Disclaimer: I like cheese. Therefore I own cheese, right in my fridge. Same goes for my computer (minus the fridge part) Unfortunately, the same concept cannot be applied to Inuyasha. T_T

I reread Ch2. The amount of corn in those Inuyasha and Kagome scenes made me choke, and I am a bit surprised that there was no negativity in the reviews about it. (as usual the fact that I would probably never post this chapter if I tried to revise the last one kept me from de-corning those scenes, also with my regular bout of laziness intact).

And as a small note: I hate the first part of this chapter. I didn't revise it any more than ten times due to same reasons as above. And its still saddeningly dry, and I apologize for sticking in more corn. Things get better towards the middle-endish area, hopefully it was worth the long, long wait. *hopeful smile* =D






Chapter 3

Kagome looked towards the cafeteria entrance. No flash of white hair. No gold eyes.

She sighed, glanced at the clock.

Ten minutes past noon.

Did you finish your thesis yet, Kagome?"

"I wish."

"How much more to go?

"Four." Kagome grumbled, then perked up. "What about you Ayame?"

Said girl grimaced as the question was turned back on her. "Lets not go there. What about you Kouga?"

"Eh?" Was the intelligent reply through a mouthful of food.

"The thesis." Kagome supplied helpfully.

"What thesis?"

"You know, the one due on Tuesday-"

"Who did you invite?" Ayame said suddenly.

"You''ll know when he comes." Kagome rolled her eyes. Ayame had been trying to get the answer out of her ever since Kagome had said she'd invited a friend. Now she was trying to spring the question up spontaneously, hopefully to catch Kagome off guard enough to give an answer.

"He?" Ayame grinned. "So its a 'he' is it?"

Sango groaned. "We have been through this a million times. Kagome's friend is joining us for lunch. Not like she can't have a platonic relationship with a guy you know."

Kagome smiled at her gratefully,

Sango lowered her voice slightly. "Don't worry about it. He'll come. Inuyasha might be clueless, but he wouldn't forget something you told him."

Kagome scoffed, "Really, if he had half the brains of a starfish-"

"Kagome, starfish don't have brains." Sango said, ignoring the weird look Ayame was giving them.

"My point exactly! He probably did forget, its twenty minutes now! And here I am doing that insensitive jerk this favor of introducing his-"

"Um, Kagome."

"-antisocial-"

"Kagome-"

"-Crude-"

Sango then said loudly and pointedly. "Hello Inuasha."

"-lazy-bumed-eh?"

Kagome turned around to see...

"OH. Inuyasha! Miroku!" Her voice was rather high pitched; her eyes darted nervously between the two men. "You see, er...I wasn't talking about...ah...how much of that did you hear?"

"What do you mean, Kagome-sama?" Miroku asked innocently and slapped a hand over Inuyasha's mouth before he could yell out something he would surely regret.

"Nevermind. Er. You are Miroku right?"

"Yes, of course. A pleasure to make your aquaintance, Kagome-sama." Miroku was in charmer mode again. "After all I've heard from Inuyasha, you certainly are just as beautiful as he described."

Blushing furiously, Kagome stuttered a thank you.

Miroku hastily pulled his hand away from Inuyasha's indignant sputtering.

__________________________

"These are my friends Ayame, Kouga and Sango."

Sango.

So that is her name, Miroku mused as he sat with Inuyasha and the others.

Sango. Coral.

The name suits her, he thought with a supressed smile. Delicate yet strong.

He tried to clear his thoughts by smiling at a group of women waving at him flirtatiously from a nearby table. Didn't work.

Miroku felt rather silly. He, of all people, who had had more girlfriends than he cared to count (and many of which he had no recollection of their name whatsoever), had felt ridiculously happy at having heard her name. And consequently felt an unreasonable amount of gratification towards Kagome for having told him.

Corny, yes, but nevertheless, it was true.

Not that Sango herself cared. She was still carrying herself in the same calm, and reserved manner, sitting diagonally across from him at the long lunch table. He himself talked with Kagome and her friends, except for Sango, and as she pointedly ignored his various attempts at friendly conversation, Miroku felt a certain something nagging at him.

Well, one thing was for sure. Sango was still angry at him. For the groping incident. And perhaps the flirting as well.

Miroku sighed.

Through all of his experience as a 'lady charmer', Miroku had had his fair share of occasional blunders. This would result in said lady getting pissed off. After numerous encounters with rather intimidating female rage, he had developed apologizing into an art. Within five minutes, he could produce a watery smile and a "you're forgiven".

