A/N: Lol, I can't believe I'm censoring swear words I right…but whatever…A bit of a more humorous bit here…somehow the idea of Kagura and InuYasha in drunken brawl mode makes me laugh.

"That's it, Kagome. Ye continue to do so well, and it shan't be much longer."

Kagura listened to Kaede's voice drifting from the bedroom, and grabbed the jug of sake again, not bothering to pour it, but rather simply gulping from the container. Miroku stared at her in a mixture of surprise and admiration. InuYasha snatched the bottle and drank from it too, found it empty after a moment, threw it aside and reached for the next one.

"D-mn hit all! Wash takin' so long?!"

"InuYasha, really, learn to *hic* drink with dignity." Kagura winced at the sound of the agonized moans from the bedroom. "I've changed *hic* my mind! Your brother's gonna remain childless."

"'Course he ish! Fer him ta have kids ya'd have ta schleep wit ta b-stard first! Who'n'd h-ell'd wanna do that?!"

Kagura, who was taking her turn with the bottle, threw it promptly at InuYasha's head. Lacking coordination in his inebriated state, he took too long to move and it hit him square on the top of the head, shattering and spilling sake all over him. Unharmed but ticked off to the extreme, he launched across the table and tackled her. They ended up scratching and snarling at each other like two cats; not a very flattering description, particularly for InuYasha.

Miroku, Sango, and Rin stood by, gaping. Miroku suddenly turned to Rin and grinned wickedly.

"Care to place bets, young lady?"

"Kagura'll beat him for sure, but what'll you bet?"

Sango punched her husband's arm.

"Don't teach her things like that, Miroku! Sesshoumaru will kill you for making her like you!"

Suddenly all three onlookers froze at the very ominous feeling that swept over them, and turned as one to face to doorway. Sesshoumaru stood there, taking in the scene with a deceptively calm expression, considering he had just driven his claws all the way through his palms.

"InuYasha, you will remove yourself from my mate THIS INSTANT!!"

Kagura and InuYasha froze in place. Kagura had one of InuYasha's ears firmly in her teeth, her hands full of his hair. He had his hands wrapped around her neck and his knee driven into her stomach, while her own knee had been about to ensure he was unable to produce any more children, at least for a while. Just as Sesshoumaru's furious roar subsided, a scream rang through the house, followed after a moment by a baby's cry. InuYasha leapt off of Kagura, suddenly sobered by both the possibility of impending death at his brother's hands and the fact that he had just become a father. Kagura ran to Sesshoumaru, tears of drunken joy running down her face, and Rin hurried to her lord's side, chattering explanations hurriedly to distract him and calm him so that he didn't instantly rip InuYasha's heart out.

After several ensuing minutes of chaos, some amount of calm was finally arrived at. InuYasha had retreated sheepishly to the bedroom to be with Kagome and meet his daughter. Rin was constantly refilling Kagura's cup of tea in an attempt to sober her, Miroku and Sango had quietly taken their leave (Shippo was staying at there house), and Sesshoumaru was trying to decide whether or not keep being angry, or to be amused. It was hardly the sort of welcome he'd expected after his long absence, but once the fury of seeing his brother touch his mate in such a violent way had subsided, he found himself tempted to laugh. Kagura was a sight; her hair sticking out in multiple directions, circles under her bloodshot eyes, her clothing rumpled hopelessly.

Rin appeared to be the only sane person left in the house.

"Rin, perhaps you'd better start at the beginning and explain what has transpired here."

"Yes, milord. Kagome's pains began yesterday morning. Kagura wanted to be here; she and Kagome and Sango are all very good friends now, so she wanted to be around to comfort Kagome. Everybody did okay for a long time, but the baby didn't come; all day long we waited, and then I went to bed, and so did Sango and Miroku and the others, but I guess InuYasha and Kagura stayed up all night. Today, they were awfully tired, and the baby still hadn't come, so Miroku offered to bring over some sake; to give them a little "pep", he said. But then they started competing to see who could drink more…and they never stopped drinking until you came in. That's pretty much it."

Kagura suddenly slumped down across the table, fast asleep. Sesshoumaru sighed. Definitely not the welcome he'd been expecting. Suddenly Rin hurried to his side, gripping his hands in an uncharacteristically forward move; she rarely touched him without permission.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, what has happened to your hands?!"

Sesshoumaru glanced down to find his hands bleeding slowly from where he'd driven his claws through. Noting it was only Rin and Kagura and himself in the room, he licked away the blood, letting the saliva heal the wounds quickly. Then he stood.

"It's nothing. Where does Kagura sleep, Rin?"

"I'll show you."

Sesshoumaru picked his future mate up easily and held her gently. Even in this state, she was somehow beautiful. He didn't particularly like the scent of the sake on her though; he had a certain appreciation for good drinks, but whatever she'd been drinking was cheap and unpleasant. He followed Rin down a hall into a small room and smiled at its interior.

