Untitled Inuyasha based fic-male sneezing - (5 Parts)

[KawaiiKitty]

Err...um, okay. I was in two minds whether to post a story or not. Out of all the scribblings in my notebooks, I picked this one to inflict on you lot. I hope I've made the right choice. Predictably, this is based on Inuyasha and (surprise, surprise) is about Miroku sneezing. The first chapter is just setting the scene, but there's a hell of a lot of FLUFF to follow, should I decide to post the rest. This story may be verging on the slightly lame...

I know a lot of writers go through the trouble to rustle up pictures and explain the fandom for people who aren't familiar, but I'm really lazy, okay. If you want an idea of what these people sorta look like, go into the art board and look at my threads about Inuyasha FanArt. That's not EXACTLY what they are really supposed to look like, but you get the general idea. That dude in the purple and black-that's Miroku. The girl next to him in a couple of the pictures, that's Sango. They're the only ones that are really important in this story. They like each other.

I tried to make this as friendly as possible to those who don't know the fandom, but it's kinda hard to avoid certain things. So bear with me. If you really don't like Inuyasha, pretend they're somebody else. If you don't like fluff and crap like that, you're really not going to like this! You have been warned.

**********************************************************

Title: (don't know yet, to be announced later...)

Fandom: Inuyasha

Rating: general, not 18+

Summary: Miroku catches a cold, but before they can get to a village to rest the group is attacked. Sango and Miroku are cut off from the group and must take refuge in a cave when Sango sprains her ankle. Mutual comforting and fluff ensues.

**********************************************************

It wasn't like him to linger so far behind the group as they walked.

Sango dropped her pace to match Miroku's although strangely he seemed for once to be indifferent to, if not annoyed by, her presence. He stared off into the distance as they walked as if actively trying to ignore the fact that she walked beside him.

In all likelihood, he was angry about last night. If he was the silent punishment he was presently meting out was completely disproportionate to the severity of her "crime". Yes, she had gone off in the midst of the storm on the off chance that her brother Kohaku was in the vicinity. But, she certainly hadn't asked Miroku to follow her to ensure her safety. She was perfectly capable of ensuring her own safety, thank you very much.

The result of her efforts? She never did find Kohaku. And while Miroku followed after her, Inuyasha had eaten up his dinner. Granted, Miroku had been looking forward to a nice hot meal for quite some time-they all had. But…big deal! There would be other meals. He didn't need to be so mean about it and ignore her like this.

Sango looked up at Miroku's face, ready to tell him to stop being such a baby over the whole matter and forget about the stupid missed dinner.

"Look…" she began.

Miroku grunted in displeasure, an expression of…something resembling concentration written across his face. His eyebrows twitched for a moment as his eyes narrowed in determination, with a hint of irritation. He stopped in his tracks, his lip curling slightly to reveal tightly gritted teeth. Then, in a strange manoeuvre he raised his hand to scratch the top of his head, the effect being that his long black sleeve obscured his face as he did so.

Which appeared to be his intention in the first place because at the moment that he was protected from the gaze of others by the expanse of cloth, his body shook with a sudden convulsion. His shoulders hunched together and , and his head bobbed forward from the sheer force of trying to contain what was trying it's best to escape. Clenching his jaw, he managed to hold back all but a restrained "HNNN…kuh…" although it clearly took most of his effort.

As soon as this had finished, down came the sleeve from in front of his face and he continued walking as if nothing had happened, discreetly drawing a finger under the corner of his nose. Sango said nothing. It was fairly obvious he was doing his best not to call attention to himself, so she would do him the courtesy of not calling attention to him either.

Miroku repeated the whole process periodically as they walked. Sango understood now why he lagged so far behind. For whatever reason, he did not want to be heard sneezing, and Inuyasha and Kagome continued on so far ahead, blissfully unaware of anything happening behind them.

