Chapter twenty: The Never Ending Staircase
Kagome was immediately taken to the same chamber in which she had previously been beaten. This place held dire memories. And unfortunately, the room hadn't changed a bit. It was still the same, dank, torch illuminated, rat-infested hell hole with a desk. Kagome felt a strong push on her shoulders, forcing her to the ground. A hoarse voice whispered in her ear.
"You really did it this time, slave." Kagome squeezed her eyes tight; she knew this beating was going to be far worse. To her amazement, the pain never came.
"Ha, you were expecting to get off easy, with just a few lashes? I'm sorry to say your punishment will be much more severe." Gyou announced.
Jaken stepped forth. "Kagome, I let you off easily last time, but now you know better than to go off kissing lord Inuyasha!" Kagome dared not speak, this was all happening to quickly, and it was much more frightening than she had ever imagined.
"I assume you remember me not sentencing you to a public beating last time, well, this time, you will be beaten in public, everyday, for three weeks. You are not allowed to leave your prison cell other than to use the restroom, see visitors, and of course, go to your, sessions." He remarked evilly. Kagome only stared at him in disbelief. This couldn't be happening, Inuyasha cared for her too, didn't he? He couldn't let this happen! He wouldn't dare! Or, would he? The slave girl hung her head low in shame. She didn't deserve this, not one bit; it wasn't her fault!
"Gyou, do with her as you please. I have other matters to attend to." And with that, Jaken stumbled cockily out of the door, as if pleased with himself.
Gyou smirked, and yanked Kagome up by her hair. They exited the room, and paced down three corridors or so, and finally came down to a long row of jail cells. The hallway was dim, and again, lit by torches, their cell windows were at the very top of the wall, narrow, and at ground level, not giving much light. Kagome could see sand and dirt swirl around in the window. Gyou paused, dug around for his keys in his pocket, and unlocked the cell door, grimacing as the bars screeched in protest.
Kagome was shoved roughly into the dank cell, and tripped on the uneven flooring. Kagome landed with a thud, and scraped her elbows on the coarse stone floor. She looked up, and saw a figure huddled in the corner, sitting on one of the beds. Kagome squinted in the dark room, and made out the figure of a woman, about the same size as Kagome.
"Hello?" Kagome asked. The figure made no effort to move whatsoever. Kagome got up on her knees, and limped over to the girl, and tapped her shoulder.
"Excuse me?" Kagome gasped, and took a step back. Whoever it was had died a while ago, in fact, a long while ago. Its face was rotted, and blackened; maggots squirmed about in the eye sockets, the body was well into the decaying process, and Kagome was too horrified to notice the offensive stench. She jumped towards the cell door, and clutched the bars, looking face to face at the guard with whom she shared an equal amount of hatred.
"Gyou, you asshole! Get me out of here! I want a new cell— you can't possibly leave me in here with a corpse!" She cried, waves of fear shook her body relentlessly. He looked pleased.
"I wouldn't talk like that to someone higher than you, I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast." He smirked.
"You eat often I take it? Judging by the color of your teeth." Kagome said, smirking at her comeback.
Gyou self consciously reached up to his teeth, then hastily unlocked the cell door, and pulled Kagome out of the cell, pushing her into sharp objects and tripping her along the way. Finally, after ten minutes of a barrage of sharp objects, Gyou stopped, and unlocked a different cell. Kagome let out a sigh of relief; she saw that her cellmate was indeed very much alive, and playing solitaire.
Gyou walked away, with the clanging of closing cell doors. Kagome squinted, with a slight reluctance, and saw a familiar face.
"Rin? What are you doing here?" Kagome asked
"Kagome, is that you?" Rin asked excitedly, looking up from her cards.
"Yeah, it is." Kagome said, plopping onto the hard bunk bead her and Rin would be sharing.
"So, Rin, why are you of all people in prison?" Kagome asked.
"Ugh, don't even bother, it was so pathetic, really."
"Really? What happened? Come on, tell me!"
