Hitomi Keseki sat in the corner of the colorful room, holding onto a teddy bear as she watched her sister play with the other children. She kept her eyes on the clock, remembering that her mother had told her when the big hand reached the three, she would come back and get her.
Akira nudged her arm. "You've been sitting there all day. I think we're almost ready to go outside!"
"I don't want to go outside, I want to go home."
Akira rolled her brown eyes and glanced up at the clock. "Mom always comes to get us when the little hand is on the three, now c'mon. Playing on the slides isn't as fun without you."
Hitomi stood up slowly and shyly fallowed her sister. "Hey Akira, I wonder why we spent the night at Keiko's last night. Mom never lets us on a school night."
Akira stopped and turned around, facing her sister. "I don't know Hitomi, all I know is that mom looked really mad."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Why?"
Akira sighed. "Don't do this Hitomi. C'mon…" Her eyes brightened when she saw her classmates line up at the door.
Hitomi fallowed behind her and then joined her on the slide. It seemed they had only been playing for just a few minutes when they saw the familiar white Honda pull around the side.
"Aw, man!" Akira said, disappointed. "We have to go home already?"
This time it was Hitomi who dragged her sister along, dragging her towards the car and Sango kneeled down to gather them in her arms.
"Hey you two!" Sango hugged the both of them and then stood up to sign their names on the bottom of the sign out sheet their teacher gave her.
She lifted Hitomi into the car and realized Akira was already trying her to best to clamber inside. "Akira, you're going to break your neck doing that one day."
"Daddy let's me do it." Akira said happily.
Sango clenched her first. "Your father let's you do that?"
"Yea!" Akira exclaimed. "I told him I wanted to try it by myself and he lets me."
Sango sighed. Stupid idiot, monk. Ex-monk. Gas station attendant. Whatever he was! She shut both the backseat doors and slid behind the steering wheel. "Seatbelts."
Akira and Hitomi both clicked theirs on.
"Does you father make you wear your seatbelts?"
"Sometimes." Akira said. "He doesn't wear his at all."
Sango simply shook her head. Miroku was so irresponsible and stupid! She pulled onto the main highway and started towards the Harrison's home. Hitomi looked out the window and looked at her mother.
"This isn't the way home, mom."
"I know it isn't, sweety." Sango said, casually. "We've got to go by Keiko's house and feed Kirara." She eased her foot on the brake when she saw the traffic light was yellow, then it flashed to red and she stopped.
A car pulled up beside her, playing really loud music and Sango looked over only to have her heart sink and her anger grow. How immature could he get?
Did he really think he was cool riding around with that stupid bass in his hot, red, shiny camero in that grimy looking work uniform he had on? Well, OK, she had always thought he looked extremely attractive like that and that's why she hated looking his way.
He peered over at her and smile came to his face. He turned down his radio and poked his head out the window. "Hey honey, you still mad?"
"What's it look like?" Sango asked, grateful that the light had turned green again and she sped off, leaving him far behind.
"Shit!" He exclaimed. She was still mad and she wasn't headed home either. He floored his gas pedal and his car roared down the road after her. He could have cared less about the teenage girls that had checked him out as he passed them, normally he would have liked that, but not today. He had more important things to take care of.
He pulled in beside Brock's very modest car just as Sango was helping the girls out of the car. Hitomi smiled and bolted for the side of the car towards Miroku. "Daddy!"
"Hitomi…" Sango groaned. Great. Now she had to talk to him.
Miroku picked her up and swung her around. "Hey! I missed you!" He kissed her cheek and then placed her on the ground softly. He kneeled down next to Akira and held out his hand. "Well, hey their stranger."
"Daddy!" She reached out and wrapped her arms around his neck and Sango couldn't help but grin. Alright, so he was an excellent father, but he wasn't a very good husband.
He kissed the top of her head and stood up, now at eye level with Sango. He nervously shoved his hands in his pockets. "So…"
"Why did you fallow me here?"
"I just want to talk." Miroku said. "Sango it's only been a day since we split up and I'm miserable without you."
Sango turned her back towards him. "I don't want to talk to you."
"Too bad." Miroku told her. "You kind of have to, we're married."
Sango peered at him over her shoulder. "Look, Miroku, I meant what I said about a divorce, alright?"
"Sango, c'mon, you don't really want that, do you?" He asked, as she walked away from him inside the house. He picked up Hitomi, who had been pulling on his jeans since he stood up, and fallowed her into the house. "Baby, wait a second."
