Feverish

A/N: Hiya! Did you miss me? *Dodges as she is pelted with tomatoes and random nasty stuff* I guessed as much. I haven’t updated this fic in, what, half a year? GOMEN!!!

But guess what?! I’m over my writers block now, so I promise regular updates from now on! If you guys give me at least 5 reviews anyway... I might take longer if I have no motivation. :D My email add is on my profile... If I fail to update every six days, please feel free to scream at me. ^_^

Here’s the looooong overdue chapter. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I don’t even own a damn treadmill, and all the gods know that I desperately need one of those...

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FEVERISH

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A sunny day in the Sengoku Jidai is truly a sight to behold. Sunny days in the warring states period seem so much more poignant than the polluted, darkened skies of sunny days in modern day Tokyo.

And at that exact sunny morning, as Kagome sat before her stunned mother in the kitchen of the Higurashi household, she dearly wished that she could disappear back to the medieval sunny day.

Higurashi-san sat shocked, speechless and open-mouthed at Kagome’s news. Her daughter had left Tokyo two weeks earlier, escorted by a scowling hanyou who could be heard yelling about her being late all the way from the grounds to the bottom of the shrine steps.

And now she comes back, dirty, bloody and disheveled from their latest shard hunt, and announces that...

“You’re... pregnant?” she asked softly, eyes blank and seeing nothing but her timid daughter who sat less than three feet away.

Kagome nodded slowly, looking down at her lap with a blush, her torn blouse exposing the mark that Inuyasha had made on her. It was the youkai equivalent of marriage, he had said, and he fully intended to marry her in the human way later on.

She had come back to her time after finding the youkai that had been rumored to posses jewel shards. The youkai made their hunt easier by attacking the village, just as they were returning from what had been an unsuccessful shard hunt, not having found the exact same youkai that they spotted attacking an anxious Kaede.

It had been a gruesome task, defeating the lizard-like youkai that spit out poisonous acids, but Inuyasha had been so pissed out at it for having evaded them for so long just to come barging in on their village, that he basically mutilated the thing, and kept slashing at it till it looked short of being canned corned beef.

Kagome actually pitied the damn thing.

But at that moment, as she stared at her mother’s unreadable expression, she could pity no one else but herself and her family. She and Inuyasha had come in through the well right after disposing of the youkai, upon agreeing that they would now tell her mother.

Inuyasha had insisted that he go with her to break the news, but she had vehemently disagreed, saying it was HER mother, and she wanted to speak with her alone.

“Ok. But I’m staying right outside the door and I’m barging in if and just in case something bad happens,” he had said.

‘Stupid!’ Kagome thought. She really shouldn’t have asked him to stay behind.

She snapped out of her thoughts as she saw out of the corner of her eyes that her mother had gotten up, and was now making her way around the table to reach her. Kagome looked up as her mother stood right beside her. She had just opened her mouth to say something when...

*SLAP!*

Her face flew to the direction of the blow, a stinging red mark marring her face. She didn’t notice Inuyasha race in through the door after seeing Higurashi-san slap Kagome. The slap had hurt, but it was nothing compared to the words her mother said.

“I trusted you, Kagome. Trusted you enough to let you go to a place that I knew your life would be in danger, with a man I knew you admired. I trusted you to have enough self-control, trusted you to know that you would never do anything that would mar your future,” she said, tears beginning to gather at the edges of her eyes.

She turned to Inuyasha as he steeped forward, her blazing eyes brimming with even more tears that made him stop dead in his tracks. “And you! I trusted you to take care of Kagome, not TAKE her! I trusted you enough to think that you would never take advantage of her. That you loved her enough to think ahead before you did anything drastic. I’ve never even seen you hold her hand, or smile at her, or give her flowers or any damn thing! And now my baby’s pregnant!”

Inuyasha stood stock-still. Her words had hit a nerve.

She looked between them, her anger evident as she shouted, “How COULD you?! Both of you!”

“Mama...” Kagome began, tears gathering as she looked at her mother.

“You’re both so young, Kagome! And your future, didn’t you think of how much this could affect your future?!” she looked at Inuyasha, then back at Kagome. “You’re not even of the same time period. Of the same... the same SPECIES!”

The lovers were taken aback by that, but the torrent of tears that finally fell from Higurashi-san’s eyes made them both bite their tongues.

“How could you?!” Higurashi-san said weakly as the tears spilled, her legs giving out as she fell to her knees, wrapping her arms around her daughter. Kagome wrapped her arms around her sobbing mother, not taking her eyes off her as she felt Inuyasha slowly approach them from behind. Inuyasha put a hand on Kagome’s shoulder, trying in vain to comfort her as she watched her devastated mother cry on her shoulder.

“I didn’t want to let you go, you know,” Higurashi-san said softly, brokenly, her voice muffled against Kagome’s shoulder. “That day when Inuyasha came for you for the first time to take you down the well to face the hair girl?”

“Yura?” Kagome asked.

