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CHAPTER 1

A DAY OF BEGINNINGS AND OF ENDS...

Inuyasha opened his eyes, only to see Kagome beside him. He smiled to himself. Every morning for the past two weeks, and he was never going to get tired of it. Waking up to see her beside him, right where, in his opinion, she belonged, where she would always belong.

After all we went through, killing Naraku, putting the jewel together, not to mention the many demons that have come up against us even after all of that! We deserve this; above all, this is what we need.

The thought that he would never again have to face Naraku in battle, never again risk losing Kagome or any of his friends in battle, was almost too good to be true. He sat up and looked down to Kagome, her eyes were shut and the little bit of light that poured in from the window was reflected in her jet black hair. As if she could feel his gaze, her eyes opened,

"Morning Inuyasha." she whispered to him, giving him a soft smiled, one which he returned,

"Mornin love." He whispered, and then he remembered what day it was, and bent down to kiss her on the fore head, "Better get up now! Sango and Miroku's baby is due any time now." Kagome blinked,

"Your right, she went into labor already?" He nodded,

"Yeah, about 6 hours ago give or take, her damn screaming woke me up!" Kagome hit Inuyasha lightly on the chest,

"Baka! Why didn't you wake me up?" he shrugged,

"S'not like you missed anything! The kid won't come for at least a few more hours!" he snapped rubbing the spot she had hit, "Oi, that hurt wench!" he added as she rolled her eyes and got out of bed,

"Oh don't be a baby Inuyasha!" she said, he gave her a growl then stood up himself,

"Hey, since you turned into a hanyou like me, you haven't been so weak, so I'll repeat, that hurt!" Kagome laughed,

"And now I'll repeat, don't be a baby!" and with that she hurried from the room to Sango.

Inuyasha smiled wryly in her direction, yeah, this was how he wanted it to be. When they were together like that, things just seemed to fit. Or you could call it a feeling of finally belonging to something. Or fitting in, being settled and happy in his form. Feeling rather free all and all. No matter how you described it, Inuyasha hadn't felt this good for a long time.

I guess I missed it. He thought, missed the feeling that I was someone who mattered, like if I was gone, I would be missed. I really like the way it feels to be like this. Free. Free of curses, hard choices, battles, responsibilities. Everything! Smiling to himself, he went to check and see how Miroku was handling the stress of waiting for his unborn child.

I bet he's about to freakin' kill someone to see what is going on in there! Inuyasha thought to himself, a tad bit amused at the monk's pains. But I spose when the little one is born it'll be worth it. He thought smiling again, yeah, probably...

Inuyasha's guess about Miroku was totally correct, the monk was really stressed. He stood on the porch of the little birthing hut, pacing back and forth, back and forth. Inuyasha sighed,

"Careful Monk! You're going to wear a hole in the brand new porch I just laid out yesterday!" Inuyasha snapped playfully.

Miroku said nothing. Just glared at Inuyasha and continued his pacing. Shrugging his shoulders Inuyasha leaned against the railing of the porch and listened to the goings on inside. After about 2 minutes, Miroku seemed to become fed up with Inuyasha's calm demeanor and snapped at him,

"How can you just sit there like this is nothing?" Inuyasha opened one of his eyes and raised a brow,

"How? Cause I can hear what's going on in there that's how!" he said with a slight chuckle to his voice, Miroku gaped at him,

"Y, You WHAT!? Why didn't you say something sooner!?" Inuyasha shrugged,

"You didn't act interested." He said simply, Miroku's eye twitched,

"Are you crazy?" he asked almost too breathless for words, Inuyasha smiled to him,

"You wanna hear it or what?" Miroku nodded,

"Yeah, of course go on!" Inuyasha nodded, and then began to speak rather quickly,

"Ok, well Kagome was just telling Sango that it will only be a few more hours till we have a baby comin so not too much more of a wait, also she is a bit farther along than is to be expected so they think it's gonna be a big kid, as far as Sango's health she is really uncomfortable, but she'll be fine, and it will only get worse so she should prepare for that, you'll be let in when she goes into real labor got all this monk?" Miroku looked a bit over whelmed but nodded,

"Yeah, I, I think I do." he said shaking his head, "Just tell me if anything big happens, ok?" Inuyasha nodded and then sat back against the railing once more.

"Man I'm so glad that this will be so easy when Kagome has her baby." Miroku spun,

"What was that Inuyasha?" Inuyasha opened his eyes and blinked,

"Oh, well what I meant was that since I can just listen in, I won't be-"

"No, the other part!"

"Oh, yeah, when Kagome has her baby." Miroku just stared,

"And when pre-tell would that be?" Inuyasha shrugged,

"Well it takes them 9 months right?" Miroku nodded, "Then, well, about 7 more months I expect!" he said smiling. Miroku again just stared,

"Dose she know any of this?" Inuyasha shook his head,

"Nope." Miroku looked at him a bit longer than smiled,

"You are such a dog Inuyasha!" he yelled rolling his eyes,

"No more than you!" Inuyasha said right back, and grinned in return. The two smiled to each other,

yeah, thought Inuyasha, this is defiantly how things should be!

