Kagome grasped Inuyasha's robe fiercely with curled fingers, her eyes not once leaving the demon infront of them while her bow bounced across her back.
"Inuyasha, I think I can get a good shot from above!" She shouted openly so her voice carried over the loud groans emitting from the wretched mouth before them. Although she knew he had impeccable hearing, she needed to ensure he knew he plan.
"Alright." He noted, darting away from a long sweep attack from the entity's long spindly arms jutting from its grotesque sides.
The demon had popped up too close for comfort near their village, and with Sango and Miroku having their hands full of babies, Inuyasha and Kagome took it upon themselves to rid it from the lands. It was another run of the mill encounter, one they've seemingly done a thousand times.
He leapt into the sky to give Kagome the clear advantage over the beast, high winds ripping through their hair.
Kagome struggled to retrieve her bow as the wind held it flush across her back. "Ah!" She grunted as she palmed blindly for it, her fingertips brushing against the wood confidently. They weren't on a particular time crunch, and Inuyasha could avoid the long attacking arms with ease, but she nonetheless strained to pull the bow out quickly to get the job done.
They began to descend as his momentum through the air began to vanish, but her opportunity arose perfectly, a nice square foot of head space prime for the taking. She nocked her arrow and drew the bowstring back.
"Inuyasha, watch out!" Maybe he hadn't seen it, there were many arms to keep track of, but to their right an arm at high speed flailed toward their direction, seemingly faster than Inuyasha could avoid.
"On it!" He called out, as he did she relinquished her perfect shot, knowing another opportunity would arise when they were in a safer position. The arms were lanky enough that his claws sufficed in splitting them in half, the initial arm that Kagome spotted barreling toward them now flew off in the opposite direction leaking gushes of blood.
When a wash of relief hit her, it was almost too late to notice another arm lurching toward them just out of view. It was a split second before she was able to react that it had struck them, Kagome taking the brunt of the attack from it's pathetic try at taking them when they had their backs turned.
The blow had hit them so hard she flew off his back within an instant and she flew toward the dry earth roughly twenty feet below. A pained yelp left her lips before falling unconscious as she fell, silence falling over the land as the two had plummeted in separate directions.
Kagome hit the ground with a loud thud, her body skidding across the dirt with force, thankfully her new outfit had been better designed to protect the wearer against natural elements, so the skid was less of a problem than it would have been had she been wearing her usual skirt and shirt combo.
Inuyasha was up immediately by the time Kagome had stopped sliding, viciously turning his head around the battlefield to find her standing somewhere.
"Kagome!" He belted loudly, clawing another arm to shreds as it dared to come near him. Across the way he saw her body lying lifeless in a white and red heap, and he prayed most of that red came from her hakama.
"Why you .." He growled and unsheathed the Tessaiga, pointing it towards the mass of demon before him.
Kagome lay motionless as Inuyasha carelessly tore the demon to pieces, loud high pitched shrieks echoed off the land as it's flesh deflated in on itself. He paid no mind to it, he was quick to return Tessaiga to its scabbard, barely having half a mind to even remember it was in his hands by the time he bounded in her direction.
"Kagome!" He panted desperately, dropping to his knees by her side, hands hovering above her injured body. "Kagome can you hear me?!" His voice wavered with worry, and when she hadn't replied he expelled a breath of hot air rapidly from his nose.
He could hear her breathing, although shallow and ragged it was still there. He slid his arms under her knees and shoulders and lifted her up carefully, and when she retained her unconscious form, he gulped down a ball of worry forming in his throat.
It didn't take long to run toward Kaede's, though it felt like ages as he periodically peered down at her to check if she regained any semblance of consciousness. Inuyasha used his shoulder to barge through the shoji without a warning, his feet scrambling inside to find the older woman hunched over her mortar.
"Inuyasha-" The woman began, her head snapping upright. "Kagome, what has happened to her?"
