Chapter 9

Author's Note: Me not owner of Inuyasha, I is merely a poor and humble servant to great author Rumiko Takahashi's imagination ;)

Gasping Sango hand flew to her mouth and she stepped back shocked. "Miroku?" she asked her voice barely a whisper.

"Sango," he said pulling her into a fierce hug (A/N: Think Inuyasha and Kagome from first movie…), "I realized about a minute after you left that I didn't want you to leave. I'm the one who should be sorry, you went to all that effort to apologize and I threw it back in your face. I'm the one who was the fool."

"Oh Miroku!" Sango said tears blurring her vision as she wrapped her arms around him. "I missed you so much!"

"I missed you so," he said gently. "I really want us to be friends too; look do you want to come back to my place? I can cook supper and we can sit and talk about this, I have some stuff I want to get off my chest."

Looking up, Sango nodded and stepping back she took his hand. "Only if you'll let me help cook," she replied flashing him a smile.

"We'll see about that," he said squeezing her hand reassuringly. Together they started walking silently back in the direction of Miroku's house. Not saying anything they walked in silence not needing word to express how relieved that they were both friends again.

After a minute of peaceful walking, Sango said, "I didn't know Inuyasha had a brother."

Looking over at her Miroku said, "You've met Sesshomaru then? I'm surprised you're still alive! He's a very powerful vampire, even more so than Inuyasha, but don't tell Inuyasha I said that, he and Sesshomaru really hate each other."

"Really he didn't seem like such a bad guy, he was taking care of a human girl named Rin who adored him."

"Oh Rin, yeah I know her. Cute little girl with black hair and always carries around a really worn out stuffed toy named Jaken?" Miroku said looking over at Sango who nodded. "She's a sweet kid, I've seen her with Sesshomaru when ever I go to Moonlight Hall. She lives there with him."

"What!" Sango exclaimed. "You've been to Moonlight Hall! But I thought that was destroyed hundreds of years ago!"

"Yeah, all vampires have. It was rebuilt a couple of years ago. But let's not talk about that, save the topic for later because I've got a plan to kill Naraku that involves Moonlight so I'll save that for then. I want to talk about us now," Miroku said looking into her eyes. Sango was startled to find herself blush, he had used the word 'us' like they were a couple. "Oh Sango don't blush, it wasn't your fault this argument happened, part of it was me too."

Thankful at Miroku's misinterpretation for the rending of her cheeks Sango said as they climbed the steps to Miroku's front door, "I really do want to apologize for what I said Miroku, I don't think you're evil or a monster."

"I'm glad, for that. So what am I now?" Miroku asked mockingly backing her up against the wall next to the door.

Smiling Sango gave him a small punch, "a friend now let me go I can't move."

"Glad for that, so does that mean I can't do this again," he said winking and moved his hand from next to her head which he had used to trap her towards her rear.

"NO IT DOESN'T YOU HENTAI!" Sango said slapping him.

Grinning Miroku rubbed his red cheek. "Does it mean I can do this?" he asked playfully and reached out and tickled her.

Laughing Sango doubled over as Miroku's fingers found her tummy. "Miroku stop it!" she screeched with laughter. "I can't- I can't breathe!"

"Oooooh the ever tough Sango has a weak spot for tickling," Miroku said and tickled her harder so she collapsed against him laughing and trying to breathe pounding her fists against his arms.

"Miroku stop it I'm- oooh hehee, stop it." Sango laughed.

Reluctantly Miroku relinquished his fun and let his hands settle on her waist and after a second of standing there both he and Sango realized what and awkward position they were in; she pressed up against him and now looking right into his beautiful eyes and him with both hands around her. Miroku and Sango both blushed bright red instantly and Miroku jumped back shocked and self-consciously ran a hand through his long hair. "Well," Sango said beet red. "Are we going to go in?"

"Oh! Of course," Miroku replied and hastily dug his key out of his pocket. Miroku opened the door so that Sango could step, it also gave her time to regain control of her fast beating heart. She told herself that her fast heart rate was only because Miroku had just been tickling her and her trouble breathing was because she hadn't been able to breathe while he was tickling her.

Walking to the kitchen Sango sat down at the glass kitchen table and asked, "so what's on the menu for tonight's meal?"

"I was thinking that we could have Fettuccini Alfredo, with white wine and for dessert…well whatever I can dig up," Miroku replied whipping off a hook a chefs apron.

Laughing Sango stood up and walked over and with a playful grin whipped the spare apron off the hook as well and tied the apron which was huge on her small frame around her waist, "so Master Chef Miroku what may I do to help?"

