Work Text
Warm Jets Start to Roar
The sunshine warmed her cheeks as the dry heat wrapped her body in a light sheen of perspiration.
It was comfortable outside despite the hot weather, so she didn’t care.
Arizona.
This had been her destination for years now, the ultimate ending of a long and rather difficult story. She had her Uber driver drop her off on the edge of the Arizona side of the Sonoran Desert. The saguaro cacti surrounded her, their arms thick and reaching far out, as if beckoning her to make her way across the desert landscape.
She adjusted the backpack slung over her shoulder as she walked through the heat, being mindful of any scorpions or snakes. It was starting to get a little more uncomfortable as she continued, but she paid it no mind. She had a story to complete and closure to gain.
When she deemed herself far enough from the road, she pulled her backpack off and unzipped it.
Reaching inside, she pulled out the urn.
Her mother’s dying wish was to be able to return to the Arizona desert where she’d lived before moving to Japan. She didn’t ever make it back before she passed, so Kagome took it upon herself.
“I hope you can find closure from this, Mom,” Kagome murmured as she knelt down on the ground.
She set the urn down in front of her; she had considered scattering the ashes across the landscape, but she didn’t know if she was quite ready to let go like that. Instead, she hoped her mother would have felt like it was enough to just be back, in some form or another. Maybe she’d think more about that later.
But for now, the desert.
Kagome was quiet as she sat with the ashes of her deceased mother. She saw a small scorpion several yards away from her, scouring the ground for a meal.
Kagome looked around her surroundings. This was the first time she’d been to Arizona. She’d never even left her native Japan.
Her mother, Mana, was from an American family whose ancestors had emigrated from Japan three generations before. They’d married into a Japanese family, and their children had married into another Japanese family, and so on. Mana grew up monolingual, with none of her immediate family having ever learned Japanese. Mana had always felt a deep connection with her heritage, and she’d told Kagome once that she knew she was born to die in Japan.
Mana had moved there for university. She learned Japanese quickly and spoke it fluently. Her mother had once told her that she had started to lose her English skills after spending her final thirty years of life in Japan, and her parents, notably Kagome’s grandparents, had learned Japanese as well as a way to surprise her during a visit.
Kagome herself had learned English to communicate with her mother and extended family in her native language, but her mother had grown to prefer to speak Japanese.
She smiled at the memory of her mother’s surprise the first time Kagome had spoken to her in English.
“Hey, Mom, how are you?”
The look on her mother’s face had been absolutely priceless, and the pride that soon followed was even better.
This was the least she could do for her mom.
For the first time since the funeral, Kagome felt tears in her eyes as she stared at the urn in front of her. She and Sota had lost their father when they were very young, but Kagome felt a pain that was much different now that she was an adult, with her and Sota’s twenty-seventh birthday hovering on the very near horizon.
It was hard, despite all the memories she was able to have with her mother.
Kagome wiped the tears away and sat for a while longer on the ground.
She didn’t know how long she sat there, but it was long enough that her legs were asleep when she finally stood up and returned the urn to her backpack.
As she began to make her way back to the main road, she pulled out her phone to get another Uber.
A
No Service
message flashed on the screen. Kagome felt a small twinge of panic, which she tried to quickly tamper down. Her twin brother, Sota, would’ve been so mad at her if he knew what was happening. He’d understood why she wanted to go on the trip, but he hadn’t hid any of his many concerns from her. If he hadn’t been on-call at the hospital he worked at, he would have come with her.
Kagome took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
I just need to make it to the road,
she decided.
Maybe there will be better service there.
With her plan in place, Kagome continued on her way.
To her severe disappointment, the same message came onto the screen again.
She’d been outside in the sun long enough that the heat was starting to bother her. She opened her backpack to grab sunscreen and her bottle of water.
She slathered another layer of sunscreen over her exposed patches of skin before taking a swig of her water.
Now she was starting to panic.
Her panic rose when she saw a car coming down the otherwise empty road. It rose even more when the car began to slow as it approached her.
Kagome didn’t know whether to run or assert a fighting stance, but she definitely knew she looked like a hot mess, and not the good kind of hot.
The car came to a stop in front of her as the driver rolled the window down.
“You need some help?” a gruff voice called.
The man’s eyes were as golden as the Arizona sun, and his silver hair reflected the sunshine beaming down on Kagome’s sweaty skin.
He seemed harmless enough, a sincere look of concern encroaching on his face as he took in the sight of her. Kagome knew she looked horrible. She felt a blush start to cross her face, but she decided to blame it on the sunburn she could feel developing on her skin.
“I’m alright,” Kagome called back. “Thanks.”
