Chapter Seven.

Cough. Sputter. Heave.

Nothing.

Bending over a small bush on her hands and knees, Kagome moaned. This was the most miserable moment of her life. Well, maybe not, if she was being objective, but still…

Another wave of nausea set in. She shut her eyes and prayed for something to come and kill her.

"Daijouka?"

Whipping around at the sound of his gruff but concerned voice, Kagome suddenly got very dizzy. She waited for the trees to stop spinning around her before shaking her head and attempting to stand.

"It's nothing, just a little morning sickness."

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at her phony optimism, and watched as she made her way back to camp. Sango, Miroku, and Shippou had left early in the morning to seek out shard rumors in a neighboring village, leaving Inuyasha alone to watch over the pregnant miko. At first he'd complained, pointing out that he was not going to take responsibility for her. Then Miroku wisely pointed out that it was a great opportunity for him to relax for a while since Kagome would likely sleep in for several hours more. The idea of forced laziness put a happy glint in the hanyou's eyes and he 'reluctantly' agreed.

Kagome was heaving again, and he could smell the hint of saltwater tears pooling in her eyes at the exertion. Yes, he'd read about morning sickness in that spellbook of hers. Not that he'd admit he'd been sneaking peeks, of course. He was just bored keeping watch at night, that's all.

"Stay here," he suddenly commanded, bounding into the tree line and disappearing before Kagome could get a word of protest in.

The young woman snuggled into her sleeping bag again as minutes passed without a sign of the hanyou. I guess I finally did it, she thought to herself. All my nausea and fatigue and I've succeeded in pissing him off. He ran away and left me here to be gobbled up by the first hungry youkai that finds me and I'll never get to say goodbye to Mama, Souta, Ji-chan—

"Here."

Blinking at Inuyasha's sudden return, she stared at the small pile of plums he'd dropped before her.

"What's this?"

"You're going to keep dry heaving unless you eat something to settle your stomach," he replied as though she were a fool. Which at the moment described her feelings exactly.

"A-arigato, Inuyasha."

"Feh."

She watched as he stomped back to his tree, hopping up effortlessly to rest on a branch and close his eyes. When yet another wave of nausea assaulted her, Kagome tore her eyes away from the hanyou and picked up a plum. She was amazed to discover he'd even washed them for her already, and plucked out all stems and leaves. Smiling to herself, she took a bite and sighed at the deliciously sweet juices that ran down her throat.

Cracking open an eye, Inuyasha watched her happily eat up the fruits he'd picked for her. He even thought he detected a little moan of ecstasy, but that was probably just his imagination…

"Ohayo!" The pair was jolted out of their respective silences by the shard-hunting trio's approach.

"Ohayo," Kagome greeted back, wiping plum juice from the corner of her mouth.

"Kagome, did you go plum harvesting on your own?" Sango stared at the girl in horror, imagining all the possible travesties that could have occurred.

"Iie," Kagome quickly assured her. "Actually, Inuyasha brought them for me."

As one, Miroku and Sango stared up at the hanyou, their eyes wide with surprise. "That was very kind of you, Inuyasha," Sango thanked him.

"Feh," was his only response.

"Jewel shards." Kagome was sitting stiff as a rod, training her miko powers toward the magical energy.

"Where?" Miroku glanced around the clearing. "No one in the village knew of any in the area."

"Yo!"

"Oh." Miroku turned to Sango and rolled his eyes. And the morning had been going so well, too…

Kouga came to a screeching halt in front of Kagome, taking both her hands in his own as usual and gazing at her adoringly. "How is the mother of my pups doing this morning?"

"Shitty," she answered easily, finding herself increasingly annoyed with his presence. To his credit, Inuyasha stayed up in his tree as though nothing were going on at all.

Not quite as intelligent as he wanted to believe he was, Kouga shot a look up at the hanyou. "Morning dog-turd. Been taking care of my woman?"

