InuYasha growled quietly as he paced back and forth outside of the hut's door. This custom of birthing being a woman's work barred him from entering. He could not watch over Kagome this time, though he had been able to smell her blood since the very beginning.
He knew that he shouldn't be so worried. Miroku and Sango already had three little whelps of their own, with a fourth on the way, and Sango was as healthy as ever. In fact, she was still a little frightening.
His sharp ears picked up the soft sound of a sigh from his wife's mouth. Suddenly a quiet cry pierced the silence. These sounds made every muscle in his body tense. Did it mean that it was over? A moment later the old priestess stepped out from the building.
"Kaede... is she..?" No other words would come out of the hanyou's mouth. The old miko smiled.
"Aye. All is well, InuYasha. You may go in and see them now." She walked away, evidently to give them some privacy, but InuYasha could smell that she was not too far away. He gulped and stepped in.
The room smelled thickly of blood and some other sickeningly sweet smell. When he looked down at Kagome she was pale and exhausted, causing his breath to catch.
"Kagome?" he whispered. "Are you alright?" The new mother's eyes fluttered open and a smile unlike any other InuYasha had ever seen lit up her face. She shifted under the blanket that had been laid over her small frame, exposing the bundle in her arms to his critical eyes.
"It's kind of scrawny, isn't it?"
"She's a girl," Kagome's voice was so quiet that anyone but those with hearing such as his would no have been able to hear her. "Our little girl." InuYasha paused to absorb the information and a thought dawned on him.
"Feh," he replied. "I could have told you that much." Then he sat down and pulled his family into his arms. Kagome let out a soft, airy laugh.
"Chika."
"What?"
"Let's call her Chika... After my mother."