"Can I play outside now? Mama? Please Mama, pleeeeeeaaaase?" a small girl begged her mother, clinging to her pants dramatically as if the whole world would end if she was denied her request. The girl's mother, a woman with hair the color of a raven's wing pretended to think hard on this, tapping her index finger against her chin.
"Well, I don't know Hikari. Did you pick up your toys?" Hikari stared up at her mother and nodded her head a dozen times to her question. "Did you make your bedding neat?" Another round of nods. "Then I guess my answer is going to have to be…yes. You can play outside but stay close to the house."
An eruption of excited squeals came from the little girl and a wide grin stretched across her face. "Okay, Mama! When Papa comes home do you think he will play with me?"
Her mother gave her an uncertain shrug of her shoulders. "Papa has been working. He might be tired and want to rest."
Hikari's shoulders slumped but she didn't let it dampen her mood for long. "That's okay! He can just tell me about all the bad demons he beat up with Uncle Miroku!"
"I'm sure he will." Kagome watched her energetic daughter run outside, her bare feet slapping against the ground. She didn't bother with trying to get her to wear shoes when she played outside the house anymore since the tantrums were long and ear piercing and when she did manage to get shoes on her feet they were abandoned in minutes. Watching her daughter and making certain she stayed within eye sight of the house, she continued with the house chores she had to get done, glancing up every few minutes to make sure Hikari wasn't doing anything that she shouldn't be.
Going through the house, Kagome grabbed any dirty robes that were lying around, draping them over her arm so that she could wash them in a tub of water outside. Right before she was about to step outside, soft wails came from inside the house. Setting the pile of dirty clothes by the door, Kagome moved to the bedding area, walking over to the smallest one and peered at the infant wailing, having woken up from his nap.
With a warm smile, she slid her hands underneath the baby, scooping him up and cradling him close, she cooed down to the pup in her arms, trying to calm him down. "Aww, baby boy, did you wake up and get scared?" the miko murmured in a reassuring voice, smoothing his white bangs back to plant a kiss on his forehead. As she continued talking to him, the baby began to calm, his wails turning to happy coos.
"There, that's much better, Yoshiru." With her son still in his arms, she moved to her bedding to sit down, rubbing his silver puppy ears he inherited from his hanyou father. Speaking of his father, Inuyasha would be home in the next few hours. The thought made the corners of her lips quirk up into a bigger smile.
Although understanding that they needed the money, Kagome never liked it when Inuyasha and Miroku went off on a job several towns away. The days seemed longer when he did, the kids usually behaved worse and the bed was so much colder. "Yoshiru, Papa is going to be home soon. Are you happy about that? Mama sure is," she giggled as her son tilted his head at her voice, his ears flopping over adorably. "You are just too cute mister," she rubbed her thumb across his chubby cheek. "Now, Mama has to do some chores around the house, all right?" she stood up from the bedding and moved towards the small chest where they stored their clothes and took out a long piece of cloth. For a moment she set Yoshiru back in his bed as she winded the fabric around her torso like Sango had taught her and tied it off.
Tugging on it to make sure it was secure, Kagome picked the child back up and tucked him into the wrap around her chest, him facing her so that he could rest against her while she worked. With Yoshiru strapped in, the village miko was able to get some of her house work finished.
She was able to wash the clothes, hang them up to dry, check on the herbs she had to see what she needed to pick soon, checked their food supplies and was almost finished with cleaning out some food bowls when a piercing cry stopped her in her tracks. The bowl in hand clattered to the floor and before it had even touched the ground Kagome was already out the door. She kept a hand pressed against Yoshiru's head as she rushed outside, having recognized the cry as her daughter's.
"Hikari! Hikari, what's wrong?" Kagome gasped when she found the little girl on the ground balling her eyes out. Kneeling down, she noticed her daughter clutching her leg.
"It h-h-hurts, Mama…it h-huuurts!" Hikari wailed, her black ears plastered against her head.
