~Story Time~

*Set post-canon, involving oc children*

*Spoilers for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind*

"And then, just as the swarm of giant beetles approached the fallen ship, where the people of the valley were gathered, scared to death, suddenly… the princess appeared."

The gathering of children, ages varying from newborn to toddler to attitude-filled adolescent, all gasped collectively, their little mouths hanging open enraptured.

Kagome resisted the laugh that was building in her throat – they were all just too easy!

"She swooped down on her metal bird, right in the path of the stampeding insects, and lowered the kidnapped baby insect onto the ground."

Poor little Katsuo was nibbling his sleeve in anticipation, black, downy dog ears disappearing into his hair, his tiny toddler fangs poking holes in his fire-rat coat. Kagome thanked the gods that the fabric was self-mending. She had enough sewing to do as it was.

"But they didn't see her – they kept charging forward, their eyes blood-red with rage!"

Even her husband showed some interest at that, ears and eyes perking up from where they had been trained on the newborn in his lap, barely a month old and contentedly asleep. Kagome could almost see the cogs working in his head as he was surely trying to decide what kind of demon these giant bugs were, mentally sizing them up for a fight.

"The people of the valley called out to her to tell her to run, but she didn't. She stood proud and faced the stampede with courage."

The children were biting their nails and staring at Kagome with eyes as wide as they could go.

"But the bugs didn't see her or the infant… and she was trampled."

There were cries of outrage throughout the hut, none louder than the hastily bitten curse from the adult half-demon, who looked at Kagome with a most incredulous look.

"M-Mama! You don't mean…. Did the princess die?!"

At the look of shear horror on her son Yuji's face, Kagome almost broke her role as narrator and scooped him up – but she knew her son, and she knew that if she were to coddle him now, it would not only ruin the story, but ruin his night.

Luckily Shippo was there to offer some comfort to her second oldest whose current human state was making it harder for him to handle the tension than for his younger brothers.

As for Miroku and Sango's children who had come to spend the night, their son valiantly held himself together, surrounded by his three younger sisters who were huddled against him.

Even the twins, who were the oldest aside from Shippo and had been doing their best to seem unaffected by a bedtime story, were now clutching each other with watery eyes and quivering lips.

Sobering, Kagome continued her story: "The people cried, knowing the princess had not survived her encounter with the insects. But then… suddenly, the stampede stopped! Everything was silent."

Every eye in the room (except for those of the sleeping infant) watched Kagome intently as her hands swept outwards in illustration.

"And then there was a golden light, as hundreds of thousands of glowing feelers emerged from the insects and moved slowly towards the princess."

One of Sango's little girls squealed in fright – knowing the child's fear of creepy-crawlies, Kagome was impressed she had made it this far.

"Slowly, they lifted her up like a queen, and held her high in the sky on a sea of gold."

Daiichi, her oldest and quickest son, started squirming excitedly in his seat – he had evidently remembered an essential plot point from earlier in the story and was making the connections. Motherly pride brought a quick smile to Kagome's face.

"Suddenly the golden light swelled, and then – the princess opened her eyes!"

A succession of gasps filtered through the silence, but no other word was said.

"The giant insects had brought her back to life! With tears in her eyes, she thanked them – she knew all along that they were good, gentle creatures! Happily, she got up and began to walk across the shining golden feelers as if it were the ground. And with joy the people of the valley realized that she had fulfilled the prophecy! Here was their savior, clad in blue and surrounded by a golden field!"

"I KNEW IT!" Daiichi yelled, rising to his knees as his twelve-year-old fists punched the air excitedly.

Inuyasha, who sat closest to him, reached a clawed hand to draw his son back to the ground with a reprimand of "Daiichi, don't yell – you'll wake up your brother. Besides…" and here he put up his nose in a haughty expression "I saw that comin' a mile away."

Kagome rolled her eyes, knowing that, although her husband was no idiot, he hadn't been paying attention well enough to have caught such foreshadowing.

"Auntie Kagome, then what happened?"

Turning with a smile towards the youngest of the demon slayer's gaggle of girls, Kagome continued "well, the giant insects went back to the toxic forest, and the princess returned to her valley to help rebuild it. Now that they understood the purpose of the toxic plants, that they were actually purifying the earth, they were able to use that knowledge to protect their valley and live happily. And so… that was that! The end! And now it's bedtime."

With just a slight bit of grumbling, the children got up, some conversing about their favorite parts of the story, others too tired to do anything more than yawn.

