“Kagome!”
Her eyes flew open. Sesshoumaru’s hand fell from her face as she turned with him toward the village. In a few blurring red bounds, Inuyasha landed before them. Crossing his arms over his chest, he scowled habitually at his elder brother before leveling his sharp amber gaze on Kagome.
“What’s going on? You said you’d be back in an hour—it’s been two.”
Kagome stiffened, clutching at the fencepost behind her. Sesshoumaru’s eyes flicked to her briefly before fixing on his brother. His tone was bitingly cold.
“Your wife looks faint, Inuyasha. Instead of barking at her, you should take her home to rest.”
The hanyou’s hackles rose. “Like I need you to tell me that.” Turning back to his pallid wife, he bit out, “C’mon, Kagome—we’re leaving.”
Before she could protest, Inuyasha scooped her up. Tossing Sesshoumaru one last glare over his shoulder, he set off with her for the village. Kagome’s fingers twisted in the coarse fabric of his sleeve. Almost certainly Sesshoumaru had provoked Inuyasha on purpose, to draw his attention away from her. Feeling both grateful and conflicted, she looked back with a frown. As her gaze met Sesshoumaru’s across the growing distance, his icy features seemed to soften. His eyes held hers until Inuyasha rounded a wooded bend in the road, and the demon lord fell out of sight at last.
“That asshole…” Inuyasha muttered. “Always trying to push me around.” Kagome’s eyes darted to him as he glanced down at her in turn. “What were you talking with him about, anyway?”
“Nothing really,” she hedged, hoping her exhaustion would be enough to account for the weakness in her voice. “Just happened to cross paths.” For good measure, she added, “He must have been on his way to see Rin-chan.”
Inuyasha’s piercing gaze broke from hers. “Yeah, figures. Poor kid.” As Kagome relaxed her white-knuckled grip on his sleeve, he scoffed. “Sesshoumaru’s so fucking full of himself. How anyone can stand to be around him is a mystery to me.”
Kagome swallowed tightly. Between Inuyasha’s bull-headedness and Sesshoumaru’s impassivity, she knew that the weak link in any confrontation involving the three of them would undoubtedly be herself. As nonchalant as she tried to be, and as easily baited as her husband was by his older brother, it was only a matter of time until Inuyasha began to grow suspicious of her for catching her so often in Sesshoumaru’s company. Her husband was jealous and possessive to a fault. If he came at her with a barrage of real accusations, would she be able to withstand them?
The prudent thing to do would be to minimize her interactions with Sesshoumaru altogether. But to Kagome this seemed unbearable. He was the only one she could really talk to, the only one who understood her predicament completely. To be unable to see him except on occasion, unable to speak with him outside the most public of settings, would send her into another terrible depression. And yet, the stress of coming up with last-second excuses to placate Inuyasha when he happened upon them was chipping away at her mental health.
Her physical relationship with Sesshoumaru was over. A secret that would remain in the past where it should. It was time for her to stop deceiving her husband. A baby of their own blood was growing in her womb. If she was going to move on with her married life as she’d intended, she needed to start being honest with him again.
This aim in mind, Kagome bent her thoughts toward how best to go about it. As they returned home, had dinner, and prepared to go to bed, she ruminated all the while. Breathing in deeply, she sat down on the mattress beside him and took hold of his hand.
“Inuyasha.”
Still shrugging out of his haori, he paused at the touch. “Yeah?”
“There’s something I wanted to tell you—something I wanted to ask you about.” Worrying at the inside of her cheek for a moment, she glanced away. “I…haven’t been doing well lately, and—”
“What do you mean you haven’t been ‘doing well’?” The abruptness of this demand caught her off guard. Her eyes shot back to him as he clasped her by the chin and furrowed his brow. “What do you mean ‘lately’?”
