Moments after Kagome's feet touched the dirt floor of the well, Human Inuyasha hoisted her up in his arms and pinned her to the wall. Her legs slipped around his waist without prompting, leaving his hands to slide under her thighs and move upwards to grope her butt under her skirt. The movement had been so fast, Kagome had mere seconds to recognize what was happening before the human's mouth covered hers. There was no hesitation in his kiss like there had been the first time months ago; this was a kiss laced with urgency and need, and she was ready to give into it.

She let out a sigh against his lips as he rocked his hips against hers, rubbing the rough denim against her skin. It wasn't much, but it was enough to make her body hum with pleasure. The jeans weren't letting her feel the full bulge she knew was there, but that may have been for the best. They were at the bottom of the Bone Eater's Well in the present, where anyone could wander into the well house and look down.

Kagome pulled back, wincing as her head knocked against the wood. "What if someone sees us?" she whispered. They were on public shrine grounds, and it was probably still a time of day when visitors were known to linger. The last thing they needed was for him to be making her scream at the bottom of the well and alert – or scare – a visitor, who would go find her grandfather to purify the well house. She really didn't want her grandfather to see her with her skirt hitched up around her hips and Inuyasha's pants around his knees. Even with his pants on as they were currently, it still wasn't a good look for either of them.

Human Inuyasha groaned, letting his forehead connect with the wall. He'd just been about to lean in and kiss her again, when his thoughts reminded him they weren't truly alone. "Don't suppose we could be quiet?" Without waiting for a response, Human Inuyasha gently lowered Kagome to her feet, helping her arrange her clothes back in order. Kagome had sent him a grateful smile in return.

Who the hell was he kidding? There wasn't going to be any "being quiet". The embarrassing part about it would be that the moment he finally settled inside her, he'd be the one bellowing so loud it'd sound like Buyo shitting a brick house.

Kagome muttered an apology as she started up the rope ladder, hearing Human Inuyasha groan in more disappointment when he looked up and saw the familiar red lace panties she was wearing under the skirt. She hadn't put them on with any ulterior motives! She'd just wanted to feel pretty! But now, because he was trying to be a gentleman, he was getting teased because she couldn't have done the practical thing and put on a damn pair of pants. There was no going fast on a rope ladder, either. She had to hope she got on her feet quickly 'cause she felt the ladder shift the moment he put his weight on it, and she knew that once they were out of the well house he'd find a place where they could be alone.

Like her room.

Youkai Inuyasha hadn't been wrong when he'd mentioned Souta having practice that afternoon. Because of some maintenance on their regularly scheduled field, practice had been moved further away, which meant that dinner would be late. Mama had mentioned something about volunteering to chaperone with a couple of other parents because of the distance. Except for her grandfather, who likely would be toiling away in his office, they would be alone in the house.

If her feet got ahead of her when she stepped over the edge of the well, it went unnoticed. When Kagome turned back to see Human Inuyasha's forearms lift himself over the edge a minute later, she…might've drooled. It was an insignificant thing to make her mind go stupid, but she knew the force that was behind that bit of muscle and what those hands could do. He could haul her all over Japan, take on youkai bigger than himself, and still be capable of putting her mind at ease with a hug, whether he was a hanyou or not.

The second that he took a step for her, Kagome backed away. She knew that if she didn't get to the door and get it open that she'd have creases on her back from the steps. Or splinters on her knees, she couldn't be sure, but she knew that Human Inuyasha was getting impatient and, frankly, so was she. Her point still stood about the chance of being caught, and maybe one day she'd consider throwing caution to the wind, but she could hear distant voices on the shrine grounds. Taking a risk to get frisky wasn't happening that afternoon.

The door slid open slowly so as not to tip anyone off that two seventeen-year-olds were sneaking out. Kagome's presence was known by many of the local visitors because she'd often assisted with events or just helped clean from time to time over the years. The dark haired man behind her with a hand against the small of her back wasn't, and it would've looked bad for both of them if someone suspected they had been up to something.

