Helllllooo! So for some reason, I didn't feel as inspired this week with this chapter...I don't know why. It was hard to think of what to write! But I hope you all enjoy and please review, thanks to everyone who did last time! Let me know if this chapter's any good k? I'm not as proud of it.

Oh and sorry it's shorter than it's been for awhile...I'm really tired tonight and wanted to post it as opposed to wait til tomorrow and add more! Haha :)

Chapter 18: Anxious Feelings

"Kagome's birthday is this month. In the middle of April I think."

"Hmmm."

"You're going to do something to sabotage it right?"

"I might."

Kikyo crossed her arms and frowned. "Well I can't do anything with her around. InuYasha won't even look at me now. Not since she showed up."

Naraku gave a careless smile and pulled a lock of Kikyo's long, black hair. "I'll take care of her. Don't worry."

"I want her gone," Kikyo whined.

"I know."

The two were laying in bed at Naraku's apartment. Kikyo sat up and wrapped her slender arms around her legs, lost in thought.

"You dropped off the kid right?" Naraku asked, not bothering to sit up.

"Mhm. Last week. I left it in front of the door."

"Do you think they found it?"

Kikyo snorted. "Well, I wouldn't put it past that girl to have stepped on it or something. She seems clueless. But she most likely found it."

"Good. It will be easier to carry out our plan now."

"Definitely." Kikyo stared out the window next to Naraku's bed. He leaned foward and kissed her neck, and she giggled and pushed him back. "I have to go see my doctor. I'm already late."

She pulled back the covers and stretched as she stood up, searching the floor for her clothes. When she found them, she threw them on and checked her hair and makeup in the bathroom mirror.

"Are you coming back over later?" Naraku called.

"Probably not. I have to work on my campaign speech for the election tomorrow."

"Huh?"

Kikyo emerged from the bathroom with an annoyed look on her face. "You know. The student council election? I'm running for vice president against that stupid girl who has my position right now?" She put her hands on her hips. "I can't let her beat me."

"Oh," Naraku said slowly, "right."

"You do remember me telling you about it don't you?"

"Uh huh."

Kikyo looked satisfied and walked back over to the bed to lean down and kiss him. "I'll see you tomorrow k?"

Naraku nodded. "I'm so glad you left that mutt for me."

Kikyo shrugged. "Obviously." She wiggled her fingers at him. "Don't miss me too much." She blew him a kiss and left the room.

Naraku watched her go and smirked, knowing everything was going exactly as he'd planned. This was too easy.

xXxXx

"Come on Rue...please eat," Kagome sighed, attempting to push the spoonful of baby food into Rue's reluctant mouth. The little girl shook her head and kept her mouth tightly shut, refusing to eat.

Kagome leaned back in her chair and sighed again. "I don't know what to do with you."

She and InuYasha had been taking care of Rue for a little over a week now, and between midterms, the student council election, Kikyo, and her budding relationship with InuYasha, coming home each day to Rue was getting exhausting. Not that she wasn't growing fond of her; she was the sweetest little thing in the world. It was just so tiring taking care of a baby with no prior experience.

They had even been stuck on what to do with Rue when they were at school each day. Miroku had showed up the day after Kagome had found the baby on their doorstep, and he had insisted on coming in even though Kagome said she was extremely busy.

"I just need to talk to InuYasha," he had said cheerfully, stepping inside the house.

"Um, he's probably too tired to talk," Kagome said nervously. "He's been studying like crazy for midterms and all."

Miroku gave her a look that said you're-not-fooling-me. "Where is he? Upstairs?"

"Uh-"

But he had already started towards the stairs, and it was no use trying to stop him from going up them. When he made his way to InuYasha's door, he knocked once and went in. "Hey man, I need to talk about-"

He stopped short. InuYasha was on his bed watching Teen Mom with Rue sitting contentedly in his lap. He jumped up when he saw his best friend standing there, mouth hanging open, eyes wide as saucers.

"H-Hey dude, what are you doing here?" InuYasha laughed nervously, adjusting Rue in his arms. She giggled happily and pointed at Miroku.

Kagome came up behind Miroku and gave InuYasha an apologetic look. "I tried to stop him." She glanced at the TV, looking slightly amused. "Are you watching Teen Mom?"

