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Inuyasha looked at the child in Kagome's arms with surprise and then curiosity. He even quietly walked forward and leaned over the back of the couch to sniff at the infant, much the way she might have expected a dog to do.
"Where'd you get the kid?" he finally asked, giving the pair of them a curious look.
Kagome grinned up at him. "My mom stole her from my cousin until she gets over her flu," she replied, turning from his startled expression to look down at the baby.
"Your poor mommy wasn't feewing very good was she?" Kagome asked the infant in a babying voice. "I don't feel vewy good when I'm sick either."
The child only cooed in return, reaching up for a lock of black hair.
"The mother has a disease?" Inuyasha asked in a somewhat alarmed voice.
Kagome looked up at Inuyasha and nodded. "Yeah. The flu. But It's not a big a deal in my time. To most people, it just means a few days of throwing up and general misery. Then you're over it."
He looked from Kagome to the baby in her arms uncertainly. "You sure?"
The girl nodded once more. "Yeah. I've had the flu plenty of times. Trust me, so long as she stays hydrated and gets plenty of rest and medicine she'll be better in no time."
She looked back down at the child. "But if little Suki-chan here had caught it she might not have handled it so well, so my mother volunteered to take care of her until it's safe to go back."
Inuyasha relaxed a bit. "I get it."
"Why don't you come sit with us?" Kagome offered, reaching over with one hand and patting the cushion on the couch beside her. "Mom went out to pick up dinner so when she gets back we can all eat."
He hesitantly nodded, walked around the side of the couch and sat beside her, once more looking down at the baby intently. His ears twitched when she made some small noise or movement.
The tiny girl finally seemed to catch sight of him. Her gray eyes fixed themselves on a lock of his long white hair and she reached toward him with a pleased gurgle.
"Aww, look at that, she likes you," Kagome said, flashing the half-demon a grin.
Finally, Inuyasha looked away. "Keh."
"Have you ever held a baby before?" she asked good-naturedly.
"No," he replied neutrally.
"Do you want to try?" she asked, smiling wider.
"Er… Not really."
Kagome's smile melted a little but she simply shrugged. "That's fine. A lot of men aren't very interested in babies. Souta practically bolted when Mama asked him."
"It's not that I'm not interested," Inuyasha clarified with a look of mild embarrassment. "I just don't wanna hurt her." He looked back at the child with an expression full of worry. "She's so little."
Kagome smiled and nudged him with her shoulder playfully. He blinked and looked up at her.
"Then how about this? If you're worried about holding her you could just let her touch your hand? And then if you feel like it, you can work your way up from there."
He brightened a little at the suggestion and nodded.
Kagome only too happily moved the baby into a better position and Inuyasha turned to lean over her a little more. The baby half gurgled half laughed and eagerly reached toward him.
Slowly, almost timidly, Inuyasha reached out his right hand to hover just in front of the infant's eyes.
She focused on his fingers intently and then reached up with both hands. Her left found his index finger and couldn't even wrap all the way around it, her right locked onto his pinky finger.
She made a pleased sound and pulled the hand toward her mouth. He allowed the motion but seemed a little alarmed when she tugged his fingers into a toothless mouth and started to chew on them.
"The hell?" he mumbled, looking at Kagome for some explanation.
The miko giggled. "Babies will put just about anything in their mouths," she informed him with a soft smile. "It's their way of investigating something new. Like how you sniff at things first."
He tilted his ears in confusion at the information but took her word for it, turning his eyes back to the baby while being very careful to stay still, he allowed the infant to knaw harmlessly on his fingers.
After a little while, the baby apparently decided she was bored with his hand and pushed him away to rapidly grab at a lock of white hair.
The dog demon winced slightly when she captured her prize but bore it well.
"She was tugging on my hair earlier too," Kagome commented with a sympathetic grin.
"She's pretty strong," he commented with a tone of surprise in his voice.
She nodded and grinned. "So wanna go a little further?"
He gave the child a considering look. After a moment or two without a strong reaction from him, little Suki had already grown bored of tugging and started to draw the lock of hair into her mouth.
To Kagome's surprise, Inuyasha gave a short deep chuckle and just gently pulled the hair away.
"Sorry kid that's mine," he told her playfully before flicking the lock over his shoulder and well out of reach.