However, as he sat with Kagome and the others for the remainder of lunch (the enthusiastic crowd of girls having finally left), Miroku felt that his so far kept record would be sorely tested by none other than Sango, who was determinedly ignoring his very existence.

And he(rather reluctantly, since it was a harsh sort of blow to his ego) had come to conclusion. For some unfathomable reason(or maybe its because he had groped her....hm..now there's a possibility, he thought dryly), Sango nursed a strong dislike for him, Miroku. The irony was rather obvious.

At first glance Sango seemed to be the tomboyish college girl with a tough, and perhaps reserved exterior, but was in reality just a shy innocent.

Too bad reality had taken Miroku out on a limb. He had flirted subtly with her, expecting Sango to blush and stammer, playing easily right into his hands.

Instead, what he got were terse replies and cold looks. And if Miroku's years of breaking hearts were anything to go by, Sango was not trying to play hard to get. It was more of a 'I'm not interested, you'll never get me, so dream on' sort of thing.

Any normal, remotely sane college guy would have given up under these circumstances.

However, Miroku wasn't just any normal college guy, and well, Inuyasha could vouch for his sanity at best.

So he therefore decided to take the plunge, and hoped to come out unscathed.

"Miroku?"

He looked away from Sango, who was in conversation with Ayame and Kouga, rather reluctantly.

"You look distracted. Something on your mind, Miroku-kun?"

He had only known her for a short hour or so, but Miroku could already appreciate Kagome as a friend. The fact that Inuyasha had mooned over her constantly while they had gone to university together while abroad gave him the impression that Kagome was the perfect woman in every way. And, as Inuyasha often would mutter, half to himself, a woman that he couldn't believe he had lost his chance with. Well the real Kagome wasn't quite that amazing. But she was surprisingly close to the description Inuyasha had given him years before.

At the moment curiosity was evident in her voice. However, an hour was only an hour. If she had known him for half as long as Inuyasha had, Kagome wouldn't have bothered to ask what was on his mind. Since Miroku would certainly not give a satisfactory answer to such a question.

"Oh not at all, Kagome." Miroku lied easily, his gaze flitted to Sango again, before returning to in front of him. She had been watching him

Oh, he was definitely taking that plunge.

Inuyasha snorted. "Don't mind her. She's just been eyeing that chocolate you got from on of those freaky girls."

Oh, that. Miroku resisted the urge to roll his eyes. A young woman, sporting what had looked like her entire makeup collection on her face, had scrambled forward a while after his arrival at the cafeteria and thrust a box of gifwrapped chocolates into his hand.

Kagome turned red while glaring furiously at Inuyasha. "Who-who says I've been-"

"...though I dunno why she likes that crap." Inuyasha continued on, oblivious to Kagome, who looked as if she was trying to stare bullet holes through him.

Miroku coughed slightly, and then pushed the box across the table to Kagome, and spoke up pleasantly, "You can have it. I'm not particularly fond of chocolate myself."

"Hey how come you get candy?" Inuyasha grumbled, dropping the subject on chocolate only to go off on a worse one. "All I have is a shitload of paper scraps."

The 'shitload of paper scraps' may be better discribed as phone numbers jotted down hastily and then given to Inuyasha, also when he had been on the way to the cafeteria. It had not lightened Kagome's mood to see his little fanclub twittering and waving at him from the cafeteria entrance, but she had at least endured it smoldering silently.

However, at this point, glaring was not nearly enough.

"Have you no shame?!"Kagome seethed gripping the edges of the table as she leaned forward menacingly towards a slowly receding Inuyasha. Parading yourself out there and then taking phone numbers from those- those-women-"

"Kagome, calm down. It just shows you have good taste. If all those other girls like Inu....yasha....then....uh..." Ayame's voice faltered. She coughed and returned to her salad. Kouga patted her head absentmindedly, which in turn resulted in him getting his own death glare as well, courtesy of a now mussed hair Ayame.

"Keh, I don't see why you have to be so sensitive. It's not my fault that those freaky girls were all over me. And it's definitely not my fault that you're so jealous."

Miroku closed his eyes. Inuyasha could be amazingly stupid sometimes. When he reopened them, Ayame and Sango were both restraining Kagome from throwing herself at Inuyasha-but not in an affectionate manner by any means. Kouga was staring with avid interest, as Kagome's more violent side making an appearance was rare indeed.

