AN: It has really been a while hasn't it. College life seems to have taken me away from writing for a bit, but I have an update for Christmas for ya'll.

This chapter takes place before Akisa is born, or if you wish it can be seen as a stand-alone.

Also I don't own anything other than the story idea.

"You can't be serious," Sesshomaru stated as he placed three large boxes full of various Christmas items down in their spacious living room.

"I can be, and I am very serious about this," Kagome answered while digging into the biggest box, we've been married for three years now and this will be our first time hosting our families for Christmas, I want this to be special, magical even. Sesshomaru sighed as he began to help his mate take out stringy rows of tinsel in silvers, reds, and golds.

After a few minutes of Kagome going through box after box and complaining about the items each box held she let out a loud exasperated sigh, "Sess, nothing is good enough. Everything is so old and none of the colors match, the tinsel is falling apart at the touch, what are we going to do?" Halfway through the sentence her voice began to crack and before Sesshomaru could say anything more, the scent of salt filled the air. Sesshomaru immediately stopped putting together the artificial tree and went to her side.

"Why are you so worried about this? This will not be the first time we've had our families over for a dinner?" he reached out and wiped a few tears from her face with the tips of fingers. "Inuyasha will gladly eat anything you make, your mother, grandfather, and Souta will simply be excited to see you after such a long time away. Father adores you, Izayoi loves you more than father does. I can not see why you are so concerned over this," he stated calmly as he ran his hands through her midnight tresses lightly scraping his claws against her scalp.

Kagome took a deep breath in before speaking, "I know they all love me, but what about your mother? This will be the first, and maybe last time she'll ever come to our home. What if she doesn't approve and thinks of me as a poor mate to you?" She sniffled again as more tears began to fall down her face as she voiced her worries to her husband and mate.

Sesshomaru turned her face towards his and kissed her tears away, "I can assure you that mother approves of you. If she didn't, she never would have come to our wedding and certainly not to our mating ceremony. Mother's not one to show up to events just to make someone happy. Trust me." After his words of comfort, Kagome smiled softly and leaned up to place a sweet kiss to his lips. She still smelled of sadness and anxiety and her lips tasted slightly salt. The beast inside Sesshomaru rattled its cage and demanded that Sesshomaru erase all traces of unhappiness from his mate's aura and scent. The kiss didn't stay soft for long. His grip on her hair tighten enough to keep her from pulling away and Kagome's hands trailed up his chest to wrap around his neck and held on to him as if he was the only thing keeping her alive at this moment as his talented tongue explored her mouth. After what seemed like an eternity, they parted for air. The quick second was all Sesshomaru needed before he dove back in, then began to make a trail of hot kisses and nips from the corner of her mouth, along her jaw, down her neck, and stopped at the deep V where creamy skin met the fabric of her shirt. She tilted her head back and released a soft moan into the air and her hands found purchase in his silver locks and held tight. He pulled back to admire his handiwork as a line of small dark marks began to appear on her pale skin from every place he had touched and smirked at the dazed look in her blue eyes when their gazes met.

However, his feeling of empowerment was short lived as his small mate started to giggle and brought her hand up to cover her mouth as giggles turned to soft laughter.

"And what exactly is so funny." Even when asking a question, it still came out sounding like a command. Unable to stop her laughter, she simply pointed towards his sexily mused silver locks, which now had more bright silver strands in it that clearly did not grow from his head. He arched a perfect eyebrow in confusion as he ran his clawed hands through his hair and when he pulled his hand away, he was rewarded with a handful of metallic and glittery strings of tensile. Shaking his head lightly to dislodge as much tensile from his locks as possible, caused Kagome to release another bout of laughter.

Tired of his mate taking amusement from his Christmas hair, he picked her up without warning and tossed her over his shoulder as if she weighted nothing at all and began walking down the hallway.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked as she lightly hit the only part of him she could reach from being upside down over his shoulder, which happened to be his nicely shaped bottom.

He answered with a small hit to her butt as he made it to their bedroom door, "To bed."

"But what about decorating?"

"We'll get back to that tomorrow. Right now, I have some holiday plans that can not seem to wait."

It feels good to be back, and as always, reviews are welcome and much appreciated. Hopefully I'll be able to update again soon. =^w^=