A Little Too Much

Kagome's breathing was shaky now. She twisted her hands in cloth of her robes beneath her as she whined aloud.

"Inu...ya…sha…"

A deep growl came as her response from her husband, who loved hearing his name in that desperate tone. He bent down to kiss her shoulder, but it wasn't always easy from this angle, coming to press his chest to her back. He made a decision, then, that that angle wouldn't work well enough for his purposes, wrapping both arms around his wife's belly and lifting her up into a kneeling position. Kagome squeaked, turning her head as far as she could to look at her husband. All she got to see was white hair as he dipped forward to kiss her neck.

He was so bad about that. Even though it was winter, and she was pretty much wearing a scarf everywhere, that still didn't make it okay to leave hickeys on her neck. He crossed his arm between her breasts to hold her shoulder and push her securely to his chest. She smiled, reaching one arm up to stroke his. He began to suck a little on the spot he was kissing, to undoubtedly create a new mark.

"Inuyasha," she tried to chastise before he moved his hips at an awkward angle.

"Ah, no," he muttered. The feeling wasn't quite right. She was too much shorter than him.

"Kagome, move your legs a little," he instructed, pushing on one of her thighs. She moved them as he showed her, but something still wasn't right.

"Ah, maybe just lean a little—yeah, yeah like that." He replaced his hand on her belly, pressing in with the pressure she liked when her giggle stopped his first new push into her.

"Ah, Kagome don't laugh." Her body did funny things to his when she laughed. Of course, him telling her not to laugh made her giggle more. He grunted and bowed his forehead against the back of her neck.

"Don't," he panted suddenly, "you better stop that, unless you want this to be over real quick," he couldn't help the chuckle in his own voice. Kagome realized then that this position gave her a little more leeway in terms of movement, and she pushed back against her husband.

"Kagome," he grunted, unable to resist the movement of her body, moving his hips up to meet her backside. She liked the feeling of his arms trapping her chest. She felt warm and secure, and it was nice. She liked how easy it was to move with her husband like this and she couldn't help but giggle when the sound he made every few moments showed that he liked it too.

"Ka…haha. Kagome don't do that," he said, his own laughter influenced by hers. She pushed back against him, still laughing.

"Why should I?"

"Because—oh fuck—" he curled against her, breathing heavily and stilling his movements.

"Damn that was close." Kagome smiled wickedly and pushed back against him with a slightly different angle.

"Oh screw it," Inuyasha ground out. He grasped tightly to her hips and tilted her at an angle so he could easily move more quickly. Kagome bit her lip as a whimper rose out of her throat, her grasping hands reaching back to grip either of his wrists. She arched her back when his breath was hot against her neck again. He whispered her name and nipped at her skin—another thing he wasn't supposed to do given that his incisors were sharper than a human's—but she shuddered, her whole body tensing at the sensation, and it was then that Inuyasha's grip tightened on her and his movement became erratic, his voice coming out as barely a whimper. When he held his hips still against her, he came down to sit back on his calves, pulling Kagome down to sit on his legs. He had figured it was going to be a quick little experience, with Kagome rushing Shippo out of the house that morning, so it wasn't bad, all things considered.

"I didn't mean to bite you," he said before sighing and wrapping his arms loosely around his wife's belly. She placed her hands back on his forearms.

"It's alright, you didn't break the skin," she relayed. Inuyasha soothed the irritated red skin with his tongue. He didn't bite down, knowing full well how easily he could hurt her lest he get carried away. He left one more kiss before sighing again and resting his forehead on his lovely little Miko's shoulder. She was so warm, and he was so comfortable sitting there skin-to-skin with her on his lap. Suddenly she shivered and he felt goosebumps rise up on her skin. It was the middle of winter, so he really should let her get dressed so they could head to Kaede's. Although, the sudden onset of goosebumps reminded him of something.

"Ah yeah, if you can come home before the kid, I'll definitely pay you back."

"Hm? Pay me back for what?" Kagome asked, tilting her head only enough to see one fuzzy ear. He tilted his head to rub his face into the side of her neck. She always smelled so, so good covered in his scent.

