InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Little by Little ❯ A Change in the Weather ( Chapter 10 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Inuyasha woke just as the sun crested the horizon, bringing with it the sounds of the forest. He pulled the covers back, careful not to wake his wife. Rin would retrieve the young Miko if she slept in too late. He stepped around her to head out the door when he remembered he hadn't even told her he would be going out that morning.

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Something was touching her arm… nah, it was warm, she shouldn't worry.

"Kagome…Kagome."

Her eyes came open at the sound of her name. She blinked at the foggy image of her husband's face.

"Inu…sha?" She croaked.

"Good. Hey, so today," he began, although he didn't exactly have her full attention quite yet. She squinted, her fuzzy brain trying to make sense of what he was saying. He patted her arm with the last of his words.

"Go back to sleep, hm?"

Kagome wasn't about to object to his suggestion. She closed her eyes and pushed her face back into the pillow as Inuyasha stood.

She opened her eyes again. He probably meant for her to listen to at least some of that. She couldn't remember a word of it. She raised herself onto her elbows and looked over to ask him to repeat what he'd said, but he was long gone. She groaned, rubbing her eyes and pushing herself into a sitting position.

What time was it anyway? How long had the sun been up? She wished she had a clock with her, rather than constantly relying on Inuyasha's internal wiring to get her up in the morning. She'd had one in her backpack, but the batteries had died at some point over the course of three years. Where was he anyway? Usually he got up with her in the mornings.

Kagome rolled her eyes. That was a stupid question. He was with Miroku. How often did they get jobs anyway? It had been barely two weeks since they returned from their last job. Before that, they had gone on two others, only traveling a short distance away, having more of a shooing mission than a slaying mission.

Kagome patted her cheek. It was too early for her brain to work properly. However, since she didn't know what time it actually was, she fixed herself a quick breakfast, dressed, and hurried down to Kaede's.

She arrived just as the older Miko and the young girl were sitting down to their own breakfast. The old Miko didn't hesitate to put the younger woman to work sweeping the steps leading up to the weathered shrine. When Kagome returned inside, Kaede sent her back out to the garden this time, pulling weeds. The younger woman frowned deeply as she turned her back to the woman. The next thing she had Kagome do was watering the garden, then going out to the wood pile with an axe and a list of other random chores. Weren't these usually the sort of tasks she had Rin do? She saw Rin dart out past her mid swing with the axe, just about giving Kagome a heart attack. She looked on as Rin ran right up to a few other children who looked as if they had been expecting her.

Kagome blinked, wondering just what the girl was up to.

'Ah…I really am doing Rin's chores in addition to my own!'

Kagome put a hand on her hip and shook her head at the shrinking forms of the children playing tag. What does all this have to do with Miko training? She stood, staring out over the field, where the children were no longer visible.

"Kagome," came a gentle voice from behind her. It was just loud enough to make Kagome jump right back into work, realizing that it was nearly mid-morning and Kaede probably expected her to finish up before long.

"Come in. I have something to discuss with you." Kagome turned back to the old woman, who was offering her a damp rag in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. Kagome nodded, and took the rag to wipe her hands, then the tea before following the grey-haired Miko back into her small hut. Kaede sat at one side of the burnt-out firepit, and Kagome took to the other side. Kaede took a slow sip of her tea before she began.

"You may have noticed, but you've been doing some of Rin's chores this morning."

Kagome blinked in slight confusion, but nodded for the old woman to continue.

"Well, she has today to play with the other children as she likes, which is why I've assigned her chores to you, so that she has more time to do so. In a few days, she will not be allowed to."

"What?" Kagome squinted in deep confusion.

"Tell me, in your homeland, what sort of bridal training or preperations did girls undertake?"

"Bridal—? What? You…you mean Rin?" With Kaede's nod she continued in her stuttering questions. "She's so young. I-isn't it a bit early for her to start thinking about marriage?"

"Rin is small for her age, but before long, the young men will begin to notice her. She would not be ready to marriage for a few years, but Lord Sesshomaru did not oppose it."

What.

She barely got Sesshomaru, her brother-in-law, to scowl at her during his last visit. And he and Kaede just chatted over tea? Then again…he had entrusted Rin to her.

Oh yeah, before that.

"He agreed to it?"

Kaede nodded. Kagome blinked. In all honestly, she didn't know completely what sort of character Sesshomaru was, but for him to agree to a match between Rin and some random village boy? Wait… wasn't that even stranger? Did regular women need training to become housewives? She had so many questions.