He laid Kagome flat out on the mat that offered the bare minimum of comfort compared to the hardwood planks below. "We were hit from behind pretty hard, she fell quite a ways."
He manuevered to the side so the old woman could scramble to Kagome's side with ease.
"Well, she's still breathing." She noted.
His lip curled downwards into a furious scowl. "I could have told you that much!"
She ignored him and used her delicate fingers to feel around Kagome's body, making incoherent sounds to herself as she found spots of interest.
He crouched on Kagome's other side, watching with unblinking eyes as Kaede picked up Kagome's arms and ran various physical exams on her with relative ease. Although low, he could hear hums of pain eminate from her throat.
Dammit. He thoughtly bitterly to himself. If I'd paid more attention to every arm she wouldn't be injured right now! He felt his own brows knit together angrily, so he bit his tongue and scraped the thoughts away to focus on her well being.
"She will be very bruised." Kaede began. "I will give a more in depth exam, but first, Inuyasha, the sun will begin to set soon. Will you fetch firewood to keep the fire going?"
Alarm ran through his body. "What, you expect me to leave her side when she's in this condition?!"
"When I remove her garb to look over her entire body, she will become cold." She stated bluntly, peering at Inuyasha with her one stubborn eye.
"Hmph, fine." He snapped heatedly, standing up within a few seconds. "Don't know why you don't have extra firewood around here..." Was the last thing Kaede heard grumbling from his mouth as he exited with haste.
He worked quick and efficiently, by the time he arrived back with an arm full of dry fire ready wood, Kagome lay scantily clad on the mat with Kaede hovering over her.
It wasn't anything he hadn't seen before, but it instantly arose recent memories of him happening accidentally upon her in the hot springs, and she had still chucked a rock at his head for looking. For that reason he leaned against the wall after feeding the fire, not watching with wide eyes as his wifes almost naked body was being examined while she lay unconscious.
Though he did take one peek to see how bad the damage was. Apart from red lashes caused by the apparant skid across the earth, nothing looked bent out of shape or completely mangled.
Inuyasha drew in one breath of relief.
Kaede clothed her after she was satisfied with her examination. "Come here, Inuyasha."
"Hm?" He perked up and padded over to the womans side, crouching beside her and gazing down at Kagome's face. Her features had softened since they'd arrived, a sign that she may wake soon?
"Her arm here, has broken." Kaede motioned to Kagomes right arm that lay limp in front of them. "I will make her a splint."
He pressed his lips into a thin line. A broken arm... For him, an injury like that would last a day, maybe two. For her? Weeks, months maybe, he wasnt entirely sure what full human recovery times were like.
He knew she'd protest, but he was going to stop taking her demon hunting, at least for a little while, until he felt better about taking her with. If it weren't for his poor instincts of his surroundings, she wouldn't be in this predicament right now.
"Inuyasha, stop moping." Kaede stated coolly.
His brows furrowed and he turned his eyes toward her. "Are you kidding me, how am I not supposed to mope-"
She took his hand within her weathered ones, and his first instinct was to snatch his hand away, but he fought it and allowed her to guide his hand toward Kagome.
She placed his hand on Kagome's lower abdomen and returned her hand to her lap.
Her stomach? He didn't understand. "What?"
"Do you feel, it is not flat as it once was."
"Hm." He grunted and returned his eyes to Kagome's body where his hand rested. He opened his fingers and gently felt the area out, noticing that it did feel a bit more distended than usual. Worry rised into his throat. "What is that, is she filling with blood?"
Internal bleeding was surely a death sentence! But why would Kaede tell him not to mope?
She simply stared at him, even as the worry and frustration was etched on his features, just begging for a reply.
"Well!"
"You must begin to learn not to let your emotions best your senses."
"What..." He trailed off, but it still didn't make sense to him, and now it just felt as if she was insinuating he was incompetent. "Just spit it out already."
"I believe Kagome is with child."
Any trace of an expression dropped from his face, a blank slate as his brain began a hard reboot and his eyes fixated to the wall in front of them. It made Kaede smile despite the circumstances.
