Well this is good news for you guys, I'm going to be trying to update as much as possible since the summer is coming and I won't be able to update as much as I would like to.  Anyways, let us move on shall we . . . oh!  And yes this chapter will be longer than the last.

Winter Wonderland

Chapter Forty-Six

  The first light from the sunrise caused the half demon to wake.  Yawning, Inu-Yasha pushed himself up off the floor, glancing at his mate who was sleeping soundly on her side.  Smiling, Inu-Yasha got to his knees, wresting his arms on the bed to just look at his mate sleep peacefully in the land of dreams.  Sighing softly, Inu-Yasha got onto his feet and grabbed the blue robe on Kagome's chair, and headed downstairs.  Hitting the bottom step, he could see Sesshoumaru sitting at the kitchen table, sipping on a steaming cup of coffee.

  "You like that modern day stuff?" asked Inu-Yasha, pouring himself a cup.

  "You got me addicted to it last time I was here,"

  Inu-Yasha chuckled and took a seat across from his brother.

  "How is your pregnant mate?"

  "She's fine, I had to sleep on the floor again last night,"

  "Luckily I won't have to deal with that anytime soon," sighed Sesshoumaru taking another sip from his mug.

  Inu-Yasha nodded and stared out the glass sliding door, "What did you see?"

  Sesshoumaru put his mug down and stared at his brother, "What?"

  "When we were trapped in those vines . . . what did you see?"

  The young lord took one more sip before setting his cup down on the table, his hands clasped together, "I suppose we never did talk about what each of us saw did we?"

  "No . . . we've been each so busy . . ."

  Sesshoumaru merely nodded, following Inu-Yasha's gaze through the window, "I saw many things . . . mostly the past . . ."

  "Same here," whispered Inu-Yasha, "The happy times I had long forgotten . . . but the painful ones as well,"

  "I know . . . I saw some as well . . ."

  The two brothers were silent for a moment, and after a while Sesshoumaru finally spoke, "I saw myself and father meeting Natasha for the first time, and then when he asked her to be his mate.  I saw you being born, fencing lessons with father in the court yard . . . and then when I abandoned you and Natasha,"

  Inu-Yasha's eyes were back on his brother, and so many questions were flooding through his head . . . what had his mother been like when she was younger . . . "Is that all?  Did you also see your worst fear?"

  Sesshoumaru nodded.

  "I saw you and father visiting me and mother, her almost being raped, almost being beaten to death by the villagers, the black pearl being put in my eye . . . and when my mother died,"

  The two were once again silent, both pondering in their minds whether they should tell the other their worst fear.

  "At first the vision was happy . . . Kagome being pregnant in our home . . . Shippo was living with us . . . and it was a new moon night . . ."

  Sesshoumaru unclasped his hands and took another sip from his coffee, but his eyes remained on his brother.

  "Then four bandits barge in . . . they killed Shippo with one stroke of a knife . . . then they pinned me to the wall, punching me . . . I couldn't do anything as one held Kagome down . . . then the torture began . . . they sliced me everywhere . . . slowly bleeding to death as they jammed a knife into each of my arms . . . pinning me to the wall . . . I felt so weak . . . then they approached Kagome, saying if she wasn't pregnant, that they would rape her over and over again in front of my own eyes until I drew my last breath . . . but they did worse . . . they rammed a sword through her stomach . . ."

  Sesshoumaru slightly flinched when he heard Inu-Yasha say that, and was thankful that his brother did not notice.

  "It pierced right through her . . . then they took another sword, ramming it through her chest, and I had to watch her slowly die on our bed.  The house was then set on fire, burning everything . . ."

  "So that is why you had cuts all over your body when we were released . . ."

  Inu-Yasha nodded taking a rather large sip from his coffee cup, and then remembered that Sesshoumaru had had a large cut on his throat when they had woken up.  However he doubted that his brother would even mention a word what he saw.

