InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The Lucky Ones ❯ Chapter Six ( Chapter 6 )

The Lucky Ones

By Terri Botta

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Sole copyright belongs to Viz and Rumiko Takashi. I'm poor so don't sue.

Rating: R for later chapters.

Pairing: Inuyasha/Kagome, Miroku/Sango

Summary: Sometimes Fate hands you a gift you never thought you'd ever get, and it's up to you to accept it for what it is.

Email feedback to: tci100@psu.edu

Webpage: http://www.wordsmiths.net/Botta

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Chapter 6

It became very clear early on that Inuyasha was not speaking to her. After she had eaten the liver and they broke camp, Inuyasha jumped down from the tree he had been in and silently offered her his back. She looked to him for forgiveness, but his face was set in a neutral expression and he refused to meet her gaze. She got on his back without a word and rested her cheek on his shoulder, her hands lightly gripping the cream fabric of his kimono since she was still wearing his fire-rat haori.

No one spoke as they traveled, but towards mid-day Kagome felt a familiar soreness in her breasts and knew it was time for a pit stop.

"Inuyasha," she said softly.

He tensed and moved his ears so she knew he was listening.

"We need to stop for a little while. The baby…"

He gave a grunt and halted at the next stream they came to that had a suitable place to rest. He set her down gently as Kirara landed and transformed into her small form.

"Kagome has to feed the baby," the hanyou said without preamble.

Miroku and Sango nodded and Shippo jumped onto Kagome's shoulder.

"Did you make more milk, Kagome?" the kit asked.

Kagome flushed a little as she removed the baby sling from her back.

"I think so, Shippo. It feels like it."

"I'll make a fire and cook some lunch for us," Sango offered.

"That is a good idea," Miroku agreed.

"I'll get some firewood!" Shippo enthused and bounded off.

Kagome sat down and took the baby from his carrier. The moment he was free of it, he began to fuss so she knew he was hungry and probably needed to be changed. She saw to his dirty diaper first, cleaning him up and putting him in a fresh one. Sango took the dirty one and washed it in the stream for her, then hung it from a stick by the fire so it would dry. When he was dry and changed and wrapped back in his blanket, she drew the edge of Inuyasha's haori over him and put him to her breast. He wasted no time in beginning to feed, and did so with enthusiasm. She patted him and rubbed his bottom as he nursed, crooning softly under her breath.

Inuyasha sat close to her. He still wasn't speaking to her, but she could tell that he was watching her intently from the corner of his eye, and his face had that unreadable, nameless expression on it again- the one he had sported that morning, when he had asked to sniff her. She would have tried to speak to him, but then the baby bit her to signal that the first breast was empty and he was. Not. Happy. About it. She did notice, however, that he'd nursed for longer at the breast, so that suggested that she had more milk for him this time. By the time she had switched him to the other breast, Inuyasha had gone off somewhere and she wasn't able to talk to him.

Shortly after the baby had finished nursing, and he'd been burped and settled, Inuyasha handed her a full bottle of water and two skewers of roasted boar meat. Without a word, she handed him his haori and the baby, then ate the food and drank the water while she watched him cuddle the infant close to his chest. His face was soft and gentle as he rubbed the baby's ears- an expression very few had ever witnessed.

`He's really serious about this. This baby's ours. I guess I just didn't get it until now. He and I… we have a child.'

"He needs a name," she said softly.

Inuyasha nodded but said nothing.

"We name him tonight. Start thinking about what you want to call him or I'm naming him Inu-ni."

Inuyasha nodded again, and spoke to her for the first time in hours, "I've been thinking about it."

The baby was now chewing on one of Inuyasha's fingers but the adult hanyou didn't seem to mind. He was growling softly under his breath in a non-menacing way that the baby seemed to understand, and scritching him under the chin. When he pulled his hand away, the baby reached out to grab the finger again, and this time he made a high-pitched sound that closely resembled a laugh.

"Did he? Did he just laugh?" Kagome asked, surprised.

"Think so."

Inuyasha huffed air at the baby and gave another growl, this time moving to rub the baby's ears. The baby let out another laugh and added a happy burble as he waved his tiny hands, trying to capture the elusive finger. Kagome moved close and looked down at the baby's face. His golden eyes were wide open and he was smiling.

"He's… he's smiling…" `It's the first time in the week we've had him that he's smiled…'

The baby focused on her, then on the two faces looking down at him, opened his hands wide and laughed.

"I think he likes us," she commented.

"Feh. We just feed him," Inuyasha replied, but there was no real complaint in his voice.

"Well, you don't feed him anymore and he's smiling at you," she countered.

"That's because I keep him entertained," he responded, waving a finger in front of the baby's nose.

"I think it's more than that, Otou," she whispered low enough so only the two of them would hear her call him `daddy.'

His snorted. "Feh. Oyaji," he corrected, using the ruder term.

She gave him a small laugh and a smile, then leaned close to snuggle against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry about earlier," she apologized.

He lowered the baby into his lap and put his arm around her. She accepted his gesture of peace and sighed happily. The baby, however, realized that he was no longer the center of attention, and protested by squirming and burbling and reaching for them with his tiny hands.

"Oi, brat. You're ruining the mood," Inuyasha complained, giving Kagome an amused look that told her he remembered their many `mood' talks.

"Ah, that is to be expected with an infant," Miroku informed, a slight hint of resignation and disappointment in his voice.

"And just what are you implying, bouzo?" the hanyou grumbled, a flush to his cheeks.

"Nothing, nothing," Miroku replied innocently.

The baby protested the lack of attention more loudly.

"Oi, don't be pushy, pup."

"He just wants love," Kagome said, looking down at him. `I love this little orphan…'

He saw her looking at him, smiled and gurgled at her. She giggled and tickled him with one finger, leaning down to nuzzle him with her nose. He grabbed her hair and pulled.

"Ouch! Ow ow ow ow!" she complained, wincing and carefully extracting her hair from his hold.

"Got a grip, doesn't he?" Inuyasha teased.

"I'll say," she agreed, sitting back up and rubbing her sore scalp where the hair had pulled.

"Not unlike someone else I know who likes to pull hair," he added, a wicked glint in his eyes. "In fact I recall a certain helpless girl who was being chased by an ugly centipede youkai who had a habit of yanking on a strange hanyou's hair."

She slapped his chest lightly. "Hey, that `helpless girl' broke your seal, you know."

He put an arm around her again and smiled. "Freed and bound me in the same breath."

She didn't know if he was referring to the prayer beads or something else.

"Well, you were trying to kill me," she reminded gently.

"Bah, woman, if I'd really been trying, you would have been dead in a second. I wasn't missing you by accident," he admitted.

"You know, I've always suspected that. Even back then, I didn't believe you were really trying to hurt me. I knew from the moment I saw you, that you weren't a bad person. I don't think I could have broken your seal if you had been truly evil."

"Keh, what do you know?" he groused, but she knew he wasn't serious.

"I know lots," she insisted, laying her head on his shoulder again as he pulled her close, as usual his mouth and his body saying the exact opposite.

The baby squirmed and burbled, refusing to be ignored.

"Keh, this pup is pushy."

"He's no different from other babies. He wants his parents' attention."

Inuyasha snorted, but rubbed the baby's belly. "Hasn't learned he can't always get what he wants."

"At least not from us," Kagome added, scratching the baby's ears.

The baby gurgled happily.

"Feh! We're spoiling him."

"Yep. He's going to be the most spoiled hanyou baby in the world," she agreed.

"He's already the luckiest."

TBC...