I DO NOT OWN INUYASHA!
Chapter 28
Inuyasha jumped at every sound, every movement the others made. Sesshomaru turned his face up against his mate's neck and tried to comfort him with gentle hands on his back. They were sitting as far away from the others as possible. The others hadn't even argued when Inuyasha told them to stay on the other side of the cave. But they kept casting worried glances at them.
Someone stood and Inuyasha's back tensed under his hands. His arms tightened around him. Sesshomaru continued to run his hands softly up and down his back. "I'm alright. Just stay calm."
"I'm trying." Inuyasha grit his teeth and pulled Sesshomaru as tightly against his body as he could. The skin contact helped. He had kept Sesshomaru nude, simply wrapping him in the blanket. He needed to feel him.
"I can't feel your emotions as strongly." He lifted a hand and touched Inuyasha's ear. "Your ears look more like mine now. But they look strange on you."
Inuyasha looked down at Sesshomaru. "What do you mean you can't feel my emotions as strongly?"
"I can still feel them. But they are dull. Like the difference between the light the moon and the sun." I can feel that you are feeling them strongly, but they aren't overwhelming me."
Inuyasha huffed. "I guess we found one good thing about tonight. At lease you won't have to suffer feeling my fear."
"I can feel it, Inuyasha. It just isn't overwhelming." He pulled a handful of Inuyasha's hair over his shoulder and pressed it to his face. "Your hair smells different."
"You said I smell human like this."
"You do. But it's more than just smelling human. You usually smell like trees. Now you smell like yuzu." He took a deep breath and pushed the hair back over his shoulder.
"Yuzu?" He picked up a piece of his hair and sniffed it. "I don't smell it. I can't smell anything like this. Just a while ago you reeked of sex and smelled like my seed and my sweat. Now I can't smell anything but the damn geese cooking."
"Good to know that a human nose can't smell that I stink of sex." He settled down farther in Inuyasha's lap and rested his cheek against his chest. He closed his eyes and listened to his heartbeat. "I'm tired."
"You need to eat."
"Wake me when the geese are cooked."
"You haven't eaten the livers yet. Kagome put them aside for you."
"I don't want to eat just yet. Let me sleep."
Inuyasha sat up straighter, causing the blanket to shift. He ran a hand up Sesshomaru's bare thigh before pulling the blanket back over it. "I want you to eat the livers. The geese will take a while to cook." He looked across the cave to where the girls were shifting the two geese that were currently cooking. "Miroku." When the monk looked up he motioned to the bowl sitting near him. "Can you bring me that?"
Miroku watched as Inuyasha pulled the blanket over Sesshomaru again. His gesture has caused it to fall open, flashing the demon's hip. He stood with the bowl and Kagome handed him a bag of cookies. Miroku brought both over and knelt in front of the pair. "You doing okay?"
Inuyasha took the bowl and set it beside him. He picked up a liver and held it to Sesshomaru's lips. "Eat." Sesshomaru obediently opened his mouth. Once his mate was chewing, Inuyasha looked up at the monk again. "Not really. I can't smell anything. I can't smell him. I can't smell you. I can't hear anything but the damn rain."
"The sun will rise soon enough. Try to relax." Miroku left them alone and sat by the fire with the girls again.
"Are they alright?" Kagome watched Inuyasha feed Sesshomaru more of the liver.
"Inuyasha is tense and scared. But Sesshomaru seems relaxed. It's strange."
"Why is it strange?"
"Because Inuyasha is all but panicking right now but Sesshomaru is calm."
"Maybe because Inuyasha is human right now?"
"Probably." He watched them in silence for a while. Sesshomaru sat up when Inuyasha handed him the bag of cookies. He couldn't help smiling when the blanket fell open again, revealing the entire left side of Sesshomaru's body. As modest as the demon was, he seemed to not even notice as he dug into the cookies. Inuyasha pulled the blanket over the man's lap and ran a hand down his back.
"It is absolutely necessary for Sesshomaru to be nude?"
Kagome's sour voice was quiet, but Miroku saw the demon stiffen. "Leave them alone, Kagome. Inuyasha needs the skin contact."
"Couldn't he at least have his pants on?"
Miroku sighed. "It's a dominance thing. It's a way for Inuyasha to assert his dominance. He needs to feel in control. Leave them alone. Don't look at them if you're afraid to see a little demon skin."
