Arashi

Kagome was weary from another day as a mother to a difficult newborn. Since he had been born, both of the infant's parents were strung out from lack of sleep, and when they were not at each other's throats, Kagome was stifling her tearless sobs into Inuyasha's chest. Inuyasha spent most of that time with only one free hand to hold his wife, the other placed firmly against his temple, trying to ease his headache. They loved their baby—true—but they were not as fond of being parents as they thought they would have been.

"Well," Inuyasha whispered as his wife came outside to join him. She had finally gotten the baby to sleep, and they would rather not wake him. "I don't think it's colic."

Kagome rubbed her own temple. "Inuyasha, if it's not colic, what is it?"

With the cries of the infant gone for the moment, Inuyasha's headache had subsided enough for him to think clearly. "I think he's just really fussy, is all."

"Fussy? He is not just fussy!" Kagome snapped.

"Hey, hey," he rubbed down his wife's arms. "I know. Okay…we're both tired, if we fight we'll only feel worse."

Kagome groaned, dipping her head forward onto her husband's shoulder. "Since when do you know how to make sense?" She mumbled.

"You said if it was colic it wouldn't start in until he was a few weeks old. Well, he's been like this since he was born, and his cries aren't right either. I don't think he's uncomfortable, I think he's just pissed about this whole experience."

Kagome groaned again. He began to stroke her hair, but paused suddenly.

"Do you hear that?" He whispered as quietly as possible.

Kagome's eyes snapped open.

"Inuyasha? What is it?"

He took a long pause before continuing.

"Silence…which means we have about two hours to get some sleep."

Kagome nodded and pulled away from her husband. She pushed open the screen and looked in on her sleeping son. Other than the white hair, he looked more like Kagome. She had hoped their children would have inherited their father's ears, but if she was lucky, those ears were not sensitive to pick up all the whispering as he slept. Inuyasha soon followed his wife in with a smile on his lips.

"I love the kid, but my ears are so thankful when he's quiet."

Kagome crossed her arms, shaking her head.

"We both know it's just the calm before the storm," and she paused on that. A few seconds passed before a smile graced her lips.

"A storm…"

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow briefly.

"His name," Kagome continued, "wasn't 'Arashi' on that list we thought of..?"

Inuyasha tilted his head slightly.

"Arashi…if he grows up to be anything like his dad—which I suspect he will—wouldn't Arashi be a fitting name?"

"Arashi? Are you sure, Kagome?"

"I think it's a good name," she insisted.

Inuyasha rolled it around in his mind, measuring out the syllables, thinking over the context of the name…he tried thinking of any other names he would rather give the child. 'No, nothing comes to mind,' he thought. He would have to learn to write it, he was sure Kagome knew how, but he felt a little bad about not knowing how to write the name himself. He would save that thought for later as he responded after a few seconds.

"Yeah. I think it works."

Kagome nodded and held Inuyasha's hand as they went to lie on either side of their napping infant. Kagome fell asleep right away, not even bothering to cover up, so Inuyasha made sure the covers were snug around both sleeping wife and newborn son. The baby stirred ever so slightly when Inuyasha did that, and the father fretted waking the infant. The baby relaxed as his father petted his white hair, and whispered to him.

"Arashi, Arashi, go back to sleep, little one."

To the surprise of the new parents, when the baby awoke and demanded food, nearly four hours had passed. When he pulled away from Kagome, after he had finished his meal, to their further surprise, he did not start loudly crying again. He looked up at his two caretakers with large, unfocused brown eyes. His parents looked back down at him with confusion and wonder at the change in demeanor.

After about a week Kagome determined that—while still quite fussy—Arashi's sole focus in life did not seem to be driving his parents crazy, and both Kagome and husband were able to get a little more sleep. While Kagome was feeding him one morning, Inuyasha threw an idea out there.

"What if he just wanted a name?"

Kagome rolled her eyes at the idea but stroked Arashi's face with her thumb and asked softly;

"Is that why you were giving me and daddy a hard time, huh? You wanted a name, little Arashi?"

Arashi pulled away from Kagome, frustrated at being distracted from his meal. He made an annoyed whimper that was so close to a puppy's, Kagome could not help but coo over the sound as the baby went back to nursing.

Inuyasha slapped a hand over his face in embarrassment. The ability to produce that noise could have only come from one of the two parents.

"I didn't hear that," Inuyasha said, eyes wide, staring at the ceiling.

Kagome giggled, knowing exactly what was on his mind. "But it's so cute. I always loved when his daddy made cute sounds like that," she said, looking back at her husband. Her husband had no trouble living up to the first part of his namesake, even if he hated admitting it. His hand dropped away from his face as his cheeks flamed up.

"When have I ever made that noise?!"

Kagome smirked.

"Not that one, but let's see…I've heard you bark when you're annoyed, growl when you're irritated—"

"Okay, stop!" The new father interrupted. He had known he let out a growl here and there, but he did not expect Kagome to remember those times.

Kagome waited a whole three seconds before continuing, "I'm just glad to see he's a little more like his daddy than I thought."

Inuyasha fought to keep a smile off his face, but he did not last long.

Kagome meant that. She was happy that the child they created was showing more equivalent traits of the both of them. The brown eyes, round ears, blunt nails—all of those belonged to Kagome—the white hair was all that seemed to pass onto little Arashi. If those little dog sounds were passed on as well…it was just too cute to bear.

When his teeth came in, Kagome was happy—as well as a little worried, since he was still nursing—that little fangs grew in to match his father's. As the years started to grow, he was soon living up to his namesake. He turned into a rowdy little boy, always messy, always wanting to play, and always, always causing one problem or another for his parents. Nevertheless, the young parents honestly loved every minute of it…except the minutes they spent apologizing to villagers for the little one causing a ruckus somewhere.

...

Also, I find it funny that both Yamaguchi and Cox chose to ad-lib "barks" into the dubbing at various points in the series. Obviously the sound isn't very close to an actual dog's bark, more of a "ruff!" with Cox, at least, but it's very surprising. Watching the series with friends at age 13, we rewound that DVD and laughed at the noises so many times during one episode it had us rolling on the floor. (We might have also had too much sugar) I can really only speak for Cox, but he's an excellent voice-actor even if he's not the friendliest guy in life.

The name "Arashi" as it's written in a single Kanji(?) just literally means "storm". To me, it sounds similar to Inuyasha's name, and even a little bit of Kagome's. If he grows up to be anything like his father, then it would be a fitting name. However, another writing of the name Arashi can mean "a new story" which I think is beautiful too-it would be like opening up a new chapter of Inuyasha and Kagome's life-them as parents.

On a sidenote, can you just imagine Inuyasha playing with his young son, at like 5 years old? Or even before then, teaching him how to jump really high, and land properly so he doesn't hurt himself? Or tucking him under his arm and holding him still when he's misbehaving? Awwwwww... I just can't, it's so cute, I really want this, (hah).