Disclaimer: The characters of Inuyasha are owned by Rumiko Takahashi, but this story belongs to me

Chapter Eleven: Unwelcome Visitors

Day Nineteen–

Okay, I think I've had this doll waaaay too long. I'm starting to get over protective and possessive. Not only am I starting to view the baby as my own, but now I'm starting to claim all my friends and family as my own and am feeling less and less like sharing. I'm grumpy all the time and it doesn't take much these days to set off my temper. It's also getting harder and harder to keep from saying things I would like to say but know I shouldn't say.

This project isn't exactly bringing out the best in my personality. Though, come to think of it, I can blame it on the lack of sleep I've been getting. I just hope I have friends left by the end of this project.

Kagome turned her attention back to her friends, who were all getting ready for bed after an exhausting day. It would be very easy to blame her irritability and possessiveness on her lack of sleep. But she knew better. She allowed herself a small smile. Sure… it's the lack of sleep…

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Groaning, Kagome opened her eyes. Her entire body ached. In addition to all the walking they did yesterday (the visit from Kouga seemed to have spurred Inuyasha on to some sort of ruthless traveling marathon), but in the few moments of time that Kagome had when Mikomi was quiet was spent pouring over her ever increasing pile of homework assignments. Once again, the miko didn't get a wink of sleep.

"It's almost over," Inuyasha mumbled as Kagome gathered her papers and books and stuffed them haphazardly into her bag.

"What?"

"Nuthin'." He pushed a stray book at her with his foot. "Hurry up and pack, wench. Everyone has already finished breakfast."

Bleary eyed, Kagome nodded, waved him away, and yawned. Sitting next to her bag she put in the last book and pulled out her hairbrush. It was a bad sign when it got stuck before she finished the first stroke. With a rather dog demon-ish snarl she growled at her hair as she tugged at it. But it refused to untangle no matter how careful or how hard she brushed. As she was trying to untangle a particularly aggravating knot she had the brush yanked from her grasp.

"Stupid girl."

Tiredly Kagome looked up at Inuyasha, who looked like he was trying to decide if he should break the brush or throw it far away. After a moment he dropped it into the bag and pulled it out of her reach.

"My hair!" she whined. She hated sounding whiney, but she couldn't stop herself.

Her dog-eared friend rolled his eyes before dropping her bag. He scowled at her when she moved towards it and growled a little, then he started rummaging around inside. Kagome sat back and stared, too tired to try and make any sense out of what he was doing. Finally he pulled out a hair band and flung it at her before stalking off with her bag once more.

That was… almost sweet! She looked at the hair band in her hand and tried to decide what to do about the rat's nest on her head.

A pony tail was out of the question considering the sad state of her hair, so she settled for the slightly less messy option of a braid. By no stretch of the imagination could it be called 'neat', but it was better than trying to untangle it. She yawned again, promising herself a nice long bath and couple rounds of conditioner once they reached a good place for them to bathe. But quite frankly, for the first time, she was just too tired to care.

"At least you got a good night's sleep," said Miroku as he nodded towards Mikomi. "The baby didn't cry much at all last night."

The sound Kagome made was something between a grunt and a groan, then a few mumblings as she let Sango force a cup of something good smelling in her hands. Miroku gave her a quizzical look, not understanding her mumblings (and told her so). She mumbled again. Miroku opened his mouth to ask her to repeat herself when a clawed fist landed on his head.

"She had homework to do."

Miroku smiled. "It will be over soon though, is that not right, lady Kagome?" But she was so focused on her hot drink that she merely grunted again.

"Seventy three more days," whispered the hanyou wistfully.

"Did you say something, Inuyasha?" asked Shippo.

"Keh." He jumped onto a low hanging branch to wait for the group to get ready to move out once again.

Once they began traveling, Inuyasha carried Kagome on his back and Shippo on his shoulder. Miroku offered to carry the backpack if Sango wouldn't mind carrying Mikomi. Kagome snickered quietly. Though she was bone weary, she kept an eye on her two friends.

Miroku was watching Sango from the corner of his eye. If he watched her too obviously she would get flustered and give the baby to someone else.

"What are so giggly about?" hissed Inuyasha without a backwards glance.

Kagome leaned up to whisper in his ear. "Miroku is watching Sango."

"So? He always watches her."

