Battle Couple
It was a long and difficult day to say the least. The baby wouldn't go down for anything, quickly becoming irate and angry at any attempt his parents made to help him settle down. Inuyasha's shoulders and arms were of no comfort, and he didn't want to nurse from Kagome. He cried and cried.
Soon his parents cried with him.
Inuyasha held it together for a while, taking the babe from Kagome when she started to choke up at his rejection of her breast. "Here," his voice was soft, barely audible over the screaming child in Kagome's arms. "Give him to me. You get some shut eye while we go out for a walk."
Kagome had shaken her head at first but didn't stop Inuyasha when he lifted the bundle out of her arms and tucked it into the crook of his neck. "I'm serious," he told his wife sternly, "get some rest."
Kagome felt the burn of tears down her face and saw through the waterworks Inuyasha's shoulders fall slightly. But he turned on his heel and quickly left the hut they occupied, true to his word of taking the baby out for a walk. Kagome dropped her head into her hands, not bothering to even tidy or cover herself up before falling over to cry.
She felt like such a failure, of a mother and wife.
Kagome had gone nearly two days without a few hours rest, and exhaustion quickly crept on her. She was too tired and far too upset herself to remember that Inuyasha needed far less rest than her and could handle a fussy baby for a while. Once she was rested, she would probably blame baby brain for forgetting such a vital part of her husband's characteristics, but that was for a rested Kagome to worry about.
Sleep came to her quickly, albeit restless sleep. She kept waking and searching for the other occupants of her home, before remembering they were out on a walk. She moved in and out of awareness, not having slept alone in what felt like eons, but realistically was only two years. Her bed felt cold and the room too quiet without her boys in it.
Sunlight finally peaked through the crevices of the walls. Inuyasha had promised her that he would fill in the gaps that the aging wood had created. But that was before the early labor and dramatic entrance of their first-born son just a few short months ago. Kagome half thought to remind him of the task, but then thought she couldn't risk his attention been separated from her and the baby.
She wasn't ready to be solely responsible yet.
Sure, reasonably she knew she could do it. It would probably just take him a few hours to gather the straw and mud to bulk up the walls, and with his speed and strength the longest part of it would be waiting for it to dry before adding more. He could help her out during those times, but the thought of even a moment where he wasn't beside her with his full attention on their baby was too much to imagine.
Kagome started to choke up realizing she had left him to her own worst fear last night – solo parenting.
She rubbed her eyes, and the voice in the back of her head told her "Inuyasha is his father. He is just as capable of taking care of him for a few hours, if not more so."
She threw that thought to the wind and continued to berate herself for leaving him alone with a very upset and very inconsolable baby for an entire night.
Kagome forced herself to sit up, stiff from having slept in the position she fell over in, rearranging her clothes. She winced at the soreness of her breasts and was sure to loosely cover herself.
"He should be hungry," she said aloud to no one in particular. 'Hopefully' went unspoken.
As she dusted herself off and walked to the bucket of water in the corner to get a drink, Inuyasha's head ducked in the room, eyes scanning for her.
When he saw her, he gave her a sheepish look. Kagome panicked for a moment – did he leave the baby with Sango and Miroku? What would they think of them as parents if they just dropped the kid off when he got fussy?
Her thoughts were interrupted when he stepped into the room, a whimpering lump on his chest alerting her to the baby's presence.
Later she would realize her panicked thoughts were more of a manifestation of her own desire to ask her friends for help but wouldn't out of an irrational fear of judgement. That was another thing she was going to have to work out.
"Sorry to wake you, but he's suckling on me."
Kagome blinked, her brain still foggy and slow. Oh. Inuyasha meant the baby was hungry.
She went to grab the baby from her husband, but then thought better of it. Wouldn't be good to drop the kid in her exhaustion trying to get herself sorted to feed him.
She put down the ladle she was drinking from and sat back down on their futon, crumpled and unmade from the events of the night before. The smell of it made her speak. "We got to air this out today."
"Once he's fed, I'll bring it out." Inuyasha stepped up into the main room and crouched beside his wife, waiting for her to be ready for the baby – who was still whimpering, but had at least dried himself out of tears.
