A warning for minor character death. It's nobody you know.

A Wriggling Sack of Worms

Kagome frowned as she examined her neck in the pocket mirror. She saw her husband flinch from the corner of her eye when she touched her fingertips to the maroon bruise forming there. She glanced at him for a moment, sighing as she closed the pocket mirror. Welp. She had warned him about the neck.

"You know I didn't mean to," he grumbled, stuffing his hands into his sleeves. He glanced her way, at least having the decency to look sheepish. Kagome just tugged her robes up high on her neck, but they wouldn't stay high enough to cover the hickey. Well…winter was not long off.

"Inuyasha, don't worry about it I'll…cover it with a scarf. It is pretty cold out; no one will think anything of it." With that, she picked through her articles until she found the drab grey scarf she had made as practice in her first month of marriage. She tugged it around her neck and confirmed with him that it did cover the mark, and most of her neck. He knew her neck was off-limits for rough kisses but he had gotten carried away and disobeyed that rule the previous night. Kagome made the comment that she wasn't mad; she was just a bit annoyed with it. He would just have to be careful for future instances.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and set about folding their bedding away while his wife started on breakfast. He surveyed their firewood stack and decided that he may as well go cut more. He had finally remembered to buy an axe, and Kagome did well with it, but he still preferred to snap the wood apart with his claws. He still had a bit of that destructive nature, though domestic village life had calmed it somewhat.

About the time breakfast smelled ready and Inuyasha was bringing two armloads of wood inside, two knee-high critters darted in through the open door ahead of him.

"Oi! Watch where you're goin', runt!" Inuyasha called to the kit. Of course, Shippo didn't respond, only skittering with the dog to find out what Kagome was cooking. The fox jumped onto Kagome's shoulder, and the Miko grunted with the weight.

"Shippo, you're getting a little too big for that," she chided. The boy apologized but did not remove himself from her shoulder as he peered around to watch her cook. Kagome smiled when she heard her husband getting the dishes down behind her. She reached up to pat the boy on the head.

"Alright, alright. Go sit down Shippo." He dropped off her shoulder and Kagome thought with curiosity that the little fox weighed about as much as her obese cat in her childhood home. Shippo was bigger, yet he still was not even the size of a human toddler.

Inuyasha and Kagome had the boy for the winter now. She was happy to have him back, though Inuyasha had grumbled about the whole ordeal. Kagome didn't understand why. Shippo was always off by himself or with the dog practicing for his return to the mountain. Since he had managed to move up in rank this time, it meant he would have to try even harder to get better. Although…Shippo had played a prank on Inuyasha the other morning, ending with the hanyou sopping wet and covered in acorn hats…but other than that, they seemed to get along.

Inuyasha went back to the house after he walked with Kagome, Shippo, and Aki to Kaede's house. He still needed to get some wood cut, since the temperature was falling again for the oncoming season. He trudged through the decaying leaves and moist undergrowth, looking upwards for anything he could use.

Ah, that was good. The branch was think like the ones he enjoyed napping on, but at too steep an angle for him to rest comfortably, so it could go. He leapt up above the branch and wrapped an arm around the trunk. A hard downwards kick snapped the branch from the tree and fell to the ground below. It snapped pretty cleanly, but it stripped some of the bark below the branch. It would heal come springtime.

A soft white glow caught his attention in the distance. He tilted his head, observing the small white entities clustered in the branches of the far trees. The things had no eyes, but Inuyasha felt certain they were staring at him.

"Hey!" he shouted at them, watching as they faded and disappeared seconds later. Tree spirits were uncommon sights in the autumn, when everything was dying, but they were not unheard of. He saw the occasional one or three in the spring, but rarely outside of that. They were perfectly harmless, he knew, and most times, they didn't bother him, but then he would spot a few that seemed to stare at him. He hated the feeling of being watched. He hated being stared at is what it was. He had no qualms about telling the little buggers off because of it.

As he came to the clearing, he saw a woman, knocking on the door to his house. She shifted uneasily on her feet when she must have realized no one was home.

