Summary- Sango Tacchi has always had a tough life. It's normal for her. When the normal pressure starts to get harder, will she handle herself any differently than before? The next problem is keeping her best friend from realizing her methods of coping... Warning, I used song lyrics!

I own all the poems at the beginning of the chapters. Those are my mind's rotten creations.

Song- Meant to Live (Swithfoot)

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

About to Break
Chapter Six- Caring

xXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx

It takes a brave one
To ignore temptations of fun
To reach out a loving hand
And, against pain, take a stand
-------------------------------------

You don't realize how valuable something is until you lose it. Sango didn't realize how special family was when she was a child. Even then, she was too young to cherish her father and brother. Then her father was lost. Now all she had to support her was her brother. If he died, she would give up.

She had already started giving in. She had promised herself that, when she got custody of her brother, she would stop cutting. She didn't, though. No matter how hectic her life was, no matter how tired she was, she always somehow had the time to drag the knife across her flesh once more.

And she always regretted it afterwards. Especially when Inuyasha would start smelling her during lunch. Thankfully, there was always too much food for him to realize that she was bleeding. He would just shrug it off as a strange smell. Every day, he would let Sango go on it.

Fumbling his confidence
And wondering why the world has passed him by

It was amazing that she could have a friend like Inuyasha. It baffled Sango on more than one occasion. She sat at lunch, thinking of their friendship. She wanted to be thinking, but her brain had already started working. Just as a train is hard to stop once it's moving, her brain was the same way.

Sango looked at her caffeine-in-a-can and finished it off. If caffeine didn't exist, she would have fallen asleep hours ago. Now that she had the caffeine, she was awake enough to wish that she could sleep.

"Hey, Sango... Hey, what's that smell?" He asked. Sango admired Inuyasha for being so stupid. You could call it ignorance or being naive, but she liked picking on him. Inuyasha was just an easy target.

"Dunno. Can't smell it. It's your demon smelling acting up on you." Again. She wanted to tell him that he smelled the same thing every day. He never realized it, but the smells were all the same. They came from the same source, from the same person who faked her clueless-ness.

"You can smell it! It's so strong, a human nose should be able to pick it up!" Inuyasha complained. Sango looked at him. She had a strange yearning in her heart to tell him what it was. She longed to tell him that it was because she was so close, and so was the food. The smells didn't mix, and he was smelling the combination.

Sango wanted to say something, but she wouldn't. She would never tell people what was wrong. Never.

"I can't smell it, Inuyasha. For all I know, the smell is in your head." Sango replied in a bored tone.

"Is not!" He retorted defensively.

Hoping that he's bid for more than arguments
And failed attempts to fly, to fly

"I didn't say that it was. All I said was that I can't smell it. I don't know what it is." Sango told him. Inuyasha was in denial, she was convinced.

"Alright... So, how are you doing? You look tired..." Inuyasha said. Sango smirked and rested her head on the picnic table.

"I am." She said, her voice dripping with the laziness and exhaustion that she felt.

"Why?" Inuyasha questioned. Sango closed her eyes and thought about her answer. Why was she tired? She was up late last night, but what had she been doing?

"I was working really late, last night... I didn't think that caring for Kohaku would be this hard." Sango blurted.

"I can imagine that it is." Inuyasha said. A sudden cold wind made Sango shiver. She opened her eyes to stare at her water bottle. The water reflected Inuyasha taking off his jacket. His favorite red jacket. He placed it over Sango's shoulders and smiled.

"Thanks." She managed to say.

"Anytime. Glad to help out a friend." Inuyasha said. Sango wanted to jump up and question him immediately. She couldn't, because she was tired. She was desperate to know why he did that. He would never put his jacket around Miroku's shoulders, or even Kagome's. Hell, when he and Kikyou had been together, she hadn't seen him do that for her.

Then again, Kikyou and Inuyasha weren't a good couple. Kikyou was demanding, and Inuyasha followed along. He hoped that, when he gave her what she wanted, that she would be the nice woman he had fallen in love with. But, after she cheated on him with Naraku, she was never nice. She died inside.

We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside
Somewhere we live inside

Sango had been so lost in her own thoughts that she hadn't been paying attention to Inuyasha. She looked at him through barely-open eyes. He was right against her, his head leaning against her shoulder. His arms were around her in a protective manner. In demon terms, he was protecting her. She didn't know from what, but it was cute.

Sango had studied demons since she was a child. It was a family tradition to be demon exterminators. That same family tradition had been a main cause for her father's death. A demon with a bug demon problem paid their father. Then he wouldn't pay. When her father tried to deal with the matter, he was brutally murdered.

Now Sango had to rely on her studies more. That was her future job; to keep up the family tradition of killing demons. So, naturally, they had to study them.

Sango looked a little closer at Inuyasha. He was part demon, so all his demon instincts were there. The look in his eyes was like the look you would imagine a mother bear to carry. A warning look of someone who gets to close to the ones under their protection.

Was Sango under Inuyasha's protection?

Sango looked at someone as he came up. She knew him, he liked her. He was cute, but a total asshole. She had even told Inuyasha of the disgusting things that the man had done to get her to love him back.

"Hello... I need to talk to Sango." The pervert said.

"Why?" Inuyasha asked skeptically.

"I don't need an excuse to talk to her. I'm her boyfriend." He said. Sango took careful note of the look in Inuyasha's eyes. He was worried, angry, hurt... There was so much emotion fighting for dominance in his eyes that her head throbbed once.