"That's true, but this time he's watching her with Mikomi. I think he's picturing what his baby would look like in her arms."

Inuyasha was quiet for a moment, moving subtly to shift her weight on her back a bit. "Do you?"

Kagome snuggled in closer, feeling very tired. "Hmm? Do I what?"

Exaggerated sigh. "Do you ever picture your baby when you look at Mikomi?"

Suddenly Kagome's body went from ultra relaxed to stiff as a board. She was worried that she had been too obvious in her daydreams. Her first instinct was to lie. Nothing scares off a guy as much as saying you think about having his baby on a daily basis, especially one who was already skittish when it came to anything remotely connected to emotions or intimacy.

"Yes," she said cautiously as she willed herself to relax again. No sense lying when you didn't really have to. Besides, he always seemed to know when she was lying anyhow, he was like a living, breathing lie detector. However, she didn't have to tell him that it wasn't just her baby that she was imagining. She smirked.

She expected more questioning or some smart aleck remark. But instead all she got was thoughtful silence. She had almost given up on any sort of reply when she could have sworn that she heard him say "me too".

It would have been great to be able to ask him what exactly he meant by that. It would have also have been really nice to be able to pretend it meant what she would have liked it to mean. Was he thinking about his baby? Or was he thinking about a baby with… her… But before she could make up her mind if she wanted to confront him or simply be content to daydream, Kagome found herself dumped unceremoniously on her tush in the middle of the bumpy road.

"Ow!"

The word "sit" was on the tip of her tongue as she rubbed her bottom. She wasn't in this bad a mood on her worst PMS day. What a way to ruin a perfectly good potentially touching moment. But before she could say anything, Shippo was suddenly in her lap holding Mikomi and trembling terribly. Protective instincts kicked in and Kagome jumped to her feet and reached for her bow.

His voice was smooth as silk, but it still made her skin crawl.

"The half breed has managed to father a child."

"Naraku!" To say that Inuyasha was not pleased would be the understatement of the century. His sword was drawn and was leaping towards him before Kagome could blink.

The miko stood in front of Shippo with an arrow trained on Naraku. Unfortunately with Inuyasha's attacks there was the chance of hitting him instead, so she simply kept the arrow drawn and ready. It disturbed her to see Naraku less focused on Inuyasha and more focused on her and, strangely enough, Mikomi. However, it surprised her that she wasn't feeling the usual shiver of fear down her spine, she was feeling something else entirely. It felt like a fire burning inside of her. Her eyes narrowed as she drew the arrow back farther. How DARE he attack my family!

"Your child does not live." One of his arms turned into a razor sharp tentacle and whizzed towards Kagome.

"Don't you TOUCH her!" Quickly the tentacle was viciously cut off, as well as the other four that appeared.

"Why do you protect it so fiercely? What are you hiding?" His eyes were staring at Kagome, as if he could read the answers to his questions in her eyes.

Inuyasha paused long enough to make sure Kagome was okay as he prepared for the next attack. He saw her standing there, with a slight glow around her, looking like she could take on Naraku bare handed. He also noticed the arrow. Catching her eye he nodded towards her and used Naraku to push himself off backwards. As he leapt backwards, Kagome let her arrow fly.

Naraku exploded in a shower of pink sparkles.

Kagome dropped to her knees and hugged Shippo to her. When she looked up she saw Sango and Miroku looking back and forth between her and Inuyasha with open mouths. The fuzzy eared half demon was kicking around the area where Naraku had last been standing, obviously looking for something. He swore loudly and angrily.

"It was just a puppet!"

Letting out a disappointed sigh, Kagome stood up. With her hands still on her behind from dusting off her skirt Kagome noticed that Sango and Miroku were still staring at her with funny expressions on their faces.

"What?" she asked irritably.

"That was different," Miroku murmured to Sango.

"What was different?" asked Kagome.

"You're right," agreed the demon exterminator. "It was team work. Did you see how they were communicating with only a look?"

"And they dispatched him so quickly."

"Yes. They are certainly beginning to learn to work together."

"I'm right here, you know!" Kagome said grumpily as she took Mikomi from Shippo and set the kit on her shoulder.

Miroku and Sango continued to discuss the change in their battle tactics as Kagome rolled her eyes and made her way over to Inuyasha. He was scowling down at the remains of the baboon pelt and the broken puppet. She stopped a few feet away from him, letting Shippo down to join the others in their conversation. As always, he was dying to add his two cents worth, but not within bopping distance of the hanyou with the notoriously short temper.

