Don't throw anything at me please….explanation's in the 'Ranting' section of my profile. Go read it before you harm me, please. Could someone tell me how to get a question mark and an exclamation point to show up next to one another? It would be greatly appreciated. Gah.I won't waste much time here. Review responses will be at the bottom again.
Disclaimer: Roses are evil, violets are weird. I'll own Inuyasha when he grows a beard….
Inevitable
Chapter Twelve
The Calm before the Storm
Inuyasha and Kagome passed the time with casual small talk as they slowly made their way toward the village. They were now on the subject of their companions—a very interesting topic indeed. Kagome laughed again as Inuyasha continued to tell her of his "adventures" with his friend, Miroku.
"He groped the lord's daughter?" she paused with a giggle. "Surely, you exaggerate. Your friend can't be that stupid."
Inuyasha scoffed at that. "Believe me; he can. Though, if he tries anything on you, don't be afraid to knock the living daylights out of him. Not that he'll learn anything from it, but it might make you feel better to take your anger out on him"
Kagome raised an eyebrow and looked over at him as they continued to make their way through the woods. "Hit him? I don't know if I'd be able to hit a follower of Buddha—" Inuyasha snorted at that. "—and if you don't mind me asking, why does it sound like this happens on a regular basis?"
"Because it does happen on a regular basis. It's like a damn part of his daily schedule."
Kagome laughed again. "You certainly have odd tastes in friends, Inuyasha, but that can be a good thing."
"Keh. I don't see how having a letch for friend helps me…"
Kagome placed her finger on her chin as she thought about it for a second. "Ah! I know! What if there were some giant female demon attacking you guys, but you were trapped in its jaws with,…uh, your hands tied behind your back? And then, the only way to defeat the demon and save your life was for Miroku to grope it to death?"
When he didn't say anything, she turned around to see that he'd stopped walking and was fixing her with a look that clearly stated 'Does that even begin to deserve a comment?'.
Well, it was better than calling her stupid outright… She blushed, but laughed slightly. "I was only joking, you know?"
"…Right…." He answered unsurely, but he began walking beside her again.
Kagome quickly recovered and began chatting again. "Well, I have a friend too. Actually, she's more like an older sister to me. Her name's Sango. Right now, she's probably mad at me for staying out so late…"
They continued their friendly chat the whole way there.
Arriving at the village, Sango introduced Miroku village head, who would hopefully find Miroku a place to stay for the time being. They were currently sitting around the fire in the middle of the front room of the hut, sipping tea offered to them by one of maidens that worked in there as they discussed where Miroku could stay.
"Ah, so you're in need of a place to stay, am I correct?" the owner of the home questioned the monk.
Miroku sighed. This was the third time the man had asked him that. He was currently drunk, and reminded Miroku very much of Mushin… He briefly wondered why the head of the village would be a drunk, but decided instead to repeat himself.
"Yes, Atoshi-sama. I've been traveling for quite a while and wou—"
Atoshi jumped up with a grin on his face. "I've just the thing for you. Come, come!" Atoshi arose and he led Miroku down a hallway. He slid open the shoji door and allowed the monk to peer inside. His eyes nearly rolled out of his head at the sight. "In return for your promise to keep demons away for your entire stay, I grant you a woman of your choice to keep you company."
The girls inside turned towards him and smiled. Some giggled flirtatiously while others motioned him towards themselves. Sango had chosen that moment to look over the monk's shoulder to see what was going on and nearly gagged on the spot. "Houshi-sama! You don't have time for that! Didn't you say you had a friend? I'm not too sure she would approve…"
Miroku glanced at her then smiled miroku-y. Clasping her hands within his own, he spoke. "My dearest Sango, I thank you for your concern, but I wish to remind you that my companion is not a she…"
At this, Sango paled and slightly inched away from the monk. Realizing how she had misinterpreted his words, his hands flew up and waved furiously back and forth in the air as he shook his head.
"No, no! You misunderstand! I assure you that I am not like that. He's just and childhood friend."