The little girl blinked and made a sound of upset that made Inuyasha's playful look turn into an expectant wince. But thankfully Kagome appeased the child by quickly reaching into a bag by her feet and handing her a small stuffed sheep that jingled.
The baby lost focus on her building tantrum the second the toy was in front of her and took it wth an excited gurgle shaking it violently.
Inuyasha relaxed and grinned as the girl played with the new toy, thrusting it toward him as if showing off her prize.
"See? Much better than hair right Suki-chan?" Kagome told the baby, bouncing her a little.
"You're good at this," Inuyasha commented.
"So are you," she returned with a knowing smile. "Plenty of guys try to yank away from a baby if they start getting grabby. And if someone reacts too loudly or too much they could end up scaring the baby or worse make her think the reaction is funny so she starts doing it MORE. But your reactions are really good."
His ears perked at the praise. "Really?"
"Yep. You're a natural."
The baby shook her little toy sheep one more time and brought it back to her mouth with a subdued "Wahaah…"
"…You think... your cousin would MIND... if I held her?" Inuyasha asked hesitantly after a thoughtful moment.
"Of course not. In fact, I bet she'd insist since you've never had the chance before. Besides Mom's told her a lot about you."
"You're sure?"
"Positive."
He stared at the baby thoughtfully. For a moment, Kagome thought he might decline.
"…Okay," he answered at last, though a bit uncertainly. "But just for a little while."
Kagome's smile was beatific as she nodded and slowly adjusted the baby girl in her arms to shift her over to him.
"Okay, you see how I'm holding my arms now? Try to copy me and I'll ease her over to you," she instructed.
He quickly emulated the position of her arms. "Like this?"
She nodded. "Now the tricky part is to make sure you're supporting her head with your elbow, like this." Kagome rose the baby up a little, showing him her positioning. "She's too little to support the weight herself."
A small look of fear flickered in his eyes as he looked up at her, but she just smiled. "Don't worry Inuyasha, I'll be right here with you the whole time. Nothing's going to happen."
He hesitantly nodded and slowly, gently, Kagome eased the little girl into his arms. Once transferred, he held her against his chest stiffly.
"You're doing fine," Kagome soothed. "You can relax a little."
"…If I do something wrong I could kill her," Inuyasha murmured with a solemn expression as he stared down at the baby.
The infant seemed to be confused about her change in arrangments, but she was more than happy to explore them. Quickly, a little hand clasped the front of his haori and made an attempt at pulling that into her mouth as well. The sheep toy laid forgotten on her belly.
"You'd be surprised how resilient human babies are," Kagome smiled. "My dad accidently dropped me once when I was about this age and I wasn't hurt at all."
That knowledge did ease Inuyasha's worry a little. But it was hard to completely convince himself that such a fragile thing could really be safe in the arms of a being that could tear demons to pieces with its bare hands. One wrong move and he could easily end up crushing her or nicking her with his claws…
Still, it meant a lot that Kagome and her family trusted him with something so precious. He glanced up at the miko to see her looking back completely relaxed and at ease.
He quickly looked back down and grumbled half-heartedly, "Explains a few things about you,"
The girl gave a soft snort of laughter. "Does not! I turned out great and you know it!" she goaded playfully.
Inuyasha smiled a little in return and finally started to relax. "Maybe," he replied distractedly.
Kagome's smile warmed. "See? This isn't so hard."
"I guess not," he allowed, carefully adjusting his hold.
-Click-
Two sets of surprised eyes looked up to see Kagome's mother peeking out at them from the kitchen holding a camera. Inuyasha merely blinked at the contraption but Kagome immediately blushed.
"Mom! You can't just sneak pictures like that!" she scolded.
"But I just HAD to get a picture of you two practicing." Mrs. Higurashi teased.
There was a quickly a second -Click- that captured The pair's matching looks of embarrassed mortification.
"M-Mom, seriously! Cut it out!" Kagome practically squeaked.
The older woman simply flashed the two a bright innocent smile and dodged back to the kitchen with a muffled chuckle.
After a moment of intense embarrassment, a soft coo met the harassed hanyou's ears and he looked down to see little Suki-chan once more reaching for a lock of his hair, an almost determined look on her little face.
And despite Mrs. Higurashi's teasing, Inuyasha grinned.