"Jaken stubbed his toe, and said it was broken, the x-rays showed he that didn't even have a bones in his foot, so I wouldn't put a cast on it, so he had me locked up." Rin said, really annoyed.
"Wow, that's really stupid!" Kagome yelled.
"Shh! We don't want them coming in here! They'll beat us to no end!"
"Humph, its not much worse than the boat I'm already in." Kagome said, but then quickly covered her mouth."
"I kind of figured, you were always in the hospital for getting beaten." Rin grimaced.
Kagome laughed slightly, and realized the only times she had seen Rin were at the hospital. The two really didn't know each other very well, but were chatting away like best friends. However, Rin was probably just as desperate for company as Kagome was.
"So, why are you here?" Rin questioned.
"I—uh, I…"
"You…?"
Kagome mumbled something incoherently.
"What?"
"I…Kissed…Lord Inuyasha…"
Rin's eyes grew wide in excitement.
"NO WAY!" She exclaimed rather loudly.
"Shh!! Be quiet! You said they would beat us for being too loud."
"Oh, right, I just go caught up in the moment is all…" Rin laughed.
"What's so funny?"
"Just, I can't believe you did that! Haven't you heard the rumors?"
"The…rumors?"
"Yeah, real vicious ones. Lord Inuyasha poisoning his family, and then him screwing with the old head maid, the one who you just replaced, there was one where he murdered his old girlfriend, the one before Kikyo…"
"Stop, I'd really rather not hear them." Kagome interrupted.
"Suit yourself." Rin said, turning back to her game of cards.
"Hey, how'd you get those?" Kagome asked.
"I snuck `em from the overseers office, why?"
"Nice, aren't you worried that they will, you know, beat you?"
"Nope, they can't prove that the cards are theirs." Rin said proudly, grinning.
Kagome couldn't help grinning as well, but her thoughts were too muddled to get much further.
"Hey Rin, I think I'm gonna take a nap for a little while, okay? If you can tell what time it is, wake me up in two hours or so, do you mind?" Kagome asked.
"Nope, not at all, I'll wake you in two hours, have a nice nap!" Rin chuckled.
Kagome pulled her exhausted body up to the top bunk, and rested her head on the flat, useless pillow onto of the mattress with two sheets on it. Kagome pulled one of the stain-covered sheets up to her head, wrapped it into a ball, and used it as a pillow, and used the other sheet as a light cover. She tried to sort out her thoughts one by one, but it didn't seem to work too well. One thought depended on another; you needed to solve one thought to understand another thought, and so on. Questions relating to Kikyo, Sango, Miroku, Inuyasha, Rin, herself, the beatings she was going to be receiving, the rumors spread about Inuyasha, and Kagome's family. It was all one big, cluttered mess in her brain.
-------
Kagome woke up about and hour and a half later, not to Rin's voice, but to Gyou's.
"Get up, slave! It's time for your, 'sessions'." He smirked.
Kagome hazily rubbed her eyes, and stumbled down the ladder and reluctantly over to the entrance to the cell. Gyou slid open the bars, and let Kagome through.
"You want to come and watch?" He asked, voice filled with malice. His question was directed at Rin. Rin, knowing she didn't have much of a choice, obediently stepped out of the cell, and stood before Kagome and Gyou. The overseer put two heavy chains onto Kagome's neck like a dog collar, and the ends of the chains at his firm hold. Every so often, Gyou would yank at the ends of Kagome's chains, and she would choke, and gag, even trip over her own feet, and fall to the ground, choking her even further. Rin, had tried to get Gyou to ease up, but he just struck her down, and she ended up with a black eye.
Gyou opened up a large metal door, and both girls squinted from the sudden change in light. When they got outside, there was a colossal crowd jeering at them. Kagome didn't know whether they were booing at her, or the overseers. Judging by the fact that the overseers looked upset, she guessed they were protesting her sentence. Things were thrown at Gyou, and every so often, one of the objects would hit Kagome or Rin. There was a small platform rising well above the crowd, and two overseers standing on top of it. Kagome guessed that's where she was going.
