The Talk

It was the middle of the night when she felt it, the pure unadulterated fear and panic that swam around her home made her bolt upright. Sweat dripped down her brow as she tossed off her covers and quickly made her way to Rin's room. A candle was lit and she could hear muffled cries as well quick panicked breathing. Throwing open the shoji screen she could only blink as Rin stared up at her, fear in her doe brown eyes as she stared at the stark puddle of red that pooled in her lap and seeped into the futon under her.

"Ma-mama what's wrong with me?" Her voice was a low croak, fear layering every syllable that escaped her as her shoulders trembled with fear. Instantly Kagome was on her knees pulling the small preteen into her embrace, whispering soothing words into the crown of her head as she comfortingly rubbed her back.

Rin had never called her mama, not out right, sure she had almost called here that quite a few times in the past yet she had always caught herself before the word fully left her mouth. She knew Rin longed to call her as such but was scared to do so she always let those almost slip ups pass without too much fuss.

Rin, despite, always smiling had a very hard childhood up until the very minute she was revived by Sesshoumaru. So she knew that when she was ready she would take that final step and she would neve think of rebuking the child's claim. In fact hearing her call her mama made tears wheel up in her own eyes as she pulled the crying child closer to her, her heart overflowing with joy and love.

"Shh, it's okay my darling girl. You're fine, you're not dying. You're just growing up." Smiling, she pulled back to press a kiss to Rin's forehead, glad that she had calmed her breathing some, once she was sure she was no longer panicking she stood and pulled Rin with her.

"Come, let's go have a bath and a nice long chat about the changes your body will soon be going through." Rin could only nod, a flush dusting her cheeks as she tried to avoid Kagome's gaze.

She'd done it, she had finally called her mama, it was scary and a rush all rolled into one and she found she liked saying it. So she would keep saying it since it seemed that Kagome did not mind, in fact she seemed to enjoy it and made her happy to be able to make her mother smile a true genuine smile again after so many forced smiles. "Okay...mama." Kagome was practically beaming as Rin ducked her and raced towards the hot springs hoping to not leave a trail of blood.

For once Kagome was glad Shippo had decided to stay with Miroku and Sango for the night to help out with their twins. Having the talk with one of her children was going to be hard enough but giving it to both of them at the same time? While not even knowing if female demons even had cycles...she would have to ask Sango about that later since it now fell to her to give Shippo the talk as well. Hopefully it would be a long time in between now and then.

She wasn't ready for both of her children to be growing up so quickly!

Returning to her room she quickly grabbed a few items, her water bottle heating pad as well as a mixture of herbs that would lessen Rin's cramps and the feudal era equivalent of a maxi pad. It was while she was gathering these items that a stray thought hit her.

How long had it been since she had her own period?

A month? Two?

Chewing on her bottom lip she tried to recall but it kept escaping her, sighing she shook her thoughts away. Now wasn't the time to be focusing on herself but on her daughter. Besides she knew that her cycle was no doubt thrown off whack due to the amount of stress she had been under. It wouldn't be the first nor the last time her cycle was disrupted due to the stress of everyday life in the feudal era, let alone adding in the fact that she was pretty much in the middle of a divorce.

Inuyasha had left without much more than an, "I'm sorry" and hadn't been back since...

Forcing the thoughts of that night back into the smallest darkest corner of her mind she made her way towards the hot springs and readied herself to give 'the talk'. Oh man was this going to be awkward.