The Opposite Of Attraction – Part Seven: The Deal
Aamalie: Happy Birthday to good ol'
President Lincoln-grins- ...wait, what about Valentine’s? Bah. Screw that. It’s
not what got me outta school today. But speaking of that... Where is Joe?
He hasn’t been online all day... Oh, there he is.
All of you
Mir/San fans shall go and watch “House of Flying Daggers” promptly. Trust me.
You’ll adore it. The main characters are eerily Miroku-ish
and Sango-ish. But yeah.
Sorry it took so long. Last week was a pain. Blame it on a funeral, exit exams,
and various other things.
Disclaimer:
Hum de
dum...
-
Voices melded
into her consciousness, pulling Sango from her
dreams. Slowly, as she became more aware, it seemed that the words being spoken
grew a bit clearer. Yet, at the same time, she couldn’t catch all of what was
being said. It was as if something was muffling the noise.
“So, rem...stop gr...mance her!”
“...know.
Don’t...”
“Then act...
you know...”
“Fine...go...I
wil...suggestion...trick...”
Sango cracked an eye open, the drowsiness of sleep still upon her. She
glanced at the digital clock on the other side of the room, her eyebrows
drawing together when she saw it read only
“...like...idea...”
“I’ll...later...night.”
“Goodnight.”
Sango pushed herself up to face the door just as it opened and Miroku entered the room. He closed it behind him as quietly
as he could, only to freeze when he saw that she was watching him. She couldn’t
see his face thanks to the dark, but for some reason, Sango
got the impression that he was nervous.
“What’s going
on?” she asked, tilting her head to the side as she tried to see him better.
He didn’t
answer for the stretch of time it took for him to cross the room and sit down
on the bed, the mattress creaking beneath his weight. Sango
almost jumped when he touched her cheek with his fingers softly, and she could
see his soft smile now, lit by the scarce moonlight that filtered through the
semi-sheer curtains that covered the windows. “It’s nothing. I was just
checking on Shippou.”
“But I heard
you talking to someone...” Sango said. She saw Miroku’s forehead crease a little, but only for a fraction
of a second.
“Just someone who works for the show. They clean up the
house and set things up when we’re asleep. It’s no big deal. Go back to sleep, Sango.” His hand dropped from her cheek to her shoulder,
pulling her back down to the pillow gently and lying down himself.
Much to Sango’s surprise, he slid his arm around her
waist in a sort of loose hug. After a tense moment of indecision, she let it
slide and closed her eyes once more.
-
A laughable sight
greeted Sango when she finally found Miroku and Shippou the next
morning. The child was sitting on the ground in front of the television,
slack-jawed and completely ignoring the bowl of cereal next to him, the
contents of which were growing very soggy. Miroku was
on the couch, half-reclined and staring off into space. Sango
couldn’t help but grin at the way he looked with an almost perplexed expression
on his face, as it did look rather silly. It was only when she shifted to lean
against the doorframe that he caught sight of her with his peripheral vision,
and he practically leapt up to greet her.
“At long last,
the sleeping beauty has awakened!” he exclaimed, approaching her.
Sango’s lips quirked slightly, and she leveled a skeptical stare
his way. “Running out of original lines, Miroku? I
would have never guess your words would fail you so
quickly.”
“Hey, I object
to that. Cliché can be good sometimes. Besides, it’s not my fault you took so
long to get up.”
“Why didn’t
you come get me if you wanted me to wake up?” Sango
returned, a tad bemused. Miroku jerked a thumb over
his shoulder towards Shippou, as though to say that
he hadn’t wanted to leave the kid alone, which she found a tad silly. “You
could have left him by himself for a few minutes, you know.”
“After yesterday? I don’t think so.”
“Miroku. Look at him... He's
watching cartoons. He's transfixed. Hypnotized. Staring blankly at a changing screen that won't cease to enrapture
him for at least another hour.”
“That's what
you think.” When Sango gave him another look, Miroku sighed and shook his head before he spoke again. “Never mind. Just watch him for a bit? It’s been ages since
I’ve seen the interior of a bathroom, and you, m’love,
are already showered and dressed. How can I compare to your radiance if I’m
still in my PJs?”
