Oneshot devoted to Sango, my favorite character. Modern AU. Miroku/Sango with some Inuyasha/Kagome happening in the background.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha.

Right Back at You

The only explanation Sango could think of for doing what she was doing was that she was the best Best Friend ever.

The brunette took a deep, calming breath as she glanced at the clock on her car's dashboard. It was two in the morning. She'd been driving for almost half an hour, and she still had another forty-five minutes to go before she reached her destination.

Her Advanced Criminology final exam was in seven hours.

The highway was deserted except for two police cars she'd passed on the side of the road— a speed trap for some other unlucky motorist. Fortunately, Sango had been driving the speed limit despite her frustrated need to arrive as soon as possible. If she let it get to her, she would have been pushing her car to the limit. Instead— even though she really needed to get back home and in bed as soon as possible— she pressed down on the gas pedal cautiously.

Kagome seriously owed her.

In fact, she thought, Kagome owed her so much that if Sango were to ask for a kidney tomorrow, her best friend would have to give it to her, no questions asked.

Not that Sango would ever need a kidney. Not all college students spent their free time drinking or doing drugs.

Suddenly, the smallest pang of guilt wormed its way into her heart for being angry with her best friend.

When Kagome had called her an hour earlier, sobbing and pleading to be picked up, Sango had had to agree. They were best friends. They'd been best friends since they were toddlers, and they would be best friends until they were toothless old biddies. If Kagome called in tears needing a ride, Sango would come get her.

Even if Kagome was stuck in a city over an hour away.

Even if Sango had the biggest test of her life in only seven hours.

It was, after all, what best friends do.

"Best friends, best friends, best friends," Sango muttered under her breath like a mantra. So far, it was keeping her from getting (too) pissed off.

The music on the radio was playing very softly in the background so that the GPS could give directions uninterrupted, which was another thing Sango wasn't happy about. She did not like not knowing where she was going, but she hadn't been to Inuyasha's new apartment yet.

Inuyasha was Kagome's boyfriend of about six years. They were high school sweethearts. When the couple found out they had been accepted to different colleges (Kagome to a slightly more prestigious one in their hometown, while her boyfriend decided to go to a community college the next city over), it was like the world was ending. Thankfully, they'd worked it out, deciding to date long distance by visiting each other on weekends. For two years, everything had been going smoothly.

Now, though, Sango wondered if things were really as good as they seemed, considering Kagome had just called her, crying, in the middle of the night.

The couple had just been in a major fight.

At first, Sango hadn't been worried—Kagome and Inuyasha fought all the time. In fact, bickering was like their foreplay. But this time seemed different. Kagome was sobbing, something about how she couldn't believe she'd agreed to stay the night on a school night, in the middle of finals week no less. Even worse, Kagome had agreed to let Inuyasha drive her, meaning she had no car and no way to get back home on her own.

Hence calling Sango for a ride.

Hitting her turn signal just a tad too forcefully, Sango guided her car off the highway at the correct exit. At the end of the off ramp, she turned right, as the GPS instructed. All around her, the city stretched out—block after block of cheap housing and fast food restaurants. Her earlier conversation with Kagome ran through her head for the eightieth time since hanging up.

"What did you guys fight about?" Sango asked groggily, rubbing at her eyes and peering at her alarm clock. The brunette struggled not to groan out loud when she realized it was way after midnight.

"I-I don't know," Kagome blubbered into the phone. The blue-eyed girl was one of those passionate girls, the ones who wore their hearts on their sleeves—when she was sad, she cried; when she was happy, she laughed. There was no guessing with Kagome, which was something most people liked. At one in the morning, Sango did not find this particularly endearing. Why couldn't she just suck it up? "I was talking about my lab partner—"

"Hojo?" Sango interrupted, picturing the sweet and relatively harmless boy who had latched onto Kagome their first day that semester.

"Yeah," Kagome confirmed, and then she hiccupped. A sniffle later, she continued, "Inuyasha got so mad about it; you know how he can get…"

Sango did know. She'd been friends with him for years, too, since before he'd been dating Kagome. Sango and Inuyasha had been on the baseball team together all throughout high school—in fact, Inuyasha had helped Sango convince their coach that she was strong enough to be on the all-boys team. If Kagome was 'passionate,' then Inuyasha was 'overzealously obsessive.' He was rash and impulsive, and he loved Kagome so much that sometimes it made him a little crazy—and stupid. Inuyasha was very good at being stupid.

"I reminded him that I am not attracted to Hojo at all," Kagome insisted, and Sango believed her immediately; she wasn't the type to purposely make a guy jealous just for fun. "Inuyasha was still mad. But then… Then he told me that he was talking with Kikyou again."

Kikyou?

Uh-oh.

