InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ A Matter of Trust ❯ Milkshakes and... Salsa? ( Chapter 8 )

A Matter of Trust

By: TuxedoUranus89/InitialA

Disclaimer: Gaaaaaaah, get the lawyers away!!!! I don't own InuYashaaaaaa!!!!!

LiveJournal Community: http://community.livejournal.com/tu89_ia_fanfics/

Helpful Hints: Threats in a review towards my general well being keeps me motivated. ;)

Author's Note: Ok, I'm going to apologize in advance: as much as I've researched and looked up and studied and watched second-hand other experiences with pregnancies and all the bundle of fun that comes with it… I'm nearly clueless when it comes to this thing called Lamaze classes. So I might not get to torture poor Inu as much as I'd like to. (though looking at some of the points they focus on, I could have a very fun time with a few of them…) I am looking up as much as I can to be as accurate as possible, however, I do apologize if I miss something or if I mess up somewhere. This isn't an area that I'm as knowledgeable in. Ok, commencing writing! (reviewer comments at the bottom, as before!)

 

Sitting in the limo again, she watched him carefully. He hadn't spoken a word since leaving the office, and she wondered what he was thinking. He glanced at her, and she gave a small smile. “Not too bad, wasn't it?”

He took her hand. “I… I can't explain it. Just…”

She gave his hand a squeeze. “Overwhelming? Amazing? Exhilarating?”

He chuckled. “It's getting close to lunchtime, are you hungry?”

She gave him a look. He chuckled again. “Ok, stupid question. Better question: where do you want to eat?”

She looked wistfully at the ceiling. “I could really go for some Wacdonald's… Milkshake, a big juicy burger, fries…”

She laughed as his stomach growled. “Ok, ok, we're in agreement. Burgers and shakes it is.” He told the driver where to go, and sat back, rubbing his thumb across the back of her hand.

When they pulled up to the small fast-food joint, he helped her out of the car. Despite his overwhelmed silence earlier, he seemed to be taking Dr. Kiyomura's advice seriously. She was touched when he held the door open for her. However, she had forgotten a small detail… “OH MY GOD!!” Three female voices shrieked; chairs scraped violently against the tiles as Eri, Yuka, and Ayumi raced over to them.

Kagome panicked slightly, and backed into InuYasha's chest. “Eh-heh… h-hi guys.” She said nervously as they crowded around.

“Higurashi Kagome, what gave you the idea to hide this from us?!” Eri demanded.

“You're so big, how far along are you?” Yuka gasped.

Ayumi just frowned. “You were pregnant at graduation, weren't you?!”

Kagome looked panicked, and her mate rested a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Well… er… I uh…”

He cleared his throat. “Why don't you all go sit down, let her get off her feet, and calmly ask her questions, letting her reply? What do you want, Kagome?”

She smiled shakily. “Chocolate milkshake, lots of fries, and a big burger, I don't care what's on it.”

He left to get the food, and she was immediately whisked away to the table they had been sitting at. Kagome took a chair that moved out from the table. “One at a time…” She sighed.

“When are you due?” Eri asked.

“September 14th, if everything goes as planned. Yes, I was pregnant at graduation, I'm surprised I didn't hurl everywhere that day, my morning sickness was awful… And I hid it from a lot of people. I even changed gynecologists since you guys went to the same one I went to. Only my family knew for the longest time.”

Yuka frowned. “What about that guy? He's the one who did it, right?”

Kagome nodded. “That's my… boyfriend.”

They all raised their eyebrows. “The same one you've dated for years? I thought you said you broke it off back in… December…”

They put the pieces together of her fabricated story. “So, you're back together now?” Ayumi asked in a hushed voice.

Kagome nodded. “Just a few weeks ago. He… ah... came around, in a matter of speaking. We're living together now, he's got a pretty nice apartment.”

He walked over, smirking at her. “Pretty nice?” He asked, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

“You know what I mean, you big jerk.”

The other three women peered at him as he sat down and let his mate begin devouring her lunch. “You were the guy at the shrine that one time a few years ago, right? Weird red clothes, bandana?” Yuka asked.

