Kagome stepped outside of the school and looked up at the late afternoon sky. It had only took her an hour to grade the tests and finish up her other work. They still had over an hour before it got dark. They wouldn't have to rush home like she thought they might have to. She looked over at the school playground. There were several kids still playing ball. Her eyebrow twitched. There was also a grown half-demon playing, too. Kagome sighed. Sometimes she didn't know if he was being an observant father or if he was just acting like a big kid. She walked over and sat down on a nearby bench. She knew that he could smell her, but she let him play for a while longer. After another five minutes of throwing the ball around, Inuyasha started over her way.

"Hey, Kagome," he said with a big smile. He bent down and gave her a quick kiss. He crouched down beside the bench so that he could talk to her.

Kagome thought about asking him to sit on the bench, but she knew that he would enjoy sitting on the ground much better. "Should we go ahead and go home? It's only an hour until it's nighttime."

He looked confused for a moment. Then he laughed. "The new moon's tomorrow night, not tonight. If we're going to rush home, we should rush because I'm starving."

Kagome lightly slapped her forehead. "You're right, it is tomorrow night. Yeah let's go ahead and go home. I'm a bit hungry myself."

Inuyasha stood up and yelled, "Hey, you two. You're mother's treating us to Wacdonald's tonight."

He felt a hand slap him in the back of the head. "I don't recall saying anything about that," Kagome's voice said in her eerily calm way. Inuyasha had once thought that voice that sounded calm meant that she was calm. He had eventually realized it meant she was really angry, usually at him.

"I-If you let us eat out tonight, I promise to cook supper tomorrow night," Inuyasha managed to get out. He turned around and saw his wife's smiling face.

"Deal," she said, patting the top his head like a dog.

Hiro and Miori finally arrived beside their parents. They had recognized their mother's angry mood and had taken as much time as they could in walking across the playground.

"Did you two have fun?" Kagome asked.

The two children nodded their heads. Miori spoke up. "Daddy's the best ball player there is in the world."

"Yeah, I am ain't I," Inuyasha said, rolling up his sleeve and showing his children his muscle. They giggled as he acted like he was really straining.

Kagome laughed. "It isn't that hard to be good playing against children."

"C'mon, don't ruin my image," Inuyasha whined. He knelt down to let the kids get on his back. They quickly crawled on and took hold.

Kagome frowned. "You really shouldn't carry them everywhere on your back."

"It don't hurt nothin' for them to ride on their father's back. They're already the strongest kids in the neighborhood and school. They can afford to let me carry them around." He gave her a big smile. "You can ride too, just like the old days."

She laughed. "I don't think this world needs to see a woman riding around on a man's back with their children. They would just be told to buy a car."

"Then this world should change." The conversation dropped off there. Inuyasha didn't mean anything by what he said, but they would occasionally say something that would bring the conversation to a halt. Hiro and Miori exchanged glances. They didn't understand what was going on, but they could tell when something uncomfortable was going on between their parents.

They continued on to the restaurant in silence.


"I don't understand why we can't fix food that fast at home," Inuyasha said as they left Wacdonald's. "We ask for it and we have it in just a minute. At home, it takes an hour sometimes before we can eat."

Kagome wearily ran her hand through her hair. "I know I've told you before. They fix the food before anybody orders it. Then they keep it warm until they give it to the customers. That's why they call it fast food."

Inuyasha thought for a moment. "I still don't get it." He looked over his shoulder at Hiro. "Do you get it?" He nodded. Inuyasha turned and asked Miori, "How about you?" She giggled and nodded. "I guess I just don't understand. I'm so fortunate to be surrounded by my smart family."

Kagome reached up and gently grabbed hold of the side of Inuyasha's cap. "Well the sooner we get home, the sooner you can start getting smarter." She ignored his yelp of pain as she started dragging them towards their house.


It was around eleven at night when the kids were finally put to bed. Kagome came downstairs and saw Inuyasha still sitting at the table. He was scratching his head as he was starring at Miori's schoolbook. "I still don't understand much of this math stuff. The history I get and the grammar I can stumble through, but this stuff just seems like garbage. I see why you had such a hard time every time you had to come back and study."

"I'm glad you're trying, Inuyasha," Kagome said, plopping down in the chair opposite. "Sometimes teaching others is the best way to learn. You make a good test subject for the kids."

"I'll get some of this eventually," he said, closing the book. "I wasn't joking earlier when I said I'm glad to be in such a smart family."

"I'm not that smart," Kagome said, embarrassed.

"No, I'm sure that you are. Speaking of that, how did the class do today on their first test?"

She smiled and gave him a thumbs-up. "Everybody passed. There were three close calls, but everybody passed."

Inuyasha stood up in the chair. "We should celebrate," he announced. "Perhaps tomorrow night?" He hopped down and nuzzled up against Kagome.

Her face turned serious. "I don't know," she said. "We've talked about this before. We should wait until Hiro and Miori are a little older to have another. Time and money is strapped as it is."

"You're doing good at being a teacher. We should have enough of money. If not, I'm sure I can find someplace I can work at where I won't draw any attention to myself. And if we still can't afford it, I'll hunt our food and build us a new home where we don't need money." He looked up at her with a serious face.

She couldn't help but smile. "I never expected you to take to fatherhood this strongly."

"I didn't know I would either. It just happened that way."

Kagome sighed. "Wait one year and then we'll talk about it again."

Inuyasha knew that was the last of the argument. "Alright, we'll wait another year. You had just better not look like old Kaede when we decide to have another one."

She laughed at the thought. "Don't worry, I won't make you wait that long."


Kagome woke up in the middle of the night. She felt that the bed was empty. She knew that would worry some wives, but she always knew where he went. She got up and walked across the hallway to her children's bedroom. She opened the door a crack and looked inside. She saw the sleeping figures of her children under the covers. She also saw the form of her husband sitting in his usual place on their dresser. He almost always chose to sleep in the kid's room so that he could be close if they needed him. It reminded her of how he would always protect the group back when they were fighting Naraku.

She closed the door and went back in their room. She was happy that she had such a protective husband. 'I bet all mothers wish they had someone like him to watch out for their families,' she thought as she laid back down. It didn't take very long for her to get back to sleep.

If the lights had been on earlier, Kagome would have noticed something missing from the room. The missing object was always mounted up on the wall above the bed so that Inuyasha would know where it was if he needed it.

All four of them continued to sleep peacefully. None of them knew that Tetsaiga had been taken.