The Night Forever Begins

A/N: Happy spring! Again, I haven't abandoned A Painless Lesson of Informal Visitations. I've just had this in my mind for literally years and felt like writing it down. Hope you like it!

"Alright, there." Miroku said proudly, setting a heavy bail of rice on the floor of his new hut. He dusted his hands and awaited his wife-to-be's approval.

"Goodness, who'd you rip this off of?" Sango inspected it dryly, having just lit the tall candles for the evening.

"Why, I'm hurt, I would never…"

"Lord Haseo?"

"Lord Haseo."

Sango sighed, long used to her future husband's less than legal habits when it came to providing for their ragtag gang.

"Okay, okay. I'll cook it first thing in the morning." She promised in resignation.

"Great!" Miroku put his staff to the side cheerfully and crawled into the futon mat Sango had just taken out for them.

Sango smiled and pulled the coves up.

"Scoot over."

She squeezed into the light bedding beside him and abruptly grabbed his left hand, free of cloth or rosary, fiercely.

He smiled back and gently held her hand, slowly drawing her nearer to him. They chatted idly as they were used and fond of doing on their travels when they had night watch, Kagome (how they missed her!) declared it a "campfire night" or the sickening fear of Naraku had kept them all awake.

Until, eventually, Miroku heard soft snoring from the girl in his arms. With a small grin, he brushed strands of hair from her brow and kissed her forehead. Getting up quietly, he was able to get out of bed and through the hut's front door without waking the woman who would be his wife the next day; something he would be able to do to the end of their days.

He breathed in the cold night air. He began walking down the dirt path of Kaede's familiar village, lined with rice paddies. He stopped when he found a small grassy hill heading down to a ditch, the kind of place Kagome often served their lunches. In fact, she had fed them her exotic future-world food on this particular hill more than once.

He slid down the hill and stopped himself halfway down, lying on his back watching the stars. It was lonely without Inuyasha bugging him, or Shippo asking him to name constellations, or Kagome studying Algebra II, and especially without Sango nestling beside him with Kirara. But it was strangely peaceful. With his white sleeping robe and without his staff, no one would even guess he was a monk. He felt like he was truly making a fresh start from his past. He pulled up his sleeve and sure enough the ugly scar from sucking in so much poison was healing as well.

"Mind if I join you, young man?"

Miroku swiveled to see a middle aged man with a scraggly beard and Samurai topknot. His hakama swished as he made his way down the hill toward the monk.

"Be my guest, sir."

"Well then, pardon the intrusion."

He heaved himself beside the younger man.

"Not at all, sir. Am I right in thinking you're a traveler?"

"You could say that. I'm just passing through. I'm just taking a quick walk around this village until I move on to the next one."

"This village is wonderful for walks."

"What brings you out on such a night?"

"Just to think, and get some fresh air. I have a lot on my mind." He hesitated. "…I get married tomorrow."

"Why, congratulations! I wish you both happiness." The traveler put his hands together and bowed.

"My thanks." Miroku returned the bow.

Breaking eye contact with his companion, he suddenly turned to stare at the water below them.

"I was a traveler not so long ago myself. An itinerant monk, in fact."

'Yes? I should be calling you 'Good Monk', not young man, in that case." The traveler joked, a twinkle in his eye.

Miroku grinned.

"It's been a long road, but I'm glad we're finally able to settle down here now. Until recently, neither of us thought a peaceful, settled life was in the cards."

"Yet something must be weighing on your mind, if you've sought solitude."

"…she has lost so much in her life. I worry, often, I will never fill that void for her. It's a long story, but Iet's say I don't exactly have a background that made me good husband material."

"She travelled with you?"

"Yes"

"And stuck with you?"

"Oh, yes." Miroku agreed faintly, thinking of all the times Sango had risked her life for him, for them.

"Then, I think, whatever she's lost, she considers finding you more than enough consolation."

"I hope so. I care for her very much…and I worry about being good enough for her every day."

"I'm sure she thinks the same thing. Perhaps even at this very moment."

"Unlikely." Miroku snorted. "I left her sleeping at our home. She sleeps like a rock."

The traveler broke into a wide grin.

"As should you. You have a big day ahead of you, after all."

He got up, wiping grass from his hakama.

"And that is why I should take my leave, Good Monk. I should continue my walk, anyway."

"Goodnight. Oh, and…" Miroku said as the traveler trudged up the hill and turned back to face him.

"I swear I'll look after her. After them both." He corrected himself.

The traveler gave him an inquisitive look.

"You are my future father-in-law, aren't you?"

"…How did you know?"

"Oh, come now, sir. The afterlife is my business. And besides: your son is the spit of you."

The demon slayer's face softened.

"And Sango looks more and more like her mother every day." He said.

Miroku didn't know it as he watched his father-in-law vanish to the netherworld, but he would say the same thing about the twin girls Sango would bear him in less than a year; so much that Inuyasha would grow sick of his fatherly doting.