Inukag week

This wasn’t one of those times, though for the life of her Kagome couldn’t understand just what Inuyasha was thinking. 

They’d travelled all the way to his hometown. It was a small little city, and if she remembered correctly, he hadn’t had a good time growing up here as a child. The flight hadn’t been terrible, but the bus ride had been long. The little inn they stayed at was quaint enough. Unfortunately she’d become spoiled on her new mattress at home, so the floor futon had her back aching.

All of it was worth it to visit his mother’s grave, Kagome thought, but now they were on a hike to an unknown destination. Inuyasha dodged her questions every time she tried to figure it out. He clearly was trying to accomplish something and get somewhere, but she couldn’t figure out either. Truthfully she was still tuckered out from their travels, so despite her normal stamina and deductive skills being relatively high, keeping up with him today—physically and mentally—was proving exhausting. 

“Inuyasha,” she tried not to sound so winded as they climbed up the stone stairs up the mountain. He was so fast that it was proving impossible to keep up with him anymore. 

He looked back like she’d spooked him. 

Why her boyfriend was so jittery was beyond her, but again, she was too pooped to question it. 

“Oi, Kagome. Are you okay?” He jogged back to her side. 

“Yeah,” she sighed. “How much further until we… get where you want to go?” 

“Uh, we’re like three-quarters of the way there. I think.” 

“Three-quarters?” She tried but evidently failed to stop the horror in her tone. The remainder of the trip was daunting enough, but the eventual journey back down was soul-crushing. She wilted. 

“Here,” he shuffled around nervously, but eventually bent down and motioned for her to get on his back. 

Kagome blushed. “No, you don’t have to carry me! It’s still so far, I—“

”Would you just get on?” 

“But I have my whole backpack!” 

”Kagome,” he shot her a look over his shoulder. “It’s just a backpack. I can handle it and you. Just. Get. On.” 

Feeling defeated but grateful, Kagome climbed on and hugged her boyfriend’s shoulders affectionately. “Thanks,” she mumbled. 

Hoisting her up with gruff acknowledgement, Inuyasha continued forward, now at an even faster pace. What was she thinking, keeping up with him? In just ten minutes, he slowed down. “Almost there.” 

“If I knew we could’ve gotten there this fast, I would’ve had you carry me forever ago.”

Inuyasha gave a sheepish apology. 

“Do you wanna tell me what you’re planning now?” 

He nearly tripped on nothing. “P-planning?” 

She snuggled in for reassurance. ”You don’t have to tell me. I just can’t seem to figure you out these past few days.” 

Inuyasha scoffed, but didn’t answer as he came to a slow stop to let his girlfriend down. 

“A shrine?” Kagome asked. 

“C’mon.” There was a blush on Inuyasha’s face as he walked past the gate without any further explanation. 

Following him, Kagome went through the prayer motions, yet she couldn’t help but feel totally perplexed. Inuyasha wasn’t a religious guy, nor a superstitious one. Sure, he helped out at her family’s shrine, but she was pretty sure they had to drag him to follow any prayer customs. He seemed so reverent here, eyes closed with a serious line pressed into his mouth. He bowed, he clapped, he prayed. Devotedly. 

Wordlessly, he completed the routine and exited with a sigh. 

“Well, that’s done,” he declared. 

“What exactly was done?” Kagome asked with a pout. ”Is this shrine special somehow?” 

He stood squarely in front of her, a determined look in his eyes. He took a deep breath.  “My mother swore by this thing, so she made me promise two things. One: that I’d introduce her to the person I intended to marry, and two: that we’d pray at this shrine to bless our marriage.” 

Kagome’s jaw hung open. ”Are you… you’re proposing?” 

He fished a box from his pocket and knelt down, still holding onto her left hand. “I am.” 

Something between a squeak and a gasp came from her mouth. 

“Ka—“ 

She pulled away. “Wait.” 

Inuyasha looked horrified. “W—“ 

She thrust a hand at his face, signaling him to stop. ”Just wait here! I didn’t know that’s what we were praying for, dummy!” She ran back to the shrine, quickly going through the prayer ritual again. 

Meanwhile Inuyasha was frozen, staring with his heart hammering in his ears. Then Kagome finished, turned back around, and practically ran to leap into him, ring forgotten. 

“Yes!” She threw her arms around his shoulders, hugging tightly. 

“Idiot, I didn’t even get to ask!” 

“I don’t care! It’s a yes! I’ll marry you! Of course!” She pulled away laughing. 

Rolling his eyes, he firmly put the engagement ring on her finger. 

“All this time I couldn’t piece together what you were thinking, and it was a proposal? Inuyasha, I didn’t know you were such a romantic.” 

“Uh-huh…” 

She took his red face between her hands and kissed him gleefully. “Yes!” 

