InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Torrent ❯ Nervous ( Chapter 45 )

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

By: Sueric

~~Chapter 45~~

~Nervous~

InuYasha didn't try to hide his horror as he gaped in open-mouthed reservation while Kagome pumped her breasts. She caught the look and sighed. “I have to get it out of me or I'll end up hurting all over again,” she explained. “You've seen me do this before.

He shook his head, his cheeks growing redder as he snorted in response. “I think I'd know if I'd ever seen you do that before.”

She had to give him that. She had felt too self-conscious to do this in such an open manner before, she supposed. Somehow, after he'd helped her last night, though, she didn't figure it would be such a horrible thing now.

She hid the amusement that she was sure he wouldn't appreciate. When she woke up, they'd been laying on their sides, as usual. He was curled around her. The odd thing wasn't that he was snuggled so tightly against her. In their bedroom at the hut, he always slept this way. What struck her as remarkable was that he was sleeping at all, not to mention so deeply. Normally he didn't when they were out in the forest, or if he did, it was such a light slumber that he'd instantly come awake at the slightest movement or sound.

He hadn't even moved when she turned over to stare at him other than his arm tightening around her and his soft whine. It was a rare thing, to watch him while he slept. Kagome was content to do it. `How can I help but love him?' she thought with a smile. `I can't remember a time when I didn't . . . and I don't want to imagine a time when I can't.'

He pulled her closer and nestled against her, burrowing against her neck. “K'gome,” he mumbled. She giggled, stroking his hair, idly toying with his ears. The moment was passing, and she knew it. He'd be awake before long, and a well-rested InuYasha, she knew, meant perpetual movement, as well. With a deep breath and a muttered, “Hmm?” InuYasha sat up, blinking quickly, and looking completely baffled about where they were. “I was asleep?”

Kagome reached for her bra and struggled with it while trying to remain under the cover of the haori. She made a face as her breasts signaled that it was her daughter's breakfast time. InuYasha missed the expression, and she sighed. `At least it isn't nearly as painful as it was last night,' she mused as she donned her blouse. She made a face. The white material was stained quite noticeably. `Guess there's no help for that.'

“Let's go,” he growled, obviously irritated at himself for having actually fallen asleep. Kagome got up with an inward sigh and held out his haori. He reached for it then noticed her blouse. “You wear it.”

With a sigh, Kagome snapped back to the present and unhooked the pump from her mercifully empty breast. She glanced at InuYasha as she stood up to clean the pump and discard the milk. He eyed the liquid in apparent suspicion. “What are you doing with that?”

“I have to dump it out,” she explained.

He followed her. “So you did all that to throw it away?”

“I had to,” she explained reasonably. “Tajiko's not here, and it'll be rotten by the time she is. She doesn't need it, anyway. I'll make more.”

He didn't say anything as she discarded the milk and washed the apparatus and set it aside to air dry. “Are you hungry?” she asked as she turned to face InuYasha once more.

“No,” he said as his stomach growled.

Kagome grinned. InuYasha flushed. “Not hungry, huh?”

He made a face. “Maybe a little.”

She headed over to see what her mother had left in the refrigerator. “You want eggs? There's sausage, too . . . oh, and some soup . . . .” She heard the crinkle of plastic as he rummaged around in the cupboard. Straightening up, she shook her head as he dragged two cups of ramen out of the cupboard.

“These'll do.”

“That's hardly a nutritious breakfast,” she commented dryly, knowing that there would be no talking him out of it. He was like a bloodhound. He could sniff out ramen if there was any to be had anywhere in a ten mile radius.

“Feh! I'm not the one nursing a pup. These are fine for me. You, though, you need to eat.”

“I need a bath,” she argued, making a face as she stared at her rumpled and stained blouse. “Ugh!”

“Get your bath,” he agreed as he dragged a measuring cup out of the cupboard and filled it with water. She'd showed him once how to use the microwave. He did it now with practiced ease. Amazing, really, how quickly he learned things. “Then you eat.”

