Chapter 4

(Awakening)

After much persuading Sango finally was able to coax Inuyasha and everyone else to get a move along to the next camping spot. Kagome had pretty much stayed silent ever since her and Inuyasha's brief but overall quite big tiff, occasionally shooting a few saddened glances towards an obviously quite pissed off hanyou. Sango, who had noted the change in her attitude towards Inuyasha didn't question nor even bother to ask either one why they weren't talking. It happened way too often for her to get very worried over, after all, things were normally back to perfect normalcy within a couple of days.

The group walked through the woods, trudging through many wet patches of moss or sludge until they reached a fairly dry spot on the top of a very large hill, overlooking the far off horizon.

"Well," Sango said as she hopped down from Kirara, the sometimes quite large and sometimes quite cute and small double-tailed demon cat, "This seems like a prefect lunch spot."

"Now that you mention it I'm starvin'." Inuyasha said walking around gathering up sticks.

"Interesting how dry this place is." Miroku said as he bent down prodding the ground. "It's almost as if it never rained here."

"Who cares!" Inuyasha said as he laid the sticks down and grabbed some rocks on the ground nearby. "I'm hungry as hell."

Miroku agreed and abandoned his curiosity for the warmth of a hot meal and a fire.

After lunch they headed out again, trudging through the wet sludge and unforgiving terrain until they reached another very wide, and very dry, grassy field. Inuyasha noted along the way through the field at the lack of demons that had neglected to come searching for the Shikon shards that Kagome possessed. Miroku merely nodded his head in agreement and re-assured everyone that it was most likely a mere coincidence.

Soon they came to the lower edge of the field which dipped down slowly into a small clearing enclosed by a few trees which slowly fed into the surrounding forest. Shippou, the small kitsune jumped down off of Kirara's back where he had been previously accompanying Sango and ran down the hill.

"Wow!" Came a small cry "Guys! Come see this!"

Inuyasha headed up the group as they made their way down the small slope and came into view of the entire clearing. Inuyasha's eyes widened just a little bit at the sight. The clear was fairly big and not too far off was a rippling brook, whose waters spilled coolly over smooth stones, shining in the evening sun.

"Wow Shippou." Miroku exclaimed as he bent down smiling at the happy kitsune who was currently dipping his hand happily in the cool water. "This place is nice."

"Well there's absolutely no use in fighting the weather for another spot, not too mention odds." Inuyasha said as he walked over the site, inspecting every blade of grass observantly, "We'll camp here for a little while."

Sango nodded and murmured something to Kagome who seemed to cheer up a little bit and slowly walked over to a spot in the grass and began setting up a camp. Inuyasha raised an eyebrow at this but merely decided to forget it, it was probably something about him anyways, girls were always doing that kind of crap behind his back anyways.

Night came and so did an almost complete full moon, which more than cheered Inuyasha up. He hated the new moon because of his human transformations but full moons were an entirely different matter. By this time a small fire was crackling merrily in the center and everyone was crowded around it happily, laughing and enjoying themselves. Of course the flames brought back bad memories for Inuyasha who figured it would probably be better to leave at the present time and get back later on when everyone was settled down.

Inuyasha slowly rose from his resting spot next to Miroku and slowly made his way towards the field. The night was really nice; it wasn't too warm or too cool. As far as summer nights go it was pretty much perfect, with only a few clouds in the sky to occasionally give the moon some fighting ground. He made his way up the slight hill and slowly found what he had been looking for. A small log which bore room for about three people laying not too far off from the top of the hill. Slowly Inuyasha felt himself sit down on the log, but soon realized that it wasn't quite as comfortable as he had originally thought that it would be and quickly abandoned it for the familiarity of the soft ground.

The moonlight slowly played upon his face as a small breeze blew, ruffling the grass near his head and made a soft rustling sound. Inuyasha hadn't been aware of how tired he had actually become because soon he was sound asleep, the moonlight illuminating his red kimono softly.

"Hey Inuyasha…"

"Hmmm…?"

"Love me…"

"Kikyo?"

"No…"

"Kagome?"

"No silly you don't truly love her remember…"

"Then who do I truly love…?"

"You'll find out soon… very soon"

"When!"

"As soon as you wake up…"

"What?"

"Wake up! Hey Inuyasha! Wake up!"

Inuyasha rolled over and felt himself wake up due to the wetness that he had just been covered in.

"Finally…" A soft voice said from behind.