“Yes. Her,” Higurashi-san replied, lifting her head from Kagome’s shoulder. Kagome looked into her mother’s trembling eyes as the older woman spoke. “But you seemed so determined. I knew then that the moment you went through the door... nothing will ever be the same again. But there was nothing I could do. I just dealt with it, watching my only daughter run back and forth through time, watching you get devastated as your grades began to fall, as you fell in love and got heart-broken. I watched it all, but I...” she looked up at Inuyasha, whose blank face betrayed not a single grain of emotion, but whose eyes spoke volumes.

“I never would have thought that so much would be at risk. Kagome,” she looked back at Kagome, whose tears were also falling by now. “Life would be so hard if... for a teen mother, you know that. Your education... you’re barely seventeen! Education is very important here in Japan. How will you survive once I’m gone?”

“Higurashi-sama,” Inuyasha began, making both women look up at him. Kagome was surprised. Inuyasha had never so much as shown respect to anyone before, and now he just referred to her mother as ‘Higurashi-sama’?

As soon as he was sure he had their attention, he quickly fell to his hands ands knees, bowing low before her mother like a humble peasant bowing before royalty. The woman was so surprised that she straightened, feeling behind her to find a chair to sit on.

“Higurashi-sama,” he repeated, his voice soft and slightly muffled since his nose was practically touching the ground. “I admit that this was my fault. I had lost control over myself, my emotions, and now Kagome is in this position.”

He straightened and sat on his feet, staring straight into Kagome’s mother’s eyes with such determination, she knew the boy really meant business. “What I did has displeased you, and I can’t take it back. But what I did, I did because I love your daughter, and so I have no plans to let her live in anyway less than prosperous. With your permission and hers, Higurashi-sama, I wish to have Kagome’s hand in marriage. I swear upon my father’s grave that Kagome and our child will be provided for, with much more than enough.”

Kagome sat stunned through Inuyasha’s speech. She had no idea that Inuyasha could talk like THAT. But still... his mother had been royalty, if her memory wasn’t deceiving her. Maybe...

“And how would you do that, young man?” Higurashi-san asked, breaking Kagome out of her thoughts. “You have no modern education, and as far as I know from Kagome’s stories, you’re not exactly a rich daimyo...”

“I have my ways, and my sources, Higurashi-sama. I may not be a daimyo, but I am the son of a great Inuyoukai. You have once trusted me to take care of Kagome. I beg you to once again try to trust in my abilities to support her. I am sure I will be able to get her anything her heart desires in the Sengoku Jidai, and in your time, I will damn die trying, and I will do anything to satisfy her needs.”

Kagome saw her mother look at her inquiringly, before asking, “Is that what you want?”

She nodded. “Mama, I love Inuyasha...”

“And I love her,” Inuyasha interrupted. “If it would be needed, I would help Kagome hide our child, keep him a secret, just so she could continue witht sht she needs to do, like your education, but I assure you that she will not need it if you agree to let me marry her.”

Her mother looked pensive for a while, before answering. “I worry for Kagome’s future. Where will you live? What will you do?”

“We can live in either times, Higurashi-sama. I will make a life for her in the Sengoku Jidai, and I will... what’s the term...” he paused, thinking. “I will earn a living for her here.”

“Well... Kagome has let you into her bed... er, futon, so I believe she agrees. That leaves me... and Kagome’s grandfather. I’d like to say I’ll think about it, but I know that you would still go off with each other regardless of what I say,” she paused and glanced at Kagome.

“Take a bath, dear. Inuyasha, stay in Kagome’s room while she bathes, and take a bath yourself after she is done. I will run a bath for you two,” she said getting up. “And while both of you are upstairs, I will speak to jii-chan.”

-----/---@

“I wonder how Kagome and Inuyasha are doing,” Sango whispered worriedly, leaning back into Miroku’s embrac the they sat in Kaede’s hut. She rested her head on her chest, worrying her bottom lip as the monk drew circles on her abdomen with his fingers.

“Stop worrying, Sango. I am sure they are fine,” he said, watching her agitated facial expressions. “There are no youkai to face there, so I am certain that they sill have all their limbs.”

“There are no youkai there,” Sango shot back. “But Kagome-chan’s mother is there! In her time, Kagome-chan is still young, so I am sure that her mother will not take to it too kindly.”

“It’s not like she would actually kill her own daughter, you know.”

“She might mangle Inuyasha.”

Miroku snorted. “Like she could. And before you say Kagome’s grandfather might purify him, let me remind you that Kagome swears that her grandfather’s holy powers are about as strong as that of a common squirrel.”

Sango sighed. “I guess you’re right. I shouldn’t have worried so much.”

“Exactly. Not when you’re supposed to be paying attention to your husband.”

Sango blushed in remembrance. ‘That’s right... he is already my husband.’

They had a simple Shinto wedding just the week before, overseen by Kaede, Kag Inu Inuyasha, Shippou and Kirara and officiated by the local Shinto monk. It had been the day after they found out that she and Kagome were pregnant, and during the ceremony, Kagome had cried so hard, Sango thought she could never cry again.