Kikyou and Inuyasha had never dated, but Kikyou was that girl in high school—everyone knows one, the cheerleader with the heart of gold that everybody admires and adores?—and there had been a time when everyone expected the two to get together. In the end, though, Inuyasha had asked Kagome to the freshman formal instead, and history was made.

Still, Kikyou was a bit of a sore point for Kagome. In fact, Kikyou was a sore point for every girl from their old school. Even Sango felt inferior to her once in awhile—next to Kikyou, Sango seemed like a brash, loud, masculine jock.

"Kagome," Sango soothed the girl, wishing she was there to hug her comfortingly. "It's going to be okay. What did he mean when he said they were talking?"

"He said they went out to lunch last week," her best friend wailed. "Just lunch, but still! So then we really got into it. Finally, he stormed out of here. Please, Sango, can you come get me? I can't stand being here for another minute!"

Holding back a sigh, Sango again checked the alarm clock and did some quick mental math. There was no doubt about it; she would be exhausted when taking her final in the morning.

"What's his new address?" she relented finally, grinning weakly when she heard Kagome squeal in triumph.

With one last turn, Sango parked in front of an apartment building. Getting out of her car, she tugged her jacket around herself tighter, shivering in the cool, night air. It was so quiet that it was spooky. Walking to the front door, the brunette pulled out her cell phone and dialed Kagome's number. It rang six times before going to voicemail. Frustrated, she tried it again, only to get the same result.

Her best friend had probably fallen asleep waiting for her; it was a quarter to three in the morning after all.

Despite her attempt to keep calm, Sango studied the door with critical eyes and had to restrain herself from kicking it in aggravation. There was a big electronic lock keeping her out, but she tried jerking the door open anyway. Nothing. She needed someone to buzz her in. Posted on the wall was a directory of the apartment tenants. Scanning it, Sango found who she was looking for:

Apartment 3C – Taisho, I.

Jabbing her thumb into the button next to Inuyasha's name, she let it stay there for a good ten seconds, hoping the irritating buzzing noise would wake Kagome up wherever she'd drifted off to sleep. No one spoke to her through the speaker afterwards, so Sango tried twice more.

"Seriously?" she snapped at no one, trying hard not to growl. Once again, she tried calling Kagome.

Voicemail.

"Kagome? It's Sango. I'm down here in front of the apartment—I need you to call me back. As in, right freaking now."

After another minute of standing outside the door, dancing from foot to foot, Sango ran a hand through her long hair. It snagged on a tangle. She was certain she had some serious bed-head going on. Thank goodness she hadn't gotten pulled over; that would have been embarrassing!

Just not quite as embarrassing as standing alone in a parking lot, having no idea what to do.

Three minutes later, the only plan she could come up with was sitting down and waiting. Even though the concrete was cold, she was tired of sitting in the car—plus she couldn't stretch out in the driver's seat. Her back to the outside of the building, Sango slid down the wall until she was slumped next to the door. Regrettably, she realized she should have brought her textbook with her to get some extra studying in.

Before she could get too deep into her sulking, a bright pair of headlights swept past her, blinding her momentarily as another car parked next to hers. Seconds later, the lights clicked off, and then she heard the driver's side door slam shut.

"Hello?" someone called out to her.

As soon as her eyes had readjusted to the dark night, Sango was able to see the new arrival. He was tall and looked young, probably about her age or maybe a year or two older. He was dressed nicely in a pair of slacks and a button-up shirt, but he didn't have a tie or a suit jacket on. When she looked closer, she realized that his clothes were wrinkled.

Waiter, she concluded, realizing he must only just now be getting home from work and that his nice clothes had to be his uniform. Then she remembered that it was three in the morning, which meant he was more likely a bartender than a waiter. The man had shaggy hair, black, hanging loose around his face. There was an indent about half way up, making Sango think that he normally wore his hair out of his face in a small ponytail. He had kind eyes. Dark, velvety—

And surprised to see a woman sitting outside his apartment building's front door.

"Hi, can I help you?" he asked pleasantly. He sounded tired, but not sleepy like Sango felt—more like exhausted after a full day at work.

"I'm supposed to be picking up my friend, but I can't get a hold of her," Sango explained, climbing back to her feet. She brushed off the seat of her pants, hoping there wasn't a lot of dirt there.

"What apartment is she in?"

"Three-C," she told him promptly, feeling a little underdressed. She'd rushed out in her pajamas and had only thrown on a jacket. Self-consciously, she patted at her hair, but then she remember that one, this was a stranger; and two, she never really cared what anyone thought about her anyway. Even if he was a cute guy she'd bumped into.

"I'm three-D," he replied with a friendly grin. There was something about that smile that made Sango think that he got a lot of tips from the female patrons at the bar he worked for. "Miroku," he introduced, holding his hand out for an honest-to-god handshake. Who shook hands anymore?

