Miroku sat patiently while Sango unwound the bandages from his arm yet again. She insisted upon seeing to the wound twice a day, to ensure that it was clean and healing well. He didn't mind, really, especially now when the days' events had conspired to give them some time alone together. This careful and concerned attention was a nice change from her normal indifference or her outrage when she felt he had exceeded the bounds of propriety.

He meant to thank her for her efforts long before now, but he had not realized just how difficult it could be to be sincere with a woman. Most often he merely engaged in harmless flirting, or asked them to bear his child without really expecting his request to be accepted. This was one of the few times in his life that he had wanted to express gratitude—and he wanted Sango to believe him.

He had never really had someone he could rely on in a fight before. He'd always more or less been on his own, even after he joined Inuyasha and Kagome. Those two were so obviously a duo that he'd sometimes felt like the odd man out, at least before Sango joined them. And Inuyasha never fought beside anyone. He fought on his own or not at all, it seemed. But Sango was different. She could fight on her own, and did so when the situation called for it. But she was also willing to fight cooperatively, as a team.

And he could appreciate that. As two mortal humans who found themselves facing enemies that were increasingly more powerful than they were, it made sense to stick together and watch out for each other.

Finally he mustered the nerve to just get it over with. He began, "Sango…"

She looked a little nervous all of a sudden, like she wasn't sure where this was going. Like she might be getting ready to be angry if he was about to revisit the question of bearing his child. Happily for her, he had learned that lesson. "Yes?"

"Thank you," he told her simply, "for seeing to my injury back there."

"It was nothing," she protested. "My skills are—"

"Sango, if you hadn't been there, I might have bled to death before Inuyasha and Kagome even realized I was injured," he told her.

She looked like she wasn't sure whether to laugh or sigh. "They're not that bad."

He fixed her with a knowing look, and then she did laugh. "I still don't think they would have let you bleed to death," she amended. She paused, and corrected, "Not all the way to death."

The way she said it had him laughing in spite of the morbid subject matter. He knew that Inuyasha and Kagome really did care about him, there was no question of that; they had proved their loyalty more than enough times since he joined them. But sometimes it felt good to have a laugh at their expense. After all, they both had a bad habit of getting so wrapped up in their own problems—and their unresolved affections—that they didn't notice anything else going on around them.

But he could see Sango didn't find it as amusing as he did, or else something else was on her mind. She looked rather alarmingly serious.

"What's wrong?"

She hesitated. Whatever it was, she was worried about sharing it.

"Sometimes, I worry about what I bring to this group," she admitted. "I'm no healer, and I'm nowhere near as strong as Inuyasha. When the hiraikotsu broke, I felt so helpless… like I was just another target to protect."

He knew that feeling well by now. It was the same thing he went through every time Naraku's insects prevented him from using the kazaana to save his friends… that overwhelming sense of helplessness and angry futility. To be rendered useless in the very moment when his friends needed him the most was a source of profound anger, and one for which he had no solution.

"If nothing else, with Inuyasha in his human form, you could have easily overpowered him to get him out of there," he offered. He had always found that it was better not to dwell on his failures too much, but to keep pressing forward. Perhaps Sango could find comfort in doing the same.

She smiled a little at that, at first, but it quickly faded. "And leave you to face Kaijinbou and that sword by yourself?"

That, he had not expected. It had not escaped his notice that she had begun to thaw considerably when it came to him, but he still worried that she might turn cold again at any moment. She was unpredictable that way. She had forgiven him much more quickly than usual for any perceived misdeeds involving Koharu, but there was no way to know if that pattern would hold.

Still, he was pleasantly warmed by her words, and by the sweet earnestness with which she spoke them. No woman had ever wanted to protect him before. They always came to him for protection, not the other way around. There was something undeniably appealing about that.

"Normally, it wouldn't bother me. It's just been happening a lot lately," Sango went on. "I made that stupid mistake with Kanna, and then again with Kaijinbou and Toukijin…" She shook her head. "Sorry. None of this has anything to do with you. I guess I was just hoping you might have some ideas. You've been doing this longer than I have."

He offered her a reassuring smile. "It takes some getting used to. Before I teamed up with Inuyasha, I never encountered enemies this strong. Or at least, I was smart enough to avoid them. Now I just do the best I can not to get killed."

It wasn't great advice, but it was the best he had. It was all any of them could do.

"When the other slayers and I would go on missions," she explained, "we knew each others' strengths and weaknesses, inside and out. Weapons, fighting styles, all of it. If someone was at a disadvantage, we could easily move to support them, and we all knew to expect that. We relied on it. With Inuyasha… I have no idea what he's going to do next, only that it's going to be reckless beyond all reason." She gave an exasperated laugh at that. "It's hard to adjust."

"I've had my share of trouble since I joined up with Inuyasha and Kagome, too," he told her. "I spent most of my life before that on my own. And now… I'm lucky Inuyasha didn't take my arm off when he saved me from Juuroumaru."

"Well, if that doesn't inspire confidence…"

"Trust me, you're a bigger help than you think. If you weren't, do you think Inuyasha would ever shut up about it?"

He had her there, and he could see from the look on her face that she knew it.

"Well," she said at last, "I can't argue with that."

She was still smiling about that as she put the medical supplies back in their case, and he decided to call that a victory.