Frostbite

Frostbite

By: SavagexGarden

Disclaimer: I do not own the Inuyasha characters

A/N: All right, sorry for the long wait! School was hectic this last month with AP testing and all that jazz. But now school is out and I can start writing more! With one teeny exception… I'M LEAVING FOR ITALY IN A FEW HOURS! So now I got to crack down and push out a chapter before I fly across the Atlantic. So just a head's up, this chapter will be shorter (a lot shorter) then the last few chapters… but I have a 16 hour plane ride looming just ahead of me that I can write to my hearts content on since they'll be nothing else to do. I won't have a computer in Italy, but I can get it uploaded as soon as I return (which will be on June 10th). So here is this new chapter, sorry it's kind of rushed. One of my loveliest reviewers ever gave me the idea for this chapter. I was going to use it as just an opening for the next chapter but I guess it'll have a space all it's own.

Time for a MINI CHAPTER! (Because I'm getting on a plane in one hour…)

Chapter Twelve- While They Were Away

"We have all seen them circling pastures,

have looked up from the mouth of a barn, a pine clearing,

the fences of our own backyards, and have stood

amazed by the one slow wing beat, the endless dihedral drift.

But I had never seen so many so close, hundreds,

every limb of the dead oak feathered black,

and I cut the engine, let the river grab the jon boat

and pull it toward the tree.

The black leaves shined, the pink fruit blossomed

red, ugly as a human heart.

Then, as I passed under their dream, I saw for the first time

its soft countenance, the raw fleshy jowls

wrinkled and generous, like the faces of the very old

who have grown to empathize with everything.

And I drifted away from them, slow, on the pull of the river,

reluctant, looking back at their roost,

calling them what I'd never called them, what they are,

those dwarfed transfiguring angels,

who flock to the side of the poisoned fox, the mud turtle

crushed on the shoulder of the road,

who pray over the leaf-graves of the anonymous lost,

with mercy enough to consume us all and give us wings."

- David Bottoms, Under the Vulture - Tree

Sango stirred slightly and muttered under her breath something indiscernible in her half sleep state. Inuyasha had come in a little while before but she couldn't quite recall what he had been trying to say. She had merely uttered that she'd be up in a little while and to leave her alone. It seemed like a good answer at the time. But as Sango started to wake up, she noticed certain things about her surroundings that were partially disturbing. For one, Miroku was sleeping beside her and she had no idea how that had happened. Well… at least she was dressed.

She attempted to dislodge herself from the bed before he woke up so that she could vehemently deny that she had slept in bed with him and hope fervently that he would believe that. Unfortunately, Miroku had a surprisingly strong grip as she desperately tried to wiggle free from the arms that were currently encircled around her waist. No such luck, and the lazy bum didn't even stir from having been shoved around during her botched escape attempt. Maybe she'd have to resort to chewing off her own arm.

Why did girls always end up in this situation? You never here about men waking up one pleasant morning and being stuck by a girl he really didn't want to be with and no option to escape but biting off his own arm. No, men never seemed too traumatized to wake up next to any woman. It was a double standard and it was completely unfair.

Finally after much wiggling and a little struggling, Sango broke free from the grip around her waist and immediately fell to the floor with an audible thud. Miroku seemed to have slept through the whole thing, even if he had been beaten off quite forcefully from Sango. She leapt to her feet and started to quickly wipe off random dust bunnies that had attached themselves to her while she was on the floor.

"Sango love, what are you doing rolling around on the floor?" She nearly jumped out of her skin at the groggy sounding voice coming from Miroku's form. She hadn't realized that he had woken up yet since while frantically wiping off dust bunnies, her back had been turned to him.

Whipping around she noticed that his head was propped up on an elbow while he rested on his side sleepily smiling up at her from his position. "Don't call me 'love' like we're a couple, pervert! And I was not rolling around on the floor…" She crossed her arms over her chest and set her face in a scowl making sure to force back her blush. It was strangely intimate the way he was watching her and she didn't like it one bit… well maybe a tiny bit.