Miroku looked at the woman and wondered why she was still looking at as if he had grown an extra two or three heads. She wasn't looking at him. He followed her gaze to their still clasped hands. He'd begun to caress them? How'd that happen? Oh well,… she wasn't complaining…
Sango had begun blushing as soon as the monk had taken a hold of her hands. Now he was stroking them. "Ah, Houshi-sama—" she was cut off.
"If you want, you could be the one to keep me company, dearest Sango-chan…" the perverted monk suggested, grinning widely at the taijiya.
Sango's face did a perfect imitation of a tomato right then. Her face both hot red in anger and in embarrassment, she opened her mouth to let him have a piece of her mind when she suddenly felt something brush against her backside that she knew not to be the wind.
SMACK!
"You damn pervert! And here I thought you to be a holy man! What kind of monk are you!"
Miroku rubbed his cheek where she had slapped him and cradled it almost lovingly. "One of a kind, my dear Sango. One of a kind."
"I believe that…" she muttered to herself.
Atoshi, realizing that he'd been forgotten about during the little tirade between the two sauntered over to the girls instead, blowing kisses their way. The girls, creeped out by the drunken old man heading towards them, began to inch away from him.
"Now, now girls. Who wants a monk when you can have me!" he called as he struck a random model pose.
The girls sweatdropped and all backed away very quickly at the same time in order to evade him.
By now, Sango and Miroku had taken notice on what was going on around them. Sango sweatdropped and called out to the drunk. "Atoshi-sama, What about Miro—"
Before she could finish, the said man passed out in a drunken stupor. The women inside the room walked up to his unmoving body and proceeded to prod him with various objects. Questions fluttered throughout the room.
"Is he alive?"
"Who gave him so much sake?"
"Who's going to move him this time?"
Sango sighed. "Well, that didn't work out."
Miroku smiled. "I could always stay with you." Sango fixed him a hard glare and he once again raised his hands in an apologetic manner. "Only a suggestion, only a suggestion." Sango rolled her eyes.
Sango led Miroku out of the hut. "Well, there is one that no one is currently living in. Though, I don't know exactly why we have a spare hut… Would that be okay with you?"
Miroku bowed to her almost mockingly. "Why yes, my lady. It would be most delightful."
Sango sighed and escorted him the said hut near the outskirts of the village. "Well here you go. I could bring you a mat if there isn't one in there. Do you need one for your friend as well?"
Miroku, still looking at the 'doorway' shook his head. "That won't be necessary." He then turned his gaze on Sango. "However can I repay you?"
Sango blushed. "Oh you don't nee—…" she was cut off by the feeling of something stroking her upper thigh.
SMACK!
"Damn it! This is the third time today, Houshi-sama! And I just met you! You don't even know me that well! What gives you—"
"We could get to know each other better…" He winked.
"Ugh! You're impossible!" Sango accused as she stomped off towards her own hut, as Miroku merely chuckled.
"Goodnight, San-san," he called.
"Don't call me that!"
Miroku laughed again and went inside the little hut.
While Sango was stomping towards her hut, various thoughts on how to kill a certain monk without getting caught filtered through her mind. She honestly didn't know why she was upset with him, seeing as she only just met him and probably would never speak to him again. "But he just…oh!" she ended with a huff and returned to her previous thoughts of killing him. So into her thoughts, she didn't even realized that she had bumped rather hard into an odd man with super-long hair not from the village, nor did she hear his rather rude comment to her.
She finally made it to her hut and nearly ripped the mat from the entrance. She stomped to the opposite end of the hut something about 'castrate' and 'damn perverts'. A sharp cough from someone else in the room with her brought her out of her reverie. She looked over to a corner closest to the hut's entrance and noticed a figure with a bowl clutched in her hand. She blinked. "Kagome-chan?"
The figure laughed nervously. "Uh…hi Sango."
When Kagome and Inuyasha arrived at the village, they heard the rather painful (but rather routine to Inuyasha) sound of flesh-hitting-flesh.
Inuyasha grunted. "That's Miroku. Wonder what he did to some poor girl this time…Wait—I take that back. I don't want to know what he did."
