Authoress' Notes: Hi guys, I'm sorry I'm not doing reviewer responses this time. I'll do them next time I promise. I'm really upset right now. I got a flame e-mail on another fic I wrote and it really took the wind out of my sails. I didn't want to punish you guys for what this other person did. I mean it's not your fault... Sigh So anyways, I wrote the most of this before I read that awful e-mail so I think that's more up to par with my style....as for the last scene, well I wrote it after...don't know if I like it. I should be updating next week as usual, but if I don't be patient please.

Special Thanks to these folks for being so wonderful and review my fic and making me smile!Coherentidiot
Nuklear Firefly
Hikari
Jaid Skywalker
Blades of Ice
Neatobeans
WildfireDreams
Dreamseeker
Higurashi Kagome
Kaylana
Araki-chan
Zephor

Anyways. I hope you enjoy this. And I seriously hope you're all having better weeks than I am. I'm gonna go crawl into my little hole in the ground and hide!

semi-smiles -T.A.

EDIT - Incidentally, this little part had a lot of errors in it that I fixed.

Family Ties: Part 11

Inuyasha sat on the roof of Michi's house, watching the sun prepare to break over the horizon. He'd finished patching the roof a little past sunset, but he'd stayed on the roof all night. He hadn't wanted to face Michi just yet. He'd caught her weeping; walked up on her when she was trying to be alone with her grief. He understood her guilt all too well; the guilt of not being able to protect the ones that you care for. Michi thought of Miroku as her pup; he'd finally realized that when he'd heard her wailing. Miroku saved her, but Michi couldn't do the same for him.

This would be the third morning since the attack; he had an uneasy feeling about the whole experience. He should have chased Naraku, but as Kagome would say, 'coulda, shoulda, woulda; didn't.' He regretted that decision now; it would have been better if he'd fought Naraku. But waking up and seeing Kagome unconscious and bleeding had spooked him into taking care of her instead. Damn sentimentality.

He'd watched Shippou and Tanaya play tag and hide-n-seek as he'd patched the roof. It was amazing to him that Tanaya accepted Shippou as just another kid, even though he was demon. She would be a good person, despite her lineage. Thinking on the kid's lineage, what in the seven Hells was wrong with Miroku? He had barely moved since the attack. Gods, was he gonna sleep the rest of his life away?

Inuyasha snorted and rolled his neck, before reclining against the roof. He decided to take a nap before everyone woke up and bothered him. He barely noticed the wind change direction as he drifted off to sleep and didn't notice the scent of blood that drifted in his direction.

:Begin Flashback:

Sango was sitting on the bank of the river a pile of wood was stacked beside her. She ran her fingers over the new scratches on her hands. A demon exterminator beaten by plants, simple briars no less, it was positively ridiculous. She washed the blood off her hands than reached for the flute she kept hidden in her kimono. As she began to play, she didn't realize that she was being watched, until she heard a twig snap. She dropped her flute and turned to face the person, who had crept up on her.

"Houshi-sama, you startled me." She complained.

"I am sorry, Sango. But please, don't stop playing on my account." He sat down next to her.

Sango gave him a wary look, "Why, do you want to keep my hands busy?"

Miroku winced slightly, "I suppose I deserve that. But no I just haven't heard anyone of real talent play a flute in quite sometime and you play very nicely."

Sango felt herself blush all the way to her ears. " Thank you Houshi-sama." She looked back down at the instrument, before bringing it to her lips and beginning to play.

Miroku closed his eyes and listened to the gentle sound the flute made. The melody was melancholy almost haunting. She played it without any hesitation, the music flowing forth as if it were a part of her. When she stopped playing Miroku let out a breath that he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "That was lovely, but so very sad."

"It's the ballad of Midoriko and the jewel. It's always been piece that's comforted me." Sango pulled her knees up to her chest, as she looked skyward. "So many stars."

"And they all have stories." Miroku sighed. " You know, I used to know all the myths surrounding the stars in this area."

"What happened?" Sango looked at him questioningly.

"I started focusing on Naraku more and more. I fear that if we beat him I won't know what to do with myself."

"When we beat him, I will face the same problem. I will have no where to go or anyone to go with, once our party is split."

Miroku touched her shoulder and smiled softly. " Sango, if you ever need a place; there is always a place open at my side, for a true friend such as yourself."

Sango looked up at him surprised at his sudden tenderness. "Thank you Houshi-sama. I will remember that."

He nodded and the two slipped into a comfortable silence. He breathed in the air of the river and scent of the woman near him and closed his eyes.

"You should wait to sleep until we get back to camp." Sango admonished.

"You'd protect me." He didn't even open an eye.

"Perhaps, you are too trusting of me, Houshi-sama." Sango stood up and bent over to retrieve her firewood. "We should return to camp before Inuyasha..." Sango trailed off as her face turned red. "Hentai!" She smacked him upside the head, with one of the gathered logs and stalked off towards the camp.

:Pause Flashback:

Michi dried her hands on her apron as entered Miroku's room. Dawn hadn't come just yet and she was busy getting her morning chores done, before everyone awoke. She had already checked on everyone else in the house.

Kagome was still sleeping peacefully; her wounds were healing very nicely. Tanaya, her sweet daughter, was sleeping with Shippou curled up next to her. Michi had told them both a story last night and they were both sleeping before the end of it. Kirara was sleeping in the window of Tanaya's room, just in case. Inuyasha was still on the roof, he'd only come down to eat, than he went right back up. Nia still hadn't returned, but that wasn't all that surprising. She and Ryu wouldn't come back until they were sure Miroku and the others were long gone.