He hard blinked once and craned his neck toward Kagome, his face still blank and unchanging with emotion. Kaede stood while he battled himself to regain control of his voice.
"After that fall..." He trailed off, chest and throat tightening, and he feared his emotions would flow freely.
"We will have to wait and see." She replied. "I will go now to collect some herbs to help promote healing."
He nodded as a response, and she was on her way.
Kagome... His eyes fell solemnly, hot tears prickling behind his eyes he fought so desperately to keep subdued. Did you know? He brushed that idea off - there was no way in hell she would have went with him to take care of the demon straying too close to the village, he knows she wouldn't risk it. Or would she? She'd previously admitted she took risks knowing he was always there to ensure her protection, and this could have been the one unfortunate time he didn't make the cut.
No, she wouldn't do that.
He flicked his eyes toward the barely visible rounded creases in her hakama. A baby... Really? He almost didn't believe it, though he knew it was entirely possible, but they hadn't planned for it in the slightest, so it came as an absolute shock.
Noting the damage to her outfit, the tight ball forming in his throat grew bigger and his cheeks grew hot. There's no way... He shook his head in an attempt to make the tears drain back where they came from as they surged forward, not yet spilling. There's no way, with a fall like that...
The tears spilled over, and despite being alone technically, with Kagome unconscious, he lowered his head to hide the tears. Force of habit. He cried because he knew the odds were not in this baby's favour.
By the time Kaede had returned into the night his tears had dried. Not one remnant of their existence could be found on his cheeks. He sat on the other side of Kagome, back against the wall, eyes alert as the older woman got right to work.
They were silent, for the most part, which he gladly accepted. Talking about the condition Kagome and their baby was in would only send him back into his open display of emotions that he preferred to keep hidden.
Kaede made a splint and fixated it to Kagome's arm delicately, through the years she'd made many splints so muscle memory served her well at this point.
She'd boiled water and whisked a paste around the bamboo cup, he watched diligently as she added the ingredients. "If she wakes in the night, have her drink this."
He nodded with a small grunt as a reply. The cup sat beside Kagome's lifeless body.
Kaede had slept on the other side of the room. He sat, awake as ever, watching Kagome. He began to notice the frequency of her shifting, small twitches and the tiniest of noises from her throat. It was reminiscent of the way she slept normally and for obvious reasons, that brought him comfort. It was a vast difference from when he had brung her in.
Kaede still slept, so he leaned in as far as he could and pressed the side of his head to Kagome's body, his left ear flush against her lower abdomen. He closed his eyes to focus on his sense. He heard her heartbeat course through her body, it was strong, he knew it. Though that wasn't his goal. He tried to focus her heart beat out, tuning it out as best he could.
After watching Kaede take care of her, and sitting watching the two sleep in silence, he couldn't bare to sit alone with his thoughts. They hammered over in his head again and again'you killed them'. He wouldn't accept that, he couldn't accept it. As Kaede said, they had to wait and see, but he wouldn't make it if that were the case.
As faint as it was, he heard it. The tiniest flutter of a heart beat from within her flesh, and although it was tiny it startled him, sitting up pinstraight with widened eyes.
Their baby, for now, was alive as far as he could tell. The lump that sat in his throat wanted to both shrink with relief and engorge with anxiety - how long would that heart beat last?
It was all he could hear now, after tuning into the fast paced rhythm of their heart he couldn't forget it, it pounded in his ears louder than the crackles of the nearby fire.
He stripped himself of his suikan and laid it over Kagome, not that she was cold, but that he was becoming somewhat overheated as these emotions tackled him down.
What if he heard the heart beat suddenly go silent? Hmmm... He muttered to himself, raking his clawed fingers through his hair. Maybe he could excuse himself outside for a few minutes, let himself naturally pick up other audio cues to focus in on for the night? No. He couldn't leave her for even a second in this condition.
