It was the dead of winter.
These past few weeks had only gotten worse with the ferocity in which the snow fell from the sky and the wind rattled against the sides of homes, it howled loudly in his ears. Not even the thicket of the forest could stop the bone-chilling gusts.
Their home was built to last, that was for sure. Nothing from his own two hands would buckle under some measly wind! Though, as the wind continued to pummell against the walls his nerves began to act up more than they already had been. It was too late, any wood he may have had the chance to gather and reinforce the walls with would be sopping wet and useless by now.
The snow had almost reached two feet tall. The small trail leading to their home had been trudged through by the resilient Kaede and Sango earlier, the deep gashes in the ground began to fill back up with the white powder. When they had walked by him the snow clung heavily to their kimono and hakama, where they brushed it off before entering, nothing but a puddle sat in front of the shoji.
Something set this night apart from the others, where only the howling wind could be heard. Inside, Sango and Kaede's voices hushed and murmured, although if he tried he could decipher their words but Kagome's voice pulled his attentive ears in her direction.
Normally he'd tune them out because he couldn't care less about their useless chatter but tonight was different. All he could hear were Kagome's pained sighs and groans. For hours now. He was kicked out long ago by the women, initially he took it as a blessing but now it seemed like a curse to not be there for her. He'd peeked in a few times but only saw Sango and Kaede's backs, then give a once over to the fire to make sure it was adequate and returned to his post outside of their home.
He wished he could do something productive, like hunt or catch fish, or really anything besides standing like a guard for hours on end now.
Kagome moaned again and his ears twitched, she sounds so exhausted, and as she spoke out of breath to the two women he could tell she was on the verge of tears. They continued to reassure her that things were going well enough. They may have reassured Kagome but they didn't convince him - he'd never heard Kagome in such pain before in his life.
He crossed his arms over his chest tightly to keep himself from darting in.
She let out what he knew was a scream, and he swiveled almost immediately on his heels to go crashing in to see what was wrong, his hand clutching the shoji with a fierce grip.
His ears perked, Sango and Kaede cheered lightly, congratulating Kagome, whispering words of comfort and encouragement.
Their voices died down, or he had tuned them out, because he heard something so unfamiliar he had to focus on it. The sound of a baby crying.
It was over.
His initial instinct was to whip open the shoji to join her with not a second to lose but then he remembered the promise he made to himself - he had to stop being so brash. Ultimately Kagome had sweetly mentioned to him, more in a nudging way, that babies needed calm environments, and his assertive and loud eruptions wouldn't create a calm environment for the baby. He scoffed and ignored her at the time but he knew it was true.
He inhaled sharply, the freezing temperatures cooling him off from the inside out through his lungs. He had to be cool, calm, and collected - even if he felt panic begin to arise within himself.
Inuyasha slowly opened the shoji and entered quickly so the air couldn't follow inside. A few timid steps and he entered the warm room crackling with fire loudly, his eyes avoiding Kaede and Sango completely to gaze upon Kagome laid up on her sleeping bag.
He felt his eyes and facial features soften from their previous twinged state at the mere sight of it. It was less bloody than he anticipated, outside the shoji he could smell the blood and it made him sick to think losing that amount of blood was acceptable.
Her purple sleeping bag had a large crimson circle under her bum where she sat but none of the three women were panicking, so he tried not to raise his concerns.
"Inuyasha..." Kagome breathed as she saw him enter slowly from across the fire, her slender arms holding the slippery baby against her robed chest confidently, though her voice sounded as if she'd faint any moment.
"Kagome..." He murmured, taking another timid step further into the room. "Are you alright?"
She nodded with a small smile. "Mhm."
It was so good to see her smile.
Kagome debated returning to her era for the birth of their baby. Turns out there's adequate technology there to ensure both mother and baby survived child birth, and he was all for it. He'd pushed and pushed her to finally agree to using the well and before they could - it had stopped working mysteriously. There'd been no time to investigate once the snow had fallen on the lands.
Death during childbirth seemed like a normal thing to him - her modern medicine tainted the way he'd look at it from now on and left him with nail biting and leg tapping nervousness.
"It wasn't as bad as I anticipated, yenno.." She said faintly as his feet took him to her side. "They say everything went well."
Kaede and Sango nodded in silent agreement as they continued to clean and finish her.
"That's... good." Inuyasha muttered, trailing off for a moment as their baby flailed wildly in her arms, revealing to him that she had birthed a baby girl.
"A girl." He reaffirmed blankly, almost as if his brain had begun a hard reboot.
"A girl.." She smiled with a nod, returning her chocolate brown eyes toward the baby on her chest with nothing but unconditional and warming love in those eyes.
"Here." Without thinking he stripped himself of his suikan and knelt down with it hanging from his hands, Kagome lifting the baby into its comfortable embrace. The winds outside were cold, and despite not feeling it himself, he wasn't sure how this naked little baby felt - his need to protect her from the elements overrode his other senses.
Kagome held the swaddled babe on her chest as she settled her back into the mass of pillows behind her.
