Disclaimer
As always I thank you all for your great reviews! I am glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope that you greatly enjoy chapter, for it is the last chapter of this story. I want to thank all of you that have been reading Finding My Heart, you all encouraged me to keep writing. It's been great and I certainly look forward to getting the sequel posted. I know it's sad that this is the last chapter, but all stories have to end sometime. Anyways I will shutup and let you read on!
Chapter 31-Bright Eyes to a New Adventure
"Look, there it is!" Kagome said. She happily pointed down at the palace.
'It's still there.' Sesshoumaru thought, completely relieved that their home was still standing. Jaken was very loyal to Sesshoumaru, he knew that, but Jaken is also a weak demon compared to many.
"I'm so glad to be home! Are you glad to be home Lord Sesshoumaru-sama?" Rin asked, looking up at the youkai's straight face.
"Yes Rin. I am" He answered. He was happier to be home more than Rin was, he just didn't show it. When he got nearly above the palace, he began to descend and then softly landed on the ground.
"Master Jaken! Master Jaken!" Rin hollered as she opened the gate and ran inside.
"Rin?" Came Jaken's voice. The small green youkai walked out of his room and into the hallway. He was so happy to see his Master back home. "Master Sesshoumaru! You're back!" Jaken said joyfully and ran to Sesshoumaru's feet.
"Yes Jaken. I see that you have taken care of the palace well." Sesshoumaru said while he looked around to see everything just like they had left it.
"Oh w-well th-thank you Lord Sesshoumaru." Jaken blushed at having what was a compliment from his Master.
"Master Jaken, where's Buyo?" Rin asked.
"That wretched cat is in your room Rin. I can't believe you like that animal. All it did while you were away was meow, and want food, it even jumped on me and licked me." Jaken replied, crossing his arms.
"Aww he likes you Master Jaken." Rin said and ran up the stairs to go to her room.
"Liked me! That thing had nothing more on his mind but to torture me!" Jaken said and when he looked beside him Rin was gone. "Hey, where'd you go?"
"Welcome back Master Sesshoumaru." His workers greeted him as he and Kagome entered the dining room. "Would you like us to cook up a nice supper?" They asked sweetly.
"Just for Kagome and Rin." He replied.
"Huh? Aren't you going to have anything?" Kagome asked.
"No, I'm not hungry." Sesshoumaru answered.
"Come to think of it, I'm not hungry either." Kagome said.
Sesshoumaru looked down at his mate. "You're eating." He ordered.
"But what if I don't want to!" She fought back. She always got annoyed when Sesshoumaru thought he could order her around.
"You're pregnant. Now you are eating to feed you and the baby. And a half demon is going to need even more nutrients than a human baby." He explained.
'Then again when he orders me to do something, it's usually what's best for me.' Thinking about what he said, she gave in. "Alright. I'll eat." She said, looking up at him apologetically.
"Okay. We'll get cooking!" The woman said with a smile and went into the kitchen.
"I'm going to go see Buyo." Kagome said and just as she went to leave, Sesshoumaru caught her arm and brought her into his hold. "Sesshoumaru." She smiled as she gazed up at his golden eyes, and was pulled up into his lips. Getting lost in the kiss, she completely forgot about going to see Buyo.
Sesshoumaru began to kiss her more intensely when he sensed her arousal. It had been since before the war that they had been sexually active. And it being so long made him want her even more, and smelling her arousal told him that she felt the same way.
As they continued to kiss, Sesshoumaru's hand began to roam down Kagome's back. Running a finger down her spine to the small of her back, she arched into him even more. He continued to run his hand down and around the back of her thigh, and she gave right into him as her leg lifted and moved up against his waist.
Kagome was completely lost in ecstatic desire when Sesshoumaru moved his hand up her thigh and then suddenly she heard Rin running down the stairs and yelling her name. She pulled away and saw a very disappointed Sesshoumaru. "Rin can't see us doing this." She said.
"You're right." Sesshoumaru said and waited for Rin to burst into the dining room.
And Rin did just that. She skidded to a stop in front of Kagome and held Buyo up. "Kagome! It's terrible! Look, Buyo has lost weight. He's skinny." She said, worry in her voice.
Sesshoumaru instantly got angry that Jaken hadn't looked after Kagome's precious cat. "Jaken!" He hollered loudly so the little demon would hear. Within seconds, Jaken ran to the dining room.
"Y-yes master!"
"When I asked you to look after the niko, it meant feed him." Sesshoumaru said dangerously while glaring down at Jaken.
"B-but my Lord! I did feed him, he just wouldn't' eat." Jaken explained, sweat pouring off his face.