  "I had been at war with the cat demons . . . one that lasted for over a year . . . leaving Rin in charge of the castle . . . she was sixteen . . . and when I returned . . . she was with a human . . . one of the head mans son . . . and she had fallen in love with him in my absence . . . and wanted to become mortal again . . . after witnessing that I fled to the castle, but Rin hear my clothing rustling in the bush and she followed me, apologizing that I had to find out the way I did.  Then I kissed her . . . the desire for her finally breaking, but she backed away from my touch, screaming she would never love me like that . . . and then I grabbed Tokijin . . ."

  "Don't tell me you intended to kill yourself?" asked Inu-Yasha, almost thunderstruck on what his brother was telling him.

  "Indeed I did,"

  Inu-Yasha was in pure shock on his face, his mouth hide open and his eyes wide like baseballs.  It took the half demon a moment to shake the shock off, "The proud Sesshoumaru killing himself . . . it just doesn't make sense . . ."

  Sesshoumaru chuckled, it was deep laugh that gave Inu-Yasha the chills, "Yes . . . like you little brother there are things that people do not know about me . . . true I am proud . . . however . . . to see the only thing I looked forward in life taken away from me in front of my eyes . . ."

  Inu-Yasha's eyes softened, trying to imagine what it would be like if Kagome had been taken away from him.

  "Some part of my soul died . . . I've lived a pretty good life . . . a good one hundred years . . . I had traveled Japan . . . doing terrible things . . . and I have done some things I am not proud of . . . such as abandoning you and Natasha . . . and because of that she died, and you were abandoned . . . . I almost felt that there was no point to my life . . . for you see . . . Rin is the only thing that makes me happy . . . I love watching her grow into the woman she will become . . . and hopefully I will become her mate . . . and she will love me the way I love her,"

  Inu-Yasha was lost for words for a few seconds, "You know . . .this is all still weird to me . . ."

  Sesshoumaru laughed again, "Yes . . . perhaps it may even take years for you to understand me . . . however until then I guess I'll just be surprising you a lot,"

  Inu-Yasha chuckled slightly and drank the rest of his coffee.

  Unknown to the two demons Rin stood silently at the door way, and had been listening to their whole conversation.  Is that what Sesshoumaru had seen when he had been hanging from those terrible vines?  Breaking his heart because she fell in love with a mortal.  Rin slowly walked away from the kitchen and back downstairs to her and Sesshoumaru's room.  She was still too young to tell if she was indeed in love with the lord . . . however time would soon tell if she was or not.  In a couple of weeks it would be her thirteenth birthday . . . and perhaps when she had turned sixteen or seventeen . . . should be able to tell if she was in love with the lord or not. (Don't worry people . . . I have planned a Sesshoumaru and Rin chappie when she's older . . . I know it's a big spoiler, but hell I'm in a good mood)

  This time instead of creeping up the stairs, she walked up them normally to let Inu-Yasha and Sesshoumaru know she was coming.  She was wearing an old pair Kagome's light blue fuzzy PJ's that had a black puppy on the back and left pant leg.

  "Good morning Rin . . .why are you up so early?" asked Inu-Yasha.

  Sesshoumaru gave her a nod and slid the chair beside him out, letting her know she could sit beside him.

  "I hear you two . . . and I couldn't go back to sleep, so I thought I could join you,"

  Inu-Yasha nodded, "Would you like some hot chocolate?"

  "That would be fine,"

  Inu-Yasha stood and grabbed a small packet of hot chocolate from the cupboard and mixed it in with the hot water in the kettle

 "What time are we leaving today?" asked Sesshoumaru, grabbing the coffee pot of the table to refill his cup.

  "Some time this afternoon.  Everything is packed in the vehicle for our clothes, skates, skii's and other winter gear Mrs. Higurashi bought for you guys.  After we unpack, Miroku and I will head to the grocery store to get some food supplies for us . . . then we should be set,"

  "What are we going to do up there?" asked Rin.

  Inu-Yasha passed Rin her hot chocolate and took his seat back in his chair, "Well last year we didn't bring the TV . . .that's the picture box thing in the living room.  Were bringing that so Kagome and Sango don't get too bored while they're in the house.  As for the rest of us, that is a secret . . ." he said it sort of mysterious and the same way an anime character had done it on the TV.

  Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes and sipped on his coffee again muttering under his breath.  Inu-Yasha was about to growl at his brother, but suddenly his head snapped up and his ears were twitching wildly.

  "Excuse me for a second," said Inu-Yasha, getting from his seat and heading upstairs.

  Sesshoumaru listened carefully, and so did Rin to why Inu-Yasha left.

  "Kagome's awake," sighed Rin, taking a sip of her hot chocolate.

  "I have a feeling things are going to become really interesting at the cabin with those two ladies pregnant," said Sesshoumaru.

  Rin nodded, giving Sesshoumaru a warm smile before standing up and going to the foot of the stairs to watch as Inu-Yasha helped a sleepy Kagome down the stairs.  She was wearing a cotton  blue nightgown, and the picture of a white dog was on the swell of her tummy.

  "Sleep well?" asked Rin.

  Kagome shook her head, "I could barely sleep last night . . .the baby kept kicking me . . ."

  Rin nodded sympathetically and went back to the table to grab a chair for Kagome to sit on.

  "The pup still kicking you?" asked Sesshoumaru.

  "Yes . . . and she's putting a lot of pressure on my spine," whimpered Kagome, taking the seat beside her mate.

  Sesshoumaru set his coffee cup down and waited for Inu-Yasha to take a seat before speaking, "Inu-Yasha . . .have you ever tried talking to the pup?"

  "What are you talking about?" asked Inu-Yasha, his one hand was rubbing his mates lower back, while the other was on her shoulder.

  "I've seen it done with a lot of the male dog demons when their mates are pregnant.  When ever the pup is kicking or putting pressure on the mothers back the male will growl, yip, whine, or woof, trying to get the baby to calm down,"

  "That actually works?"

  Sesshoumaru nodded, "As far as I've seen it does . . . couldn't hurt to try, your mate might get more sleep if you do,"

  Inu-Yasha nodded, "Thanks for the advice,"

  Soon the whole house was awake, and everyone was getting one another breakfast and talking excitedly about the cabin trip to the mountains.  Some time during breakfast Mrs. Higurashi took Inu-Yasha and Miroku aside to have a private chat with them in the bathroom.  (Okay do not ask me how I heard this, but I thought I would add it to the story to make it interesting)

  "Mrs. Higurashi is everything okay?" asked Inu-Yasha.

  "Yes everything is fine, I just thought I would let you on a little secret.  Kagome and Sango are having difficulties with back pains right?"

  Inu-Yasha and Miroku nodded in unison.

  "And what have you been doing to ease the pain,"

  "I rub Sango' lower back," said Miroku and Inu-Yasha nodded as well.

  "Sesshoumaru also told me a way I could help, but talking to the pup,"

  "Yes I have hear of demons doing that to their unborn pups, and it usually works, however sometimes Kagome will get back pains and it won't be because of the pup,"

  Inu-Yasha made a mental note to ask Kagome's mother how the hell she knew so much about demons, "Well what else can we do?"

  "Well . . ."  Mrs. Higurashi motioned for Inu-Yasha to lean his head down so she could whisper in his ear.  After a moment, a great big blush appeared on Inu-Yasha's cheeks and he pulled his head back up

  "You want me to do that?" hissed Inu-Yasha so no one else could hear.

  "My husband used to do it to me . . . It will help Kagome,"

  "But . .but . .but . . ."

  "Inu-Yasha what did she tell you?" asked Miroku.

  Inu-Yasha quickly hissed the message in the monks ear and now it was Miroku's turn to blush slightly.

  "Does that really work?" questioned Miroku.

  "Indeed it does . . .would take the pain right away,"

  "Couldn't hurt to try," thought Miroku.

  Inu-Yasha just continued to blush, "Now look . . . I haven't been able to do that in almost three month's . . . I'm going to foreplay with my wife since we cant make love,"

  "Three month's?" hissed Miroku, "You mean you haven't been satisfying yourself?"

