a/n: Hey guys I know its been a really long time but I'm finally out of college for the summer. I am not taking summer classes this year so hopefully I'll have more time to write. (Being a Chemistry major is hard y'all). Anyway, here's another chapter for MTB and I'm working on chapter 4 as I write this so hopefully not too long for an update. Anyone who is reading this and has stuck with me all this time thank you so much for your dedication to this story and my writing. Hopefully its worth the wait.
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha... If only... ;[
Mending the Broken
Chapter 3- The Hanyou's Conviction
The storm was beginning to worsen as Kirara landed outside the old demon slayer supply storage cave. Large balls of hail started to crash through the canopy as they rushed inside glad to be out of the fury of the storm. Inuyasha's eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness of the cave and he could see from what was left of the slayer's supplies that this cave had been ravaged by bandits and left forgotten quite a while ago.
Sango walked past him with her hand sliding along the wall of the cave so that she didn't trip over something in the dark. He almost reached out to catch her when she tripped but she'd already righted herself before he could move forward. In the back of his mind a voice told him that she was not as helpless as the priestess who had once held his heart. A stab of pain shot through him at the thought of Kagome but he pushed it aside as Sango moved past the rubble he'd seen when they first entered the cave and passed out of his sight. He briefly wondered how far the cave went back into the mountain as he hastened to catch up with Sango.
Moving around the ravaged supplies he rounded a sharp corner and came face to face with a solid wall. Confused for a moment he looked around and couldn't see the slayer or her neko companion anywhere.
"Sango," he called out as he smelled the area to try to locate his friend.
A moment later a large block of stone on the right side of the cave wall slid away and Sango stood in the space grinning at him with a lit lantern in her left hand.
"I'm here Inuyasha," she said with a grin as she looked at the awestruck look on his face, "Come now, you didn't think the slayer's would put all of their valuable supplies out in the open for anyone to steal did you? My clan had quite a few tricks up our sleeves."
She gestured for him to come into the separate cave room and as he moved past her she stepped on a small rock next to the door that caused the makeshift rock door to slide closed behind them. Kirara was already curled into a ball on an old pallet that had been used as bed located in the far left corner. There were three more beds alongside the ones Kirara was sleeping on. In the opposite corner were boxes of jellied foods preserved so they would not rot as well as blankets, clothing, and spare weaponry. This truly had been an emergency storage place for the slayers during their prime. They had planned for every possible outcome except the evil that was Naraku.
"Inuyasha?"
Sango's voice broke him out of his reverie and observations of the cave. She had a questioning look on her face but after a moment she simply smiled a sad smile and moved over to the bed Kirara was sleeping on and set the lantern down beside it. Inuyasha watched as she walked over to the pile of boxes and began to sort through some of the old clothing.
After a few minutes of searching through different boxes Sango found articles of clothing for herself, which she promptly shook the dust out of before tossing them onto her bedding. Returning to digging through the boxes she pulled out a black haori that looked similar to his fire rat robes but did not cuff around the ankles as his current robes did. Standing and shaking the dust out of the haori she walked to him and placed it in his hands.
"I'm not sure if this will fit you Inuyasha but it's the closest thing I could find to your robes and I didn't think you'd want to sleep in sopping wet clothes all night."
"This is fine. Thanks Sango," he replied while looking the robes over.
With a smile Sango walked back to her bedding and with her back to him started to undress. He quickly turned his back to her so he couldn't see her changing. He knew that as a slayer she had to change in front of men before when preparing for battle or during training but he still respected her privacy and he felt very perverted watching women change. After a moment to get over his embarrassment he stripped his robes off and began to change into the haori that Sango had handed him. It was slightly big on him but was very comfortable and much better than his wet clothing had been.
"That looks very nice on you Inuyasha."
Turning around he saw Sango in a deep blue kimono with grey stitching along the sleeves. It fit her more snugly than her normal traveling kimono but was looser than her slayer's suit.
