Chapter 17 – Oh

Miroku was walking around the village, trying to find Inuyasha.

He tried his best, but alas, he didn't have the sense of smell of the dog demon. Still, he listened to every sound, in case he would hear him.

Miroku though that surely, Inuyasha wasn't in danger, after all, he was the strongest of the team.

The monk froze in his steps when he heard something rustling.

He approached the sound very slowly, just in case it wouldn't be the one he was searching for and instead a dangerous demon.

Miroku entered the forest surrounding the small village of the old priestess; still following the sounds, he came nearer and nearer to a small spot without trees in the middle, but that was protected from the wind and cooler temperature because of the surrounding trees. He quickly spotted Inuyasha with his red clothes.

The half-demon was sitting at the foot of a tree. Then what Miroku noticed first was that Takato was actually very close to Inuyasha; actually, paying more attention to it, he saw that Inuyasha seemed to be… 'feeding the baby? But that's impossible, he's male.' Then he remembered that Inuyasha was not all human, he was also half-demon. He felt strange, seeing his friend like this; but at the same time, it was rather a cute moment to see those two in what Miroku thought was an experience reserved only to a mother and her child.

Although he was at about thirty feet from the half-demon, Inuyasha didn't seemed to acknowledge his presence; normally, his dog ears would have moved, sensing every sound, but right now, nothing happened. Inuyasha looked in a trance-like state with his eyes closed and his ears flat on his skull.

Miroku wanted to approach more, but a loud rustling stopped him.

The monk didn't move, but he had decided that if a demon appeared, he would attack; so unless that, he would stay away because he didn't wanted Inuyasha to think that he was spying on him and Takato.

Suddenly, a large ogre-type demon appeared, grunting and walking toward the spot where Inuyasha was resting; it was a repulsing sight because there was still fresh flesh hanging from his exterior teeth. The odour was so strong that Miroku could even smell it from where he was; he realized that Inuyasha didn't seem to notice it though.

The demon approached Inuyasha and the baby even more, seeing his new preys; it opened his large jaws and shook his large fists in the air, grunting again. Miroku was about to jump between the monster and the dog demons when he saw a flash crossing the battle site.

In a second, the demon was on the ground, in multiple piles of flesh.

Miroku almost thought that he had imagined all that, but pushed that thought away when he saw Koga near the dead monster. The monk decided to stay in his hiding place, interested to see Inuyasha's saviour.

Koga, from where he was, knew very well where the human monk was hiding; in a way, he was a bit angered to see that he hadn't moved when he saw Inuyasha didn't notice the ogre demon.

He tried to forget about Miroku and went back to what he was going to do when he came here in the first place.

The wolf demon approached the half-demon and looked carefully at him; he didn't seem to be all there.

Koga crouched to face the hanyou; Takato was still eating like nothing happened, just like as if he knew someone would be there to protect them. Koga tapped Inuyasha's shoulder twice, to stir him from his trance state.

Inuyasha was startled a bit and he opened his eyes, to see Koga in front of him, with a frown and an angry expression. The dog demon's first reaction was to shout at Koga: "Hey what the fuck are you doing here, mangy wolf!"

Koga couldn't believe his ears. "WHAT! You're insulting me! I just saved your life again!" he yelled, pointing at the pile of the demon's rest on the ground near them. "Damn it! I swear Inuyasha, sometime you're so… grr! I can't believe it."

Miroku gasped in silence to not be heard from where he was; he was very shocked at Koga's tone. Normally the wolf was the angry-though-amused type; this time he was serious.

"What's that thing! I didn't sense it coming!" Inuyasha said angry, more at himself than anyone. He tried to calm down the baby that was starting to fuss at all the yelling: "Shush, it's okay little one, everything's fine."

Koga took a deep breath to calm himself: "Damn Inuyasha! I told you to stay where your friends can protect you when you feed the brat; it's not that hard to do!" He brought a hand to his forehead, sensing a headache coming forth.