She almost expected Sesshomaru to continue seeing Rin as the little girl he first met, and oppose the notion of her growing up. Or maybe it was just Kagome herself that kept the image of this duo of the helpless little girl and her older brother/father figure ingrained in her mind. But he now agreed that she was ready to grow up and marry? Or maybe she was just jarred by how young Rin still was. By marrying at eighteen as Kagome had, it would be probably be considered quite scandalous to her friends in her era of birth, when women didn't typically marry until their twenties. But girls started out so early in this time…

"Now, how did girls prepare for marriage in your world?"

Once again, Kagome snapped back to the present, her brain scrambling to find an answer for the grey-haired woman.

"Uh, well… maybe home-ec could be considered…why does there need to be training? All most wives need to learn is how to cook and clean right?"

Kaede sighed. "From what I have heard, there is more than that."

"Then…no, there's nothing quite like that where I'm from."

Kaede nodded. "That is what I feared."

Kaede sent Kagome back to work, which she took to slowly, her mind occupied with how strange this all sounded. How strange was it? Children grow up. Rain falls. Seasons change. Crazy, stoic brother-in-laws learn to talk to people without being complete assholes. These were facts of life.

After she finished her chores she found Kaede and a woman speaking at the river. Kaede sent Kagome with the woman to diagnose a rash on her son's calf. The older Miko told Kagome to head home when she was done. Kagome wasn't about to argue about being let go early, leaving the mother with care instructions before she left. Absentmindedly, she started down the path to her house, lost in thought and moving on muscle memory. She passed the first tree into the forest when she stopped. She realized the direction she was heading remembered how empty it would be when she returned, so she decided to check in on Sango and the kids. Better yet, she could talk about Rin. Sango grew up in this time, so Kagome wondered if she knew anything about whether or not this situation Rin was in was strange or not.

As she came closer to her friend's residence, she was surprised to see that the parent watching over the toddlers with a baby balanced on their knee, was in fact, not Sango, but her husband. All thoughts of Rin disappeared in that instant. Kagome was glad to know the boys were back, but she was a little disappointed that her own husband had not greeted her upon arrival. He hadn't done so the last time, either. Miroku greeted Kagome with a wave. She returned it half-heartedly, with a question evident in her posture.

"Where's Inuyasha?" she asked when she came within earshot. Miroku raised an eyebrow. Both girls lifted their heads to greet the young Miko by name and waved by opening and closing their little hands.

"He's…still training with Sango…" the monk replied with a questioning tone. Kagome tilted her head with the most puzzled expression.

"Training?"

"Yes?" Miroku commented, briefly glancing towards Kagome.

"I just brought the kids back a few minutes ago." He looked down at the drowsy infant he held. "It's about nap time for these three."

He looked back to the still confused face of his friend.

"Had Inuyasha not said anything? Surely last night or this mor—"

He was interrupted when Kagome slapped a hand against her forehead.

"So that's what he was trying to tell me this morning! I thought the two of you were leaving on a job."

"You must have been half-asleep," the monk chuckled, "or too distracted to remem—"

"The first one," Kagome interrupted with a benign glare.

Miroku shook his head and turned his attention back to his two daughters. Kagome saw Miroku stiffen, directing her attention to the place where the very absent toddlers had just been.

"Girls?" he called once. Two brunette heads popped up over a patch of tall grass. Miroku told them to stay where he could see them. The young father raised an eyebrow when the girls exchanged whispers in each other's' ears.

"And what are you up to?" he asked with a note of whimsy when they began to giggle. "You look like you're up to no good."

Kagome chuckled at the giant grin on the girl's faces, then looked down to Miroku and the oddly quiet baby.

"Would you like me to put Ichiro down?"

"Oh, yes, thankyou Kagome," he said, passing his son off to the younger woman. She smiled at the baby as she passed his father on her way inside the house. Miroku began to say something, but lost his train of thought when he looked back to his daughters.

"What are you eating? What are you eating?!" He left Kagome to run after the girls.

Kagome peaked her head out to see Miroku crouched in front of one of the twins.

"Why? Why would you put that up your nose, sweetheart?"

Kagome grimaced and ducked back inside to put the baby down for a nap.

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"HIRAIKOUTSU!"

Inuyasha made no move to dodge the weapon. He sprung up further into its path, catching it and used the forward energy to curl into a backflip and land softly on the balls of his feet. It was more as if he had caught a harmless beach ball than a dangerous demon-slaying weapon weighing nearly as much as the caster herself.