“You said that already,” he droned, yet there was a smile on his face. 

Anxiously shuffling his papers, Dr. Tucker Morgan - who, by the way, had devoted every single moment of his life to date getting to where he was now - was about to be screwed over by the very science he loved.

The sonification project - the translation of archival astronomical data into audible frequencies - had been intended for release during NASA’s Black Hole Week. Intended being the operative word, because there was no conceivable way he could publish his findings now. All he had done was revisit previously cataloged waveform data.

There should not have been anything anomalous.

And yet.

The anomaly was unfortunately baffling, repeatable, and wholly incompatible with known astrophysics. Not merely in one dataset, either. If it had been confined to a single corrupted file, he could have dismissed it as a stray satellite emission or a processing artifact. That would have been a welcome, rational explanation.

But of course, it wasn’t that simple.

Instead, Dr. Morgan was faced with a conclusion that was going to get him laughed out of the industry he so loved. Decades wasted on a career that was going to end soon and in disgrace.

And why?

Because he had somehow documented vocalizations in regions of space where no coherent signal, much less a voice, had any physical right to exist.

The signal repeated every 88 minutes.

Every. Eighty. Eight. Minutes.

The signal repeated when the black hole’s accretion disk flared. Those voices appeared in every dataset. Without exception.

He'd had everyone in his department glance over the bizarre and impossible findings - hoping beyond hope that he'd just manifested schizophrenia. No. No, of course not. Every single person confirmed the same anomaly but not one of them would affix their signature to the report. No one was foolish enough to serve as a co-author.

There was more, of course, and far worse. There were other data readings that kicked back impossible results adding to the general confusion, other...

"Dr. Morgan, I've given your department extension after extension. I'm warning you now that there won't be another so what do you have for me?" the Director sighed as he leaned back in his chair. Tucker swallowed and awkwardly set up his computer with all the quickness of a sloth.

"I had requested extensions because I believed there was a technological error," he began with a nervous chuckle, "Several others in my department are capable of corroborating. We're trying to..."

"Capable but not willing,” the Director grunted as he picked up on the odd phrasing. He inhaled deeply and narrowed his eyes, “What is this error?"

"Well..." Tucker took a deep breath and hit play. The whirring boom that the sonification had managed to pick up began blaring from the speakers and then...came the voices. The Director's mouth fell partially open as the voices continued screaming at each other. One male. One female. Voices warbled and barely audible but clearly there until Tucker hit pause.

"The vocalizations are a Japanese dialect. Sir," Tucker swallowed and stared intently at the ceiling over the Director's head, "We hypothesized, initially, that this had to be some sort of interference from a satellite.”

The Director sat back in his chair and ran a hand over his face.

”Initially?”

Tucker opened then closed his mouth as he questioned every single one of his life choices.

“Yes,” Tucker clasped his hands together and offered up a tight lipped smile, “Initially we did believe it was interference.”

The Director’s eye twitched.

”And now?”

”Subsequent research supports a claim of interference but not from a satellite. Sir.”

The Director let out a heavy sigh and tried to brace.

"Go on."

"Upon further review and cross referencing of other data collected in the same time frame, there appears to be a, um," Tucker cleared his throat and cringed, "A very small, relatively speaking, crescent shaped galaxy emerged approximately half a lightyear distance away. Newly identified. We believe the interference is linked in some way to this galaxy.”

The Director felt a migraine coming on.

”Come again?”

"We believe the newly identified galaxy is related to the vocalizations. The, um, cyclical energy it produces disappears and reappears at identical intervals," Tucker continued weakly with an equally weak gesture, "The readings are consistent going back as far as we have data.”

The Director opened then closed his mouth.

"There's more."

"Oh so there’s more, is there?" the Director echoed wearily. Tucker nodded meekly.

"Every time the voices peaked, we were able to look back and found that the energy signature would move away from the Perseus coordinates entirely. The data from the past thirty days…" a deep breath and a shuddering exhale, "The most recent data shows an identical energy signal in Japan. Sir."

The Director leaned in.

”You expect me to believe that a galaxy appears in Japan-“

“Not the galaxy. An identical energy signature,” Tucker breathed like he knew he’d dug himself a grave. He fumbled with his computer, “I-I can show-“

“I don’t give a shit what you think you have. You’re telling me that a galaxy, millions upon millions of stars, appears in Japan, at random intervals, and no one in human history has noticed an influx of the energy of a million stars?” the Director repeated back, “That is you’re telling me.”

“I know how it sounds…” Tucker tried weakly.

”I would hope so,” the Director cut in with barely concealed rage. Tucker sucked in a nervous breath.

