Disclaimer: Go ahead and sue me for this story. I hope you will enjoy the whopping 3 cents you will get for your pains.
Family Secrets
By: Aelinwen Elentari
Chapter 11: Fireside Powwow
Kiry had finally stopped crying sometime after she stopped speaking. InuYasha held onto his temper as long as he could but that endless wailing had grated at his hearing. He didn't disrupt her story, for it fascinated him. Also, the fact that her sorrow over her lost mate was both real and justified definitely gained her back the points she had lost.
Sango felt so many emotions: rage at Naraku for his cruelty, sympathy for Kiry, and confusion. She hadn't been expecting that story when she wanted an explanation for Kiry's strange behavior. What she had just heard blew way her mind. With Kiry's recitation of her past, she started to remember little snippets of things her parents had talked about, and she thought that the Chikara village had been one of them. Something about it being a refuge for those lost or in need of help. She'd have to ask Kiry about that later, when the girl woke up.
Kagome had put Kiry in a sleeping bag, with InuYasha's help of course, after she had cried herself to sleep in the miko's lap. On thing was for sure, that girl wasn't dreaming tonight, she was so exhausted.
Miroku sat in silence, reviewing all the information that they had been given. It certainly filled in all the blanks in the stories he had been given. He looked over at the sleeping girl, Shippo curled up next to her. He sighed and shook his head. More things had happened in the last two days than they had in a long time. And to think he had started to think things were getting a little boring...
Kagome walked over and sat next to InuYasha. "What do you think we should do?" she asked, drawing her knees up to her chin.
He shot her a side-glance. "You're asking me? Don't you already know what you're going to tell us to do?" he snorted. She always did. Personally he wasn't against letting Kiry stay with them. She wasn't a bad fighter, not in the least.
Kagome blushed. He had a point: she was rather bossy. "Well...I know I'd like to help her, but...I dunno. We all have our vendettas against Naraku, and I know they're all equally important, but... well, you saw the look in her eyes. She wants to be the one to kill him. Kiry doesn't care about Shikon no Kakera, she only cares about the wish she can claim from... who- ever-they-are." Kagome looked down into her lap, her voice going a little softer. "And...I know you want to kill Naraku...for what he did to you and Kikyou."
InuYasha shoved his hands into the baggy sleeves of his haori and looked up at the stars through the trees. 'Yes, he thought, I do want to kill Naraku, personally. I don't want even Kiry getting in the way of that. But...a lost mate...' His throat tightened, an urge to keen for her loss eminent in his mind. He shoved it back. The others wouldn't understand his way of paying his respect to Ryoku Furukuri. Well, Shippo would, but the others would probably look at him like he had died his hair green.
'And, what she said about that wish...one thing in all the world. All she wants is her mate back. All I want is the Shikon no Tama... right? Would I take that wish too? What would I wish for? Kikyou?' He transferred his gaze to the small fire, thinking about that. 'No...she died. She died in hatred and she carried that into the afterlife. There is no love left in her for me if she regained life. She would just spend the rest of her life hunting me down. And...I have no love for the woman she has become. I do feel guilty about her death...but...I didn't cause it. We allowed our trust in each other to be so fragile in the first place that it was easily broken.'
He sighed, almost bitterly, facing truths he kept shoving in the back of his mind. The broad difference between why Kiry and he fought to slay the same demon had made him look at his motives and feelings a little closer than he would have liked.
Kagome's tiny shiver woke him from his musings a little and he leaned forward and tossed another log on the fire. It was wet but it burned smokelessly, oddly enough. InuYasha wondered fleetingly if Miroku had done something to wood to make it burn. 'An ofuda or something...'
"I think we should go to her village and see these Chikara for ourselves." Miroku pulled up his robes a little and sat down across from them, warming his hands over the fire. "I want to get a closer look at what they're capable of. Besides, they may be able to give us some current information on Naraku, as Miss Kiry wasn't." Now that he had found out that Kiry was married, or had been, or...something like that, he had been treating her with the reverence he reserved for chaste priestesses of Buddha.
"Houshi-sama has a point." Sango came out of the darkness with a small armful of fire wood. She dropped it next to the fire and plunked down, well out of Miroku's groping range. He did a notable job of not being offended. Sango continued her thought without noticing. "If these Chikara are as powerful as the monk and Kagome's itoko make them out to be, and Naraku has his eye on them, they may know something. Watched prey learns it's enemy's habits and movements, or it's an ill prepared lunch."
Golden eyes stared into the fire, seemingly lit from within. "We'll leave in the morning. Kiry will take us there, if she knows what's good for her. For now, get some sleep." With his usual effortless grace, the young hanyou rose to his feet, and bounced up to the nearest branch in the tree above them.
Kagome stood up, albeit with less grace, and stretched, yawning widely. "Good idea. I'm cashing in...it's been a long day. Night minna." As she trotted off to her sleeping bag she sent a halfhearted wave over her shoulder.
Miroku and Sango sat still by the fire a few minutes more, until the monk stretched as well. "Well, Sango, I think Miss Kagome and InuYasha are right...that we should turn in." His arm stretched out to her as he casually lowered his arms.
SMACK!
His fingers twitched in the spot where her bottom had just been, as a red flag flared across his face.
"Good night, houshi-sama." Sango's retreating back fell out of sight from the glow cast by the fire.
Miroku sighed. And crawled into his sleeping sack yet again with a stinging cheek and quite alone.
3,
Aelii