Really,REALLY sorry for the delay on this chapter. It would be my luck that
right when I finished it, my computer froze and i had to restart it the
wrong way, thus deleting this entire chapter.....but, it's ok though...it
gave me a chance to think about this chapter a lil more and rewrite it to
make more sense.
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.
What Is and What Could've Been - A Petty Little Game
Sango clenched her teeth as she stood behind a large tree, water dripping from her hair and creating large wet spots on the back of her kimono. Her nails dug into the bark as she heard the village girl pop Miroku's all too famous 'question'. She was angered and surprised by the woman's question but was even more surprised by the monk's answer.
"You're serious?" Tsuni stared blankly at the monk. She hadn't expected this.
"Well...yes." Miroku shifted his weight onto his right foot. This was the perfect oppurtunity to create an heir in case his air void sucked him up before they defeated Naraku, but, for some reason, he felt an obligation to himself and to this woman to refuse the offer. He lightly placed a comforting palm and Tsuni's shoulder.
"Tsuni, perhaps you should rethink your request.." Tsuni gazed up at the handsome priest, her sky blue eyes watering with tears. Miroku sighed.
"Why?"
"It's just.....this is a life changing situation. If I did..persay..leave you with child. It would be cursed. And that's something.....what am I saying? Tsuni ,you hardly know me! When you do something like...that....it should be for the right reasons - because you're in love with that person and want to share everything with them...including a child. Do you understand?" Sango breathed a sigh of relief. So the letch gave up an oppurtunity to spend the night in a woman's bed,hm? Tsuni could feel the demon slayer's presence and knew she would make herself known if Tsuni didn't act fast. She smiled innocently.
"Of course. Thank you for showing me the light."
"My pleasure." Tsuni walked a few more steps before making herself trip. It wasn't terribly hard for the monk was a generous man, and caught her before she made impact with the ground. Tsuni blushed as Miroku wrapped an arm around her waist to catch her.
"Are you alright Tsuni?"
"Yes, thank you." She stood but winced in, what she hoped the priest believed was, pain. Miroku was quickly by her side.
"It seems you must have twisted your ankle. Let me help you back to the village." Tsuni grinned childishly.
Sango grew red with jealousy as she watched Miroku carry the wench back to the village. Her fingers unconciously wrapped around the handles on her boomerang. *One throw and I can knock both out.*
"Good luck with that. Tsuni is much too hard headed for that and I think the monk has grown resistant to the weapon." Sango pratically leapt five feet in the air at the woman's voice. She had thought it was Kagome at first but was startled to find a demonic looking woman standing behind her. Her pink eyes were soft, however, unlike a demon's.
"Pardon?"
"Oh! Silly me! I'm Bella...an..associate,if you will, of Tsuni's."
"The village girl who twisted her ankle?"
"Oh, my dear Sango, she is no village girl. In fact, I don't think Tsuni's ever set foot in a village. Unless, she blew it up in the same hour..."
"She's not even human?!"
"Not exactly..."
"So then she's youkai."
"Not exactly..." Sango could feel her patience wearing thin.
"So then what is she?!" Bella waved her thin hand around in the air.
"Oh, that's not important. My dear, why are you wet?" Sango blushed as a bead of water dropped from her bangs and slid to the end of her nose.
"I was, uh, in the hot springs when I heard a woman scream and rushed to see what the problem was. I didn't have much time to dry off."
"And when you got here you saw that monk you have feelings for, flirting with Tsuni." Sango's eyes darted to the ground. Yes, she had seen what had happened and hated herself for not speaking up.
"Wait a minute, how did you know what I - Look, I don't know what you want or why you're here but I think I need to leave." Bella snapped back into reality as she watched the demon slayer pick up her weapon and head back towards the direction of the village.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa! WHOA!" Bella ran in front if Sango and held her arms out as a barrier. "You just can't LEAVE!" Sango's chestnut eyes formed into thin slits of angry brown.
"And why not?!" Bella twitched nervously. She had run into a demon slayer a long time ago and almost didn't make it out of the confrontation alive.
"Uh...You never admitted who your heart belongs to!!"
"What kind of question is that?! Get out of my way! I need to go home!!" Sango pushed Bella to the side and continued on the path, but Bella was quickly on her heels.
