Flowers and Candy for Sango

Disclaimer: All of the Inuyasha characters belong to their creator, Rumiko Takahashi. ...And Miroku belongs to Sango. I wonder when she's going to realize that...

Searching for jewel shards and Naraku at the same time had become a rather long, boring, and altogether tiring expedition for the group, and they all had to admit they enjoyed every break they were able to get. Inuyasha usually got mad at Miroku for getting them a place to stay, but Miroku knew that deep down he really appreciated it. As usual when they rested at a village, everyone was off doing their own thing. Kagome and Inuyasha were somewhere talking, Shippo was off playing with Kirara, and Sango – well, Miroku was not quite sure where Sango was, but he wouldn't mind running into her at all. Sure he was spending his own time looking around the village for any beautiful women to take a nice, long took at, but they were all nothing more than a pretty face.

Speaking of pretty faces, Miroku smiled as one approached him. The girl was probably around the same age as Kagome. She smiled shyly as she walked up and averted her eyes from looking directly at his face. "Excuse me, Houshi-sama," she began. He chuckled at her coyness and urged her on. "I was hoping you could help me."

Miroku leaned his staff onto his shoulder. "Well, of course I can help you." He did not give her a moment to tell him what exactly it was she wanted him to do, but he allowed her to lead him away.

She stopped by a tree and blushed slightly. "I feel awkward having a monk do this."

Miroku gave a smug grin, perverted thoughts flowing through his mind. "Oh, I assure you I can do this better than any boy you know."

She smiled. "That's great." She pointed up the tree and Miroku hated himself as he followed with his eyes. "Could you get my kitty down? He climbed up and got stuck."

Miroku sighed up at the little gray ball of fur. How did he ever end up doing these sort of things, anyways? He kind of wanted to leave, saying it was a waste of his time, but he had nothing to really do and he was feeling conceited, because out of every person in the village the girl had come to him. Sure to impress her, Miroku dropped his staff and began to climb up the tree. He grabbed onto a branch and pulled himself up to the limb the cat was on. It looked at him fearfully and arched its back at him.

"Calm down," Miroku told it. "I'm not going to hurt you." He reached out and picked the kitten up with his left hand, then began to climb back down. However, he did not get far when the cat hissed and clawed his arm. Miroku cursed and dropped the cat, but had also lost his balance as he began to fall. The cat landed on all fours and ran away, the girl watched him go and Miroku wished he could do that as he landed, too.

Miroku found that he had landed right on top of the girl. "So sorry, are you alright?"

She looked up at him. "Yes, thank you for saving my kitten."

Miroku glanced around. "Eh, well since we're down here, I'd like to ask you a question."

Before anything else could be said, Miroku heard an angry 'humph!' come from his right, and when he looked he saw Sango walking by with her arms crossed looking away from him. "You could at least have the decency to do that in private," she scowled as she walked as fast as she could.

Miroku rolled off of the girl, grabbed his staff and ran after Sango. It would figure he would look for her all day and she would end up finding him – in a shocking position, no doubt. She must have known he was following her, because she continued to walk quickly and Miroku had to sprint to catch up with her. He did not like her getting angry like that, and did not want her thinking anything bad of him.

"Sango," he started as he finally ended up next to her. "I– "

"Don't talk to me," she interrupted. "I can't forgive you right now." Then she stomped off and Miroku exhaled for the first time as he let her go, figuring she would want time to herself and would not listen to him anyways. Feeling like the lowest scum, he turned and went to find a place to sit and think.

He found a large tree and sat at it, closing his eyes to think of something to do. Then he heard Inuyasha's voice. He opened his eyes and turned to look behind the tree to see Kagome and Inuyasha sitting by each other.

"Why would he give you anything anyways?" Inuyasha grumbled, disgusted and jealous. They must have been talking of one of the males who fawned over Kagome.

Kagome glared back at him. "Because it is the sweet thing to do. In my time, guys get girls flowers and candy."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "And that is the courting ritual in your time, is it?"

Kagome blinked. "It's called dating, but yeah."

Miroku smirked at Inuyasha's clueless expression, and leaned his head against the tree looking up at the sky. Inuyasha must have mumbled something sarcastic, because the next thing Miroku heard was Kagome's defensive tone.

"Think whatever you want, but when a girl gets sad or mad and a guy brings her flowers and candy... you just get a bit happier."

Miroku blinked in surprise and thought about what Kagome said. 'Is that so?' He mused over this idea for a moment, and not too long later he heard Inuyasha going off to do something. He wondered if flowers and candy really could make Sango happier. Kagome said that it would. She liked flowers. Shippo liked candy. Maybe the two things mixed together was a way to get to a woman's heart. He stood up and tried to quietly leave so it would not seem as though he had been listening in.

