“I’m just bringing you up to speed,” Inuyasha groused to his older brother. His coarse sleeve brushed Kagome’s face as he dropped down beside her, trying to uncoil her from her stiff, fetal crouch. “She’s in a lot of pain, in case you couldn’t tell.”

Kagome whimpered, resisting. At his jostling, a fresh wave of agony seared behind her eyes.

“Let her be,” Sesshoumaru said sharply. “Why are you trying to move her?”

“So you can see her better,” Inuyasha snapped back.

“I can see her well enough.”

Kagome felt, rather than heard, Sesshoumaru ascend the tatami platform. Restrained, his youki flickered about him like a dark candle flame. As he knelt beside her, the heat of his aura grazed her, making her break out in a cold sweat. The claws that pushed her sticky bangs aside were light and cool as they soothed over her clammy, knitted brow.

“Hey,” Inuyasha muttered, “what are you—”

“Her reiki is stymied,” Sesshoumaru said lowly, as if to himself.

“Huh?”

“The flow of her spiritual power has been disrupted,” Sesshoumaru replied, like he was explaining to a child. “Are your senses so dull you cannot detect it, this congestion in her?”

“Sure, she seemed off,” Inuyasha said defensively, “but I figured it was just the pain, messing with her.”

“Pain is a symptom, little brother.”

“Yeah, I get that.” Kagome could hear her husband grinding his fangs. “So what’s the root cause then, your highness? You got anything meaningful to contribute, or are you just here to talk shit?”

Sesshoumaru was silent, contemplative. His claws skimmed down from her face. As Inuyasha’s aura bristled, she felt Sesshoumaru take her suddenly by the hand. She had a moment to dimly wonder—before his blazing claws lanced into her palm.

Kagome shrieked, bolting upright.

As her reiki flared, Inuyasha viciously swore. There was the stinging smell of scorched flesh, a nauseating crunch as Sesshoumaru’s grasp on her abruptly broke—when Inuyasha’s fist smashed into his jaw. Sesshoumaru’s face snapped aside at the force of the blow. His neck cracked as he turned slowly back, his eyes two baleful golden slits.

Inuyasha’s glare was just as murderous. “You sick fuck…” he seethed, every muscle in his body poised to lunge. “…Who the hell attacks a pregnant woman? Touch her again, and I’ll rip your fucking face off.”

“Inuyasha…” When he just continued to glare and growl, Kagome said sharply, “Inuyasha!”

“Stay out of it,” he snarled, rounding on her. But seeing that she was sitting sternly upright, some of the hostile tension bled out of him. “Kagome, you…”

“I’m fine now,” she said simply. “The headache’s gone.”

“But your hand!” he said angrily, jumping up and pointing with a claw. “Look at your fucking hand!”

Kagome looked at it. Her palm was bleeding, but only a little.

“It’s just a scratch,” she said, eyeing the pinpricks Sesshoumaru’s claws had made. “It doesn’t even hurt, really.”

“Really?”

“Not compared to being crippled in mind-rending pain,” she said tartly, crossing her arms. “To tell you the truth, I feel better than I have in weeks.”

Fuming, Inuyasha turned from her to Sesshoumaru, who’d remained deadly silent throughout this exchange. Kagome looked nervously between them. Now that Inuyasha’s killing intent had subsided, he was eyeing his older brother rather uneasily himself.

“Well, what was I supposed to think, when you put your hands on my woman like that?” he blustered, as Sesshoumaru’s eyes narrowed further. “You could have given me a heads-up at least. I still don’t even know why you did what you did.”

From behind Inuyasha, Kagome gave Sesshoumaru a pleading look. His narrowed eyes slid briefly shut, as if for restraint. After a moment he spoke.

“She is a priestess, carrying a part-demon child. As his power grows within her, no doubt her instinct is to purify him.” Kagome’s hands flew to her stomach in alarm. “Since she does not wish this, it must be an act of constant will, to divert her reiki from destroying him. I suspect the tension of this accumulates to the point of pain, and has become increasingly difficult to dissipate. And so, I provided her with an outlet. A means to vent her spiritual frustration.”

“By taking it out on you,” Kagome whispered, stricken, glancing at his charred, flaking claws.

Sesshoumaru met her gaze. The expression in his eyes made her throat draw tight.

Heedless, Inuyasha heaved out a sigh. “Okay, that makes sense, I guess. But did you really have to claw at her?”

“I wouldn’t have used my reiki on him otherwise,” Kagome said, glancing back. “Sesshoumaru’s a demon, but he’s also—” She hesitated, not sure what to call him, even in her mind. “—Family,” she finished lamely.

“So if I wanted to help you like he did,” Inuyasha said, frowning heavily, “I’d have to hurt you too?”

Kagome nodded. “Seems that way.”

His silver ears dipped as he shook his head. “Forget it. I can’t. Let him do it, if it needs to be done.” 

Kagome glared, flushing. “Don’t just volunteer him for something like that!”

“It is nothing,” Sesshoumaru said as he stood. His eyes dragged over her, darkly intent. “What is family for?”

---

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

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