"I'm Sango," she offered, taking his hand and giving it two firm pumps before letting go. His grip had strong, and his long fingers had easily enveloped her own. It left her palm tingling in a funny sort of way that she wasn't sure she liked.

"So you're friends with Inuyasha?" Miroku asked, jingling his keys. He glanced at the door, and Sango could just see the cogs turning in his head— Should he let her in or not?

Trying to look innocent and friendly (Sango didn't do demure well; that was more of a Kagome thing), she clasped her hands in front of her and nodded eagerly. "Yeah, but I'm actually here to pick up his girlfriend."

"Ah," the guy said, understanding dawning in his eyes. "The cute, petite one? Long black hair, blue eyes?"

"That's the one," Sango confirmed, nodding. No one, she thought, would ever call her cute or petite. For every skirt Kagome owned, Sango had a worn pair of blue jeans. Not that she wasn't attractive. In fact, Sango knew that she was good-looking—she just wasn't 'cute.'

"Let me guess," Miroku said, rubbing the back of his head as he rocked back on his heels, looking up at what must have been 3C and 3D's windows. "They had another fight."

"You can hear them?" Sango was startled into saying. Struggling not to slap a hand to her forehead in mortification, she remembered just how loud both Kagome and Inuyasha could be. They each had quite a set of lungs, and neither was shy about using them, especially during a fight. "I am so sorry."

"Why?" Miroku asked, his eyebrows rising to his hairline in bemusement. "It's not your fault."

"Still, they're my friends, and I'm sorry if they cause you any trouble," Sango told him politely. "I'll have to beat them later to remind them to mind their manners." Immediately, she winced. It was things like that that made her seem 'brutish,' why she had fit in so well with the boys on the baseball team, but none of the girls—except for Kagome, that is; they'd been friends all their lives, though, so Sango didn't think that really counted.

She was surprised when Miroku laughed appreciatively.

"A few good knocks to the head would do them both some good," he agreed with a chuckle; it was almost enough to make Sango smile a real smile at him. "But in their defense, they have to listen to me as well; our walls are paper thin."

"Are you saying you throw some crazy parties?" Sango teased—and then wondered what had gotten into her. She didn't tease cute boys she had only just met at three in the morning in the middle of a city she didn't live in.

"I was thinking of my surround sound system and all the porn I watch."

Unsure whether to gasp in embarrassment or laugh, Sango settled for grimacing at him. "Oh, I see. You're a pervert."

"I don't like that word," he told her with a wink, finally walking past her and inserting his key in the lock on the door. Sango stayed where she was, wondering if she was supposed to—allowed to—follow him inside or not. Maybe she should try calling Kagome again? "Come along," he told her when she didn't fall into step with him.

Hustling, Sango darted through the door and waited for him to lead the way up the steps. The view from behind was almost as good as the one from the front…

Again, Sango grimaced, deciding that she would never again go anywhere without a full night's sleep if this is what she acted like. A hormone-crazed, flirty girl.

"So," Miroku said genially as he reached the landing and turned to ascend the next flight. As he did so, he looked at her over his shoulder with another charming grin. "How long have you known those two?"

"Ages." She couldn't help but sound exasperated.

Miroku laughed, almost startling Sango into another smile. "That has to be exhausting," he told her sympathetically. "I can only imagine all the trouble they get into, and I've only known Inuyasha for a couple of months since he moved in. They seem like a handful."

"You have no idea," Sango replied darkly, reaching the third floor landing. Like a gentleman, he opened the door and held it for her. Her eyebrows quirked upwards in surprise, and Sango almost gave him a little curtsey after walking through—it was a cute little thing Kagome or any number of other flirty girls would have done. "This it?" she asked, gesturing at a door halfway down the hallway.

The man's grin grew wider as he looked back and forth between the brunette and the large '3C' nailed to the front of the door.

"Sorry, sleep deprived," Sango mumbled before rapping her knuckles on the door lightly. (It was three in the morning, after all; she didn't want to wake up the neighbors.) When no one answered, she knocked a little louder before finally pounding with the side of her fist.

"Must sleep like a log," Miroku commented with a chuckle. He'd leaned against the wall, his arms crossed over the wrinkled front of his shirt as he watched her.

Wearily, Sango closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm going to murder her."

"Why? Do you have someplace to be?"

"In bed," she responded immediately, her voice almost but not quite a whine. Her eyelids felt so heavy…

"In that case, you do realize that I live right next door, and I do, in fact, have a bed," Miroku offered in the most innocent and friendly voice Sango had ever heard in her life. In fact, it was so friendly, that she very nearly missed the lecherous grin on his face. He was cute, but not that cute.

