Chapter 2: Day 15

Kagome was fast asleep, the fox curled around her belly. Sango's hands itched for her weapon, but there wasn't a point, really. The bandages around her abdomen were too stiff, and without the jewel shard in her back she wasn't very fast. If the kitsune decided to make a move—which she admitted was unlikely, but possible—there wasn't much Sango could do on the other side of the campfire.

Her nightly dilemma, it seemed. Sango sighed.

They had left the Taijya village a fortnight ago. Her strange companions had been oddly kind, helping her with the burying of the dead, allowing her to rest, but within a few days Sango started to feel stifled. She wanted to hunt down Naraku immediately—every day, the trail grew colder, her memory of the castle less distinct. The hanyou, of course, had been all too ready to leave weeks ago. It was the monk and Kagome that were less sure, wanting Sango to rest. Still, she had convinced them that she was fine. The night they set out she felt an odd form of accomplishment.

Until she had seen the kitsune snuggle into Kagome's bed roll like he belonged there.

The next day, she got Kagome alone. "Why do you sleep with the kit?"

"What?" Kagome was busy putting away these weird metal dishes that they had used to cook.

"He isn't yours; why do you sleep with him?" Sango persisted.

Kagome paused, her nose scrunching. "I don't understand," she said slowly. "Don't you sleep with Kirara?"

Sango had dropped it, because it was clear Kagome had no idea what she was asking. It was not the same thing. Youkai by nature were not evil, just as human's by nature were not good. This her father had stressed all her life, and it was the main reason he had insisted Sango train with Kirara since girlhood in the first place. But the walkers, those that took on human form, were by choice duplicitous. Bewitchment, enchantment, illusion. And for those that could not sense the youkia's spiritual energy, the yoki…

All walkers were predators. Beneath they're pretty facades, their sweet words and voices, were creatures whose nature was to feed.

It was clear to Sango that Kagome had not been taught these distinctions. Unfortunately, not many were and it was why the job of a Taijya was so important. Part of her wanted to shrug her shoulders and move on, because you couldn't save everyone. She knew this; it had been drilled in her head day in and day out, especially after a hunt that went poorly or a village they had failed to save. Maybe Kagome would be fine today, and tomorrow. Maybe the kitsune child would never harm a hair on her head; often, familial attachments could override primitive instincts at the onset of youkai's transition to adulthood. But that didn't mean Kagome shouldn't know that on another day, with another demon, everything might change.

Kagome mumbled something in her sleep. Long lashes lay quiet against her pale cheeks. Sango sighed. She pressed her back more firmly into the tree. Her vigil would be quiet and long.

A twig snapped to her left and instinctively Sango whirled to her knees. Bright yellow eyes burned into her face a yard away, causing her heart to jump. If he were a little closer—Sango's fingers twitched, before she forcibly relaxed them against the sheathed dagger at her hip.

Inuyasha sat easily on his haunches, claws idly carving the dirt beneath him. Small grooves raced up and down the earth beneath his feet. His expression was unreadable. The light of the fire flickered, catching the sharp lines of his cheekbones, the straight nose, the long curling lashes around those bright, glowing eyes.

Her heart skipped again. Sango grit her teeth, looking at the ground.

"Go to sleep."

She jumped, glancing up in surprise. Inuyasha was glaring, but it had definitely been him. His voice had a certain…sound. Her heart was beating too fast and it was pissing her off that she could hardly hear her own thoughts over its incessant tattoo. She cleared her throat.

"I intend to," Sango said shortly. Kirara was off hunting, and now a days, she could hardly close her eyes without the feel of that fur against her back.

Inuyasha grunted, his lips an angry line. After a moment, he said, "Nothing's going to change."

Sango blinked slowly. "Excuse me?"

"Her." Inuyasha shrugged his shoulder in the direction of Kagome. "It doesn't matter what you say to her, she's fucking stubborn." She must have looked surprised, because he sneered. "Do you think I have these ears because I like them? You were fucking loud as hell, asking her about the kit." He paused, eyes drifting back to Kagome. "If she listened, I'd have sent her home ages ago."

