Evanescent

By: HalcyonMoments11


So here we are, all dressed to kill, where should we go?
Into the wild again to face the great unknown
And have the midnight conversations
You and I postponed.

- Shinedown (Daylight)


Despite the rain, the next day the inu-tachi left Edo, thanking Kaede for her hospitality, and traveling in search of rumors regarding the Shikon no Kakera. In the early misty rain the Kagome took turns pointing out rainbows with her kitsune kit, and giggling at Kirara's antics as she burrowed herself into Sango's robes to avoid the rain. On the move again, Inuyasha was much more pleasant, periodically teasing Shippō by splashing the kit with the water from his umbrella and later excitedly taking up Kagome's offers of sweets she had brought from her time.

Kagome seemed relieved, a tenseness she had held in her shoulders most of the day before dissipated. She laughed brightly as Inuyasha and Shippō bickered playfully and chatted heartily with Sango and Miroku when they fell into step beside her throughout the day.

By then, the group had been traveling most of the day, stopping briefly for lunch under the thick canopy of the forest to hide from the rain, and then continuing their travels, trudging on down muddied paths. The rain remained persistent, steadily picking up throughout the day until it began to wear on them as water soaked their feet, weighed down the parts of their clothes that their umbrellas didn't cover, and started to drip into their hair.

"Perhaps we should find some shelter for the evening, ne? Try to get a fire started?" Miroku asked, loud enough for the group to hear.

Shippō chimed in with an affirmative as Sango and Kagome nodded in agreement. Inuyasha huffed.

"Keh, we're just getting started, houshi," he said gruffly.

Kagome sighed and rolled her eyes. Miroku chuckled quietly, noticing her annoyance. He tried again: "We won't be able to continue much longer with soaked supplies."

Sango agreed, adding "If I remember correctly, there's a cave just off the path not too far from here. That may be a good place to hunker down for the night." She shifted her hiraikotsu on her shoulder, making sure her umbrella continued to cover the neko perched quietly on her other shoulder, who mewed her agreement.

Inuyasha huffed again. "Fine, fine. You won't give this up anyways," he grumbled. They pretended not to see the way he shook some of the water from his hair and robes.

Kagome cast a grateful smile in his direction, he nodded his head recognition. She turned her blue eyed gaze on their taijiya companion. "Lead the way Sango-chan!" she said cheerfully.

Miroku's lips curled up gently, noticing how even Inuyasha's ears seemed to perk up at the sound of her voice, and marveling at how their miko's cheer could brighten even gloomy days such as this.


Sure enough, it wasn't long before they found the cave Sango had mentioned. After a brief inspection by Inuyasha to make sure it was unoccupied, the inu-tachi made their way in. Having collected some wood along the way they set to starting a fire with the help of Shippō's kitsune-bi to ignite the damp wood. As Sango set to laying out the bedding and making some tea and Inuyasha took back out into the rain to try to hunt, Miroku and Kagome strung a line along one wall close to the fire for them to dry their clothes.

Miroku looked around the cave as they secured the second half of the line, noted its small size and lack of concealed spaces. His gaze landed on the miko beside him who stood in knee-high wet socks and her dampened fuku, which clung to her damp skin beneath in places that left little to the imagination. He smiled mischievously as she tugged on the line to make sure it could take some weight. Kagome caught the look out of the corner of her eye and turned slightly to look up at him.

"What are you smiling about Miroku-sama?" she asked.

"Oh nothing at all, Kagome-sama," Miroku responded, smirk still tugging at the corners of his lips. "I was just noting how small the cave is, and yet how open it is…" he trailed off, allowing the miko to turn her gaze about the cave. "How few concealed spaces there are…" he added, a playful tone to his voice.

Kagome shook her head, not quite grasping his point. "What are you saying, Miroku-sama?" She asked, turning her azure gaze back to the houshi. She flushed slightly at the sight she saw, Miroku shrugging his outer robe from his shoulders, allowing the purple fabric to slide slowly from his arms.

