A Fortuitous Blunder
Chapter Four
By Kelly O'Connor
Author's notes- I had someone make a comment in regards to Kohaku's age so I thought I'd clear up any questions and make note of the characters' current ages here. These are for the most part the ages listed for them in the official "Inuyasha" character book with three years added since this story takes place three years post Naraku.
Kagome and InuYasha- Both 18
Miroku- 22
Sango- 19
Kohaku- 14
Rin- 11
Souta- 12
As for characters like Kaede and Shippou, as well as later appearing characters including Sesshoumaru, Kagura, Kouga and Ayame, their ages aren't really relevant.
I want to make note that the pairings to be featured in this fic are InuYasha/Kagome, Miroku/Sango, Rin/Kohaku, and possibly Sesshoumaru/Kagura and Kouga/Ayame. These pairings are set and I am not altering them. (Sorry- I got an email complaining about my use of Rin/Kohaku and I wanted to state this up front.)
As a side note- the "flower wreaths" from Rin part was inspired by my friend Silrayne's (ff.net id: 481324) Rin/Kohaku one-shot "Maybe It's The Freckles." When you're done here, I'd recommend you go check out that story and her other fics. She has some awesome Kouga/Ayame stuff as well.
Anyway- Wow… just wow. Thank you so much for all the reviews from last chapter. That really did mean a lot. ^^;
This is a revised version of this chapter circa 4-9-04.
And so- Here is chapter four! Read, enjoy, and please take the time to review.
Japanese guide-
Bouzu- Lecher, Worldly Monk. (What InuYasha sometimes refers to Miroku as)
Shakujou- Miroku's staff
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"A Fortuitous Blunder"
Chapter Four
Love Through the Eyes of Children
By Kelly O'Connor
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"Well, well- what do we have here?" Miroku paused, smirking as he took in the scene before him. "InuYasha- I never knew you had it in you!" InuYasha and Kagome broke the kiss in unison and scrambled back from each other as if they'd just been caught doing something terribly intimate- which from Miroku's point of view… they had. The Hanyou and the Miko both didn't even bother to fight the crimson stain that covered their entire faces.
"Am I… interrupting something?" Miroku asked in a suggestive tone. Kagome's cheeks darkened even more as she noticed Sango ushering the three children: Rin, Kohaku, and Shippou out of the hut. InuYasha finally broke the silence after calming the heat in his cheeks a bit.
"It's not what it looked like!" He managed lamely, trying to contain his embarrassment and maintain his tough image. Kagome nodded in agreement. Miroku cocked an eyebrow and scratched his chin. Sango was standing next to him with a look of slight shock on her face.
"I came in the hut, saw you pressed on top of Kagome-sama and you were kissing the daylights out of her," Miroku stated simply. InuYasha and Kagome blushed again. "How could it not be what it looks like?"
"Miroku… perhaps we should leave," Sango suggested.
"Perhaps we should," He shot the couple a lecherous grin, "I'm sure they want to get back to what they were doing." Kagome's eyes narrowed in irritation, both at being interrupted and being accused of planning to do that.
"Miroku-sama, Sango-chan!" The teenage girl said with authority, "I can't deny that we were...kissing." She paused, the red blush never leaving her face, "But I suppose we should explain exactly why we were umm," Kagome lowered her voice embarrassed, "On… top of each other." InuYasha let out a flustered "Keh" and crossed his arms. His sideways gaze egging Kagome onward toward clearing their names from this misunderstanding.
"There's no need to explain," He sighed mock dramatically, "When two people love each other it's natural that they engage in---"
"Miroku!" Sango snapped threateningly. Miroku gave Sango a sheepish grin.
"Ah much apologies Sango I just thought---"
Miroku gave her his typical sheepish grin.
"Keh!" InuYasha intervened, "Just shut up and let Kagome explain!" All eyes turned to him as he muttered, "Stupid Bouzu" under his breath.
"Um...as I was saying..." Kagome gave him a weak smile in appreciation and continued before Miroku could make another remark. With a deep sigh, the dark haired teenager cleared her throat and began to explain the catastrophe that had occurred that day to the Houshi and the Taijiya.