"You expect me to believe that." Sesshoumaru replied and just as he was about to grab Jaken's neck, Kagome spoke up.
"No don't hurt him. I know he's telling the truth. Whenever I leave for longer than a day, Buyo gets depressed and he won't eat. Remember, that's why he had lost weight when we went to get him the first time from the apartment." Kagome said, taking Buyo from Rin's arms.
"T-thank you Kagome." Jaken said, glad his life was spared.
"That's Kagome-sama to you." Sesshoumaru said to Jaken.
"Sorry Master." Jaken said and then left.
"Sesshoumaru, you're too hard on him." Kagome said, feeling bad for Jaken.
"He deserves it after all the years that he's annoyed me." He replied.
"He may have been annoying, but he is very loyal to you." Kagome said.
"Yes, he is." Sesshoumaru agreed.
"Don't worry Rin, Buyo will eat now. But I think when we go somewhere for longer than a day that we should bring Buyo with us now." Kagome suggested.
"I don't want that stupid cat traveling with us." Sesshoumaru said.
"Sesshoumaru, I'm not letting him starve anymore. It's cruel." She retorted. "Besides, it's not like you'll have to carry him. I'll be carrying him."
"After an hour you'll get tired of holding him and then I'll have to carry him." He said.
"That's not true." She replied while rubbing Buyo's head. Buyo purred happily.
"We'll see." Sesshoumaru said and then turned to leave the dining room.
"Hey, where are you going?" Kagome asked.
"I'm letting you and Rin have some alone time." He answered and kept walking.
"Oh, okay!" Kagome said happily and smiled at Rin.
"Kagome-sama, yours and Rin-sama's meal is ready." One of the girls from the kitchen said.
"Okay, thanks!" Kagome said and then took a seat at the table with Buyo and Rin in the chairs on either side of her. They waited another minute and then the youkai brought out their meals.
Before, Kagome hadn't felt hungry, but now her stomach was growling when she smelled the food. The plate was set down in front of her and she instantly knew she wasn't going to be able to eat it all.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Does your cute kitty want some food too?" Mioka asked as she patted Buyo's head.
"Oh, no thanks. I'm going to share mine with him." Kagome replied. "Thanks anyway."
"No problem." She said and disappeared back into the kitchen.
Both Kagome and Rin dug into their food. Kagome shared her food with Buyo, and he ate the food just like he was another human sitting there.
"Rin, do you like it?" Kagome asked, taking another bite.
"Yes, it's very good." Rin smiled. "Kagome, do you think my baby brother or sister will like me?" She asked.
"Of course. Why wouldn't it?" Kagome replied.
"I don't know. I guess I'm hoping that it will because I've never had a friend more my age before. And I could be its big sister." Rin replied, setting down her spoonful of food.
"Well, now you will get to be a big sister." Kagome said. She was glad that Rin wanted a sibling. It meant that her baby would have someone else to play with than just her and Sesshoumaru. The one thing that Kagome didn't understand was why Rin never called her and Sesshoumaru mom and dad. 'She called my mom Grandma. And she calls my baby; sister or brother, so why doesn't she call us mom and dad?' Really wanting the answer, Kagome decided to ask. "Rin, I was wondering, why don't you call me and Sesshoumaru mom and dad?"
Rin looked at Kagome with a surprised look on her face. She never thought that her adopted parents ever noticed that she didn't call them mom and dad. "I'm sorry." She said, bowing her head down.
"Sorry? What are you sorry for?" Kagome asked. She wasn't used to seeing Rin so serious.
"Well, I didn't think you noticed that I didn't call you mom and dad. I kept calling you by your names because I thought you might feel weird if I call you mom, since I'm not your real daughter." Rin said, looking from her hands, back up to Kagome's motherly gaze.
"Rin that's not how I feel at all. Do you think of me as your mother?"
"Yes, I do very much." Rin replied.
"Then I want you to call me mom. I feel like you're my daughter." Kagome said.
"Okay, I will mommy." Rin said as she jumped from her chair, tears flowing from her eyes and hopping straight into Kagome's open arms.
Kagome sat there with the crying Rin in her arms for a few minutes. She was so happy that Rin was going to call her mom now and that now she knew the reason why Rin hadn't before. It wasn't because she didn't think of them as her mom and dad. It was because she thought that her and Sesshoumaru might not like it. "Thank you Rin." Kagome said, so happy to hear that word come from Rin.
Rin sniffled and wiped her tears on Kagome's shoulder.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Sesshoumaru asked as he appeared at the dining room doorway. He had smelled salt from outside the room.
"Dad, I'm sorry." Rin said and scrambled off Kagome to go over to Sesshoumaru.
