Kagome sank back to the ground. Her kimono was wet beneath her, and growing wetter. Blankly, she stared ahead toward the sun-dappled trees. Her vision blurred. Tears trickled down her cheeks.

This can’t be happening, was all she could think.

“Kagome,” a voice said to her, as if from afar. 

But when she turned her head slightly to see who’d spoken to her, she saw that Sesshoumaru was standing just beside her. Looking up at him, she swallowed shallowly. The dried tear-tracks stretched at her cheeks, tacky and itchy.

“Hi,” she said thickly.

His golden eyes regarded her, unblinking. “What are you doing?”

“Just…” She swallowed again. “Just gathering some herbs.”

“That smell,” he said, stepping toward her as he frowned, “it—”

“It’s nothing,” she said defensively, curling in on herself as she shrank from him. “Why are you sniffing me, anyway?” she blurted out hotly. “It’s rude.”

“It smells like him,” Sesshoumaru said, unfazed. “But it’s on you, not in you.” His eyes raked over her. “He’s coming, isn’t he?”

Kagome flinched away, digging her fingers into the grass. “No,” she whispered back. The tender blades snapped under her hands. “No, it’s too early for that. It’s weeks too early for that. So…”

“Kagome.”

Reluctantly, she peered up at him. At his stony expression, hers cracked. 

“This is wrong, all wrong. This is…this is because we—because I—” She bit off as pain tore through her, raw and jagged. She gasped, doubling over as all the thoughts and images she’d been suppressing for weeks blazed damnably behind her eyes. “Oh god why…why…” She sobbed, keening. The pain was clenching, crushing. “My baby…my poor little baby…I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

Tears dribbled down her front as she hugged her belly. Weeping and gritting her teeth in turns, she rocked in place, riding out the ‘false’ contractions she now knew so grimly to be true. She didn’t notice Sesshoumaru had dropped down next to her until she felt him gathering her up.

“No!” she cried, panic-stricken. Her reiki flared in her distress. “No, I don’t want to go! I want to stay here.”

“You can’t stay here,” Sesshoumaru growled, hefting her up despite her physical and spiritual struggling. “Quit doing that, or I’ll restrain you.”

Kagome didn’t hear him, not really. She was too busy trying to thrash herself free through the agony that was ripping her apart inside. She stilled only when his fur went around her. His dark youki settled over her like a shadowy blanket impossibly dense, smothering her from within. Defeated, she whimpered, curling her twitching fingers into his fur.

“I can’t do this. I can’t do this, Sesshoumaru. I thought I could, but I can’t.”

“You will be fine,” he said as he started off for the village at a glide—and she realized he must have summoned his youki cloud in his haste.

“How do you know?” she asked bitterly. “I’ve never given birth before, and the baby’s part demon, besides.”

“You birthed the Shikon no Tama, and neither of you seemed worse for the wear.”

Kagome glanced up at him, her brows scrunched. He was so deadpan she had no idea whether he was being snide or not. Either way, he’d succeeded in distracting her. And oddly enough, she found the remark the slightest bit reassuring.

Inuyasha © Rumiko Takahashi

Revised 6/14/23