General Author's Note: This story is written by Inu Kaiba and Roxyfoxy, a joint project. All reviews are for both, so you'll know. Please visit her profile and read her works also! The link is in my profile.

At that moment, Miroku and Sango collapsed in the clearing towing a dead Shippou. "He was inside the demon when it exploded." Miroku said. "Let's go Sango. Kagome obviously didn't care about us enough to bother to help us in battle."

Sango looked down disappointed, thinking that Kagome would have likely come rushing back with her bow and arrows but instead… She hadn't returned… She had let them down, and everybody else that left disappoint and shock... And that wasn't like Kagome to let everybody down... Especially in this heat. "You're right Miroku, you're right..." Sango replied placing her hand on his shoulder for strength and support.

Miroku helped Sango to her feet and the two headed off to the hut leaving Kagome with Shippou's dead body and a broken heart.

Sango was already dead in her thoughts, grasping Miroku's free hand to keep herself calm and collected which she could barely do. "Miroku...I'm sorry...This was never like Kagome...I'm sorry this happened." Sango felt apologetic even though it hadn't been her fault. She just hated the fact she felt useless, and the fact one of their friends were gone.

"Sango, it's not your fault. Don't worry about it. Hopefully what we just did will get through to Kagome. But maybe not."

Sango softly sighed, feeling the tears ready to flow, as she grasped his hand harder indicating she was hurting... And hurting badly. "I was a fool to believe her... We all were..." Sango commented turning to his face hoping she'd feel better, but she didn't.

Miroku nodded. "Just forget about it Sango. It'll probably make you feel better if we have a nice warm bath at the hot springs. Is that ok with you?" He smiled a genuine smile at her hoping it might make her feel better.

She knew that smile all too well. For once she didn't feel the need to smack him, at least it brought a smile to her face. "Yea you're right... just don't look too much into it..." Sango commented grasping onto his arm, tightening her grip indicting she meant

everything she said.

Sango looked down again. "I think it's time to do something for Shippo. Then I'll feel a bit better, knowing he's at rest..." Sango managed to say knowing Miroku was good at that, and it kept bothering until it was done.

"Not right now Sango. Kagome needs to have time with him. When we come back from the hot springs; I'll give him a proper burial."

Sango nodded quietly. She felt if something happened to one of her friends… Who wouldn't doubt that something could happen to them now, that Kagome proved what she had done. It wasn't enough to rely on her. She was afraid to trust her again, after all it was her doing one of their friends were gone.

Sango nodded sadly, holding Kirara in the safety of her arms while she lightly purred., however Kirara stopped purring when she sensed the strong sadness from Sango and Miroku. Her tail went down, while she whimpered and gently licked Sango's face showing she understood and cared. Sango laughed for a moment from the touch of Kirara's tongue, and looked at her in thanks before petting her softly. "Thanks Kirara."

Sango looked down and just then she happened to notice a bunch of beautiful red flowers blowing in the wind. Kneeling down, she carefully picked them for the burial.

'I think these flowers are enough for Shippo's burial, and a tribute to him and how he was there for us all. After all, Shippo could have been alive if Kagome came back… But she didn't! It's all her fault! How many more people are we going to lose?' Sango thought to herself, holding the beautiful array of flowers in her palms, while Kirara whined, and rubbed up against Sango's forearm seeing the tears streaming down her red cheeks.

Miroku sighed. "Sango, go put the flowers somewhere so we can go have a long hot bath at the hot springs. And then we can bury Shippou, after Kagome realizes what a bitch she is and that she's let us down. It's like she doesn't even care that she let us down..."

Sango looked at his serious face, and nodded quietly placing the flowers by the edge of the hot spring wishing she could have the burial right now, since it was killing her completely, deep down inside. Kirara just lay down beside her, snuggled up against her which gave Sango a small cheerful smile until it faded. "You're right Miroku. You're right." She repeated to herself dipping her feet into the water, feeling completely crumby for the rest of the time.

Miroku sat by Sango's side, copying her stance to a 'T'. "Just let Kagome realize her mistakes on her own. Why should we have to point out every single little thing out to her?"

Miroku smiled evilly. "Has Kagome ever experienced the loss of a loved one that we know of?"

Sango slid her hand further towards his side, staring down at the ground and then back to his face in worry. "No... Not that I can think of."

Miroku grinned. "No. Why should we be so kind to her in this time of need? If you and I and InuYasha could deal with that kind of thing on our own, so can she."

