Chapter 8 (Revised)

While Sango and Inuyasha were busy with their playful arguments, everyone else was beginning to fall into their usual morning routine. Kaede was the first to awaken, and she began cooking breakfast as well as brewing a fresh batch of hot, herbal tea for Sango to drink.

Miroku was the next to stir, but he was too lazy to help Kaede, so he went outside and "meditated" until he was sure the meal was ready. In reality, he was peeking under his squinted eyelids, hoping to catch a glimpse of an unsuspecting lady.

Kagome and Shippo were the last ones to wake up, but they both kept their eyes shut, unwilling to let go of the sleep-induced haze they were feeling. Kagome was lying on her side, and Shippo was curled up against her stomach like a cat, so they were both extremely comfortable and unwilling to get up. Eventually, it was the smell of food that finally convinced them to drag themselves out of Kagome's sleeping bag.

Once they all gathered around the low table to eat, they managed to have a pleasant meal filled with quiet chatter. At times, they would lapse into silence, but it was never an uncomfortable one. It wasn't until after they had cleaned up that they realized they had forgotten about something.

"Oops," Shippo sweat dropped. "We didn't save any food Inuyasha." Fearfully, he added." You know how cranky he gets when he doesn't get food…"

"It's okay Shippo," Kagome reassured. "I still have one more bowl of Ramen left in my knapsack, we'll feed him that."

Relieved, he said, "That'll make him happy, but what about Sango?"

Shippo was always worried about Sango, mostly because she was always nice to him when she didn't have to be. Like that one time when Inuyasha wanted to leave him behind at Kaede's place. Sango had wheedled and threatened and reasoned with him until he finally gave up and stalked away muttering to himself about "damned annoying runts with their woman protectors." Shippo didn't mind though because he had been so happy that he had gotten to go.

Since then, he had always looked up to her and idolized her. It wasn't the same way he idolized Kagome: she was his "makes me feel safe and loved" figure in life. But Sango, she was his "coolest older sister in the whole world that I want to be like when I grow up" figure.

Sometimes, when nobody was watching him, he would sneak off to find Sango in the hopes that she was honing her taijya skills. If she was, he would sit up in the trees and watch her as she fought imaginary demons. She made it look so easy and graceful when she did it, but he could never duplicate her moves, no matter how hard he concentrated, or how long he practiced.

It made him feel frustrated sometimes, but he kept at it in the hopes that he would one day be able to repay everyone (Inuyasha, Kaede, Kagome, Miroku, and Sango) for all that they had done for him. Shippo wanted to fight side by side with each of them, and to have them count on him to watch their backs.

But most of all, he wanted them to be able to trust that he could save their lives, and that he wouldn't just cower in the shadows like he normally did. Until that day though, all he could do was bide his time in the very shadows he hated, helping at every chance he could manage, even if it was only in the barest possible way.

Sighing softly, he refocused his eyes and thoughts back onto Kaede. He must have been out of it for a while though, because she was in the middle of saying something, and all he could catch was: "…shall not go hungry."

Confused, he said, "Huh? Sorry, Kaede I must have heard something outside… what were you saying?" Just for good measure, he gave her his most endearing smile.

It must have worked, for she merely repeated herself patiently. "I said: 'Do not worry child. I have set aside some food and tea for Sango, she shall not go hungry.'" She paused for a moment before adding, "In fact, I am going to take them to her right now."

"Here Kaede, let me take her breakfast over to her," Kagome offered.

"Are ye sure child?" Kaede asked for the sake of being polite. She was actually quite eager to let the young miko give Sango her meal. She had no problems admitting to herself that she was getting older, and she knew that her body grew more tired with each passing year.

In a few years, if she even managed to live that long without a demon finishing her off, she would leave this world. That fact in itself didn't bother her so much, it was the thought that she would leave her village without a guardian that frightened. Inuyasha would be there to fight off the demons of course, but he wouldn't be around all of the time.

And what if there was an outbreak of sickness? The nearest village was much too far away to be of any help. By the time someone had reached the miko there, there would be little that she could do. This was the main thing that was keeping her from dying: she couldn't leave her village to fend for itself. They were like the children she would never have, and she would not allow them to be lost. At that moment, Kaede vowed that she would not leave this realm of living until she had found a replacement for her.

Realizing that Kagome was looking at her expectantly, she shook her head as if to rid herself of such morbid thoughts and said, "I can take it if ye do not wish to."

Smiling sweetly, Kagome replied, "No it's okay Kaede, I can do it." With that, it was settled that Kagome would take Sango and Inuyasha their food.

Five minutes later

Kagome walked slowly, focusing very hard on not dropping any of the food. Sango's stew bowl was in one hand, a cup of tea was in the other, and Inyuasha's Ramen bowl was balancing on top of the two. She tried not to spill any of it on her hands, for it was still very hot.

When she had finally made it to the hut that Sango was in, tiny beads of sweat had begun to form on her forehead, and she was biting her lip in concentration. As she reached the doorway she set down all of the food/drink on the ground, and sighed with relief as she stretched her arms at being able to move them freely once again.

Rubbing her neck absently, she bent over to pick up the cup of tea deciding that Sango would prefer to have that first. Being carefully to avoid the food on the ground, she stepped into the threshold of the hut. What she saw shocked her so much, that she almost dropped the entire cup of tea in her surprise.

Kagome stared with her mouth open in complete shock. There, on the floor, were Inuyasha and Sango. But that wasn't even the most shocking part: they were lying in each other's arms!

Blinking twice to make sure that it was not just her weary eyes playing tricks on her and that the sight she was seeing was real, Kagome couldn't help but feel just the slightest pang of jealousy. It wasn't that she still wanted Inuyasha. She just wanted someone to hold her like that: as if she was the only thing that mattered in the world.