However, the whole thing required a lot of effort, and Miroku grew more and more tired of it after a while. His guise of scratching his head to obscure his face before a sneeze wore thin as well, as anyone who had to scratch that much would need to seriously think about the possibility of fleas.

Clearly, Sango realised, the only thing he had suffered as a result of chasing her into the rainy night was not just to miss out on a nice dinner.

Still it continued, but with increasing frequency: the contorting of the eyes, the covering of the face with his sleeve, and the increasingly desperate "HNNN…kuh…" through clenched teeth. And still Sango kept quiet, though her concern for him grew.

Miroku stopped walking yet again, sighing in exasperation. As the sneezes grew more insistent, the more difficult and even painful it became to try and keep them quiet.

"HNNN…kuh. HNNN-kuh…HYAAA-TCHH!"

The last one escaped with surprising force, and a volume that caused Inuyasha and Kagome to stop walking and turn around to gape at him. Kagome opened her mouth with a silly smile, betraying the completely obvious remark she was about to make before she even spoke.

"Hey, Miroku," she began. "Maybe someone is-"

"Talking about me?" he interrupted brusquely. "What a clever thought. Because there would be no shortage of people who would want to gossip about me, would there?"

"There's no need to be like that," Kagome muttered and continued on her way.

"This road is very dusty," he added as an explanatory afterthought directed at Sango, even though after the heavy rains that had pelted the area last night, that statement was blatantly untrue.

With a quiet groan, Miroku stopped walking again.

"HNNN…kuh. HNNN-kuh. HYAAA-TCHH!"

He sniffed. Clearly this was becoming something of a pattern. He felt a tapping on his arm and looked over to see Sango, wearing a friendly smile, offering him a handkerchief. He waved it away.

"I can assure you," he said. "There is no need, Sa-" he broke the sentence off there. There was no conceivable way her could say her name without betraying just how congested he had become. So he just repeated. "No need." Although punctuating the sentence with a loud sniff did not exactly help his argument.

His nose twitched as yet another tickle grew inside of it. When was this going to stop? So very tired of trying to hide his sneezing, and since it seemed they would burst forth despite his best efforts anyway, he just finally gave in. His long robes rustled dramatically as he brought his hands to his face almost in time to catch a loud and hearty: "Hu…Hu…HYAAA-TCHHH!"

Predictably, Inuyasha and Kagome stopped walking and turned around to gawp at him.

"Oh, come now," he grumbled. "Haven't you ever heard someone-"

"Look behind you," Kagome interrupted, pointing towards him. He followed her gaze to discover that it wasn't him she'd been staring at, at all…

*************************************************

Clearly, I'm an idiot. More to follow, unless I get hideously shy about it...

[Sawyer]

Aw, so cute! Pattern, that's hilarious. Keep going, I like this!

[Geist]

Tee hee! Handkerchief offering! That's SUCH a "thing" of mine, omg.

I can totally see Miroku sneezing like that, too. And don't you dare go all freakishly shy on me, woman....I'll sick Kadaj on you!

~Aku

[KawaiiKitty]

And don't you dare go all freakishly shy on me, woman....I'll sick Kadaj on you!

~Aku

No, no put him away...there's no need for that!

Well, I've decided to keep typing this because now that I've read it again, I decided I like it-if I may be so bold as to praise my own work. I'm getting this next bit out of the way now because this is the part that may trip up anyone not previously aware of this fandom. To try and make it a bit user-friendly I have done a couple of things. The first is that I have referred to the characters weapons as what they ARE and not what they are NAMED. Thus Sango has a "giant boomerang" and not a "Hiraikotsu". I've done this for the benefit of people who would otherwise go "what the hell is that, I give up, I'm not reading anymore" so nobody correct me on it, okay?

The other thing I've done is not to describe the character's appearance too much. The reason for this is: if you know who they are, then you know what they look like. If you don't know who they are, you are free to imagine it's something else-and if I bog you down with too much detail about Miroku's clothes or Sango's hair, it's harder to do that!

