Something about 'daily' must have skipped Sango's mind. So, when Miroku was holding back her hair as she hurled in a trash bin, it wasn't much of a surprise to anyone.

Healer Saiki had given her one long sniff and pronounced her 'pupped'.

"Just like that?" Sango asked stupidly, "but, the tea?"

"Is only effective if taken daily and without fail." He'd barely spared her a glance, "chances are the child will be born mid spring or early summer, but -if on the off chance the monk won the race against demon seed- it'll be late summer." She listened as Miroku rubbed her shoulders, trying to comfort her.

She'd be as large as a deep sea creature by the time her wedding came along at the New Year. How would she fit her dress?

"How did this happen?" She insisted. She was staring at her stomach, still flat as a washboard. Hard and staring back at her, whispering goodbye as late night cravings and morning sickness rendered her immobile and uselessly hungry.

"If you don't know how this happened then we either need to call the guard or examine your mind."

Kagome skipped over, her yellow robes pristine, "Healer Saiki, this is one of those situations that require tact."

"You are very lucky that I'm expressly forbidden from firing you for 'being a dumb human'." When Sango glared he put his hands up, "Lord Sesshomaru's words. Not my own."

"Sango, you're pregnant and you're surrounded by men who love you more than life itself. What's the problem?" Kagome's gentle hands in her hair seemed to bring Sango back to reality, "we can move the wedding up and that way your portraits can be painted well before you're showing."

Sango considered it, thinking it over as if she could press pause on pregnancy and then hit resume whenever she felt ready.

"We can always remove the fetus."

Her hands clamped over her stomach, legs clenched closed, and fangs bared. Very wrong answer. Kagome sent him on his way, hissing that she'd tell Sesshomaru himself if he spoke another foolish word.

"Moving on from that nonsense." Kagome smiled at her, giddy knowing that their children would be so close in age, "I can call Sesshomaru down and make him get me out of work so I can fix the details of your wedding."

"Tell him to walk real slow." Miroku added, he'd worked his fingers beneath Sango's hands, feeling along the muscled stomach, "he's going to be pissed that I know first"

XxXxXxXxXx

Miroku was just as wise as the robes suggested.

Kagome had rushed off to find Sesshomaru no matter how he managed to elude her with such purposeful grace.

When she found him he was working quietly in his office, eyebrows scrunched together in concentration.

"What could you possibly want, priestess."

"I'm not a priestess. I'm a healer."

He said nothing to that, choosing to ignore her how he often did. So she decided to play with him. He was amazing at ignoring her, never flinching when she blew in his ears or touched his fur, and so she perched herself on the desk where Sango usually sat, braiding his hair as he took level, frustrated breaths.

"Why do you wish to die?" He asked between clenched teeth, "has your distaste for life become unbearable?"

She giggled, "honestly, if you kill me Sango will be unhappy. So I'm not all that concerned."

"She'll one day forget your face. I will take a few weeks of vicious anger if it means being rid of a nuisance."

Again, she rolled her eyes at him. He was six feet of hot hair, huffy and prim, but far too lazy to clean her blood from his claws. Before today she'd have never tried this, but knowing that she had the information made her bold.

"You say that," she finished the braid, proud of her work. His hair was truly fun to braid, far less frizzy that Koga's, "but I fear you won't be ready to make such stupid choices when you realize you may never see your kid."

"I'm hardly a goat-," his brush stalled and his eyes landed on her, "did you say child? As in Sango?"

"As in pregnant?" InuYasha choked.

There was a moment when Sesshomaru sat stupidly, dripping ink onto the parchment as if he'd been frozen. And then he was moving. Kagome grabbed his shoulders, whooping with delight when he didn't bother with removing her.

The world whizzed by, a blur of colors and wind.

She didn't complain when she was dropped on a cot, the cotton made the fall bearable.

"The monk knew first?" The indignation was beyond her comprehension and InuYasha came crashing in moments later, passing Kagome without a word.

