I do not own InuYasha or any of the characters created by Rumiko Takahashi



One Late Afternoon


InuYasha walked up the path to the house, a pair of rabbits in hand.  It was getting towards late  afternoon, and the light was honey-warm.  For the moment at least, he decided, life was good.

It had been a pleasant day.  He had handled some work for Tomeo, the village headman in the morning, repairing a shed, and shared work with village men who seemed to accept his company in a friendly way.  He had checked on Kaede and Rin and picked up a packet of herbs Kaede wanted Kagome to use.  On the way back up the hill,  he had stumbled across the rabbits, and made quick work of them.    And now, he was on his way back to his own house.

As he neared his house, he slowed down, and for a moment stopped to watch his wife amid the daikon and the burdock and onion of her garden, her black hair half covered by a kerchief, the knees of her wrap skirt a little dusty from having knelt as she worked. Her hoe was on the ground, and there was a basket of harvested vegetables at her feet.  But none of these were what she was focused on.

In her arms, she held a small child  up slightly above her head.  The baby, silver-haired and dressed in blue and red, made happy noises as she lowered him towards her face, saying silly little nonsense sounds.

The baby giggled for a minute, but then, he made a face and  began to fuss, and with a sigh, Kagome sat down, opened the top of her robe and began to nurse him.

Something deep and warm stirred in him as he watched, clearly based in the knowledge of this is what mattered, and without those two, his wife and his son, his life had no focus, and with them here, he knew everything was possible.  He liked the thought of that, to have a place to come back to that was more than just a spot to get out of the rain, not because of the building, but what the building held.

Hurrying his steps, he went home.