Chapter 9 - The Little Things That Change The World

InuYasha and Shippo glanced at each other quickly then at the offering on the table. In the background, the kettle burbled, ready if today's installment of Adventures at Mealtime should prove inedible. Today it was a hot pot, largely a cook-it-yourself affair as long as the broth simmering gently before them passed muster. An array of sliced vegetables and fish lay in trays in front of each diner, along with a large bowl for catching the cooked food as it was fished out of the broth. Yet another attempt at rice sat beside the iron pot of broth, its lid still on, concealing what lay within.

Kagome took a deep steadying breath, shuddered slightly, then whipped to lid off the rice pot, her eyes clenched shut.

Silence.

"Who-oa. How did that happen?" That was Shippo. It was too much for her shattered nerves. She risked a look.

The rice at the edge of the pot, where it touched the metal, was lightly scorched. Inside was a ring of perfect rice with a bulls eye of undercooked crunchy rice in the middle.

InuYasha studied it for a moment, poking it with his chopsticks. "So, we're moving onto combinations, are we?" he remarked.

Shippo plucked out a bit of the crispy golden crust, saying, "This part's actually kind of good if it's not really burned."

It all just washed over Kagome as she continued to stare numbly at the rice. Deep, deep inside her, something whimpered, "How can this be so hard?" Feeling slightly ill, she sat on her cushion and listlessly fed some of her portion into the broth, removing it when it was cooked and morosely eating it. It tasted kind of funny to her, though she couldn't quite pinpoint what was wrong.

The guys, however, were attacking dinner with enthusiasm. She sighed, watching them. They must have given up and decided this was the best they were going to get. She didn't know when she had ever felt like such a failure.

InuYasha looked up after he had consumed most of his food and saw she had just been picking at her portion.

"Something wrong with yours?" he asked, looking puzzled.

"No more than usual," she sighed glumly.

"You sure?" he insisted. "Mine was fine."

"Yeah! Mine too! Can we have it again tomorrow?" Shippo asked.

They must have orchestrated this to make her feel better. Kind of sweet, really, though it was just making her feel more guilty and miserable. They deserved better than this.

"Why don't you guys split the good rice?" she said, getting up to go to the storeroom. "I'll just fill mine in with ramen."

"Uh!" Shippo said, suddenly looking alarmed.

Both InuYahsa and Kagome looked at him oddly. What was his problem? He'd been doing a splendid job of restocking the ramen box. They both managed to sneak a "Can it!" look at him when the other wasn't looking. He looked like he was about to faint.

Kagome snaked an arm into the box and fished out a package of ramen, then stared at it. Pork? In an orange package? She was pretty sure she had come back with chicken in green packages. She glanced quickly at the table; InuYasha was watching his fish in the pot. She pointed at the package and shot a "What gives?" look at Shippo.

Shippo tried to quickly wave her off with a "Later" gesture, but InuYasha caught him at it. InuYasha looked from him to Kagome and saw the orange package, like he had expected to see. So why was Kagome acting like that was wrong somehow? And why was Shippo waving her off? Unless...

"Uh, Shippo, is there something going on that maybe I ought to know about?"

"No," Shippo said, truthfully as far as he was concerned, since there was no way InuYasha ought to know about his agreement with Kagome.

"Really." InuYasha looked from Shippo to Kagome, who smiled an artificially bright smile at him, then back to Shippo.

Meanwhile, Kagome considered Shippo's reactions. She could understand him waving her off until later, but why had he jumped so badly when she announced she was getting some ramen? And why was she not pulling up chicken? Unless...

She tipped the box so she could see into it in the light. One side was neatly stacked with green packages and the other side with orange. Come to think of it, Shippo had always been the one at the box for a while.

"Uh, Shippo, do you have something you want to tell me?"

"No," Shippo squeaked. Once again, it was the truth; he really didn't want to tell her anything.

"Really." Kagome reached into the box and pulled up a chicken ramen in her other hand and displayed both of them.

"So, then, how did this happen?" she asked.

"Don't kill me!" Shippo yelped, then ducked under the table to hide.

InuYasha looked at both packages for a moment, stunned, then under the table at the cringing Shippo.

"Awwww shit." He pointed at the ramen in Kagome's hand and asked, "How long have you..."

"About a week."

"Yeah. About a week."

"I just didn't want you to think I was such a failure."

"I just didn't want you to beat yourself up so hard."

The words tumbled over each other as they spoke at the same time, then stared at each other in mortified desperation.

Shippo took the opportunity to bolt from under the table and streak into his little den of a room, his tail streaming low and flat behind him.

InuYasha was the first to look away. He grimaced and said, "Would you just say it and get it over with?" He closed his eyes with resignation and waited for the expected face plant.

Instead, tears welled up in Kagome's eyes. She looked at the two packages of ramen in her hands and wailed, "I'm so hopeless. I mean, who can't even cook rice?"

