was no other human quite like him.
The child smiled weakly, toddled up the porch to the front door, and knocked.
SOMEWHERE ELSE ENTIRELY, Somewhere Only She Knew
Now that you’ve read the beginning and your curiosity has been piqued, let’s talk about The Beginning.
Quickly though, so as not to rehash old wounds.
There was a Garden, an apple, and there was Adam and Eve. Eve did a thing and then the whole Heavenly plan went down like a lead balloon. There was a lot of talk about it, about who was supposed to be on watch and who, exactly, let the two humans out. Eventually, as all things do, the blame was put on a single head: a serpent had been there – a demon – ruining Her plan as per usual.
Kagome hadn’t been at the Garden, but she’d been given her orders some time later, a giant tomb of papers falling into her arms with finality. It would be her new duty to stay on earth and watch the humans. The stars and planets and nebulas were all fine and dandy, so her attentions were best put elsewhere. Keep the humans on the path to righteousness. Don’t let them wander astray. Spread the good word, and all that.
“We have heard whispers that Hell is sending a representative as well,” her manager claimed, not even looking at her while he signed some sort of clipboard. “Thwart them at every turn.”
“I’ll try my best.”
Her manager did look up at her then, and his gaze was all fiery steel and echoing hallways. “Fail and I will demote you.”
Kagome forced back a grimace and a gulp, and smiled. “Oh no, we don’t want that.”
But there’s another beginning, perhaps, that’s better. It doesn’t include a capital-B, but it does include a demon, an angel and a disagreement.
Considering Adam and Eve had escaped the Garden not that long ago – but then again, what was ‘long ago’, really? – the beginnings of the human race were pretty expansive. There were hundreds of them, the majority children of varying ages. Some could barely walk while others played or helped their parents. Adam and Eve were nowhere to be found. Maybe they were hiding somewhere, or maybe…
Well, how long did humans live, anyways?
Kagome stood at one end of the field, pondering this while watching. A young child played with a stick, dragging it through the compact dirt before her. It babbled incessantly and she couldn’t help but smile down at the young one, pleased. Several paces away, a group of men and women were preparing food, unbothered by the wide spread of their offspring. It was all fine, she supposed; Kagome had enough anxiety for all of them.
“Bah!” the child cried, delighted at the invisible.
Kagome nodded her head. “That’s very sweet of you to say.”
The exclamation had caught the attention of yet another child, older and far more mobile. It ran to the young one, wonder on its face while it tried to decide what exactly was going on.
“Yes, familial bonding.” Kagome tried to keep a mental tally of all the good things the humans were doing, to report back to her superior. “That’s good.”
The older child sat down with the younger one and smiled.
The toddler gurgled happily, viciously hit the newcomer with the stick, and then burst into giggles.
“Oh no,” Kagome muttered, hands waving. How was she going to correct this? Usually the adults were the problem. “Uh—”
“Heh, the kid’s got a good swing,” said a low, rumbling voice behind her.
Kagome sighed. “Really? Tarnishing the children?” she hissed, refusing to look at him. Looking at him was a no-go, an unwritten rule she wrote for herself upon coming to earth just ten cycles of the sun and moon ago. Up until now, their greatest interaction was an accidental meeting of gazes.
Artwork by Alerialblu
She could feel the demon stepping closer to her, the heat radiating off of him making her warmer than the sun ever could. A characteristic of Hell, perhaps. Bringing it with them, and so on. Demons were notorious for their love of fire, at least that was what Kagome had heard. She was a younger angel and hadn’t fought in the Great War. Many of her brothers and sisters told her it was a good thing, gentle smiles softening the blow of harsh words. Yet, standing beside a demon – one of the Fallen – she wished secretly that she had, if only to understand or to better prepare herself.
“Didn’t do anything,” he replied.
“I’m sure you didn’t.” It was a retort, although Kagome was a bit horrified by that fact. Being on earth was incredibly different than in Heaven. She wasn’t used to saying one thing and implying…well, the opposite. It was un-angelic, though impossibly human.
There was a snort, and then the demon’s dry voice floated over her. “Glad we’re on the same page.”
The older child was scowling, still sitting beside the young one who was banging the stick on the ground. At least they weren’t hitting each other. Kagome could still feel the demon beside her, his presence having a prickling effect on her human corporation. Had her wings been out, they would have almost curled around him, his proximity was that close. Her skin practically tingled.
