Dinner passed awkwardly and Miroku had opted to bring his food into the guest bedroom where he was staying. His mother usually didn't let him do such things, as she saw the importance of family togetherness, but he was a grown man now and he could do what he wanted.
He was watching Jeopardy, the Japanese version, mindlessly as he ate his dinner. Sukiyaki and rice was his idea for a great dinner, especially the particular way Sango had cooked it, but he couldn't eat in peace while Howard was sitting there.
Miroku knew his family was probably wondering why, and talking amongst themselves, about why he wasn't in there joining them.
But Sango knew. He had seen the bruises on her arm and he knew exactly who caused them. She hadn't been able to face him for the rest of the day and she was sweating bullets that their would be a fight.
So she didn't protest his request to stay in his room. It was best for the tranquility of the house, and Howard had no idea Miroku had seen it, though he wasn't oblivious to Miroku's oh-so obvious dislike. He had noticed that when he arrived.
The bedroom door opened, and Miroku emerged with an empty plate. His chest was puffed out as he entered the kitchen, he tried to appear more solid then he really was and Sango could feel the tension in the room. She kept her arms hidden from sight as if not to remind Miroku of what he had seen, as if he'd forget.
Miroku put his plate in the sink, refilled his cup with iced tea and shuffled back into his room. He gave Sango a glance filled with worry as he passed by her, and his tried his best to keep his eyes off of Howard. If he even so much as looked at him right now there was no telling what would happen to his temper.
Amber watched as he closed the door behind him. She sat down her chopsticks and excused herself from the table. "Miroku?" She asked, knocking. "Is everything alright?"
Miroku rolled his eyes, muted the television and replied. "I'm fine."
"You seem mad. Can I come in?"
He sighed and rolled off his bed, opening the door for Amber to come in. "What?"
Amber shut the door behind her and he suddenly felt like he was 14 again, trying to keep his 10 year old sister out of his hair. "Did you and Sango-chan have a fight?"
"No." Miroku lied, taking the mute off the television. It was a sign that he wanted to be left alone and he didn't want to share any information with her.
"Oh, well, what's going on then?" She asked. "I was really looking forward to having dinner with my favourite brother tonight."
Miroku chuckled and ruffled her hair. "I'm your only brother."
Amber smoothed out her hair. "Don't change the subject, smartass."
He sighed and looked at her. "Look, me and Sango are fine. I'm just…not too big of a fan of her fiancé."
"Oooh!" Amber exclaimed, teasingly. "You jealous?"
Miroku tweaked his sister's nose to get her to stop teasing him. "It's not like that."
"Sure it's not. Why else wouldn't you like Howard? He's totally awesome." Amber exclaimed. "You know, since you left, Sango's been like my big sister and Howard spends a lot of time with me."
Miroku looked at her in disbelief. "Amber, have you noticed the marks he leaves on Sango?"
"Marks? You mean besides hickeys?"
Miroku felt jealousy rip through him. "Yes! Besides hickeys. Have you seen her arms?"
"No." Amber said, clueless. "Why?"
"She had bruises on her arms. I saw them today when we were washing dishes. Amber, if I go in that kitchen, I'm going to kill that guy and then Sango will hate me forever."
Amber sighed and sat down on his bed. "Howard's not abusive. He loves Sango, she must have gotten them from somewhere else."
"From who, Amber? Kirara?" Miroku asked, sarcastically, referring to Sango's tiny, two-tailed cream colored cat.
"I don't know, but it wasn't from Howard." Amber said. "Sango's a bit of a klutz, maybe she fell."
Miroku rolled his eyes. "Look, Amber, I don't want to argue about this. And until I have proof Howard Bailey didn't touch my best friend, I hate the guy."
"Alright. Well, mom's got apple pie. I'll tell her to leave you a piece."
Miroku sighed and turned his attention back to the television. "Thanks."
Another soft knock came to the door and Miroku didn't bother to look away from the action film he was watching. Sometimes it just felt good to sit around and do nothing, it sure was a nice change from the hustle of the medical world.
"Come in."
His door squeaked open and the thin silhouette entered the room. He was relieved, yet pained to see her. He'd have to come forth to her about his concerns and they would probably end up fighting again.
"Hey." She said weakly, taking a seat on the edge of his best.
"Hey." Miroku said, softly. The room was cast in a blue hue and Sango noticed just how handsome his features were. He wore a serious, hard look on his face and she knew what he was angry about.