"Absolutely nothing, my dearest Sango," Miroku replied spinning her around and pulling on the apron strings undoing it.

Coyly Sango sidestepped and neatly tied the strings once more, "Oh I don't think so Miroku, I intend on helping with supper."

"Well, I had hoped to stun you with my brilliant cooking abilities," Miroku said sticking his bottom lip in a pathetic pout.

Throwing back her head Sango laughed unbelieving that less than half an hour they had been in the kitchen her begging for forgiveness and him cold and unresponsive to her pleas. "Very well," she said. "I'll go back into the living room and relax, watch TV and look at all your old pictures, while you slave away in the kitchen making supper." Shaking her head as she took off her apron Sango tried to recall the last time someone had made supper for her. It had been a long time, her mother had rarely cooked because she was so busy hunting vampires, her father Sango had rarely seen once he had trained her, so it had been up to her to cook supper for her brother Kohaku and herself. Walking out of the kitchen and into the living room Sango called, "call me when supper's ready. And let me tell you Miroku if you burn my pasta you will never hear the end of it!"

Laughing in reply Miroku shouted back, "don't worry Sango, I promise you that once you have tasted my cooking you will be astounded."

"I doubt that Miroku but you can try!" Sango replied sinking into the lush and wonderfully relaxing violet sofa. Reaching over she grabbed the remote and flipping through the channels admiring Miroku enormous TV. After ten minutes of channel surfing Sango realized that there was nothing on that she fancied watching. Turning the TV off, she glanced around the room not wanting to get off the comfy couch. Her eyes fell on a stack of papers sitting on top of Miroku's coffee table. Reaching over she picked them up and began to read.

-The S. was created long ago, around the time of the feudal time in Japan.

-Passed down from priestess to priestess the S. always required the guardianship of a pure heart, if not it would become corrupted.

-The S. possessed incredible power desired by many, and it was a constant source of conflict.

-The powers the S. was rumoured to possess included the ability to heal any illness, to turn ordinary metals into solid gold, purify water, and to increase one's natural power one hundred fold. But most importantly the jewel was sought after its rumoured ability to restore life. But it was not only granted life to those who had died but it was also able to grant rebirth to those who had been damned.

-Stories have come into light suggesting that many a damned creature such as werewolves, and vampires sought the S. to bring back the humanity they once possessed.

-Unfortunately after the murder of it last guardian, the S was lost to history. -There have been several rumours of the S. such as the time when hundreds of alchemists claimed they had the stone who could create gold, but none of these claims proved to be true.

Flipping through the rest of the pages Sango found ancient maps of feudal Japan, maps marking the locations of various shrines, current maps, all marked with various x's.

"Sango!" Miroku called. "Supper's ready be prepared to be stunned by my cooking genius!"

Grinning Sango put the papers down making a mental note to ask Miroku about this "S". "Coming," she called.

Sitting down at the table Sango waited patiently as Miroku came in and dished out his Fettuccini Alfredo and poured her a glass of white wine. Sitting down Miroku raised his glass in a toast, "To friendship."

"To friendship," Sango agreed and took a sip. Letting the wine sit on her tongue as she evaluated it Sango nodded her head in agreement. "Excellent wine Miroku, you have lovely taste."

"Why thank you," Miroku said picking up his spoon and fork..

Sango picked hers up as well and expertly twirled the fat pasta around on her fork and took a bite. "Mmmmmm, Miroku I was wrong. You can mark me down as astounded. You are a genius when it comes to food. This is AMAZING!" she exclaimed taking another mouthful.

"Why thank you Sango," Miroku said taking a bite as well. "I must agree with you there. Pasta is one of my specialties. Now that we have an excellent supper in front of us, I think we can finally discuss what happened, this afternoon."

Nodding Sango finished chewing her pasta and took a sip of wine to clear out her mouth. "I- I just wanted to say Miroku that I'm so sorry for the things I said last night, they obviously hurt you and after you left I felt like such a fool because you're right it was hypocritical of me to call you…the things I did, when I killed so many others."

"You're right you did hurt me, but I'll heal. And I understand where you were coming from, after all you have been raised to hunt vampires your entire life, you were also upset which adds irrational thinking into the equation. Now I must apologize for my behaviour this afternoon, I was impossibly rude, you had come to apologize and well I was very cruel." Miroku said placing his fork and spoon down and taking her hand. "I don't know what I was thinking, I was still hurting and when I came home to find you in my house, I was surprised and well I think subconsciously I was trying to hurt you, hurt you like you had hurt me. But about a minute or so after you left I realised what an idiot I had been and so I dashed after you."