InuYasha would have preferred the face plant; he knew what to do with a face plant. He and Kagome would snarl at each other for a while, he'd sulk for about an hour and they would go on. But she was crying again, and he was absolutely no good at handling crying women. In fact, he wouldn't even be in this mess if he had handled the last crying jag better. Maybe if he pissed her off...

"Well, you'd better get that rice cooking down pretty soon, or you're going to get fat eating all that ramen."

"Fat!" That struck a nerve. "FAT!?" A bit more than he had expected. "SIT!"

Wham! It was hard to believe the room had tatami mats. Sparkles of light danced before his eyes and his ears rang miserably. As soon as he could lift his head, he checked his nose gently. At least it wasn't broken. Wow. He hadn't hit the floor that hard in a long time. He looked up to find Kagome had stalked out of the room. They were back in familiar territory.

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"Now, now, InuYasha-sama, I'm sorry my great-nephew sent you here on this fool's errand. He's just looking for another way to get me to move in with him instead of living out here by myself. A youkai? Ridiculous. There's nothing here to interest a youkai. But since you're here, please, do come in for a bit of tea before you go. I really must take him to task for annoying you like that. I can't imagine where he came up with that notion."

Old Minoru turned slowly and shuffled back into his small house, stooping to put a kettle on the fire and moving to his cupboard for the teapot and some cups. Although he wasn't aware of it, he was a village project; everyone conspired to make sure the old gent was doing well.

InuYasha stepped into the house behind him. Eiichi was right; the smell of youki was distinct inside the house. Some minor youkai had found an easy living filching off the old man, who was now nearly blind and hard of hearing. But where was the little bastard?

Minoru placed the teapot and cups on the table and turned to get his tea jar. After his back was turned, the lid of the teapot lifted slightly then settled quickly again. InuYasha barely caught the end of the motion. Had he really seen that?

While the old man rummaged through the shelves, muttering to himself, InuYasha placed a finger over the teapot's spout and, holding the lid firmly in place, shook the teapot briskly a few times. He opened the lid to see what was inside. Something long, dark and very fast shot out of the pot and slithered up his sleeve in a panic. Equally startled, InuYasha dropped the pot which landed on the table, wobbling briefly to settle upright, and slapped at his arms and chest as the little youkai did a few laps looking for a way out of his shirt. It came out the neck of his shirt; they were eyeball to eyeball for a flash, then the youkai was scuttling away along the edge of the room seeking another hiding place. It leaped back into the cupboard as Minoru turned back toward the table with the tea jar and wound itself into a mortar.

Eyes locked on the mortar, Inuyasha silently rose from his seat and glided to the cupboard while Minoru felt for the lid of the teapot and spooned in the tea. As InuYasha's hand shot out over the mortar, the youkai slithered between his fingers. There was a quick frantic flurry of snatching after the leaping, bouncing youkai, then it abandoned the cupboard to spring to the table and rebound into the teapot just as old Minoru poured in the boiling water and slapped on the lid.

InuYasha was back in his seat when the old man looked up from placing the kettle back on the fire. He stared at the teapot, trying to figure out what to say.

"Aahhh..."

Between the blindness and deafness and being so caught up with playing the good host, the old man had not noticed the chaos erupting around him. He was still oblivious as he rose and went back to the cupboard, exclaiming, "Oh, I nearly forgot I had them. Nothing goes with this tea quite so well as salted plums. Now, where did I put them?"

His back was turned again. InuYasha quickly slipped the lid off the teapot, hooked the limp body of the youkai with a claw and drew it out of the tea. It was quite dead. He flipped it and the tea out the door, then reloaded the teapot before Minoru returned with the jar of salted plums.

Minoru poured tea for them both, saying, "As you can see, I'm doing quite well here. Do you suppose you can tell that fussy great-nephew of mine to stop harassing me? Youkai indeed!"

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The food for the last couple of weeks hadn't been great, but there had not been any major disasters lately and it was slowly improving. Shortly after the spectacular triple-result rice pot, the jinx that had been haunting the kitchen finally departed and rice cooking had finally been conquered. Breakfast this morning was a simple repackaging of last night's dinner with some extra rice and tea. It was definitely climbing up on the edible scale.

Everyone had a few bites, then Kagome suddenly dropped her bowl and bolted from the house. InuYasha and Shippo could hear her heaving outside. Each of them quickly and thoroughly sniffed over his food.

"It smells fine to me," Shippo declared.

"Me too. You feeling all right?" InuYasha replied.

"Yeah, no problems."

They looked out the door again. Kagome seemed to be through vomiting and was now sitting against a tree, talking to Kaede, who had apparently arrived just as Kagome had bolted out the door. InuYasha leaned out the door and called, "Are you all right?"