Inuyasha still didn't know what he had said wrong and resumed an indignant air about him, as he stared back defiantly at Kagome.

He is one brave soul, Miroku thought as he glanced at Kagome's furious expression. He then chanced a quick look at Sango. Their eyes locked for a moment, and she rolled her eyes as if to say 'They're hopeless'.

Miroku half grinned in return, For once she isn't mad at me.

Then Sango seemed to realize what she had done and abruptly averted her gaze, her face clouding over with obvious annoyance at her.

So much for that.

Oh yeah, and his record of forgiven' produced in five minutes?

Completely trampled.

__________________________

Sango sat in her seat allowing the last bits of her annoyance at a certain young man named Miroku to fade. And trying to block out the outraged yells from both Kagome and Inuyasha while Ayame and Kouga tried to stop their fight.

Lover's spat. Something I doubt I will ever go through. She thought wryly. But it's nice to know Kagome has found someone like Inuyasha.

Even if at the moment her friend was still on the road to forgiveness, she felt Kagome would reach her destination soon enough. And, Sango realized with a certain amount of surpise, that Inuyasha was probably worth forgiving.

"Um...Sango isn't it?"

Oh, great. Guess its game over for 'How long can you evade talking to Miroku'.

She raised her head with a sigh, and said in a strained voice, "Yes." Her eyes flickered upward toward his for a moment.

"I would just like to say that I am deeply sorry for causing any ill feelings you might still be harboring after our encounter a few days ago." HE said, voice layered with practiced sincerity.

"Really."

He looked somewhat taken aback. "Perhaps this isn't the best place to speak about this....can I talk to you alone for a moment please?"

"No, thank you."He looks like he's never heard that word before Sango noted dryly.

Then he seemed to try another tactic. "Oh, but Sango-san, I don't bite."

Did he just wink?

"Excuse me." Sango said, her voice cold as ice while her eyes glared at Miroku. She stood up stiffly; the abrupt movement nearly knocking her chair onto the ground, and walked away, the beginnings of her good mood shattered.

__________________________

Once again, Miroku was completely and utterly in shock. This, you might want to know, rarely ever happened to someone who was usually able to keep his emotions in check without much effort.

Actually Miroku couldn't remember the last time he had lost his composure so frequently as he had these past few days..

And once again it was Sango who had procured this reaction from him. It was unnerving to say the least. Ok, so he may have gone off a little when he...er...invaded her personal space, but-

She acts as if flirting is liable to be prosecuted on a charge for felony.. Miroku sighed, as he watched her walk off. He couldn't get rid of the image of her eyes flashing dangerously. And he didn't even want to think about why he couldn't.

Ignoring Kagome and Inuaysha's questions and blank looks from Ayame and Kouga, he stood up and followed after Sango. He was going to get his apology through whether she liked it or not. He was being stubborn, and he knew it. Too bad.

Of course he couldn't forget the fact that no matter how he tried to ignore it, there was guilt, believe it or not, mixed in with the disbelief, surprise and frustration, and some other feelings he stubbornly refused to admit to feeling.

She didn't have to tense up and glare at him, with murder in her eyes. She didn't need to openly scorn his attempts at conversation. She didn't need to reply with terse words and then ignore him.

She didn't have to be so angry at him.

He wondered what her pleasant face looked like.

Miroku felt irritated suddenly.

Why did he care anyways?

But his footsteps only quickened at that thought, intent on catching up with Sango. He was almost caught up, opening his mouth to say her name.

And that's when he saw.

__________________________

He stares at me. Stalks me. Then dares to flirt with me. And then he gropes me. Now it's like some kind of 'repeat' process is it?

Sango walked swiftly out of the cafeteria, badly in need of some fresh air. The afternoon was grossly beautiful and sunny. Afternoon traffic squealed its tires and honked its way down the street as she made her way down the empty sidewalk.

Why did Miroku's flirting bother her so much anyways?

It's not as if she was affected by it or anything...

Sango grimaced.

Usually advances by flirtatious men she could ignore pretty easily, or stop with a few sarcastic remarks, but for some reason Miroku annoyed her enough to send her blood boiling at the thought of his stupid, perverted ways.

Perhaps it was because of how he represented the epitome of all womanizing men. Perhaps it was because....

No. She was not going there.

Half blinded by frustration and a healthy dose of muddled emotions, Sango quickened her pace, walking onto the street to evade a few fallen branches on the sidewalk, engrossed in her thoughts.

She didn't realize what was happening until too late.