"I'm glad you did," Sango said. "I felt so hollow and empty, I don't know what I was expecting but I had never thought about the fact that you might not accept my apology. So when you were all cool, it was like a blow to the face. After I left I was just nothing, I was walking without realizing where I was going and had no……connection to the world around me."

"I'm sorry, I hope that I can be forgiven, because I forgive you and…..well I think I prefer being friends to being enemies," Miroku said squeezing her hand.

Smiling Sango nodded her head, "I agree; I forgive you. Can we put this behind us now and movie on?"

"No, not quite yet," Miroku said letting go of her hand. "I need to tell you about how I became a vampire Sango. You know that I've killed, I won't deny that. But what I want you to know the circumstances."

"Miroku," Sango said, "you don't have to tell me this. I don't want to force you."

"You're not, I want to tell you, I've already told Kagome and Inuyasha, so its your turn."

When I was still a young boy my father was forced to become a vampire by Naraku. He did it to save his family, because Naraku threatened to kill my mother and I if he didn't agree. Now you know that when a mortal is changed into a vampire he falls into the sleep of the dead, the sleep in which the human involved dies and changes to become a vampire. My father fell asleep instantaneously, I remember my mother not knowing what was wrong. We had no clue at the time what had happened, we did not know that vampires even existed. When my fathers heart stopped I remember how my mother cried, she thought he was dead and never coming back. If only we had known, I would have fled with my mother, I would have fled with her to protect her from what my father had become. As a slayer you are well aware of the fact that a vampire should be slayed before it awakens for the first 5 hours after the vampire awakes it is most deadly. They have no conscious thoughts, all they feel is a hunger beyond words, and they will slay any human that crosses their path and they will drain them dry and then they will kill again until their hunger is satisfied; they are no more then hungry animals. My father awoke while my mother was still crying; she had not been able to bury the body, because she could not believe he was dead. Before my eyes I watched my father slit my mother's throat with his claws and drink her life's blood. I saw his eyes glow red, with the bloodlust. My father when he finished with my mother and turned to me, I would be dead had my uncle not arrived in at that moment. He had heard of my father's death and had travelled to our village to pay his respects. My father hesitated for a spilt second over who to feed on next, he ended up choosing my uncle probably because his was bigger and therefore more of a meal that a scrawny six year old boy. My uncle didn't have a chance. After his "meal" my father was sated and slowly his conscious thoughts returned. The look on his face when he realized what he had done was one of utter disbelief and self-disgust, he turned to me my mother's blood still dripping from his hands and said in a voice of horror, "what have I done!" And without thinking he took a knife from the table and killed himself. Sango, I will never forget the look in his eyes, when he turned to me, never until the day I die."

"Oh Miroku," Sango said her eyes filled with pity. "That's horrible! What happened to you? What did you do? Where did you go?"

"I was raised by monks, and eventually became one. But I was unsatisfied, with than life so I chose to wander helping out those I could."

"You a monk!" Sango said with a scoff. "You can't even keep your hands off my rear!"

"Well I've changed. A man's allowed to change his mind isn't he?" Miroku said indignantly in self-defence.

"Uh huuuuh," Sango replied with a roll of her eyes. "So anyways continuing on with your story…."

"Oh yeah, well I travelled until one night I stopped one night at an inn. Little had I known that Naraku had been keeping track me since I had left home waiting for me to grow to my potential, then he would strike. After all he wanted his all his changelings to be strong and able not weak and immature. I stayed that night at the inn, and while I was there, there was a girl one two years younger than I serving there, her name was Katrina. I remember she was only 14 but she would have grown to be a beauty, she had hair like golden honey and these big blue innocent eyes…and her but was amazing….. " Miroku trailed off as he caught Sango glaring at him, "What?" he exclaimed, "what did I say!"

Sango raised an eyebrow as she said simply in disbelief, "her butt was great?" Sango blinked a couple of times before she went on, "Miroku I thought you said this girl was 14 what were you then 18?"

"Yeah, sooooo" Miroku replied. "It's not like I asked her to marry me…..I only asked her if she would bear my child so if I died he would be able to carry on my mission."

"You WHAT!" Sango screeched standing up in shock and putting both her hands on the table. "You asked her to bear you child when she was nothing more than a child herself! You- you- you" Sango stuttered trying to find the words to describe the revulsion she felt. Reaching over she slapped him.

Raising his hand to his stinging cheek, Miroku calmly said "now what was that for Sango?"

"That's for being such a pervert! Gawd Miroku there are laws against that kind of thing!" Sango screeched.

"But I ask every beautiful woman I meet to bear my child," Miroku said simply.

Sango flopped down into her chair in a stupor, "you what?" she asked dazed.

