Chapter 15 – That's not true!
The next morning, birds were chirping with a new and beautiful day in perspective.
Koga was the first one to wake up; he opened his eyes and saw the blue sky that was waiting for the sun to completely appear. He sighed, rubbing his neck to ease the crick he had; he must have been sleeping stressed.
From his lying position he propped himself on his elbows, since his legs were 'occupied' by something heavy. He looked down and almost chocked on his saliva; on his lap was a certain half-demon sleeping profoundly.
Koga's eyes widened and he blushed fiercely. He then remembered that last night, Inuyasha was cold and he had decided to sit beside the dog demon only to keep him warm; though it didn't looked like it at first glance.
With his heart beating very fast, the wolf demon gently took Inuyasha's head away from his lap and put it on the ground delicately, not to wake the half-demon.
Once it was done, he sighed and smiled, happy that he made it without waking the other one; it would have been a hell of a task to explain to Inuyasha why he was sleeping on Koga. He imagined it; seeing the picture in his mind, he shivered: yelling, cursing and more yelling.
The wolf sighed, enjoying the nice and peaceful moment, while sitting crossed legs beside Inuyasha.
But it didn't last long as the said half-demon woke up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
Koga leaned over Inuyasha whom turned from his side to be on his back: "Hey g'morning mutt!" Inuyasha replied only with a grumble. "Well that's nice to hear" Koga said, teasing.
Inuyasha sat from his sleeping position and started to undo a small part of the belt that held Takato; the baby hadn't woken up yet. "Good," Inuyasha yawned, "Takato's still sleeping" he informed Koga.
Koga, who was now standing, nodded and then said: "Are you still hungry Inuyasha?"
"No why?" the dog demon asked, rubbing his eyes again.
"Well there are some leftovers from last night, that's all."
While Koga was talking, Inuyasha tried to get up… with a bit of difficulty.
The wolf demon saw this and presented a hand to Inuyasha, to help him stand.
Inuyasha arched an eyebrow: "Feh, I don't need your help to get up!" he said proudly.
"Really?" Koga asked, as Inuyasha tried to again, but since he couldn't bend forward, it was almost impossible. Inuyasha fell, after his third attempt in one minute, on his butt; he growled in frustration.
"Don't growl, you'll wake up the kid." Koga approached him, frowning at the hanyou. "Just take my hand, damn it. I promise I won't make any comment about it."
Inuyasha looked up at Koga's face; he hesitated. It took all of the half-demon's pride to accept the help; but he was glad to be up again. The half-demon looked away, a scowl on his face: "Thanks."
Koga shrugged: "Don't worry about it; anyways, let's go, we gotta join the others at Kaede's village." He started to walk in a direction when a certain dog demon stopped him.
"Wait a minute, who told you they were there?" he asked and then realized something. "What do you mean by 'we'? You're not coming with me. I know where it is" he said, a bit harshly.
The half-demon turned away to walk.
Koga spoke up: "Yes, I'm coming with you, and that's final. If you encounter a demon, what will you do? You had problem just to stand up, damn it!" he said, joining Inuyasha's fast pace.
The half-demon stopped walking; he knew Koga was right, but his pride talked at his place: "That's not true! I'm not invalid you know!" Inuyasha stomped violently his foot on the forest ground.
At that moment, while they were arguing, a lower spider demon appeared from a tree near the group. It quickly analysed to find the weaker of the two male demons. It jumped out of the tree screeching and then spit some acid toward Inuyasha.
The hanyou evaded it at the last second. The acid burned the grass where he stood, a few seconds before; a gasp escaped from the wolf's direction.
The demon was about to try another shot when a foot made contact with its head; Koga had killed it.
Inuyasha brought a hand to his chest. His heart was pounding fiercely in his ribcage; it had been very close and acid is very dangerous, even for demons. He looked at Koga and the wolf wasn't smiling.
"See what I meant Inuyasha?" he asked, with a stern tone.
The dog demon frowned: "I evaded it… so what?" He crossed his arms over his chest, still sitting on the ground.
"Inuyasha," Koga warned, "that was a low-class demon. What if we encounter Naraku? At least, with me, you would have a chance to escape while I'd create a diversion." Koga closed his eyes to calm down a bit; he knew he was harsh with the hanyou, but he was right. Naraku was a constant menace, even though he couldn't be seen.