"What happened? How did you hurt it?" her mother asked, using one hand to rub Yoshiru's back as he began fussing at his siblings crying while using her free arm try and look at Hikari's leg.
"I w-was just climbing the tree a-a-and I tried to go h-higher than I have before but I fwell," she sobbed, refusing to let go of her leg so that her mother could look at it.
"Oh baby…" Kagome's eyes widened in horror, having not seen Hikari climbing the tree. She never let her do that unless Inuyasha was right there watching her but now wasn't the time for a lecture. "Let's get you inside," she murmured and scooped up the little hanyou, moving carefully to the house and trying not to jostle her too much. By this point Yoshiru had begun wailing but she didn't have time to soothe him as she set him in his bedding while putting Hikari on her own.
With a frown marring her face, Kagome tried to calm down Hikari. "Baby, let me look at your leg."
"No!" Hikari shouted, fat tears rolling down her cheeks, pulling away the farthest she could from her mother.
With a confused look, Kagome went to move Hikari's hands herself. "But I have to see if your leg is hurt."
"No! You'll make it hurt more!"
"Baby, I can't make the ouchie better if I can't look at it," Kagome tried to reason with her daughter to no avail. The girl kept wailing and shrieking whenever her mother so much as looked at her leg while Yoshiru wailed just as loudly from his bedding.
Right when Kagome was about to give up and start crying with them, the reed mat covering the door opened along with a short yell. "Oi, the fuck is going on?"
"Inuyasha, thank goodness you're home," she exclaimed in relief as the figure of her husband came over, discarding Tessaiga by the door. His ears were flattened presumably due to the piercing wails of their children. "I need your help."
The disgruntled hanyou knelt down, narrowing his eyes at his two pups to try and figure out what was wrong. He didn't have to guess as Kagome briefly filled him in. "Hikari fell from a tree and she says her leg hurts but she won't let me get near her. Yoshiru is just crying because Hikari is."
"You take care of Yoshiru. I'll handle her." The frazzled mother watched as Inuyasha sighed, sitting down on the wood flooring and crossing his legs. "Hey, brat, would you look at me?"
Hikari looked up at him warily, but her ears perked upon seeing him. "Papa, you're home," she whimpered, rubbing the tears away from her cheeks.
"Yeah, I am and your mother told me you hurt yourself so show me your leg," Inuyasha told her firmly but not in a mean way. Before Hikari began to protest, he gave her a look. "Hikari, how do you expect your leg to quit hurting if you don't let us look at it?" His daughter shrugged her shoulders, her cries quieting to listen to him. "Exactly. Won't it be better to let us look at it and let it hurt a little more for a little while instead of it hurting forever." Yeah, he was exaggerating but it seemed to work the charm.
Hikari stared at him a moment longer, her fang chewing on her bottom lip, then nodded. Now that he had her permission, Kagome watched as Inuyasha carefully took his daughter into his lap, being careful not to move her too much. Yoshiru was beginning to calm in her arms as she rocked him slowly. Moving the baby to her left arm, she knelt down beside her mate, watching as he examined her leg.
"Hikari, I'm gonna tell you to do some things and all you have to do is try and do them? Okay?" Inuyasha carefully set her leg back on the ground. "Raise it off the ground." Hikari tried and let outa yelp, shaking her head.
"I can't do it, Papa," she whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut.
Inuyasha raised a clawed hand and patted the spot between her ears to get her to calm down. "That's all right, you did good." He had her try a few more things before turning to Kagome seriously. "It's broken. Not too bad of a break but it's still broken."
Kagome set Yoshiru back in his bed, the baby having fallen back to sleep. "I was afraid of that," she moved to kneel down beside her daughter who was resting in her father's lap uncomfortably, soft whimpers escaping her throat. "My poor girl, we'll make you all better," she cooed, hugging her quickly.
"You promise, Mama?"
"I promise, Hikari," she smiled at her reassuringly, standing back up. "I'll go grab some medicine and bandages. We have to set her leg."