Oh, and I've realised that I seem to favour certain words and expressions in my writing. The first chapter said "clearly" a lot. I've tried to be a little bit more varied this time around. Clearly...

This next bit is a bit fighting-demons heavy and not so much with the sneezing. But it's important to the plot so please bear with me! Okay, now...

**********************************************************************

It was green, it was long, and it came at them with surprising speed.

The huge demon reared itself up to full height, towering above the trees and revealing, unusually, that it was accompanied by a smaller version of itself-although the "smaller" version still dwarfed the figures of the unfortunate group below.

Quite strangely, the larger demon appeared to be teaching the smaller one how to hunt. Perhaps even giant green monsters had maternal instinct.

Naturally, Inuyasha drew his sword and claimed the largest demon as his quarry, much to Sango's relief as she realised she was unlikely to get much help in this battle from the man next to her with his face currently buried firmly into his elbow.

Or so she thought. In a flash of either noble desire to protect the woman he loved, or sheer unbridled stupidity, Miroku leapt into the air and swung his staff towards the demons head with all the force he could possibly muster.

And missed spectacularly.

It's difficult to aim properly when one's eyes are closed, or when one's effort is diverted into holding back a sneeze. Because clearly it would be rude to sneeze in a demon's face, even when trying to kill it. So instead of the sound of the staff hitting into demon flesh, the air was filled with a hearty "HNNNN-kuh!", the whoosh of a staff cutting through empty air and the roar of a now pissed-off demon.

Miroku hit the ground awkwardly, panting for breath. Strange how difficult it is to breathe, when one's nasal passages are decommissioned...the mouth, being a larger orifice than both nostrils combined should be more than capable of taking over the task of breathing. But it doesn't always work out that way.

"HYAAAA-TCHHH!" he aimed at the ground, figuring the ground wouldn't mind.

"Will you stay out of my way!" Sango shouted, now wearing her tight black battle gear and holding her huge boomerang poised above her head. With a mighty swing, she sent the weapon flying into the demon's neck until it dropped unceremoniously to the ground-dead.

At this moment, they learned the hard way that yes, giant green monsters do in fact have maternal instinct and therefore it is not a good idea to kill their offspring in their presence. The larger demon broke off it's fight with Inuyasha and rounded on Miroku and Sango, howling it's displeasure at the murder of it's kin.

Sometimes it's best to stay and fight and sometimes it’s better to…

"Run," Sango ordered, realising she could never aim her weapon properly at this close distance, as the demon crashed through the trees in it's path.

They ran blindly, abandoning the path and disappearing into the dense growth of the forest in an attempt to throw the demon off their trail. But it was a persistent beast.

Suddenly, Miroku's face was stricken with a look of fearful desperation. His feet stopped running automatically as the short, sharp inhalations took over his body.

It is nearly impossible to run and sneeze at the same time, and one of the actions had to be sacrificed. One might think that, in a life or death situation the human body would choose self preservation over sneezing, but such is the power of the sneeze. And sneezes defy logic, sometimes. Miroku's hand hovered inches from his face. "Hu…hu…" he breathed, wishing that this one would hurry up and happen-why was it this sneeze, out of all others, that decided to be so stubborn?

Sango looked at him in horror. "Not now!" she cried. "Don't stop moving!" She grabbed his hand and pulled him forward. Her reward for this was that his final "HYAAA-TCHHH!" was delivered rather messily onto her ear, but she had other problems right now.

Like the fact that Miroku had frozen on the spot again.

"HNNN…kuh. HNNN…kuh! HYAAA-TCHH!"

Of all the times and places to succumb to a violent sneezing fit, this was NOT IT! She was going to get out of this place alive if she had to pick him up and carry him out to do so.

