AN: Got over my writer's block, but still need some ideas. Don't be afraid to make suggestions.
Chapter Three.
Kagome awoke early that next morning with an urge to go throw up in the woods. She ran out of the hut holding her mouth, trying to keep from barfing all over everything. The morning sickness was getting to be a royal pain and it was only going to get worse. Her belly was going to grow to enormous proportions and her feet were going swell. She remembered her mother's pregnancy with Sota. It was murder and her temper soared. Kagome dreaded it all but then she remembered that there was a life growing inside of her. She clutched her belly with love and stroked her skin.
"Don't worry, I'm right here." She said. "Just a little sick, but still here." Kagome walked back to the hut, ready to get her friends up and get them home, only when she walked in, she looked to find her friends, Yuka, Ayumi, and Eri gone from the hut. At first she thought that maybe they were just outside in the yard but when she looked out the door and didn't see them anywhere, she began to worry. She especially began to worry when she found that Miroku was also gone from his bed "That freak." She said thinking of all the lecherous things that could be going on at that moment. "Surely he's not so sex crazed that he would take all three of them out and…" She ran from the hut then and went to Inu-yasha's tree. He was sleeping in the bows of the upper branches in a little nest he'd constructed. "Inu-yasha!" She shouted up. "Inu-yasha wake up!"
"What is it?" He asked groggily.
"The girls are gone and so is Miroku!" Kagome shouted up to him. Inu-yasha couldn't believe it. Then as he thought about the conversation he'd had with Miroku the night before he was unable to deny it. He leaped down from the tree and with Kagome at his side, he ran through the woods searching for the girls. They checked all the places that Miroku frequented but found nothing. Not even the bare scent of them. Inu yasha went back to the hut with Kagome and sniffed around.
"They headed off towards the village." He said. Sango awoke then and they informed her of the situation.
"That worm!" Sango cried "He'll die for this!" They ran as quickly as possible to the village, to old Keade's hut where they found Miroku, Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi standing before the Priestess.
"I now pronounce ye married." Keade said with a hesitant look on her face. Miroku and Eri kissed and the other two girls gagged.
"What have you done?" Kagome cried as they came running up to them.
"We just got married." Eri said, hugging her new husband tightly.
"What!" Inu-yasha, Kagome, and Sango exclaimed at once.
"We couldn't talk her out of it, so we decided to go with her." Yuka said.
"Yeah, besides in order for it to be legal you need witnesses don't you?" Ayumi asked.
"This isn't legal at all." Kagome said. "At least not in our time." Eri looked at her with a serious face and stunned them all with what she said next.
"I'm not going back." Everyone's jaws dropped. Kagome stammered forward and took her friend by the shoulders then she started shaking her harshly.
"You can't stay here!" She cried. "You've got to go back, you don't belong in this time!"
"Oh and you do?" Eri asked her. Sango crying in the background behind them, rested her head on Inu-yasha's shoulder. "You're going to leave everything that you have in our time and come here to be with Inu-yasha aren't you?" She asked. "Well I'm going to do the same to be with my Miroku."
"But you've only known him for one night!" Kagome screamed into her ears, hoping it would get through to her friends obviously minuscule brain. Nothing would though. Not today of all days. Eri was quite serious about being with Miroku and she intended to make this fact clear to everyone.
"I don't care about that. I'm not going to become an old maid!" She stated. "Everyone's got a boyfriend except me. I look at all the girls at school, and I see them with their boyfriends, and I can't stand it. I like Miroku, and I know that he likes me, so why can't I stay here with him?" She demanded of her friends. "Why is it always Kagome who's happiness matters? If you can have you half demon lover and your bastard child then I can marry a monk and have at least some well behaved human children." She told them all.
"But Miroku is cursed!" Sango cried. "Hasn't he told you about the wind tunnel in his hand?" She asked Eri.
"I know all about that and I'm not worried. I know that everything will work out and if it doesn't then we'll have a good run." She kissed Miroku's right hand and caressed the beads which sealed his wind tunnel. "Besides, I like the way he touches me, it's so sexy." She giggled then and Miroku laid his left hand soundly upon her bottom. "Let's go dear. We've got a honeymoon to go on." She and Miroku walked off then and the other two girls just stood there with Kagome, Sango, and Inu-yasha.
"So what is there to do around here after a wedding?" Ayumi asked. The others all fell down and then clinched their fists as they arose from the ground.
"We've got to knock some sense into those two." Sango said. "They can't be married. They…they just can't be."
"Why not?" Inu-yasha asked with a fanged girl on his face.
"Because…because…because they can't, that's why." She said and stormed off after the two love birds to try once more to reason with them. Kagome sighed then turned to Keade who stood hunched over and silent.
"Why did you have to go and do that?" She asked the old Priestess.
"I am bound by sacred duty." Keada replied. "Since I am performing marriages today, why not one more. I've been told that you intend on staying here with Inu-yasha, Kagome. And that you bare his child within your womb." Kagome blushed. "Is this true?" The old woman asked, examining Kagome carefully.
"I'm afraid so." She replied. Kagome turned to Inu-yasha then and he just looked away. "But we don't want to get married though. We're just going to live together while I raise the baby."
"I see." The old woman said and walked over to where the han-you stood. "Inu-yasha, ye disappoint me. All this time ye have pined away for young Kagome and yet now when she is making herself available to ye, ye are rejecting her."
"Who's rejecting? I love Kagome, and we're going to raise this baby together, I just can't marry her is all. What's so hard to understand about that?" He asked.
