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Camaraderie	By : BlackberryPatch Category: InuYasha > Yaoi - Male/Male > InuYasha/Sessh?maru > InuYasha/Sessh?maru Views: 16228 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own InuYasha, nor make money from this story.

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Righteous Guise

Miroku peered around the corner of the building and breathed a sigh of relief- Sango and Kagome were nowhere to be seen. He eased around to the front of the house where they were staying and opened the door, ready to slip inside.
A hand suddenly latched onto his robe from behind and he about jumped out of his skin. Whirling around to face his assailant, he found Rin standing just behind him looking at him oddly. Leaning back against the doorframe he placed a hand over his rapidly beating heart. "Ah, Rin. It's just you."
Her look turned knowing; a strange look for one so young, but it sat comfortably on her features. "You're trying to stay away from everyone in the group. Especially Kagome and Sango!"
He smiled weakly. "You're very... er, perceptive."
"Why?" she asked with typical childlike curiosity, taking his hand as they walked inside.

"Let's just say... they want me to tell them something that I don't think it's my place to say anything about. How's that?"

Rin frowned thoughtfully as he sat down and she seated herself in front of him. "You mean like a secret?"
"Yes, I suppose," he said, though he hadn't really been sworn to any secrecy.

She fixed knowing eyes on him. "Is it about Lord Sesshomaru?"
Miroku's eyes flew open wide. Very perceptive indeed... "Yes, it is."

She sat up eagerly. "Can you tell me?"

He shook his head regretfully. "No."

She looked a little sad but nodded. "It's good to not tell things that people trust you with."

Miroku quirked and eyebrow. "Oh?" Am I being lectured in correct conduct by a child being raised by a demon?

Rin nodded again. "Yep!" she said cheerfully before giving him an appraising look and crawling into his lap.

Miroku stiffened slightly, then relaxed as Rin settled herself, leaning her head against his chest. He raised a hand, hesitating a moment before he placed it on her head, his fingers brushing comfortingly through her hair.

After a few moments of sitting this way, she asked softly, "It isn't something bad is it?"

He sighed, his eyes closing against the stress of the past week. Ever since he had returned to the village and found Kagome returned as well, neither she nor Sango had given him any peace, divining somehow that he had information that they did not concerning Inuyasha and Sesshomaru's relationship and why it had, apparently, changed so dramatically out of the blue. And, he was fairly sure, they didn't even know how much it had changed. The search for the jewel shards continued, but the stability of their group had started going steadily downhill since Sesshomaru"s arrival. Not that it was really the demon's fault, but Kagome knew there was something going on that she didn't know about, and while Sango was usually one to let sleeping dogs lie (Ha!) when the two of them got together... sweet Buddha, he was going to tell them everything he knew- and everything he suspected- if they ever got him alone and he knew it. Which was exactly why he had been avoiding them, or trying to ensure that at least one other person was always with him whenever he ran into the women. He'd also spoken with Inuyasha, telling him that he needed to talk to Kagome- to tell her. Inuyasha was, understandably, "waiting for the right time" but Miroku really wished he'd hurry up and do it. If this went on for much longer, Miroku might be compelled to say something just to restore some level of harmony to the group. Especially if even Rin was noticing something was wrong.

Miroku sighed again. "No, Rin. It's not something bad." At least, he didn't think so and he didn't think she would either. At least, not "bad" as it had been defined in her short life. In his campaign to avoid Kagome and Sango, Miroku had been spending quite a bit of time with Rin. She liked to talk, and she had told him what she remembered of her life before she had come to live with Sesshomaru. He'd concluded that she seemed to be much better off- no matter how strange it was that she was being raised by a demon who professed a deep disgust with the entire human race. She didn't appear to be lacking any amenities, and her only complaint, if it could even be called that, was that she was occasionally lonely, and that was no longer a problem now that Sesshomaru had brought her together with the group.

"That's good." She turned to smile up at him before scowling thoughtfully. "Lord Sesshomaru wouldn't do anything bad," she said, certainty in her voice. "But," she looked at Miroku again, "Shippou says he has. He says Lord Sesshomaru is a very bad person." She sounded hurt- that anyone could believe her beloved lord could do anything considered "bad"; that her new friend would lie to her in such a way.

Miroku sighed again. Was being quizzed on ethics and the definition of good and evil by an inquisitive and observant child better or worse that having a disconcerting truth tortured out of him by two beautiful women? What a choice... "Rin," he started, but paused. After a moment he continued in a slightly different vein. "What do you think of Inuyasha?"

