Black Widow
A Time for Healing
Sango-sama

Well...once again, I am a bit late in putting this out. Like I mentioned last chapter, I've got an AU fic in mind that won't let my brain wrestle with this monster in peace. But there are two good things coming from this: 1) I will be working on both concurrently and will hopefully be able to post the first chapter up by Saturday....sorry, I don't have a title yet. 2) For you fans of citrus, this other fic should be quite appealing to you. ^_^* Quite likely, it will be a double lemon, but not quite the usual pairings... Though since all I seem to write is Sango/Miroku fics, you can bepretty damn sure they'll be in it.

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Along the walls of Kaede's store house is a veritable menagerie of herbs, jars of every size, shape, and color storing herbs, roots, and berries and flower. All but the berries had been painstakingly ground down to a fine powder and were all but indistinguishable if not for the brightly colored jars containing them.

"The orange jar...Orange...hmmm..." Shippou hurries along from jar to jar, examining each to find the elusive jar of Willow root, his chubby fingers pointing out the jars to himself as he passes. "Blue...purple...red...oran-- Yatta!."

Tiny legs patter over soft dirt around the back of the shelter to the door frame at the front. Lifting it into the air, he smiles toothily. "I found it."

"So you did." Kaede turns her attentions back to her patient, loosening the blood caked bandages from over her wound. "Set it over there, please," she gently directs, gesturing to the ground in front of a smiling Kagome.

"Thank you, Shippou." Kagome pats his head appreciatively before beginning her work to mix a poultice for her friend's back, as Shippou crouches down earnestly watching as the bowl's contents blend together.

Sango lay stretching across the floor on her stomach, pillowing her head on her arms, so that Kaede could check the wound on her back.

Dipping a clean piece of cloth into a wooden bucket of frigid river water, Kaede dabs at the wound, cleaning away the blood that had crusted at the wound. Sango shivers at the chill of the water on her back, before settling back down onto her arms. Kaede dips the rag back into the bucket, wringing it thoroughly before replacing it at her shoulder. Blood mingles with water in the bucket, tainting the once pure water a light pink.

A small earthen bowl clinks against a wooden board on the floor as Kagome mixes a bit of the powder from the orange jar with just a bit of water.

Kirara, in her smaller form, sniffs at the wound on her master's back before resting her head at her paws so that her nose was nearly touching Sango's. The sight of the mythical cat, lying down at her side with concern shining in her golden eyes, is all that it takes for the Taiji-ya to smile. Nuzzling her own nose to Kirara's, she reaches her loose arm out to pet Kirara, stroking the area beneath her chin as the cat purrs happily.

A wrinkled hand presses down on her back, spreading a warm slave over the wound. "I'm not detecting any evil aura right now, but I suppose it's just as well seeing how there really isn't any way to remove any more venom without leeching out more blood." The aged miko finishes her task with the salve, as Kagome works at applying an antibiotic from her time and fresh wraps to Sango's wound. "You're a bit too pale already."

The thump of heavy, barefoot feet on creaking wood alerts the group to the presence of a rather bruised Inuyasha. Two lumps stand up noticeably from his thick skull.

"Inuyasha, are you all right?" Kagome asks from across the room, placing a final strip of white medical tape over the gauze dressing.

"Feh." His eyes narrow, with an apparent arrogance in the timbre of his voice and his stance. "Of course. Do you actually think that sukebe bouzu can really hurt me?"

Human and kitsune alike roll their eyes at the familiar display, not bothering to challenge the hanyou's ego.

Sango places her palms against the floor, pushing herself up onto her knees. Readjusting the top of her yukata, she shakily rises up to her feet.

A spark of remembrance lights the old woman's eyes. "Speaking of, Sango, I heard you spent the evening with Houshi-dono." Sango's cheeks strike up that familiar shade of vermilion, as the old miko's voice betrays a healthy dose of cynicism for the monk's ability to control himself...or usual lack thereof. "Did he behave?"

As a new blush rises high across her cheeks, she turns her eyes away, peering out the doorway with distant gaze in her eyes. "Far better than I had expected."

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Beneath the fronds of the willow tree, the Houshi sits deep in thought, running the fingers of his uncursed over the length of the prayer beads. 'How in the world can I handle this now. I can't very well just keep pushing her away....but I can't stand the thought of her being hurt.'

Light footfalls fall over leaves and grasses, pulling the Houshi from his train of thought. She stops a few feet away, as a gentle breeze lifts tendrils of her hair in ribbons, pulling and twisting them at its beckoning.

"Houshi-sama..." she murmurs, the words barely spilling over her slightly parted lips.

Lifting his head, his lavender eyes fall upon hers, widening with surprise to see a sort of longing in the midst of their normal innocence.

His desire to protect her melts to pure desire-- to touch her skin, to feel her warmth, to flood his senses with only her. This same desire drives him to stand and close the gap between them, while she mirrors his actions until they meet halfway, burying themselves in each others arms.

His lips melt with the top of her forehead as her head rests upon his sinewy chest, breathing in his masculine scent as if each breath were her last.

"What was Kaede able to do for you?"

Sighing, she brings her eyes back up to meet his. "Not much. She was able to bring the pain down a bit, but she said the poison was too far into my system for any of her methods to help."

"So, we'll have to attack it more directly." Slowly, he pushes her out of his arms and rifles through his outer robe for a few seconds. Grasping her arm, he slides a new rosary up over her wrist. "This should help shield you from the control spell, but I'll tell you right now it may hurt quite a bit."

"That's alright." She smiles back at him before walking over to the trunk of the willow tree and sitting against its base. "It's better than watching any of you get hurt and being unable to stop it."

Kneeling down beside her, he captures her lips with his.

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From the darkened shadows of the deep forest, a pair of eyes watch the pair, gleaming a maliciously dark crimson.

'Don't think you have gotten away, girl.' A cruel smirk twitsts her face. 'You haven't experienced my true power yet. Both you and your love will feel it; and it will destroy you both. And then...I'll make him suffer too.' The smirk widens broadly, as a small brown spider climbs up and down the hills formed between her fingers. As the spider crawls around her thumb and into her palm, Okanka catches it in her fist, effectively crushing it in a single effortless motion.

Turning the palm back over, her fingers turn out so that her palm lay flat, the spider now nothing but a fine layer of dust.

Pursed lips and her flattened palm meet midway, as she blows across the palm in the direction. "Time to play, my darlings."

The dust particles lift and drop by virtue of the breeze, slowly moving towards the pair.