Ushering the group into the back room, after laying out all the extra futons and blankets they had and kissing all of the children goodnight, Kagome and Inuyasha pulled out their own futon, setting it as far from the entrance to the room full of rambunctious children as possible, though it still wasn't far enough for the half-demon's sensitive ears.

"Those kids are gonna keep me up all night."

Kagome only grinned at him, saying "That's the price you pay for having ears that cute!"

Perhaps years ago such a comment would have made him blush, but that was before married life – and before their six children.

Now his only reaction was an amused "Don't start trouble woman – the house may be full of kids, but I'm not above leaving them all to Shippo and dragging you off to the forest for some payback."

She tweaked his ear softly in passing, whispering "As if you'd be able to dislodge the little clinging puppy you got there. The minute you try he's going to make enough noise to drown out all the other kids at their worst."

The half-demon snorted, but looked down at the tiny baby sleeping peacefully in his firm yet careful grip, a contented smile drifting onto his face.

He couldn't really complain.

A slight rustling in the doorway to the other room caught the couple's attention

Kagome's face immediately turned to one of concern as she rushed over to her second son, cooing softly "C'mere Yuji! So you don't want to try sleeping next to Shippo tonight?"

The little boy, just barely over seven, turned sheepish eyes to his father, and if it had been any other night, his dog-ears would have been flattened in his usually silver hair.

But it wasn't just any night, and his human ears stayed put, while his dark, stormy eyes relayed the emotions his other features couldn't.

He shook his head, eyes to the floor, and Kagome cast knowing eyes at her husband, who nodded, then said gently "Yuji, just because you're getting older doesn't mean you should spend this time alone. Just look at your old man! I haven't spent a human night alone since meeting your mother."

Yuji raised watery eyes to his father, his black hair brushing his shoulders, then smiled and crossed the room silently to clutch at his father's legs.

Switching his infant son to rest in the crook of one arm, Inuyasha reached to ruffle his older son's hair affectionately, and Kagome stepped forward to guide the human boy to the futon, setting him in the middle as she and her husband laid on either side.

Lying on his back with a slumbering infant on his chest wasn't the most comfortable of positions to be in, but knowing that Yuji wouldn't be sleeping very much this night anyways, he didn't bother to change position.

And even though Kagome was exhausted from a hard day of watching not only her own children but her friends as well, she would do her best to stay awake too.

They had gotten a pretty good schedule down with all the human nights they had to deal with in their family, and by now it was just a part of their sleep patterns.

In true likeness of their father, none of the boys would ever admit how much they loved those particular nights where they got to sleep nestled in the safety of their parent's bed, but it went without saying that it was a very special – almost sacred - tradition.

There was a peaceful silence over the little group on the bed, until Yuji spoke up softly "Hey Mama? Where d'you come up with all those stories?"

Watching her son in the dying light of the embers, Kagome said wistfully "They're stories I heard when I was young."

She didn't need to look to know that Inuyasha was watching her with heavy eyes again – eyes that said he knew where she got all her stories that no one had heard of, not to mention her avant-garde approaches to living and her progressive social ideas, and he understood the sacrifice that went behind them.

Knowing he was giving her that look, and knowing he was still watching her, she beamed at her little boy and said happily "But you know, I think I'm getting tired of those stories the way they are – how about next time we have Daddy retell them with how he would have handled things."

Inuyasha scoffed, but his tone was light as he responded "Well you can be sure I wouldn't have let myself get killed by a bunch of overgrown pests!" and Kagome knew he understood her meaning.

There was nothing she had left behind in the future that meant more than the future before her now.

*Author's Notes:

This is kinda based around this head-canon I have that both Sango/Miroku and Inuyasha/Kagome have a ton of kids each.

When Miroku 'proposed' he asked Sango if she'd have 20 kids. She said yes. Quite readily. And no way is Inuyasha gonna let the monk surpass him in posterity if he can help it (obviously Kagome has a say in this too, but I figure she wouldn't mind a bunch of kids. She seems to love kids.)

Also I like the idea that MirSan have like all girls and their one son, who is a perfect gentleman because he grew up around all these strong women, and InuKag have ALL boys until like the tenth kid when they finally have a girl, and she's equal parts princess and warrior because she's doted on but she also rough-houses with her big brothers, and she could easily beat them all up.

So that's my personal vision of 'life after the end' for them. I like it.