"That's enough already! Kami but I am sick and fucking tired of being treated like some prized possession in your stupid fucking games. You know what? Just to shut you the fuck up this weekend I will hold a contest. The winner won't get anything except the acknowledgement that he or she knows more about me than other people, but that's probably enough for most of you because you care more about your argument than about me myself."

The last half of that final sentence was muttered and beneath her breath, but the rest of it was heard – to great effect – throughout the school cafeteria.

Kōga and Inuyasha had been arguing over her, again, and Kagome had finally been annoyed enough to do something about it. It wasn't as if she was actually single, not that anybody cared enough to pay attention to that fact. No they all thought her turning them down was because she was "too kind to choose one person over another."

What a load of bollocks. She turned everybody down because her heart was held by her sempai, and he treasured her more than anybody else could ever hope to do.

When she got home she angrily called the one person who could calm her down better than even her mama could, and heard his amused voice as he picked up the phone. "A contest, Kagome? Well I suppose it will do something about the constant bickering, but really have you any idea what to do for it?"

Kagome sighed and leaned against her bed, Sesshōmaru's warm voice washing over her and relaxing her intensely. "I just got so fed up."

"Would you like me to come over so that we can brainstorm ideas for this thing, then?"

Hope filled her at that. She wouldn't have to do this alone. She would have help. "Oh please, Sesshō, I'd appreciate that so much."

She could tell that he was shaking his head in exasperated amusement, "Someone has to help get you out of these messes you get yourself into."

Kagome giggled at that – Sesshōmaru had gotten her out of so many predicaments and strange situations that it had become a running joke between him, Miroku-ni, and Sango-ne, who were all in the same grade together, in their last year of senior high, and were all her best friends. "Kagome always needs rescuing," Miroku-ni said, and Sango-ne would fallow with, "It's a good thing she has a prince to rescue her isn't it?"

Sesshōmaru was known as the "Ice Prince" throughout the school for being cold and taciturn, even though he was the warmest person that Kagome had ever met. The warmest, kindest, and sweetest person who she could have ever found.

That fact just wasn't advertised, which was good because if people found out even more of them would fall in love with him and Sesshōmaru was hers alone.

No matter how much she teased him for being possessive of her, she was just as possessive back. "Well I'll be over shortly then."

"I'll have your tea ready for you, how does pomegranate green tea sound today?"

"Wonderful, as your tea always is, koishi."

She flushed and they hung up, Kagome humming softly after informing her mama about the visitor and the situation, and then preparing the tea. It finished just as Sesshōmaru arrived, and her Mama got the door as Kagome set the living room table and began to pour the tea, a spoonful of rock sugar in each cup and the tea – loose-leaf – strained out through the large tea ball she had that had a little ceramic teapot with equally tiny golden stars and moons hanging on the end of the chain to weight it down and make for easier removal.

She stirred the tea with a spoon and moved back into the kitchen, pouring her mama a cup before removing and cleaning her tea strainer and setting the tea on a low burner so refills could be had easily. Then she walked into the living room and sat down next to her boyfriend, leaning into his body as he automatically curled an arm around her waist. The ease with which he expressed affection towards her had been surprising at first, until she realised she had been his first true friend and he was the type of person who didn't let go of things they considered "theirs", although he always made sure to treat Kagome as a person rather than an object, which was part of why she loved him so desperately.

Kagome had been assured that she was not the only one who could not bear the idea of losing the other.

"Thank you for coming over, Sess. I really appreciate it. I have a few ideas; this is about what people know about me so I figure favourite colour and food ought to be on there."

Sesshōmaru scoffed, "You go far too easy on them, Kagome. Green and udon."

The black haired miko-in-training giggled up at her yōkai boyfriend and shook her head, "You just know almost everything about me, silly. I don't exactly go around letting everyone know everything about me, after all."

He answered her drily, "Surprising, that, since that is exactly how you approached me; offering up all the secrets of yours in exchange for mine. And then promptly fainted from the fever you had."

Kagome giggled at the memory, no longer embarrassed by it. "I'm so glad my fever confused my thinking, who would have thought that just asking to be friends would be enough to make the great Ice Prince curious about someone?"

"More like your honesty, boldness, and sincerity were palpable and anyone who had the courage – fever-induced or not – to approach me and offer their hand in such a direct way was worthy of my attention."

Ah, there was the arrogance she adored so much.

"Well anyway, have you any ideas?"

"I think you and I should both cook something, and have them try to guess which item is yours."

She gasped and covered her mouth, giggling with excitement. "Oh what a great idea! Especially since you are definitely the better cook and they will all of them assume that my food is the better because they are stupid like that."

