Noble House

okies.. this is going to be last update for a while.. well for a few days at least. well.. who am i kidding, for tonight, anyways. These first 6 chapters have been more or less the setup for my plot. Yes, it took me 6 chapters to do the intro. In case you haven't figured it out, this is probably going to be a long fic. I hope you all stay with me for the long haul ^_^ It should turn out pretty good. (well in my biased opinion anyways) Thanks again to youkai tsuki for her words of support and offering to beta my typo'ed mess of a fic. for those of you who haven't checked out her fic, "It's Just a Date", do so! It's good stuff! Anyways, please review! I love to hear comments! I know you guys are reading my fic.... *smile* ok, i'll shut up now.

Sango woke to she sound of talking coming from the main room. She looked at the food Inu Yasha had brought her earlier, now cold with a nice film of condensed fat on the top. ‘Eww.... I hope Kagome-chan isn’t offended if I don’t want to eat this right now...’ she thought. She raised a chopstick to poke at the stew apprehensively, much like a small child pokes at bugs with a stick. She was hungry, but right now she had more.... urgent matters to attend to. She stood up slowly, regretting the several glasses of water she’d drank last night when Kagome had been with her. She walked as quickly as she thought was safe towards the source of the voices. She had not seen any kind of chamber pot in her room, surely one of the people outside would know where it was safe to relieve herself. exi exited her room, heading down a short hallway towards the main room.

As she entered, the conversation stopped, and all eyes turned towards her. Kaede, Shippou, Kagome, and Inu Yasha sat around the hearth, eating dinner. Sango blushed a little, feeling self-conscious with all the sets of eyes on her. Kagome smiled warmly, setting her meal down to come and stand by her friend. “Sango-chan, is there something you need?”

Sango began to fidget, embarrassed about having to ask where the ‘privy’ was. “Ano.... Kagome-chan... do you know where the... I mean... I need to..” Sango’s face was turning redder with each passing word, and Kagome decided to spare her any further embarrassment.

“Hai, hai, this way Sango-chan” Kagome started to lead her friend where she needed to go, but not before grabbing a small box from a bag by the door. Once they reached the outside toilet, she showed Sango the pregnancy test and told her how to use it. Sango was mortified that they were having this discussion, but realized that her friend was just trying to help. She did as instructed, and handed the little wand back to her friend when she was done with her business. Kagome grinned at the results, negative so far. She told Sango that it was still very early, and they should check multiple times over the coming weeks to be sure. Sango prayed with all her might that the little piece of plastic was accurate.
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The next two days passed without incident, well... relatively speaking of course. Sango was still miserable, and crying on her friends shoulder’s often. She felt ruined, degraded, and confused. She, the once proud warrior, felt more helpless than she ever had in her life. She kept replaying the scene in her mind over and over again, the countless little mistakes she saw herself making. Bathing out in open, propping her weapons so far away from where she was in the water, the way in which she moved to attack the youkai. All of these things kept circling in her head, making her feel foolish and weak. The biggest blow to her confidence came from the fact that she had been so certain she would be safe, she had denied Inu Yasha’s offer of an escort, despite knowing the danger. He had never brought it up once, but she knew her friend so well that she knew he had thought it more than once. None of her friends had chastised her for her foolishness, but they really didn’t have to, she was doing a good enough job of that herself.

She spent most of her time lying on her back on the futon, staring up blankly he che ceiling. Which is what she was doing now. Staring at the ceiling and wallowing in self-depreciation. She sat up when she heard a commotion coming from the common room. Well, more accurately, she heard a long string of explicatives coming from Inu Yasha’s mouth. Curious to see what it was about , she lifted herself from her bed and walked towards the source of the noise.

“Myoga, you little bastard! What the fuck took you so long!” exclaimed Inu Yasha, as she entered the room. He was yelling at a speck pinched between the claws of his thumb and index finger that Sango supposed was the flea youkai. “It’s been two fucking months! It doesn’t take that long to get to Toutousai’s and back! What did the crazy old man say!” Sango’s interest was peaked, ‘What is all this about Toutousai?’

“About what, Inu Yasha-sama?”

“About making the damn weapon for my pup! What the hell did you think I meant?” Inu Yasha pinched his claws together with a little more pressure, causing the little flea youkai to panic.

“He said he would do it once he was certain your child would have need of it! Inu Yasha-sama, onegai, don’t squish me, I really did hurry here and I haven’t even eaten yet!” Inu Yasha let out a predictable “Feh” and flung Myoga into the corner of the room. He then noticed Sango, giving her a rare, and genuine smile at the site of her out of her room of her own volition. He motioned for her to sit by him next to the hearth, and he immediately added a pot of water to heat over the fire. She watched as he moved to a small chest in the corner, where they kept some of their dry goods, and produced a container of his favorite ramen. “Want some, Sango? Kagome is out training with the old hag, so It‘s my job to cook,” he asked, looking back at her over his shoulder, waving the container for her to see and giving her a grin that looked like it belonged on a much younger, more innocent face. Sango stifled laughter, and managed to stammer out a ‘yes’. He gave her a slightly suspicious, slightly hurt look that reminded her of when she first met him, and her giggle fit continued.

“Aaah, gomen, gomen, Inu Yasha, it’s just some things... they never change.” She continued to giggle, and he shook his own head in amusement, a few soft chuckles passing his lips. He prepared them their snack, smiling to himself over how he had managed to get Sango to laugh, even if it was at his expense. After a few minutes, Sango felt a familiar pinch on her cheek, and reflexively slapped her hand up against the source of the sensation. Her eyes darted down to see a flattened Myoga float gracefully towards the floor, where he resumed his normal shape with a small ‘pop’.

“Sango-sama, must you really have done that?” Myoga’s small voice drifted up to her from his spot on the floor.

“Yes Myoga, you should know by now I slap anyone that touches one of my cheeks” she said in a deadpan voice, but her eyes were smiling. Inu Yasha chuckled softly, knowing full well she was making a joke about Miroku’s wanderings hands. “I mean, Sango-sama,” Myoga continued, “it really was excessive. But then again, I supposed it’s my fault for biting a pregnant woman. You would think I would have learned the first time I bit Kagome-sama.” The little flea crossed his arms and nodded his head.

In that instant, Sango’s whole world stopped. Everything around her seemed frozen. Inu Yasha had frozen in the process of eating, the noodles in his chopsticks sliding free and landing with a plop back in the container as he stared slack-jawed at his servant. Her breath was frozen in her lungs, and for a moment, she could have sworn even her heart had stopped beating. When she found her voice, it was cracked and hoarse, like she hadn’t used it in several years. “Wha.... what did you say?”

tbc.....