January 24

I spent my morning at the shrine for the first time since Moroha was born. I've been slowly getting back into doing other things and while I certainly enjoyed it, it was hard to be away from Moroha for such a long time.

After I fed her this morning, I was walking around the main room rocking her and making her laugh. I had nearly forgotten about going to the shrine.

"Don't you need to go?" Inuyasha asked as he came into the room.

"Oh yeah, right." But as I looked down at Moroha, I felt like I couldn't possibly leave my baby alone for the next few hours. "Maybe I shouldn't go, Yasha. What if she needs me?"

"They're expecting you. What's everyone going to say when their beloved priestess doesn't show up?"

"That's true…"

Inuyasha gave me a comforting kiss. "It's only a few hours, Kagome. Moroha will be fine."

"Okay." I handed her off to him and then kissed her. "I love you, sweetie. I'll see you soon."

"And she'll be right here waiting for more hugs from mommy when you get back."

We exchanged another kiss and I went off to the shrine. Moroha was on my mind the entire time, but I knew her and Inuyasha were having a good time together.

People from the village were very happy to see me at the shrine again. They had a lot of questions about Moroha and I told them how sweet she is and how things have been going well for Inuyasha and I as new parents.

As I was leaving the shrine, I also ran into my friends Kimi and Kiara.

"Hi girls!" I said.

Both were very excited to see me.

"How are you, Kagome?" Kimi said. "And how are Inuyasha and your baby?"

"We're all doing well. Moroha is at home with Inuyasha right now."

"That's nice. Moroha is such a cute baby, I'm glad she's doing well," Kiara said. The two had gotten to meet Moroha at the new year's festival a few weeks ago and absolutely loved her.

"We have something special for her," Kimi said.

"Really?"

She dug through her bag for it. "We were actually just on our way to bring this to you but I'm glad we ran into you here." She pulled out a very pretty blue dress with white lace trim. "We made this for Moroha."

"Wow, this is adorable!"

"She'll look beautiful in it," Kiara said.

"I know she will. Thank you so much!" I gave each of them hugs.

"I know you're busy being a new mom now, but we should definitely go to lunch or something sometime. Sango too."

"We'll go very soon, I promise."

We parted and I started to make my way home eager to try the new dress on Moroha.

But I didn't end up going home just yet. I spotted a girl outside of Hiroto's candy shop and I could only assume that she was his niece Reyna. She was certainly a pretty girl with long black hair and a freckled face. I waved and said hello to her as I passed.

"You must be the village priestess, Kagome?" she said. "I'm Reyna."

"Nice to meet you," I replied shaking her hand. I was definitely curious about this girl. She was certainly the type that Miroku used to go for when we were on our travels. But I wondered what he could see in her that was better than Sango and what this girl really thought of him.

"I spoke with your husband, Inuyasha, the other day," she said.

"Oh really?" I said wearily. Was she flirting with my husband too?

"Yeah, he had been helping the headman with something in the field. He's very kind."

I couldn't tell if she was naturally this flirty or if she was doing it on purpose. "So how long are you staying with Hiroto?"

"I'm not sure. My parents sent me to live with him. They thought I needed a...a change of scenery."

"I hope you've enjoyed your time here so far."

"Oh yes, I have. Everyone here is very kind and helpful. The men are very attractive too. I might find my husband here. Tell me, do you know the monk Miroku?"

"Yes," I said suspiciously. "He's married to my best friend Sango."

"I see." By her tone, I could tell she didn't like the sound of that. "Well, we've talked a few times. He's really nice. And between you and me, he's pretty cute too."

It was becoming clear to me that her goal was to get with Miroku and I had to put a stop to it before it even started.

"Listen, I know you're new around here and you don't really know how things work," I said in as nice of a tone as possible. "But Miroku is a respected monk and he's a married man with three children. He and Sango have been together for a really long time and they're very close. It would be in your best interest to stay out of their relationship and find someone who is single."

All signs of pleasantness dropped from Reyna's expression. "Well Kagome, with all due respect, you don't really know how the game of love works. It seems like Miroku likes me too and I would be remiss if I didn't pursue him properly. And if Sango isn't enough to keep him around, then that's not my problem. You'd best stay out of it."

She went inside and I was left fuming with anger. That whore! Who did she think she was coming out of nowhere trying to break up a family? She'll get what's coming to her, that's for sure.

I went home trying to figure out what I should do and what I should tell Sango. However, I was broken out of my thoughts when I spotted something on the roof and noticed it was Inuyasha and Moroha.

"Yasha? What are you doing?"

"Hi honey," he said. Then he jumped off the roof with Moroha in his arms. When he landed in front of me he kissed me.

"Why were you on the roof?"

"Moroha was getting fussy being inside so I took her up to the roof. It helped a lot, she seemed to enjoy it."

"I see," I replied. "How long have you been out here? Weren't you cold?"

"Nah, she's fine. We haven't been out long." We went inside. "How did everything go?"

"It went well." I told him about the shrine and all the people I talked to although I left out the part with Reyna. I had to figure out how to bring that up first. "Look at this cute dress that Kimi and Kiara made for Moroha."

"That's nice, they did a pretty good job," he replied.

"They're such good friends." I put the dress down for now. There was one thing I wanted to do that I had been waiting for since this morning. "Come here, Moroha." I picked her up from Inuyasha's arms and twirled her around then hugged her. She made a happy sound as I started to dance around with her. "My sweet little girl, mommy has missed you so much!"