He smirked and tilted his head in acknowledgement of her accuracy in detailing the kinds of people they were dealing with, then picked up his tea and sipped it. Kagome was unsurprised when he kissed her forehead softly after his first taste – she'd worked especially hard to get the ratio of pomegranate to green tea leaves so as to have the best flavour. He always kissed her forehead when he thought her tea was exceptionally delicious, as opposed to simply telling her it was good or whatever. It was just one more thing she loved about him.

"Hmm… Favourite TV show?"

"As you do not watch television almost ever, that is definitely a good one. Video game?"

Kagome avidly played video games; her favourites, however, were first person shooters, which surprised anyone who found out. She was an archer, though, and abnormally good at "aim and shoot" games. So of course she would enjoy them loads. "Mm everyone will guess Final Fantasy or some crap like that, I just bet, rather than any of the games I prefer although that's cheating a little since I don't really have a single favourite, just several favourites."

"If they manage to guess even one of your favourites, or your favourite genre, it would be worthy of recognition."

She was enjoying herself now, and hummed, "This is true. Ah! Favourite band and musician! Separately. Nobody knows my dad was American and that I'm fluent in English and that half my favourite musicians are English ones rather than Japanese ones. Nobody at all will suspect Maroon 5 or Regina Spektor!"

Sesshōmaru chuckled softly and stroked her side gently as she picked up her teacup and sipped at the tea – oh yes, she'd done an exceptional job on it this time. Pomegranate burst onto her tongue while the inherent bitterness of the green tea (admittedly, since she knew how to brew right, her green tea was rarely truly bitter) was a counterpoint to the sweetness; the flavours complimented each other well. "Flower?"

"Nobody will guess chrysanthemums. Especially as you only enjoy them so much because my koishi is a sake fan and enjoys chrysanthemum wine even better than plum wine."

Blue eyes sparkled and Kagome commented, "Oh by the way! I tried marinating lamb in chrysanthemum wine and cooking it with shallots, water chestnuts, snap peas, and eggplant – it was amazing. If you stay for dinner I'll make it again, I had some of the lamb leftover and it is marinating still."

Like all men, her wonderful silver-haired yōkai couldn't resist the lure of a delicious meal and he nodded firmly. "Then I shall stay for dinner. It isn't as if Mother will miss me, since she is working late as usual."

The bitter twist to his mouth had to go, so Kagome sweetly kissed it away, not putting up a fuss when he pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her tightly to him. Satori cared more about her job than her son, which was why he was so cold to most people – according to him getting attached to others only set one up for disappointment. Of course, he was different now, and even had friends – Miroku-ni and Sango-ne were his friends as much as they were Kagome's friends and Kagura seemed to be antagonising her way into his small circle, not to mention Kagome herself was his friend first and his girlfriend second. That was why they worked so well together.

When the kiss finished his golden eyes were gazing warmly at her, and he rested his chin atop her head. "Thank you, precious. Now, let us go back to our brainstorming; what have we got so far?"

Kagome reached behind herself to grab her notebook and looked at it. "Favourite colour, food, television show, video game, band, musician, flower, and a cooking taste test."

"Hmm… Favourite sport, just to make it easy on them."

She laughed outright at that; it was no secret that Kagome was an archery freak, she was going to be promoted to Captain's assistant of their school's archery team next year, if the whispers were correct. "Okay, added. Oh! I know one."

She was slightly subdued, but it wasn't an unhappy subdued-ness, it was more contemplative. "Holiday."

She was squeezed a little tighter and leaned into his chest. Her favourite holiday was Hallowe'en, because the spirit boundary was thin then, and she could talk to her father, but only Sesshōmaru and her family knew that; everyone else would assume it was Christmas because that was her second favourite and she did not hide her enthusiasm for the holiday, ever. Hell, Sesshōmaru only knew because her dad had insisted on meeting the person she was dating when he found out she had invited the stoic yōkai over for dinner that night. "Favourite film, that's an obvious one we should have gotten earlier."

"Oh, duh! Hmmm favourite… drink?"

"Too obviously a trick, since that is obscure for most people. I think we have a good collection, now it is just the matter of managing how we present it and the order in which we should have them asked."

Kagome tilted her head in acknowledgement and they set about deciding the order in which the questions would be asked. In the end it was decided that they would be asked in the order of colour, flower, film, television show, video game, musician, band, sport, holiday, food, and then the taste test, that one of the teachers would hold the answers, and that it would be a proper written test but with Kagome announcing the questions.

That night she made the lamb dish much to the pleasure of her family and her boyfriend both, and he left after a companionable after dinner conversation with her mama, grandpa, and little brother (who completely idolised Sesshōmaru).

