July 1551
"I'm sorry, what was that?" asked Kagome, rather absent-mindedly. She'd heard her husband's voice cut through her wandering thoughts as she scrubbed at the pot in which they'd made breakfast, but had been too distracted to decipher what he'd said.
"I said I'm going down to the river," Inuyasha repeated. "We need more water. I'm pretty sure what you're washing with there is the last of it."
"Oh, ok," Kagome said, nodding lightly. "Well, give me just a moment, I'll come with—"
"NO!" the hanyou gasped suddenly, causing Kagome to look up sharply in surprise, eyes wide and questioning. "No way. You need to stay here, you'll be safer—"
"Oh, please," Kagome groaned, finding her way to her feet, half-washed pot all but forgotten. "Not this spiel again. How many times do I have to tell you? Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I can't do simple, normal tasks like walk down to the river. It's not even that far!"
"It's…it's not about that," Inuyasha argued awkwardly, briefly adverting his eyes to the side. Ok, maybe it was a little bit about that. "I just…I just don't want you to get attacked or anything. There's been rumors going around that there's some dangerous youkai lurking around in the forest…"
"The forest? Our forest? 'Dangerous'…get real, hon, since when has anything stronger than those low-level oni ever stalked our forest?"
"I know it's unusual!" Inuyasha grumbled, "but some of the villagers are saying that there's something bigger in there. I haven't caught scent of it, or felt any significant youki, but I don't think I'm willing to take that chance!" He looked into his wife's indignant copper eyes and put his hands on her shoulders, trying to convey they extent of his concern. It might've been more effective had he not pulled the same maneuver so frequently in the past six months or so. "Please, Kagome. Stay here. You know your miko powers haven't been up to snuff lately! I don't want you getting hurt."
Kagome mimicked his gesture, causing Inuyasha's hands to slip slightly further apart.
"Oh, is that it? Because my powers are weaker than usual? Well, what about you? What's your excuse? You still don't have Tessaiga back from Toutousai, isn't that dangerous too?" she taunted in perhaps a stronger, sourer voice than was necessary, a little stung that Inuyasha would bring up her powers. It was true that they had been weakening as her pregnancy progressed, but he really didn't have to say that…make her sound so helpless…
"All the more reason for you to say here!" Inuyasha snapped. Dang, he'd nearly forgotten that he'd had to leave Tessaiga with Toutousai after that last exorcism with Miroku. "I can't protect you like usual!"
To someone already worried about feeling helpless, it was the wrong thing to say. The hanyou watched nervously as his wife's face scrunched up, an angry remark at the tip of her tongue, and vaguely wondered if she might sit him. Kagome hadn't utilized the enchanted beads in several months, almost a year, in fact, but Inuyasha felt he'd had at least a small share of close calls. However, whatever it was she had planned to say, Kagome thought better of it. She huffed it out and walked towards the door of their hut, sliding it open a crack.
"Well, whatever," she said somewhat dismissively. "Chances are you won't need to; we don't even know if this youkai's the real deal or if the villagers are just paranoid. You said yourself that you haven't detected a trace of it, and even if it did turn out to magically exist, you still have claws, don't you? Now are we going to the river or not?"
Inuyasha hesitated. He still wasn't quite comfortable taking Kagome with him, but he knew she was too stubborn to back down now. Yeah, he supposed it was possible that the youkai really was just an exaggerated rumor…but still, better safe than sorry…
For a moment he considered staying home, himself. If he decided not to go to the river, surely Kagome would stay as well? They wouldn't have fresh water, but Kagome would be safe…
No, no, they needed the water, gosh dang it. He inhaled deeply, discreetly taking in the scents on the wind flowing in from the crack Kagome had opened in the door. Darn, there wasn't any trace of the scent of a storm; he wouldn't be able to collect water from the sky anytime soon. Looks like he had no choice. He sighed and grabbed an empty barrel from the corner of the room, fully opening the door and silently heading off towards the forest. Kagome slid the door shut behind them and followed hard on her husband's heels.
The couple was quiet for much of their trek to the river, the echoes of their little spat still ringing in their ears and poking at their sore feelings. Kagome inhaled slowly, then exhaled, looking away from the back of the hanyou's head, the anger in her eyes long since replaced by something sadder with a twinge of regret. Perhaps she'd been a bit too hard on him. He was just worried about her, after all. He was just trying to do his job as a husband and soon-to-be father in looking out for her. And what had she done? Yelled at him!
Still, though, she thought. Inuyasha had always been the protective type, but ever since they'd found out about the baby, that drive seemed to have doubled, spreading to the most menial of tasks.