He caught her gaze, a mischievous glint in his amethyst orbs. "Well, Kagome-sama," Miroku whispered, "I'm simply wondering where you and Sango-san will disrobe?"

There was barely time for Kagome's eyes to widen in realization and her face to flush crimson before Sango's hiraikotsu thunked down on the back of Miroku's head. Kagome jumped slightly when the monk fell unconscious against her, re-steadying herself with his weight, and turned her gaze to see the taijiya standing behind the houshi, eye twitching in fury. Sango pulled her weapon back towards herself with a huffed "Hentai," and set the weapon back against the wall of the cave.

Kagome chuckled and shook her head at the antics of her companions as she slid down the wall of the cave with the monk in her arms to set him on the ground, head reeling and unconscious. "Thank you, Sango-chan," she laughed.

"Well, at least now we won't have to worry about 'disrobing' with this hentai peering around." Sango responded with a laugh of her own.

The ladies quickly took to changing into a set of dry robes and pajamas, dried Kirara with a towel Kagome tugged from her backpack, and undressed and wrapped Shippō in a blanket. By the time Inuyasha returned, soaked and with a few fish in hand, they had made tea and finished setting up the bedding around the fire in the small space. The hanyou glanced from the women and kitsune to the still unconscious houshi nearby, before shaking himself off and muttering a "I don't wanna know," while handing the fish over to Sango to clean and prep for dinner.

"Inuyasha, here." Kagome said quietly, offering him a towel to dry himself with. He grunted a "thanks" and shrugged out of his haori and the robe beneath to hang them on the line by the fire. When Kagome blushed and looked swiftly away, Sango bumped her shoulder with her own teasingly, chuckling under her breath. Kagome ducked her head to hide her flush as it deepened as Inuyasha settled down near the fire as well.


An hour or so later Miroku stirred, they ate dinner, and began settling down for the night. As their group began to drift to sleep, Kagome got up quietly to turn the hanging clothes on the line once more and paused to rummage through her pack. She tip-toed back to her sleeping bag, and settled down at the end closest to Miroku, who rested his head back against the cool wall of the cave.

"Take this, Miroku-sama."

"Hmm?" Miroku opened his eyes slowly, peering down at the miko's out stretched hands. In one palm she held a small white 'pill' from her time, which he knew helped with dull aches and pains such as the headache he was currently nursing, and in the other a small blue square that she called an 'ice-pack'. He smiled gently and took them both, whispering an "arigato" in return.

They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes as Miroku took the medicine and braced the pack against the knot on the back of his head. Kagome watched him closely and then sat back against her own section of the cave wall when she was seemingly satisfied with his placement of the ice pack.

"You know, Miroku-sama, you'd save yourself a lot of grief if you learned to crub your lecherous practices" Kagome teased quietly.

Miroku chuckled wearily, wincing slightly with the movement. "What fun would that be, Kagome-sama?" he teased back, watching her from the corner of his eyes as she shook her head, the corners of her lips turning upwards.

"You're incorrigible," she mumbled.

"Hai," he agreed with a small smile of his own.

They sat quietly again for several minutes, watching the fire as he shifted the blanket around his bare shoulders. When he had come to, his purple kesu and kosode had been removed and were hanging to dry, leaving him in just the black pants he wore beneath his outter robes, and a blanket had been rested under his head. He knew it had to have been the miko who'd taken care of him, despite his mischief; Sango had clearly been a bit too furious with his antics to dote on him in such a way. He wondered idly if the miko had taken any pleasure in partially undressing him. Had she liked what she'd seen?

Lost in his musings, he was startled by the short burst of reiki he felt rush against his side; the sensation brought pleasant goosebumps to his skin. His surprised violet gaze turned quickly to the miko at his side, who was watching him with a small smirk across her lips, cobalt gaze twinkling almost a sky blue in the firelight.