Kagome looked surprised. "That's your friend?" Inuyasha nodded. "Ouch, must've not been very good if he was repaid with that." Then they faintly heard curses from a feminine voice and realized that the girl was chewing him out. They winced in unison.
Inuyasha sighed. "Well, I better go see if that letch is still alive."
Kagome sweatdropped. "That might be a good idea. I still have to get home and pray that Sango isn't too upset with me."
A brief silence wafted through until Kagome broke it. "So, uh, I'll see you later?"
Inuyasha, looking slightly surprised, answered unsurely, "Sure, I guess…"
"Great! See you around Inuyasha…if Sango lets me live that long," Kagome called as she went towards her own hut, waving at him.
Inuyasha didn't wave in return, but allowed a small smirk-like smile to grace his lips. "Bye…"
She flashed him a beautiful smile before disappearing into her home. The smile on Inuyasha's face promptly left.
That smile of hers... It was just like...
"Kagome..."
A brief image of a little half-demon girl smiling and calling out to him filtered through his mind.
He shook the thought away. This couldn't be his Kagome. This was Kagome a human for crying out loud! But then again, hadn't Kagome's human transformation been on the same night as his--the night of the new moon? This couldn't be her...after so many years. And just to find her so easily? No. Kagome wouldn't just appear out of nowhere.
Great. Now his lifted hopes had been smashed, battered, and burned.
He sighed. When would he find her?
He was knocked out of his thoughts when a girl that had been stomping past him had roughly rammed her shoulder against his and kept going as if she hadn't even noticed. He glared at the girl when she didn't even mutter a "sorry".
"Oi! Stupid wench! Watch where you're going!"
She ignored him.
"Keh," he muttered, "stupid human."
Kagome entered the hut to find that Sango wasn't there. She sighed in relief. Maybe she could pretend that she'd been home the entire time, and Sango just hadn't noticed. Her thoughts switched gears when her stomach growled at her to remind her of its need for some sort of sustenance. Kagome, decided to find something to eat, lest it decide to devour her from the inside out. She looked on the shelves, finding nothing of real value, except for a slightly cold bowl of stew. She sighed, but picked it up. "Well, this'll have to do…" she began to eat it, too hungry to heat it up.
BAM BAM BAM!
Sango had decided to make her appearance just then, and stomped through the entrance and right past Kagome, not even noticing her. She profusely damned Miroku to the seven hells and back again, muttering random curses such as "castrate" and "damned monks".
Kagome, seeing that Sango wasn't going to notice her any time soon, coughed to get her attention. Sango whirled around to face her and blinked. "Kagome-chan?"
Kagome grinned sheepishly and allowed a nervous laugh to escape her. "Uh…hi Sango."
Sango folded her arms over her chest in a very calm manner. Her mood shifted quickly from extremely annoyed to eerily calm. Kagome tried to back further into her corner, knowing that that look meant trouble. "Kagome?" Sango asked in a tranquil voice.
She gulped. "Yes?"
"Where have you been?" Sango questioned in the same composed manner.
"I-I told you. I went to the hot spring to bathe."
"Yes…you did say that. But may I ask you what took you so long to return? Why you had me go with those girls? And would you care to explain why it is your fault that I ended up escorting a corrupt monk into the village as he tried to grope me?" With every question Sango threw at Kagome, her tone raised a little.
"Well I might've fallen asleep…"
That did it.
"Fallen asleep! Fallen asleep! Do you not know what could've happened to you while you were out there all alone! What if something had come and torn your heart out while you slept?"
"Sango I—"
"And you fell asleep in the water I bet! What if you had just drowned? No one would know what happened to you!" Sango continued to berate her surrogate sister.
"I know, but—"
She sighed. "What am I going to do with you, Kagome?"
Kagome grinned. "You could always forgive me!"
She sighed again. " I guess so..." Then she got a closer look at Kagome, and her eyes darted out the sole window of the hut to the blank space where the moon once resided. Her glare snapped back to Kagome. Kagome had to hold back a wince. "It's your human night and you fell asleep outside!"
Kagome sighed. 'So much for the easy way out.'
