Lies, Letters, and Calloused Fingertips.

Lies, Letters, and Calloused Fingertips.



Chapter Eighteen: Idle Threats.



“Uh…”



Inuyasha and Kagome both just blinked at her feet, which were covered with soaked, white socks. Soaked with what, they weren’t entirely sure.



Minoru, however, was completely sure. His violet eyes widened, and he grabbed Suzume’s wrist. “Kagome!” he cried out, completely startled. “That’s – that’s your water!”



She stared at him. “Minoru, what-?”



He looked directly at Inuyasha, whose golden eyes were equally wide. “The babies?” the hanyou asked.



“Yes! Kagome’s water just broke! The twins are coming!”



Kagome’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “N-nani?” she stammered, still in shock at their words.



“Come on!” Minoru hollered, pulling Suzume to the front door of the relative mansion. Inuyasha, catching his old friend’s meaning, swooped down with inhuman speed, scooping his wife up into his arms and flying out the door with her, never hearing her surprised squeak.



Suzume and Minoru jumped into Inuyasha’s car; the hanyou yelled to them, “Go! Go on! I’ll run – it’ll be faster!”



Kagome stared up into her husband’s determined face, her eyes wide. “Inuyasha no baka! Don’t you dare take to those-” She cut herself off with a loud scream as he took off at a run, crouching low for barely a moment before springing himself and Kagome upward, his claws barely biting into the skin of her thighs and shoulder through her blue jeans and blouse. She blinked, ending her scream just as she felt the gentle thud of his feet finding the wooden roof of the neighbor’s home. Sighing, Kagome finished in a low tone, “Rooftops.”



She heard her husband’s snicker right above her; looking up, she smiled at the familiar glint of adventure in his eyes. “Funny wench,” he murmured into her hair as his face lowered, his nose becoming buried in the sweet-smelling locks. His eyes, however, remained on his path, and he sprang again, landing with practiced ease on the next roof.



“Does it feel good to finally get some exercise, ya old fart?” Kagome asked with a sly smile.



She relished the rumbling in Inuyasha’s chest the signaled his deep chuckle. “Keh,” he whispered, his breath hot against the tender skin of her scalp. “You just wait ‘til you pop them young ‘uns out, Ka-Go-Me. I’ll show you old.”



“Hm,” she mused with a smirk. “I’ll bet.”



He snickered again. “Keh.”



Finally at ease, Kagome let herself get comfortable in his close grip, deciding that it was about time she enjoyed the ride.



The rest of their trip was in complete silence, though it only lasted about three more minutes; as usual, Inuyasha was perfect in his timing. As soon as he leapt down from the last rooftop, landing them both safe and sound in the hospital parking lot, the first contraction hit Kagome. Inuyasha nearly dropped her in surprise at her shrill, agonized shriek, and she panted loudly as he hurried into the ER with her still in his arms.



“Hey!” he yelled roughly at a nearby nurse, holding back the insane urge to growl at her. “Help us here! My wife is in labor!”



The nurse came running forward; it took his nose a second to realize that this was, in fact, a youkai hospital. This nurse was another inuhanyou. He blinked at her as he stuttered a half-assed apology for his rudeness while the young woman helped Kagome into a wheelchair.



The girl, who had sparkling green eyes, just smiled up at him. Inuyasha faintly noticed that her scrubs were the same bright green. “It’s no problem,” she answered, taking hold of the back of Kagome’s wheelchair; Inuyasha held his wife’s hand firmly in his own, looking down at her instead of the hanyou nurse. “After all, it’s not every day a man becomes a father.”



Inuyasha turned and looked over his shoulder at her, and it suddenly hit him what this moment meant – and he hadn’t even been able to fully prepare himself for it. Twenty minutes ago, he was just another angry husband, about to make the mistake of chewing his wife out for something she never had any inclination to do…



Now, he was a father. Had been for some time, without ever knowing it.



Both pride and terror struck him square in his gut, and Inuyasha was at a loss as to what to do as he kept walking.



Right then, Kagome squeezed his hand as another harsh contraction ripped its way through her torso, and she let out a pained squeal. Inuyasha stared down at her tiny hand as it clasped onto his own, her stubby fingernails digging crescent-shaped marks into the back of his hand. It hurt, but there was no way he would tell her to stop. He realized right then that this was what he was here for – to help her through this.



No matter what, he wouldn’t leave her to deal with the consequences of his stupidity again.