“I know how it sounds but the…well, um,” a nervous swallow, “There was, is an identical energy signature, faint, extremely faint, that is located within the boundaries of an obscure shrine in Downtown Tokyo," Tucker licked his lips, "My research, I surveyed the data sets available, heat signatures and…” a shuddering sigh, “Well my research indicates that this energy signature surged and was at its strongest roughly twenty five years ago. In March of 2000. There were other incidents that registered , minor but still significant. Countless anomalies in 1997. One in 2004 then a few in 2014. So I would like permission to send one of our researchers to investigate. As a matter of national security. Sir."

Inhaling deeply, the Director closed his eyes and used two fingers to massage his sore temple. He let out a controlled breath and blindly reached over to hit the intercom.

She reached into her quiver for an arrow to shoot, to beat back the choking air, but she had no arrows left. Her hand gripped the bow tightly, futilely. She tried to call for Inuyasha and the rest of her companions, but no sound came out of her throat. Is this how she would die?

“Kagome!”

She heard Inuyasha’s voice, the sound of it cutting through her terror. But she turned all around and still couldn’t see him.

“Kagome, wake up!”

With a gasp, Kagome woke from her nightmare. Inuyasha was on the shikibuton beside her, looking at her with sympathy. Her hand, rather than gripping her bow, was tightly grasping their kakebuton.

Inuyasha’s concerned face was dimly illuminated by the moonlight streaming through the window.

“Are you okay?” Inuyasha asked, tracing his hand over the curve of her cheek.

Kagome shuddered and leaned into his touch. “I was having a nightmare,” she said softly. “I couldn't find you, and –”

“Hey,” he interrupted, putting his arm around her shoulders. “You’re safe. You know I won’t let anything happen to you.”

Kagome laid her head on his shoulder, breathing in his familiar scent and letting her fears fade away. “I know. I’m glad you’re here.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to fall back asleep?”

Kagome cuddled closer to her husband in their newly-built home. “Let’s just stay like this a while longer.”

He wrapped his other arm around her then, as well, holding her securely in his warm embrace.

“Whatever you need,” he murmured, dropping his head to rest on top of hers. “I’m here for you. Always.”

@inukag-week

Shikibuton - 2-4 thick cotton mattress

He’d been so surprised that he’d backed up against the lip of the well. Despite his shock, the kiss is soft, just like the raindrops he can hear hitting the tiles, the surrounding trees, and the ground outside. It’s gentle.

Kagome pulls away, yet all he can manage is a little, “huh?”

She smiles. “I missed you.”

He can feel the blush warm in his cheeks. “I-is that all?”

Kagome’s tender expression turns into a more familiar annoyed pout. “You didn’t miss me?”

Of course he did. Didn’t this idiot woman know that he peered down the well for hours the last three days, reaching the corner of his patience just to keep from jumping down, finding her, and snatching her to take her back home?

“I did,” Inuyasha struggled to stay. His voice falters, somewhere between wanting to fight and wanting to be nonchalant or even sweet.

Kagome gives a hmph, crossing her arms. “Doesn’t seem like it, and here I ran all this way to see y—“

He muffles her ridiculous words with his mouth. The rain starts pelting down harder, and he takes that like a cue from heaven that he should match the same energy. So he leans forward with more force. When his hand reaches through her hair to tilt her head back, he notices that it’s damp. True to her word, she must have run through the rain to see him. His stomach flips to think about how eager she was for them to reunite.

He’d missed her something awful.

Kagome is a little breathless when Inuyasha pulls back.

“Did that answer your question, dummy? Three days is a stupid long time.”

She nods. “Too long. I had a nice time at the party though. I just wish my aunt didn’t live so far away. Next time you could come with me…”

He scoffs. “And get on one of those flying contraptions? Pass.”

Her arms wrap around his neck loosely, and in response his hands land on her hips. “I don’t know how I’d get you through airport security anyways.”

His brow furrows. “I could beat ‘em.”

“That’s one of the problems, Inuyasha.” She rolls her eyes and kisses him quickly. “Violence won’t solve everything you know.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he replies gruffly.

“Sometimes you have to play nice,” another kiss, this time on the tip of his nose. The look on her face is coy as she backs up slightly, the tiniest tug against his hold. She’s teasing him and she knows it, the minx.

Just then, a rumble of thunder drummed above. The rain now pelts at the tile in waves. Another cue.

“Oh, I can play nice,” he says with a smirk.

When Inuyasha circles his arm around her waist to yank her against him, Kagome’s not even surprised. In fact, she matches his playful look with her own.

“Prove it.”

Without wasting any more time, he dips her down and peppers kisses all over her face. She laughs when he gets to her neck, whiffing her rain-mixed scent while he’s there. There’s another spot past this ticklish one that he’s aiming for. God, how he’d missed her.

Her breath hitches.

There.