"Dad?" Sesshoumaru was confused; he had never heard her call him that before. He put his arms around Rin. "Why are you crying?" He asked nicely.
"Because I wanted to call you mom and dad, but I thought that you might not want me to. But now I'll call you mom and dad okay." Rin explained, drying her tears once again.
For a moment, Sesshoumaru didn't know what to say. He was not use to these types of sentimental situations. "Rin you can call me whatever you want, but always know that me and Kagome do consider you our daughter." He said while holding her close to him. He looked over at Kagome and she had tears in her eyes and was smiling. It was just like her to get overly emotional.
Rin brought her head up to look at Sesshoumaru's face and with watery eyes she smiled.
"So, did you finish eating?" He asked, looking at her half-full plate.
Rin giggled. "No, I haven't. But I don't know if I can.
"Why not?"
"Because it is a big meal, I don't think I can eat it all." Rin answered.
"Well Kagome ate all hers." He said, noticing Kagome's empty plate.
"That's because Kagome shared some of hers with Buyo."
Sesshoumaru gave Kagome a glare.
Kagome just innocently smiled back at him.
"Alright then, eat what you can." He said.
"Thanks dad!" Rin said and ran back to her chair to eat what she could.
Sesshoumaru's eyes went slightly larger for a moment. He was going to have to get used to her calling him dad.
Night came quickly and Kagome and Sesshoumaru went to bed. Sesshoumaru had been rubbing Kagome's stomach where the baby is and after awhile he fell asleep with his hand still sitting on her womb.
In the next room Rin was sound to sleep with Buyo curled up in her arm, dreaming about what her little sibling is going to look like.
The next six and a half months went by fast. Within one month after getting back home, Kagome's stomach had gotten bigger and Sesshoumaru had to put up with her fussing about how chubby she looked. Even Rin started to say, "mom you're going to get chubby, you have a baby growing inside you," and she would say it very sweetly.
During the second month, she was craving food much more. Sometimes she was even getting hungry right after a meal. Sesshoumaru had to go out more often to buy and hunt more food, and he stopped asking Mioka to get Kagome's food since the miko would get hungry at all different times of the day. It made it that much worse that it was winter and too cold for Kagome to go outside, cause when she got bored she ate.
By the third month, Sesshoumaru ended up having to travel to the well and back to the modern era because Kagome had a bad craving for ice cream and sweets. Once they had arrived, Kagome's mom was thrilled to see Kagome and as soon as Kagome mentioned the word ice cream, she got up and put ice cream in a bowl for her daughter. By now Kagome as thankfully done fussing about the size of her stomach and didn't care if it got bigger from eating or from the baby. It took awhile to get Kagome's mother to understand that Kagome's stomach is bigger than a woman's usually is at three months. But after a bit of explaining that it is because her baby would be born a couple of months earlier than humans, she understood. Or at least pretended to understand. At the end of their visit, they had a hard time pulling Rin away from the Playstation 2, and Sesshoumaru got stuck holding a grocery bag full of sweets and baby food. It was a tough fly home for him with Kagome wearing her thick winter clothes, Rin wearing her winter clothes, Buyo, and a bag of food hanging from his arms and hands. But once they got home, Kagome was content for another month.
The fourth month passed peacefully, Kagome's stomach got even larger, by now to a human it looked like she was seven months pregnant. Sesshoumaru wouldn't let her carry the big Tensaiga around her waist anymore, which she was peeved about for a moment and then she got over it. The youkai wouldn't' even let Kagome walk up the stairs without him by her side. Once and awhile Kagome yelled at him out of annoyance, but he wouldn't listen to her. There was one time already that she lost her balance on the stairs and since he was with her, he caught her before she fell. That time she showed her gratitude for him being there. Once and awhile she would venture outside, but since spring hadn't quite arrived yet, she would go back in the palace in a few minutes. At times Rin would go to Sesshoumaru and complain about how bored she was. Since her mother could really only play I-Spy. When Rin asked Sesshoumaru enough, he finally gave in and went out to the snow covered garden with her. Rin never thought she would get Sesshoumaru to play a game with her, but after throwing a couple of snowballs at him, he finally bent down, got a snowball and chucked it at her. As Rin and Sesshoumaru threw snowballs at one another, Kagome watched them from a window. She was happy that they could spend some time together, and even though Sesshoumaru still didn't crack a smile, she knew he was having fun with his daughter.
Reflecting back on everything ever since she first met him in the modern era, Sesshoumaru had changed a lot from his old ways and on the other hand he was still the same. He used to be known for hating humans, but he never truly hated all humans. He just dislikes a lot of them. He also never showed any affection for anything, and he still doesn't much, the difference is that she can feel that affection and see through his emotionless face. But one thing will always amaze her, and that's how fate had her and Sesshoumaru become mates when for a long time he was just an evil killing machine, and her and InuYasha's enemy. He had even tried to kill her before. It just goes to show that you never know what fate has in store for you.