"Ye of all people should know the stigma of being born out of wedlock. Were ye not the love child of a Demon King and human princess who were not married?" Keade asked, reminding Inu-yasha of his heritage. He hung his head.
"Yes." He replied in low deep growl. "But that's…"
"But that is exactly what ye would put your own child through. Think ye, before ye act, Inu-yasha. Consider the child and what he or she may think of ye when it is grown and ye are dead. When ye bones are rotting away in a tomb and none remember ye but your offspring." The old woman said. "What will be the legacy of Inu-yasha the demon slayer? What will be the message that ye children will carry on?" Inu-yasha hadn't thought about any of that. All he'd thought about was Kikyo's and his engagement to one another before her death. He didn't want the same thing to happen Kagome. He didn't want to loose her because he was being selfish.
"Kikyo and I were going to get married before she died." He finally said after a long period of silence. "We made our pledge to one another on the river one day and then the next day she died. I…I couldn't bare it if something happened to Kagome." He told them all. "I won't allow anything to harm her as long as I live, that includes myself." Kagome went to him then and wrapped her arms around his waste.
"You don't have to worry about that." She told him. "I don't want to get married. I just want to be with you Inu-yasha. You as yourself, and no one else. Kikyo didn't understand that. She wanted you to become a human. She didn't love you for the person that you are. I do."
"Kagome." Inu-yasha said. "I know that." He held her too then Yuka and Ayumi began to cry.
"This is so touching." Ayumi whimpered.
"Yeah, I can't believe that this is the guy Kagome's going to spend the rest of her life with." Yuka bellowed as she blew her nose on a handkerchief.
"Oh cut it out!" Inu-yasha shouted at them then. "If there's one thing that I can't stand it's a bunch of whinny girls!" The moment was ruined of course and so was Kagome's mood. They decided to go back to the hut and see what Eri and Miroku intended to do about their marriage. If they were serious then they would have no choice but to accept yet another housemate.
Shippo had a fire going when they got back and hauling a cooking pot over when they all came bursting in.
"Where are they?" Kagome and the others demanded to know. Poor little Shippo dropped the pot on his feet and screamed.
"Ow ow ow ow ow!" He cried and hopped around the room.
"Come on Shippo, where did they go?" Kagome asked him.
"They went off to scout a place to build a new hut." He said, calming down after minute. "Is it true? Did they really get married?" Shippo asked.
"They sure did." Inu-yasha answered. "And believe you me, this can only mean trouble for those two, I can smell it. It stinks like yesterday's Ramen." Shippo just shrugged his shoulders and sat down to fix himself some breakfast.
"I think it's silly, all this talk of getting married, and that girly stuff. They haven't even had anything to eat yet. How can you go house hunting on an empty stomach?" He was so confused.
"They probably just confused their stomach cramps for butterflies." Kagome said, taking a knife and an onion in hand. "Here I'll fix you some breakfast. Does stew sound nice?" She asked.
"Sure does." Shippo said happily. He hated his own cooking but he loved Kagome's. She was such a great cook and she was always looking out for him. She was going to be a great mom one day, Shippo though, but then what would happen to him? When Kagome had her baby, what would become of him, and of their adventures together. She couldn't very well go off demon slaying with a baby in her arms. The thought of loosing Kagome kind of made Shippo sad. He liked having her around to take care of him. He supposed though that he could be just as happy with Sango taking care of him. After all, she wasn't going to be getting married any time soon, that was for sure.
"Sango, why didn't you ever marry Miroku when you had the chance?" Shippo asked all of a sudden.
"Huh?" Sango blushed and then looked away. "I don't know. Now I wish that I had." Everyone was shocked by this revelation.
"What do you mean, that you're in love with Miroku?" Kagome asked.
"Yes." Sango finally admitted. "I do!" She wailed like a lovesick banshee.
"You've got to snap out of this!" Kagome cried and shook Sango with great force. "He's not the guy for you, you've just got to snap out of whatever spell that monk has cast on everyone. My God, he's got you longing for him now!"
"I can't help it." Sango said. "I've always loved him, even when he was trying to take advantage of me all those times, and even when he was chasing after all those women. I always had a quiet place in my heart where I would want to be with him. Now it's too late. I had always kind of hoped that the day would come when he would stop all his womanizing and ask me to marry him. That day will never come now." Sango was being quite the drama queen. Inu-yasha buried his head in his arms and slumped over against a wall.
"What is this world coming to?" He asked. "Kagome's pregnant, Miroku's married, Sango's lost her mind, and it's all my fault. I wish that Kagome had never woken me up from that tree. I would have been better off staying dead to the world." He said.
"Oh get over it Inu-yasha." Kagome said. "We're just going to have to accept the fact that things are going to get a little crazy with this baby on the way. Why do things always have to get so out of hand though?" Kagome asked as if she were expecting the cosmos to reply. She sat stirring the stew and thinking about what Eri had said to her. She supposed that her friend was right about some of those things. After all, who was she to judge Eri, but by that same token, who was Eri to judge her? Kagome felt like ripping her hair out sometimes when her friends were around. Maybe that was why she didn't feel so bad about burning all the bridges of her former life. Her former life…
It was going to be a lot harder to break free from everything with Eri living in the Feudal Era now too. She'd always be a constant reminder of everything she was giving up to be with Inu-yasha. If it were just Kagome by herself, then she could easily forget about everything that the modern world had to offer. It was so easy sometimes for her to come back to this place and forget where it was she had come from. Her heart was in this place, with these people, and with the search for the Sacred Jewel Shards. There were so many times in the past when she had felt torn between the modern world and this one but her heart always led her back here. Always back to Inu-yasha. Kagome figured then that if Eri's heart was leading her then it was alright for her to follow it. After all, what could any of them do in the end but follow their hearts. It had gotten them this far.