"I'm still in awe... I can't believe I did it without my modern medicine.. I was worried."
His brow twitched. "You're the one that reassured me that you didn't feel worried !"
"I only said that to calm you, Inuyasha."
He bit his tongue. She made the right choice, he knew, but if he had his way he'd rather know her worry - he would have dug through a thousand feet of snow to get back to the well to aid her and their baby!
His craned brow relaxed as he finally fixated his golden eyes on the face poking from his blood red garment.
"You did good Kagome." He muttered as a reply to her initial comment, ignoring their banter for the brief moment, it flew away along with any other feelings of fear and anxiety.
She never ceased to amaze him. Just when he thought he'd seen all the tricks she could pull, she had more. She relied on her modern medicine when times were dire and her lacking natural medicinal knowledge couldn't solve a problem, so surely he'd imagine her wanting the aid of 'professionals', but as times got tough as they always seemed to do, she managed. He didn't want to imagine what it must have been like for her, but his chest swelled with pride regardless.
He noted the roundess of her face, small nose, rounded human ears, her rich brown eyes almost hidden by her wavering eyelids. She was remarkably... normal looking. What was he saying, of course she'd be normal looking! Her demon blood had been watered down to merely a quarter, enough that she could pass human, that's for sure.
Exactly how he wanted her to turn out. She looked like a normal human being but not to him.
Much to Kagome's dismay, he figured, she'd admitted she'd like their child to resemble him feature wise and not so much attitude wise.
He inwardly grinned, she ended up looking like Kagome and hopefully had his attitude to boot!
Inuyasha reached forward and carefully lifted her top lip to reveal the smallest nubs of canine teeth poking from her gums.
"Hmph!" The corners of his lips tugged upwards. She'd need decent teeth and some claws and she'd be all set, he would have to check her hands later once they'd become unbound by his jacket ..
Kagome's brows twinged and she let out a whimper. "Teeth already... that's not good."
"Huh?" He tore his eyes away from their baby and stared at her blankly. "Why?"
"How am I supposed to feed her!" She stammered with a worried look creeping on her features. "I'll just be a human teething toy."
He had nothing to say that would provide any comfort to her whatsoever, so he went back to staring intently at the baby, his analytical eyes surveying every single detail he could take in.
"Do you want to hold her?" She stared up at him curiously, nudging the bundle closer to him.
He blinked, and blinked again to rid the anxiety induced images of him dropping her to the floor or his claws poking her through his garb.
"Uh, okay." He leaned off the balls of his feet and sat cross legged beside Kagome, scootching as close as he could to her to ensure minimal travel distance for baby.
Kagome leaned closer with the bundle and he leaned a few inches back. "Uhm, maybe not."
"What! Why not?" Kagome nearly screeched.
He heard Sango snicker behind him. "What are you two still doing here anyways?!" He barked over his shoulder, a clear indication to everyone present his anxiety and nerves were getting the best of him.
"We just finished packing up, Inuyasha." Kaede replied calmy as she stood, Sango following suit.
"Right." Sango confirmed. "Congratulations on the healthy baby girl, you two. She's beautiful."
"Mm yes, a blessing." Kaede collected her sac of tools.
The couple remained silent after goodbyes and thank yous were said until the shoji closed and the cold wind that weasled in was choked out by the fire.
"Inuyasha... why don't you want to hold her?" Kagome knew her initial reaction had been formed through shock, there was no horrid reason as to why he refused. He talked a big game quite often but underneath that whole facade was a big ol' softy that she always wanted to lull out.
He crossed his arms over his chest and drew in a deep breath. "Well.. what if I drop her!"
"You won't!" She attempted at reasoning. "You've never dropped me! And you've always managed to catch me when I needed it."
"Hmmm." He listened to her words, they etched away at his reservations.
"Not to mention I think she'll be a little more resilient than you think she is. She may mostly be human but I think she's going to be quite hardy."
He softened his festures at the thought. It's true, I can't go thinking she's on the same level as a pure human baby, she's still got some of me in there...
He outreached his hands and she carefully handed him the bundle. At first he held her in his hands a foot away from his body, staring at her blankly, mind wandering as his eyes stared deeply into her facial features.
Kagome touched her warm fingers to his. "Hold her against yourself." She instructed.
So he did. He retracted his arms closer to his body and held her up against his beige undershirt.
She kicked her little legs underneath his red robe that contained her with clenched eyes, and with what he only assumed were balled fists under there. He hadn't seen a lot of babies up close in his days, but from what he'd seen from Miroku and Sango's young brood was nothing but constant crying and vying for attention. His baby seemed nothing of the sort, she was strong, he could tell!
Inuyasha lifted her up to his face, close enough for his nose to take a big sniff of her uncovered head. "Hm." He noted to himself. She smelled reminiscent of both Kagome and himself, and her blood smelled mostly of a humans. His eyelids drooped low.
It only reminded him of their mortality. He'd outlive Kagome, that much was for sure. Eventually, if he hadn't gotten himself into dire trouble by then, he would most likely see his daughter grow old and pass on.