“Inuyasha!” Kagome cried out, snapping him away from his thoughts. “Yeah, Kagome?” he asked her as the nurse led them both into a maternity room. Kagome leaned forward, taking her husband’s hand with her, and she used her other hand to press against her horrendously aching back. She suddenly became lost in her physical pain, and Inuyasha blinked at her.



“Kagome?” he asked. “Kagome?”



No answer. She just sat in the wheelchair and breathed.



“Oi! Wench!”



Her eyes snapped open, glaring up at him. “What, Inuyasha no baka?” she yelled back.



With a grumpy expression, he gestured to the stirrups. Kagome blinked in surprise as she stared at them, and the nurse giggled lightly behind her. Husband and wife turned to shoot the nurse a death glare, and the young hanyou snuck out of the room to find a doctor.



Inuyasha sighed and took Kagome’s arm, helping her out of the wheelchair. Just as she was climbing to her feet, Minoru burst in the door behind them, followed very closely by Suzume. Both humans were out of breath, but the doctor went immediately to a drawer and pulled out a polka-dotted hospital gown. He held it out to Kagome, who grudgingly took it as she stooped over, holding her enlarged stomach and heaving into the trash can.



“That’s perfectly normal,” Minoru told Inuyasha, who shot the doctor a worried glance. “Her body’s going through a great deal of stress right now, and it’s just trying to right itself. Don’t worry; the sickness will pass.”



Suzume snorted nearby. “Yeah, and then there’ll just be mind-numbing pain to look forward.” Inuyasha glared at her as she rolled her eyes.



“Thank you so much for your support, um…” Kagome trailed off, her tone dripping with sarcasm as she met the vocalist’s eyes.



“Suzume,” she answered. “Didn’t I say that already?”



Kagome chuckled at that, despite her current situation. “You sound just like her…” she muttered with a smile. “Always had an attitude.” Suzume smiled back at that, and the two women shared an intimate moment of camaraderie.



Until it was shattered by another contraction tearing through Kagome, and the former Miko threw her head back, gritting her teeth and crying out sharply.



“Put the damn gown on, wench!” Inuyasha shot at her, and she glared at him as tears sprang to her eyes. “But then everyone’ll see my butt!” she cried out.



The hanyou’s eyes narrowed. “Kagome, get your ass into the damn gown and then get your ass up in those stirrups!”



“What if I don’t?” she said defiantly.



He was about to lose his cool. “Dammit, woman, this isn’t the time for you to grow a backbone! You’re having a pair of babies right now! Just settle your laboring ass down, get into that damned hospital gown, ass-baring be damned, and get in those stirrups!”



Kagome stared at him a moment before nodding, and she began to change.



While she changed, Inuyasha helped her, and Minoru and Suzume went through the room setting it up for the birth. While they did, Minoru checked his watch when he heard Kagome’s bite out another shrill scream. “The contractions shouldn’t be this close together,” he told them. “We need to get her up here now and see where we’re at.”



Finally, Kagome was in the dreaded hospital gown, and Inuyasha helped her up onto the exam table, her feet settling quite naturally into the stirrups. Minoru draped a sheet across her lap, covering her thighs, knees, and most of her calves. He peeked underneath as Inuyasha took his rightful spot beside Kagome.



The doctor resurfaced with widened eyes. “I can see silver hair!” he yelled enthusiastically, a grin popping onto his amazed face.



“Kamis!” Kagome hollered. “Inuyasha, Kamis! It burns!”



“That’s good, Kagome-chan!” Minoru called to her. “Just – when the next contraction hits you – Push!”



Kagome cried out again, this time a more concentrated, determined noise. Inuyasha watched, enraptured, as her face scrunched up and flushed an even deeper shade of red than ever before. “Doc, what the hell is going on here?” he demanded.



“She’s crowning, Inuyasha!” Minoru yelled back. “Come on, Kagome! Push!”



She groaned before crying out again, and that same, determined look crossed her face again. “I’m pushing!” she screamed back.



“What the hell does that mean, she’s crowning?” Inuyasha wanted to know, his voice still raised.



“Chou baka desu yo, ne?” Suzume roared over Kagome’s loud cries. Inuyasha just glared at his fellow musician, who glared right back. “Crowning means that the baby’s head is just about out, you baka!”



“Well, you could’a just said that, instead of calling me stupid and being a rude bitch about it!”



“Gods, shut up!” Kagome bellowed angrily as she continued to push. “As it stands, Inuyasha, you are never – and I mean, never – receiving sex ever again – and you’re seriously grating on my nerves and ruining my concentration! So – both of you – shut the fuck up!”



