The Characters of Inuyasha (manga and anime) belong to Takahashi Rumiko
This Life Now:
Another Puppy Makes a Family
For nine months, life for Inuyasha and Kagome was not quite the same. From the time Kagome found out that she was pregnant with their child – which he claimed denial until he saw her stomach grow round and big – to the long months of anxiety, mood swings, Inuyasha sleeping outside or in Miroku's hut, tears, and tenderness, sometimes all happening on the same day. It was something Inuyasha was not used to experiencing. Sure it was different when Miroku and Sango were waiting for their child to be born, and Inuyasha snorted as he remembered the look on the houshi's face when he found out he had not one but two little girls. He couldn't really explain it, but the thought of becoming a father instead of just Kagome's husband, almost felt like a surreal dream to him. Sometimes he would look at her while she did the cooking or mending his torn kimono, seeing her belly growing, he never would have thought in his life that something like this would happen. It was a dream he kept telling himself as Kagome slept soundly during the night in their bed, her arm around him.
"That's the wonderment of becoming a father, my friend." Miroku said, bringing him out of his daydream. "A man doesn't know it, until his own wife is about to have your baby."
"I still can't believe it, to suddenly have all this..."
"Ah, but doesn't it make you feel happy?"
"Yeah, I guess it does." He replied with a small smile.
"Now there, you see nothing to worry about."
But he did worry about it. From when he had woken up three days previous, he did nothing but worry. It was bad enough that they were so far from their home village, which he put the blame entirely on Miroku because he insisted that they were needed for a youkai extermination. It was bad enough that the old crone named Kaede had informed him that Kagome was close to giving birth to their first child. Yeah, he blamed her too. Why was everyone conspiring against him from being close to his wife?
Nothing mattered anyway as they finally reached the borders of Kaede's village. A wave of relief washed over the hanyou's face as he ran to their hut, ignoring Miroku's pleas to slow down. Oh, it was so easy for him, laughing at his plight; he had already been through three births.
However, Inuyasha hadn't gone very far when he was stopped by Sango.
"No, you can't go in there," she commanded.
"And why not?" he answered, attempting to side step away from her. "I can smell Kagome's distress."
"That's because she is in labour. Kaede and Rin are in there. So it would be best for you to stay outside."
"I'm sorry, my dear Sango. We would have come later, if not for Inuyasha's insistence. Don't look at me like that, Inuyasha. We didn't mean anything malicious by that. What, with you being a first time father, your anxiety—"
"Get out of my way," the hanyou growled, a growl that would have scared any lower form of youkai. But not Miroku, who swiftly apologised to his friend before knocking him out with one of Sango's stink pellets, while his wife quickly tied him up to prevent any... backlash, in case Inuyasha decided to wake up too soon. The houshi didn't like it very much, tying him up just to prevent him from being with Kagome, and yet it was necessary as they had seen firsthand how protective he could be when it came to the miko's well-being. And Kagome, having gone into labour, well, it was lucky that they had caught him in time before he had the chance to barge into the scene and interrupt Kaede's work.
I am so sorry, my friend, was his final thought as he slapped an ofuda onto his back.
Some several hours later, Inuyasha woke up with the biggest headache imaginable, and he struggled to keep his eyes open without thinking of throwing up. Groaning, the hanyou lolled his head upwards, to find that his whole body had been tied up, and that something was tingling painfully at his back.
"Ah, you're finally awake." Miroku said, sounding chipper than usual.
"Fuck you. What happened? And why am I tied up?"
"It's for your own good. At least until the baby is born."
"Baby...!" Immediately, Inuyasha sat bolt upright, rocking back and forth to a standing position, and would have succeeded in escaping, if not for Miroku's quicker thinking as he held fast onto his ropes.
"Don't be so hasty, Inuyasha. Kaede-dono and Rin are very experienced. They know what they are doing." The houshi said in a soothing voice, which seemed to have calmed him down somewhat, much to his relief. "Kagome is in good hands."
