Dressing Wounds

AN: Well… I figured we could use another little dose of comedy to balance out the severe amount of fluff in the last chapter. Somebody once pointed out that in most stories Shippo gets forgotten. So, a lot of the time I find, does Kirara. I've heard everything from she hates Miroku, to she can stand him, to she likes him. This is just my take on that, as well as kind of explaining how she can communicate with people like Shippo and Sango. (Maybe Shippo took lessons in cat.)

And, sadly, my updates are going to slow down for the next 7 weeks (it's not that long!). The school work is pilling up, and I have to throw myself into it and get my essays done. I have never written an essay the night before it's due, I'm proud to say, and I refuse to start now! (I also have a lot of other crap due, and if I listed it now… well, I'd start to cry.) So, please bear with me. sweatdrops

In other news: WHEE! This story is now over 100, 000 words long! Cookies for all!

Jade Goddess: Well, there is Naraku, and Kirara, and their friends' reaction to their relationship, and how could you forget about Kohaku?

Lily Thorne: Well, I think the thing to understand about the mood swings is that in our time they appear rather quick, but Sango had some weeks to see what her life was like without Miroku in it, and suffice it to say: it sucked. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. If only I had a penny for every time I said I missed my boyfriend!

Black Element: Okay, you caught me. I really don't know much about the Inuyasha world. At least, less than I let on. But, Miroku, when he gets introduced, has three shikon shards to begin with, and he's not corrupt then. I think that people use them for evil purposes, it corrupts them, or maybe if the shards themselves are tainted, they taint the owner. But Miroku is only using the shards (in my fic) for healing himself so that his friends don't have to wait for him, which is hardly evil, nor are the shards he's using tainted, because he purified them himself. And if this isn't acceptable to you, then just step around that plot hole.

Snow-Queen: I don't know my own stories that well (memory span of a fish) but I don't think that happened in my story. Maybe it happened in the series, but I'm on episode 55.

Furi Iki: I love Miroku too. I have such fun getting into their minds!

Blood Red Emerald: Ah… yeah…. Updating… points to the top of the AN

Hoshinko: Actually, I very often don't reply unless people ask questions. I don't know what else to say besides 'thank you' and that's so repetitive to write all the time! (If the ff people found out, they'd hurt me! hides in fear from having her stories taken away)

Fireblade: Nooo! I need my asterixes!! (My dictionary won't tell me how to spell them…)

Soli-chan: I did warn people about cavities!

Pirate girl: I am updating, and I have a sequel planned, though it needs editing.

Amber: Thank you so much, love! I enjoy writing fan fics. I am a slave to the rabbit plot bunnies lurking in my book case. They are my labor of love, and frankly, you people are the ones who keep me motivated in my writing, otherwise I would probably throw them all away when I was done writing them.

Siren: Twenty pictures? impressed I feel all warm and fuzzy… or maybe that's my icky medication working…

Yuki: Thanks for the review, but please, stop telling me what you're doing in class when you are reviewing! Oy; you're going to make me nervous about ever taking kids into the computer labs at school!

Aprill May: The 8.5 hour shift went well… minus my "small" freak out when I thought the computer was asking me if I was 978.12 over what it had calculated. I get to do another one tomorrow. Here's hoping I get home before 11 tomorrow night. And love, just because dolphins have sex for fun doesn't mean it's kinky.

DemonEx: I maintain that I can't write lemons.

Xichiathik: You know, your review really got me thinking, and I have marked your point well. In fact, I kind of have a fic idea circling around it, but I need to let it sit a little. Either way, your point hasn't gone unnoticed, and I am really quite impressed. I never thought of it before from that angle, and I'm actually kind of ashamed now, because it such obvious logic.

My God, I sound like a Vulcan.

Sangosnewsoul: You forgot the Bachelor party.

Enjoy, everyone!

Chapter Twenty-One: Kirara

That same night, after everyone else had gone to bed, I stayed up watching the fire place. I had slept far too long, and I wanted to get out, to move about, but I knew I was still too weak. Tomorrow I would get up and walk around under my own power, instead of having to lean on Sango as I walked, as I had done that night. She had been kind enough to help me bathe. It was, I'll admit, slightly embarrassing, but after getting over being treated like an invalid, it was rather enjoyable to allow her to undress me, step into the water with me though she still wore her yukata, and for her to scrub me clean. Sango even washed my hair for me. She toweled me off, and dressed me, and then helped me back to the village.

