January 21

I was making dinner this evening as I was waiting for Inuyasha to come home. Nico meowed at my feet and I handed him a couple of pieces of fish. Moroha was sitting in a baby chair at the table with a toy in her hand and she seemed to be pretty content. I was getting concerned about Inuyasha though.

He had gone to help Takero with something but it was getting late and he had been gone for a while. Not to mention it was a new moon night and I knew he liked to be home before the sun went down. I'd also rather have him home before sundown to avoid the chance of anything bad happening.

Just when I was hoping he would be home soon, he came through the front door.

"It smells delicious in here, Kagome." He went over and kissed Moroha who was excited to see him. "Hey, sweetheart." Then he came to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. "Hey, beautiful."

I leaned into him as I stirred our dinner and sighed as she kissed my neck. "I'm glad you're home."

"Me too. Sorry I took so long. There were these nasty centipede demons out in the fields and Takero didn't know how to get rid of them so I disposed of them. It took forever."

"That's weird. I wonder where they came from."

"Takero says they burrow underground and sometimes end up in the crops. But look at this shit." He let go of me and pulled the tetsusaiga out of its sheath then pointed to a few cracks in it.

I gasped. "The centipede demons did that?"

"I was so pissed. I can't believe those damn demons did this!"

"You should take it to Totosai," I suggested.

"I'll go do that tomorrow." He put the sword back in its sheath. "This is so stupid."

"Would dinner help?"

A smile touched his face. "Of course."

After dinner, we were sitting on the couch by the fire with Moroha in my lap. Inuyasha's hair turned black as he started to change into a human.

"I wonder when Moroha's human night will be," I said.

"I guess time will tell," Inuyasha replied.

All of a sudden she started to get fussy and I started to rock her. "Shh, don't cry, love."

Inuyasha held her hands and played with her to calm her down. "Smile Moroha, no need to cry." Then he gasped.

"What?" I said, worried something was wrong.

"Her eyes are brown."

I was shocked. I turned her around to face me and sure enough, her eyes were brown, the same shade as mine. I also noticed her little claws had turned into regular nails. "Well, I guess that answers my question."

She started to whine again so I held her and rocked her some more.

"I know it's annoying being human, Moroha. You can't smell anything, you can't hear anything, you don't have any energy. I don't know how you live this way, Kagome."

"It's not that bad."

"I'd be really mad if I had to be like this all the time."

"Really?" I recalled how before we met he had been willing to use the shikon jewel to become human forever.

He picked up on what I was getting at and crossed his arms. "Keh, well you like me as a half-demon so I'd rather be this way."

I placed a kiss on his lips. "I love you just the way you are, Yasha. I'd never want you to be anything different."

His expression softened after that. "That really means a lot to me, Kagome. I used to feel like I had to change in order to be accepted, whether that was being fully human or fully demon," he said thoughtfully, becoming swept up in memories. "It wasn't until you came around that I felt comfortable being myself."

I ran my fingers through his black hair as I recalled how he had once been so desperate to use the shikon jewel to become a full demon and before we met how his first love wanted him to use it to become human for her. I'd always thought Inuyasha was perfect the way he is though. Not now or back then would I ever have dreamed of asking him to change.

"I've always loved you as a half-demon, honey. I would only want you to change if that was truly what you wanted to do."

He put his arm around me and kissed me again. "I'm so lucky to have you. I don't know what I did to deserve you."