With Naraku dead, one would have thought things would become easy, a piece of cake, fun times for all, but no…
As they quickly found out, there was a surplus of demons that had been hiding or suppressed by Naraku's demon aura, even when he had been hiding out in the mountain. With him truly gone it was party time for them. There were demons everywhere, attacking all the villages, and suddenly it was quite busy as they worked to clean up the mess that had been made.
The other thing that kept them busy was regathering the twice shattered jewel, a task that was made even more difficult since it shattered even more thoroughly this time around. The plan was to reform it, and then Kagome would hold onto it to keep it purified for a time until they found a strong enough hiding place for it, or found a way to dispose of it. They weren't entirely sure that it needed to be completely reformed either, there was some speculation that a few shards could be kept separate and they could experiment with some of the more beneficial properties of the jewel. Or, they could just gather all the shards together and then separate them and hand them out amongst the most powerful monks and priestesses of the land for safe keeping.
To be honest, they hadn't decided entirely on what to do about it, but the first order of business was to gather as much of it as they could, as quickly as possible. It was already making things tedious by making uber-powerful demons pop up as they got ahold of the shards.
Despite the irritating amount of work they now had, some things definitely did change for the better with Naraku's death.
For one, Miroku's wind tunnel had healed and the curse lifted.
As promised, he and Sango got married almost immediately, as soon as they had both healed from the final battle.
Before the marriage, Sango had disappeared for about a week, saying that it was a secret and not telling anyone her purpose. While she was gone, they staked out all the flower fields nearby.
Once she returned, preparations set about in earnest, and they picked tons of flowers, making wreaths and garlands that they draped in front of the shrine where they planned to get married.
Then, the day before, Kagome and Sango set off to prep the bride for the wedding. Sango insisted on purifying herself under a waterfall, wearing a traditional white hakama, and then Kagome anointed her with various oils and incense, before they drank some ceremonial tea. It was all very precise and meaningful, and then Kagome and Kaede assisted Sango into an absolutely gorgeous marriage kimono, which she revealed was the reason for her disappearance. She had flown back to her village on Kilala, where she had stored a chest full of the few belongings that had been spared the ravages of the demon attack. Her mother's wedding kimono had magically been saved, and she had gone to collect it.
Kaede, to Kagome's surprise, turned out to be rather cheeky, and gently teased Sango about her wedding night, along with asking some shockingly blunt questions, probably wanting to make sure Sango was truly okay with it all. Kagome joined in quickly, though she blushed and giggled slightly as she did so.
"Are ye prepared for laying with Miroku?" was the first question out of the old priestess's mouth, which started the whole conversation.
Sango's response was of course to go completely red and sputter a bit, like an engine trying to rev and failing spectacularly.
Kagome said, both seriously and jokingly, "Oh don't worry Sango…this is Miroku we're talking about. I'm sure he'll know what he's doing. You'll probably have a great time."
That incurred more spluttering, and a rather amused grin to briefly grace Kaede's lips, before she quickly hid it. Going to a slightly safer topic, she asked, "Do ye wish for children right away or would ye like me to prepare herbs for contraception?"
Sango calmed somewhat and seemed to think about it for a moment. "I…I would like children. But for the moment, I think it would be best to abstain until things are more secure."
Kaede nodded. "Tis a wise choice. Ye know of course that Miroku has already started on building a homestead for ye two here in the village. So ye would want to wait at least until that is finished."
"Yes. Of course."
Kagome piped up. "Uh, so where will they stay in the meantime? I mean…where are they going to spend their wedding night?" She emphasized the two last words, wanting her two best friends to have somewhere comfortable to do the deed. If it was her, she sure as heck wouldn't want to consummate her relationship with Inuyasha in the barn or something.
Kaede smiled again, while Sango blushed, and she responded with, "They can use the spare hut we have used to lock up Inuyasha…"
"You mean when he's hurt and won't freaking stay put?" Kagome finished, remembering the small, single roomed building that they had indeed locked Inuyasha up in with sutras.
"The very same."
"Ah. Makes sense."
Sango was still blushing bright red, and Kagome couldn't seem to stop teasing her, gently of course. "You of course know what happens between a man and a woman right Sango?"
It was a silly question, and one just designed to tick off the demon slayer.