"She's already left for the day, you'd have better luck checking the village," he hollered, towing the branch to the side of his house. The woman spun to the sound of his voice, clutching her fists to her chest. She couldn't have been more than sixteen, he noticed.

"Oh thank god," she whispered to herself. She took a few cautious steps towards the hanyou. Inuyasha watched her curiously as she approached. She looked nervous—sweating despite the cold weather. She swallowed thickly before she spoke.

"Inuyasha-s-sama, I-I need your help," she spoke softly.

'Sama?' Inuyasha squinted at the use of the honorific. The villagers only called Kaede and Kagome with the addition.

The girl's expression became panicked with Inuyasha's annoyed squint. She feared he might not hear her out.

"Please, please, I need your help," she plead, dipping her head to stare at the ground. Inuyasha's ears twitched. She was standing close enough for him to hear her heart pounding. He crossed his arms and lowered his head to her level.

"Hey, hey. What's got you so scared?" The girl looked back up then tipped her head down again.

"My…my husband and my brother-in-law went on a trip four days ago…" the girl paused to bite her lip. The movement of her hands distracted Inuyasha. She was fiddling with something clutched in her fists. He looked back up to her face, telling her to get on with it.

"T-they were supposed to return after two days…I-I thought maybe they got held up by weather at first, but when they still didn't return last night…I…I'm so worried," she paused to get her nerve up, "please, find them and bring them home to us! I know you can do it."

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. It probably was weather that was holding them up, was all. It wasn't a very good year to be traveling this time of the year anyway.

"No, no. It's more than that, look!" She held out what she had been clutching to her chest. "This is Akeno's favorite cup! There's no way it…it was fine when I went to bed last night, but it's broken! It's broken." The girl held the shards of the broken cup closer to him, trying to make him see what she was seeing.

"So he'll have to use a different cu—"

"No, it—it's a bad omen. Please. What if something happened to them? I just want—I want them back home, safe and warm." She took two steps closer to him, eyes defiant and pleading all at once. Inuyasha huffed. He wasn't going to turn the poor girl down—as soon as he had finished getting firewood together, he would…something stopped that thought process right away. Something in her scent.

"Tell my wife where I'm headed," he told the girl as he darted off without a second thought. He barely caught her quiet word of thanks.

A mudslide washed out the road. The ground was oversaturated from the river here, and the debris field swept deep into the woods. The tree spirits…he saw more of them as he looked around. They were unhappy. Even though this forest was a few hours away, the forest spirits sympathized with them.

He couldn't help but sigh as he pinched his eyes shut and crinkled his nose from the scent. He found one of the men he was looking for, just one. Just his corpse.

"Dammit," he swore, leaning back against a broken tree, uprooted by the slide. He didn't care about the man, really, but when he saw his white, dead face, he saw the wife's. Pleading and scared—trembling—he didn't imagine…considering the situation—a woman in her situation…damn, even he felt for her. He couldn't discern which man this was from scent alone, but it didn't matter. Soon enough he would come across the other, whether it was the brother or the husband.

When he growled aloud, his ears twitched to the replying noise. He leaned out from the tree, ears swiveling to pick up any possible sounds.

"Hey!" He called into the empty woods. The responding groan sent the hanyou flying into the woods. He called again, and again, a response came, allowing him to pinpoint where it was coming from. There he saw him, curled at the base of a tree. A man of about Kagome's age. His face was deathly pale—like that of his brother—but not. The man only had mud to his knees and elbows and he had obviously crawled his way from the mudflow and ended up under the tree.

"Hey, you alive?"

The man's eyes opened and he took in the sight of the hanyou before him. His hand shot out, grasping desperately onto Inuyasha's sleeve.

"Oh thank—Inuyasha—you don't know—"

"Shut up," he commanded. The man's hand was cold as ice when Inuyasha pulled it from his sleeve, continuing with, "Can you walk at all?" The young man shook his head.

"I think my leg's busted." His voice was hoarse and Inuyasha could hear the man was straining through the pain from his leg, and the weight of his exhaustion.

