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Chapter Seven: Feigned Forgiveness, Hurtful Misunderstandings

The atmosphere was subdued the following morning. Sango, Miroku, Shippou and Kirara had easily picked up on the tension that had mounted between Inuyasha and Kagome since waking. The hanyou and miko in question weren't walking together. In fact, Inuyasha seemed to be doing his best to keep his distance. He was constantly scouting ahead, or falling behind to ensure that they weren't being followed.

The expression on Kagome's face as she travelled with her friends wasn't one of anger or sadness, but rather one of resignation. She wondered how many times before Inuyasha had gone to see Kikyou while the rest of them slept. It upset her to know that she'd always play second fiddle to the undead miko, but she knew that Kikyou had been Inuyasha's first love, and that isn't an easy thing to forget.

Miroku watched as Inuyasha sprinted ahead in search of still more youkai who weren't actually around. The monk sighed and glanced at Kagome, then at Sango. If Inuyasha had managed to upset Kagome while no one was looking, it meant the pair would need some help getting things resolved. He moved closer to Sango. With a little luck, she could soothe Kagome's ego while he risked life and limb to work with Inuyasha.

Sango's eyes darted warily to the monk as he approached. There was a clear warning in her eyes. Touch and die. Of course, Miroku had seen that warning many times before and it hadn't stopped him. "Yes, Houshi-sama?"

For the second time in a week, his mind was on purer things. Miroku bowed his head and said softly, "You have doubtless noticed Inuyasha and Kagome's behavior towards each other."

"It's nothing new, Houshi-sama. Inuyasha has undoubtedly hurt Kagome's feelings with his stupidity." She followed that statement with a pointed glare at Inuyasha's back.

He sighed and nodded. "I realize this, but I feel it necessary for us to intervene in this instance. I assume you would prefer to deal with Kagome rather than Inuyasha?"

Sango sighed and nodded. She didn't know how Inuyasha had managed to upset Kagome between the time that their group had gone to sleep and when they had woken up, but there was a definite tension between them and it caused all of the group to feel anxious.

"Excellent," Miroku murmured. He glanced at Inuyasha, who was doubling back again. "I'll join our hanyou friend on rearguard."

Sango nodded and approached Kagome, adjusting Hiraikotsu on her back.

Kagome walked along silently beside her bicycle. Shippou sat perched on her shoulder, yawning widely. It was obvious that the young miko's thoughts were elsewhere, judging the distant look in her eyes.

Inuyasha growled when Miroku moved with him into the woods. "Wha'd'ya want, monk?" he snapped.

Miroku lifted his hands in an appeasing gesture, his face constantly calm and collected. "Oh, nothing, nothing. Just to talk a bit."

The hanyou snorted and glanced back at Sango and Kagome. He wondered what the hell Miroku was up to. Those girls had their heads together, and he'd bet anything the fact that Miroku was walking with him was no coincidence.

"Kagome, what's wrong?" Sango asked as they walked. "You've been quiet all morning. Did Inuyasha do something?"

Kagome pursed her lips, wondering if she should tell Sango the truth or not. She supposed it didn't make that much of a difference if Sango knew or not. "Sango-chan, I think that Inuyasha saw... her last night."

"Her?" Sango was confused for a moment, but then her eyes widened. "Oh! You mean..." She lowered her voice. "You mean Kikyou."

Kagome nodded. "I think so. I woke up and he was gone from the tree he'd been sitting in. I didn't see her or her Shinidamachuu or anything, but I just have this feeling, you know? I'm pretty sure he went to see her." She frowned. "Anyway, he always acts like this after he sees her. He always tries to avoid me."

Trying to soften her tone even though she thinks Kagome's right and Inuyasha should be beaten over the head multiple times, Sango soothed, "Maybe he's acting this way because he's afraid of hurting you."

"Doesn't he realize that it upsets me more when he acts evasive like some criminal?"

"He's a male. What do you expect?" Sango joked.

Kagome chuckled. "I guess you're right. Still, I wish he'd talk to me."

"Miroku's working on it." The taijiya winked.

"So..." Miroku said.

"So what?" Inuyasha groused.

"You seem... off... today."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Inuyasha briefly considered taking to the trees, but Kagome would sit him for leaving Miroku alone in the wilderness, even if the monk could take care of himself. "I'm fine."

Miroku shook his head. "You might be fine, Inuyasha, but everyone here doesn't feel that way."

"Maybe that's because you're all humans who prefer the easy life indoors."

Miroku was suddenly tempted to reintroduce Inuyasha's head to the heavy end of his shakujo, but he decided against it. Perhaps it would be best to act straightforward in this case? He cleared his throat. "Inuyasha, what did you do to make Kagome unhappy?"

