"I still don't feel right about how much we were paid. It's too much, isn't it?" Kagome rubbed her thumb over one roll of fabric. Fabric they were on their way to sell in the next market.
"Bah," Inuyasha scoffed, "if Miroku were along, he'da cheated them outta a lot more than–" he stopped when he noticed his wife's stiff posture. She was staring straight ahead. With one deep breath, he knew why. His hackles rose and he began to growl before Kagome put a hand on his shoulder, still staring straight ahead.
"What sort of demon?"
"Wolves," he growled in reply. Kagome nodded, suddenly thoughtful as the aura she felt got closer, it almost seemed familiar…
Her thought was cut off by Inuyasha's right hand slowly drawing near the sword at his hip.
"Wait…does this scent seem familiar to you?"
Inuyasha grimaced. Unfortunately, the wolf-demons headed their way smelled like a pack he knew of.
"See?" Kagome dragged him forward. They should still continue to the market, she said. She had this funny idea that the wolves would pay them no mind in passing. Inuyasha, on the other hand, wasn't surprised when he heard snarling and snapping to the sides of them twenty minutes later. When the first demon man poked his head out of the tree line, Inuyasha instinctively grabbed his wife about the waist. Two other demons came crashing to the side if the first. Kagome found herself in the middle of a snarling match between dog and wolves. Kagome patted Inuyasha on the chest and waved her arms at the growing demons with words of peace.
"We're so sorry to have gotten in the way of your travels, but we'll soon be on our way."
Two of the demons shot each other puzzled looks, wondering why a tiny human woman didn't seem the least bit afraid. The other didn't care, taking a menacing step forward. Inuyasha pulled his idiot wife behind himself. Just as Kagome was about to protest, a loud call interrupted her.
"What's the hold up?" There was a slight pause as a figure pushed to the front of the tree line.
"Kagome? I thought that was your scent!" Came a voice from the figure. The voice wasn't a deep male's as he had been expecting, but a much higher female voice. A short redheaded woman–demon–stepped stepped into the light, a hand on her hip and a grin on her face.
"I wondered what happened to you," she started, holding a hand up to quiet the growling behind her.
Kagome beamed, slipping around her husband to greet the female demon. She looked so different, but her demeanor was just as spitfire and recognizable as it had been over four years ago. She wore her hair in a a tight braid to one side, starting high on her head, and she traded in her armor for a bit of blue cloth about her bust. But the most noticeable thing about her, the thing that halted Kagome's approach, was how her grey fur pelt came up higher, to just below her bust, the garment longer now, to cover Ayame's very swollen middle.
Ayame didn't still her approach, and came very near Kagome. "I heard you went home to your lands, I didn't expect to see you around here."
Kagome blinked away the surprise to coherently answer.
"I did, for a little while," Kagome started, "I came back to marry Inuyasha though. I'll be living with him from now on."
The redhead nodded, looking back at at the hanyou in question, still eyeballing the wolf men. A tall white-haired boy of about 15 came to stand very near Ayame.
Kagome almost thought that she recognized him, bust she couldn't be sure.
"Good for you! I'm glad you decided to settle down together," Ayame replied cheerfully.
"And you too. I heard you and Kouga married, and he's reclaimed his title as chief."
Ayame burst into laughter without much warning. Kagome tilted her head in confusion.
"D-did I get that wrong?" Kagome asked, a nervous smile on her lips. She glanced back down at the redhead's round belly. That…that was right, wasn't it?
"Oh, no, no. You're half right," she reassured. She lay a hand over her belly and continued, "Kouga and I were married, but I became chief, not him."
"You became..?" Ayame stood up a little straighter, trying to look every bit of imposing and important as her tiny, pregnant frame could be.
"Oh, he wasn't happy about it at first. He challenged me," she said with a smirk," but I showed everyone who was most fit to lead the clan."
"How did you do that?" A bark of laughter surprised Kagome and she whipped her head around to her husband. She called his name and he covered his mouth with a snort, trying to regain his composure.
"The strongest wolf-demon is the one who leads. That means he got his ass handed to him by his own wife!" Kagome turned back to Ayame, who chuckled.