"That's about what I figured," Inuyasha said, suddenly hefting the man up by the front of his kimono, and securing him on his back. The man asked what he was doing, and Inuyasha scoffed. Even if he wasn't weak and injured, it was quicker this way, and the man was hypothermic.

"Wait!" The man said, trying to get Inuyasha's attention as the hanyou took off, "Akeno was with me. He should just be a little further down he's—"

"He's dead."

"No he's not, he was just with—"

"He's dead," he repeated. Inuyasha's tone was pointed, leaving no room for discussion. The man went quiet after that. When the hanyou felt the man trembling, he thought he might cry, but the smell of salt was minimal, so he doubted any tears had spilled out. He was shivering. His body temperature had finally raised to the point where he could shiver, where he hadn't been able too before. It was an hour's run to the village when the man spoke again.

"He…he just got married…n-not long after you did…Haru…how is she going to..." So this was the brother-in-law, not the husband. Inuyasha hadn't bothered to ask.

Kagome stood with Haru as the Miko kept vigil over the far forest. The light was dimming, but she saw the bright silvery-white and red against the greenery as he approached. Haru wasn't looking. She twined her hands together and picked nervously at the sleeves of her yukata. She didn't see Inuyasha until Kagome moved forward. Her feet moved automatically when she saw that Inuyasha did, in fact have someone on their back.

"He found them!" She called into the house and soon her father-in-law joined her.

The man looked past Inuyasha's hair, and shoved away from the hanyou's back as Haru came up to meet them. He set down on his bad leg, grimacing. He hobbled a few steps towards his family.

"Kenta, I-I'm so glad you're okay," Haru said holding his arm to balance him. Okay besides the ankle. His father made it next, and at that point, Inuyasha had the thought to back off from the family reunion.

"I'm just so…" she looked to Inuyasha, smile still on her face. He stopped moving away, staring glumly at the girl.

"Akeno? Where is Akeno?" She looked to Kagome as the Miko's eyes went wide, and she paled, guessing what was going on here. Haru turned back to Inuyasha, silently hoping he had an answer she wanted. Normally, he was so blunt, he would answer any question without thought or tact but…he wasn't saying anything.

"Haru," Kenta said, shaking her arms just a little, "Haru…" her expression changed suddenly, as if she had just been insulted. She looked to her father-in-law desperately, but the man's face was turned to the Miko, then the hanyou, just as desperately.

"What are you talking about?" Kenta asked of his father. Kagome looked just as surprised as the young man whose leg she was treating, but Haru merely hung her head in acceptance.

"Kenta, Haru has no ties here anymore and…it would be better for her to go back with her family," the father stated. Sending the girl back with her family…she was still young. The older was fond of the quiet girl, and it would be best for her and her family if she got a second chance to find a husband, back home with her family.

"No ties? Dad, she—she's lived with us for half a year! She knows everyone here, she worked next to Ake—"

"Kenta." The father's tone was stern, before he looked back to the young woman at the center of the conversation.

"Haru, it would be better for your family to take you back, you understand?" Haru nodded solemnly. Kagome's gaze went back and forth between the girl and older man for a second.

"Uh, I don't? I don't understand why she would need to?" Kagome, shot the man a quizzical, slightly offended look. He only ever had two sons to worry about, even if he did take Haru in as his daughter it was not his place to—

"Then let me marry her!" Kenta shot back, "Then she won't need to leave!" Kagome turned the same confused expression to the younger man.

"She's a good woman. Hardworking, smart—"

"Kenta, that won't—"

"And why not? She already knows me pretty well, we get along fine and—Haru?" Kagome's eyes followed the man's gaze to the girl, whose expression showed surprise around red-rimmed eyes. She looked from Kenta to his father before lowering her face. Kagome looked back to the young man. She couldn't believe that—not only had she just lost her husband, but…the young man stared after Haru. He said that be felt partially responsible for his brother's death. He had been the impatient one—the one who just couldn't wait out the storm. He felt responsible for Akeno, and now he felt responsible for the wife he had left behind. The father pursed his lips, but looked down to the woman, speaking calmly.

"Haru? How do you feel about this?" Technically, she should not marry without her parents' consent, but since it was within the same family ties…

"I…I don't…I don't know…I just…I only just lost Akeno today…" She was quiet a moment more before she lifted her head.