Miroku and Eri lay naked by the river, their clothes rinsing in the water, and their bodies glistening with sweat as they rested on a bed of fresh grass. This was the happiest, Miroku had ever been in his whole life. Somehow this young beauty beside him suited him and he was sure that now he could finally forget about his curse and his past and his dreadful destiny. He looked at his hand, still bound by the prayer beads and finally felt at ease about it.
"What are you thinking?" Eri asked him suddenly.
"About how happy you make me." He said pulling her close. She smiled and they kissed.
"I'll do my best to be good wife for you, Miroku." Eir said. "I know that some of my modern ways will be difficult to get used to at first but I'm sure that once we've been together for a while, we'll get used to each other."
"Don't even worry about that." He said. "I've already gotten use to some of Kagome's strange ways. Yours will be a pleasant change for what would otherwise be a dull and uneventful life. I'm going to give up demon hunting and focus my life on being a good husband and father to our children." he said to Eri. "We'll build our home right here by the river where you and I have made love and we'll make it a happy home. I'll work and fish and you will cook and sew."
"Then you promise, no more going off to slaying nasty old demons?" Eri asked.
"I promise that I will never put myself or you in harm's away." Just then though he heard a faint buzzing sound coming from the east. He looked up and in the distance he saw a cloud coming hard and fast and against the wind. "Oh no!" He cried. "Eir run!"
So this is what you eat when you come back here?" Yuka asked, sipping the broth from her bowel of stew. "Hey, wow, this is really good. You're a good cook Kagome. Any child of yours is going to be well fed."
"We love Kagome's cooking." Shippo agreed. "She cooks way better than Sango."
"Shippo that's not very nice." Kagome scolded him. "Now say your sorry to Sango."
"That's okay." Sango said. "I know I'm not a good cook like you are, Kagome, but I like to think that I could have taken care of any man I ended up with." She thought of Miroku and that Eri. They were probably off somewhere right then fooling around and making plans to spend the rest of their lives together. When she stopped to think she could have had Miroku if she had only been a little less of a prude. It made her so incredibly mad and depressed. Miroku was her guy, and it should have been the two of them running off somewhere to have mad, passionate sex in the fields with the sun shining on their hot, sweaty bodies intertwined in the throws of carnal lust. Just then Sango snapped herself back to the reality of the situation. Had…had she actually been fantasizing about Miroku? She had and that kind of scared her a little bit. It made her sad more than anything though.
"Uh, earth to Sango." Shippo said. "I said I'm sorry." He waved his tiny hand in front her glazed over eyes. She hadn't blinked in forever. She was just sitting there with her cheeks going red and drooling from her lip.
"Okay, we've officially lost Sango." Kagome said. Yuka and Ayumi felt a little confused about this whole ordeal. How could they go back without Eri, and yet how could they take her with them, knowing how she felt.
"Hey guys, we've got to do something about Eri." Ayumi said, brining the conversation back to reality for a moment. "I mean we just can't leave her here."
"Why not?" Yuka asked. "She seems happy enough with this Miroku guy, even if he is a perv. Can you believe the number of times he tried to grab me last night?"
"Yeah, I know it, he's a total sex fiend." Ayumi agreed. "He and Eri are made for each other. She likes that sort of behavior out of men, but that's just so totally gross, and it's rude besides. You don't just go around grabbing girls behinds."
"That's just the way Miroku is though." Kagome said, coming to her friend's defense. "He grabs girls."
"You mean you let him grab you?" Yuka asked.
"No way, I don't let him grab me, but he still tries. I mean it's just like with Sango here. He grabs her all the time, she's gotten use to it."
"Huh, what?" Sango asked, finally coming back to earth. "Gotten use to it? I'll never get use to Miroku being with that hussy." She clenched her fist and broke her chopsticks in half.
"Well you're just going to have to." Kagome told her. "Miroku is with Eri now, as disturbing as that may be, I mean those two could have the dumbest babies ever. They'll probably be retarded little perverts or something. Oh my God, my kid will have to grow up with them!" Kagome suddenly realized. "Inu-yasha, you've got to talk some sense into Miroku." She said to him then. "We can't allow him to breed." Just then though Inu-yasha's ears perked. He got up from his seat in the corner and went to the door. He listened for a moment then he sniffed the air. His hand immediately went for his sword.
"We've got trouble!" He shouted then and ran off into the woods. Kagome grabbed her bow and quiver then followed after him.
"You guys stay here." She called back to Yuka, Ayumi, and Shippo. Sango was spacing out again then when she realized that Kagome was gone, she threw off her kimono to reveal her battle armor.
"Wait for me guys." She said grabbing up her hiraikotsu and followed fast after her friends. Shippo dipped his bowel in the pot of stew and got up another mouth full.
"More for me." He said happily. "I suppose I should stay here and look after you two girls anyway. You'd just get in trouble." The girls looked at each other then got up and rushed out the door. Shippo just sat there stunned with his chopsticks hanging out of his mouth.
"Hey wait for me!" He cried then took off after them.
Miroku opened his wind tunnel and sucked in part of the massive swarm of insects. It took a lot out of him though. Whenever he absorbed the poisonous creatures, he began to weaken, and become sick. He had to protect Eri though. She was running as fast as she could down the trail behind him.
