Complications
It had been a year since their kiss. Amaya and Kazuki were now eight years old, but Hotaka wasn't yet nine.
Amaya and Hotaka ran away from the Meadow, Inuyasha hot on their trail.
"Get back here you little mut!" He called after Hotaka. It had been a year, and still Inuyasha wasn't giving up on trying to stop Hotaka's relationship with Amaya.
It was not a relationship so to speak, it was more of an innocent romance between the two children. Hotaka would occasionally come up to Amaya when she was examining something in the meadow, or drawing a picture, he would peer over her shoulder to see what she was doing. They stayed closely together since the day of their first and second kiss, though Hotaka didn't smother her at all with kisses or affectionate things. He was still shy after all and only graced her with occasional gifts, extremely rare cuddles and once in a while – if Inuyasha wasn't looking – a kiss.
Finally Inuyasha decided to give up and headed back to the cottage when he had lost them in the forest. They were both very young and too quick for him. He grumbled angrily when he opened the door and walked in.
Kagome had no problems with them being innocently affectionate towards each other, but Inuyasha was cautious and annoyed with the idea.
"She is just a KID!" He would growl angrily.
"But she and Hotaka are only very innocent. It's not like these are their teen years." She gave Inuyasha a twisted expression.
"Y-y.." He slowly sat down, "I suppose you're... right... BUT I DON'T LIKE HIS MITTENS ALL OVER HER! 'INNOCENT' OR NOT!" He grumbled something Kagome couldn't hear and repeated it out loud when she enquired about what it was he said.
"I said she is STILL MY little GIRL!" He muttered something again while being turned away from Kagome.
She sighed angrily, "WHAT was that Inuyasha?"
"Oh, nothing..." His frown never left his brow.
"SAY it AGAIN!" Kagome demanded.
"FINE. All I said was... his the son of that mangy wolf... Darn it to heck WHY the son of that MANGY WOLF?!"
"Oh, do you have a problem with me?" Koga was at the door, a smug grin on his face. He was enjoying Inuyashas discomfort about his 'precious princess' going out with Kogas 'mangy wolf' son.
"CRAM IT YOU!" Inuyasha yelled.
Ayame came out from behind Koga. "What's wrong with our son?" She scoffed.
"NOTHING!" Inuyasha replied, and relaxed himself, lowering his head and turning away "His just the son of KOgA!" He said Kogas name with childish resentment.
"Well he is MY son too!" She said, glaring at him.
Ayame suddenly flinched when she felt something heavy on her foot; it was a small boy crawling across towards his parents.
"WHERE DID YOU GET OFF TO?" Inuyasha said angrily, a shocked expression on his face.
"You had me WORRIED sick!" He continued.
"You were more worried about your daughter actually." Ayame sneered.
"Shut... up." He growled through his teeth.
The child was Amaya and Kazuki's little brother; he had dark brown hair and resembled his mother Kagome. He was now six months old.
Kagome picked up the child and he squealed happily, raising his arms up, black dog ears sticking out; a small, wide open grin on his face.
Ayame smiled, "He is very cute, isn't he?"
Koga grunted as some sort of agreement.
"Well anyway..." Koga began, "We are here to pick up our son, where is he?"
"I have no idea..." Inuyasha muttered whilst turned away from everyone. He was starting to get agitated again.
"I'm here dad!" Hotaka was right beside Koga.
"Oh there you are son! Let's go home then." Ayame rested her hand gently on his back when leading him out the door.
Amaya was standing beside the small pebbled path, looking very sad that Hotaka had to go. He smiled at her sweetly and said "See you later."
"Ok." She nodded.
Kazuki was just behind her, "Well, about time he left." He sounded angry, "You are starting to ignore me again! You guys always run off and do your own thing..." He turned away from her to hide the frustrated look on his face. "I hate it! It's just like back then when we were younger." He turned back to Amaya; the frown on his brow was very scary to her.
"I-I-I'm sorry." She had a nervous look on her face.
"Whatever..." He walked inside the house and closed the door without saying another word to her.
...
At dinner Amaya was playing with her food, she didn't have much of an appetite that night. She felt guilty for treating Kazuki the way she did. She felt as though she couldn't help it, which was worse. Amaya just wanted to spend as much one on one with Hotaka as possible. There were still times where all three of them played together but most of the time Hotaka and Amaya would go off and do their own thing.
She saw Kazuki playing with Jirou, their new brother.
It was good that Kazuki at least had someone to play with when Amaya was with Hotaka, but Kazuki still felt lonely without his sister from time to time. They were the same age and had a bond after all and it was hard to establish such a similar bond with a six month old baby. Kazuki also missed spending time with Hotaka, since most of the time he was with Amaya and not playing with Kazuki.
Inuyasha watched Amaya stare sadly at her brother. He had heard the conversation they had outside earlier that day. He had also noticed that Kazuki hadn't spent much time with his friend Hotaka.
"Tell you what?" He muffled through a pear he was eating. All three children looked up. "I'll take you and Hotaka hunting tomorrow, kay?" He looked at Kazuki, his little face was lit up.
...
The next day Inuyasha was with the two boys. Kazuki was overjoyed because he finally was spending some time with Hotaka.
Inuyasha looked away from the excited boys hopping from tree to tree behind him, a gentle frown creased above his eyes. Suddenly he stopped on one tree; he held his hands out to catch the two boys before they leaped to the next tree.
"Smell that?" He asked them.
Hotaka sniffed the air, "Yeah that's a ... funny smell..."
Kazuki only nodded in agreement, looking at his father innocently, still hanging from the scruff of his kimono in mid air.
Inuyasha only muttered one word.
"Demons."
...
To be continued in part 2