Ch. 4

me: Hello!

Kikyo: ::grumbles:: I'm DEAD, okay? I don't have a liver if I'm dead!!

me: O.o okay then...

"Did I love Miroku?" Sango repeated. Kagome looked anxious for her answer, and even InuYasha stopped twitching to stare at Sango. Miroku bit his lip nervously, and fidgeted with his robe.

"No." Sango spoke abruptly, standing up. "I didn't. Sorry Kagome. I know you were expecting me to say yes." She turned on her heel and left the room. Kagome sighed.

"I was almost positive..." She said sadly.

"I know." InuYasha replied, looking at Miroku. The hanyou lifted the white sheet until it fully covered the houshi, then left the room with Kagome.

"She didn't...love me?" Miroku spoke quietly. All those times he had hit on other girls...she had always gotten jealous. Didn't that mean something? He floated through the door, and left Kaede's hut. He didn't want to be around his own dead body. The monk slowly drifted toward Kagome's well. There was something about that well, something calming. And he really needed to be calmed right now...

Sango wandered aimlessly around Kaede's village. She really needed to get out of the hut, and be away from InuYasha and Kagome's interrogations...and she needed to get away from the body, as well.

"Miroku hasn't even been dead for twenty minutes, and already Kagome asks me that!" Sango muttered. "She has no sensitivity whatsoever...." She sighed. "I need a place to sit down." Sango made her way toward the Bone-Eater's Well, where she sat down heavily on the grass.

Miroku was startled to see the demon exterminator coming toward him. He quickly looked for a place to hide...that is, until he remembered he was dead. Sighing heavily, the monk perched on the edge of the well, falling right through it.

"This is getting quite annoying..." Miroku stated angrily. So, he couldn't even sit? What was the point of seeing all this? Why didn't he just die already? Finally, Miroku satisfied himself by hovering by Sango. He watched her carefully. She sniffed and wiped her eyes with her green sleeve.

"Well, Kagome...so what if I did love him?" Sango muttered. "Why should I tell you and InuYasha? It's not like it matters anymore, anyway...there's nothing I can do about it...I doubt he even loved me back! He hit on other girls and he's never asked me to bear his child... even though he's asked every other woman on the face of the earth..."

"You loved me?" Miroku asked incredulously. She didn't answer him, of course, but she shivered slightly and lay her head on her knees. Miroku was about to go comfort her, or try to anyways, when-

"Dad? Why don't I have a Mom?" Miroku asked, staring up at his father expectantly. The man sighed, and knelt in front of his son.

"Miroku...your mother died while giving birth to you. She didn't mean to leave us, but it was her time to go." His father said wearily. Thinking of his dead wife was the last thing he wanted to do.

"She could have stayed if she wanted to." Miroku said stubbornly. "No one just leaves like that, no one!"

"She didn't have a choice. If she did, I'm positive she would have chosen to stay." Miroku's dad said confidently. The little boy sniffed, and buried his head in his dad's shoulder.

"Dad...promise you'll never leave me?" Miroku cried, his words muffled. With his head on his dad's shoulder, he didn't see the man glance at his Wind Tunnel.

"I...promise, Miroku. I really promise." His father said.

"I hate remembering all this stuff," Miroku mumbled, returning back to his senses. It was depressing to see all those events so clearly, when he had been rid of them for so long.

"I need to get back to Kaede's," Sango said, standing abruptly. Miroku almost fell out of the air, if that had been possible. She had surprised him.

"I can't believe you loved me..." He said, watching her slim figure retreat back into the village. Right now, Miroku would do anything to tell her that he loved her too. Anything...

"Sango!" Kagome cried, upon seeing her friend enter the hut. "Oh Sango, I'm so sorry. I was being horribly nosy, I know. I feel awful..."

Sango sighed. Yes, she was angry with Kagome. But she couldn't stay that way any longer. Kagome was just so... ashamed of herself. It was impossible to stay mad. "Kagome-chan, it's okay." "Are you sure, Sango?" Kagome asked, wide-eyed. Apparently, she had been expecting an argument. InuYasha watched her expectantly.

"It's fine, Kagome." Sango said, in a tone of finality. She sat down on the wooden floor and stared at the doorway to the room where Miroku was. She was not going back in there.

"Okay...if you say so..." Kagome said, shrugging. She wasn't going to press the matter any further. "Well, Kaede said that she'd make something for dinner...if you'd like to eat, Sango-chan."

"I'm not really that hungry." Sango replied. "Thanks for asking."

"Okay...well, InuYasha and I are going to go get some food. I'll tell Kaede to save some for you, just in case you're hungry later."

"Thanks." Sango continued to watch the door, as if any moment Miroku would step through it. She didn't even notice Kagome and InuYasha leaving. She sat this way for five more minutes, then stood and walked into the room. She pulled the white sheet from his face. He was pale, and -she put her hand to his forehead- incredibly cold.

He's a corpse. A voice in her head said firmly. Just face it already. He's dead, he's not coming back, and there's no use dwelling on it. Sango shook her head, dark hair swishing around her face. She wouldn't listen to that voice yet. She was far too stubborn to give up on him now. As she studied the monk's face, a desire slowly formed inside her head.

No...The voice argued. That's so incredibly stupid. Don't do that...what good will it do?

"Shut up already...." Sango muttered aloud. Great, now she was talking to herself. She was as crazy as Naraku. Almost.

Miroku hovered in the corner, perched in the perfect position to see Sango and himself. His eyes were glazed with depression, and he had half a mind to leave the hut and never come back. He'd have to leave this world eventually, wouldn't he? Wouldn't he? Oh god, this is so stupid.

"There's nothing else for me to do here!" He muttered, glaring down at the floor. "I don't want to sit here and watch Sango feel bad! Is this hell or something?"

Sango gazed longingly at his closed eyes. This was so stupid. He was dead, he wasn't coming back. Kohaku was dead, though. Wasn't he? And he sure as hell came back. She thought stubbornly. Slowly, ever so slowly, Sango leaned in closer to the monk's face.

Miroku was scrutinizing her through his transparent eyes. What on earth was she doing? As he watched, she lowered her head and....

Kissed him. Sango had just kissed him. Miroku's eyes widened, and for the second time that day, he felt the illusion of falling through the air. She had kissed him! She, Sango, had kissed him!

Sango sat back up quickly, playing with her hair. She felt so self-conscious, as though someone was watching her.

"I don't believe I did that..." She said, a faint smile playing across her lips. "It's not like I've never wanted to, though..." She laughed, and left the room, shaking her head.

"Oh my..." Miroku said, his face turning a light pink. He frowned, then floated out the door. He was about to follow her, when he stopped. There was no point in stalking her everywhere she went, after all. Somberly, he floated back into the room, then smiled and shook his head.

"Only a girl like Sango would wait until I was dead to kiss me..."