Maybe Someday: A Miroku x Sango Love Story

*Disclaimer: * Feh. As if I could ever author an incredibly popular manga, which has been running for seven years and counting, has had two movies made of it besides an animated series, and has 14-18% of the population of Japan watching it.

A/N: *blushes* Stop it guys, you're embarrassing me! Thank you so much to all my reviewers, you're the greatest! Remember, a little appreciation goes a loooong way! Hikari, to what do I owe the honor? You must definitely have some of the absolute best stores on the entire site, especially Omoide no Mori. I'm humbled when I read your fics. And thanks for telling me about the sites I could go to. I'm not allowed to use Kazaa, since I'm only a little high-schooler still under the control of my 'rents.

***********************************

"So we're here," Sango said, looking across the water.

"Yes, we are," Miroku replied quietly, similarly staring off across the lake, shimmering darkly under the dusky sky.

"What are you waiting for, Houshi-sama?" asked Sango. "Why don't you take a sip of the water?"

Miroku turned to her, taking her hands in his. "Sango… I wanted to thank you for accompanying me on this journey."

Sango turned away, pulling her hands out of his. "It was nothing. You would not have made it here alive if I weren't with you."

"No, I wouldn't, that's true," Miroku chuckled. His face became more serious.

"All right then," Sango said. "Go. Drink the water."

Miroku knelt by the lake, laying his staff down. He stared at his reflection in the water before he shook his head and cupped his hands. Straightening again and turning towards her once more, he asked, "Sango, after I partake of the water, would you-"

All of a sudden, Sango was thrown, with a cry, away from the lake. Miroku grabbed his staff and turned towards were she was last. "Sango!" he yelled. The demon-exterminator was fighting demons many meters from where he was. The monk started running at his admittedly fast top speed away from the lake, to help Sango fight the monsters.

Sango, meanwhile, fended off the monsters as best as she could. She had the feeling they were used as a mere distraction, as they were very weak. She could remember slaying demons like this when she was a child in training. However, their sheer numbers were what was proving the problem. Sango used Hiraikotsu plus her wakizashi and Kirara to fight them off. 'Houshi-sama, please hurry up and drink the water soon…'

**

Miroku was close to where Sango was. Putting on an extra burst of speed, he was about to make it when-

"Uh-uh-uh," said a mocking voice. Miroku stopped and straightened when he felt and saw a blue/pink barrier separating him from Sango.

"Show yourself!" Miroku yelled, hoisting his staff into an offensive position. In front of him, a form appeared as if it was formed from the barrier itself. It was tall and slender, with pale blue skin and large, pointed ears. The figure had very long, pale hair and was dressed in thin garments of pastel colors. Numerous baubles hung from its overlarge ears.

"A wood-spirit!" Miroku realized, saying it out loud.

"Very good," the spirit said, clapping long, slender hands together. "You are the smart one."

"Let me through!" challenged Miroku, preparing to run.

The wood-spirit stepped aside. "Oh, is that all you wanted? You should have said so earlier." As Miroku prepared to burst through the barrier, the wood-spirit added something to his statement. "Oh- I forgot to tell you. This is a one-way barrier. If you leave it, then you cannot come back." Miroku stopped for a fraction of a second before making his decision.

He burst through the barrier.

Immediately jumping into the fray, Miroku slashed, bashed, and cursed all monsters that came his way. Sango did not notice at first. She did, however, notice how no new monsters appeared when the others were killed. Sango sheathed her wakizashi and slung Hiraikotsu back over her shoulder, a little exhausted from the fight, sighing in relief.

"I wonder what happened," she said to Kirara. "Come, let us see if we can find Houshi-sama…" Sango turned to go back towards the lake.

Then she gasped in surprise.

**

[A few minutes back flashback]

Miroku had been helping Sango fight off the demons. He was all too aware of the fact that if he opened his Kazaana, that Sango and Kirara would be sucked in, and it would probably consume him also. He fought in the usual way without using his Air Rip. And then- then, after a long time of fighting, all the demons seemed to be gone.

Except, there was one left.

Miroku did not notice it until it attacked him. He had just gone to talk to Sango, to see if she was all right. However, the demon stayed behind him. It stuck one sharp, thick claw straight into Miroku's back.

Miroku inhaled deeply, drawing as much breath as he could. The demon smiled and then disappeared, leaving the battleground bare, save for Sango and Kirara at the far end of the clearing. The monk collapsed, sinking first to his knees and then falling backwards onto his back. "S-Sango," he managed to gasp out, not loud enough for her to hear.

And then the world turned black and he knew no more.

**

[Back to the present]

"Houshi-sama!" Sango cried, running over to the felled monk. She knelt by him and slapped his face lightly to wake him up. "Houshi-sama, wake up!" But he was silent. Crimson blood pooled out on the ground from the wound on his back. His breathing was ragged, labored. The fingers still clutching his staff were starting to go limp.

"No, Houshi-sama," she whispered. "Don't die now…"

As if from far away, Miroku heard Sango's voice. "A-angel," he whispered. "Come to take me to the Other World…"

Sango shook her head. "Houshi-sama, it is me, Sango," she said, leaning closer to him so he could hear her.

"Sango?" he managed out. "Go- lake- water, please…might still be alive…if- drink- water…"

Sango nodded. "Kirara!" she called a slight tremor in her voice. "Stay here. Make sure nothing bad- worse- happens to Houshi-sama." And then Sango ran to the lake.

A blue/pink barrier sprang up, separating her from the lake. Sango stopped mid-stride and placed one hand on Hiraikotsu, ready to throw it.

