AN:  Yup!  Yeah Wednesday!  Another update, this one even complete with extra-fluff, because I think I was probably drinking Coca-Cola when I wrote this, or else reading Mybyrdy's uber-good fic, which, let's face it, makes we wanna write in return. 

Valane: What  You didn't think I could really kill off Inuyasha, did you?

Lilemmy: Yes, you were right, thanks! ^_^  And some of your questions will be answered.  But seeing as how I know very little about Kouga's character, I just threw him in because I thought it would be fun to see him in tights.  He wears the mini skirt anyway, so he has no reservations about leggings, I'd think….

Squeakyinuears: I know what you mean.  Myself, I don't sleep.  I'm surviving off of 6 hours of sleep a night, and one 710 mL bottle of Coke a week.  But it's worth it.  It means I'm in the midst of writing um… 5 fan fics, reading a bunch, doing homework, dishes, writing two of my own stories, two RPGs and other random stuff.  And yeah for more Miroku and Sango fluff!

Mybyrdy: Hey, it was great because of your advice!  All the stuff that you told me not to do, I had done, hence the rewrite.  I like this version much better, and somehow still managed to make it work so that I didn't have to rewrite this chapter.  And I will read chapter 6 of your fic as soon as I am home alone, so that my roommates won't think I'm having a heart attack or smething when I fall off my chair giggling.  Which I have been known to do. Often.

Ryngrl: is 2 more chapters enough?

CorruptedAngel: thanks for the wishes.  Don't go to college bars on Halloween.  Next year, I'm so renting all the Halloween movies I can find and having a movie a thon.  Sleepy Hollow, Hocus Pocus, Interview With the Vampire, Blood, really, the list of movies I could have watched is endless. So how did I let them talk me into going to the bar??

ME: I don't know.  I kind of feel bad for Hiten….

Anyway: enjoy the fic! ^_^

Chapter Seven:  An Honest Smile

They let Shippo wonder on ahead.  The fox demon was happily munching away on a breakfast sweet, and would be happy for a long time, because of it.  Sango's brown eyes were serious: even sugar couldn't pick her up.  Miroku was almost as serious, though he knew it was not from the same topic that Sango dwelled on.  No doubt she was busy thinking of how best to tell King Sesshomaru that Kagome was dead, while he was thinking of their relationship, and sometimes lack thereof.

            His stride matched hers perfectly so they could walk side by side.  "Sango?"  She turned to look at him and his cheeks went red when those caramel brown eyes turned to him and met his own grey-violet ones.  "Why is it that you only let me hold you when you're sad?"

            "Well, if that's what you think, then you obviously don't have a good memory!" she snapped, with a tiny smile on her face.  Sugar couldn't cheer her up, but apparently Miroku making an ass of himself could.  "Don't you remember three days ago, you perverted monk?"

            Sango's nose itched.  There was a demon afoot.  She drew her sword and crept away from the carriage, into the bushes. When the door had opened, nobody had been there.  Now she had to survey the area, and then try to get those skeletal horses to move again.  She had gotten barely two feet into the forest when her nose stopped itching.  No, on second though, she found that it was still annoying her, but that some other emotion had covered it up. 

            The forest was quiet.

            A hand suddenly clamped down over her eyes while another one wrapped around her sword arm, effectively immobilizing it.  She twisted her hip  to throw the attacker, when the attacker's scent enveloped her, familiar and welcomed.  Lips brushed her ear.

            "Guess who."

            "Miroku!!"

            The monk was happy.  Not only did he get one exclamation mark, he actually received two of them attached to his name!  'She must be really happy to see me,' he thought, letting her go.  "Right on the first guess, my Lady Sango.  I…" 

            She cut him off when she jumped on him, quite literally, actually knocking him to the ground as she pressed her lips against his.  He was surprised for only a moment, before he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back, quickly destroying all the loneliness and filling all the friendship that had been haunting him since he had become a bandit.

            Her lips were warm and teasing over his, giving him quick little kisses that landed on his lips, cheeks, forehead, and even the tip of his nose.  In between them all, she told Miroku how much she missed him.  As if the emotion in her eyes and the touch of her lips on his skin weren't enough to let him know!

