A/N: Moshi moshi, mi-na! It's been a while since I've posted anything. I'm sorry to those of you who have been following Sailor Moon and the Shadow Warriors and have been waiting patiently for an update. I've just been going through a lot of stuff lately and as a result I've been neglecting my story. I promise I'll update ASAP, hopefully within the next week or so. But first I wanted to get this new story I've been working on out there. This is my very first yaoi fic, so please give me a little leeway in your reviews. If you don't like yaoi, DON'T READ THIS FIC! I don't need to be pestered by bigoted flamers telling me that it's gross, or homosexuality is a sin, or other B.S. like that. For the rest of you, please enjoy.

Disclaimer: If I owned the rights to Inuyasha, then Inuyasha and Miroku would be together within the manga/anime. Seeing as that's not the case, I evidently don't own the rights to the story or its characters. I do own the rights to this story, though ^-^.

Inuyasha and Miroku: Warriors, Friends, Lovers

Chapter 1: Meaning

It was a bright, sunny day in Feudal Era Japan, and Inuyasha, along with Kagome, Sango, Shippo, and Miroku, was once again in search of jewel shards in order to complete the Shiki no Tama. Things were pretty uneventful thus far, making a certain white-haired hanyou more than a little ticked off.

"Man, we've been searchin' all damn day and no demon has shown up yet! Normally, we can't get them off our tails!" Inuyasha complained.

"Calm down, Inuyasha. It is only midday. One is bound to show up before nightfall, so stop being so impatient," Miroku said.

"Miroku's right, Inuyasha, it's only a matter of time before one shows up," Sango said, backing the monk up.

"Well, that time had better come soon or I might have to knock Shippo on the head just for the hell of it," the hanyou joked with an evil grin on his face.

"Hey!" the kitsune yelled.

"Inuyasha!" Shippo's "mother" scolded.

"Relax, you two, it was just a joke. You guys really need to lighten up," Inuyasha said, not at all sorry for his previous statement.

"Well, it wasn't a very funny joke!" Kagome retorted.

"Well-"

"Here they go again…." The demon slayer sighed as she watched her friends get into their daily heated argument. The others thought it was quite childish, but there was nothing they could do to prevent it from happening. The best they could hope for was managing to break it up before Inuyasha ended up eating dirt. Passive monk that he is, Miroku took on that responsibility today.

"Excuse me," he interrupted with a clearing of his throat.

"What is it, Miroku?!" Kagome and Inuyasha snapped simultaneously.

"No need to yell so violently. I was merely going to suggest that we take a break and eat lunch before going any further. It might help to calm everyone's nerves."

"Yay! Lunch!" Shippo shouted excitedly.

"Fine…" Inuyasha said begrudgingly.

As they sat there eating the delicious lunch Kagome brought from her time, the silver-haired hanyou remained uncharacteristically silent. His friends didn't pay it much mind, figuring that he was probably just brooding. In fact, to them, it was a miracle he had chosen to stay instead of eating his lunch solitary. However, the young hanyou was doing nothing of then sort.

He was lost in his thoughts, and all of them revolved around a certain lecherous monk. For some reason, Miroku had actually been on his mind a lot lately. He also caught himself staring at the monk with indecent thoughts on the brain. Between the thoughts and unconscious mannerisms, Inuyasha felt extremely confused. And he was not enjoying it one bit.

"Inuyasha? Hello?" Kagome questioned, waving her hand I front of Inuyasha's blank face. "What do you want?!" the agitated hanyou shouted, finally broken from his train of thought, at least temporarily. Instead of yelling back, the reincarnated priestess just looked at the half demon quizzically.

"What are you looking at?" Inuyasha asked rather rudely.

"Inuyasha…," Kagome started off slowly, "Is that a tint of blush I see on your cheeks?" she giggled, having noticed the faint tinge of pink covering each of the hanyou's cheeks. This only made him blush fiercer.

"My, my, whoever were you thinking about, Inuyasha? Kagome, perhaps?" Miroku teased. Now it was Kagome's turn to blush.

"I was not!" Inuyasha shouted angrily.

"Sure you weren't," Shippo chimed in.

"Watch it…" the hanyou growled.

"Come on, Inuyasha, it's nothing to be ashamed of. It is perfectly natural for a man your age to have thoughts of a sexual nature," Miroku said.

"Let's get one thing straight, monk. I'm not some pervert like you, running around, feeling women up! So just get away from me!" And with that, Inuyasha ran away from his friends, leaving a shocked and very hurt monk in his wake.

-----Scene Change----

Inuyasha kept running until he found a place far away from society suitable enough for him to brood in. Par usual, he ended up perching himself atop the highest branch of an enormous tree. "Stupid perverted monk…" he grumbled to himself, in an attempt to get rid of the pain he felt in his heart.

As he was sprinting away from the group, he had taken a quick glance back to them, though he had no idea what compelled him to do so. What he saw crushed him- a monk with a pained look on his face, as if he had just been hit by a 500-pound boulder. The worst part about it was that he knew he was the one who caused that pain. And that knowledge felt just like the times where he lost control of his demon side and ended up hurting innocents, including his loved ones. For the first time in a while, he was burning with shame and regret, nearly on the verge of tears. It was only then that he fully realized what he truly felt for the monk- love.

"Inuyasha?" The hanyou looked down from his perch to see a purple-eyed monk staring back up at him. His heart started to pound in his chest.

"What is it you want?" he asked, trying to keep up his cool exterior.

"The ladies sent me out here to find you. I guess I owe you an apology," the monk said.

Inuyasha didn't know how to respond. Should he act like he's owed an apology and simply take it in stride and go back to camp? Or should he take the monk by his shoulders and shake him until he realizes that he's not the one who needs to be sorry, that their roles should be reversed?

He decided to do something that was somewhere in between the two extremes. He jumped down from the tree and stood tall a mere inches away from the monk. Speaking softly, he said, "We were both in the wrong here. Hell, maybe even I more than you. There was just something about what you said that ticked me off more than usual, and I think I know why. I don't ever want you to get the wrong idea and believe that just because I was blushing that I was thinking about Kagome. I would never think about her in that way."

"Then who were you thinking about?" Miroku countered, truly wanting to know which girl suited Inuyasha's fancy.

'Uh-oh,' Inuyasha thought. The question he knew would come up once he had explained himself came up. Unfortunately, he still didn't know quite how to answer it without scaring the monk off. He could always lie, make up some girl's name no one ever heard of and put it off as someone he met before meeting them. Then again, telling the truth couldn't hurt, could it? What was the worst Miroku would do? He didn't seem like the type who shunned people.

"Come on, no need to be shy about it. Tell me, who's the lucky girl?"

"No girl," Inuyasha said solemnly.

"Wha-?"

Before Miroku could respond, Inuyasha grabbed his shoulders and pulled him into a fierce kiss. He quickly caught on, however, and responded. Soon their tongues were in a battle for dominance that didn't end until their poor lungs were in desperate need of air

There was a long period of silence before either spoke again, contented with just looking at each others' flushed faces. Inuyasha took the initiative to speak first.

"Now do you see what I mean?" he asked, hoping to receive the "right" answer.

"Yes, I do," Miroku said before pulling his now lover into another deep kiss.

A/N: So what do you think? I'm used to doing action or humor stories, so this is a totally new genre for me. I hope you all liked it. Tomorrow is the first day of Spring Break, so I should be able to update this and my other story more often. Well, that's all for now. R&R please! Ja ne!