Baby Inu

I do not own Inuyasha.

Chapter 9

I woke up in the morning and smiled when I saw Inuyasha still sleeping soundly beside me. I looked over towards the fire and saw Hiromi watching us with a gentle smile. I stood and made my way over to join her. She handed me a cup of tea as I sat down.

“You love him,” she stated.

I looked at her in surprise as I nearly choked on my mouthful of tea.

“It's alright, dear,” she told, “You don't have to say anything. I can see it. It is good. From what Myoga has told me, he has had a hard life. He deserves some happiness.”

“I...I love him,” I admitted in a whisper, “But he loves someone else. And now this...what if he sees me as a mother figure after this? What if he never...”

“Calm yourself, child,” she said soothingly, “He will be returned to his normal self. Does his child-self call you his mother?”

“No, he calls me his Gome.”

“Then I do not believe that you have anything to worry about,” she told me with a sincere smile, “I believe that the bond you share will only be strengthened by this. You show him the depths of your love and devotion every day.”

I nodded as I stared absently into the fire. I vaguely noticed that Hiromi had started fixing breakfast as I sat thinking. We were both startled when Inuyasha started screaming in his sleep. I rushed to his side and pulled him into my lap as he struggled against me.

“Inuyasha! Inuyasha, it's me, it's okay! It's Kagome!” I told him.

“Gome! Gome!” he called out frantically as I tried to wake him up.

I finally managed to wrap him up in my arms and hold him still long enough to press his nose into my neck so that he could smell me. I heard him inhale deeply and felt him shudder as a relieved sigh escaped him. His entire body went limp as he opened his eyes and looked up at me. His large golden eyes were full of tears as he told me about his nightmare.

“Gome, it was the mean, stinky lady,” he whispered as he started to tremble, “She...she said that was gonna...kill you...and take me to Hell. I don't to go to Hell! And I don't want her to kill you!”

“It's alright, sweetheart,” I told him softly, “I'm not going to let anyone hurt you.”

“But I don't want her to hurt you either!” he cried.

“I know, sweetheart.”

I rocked him gently as he cried on my shoulder. I looked up at Hiromi and saw her smiling sadly at me.

“Breakfast is ready,” she said quietly.

I nodded and carried Inuyasha over to the fire. After he calmed down, we ate quietly with Hiromi. She warned me that he might swing more rapidly between his child-mind and his adult-mind. With no idea where Myoga had disappeared to, we said our goodbyes to Hiromi and left her.

We found MoMo waiting for us at the tree line. I smiled at the demon cow and climbed onto his back with Inuyasha. MoMo took to the sky and Inuyasha cheered happily. I laughed softly at his excitement. MoMo retraced our path and landed in the clearing by the stream around mid-day.

I hopped down and helped Inuyasha up before I went through our supplies and pulled out some dried meat and fruit for lunch. Inuyasha sat beside me while we ate. He was quiet, his previous excitement gone.

“Inuyasha, are you alright?”

“Keh. I'm fine, wench.”

I looked at him in surprise before I remembered Hiromi warning me this might happen.

“Okay. How far should we try to get today?”

“We should go back to that cave.”

I nodded in agreement and packed up our supplies. After we packed up, we climbed onto MoMo's back and flew off towards the cave. We arrived just before nightfall. I set up camp while Inuyasha set up our bedding. We sat down by our little fire and ate a light meal. Inuyasha scowled.

“I hate this,” he growled, “I can't protect you.”

“We'll be alright, Inuyasha,” I tried to reassure him.

His nightmares about Kikyo were troubling me. I did my best to hide my concern from him. After we finished eating, we cleaned up. I set my barriers and curled up on my bedding. Inuyasha sighed heavily and blushed as he curled up with me.

“Feh,” he growled, “I need to start sleeping by myself.”

“Why is that?”

“You've never offered to share your bedroll with me before,” he snarled, “We keep this up, and when I have my body back, I won't be able to sleep unless I'm curled up with you.”

“You...could,”I replied sleepily, “If you wanted to.”

He went quiet after that I smiled softly as I let myself drift off to sleep.

A/N: So sorry this is so short and so long in coming. I didn't like how this chapter was and I still don't really like it. I'm off script now, no more already written chapters. I'll get the next one up when I can.