"Of course!" She spat, glaring at Kagome with a slightly offended look.
"Really? You sure? Because Miroku is very experienced after all…I'm pretty sure he's gonna surprise you somehow." Kagome continued with a leer worthy of said monk.
Sango only blushed harder. "Kagome!" She protested, her voice a little higher pitched and squeaky.
Turning to Kaede, Kagome asked her mock-seriously, "Of course you have prepared herbs to tend to Miroku's injuries afterwards? Undoubtedly he'll come out of there with permanent dents in his head from Hiraikotsu and slap marks that won't go away."
Kaede hid her smile quickly and nodded back just as seriously. "Oh, aye. Indeed."
"Would you stop?!"
The two other women laughed at the fuming demon slayer.
Soon enough, the big day was upon them. Kaede proceeded over the small village ceremony, and overall it was exceptionally lovely. Kilala, Kohaku, and Miroku's Tanuki demon friend Hachi all assisted in the ceremony.
Both Sango and Miroku seemed so blissful, and it made Kagome incredibly happy, and perhaps just a tiny bit jealous as she watched.
Afterwards, there was sake and celebrations, during which Kagome caught Miroku sneaking a good number of gropes on his new bride, which were met with the familiar slap to the cheek and angry protest from said woman. Kagome couldn't help but notice however, that the slaps didn't leave marks, and must have been quite light. She couldn't help but smile at how Sango had rather gruffly accepted his advances. The demon slayer put up a front, but didn't seem opposed to them anymore. If anything, she looked exceptionally happy, if bright red with embarrassment.
Kohaku, on the other hand, still didn't take kindly to it, though he refrained himself from attacking as he had before. But Kagome saw him pull Miroku off to the side at one point, and highly suspected that he was giving the older man the traditional, "if you hurt my sister I will kill you in highly inventive and painful ways," speech.
Everything wound down after a few hours of celebration, and the happy couple adjourned to the little hut where they would be spending their wedding night. Kagome and Kaede had spent some time earlier cleaning it up, putting down a fresh futon, placing flowers around, and generally making it as lovely and romantic as possible for them.
Later that night, Kagome and Inuyasha were sitting together outside under a tree. And Kagome rather hesitantly brought up the thought that had been sparked in her mind after the day's proceedings. "Uh…Inuyasha?"
"Huh?" He hummed, his ears swiveling before his head turned and he focused his golden gaze on her, curious.
"Would…would you ever, uh, wanna do that?"
"Do what?"
"You know…get married!" Kagome sighed, slightly exasperated with his denseness and having to say it so explicitly.
His eyes blinked and widened slightly, then his head cocked as he said, "Sure. I guess. I mean I already basically consider us married, even if we aren't fully mated yet, so it doesn't matter to me."
Kagome rolled her eyes a little. "Well, it matters to me. I mean, I'd like to actually have a ceremony before…uh…mating."
Inuyasha's ears twitched a bit. "Okay. If it's important to you then we'll do it."
Kagome frowned a bit. "Don't force yourself. If you don't want to, then I don't wanna do something that doesn't matter to you…"
Inuyasha huffed, sounding irritable now as he scowled down at her. "Look, if it matters to you, then it matters to me, it's that fecking simple Kagome."
Kagome almost bristled at his tone, but then realized what he had said and settled down somewhat. "Oh. Okay." She mumbled, turning away, slightly embarrassed for making such a big fuss about it to begin with.
The awkward tension was broken when Inuyasha's ears twitched spastically and then his head swiveled to look off somewhere, a deep snicker rumbling in his chest. The laugh and motion caught Kagome's attention and she turned to look at him curiously. She was even more curious when she noticed the smirk that now graced his lips.
"What is it?"
He snickered again. "Sounds like Miroku and Sango finally got busy."
Kagome gaped at him, then turned pink, then slightly swatted at him, before laughing a little herself and saying, "Well good for them, it's about time."
"Yeah."
They settled in a bit, and Kagome watched as his ears continued to twitch and swivel, apparently still picking up on the sounds of their friends coupling a ways away. Kagome found it both unsettling and also amusing, and watched his face as he attempted to ignore them. He flushed a little and his face moved a bit, sometimes snickering, sometimes grimacing, and after a bit his ears finally lay down on his head and he squinted.