He nodded, more interested in his food than the overly-curious females. “I thought your hair was white. And your eyes were like… gold.” Eri said.

He swallowed. “Keh. It's called hair dye and colored-contacts.”

They looked at each other and shrugged, accepting it. Kagome had to marvel at the lengths of oblivion her friends seemed to thrive in. Ayumi looked thoughtful. “I thought your Grandpa said you had lupus. Isn't that like, really dangerous if you're… y'know…”

Kagome raised her eyebrow at her friend. “I know I'm pregnant, you can say it, y'know.” It came out a little shorter than she'd intended it. “Sorry… He probably meant they thought I had it. I never had any tests for it or anything.”

Again, she wondered at their ignorance as they once again nodded and accepted the story. Then again, she had been wondering at it for years, so why stop now? “Kagome,” Yuka interrupted her thoughts, “are you having a baby shower?”

The other two girls perked up. “Ooooooooh, yeah, if you haven't planned one yet, can we?? Please?!” Ayumi squealed.

Kagome blinked, taken aback. “Uhh…”

Eri was already ticking off things to do. “Oh, there's so little time, it's almost August as it is!! End of August I think, we'll send out invitations next week… You'll have to give us a list of where some of your female cousins live, so we can invite them…”

Kagome snapped out of it. “Whoa, guys! Please, only my mother, grandfather, Souta, and InuYasha know about this… I don't want to bring in the rest of my family.” Briefly she thought of her mother's mother, and a few choice words she'd have for her giving birth without being married—in the human sense, anyway. “It's really sweet you guys want to have a shower for me, but maybe we can just do a little girl's-day-out instead; and I promise I won't protest if you guys want to buy baby things.”

Eri looked a little disappointed, but the other two were more agreeable. “True… Plus it's not so much work this way.” Ayumi stated with a giggle.

“When do you want to go?” Yuka asked.

“Later on in August sounds perfect to me. Still early enough that it won't be too bad to move around, but not too early that having more of what I need would be in the way.” Kagome said, glancing at her mate. He seemed uninterested in their `girl talk', and was much more engrossed with his second burger.

She was silent while the others talked about what to buy, and where to go; she simply enjoyed the pleasure of fries dipped in chocolate ice cream. He glanced at her and rolled his eyes, nudging his head towards her friends. She smiled in understanding but her eyes told him to `Behave!' He smirked at her, cocking his eyebrow in a way that said `You know me better than that.' She felt a shiver go down her spine at the look he gave her, and looked down at her meal. He scented her arousal, and felt a small bit of pride swell under his chest that he could still make her spike with one look. One of the girls, he always forgot which one was which, distracted her with more questions, and he glanced at his Rolex. It was nearing noon, and he had no idea when Kagome's class was. He also pondered what it was about, having never needed to be `in the know' about such things; he vaguely recalled the name and when it had swept the expectant mothers of the United States up into a frenzy. It had something to do with breathing, which he found ridiculous because anyone could do that without being taught. Mentally shrugging it off, he resigned himself to the fact that he'd find out eventually, ridiculous concepts or not.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

They were sitting, on the floor, in a room. It was just as sparsely-decorated and painted with bad colors, in his opinion anyway, as the rest of the building had been. Kagome said it promoted calm feelings. Whatever that meant; if calm was being color-blind and owning few possessions, he had apparently missed that memo a few centuries ago. He had said as much to his mate, startling a laugh out of her and commenting that she wasn't aware that he'd been color-blind. He'd replied that he wasn't, but according to his sister-in-law, he should have one of her home decorators over to piss and moan about his rather bland tastes in color variety. She was done giggling now, and leaned over to kiss his cheek. “I like your place the way it is.” She told him, and he, blushing faintly, simply muttered “Keh.”

There were about nine other couples there: five looked to be young married couples, two were girls around Kagome's age with their mothers, and the other two he was sure were lesbian couples. His mate leaned over and whispered, “I liked this class because my mother felt more comfortable with the other two women who also had single, pregnant daughters.”