It was, in the end, an amazing experience, and an eye-opener. She didn't blush once in the whole process. She treated it like a job, which I didn't mind as had she been eyeing me as she undressed me, I would have probably ended up making an ass out of myself. It was good to know that though we both longed to be physical with each other, we were able to put those emotions away and be professionals. When we could relax and be together, then we would, but when we had to work we were nothing more than fighting partners.

'Meow.' I lifted my gaze from the fire to find Kirara sitting beside me. I blinked in surprise, and she butted my arm, her two tails wagging back and forth in unison. I lifted my arm for her, and she crawled under the limb to climb into my lap. My arm settled back down over my leg, and she meowed again.

Wondering what could have changed the opinion of a cat who I thought had hated me since I fought with Sango, I obediently began to stroke her back. To my surprise, Kirara curled up and began to purr as I petted her.

'Sango told me that she admitted that she loves you today,' a female voice said. It was husky, and older than Sango or Kagome, probably closer to the age my mother would have been if she were still alive.

Recalling what Sango had said about Kirara's noises sounding more like words to her, I stared down at the purring cat in my lap. "Are… are you seriously…"

Kirara opened one eye fully and then closed it halfway in the sly expressions cats have. 'Sango said that you were smart, but I guess that you're slightly incredulous. You can believe in a half-demon, or a demon exterminator who befriends full demons, but ask for that cat-demon to be able to communicate and things are getting a bit stretched, right?'

"Ah…" What does one say to that? I tried my best to smile, but it was rather hollow. "Well, Sango had mentioned something about it before," I said. My voice was low so as not to disturb the other sleeping people, which was namely Sango. "I simply didn't think that it would happen to me. What interest could you possibly have in talking to me?"

'It is the matter of Sango, Miroku. You two greatly care about each other, and I wish to know what you are planning on doing. I've known Sango since she was a cub, a child, and to eyes as old as mine, she has grown up quickly. She has no older relatives to approve of the mate she has selected, as I understand most humans do. Therefore, I must approve of you if you wish to pursue this any longer.' The tips of her ringed tails began to twitch. 'It's not that I don't want you and Sango to be happy, Miroku, it's simply that I want to know your intentions.'

"Intentions?" I repeated. "I want to make Sango happy."

Kirara sighed. I didn't know what else to say to her, or what she meant. Apparently my answer wasn't good enough for her. 'I meant, for instance, now that she has said that she loves you will you proceed immediately to have sex with her? Or do you honestly want to marry her, and have children with her? When the battle is all over, will you still want to be tied down with Sango? Those are the kinds of questions I want answered, what I mean when I say that I want to know what your intentions are.'

I understood after she explained things. I smiled, and continued stroking her soft fur, staring into the fire. "I see. Well, those are all very easy questions to answer. I am not going to start sharing a bed roll with Sango just because she says that she loves me. At least, not sharing one in a physical manner. Here, where we can relax, I wouldn't mind sleeping next to her. Another persons' body warmth is quite comforting, and she doesn't kick or squirm or anything. Perhaps some men may work to make a woman fall in love with them purely for sexual gratification, but I am no such man. I respect Sango, and so I want to wait until we're married. Also, this will leave her virginity in tact so that should anything happen to me, she will have nothing of which to be ashamed."

My face softened at the idea of having Sango give herself up to me. She was honestly allowing me to take her physical innocence, to be the first man to ever know her intimately. I felt the blood begin to rise in my cheeks. Simply knowing that she wanted me, to give such an honor to me, was enough to make me content. I'm a man; I please easily.

It was also the most arousing thought I have ever had. All the fantasizing, all the women I have experienced in my life, the concept of simply being allowed to touch Sango was enough to….

Pressing on before I startled the cat curled up on my lap by… ah… you know... I tackled the next thing Kirara had brought up. "I do honestly want to marry her. I want… I want to travel down the same road as her, and only her. Not only do I want marriage, I want a monogamous one. I can't imagine having another woman on top of Sango. She's intelligent, and strong, and vibrant, so what need would I have for another woman? She makes me happy, in every way she possibly can. The only thing that would make me not marry Sango were if she didn't want it, if she wanted to remain free, and not tied to a man, a man who would one day burden her with children. Even then, I would ask her every year, just to make sure the offer were still there if she ever decided that she wanted to remain with me the way I do with her.

