Are You Sure About This?

"Sango, I keep telling you, I wouldn't mind it." Kagome took a deep breath then. She offered Sango a smile, but Sango shook her head. She couldn't dump three kids on her best friend just because she was feeling nostalgic. Kohaku had been passing through a lot as of late, bringing with him news of how the repairs to structures were going. It was slow going, with Kohaku being the sole occupant of the entire village space. He was busy far too often to do any major repairs, so he still had a ways to go.

There wasn't any real reason he had decided to do it. He said he felt obligated. He still felt a deep guilt over what had happened to their friends and family, despite knowing it wasn't really his fault. It was cathartic, rebuilding some part of his and Sango's pasts. Sango and Miroku had helped, at first, but Kohaku had shooed them off after Sango had started to show with her first pregnancy. Miroku and Sango had properly moved into Kaede's village, and were visiting every few weeks. The back-and-forth was tiring, and Kohaku said it was something he had wanted to do one his own, anyway.

"If he really wanted to reconnect with his past, he would visit us from time to time," Sango had grumbled frequently as her belly grew in that first pregnancy. She knew he did try to visit more after Miroku had relayed this to the boy. As it were, Kohaku seemed awkward holding babies, and between Sango and Miroku, there always seemed to be a baby to make him hold.

Kagome, on the other hand would gladly watch Sango's children while she visited her old village. It had been a number of months since she had gone on that hunting trip with Inuyasha. She had been hinting that she wanted to visit before she got fat-she wasn't even showing yet, just noticing that she had slightly less slack in her wrap. Kagome had no problems babysitting, so long as she had proper preparation time unlike the last time she had had the children dumped on her lap by Miroku. She had said it long ago, back when she had gotten Inuyasha to agree to having children-the first time-that babysitting overnight was probably a good idea-to prepare them to care for a child of their own.

She wasn't pregnant yet, but given the amount of trying they had done up to this point, that could change just about any day...she was making all sorts of excuses, she supposed. Kagome really did like kids, apart from her brother when they were younger, and she liked being around them. Her future child would definitely become friends with these three.

Four.

Kagome really hoped to have a baby in the same year as Sango, so those two would grow up together. She was making all sorts of adorable scenarios in her head, featuring her friend's children and her own, hypothetical children.

Kagome was lost in thought, when her friend laughed at her far-away expression. It snapped Kagome to the present, out of wondering whether her kids would have white or black hair, to looking at her friend, one hand on her hip and a brow quirked.

"I said you could watch my kids, didn't you hear me?" She chuckled.

"Oh," was all Kagome said in response.

"I just...I need a few days to make sure everything is in order. Have you even asked Inuyasha if he was okay with having the kids over?"

Nope. She had not. Oh well.

Inuyasha scoffed. He couldn't really say no, could he? She had already promised Sango and Miroku to watch the little ones. Besides, it couldn't be too terrible. He couldn't remember if he'd told Kagome this, but before she came around, Inuyasha had been the twins' main babysitter. Well, him and Shippo, anyway. He hated it whenever someone mentioned it, but he was halfway decent with smaller kids. Ones that weren't old enough to sass him, anyways.

He was blowing off some wood shavings the morning Sango and Miroku came over with the kids. It was just after he'd gotten back from his rounds in the woods. He wanted to get this ladle done quickly, to replace the one with the broken handle Kagome had been fussing over for a week. Kagome was still out with Kaede-and Rin too, probably, as often as she ditched Hana. Probably would be until dinner time. Sango dropped off a lot of crap, too. What was all this garbage, anyway? Kid stuff, surely, but Sango had planned on leaving for only three days, right? If she was gonna dump all this stuff off at his and Kagome's house anyway, why didn't the two of them just spend these few days at their house, where all this stuff already was. Sometimes Inuyasha wondered if he was the only one in this place with a brain in his head.

"Hey, don't hit her," Inuyasha called out to Yukie, who had bopped her sister on the head for getting ahead of her trying to catch the grasshopper they both spotted. Yukie was normally the quieter, more even-tempered of the two, but she really seemed to want that bug. Koyuki, however, lived up to her more animated nature and started to cry. Inuyasha growled, lifting Ichiro to his chest and moving over to scold Yukie.