            He took her chin in her hands and drew her down, silencing their one sided conversation with a kiss that took Sango completely off guard.  She made a muffled sound of protest as his lips ran over hers and did not let him up.  The feeling of his breath over her skin made her shiver.

            And boy, did she really shiver when his tongue touched her bottom lip!

            She let out a tiny moan of pleasure.  This was the kind of companionship that she had been missing!  All her other friends that thought Sango had no sex drive: Miroku just knew with expert precision how to get under her shields and drew her out of the safe place in her mind where that part dwelled.

            Miroku took full advantage of…

            Kagome screamed, and Miroku lifted his head.  Somehow he'd ended up on top.  It was probably taken at the moment when he started giving her what would have been a long kiss.  He glanced down at her, curious, before she explained that she'd been traveling with another woman.

            Miroku nodded.  "Ah.  Shippo must have scared her."

            "Excuse me?  You're out here trying to seduce me in the middle of nowhere, and you still let Shippo try and rob my carriage?"  Her anger was quickly replaced with a proud smile.  That was her bandit!  Robbing from the rich to give to the poor didn't mean he couldn't stop at robbing her, or even his own parents.  It then turned to one of annoyance as he fixed his hair, which she'd accidentally pulled out when she had first jumped him.

            "Well, if you won't bear my children, maybe she will…"

            SLAP!

            "Pervert!"

            He rubbed his cheek, recalling the slap.  Ah, it had been worth a stinging cheek to see the jealousy in her eyes at the idea of her friend being kissed in the same favor that Sango had.  Sango's slaps had been getting softer later.  Now they didn't even make his cheek red.

            'I'm wearing her down!' he cheered himself.  'Soon she won't even be hitting me when I…'  He didn't finish his thought, he just fell back or two to watch her walk, his eyes landing on something below the equator.

            "Miroku?" she sweetly asked.  "Stop staring at my ass."

            "But it's such a nice one!" he complained.

            To his surprise, she actually laughed.  Yup, he was most certainly wearing her down.  It had only taken him seventeen years.  For a heart as good as Sango's, he could wait a few years more.  He picked up his step again and walked alongside her.  "Ah, my Lady Sango, I do so love it when you laugh like that.  If only I didn't think that you were laughing at me.  Perhaps one day you will be so bold as to laugh with me."

            She laughed again.  "I think your poetry has actually deteriorated."

            "Ah, not so! It only looks that way, my love!  My poetry has simply changed forms, and in my old age of twenty-one, my hands speak better than my lips!"

            "Funny, but judging by your kisses, one wouldn't think that's the case."  Her voice was serious, but when she glanced over at Miroku, she saw that his cheeks were red.  "It's because it's too dangerous."

            Catching him off guard, Miroku tried to figure out what she meant.  What was too dangerous?

            "You asked me why I never let you hold me when I'm happy.  It's because it's too dangerous."  She hung her head slightly, her bangs hiding her eyes from his piercing gaze.  "If I let you hold me when I'm sad, then you cheer me up.  I'm lost in sadness, but being held by you reminds me of who I am.  But if I let you hold me when I'm happy, then all of a sudden I lose myself again, or I least I feel like I do."

            He was about to respond how silly that sounded, when he realized how callous that would be.  Sango was pouring her heart out to him, and he was going to laugh at it?  Ridiculous!  Besides, didn't he feel the same way, sometimes?

            "I can't do that, Miroku.  I can't just let me loose myself every time I'm with you!  I have duties, and I…"

            "Then if you forget who you are around me, then why do you do it when you're happy, after we haven't seen each other for months?"  She was quiet, and he eventually deduced that at those times the happiness made her forget her station.  That was what it was really all about then.  It wasn't a bad thing that when he kissed her or held her she lost herself, because she fell into happiness when he touched her.  Miroku sighed, and took her hand in his. 

"Darling Sango, although sometimes when you kiss me back I forgot that I was brought up to be a monk, it is those times that I can come the closest to understanding what you must be going through."  He paused, and then said gently, "you shouldn't feel that way, Sango.  You shouldn't feel as if you're being lost.  Listen to my blood, listen to my mind, to my heart!  It knows you, and only you.  If anything, it should be the other way around, that you should always remember who you are, because who knows the Lady Sango better than this thieving old monk?"

