Kagome was restless, kicking and shoving and wiggling as she tried to sleep. Inuyasha had gotten used to this in the few years they had been married, and held her to him to calm her fussing before he drifted off to dreamland himself.
When she purposefully lifted his arm off her, he awoke to pull the limb closer to his body and get back to sleep. She'd been needing to pee more often as this pregnancy wore on, so he was used to her getting up in the middle of the night, as well.
But he didn't hear her footsteps moving in the right direction. He opened his eyes to find his wife standing and staring at the dull moonlight that came in through the open window. She sighed and put a hand over her swollen middle.
Inuyasha caught the odd, but familiar sound of the baby moving around in her belly. He sighed.
"He's really active tonight, huh?"
Kagome nodded slowly.
"Baby's keeping you up?" He asked, lifting himself onto one elbow, "I can stay up with you, if he's not lettin' you go back to sleep," he offered.
Kagome shook her head.
"It's not the baby," she said, rubbing her hand down her belly.
Inuyasha sat up fully.
"Eh? What's wrong?" He took a cautious look over her form, and a sniff. She didn't seem sick or anything. The rhythm of both his wife and baby's heart were normal. Hers was a calm, steady rhythm with each beat a coming a little sooner than a second. The baby's was at a full gallop, but no faster than it should be while head-butting their mother's ribs.
He heard Kagome sigh again. He gave an annoyed grunt when a few seconds went by without her answering. She turned to him with a confused look, obviously not hearing him.
"Why're you up? You said it ain't the kid, so what is it?"
Kagome looked away from him again. She rubbed her hand down her arm and back up, looking reluctant to say.
"If you're wantin' something, spit it out. Deer? Persimmons again?"
Kagome shook her head. Inuyasha almost let out another annoyed grunt, when she quietly spoke.
"For…a few days… I've been craving something sweet. Like, really sweet. Like a cake or cookies."
"A cake huh?"
"Inuyasha, don't," she said, turning to give her husband a stern look. "It's expensive to make, and I'm not even sure that I know how to in our kitchen."
He shrugged with a sigh. Kagome turned her gaze back to the window. The slats let the moonlight in with diagonal lines sweeping across her form and reflecting the white of her garments. A soft glow encompassed her from and spread throughout the room—particles of light, scattered by the contact. It lit up her eyes. Did she know how clear, how bright, how reflective her eyes were?
She did know how little they hid, and from her husband especially. She turned away from him before he could notice the spirals of emotion trembling just beneath their surface. She took a deep breath, and slowly made her way back into bed, her eyes trained on the floor. He opened his arms to accept her soft form as she leaned back against him, her head resting against his chest.
"How about persimmons? More should be ripe, that might help with your sweet tooth."
He heard Kagome chuckle.
"It might, but I'm not making you run out in the middle of the night again." She sighed and turned her face into the side of his neck. "I'm finally feeling tired."
Inuyasha stroked down her back as she made herself comfortable against him, her head on his chest to listen to his heartbeat. It was another hour before her breathing slowed and evened out, signaling that sleep had finally found its way into her mind.
Kagome woke alone, rubbing her eyes and peering blearily around the one-room house for her absent husband. She stretched out her tired muscles and sighed. She still wasn't sleeping well. Maybe after her son—at least she thought it was a son—was born…
She rubbed her eyes and took one more glance around the room. The dawn was nearly breaking. He must have gone to fetch water.
She sighed and rubbed her hand over her arm. She didn't sleep well, and she couldn't go back to sleep now. She combed through her hair with her fingers as she waited for her husband to return. As the minutes ticked by, she started to worry. Why was it taking so long?
She bit her lip and looked to the door. Inuyasha told her he wasn't going to leave the village for the rest of her pregnancy. He said he'd worry too much about leaving her behind. Kagome believed him when he said that, and understood why he made that decision, so she had never tried to sway him. So he wouldn't have gone back on the decision. He was definitely getting water. Maybe cutting some wood too…
But she waited. She waited as the birdcalls grew louder. She waited as the sun breached the horizon. She waited as her worry began to set in. She flipped the covers back and rose to her feet in a hurry when she finally felt that familiar aura coming towards her home. Why had he taken so long to get water? She hoped he hadn't run into some sort of trouble that morning. She caught sight of the water pails as she reached for the door and paused. Both were present. So if he wasn't getting water, what was he doing?
She felt his presence much closer now and opened the door to greet—his face was swollen, and covered with red marks. She could barely tell the angry knit of his brows for the swelling to his face.
"Inuyasha?"
His expression softened when he lifted his head to the sound of her concerned voice. She walked over to him, shaking her head as she looked over the hanyou man.
"What happened to you?" She asked, raising her hands to his face and then pulling them back, as if afraid she would hurt him.
"I got stung a little," he said with a shrug.
"Stung? By what?" she asked, that confused crease appearing on her brow.
"Mn," he grunted, holding his hand out to her, "getting this."
Kagome took a step back to look over the large golden item he was offering her.
