Chapter 3

No notes for this chapter except this one, I guess: no notes. ;

While the women were inside dressing Angel's wounds, the four males, Sesshoumaru, Inuyasha, Miroku, and Shippou, waited outside, talking a bit.

"Inuyasha?" Shippou inquired from his spot atop Miroku's head. "Why is your brother still here?"

"I don't know," Inuyasha replied harshly. "It's not like I ever understood him."

"I too, have been wondering about Sesshoumaru's motives for being here," Miroku interjected. "The most obvious reason would be trying to get the Tetsusaiga, I am beginning to think it might have something to do with a certain demoness."

"Don't be ridiculous!" For a moment, they thought Inuyasha was defending his brother. "As if Sesshoumaru could possibly have any other feelings besides cruelty and hatred. Not gonna happen." I guess the same goes for his defending him.

"I wouldn't be so sure, Inuyasha," Miroku argued. "He did drop the Tetsusaiga to catch her."

"That's just cause he's stupid," Inuyasha said.

"You know I can hear you?" Sesshoumaru interrupted. He was standing apart from the three friends, but he couldn't help hearing the conversation. He doesn't eavesdrop.

Miroku seemed almost totally unfazed. "Well, then you would be able to answer that question yourself, and we wouldn't have to resort to our other, less reliable source." Meaning Inuyasha, of course.

"Why on earth would I want to explain myself to a human, a half-breed, and a child?"

"Because our conclusions would be left up to our own speculation... In other words, we believe you have an infatuation with Angel," Miroku explained.

"That's completely absurd," said Sesshoumaru a bit too quickly. "That girl is nothing to me." He could tell they didn't believe him. In fact, he wasn't sure if he believed himself, which he was sure was not a good sign.

"Sesshoumaru likes Angel, Sesshoumaru likes Angel," Shippou chanted, though not moving from atop Miroku's head.

"You tread dangerously, kitsune," Sesshoumaru warned.

"Kagome, Sesshoumaru threatened me!" Shippou wailed, running into the small house.

"What does he expect that human girl to do?" Sesshoumaru asked aloud.

His question was answered when the kit didn't return. The answer: keep Shippou inside.

"If they're letting Shippou stay inside, maybe that means they've finished and we can go back in too," Miroku suggested, about to walk through the door.

"Not so fast, lecher," Inuyasha stopped him. "I know you're just tryin to get a glimpse of whatever ya can before you get knocked around again for it."

"Why, of course that's not the case at all, Inuyasha," Miroku's feigned innocence and hurt were easily recognized for what they were.

"Yeah, sure. We're gonna wait till they tell us they're finished."

"You can come back in, now," Sango informed them a few minutes later, and the three men came back into the room. Angel was sitting against a wall with, much to Miroku's, and for some reason (that we all know) Sesshoumaru's dismay, another shirt on.

"When are you leaving?" Inuyasha asked bluntly.

"As soon as I find a way, hanyou," she said, bringing her left hand up to massage her temple in an effort to fend off a headache.

"Quit callin' me that! You sound like Sesshoumaru..."

"I'll take that as a complement so that I don't have to waste energy smacking you around," she said wearily.

Sesshoumaru inclined his head ever so slightly. This was the closest he was willing to come to expressing concern at how tired her voice sounded. He tried to tell himself that it was just dealing with Inuyasha, that could get tired very quickly. But when he looked at her to respond to her little comment, he managed to do very good job of hiding his surprise at seeing her stifle a yawn, a rather large one at that. "You think yourself to be similar to this Sesshoumaru?"

"No, the one standing behind you," she replied, her cynical attitude back in its rightful place. "And it was your brother that said, though he wasn't the first. I just took it as a compliment, because when it comes down to it anyone with half a brain can see that it's better to be compared to someone who is smart, calm, collected, and a totally hottie. And let me reiterate the fact that I am NOT random, rabid fangirl willing to do anything for a hickey."

"Your sure sound like one... whatever a fangirl is," Inuyasha commented.

"You just shut up. You are an idiot, especially when it comes to women. You don't know squat about half of what goes on around you" she turned on Inuyasha.

"Wha- what? What the fuck are you talking about!"

"Look at Kagome and tell me what you see," she said a fraction of a hair gentler.

"Huh?" But he did look at Kagome, who was sitting there with a much better idea of what Angel was talking about. "I see Kagome."