A few hours later, Sango was a very happy mother, and Miroku the proudest father alive. Kagome glowed with pleasure for the happy couple, now a very happy family with their baby boy in Sango's arms. Inuyasha smiled over to Kagome,

"They look really happy, I envy them." Kagome whispered to him, he nodded,

"I don't." she looked up to him, he was smiling down at her very softly, "I have something better, you." He whispered, kissing her deeply.

Gods this is how it should be. Kagome thought to herself as she wrapped an arm around Inuyasha's waist, and just laid her head on his chest.

Perfect. She thought, just plain perfect...

The days passed very quickly after that moment, a week seemed to be a second for them all. Especially Kagome, the huge festival of the New Year was about to begin, and she was really excited, and stressed to boot! Her body seemed to be stretched to its limits and beyond! But she would live.

However, her running around seemed to cut down on her time with Inuyasha as well, something he seemed to have been able to have done without. He didn't say anything to her though; he would let her off, this time. He still slept with her every night so he was happy. (I mean NEXT to her perv's!)

Little did they know that the closer they came to the day of the festival, the closer to the end they were...

Finally! Kagome had waited for this day since last week!!!!! All the hard preparations and the like were finally done with, and finally she would be able to spend some time with Inuyasha. As she walked through the little village looking for the dog boy in question, she gazed fondly at the work being done all around her. Most of the women were inside on particular hut, baking their hearts out. Others were gathering more food from the fields; a few men were working on the fields themselves. And then there were those people who were working on the place in the center of the village were the festivities as well as the grand meal were to take place later this night. That is were she found her dog boy.

Grinning Kagome ran over to him,

"Hey Inuyasha!" she called, he looked over to her from where he was working, grinning in return,

"Lo there Kagome, what are you doing over here?" she shrugged,

"I finished all I had to do and came looking for you!" she said he nodded,

"I'll be right over!" he replied, and then finished putting up the wall he had been working on.

After Inuyasha was done working he and Kagome headed off to see the rest of the village. As the two walked hand in hand, they began to talk.

"So, you finally decided to help out with preparations then?" Kagome asked teasingly, Inuyasha scoffed,

"Feh! Yeah, you might call it that! But in truth I really just got board." Kagome smiled, and shrugged,

"I really don't care what it took, just as long as you did help out!" he nodded and then he turned to look up at the sky,

"Kagome, what happens after this?" he asked, Kagome blinked,

"What do you mean?" Inuyasha's eyes softened,

"Exactly what I said, what happens after all of this?" Kagome shrugged,

"I don't know." She replied, "What do you want to happen?" he didn't reply, instead he just squeezed her hand and continued to walk, leaving his question hanging in the air between them...

The festival was in full swing, and Kagome was thoroughly enjoying herself. She walked form booth to booth trying different activities and the like, laughing all the time. Inuyasha was by her side smiling and laughing with her. The night's joy and happy mood betrayed the path it was soon to take.

It was when the banquet started that Fate pulled the strings. Inuyasha sat beside Kagome smiling and teasing her about something, when he felt a presence enter the village, frowning, he excused himself, and went to check this out.

As he left the table Kagome looked after him, and it was at that moment she felt like running after him, but for some reason, she couldn't. Something in her was also saying 'stay' so she did. Alas, Fate had pulled another string here.

Inuyasha looked around himself; he was at the northern side of the village. There was no one there, but the presence remained, it only took him a moment more to recognize the presence.

Sesshomaru.

"What exactly are you doing here?" Inuyasha asked into the darkness. Though he and Sesshomaru had made a pack to deal with each other, his elder brother hardly ever came near him.

What could he want?

Sesshomaru stepped into the moon light, a small frown across his face.

"I'm afraid I bring bad news to you Inuyasha, news I am sure you could quite live without, but news you must hear none the less." A cold shiver went up Inuyasha's spine at those words, and he was sure he would never forget them...

How right he was...

"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" Inuyasha yelled at Sesshomaru. Sesshomaru nodded solemnly.

"I'm afraid so." He said, Inuyasha was trembling, "You have two choices." Sesshomaru continued, but Inuyasha cut him off,

"You're right, either tell Kagome about this and risk her and my unborn kids life, or not and save them both." Inuyasha whispered. Then he smiled wryly, "Really, I don't have a choice." Sesshomaru was silent...

It was midnight when Inuyasha came into Kagome's room; he kissed her on the forehead,

"I'll miss ya, please forgive me..." he sighed and left disappearing into the night....

"Why would he do this?" Kagome yelled, Miroku shrugged,

"I don't know my lady." He said but there was a definite burning anger in his eyes, "I only know why he wouldn't have!" Kagome looked to Miroku,

"Is there something I should know?"

"Kagome, you are with child." She just stared at him. Then fainted...

When Kagome woke Sango was beside her,

"What will you do now?" Kagome shrugged,

"I don't know, I can't stay here, too many memories, not to mention I couldn't burden you. I think there is only one place for me to go..."

"Thank you, I hope I won't be a burden to you."

"No way Kagome, it won't be a problem." He said smiling, and then hugged her tight; Kagome nodded and began to cry into Kouga's chest...

And Fate pulled again...

AN: Phew! Whoa! That was a lot of twists in one chappie! Well not much to say except please review now! Thanx! And thank you LionnesisRin for the pic!