"Damn…Sango's fucking loud. Either she's way more wild in bed than we ever expected, or Miroku's just that good."
Kagome didn't know if she should blush or laugh, and so settled for both, feeling uncomfortable and embarrassed but also amused and happy for the two of them.
"It's probably the second." Kagome muttered, snorting.
Inuyasha cocked an eyebrow at her in question.
"Well I mean, he's got quite the track record." Kagome explained. "He's probably got tons of experience and knows just what to do to…uh…you know, give her a good time…" She finished awkwardly, scratching a non-existent itch on her head in a fidgety manner.
Inuyasha raised both brows and then nodded. "Yeah, probably."
And then a strange expression passed over his face as he frowned, looking almost perturbed now.
"What…what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Oh come on Inuyasha, you look like someone just kicked a puppy or something."
He scowled at her.
"Okay fine, fine, bad analogy. But seriously, what's got you looking so upset all of a sudden?"
His scowl only deepened and he refused to look at her, turning his head to look out into the field and finally heaved an exasperated sigh. "It's…fuck…it's nothing…just leave off, Kagome."
She knew when to back off, so she surrendered the line of questioning.
The thing that was bugging him was insecurity. But like hell was he gonna tell Kagome that.
He sure as fuck didn't want to say that he was suddenly worried about him not being able to please her when they finally did mate. He certainly wasn't sure if he'd be able to make her make the sorts of sounds he currently heard Sango making. Sure, they had done stuff, and he had gotten a few soft moans from her and even fewer, rare loud sounds, mostly when he took her by surprise, but he had never actually done anything to make her orgasm. And from the sounds of it…it seemed that Miroku must definitely have that talent.
If it was experience that made a good lover, he was sorely lacking in that department, only ever doing anything even remotely intimate with Kagome herself - the one or two chaste kisses he had shared with Kikyo not even really counting in his book.
And so, he made up his mind to talk to Miroku about it, even if the humiliation killed him, which he was ninety percent sure would be the result.
And so, he attempted to shut out the disconcerting noises that lasted basically the whole night off and on.
A day or two after that he sought out the priest, visibly creeping him out by wordlessly walking along next to him for a while with no explanation as to his sudden presence. Finally the other male turned to him and fixed him with a rather stern look.
"Inuyasha, there's obviously a reason you're following me, and for you to have not said anything means it's something that is perturbing you, so go ahead and spit out whatever it is you want to say."
Inuyasha could feel the deep scowl etched into his forehead and forced himself to restrain his tongue from automatically spouting insults at the guy. After a few huffs and puffs and deep breaths, he finally managed to say, "I wanted to ask you something."
"Obviously. What might your question entail?"
Inuyasha ground his teeth together, wondering if he could indeed go through with this. He was oblivious to the blush that was slowly but insistently crawling up his neck, setting his cheeks a light pink, but Miroku certainly noticed and it made his eyebrows rise.
"Uh…" He coughed. "I…heard you and Sango the other day." He finally spat, feeling like he was forcibly ejecting the words out of his mouth.
Miroku's brows inched even higher, and then he put two and two together and a slightly smug grin spread across his mouth. "I see."
Finally taking pity on the half-demon, Miroku went into teacher mode. He glanced around to make sure they were alone, which they were, and he set about explaining things to Inuyasha.
"First of all, I'm assuming you do know what happens between a man and a woman, right, Inuyasha?" the monk asked, unknowingly mimicking the teasing Kagome had pestered his new wife with only a few days prior.
All he got was a highly insulted look in reply.
Holding his hands up in a sign of apology, Miroku continued, "Alright, alright! No need to look so scary, Inuyasha! I just had to make sure so that I had somewhere to start."
Inuyasha only rolled his eyes, unimpressed with the explanation.
"Alright, then, shall we begin? First of all, you want to treat her gently, at least to start with. Until you get a sense of what she likes, you don't want to be too rough. Some women like it rougher, others prefer slow and gentle."
Inuyasha nodded, still flushed but taking mental notes as the monk talked. Really though, the being gentle thing seemed pretty obvious. Then again, that might be tough for him, he realized with a grimace, since with all his instincts it would make it more difficult to be as gentle as maybe he needed to be.
