InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Metamorphosis. ❯ The Girl Who Cried Wolf ( Chapter 28 )

~~Chapter 28~~

~The Girl Who Cried Wolf~

 

Kagome stared at the paper bag full of canisters of powdered formula with a marked frown as Mrs. Higurashi packed up another with bottles and extra nipples. “I know it isn't really right to send things from the present back with you, but I think Sango will need these,” she explained.

 

Kagome nodded slowly and presented a weak smile. She knew, of course, that the time was drawing near. She knew that soon she'd give birth and that Sango and Miroku would have their own baby. She'd told herself all along that it wasn't really her baby, that she was only carrying the child for them. Even after the baby had first moved inside her, she'd managed to keep the child separate in her mind.

 

Last week, though, she'd noticed that her breasts were starting to lactate, and now . . . Staring at the baby things spread on the table, it seemed so much more real than it had ever before. `Don't think about that, Kagome! You know what you're doing is for them. Think of how happy they'll be . . . and it isn't as though you'll never see the baby. You'll be the baby's Aunt Kagome . . . that's got to count for something.'

 

She stifled a sigh and stood up. “Thanks, Mama. I'm sure Sango and Miroku will be grateful for all this stuff . . .”

 

Mrs. Higurashi smiled compassionately, and Kagome had a feeling that her mother knew what she was thinking. “Kagome . . . have I told you that I think what you're doing for your friends is a beautiful thing? I don't know any other girls, especially ones your age, that would do such a thing . . . and I'm so proud of you.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Kagome wiped a tear off her cheek and clumsily stood to hug her mother. InuYasha snorted as he entered the kitchen and stopped short with his signature scowl on his face. “Keh! Crying or peeing . . . kami, wench! No more pups for that fucking lecher again, hear me?”

 

Kagome rolled her eyes as she sniffled. “I take it you're ready to go back?”

 

A fleeting glimpse of concern rushed over his features. “You sure you're all right?”

 

Kagome made a face. For the eighth time in two weeks she'd had a pain that had thrown everyone into a panic culminating in the hanyou's insistent sprint to the well with Kagome in his arms. “I'm all right,” she said with a sheepish grin.

 

He shook his head. “You know, if you keep saying you're having pains and never birth that pup, people are going to start thinking that you're just trying to get attention,” he remarked. Kagome's mouth fell open as she stared at him. InuYasha caught her chin with his index finger and lifted her jaw. “Catching flies, wench?”

 

“InuYasha!”

 

He grabbed the bags and headed for the door again. “Coming?” he called over his shoulder.

 

Kagome sighed and quickly hugged her mother. “Bye, Mama. We'll be back again tomorrow about the time I have another fake contraction . . .”

 

Mrs. Higurashi chuckled and waved as Kagome hurried after InuYasha.

 

InuYasha held a hand out for Kagome. She eyed him dubiously as he tried to hold both bags in one arm. “I don't think this is a good idea,” she remarked slowly. “Let me carry those.”

 

He made a face but let her take the bags.

 

“Come on, wench. Just get over here.”

 

Kagome sighed and then smiled as he gently picked her up and hopped into the well.

 

 

::0::0::000::0::0::

 

 

`What's happening to me?'

 

Kouga slumped down on a boulder and turned his gaze up to the skies. His body felt hot, feverish, and he couldn't make sense of anything. Sure, he'd had dreams of Kagome before. Every now and again she'd slip into his dreams like an apparition, like a gift from kami.

 

But lately . . .

 

He shook his head. His dreams had increased. Every night she came to him with her teasing smile, her whispered promises. He felt like a man possessed, like he had to have her or he would lose his mind. `This cannot be natural,' he mused. `What is it?'

 

“Kouga!”

 

His head snapped forward. He knew that voice. Frowning as he sniffed the air, he stood slowly and glanced around as he stared over her head at the darkened forest. “Kagome . . . where's mutt-face? Why are you running around alone? You're still carrying that pup . . .”

 

The salt of her tears reached his nostrils before she was close enough for him to discern the dew clinging to her long, spiky lashes. “I hate him, Kouga! I want you to take me away from him! Please . . .”

 

With that, she dissolved in loud, wailing sobs. Kouga frowned in confusion as she threw herself against his chest.

 

“What did he do to you, Kagome?” She shook her head, her sobs escalating. He grimaced. “Tell me what that mutt did to you,” he demanded.

 

She shook her head again. “I can't . . .” she stuttered between sobs.

 

Kouga hugged her close, bowed his head to rub his cheek against her hair. A sudden scent assailed him, and Kouga leaned away with a low growl. “Tell me why you have the stench of him on you,” he ordered, blue eyes flashing as anger surged.

