InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ As Fate Would Have It ❯ Chapter 3

Chapter 3

 

Shippou broke the silence surrounding Inuyasha and Kagome by hopping over to see what was in the bundle. “Hey!” he exclaimed as he jumped on Kagome's left shoulder and looked at the infant. “It's a baby!”

 

The others gathered around, shocked by this revelation. Inuyasha still had not moved. The little hanyou yawned, bringing a tiny fist up into view. Kagome smiled, helpless against the flood of emotions this baby brought forth in her heart.

 

“Come,” Kaede said softly. “That babe needs tending, and the night `tis cool. I'll have one of the village men take care of the father.” She turned to the monk. “Wouldst ye…?”

 

“Of course, Lady Kaede. You don't even need to ask.” Miroku bowed reverently, saddened by the young man's tragic death. He turned back to the father's body and began chanting.

 

“Come on, Kagome,” Shippou urged. “We need to get that baby inside where it's warmer!”

 

Kagome nodded, still rather stunned about the bundle she bore in her arms. Inuyasha still hadn't said anything. He just sat there, a strange look on his face.

 

Kagome looked back down at the tiny hanyou. She covered the baby's face with the leathers again. She stood and followed Kaede and Sango back to the hut.

 

Inside, once Kaede had stoked the fire-pit, Kagome laid the leathers on the floor and unwrapped the hanyou baby completely, getting a full look at the little wonder.

 

“Oh!” Sango exclaimed. “It's a girl!”

 

“Here,” Kaede said, handing the two girls some cloth and a bowl of warmed water. “That little girl will be needing a bath and some clothes. I'll work on finding some milk for her.”

 

“Hai,” Kagome said softly, lifting the tiny girl into her arms again. “Arigatou, Kaede.” She took the warm water and a soft cloth and gently washed the baby, getting the grime and dirt from her journey off her perfect skin.

 

“She's so tiny,” Shippou piped up. Kagome looked up briefly. She hadn't heard the kitsune enter the hut. Then she smiled as she turned back to the baby.

 

“Yes, Shippou,” Kagome agreed, gently wiping the baby's tiny, black triangular ears. “She is very tiny, compared to you. She probably isn't very old.”

 

“I agree,” Sango added, preparing a cloth for use as a diaper. “She could be anywhere from 3 to 6 months old.”

 

Kagome dried the little girl and handed her to Sango to put the diaper on. Sango looked at the baby, then up at Kagome, flustered. “I don't know anything about putting diapers on a baby!” she exclaimed. “I was taught how to kill demons, not raise children.”

 

Kaede took that moment to wander in again, this time with a skin full of what appeared to be milk. “Oi, ye two are going to be hopeless when ye marry and settle down.” She took the naked baby hanyou and the cloth and laid them on the floor in front of her, close to the fire for warmth. “Here… let me show ye how to do this.”

 

Kagome and Sango, who were now both blushing furiously at the thought of getting married and having babies, clustered next to Kaede for their first diapering lesson. Shippou looked up as Miroku and Inuyasha walked in.

 

“Everything is taken care of, Lady Kaede,” Miroku said gently.

 

“Thank ye, Miroku. This little girl has been through so much, though. I wonder what will happen to her now.”

 

“So it is a girl, huh? Wonder if she'll be as lovely as Sango when she's older?” Miroku knelt down by Sango and stroked her curvaceous backside.

 

Instead of the trademark SLAP! “HENTAI!” combination that usually followed such fresh behavior, Sango simply blushed a deep red. She turned her attention back to Kaede's lesson, while the old woman sighed at the monk's behavior. He would never change.

 

Meanwhile, Inuyasha still stood by the door, his face an unreadable mask. Shippou cautiously approached the inu-hanyou, worried about his sudden silence upon seeing the baby hanyou.

 

“What's wrong, Inuyasha?” Shippou asked with the innocence of youth. “Don't you want to see the baby?”

 

Inuyasha completely ignored the kitsune, which worried Shippou even more. He simply stood there, his golden eyes shuttered as he seemed to see something other than what was in the room.

 

Was that what I looked like? the inu-hanyou thought to himself. Was I that tiny and helpless?

 

Then his thoughts changed course as Kagome stood up with the now-clean, freshly diapered and obviously hungry baby girl in her arms.

 

She looks so right, came the unbidden thought, holding and caring for that black-haired hanyou baby. Almost as if… he closed his eyes, trying to push away the idea before it took form.

 

…as if she were ours...

 

Suddenly the little hanyou began to fuss. She was hungry and she wanted everyone to know it. But rather than starting to cry, she began a low, keening wail, sounding rather like a howl. It wasn't as loud and upset-sounding as a normal baby's cry, but sounded sad and mournful, more like-

 

“A wolf…” Inuyasha muttered. Kagome looked up from the baby in her arms to the silver-haired hanyou by the door.