Though he was facing the ground, his eyes were unfocused, staring into nothingness. His arms were crossed in front of his chest with his claws digging into the flesh, drawing blood. Kagome couldn't stand to see him this upset. It wasn't like it was the first time Naraku had sent a puppet after them. Reaching out she placed her hand on his arm.

"He was trying to kill our pup," he whispered.

Suddenly Kagome was very afraid. Terrified. Her insides felt twisted and pinched. His eyes were so sad… so hopeless… like he had given up on something precious. She couldn't help but brush his bangs out of his eyes. When his eyes finally looked into hers all she saw was sorrow and regret.

Without a thought she wrapped her arms around him. She ignored the gasps of her friends as she held him.

"He didn't even come close," she assured him. "Did you see how fast we took him out? We're getting better! And faster! By the time we have a…"

She stopped herself, jumping back like she had been electrocuted and looked anywhere but at him. I can't believe what I almost said! "I mean, you know, if any of us have any pu… uh… kids, we'd be able to handle it no problem! Shippo does a good protecting job and Miroku can do barriers, plus you and Sango are great fighters…" She finally got the guts to look back into his eyes. "Don't give up, okay?"

He looked at her curiously. There was something swirling in his golden eyes that she didn't quite recognize, but made her feel all squishy inside. Then his eyebrows drew together and he glared, baring his teeth slightly. At first Kagome was worried she said something she shouldn't have, or that he caught on to what she almost said. Then she noticed that the look of death was going over her shoulder. She turned to see Sango and Miroku deep in discussion while staring unabashedly at them. Kagome didn't need super hanyou hearing to know what, or rather who, they were talking about.

Soooo close to an actual MOMENT and we have an audience, she groaned.

The extra scrutiny made sure that Inuyasha stayed quite some distance away from Kagome for the rest of the afternoon. Which, unfortunately, meant that she was walking instead of being carried. She was seriously considering friendicide. Her feet hurt and it took every drop of energy to keep moving. Sango offered to let her ride Kirara, but some obviously masochistic tendancy kept her from accepting out of spite. So she complained and she complained loudly and often.

Sure she knew she was being unreasonable. Okay, so maybe there were other more unkind words that could be used to describe her attitude, but she was tired and grumpy. She was mad at Inuyasha for letting what their friends said to make him insecure or immature or whatever it was that was making him act like he couldn't care less about her. She was mad at Sango and Miroku for their teasing and whatever it was that they said to destroy her almost moment with the dog demon. To be honest, she was just plain ol' mad. Things were going so well for once!

By the time night fell she could no longer work up the energy to be mad. In fact, for the last hour or so she had been feeling guilty about acting so childishly just because she was angry. But even the guilt didn't last terribly long since she was practically asleep on her feet. Luckily they had not run into any more demons. She was sure that if they had she might have just stood there and let them put her out of her misery.

Hours ago Sango and Miroku took Mikomi to care for her before Kagome dropped her, with Shippo's guidance of course. Now she was just grateful to stop.

Her eyelids were heavy. She hoped she could make it through her cup of noodles without passing out. One more bite then I HAVE to get some sleep. I'll work on my test review tomorrow. Maybe I can get Inuya…"

Suddenly she was wide awake. Inuyasha was sitting stiffly beside her, his cup of noodles forgotten. A soul stealer was in their camp.

Insecurity. Hurt. Dread. Fear. Anger. Sorrow. More insecurity. All these feelings returned, as they always did when she saw the soul stealers, making her sick to her stomach. She could feel herself closing up inside. She turned her head so she wouldn't have to see Inuyasha leaving her.

"Go on," she whispered harshly when she didn't hear him move, "She's waiting for you." Her voice caught, and she prayed that the tears wouldn't fall yet. Not until he was gone.

A part of her felt that this was even worse than having Naraku attack. Another part of her felt guilty for thinking that, but it didn't make it any less true.

No one made a sound. The only thing she could hear was the ghostly soul stealer flying nearby and her own heavy heartbeat. She couldn't even hear anyone breathing. Were they all holding their breath too? Then… to her surprise… she heard slurping.