"No need to be so angry! You wound my broken heart." He sighed dramatically and fell backwards onto the bed, allowing the pillows to flop away from him due to body impact. "I thought I controlled myself very well last night by not touching you inappropriately while you slept and this is the thanks I get." He sent her a mockingly disapproving glance. "You should be ashamed love."

Sango turned beat red in less then 3.5 seconds. So he had noticed that they had slept together… well of course he noticed! She'd forgotten how they could have ended up in bed in the first place; he must have carried (or dragged) her in here. Well, there goes that plan. Time for the next plan, to change the subject so completely that they could both pretend this never occurred in the first place. "Get out of bed and get dressed Miroku. I vaguely recall Inuyasha coming in and telling us that Kagome and him were ready to get onto the slopes. I don't want to waste any more time with you." She then stomped out of the room and towards her own bedroom so she could get dressed in peace.

When Sango entered the room, she noticed that all of Kagome's things were already gone. She figured that Kagome was just waiting with Inuyasha in the living room or something along those lines. It never even occurred to Sango that Kagome would leave her here all alone with Miroku.

"Hey Sango!" She glanced up from her suitcase as Miroku walked over to her open door. "You might not want to get dressed just yet." He said with a nervous smile that clearly stated he was trying to be nice while also terribly afraid of how Sango might react.

She stood up straight, a snowboarding jacket in hand, and sent him a suspicious look. "Why shouldn't I get dressed?"

Miroku shifted his weight from one foot to the other and let out a little sigh. "You might want to look outside." He stepped away from the door so Sango could exit the room and walk toward the front door while he followed quietly behind, a few feet separating them.

Sango glanced back at Miroku before flinging the front door open. For a moment she just stood there and stared at the driveway… at the very empty driveway. Where was the truck? And then the gears in her mind started turning and in a few seconds she had fully realized what had happened. "That son of a bitch Inuyasha! He left without us! When he gets back here I am going to kill him! He knows I wanted to go out today and he took the ONLY car we have and drove up without me! That… that… Oh when I think of a name bad enough for him I'll say it then." She was beyond furious by now. After all, she was the one that dragged him out of bed yesterday to come up here and he didn't even have the common decency to wait two minutes before driving off.

Miroku just laughed nervously. "You know Sango… he might not be trying to smite you. He probably went alone for another reason." His voice was steady as he started to try to reason with Sango.

She turned on a dime and snapped at him, "What reason could that be? Huh Casanova, why do you in your infinite wisdom think he drove off without me!" Sango didn't like to be excluded from things.

But Miroku just laughed nervously in the wake of Sango's rolling anger. "Have you noticed that dear Kagome is also missing?"

For a second Sango just starred at him until slowly her anger started to ebb away as the reality of the situation sank in. A small smile suddenly lit up her features and she started laughing. "That manipulative bastard. He wanted Kagome alone up there, huh?" She started to laugh a little more at Inuyasha's little plan to isolate Kagome and himself on a mountain.

Miroku sighed romantically. "Young love is just so precious." Then he started laughing with Sango.

After realizing that there was no way they could walk to the lifts before the sun had already set, Sang changed back out of her snowboarding clothes and back into some comfortable pajamas. She walked out of her room and joined Miroku in the living room. He was idly flipping through channels in an attempt at finding something interesting to watch. Unfortunately the only things that were on during a weekday at noon were a few cartoons and an America's Next Top Model marathon. Guess what they started watching.

"Oh my god Tyra!" Sango chewed the popcorn venomously as she watched the TV. All the girl's names had been called except for two and now Tyra was giving them their little speeches on why they ended up as the bottom two. One was about to go home. "You know the only reason that girl's in the bottom two is because she actually has a brain and likes to use it every once in awhile. She's not prickly! You're the one that assigned her to be a cactus!" She yelled at the screen. For some reason she just couldn't stop watching the show, and they'd been watching it for a few hours now. It just sucked you in no matter how much you disliked Tyra…