"Sango! If you just hold on a minute! Wait! Would you just - Judo Chop!" Bella brought down the side of her hand onto a tender spot on the exterminator's shoulder. Sango went limp and fell into the deity's arms, sleeping soundly. "Sorry slayer, but you just don't realize how much danger you'll be in if you interfere now."
Miroku paced nervously around the hut. Why did Kaede have to leave yesterday? *Like delivering a child couldn't be done by anyone else!* He shook the selfish thought away and glanced back over at Tsuni. There was something about her that just didn't fit the puzzle and it interested him. He yearned to know what that missing puzzle piece was. Tsuni simpered as she rubbed her swollen ankle.
"Give it up monk." Miroku turned around at the sound of her voice. It was almost....childlike. She quirked a thin eyebrow. "I can't even figure myself out. So don't even bother." Miroku dropped to all fours in front of the village girl, his eyes full of questioning and surprise.
"And what makes you think I was thinking about you? Do you possess some type of spiritual power?" Tsuni giggled lightly.
"My dear Miroku, if I could read your mind, I would know by now if you were attracted to me or not." Her cheeks flushed a tint of pink as she became more braver. Miroku was left speechless.
"Tsuni, I..." He was hushed by the petite finger of Tsuni as she raised it to his lips.
"Shh...no more pain, no more heartache, no more loneliness..." She leaned in until her lips brushed against his own, her hand moving its way to his shoulder.
"Loneliness..."
"You won't have to feel that darkness in your heart any longer..." Her lips finally mingled with his, dancing together in a fond kiss. Miroku could feel his heart jerking inside him. Loneliness....he was never lonely. He had his friends - Inuyasha, Shippo, Kagome,...Sango. His heart seemed to flutter at the thought of the powerful woman he had befriended not too long ago.
"Sango!" He pushed away from Tsuni, startling the poor girl. But she recovered quickly and tied her fingers within his hair, drawing him closer again.
"Forget her...she's a tease. Never really loving you....never really liking you..." His mind told him her words were venom and couldn't be trusted, but his heart needed an answer to his longing. They were kissing again, not even hearing the wooden door of the hut creak open, revealing a very worn out Bella. Her rosey eyes widened at the scene; part shock and part fear.
"CHEATER!!!" Her blue tipped finger shot at the couple, Miroku and Tsuni taking the comment to the heart in different ways. Miroku jerked himself away to the otherside of the room, carefully placing misplaced articles of clothing to where they originally belonged. Bella scampered across the hut to Tsuni's side. She then lashed out at Tsuni.
"I can't BELIEVE you Tsuni! Of all things you could do to win the bet, you resort to seducing the man in question!" Tsuni stood, forgetting her little tale about her twisted ankle, and pushed lightly at Bella's shoulder.
"Like you have room to talk, Bella. I could hear you talking to that Sango a mile away!! Did you befriend her before or after you put her to sleep?" Bella cringed at the last sentence. She hadn't intended for the priest to hear all this information. Bella remained clam, however, and kept her overpowering stance up. Tsuni seemed to shrink underneath the powerful deity's gaze.
"We'll talk about this later...", were Bella's last few words as she watched the alarmed monk slip out of the hut.
"Bella...I-"
"Save it." Bella's hand gave a grim but silent warning to Tsuni.
"If you knew the reason.."
"Zip it!"
"You're not even-"
"Blah blah blah."
"Bella!"
"You know, your mouth keeps moving even though nothing should be coming out..." Tsuni groaned out loud and sat herself cross-legged on the floor, pouting at the fact that her compatriot refused to listen to forward- thinking.
Miroku walked briskly through the forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of a boomerang or a poison gas mask or a ribbon - something to prove that Sango was near. He couldn't accept the fact that he had let himself be fooled by that Tsuni. While he had been indulging in boyhood fantasies, his real life dream had been hurt. He winced as a thorn bush grabbed ahold of his flesh but he kept running, until he found the still form of the youkai slayer laying soundly beside an old tree that brought Kagome to Inuyasha. He gasped as tiny rays of sunlight peeked through the brush and played with the droplets on her ebony hair. He knelt down beside her sleeping body, his strength leaving him by the second. He hadn't realized how much blood had seeped from his thorn bush wounds. It was more than expected or intended. He glanced once more at Sango before collapsing next to her.
