InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Cloud Gazing ❯ Chapter 1 ( Chapter 1 )

A/N: *sigh* there aren't enough good Inu/Mir stories out there. Hopefully this will be one! Also, sentences that are framed in '…' means that Miroku is quoting Buddha. He is a Buddhist monk after all!

Chapter 1

Miroku was so glad that was over. It was almost unbearably hot today. He had no idea how poor Inuyasha did it, fighting in that thick fire-rat robe. Miroku's robes were open at the bottom, letting in a nice breeze, and he was not able to do much during the fight, but the sweat was still rolling off him. He could not imagine how Inuyasha was fairing after running, jumping, and swinging around that giant sword around for the past hour.

He peeled off his purple kesa and black koromo, and toed off his waraji sandals on the shore. They were filthy and smelly with the day's sweat and the blood and dirt from battle. Wading into the river in his fundoshi, the sun beat down on his back, as he went about washing the day's grime from the robes. Scrubbing at the cloth, sweat continued to poor down his forehead. He wanted to take off his fundoshi and take a dip in the cool river water. When Inuyasha comes down, he would ask him if they had time. The hanyo was talking with Kagome right now. Perhaps they would simply make camp back there at that shaded dell they rested at, instead of walking further in this heat.

Inuyasha was frustrated. Kagome was not even trying to use reason anymore. Not even ten seconds from when Inuyasha and the monk walked into camp, tired, dirty, and aching from battle, Kagome picked another fight with him. What did he do this time? Well, apparently while he was away, away doing their job, he also had the time to rifle through Kagome's backpack while she and Sango bathed in the river.

The contents from the bag were strewn about the ground. The only thing missing? Well, the food, of course. You do not leave food just lying around in the forest. Inuyasha had thought that after three years traipsing around the countryside, this would have been something the wench would have picked up, but apparently not. Why would Inuyasha do such a thing? Because he was an inconsiderate pig! At least according to Kagome.

"How the hell would I have managed that? You just watched me walk into camp not three minutes ago!" Inuyasha said indignantly. He tried and failed miserably to keep himself from yelling at her. That only ever got him one thing these days.

"Yeah? Well then who else could it have been? I only see one person who is selfish enough to do this!" Kagome growled at him, red faced and stomping her foot.

Inuyasha clenched his hands into fists, leaving blood where his claws dig into his palms. He tried to calm himself by taking deep breaths, inhaling and sifting through the scents. "Smells like a regular ol' tanuki to me!"

Kagome's face reddend further. "You wanted this to happen!" she ground out, her voice rising with each word, "You're a demon. You could have sensed it or prevented this from happening! You just didn't want to!"

Inuyasha was floored by the bitch's lack of any kind of sense. His patience snapped. "HOW THE FUCK IS THIS STILL MY DAMN FAULT?" he roared.

"SIT!" Inuyasha instantly hit the ground, yelping as he feels his wrist bend awkwardly as he tried to instinctively catch himself from falling. He should have known better. Kagome was always right. Walking away, she crossed her arms and stuck her nose in the air. "You're so vindictive Inuyasha! Just because you're having a bad day doesn't mean you can take it out on me."

Oh. Of course. This is my fault too.

As soon as the spell released him from the ground, he sat up and inspected his painful wrist. Scowling down at the appendage, he gingerly prodded it, checking for a break. Nope. Just sprained this time.

Inuyasha arrived at the riverside a few minutes later, scowling at the dirt path, arms folded in his sleeves, and ears twitching wildly in agitation. He stripped off his hitoe and kosode, careful not to jar his wrist, before starting to untie his hakama.

"Inuyasha," the monk started, not looking up from where he was busy scrubbing a particularly stubborn stain from his kesa, "did you and Kagome decide if we are staying? I'd love to take a soak as well."

"Keh! As if I have any damn say in the matter." Inuyasha gruffed, "You know what? Who gives a shit? I'm hot, I've been fighting all day, and I damn well am going to take a bath if I damn well please!"

Miroku looked up from his task to take in the hanyo. Now stripped of his hakama, the inu walked into the small river, bringing along his clothes, and sat in the cool waters. As was usually the case lately, he looked angry. "You know, Inuyasha, 'Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.'"

"Yeah, yeah, Monk. Quit your preachin'," Inuyasha said, his anger evaporating at the calm reprimand. He dipped his head, pinning his ears back against his head and hiding his eyes beneath his fringe and began working at the stains in his clothing.

