Love and Responsibility
I'm very sorry for taking so long to update this chapter. It's been half complete for a very unacceptable amount of time. I really have no other excuse other than, I was going through small phase.
Thanks so much for all of your totally fabulous reviews. I'm looking forward to see what you all have to say about this chapter. Everything will be coming into play very soon. I'm grateful for your patience.
Warning: Sexual Content; Offensive Language; Violence
Rating: M for Mature
Couple: Inuyasha and Kagome (Based)
Sango and Miroku
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters associated with the series.
"Talking"
'Thoughts'
Recap: "Is that so?" Mr. Sasaki, the current MD looking after Kagome, began to ponder over the possibly causes for the teenagers unexpected blackout. 'Of course, when you've hit your head as hard as Kagome has, it could be a number of things that cause you to faint.'
"This is so lame." He could hear Kagome mutter from beside him. "First I get sick this morning, and now this…" It was from this short, simple sentence that realization hit the man. He swallowed a growing lump within the depths of his throat. "Mrs. Higurashi, would it be alright if I discussed something in private with your daughter?" End Recap
Chapter 15: Emotional Current
The midday's solar beams sauntered across the azure sky, ridiculing the creatures of the darkness, mocking all those whom could not step into the light of the day and witness it's wonders.
In Kaede's small, yet suitable lodge three humans, two demons, one half demon, and one dragon relaxed, scuffing down on their steaming bowls of porridge, which Kaede had efficiently boiled for them. They made small, unimportant conversation with one-another.
"Speaking of which…" For the moment, Miroku altered his point of view. His inky, violet eyes looked upon the dragon child, whom ate in silence. "What is your name?" Taken aback slightly, the girl stopped munching in the middle of her juicy, as well as tasty bite. She forced herself to wolf down the rest of the nonchewed parcels of stew.
"I apologize, I should have introduced myself more thoroughly earlier. My name is Kaneko, Nozomi. I prefer to just be called Nozomi."
"That's a very pretty name." The elderly woman complimented, pouring herself her second batch of porridge. Her words brought a small, unvarnished smile to the young child's lips.
"Thank you. It was given to me by my grandmother."
"Your grandmother?" Sango nipped off the edge of her thumb nail. "Nozomi, do you think you family is worried that you've yet to return to them?"
Nozomi gasped, realization smacking her face-first. Her attempts at rising from the mat all failed horribly. She was still in no condition to be up and about. "Brother will come looking for me." 'Oh dear heavens.' The dragon fell back after a few more unsuccessful efforts at lifting herself up. "He'll be reckless once he's discovered my condition." 'He may even blame these kind humans.' "Please, Lady Sango, take me to the outskirts of the village. I don't believe it would be safe for my brother to discover me here."
"But… we've done you no harm." Miroku protested. Little Kirara gave a small "meow" to back him up.
"Yes, but my brother is an irrational fellow. He acts much sooner than he thinks."
"Feh." Inuyasha snorted, a wicked smirk playing across his warmed lips. "I've been aching for a nice fight." He was swift to stand. Cracking his throbbing knuckles, Inuyasha approached the bamboo door. However, to his dismay, he didn't reach it before an overly hyper creature came smashing through, tearing the bamboo from it's last strings.
"Nozomi!" He bellowed, to the shock of each and every resident in the home, excluding Nozomi, whom merely gave a disappointed shake of her head.
Due to the dragon's surprising entrance, Inuyasha had fallen to his bottom. For very few moments he sat there. He was hasty when he finally pulled himself up. He gave the male dragon before him, one of his most sadistic glowers, as well as his most barbarous snarls. 'Why you…'
As for Miroku and Sango, the could neither glare, nor growl at this creature who'd intruded in their current home. They both gave the beast their most thunderstruck stares. 'He's exactly the same…' The demon slayer began the thought, but Miroku finished it. '… as the demon we saw brawling with the griffon in the forest the other day.' Now this could be considered a coincidence, at least for the monk and Sango.
"Nozomi." The dragon fell to his knees beside his wounded sister. "What has happened to you? Who did this to you?" He took this moment to get a good look around the room, he gave all of it occupants his rudest of glares as he did so.
