Disclaimer: Don't own Inuyasha and I'm not making money from this fic.
Summary: Curiosity probably does usually kill the cat, but what if you just get kissed? Because that's what happens to Kagome.
Warning(s): Er. Miroku might come off a little bit like a stalker.
Rating: T
Theme(s) used: 30_kisses, Miroku/Higurashi Kagome, #27, overflow
Author's Notes: I started this one-shot a year or so ago, and I really don't know what to think or say about it, except I just literally finished it and hope you enjoy it?
WC: Approx. 1600

Lilies Underneath the Waterfall
by YHR (Yodai Hiro Reborn)

Finished/posted: 7/31/11

She couldn't help it. Curiosity egged her on.

She had seen the monk slip behind Inuyasha's "tree." She wondered how the hell Miroku had managed to get by without waking the hanyou. Kagome, who had been trying to finish up the washing, was watching out the door of Kaede's hut at precisely the same time Miroku moved quietly underneath the napping hanyou. Even shehad heard Miroku's staff jingle, and she was further away.

Let me get past him, let me get past him was the mantra currently repeating in Kagome's mind. If the monk could get by Inuyasha, then, surely, she could, too.

All notions of finishing the laundry were forgotten as she riveted her dark eyes on the hanyou's sleeping features, right beneath the branch he was perched on. His long, white mane flowed gently with the breeze. A few tendrils were dancing around his face, causing his nose to twitch periodically. His leg dangled lazily above her head. She couldn't ever remember Inuyasha looking so...peaceful. She couldn't say unguarded because Tetsusaiga was clutched tightly against his chest.

The red glare of his fire rat kimono clashing with the sunlight was starting to give her a headache. Her brow furrowing, she closed her eyes. How was it that, even while he slept, Inuyasha could find some way to annoy her? Kagome didn't think an answer to that question existed, but she did know that "once upon a time" she would have loved to have caught Inuyasha napping like this. She'd have turned into a "puddle of goo" at the mere "cuteness" of the scene.

But people change, and so do their feelings. She would always see him as beautiful, but, now, she truly believed he was unobtainable. Kagome didn't speak to anyone about her change of feelings, not even to Sango. Not even to her closest confidant, her mother...that is, when she had the time to return to her own time and actually "talk." These days all she ever seemed to do was restock and run back to the feudal era.

She loved the hanyou. Always would. But she also knew...that she had to let him go. Kikyo was the only one his heart could recognize, the only woman he could ever love. Even if he didn't know that himself, Kagome knew. For him, she made peace with the love he couldn't return. He was already forgiven because she understood he couldn't help his feelings. It hurt a little bit from time to time, but she tried not to think about it. They had Naraku to defeat. Her feelings were nothing compared to that. And she absolutely would not break any moment of peace they were able to have—together or individually. This brought her mind back to the mission at hand.

She decided to call it: "Find out the mysterious power of the lecher-monk to move past the sleeping hanyou."

That's a stupid name, Kagome mused, wrinkling her nose.

Shaking her head, she decided the mission didn't need a name and, finally, stepped forward. Crunch. She stepped on a stick. Kagome didn't move further, holding her breath, her heartbeat racing. Her eyes once again found the hanyou's face. His ears twitched, and he grumbled something like, "Damn monkeys better not steal my ramen!" Otherwise, he didn't wake up. She let out a small sigh of relief and moved again.

She was apparently quiet enough because he didn't stir as she moved past his tree. She turned around to make sure he was still asleep, just in case, and, then, she found her answer: one of Miroku's sutras was slapped against the backside of tree. She couldn't really understand what the ancient kanji said, but it looked something like "Nightfall Noiseless Respite" or "Moonlit Quiet Beginnings." Her grasp of ancient kanji was terrible, so she could be very wrong.

What she could guess was that Miroku didn't want Inuyasha to bother him. Now, she was really curious. Kagome looked back at the hut, wondering if she should return. Miroku must need alone time if he was willing to keep Inuyasha asleep, or at the very least, unaware that the monk needed to be alone for whatever it was he was doing. She knew Sango, Kirara, and Shippou would return from surveying the edges of the village in a couple of hours. And with Kaede tending to the villagers, Kagome knew she needn't worry that someone might follow her or alert Inuyasha that she was missing. If Miroku needed peace right now, then she had no right to intrude.

