InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The 500 Year Engagement ❯ The 500 Year Engagement - Mama Gets a Headache ( Chapter 6 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
The 500-Year Engagement
Mama Gets a Headache
By Majicman55
Disclaimer: The characters from “InuYasha” are not mine; they are the intellectual property of Rumiko Takahashi, Shogakukan, Yomiuri TV, Sunrise, and Viz. I do not benefit financially from these writings. I just like to play with the characters.
Kagome grabbed the girl in the doorway, leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Please don't tell her more than you have to.” She then released Midori and continued past her down the shrine's steps to where Ayumi, Eri and Yuka, this time joined by Rin, were waiting.
“Wasn't that Midori up there?” asked a smiling Rin.
“Yeah, it…HEY!” Kagome aspect changed quickly. She glared daggers at Rin. “Are you responsible for this?”
“What if I am? In any event, you need…”
“Who's Midori?”
Both Kagome and Rin turned to face the other girls. Somehow, they had forgotten Ayumi, Eri and Yuka were there.
“Why, She's Kagome's…” For a moment, Rin's mouth kept moving, but nothing came out. She began expostulating vehemently in the miko's direction, but - still - no sound emerged.
“Are you done yet?”
Rin stomped her foot once, twice. Finally, she shrugged her shoulders, and nodded her head,
Kagome smiled and nodded back to her.
“She's Kagome's…friend…from one of her…health retreats.”
“Of-of course,” said Ayumi.
When they started walking to school, Kagome couldn't help noticing that the three girls were hanging well back. “If only I get lucky and Mama goes to work. One thing you can say about my Mama: she's always dependable.”
******************
“What am I supposed to do with this?” asked Kagome's ji-chan, staring at the phone in Mama's hand.
“You're the expert at making excuses. Call my job and tell them I came down with something.”
“Well, if you insist.”
Mama was walking away to join Midori in the kitchen. She paused and looked back over her shoulder. “Nothing too strange. I haven't been out as much as Kagome. In fact, I haven't missed a day in two years. Just tell them I have a cold or something.”
“Yes, yes. Of course.” Kagome's ji-chan looked up, hopefully. “But I have some wonderful excuses I never got to use for Kagome.”
“No.”
Kagome's grandfather sighed and dialed the phone.
******************
Mama Higurashi puttered past Midori and to the stove, where the teakettle had just begun whistling. “You will have some tea with me, won't you?”
“Of course.”
“Have you had some breakfast?”
“I'm fine, thank you.”
Mama poured the boiling water into Midori's cup, then into her own, and set the sugar bowl in front of the girl. She sat down opposite. “First a monk and demon slayer emerge from the well. Now a girl calling Kagome `mom' shows up at the door. You can't say life is dull with Kagome around.” She took a sip of tea. “Are you youkai?”
“Huh?”
“Are you youkai? I know Kagome adopted Shippo, a kitsune, but I suppose it's possible she adopted another youkai I don't know about…and youkai are supposed to be extraordinarily long lived.”
“Hmmm.” Midori was considering the easy out Kagome's Mama was handing her. It wouldn't be a total lie. She was part youkai. “I guess you could say…”
There was the crash of the back door being thrown open.
“Midori!”
“Dad!”
The girl jumped up and into her father's arms.
InuYasha swung the girl around in a joyful and boisterous hug, unfortunately knocking a couple of chairs over in the process. “I thought I smelled you in here.”
“Would ONE of you two tell me what's going on here?”
There was another crash of the back door being thrown open and both the monk and the taijiya came barreling in, both still dressed in their feudal-era clothing.
“Is everything alright, InuYasha?” asked Miroku.
“We heard crashing,” said Sango.
“Who are these…?” Midori stared at the two new arrivals for a moment. “No, it can't be. Mom talked about you two all the time!”
“Mom…MOM…MOM. Would SOMEONE…PLEASE…tell me what's going on?”
If the hanyou had lost a hair, you could have heard it hit the floor.
“You want me to explain it, dad?” asked Midori. “At least Mama can't sit me into a crater.”
“Should we leave, InuYasha?”
The hanyou looked at monk and taijiya. “Nahhh, I'd just have to explain it all twice…and you guys know most of it, anyway.”