'Not yet anyway,' she thought, feeling herself be led across the shrine grounds to the house. He didn't look it, but Human Inuyasha was all but shoving her along to match his pace. It was kind of funny to look up at his face and see his brows furrowed in concentration, knowing that his goal wasn't for anything respectable.

Just a few more feet to the front door, and then she'd have to run.

Human Inuyasha's hand reached for the handle first, pulling open the door. Kagome braced herself for the sprint –

"Heeey you're back!"

Kagome blinked. There shouldn't have been anyone in the house! So why was her little brother standing there in the entryway in his practice clothes with a bag of chips?!

"W-why?" Human Inuyasha's voice cracked.

Souta, completely oblivious that he was once again blocking her from getting what she wanted, stared at the pair confused. "Ohhh, that's right! You weren't here!" he laughed, and Kagome wanted to throttle him. "Our practice got rescheduled until next week. We got all the way across town and then got told that practice was canceled. So Mom's in the kitchen getting started on dinner now. We actually got back home right before you two did!"

She could practically feel Human Inuyasha deflate next to her. Or at least one appendage was, the poor thing.

"How come the other two aren't with you?" Souta asked.

"Cuz they're working on a project," Human Inuyasha ground out. "I came back with Kagome to help her with her homework…"

"And they don't know that dinner is gonna be early? Oh dear…" Mama stood a ways behind Souta, having just appeared from the kitchen. "I'm so sorry. None of us expected for today's plans to change so suddenly."

Her mother had no idea.

Kagome took Human Inuyasha's hand and led him past her brother before he took the boy outside and threw him up into Goshinboku. As tense as his hand felt, he was probably tempted. She walked them upstairs to her room slowly; there was no point in running now. Even if she locked her door, it wouldn't stop her brother from knocking and talking to her from the other side, and she really didn't want to listen to him ramble on about one of his friends while Human Inuyasha was driving into her.

The door shut with a click and she looked regretfully up at the human. "I'm so sorry…"

Human Inuyasha sighed. "Can't be helped, I guess. We had no idea." He still opened his arms to wrap around her as she pressed herself into his chest. Just as she suspected, he'd gone as flat as a plank of wood.

"I feel terrible though," she mumbled. "I told you to stop in the well house…"

"And if we'd kept going, sure as hell your brother would've popped in for one reason or another, hung over the edge and asked what we were doing." Human Inuyasha didn't want to get caught, but it would serve her brother right if he kept intruding.

Kagome nodded. Souta would've found them somehow. It's like he was a bloodhound in a past life or something. But she was an adult – maybe not fully yet, but close enough – and she had needs. She had desires that didn't include her brother hovering nearby. Hell, she was married! That should've been given some kind of acceptance! Her family had seen the mark; her mother had explained to her grandfather and brother that it was a youkai marriage mark. They didn't know how she had gotten it, but they knew she was married. She thought back to Mama's prior comments, and Kagome knew any chance of anything happening was off the table now that Souta was home.

"From one adult to another, I get that you will and have done adult things. However, as your mother, I think it's important to remind you that this is a family home. Please use discretion with what you do, okay?"

No problems there. Mama hadn't implied that they couldn't when they weren't alone in the house, but she also understood that her youngest child was notorious for popping up at the worst times, so it was more of a warning to lock her door. Knowing Souta's schedule made planning for private time easier, but not so much when it was changed without prior notice.

"I should…probably go back and find the hanyou and the youkai. They're gonna be pissed if they miss dinner."

Kagome squeezed her arms around his middle and sighed. "Yeah. Mama will be sure to make extra though. I won't eat until you three get back, so you won't be eating alone if it's too late."

