As the days grew lighter, Kagome only seemed to grow heavier. In body, in spirit. She felt tired all the time. Her back ached, her head ached. The smallest exertions left her feeling drained. At night she struggled to find a comfortable sleeping position and woke up feeling about as rested as she had when she’d first lain down.

Kaede claimed it was only a false spring. Whether it was or wasn’t, Kagome was inclined to take whatever small mercies from the universe she could get.

On one of these warm and muggy late winter days, she and Inuyasha were walking through the village square. Side-eyeing each other, not speaking. Trying to make it seem as if they hadn’t just been arguing when it was pretty obvious that they had. She carried her basket of herbs in her arms like it was her cross to bear. His clawed hands were fisted in his sleeves. An expression of stubborn frustration clouded his face.

In the middle of the rutted mud road, Kagome paused. Inuyasha stopped beside her.

“What is it?” he asked.

“The baby’s kicking.” Shifting the basket around so she could place a hand to her big belly, Kagome winced. “Trying out a new karate move on my ribs is more like it.”

Inuyasha crouched, cracking a smile. He pressed his hands to hers as he studied her rippling stomach, and just like that, their frigid standoff was broken.

“Fierce little tyke, huh,” he said, his voice warm with pride. “Just like the old man.”

Kagome mustered a smile back.

Like moths to a lantern, the other townsfolk started to draw near them now that their hackles had been lowered. The women and children in particular, who never seemed to pass up an opportunity to ogle Kagome in her pregnant state. A miko carrying a part-demon baby was a curiosity to be sure.

“Ah, Kagome-chan!” a familiar voice hailed her brightly from across the square. “Is the baby kicking again?”

“Mhm,” Kagome said back to Rin, who was already hastening toward her. Her smile slipped a little as she saw Sesshoumaru lingering in Rin’s wake. “…It is.”

“How exciting!” Rin said breathlessly as she drew to a stop, adding her own small hand to the ones feeling up Kagome’s stomach. Keeping her eyes trained studiously away from Sesshoumaru, Kagome tensed when Rin called back to him, “Sesshoumaru-sama, come and see!”

But Sesshoumaru had already started walking away. Kagome’s heart faltered. She wasn’t sure whether to feel relieved or aggrieved at this. The way Rin’s face fell slightly as she turned back to her seemed to mirror the vague sense of disappointment that she felt.

“Ah,” Rin said, flushing a little, “I’m sure he just—”

“It’s all right,” Kagome said, shaking her head. “Really.”

Standing beside her, Inuyasha bristled. All his former agitation seemed to return two-fold as he glared toward his departing elder brother.

“Oi, Sesshoumaru, what’s your fucking problem? Too good to slum around with us mere mortals? Like it or not, this kid’s your own blood. It’s your niece or nephew kicking around in there, so you might as well get comfortable with the idea.”

As Sesshoumaru paused, Kagome swallowed. The forbidding aura emanating from him made Inuyasha clench his fangs.

The demon lord’s eyes cut chillingly back as he said, “He is no ‘nephew’ of mine.”

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

Revised 1/12/23