A wave of loneliness swept over her as she stared at her two friends. Somehow, they had managed to wind up lying down, and they seemed to enjoy their position a lot. Inuyasha was leaning against the far wall, with his head tilted far enough forward that nose brushed the top of Sango's head. Said girl was currently sprawled across his chest with one arm snaking around his chest, and the other one lay loosely at her side.

They looked so sweet and at peace, that Kagome did not have the heart to wake them up. In all of the time that she had known Inuyasha, she had never once seen him this at ease with someone. It seemed too cruel to ruin the moment.

"Breakfast can wait a few more hours," Kagome thought decidedly. "For now, I'll let them rest." And with that, she turned and walked away, trying to ignore the anguish that filled her heart at the thought of never being held by the one she loved.

xxxxx

Sango felt… warm, deliciously warm. Her whole body was covered in the softest blanket she had ever felt. It was smooth and smelled wonderful, like charcoal and the forest. It reminded her of her childhood, and she burrowed her face into the silver cloth, never wanting to leave. As she burrowed deeper into her oddly comfortable bed, she began suddenly aware of the two arms tightening around her.

Without stopping to think about whose hair that silver belonged to, she screamed "HENTAI!" at the top of her lungs and drew back her fist to wallop what she presumed was the perverted monk up to his no good tricks again. She was stunned to find her fist caught by a familiar, clawed hand.

"Goddammit woman! Not so damn loud! You trying to kill my ears or what?!" Inuyasha shouted at her.

"You're being just a loud as me, thank you very much!" Sango huffed. It was only then that she realized just how… close Inuyasha was.

When she sat up, one leg had draped around the other side of his leg, and she was currently straddling his lap. Meanwhile, her face was inches away from his, and, to top it all off, he was holding her hand. Her face flushed red bright enough to put his fire-rat haori to shame, but she couldn't bring herself to look away from those golden eyes. All she could think about was how much softer and gentler his hands were than she would have imagined and how she wished she could go back to feeling secure and warm within his arms.

As if he could sense her thoughts, Inuyasha looked down and noticed Sango's… delicate position. His cheeks suspiciously pink, he turned his head and merely said "Keh. Whatever you say woman. That's the second time in a day that you almost decked me. Be more careful, wouldja?" His words were harsh, but they were said with a smirk and only a little bite to them.

Surprisingly, he didn't move. Unbeknownst to Sango, he was unwilling to end the moment so soon. No, he wanted to savor the feeling of her in his arms. At the thought of how closely their legs were tangled together, he felt a tightening in his gut that he hadn't felt in a long time.

Sango was fighting very similar feelings, and the thoughts that were going on in her mind would have put the monk to shame and made Inuyasha blush an even darker shade than Sango. Before she let herself get carried away acting out on feelings she knew would never be returned, she reluctantly pulled her hand out of his and stood up. As she did, she took off the haori he had at some point draped around her shoulders and handed it back to him.

"Heh heh… sorry about almost punching you…. again," she brushed at an invisible speck of dirt on her kimono as he shrugged his fire-rat jacket back on, "I thought you were the monk." Her blush finally dying down enough for her to look at him, Sango offered him a sheepish smile.

"Don't sweat it," Inuyasha grumbled. "Just open your eyes next time before you decide to kill me, eh?"

"Well if you hadn't been so…" she gestured to him vaguely and almost stuttered over her next words, "close to me, then I would have noticed." Inuyasha didn't reply to her remark, choosing instead to inhale her scent deeply, for he could feel the familiar awkwardness settle between them once again, and he wanted to remember the smell of her in this moment.

Without warning, he sputtered and started backing out of the hut, mumbling excuses about needing to go patrol the forest and telling her hastily that Kagome had left them food for breakfast in the doorway of the hut. Before Sango could even blink, Inuyasha had vanished out the front door, leaving her standing there with her jaw slightly open at the suddenness of his departure.

"What the heck was that all about?" She wondered. '

Meanwhile, perched up in a tree at the edge of the forest, Inuyasha's head was swimming with the knowledge of all he had smelled in the hut. He pulled out the paper he had stolen from the hot springs. It was a phoh-toh Kagome had taken of their odd pack a few weeks ago with her weird box she called a ca-mur-rah. Shippo had been pulling on the monk's hair, the monk was frozen in mid-hit to the mischievous kitsune's head, Kaede had been rolling her good eye at the unruly pair, little Rin (who had just happened to be visiting that day, although his stick-in-the-mud brother had typically refused to participate in such lowly activities) was laughing her little butt off, and Sango had been the only one who was actually looking at the ca-mur-ah and smiling (although he could almost see the sweat beads gathering on her forehead in irritation). And Inuyasha… well he had been caught staring at Sango, with that stupid smile on his face.

He tenderly traced the outline of her smile with a single claw, wishing he wasn't so damn stupid to not just come out and tell her how he felt. For all his badass, macho bravado, he was just a pansy when it came to rejection. He'd been burned too many times before by too many people. Like he told Sango, he didn't just trust anyone that easily. Hell, other than Kagome (who was just so easy to trust because of her too-compassionate nature), Sango was the only person he really trusted with anything personal. She was one of his best friends, and he was sure that she felt the same way, but he had been almost positive that what he felt was just a one-way thing. At least, that's what he HAD thought. But that was before he smelled her in the hut…

There had been the usual scent of her (a unique combination of the polish she used on the Hiraikotsu and the smell of momiji or maple tree), but then there had also been this other smell underlying that, and it had only grown stronger as their conversation had gone on. It was the heady scent of sweetness and tang, like taking the first bite of mikan (a citrus fruit) as the juices dribble down your chin.

It was the smell of… desire.

End of Chapter