Human Inuyasha started to tell her to go ahead and eat, but he knew she wouldn't listen. Kagome would snack through dinner with her family if they weren't back, then reheat dinner for the four of them later. He appreciated the waiting, but he didn't like making Kagome feel inconvenienced. Instead, he kissed the top of her head, murmuring that she needed to let him go so he could find his counterparts.

Letting her step back sucked, but having to walk out of her room to go back to the well house alone hurt more. Even with boxers between him and the denim, he still felt chaffed from earlier. Regardless, it was nothing compared to the way her expression had fallen.

She was disappointed for multiple reasons now, and he didn't need a strong sense of smell to know it. They missed out on being together alone. The house was crawling with the sounds of her brother. She'd have to actually focus on her homework. The hanyou would be livid if she were to come to the location of their home before it was due, so she had to stay behind.

The only thing that would suck worse was hearing the youkai crow about how he'd gotten cockblocked.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DIDN'T FUCK HER?!"

"SHOUT IT A LITTLE LOUDER, I DON'T THINK ALL OF JAPAN HEARD YOU!"

"YOU HAD ONE JOB –"

"AND MY DICK DROPPED QUICKER THAN YOU DO WHEN YOU GET SAT!"

From his place on the support beams, Inuyasha gripped the wood in his hands a little tighter, debating on whether he could knock both the human and the youkai unconscious with one hit. His left eyelid was starting to twitch.

Seeing the human appear through the line of trees had sent him into a panic until he'd learned that Kagome was back at the shrine. Then he'd learned why his human counterpart came to collect them, and the youkai hadn't stopped yelling since.

"I GAVE YOU AN OPENING –"

"AND SOUTA BLOCKED ME! HE WAS RIGHT THERE AT THE FRONT DOOR!"

"THE WHELP WAS SUPPOSED TO BE TRAINING!"

"THEY CHANGED THE SCHEDULE!"

"WHO?! I WANT NAMES SO I CAN MAIM THEM –"

"No," the hanyou warned from where he balanced on the house's frame. It's not as though the youkai would know where to go in the modern world. He wasn't worried about that "threat" so much as he was about getting his work done for the day.

"IT'S TOO LATE TO DO ANYTHING!" Human Inuyasha bellowed. "KAGOME'S DOING HOMEWORK, DINNER IS BEING MADE, AND I GOT FUCKED OVER, ALRIGHT?! CAN WE GET GOING BEFORE THE FOOD GETS COLD, CUZ SHE WON'T EAT UNTIL WE GET BACK!"

"Maybe if you two morons would quit broadcasting our business to all of Musashi and help me, we could fucking go! Dammit!"

Why did he think having his counterparts around to help finish the house would actually work like he'd hoped? In a perfect world, it would've. 'In a perfect world I'd already have our home built,' he stared down at the construction. 'Kagome wouldn't have to worry about getting pregnant because she'd be finished with her schooling. But…she's not really worried, I am…'

The youkai and the human continued to snipe at each other, one accusing the other of not trying hard enough, while the other hissed that the mood had been killed. Inuyasha could understand that. He'd been close to kissing Kagome that one time, and Souta had intervened. Trying anything more than that would be stupid, so he had to side with his human half in the argument.

Youkai Inuyasha was still bitching when they headed back to the well. "Bunch of fucking bullshit…"

They hadn't returned to the present until almost two hours after dinner had been cooked, eaten, and put away.

Michiru frowned as she removed the last load of the day's laundry from the dryer. Souta's practice being rescheduled at the last minute had frustrated everyone involved, and she dearly wished the coach would invest in more convenient methods of communication than waiting until everyone relocated before arriving and saying that it was simpler to push practice back a week. It hadn't been simple to travel across town at that time of day on public transit, especially when the routes weren't familiar. Now they had wasted money on transit fees with nothing to show for it, and two of her children were eating dinner later than the rest of the family.

Technically it was four children, since Inuyasha's counterparts appeared to all have slightly different personalities despite being him. It was almost like Kagome had three husbands instead of one.