Miroku continued talking. "Especially with her first time, you want to be very, very gentle and considerate. After all, you will be breaking her maiden head, and for some women that can be extremely painful."
That got a wince from the half-demon, as he thought about hurting Kagome in such a way.
Miroku, seeing the wince, nodded. "Exactly."
The monk continued on, explaining more about different sorts of things to do at the beginning, to get her comfortable and aroused, and various techniques when it came to foreplay.
"Now, after you have her warmed up and ready for more intimate activities, there's one very important spot for you to be intimately familiar with…"
He proceeded with a highly detailed description of the small, nearly hidden spot that was the seat of most women's pleasure. He even drew a diagram in the sand by their feet to assist in his portrayal of the all-important "hidden pearl" he was attempting to instruct Inuyasha on how to find and how to use properly to sate a woman with.
"It's at the top here…" He pointed with a long stick. "…nearly hidden by this little hood made up of the folds of flesh…"
He went on to instruct on various techniques, how to manipulate this "bead of flesh" to give the most pleasure, all the while Inuyasha grew more and more embarrassed and irritable. He warned about how sensitive it usually was, and that many women needed it to be touched extremely lightly at first.
"And whatever you do, watch those claws of yours! Any cut down there would be utter disaster and agonizing for Kagome!" This was one extremely important point that he impressed upon the half-demon several times. "And if you're using your mouth, be careful of your fangs as well." He added
He also added that it was possible for a woman to orgasm multiple times, unlike men. That got him a curious look from Inuyasha, as he asked rather skeptically, "Wait, human males can only orgasm once? How does that work?"
Miroku sputtered, obviously shocked. "Well…I mean we need some time to recuperate before getting hard again. Isn't it the same for demon males?"
"Uh…like a minute or two maybe…" He said, looking askance at Miroku.
At this, Miroku first looked miffed, but then a slow grin started up and he looked Inuyasha up and down. "Well then, I have much more to tell you. If your stamina is as great as you say, then …"
Miroku then set about trying to turn Inuyasha into something of a disciple of his, going into even greater detail, especially in long sessions and how to keep a girl going even after making her orgasm. It was enough to make Inuyasha's head begin to ache, and he started seriously regretting saying anything at all about demon stamina.
Eventually he had to call it quits, simply because he had heard enough and was feeling like his head may explode. There was too much information, way, way too much information, and the nature of the discussion was finally making his face feel like it was sunburned. Inuyasha could only take the intense blush for so long before it started to piss him off more than he could handle.
He made a quick getaway and hid up in a tree somewhere to try and get his face to cool down. It took some time, but eventually his cheeks resumed their normal coloring, instead of trying to imitate a tomato. In the peace and quiet of his solitary perch, he was able to contemplate the abundance of tips and hints Miroku had given him…sorting through the mass in his head to try and store it in the appropriate places. He didn't want to forget the advice, especially the stuff that seemed like it would be important. Some of it he could disregard, because he and Kagome had already explored that, but there was a lot of stuff he had never even thought of.
As he put some thought into it, he began to grow somewhat excited at the prospect of trying out some of it with his mate. There were quite a few things that had peaked his interest, and with his impulsive nature it was difficult to rein himself back from going and finding her right this instant. But he held himself back, knowing that a lot of the stuff he now wanted to try with her would be way too much. She was still pretty shy, even with everything they had already done, and he knew they needed to do more stuff before she would be comfortable enough to do this. Unless…maybe getting married would put her more at ease.
The random thought popped up in his head, and he blinked and sat up, considering it. Sango had definitely seemed to accept Miroku's advances more once they were married. The sounds he had overheard on their wedding night proved that amply. Maybe it would be the same for Kagome? And he knew that she wanted to, after all she had said it was important they get married before fully mating…so…it seemed feasible that maybe she would feel the same way.
Author's Note:
Hey folks! Sorry it's so short this time, I'll make it up with a longer chappie next time I promise. :D
But I hope everyone enjoyed the fluff and amusement of this chapter.
And as always, thank you so much to all my absolutely wonderful reviewers. You guys are the bomb! Seriously, I love each and every one of you. :3
Oh, and I'm gonna be on vacation this upcoming weekend, so the next chapter of this story will be a little late again, I'm sorry.