"Come on!" she shouted in exasperation, grabbing his arm and pulling with all her strength. A creaking noise behind them revealed a development that neither of them needed right now. A tall tree that the demon had rammed itself into now swayed hideously from side to side. Then, with the slow sound of splintering wood echoing in their ears, the tree began it's descent, aiming directly for where Miroku and Sango stood.

Sango yanked Miroku out of the way, and the two ran for their very lives as the broken debris of trees rained down around them.

The ledge came out of nowhere.

It was unclear which of them had been the one to lose their footing first. But, owing to the fact that Sango's grip on Miroku's arm was so tight, the end result was that they both slipped and tumbled down the sharp ledge.

The demon, clearly not as bright as it was large, failed to notice their slight detour and continued lumbering along the same path as before. Inuyasha, assuming the beast was still chasing his friends, continued to pursue it.

[KawaiiKitty]

If you are reading this it means you made it past the lack of sneezing in the last chapter! Here comes your reward!

Why don't I type all this into one post, you may ask? Because every couple of notebook pages it breaks itself into little mini "chapters" so I end each part at one of these breaks. Think of them as the commercials!

Besides my hands get tired from typing too!

I just had to squeeze this part into today because...well I like it. See, part of my attraction towards this character sneezing (besides the fact that I am IN LOVE with him...) is twofold:

1. He is very respectfully polite a lot of the time, which leads me to infer that he would try very hard to hold back his sneezes, leading to awesomeness when he fails to do so.

2. He is exactly the sort of character who would deny being sick.

If you add 1 and 2 together you get exactly the perfect sneezing scenario in my eyes!

All I can say is...I wish I were Sango in this bit...I sure wouldn't push him away...you'll see what I mean!

**********************************************************************

PART 3

Sango lay on the ground, Miroku's body sprawled across her in a most undignified way. He was motionless, the only clue to his being alive was the muffled snuffling emanating from his face which was pressed firmly into Sango's neck.

"HNNN…kuh!" he sneezed into her skin, and to Sango's horror, it wasn't a particularly dry sneeze at that.

"Get off me!" she bellowed, shoving the hapless monk off of her just in time to escape being the target of another "HYAAA-tchhh!" His eyebrows furrowed in concentration before a third "HYAA-TCHH!" escaped from his lips. He brought his hand up just in time to catch the last one with the back of his wrist.

Sango clenched her fist and held it poised menacingly in front of his face.

"What?" said Miroku, misunderstanding the cause of her fury. "You don't mean to suggest that I landed on top of you like that on purpose?"

"You idiot! Don't you realise that you almost got us both killed? You do realise that if you had just told us before we left the last village that you'd caught a cold, we could have stayed there another day, you could have rested, and none of this would have ever happened."

Miroku staggered to his feet with a haughty expression. "Why would you suggest such a ridiculous thing? My body is almost as strong as Inuyasha's. I don't catch colds. I already…hu…hu…HNNN-kuh…HNNN-kuh!…HYAAA-TCHH!"

"I see. So you're just sneezing for fun, are you?"

"I already told you, it's merely the dust from the road," he said, even as the sound of his sandal squelching in the mud made a complete mockery of this feeble excuse. And as if to add insult to injury, the rain had started up again.

"HNNN-kuh…HNNN-KUH!…hu…hu…HYAAA-TCHH!"

"Well," said Sango, propping herself onto her elbows. "We'd better hurry on to the next village and get you away from all this…dust."

Miroku grunted, looking inside his robes for the one thing he knew he didn't have. How he wished now that he hadn't been to proud to accept the offer of Sango's handkerchief before…he sorely needed it at this moment. But, his thoughts were distracted by Sango, crying out in pain and collapsing back onto the ground.

"I can't get up," she said weakly.

Miroku drew his hand under his nose with a sniff and then offered that very same hand to Sango to help her to her feet. She hesitated for a moment, then closed her eyes and reached for it. She could always wash her hands later, and help was help.

"Wait…stop!" she cried. "It's no use. It's my ankle."

"Well, you were right that we can't stay here. I'll have to carry you to the village myself."

