Chapter Twenty One

A gentle breeze blew through the clearing behind Inuyasha's palace, making the grass sway and appear as a bright green ocean. Kagome smiled at the sight, remembering her yearly vacations with her family to the beach as she hung laundry to dry behind the palace. Those vacations were fun times. Her mother would hover over Souta to wear sunscreen and her grandfather would refuse to go in the water for fear of an ocean yokai. But being on the beach with her family was fun. How she wished she could see them again... but it was worth it to be away from them if she could stay with Inuyasha and their pup.

"Kaa-san!" a cheery voice called from across the field. Kagome looked up to see Senshi running toward her, followed closely by Shippou. Boy boys were laughing happily as they ran toward her. Senshi looked almost like he was five years old now, even though he was just over a year in age, and Shippou had grown a little in the past month as well, looking to be nearly thirteen years of age. He enjoyed looking after Senshi and playing with him down by the river, which was where they had been until just now.

Senshi ran up to his mother, who smiled gently and picked him up. "Hello, Inu-chan, Shippou." Kagome smiled sweetly at the boys. "What have you been doing today?"

"We went down to the river, Kagome." Shippou smiled. "Miroku was down there, too, so we got to help him fish. Senshi caught a fish with his bare hands!" Shippou said happily as he smiled at his adopted younger brother.

"Like tou-san does!" Senshi added happily. "But the fish was slippy and I dropped it in the water, kaa-san." Kagome giggled and pulled on the boy's shirt.

"Well, that explained why you're wet." she smiled before turning to Shippou. "Have you seen Inuyasha anywhere?"

"He was in his tree, the last time I saw him." Shippou answered. "Why?"

"I have a question for him, is all." Kagome smiled. "Why don't you two go visit Sango-chan and play with the twins and Yuusuke-kun for a while? She probably has her hands full with those three and the triplets."

"As long as Mio-chan doesn't pull my ears." Senshi frowned, hopping down from his mother's arms.

"Don't worry, Senshi. I'll distract them with my tail." Shippou assured the younger boy before they hurried off to Sango's house. Kagome smiled lightly and watched the boys leave before she, returned to the laundry. Once all the wet clothes were hanging on the clothesline in the warm spring sunlight, she put away the laundry basket and headed toward the village.

-break-

Inuyasha gazed out over the valley, scanning diligently for any signs of trouble. Farmers were working in the fields, women and children walked around the village, and a hut in the distance was getting its roof repaired. He glanced in the direction of his palace, smiling lightly as he saw Senshi and Shippou running toward the village. Senshi was too slow for Shippou's liking so the older kit picked up the young pup and ran down the hill with him, heading for Sango's house, probably at Kagome's suggestion. He watched the kit and his son until they reached Sango's house, where three little ones were playing around in the grass while Sango hung up laundry to dry, her three infants asleep in basket cradles nearby.

After several minutes he noticed Kagome emerge from the forest as well, heading towards the center of the village. There was no doubt that she was coming to see him. Inuyasha wanted to go to her so she wouldn't have to walk so much, but he couldn't simply abandon his post as the village's guardian. So he waited for his mate to come to him. Soon enough she was standing under his tree. Normally she would have jumped up to sit on his branch with him, but she didn't do that this time... and they both knew why. So, quickly, Inuyasha jumped down, scooped her up in his arms, and then returned to his branch.

"Inuyasha... you know why I'm here." Kagome said quietly after sitting with her mate in silence for a few minutes.

"I know." he smiled lightly. "I was waiting to see how long it would take you to figure it out."

"So I really am...?"

"Yes. You're with pup." Inuyasha looked down at his mate with a tender smile. "Ten days pregnant with a girl." He leaned down and nuzzled her mating mark lovingly as he inhaled the scent of her pregnancy. Kagome smiled happily and felt her heart flutter with excitement at the thought of having a daughter. She had noticed the change in her scent that confirmed her pregnancy this morning, when she was bathing, although she'd had her suspicions for at least three days. Actually having it confirmed by her mate, however, made it seem all the more real. She couldn't help but smile brightly and kiss her mate in joy.

"Another pup! And it's a girl! I'm so happy..." Kagome smiled as she rested her head on her mate's chest. "I wonder how Inu-chan is going to like being a brother. I'll bet he loves his little sister... he's so good around younger children."

"Although those younger children are actually older than he is." Inuyasha smirked. "He's only a year old, despite how he looks."

"I know... it's really strange how quickly he's grown, but I guess that's normal for inu hanyou." Kagome sighed. "He's going to age like a human now, isn't he?"

"Yeah. He'll age normally until he looks like he's about eighteen. By then he'll only be thirteen. Then his aging will slow to that of a yokai's and he'll live for hundreds of years with us." Inuyasha smiled. "You and I, Kagome... we've got a long life ahead of us with our children and grandchildren and so on..."

"How many pups will we have, Inuyasha?" Kagome asked now. "I know you want a lot, but how many, exactly?"

"Not sure. I don't want so many that we can't count them all so... less than ten, but more than five." Inuyasha said. "How about seven or eight?"