Sango awoke to a warm body next to hers. She squinted as sunlight poured in from the morning sunrise. A slight gasp excaped her lips as she noticed that it was none other than Miroku's warm form that had somehow landed next to her own. Was he dead? Or was this just a trick to cop a feel? She turned him over and listened to his breathing. It was shallow but why? It was then she felt the moistness forming in her hand as she pressed against his shoulder. Blood. She tore pieces of material from her clothes to stop the bleeding. *He must've passed out from blood loss. Stupid monk.* When she finished she lightly slapped his cheek to bring him out of it.
"Miroku...? Miroku? Open your eyes for me." It took several moments of the light slapping but the priest managed to squint up Sango and smiled.
"Say it again."
"Say what?"
"My name." He wrapped his fingers around Sango's pale hand and held on tightly. Sango couldn't help herself. She had to grin.
"You passed out from blood loss. Nothing serious. You must regain your energy though." Gray clouds formed in the sky and light thunder could be heard in the distance. "Can you stand? We have to get to shelter before it starts to rain." Miroku nodded and raised himself up with the help of the female exterminator. Sango searched her memory for a place that she might've passed on her way to the hot spring the night before.
"It's that way."
"What is?" Miroku motioned towards another path.
"Shelter." Sango nodded and headed towards the path. Before they knew it, a small hut was visible.
Bella's roseate eyes shot open as she exited her meditation. Tsuni sneered across the room, knowing her plan had been ruined for a reason. Bella stood and walked outside, watching sprinkles of rain fall freely to the ground.
"You think you're sooo smart by putting that damn hut out there, huh?"
"It's better than a seduction..."
"It would've worked!"
"Should've, could've, would've...but didn't.", Bella stated blandly.
"Like that damn hut will work either." Bella turned abruptly and stared daggers at Tsuni just as another blast of thunder sounded through the sky.
"You're on dangerous ground as it is, Tsuni..."
Next chapter: Confessions....not all of them happy. And the secret of Tsuni's and Bella bitterness towards each other. Next chapter will be longer....hopefully.
What Is and What Could've Been - A Petty Little Game
Sango clenched her teeth as she stood behind a large tree, water dripping from her hair and creating large wet spots on the back of her kimono. Her nails dug into the bark as she heard the village girl pop Miroku's all too famous 'question'. She was angered and surprised by the woman's question but was even more surprised by the monk's answer.
"You're serious?" Tsuni stared blankly at the monk. She hadn't expected this.
"Well...yes." Miroku shifted his weight onto his right foot. This was the perfect oppurtunity to create an heir in case his air void sucked him up before they defeated Naraku, but, for some reason, he felt an obligation to himself and to this woman to refuse the offer. He lightly placed a comforting palm and Tsuni's shoulder.
"Tsuni, perhaps you should rethink your request.." Tsuni gazed up at the handsome priest, her sky blue eyes watering with tears. Miroku sighed.
"Why?"
"It's just.....this is a life changing situation. If I did..persay..leave you with child. It would be cursed. And that's something.....what am I saying? Tsuni ,you hardly know me! When you do something like...that....it should be for the right reasons - because you're in love with that person and want to share everything with them...including a child. Do you understand?" Sango breathed a sigh of relief. So the letch gave up an oppurtunity to spend the night in a woman's bed,hm? Tsuni could feel the demon slayer's presence and knew she would make herself known if Tsuni didn't act fast. She smiled innocently.
"Of course. Thank you for showing me the light."
"My pleasure." Tsuni walked a few more steps before making herself trip. It wasn't terribly hard for the monk was a generous man, and caught her before she made impact with the ground. Tsuni blushed as Miroku wrapped an arm around her waist to catch her.
"Are you alright Tsuni?"
"Yes, thank you." She stood but winced in, what she hoped the priest believed was, pain. Miroku was quickly by her side.
"It seems you must have twisted your ankle. Let me help you back to the village." Tsuni grinned childishly.