Sango stared at the ground at his feet, feeling her muscles tighten with every breathe. "I see," she said, feeling cold. "So you just let her walk with danger because she won't listen."

Inuyasha bared fangs. She almost smiled at it. Talking made things confusing. It was too easy to be lulled into complacency, or worse, let her mind fool herself into thinking everything was normal. Threats, she knew how to deal with. Fights, she maybe even loved. Simple, black and white, right and wrong.

Inuyasha clenched a fist in the dirt. "You can shut up. You don't know what you're talking about."

Kohaku squinted in the light, waving his sickle awkwardly at a a fly buzzing near his face and causing Sango's pulse to stutter until he put it down. He was hesitant. "Do you think…do you think I'll do okay?"

She held her breath. There was love, and it took all the choices she wanted to make and left her with only the choices she couldn't refuse. "Of course you will."

Don't know? Like she didn't know what it meant to make risky choices for someone she loved? Sango narrowed her eyes. Suddenly, she could hardly restrain herself from wanting to punch his jaw out over and over again. "Why don't you just stop there," she warned.

Inuyasha keh'd, standing to his feet. He began walking towards the trees.

Didn't know. Like he had even an inkling of what her family meant to her. He couldn't. He was just a…

"Hanyou," she scoffed, turning her back to his retreating form.

She didn't see it coming. One moment she was turning to look at Kagome, the next Sango was shoved forward on her knees, a clawed hand around her neck. Her ribs shrieked in protest. Instinctually, she let the blade on her arm shear free from its sleeve and aimed it back, only for a familiar clawed hand to grab her elbow and grind her arm into the ground. She struggled forward, trying to push up with her other arm.

His weight hit her like a rock. She hit the ground, gasping around a mouthful of dirt. Hot breath stirred the hairs around her ear.

"Your attitude is starting to piss me off," he growled lowly.

Sango forced her head to the side, spitting dirt between her teeth. Her eyes stopped at her arm blade. He was gripping the blade by the shaft. It had cut so deep she could see the white of bone.

Something in her quieted. She fisted the ground, feeling the needle-like leaves prick on her skin.

"Get off me," she said, trembling. She turned to his see his face, angry and so much like—her breath caught and she blinked painfully at the ground. "Get. Off."

She felt his body shift, felt the grip on her neck lessen. He was confused, she could tell. He wanted to understand what she meant, by her words, by her actions. But he wasn't getting off. She gasped a breath, growling out "If you don't…" and than jerked her blade back.

Her blade met air as he whipped his head back. Then, just as quickly as he had come, Inuyasha was gone. Sango scrambled forward and turned around just as Inuyasha landed in a crouch near the tree line. Amber eyes gleamed at her like faceted gems in sunlight. He didn't look at his hand, even as he idly raised it to his lips and licked. She was shaking.

"Don't. Do that. Again." She forced out between heart beats. Or I will kill you. The last, though unspoken, was loud and clear.

After a moment, Inuyasha stood up to his full height and crossed his arms. His expression was guarded as he stared down at her. There was something assessing there that she had never seen before—had not thought him capable of.

"Go to sleep," he growled He waited expectantly, but when she did not move, snorted. "Fucking stubborn," he muttered and turned on his heel. In a moment, he had faded into the shadows, as quietly as if he had never been.

Sango didn't care. She wasn't paying attention anymore. She just stared straight ahead, blood pounding.

The forest was dark. Quiet. Eventually, the roar in her head was little more than the rustle of grass by the wind and the crackle of timber.

Slowly, Sango's attention drifted up to the campfire. Kagome was murmuring in her sleep, shifting restlessly in her bag as Shippou slept blissfully on. Sango watched her for a long moment before she carefully scooted back, pressing the bark of a tree tightly to her spine.

She did not go to sleep that night.