"You…" She took a deep breath. "Do you have anything against Kenta being married to me?" The older man shook his head.

"My wife would have liked you, you know?" She saw the shine of her father-in-law's eyes, and knew that he, too, was hurting. By the continual mention of his eldest son, now that he no longer walked the earth, and the memory of those he had lost before. Her husband—her mother-in-law—it was a miserable situation, but she had to make the best of it. They were all grieving over Akeno now.

"Then I'll marry Kenta," she declared. Kagome felt weird about the situation. They were practically family, Haru and Kenta…they weren't but…it didn't make Kagome feel good but it was settled. Kagome would hold a funeral for the man tomorrow, and some time after 49 days, Kaede would marry the couple.

"No," Haru countered, "I want you to marry us. Because…it was your husband who brought Kenta home, and without him…"

The screen lifted from the door, and the savoir in mention stood there holding a folded cloth in one hand. Kagome tied off the bandage and told the young man to stay off it for a while, before she excused herself to join her husband in his walk to the outskirts of the village.

"Doesn't look broke to me. His leg I mean," Inuyasha commented. Kagome nodded. It was just a nasty sprain.

"I see you got someone to give you a sheet," she commented. It wasn't 'given' to him. He promised the family a good boar dinner in the next few days. It was bartering, though Inuyasha wasn't sure if the price was fair. It wasn't as if Inuyasha had never handled bodies before, but he had never carried one such a far distance. It might start coming apart during the trip.

"Inuyasha, I don't feel good."

"Like how? Are you gonna throw up? It's one dead guy." Inuyasha shook his head. Kagome negated the statement. It wasn't the dead guy, it was this whole situation. She told him how she planned to remarry—and to her brother-in-law!

"Ah, well."

"Well what? She's marrying her dead husband's brother, Inuyasha. Discussing it barely a day after he's died!" she bit her lip after she said that, looking back to see the light from the house was probably outside of earshot now.

"She's probably not gonna get a chance to marry again," Inuyasha stated. His tone sounded almost…somber?

"Oh Inuyasha…She's still very young. You know well that people…can fall in love more than once" Inuyasha's eyes shifted to his wife slowly, "but it's just…he only just passed away, there's no way that She and Kenta…" she trailed off.

He took a deep breath. The meaning of her words to him was not lost on the hanyou, but still, he continued.

"Kagome," he started in a whisper, so that Kagome would lean closer to hear, "you don't get it…she's…pregnant."

The resulting gasp was quiet, and the Miko covered her mouth. She brought her eyes down, staring straight in front of her, mind racing. She raised her eyes back to him.

"How, uh, how far along is she? Does she know? Oh my god, if she knows—it just, I can't imagine how she must be feeling." She covered her mouth as she muttered the last bit. To lose your husband is terrible, but the father of your child?

"She shouldn't know by now. She's only, maybe a week along, no more than ten days. I could only just barely tell because she was sweating when she came to get me."

This was awful! She couldn't marry the pair knowing this. Inuyasha agreed- agreed that they couldn't wait the 49 days. Should Kenta discover she was carrying his dead brother's child, well. it could go one of two ways…but even if Kagome did marry them, if she didn't know she was pregnant already, she would by the time the mourning period had passed. Inuyasha tipped his head to one side—she wasn't getting his meaning. He told her that was just it. Realistically, it wasn't any of his business, but if Kagome wanted the woman to stand a chance, she would wed the couple before then. With any luck, Kenta would believe the child was his. It was early enough in the pregnancy where that was more likely to work out. He knew they couldn't hold a wedding after the funeral…but before…Kagome couldn't lie to them like that, and it wasn't right to put off the funeral just so they could get married!

Inuyasha scoffed. He really didn't care, but he was giving her a good option that would make everyone happy, and she just stuck her nose up at it.

"The best thing for her would be to miscarry the kid then, then you wouldn't have to worry about a damn thing. Whether she marries that guy, or finds a husband elsewhere." Inuyasha growled. She could marry them without issue. An unskilled woman wouldn't survive in this world without a husband, and no one would marry her if she already had someone else's brat. This was about survival, couldn't she see that?