Sango smiled despite herself.  His words always had a certain sway over her.  Miroku always knew just what buttons to press, to make her happy or angry.  He was silver–tongued, that monk.  "You're not old, Miroku, you're younger than me by a month or two.  But I suppose you're right.  No, you are right.  Who would know me better than you."

And she stopped, her fears forgotten by his bard-like words, and pulled him close, gently pressing her lips against his, letting everything that was Miroku touch her and surround her.  For the first time in a long time, she did not lose herself, but she didn't find herself, either.  No, Sango knew exactly who she was from start to finish.  Because of that, for the second time, the first being when Miroku had first kissed her, she felt complete.

"Eww!" Shippo stuck the candy back in his mouth and continued to march down the road.  He'd never understand humans. . . .

~*~

            The wolf demon, whose named happened to be Kouga, helped Kagome sneak off the field and carry Inuyasha's body back to his bedroom.  After they place him on his bed, still fast asleep, Kagome cracked her knuckles and set to work.  'This is no different than fixing a human,' she rationalized.  "Kouga, what do you have in the way of first aid supplies at the castle?"

            To her surprise, the young wolf demon snorted.  "The mutt will heal himself in time.  You just saved the king, my precious princess!  Why don't you come down with me and we can go celebrate together?"  He offered her his arm, but she pushed it away.

            "I'm not leaving Inuyasha."

            Kouga sighed.  "Fine."  He rolled his eyes, but Kagome doubted that he was actually hurt or angry, just annoyed at his attentions being rejected.  "I'll send someone up to help you."  He shut the door behind him quietly.

            Inuyasha's shirt was already off.  She used the washcloth and the cold water in the basin (unused since that morning) to start to clean off the blood from his skin, careful not to touch the actual wounds until she got some hot water to help sterilize them.  She didn't know to be thankful or not that his legs seemed unhurt, as she wasn't exactly eager to try and take off his pants single handedly, although she was kind of curious what his legs looked like, under his bellowing red pants.

            'Arg!  What am I thinking?'

            A knock in the door made her pause in her tending to the unconscious Halfling.  She opened it and found a sweet little demon looking up at her.  She already carried a basin of steaming water.  Kagome wanted to pinch the girl's cheeks and cover her in hugs and kisses, she was just so sweet looking, but as she knew not the age of this demon.  She merely took the basin and bowed her head graciously.  "Thank you very much.  Do you know where I can find some…"

            The girl silently took of a knapsack, and placed it on the bed beside Inuyasha, and then left quietly.

            She opened it and found everything that she needed to fix Inuyasha's wounds.  She cleaned off the wounds with a fresh cloth and the hot water, and his face didn't even twitch in response.  He looked so peaceful when he slept, like a little kid.  With another cloth she dabbed on an astringent, and winced when he hissed.  He was beginning to come closer to being awake.

            Reaching into the bag, she pulled out a roll of gauze.  Some of his wounds were deep.  In a normal human they might have needed stitching, but now they just needed to be wrapped.  Already they had stopped bleeding.  Kagome looked at him, and realized that she couldn't bind all his wounds without having somebody hold him up.  She knelt on the bed and lifted his arm over her lap, wrapping what wounds she could.

            He showed no further signs of waking up.  Kagome stared at him, wondering if she should go and get Kouga.  Instead, she found herself staring at him.  Sesshomaru had implied that he had fights like this on a regular basis, and yet there were very few scars on his body.  Demons were remarkable creatures.  She reached out slowly, watching the rise and fall of his chest.  Her fingers gently ran down his stomach, her eyes watching them, when a hand reached out and caught them.

            She jumped back in surprise and tried to pull her hand away, but he had caught it, and held it fast.  "Inuyasha!  You're awake!"

            "Of course I'm awake.  It doesn't take me that long to recuperate."