"More so than her mate has," he grumbled down to the wolf demon, debating whether to bash his smug face in or simply kill him for his insolence. The second option reeked of Sesshoumaru, so he opted instead to stay in the tree and wait for the annoyance to vacate the campsite.

Kouga didn't seem to know when to stop, which was a trait the two young demons had in common. "Well if you guys would hurry up and find the rest of those shards, I could take her home with me. Wouldn't that be wonderful, Kagome?"

The miko narrowed her eyes at him, trying to guess his game plan. He did remember that they were just pretending, right? "Kouga…"

He wrapped an arm around her, drawing her close, and continued to beam up the tree. "Ah, I've missed having my mate sleeping beside me."

"What are you doing?" she hissed at him, pulling herself out of his arms.

Inuyasha, tired of being hassled, jumped down from the tree and strode over to the wolf man. "If you miss her so god-damned much then take her."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Kouga knew he was treading on dangerous grounds, and even risking Kagome's wrath, but for some reason he couldn't seem to stop himself.

"What I'd like," Inuyasha began in a dangerous tone, "is for you to stop meddling in our affairs. If she wants to go with you, she's free to go." He changed his focus to Kagome. "I mean that. If you want to leave, then just go. I'm tired of dealing with this."

Sango gasped, unconsciously grasping Miroku's hand.

Kagome sputtered. "I— but the shards—"

"We'll find another way," Inuyasha answered. "You're already almost three months along, so you'll be damned near useless to us soon anyway."

"Don't you insult my woman, Inukkoro," Kouga warned.

"And you don't tell me what to do. You're the one who got her pregnant. Be a man for once and take some responsibility for your actions!"

The two demons started growling at each other, and Kouga pushed Kagome aside, crouching into a battle stance. She glanced anxiously from demon to hanyou, her insides once again turning to mush as fear coursed through her veins.

"You want to fight me, dog-breath?"

"I want to be left alone," Inuyasha responded. "But since you don't know when to back off, I guess there's no other choice."

"You'd leave Kagome's child without a father?"

"Not like you're doing the job right anyway…"

Kouga's eyes flashed and in a second he was pouncing on Inuyasha. Kagome continued to stare at the scene before her as though it were a horror film. She could have easily sat Inuyasha as usual, but somehow that didn't seem right. He wasn't the aggressor here, for once.

"Kagome do something, please!" Sango plead, her heart aching for the miserable hanyou before her.

Oh if only Kouga had an enchanted rosary like Inuyasha did!

She was risking a lot, but had no other choice. When Kouga extracted himself from Inuyasha, she quickly ran between the two and held out her hands. A beam of energy welled up inside her and shot out toward the wolf demon, sending him sprawling into a thick tree.

"What did you do that for?!" Kouga rubbed the back of his head, his vision swimming.

"Kouga, please go. I promised I'd help until the end and we're not done yet. You're not helping here, so just go back and take care of the pack."

The wolf demon blinked in confusion, then slowly rose from his prone position to regard the young miko. Yes, she was mad at him. For once, she'd turned on him instead of inukkoro. What did this mean? Instead of causing irreparable damage to their relationship, he nodded and, with a quick nasty glare toward Inuyasha, spun off toward home again.

"Are you okay?" Kagome turned toward Inuyasha to find him staring at her in utter disbelief. Her actions weren't lost on him, either. Realizing he was gaping, the hanyou quickly covered his shock with a mask of indifference. "Damned wimpy wolf can't hurt me," he tossed at her, returning yet again to his tree.

"We should get going again soon," Miroku announced in the following silence.

Sango nodded, her eyes still trained on Kagome, who was staring at her hands in confusion.

"Kagome-chan?"

The young miko looked up after a bit to find Sango staring at her in worry. "Something wrong?"

"Iie, it's just…"

"What?"

She looked at her hands again in wonder. "I've never felt that much power before. It was as if …" Her eyes grew wide, and she glanced up at Inuyasha before turning back to Sango again. "It was as if the baby was protecting us."