InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Boyfriend ❯ Evening Conversations ( Chapter 17 )

Disclaimer: InuYasha, Kagome and anyone else you saw in the manga or anime does not belong to me. Yukio does. If I saw so much as a shiny penny for this story, you think I'd be writing fanfiction still? Okay, I would… Damn other authors and their more interesting universes…

 

Genre: Angst, Romance

Rating: M
Codes: Inu/Kag
Feedback: Keeps my muse talking and the stories coming! Do tell. But if you have a flame, use it for something more productive, like setting your clothes on fire.

 

 

The Boyfriend
Chapter 17

 

Kagome heard a soft whimper as she was passing Souta's room on the way to bed that night. She stopped and listened until she was certain of what she was hearing and then pushed open his door, looking over at his bed. He was lying there, on his stomach, crying into his pillow. Kagome slipped into the room and walked over to him and leaned down.

 

“Souta?” she whispered. He shot up in bed, quickly wiping his face with his sleeve.

 

“Nee-chan? What's wrong? Do you need something?” he quickly asked her. She sat down next to him.

 

“Why are you crying, Souta? What's wrong?” she asked. He looked away and shrugged.

 

“It's nothing. Don't worry about it,” he dismissed, and then turned back to her. “Are you okay, though? Is there anything I can do for you?”

 

“Souta…” Kagome reached out and grabbed his head, pulling him into a headlock and noogied him. “You better tell me what's bugging you, right now!” she demanded.

 

“Ahh! Leggo!” he yelled. Kagome let him go and he rubbed his hair back into place, glaring at her.

 

“Well?” she asked. He sighed and looked down.

 

“I don't want to be a bother to anyone,” Souta said.

 

“What do you mean? Did something happen at school?” Kagome asked, worried that maybe he was being bullied.

 

“No, nothing like that,” he said. “I'll be fine, really.”

 

“You can tell me, Souta, I'm your sister,” Kagome assured him. “And right now, I'm worried about you. You've gotten taller since I saw you, but you look too skinny. Have you been eating? Oh, no, is someone stealing your lunch?”

 

“No!” Souta protested. “I said it wasn't anything to do with school. And don't worry about me, I don't want that!”

 

“But you're not telling me what's wrong and you were crying, Souta!”

 

“I was crying about you!” he yelled, then covered his mouth, his eyes going wide. Kagome's eyes widened as well and she gasped. “I didn't mean that! Forget I said anything!” Souta tossed himself face down into his pillow and Kagome stared at his wall. She felt him shaking and reached out and patted his shoulder.

 

“How much do you know about what happened?” Kagome asked softly. After a minute, Souta slowly sat up and stared at his hands, picking at his fingers nervously.

 

“Everything about what Yukio did,” Souta answered. Kagome stared down at him in horror and he continued. “And I know that you were kidnapped by demons and no one could find you for a long time. You were all sick and hurt when you came back…”

 

“How much is everything?” Kagome asked, hoping that Souta only meant knowing that Yukio raped her to make the baby.

 

“I was outside your room when you were talking to the police,” he confessed.

 

“Souta…” Kagome whispered, aghast.

 

“I didn't know what you were saying at first. Then… then I got sick.” Souta looked up at the wall Kagome had been staring so hard at and she could see the tears brimming in his eyes.

 

“I'm… I'm so sorry,” Kagome whispered, fighting her own tears. For her little brother to have heard such a thing…

 

“No, I'm sorry! I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you right before you left for the feudal era,” Souta cried, turning to her. Kagome reached out and hugged him and held on as he cried against her shoulder.

 

“I'm sorry I didn't listen to you, Souta, you were right about him,” Kagome whispered.

 

“I wish I hadn't been!” Souta whimpered.

 

“I wish you hadn't listened at my door,” Kagome added.

 

“I wish I hadn't done that, either,” Souta agreed. He sat back and wiped his face on his sleeve again. “So you're not mad at me?”

 

“No!” Kagome said. “And I don't want you to be upset about this any longer. And if you are, don't just lie in here and cry by yourself, please.”

 

“Okay,” he agreed. Kagome ruffled his hair and stood up. “Nee-chan?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“I'm sorry about what happened to you.”

 

“Don't let it bother you, Souta. I'll be okay. Really,” Kagome tried to reassure him. He didn't quite look convinced, but then, she wasn't convinced herself. Still, he let it go.

 

“Good-night, nee-chan.”

 

“Good-night, Souta,” Kagome said, then shut his door behind her. She walked down the hall to her bedroom and InuYasha looked up at her as she came in. She smiled down at him and climbed into bed. “Good-night, InuYasha.”

 

“Good-night, Kagome,” he answered. She let her hand fall off the side of the bed and sighed happily when he took it. Finally, she felt ready to sleep.

 

 

The next morning, Kagome got up and packed her bag for the feudal era. She wasn't going to be much help anymore, she knew, since her holy powers were gone. Yukio took those away from her as well. She had discovered that when she tried to fight the demons that captured her. Since she was no longer pure, she could no longer purify, but she could still sense the jewel. She had sensed a shard a few times in the village while she was pregnant, so she knew that power hadn't been taken. And she figured there were a few things Miroku might be able to teach her, since everyone knew he wasn't pure from their time in the Mt. Hakurei barrier.

