A Royal Birth: Sequel to His Little Girl by WhisperingWolf

Skies of blue

"You cannot go my love," Sesshoumaru said gently as he kissed Kagome's cheek. "It will not be long now before you are ready to birth and I will not risk their lives or yours."

"We shouldn't be gone that long Lady Kagome," Miroku said as his wife walked up behind him dressed in her exterminator garb.

"Besides Kagome," Sango said as she strapped Hiraikotsu over her to hang on her back. "You are pregnant." She chuckled as she felt the baby kick under her hand. "Very pregnant and your pups are wanting to come out. The town the shard rumor is centered around is at least a week's travel away."

"So you're just saying I'll slow you down huh," Kagome grumbled good naturedly as she rubbed her distended stomach. "Can't argue with you there. As much as I used to find it tiresome, I miss it. I miss the adventure, the travel, I miss it! Sango," she said with a determined look on her face. "You must promise to tell me everything when you return, and if you get hurt out there I'll kill you."

Sango laughed heartily and embraced her friend. "I have no plans to get hurt anytime soon Kagome. And I promise to tell you everything. Besides Miroku wants to start a family when we return."

"Yes I do my wife," Miroku said as his hand found its compulsory home on Sango's bottom. Sango growled although she was still smiling at Kagome.

"Where did that back hand of yours go Sango?" Inuyasha asked as he had Maika walked up to stand next to the group, Maika's smile warm but her eyes worried as Kashu and Tiyeko walked up behind them.

"I'm married, mated now Inuyasha. It would be highly improper for me to strike my husband. I prefer to leave him wanting as Kagome puts it."

All the females' eyes grew wide, except for the children who didn't understand, and they burst out laughing. Kashu gave Sango a look that clearly said something along the lines of 'you go girl' and Sango blushed as her smile widened.

"Maika?" Kagome said, her smile falling away as a worried frown took its place. She stepped closer to her friend as the female inuyoukai's face took on a greenish pallor and she ran for the nearest exit to the outside.

Kagome waved off the others who wanted to follow and waddled after her friend and sister. She found Maika on her knees behind a thick thorn bush that stood a few feet away from the palace wall. The poor girl was throwing up her breakfast and Kagome stepped closer and held her hair back and rubbed her friend's back.

"Are you alright Maika?" she asked when Maika finally stopped retching and sat on her legs and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand before wiping her hand in the grass.

"I'm fine," the girl said and went to stand only to fall weakly back to a sitting position on the ground. "Maybe not."

Kagome braced herself and took Maika's hand and pulled the woman to her feet. When Maika rose, Kagome noticed the scent almost instantly that was the only thing that had affected her after her transformation into a full inu form. Every now and then one of her senses would heighten and not by her choice, they seemed to know when something was needed and would heighten on their own. As her sense of smell did now, and that was how she knew.

"Maika, you're pregnant," Kagome said with a smile though it quickly died away when she saw the sadness in her friend's gaze. "Maika what's wrong? This is something to celebrate, why aren't you happier?"

"You don't understand Kagome. I was raped several times by my father and his friends. They took pleasure in me that I did not consent to, some that I wasn't ever aware of. The child inside me...it could be one of theirs. What am I to do if it is? It will be living proof of...I just..." Maika huffed a sigh as her words evaded her.

"Theirs or not Maika, it's an innocent child. It didn't choose its own father, or the way it would be created. You cannot blame the child for its father."

"It scares me Kagome. It really scares me."

Kagome held Maika to her as the woman cried into her shoulder and that was when Kagome caught sight of her mother standing off to the side of them and begged her closer with her eyes. Kashu stepped forward and looked sadly at her daughter, having heard the last bit of the girls' conversation.

"How do I fix this mamma?" Kagome asked softly as Maika sobbed in her arms.

"You can't," Kashu answered softly, sadly. "This is a battle of the heart Kagome. There is nothing you can do but offer your support and a shoulder to cry on as you do now."

The three women, two held in an embrace stood outside as the sun rose higher in the sky and the palace's shadow did little to offer shade. Kagome and her mother did their best to offer the crying inuyoukai comfort but the woman would find none.

"What's wrong with her?" Inuyasha asked softly as he came to stand next to Kagome as all the others followed him out.

"Just hold her Inu-chan," Kagome said softly and let her friend take his mate from her arms.

Inuyasha lifted Maika into his arms and stood cradling his now sleeping mate against his chest. Kashu and Tiyeko, Kagome and Sesshoumaru along with their children, and Inuyasha holding his sleeping mate, saw Sango and Miroku off as the two straddled a transformed Kirara and rode off into the horizon.

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A.N.: that's just the start.