"Er," InuYasha fumbled for the remote next to his bed and clicked the television off quickly.

"Is this your..." Miroku looked from InuYasha to Kagome to Rue, "...love child?"

"WHAT?" they both gasped, looking shocked and embarrassed at the same time. Rue clapped her hands together, loving all the people talking around her.

"You know I was never pregnant!" Kagome scolded, looking aghast.

"Well, women these days have an amazing way of hiding things," Miroku shrugged.

"But a pregnancy?"

"Look, it's a long story," InuYasha cut in, rolling his eyes.

And so they had to explain, yet again, their circumstances to Miroku. He was shocked to find out the baby actually might be InuYasha's (he had been joking before), and that they didn't know who the mother was, although Kikyo was their top suspect.

"And now we don't know what to do with Rue during school," Kagome finished, looking hopeless as she rested her chin on her palm.

"That is a dilemma," Miroku said, taking a sip of the tea Kagome had made for all of them. "But you know, I do have a suggestion. My cousin Kazuna just graduated high school last year and has been looking for a job. I don't know how she would feel about babysitting but I could ask her."

"Really?" Kagome perked up, looking excited. "It's not too much trouble?"

"Not at all."

"Did you hear that InuYasha?" she asked, turning to him. He looked up from where he sat feeding Rue. For some reason, the little girl always ate when he fed her. It made Kagome slightly jealous.

"Sure, that's great," he replied.

"Although I do have one question before I ask her," Miroku said seriously, looking intently at InuYasha.

"What?"

Miroku folded his hands in his lap and leaned forward. "Why were you watching Teen Mom earlier?" He and Kagome tried to keep a straight face but it was too difficult and they both burst out laughing.

"Aargh! It's an addicting show alright?"

When Kagome and Miroku exchanged a look, InuYasha huffed and said, "It taught me a few things, geez." He shrugged. "And it's kinda fun to watch Amber be such a bitch to Gary."

And here a few nights later Kagome sat trying to feed Rue, who stubbornly wouldn't let her. It did help that Kazuna had agreed to babysit during the day, and some of the burden had been lifted. Kagome began realizing she even missed Rue during the day, becoming excited whenever the final bell rang and she could come home to see her.

She glanced down the kitchen table, where InuYasha sat finishing his dinner. She took a deep breath.

"Hey InuYasha? Could you try to feed her?" she asked reluctantly.

He twirled some spaghetti around his fork. "Sure," he answered, shoveling the rest of his food into his mouth and putting his plate in the sink. He sat down next to the two girls and took the spoon and container of baby food from Kagome's hands.

She watched as Rue's eyes instantly lit up and she opened her mouth as soon as InuYasha lifted the spoon towards her lips.

"Maybe you really are her father..." Kagome found herself muttering.

InuYasha didn't reply, just kept feeding her. Kagome observed them for a little while; finally, she stood and picked up her backpack from the floor. "Would you mind watching her for a little while so I can finish my campaign speech?" she asked, ready for his answer to be no.

"Yeah, I can do that," he shrugged.

Kagome smiled and found herself bending over to kiss him on the cheek. When he looked up at her, she blushed. "T-There's a new Teen Mom on tonight," she winked, hurrying from the room before he could yell at her.

Her campaign speech was already mostly finished, but she wanted to look over it. Besides, she knew that InuYasha secretly loved spending time with Rue, even if she was a handful. She couldn't bare the thought of Kikyo taking her away...it would break InuYasha's heart. He was growing more and more attached to that little girl, just like she was. What would they do if Rue was ripped from their lives?

She tried to focus on her speech and her midterm study review, but eventually InuYasha wanted to go to bed and Kagome was given the job of monitering Rue. They had set up a temporary nursery for her across the hall in an unused guest room, but it was getting harder and harder for Kagome to get up and check on her whenever she cried. So finally, she let Rue sleep in her bed, and they fell asleep together around midnight.

The next day, Kagome awoke feeling jittery and nervous. She had never given a speech before and feared that Kikyo's would be better than her's. The end of the school day came too fast and before she knew it, she was sitting behind the curtain on the stage with all the other student council nominees. The assembly had began with the competitors for president, and of course Hojo was in front of everyone right now giving his speech.