"Run my love." He said then muttered a quick prayer for her safety. He was naked and alone and under attack. How typical of fate to be so cruel as to take his life now that he had finally found a woman to be with. Someone who made him happy and content to be a man such as he was. "Well, I go now to my forefathers." He said raising up and unwrapping his hand once more. He spread his palm wide and repaired to take in another dose of deadly venom. Just then, however, a gray and red blur passed before his eyes and with a swipe of steel, the insects were dismembered. Miroku quickly closed his hand then looked up. It was Inu-yasha, minus his fire rat cloak, which was no draped about Eri's shoulders and covering her naked body. She and the other girls came running over to where Miroku stumbled to stay standing.
"My love!" Eri cried, catching him in her arms.
"I need medicine." He moaned.
"Here." Kagome said reaching into her backpack. She pulled out a bottle of anti-venom and handed it to Eri. "Pass it to him through your mouth, I doubt he'll complain." She got up then and went over to where Inu-yasha battled the ever growing swarm of insects. Sango threw her hiraikotsu and little Shippo started picking up rocks and throwing them.
"There's too many of them!" Sango cried, "We've got to get away from here!"
"Grab Miroku!" Inu-yasha ordred. The girls bore him up and they ran as quickly as possible from the battleground. Kagome was running out of arrows and Shippo was running out of rocks. They would have to retreat too in a moment. But just as all seemed lost, the swarm of insects turned and headed back the way they had come.
"Okay, what just happened?" Kagome asked.
"It's Naraku." Inu-yasha said. "He's toying with us again. This was just to get our attention, let us know he hasn't forgotten about us. We've got to end this soon, Kagome. If our child is ever going to know peace in his lifetime, then we've got to go after Naraku and end it." This was undeniable and Kagome knew it. For a time she had almost forgotten about Naraku and his evil. She had been thinking only of her baby and her new life with Inu-yasha. She had left too many things undone though. They still had business with the demon and his wicked henchmen.
They carried Miroku back to the hut where they put him to bed and let him rest after his ordeal. Eri was still a bit shaken by it all. She had never realized how dangerous it all was, living back in this era of history. There were more than just soul sucking demons running around. There were deadly insects, vipers, warlords, and much, much worse out there. Kagome brought their clothes from the stream and laid them near the fire to dry. The girls all sat quiet in the corner, consoling Eri, and trying to reason with her.
"You see how dangerous it is now?" Yuka asked her.
"We can't leave you here Eri." Ayumi said. "Look what nearly happened today. You were almost killed by those things and there was nothing that anyone could have done about it if Inu-yasha hadn't noticed something was wrong."
"I know." Eri wept. "I know that but you don't understand. I love him!" She cried. "I realize that it's dangerous but I saw how brave he was today and how much he truly cares for me. I love him I say, and I can't leave him now. Not when he's sick and needs me!" Then Eri looked over at Miroku's bed. Sango sat by his side, nursing him, and showing him tenderness.
"Eri, she loves Miroku too." Kagome came over and told her friend. "Don't you understand that there is nothing that you can do for him now? You don't know how to heal him after taking in so much venom."
"I can learn. Teach me Kagome, teach me all about this place, and these ways of yours. I can be a better fighter, I can grow strong. I'll prove to you that I'm an asset." Eir begged and pleaded with her. It did no good though, and Eri could see that no matter how much she wanted to be, she could never be part of Kagome's group. Their friendship as it was, was over, and now she could only stand by while Miroku recovered. "Oh my darling." She said going over to him and laying his head in her lap.
"My love." Miroku whispered, a smile upon his face. "I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you."
"Shsh." She said. "Don't be. It's alright."
"No it isn't. I can't be there for you and protect you the way that I need to be able too. You're too much of a lady to be with a fighter like me. I'm sorry." Eri cried to hear him say this to her. In her heart she knew that it was true. She could never be with Miroku the way that she wanted to be. Even if she did lay aside his demon slaying ways, he would still be threatened by those who hated him. Any family that they had together would be in constant danger and she would be unable to do anything about it.
"Okay." She said. "I'll go back." The tears welled up behind her eyes and burst forth like a river. "I'll leave and never return. Will that make you happy?" She asked everyone.
"What would make me happy is to see you smile again, and be of good cheer. Remember that I will always love you my Eri." Miroku said then drifted off to sleep.
"Eri I…" Kagome began.
"Don't." Eri told her. "Just allow me to stay with him until he's better. I do love him so." She cried all that night and then all that next day while she helped Sango tend to Miroku's needs. Eri saw the way that Sango cared for Miroku and she knew that she loved him too. She was so much stronger than her, and Eri almost hated her for that. Sango would be able to stand by Miroku's side in battle, and in life. Eri would only be a burden to him. When Miroku was well again, Eri went with Kagome to the well. Yuka and Ayumi had already gone through a few days before. Now it was her turn. She stood there looking down the dark dirty well and then she turned back to Miroku.
"Oh, I'll miss you my love." She ran to him and they held each other one last time.
"I shall miss you too my darling." He told her. They kissed once more, one long passionate, goodbye kiss that both of them would always remember. Kagome restrained Sango and then when Eri was ready, she took her down the well, and home.
"Well, now that, that's over." Sango put her arms around Miroku and played with his hair.
"Please Sango, it's still too soon. My love for Eri shall never die, though it may fade like a memory over the passage of time. I will always remember the girl who loved me."
