Tuesday, August 16, 2005

   Chapter 61: Suspicion Comes In Many Forms...
“What is all this shit in these things, Kagome?” Inuyasha scowled at the writing on the snack package she was currently attempting to snatch out of his hands. “I can’t pronounce half of it and it doesn’t even sound like real food when I can.”

“It’s called food processing, baka,” she leaned up, but Inuyasha just lifted it up and out of her reach and continued reading off the ingredient list. “That’s how it all keeps in my bag while we’re traveling. Why are you so curious about it all of a sudden?”

He frowned down at her, ignoring the question he hadn’t come up with a plausible cover for and focusing on the unfamiliar word instead, “Processing?”

She rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest, pouting but unwilling to make them a source of more laughter this evening for their highly amused companions. She turned to frown at them, more annoyed by the carefully bland expressions hiding the shine of forcefully suppressed mirth in their eyes than she would have been by a more open display. Setting her teeth against her own urge to stamp her foot like a little kid, she turned back to Inuyasha’s expectant look and explained, “They use machines and things to make sure it doesn’t spoil and tastes the way it’s supposed to.”

Inuyasha turned his attention back to the package, “Is it natural?”

Kagome gave him a look that clearly said she was having doubts about his state of mind as she repeated in confusion, “Natural?”

“Fresh? Healthy?” he prodded, annoyed at the look on her face. ‘Safe for developing pups? Something a pregnant bitch should be eating? Dammit, why didn’t I think of the food thing sooner?’

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Kagome lifted a hand to rub at the sudden ache that started at her temples. “Inuyasha, if you were really worried about all this, why didn’t you ask me the first time I gave it to everyone? All you ever did was say ‘what’s this,’ smell it, eat it, and then ask for more. Wait, that’s not right,” she poked him in the chest for emphasis. “You would just go digging through my pack trying to find more and tell me to get more if you couldn’t find any.”

Inuyasha rubbed his chest and snorted, his mind racing to come up with something credible, “It just wasn’t important before.”

“And just like that? Out of the blue it is?” she gave him a look of dry disbelief.

Inuyasha blinked at her, momentarily at a loss over how to answer that without sounding horribly suspicious. Finally he just crossed his fingers behind his back and went for something completely irrational, but still true in his mind, “Now I think it’s important, so it is.”

There was a short, abortive bark of laughter that had Kagome’s gaze snapping around to where Miroku was apparently having a coughing fit into his hand while Sango found something particularly interesting about her lap. Shippou’s lips were twitching suspiciously, but he was valiantly holding it in while his tail flicked rapidly with his own silent amusement.

Inuyasha reached out and set a hand on her shoulder when he saw the pale azure of her eyes get more intense. When her focus turned back to him, he urged gently, “Breathe, koi. This isn’t something to lose your temper over.”

Kagome gave him a flat look, but did indeed take a deep, slow breath to hold in the urge to smack him upside the head. It was obnoxious to acknowledge, but he was right about that... Not that she would ‘admit’ that to him, but she did make an effort to calm down. Only to blink in surprise when the heated emotion that had been rising in her blood almost immediately calmed. “For some reason, it’s a lot easier than it used to be,” she ran a hand through her hair and frowned in slight confusion.

Inuyasha snorted, tapping a clawed hand over her heart, “You didn’t get really bad until you got close to your heat. Now you’ve had your cycle and I took care of it, so of course it’s easier.”

Kagome’s cheeks heated, “Inuyasha!”

“What?” he tilted his head in genuine bewilderment. “That’s what was wrong for the most part. You’ve never had a heat before and your blood went over-board trying to catch up for the years it thought it missed.”

“You aren’t going to convince me that the only reason I was acting so horrible was because I wanted to have sex with you,” she gritted out in a low whisper, trying to prevent her friends from overhearing, but well aware she was failing when they leaned forward eagerly.

Inuyasha smirked arrogantly and patted her on the head, “You’re calm now, aren’t you?”