"You didn't get to finish," he said, kissing up on her jaw. Kagome squeaked at the observation. Maybe not this morning, but she had three lovely little marks on her left thigh from two mornings ago. She was about to protest when Inuyasha pulled his arms from her belly and patted her shoulder.

"C'mon, we gotta get dressed. It's freezing in here."

"You guys just got back," Kagome all but whined. Inuyasha shrugged.

"We weren't even gone a day."

"I thought you said demon activity was supposed to go down in the winter?" Kagome said with a sigh. She looked up to Rin, sitting across from her and working diligently on her embroidery pattern. Kaede paid no mind to the talking couple as she worked to get the baking going in her kamado stove's oven. Inuyasha didn't respond immediately as he watched Kagome put her bow over her chest. She wished Kaede well and left out the door with her husband, where he continued the conversation.

"Yeah, down here, but as you get closer to the mountains there's a lot more, I guess." Inuyasha's nose twitched, trying to pick up on the fox's scent. He turned down the path that lead up the side of bare fields. He sighed when he looked back at Kagome, looking around trying to catch a glimpse of the orange puffball.

"If you don't want me to go, I won't. It ain't like I like leavin' you any more than you like me goin'." He waited for Kagome to look back at him before he turned away.

Kagome looked over the side of her husband's face and…well, she really did start to miss him if they were separated for too long, but if this trip panned out, he would earn a little money, either coins or something they could use or trade. Kagome thought on that for a few moments. They really could use a little money right now. They didn't have much use for funds right now, but Kagome was planning…she hoped…to add an extra expense soon enough. She hadn't really talked to him about it yet, but every time she had alone time with Inuyasha…she got sidetracked. Well, not that what she wanted to talk to him about didn't have something to do with the distracting activity, it just wasn't something they should just walk into haphazardly. Maybe if she had some alone time to talk to him without the possibility of getting distracted, she could bring up the topic.

"Um, actually, I was wondering if maybe I could go with you this time?"

The second the words left her mouth, Inuyasha's eyebrows knit together and he have her a uncertain look, staring at her from the corner of his eye. Kagome bit her lip and thought up a response before he had a chance to say no. She didn't understand why he didn't like her going with him. Sure, he got pretty banged up the last time, but that was because they hadn't established what she could and could not handle on her own; he was still overprotective of her.

"Well, since you did just get back, it would be good to give Miroku a break. He has children, after all, I'm sure they would like to see their daddy more often. And it wouldn't be like I'm abandoning the village, I mean, Kaede was the only Miko in the area for some time, and she would leave for other villages for days at a time, so it isn't too unusual. We could leave Shippo with Kaede and Rin likes Aki, so I'm sure we could convince her to watch her for us…" She clasped her hands together.

"And I would really like some time alone with you, just to talk, without all the distractions of work and Shippo, the dog…I thought maybe we could do that on the road." She looked up to her husband expectantly, taking a quick step to walk ahead of him to look at his face. He grunted, rubbing the back of his neck.

"I guess you don't really need my permission…make sure you bring your boots, it might snow where we're headed."

"Well, looks like we're done here," Inuyasha said, sheathing his sword. Kagome cocked her head to the side as she watched the demons scurrying in the opposite direction.

"But you didn't do anything." He had pulled out his sword, barked a warning at them, and when they asked who he thought he was, he gave his name, and off they went, scrambling over each other to get away from the big scary hanyou with the sword longer than he was tall.

Inuyasha put his hands on his hips.

"Nope. Eh, they won't be back. They knew my name, so they know what I'll do to 'em if they bother any more humans." With that, they walked back to the village for what Inuyasha deemed an annoying process of getting their payment. It was nearing dark, so part of the payment, the village head decided, was a meal and a place to stay for the night, much to Inuyasha's irritation. It wasn't as if he was unhappy to keep Kagome inside and with a full belly on a frosty winter's night, but why the hell did a meal always mean dining with the headman's entire extended family. He downed the half the first saucer of sake that came his way, slowly sipping it, and then the second. He needed to be a little buzzed to handle this noise. The worried glances some of the men threw him, and the quiet whispers from the women always annoyed him. Damn, alcohol moved through his system too fast. It would wear off quickly, but it also went to his head fast, making him more than a little dizzy.