Again, the monk was surprised, as he thought that this moment looked like an old couple having a fight; he abstained himself to laugh at that reflection. Koga's reaction was the one of a protector and Inuyasha... well the protected one.

"Koga!" Inuyasha started, not knowing why he tried to explain himself to the stubborn demon prince.

"Yes?" the wolf asked impatiently, his leg shaking a bit from all the stress of the moment.

"I- Grr!" Inuyasha sighed deeply. "I know, it's just… It's not like I can tell them…" he gave the wolf a look that he wanted to be understood, not judged.

Koga arched his brow: "Tell what? That you feed Chikara's kid? Come on Inuyasha, don't tell me a bragger like you can't say these kind of things?"

Inuyasha turned away, not answering.

Koga smacked a hand on his forehead, showing his exasperation. "Come on, it's a natural thing ya know. Anyways… what are you doing here in the middle of the night, mutt?"

Inuyasha growled lightly: "Don't call me mutt. I'm here to feed Takato because it was the warmest place in the forest. I can ask you the same thing, ya know" Inuyasha smiled evilly. "Weren't you supposed to find your pack?"

Koga froze; he didn't have an answer for that one. "Huh, yeah, well that's a good one," he forced a chuckle, "I- you see… it's very funny… ah well, maybe not… anyways, I came here to check if everything was okay."

Inuyasha gave him the 'I-don't-believe-you' kind of look and after, the 'whatever' look.

Now that they had stopped shouting, Miroku couldn't hear anymore, so he decided to get back to the village. But as he was walking back, he was debating with himself whether he should tell the others, or not, about what he had seen. It seemed to him, the way Koga had reacted to the event, he felt a strong friendship toward Inuyasha. 'It seems that they already met recently, since Koga seemed to know already about Inuyasha feeding the baby… Plus, he said that he saved his life againOh... That's it!' Miroku realized that Koga did have something for the half-demon; it was more than obvious to him.

Arriving at the hut, he decided not to tell the others, even more Kagome, since she had feelings for Inuyasha. If she was to learn it, it was going through someone else, and not himself. The monk didn't want to be stuck between those two, that's for sure. He nodded to himself.

Entering the hut, everyone was asleep, except for Kagome, of course. "So, what is he doing? Why aren't they with you?" the young priestess whispered.

"Huh?" Was Miroku's answer; he though at first that she had meant by 'they' Inuyasha and Koga together. He then remembered that Takato was with the half-demon and that's what Kagome had implied. He regained his composure: "I mean, he's in the forest, sleeping outside. He said that he wanted to look at the sky before it gets too cold in autumn." Miroku hoped that Kagome had believed what he just made-up at the moment.

"Oh, okay. Well I'll go see him, then" Kagome said, getting up.

"No!" Miroku rashly whispered, "He said he still wanted to be alone and that he'll be back in the morning."

Kagome looked a bit sad, but tried to look like she understood. She sat back down and got back in her sleeping bag to try to find some sleep, even though she felt weird that Inuyasha didn't want to see anyone.

Miroku sighed inwardly: 'Oh Buddha, what have I done? I hope Inuyasha will take the opportunity that presented itself. Pfft, what am I saying? I bet Inuyasha is as clueless as a stone at Koga's behaviour.'

With that, he tried to get himself some sleep.

°°°

Meanwhile, in the forest near the spring, Inuyasha and Koga were still arguing when Miroku left, but they had stopped yelling.

"What do you care? I came back, and I have no reason to give you" Koga insisted.

"Fine, I don't care anyway" Inuyasha said in his usual self-centred behaviour.

Koga felt a bit weird when Inuyasha told that he didn't care. "Look, why are you still here at this hour of the night?" the wolf said, changing the subject.

"I told you earlier. I'm here to feed Takato. There's no other reason, and I also intend to stay here for the rest of the night."