“Hn... You’ll pose for the cameras, regardless. Just go;
I’ll watch him. And spare me the compliments.”
Unexpectedly, Miroku leaned forward and tapped her nose with his index
finger, almost dotingly. “Never.” And then, he strolled
out of the room without another word said, leaving Sango
on the brink of utter embarrassment. Thankfully, her empty stomach was kind
enough to distract her from her humiliation.
So, with a
cautionary glance to make sure that Shippou was still
distracted by the cartoon (which was annoyingly focused on repeating something
about maps at the moment), Sango headed off to the
kitchen.
When she
returned, contentedly popping a piece of Pop Tart into her mouth, Sango found that things weren’t as she’d left them.
The TV was on.
The bowel of soggy cereal was there.
But Shippou was missing.
If Miroku had been there, Sango
reflected, now would be about the time he’d say, “I told you so.”
Dropping her
breakfast onto the coffee table, Sango began her hunt
for the missing Shippou. It took a good five minutes
of poking her head into rooms and calling the child’s name until she finally
found him in the game room. She hadn’t been in there since the day she’d
arrived, when she and Miroku had explored their
temporary home. That was partially because she didn’t like the room. Not that it wasn’t a nice place— it was actually very
upscale, with a fancy pool table and dart boards and an expansive display of
decorative knives over by the bay window.
It looked
eerily like she had always imagined the billiard room in that game, Clue.
Professor Plum with the pipe, anyone?
However, Sango wasn’t really concerned about middle-aged professors
in purple sneaking up behind her with a metal murder weapon in hand. She was
more concerned with those knives on display, and the fact that someone had left
the key in the lock of the glass case. Shippou,
somehow, had managed to unlock and open that case, despite his small size, and
was now examining them with a grin on his face.
Sango wasted no time in rushing over there, practically knocking aside
the cameraman that had been tailing Shippou the whole
time, and pulled the kid away from the display. She all but slammed the glass
door shut, turning the lock and shoving the key into her pocket before she
turned back to Shippou.
“What do you
think you were doing?” she demanded, frowning down at the short little redhead.
He returned her scowl with an innocent gaze.
“Looking.”
Sango forced herself to take a long, calming breath before she
exploded. “You should have asked either Miroku or me
if you wanted to see this stuff. You could have gotten hurt, playing with those
knives.”
If possible, Shippou’s eyes widened even more innocently. “Those are real
knives?”
“...Yes.”
“Cool!” At Sango’s reprimanding look, he altered his response. “I’m
sorry, Miss Sango. I won’t do it again. I just
thought it was okay because that guy with the camera was here, and he didn’t
say that I couldn’t.”
“It’s okay, Shippou,” she said,
before rounding on the cameraman, fully intending to give him a piece of her
mind as it came to children and knives. By the time she was done, though, she
made another discovery.
Shippou had disappeared again. And so, with a sigh of annoyance, Sango went off to find him. Again.
This time, she
found him in the spare bathroom, which had been opened to accommodate their
temporary guest. Apparently, nobody had thought to empty out the cabinets
beneath the sink before it was opened, because Shippou
had. He beamed when he saw her.
“Hey, Sango! What’re these?” he
asked, holding up what, after a moment, Sango
recognized to be tampons. “They’re really funny looking. What’re they used
for?”
“Ah, Shippou!” Sango
cried, dropping to her knees and hurriedly trying to shove everything back
under the sink. As soon as she did so, Shippou let
out a squeak and ducked past Sango and out of the
bathroom. Shoving the cabinet shut, Sango scrambled
after the child.
Goodness, that kid was fast!
“Looking for
someone?” Miroku asked congenially as she broke into
the living room again. In one hand, he held Shippou
loosely by the collar, and in the other something that appeared to be a magnet.
“Yes,
actually...” Sango sighed. “It took you long enough.”
“Yes, but it
looks like I came in at the right moment. Somebody was thinking about
going at the TV with a magnet.”
Sango blanched. “Oh...” She remembered when Kohaku
had done that when he had been around Shippou’s age,
with their parents’ brand new television. Their father had not been very
happy, at all.
