None of the characters in this fanfic are mine. If they where mine I wouldn't be here writing this…

He stalked the forest, trying not to lose her scent, it was close. He didn't know how he got distracted. He looked away from her for just a second, and then she was gone.

He was in heat and he needed a release. Jumping from tree to tree, he thought back to the first time he saw her. He was fighting his younger half brother/demon. He ignored the scent of other demons in heat, he could hear some of them calling out to other demons.

Humans repulsed him; they were not worthy of his attention. So why for some reason was he so obsessed, with this human?

She wanted to be alone, she was tired of Miroku pinching her butt and making moves. She was tired of Kagome and Inuyasha fighting. She was tired of walking. She was tired. They had been walking all day and all she wanted to do was take a bath. All day they had been fighting demons, it seemed wherever they went there was a demon waiting for them.

"If there's another demon, I'm just going to let it have the village. I give up." Sango thought.

"Ugh… I need a bath… I smell horrible!" Kagome said, almost reading her mind.

"Tell me about it." Inuyasha smirked, "You're not the one with a heightened sense of smell." He turned to Miroku a waved one hand in front of his nose, and with the other he jerked a thumb over his shoulder pointing at Kagome.

"Grrr… Why you…" she began, enraged. "SIT BOY!" she watched happily as she watched the hanyou go flying face first into the ground.

"What the hell did you do that for? I was joking! You big grump!" he looked up his mouth full of dirt. He was about to stand up and Miroku walked over him. "Grrr…"

"Let's get to the village. I can't wait for the lovely ladies that might be at this one, the last one was a little disappointing." Miroku said, rubbing his hands together eagerly, and moving to stand next to Sango.

"You letch! Is that all you think about?" Sango said angrily, her eyes widened. "Miroku…"

SLAP

Sango walked away leaving Miroku with a throbbing red mark on his cheek. He had been stroking her butt again.

From the trees he looked on at the group. He growled, he didn't like that pervert Houshi making disgusting moves on her. She deserved more than that, she didn't deserve to be groped and fondled by that weak human. She needed someone to protect her so she wouldn't have to fight anymore. He watched her fight countless times, it was beautiful the way that she fought so gracefully, how she handled her large hirokaotsu and flew around on that two-tail. He didn't think that someone so beautiful should have to fight, or be around that pervert monk.

The only thing keeping him from killing Miroku was Sango's friendship to him, killing him would not help his cause. He didn't understand why she kept a friendship with him; he couldn't understand the need for friends. He had Jaken, his servant, he knew him most his life. Did that make them friends? He relied on him although he screwed up simple instruction, couldn't fight, isn't powerful and was just plain annoying. Maybe he wasn't his friend. He thought about Rin. Was she his friend? After all he did save her life, no, he didn't save it, he gave her life. He never asked for her company, she just tagged along all the time, but he now cared for her, protected her, and if she would be harmed, he would want revenge. Rin did something to him, made him feel an unknown emotion that scared him. What the hell was it? Love? No, it couldn't be. But then again over the months that she spent with them she became more and more like a daughter.

He watched her walk away from that bastard (good…) he let his eye's wander along her body, it was slim and muscular from her training as a demon exterminator, most womens' bodies weren't like hers, because they spent most of their time crouched somewhere in a field all day.

His body surged as he thought about her body. If he were going to do something about his being in heat, it would have to be tonight. He knew he shouldn't be around them because his scent was attracting other demons. But tonight was his last night of being in heat and he didn't think that he could wait another month to be with her.

They walked into the village and Miroku headed for the biggest house, putting on his "scamming" smile, as Kagome had named it, on straighted his robes, readying himself to get them a place to stay for the night with his shams of performing exorcisms on non-existent evil spirits. It worked. Kagome was over joyed to see that it had a separate bathhouse and a separate guesthouse with two rooms.

They met in the guys' room to eat. Half way through the meal Kagome dropped her chopsticks and gasped "Oh my God! Tonight's the new moon! I've been so distracted lately because of my schoolwork and we've been fighting Naraku's incarnates and Kikyo. I feel so stupid for forgetting!" she said this all very fast and everyone just stared until someone clued in.

"Shit! I don't know how I forgot!" Inuyasha slapped himself in the forehead. "Kagome! Why didn't you tell me before? Something could happen and we weren't prepared for anything! We could get attacked and I can't protect you!"