"I can't believe you! How could you say something like that?" She stared at him in disbelief, clutching her fists to her chest. For him to even suggest—!

"Kagome, this isn't my opinion, it's a fact. And you know it." He looked at her severely, trying to convey this simple truth. A human woman—even a woman in layered robes living in a castle—could not survive with a child at her feet and no husband at her side. It wasn't right, but that's how it was. He understood that personally.

"I can't believe you would say…no, Inuyasha, what…" She clutched her hand to her head. How could he say that? How could he say that about the woman? For her to lose what Kagome suspected would be a well-wanted pregnancy with the husband she loved. The husband she lost…if Kagome were…if Kagome were in the same situation—Inuyasha was a man, of course he wouldn't understand!

"What do you know?" She screamed in a sudden flash of anger. He should understand! He should understand the view of a mother who desperately wanted to keep child from the man she loved. How much she would love that child. How much his own mother loved him, despite the world telling her not to. Even though Inuyasha never knew his father, his mother loved him and raised him single-handedly! Just like her own mother had raised herself and Sota after daddy died.

He should know better than to say something so stupid.

"What gives you the right to say something like that?!" Inuyasha was first taken aback by her sudden shift in tone. Then came anger at her words. He didn't like being yelled at, and he didn't like being called stupid.

"What do you mean 'what gives me the right'?" came the deceptively calm tone. He took a deep breath, taking a step forward.

"What do I know?" he said, his volume raising as he spoke. He grit his teeth.

"What do I know..? What do you know?" he snarled accusingly. He knows things work different in a perfect world. Hell, he knows things work differently where she was from, but in this case, she was wrong.

"You ain't even from this time," he scoffed, anger dripping off his tongue to pool at his feet as it fell away from himself, "and you obviously don't know how things work around—"

The instant the words rolled off his tongue, he felt the twinge of guilt in his gut. The world stopped for a moment, only his angry words left between himself and his wife. She looked at him in disbelief again, but no longer was there anger attached to it. This wasn't about the dead man or his family anymore. She had turned this on him, but why did he have to take the extra step to…she had been in and out of listlessness for months for this very reason—that she didn't quite feel she belonged here—and he was supposed to show her that she did! As she had done for him—as she was still doing for him every single fucking day, putting his insecurities aside, reminding him that for her, they were not even an issue.

"Kagome…" he reached out to cup her face, "Kagome I didn't…"

In a violent outburst she shoved their bodies apart.

"DON'T!" She cried. At arms length, she began to tremble. She spun away from him, rubbing her hands over her arms in an attempt to calm herself.

"Just get out of here…" he spat, though her tone held no bite, "you still have to retrieve his body, right?"

Inuyasha looked to the earth below, then to the starry sky above. He was trying to process how they had gotten here. How did they go from talking about the dead man's family to…

"Kagome, what's going on here?" It was a stupid question, but to him, it felt necessary.

"Whatever's going on in your head, I'm not getting." He approached her with caution, and she looked at him with the slightest mist beading at the corners of her glittering brown eyes, "Or maybe there's some subtext I'm not seeing."

She took a deep breath in through her nose. She didn't mean to yell at him…but why, then, had she gotten so emotional.

"I just…I was thinking, well…it doesn't make any sense to day now, but I was thinking about how…my mom raised us alone after my dad died. She raised us alone. Grandpa was there, but grandpa was grandpa, mom was taking care of us, all on her own." She looked down to her hands.

"Singlehandedly. For you to say a woman can't survive without a husband, can't raise a child alone, well…"

"Kagome, it was different for your mother. Your…" he lowered his voice, "your whole world was different from—"

"What about your mother?" she asked. Inuyasha shut his mouth, staring at her.

"She raised you, right? All on her own? Your father—you said you don't remember his scent, how he looks—even whether or not you were born before he died so…I was thinking about that too." Inuyasha's expression dipped into a scowl, staring down at his feet. Kagome nearly spoke after a moment of silence, but with knit brows, he answered her first questions, in halting sentences.