Sango was able to place another genuine smile on her face, when she heard Miroku give her words of advice that made her feel a lot better and changed her mood in a spilt second. Sango placed her head on his shoulder with a giggle of laughter, while she saw him in her view. "Well we all experience deaths… And for Kagome... Shippo will be one even if it's the first death that'll have to be dealt with. And she'll have to deal with it... Without us."

Miroku nodded sagely. "But Shippou's not a family member to her. She should have to deal with a family member's death on her own."

Sango played around with Miroku's loose strands of hair, curling it around her fingers in a friendly way. "Well still, friend or family. It'll still hurt you regardless, if someone you're close with passes away." She giggled even more noticing his one strand of hair had curled up around her finger and stayed that way, while she plunged herself further into the water taking off her extra layer of clothing.

Miroku jumped into the water half cannon balling, half belly flopping. "Water fight!" he shouted.

It hurts because deep down I believe we are more than friends...

Sango's eyes opened wide; partly in embarrassment, and partly in fear. She just felt the water splash her completely, drenching her long brown hair leaving her to feel like a drowned rat and not amused. "You ass!" Sango screamed flying out of the water, and pouncing on top of him while more water splashed all over.

Miroku slapped at the water, splashing as much of it as he could on Sango. "BWAHAHAHA!" he shouted, little anime fangs appearing from his mouth for no apparent reason. "I shall win you whore!"

Sango had a wicked smile on her face, gathering air and submerging underneath the water until Miroku realized she had completely disappeared. 'Two can play that game.' Sango laughed at the thought of it, seeing the lower part of his body and wondering about why he had to brag, and what it was to brag about.

Miroku looked around. "Sango, Sango!" As luck would have it, he tripped over a rock on the bottom of the hot spring and fell face first into the water, plashing it all over the place getting most of it on the side and on Kirara, even a bit on their clothes.

Kirara was not pleased, and growled at him a bit of a hiss included and spat showing her fangs. Then she picked herself up and walked over to a secluded corner where she could watch over the two of them and keep them safe, just in case any monsters decided to play a surprise attack on the two love birds currently splashing around in the warm hot spring.

Sango just laughed harder and harder, while she just grabbed him around the ankle pulling him deeper underneath the water, while she was slowly running out of breath. 'What an idiot. Usually he's never this much fun... without being a pervert that is...'

Miroku gurgled for air, hands grasping at air to try and intoxicate himself in it. But he failed miserably.

Sango suddenly let go, realizing this playful game was going a little overboard. She resurfaced gathering her breath, as though she had never had air before in her life and this was her first time realizing what a godsend it was. 'I never thought it would be fun... Just him and I...' Sango threw herself against the ledge taking a break from the hot water, which was starting to get a bit too hot for her to handle.

This was when Miroku took the opportunity to grab hold of her ankle and pull her down underneath the water, watching her try to intoxicate herself on air as he had tried before.

Sango screamed out of laughter and fear, tasting the water rushing into her mouth and in

her lungs. "Miroku! Stop it!" She screamed delightedly, smacking her hand around in the water finally escaping from him, and out onto the other side of the hot spring. She clearly turned her head back, waiting for him to secretly try to do it again because so far she was enjoying it... And knowing Miroku, when he succeeded at something once he would definitely try it again.

Miroku kicked her in the shin and pulled her down once again. "BEWARE OF CHIBI MIROKU'S ATTACK OF THE NO INTOXICATING AIR!"

Sango laughed higher and louder, feeling her cheeks tighten to the point where she killed from laughter and she begged for it to stop. "Miroku, stop it!" Sango's eyes disappeared slightly each time she smiled, or laughed hard enough. Kirara felt the water splash her even from where she was now, while she just growled at the water touching her nice fur coat, and walked a bit further away.

Miroku grabbed Sango and pulled her out of the water handing her a towel. "I'm sorry to ruin the moment but how much longer do you want to stay here before we go back to Kagome?"

Sango smiled in a daze, looking at him in the most cheerful way possible. "Whenever you want to leave...Doesn't matter to me." Sango laughed, with her cheeks already turning four different shades of red, and moving onto a fifth. Miroku really was a fun person to be around, especially if he wasn't acting all perverted like he normally was.

Miroku smiled. "Well we could sleep here for the night right? And go back in the morning?"