Goodness, she couldn’t take it anymore. “Can’t you stand somewhere else?”
“Why?”
“We’re enemies. We shouldn’t be so close.”
“Who’s gonna tell?”
“I don’t know, somebody.” Kagome glanced up at the sky – clear and blue and oh-so sunny – and tried not to think about it in too much detail. Who, indeed.
“Why so nervous?”
“I’m not nervous, if anyone should be nervous it’s you!” What an assumption! Kagome roiled at the indignity of it all.
“What, you’re going to smite me?”
She heard a scoff, followed by the shuffling of feet. Closer, not further away. Kagome wanted to flee but doing so would mean letting the demon win and that was not allowed. No, she would stand her ground. “You ask a lot of questions,” she declared, lifting her chin. It didn’t do anything; Kagome wasn’t even looking at him. It was the principle, really.
The demon grunted. “What blessed else are we supposed to do?”
Looking back, Kagome was never sure what made her consider him. Maybe it was his tone, or maybe it was the curse that slithered into his question. Regardless, she did. Kagome looked to her left and took in the demon beside her: his long silver hair and the glint of his golden eyes in the sun. She could see a hint of a canine tooth protruding over his lip, barely parted, and when she looked down his long and deadly-sharp claws were wiggling, desperate for something to do.
He was as bored as she was. Not only that, but Kagome realized with a certain horror that the demon by her side was just as beautiful as she had thought when she first saw him those cycles ago on the other side of the field. The Accidental Gazing.
Dangerous thinking, that. Dangerous implications.
Despite Kagome’s wishes for better demonic understanding, she was strangely sure that even with all the knowledge in the world, nothing could have prepared her for him.
And then he looked at her, and those golden orbs stared at her with an intensity that rivaled the heat radiating from his body. He smirked, a cocky and dishonest thing. The urge to flee had never been stronger. “Are you always this nervous on assignment?”
Kagome frowned. “I told you I’m not nervous.”
The demon rolled his eyes. “Could have fooled me.”
“I’m not—” Huffing, the sharp exhale an internal reminder to keep her cool, Kagome bit down on several retorts that were rather unbecoming and chose her words carefully. “I’m considerate. You’re a demon and I’m an angel. You’re evil and I’m good. Should someone see us, my superiors would be merciful and understanding towards me. You, on the other hand, would be tortured or obliterated or whatever vile things demons do to other demons.”
Another snort, this one mixed with a burst of noise that sounded like keh.
“What was that?” she asked.
“You’re worried about me,” he sneered, making the statement sound like the vilest of offerings while he disregarded her question completely.
Kagome pressed her lips together and thought of a hundred different things to say that were terribly un-angelic. Just looking at him was riling her up, and talking to him? Even worse. She was an angel, trying to be kind to one of the Fallen but clearly engaging had been a mistake. She plastered on her most unaffected look and stared at the human children instead. They were both covered in dirt, holding their own sticks. Somehow the older child had gotten one while she wasn’t paying attention.
“Nothing to say?” the demon asked snidely.
“Not to you.”
Strange, the concept of time. Kagome had been brought into existence just before the creation of the stars – which was quite a long time before now – but standing there, on earth in the mud with a demon at her side… The wait for him to say something felt like an eternity. Kagome had never experienced torture. She figured this was it.
When the demon sighed, long and heavy and loud, Kagome nearly jumped and fluttered out her wings. “You’re going to be impossible, aren’t you?”
“I’m an angel,” Kagome reminded him sharply. “I am everything possible.”
The demon rolled his eyes. “Do you have a name?”
Kagome gave him the side-eye. “Why?”
“Because otherwise I’ll just call you ‘angel’ and that sounds stupid.”
“I’m sure you’ll survive.”
The demon growled, irritated, and Kagome couldn’t help but stare at him again. She had never heard a demon growl before. She knew they did, theoretically speaking.
“Look, angel, I’m here to work just like you. I tempt, you bless, the humans exist. Whatever. It’s only going to get bigger so I figure we’ll stay out of each other’s way. Deal?”
“Deal?” Kagome asked, affronted. “Absolutely not! I thwart your wiles, you just said!”
“If you thwart every one of my wiles and I taint every one of your blessings then we’re going to be doing a whole lot of nothing and spending a whole lot of time together. Is that what you want?”
Kagome wasn’t yet used to her human corporation, but she figured the expression on her face was no longer indifferent, or even affronted. More like horrified. “But you’re a demon.”