“Weren’t we discussing my craving for potato chips just a second ago?” she folded her arms over her chest and gave him a very pointed glare, warning him to change the subject to something less personal.

He shook his head, holding the bag behind his back when she reached for it again, “You were arguing, I’m already done discussing. If it’s not natural, you shouldn’t be eating it, Kagome. I’ll find you something else to eat.”

“You’ll find something?” Kagome tilted her head and repeated in a disbelieving tone.

“Something fresh,” he rocked absently on the balls of his feet, his eyes going down to her stomach. “Healthy.”

Kagome arched an eyebrow and set her fists on her hips as she leaned up on her toes to growl at him, “I refuse to take nutritional advice from a hanyou who would live off nothing but instant ramen if given half the chance.”

“It’s completely different for a bitch,” he nodded sagely. “And since you’re my bitch, it’s my responsibility to make sure you’re eating properly.”

“Inuyasha, you have exactly two seconds to hand over that bag or I’m going to bite you, and this time you won’t like it.”

Shippou was biting down so hard on his lip he was sure he was about to draw blood as he glanced up at Sango and Miroku and whispered in delight, “Oh gods, this is even better than before!”

Miroku and Sango nodded in unison, all serious thoughts forgotten in light of the highly amusing scene playing out in front of them. Kagome was starting to growl in frustration, awkwardly trying to reach around the hanyou to grab at her chosen snack while he used his advantage of height to hold it just out of range each time.

“It’s almost like she’s completely back to normal,” Sango commented, her voice tinted with slight skepticism under her amusement. She was delighted to see the girl looking so well and acting so much like her old self, but did it really take the -in her eyes, extreme measures Inuyasha had employed?

“Inuyasha-sama selected the most appropriate way to deal with Kagome-sama’s state of mind,” Myouga murmured from his perch on Shippou’s shoulder, sipping at his sake as he did his best to look unconcerned with the entire situation.

“He must have or you’d have left the first time Okaa-san growled,” Shippou remarked dryly.

“You should show your elders more respect!” Myouga flushed and hopped in agitation while Shippou rolled his eyes and looked back at where Kagome was starting to boost herself up on Inuyasha’s legs to reach higher. “I already told you why I was away,” he huffed angrily.

Miroku glanced briefly at the flea before letting his gaze return to the bickering pair, “You had said you were making an effort to assist Inuyasha with this spell.”

“Of course I was!” Myouga snorted, folding his arms and tilting his nose up.

After a moment of nothing but the background sound of Inuyasha and Kagome arguing the nutritional properties of potato chips, the trio of onlookers gave Myouga nearly identical dry looks, “And?”

Myouga’s cheeks turned slightly pink, “Well… it’s ah… quite unique.”

Shippou propped his chin up on his hand, “If that’s all you’ve got, Inuyasha is definitely going to flatten you.”

The little flea fumed, bouncing up and down on Shippou’s head, “The spell is hard to research when none of the youkai knew such a thing was possible! I was more interested in their advice over how to transition Kagome-sama.”

“Transition?” Sango frowned in confusion.

“Well, she obviously can no longer live as a human,” he shrugged, settling back down and scratching his head absently. “Kagome-sama is even more youkai than Inuyasha, but for some reason, that seems to make Inuyasha-sama’s youkai blood stronger.”

“What do you mean by that?” Miroku’s curiosity spiked as he looked back and forth between the flea and the argument.

“Normally a hanyou’s body is too weak to sustain transformations back and forth from youkai to hanyou,” Myouga shrugged. “You are aware of that, and you saw the side effects when Inuyasha-sama changed before. Since the two of them were bound, Inuyasha-sama’s aura has grown more powerful. His body and mind make the transformation easily, and the usual clash between his human and youkai side have settled.”

“Kagome-sama helps his youkai blood?” Miroku blinked in mild surprise at that piece of information.