-----
Inuyasha gritted his teeth after Kagome had left, guilt swam all over his senses, and he was too engulfed in the feeling to notice Kikyo blabbing about how much she missed him.
"Inuyasha, is there something wrong, baby?" Kikyo asked.
"Hmm? Oh, no, I'm great."
"You were thinking about that whore weren't you? The one you were kissing earlier! Weren't you?" Kikyo sank to her knees, and began to cry softly. Inuyasha, being the complete softy he is, couldn't stand to see any girl cry, no matter whom.
Inuyasha knelt down beside Kikyo and pulled her into an embrace. He lifted her chin so she was looking directly at him, her red tinged eyes dripping. Inuyasha wiped away the tears with his thumb, and kissed Kikyo lightly on the forehead.
"Don't worry about it…Kikyo." Inuyasha said, rubbing her back gently.
"Inuyasha…I missed you."
Inuyasha paused. "I…missed you too."
Kikyo smiled, and stood up, while Inuyasha remained sitting, looking up at her, confused.
"Kikyo, what are you doing?" He asked
"C 'mon! You have to show me everything that's changed since I left, I even heard they you were building a new club, eh? Will you show me?" She asked.
"I don't know, not that much has changed, really I—"
Kikyo rolled her eyes and pulled Inuyasha by his sleeve all the way outside. Inuyasha suggested that they just walk, versus taking the royal carriage and all; it would be best not to attract attention. As much as Kikyo disliked this proposal, she went along with it.
-----
Kagome followed Gyou through the path and up the wooden stairs that creaked in protest against the weight forced upon them. Kagome looked up at the swirling heights of the platform she was being lead up to. She looked out to the raging crowd below; most of her audience was shouting in protest, however, the overseers were quickly getting control over the spectators. The slave girl scanned the area for her friends Sango, or any familiar face for that matter. However, she was literally whipped from her thoughts by a rather strong overseer. Kagome stumbled, and regained her balance before falling off of the edge of the spiraling staircase. She tried to focus on the world around her, and look for a familiar face again. And to her horror, she found two. A single tear ran down Kagome's cheek as she saw Inuyasha with his arm fastened protectively over Kikyo's shoulder, and her resting her head on his shoulder, they were both watching her; Kikyo wore a smirk, but Inuyasha's eyes were hidden behind his bangs.
Maybe she really did deserve this. Maybe she was no better than dust in the wind. Maybe, she really should just accept this as it's plain form of abuse.
Gyou sneered at the slave who was following him. "Crying already are we?"
Kagome bit her lip to restrain herself from lunging at the overseer. His cocky smirk, the oily, greasy and curly red-brown hair, his sleazy displaced posture, everything about him sent sparks of rage flying into Kagome's body, everything about that man. Kagome applied more pressure to her lip, making the skin break, and blood to seep out. She kept her calm, and trudged on up the never-ending staircase.
----
Inuyasha stared at Kagome from his point of the crowd. Kikyo had begged him to stop and see what was going on; even though he had a feeling she knew as well as him what was going to take place. His Kagome staggered up the long trail of steps, on by one, constantly being pulled by what looked like a human-sized dog collar. Inuyasha stared up at her, and watcher her being tortured. He wasn't able to stop this procedure. Well, he hypothetically could stop this, and end it quickly, but that would mean upsetting Kikyo, which would lead to a deadly war against two prominent kingdoms.
"Oh Inuyasha! I always enjoyed seeing these back at my kingdom, but I can't help but feel bad for the poor souls." She said. It wasn't quite believable if you listened to her tone of voice.
"Yeah…right…"
He noticed Kagome look at him with an extreme look of disappointment, and distaste. He could smell the metallic scent of blood, and salty scent of tears emanating from the slave girl he preferred to call his.
Kagome finally made it to the top of the long staircase, and was about to collapse of exhaustion, and dehydration, when Gyou yanked her upwards with the chains. She gagged profusely, until he loosened his hold on the chains. Another one of the overseers, whom had been waiting at the top, pulled out a sleek, narrow black whip. Kagome cringed at the sight of yet another whip, but she had accepted it as normality by this point. Kagome looked over to Rin, who had been trudging ahead them most of the time. A different overseer had taken her ahead of Kagome and Gyou. Kagome never quite understood why.
