Word count: 200

For tragicamente, 2 of 2: Mir/Kag, "sneaky"

Cowardly Affections

It was a love that snuck up on her.

Hard to say when it happened. All Kagome knew was that one morning she woke up, and found herself looking at Miroku instead of Inuyasha. The rest of that day was like a dream: when a demon leapt out of the bushes, hissing, she stared at Miroku, standing out of reach, rather than Inuyasha as he destroyed the reptile.

And then she was watching him. She noticed the way he looked at his right hand every morning, discovered that his eyebrows expressed his mood, and learned that he tended to chew with the left side of his jaw rather than the right. She watched his fingers, graceful and quick, and their cleanliness, even when they hadn't bathed in days.

Sneaks were hardly respectable. Her love-- infatuation, more like-- had no honour. It wasn't even brave enough to take her by the shoulders and shake her with its fire. It only watched, and observed, stealing glances whenever it could. Which was why Kagome couldn't take this seriously; even if she couldn't stop thinking about Miroku. What a cowardly affection; she had to ignore it.

Unfortunately, sneaky things were often persistent in nature.