Kagome nodded and waved and Kaede said she would be in in a few minutes. InuYasha and Shippo looked at each other and at the food again.

"Play it safe?" asked InuYasha.

"Yeah. Where's the ramen?" replied Shippo, rustling through the box as InuYasha put the kettle back on the fire.

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Kagome leaned back against the tree, breathing slowly and gathering herself. She had been feeling off for a couple of weeks, maybe three. She had been attributing it to the excitement of moving and her own admittedly bad cooking. She wished she had a youkai constitution, like her two cohabitants.

Kaede looked her over carefully, peering in her eyes, feeling her brow and around her neck and asking questions:

How long has she felt bad? About three weeks.

What were the symptoms? Tired, dizzy sometimes, stomach was off, though this was the first day she had actually thrown up.

Any fever? No.

Everyone else feeling all right? Yes, but they're youkai, so does that count?

"So, my dear, when was your last monthly?"

"Huh? Oh. Umm, I don't really remember. I lost track while I was setting up the house. But that would mean... Oh! ...OH!"

"Yes, dear, you are probably with child." Kaede patted her hand comfortingly.

"Ohhhh, wow," Kagome said, feeling staggered. "That was fast." She sat a few more minutes as the impact of the revelation settled in.

"I'll come back this afternoon with my business," Kaede said, getting up and heading back to the village.

Kagome rose and walked back to the house. The guys had abandoned breakfast and were eating ramen when she entered.

"The food's OK, guys," she said, looking down at them.

Shippo looked a little guilty and InuYasha waved toward the door. "Then what was that all about?" he demanded.

She crouched down beside him and whispered in his ear, "I'm pregnant."

He choked on his mouthful of noodles and she had to slap his back a couple of times.

"What?!" he finally managed to gasp once the coughing fit had subsided.

"Oh no! What is it?" Shippo demanded, looking alarmed. "Kaede-sama was talking to you for a long time!"

Shippo jumped into her arms and hugged her, crying. "It's bad, isn't it? It's something awful! You're not going to die, are you?"

InuYasha thumped Shippo once on the head, and said with a great deal of exasperation, "Shippo, you idiot, will you get a grip?! She's not going to die!"

"Then, what is it?" Shippo asked, still tearful and a bit resentful of the lump on his head.

"I'm fine," Kagome answered, hugging him then putting him down. "I'm going to have a baby, that's all."

"Oh, is that all?" Shippo said, greatly relieved.

"Whaddya mean, 'Is that all?'" InuYasha retorted. "It seems to me this is kind of big."

"Well, yeah, you're the one who's going to be a papa," Shippo shot back.

InuYasha slammed his fist onto Shippo's head and stalked out the door.

"Oww!" Shippo wailed, "He didn't have to do that!"

Kagome stared after InuYasha, hurt, angry, and a bit alarmed. She decided to soothe Shippo first; InuYasha could just go sulk a while. She fetched a poultice from the shelves and gently dabbed it on Shippo's head.

"So what's up with him?" Shippo asked, looking out the door.

"I don't know," Kagome replied. "I mean, I'm surprised too, but to get so angry... That's kind of scary."

"What did he think was going to happen? You get married and you have a family. It's not awful. It's good to be in a family." Shippo looked wistful, remembering his own lost family.

"I know," Kagome answered, holding him as much for her own comfort as his. "But I'm not sure InuYasha knows. Look what he has left for a family."

They sat a while as Kagome screwed up the nerve to go deal with InuYasha. Finally, she put Shippo down and looked out the door. She eventually spotted InuYasha up a tree, staring into space looking lost and scared. He noticed her watching him, scowled and turned his back to her.

"So that's it," she thought, a surge of sympathy rolling through her, "You're not about to admit it, but you're scared."

She walked out and sat down at the base of the tree and looked up.

"You want to tell me about it?" she asked.

"About what?" he said obtusely.

"About why you're sitting in this tree," she persisted.

Amber eyes peered down at her. "You've never cared why I was in a tree before."

"You're usually just having a temper tantrum," Kagome observed.

"Keh!" He stared stonily through the leaves.

They both sat in silence as Kagome waited for InuYasha to say something.

"Well?" she prompted.

"I'm just having a temper tantrum!" he snapped.

She continued to sit quietly, waiting. Finally he peered down again.

"Don't you have something else to do?" he asked. "Laundry or dishes or something?"

"Are you coming down then?"

Silence. She continued to wait. The morning dragged away. Noon peaked and passed.

About mid afternoon, Kaede trudged up the hill from the village and stopped at the house. Shippo directed her to the tree where Kagome and InuYasha sat. She looked at the tableau a moment, pondering, then joined Kagome at the base of the tree.

"It's a fine day to sit outside in the shade," Kaede observed. It was in fact decidedly brisk, the sort of day where moving was preferable.

