A/N:
Wow, fourth chapter already, huh? This should be fun!Nothing to say, so on with the story!
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My Funny Valentine:
Chapter 4: Blue Monk
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"Oi, Miroku," Inuyasha called across the small dorm room. "Where'd Kouga go?"
"He said he was going for a walk, to 'get thing's straight,' as he put it."
"Keh," Inuyasha grunted. "When he gets back, tell him I need to talk to him."
"And where are you going?"
Inuyasha paused for a moment. "...out."
Before Miroku had a chance to question him further, Inuyasha stepped out door and started off down the hall. Miroku chuckled at his friend. "He's so shy sometimes," he said to himself. "It kills me."
Miroku made his way to the window and peered through the blinds, holding a set open with his finger. He watched as Inuyasha made his way over to the girl's dorm, where Kagome was waiting on a bench. 'Things seem to be going well for those two...' he thought with a devilish grin. The carnival incident had been a week ago, and nearly every day since Inuyasha had snuck off during the day to go be with Kagome.
'Which reminds me...'
Miroku thought, the grin on his face growing. Using all the stealth of a fully trained ninja, Miroku tiptoed his way over to Inuyasha's desk. He half expected it to be booby trapped, but reached to open one of the drawers anyway.Much to his surprise he found it unlocked. He gleefully went about rummaging through his friends belongings, an act he was sure to catch hell for later. At the moment, however, he had an important mission. Finding what he was looking for, a small napkin with Kagome's telephone and room number on it, he let his grin turn into a full-blown goofy smile. He stuffed the napkin in one pocket, grabbed his cell phone and room key off of his desk, and left the small room, smiling all the while.
Today he had something very important to do. Today, he had to chase booty.
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"Ne, I'll see you around Sango," Kagome called as she stepped out the door. Sango smiled as she spied on her friend through the window. They were lucky to have a dorm room on the front side of the building. Watching Kagome and Inuyasha leave, Sango let out a heavy sigh.
She walked lazily over to her bed, flopping down and pulling a book out from behind her pillow. Just as she was getting comfortable, though, she heard the phone ring. "Hello?" she answered reluctantly.
"Uhh, hello, is this Miss Sango?" the voice on the other end asked.
"Yeah, that's me..." she answered. His voice seemed familiar but she couldn't quite place it...
"Uhh, hello..." the voice went on nervously, "I'm Miroku, Inuyasha's roommate. We met at the carnival the other day?"
Sango's face turned to a scowl. Now she remembered that voice. "Oi, what do you want?"
"Oh, well, I was just calling to apologize for my behavior the other day..." Sango's scowl faded. "I was wondering if you would let me, anno... take you out to lunch?"
Sango thought for a second. He had seemed like a letch the other day, but he was being the perfect gentleman over the phone. She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. "Sure... meet me outside in ten minutes okay?"
"Really? Great!"
"I'll see you in a few then, bye!"
"Yeah, see ya!"
Sango hung up the phone, checked herself in the mirror and stepped out the door. She found Miroku a few minutes later, sitting on a bench and gazing at some young couple. "Oh, hey there!" he called out when he noticed her presence. She greeted him with a warm smile.
"So, where are we going?" she asked.
Miroku laughed. "I, uhh, hadn't actually planned this far..."
It was Sango's turn to laugh. "Well, if you don't have any place in mind, might I suggest we go to that new restaurant that just opened a few days ago? It's only about a mile from campus."
Miroku smiled at her, giving a nod. "Sounds like a great idea."
About an hour later they were sitting in a booth at Mick's, a small American food place that had just opened off campus. The atmosphere was... bland, at best. But the place had just opened, so Miroku just shrugged it off, and Sango didn't seem to notice. The two made small talk as they waited on their food.
It seemed to Sango that she was doing most of the talking. Most of the time Miroku would just listen intently, his head resting in the palms of his hand with his elbows leaning on the table as he listened. Occasionally he would give a soft smile. Sango was finding it hard to believe that this was the same person who introduced himself to her as "Mr. Right." She let curiosity get the better of her. "Ne, Miroku, you seem really different from the other day at the park..."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the other day, you came off as a bit of a pervert..."