Both Inuyasha and Suzume stood there on opposite sides of her, staring slack-jawed at Kagome. Everyone could hear Minoru chuckling from the other side of Kagome’s knees. “You gotta love idle threats,” he commented, smirking upon raising his head and seeing Inuyasha’s priceless expression.



“I don’t make idle threats,” Kagome responded through gritted teeth as she felt another contraction coming.



“Okay, Kagome-chan,” Minoru told her. “One last push, and then-”



She released a loud, feral snarl as she pushed, and Minoru pulled back a few seconds later, meeting Inuyasha’s eyes. “Go get a nurse,” he told Suzume, who nodded and immediately ran from the room. “Inuyasha has a daughter.”



Stunned to his core, he and Kagome both looked over the girl. She was big, and her face turned an angry red as she opened her mouth and let out a piercing cry. Inuyasha was floored to see a pair of twitching koinu ears amid her mop of silvery hair.



Kagome was breathing heavily as her body took a momentary break. “Inuyasha,” she whispered. He bent down, catching her lips with his own in a quick kiss. “Inuyasha, that’s Moriko,” she told him with a smile. He smiled back as he pulled her hand, still entwined with his own, and held it to his heart. They both watched as a nurse came in and took the rather large and obviously healthy baby girl from Minoru’s hands.



Suddenly, there moment of peace was interrupted by another harsh contraction nearly ripping Kagome in two. Surprised, Minoru returned to his spot between the stirrups, and his eyes widened. “Such impatient children, you two! You’re crowning again, Kagome-chan!”



She only grunted as she pushed once more; Inuyasha was surprised to lean over her knees and watch as a tiny, tiny baby slid out with ease, landing securely in Minoru’s gloved hands. Their son was especially tiny compared to his sister, and he had Kagome’s midnight hair.



“Kaji,” the former Miko whispered as her husband stared at his new son. It took a few moments of prodding on Minoru’s part, but the boy finally made a disgruntled face of his own and began screaming his head off.



Minoru breathed a sigh of relief, allowing a nurse to take the younger twin off to be cleaned, weighed, and measured. “I was worried that he wouldn’t be fully developed,” he explained to Inuyasha. “He was so far behind Moriko in terms of prenatal growth…” The doctor shook his head with a smile. “But he’s fine. Both of your kids have great sets of lungs on ‘em.”



Inuyasha chuckled, patting his shoulder. “Thanks, bouzu, for taking care of her while I was away.”



Minoru smirked. “Thanks for bringing her back to me.” He gestured at the door to Suzume, who was gushing over the infants in the nurses’ arms.



The two men stood there, surrounded by gooey gushy women and the babies they loved to coo over. Turning, they noticed that Kagome had since passed out on the exam table.



“No problem, man,” Inuyasha said, grinning. Minoru laughed at the sight. “No problem.”



The next day, Kagome awoke with just Inuyasha at her side. Within minutes, the nurses, flanked by Minoru and Suzume, brought the babies in, first laying Moriko in Kagome’s arms and showing Kagome the proper way to breastfeed. As Moriko latched onto her mother’s breast and began to feed, she blinked amethyst eyes up at Kagome, and Inuyasha marveled at the tiny bitch’s intense beauty.



“She has my mother’s eyes,” he mused in a soft tone. Kagome smiled at him.



After a few more mintues, Moriko was finished; as Inuyasha burped her, the nurses laid the younger twin, Kaji, into his mother’s arms. As he fed, he kept his eyes closed; it was a very peaceful expression, but Kagome wanted to see if he had Inuyasha’s eyes. So she leaned down, curiosity getting the better of her.



“Kaji?” she whispered, her lips brushing against the soft, sweet-smelling skin of the baby’s forehead. “Kaji, it’s Mama. Open your eyes, baby.” She sighed, closing her own. “Let me see your eyes.”



“He will in time, Kagome-chan!”



She looked up and at the door when she heard the new voice; Ko and Shippo stood there, both looking as though they were about to burst with happiness.



“Hey!” Inuyasha said. “See there! Ko was right!”



Kagome looked back down at her son – who lay there, nursing, and blinking wide, grey eyes up at her.



She blinked down at him, cold surprise flooding her. “Inuyasha?” she asked.



“Yes?”



“Why does our son have Ko’s eyes?”



When she looked up, she saw the look Inuyasha and Ko shared; they looked like a pair of children caught red-handed. Inuyasha looked back at her, his golden eyes wide and bright.



“Well…”



Next time:



Chapter Nineteen: We Swing and We Sway…