  Mrs. Higurashi was trying not to laugh as Inu-Yasha blushed again.

  "What the hell do you mean?"

  Kagome's mother giggled slightly and whispered softly into Inu-Yasha's ear of what the monk meant.

  "You do what?" cried Inu-Yasha.  "You actually touch yourself?"

  Mrs. Higurashi couldn't stop laughing.

  "How else should I do it?  You think I can contain myself for almost five month's?  Although Sango does sometimes help me . . ."

  "Shut up!  I don't even want to know!"

  "Well Miroku, since you don't have a problem with this you can go, but I still want to talk to you," said Mrs. Higurashi, pointing to Inu-Yasha.

  The half demon nodded and waited for Miroku to leave.

  "I take it that you don't talk to Kagome about your sex life?"

  Inu-Yasha was about to speak, but couldn't find the right words, instead he shook his head, "Kagome tries to get me to talk about it with her . . .but I get . . ."

  "Embarrassed?  That is quite understandable since you are unfamiliar with it.  After all here in this era it is educated to our children at an early age so they are familiar with it,"

  "So . . . I should try to talk with Kagome?"

  "Yes . . . and it will help her back pain go away Inu-Yasha . . . you should not be afraid to talk with your mate privately,"

  Inu-Yasha nodded.

  "Well, shall we join the others and get you ready for this cabin trip?"

  "Sure,"

  Mrs. Higurashi smiled and led Inu-Yasha out of the bathroom and back into the kitchen where everyone else was eating their breakfast.  '

  Soon everyone was getting dressed and double-checking to make sure they had everything for the trip before they all pile up in the van.  Kagome had offered to drive, but Inu-Yasha immediately refused, and yet another argument began; however Kagome ended up winning this time.  Inu-Yasha was seated in the drivers seat, and didn't look happy at all saying that pregnant women shouldn't drive.  Miroku, Sango, and Rin sat in the middle seats, while Sesshoumaru, Kohaku, Sota, and Shippo sat in the last seat.  Mrs. Higurashi waved good-bye to everyone as they pulled out of the driveway and into the busy street.  Immediately fights began in the back seats with what games they should play, and someone was taking more room then they should be.  After a while Sesshoumaru split the boys up so he was sitting in the middle.  The ride there was surprisingly quiet, they stopped at a gas station to get some snacks and drinks, and had to stop a lot for Sango and Kagome to go to the bathroom.  Sesshoumaru, slept most of the way since he found the ride to be pretty boring, but Inu-Yasha stayed awake, his eyes never leaving his mates.

  "You know, you make me rather nervous when you're staring at me like that," said Kagome, keeping her eyes on the snowy roads.

  "I'm just making sure that you're okay,"

  "By staring at me the entire trip?"

  "You shouldn't be driving,"

  "Well who else is going to drive?"

  "I could,"

  "Have you ever driven a vehicle before?"

  "Yes,"

  "When"

  "At the amusement park,"

  "Those are bumper cars, they're not real vehicles,"

  "It's still a car, you have the gas, the break petal, the gear stick,"

  "You still remembered what you read in that book?"

  "Why wouldn't I?  You said it was useful information?"

  Kagome sighed, "Just because you know that, doesn't mean you know how to drive.  You have to know the speed limit, where were going, and how to deal with different road conditions,"

  "You could teach me,"

  "Inu-Yasha . . ."

  "I mean your mother taught me the basics . . ."

  "When did she take you driving?"

  "Last time we were here,"

  "You didn't tell me about it?"

  "I thought you would be jealous that I could drive better than you,"

  "Who ever said you could drive better than me?"

  Sesshoumaru peeked on eye open and could tell Inu-Yasha was on thin ice, "Dear brother just leave your mate alone, she's driving fine,"

  Inu-Yasha turned his to yell at his brother, but Rin stuffed a donut into the half demons mouth.

  "I hope your hungry Inu-Yasha, we have plenty of food back here,"

  The half demon growled and ate the chocolate donut, but kept his mouth shut for the rest of the ride.