Sango continued to rant for a good while, when her thoughts took a sharp turn, and shifted to someone else. She was fuming about a monk now… Curious as to who she was talking about, and wanting to keep Sango's anger on another object, she asked who she was talking about. Sango replied by relaying the day's events to her.
"And then he laughed about it! Laughed about it as if nothing was wrong! Hey! That's not funny, Kagome!"
Kagome could barely contain her laughter when Sango started telling her about Miroku. She finally burst and was giggling madly. "I'm sorry, Sango. But you've gotta admit, that is pretty funny."
Sango hmphed. "I don't see anything funny about it…He needs to keep his hands to himself. What are you thinking about?" she asked when she noticed Kagome was tapping a finger to her chin and looking at her slyly.
"Well, well, well. I've never thought you to be one to get so worked up about a boy, Sango. Is there something you're not telling me? Hmm?"
A furious blush of bright red lit up Sango's face and she sputtered indignantly. "K-Kagome!" Kagome laughed again and Sango sighed. "You're hopeless," and proceeded to half-heartedly toss a basket at Kagome's head.
"Your aim's getting pretty weak there, Sango." All she received in reply was Sango rolling her eyes.
Not allowing her friend to think that she had forgotten about the previously mentioned subject, she once again brought up the boy that Sango had been talking about. Sango blushed and tried to assure Kagome that it was nothing like she thought it was.
"Oh, really, Sango-chan? Hmm. Would you then care to explain the sudden coloring of your face. That couldn't be a blush, could it?"
Averting her eyes from Kagome's mocking gaze, she tried to defend her dignity. "For the last time, it's not what you think! I want to strangle him, not whatever it is you're conjuring in that wild imagination of yours, Kagome."
Kagome blinked at her innocently. "Hmm? I don't remember mentioning anything like that Sango. I believe someone has a guilty conscious."
Sango sighed, finally giving up. "You're insufferable, do you know that?"
Kagome grinned. "Well if it makes you feel any better, I met someone today too..."
Sango looked back at her and quickly cut her off before she could continue. "What? Is it a guy? Who is he? Why haven't I seen him yet? Where did you meet him? Heck, when did you meet him? How long have you hid this from me? Did you ever think that I might want to know who you're with? Why aren't you answering me? What..." Sango paused to take a breath.
Kagome took this opportunity to try and finish what she'd been saying a moment ago. "Sango! Calm down," she asked the older of the two.
Kagome then tried to answer all her question in respective order. "I met someone today. Yes, he's a guy. His name is Inuyasha. You should have seen him; he was outside but a moment ago. I met him at the hot spring. Once again, I met him today. I haven't hidden this from you at all. Yes, I know you want to know about every last scrutinizing little detail of my life. And I couldn't answer you because you wouldn't let me."
Sango took a moment to mentally match up all of Kagome's answers with her own questions. At the end of this, she had only one more question to ask. "So…when do I meet him?"
Kagome looked at her. I don't know…he probably won't be here for long. He says he's traveling with a friend, of whom, is probably here in our village. Inuyasha said that his friend was a supposed to be a monk. His name was something like…Meruko? No, that's not it…maybe it was Mikuro?" Kagome's brows knitted together as she tried to remember the lech/monk's name.
Sango's eyes widened as she started to make a connection. "Miroku?"
Kagome looked up at her. "Hn?" then she thought on it for a second. "Hey! That's it. But uh, how did you know?"
Sango muttered under her breath, forgetting that Kagome wouldn't be able to hear it on this night.
"What was that, Sango?"
Sango repeated herself louder this time. "I said that that's the name of the monk that I had the great pleasure of meeting today."
"Hey, you don't think that…" Kagome deliberately trailed off.
Picking up onto what she was asking, Sango nodded her agreement. "I'm pretty sure that we're talking about the same person. He told me that he was traveling with a friend. When I asked where his friend was, Miroku told me that he was quite antisocial on nights like this."
Kagome tapped her index finger to her chin. "Antisocial? He was talking to me, plenty…And what do you mean 'on nights like this'?"
