A/N: It's bad, I have no excuse.

Eavesdropping

She was hiding behind a tree surrounded by some bushes. She felt bad and didn't want anyone to see it. She glared at her hands - big and calloused almost like a man's hand - hands of a warrior, not a lady. The rest of her was just like them, strong, lean, agile, devoid of the gentleness and softness of a maiden.

Usually she didn't mind that, she had always wanted to be strong, capable, independent and able to protect others. But sometimes she felt... Well, as if she was less feminine than others. Especially after bathing with some village girls in a hot spring, like today evening. Kagome wasn't there, being back in her home to study, so she had joined the other girls to have some company. It had been pretty nice, talking to them, but when she had seen them move and look so lovely and gracefully, she had remembered once again, that her own movements were of a fighter.

No one would want to have a wife walking around like a boy and throwing punches like a smith. She had accepted this truth long ago, but lately she was battling the stupid hope that maybe...

She shook her head. It wasn't logical, to be realistic. She had seen many men looking at her with appreciation - for she was a truly skilled exterminator - but they always saw only that she was a youkai slayer. Even with make up and a skirt around her waist the fact that she was also a maiden seemed to slip unnoticed.

Only one man actually saw her as a woman, well, in a way. He was just a pervert and he couldn't just go and grab Kagome's butt if he wanted to stay alive. So maybe pestering her was just him trying to cope with the lack of pretty girls around when they were traveling? But lately his hand wasn't wandering towards her rear as often as it used to, so it looked that his interest in her was fading. She was glad, because she didn't enjoy her personal space being invaded like that, but at the same time she felt a bit bad. It wasn't the kind of attention she wanted, but it was attention... It wasn't the first time a man had been at first pretty interested to find a girl who could take on strong youkai, but then had lost interest after finding out she wasn't going to become a timid and submissive little lady.

Suddenly her musings were disturbed when she heard a familiar voice from the path running on the other side of her tree.

"Hello, lovely lady!"

She blinked at the greeting, but before she could do anything more she heard another person answering.

"Oh, good evening to you, monk Miroku," chirped a young girl's voice. "You aren't going to try and peek at the other girls in the spring? Because if you do..."

Sango's fists clenched.

"Oh, no, how can you suspect me to desire to do such a thing," the monk laughed. "I'm innocent, lovely lady. I'm looking for someone. A girl of stunning beauty. She's like a chrysanthemum among sakura blossoms of the village girls. I was supposed to find her in this area of the forest."

She bit her bottom lip. She knew that despite his claims he wasn't innocent and his perverted nature was as plain to see as Inuyasha's ears, but hearing him talking about another girl and about meeting another one was a bit too much for her.

She had to maim someone and Inuyasha was nowhere in sight to spar with her. So it left her with only one choice. She stood and, to her surprise, found herself face to face with one of the smith's daughters and Miroku, both peering at her from where she was now visible over the bushes.

Miroku's face, instead of wincing, lit up.

"Sango!" he exclaimed. His voice didn't sound alarmed and it stopped the girl from breaking his nose. "I was looking for you!"

"For... me?" the exterminator repeated, shocked. "But..."

"See you around, Sango, monk Miroku!" the smith's daughter giggled, winked at Sango and left in a hurry. Sango just stared at her until she felt Miroku's hand... which was for some reason grasping her hand instead of her butt.

Was the world ending...?

She glanced down to their joined hands and saw that there was a flower stuck between her fingers now - a pale chrysanthemum almost glowing in the dim light. She blinked and looked up to the a bit smug smile on Miroku's face.

"You were eavesdropping," he pointed out. "So you know it's for you, no need to act so surprised."

"I... I don't get flowers," she finally managed to form a sentence. The sour statement snuffled out the light in his eye, but only for a moment. His grip on her hand tightened.

"And this is why I, a wise monk, decided to change this," he proclaimed. "We all were so tired and busy lately. with all the fighting and searching. And since Kagome managed to convince Inuyasha to let her go home for the whole week, it looks like we can take it easy for a while. So... Would you give me the pleasure of having a walk with you this evening? The forest looks so lovely reflected in your eyes..."

She blushed when he moved a bit closer, his other hand coming around her waist to rest near the southern border of the safe land of the small of her back. He looked at her with the same intense look other girls were talking about and to be honest she wasn't sure what to do. His offer sounded so genuine and for once he wasn't acting perverted. He looked like he... Cared. His hold was strong, but not overly so, giving her a sense of security, but not restraining her movements. Butterflies fluttered n her belly and not for an unpleasant reason.

To say she wasn't unused to this kind of behavior from a guy - or this one guy in particular - would be an understatement.

But... She didn't mind that...

Her free hand lifted as if it had a mind of its own and the palm made contact with Miroku's cheek, causing him to blink in surprise. For the first time ever it wasn't a slap, but a gentle touch, a cases he found himself enjoying.

"A walk. And if you annoy me you're going to get back to the village crawling on the ground with bound ankles and wrists," the formidable girl in his arms warned, giving him a stern look before stepping back and leading him away from the hot spring path.

She was a woman unlike most of her time, even if in Kagome's time there were more like her. Pursuing her affection was a challenge, one that not many could handle. She was extraordinary and one should never forget it. Miroku had tried and failed to woo her the old way enough times to realize he had to try a different approach.

And, thankfully to Kagome's stash of romance light novels, he had a broad new one.