The overseer had a black woolen mask over their face, and seemed to be enjoying the agony the slave girl before him was enduring. Kagome mentally cursed this entire palace, for it's cruelty and strange behavior, why couldn't it just be normal, and have the lord residing over it make the decisions? Not everyone else. This seemed too bizarre. Kagome was forced to her knees, and was presented in front of the entire crowd, who had grown silent over the past ten minutes.
Kagome braced herself for the on coming pain, and boy did it come, hard. The overseer brought down the torture weapon down onto Kagome's back, and lashed her repeatedly. She mentally counted. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Blood dripped down Kagome's back as she fell face first onto the hard wooden platform.
"Get up!" Gyou demanded, kicking Kagome in the side. "I said, get up!"
Kagome pulled her battered form up off the floor about five inches, before feeling the stinging pain of the whip clashing against her skin once more. At this point Kagome was panting for breath, and couldn't take this much more, her back was raw, and torn up, her mental stability had long been diminished, and she didn't have much else to rely on after that. Crack! That was fifteen.
Kagome stood up abruptly, the blood now seeping down her back, and moving down to her feet. She rocked back and forth as she positioned herself at eyelevel with the overseer who had been whipping her.
"What are you doing? Get back down!" The overseer shouted.
Kagome looked out at the crowd to see Inuyasha and Kikyo even closer, if that was possible. She was done, she quit, and she'd had enough of life. She stumbled over to the edge of the platform, and her vision became hazy. She could hear a number of muddled screams, shouts, and chaos beneath her. There was a little voice in the back of her head screaming 'Don't do it! Don't jump! You have too much to live for!' Arguing against suicide at this point was like trying to stop a hurricane from getting you wet with a leaf— not very effective. Kagome took one last glance at the world below her, and was about to jump, when she fell limp. Half of her body lay dangling off of the platform, and the other remaining on the surface.
Inuyasha's heart stopped. "Kagome!" He shouted. Kikyo looked up at him in surprise.
"Inuyasha, you still care for that worthless, inadequate, piece of—"
Inuyasha gave Kikyo a stern look that silenced her, for a total of five seconds.
"I just thought that—"
Inuyasha shot another cold glare it her as he watched Kagome hanging, almost certain to plunge to her end in a matter of seconds. 'Why aren't those guards pulling her up? What's wrong with those bastards? I'm going to rip every one of them to pieces…' He thought.
-----
Sango finished putting away the last of Kikyo's crap that she had lugged along with her during her journey. The room was neatly in order, and everything seemed perfect. Sango walked over to the window and decided to open the blinds, and maybe step out for a bit of fresh air. What she saw in the distance really did not please her. She could make out a huge crowd forming around a large wooden platform. Sango scrambled for a pair of binoculars Kikyo had brought along with her, and aimed the device out over the balcony. She peered at the crowd, and made out two feminine figures. 'Oh no, Gods, please don't let it be Kagome!' Sango thought desperately. As she brought the binoculars into focus, she discovered it actually was Kagome, and Rin, from the hospital.
Sango bit her lip, and rushed down the grand staircase, forgetting to put any of her supplies away, or check out for that matter. She rushed outside, and heard that the crowd was still roaring, usually, that meant that there was still time.
"KIRARA!" Sango called into the wind. After about a minute or so, a large cat demon emerged from the fog-covered, murky sky. Sango jumped onto the flying cat demon and raced off to where Kagome was being held. She could only hope that she would arrive in time.
-----
Kagome tried to move herself onto the platform, but her body was far too strained to do so, and part of her was still bent on giving up. It was probably the worst internal struggle she had ever experienced. Her head was throbbing, and she couldn't see very well. When things finally became more distinct, the objects were still swirling and confusing the poor slave girl. All of the incandescent shouting made matters worse, not only was her vision impaired, but so was her hearing, she couldn't think straight, or at all for that matter.