Sango began swaying a little bit, trying to do something else to occupy her and make forget that she was blushing, and that her stomach was tied up in knots. She began lightly biting on her finger in nervousness, and bounced back with a shy looking smile that made Miroku study her more closely then ever before. "Sure, we might as well get some sleep now, and head off tomorrow. I'm pretty much tired… and so is Kirara. But, I'd like to get the burial done before then."

She blinked with a sweetened smile, but only having the affect of an artificial sweetner. "If that isn't too much to ask of you..."

Miroku sighed. "Not tonight Sango. Let's just leave Kagome. We can't get it done at this hour, it'll be pitch black before I'm done digging the hole."

Sango folded her hands in front of her, looking down at the designs on her bright rose colored kimono. "I understand. But what's going to keep me warm? I mean there's no blankets… No..."

Miroku sighed. "Well then I guess body warmth is the only thing that'll keep us warm tonight." He said looking at her with innocent pleading eyes.

She lightly laid herself down against the grass, folding her hand underneath her acting like a pillow, while Kirara ran to her side from her previous corner and snuggled up faithfully beside her. "What are you implying Monk?" Sango beamed her eyes back at him, knowing she only called him a monk when she wasn't exactly being friendly with him."

"...That we sleep with our arms around each other to generate body warmth..." he said closing his eyes and wincing while he waited for her to hit him, or smack him over the head with her boomerang like she normally did when he made any sort of comment that sounded even a little perverted.

Sango just laughed meanly, at Miroku's little comment while she snuggled up against the medium sized Kirara that laid length ways from her side. "Is, that another idea for a twisted embrace?" Sango laughed jokingly, placing her hands underneath the paws of Kirara. "Then again, Kirara has fur… and she's nice and warm..."

"Forget it." Miroku said laying his head on a rock. "I'll just go to sleep on my own."

Sango laid awake with her eyes open in her thoughts, feeling the wind grazing pass them gently, while she was looking at all the bright beautiful stars covering the whole blackened sky. "He better be asleep..." Sango thought after a couple of minutes, crawling closer and closer towards him with an eyebrow raised wondering if he was actually asleep or not.

Sango smiled at how peaceful and how innocent he looked sleeping, and she just adored it. She gently laid in the grass across from him, curiously touching his hair seeing if he actually was in a deep sleep or not. 'Hmm doesn't look like he's awake...' Sango thought to herself, touching him softly one more time until she was completely sure.

She placed herself beside him, raising his arm to go around her waist feeling the warmth of his body that made her stomach twist in more knots than it ever did before. She felt herself sleeping safely with a smile that didn't dare to fade. She grew comfortable, and before she knew it she was sleeping directly beside him.

Miroku's arms tightened around Sango as they slept unaware of what was happening while he was off in dream land. Meanwhile Kirara kept on watching them and staying alert. All of a sudden there was a rustle in the bushes.

In a flash Kirara was up, and in full demon form none the less. She bared her fangs and hissed at the intruder spit flying through the air from the force of her hissing.

Sango's eyes awoken to the sound of Kirara growling, which was loud enough to shake her awake and let her know that something was wrong. She was touched, knowing that Miroku had pulled her closer but she was scared and worried of what was there; she basically felt vulnerable without her boomerang. "Miroku... Get up…Now..." Sango demanded slowly sneaking over towards the bush, in her combat mode live and ready.

Miroku opened one eye and then the other. "What the hell is going on here?" he asked, startled.

Kagome pushed through the bushes and finally felt she was out of the forest and the shrubs, and a brief sense of relief seemed to wash over her. "Finally I'm out of all that." She muttered to herself still mad about Inuyasha and she couldn't get that off her mind.

"Inuyasha that asshole had to leave me! Damn him! I hate his guts!" She told herself again and again while Sango held her weapon tight in her hand and Miroku stood beside her, both of them waiting to see whatever was on the other side. "Now Miroku." She muttered down on one knee ready to release her boomerang.

Sango smiled at the thought of her weapon connecting with the demon's head and passing right through it and slicing the damned demon's head off, and threw it into the air, hurling it towards Kagome's direction.

Miroku threw his staff towards where he and Sango were fighting the evil demon. "Come out, come out wherever you are..." he said, sounding in ways like a man attempting to find his cat.

Miroku smiled when his hand closed around something solid and he began whacking it with his staff as hard as he could, even plastering a few scrolls on the body of what he thought was the demon. "I sure hope you have a jewel shard..."