Sango grew red with jealousy as she watched Miroku carry the wench back to the village. Her fingers unconciously wrapped around the handles on her boomerang. *One throw and I can knock both out.*
"Good luck with that. Tsuni is much too hard headed for that and I think the monk has grown resistant to the weapon." Sango pratically leapt five feet in the air at the woman's voice. She had thought it was Kagome at first but was startled to find a demonic looking woman standing behind her. Her pink eyes were soft, however, unlike a demon's.
"Pardon?"
"Oh! Silly me! I'm Bella...an..associate,if you will, of Tsuni's."
"The village girl who twisted her ankle?"
"Oh, my dear Sango, she is no village girl. In fact, I don't think Tsuni's ever set foot in a village. Unless, she blew it up in the same hour..."
"She's not even human?!"
"Not exactly..."
"So then she's youkai."
"Not exactly..." Sango could feel her patience wearing thin.
"So then what is she?!" Bella waved her thin hand around in the air.
"Oh, that's not important. My dear, why are you wet?" Sango blushed as a bead of water dropped from her bangs and slid to the end of her nose.
"I was, uh, in the hot springs when I heard a woman scream and rushed to see what the problem was. I didn't have much time to dry off."
"And when you got here you saw that monk you have feelings for, flirting with Tsuni." Sango's eyes darted to the ground. Yes, she had seen what had happened and hated herself for not speaking up.
"Wait a minute, how did you know what I - Look, I don't know what you want or why you're here but I think I need to leave." Bella snapped back into reality as she watched the demon slayer pick up her weapon and head back towards the direction of the village.
"Whoa whoa whoa whoa! WHOA!" Bella ran in front if Sango and held her arms out as a barrier. "You just can't LEAVE!" Sango's chestnut eyes formed into thin slits of angry brown.
"And why not?!" Bella twitched nervously. She had run into a demon slayer a long time ago and almost didn't make it out of the confrontation alive.
"Uh...You never admitted who your heart belongs to!!"
"What kind of question is that?! Get out of my way! I need to go home!!" Sango pushed Bella to the side and continued on the path, but Bella was quickly on her heels.
"Sango! If you just hold on a minute! Wait! Would you just - Judo Chop!" Bella brought down the side of her hand onto a tender spot on the exterminator's shoulder. Sango went limp and fell into the deity's arms, sleeping soundly. "Sorry slayer, but you just don't realize how much danger you'll be in if you interfere now."
Miroku paced nervously around the hut. Why did Kaede have to leave yesterday? *Like delivering a child couldn't be done by anyone else!* He shook the selfish thought away and glanced back over at Tsuni. There was something about her that just didn't fit the puzzle and it interested him. He yearned to know what that missing puzzle piece was. Tsuni simpered as she rubbed her swollen ankle.
"Give it up monk." Miroku turned around at the sound of her voice. It was almost....childlike. She quirked a thin eyebrow. "I can't even figure myself out. So don't even bother." Miroku dropped to all fours in front of the village girl, his eyes full of questioning and surprise.
"And what makes you think I was thinking about you? Do you possess some type of spiritual power?" Tsuni giggled lightly.
"My dear Miroku, if I could read your mind, I would know by now if you were attracted to me or not." Her cheeks flushed a tint of pink as she became more braver. Miroku was left speechless.
"Tsuni, I..." He was hushed by the petite finger of Tsuni as she raised it to his lips.
"Shh...no more pain, no more heartache, no more loneliness..." She leaned in until her lips brushed against his own, her hand moving its way to his shoulder.
"Loneliness..."
"You won't have to feel that darkness in your heart any longer..." Her lips finally mingled with his, dancing together in a fond kiss. Miroku could feel his heart jerking inside him. Loneliness....he was never lonely. He had his friends - Inuyasha, Shippo, Kagome,...Sango. His heart seemed to flutter at the thought of the powerful woman he had befriended not too long ago.
"Sango!" He pushed away from Tsuni, startling the poor girl. But she recovered quickly and tied her fingers within his hair, drawing him closer again.
"Forget her...she's a tease. Never really loving you....never really liking you..." His mind told him her words were venom and couldn't be trusted, but his heart needed an answer to his longing. They were kissing again, not even hearing the wooden door of the hut creak open, revealing a very worn out Bella. Her rosey eyes widened at the scene; part shock and part fear.