"I'm sorry I blew up like that earlier." Sango apologized, sitting on the edge of his bed, her hands folded in her lap.
"Don't be. I crossed the line into your personal life."
"You only did it to protect me. I've had all day to think about it and I was wrong." Sango admitted. "You only did it because you care about me."
"Sango, tell me the truth. Is he hurting you?" Miroku asked, losing interest in the movie.
She opened her mouth to answer him, but quickly shut it. Miroku didn't like her hesitation, but he stayed calm as he reached his hand up to cup her cheek. "Hey, look at me, you can tell me anything." He said, his eyes shimmered with kindness.
Sango didn't know what came over her at the moment, but she leaned forward and kissed him very softly. Miroku was shocked but returned her kiss because he really didn't know what else to do.
She pulled away very quickly, her heart raced as she stared back at him in disbelief.
Miroku sat up straight, his back against his pillow. Never in a million years would he have thought kissing Sango would be that invigorating. "Wow." That was all he could muster.
Sango stood up. "I have to go."
"Wait!" He exclaimed, grabbing her hand. "You never answered my question."
Sango stopped, and turned her gaze away from him. Her lips were still tingling from that kiss and she couldn't lie to the man she had just kissed, or the man who was also her best friend. "He did. But on accident, we were playing around and he grabbed me too hard."
Miroku gazed at the side of her face. If she was lying, she was damn good at it and then he darkly realized maybe she had a lot of practice. A lot of practice lying to his mother, his father and his sister. But he didn't want to analyze it anymore, he had a hard enough time trying to analyze the fact that she kissed him.
And he enjoyed it. Very much.
"Alright." He said, letting go of her hand. She placed her hand on his doorknob but he stopped her again. "By the way…" he said.
She turned to face him, sensing the smile and arrogance in his voice. She was glad to see her bought her story. "Yes?"
"I want to do that again sometime."
Miroku sat uncomfortably in the seating part of the arena, along with the rest of his family members. He had spent most of the time catching up with Hideko, his cousin who had graduated just a year before.
He wished he could have came back for hers, but he was swamped with surgeries all that week and barely had time to breath. He did, however, send her a card with 4,000 yen and Hideko didn't seem to bear any grudge towards him. She waved down at Amber from the stands, as she walked out with her classmates and Miroku smiled at her family.
She was glad to see they were all there, especially Miroku because she wasn't sure he was coming or not.
Sango sat next to Hideko awkwardly, and Howard took his place beside her. Miroku's foot began tapping and he wished he would have had the chance to smoke before he came in there. His mother placed her hand on his knee as if to quiet down his nervous habit, but it only worked for a whole 6 seconds.
Hideko giggled and blew a kiss down to her boyfriend, who was a high school English teacher. They had met when she was at the tender age of 15, but their attraction was anything but to ignore and as soon as Hideko graduated herself he asked her out on an official date, and they had been dating ever since.
Inu Yasha pushed his way by people's legs, dragging his fiancée, Kagome, behind him. Kagome apologized for Inu Yasha's rudeness as she sat down. The white-haired guy slapped a hand on Miroku's solid shoulder and gave him a welcome home grin. "Yo, it's been a minute. Wow don't you look nice in a suit."
Miroku smiled and straightened his tie. He felt quite distinguished and he enjoyed the fact that a shirt and tie just made him look that much more appealing. "Thanks. I missed you, cuz."
Hideko peered over at Inu Yasha, her older brother and snatched away his camera. "I want to take some pictures of Nelly and Amber! Oh! And Kris, too!"
Inu Yasha rolled his eyes in disgust. He didn't like his younger sister's new boyfriend, he thought he was nothing but a pervert who went over younger girls, even though the very handsome English teacher was only in his late twenties. "Don't break it."
Hideko simply waved him off.
Yes, this was definitely his family, Miroku thought. Hideko and Inu Yasha bickering with each other, like siblings do, as Kagome sits idly by and makes sure they don't rip each other apart.
His mother was snapping pictures like crazy, even got a quick shot of Miroku's shoe in one of them. How that happened he didn't have the slightest clue.
And then there was Sango, who he had always considered family until last night. Last time he checked, family members didn't kiss other family members. But he had genuinely enjoyed it, but now he was a little disappointed.
Sango tried her best to forget what happened last night between her a Miroku. Her emotions were high and she wasn't thinking straight and she shouldn't have done that. But that still didn't change the fact that she had enjoyed it.