"I just told you….I ask every beautiful woman to bear my child,……..oh course none have said yes yet if that's what you're wondering. All I ever get for my effort is a slap….or a punch sometimes…..but that doesn't happen very often."

"Damn right! I think I'd sock you one too if you ever asked me!" Sango retorted.

"Well don't tell me the beloved pearl of my eye is jealous, Sango you know you're the only slayer in my life," Miroku said taking her hand and nuzzling it.

"GAH!" Sango exclaimed snatching her hand away. Rubbing it against her pant leg Sango said somewhat sulkily, "you never asked me!"

"Did I not?" Miroku asked his eyebrows shooting up. "Oh yes I forgot the day I met you I was in a bad blood deprivation. Forgive me," going down on one knee Miroku took the hand he had just nuzzled and said, "Sango would you do me the honour of-"

WHUMP suddenly Miroku was face first in the carpet with Sango saying above him rubbing the wrist of the hand she had just used to smack him, "you don't need to say it."

Groaning Miroku got to his feet and climbed back into his seat. Continuing on as if nothing had happened Miroku said, "so where was I?"

"You had just asked a 14 year old to marry you." Sango prompted.

"Oh yes, well Katrina just laughed, and replied that if I came back in 4 years, I could stand a shot, and when she was done her serving duties she came and sat next to me. We talked for a while and I found out that her father had been killed in a war a while back and her mother had died giving birth to her so she had come to live with her uncle who having no children of his own absolutely doted upon his niece. She lived a good life and she told me that she dreamed of getting married and having a little house of her own with a picket fence and lots of kids to play in the front yard. Apparently all the other village boys had asked her to marry them too, so that was why she had laughed when I had laughed, and a few of the lads were quite persistent in their wooing so her uncle had called them all aside one day and forcefully told them that Katrina would be marrying no one until she was 18, and that he would permit no more wooing until the day she turned 18, and that if he caught any lad doing so he would make them work a day in the stables mucking out the horses…stuff. I went up a little later and that was when I found him waiting, Naraku. I didn't know who he was but the instant I saw him I knew that something bad was about to happen. Before I even had time to react he had bitten be and by doing to made me weak, then he cut himself and forced me to drink the blood."

Pausing, Miroku bit his lip and tried to regain control of the sick feeling that was rising with his stomach as he remembered the vile taste of that blood. "It was awful Sango, the last thoughts that I ever had when I was human was about how awful that blood had been. And even now the mere memory of having to drink it brings back waves of nausea. The next thing I remember was looking down and seeing myself holding Katrina, now dead and feeling the taste of her blood on my lips. I remember how confused I was, I remember thinking 'oh my gawd what in the world happened? What's going on?' I know now what happened after I was forced to drink Naraku's blood I fell into the sleep of change and awoke when Katrina concerned because it was the next night and I still had not awoken came into my room to check on me. Upon awakening I was in a blood lust and must have killed her just as my father had killed my mother."

Sango was shocked to see Miroku's eyes were now wet with tears of shame, she had never known of a vampire who cried. Most vampires lost all their human traits, such as eating, breathing, feeling sentiments like love and compassion. That was why when you looked at a vampire in a mirror his reflection was blurred, a reflection after all was the only was possible way to view the human soul, but the reflection of vampires blurred as they lost their human selves yet no matter how old or how cold hearted a vampire became a reflection still remained because it was never possible for a changeling to entirely loose their human selves. It was only the original five vampires, Seeta, Jarasika, Minakala, Alefrix, Molish, and Maroc that had no reflection at all.

Sango hesitated a brief second before she placed her hand on Miroku's shoulder. "Miroku, you didn't have to tell me all of this."

"No," he said looking up and grasping her hand tightly with his. "I didn't have to. But I did, because that's what friends do. They trust each other."

For a second Sango didn't know what to say. There were so many emotions fluttering around inside her; happiness, confusion, sadness, contentment, trust. What did he want her to say? After a moment Sango realised there was nothing she could say that would ever heal the wound he had just revealed to her so she did the only thing she could and that was to squeeze Miroku's hand in a silent message of support. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you for giving me the chance to be your friend."

"Same goes for me Sango." Miroku said with a small sad smile. "Same goes for me."

To be continued…

Awhhhhhhhhhhh. So sweet. Well hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know it was a bit long but I figured you'd all hate me if I stopped in the middle of that so I decided oh what the heck, so what it'll be long. Well I'm all pumped for the next chapter now, ooh get ready for plotting and planning action! Hehehe expect some comedy in the next chapter, hehe heads up cuz Inuyasha and Kagome are about to enter the screen.