The slave could feel her consciousness slipping even further from her grasp, and her hold on reality weaken. Things started to fade out, and then eventually, completely disappear.
The entire crowd held it's breath. No one dared make a sound, much less scream. Kagome's limp body went tumbling down all ten stories of wooden planks, her loose limbs occasionally hitting a wooden beam of some kind. All thought hope was lost— all but one: Sango.
Kirara sped down to Kagome's rescue at the very last possible second. Sango held Kagome tightly in her arms, and noticed the horrible condition of her friend. Kagome's nose had definitely been re-broken, her back was bleeding a fair amount, and Sango guessed that at least both of her arms had some hairline fractures at the least. Kagome's breathing was shallow and uneven, and very labored.
Kirara lowered, and a gap in the crowd formed to let the giant cat land. Inuyasha was the first to rush to Kagome's side. He pulled Kagome from Sango's arms the second they landed, and held her close to him.
"Kagome, I'm so sorry, I never meant for anything like this to happen, especially not to you, it's all my fault, forgive me." He said, wiping away some of the dirt and blood off from Kagome's forehead.
Both Sango and Kikyo shot Inuyasha disgusted looks, but for different reasons.
"Lord Inuyasha! How could you! You could have caught Kagome way before I even arrived! You would have let her die?" Sango screamed. The words streaming from the former demon slayer's mouth stung and burned him inside.
"Inuyasha! I can't believe you! You're supposed to be mine! But no, you're still obsessed with that…!" Kikyo hollered, but was soon cut off by Sango.
"Don't you even start with me, bitch!" Sango said, jumping at Kikyo. Kikyo displayed a classic look of extreme fear as Sango landed on top of her. She slapped, kicked, punched, scratched, and even bit Kikyo when she could get the chance. Kikyo was doing the exact same, and it looked like they were just rolling around in the dirt together.
After about twenty minutes, the overseers had bothered to stop the two from killing each other, and Sango was put in the same jail cell as Kagome; Rin had been released that day. Kikyo had many claw marks on her face, and quite a few bruises across her body, but nothing broken. However, she whined about every little thing each minute or so. Sango had escaped with only a few bite marks, scratches, and maybe one bruise, but nothing serious. Kagome on the other hand, was in critical condition for the night. The mental and physical stress put on her body was too much for one person to take in a day. She had minor internal bleedings, one broken arm, over fourty stitches in her back, a sprained ankle; she had to wear a neck brace for a week, and had many small bandages covering her body.
Sango had refused to leave Kagome's side, but the overseers dragged her to her prison cell, most literally. Inuyasha had stayed for about half an hour, but then Kikyo dragged him out to show her the new club that was under construction. Rin watched over Kagome for the majority of the night, but then retired at 3:00 in the morning for a little bit of sleep.
It had been nine hours since the incident, and Kagome was still unconscious. The doctors were beginning to think she was on the verge of slipping into a coma. They considered life-support, but thought it was too early to determine whether or not she was in bad enough shape.
Kagome awoke to an empty, plain white hospital room. Her head felt really heavy, and the room started to sway. 'What had happened? Where am I? The last thing I remember…' Kagome's eyes widened, and a few tears stung her eyes. She had lived through that? The heartache alone threatened to kill her. Kagome tried to move her arm and found that she couldn't. Actually, she couldn't feel anything. 'Some of the anesthetic must still be in my system.' Kagome tried to convince herself.
Just then, Rin walked in with another different doctor. When they saw that Kagome was awake, shocked and joyous expressions spread across their features. Rin rushed over to Kagome and started talking a million miles an hour. With her body still being drugged, many of Rin's words seemed like a low humming sound. However, Kagome managed to catch a few words and phrases, many of them having to do with 'worried', and 'not going to make it'. Kagome felt sorry that she had caused so much chaos, and really wished that she would have just died. She would be in even more trouble than she already was in. This just couldn't get much worse, could it?