“I'm waiting.”
InuYasha turned to Kagome's mother. “The first thing you've got to know is that Kagome and I didn't come home through the well...”
******************
Kagome was mildly perplexed over why she didn't sense InuYasha nearby. Usually the hanyou followed her to school, remaining nearby and out of sight, but at the moment she had absolutely no sensation of his presence.
At least it gave her free rein to talk with Rin…if you called passing notes in class “talking.”
…until a hand reached down and snatched her latest missive as she attempted to hand it to the other girl.
“And let's see what Kagome wishes to share with the class.”
Kagome watched in horror as the sensei unfolded the paper.
“And it's not bad enough that Mama knows I'm…we don't use that word in class, Higurashi…having relations with InuYasha, but you had to bring my…what's this?...daughter?...into it?” The teacher looked at Kagome with a grave expression. “You have a child, Higurashi? Who is this `InuYasha?' This should be investigated!”
Kagome shrank under the combined stares of her classmates. She barely heard the sound of Rin's desk scraping the floor as her friend stood up.
“It is a joke, sensei.”
“A joke?”
“Hai. Kagome and I were often sick at the same time. We used to say that the only thing we hadn't come down with was pregnancy.”
The sensei waved the note. “But she refers to her daughter.”
“The family cat, sensei. It's a running joke between us. Besides, even if Kagome has been sick a lot, she's been here enough that you would have seen if she really had been pregnant.”
“I…I suppose you're right.” The teacher realized he would have seen Kagome gradually showing more and more. “But what about this InuYasha fellow?”
“Oh. Well, yes. She has been fucking him.”
Kagome, who had been agog at her friend's performance, groaned and buried her head in her hands.
******************
“Fourteen kids in the first seven years?”
“Keh.”
“Fourteen?” Mama felt a headache coming on.
InuYasha felt rather sheepish. “Kagome said it was because I'm a dog demon. She kept grumbling about `litters.'”
“Kagome doesn't look like she's had fourteen children,” said Sango.
“It's a lot more than fourteen,” muttered InuYasha.
“What?” asked Mama. She just couldn't have heard right.
“It's because of our mating,” explained InuYasha. “We marked each other, plus there's a sharing of blood.”
Miroku explained, “When a human and a youkai mate this way, they share not only blood, but also long life…plus other characteristics. InuYasha has amazing healing powers. No doubt Lady Kagome recovers so well from her pregnancies because she acquired this characteristic from InuYasha. It is the same reason she retains her youthful appearance.” Miroku looked from Mama to InuYasha. “No doubt you picked up some characteristics from Kagome, too.”
“Keh. I can control my temper better. Also, Sesshoumaru thinks that Kagome has replaced Tetsusaiga as the main thing sealing my full youkai blood.”
“Yes,” answered Miroku. “That makes sense.”
“Sesshoumaru is still alive?” asked Sango.
“Yeah. Rin, too.”
“Rin? How?”
“Sesshoumaru, or as she calls him, `Fluffy,' took her as his mate when she turned sixteen. She became Kagome's closest friend after you disappeared.”
“Oh.”
“In fact, she's the new girl who transferred into Kagome's school.”
Mama looked up. “You mean she's as old as Kagome?”
“Not quite,” answered the hanyou. “She's only five hundred and eight. Kagome's eight years older.”
Mama's headache, which had been slowly easing, got worse again. “And you two had, I'm guessing, more than fourteen children.”
“I think I'd better let Kagome fill you in on that.” InuYasha turned more serious. “Some were practically human. Some had spiritual powers, like Kagome. Some were part youkai, like me. And some, like Midori here, are part miko and part youkai.”
Midori raised her hand. “Guilty, as charged. It's why I have white hair like dad's.” She picked up and fumbled through a bag she had left sitting on the floor. “Speaking of which…” She pulled out a couple of boxes of hair dye. “…I have to get busy with this.” She turned to Mama Higurashi. “May I use your shower?”
Mama, who was resting her head on the table, raised one of her hands and waved it to say “go ahead.”
“Thanks!” shot Midori, and headed towards the stairs. She stopped before going up, and looked back at Mama. “Kagome always felt bad that you wouldn't meet all your grandchildren…but we all understood. We were all grateful to have such wonderful parents. I'm beginning to see where mom got it from.” The girl turned quickly and bounded up the steps.