"You see what you did, kiddo?" He turned to Koyuki, who was crying even louder now that Inuyasha had stooped over the pair. She held the top of her head—not even where her sister had hit her.

"It didn't hurt that much. C'mon kid."

"Kiiissss iiiittt," she whined.

Inuyasha shrugged his shoulders, crouching down to the girls' level. From the forest floor, he picked up a leaf.

"How about this. Demons are magic, right?" Koyuki nodded.

"This is a little spell to make you feel better. It's demon magic, so it works even better than kisses." He placed the leaf on her head then placed her little hand over his. He said a nonsense magic word and made her repeat it, watching as he little cheeks squished up with a excited grin. He took his hand off her head, asking if it had worked.

"Yeah!" She chirped.

Inuyasha decided to change tactic then, digging though their little kid stuff and pulling out a ball instead. He made the girls take turns as he threw the ball a few meters, and each chased after it, squealing and bringing it back to him. He was playing fetch with them. Kids weren't that hard, if you thought of them as talking dogs.

Kagome sensed a very slight demonic aura following close behind her as she walked along with Kaede. It didn't concern her, however, as she spotted two tiny hooded figures ducking behind a tree when she looked back. She hadn't officially met the two hanyou boys yet, but she had seen them with their father on one occasion, and just now, trailing behind her. She had gotten the official story out between the father and Inuyasha, that the kids' mother had been a protective deity of a small forest, resembling a deer. A group of soldiers had come through, cutting much of the bamboo in the forest, and she had lost her life trying to protect the forest. The man had fled with his boys in toe, their home having been destroyed.

It was a sad story, but not an unfamiliar one to Kagome. Even as the boys had become more adventurous and crept into the village to play with some of the other children—at a distance—there did not seem to be any discord towards them. Their father was a fastidious laborer, and he was making a good reputation for himself, which could only help the small family out. As Kagome sat down to eat a bit of rice she had prepared earlier for her lunch, she spotted the two boys again. They didn't try to hid this time, gazing at Kagome over a swath of bushes. Kagome waved.

"Hello, you two!" She called out to them. The younger one smiled, and made his way out of the bushes holding onto his hood to secure it. He came a little too close to her, making her sit back a bit. The child obviously did not yet know the concept of personal space. But it was during that time that Kagome finally got a good look at him. He looked pretty much like a human, except with larger than average freckles spotting his cheeks and with horizontal slits for eyes. His eyes were a shade of brown darker than her own, though so if he wanted to pass for human, it shouldn't be too difficult. Under the hood, Kagome could only surmise that he had a pair of ears or some sort of stubby horns or antlers which might give away his heritage, but…As human as he looked, it did leave Kagome to wonder what her own children might look like. Inuyasha was already half human, and was very human in form, would their kids even take after him? Kagome was hoping for fuzzy ears.

"Hi!" He said, far too loudly, making Kagome flinch. He hadn't learned volume control either, but he was cute.

"Do you want to sit by me?" Kagome smiled, patting the ground beside her. The little boy flopped into the grass and just looked at her, a big grin on his face. Kagome looked back up to watch as the older brother came towards her a little more cautiously.

"What is your name?" The younger asked as the elder creeped up next to him and sat in the grass on the other side of him.

"My name is Kagome, what's your name?"

"Daddy and Inuyasha say you're nice. Is that true?" He asked, ignoring her question. Kagome laughed.

"I hope so. Yes, I'm pretty nice."

"Okay!" He popped up again, grabbing hold of Kagome's hand. He was trying to pull her up, urging her to play tag with him. Unfortunately, Kagome had some more places to visit that day, but she offered for the boys to come along and see what a Miko did all day. The younger seemed a little dejected with that, but the older boy seemed curious, then, encouraging the younger to take up that offer. And so Kagome had two additional shadows for another hour, until both boys saw a group of children playing ball, and went to go join them. Those two were so cute.

