Chapter 6: Returning
AN: (Sniff sniff) It's so sad for me! I loved this story. But, all good things must come to an end. Well, as long as you thought it was good, that is... Ah! My depression's kicking in and I think everyone hates me again! This is actually one of the first chapter fics that I didn't have entirely written before hand that I've actually finished! Hee hee, I'm so bad! I still don't own Inuyasha.
My biggest problem in this chapter was probably all of the fluffy stuff, although it took me forever to think of the title as well, so I thought a double meaning thing would be best (hee hee). As I've mentioned before, I always feel really weird writing romance since (except for on this show) I'm really not into it, but it's something I'm willing to try. I also was having problems deciding how much to put into it, since this is set pretty early on in the storyline and I just didn't know exactly what I should have happen to make it both enjoyable and yet keep it in context. I hope that what I did was okay. Please REVIEW and tell me! It's like the last chapter, except it's the fluff I'm looking at in this one. And I'd like to thank my reviewers from chapter five, I got good encouragement and advice!
The clearing was now empty except for a monk, a demon slayer, a cat demon, a few fallen trees, and the bodies of thirteen men.
Sango fell to her knees and sighed with relief.
"At least it's over," she said to herself, thinking about the savage battle they had just had with those strange so called "llama" demons.
She looked around at the battle ground. The large crack from where the leader of the demons had tried to blast them still seemed fresh, and would probably be scalding hot if touched by anything. The trees were in disarray, and the demon slayer couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty for most likely adding more damage to their already desecrated bodies.
Miroku seemed to be lost in thought as he, too, examined the area. "We need to give these men a proper burial," he finally said, as Sango turned to look at him. "We cannot leave them here. We should respect their honorable deaths."
"Honorable?" Sango repeated. "They were killed because they went after a bunch a pretty girls! Where's the honor in that?"
Miroku looked at her questioningly. She stared back at him for a moment, and finally sighed. "Whatever," she replied. "You can start on that. I'll be right back."
She started to step out of the clearing and motioned to Kilala to follow her. The cat demon transformed into her smaller form and scampered behind her quickly. The monk followed her with his eyes for a moment and went to cutting the men's bodies loose.
Miroku laid the last of the bodies on the ground. It had been an interesting task climbing up five of the trees in order to free them, but they finally lay in a row, still just as dead, but in a more decent state. He knelt down in front of them and said a short, silent prayer. "Hopefully I can return to finish laying them to rest," he said to himself as he looked at them.
It was just at this moment that Sango returned to the clearing. She was back in her kimono, and looked at the bodies. "I guess I took too long," she commented, smiling slightly.
Miroku turned to look at her; the sudden appeared had startled him slightly. "Oh, yes, well, I don't know how much more we can do right now without shovels and such," he replied, looking back at the men. "Maybe we can convince Inuyasha and the others to come here so we can finish."
"I doubt he'd want to," Sango said with a laugh, "but Kagome will probably make him come." She sat down on one of the trunks of the downed trees, and Kilala appeared to be interested in a small butterfly that had just touched down on a few flowers that grew amongst the woods. Miroku stood up and continued to look at the corpses.
"What were those demons anyway?" he finally asked, looking around at what they had left in their wake.
"They called themselves llamas, and I don't know what they meant," she replied. "I've never heard of a creature like that before. They said that by sacrificing fourteen men, they would have ultimate power. With the way they were acting when I first saw them, I didn't really think they would be much of a threat, but apparently, they were a lot more powerful than I think even they realized."
"Yeah, I noticed that," he answered, still examining the clearing. "I wonder why sacrifices would give them more strength?"
"I'm not sure," Sango said, looking down at her injured arm. "They were very mysterious. I don't think we'll ever know what was really going on with them."
Miroku looked back at her. "I know what you..." he began, but noticed where she was staring. "Oh, I'm sorry!" he exclaimed, walking over toward her. "I had completely forgotten about your wound. Is it all right?"
"I-it's fine," she replied as he stopped and stood over her, making her feel slightly uncomfortable for some reason. "I fortunately had something to wrap it in with me, but I'll probably have Kagome look at it once we get back."
"Are you sure?" he asked, sitting down next to her on the trunk. "Something seems to be bothering you."
"Oh, it... It's nothing," she answered, feeling her face become warmer. For some reason, she felt as though she could not look him in the eye now. She was confused as to why for a moment, and then the full recollection of her efforts to stop the demons came back to her, and she felt her heartbeat pick up and was sure she was blushing.
"Did I really do that?" she thought, remembering how recklessly she had acted to break Miroku out of the spell he was under. "But, what else could I have done? It was the most obvious course of action after what that one demon did. I just wish that I hadn't had to kiss him. At least, not like..."
"Sango?" the monk asked, breaking the silence she had left him in. She straightened a little in surprise, being so lost in thought that she had almost forgotten that he sat next to her.
"I'm fine," she answered, forcing herself to smile, although she still couldn't bring herself to look at him.
Miroku stared at her questioningly for a moment more, and then grinned to himself a little and looked straight ahead. "It's strange," he finally said.
Sango turned and looked at him. It was easier when he wasn't staring right at her, but part of her felt as though somehow, he still was. "Wh-what's strange?" she finally stuttered out.
"I was merely wondering why I was able to be captured by those demons."
"Hm, I wonder," Sango answered sarcastically. "Maybe it's because they were disguised as beautiful women?"
"Well, I see your point, but still," he replied, falling silent in mid-sentence.
"Houshi-sama?" she said, wondering what had caused him to now stop talking.
Miroku turned and looked at her. She felt her face turn red and quickly turned away after a moment.
"Why did you come?" he suddenly asked.
"What do you mean?" she replied, still trying to catch her breath after that moment that was just a little too awkward for her.