 

And she still had the knowledge from her own time that periodically came in handy. She wasn't going to stop going through the well as long as it worked for her. She knew that there had to be a reason for her to keep going if she still could. So, that morning, she said good-bye to her family, who wished her a safe trip, and then jumped back to the past with InuYasha's arm wrapped around her. Once they were on the other side, she climbed onto his back so he could jump out.

 

She wasn't supposed to be doing a lot of physical exertion for a while, so she was trying to take it easy. When Shippo didn't run up to greet her and there was no sign of Miroku or Sango, Kagome's mood dropped. InuYasha seemed to notice, because he took her hand in his.

 

“They don't know I found you, yet. Shippo is with Kaede, so you'll see him soon. We'll have to look for Sango and Miroku.”

 

“Okay,” Kagome said, feeling a little better. InuYasha nodded, then walked beside her to the village, slowly, since she still couldn't walk very fast. She was tired and a little sore—especially her breasts, which were heavy with milk. She had a pump in her backpack, having been shown how to use it by a nurse, so she could keep her milk going until she was able to feed her own baby. It seemed so strange to her, thinking that she had a daughter. She was only sixteen, after all.

 

The walk seemed to take so much longer than usual, to Kagome, who almost asked InuYasha to carry her the last ten minutes of the trip. She was stubbornly intent on walking into the village on her own two feet. As soon as she could see everyone, she quickened her pace, wanting to see her friends as soon as possible. Shippo found her first, though.

 

“Kagome! Kagome!” Shippo called, running up to her.

 

“Shippo!” Kagome called back, holding out her arms for him to jump into. He did so, laughing joyously. They spent several minutes just saying hello and Kagome gave him several pieces of candy she had brought back with her in her excitement. Shippo stashed most of them away for later, being too happy from seeing Kagome to be very interested in the sweets. Kaede greeted them with a smile as well and invited them down to her hut for some lunch, but they declined. “I want to find Sango and Miroku as soon as possible,” Kagome explained.

 

“Ah, yes. They passed through here only a few days before,” Kaede told her.

 

“Good, then they'll be easy to track,” InuYasha said. “Which way did they go?” Kaede pointed them in the right direction and they set off. It didn't take them too long before they found the monk and demon slayer and were all back together again. They spent the evening talking about the last several months that they hadn't seen each other and what had happened. There was a lot of startling news all around, but Kagome tried to keep the conversation away from herself as much as possible. InuYasha didn't have much to contribute, preferring to let everyone else talk, but he did finally impart one piece of information that shocked Kagome to the core.

 

“Kikyo died?” Kagome repeated.

 

“Yeah,” InuYasha said. “Naraku killed her.”

 

“And he has a new body and a new incarnation,” Miroku added.

 

“But… if Kikyo's dead, then how…”

 

“How what?” InuYasha asked impatiently.

 

“How is the shikon no tama going to be purified?” Kagome asked. She hadn't imagined that she would be the only one left with the power to even sense the jewel. And now she didn't think she could do anything even if they found it. Without Kikyo…

 

“Whatta ya mean?” InuYasha asked, confused. “You'll purify it.”

 

“But… I don't have my miko powers anymore,” Kagome revealed quietly.

 

“Where did they go?” Shippo asked when everyone else went silent. When no one answered him, he tried another question. “Is that why you smell funny?”

 

“Huh? I smell funny?” Kagome repeated.

 

“It's the milk,” InuYasha explained.

 

“Milk?” Sango asked.

 

“Did Kagome have a baby?” Shippo asked. All eyes except InuYasha's were fixed on Kagome. Slowly, she nodded. “Why didn't you tell us, InuYasha?” Shippo demanded.

 

“Because I didn't know,” InuYasha said, snatching the kit's dinner away from him.

 

“Hey!” Shippo protested, trying to grab it back. Kagome sighed and held out her dinner to Shippo, but InuYasha's eyes grew wide and he handed the fox back his food, shoving Kagome's back at her. Everyone stared at him in shock, even Shippo.

 

“What?” InuYasha demanded. “The doctors said she needs to build up her strength. She can't do that if she goes and gives her dinner away!”

 

“So, is it a boy or a girl?” Sango asked softly after she recovered from the shock of InuYasha returning Shippo's food.

 

“A girl,” Kagome answered.

 

“And her name's Tama,” InuYasha said. Kagome smiled at him and he swelled up a bit; she could tell he was happy with his choice of names as Miroku and Sango both commented on it being pretty.

 

“Why didn't you bring her?” Shippo asked.

 

“She was born too soon,” Kagome explained. “She has to stay with the doctors until she gets bigger.”

 

“She can't even breathe on her own,” InuYasha said. “She has machines doing it for her. If she had been born here, she would have died.”

 

“Is she a hanyo, too?” Shippo asked innocently. InuYasha opened his mouth and closed it.

 

“No, she—” Kagome began, but InuYasha cut her off.

 

“She's not a hanyo and that's all you need to know,” he snapped. “Now go to sleep.”

 

“What a grump,” Shippo whined, but happily hopped over to Kagome as she unrolled her sleeping bag.

 

“It's okay, Shippo,” Kagome said, lying down. “You'll get to meet her later.”

 

“Okay,” he said. “Good-night, Kagome!”

 

“Good-night.”

 

 

To be continued…

 

A/N: Miko means `temple virgin' and is a Shinto position. Shinto is about purity and even though it wasn't her choice, Kagome's no longer pure. Don't worry, she's Kagome and she won't put up with being helpless for long. Hopefully, we'll see a return of the Kagome who can tell off a giant holding her in the palm of his hand soon.