Naraku; Inuyasha had forgotten about that monster. He felt useless. He wondered what was hurting the most his pride: his slightly weaker state or the fact that the wolf prince was right. "I'm sorry Koga… I just…" he said, bringing a hand to his forehead.
"… thought that you were going to be okay by yourself?" the wolf continued. Inuyasha didn't say a thing, feeling guilty. "You know mutt, in this cruel world, you are not alone; you've got friends to help you… and I'm there too."
Inuyasha looked up at Koga's face; the stern expression had left to make place to a smile. "Come on Inuyasha, I'm sure your friends can't wait to see you" the wolf said, giving Inuyasha's shoulder a friendly pat.
With all the excitement of the moment, Takato had woken up and now was asking to be fed.
Koga noticed it and rolled his eyes: "Okay, we'll go, after you fed the brat" he said.
"He's not a brat, you know. He has a name."
Koga waved his hand in a dismissing way: "Yeah, yeah… do whatever you have to do" Koga smirked and started to check the area near them to see his there weren't other demons.
While feeding his nephew, Inuyasha noticed: "Hey doesn't your pack should have joined us?"
Koga kept looking, while staying around the two others: "Well I had asked them to find me something… actually I don't remember what, but I just wanted them to leave me alone for a while" Koga shrugged.
°°°
While they were walking, the sun was heating the near-autumn air. If it had been another time, without Naraku, it could have been a perfect day.
Inuyasha now had Takato in his arms, because since he wasn't running he didn't need to attach him. It was funny as he could battle, receive many strong hits and it doesn't affect him much; but at the same time, just holding a pup around his middle gave him an annoying back ache.
Koga, whom found it very hard to stay silent, sighed. Still walking, he crossed his arms behind his head, like he was supporting it. Then out of the blue, he asked: "Hey, when you exchanged bodies with Takato, how was it to be a baby again, and to be more precise, Chikara's? Because I heard how this woman could be very strange."
"Huh," Inuyasha thought, "well it was nice. I mean, as I was a baby, I didn't understand everything that was around me, plus, I don't remember everything, only what I was told afterward. But I still felt the way she treated me, as well as the love she was showing me. Whether she was in her day form or her night one, it didn't matter; she was always caring about me. It reminded me when I was a kid and my mother was still alive." He smiled.
Koga simply answered with an 'Oh'; Inuyasha looked at the wolf, seeing that he wanted to add something else.
"Is there something else you wanted to ask?"
Koga looked at the sky: "Well, I was wondering if she fed you, even though you were not exactly her son" he asked bluntly.
This made Inuyasha blush a bit. "Sure, Chikara has a big heart and she would never leave a kid for itself…" He laughed: "Though Takato was a bit jealous. Weren't you, little one?" Inuyasha asked the baby, raising it in the air to get its attention. Takato, a bit sleepy, answered with a giggle.
Koga smiled at Inuyasha's action; it was cute, in a certain way. "It doesn't seem to bother you to take care of kids, why?" the wolf asked.
Bringing the baby back into his arms like previously, Inuyasha shrugged: "I dunno. I think I always liked children, it's just that most of the time they're afraid of me."
"Well they have a reason to" Koga added to tease.
"What! What do you mean, mangy wolf?" Inuyasha punched the wolf on the shoulder in a friendly manner.
Koga laughed loudly and then a comfortable silence installed itself.
The wolf prince, incapable of staying silent, asked again: "Hey Inuyasha, do you want kids someday?"
"Didn't you ask me that, yesterday?" Inuyasha arched a brow, his face turned toward the wolf demon.
"Well yeah, but what I just meant was do you want kids, in the way of bearing them" Koga explained himself. "Last time, I asked you if you want to have a family in the future."
"Oh," Inuyasha said, "well I'd say yes, if I wasn't a half-demon."
"What do you mean? You can breast-feed just like demons, which means that you could also bear pups."
Inuyasha looked toward Takato, a sad smile on his lips: "Yeah, but there's only a small chance that you're right. Human males don't bear the youngsters; it's the woman's job. It's that human part of me that could make it impossible."
Koga nodded; the hanyou was right. It was a bit sad though, since the dog seemed to like children so much.