"Yes, it is," Kagome agreed.

Kaede looked questioningly at Kagome. Kagome gave the slightest jerk of her head upward at InuYasha. Kaede looked up, taking a moment to observe InuYasha.

"I have always loved the way sunlight shifts through the leaves of trees," Kaede commented.

"I could sit here for hours watching it," Kagome said.

"You have sat there for hours," InuYasha remarked acidly, still staring outward.

Kaede quirked a brow at Kagome. Kagome whispered very quietly to her, "He's scared about the baby, but of course he won't admit it."

Kaede smiled knowingly and squeezed Kagome's hand, murmuring, "I'd be more worried about him if he wasn't."

Kagome appreciated that thought greatly, but it still didn't get InuYasha out of the tree. She sighed, looking up at him, sitting there so alone and miserable.

Kaede glanced up at InuYasha. He gave no indication he was paying any attention to them, but she thought she saw his ears tilting their direction.

"Do you know Saito-san?" she asked Kagome.

Kagome thought a moment, then remembered the jolly man in charge of the fish ponds. He had at least eight children, with one or two of them hanging off him at any one time.

"Oh, yeah, the man at the fish ponds. He is such a great father. He always has those kids hanging on him."

Kaede laughed. "He wasn't always like that," she said. "He was in such a panic when his wife told him she was pregnant the first time. He drove every single man in the village crazy asking them what to do and how to do it. And he was going crazy since everyone had a different answer. I thought he was going to have a heart attack the night his wife delivered and he scarcely looked at the boy for a week and a half he was so afraid he was going to break him."

Kagome giggled. "I can't even picture him like that."

"It's true. You can ask him yourself."

"I think I will."

"You should," Kaede said. "A talk with him always cheers me up. And you know the most interesting thing he told me about those children of his?"

"No, what?"

"He said 'I used to go nuts wondering why I got all those different answers about kids, but now I know. The same answer never works twice. Every one of those kids is different. After you have them fed and clothed, you just have to play it by ear.'"

Kagome stared at her. "You mean you make it up as you go along?"

"That's what he said," Kaede assured her.

"But what if you mess up?

InuYasha shifted a bit above them. The women made sure not to notice him.

"You admit it and move on. Try something different the next time."

"But what about the kid?" Kagome persisted. "Won't he be damaged?" It just sounded so loose ended and risky to make it up as you went.

"Kagome-chan, has your mother ever done anything to you that you felt was unjust or wrong?"

"Umm, yeah."

"And what happened?" Kaede asked.

"Well, I got mad. We'd fight and I'd sulk a bit. Sometimes she apologized and sometimes not."

"So. Your mother made some mistakes," Kaede summarized. "Are you damaged?"

Kagome blinked at her, surprised. "Uh, no."

"Have you ever doubted that your mother loved you?" Kaede continued.

"Well, I may have screamed that at her a couple of times," Kagome admitted ruefully, "but down in my heart I always knew she cared."

"And so it is with most of the families here. Nobody's perfect. You muddle your way through it somehow like everyone else."

"Yeah, I guess." Kagome stared at her hands a few minutes, digesting it.

"Well, I actually did come up here for a reason," Kaede said briskly, climbing to her feet. "There are a few herbs that should still be available that I would like you to keep a watch for. My stores are getting low and fresh herbs are always more effective."

"Oh, of course," Kagome said, also climbing to her feet and stretching. "Which ones?"

"The one I need the most is a small plant that creeps close to the ground. It has leaves in threes and long spikes of seed pods. I need the tubers. It likes to grow in sunny nooks in the rocks..."

"I don't think Kagome should be climbing around in the rocks!" InuYasha said suddenly. He dropped from the tree to land between Kagome and Kaede. Kagome had to hand it to Kaede; she had certainly flushed InuYasha out of the tree much faster than Kagome had thought possible.

"I would not send Kagome to do something she should not," Kaede said blandly.

"I can take Shippo with me to reach the awkward spots," Kagome added.

InuYasha did not look like he thought the two women had the sense of a single bird between them.

"I'm coming along," he said firmly.

"All right," Kagome agreed. She kissed his cheek and added, "Why don't you get us some snacks while Kaede-baa-chan finishes telling me about the other herbs she needs. I'm getting a bit hungry."

Flustered by the kiss, InuYasha obeyed quietly. Kagome watched him disappear into the house, then said, "I'd better not get the hiccups for the next few months. He'll come completely unglued."

Kaede laughed. "Well, my dear," she said, "he certainly won't be the first one I've seen like that."

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The River Woman smiled with satisfaction. It had been close, but things were progressing well now. She still regretted the hanyou had been unwilling to wed on the new moon; Muchitsujo-rei would not have found them so easily then, but one did not always get what one wanted. There was little to do here for the meantime. She would attend to other projects.

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