How could I not sense this earlier? His brows twitched. She even began to smell different. Not that she smelt bad, but her composition had began to change. Admittedly it was something he always noticed whenever she bled. Maybe he passed it off as that and paid no mind to it?
Inuyasha shook his head with a sigh. He really didn't know.
He didn't sleep through the night. He watched her intently, witnessing her breathing turn from laboured to content, like she was in a deep slumber like some nights after a battle or long day on the road. She tossed and turned, huffed almost silently as she dreamed. He found comfort in her normal routines beginning to return to her. Often he'd fall asleep after her or wake up before her, so her sleeping habits were something he could say he was an expert in.
He returned Kagome to their home with a basket of supplies Kaede spun together as soon as dawn had broke. At least in their home he could place her in her cushy sleeping bag that she cherished, and hoped that it would make her sleep somewhat better.
"I'm so sorry Inuyasha." Sango sighed sadly as she wrestled her son off her back that climbed her like a tree. "We should have been there."
As soon as she heard what had happened on the battlefield she'd rushed over to visit.
"You're fine, Sango." He watched Hisui run circles around the den wildly. Bitterness etched its way on his face - maybe it was the lack of sleep turning him into a grump, but he wasn't particularly in the mood to see children right now.
He closed his eyes briefly. Hisui was a good kid, he couldn't take it out on him.
"It's my fault, I didn't watch our backs like I should have."
"You only have two eyes. There's only so much that can be done."
Though their visit was nice, once the two left his home he felt like he could breath again. He kept their secret private for now, it wouldn't be fair that Sango and Miroku knew of Kagome's pregnancy before she did.
It was well into the afternoon when Kagome stirred in her sleep, consciousness grasping at her slowly, swatting away the dreamworld around her.
He watched attentively, noticing her eyelids beginning to twitch, her lips tremble, and her movements in her sleeping bag became more frequent.
Finally her rich brown eyes fluttered open, half lidded and laden with sleep.
"Inuyasha..." Kagome whispered, reaching her hand over her eyes, the back of her hand over her forehead. "My head is killing me."
"Kagome! You're awake!" He inched closer to her, worried hands hovering above her body unsure of what to do. His face peered over hers like a looming storm cloud, to which she cringed at.
"What do you want?" She inquired hazily, swatting him away with little effort.
"What do you mean!" He gasped erratically, pointing a finger in her direction. "Do you not remember anything?!"
"I..." She appeared to try and think about it. "I don't. Is that why my head hurts?"
Kagome tried to lift herself up into a sitting position, putting her weight into her injured arm, with a yelp she recoiled the arm to her chest.
"Careful, it's broken." He cautioned her a tad too late, safely pulling her into his lap to lay her against his chest. He took her arm into his hand with ease. "See?"
"...Mhm.." She nodded as she curled her fingers in the air. "How do I not remember this... I must have taken quite the beating, my head is just pounding."
"Ah-!" He reached to the other side of her sleeping bag and returned his hand with the drink Kaede painstakingly made the previous night. "Drink this, Kaede made it."
She sipped at it delicately, testing it on her taste buds. "I don't remember seeing Kaede."
"You weren't awake." He absorbed himself in watching the liquid drain from the bamboo cup and filling her up, she needed every last drop of whatever concoction the old woman made.
"Kagome ... I'm sorry I didn't protect you."
She twisted her neck to glance up at him with wavering brown eyes and a warm smile. "You don't need to apologize. You can't take care of me every waking second, you know."
He scoffed. "I should be able to protect you, always. No matter the circumstance." Her little whimsical words wouldn't work this time.
"You've saved me countless other times, sometimes when I didn't think it was even possible." She let out a pained cough, his ears and eyes on high alert as she flinched from the pain. "Heh, my ribs must be bruised.."
"That's just it, you're bruised everywhere." He expressed cruelly, directed only at himself. "Your entire body is hurt, Kagome, because I couldn't keep track of some flailing arms!"