"Miroku knew first?" He glanced at Sango, offering her the same searching glances that Sesshomaru did. There was nothing he could see, no heartbeat that he could detect and so he was at a loss, wanting to touch her, but far too scared to.

"He brought me here. Will you both stop being weird?" Sango ran her hand through her hair, "Kagome is willing to move the wedding up and I expect you to compensate her, Sesshomaru." That was when Kagome popped between them.

"This may not be the time, but if Sango is going to give birth safely I'm going to need more women here to help." She didn't like having Sesshomaru's full attention, she felt like a teenager, foolish and small, "the other female apprentices aren't allowed to touch Sango, if you've forgotten."

He rolled his eyes, "just use one of Healer Saiki's men-," there was an outcry at that. The humans in his company were scandalized at the thought and Sango was displeased, "then what do you suggest?"

"Send for Lady Kaede and allow me to teach Rin. We three will give Sango the very best care and comfort."

He rolled his eyes again, far deeper into his head than before. Something about the priestess irked him to no end, but he'd allow no one to abuse her. It was a strange feeling, a feeling he usually only felt around InuYasha and he wondered if this was what it was like to have a sister.

Gods was he glad that his mother hated children.

"And what could you possibly want in return?" He didn't turn away from Sango, still the same, but now- somehow- different, "replanning a wedding and taking full responsibility for a Lady's birth is hardly cheap."

InuYasha knew that shit eating grin anywhere. She was going to bleed Sesshomaru dry and he couldn't be more proud. There was no price he wouldn't agree to and they all knew it.

"First,"

"-first?"

"I want you to foot the bill for the baby clothes I've designed with Seamstress Yura." He rubbed his face, but nodded once, "I want better quarters for Koga, our child, and I. Something with an attached nursery. That tub or yours also looks magnificent."

"You want me to have them build you a better bathing room? What's wrong with the wooden basin?"

She shrugged, her smirking unbearable now, "what's it to you? All you need to know is that it's the price I'm charging."

Again, he scrubbed his face, "slayer, surely you don't need this scam artist to deliver your child," but Sango was on Kagome's side before anyone's.

"I'll settle for no one else."

"Lastly," emboldened by Sango's declaration, Kagome stated her last stipulation, "Rin and I can braid flowers into your hair."

"And Kaede gets transportation and a nice place to sleep for the wedding. Otherwise I'll deliver our child myself." Sango's request was immediately granted, her face held delicately in his large hands.

"You're so lucky I love her."

Sesshomaru huffed at Kagome, a long suffering exhale that ruffled her bangs, "you are a con artist and I despise you," she shrugged, "but your requests will be granted."

Kagome bounced on the balls of her feet and hugged the stiff man before her.

"Call me crazy," Sango whispered, smirking as she realized that Sesshomaru could hear her perfectly, "but I think he likes you. Just a bit."

XxXxXxXxXx

Sesshomaru was hovering. A week since she'd learned that she was with child, there was no one willing to leave her be.

They catered to her every craving, held her as if she were breakable, rubbed her feet and kissed her cheeks and she was almost content. The problem lay with Sesshomaru. For every two steps she took there was another pastry in her hands, another tea she needed to drink now.

"I'm fine." Sango insisted. This time she was faced with a bowl of rice and meat, a delicacy that InuYasha had lusted after, "I'm only a month or so along. It's no big deal."

Sesshomaru hadn't listened and so she'd simply fed it to InuYasha.

Now he was in the fitting room with her, watching her as if Naraku himself would crawl from the depths of hell and swallow her whole. She couldn't bring herself to be angry though. Miroku was the only one who wasn't hyper vigilant.

He did his work, read his books, checked on her, went back to his books...he was human, but neither Sesshomaru nor InuYasha were willing to allow humanity to interrupt their pursuit of perfection.

Now her dress was tight around her ribs and she knew exactly who to blame.