Miroku studied his friend from the corner of his eye. His anger seemed to have melted into sorrow. He could guess why. It seemed to be an expression he was seeing more and more often from the white hanyo. He also caught the pain that flashed across his face when he rubs at the clothing in his hands. Inuyasha has gotten hurt… again. In the time from their arrival at camp to his arrival at the river, it could have only be one thing. He sighed.

"You and Kagome get into another fight?" Inuyasha turned away from the observing monk.

"Keh," was his only response.

"Hmm," was all the monk said as he stripped off his fundoshi and dunked his head underwater. He let the cool water rush through him for a second and then came up to begin cleaning the undergarment.

They didn't talk about it, but Miroku was beginning to see that a change had come to their group. Wise, old ojii-sans like to say that, when the character of a man is not clear, you should look at his friends. I'm not so sure I'd like to know what people would assume of me by looking at my friends.

After the destruction of Naraku, Sango took it upon herself to decide it was their job to roam the countryside offering their services as demon slayers. Kagome agreed, thinking it would be rather fun to prance around feudal Japan now that there was no big evil to defeat, and wanted to stay with Inuyasha and Shippo. Inuyasha had finally made his decision and committed to Kagome. Miroku went along as well, still patiently waiting for Sango to settle down with him, though this was not such a big concern anymore as his kazaana had closed and he was no longer desperate for an heir.

It was not long, however, when things began to sour. Inuyasha and Kagome had a bitter brake up. It was not hard to know why, as they frequently bickered and screamed at each other, not caring who was listening. Miroku had gathered that Inuyasha was a distant lover. Even Miroku could see that Kagome was the kind of girl who needed someone to constantly be there for her, constantly reinforce that they love her, that she is their whole world. Inuyasha clearly did not work that way. Deciding that his distance was because he actually did settle for her because Kikyo was dead, and not considering the fact that Inuyasha had never been in a relationship or been truly close to someone since the death of his mother, she became antagonistic toward him.

Meanwhile, Miroku had come to his own decision about his relationship. Despite her frequent assurances that they would settle down and begin a family after the demise of Naraku, Sango now evaded the issue. She always welcomed his advances, but it was never returned. It wasn't him that she wanted, Miroku concluded, it was the attention she got from him. So he stopped giving it to her, and she stopped paying him any mind.

Slowly a schism began to form within the group. Sango and Miroku had less to talk about after that, until they had no reason to talk to each other at all. Inuyasha slowly became the sacrificial lamb of the group. At first, he and Kagome argued all the time. Slowly the power dynamics changed. She knew she had the power to control him with the kotodama. She also knew that she had support in Sango and, to a lesser degree, Shippo.

They began to demand more and do less. Sango, Kagome, and Shippo went off to bathe, set up camp, or find room and board with the local headman, while Inuyasha was expected to go battle the youkai that had threatened the villages they passed. Miroku always accompanied him and tried to help, but there was little he could do with only his Shakujou staff and a couple of Ofuda as weapons.

Truly, it had not started out as bad as all this. At first Miroku accepted this as the consequences of bitter break ups with passionate women. But slowly, he had since come to realize that it had become quite the situation. Miroku may have been ignored by Sango, but it was not so bad… which is why he had been able to overlook the growing plight of Inuyasha. However, he could not any longer.

'An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.' Buddha says many things about friends, but it is remarkably hard to confront such friends when my friends are all I have. He could see that Inuyasha was being used. He could see that Inuyasha was being sat more and more. He could see that more often than not, Inuyasha was injured. He could see that Inuyasha was being harassed, insulted and, put down.

He could also see the conflict in his eyes, the same conflict that held back Miroku. This group was the only family they had, the only family either of them have had in a very long time. Miroku watched all this with concern, but has never spoken up, fearful of the inevitable blow up over it and the potential dissolution of his makeshift family.

Miroku sighed again, sparing a glance at the object of what seems his every thought, as he stood and squeezed out the excess water from his robes. Sacred Buddha, I am a coward, he thought as he sloshed through the water to hang the cloth in the overhanging branches of a nearby tree.

Inuyasha watched the monk walk through the water, but quickly turned away when he returned to dive back in the water. He was pathetic. He knew it and the monk knew it. He did not understand. How did he end up here? How did he end up as the unwilling lap dog to a human girl? It never used to be like this. He used to think he was strong, used to think he was capable. He beat the pants off of that asshole Sesshoumaru, taking his arm as a trophy, but he couldn't get a small human girl to give him even a crumb of respect?