He nodded, eyeing the older women with the same curiosity as they regarded him. “They're wondering why I'm with you and not your mother.” He muttered back, scenting their confusion.

She took his hand. “Because Mama knows what she's doing during the labor more than you and I will, so we'll all know what to do when the day comes.”

A woman came into the room with a small stereo, and cut off whatever he was going to say next. “Alright everyone, welcome back, it's been a while since we last met!”

He immediately decided she was a little too cheery, and raised an eyebrow. “If you'll remember from our last meeting, we were starting to talk about the importance of keeping your body active when your labor begins. Who remembers why?”

She waited until one of the young couples raised their hands together. She smiled at them as the husband stated, “It'll help ease the pain and move the baby into position.”

Nodding, she clapped her hands. “Very good. While movement during labor might seem hard, it's not unlike keeping yourself active during your menstrual cycle. It won't eliminate the pain, but it will help, which is something you'll all be glad to know when the time does come.”

She paced a little, and InuYasha briefly wondered how many cups of coffee or Red Bulls she had drank before coming to class. “Now, there are cases where movement will be restricted. If you've gone into premature labor, it would be more wise to do things as your doctor suggests, such as in emergency cases for a Caesarean. You'll need help to move if you've taken any medications or an epidural, or if there's an illness that can damage the birthing process.”

She continued to go on about the advantages and disadvantages of this process, and he started to let his attention wander. Most of the other couples were listening with rapt attention; moreso the mothers-to-be than the fathers or partners. He caught one of the non-pregnant lesbian women nodding off and he reached over and poked her. She glared at him, and he just raised an eyebrow, looking towards her partner. Half-smiling, she stuck her tongue out, but she did try to stay awake after that. He realized he hadn't been listening to a word the woman had said when people started getting up, the mothers-to-be being helped by their partners. Turning red, he jumped to his feet and helped his mate up. There was some sort of loud music coming out of the stereo now, and his ears flattened against his skull in dislike. Kagome patted his hand in sympathy, and the instructor was calling out over the music, “Just something you can have a little bit of fun and move around to! Have fun with it, it's your day and your baby's day! It's your own little celebration!”

InuYasha gave his mate a look that clearly stated his opinion of her playing very loud music in his presence, and she laughed, and started to dance, trying not to move awkwardly or bump into people. He glanced around and saw most of the men making assholes out of themselves, as their wives laughed and encouraged them to keep moving with them; the daughters with their mothers were clearly mortified at the old-fashioned dance moves, and the two women couples clearly didn't care what they looked like and were dancing about wildly; as wildly as one can several months into a pregnancy. He realized he was the only one standing still, and awkwardly tried to move to the painfully loud music. Kagome seemed to realize his embarrassment, and took his hand, moving like he had planned to twirl her. She smiled encouragingly, and took his other hand as well, taking the lead in this crazy, nonsensical dance. He could sort of catch on after another minute or so, trying desperately not to make an ass out of himself by swaying his hips around like she was, but she flashed him her brilliant smile and he soon forgot there were other people to witness them, a man who probably couldn't dance his way down the sidewalk and a pregnant woman who could probably do without a few of those dance steps she was trying. She flowed, and he followed, lost in themselves, eyes locked together: excited mahogany and coolly amused violet.

Distant laughter brought them back, and he turned red again when he realized they were the only two still moving; the music had been turned off. The instructor merely smiled at them, as Kagome took his hand and rubbed her thumb across the back of his hand soothingly. “Alright, now that we've gotten all of that out of our systems, let's try a few ways to keep yourselves active if you're restricted on movement.” She told them, and guided them through an assisted squat, and kneeling while resting only your head and shoulders against a wall.

InuYasha wasn't sure how he felt about the partners performing the same exercises as the mothers-to-be, but Kagome whispered to him that it was supposed to make him more appreciative of what she was doing. He mumbled something incoherent in reply. He was already appreciative of what she was doing. She didn't know how appreciative he was, and it struck him as odd how she couldn't know after all this time.

Finally, after a round of practicing their breathing methods, which he was pleased to discover were as stupid as he'd suspected, class was dismissed. He helped her to her feet, as some of the other young mothers came over to inquire who her new partner was. “Is your mom sick?” One of them asked.