To be fair, Sesshomaru took it in stride, whispering that she was his favorite feral animal. He took the raining of fists and the biting words and then he called her beautiful.

"Rainbows and starlight cannot compare to your radiance. When your fiancé is as powerful as I, what does your weight matter?"

He'd held her by the bum and lifted her above his head until she was tired of being treated as a dumbbell.

The day of her actual wedding, however, no amount of reassurance from Kagome could soothe her nerves. She longed for Sesshomaru and his poetic words. She craved InuYasha's strong grip. She wished for Miroku's sense, his humanity.

Kagome and Rin were there for her though.

"Kagome, Koga says-," Shippo paused, bouncing up the chiffon bottom and onto Sango's shoulder, "you look so pretty, Sango. You can do much better than those three."

She laughed, ruffling the orange hair that fell too smoothly, "Sesshomaru groomed you again, didn't he?"

Shippo nodded.

"That just means he likes you, try not to take his fun or he'll be quite sad." Sango watched the swell of confidence in the fox and grinned when he nodded decisively.

"Best to let kids be kids," her lips begged to quirk, but Kagome was busy applying rouge and if it was ruined retribution would be swift, "oh!" Shippo hopped to Kagome, never ruining her steady hand, "Koga says that InuYasha simply won't behave."

Sango watched as Kagome sagged, "take Rin. Have her tell him that -should he not behave- she'd be sleeping in their room for two weeks."

"How's that a punishment? Rin sleeps in my futon all the time!"

"Trust me, Shippo. It will work."

And Sango assumed it had. No one else complained of InuYasha's fiery temper or Sesshomaru's palatable disdain.

"You've got no reason to fear," Kagome was wearing a plain beige kimono, her hair twisted in a thoughtless knot, "you're beautiful and they'll surely think so." Sango was peering from behind the wall, taking a look at the people she didn't know and grinning upon seeing those that she did.

"This is forever." Sango shook out her hand, staring at the empty place where the golden bracelet usually sat. The only way to reclaim her perfect gifts was the go over there and marry them, but this was forever. She loved them with all her heart, wanted to be with them with all of her heart and soul, but her feet wouldn't move.

InuYasha poked his silver head out from the corner, wide eyes landing on her. His lips trembled- like he was choking something back. It didn't take a genius to know he was as nervous as she was.

His hair had been combed, knotless. His hakama was decorated in white and red stripes, just as her dress was white and the flower pins in her hair were crimson.

His haori was as white as Sesshomaru's usually was- although he and Miroku would be wearing black today- the crest upon the breast was a crescent moon and a large sword, both crossed over one another, together and brotherly and-

"Don't you dare cry." Kagome patted her on the back. The harp was starting up and Rin came darting around the corner, something hidden in the basket of rose petals.

If Sango was being honest, she'd say that Rin looked like a tulip in her little dress.

"Good luck you guys." Kagome kissed their cheeks and then Rin's soft hair, "I'll see you on the other side."

Then Rin was moving and InuYasha was lacing his arm with hers. His ears were twitching wildly against the red pins, but his movements were assured. They traversed the rose petal laden silk, content with the feeling of the path upon their feet.

It had been InuYasha's only request in the wedding.

Sesshomaru was always radiant, poised and composed, and so he was rarely amazed at his own splendor. Yet seeing Sango, who was usually as beautiful as the dawn, gliding down the silk pathway in her delicate, floaty gown.

It made his breath stick in his throat and his eyes burn viciously.

He wanted to bounce, to whoop, to assault her with his overwhelming affections, but all he could manage once in her presence was a fanged smile.

Miroku was not so refined, he tugged Sesshomaru's sleeve, whispering like a child, "they're so precious. InuYasha. My InuYasha, look at him," and when Sesshomaru didn't look, "did you see?"

The monk was hardly so excitable, but -just for today- he could understand his overwhelming feelings of love and pride.

