Title: Precious Cargo

Rating: PG

Author: The Personification of Fluff

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha. Nor do I own pirates, or pirate ships, or the Odyssey. In fact, at this point, I am not even wearing socks, that's how deprived and owning-less I am.

Summary: Every have a chat with Corisu and Aamalie-sans and try to get them to write? They ask for something shiny, and I want fluff and something to distract me from another boring—namely because it's excessively long for the subject matter—history article. The end result? A fan fic. They wanted to see a pirate-Miroku, because he's just that much fun. And so he is. It's silly; it's corny, but it's oh-so nice and fluffy.

Here is you shiny—now get cracking!

XX

Precious Cargo

She had met him before; she was sure of it. Holding her chin high against the leers and catcalls which bombarded her, Sango looked her enemy in the eye. She recognized him, but her attention was divided between his sea-blue eyes and the cutlass in his hands. It was difficult to tell which weapon was more dangerous.

"How dare you attack my ship?" she demanded of him. She glanced around her at The Fair Trade, a stalwart vessel now laying dead in the water, its mass toppled over from a very lucky shot with a cannon. Sango turned back to the man the others had referred to only by 'Captain'. "We're a passenger ship. We have no precious cargo, and, sir, you had an unfair advantage in attacking our ship as we lack both fighting men and artillery."

He smiled; it was a charming, lazy grin that made his eyes dance with amusement. "If you'd like, lady, we can withdraw ourselves from the ship. You'd have a hard time trying to get to port without a mainsail, though."

"We still have the other two sails. Though it may prove difficult, it is still possible to make it to the Saint Laurence." In her mind, she growled with frustration. Where had she met him before? A port, maybe?

The Captain laughed. "I love a woman with brains and that fiery nature. You could be one of us, lady."

Her mouth dropped in horror at the very idea, but deep down she felt that fire he'd mention suddenly stir at the very idea. Imagine, being free on the high seas! Out of her bodice; out of the damnable skirts that were too hot in summer and too cold in winter; no more petticoats or etiquette or men staring down her chest! No more tutors, no more Latin, no more gloves that itched her hands or paint-make up. No more stupid wigs! She could dress in pants and wear tunics! She could be free, finally, to explore lands she could only dream of.

"Become a pirate? The idea of it is simply revolting!"

The man turned and began to walk away. One hand still clutched his sword, but the other waved flippantly in the air. "Very well, then. We'll take what we and go. Since the lady is so adamant not to join us, she will remain unharmed and untouched. Anyone who wishes to join us may die; anyone who fights against us will be thrown into their brig and the key will be locked in our brig."

"You can't do that!" she yelled, stomping after him. The pirates all laughed as she walked, enjoying the display between the raven-haired woman and their captain. She glared at them as she passed by, and some of them were cowed into looking the other way.

"And why not?'

"For one, it's piracy!"

Somehow, he had gotten close to her. He sheathed the sword and leaned down to whisper in her ear. She felt his five-o'clock shadow brush her cheek. His breath was warm, and did not smell of ale or rot as the other men did. Sango still wiped it away with disgust. "In case you missed it, Lady, we are pirates. As such, we do what pirates do."

"Murder, loot, kidnap, and rapine you mean?'

He laughed loudly again. Even when the rich sound died out, it was still reflected in his blue eyes as he gazed down at her in admiration for her wit. "Looting, in my case. In some countries, piracy will only get you hanged, but rapine…." He made a cutting motion in the direction of his private parts—which, by the tight fit of his breeches, were a little too noticeable. "Rape a woman and they take off the offending appendages, Lady. When I go, I prefer to go intact."

She cringed at the very idea of such a barbaric act. "And where, pray tell, do they such horrendous things?"

He scratched his head. "I can't quite remember. Barbados? The Caribbean? New Zealand? Somewhere exotic and warm, anyway. There's so many customs to learn on a pirate ship these days…"

Sango barely noticed that the other pirates were sorting through the crates on the deck, keeping half of their attention focused on the couple as they talked—sometimes loudly, but mostly arguing. When he turned all of his attention on her, she forgot everything completely. Sango had decided: given a choice between staring him in the eyes as an equal or the cutlass, she'd have preferred the later.

It wasn't that his look was frightening, it was that it was intense and beautiful. Those sea-blue eyes were placed below sloping, thickly black eyebrows and set into a tanned face. His chiseled jaw was only complemented by his broad shoulders and a physique which spoke of both strength and flexibility in intriguing and suggestive proportions. His good looks were completed not by the black hair pulled back into a tail at the base of his neck or the way it was hopelessly disarrayed by the salty sea air, but by the way his personality filled the body. His motions were poised and perfect, giving him the look a powerful man and a gentle soul at the same time.

