A/N: Not quite as long of a wait since the last update this time! I'm going to ask everyone to bear with me for the next chapter or so. The story will take a bit of an angsty tone to it next chapter with some dark topics, and we will see some of that M rating come out in the form of some language as well as some blood.
As I've said before this is only something I'm dabbling with so you're not going to see incredibly long chapters. I'm also still editing my own work so I apologize in advance if I missed anything.
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The sound of Kagome's alarm clock pierced through the morning air causing the young woman to groan in her sleep as she instinctively rolled over to stop the offending noise. In an attempt to hit the snooze button she managed to swing her arm too far landing her face first onto the hard floor.
"Urgh, I'm never going to catch a break am I," she groaned as she looked at the clock that had been set to go off at six in the morning. Why had she wanted to get up this early for kami's sake? Unraveling herself from her knot of blankets on the floor she felt for her still screaming alarm clock. Finding the right button she silenced it and sighed, there was no use in going back to bed now. She knew she had to get back to the feudal era soon anyway, Rin was waiting on her.
Of course, the little girl had been the reason for the alarm's set time! Kagome mentally scolded herself for her careless behavior. She shouldn't have decided to take a nap to begin with, even if it had only been three hours. Even though it had been nearly a week since the incident the little girl's health was still very fragile.
Kagome had returned home the night before to restock her medical supplies for Rin's continued care and had decided that a quick nap in her own bed couldn't do any harm. Of course it probably didn't, and the pharmacy wouldn't be open until eight, but that didn't stop the young woman from feeling selfish. Kagome let out another sigh as she picked herself up and headed to the bathroom with her backpack for her normal morning ritual that consisted of doing everything she could to hide any evidence that she was any different than she had been before being kidnapped by Kagura.
Padding quietly into the family bathroom as to not wake anyone else up the girl from the future set her yellow backpack on the cold tile before undressing.
"At least I get to do this in the privacy of my own home instead of ducking around bushes every morning," she mumbled. The past week hadn't been easy for her as she juggled tending to the injured Rin, her friend's behavior towards having Sesshoumaru so close, and Sesshoumaru himself staring her down as if she were the most disgusting thing on the planet. And in the middle of all that she found herself ducking behind bushes or to a nearby spring to reapply makeup and scent powder to her neck, or worrying about the collar of her shirt exposing too much of her throat.
Her stomach turned at the memory, and she quickly found herself on her knees emptying it of its contents. That had been another constant over the last week. The constant stress often caused her to lose whatever was in her stomach at the time, and it always decided to happen at the most inopportune moments.
Kagome placed her forehead on the bottom of the tub and groaned, "I just have to get Rin well again," she assured herself, "Then he'll take her and go home, or where ever it is he goes when he's not hunting Naraku or bothering Inuyasha." The water from the shower was now running down her face causing the soap that was still in her hair to run dangerously close to her eyes, but she found it hard to care as another bout of nausea hit her. She closed her eyes tightly against it and forced herself to stand so that she could rinse the remaining soap from her hair. Rin was waiting on her, and she had to get to the pharmacy for more supplies before she could go back.
Toweling herself dry the young woman quickly applied the appropriate amount of scent powder and makeup to her neck before getting dressed. Feeling the weight of the container as she placed it back in her bag Kgaome sighed, she would have to make more powder soon. She'd collected enough of Sesshoumaru's hair before they set out that she would be able to make enough powder for a year or so, but after that she wasn't quite sure what she was going to do. Hopefully by then their quest would be complete and she would be safely back on her side of the well. She didn't want to leave all of her friends behind of course, but she accepted long ago that once her quest was complete she would no longer be allowed to stay on that side of the well.
"Now's not the time to think of things like that," she scolded herself, "it's time to head to the pharmacy and get back to Rin." Running down the stairs she grabbed her purse before heading out the door and making her way into the city. The pharmacy would just be opening when she arrived, and she hoped it wouldn't be very crowded.
Just as she'd hoped there was only one other customer in the building as she was roaming up and down the aisles, stuffing various medical supplies into her basket. In addition to medical supplies such as bandages and peroxide, she added a bag of gummy worms and two oversized suckers for Shippou and Rin. When she finally got to the counter another woman was waiting to be checked out in front of her.
"Are these the only brands you have?" She heard the woman say in a somewhat hushed tone, "I've heard these are good, but I'd like to buy several brands to make sure."
"Of course not ma'm, we have several different brands," the sales clerk replied, "Here, let me show you. This way please," he finished as he led the woman to the back of the store.