She frowned, confused by his change of subject, but content to humor him. "He's okay," she replied guardedly, then, darting a look around, leaned closer to him and, with a grin, whispered loudly, "He's fun to play with!"

Miroku nodded. "What about before your Lord Sesshomaru brought him to meet you?"

She thought about that, her brow furrowed in concentration. "He hurt Lord Sesshomaru," she said quietly. "That was when I first met Lord Sesshomaru."

"Was that a bad thing for him to do?" Miroku asked her softly.

"Yes!"

"Does that make Inuyasha a bad person?"

She hesitated. "Yes," she said softly. "Maybe." He could tell she was thinking about her earlier confession, that Inuyasha was fun to play with. "No." She crossed her arms tightly over her chest, annoyed that the world wasn't conforming to her limited black and white perception.

"What about Jaken?" Miroku prodded. "He annoys you sometimes, correct? Does that make him a bad person?"

"No," she said cautiously. "He tries to take care of me when Lord Sesshomaru is very busy, but sometimes he won't let me go play. But that doesn't mean he's bad!" She looked up at Miroku defensively.

He nodded; a fellow disciple of her lord couldn't be considered bad. "So perhaps it is true that sometimes not bad people can do bad things?"

She thought about that- he could almost see the grey entering her worldview. "I guess," she conceded. "But Lord Sesshomaru couldn't do that," she said with perfect faith.

Hmm. Different approach perhaps... "Perhaps when Jaken wouldn't let you go play it was because Lord Sesshomaru had told him not to, because there was something dangerous nearby and he did not want you to get hurt."

She looked at him measuredly. "I don't think that's it," she said bluntly. "Jaken doesn't like it when I play with flowers and try to give them to Lord Sesshomaru. He said it annoys Lord Sesshomaru, but I think he's wrong."

Miroku blinked. That was quite a denunciation. He sensed there was more going on between her and Jaken than she had let on before. Not terribly surprising; Jaken would of course share his lord's views and despise humans, not having the slightest idea what to do with the one that followed his lord home. "Alright," he granted. "But perhaps?"

She thought about it. "So, just cause I think it wasn't nice of him, that doesn't mean it was bad? Because he was doing what Lord Sesshomaru told him to do."

"Yes. Because you think something is bad, doesn't mean that it is."

"Okay," she allowed, waiting to see where he was going to take this.

"So if Shippou thinks that your Lord Sesshomaru did something bad, that doesn't mean he did. See?"

She brightened. "I see!"

He held up a hand in caution. "That doesn't mean that Shippou is wrong. Sesshomaru... Before you met him, before Inuyasha hurt him, he tried to hurt Inuyasha. That is why Shippou thinks your lord is bad."

Rin frowned again. "Why did they want to hurt each other?"

Miroku sighed; how to explain a hatred that had lasted longer than Inuyasha's life, that appeared to have been brushed aside in a heartbeat? "They... did not understand each other."

Her eyes lit with a sudden understanding. "They thought the other one did something bad, but just like with me and Jaken, it was only because they didn't know everything, because Lord Sesshomaru told Jaken to do it so it was right." She looked up at him, her eyes wide.

He smiled weakly. "Yes, I suppose that sums it up as nicely as anything will." She nodded, satisfied, and curled up against him again, her breathing becoming smooth and even.

The door slid open and Miroku glanced up, the anxiety that had been prevalent in his thoughts over the past few days pulling his eyes to the door. And sure enough, Sango stood in the doorway looking down at where he sat. He glanced over at her, and, before she realized that he was looking and schooled her expression into a disapproving mask, he thought he caught a fond smile on her face as she looked at him and the child resting in his lap. When she motioned that she wanted to speak to him, he gestured at Rin helplessly; thankfully the child did not wake up, since that would have completely demolished his excuse for not moving. Sango frowned, but nodded and motioned "later."

He nodded smiling, thinking privately, Not if I can help it. He was pretty sure he knew what she wanted to talk about. He sighed again, leaning his head back against the wall. Inuyasha had to tell Kagome, and he had better tell her now or Miroku was going to go crazy. He heard the door opening again and he looked up; he had thought that Sango had left.

It wasn't Sango.

