December 27th, Mid-afternoon, The very long customer service line at Walmart

"Fancy seeing you here," a pleasant baritone quipped behind her.

Kagome jumped, jerking out of her reverie and nearly dropping her plastic bags. She turned around, her gaze meeting a strikingly familiar face framed by long white hair. He was grinning.

"...Inuyasha?" She said after a moment.

His smile widened. "You remembered."

She rolled her eyes. "You're not that easy to forget," she replied, gesturing at his furry white ears.

He chuckled. "Guess not. You have a good Christmas?"

"Good as it could be, I suppose. My grandpa still has horrible taste in sweaters," Kagome said, holding up the plastic Walmart bags.

"At least he didn't try to give you a singing snow-globe set." Inuyasha indicated the bag he'd set on the floor.

She snorted. "Who gave that to you?"

"My niece. I'm surprised my brother didn't intervene, but he has a perverse sense of humor sometimes."

"Every family has at least one."

"Yeah."

"New Year's ought to better," Kagome offered. "No well-meaning gifts, and lots of booze instead."

"Heh, yeah. You got any New Year's plans with that boyfriend of yours?"

Kagome's smile faded. "He's in Russia with his family."

Inuyasha paused. "You decided not to go?" He asked, referring to their conversation a few weeks back.

"No, he's just visiting right now. I wanted to spend time with my family and think."

"So you haven't made up your mind then."

"I have until February."

The noise of the store invaded what would have been a long silence.

A shrill voice cut through. "Next!" Kagome jumped, then hurried to the counter, leaving Inuyasha still waiting in line.

She plunked the bag on the counter with gift receipt, giving an off-handed smile at the harried looking cashier. After finishing the return, she turned to go, but a hand on her shoulder arrested the motion. She looked up, catching an intense golden gaze.

"Here," Inuyasha said, pressing a slip of paper in her hand. "My brother's having a New Year's party. Call me if you wanna come."

"But I—"

"Just as friends," he said hurriedly. "If you don't have anything better to do."

"Um, right," she nodded, ducking away from his touch. She practically ran for the door.