"I'm supposed to be the pretty one in all of this." Sesshomaru muttered to Sango, "you come into my kingdom, steal my title, and then smile about it. Vicious woman."

"Me?" She scoffed, "you're still the prettiest princess, you needn't worry yourself about that one."

The ceremony began, Miroku clutching InuYasha's hands as if the man before him, his vision in white and red, would disappear.

Sesshomaru and Sango shared the saké within their cup, him holding it for her and then her holding it to him. Then they turned to face Miroku and InuYasha, both smiling and radiant and it was like being in a room with a dozen dazzling jewels.

"I swear upon my life." Sesshomaru and Sango were speaking the words in unison, and Miroku and InuYasha were parroting them back, "to cherish and protect you. To hold you in the sunlight and guide you on moonless nights. You are my guiding light." Miroku could feel the marks upon his neck heating, filling him with a kind of unimaginable warmth, "and I am yours."

He drank from the cup.

Sesshomaru pulled one of the pins from Sango's hair, sticking it within his own and Miroku did the same. They were told to switch places and then it was Miroku's turn to declare his undying affections to the man before him.

Monks weren't supposed to get married.

"Monk Miroku, will you take Lord InuYasha as your husband?" The same question had been asked of the other two and they'd been so caught up in one another, too lost in bliss to hear.

And he'd wondered how that was possible.

He was on the tips of his toes, eager and ready and desperate, "I choose you." His fingers brushed against InuYasha's cheek.

"Lord InuYasha, will you take Monk Miroku as your husband." InuYasha found that to be a silly question. He wasn't dressed up like a goddamn doll just to look at the handsome bastard.

"I choose you." The only thing that kept Miroku from jumping his bones in that single moment was the bowl of saké thrust into his hands. They spoke the chant to one another first and then turned to the other two.

Sango waited patiently, her eyes never wavering from his. It was hardly fair that she and Miroku were so effortlessly beautiful.

She repeated the chant back to him, accepting the bond with a delicate sip. Miroku stole one of his porcelain flowers and Sesshomaru took one of the others.

Shippo was walking nicely from his place beside Rin, not running or hopping, holding a velvet pillow with four rings. Two of the rings belonged to their parents, people who hadn't taken the vow seriously, but -as InuYasha slid the chipped piece of jewelry onto Miroku's finger- he knew they would make no such mistake.

"I now pronounce you married."

Miroku was stronger than he looked some days. He dragged InuYasha into his grip, winding his arms around his neck and kissed the man he'd been dreaming of. He relished the crushing weight of InuYasha's own enthusiasm, loving that dog-eared bastard with every fiber in every bit of his body.

All the while, Sango had thrown her masses of tule and clouds into Sesshomaru's arms, wrapping herself in him.

She wanted to scream, to throw her head back and cheer. That stupid, perfect, awkward man was hers. He loved her just as truly as she loved him and she didn't know how to let those feelings out. So she kissed him again and again until he warned her that he'd 'give old Kaede one hell of a show'.

"We must kneel now," he whispered to her, but she didn't want to let him go. When he was gone, a moment away, but no longer wrapped in her embrace, she felt cold.

"Your new leaders kneel before you!" Haruki yelled over the expansive space, making certain to be heard, "our Lords -one whole, one half- and two humans shall reign. They are in our service just as we are in theirs."

"Lord Sesshomaru," she could only see the rustling of robes from the position she'd assumed, "Will you protect this kingdom with your body and soul?"

"I will lead you to victory."

"And we will follow."

She felt him move beside her, returning to a standing position, "Lady Sango, will you care for and guide us with stern compassion? Like a mother to a pup?"

"I will cherish you." She felt some slide over her hair and his gentle hand in hers brought her to her feet.

"And we will respect you."

Countless silver heads were bowing low, but her eyes only hunted for the heads of black. Kagome and Koga were at the front with Kaede, all bowing, but Kagome kept sneaking smiles in her direction and Kaede was rubbing her back.