'I'm not sure Inuyasha would appreciate that,' she thought to herself, trying not to smile. She could tell he often got jealous of his human and youkai sides. 'They are what make him uniquely him, and one day he'll understand that's why Kagome loves him so deeply.'

It wasn't easy to watch her oldest go about her days as a newlywed, but then she didn't imagine she'd ever stop thinking of all of her children as children. Michiru had made sure to pick up a few issues of the latest bridal magazines for Kagome on the way home. With the last year of school being so busy for her, and now Inuyasha splitting again, there wasn't much time to think about details for the wedding ceremony.

Kagome had decided that it would be small, exclusive to the family with the exception of her friends. There wouldn't be need for a large cake, although if Inuyasha continued to be split, she might have to reconsider adding a couple of tiers just in case. As much as it made her grandfather frown, she didn't want to do a traditional ceremony, despite it taking place before Goshinboku. Michiru had gone to bat for her on that before it devolved into an argument, explaining that Kagome only wanted simple. She didn't want to deal with the extensive practice of putting on the wedding kimono or its accessories, and that was something her grandfather hadn't considered.

However, if she was going to pick out a short-cut modern dress, then her mother would have words. Whatever she wore would be floor length, though she didn't think Kagome would pick any extreme look. Her daughter had specific tastes, after all.

She added the last piece to the pile in the linen basket and brought it with her as she entered the kitchen. The four were still sitting at the table eating, though it appeared they were finishing up. "How goes the building?" she asked Inuyasha.

The hanyou glanced between Kagome and herself before he answered. She knew what he'd planned and that he wouldn't tell her all of the details with Kagome around, but she only expected a general answer. "It's going alright?" Inuyasha didn't sound so certain. "The days are getting colder and I'd like to have the roof in place before any chance of snow occurs, but it might be pushing it…"

"What about taking back a tarp to block out the elements?" she suggested. "I'm sure we could find something at the hardware store that would be sturdy enough, if you'd like?"

Inuyasha watched her, and she could tell that he didn't know what a tarpaulin was, much less how big of one he'd need. Kagome started to explain that it was a covering that was durable against water, and if light enough, snow. Michiru was lost in thought trying to figure out the math, but decided that that was best suited for a new day, preferably with pen and paper.

"I'd…I'd like that, if it's possible?" He looked hopeful, like he was amazed that such an item existed.

"Of course, dear. I'll start looking around tomorrow," Michiru smiled, moving to stack the clean linens in the storage closet. 'I keep forgetting that he's not from this time. There probably isn't anything similar in the feudal era unless it's a large animal hide.'

Four chairs started to slide back and the dishes were being stacked together when she returned to the kitchen. Being told that she had made a great meal always warmed her heart, but she nudged them out of her kitchen when it came time to clean up. "You've got to study, Kagome, and Inuyasha has been at work all afternoon. I can take care of this little bit, it's no problem!" she insisted. The truth of it was, she had energy she needed to burn through before turning in for bed, or else she'd be tossing and turning before she fell asleep. As calm as she kept herself on the outside, she was still annoyed by Souta's coach, and cleaning helped ease her mind.

"Inuyasha? Is there something you need?"

The hanyou had hung around after Kagome and his counterparts went upstairs, and she suspected she knew the reason why. He looked unsure as he walked up to her, tucking his hands in the sleeves of his robes. "I just…uh… t-thanks for not saying anything to Kagome about the house and all that." His ears began to lower into his hair. "I know it's not right keeping it from her, but… I want it to be a surprise, you know?"

"Oh sweetheart, I understand," she smiled. "My husband was the same way back when we were dating."

"Did…did you ever…get angry because he kept you in the dark about something?"

Michiru thought about it. "Actually, there was one time where I'd gotten furious with Daisuke. He'd been planning something for months, and he wasn't discreet about it, but he also got very defensive whenever I tried to ask him simple questions. I wasn't looking to ruin the surprise but I could tell that it worried him to no end, and I wanted him to know that whatever he was planning would always be enough for me. I didn't expect grand gestures, but even trying to ease his mind seemed to make things worse."