Somewhere in the edge of hearing, Sango caught the frantic yell of "Watch out-!!" before a rough push sent her sprawling to her left, just in time to see the blur of a car pass by, missing her by mere centimeters. And it then the speeding convertible stopped abruptly, the screech of brakes tore through the air..

The ominous thud that resounded was enough to make Sango push herself off the ground awkwardly, feet still a little unsteady, her mind wondering 'What the hell just happened?' and her heart thudded loudly at an uncomfortably fast rate against her chest.

Standing up, she could only stare at the scene before her. The car that would have hit her had stopped in the middle of the road, its driver had open the door and rushed outside....

Oh.

Sango, eyes wide with shock and horror, couldn't tear her gaze from the sight of an unconscious Miroku lying on the ground, with blood gushing out of a huge gash across his forehead.

__________________________

The first thing he noticed as he regained consciousness was that his head felt like it had been rammed into something extremely hard, and then run through a brick wall- something his dazed mind acknowledged as not good.

He also found it hard to breathe, since his ribs felt extremely sore, or maybe extremely broken was a better description...

Then he remembered why his body was in such a condition- he had seen the car about to hit Sango, and then he had ran forward to push her away.

I must have gotten hit in the process Miroku was still dazed enought to only being able to think the most painfully obvious of thoughts.

It was a pretty strange thing, to be lying in the hospital he supposed, eyes closed, thinking about the fact he had been hit by a thousand pounds of metal.

Miroku reluctantly opened his eyes. First thing, he saw on the calendar that it was the ninth. Which meant he had been out for a day.

Well, I guess that means my injuries weren't too serious.

But they were serious enough that he winced while trying to sit up and get a better look at his surroundings.

And then his eyes flattened at the sight of a large pile of gifts and heart shaped balloons with notes attached, mostly saying things along the lines of "GET BETTER SOON! LOVE YUMI"...or Eri, or Sakura, or...

Miroku winced and closed his eyes again. His headache returned.

__________________________

"Inuyasha visited him this morning."

Yesterday, after waiting outside the hospital room Miroku had been transferred to for an hour or so, Kagome, Sango, and Inuyasha had been told by the doctor that with the tranquilizers and doses of medicine Miroku had taken, he wouldn't wake up for at least another twenty four hours.

The next morning, Kagome had visited Sango at her apartment.

"And he told me Miroku's fine. Nothing a few days in the hospital won't cure." Kagome smiled slightly. "But he calls broken bones and head concussions 'no big deal' so that probably won't be much to go on."

"I see." Sango said vaguely staring up at the ceiling from her bed. She was currently sprawled on her back and methodically throwing a baseball into the air with a slight flick from the wrist of her uplifted arm and then catching it as it came back down. She had spent the past fifteen minutes or so repeating the movements, much to Kagome's chagrin.

She should have taking his annoying compliments to heart, and she shouldn't have gotten so angry at him. After all, Miroku probably didn't know how to do anything except flirt with a girl, since he seemed unable to have a platonic friendship with a woman.

The words 'my fault' seemed to have been branded into Sango's mind, however. And she couldn't get rid of the nagging voice that said 'If you only hadn't gotten so angry, then this could have been avoided.

I hadn't been a complete idiot, she had argued with herself. Maybe somewhat of an idiot, but not completely-

Sango sighed. Up went the baseball.

The guilt welled up inside of her in an unwelcome reminder that the only reason Miroku was in the hospital was because of her.

And down the baseball came.

"So.." Kagome spoke up hesitantly. "Um. Are you going to...er...visit him?"

Sango said nothing.

"I think you should." Kagome continued brusquely. "you should...you know. visit him at the hospital."

More silence.

Sango threw the baseball up in the air with another throw. "I will."

Oh.

Silly her, of course Sango would feel obligated to go. She'd always had a high sense of responsibility. Sometimes unbearably so.

"Well then. Let's go now."

Sango caught the baseball again and lifted her head slightly to look at Kagome. "Now?"

"Yes now." Kagome said in a voice that sounded alarmingly similar to that of her own mother's. "Before you decide that it really isn't worth it to keep your integrity intact for this little trip to the hospital."

With a sigh, Sango lifted herself off her bed and stood up, smoothing out the wrinkles of her shirt with a resigned air."Ok then Kagome. We'll go now"

__________________________

Sango stood in front of the hospital, wavering from stepping through the sliding doors to the patients' ward. Kagome had already gone in to the front desk.

Should she go in?