Sango motioned for someone nearby to liberate Kaede from her discomfort.

"Lord InuYasha, will you shoulder the responsibility of supporting your elder brother with your honesty and with your loyalty. Will you ride into battle at his side and protect the kingdom in his absence?"

"I will protect you all." Haruki placed a ring of silver crescents- each of which sitting with their backs together. It was the same as Sesshomaru's band of silver, and the crystal clear jewels that decorated it glittered in the light.

She watched out of the corner of her eye and he took Haruki's hand, rising with a royal kind of grace as he copied his elder brother. His expression was as fierce as it always was, but he held himself with a poise that was once foreign to him

"And we shall protect you in turn."

Haruki moved towards Miroku. He hadn't been willing to drop his monk title, not forever, but for the sake of the ceremony he'd accepted, "Lord Miroku. Will you use your wisdom for the betterment of the kingdom?"

"I will be your teacher." The crown was placed upon his dark hair and he was lifted from the stone, just as gently and as surely as the others.

"And we will be your humble students."

Haruki threw his arms outwards and Sango's eyes widened in surprise as a silver dog, nothing but light and mist, leapt from his palms. It flew around them and exploded into droplets of light that looked more like diamonds than illusion.

"Your royal family!"

XxXxXxXxXx

"This is wholly unnecessary," Sango insisted. Yet, Kagome was not one for listening to a word that left her mouth. She was busy braiding wet hair, all but ordering it to fall in waves.

"It's not unnecessary." Kagome kept braiding, "it's your wedding night."

"Yeah, but...I'm already pregnant. The wedding night fantasy was kind of spoiled by my impatience."

That got her whacked, "that's stupid. After Koga and I's wedding it was better because we knew we were truly each other's. It was...trust me, Sango. Knowing that it's forever does something to a woman."

Sango didn't argue much more after that, except for when Kagome pulled a pile of red strings free of a bag, "I had Seamstress Yura make this for you. It probably won't survive the night, but," Kagome shrugged, "it will look amazing on you."

Sango glanced at her friend's girlish skinniness with an envy that was almost brutal. Despite the roundness of her belly, the rest of her didn't seem to be expanding.

It probably had something to do with the fact that Koga wasn't force feeding her rice at every turn.

Regardless, she put on the strings and promptly covered herself in a silk, sunflower yellow robe, tying a blue obi about herself.

She felt gaudy, but Kagome assured her that- if she were a little less female and she weren't happily married- she'd eat her up herself.

"An honor."

By the time she moved down the hall to her bedroom the castle was quiet. The guards at their door were polite and complimented her hair, opening the door for her.

The candles didn't burn as brightly as usual. Pink blossoms adorned the ground as if it were spring and she searched the darkness for the strong arms she'd been craving.

"You look divine." Sesshomaru's voice was a rumble, "nuisance squared will be joining us a bit later." His lips moved against hers in a way that gentle and languid. The heat that always swept her up like a wildfire amongst dried leaves, was slow and rolling. It built inside of her as if she were a volcano, dormant for the moment, but soon she would be uncontainable.

There was never a time that things were gentle with them. It was always a flurry of hands and lips, desperate and hungry, but today he let the silk slide down her shoulders.

Every gentle stroke of his fingers was another twig in the fire, another breeze that filled her with smoke.

His top fell to the ground and she could feel stray hairs tickling her skin.

"I love you." The hooks of her strap-fit were undone with suspicious ease and he continued his gentle attention, "Lady Sango, my perfect mate." He smiled against her skin, "my wife. I will love you until the heat death of the universe."

"And I will love you a moment beyond that." Forever with Lord Sesshomaru. She felt him filling her, gentle strokes, his fur surrounded her, filling her mind with the smell of Him. He fit like a glove between her knees, the whispers of his adoration were as gentle as the petals beneath her and when it was all said and done. When her body tingled and her lips pulled free of his own she rolled into his embrace.

Unimaginably happy.