"I know." Inuyasha replied, sighing. "I'm still worried, though. What if something goes wrong? I don't want to lose them. You remember when we were at that village a few weeks ago? That woman—"
"Now, now," the man continued in the same soothing manner. "Don't think about those things. Unfortunate as it was, it couldn't be helped. You know that. All we can do is pray, and hope that the kami will be kind."
"Yeah, pray..." They sat still in silence, though Miroku did keep a firm grip on the ropes, just in case Inuyasha's anxiety decided to re-emerge. It did, though thankfully only his knee seemed to be affected, with the way it kept bouncing up and down in agitation.
Soon, the hanyou began to tire from this distraction, deciding to lie down as he was still dizzy from Sango's cursed stink pellets.
Miroku smiled, letting go of the ropes.
That was his first mistake.
"See? That's better. No need to worry. Just enjoy your rest, and this lovely view." He said, admiring how lush the grass and how pretty the flowers were from where they were sitting, on top of a hill.
That was his second mistake, when he realised too late what his friend was really up to, and all he could do was to watch in horror as Inuyasha rolled down the hill at top speed, down to the forest below.
Inuyasha finally stopped rolling when he hit the base of a tree. Shaking his head, his first coherent thought, after the world around him stopped spinning, was the smug triumph he felt knowing that he had escaped the bonzu. Now all he had to do was to find a way to get to his wife, and someone to take the ofuda off his back, preferably soon, as he could see the houshi running towards him.
"Need a hand?" a voice asked, a voice belonging to his dreaded half-brother. Only this time the hanyou was glad to see him, if it weren't for the stupid look on his face he seemed to have every time he came to see him with some equally stupid excuse. How he wished he could kick it, if it weren't for his predicament.
"Yes, get this thing off me would you?" he said, referring to the ofuda.
"Whatever for?" the older brother replied, smiling.
"Because if you don't, and when I finally do get out of these ropes... You'll be my first victim."
Sesshoumaru sighed, conceding that having someone as irritable as his brother angry at him was probably not a good thing. Even so, he could not do as Inuyasha asked, reason being that he was a youkai, and youkai did not like ofuda, or anything of the spiritual nature.
"Well, get it off with a stick or something, before Miroku comes." No sooner than his words were said the said houshi had caught up with him.
"Inuyasha, don't make this any harder for me than it already is. I told you to just be patient."
"I can't," he spouted off, almost to the point of panic. "My kid is about to born."
And that was where all three men found themselves, sitting not too far from the hut where Kagome and Inuyasha resided, now under the charge of Kaede as she continued to monitor the progress of the young miko's labour.
Miroku stared at the hanyou with disbelieving eyes, wondering how he managed to be convinced to be this close to the hut. It clearly wasn't doing anything for Inuyasha's nerves, and watching his poor friend's face so drenched in sweat, almost made the houshi feel sorry for him. He would say almost, as he had already learnt his lesson from the first time Inuyasha tried to escape.
"It'll be all right, you'll see."
Inuyasha didn't reply, nor did he notice the houshi patting his back and offering some kind of encouragement to relieve him of his stresses. All he could see was his house, and hear his wife inside it. All the pain she was feeling and all the deeps breaths that she took, made him wish he could do something to help her, and yet at the same time knowing that he could do nothing at all, save for sitting in the same spot and worrying for her and their baby's well-being. The smells of her labour were doing no better to his sensitive nose, and if it weren't for Miroku there to stop him, he would have very much run in to comfort his miko wife.
Finally, after a while, Inuyasha couldn't stand the silence any longer, saying in a trembling voice, though loud enough for Kagome to hear, "A-are you alright, Kagome?"
Kaede, who was focussed on telling the young woman to concentrate on pushing and breathing, was startled when she heard Inuyasha's voice calling out to his wife. Likewise, when Kagome heard his voice, she felt her heart skip a beat. Whether or not it was because she was surprised to hear that he was here to support her, and not in some other village, or the fact that he made her lose concentration, didn't really matter. She was only glad that he was here. To tell him that she was indeed all right, however, was another matter altogether.
"Kagome, concentrate," Kaede chided the miko. "The baby comes first. Now relax, and keep pushing."