She glanced him up and down. "You're of a noble birth…"

He hoped above a crate, watching his men loot the ship like a protective parent. The Captain chuckled a little. "Have you ever seen a birth? No birth is ever noble."

"Fine. Of noble blood then."

He winked at her. "Cut me and I bleed red. There's not a drop of blue blood in me, Lady."

"Fine then." She smiled, but it was forced. "You're of well-breeding."

He breathed in deeply. "Ah. You've caught me there. I'm forced to agree with you, Lady. If I disagreed, well, that would be breaking the commandment regarding obeying your father and your mother, would it not?"

"Why is a man of well-breeding running a pirate ship?"

"Not every family can be born into wealth. Mine made their money. I'm simply continuing the family tradition," he grinned lazily.

"By looting? By piracy?" Sango was shocked. "The very notion of it is barbaric! You're abusing the wealth of others to better your own life!"

"Yes, and your father is a banker."

…

"Are you daring to compare your revolting lifestyle to my father?"

He arched an eyebrow, amused by the way her cheeks flared red with anger. "Why not? He collects interest on what others borrow from him. When they can no longer pay, he has little problem with evicting them from their houses, and he pockets the interest collected as a personal expense. People have too many belongings, Sango. I'm simply collecting the interest—the little things—in order to live my own life. I see very little difference between your father and I." A note of disdain snuck into his voice. "Frankly, my dear, I'm a little shocked to see that you think so highly of your father."

Sango snorted. "Highly of my father? I'm afraid that you mistake my revulsion for indignation, sir. My father may be a ruthless businessman, but I afford him the same respect that you must show to your parents—unfortunate souls as they may be. I imagine that you cause them much grief."

"Not as much as you may think. They have a wonderful sense of humor." He paused and studied her. Her arms were crossed and she was staring out to see. She wanted no part on the looting going on behind her. "I met your father once, you know. He's a shrewd businessman. His wife was quite lovely. You clearly take after her."

"How did you meet him?"

"Family friend, in fact. Well, not quite so much a friend as a family enemy. Rival business, you see. We're both in the trade of… collecting. When we found out that his privately owned ship was setting out and carrying a most precious cargo, I leapt at the chance to bring it down."

Her cheeks were bright red when she whirled on him. Her voice was so loud the pirates on deck stopped to look at her, aghast that she was raising her voice to the captain. "I already told you! This is a passenger ship! We don't have any precious cargo!"

His face fell. Slowly, he slid off of the crate he had been lounging on to stand beside her. The wind ruffled his hair and the collar of his shirt. He reached out to touch her cheek and she slapped his hand away. For a moment, his face was filled with rage when he realized that his men had seen the strike, but it ebbed away quickly. Instead, he looked pained. He stared at his hand as if the sting lingering in his fingertips had betrayed him.

She shook her head, trying to push away guilt. He had tried to touch her, in a completely inappropriate and intimate way. Why should she feel bad for hurting him? "God! What am I even doing out here? If you don't mind, now that my bedroom has been sufficiently looted, I'm going to go and tidy the mess you heathens have no-doubt left behind!"

"Sango…"

She froze in her tracks at the sound of her name. She fought against everything in herself that was telling her to turn around and look at him. She willed herself to stay there and not to look at him; not to look into those dangerous blue eyes…

"Sango… you were thirteen when I met you. I was eighteen, well-versed in flirting and my family trade… you were young, but you weren't a child anymore. I know it's been nine years since then, but I was hoping that you still remembered me…"

After taking a deep breath, she turned around to face him when she spoke. Her full lips were drawn tight in exasperation. She disliked being toyed with very much. "I can guarantee you, sir, that I do not recall having ever met you."

He took small, cautious steps towards her. "It was Yuletide. It was your first real ball, and you were so excited. You wore… a red dress. It brought out your cheeks and your dark hair. The party was held in the house of your father's main competitor, and he had told you repeatedly to be on your best behavior. You were so excited, but you got bored when you learned it was all politics and dancing, so you escaped into the study.