He slid his hands underneath her small frame and scooped her up into his arms. She had to admit…he was strong. He seemed to bear her weight with no effort whatsoever. She blushed slightly as she looked up to steal a furtive glance at his face.

Oh, no…

There was that expression again. The half closed eyes, the twitching eyebrows, the curling lip. And there was the breath again, she could feel his chest sharply rising with each hitched inhalation. She was doomed.

"No!" she exclaimed. "Don't you dare!"

"Hu…hu…HYAAA-TCHH!"

With no hands free to cover his face, he tried to block the sneeze by bending his head towards his chest. Unfortunately, this put Sango directly into the line of fire, rather than protecting her and her face bore most of the brunt of the spray.

"Thanks for that," she muttered, drying her face with her sleeve.

They hadn't walked much further when she could feel him starting again.

"Miroku," she ordered. "I mean it, don't!"

Her pleas fell on deaf ears as he let loose with another "HYAAA-TCHH!" and began another series of sharp inhalations almost immediately. This time, Sango had the presence of mind to fish out her handkerchief and hold it against his face firmly, resulting in a muffled "HYAA-mmmphhh".

"That's it," she said. "Put me down."

"But you can't walk," he argued.

"It's more than an hours walk to the nearest village and you can't refrain from sneezing on me for two minutes. I can't take it anymore."

"There's no need to exaggerate. I haven't sneezed all that much as…hu…hu…HYAAA-TCHH!"

"Damn it, Miroku! Put me down before I stop your sneezing by breaking that stupid nose of yours!"

Miroku sighed. Carrying Sango was indeed leaving him quite unable to take care of the increasingly pressing problem of the trickling sensation in the corner of his nose. But, what to do? He couldn't just leave her in the middle of this place. He couldn't leave himself here much longer either, as the increasing rain was soaking into his hair and clothes, making him feel considerably worse than he had when they started out.

"There's a cave over there," he suggested. "Lets wait in there for Inuyasha to find us."

[daystar428]

miroku torture!!! YAY!!!! hahaha I love it so far!!

[Guest rouge]

I love it

: D

[KawaiiKitty]

Thanks to those of you who have complimented my little foray into sneezefic. I have lots more where this came from, torturing poor Miroku in many, many ways is one of my favourite ways to cope with the fact that I am a dreadful insomniac. (Hence my new signature pic. The poor guy is trying to get away from me. Haha, he never will escape!)

One thing I adore is constructive criticism. If anyone is reading this and feels compelled to give up partway through, I would be grateful for suggestions on what it was that put you off, and how to improve my writing. However if I were you, I would avoid saying the following things:

1. "You should write about female sneezing instead."

2. "You should write about XX fandom instead."

Because those are liable to get you poked in the eye. But any suggestions about improving my writing style, plot development, etc are HUGELY welcome!

Now for a short and stupid update!

************************************************************************

PART 4

Miroku set Sango down gingerly onto the floor of the cave. Maybe it wasn't the warmest place, or the cleanest place, but at least it was relatively dry.

"Are you comfortable?" he asked with a friendly smile, drawing his sleeve under his nose-having gone far beyond caring whether she saw him do it or not. He half hoped that she might notice, and that she might try to offer him her handkerchief again. But she didn't. And he sure wasn't going to ask for it, because that would be admitting that he needed it. At least if she offered, he could grudgingly accept-all the while insisting that it was unnecessary, and that he was only accepting it to be polite. But asking for it made all those affectations impossible.

And he didn't want to appear weak, especially not in front of her. He wanted to be seen as strong in her eyes.

"Hu…hu…HYAA-TCHH!"

Not that that was helping his image at all.

"Get over here, right now," Sango ordered in an ominous tone of voice. Miroku sighed, but obeyed. When Sango spoke like that, it was best to do what she said, so he knelt down obediently beside her.