Mama watched the girl go; then noticed that Sango was looking downcast. “What's the matter, dear?”
“I was feeling sorry for myself because I was parted from my brother so soon after our battle with Naraku. I hadn't realized that Kagome would have had, and lost, so many children.” The taijiya was crying.
“Oi. It's all part of life, not that Kagome ever liked outliving our kids. But if it's any help, Kohaku did just fine. He was sad that you disappeared, but he knew you'd want him to lead a strong life.”
“Yes.” Sango sniffed and tried to pull herself together as Miroku put his arm around her shoulders.
“If you want, I can introduce you to some of his descendants. For a while there, we thought he was going to beat us in producing pups.”
The taijiya half smiled at that.
Besides,” grinned InuYasha, “if I were you, I'd ask Kagome to get you one of the new pregnancy tests they have in this time.”
“Huh?” said Miroku.
“Sango's heat stopped awfully suddenly.”
Kagome's mother looked up again. “Heat?”
“Feh. The time females can get pregnant.”
Mama stared at InuYasha. “Of course HE would think of it that way.” She realized she was staring and looked away, hoping she hadn't been too rude. “Wait. I think I have one of those.”
“For yourself?” asked InuYasha. He hadn't thought of Kagome's mother being “active.”
“No. For Kagome.” Mama smiled ironically. “I thought you two were getting awfully close. I was sure it was just a matter of time.”
“Really?” InuYasha was more than a little surprised at Mama's attitude about her daughter coming back pregnant by him.
“I guess it really was a matter of time.”
******************
“Kagome!”
The miko hunched over, wincing. She had tried her best to avoid Hojo after school, but he had the annoying habit of finding her every time she didn't want him to. “Oh. Hi, Hojo.”
“Don't forget the dance, tonight. I will pick you up at 6:00.”
“Oh…sure.”
“You seem…distracted.”
“If you only knew.” She saw Rin coming out of the school. “It's just that I have so much to do to get ready.” She grabbed Rin's arm as soon as the girl got up to them. “Isn't that right, Rin?”
“Huh?”
“Don't you remember? You agreed to go to the salon with me!”
“Oh! Yes, of course!”
Kagome pulled Rin along. “See you later, Hojo!”
“Six o'clock!” called out Hojo as he got on his bike and pedaled in the opposite direction.
“Right!” Kagome watched Hojo depart; then turned back to Rin. “I can't believe he didn't hear about what happened in math class.”
The two girls started walking back towards the shrine together. “Relax. Like everyone else, he probably assumed it was all a joke.”
“Speaking of which, I heard you got called to the office.”
“Yeah. Looks like I won't be going to the dance.” Rin grinned. “Not that Fluffy would have let me go.”
“Yeah, I can't imagine that.”
“Of course, you're not going either.
“Huh?”
“Why do you think Midori's here?”
“I knew it!” huffed Kagome. “You did bring her here!”
“You were being Kagome again,” answered Rin. “The girl who can't speak up for herself if it will hurt someone's feelings. Someone has to keep you out of trouble. Ergo, Midori will go with Hojo.”
“Midori is over three hundred years old and is part miko, part youkai.”
“So?”
“You're sending her out with a horny teenage boy.”
“So? So she'll know how to handle herself.”
Kagome half jogged up the steps, calling back, “Sometimes you're such an idiot!” She reached the door, pulled it open…
…and found herself facing…herself. She had to admit that Midori, with her hair dyed, looked exactly like her mother…Kagome.
Midori held a hand up. “Before you say anything, Dad likes the idea.”
Kagome sighed and entered the house, closing the door behind her before anyone outside could see two Kagomes. “I guess I'd better brief you on what you'll need to know to go to the dance with Hojo.”
“Stop worrying, Mom. What could go wrong?”
A/N: So Midori will take Kagome's place for the date with Hojo. And InuYasha's happy with that? I guess he's happier than if Kagome actually went with Hojo. And as Midori said, “What could go wrong?” Hmmm. More confusion to come!
As always, please read and review. Thanks! Oh, and again, more reviews = more inspiration for new chapters.