Consequences

Chapter Five

By Ami/Clara

"Well, are you?" Inu Yasha asked quietly.

Kagome was silent for several moments, wondering, 'How? How can he possibly already know?' The only other person who she had told was her mother, and that particular person would not have had the opportunity to inform the father to be. In fact, if she had seen Inu Yasha, she probably would have sent him off to the vet to be fixed. Kagome didn't know whether to be disturbed or giggle at the thought.

But the seriousness of the situation quickly came back, and Kagome instead grimaced. 'I was supposed to have more time!' she thought, carefully avoiding Inu Yasha's questioning gaze. It wasn't fair! He was supposed to have let her work up the courage and brace herself for yet another rejection.

Kagome tried to work up anger at the situation in general and Inu Yasha in particular, but could not hold it. Instead, settling in its place was an emotion she had hoped to avoid. The same icy fear and panic that she had felt upon first seeing the test's results was back with a vengeance.

'Please,' she thought, 'Don't make me tell you. Not yet. I don't think I'm prepared for another rejection.' Kagome buried her face in the hanyou's kimono, hoping he would understand the message her mind was trying to send.

The silence stretched for minutes on end. 'If she wasn't,' Inu Yasha thought, 'Wouldn't she have smacked me by now for getting such a stupid idea? Wouldn't she have 'sit'ted me a few times for expressing such a crazy idea aloud?'

Inu Yasha wondered if he was right after all. Part of him was afraid of the idea that he might become an idea. Afraid that he wouldn't be ready for such a huge responsibility. He tried to bury those fears, push them away where they could not bother him. Another part, one which he was also was trying to repress, was hoping that he was correct. That he would have a real family for once. A child whom he could raise better than he had been.

'But, if she was, wouldn't she have answered by now either way?' wondered Inu Yasha. He opened his mouth to ask her if she was alright, when she suddenly buried her face in his shirt. Inu Yasha's mouth remained open, but instead of for its original purpose of speaking, it was open from shock. He had made her cry? But how? He hadn't even done anything wrong this time!

The more important question for now, though, was how to get her to stop. Inu Yasha couldn't handle it when girls cried, especially his Kagome. He rarely knew what made them cry, and definitely did not know how to make them cease the annoying sound which never failed to make him feel guilty. He was just about to attempt the tried and true method of apologizing (though he had no idea what for), as that almost always worked, when Kagome finally spoke.

"I'm sorry..." she whispered.

Inu Yasha blinked in confusion. He did not even get to enjoy his victory in that she was the one apologizing for once, as he was still feeling badly about her crying. But, at least she had stopped! Of course, he had as much idea as to why she was apologizing as he did for the ones for his attempted apology. Well, other than the fact that Inu Yasha had been hoping to get her to stop the sobbing.

"Sorry for what?" he asked. Kagome merely repeated that she was sorry. For lack of any other ideas as to what to do, he awkwardly patted her on the back, attempting to comfort her. This was made twice as hard by the fact that Inu Yasha was still holding her in his arms. "Uh... it's... um... okay?" he said unsure as to what was 'okay.'

Finally, after another large chunk of time, Kagome lifted her head from his shoulder. By now said shoulder, it's counterpart, and Inu Yasha's arms were rather stiff from lack of movement and the strain of holding Kagome's weight. He had made sure to not even shift much, worried that anything might set her off again. Thus, Inu Yasha by now was a nervous wreck.

Kagome's eyes were red and a little bloodshot and her face was splotchy from her bout of crying. This did not make her any less beautiful in Inu Yasha's eyes (not that he would admit to anyone that he found her beautiful), though she did look much more fragile than normal. Slowly, hesitantly, she moved her head towards his until their noses almost touched. Kagome paused for a moment, before kissing him lightly on the lips.

It took all of Inu Yasha's self-restraint* not to jump in surprise. For the second time since he had picked her up, he almost dropped her. 'What the HELL is going on?!' he wondered with not just a dash of bewilderment. After a few seconds which seemed to last an eternity, but were still over altogether too soon for Inu Yasha, Kagome pulled away. She looked into his dazed eyes, and nodded as if to herself. She then proceeded to lay her head back down to rest on his shoulder.

Inu Yasha took the opportunity to review roughly the last hour over again to himself. He then came to a conclusion. There were only two possibilities. Either Kagome really was sick, and somehow he had caught part of the disease (which would explain why his nose said she was pregnant) or he was having one really messed up dream.

Deciding that this probably was not a dream, Inu Yasha clapped a hand over Kagome's forehead. It DID feel a little warmer than was usual, he told himself. He was not just making some excuse for the weirdness (at least, compared to usual) of the past hour. Thus, with the knowledge of her illness in mind, what to do next came easily to Inu Yasha. He would merely take her home and let her family deal with her. Unfortunately, it had never occurred to Inu Yasha that the kiss had been her answer.

Author's Note:

Gah! I'm gonna stop it there. I know, you all waited so long for so little ^^;; Unfortunately, I still can't find Keir's e-mail address, so this is fairly unedited as well. As for the delay, I have many reasons. First, I couldn't find my notebook which contained most of this and where this is going. Also, I am in the middle of being in a musical, have NAHS, and several other things to contend with. Oh, and I would just like to do a little advertising for those of you in the Indiana area who are interested in going to an anime convention. November 15-17, 2002, C-kon is going to be held in Indianapolis, IN. The website for this is www.ckon2002.com. Yours truly is going to not only be on the panel, but also heading it up. And I need panelists! If you're interested, please contact me at onna_no_tenshi@yahoo.com. Please put panelists, ckon, or something of that nature in the subject if you're interested. Also, if you're too lazy to go to the site to get the information, you can e-mail me if you wish for more information on ckon. It's going to be so awesome!! ^-^

Okay, enough shameless plugging ^^;;; I'll really quickly explain some stuff going on in this that some of you are wondering about. As for Kagome's mother's reaction, part of that has to do with Japanese culture (what little of it I know about ^^;). In America, it's a lot more acceptable to be pregnant before marriage (not saying that we encourage it, necessarily). In Japan, it's completely unacceptable and grounds for shunning and disownment. At least, this is what my research has turned up. Also, while Kagome's mother is really nice throughout the series, she is human. I doubt that after finding out something quite so shocking like that she's just going to smile and say, "That's nice, dear." Um, so hopefully that cleared that up some. As to the whole comment on it sounding like most of the women put the carriage before the horse... *giggles nervously*... Well, actually I'm attempting to set up a little (at least, I hope it will be little) companion story, and that comment about ancestors actually had a bit to do with the story. Not saying that I will definitely be doing a companion story, just that if I have the time, desire, and chance to do so I probably will. I don't want to commit myself yet, though ^^;; Um, and as for how Kagome's acting, well, she's pregnant! I myself have been around some pregnant woman. While normally it depends on the person, most of them have horrible mood swings, and cry and get angry easily. And there lies my own desire to adopt ^^;; As for everyone else, I hope I'm doing okay on characterizations and having them react as the situation warrents. I hope that clears a few things up!