Tenseiga held the place of honor; hung on the wall directly across from the door, highlighted on each side by small tapestries depicting InuYoukai; tapestries his mother had given to Kagura when he'd introduced the two of them. Rin's puppy seemed to have taken up residence with Kagura; it was curled up in her covers, considerably bigger than when he'd last seen it. It ran to greet him, bowing in its polite little way before bounding around him, its whole body seeming to wag with the motion of its tail.

The room was simple; a mirror handing on one wall, a cabinet in the corner, the simple futon left rumpled and untidy in a way that made Sesshoumaru want to laugh; he would never have thought that Kagura would be one to make her bed, and wasn't surprised to see that she didn't. Rin moved to pull away the covers and Sesshoumaru set Kagura down carefully, pulling the blankets over her. Rin had vanished, taking the puppy with her; no doubt eager to see the baby. Sesshoumaru bent to brush his beloved's forehead lightly with his lips before he left.

………

Kagura woke up with a pounding headache. She was dazed and confused; puzzled as to how she'd gotten into her bed and why she was still dressed. She tossed her rumpled clothes into a corner carelessly and wrapped herself in a dark red robe, tying it tightly. She moved to look in the mirror and gaped at her reflection. What on earth?! The whites of her eyes were bloodshot, dark circles rimmed them, and her hair was still in some semblance of a bun but was sticking out in seemingly three hundred directions. Rather than bother with trying to rearrange it, she simply let her hair down and shook it free. It wasn't much of an improvement, but at least now she didn't look like she'd been twisting forks in her bun. She walked down the hallway to the dining area and found it completely empty. A quick glance out the window told her it must be the middle of the night. She stirred up the fire and set water to boil. Suddenly she gasped. The baby! They'd been waiting for Kagome to give birth, and then she and InuYasha had started drinking…what'd happened? Was the baby born? Was everything all right? Suddenly she noticed a note on the table and picked it up.

Kagura:

Kagome's baby is a little girl. She doesn't have a name yet. Granny Kaede left some herbs for you to put in your tea if you have a headache when you wake up. Sesshoumaru-sama didn't kill InuYasha, so don't worry about that. I'm going back with Granny Kaede to her house for the night. See you in the morning!

~Rin

Kagura felt her eyes go wide as the last missing memories fell into place. She'd been wrestling InuYasha…she snickered at the thought…and then Sesshoumaru had shown up, and been angry…and then she couldn't remember anything else. She sat down and buried her aching head in her hands, moaning quietly. That was not the state she would have planned to be in when he finally returned. She'd been missing him so long…waiting and waiting and waiting for him to return…and he would just have to happen to come back when she was at her worst. Just her luck…

She rose and mixed the herbs Kaede had left her into water, sipping slowly and grimacing at the bitter taste before she swallowed it all as quickly as possible. At least she wasn't nauseous; never in her short life had she been sick to her stomach, and she wasn't going to start now. She walked outside, looking up at the stars and wondering where Sesshoumaru had gone. What if he had changed his mind about her? It had been more than three months…and he'd come back to find her in such a deplorable state. Surely he would rethink having such a shameless creature as his mate?

She sat down at the foot of a nearby tree, sighing heavily, filled with a strange mixture of fear and sadness and joy.

"Kagura."

She looked up and smiled wanly at Sesshoumaru.

"Hey. You're back…"

He sat beside her she was surprised by the smile playing at the corners of his lips.

"Yes."

"Sesshoumaru…I…I'm sorry. Getting drunk like that isn't something I make a habit of doing…InuYasha and I just got carried away worrying about Kagome…I didn't know you were coming back…I'm sorry…"

He chuckled quietly and suddenly pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on her shoulder.

"Stop worrying about it, mate. You have done nothing to anger me. I was only angry with InuYasha for daring to attack you."

She turned in his arms, looking up at him with hope and joy in her eyes. He smiled, drinking in the sight of her; her robe slightly loose at the top, giving him tiny glimpses of her skin, her hair disheveled and framing her face in rebellious waves, and he kissed her deeply without thinking it through first, delving into her mouth for only a moment before pulling away with an almost comical grimace.

"You taste like cheap sake and medicine. I really don't have a problem with you drinking, in moderation, but you're going to have to develop better taste."

"Don't blame me, it was Miroku's sake. He's a cheapskate. And the medicine is something Kaede left for me, which is good since I woke up feeling like my head would split in two."

"You ought to go back to bed until morning. Come."

He accompanied her back into the house and even came into her room with her. She sat on the corner of the futon and motioned for him to sit with her. She leaned her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, sighing as he wrapped an arm around her and threaded his fingers through her hair, working through stray tangles left by her tussle with InuYasha. He stretched out beside her when she lay down, and simply stayed with her, occasionally touching her face or hair, until she drifted back to sleep. He considered leaving then, but instead chose to rise just long enough to remove his boots and armor before returning to her side. His sleep that night was more peaceful than he could ever remember it being before; curled up against his mate, completely content.