Miroku gave a hearty laugh. "Oh, that," he said, waving his hands dismissively, "that's just an act I put up. A sort of a joke, really, between me and the guys. I act really strange and perverted to keep them laughing, otherwise they'd probably have murdered each other by now."
Sango laughed too. "So I take it Inuyasha and that other guy, uhm, what was his name again?"
"Kouga."
"I take it they don't get along too well, huh?"
"You can never be too sure," Miroku said smiling, "They claim to hate each other, but I know they'd help each other in an instant if something big came up."
"Sounds like an interesting living arrangement," Sango said with a giggle.
"Yeah," Miroku said, a faraway look crossing his features, "I wouldn't trade 'em for the world, though."
It was Sango's turn to smile, gazing intently at the puzzle of a boy sitting across from her. For some reason she felt she could ask him a million questions and still only be scratching his surface. Her thoughts were interrupted when their food arrived, and the conversation went back to small talk and jokes.
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"I'll see you later!" Sango called as Miroku walked off in the direction of the boy's dorm. She smiled to herself. That guy had somehow managed to completely reverse her opinion of him, in less than two hours time. She started walking in the direction of the girls dorms, but stopped when she felt her foot connect with something on the ground. She looked down to see a small black wallet. Bending over to pick it up, she wondered who it belonged to. She let out a small laugh when she opened it to find Miroku's license.
Going against her better judgement, she decided to sneak into the boy's dorms and return it personally. After all, the boy's dorms were in the same building as the computer lab. All she had to do was sneak by the campus security guarding the stairwells.
She smiled when she saw that one of the security guards was sleeping in his chair. Looking around nervously, she slipped passed him as stealthily as she could. Once she was inside the stairwell, she checked Miroku's student ID for his floor and room number. 'Floor 3, room 19,' she confirmed to herself.
When she found the room, she was surprised to find the door slightly ajar. Forgetting to knock, she placed her hand on the knob and opened the door slowly. She heard Miroku let out a surprised yelp, and caught a brief glimpse of him shoving something under his pillow. She wondered briefly if he was doing something perverted, but shook the idea off. "Miroku? You, uhh, dropped you wallet outside..." she said nervously, thinking that maybe sneaking into the boys dorms wasn't such a good idea.
"Oh, thanks," Miroku said, smiling as he sat on his bed.
An awkward moment passed. Sango was the first to speak. "Wow, the boy's dorms are really similar to the girls..."
"Are they?"
"Yeah..."
Another moment passed in an awkward silence. Curiosity was bubbling up inside Sango. She moved over to sit next to Miroku on his bed. "Ne, Miroku, what were you doing when I came in."
Miroku gave her a nervous smile. "Oh, nothing, nothing at all..."
Sango laughed a bit. "You sure sounded surprised for being caught doing nothing. What's the deal, did I catch you in the act or something?" Sango teased, a light blush crossing her face.
Miroku laughed. "Yeah, yeah, that's it..." he said, trying to move the conversation away from the current topic. For some reason, Sango didn't buy it.
She slipped her hand under his pillow, but before she could find what he had hidden Miroku lunged at her arm and pulled it away. "It's nothing, really, I swear," he said, a nervous sweat breaking out.
"Oh come on! Just tell me," Sango said laughing. "I won't make fun of you or anything, I promise!"
"It's getting late..." Miroku said, ignoring her last statement. "Maybe you should leave..."
Sango got an idea. She put on her best seductive smile and leaned in close to him. "And why would I want to do that?" she asked, tracing circles on his chest with her finger.
Miroku gave a nervous smile, sweating as he backed away slowly. "Uhh, well, err, the thing is, uhh, if anyone comes in, and, you're not really supposed to be here, so..."
It took all of her willpower not to laugh as the boy in front of her went on about school policy. Despite how he acted around his friends, this guy really was as clueless as anyone else when it came to women. Sango saw her opportunity open up, and took it without hesitation, her hands diving under his pillow and pulling out a small, hard object.
"Hey!" Miroku called as he reached out to grab it, but Sango turned quickly and ran out of his reach.
