As Sesshoumaru disappeared into the trees, Kagome crushed fistfuls of melty snow to her face, trying as best as she could to scrub the blood from her skin. Her mouth, cheeks and chin were so numb after a few attempts she couldn’t tell whether she was making any progress or not. Her frozen hands were pale and bloodless, red-rimmed around the cuticles and under the nails. 

Stuffing her fists into her sleeves, she found a bare patch of ground beneath a fir tree and sat back against the trunk to wait. Taiyoutori flew to join her. Having had his fill of rabbit hide, he bedded down next to her in the needles like they were so much hay and began at once to doze. Kagome envied him. Her senses were still surreally heightened, leaving her too agitated to relax.

Her hands burned like fire as the feeling returned to them. She winced, rubbing her icy fingers against her wrists, punishing them both. By the time her hands had stopped stinging, she saw Sesshoumaru materialize through the trees, something huge and dark slung over his shoulder.

The dark bulk was a dead deer. It must have weighed at least a hundred pounds, but Sesshoumaru lifted it one-handed from his shoulder and let it slump to the snowy ground before her like it was nothing. To him, it was nothing, she knew.

Her eyes trailed over the narrow spines of the stag’s antlers, one of which was snapped. Most likely a coincidence because other than that she didn’t see a mark on him. She wondered how Sesshoumaru had killed him. Then she told herself to stop wondering that.

Sesshoumaru knelt beside her in the snow. Morbidly reminiscent of how she’d once seen him punch Inuyasha through the chest, he speared a clawed hand through the dead deer’s ribcage. Blood crawled up his ivory sleeve. When he pulled out his hand again there was a big bloody heart clutched in his fist. He offered it to her. Kagome recoiled, blanching.

“I—I can’t.”

“You said you were still hungry. Or the child is, at least.”

“I know, but…” She felt ill, watching the clots of dark blood dribble from the torn arteries to the snow. “It’s so gross.”

“Close your eyes.”

Haltingly, she closed them. When he told her to open her mouth, she furrowed her brow and did. The chunk of lukewarm, gory meat he fed to her nearly made her gag, but she forced herself grimly to chew. Shutting her eyes helped a good deal. Breathing carefully through her nose, she strove not to conjure any mental images as she chewed and chewed and chewed.

Choking down the sinewy flesh at last, she opened her eyes, putting up a hand when he extended her another chunk. “That meat’s way too tough. It’s making my jaw hurt.”

Sesshoumaru regarded her. “I forget how blunt your teeth are.” 

Kagome flushed, recalling just as he had how many times she’d bitten into his collar when she was coming, not to even break the skin. She saw the lightning flash of his fangs as he snapped the hunk of tough meat neatly back. Taking up the whittled heart again, his claws glowed green as he sheared off a steaming slice. When Kagome took it from him, it was almost soft to the touch, tenderized by the sear of his venom, which her reiki purified on contact.

“Better?” he asked her, as she began to chew.

Kagome nodded, swallowing it down. “Acrid, but I’ll take it.”

Bit by bit, she finished off the heart. The blood and raw flesh rekindled her strange appetite, overwhelming her instinctive aversion. He offered her other organs—lungs, kidneys, pieces of the stomach. Some were so soft she practically inhaled them.

“There’s something else,” she said, licking a glob of blood from her lips as a phantom sliver of memory prickled at her. “Something the baby liked in particular, but my recollection is fuzzy. I don’t really know…what all of that dead rabbit I ate.”

“What do you remember of it?”

Kagome closed her eyes, tried to describe it from the scent and taste alone. “It was gritty. Metallic and rank, chewy but squishy.” She gulped. “…Very bloody at the core.”

“The liver,” Sesshoumaru said, with a touch of chagrin.

Kagome’s mouth curved as she looked to him. “You were hoping I wouldn’t want it, weren’t you? Must be your favorite too.” When he cut out the huge dark slab of liver from the deer’s remains and lifted it up, Kagome said dryly, “Well I think you’re in luck. There’s no way I can eat all that.”

He slanted her a glance. “We’ll see.”

Biting into the hunk he handed to her, Kagome groaned, her eyes rolling back in pure satiation. Inside her belly, the baby was beaming. She ate another serving, then another. She was contemplating a fourth when a familiar stir at her senses made her pause. 

“Kagome—”

Together with Sesshoumaru, she looked to the edge of the clearing, where Inuyasha stood rooted in shock. Ears lowered and fangs clenched, he glared out over the scene.

“What,” he bit out, grimacing, “what the hell…”

Caught red-handed, Kagome tossed him a queasy smile. “I figured it out.”

Inuyasha stared at her a moment more, before drawing in a terse breath. In a single bound he crossed over to her. Ignoring Sesshoumaru altogether, he dropped into a crouch and looked her over, sniffing.

“This is what your stomach’s been trying to tell you, huh?”

Kagome nodded. “Seems so.”

“Well it ain’t pretty,” he grumbled, raking his eyes over the butchered stag. “But it is what it is, I guess.” Sparing Sesshoumaru a scowl, he looked back to her, drawing himself up huffily as he folded his hands into his sleeves. “If anyone’s gonna hunt for you, it should be me.”

Sesshoumaru smiled witheringly. “The squirrels and chipmunks shiver in fear.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Inuyasha fired back, a savage glint of hunger shining in his eye, “and pass that liver over while you’re at it.”

---

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

Revised 1/4/23

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