            Her cheeks quickly turned red.  Kagome had a hundred things to say to him, ranging from 'I wasn't just feeling your chest' to the ever purposeful, 'thank you'.  She realized that his grip on her hand had lightened, and now he was just holding it.  His thumb had even started to rub the back of her hand.  Her blush deepened.  "Inuyasha…."

            But by the time that she had gotten his name out, he had noticed that his arm was bandaged.  He'd also noted that his back hurt so much he wondered of an elephant demon had decided to jump on it for fun.  "Did you do this?"

            "Well yes, I…."

            "Thank you."  She glanced up at him sharply and she looked a bit puzzled that she had been thanked by him.  She quickly pointed out to him that there was no reason for him to be thanking her.  Inuyasha had gotten hurt, defending her, and if she had been able to fight for herself he never would have been hurt.  "I never would have said yes if I didn't think I had a chance of winning."

            "I never would have asked you if I thought that you might get hurt!"

            Inuyasha looked up at her and saw the path of dried tears on her cheeks.  She had been crying for him already, and now it appeared as though she was ready to cry again for him.  He was about to say something, but before he knew it she'd grabbed the gauze and was unwinding it professionally.

            "Lift up your arms.  If you're sitting up, then we can bandage those wounds now.  You're really lucky, Inuyasha.  You didn't break anything at all.  It looks like you got a bruised rib, so that will probably sting for a bit.  And you have a lot of burns…."  She suddenly clued in that her hands were reaching around his stomach, his arms hovered around her shoulders, and that she had to lean into him to pass the gauze from hand to hand.  She could feel the warmth coming off his body.  Her hair brushed his chest when she moved.  Blushing wildly, her face slowly lifted to look at Inuyasha.  When she saw that the eyes staring back at there were of purest gold, filled with loving patience, Kagome smiled at him.

            He looked ready to say something to her when there was a knock at the door.  Kagome quickly finished bandaging the slashes on his chest and pulled away.  Her dark hair hid her face as she began to pack up her supplies and Inuyasha told the person to enter.  The King walked into the room, and Kagome immediately curtseyed, but Inuyasha only smiled.  "I'd get up, brother, but I don't think my doctor would like that too much, should my wounds reopen."  He glanced at out of the corner of his eye and saw that Kagome was smiling.  No, he couldn't see it, he just knew that she was smiling.

            "If you're being precocious, that must mean you're going to be fine," Sesshomaru growled gently.  He pulled a chair up the bed and sat in as elegantly as he would his throne.  "But it wasn't you that I came to see.  It was Kagome."

            Now she looked up, her eyes wide and her skin pale.  Was she in some sort of trouble?  "But… ah, but why, King Sesshomaru?"

            His face softened just slightly.  "Because, Lady Kagome, you showed great bravery and courage on the field today.  While I doubt that you actually saved my life, I'll not forget that you still tried to save it.  I have no fears or regrets about the person that Queen Kikyo sent to me to wed my brother.  Although you two may not end up marrying, and may simply be engaged, I wish to introduce Kagome tomorrow night to my court, in a ceremony befitting a princess, which she will of course be, if she marries you.  That is, until I marry and have children, in which case you two will a Duke and a Duchess, but either way, I want to introduce her properly at my court."

            A smile slowly tugged on her mouth.  She knew full well how much effort it had taken Sesshomaru to say that.  "You mean?  I get to dress like a real princess and wear a pretty dress and everything?"  Inuyasha patted her head affectionately, thinking the sparkle in her eye was cute.  He couldn't wait to see her looking and dressing like a real princess!  She'd knock everybody in court flat on their asses with a beauty such as hers!

            Sesshomaru nodded.  "Yes.  I'd like to introduce you as the fiancée of my brother."

            As if they shared a mind, Inuyasha and Kagome glanced at each other.  The half demon turned to the King first.  "Please, give us a moment to talk this over together in private."

            Nodding once, he glided off his chair and left the room so they could take it over.  Already knowing that they were going to decide, Sesshomaru went and started making plans for the following night's special dinner.

