Inuyasha didn’t return home that day, or even that night. Exhausted with waiting up for him— exhausted with being angry waiting up for him—Kagome at last collapsed into a sleep so fitful even Taiyoutori’s egg (cocoa-flavored, that morning) couldn’t soothe her. There were dark circles under her eyes when she woke up the next day—to

Seeming to sense that he’d really hurt her with his last remark, Sesshoumaru dialed back on the verbal offensive. Kagome was relieved, though she had the sneaking suspicion he was only biding his time until he thought of a new strategy to get under her skin. Either way, he kept the reiki-purging sessions to a

Every few days or so, Sesshoumaru dropped by to relieve Kagome’s reiki build-up, whether she was experiencing any headaches or not. To her annoyance, Inuyasha backed him up on this. To her further annoyance, he skipped off whenever Sesshoumaru arrived to attend to her, claiming he couldn’t stand to watch. It made his blood boil,

“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

The arrival of spring didn’t do much to lift Kagome’s spirits. Now well into her third trimester, the more-or-less constant state of discomfort she was in made it hard for her to enjoy the nice, warm weather—or anything, really. It was becoming increasingly difficult, just for her to get up and about. Even puttering around

Later that day, while Inuyasha was out on an errand, Miroku dropped by the hut. It wasn’t a coincidence he was stopping by when Inuyasha was gone. Shifty-eyed, the monk slipped past the door curtain without so much as a word to announce his presence. Normally, this would have startled Kagome senseless, but she was

You must know that I love you. Kagome sighed, staring off into the distance. A gust of cool breeze fanned over her cheeks.  The snows were finally melting, sloughing off the eaves of roofs and the branches of trees like old dead skins. The ground was patchy, dark where the drifts had frayed and shrunk