Arrakor: Sadly, most people have some issues, even great parents. Oh, and thank you. :) I'm glad at least he's not oddly out of character at least, lol.
[[I do not own InuYasha, and someone woke me up with a phone call.. yeah, so one of those days.. Well, it was an un-urgent text, but still!]]
After Sango laid the children down that night, she returned from the room as she normally would- where InuYasha sat propped up in the corner, his choices reflecting his intentions quite well. In fact, plainly to her- he wasn't going to play along, or forget- not that she expected him to, but it would be better to talk to him when he was calm, as it was now- he'd likely storm out long before they ever got any results from it. 'How.. do I apologize.. without dismissing things all together?' She wondered to herself, up until InuYasha peeked an eye open towards her.
"Sango, I want to talk to you." He said in an annoyed tone.
She was surprised, but for the moment she merely nodded before moving to the table to sit down, expecting him to do the same, though clearly he was fine where he was, at least in his mind.
"..." InuYasha and Sango we're both quiet for a long period there, InuYasha struggling more with how to say things then what to say.
Finally he spoke. "Now look here, I don't care what you do about Miroku, but next time you just leave me out of it." He said with a growl, before snapping his eyes shut again and sinking into his position in the corner.
'...That was it? No yelling or arguing?' She wondered to herself before she looked back at the bedroom, where the kids would be sleeping. "InuYasha, let's go outside to where we talked before." SHe suggested, causing him to acknowledge her once again with confusion.
Inevitably he ended up following her out and even humored her enough to get there before inquiring further. "What's up with this?" He asked.
"I want you to yell at me, or whatever it is you want to do- without being afraid to wake up the kids, so I figured here we were far enough out that no one would hear." Sango explained as she sighed, trying to resign herself to being berated, as much as it coming from InuYasha wouldl make it worse.
"Feh! If you wanna hear it then fine." He said with a growl. "First of all, I ain't 'expectin' nothin', got it?!" He said a bit louder than before, but still rather tame for him.
"I- I.. know that." She responded and nodded but didn't make an attempt to argue back yet.
"And another thing, I said it before that I don't care what you do about Miroku, but I don't appreciate being used as an excuse either! If you don't want to talk to him, then don't. Stop hiding behind me and refuse if that's the case!" He said, still tamely.
"Yes.. I understand." She responded, though admittedly, she wanted to argue that point a bit- if it were as easy as refusing, she would've done it to begin with.. right?
"And, don't assume you know anything about how I feel either! It really pisses me off when people do that!" He added, though it seemed more like he was trying to find things to complain about now, if only to blow off steam.
Sango gritted her teeth a bit. "..Wha-.. What do you expect me to do?! If I ask you, it's not like you'd answer me anyway!" She said, yelling back finally, though unfortunately for her, louder than he had been complaining to her.
"Maybe I wouldn't, but that doesn't mean you can just assume and talk as if you know!" He said, yelling back in response to her yelling.
"I specifically said I do not know how you feel!" She corrected loudly.
"You said you didn't care how I felt, there's a difference!" He further corrected.
"Don't be an idiot, you should have known what I meant! Of course I care how you feel, I just don't care to talk to Miroku about it!" She returned the conversation quickly.
"Feh! Just forget it!" He called back, prepared to return to being silently angry since he lost a round of verbal fighting.
"No!" She said as she marched towards him and took hold of his robe. "I refuse to play Kagome for you! I don't care if we fight all night, you're not running away from it, and neither will I!" She said with genuine annoyance.
"This ain't about Kagome, what's that got to do with anything!?" He said, jerking his sleeve back but now back in the argument at least.
"It does too! You left her just like Miroku left me, right!? Isn't that what happened?! So, how can I not worry that you'll do the same here?!" She asked.
"I ain't nothin' like the monk! I didn't abandon her, she was happier without me! Only reason I didn't go and tell her that, was because you know how she is, she'd have insisted it wasn't the truth! She would've made herself stay with me even if it killed her or hurt her, just like always. But if I left her, if I didn't return to apologize or be there for her to find and seek out, then maybe she'd let it go eventually!" He retorted.
Sango blinked at him with confusion. "Thats~"
"It don't make no difference either, 'cause you aren't Kagome- If I were going to leave, I would tell you! Unlike Kagome, you understand with more than just how you feel, you actually think 'bout it." he said, though admittedly a little derrogitive of Kagome at this point.
"But that doesn't mean I won't feel some way about it." She said, feeling the need to at least point out that, for one Kagome wasn't entirely wrong in her methods, but mostly that Sango, herself, wasn't just some temporary stop that would accept without hesitation if he did decide to leave.