Miroku looked through almost the entire village before finally finding Shippo. He was refereeing a group of children playing in the field. Miroku approached him feeling a bit embarrassed for what he was going to ask.

"Hi Miroku," came Shippo's cheery voice. "Did you come to play?"

"No," Miroku began. "I was hoping you could help me out."

Shippo looked up at him with wide eyes, obviously happy to help. "What is it?"

Miroku looked around, and in doing so, saw Kirara sleeping over in the shade. "I was wondering what kind of candy you had."

Shippo blinked at first, surprised that Miroku had asked such a thing. He shrugged it off and dug into his pocket. One by one, he pulled out a sucker, an individually wrapped piece of chocolate, a chocolate pocky stick, a piece of gum and five chocolate-covered peanuts. Shippo held them all out in his hand to show Miroku and then cocked his head. "Why?"

Miroku reached out for them. "I don't suppose you would give those to me, would you?"

Shippo quickly pulled his hand away, covering it with his other hand. "No way! They're all I have." He looked at Miroku for a moment, but then must have finally began to feel bad, as Miroku looked like his life would end if he did not get the candy. Shippo sighed and glanced to the ground. "Okay... I'll tell you what. Inuyasha has a bag of chipped potatoes he's not willing to share. I'll trade you the candy for them."

Miroku looked at him for a moment and then shrugged. "Sure, I can do that." He turned and went off to find Inuyasha. He eventually found him lying on the grass, looking up at the clouds. The bag was next to him. Miroku looked down at him.

"Hey, Inuyasha. I don't suppose you'd give me that bag of chips, would you?"

Inuyasha bolted up to a sitting position and grabbed the bag. "Hell no, are you kidding? I'm not going to just give it to you."

Miroku thought and smiled. "I'll do anything."

Inuyasha's ears perked up. "Really? Well... Kagome has cup noodles... but she won't let me have any. But she might let you get some."

Miroku understood his implication. "Right, got it. Then you'll trade me." So Miroku went out again to look for Kagome. He checked the last place he had seen her, but there was no sign of her near the large tree.

He sighed beginning to already tire of this pointless idea. What if he went through all of this and Sango would just explode at him again? Then what would be the point? Maybe if he did all of this Sango would just realize he would jump through any hoop for her. This may not be pointless at all. As he realized this, he found Kagome sitting up on a hill. He climbed up it himself, and was glad to see she had not spoken to Sango yet. He would know, for if she had, Kagome would have yelled at him before he reached the top.

"Hello, Miroku-sama," Kagome smiled. Miroku sat down next to her and looked over some of the homes of the village.

"Ah, Kagome." He smiled at her innocently. "I don't suppose you would be able to give me some of those instant noodles of yours?"

Kagome blinked in surprise. "I wasn't aware you liked those, Miroku."

Miroku placed his hand over his heart dramatically. "You did not know? I love them. So, what do you say to that, hm?"

Kagome looked off thinking. "Hmm," she said aloud. "I don't know. Maybe you can help me cook it and then I'll give it to you."

Miroku nodded rapidly. "Yes, sounds great, let's get this done then." He stood up. "I'll get some wood for fire." Before Kagome could say anything, he was off.

He began collecting large sticks by the little forest of trees. He sighed, hoping noone asked him to do anything again. It was beginning to get exhausting. He grabbed a small log and began to pull it along when he heard a familiar sound. Pushing a bush away so he could look through, his eyes widened when he saw Sango, obviously bathing in the water, with her back to him. She was talking aloud to herself about Miroku. Her phrase was something along the lines of a "two-timing, promise-breaking bastard."

Miroku really would have liked to have defended himself at that moment. He really wanted to stay and watch over her, and get a good scene of her naked, but knew if she caught him he would never be able to give her an apology for his manner. Miroku put his mind on what he needed to accomplish. He was getting flowers and candy for Sango to make her feel better, that was important now.

He trudged back up the hill to Kagome, who had obviously left to get some water, but had returned way before him. "What took you so long?" She grinned at him, but he did not respond and they both began to set up the wood to make a fire.

Miroku watched Kagome cooking the instant noodles over the fire, which she was saying in Sengoku Jidai, was not quite as instant as it should be. She glanced at him and realized he did not want to talk about things like that.

"How is Sango-chan?" She smiled at his reaction, then frowned at his melancholy tone.

"Plotting the quietest way to kill me, most likely."

Kagome furrowed her eyebrows. "What did you do?"