On Kagome's left was Rin, and on her right was Ayame. They were both running for the positons they held now again, and so were Ginta and Hakkaku. Koga was the only one not running, since he was graduating this year. Kagome snuck a peek at Kikyo a few seats down, looking cool and collected as she chatted with the girl running against Rin.

When her name was called, she stood confidently and smirked at Kagome. Then she disappeared behind the curtain and her voice rang throughout the auditorium as she spoke into the mic.

Kagome felt a hand on her shoulder and looked over to see Rin smiling at her. "You'll blow her out of the water," she reassured her. "No one likes her anyway."

"Thanks," Kagome said in a small voice, wishing it was true.

As the audience applauded and Kikyo reappeared with a smug look on her face, she looked at Kagome and said innocently, "You're up."

Kagome heard her name announced and realized she was shaking. Her knees knocked together as she stood and clutched her index cards. Ayame smiled up at her and said, "You'll do fine. Just speak from your heart."

The raven haired girl nodded and crossed over to the front of the stage. Were there really this many people in the whole school? What if her voice cracked or her eyes started to water? What if everyone got bored or thought her speech sucked?

Mom, Dad, she thought to herself, please be with me.

As she reached the podium and set her index cards onto it, her eyes searched the crowd for one person, afraid she wouldn't find him. And then there he was, a couple rows back, slouching in his chair. But as soon as their eyes met, he straightened up and grinned at her, giving her a thumbs up that made her heart flutter.

You can do it, he mouthed, winking.

Kagome felt herself relax as she pictured him and only him being the recipient of her speech, and let everyone else in the room disappear from her mind. She took a deep breath and recited the words, her eyes staying locked with his the whole time.

xXxXx

"You did so well!"Sango exclaimed, throwing her arms around her friend.

The assembly was over and the candidates were coming down from the stage, looking relieved and energized and tired all at the same time. Sango, Miroku and InuYasha had immediately found Kagome among the crowd, and Sango looked excited and happy for her friend.

"You'll win for sure," she was saying.

"Oh, you're just saying that," Kagome replied modestly, shaking her head.

"It really was a wonderful speech Miss Kagome," Miroku told her. "I found myself actually wanting to vote this year."

"He would have voted for you anyway," Sango said quickly, elbowing Miroku in the side. "Wouldn't you?"

He nodded slowly, clutching at his side.

"It really was good," InuYasha said quietly, looking at Kagome as Sango lectured Miroku about voting.

Kagome looked at the floor. "Thank you." They were silent for a moment. "Oh, and thanks for watching Rue last night," she added, quiet enough so that only he could hear. "It helped alot."

"Anytime."

Sango finally gave up on Miroku and turned back to Kagome. "Men," she mumbled.

InuYasha cleared his throat so that the three of them would look over at him. "Hey, how about we celebrate? I'll take you out to dinner," he offered, letting his eyes rest on Kagome alone.

"All of us?" Miroku asked hopefully.

"No, idiot," Sango whispered, giving him a stern look and indicating towards Kagome with her finger. "Just those two."

"Oh." His face fell.

"What do you say?" InuYasha asked, trying to ignore those two.

"We don't need to celebrate anything yet," Kagome said, nervously picking at a loose strand on her skirt. "It's not like I won."

"I just want to treat you to something nice," InuYasha swallowed. "Whaddya say?"

"Say yes!" Sango whispered loudly.

Kagome laughed and finally shrugged her shoulders. "Alright alright. You've convinced me!"

As they were leaving the auditorium a few minutes later (just Kagome and InuYasha, Miroku and Sango had wandered off), Kagome gasped and said, "What about Kazuna? What if she doesn't want to stay later than usual?"

InuYasha shrugged as he pulled out the keys to his motorcycle. "Then I guess Rue will just come with us."

But it turned out Kazuna could stay a couple extra hours, and InuYasha promised to pay her a little more for her time. He took Kagome to a Greek restaurant downtown and she marveled at all the exotic food, excited and happy to be on a real first date with InuYasha.

As they left the restaurant later that night hand in hand, neither noticed the black sedan parked across the street from where they were walking. Nor did they pay any attention to the man behind the wheel, smirking to himself as he watched the happy couple walk away, knowing his plan was going perfectly.

xXxXx

Well, until next time I suppose! Review please! :) Didn't get as many reviews for the last chapter :/ Come on guys!

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