"Oh, spare me- I didn't say you didn't feel anything, I just meant that you're a fighter, like me, so you can understand when you can't win a fight, you may still want to fight it, but that doesn't mean it's worth it all the time." He responded.
"Staying with me isn't a fight InuYasha! There is no winning or losing, it's if you want to or if you don't!" She responded.
"Of course I want to stay! But I also have to consider what is best! Kagome was better off without me, even if I did care about her, so I left!" He said.
"But I can't afford that luxury so easily! I have children! You can't just leave and expect everything to be alright here! I have to be able to depend on you to still be here when I wake up, and when I come home!" She responded.
"I ain't gonna just abandon the kids, and leave them alone. I'd tell you I said." InuYasha argued, missing the point.
"It's not about that! We got along fine without you babysitting! I don't care if you babysit or not! We'd still miss you if you weren't here! We'd still feel like something was missing without you there!" She explained, though despite her angry tone, the uncertain look in her eyes showed more than she probably cared to.
"..!" InuYasha wanted to argue that he wasn't leaving, but it was really hard considering Sango's expression. He turned away from her, crossing his arms. "Well, I'd miss you guys too of course, and that's why I'm not going anywhere!" He said firmly, having turned away to argue so Sango's expression couldn't confuse him anymore.
She grasped the back of his robe as she sighed. "But how can I know that you won't leave eventually?" She asked with a rather exhausted tone.
"Heh! Simple, cause I'm tellin' you so! Don't you trust me at all?" He said simply.
It occurred to her the simplicity of what he had said. It did come down to trust, quite literally. "...Of course I trust you, it's just.." She said, trying to defend her actions now, rather than arguing.
"It shouldn't matter anyway, you surely knew I could leave before today, so why is it now you are uncertain?" He asked as he looked back at her.
"Well.. I just.. Miroku said.." She said, trying to answer, but failing to put it into words. "I, uh.. It's.. not that easy! I didn't give it a second though before, once you stayed without me having to ask you to stay, I just felt that you wouldn't leave unless I asked you to leave, and knowing you, you'd argue with me." She said with a half hearted chuckle.
"Geez, way to just label me a mooch.." He said with some minor offense.
"That's not what I meant! You're you.. I mean, that's who you are. Argh! You wouldn't stay unless you wanted to, and I know that if you didn't want to stay, I'd hear all about it every chance I got. It was easy to say you wouldn't leave.. but if you left Kagome, you could leave me too.. so I just.." She said, her anger having dissipated a while back, leaving only just her talking, expressing her concerns.
He turned around again and growled. "I'm not Miroku, and I didn't just abandon Kagome either! Stop saying I did." He said still a bit angry about it, then again, he was always at least a bit angry about something.
"I know that now! I just wanted you to say that you'd stay! Cause I can't assume your feelings and feel comfortable with that! I have to know! If you tell me, I'll trust that, okay?" She said simply.
InuYasha suddenly felt that discomfort appearing again, causing him to fidget. Lots of things made him uncomfortable, especially in his time with Sango since he'd wandered this way a while ago now. But, all those things soon felt so comfortable that it was like, to him, that it was only natural to do. So with that he sighed, feeling embarrassed as he spoke. "I'm going to stay.. so just trust me okay? I promise- I'll stay, at least until you tell me to leave, deal?" He said, trying to get rid of the embarrassment by lightening his statement up towards the end, but he still felt embarrassed. That wasn't to be the end of his embarrassment unfortunately.
"Then that's enough." Said Sango as she moved over and placed her arms around his shoulders, leaning against him for a moment. He responded just as naturally as he always would of course, though perhaps it would've been alright, if Sango didn't lean up further and kiss him one more time. "I can be okay with that much, at least for now." She said as she moved away now to return home, based at which the speed she was fleeing the situation, one can imagine she was embarrassed as well. '..At least.. I understand my own feelings now.. I don't know if I'll ever be able to put words to them, nor do I even want them answered.. having them is more than enough for now..' She thought to herself.
'That's twice she did that..' Thought InuYasha with a sigh, recovering from a moment's pause in his mental awareness. 'Well.. three if you could what happened when we went for the demon's wine for Mushin.' He thought further as he went to follow after her, confused but alright. "That's enough, huh?" He said quietly to himself as he considered what exactly that statement meant- not pertaining to Sango, or any implications towards that, but just in general. Enough. For now. Those sorts of things weren't easy to understand. What was enough? If it's enough now, why is it not later? If it isn't enough later, was it ever enough before? He's happy enough here, right? Does Enough basically mean that 'for now' you don't need anything more? Inherently does it mean that you will need more? What was more? What was more for him?