"Brother Tusou, these humans helped me. The young woman saved me from a griffon's wrath, which I had encountered while searching for the medicinal herbs to heal Sister's infection."
"They… helped… you…?"
"Excuse me!" The half demon could not hold back any of his emitting fury. "Just who the hell do you think you are, coming barging in here like that?!" Inuyasha snapped, retrieving the attention of the worried older, dragon, brother.
Although Kagome was not completely, or at all knowledgeable for the reasons that Mr. Sasaki had asked her to take a minor sample of her urine, she listened to his orders and followed them accordingly.
Upon reentering the hospital room, Kagome's eyes met with a nurse that had not been there before. She stood beside the doctor. The woman barely reached Mr. Sasaki's throat. Standing there, she looked almost as overworked as a wrestler after training. The miko was able to catch a glimpse of small beads of sweat running along the sides of the woman's rosy cheeks.
The doctor nodded to the woman, expecting her to react. She did just that. The nurse approached the priestess, taking the container from the patient. She took her time to place it on a small plastic stand, which was positioned only a few feet to her right.
"This is Miss. Adachi. She'll be taking a few gallons of your blood." The color exuded the teenager's cheeks. "Don't fret, though, The needle is only about half an inch wide." The miko was utterly speechless. She could only wonder what made this doctor look so pleased with himself after revealing such horrifying news to her. "Relax, relax…" Miss. Adachi began to giggle, though she looked as though she was trying desperately to hold it in. "I'm only teasing."
"So she won't be taking my blood?" Kagome sighed, overly relieved.
"Oh, well she will be doing that, but she'll just be taking a bit."
"But didn't you take my blood earlier?" Kagome seemed confused. She slowly approached the messy bed.
"Well yes, but we already used that blood for another test…"
"Well if you'll be draining the vital fluid from my system, could you at least tell me what it's for?" To add humor, Kagome used a little extra drama in the beginning of her sentence.
"I think it's best if we wait till after the results are back. Otherwise there's no use getting you worked up."
"Worked up over what?"
"As soon as the results have returned, you'll be informed."
"Please do not argue any farther." Nozomi gave both her brother and Inuyasha a look of innocent pleading. Neither could deny the small girl's large eyes, especially in the condition she was in. Inuyasha snorted, stepping back from the powerful, yet loud dragon, known as Tusou.
"Thank god." Sango muttered quietly to herself, from her spot beside her companion. The man nodded, fully agreeing with Sango's unspoken words. Listening to Inuyasha and Tusou go at it was almost as aggravating as watching Inuyasha and Kouga's inane bickering. 'If they're like this after they've only just met, imagine how they'll be after they get to know one-another.' Miroku chawed at his upper lip. He became uneasy, thinking about all of the ridiculously long, blustering squabbles that the future would hold.
"We should be on our way." Tusou forced all of his anger towards the hanyou before him to recede in respect of his injured sister's wishes. "Our medicine dragons will help to heal you much sooner than these humans."
"Brother! It's rude to insult them after they've done me such a great favor." Nozomi brought her hand to her chest, feeling displeased at her brother's ill use of words, while still in the presence of her newly made friends. "I refuse to leave without rewarding them for their services."
"There is no need for such a thing child." Kaede assured. "Your brother is right though, I'm sure. Your own kind will be much more helpful in healing your broken body. It is best you go without struggle."
"I insist. You've saved my life. How rude would it be of me to just leave without giving you all something to show my gratitude. It is not the way of our kind."
"Just what do you propose we do for them?" Tusou tapped his foot, antsy to get home with his younger sister, so she could be taken care of properly.
"If we were to tell grandmother of their unselfish acts towards me, I'm sure she'd want to honor them in some significant way. Perhaps a feast?"
"You expect me to drag them all back to the kingdom with us?"
"Of course!" Nozomi once more attempted lifting herself from the mats. To her satisfaction, she was successful. "How else could we reward them? Did you expect me to ask you to throw them your pants?!" Her brother let out a rough huff of sudden anger at her choice of insulting words.
"Fool! We could bring them something!"
"And make them wait?"
"They'd have to wait either way."
"Just leave." Inuyasha's sudden interruption halted the conversation between the dragon siblings. Due to the stern sorrow in his tone, all eyes landed on him. With his fist pressed to his lower thigh, it wasn't hard to tell that something was very seriously bothering him at the moment.