            They stared at each other after Sesshomaru left, until Kagome was so red she thought she might be glowing.  Realizing how long they had been staring, Kagome and Inuyasha turned away from each other.  Soon he reached out and wrapped his arms around her waist, gently pulling her down on the bed so that he could hold her.  He buried his face in her hair, his breath tickling the back of her neck as he sighed, hiding a wince for his side as he settled back down on the bed.  Hiten really had done number with that lightning attack… 

            "Inuyasha…."

            He held her a little tighter.  "Shh.  Just let me enjoy this for a moment longer, and then we can talk."  If she said no, or said that she hated him for fighting Hiten, then at least he would have this moment, when he held her in his arms to reflect on as she walked out the door.  After a second or two longer he nodded, though he did not let her go. "Okay.  Now we can talk."

            "Inuyasha, I don't want you to think that this engagement is because I was told to be engaged to you, or because of war."

            "I can understand that."  No.  He didn't want it to be because of that either.

            Kagome smiled, and it warmed her voice.  "I want to be engaged to you because I want to be engaged to you."  She could practically feel his surprise as his breath suddenly left his throat.  She had heard him inhale in surprise.  His arms relaxed around her and leaned up, so he could see Kagome.  His face was filled with only emotion, as pure as the color of his eyes.  His lips were slightly parted, and he barely seemed to be breathing, as if something in his chest hurt too much.

            "Really?"

            She nodded her head fervently.  "Really, Inuyasha.  I…"  Her sentence was cut off as he kissed her sweetly, a kiss much like their first.  It was as light as a feather, but shook her to the core, and left her craving more of Inuyasha.  She reached up and played with his hair, letting it fall around her so that she felt like she was surrounded by white sakura blossoms.

            When she kissed him back, her touch was just as soft.  She felt his hand cup her cheek, the ends of his fingernails gently trailing down her jaw line and neck, enticing an intake of breath from her.  Her eyes opened and she stared up at him, letting his hand play with her hair and innocently toy with the hem of her shirt.

            Taking advantage of her mouth being free again, she placed a hand over his heart, marveling at the warmth and strength it radiated, she smiled up at, the dopey smile of a girl in love.  "I love you, Inuyasha."

            This time the intake of breath he took was strong enough that she could actually hear it, but did not know if it was from the feeling of her skin against his, or her confession.  He slowly smiled.  "I know.  I told Hiten that.  I told him that I had been loved by a beautiful young woman for three whole days, and that had been more than I ever expected to be loved."

            Her heart began to pound in her chest.  "Really?" she asked gently.  One of her hands fell from his shoulder to brush over the gauzes.  He really did love her.  He'd bled and fought for her.  He leaned his head down and his lips brushed her cheek as he answered.  Kagome sighed and wanted to hold him close and never let him go.  "Inuyasha, please, kiss me.  Kiss me and don't stop holding me.  I've been lonely for so long, and now I have everything I've ever wanted."

            "Oh?" he arched an eyebrow with the sound.  He heard her nod, and her next word made him understand that he could never love anybody like this, not in a million years.

            "You," she whispered, her voice almost sounding like a soft moan.  He lifted his head and stared at her.  Her eyes sparkled, but it was out of happiness, not tears.  "All I ever wanted was you.  I wanted somebody who respects the land, who understands me, who treats me like a princess.  That's you, pure and simple."  Kagome giggled, rubbing her nose against his.  "Okay, and you kind of make me feel fuzzy warm inside too, which is just the added perk."

            Filled with passion, he closed the almost invisible distance between their lips, kissing her with all the love he could not say out loud yet without fear of frightening her away from its intensity.  As his lips drew over hers, his breath ragged, he told her that she was everything that he had almost wanted too.  When she asked him what that was, as his lips brushed down her neck and back up again, he replied, "Someone who loves me for who I am rather than what I am."  He lifted his head again to look at her.  "I just never thought that I'd be lucky to find someone who is as beautiful on the outside as they are on the inside."

~*~

            "Don't look."  Kagome giggled and smoothed out the wrinkles in her dress.  She made sure her hair was perfect before she stepped out from the side room she had dressed in. Kagome saw his jaw drop and he stared at her, worry suddenly flitting about in her heart.  "Don't you like it?"

