FicWad

Something Unexpected
Chapter 02 - Scents
by Skyless_star

Written for 30Kisses, theme #01 "Look Over Here"

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Disclaimer: The manga, the anime, and everything else of the 'InuYasha' world have been created by Rumiko Takahashi and belong to her. No money is made with this fanfiction, that is written just for fun.

Author's Note: Ok, it took me a while, but the story is finally here.
Before it, I want to apologize to anyone who had been waiting for an update, but I had things to do that couldn't be postponed, no matter how much I prefer manga and fanfictions upon them.
Before it, I want to apologize to anyone who had been waiting for an update, but I had things to do that couldn't be postponed, no matter how much I prefer manga and fanfictions upon them.
I also want to thank my beta-reader, IcePrincess, for helping me to make this story better, and I officially apologize to her for the little misunderstanding about the deadline of the 30kisses community.
Important things done, I hope you enjoy the story.

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It was there, right in front of his eyes. Well, a little below them... But the way it moved, slightly oscillating from side to side as she walked, the way it looked, wrapped in that black garment of hers, the way she seemed oblivious of its beauty, of her beauty... Only attracted him to it like the flowers attract the bees.

Of their own accord, his hands moved toward it... Slowly... Silently... She must not notice... Just a little more... So soft...

Sensations of pure bliss invaded him as he dared to squeeze, but were soon followed by a low growl. "Grr.." The softness of Sango's bottom against his hands was soon replaced by a red, hand-shaped, mark on his cheek. Sango had refrained from yelling at him, but the noise of the slap he had received alerted the hare they were following, which somehow possessed a shikon shard, and it began to run for all it was worth.

"Dammit! Why can't you two stay quiet?" InuYasha yelled as he forcefully took Kagome and Shippo on his back, just a second before running after the hare.

"Kirara!" Sango called, and the fire cat immediately turned to her bigger form; Sango jumped on her, followed shortly after by Miroku. Before he could put his hands on her bottom with the excuse that he needed to balance himself, Sango turned her head and glared at him, "You, try to keep your hands in a proper place!"

Looking at the murderous expression on her face, Miroku decided it would be better to keep his hands away from her: even though a stolen touch was worth a slap, he wasn't so sure he'd like to risk his life for it, so, Miroku did as ordered, positioning his Shakujo in front of Sango's stomach and grabbing both sides of it. In a moment, Kirara was flying above the forest trying to keep track of the hare, relying mostly on her own nose.

~ ~ ~

Somewhere nearby, Kouga sniffed the air; some small animal was fast approaching him. It should be a rabbit... no, more likely a hare. He and his pack mates had already eaten a couple of hours before, but when a possible prey comes running toward you, almost like asking to be eaten, you should at least grant that wish. Kouga went to hide behind some rocks nearby, ordering his pack mates and the wolves to do the same, and waited some moments until he was able to see their soon-to-be snack.

With an elegant movement, Kouga jumped past the rocks and landed right in front of the hare, missing it by mere centimeters. It quickly changed direction and escaped in the forest and Kouga, following his hunting instinct, began to chase it between the trees.

~ ~ ~

From above the forest, Sango and Miroku witnessed the exchange between Kouga and the hare. For a moment, Sango only stared at the Youkai, taking in all his movements, marveling at how he could jump four or five meters as if it was nothing.

"Sango, let's follow them!" Miroku said, disrupting her little daydream.

"Go after him, Kirara!" Sango said, hoping Miroku hadn't noticed her distraction.

Realizing that Kouga would probably catch the animal before them, and that if they wanted the shard it would take a long time to convince him, Sango tensed up a little.

Since that day he saved her, Kouga had been appearing in her thoughts and in her dreams at every moment and for the strangest reasons; it took her a great effort, sometimes, to avoid calling `Kouga' one of her male friends. After a few days, the hope that she might just be curious about him began to give way to the more likely idea that she was falling in love with him.

Given that, a long confrontation wasn't exactly what she needed, at least, not yet. If more time had passed, allowing her to forget that little crush or, at least, sort her feelings, things would have been a lot easier for her.

But that wasn't possible. Kouga was there, chasing the same hare they were, and neither him nor InuYasha would ever give up on the shard; they will fight, Kagome will `sit' InuYasha, and then--

"We're lucky." said Miroku, as if continuing her thoughts, "If Kouga catches the hare, he will surely hand the shard to Kagome-sama at the end."

--and then her little fantasy would be crushed by the hard reality. Miroku's words had just reminded her why she had been so adamant in denying her blossoming feelings: Kouga loved Kagome. Whatever her feelings for him were, they were unrequited.

Not that she blamed her friend for that. Deep in her heart, she wasn't jealous. Maybe it was just because she hadn't actually seen Kouga court Kagome after she `discovered' his caring side, or maybe her efforts in chasing away her feelings, even if unsuccessful, had at least kept jealousy at a distance. A part of her still wondered why Kagome hadn't left InuYasha for Kouga.

She sighed softly, careful not to be heard by Miroku. Her warrior's pride was telling her that seeing Kouga court Kagome would force her to get over her childish infatuation and, consequentially, put an end to her confusion. But her inner self was telling a whole different story.