“Shippou,” Miroku said, looking
down at the five-year-old, “I think you owe Sango an
apology, and then I think you need to go sit on your bed and have a time-out
for a while. No toys or books.”
Hesitantly, Shippou nodded. “I’m sorry, Miss Sango.”
Miroku gave him a nudge, and he quickly toddled off
to his room. As soon as he was gone, Sango ran a hand
across her face and collapsed onto the couch.
“That kid is
crazy...” she muttered, closing her eyes as she leaned her head back.
“Nah,” Miroku laughed, taking a seat beside her, “just hyper.”
“And uncontrollable.”
He chuckled
again, discreetly slipping his arm around her shoulder, giving himself a mental
high-five when she shifted a bit closer to him. “Maybe, but that’s normal for
kids. Separate them from their parents for a while, and they’ll take advantage
of every opportunity to wreak havoc that’s provided them. The goal is to stay
one step ahead of their crafty little minds.”
“I guess I
need a lot of practice, then,” Sango said, cracking
an eye open at him.
Miroku was about to say something else when he was rudely interrupted by
Shippou calling out, “Can I come out of time-out
yet?”
He smirked. “Ladies first.”
Sango groaned. “I hate you.”
“That’s just
your way of saying that you can’t live without me,” he teased.
She gave a
derisive snort, finally getting up. “Come on. We’ve got a kid to entertain.”
“Eh heh... Right behind you.”
-
“Goodbye y’guys! Thanks for playing with me!” Shippou
quipped with a wave as he disappeared into the limo. Miroku
and Sango waved back, almost halfheartedly, as the
vehicle pulled away. And, once it was out of sight, the two couldn’t help but
share a smile of relief.
“Glad that’s
over,” Sango intoned through a yawn as they meandered
their way back to the mansion. She took a moment to look at her watch. “It’s
only six, and I’m practically exhausted. I have to admit, though, having to go
through watching Shippou, I suddenly have a newfound
respect for my parents.”
“Yeah...” Miroku said as he followed her into the house. Sango blinked, glancing at him in surprise. He sounded...
really distracted.
“Are you
okay?” she inquired, a little bit confused. Just a few minutes ago, he’d been
as outgoing and pleasant as usual. He gave her an assuring smile.
“Don’t worry
about it. Just thought of something, that’s all. That, and I haven’t visited the Confessional today.” The
‘Confessional’ was the name they had dubbed the video-journal room, although it
was much more comfortable than an actual confessional... Even
though it was still about the size of a closet. At least, it was a big
closet, though.
“All right. I’m headed upstairs then.”
He grinned at
her. “I can’t wait to join you.”
“I’ll bet...” Sango mumbled, scowling at him, though inside she was
laughing. As they parted ways, she couldn’t help but realize just how much she was
starting to like Miroku. It was strange. Even though
she wanted to throttle him sometimes— such as when he couldn’t keep his hands
to himself— she found herself enjoying his company more and more. And what was
more, she didn’t even care that they shared a bed anymore, and this was only
the fifth day since she’d met him!
‘I must be
going insane,’ Sango thought as she went through
the routine of changing into her pajamas and brushing out her hair. ‘I’ve
never been this comfortable with a guy before, and here I am living with one I
barely know. It figures... God, I hope I don’t have a crush
on him, or something silly like that.’
But, now that
the thought crossed her mind, it dawned on her that since she was thinking like
that, it was extremely likely that she did have a crush on him.
‘I’m
doomed,’ she admitted to herself as she loaded toothpaste onto her
toothbrush.
“You know, I
really ought to steal that from you.”
Sango started, almost dropping the toothbrush into the sink. She could
see herself begin to blush furiously in the mirror as she recovered it,
glancing towards Miroku. He just had to choose the
exact moment she’d figured exactly what was wrong with her to walk on in,
didn’t he?
“Steal what?”
“Your toothbrush. You kicked me to the couch the other day,
thereby ending our truce. Therefore, I suggest you hand it over, young lady.”