"Stop calling me that!" Sango snapped, facing him. "Give me my daughter."
"Hey, she's mine, too." Miroku retorted. "If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have her."
"I would so."
Miroku snorted with laugher. "Kind of hard to have a child when you don't have a man to help you along."
"You're not the only man in the world, Miroku." She groused through gritted teeth. "What? You don't think I'm attractive enough for anyone else?"
"No!" Miroku exclaimed. How did she manage to twist his words around and make him out to be the bad guy? She was expert at it, he swore! "I didn't mean it that way. I'm…I'm just going to shut up before I say anything else wrong."
"That's been the smartest thing you've ever said in your life, houshi!" Sango looked at him for a long moment and for one fleeting second she missed him. "Just get out Miroku, Mr. and Mrs. Harrison aren't too happy with you right now and they don't want you around me."
"They hate me now, too?" Miroku asked in disbelief.
"You cheated on me!"
"I did not cheat on you, Sango."
"What is it going to take for you to get out?" She asked, crossing her arms and peering at him.
"For you to come back home with me right now and be my wife again." He said, touching her arm and for an instant Sango felt herself wanting to be wrapped in his embrace again. His voice was low and seductive as he moved closer to her, his solid form looming in front of her. "Come home with me, let me make love to you."
He nuzzled her neck and Sango closed her eyes and ran her fingers through his hair. "Miroku…" She whimpered his name as she felt him place light kisses on her neck.
"Doesn't that feel good?" He asked, tickling her favourite spot below her ear with his tongue.
Sango bit back another cry of pleasure and pushed him away. "Get off of me!"
"Oh, c'mon!" Miroku exclaimed. "I thought you were going to pull me up into our old room and have your way with me."
"Not at 3:30 in the afternoon, pervert! The children are still awake!" She said, trying to regain her senses. "Sorry I'm not a whore like Emma. Why don't you go see what she's up to, fucking slut."
Miroku felt his ego take a bomb dive. So he was resistible after all… "Sango…"
"Look, I'll make you a deal." Sango said, trying to hold her anger inside. "You leave now, and I'll bring the girls by tomorrow after school and you can spend the weekend with them."
Miroku watched her, he knew there was no point in arguing with her, she was stubborn as a mule and he had known her long enough to know she wasn't going to back down. His wit couldn't hope to match hers, and he knew as soon as he had laid eyes on her that he had met his match, but she was the one for him. He wasn't going to let that all down the drain just because some other woman kissed him.
"That's great, Sango. But that's not what I was asking for. I was asking for my family to come back home with me." He said, gripping her shoulders with both hands. "You know, be a family again."
"No!" Sango protested. "I won't ever let you hurt me again! You've broken my heart so many times I can't even count! I'm fed up!"
"Alright, fine. You don't want to talk to me now, we'll talk tomorrow." He said, turning from her. Then he peered slowly back over his shoulder. "You look beautiful by the way…"
Sango looked down and she wondered how many other women he had told that to today. "Just go…"
"As you wish." He said, turning from her and sliding open the patio door and walked out to his car. Sango watched him through the glass door as he drove off and he felt her heart breaking yet again. Even when she pushed him away he still managed to hurt her somehow.
Sango kicked the sand of Tokyo's beach in front of her, holding three pairs of shoes and keeping a close eye on her girls as they stopped every few steps to write their names in the sand or draw pictures.
The sun was beginning to set and the pink-streaked sky reminded her of Miroku. They used to sit on the beach and just watch the beautiful colours it cast out over the ocean and it hurt her so bad right now she couldn't even look at it.
Was she really that unattractive? So ugly and hideous that he would stray to other women after 5 years of marriage and two children? Her marriage was in shambles and she felt like just breaking down and crying sometimes.
But she couldn't. Not in front of the girls.
"Ew!" Akira exclaimed, pointing in the sand to a slimy looking jelly fish that had washed itself on shore. "What's that?"
Sango snatched her hand away from it. "Ew. Don't touch it. I think it's a jelly fish."
"Cool!" Akira kneeled down next to it. "Is it dead?"
"I think so." Sango said. "C'mon, let's leave it alone, alright?"
Hitomi looked down at it for a few moments. "Daddy always pokes at it with a stick or something…"
Sango rolled her eyes. "Why does he do that?"
"He said it looked cool." Akira said shrugging.
Sango picked her up and dragged her away from the jellyfish that seemed utterly fascinating to her. Hitomi immediately fallowed when Sango walked too far away from her.
