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The Breakup

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As the hours passed and his anger faded, Miroku felt wave after wave of regret take its place. Sighing and sagging against the nearest tree, he felt like he wanted to curl up and die. In his heart of hearts he wanted to retract every word that he spilled from his mouth since they had found them. Those accursed words weren't truly a reflection on his opinions of Inuyasha, demon form or no, but of his own inner demons. In short he was afraid of what it meant, what it would mean for their small band of misfits. There had been a bizarre compulsion to alienate one in favor of the other, like he needed to pick sides, and the human version seemed the safer bet. That demon…uh, Inuyasha had always been dangerous whenever he took his demonic form in the past. A mindless killing machine that wouldn't listen to the voice of reason and who slaughtered man or beast that stood in his way. It made no logical sense that all this time there was an actual intelligent being lying in wait and that frightened him and fear makes people do stupid, stupid things. Closing his eyes, he slowly slid down the tree and leaned his head back as he rapped his head repetitively against the rough bark.

"You're going to do some damage if you keep that up," a snarky voice suddenly snorted beside him and out of instinct his hand flew up to smack the unexpected interruption when a firm hand caught his wrist mid-air, "If you're going to hit me, at least do yourself the dignity of making it more than a bitch slap."

"When on earth did you get here?" Miroku gasped as he clutched at his chest and glared at the demon giving him a cocky smirk. By Buddha, he always had known Inuyasha could be a silent predator when he needed to be but it was unnerving how close he had managed to get without him noticing.

"A while," Inuyasha teased lightly merely giving the monk a wolfish grin, "I dunno how you didn't realize I was there. I do have an aura and you do have spiritual powers."

"Why?" Miroku began breathlessly as he subconsciously leaned away from the menacing looking demon, "After what I said, why?"

"Had to follow you," Inuyasha snorted as he rolled a crick out of his neck, "A puny human like you is sure to get yourself killed."

"But why follow me? Why care if I die after what I said?" Miroku sighed as he leaned back and closed his eyes, "I made it clear I didn't care about you."

"Yeah, you were clear," the demon grumbled as he adjusted himself to sit more comfortably, "But you're still pack. Didn't really want you to leave and I didn't want you to think I'd banished you from the pack or nothing so…"

"You're not mad?" the monk sighed incredulously to which the demon set his jaw and rolled his eyes in response.

"Fuck yeah, I'm mad. You were a total dick!" Inuyasha scoffed before sighing and running his hand over his face, "But…but like I said you're still pack so if you'll submit, I'll forgive you. I mean, shit Miroku. You acted like…"

"What do you mean submit?" Miroku interrupted curiously, "What does that entail?"

"Always with the questions," Inuyasha mumbled under his breath before giving the monk a pointed look, "Since you're human I'll explain once. It's basically saying you know you fucked up, that you won't do it again."

"Can I just say that?" Miroku asked slowly as he gave Inuyasha an anxious side-eyed glance, "Or do I need to do something more?"

Inuyasha smirked at him before folding his arms in front of his chest and stated simply, "Sure."

"Sure?" Miroku chuckled nervously, "Just…just sure?"

When Inuyasha merely smirked at him, the monk took a deep breath, sat up and faced the demon giving him a very awkward smile, "I'm sorry?"

"Not good enough," Inuyasha snorted, "You were a total asshole so just sorry ain't gunna cut it."

Miroku deflated and stared at his hands for a moment as he furrowed his brow. It would be wrong to assume this was a trick or some type of mind game. He need to grovel his ass off if he wanted to really make things right and even then…

"I'm sorry that I doubted you, my friend," Miroku began as he let out a shuddering sigh, "I should never have said any of those things. I was…"

"Afraid. Yeah. Caught that," Inuyasha interrupted abruptly as he gave the monk a calculating look, "Wanna talk about it or do you want to pretend that never happened?"

"Pretend it never happened, honestly," Miroku snorted playfully as he gave the demon – who merely shrugged in response - a sheepish grin, "I truly am sorry."

"Whatever. Just don't do that again," Inuyasha sighed as he got to his feet and extended his hand to help the monk to his own, "Just letting you know, I'm not the one you've got to be afraid of because Sango is gunna kick your ass and none of us are going to save you."

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Inuyasha groaned and rolled over in the grass as he sluggishly blinked his eyes. What was he doing on the ground – did he fall? That wasn't like him. - and what the fuck was that weird dream? Something about Kikyo and powder and him and another him and…and…

Oh shit.