Miroku nodded his head in agreement. "Yea, they're just kicking her off cause she goes to Yale and God forbid someone with a brain actually wins." Miroku was very sure of his masculinity, which was why he had no problem watching ANTM and not being slightly ashamed of himself. "Tyra's crazy…"

Sango nodded her head a little and sighed as the girl from Yale was voted off the show. "Tyra's completely out of her mind." She leaned back against the couch as the end credits started to roll. Only six more hours of this season left to go…

Miroku glanced at her out of the corner of his eye and smiled a bit. For such a little tomboy, Sango sure did get worked up over a show like this. A small spark of bravery passed through him and he gently placed an arm around her shoulders. Sango didn't seem to care or notice as the opening song for another episode came on; she leaned in close and ended up resting her head on Miroku's shoulder. He smiled a bit, thrilled that she didn't immediately push him off, slap him, and scream pervert. The next few hours continued in this fashion as Sango curled up into Miroku and they both watched Tyra do her model thing. The show was way too addicting.

Finally Miroku glanced out the window and noticed it was starting to get dark outside. Inuyasha and Kagome still hadn't returned yet and he was vaguely worried about them. They should be coming home soon. Thoughts of his two friends were suddenly wiped from his mind as he felt Sango curl up to him even more. Glancing down at her, Miroku noticed that she had started to drift off. Watching TV without moving for hours could really take a lot out of a person obviously.

"Tired Sango?" He murmured quietly to her as he gently twirled her hair around his finger. Sango nodded slowly and yawned. Smiling a little, Miroku stood up and gently tugged Sango to her feet. He would have carried her, but a part of him had a feeling that even though she was half asleep Sango was very aware of whatever he was doing to her and Miroku really didn't want to get slapped. "We'll lay down then and take a nap while waiting for Inuyasha and Kagome to get back from their little mountain adventure together."

They shuffled back into the boy's room and collapsed on Miroku's bed again, just like they were a few hours ago this morning. Sango turned to face Miroku and snuggled up into his chest while his arms lazily wrapped themselves around her body. "If your hands go any lower then the small of my back I will throw you outside into the snow and watch you freeze to death." Sango muttered darkly and sleepily.

Miroku just laughed nervously and placed his cursed hands a little higher up on her back. "Come on Sango love, don't you trust me?" He asked in his most innocent voice.

"About as much as I trust Kikyo. And don't call me 'love' like we're a couple, pervert!" She lightly punched his chest, before yawning a starting to fall asleep.

Miroku just laughed, she was so falling for him. "I'll wake you up when Inuyasha and Kagome get home. Good night, love."

"Good night, pervert." Sango muttered in reply as she drifted off to sleep.

Now it's very hard to stay awake while someone is sleeping right next to you, especially if you're extremely bored like Miroku was and in moments he had fallen asleep too, resting his head against Sango's. And that's how Inuyasha and Kagome found the two when they finally got home.

Inuyasha growled as he looked at the two sleeping together on Miroku's bed while Kagome and him leaned against opposite sides of the doorframe. "I swear they are the laziest people I've ever met! That's exactly how I left them this morning. At this rate, they'll never wake up. You should make sure they're still breathing." He huffed disapprovingly and left the doorframe, heading down the hall towards the kitchen. "Hungry Kagome? I'll make us some ramen for dinner."

Kagome continued to lean against the doorframe and watch her two friends sleeping so comfortably together. "Good night Sango and Miroku." She whispered quietly and left to join Inuyasha in the kitchen. She had a sneaking suspicion that they hadn't just slept all day though since the 9th season finale of America's Next Top Model was flickering obnoxiously in the living room.

End of the MINI CHAPTER

A/N: Yea, so I ended up finished this with literally less then half an hour to spare before I leave for the airport, so that's why it might sound really rushed. Sorry about that, but there's not much I can do about it now since I'm about to leave. But I'm kind of glad that I was able to do a little mini chapter focusing on Sango and Miroku since they really don't get that much plot time in the rest of the story. I thought it was cute anyway… Well I'll be writing on the planes and trains in Italy so I'll update when I get back! Ciao dolls. And review please.