While the others simply thought it had something to do with Inuyasha's dislike towards Tusou, Sango knew better. She was fairly sure that his sudden mood swing had something to do with his beloved priestess. Although, the slayer didn't quite know what had brought her to his thoughts so suddenly.
"I wont have it." Nozomi pushed, giving the half demon a small glare for his disruption.
"Listen, little girl. We don't have time for gratitude. We've got important things to tend to. Get going so you can just get off our backs."
"Don't talk to my sister that way, you demon." Tusou teeth clenched, rage boiling his dragon blood.
"I'll talk to whoever, however I want!" Inuyasha was obviously not to good at negotiations.
"Whomever." Choosing to correct the hanyou's choice of words at such a time, was probably not to wise of the male dragon. This only served to tank up Inuyasha's mounting irritation.
"Please." Kaede held her hand out, trying to prevent another overly unwanted quarrel. "Is it wise to upset an injured child? As her brother," Kaede faced Tusou. "...should ye not be more considerate?" Realizing that the wise woman was very right, Tusou hushed up. Seeing that the dragon would not continue to hassle with him, Inuyasha also closed his mouth for the time being. "We'll come up with the appropriate solution for this matter. There is no need to get loud about it."
"Wisely stated, as always." Miroku was glad to see that someone had been able to cutoff the pair of angry males from their unpleasant dispute.
When the doctor finally reentered the hospital room, which Kagome had all to herself, she felt a powerful sense of relief hit her. 'Finally! I've been bored to doom for the past fifty minutes.' Of course, that was not the only thing that had been bothering her about her doctor's lengthy leave. Not only was she anxious to learn about why he had extracted her blood, but she was also feeling sorry for her mother, whom had been forced to wait in the waiting area for the past hour.
"How are you feeling?"
"Nervous." The miko cracked a humorous smile for the man. He did the same in response. 'Isn't he supposed to say something like "Don't fret, you've got no reason to be nervous."?' To Kagome's strong discontent, the MD said nothing of the sort. Rather, he stayed silent, pulling a sheet of paper, from a large, yellow envelope.
His deep, brown eyes scanned over the paper, but his features remained unmoving. 'Either he's been trained not to show emotion while looking over results, or the results are exactly as he expected they would be.' Kagome didn't know which of the two she'd rather it be. 'I guess that much really doesn't matter, but I can't say I wouldn't have felt a heck of a lot better if his smile had brightened some while looking over that thing.'
"Alright." Mumbling, the doctor approached the girl. His expression turning firm. The priestess gulped down the cluster of unease, which prevented her from speaking, while she awaited the results of her test. "Miss Higurashi, I ask you to prepare yourself for what I'm about to say. Due to the fact that I believe you deserve your privacy, even while you're under the age of eighteen, I haven't mentioned anything to your mother about what this blood would be taken for. Unlike my usual situations, I'm not forced to gain her consent, for she signed a release form when you were brought in. She agreed to let me take all of the necessary tests to find out what was wrong with you, for it was a much more hasty way than having her sign each testing form separately. Had she known about the need for this exam, she most likely wouldn't have done such a thing."
"Could you just... tell me already." His words had done the girl no good. They'd merely made her worry stronger.
"Yes, of course, but I do fear you'll be very uneasy about this, considering your amnesia..." His mouth twitched with uncertainty. "Perhaps you'd be uneasy even if you didn't have massive memory loss..."
"Please... the more you make me wait, the more stress I'm under..." Using the only leverage the female had seemed to be affective, for the man before her opened his mouth to finally tell her of the news.
"Miss Higurashi, I took a urine sample from you, to give you a quick home pregnancy test. It came up positive. However," He ignored her awe-stricken expression. "Such tests are not always one-hundred percent correct. That it why I had the nurse take your blood. The results for those things take about forty-five minutes. In my hands I hold them." He paused for a breath of air. "You're pregnant, Miss Higurashi..." There was no use trying to stop the emotional current the entrapped the young girl.
I'm gonna cut the chapter off here. I had originally planned to make it longer, but it's always satisfying to leave a nice little cliffhanger.
Also note that Kagome's memories will be returning within the next couple of chapters.