Chapter Two: Electronic Babies

“SIT!”

Inuyasha crashed to the ground before he was able to reach the monk. Miroku gave thanks for the rosary and the command at the same time that Inuyasha cursed it.

Kagome stood in front of Inuyasha with her hands on her hips, ignoring his cursing and growling and scratching at the ground, still trying to get his claws on their friend. Sighing heavily she tried to get her own temper under control. She tried counting to ten. She tried finding her happy place. She tried picturing the empty box. But none of the calming techniques she knew were working. So she yelled.

“WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?”

The eyes he turned on her were filled with anguish. The feelings she saw there were so raw that Kagome had to take a step back. Why is he looking at me like I just betrayed him? Something in the pit of her stomach clenched. She wanted to apologize, to do whatever it took to take that look out of his eyes. It actually hurt her heart to look at him, so she looked away.

“Aren’t you going to answer the monk, wench?” Venom filled his voice as he struggled against the spell.

“Huh?”

He snarled at her. “Who. Is. The. Father?”

Sango’s burst of laughter rang throughout the forest. She was laughing so hard that she fell off the stump she was sitting on and was clutching her sides. Finally she sat back up, tears streaming down her face. Every time it looked like she might be finished, she started howling in laughter again. It was really ticking Inuyasha off.

The spell wore off, but the hanyou stayed where he was. He was torn between leaving the whole bunch of them forever and taking Kagome, hunting down the man who got her pregnant, kill him… no, torture him first THEN kill him, and…

“Oh for the love of… what is WRONG with you Sango?” Her insane laughter was seriously impeding with his murderous train of thought.

“How much of our conversation did you idiots hear?” she asked while trying to catch her breath, hiccupping loudly.

Inuyasha looked at Kagome, then at Miroku. Finally he looked back at Sango, who started in on a whole new set of giggles. It was really really strange seeing the demon slayer giggle. Unnerving really.

“We heard you say Kagome was going to have a baby,” answered Shippo, who suddenly appeared on the miko’s shoulder.

Sango snorted and started laughing again, this time Kagome joined her. The sound echoed through the forest.

The boys looked at them like they were crazy. Shippo hopped down from Kagome’s shoulder and went to go sit on Inuyasha’s knee now that he was no longer a raging blood thirsty demon.

“I believe we missed something.”

“Oh, ya think, monk?”

Kagome sighed as her laughter subsided and looked at the boys in front of her, all waiting for an explanation. She gave them a smile.

“I was telling Sango about a class project that I have to do for Health class. It’s a parenting class.”

“They have classes on how to be a parent?”

“Sort of, Shippo. It teaches you some basic stuff, like how to take care of a baby, and how much work it is to take care of a baby. I think it’s to discourage… um… having babies while you are young. We learn about that other stuff too.” Kagome winked at Sango, who blushed.

“What other stuff?” Shippo asked.

It was Kagome’s turn to blush. She cleared her throat a couple of times before trying to explain things to the kit. She wasn’t really prepared to discuss the birds and the bees with her adopted son. It was embarrassing enough to have to have it explained to her. Nervously she straightened out the non-existent wrinkles in her skirt.

“Uh… well, we learn about how to have babies and um… how they are made.”

Miroku opened his mouth to add his thoughts to the conversation, but was quickly knocked out by Sango before a single word could escape. It was probably a good thing, since the beating he would have gotten from the dog demon may have done some rather permanent damage to his anatomy.

“WHAT DO THEY TEACH YOU AT THAT SCHOOL?” Inuyasha roared as he jumped to his feet. “You can’t go back there! EVER! Buncha perverts!” With clenched fists he marched past the group, preparing to leap into the trees. He crouched down, muscles tensing, but Kagome’s voice stopped him momentarily.

“Where are you going?” she asked, half afraid of what the answer was. He turned and glared at her, looking very much like a demon at that moment. It almost surprised her that his eyes weren’t red and his face wasn’t sporting the marks of him turning into a full demon. But everything else about his body language was screaming that he was a very dangerous demon at that moment.

“To destroy the well!” he snarled. “You are NOT going back THERE!” He practically flew from the ground into the air.

“Sit boy!”

Luckily he hadn’t gone far off the ground to do any serious damage when he fell. Kagome tried to look fierce as she stood above Inuyasha, but the disgruntled look he gave her just tickled her. The horrified expression on his face when she told him about learning about babies just made her day. If young impressionable Shippo hadn’t been there, she would have been mightily tempted to go into more details just to see that cute shade of red her hanyou would turn.

“You’re being unreasonable, Inuyasha.” She sat beside him as he struggled against the spell, fighting the constant temptation to pet his ears. “You can’t destroy the well.”

“You CAN’T go back to that school, Kagome,” he growled. “I won’t let you!”

She sighed. “There is nothing wrong with learning about se…”

“ACK! DON’T SAY IT!”

“Would you rather I learn it from Miroku?”

The monk was startled when his name was mentioned. With his most sincere smile he was about to comment on how he would love to give Kagome lessons any time when the murderous look from the hanyou two seconds from being released from the spell changed his mind.

“Leave me out of this!” he squeaked and backed up a few paces, much to the amusement of a certain demon slayer.