Sesshomaru stood in the doorway, glancing curiously down at the monk and his charge. Miroku could only stare dumbly up at the demon as a corner of his mind processed that this was possibly not a terribly good position to be caught in. But Rin shifted in her sleep and sighed contentedly, and Miroku saw those hard, golden eyes soften slightly. He motioned at the girl in his lap, asking silently if Sesshomaru wished he should wake her. The demon made a curt negative gesture, then after a moment, spoke softly. "The time draws near when we will leave this place. If she does not wake before then, let her sleep." Miroku nodded. Rin shifted again, as if she heard her lord's whispered voice, and when Miroku looked up again Sesshomaru had left.

--

Kagome eyed Miroku warily. They had been traveling for almost all of the day and were nearing the small temple where they hoped to spend the night. Tearing her eyes from Miroku for a moment, Kagome glanced over at Sango who indicated by way of a shrug and open palm gesture that she agreed that there hadn't been an opportunity as of yet for them to implement their plan. Kagome frowned. It was starting to really frustrate her- that there was something Inuyasha refused to tell her. She'd asked him about it of course, which had only lead to him ducking out of the conversation and avoiding her for the next couple days. Between him and Miroku both avoiding her, and Sesshomaru avoiding the entire group for some reason, she'd been spending a lot of time with Sango which only meant that they had been able to do more planning... Miroku definitely knew what was going on, and Kagome was all set to tie him up till he confessed.

She was frustrated, and at the moment that was manifesting as anger but tears were not far away. She just couldn't believe that Inuyasha didn't trust her. It... made her hurt, in a way she'd never hurt before. She wasn't sure why and she didn't know what to do about it. She valued Inuyasha as a friend, and she didn't want to lose him. She wanted to respect Sesshomaru and their new relationship, but Sesshomaru's continuing avoidance of the human members of the group raised continued suspicions in the back of her mind. Kagome tried to be fair- really, it had only been in the last two days or so that Sesshomaru had been conspicuously absent from the group, and they had been in the village so perhaps he had had other business to attend to or maybe it had been too overwhelming, all those humans at the same time... She grit her teeth in annoyance. Dammit, there were just too many maybes.

Kagome suddenly stopped short in the middle of the road. There was a way to find out what was going on that she hadn't thought about before.

Sango shot a worried glance at her, and Kagome started walking again, smiling sheepishly, while her mind wrapped around this new idea. She hadn't thought of it before, because on the surface it seemed entirely absurd, but just maybe it would work... What if she asked Sesshomaru? She'd asked Inuyasha, enlisted Sango's help in bugging Miroku, but, as far as she knew, neither girl had even considered Sesshomaru as a source of information. As if conjured by her thoughts, the demon materialized, dropping out of the sky to walk in front of the group. Inuyasha, ears flattened in irritation, turned to shoot a glare at his brother before he continued walking forward.

Kagome frowned; she had been so lost in thought that she hadn't even noticed how quiet everyone was being. Usually their journeying was accompanied by chatter, or at the least Shippou's high pitched whining, followed by Inuyasha's deeper growl, interspersed with the ring of flesh on flesh as Sango once again reprimanded Miroku for his wayward hands. But now, even Shippou seemed subdued. Rin was also silent; she cast a beatific smile at Sesshomaru when he appeared, but continued her silent march beside Kagome, her wide eyes fastened on the other girl's bicycle, still fascinated by it after a week in its presence.

As soon as she noticed its existence, the silence became unbearable. About to say something, for no other purpose than to break it, she was beaten to it by Miroku.

"That is the temple," he said, relief in his voice as he gestured to a building that became visible as they passed around a bend in the road. She glanced at him- had he noticed the oppressive silence too?

"Good," Kagome returned brightly. "It's been a long day. I, for one, am looking forward to a rest."

Miroku returned her smile warily, before he moved to the front of the group and approached the gates of the temple. He raised a hand to the gate, but it opened before he could touch it. Another monk stood on the other side of it, smiling warmly. "Welcome travelers. How may we assist you?"

Miroku bowed to him politely. "We would like accommodations for the night, if it is possible."

The monk nodded, his eyes scanning their group until they settled on Inuyasha. His eyes narrowed slightly and his smile became slightly forced, but he passed on to Sesshomaru, and suddenly his eyes flew open wide and he retreated a step. "Y... you are most welcome here brother," he said to Miroku, "but I am afraid some of your..." he hesitated, "you companions may not pass the walls of our temple."