"Well, none of the others followed after the demons caught me. I was just wondering why you did."
"I..." she began, but then stopped to make sure she picked her words carefully so she would not say something that she would regret. "I just felt that something wasn't right when you left. Inuyasha didn't seem to think that anything was wrong, and I knew that if I brought it up to him, he'd just tell me not to worry about it, so I went on my own. That's the whole story."
Miroku kept looking at her, as she still tried to avert her gaze and hide the redness in her cheeks. He smiled slightly. "Thank you," he said.
"Y-you don't really have to..." she began, but just then, Miroku put one hand on her shoulder and took the other and put it on her opposite cheek, turning her face toward him. Sango felt as though the beating of her heart had become so strong that it had lodged itself in her throat, which would help explain why she couldn't breathe. Her face felt like it was probably doing a good impression of a sunburned tomato.
"I mean it," he said, looking deeply into her eyes. "Thank you."
"H-houshi-sama," she choked out as they gazed at each other. "W-what are you..."
Miroku pulled her into a tight hug. "I owe my life you. You didn't give up on me when everyone else had."
Sango was still too shocked to move. "B-but, Houshi-sama, we've been in l-lot's of battles together, and..."
"You don't need to explain yourself," he interrupted, still holding her against for a few more moments.
He finally let go of her, although he still looked at her gently. Sango was too flustered to move or to say anything, although she quickly turned her face from his once again as she tried to catch her breath. "What just happened?" she thought, wondering when the pounding in her chest would die down.
Miroku continued to gaze at her until it became obvious that she wouldn't be looking back at him any time soon. "So," he began, wanting to break the awkward silence, "was that really all?"
Sango lowered her eyes in annoyance. Every bit of her suddenly felt as though it was back to normal, although her cheeks were still slightly red. She finally returned his look, although her's was more of a glare, obviously upset that he was once again asking a question that had gotten him injured before.
"Um..." Miroku began, starting to look very nervous in case she decided to inflict any bodily harm to him.
She kept her cold stare on him for a few minutes, but suddenly cracked a small smile. "For tonight," she answered, standing up and walking over to Kilala.
Miroku watched her walk off, slightly surprised as he was expecting a flat out "Yes" followed by the usual slap. Eventually, he smiled again, and went over to join them as Kilala transformed into her larger self.
"Come on, we at least need to wait for one of them to come back!" Kagome exclaimed.
"I want to keep moving!" Inuyasha replied. "You said you sensed a jewel shard, so we should go after it now!"
"It's not very big, and it's not moving, so I doubt it's Naraku!" she retorted. "We can't just leave this town and have Miroku and Sango end up searching for us for two weeks!"
"We'll run into one of them eventually," he answered, starting to become very annoyed once again. "They only left yesterday, it's not like it won't be hard for someone to catch up. I doubt she'll be able to find that pervert anyway."
"You'd be surprised," Kagome said matter of factly.
"She did take Kilala with her," Shippo added.
"Well, why did she go after him, anyway?"
Shippo and Kagome stared at him. "Are you really that stupid?" Shippo finally asked.
"What's that supposed to mean!" he exclaimed, reaching out to smack the kitsune over the head.
It was at that moment that Miroku, Sango, and Kilala walked into the village. Kilala had touched down outside of town, and they had been roaming the streets to see if they could find any of their other companions.
"What's going on?" Miroku asked, causing the other three to jump in surprise, since, in the commotion they were causing amongst themselves, they hadn't noticed anything.
"Miroku!" Kagome exclaimed, as they all stared at them. "You're back! What happened?"
"Yeah, why did you just leave us like that?" Inuyasha growled, forgetting his anger at Shippo.
"Well," Miroku began, "I was... temporarily delayed by a few demons, but Sango fortunately arrived right when I had the upper hand and helped me finish them off."
"They had you under a spell, didn't they?" Inuyasha asked, knowing fully well along with the others that he obviously was not telling the real story.
Miroku scratched the back of his head, looking a little nervous. "Well, I suppose you could say it like that..."
"So, what are the details?" Kagome asked.
"Hey, did you forget?" Inuyasha interrupted. "You said you sensed a jewel shard! Now that they've shown up, don't you think we should start heading after him?"
"Oh, right," she replied, suddenly seeming to remember. "Well, we can wait for a few more minutes."
"What?" he screamed.
"Um," Sango started, not sure where she should begin and where she should leave out details, "there were some... strange demons trying to kill him, so... I rescued him and we finished them off and then came back here."
"Is that it?" Kagome asked, looking slightly disappointed.
"Yes," Miroku suddenly said, while Sango looked at him in surprise. "I was captured and this lovely young girl came to my aid."
It was at this point that Miroku decided to put his hand in a certain location, most commonly known as Sango's behind. She sighed and frowned for a moment; however, she did not seem to be making any other move. The others looked at her in surprise, especially Miroku, who was expecting a sore cheek by this point. She finally seemed to come back to herself, and slapped him.
"Come on, let's go," Inuyasha said, stomping off. Sango began to head after him, and Kagome skipped forward to walk beside her while Shippo and Kilala stared at Miroku, who was rubbing his cheek.
"Are you sure that's all that happened?" she asked, looking as though she was trying to egg her on.
"Of course I am," Sango answered, looking back over her shoulder opposite of Kagome and smiled.
Miroku, who had finally begun to move forward, looked toward her and smiled back.
AN: Well, there it is! My story. (Looks back proudly, and slightly embarrassed about all the fluff, which was a whole lot for someone like me to write, let me tell you) I hope you liked it! I'm not too sure about that ending, it took me forever to get it the way I wanted it and I'm still not sure if I did okay or not. If you have anything you want to say, especially any constructive criticism, which I love to get since it helps me become better, please review!