"That was lame! You saw how easy that was to catch? You're throwin' way too damn slow, Sango," he jibed. Sango smiled and leapt forward. She drew her sword and came down in a streak of silver. He spun with just enough time to draw his own sword, throwing Hiraikoutsu off to the side. The young woman swung for the hanyou's middle, and Inuyasha twisted to parry the strike with the untransformed Tessaiga. He parried another vertical strike and took a step back to hold the sword out properly. Sango continued to strike and Inuyasha parried each attack.

"Your swordmanship still sucks," the slayer commented as she continued to force Inuyasha back. They had a deal when it came to the sword. Inuyasha could only go on the offensive during the new moon, but even for staying on the defensive, he wasn't doing well against the woman. He had never learned to properly wield the untransformed Tessaiga—never even thought about it, since his attacks with the larger version were based on overkill. It was on one new moon two and a half years ago that Sango had taken it upon herself to teach him. Inuyasha was lucky that bandit's swordsmanship wasn't much better than his own. Or rather, he was lucky Kohaku had come to save his sorry—and severely bloodied—ass.

"Oh shut yer yap. I'm workin' on it."

"Are you?" Sango laughed, coming in for a diagonal slice, "and who's been your sparring partner while I was pregnant?"

Inuyasha scoffed. Sango glanced down for an instant before smirking once again.

"Inuyasha, there's one thing you particularly need to work on."

Inuyasha chuckled and raised an eyebrow to ask what that was.

"Obviously, Inuyasha, it's your—" she stuck out her foot to sweep under her friend's heel, "footwork!"

"Augh!" Inuyasha cried as he stumbled, though not knocked completely over. Just off-balance enough for Sango to get the upper hand. Inuyasha swung up swiftly, barely blocking the slayer's strike. He pushed his blade upward with a little too much force, tossing the slayer's arms up. Sango kicked up and twisted over Inuyasha's head, coming to land behind him.

Inuyasha froze, expecting to feel the cold slap of the blunt edge of a sword against his cheek. After half a second he turned to face the human woman. She was trembling, still crouched from the landing. She had come down too hard for her ankles. He saw her begin to tip and dipped forward to catch her by the upper arms.

"Uh, Sango, how about you take a break?" Inuyasha suggested as he helped his friend back into the upright position.

"We just took a break!" she snapped back with a glare. Inuyasha rolled his eyes. He took a deep breath and released Sango's arms. He crossed his arms and stood to his full height, staring up at the clouds.

"We're gonna need to wrap this up soon anyway. Rain's movin' in," he said with a tap to his nose.

"Oh, right," Sango said with a roll of her eyes.

Inuyasha raised his eyebrows. It had started to get muggy out a few hours ago, even she had to realize a storm was moving in. He turned his head to the side, where a lone spectator had been watching for a few minutes.

"Well, Miroku? Wanna try convincing your wife?"

Miroku slipped into view then, shrugging.

"His nose hasn't been wrong yet, Sango. If he says it's going to rain, I believe him."

Sango huffed at that, sheathing her sword. She went to collect her other things but spun around to face her husband.

"Where are the kids?"

"Oh, Kagome is watching them," Miroku replied with a hand on his hip.

"You tricked her into watching them for you? Miroku—"

"Oh no, no," The monk waved his hand in front of him, "she offered to watch them. I think she quite likes the children, after all."

Sango shot a suspicious look his way. Inuyasha backed out of the line of fire to sheath Tessaiga.

"Are you certain you didn't coerce her? I really don't want to take advantage of her like that."

"I assure you, she was more than happy to babysit."

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How did she get roped into this?

She didn't know how he'd done it, but her friend, the monk with the silver tongue, had somehow convinced the younger woman to babysit his kids. She tried to remember how he'd done it, how he'd talked her into this, but it was all lost on her. She didn't mind babysitting, she supposed, but she hadn't planned on doing it right now. She wasn't good at it, especially around naptime, as she had learned from the few times her mother and grandfather left her to watch Sota. The monk had somehow convinced her that she just needed more experience watching children, before heading out before she could disagree.

Ichiro was easy enough to get to sleep, but the girls absolutely refused to stay put anywhere. She had become worried their whining would wake the baby so she finally caved and let them return to playing outside. They weren't too bad out there, but they kept wondering behind the house, and Kagome found it difficult to keep track when they split up. Kagome finally convinced them to settle down in a patch of flowers on the side of the house, so she could keep an eye out for them and an ear out for the baby.