He could feel the hot pinpricks behind his eyes threatening to make him look like even more of a fool. The relief of her waking mixed with the faint flickering of their baby's heart beat was pulling on his last emotional string.
Before she could speak, he cut in quickly. "Say, Kagome, do you have anything you need to tell me?"
"Huh..." She squinted at him from the stark pivot of conversation, not to mention the sudden hints of emotion laced in his voice. "Something I need to tell you? Usually it's the other way around..."
He fought the urge to roll his eyes.
"Nothing I can think of." She shook her head as the words left her mouth. "Why?"
How do I tell her, usually it's the other way around!
"Kaede noticed something as she gave you an exam."
"Oh... That's not really something you want to hear. What is it?"
"Nothing like that." He took her hands within his own just as Kaede had done to him last night, and moved them over her lower belly. He retracted his hands while her fingers spread across the fabric or her hakama.
She held her belly perfectly within her hands. "What?" Kagome didn't catch on immediately, staring up at him for clarification.
Really? She doesn't get it?!
"Uh." His brow twitched. "Kaede, she thinks that you're pregnant." Her eyes widened, so he blurted out again to keep her from talking. "And I know you are!"
"What!" She clammered in a panicked state, staring down at her belly with eyes as wide as they could go. "How do you know!"
"I uh, I can just tell."
She leaned forward off his chest to focus her hands on her belly. "I..." He heard her voice begin waver in the same way it did when she cried. "I didn't know. I should have known, I shouldn't have been on that battlefield."
He leaned forward as well, his hands ghosting the sides of her arms. "It's okay Kagome.."
"It's not!" She wept. "I don't even know if they're okay!"
"I can hear their heartbeat." He spoke in an almost hushed tone in a half effort to help calm her as he wrapped his arms around her carefully. "Kaede told me it would be a waiting game last night, but I can still hear their heart beat, even now as we speak."
She swiped tears off her face. "R-really?" When he nodded as a response she huffed out the last shaky breath she had in her, but still did not muster the courage to look at him. "I'm sorry Inuyasha."
"Eh, sorry for what?"
"I should have kept better track of things. I've just been so caught up with my training that I completely forgot about that!"
Womanly issues were not his forte so he waved her comment off. "I know you have been, Kagome."
"Ah - I'm starting to remember..." She raised her broken arm in front of her face. "When I fell... I just sort of had an instinct to try and catch myself with my arms. I guess I subconsciously knew."
"You must have." He peered down at her hands. They were scratched to hell and still had the indents of rubble marring the flesh. "Are .. are you happy?"
Kagome stared at him with an earnest expression. "Of course I am. Why do you ask?"
"Well... I know you wanted to wait." It had been another three years since she'd returned through the well with her final decision. She wanted to focus on her training with Kaede, despite their friends immediately rushing into creating their own families. He wasn't sure if three years was enough for her.
"Yeah, you're right..." She teased the hem of his suikan that still hugged her chest. "My training can still be completed while toting a baby, I'm sure! If not, it will have to take a back seat, and I'm fine with that."
"As long as you're okay with that."
"Mhm!" She smiled lovingly in his direction. "Are you happy?"
Well... he hadn't even thought about it. He'd been so sidetracked on ensuring Kagome survived first and foremost that he'd pushed away any reaction to her pregnancy.
He thought about it for a moment. He would have been ready to have children with her when she returned through the well and was perfectly content with waiting. Shock overrode his system but now as he was able to wade through the anxious waters he could reveal how he truly felt.
Even seeing Sango and Miroku's children plucked at some feeling of longing inside him, as much as he disliked to admit. He played with them whenever he visited their home, they tugged on his sleeves or his hair and bounced off the walls with excitement as he tossed them around playfully. It did the trick, subdoing his desire to have his own kid to hang around with.
With his own baby on the way he couldn't help the excitement bubble inside of him silently.
"I'm happy, Kagome." He smiled genuinely in her direction, warmth heating his cheeks before he leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. "Now, let's get you some more rest."