“And you’re an angel,” he said, rolling his golden eyes. He grimaced at her. “It’s not like I want to be near you either.”
Kagome sniffed. “I’m a delight.”
“That’s the blessed problem,” Inuyasha spat.
“Stop using Heaven in vain.”
“Or what, angel?”
“Don’t call me ‘angel!’”
“Then tell me what to call you, idiot!”
“Kagome.” Her name tumbled out of her mouth without her permission. It was gone though, forever lost to the moment. The demon beside her smirked and there was nothing holy about it.
“Inuyasha.” For a second, there was almost something predatory in the gleam of his eyes. Kagome reminded herself to hold her ground, to keep her chin lifted. No demon would ever get the better of her. “Well, angel, I truly hope to see you again never.”
“It’s Kagome,” she corrected, doing a double-take when she realized the demon was walking away from her, a slow backwards saunter so that his evil smirk would remain with her. It made her frown. “Say it with me: Ka-go-me!”
“Yeah, whatever,” Inuyasha insisted, before he blended into the crowd of humans.
It was the very first time that an angel, in the history of creation, had ever agreed with a demon. On several points, actually, but Kagome very firmly tried to only remember the one.
She hoped she never had to see him again either.
KAGOME’S HOME, Year 2020
“This stupid, fucking dish,” Inuyasha hissed. He shut off the tap with his elbow and then tossed the sponge back into the soapy water. It splashed, big thick droplets landing on his skin-tight t-shirt. It only irritated him more.
“Swearing at it won’t make it clean any easier.” Kagome’s voice floated down the small set of stairs. She was changing into her night clothes: an oversized sweater, soft sweatpants and a pair of fuzzy slippers. The colours wouldn’t match but Inuyasha knew Kagome seemed to delight in it. She was more about wearing what felt good, at least in the comfort of her own home after a long day’s work.
Growling, Inuyasha took two steps back and narrowed his eyes at the droplets of water about to fall off of his wet hands. They wouldn’t dare do such a thing, as per his wishes, so they didn’t. With that taken care of, he looked up towards the familiar dressing screen. A green shirt was thrown over the top of it. “Swearing at it makes me feel better,” he stated. “And it does make the dish clean easier. A little threat goes a long way.”
He couldn’t see her, but Inuyasha knew the angel was rolling her eyes. With no clever retort in sight, Inuyasha went back to the sink and glowered at the baked grease that refused to come off. He swiped at it once, twice, growled a little and then promptly gave up on being civil. He let the claws of his left hand elongate to their natural state and then picked at it until the stupid grease finally gave.
Fucking dishes. Every time.
“Get it?” Kagome asked from behind him.
Inuyasha spared her a glance – a burgundy sweater with hot pink stripes, black-spotted pants and blue-starred slippers – before putting the dish on the drying towel. “Eventually.”
“Don’t scratch my cooking ware,” the angel threatened, but it was about as serious as a kitten stalking a piece of yarn. “Red or white?”
“Don’t insult me,” Inuyasha grumbled, cleaning the last of the dirty dishes before emptying the sink.
“I found a perfectly delicious 1996 Chablis Les Clos in the cellar the other day. Don’t be a snob.”
“Red,” Inuyasha argued, drawing out the vowel in the word so it sounded like a very forceful, very demonic whine.
Kagome rolled her eyes at him. “You’re the worst.”
“I’m a demon.”
It was a familiar argument and after knowing each other for six thousand years, it was something of an inside joke. Neither of them laughed, but neither of them fought, either. Inuyasha thought it was pretty handy.
Kagome brought down two wine glasses and opened what looked to be a decent vintage of the Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Inuyasha smirked, dried his hands and then went to flop down on her overstuffed, oversized couch. It was white, because of course it was.
“Lazy,” she chided, handing him the glass of red and taking up residence on the other side of the couch. Instead of his lazy sprawl, Kagome sat like a child in hiding, her knees curled up to her chest. Her long black hair was tied up into a messy bun, loose strands framing her pale face. She seemed perfectly happy breathing in the wine before tasting it.
“How did your class go today?”
Kagome startled a little, as if surprised by the question. She shouldn’t have been – Inuyasha always asked, he was a demon but he wasn’t rude – but the delighted smile she beamed at him suggested it was worth it anyways. “It was nice. There’s this phenomenal woman in there who can bake literally anything and everything. She brought in cupcakes today that I swear were to die for.” She sighed at the memory. “I have no idea what she’s doing in my class.”