Myouga nodded sagely, “Something about the blood in her, whether it’s her own, or the youkai blood, it actually fights to make him stronger. If she senses he’s weakening or losing control, she pulls the excess from him, purifies it, and gives it back. She has been doing it more openly since she lost most of her human blood while she was in Naraku’s company, but even before that she was using her power to strengthen him. It’s not uncommon behavior between mates.”

“Ite! Dammit, bitch-!”

“Give me that bag, Inuyasha!”

“It isn’t good for you!”

“I’m looking for tasty, not healthy, you arrogant baka!”

Myouga sighed wearily, “Unfortunately, so is that.”

Sango gave him a highly disbelieving look, “You’re kidding, ne?”

The flea demon shook his head, heaving an exaggerated sigh of long-suffering as he wiped a little cloth across his head, “Inuyasha-sama and Kagome-sama are newly mated, and they are both vying for the position of dominance in their pairing. Mostly they won’t realize it, but it’s instinctive, and it will continue until Kagome-sama accepts Inuyasha-sama’s place.”

“You don’t think Kagome-chan will ‘win’ that position?” Sango frowned disapprovingly at the complete confidence Myouga seemed to have in the hanyou’s victory.

Shippou was the one who snorted and answered in his most “high and mighty” tone, “An inu male back down submissively? One like Inuyasha? Don’t be dense, Sango, Okaa-san’ll compromise WAY before he would even consider it. Look at the whole thing with her ‘collar,’ she hasn’t mentioned it or gone more than three feet from him since they got back.”

Miroku nodded in agreement, “Kagome-sama is far too compassionate to continue pushing him for extended periods of time, and she does not appear to mind unless she is trying to return to her time.”

She sighed and sat back, her eyes concerned, “It just… doesn’t seem fair to her.”

“Kagome-sama is happy with Inuyasha, Sango,” he assumed one of his most classic meditative poses, well aware her eyes were on his profile as he spoke. “We should be so lucky in the paths we choose for ourselves.”

Sango blinked, a faint blush touching her face, “Houshi-sama…”

Miroku’s hand froze where it hovered over the curve of Sango’s backside when a ringing “Pervert!” rose over the sound of Inuyasha’s voice, turning his stomach upside down with the remarkable speed he’d been caught in this time. He pulled back, expecting to feel either the bite of Sango’s hand, or worse, the weight of her Hiraikotsu coming down over his head. However, when he opened his eyes, he saw Sango’s eyes again across the path and turned in mild surprise to blink at the now oddly positioned pair, ‘It was Kagome?’

“You WOULD think something like that at a time like this!” Kagome was hissing down at Inuyasha, her cheeks flushed with renewed embarrassment.

“It would only be perverted if I wasn’t your mate, bitch,” he shot back, still holding the chips out of her reach. “And the answer is still no. Sit down and I’ll get you something else!”

Shippou shook his head at their behavior, deciding it was time to give Inuyasha a little help when Miroku and Sango both began to snicker behind their hands. He scampered down to where his “parents” were arguing, Inuyasha bent so far back that Shippou was astounded the hanyou hadn’t gone toppling over backwards. Especially since Kagome was kneeling on his stomach, leaning over him in her efforts to get at the bag of chips in his outstretched hand.

Taking advantage of the mutual distraction, Shippou stretched up on his toes and snatched the bag of chips for himself before making his way back to his perch by the amused human pair, “This would probably be a lot easier all around if they weren’t the two most stubborn people in the world.”

Miroku absently reached over to take a chip when the kitsune ripped the bag open, relieved at not being on the receiving end of a slap for his aborted attempt, and munching as he commented thoughtfully, “But a great deal less entertaining.”

“True,” he grinned up at the monk, his tail flicking. “How long until she gives in and ‘sits’ him?”

“I imagine it will be as soon as she realizes you’ve eaten her chips,” Miroku nodded once, his expression yet again set in calm, stoic lines.

Shippou glared at him, making a mental note to stash the bag somewhere near the monk when he finished with it, “I’m being helpful. If I eat them, they won’t have something to fight over. Inuyasha gets to bring her food, Okaa-san still gets to eat, everybody’s happy.”