~ ~ ~

In the forest, Kouga was chasing the hare. Even without his shards, he would've been much faster than the small animal, but he was having problems keeping up with it because of the thick vegetation, in which a human-sized being was already too big. Dodging tree after tree, jumping past rocks and avoiding hidden holes, the hunter and his prey reached a small clearing.

Finally free to move, with one last sprint Kouga caught the little being just before it entered the forest again. A swift movement, and the animal was killed on the spot. Without even the time to celebrate the predator in himself, Kouga smelled someone coming his way. Looking up, he saw Kirara landing near him and Sango easily jumping down from her.

"Sango! Nice to see you're doing better!" he greeted her, genuinely happy that she was back to her normal abilities. A warrior so skilled and brave was a valuable one even among Yorozokus; even if they should have been enemies, it pleased him to see she won't stop fighting because of a stupid trunk.

"Thanks, Kouga." She smiled. "...You beat us." she pointed at the hare in the Youkai's hand and almost ignored him, trying to act as if she hadn't thought about him for the whole previous week.

"You were hunting it, too?" he asked, not really having considered the fact.

"Of course we were, filthy wolf! And we saw it first, so hand it over now or I'm going to slash you!" InuYasha barked from the last trees of the forest, pulling out Tessaiga while Kagome and Shippo jumped down.

Kouga glanced at the Hanyou for half a second. After seeing how inept InuYasha was at protecting the two girls, simply thinking of him made Kouga angry. If he wasn't sure that Kagome would hate him afterward, he would finish the useless Hanyou right there. Beside this, he knew that if he were to fight against InuYasha with the Tessaiga, his chances of winning would be close to nothing. So, instead of picking a fight that would surely degenerate, Kouga decided to completely ignore his rival.

"Hold this." he said, launching the hare to Sango -who caught it with a questioning face-; then he rushed toward InuYasha, only to turn around him and reach Kagome.

"Kagome! Did you come to see me?" he said, grabbing her hands like he always did.

Looking at the exchange, Sango saw her fears materialized. She knew that it would happen, but nonetheless, it wasn't pleasant.

Kagome begun to speak, "Hi, Ko--" "DON'T YOU IGNORE ME!" InuYasha interrupted her, swinging his sword that Kouga dodged gracefully.

Sango sighed in discomfort for the childish behaviour of the two, but felt somehow relieved that her fantasy could survive a little longer.

"Something wrong, Sango?" Miroku asked. In truth, his concern was just an excuse to grope her again.

"Miroku!" She yelled, slapping him hard across the face. Due to the fact that they had slept in the forest for the past four days and that he hadn't seen any girl other than Sango and Kagome for all that time, the monk had been very insistent on his advances toward Sango during the day, and the taiji-ya had really had enough of it.

Kouga and InuYasha stopped for a moment, turning in the direction of the noise. Kouga looked at the marks on the monk's cheeks -one redder than the other- and was taken aback by Sango's murderous glare. That was being feisty, he thought, smirking.

InuYasha, being more used to Miroku's groping and Sango's slapping, took advantage of Kouga's distraction and attacked him; the Youkai wolf dodged at the very last second.

While the two fought, Sango approached Kagome -and went away from Miroku- showing her the hare. "Can you see the shard, Kagome-chan?"

After she looked at it for a moment, the younger girl said it was in the animal's stomach. Sango nodded and tore open the little animal using a knife hidden on the calf of her taiji-ya uniform, then took out the shard using the knife's tip. Kagome purified it while wiping off the blood and the gastric acid, unfazed by them after all the months spent in the Sengoku.

By the time the two girls had finished, InuYasha was still trying to hit Kouga, who in turn was skilfully avoiding swing after swing, often jumping on top of Tessaiga or InuYasha's head just to make him angrier.

"Kouga, InuYasha, would you like to stop?" asked Kagome, speaking loud enough for the two to hear her above the racket they were making.

"Take that, mutt-face! She called me first!" Kouga celebrated, only to mock InuYasha. In truth, he couldn't care less who was the first to be called, but was really determined to take whatever chance he could to piss off the Hanyou and let Kagome do her `Sit' thing.

"Just because she knows that you are the real problem!" countered InuYasha.

While dodging the Hanyou's strikes, Kouga was gradually moving toward Kagome with a plan in his mind. When he was a couple of meters away from her, he ran toward the girl, wanting to kiss her. But he had miscalculated that, even though he was faster, InuYasha just happened to be nearer so he managed to grab Kagome by an arm and drag her away.

That should have ended the matter but, unluckily or not, Kouga lost his balance and fell above Sango, who was slightly bent to put the knife back in its place; the Youkai's mouth came in contact with Sango's cheek, right beside her lips, as she rolled to the ground with him on top.

Everybody froze instantly.

Shippo and Kagome cringed; Miroku, knowing first-hand her vehemence and having noticed she still held the knife in her hand, began to pray for Kouga's soul. InuYasha, on the other hand, was grinning: Sango would surely beat the wolf to a pulp, and on top of that, Kagome won't be angry at him -nor `sit' him. Even Kouga, after witnessing the slap Sango had given to the monk, was wondering if he could make it unscathed.