She rolled her eyes but didn't complain as she headed out of the kitchen to take that bath before InuYasha changed his mind.

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InuYasha watched her go with a slight frown. She wasn't eating well. He'd noticed that she was noticeably skinnier when he had gotten back from his encounter with the devil he called a brother.

He dug into the refrigerator for the eggs, sausage patties, and soup she'd talked about before. He made a face as she sniffed the meat. `Spicy,' he thought with a grimace. `Ungh!' But he also knew that she liked it, and it was meat, after all. As long as she ate it . . . .

Though he rarely had to, since Kagome seemed to like doing it, InuYasha did know how to cook. Perhaps it was a trait inherited from his long dead mother, but he never had cared for raw anything. He stared at the cooking stove and sighed. He'd used it before a couple of times. It still baffled him, though, exactly how the thing worked. Open fires he was used to. This thing . . . . He sighed again.

The phone rang, and he cringed, flattening his ears against his head as the unholy contraption trilled into the quiet. After the fourth ring, he heard the answering machine catch, and a voice that sounded like Mrs. Higurashi only distorted greeted the faceless caller.

“Kagome? I was hoping you were there . . . .”

Kagome's words came back to him. `Mama will call if there's anything wrong.'

InuYasha lunged for the phone. “Oi! What's wrong with my pup?”

“InuYasha?” Mrs. Higurashi asked, her voice faint, distant. “Nothing's wrong at all. I wasn't sure where you and Kagome were going to be, so I thought I'd take a chance and see if you were there.”

He glowered at the phone for a moment. “So nothing's wrong?” he asked again.

“Not a thing. Why don't you say hi to Tajiko? Here . . . “

An indistinct shuffling gave way to a child's breathing. “Taji?” he said slowly.

“Papa!” the girl hollered happily. “Papa! Mama!”

He moved the phone away from his head slightly. His pup's exuberance was enough to deafen him. “Mama bath,” he explained. A sharp pang twisted in his gut. She was too far away for the mind-speech to work. “Papa loves baby girl.”

Tajiko squealed with glee. InuYasha winced.

“Are you two staying there till we get back?” Mrs. Higurashi asked, obviously having taken the phone from the child who was now whining in the background.

“I don't know,” InuYasha remarked as he stared at the uncooked meat and eggs on the counter.

“Well, I left food there, in case you did decide to stay. There's some money on top of the refrigerator, too, if you should need anything. Why don't you take Kagome to a movie or something? It's been awhile since she's been out, and you two could probably use a date.”

InuYasha frowned. “What's a date?”

Mrs. Higurashi's laughter was gentle, soft, like Kagome's. “A date is when you take your girl to a movie and dinner or something. I suppose they don't date where you come from?”

“No . . . .”

“Well, think about it. It might be fun for the both of you. Oh, no! I've got to go! Tajiko is mind-speaking with Souta, and he seems to be in shock . . . .”

“Okay,” InuYasha said as the other end clicked. He dropped the receiver back into place and rummaged through the cabinets to find a pan. He grinned. `Smart pup,' he thought as he set the pan on the stove top and turned the dial to `med'. He'd have to have a talk with her, though. Couldn't have his pup mind-talking to strangers, now could he?

The sausage was frying nicely, the eggs were cooked through, and InuYasha had just added boiling water to his ramen when Kagome shuffled back into the kitchen. Her eyes widened in shock, and she stared at InuYasha with a look of surprised admiration in her gaze. He hid his smirk at the pink towel she had bundled atop her head and gestured at the table for her to have a seat.

She did. He set a glass of milk down before her and waited. “What?” she finally asked when she figured out that he wasn't moving away, even to check on the food in the pan.

“Drink it,” he demanded though his tone was gentle.

“I will.”

“Now.”

She looked like she was going to argue with him. But she sighed and drained the cup without coming up for air. He grinned and dumped in more. This time he put the carton back in the refrigerator and then flipped the sausage patties, trying not to breathe too deeply. The spices in the sausage were making his eyes water as it was.