Golden eyes rolled at her obvious lie.
“I’m not gonna hurt ya,” he said. “I can give you a ride to the nearest bout of civilization if you want.”
Kagome glanced at her phone again to find she was still without service before deflating.
“Okay,” she finally conceded. “Thank you. I appreciate it.”
She crossed the road to open his passenger side door.
The blasting air conditioning felt amazing against her sweaty skin, but she could still feel her thighs already sticking to the leather seat beneath her.
Once her seatbelt was on and her backpack was settled at her feet, the man put the car in gear and started driving again.
“My name is Inuyasha,” he said, his voice overlapping the quiet music he was playing from his radio. Kagome glanced at him, recognizing that his name was Japanese.
“I’m Kagome,” she replied. “I’m not from around here.”
Inuyasha chuckled. “I could tell,” he admitted jovially. “People don’t come out here without their own car and a tank full of gas. It’s nearly impossible to get a signal this far into the desert. It’s honestly a crime that whatever rideshare service driver dropped you off here didn’t mention that to you.”
Kagome grimaced, embarrassed. “Oops.”
“So where are you from?” Inuyasha asked, smoothing over her embarrassment.
“Japan,” Kagome replied. “Just outside of Tokyo.”
Inuyasha glanced at her. “I’m Japanese, too. Well, American by birth. So were my parents.”
Kagome leapt at the possibility of being able to speak Japanese with someone.
“Do you speak Japanese?” she asked.
“Yes, I do,” Inuyasha replied in Japanese. “Do you prefer to speak that over English?”
Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. “Absolutely. I’m fluent in English, but getting to speak my native language with someone else is a big relief.”
Inuyasha nodded. “Speaking in Japanese it is. So what brings you to Arizona?”
Kagome hesitated as she became acutely aware of the backpack at her feet, along with the urn that was tucked away inside it. “My mom was from this area. I’ve never been here, so I wanted to see it.”
Inuyasha was quiet for a moment. “I’m sorry for your loss.” Kagome looked at him, surprised.
“How did you know she’d passed?” she asked.
Inuyasha shrugged as he kept his eyes on the road. “I could tell. I’ve been there.”
Kagome’s gaze turned to her lap. “Oh. I’m sorry, too, then.”
Inuyasha waved off her apology. “It’s alright. I’ve made my peace with it.”
They fell into a peaceful silence as Inuyasha continued driving.
“So where’s the nearest motel?” Kagome finally asked. “I kinda forgot about making a reservation.”
The golden-eyed man chuckled. “About an hour, but there’s a gas station about thirty minutes away. There should be cell phone service, or a landline to use at the very least. I can drop you off there, but I don’t mind driving you to the motel. I’m headed that way on my own anyway.”
Kagome shook her head. “You don’t have to drive me all that way. I can manage.”
Inuyasha chuckled.
"You sure about that? Seems to me that you just got stranded in the desert.”
Kagome laughed despite the embarrassment. “You have time to help a stranger?”
Inuyasha shrugged. “There’s always time for that. I’ll need some gas by the time we hit the closest station, so we’ll have to make a quick stop there anyway.”
Despite her initial reservations, Kagome was getting a good vibe from the guy. He left his window down with his arm settled over it and his other hand easily controlling the steering wheel.
Inuyasha drove at a leisurely pace, occasionally pointing out different kinds of cacti and telling Kagome the names of each one.
“So they’re not all called saguaro cacti?” she asked.
Inuyasha laughed. “Nope,” he replied. “Saguaro cacti are what most people think of when they hear the word ‘cacti.’ Here in Arizona, most people focus on the prickly pear cacti. We use them for all kinds of stuff. We have prickly pear candy, candles, and even chapstick.” Kagome hummed.
“That might be a good souvenir,” she commented. “Cactus chapstick.” Inuyasha chuckled.
“I mail them to my brother all the time,” he replied. “He moved to Canada several years ago, so I like to send chapstick so he doesn’t get homesick.”
Kagome smiled. “That’s really nice of you.”
Inuyasha smirked. “Nah, I just do it to annoy him. He hates the scent of prickly pear.”
Kagome laughed.
“Clever. So have you lived here your whole life then?” Inuyasha seemed to hesitate.
“I was born in Flagstaff,” he explained. “When I was twelve, we moved to California for a while. I moved to this town a few years ago. It’s different because it actually
snows
in Flagstaff, but I’m not one for cold weather so it worked out.”
Kagome smiled. “My mom was born and raised in the heart of Phoenix. She was a city girl her whole life, so it made sense that she was drawn to Tokyo for college.”