Hell, forget respect, I'd be happy to even receive some simple consideration. Everyone seems to be under the impression that because I am a half demon, I am impervious to pain, fatigue, injury, or hunger. Need a night guard? Make Inuyasha do it. Hungry? Have Inuyasha go hunt down something. Got something unbearably heavy to lift? Inuyasha can handle it. There's something inconvenient and awful to do. Have Inuyasha take care of it. Need a ride? Inuyasha won't mind, hop on up.

It would be fine with him, fuck, he would have be glad to do it, if he got something out of it, but that wench treated him like a slave, like she only let him be around out of the kindness of her heart. Fuck that! She acted like everything he did that she didn't order him to do was part of a plot to make her miserable. A plot he would also be too stupid to think of himself, by her way of thinking. Lately, he had even been getting screeched at when he was caught doing anything remotely dog like, saying it attracted too much attention. Hello! I'm an Inu-hanyo! She made fun of him and said he looked ridiculous when he was searching for scents on all fours. Last week, she had the nerve to throw his portion of the fish at him- which he caught for everyone with no thanks, save Miroku- and told him to "fetch".

He could not even get away for a bit to clear his head. Gone are the days when Inuyasha could simply say "Good bye, wench!" and head for the trees for some free time. He would simply be sat upon his return because "something could have happened" while he was gone.

And sat, he was, often and without restraint, sometimes two or three times a day. It hurt every time, too. He was getting pretty good at masking the pain when a good sitting resulted in a twisted ankle, the perpetual bruised knees, or broken ribs. And don't even get me started on the pulled muscles in my back from the pull of the necklace.

Perhaps the most brutal part was Shippo, though he would be damned if he would ever say so. He and Sango were never that close, and he accepted that his and Kagome's relationship would be strained, but Shippo… well… In the back of his mind, he had always seen him as, maybe, a little brother. He had always seen a bit himself in Shippo. He was alone. He was young. He was youkai. He would get what Inuyasha was going through and Inuyasha could show him the ropes. Sure he was a bit of a brat, but he could get over that with a few smacks to the head.

That was not what happened, however. One day while fighting with the brat, the little shit turned and called him a "worthless mongrel". Inuyasha was frozen. Shippo was calling him the names that all those people in the villages and all those high and mighty youkai called him. Sango simply laughed it off saying that he was just a child and he didn't know what he was doing, but the triumphant smirk on his face as Kagome picked him up and coddled him some more, said otherwise. Now that…well…that fuckin' hurt. They didn't notice or didn't care the other times he said such things after that. The only person who ever reprimanded him was the monk, when he finally got wind of it a few weeks ago.

Despite the insults, despite the repeated injury due to being sat, despite the coldness and being told what to do, and even despite the fact that it seemed he is viewed as a lesser being within the group, he stayed. They never told him to leave, never pushed him out. They needed him. They needed him and he desperately needed to be needed. He was not going to feel sorry for himself. He choose to stay. This was the closest thing to a family he has had in nearly two centuries. So no he was not going to dwell on it. He was not going to feel sorry for himself. He wasn't.

Rubbing absently at his clothing, which had long since been scrubbed clean, he peeked at the monk through the corner of his eye. He was laid back, floating in the water, eyes closed and soaking up the sun. His chest rose from the water exposing his dusky pink nipples and the tops of his milky white thighs broke the surface.

That is another problem. The monk was everywhere, or at least that was the way it seemed to Inuyasha. He was always near, always so close, and always on his mind. He found himself following him with his eyes where ever he went. His scent of musk, sweat, incense, and something that was only found on Miroku, wafted to his nose all the time and left his mind in a haze. When he touched him, a clap on the back or a helping hand, it tingled and lingered long after he removed himself.

The monk was nice enough. He always tried to be helpful and send good words his way. He tried to maintain peace within the group and sometimes tried to defend Inuyasha against some of Kagome's more ridiculous complaints, but Inuyasha would not fool himself. The monk thought no more about him than that of a traveling companion.

Inuyasha swallowed hard, got up, and worked his way to the tree. Reaching up, he placed his clothes in the branches so that they got the most sun and dried faster. His body stretched to reach the highest branch, his muscles brunching and cording with movement, and his skin glistened as the water dripped from the tips of his hair and down the slopes of the toned muscles of his ass to the back of his powerful thighs.

Busying himself to push away his troublesome thoughts, Inuyasha did not notice that he had once again captured the complete attention of the monk floating in the water.