But still something egged her on, urged her forward. Something that was beginning to twist into much more than just mere curiosity. Something suspiciously like...concern? She didn't think anymore after that. She started walking. And then running.

Toward the sound of rushing water.

No matter how hard he tried, Miroku just couldn't get Kagome out of his mind. He kept on imagining crushing raven strands of her hair against his lips, pulling her closer and closer and closer. He'd seen her head bowed, her dark eyes hidden behind a curtain of silk, concealing her expressions from him. Yet he knew she was blushing, softly, shyly smiling, because he could somehow feel the warmth spreading across her cheeks. He smelled lilies in her hair. He smelled lilies everywhere now. Oh, how she haunted him...

He partly concocted this—one of many, to be sure—daydream with his mind, but it was a mixture of small, real moments, too. They came from stolen moments, mostly at night when everyone slept. And when Inuyasha was gone...hunting his undead priestess (he refused to say that woman's name), on the new moon, when it was Inuyasha's time for patrol. Or when Sango occasionally disappeared or had to patrol (usually she'd take Shippou and, of course, Kirara with her). Sometimes even when the girls bathed in the hot springs and left their clothes on the side, he would smell her shirt (that's how he knew Kagome smelled like lilies). On the nights he could get away with it and slip undetected past Inuyasha's notice, he'd watch her sleep. The only way he could usually fall asleep was listening to her breathing. Once or twice, or maybe even thrice, he'd even gained enough courage to touch her hair, her cheeks, the satin of her pink lips. He wanted to kiss her so much he couldn't stand it sometimes. And he absolutely hated it when she had to leave for her own era. He thought he'd go mad with the longing that coursed through his veins, with how much he missed her. He physically ached when she wasn't near him.

Miroku lost track of when all this had started. He didn't even know when he'd stopped longing for Sango. Perhaps, he never fully ached for the demon slayer, at least not in the way he seemed to need Kagome. No one in the group ever seemed to notice—he kept up appearances and remained in character around them; he was the lecher-monk with a crazy thing for Sango, best friends with Kagome and Inuyasha, shelter for Shippou. He tried hard to be inconspicuous about his "little" addiction for Kagome, which was why he was currently meditating naked underneath a raging waterfall. He was attempting to purge her from his mind, to cleanse himself of "sinful" thoughts. But he just couldn't stop thinking of her!

"Miroku?"

Now he was hallucinating that he could hear her voice...

"Miroku? Are you alright?"

Go away hallucination! I can't hear you. Miroku hissed silently to himself. If he ignored it, maybe it would leave him alone.

"Answer me, you stupid monk!" The daydream Kagome yelled.

He continued to ignore it, but he couldn't stifle the gasp when he heard splashing from behind him. Still, he would not turn around. Until he was forced to when small, feminine hands suddenly grabbed his shoulders...

"I was worried, damn it." Kagome swore at him, turning him half way around and wrapping him in an awkward embrace.

Miroku's brain couldn't seem to function. He couldn't even move. Her warmth surrounded him, enveloped him, the smell of lilies overwhelming him, paralyzing him.

"Talk to me! Please tell me you're okay..."

Kagome's tears landing against his neck seemed to wake him up, move him to action.

"Kagome..." He mumbled, returning the embrace, gathering her closer and closer, letting his nose fall against her hair, before continuing and finally giving in to his madness, "I'm sorry."

The apology was the girl's only warning before he kissed her senseless. With every last ounce of need he'd held back for so long. He was not gentle. Miroku crashed into her, consuming, possessing her mouth for his own, pouring his love, his entire being, down her throat and into her soul—Just like the waterfall falling down and roaring over them. Kagome hadn't even seemed to notice how soaked she was.

When Miroku finally pulled away from her, Kagome could only seem to stare at him in a daze. He expected her to scream and slap and bite and curse him. Anything but what she was doing. Staring at him like she was more lost than she had ever been before in her life...

"Miroku?" She finally whispered, her eyes slowly coming into focus again and beginning to wander down his body, and then widening, "You're naked!"

He startled at her yell, instinctively flinching, expecting her to hit him. This was, then, followed by a rather long pause.

"I'm not going to slap you..." Kagome's voice went soft, and he let out another gasp when she embraced him again.

"I love you, Kagome." Miroku whispered into her ear, returning her hug.

Gathering her closer and closer and closer.

Until finally she was his.

Owari