"My mother wasn't a farmer…And…I was still a kid…" he met his wife's eyes, then shook his head at her. It wasn't something he ever wanted to talk about. His wife seemed to take his silence with understanding, staring down at the ground.

"What are you going to do?" he asked her suddenly.

"What can I do?"

Inuyasha wore a grim expression. He would dawdle. He would bring the body back at noon, so that she had enough time to perform a hasty marriage. He leaned towards her, meaning to kiss her, but she held up her hand. She did not want to kiss him right now. They parted silently. They were quiet, but the air still reeked of tension between the pair. Even as the hanyou disappeared into the forest that bore his name, and the Miko disappeared into one of the huts. It was still early in the night. There was still much to do, and lies to be told.

When all was said and done, they walked home in silence. Even with a dog at their feet and a kitsune at the Miko's shoulder, they were silent. When they were nearly home, it was the fox who broke the silence.

"Ooh! I can't handle this! What'd you do to Kagome?! Why are you guys not talking?!" He said, frustration directed towards the hanyou who wore a lighter scowl than normal. Kagome sighed.

"I yelled at him, Shippo. He didn't do anything to me." Inuyasha's brows knit. He had though, hadn't he? He had said something—

"But you yell at him all the time! Why are you acting so weird now?" Kagome's eye's darted to Inuyasha's with a question. Do I? She asked silently, worry on her scrunched brow and apology already on her bitten bottom lip. Inuyasha pursed his lips and plucked Shippo from Kagome's shoulder, setting him on the ground beside the dog. He told the fox calmly—as if he had been practicing levelheadedness—to take the dog and go play somewhere. Shippo shot Kagome a nervous glance, but seeing no reluctance in her face, he obeyed quietly, tugging on the dog's collar. Inuyasha held his wife by the elbow and urged her to continue moving forward.

The pace of the world seemed slow, and Kagome felt like the words were coming dreamily—in a daze—disconnected.

"Shippo's right," Inuyasha said when the boy was out of earshot. Kagome looked at him dubiously, but said nothing, allowing him to continue. So she did yell at Inuyasha a lot. She hadn't even realized it. As if reading her mind, Inuyasha chose that time to speak.

"We aren't talking about this." What was there to talk about?

"You're too quiet." Of course she was quiet. What's done is done. There is no more to discuss. Everything was fine.

"You don't seem fine to me." He wasn't talking about the girl, the dead man, or the marriage.

And he was right. She shook her elbow out of his hand…then wrapped her arm around his, clinging to him tightly. She didn't feel good. She didn't feel right about anything right now.

"Kaede's mad at me, I think," she told her husband. She didn't tell her outright that what she did was wrong. The old woman didn't glare or tell her off, but Kagome could tell. She would get over it, he responded. Should she tell the old woman the whole story? No, that was probably a bad idea…but Kagome just felt so guilty, like she was lying to the pair—lying to Kaede. She had a wriggling sack of worms for a stomach and it was making her feel sick.

"I shouldn't have told you she was pregnant." No. That was for the best. If they had waited the 49 days…she would just be that much more pregnant. It would be so much worse for the girl and her baby. This way, the child would have a father-figure in their life, and they would believe it was their actual father…provided the pair behaved like husband and wife soon. She hadn't even thought about that when she agreed to run the rushed ceremony!

"But what if they don't?" They're teenagers, of course they will.

"We were married almost two months," Kagome replied with a worried expression. Inuyasha gave her a sideways glance. They had only waited because Inuyasha wanted a house of their own. But Kenta lives with his father.

"They have a shed, I mean, she had to get knocked up in the first place, right?" Kagome cringed at the term 'knocked up'. She knew her husband was trying to lighten the mood but, using somewhat crude language was not the way to do it. Not when the situation was like this. Inuyasha huffed, opening the door, and shutting it when Kagome walked inside and sat on the raised floor. He had a point, but Kagome's belly was still twisted with anxiety. Her pretty brown eyes looked away when he sat beside him. There was so much more to this.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you," she said suddenly. Inuyasha frowned. He grabbed her wrist so that she would look at him. He held her gaze, gold to brown as he spoke the next words.