"Thanks Sango, same to you."
She laughed and smiled as she moved to grab his wet robes from the ground where he'd discarded them. After she draped their wet clothes over the crates to dry during the night she moved back to the bedding and sat down next to Kirara. Choosing the bedding closest to hers and between hers and the cave entrance he lay down as well; after a few moments of shuffling around both of them were lying comfortably in their respective beds. As Sango reached over to extinguish the lantern she paused and looked at him.
"Inuyasha?"
"What is it Sango?"
"I want you to know that I will never betray you. I will always be here for you no matter what happens in the future."
As she said this her face was completely serious. Her eyes shone with unshed tears but her expression remained set. He knew that she was thinking about the monk's betrayal and wondered if she was thinking about Kagome's betrayal as well.
"Thanks Sango."
He couldn't manage to say anything else because the emotions he'd been bottling up were beginning to come to the surface. He bit his fang into his lip to keep tears from forming in his eyes, as the wound inside him seemed to burn once more.
Without another word Sango extinguished the torch and rolled over to sleep with Kirara curled next to her head. As he lay on his back looking at the blank stone ceiling he could not help but let his mind wander. His mind replayed everything that he'd been through with Kagome and he couldn't stop the lone tear that ran down his cheek. The woman he had devoted his life to and put his life on the line for many times had betrayed him in a way that hurt worse than when Kikyou had pinned him to the Goshinboku.
For tonight he resolved himself to mourning for what he had lost when Kagome found love with another. Tomorrow would be a new day and he would not allow Sango to see how lost and alone he felt. After all, she was lost and alone too and needed his strength there beside her. He could smell her tears but could not hear her sobbing and that strengthened his resolve further. Sango had lost more than anyone in their group but had kept fighting regardless. For her he would ignore the pain he felt at loosing his love once more because when everyone else had abandoned him Sango had always stuck by his side.
Rolling onto his side Inuyasha closed his eyes and allowed his consciousness to slip away with thoughts of Sango fighting beside him in his mind's eye.
~~~~~~ Sunrise~~~~~~
Inuyasha awoke to the sound of yelling and crashing outside the cave. Within moments he was up with Tetsaiga in his hand and running toward the entrance to their small room. It took him less than a second to see that Sango and Kirara were no longer in the room with him which meant that whatever was happening outside the cave they were likely involved in.
Impatiently he waited for the stone door to slide open far enough for him to slide through; his black haori scraping dust off the wall as he slid past. He could tell that the storm from the night was still raging outside because of the smell of rain and the sound of thunder. Rounding the corner that contained the raided boxes he could see twenty or so large snake demons slithering and striking at Sango and Kirara who slashed back with wakizashi and claws. Without hesitating he transformed Tetsaiga from the rusty looking blade into the large fang that it truly was and began to slice the demons into pieces. It felt so good to take his anger out on these demons stupid enough to mess with them. Sango dodged another strike and took the head off the snake demon before it could recoil.
"About time you woke up Inuyasha! For a moment there I thought you'd sleep through the whole battle," Sango yelled with a smile as she sliced through another demon while dodging two more whipping their tails towards her.
"Ya, ya… I'm surprised you haven't killed all these weak ass demons yet Sango. Sure you're not loosing your touch?"
With a laugh she jumped forwards and started slicing through the demons with ease. Dodging and ducking under the fangs and tails lashing out she almost looked like she was dancing.
"I had to save some for you Inuyasha. After all you said you wanted a piece of the next demon we came across."
He couldn't help but grin at their battle banter and how easily they fought together. It only took a few minutes to slay the remaining snake demons even without using any of Tetsaiga's techniques or Sango's Hiraikotsu. Looking down at their temporary clothing both realized they were covered in demon gore and guts.