"And children. Once I thought that I wanted to have a lot of children. I thought the more children I had to care for, to nurture as I wished that my parents could have done for me, that I would be happier. I don't think that's the case anymore. I also thought that if I found a woman able to bear my children, who accepted the kazaana and my quest, I would learn to love her more and more with each child she bore. I know that's not the case with Sango. I love her already. I… don't want a lot of children with Sango. It's not that I don't still want a large family, because part of me does. I just don't want to lose Sango. My mother and hers were both lost in child birth. It's a very dangerous business. Making children is fun, but giving birth to them can be deadly. No, Sango means too much to me to lose her to something that can be prevented."

'Then what will you do after you decide to stop having children?' Kirara inquired, lifting her chin so I could scratch it.

"I don't know. Perhaps by that time they will have come up with something to keep women from getting pregnant, and if not, we will just have to confine ourselves to the periods directly before and after her bleeding, when she can't become pregnant. Actually, in some cultures, men and women even have sex during the monthly bleeding period. I read in one of Kagome's textbooks. If not, there are other ways we can be intimate with each other without my seed being spilt." I smiled, deliriously happy. "We'll find a way. Hey! Did Sango go around telling everybody what happened here tonight? I mean, does everybody know?"

Kirara shook her head lazily. I suddenly winced when her claws dug through my robe when I scratched her back. Luckily they retracted again in a second, but ow! Her nails were freaking sharp! 'No,' she purred. 'Just me. She tells me everything. I'm her oldest friend. And she does talk to herself quite a bit, and I'm always there on her shoulder. You see, Sango won't tell anyone else, though I'm sure Kagome will figure it out herself eventually. She is actually rather shy about public displays of affection, even stuff like kissing. I'm not quite sure why. You should ask her why.'

"Yes, you should ask her why."

We both froze at the sound of Sango's voice. I don't know who was more petrified, the cat or myself. I kept waiting for something to come flying out and hit me, but the cat recovered in a second. She knew that the most she would get would be an earful; Sango would never throw something at Kirara.

She came and sat beside me in front of the fire, and she said nothing to me. Instead she looked down at Kirara and then chuckled lightly. "You certainly look happy. I could have done all that questioning myself, though." She pushed the longer strands of hair behind her ear. It was cute the way it knotted when she slept. "Do you at least approve of the man I love?"

Kirara stretched lazily, her two tails thumping slowly against my lap. She rolled over lightly, making me scratch her side. Her eyes were closed tightly, but her mouth was slightly open, her pink tongue just slightly protruding. I had to cover up a laugh at her delighted expression by pretending to choke. 'Well, I will say this. He has very nice hands.' The cat wiggled in my lap. 'Hm, very talented hands indeed.'

I was pleased to notice that Sango turned a bit pink at this comment. She looked down at my hands, watching them, and then she smiled gently. "I'd have to agree with that," she whispered to the cat. "Now, get out of Miroku's lap. You two can talk later on. You're both keeping me up." Sango yawned and nudged my arm slightly with her shoulder. "Come to bed, Miroku. Please?"

It was a dream come true. Kirara wasn't going to try and bite my head off, Sango loved me, and was actually asking me to join her in bed… I scooped up Kirara and put her by the mat in front of the fireplace. I wanted to whisk Sango up and carry her away, but I was still too weak. I did, however, put my arm around her, and helped her down on the thin mat.

Grinning like an idiot, I undid my robes, watching her eyes noticing every move of my hands. She smiled up at me, blushing, her dark hair now past her shoulders again, long enough now that I wanted to wind my hands in her hair and gently pull her up to kiss me. Her brown eyes were warm again, warmer than I had ever seen them, the way I imagined that they were before her family was killed. She covered her smiling mouth with her hand, and nervously toyed with the blankets. When I was clad only in my pants, I slid in next to her. Laying down on my back, she pressed herself up against me, her head on my left shoulder bone, one hand under my back and the other one on my stomach, one leg thrown around mine. My left hand touched the small of her back.

"You know," I sighed, staring up at the ceiling. "I didn't think that you'd be the type of girl to declare your love to somebody and then to go and sleep with them that same night."

"I'm not," she giggled, understanding my pun based on Kagome's future dialect and my teasing voice. "But I am the kind of girl who doesn't really like public displays of affection, so when we're alone like this, I like being able to be close to you, to touch you. I like how you touch me." I felt the heat from her cheeks on my skin. "I'm also the kind of girl who would like to sleep beside her iinazuke."

