At Play

Sango-sama

Another one shot. With Sango and Miroku…for a change. Yeah.

Disclaimer. I don't own Miroku. I'm sorry; I really tried to convince him to live with me. But apparently, Takahashi Rumiko and Sango didn't like that. -_- ::sigh:: I'd rather not deal with the wrong end of Hiraikotsu. Guess I just have to try and find another bish.

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Sango's eyes flew open. Deep breaths made a vain attempt to quiet her rapidly beating heart. Her face had flushed slightly.

It was the third night in just this week that she had been haunted by this same dream. It wasn't so much that it was scary. Quite on the contrary, she rather enjoyed it…but perhaps that was what made it so frightening.

A hand flitted up to the side of her face, fingertips drifting over the line fingers had brushed in her visions. Over her flushed cheeks. Along the smooth line of her jaw. Down her neck and then back up to slightly quivering lips.

Her eyes drifted to the sleeping form of the Houshi, who leaned back against the broad base of a tree trunk just a few short feet away from her. His fingers still gripped the wooden staff of his shajuku, leaving him ready to jump to action at a moments notice. But sleep had tilted his head down to chest. Peace had softened his features, lulling him from wakefulness.

'Damn him…he doesn't have to look so innocent.' Sango frowned deeply, fuming silently. 'Ohhh! This is his fault. He is the one who always has to make a grab for me! He is the one with that asks that…that ridiculous question. He is the one who is the lecher.' She repressed the urge to tug out her hair from the sheer frustration. 'Hanging around him must be what made me start to think like him.'

Miroku sighed softly, moving his head so it set on the other shoulder. A strand of ebony had loosened it way from it's binding and now rested over his resting eyes.

Without even thinking, she had crawled over to him. Her fingertips inched nearer to his skin, ready to brush away the stray hair from his face. The warmth of breath tingled against the back of her hand, breaking her out of the daze.

Her eyes widened as she realized what she had just been about to do; she stood up, backing away from him as fast as she possibly could, her hands balling into fists lest they try to betray her again.

"I have to get out of here…"

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A lavender eye slid open playfully. Her light flowery scent still lingered in the air around him. 'That was most…interesting…'

Kagome-sama was nestled in her country's odd blankets with Shippou at her side. Inuyasha was still silent in his tree high above their camp. Kirara mewled from her owner's pillow, rolling just enough for her to raise a limp paw at bat at the thin air. No one else seemed to have noticed Sango's disappearance.

Hiraikotsu and her sword lay forgotten on the dirt beside Sango's bedroll. He frowned at the weapons and then at the empty blankets. 'It is not safe for her to be out there alone without her weapons.'

A smug smile pulled his lips tight. 'Perhaps, I'll just have to follow her…to be sure that she is safe.'

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As it turns out, it's very difficult to walk with a shajuku and not make noise. Miroku's free hand held the clanging rings in place as he walked, careful not to accidentally step on anything being who may be underfoot.

He had followed Sango's trail to the sound of running water. All the signs of her movement, the trampled grasses, broken branches, and tracks in the dirt pointed towards the river's edge.

Making his way behind a bush and pulling the brush that blocked his view, he allowed himself another slim smile. 'It is fortunate that I did decide to follow her.'

Sango's clothes lay in a mass of green, pink, and white on the shore.

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A toe dipped hesitantly into the shallow water at the shore. The water was cool, but soothed the soreness that lingered in her feet from traveling from town to town on foot.

Riding on Kirara was easy enough during the evening or when they were in a hurry, but riding on the saber cat's larger form during the day tended to scare the villagers. And when she did change forms, she became very hungry; finding a large amount of meat on short notice was not the easiest thing to do.

She leaned over, rolling the form fitting leggings up to her knees so that she could walk in the waters.

'What is wrong with me? Why did I do that earlier? Just having that dream was bad enough...' Sighing, she waded further out into the river, kicking water up as she moved. '...though he had been very nice…didn't even try to grope me once…and that kiss…'

Now blushing, Sango was so deep in her thought, that she hadn't noticed when the river's bottom dropped off until she was completely submerged in the water. Gasping for air as she resurfaced, she trudged back up to the shore. It was bad enough that she was very confused about her own feelings, but now she was soaked too.

'At least I thought to take off my yukata before getting in,' she thought to herself, in a rather vain attempt to calm herself down. She wrung out her hair and brushed what water

she could from her arms.

Slowly, she began to peel the sticky black material away from her skin, when something caught her eye.

Her fist rolled into a ball as eyebrows twitched. Her jaw clenched as the vein on her forehead popped.

"Hou-shi-sama!"

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The Houshi tenderly touched the bruised flesh around his eye as he made his way back to the camp, sighing.

'She was just fine without her weapons.'

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