Miroku and Sango were the last two people that she had to check on before going out to the fields to start the morning work. She knelt by her cousin and to check to see if he'd acquired a fever during the night. He seemed fine, but he was still sleeping as if dead.

Michi looked at Sango, the demon exterminator had fallen asleep next to Miroku, her fingers entwined in his. Michi had recognized the affection between her cousin and battle worn taijiya, but they were both fighting it. Well, only sort of on her cousin's part. Miroku would rather play then experience anything real; real emotions required the chance of pain and he didn't like being hurt. He was such a sensitive soul, sometimes.

Michi didn't pretend to be an expert on Sango, but she knew pain when she saw it. She also knew the exterminator village that had been wiped out by demons and figured that was where Sango was from. Sango shifted in her sleep, eyebrow furring as if frustrated with something in her dream. Michi brushed the hair away from the girl's face trying to sooth her. Sango shifted away, leaning closer to Miroku.

"I can't believe you're sleeping through this. You really are dead to world right n..." Michi's eyes lit up as a memory flooded her mind and she raced out of the room.

:Resume Flashback:

A white light flashed brightly, illuminating the whole area, when it died down, the area had changed; in fact it was an entirely different place, at a different time.

Miroku was completely calm as he rested by the placid stream. The sky was cloudless, the sun warmed his skin and the wind blew gently across his body, truly a perfect day. For once there were no shouts of panic or sounds of demon attacks. Only the ripple of water and birds singing off in the distance He was content to sleep the day away in this peaceful, still place. He would be content to stay in this place, for as long as time would allow him too.

" Houshi-sama? Houshi-sama, is that you?" A female voice called out in the distance.

Miroku sat up sluggishly, his body felt so heavy, "Who's there?"

" Houshi-sama, are you alright?" Sango rushed up to him.

He smiled at her, "Of course, I'm alright Sango. Why wouldn't I be?"

Sango's eyes widened as if his statement made no sense to her at all. "Can't you see the danger you're in?"

" What danger? Sango, there is nothing here that could possible harm anyone. Even the river is calm..." Miroku tried to calm the upset taijiya.

" Calm? That water is raging, Houshi-sama."

Miroku arched his eyebrow, "What are you talking about?"

" You tell me. You're the one who's calm in this place of death." Sango's eyes filled with disbelief. "Can't you hear the storm raging around us?"

" No. I don't hear anything like that. In fact this place seems very peaceful to me."

" It isn't. Houshi-sama, you're sleeping. That's why you see it that way."

" I am not sleeping." Miroku was beginning to get agitated. He felt as if he'd had this conversation before. "I will show you." He started towards the river.

Sango grasped his hand with a grip that was painfully tight, as fear flooded her features. "Don't go to the river. Whatever you do Miroku, do not touch the water."

" Why?"

" I don't know. I just think..." Sango turned her head to the side as if she heard something and she disappeared from his view.

:End Flashback:

Sango's eyes flew open at the clanging sound of metal against wood and Michi's cursing. She disentangled herself from Miroku and leapt up to help Michi put out the fire.

" Thank you." Michi breathlessly told Sango as she tried to gather her composure. "Are you alright? I'm sorry to have woken you like that."

" That's all right. I was having a nightmare anyway." Sango rubbed her eyes and yawned. "What's that?"

Michi looked at the scroll in her hand. "Family history." She responded before picking up the stand she'd knocked over a moment ago.

" Everything okay?" Inuyasha asked from the doorway, his sleeve covering his face.

"Yes, I was just being clumsy." Michi assured him. "But could you go check on Kagome, I'm sure she heard the crash and woke up."

Inuyasha snorted and walked out of the room.

"Now, where was I? Right, family history." Michi muttered more to herself than to Sango as she unrolled the scroll. "Here we are. Ah-ha! I was right." Her lips curled into a satisfied smile.

Sango was now completely lost. "Right about what?"

Michi pointed to the scroll, "See it's right there."

"I can't read." Sango admitted.

Michi bit her lip, "Sorry about that I forget how rare a skill it is. My mother wrote the scroll passage here about me. It basically gives an account where I flashed a demon."

" Flashed?" Sango was unfamiliar with the term that Michi was using.

" Flashed, that what our family calls to the surge of power that our little ones can freeze demons with. But what grabs my attention to the passage is what happened after I flashed the demon. I slept as if I were dead for a full day and night. My body needed to recover its energy." Michi explained looking down at her sleep cousin. "Which judging by your age, you should wake up sometime tonight. Don't you disprove my theory!"

Sango chuckled at Michi's demands and stretched her arms over her head. " So you think Houshi-sama, will be fine, then?"

"Yes, I should think he'll be fine, unless he tries to cross the Bardo."

" Bardo? I don't understand; he isn't moving how could he cross anything?"

Michi touched Sango's shoulder, "It's a very rare thing to hear about. A Bardo is a spiritual place, where the soul prepares to move from one life to the next. It usually looks very dark and frightening on one side and on the other is a very early spring a river separates the two sides and...."

Sango's eye widened as she remembered the decaying place she'd seen Miroku in her dream. The black trees and raging river on the side they were standing on and the peaceful side across the river from them. "The river is divided by a wide band of white light." She whispered.

"Yes, how did you know that?"

"I saw it in my dream; Miroku was there, sleeping by the river."

Michi blinked twice as the information sank in, then she feinted dead away.

Well I hope you all enjoyed that! There was fluff! Sorry it was shorter than normal. Sigh Anyways please R&R, nicely....