Koyuki seemed to have a sudden idea and tugged Yukie up from the patch. They ran up to Kagome and presented fists full of flowers to her.

"Uh, why thank—"

"Make a neckwace," Koyuki interrupted.

"Fwower neckwace," Yukie added.

"A…you want me to make a flower necklace?" Kagome asked hesitantly. She chewed the inside of her lip when they smiled and nodded in unison. She hadn't made one since she was a little girl but…she supposed she could try…though she really couldn't remember anything about how to do it. Was it just braiding the stems?

A sudden tug on her senses gave her a moment of relief. Inuyasha was heading this way, probably alongside the girls' parents. She distracted them by telling them their mommy and daddy were coming home.

"Mama!" Yukie chirped and ran around to the front of the house to wait. Koyuki followed right behind. Kagome came up behind the girls.

"Where?" Koyuki asked after about ten seconds when she was tired of waiting.

"Right there," Kagome said, pointing over the hill when the glint of Miroku's staff came into view. She didn't expect the green-clad twin to sprint in the direction the temporary guardian indicated. Kagome darted to scoop her up.

"Hold your horses," she told the little girl as she looked over to where Sango, Miroku and Inuyasha were now visible. Inuyasha waved before coming to stop at the edge of the garden.

"I hope they didn't give you too much trouble," Sango asked as she picked up Yukie from where she had been clinging to her leg. These two acted like they hadn't seen her in a week.

"Well, I couldn't get the girls to take a nap, but other than that…"

"Oh, well that just means they'll sleep better tonight, I suppose." The young mother then apologized for her husband leaving Kagome alone like that.

"Oh no, I don't mind…Actually, if you ever need someone to babysit, me and Inuyasha would be willing—"

"NO," Inuyasha interrupted, wide-eyed. "I ain't gonna—"

Kagome shot him a glare.

"Yes, we will," she said firmly. "We'll be more than happy to watch the kids for you."

"No, we won't, Kagome. They made me babysit all the time before you came back and then there was only two of th—"

"And now there's two of us." She set koyuki down to join her sister in being ushered in the house by their father.

"And besides, you said you wanted to be a father someday," Kagome said with raised eyebrows. She was unfazed by the glare he sent her, especially since it was offset by pink cheeks and a gulp from the man.

"It'll be good practice for then."

His lips twitched when he glanced at Sango—still standing there—then away from both women. Sango sighed.

"I'll probably take you up on the offer, but I don't want t—"

Thunder crackled overhead, turning Inuyasha's face upward to sniff the air. Sango looked up to the dark grey clouds moving in rapidly.

"Maybe we can talk another time," she said with a nod towards Inuyasha, "you two had better get going before it gets too heavy out."

Inuyasha returned her nod then looked to Kagome before turning in the direction of their house. Kagome shook her head. She waved to Sango before racing up to Inuyasha's side.

"Well that was rude," Kagome said when they were out of earshot of their friends.

'Rude of you to put me in the middle like that,' Inuyasha thought. He felt the beginning of sprinkles on his ears and told Kagome they needed to pick it up. After another minute, Kagome gasped.

"What?" He asked when Kagome came to a halt and turned her head back in the direction they just came from.

"I wanted to talk to Sango about something," she sighed.

"About what?"

"Mn…"Kagome bit her lip. She was hesitant to say. "It's really not important…"

Inuyasha quirked a dark eyebrow.

The sound of something caught his attention, and Kagome glanced up when he turned his head, ears trained on something. A second later, the sprinkles stopped and were replaced by much heavier rain. Kagome squeaked and covered her head. The both of them darted towards their house. By the time Inuyasha had it in his head to pick Kagome up, the rain was coming down in buckets.

Inuyasha slowed before flipping back the screen and depositing Kagome back inside the house.

"Ugh…" Kagome groaned, running a hand through her wet hair before wringing it out onto the dirt floor. Her clothes were heavy, sticking to her and so uncomfortable. The one thing she was thankful for was that it was a warm rain in the summer. Inuyasha didn't complain about getting caught in the rain, like Kagome had expected, though he wore a sour face as he pulled his hair over one shoulder. He wrung his hair out as best he could before crouching to his haunches.

"Don't you dare," Kagome scolded before he got the chance. He was not going to shake off inside the house. He would get water everywhere, including the mostly dry shortened kosode she wore.

"Oh yeah, like you just love having your clothes soaked th—what are you doing?"

"Hanging these up to dry, obviously."