At the word, all thoughts flew out of my head. My jaw dropped open, the ceiling suddenly blurring in my view. Fiancé? Then she had accepted my proposal? What had caused this? Unbeknownst to me, I was asking these questions out loud. I was not aware of this until she began answering my questions.

"I didn't know if you really wanted to get married or not. Maybe it was something that you had proposed because you thought it was what I wanted. I didn't want you to feel trapped because of the things I want, because I really do want to marry you. Instead I find out that you want the same things I want. So if the offer still stands, then it's a giant yes." She lifted her head slightly, enough so that I could see her face. "Just please, promise me that if anything happens to us, you'll come back to me so I can be this happy in another life."

I kissed her hair, and leaned back on the mattress. "I promise. I'll come back to you every lifetime, until you see my soul so often that you have to live on a diet of garlic to keep me away."

We talked about the possibilities of the future until late in the night. Kirara got tired of sitting in front of the cooling embers, and came to join us, slipping between Sango and I so that her body rested on my stomach and her head on Sango's hip. The sky was actually starting to lighten up when I went to sleep. Sango was right. It was nice just to be touching and talking. We would only have one more day of it before I, as well as Kagome, I had learned, would be well enough to travel. We had several weeks of fighting for which to make up.

We were rudely awoken when a kitsune snuck into our tent. We were both awakened when we heard him cough, and poor Kirara nearly tumbled off to the floor. Luckily, Sango's reflexes caught the tiny demon, and Kirara recovered from her shocking awakening by sitting up on Sango's shoulder.

Shippo nervously twiddled his thumbs. "Um… Inuyasha stayed the night with Kagome and me, in the other hut. They kind of went off on a walk to be alone together. So, I was wondering if I could maybe crawl in with you…. Hi Sango!" He pounced on the covers, just noticing that she was there, apparently. "What are you doing here?"

"I slept here," she said kindly, knowing that the only reason he'd asked such a silly question was because he was still asleep. She picked Shippo up and held him in her lap. She brushed his hair for him, and he laid his head against the curves of her breasts. The lucky kid! She smiled down at him, and lay back down on the bed, this time laying on her side so she could hold him. "Of course you can sleep in with us. Just watch Kirara and your kicking, please." The cat hopped off her shoulder and sat on her hip, waiting for me to lay down to give her more pillow room.

Tucking the blanket around his tiny body, Sango looked up at me. The color rose lightly to her cheeks, and she smiled at me, holding Shippo tightly, as if she feared I was going to tell him to get out. "What?"

My gaze moved from her to the child grasping tightly to her chest, using the mounds as a pillow. The very lucky kid. I gently touched his hair, and I slowly broke into a dopey grin. I drew the covers up to us as I lay on my side, staring at Sango overtop of Shippo's head, so that the little child was safely tucked between us. Kirara, in turn, balanced herself on the taught material between our bodies.

Sango didn't even need to ask why I was smiling like an idiot. She knew that I was imagining it was the child we would one day create together that would come asking to cuddle in with us when we were sleeping. Instead, she looked down at Shippo, and then gazed up at me. "Why is it that you think having a lot of children will make you happier?"

"Well, look at them," I said, pointing to the kitsune protectively held in her arms. "They are so young, and happy and just… perfect. They are the most perfect beings that I think we can make, children. They are so impressionable, that you want to protect them and help them be the best person that can be. You want to watch them grow, watch them experience things like snow, or the ocean, for the first time so that you can tell them how they reacted when they can't remember anymore. They have such a different view to everything, that it makes me long to be a child again myself. I want to love them so much, to be someone they can look up to and depend on, to just kiss their bruises and scare away monsters for them. I always thought that the more children I had, the more bruises I would have to fix, the more monsters to scare away, and so I would have more people to love and more love to be given in return. There is no love like that of a child, Sango. All they ask of you is nothing but for you to catch them when they fall, until they grow old enough to learn they have to fall to learn, which is when they want you to give them a band aid and a hug. It's so… innocent, like them, it's complete and unconditional love.

"That's why I wanted children. To have people to love and love me back, and the more I have of them, the more love there is circling the room. Now I don't need that though, because I found you. I don't need a big family, because… I'm happy."

Sango smiled at me. Her smile always takes my breath away. It's even better when I know that I am the person who is able to put that smile on her face. She took my hand and brought it to her lips and kissed my knuckles. Afterwards, she simply held it. "Good. I'm happy too."