“And since when do you concern yourself with how Inuyasha and Kagome-chan are getting along?” Sango’s brows lifted suspiciously. “You’re usually the one trying to encourage Kagome-chan to get annoyed with him.”

“With everything that’s happened, it doesn’t seem fair to do that,” he shrugged, immensely proud of himself for already having considered getting this question. After his other attempts at keeping secrets from Sango and Miroku, this time he had prepared, “They need to relax just as much as the rest of us do.”

Any response they might have made went on hold when Inuyasha let out an unintelligible sound of annoyance and purposefully dropped back. Kagome broke off growling immediately, squeaking in surprise and tangling her hands in his haori reflexively to hold on. He grunted when his back hit the grass, absorbing the impact and frowning up at her while his hands went to her hips.

“Do you have to fight with me about every little thing, koi?” he squeezed lightly, rubbing his hands up to the narrow curve of her waist and back down.

Kagome set her jaw against the urge to give into the warmth in his amber eyes and the soothing stroke, “It’s just a snack, Inuyasha. It’s not like I’m knocking back anything dangerous.”

“You’ll still be better off with real food,” he pinched her, smirking when she yipped and slapped at his hands. “Come on, just sit here and I’ll find something safe for you. Let me take care of it before the sun goes down and we see what swaps.”

“I don’t like this calm, cheerful hanyou who’s seemed to have taken over your body, Inuyasha,” she muttered, leaning over to tweak his ear. “He’s obnoxious, and he makes me miss my rude, arrogant, immature mate. The one who let me eat whatever I wanted.”

Inuyasha chuckled at her disgruntled tone, nipping at her breast as he sat up and wrapped his arms around her to keep her from jumping back, “Smart ass.”

She folded her arm over her chest and huffed, frowning as she realized both his hands were on her. She leaned around, searching the grass for the bag, “What happened to my chips?”

Inuyasha blinked, looking down at both his hands, up at her, and then over to the others just in time to see Shippou dump the bag in the monk’s lap. Despite his best efforts he was chuckling as he nudged Kagome’s cheek with his chin, “You have a thief.”

“Thief?” she repeated in confusion, following the direction until her eyes fell on Miroku, the bag in his lap as he obliviously munched on yet another chip. Her eyes narrowed, “Excuse me, Inuyasha, I have to go chew off someone’s hand.”

Inuyasha was biting back his amusement when he felt her chest start to vibrate with a growl, stroking her back soothingly, “Easy, koi, don’t puff up and kill him just yet. He’s a good fighter.”

“A good fighter who’s eating my food when you won’t let me,” she muttered.

He shrugged, “I don’t care if he gets sick, but whether you do or not is a completely different matter.”

Kagome stuck out her tongue, planting both hands on his chest and shoving as she rose to her feet, “You’re being overbearing.”

“You love me this way,” he returned with a smug look, folding his arms behind his head.

“Mmm, apparently I’m out of my mind,” she rolled her eyes, stepping on his stomach and smirking at his surprised grunt as she started towards their friends.

Shippou was already bouncing in delight, holding out his arms to be picked up when she came close, “Are we stopping for the night?”

Inuyasha rolled to his feet in a fluid motion, stretching as he shook his head and followed Kagome’s progess with overprotective concern, “We have enough time to eat and make it back to Kaede-baba’s by sunset. I’d rather be there when we find out how my blood decides to handle the new moon this time.”

“I’m hungry, Inuyasha, and I’m not feeling very patient,” Kagome lifted Shippou absently, stroking his hair as he snuggled up to her stomach and grinned. “If you can’t get me something soon, I’m eating your ramen.”

“All right, all right,” he rolled his eyes and casually went to her side and kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be back soon, and I won’t be far. Yell if you need me.”

She made a face but reached out and squeezed his hand reassuringly, “I can keep out of trouble for a few minutes.”

“I’d feel even better if you promised to sit down in one spot and wait for me,” he reached out and slid his arm around her waist.

