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Hands
When Kagome came back through the well, Inuyasha was sure she would regret it the next morning. But then he held her hands: no longer baby soft from the modern era, but labor worn and ready to work.
The whole time she was gone, Kagome never let her hands go soft. She’d joined the archery club at school, building layer after layer of protective calluses on her fingertips. She let her nails crack and chip as she dug her hands into the dirt of her little backyard vegetable garden.
It wasn’t an accident - she made a choice.
She was coming home.
Marriage
It didn’t matter how many times he heard it. In the months since their marriage Inuyasha must have heard it a hundred thousand times; but each and every utterance was still almost unbelievable.
These are for your wife.
Say hello to your wife for me.
I’m Kagome, his wife.
It would never cease to amaze him how Kagome cherished that title so much. To hear her say it you would this she was announcing that she was emperor, not that she went to bed with a halfbreed every night. When they were first married, he was terrified of calling her that outside of their hut, worried the wrong kind of people would hear him. But Kagome might as well have embroidered it on her clothes or tattooed on her face with how often she used their married titles.
This is my husband, Inuyasha.
Husband, can you carry this?
Miroku is looking for you, husband.
She was never ashamed of him, of their life, and she wasn’t going to let him be afraid or ashamed either. She was his — his wife, the mother of his children, his Kagome — forever, and she wasn’t ever going to let anyone forget it.
Firsts
Inuyasha and Kagome had differing opinions regarding their first born. Kagome was sure his grey hair would turn the dominant inuyoukai white, while Inuyasha was confident it would get darker to look more like Kagome’s. They disagreed about teaching him fighting skills versus meditation, and about if reiki and demonic energy could coexist in the same very tiny person.
But there was one thing they absolutely agreed on from the moment he was born. The name Kenji — because while he may be their first baby, he was their second son.
*A Quick Note: Kenji is a popular given name for second-born sons, and is written with the kanji for two
I know Jiro is more common for 2nd sons but I like how Kenji sounds more and I am but a simple writer filled with feels who wanted Shippo to get an adoption moment and I think this is it.
Battle Couple
Inuyasha and Kagome: together they could do anything. They’d battled ogres, slain demons, obliterated evil all over Japan.
But this baby was going to fucking kill them.
Inuyasha understood, really he did. He hated his human night, too. Kenji, though, had three human nights and even after six months he wasn’t coping with the change any better.
Inuyasha reviewed their weapons arsenal: biting toys, cold rags, radishes, and Kenji’s favorite stick.
Kagome tried to give him a pep-talk, “ We survived Naraku! We can survive two more human nights!”
Inuyasha nodded. She was right, they’d make it through this.
Probably.
Warmth
One of the hardest things for Kagome to adjust to in the Feudal Era was the cold. When they were shard hunting, the quest would effectively be called off once the mountains filled with snow.
Her first winter back she burned a whole week’s worth of firewood in two days.
But this winter - her fourth since coming home - she had one full-sized Inuyasha-shaped radiator sleeping against her back, one mini-Inuyasha shaped radiator sprawled across her chest, and another growing in her womb.
She’d never felt warmer.
Promise
Inuyasha laid in bed, trying to ignore his children. All three boys vibrated with excitement for a trip to the fruit grove. They loved competing over who could pick the most and Kagome appreciated the alone time with their newest pup, Kumiko; but Inuyasha was exhausted and absolutely did not want to travel an hour each way for fruit he didn’t even like.
“Daddy you promised !”
He sighed. As much as he didn’t want to go, he wanted to break a promise even less. So with Shippo carrying Souta and Inuyasha carrying Kenji they went to the stupid fruit grove.
Transformation
It was classic divide and conquer parenting: Inuyasha would teach them all about demon-transformation, Kagome would teach them about puberty.
Kagome assembled her class – Shippo (age unknown), Kenji (15), Souta (12), Kumiko (11) – and laid out all her instructional diagrams. She’d had the birds and the bees talk with them all before, even Yuji (4, napping with Dad). But now that Kumiko was getting older, it was time for lesson two.
Kagome may live in the feudal era, but she was raising thoroughly modern boys who understood what their little sister (and every other women they knew) was going through monthly.