AN: Review
Chapter Three.
Kagome awoke early that next morning with an urge to go throw up in the woods. She ran out of the hut holding her mouth, trying to keep from barfing all over everything. The morning sickness was getting to be a royal pain and it was only going to get worse. Her belly was going to grow to enormous proportions and her feet were going swell. She remembered her mother's pregnancy with Sota. It was murder and her temper soared. Kagome dreaded it all but then she remembered that there was a life growing inside of her. She clutched her belly with love and stroked her skin.
"Don't worry, I'm right here." She said. "Just a little sick, but still here." Kagome walked back to the hut, ready to get her friends up and get them home, only when she walked in, she looked to find her friends, Yuka, Ayumi, and Eri gone from the hut. At first she thought that maybe they were just outside in the yard but when she looked out the door and didn't see them anywhere, she began to worry. She especially began to worry when she found that Miroku was also gone from his bed "That freak." She said thinking of all the lecherous things that could be going on at that moment. "Surely he's not so sex crazed that he would take all three of them out and…" She ran from the hut then and went to Inu-yasha's tree. He was sleeping in the bows of the upper branches in a little nest he'd constructed. "Inu-yasha!" She shouted up. "Inu-yasha wake up!"
"What is it?" He asked groggily.
"The girls are gone and so is Miroku!" Kagome shouted up to him. Inu-yasha couldn't believe it. Then as he thought about the conversation he'd had with Miroku the night before he was unable to deny it. He leaped down from the tree and with Kagome at his side, he ran through the woods searching for the girls. They checked all the places that Miroku frequented but found nothing. Not even the bare scent of them. Inu yasha went back to the hut with Kagome and sniffed around.
"They headed off towards the village." He said. Sango awoke then and they informed her of the situation.
"That worm!" Sango cried "He'll die for this!" They ran as quickly as possible to the village, to old Keade's hut where they found Miroku, Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi standing before the Priestess.
"I now pronounce ye married." Keade said with a hesitant look on her face. Miroku and Eri kissed and the other two girls gagged.
"What have you done?" Kagome cried as they came running up to them.
"We just got married." Eri said, hugging her new husband tightly.
"What!" Inu-yasha, Kagome, and Sango exclaimed at once.
"We couldn't talk her out of it, so we decided to go with her." Yuka said.
"Yeah, besides in order for it to be legal you need witnesses don't you?" Ayumi asked.
"This isn't legal at all." Kagome said. "At least not in our time." Eri looked at her with a serious face and stunned them all with what she said next.
"I'm not going back." Everyone's jaws dropped. Kagome stammered forward and took her friend by the shoulders then she started shaking her harshly.
"You can't stay here!" She cried. "You've got to go back, you don't belong in this time!"
"Oh and you do?" Eri asked her. Sango crying in the background behind them, rested her head on Inu-yasha's shoulder. "You're going to leave everything that you have in our time and come here to be with Inu-yasha aren't you?" She asked. "Well I'm going to do the same to be with my Miroku."
"But you've only known him for one night!" Kagome screamed into her ears, hoping it would get through to her friends obviously minuscule brain. Nothing would though. Not today of all days. Eri was quite serious about being with Miroku and she intended to make this fact clear to everyone.
"I don't care about that. I'm not going to become an old maid!" She stated. "Everyone's got a boyfriend except me. I look at all the girls at school, and I see them with their boyfriends, and I can't stand it. I like Miroku, and I know that he likes me, so why can't I stay here with him?" She demanded of her friends. "Why is it always Kagome who's happiness matters? If you can have you half demon lover and your bastard child then I can marry a monk and have at least some well behaved human children." She told them all.
"But Miroku is cursed!" Sango cried. "Hasn't he told you about the wind tunnel in his hand?" She asked Eri.
"I know all about that and I'm not worried. I know that everything will work out and if it doesn't then we'll have a good run." She kissed Miroku's right hand and caressed the beads which sealed his wind tunnel. "Besides, I like the way he touches me, it's so sexy." She giggled then and Miroku laid his left hand soundly upon her bottom. "Let's go dear. We've got a honeymoon to go on." She and Miroku walked off then and the other two girls just stood there with Kagome, Sango, and Inu-yasha.
"So what is there to do around here after a wedding?" Ayumi asked. The others all fell down and then clinched their fists as they arose from the ground.
"We've got to knock some sense into those two." Sango said. "They can't be married. They…they just can't be."
"Why not?" Inu-yasha asked with a fanged girl on his face.
"Because…because…because they can't, that's why." She said and stormed off after the two love birds to try once more to reason with them. Kagome sighed then turned to Keade who stood hunched over and silent.
"Why did you have to go and do that?" She asked the old Priestess.
"I am bound by sacred duty." Keada replied. "Since I am performing marriages today, why not one more. I've been told that you intend on staying here with Inu-yasha, Kagome. And that you bare his child within your womb." Kagome blushed. "Is this true?" The old woman asked, examining Kagome carefully.
"I'm afraid so." She replied. Kagome turned to Inu-yasha then and he just looked away. "But we don't want to get married though. We're just going to live together while I raise the baby."
"I see." The old woman said and walked over to where the han-you stood. "Inu-yasha, ye disappoint me. All this time ye have pined away for young Kagome and yet now when she is making herself available to ye, ye are rejecting her."
"Who's rejecting? I love Kagome, and we're going to raise this baby together, I just can't marry her is all. What's so hard to understand about that?" He asked.