"Exactly, you see Kagome, not a copy of Kikyo or a shard detector. Kikyo is a psycho that just wants both of you dead which she has made perfectly clear behind your back," she told him. She was thinking back to episodes when Kikyo would try to kill Kagome, and the younger miko wouldn't even tell Inuyasha because she was trying to protect Kikyo. "Kagome, you are way to nice. If you weren't Japanese, I'd swear you were a blonde, as well, because you have a tendency to be a bit of a ditz too. You don't have to protect Kikyo."

"What are you babbling about, you lunatic? I'm the one that's supposed t protect Kikyo," Inuyasha said, still unaware of past encounters.

"Kagome was protecting her from you..."

"Stop, please," This time Kagome spoke up.

"Yes, you're right. I got a bit carried away. I'm sorry, but this sort of complication when it comes to pairing pisses me off. It's usually painfully obvious who should end up with whom, but then egos and pride, and just stubborn blindness always get in the way. But I have said way too much."

"I must take my leave. I have duties to attend to in my lands," Sesshoumaru said, standing to leave. "Inuyasha, you should take what the girl has said into consideration."

"Right, I should get going as well. I still need to try to find a way to get back to my world," Angel stood as well, picking up her bag and the rest of her things and shoving them into it. "It's been... interesting to say the least." Both of them walked to the door, Sesshoumaru's manners allowing Angel to exit first.

"Will you be alright in your injured state?" Sesshoumaru asked, once they were both outside. The sky was getting steadily cloudier. "I don't want to have to catch you as you go flying through the air again."

"Was that an almost joke? I'll be fine, don't worry. I just really have to get back home, though I think I would've liked to meet Rin, she really is very cute," she smiled her first genuine smile all day.

"I wasn't worried." Angel noticed that that was the only part of her statement that he addressed, almost as if to prove a point, probably more to himself than to her. "You know," he spoke again. "You said that Naraku isn't dead. I do not think it is safe for you to be traveling alone. You are also covered in the scent of blood. Many youkai would be attracted by the smell."

"I'm a big girl now, and I know how to take care of myself. I've gotten used to it..." she trailed off for moment. "Besides I'm not going to travel too far. I'm just going to spot where I woke up, I'll hopefully for some kind of clue."

"Well, perhaps I should travel with you, just to be cautious." He stepped toward her, the mists already forming at his feet.

"No," she stepped back. "I ca- I mean, I don't need a babysitter. For a guy who's not worried, you hide it very well by acting concerned." She tried to get him to leave. She refused to allow herself to become attached to this world in any way.

"If Naraku is after you, you should be very careful," he warned her.

"I know and I will. Thank you and good night," she turned and walked away, seeing that he wasn't going to. Before she realized what she was doing she sped up until he was out of range of her senses. When she did stop, she leaned against a tree and slip to the ground on her knees, clutching at the wounds on her arm and stomach. "Why did I have to be so stupid! I let my emotions get the best of me and forgot any and all control of my mouth. I can never let that happen again." She rested for a while longer, but got up when she felt a shift in the air. She looked around noticed that the color and definition of things was suddenly much sharper, just like before a before a big rain.

"Perfect, just what I need. I had to be a dork and refuse to put an umbrella in my bag cause it would be too Mary Poppins. Well, I just hope it holds off until I can find somewhere to keep cover." She walked while talking to herself. There was a sudden crack of thunder and the sky seemed to have been torn open at the amount of rain that was poured forth. "Yep, this is just great..."

Her luck went from bad to worse. She kept walking, ignoring when each of her shoes came off in the mud. She cursed at the rabbit that ran out from it cover, tripping her in the process and causing her to land on her bum in the mud. When she finally found a rock face, she sat under a ledge, well, plopped is more like it.

She peeled off her socks, which by now were no longer serving any purpose at all. She came to a dilemma when it came to the rest of her clothes though. Her pants were soaked through and muddy, not to mention sticking to her in an unpleasant fashion. The same could be said about her shirt, minus the mud. She was highly unpleased by the fact that it was a white shirt. She could have slapped herself for that lapse in judgment but was thankful that she was wearing a bra, and even more so that it was a sports bra.

"You know what? Fuck the rules of common decency." With that said, she peeled off the shirt and rung it out. After digging futilely in her bag to find shorts or extra pants of some kind, she decided to follow her own advice and screw common decency. Her pants were gross, so instead of treating them like the shirt, she discarded them along with the mud-covered socks.

Angel resolved to wait the storm out under the ledge where it was at least relatively dry, if not warm. Being that it showed no signs of letting up anytime soon and that she could sense no demons close by, she gave in and laid down to fall asleep.