Yes, Miroku was in the hospital. As the person most responsible for putting him in there, you should go in and at least visit him. And perhaps apologize.

No, the thought of apologizing to that conceited playboy makes me want to loose my breakfast. Not that she was nervous or anything. Of course not.

Sango sighed. And she had always hated hospitals. Most connected the palce with recovery, or perhaps a sanctuary after injury. She herself associated it with death. And now she really didn't feel like going into the hospital.

At that point, Kagome decided to take the decision into her own hands.

"Sango! Hurry UP!!!" She found herself pushed through the entrance."Come on, no way I'm letting you back out now!!" And with that the girl grabbed Sango's arm and pulled her into through the hallway and past the receptionist's desk.

A few minutes and one elevator ride later found both of them standing in front of Miroku's hospital room. Kagome opened the door and gestured for Sango to go before her.

"You go in first." Sango said hesitantly.

"Nuh uh,"Kagome shook her head. There was a suspiciously guilty smile on her face."You go."

Sango stared at Kagome a moment, considering the odd expression on her friend's face. She sighed. Obviously, Kagome wasn't tell her something.

She crossed her arms. "Ok, Kagome. What is it?"

Said girl had a caught look on her face as she opened her mouth hesitantly before speaking. "Um.... See, when I said you should visit him 'now', I really meant you. Just you. You know? Heh...heh..."

Excuse me?

"Er...I well...I need to go uh...yeah. So you should visit Miroku on your own." She cringed at the look Sango was currently giving her.

"Kagome...I am going to be a kind and respectful friend and ask you why before I kill you."

Sango was one of those people with an amazing amount of self-control. She could be calm during very chaotic and stressful situations. However, when she lost it, things tended to become highly uncomfortable for the person she directed her anger towards. So, Kagome, smart girl that she was, decided on the option of talking fast and then running. Far, far away.

She took a huge breath to ready herself before blurting out, "ItsbecauseIhavetomeetInuyashasincewearegoingtostudyforchemistrytogethergottago!!" Kagome then wasted no time giving her a strong push through the door and running off, nearly skidding as she turned at the end of the hallway.

And she left behind a fuming Sango, standing next to Miroku's hospital bed.

"Am I dreaming? Is this really the beautiful lady Sango here to visit my poor bedridden self?"

He is injured...he is injured...you do not hurt an injured person... Sango chanted to herself, while refusing to look at Miroku, and focused on other things in the room. Her eyes fell on his get-well gifts. Is that some kind of life-size teddy bear?!

__________________________

Her hair was in its usual high ponytail, her clothing just as tomboyish. And yet, there were times that she would suddenly look completely different.

Like now, when she was remescing about high school, her head tilted a little upward at a slight angle. The sunlight danced on her hair and face, falling gently across her shoulders. There was a ghost of a smile on her face as she spoke.

For the moment, she had forgotten he was there, but Miroku didn't mind. She had dropped her mask of coldness, and he was too busy watching her to really take in much of what she was saying.

He had been surprised enough to see her enter the room, just as he had woken from his nap. And now she acted as if maybe she wasn't angry with him anymore. Which once again, brought around the ridiculous urge for Miroku to grin like an idiot.

"What are you smiling about?"A sharp voice broke him out of his revere and making him realize that he had been grinning like an idiot. He automatically said one of his complimentary lines without thinking.

"Simply the fact that you are here beside me, Sango."

Mistake.

He immediately saw the flicker of irritation and possible beginnings of anger in Sango's eyes, and quickly tried to assuage the situation, "I only wish to express my gratefulness for your kind consideration of my well being after-"

"Save your practiced speeches for one of your fangirls, Akusou."

Miroku inwardly grimaced. He should have known that none of his usual tactics with women would work with Sango.

Ok, third try.

"Sango, all I'm saying is that I'm glad you're talking to me." He was trying his best not to sound desperate.

Why was he so intent on keeping her from getting angry at him anyways?

Sango smirked at him-actually smirked. "See? Talking without premeditating isn't that hard is it?"

She had been stringing him along the entire time?!

How Sango managed to knock him off balance like this repeatedly was beyond his comprehension.

And once again, Miroku was speechless.

That seemed to be happening an awful lot ever since he'd met her.





AN: This was long. I dunno if that's a good thing or not. =T I was going to make this longer...but I'll have to save my evil idea till next time ;) Chapter 4 will most likely be a short one, but is planned out already, which is to say, I'm hoping to finish it in a much shorter timeframe than it took for this chapter. =)