"Inuyasha, you're so stupid, forgetting when you become a pathetic human!" Shippou said.

"Why don't you shut up you little baka twerp! You don't think I'll kick your useless ass?"

Shippou ran and hid behind Kagome, "oooooh help me! The stupid hanyou trying to scare me!" He said sarcastically and stuck out his tongue at Inuyasha, who was progressively turning different shades of red.

"If you're so scared why are you hiding behind Kagome? If I were you, I wouldn't go to sleep tonight." He cracked his knuckles in a threatening way.

"Inuyasha, will you stop being so mean to little Shippou! He's just a kid! And it's not like I meant to not tell you! Jeez… Why do you rely on me so much to tell you when you're going to lose your power?" Kagome looked at Miroku, "you'd think that he'd keep track of it himself."

Miroku stood up and walked around putting sutras on the walls, quietly chanting. He finished and sat back down at his place between Sango and Kagome. "Those should hold until the morning."

"Ok, good. Now I can take a bath, you coming Sango?" Kagome looked around Miroku to Sango.

Sango nodded and at the same time they stood up, and the same look came over their faces, angrily they turned to Miroku.

SLAP

"What? I was helping you ladies up!" Miroku had a big grin spread across his face along with two red hand marks on each cheek. His hands where twitching in mid air.

"Letch!" they said at the same time and stormed out of the room. They laughed at the sound of Inuyasha and Shippou lecturing Miroku on his hentai ways, and that they should cease immediately from inside the room.

They walked in silence until Kagome asked, "So what's going on with you and Miroku? I mean, you two are always flirting…" She realized that she was being very nosy at the look on Sango's face. "Gomen ne Sango! I didn't mean to pry into your life. You don't have to answer that!"

"It's ok Kagome, don't be sorry." Sango laughed nervously, waving her off and blushing brightly as they walked into the bathhouse. They undressed and sank into the water.

Sango sighed and stretched "I don't even know what's going on. I know he likes me, but I can't help thinking that he likes all women. If I choose to stay with him or tell him how I feel, I don't think that I can keep him from the other women… you know what he's like."

"Yeah, I know. I really can't see him staying with one woman."

Sango couldn't help but chuckle at this. Both the girls couldn't see him in a serious, monogamous relationship.

"But something tells me that it's a kind of front that he puts up, like how Inu Yasha tries to look tough, so he can mask his insecurities…" Sango pondered this outloud and they continued bathing in silence for a while.

"Do you think that anything is going to happen tonight? You know with Inuyasha the way he is?"

"The only ones that know about the new moon are Sesshoumaru and Kagura." Sango said.

His ears perked up. From where he was standing outside the bathhouse he could hear everything they were talking about. She said his name that was enough to get his attention.

"Sesshoumaru won't try anything. I think he only comes for a fight against Inuyasha. If he really wanted the sword he could have it by now."

"What? You don't think that Inuyasha has fought hard enough to beat Sesshoumaru? We've beaten every demon we've come up against so far!" Kagome defended Inuyasha.

"I'm aware of that, but if you watch them fight Inuyasha seems to fight to his limit, but Sesshoumaru seems bored, he doesn't break a sweat when he's fighting." Sango sat back and sighed, the bath had relaxed her so much after the day she had.

"Might I remind you that it was Inuyasha that defeated Sesshoumaru the first time he tried to get the sword, AND he was the one that cut off his arm." Kagome didn't know why she was getting so worked up over this. Maybe because she couldn't stand Sesshoumaru and his huge ego. Then she started to giggle. "Maybe you have a crush on him!" she teased.

Sango sent a wave of bath water towards Kagome, who got it in the face. "Very funny!"

Kagome coughed from swallowing water and shock. "Oooh! You are soo going to pay for that!" She splashed Sango in the face, who gasped and kicked water towards her. This erupted into a full out water war. Giggles and splashing could be heard from inside the bathhouse.

Sesshoumaru listened from his tree branch. He could hear the giggles and splashing, his horny mind began racing. What could the two girls, that were taking a bath, be doing, that could cause so much splashing and giggling? His heart raced wildly, he moaned, "Oh Gods…" not caring if anyone heard. Just breathe… breathe… breathe…

Phew…