"There was a man there. He was just a young man, only a few years older than yourself. You found him alone, with a glass of wine and a book with him. You asked what he was reading. He told you he was reading…"

Her eyes widened. She remembered that incident. "The Odyssey…"

A slow smile began to grow. "Yes! You asked if there was something you could read because you were bored. I told you that all the books were too old for you and beyond your comprehension. You just… you gave me this look and the next thing I knew, you were quoting the book in Latin…"

Sango's heart was thumping in her chest. The captain brushed back some of his hair and took a deep breath before continuing. "We began talking. You told me that you envied Odysseus because of all the amazing places he got to see. I smiled at you and I told you that I was a sailor and a pirate. Your eyes… they got so large, but you weren't really scared; just surprised. You begged me to tell you what it was like in all the foreign countries I had seen. I did. You said you were envious of me. You told me…" He licked his lips nervously. "You told me that you wished you could be a pirate, and wear breeches and learn to climb ropes and talk without having to use all big words teachers made you use. You told me that you wished you could fight bare-fisted or with a sword and shoot a gun, and that you wouldn't rest until you had sailed to every country and met the peoples first hand.

"I know that you were young—barely out of childhood—but that's when I knew that I loved you. I didn't want a docile wife. I wanted a woman who could handle herself and who loved exploration as much as I. I wanted a woman who wouldn't become scared when she saw me with a cutlass or faint when I told her I was a pirate."

Her throat was clenched and she had to force her words out. "You promised me that you'd show me the sea…"

His eyes flashed with intensity that made her knees feel weak. There was nine years of loneliness and longing in that wrenching gaze. "I promised you that I'd kiss you, too. You were playing with a very dangerous fire, Sango. You blushed at the promise and you pointed out that a real pirate simply takes what he wants. So I put an arm around you, so very intent on giving you a kiss, and then your father walked in on us…"

"I remember that he struck you… hard."

The captain nodded. "He accused me of trying to seduce you. It was improper for a young lady and a young gentleman to be alone together. There was nothing sexual about it… not at the time, but he was too proper to understand that we were the closest in age at that damnable party. Why wouldn't we have been drawn to each other? My father could never forgive your father for his actions and from then on, their rivalry became less than amicable. We were never supposed to see each other again, and I was sent overseas by my father to keep your father from slandering me."

She could feel her face soften and she wrung her hands nervously. Her gloves itched her hands. "Miroku… your name is Miroku… when father said that I would never see you again, I locked myself in my bedroom and cried. I had always hope that he was wrong… that you really were a pirate and that you would come and save me from all the drudgery and boredom of that home…" She laughed, but it was choking. She smiled at him, but it was without joy, and full of grief. "Oh, Miroku, why did you have to show up now, when I'm… I'm this?"

His smile was just as weak, but his charm was overflowing and it was still a handsome smile, touched by the same ghost of loneliness that haunted his eyes. "I know that you seem a bit adverse to the idea of piracy now that you're not a little girl anymore…"

"Do you know how many times I read The Odyssey since that night? My copy is worn and tattered and the pages need to be turned carefully lest the bindings come apart again! I want to live aboard a ship. I want adventure! I may dislike piracy, but more than once in my life, I wish I had been born into the life you have! Yes, Miroku, it gives you that much perverse pleasure to know that a proper lady still fantasizes childishly to live like a scoundrel and a man, then take what joy in it you can!" Tears rolled down her cheeks. "Why couldn't you have shown up last year, or the year before that? What is it that you even want?"

Miroku reached for her. "I want you, Sango."

She retreated from his reach. "Don't you see? Hat's the one thing you can't have! I'm engaged, Miroku."

"I know." He looked guilty. Sango stared at him. "My father told me. I knew I had to do something about it. I knew you couldn't want this marriage, and my father confirmed it for me. Sold off like an animal to some ennobled farmer in New France… That's not the life you were meant to lead, Sango. I didn't even need to think about what I was going to do about it." His eyes were perfectly calm and serious as he looked down at her. "I came here to kidnap you."

"Wha—what?"

"I'll take you back home. Tell your father that you won't marry this man. Tell him you refuse to marry any one else but me. Don't tell him, even. Live with me, on my ship, and never see France again." He offered her his hand. "All you have to do is accept it. We can sail to the Caribbean for our honeymoon. We can be married in the artic on that rare day when the sun sets over the article circle. I can—and will—give you the world, Sango."

She stared up at him, her brown eyes warm with hope, but her body was held back with fear. Years of having been told what a proper lady should do was holding her back. "My fiancé might come looking for us…"

"Let him," Miroku swore. "Let him try to take you from me."

Slowly, she reached out and she placed her hand in his. He closed his around hers before she could regret it, and he pulled her to her. His scent swarmed around her as his arms wrapped around her shoulders and he kissed her fiercely on the mouth. Caught by surprise, she barely knew how to react—but she liked it.

"Found your precious cargo, Captain?" one of the men asked.

Miroku gazed lovingly down at the treasure nestled in his arms. "Aye."

"Good. It damn well took you long enough."

Sango smiled up at her kidnapper and winked at him. She felt more at ease than she could ever remember. "Aye," she agreed.