  After another three bathroom stops, they finally made it to the cabin in one peace, that is except for Inu-Yasha who got sat six times when he stepped out of the van.  Kagome unlocked the cabin while Miroku and Sesshoumaru grabbed the bags and carried them inside.

  "Are you alright Inu-Yasha?" asked Kohaku, helping the poor half demon to his feet.

  "Yeah I'm okay . . . hey Kagome wait!" cried Inu-Yasha, running into the cabin after her. 

  Miroku merely shaked his head and Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes as they grabbed the remaining luggage.  Inu-Yasha found Kagome in the kitchen staring out the window; tears were silently rolling down her eyes.

  "Kagome what's wrong?" asked Inu-Yasha, who suddenly forgot the aching pain in his back.

  Kagome's hands came up to cover her face as she cried softly.

  "Kagome . . . I'm sorry," whispered Inu-Yasha, but hearing his apology made Kagome cry even more.

  "Why am I such a terrible person?" whimpered Kagome

  Inu-Yasha sighed and wrapped his arms carefully around his mate, kissing her forehead, "Kagome you're not a terrible person . . ."

  "Yes I am . . . I've sat you so much over the past few days . . ."

  Inu-Yasha chuckled, "Well you know half the time I do deserve it, however I can understand why you're doing it . . ."

  Kagome nodded.

  "Don't be sad okay?  Were supposed to have fun out here like we did last year.  Why don't you get comfortable in the living room, and Miroku and I will go get the groceries?"

  Kagome smiled and nodded her head, but stopped Inu-Yasha before he walked out the door; "Say . . . were you really good at driving?"

  Inu-Yasha shrugged his shoulders, "Your mom said I was good," 

   Kagome shook her head and headed into the living room.  Inu-Yasha helped carry the remaining luggage in and instructed Sesshoumaru and Miroku, which rooms to put the baggage in.  Although Sesshoumaru wasn't pleased to be taking orders from his brother, he followed without any complaints.

  Sheets were being pulled off the old furniture, and the ladies began to clean the cabin down stairs, while Shippo, Kohaku, and Sota handled the upstairs. 

  Miroku and Inu-Yasha were about to head to the grocery store, but Sesshoumaru wanted to come as well.    The monk guessed the lord didn't want to stay at the cabin with two moody pregnant women.  Both Miroku and Sesshoumaru watched impressively as Inu-Yasha's driving was almost as good as Kagome's, however he did forget to use the turning signal the odd time.

  When they went to the grocery store in the city near by, they had bought over three grocery carts worth of food, and one was mostly filled with Ramen.  After paying for their food, they immediately left before they got anymore strange looks from the other customers.

  When they returned home Kagome and Sango were asleep upstairs while Rin and the ohers were watching TV.  Checking quickly on Kagome and Sango, Inu-Yasha emptied the groceries into the fridge upstairs and the extra one downstairs, and also the freezer.  By the time everything was done it was already dark outside.

  "That was quite and interesting day," sighed Miroku, taking a seat on the couch.

  "Indeed it was," said Inu-Yasha.

  "What do you have planned for us tomorrow?" asked Sesshoumaru, who was standing on the staircase and was heading off to bed.

  "We could go skiing tomorrow.  Kagome and Sango would have to stay in the lodge though,"

  "And would they mind that?" asked Miroku.

  "I don't think so, there's a place where they can rest and where we can visit them,"

  Sesshoumaru nodded, "Then we shall try this skiing tomorrow then,"

  Inu-Yasha just smiled and watched his brother head upstairs to his room, "Well I suppose we should be going to bed as well,"

  Miroku nodded and stretched his arms high above his head before moving to the staircase.  Making sure all the lights were off, Inu-Yasha headed up to bed, where he would most likely be sleeping on the floor.

TBC . . .

Okay people, so sorry if I have been rather bitchy and rude in my last comments, but hey can you blame me?  I've broken up with my boyfriend, tests, and just a lot of shit in my life.  However I apologize for my rude behavior.  Anyways, just read and review!

Lynns