Crap. The monk probably suspected, and Inuyasha knew from experience that Miroku would push until he either had the answer he wanted, or a lump on his head. Deciding it wasn't quite time for drastic measures, he spat, "Nothing!" in answer.

"Inuyasha! What did you do? Kagome's been acting strange all morning and you're the only one who ever makes her act that way!"

The pointed, furry ears flattened in the nest of Inuyasha's thick hair, and their owner growled faintly. "I am not!"

"Yes," Miroku argued, "you are. She never gets this way when I grope her! She only gets angry and slaps me. She's a hard hitter, too..." He felt his thought tangents begin to travel into dangerous territory, especially considering the now murderous-looking hanyou walking next to him. "That is to say, none of us ever cause her such distress, Inuyasha."

"Well, since you're so damn wise, why don't you tell me what I did wrong!"

The monk shrugged. "I don't know, Inuyasha. She's been this way since we woke up this moring."

Inuyasha couldn't hide his guilt. His ears drooped, and he muttered, "I thought she hadn't noticed."

"Hadn't noticed what?"

If possible, the hanyou hunkered down even more as he walked. "That I left my tree."

"To go..." Miroku let the sentence trail of, hoping the dog hanyou would complete it for him.

He didn't, of course. Miroku was perfectly capable of drawing his own conclusions from the expression on the hanyou's face.

And draw conclusions he did. Miroku groaned and rubbed his forehead. Of course, Inuyasha was, he supposed, entitled to visits with Kikyou. He didn't like it, however, and he knew Kagome didn't like it at all. "You went to see Kikyou. And Kagome knows you went to see Kikyou. Which explains her behavior."

"Yeah," he mumbled. "She caught me coming back. I was kind of hoping she'd think I'd just gone out to scout for youkai. I didn't want her to be upset."

"Kagome knows better than that." Miroku sighed. "You need to talk to her, Inuyasha."

"No I don't. She'll just sit me."

"I doubt that Kagome-sama would sit you for trying to be honest with her. You just have to use some tact."

"How the hell is that supposed to fix anything?" Inuyasha demanded. "She hates it when I see Kikyou! What difference does it make whether we talk about it or not?"

Miroku covered his face with his hand and released an exhasperated sigh. "Idiot. Don't you think she'd feel better if you told her yourself? You know, openness and communication and whatnot."

"I think she'll feel better when she's heard enough from me and makes me kiss dirt again!"

"I could make you do that just as easily," said the irritated monk, jingling his shakujo meaningfully.

Inuyasha growled again, but beneath his hostile exterior, his thoughts were roiling. The monk had a point, and a good one as much as he hated to admit it. Kagome was always telling Inuyasha the she wished they talked more, that she wanted him to let her in. He just didn't think that safe subject matter included Kikyou. For one thing, he worried about Kagome's temper and the power she held over him with her damn incantation. For another, he didn't like to risk thinking of Kagome and Kikyou at the same time. It confused him in a way nothing else did.

Miroku grinned when he realized that he'd been victorious in this small argument. He jingled the rings of his shakujo again. "Go on, talk to her." It wasn't a request.

Talk to her? Now? The hanyou cast an incredulous glance back towards the woman, and shuddered visibly. "But she's... Sango... They're... " He gulped. "Kagome doesn't look too happy right now."

Miroku growled and poked the hanyou in the back with his staff. "Go!"

"Ouch!"

Sango giggled when she heard Inuyasha's yelp of pain. "I think houshi-sama is about finished with him, Kagome," she commented, careful to keep her back turned to the males.

Shippou giggled as well. "Do you think he's knocked some sense into him?"

The taijiya rolled her eyes. "It's not likely. I'm more curious to see what Inuyasha tries next. He has to do something to get Miroku off his back."

Kagome shook her head and smiled. "He's never one to let anyone else have the last word in an argument, is he?"

Sango snickered. "Buddha forbid he should be outdone on the path to enlightenment." Sobering, she asked, "What will you say to Inuyasha if he finally decides to join the group again?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, really. It depends on what he says, I guess."

"Are you going to use the rosary on him?"

"No," she said simply. She didn't really feel the need to explain, but she simply didn't have the heart to pummel Inuyasha today.

Her friend frowned. Kagome's response had been lackluster, to say the least. Not that the miko abused her power over the hanyou, but she wasn't exactly delicate in her handling of him. Sango had expected a stronger reaction on the girl's part.

Kagome noticed Sango's look and faked a smile. "Don't worry about it, Sango-chan. I'm probably just overreacting. And anyway, it's not like I have a say in what Inuyasha does."