Inuyasha frowned in her general direction. His eyes were closed. “Wasn’t this some kind of pasta making deal?”
“Pasta shaping, yes,” she answered.
“Isn’t baking not the same as cooking?”
Kagome considered his question before shrugging. “I guess. I don’t remember, really, if the skills transfer. They must.”
“Must not if she’s taking your class,” Inuyasha growled out, a sort of lazy effort in conversation.
“And what about you? Have any fun today?”
The thought of his past week brought a smirk to his face. He’d been working on something perfectly demonic for the last little while and today his effort came to fruition. “I did, actually. You know that annoying actress with the red lips? The one with all the cleavage?”
Kagome glared at him. “You could describe her by things other than her physical attributes, you know. She’s worth more than that.”
Inuyasha shot her a perfectly unimpressed glare.
“But yes,” she sighed. “Yura. Yura something. There are too many celebrities now, I can’t remember all the names. Why, what did you do?”
He shrugged, but he couldn’t wipe the smirk off of his face even if he tried. “Might have encouraged her to join the thing.”
The angel’s eyes narrowed. “What thing?”
“The thing the kids are all on these days,” Inuyasha replied, waving his hand dismissively. Shit, the fucking wine was going to spill. He opened his eyes and took a large gulp. Sipping was for fools, minus Kagome. “TikTok.”
“But she’s a bit…set on herself, don’t you think? What would she even do?”
“Impart advice, mostly,” Inuyasha replied, unable to resist watching the angel’s face look more and more panicked. “Sing some inspiring songs by John Lennon. Do some dances. Aspirational quote of the day, that sort of thing.”
Kagome shuddered. “You are evil.”
“Thank you,” Inuyasha replied gravely, raising his glass in a salute before downing the rest of it. He squinted at his glass again, willing it to be full. Looking over at Kagome, he pointed to her own. “Want a top up?”
Sighing, she held out her glass. “Why not? The Yuras of the world are reigning supreme.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Inuyasha replied easily, but he gave her more wine anyways. “Why? What blessed thing did you do, today?”
Just like that, the angel beamed. “Oh! I met the kindest old man—”
Inuyasha groaned. “Kagome, we’ve been over this—”
“No, he’s not like that!” she assured him quickly. “He didn’t look at my bottom once.”
“Uh-huh.” Inuyasha would have to see it to believe it. “And what did you do for this kind old man?”
Kagome, if anything, looked proud. “I gave him grandchildren.”
Sputtering wildly into his drink, Inuyasha needed a moment or two to recover. The immediate thought that had crowded his mind was absolutely impossible. Still, the angel had a way of saying things as if they were perfectly innocent. Inuyasha had a sneaking suspicion she knew very well what kinds of things she was insinuating, and did it to annoy him.
Kagome was an angel, but she was far from a saint.
“Oh, stop,” she chided. “You’ll spill wine onto my couch!”
“You can’t say things like that,” Inuyasha growled. “And you did that on purpose!”
“I don’t know what you mean.” But she hid her expression in the bottom of her wine glass and Inuyasha was no fool.
“Uh-huh.”
Kagome smiled. “He was having lunch with his lovely daughter, who he introduced me to. She was having trouble conceiving, and was really upset about the whole thing. Poured her heart out, poor thing. It was heartbreaking, what else could I have done? So I just…nudged a few things.”
“Nudged?”
“Miracled.”
“Thought you were getting in trouble for too many of those.”
Kagome sniffed indelicately into her wine. “As the humans say, my boss can ‘suck it.’”
“I’ll let him know,” Inuyasha drawled, sarcasm dripping. Kagome didn’t seem to mind, for once.
After roughly six thousand years on earth, both Inuyasha and Kagome had learned a thing or two. Most of those things involved the ingenuity of the humans, and the human spirit. The things they had come up with in so little time, the sciences, their expressions and emotions and all of it was something that neither Heaven nor Hell could have ever imagined. Not when they deposited Inuyasha and Kagome to earth with nothing more than a general instruction and cheery waves. Not now – especially not now – when so much of the world was done not because of his temptations or Kagome’s blessings… But because they were human. And humans were fucking fickle things.
The only being Inuyasha imagined could have understood was Her, but Inuyasha hadn’t spoken to Her in a very, very long time. He eyed Kagome, curled up on the couch humming musically to herself, and wondered when the last time she spoke to the Almighty was.