Kagome shook her head and stood on tiptoe to toss one side of her hakama up and over the rafter, as she had done with her top layer. She straightened it from the bottom so it would dry fastest. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow as she left her outer garments hanging to walk over to where she kept spare linens. He glanced back at her clothes and slowly stood to follow suit in unfastening his outer layers. He hesitantly looked over Kagome as he slowly hung his robes over the rafter, as she had done.

Kagome sat against the back wall with two cloths that would serve as towels to dry off further. Inuyasha took one towel and sat beside Kagome in silence. She wiped down her hair, realizing she still had it pulled back in a style somewhere between Sango and Kaede's. Meaning with the rain and damp heat it was stuck to the back of her neck. She looked back to Inuyasha, the man with at least twice as much hair. Said hair was clinging in tangles to his own shortened underlayer. She definitely liked it better untangled for the rare moments when he would let her run her fingers through it. They had both learned that Inuyasha very much liked having his scalp massaged—and now with her making sure he took a bath with her on occasion, she was pleased to do it.

There was a few occasions in the past when Kagome had patted his head, and with learning this about himself, he regretted snapping at her. Although…Back then, she was fond of making the occasional dog pun. When she had patted his head the first time, she did so with the added comment of 'good boy' and that pissed him off to no end. He wasn't being irrational. That would be a normal reaction from anyone—human or otherwise—when being treated like some pet. It was worse that he hated being compared to a goddamned dog.

When he went to bed beside his wife two nights ago, she reminisced about some book she read—Hairy Pottery or something—he didn't remember nor care but she had begun to stroke his hair at some point. He didn't recall when that had started, or when he had stopped listening to her tale, but minutes before he realized it, she had stopped talking. He ended up with his forehead against her chest and delicate fingers rubbing the most gentle little circles into his scalp.

He had backed away from her quickly, his expression a strange mix of surprise and annoyance at being handled like that—even if it did feel good. When he had seen Kagome's own surprise and confusion, he realized that this was not the same patronizing patting she had given early on. She was not thinking of him as dog; she was thinking of him as a lover. He flushed in his embarrassment and wordlessly laid his head back against her. In quiet understanding, she resumed stroking his ears and massaging his head. She must have fallen asleep like that, he couldn't be sure because he had. But when he woke the next morning he was still laying with his cheek to her chest and with his lovely wife's one hand curled in his hair.

Thunder cracked overhead again, drawing Kagome's attention away for a second.

"Damn, it's hot," Inuyasha muttered as he pulled into a stretch. Kagome looked back to Inuyasha as he set the towel off to the side. She slowly reached forward and drug her fingers through a strand of Inuyasha's hair. Inuyasha leaned away to look at her, noting how thoughtful her expression seemed.

"Can I put your hair up?"

Inuyasha's eyes rolled back in his head. This again.

"Right now? It's wet."

She looked away with a blink, disappointment showing on her pretty face. She slowly withdrew her hand. Inuyasha made an annoyed noise and looked away for a second, hoping that when he looked back she would…nope. Still disappointed. He sighed.

"Tomorrow. If it's still muggy like this. Get it off my neck," he conceded. She flashed a smile and bumped her shoulder against his. He chuckled. She had offered to put his hair up before, and depending on the day, he was close to letting her do it. She reached her hand back up to stroke that strand of hair again. He fought a smile when her hands traveled up further, to his now dry left ear. He had given her permission to touch them as she liked a while ago…and she was very close to abusing that agreement with how often it was he hands traveled up there. From what he knew, his ears were no different from an akita's, so he wondered who she'd abuse more if she had one for a pet. Probably him. Though as her fingertips then wondered down to his scalp…this didn't quite qualify as abuse.

Though when she stopped abruptly, that could be borderline cruelty. He looked to where the screen flap had blown open with the wind as rain scattered across the dirt entryway. He growled and was about to stand when Kagome beat him to it, a hand on her hip.

"Sounds like quite the storm. The rainy season should be over by now, but you'd never know it from the way this storm is carrying on."

Inuyasha nodded, looking up at her, and let his head tip back down. He couldn't help but continue looking to his left though. His eyes were level with her thigh. Her largely bare thigh—the line of which continued down a long path to her slender calf and petite ankle. With his eyes, he traced the line back up to the flare of her hip, the taper of her waist and—she took a step forwards, intent on securing the screen shut, but that step was all she made it. A pair of large hands rested on her hips to still her.

"Inuyasha?"