"Shut up about that. I can understand where you're coming from but when I said a woman can't raise a child alone…I already was thinking. About my mother, I mean." Kagome's expression was confused, but also…he spoke so rarely about his mother. She didn't expect him to say anything, really. She was stupid for even asking anything but…he spoke…he spoke because there was nothing to hide. Although it was difficult for him, he wasn't hiding anything anymore. She wanted his trust and his honesty. She deserved it before, and she deserved it so much more now. He pushed himself to continue.

"I know my old man was s'posed to be some great guy, but I don't remember a thing about him. He just…wasn't there for me—for us—and I just…I dunno." He paused, swallowing down the lump of anxiety that had come up from his own gut.

"She died when I was probably seven, I don't really remember," he said, quickly, trying to get it over with, "and why she died…well, it wasn't her fault, but I just feel like…if maybe the old man was there to protect her and…take care of me a little, she would have stood a better chance, you know?" His situation was a little different with the addition of being a hanyou, but…when he saw things like this, mothers without fathers, he couldn't help but see his mother. Kagome was squeezing his wrist, urging him to continue. He smiled weakly at his wife.

"It's kinda fucked up, but women around these parts…You and Sango are, y'know, different."

Kagome's eyes dropped away. She knew it was the truth. Sango was a demon slayer, with the training to kick anyone's ass who told her otherwise, and she was a Miko, who was respected, and often expected to take their duties more seriously than marriage and children. Even for his mother…

"And what I said about…where you came from…I say some pretty stupid shit when I'm mad."

Kagome wasn't going to deny that. She wanted to forgive him. Forgive him for reminding her that this world wasn't meant for her…that she had to get used to it still. She didn't have to force it, to find a place for herself, but it still…it made her feel out of place sometimes.

Out of place.

She leaned her head on Inuyasha's shoulder. She wondered if this was what Inuyasha had felt like. It was a disgusting feeling. A scary feeling. Sad. She wondered this, and she felt Inuyasha's arm wrap around her back. He was being so good to her. Quiet, understanding…so unlike the boy she used to know. She knew then that Inuyasha possessed a good deal of empathy. He probably understood her perfectly when she argued her side, but he was looking at it from another angle. Now that they had calmed enough to stop yelling, and he knew how she felt—felt out of place—he knew the feeling. He knew it well.

"I just don't feel good," she said, turning her face into his chest. She knew why she felt so bad, the funeral, the marriage, the pregnancy, the words said in anger—but knowing the cause didn't help her feel any better. His hand slid down her arm, grasping around her wrist. Kagome moved her head to look back at him when she felt him lift her hand. He squeezed it when her eye's searched his for some solace.

And he gave it. An apology as he brought her fingers to his lips.

'I know I screwed up—I know this is screwed up, but please forgive me. I'm sorry for making you feel that way.'

She never heard the words. He was so unlike himself as he placed a kiss on her fingertips, and Kagome didn't mind the things he had trouble wording aloud. He kissed her hand and her wrist, keeping his eyes trained on hers. She wiped her eyes with her other hand and leaned her forehead against his chest, and for some time, they stayed like that, wrapped up in each other.

It wasn't perfect. It wasn't perfect that they argued and complained to one another. It wasn't perfect that he sometimes undercooked the food and then burnt it when he tried to finish cooking it. It wasn't perfect that she whined about only being able to bath with a pot of hot water and a rag, because it was winter. It wasn't perfect that he was so careless about cleaning up after himself. It wasn't perfect how she sometimes kneed him in the groin while they slept. It wasn't perfect how both of their mouths ran amuck when they were angry. It wasn't perfect, and it wasn't easy, but it was good.

...

Okay, I am pulling 90% of this out of nowhere. It's completely unedited, and unresearched but I wrote two chapters in five days, and I wanted to get this one up before my birthday (the 20th).

I am unsure if they made love after this, it feels like the wrong time, but intimacy is key. It doesn't fix everything, but it helps. In a few days, Kagome will feel more at ease, but there's still issues existing.