Miroku's eyes narrowed slightly as he turned around to look over his "companions" again. None of them looked particularly dangerous... except for Kagome, who was quietly seething and glaring daggers at the other monk. Inuyasha leveled his own glare at the monk, but Sesshomaru had turned away and looked supremely disinterested in the entire proceeding. In an effort to cut off Inuyasha, who seemed about to say something- and all bets said it was going to be something rude- Miroku cut in. "Well, then unless the ladies would like to take advantage of your hospitality, we will all have to decline."

"Hospitality?" Kagome snorted. "No thanks, we'll find somewhere else." She turned her bike around decisively and continued down the road, the monk shying away from the strange contraption as it passed near him. Miroku raised an eyebrow, then nodded to the other monk and followed after Kagome. Inuyasha paused to shoot the man a withering glare as Sango and Sesshomaru both walked on without pausing to acknowledge him.

Another night of camping out. Joy. Kagome grit her teeth again. She knew a lot of monks had problems with demons... But it wasn't like Inuyasha, or Sesshomaru even, was one of the stupid kind that just liked killing people randomly and did so without thought. Those kind didn't usually knock and wait patiently at the door. Sesshomaru didn't like humans, but it wasn't like he was a mass murderer- as far as she knew anyway. For that matter, it wasn't as if humans were so harmless- they could be burglars or murderers too... Kagome shook her head. She was mentally babbling; never a good sign. And she knew it was because she knew what she needed to do tonight- and if they were going to camp out, that would probably make it easier- but that didn't mean she wanted to do it.

--

There was absolute silence around the campfire.

The fire itself, as if sensing the tension of those who surrounded it, barely popped or crackled, the wood burning with a stillness that would have been remarkable in and of itself. But in addition...

Inuyasha hadn't complained when Kagome offered Shippou the extra ramen instead of him.

Shippou hadn't gloated.

Miroku hadn't seemed to notice.

Sesshomaru had disappeared again.

Kagome was going to scream. She locked eyes with Sango across the fire.

"Inuyasha," Sango said.

Everyone jumped. Inuyasha glanced over at the demonslayer. "What?"

"Tell Kagome whatever it is that you're not telling her, or I am going to tie Miroku to a tree and do... do unspeakable things to him until he tells me."

Miroku whimpered.

Inuyasha glared at Sango. Folding his arms into his sleeves, he grumbled, "Fine."

Kagome inhaled. She realized she hadn't done that in awhile.

"I..." Inuyasha stopped. The silence seemed to stretch out again. He moved a little away from the fire and turned around to face the darkness. "I... can't." He shuddered. "Miroku... tell them."

Miroku closed his eyes and massaged his temples with his fingers. Though this confession would bring down the walls that withholding the information had raised between the members of the group, he was supremely aware that it could just as easily raise new ones. Opening his eyes he sighed, noticing the four pairs of eyes focused on him. Rin and Shippou, though unusually quiet, were not immune to noticing that the storm cloud that had hung around all the older members of the group for the past week, growing steadily darker, was about to break. Kirara was the only one who looked uninterested; it occurred to the monk that perhaps she already knew. Miroku took a deep breath, thinking over what he wanted to say and choosing his words carefully. "Under circumstances that do not particularly matter at this time, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru discovered... that they cared for each other more deeply than either had previously admitted. They... used the opportunity to begin a... physical relationship." He looked over at Inuyasha, finding the half demon still turned away from the others but shooting Kagome a look through the protective curtain of his hair. Miroku looked at Kagome too.
She looked puzzled, as if the full meaning of Miroku words hadn't fully sunk it. But when it did, her eyes flew open wide, her hand going to her mouth as she glanced disbelievingly over at Inuyasha for confirmation. He held her eyes for a brief moment, then turned and ran.
Kagome stared after him, stunned, for a heartbeat, then surged to her feet and chased after him.

Miroku looked over at Sango. She looked stunned, but appeared to be digesting the information. Kirara looked supremely bored.
"Miroku..."

He flinched. Sweet Buddha, he did not want to do this...

"Miroku,: Shippou said again, pulling on his robe to get his attention. "What's a 'physical relationship' mean?"
He dodged. It was the only thing to do. "Perhaps we could go down to the stream and play with that new toy Kagome brought you? You could show it to Rin."
Both children brightened at the idea, forgetting- for the moment- their questions. They raced each other down to the trickling water, Shippou pulling out the toy boat that Kagome had given him, showing Rin how it stayed afloat even when overturned. She giggled in appreciation, taking a turn to dunk the boat herself. Miroku watched them; he would try and think of a way to explain everything to them tomorrow. He was tired tonight, and, in any case, the drama wasn't entirely unfolded yet.

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Camaraderie