Apple Picking

"Inuyasha-"

"Shut it, wench."

"It's just that you're-"

"Look I'm trying to do something romantical, alright?"

"You're poking me you moron!"

"Hold your fuckin' horses!" Inuyasha grappled with Kagome for a second before she broke free of his hold, where he'd been covering her eyes with a clawed hand. As soon as she was free she gasped, astonished.

"Inuyasha!" She cried in delight. "Apple picking!"

All around her grew huge swathes of gnarled apple trees, heavy with ripe fruit. Orderly lines stretched to the horizon and the ground underfoot was knobbly with apples already fallen. The autumn sun washed everything in pale golden light against a deep blue sky. Kagome turned to smile at her mate through teary eyes. He grinned back at her.

"You always said you wanted to go." He said, shrugging.

"I never thought...I can't believe you remembered that!" She said. "I LOVE apple

Picking!"

"I know." Inuyasha said, tucking his hands into the sleeves of his old red haori.

"Inuyasha…." She said, but her heart was too full to say thank you. She threw her arms around him instead. He held her, burying his nose in her hair. "I love you," She said, still teary. She backed up enough to look at him. He wiped a tear from her cheek gently. "This is going to work, isn't it?" She continued, looking up at him with big eyes. "You, and me, and Kazuto? Sess and everybody else? We'll be okay, won't we?"

"I don't know," Inuyasha said seriously, "But I promise to always be there."

Kagome nodded, and kissed him. He slid her shirt to the side to kiss the fresh mating mark on her shoulder. She shivered with delight.

"Watch it now!" A voice called from the hill behind them. Kagome extricated herself from Inuyasha's hold to see Rin and Sesshomaru cresting the hill, carrying their tiny daughter Chiyo. Kazuto trotted along behind them, lugging a backpack.

Rin reached out to Kagome for a one armed hug, then swatted Sesshomaru away as he hovered nervously.

"I'm fine Sess! I've got her. Go help Kazuto with the lunch," She said, laughing at the look on her mate's face. Kagome laughed gleefully.

"I say the boys get the food set up and the girls will have a walk and get some apples," Rin said, taking Kagome's hand and balancing her cooing baby girl on her hip.

"Let me see that precious girl!" Kagome said as the two women turned to stroll down a lane. Rin handed Chiyo over to her friend.

"God, Rin, she's so gorgeous!" Kagome trilled. "And she's growing so fast!"

It was true. In the year since she'd been born, Chiyo had maintained a human rate of growth, although her demonic heritage was evident in her golden eyes and delicate, fuzzy ears which perked just above her soft silver hair.

"Yes, she is. It worried Sesshomaru. He's seen enough hanyou growing up to know that it's normal for them to progress through childhood at the same rate as a human, but he's paranoid."

"Well, he's in love, isn't he?" Kagome smiled, beaming when Chiyo wrapped her little

arms around her neck and rested her head on her shoulder.

"Totally. He's completely smitten with her," Rin agreed. "From the day she was born….it's like you wouldn't know he had ever even seen a baby, you know?"

Kagome laughed.

"I wonder what Inuyasha would be like if we had kids." She said.

"What, he hasn't been trying to knock you up this whole time?" Rin said, elbowing Kagome a little suggestively.

"Oh, he tries!" Kagome said, "But I told him I want to wait. We have a long time, perhaps not as long as you and Sess have, but a while. I don't want Kazuto to feel like we've forgotten him."

"I don't think he'll feel like that. You two have given him a good home. He loves you." Rin

said sympathetically. Kagome only shrugged.

Rin plucked a few red apples from a nearby tree, dropping into the canvas bag on her shoulder. For a few moments the women just enjoyed the silence and the beauty.

"I'm going to miss you," Kagome murmured into Chiyo's silver hair. Rin straighted and turn to her friend, giving her a resigned look.

"I'm going to miss you too," She said, smiling. "I wish there were another way."

Kagome sighed. They'd been over it too many times to count, but both Inuyasha and Sesshomaru were adamant. Staying at the school was foolish when it was likely that Naraku was waiting somewhere, regaining strength with the help of the jewel. They had to separate. The orphaned students had already been adopted or placed with demon families. Many of the teachers had taken their students with them; even Shippo had left with a gaggle of giggling girls in his care. Kagome and Inuyasha had taken Kazuto in, and now they, Rin, Sesshomaru, and baby Chiyo were the only ones left living in the dormitory.

Sesshomaru had planned the network effectively. He was in contact with every demon in charge of students at the school. Although they were vacating the building, the school was still very much connected. The taiyoukai had worked for over a year to find safe places for his people to go, places where they would have the protection of other demons, or monks and priestesses sympathetic to their cause. He had arranged a home for himself and his small family in a secret location where he could easily communicate with the others.

