The reunion was, as much as anything else, rather uneventful. Shippo saw them first, as they came around a bend. Sango was cradled in Inuyasha's arms, if only for so practical a reason as that his cloak didn't quite hang down past her waist while she was standing. Soon they were swarmed by their companions, with Kagome and Shippo rushing to hug them and Miroku carefully angling himself for the best possible view of the festivities. Kirara and Shippo both leapt into Sango's arms with such surprising force that Inuyasha came within an inch of sprawling backwards and depositing both himself and his living cargo in the river.
Sango was back on her own two feet soon enough, and Kagome scrambled to wrap a blanket around her before Miroku's predatory instincts took hold any more than they already had. Their tiny group suddenly seemed like a throng of people, as Kagome and Miroku gave Sango a thorough once over and fawned embarrassingly over even the smallest scratches on her porcelain skin. Then they whisked her up the bank, away from the chill of the river, and began shoving food at her as through she had been missing for a week.
Although Inuyasha usually would have been irritated not to be the focus of attention under such circumstances (He was the one who was nearly eviscerated by a demon hawk, after all), in this particular instance he was quite content to be left alone on the rocky shore. He watched them for a while as they chatted and laughed, seemingly ecstatic to see Sango after what was hardly more than a few hours of separation.
It'd be useless to try and get them moving again today, he thought to himself, though they had been going nowhere in particular to begin with.
His heart was heavy in his chest as he saw Kagome clinging to Sango in such an overwrought way. Even from the shore Inuyasha could see the slight grimace on Sango's face each and every time Kagome hugged her or offered her even a tidbit of food. He didn't consider his conscience to be his strongest attribute, but it seemed to have gained considerable clout since he woke up this morning in Sango's embrace. If his conscience was bothering him, he could only imagine how Sango, in many ways a much better person than himself, felt as Kagome practically fell all over herself to wait on her.
Inuyasha stood on the bank for what seemed like a very long time. After he had his fill of the uncomfortable situation, he huffed a sigh and slipped quietly away.
*****
There were no trees of any meaningful size along the stony riverbank, so Inuyasha found himself perched on a small protrusion of rock, which only the most ambitious witness could describe as a precipice, that jutted from cliff face. His left shoulder had been throbbing sharply all day, and some primitive part of him had vaguely hoped that he could somehow escape the pain by putting a few meters between himself and the ground. While he typically climbed trees to get a feel for the landscape, the view from his rocky perch was limited to the river itself and the cliff on the far bank. Even though sunset was fast approaching, the landscape was nothing but grey. Had he bothered to look up, he would have seen the top third of the cliff ablaze with warm light from the sinking sun, but such a thing never occurred to him.
Shouldn't have kissed her, moron.
This situation had certainly deteriorated. He had dismissed his thoughts about Sango as a passing fancy, content in the knowledge that he himself would never bring the matter to light. He had not banked on Sango taking the initiative, nor had he considered what course of action he might take if she did. Now things were worse than he had ever thought they could get.
"Stupid woman," he grumbled through clenched teeth. "Why'd she have to go and do something so dumb?"
Even as he said it, he was painfully aware that not even he believed his own rebuke. He rapped himself across the forehead with the butt of his palm.
The chilly evening air danced across his bare chest, and he glumly mulled over the idea of taking a dip in the river. Though he had mainly been hiding out all day so he wouldn't have to face Kagome, there was also the little matter of Shippo. As a fox demon, Shippo's sense of smell was only slightly less developed than his own. While Shippo might have dismissed his scent on Sango because she was wearing his cloak, the scent of the woman all over him would have been suspicious even to the naïve youngster. Inuyasha was practically covered in Sango's elusive, sweet scent. Shippo was such a precocious little turd that Inuyasha didn't think "I was just carrying her" would put the matter to rest.
Each breath filled his senses with nothing but Sango. He had known her scent before, of course, but only well enough to recognize it. Until the previous night he'd never paid any real attention to it. She smelled of warm spices floating on a cool summer breeze, almost like expensive incense; a natural, soft scent that was, to say the least pleasant.
Inuyasha shook the thoughts of Sango momentarily out of his mind. However pleasant her smell was, what had to be done had to be done. Inuyasha was steeling himself to plunge into the frigid rushing water below when Kagome's voice rang out.
"So there you are," she called from the ground beneath his perch. He had been too distracted to even notice her scent as she approached. "Why'd you run off like that? We were worried about you too, you know."
Inuyasha ventured a look at her, hoping his discomfort wasn't half as apparent as he thought it was. Since there first meeting, there had only been a handful of times when he wasn't happy to see Kagome. The others had all been because of Kikyo.
"Yeah, well, as you can see I'm perfectly fine," he called down to her. "As always," he added acerbically, almost as an afterthought.
"Will you at least come down here and talk to me face to face?" Kagome shouted up at him, struggling to be heard over the noise of the river. "I mean, twelve hours ago I thought you were dead. Is it too much to ask just to see you?"
"Can't you see me well enough from down there?" he shot back, not entirely sure what he meant by that.
Before the words were completely free of his lips, the prayer beads around Inuyasha's neck lit up with their familiar glow and the subduing spell attached to them drug him roughly from his perched and to the ground at Kagome's feet. Although the river had drowned out her cry of "sit", once on the bank Inuyasha could it hear it echoing along the cliffs .
"Alright," she cried angrily. "I don't have a clue what's gotten into you but can't you cut out the jerk routine for even a few minutes?"
The strength of the subduing spell was such that it was all he could do to raise his head, much less reply.
"I came looking for you to say I'm glad you're alright and here you are acting like you're too good to talk to me all of a sudden!" She was shouting at him now, though her tone made the sentence a question. "Just when I think that maybe, just maybe you're even halfway decent, you always find a way to prove me wrong."
You don't know the half of it, he thought ruefully. Though his strength had returned, he didn't even bother standing up because he probably deserved this.
"Don't you even have anything to say to me?"
Inuyasha couldn't be sure from his bird's eye view of the dirt, but it sounded like she was crying now. That certainly didn't light any fire under him to defend himself.
"I almost forgot, here's your cloak back you jerk!" There was extra emphasis on the last word followed by stomping footsteps he would have sworn came from an oni.
Something warm, and smelling vaguely of Sango was hurled at his head. He lay in the dirt for a long time, not in any particular hurry to get back to camp.