"CHEATER!!!" Her blue tipped finger shot at the couple, Miroku and Tsuni taking the comment to the heart in different ways. Miroku jerked himself away to the otherside of the room, carefully placing misplaced articles of clothing to where they originally belonged. Bella scampered across the hut to Tsuni's side. She then lashed out at Tsuni.
"I can't BELIEVE you Tsuni! Of all things you could do to win the bet, you resort to seducing the man in question!" Tsuni stood, forgetting her little tale about her twisted ankle, and pushed lightly at Bella's shoulder.
"Like you have room to talk, Bella. I could hear you talking to that Sango a mile away!! Did you befriend her before or after you put her to sleep?" Bella cringed at the last sentence. She hadn't intended for the priest to hear all this information. Bella remained clam, however, and kept her overpowering stance up. Tsuni seemed to shrink underneath the powerful deity's gaze.
"We'll talk about this later...", were Bella's last few words as she watched the alarmed monk slip out of the hut.
"Bella...I-"
"Save it." Bella's hand gave a grim but silent warning to Tsuni.
"If you knew the reason.."
"Zip it!"
"You're not even-"
"Blah blah blah."
"Bella!"
"You know, your mouth keeps moving even though nothing should be coming out..." Tsuni groaned out loud and sat herself cross-legged on the floor, pouting at the fact that her compatriot refused to listen to forward- thinking.
Miroku walked briskly through the forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of a boomerang or a poison gas mask or a ribbon - something to prove that Sango was near. He couldn't accept the fact that he had let himself be fooled by that Tsuni. While he had been indulging in boyhood fantasies, his real life dream had been hurt. He winced as a thorn bush grabbed ahold of his flesh but he kept running, until he found the still form of the youkai slayer laying soundly beside an old tree that brought Kagome to Inuyasha. He gasped as tiny rays of sunlight peeked through the brush and played with the droplets on her ebony hair. He knelt down beside her sleeping body, his strength leaving him by the second. He hadn't realized how much blood had seeped from his thorn bush wounds. It was more than expected or intended. He glanced once more at Sango before collapsing next to her.
Sango awoke to a warm body next to hers. She squinted as sunlight poured in from the morning sunrise. A slight gasp excaped her lips as she noticed that it was none other than Miroku's warm form that had somehow landed next to her own. Was he dead? Or was this just a trick to cop a feel? She turned him over and listened to his breathing. It was shallow but why? It was then she felt the moistness forming in her hand as she pressed against his shoulder. Blood. She tore pieces of material from her clothes to stop the bleeding. *He must've passed out from blood loss. Stupid monk.* When she finished she lightly slapped his cheek to bring him out of it.
"Miroku...? Miroku? Open your eyes for me." It took several moments of the light slapping but the priest managed to squint up Sango and smiled.
"Say it again."
"Say what?"
"My name." He wrapped his fingers around Sango's pale hand and held on tightly. Sango couldn't help herself. She had to grin.
"You passed out from blood loss. Nothing serious. You must regain your energy though." Gray clouds formed in the sky and light thunder could be heard in the distance. "Can you stand? We have to get to shelter before it starts to rain." Miroku nodded and raised himself up with the help of the female exterminator. Sango searched her memory for a place that she might've passed on her way to the hot spring the night before.
"It's that way."
"What is?" Miroku motioned towards another path.
"Shelter." Sango nodded and headed towards the path. Before they knew it, a small hut was visible.
Bella's roseate eyes shot open as she exited her meditation. Tsuni sneered across the room, knowing her plan had been ruined for a reason. Bella stood and walked outside, watching sprinkles of rain fall freely to the ground.
"You think you're sooo smart by putting that damn hut out there, huh?"
"It's better than a seduction..."
"It would've worked!"
"Should've, could've, would've...but didn't.", Bella stated blandly.
"Like that damn hut will work either." Bella turned abruptly and stared daggers at Tsuni just as another blast of thunder sounded through the sky.
"You're on dangerous ground as it is, Tsuni..."
Next chapter: Confessions....not all of them happy. And the secret of Tsuni's and Bella bitterness towards each other. Next chapter will be longer....hopefully.