"You can't be her boyfriend." Inuyasha said stubbornly.

"Why not?" The guy, a demon, was getting closer and he was getting more pissed.

"Because I'm her boyfriend." Inuyasha said. Sango felt no urge to tell the man otherwise. She wasn't angry or upset about the lie. If anything, the words... comforted her? What? Inuyasha's muttering brought her out of her thoughts. She couldn't catch what he said, but she was sure it had to do with the lie that he just created.

"W-What!" The demon stammered. Sango tried to keep her smirk away and act like she was asleep.

"Why else would I be in this position?" Inuyasha snapped. At that point they had started gathering attention. The man turned around and left, trying to salvage his pride and ego.

"Boyfriend?" Sango asked. She mentally stabbed herself for doing that. They thought she was asleep, and now she just revealed to Inuyasha that she was awake the entire time. Inuyasha smirked and let his head rest against her shoulder.

"What's the problem? I'm your friend, and I'm a boy. Well, I was last time I checked." Inuyasha said quietly. Sango smiled then looked at him.

We were meant to live for so much more
Have we lost ourselves?
Somewhere we live inside

"You wish it was more?" She suddenly asked. Whoa. Where had that question come from? Sango tried to think of a way to recover while Inuyasha stared at her.

"No, I'm content with being a boy... I don't want to be a boy and a girl." Inuyasha said. Sango smirked at his stupidity then rested her head against the table.

School passed by fast. Doesn't everything pass by fast when you sleep through it? Sango walked into the door of the house, hissing at the sound of the creaking door. The second the door was closed, Kilala came running up to Sango. She jumped on Sango's shoulder and rubbed her head against her face.

"I'm glad to see you too, Kilala." Sango said. She let her backpack fall to the floor and then picked up all the letters that were in the mailbox.

"Bill. Bill. Bill. Bill… Letter?" She dropped the rest of the letters and focused on the hand-written one. She opened it quickly, and looked inside. Her heart skipped a beat.

Sango slowly pulled out the content, her heart beating faster and faster in joy. Who would have given her such a nice gift? She slowly sat down and laid the money out in front of her.

Dreaming about providence
And where mice or men have second tries

All the bills were in hundreds. Whoever sent this was really loaded. Sango looked for a return address, but there was none. Just her name, her address, and a stamp postmarked for yesterday.

She counted out the bills and tears began to fill her eyes. The money that this person had given her was the exact amount she needed to make all the payments on her father's house.

After making the next two payments, her father's house would be paid off. But two payments had been nearly ten thousand dollars before. In her had was fifteen thousand dollars.

Someone had known all these numbers on her father's house. Who? She didn't tell anyone except Miroku, Kagome, and Inuyasha. Perhaps Kouga knew, since Kagome never told anyone else.

The next day at school, Sango had a bright smile on her face. Because of all that money, she was able to work a lot less. It was five grand a month that she didn't have to earn. She walked up to Miroku, Kagome, Kouga, and Inuyasha.

Maybe we've been living with our eyes half open
Maybe we're bent and broken, broken

"Hey, Miroku… I need you ask you a question." She began. He nodded then broke apart from the rest of the group to speak with her.

"What is it, Sango?" He asked curiously.

"Well… I got a gift in the mail. Did you send it?" She asked. Everything inside of her told her that Miroku had sent her the money. He was the only one who liked her so much to do such a thing. How did she know? He kept grabbing her ass and asking her to sleep with him!

"I don't know what you're talking about, Sango." Miroku said. Sango smirked and shook her head.

"I think you do. Come on. You sent me fifteen thousand dollars in the mail. I have a postmark from yesterday." She said. She held up the empty envelope and waved it in front of him.

"I don't know, Sango. I didn't send it to you. You of all people should know that I'll never have fifteen thousand dollars out of my bank at the same time." He said. Sango looked down at the envelope then sighed.

"Alright. Sorry. I had thought it would be you since… I don't know." She muttered. She walked over to the rest of the gang and smiled as if nothing in the world were wrong.

"What was that about?" Inuyasha asked.

"Oh… Just asking Miroku about something." She said innocently.

"Alright… Whatever… Hey, we have to get to class before you pass out again." Inuyasha said.

"I won't pass out. I got to get good sleep last night!" Sango said happily.

"Why? I thought that you worked until midnight or later." Kagome piped in.

"Well… Something happened yesterday and I don't have to work nearly as much as I used to." Sango explained. She didn't feel like telling her friends that she had gotten fifteen thousand in the mail.

"Okay… I'm confused." Kagome openly said. She pouted a little then Kouga kissed her.

"Well, I do have to get to class to try to get some stuff… I'll see you guys at lunch, if you're there." Sango said. With that, she walked off, a warm smile graced on her lips.

Whoever had sent her the money, she appreciated it. They had given her the biggest gift she could ever imagine. They had given her a ticket to living more comfortably and the ticket to passing her classes. Not to mention now she might be able to stay awake in them.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Next time on About to Break...
Sango throws herself into chaos. Sudden threats are coming in the mail, disguised as bills, and her one source of light has left for the day. She doesn't know how else to deal with it, and takes the one escape that she can think of. The only escape that will keep her from cutting herself. But, things don't go as planned, and she ends up having to explain what happened to the people she didn't want to tell...
Chapter Name: Jail Cell
Review Required: 60

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

I still have butterflies in my stomach from writing this chapter. I think that it's very sweet of Inuyasha to be so protective over Sango.

- Bipolar Tangerine