"Let me through!" she yelled, then charged the barrier. She knew it was a stupid move, but she was in a hurry. The barrier just repelled her, throwing her back. She landed with a groan on her back, but immediately stood up again, preparing to charge once more.

A mocking laugh could be heard from somewhere around her. "Who's there?" she called. A form materialized from the barrier in front of Sango, tall and slim with pale blue skin and large, pointed ears.

The creature laughed again. "You mortals are just so amusing to watch," he said, wiping mock-tears of mirth from his face.

"What are you? Why are you here? Why will you not let me go through?" Sango demanded, readying Hiraikotsu.

"Your friend figured it out much sooner than you," he commented. Sango glared at him. "Yes, I am a spirit of the wood- more specifically, the guardian of this lake."

Sango understood. 'Yes, this must be it…the difficulty, the 'test' that deters so many from coming here to drink the water. But I must help Houshi-sama!'

"Let me go through!" Sango ordered. When the wood-spirit did not budge, she used her bone-boomerang. "Hiraikotsu!" she called, knowing even as she threw her weapon it was useless. The wood-spirit stepped nimbly out of the way, and the barrier easily repelled Hiraikotsu.

'Damn!' cursed Sango as she caught her returning weapon. 'What can I do? I must get through!' The wood-spirit was laughing again, as if to tell her it was futile, there was nothing she could do to get through the lake's barrier. Sango re-slung Hiraikotsu over her back and bent over, preparing to charge again.

"Do you really think that will work?" chuckled the wood-spirit.

Sango ran fast and hard towards the barrier. "Let…me…through!" As she ran, right before she reached the barrier, she thought, 'I must help…Miroku!' The moment she finished this thought, she closed her eyes, expecting to be repelled as usual by the barrier.

She wasn't.

Sango opened her eyes to see a large, writhing hole in the barrier where she had broken through, a pinkish light coming from it. The wood-spirit had stopped his chuckling abruptly and now had an extremely sad expression on his face.

Sango did not stop to think about any of this. She immediately took out the goatskin she had with her and emptied its contents onto the ground. She then plunged it into the Lake of Crystal Waters, letting the cold, clear water fill the skin. She refastened the goatskin on her belt and as she did so, she noticed that her hands, which had been slightly cut and dirty, were now healed and clean.

She paused for a moment before exiting the barrier, glancing suspiciously on the wood-spirit, who still looked extremely crestfallen. "You will just let me leave with your water without any more of a fight?" she asked, placing a prepatory hand on Hiraikotsu.

The wood-spirit shook his head, the baubles on his large ears swinging back and forth. "Yes, you can leave," he said grudgingly. "It is just that no one ever before- in my time as Guardian, of course- has ever broken through the barrier to take the water. I do not know what I would be supposed to do if someone did manage to take it."

"But- how did I break through the barrier one time, when all other times I tried I was rejected from it?" asked Sango, perplexed.

The wood-spirit shrugged. "Judging by the principles on which this barrier is based the only way you could have gotten through would be that your emotion for the monk was so strong it endowed you with the power to break through the barrier."

Sango cast a last suspicious stare at the spirit, then remembered Miroku. "Kirara!" she called, telling the cat to come with her.

**

Miroku was in even worse shape when Sango reached him. She rushed to him, cradling his head in her lap.

"Houshi-sama," she said, tears sparkling in her eyes. She quickly unfastened the goatskin of water from her belt and unscrewed the stopper. "Houshi-sama, please drink, you must make it through alive…" Miroku didn't move. Sango gently pried open his mouth slightly, then held the skin to his partially opened lips and trickled some water into his mouth. Much of the water spilled out of the skin and ran in rivulets down his throat. Miroku showed no sign of waking up.

'Perhaps he is too far gone to be revived even with the magic water,' thought Sango, as she poured more water into his mouth. The last few drops of water hung on the corners of his mouth. Sango threw down the goatskin and put both arms around Miroku before placing him back on the ground. She leaned over him, watching him intently for any signs of life.

The tears that had been withheld in Sango's eyes finally overflowed, trickling off her cheeks and falling on Miroku's lifeless face. The first tear that fell hung in midair for a moment, seeming to catch the moonlight and bending it slightly before resting on the monk's countenance. After that, another tear fell…then another…and again another….

"Houshi-sama," Sango choked out. "Please do not die…please do not leave…you have to fight Naraku, remember? You must avenge your father and get rid of the curse on your hand, Houshi-sama! You cannot die," she said softly. "You…cannot die."

*~*~*~*~*~*

Important: Read: Hehehe, a slight, small cliffhanger. Originally, I had continued on this chapter and resolved the entire issue in this chapter, but I decided, hey, it's more fun if I leave it like this, simply because if Takahashi Rumiko was really drawing this- as if!- but anyway, if she were, she'd leave it on a cliffhanger also. I do have half of chapter nine done, but I need to continue it and I work on a weekly-update schedule. I know I might be dragging this out past the point of interest: if I am, please tell me in your review and I'll edit this. I just felt like stretching out this whole Miroku-at-the-Lake-and-something-goes-wrong-so-Sango-has-to-save-him scene. Also, I know Sango acted extremely OOC in this chapter, and please don't deny what we both know is true. And also, I know the battle scene was confusing- I mean, how could Sango not know that Miroku was fighting also? Well, there were a lot of monsters and it was a huge clearing, and Sango was too preoccupied with staying alive to pay attention to much else. And also, I mean, Sango just *happened* to have a goatskin on her? That didn't make much sense, but work with me here, I needed somewhere she could hold the water in, because her hands wouldn't have worked, so I just thought of something on the spot. Suffice it to say that Kourin had given them a goatskin along with various other provisions when they left her hut. Please review because if you're here you've obviously read.