Inuyasha nodded in agreement, distracting the girl in his lap by continuing to pet her ears. "Yeah. She'll heal fast with her demon blood but it will still be a while until she's back and running."
The miko nodded in agreement, walking to the other room to the medicine cabinet. Sifting through her materials, she grabbed the required objects and brought them back over to Inuyasha and Hikari, setting them down in a neat pile and giving her husband a look.
Gratefully, he understood the look he gave her and tightened his grip on their daughter. "All right, brat. Your Mom's gonna fix your leg up and it's going to hurt but it has to be done."
Golden eyes widened fearfully, and she wriggled in his lap, unable to move much. "Why does it have to hurt?"
A sigh escaped the silver haired hanyou's lips. "I dunno, it just has to. I'll tell ya this. After this I'll let you look at Tessaiga. I might even let you touch it."
Hikari's eyes widened for a different reason now, excitement lighting up her eyes that matched her father's. "Really, Papa?" she gasped.
"Heh, yeah," Inuyasha's smirk melted into a smile at her happier expression. The fond look soon disappeared the moment his wife began the process of setting and splinting his daughter's tiny leg and after more crying, yelling and being called mean, Hikari's crying had stopped and she now had a makeshift cast to show off.
"You were so brave, my strong little warrior," Kagome covered her daughter's face with kisses as she held her in her arms and squeezing her tight. The little hanyou giggled at the attention she received, giving her mother a kiss on the cheek.
"Can I play now?" Hiakri asked, wiggling to be set down only to find that her mother's grip on her was steel and her face grew sad. "Mama?"
"Baby, you can't walk on your leg until it heals."
"How long will that be?"
"It's going to be a while…" Kagome answered truthfully, feelings badly for her little girl who loved to always be running and jumping around. "You can still play! You just can't walk."
New tears began forming in Hikari's eyes as her death sentence was laid before her. Not wanting anymore crying, the miko cast a desperate glance to Inuyasha who had finished putting away the medical supplies. Silently, he held out his arms, Kagome depositing their daughter gently into his grasp.
Golden eyes met her watery ones and being careful of his claw he tapped her nose. "Keh, that doesn't mean you can't still have fun," he smirked at her. "Your arms still work, don't they?" At her slow nod he continued. "Then you can still play." Without warming he lifted her above his head, placing his daughter on his broad shoulders. After instructing her to hold on tight, he kept a tight grip on her legs. "Do you wanna feel like you're flying?"
"Yeah! I wanna fly, Papa! I wanna fly!" Hikari chanted loudly, causing his ears to twitch at the high pitched yells. Her little fists gripped his long silver tresses tightly but she moved them to his hakama after she pulled on his hair too hard.
Craning his neck up to look at her, he grinned, giving her a little bounce. "Then you better hold on tight." Without giving her a further explanation he stepped out of the house and the moment his barefoot touched the grass he pushed off his feet hard, starting off into a run. He started slow, smiling at the shrieks of joy that came from Hikari as she watched the trees go past them in a blur. Dodging trees and other foliage, Inuyasha zoomed through the forest area around their home, not going far. "You ready to fly high, brat?"
"Yeah, Papa! Make Hikari fly as high Kirara!" Her excited voice came loud and clear over the rush of the wind around them.
"I'll fly higher than that cat," the red clad man laughed, racing towards a more open area where the trees weren't as dense. "On the count of three. One…two…three!" At the last number he yelled he pushed off on the balls of his feet, leaping high in the air all the way to the tree branches. The delighted gasps from Hikari made him grin wider as he touched down on the ground, continuing to run without breaking stride.
"Again, Papa, again!" cheered Hikari from his shoulders, seeming much happier than she had been minutes prior. It was simple moment like these that made his heart squeeze in his chest. The fact that he could make his little girl so happy made his chest feel warm and her delighted shrieks, while incredibly loud to his sensitive ears sounded like music to him. These small moments had to be his favorite.
"All right, but you better hold on tight."
"I will Papa! But you can't let go of me!"
"Keh, as if I ever would."