This chapter was harder, with mostly nonsense and random really vital parts. Thanks for reviewing and thanks to my beta.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOo

The half-returned feelings of InuYasha that Kagome had so treasured dimmed in her eyes when she felt how Miroku felt when he loved someone. It's what her soul cried out for. She turned onto her side and sighed.

-

Unbeknownst to Kagome, Miroku was not asleep. He had watched Kagome in his body out of the corner of his eye.

Miroku could tell she was awake, but deep in thought. He looked around the campsite; everyone was asleep.

Miroku wondered what she was finding so interesting in his thou….

Wait! She was looking through his memories! That sneaky little…

Well. Two could play that game. He shoved himself in to Kagome's mind, determined to do the same. Perhaps he pushed a little too hard into her mind.

For a moment, there was a total feeling of Chaos. Then a strange feeling, like being pelted with thousands of little stones followed.

Suddenly, Miroku was bombarded with all of the wonders Kagome had in her time! Like a Tidal wave, they fell over him! Images of things like Microwaves, ice machines, buildings that touched the clouds and pierced the sky!

Airplanes! Miroku was astonished! To be able to harness to power of flight with metal! It was unthinkable!

Then again, some things, which had a less than welcome, bit sharply into his mind, as if directly put in his path. Sexual Harassment laws were one of them.

They were a no-go. Didn't they realize that some men just couldn't control their hands?

But all of those…bikinis!

Buddha must have made those just for his ancestors…if he had ancestors in that time.

His excitement was gone as he thought of whether or not his line would continue.

A tendril of Kagome's mind curled about him like a cat trying to comfort someone.

Miroku felt himself being tugged in another direction. The Goshinboku was before him, in all it's former glory, wreathed with the binding knots that were so familiar to him and his station.

Somehow, they looked wrong where they had been placed, but he did not question it.

Staring at the scene before him, he saw a little girl standing in front of the fence of the tree, with her hands clasped together. She was obviously praying, but what for, Miroku was unable to tell.

A woman of undeterminable age came out from behind him, walking through his shoulder and left arm. She approached the little girl, who Miroku now realized to be Kagome, and put her hands together with her.

After a moment, both of them let their arms drop, and the woman gathered the little Kagome in her arms. "Don't worry, Honey. It's just the chicken pox. You had them once too, remember?" she assured her.

Little Kagome shook her head, "Iie, mama."

"Sure you do. Ji-chan stayed home all week and took care of you." She kissed Kagome's forehead.

"'Tousan?" Kagome asked.

Her mother hesitated.

Miroku felt Kagome's heart beat once, hard as he was pulled to another memory.

Miroku was standing in the back of a classroom. His face was to the board, as Kagome hesitated with a math problem. She gritted her teeth as several of her friends whispered back and forth about how much she had fallen behind on her studies since all those sudden 'illnesses'.

'Illnesses?' Miroku wondered, as he was jerked to a scene where Kagome was catching her grandfather as he told someone on the telephone about Kagome's terrible arthritis.

Strange as it was, he felt some sort of humor at how Kagome handled the entire situation. The knowledge came to him that her grandfather was making up illnesses to explain her absence from her time.

For a moment, Miroku wondered how much Kagome missed her time, as he watched her trudge up the stairs to where he assumed her bedroom was. Her shoulders were slumped in an almost miserable way.

He looked through her mind, searching for the way she felt about never being home.

To his surprise, he was suddenly weighted down like someone was trying to suffocate him. He could still breath, but there was a literal weight on his chest that he was unable to measure, or escape.

Standing in Kagome's room, he watched her as she fell face first onto her bed. She was shaking all over, and it took a moment before Miroku realized that she was crying.

She had left her backpack on the floor, allowing the things within to spill out on the floor.

She rolled over on her back, her shirt felling over her slender stomach, showing her bellybutton.

Suddenly, she ripped off the necklace that had the bottle of Shikkon shards, and threw them across the room with all her might.

Miroku stared, as she lay there sobbing over Inu-Yasha. She'd seen him and Kikyo kissing again. This time he hadn't seemed to notice her. To make things worse, he had lied and told her that he hadn't seen the dead Priestess in weeks!

She sobbed for what seemed like forever. But when it was done, she sat up, and looked down at the backpack.

Laying on the very top was just a flower that Shippo had given her to make her feel better.

Suddenly, Kagome seemed to have had a change of heart.

There were things –people- in Sengoku jidai that mattered more than Inu-Yasha and Kikyo.

"Shippo." She whispered.

Miroku felt her heart soften form the pain she had been feeling.

Then a sudden joy entered him, and he couldn't help but smiled with a strange feeling of glee, as he suddenly found himself experiencing a memory with Kagome's mind, where she had been all but flying on InuYasha's back.

For a moment, Miroku was overwhelmed at all the emotions Kagome housed in her small body. And this was only in reference to the time that she had spent here thus far!

He braced and steadied himself mentally as her mind slowed down to allow him a range of leeway.

Suddenly the loud, somewhat irritable voice of InuYasha barked in his head; "get back here Wench!"