"We weren't married at that point, but yes." He was allowed three tries to beat the current leader in a fair fight, and lost each time. She didn't tell Kagome how they came to be married, but that it only happened a year ago.
"And this little one was the first result of the match," she said, tilting her head to the side. She reached behind herself to gently pull down a furry hood that covered the head of a black-haired infant strapped to her back. This was something the Miko definitely hadn't expected. She glanced back at Ayame's belly. She was a good six months along, so there was no way she could have both…a shotgun wedding perhaps?
"Aw, how old are they?" She asked, more in the interest of adding up the math in her head. The baby was so small.
"Three months old." Okay, now that made zero sense.
"And this will be our second," Ayame giggled, rubbing down her belly. Kagome blinked, trying to hide her utter bewilderment. She shook her head and changed the subject.
"Where is Kouga, anyway?"
"Oh, he went up ahead a day ago. It's a real hassle moving the entire clan at once, so we split up into two parties."
"Ain't that pretty irresponsible? Leavin' his pregnant wife and first born son alone like that?" Inuyasha scoffed, coming up behind his own wife. He would certainly never expect Kagome to travel anywhere without him, even when though she wasn't pregnant. And with an infant strapped to her back? Impossible.
"He doesn't really need to worry. I'm taking my best men to make the trip. Kai, and Shogo." She gestured to the white-haired boy to her left and the black-haired man who had started the growling match earlier.
"He will get worried of we don't get going though," the boy added.
"Right," Ayame agreed. Kagome nodded at both Ayame and…Kai…
"Kai?" She asked as Ayame started to wave goodbye, "I hope Shinta is well."
A look of confusion took over for a second before a spark of recognition swept over the boy's face.
"He is! Thank you." The boy had grown considerably, but Kagome knew she recognized that boy as the 11-year old demon she had met years prior.
Kagome couldn't help bit feel nostalgic as she watched the pack of wolves and demons cross the road and into the tree line once again. So much jad changed. She looked back at her husband, who remained tense as he watched the demons leave. Kagome wrapped an arm around his middled to calm him and lead him back down the toad that would take them to the market.
A curious question plagued her.
"How long do demons carry their young, Inuyasha?"
"Depends on the demon," he muttered curtly, still focused on the scent and sound of the demons as they left.
"Well, wolf-demons?"
"I heard it was twice as long as a mortal wolf." His interest was slowly returning to his wife's words as they kept moving on. Kagome watched her feet as they walked. If that was the case, then full-term was around 4 months, so then for Ayame to look six months along…they certainly didn't wait long to start having babies. Kagome bit her lip. She had told Inuyasha when they were first married that she wanted to wait a while, get to spend some time together before morning sickness, backaches, and the eventual spit-ups and diaper changes…but everyone Kagome knew already had babies. She hadn't even expected Kouga to have a child, and he nearly had two! She and inuyasha had been married over a year now, maybe it was time to discuss it again.
"When I have a child then?" That got his attention. He gave her an expression that asked her to repeat that.
"When I get pregnant, how many months will I carry our child?" He squinted at her question.
"Humans are pregnant for nine months, everyone knows that," he replied. Kagome wet her lips.
"But you're not a human, and the baby won't be either."
Oh. Inuyasha scratched the back of his head. Pondering the question. He had never asked that before. Would it be similar?
"I think just the nine months?" His answer was unsure. She was human, and the baby would use her womb to develop, so wouldn't it make better sense to take just as long?
"How long was your mother's pregnancy?" He screwed up his face. He had never asked. How the hell was he supposed to know? He heard Kagome sigh. She leaned her weight against him and squeezed his hand in her smaller one.
"I guess we'll find out when we get there, huh?" Inuyasha flushed slightly and twined his fingers around his wife's.
...
I've been wanting to write something for a long time, but instead of waiting any longer to get my thoughts together I just word-vomited my ideas out. I was considering putting something like this into Little by Little, but I'm hesitant to do so because Ayame is an anime-only character.
have a story halfway planned in my mind for AyaKou's storyline, which does include Ayame becoming leader, and eventually them marrying, after a long series of events (Ayame no longer wanting to marry, etc.).