Sango, not knowing the answer herself, shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe he's referring to the lack of moonlight." Sango grinned. "Or maybe he's a half demon like you, and you share the same human night."
Kagome rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and I bet in the morning, he'll come in here and sweep me off my feet and ask me to be his mate for forever more."
Neither of them noticing how close to the truth that their thoughts really were, erupted into a fit of laughter. Their laughing fit dying down, they decided that it was time for them to go to bed. They needed to get up early in the morning to do their routinely 'demon check' to make sure that no youkai that posed a threat to the village were nearby.
"We should be off to bed now, Kagome. We have to wake up early." Sango paused for but a second. "And don't you tell me that you don't need the extra rest. You're human for now, so go to bed," she finished in a way that left no room for discussion.
Kagome just rolled her eyes. "Ok, Sango. I am a little tired anyway…"
Sango nodded as she went over to lie down on her mat. She yawned and bid Kagome good night. Kagome returned the response as she too went to her mat. Kagome though, did not lie down. She wasn't tired, as she had told Sango but moments ago.
She yawned.
Ok, so maybe she was just a little bit tired, but she didn't think that she'd be able to sleep.
Her thoughts were swirling in her head at about a million miles per hour. They were mainly concerned with Inuyasha and that dream that she'd had at the spring. Her head was pounding now. She raised her hand to her head in an attempt to calm her racing thoughts. Apparently, some forgiving deity must've pitied her because her thoughts simmered down and the pain in her head melted away. This however left a wave of fatigue to wash over her. "How weird…" she yawned once more and once again curled up on her mat in the corner. This time, however, she was not kept awake by troubling thoughts and fell into a dreamless sleep.
Review Responses
Dragon Man 180.Ohhhh. I see! .:whaps self for stupidity:. They do make a good team, ne? And due to Sango's protectiveness in this fic, yes. Both she and Inuyasha would beat Miroku if he tried anything on Kagome. Hm…I almost feel sorry for the guy. Oh yes! Fire-breath would be lovely. Roast them to your (or my) heart's content!
Dark-demon2156.Lol. Maybe this is a miracle as well. Albeit a very belated miracle…but a miracle nonetheless. :D Heehee. I'm happy that you liked the chapter!
OreintalEmerald.Thank you! And yes, kikyou should die over and over again in a vicious and bloody cycle! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!
Clouds of the Sky..:waves finger:. Uh uh uhhhh. All will reveal itself in due time. Hee hee. Thanks a million for the review!
Sachichan16.Gracias! Here's the next chapter! .:points above:. Dun dun dun duuuuuuun!
Psycho-pyro-shrink.Thankies. Here it is! Ta daaaaa!
Shero. Merci:D
Shadowcat.Aaaarigatou.
Illdian the Half Demon. I'm glad that you like my story. As for them meeting in their half demon forms…that was supposed to happen in this chapter…but moving threw my schedule of a very high cliff that was covered in spikes at the bottom. Needless to say, my schedule died a rather bloody death… n.n;;
Guy. Thank youz. D No wait…double thank youz! You reviewed on mah birfieday! Heehee!
CenterLink22.You don't think they're short? Yay! O.o; ADD combined with the memory of a gnat isn't a good thing… o.o I'm glad that you had enough of an attention span to read and review my story though! n.n
Suteki-Tenshi.Thank you! n.n
Um….I don't have any food to give out right now…but I do have a whole bunch of little sample things from various hotels I've been in! Choose whichever goodie you want! And try to guess the mini-sample I have next to this laptop right now! XD Hee hee.
You know the routine. Good reviews get goodies and flamers are used to torch certain –cough- characters. .:evil grin:.
A/N: Ok…there was supposed to actually be some action in here, but I decided to go ahead and upload what I had stored on the documents (I added a little more) rather than wait a month until I got my computer and got my internet set up. So due to the lack of action in this one, I had to put it in the next chapter, thus making this one "The Calm Before the Storm". Be prepared…for my first ever fight scene. It's gonna suck… Oh yeah! For all you Shippou-lovers out there, he'll be here in the next chapter!
See yanext time!
-Naomi