Then the hanyou decided to reattach Takato at him, since the baby had fallen asleep; plus he felt more comfortable knowing that demons wouldn't try to attack the baby first.
He was now more habile to adjust the belt-like drape over him, and didn't need to sit down to do it; he could even do it while walking.
Koga, still walking, was staring at the sky again, thinking; then strangely, his thoughts wandered to Inuyasha.
He looked at the half-demon and stared at how the dog demon was transporting the young. In Koga's opinion, Inuyasha would make a great mother, there was no doubt; the way he cared about the brat and … 'And? What? Am I trying to tell myself that I find the mutt… pretty with the way he his now?' the wolf shook these thoughts away 'Nah, I'm not into him…? Well, I have to say that I always found mother-soon-to-be beautiful… but Inuyasha's not pregnant. Still…one cannot say that he's an ugly individual…' he snickered at his thoughts.
Inuyasha noticed the strange emotions that were crossing Koga's face while the wolf demon was staring at him. "Why are you looking at me?" he asked. "Koga, is everything right?"
Koga was startled from his thoughts abruptly when he heard his name: "Huh? No- Yes! I mean, yeah, everything's fine" he said, trying to regain his composure. "Hey mutt, wanna race?" Koga quickly asked, to change the subject.
Inuyasha hesitated a bit, since he had Takato with him; plus, Koga had to shards imbedded in his legs, so he had no chances to win. "Nah, but if you want to run slowly instead of walking, I have no objection; I have to be careful not to hurt Takato."
"You're asking the great wolf demon Koga if he wants to run, even slowly? Sure do!" he said, with a large smirk.
So they started to run, wind in the hair.
°°°
Toward the end of the afternoon, the two canine demons, which had been more jogging than running for almost two hours, stopped near a small river, as Inuyasha was a bit out of breath.
The half-demon kneeled down at the border of the river. He took Takato in his arms and put him down beside him, still keeping an eye on the baby; he splashed some of the fresh water on his face. "Ah, now that's nice." He drank some of it with cupped hands.
Meanwhile, Koga was looking at the horizon. He frowned when he smelt the familiar scents of Inuyasha's companions in the wind, blowing from south.
"Hey mutt."
"What?"
Koga thought it was weird that Inuyasha didn't react to the nickname, but he mentally shrugged it off. "How far are we from the village?"
Inuyasha looked around him; he thought for a second: "Well, if I'm correct, it's about half an hour of walk from here. Why?" he asked, intrigued.
"Oh, well, since we're that close, I think you'll be able to continue on without me." A bit of sadness could be felt, but Inuyasha, always as clueless as a stone, didn't notice.
"Okay. Then I should thank you. I know I was a bit unkind with you at the start, but in the end, I understood you were only trying to be nice" Inuyasha said, a bit shy.
A short silence could be heard, but it was uncomfortable, so the dog demon added: "Well then… See you next time."
Koga felt a tad weird: "Yeah, see ya."
They parted company, Inuyasha going back to the village and Koga going to find his pack.
Inuyasha walked a bit and his thoughts wandered to a certain wolf demon prince. Inuyasha thought it was weird that, since he had accompanied him from where they had met, he hadn't continued all the way to Kaede's village. Maybe he was afraid that the villagers would be terrified at the sight of a full fledge demon. Inuyasha shrugged at that thought.
°°°
Approaching the village, a feeling of cheerfulness invaded him; finally, after four days, he was going to see his friends. 'Feh, Kagome must be dead of worry.'
As he arrived at Kaede's hut, Shippo, with his keen sense of smell noticed Inuyasha first: "It's Inuyasha! Kagome! Inuyasha's back! Inuyasha's back!" he shouted.
Kagome came out of Kaede's hut and looked at Inuyasha. She ran toward him, tears in her eyes.
"OH Inuyasha! I thought something bad happened to you, I was so worried…"
Miroku and Sango, as well as Kaede came, having heard Shippo yelling Inuyasha's name.
They all brought the hanyou inside the hut, to talk more.
Okay! Woot another chapter. So yeah, I'm glad you guys like my story I feel loved! Ahem, well this is it, my favorite sentence: PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS I LOVE READING THEM! Love you guys!
