Even though everything had worked out in the end—the curse was broken, Kagome was alive—there seemed to be a pall hanging over the entire group by the time they got back to Kaede's place. Kagome had already fallen asleep long before they arrived, spending most of the trip melted over Inuyasha's shoulders, and Inuyasha wasted no time taking her inside the hut so Kaede could take a look at her and make sure everything really was all right.

Miroku opted not to follow right away. Kaede's hut was cramped with all of them inside in the best of times; now that Kagome was safe, there was no reason to crowd her just yet. And he had a feeling she might appreciate the privacy.

Coming along last were Sango and Kirara. The two of them seemed more downcast than usual, moreso than the situation warranted. And it had not escaped Miroku's notice that Kirara had chosen to walk back rather than fly. A strange choice, and one that piqued his curiosity. And since there was little for him to do right now, he decided to investigate.

He waited just outside the door, as unobtrusive as possible, while Sango dismounted.

After Kirara had transformed back to her smaller form and slipped into the hut, he asked, "Are you okay?"

Sango gave him a strange look, as if to say, I wasn't the one that was cursed by a dark miko, remember?

"Kirara chose to walk back instead of flying," he explained. "I thought that perhaps you or she had been injured in the fight."

He was suddenly glad to be having this conversation with Sango instead of one of the others. Inuyasha would have gotten angry at this point, but Sango seemed to genuinely appreciate his concern.

"We're both fine, Houshi-sama. Really."

Her words said one thing, but her face said another. He considered his options and took a risk: "If I may be honest, you don't sound fine."

"I'm fine," she reiterated.

"Sango."

She sighed, but stopped resisting. "You were there. You know what happened."

Ah, he should have guessed. She was unhappy because, for the most part, the two of them had been unable to help in Kagome's moment of need.

For someone like Sango, helplessness must be an especially uncomfortable feeling. She might be a more disciplined fighter, but she was very much like Inuyasha that way. She preferred to create her own opportunities for success in battle, rather than waiting for the right one to come her way. Though Miroku often preferred the opposite strategy, he sympathized.

"It all worked out in the end," he told her, intending to be reassuring though he knew this was really no help. What could he tell her, really? It had been a terrible situation. They had been meant to have no way out. They had been meant to die.

The two of them were going to have to work very hard in order to keep up, if they kept being faced with no-win situations as tough as this one. If they were going to be faced with youkai and powerful but twisted humans like Tsubaki. But Sango looked so tired already, the last thing he wanted to do was add to that. There would be time for strategies later. Right now they all of them needed to rest and recover.

Unaware of the direction his thoughts had taken, Sango asked, "Do you think it's always going to be like this, from now on?"

His first instinct was, as always, to lie. To tell her of course not, that even though Tsubaki had gotten away she was probably no threat to Kagome anymore now that she had lost the advantage of surprise—and had seen them deal with everything she could throw at them. But at the last moment, he couldn't do it. Sango, like the others, was a friend. And he was finding it harder to lie to his friends as time went on. So he settled on, "That may be the case. Naraku is most likely very determined to win this fight."

"He'll do whatever it takes," she murmured.

Miroku didn't like the sound of that, but he couldn't disagree. Naraku was a formidable enemy, crafty and conniving, who had survived for decades by relying on his cunning. There was no telling what he would do next.

"We'll have to be ready for anything," he told Sango.

She nodded, determined in spite of her weariness. It heartened him to see her rally like that. His reasons for trying to cheer her up were a little bit selfish, he knew, but her strength was to some degree contagious. If she could go on in spite of everything, his own woes didn't seem quite as bad. At least, not at the present moment. Plus she had the very pleasant tendency of looking out for him in a fight, rather than noticing he was in trouble at the last possible moment like Inuyasha did. It was in his best interest to keep her spirits up.

But if he were totally honest with himself, that wasn't really his motivation right now. It was there, in the back of his mind, but mostly he was concerned because Sango was a friend. She was someone he cared about, and seeing her look so worn and tired made him want to do what he could to fix it.

This was a relatively new and uncomfortable feeling for him, having spent so much of his life alone in the world, but it wasn't totally unpleasant. It scared him a little, having seen just today how easily friendships could be fractured… yet it also gave him something to fight for, beyond merely his own life. He wasn't entirely sure how he felt about that, but looking at Sango now, he knew he wanted to follow this through to the end. Or at least for a while longer. But not tonight.

Sleepiness was weighing him down, and he guessed Sango was more than ready for rest, herself. She was swaying slightly on her feet, though she did not complain. She seemed almost reluctant to go into the hut, much as he had felt earlier.

"It's late," he observed, "And it's been a long day. Let's go inside before the others decide I'm up to no good."

As he breezed past her and into the hut, Sango looked utterly torn between a scowl and a smile… and he found he rather liked keeping her on her toes like that. He'd have to watch out for more opportunities to do so in the future.