“Don’t push your luck,” Kagome leaned up on her toes, giving his hair a yank even as she gave him a quick kiss. “Go, I want food.”

Inuyasha chuckled, wishing he had the freedom to tease her about getting demanding now that she was pupped, but wisely keeping that to himself. Instead he nodded, lifting her off her feet and sitting her down on the grass between Sango and Miroku, “Stay.”

“Sonofa-!” Kagome fumed when her legs went numb, but Inuyasha was still holding her up enough the she didn’t slam to the ground. “Inuyasha!!”

He patted her on the head and darted off in a blur, the sound of his laughter echoing back to them.

“Oooh, I’m going to kill that baka,” Kagome hissed in irritation, turning to glare in the direction she could feel him in.

Miroku very calmly diffused her temper, handing her the remainder of the chips, “At least wait until after you have eaten, Kagome-sama.”

Shippou intercepted the bag and hopped off her lap, shaking his head when Kagome looked at him in surprise, “You really probably shouldn’t eat these if they’re not fresh, Okaa-san.”

Kagome’s brows lowered suspiciously, tilting her head and looking up at first Sango and then Miroku, “Am I sick? Did Inuyasha tell you something when I wasn’t awake or when I was gone?”

They shook their heads, looking equally confused while Sango remarked absently, “Maybe it’s just universally a youkai male thing… They hovered before whenever you were ill, what if they just think this is how to prevent it?”

“I AM still here, you know,” Shippou grumbled dryly at being excluded from the conversation so quickly.

Miroku ignored the comment, rubbing his chin and appearing to ponder, “Inuyasha’s logic is not always easily understood.”

“True,” Kagome chewed on her lip and then brightened. “Myouga-jiji!”

The little flea gulped, freezing on Shippou’s head, “Me, Kagome-sama?”

She fidgetted, rubbing her thighs in an effort to speed the return of feeling, “You usually know what’s going on with Inuyasha, Myouga-jiji. Why is he being so fanatical about what I eat?”

“Ah…well… you see,” Myouga cleared his throat nervously, looking around the circle of inquistive faces. “It’s… it’s not uncommon for a youkai to have such concerns when newly mated, Kagome-sama. Especially with a… young mate,” he clasped his hands together in an effort to look more calm.

Sango frowned and shared a look with Kagome before turning her attention back to the flea, “A young mate?”

Kagome shook her head, “This isn’t really making sense, you know. I don’t see what being young has to do with Inuyasha and Shippou not wanting me to eat potato chips.”

Once again, Myouga was saved from having to answer when Inuyasha came bounding back into the clearing, looking supremely proud of himself as he showed off a fat pair of rabbits. Kagome blinked up at him and couldn’t help but giggle behind her hand, whispering to Sango, “Damn, I love it when he looks like that.”

Sango’s own lips twitched in amusement, “You mean like he’s about ten years old?”

She nodded, giving him a warm smile as he walked over to her and crouched down, “That was fast.”

“I had to get back before you could get up and wander around without me,” he smirked and held the rabbits out to her. “Does your little portable fire thing cook meat or just water?”

“I think it can handle rabbits,” Kagome reached up and scratched his ear, her smile growing when he tilted his head into her touch. When he grinned and went to poke at the little stove, she shook her head and added to the exterminator, “The only bad thing about it is that I can’t stay mad when he looks like that.”

Miroku blinked when the two of them giggled quietly behind their hands, tilting his head and looking over at the hanyou curiously, ‘Is it really that simple?’

Shippou looked a bit annoyed, wandering away from Kagome and over to Inuyasha, “You need to tell her soon, Inuyasha. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

Inuyasha looked down at him, frowning as he glanced over to Kagome and make sure she wasn’t listening, “What do you mean it’s harder than you thought?”

“She’s not completely naive, baka,” Shippou rolled his eyes. “And any idiot would notice suddenly getting told what to eat. She’s asking Myouga-jiji if it’s normal youkai behavior.”