Kagome sighed when she watched Inuyasha set his cup down with a scowl, before throwing a quick 'I'm getting out of here,' to her and stepping out the door. She reached over to grab his half-empty cup and set it beside hers. This trip hadn't gone how she had planned at all. She had meant to talk to Inuyasha on the way here, but…she felt silly about it now. Why couldn't she just open her mouth and say something to him. They had travelled all day, too, only making it out here in the late afternoon. She had plenty of time to talk with him but she hadn't done it.

She raised his leftover saucer of water to her face—nobody had seen her grab it to think it odd she didn't mind sharing a vessel with her demon "bodyguard"—before she got a good whiff of it. She crinkled her nose and pulled it away from her face. Alcohol. Well, that explained why it wasn't in a regular cup. She paused, staring at the vessel in her hand.

Inuyasha drank? Since when? He hadn't looked like he was new to it either. She had seen him drunk before—accidentally, of course—but she didn't know he would purposely seek out the drink. She swirled the liquid in the vessel for a second in thought. She wondered what type it was. She couldn't tell by the scent alone, all she smelled was the alcohol. Well…she was almost twenty, so in her old world she might be going out with friends in just a few months to celebrate her birthday.

One of the women nearby laughed when Kagome stuck her tongue out after a sip of the stuff.

"Is it a little strong, Miko-sama?" The woman asked, one brow raised. Kagome blushed, the woman's words having drawn the attention of two men sitting near her. She did not want to be the center of attention.

"N-not really. I…I, um, I've just never had alcohol before," Kagome replied, turning her gaze back down to her half-eaten meal, quickly popping a pickle into her mouth before she had the chance to say something stupid. That wasn't entirely true. She had once taken her mother's cup by mistake at a friend's wedding. She didn't know what was in it, but her mother chuckled and patted her back when Kagome ended up coughing and looking for some water to chase the taste down. Her mother told her to try sipping it the next time, but Kagome wasn't very into the idea of going anywhere near whatever had been in that cup.

"Really? Well, try taking a bite of food before you have another sip. It's not bad."

Inuyasha left out of there and settled himself into a tree, far enough away where the noise of the meal wouldn't bother him, but he could watch out for Kagome should she decide it was time to retire for the night. He had probably drank a little too quickly, since he wasn't getting that "warm, cozy feeling" like he normally would when he was drinking with Miroku. Miroku knew Inuyasha's drinking metabolism better than the hanyou did himself, and usually kept tabs on how much Inuyasha was drinking. By the time he heard footsteps approaching, he figured that he had just bypassed the tipsy stage altogether, and was basically back to sober. He heard a quiet 'oops' and what sounded like a rock being kicked over before he looked down to find his wife. He jumped down in front of her, making her jump a little.

"You ain't headed to bed already, are ya?"

"Ah, no, I was actually was hoping we could talk about something." Inuyasha cringed when he smelled her breath.

"That's part of why I wanted to come, so we could talk," she continued.

"Hey, you been drinkin'?" The question was rhetorical, but he examined the way she shrugged a little and smiled without prompting.

"You're drunk."

"No, no. It's just dark." Inuyasha's brows knit in confusion. What did that have to do with anything?

"Kagome, why were you drinking?" He asked, his voice accusing. Kagome frowned, setting a hand on her hip.

"Hey, that's not fair, you were drinking too. I mean, that's why I started, I finished your cup for you."

Inuyasha cocked his head to the side. She was clearly well liquored up. She wouldn't have gotten that way from…what was left of his third (maybe it was his forth?) saucer of sake.

"Kagome, how much did you drink?"

"I…" She laughed and shrugged, "I dunno, really. I don't think that much, this is my first time drinking, so I didn't wanna overdo it, you know?" Inuyasha groaned, setting both his hands on her shoulders. She had already overdone it. He could tell by how little her sentences made sense in his mind. Common sense anyway, dictated that you were supposed to keep track of how much you were having, lest you wind up…was she wobbling? He had his hands on her shoulders and he was quite sure of it.

"Okay, well you're going to bed now," he said, scooping one hand under her knees to pick her up. Kagome kicked a little with the motion.