"Ye of all people should know the stigma of being born out of wedlock. Were ye not the love child of a Demon King and human princess who were not married?" Keade asked, reminding Inu-yasha of his heritage. He hung his head.
"Yes." He replied in low deep growl. "But that's…"
"But that is exactly what ye would put your own child through. Think ye, before ye act, Inu-yasha. Consider the child and what he or she may think of ye when it is grown and ye are dead. When ye bones are rotting away in a tomb and none remember ye but your offspring." The old woman said. "What will be the legacy of Inu-yasha the demon slayer? What will be the message that ye children will carry on?" Inu-yasha hadn't thought about any of that. All he'd thought about was Kikyo's and his engagement to one another before her death. He didn't want the same thing to happen Kagome. He didn't want to loose her because he was being selfish.
"Kikyo and I were going to get married before she died." He finally said after a long period of silence. "We made our pledge to one another on the river one day and then the next day she died. I…I couldn't bare it if something happened to Kagome." He told them all. "I won't allow anything to harm her as long as I live, that includes myself." Kagome went to him then and wrapped her arms around his waste.
"You don't have to worry about that." She told him. "I don't want to get married. I just want to be with you Inu-yasha. You as yourself, and no one else. Kikyo didn't understand that. She wanted you to become a human. She didn't love you for the person that you are. I do."
"Kagome." Inu-yasha said. "I know that." He held her too then Yuka and Ayumi began to cry.
"This is so touching." Ayumi whimpered.
"Yeah, I can't believe that this is the guy Kagome's going to spend the rest of her life with." Yuka bellowed as she blew her nose on a handkerchief.
"Oh cut it out!" Inu-yasha shouted at them then. "If there's one thing that I can't stand it's a bunch of whinny girls!" The moment was ruined of course and so was Kagome's mood. They decided to go back to the hut and see what Eri and Miroku intended to do about their marriage. If they were serious then they would have no choice but to accept yet another housemate.
Shippo had a fire going when they got back and hauling a cooking pot over when they all came bursting in.
"Where are they?" Kagome and the others demanded to know. Poor little Shippo dropped the pot on his feet and screamed.
"Ow ow ow ow ow!" He cried and hopped around the room.
"Come on Shippo, where did they go?" Kagome asked him.
"They went off to scout a place to build a new hut." He said, calming down after minute. "Is it true? Did they really get married?" Shippo asked.
"They sure did." Inu-yasha answered. "And believe you me, this can only mean trouble for those two, I can smell it. It stinks like yesterday's Ramen." Shippo just shrugged his shoulders and sat down to fix himself some breakfast.
"I think it's silly, all this talk of getting married, and that girly stuff. They haven't even had anything to eat yet. How can you go house hunting on an empty stomach?" He was so confused.
"They probably just confused their stomach cramps for butterflies." Kagome said, taking a knife and an onion in hand. "Here I'll fix you some breakfast. Does stew sound nice?" She asked.
"Sure does." Shippo said happily. He hated his own cooking but he loved Kagome's. She was such a great cook and she was always looking out for him. She was going to be a great mom one day, Shippo though, but then what would happen to him? When Kagome had her baby, what would become of him, and of their adventures together. She couldn't very well go off demon slaying with a baby in her arms. The thought of loosing Kagome kind of made Shippo sad. He liked having her around to take care of him. He supposed though that he could be just as happy with Sango taking care of him. After all, she wasn't going to be getting married any time soon, that was for sure.
"Sango, why didn't you ever marry Miroku when you had the chance?" Shippo asked all of a sudden.
"Huh?" Sango blushed and then looked away. "I don't know. Now I wish that I had." Everyone was shocked by this revelation.
"What do you mean, that you're in love with Miroku?" Kagome asked.
"Yes." Sango finally admitted. "I do!" She wailed like a lovesick banshee.
"You've got to snap out of this!" Kagome cried and shook Sango with great force. "He's not the guy for you, you've just got to snap out of whatever spell that monk has cast on everyone. My God, he's got you longing for him now!"
"I can't help it." Sango said. "I've always loved him, even when he was trying to take advantage of me all those times, and even when he was chasing after all those women. I always had a quiet place in my heart where I would want to be with him. Now it's too late. I had always kind of hoped that the day would come when he would stop all his womanizing and ask me to marry him. That day will never come now." Sango was being quite the drama queen. Inu-yasha buried his head in his arms and slumped over against a wall.
"What is this world coming to?" He asked. "Kagome's pregnant, Miroku's married, Sango's lost her mind, and it's all my fault. I wish that Kagome had never woken me up from that tree. I would have been better off staying dead to the world." He said.
"Oh get over it Inu-yasha." Kagome said. "We're just going to have to accept the fact that things are going to get a little crazy with this baby on the way. Why do things always have to get so out of hand though?" Kagome asked as if she were expecting the cosmos to reply. She sat stirring the stew and thinking about what Eri had said to her. She supposed that her friend was right about some of those things. After all, who was she to judge Eri, but by that same token, who was Eri to judge her? Kagome felt like ripping her hair out sometimes when her friends were around. Maybe that was why she didn't feel so bad about burning all the bridges of her former life. Her former life…
It was going to be a lot harder to break free from everything with Eri living in the Feudal Era now too. She'd always be a constant reminder of everything she was giving up to be with Inu-yasha. If it were just Kagome by herself, then she could easily forget about everything that the modern world had to offer. It was so easy sometimes for her to come back to this place and forget where it was she had come from. Her heart was in this place, with these people, and with the search for the Sacred Jewel Shards. There were so many times in the past when she had felt torn between the modern world and this one but her heart always led her back here. Always back to Inu-yasha. Kagome figured then that if Eri's heart was leading her then it was alright for her to follow it. After all, what could any of them do in the end but follow their hearts. It had gotten them this far.