"What happened?"

"Well," her smile faded, and she stared down at the soapy water in the sink with a tinge of regret. "We were supposed to go to lunch one day, and when he came to pick me up, he wasn't as focused on our time together as I'd liked. It…escalated into a shouting match in my living room, and I told him that if he was going to be so absorbed in his project, then he needed to tell me he'd made his choice once and for all."

Inuyasha's expression fell when she looked up at him again. "But you two worked it out, right? You had Kagome and Souta…"

"We did. I think that argument was Daisuke's wake-up call. He'd become so invested in his not-so-secret project that he didn't realize he was isolating it from its purpose in the first place."

His voice sounded curious as he asked, "What was the surprise?"

"He'd proposed to me," she smiled. "Under Goshinboku, actually. The day we fought, he'd left and we never went to lunch like we planned. I was young and stubborn, and I couldn't let him get the last word in, so I came to the shrine because I suspected that Daisuke would be here. My mind was so unsettled, and I was seething until I looked up at the tree. And then…it all made sense."

"What did?"

"I finally understood that my love for Daisuke wasn't fleeting, that being without him hurt my heart. While I supported his passion for his secret project, I was feeling left behind. And that's when he found me." Michiru laughed softly as she emptied the sink and washed the suds from her hands. "I think he was so scared that I'd learned about the surprise that he forgot I had even been upset!"

Inuyasha let out a grunt of understanding. "Kagome's mad at me because I told her that if she needed me when I'm working on the house, to have Kikyo come get me. I – I wasn't thinking when I said it, and I know she's not as mad anymore, but I know it bothers her…"

"Kikyo is the young woman you knew before you were sealed to Goshinboku?" He nodded. "I think I can understand why, but I don't think she's truly upset with you, Inuyasha. Kagome feels left out. You've traveled together for the last couple years, and now you're doing something without her after you bound yourselves?"

The hanyou winced. "I've been working on this house so much I keep forgetting it hasn't been very long…"

"See? This is a new development for both of you. Kagome mentioned that she'd gone to visit Kikyo during dinner, so I assume that things are alright now."

Inuyasha nodded, but he didn't appear convinced. "That's what she told me, but…I don't know. I don't like it when Kagome's mad at me, but I don't want her to be sad either. I wish I'd…nevermind."

Michiru's brows furrowed. She wasn't so sure that she could let that go. After drying her hands, she crossed her arms over her chest and turned to fully face Inuyasha. "What do you wish, dear?"

"That…that I'd done things proper. In order." He stared at the floor as he talked, like he was ashamed. "That stupid mating fever," he grunted, "If I hadn't been so far gone I could've done it all differently. Explained myself to Kagome better. Courted her. Had a home to present to her before I bound her to me –"

"Alright now," she chided, reaching out and placing her hands on his shoulders. "Now you listen to me, Inuyasha. Kagome chose. You didn't lead her into anything she wasn't ready to accept. That sounds to me like you've been courting for a while, doesn't it?"

"But it wasn't exactly –"

"Courting doesn't always have to be flowers and poems. Sometimes it can just be spending time together." Michiru patted his cheek gently. "I can't say much about having a house ready to present because Daisuke didn't build ours, but life happens when it's meant to. We can wish things waited or that they'd come sooner, but it won't change when the time is right."

Inuyasha nodded, thanked her again, and wished her goodnight before going upstairs to Kagome's room. Michiru watched him go and briefly wondered how the four of them managed to sleep comfortably on that bed.

'Better to not know,' she thought, recalling being told that the last one had collapsed from age and the added weight. The memory still made her laugh. She continued to tidy up the kitchen, taking a trip down memory lane. "Oh Daisuke," she sighed. "You would be so proud of her. And of your son-in-law, but…I think you already know, don't you?"