“It’s good to see you.”
The statement jarred the demon from his thoughts, making his wine slosh dangerously around his glass again. He swore. “What?”
“Oh, sorry about that,” Kagome apologized.
“Fuck, no,” Inuyasha stumbled, his brain catching up with the conversation. She had said it was good to see him. Him. After three weeks apart, she was happy to see him. “I—Yeah, it’s—” Well, he couldn’t say good, could he? He was a blessed demon, for fuck’s sake. He grunted, “Me too.”
In the back of his mind, he worried that all of his sputtering would make the angel lost. Instead, or maybe because of it, Kagome smiled and didn’t comment. She simply drank more wine and then held out her glass again, eyebrow arched.
“What, again?” he demanded.
“Like you said, I can’t do frivolous miracles.” She wiggled her glass and he groaned. “Inuyasha,” she whined, dragging out the sound of his name, and Inuyasha would save the world over and over and over again if it meant he’d always get to hear her say it.
“Fine,” he bitched. He would always do what the angel asked, no matter what it was. He couldn’t remember when that had become true, or even why it had become true, but it had. Lifting his index finger, Inuyasha slowly raised it upwards while pointing at the glass, watching as red wine came from seemingly nowhere.
Kagome opened her mouth to say something – probably something terrible like how nice he was – when something strange happened. Something that had never happened before, not since Kagome had moved into her home a good century ago.
There was a knock on the door.
MESOPOTAMIA, 3897 B.C.
Inuyasha was a big, gigantic, fucking liar. He knew exactly when his brain had come up with the stupid plan to do whatever the angel asked of him, no matter what, and it was a long fucking time ago. Point blank, he refused to consider the true date but it lay somewhere between a year after they officially met and fifty years. Leaning a little closer to the former.
But only by a little.
Or a lot.
Again, Inuyasha refused to think about it.
The humans were building. They had been building before Inuyasha and Kagome had been sent to earth, but it seemed almost insane now. The structures grew stronger, multiplied, largened. It was like a miracle, though Inuyasha would be blessed to say those words out loud. Even since his first official encounter with the angel – with Kagome – he had managed to stay away. It should have been easy, and in truth it was. The humans were multiplying by the day, worse than the buildings, and with each rise of the sun it seemed like there were more of them to crowd around.
It started to become uncomfortable, actually. Inuyasha hated crowds, despised the press of bodies against him, and while the humans were expanding it still seemed... Well, it was a lot. He couldn't make heads or tails of it, whether he was shocked of the tenacity of the beings or jealous. At least on earth, when more room was needed they could simply walk a little further, build a little larger.
Hell didn't have the same option.
Inuyasha was in the heart of where the humans were staying, the path lined with people bartering goods. Children walked with jugs of water strapped to them, tied with rope, yipping along and encouraging the rest to keep up. One such child brushed against his leg and Inuyasha scowled, glaring down at the ground. It served two purposes: 1) if Hell was paying attention, it was absolutely a huge ‘fuck you’ and 2) it stopped him from glaring outright. He was finding, with every day that passed, that the humans were more interested in his features: the silver hair, the pointed, canine-like ears, the golden irises. It made some of the humans bold, wishing to talk to him and understand where he came from. For others, it terrified them.
On the one hand, good. Hell was in the business of inspiring fear, terror, and general unhappiness. On the other hand, bad. Hell needed him to tempt the humans and it was fucking hard to do so if they were running away from him.
Maybe he needed to do something about his corporation. Blowing out a breath, Inuyasha spun around, thinking about heading back towards the river. Usually there were idiots splashing around, maybe he could encourage one to do something evil. Something... Well, something Hell would be pleased about. Inuyasha was good at improvisation, but that came with the gambit of being good at deceit and lying and all that other demonic crap.
To the river, he would go.
Inuyasha had taken only a few steps when a muffled yelp came from down one of the little alleys, a walking path between two makeshift shelters. He frowned, confused, before deciding that if he was lucky something bad was going on and then he could include it in his report. Another demonic trait was laziness. No one should have been surprised by that.
Another yelp, but less scared and more confused. It was coming from behind one of the shelters so Inuyasha pushed along, wondering what exactly he'd be getting up to when--
"Oh!" The angel was standing there, surrounded by cats. Two of them were trying to climb up her legs, her skirt giving them just enough grip to do so moderately well. Kagome was ignoring all of them however, her dark brown eyes focused solely on him.