Miroku and Eri lay naked by the river, their clothes rinsing in the water, and their bodies glistening with sweat as they rested on a bed of fresh grass. This was the happiest, Miroku had ever been in his whole life. Somehow this young beauty beside him suited him and he was sure that now he could finally forget about his curse and his past and his dreadful destiny. He looked at his hand, still bound by the prayer beads and finally felt at ease about it.
"What are you thinking?" Eri asked him suddenly.
"About how happy you make me." He said pulling her close. She smiled and they kissed.
"I'll do my best to be good wife for you, Miroku." Eir said. "I know that some of my modern ways will be difficult to get used to at first but I'm sure that once we've been together for a while, we'll get used to each other."
"Don't even worry about that." He said. "I've already gotten use to some of Kagome's strange ways. Yours will be a pleasant change for what would otherwise be a dull and uneventful life. I'm going to give up demon hunting and focus my life on being a good husband and father to our children." he said to Eri. "We'll build our home right here by the river where you and I have made love and we'll make it a happy home. I'll work and fish and you will cook and sew."
"Then you promise, no more going off to slaying nasty old demons?" Eri asked.
"I promise that I will never put myself or you in harm's away." Just then though he heard a faint buzzing sound coming from the east. He looked up and in the distance he saw a cloud coming hard and fast and against the wind. "Oh no!" He cried. "Eir run!"
So this is what you eat when you come back here?" Yuka asked, sipping the broth from her bowel of stew. "Hey, wow, this is really good. You're a good cook Kagome. Any child of yours is going to be well fed."
"We love Kagome's cooking." Shippo agreed. "She cooks way better than Sango."
"Shippo that's not very nice." Kagome scolded him. "Now say your sorry to Sango."
"That's okay." Sango said. "I know I'm not a good cook like you are, Kagome, but I like to think that I could have taken care of any man I ended up with." She thought of Miroku and that Eri. They were probably off somewhere right then fooling around and making plans to spend the rest of their lives together. When she stopped to think she could have had Miroku if she had only been a little less of a prude. It made her so incredibly mad and depressed. Miroku was her guy, and it should have been the two of them running off somewhere to have mad, passionate sex in the fields with the sun shining on their hot, sweaty bodies intertwined in the throws of carnal lust. Just then Sango snapped herself back to the reality of the situation. Had…had she actually been fantasizing about Miroku? She had and that kind of scared her a little bit. It made her sad more than anything though.
"Uh, earth to Sango." Shippo said. "I said I'm sorry." He waved his tiny hand in front her glazed over eyes. She hadn't blinked in forever. She was just sitting there with her cheeks going red and drooling from her lip.
"Okay, we've officially lost Sango." Kagome said. Yuka and Ayumi felt a little confused about this whole ordeal. How could they go back without Eri, and yet how could they take her with them, knowing how she felt.
"Hey guys, we've got to do something about Eri." Ayumi said, brining the conversation back to reality for a moment. "I mean we just can't leave her here."
"Why not?" Yuka asked. "She seems happy enough with this Miroku guy, even if he is a perv. Can you believe the number of times he tried to grab me last night?"
"Yeah, I know it, he's a total sex fiend." Ayumi agreed. "He and Eri are made for each other. She likes that sort of behavior out of men, but that's just so totally gross, and it's rude besides. You don't just go around grabbing girls behinds."
"That's just the way Miroku is though." Kagome said, coming to her friend's defense. "He grabs girls."
"You mean you let him grab you?" Yuka asked.
"No way, I don't let him grab me, but he still tries. I mean it's just like with Sango here. He grabs her all the time, she's gotten use to it."
"Huh, what?" Sango asked, finally coming back to earth. "Gotten use to it? I'll never get use to Miroku being with that hussy." She clenched her fist and broke her chopsticks in half.
"Well you're just going to have to." Kagome told her. "Miroku is with Eri now, as disturbing as that may be, I mean those two could have the dumbest babies ever. They'll probably be retarded little perverts or something. Oh my God, my kid will have to grow up with them!" Kagome suddenly realized. "Inu-yasha, you've got to talk some sense into Miroku." She said to him then. "We can't allow him to breed." Just then though Inu-yasha's ears perked. He got up from his seat in the corner and went to the door. He listened for a moment then he sniffed the air. His hand immediately went for his sword.
"We've got trouble!" He shouted then and ran off into the woods. Kagome grabbed her bow and quiver then followed after him.
"You guys stay here." She called back to Yuka, Ayumi, and Shippo. Sango was spacing out again then when she realized that Kagome was gone, she threw off her kimono to reveal her battle armor.
"Wait for me guys." She said grabbing up her hiraikotsu and followed fast after her friends. Shippo dipped his bowel in the pot of stew and got up another mouth full.
"More for me." He said happily. "I suppose I should stay here and look after you two girls anyway. You'd just get in trouble." The girls looked at each other then got up and rushed out the door. Shippo just sat there stunned with his chopsticks hanging out of his mouth.
"Hey wait for me!" He cried then took off after them.
Miroku opened his wind tunnel and sucked in part of the massive swarm of insects. It took a lot out of him though. Whenever he absorbed the poisonous creatures, he began to weaken, and become sick. He had to protect Eri though. She was running as fast as she could down the trail behind him.