Inuyasha, Kagome, and Kazuto were not going underground, not yet. Their plan was to travel to Japan to fetch Kagome's family and research the shikon jewel. Sesshomaru would have done it himself, but his instincts to stay near his mate and young daughter were too strong to resist, and Kagome had desperately wanted to be with her family anyway. Kazuto had been born in Japan but never seen it, and was also eager to go somewhere with his new adoptive parents.

"All of these carefully laid plans," Kagome said anxiously, "keep everyone safe, but they also keep us apart."

"Not forever," Rin said soothingly. "Sesshomaru is just scared for Chiyo. He wants to bury us in a hole in the ground until Chiyo's grown, that's all-that was a joke!" She said quickly at the horrified look on Kagome's face.

"But don't you want Chiyo and Kazuto t grow up together?" Kagome asked.

"They will, I believe it." Rin assured her. "We won't be apart for long. Kagome, Sesshomaru is everything to me, but in a lot of ways, well, you're my soul mate. My best friend."

Kagome started crying again. Chiyo purred a little bit like a kitten and cuddled into her neck, and Rin leaned forward to hug Kagome.

"We'll figure out what to do about the jewel," Kagome said, her voice muffled in Rin's shoulder. "And then we'll come home. We'll be together again."

Kazuto could barely contain his excitement as he leaned over Kagome to get a view of the city out of the airplane window.

"Tokyo," He said, marveling at the buildings and parks.

Kagome, who'd been sick nearly the whole flight, merely groaned.

"I need a bed, now." She said miserably. "That was like twenty hours of absolute hell. God I hope that whatever's making me sick is out of my system now."

Kazuto and Inuyasha exchanged nervous glances. Kazuto lifted his brows as if to ask, tell her now? But Inuyasha just grimaced and shook his head. Nope. Tell her later.

"I'm sure you'll feel better soon, hon." He said encouragingly, if not a little guiltily.

The young hanyou leaned back into his seat and smoothed his hair nervously over his one remaining ear. Inuyasha caught the gesture.

"You look fine, kid." He said. "No one is going to notice with your hair all spiky like that."

Kazuto just nodded and looked back out the window at his new home. Kagome-mom-had told him that he had more family here. A grandmother, an uncle, a great-grandfather. Kazuto felt a little bit like this must be a bit much to have so many family members. What had he done to deserve this? He looked down at his sharp claws. When he was old enough Inuyasha would show him how to maintain a concealment spell. He could already hold a spell for a few minutes, but it took more power to hold for much longer. He could have filed his nails down, he supposed, like he used to do. But he had promised himself that he would always be ready for a fight, and his claws were his greatest weapon.

A flash of green and magenta whipped by the window of the airplane, so quickly that Kazuto thought he had missed it. But when a feather blew by, he saw the set line of Inuyasha's mouth and knew it wasn't just him. Someone was out there.

"Kagura." Kagome said. Apparently she'd noticed it too. Inuyasha only nodded. "Do you think she'll try to hurt us?" Kagome asked.

"Over my dead body," Inuyasha growled. "But I don't think she will try. She left Naraku, remember?"

"Just the same," Kagome said in a tired voice. "I wish she wasn't here. I'm not going to be easy, knowing she's out there."

Kazuto wasn't sure who Kagura was or why they were so worried about her, but he knew exactly what to do. He held up a sharp clawed hand.

"Don't worry Mis..Mom." He said. "I promise I'll protect both of you."

Kagome smiled at him. "Kazuto, I believe you will."

There was another companionable silence. The captain made a muffled announcement. Then Kagome turned her head to the side, brows furrowed.

"Wait, you mean 'both of you' as in me and Inuyasha, right?" She said, a little suspiciously.

Kazuto, who had little experience in lying, said nothing, but looked at Inuyasha nervously. Kagome's face turned red.

"Inuyasha?!"

The plane had landed before they managed to calm her down.

By the time they reached the shrine where Kagome's mother waited for them, she was crying with joy, hugging the older woman and sobbing.

"Wow," Kazuto said, shell-shocked, as he and Inuyasha stood back slightly from the reunion.

"Tell me about it," Inuyasha agreed. "Still on board to stay with us?"

Kazuto thought about it.

"Yes." He said solemnly.

Inuyasha smiled and ruffled his hair.

"Good. Now let's go meet our new family."

Author's Note: If you liked Apple Picking please head over to check out the sequel, Claws, starring a grownup Kazuto and Chiyo. Naraku, now in possession of the jewel, makes one last effort to draw Sesshomaru out: through his daughter. Chapters updated weekly. Much more exciting than the summary. I'm terrible at summaries.