In waiting for the woman in front of her to finish checking out she didn't hear another clerk offer to help her, and was extremely embarrassed when he was forced to clear his throat rather loudly to get her attention.
"Oh, sorry," she stammered as she piled her purchases on the counter to pay. The clerk only smiled as he rang up the supplies and bagged them up. After she paid he happily wished her a good day to which she nodded and rushed out the door. She had wanted to be back in the feudal era by ten, and she only had thirty minutes to shove everything in her pack and jump through the well. She only hoped that Rin was ok.
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Sesshoumaru sat beneath a large tree on the edge of Inuyasha's forest. Rin was being kept inside the old Miko's hut, but he felt no need to be that close to his half brother or his troublesome companions. His brother's wench especially. During the week he had been subjected to tolerating the onna for Rin's sake he'd fought the urge to either slice her throat open or throw her into the nearest tree. He was not sure why her mere presence irritated him as much as it did, even more so than his brother's on occasion, but it did and he would be more than happy when Rin was healed so he could leave.
Perhaps he was merely overly tired. Youkai did not require much sleep, but the little sleep he had attempted proved to be useless with the presence of the same dreams he had been experiencing for nearly two weeks. The phantom female seemed to appear in every corner of his mind, always smiling, always attempting to touch him. In her most recent appearance she had even been as bold as to attempt to remove his clothing! He had yet to see her face but he knew she was human, and he would never sully himself so much as to allow any human female to touch him as such.
Now that he thought on it, perhaps there was the problem. The female that appeared in his dreams acted very much the same as his brother's female. It would only be logical that he would find the real one even more aggravating that she already was because of the phantom one.
The demon lord was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of someone coming up the road from the direction of the old well. It was the very female he had been trying to avoid. He was convinced that a Kami somewhere hated him. It was the only explanation for his life as of late. Perhaps if he pretended he did not see her she would simply walk past him. If only he were that lucky.
"Oh hi Sesshoumaru," Kagome waved towards the demon lord as she approached, "You'll be happy to hear that Rin is doing much better, and should be ready to leave in a few days!" She looked at him for any sign that he had heard her and was rewarded with only the slightest of nods. Sighing, Kagome only smiled and turned towards the village. She didn't know why she had hoped for anymore than a small nod, heck, she shouldn't have even expected that much from him. She just missed her Sesshoumaru so much.
When Kagome entered Kaede's hut she found the old woman bent over a pot of stew with Rin sitting up against the far wall.
"How are you feeling today Rin?" Kagome asked as she sat her pack down to kneel in front of the small girl.
"I'm feeling much better today Kagome-chan," the little girl chirped, "I even walked outside without any help to relieve myself this morning!"
"That's wonderful Rin!" the girl from the future said as she opened her pack to retrieve fresh bandages, "now let's redress those wounds. You should be ready to return to Sesshoumaru in a day or so." As always the task of dressing the little girl's wounds went without any complaints, and Kagome soon found Rin sleeping soundly. She may be healing, but she still tired quickly.
"Kagome you're back!" came Sango's voice as she entered the hut with Miroku, Inuyasha, Kirara and Shippou.
"Hey guys!" Kagome waved to her friends, "I said I'd only be gone just long enough to pick up more medical supplies."
Sango only nodded, "You're right you did," she said absently before seemingly remembering something and focusing back on her friend, "Hey Kagome I was just about to take a bath, would you like to join me?"
The girl from the future eyed her friend suspiciously. Normally she would decline and Sango would bathe alone on mornings after she'd returned from her time as she had already bathed, but today she would at least sit with her friend. It seemed like she needed it. "Of course Sango," she replied as she shouldered her pack and followed her friend outside.
The trip to the springs was a quiet affair, which only served to fuel the young woman's suspicions further that something was indeed wrong with the demon slayer. Setting her pack down on a large boulder next to the hot springs, Kagome began to dig through her pack for her bathing supplies for her friend.
"I already took a shower this morning, but I thought I'd keep you company at least," she said as she dug through the mass of medical supplies to find her shampoo that had been shoved at the bottom. She cringed slightly as she felt several contents fall from her pack and land on her foot, "Oww, " she hissed.
"Hey Kagome, what's that?" Sango asked, "I don't think I've seen that in your supplies before."
The girl from the future looked down in the direction that her friend was pointing only to gasp at what was there. Lying on the ground was a bright pink package labeled 'First Response.' She knew she didn't buy such a thing! Maybe the clerk accidentally bagged another customer's purchase with her own things.
"Er, I'm not really sure how this got here," Kagome began as she picked it up off the ground, "There was a lady in front of me at the pharmacy today buying a few of these. I guess the clerk put one of hers in my bag."