She stuck her tongue out at him before looking down at her prize. In her hands was a small wooden picture frame, holding securely a picture of one of the most beautiful women Sango had ever seen. She had dark wavy hair, pale creamy skin and deep chocolate eyes. "Who is she?" Sango asked, looking up at Miroku, who was laying on his bed now, hands behind his head.
"That's a picture of my mother..." he said, trailing off. "She died giving birth to me..."
"Oh," Sango said, no longer feeling like a decent human being. "I'm sorry..."
"No, it's alright. You didn't know," Miroku said, smiling at her softly. For some reason that smile just made Sango feel worse about it.
Still, Sango pressed on. "What were you doing before?" she asked.
"Hmm? Oh... Well, you see," Miroku said shyly, "Sometimes, when I'm feeling confused or lonely, or really happy, or when something really important happens, I pull out that picture and I talk to my mom... It's just a stupid little thing I do, so I don't really want anyone else to know about it."
"It's not stupid," Sango said. "And it's nothing to be ashamed of."
Miroku lifted his head to look at her again, smiling softly. A few moments passed in silence. "Well, I really should get out of here," Sango said, standing from her seat in the corner.
"Hmm, thanks for bringing back my wallet," Miroku said, standing up to show her out.
"It was nothing really," Sango said, smiling. "And I'm sorry again, for, uhh, well..."
"It's nothing, really," Miroku said with a dismissive wave of his hands. "Don't worry about it."
"Well, I'm going to be off then." Sango put the picture down on Miroku's desk and headed out the door. "See ya!"
"Hmm, see you later!" Miroku waited until he couldn't hear Sango's footsteps in the hall. He turned to where the picture was on his desk, grabbing it and flopping onto his bed.
"So as I was saying, mom," he said as he gazed at the picture with a sad smile, "I think I've found the girl of my dreams. I hope you like her." The woman in the photo gave him her usual bright smile, letting him know what he wanted to. "I knew you would."
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Kouga stood again and paced in the parking lot. 'This is so stupid,' he thought, 'she already told me that she doesn't like me. And the way she smiles when she's around him... could I really even try to destroy that?'
Kouga let out a frustrated growl. It was all so confusing. He sat down again on the hood of his car. 'When did I let this turn into another stupid little contest?'
His thoughts were broken when a car pulled into the spot next to him. He glanced at the driver as she stepped out of the car, recognizing her as one of Kagome's roommates from the carnival. "Hey," he greeted, not wanting to be impolite.
The girl looked at him. "Oh, hey," she answered. "You're that Kouga guy, right? From the carnival?"
"Yeah, Inuyasha's roommate," Kouga said, grinning. "I'm afraid I didn't catch your name?"
"Oh, I'm Ayame," she said, offering him her hand. He took it in his and gave it a light shake. "So, who're the flowers for?"
"Oh these?" Kouga asked, looking to the small bouquet resting on the hood of his car. "No one, really..."
"You were going to give them to Kagome, huh?"
Kouga choked nervously. He looked away, blushing. "Y...yeah..."
Ayame sighed. "Sometimes love means you have to let go..." she said, taking a seat next to him on the hood of his car.
"Yeah... I guess you're right," he said, looking down sullenly. He brightened up suddenly, looking over to her. "Well, it'd be a shame to let these go to waste!" he said, picking up the flowers. "What do you say? Do you wanna take 'em off my hands for me?"
Ayame looked at the arrangement and giggled. "Sure," she said, taking the flowers from him gently. "Well, I should be going..."
"Yeah, I oughta get out of here too," Kouga said. "I'll see you around, ok?"
"Yeah, see you." With that Ayame set off towards her dorm, while Kouga climbed into his car. He sat for a second before turning the key in the ignition, thinking about something Inuyasha had said. "Being yourself, eh?" he said to himself, his usual cocky grin returning, "Maybe I should give it a try."
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A/N: Hey there! Hope you enjoyed reading this one as much as I enjoyed writing it.
As always, leave any comments, suggestions, or whatever else you wanna say in your review. Ja! =)
