InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ As Fate Would Have It ❯ Chapter 21

Chapter 21

 

Inuyasha paced back and forth outside the birthing room door. He couldn't stand being cooped up in that room- regardless of how spacious they claimed it was. Granted, it was bigger than some of the other rooms in the building where other humans were, but it still wasn't big enough for him to feel comfortable in for too long.

 

Every so often he'd peek inside at his mate, who lay propped up on a weird elevated bed. A strange machine that was attached to bands around her greatly rounded belly was making constant little beeps, which those people working there said was a monitor keeping track of his pups' heartbeats.

 

He snorted mentally. All they had to do was ask me and I'd be able to tell them how their heartbeats are. I've been listening to them for months now.

 

The pacing hanyou wanted to run his claws through his hair, but the bandanna covering his ears prevented that. He glanced down at his “modern” attire, wishing for not the first time that he was back in his hakama and haori rather than these stupid things called “jeans.”

 

Tetsusaiga he had managed to smuggle into Kagome's birthing room, where it sat propped up in a corner behind the door, where no one would think to look. Not that he felt he needed it, but he felt safer knowing it was nearby.

 

A whimper from the room had Inuyasha cracking his knuckles and dashing to Kagome's side. His mate was propped up in the strange looking bed, gripping the blankets as she fought through another birthing pain. “K-kagome?”

 

Tiredly, she opened her eyes to look at her mate. “Inu… yasha…” she whispered, beads of sweat on her brow. “Gomen…”

 

“You're sorry? What the hell for?”

 

She smiled wearily. “For… being so… weak.”

 

“Weak?! How in all the hells are you weak?!” he retorted angrily. “You're doing something that even I wouldn't be able to handle!”

 

Kagome managed an amused smile. “True… I doubt even the son… of the great Inu no Taishou… would be able to… give birth to twins… without crying.” She winced and whimpered again as another contraction gripped her belly.

 

She reached out to him with a shaking hand, which he gripped in his steady one. “Inuyasha? How… is Sango doing? It's been so long… since I've seen her.”

 

Realizing dimly that she needed something to take her mind off the pains, he tried to reassure her. “Sango's doing great. Not as nearly as big as you are, but she's definitely getting there.”

 

She glared at him as she panted her way through another contraction, clutching his hand in a death grip that almost made him wince. “Are you calling me fat?” she growled at him, her voice worthy of any youkai.

 

He blinked innocently. “N-no… of course not!” Kami save him from a woman in labor. “Miroku and I have a wager going as to what she's gonna have.”

 

Kagome chuckled wryly. “No doubt you put your money on a boy.”

 

“Keh! I'll have you know that I said it'll be a girl. And it ain't money.”

 

Gripping the sheets again, Kagome looked at him with one eye while the other one was squinted shut. “What… did you bet… then?”

 

“Don't you think you should concentrate on having our pups instead of something that don't concern you?”

 

“I need to concentrate on something other than the pain!” she snarled back.

 

Luckily for the chastened hanyou, a nurse chose that moment to come in to check the monitor. “Mrs. Higurashi? How are you doing?”

 

Kagome glared at the nurse. “Get them out of me. Now.”

 

The nurse chuckled as Inuyasha backed away toward the door, ready to flee again. “Don't worry. From the looks of things, everything is going perfectly fine. Just let me check to see how far you are…”

 

Inuyasha ran out of the room before the nurse could check his mate. There's no way I'm gonna be in here while she's doing that.

 

The nurse didn't even bat an eye at Inuyasha's retreat. She checked Kagome, then beamed up at the laboring girl with a bright smile.

 

“Congratulations! You're ready to roll.”

 

Kagome blinked. “It… it's time? To push?”

 

The nurse chuckled as she walked to the phone and paged Dr. Ichida to come to the labor and delivery room. “Yup. Pretty soon you'll be holding those little wigglers in your arms instead of your belly.”

 

Inuyasha, with his superior hearing, poked his head in the door, looking warily at his mate. “Say what?”

 

“She says it's time to push them out, baka,” Kagome panted. “So you better not think about running out again!”

 

He flushed as he stepped back into the room. “I wasn't running out. I just can't handle being in this room.”

 

She snorted. “Liar.”

 

“You just can't handle seeing your wife in pain, am I correct, Mr. Higurashi?”

 

The poor hanyou grunted. There wasn't anything in that statement he wanted to admit with. He turned away from the nurse, wishing yet again for his haori so he could stuff his hands in his sleeves.

 

The nurse smiled her reassurances at Kagome. “Don't you worry now. I'll get the other assistants and be back before you know it.” She patted Kagome's arm and then left the room.

 

Inuyasha eyed his mate. “Y-you… are you… okay?”

 

The laboring miko growled at him. “Of course I'm not okay! I'm giving birth here!!”

 

Swallowing his pride, the hanyou stepped over to the side of the bed, his face saddened. “Gomen nasai… for doing this to you.”

 

Kagome blinked up at him in surprise as he brushed her temple gently with the back of his hand.

 

“Inuyasha… “ she whispered. Then she managed to smile at him. “Aishiteru.”

 

He blinked at her. She still loved him after he had done this to her? Would wonders never cease…

 

Smiling, he leaned down to kiss her sweetly. “Aishiteru, Kagome.”

 

A deliberate cough signaled the arrival of Dr. Ichida and her assistants. “It's good to see she's not trying to castrate you, Mr. Higurashi. I've seen so many laboring women threatening their husband's manhood for putting them through such agony.” The doctor grinned mischievously at the flushing hanyou. “Although the rewards are worth far more than the price of the pain.”

 

The nurses bustled around the room, one readying the warming bassinets for the imminent arrivals, while another propped Kagome into a sitting position. Yet another nurse removed the foot of her bed (which surprised Inuyasha- he hadn't known the bed could do that) so that the doctor could do her thing.