He breathed out a small chuckle. "What are you doing, Kagome-sama?" he asked quietly, bemused by her almost teasing actions.

"Just practicing, Miroku-sama" she responded in a whisper, feigning innocence.

He shifted slightly against the cave wall, setting the hand closest to her down on the floor of the cave between them where her hand already was and allowing the blanket he'd held closed around him to fall open. A small smirk curved the corners of his lips when she turned her gaze down to their hands quickly, a faint blush adorning her cheeks.

Blue eyes fell on the beads around his wrist, enclosing the kazaana within his palm. He titled his head curiously as she reached her hand out slowly, brushing her fingers delicately across the beads. "Will my reiki hurt you?" She asked quietly.

"Hmm?"

Her blue eyes met his violet again.

"The kazaana…" Kagome mumbled.

Was she worried her reiki would hurt him because of the kazaana?

He smiled gently and turned his hand over beneath hers, grasping her wrist gently. She looked down at their hands, slowly wrapped her fingers around his own wrist, skin pressing carefully against his prayer beads. In response, he allowed a small portion of his reiki to reach out to her own. He glanced up at her through his lashes as her breath caught slightly at the sensation and his smile grew.

"I told you, Kagome-sama, you can't hurt me with your reiki. Not like this anyways." He reassured her.

She pulled her hand out of his slowly, just enough so that her fingers hovered over his own and she tried again, reiki passing from her fingertips to his own. He breathed deeply as it passed over his skin. If she looked up at him now, he knew she'd see how her reiki made his breath catch in his chest as well, how his jaw clenched and pupils dilated as the sensation passed enticingly over his skin.

For the moment, her eyes remained on their fingers, her hand hovering slightly over his, the skin of her fingers just barely brushing his own. He didn't miss how sensual the moment seemed, knew that if Sango or Inuyasha were to wake and see them now, they might inquire into the moment again as they did the day before when they'd found the houshi and miko asleep together by the door of Kaede's hut.

Miroku tried again, passing his own reiki from his fingers to hers, closing the minimal gap between them. He watched her chest rise with her breath and hold as if mulling over a fascinating smell, her eyes widening slightly. Cobalt blue flecked with hues as bright as the sky in the light of the fire met his amethyst orbs then, and he felt his breath catch in a different fashion, hoped she didn't see.

"Will you teach me, Miroku-sama?"

"Hmm?"

How could he be having trouble forming words?

"Teach me more about reiki? How to use it?" Kagome continued, tilting her head curiously, shyly glancing back down at their hands.

He felt as if something released him when she looked away and he breathed out with a sigh, allowed it to turn into a small chuckle. 'What was that?'

He took her hand in his once more, set the practically forgotten ice pack down in his lap and placed his other hand over hers. The coolness of his palm shocked her slightly, drew her eyes back up to his own.

"It would be my pleasure, Kagome-sama," he responded quietly, eyes curling up into half-moon smiles as he brushed his thumb across the top of her hand.

"But perhaps it might be best that our lessons wait until morning?" He turned his gaze of their dozing companions and Kagome turned wide, owlish eyes to their small, sleeping group as well. She flushed slightly, then looked back to her houshi friend whose blanket had slipped from his shoulders and pooled around his waist, the light of the fire casting handsome shadows across his broad chest, his lean arms. Her flush deepened and she withdrew her hand from his quickly.

"H-hai." She responded quietly, shifting to huddle back into her sleeping bag quickly. "Goodnight, Miroku-sama," she said as she brought the sleeping bag up to her chin.

He chuckled, shaking his head slightly at her embarrassment. "Goodnight, Kagome-sama," he whispered back, pulling his blanket back up around his shoulders, silently mulling over the way his fingers seemed to long for the warmth she withdrew when she pulled away. He told himself that it was her reiki he craved, the sensations it pulled from his skin, not the heat of her eyes on him, not her proximity, not the feeling of her hand in his.


A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review? -HM11