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"So let me get this straight," Miroku inquired, "You can't touch InuYasha and he can't touch you without this happening." Before waiting to have it confirmed, the Houshi tested it himself as he jabbed his shakujou into InuYasha's shoulder, startling the Hanyou and causing him to tilt over so his arm knocked Kagome on the shoulder. With an annoyed growl, he found himself crashing on top of the schoolgirl again.
Damn Miroku, damn this all. This whole stupid curse would be a lot easier if he didn't know about it. He glanced down to Kagome beneath him, and damn him for interrupting Kagome and I… wait… Keh! He cut off his pattern of thought and immediately darted up and brushed off his fire-rat coat.
"Yah, so?!" InuYasha replied in aggravation, "And if you dare make me fall on her again I'll break that staff of yours over your head!" Miroku put up his hands in surrender.
"Ah very well, very well!" He shrugged, "I'm sure you'll need no help from me. This already seems to be helping your relationship advance from what we saw upon entering." Kagome and InuYasha blushed in unison, and shot him an annoyed glare. Sango rubbed her forehead.
"Miroku, knock it off," She sighed in exasperation, then looked up brightly to the embarrassed couple. "Kagome-chan, InuYasha- I do hope you're able to get this spell removed as soon as possible."
"Yes, hopefully the Miko who cast it will be able to do something to fix it," Kagome replied.
"Keh- she'd better be able to," InuYasha crossed his arms annoyed. There was a brief silence in the hut before Kagome remembered something.
"Oh Sango-chan, I meant to ask," She smiled at the Taijiya, "I see Rin-chan is with you two again?" Sango nodded.
"Mm, She seems to be spending more and more time with us as this year has passed on."
"As you know, Sesshoumaru started bringing her to the village about two months ago," Miroku continued, "Presumably he had business to attend to where it would be best if Rin was not present."
"He came back to get her, and then came back to leave her again about a month later." Sango paused, "He did that again, and then dropped her off again yesterday."
"Keh, what could he be dealing with that's more dangerous than Naraku? He let the kid travel with him then." InuYasha noted, glad for the change of subjects, yet annoyed merely on the account of what the new subject was.
"Sango and I think that perhaps he isn't dealing with anything dangerous," Miroku ventured.
"That perhaps he plans on eventually leaving Rin-chan with you?" Kagome guessed. Sango nodded.
"We think that he wants her to be raised by humans, he knows it would be best for her, and since you and InuYasha are in your world most of the time, I suppose we were the only ones he could ask." The Taijiya finished.
"That's what I figured," Kagome smiled lightly, "Sesshoumaru really cares about that little girl, even if he'd never say it, his actions tell me otherwise."
"Yes, he does," Miroku smiled wryly, "Your brother has changed a lot since I first encountered him I must say," The monk glanced to InuYasha. The Hanyou rolled his eyes, his foot tapping absently on the ground.
"Can we stop talking about Sesshoumaru and do something else?" Miroku chuckled lightly.
"Very well, I'm just glad he didn't leave that toad creature with us as well," He said amusedly.
"I would not have agreed to taking him," Sango put in.
"Keh! That is not talking about something else!" InuYasha snapped. Feeling that the conversation was over, the group fell into a momentary silence.
"Umm Sango-chan," Kagome ventured, "I'm feeling up to a bath right now, how about if you and I," She paused to glare at Miroku, "And only you and I go and clean up."
"That sounds like a good idea Kagome-chan," Sango stood up and grabbed a small satchel of her belongings from the side of the hut. Slinging her yellow backpack over her shoulder, Kagome stretched.
"All right, let's go!" The schoolgirl grinned. The older woman nodded and stopped to give her husband a short kiss on the cheek.
"You behave yourself, yah lech," She smiled affectionately and lifted the flap of the hut. Kagome sighed, and prevented herself from giving InuYasha his own peck on the cheek.
"Bye InuYasha, bye Miroku-sama," Kagome waved and quickly left the hut behind Sango. It's not as if I didn't get to kiss him plenty earlier, but still… I hate this.
Miroku sighed lightly as the girls left the hut. "Don't even think about it," InuYasha glared at him, having had his fill of the monk's lecherous ways for one day. Before Miroku could plead innocent to any thoughts, three young forms tumbled into the hut and interrupted them. Kohaku, who was sporting a small flower wreath around his neck that had presumably been given to him by Rin, entered first. He'd grown the past few years, filling out and shooting up a bit as is natural in the early teenage years.