Rin walked over, and took Kagome's temperature, and everything else done on a routine visit: breathing, pulse, and blood pressure, then recorded them and then left the room, turning off the lights on her way out.
The dark greatly welcomed sleep for Kagome. She couldn't help it. As much as she wanted to stay awake and figure things out, she was too tired. Soon Kagome was fast asleep, slipping into mildly plagued dreams.
----
"Ah, this is going far better than I could have hoped, that slave girl is going to take the liberty of killing herself!"
A man in dark robes chuckled, and then walked over to a small girl in all white. She angled her mirror to her master's vision, and held it there. The image shown on the mirror portrayed that of a weak, and sick girl lying on white sheets in a hospital bed, tossing and turning, covered in sweat.
"Poor thing she must be having a nightmare." He cackled sarcastically.
"Master, when will we send the troops to attack?" The girl asked.
"When our lady commands us to, Kanna, be patient."
----
Inuyasha walked hand in hand with Kikyo to the club that was being built. It was only the foundation, and a couple of main supporter beams, but that was it. The materials lay scattered around the building, in heaps separated into usable, and scrap.
Kikyo stared in awe. There was a picture of what the club was going to look like in the future, and it really was breathtaking. It was going to be made of sleek black metal, with lights reflecting off of it, making it look like many other colors. There would be a main stage that looked like a theatre with a bar in back, and in a second main room, it would be all chrome. There were also other rooms for 'private time' if guests so chose. There were dance cages on the ceiling, and a multi-colored lights for the stage and disco lights for the rest of the area. The diagram was in great detail, even down to the snack bar and bathrooms.
"Awe! Inu! It looks so great! When they're finally done with this, we should go to the grand opening! Can I plan it? Do you mind?" Kikyo went on and on about basically the same thing, talking non-stop. She kept saying something about inviting all of the kingdom's royalty, and having a big party. Or, something like that anyways. Finally, Kikyo stopped talking, and they walked to the kingdom's private garden, complete with a lit-up fountain.
The sun was now beginning to set. Inuyasha and Kikyo sat side-by-side watching the sun disappear into the horizon. Kikyo was thinking about how many nice children they would have in the near future, and that she would live in luxury for the rest of her life, while Inuyasha's mind was buzzing about what to do. The most important formula his kingdom has ever sponsored was missing, Kagome could be dead right now, and Kikyo was clinging to him like super glue was sticking them together. He didn't exactly mind Kikyo very much, he actually enjoyed her company, it was just her bossy side that bothered him, and she could get so demanding some times.
He completely ignored the formula and Kikyo for a minute, and focused on Kagome. He tried desperately to concentrate on picturing her face, but all her ever could conjure was his last sights of her, alone, and dying, both on the inside and outside. The short raspy breaths she took when he was by her side still rung throughout his ears. He felt so guilty. Sango's words were true. He would have let her die right in front of him. As much as it pained him to think of it, she was right. But what could he do? Kikyo would have stormed off, and declared a war, and then everything would be jeapordized. Inuyasha shook his head in frustration. No. He should have saved her. He should have protected her. He should have been there to bail her out of what he put her in. It really was his fault that she was in prison anyhow. She hadn't forced herself on him, it was quite the opposite. He gritted his teeth angrily. 'What the hell is wrong with me?'
"Inuyasha, is there something the matter?" Kikyo asked.
Inuyasha stared deep into Kikyo's cold eyes, searching for some spark of love, kindness— anything. He found nothing, Kikyo's eyes were so cold it was almost as if she was dead.
"Hmm? No. Nothing's wrong, come on, let's go." Inuyasha said, standing up.
"Are you sure? You seem sick?"
"No, I'm not sick." He half growled. Kikyo got the message and backed off. The two walked back to the main castle and up to their separate rooms to retire for the night. It was only 9:45, so Inuyasha wasn't nearly tired enough to go to sleep, so he just flipped on the T.V. About five minutes later, Kikyo came in.
"I just wanted to say…I'm—I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you mad, okay?" She said.
"Yeah, it's fine. You wanna sit?" He asked.
"Fine."