Inuyasha felt his mouth run dry and he had to lick his lips, wondering what in the Heavens that was about. “Uh—”
“It’s not what it looks like!” Kagome exclaimed, pasting on a smile that was clearly forced. She even waved her hands a little, like they would distract from all of the little felines surrounding her. There had to be at least twelve. What in the blessed shit was she doing?
Inuyasha couldn’t help but shoot her a baffled expression. “So you’re not…feeding the cats?”
Her nose scrunched up. It was ador—abhorrent. Definitely abhorrent. Inuyasha could practically see the wheels grinding in her mind, the line that creased between her brows as she considered her next words. Oh, oh, was she going to lie to him? Inuyasha could feel his lips twitch upwards, against his better judgement.
Kagome saw. Of course she did. The angel frowned. “I am caring for all of Her creatures.” She said this like it was a commandment, sent to her by a bolt of lightning directly from the Almighty Herself.
Inuyasha snorted. “Uh-huh. You know, humans need the food.”
“Well then, why would—” Kagome flinched, that nose of her twitching again. If that was her tell of discomfort, Inuyasha was going to seriously ruin her. “It doesn’t matter because I traded for this portion. It’s my food and I’m distributing it.”
“Since you don’t eat food.”
“No.” Kagome made a face at that. “Why would I eat?”
Inuyasha shrugged. “For fun?”
“Fun?” Kagome had the gall to look confused. “We’re working!”
“Can’t work all the time, angel,” Inuyasha replied dryly.
“Kagome.”
“Excuse me?”
“My name,” the angel answered, sounding haughty. Oh, but she was interesting. “It’s Kagome. We’ve been through this, although as a demon you’re probably not the smartest.”
Inuyasha frowned. “The fuck would you say that for?”
“You Fell, didn’t you?” Kagome shut her mouth then, colour suffusing her cheeks within seconds. It was something that Inuyasha had only seen humans do before, usually when Inuyasha was tempting them into doing something humiliating or speaking of things that got them all hot and bothered. Humans were strange, but the fact that Kagome was… Blushing? Inuyasha looked at his own hands. Was that a thing his corporation could do, as well?
“Sorry.”
Blinking, Inuyasha looked back up at the angel, startled. “What?”
Kagome grimaced before kneeling down to the ground, the cats taking this as permission to do whatever they needed to get on top of her. One of them, he could see, bit at her fingers and the angel made that yelping noise again, like she couldn’t help it.
“It sounded like you apologized to me,” Inuyasha pressed, because he had to say something. This was insane. An angel, apologizing to a demon?
“Don’t let it go to your head,” Kagome stated, although there was no heat in her words. The blush was still there, covering her cheeks and seeping down her neck. Inuyasha wanted to pull that top aside and see just how far down it went. “But I am an angel, and I’m to be better than that.”
“You’re young, aren’t you?” The question couldn’t be helped. Inuyasha could see it now, almost couldn’t believe that he hadn’t spotted it before, even while standing across a field from one another. He hadn’t been using his proper sight, but then again, he only used it for special occasions or when he was feeling particularly lazy. It was so much simpler to spot the weakest ones, that way.
Kagome hesitated, but eventually nodded. Her gaze was firm though when they locked eyes. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t smite you.”
“Sure.” Inuyasha waved a dismissive hand at her indignance; it wasn’t the point. “What I mean is that you’re not as uptight. Not so much of an asshole. You’ve got personality.”
He didn’t realize that it sounded like a compliment until Kagome – finally returning back to that porcelain, foreign shade – turned red all over again. Wow, he was so fucking stupid.
“Really?” she asked.
Inuyasha started smirk, ready to say something particularly cruel. It was demonic to get someone’s hopes up, only to dash them in mere seconds, wasn’t it? That would be fine. Expected, even. It was the angel’s fault for thinking that anything coming out of his mouth was particularly kind.
He was a demon. She shouldn’t forget it.
But then, before Inuyasha could open his stupid, stupid mouth, the angel smiled. It wasn’t anything like the humans did. It was beaming, like the sun dimmed just so that Kagome could shine brighter. If Inuyasha didn’t know better, he’d swear that her wings were out, startlingly white and blessed, adding to it.
She was…
Inuyasha swallowed. She was radiant.
Oh, fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.