“You never told me you could cook,” she remarked mildly.

“You never asked.”

He dished up her food and set it down before retrieving his ramen and settling across from her. “Your mother called.”

Instant alarm surfaced on Kagome's face. “Why? Is Taji---?”

“She's fine.”

They ate in silence awhile. InuYasha peeked at Kagome. She looked like she was having difficulty eating, and that didn't surprise him. He'd made her four eggs and six sausage patties, but he really did want her to eat all of it. She'd managed one egg and two patties. Now she was pushing her food around listlessly, as though she didn't want to eat any more but didn't want to hurt his feelings, either. “Did I overcook it?” he asked mildly.

She started and blinked, her face registering a guilty conscience just before she ate another bite of egg. “No, it's fine . . . there's just a lot of it, is all.”

“Eat it, wench. You're wasting away, and you were already too skinny to start with.”

Her cheeks reddened as her gaze fell onto her plate. For a moment he thought that he had made her cry, and he flinched. `Stupid baka! Why don't you ever think before you say stuff like that? It's no wonder she kissed Sesshoumaru if you---'

“Why are you growling like that?” she asked, pinning him with a marked frown.

He blinked in surprise. He hadn't realized he was growling. “Nothing,” he replied. `I'm still going to kill that bastard, just see if I don't! I fucking swear, I'll tear him to pieces. Then he'll keep his fucking lips off my mate . . . .'

“I feel like a cow being fattened up,” she grumbled as she let her chopsticks drop. “'Better feed the cow or she'll go dry'.”

`Why don't you take Kagome to a movie or something? It's been awhile since she's been out, and you two could probably use a date.'

He sighed. It wasn't as though he didn't want to take Kagome on a `date'. He just didn't understand exactly what they were. Dinner and a movie? Movie . . . movie . . . oh, the things that Kagome liked to watch all night. He made a face. He'd watched a movie or two with her. They were always ones with strangely sad songs and men who acted like women. He snorted then sighed. Still, if Kagome would like that . . . .

“InuYasha?”

He blinked and let his gaze focus on Kagome. She was eyeing him in a worried way, as though she thought he was thinking about something she wouldn't like. He sighed again, taking his time while he deliberately straightened his haori and tugged at his prayer beads. “You mother said she left money, too, and that I should take you on a date.” She wasn't quick enough to hide her surprise but she tried. He frowned. “What? I'm not stupid! I know what a date is.” He grimaced inwardly. `What the hell am I saying? I have no fucking idea what a date is . . . or why I'd even have to take Kagome on one. She is my mate, after all . . . .'

“You want to take me on a date?” she asked, her voice quiet, awed. He smiled at the understated hope in her eyes even as he felt his face grow warm. “A real date?”

Why were his palms suddenly sweating? Why did it feel like his heart was going to explode? Did he really have to tell her? He cleared his throat, willing the words to come. He cleared his throat again. “You want to? Go on a date, I mean?”

She didn't answer right away. It took him a moment to gather his courage enough to glance at her. She was smiling slightly with her fingers fluttering over her lips. Her cheeks were kissed with pink, and she looked like she understood exactly how he felt. She looked like she was feeling that way, too.

“Oh . . . okay,” she agreed slowly, her voice barely a whisper.

A rush of relief flooded over him. He didn't know why he'd felt so reluctant to ask her. Had he really thought she would say no? `Yeah,' he thought absently. `I did . . . .'

`Dinner and a movie?' He sighed. Stealing a glance at Kagome, he winced. She looked so happy, so hopeful . . . what if he screwed it all up? `And a trip through the well,' he decided as he stood to discard the empty ramen cups. `I really need to talk to Miroku.'

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A/N:

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Review Q & A

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Torrie:

Thank you for writing so well about how nursing your infant is not always the idyllic bonding exercise that most manuals portray. (Sometimes it is.)

