I apologise in advance if this chapter is a little boring. It's mostly setting it up for what happens next and is nothing more than a cute little Sachiko and Miroku interlude. Bear with me, it gets better after this I swear! I should probably apologise to Miroku too, he was supposed to be older and wiser in this fic but some of his old cheekiness seems to be creeping in somehow. Oh well, somehow I don't think he's complaining...

As always thanks to everyone who reviewed my last chapter, The Mysterious Authoress and PiscesWater44 who always say the BEST stuff. And Wine IXI, Sessho's Gal and SangoMirokuRule who've been reading this for ages and haven't gotten bored yet. And g2fan, Kaoli Water Goddess, and Ferlooka...I'm glad that people are willing to give this story a try even though it took forever for Sango to actually show up in it.

Ah, at this rate this is going to be 100 chapters before I ever manage to finish it. Sigh...

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As the rays of morning sunshine crept across her face, Sachiko became aware of an unusual sensation. She slowly opened her eyes and tried to wriggle her body but found it impossible. Turning her head as far as it would go, she discovered the source of the problem. Clinging to her back like a wet noodle, with his arms tightly wrapped around her, was a sleeping Miroku.

"Umm..." she said. In response to her voice, Miroku opened his violet eyes slowly and sleepily.

"Good morning and everything," Sachiko said. "But would you mind taking your hands off my chest?"

Miroku looked perplexed for a moment. "Er...Sa-Sachiko?" he asked hesitantly.

Sachiko thought she suddenly understood the cause of his confusion, assuming that he'd forgotten that she was here and sleepwalked back into his own bed in the middle of the night. She smiled as she extracted herself from his clutches.

"Yes," she said. "Don't you remember? You let me sleep over because my apartment was broken into."

"Oh..."

"You don't look like you remember at all. Oh well, the important thing is that you go away now so I can get dressed," she laughed.

Suddenly Miroku blinked as the dumbstruck expression left his face. "That's right, we were going to go shopping today, weren't we?"

"Ah, so you do remember!"

A momentary silence followed which was only broken by Sachiko venturing "Er...your hand seems to be on my thigh..."

"Is it?" Miroku said absentmindedly, without moving his hand.

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"But why shouldn't you want to get the one that's the best?" Miroku queried as they stood in the computer store in front of an array of laptops. The salesman there didn't quite know what to make of this seemingly clueless young man who had every appearance of trying to impress his girlfriend by flashing plenty of cash her way-at any rate the salesman had visions of yen signs floating past his eyes as he contemplated the commission he was going to get from this sale.

"Because I can't let you spend that much money on me," Sachiko protested. "A cheaper one will do, really."

"But what else would I do with the money?" Miroku muttered dolefully, as if the question of how to spend money was indeed a genuine cause for concern. The salesman tried to hide his elation as Miroku, with a gesture more befitting a king issuing a proclamation to his subjects, said resolutely "We'll take this one. The best one."

Sachiko blushed slightly as she felt the eyes of the other customers who had been watching the whole scene and heard one woman distinctly remark "I wish my boyfriend was like that."

She consciously avoided letting anything in the shop windows catch her eyes as they walked through the shopping centre as she'd found if she started looking at something with any degree of interest, Miroku would immediately ask her if she would like him to buy it for her. She found his behaviour confusing. He professed to have no desire for anything for himself, and from his actions he must have been telling the truth for he seemed to have no concept of the value of things. More than one he had curiously examined various objects and, upon hearing the price, asked "Is that a lot? Is this a valuable item then?" Surely everyone knew that Rolex watches were both expensive and valuable, right? Surely everyone know how much money constituted "a lot", right? But Miroku behaved as if he had never dealt with money in his life! She was forced to wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that he'd mentioned he used to be a monk.

Just then, Miroku uttered an appreciative sigh. "Something smells delicious. Are you hungry?"

They were passing by the food court of the shopping centre, and since it was just before lunchtime the smells of the lunch offerings were beginning to fill the air but the seats were still mostly empty. The perfect time to sit down if one wanted to eat a leisurely uncrowded lunch. Miroku had already started floating toward a counter selling seafood as if pulled there by the force of the mouth-watering aroma. Sachiko pondered getting a hamburger but felt slightly guilty eating such things in the presence of Miroku who always picked the healthy options, it seemed, so she opted for a beef bowl instead.

And despite Miroku's protestations, she paid for the lunch. It was the least she could do, she thought. It wasn't entirely easy, Miroku was set on paying for everything himself.

"Are you trying to buy me?" she asked as they sat down.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Are you spending money on me to get me to like you more?"

Miroku looked thoughtful. "Is that an effective way to win the hearts of women?"

"Eh? Some women, I suppose."

"But not you?"

Sachiko laughed. "What would you say if I said yes? Really though, Miroku, how can you say you don't want anything for yourself? You like cars, don't you? Why don't you get one?"

"Ah, operating one of those is a skill that would be beyond me, I'm afraid. Oh, but perhaps you would like one?"

"No! I don't want you to get me a car," she sighed. "Well then why do you still live with Kagome? I'm sure you could afford a pretty decent place of your own."

Miroku hesitated. The obvious answer to that question would have been: "because I am still unfamiliar with living in this era, being from 500 years in the past as I am, and I still require assistance in order to perform many activities in this strange modern world that you take for granted."

But, he couldn't say that.

So he said "Because all three of us have very strong ties, and we enjoy living under the same roof."

"Oh." Sachiko poked around at her lunch in silence, slightly embarrassed that she wasn't quite so dextrous at using chopsticks as the average person.

Finally, she said: "Tell me what it was like to live as a monk."

Miroku hesitated again. That was another question that was virtually impossible to answer. What was he supposed to say? That he wandered around Feudal Era Japan defeating demons by means of magical incantations while seeking to release himself from the cursed hole in his hand that threatened his life? If he had learned anything at all about this time it was that people here thought that sort of thing only happened in fantasy stories.

Which was strange. After all, the people here lived in a time of giant buildings reaching up to the sky, metal machinery that rolled along the ground and flew through the air, and amazing boxes that cooked food in an instant without any fire. Amongst all that wonderment, these people found it hard to believe in a simple thing like demons?

But since he couldn't say all that, he simply said "Oh, that was a long time ago."

He felt guilty for a moment. It occurred to him that out of necessity there were an awful lot of things he had to hide from her. But what else could he do?

"You look deep in thought," Sachiko noted.

"Ah, it's nothing," Miroku said dismissively, and then to change the subject added "Your food looks nice."

"Want to try some?" she said, plucking a strip of beef and aiming it towards his mouth. Miroku opened his mouth in anticipation, but the beef dropped from it's awkwardly balanced position between Sachiko's chopsticks and fell onto the table. Sachiko growled in frustration.

"I just can't use these," she said. "It's so embarrassing!"

"Not at all," Miroku said, smiling kindly and reaching over. "You just have to place your fingers differently is all."

He put his hands over hers to correct her grip. She blushed as his warm, masculine hands enveloped hers and she wasn't sure if she were only imagining or if he was purposely taking his sweet time with it.

"Now try it," he said. To her astonishment, she found it worked.

"That's amazing. Thank you!"

"It's nothing. Perhaps next time you can teach me to use a fork."