"Ok, but what it is?" Sango asked again.
"Well," the girl from the future wasn't exactly sure how to explain what it was to her friend, "Well, it tests to see if you're pregnant."
"Really?" the demon slayer asked, "How does it work?"
Kagome eyed her friend for a minute. There was more to her friend's question than she let on, but she knew that her friend wasn't ready to share just yet, "Well, you take one of these sticks and you um, pee on it."
"How does peeing on a stick have anything to do with being pregnant or not?"
"It has to do with how your body changes when you get pregnant and the hormones your body releases in your urine," Kagome attempted to explain, "Here, there are two in here lets use them for the heck of it," she offered. Her suspicions were further confirmed as her friends eyes looked almost longingly at the pink box. She had known that the slayer and monk friends had been getting close as far back as last fall, but she hadn't suspected they had gone that far. Of course a lot could have happened over the winter.
Breaking the seal on the package Kagome pulled the two sticks from the box, "Here, take the plastic tip off and go behind the bushes and pee on that end," she said as she handed her friend the stick and ushered her behind a bush, "I'll pee on mine over here." She couldn't think of a more awkward situation to be in. Peeing on sticks with her best friend in the middle of the woods hadn't been her vision for the day, but if it helped her friend in any way she would grin and bear it. Finishing her business behind her own bush, she righted herself and returned to the spring. Sango had already placed her test on a boulder on the opposite shore and was bathing quietly. Putting her own test in the top of her bag Kagome sat down and faced her friend, "So now we wait three minutes and it's done!"
The minutes passed quickly as the two women chatted about various topics such as Inuyasha's recent antics around his brother, Rin's health, and the upcoming battle. Inuyasha and Miroku had gone ahead several days prior in response to a rumor that Naraku was hiding in an old castle not far from the Western boarder nearly two days journey away. The rumor was confirmed when the two men encountered the wind witch Kagura along with a strange barrier erected around a rundown castle almost exactly two days journey away. As soon as Rin was well enough to return with Sesshoumaru they would travel to defeat Naraku once and for all.
Finally it was time to check the tests and Kagome instructed Sango that one line meant she was not pregnant, while two meant she was.
She heard her friend breathe a sigh of relief as she looked at hers, "It's only one line Kagome!" she exclaimed, but quickly caught herself, "What's yours say?" she asked in an attempt to seem like this all really was for the 'heck' of it as Kagome had said.
Kagome smiled at her friend and turned to pick up her stick. Her breath stopped in her throat as she stared down at her test. There, sitting innocently in the top of her bag were two bright pink lines staring back at her. "Just one line!" she exclaimed as convincingly as she could as she shoved the offending stick as far down into her bag as she could without creating a hole in the bottom. The slayer gave her a happy smile as she turned to finish washing her hair, and Kagome quickly excused herself from the spring with the explanation that she needed to check on Rin.
The young woman made her way as quickly as she could away from the spring. Her mind was racing a million miles a minute, and she was sure that she was on the verge of a panic attack. How could this have happened?
'You know exactly how this happened,' the voice in her mind piped up.
'You haven't bothered me in weeks, why are you back now?' Kagome hissed in her mind.
'I'm only here to offer my endless wisdom,' the voice said sarcastically, 'Since you seem to have forgotten how babies are made. Do you need me to explain it to you?'
'No, I am perfectly aware of how this happened. But it doesn't change the fact that it shouldn't have happened at all!'
She was silently cursing herself and her seemingly constant lack of common sense in this entire situation as she entered the clearing where the bone eater's well sat. She was fully set on going home to get a test done at the local free clinic to tell her that the home test had simply been mistaken, but was stopped in her tracks when she found Sesshoumaru and Miroku in the clearing as well.
"Ah Lady Kagome!" Miroku exclaimed as she entered the clearing, "You're just in time. I just finished informing Lord Sesshoumaru of our findings on Naraku, and he has agreed to travel with us in the common interest of destroying the evil hanyou."
Kagome fought a groan as she looked between the two males. Was this really happening to her? Really? Could her life get any worse?
"It has been decided that the old Miko is now more than capable of caring for Rin's safety," Sesshoumaru added, "We will leave immediately."
Yes, her life could get worse. Now she would be unable to go home to ease her mind of the dread that stupid stick had placed in her head.
"Well we'd better be going then," She said quietly as she turned in the direction of the villiage, "Sango will be back from the springs soon and I need to explain to Shippou why he won't be coming with us this time."
It was official. Her life was over. All she needed now was for Sesshoumaru to smell the change in her scent in order to nail the lid of her coffin shut.