It is a beautiful thing … Unless you're in a place where you can't nurse in comfort or if your baby isn't there or if you're around other babies that are fussy, as you said . . . I know your pain, I so know your pain!

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Akihanah (FFnet):

So they don't have to separate. Good, good. I can't say I've ever had the problem of overly full breasts, but would it really get that bad after only missing one feeding? And hasn't Kagome left Tajiko with her mother for longer times than an afternoon?

She has but she's never been separated from her pump, either, at those times. I can't speak for all women but I know for myself, that even one feeding missed was normally enough to bring me to tears (and I'm not that easy to make cry). It depends, I think, on how big an appetite your child has, to start, since that also governs how much milk your body makes at a time. I'm guessing that Tajiko, like my two sons, is a fairly healthy eater, and, at between 7-8 months old and strictly speaking still on the breast alone, I'd say that yes, it is entirely possible for Kagome to have engorged that quickly, especially since Tajiko hadn't eaten a very good lunch . . .

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MouF (FFnet & MMorg):

When will they learn about the flower? Will Rin be sick again thus requiring Kagome's help (with InuYasha escorting her of course... of course?), and then learn the reason of Kagome's behavior? But that won't explain Sesshoumaru's reaction though... m food for thought... What are his objective about Kagome?...

The flower will be resolved … sometime … And Sesshoumaru may be forced to explain himself and his fascination for `the Miko'. Not so sure about using Rin as a plot device again, though. She's already been used twice to get Kagome to visit. A third time would just be sheer dumb luck and probably enough of a reason for InuYasha to decide that the human doesn't belong with his brother, at all. LOL!

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Flames101 (FFnet):

Awesome chapter! I somehow knew that InuYasha was going to do that. Update soon!

Heh, well … No matter how upset he might be, he still can't stand to see Kagome suffer, and I think that speaks volumes about him in general.

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akuma_river (MMorg):
Cools beans. So now that that InuYasha knows. What is going to happen next? Is the story nearly over? Keep up the good work.

Wait and see.. there's a few more things that need to be resolved. As for the story's completion, I'd say there's quite a bit more to go, actually. Between the secret of the flower and Sesshoumaru, himself, there are quite a few things still to cover …

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FuzzyWolf2006 (MMorg):

This is a truly unique story. I have read many InuYasha fanfics depicting the author's opinion of what InuYasha and Kagome's child(ren) may be like, and Tajiko is definitely the best thought-out and original character I've seen yet. Very well-written, amazing plot, and great characters. It doesn't get better than that. I applaud you.

I've got a weird fascination for writing kids. In Purity, it was Toga (ah, how I miss Toga…). Here we have Tajiko. Very unique kids, and I adore them.

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DNineAsher (MMorg):
Wo w, I love this fic! It's so easy to commiserate with the characters! I live for writing that makes my chest ache, it's so good. ^_~ This is definitely one of those. I really like that you do the 'write what you know' thing. Some people just take it a bit far and it ventures into dreaded 'Mary-Sue' territory, know what I mean? I'm a big believer in writing what you know, too, though. I also really felt for Kagome in 'Ache', with the engorgement and all. Been there, done that, too - actually, I'm doing that at present, lol. Joy. Anyway, I wanna put in a request for more Sesshoumaru! Don't get me wrong, I like the pairing as it is, but I'm on the boat with so many other folks in finding Sess an incredibly 'interesting' character - and, let's face it, you just write him so damn well. ^_~ Thanks for the absolutely lovely fic

More Sesshoumaru? You don't think he's caused enough trouble yet? Hmmm . . . Let me talk with his `people' and see what they have to say . . . ::wink:: I have to say, though, I did get a review awhile back that basically said that Sesshoumaru was completely OOC (I don't think he is), and that he sounded like Yoda when he spoke (so apparently said reviewer doesn't watch the anime? Because his patterns of speech in the English dubs is dead-bang-on … )

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Blanket disclaimer for this fanfic (will apply to this and all other chapters in Torrent): 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~