"Hey no, no, put me down," she said, swatting at his chest, "I came out here to talk to you, so I don't wanna go to bed now." Inuyasha rolled his eyes, but set her down as per her wishes. The second her feet were on the ground she fell forward and he stood her back up, letting her grab at the cloth of his shoulders to steady herself.

"Okay," she said, noting her stumble, "I might be a little tipsy." A little? Yeah, no shit. More than a little 'tipsy'.

She looked up into her husband's eyes, which widened in surprise when she said very deliberately:

"I want to have a baby." Inuyasha opened his mouth to respond, but slowly closed it. He raised his eyebrows when she sent him a cute little smile.

"As in now? Not a little ways off? Like, now?"

"Oh," Kagome squeaked, "is tonight a good night for it? We could do it right now, then, if you want." Inuyasha grunted, his face returning to a scowl.

"No, not right now right now. Kagome that's—"

"Oh, it's okay if you don't wanna do it with people around, I always wanted to try it out in the woods," Kagome said, giggling and wrapping her arms around his waist—looking less and less in control of her mental processes by the second. Just how much had she had to drink?

"No, Kagome, it's fuckin' freezin' out."

"Oh okay, well if we go inside we'll just have to be quiet…" Inuyasha started to roll his eyes when she continued, "wait, do you even know how to be quiet? You're usually very loud. Not that I don't like it but you can't do—" Inuyasha couldn't hear the rest over his own groan. Ah, liquid courage. He tipped his head back, staring into the trees above.

"Kagome, we're not gonna do it," he said pointedly, tipping his head back down to stare at his wife. Reason number one, they were guests in an unfamiliar region. There was nothing good about doing that in a stranger's home. An inn, maybe, but definitely not someone's home. Reason number two, she was drunk. Drunk people were unpredictable, there were a number of things that could go wrong, there. Especially if it were the proper time of the month, and she woke up with no desire to have a baby. It also included someone hearing what they were doing if she lost some sense of where they were in her state. Reason number three, if someone came to see why moans, as if she were in pain, were coming from the Miko's room, they would catch them. Not only would they get kicked out, it would ruin her reputation as a Miko, to be sleeping with her "bodyguard" and her reputation as a woman to be doing such things with a "demon". Even if they remained quiet, surely someone would notice the smell come morning, and with the only male in her presence being Inuyasha himself, they could put two and two together. Inuyasha knew what sort of names she would be called for that occurring. He knew that from the whispers his own mother never commented on.

Inuyasha had some common sense. His wife pouted, but seemed to accept his short statement, even without him stating the detailed reasoning he had gone over in his head.

"Okay, if you don't want to, that's fine, I guess."

Inuyasha sighed.

"Lets get you to bed, so you can sleep this shit off." He picked her up once again and carried her off to her their room. He met a few people along the way and sent them glares, telling them that someone had let the Miko have too much to drink, which was why he had to carry her. They looked at each other with sheepish looks, having felt the feigned threat from the hanyou. He deposited his wife on the futon that had been laid out on her side of the privacy screen, but she whined when he started to walk away.

"Relax," he told her, taking Tessaiga from his hip, "I always sleep by the wall, remember?" He plopped down in front of the screen and Kagome frowned at him. He suspected that it was probably fuzzy, but she had some recall that they had to pretend that they weren't married for their ventures. Kagome huffed, turning on her side to face him better.

"I'm serious about the baby Inuyasha. I want to have one, soon." Inuyasha frowned, but after a second he nodded. She wasn't bad off enough that her speech was effected, so that was something. Yet, she was still drunk, and he wouldn't hold her to what she said when her brain was all out of order as it seemed to be.

"Okay then. Just, lets talk about this when you're sober, though. If you're sure right now, I don't want you changin' your mind on me."

"Oh my gggodddd," Kagome groaned, digging her palm into her temple.

"That's about what I figured," Inuyasha scoffed, handing her a cup of water. Kagome squinted at the offering, but brought it to her nose, thinking, gratefully, that even Inuyasha knew that the 'hair of the dog that bit her' was not an accurate cure for a hangover. She gulped down the water and Inuyasha poured her another. He wanted to get as much water into her as possible before they set out with a full container of water for her to drink along the way home.