His mood suddenly turned black. Not that Miroku didn't like InuYasha, or anything, but the Hanyou had a way of speaking to Kagome that made him want to place several powerful ofuda on his forehead, and led them do their work.

It didn't help his mood to see first hand how InuYasha treated her.

The many things he did and how Kagome forgave him every time. How he spaced out when he doled out measures of caring and love to Kagome, so that they came when she was either giving up hope or getting over him.

The very idea made righteous anger well up inside of the Monk. Kagome's mind didn't like that. It hurled him toward the thoughts Kagome had about Sango.

Miroku supposed that, true to Kagome's personality, he was being pacified. Kagome didn't like conflict in the group and must have decided that he had seen enough to understand.

The first thing Miroku found out was that Sango had a lover –and to his surprise- a female lover, before the attack on her village.

Now, it wasn't that she disliked men. Sango just seemed to have a preference for who ever caught her attention –and heart- best.

Kagome had a word for that in her time. Bisexual. Miroku couldn't wrap his own mind around being attracted to a man, though he knew that it happened. Sango and a Woman, however… He was more than willing to wrap his mind around that idea. Especially if that other woman were Kagome.

Unreasonably, Miroku's arousal in Kagome's body sent her fingers exploring southward. The mind-guiding tendril didn't like that either.

Miroku was pushed toward the space he occupied in Kagome's brain.

Kagome thought he was one of the best-looking men she had ever seen. At least, first hand. She'd seemingly seen plenty of good-looking men on that… box that entertained her family.

But there seemed to be a very special place in her heart for him.

He was the darkness to InuYasha's light, though InuYasha housed a darker spirit. He was the comedic relief of the group and the one she could talk to about things Sango wouldn't understand.

Well, at least Sango wouldn't pretend to understand, but Miroku was good at it and it kept Kagome happy.

Miroku saw Kagome's schemes to get Sango more involved with the monk. He could tell that in some ways she had been disappointed. In other respects, however, she had been kind of happy that the two of them had not gotten together yet.

She was somewhat disappointed that he didn't grope her as often, but she was happy that he was paying more attention to Sango.

Miroku smiled to himself. He hadn't even noticed.

Kagome wondered what it would be like to kiss him. Her soft lips crushed to his warm ones… She thought about his arms around her, wry and gentle as they could be, holding her close. The feel of his body heat mingling with hers.

She had fantasized about him the night they were alone together on their way to see Kumi, first when his shirt was off and then when he came to her rescue, the only scrap of clothing being the guard on his right hand and forearm.

She remembered the fire in his eyes when he came to defend her and it made her shiver. Miroku was surprised that the shiver was half-filled with desire. As was Kagome. She avoided his eyes for the rest of the night, another thing Miroku did not realize.

He wondered…

Could Kagome have a crush on him? She seemed to have loved InuYasha, but the seed was there for something more between the monk and the miko.

Miroku moved carefully so as not to wake Shippo. He walked by his body, 'accidentally' bumping the foot. The eyes shot open and a moment of understanding passed between them.

-

"Were you looking through my memories?" Miroku guessed correctly. He and Kagome were on top of a low hill covered with meadow grasses and flowers, watching for shooting stars. Miroku could see from her memories that she had a special affiliation for stars.

"You were looking through mine too." It had been a question more than an accusation. Kagome continued and Miroku could hear the blush in her voice.

"So I guess I'm too innocent for you, huh?" There was a strange tone embedded in her voice.

That startled Miroku. He hadn't even remembered to look into Kagome's experience with the opposite sex. He did so now and nearly gasped. She hadn't even been kissed.

"And you're older than I thought," she continued.

"Only twenty," he said hastily. "And you're sixteen now."

"I know." Kagome kept her eyes to the night sky. Miroku wished he could know the thoughts she was having now.

"You know Kumi's spell." Once again Miroku was surprised at her swiftly changing thoughts. "Only five words, chanted over and over. Five words between us and destiny."

"What do you mean?" Miroku rumbled.

"Nothing. A plan maybe. A dream." Kagome closed her eyes as her head tilted down, opening them to look at the beaded hand in her lap. "A hope."

A star moved in the sky, with a trail of light behind it.

"Make a wish," Kagome said with some humor. She turned her dark eyes to him.

Miroku blinked at this sudden comment, "Pardon?"

"Make a wish. In my time, if you see a shooting star, it's a god omen, and if you wish on it, your wish will come true." Kagome explained softly.

Miroku thought for a moment. He didn't tell her that he had been taught that shooting stars were bad omens. Instead, he readily chose her belief, and shook his head.

"I already have." He smiled. "It seems the Shikkon no Tama is more reliable, ne?"

"Yes. I suppose that's true." Kagome agreed, sadly. She turned to look at the sky again, and then back at him.

"What did you wish, Kagome?"

Kagome smiled at her body that housed the spirit of a lecherous monk.

"If I tell you, it won't come true."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

I have a big paper to write, so it may be a few days before I can get the next chapter out. But hey, at least this one's over 2000 words.