He looked over at Sango who was wiping a streak of demon blood off her cheek and couldn't help but smile. Sango looked up at him and immediately began laughing at his disheveled and gore covered hair and haori. After a few moments of staring at each other both were laughing and pointing out pieces of demon stuck to the other. Kirara sat near the entrance of the cave delicately licking her paws and cleaning her ears with a roll of her eyes at her masters' antics.
When their laughter finally died down the two warriors looked outside and the continued heavy rainfall. He idly wondered what they would do with the remains of the snake demons but decided he'd leave that decision to Sango since she was the expert. His slayer companion stood near the entrance looking out at the rain with a sad smile. He could only imagine where her thoughts were wondering; was it to the philandering monk who had broken her heart countless times or was it to the ruins of her village that they were travelling to and intent on rebuilding. Either way he knew they couldn't make any progress today with the amount of rain beating down so he decided to leave her to her thoughts. As he began to turn away her voice stopped him.
"Oh Inuyasha, I almost forgot with all the ruckus but Kirara went out scouting the surrounding areas and killed a doe for supper. If you'd like to skin it and section out the meat Kirara and I will dispose of the demon remains."
As she said this Kirara transformed and trotted out into the rain only to return a moment later with the doe hanging limply from her fangs. She floated over the demon carcasses and deposited the deer at his feet.
"Sounds like a plan to me."
"Great! I'll start cooking when I get back. Thanks Inuyasha," she said before trotting back into their small separate cave.
Pulling out a large sheet made of tanned bear demon hide from the supply boxes Sango returned to the main cave and started tossing snake demon remains onto the old hide sheet. Deciding he'd better get to work on his task he walked to the entrance of the cave and washed the demon gore off himself before settling down to prepare the doe.
After half an hour Sango had cleared out the demon remains though he had no idea what she'd done with them. He had the deer meat set out and ready when Sango returned sopping wet with a completely soaked Kirara in tow. Both looked fairly annoyed at the weather and he couldn't help but think he'd gotten the better half of the deal; at least she wasn't covered in snake demon guts and blood after returning from the rain though.
"Got the demons taken care of Sango?"
"Well it was far more of a hassle getting rid of them than it was killing them but Kirara and I found a nice deep pit not too far from here that we managed to start a fire in to burn the remains."
The look on her face was priceless. Poor Kirara looked miserable as well as she sat on one of the unused beds trying to lick the water off her fur.
"What about you Inuyasha? Ready for supper?"
"Damn right. I haven't eaten since lunch yesterday."
With a roll of her eyes Sango set about pulling old pots and cooking supplies out of the supply boxes. It really was a shame that all this planning and preparing had all been for not. Sango was the only one left who even knew about the slayer's secret hideouts and if she had not returned no one would have ever known these items were hidden.
"We've got to go out into the main cave to start a fire Inuyasha. My father had planned to find a way to cook within this room but he never got around to it before…"
She trailed off as her thoughts returned to the massacre of her family and her people. A stab of guilt shot through him as he remembered his promise to her that he would return her brother to her alive. Yet another person he had vowed to protect but had failed to do so. His own thoughts quickly spiraled downward before Sango spoke up once more.
"Well I'm going to go start a fire and get supper cooking before I change out of these wet clothes; that way you don't have to wait too much longer Inuyasha."
With that she walked back into the main cave and out of his sight. Remembering how he'd failed to save her brother and how he'd failed to keep Shippo safe only served to strengthen his resolve to go with her and restore the slayer's village. She was truly the only person he had left now that Kagome had chosen another and Shippo was gone. In his mind he vowed to stay with Sango until she decided it was time for him to go; he had nowhere else to go anyway and he refused to allow his last precious person to die alone in her village or out slaying demons.
'I've got your back Sango… No matter what.'
a/n: So this may be a bit of a filler chapter to some but I'm trying to take more time to develop the characters and flush them out more than in the original story this is based on (Mending A Slayer's Broken Heart). Like I said I'm working on Ch 4 now so hopefully it'll be up soon. Thanks!
As always, READ AND REVIEW PLZ!
