Hello everybody! Welcome to my collection of cliched inuyasha drabbles! Since these are basically all crossposted from my tumblr, there's not really any kind of chronological order/rhyme or reason. It's very messy and unorganized, which I'm starting to realize -with some amount of disappointment- is just my way of doing things.

title: stranger anxiety
prompt: based on this excellent art by tumblr user shinjisbakabutt: shinjisbakabutt .tumblr post / 126934781362 / idk-how-many-of-you-remember-this-post-i-made (remove those spaces, kids!)
rating: k
warnings: none except for sad babies

The baby was screaming.

The baby screamed a lot, so this wasn't exactly some kind of exciting new development or anything. In fact, where Inuyasha was concerned, all the baby had done for the entire first few months of its life was scream. And eat. And… well, yes, babies weren't exactly complicated creatures.

But now the little guy had grown and gotten to the stage where he was having something that Kagome referred to as 'stranger anxiety' –when he was littler, he didn't care who was holding him, so long as his needs got met. But now he had preferences. If it wasn't mama or daddy or maybe Sango or Miroku, there would be a fuss and the fuss would not end until he was returned to his rightful spot.

Inuyasha didn't care that much at first, because it wasn't too hard to wrap him up in the sling and keep him strapped to his front while he worked or did chores. The baby didn't complain. He just stared up at his dad, flicked his velvety, little black ears and moved those chubby, jerky baby limbs at random. It eventually became so comfortable to be with the little guy that Inuyasha was even lulled into a false sense of security – yeah, being a father was rewarding! His baby loved him! It was worth the weird smells and exhaustion!

Then the new moon rolled around.

He saw the strange, black haired man and just let out a sustained, terrified scream. He clung to Kagome's haori, big fat tears falling from his eyes as Inuyasha tried to reason with him.

"It's me!" he pleaded, which only made things worse. The baby looked utterly betrayed.

"Sweetheart, that's daddy," Kagome said soothingly, patting the fluffy black head. He sniffled and stared up at her for reassurance, but calmed very little.

"Uhg, okay," Inuyasha conceded. He looked around for a moment, for something (anything!) to help placate his son, when his eyes landed on a neglected drying cloth. White! He grabbed for it and threw it over his head.

Kagome blanched.

"What…"

"See! It's me!" The baby stilled completely, contemplating. His watery eyes regarded the weirdo with the towel on his head.

"I have ears, too," he added, sticking his hands up on top of his head. The child made a strange face; Inuyasha stuck his tongue out. Apparently that did the trick. The tiny boy laughed joyously and finally relinquished his death grip on his mother.

o0o

"I can't believe that worked," Kagome finally sighed once the child was asleep.

"Babies are kind of stupid."

"Inuyasha!"

"Hm, well, doesn't matter how I got him to stop. It worked," he said proudly, back straightening and a smug grin stretching across his face.

Kagome just smiled at him fondly, towel still on his head and all.

Ah, domestic inukag. The love of my life.