"It's not seeing his skin that bothers me. It's seeing Inuyasha's hand on him. It hurts, Miroku." Kagome turned away from the monk and picked up her bag. She ignore the others and began brushing her hair.
"I think they are beautiful together." Sango pulled more of Inuyasha's horrible stitching out of Sesshomaru's kimono and glanced over at the demons again. Sesshomaru was eating the cookies slowly, seeming to be savoring the flavor. The blanket was only covering the lower half of his body. Inuyasha had one hand rubbing circles on the man's back and the other hand was resting on his lower abdomen, over their child.
"They are. They will have amazingly beautiful children. I look forward to meeting them."
"At least the ones that will be born in our lifetime. My father once told me of a demon who lived in a cabin deep in the mountains. My father said he lived there alone and just wanted to be left in peace. He never left his home. He only defended it against those who came to harm him. It is rumored that the demon is still there. That he has lived there for over 10,000 years. Surviving because he simply wanted to be left alone. Could you imagine if the two of them lived that long? They are powerful enough. They could have a lot of children in that time."
"I've heard the tale. It also says that the demon was actually a half demon." Miroku tossed another log on the fire and stirred the coals. "I think that the two of them will be able to do anything together. They are both powerful individually, together nothing will stop them. Their children will be powerful. Together with their parents, those children will be unstoppable. I believe that their mating in the beginning of something great. Their father made his lands great. Sesshomaru hasn't worked to make improvements, but he has worked to keep the lands safe. Inuyasha will see that improvements and repairs are made and that the people are happy. And I think their children will inherit the best of both of them. Inuyasha's heart and Sesshomaru's strength."
"Inuyasha is strong as well."
"I don't mean physical strength, though they both have plenty of that. I mean the strength that is takes an uke male to suppress who and what he is to rule over his father's lands for 200 years. It should have been impossible. The very nature of an uke demon makes them submissive to Alpha males." He shook his head and leaned back against the wall. He watched as Inuyasha gathered Sesshomaru's hair and began combing it with his fingers. "Knowing that he had the strength to do hold his father's lands without a mate for so long has given me a great amount of respect for him."
"It was stupid. Kaede said that snow berry roots are poisonous. They could have killed him." Kagome put her brush away and crossed her arms.
"Not to a demon. Many things that would kill a human have no effect on a demon."
"Kaede said that even if they wouldn't kill him, the roots could have destroyed his chance of having children. She also said that using the roots for so long might have damaged him. And his being damaged might cause any children he has now to be damaged."
Miroku sat up when Sesshomaru dropped the bag of cookies and put his hands over his stomach. He stood as the light from the fire winked in a tear that streaked his cheek. "You need to learn when to keep your damn mouth shut, Kagome."
"What? I'm only saying what Kaede said."
"Kaede said those things to us away from Inuyasha and Sesshomaru for a reason. So that we could tell Inuyasha once we reached the castle." He turned and glared at the girl. "And so that Sesshomaru wouldn't know unless Inuyasha wanted him to know." He pointed at the demon and turned the girl to look at him. "That is why she didn't want him to know." Inuyasha had Sesshomaru's face in his hands. The demon's eyes were wide pen and his face shone with tears. He was visibly trembling. "Sesshomaru is in a delicate state while pregnant. You think he needs to know that their child has a very, very small chance of being born deformed?" He let go of the girl and wiped his hands on his robes. "You may be my friend, Kagome. But sometimes I think you do this shit on purpose. You knew damn well why Kaede told us that information in private. And you knew damn well that Sesshomaru could hear us when you said it. You did that to be deliberately cruel. Kaede also told us to make sure that Sesshomaru stays as calm and relaxed as possible so that he doesn't lose that child. What kind of person are you that you do something you know could cause the death of your friend's child and the death of his chances to have children in the future?" Miroku took the pot of hot water from over the fire and picked up his bag. He moved across the cave and sat next to Inuyasha.
"That was a really horrible thing to do, Kagome." Sango gathered Sesshomaru's mended clothing and went to join the others.
"Why do you have to be so mean? Inuyasha is happy. He is going to be a daddy. Why do you have to try to ruin that?" Shippo followed Sango and put a hand on Sesshomaru's knee.
Kagome climbed into her sleeping bag and turned her back on everyone. She hugged her pillow to her chest and used it to stifle her cries.