Kagome adjusted her clothes before holding her arms out for her son – her perfect, fussy, big, loud, demanding son. He quickly latched and took off suckling, eager to fill his stomach and rehydrate after the waterworks of the last few hours.
Kagome felt Inuyasha settled behind her, his arms coming around to hold up their son with her, so her arms didn't have to hold up the weight. Sighing loudly, she leaned back into him, her head resting against his shoulder and his chin nuzzling into her opposite shoulder. Kagome closed her eyes and started to drift of.
Okay, maybe she did drift off.
Next thing she knew Inuyasha had switched their baby on her breasts and was rubbing his wet nose into her cheek. "Hey," his voice in her ear was a nice change from the screaming of the night before, "I need you to lay down. I've got to burp the brat."
Kagome nodded, slumping over on his arm, until he removed it and let her flop onto the futon. She could hear the shuffling of his feet walking and bouncing the baby up and down to help him release excess gas. The wet blech told her that more than likely the fire rat robe was going to need to be washed.
Groggily she called out, "He did drink pretty dang fast."
"Yeah," came the reply, "let's just hope he kept enough down to keep him calm for a little bit."
"Maybe he'll go into a food coma, and we can rest to."
Inuyasha snorted. "If there's a god out there, then let's pray it happens."
Kagome knew she should help her husband. He was probably having to juggle a baby while getting out of his clothes and then having to clean both of them up. She knew she should just get up and even if it was to wipe off their son, at least do something. But she couldn't even manage to open her eyes to watch what she was sure was quite the scene playing out in her house.
She could say she was surprised when she was lifted up and put onto some blankets, but she wouldn't because she didn't have it in her to even register what was going on. Managing just a little bit of strength, Kagome saw her son on his back next to her, his chest going up and down and a very light snore coming from his mouth that also caused his ears to twitch in rhythm. He was naked which Kagome knew was probably a bad idea but couldn't even find it in her to care.
If he soiled the blankets, he soiled the blankets. They washed.
Besides, it wasn't like she was exactly clean herself.
Rolling to her side, she gently tucked an arm under her head and the other coming down softly to rest on his chest. The movement of his breath quickly lulled his mother into a far more peaceful rest than before.
The sun had well slid its way across the sky by the time Kagome woke up. Inuyasha was sitting in the genkan, a shallow dish of water before him and the boy in his lap. The baby seemed very fascinated by the light dancing across the surface and was enchanted by the experience.
Kagome could tell that her husband was just as enchanted by watching their son experience the world for the first time.
"Some partner I am." Her voice was rough and gravely from dehydration. Inuyasha's ears moved before his head. He looked over his shoulder at her, bemusement in his eyes.
"Didn't know I married a bear demon."
Kagome rolled her eyes at his quip. Gods help her if her son developed his father's sense of humor. "I'm sorry for leaving you to all the work. I'm not a very good wife, am I?"
Inuyasha's eyes narrowed, whether in confusion or annoyance, she couldn't tell. She was too far gone in her emotions to care. "What kind of mother am I, even? I just leave my boy alone and don't comfort him?"
Inuyasha cut her off before she could continue down her path of self-deprecation. "No one could comfort him last night. Miroku told me that babies get that way sometimes, so we've just got to stick together and make sure he knows we'll be there for him."
Ah. He had gone to see Miroku and Sango last night. Kagome felt a sting of bitterness in her chest, worrying about judgement for no reason.
"But," Inuyasha looked back at his son, stroking the top of his head and lifting his fine sliver baby hair, "we aren't going to win the battle unless we rely on each other and have each other's backs."
Kagome nearly stopped him, wanting to know what battle before she realized Miroku had probably use an analogy to get through to his half-demon friend.
Inuyasha continued. "You had my back with Naraku, and when I got injured. I had your back when you had to fight off Hobo and the entrance examples. It's no different now."
Kagome opened her mouth to correct him like she had thousands of times before about Hojo's name, but her heart had other plans. "You're right," she spoke softly, her eyes beginning to close again now that she was comforted. "We've got each other's backs. Thanks for having mine last night."
If she had kept her eyes open for a few more moments she would have seen the color light up across her husband's face before he turned to look back down at their boy, who was now touching the water to refract light differently, although he didn't understand the science of his actions.
If she had stayed awake for a second longer, she would have heard her husband say, "I'll always have your back."