"I already rinsed it off and everythin'," he started, pushing the honeycomb into her palm, "it's plenty sweet. Sweeter than sugar, and it should tone down the craving for cakes and cookies and all that stuff." He turned his palm upwards to lick the residual honey off his hand. He smirked a bit as Kagome stared down at the comb with her mouth open.
"I…Inuyasha you didn't have to get this for…" she paused, turning back to look at him, "Thank—oh my gosh! You still have stingers in! Let's hurry up and get those out!" she rushed inside, wetting a cloth down in yesterdays' water. Inuyasha followed, watching pregnant wife set the honeycomb in a bowl and gesturing for him to sit in front of her. He did as he was told, crinkling his nose for each of the last seven stingers she pulled from his face and hand.
"Good thing the swelling goes down so fast with you," she mumbled dabbing his face with the cool cloth. The stings were beginning to look like day-old mosquito bites now, and would soon vanish entirely. She sighed, glancing to the side and remembering the honey. She picked up the bowl and looked over the comb, shaking her head.
"You really didn't have to get this, Inuyasha."
He scoffed.
"I wanted to. You wanted something sweet so…" he started, softly, before a blush crept into his cheeks and he continued in a louder voice, "I didn't want you to start complainin' about it, anyways."
Kagome looked up at him with a gentle smile, then back to the honeycomb.
"How do you get the honey out, anyway?"
Inuyasha raised a brow.
"How d'ya—what—you just chew it. Pop it in your mouth and chew it. Like this," he said, breaking a corner off the comb and plopping it in his mouth.
"Ish jus' wax. Ya shew ih an' da honey comes ou'." He swallowed and licked his fingers.
"Oh, yeah but you might not wanna swallow the wax. I always do, but you can spit it out."
Kagome blinked.
"Oh, yeah. I guess I can just swallow it, like wax candy."
"Yeah, but you're pregnant. It's kinda weird, so maybe you shouldn't."
He caught the painful flicker in her eyes before she set a hand on her belly. His eyebrows knit. What was that all about?
Kagome broke off a chunk, and did as he had instructed, just plopping a little chunk into her mouth.
"Oh, this ish rearry good," she said, as she flashed him a smile. It was delicious, and super sweet. She pushed the chunk into one cheek so she could send a genuine 'thank you' to her husband. Although he was still wary from the look in her eyes a few seconds ago, he followed her in eating the almost-too-rich-to-eat treat. He looked out the window that had been left open all night. Some of the leaves were only just starting to turn colors with the autumn weather. He didn't notice it when she paused her chewing to look at her hands. One sticky, and one draped over her belly.
He didn't even smell the salt until big, full tears came streaming down his wife's face. He swallowed his bite in a panic, nearing choking on it.
"Kagome?" He coughed, trying to clear his throat.
She shook her head violently, then trying to brush away the tears, leaving sticky fingerprints on her face.
"Hey, hey. C'mon. What's with the tears?" He grasped her upper arms and tried to get her to look at him.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I love the honeycomb, but—"
"You ain't gotta be sorry for nothin'." She looked off to the left of him, and he leaned forward to lick her cheek, attempting to rid it of the sugar and salt. Kagome just took in a shaky breath and let him lick her right cheek. "What's goin' on here?"
Kagome was breathing erratically, but she calmed a little.
"I just. I was just…I didn't just want something sweet." She sucked in another deep breath. "I was thinking of…" Inuyasha licked her other cheek once, drawing away a little more salt and sugar.
"I…we would bake together," she said, with a little more control than before, "Sometime's when I was upset, or for celebrations or just sometimes when we just felt like it."
Inuyasha's brows knit in confusion. He was grasping at straws, trying desperately to understand what she was saying.
Who was she talking abo—
"I think…she would definitely bake a lot while I'm pregnant. When I was really craving sugar, I started thinking about her."
She looked up at Inuyasha again.
"This is her first grandchild, you know?"
'Oh.' All confusion melted away.
"I think she would've liked to be around for this, and meet them when they're born…" she took a deep breath and let it out shakily. "I miss my mom. I wish she were here, Inuyasha." She reached her hand up to wipe her eyes again, but Inuyasha grasped her wrist.
"Stop doing that, you're all sticky," he said, turning her hand around to lick her fingers. She sniffed.
"I miss her a lot. Especially right now."
Inuyasha sighed. He met her eyes again, brown and clear. Full of worry and fear, and…he hated it. It was all the things he kept pushing down, to try and make way for hope and happiness. He had a lot of different reasons for feeling those terrible things…and also some of the same, but…what could he do about it?
He kissed her gently, pulling back to look her in the eye again.
"I know," he said, softly. He shrugged, then, with, "I don't know," a weak smile on his lips.
Kagome returned the smile as he leaned forward to lick the last of the honey from her face.
"This was a bad idea. Honey sticks to everything," he muttered.
Kagome chuckled softly. "No, I think it was a very good idea."
...
Hetalia is coming up on us, so I am posting every unpolished drabble I have.