 

A few more assistants came in- two for each bassinet, therefore, two for each baby. They stood at the ready, blankets and towels in arms as they waited patiently. The other nurses finished their jobs and moved away from Kagome, except for the one who had been taking care of her since she had been admitted right before dawn. She moved to the side opposite Inuyasha and placed a comforting hand on Kagome's shoulder.

 

“Now, if it's all right with you and your husband, I'll help with the coaching so that Dr. Ichida can focus on your babies,” the nurse said softly in Kagome's ear. The young miko glanced at her mate, who nodded. He had no idea of what to do, so the nurse's help was imperative.

 

Dr. Ichida had finished prepping and rolled her stool up to the end of the bed, pushing the sheet up over Kagome's upraised knees. Inuyasha nearly choked in embarrassment. The doctor was exposing his mate to everyone in the room!

 

The only pacifying fact about that was that all the people in the room (besides him) were female.

 

“Ok, Kagome. Are you ready to do this?” Dr. Ichida asked cheerfully.

 

“Kami, yes!” came the whimpering response. Inuyasha flattened his ears underneath his bandanna.

 

“Ok, dear, just push as steadily as you can for ten seconds, okay?”

 

Kagome nodded, grabbed her upraised knees and pushed for all she was worth.

 

“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten… good! Now take a deep breath and again, with the next contraction. One, two,…”

 

Inuyasha lost count of how many times the nurse had to count to ten as his mate fought to bring his pups into the world. My pups… no, my babies. They won't be pups- they'll be full humans. I can't think of them as pups.

 

Finally, around two in the afternoon, a tiny wail filled the room as Inuyasha's son made his presence known.

 

“And here's your little boy!” Dr. Ichida beamed as she held up the red-faced newborn. His eyes were squinted shut and he was still covered from the birth, but Kagome thought he was the most beautiful little boy in the world. She couldn't really see from where she was, but… did he have Inuyasha's ears? The doctor hadn't seemed fazed by anything abnormal with the baby- what was going on?

 

Dr. Ichida held up the clamped off umbilical cord to Inuyasha. “Would you like to do the honors, Daddy?”

 

Inuyasha blinked, still spaced out from the miracle of watching his son being born. He ignored the offered surgical scissors and sliced neatly through the cord with his index finger claw, his gaze still on his son. Two of the nurses snatched him away, briskly rubbing him and cleaning him off as he continued to wail in discontent.

 

The poor doctor blinked several times, unsure of what she had just witnessed. Before she could really muse about that, she noticed a second head emerging. “And here comes the other one!” she said, trying to keep her mind on the business at hand rather than the behavior of the father.

 

Kagome pushed, focusing her energies on delivering her second child. The head emerged and the doctor suctioned out the mouth and nose before having Kagome push a final time.

 

“And here is your girl! Sure enough- we're two for two!” Dr. Ichida exclaimed in delight.

 

Kagome sat up this time, looking closely at her daughter as Inuyasha repeated the act of slicing the cord with his claw rather than the scissors. The little girl looked just like her twin had- red-faced and wailing.

 

The other two nurses took the little girl over to the bassinet and cleaned her up as well, while one of her son's nurses brought the little boy over to his father.

 

“Here you go. Congratulations, Daddy. He's six pounds even, seventeen inches long. Rather a good size for a twin.”

 

Inuyasha accepted the tiny bundle with careful arms. He stood by Kagome's side, staring down at his son in silent amazement. My son…

 

Afraid to verify Kikyou's words to him four months ago in the forest, his gaze moved up from his son's face to the baby blue cap that covered his head. I… I have to see… for myself…

 

He slowly pulled the cap off his son's head as Kagome looked wearily at her mate and son. Her eyes widened in surprise as the cap came off.

 

He had normal human ears.

 

He had hair as black as his mother, and as his father on his human night. No claws, no dog ears. He… was completely human.

 

Inuyasha looked at Kagome in stunned silence. Tears filled her eyes as a nurse handed the other twin to her mother.

 

“She's five pounds, thirteen ounces. Slightly smaller than her brother, but she'll do just fine.”

 

Dr. Ichida finished up with Kagome and the afterbirth. “We'll take them to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to check them over, but I'm wagering that they'll be fine. As long as they nurse well, you should be able to take them home right away.” She congratulated them both before she left the room to allow them to bond with their new additions.

 

Kagome nodded numbly as Inuyasha moved closer to her side, gazing at their daughter. As with his son, he gently pulled her cap off.

 

She, too, had human ears.

 

She had the same black hair as her brother and mother. She was a human baby.

 

Kagome burst into tears.

 

Inuyasha fought back the urge to do the same. He gritted his teeth as the pain of failure swept over him. Kikyou was right… they're human…

 

His mate looked up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Wh-what went wrong? Why… aren't they hanyou?” she sobbed.

 

Inuyasha closed his eyes. “Kikyou… she said your miko blood… cleansed their tainted hanyou blood… and made them human.”

 

Fury replaced sadness in Kagome's brown eyes. “Kikyou?! When did you talk with her?”

 

He sighed. “About four months ago- she… visited… after our first, um… afternoon together. She said that she could sense the pups- I mean, babies, were human.”

 

Kagome gazed down at the baby in her arms. “I… I'm so… so very sorry, Inuyasha. This is all my fault.”

 

Before Inuyasha could argue with her, the little girl opened her eyes. Kagome gasped. Inuyasha leaned in closer to look at his daughter.

 

She had gold eyes.

 

Turning his attention back to his son, Inuyasha peered at the boy closely. Sensing the attention, the baby opened his eyes to regard his father.

 

He had the same gold eyes.

 

The new parents stared at each other for a long moment. What did this mean?