Kagome shook her head with a smile. “No, she's fine. This is my boyfriend.”

Some of the women looked over him with appreciative looks on their faces, while their husbands sulked or glared in his general direction. He smirked, and then felt her tug on his arm. “Come on, sweetheart, I'm getting an ice cream craving.”

Raising an eyebrow at her, he smirked when she stuck out her tongue. “We might need to stop at the store though, I'm feeling pickles and caramel to top it off…”

Feeling green around the gills, InuYasha meekly followed her outside, praying to whatever god was listening that she wasn't expecting him eat with her.

“That wasn't so bad, was it?” She asked him when they were leaving the grocery a little later.

He shrugged. “Wasn't as weird as I thought it would be. That breathing thing is dumb as fuck though.”

She laughed. “It is kind of dumb, but it's the hope that we can just have something to focus on instead of the contractions.”

She rested her head against his shoulder. They were silent for a while. He rested his head against hers. “I do appreciate it.” He said quietly.

“Hmm?” Her reply was drowsy.

“What you're doing, what you're going through, what you went through… I do appreciate it…”

He heard her giggle, and heard the smile in her voice. “I knew that… And I'm glad for it, too.” He kissed the top of her head, and they were silent the rest of the way home.

 

((Mmmmm… again, not sure how this chapter turned out. Kind of a blank spot I had to fill in with some mild humor and a little more bonding, I've been writing out ideas for chapters coming up soon. I got an email from a MediaMiner reader asking about Kagome's age, so I'm going to clear the ages up a little. In this story, Kagome had just turned 19 before the main story started; I'm guessing by the way the manga plays out in the beginning that she was born in the spring. She graduated after the well sealed; InuYasha's about seven hundred or so, but I'm not sure where that puts him in human years. He's about sixteen in the anime, at age two hundred-ish, so I'm guessing late twenties. Sesshoumaru, mentioned earlier, is about to turn one thousand. So, since he appeared to be in his twenties in the anime, his appearance is late thirties, early forties. Hope that clears a few things up. =3

Mia~ Yes, that's one thing I really wanted to focus on, making sure it was known that the two were more mature, older and wiser, (to some extent anyway XD) which is partially why I didn't write a fic that took place in the Feudal Era. Inu's still very immature at that time, he needed to grow up a bit. =3 And the whole jumper thing… I was thinking `woman/mom going to the doctor' and my mom seriously wears a denim jumper almost every time she goes to the doctor. XD And knowing Kagome's… sometimes questionable fashion sense, I figured a jumper would be perfect.

I_heart_inuyasha~ Yay, I'm glad someone loved the reactions. My feelings exactly, the poor guy thought he lost everything, and then it gets shoved back in his face so suddenly… I imagine his circuits are working overtime trying to make all systems normal.

AmberEyez~ Haha, thanks! I blame my roommate and her boyfriend for most of that insertion, they watch Stephen religiously, and have me doing it too. XD

Raida~ Ack, please don't mention getting writer's block!!! I'm getting over a two-year case of it, I think I'd die if I got it again after having so much fun right now…

Verakum~ Yeah, I get confused too, and I try my best to make it as little confusing as possible; I'll try to get better about smushing so many voices together, but sometimes the sentence, enter, sentence, enter thing gets annoying, so I'm trying to cut down. Now I think I need a happy medium. XD

Psycho_chick32~ Ah-ha, glad someone caught that. Yes, that will be coming around again later, but not for a few chapters. Keep that in mind though!

Kokoronagomu~ Oh dear, perhaps I need to go a little farther with Kagome's cravings. I'm working on their communication, but still trying to work in some getting-to-know-you-again. I'll try a little more dialogue than description, but we'll see how things work out.

Unistar~ Mmmm, not sure if I want things to warm up just yet. You'll just have to see next chapter. ;) Maybe they will, maybe they won't… I wonder how far Inu can crap his foot into his mouth… Tee hee!

Thanks so much for reading everyone, please remember to leave a review, it keeps me motivated!!))