Miroku was a little ticked off though, here she was, just hours later, sitting next to that scumbag she called a potential husband as if nothing had happened between them last night.
The graduation ceremony began and Miroku remembered just how boring his had been back in the states. It didn't change much for country to country. The school Amber was graduating from would have been the same one he would have graduated from if he would have stayed in Japan.
The thought depressed him. He and Sango met in a 6th grade health class in Jr. High and were friends ever since. She had always been there for him, and he was always there for her, up until a certain point when he suddenly felt he was too good to come back and see his family.
Miroku had a problem with this type of thing. He had the habit of berating himself until the point where he needed another cigarette to calm his nerves, and just at the worst time to. There was no way he was going to be able to stand up and go outside for a smoke without his mother getting angry with him.
But he had to have it, he would be back in time to see Amber graduate if he hurried. He stood up and pushed his way through the crowded aisles. He quickly ran outside, lit up a cigarette and immediately felt better.
He was only going to take a few drags then he was going to go back inside. He knew his mother was already wondering where the hell he went and he got proof of that when Sango stepped outside, without his knowledge.
"Miroku."
"Ah!" Miroku screamed, burned his hand on his cigarette, and then dropped it. "Sango!"
"Miroku, are you smoking?" Sango asked in disbelief.
Miroku mashed the cigarette butt with his shoe and dragged it across the sidewalk, leaving a streak of black. "Uh…I…I only do it when I'm nervous."
"Why are you nervous?" Sango asked. "Does it have anything to do with last night?"
"Last night? Oh! Yes. Last night." Miroku stumbled over his words and he wondered when he became so nervous he could barely talk. "No."
Sango looked away. So she didn't have any affect on him at all? She wanted a change of subject suddenly. "You know, you shouldn't smoke. It's not healthy."
"Hey, Sango, I'm a doctor. I know that." Miroku said, looking at her.
"It's a bad habit and you need to stop." Sango told him.
Miroku sighed. "Sango, I don't need you to tell me how to live my life, alright?"
"Oh, really? Well, I don't need you to tell me how to live mine then, either." Sango told him. "I'm perfectly happy."
"Oh, yea? Well then why did you kiss me? You can't be too happy if you did that. You wouldn't want to jeopardize your relationship with Howard, now would you?" Miroku said, his voice was laden was sarcasm and that really set Sango off.
Sango didn't know how to come back from that. "Miroku, your sister's about to graduate and your going to miss it."
Miroku twitched nervously. "Don't change the subject on me." He said. "I want to know why you kissed me last night."
"It was…a mistake." Sango stammered, he was drawing closer to her and she felt her heart start to race.
He slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her into a strong, embrace. His large hands rested on her hips, his eyes met hers and he just stared. "Oh really? Well, tell me something…is this a mistake?"
Miroku leaned in and kissed her softly. His lips barely brushed hers but it sent such a warm feeling through him. The next thing he knew he had pushed her against the wall and his tongue was begging for her to allow him in.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and she enjoyed the feeling of his hands traveling all over her body. She opened her mouth and allowed him to taste her for the first time. Sango ran her fingers through his dark hair and he let out a low moan in the back of his throat and moved his hand up to cup her face.
Sango slowly reached her hand up and pulled his hand down, then sharply pulled away. Realization came flooding in when she realized what had just happened, yet again. "Miroku! Get your hands off me!"
Miroku watched her as she pulled herself away from the wall and began to scuttle her way back towards the building. "Hey! Sango! What are you doing? I thought you were enjoying that!"
She pivoted on her foot to face him. "I'm going back into the building so that I don't miss Amber graduating. Unlike you, I actually care about my family."
Miroku scowled at her, and grabbed her hand. "I care about my family too."
"Let go." She said, jerking her arm away. The movement caused her to hiss in pain at the already bruised area.
Miroku let her go and he fallowed closely, but no too close, behind her. She was obviously mad, and most definitely confused. One minute she was kissing him senseless and the next minute she was throwing an attitude with him. She confused the hell out of him, but for some reason he wanted more.
He liked this side of his best friend. In fact, he liked everything about her. Her taste, her texture, the way her lips felt against his, the way her fingers felt in his hair. The way her hips twitched when she stalked off from him like that. She had grown into a beautiful young woman and she deserved better than Howard Bailey.
Miroku wasn't even sure if he was a good enough man for her, or if there was any man on this entire globe that was good enough for her, but one thing was for certain.
He was going to try.
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