When the fifth month came around, spring was in the air. The snow melted and buds started to come back on trees. It was a good month to travel, which is exactly what they did. Since the baby was expected in another month or two, Kagome wanted to go back and see her mom. She knew that her mom would have diapers for her too. So all dressing warmly, because it was still chilly, they took off to the modern era for the last time before the child would be born. Once they arrived, Kagome's mother was still surprised by how big her daughter's belly was at five months. They had a good time there as always and when they left the next day, they had enough diapers to last at least until their next visit.
Finally the sixth month came and Kagome's breasts were paining from the milk building up in them. Her stomach was huge and she knew that her baby was going to come out soon. Then one afternoon in the middle of the month, Kagome went into labor. She had been through a lot of battles and had a lot of wounds before, but never had she felt such pain. She was in so much pain that she was sweating and screaming. Rin was so terrified of how much pain her mother was in that she had to leave the room. Sesshoumaru stood by Kagome's side, and he was happy to have Mioka there. He didn't know it before, but Mioka had delivered babies before.
"Push! Push Kagome!" Mioka yelled a she stood at the bottom of the bed, waiting for any sign of the head to come.
"Ahhh!' Kagome cried as she pushed again. After ten minutes of pushing she finally felt the baby moving to the opening.
"I can see its head! Keep pushing!" Mioka said excitedly.
"Almost there Kagome. Keep pushing." Sesshoumaru said to her softly while holding her hand. If it weren't for him being able to handle pain, then he would be cringing from how hard Kagome was squeezing his hand.
"The baby's coming. One more big push!" Mioka said holding the baby's head and waiting for the rest of it to come out.
Kagome took a big breath in and pushed as hard as she could. "Ahh!" Suddenly she heard a baby crying and all the pain went away.
Mioka cut the umbilical cord and tied it off. Smiling brightly she brought the baby over to its mom and dad. "It's a girl!"
Kagome smiled the happiest smile. She had never felt this kind of joy before, but it was wonderful. She reached for her little girl and held her in her arms. She looked up at Sesshoumaru, her cheeks still rosy and a sparkle in her eyes.
Sesshoumaru smiled back and put one arm around Kagome, and the other around his baby girl.
The girl stopped crying and opened her eyes.
"She's got your eyes." Sesshoumaru said, looking into big chocolate brown eyes.
"Wow, she does!" Kagome said, amazed. "And she has your hair, and she has adorable little doggy ears."
Without notice Mioka left the room so the two could have privacy.
Kagome thought her child was beautiful. Her bright silver hair just reached her shoulders and brought out her bright brown eyes. Through her hair stood the smallest furry ears that could just barely be seen because of how short they were. Her hands were tiny, but still had bright white little claws. "She's beautiful." She said, smiling down at her child. She couldn't get over this type of love she felt for the baby in her arms. Suddenly she felt like she had something to always protect.
Sesshoumaru caught Rin's scent and turned his head to see her peeking through the crack of the door. "Come in Rin." He welcomed.
Rin slowly approached Kagome.
"Rin, you have a little sister." Kagome said, her eyes glistening.
Rin smiled as she looked at the baby. "She's so pretty." She said.
"Yes, she is." Kagome replied.
Rin averted her gaze to Kagome. "Are you all better now." She asked, very concerned about her mother.
"Yes, I am much better Rin, thank you."
"That's what labor is like Rin." Sesshoumaru said.
"If it's that painful, then I don't think I want a baby." Rin said.
Kagome laughed at Rin's comment. The pain had been all worth it in the end.
"What do you want to call her?" Kagome asked, looking at Sesshoumaru.
"Something that will suit her." He answered.
"Something that means beauty." Kagome said.
Rin studied the baby. "And with a hint of wild." She said.
"Yes, wild and beautiful like a forest." Kagome said. "How about Moriko-yasei."
"Wild forest child. That is pretty." Rin replied.
"Mori." Sesshoumaru said. "It's perfect."
Well there it is, the last chapter. And technically since I'm making a sequel the story isn't completely over. The sequel is going to be all about Moriko's life and Sesshoumaru and Kagome's life, it's going to be one big adventure and I can't wait to get the first chapter finished. The title is going to be either Time To Switch, or Finding My Way, I haven't decided yet, so if you like one of those titles then don't hesitate to tell me which one it sould be. I plan to have the first chapter posted on October 15th, or before if I get it done early! Anyways, thank you all!