Takato had fallen asleep, since he was finished eating and all the yelling had ceased. Inuyasha replaced his inner and outer shirts seeing the sleeping baby.

Koga crossed his arms over his chest: "Then if you pass the night here, I'll stay."

Inuyasha looked at the wolf, puzzled: "Why? You don't have to, you're not glued to me, ya know."

Trying not to talk to loud to wake Takato, Koga answered: "What if you get attacked again? Huh? And please, don't try to start another argument, because I can't take one of these anymore."

Inuyasha grumbled something, then admitted: "Fine, but don't think I'm weak just because I'm letting you stay, okay?"

The wolf prince rolled his eyes: "Yeah whatever you want…" He sat beside Inuyasha, looking around; then he noticed the dead demon beside them.

He got up; then Inuyasha asked, curious: "Where are you going?"

The wolf noticed the intensity of the curiosity in the dog's question: "I don't have to answer, you're not my mate," Inuyasha blushed slightly at the mention of the word 'mate', then Koga continued: "and don't worry; I'm just going to get rid of this ugly thing, or else it'll stink during the night and could attract other demons" he said, pointing the demolished demon he had killed earlier.

"Oh" was Inuyasha's only answer.

It took a few minutes for Koga to clean up the mess he had done by burying it in the forest ground.

Being done, he came back to his initial place at the hanyou's side.

This time it was Inuyasha whom couldn't stay silent, so he asked: "Koga, tell me why you really came back, please."

Koga was a bit startled at the hanyou's serious tone… and the fact that he had used the word 'please'. The wolf sighed: "Okay. Actually, right after we parted, I knew I should have accompanied you all the way. But then, just about a few minutes ago, I felt something strange telling me to come back, even though I wasn't very far from here. When I arrived, I found you, even though I didn't know what I was actually searching for. That's when I saw that ugly demon coming for you. The next thing I knew, the monster was dead on the ground and you were safe… it's like my inner demon acted at my place."

Again, Inuyasha had nothing to add and simply said: "Oh." He shook his head, trying to recover from what Koga had told him. 'He came back… for me?' he thought. "T-Thanks Koga. I owe you a lot… I mean it" Inuyasha blushed.

Koga smiled, happy that Inuyasha was sincere. "You know what, Inuyasha?"

The half-demon shook his head in sign of negation.

Koga grinned widely. "You're somehow cute when you're blushing" he said, blushing himself and not believing he actually said that.

That made Inuyasha blush fiercely: "Huh… Well, thanks… I guess."

They looked at each other; strangely, they felt much closer than a few days before. And at the same time, it felt so right; it was like they always had been that familiar… 'Err… it's a great thing that no one heard us fight earlier… we looked like an old couple, dammit.' Inuyasha sweated at that thought and oblivious that Miroku had watched the whole fighting episode between Koga and him.

Koga, who had been watching Inuyasha asked: "Is everything all right?"

Just as the same thing happened in the early afternoon, but this time it was the other way around, Inuyasha was stirred out of his thoughts: "Sure, heh heh."

Inuyasha yawned and rubbed his eyes tiredly. He settled himself on the ground to pass the night: "I think sleep is gaining on me. Good night Koga."

Koga smiled as Inuyasha was now lying on his side, locking firmly Takato in his arms, so he couldn't escape.

"Good night, mutt."

Inuyasha closed his eyes, yawned again and replied: "Hey don't call me mutt…" then to Koga's surprise, a loud snoring could be heard a minute after.

Koga decided to go to sleep too, but also had to be on his guard, in case there would be another attack. He laid himself beside Inuyasha; lying also on his side, he was facing the direction opposite to Inuyasha. He scooted closer to the half-demon's back to be able to keep Inuyasha warm during the night.

A few minutes later, another snoring could be heard.


Okay, updated twice in a day, I'm nice ain't I? So that means that you guys WILL review, right? Ahem, well yeah, I love this chap, don't you?