Kagome almost had to stifle a giggle as she recalled the scene. Inuyasha, with the bloodhound-like sensitivity of his nose, had detected the change in her scent he'd learned through Sango to associate with pregnancy long before the conventional feudal-era methods would've picked up the change, and he'd spent the next few days fretting over her like Sango and Miroku over their boisterous twin girls…ok, maybe not quite like that…Inuyasha was a lot more jittery than the surprisingly-collected young parents! But either way, he spent that time worrying over his wife while still too shy to actually confess to her his suspicions. It wasn't until Kagome had confronted him about his sudden change in behavior that she finally coaxed him to spill the proverbial beans.
She'd been really excited at first, especially when Kaede was able to confirm her condition, and now that the situation was out in the open, Inuyasha seemed to relax a bit (if partly due to Kagome's constants assertions that yes, she was fine). He'd started getting worse again, however, when Kagome's miko powers slowly began to wane a few months in, and was on-and-off fast-approaching that initial nervous wreck state.
When they arrived at their destination, Inuyasha plucked the lid off the barrel and dunked it in the lazily-flowing water, watching it as it filled. He glanced up at Kagome, making eye contact with her for the first time since they'd left. To his relief, she no longer looked upset; in fact, she cast him a small, almost apologetic smile, subconsciously resting a hand on her swollen tummy.
Inuyasha returned the small smile and turned back to the barrel, lifting it out of the water and refastening the lid. The large, waterlogged barrel would've been heavy to a human, perhaps requiring a cart to transport back to the village…but he handled it with relative ease. It was awkward and bulky, but nothing his youkai strength couldn't deal with. So far, so good…maybe he really had been overreacting before. Goodness knows he'd been prone to it as of late.
The walk back began nearly as quietly as the walk there, save the sloshing of the water in the freshly-filled barrel. This time, though, Kagome reflected, the air seemed much less—
WHOMP.
Kagome's thoughts were interrupted as she suddenly found her face full of long, silver hair. Inuyasha had abruptly stopped walking.
Kagome backed up a few steps and shook her head to clear it, spitting out the few silvery strands that had stuck to her mouth in the collision.
"Inuyasha, what's wrong?"
The hanyou didn't respond immediately, slowly looking around the scenery, golden eyes narrowed suspiciously. Any tension that had left after retrieving the water had returned, though this time in Inuyasha's body rather than floating in the air around them. After a long moment, he spoke.
"Hmm…" he grumbled slowly. "I thought…thought I heard something…"
He fell silent again, and for a moment Kagome thought that would be the end of it. She was about to start walking again when, almost as suddenly as she'd run into her husband, his face blanched and he spun around, dropping the barrel. Alarmed, Kagome did the same, following his gaze.
It wasn't until she saw the creature that she felt the ominous youki drifting off of it. Its dark, mottled skin covered a long, spindly body; an oddly flat face equipped with a pair of bright red eyes and a wide mouth encasing devilish fangs adorned its head. While it wasn't very big, it certainly wasn't one of those low-level oni that usually tried to cause trouble in this forest.
Could this be the youkai the villagers had been talking about?
Kagome gasped and stepped back a little, shocked by the sudden sight. Inuyasha quickly moved in front of her, snarling and reaching for the hilt of his sword.
His hand only grasped air.
He looked down. Dang it! Tessaiga was still with Toutousai…
"Kagome, run!" he shouted, whirling back around. "Get back to the house! I'll deal with this loser!"
Kagome hesitated for just a moment. She hated to leave him here, surely she could help him…!
But somewhere deep down, as much as she hated it, she knew better. Her miko powers really weren't up to par at the moment, and even if they were, she'd left her bow at home…it couldn't be helped. She turned and shot off in the direction of her hut. As she left, she heard her husband shout, "sankon tessou!", but couldn't look back…
Kagome ran as long and as fast as she could, but it didn't take long before she began to tire, breathing becoming harder and heavier. She tried to keep going, but she was getting dizzy…
Kagome stumbled over and leaned against a sturdy tree, trying to catch her breath, supporting herself against the trunk with one hand while the other found it way back to her belly.
"D…dang it," she mumbled between panting breaths, "You're not gonna…make this easy for me…are you,…little guy…"
"Kagome, what are you doing?" Inuyasha shouted from behind. "RUN!"
Kagome clenched her teeth, straightening up a bit and turning back around.
"Well, excuse me!" she yelled back, quickly becoming irritated again. "You try running when—!"
But before she could finish her sentence, she found herself swooped up off the ground in her husband's arms, moving quickly back towards the hut.
"What are you doing!?" she countered. "Don't you have a youkai to defeat!?"
"I'm getting you to safety first!" The hanyou snapped determinedly. Kagome grumbled a grumpy response that even Inuyasha's ears, in all this ruckus, didn't pick up, but now was not the time to worry about that.
With youkai-like speed now on their side, the couple made it back to their home quite quickly. As soon as they got there, Inuyasha let Kagome down by the door and turned to focus back on the youkai, which was crawling after them in hot pursuit.
