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Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Rumiko Takahashi characters named here, nor do I own the rights to Charlie's Angels. I also do not own property in Hawaii, but I am willing to accept some as an early birthday present. Anyone? Anyone?
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"Ready to head back?" Miroku smiled over at Sango.
"Nope." Sango finished her ham sandwich and washed it down with the last of the pineapple juice, then effortlessly crushed the can with her fist. She stretched her long legs out over the side of the tree house they were sitting in. "You sure your friend won't mind us being on his property when he's not here?"
"Shippo and I have been friends since we were kids. I know he doesn't mind," Miroku reassured her. "I just wish he was here; I'd have liked to introduce you two."
"Mmmm," Sango sighed as she stretched out on her stomach in idle bliss. The panoramic view from the tree house was the perfect place to watch the slowly lowering sun shoot rays of purple and red through the scattered clouds in the evening sky. The lush greenery surrounding her seemed to fill each of her senses. "Being in a place like this makes me wish I never had to go back to work," she commented.
"Me too," was Miroku's content reply. He placed his hands behind his head and lay on his back staring up at the top of the tree. "Of course, this is one work assignment I'll never regret. Kaede actually did me a favor this time; covering a drag queen beauty pageant is definitely more interesting than covering political debates. Especially," he grinned at her, "when the non-contestants are so beautiful themselves."
Sango hid her flushing cheeks by gazing at the grounds. She sat up as something caught her eye. "Hey Miroku," she asked, "are you sure the Land Rover is safe where it's parked? It looks kind of unstable from here."
Miroku raised his head slightly to look at the vehicle. "The edge of the driveway does seem to slope more from this angle, but it should be fine," he said. "I, however, am going to fall out of this tree if you don't give me some more room." He rolled onto his side and scooted a little closer to Sango. She pretended not to notice.
A large flock of birds skimmed overhead, winging their way deeper into the mountain forest. "This is so cool," Sango sighed. "I never got to see stuff like this growing up in the city. The only birds I ever saw were the mosquitoes flying over the open sewage drains during the summer."
Miroku laughed. "Those were some bad-ass mosquitoes in your neighborhood, huh?"
"Everything was big, bad and ugly where I lived," Sango said in a matter of fact tone. "If you weren't tough, you didn't survive."
"You survived, though, so you must be pretty tough." Miroku absently picked up her hand and started playing with it. She shivered a little as he gently rubbed his thumb over a sensitive spot on her palm. "So, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being incarcerated in the state penitentiary and 10 being paid to sit and watch this sunset, where does working for Naraku rank?" he asked casually.
Sango froze, her dreamy world suddenly taking on nightmare hues. How did he know? Sure, there were a lot of people around her neighborhood who knew about her prison time. That was no big deal; most of them had some kind of criminal record as well. But she had never told anyone who her current employer was. Anyone who looked at Sango's pay stub would be under the impression she worked for a construction firm.
"Sango," Miroku's voice broke through her fear. His tone was soft and reassuring. "I'm a reporter. I check things out, and I know a lot of people who can tell me things they probably shouldn't be telling anybody. I'm not here to blow your cover, if that's what you're worried about."
"You – you checked me out?" whispered Sango. "Why?"
"Remember that night at the bar? I'd heard a lot of rumors around that neighborhood about how scrappy you were, and it made me curious enough to want to see you for myself." He shifted, settling himself against her more comfortably. "What I saw made me want to know everything about you. I even wanted to know what kind of ice cream you like and what toothpaste you use. Boy," he reflected, "that makes me sound like some kind of stalker, doesn't it? You just enchanted me, Sango."
"Before or after I gave you the concussion with that pool cue?" Sango asked warily.
"Before you hit me, you were absolutely desirable," Miroku told her as he brought her hand to rest against his cheek and then slowly kissed the inside of her wrist. Her pulse raced beneath his touch.
"And after I clobbered you?" she breathed. Every nerve in her body felt connected to the place where his mouth rested against her smooth arm.
"Then you became absolutely irresistible," Miroku told her as he gathered her to him.
Miroku's lips were warm and gentle as he captured her mouth, kissing her so tenderly it brought a film of tears to Sango's eyes. She'd never been kissed like this, like she was a delicate flower that would bruise if not handled with the utmost care. His kiss deepened, and she drank in the taste of him, savoring the sweet feeling that unfurled within her and nestled near her heart. Sango gasped softly as Miroku released her lips and cradled her face with a loving hand. "You're so beautiful," he said in awe as he traced a light pattern around her mouth with his fingertip and she nipped his finger lightly in response.
This was all she needed, Sango thought, and she could die a happy woman. To lie in a tree house in paradise with a handsome man holding you in his arms, soft kisses and birds singing their evening song in the trees, the sound of something sliding slowly across dirt and rocks…
Sango jumped up as her brain finally registered the noise. "Miroku!" she grabbed him by the shirt, "the Land Rover!" She pointed to the gravel driveway, where the vehicle had started moving of its own accord. They bolted from the tree and ran to the driveway just in time to watch the heavy Rover as it slid down the steep path and over the side of the mountain.
