Never before in his life had Miroku found himself confined in close quarters with a beautiful woman and found the experience so painfully awkward. But Sango did not trust him and this, combined with her rather impressive stare, had him wondering if perhaps he ought to go sit outside and keep watch from there. And Shippou was not helping matters, glaring at him from across Sango's sickbed as he was.

Only Kirara seemed to have no interest in glowering at him, and that was only because she was too ill to do so. Did they really think so little of him? And yet he knew they must, or they wouldn't be staring at him so balefully.

Miroku sighed for what must have been the hundredth time and hoped that Inuyasha and Kagome would make a speedy trip and an even speedier return.

"Oh, quit sighing like that," Shippou grumbled. "You act like we don't have any reason to be suspicious."

"Inuyasha and Kagome asked me to look after Sango and Kirara, and that is what I intend to do," he retorted, his voice sounding more serene than he felt.

"It's okay, Shippou," Sango said at last. "I think Houshi-sama will behave himself for now."

"Are you sure?" Shippou asked.

She nodded tiredly. She looked exhausted. The last thing she needed right now was him and Shippou squabbling over her. They ought to let her get some rest, so Miroku said nothing in his own defense.

But even after Shippou fell silent, Sango could not seem to rest. Miroku didn't blame her for feeling restless. Her companion was suffering and there was nothing she could do to help. She must be in a great deal of pain, herself. And on top of that, she was not accustomed to bedrest even when it was necessary. He remembered quite vividly how she had chafed at being confined to her bed back at the village of the slayers. And, too, he remembered how quickly she had recovered from her injuries back then.

It seemed so long ago, but it had not been even a month since they set out from her village. So much had changed, and nothing had changed at all.

Upon reflection, he thought, perhaps everything had changed. He had never suspected that Kagome possessed the power to strike such a decisive blow against his lifelong enemy in a single shot. With just one arrow, she had saved them all. If her aim had been only a little bit better…

Best not to think on it that way.

Miroku closed his eyes and let his mind empty. It wasn't as easy as he would have liked, not with everything that had happened over the last two days demanding his due consideration, but he needed rest nearly as much as Sango. And he knew that as soon as Inuyasha returned with the herbs for Kirara, he would want to be on the road again.

When Miroku opened his eyes again it was fully dark in the hut save for the moonlight that streamed in through the open door. He realized with some chagrin that he'd fallen asleep, but was somewhat pleased to see he wasn't the only one. Shippo was curled up beside Sango, as sound asleep as Miroku had been until a moment ago.

Sango, on the other hand… She was laying on her back now, her breathing calm and even but her eyes open. She had let her head tip to the side so she could see him, and she was just looking at him now, rather than glaring defensively. She had quite an arresting gaze even when she wasn't trying to be intimidating.

"Can't sleep?" he prompted.

She immediately became defensive. "I don't need your help."

"I didn't mean to imply that you did."

Her expression softened; she was too tired just now to hold a grudge, it seemed. This time, at least, the silence wasn't as awkward as it had been earlier. She wasn't going to give him an opening if she could avoid it, but she also didn't really think he was going to try anything inappropriate while she couldn't fight back. Or so he hoped.

"You've been chasing after Naraku your whole life, haven't you?" she asked finally, her voice quiet.

"More or less."

She hesitated. "Is it always like this?"

Like what, he wondered. In any case, the answer was the same: "No."

She seemed surprised. "No?"

"In all my years of searching, I discovered no definitive proof that Naraku still existed beyond the presence of the kazaana in my hand," he admitted. "I did not even know what he looked like. Not until I encountered Inuyasha and Kagome." It was only then that he'd begun to realize that he wasn't chasing a ghost, and that his quest might have an end after all.

"How did you team up with them, anyway?"

Somehow he'd assumed that Kagome had already told her everything. Apparently that wasn't the case.

Since he had assumed Kagome would take care of introductions and explanations, he had never really considered what he would tell her if she asked how he had come to join Inuyasha and the others. Joining them certainly had not been something that he had wanted to do at first, although now he could look back on that decision and be glad that it had happened as it had. "We were both searching for shards of the Shikon jewel," he explained. "We started out as rivals, trying to claim shards before the other could reach them… but after I ran into them a few times, Kagome convinced me it would be better to work together." He chuckled. "Inuyasha wasn't too thrilled with the plan, but I like to think he's coming around."

"Did they know about… your hand?" she asked. She seemed surprised that he was willing to answer her questions.

"They did. That didn't stop them." It still surprised him that they had been willing to join up with someone as dangerous as himself and had, in fact, insisted upon it. Remembering the way Kagome had nearly thrown herself into the kazaana still made him anxious. She'd come so close to sacrificing herself just to make the point that he wasn't as bad as Inuyasha thought.