"Yes you do," the taijiya insisted. "He's here to protect you. Isn't that why you started travelling together in the first place?"

"Actually," said Kagome, "we started travelling together because I broke the Shikon no Tama and Inuyasha nearly had a cow." It didn't occur to her that Sango had probably never heard that expression before as she continued her explanation. "Sure, he protects me, but he needs me to find the shards for him." It all comes back to me being his shard detector, after all...

"Damn it monk! I'm going already!" came Inuyasha's shouts from behind them.

Kagome stifled a giggle, but Shippou didn't bother. Kagome patted the kit's head and handed him gently over to Sango. "Could you watch him for a while, Sango-chan?"

"Of course. Let's go pick up Miroku, Shippou. He probably needs a ride. Kirara?" At her mistress' request, the fire cat transformed to her larger self. Sango set Shippou in the thick fur of Kirara's ruff, then got on behind him before the cat turned to find the monk.

"Thanks, Sango-chan!" called Kagome as the taijiya turned to go. Now all she had to do was face Inuyasha again. Piece of cake, right? Right. No problem.

She'd find out how true that was in a moment. The hanyou bounded ahead of her, did a cursory search of the area, then dropped back to walk by her side.

The girl watched him with mild interest as he scoured the area for any danger, nose twitching and ears swivelling in all directions. When Inuyasha finally decided to fall back, Kagome walked on in silence for a moment, hoping that he'd take the initiative to speak first.

"So..." "So..." Stupid wench. She was the one who was all upset. She was the one who should do the talking. Inuyasha was not going to risk her wrath by opening his big mouth.

After a few moments of the rather awkward silence, Kagome decided that Inuyasha wasn't going to make the first move, so to speak. But what could she say? She didn't feel quite comfortable with the idea of completely baring her soul to him when he quite possibly wouldn't understand her feelings or not know how to respond. "I... I'm not angry with you, you know."

His jaw dropped. "You're not?!"

Okay, so that was a lie. A teeny weeny little white one, but a lie nonetheless. She wasn't angry at him, per se, but rather at the whole situation. Not to mention with herself, for allowing said situation to become such a tangled mess. "You have every right to see Kikyou." Her voice faltered slightly on her incarnate's name, but she pressed on. "I mean, I know she's important to you and all. I don't want to stand in the way of your relationship with her." Kagome schooled her features into a neutral expression, keeping her eyes fixed on the path ahead of them. It wouldn't do to go running into trees or anything like that.

"K - Kagome ... " Inuyasha trailed off. How could he tell Kagome that his seeing Kikyou had nothing to do with her, without making her angry? He didn't mean it in a negative way! He just meant that Kagome shouldn't be worried about his actions where the other miko was concerned. "Uh, thank you," he decided to say instead. There. Nice and neutral and considerate. Miroku would be proud.

Of course, the thanks had quite the opposite effect on Kagome. So he really does love her still. It doesn't matter what I do. She'll always be first in his heart. She was suddenly jarred from her thoughts as the front wheel of her bicycle collided with the trunk of a thick tree. She lowered her head and hissed as she jerked her bike back onto the road and continued to walk.

"You sure you want to keep dragging that thing along?" Inuyasha asked tentatively. He didn't like to see her struggling... ever. Even if it was just with some stupid contraption from her time. Wait... when had he started feeling that way? At first he'd loved seeing her bicycle get her in trouble. It had amused him when the machine that was supposed to make traveling easier had actually made it harder. Now he had to pretend to be frustrated by the damn thing to mask his concern.

"Yeah," she mumbled. Finally the two cleared the forest, which opened into a large field. Kagome paused and looked over her shoulder. "We should wait for the others."

Inuyasha shook his head and pointed down the field. "Actually, they're waiting for us." Sure enough, Kirara was standing some distance away, with two humans and a kitsune seated beside her. "I heard them fly ahead while we were talking."

"Oh." Kagome mounted her bike and moved to start pedalling to meet her friends. "Want a lift?"

"Um ... sure." Inuyasha waited until she was well on her way before carefully jumping onto the back of the bike and crouching in his usual place. "You're sure you're not mad?" he asked again, not quite able to believe what she'd said before.

"It's your life, Inuyasha," she said, more or less repeating what she'd told Sango earlier. "You have to make your own choices." And I can't force you to choose one thing over another.

The hanyou looked at the ground and flattened his ears. Somehow, her response hadn't made him feel any better.

