September 27

The next morning, Inuyasha and I were woken up much earlier than we would have liked to have been by small fingers poking us in the face.

I slowly opened my eyes and found Shinichi sitting on our bed. "Shinichi?"

"What are you doing, little guy?" Inuyasha said, yawning.

"I miss mommy and daddy," he said with a pout.

I sat up and pulled him into my lap to comfort him. "I know, sweetie. Mommy and daddy are going to be home very soon and they're gonna have lots of hugs for you when they get back."

"Yeah, don't you worry about a thing," Inuyasha said, rubbing his head of messy black hair. Shinichi giggled a bit. "You think that's funny, huh?" He started to tickle Shinichi's stomach and he laughed in that cute baby laugh of his.

I hugged him and kissed the top of his head. "You're so cute, Shinichi."

"Let's see what else is ticklish," Inuyasha said as he picked up Shinichi's foot. He started tickling him there and Shinichi laughed hysterically.

"Do you feel better now?" I asked him.

"Mm-hmm."

Then we heard more little feet on the floor and soon the girls were on our bed too.

"Good morning," I said to them.

"How did you sleep?" Inuyasha said.

"I had a dream about a pony," Mieko said proudly.

"Well I had a dream about a unicorn," Midori said.

"No, wait, mine was about a unicorn too," Mieko said.

"I'm hungry."

"Me too."

"Me too!" Shinichi added.

"I guess it's time for breakfast then."

So we took them into the kitchen and I made breakfast for them.

"Auntie Kagome, mommy always puts cinnamon in our oatmeal," Mieko said.

"Oh really?" I wasn't sure if we even had cinnamon. I spent some time rummaging through the cabinets while the kids refused to eat. To my relief, I was able to find some, or else I was never going to be able to get them to eat.

Later in the day, we had the kids playing outside in the yard when Kaede came over. Inuyasha and I thought she had some news about Miroku and Sango and went over to her eagerly.

"Have Miroku and Sango come back?" I asked.

"No, I was coming to find out if you had heard from them," Kaede said, sounding just as disappointed as we were.

"Damn, what could those two have gotten themselves into this time?" Inuyasha wondered.

"What if they've been attacked or kidnapped?" I said. All of this waiting was making me more worried by the minute.

"I'm going to go try to find them," Inuyasha said.

"That's a good idea, Inuyasha," Kaede said. "With your nose, there's a pretty good chance that you'll be able to track them down."

"I hope you can find them," I said.

"I'll be back as soon as I can."

I gave him a kiss. "Please be safe. I don't need you going missing too."

"I won't. I love you."

"I love you too, Yasha."

I watched as he went off. "I really hope he finds them."

Kaede stayed with me and the kids for a little while. Then she went home and I took them inside for lunch. They seemed a little restless so I thought it would be fun to take them for a walk to look at the falling leaves.

"Aren't they pretty?" I said to them while we were on our walk.

"Why do they change?" Mieko asked.

"When it gets too cold outside, they can't stay green anymore," I explained. "So they change their color and once they're done they fall off the tree."

"I like them," Midori said as she tried to catch a falling leaf.

Mieko and Shinichi followed suit and they ran around trying to catch leaves for a while. Then they found piles of leaves and started to jump into them. It was the cutest thing to watch. Small children got excited by the littlest things. I love that they're so innocent. It makes me wish that they could stay this way forever and never have to know the dangers and hardships of the world.

Eventually, we started to make our way home. Midori and Mieko were running around while Shinichi was next to me holding my hand. "Shinichi, don't you want to run?" I asked him.

"I want to hold your hand." As he said it, he looked up at me with his wide brown eyes and it nearly made my heart melt.

"Okay. I like holding your hand," I said.

"Me too."

We were getting close to home when Midori tripped and started crying when she fell.

I bent down next to her. "You poor thing. Are you okay?"

"No," she wailed.

I pulled back her sleeve and saw that she had a small cut on her forearm but it wasn't more than a scratch. "You'll be fine. Let's go get that boo boo cleaned up."

We all went inside. Mieko and Shinichi played in the living room and I took Midori to the bathroom to clean her arm. By now she wasn't sobbing anymore but there were still tears running down her face. I put a bandage on her and wiped her tears.

"See? Good as new. Now, how about a smile."

A small smile touched her face.

"There you go." I tickled under her chin and she laughed. "How about you go play with your brother and sister?"

I took her back into the living room and I sat on the couch suddenly feeling tired. Between running after the kids all day, my baby constantly moving in my stomach, and worrying about Miroku and Sango, I was getting sleepy.

I didn't get to rest for long before Shinichi started crying. "Shinichi, what's wrong?" He didn't answer, he just kept crying. I turned to Midori and Mieko. "Did he hurt himself?"

They shook their heads.

Shinichi continued to cry.

"Come on, Shinichi, no need to cry. Are you hungry?"

"No."

"Are you sick?"

"No, no, no!"

I sighed. He was throwing a tantrum but I wasn't sure how to get him to stop. I picked him up and rocked him all the while trying to think of what Sango would do. She could always get the kids to stop crying in a second. As the minutes wore on it became obvious that I didn't possess that kind of skill.

"Shinichi, please stop crying." I was practically begging at this point.

"It's Shinichi's nap time," Mieko said.

"Really?" Once she said it, I felt ridiculous. Of course, it was his nap time! Why didn't I think of that before? I carried him to the bedroom all the while rocking him and shushing him. He started to calm down and minutes after I put him down he was falling asleep.

By now, I wanted to sleep too but Midori and Mieko wouldn't let me rest. First, they wanted me to play fairy princess with them and then they wanted me to tell them a ton of stories. After a while, I figured it was about time I made dinner and while I was doing that, they played demon slayer and pretended that Nico was the demon.

"Girls, be gentle with Nico," I said as they chased him around the house. "Remember, he's not a real demon." Oh well, Nico would probably be okay. Surely the girls knew better than to be too rough with him...right?

Inuyasha came home as I was cleaning up after dinner. I was absolutely relieved to see him. After hugging the kids who ran over to him once he came through the door, he went over to me and hugged me and kissed me. "I've missed you,'' I said.

"I missed you too. You seem tired. Long day?"

"They wore me out," I said.

"I'm sorry I left you by yourself all day."

"It's okay. Do you want dinner?"

"Of course." He sat at the table while I made him a plate and I sat next to him.

"How did the search go?" I asked anxiously.

"I wasn't able to find them. Their scent led towards the demon slayer village and then they diverged in a different direction. I followed it as long as I could but then I lost their trail."

"Oh no." Now I was more worried than before.

"I went to the demon slayer village and I spoke with Kenjiro. He said Miroku and Sango never got there. Kohaku has gone out to search for them."

"Inuyasha, this is terrible."

"I know. Miroku and Sango are some of the strongest fighters I know. Wherever they are they can hold their own but the question is for how long? The demon slayers will keep us posted. Hopefully, we'll hear from them soon."

"What should we tell the kids?" I said as I watched them across the room innocently playing.

"If we tell them, they're just going to get scared," Inuyasha pointed out.

"You're right, we should keep it from them as long as we can. I just hope we don't have to much longer." As I thought about it, the worst was coming to my mind. What if Miroku and Sango were injured? What if they were trapped somewhere?

I couldn't allow myself to think beyond that. If I did I knew I would start to cry and I couldn't do that in front of the kids. We needed to stay strong for them.