Miroku avoided her eyes as he told her about the girl, her cat, and the sight that Sango got to see as she walked by. Then, unable to stop himself, he went into the whole story of getting candy from Shippo and then he would go look for flowers. Kagome smiled at his words, glad that he would try to heal the wound he had cut into Sango's heart. She nodded her head every once in awhile, satisfied at his reaction to things and she decided the noodles were fine.

"You can give this to Inuyasha now," she smirked as he took the cup with a big smile.

"Thank you, Kagome." He stood, grabbing his staff on the way up. "I'm glad you think I'm doing the right thing."

"Sango will be glad you care," Kagome replied as Miroku turned to go back to Inuyasha.

He was laying in the grass, but he bolted up again at the smell of the noodles Miroku carried back with him. Inuyasha stood up and met him halfway, grabbing the noodles from him. "Yeah," he cheered as Miroku handed him eating utensils. "You can take the chips." Then he sat with his back to him and began to eat as fast as he could.

Miroku picked the chips up and went back to Shippo, who was still watching the children play. He turned and smiled at Miroku as he brought the chips with him. Shippo jumped up and held his hands out for it. "Thanks, Miroku!"

Miroku held his hand out. "What about the candy, Shippo?" Shippo reached into his pocket and pulled out everything, placing it in Miroku's hand. Miroku counted the candy to make sure it was all there and then looked up. "Eh, Shippo. I'm missing three chocolate-covered nuts."

Shippo smiled meekly as he chewed on a chip. "I... got hungry while I was waiting."

Miroku shook his head as he pocketed the candy. "Fine. I'll take what I can." Then he turned and went to the field he had seen on his way to get firewood, where he was sure he could find some flowers in.

When Miroku did make it to the field, he found there were many nice flowers there, but only one thing stood in his way. A short, old man stood in front of him thinking. He turned to look at his field and then back to Miroku. "Alright, Houshi-sama. Here's a deal. My wife and son have been sick lately. If you can exorcize the demon that resides in my house, you can take whatever you want from my field."

Miroku kept himself from groaning. "Alright then, I will take care of that for you."

The man led Miroku to his home, and inside he found his ill wife and young son, who both lay on the floor with pale faces. Miroku told the man to stay outside, and when he was by himself he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bottle of a light red liquid. He was glad he had taken it with him when he left Kaede's village. He helped the boy sit up a moment, and helped him drink some of the liquid. Then he moved from him to the woman, where he did the same thing. To try to look like he did something, he pulled out a sutra and placed it on the wall.

He gave an exasperated sighed and went out to find the man, who thanked him greatly.

"They should be getting better in a day or so," Miroku said and began to walk to the field, ignoring the man's continuous gratitude. As he came to it, he ended up finding flowers in the distance. He grabbed a red one and pulled it out of the ground. Just as he did, a bee came out of it and flew over near his face. Miroku edged away from it as it came closer. He tossed the flower to the side, but the bee did not seem too excited by whatever nectar was inside of it. It still buzzed near Miroku's face, so Miroku did the intelligent thing that everyone should always do when a bee is near you. He swatted at it, which angered the bee and it started going after him.

"This is ridiculous," Miroku jumped up and backed away from it. He tried to wack it with his staff, but it was so small it could fly out of the way without him telling which way it went. Miroku listened for the buzzing sound and tilted his head to the left a little to see it coming near his arm. He slid his arm up and knocked the bee away with his staff, sending it flying in a completely different direction. He must have injured its wing, because it did not come back.

"Stupid bug," he muttered as he bent down to pick another flower, checking to make sure no bee was inside that one. He collected a couple red flowers, a blue flower, some charming light purple flowers and a handful of pink flowers which he mixed and matched into a little bouquet. Feeling proud of himself he started off, but he was sure he heard a buzzing sound nearby and walked a little faster to keep away from anything that could harm him.

He froze quickly when he saw a horde of bees flying around a nest, and he could swear they were all watching him. Something about Naraku's poisonous insects had made him a little nervous around these little stinging bugs, so sucking them in was furthest from his mind. He backed away from them but they all started to fly towards him. He looked down at the flowers and put them behind his back. "Oh, come on. This whole field and you have to pick on me." He jumped and started to run as they flew after him. He continued to look over his shoulder, but the bees did not seem to be gaining on him. He was paying more attention of what he was running from than where he was going, and accidentally tripped over a rock, rolling onto the ground until he hit something.

He looked up feeling slightly pained, he must have rolled down a hill. He was surprised to see that what had stopped him was Sango's leg. She looked down at him suspiciously. "What are you doing?" She looked up and saw the bees flying in their direction. She sighed, wondering how he was capable of angering every living thing. She pulled out Hiraikotsu and threw it to the bees, with dead right aim cutting some in half and knocking most to the ground.

