A Little Planning-Part I

"Okay, now turn around," Sango told Kagome, the young mother holding one squirming toddler under either arm.

Kagome turned around to show off her sewing work. Sango frowned a little on seeing the back. She plopped one of the girls into her lap and tugged on the bottom hem of Kagome's blue yukata.

"Well," she started, touching her knuckle to her lips. "The pattern here doesn't quite match up,"

Kagome frowned and opened her mouth to speak when Sango continued.

"But unless someone's really staring at your bottom, they won't notice. And besides, you'll be wearing a wrap most of the time."

Kagome sighed, nodding.

"But for your first time, you did well." She squeezed her daughters to her, smiling at them, "And what do you girls think?"

The girls looked back at Kagome, giggling.

"Pwetty!" Koyuki Squealed, followed a second later by Yukie. Kagome chuckled before a familiar aura tugged at the edges of her mind. She indicated to Sango that the boys were back and took her leave to meet up with Inuyasha. As she went towards where she felt Inuyasha's youki, she crossed paths with Miroku.

"He didn't even let me sleep last night, we just ate dinner and kept walking," Miroku told her with a groan. He went on to say that Inuyasha had disappeared promptly after entering into the village. Miroku bid farewell to Kagome and left for home. She was a bit curious about why her husband hadn't greeted her promptly upon arrival, but she shook it off. It wasn't long before Kagome figured out where Inuyasha had gone, and made her way over to Kaede's house.

Kagome raised an eyebrow upon entering the old Miko's home. She looked to Kaede, sorting the plants she had picked up that morning. The old Miko shrugged and went back to her sorting.

"Didn't say a word. He just came in and keeled over."

Kagome looked back down to her husband. He was curled on his side against the wall, not even his ears moving at the sound of voices. Not even Miroku seemed so tired.

Rin ran right into Kagome as she tried to enter the hut holding armfuls of firewood. The little girl (who was not so little anymore) apologized and sat the firewood by the far wall. She got down a small wrapping for Kaede. Kaede collected enough ground herbs for a dose of medicine, and wrapped them for the young girl to sprint out the door to deliver the medicine.

Kagome sighed as the screen flapped shut.

"Still pretty busy around here?"

Kaede nodded.

"That fever's got quite a few people, I wish I could be more useful. Do you think I could run errands as well?"

"Nay," Kaede responded softly. "That child can run faster than I can make this medicine. In due time, you'll learn to make this particular mix. But as of now you should focus on the more basic ones."

Kagome crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame.

"I hope I can learn quickly. Everything has slowed down the past few days for those who are sick. Those who are well sure are moving fast."

She looked back in on her husband, soundly sleeping like he sometimes did when he wouldn't admit to being tired. She wondered how he would take the news that some of the men working on their house had fallen ill.

Surprisingly enough, the build was only delayed by one day. Inuyasha did any heavy lifting necessary, jumped up with supplies where a human would need to climb, and surprised a few of the workers with his quick hammering technique. He more than made up for the couple of men home with a fever. The roof was finished by mid-morning. Inuyasha decided it was perfect for now. It would need a bit of additional insulation before winter, but there was a good while to get that taken care of.

Sango and Miroku helped move everything in, Ichiro strapped to his mother's back and Shippo entertaining the girls outside. The young parents tried to ignore the arguments about the layout from the younger couple. Inuyasha gave up trying to explain at one point, stomping out and returning minutes later with one of the heavier items—discussion over.

Everything was moved and in its place (depending on who you ask—husband or wife) by the afternoon. Kagome helped Shippo watch the kids as she ran down to help Sango finish her chores. Inuyasha tried to do the same, but Miroku kept piping up with a suggestive tone about his friend's first night in his own home—Inuyasha covered his ears and settled into a tree to ignore him. Kagome offered to make dinner that night, since she mostly dictated where to put things. Sango happily agreed and offered some vegetables to add. The topic then changed to how to start a garden properly as she and Kagome finished up and walked to meet up with the boys.

After rinsing all the bowls from their early dinner, the young parents stayed to chat a while with the newlyweds. Miroku continued the ladies' conversation from earlier on how to start a small garden. The young parents' garden wasn't big by any means, but they had vegetables to eat throughout the warmer months. When Miroku and Sango's girls started becoming whiny, they decided it was time for bed. There was still an hour of daylight, Inuyasha noted, as the younger twin had.

"But is nod nighttime," Koyuki complained as she rubbed her face into Sango's shoulder. Miroku picked the other up and Sango transferred Koyuki to his free arm.

"Yes it is, baby," he calmly told the green-clad toddler.

"Nuh-uh," she replied stubbornly.

Yukie just closed her eyes without putting up a fuss. Koyuki made a long drawn out whine as Sango bid their friends goodnight. Kagome chuckled as she heard the baby start to fuss outside, awoken on his mother's back by his noisy sister. They were cute, but she could wait a while before…

Kagome stood to stretch her legs. When she had thoroughly stretched her back, she reached for Inuyasha's hand. He gave her a puzzled look.

"I want to say thankyou to Kaede and Rin, too. Since Kaede's been so wonderful to put us up until now," Kagome explained.

Inuyasha made a sour face.

"Can't you do that in the morning?

