He lay there, under the night-shadowed forest canopy, watching her sleep. She slept soundly for once, a smile on her elegantly lovely face.
Miroku smiled back, though she wouldn't see it. He couldn't have helped it regardless.
Sango turned over, pressing against his chest as if to reassure herself of his presence.
He loved times like these, where there was nothing to call him away from simply enjoying her closeness. His eyes tracked over her face, taking in her features. The strong, stubborn chin. The round slope of her cheekbones and the oddly vulnerable shape of her mouth. Her lashes veiled the wide, intelligent dark eyes that he adored for the way they always saw the true him…even when he might think he wished otherwise. He even loved the faintly crooked nose where it had once been badly broken, though Ginta had done his best to reset it after a rather brutal battle with Naraku. The strangely kind ookami was, in Miroku's opinion, far more level headed than his leader.
He simply lacked self-confidence. That, and he was still rather young in youkai terms, though he could have been Miroku's grandfather many times over. He needed time to mature, before Koga realized that the other male might stand to take his place and killed the youngster.
Oh not that Koga was cruel, he was simply true to his more instinctive nature.
The woman in his arms sighed, bringing him out of his slightly wandering thoughts.
It hadn't been more than a few hours after Kagome had leapt through the time portal of the old well that Inuyasha had taken off. It wouldn't have taken a rocket scientist, as Kagome would have said, to figure out where he had gone.
Soul-stealers had become a very common sight lately.
He was just thankful that Kagome no longer waited for Inuyasha to return her affections.
He was aware that her association with this new male in her life had probably gone to a place that she was not comfortable speaking of. To a male of his previous proclivities, her body language and the things she hadn't said had painted a slightly larger picture for him than what she had said. Yet, he found himself perfectly content to keep his knowledge to himself.
His fingers trailed gently up an arm, then down her soft bare back.
He still couldn't really believe that she was here with him. Like this. Trusting him to stay with her while she slept next to him, nude under the bedding. They'd had numerous discussions, before taking the step into physical intimacy, about the way he had used to behave towards the opposite sex.
He remembered her expression when she'd learned that he'd not once spent the entire night with one of his previous conquests. It had never come up again. But he never doubted that she would be both the first he would do so with, and the last. He didn't think he could ever bring himself to touch another female after Sango. Her honest warmth and affection had forever ruined him for any other.
She grunted softly, a sound he had come to associate with her pleasant dreams.
Miroku chuckled quietly. He wondered if she knew…
As a small child, the desire for progeny had been deeply ingrained into him. His father had loved his mother in his own way, had even managed to stay faithful to her during the short time they had been married. But he'd soon resumed his old ways not long after her untimely death.
Maybe her absence was the reason why he had turned out so like his father. There had been no female to instill the proper values.
He had also been taught to look for certain signs.
His huntress had recently begun to complain of a slight queasy feeling in the mornings. But Sango being Sango, she had simply ignored it and gone about her business. A slight weight gain had also gone un-remarked upon. Sango had decided that she must have gotten a bit lazy and attempted to work off the new weight. But nothing could change the lovely new glow to her face.
He had decided to let her discover her new status in her own time. And when she did, he'd find a way to convince her to marry him.
He'd finally have the family that he'd always secretly longed for. The wife that he adored. A sister that, though not born of the same seed or womb, was as dear to him as if she had been a blood relation. Kaede had become the dearly loved grandmother that he'd never had. And Kagome's…well, whatever he was, would also soon join his 'family'.
"What are you thinking about?"
Sango, having felt his restless energy even while slumbering, had awoken.
He pulled her closer, tangling his legs with hers. "How life, as it is, came to be."
She smiled, ducking her head into his throat. "And does this life please you?"
"More than you could ever imagine, my love."
It amazed her that every time he called her such, she could feel every bit of the sentiment behind it. It was never an idle pet name.
"But you are worried about something." She stopped, looking him over with an expert eye. "No. Someone. Kagome."
"I still don't know how you do that," he said with a shake of his head.
She grinned, dark eyes sparkling. "It's because I know you, houshi. Now tell me what has you worried."
"I just worry about Kagome's state of mind. She was so upset that her male did not appear."
"Then I would not worry any longer."
"Oh? Why so?"
Sango sighed. "I think he followed her last night."
"I felt a trace of youkai ki, but it was only for a few moments." His brows drew together. "Are you certain that he actually went through?"
"Male and female youkai footprints differ just as greatly as human men and women. Stance, posture, and weight distribution will always tell. There were only a few, but there were tracks around the base of the well, large enough to match the size of the clothing she came back in that first morning. Experience says that the maker was conflicted. I think his desire for her presence was a large enough draw for him to have made the attempt. And they were distinctively male, though heavier than a human's by far. So yes. I'm very certain that he followed her."
"Do you find it odd that Kagome does not wish to tell us his name? Oh, not that I feel offended in any way. I just worry over the fact that she feels that she has to hide things from us."
"I suspect that we do know him, even if we only know an aspect of him. She may fear our reaction to the information. Personally, he could be just about anyone, and I could not bring myself to care." She smiled. "He makes her happy. Truly happy."
Miroku nodded. "I agree. I've sometimes seen her smiling to herself for seemingly no reason at all. That look she gets is just like a young girl with her first true love."
"You don't think she loved Inuyasha?" She was curious. Miroku had a vast experience of females to draw from. She was also secretly pleased that he did not feel the need to hide it, no longer fearing that she would feel threatened with that knowledge.
"No. I do not. I think that he was her first serious infatuation. You forget, in her time she is still considered quite young. She may have never been encouraged to find herself a prospective husband. Inuyasha was the first inhuman male that she'd most likely ever encountered. He was new and exotic, tough and independent, things a young girl would have idolized. Now, she's gotten a taste of what she could truly have, and she jumped."
Sango cuddled closer to her lover as a brisk breeze whistled through the branches. "And her male?"
"I'm profoundly grateful both for the fact that he is youkai, and that he seems to have the old values. He will be good for her."
"I still wish I knew what type of youkai he is," she mused.
"As do I. But we will find out eventually. After all, I cannot see Kagome abandoning us."
"Do you think he will fight with us?"
"Against Naraku?"
"Yes."
"I have no doubt."
"Is he powerful?"
"From the bit of his power that I sensed with Kagome, I would have said yes. But from the flare I got from him directly…he's completely off the scales. I've never felt anything like it."
"But Naraku-"
"Is minor league compared to Kagome's male."
"Is he…as powerful as Lord Sesshomaru?"
"Much more so. Though, it's a better comparison than Naraku, as most of his power is simply siphoned off the Tama."
Sango felt a chill that had nothing to do with the weather. "After tasting the power directly from the source, can you describe it now?"
"Not any better. Burning and dark. Huge."
"I hate to even ask, because it will make it seem as if I doubt Kagome's judgment."
"But?"
"Will he hurt her?"
"I don't think so. When I felt the power with her, it curled around her soul as if to comfort and protect. And yet, when he was without her, I could sense actual discomfort. As if it pained him in some way to be without her. I think that if it came down to it, he'd defend her to the death. And with his capabilities it would not be his own."
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