"I'm so glad you're here, Inuyasha," Kagome managed to gasp out, ignoring Kaede and Rin's looks of astonishment. "I thought... I thought you wouldn't be here. You were gone for so long."
"Believe me; nothing was going to stop me from seeing you." Inuyasha shouted back, making an effort to stand and hop to the hut, only to fall back down again when Sesshoumaru grabbed onto his collar. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
Kagome smiled, shaking her head, but it was Kaede who answered first, "Will you two stop it. Inuyasha, stop distracting Kagome, and Kagome, stop encouraging him."
"I'm sorry; it's just in our time..."
"I know, but please, just don't get distracted. Now I want you to push, you're nearly there."
Inuyasha's ears pricked up at the old miko's words, jumping up excitedly before Miroku and Sesshoumaru could react and hold him down. It was as if he had been overtaken by some kind of power, and not even the strength from his youkai brother was going to stop him from the words that came from out of his mouth.
"Come on, Kagome, you can do it! You're nearly there! Just one more push!"
If it were any other situation, Kaede would have laughed at the boy's silly antics, except this wasn't one of those situations, and it took all of her years of training to not react and throw something at him just to keep him quiet.
"You can do it, just keep pushing, Kagome! Push, push! Come on, you're nearly there!!"
To her surprise, Kagome was doing just that. It was the first time in her life as a practising miko to experience such a... such a... she didn't exactly know how to describe it, but it appeared to be working, unorthodox as it was. With Inuyasha's loud support, Kagome was doing much better in pushing, and now she could see the head of the baby begin to emerge.
"Don't give up now, Kagome. Just keep going! You can do it!!"
Despite the pain, she felt all of her strength go to the last few pushes, and soon that baby was out. Exhausted, Kagome relaxed her body, a sense of peace flowing through her. It was finally over. The many hours of pain and anxiety seemed to vanish when she heard the cries of her newborn.
"Oh, Kaede-baa chan, he's beautiful." She heard Rin say.
"He certainly is." Kaede replied. "Look Kagome, here, say hello little one."
The new mother gazed down at the baby, who stared back with big golden eyes.
"Kagome, what's going on? Are you alright?" Inuyasha called out from the outside.
"Yes, Inuyasha," Kaede sighed, opening the door for him, while making a discreet removal of the ofuda from his back.
"Kagome..."
"Inuyasha..." the miko began, before she saw that he was tied up for some strange reason. "Why are you all tied up?"
He smiled nervously in response, and then easily tore the ropes off from his body to avoid further embarrassment. Slowly walking towards her, he kneeled down when he saw the small bundle in her arms, the baby's tiny floppy ears twitching at the sounds around him. His mouth became dry as he looked at him in wonderment, wondering if his own eyes were deceiving him, especially when he felt some unknown emotion well up inside him, watching the baby as his little hand made a grab for his finger, his eyes going cross-eyed as he examined it.
"Your son is saying hello to you." Kagome murmured, snuggling herself onto Inuyasha's shoulder.
"Our son, Kagome," he said, equally quiet, kissing her tenderly on the forehead and brushing her wet bangs away from her eyes. "I was so worried about you. You were in so much pain and I couldn't help you."
"But you did help her," Kaede added, startling them out of their tranquil moment, "Although I still don't believe it."
"What are you talking about?" Both Inuyasha and Kagome asked at the same time.
At this, Rin found herself covering her mouth to muffle her outburst of giggles, which was then followed by laughter, sounding suspiciously like Miroku, and if Inuyasha didn't know any better, he could have sworn he heard his brother snort in amusement.
He chose to ignore it when he saw that the little puppy, who had found his finger so fascinating, had begun to suckle onto it. "What are you trying to do, eat my finger?" he asked, and then gently gave the baby to his wife when she told him that he was probably hungry.
As Inuyasha watched the baby latch hungrily to her breast, what he saw in his eyes made him feel like he was in a dream again. He never would have imagined such a life: a wife, his lovely wife, a child, and a family to call his own. Everything he thought he never would have, was here, it wasn't a dream at all. This was his life now, their life to share together, and when he saw Kagome smile; her blue-grey eyes sparkling with motherly pride, Inuyasha knew that he was right.
The End.