Kagome placed her hands to her side, feeling her body become intensely painful, almost like she was surrounded by fire. "Guys stop it!" She screamed out at the top of her lungs, scaring away the murderous black crows that rested in the dead trees and hearing her voice echo.

Miroku and Sango however, were oblivious to her cries and continued to whack away at the poor girl whom they thought was a demon until she completely stopped moving.

"I'm such an idiot. I wasted all my arrows on Sesshomaru and none of them hit him. Worst of all Inuyasha still hasn't returned. And now..." Kagome thought feeling herself becoming light heading, and the surroundings around her became blurrier by the second. She could only make out colors and forms of objects but nothing more...

She fell to her knees instantly. Her body lifelessly smacked against the ground, with her eyes closed and her body numb and limp. Sango just blinked holding her weapon of choice tightly in her hands, and blinking for a moment noticing what they had beaten into the ground.

"Monk… I don't think that's any demon..." She muttered pointing at the girl wearing the unusual clothing that laid against the tall field of grass.

Miroku sighed shaking his head. "You mean to be telling me we've been beating Kagome to death and plastering her with demon scrolls...?"

He shifted his position to a slouch staring at the floor. "If InuYasha were here right now... he would kill us... But he'll hunt us down if we don't patch her up, because he'll smell her blood. Sango, go check Kagome's bag and get her first aid kit out of it."

Sango nodded grabbing her overstuffed bag that practically had everything in it. "Bra… snacks...there we go!" Sango finally found them throwing it into Miroku's hand and feeling like an idiot because they had beaten their friend senseless.

"We don't need another one dead..." Sango bit her lip when she even realized she had said that.

Miroku sighed and stared at the ground."Sango... you may want to bandage her as well... You know what InuYasha would do if he found I took her clothes off and touched her in inappropriate areas, even just to bandage her up. He'll especially kill me if he founds out where I stuck one of my scrolls..." he gulped and pointed downward.

Sango grabbed her weapon and smacked him over the head, hard enough to hear a crack. "You idiot! God, why am I stuck with the horny guy!" She muttered smiling at the thought that she had hit him pretty good.

She bent over, and placed the bandages over Kagome's body where she needed the most care.

Miroku whimpered when the weapon hit his head and sighed grabbing a band-aid and placing it on the newly created injury. "Who says I knew what I was doing there, and where I was placing those scrolls? Who says I knew who the hell it was? WHY DO YOU HAVE TO HIT ME, IT WASNT MY FAULT!"

Sango just looked down at Kagome ignoring Miroku, and remembered Shippo dying at the hands of a demon because she was too late. "She probably regrets Shippo dying doesn't she? After all she was the cause of his death. She could have stopped it." She said fixing up Kagome's body who was now covered in band-aids and wrapped in bandages.

Sango shuddered at the cold air that came throughout the night, while she just wondered how Kagome felt about the whole situation of Inuyasha's disappearance and the death of their young friend, Shippo.

After a short while of waiting, and a ton of groping, slapping, cuddling and a weapon making contact with a certain someone's head, Kagome woke up. After what had seemed like days to Miroku and Sango, but what had really only been the short span of a few hours, Kagome had finally awoken.

Kagome looked around, taking in all the surrounding colours and foliage and just naturally noticing everything around her. Finally, her gaze stopped on Miroku and Sango. Despite the numerous injuries she practically ran as fast as she could away, but really she was edging away as best as she could, even with her injuries, towards the trees. Perhaps there she could make a getaway...

"Kagome is something wrong?" Sango asked edging a little closer to her friend.

"No, nothing's wrong..." Kagome said edging away from her friends further still.

"Then why do you keep moving away from us..."

"Because you would too if your friends practically beat you to death, left you with the body of a dead friend to cope all alone and didn't care if the person you loved the most suddenly disappeared..."

"Kagome..."

"SHUT UP! You don't understand..." She said, pulling her legs to her chest and placing a hand on her right arm. "I just miss InuYasha so badly... guys, please, help me find him!"

RoxyFoxy: R+R

Inu Kaiba: LOL! I can't ask her for anything more than that because she's up at the cottage again. Well we finally hit 20,000 words. I hope we can all make it to 50 reviews :) That's right folks, we're trying to make Amnesiac reeeeally popular before the real story (The one in the summary) starts. So help us get 50 reviews… Please…

Inu Kaiba+Roxfoxy