“That’s how my mother was,” Inuyasha replied. “She was born in San Diego and grew up there. She met my dad while she was on vacation in Las Vegas. They got married a week later in a
very
traditional Vegas wedding. The only thing they purposefully found for the quick wedding were sets of traditional Japanese wedding attire.”
He started to laugh, but then glanced at Kagome. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “Um, do you want me to explain any of that?”
Kagome shook her head and smiled goodnaturedly. “I’ve heard about the quickie weddings in Las Vegas. I’ve definitely never met anyone who’s had one, though.”
Inuyasha chuckled. “You should’ve met my parents - they were so great. They passed away a couple years ago. Car accident with both of ‘em in the car.”
Heart clenching, Kagome hated that she now understood the kind of pain that came with that.
“I’m so sorry,” she said sincerely.
Inuyasha gave a half-wave. “Don’t be. It was a long time ago and I’m alright.”
“It’s weird to say that I actually understand what you’re feeling,” Kagome began quietly, “now that I’ve lost my mom. But it’s strange…my dad died when I was a kid, so you’d think I’d be familiar with this kind of pain even before losing my mom.” She remembered thinking about the difference between losing a parent as a kid versus as an adult, and she relayed it to Inuyasha.
He nodded. “That makes sense. You don’t really understand what’s happening until you get older. When it happens when you’re older, that…that’s it. There’s no more
not
being a kid.” He took a deep breath and released it slowly. “It’s hard. It took a long time for me to make peace with my parents being gone, especially with my brother in another country. But I got there.”
Inuyasha glanced at Kagome, smiling. “You will, too.”
Arizona,
Kagome decided,
is quite a place.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Chapter 2: Consumed & Enthused
“So, Kagome,” Inuyasha began as they continued their drive through the desert. “What do you do for a living?”
“I’m an ichthyologist.” She grinned, knowing damn well he wouldn’t know what that was.
But to her surprise, he only nodded. “Very cool. What’s your favorite type of fish to study?”
Jaw dropping, Kagome looked over at him. “How did you know what that was?”
Every time she told someone what her profession was, the study of fish, people would look at her blankly or try, and fail, to repeat the word.
But Inuyasha surprised her.
“You’ve blown me away,” she replied before he could answer her question. “How on earth did you know what that was?”
Inuyasha burst out laughing. “You’ll never believe it, but…I’m an ichthyologist, too.”
No way…
She supposed she said that out loud; Inuyasha laughed again.
“No, I’m kidding about that,” he replied. “But I have a doctorate in Biology, so I’m familiar with the field.”
Kagome smiled. “A fellow science nerd. I like it.”
“I prefer microorganisms, though,” he continued. “Not so much fish.”
Kagome nodded solemnly. “I don’t blame you. It takes a lot to get used to the smell.”
“Uh, well, I work with fungi,” he added. “So lots of different smells there, too.”
“Blech, I hate fungi,” Kagome said. “That’s probably sinful for a scientist to say, but yuck. I contributed to a paper about the effects of a very rare type of fungi on a type of fish back in Nagano, and I’ll never get over the photos and research I had to look at and read. It was so gross.”
Inuyasha glanced at her. “Wait, you said that was a paper? Was it published last Summer?”
Kagome nodded. “Yep, after a long, almost year of writing it.”
After a brief moment of silence, Inuyasha glanced at her again. “Is this some kind of joke?” His tone wasn’t rude or hurtful, but Kagome could sense a heavy defense had come into his voice.
“Um, the fungi?” she asked uncertainly.
“No,” he replied. “I contributed to a paper similar to that.” He explained his contributions, listing off the exact specimens Kagome had seen in the research.
“What’s your last name?” Inuyasha asked.
Pausing but realizing they likely already knew each other, Kagome answered. “Higurashi. I publish under a false first name, though. I use Maiya.”
Inuyasha laughed in disbelief. “My last name is Takahashi. I also use a fake first name. It’s Toga, my dad’s name.”
“Oh, my god!” Kagome exclaimed. “No way! And no wonder I didn’t recognize you - your Zoom camera was always off during meetings.”
“Well, you used to be blond,
Maiya!”
Inuyasha retorted, the small twinkle in his eyes during his glance at her giving away his light teasing. “That must be why I didn’t recognize you.”
Kagome shook her head. “Yeah, that was a brief phase. Glad I’m back to black hair. Anyway…wow. Small world.”
“I’ll say,” Inuyasha agreed. “So…coincidence or are you stalking me?”
Kagome laughed. “Coincidence. I didn’t even know your name well enough to stalk you, so there’s your proof.” Inuyasha chuckled.
“Yeah, true.”