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Inu-Yasha walked along the beach, kicking the sand in frustration. Kagome had acted weird all day, like she was trying to keep him at arm's length or something. What was wrong with the girl? Last night she'd been all over him…
No point in thinking too much about last night, it apparently never happened as far as Kagome was concerned. Her kiss at the end of the date had been great, though. Bold and spicy and sweet and he'd felt it all the way to his toes. He'd been so surprised by it he'd hardly been able to say goodnight.
Had Kikyo ever kissed him like that, with that much joy and passion? Inu-Yasha frowned as he tried to remember. It seemed like she'd always been sad and troubled. He'd tried to make her happy, but he wasn't able to. In the end, nobody had been able to help her. The only time he'd ever seen her face look peaceful was when she was lying in her casket.
The warm night breeze picked up a few stray locks of silver hair and blew them into his face. The moon shone full and bright on the rough surface of the water. Inu-Yasha looked out into the ocean, then startled, looked a second time. His keen eyesight had picked out a small boat rowing away from shore towards the deep currents. It stopped; then a figure of a young woman was visible in the moonlight. She turned to look at the shore, and Inu-Yasha saw her face.
Kagome? It couldn't be her, why would she be out on the water like this at night? He shouted and waved to her. She looked at him again before throwing herself from the boat into the water. Shocked, Inu-Yasha shouted her name.
She didn't surface. He threw himself into the surf and started swimming toward the boat, desperately hoping to see her head rise above the water again. Please no, his mind cried, not again. This couldn't be happening to him again.
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Kagome felt as if her lungs were going to explode. She forced herself to push down further into the water, trying to see through the inky blackness. There, she could see something. She reached out a hand to grab it and missed. Pulling together her last bit of energy, she made another reach for it. Almost there, almost there –
Something grabbed her dress from behind and yanked her forcefully backwards. Kagome let out an involuntary gasp and started to choke as her lungs filled with water. She began to kick, fighting to get away from whatever had her in its grasp. Her head broke the surface of the water and she sputtered and coughed as her lungs tried to expel their contents. The hold around her dress tightened and she began her struggles anew, scratching and clawing as hard as she could.
"Let me go, let me go, let me go!" she screamed, grinding her heel into the thing holding her. An arm went around her neck and she pinched it, hard. "Get away from me!"
"Hold still, dammit!" a voice yelled in her ear. "If you keep struggling I'm going to have to knock you out!" Strong hands lifted her out of the water and threw her into the rowboat.
"Hey! Put me back!" Kagome struggled to rise. "I have to do this!" She tried to climb back out of the boat and slipped, knocking her chin against the edge. Ignoring the pain in her jaw, she threw herself halfway out of the wildly rocking rowboat.
"No! I won't let you die like this, Kagome! You can't do this!"
The familiar voice stabbed through her. "Inu-Yasha?" she screeched as she finished pushing herself out of the boat and plopped into the water. "What the hell do you think you're doing, idiot?"
He had grabbed hold of her and was trying to put her back in the rowboat again. "I'm trying to keep you alive! Whatever it is, it's not worth killing yourself over!"
"Inu-Yasha, you are so stupid! There's someone drowning down there! Help me get her out!"
He stopped at her words. "Shit!" He let go of her and they both dove back into the depths. Kagome searched frantically for the figure she had seen before. There! She touched Inu-Yasha's arm and pointed.
Inu-Yasha reached out and pulled her and the girl back to the surface. Wheezing with exhaustion, Kagome allowed him to drag her back into the rowboat, where she immediately started checking for signs of life in the young woman they had rescued. The girl's face was pallid, but to Kagome's relief she immediately coughed and started breathing.
"What happened?" Inu-Yasha asked as he rapidly started rowing the boat back to the beach. "I saw you rowing the boat out there and then you stopped and – and – you didn't come back up again…"he trailed off speaking and Kagome looked at him sharply.
"I saw her swimming out here by herself, and then I saw this motorboat scream through here really fast," Kagome explained to him. "After the boat went by, I noticed the girl wasn't on the surface anymore. I ran to the dock and grabbed this rowboat. You must have come along right after that."
Inu-Yasha continued rowing in silence. He didn't seem to want to look at her. Kagome reached for the bailing pan and threw cold water in his face. "What was that for?" he sputtered.
"Now at least you're looking at me," Kagome said triumphantly. "Why on earth would you think I was trying to kill myself? Sheesh, I was upset about this morning, but I'm not going to end it all over that!"
"Over what?" asked Inu-Yasha. "What's got you so upset, anyway? You wouldn't even talk to me this morning!"
"Look, Inu-Yasha, I don't think now is the time to discuss this. Let's get this poor girl taken care of first, okay? She's got a huge lump on her head where the boat must have hit her."
"Do you know who she is?" They were almost to shore, and Inu-Yasha climbed out to drag the boat in. "She looks kind of familiar to me."
Kagome studied the girl's face and red hair as Inu-Yasha lifted her from the boat. He had already started carrying her up the beach to the resort when Kagome's eyes rounded wide with recognition. "Inu-Yasha, this is Ranma Saotome! And he," she emphasized, "is one of the pageant contestants!"
"No way is this a man," Inu-Yasha gasped. "I felt these breasts when I was pulling her out of the water! These things are real, not implants!" He squeezed Ranma's chest.
Kagome gave him a ringing slap. "You pervert! Leave his breasts alone!"
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A/N: Poor grumpy puppy! I promise things will improve in his near future, but these misunderstandings do happen....