"Let's compromise for my sake and make it six." Kagome giggled. "You forget who has to give birth to them all. I don't think I can handle eight births."

"True. Why don't we wait a few years after this one? Your body will get to rest and the pups will be old enough to look after themselves while we're away at the den for you to give birth." Inuyasha suggested. Kagome nodded approvingly but then frowned.

"What will we do with Inu-chan while we're at the den this time?" she asked.

"We can't take him with us. I doubt he'll like seeing his kaa-san in pain during the birth. Plus we'd be aggressive toward him around the pup. Sango and Miroku already have their hands full with six children plus a kitsune kit. Kaede is getting along in her years and probably couldn't keep up with Senshi for three months. That leaves Sesshoumaru, if he's in a good enough mood. I'm sure Rin wouldn't mind watching him."

"Three months without Inu-chan..." Kagome sighed, frowning at the thought. She didn't like the idea of being away from her pup for so long, but she knew it was necessary. Her instincts would take over once she gave birth and she would not let Senshi anywhere near her or the baby. Inuyasha's instincts would also be on alert and, while he wouldn't be nearly as aggressive as she would be toward their son, he would still keep Senshi a good distance away from his mother... at least until Kagome recovered from the birth and her instincts settled down. Kagome sighed at the thought of leaving Senshi with Rin and Sesshoumaru and their pup... but then a thought struck her. "Wait, Rin is going to be marked this month." Kagome told her husband. "They'll be gone for the next three months, and then they'll be aggressive for a few months after that... will Inu-chan be alright with them?"

"I already thought of that." Inuyasha smiled lightly. "Since Senshi is part of the pack, and because he's still very young, Sesshoumaru and Rin will be fine with him. Remember how we were when we returned after I mated you? As long as the boys hadn't hit puberty yet I was fine if you were around them. Senshi is still very young so Sesshoumaru won't have any worries about our son being around Rin and his pup." Kagome sighed in relief now. She didn't want her son to possibly be in danger around Sesshoumaru.

"Should we tell them about our plans before they leave?" Kagome asked her mate now. Inuyasha smirked.

"I'm a step ahead of you, mate. I've already sent Sesshoumaru a letter. His response should come within the next day or so." he smirked. Then he sighed and looked out over the valley, scanning for anything unusual before glancing down at his mate again. "You'll have to go to Kaede and ask her for some more vitamins. When hanyou are pregnant their immune systems are weakened to that of a human's. True, it's a healthy human's immune system... but you could very well get sick, Kagome." Inuyasha told her.

"Well, let me down and I'll go speak with Kaede and tell her the news." Kagome smiled. "I can't wait to tell everyone. Sango will be so excited." Inuyasha smiled back at his mate and jumped down to the ground, landing softly so he wouldn't jar his pregnant mate. He put her down on her feet and then gave her a sweet and gentle kiss.

"Be careful, okay?" He smiled lightly at her. "I don't want anything to happen to you two. If anything happens, anything at all... even if you trip or stub your toe or get a splinter... come get me, okay?"

"Okay." Kagome agreed with a soft smile as she put her head under her mate's chin, a sign of submission that told him that she would do what he said and get him right away if something happened. Inuyasha smiled lightly at this and gave one of her ears a gentle scratch. Kagome sighed happily at the scratch and leaned into his touch. Now she knew why Inuyasha liked having his ears rubbed, even if he wouldn't admit it. It was such a pleasant feeling. But she also knew why he didn't want many people to go near his ears. Even a small tug could really hurt. Kagome had apologized to him many times over since they mated for always pulling his ears when she was mad. She'd never realized just how painful that was.

Inuyasha chuckled lightly as Kagome began to purr while he scratched her ear. When he removed his hand she whimpered in protest and lowered her ears. Inuyasha smiled lightly and kissed her forehead. "I have to keep watch, Kagome. Go on to Kaede's and Sango's. I'll come home early today and we can celebrate about the baby." He grinned, his voice low and sensual as he spoke the last sentence. Kagome blushed lightly and gave her mate a small smile.

"Alright. But take a break for lunch and I'll bring you some of the soup I made." She smiled. Inuyasha nodded and gave her one last kiss before jumping back into the tree.

"Be careful, mate." He called down to her as she turned and walked away.

"I will." She called back. "I'll come back around noon with lunch."

"I'll be waiting."

-end chapter-

-Hello everyone! Aren't you glad it's finally spring again?! If only spring didn't come with bothersome allergies that kept me from updating as much... Sorry for the long wait, everyone, and sorry for the sort-of short chapter. It might be a while until i release the next chapter, too, because I'm getting ready to graduate and that comes with finals and graduation rehearsals and whatnot... and then college visits and so on and so forth. So the next update may not be until the end of may, but I will try my hardest to update before then, if i can.

Anyways, who wants to help me name the new pup? Please give me some suggestions!

One more thing: I have a rough draft of a lemon for A Mute Mate, but I've never written a lemon before so I'm looking for people who want to read it and tell me what they think. If you're interested please send me a private message and I will copy-n-paste the rough draft to a message for you to read and critique.

Thanks for reading and, like always, please review!

Yours Truly,

-Aozora12