Chapter 4

Sango stood against the door frame of the hut her and her friends were sharing. She stared down at her feet, remaining as silent as she could. Everyone was silent for that matter; the room was that of complete shock and stillness. She had just told Miroku and the others that she was pregnant and Miroku sat there just trying to wrap his head around the news, blankly eyeing the floor as if it had all the answers and would somehow tell him what to do, think and feel.

The others sat around him. Kagome looking back and forth between Miroku and Sango, nervously, Shippo looking at everyone else to see how they were reacting, Kirara at Sango's side, staring up at her confused and Inuyasha tapping the floor board impatiently. Finally Inuyasha came to his own conclusion that if no one else would speak then he would. He started after his impatient growl.

"How could you guys pull something so stupid," he said angrily, "we are trying to track down and kill Naraku, how are we going to do that now, now we have to worry about him coming after us," he crossed his arms and frowned at his friends.

"Inuyasha," Kagome whispered.

Sango sighed, but didn't look at Inuyasha, in his own rude way, he was right; she knew that he was worried that this would give Naraku an advantage.

Miroku had apparently not even paid the least bit of attention to what Inuyasha just said; instead he turned to Sango and asked, "Is this true?"

Sango slowly looked at him, why would she lie about something like this? She nodded, her cheeks beginning to redden already from his gaze. She turned away quickly, she didn't have to explain to him how it happened, they all, well except still innocent minded Shippo, knew what had happened that night.

Miroku looked back at the floor and gulped hard. He then slinked over to Sango and whispered, "How did this happen, are you sure I'm the father?"

Sango raised an eyebrow at him, ok maybe she did have to explain what happened. Her hand formed a fist, how could he imply that she would be sleeping around with anyone else? But now wasn't the time to explode.

"Don't you remember Miroku?" she asked, her hand beside her mouth in a whisper so the others couldn't hear.

Inuyasha and Kagome looked at each other.

Sango hated admitting it, but it looked like she had no choice. So as her cheeks turned even rosier with embarrassment she said, "The night at the celebration in that village, after all the drinking and feasting?"

Miroku stared off into space as his mind went through the day at that village a few weeks ago. Sango watched as his eyes grew to their maximum size, she knew he now remembered. Miroku gulped hard again and he stood there frozen in his place, his mouth wide open. Miroku barely even blinked.

Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo and Kirara watched from the middle of the hut in wonder, wonder if Miroku would move any time soon. Sango stared at Miroku until finally he fell backwards onto the floor in a fainting collapse.

Sango gasped along with everyone else.

"You killed him," said Shippo in a nervous tone.

Sango kneeled down at Miroku's side, "Miroku," she said, gently shaking him.

"I guess the shock of the news made him faint," said Kagome.

"Feh," said Inuyasha, "the big wimp."

"Inuyasha," hissed Kagome, "this isn't something little, it's a lot to take in."

Finally Miroku's eyes fluttered open and the first thing he saw was Sango staring down at him, her eyes blinking and worried like. He sat up with Sango's help.

"Are you alright Miroku?" she asked.

"Yeah, that fall looked like it hurt," said Shippo, equally concerned.

"I'm fine," Miroku assured them before looking at Sango's middle in a daze. Not that Sango wasn't relieved that Miroku was ok, but him staring at her the way he was doing was making her nervous. She casually backed away a little, "Um, are you sure you're going to be ok?"

Miroku didn't answer; instead he cleared his throat, stood up with the help of his staff and turned to the door that was still opened to the outside.

"Miroku," Sango spoke uneasily as she too stood up, from behind him now. The others watched him, wondering what he was going to do next.

"Miroku," Sango started again, "Um, I…."

"Sango," Miroku cut in, "I have to leave," he said abruptly.

"Uh…ok," Sango replied, not sure exactly what that meant. Though she waited on more of an explanation, Miroku just stood there, looking out into the distance outside.

Miroku turned suddenly, alarming the others just a bit. He looked Sango right in the eyes and said, "I don't know if I'll return," he turned back to face the outside, "so don't come looking for me."

"What?" Sango asked, barely audible. She could see the seriousness in his features before he had turned around and it was starting to scare her. This wasn't the Miroku she knew.