“How the fuck does he know?” Inuyasha’s brows lowered in irritation.

“He IS a youkai, and you can’t think he wouldn’t try doing his flea thing,” he shrugged. “You weren’t exactly subtle about marking her either. Any youkai can sense or smell what you did. Except her, but I doubt she knows what to feel for.”

“One of these days I’m going to beat your head in until you tell me how old you really are,” he huffed impatiently, cleaning the rabbits and tearing strips of meat to lay across the heated surface.

Shippou snickered, “I’m young, not stupid. Otou-san used to say I drove him crazy with how many questions I’d ask.”

Inuyasha blinked down at him, more than a little amazed that the kitsune was talking about his murdered father so easily, ‘Is it this? Feeling like he’s in a pack again that makes him relax?’

“Anyhow,” he shrugged again and glanced over at Kagome, “he also used to say that when a bitch is… like that, you shouldn’t ever keep them waiting if they’re hungry. He said Okaa-san got mean before I was born.”

He smiled in amusement, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Shippou nodded, plopping down beside the hanyou and rocking absently, “So do I get to name one of them?”

Inuyasha nearly burned himself, gaping down at the kitsune in shock, “What did you just say?!”

He glanced up innocently, his tail swishing back and forth, “It’s only fair, ne? I’m their big brother!”

“How many fucking hearbeats are you hearing?” he hissed in shock, grabbing hold of the kit and lifting him up face to face.

“Inuyasha?” Kagome’s voice had both their heads snapping up guiltily, but her attention was past them, on the meat.

Inuyasha let out a relieved breath and snatched up a strip, holding it out to her, “It’s better for you if it’s still a little-“

“Bloody,” Shippou supplied when the hanyou trailed off, not nearly as concerned with what her human side might think of that kind of thing.

Luckily for both of them, Kagome simply sat down beside the two and snatched it out of his hands, barely chewing before she swallowed and held out her hand for more. Inuyasha blinked, shared a look with the kitsune who just shrugged again and prodded for him to comply. Inuyasha shook his head and smirked, obediently passing her another piece of meat, “Try to chew this time, koi. Slowly.”

She stuck out her tongue again, but took more time with the second piece, “I’m starving, Inuyasha. I just… didn’t realize it until I smelled this.”

He set Shippou on his shoulder, reaching over to hook his hands under her arms and drag her over into his lap. He turned her around to set her back against his chest, wrapping an arm around her waist and tucking his legs up around her, “I’ll make sure you have more tonight.”

Kagome nodded and reached for another piece, “That sounds good.”

Sango looked across the clearing at them, sighing more than a little enviously, “I think you were right, houshi-sama. She is happy, isn’t she?”

Miroku nodded, “Hard to believe considering… well, everything, but I find it most difficult to imagine either of them with anyone else.”

She propped her chin up on her hand when Kagome nipped at Inuyasha’s fingers for holding the last piece of meat out of her reach, “If they don’t kill each other.”

“Have no fear of that, Sango,” he leaned back, closing his eyes and giving every appearance of perfect relaxation. “Kagome-sama and Inuyasha would never seriously do each other harm.”

Kagome was thinking along a much different vein when Inuyasha slipped a piece past her to eat himself, “Inuyasha, si-“

He cut her off, clapping a hand over his mouth, “Don’t! We’re too close to sunset and the last time that happened, you were the one who went down.”

Kagome’s brow furrowed as her eyes searched his, slowly nodding as he drew his hand away, “All right…”

Inuyasha sighed, smiling in satisfaction, “Wait until morning, koi. If you’re still angry at me then, you can say it.”

Her eyes narrowed slightly, suspiciously as he turned his attention back to feeding her, absently chiding Shippou not to make himself sick on the chips. ‘Something strange is definitely going on. But what in the world could make Inuyasha act like this? And Shippou!’

Kagome watched them unobtrusively from beneath the shielding curtain of her hair, ‘What could you two be hiding?’

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