            The dress was, surprisingly, a gift from Sesshomaru.  The King had said that he didn't want to introduce his sister-in-law looking like a ragamuffin, so he had sent up a dress for her to wear, as well as everything else she would need to prepare herself.  Ruby earrings dangled from her ears, entwining with ringlets of black hair.  All of the top had been pilled into a bun, leaving pieces of it hanging down so that she didn't look very prim and proper.  In fact, Inuyasha thought it looked like she had just come outside from watching the stars, or climbing a tree, which was just the right look for a woman such as Kagome.

            The dress was ruby red, and hung off her shoulders, revealing enough skin so that Inuyasha  was actually jealous, when he stopped thinking of the time when he had seen her in the bath.  This was about as much as he had seen then…  She wore no such foolish instrument as a corset, and the dress clung to all her curves.  She was quite shapely, he found approvingly.  The more he discovered about Kagome, the more he loved.  The skirt flared out, making her look as though she were gliding when she moved.

            "You don't like it?"

            He shook his head and finally managed to find his voice.  "It's missing something… I know."  He stiffly went to his cupboard and pulled out a wooden box, rummaging through it before he pulled out what he sought. His body still hurt, though his recovery was fast, the wounds closed and the burn marks only a rose pink now, though they still ached when he moved too fast.

Taking Kagome's hand, he brought her to the mirror with an impish grin, so that she could see what he was doing.  He unraveled a diamond necklace from his large hands and gently placed at around her neck, pleased at her awed gasp.  He tied the choker on a loose hinge, so that it accentuated the skin she showed off not only through the clear color of the diamonds, but by the shape as well.  "It was my mother's.  It looks good on you."

            She took his hands on hers and drew them around her waist.   They stared at themselves in the mirror, staring at the happy smiles on their faces to the rings on their fingers.  'This is it. I'm really going through with it.'  They had these thoughts at the same time, and then promptly sighed.  'We look so happy, together.  We're so alike, but so different.'

            Somebody knocked on the door. Somebody always seemed to be knocking on that damned door at the worst possible opportunities.  Inuyasha opened it and found Kouga staring at him.  The wolf demon looked the dog demon up and down.  Inuyasha had pulled his hair back into a lose ponytail.  He wore a vest of silver, underneath a white dress shirt.  From the waist up he looked liked like a prince, but rather than wearing the latest style of pants –tights Inuyasha would not be caught dead in- he still wore his regular red pants.

            "You look stupid," Kouga snarled.

            Kagome's presence, slipping underneath Inuyasha's arm to smile at the demon who had helped her carry Inuyasha upstairs the day before, calmed the situation.  "I think he looks wonderful.  He looks like himself."

Kouga reached out and took her hand.  "M'lady, your beauty can grace us any time you wish."  Then he saw there was a ring on her finger and he let the hand fall away.  He knew a lost battle when he saw one.  "Well, the King's ready to announce you now."

            Inuyasha shut the door behind them and offered his fiancée his arm.  Kagome accepted it with a loving smile, and they made their way back down the maze of hallways to the doors of the main entrance.

            The wolf demon left them, giving Sesshomaru the sign.  The King stood up on the dias and began the speech he had prepared, talking about how their engagement would mean an end to the threat of war, and how happy he was that his brother had found somebody to love.  Inuyasha's ears twitched, and for some reason, he knew his brother was telling the truth.

            Her grip was becoming tighter on his arm.  He shifted her hand down slightly, so it wasn't over one of his half-healed cuts.  She apologized profusely when she realized what she had done.  "I'm a little nervous," she admitted as her cheeks went as red as her dress.

            Inuyasha kissed her gently, careful not to let his lips ruin the make up she'd applied to make her lips look so red before he recalled she wasn't wearing any.  He gave her a slightly deeper kiss and she sighed, indicating she wanted more.  His lips brushed hers as he stared at her, his eyes making her forget that there was a crowd of demons on the other side of the doors who wanted to see her, or that there were people at home praying she would keep away war.

            "You can do this, Kagome."

            The girl nodded.  "I know that I can.  I have you by my side."  Inuyasha glanced at her as the doors opened to cheers and clapping, but the smiles they wore were only for each other.