Kagome frowned.

"Yeah, I suppose…isn't that kinda rude though?"

Inuyasha scoffed, checking the fading sunlight from the corner of his eye. He doubted they'd get back before nightfall if they left now. Well, actually they could, but not if Kagome wanted to visit any.

"You could say you were too tired to head over there tonight. It'd be understandable…even though most of what you did was order people around."

Kagome glared.

"I'm gonna forget you said that," she paused, "but honestly, I wanted to scope out the area before it got too dark. I know I looked at where we could put a garden before the house was built, but I want to see which spot works best."

Inuyasha weighed her words carefully. There was still a little time before the sun went down, and they wouldn't be leaving the forest…just a short walk around the area.

Inuyasha sighed and rose to his feet.

"Yeah, we should probably do that," he said, walking past his wife. He didn't check to see if she was following, because he assumed she was. Then he heard a bit of scuffling from the house and realized he never heard her footsteps.

"Kagome?"

Kagome poked her head out from the door, smiling.

"Just putting the dishes away, we forgot to do that."

He raised a brow to Kagome as she pranced out after him. He could have sworn they'd put the bowls away. Nevertheless, Kagome wrapped a hand around his wrist and dragged him to the closest location she'd noticed before the build. Kagome stopped short of a clearing a stone's throw from the house for inspection. They considered the light and distance from the house, but Inuyasha decided after two minutes of circling that it wouldn't work.

"The light's good and all, but all these little roots would take forever to rip out. By the time we got 'em out there'd be more to grow in. Tree roots aren't a problem, but these little suckers…"

Kagome nodded and lead her husband a little deeper through the brush until her yukata sleeve got snagged, she pulled it loose after a second, but Inuyasha commented anyway that they'd have to cut a new path through if they wanted to plant here. The circled back after a few more spots, but they were plagued by roots or rocks or the sunlight wasn't good enough. They crossed over to the other side of the house, finding a few better options. Kagome was happy that they had narrowed it down. The light was fading and she decided to get a drink of water from the stream before heading back, since it was closer than the house. Inuyasha shifted uncomfortably when Kagome wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

"What's eating you?" She asked.

He shook his head and replied that he wanted to get back to the house. His eyesight was becoming dimmer with every second as the sun dipped lower over the horizon. The house was in sight when he felt the sun set and the changes take full effect.

Kagome gasped when she saw the pale silver darken to an inky black. She smiled when she realized what had happened.

"Ohh," she started in a high pitch, "I totally forgot this happened!"

"Yeah, yeah," he tried brushing her off.

"Wait, I've been here two months, this should have happened already. Where was I for the first change?"

Inuyasha blinked once over newly black eyes, trying to remember.

"Ah, yeah, you slept right on through. It was pretty near the solstice then, so by the time you woke up I was normal again."

Kagome frowned as a thought struck her. Good timing that he could turn human in his own home this month…wasn't it?

Kagome smirked, tightening her grip on his arm. Inuyasha eyed her suspiciously. What the hell was that look on her face supposed to be? He also noticed that she definitely seemed a lot stronger gripping his human arm than if he were hanyou now.

"You planned this."

Inuyasha bit the tip of his tongue and said nothing. Kagome stopped them outside the door, turning to stand in front of him. She shook her head and smiled more genuinely.

"You thought it would be a good idea for our first night together—alone together—to be your human night?" She asked, leadingly. Inuyasha felt like he was being drawn into a trap. It sounded like a good idea in his head. Kagome continued, "Our first night, just the two of us, alone in the middle of the forest—unfamiliar environment for me—just two helpless humans," she was still smiling, but Inuyasha interrupted her anyway.

"Don't give me that crap. You're far from helpless. I'd be screwed on my own, but you at least know how to use a bow," his face brightened towards the end, "I'm glad I got you around to protect me."

Kagome giggled when he bent down to lean his forehead against hers. She backed away from him for a second before kissing him without removing her smile. His free hand came up to rake through her hair before drawing her back up into another kiss. She broke away and tugged his hand back through the screen into their new house.

A tiny fleck of anxiety rolled through his mind when they crossed the threshold. He swallowed that thought whole, they had once tried this in the middle of the forest, and now there were no pesky vines to hinder them. His wife was quickly quelling any other worries he might have, tugging him further into the house—past the firepit and nearly to the back wall. He almost tripped over something—his gaze solely focused on his wife at the moment. She noticed the stumble and stopped their forward motion by the back wall. Repeating the steps she had on previous occasions, she wrapped a hand around the beads pulling him to her.

...

Sorry it took so long. I've rewritten this probably six times now, and it's still not much better than what I used to write when I was a kid. Plus, I'm just starting back out there, it's incredibly embarrassing, albeit thrilling to write.

It got really long, so I split it into two parts.

Another thing, my personal favorite of Inuyasha's three forms is as a human, but obviously Kagome's preferred is his normal one. I adore brown eyed characters. There's always debate about Inuyasha's eye color, (brown, grey or dark violet are the most common) but I think the animation staff was going for dark brown-a common color. I think they wanted to make him as common and normal a human as they come, though in the manga, while some human characters have fully inked eyes, a screentone was always used for Inuyasha, suggesting a lighter shade albeit darker than the gold.