A/N: Ouch…60+ hits and only two reviews? What's an aspiring writer to do for a little encouragement? C'mon guys, it doesn't take that much time to give feedback so my stories improve right? You all benefit from it! I'll take praises, criticisms, flames, invitations to dinners, anything! Thanks so much to Shippousangoffe and x Fade x To x Black x for your reviews! You guys really made my day! By the way, just to make things clear I've always watched the english version of Inuyasha; hence, Sango calls Miroku by name all the time, all honorifics (-chan, -kun, -sama, etc.) are dropped (yeah I like them too, but I don't want to risk misusing them).

Aspects of Personality
Chapter 1

"Sango! Are you all right?" Kagome yelled as she made her way to the, for the second time in a day, unconscious demon-slayer.

SLAM!

Unfortunately, she found herself falling flat on her face. Inuyasha was holding on to her legs for dear life, rendering the modern girl immobile.

Kagome blushed from the awkward closeness between her and the half-demon. "Inuyasha! What's gotten into you? Get a grip on yourself! Not on me! Let go!"

Inuyasha made a pathetic, whimpering sound and hid his face in his arms.

Miroku has by now recovered from his shock and quickly dispatched some of his sacred sutras. The weakened snake demon gave a loud hiss and reared back. Seizing the opportunity, Miroku sliced through it with his staff.

"Are you guys okay?" He yelled as he ran towards Sango. Kneeling down, he placed one arm supporting her back and shook her gently. "Sango, Sango, speak to me! Wake up!"

Sango grunted and opened her eyes. Violet met chocolate as they gazed at each other. Just when Miroku thought it was going a bit far, and made to tear his eyes away, Sango reached up, wrapped her arms around his neck, and buried her face in his robes.

"S-S-Sango?"

A worried Shippo, seeing this odd behaviour, concluded that the girl must be injured. "Sango what's wrong? Where did the demon hurt you?"

"I'm not hurt," she mumbled, "I'm just…scared."

"SCARED!" three incredulous voices cried. "Of what?" queried Shippo.

Loosening her grip on Miroku, Sango stuck out one trembling hand at the carcass of the demon. "Of…that thing. It's really frightening. I don't like it." She risked a glance at the carcass and buried into Miroku's robes again, shaking like a leaf. Out of reflex, Miroku wrapped his arms around her and stroked her back, his fingers itching to untie the ribbon holding her hair up.

"But…Sango, that's a demon. You've seen those countless times before. You're a demon-slayer. You kill them for a living," said Kagome.

Sango looked up at her, eyes wide. "Me? Kill that? Oh no, I can never do that. At least, now I can't. I mean, oh, it's complicated. I remember being able to kill demons, and I feel it's something that should come naturally to me, but right now I'm sensing this immense fear that I haven't felt before, like back when I was a little girl facing a demon for the first time. It looks so intimidating now I, I don't know if I can throw Hirakotsu at it without my knees giving out from shaking."

Miroku and Kagome glanced at each other, alarm etched on to both their faces. This was a serious problem indeed! A demon-slayer that could not slay demons!

"What could have happened to Sango to make her act like this? I feel no evil aura; she's not poisoned or possessed at least," said Kagome.

"Well, whatever hit her, looks like it got Inuyasha too," said Miroku, looking at the half-demon now examining the snake carcass, "How do you feel, Inuyasha?"

"Is this thing really dead?" he asked, poking at it with his sword.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of it too, Inuyasha," an exasperated Kagome said.

"Well, it is really scary-looking, but lying there like that, all life drained out of it, that really strikes a chord in me."

"HUH?" a baffled Kagome stared at him. Inuyasha feeling sympathy for a demon? This day just couldn't get any stranger.

"It really makes me think: these demons, we come across countless of them and kill them like bugs. What were they like before they met us? What kind of lives did they lead besides killing humans? I mean, they can't be doing that ALL the time. And furthermore, not all demons are bad; what makes these demons different from Kouga or Sesshomaru? Or me? What differences are there in our design that gave us intelligent thought than these brainless things? Are they really brainless?"

"Ohh…you gave me a headache," moaned Shippo, confused by this spiel. "I never would've thought that Inuyasha could hurt my head without using his fist."

Miroku and Kagome both had their jaws dropped, as Sango was still attached to Miroku's front like static cling. Inuyasha was anything but a philosophical person; where in Japan did THAT speech come from?

Miroku turned to Kagome, "Kaede."

Kagome nodded. Kaede was the most likely person to figure out what's wrong with these two, and they would all be safer in the village. Inuyasha and Sango were, obviously, in no condition to fight. Inuyasha at the moment was more suited for a panel discussion on the theory of demons.

They got up and made ready to head back to the village. Inconspicuously, Miroku slipped his hand to the area below Sango's waist. She let out a small yelp.

To Miroku's great surprise, the expected slap didn't come. Miroku felt troubled. He loved the feel of her curve on his hand, but Sango was probably unwilling and uncomfortable, and was simply unable to slap him because she was feeling meek. He couldn't enjoy himself knowing that he had this freedom simply because the woman was not in a position to defend herself. In his mind the battle of keeping his hand there or taking it away was raging with weapons out on both sides.

But even without resorting to violence, Sango had her methods to keeping her integrity. She giggled in a most un-Sango way and said, in the tone of a typical village girl Miroku always asked the Question, "Oh stop that, Miroku. It's indecent," and traced her finger down his arm until it met the hand groping her bottom, and she held it. Tightly, to put a stop to any further ideas.

Kagome turned around and shot daggers at the monk. "Miroku! How could you take advantage of her like that, especially when she's not herself right now!"

"I was just making certain that she was indeed not herself! If she was acting normally she would've slapped me! Now we know something MUST be wrong!" cried Miroku in his defense. He was overjoyed that Sango made the decision for him and stopped his previous internal struggle, AND he gets to hold her hand! What a wonderful day! Yet…it didn't feel right. Did he want to hold her hand simply because she wants to keep a check on him? And was his cheek actually missing the smack of her palm? He didn't like to think so, but there was a portion of him that enjoyed their little cat-and-mouse game. After all, how many girls dared to slap him as Sango did?

His reverie was broken when Kagome reached over and took the other girl's arm. "Come on Sango, you can walk with me. Miroku, you watch over Inuyasha."

"What!" cried an indignant Miroku as Sango is plucked away out of his reach. "Kagome! What won't you let me take care of Sango?"

Kagome shot him a look and Shippo answered, "Are you really that stupid Miroku? We can't trust her with you and your lecherous hands!"

Miroku sighed. Guess he should have seen that coming. He went over and dragged the fascinated Inuyasha away from the demon's corpse. The group made their way back to the village.

A/N: I'm really sorry this is such a short chapter. I wanted to put in their confrontation with Kaede in here too, but I'm running low on steam (it's 1am in the morning) so I'll try to update as soon as possible. Thanks for sticking with me! Hope you liked it!