"Why'd you let me drink so much?"

"I didn't do anythin'. You did that you yourself." Kagome scowled. Inuyasha had probably had as much to drink as she had, probably more, actually, but he seemed fine. She was hoping the 'demons don't get hangovers' logic was about the same as the 'demons don't get sick' one, so that he would at least share in a little bit of her pain.

"Okay, well don't let me do that again."

Inuyasha chuckled. Kagome sent him a glare.

"How did you end up drinking anyway? It looked like last night wasn't your first time."

"Miroku," Inuyasha gave, shrugging. He had picked up at least a few habits from the monk, including indulging in liquor whenever it was offered. It hadn't been until the twins were born that Miroku had convinced Inuyasha to take a 'celebratory' drink. The hanyou had been drunk before, but it had never been on his own accord, and he had always been thoroughly intoxicated, rather than that fine line bordering buzzed, but not yet drunk. It was kind of a nice feeling, but it was terribly easy for him to overdo it with how unusually he processed the stuff, compared to a human. Miroku had learned from years spent with Hachi how demons processed alcohol, so it only made sense that he would have a decent understanding going into drinking with his hanyou friend.

Inuyasha and Kagome left for home about an hour after dawn, and when Kagome had a small breakfast in her stomach. Inuyasha carried their small official payment—a bag of rice—under his clothes. He was glad to see Kagome was still chugging the water as they went, even having him break the ice over a frozen creek to refill the container. It was freezing out, but there didn't seem to be storm clouds anywhere in sight, which is why Inuyasha's senses went up on high alert when there was snow up to his ankles up ahead, that hadn't been there yesterday. He stretched his hand out to halt his wife, and she immediately scanned the surrounding forest. She recognized his stance, with his nose sniffing and his hears flicking around atop his head. She didn't feel any demonic auras…

"Yuki-onna," Inuyasha muttered. Kagome's eyebrows scrunched together at the statement.

"We're in Yuki-onna territory. We need to take a detour." Inuyasha's voice was serious, and Kagome found herself climbing onto her husband's back as he started to backtrack. When he was running along, she asked what had him so worried. Normally he wouldn't care about going through a demon's territory, he would just plow on through and beat up anything that tried to fight him.

"Yuki-onna ain't a demon. Not exactly. She ain't something I can fight, more of a ghost than anything."

"A ghost?"

"Yeah. I mean, she is a demon but…hey Sango ever tell you this? She said something like all demons were created from humans, like with Gashadokuro. They start out as ghosts, but you get enough people in one area dyin' a hunger, they form Gashadokuro. She's kinda like that, but she's just the one ghost that froze to death, so not enough…I dunno, energy to form something you can kill. The original Inugami were dogs that were buried and starved 'fore they got their heads cut off, and they was the same way, you couldn't really kill them."

"Unless you're a Miko, who could put it to rest." Kagome said, squeezing her husband's shoulders.

"Yeah well, whatever. I don't like it. Don't wanna deal with it. We're going around while you still got that hangover." Kagome sighed, accepting of his answer. Her headache was much better, but she was still severely dehydrated, and it probably would be best to…

"Dammit," Inuyasha muttered when he noticed big, wet flakes coming down. He looked up ahead to see that the path all the way back to the village they had just come from was slowly being covered in snow. He picked up the pace towards it. One thing Yuki-onna were good at was disorienting travelers, even animals demons with sharp noses and keen senses of directions. It was ten minutes later when Inuyasha realized the entire ground looked the same, and he couldn't figure out which way was which.

...

The first part of this story took inspiration from an inuijiness picture on tumblr. Search her nsfw tag, and you'll know which one I mean, hah. I'm pulling a lot of these demonic facts out of thin air, just basic stuff from memory and some stuff I added just for fun. I try to keep the amount of research I do as small as possible. I just needed a fluffy chapter after chapter 26. My goal for chapter 28 might end up stretched between 28 and 29, we'll see if I can squeeze it into one chapter, since I'm trying to keep all my chapters 2,500-8,000 words for at least a minor level of consistency.