She turned her head to look at him. He twisted her hips and she stepped around to face him, resting her hands over his. Pretty golden eyes gazed up with an intensity the owner himself could only stand for a second before looking away with a dusting of pink across his cheeks. Kagome smiled and bit her lip, not even moving as a quiet rumble of thunder sounded from a ways off. She was quite forgetful today, as now the issue of the screen door was gone from her mind.

"Weren't you just complaining about the heat?" the pretty young woman said, getting a soft smile from the man before her. He squeezed gently at her hips. She allowed him to lead her to kneel to the side of his legs. She threw one leg over his and he didn't hesitate to drag her forward, forcing her against his hips. She giggled. He stroked down to her thighs as she cupped his face in her hands. He leaned up to kiss her—little more than a peck, but gentle and sweet. He smiled and kissed her like that once more. She giggled again. He knew she loved these softer moments. He discovered his reward when she snaked her hands into his hair and resumed her attentions from earlier.

He closed his eyes for a few seconds until she was kissing his cheek and down his jaw. While he tipped his head back, his hands traversed her back and gripped the fabric at her shoulders. Kagome paused her kisses. Her hands left his hair so he could spread the fabric at her shoulders. She rested her hands at his shoulders while his hands moved to the front to pull apart the folds at her front, leaving her chest exposed besides her bra.

"Inuyasha," she said in barely a whisper. He met her gorgeous brown eyes once again with a smile, and she returned it. He gently stroked her sides, enjoying the smoothness of her pale flesh. She leaned down to kiss him again, right hand going for his hair. His own left hand went to comb through her damp black tresses but he noticed her hair ribbon was in the way of his enjoyment of the length. He leaned further into another kiss and tugged on one end of the ribbon and felt it start to unravel. He pulled the ribbon out and drug his claws gently through her locks as thunder boomed overhead.

"Shit!" He swore, breaking off the kiss abruptly. He gripped the hems of her kosode and roughly crossed them over one another, crudely redressing her.

"H-hey! Inuyasha? What's going—" Kagome demanded, but was cut off.

"We're about to have company…Dammit, I can't smell shit with this rain."

No sooner did he say that than the screen flap moved aside and a tiny demon appeared, holding a large leaf over his head. Kagome dismounted her husband and tucked her clothing folds in faster than he could say 'hurry' and padded over to the little fox, allowing her husband time to cross his legs.

"Wow! It's really raining out there!" The little boy shouted over the roar of the torrent outside the door. He shook off his makeshift umbrella and lifted his gaze up to Kagome. His eyes went wide when he realized that she, and even Inuyasha, were not wearing any outer layers. Kagome didn't catch the expression, but immediately jumped off of his comment.

"Isn't it? Inuyasha and I were only out in it for a few minutes, and our clothes got drenched," she said with nervous laughter in her voice, "so we hung them up to dry." She gestured to the clothes hanging over the rafters. Shippo's face flashed suspicion as he looked at the clothes before Kagome continued.

"So how did your exams go? How long is your break?"

Shippo shook off his suspicion to reply enthusiastically to Kagome's array of questions.

******************

The hanyou man glared at the little fox kit curled into Kagome's form as they slept. He glared at Kagome, too, since it was her decision to have him sleep on their bedding with them. Theirs. And the kit was cradled to his wife's chest. His wife. The runt was nearly eleven years old by now, though he didn't look a bit of it. So what if he was tiny compared to human children? A fox demon wouldn't get very big, and he knew Kagome was only soft on him because his diminutive size gave her motherly instincts the impression that he was a very small child, where sleeping curled against a woman's bosom was acceptable.

But no. He was ten. Almost eleven. Quite old enough to know that this bed was meant for just husband and wife. He was old enough to understand what he had interrupted—Inuyasha could tell by the look on his face—and manipulative enough to pretend that he didn't, so Kagome wouldn't tell him to leave.

'Stupid punk kid. Stupid, stupid, punk kid,' Inuyasha grumbled internally as he lay back to back with his wife. He couldn't even hold her like he wanted because he didn't want to reach around Shippo. Ordinarily he and the kid got along well, but for some reason, he was pissed off at the little bastard.

He look one more look at the pair before flopping back into position. Was this how it was going to be with his own child? Would he get jealous if his own kid wanted to sleep next to their mother? That was a cruel little thought. He decided that it would be different when a child was both parts he and Kagome, not some unrelated male child. And that was another thing. As soon as the kit hit puberty, Inuyasha would kick him out no matter what.