She grinned. “So did you enjoy writing your portion of the paper? I thought your discussions about the fungi themselves were fascinating, if not disgusting. They really helped with the research I did on the fish.”
They delved deep into a conversation about their paper, the shock of things soon morphing into a smooth, easy talk about their mutual love for science.
By the time Kagome knew it, they’d reached the gas station.
“Alright, you should have service here,” Inuyasha said. “I’m going to get gas.” He rolled the windows down before turning the car off and exiting the vehicle.
Once Kagome was alone, she pulled her phone out of her pocket, wiping the sweat off the screen.
She had one measly bar, but it was enough to pull up her internet browser to search for a good hotel nearby.
Inuyasha had been right - they were halfway to a decent-looking hotel, so she quickly booked a room online before putting her phone down. She wasn’t sure if it was the one Inuyasha had referenced, but she figured it was her best bet.
Once her golden-eyed travel partner returned, she gave him the good news.
“Excellent,” he said as he turned the car back on. “I can still drop you off there.”
“Oh, no, no,” Kagome replied. “I have enough service to order an Uber now.” She quickly opened the app and set up her location, her eyes nearly bugging out when she saw the cost of a ride to the town. It was well over her usual Uber budget, and it was somehow even more than the ride she’d gotten
into
the desert.
Inuyasha paused, looking at her. “No pressure, but like I said - I’m driving through that town anyway. I don’t mind taking you the rest of the way, if you’re comfortable with it. It’s completely up to you.”
Kagome hesitated. They already knew each other, kind of, and he was offering a free ride, so…why not continue with him?
“At least let me give you gas money,” Kagome insisted. “Then I’ll feel comfortable.”
“Deal,” Inuyasha agreed. “I’ll let you give me one dollar.”
Kagome laughed. “We’ll see. I’ll get you to accept more at some point.”
As they drove off, Kagome realized that for the first time since her mother’s funeral, she was feeling a little bit better. It helped to have found Inuyasha in the desert, as insane as the circumstances felt, but she was grateful for it.
“What did you think about Dr. Stewart’s work on the paper?” Inuyasha asked, picking up where they left off.
Trying to remember who that was, Kagome racked her brain. “Um…is she the one that immigrated to Japan from England?”
At Inuyasha’s nod, Kagome nodded herself. “Right. Well, I thought it was a unique take on things, but…I was surprised her work ended up in the final printed piece.”
Inuyasha groaned. “Me, too. It just didn’t feel relevant, but that was my first article. I didn’t want to sound like I was trying to come off as knowing everything.”
“That was your first article?” Kagome asked.
“Yeah, it was pretty crazy,” Inuyasha replied.
Kagome shook her head. “You write very eloquently. I never would have guessed that was your first published work.”
“How many have you published?”
“That was my fifth.”
Inuyasha laughed. “Okay, Dr. Ichthyologist. Fancy, fancy.”
They talked a bit more about their paper, marveling again at their shared connection.
Eventually, their conversation turned more personal as they shared their reasons for becoming scientists.
“When I was a kid, I was convinced I was a mermaid,” Kagome admitted. “I swear I waited to grow a tail until I was sixteen. Once I realized I’d never grow a tail, I realized that fish were the closest I could get to mermaids, so I decided to spend my life studying them.” She smiled. “Sometimes I still hope that I’ll come across a mermaid someday.”
“That’s way better than my reason,” Inuyasha complained. “You have some cute shit and mine is all lame. I just liked sharing gross facts about dirt and mushrooms at the dinner table to piss off my family. I figured I might as well work in the field since I had so much prior knowledge.”
Kagome burst out laughing. “I don’t know - your reason might have just beat mine.”
She glanced down at the urn at her feet, remembering her mom’s take on Kagome’s deep desire to become a mermaid.
Her mother had taken her to the beach whenever she wanted, patiently allowing Kagome to stand waist-deep in the water as she waited for her “tail to sprout,” as she’d always put it.
There had never been any impatience, no complaints, just love and support.
“Thinking about your mom?” Inuyasha asked, noticing Kagome’s gaze on the urn.
“Yeah,” she admitted. “She was such a great mom. Always indulging my mermaid wishes.”
Inuyasha chuckled. “As all moms should, I would say.”
Pulling her phone out, Kagome saw she still had one bar. She sent a quick text to Sota, letting him know she was still safe but hadn’t been able to spread the ashes yet.
She also asked if he was doing okay, even though she already knew the answer.
Despite everything, Kagome became more and more glad she’d braved the trip to Arizona with every passing moment.
She happened to glance at Inuyasha as he glanced at her, and they exchanged a smile.
Two scientists on a desert road trip. What could we possibly get into?