"If you're not sick," she said, staring at him levelly. "Why are your cheeks so flushed?"

"The effort of carrying you must have been more strenuous than I realised."

She pressed her hand to his forehead. "I see. And you are feverish because..?"

Miroku muttered something under his breath that may or may not have been entirely polite.

"What was that?" Sango asked suspiciously.

"I said 'we should take a look at your ankle'."

Sango shrugged. If he was going to insist on changing the subject, at least he was changing it to something useful. Her leg was in need of attention right now, she could feel it swelling and something would need to be done about that fast. As he propped up her leg to remove her boot, she took off her belt and instructed him to wind it tightly around her foot.

"There now," he said, when finished. "Is that bet-hu…hu…HYAA-tchh! HYAAA-TCHH!" He gave a small exasperated sigh before uttering a final "Hu…hu…HYAA-TCHH!"

"Dusty in here too, is it?" Sango asked dryly.

"Something like that," Miroku retorted, shivering in his damp clothes.

"Do you know, if you weren't so damned stubborn, we wouldn’t be in this predicament right now. Why are you too stupid to admit you're sick?"

"I'm not stubborn. There's nothing to admit."

A hush fell between the two as the pounding of the rain outside grew more persistent.

"Do you think they're even looking for us?" Sango said quietly. "They would have all taken shelter from the rain by now."

"HNNN-kuh…HYAA-tchhh!" was Miroku's only reply. He sniffled, glancing over at Sango trying to subliminally will her to give him her handkerchief. She seemed to look back at him with an odd sort of smug smirk, as if she were saying "You should have taken it when you had the chance. Now you must suffer." But he must have been imagining it.

Sango shook her head in annoyance. "Well, you can sit here and lie about your health all you want, but I'm not going to. I can't last forever without getting my ankle seen to."

"You're the one who didn't want me to carry you. I have no problem enduring the rain in order to get you to safety…HNNN-kuh!…I assure y-HYAAA-TCHH! I assure you."

Although he did his best to look like Sango's strong protector, in reality he cut a sorry figure as his violet eyes began to droop slightly and the feverish flush in his cheeks grew more pronounced. His whole posture, usually so straight and upright, began to resemble a wilting flower that had been left without water a little too long. He closed his eyes for a little moment, and let out a frustrated sigh as the tickle in his nose once again grew from a tormenting little irritation into something more urgent.

"Hu…hu…HYA-KAAHtcch! Hu…KAH-TCHHH!"

It was getting worse. He couldn't even hold them back anymore with his best efforts-although he couldn't tell if the sneezes themselves were getting stronger, or if he was just getting weaker. The congestion in his nose made his face feel so heavy, it almost seemed to drag his head towards the floor. He could actually feel the feverish heat rising from his own skin. He wanted nothing more than to lie down and press his face against the cool floor of the cave. However, while his head felt uncomfortably warm, from the neck down he was shivering. And of course, the ever present tickle in the back of his nose…

"Hu….KAAH-TCHH! HYAA-TCCH!" This time, he groaned audibly afterwards.

Sango, however was having problems of her own, and although she didn't want to trouble the obviously increasingly miserable Miroku, she needed to ask for help.

"Miroku," she began hesitantly. At the sound of her voice, he brightened considerably, putting on an overly contrived smile.

"Yes?" he said eagerly.

"There's a rock over there in the corner. Can you get it and put it under my leg to help keep it straight?"

"That doesn't sound very comfortable," he said in a deep, husky voice. "Here, try this."

He moved himself so that he sat at the end of Sango's outstretched leg, propping her foot into his lap. In doing so, he was putting himself in the position of being very uncomfortable, now unable to lean against the wall of the cave. Sango was torn between worrying about his comfort, and her own because she had to admit, sitting like this did help ease the strain on her foot.

[mystic-chibi]

Yay!!!! More please!!!!