She turned her head to see Inuyasha back to inhaling his ramen.

"Inuyasha… aren't you… um… going…?" Stupid stupid Kagome! Just throw them a wedding shower why don't you!

Tipping his cup up, he drained the rest of the contents. He tapped on the bottom to get one last stray noodle. Carelessly he tossed the empty container over his shoulder and reached for the second cup that Kagome made him.

"Inuyasha… Kik…"

"I'm not going," he interrupted her quickly, then turned his attention back to his food.

"But…"

He slammed down his cup and glared at it sitting in front of him. "When was the last time I went to see her, Kagome? When?"

"But… you always say, you know, in case she has information on Naraku or just to see if she's okay or…"

"Do you WANT me to go?"

"I…"

With a growl he stood up. "Fine. I'll go."

Kagome you complete MORON! Quickly she jumped to her feet. "Wait! That's not what I meant! I just thought…"

Once again he interrupted her. But this time he stopped her when he grabbed her hand and gave it a sharp yank. "Come with me." It wasn't a question or even a request. It was a demand. He stomped off into the woods and was dragging her behind him.

Sleep was forgotten as she raced to keep up with Inuyasha, who had yet to relinquish her hand. Not that she minded. In fact, she wasn't about to do anything that was going to remind him that he was still holding on to her. No telling when the shy hanyou would drop it and go into another embarrassed sulk.

They didn't have very far to go far. The soul stealer's mistress was not far away from their camp. The miko of clay and bones raised an eyebrow at seeing Inuyasha's hand firmly around her reincarnation's. Kagome also didn't miss the look that only a woman, even an undead one, gives another woman when taking in her ragged clothing, sloppy hair, and general grubbiness.

"There are rumors of a child."

"Any news of Naraku?" asked Inuyasha gruffly.

"No. What are you doing with…"

Without another word Inuyasha turned and started dragging a very confused Kagome along behind him. She was practically tripping over her own feet to keep up with him. She also realized the had not given up her hand yet.

That was it? It took a few seconds of complete befuddlement, but then she began to smile. That was it!

Then she laughed out loud, suddenly giddy, startling the dog demon into stopping and dropping her hand. He cocked his head to the side, probably to determine whether or not she had gone off the deep end and dove headfirst into insanity. She twirled in a pirouette with her arms spread wide and laughed again. Inuyasha's lips quirked up into a smile.

Kagome couldn't stop herself. She launched herself into his arms and pressed her lips to his cheek. She was far too happy to be embarrassed. All the way back to camp she practically danced.

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Sometimes life does funny things. For example, sometimes the things you fear the most will happen happens. You have a choice, let it destroy you, or stand and fight. Sometimes fighting works, sometimes it doesn't, but at least you know you tried. And sometimes you just have to have faith in others.

I'm sad to say that I don't always have faith in the people I should and I'm not always a fighter. What's worse is that sometimes the things that are most important are the things that I most afraid of fighting for.

Why is that? I wonder if it's human nature or if I'm just messed up and determined to sabotage my potential happiness.

Not literally fighting of course, I mean, it's not like we live in the feudal ages or anything where people fight all the time. Heh. Metaphorically speaking I mean. Like fighting for top grades or for a really good job or for the last chicken nugget.

While doing this project I'm learning a lot about myself as well as the people around me. I wish I could say that I'm just finding out good stuff like how strong I am and that I can take on any challenge or stuff like that. However, I'm finding out not so great stuff too. Like how I really do depend on others, maybe too much. And that I have a serious problem with jealousy. Not to mention that sometimes when I'm grumpy I occasionally take it out on others.

Part of what I'm learning is what it's like to be responsible for another human being (sort of). But the other part is that I'm learning how to cope with stress. Oh yeah, and how to survive on an hour of sleep a week.

This stupid journal is making me think too much.

Kagome Higurashi

P.S. If I do end up going insane, I'm leaving instructions with my mother to use this journal to use against you in the court of law. Just thought you should know.

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Author's Notes:

Thank you all for your reviews. I can't tell you how happy they made me. You guys are great! Originally I hadn't planned on putting Naraku in this story, or Kikyo, since I thought they would add too much angst to a light hearted story. But the reviews I've been getting convinced me to put him in the story. I decided to add Kikyo (very briefly) as well to get all the most unwelcome visitors to visit in one day (poor Kagome).