If Kagome noticed his sudden silence, she didn’t comment on it. Probably because the blood in her human corporation was pulsing so hard and distracting her, whatever. Inuyasha didn’t care. He just needed to leave right that fucking instant because there was no way— No goddamn fucking way—
“Actually, if you wouldn’t mind, can I ask you something?”
Inuyasha wanted to spit out something vicious, something cruel. No, no, no, no. It was immediate, training from Hell and because of it. You never said yes, not unless the Devil asked directly, or you’d end up tortured and blinded and screaming for days.
Kagome went on, seemingly oblivious to his internal panic or just accepting it as acquiescence. “I’ll be gone the next few weeks. Can you… Can you take care of them, while I’m gone? They were dying when I first saw the one and I would hate—”
No. No. Absolutely fucking not. No.
But Kagome looked up at him then, all dark imploring gaze with an expression so earnest it could only have been gifted by the Almighty Herself. Shit. Fuck. Motherfucking fuck.
“Fine,” he bit out, mostly in disbelief. He was actually agreeing to help her, an angel. Because she looked at him.
He was the worst demon in the world. The worst. And while a part of him knew that already, had known from the very first moments that he had crawled out of the sulfur pit burning and screaming, feeling like his body was being flayed alive—
Well, he knew. But Inuyasha didn’t want to exactly go around and tell people. Especially not the enemy.
And yet, when Kagome beamed at him again, all sunshine and cool breeze, Inuyasha could feel that self-loathing ebb away. Maybe it was a by-product of standing so close to an angel. Maybe it was just because he was, in fact, the worst demon in the history of all of Creation.
But it did go away, and Inuyasha did keep his mouth shut. He nodded again, hating himself a little for it. When Kagome stood up, he knew that she was about to leave. He couldn’t let her turn her back on him.
“Where are you going?” he spit out, words stumbling a little in his eagerness to stop her. Because if anyone was leaving first, it was him.
Kagome shot him an unimpressed look. “I’m not telling you.”
“You owe me then. For feeding the fucking cats.”
“I do not.” Kagome looked affronted.
Good. Inuyasha felt like this was more solid ground, something to work off of. “Do so.”
“Do not.”
“Do so.”
“You are horrible.”
“I’m a demon!” Inuyasha shouted, exasperated. “It’s in the job description.”
Kagome sniffed. “Are you going to feed the cats or not?”
“I never said I wouldn’t,” Inuyasha complained, “just that you’d owe me. What’s a little deal between enemies?”
“With a promise like that you could ask for anything,” Kagome argued, pulling herself up straighter. She was holding her ground, just like that very first time they spoke. Inuyasha tried not to find it so appealing. “Absolutely not.”
“Fine, then we’ll settle it now.” Inuyasha couldn’t believe he was doing this. He was an idiot. An utterly stupid fool. “When you come back, you need to tell me you’ve returned. Right away. Then, you won’t owe me anymore.”
Kagome frowned, but she didn’t yell or turn her back on him. She mostly seemed confused. “That’s it? You want to…see me?”
“What?” Oh dear motherfucking fuck, how could this get any worse? “No! No, where the Heavens did you get that?” Inuyasha snapped. “It’s—” Lie, lie, lie, lie. “It’s strategic. You’re my enemy. If I don’t know when you come back, how can I thwart your blessings? Maybe you just stay hidden forever and make my life twice as hard.” Inuyasha smirked, even went as far as leaning on one of the houses. Casualness, that’s what he needed to project here. “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”
Kagome rolled her eyes. “That’s a stupid idea.”
“And that sort of language is very un-angelic.”
The angel opened her mouth and then shut it again. For a moment, Inuyasha didn’t think that his little plan was going to work. He was ready to make a scene, to be as irritated and unhappy as he could manage and storm away. No matter what, he was not the one that was going to be left.
Finally, Kagome nodded. “Fine. You feed the cats while I’m gone and when I’m back, I’ll let you know right away. I’ll find you.”
Inuyasha felt his human body do something strange. His stomach felt weird, like it was somersaulting for shits and giggles. He twitched a finger and his corporation promptly stopped with all of that nonsense. “Fine.”
“Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
And with that, Inuyasha smirked and waved before sauntering back down the passageway. As far as tempting an angel into doing his bidding, it wasn’t all that hard.
Then again, he was doing hers so…
Inuyasha scowled and glared at the ground. He was the worst.