She could barely hold everything, including her purse, Akira, and the shoes. And eventually, she just dropped everything, except Akira onto the sandy beach. "Oh no!"
She kneeled down in the sand and searched around for her car keys, and her make up which had fallen out of her purse. Akira was helping to, but seemed to be more interested in a crab that waddled by.
Suddenly, a male voice sounded from above her and Sango peered up to see a brown-eyed man with black hair staring down at her. His hair was black and tied back into a long pony-tail. His skin was dark and tanned and he was really quite handsome. "You need any help?"
"Uh…yes. Actually. Thank you." Sango said, smiling. "I found everything else, except my car keys.
He kneeled down in front of her and sifted through the sand and then jangled the metal in the air. "These it?"
"Oh! Thank you!" Sango exclaimed as he handed her the keys, which she stuffed back into her purse.
The man looked over at Akira who had found another jellyfish and was now poking it with a stick then at Hitomi who was just watching in disgust. "Are they your girls?"
"Yes." Sango replied, quickly picking up Akira again.
"I thought so. They look like you, especially the shy one." He said, and she noticed his eyes were averted to her hands, a slow smile came to his face. "You married?"
Sango lowered her eyes for a moment and then continued to walk up the beach with the man, who she didn't even know. But it seemed like she could trust him. "Sort of…"
"Sort of?"
"Well, we're married. But he cheated on me. Yesterday, actually." She explained, not sure why she was telling a complete stranger details about her love life.
"Wow. And these are his kids?"
"Yes. I've only been married five years." Sango told him. She really didn't want to talk about this anymore, but she didn't want to be rude. A change of subject seemed nice right about now. "So, what do you do?"
"I'm a magician." He replied. "I work down at the pier in the summer and fall, when it gets cold I move my shows across town to the arena's in downtown Tokyo."
"Wow. A magician. It's not everyday you meet one of those…" Sango said. "My girls love magicians, but they hate circuses. Akira's afraid of clowns so we never go. I guess she gets that from her father."
He laughed. "Your husband's afraid of clowns?"
"Always has been." Sango grinned a little, then instantly hated herself for it. "It's kind of his little secret he doesn't like too many people to know about."
The man chuckled again. "Here," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out three tickets. "I'm having a show tonight down at the pier. Bring your girls by and I'll make sure you get a good seat. And I promise, no clowns."
"Wow…" Sango stared down at the tickets in her hand. "Thank you. Uhm…what's your name?"
He looked dumbfounded for a moment and then realized he had been so nervous he had forgotten to tell her his name. "Oh, ha! My name's Rob. Just say you're a friend of 'Rob El Greato'. What's your name, by the way?" He asked.
"Sango. Just plain Sango. And this is Akira and Hitomi." She said.
Rob smiled and bowed dramatically. "Nice to meet you ladies." He laughed. "The show starts at 8, I hope to see you there."
Miroku walked into the kitchen of the mansion, only to find, much to his dismay, that Emma was cooking dinner. "Hey there, sexy!" She exclaimed.
"Hey Emma."
The bubbly brunette girl looked behind him. "I see your wife hasn't come back yet."
"Nope." Miroku said, stripping off his work shirt to reveal a white tank top along with a very nice physique. He was doing his best to ignore Emma, it was her fault all of this started.
"You must be lonely…" Emma said seductively. "My room's empty tonight, too. If you want to keep me company I--"
"No…" Miroku refused her, then pressed the up button on the elevator. Damn, Nelly really needed to get this thing fixed, it was so slow and taking the stairs was staring to get faster.
Thankfully, the door slid open and told Emma by the look in his eyes that he didn't not want her joining him. A long elevator ride to the 23rd floor seemed to take forever and when the doors dinged open he stepped out and pulled out his key to open the door to a quiet and lonely home.
He collapsed backward on the sofa, not even wanting to go into the bedroom. Maybe if he slept out here and pretended he had just dozed off on the couch he could get through one more night of loneliness.
Miroku had hoped he would come home and find Sango waiting on him in the living room, or perhaps even better, in the bedroom. But he came home to his worst fear and what he knew all along, an empty apartment.
Plus on top of that, he was starving and didn't feel like lounging around the apartment all night with nothing to do. So he pushed himself off the sofa and headed back towards the door.
He had the day off tomorrow from work and he didn't plan on stepping foot back into that apartment until way later, after he had gotten Sango off his mind.
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