[Chate Noire]

Oh that is just absolutely gorgeous. Miroku is so adorably cute! And damn sexy, with all dem sneezes...*snicker*

I just LOVED the part where he carried her, unable to stop his nose from going wild...I'm hugely fond of "sneezing-while-carrying-someone" =)

I don't really know that characters, but I like how you write them. Sango is the dearest little bitch, isn't she?

Wanna see more!

[Geist]

OMG, I totally love this!! Sango is such a little hooker.... I'm with Chate about the carrying part!

EEEE! Please ma'am, my I have some more??

~Aku

[KawaiiKitty]

It makes me giggle that my "carrying" scene was so well-recieved, considering I really loved writing it! And I am starstruck that two talented people: Chate and Aku, left such nice replies-seeing as how I consider you both the queens of what you each do, and I've never left replies in either of your threads because no words of praise I could muster up seemed adequate.

You lot had better watch out, all this praise might make me start to put up more of this crap! I have notebooks full of this sort of thing!

Now, I have realised that this story does not have an ending. I haven't a notion how they get rescued. I wrote it mostly to describe the slow descent into the misery of a cold, and to that end it served it's purpose. So this is actually the end, believe it or not!

************************************************************

PART 5

The silence that fell between the two was one of those awkward sort of silence where each person really wants to say something, but for whatever reason, cannot. Sango would have been happy if she only had two conflicting thoughts in her head, but her thoughts were too numerous to count.

She was grateful to have some time alone with Miroku, she wanted to use the opportunity to have a good chat with him, but at the same time worried that he might be in no mood to be bothered. She was deeply embarrassed to sit with her foot nestled in his lap, but knew it was more comfortable than any alternative. She had a strong desire to fuss over and look after Miroku, but was held back by shyness. But to that end she felt the half-perverse desire to goad him relentlessly into admitting that he were sick, because it would be impossible to fuss over him while he continued his steadfast, though increasingly pointless, stream of denial.

Miroku, though equally silent, only had one thought in his mind: "Oh, no. Not again." As he sat propping up his head with his elbow rested on his knee, the tickle in his nose rose up time and again.

"Ungh," he groaned, pressing his sleeve over his mouth. "HNNNG-MMMMPHHHH!" he sneezed, muffled by the folds of black fabric. That was one advantage to wearing such loose and flowing clothing. He stole a glance at Sango, hoping he had been stealthy enough to escape her notice. It didn't work, she looked at him with an expression of disapproval.

But, he had more pressing problems right now. He covered his face with his sleeve again.

"HYAA-MMMPPHHH. HNNNG-MMMMPPHHH!"

He repeated his earlier "ungh", and sank his head back onto his palm. Silence once again fell, broken only by a faint dripping of the rainwater leaking into the cave somewhere towards the back, and Miroku's occasional sniffling.

Drip. Drip.

Sniff.

Drip. Drip.

Presently, he closed his eyes and appeared for all the world to be asleep, although he reached up to rub his now-reddened nose now and again. Sango couldn't tell if he were asleep or awake, but she didn't want to risk waking him if he were asleep. She inched herself higher onto her elbows and tried to reach her outstretched leg.

Suddenly his eyes flew open, as he uttered a sudden "Hu..KAAH-SYAAAA!"

He looked at her quizzically. "What are you do-hu…HYAA-tchh! What are you doing, Sa-KUH-SYAAA!"

"I just wanted to check my ankle. It feels like it's really swelling."

Miroku was torn between wanting to swing into action as her glorious protector, and wanting to collapse onto the floor. He chose the first option, though it wasn't easy making his exhausted body obey. Punctuating his actions with the occasional grunt of "Ungh", he unwrapped the belt that bound her foot.

"I wish I had something cold to put on it," Sango muttered.

Miroku looked at the belt in his hands. "How upset would you be if this got dirty?" he asked.

"I don't know, why?"

"I have an idea," he said, moving her leg carefully from his lap and struggling stiffly to his feet, grasping her belt in his hands.