Kagome bristled, glowering. “Well, if you’d let me finish—” At the darkening of his expression, she amended with a sigh, “…Never mind—I’m sorry. What I mean to say is that for the past few days, I’ve barely been able to sleep because of these weird—demonic—dreams I’ve been having. They’re disturbing and stressful and…”
Inuyasha’s ears flattened. “This has been going on for days, and you’re just now telling me about it? Why?—why didn’t you say something sooner?”
Seeing how irate and worked-up he was getting reminded Kagome exactly why she hadn’t said anything to him sooner. Her shoulders sank as she met his flinty gaze.
“I didn’t want to worry you if it was just a passing thing. Odds are it still is, I don’t know. All I know is that they’re not normal symptoms for a woman expecting a human baby to have. And that’s why I wanted to ask you…if it would be all right with you if I talked to Sesshoumaru about it.”
Inuyasha’s hold on her tightened. “Sesshoumaru? Why the hell would you want to talk to him?”
Kagome dropped her lashes meekly. “Sesshoumaru’s lived around other demons for centuries. Maybe for a pregnant demoness, what I’m experiencing is totally normal, and he could help set my mind at ease about it. Maybe if other strange things start happening to me, he might know something about those too?” Peeking up at him through the fringe of her bangs, she said softly, “What do you think?”
At her show of deference, Inuyasha’s tense posture relaxed. Releasing her pinched chin, he crossed his arms over his chest and sat back on his haunches with a hmph.
“Well, Sesshoumaru is pretty old. And pretty womanly.” Smirking a little to himself, Inuyasha slanted his eyes to her. “Yeah, you can talk to him if it’ll make you feel better. I doubt he’ll tell you anything useful, but if he does, I wanna hear about it.”
Relief flooded through Kagome as she leaned into him, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Of course.”
Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi
Revised 10/19/22
InuYasha is adorable in his unbearable ways, but in my mind I’m cheering Sesshoumaru on… It sounds like. FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT
Oh Inuyasha, he’s a mess, to say the least….
Thanks so much for sharing, Eryn! <3
Wooohoo I so love this story! I really hope Kagome knows what she’s doing, but I think Sess will always have her back no matter what happens with Inuyasha. She’s putting a lot of faith in the idea that the baby won’t look like Sesshomaru!
Thanks, Molly!! So glad you’re loving this story – it’s been a lot of fun coming back to it! Hope you like how things continue to progress 🙂
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inuyasha is sooooo brash!!! he gets upset at the smallest thing. all she asked was if she could talk with sesshoumaru and he goes a blows a gasket. she needs help with her pregnancy. if i were him i’d get over the problems btwn the two of them, as brothers, to help his wife. he’s going to push kags away with the attitude he’s got. i think he’s afraid of losing her, which is understandable. i think he lost her when she had to go to his brother just to get pregnant. i also believe sesshoumaru was waiting b/c he knew inuyasha couldn’t get her pupped. she’s a miko and he’s a half demon. even with his father’s blood, kags would still be to powerful to carry any of his children. she would need a full youkai with equal power to get with pup and carry it to term. i’m not saying yasha can’t have children; just not with a powerful miko. i’m hoping she’ll have twins just b/c i’m one. i have a twin brother. twins are great. c’ya’
Love hearing your take on Inuyasha, candace! His rampant insecurity is definitely a problem…that, and a total lack of self-awareness lol
And interesting theory on his and Kagome’s inability to conceive! Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and hope you enjoy the chapters to come!!
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Ugh. I know it’s on purpose, but Inuyasha here reminds me of my friend’s abusive ex and my own manipulative ex. A relationship where you can’t trust your partner with minor things because they might freak out and hurt you – emotionally or physically – is not a healthy relationship, and this is a sign you need to get out now. I understand why this might not set off other people’s alarm system, but if it doesn’t, it should.
The alternating almost worshipful praise and angry and aggressive reactions that Inuyasha shows to Kagome throughout this story are the pattern of behaviours that make up the core of emotional abuse. Part of the reason why it works so well is that the highs make you feel so high that it’s worth just scraping by through the lows. The way he always blames stuff on her too is very characteristic of emotional abuse – attacking her for talking to Sesshōmaru, attacking her for not getting pregnant at the beginning and insinuating that she is less of a woman for it, making everything her fault. This is the behaviour of an abuser.