Rin had grown substantially- early prepubescence and the female growth spurt having come upon her earlier that year. She was nearly as tall as Kohaku. Shippou entered last, a small sucker in his mouth that he'd presumably snagged from Kagome's bag on the way out.
"Sango-san and Kagome-san told us we could come back in," Rin was the first to speak, an innocent smile on her face. Kohaku and Shippou nodded, and InuYasha hmmphed when he noticed the young kitsune giving him a mischievous look.
InuYasha pointed his finger at the red-headed boy and then punched his fist into the palm of his hand, demonstrating what he would do to Shippou if he said anything about what he'd walked in on. Knowing that Kagome wasn't in the room to stop the Hanyou, Shippou gave a small eep and went back to sucking on his lollipop. Kohaku gave a light smile at the actions between the kitsune and InuYasha, and then looked up when Miroku addressed him.
"Eh Kohaku?" Miroku smirked, "Where'd you get those flowers?" Kohaku blushed lightly.
"Umm, well," He ran his fingers through the chain around his neck nervously, "Rin-chan gave them to me." The dark haired boy finished and shot the young girl a small and embarrassed smile. Rin beamed brightly and bounded over to Kohaku, casually snatching his hand in hers. The young boy's face flushed crimson and Miroku smiled knowingly, even InuYasha couldn't help but let a small smile cross his previously annoyed features.
"That was nice of her," Miroku gave the little girl a kind look. Rin brushed her dark hair out of her face and reached for something in the front of her kimono. A moment later, she pulled out two more strings of flowers, and walked over to Miroku and InuYasha.
"Miroku-sama," She ventured, "You can give this to Sango-san in apology for when you made her slap you on the way over here." Miroku blinked and took the necklace. Rin looked to InuYasha and bit her lip. "InuYasha, you should give this to Kagome because well, you love her so much and…" The little girl put the flowers around the Hanyou's neck. In return, he blushed at her statement, and grumbled in annoyance.
"Keh I--I--keh!" He replied lamely. Rin shrugged.
"I know that sometimes when people love each other- they give each other presents." Rin glanced shyly at Kohaku, her cheeks tingeing pink. "And I was wondering, when I walked in here earlier with Sango-san and Miroku-sama, you and Kagome looked like you really loved each other." Miroku coughed, InuYasha "hmmphed," and Shippou snorted at the Hanyou's embarrassment.
"I was also wondering, and I asked Kohaku-kun about this. He didn't know the answer. When I asked Shippou-kun he said something mean about InuYasha…" Rin paused, "Since you guys love each other so much… why aren't you married like Miroku-sama and Sango-san?" InuYasha did a double take and Miroku and Shippou both held back laughter. Even Kohaku found himself laughing lightly. InuYasha did not look amused, just very flustered, and very irritated.
"Well InuYasha, I must say… that's not such a horrible question," Miroku grinned. InuYasha slapped the older man on the back of his head.
"Shut up!" InuYasha yelled. Shippou snickered.
"With all Kagome has to tolerate being your girlfriend you probably should…"
"KEH!" InuYasha snapped and stood up, wiping the dust off his Hakuma and proceeding to unceremoniously storm out of the hut. Miroku sighed to himself as the flap of the hut swung in the breeze in the aftermath of being shoved open by a furiously flustered Hanyou.
"Well that didn't go well," Shippou shrugged and continued to suck his candy. Miroku scratched the back of his head.
"Not really…"
"Neh," Rin ventured, "He took his wreath with him, maybe InuYasha went out to talk to Kagome-san?" Kohaku smiled lightly at Rin's optimism, but they all knew better to think that, he had probably gone off to sulk in a tree.
"Somehow Rin-chan," Kohaku sighed, "Somehow I doubt that." Miroku closed his eyes and leaned back against the wall.
"Ah love can be such a strange but wonderful thing," The Houshi said slightly wistfully. Shippou popped the lollipop out of his mouth and crossed his arms.
"Yah," The kitsune replied, "especially when you're dealing with someone as romantically stupid as InuYasha."
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Next chapter- Sometimes you just need a push in the right direction especially when you're "romantically challenged." Miroku takes the time to speak to InuYasha about life, love, and his quest for happiness- and what InuYasha needs to do himself. Too bad someone hears part of the conversation. And InuYasha still has that flower wreath. Maybe Rin is right about what he'll do with is after all.