But Sango wasn't half as angry as everyone thought. She blinked in surprise as her body connected with the ground, then tried to keep her breath under control as her sight focused on Kouga's eyes. The same blue eyes that had greeted her some days before when he had saved her; the same blue eyes that had her so confused.

All her bliss lasted a mere moment, as Kouga moved his head and his lips a away from her face. Sango could see he was inhaling slowly and staring at her intently, like something of her had captured his attention. Kouga swallowed, and she didn't fail to notice how he licked his lips nervously, while continuing to breathe deeply, almost like testing her scent, and never taking his eyes away from hers.

Concerned for both of them, Kagome was the one to break the silence. "Are both of you okay?"

When Kouga looked at her and came out of his trance, he quickly jumped to his feet and raised his hands in front of himself, beginning to stumble on his own words. "He-he." he laughed nervously, looking at the two girls alternatively. "Well..."

That was it. How stupid of her to enjoy a kiss given by mistake. It happened because he hadn't even noticed her presence behind Kagome, and there she was, daydreaming about it. Sango pushed all the thoughts about the Youkai wolf aside and got to her feet.

"I... Uh..." Kouga continued his unfruitful efforts to say something, but Sango didn't let him speak and shoved the hare to his chest, knocking the air out of his lungs.

"That's yours, you can go now." she said, her voice holding no emotion at all.

Kouga stared at her for half a second. "See ya." he said, and then ran off in the direction where his pack mates were, without even looking at the others.

Sango put her knife back in her uniform acting like nothing had happened, and when she raised her head she saw everybody was staring at her wide-eyed. Puzzled, she looked behind herself to see if something strange was happening there.

"You didn't... punish him?" Miroku was the first to speak, due to a lingering feeling of jealousy that Kouga's kiss and Sango's lack of reaction had caused in him.

"Why would I?" she asked, missing his point.

"Well, he... kissed you... and you always try to crack my head open if I only touch you /innocently/, so... well.. I thought you'd be angry..." Miroku explained, trying to disguise jealousy as curiosity.

Shrugging, she said "It was just an accident, he wanted to kiss Kagome, but InuYasha moved her away. I should be angry with him... But again, he was just protecting Kagome." she shrugged a second time.

Miroku pondered if -and especially /how/- he could use that `accidental contact' technique.

"I think we should prepare our camp here. It would be dark in a couple of hours, and I think we can call it a day." Sango continued, pointing at the shard still in Kagome's hand.

"Uh... You're right, I guess." said the other girl. She considered asking Sango if, flying on Kirara, she had seen a river nearby where they could take a bath, but she stopped. Miroku was caressing Kirara, perched on Sango's shoulder facing backward. `Accidentally' his hand followed her tails and went down to grope Sango's bosom.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realize Kirara's tail had already ended." the monk said, using a childish smile to distract the girls from his squeezing hand.

"Grrr!" The taiji-ya growled.

"MI.. RO.. KUU!!!" Sango's loud scream, and the following violent crash of Hiraikotsu and said monk's head, reverberated through the forest.

~ ~ ~

Kouga grimaced, hearing Sango's roar and the following thud; that could have been directed at him...

No, maybe not; not with that insanely good scent she had...

Kouga involuntarily took a deep breath, as if he wanted to smell her again.

A small smile appeared on his lips, as thoughts of having Sango as a concubine crossed his mind. After all, he needed to rebuild his pack sooner or later, and Sango's body was strong enough to bear a lot of pups.

"Kouga, did you meet Kagome nee-san?" asked Ginta.

"What?" answered Kouga in a dreamy voice, still deep in his fantasy.

Hakkaku sniffed the stomach of the animal. "There's the faint scent of a Shikon shard here, but we can't find it."

Ginta did the same. "And there's also Sango's scent..."

"Yeah... So good..." Kouga refused to interrupt his daydreaming.

"Something wrong, Kouga?" asked Hakkaku, noticing his leader's increased breath.

Startled, Kouga decided to just ignore the question. "Shut up!" he said, then started to run away, looking for a river or something; he could definitely use a very cold bath.


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Finished 28-10-2007, 19:29 Italian Time
Revised 23-11-2007, 18:53 Italian Time
Revised properly 25-11-2007, 18:15 Italian Time

Whoever might want post a review to this chapter is welcome, even if it's a negative one; if you think something's wrong, and say it, maybe next time I'll be able to avoid the same mistake. And don't worry about `hurting my feelings', one has to accept his/her mistakes.

Author's note bis: I know that the pairing Kouga/Sango isn't one of the most popular, and the previous chapter was just the first, so I didn't really expect more than three, four reviews; instead, considering the english and italian version, I got 13!
I tried to reply to every one of them but, in the middle of whatever it was that I was doing and that kept me from writing chapter 2, sometimes I opened web pages and then didn't watch at them; so, if I unwillingly forgot to reply, I apologize by saying thank you very much, they were all very kind.