"Run my love." He said then muttered a quick prayer for her safety. He was naked and alone and under attack. How typical of fate to be so cruel as to take his life now that he had finally found a woman to be with. Someone who made him happy and content to be a man such as he was. "Well, I go now to my forefathers." He said raising up and unwrapping his hand once more. He spread his palm wide and repaired to take in another dose of deadly venom. Just then, however, a gray and red blur passed before his eyes and with a swipe of steel, the insects were dismembered. Miroku quickly closed his hand then looked up. It was Inu-yasha, minus his fire rat cloak, which was no draped about Eri's shoulders and covering her naked body. She and the other girls came running over to where Miroku stumbled to stay standing.
"My love!" Eri cried, catching him in her arms.
"I need medicine." He moaned.
"Here." Kagome said reaching into her backpack. She pulled out a bottle of anti-venom and handed it to Eri. "Pass it to him through your mouth, I doubt he'll complain." She got up then and went over to where Inu-yasha battled the ever growing swarm of insects. Sango threw her hiraikotsu and little Shippo started picking up rocks and throwing them.
"There's too many of them!" Sango cried, "We've got to get away from here!"
"Grab Miroku!" Inu-yasha ordred. The girls bore him up and they ran as quickly as possible from the battleground. Kagome was running out of arrows and Shippo was running out of rocks. They would have to retreat too in a moment. But just as all seemed lost, the swarm of insects turned and headed back the way they had come.
"Okay, what just happened?" Kagome asked.
"It's Naraku." Inu-yasha said. "He's toying with us again. This was just to get our attention, let us know he hasn't forgotten about us. We've got to end this soon, Kagome. If our child is ever going to know peace in his lifetime, then we've got to go after Naraku and end it." This was undeniable and Kagome knew it. For a time she had almost forgotten about Naraku and his evil. She had been thinking only of her baby and her new life with Inu-yasha. She had left too many things undone though. They still had business with the demon and his wicked henchmen.
They carried Miroku back to the hut where they put him to bed and let him rest after his ordeal. Eri was still a bit shaken by it all. She had never realized how dangerous it all was, living back in this era of history. There were more than just soul sucking demons running around. There were deadly insects, vipers, warlords, and much, much worse out there. Kagome brought their clothes from the stream and laid them near the fire to dry. The girls all sat quiet in the corner, consoling Eri, and trying to reason with her.
"You see how dangerous it is now?" Yuka asked her.
"We can't leave you here Eri." Ayumi said. "Look what nearly happened today. You were almost killed by those things and there was nothing that anyone could have done about it if Inu-yasha hadn't noticed something was wrong."
"I know." Eri wept. "I know that but you don't understand. I love him!" She cried. "I realize that it's dangerous but I saw how brave he was today and how much he truly cares for me. I love him I say, and I can't leave him now. Not when he's sick and needs me!" Then Eri looked over at Miroku's bed. Sango sat by his side, nursing him, and showing him tenderness.
"Eri, she loves Miroku too." Kagome came over and told her friend. "Don't you understand that there is nothing that you can do for him now? You don't know how to heal him after taking in so much venom."
"I can learn. Teach me Kagome, teach me all about this place, and these ways of yours. I can be a better fighter, I can grow strong. I'll prove to you that I'm an asset." Eir begged and pleaded with her. It did no good though, and Eri could see that no matter how much she wanted to be, she could never be part of Kagome's group. Their friendship as it was, was over, and now she could only stand by while Miroku recovered. "Oh my darling." She said going over to him and laying his head in her lap.
"My love." Miroku whispered, a smile upon his face. "I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you."
"Shsh." She said. "Don't be. It's alright."
"No it isn't. I can't be there for you and protect you the way that I need to be able too. You're too much of a lady to be with a fighter like me. I'm sorry." Eri cried to hear him say this to her. In her heart she knew that it was true. She could never be with Miroku the way that she wanted to be. Even if she did lay aside his demon slaying ways, he would still be threatened by those who hated him. Any family that they had together would be in constant danger and she would be unable to do anything about it.
"Okay." She said. "I'll go back." The tears welled up behind her eyes and burst forth like a river. "I'll leave and never return. Will that make you happy?" She asked everyone.
"What would make me happy is to see you smile again, and be of good cheer. Remember that I will always love you my Eri." Miroku said then drifted off to sleep.
"Eri I…" Kagome began.
"Don't." Eri told her. "Just allow me to stay with him until he's better. I do love him so." She cried all that night and then all that next day while she helped Sango tend to Miroku's needs. Eri saw the way that Sango cared for Miroku and she knew that she loved him too. She was so much stronger than her, and Eri almost hated her for that. Sango would be able to stand by Miroku's side in battle, and in life. Eri would only be a burden to him. When Miroku was well again, Eri went with Kagome to the well. Yuka and Ayumi had already gone through a few days before. Now it was her turn. She stood there looking down the dark dirty well and then she turned back to Miroku.
"Oh, I'll miss you my love." She ran to him and they held each other one last time.
"I shall miss you too my darling." He told her. They kissed once more, one long passionate, goodbye kiss that both of them would always remember. Kagome restrained Sango and then when Eri was ready, she took her down the well, and home.
"Well, now that, that's over." Sango put her arms around Miroku and played with his hair.
"Please Sango, it's still too soon. My love for Eri shall never die, though it may fade like a memory over the passage of time. I will always remember the girl who loved me."
AN: Review