And what this does to the partner of an abuser is creates a dependency for the high of their approval, while also requiring you to accept that you are bad and wrong and lesser for all of these things (because if you weren’t, how could you deserve the lows?) You can see it here in the way Kagome shrinks away from talking to her husband about even her own health, how she blames herself for his anger and for not being good enough, and how she ends up lying about everything.
I’ve never met a woman who was abused who wasn’t lying her ass off to keep her life and her psyche together. This feeling of constantly walking on eggshells? That’s what these women feel all the time.
And the worst part is, as we’ve seen earlier when he shoved her up against the hut, emotional abuse doesn’t always escalate, but it can and often does. The dependency is the first step necessary to keep someone who has been abused from leaving the first time he crosses that red line – and its why most women who are abused don’t report until the 4th time they are physically hurt.
Sorry if this is too long, but I am both impressed by your ability to express the nuances of these complicated dynamics, and really rubbed raw by it. Thanks for continuing this story – it’s the one of yours I’m most glued to, perhaps because it reflects part of what I’ve seen in real life so well.
I also wanted to put this down here because this behaviour isn’t adorable, or cute, or excusable. It’s a pattern of abuse. And people need to be able to recognize those behaviours for what they are because its not about beings smart or independent enough to resist – my friend has a master’s degree and was always a badass. If you don’t know how much of a red flag this is, you are more at risk of not recognizing the pattern until you’ve gotten sucked in.
For my friend, we’re on year 4.
I’m sorry and I believe you. Most of all, I’m happy you’re away from that shit.
Very sorry to hear about what you and your friend have gone through 🙁 What you described is so true – ANY woman can get sucked into an abusive relationship. The pattern of abuse is subtle and insidious, like being caught in a spider’s web, people don’t realize how trapped they’ve become until they try to extricate themselves from it. Sadly, I have a close relative who fell victim to this…
Anyway, thank you so much for taking the time to share your views, on this subject and on the story as well. Very much appreciated <3
I feel for Kagome and Sesshoumaru, but you can’t continue on your marriage with Inuyasha if you’re just hiding the identify of your child. It’s not his! I am doubtful of how long Sesshoumaru can last, he loves you and his baby is growing in your womb. Knowing how possessive and clingy dogs are, I’m starting to admire Sesshoumaru’s self-control, but will he just let your husband have you and HIS baby? No, I don’t think so. This won’t end in a peaceful way.
And Inuyasha, he is so possessive and abusive that it annoys me. He can’t even trust his wife! He doesn’t even want a wife in this case, he just wants someone who doesnt disagree with him. He wants Kagome to be submissive to him, and Kagome… oh, you’re a modern woman! Why do you let him treat you that way? With the way he is acting and the way Kagome is stressing, I have doubts that she wouldn’t suffer a miscarriage. inuyasha is still like a child and let his insecurities eat him. He’s so jealous of Sesshoumaru
That tender moment again, I live for the way Sesshoumaru’s face softening at Kagome’s gaze, and oh, he’s so aware of her needs it just melts my heart.
He would kill her if he found out now. It’s too late. She can only tell right before or right after she gives birth.
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Lol yeah, jealous and insecure describes Inuyasha quite well - in the canon and in this story in particular. XD
As for him, Kagome and Sesshoumaru...things certainly have to come to a head at some point. Love hearing your thoughts on the matter, Rain! Hope you enjoy the next part of the story!! <3 <3
She can’t be honest now. Inuyasha would hurt her enough to kill the pup if only because it belongs to his brother. She is just going to have to live with this guilt until she gives birth – because while I’m not sure if the baby will have markings, I know that it’ll definitely be obvious that it’s Sesshomaru’s.
Whatever Inuyasha would do, it wouldn’t be good…
Thanks for sharing, dear – and hope you enjoy the events to come! <3 <3