“Or someone like Miroku?” Inuyasha turned that glare onto the schoolgirl. “There are lots of boys like that at school, you know. Sometimes they tell girls things, either on purpose or because they don’t know the facts themselves. And sometimes girls end up getting pregnant and don’t even know how it happened!” His eyes narrowed to slits, and Kagome realized she wasn’t making a very good case for not destroying the well. “Um… and here too, not just my time! Take Miroku for example…”

“LEAVE ME OUT OF THIS!”

The dog demons movements stilled. No longer was he struggling against the spell. Now he was contemplating something… and that quiet thoughtfulness was beginning to scare the wits out of the group of travelers, especially the miko and the monk.

“Um… so, uh… isn’t it better…” Kagome looked at Sango, who snickered at her, for help. “So isn’t it better that I learn all I can so I know the facts and can keep… you know… keep anything from happening that… uh… it’s better to be prepared… and uh… could you stop looking at me like that? You are starting to kinda scare me a bit.”

Inuyasha sat up slowly, tucked his hands into his sleeves, and continuing to stare at Kagome, glowering really.

Eventually he spoke, his voice still angry. “Do they just give you a baby?”

Kagome smiled in relief. He wasn’t going to destroy the well after all. At least, not yet. “Well, not a real baby. It’s a baby with a computer chip in it.”

“Is that like the potato chips you bring us?”

“No, Shippo. It’s… well, it’s difficult to explain.” She scratched her head. How does one explain computer chips to people from the Feudal Era? “It’s kind of like a very tiny computer that is inside of a plastic baby. It will make the baby cry and dirty its diapers. It will also record what I do when that happens. So if I pick up the baby I have to press a certain button and the computer knows I did something to stop the crying. If the diapers need changing, I have to change them, the computer will know if they are wet. If I don’t do these things, the computer will know it, and the teacher will know that I’ve been neglecting the baby.”

Shippo, Sango, and Miroku looked at her like she had been speaking another language. To them she probably was.

“A computer like the one on your desk?” asked Inuyasha. When she sighed with relief and said yes he turned a cocky grin to the others. “It’s a magic box.”

“Oohhhhh.”

Kagome shrugged. It was a close enough explanation. Relieved that her homework and her way home had been saved, she stood up and brushed the dirt off of her skirt. She reached down to help Inuyasha up, but he ignored her hand and stood up on his own, although she didn’t miss the tinge of pink in his cheeks.

“So, you have to care for it as you would a real child?”

“Yes, Sango, I do. I’m supposed to give it a name and everything. Plus I have to keep a journal every day.”

“How long do you get to keep the baby?” asked Shippo. It wasn’t as good as a real brother or sister, but everything Kagome brought back with her was interesting. And if Kagome got to practice at being a mommy, then it meant that he would get a chance at practicing being a big brother.

Kagome grimaced. “A whole month. I’m really sorry about this, guys. I know that it is really going to be a pain. But I’ll try really hard to not inconvenience everyone. I just have to get an A on this project or they will fail me.” She gave Inuyasha a pointed glare. “And that would mean that I would have to do the WHOLE school year ALL OVER again. And NO ONE wants THAT to HAPPEN.”

“Do not worry, lady Kagome. We are always ready to help you with… anything…” The suggestiveness in that comment got him a whack on the head from Inuyasha and one from Sango. Kagome just rolled her eyes.

As the group began to journey back to Kaede’s village, Kagome walked behind them slowly. The project made her nervous. It wasn’t just a regular assignment. This was going to see how good of a mother she was. What if she failed?

“Oi, wench! Hurry up!”

Kagome glanced up at Inuyasha, who was waiting for her impatiently. She gave him a little smile and walked a little faster. Quickly she fell into step beside her favorite dog demon.

“What’s wrong?”

Her feet stopped moving. Had Inuyasha actually asked her what was wrong? She looked up at him. He looked concerned, and a little irritated. When she started to shake her head ‘no’ he glared at her. So she sighed. She never could successfully lie to him.

“I’m worried about the project.”

“Keh. Don’t lie to me. It’s more than that.”

Kagome was curious. “How do you know that?”

His cheeks were back to being pink. “I just do. Quit moping around and tell me what’s wrong. And hurry it up.”

Sigh. “I’m worried… that if I fail this project… well…”

“Spill it!”

“Alright, stupid! I’m worried I’ll fail as a mother!” She glared at him. Then she realized what she said and embarrassed. Sure it was true, but she really hadn’t planned on confiding that little fear to him. He already thought she was weak enough as it was. Adding her insecurities for something far off into the future like that would make her seem even weaker. Where oh where are my time traveling abilities when I really need them?

“Idiot.” He said softly without looking at her. “Of course you’ll be a good mother.”

“How do you know,” she asked skeptically, noticing that they seemed to be pulling farther behind the group.

“Keh.”

“That’s not a reason.”

Inuyasha finally looked at her and they stopped walking. “I just know it. Besides, look at the great job you do with Shippo.”

Kagome smiled a little sadly. It was really actually very sweet of Inuyasha to try to erase her fears. Too bad it wasn’t true. “We all take care of Shippo. We all protect him and provide for him.”

“But you are the one who mothers him.”

From up ahead Shippo turns towards them and waves. Kagome waves back with a smile on her face. He honestly did look like a child waving to his mother. Maybe… just maybe… she might not fail after all.