The scene that greeted her when she got home that night was not as pleasant. Koyuki, Yukie and Inuyasha were all doing their best to soothe Ichiro, who, for whatever reason had started crying. His words weren't very developed yet, so he couldn't even tell them what was wrong. Kagome took him from Inuyasha, trying to shush him. Kagome surmised that he probably missed his mom and dad, and for that, there was nothing they could do. She rocked and shushed him for a half hour it seemed, before he seemed to exhaust himself.

Of course, at that point, the girls were fully awake and grumpy. They were both whining and complaining as Inuyasha and Kagome tried to get them tucked into bed for the night. Just when Kagome thought she could go to sleep, Inuyasha sat up.

"What are you two doing?" He whispered, directed at the twins.

"Nothing…" They said in unison, both giggling immediately after. The noise was enough to wake Ichiro, who rolled over with a whine, unhappy to be woken up. He was rubbing his little fist against his eyes.

"Shh, shh," Kagome soothed, "Please go back to sleep."

"Ow!" One of the girls cried out, and it was then when the couple saw what they were doing; poking each other and kicking each other, just because they could.

"Kagome! She poked me!" Her volume was too much, and Ichiro began to complain louder, starting to cry.

"She started it!"

It went on like that for the better part of the night.

The next morning, Kagome and Inuyasha still had to get up early, no matter how late the kids had kept them up last night. The girls, however, were exhausted by the morning, and continued to sleep even as their temporary guardians prepared to leave for the day. They were crabby and complaining as Kagome made them walk with her as Inuyasha made morning rounds. They were fussy the entire day because they had not slept enough the night before.

However, children were confusing as always, refusing to go down for their nap, initially. By the time they were finally asleep, there was hardly no waking the little girls up for lunch. Inuyasha sat down with Kagome for that, watching the kids sleep. They even looked crabby while they slept, today.

"So, this whole 'having a baby' thing—"

"I don't want to hear it." Kagome cut him off. Inuyasha couldn't help but laugh at that.

"So, now they decide that they want to sleep," Inuyasha commented.

"Miroku and Sango will be back tomorrow, I don't want to hear it."

"Sounds like somebody else could use a nap," Inuyasha smirked. Of course, he didn't need as much sleep as his wife to function, so, of course he was much better off than her. Kagome shot him a glare, before shoving his shoulder. He chuckled, leaning that shoulder up against his wife. Inuyasha definitely had settled into the idea of having kids by now, they both had. This little practice run had just let them in on what some of the more uncomfortable parts of what parenthood might be like.

The morning after next, when Miroku and Sango had finally arrived home, they let them sit down fro all of twenty minutes before they were shoving the kids back onto their parents. As much as they like the kids, and it turns out, they did like kids, three kids under the age of five was a lot to handle. As Inuyasha lay beside Kagome that night, tangled up in her, he couldn't help but think about the future, a small bit. They basked in the silence of having no children around for some time, before Inuyasha broke it with a comment to Kagome that they should probably space their kids out a little more than that. Kagome laughed, rolling over to tangle her hands in his hair and kiss him.

"Well, we should work on the first before we start thinking about a second and a third, anyways," she replied. They were a little too tired to work on it that night, but it was a nice thought for the coming days.

...

It's been four days shy of a full year since I updated, so I wonder if I should explain? First, I apologize for such a short, poorly-written chapter. Second, this entire year has had some of my biggest ups and downs emotionally. Anyone who's been following my blogs has probably seen my vagueposts become more and more disjointed, and that's for a number of reasons.

First, the bad things my mental health took a severe dip, and continued to get worse even after I put myself in therapy. I was finally officially diagnosed with PTSD, found out I was being stalked by an old abuser.

The good things I graduated college! I have my bachelor's degree now. I was focusing a lot on that this year. I went through some intensive therapy for my PTSD, and while I still need additional therapy, I'm better than I was. I am now taking medication to combat my anxiety/depression.

I got more into Undertale. During this year and probably future times, I feel that I connect with some of the characters, namely Sans, and used the common projection method of worsening his depression to represent my own in a way I didn't feel I was able to with Inuyasha characters anymore. Plus, I joined a Discord group that was really supportive of my writing and art for this game, and I really felt accepted, especially in how many people I was finding with a similar battle with their mental health.

I don't know when I'll update again, but I decided to give you something for the anniversary of my unexpected hiatus.