Disclaimer: This story is based on "Inuyasha," copyrighted by Rumiko Takahashi. No infringement of copyright intended or implied.

Awakening

The rough tongue licking his forehead drew him out of sleep. "Cut it out, Kirara," he muttered, pulling an arm up to protect his face. "It's too early to get up."

A long, warbling mew answered him. "What do you mean, it's night?" he grumbled, eyes still closed. "I—"

Memory started to catch up with his awareness, and Kohaku abruptly sat up. "Kirara!" He looked down at her. "You're—better?"

She chirruped, standing up. Cream-colored fur spiked and tangled where it poked between green-tinged bandages wrapped around her torso, as she carefully put one paw in front of the other. Collapsing by his leg, she rubbed her head against him, giving another long warble.

"You're hungry?" he asked, with an inner surge of delight and relief. "I've got some dried fish: you'll have to wait if you want fresh."

"No, she won't. We already have some."

Kohaku's head snapped up. He stared at the two youkai sitting on the other side of a fire. For a moment, dismay and fear flickered through him, before the rest of the memories of the last day came back—except for any memory of falling asleep. I fell asleep around youkai?

"Yep," said 'mohawk,' grinning. "You finished tying the bandages around Kirara, and just toppled over."

Kohaku looked away, face burning, mortified to realize he'd uttered his thought aloud. Some taijiya he was! Look at all he'd accomplished in the last day! Almost get his companion killed, have to depend on strange youkai to find a means for healing her, and then falling asleep while Kirara was still in danger!

"Hey, you were tired!" said the other youkai who called himself Ginta, he recalled. "We didn't mind—we knew humans need more sleep than youkai."

"Yeah, I hunted some rabbits," said Hakkaka.

"And then, I went fishing."

"We already ate, but we know humans prefer their meat cooked, so we built a fire and cooked one of the rabbits."

"And one of the fish."

Now, he felt even worse. What kind of taijiya was he, depending on the generosity of youkai?

Silence fell, as Kohaku stared at the ground.

"Umm..." Hakkaku broke the silence. "If you run into Koga, you won't tell him about this, will you?"

The question—and the apprehension—were so surprising that Kohaku looked up, discomfort momentarily misplaced.

"Huh?"

"We're supposed to be patrolling," said Ginta.

"Yeah. Patrolling. Koga's mad at us."

"It's not that we don't mind helping out—"

"Kirara being part of Inuyasha's pack and all—"

"But it's been a day since we met the last patrol—"

"It's been a day, and we haven't even started patrolling—"

"And we're supposed to be patrolling—"

"So, bye!"

"Bye, Sango's brother!"

And the four wolves took off.

Kohaku stared after them, flummoxed. "What was that about?" he wondered aloud.

"Mew-rew-ruff!" Who cares? Fish!

He looked down at Kirara who blinked her eyes at him. "Oh, sorry. Fish."

Kirara's need came first, before questions.

Author's Note: This was written for the community I-B-4-Y, for the prompt "Day, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent." (quotation by Ambrose Bierce). It was originally posted on September 20, 2011. (10/4/2011)