Sango looked thoughtful. He hoped that by sharing some of his experiences with Inuyasha and Kagome, he could put her more at ease. While Sango seemed to fear the prospect of being abandoned after her betrayal, and seemed to think this the right and just response to her actions, Miroku had no doubt that Inuyasha and Kagome would return. Too bad there was nothing he could do to convince Sango, save waiting with her.

"They're… strange… aren't they?"

He chuckled. "Probably even more strange than you think they are."

"Inuyasha is a half-demon," Sango pointed out. "And Kagome seems to have some sort of spiritual powers that enable her to purify Shikon shards. How much stranger a pair could you get?" For a moment she actually smiled. It was slight and it vanished quickly, but he saw it. He never would have guessed Sango for a gossip, but if talking about their companions lightened her mood, then that was what he would do.

"Theirs is an odd story, or so I've gathered," he said with an air of false solemnity. "Inuyasha is quite cagy, and even Kagome doesn't volunteer much unless you ask her directly."

"All right, then, do you know how those two ended up looking for the shards of the Shikon jewel together?"

"From what I understand, Kagome is the one that obtained the jewel, though I do not know where she got it." He shrugged. "She is also the one that shattered it into the fragments we now seek."

"So it's a personal obligation," Sango mused. "How does Inuyasha play into this?"

"Ah, that is something of a sore spot for our companions."

"How do you mean?"

He hesitated for a moment, wondering how much of this he ought to tell her and how much she really should hear from Kagome instead. "Kagome really hasn't told you any of this already?"

"I think she's scared of upsetting me," Sango admitted. "She talks about things she think won't hurt my feelings, like the weather or what she's studying. She mentioned once that she has a brother, but once she found out that I had… have… a brother, too, she got quiet about it."

She had seemed to be perking up, but at the mention of her brother she'd gone sad again. Miroku could see why Kagome was reluctant to do more than make small talk. She wouldn't want to risk causing any more hurt by saying the wrong thing. Unfortunately, the longer she knew next to nothing about her companions, the more Sango would feel like she wasn't truly a part of the group. He suspected that she was already feeling a great deal more isolated and worried than she was letting on.

So with that in mind, he told her much of what he knew about their companions. All things considered, it wasn't that much. He supposed it was only fair, considering he told them very little about himself. In the telling, he was surprised all over again at how quickly he had fallen in with Inuyasha and Kagome and Shippou, and that he had come to feel as if they really were a group. Perhaps by bringing Sango up to speed on the others, he could make her feel in some small way as if she were truly part of that group, too.

Some things he left out of his retelling, such as the truth of how he had first encountered Kagome and discovered her jewel shards, or how he and the others had stumbled upon the ruined village of the slayers. Sango already knew that last part, and like Kagome he had no desire to cause her any more pain.

She seemed to like his tales of Inuyasha and Kagome's antics best, rather than the ones about the battles fought and jewel shards won so far, so that was where he focused his efforts. He had to admit, their squabbles were both amusing and endlessly fascinating, if occasionally frustrating.

It was growing light outside by the time he began to run out of things to tell her. In the early morning light Sango looked even more exhausted than she had yesterday. Miroku guessed she had slept very little, if at all, and decided it would probably be for the best if he convinced her to at least try and rest. He just needed the right opening, and Sango conveniently provided it.

"So tell me then, why does Kagome dress so strangely?" she asked. "I've never met another woman that dressed like that, and it seems hopelessly impractical for a journey like this…"

"Kagome actually lives in another world," he confided. He wondered what had inspired the question, but was more curious to see how Sango would react to the answer. "She comes here to our world by jumping into a magic well in her world, and ends up at the bottom of a well in a village here."

Sango giggled at that. She actually laughed. "Now you're just making things up!"

"You'll see," he promised. "Everything I have told you is true." He paused for a beat, then gently told her, "You should try to get some rest now, Sango."

She heaved a tired sigh, but did not argue. Even he could see that exhaustion was finally catching up to her.

"Rest while you can," he advised her. "If our friends have been lucky, they may have already obtained the remedy for Kirara."

She nodded wearily. She let her eyes fall closed with none of yesterday's defensive wariness, and he was gratified to see that within a few minutes she really did seem to be asleep.

Shippou ambled over a few moments later, careful to move silently in order to avoid disturbing Sango and pausing only briefly to check on Kirara. Finally he plopped down next to Miroku. "You know," he said quietly, all impish innocence, "I didn't think that once you got a girl alone you'd just want to talk about Inuyasha and Kagome."

Miroku just laughed.