She had to ask why Inuyasha wasn’t marrying her, and Kagome replied that he already had in youkai terms, and will in human terms once he had enough ryu to give her a grand wedding.

After the ceremony, she and Miroku had their “wedding night sex,” as her man had put it, and he kept her at it for so long that they only had three hours of sleep before they had to leave for their shard hunt the next morning.

She had gloated about it to Kagome, who smugly answered that she and Inuyasha only had TWO hours of sleep... And they both had to wonder theitheir men looked so dandy when they themselves were exhausted...

But despite being married to him for a week already, she was still rather modest, shy to a pointen ien it came to being WITH him. And when she felt his gloved hand slowly crawl up her torso to cup a breast, her blush deepened.

“Here?”

“Where else? The villagers I hired are still not done with building our new hut.”

“Now?”

“NOW!” he said with a grin, as he slowly maneuvered so that he now lay over her, his hands on either sides of her waist. “You owe me one, remember?”

“I don’t owe you anything, houshi. We snuck away from camp every night when we were out on a shard hunt. I’m still feeling guilty about it.”

“Oh, no. We didn’t sneak out during our second night on the shard hunt, remember? So, you, my beautiful taijiya, owe me,” Miroku replied, already beginning to slide his fingers into the folds of her kimono.

“But Kaede might walk in on us!”

“Then this will just have to be quick, ne?” he said, stooping down to place kisses down the line of her throat.

Sango moaned at his amorous attentions, and a dampness at her crotch area told her that at the moment, she really wouldn’t mind if the whole damn town stood at the door.

“Alright,” she whispered, her fingers already working on freeing him of his robes. “Be quick, but you’d better make this damn good, Miroku!”

“Koi, you didn’t need to ask,” he replied, crawling up to take her lips into a soul-searing kiss as he desperately tore her garments aside.

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Sango lay spent on her open kimono ten minutes later, her legs tangled witrokuroku’s as she snuggled up to his chest. He lay on his side, his arms around her and his black robe parted, the indigo wrap serving as a blanket to cover them both. His hands were idly running along her sides, causing goosebumps to appear on her sensitized skin.

It had been short, but true to his word, Miroku really made it good. Sango was sure she’d remember THIS one for the rest of her life. He had caressed every part of her, worshipped her so thoroughly. The harried encounter, paired up with the adrenaline rush of the fear of being caught, made up for an incredible experience that had made her head spin.

She was basking in the heat of Miroku’s body when Kirara rushed up to them, followed by a worried-looking Shippou. She gave a slight squeak as the two ran up to them, pulling her robes closed as she struggled to pull away from a lethargic Miroku.

They both sat up as the kit jumped up and down on their legs, his distress p to to anyone. She held her clothes closed while Miroku just got up, not bothering to conceal himself as the indigo wrap fell to their waists to preserve modesty.

“Sango! Miroku! Get up!”

“We’re up,” Miroku grumbled.

“No, I mean UP! Kirara and I saw Kikyo...”

Sango’s taijiya sense kicked in, which was strange since seeing the miko was nearly a usual occurrence. Something in her told her that there was something there, but she pushed that thought aside.

“She was here? Probably to see Inuyasha,” Sango remarked, but Shippou shook his head, damn near making it fall off.

“No. She wasn’t. Sango, Miroku, she was beside the Bone-Eater’s Well! And she was doing something weird, her hands were all lit up!”

That got the newlyweds on their feet. They dressed hurriedly, grabbed their weapons and ran out the door.

“Miroku! Look!” Sango shouted, pointing up at the sky. Flying around just above the spot where the well should be, were Kikyo’s shinidimachu.

They were there very shortly, and sure enough, Kikyo stood there, staring blankly into the confines of the well. Both of her hands were on the lip of the well, and a few beads of perspiration clung to her forehead.

“Kikyo-sama,” Miroku called as he stopped a few feet away, slightly out of breath.

Kikyo looked up slowly, her cold gray eyes regarding him with something akin to boredom. “Inuyasha went to Kagome’s time, did he not?”

Sango gasped and Miroku’s eyes widened. “How did you...” she began.

“Don’t tell me you thought I didn’t know,” she replied, looking back down the well.

“Well... to be honest, Kikyo-sama...” Miroku started.

“Save it. I have come here to speak with Inuyasha, but I see he is not here. I shall return some other day,” she said before turning away.

The strange feeling still wouldn’t leave Sango. “Kikyo-sama, why were you here by the well?”

Kikyo turned to look at her, and she swore she saw somethdiffdifferent light up the undead miko’s eyes. “I sensed Inuyasha by the well. And now I realize that he had gone through it. Til we meet again, taijiya.”

They watched Kikyo disappear into the forest, followed by her soul-stealers, and Sango felt Miroku tug her hand and lead her back to the village. But something about why Kikyo had been there just didn’t make any sense...

She would just have to wait unKagoKagome gets back to ask her about it.

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A/N: There! Done! Hope you all liked it.

Lemon next chap. Thank you for reading, and please review!

ScarletRaven