Boy talk

As Miroku walked to his History class he saw Sango and Snap coming out of the Art classroom together, talking animatedly about HB-pencils. He smiled at the scene; the two of them had become such good friends, too, after Sango got to know Koga. The had started spending even more time together now after Koga and Sango stopped speaking. Miroku frowned. Something hovered at the back of his mind, something he felt was important...

"Snap, do you know why Koga doesn't speak to Sango?" he asked, after falling in step with them and chatting aimlessly for a while.

"Not a clue." Snap shrugged. "I figured it was just a spell of bad temper. He hasn't been speaking to me, either."

There it was! He knew something had looked off the last time he had seen the three friends – Koga, Snap and Hawk – together the last time. Koga had kept throwing these dirty looks in Snap's direction and hadn't said a word to him.

Miroku wasn't stupid. Well, not very stupid. He was sure there was a connection, and he sat all History lesson busying his little brain to find a solution. He hardly heard what the teacher was saying about Archimedes (it didn't really matter, he'd already read the chapter).

Then he got it.

"Eureka!" he shouted out loud, standing up abruptly. The entire class stared at him.

"Correct," said the teacher, looking surprised and suspicious. "He shouted Eureka. It was a very... er... nice reconstruction, Miroku. Wait, where are you going? Oh, never mind..."

Miroku ran through the corridors of the school. With a little luck Koga would be here already, shooting hoops or something in the Sports hall. He might not care about school in general, but he certainly cared about sports.

Murphy or whatever god there might be up there was with him today. Koga was hanging upside down in a pair of Olympic rings, seemingly philosophizing. He didn't even notice when Miroku walked in.

"Keep that up and you'll end up with an even more swollen head than before."

Koga's eyes slid into focus again and he shook his head before regarding Miroku with a sheepish smile.

"Sorry, zoned out for a bit."

"Thinking about Sango?" Koga's eyes narrowed dangerously and his smile disappeared from his face. Miroku wondered if it had been a bad move to be so straightforward.

"Why are you so mad at her?" he asked quickly. "Actually, change that: Why are you so mad at Snap?"

Koga, who had opened his mouth to answer the first question, left it open. Miroku could see his question had caught the other boy off guard.

'Bingo!' he thought.

"I can see it's related. You stopped speaking to Snap just at the same time you stopped speaking to Sango. What's he done? Or what do you think he's done?"

"I don't know why I should tell you," said Koga haughtily.

"Because I care a lot about you. No, not in that way," Miroku said as he caught the funny look. "I'd just like both you and Sango to be happy, and neither of you is very happy right now."

"That's cute."

"Thank you."

"But I don't see why Sango should be unhappy about anything. She acts like I've been an incredible bastard, but I don't understand why she should care about anything I do. I mean, it's not as if we're married or anything. She has Snap, after all, and they're just oh-so-disgustingly-cute together." Koga spat out the last words with venom, looking angry and upset.

Miroku took a deep breath. This was exactly what he had suspected. A misunderstanding of huge magnitude.

"First, come down from those rings, OK? You're starting to become rather red in the face. And then I'm going to clear some things up for you. It's amazing how much shit starts when you don't talk to people."

After Koga had come down to ground level again and got some of the blood back into his legs, Miroku proceeded to tell him how completely wrong he had been about Snap and Sango.

"So they're not a couple?"

"No."

"God, I feel like such an idiot."

"Justifiably so."

"Don't you patronize me. I don't need it, I know I've behaved stupidly."

"Got that right, at least. Jesus." Miroku shook his head. "So can you tell me what happened between you and the Kagura girl? Word has it she's a bit of a – "

"Yeah, I know," said Koga in the dead tones of someone who just realized for the first time just how much he regrets something. "I have no idea of what happened. One second I was having my third vodka, the next I woke up feeling as if I'd been sat on by an elephant. I have no idea of what I did in between. I have my guesses though."

"Like the rest of the world. How could you, honestly? That girl's the talk of the school!"

"I didn't even know she went to our school. I'd never seen the girl before! It was a bit of a shock to find her in same room as me when I woke up..." Koga suddenly frowned, remembering something important. "Hey! She stole my shirt, the bitch! Er, but maybe that's not very important... er, no," he added as Miroku stared coolly at him. "Oh jeez... I've really behaved like an idiot, haven't I?"

"Yes," said Miroku firmly. "Sango was in a right state about it."

"I don't know if I can ever speak to her again," mumbled Koga, looking very deliberately away from Miroku. "We have just been so mean to each other these last weeks. I don't know if either of us can get over that. You know, I don't believe there is anyone in the entire world who can be as cruel as her."

Miroku said nothing, just smiled. Now when he had Koga's side of the story it was suddenly easier to know where to start working. He had a sudden vision of two young people locked in a room together, forced to speak with each other and clear things up. He grinned, devilishly. Ooh, this was going to be fun.

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Hello! This was originally part of a very, very long chapter that I was going to post as chapter thirteen. However, since I am so incredibly evil (and since I don't want this story to end so soon) I cut it up in three smaller parts and am now posting them as three separate chapters. Ha, ha and ha! (I am giving you an evil smirk here. For best effect, imagine me with vampire fangs.)

You know what? I broke my own record in terms of amount of chapters in a story. Cool hey. You know what more? I'm past fifty reviews.

What are you people, crazy? (Read: Thank you. I never thought so many would review.)

Teyka dearie: You know what? If the suspense is killing you... it's because it's meant to be! Bwaha!

To d@rkpride, Ami and Skitzoflame: It makes me happy to have your reviews dropping in regularly. You keep reading my story! You're faithful! Wow! (...if I'm getting carried away here, put it down to too little sleep and too much samba. 'Scuse me.)

To Skitzoflame only: Hello. We're talking Miroku here. You think I'm going to give him an idea and then not let him follow up on it? Not on your life, dearie.

To LiL:.CaT:.AnImE: I had to rewrite your name thrice before I got it right. All those capital letters and things... You never thought of calling yourself something easier? Like LS74911-2B or something? (Nothing against your name or anything, that's not what I mean. Do not take me seriously, I'm not a very serious person.) Since you asked, Sango is indeed my favourite character. On the other hand, so is Miroku. And Kanna. And Sesshoumaru, Kaede and Yura. My favourite character changes constantly, depending on how they act and what they say. I'll read something and I'll go, "Oooh, that was so cocky. He is my favourite character." Then I'll change my mind two pages later, because another character just said something even cooler. At the moment I'm rather fond of Goshinki – he can read minds and I think he's rather sweet. (This is largely because I'm making him rather sweet in a fanfic I might be putting up soon – I am so biased.) But I think Sango is an interesting character, and I like her. Lots. She's got a lot of attitude, and she's just such a strong person. Also, I like doing things that are not exactly standard – the old "Miroku loves Sango, Inu-yasha loves Kagome" tends to get boring if you don't spice it up a bit. - Did I veer off track now or what. Thanks for reading the story, please keep doing so even if I might seem like I ought to be in a straight-jacket when I'm writing these stupid P.S. things or whatever you want to call it.

To purplepeopleeater: Thank you for the laws of Murphy. Here's one of my own favourites: "When you think you see the light at the end of the tunnel, it is really just the headlamps of the oncoming train." Are you purplepeopleeater as in "hello, I am purple and I eat people" or as in "hello, I eat purple people"? Just wondering.

To BlackX: All will be revealed. More or less.

To, well, all you other reviewers: Can't think of anything intelligent to say. (And I'm thinking that's out of the ordinary?) You know you rock, don't you? Thank you. I would bow down to you for taking an interest in the fic, but my back is killing me. Aw whatever. It's the thought that counts.