"What do you mean monk?" Inuyasha said as he rolled back the other way to find himself facing a crouching Miroku hovering over him with a slightly worried expression on his face.

"You were babbling like a maniac, I thought you'd never shut up." He said as he smiled slightly and stood up offering Inuyasha his hand.

"I'm fine monk, I can easily get up myself." Inuyasha said standing up and brushing off the grass from his now slightly soaked kimono. It was a lot cooler out now and he was starting to regret rolling over into the wet grass.

"So What're you doing out here?" Inuyasha said sitting down on the log and focusing his attention on the monk.

"Same reason you're out here Inuyasha," Miroku answered taking a seat right next to the hanyou, "To think."

Inuyasha spat slightly and looked up towards the moon. He was really beginning to regret ever rolling over. Man! Why now! He thought as he shivered a little bit.

"Cold?" Miroku said a he looked over towards Inuyasha who was shivering slightly

"Yea, just a little bit." He answered as he took his arms out of his sleeves and shed his kimono.

"I could help you out you know." He said as he looked at Inuyasha.

"What do you mean by that lecher?"

Miroku smiled mischievously in such a way only he could. Inuyasha never really noted how nice his violet eyes looked in the moonlight. Wait! What did he just think! Miroku, looked over at him and smiled a little.

"Miroku, I…"

"Just shut up." He said as he took off his own dry kimono and draped it over Inuyasha's shoulders.

Inuyasha was slightly stunned but suddenly felt warm. Was it from the other man's kimono that now hung over his shoulders? No, Something closer, deeper was generating a warmth. Inuyasha was too tired to think, too tired to hardly breathe and the recent drenching of dew was not helping any. He was starting to drift off a little as time passed until the man beside him spoke.

"Hey Inuyasha."

"What?" he replied snapping out of his sleepy slur to face the monk.

"Have you ever noticed how the ones you always want seem to never want you back?" He asked as he stared out at the starry horizon.

Inuyasha was slightly taken aback by the question, which was more than puzzling to him.

"And you're referring to who?" He asked, his amber eyes fixed upon the monk and both ears pointed in his direction.

Miroku simply shook his head slightly and turned his head so that their eyes could meet. Those eyes! Inuyasha thought as he looked into the violet eyes glowing softly in the moonlight. They look so sad but…

Miroku looked at him for a few minutes before smiling his smile a little bit and replying.

"We should get back before it's too late to get any sleep at all."

Inuyasha's eyes dated on the ground for a few minutes before he got up and nodded in agreement. The two started to walk back towards the hillside slowly, taking in every ounce moonlight that they could. They slowly came closer to the edge of the field, and Inuyasha, who was walking a bit ahead (as always) slowly felt a hand jut out into his shoulder.

"What the!" Inuyasha started as he felt the kimono slide off of his back

"Relax, I just want my kimono back." Miroku said as he looked at the now stopped and startled hanyou and added playfully, "I'm sorry, did I scare you?"

"Keh!" Inuyasha spouted as he turned and started walking again. Tonight had been weird he thought to himself. He was noticing the monk more and just a minute ago when he had borrowed the kimono he had felt a feeling he had not felt in quite a while. Even just now when the monk's hand touched his shoulder Inuyasha had not felt startled, the reason in point of fact why he had stopped was actually because he was trying to figure out why it felt like there was still a hand there. Inuyasha reached a hand up to feel of his shoulder where Miroku's hands had touched. Even that had not happened in quite a while, not since the times he had spent with Kikyou. Of course though the real question was why everything was being associated with Kikyou. What was it that was generating all these things? What could the monk and Kikyou possibly have in common?

"Did I hurt you?" Miroku asked coming up beside Inuyasha and looking at him a little as they descended slightly down the last few little slopes of the little hill that separated their camp and the field.

"What." He replied puzzled, staring a little at the monk as they walked.

"You're holding your shoulder like its hurt." He said

Inuyasha became quickly aware that he hadn't removed his hand from the spot and quickly removed it feeling a little embarrassed and replied,

"Oh, um, no…"

Miroku smiled a little and kept walking beside the hanyou until they reached their campsite and bid goodnights to each other before walking off to separate sides of the camp to sleep. Inuyasha, who found himself a spot to sleep in a tree on the left hand side, had no intention of sleeping at first, his mind trying to piece together what had been happening, but eventually even his mind gave into sleep and he fell fast asleep.

(((T)))