Behind Sango, the others too were unnerved by his words, all wore astonished expressions.

"I wish you well Sango," Miroku finally said before leaving the hut and walking casually down the one step that was between the porch of the hut and the ground. By the time he had gotten to the ground, Sango had taken a step over the door threshold and the others had stood in shock.

Sango kept her eyes on Miroku, hurt in her eyes. She kept watching him, waiting on the moment that he would stop and inform her that it was just a stupid joke.

But he kept walking. Sango's legs didn't seem to want to work and she was stationary, staring down at the porch, wondering what she did wrong or what she said wrong.

Soon though, she saw someone out of the corner of her eye go past her and she looked up to see Kagome chasing after Miroku. Confused, feeling as though she was in her own world, she watched what happened.

"Hey, Miroku," called Kagome. She managed to stop in front of him, seeing as she was going a little faster than he was.

"What's going on," said Kagome, her voice upset, "why are you just leaving?"

"Get out of the way Kagome," said Miroku simply with an emotionless look.

"No," she exclaimed, "where are you going?"

"You wouldn't understand," Miroku shot back, talking to her as though she was a child.

Kagome took a step back and looked at Miroku as though she was seeing him in a whole different way. Miroku slightly frowned at Kagome before stepping aside and continued walking.

"Huh?" Kagome said to herself.

On the hut porch, Sango couldn't seem to do anything except watch Miroku leave, walk out on her when she needed him the most. She was suddenly overcome with emotional pain and she started to cry. She wasn't sure why or how it happened so unrepentantly, but she was soon in tears. By this time Inuyasha had made his way on the ground outside and Shippo and Kirara was by Sango's side.

Kagome stood there confused, what was Miroku's deal? Then out of no where a wind blew her school uniform as a red blur whizzed past her, causing her to close her eyes from it.

When she opened them, she saw Inuyasha in front of Miroku, snarling his dislike for what he was doing.

"Sango," cried Shippo.

Kagome looked back to see Sango falling to her knees on the porch, crying into her hands. Kagome hurried to the porch and kneeled down beside her, putting her arm around her shoulders.

Inuyasha glared back at Miroku. Miroku barely even looked back at Sango.

"You better have a good excuse for leaving Miroku," Inuyasha barked, "I didn't think you were that kind of selfish bastard."

On the porch, Sango looked up to glance one more time at Miroku. Miroku, who had glanced back at her, met her eyes. He quickly looked away and back at Inuyasha.

"Move Inuyasha," he demanded. To everyone's surprise, Inuyasha lifted Miroku up by the front of his robes with both hands. Inuyasha stared at him with an angry look, after everything they had all been through together, he would just leave Sango and his unborn kid? Yeah it had been a mistake what they did, but to walk out like this, was beyond selfish.

"Don't do this Inuyasha," said Miroku, "Just let me go," he said as calmly as possible. This seemed to anger Inuyasha even more.

"Inuyasha," called Kagome, "let him go."

"What?!" yelled Inuyasha, turning his head towards Kagome in surprise. Sango looked at Kagome with tears still in her eyes, a part of her wanted Inuyasha to continue what he was doing.

"We at least have to hear him out, why he is leaving, maybe he has something he has to take care…." Kagome started only to be cut off by the one Inuyasha still had in his grasp.

"No," Miroku spoke, "I'm leaving and I'm not coming back, now let me go Inuyasha."

Inuyasha finally let go, slightly pushing him away from him in the process. Then the half demon just stared at him in disgust.

Miroku stared at Sango for a few seconds, but Miroku shook his head as he turned away, leaving down the road of the village. Sango closed her eyes causing left over tears to fall, she hoped it was all a bad dream. She shook her head, no it wasn't a bad dream, it was real, all of it was frighteningly real. She felt Kagome hug her shoulders a little tighter in a friendly gesture.

Inuyasha started to put Miroku in his place again, but stopped himself. What was the point when he would in the end make up his own mind, and by the looks of things, he had already done that.

The soft weeping sounds from Sango hung in the air as Inuyasha, Kagome, Shippo and Kirara watched on of their own leave them for all they knew forever.

"Coward!" Inuyasha yelled after him, making sure his voice reached the monk's ears as he reached the outskirts of the village.