“That would
defeat the whole ‘stealing’ part, Miroku.” She
frowned, tilting her head to look behind him. “What? No cameras?” she noted,
before popping her toothbrush into her mouth.
“They went
home early, I guess. And you’re right. I’ll just have to bide my time,” Miroku concluded. He leaned against the counter, watching
her reflection for a moment. “Hey, Sango?”
“Mmm?” She glanced at him in
the mirror.
“About the
cameras... Call me crazy, but I just had an idea.”
Sango leaned down to spit the toothpaste from her mouth, and then
rinsed with a cup of water. “What sort of idea?”
“What if we
messed with the cameras?”
She turned off
the water, turning to look at him directly. “Explain.”
“Well, the
entire point of this show is to figure out whether or not we’re attracted to
each other, and how much so, right? So, why don’t we take advantage of that,
and say... Pretend that our relationship is different than it is.”
“Different?
What sort of different?”
Miroku hesitated. The look she was giving him was somewhat unsettling,
but he plowed ahead nevertheless. “Like... More intimate. Can you imagine the
shock on everyone’s faces when we suddenly kiss out of nowhere, or if it looks
like we’re in a fight... and they have no clue why? I mean, I know you’re not
the sort of girl who would usually go for this sort of thing, but—”
“Okay.”
Miroku blinked. “What?”
“I said,
‘okay,’” Sango repeated, forcing herself
to keep her voice steady. Her stomach was doing flip-flops, and her face
strangely hot. She had no clue as to why she was agreeing to this! Miroku was right, it was unlike her. But, as she’d
made note of earlier, this entire situation was completely unlike her as well.
Why not go the extra mile?
“Seriously?”
“Yes, on one
condition.”
Miroku nodded, somewhat numbly. He’d thought he’d have to spend at least
an hour trying to convince Sango to do this... And
she’d just agreed to it, straight off! “Name it.”
“You don’t
push anything. If I’m not comfortable with it, you stop right away. And, we’re
not going to have sex, so don’t even make a play for it, all right?”
“Fair enough,
I suppose,” Miroku said. “What the lady wants, the
lady gets. So, how shall we seal this deal?” He moved closer to her, a playful
light in his eyes, brightened by his success.
Sango reached up and tweaked his nose. “There is no seal, as it’s not a
deal. It’s a plan, so I suggest you exercise some patience Miroku.
You’re not getting anything until there are some cameras to catch it on film.”
“And why is
that?” Miroku prompted, catching her hand loosely.
She slipped it
out of his grasp and smiled. “Because you haven’t brushed your teeth yet, and
I’m tired, silly.” Giving him once last grin, she slipped around him and headed
out of the bathroom before he could say another word.
Things were
about to get interesting.
-
Aamalie: Muah ha. Yes. Interesting, indeed. But wow... That reminds me. I need to
plan a few more chapters. Oy...
-
Fledgling- Ah... I see. D/H... v.v God, sorry, but that’s one of the stupidest pairings
ever. I’m constantly getting on my friend’s case for reading that stuff. But, whatever. Yeah... There aren’t
many reality tv fics in this section, otherwise I wouldn’t have written
this. xD
Sam Sam-aka-Sam- Who says she’s going to be able to
resist him-wink-
Starzki- Eh. No, she doesn’t get
arrested. Least, I don’t think she does... -ideas- Hmm. But she gets much less
violent from now on. Trust me. And, oh look! Hot tub next chapter! Hmm...
Stipe- I think ‘annoying’ might be an understatement when it comes to Shippou.
Inu Kaiba- LoL. Don’t worry, no matter
how annoyed I get, I won’t hold off updates if I can help it. It’s only when my
schedule goes unexpectedly haywire (like it did last week) that it takes me
forever to update.
Chocolatechipp- Hee. xD Thanks!
Newbie GK- ...You’re not allowed
to know that yet.
Fantastical Queen Ebony Black- ...Yeah. Lots
of reviews. I love them. And I don’t think it will be as repetitive from
now on. Hopefully. It’s hard to mix it up a lot,
thanks to the setting. -shrugs- We’ll see.
-
Leave me a review if you luffle me. -wink-