Saturday dawned bright and sunny, and Kagome stretched softly. Twelve people had entered the contest, and Kagome had a sneaking suspicion that her boyfriend had something sneaky planned, but was too amused by the ideas of what it could be to do or say anything that might stop him from enacting his idea. Yesterday she and Sesshōmaru had cooked twelve dishes; Sesshōmaru made beef lo mein, which Kagome was hopeless at – she could cook rice to any kind of perfection, but failed miserably at cooking any kind of noodles. Kagome herself made a Japanese chicken curry with jasmine rice to go with it. Even though the dishes were wildly different the better dish would be Sesshō's because he was, and would always be, the better cook between them, although he adored Kagome's cooking. According to him she was more creative and imaginative, which made her superior in the end, which Kagome called bullshit on but admitted that he never lied to her so at the very least he believed it to be the truth.

The contest was tolerantly held in school and supervised by her home economics teacher, Kaede-sensei, who sympathised with Kagome and the density of her admirers. There was quite the crowd in the gymnasium, and as she spotted her boyfriend in the crowd – sitting next to Miroku-ni and Sango-ne, with Kagura chatting to Sango from next to her – she waved and smiled at him and her two closest friends. When the twelve boys arrived at their desks, Kagome smiled and began the test, asking each question and giving the participants each three minutes to answer the questions. Then Kaede-sensei brought in the food with the help of a few other students, and the final part of the test began. Both dishes (each only half a portion) were devoured, and finally the papers were collected by Kaede-sensei, who then – wait, what?

Sesshōmaru walked up to her sensei and handed in a paper, much to the bemusement and surprise of everyone excepting her friends and Kagura, who were all snickering behind their hands. If it wasn't such a convenient way to announce their relationship to the school Kagome would be on the warpath right now. What a sneak!

Kami but Kagome loved her boyfriend so much.

"Well, the winner of the contest is the only person who didn't take part in it, although I must ask, how did you know which dish Kagome cooked?"

Sesshōmaru scoffed and sent her a fond look, "Kagome could not successfully cook noodles to save her life."

Kaede-sensei laughed at that and nodded firmly. "Well the answers were, in this order, favourite colour is green, flower is chrysanthemums, film is Labyrinth, television show is none because Kagome does not watch television, video game is any first person shooter – no one but Sesshōmaru was even close on that – musician is Regina Spektor, band is Maroon 5, sport is archery, holiday is Hallowe'en, food is udon, and as Sesshōmaru stated, the dish that Kagome made was the curry dish, not the lo mein. Sesshōmaru wins, but the runner up was Hōjō, with four questions right."

Kagome crossed her arms and giggled, "You know, it's kind of cheating to enter a contest without letting the person it's about know you are doing so, Sesshō."

He smirked and walked up to her, kissing her in front of all and sundry, "Ah, but it is more than worth the trouble I might get into to put a smile on your face because someone was actually able to answer more than half of the questions correctly."

Suddenly Miroku, Sango, and Kagura all shouted out, "Ask her!"

Uh, what the hell?

As soon as they shouted that, Sesshōmaru got down on one knee and oh Kami he wasn't—couldn't be—but oh he was, and sitting there in a little lavender box was the most stunning ring Kagome had ever seen. She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth to futilely attempt to hold in her pleased and shocked gasp as he revealed a platinum ring with a crescent moon shaped emerald in the centre, and lining the sides were star shaped sapphires the colour of her eyes. "Higurashi Kagome, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife once you are graduated?"

Kagome almost cried as she nodded, "Of course I will, what, are you crazy? I might be dense sometimes but I'm not stupid. You're the best thing that's happened to me in my whole life."

He slid the ring onto her finger and kissed her again, before taking her hand and leading her out of the gym, serenely ignoring the hushed and gradually strengthening whispers. Oh Kami by Monday the entire school would know!

Her boyfrie—no, wrong, fiancée—tugged her into an empty classroom, shut the door, grabbed a chair and pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arm comfortably around her as his other one scratched over her scalp, which oh it felt so very good. "I love you so much koishi, my precious, wonderful, miraculous Kagome. Be mine forever and I will be yours for eternity."

It was clear that he was asking her how he wanted to, that before had been done to sate the rest of them, because this was much more his style. "Of course, my wonderful, perfect, beautiful Sesshōmaru. My heart's been yours for a year and a half now, I couldn't give you up even if I wanted to, which I most certainly do not. I'm yours for eternity just as you are mine."

He smiled his warmest, most gorgeous smile at her, the one full of happiness, devotion, and helpless adoration – it was rare and all the more precious for its rarity – at her and she smiled back, before tugging him into one kiss, then another, then another.

They could leave the school whenever they wanted, because no security precaution could keep yōkai out, especially not daiyōkai as strong as her koishi was. Right now, though, this moment deserved all the celebration it could get.

To think, all of this just because of a stupid, meaningless contest. Kagome could not be happier.