The Wolf and the Dog

Chapter 18: Back to the jungle springs

Two weeks had passed and the coupled found themselves battling with their own work. While Kouga juggled among the council work, searching for the jewel shards and training the wolves to ward off any attack from Naraku's minions, which seemed to increase considerably in these few days, Inuyasha fought to keep up with the feeding and changing, not to mention keeping the pups in one place and assure they do not sneak away.

Although she had great help from Yuuka, Kaede, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Shippo and even little Kirara who seemed to have taken an extreme liking to the pups, she found it very hard to cope with everything, her appearance suffering greatly due to the lack of sleep.

The pups were growing very fast and had learnt to crawl within a week of their birth. This proved to be a very big problem; for they had to be kept under constant observation for the fear they might sneak out somewhere or injure themselves. The pups were very active... especially Ryu. Although Inuyasha agreed that Ryu closely resembled Sesshomaru in his cold looks, but his habits were nothing like him. He was the most restless and curious pup in the clan and had a sense of exploration, which often lead him to sneak out from under his mother's eyes to wander around in the cave.

Even though Hikari was the calmer one, she always hated to be left behind and often joined her brother in his escapades. Countless times they had been seen trying to crawl their way outside the room in an adventure of their own and often Inuyasha was seen running after them trying to put a stop their hazardous activities before they made it to the entrance of the cave. Poor Inuyasha was exhausted beyond belief. All this running around was making her tired not to mention the countless nights she had to stay awake to feed and change the pups.

Kouga on his part absolutely loved to spend time with the pups and always made time for his kids, no matter how busy he was. He even insisted on helping Inuyasha with bathing the pups but always ended up with the three splashing the water all over the room and increasing Inuyasha's chores. Inuyasha would growl at him and chase him away; threatening to claw his face whenever he asked to help but that never dampened his spirits. He often assisted the pups in their mischief, making way for them to escape by distracting Inuyasha. This resulted him in getting yelled at or even received numerous scratches on several instances by the extremely pissed off inu-hanyou but none of it affected him as he stood snickering, to watch the poor inu trying to get a grip on the squirming pups. He even included Shippo in his evil plans, annoying the hanyou to no end. Inuyasha finally concluded that Kouga was a big baby himself who only came out when Ryu and Hikari was around and although she would never admit it, she loved the special bond, the love that Kouga and their pups shared with one another, something she could never gain from her own father.

However with all the work they hardly found time for themselves and thus were drifting apart slowly.

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Inuyasha sighed for the umpteenth time as she watched Kouga, Ryu, Hikari and Shippo playing in the dirt from the entrance. This was one of pups' favorite passtime, and no matter how much it irritated Inuyasha, Kouga was always found wrestling with the kits in the dust. Inuyasha smiled she watched the wolf getting tackled by Shippo and two pups who giggled happily as they tried to keep their father on the ground crawling over to sit over him as Shippo tickled him mercilessly.

"Why don't you join them?" A voice came from behind. Inuyasha turned to see Kagome peeking over his shoulders at the scene before them with a smile on her face.

"Oh no... I am a bit tired and moreover it's not everyday you see the high and mighty Kouga getting beaten up by small pups." He laughed "I wouldn't want to spoil their fun by interfering."