They stared at the T.V. in yet another silence. Ten more minutes later, another knock was at Inuyasha's door.
"It's Miroku."
"Come in." The door opened, and Miroku stepped in the door— his features chillingly stern.
"I need to talk to you." He said. Both Kikyo and Inuyasha turned their attention to him. Noticing Kikyo, he added. "Alone, if you will."
----
It was now past ten, and Kagome was still having her nightmare, it wouldn't seem to end. Her heart race had increased considerably, and about three doctors poured into the room, and tried to awaken her, but to no avail. Every now and then, she would let out a cry pf pain, or would whimper one of her family member's names. Rin noticed that Kagome seemed to mention members of the castle as well. One in particular, Inuyasha.
Kagome's blood pressure had dropped a little bit, so she was no longer in peril, but they were still worried about the pace of her heart. It seemed to still be going a little faster than normal, but nothing that would harm her. The doctors made note of this strange occurrence, but deemed it a 'false alarm'.
Rin stayed up late yet another day watching over Kagome. Not much happened other than an occasional murmur of undecipherable words.
----
Sango waited impatiently in her cell for Miroku to come. She was notified that he had said he would be with her thirty minutes ago. She was rather annoyed at his inconsistencies. Miroku had said that he needed to speak with the lord first, and that might take a while. The slave sighed, and tapped her foot on the rough concrete flooring. Sango recalled begging Miroku to let her out of prison, but there was nothing more he could do. Assaulting royalty is a final offence, meaning that she should be killed for it. Miroku had made it so she would be let out of prison two weeks before Kagome, whose term had expanded two weeks due to her little 'incident'. Sango could hear footsteps coming towards her cell, and she figured it was Miroku, however, just to be safe, she pulled the covers over her body, and pretended to sleep until she could tell who was approaching her. Slaves in prison weren't supposed to stay up past 11:30, and it was now nearing 12:00. You wouldn't think that a few minutes would make that big of a deal, but it really did to the overseers. Not that Sango was afraid of them or anything, she could take most of them out without a weapon, but she didn't need to go to all of the trouble, plus, there would be too many to take on at once.
"Sango, you up?" Miroku whispered from in between the iron bars.
"Yeah." She replied quietly.
Sango could hear the familiar clinking of keys, and then the iron bars sliding open, then back into place.
"What did you need to talk to me about?" Miroku whispered, sitting next to Sango, and putting his arm around her shoulders comfortably, pulling her into him.
"It's just, everything. I'm really worried about Kagome, and even if you don't believe me, I think Naraku has that formula, I don't know what he is capable of with that! And then there's Kikyo…"
"You know what, I don't think you should worry about any of that, my dear."
"You didn't let me finish." Sango stated.
"Okay, very well then, continue."
"And then there's you…" Sango said, focusing as best she could in the darkness of her prison cell on Miroku.
"Hmm? What about me?" He said with a perverted grin smeared all over his face.
Sango closed her eyes tight and moved closer to Miroku. Their noses slightly brushed against each other before their lips met together in an enticing kiss. Not the most romantic scenery, but that didn't matter to either of them. Miroku's tongue grazed upon the bottom of her lip. She, without hesitation, opened her mouth to him. The two fought an epic battle for dominance, but ended up giving in when they both needed some air.
The two went for it again, and again, and before they knew it, it was early into the morning. Miroku decided it was time to leave, but Sango begged him to stay and hold her.
"Please?" She asked, conjuring the saddest pout face she could.
"Sango, no I—" He stopped himself when he caught Sango's quivering lip in the moonlight.
"Fine, but you owe me." He said with a mischievous grin, sitting on the bed with her.
Miroku leaned up against the wall, and held Sango in his lap. She snuggled close to him, with his arms around her as a protective shield against the cruelties of the world. She sighed, and leaned her head up against his neck, closing her eyes.
"You know… I've never really felt this safe before, I'm actually… happy." She said openly.
Miroku was a bit shocked at her forwardness, but quickly recovered.
"I agree." He said with a smile, kissing her on the forehead.