What he wouldn't give to relinquish that part of him to grow old with Kagome.
His stomach lurched and a coldness crept over his face despite the warm temperature of the room.
"Can you take her." It wasn't a question, he leaned forward and handed the bundle back into Kagome's arms, a puzzled expression lining her features.
"Inuyasha... what's wrong?"
"I need a minute, don't mind me." He stood instantly, his bangs falling over his face, hotness tingling behind his eyes.
His feet led him outside without even subconsciously realising it. The chill hugged him tighter now that his robe was back inside, creeping inside his thin undershirt.
He didn't want to bring it up to her, or confide in her, though it wasn't like he did that very often anyways. Kagome knew what their fate was bound to be as much as he did, but he couldn't help but think bitterly that he was receiving the short end of the stick.
For Kagome her life would end just the way she expected as a human. She'd grow old while surrounded by her family. Nothing completely out of the ordinary.
"Hmph." The cold was quick to freeze away the hot tears that prickled in the corners of his eyes, it was better that way, he could go back in there with any evidence of tears.
Unlike Kagome, he'd watch her age. He'd see the age lines crease her porcelain skin and her body begin to weigh down, her back would arch and she'd move slower. He would look exactly the same, as if he hadn't aged a day. It wasn't fair.
He liked to rag on Kaede for being an old hag - since he'd known her since she was a small child, but karma was now smacking him on the back of the head.
Even the image of Kagome growing old made him scowl mournfully. It was completely and utterly out of his control. Their daughter would last longer than she was, but he had no knowledge of any quarter demon out there and what they could expect for a life span.
He knew his own father was well over at least three thousand years old before his untimely death. Inuyasha knew he had plenty more years to go, so their baby could expect to see a potentially longer life than her mother had.
He'd go back inside when the tight ball in his throat subsided. He knew if he even tried to speak he'd stutter like a bumbling fool and get Kagome all worked up.
He breathed in slowly from his parted lips, hoping the cold air would force the lump away.
The day he hated the most, when the new moon soared overhead, was now what he wished to attain. It seemed things really do come full circle.
"Inuyasha." His ears twitched at the disturbance, he peered over to the shoji to see half of her face poke out. Oddly enough he didn't hear her approach, but he supposed he was too engulfed in his morbid thoughts of an aging Kagome.
"Yeah?" He replied, biting the tip of his tongue, his mind warped her face to look similar enough to Kaede's and it began to upset him again.
"What are you doing out here, come inside." She beckoned with worried brows and a sad scowl on her lips.
He couldn't say no to that face. With a silent sigh he pushed his back off the beam from his leaning position and stepped inside after her, his feet warming up as they touched the warm wood.
"What's wrong?" She padded back over to her sleeping back as she adjusted the baby in her arms, Inuyasha watched as the tiny body squirmed in his robe.
He watched her with soft features as she sat back down with ease. He couldn't answer.
She just stared right back up at him with sullen eyes. "I think I know."
"Why's that?" He followed her and sat cross legged by her side, his eyes panning between both her and baby.
"I think you should just focus on the now." She spoke softly as she used her fingers to pull the blanket away from the babes face. "Don't dwell so much on the future, leave that sadness for when you have to deal with it."
She was right. His heart pounded in his chest. Why did it seem so easy for her to accept their fate but he seemed to stuck on it?
"I can't help it." He defended himself but he could feel the prickles sting behind his eyes again. "It's not an easy thing to try and forget."
"I know... I'm only twenty-four. There is no need to worry for a long while, so just try and enjoy yourself."
He gave a simple nod. He'd pretend to shove it into the forgotten depths of his brain but he will never stop thinking about it. "You're right."
They both watched their baby in silence. She whimpered lightly, waving her chubby little arm around as she figured out what exactly her limbs were.
Not to brag, but he knew it in his heart of hearts that she was definitely the cutest baby around.
"Did you decide on a name?" He peered up to match her eyes. He'd left the naming to her, he was creative enough to brand his child for the rest of her life.
"Mmm, I think I did! She brushed her thumb across the baby's cheek. She leaned forward once more and nudged the bundle back into his arms. "What do you think of the name Moroha?"
"Moroha, hey...?" He tested it out, holding her close to his chest, getting another silent smell of her. Babies smelt ... different. Not bad, but it did lure him to smell her again. Thankfully Kagome wouldn't be able to notice him doing this.
Moroha stared up at him with squinted eyes and a twisted mouth.
If people thought he was unfairly protective of Kagome, just wait till they see how protective he's going to be over her, he just knew.
He loved Kagome immensely, that much was true, but gazing upon his baby's face made him feel a love so profoundly different than what he knew. Like her little baby fists gripped at his heart and gave a mighty squeeze.
Kagome was right. For the rest of their days he would enjoy every single last second he had with them. He wouldn't take even half a second for granted, and anything to make them happy that was within his power he would do without question.
He held Moroha closer and placed a gentle kiss on her small forehead. Anything for them.