"Inuyasha…Tessaiga!" Kagome gasped, pointing towards the sheathed sword that sat propped up against the outside wall of their home. "Toutousai must've dropped it off while we were at the river…"
Without wasting a moment, Inuyasha swung around to grab the sword, it transformation brining him relief as he unsheathed it.
"Kagome, get inside!" he barked. This time she didn't need to be told twice, but she kept the door cracked open to watch the battle.
The fight went much quicker now that Inuyasha had his go-to weapon back. In a matter of minutes, all that was left of the long, spindly youkai was a cloud of rather foul-smelling dust blowing off into the breeze. Inuyasha took a minute to catch his breath, watching the retreating, scattering cloud closely to be sure the battle really was over, before sheathing Tessaiga and heading back indoors.
Kagome scrambled away from the door as he slid it open and entered. Neither of them spoke for a moment, trying to process everything that had just happened.
Inuyasha was first to break the silence.
"Are you ok?"
Kagome nodded.
"Mm. I think so."
Inuyasha sighed a long breath of relief. Despite the…excitement…at least no harm seemed to have been done.
"Good," he said, and the couple fell into another brief spell of silence. "…then I think you have something to say to me," Inuyasha added somewhat warily. Kagome narrowed her eyes.
"What are you talking about?"
"You know what I'm talking about. The youkai! The trip to the river! I told you it would be dangerous!"
Kagome opened her mouth to argue, a little indignant. But she ultimately changed her mind.
"Ok, alright, fine. Fine. You were right. I should've been more careful. Happy?"
Inuyasha said nothing, but nodded curtly.
More silence. Kagome sighed, her resentment finally leaving with her breath.
"Look, I really am sorry," she insisted. "I should've listened when you said it could be dangerous. You're just looking out for me, and for the baby." She paused for a moment, her gaze softening a little, before continuing. "And I know I shouldn't be romping around quite like usual while pregnant. It is starting to get harder, you know," she admitted, glancing down ruefully at the growing swell of her belly, where she momentarily felt her baby move softly, as though he or she were merely shifting positions before settling back down. Inuyasha opened his mouth to speak, but Kagome wasn't done yet.
"It's just that…I dunno…sometimes you seem to overreact. I know you don't try to, and I know you mean well, but sometimes it just…it just…gets excessive. And sometimes it…makes me feel like you think I'm just…completely helpless, or something."
"I don't think you're—"
"I know, I know…it's just that…well, when you've spent so much time fretting over me for nearly seven months straight, it can be pretty frustrating to keep separating the serious from the unnecessary!"
Inuyasha adverted his eyes, unsure of what to say. But, as they say, actions speak louder than words.
The hanyou inched around behind his wife, her confused gazed following him curiously as he reached out his red-clad arms and embraced her gently, resting his chin on her shoulder.
"I…I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I guess you're right. I should have a little more trust in you, too, and what you can do. I…don't really know much about pregnancy. The only prior experience I have with it was with Sango's, and I was only watching from a distance." he admitted. "I guess I'm just still kinda new to the idea of becoming a dad myself. I'm scared to…to mess it up."
Kagome closed her eyes and relaxed, leaning back into her husband's chest.
"That's ok," she assured. "Just don't worry about it, alright? You'll be fine."
Inuyasha said nothing, but nodded against Kagome's shoulder. His hands slipped down around his wife's tummy, searching out any sign of movement from within. The corners of his mouth pulled upwards in a small smile when he felt a little kick.
"Is the baby doing ok, after all that?" he asked.
"I think so," affirmed Kagome, placing her smaller hands over Inuyasha's.
The couple stood like that for a while, much calmer than before.
"…so…" said Kagome after a long moment, suddenly remembering. "What about the water?"
Inuyasha facepalmed, gritting his teeth. He'd forgotten!
"I dropped it before fighting that youkai. I don't think the lid came off, so it should still be sitting out there in the forest. I guess I oughtta go get it."
"Yes, that would be wise," Kagome agreed. Inuyasha nodded a few times and headed towards the door. He'd just reached for it when he paused and turned around.
"But…you should stay here this time, ok?"
Kagome vaguely considered disagreeing. Technically all the things that'd make the trip so "dangerous" before had been dealt with…the youkai was defeated, and Inuyasha even had Tessaiga back.
But she'd had enough excitement for one day. She smiled.
"Ok," she agreed. "I'll stay here. Just hurry back, ok?"
Inuyasha grinned back, the worried look on his face fading quickly.
"I will."
And with that, he was off.
Kagome watched the closed door through which her husband had just exited for a moment before turning around and heading towards the corner she'd been working at earlier.
She supposed she ought to go ahead and finish washing that pot.