 

“I told him, Kouga . . . that I chose you, and . . . he made me kiss him!”

 

Uttering a string of curses, Kouga hugged Kagome to him so tightly that she gasped for breath. “That bastard . . .” Kouga promised, his voice thick with raw emotion, “I'll kill him . . .”

 

Kagome cried harder, the force of her upset racking her body in violent tremors. “Yes,” she agreed. “Yes . . . kill him . . . kill InuYasha . . . for me . . .”

 

“All right,” Kouga agreed, anything to keep her from crying . . .

 

She turned her head, nudged him, sought out his lips with hers. “Kiss me, Kouga . . . I want to be with you . . .”

 

Kouga's reply was a deep kiss.

 

 

::0::0::000::0::0::

 

 

“Should we get you another blanket, Kagome?”

 

“Do you need something to drink?”

 

“Maybe you should lie down. You look as though you could use it.”

 

“Perhaps you ought to take a nap, Kagome.”

 

“Or I could fix something for you to eat.”

 

“Eating might not be the best idea. She's looking awfully pale.”

 

“Enough!” InuYasha snarled, cutting Sango and Miroku off in the middle of their deliberation. “Leave her alone, will you? She don't need you fussing over her every second. You're driving her crazy.”

 

Kagome shot InuYasha a grateful smile as she tried to shift into a more comfortable position.

 

“We're only concerned for her and the baby,” Miroku explained slowly.

 

“She does look awfully pale . . . Kagome? Do you need anything at all?”

 

“I'm fine,” she murmured, pushing herself to her feet so she could walk around. Her lower back ached horribly but she figured it was because of the hard floor she had been sitting on.

 

Ichisaru skittered inside the hut and ran over to Kagome. “Kaede said she wants to speak to you, Kagome,” he told her.

 

Kagome stood up slowly and rolled her eyes as her friends continued to argue. InuYasha noticed her movement and abruptly turned his back on Sango and Miroku, who were still debating what would be best for Kagome at the moment.

 

“Where do you think you're going, wench?”

 

Kagome sighed and tried to smile. “Ichisaru said that Kaede needs me.”

 

InuYasha didn't answer but he followed her out of the hut and into the falling darkness. “You are pale, you know,” InuYasha remarked as they headed down the path toward the miko's hut.

 

She shook her head, refusing to give any inkling about the pains she was experiencing. They weren't nearly as severe as the ones she'd had off and on the last couple of weeks. They were actually fairly mild. If only she could get rid of the stiffness in her lower back . . . Kagome winced. It felt as though someone was squeezing on her stomach but not hard enough to hurt, just enough to make her uncomfortable . . .

 

The baby suddenly shifted, and Kagome gasped. “InuYasha?”

 

He stopped, panic quickly igniting in his gaze. “What?”

 

She sighed. “I have to go.”

 

The panic seeped out of his eyes only to be replaced with late irritation. “Again?”

 

She grinned wanly. “Always.”

 

“Can you wait till we get to the old woman's hut?”

 

She quickly shook her head.

 

He folded his arms together as Kagome hurried into the forest beside the path. “I wonder what it'll be like to see my feet again,” Kagome remarked as she took care of her business.

 

“Hurry up before you freeze,” he answered.

 

Kagome rolled her eyes and started to get up when she suddenly started peeing . . . again. This time was different, though. More like a gush than anything, and given that she had just peed, there was no real way she could be holding that much in her miniscule bladder.

 

Something prodded the back of her mind, something that Kagome didn't want to understand. `Oh, no . . . no . . . it can't be . . . oh kami . . .'

 

“Kagome?”

 

She bit her bottom lip and started to rise again. The movement forced more liquid out of her body, and it didn't matter how hard she tried, she couldn't staunch the flow. Still refusing to believe what her mind was now screaming at her, Kagome deliberately ignored her own thoughts . . . until she placed a hand against her stomach. The sudden shrinkage under her fingers was something that could not be denied. “InuYasha . . .” she called out, her voice trembling. He crashed into the forest moments later.

 

The look on his face told her that he had already smelled what she needed to tell him. Face pale and drawn, he didn't bother saying a word as he jerked off his haori to drape around her as he carefully lifted her and set off toward the path once more. “Where do you want to go?” he asked, his voice gentle despite the obvious upset in his expression.

 

Kagome couldn't answer. The first pain to hit her since her water had broken was significantly stronger than the ones she had been suffering. She gasped softly and could only manage a weak `nn' sound when he turned to go back to Sango and Miroku's hut.

 

“Home?” he asked, meaning the well.