"I'm giving this one more try, and then I'm driving home," Sango mumbled, resolutely ignoring his suggestion. To her extreme mortification, her cheeks felt a little warm. With one hand, she pounded on the door again, and with the other hand, she held down speed dial number two on her phone (her brother, the only surviving member of her family, was number one) until it dialed Kagome.

By the time it went to voicemail, Sango gave up on knocking.

A door just down the hall—apartment 3F—opened up, and a grouchy old man with enormous eyes leaned into the hallway. "If you don't cut out that racket, I'll call the police!" he threatened loudly.

"Sorry, Totosai!" Miroku told him, pushing away from the wall and lifting his hand in a neighborly wave. "Go back to sleep; I'll take care of this."

"Hmph!" the man (Totosai, apparently) scoffed, retreating back inside his apartment with angrily pursed lips.

"I think that's your signal to either go home or retreat inside with me until we know more," Miroku whispered to Sango, leaning down until he was almost nose-to-nose with the girl. He still had that smile on his face, but his voice was husky, and she again imagined that he must get a lot of tips from female customers. "Which is it going to be: my apartment or back to your car?"

Any other situation, and that would have sounded like a proposition. Realistically, however, Sango remembered her flannel pajamas and her bed-head hair and the fact that she didn't even have her trademark magenta eye-shadow on, the only make-up she ever bothered with. And here was this boy, this charming, tall, good-looking boy with a friendly smile and helpful attitude.

It was ridiculous to think he was attracted to her.

"I… I guess my car," Sango said finally, sounding a little tentative. She blamed the sleep deprivation.

A beat passed before Miroku nodded, taking a step back in the direction of the stairs. "Alright then."

"Where are you going?"

He looked at her over his shoulder, surprise written all over his face. "To walk you back to your car," he explained but in a voice that made it clear he thought it was obvious.

"You don't have to do that!" she protested, now most definitely blushing.

"It's three in the morning," Miroku pointed out with a casual glance at his watch. "I'm not about to let a pretty woman like you walk alone to her car in a dark parking lot."

Inanely, Sango almost blurted out, You think I'm pretty?— or, even more ludicrously, Right back at you! Thankfully, she stopped herself just in time. "I can take care of myself," she said firmly.

There was another pause as he turned to face her completely, studying her face. "I have no doubt," Miroku replied finally, sincerely. "But I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do the right thing and walked you back out there anyway. So, for me, can I walk you to your car?"

There was no way this guy was for real.

…Right?

"Sure," Sango agreed, taking the few steps needed for her to be close to him. The time it took them to go back down the stairs was filled with silence, but a kind of comfortable silence that she was okay with. Miroku opened all the doors for her again and went all the way to her car, not just watching from the apartment entryway. Despite the few moments of perverseness she'd witnessed, he had this kind of old-school charm that sent a shiver down even her practical, non-romantic spine.

Even after Sango climbed into the driver's seat and started her engine, he waited patiently a few feet away. Not knowing exactly what she could say but feeling like she should say something nonetheless, Sango rolled down her window and poked her head out.

"Thank you," she told him awkwardly, thinking that it didn't sound quite right but would have to do.

"Any time," Miroku responded nonchalantly, leaning down toward her. "And I mean that," he continued, again in that low voice that made Sango feel like he was speaking only to her—which, technically, he was, but even if they were in a room full of people, it would have made every single one of them disappear. "Next time you drive out here, maybe it could be just to see me."

"Yeah," her traitorous mouth agreed before her brain had fully processed the request. Before she could get herself into any more trouble, she put her car in reverse and pulled away, narrowly missing a trashcan in the process. As Sango pulled away, she watched Miroku's figure grow smaller and smaller in her rearview mirror.

Keeping the window rolled down, the night air chilled the heat on her cheeks until it was a little more bearable. It wasn't until she was turning back onto the highway that she remembered Kagome and aggravation warred with worry once more. Before she could begin to imagine any terrible scenarios, her phone started to ring a trilling pop song melody that Kagome had downloaded to be used as her personalized ringtone.

"Kagome?" Sango answered, her eyes glued to the road, but her mind focused on her best friend.

"Sango!"

To the brunette's surprise, the other girl sounded more than happy. And the way she giggled did not sound as innocent as it should have.

"I'm sorry I missed your calls," the blue-eyed girl said, breaking off into a another giggle. Sango heard her swat at someone and tell them, 'Quit it!' in a hushed voice. "I was a little busy."

"Kagome, are you calling me from bed where you're doing inappropriate things with your boyfriend?"

"…Yes."

With a groan (that contradicted the small smile on her face because of the fact her two friends were back together again), Sango hung up.

Driving back to her home, freaking out more than a little over her looming exam, Sango thought again about that charming smile and husky voice and long, strong fingers.

At least the night hadn't been a total waste.