Miroku grinned up at her as she caught the boomerang on the rebound. "Thanks for saving me Sango."

She looked down at him slightly amused. "And they weren't even demon insects. What did you do to make them so angry?"

"I think I disabled one of their friends." Miroku was glad it did not seem that Sango was as mad at him anymore. Suddenly he remembered something and quickly got up from his laying position. He sighed in sadness as he picked up the bouquet of flowers he had landed on. He looked at her sheepishly and held them out. "Uh... these are for you. Well, they were."

Sango took them from him, most of them were squished and about three were missing most of their petals. She also noted that Miroku had pulled them out of the ground rather roughly as almost all of them still had their roots connected to them. She smiled and blushed slightly, since it had been a while since she had gotten flowers. "Thank you, houshi-sama."

Miroku pulled out the candy he had gotten from Shippo and handed it to her. "Oh, this is for you, too."

Sango held her hand out and Miroku dropped the candy onto her palm. She looked at the assortment of sweet things and back to the poor flowers. Miroku was so embarrassed with himself. The candy itself was a sad sight to look at, and the flowers were nearly crushed to nothingness.

Miroku felt that he was doing a terrible job at trying to make her feel better, so he tried to explain himself. "I thought if I got you flowers and candy, I could make you feel better and you would not be mad at me anymore for the accidental predicament I had gotten myself into."

Sango did not seem to be listening to him, she was still looking at the stuff in her hands. His attempt to make her feel better was another of those reasons Sango could not stay mad at him for too long. She started to giggle, and Miroku turned red, because he thought she was laughing at him.

"You did not have to get me flowers and candy, Houshi-sama. You know I would have gotten over it eventually."

He looked at her in surprise and his flushed face changed back to normal. "I just wanted to show you that I care."

She smiled again. "I know you do." She sat on the grass and motioned for him to sit next to her. He did as she asked and saw her own blush begin to grow on her face. "I just never expected you to do something like this."

He smiled proudly and laid his staff on the ground. "For you, Sango, I will do anything. Escaping from bees and running errands for everyone is just another day at trying to make you happy."

Sango raised an eyebrow at what he said and offered him a piece of chocolate, which he refused. She laid her candy in her lap and fingered the flowers Miroku got her. 'He can be so sweet when he wants to be...'

Miroku's hand hovered over one of his favorite parts of Sango's anatomy, but he pulled it away, deciding that the day had been too tiring to ruin it now. "Let me tell you about that woman, Sango. Her cat was stuck in a tree and –"

Sango shook her head. "No, it's okay Houshi-sama, I trust you. You don't have to tell me." She sighed and leaned against his shoulder. "Thank you for the flowers, they're beautiful."

"Yeah," Miroku laughed sarcastically. He glanced her over and sighed. 'Very beautiful.'

Kagome was trying to spy on Miroku and Sango but she could hardly hear a word they were saying. To her left was Inuyasha slurping up noddles and to her right was Shippo munching on chips, both so loud.

She turned at them, frowning. "Could you keep it down? I can't listen in if you two don't stop." It was at this time Miroku had decided the whole day had been worth the moment he got to spend with Sango, and must have had a little fun in his position. While Kagome's back was turned, she heard a yell and all three looked up when they heard an all too familiar sound of someone getting slapped.

"Sounds like you didn't miss much," Shippo said as he was in the middle of swallowing and stuffing another chip in his mouth.

Sango left an injured Miroku laying in the grass as she marched away from him. She found Kirara, who followed her master along curiously. Sango sighed full of aggravation, and pocketed the candy Miroku had gone through the trouble of getting her. She looked down at the almost completely dead flowers in her hand and realized just what Miroku could do to her. She felt like melting into a puddle. It did not matter if they were more like stems than flowers now, it is always the thought that counts. She never would have guessed that flowers and candy would be the way to her heart.

The End

A/N: These darn one-shots are gonna drive me crazy. I'm never going to get my Miroku story I'm working on finished if I keep coming up with little ideas like this. Well, anyways, thanks for reading I hope you liked it. The whole idea came about when I read somewhere "Why doesn't Miroku just try flowers?..." ding aha! This is why. Anyways, I love how the Sengoku Jidai people call Kagome's futuristic stuff, and I'm pretty sure I got it right: chipped potatoes and cup noodles. Hail Miroku and Sango the best couple on Inuyasha! We love them so! Again, thanks for reading. Gosh, my author notes are always longer than the story itself. Heh heh...