It didn't make Kagome feel any better either. But she felt as though she didn't want to stand in the way of Inuyasha's destiny, whatever it was, and whether she was a part of it or not. He had the right to choose for himself what his path would be. If Inuyasha wanted her to be more a part of his life than she already was, she sincerely hoped that he would let her know, one way or another.

It hadn't taken long for Kagome and Inuyasha to emerge from the forest, Sango noted as she watched them cross the field on Kagome's pink metal iron "bike" contraption. She frowned and wondered how their conversation went, deciding she'd have to ask later. She crossed her arms and leaned against Kirara. "I'd have made him walk," she commented dispassionately.

Beside her, the houshi smiled as he leaned back against the cat as well and closed his eyes. "Kagome is an extraordinarily forgiving soul," he replied, "though I am surprised that she didn't sit him hard enough to shake the entire forest."

"He must have said something very good or she must be very forgiving. I wouldn't put up with the sort of thing that he puts her through." Sango glanced at Miroku meaningfully.

Her efforts were lost on the monk, who was still resting peacefully. For a moment, it seemed as though he was sleeping. Then he answered, "Inuyasha is afraid."

"And with reason!" spat Sango. "If you ask me, he's not afraid enough. Always tempting fate with his big mouth and stupid comments. I'm surprised he doesn't get sat more than he does."

Miroku sighed. "That's not what he's afraid of."

The taijiya furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean, Houshi-sama?"

"I mean ... " Here, Miroku opened his eyes to fix Sango with the patient stare of a teacher. "... that Inuyasha is afraid of Kagome's affection for him."

Sango stared at the monk for a moment, dumbfounded. "You're kidding. That... what... I mean... why? Why would he be afraid of her loving him? She does so much for him to show that she cares and he's afraid?"

"Perhaps his fear is founded in experience."

"Kagome wouldn't hurt him!" She paused and glanced in their direction again. "At least, not intentionally. Aside from sitting him. And he always deserves that, anyway." Sango frowned mightily. "She's not like Kikyou. Even if she won't admit it, it's obvious that she loves Inuyasha with all her heart. She would never betray him, and never believe he would do such a thing to her."

The monk sighed and shook his head. "My dear Sango, you must expand your view. Look beyond Kikyou. Has no one ever spoken to you of Inuyasha's life before the Shikon no Tama?"

Sango sighed and deflated from her righteous indignation on Kagome's behalf. Yes, she'd heard stories. Stories of a child without a mother or a father, without a home, without love, without acceptance. A child caught between two worlds that could not be consolidated or reconciled, and therefore hated or feared by both. She nodded her head. "Hai, Houshi-sama. I've heard of it."

Miroku nodded, satisfied, and continued. "Inuyasha has not said so, but I believe he chooses to distance Kagome for her own sake. He fears for her safety should he allow their relationship to progress. The people he has loved all seem to have met unfortunate ends."

Sango mentally chewed on this information for a few moments before she decided it would be prudent to resume this conversation at a later time, seeing as how Inuyasha was about to come into hearing-range of their voices.

"In any case," Miroku said as he settled against Kirara once more, "there is little we can do about it beyond our customary refereeing, so I suggest you relax while you can. Inuyasha will want to get moving once they reach us, and if he's still in a foul temper, he'll set a hard pace."

Sango nodded curtly. "Of course, Houshi-sama."

"Oi! Bouzu! Wake your lazy ass up already!"

"Inuyasha, be nice," Kagome reprimanded gently.

"Very kind of you to join us," Miroku retorted. "Sango and I were merely filling the hours while awaiting your leisure."

The hanyou jumped off Kagome's bike and glared down at the monk, who had yet to open his eyes. He sneered and growled. "Doing what? Since you aren't black and blue, I'd guess you forgot the requisite groping."

The monk smirked. "Not entirely." His hand snaked out and cupped around Sango's thigh, uncomfortably close to her more private regions.

Sango glared daggers and pinched the top of Miroku's hand, then stood and gave Inuyasha a sound slap. "For reminding him," she clarified before huffing and storming off to prepare Kirara for departure.

"Ow!!! What the hell?!"

Kagome bit her lip to keep from giggling. Seeing her friend's antics was a good way to lighten her heart. "You should know better, Miroku-sama."

"I am but a man, Kagome-sama," he replied as he rose from his place in the grass. "With a man's urges."

"Ah, but some monks are celibate, you know," she replied, grinning at him.

His eyes widened in pure horror as he cried, "Kami forbid. I must continue my family line."

Kagome and Sango both broke out into giggles. "Oh, don't worry Miroku-sama. It'll all work out."

Inuyasha snorted and shoved the monk back onto the path. "Yeah, well it can work itself out in the next village. Let's go already!"