 

“What did you say?” she asked him as the group turned and looked at him as one.

 

“She's a wolf hanyou,” he said, a little louder this time. Then he sniffed. “And it smells like she's part of Kouga's tribe. She has a similar scent as that mangy wolf.”

 

Everyone, except Inuyasha, looked down at the softly howling baby. The hair, the eyes, the wolf ears- it all made sense now. But-

 

“Why didn't you say something before, Inuyasha?” Sango asked, suspicious. “I mean, if you knew she was a wolf hanyou then that would've explained a few things.”

 

“Feh,” he muttered. “Just feed her before she really gets mad.” And with those parting words of wisdom, he left the hut.

 

Kagome stared after him for a moment, wondering what was going on under those cute white doggie ears of his. Then she focused on the howling baby and focused on feeding her first.

 

The little hanyou latched onto the tiny opening on one end of the milk skin and proceeded to suckle to her heart's delight. Kagome smiled, then propped herself up against the hut wall with the baby in her arms.

 

“Did you want me to feed her so you can go talk to Inuyasha?” Sango asked softly, coming up to her side. Kagome shook her head no.

 

“He asked me to take care of her,” she whispered, “and I don't want to burden you any more than you are already.” She looked up at the taijiya. “We still have to find Kohaku, you know.”

 

Sango was stunned. She knew Kagome always worried about others before herself, but she always managed to surprise Sango with new depths of how much she cared. Faced with the burden of caring for a baby that was not her own, a hanyou baby at that, while unmarried and mostly uneducated in terms of raising a family, she still worried about Sango's brother. Sango was deeply touched.

 

“Well, then, while you're feeding her, you might want to think up a name for her,” the lovely woman said with a grin.

 

Kagome paled. “Oi!” She exclaimed softly so as not to disturb the baby. “We don't know her name!” She looked at the little hanyou, who was finishing her meal. “What should we call her?” she mused, half to herself.

 

Sango chuckled. “She's yours for now,” she said. “You can call her what you want.”

 

Kagome set the now-empty milk skin on the floor, and then wiped a trickle of milk off the corner of the baby's mouth. She looked at the drowsy baby, unsure of what to do next. Kaede glanced over from where she stoked her fire-pit and coughed. When Kagome looked at the older woman, she smiled in amusement.

 

“Ye need to burp her now, Kagome,” she said.

 

“G-gomen!” Kagome stammered. She was still new to this whole “mom” thing. Why didn't she remember anything from when her mom had Souta? Because you were just a kid, a voice in her head reminded her. You were too young and it wasn't your responsibility.

 

Sighing, Kagome put the little baby on her shoulder and gently patted her back. She gurgled and cooed, and after a while burped softly and tried to lift her head to look at Kagome's face. Kagome lifted her down and set her up on her lap, looking into the baby's sapphire blue eyes.

 

Kouga… she thought. She has eyes almost the same shade of blue as Kouga's…but she couldn't be his…could she? I mean, that man by the river was her father, right? He sure acted like a father. But Inuyasha said she smelled of Kouga's tribe and that she's a wolf hanyou. Her thoughts ran away from her as she bundled the sleepy little girl in a warm blanket and snuggled her close.

 

Did Kouga have a baby with a human and then abandon them? Perhaps that man and his wife took in the baby hanyou to raise as their own? Dozens of different scenarios passed through her mind as she laid her head against the wall. Nothing made any sense.

 

Outside, Miroku and Sango were discussing the baby with Inuyasha. Rather, they were talking and speculating, while he stood silent.

 

“Do you really think that baby could be Kouga's?” Sango asked, worried.

 

“I cannot truly comprehend it either, Sango,” the monk replied, his hand on his chin and the other holding his shakujou staff. “But that seems to be the most logical explanation.”

 

“But then who was that man? Surely that was the little girl's father.”

 

Miroku glanced over at Inuyasha. “Don't you have anything to say about this situation, Inuyasha?”

 

“Me?” Inuyasha stared at the monk, his face more than a little pink. “What would I have to say? It's probably just Kouga's by-blow that he didn't want. It's just another unwanted hanyou…”

 

Miroku and Sango both stood there in dead silence, looking at Inuyasha with sympathy on their faces. They exchanged a glance, and then Sango broke the silence.

 

“It would seem that Kagome wants her.”

 

Inuyasha opened his mouth to retort, but for once, nothing came out. What could he say? How could he say anything bad about that? He couldn't. So he stood there, completely speechless.

 

Miroku and Sango turned and, walking arm in arm in the moonlight back to the hut, left him standing there like that.