"Ugh," he said, feeling the tickle in his nose again. "Hu…hu…huhhh…."

"Oh, no," Sango exclaimed. "You’d better not be planning to use my belt to-" she began, then breathed a sigh of relief when he directed a forceful "KUH-sssshhhh!" into his arm.

"To what?" he asked, heading towards the mouth of the cave.

"Never mind. Where do you think you're going?"

"I have an idea," he said simply. "I'll be back soon."

"So you're just going to leave me here, with no explanation?" Sango grumbled, despite the fact that Miroku was no longer around to hear her.

Only when Miroku got outside, did he realise the force of the rain. He narrowed his eyes against the driving rain, that was so cold and fierce that it bit into his skin. The rain fell with such an urgency that it was not long before his clothes were completely saturated.

He only needed to find a pool of water. One would think that would be easy in this rain, but all the water ran off or soaked into the ground. He could find plenty of mud, but he wanted to avoid getting her belt filthier than he needed to. He moved out a further distance from the cave, seeking a suitable pool of water.

He hoped against all hope that the drops which gathered at the tip of his nose and dripped off were only rainwater. But as long as nobody were around to see…he gathered up his long sleeve and wiped the end of his nose with it. If nobody sees it, it's not undignified.

And as long as nobody was around to see, he could allow himself the indulgence of getting one good powerful sneeze out of his system before going back inside.

He stopped for a moment and allowed himself to inhale with the full force that his lungs desired to. His hand hovered near his face, but he had no intention of using it to stop the sneeze.

"Huhhh….huhhh…" he breathed, feeling as if it were taking forever. And then, sweet release. Bending double at the waist, and flinging his arms sideward with abandon, he liberated his sneeze with relief: "Hyaaaaa-kng…SHAAAAA!"

The fact that it echoed off the cliff startled him momentarily.

The rain dripped from his hair, from his clothes and from the end of his nose. His feet, protected only by sandals, were so cold they began to hurt. He needed to get back inside. Finding a suitable puddle of water, he dipped the belt into it and returned to the cave.

Sango shook her head at the rain-sodden creature that dripped it's way back to where she sat, leaving a wet trail behind him.

"You're an idiot, getting wet like that," she informed him.

"But look what I did. I soaked your belt in the water. You said you wanted something cool for your ankle, and I thought the cold water would at least help matters a little bit."

"Thank you. But I don't want you to help me at the expense of your own health. But thank you."

"It was no trouble to myself, really," he said, plopping himself down on the floor. Although, his appearance was such that he could not deny things any longer. Between his reddened nose, fever-flushed cheeks, and generally miserable-looking posture-the pretence of perfect health was getting harder and harder to keep up.

And the thing was, he didn't want to keep pretending any longer. He didn't have the energy for it anymore.

"Huuu-TCHHH!" he sneezed into his soaking sleeve, and took a deep breath which, to an observer, might have been interpreted as a bid for courage.

"Sango…" he began, realising he had little voice left to say what he wanted to say.

"What's that?"

"I don't feel very well."

"I know you don't," she said with an indulgent smile.

"I think I may have caught a cold."

"I know you did," she said softly. Then, deciding that this was exactly the moment to throw the old shyness to the wind, she held out an outstretched arm. "Come here, then," she said, not caring whether it was the proper thing to do or not. He nestled his body into the crook of her arm, then relaxing his body into hers, rested his head on her shoulder. Hesitantly at first, she curled her fingers around to stroke the side of his face. He closed his eyes and relaxed further at the soft stroking of her fingers. Sango smiled at him.

"You stubborn, stubborn idiot," she whispered.

***********************************************************

Taa-daa! That's it, that's how it ends. Constructive criticism I can use to improve future ones would be highly appreciated!

[noway09]

This is a really great story, so many funny scenes. I can totally see Miroku being one who would want to quell his sneezes when he tries to be her hero while carrying her, then sneezing over her makes me laugh