 

She shook her head as she clutched her stomach and tried to concentrate on breathing. She wasn't sure how long she had, but, too, was the sudden worry that she wouldn't be able to get the baby back through the well after it was born. She'd planned on having the baby at the shrine but there were no guarantees. What if the baby couldn't get through the well? She relaxed as the pain around her stomach lessened. No, she couldn't risk that . . .

 

InuYasha didn't ask questions. Sprinting toward Kaede's hut, InuYasha had never reached the old miko faster in his life. “Oi! Old woman! Damn it!” InuYasha bellowed as he pushed through the bamboo curtain covering the doorway.

 

“InuYasha , must ye yell?” Kaede asked as she looked up from her task. Spotting Kagome, face contorted in pain as another contraction tightened around her belly, the miko stood and hurriedly spread a futon on the floor in a cooler corner away from the fire pit. He strode to it and gently put Kagome down. She flashed him a grateful smile just before she sighed.

 

“Bring water, InuYasha, lots of it,” Kaede instructed as she draped a blanket over Kagome.

 

InuYasha looked like he wanted to argue, but Kagome nodded at him, and he did as he was asked.

 

“How long have ye been laboring, Kagome?” Kaede asked as she hurried over to the cabinet where she kept her dried herbs.

 

“A couple of days, I suppose,” Kagome said as she squirmed around under the blanket. “I didn't realize . . . the pains weren't enough to bother me before.”

 

Kaede sighed. “For your first babe, this surprises me.” Adding a bit of water out of the bucket InuYasha left behind, Kaede mixed some herbs together into a paste before setting the stone bowl aside near the fire.

 

InuYasha stomped back in with two buckets of water and set them down with a heavy thump. Kagome's soft moan as the next contraction set in brought him to her side. Wincing as he stared down at her, she didn't have to read his mind to know that he was berating himself for not being able to save her from the pain.

 

“Get it out of her, damn it!” InuYasha snarled as Kaede firmly shoved him back.

 

“Either behave or get out, InuYasha. Ye are helping not, when ye continue to harass me!” Kaede grumbled.

 

InuYasha opened his mouth to growl something back. Kagome's soft hiss of breath as another contraction hit her hard stopped him. Ears flattening against his head, he gently lifted her shoulders and edged in behind her. She shot him a grateful look then winced. He whined.

 

Kaede sat back and shook her head. “This is going to be a long night, eh?”

 

InuYasha gritted his teeth.

 

 

::0::0::000::0::0::

 

 

“Let us in, InuYasha.”

 

“Keh.”

 

“If not Miroku, then me, at least,” Sango requested.

 

Barring the doorway into Kaede's hut with his body, InuYasha snorted again and shook his head. “The last thing she needs is you fussing over her,” he retorted. “Back off.”

 

“InuYasha . . .” Kagome called out behind him. “Sango . . . should be here . . .”

 

InuYasha didn't look as though he agreed at all. Grudgingly stepping aside, he allowed Sango to pass. When Miroku tried to do the same, though, the hanyou slapped him back with a hand to the shoulder. “Forget it, lecher.”

 

Miroku looked like he was ready to argue it—until he saw the steely glint in InuYasha's eyes. With a defeated sigh, Miroku sank down on the bench beside the door to wait.

 

“Kagome . . . is there anything I can do?” Sango asked as she clasped Kagome's sweating hand.

 

“No,” Kagome managed as she closed her eyes. “Soon, right?”

 

Sango smiled and blinked back a few tears. “Yes . . . are you sure there's nothing I can get for you? Anything?”

 

Another pain hit her hard, and Kagome gasped. She didn't answer as she worked through the discomfort. When the pain had passed, she opened her eyes again and smiled at Sango. “I'll be all right.”

 

Sango shook her head slowly. “I can't believe you would do this for us, Kagome,” she said quietly.

 

Kagome winced. “It's okay.”

 

The pains were coming quickly now. Kagome tried to brace herself. `Well . . . not long now . . . if I can do this . . .' Craning her neck to look over at InuYasha, she intercepted his concerned frown and smiled for him. He didn't smile back but he did nod his encouragement. That was enough.

 

 

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A/N:

A note about the toxin: When Hisadaicho appears in someone else's form, only the affected person sees her as that being. When the `illusion' is in effect, the appearance and scent will reflect the real person's status. In this case, Kagome has been kissing InuYasha, therefore illusionary Kagome smells like him, too . . .

== == == == == == == == == ==

Final Thought from InuYasha :

… … … Keh! … … …

==========

Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Metamorphosis): I do not claim any rights to InuYasha or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Rumiko Takahashi, et al. I do offer my thanks to her for creating such vivid characters for me to terrorize.

 

~Sue~