Shika offered her hand to Inuyasha who took it and the cat hanyou pulled Inuyasha up. Inuyasha still hadn't recovered from his defeat; he let go of Shika's hand and stared at her with a mix of disbelief and respect.

The spectators were watching with glee as they saw Inuyasha was lost for words. Shippo, Rin and Jaken ran to Shika and surrounded her, they joined hands and danced in a circle around Shika singing a song Rin had made up during the fight. Sesshomaru stayed sitting on the log while the rest of the group made their way to Shika.

"Not so confident anymore, eh Inuyasha?" Miroku teased.

Inuyasha turned around to face Miroku he just nodded and his eyes moved back into focus. He started to shake Miroku's shoulders.

"I was beat by a girl!" He cried.

Shika laughed at this and walked over to Inuyasha. She smiled and extended her hand.

"No hard feelings?"

Inuyasha nodded and shook her hand.

"No hard feelings," he repeated.

Everyone in turn congratulated Shika and Ah-Un head butted Shika affectionately but almost knocked her over with force. Shika giggled and turned towards Kirara who had jumped on her shoulder and was trying not to slip off. She caught the little two-tailed youkai and petted her as she walked back to the square of logs. Sesshomaru got up off the log and walked towards Shika.

"I underestimated you, Shika. I'm sorry," Sesshomaru said.

Shika didn't know why but she blushed. But she quickly recovered, smiled and flicked her ears.

"No matter," she replied.

That night the group was preparing for a huge celebration. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru had agreed to Shika's terms almost willingly. The girl had proven them wrong and she deserved to be listened to and honoured. Shippo and Inuyasha had gone to get fish from the nearest river, and Kirara and Kagome had gone back to the present to get food and music. Miroku and Sango had stayed and got a nice fire going while Sesshomaru, Shika, Rin and Jaken were all lying down on one log each and resting.

Ah-Un was resting by the edge of the forest with its two heads on its paws. It was dusk now and Shika had her eyes closed. Jaken was holding his staff to him and looking up at the few stars that were appearing, Rin was dozing like Shika and Sesshomaru was blankly staring at the sky.

"It was great that Shika won the swordfight wasn't it?" Sango asked Miroku who was leaning against the cabin.

"Yes, it was Shika's a strong character," Miroku replied. "Personality and everything."

"I'm glad we saved her Miroku, I couldn't live with myself if we had left her to die," Sango told him.

Miroku put his arms around her. Sango at first resisted but then calmed down. Sango nuzzled closer to Miroku and laid her head on his chest. She hoped with all her heart that nothing would happen. That Miroku and her would still be together after the final battle with Naraku was over, that they'd still get married and Kohaku would be with them…

A while later Inuyasha and Shippo returned with a huge bucket full of fish. Sesshomaru and Shika had fallen asleep but Sesshomaru woke up because of the heavy scent. He nudged Shika to wake her up. Sesshomaru pointed to the fish and Shika followed him without protest. Rin and Jaken sat up and Rin walked over to join Jaken. Shika took the bucket of fish from Inuyasha and put it beside the fire. Sesshomaru sat next to Jaken and Inuyasha and Shippo sat himself down on the log next to them. Shika sat down next to Rin and watched everyone else.

Miroku and Sango sat on the log across from Inuyasha. Now all they had to do was wait for Kagome and Kirara. Everyone was staring at the fish hungrily. The Bone Eaters well was quite far away so Kagome took a long time. Finally when the moon was quite high in the sky and Shika had fallen asleep again, Kagome and Kirara finally arrived. She apologized for being so late and set down a boom box and took off a backpack stuffed with food.

Rin woke Shika up and pointed to the strange contraption that was square and appeared to be… well they had no idea.

"What is that?" Shika asked.

Kagome explained that it played the radio and all kinds of music, but you had to put a CD in first. Shika was just as confused as before but let it slip. After all these nice people were throwing a party all for her. Kagome asked Inuyasha to bring out a table to put the food on and Kagome put batteries in the boom box and put a CD in, she didn't press play though. Leave the dancing till after eating

After the food was put on the table and the fish were cooked, everything was ready to be eaten. There were paper plates and cups, plastic cutlery and party food. The food was mostly from Kagome's era with the exception of vegetables, fruit and meat. But there were all kinds of dishes that everyone except Kagome had heard of. Everyone enjoyed an immensely tasty dinner and now it was time to party.

Sesshomaru said he was skipping this part and would just watch. Shika just shrugged and watched Kagome put in the "CD" or whatever it was and music began to play. Shika thought this wondrous and enjoyed the futuristic music. Sango, Miroku, Inuyasha, Shippo, Rin, Jaken and Sesshomaru were just as fascinated as Shika was. Everyone (except Sesshomaru who said he didn't dance) enjoyed the music and began to dance.

Even Inuyasha joined in to dance. It was just a party so everyone was dancing together and the couples didn't matter. Miroku asked Shika to dance and she accepted. Shika turned towards Sesshomaru as Miroku twirled and dipped her. He seemed to have a look of jealousy upon his face but as Miroku brought her up it wasn't there anymore. Was it ever there? Rin, Jaken and Shippo were dancing together and Sango after asked Miroku to dance and Kagome asked Inuyasha.

Shika through the night had danced with: Inuyasha, Miroku, Shippo and Jaken. The hanyou was quite skilled with her feet and Shika explained that her mom had taught her to dance before she died. Everyone had fun dancing and went to bed quite happy, but tired. Shika took a sleeping bag out of Ah-Un's saddlebags and put it beside the fire, she also pulled out Rin and Jaken's sleeping bags and did the same with theirs.

Sesshomaru never slept in sleeping bags he preferred the ground. Shika didn't question this because often she did that too. She said good night to everyone and denied requests to sleep inside. Shika told everyone she preferred to sleep under the stars. As soon as Shika's head touched the soft inside of the sleeping bag she fell asleep.

Freezing cold water gripped Shika as she was plunged into a river. In seconds she was pulled under and struggling to breathe fresh air again. Her head bobbed up to the surface and she welcomed gulps of fresh air. Shika was struggling to get to the shore now and she was quickly tiring.

She had to dodge big rocks jutting out of the water and as she tried to walk on the bottom the sharp rocks prevented her from getting a good footing and cut her feet. Even more fear gripped her as Shika realized a waterfall was ahead of her. I'm going to die! She screamed inside her head. Suddenly the water swept her into a rock and all went black. This is it…

Shika suddenly sat up and looked around. She was drenched in cold sweat and Sesshomaru was standing before her.

"You fidgeting so I woke you up, what happened?" He asked.

Shika clutched at her head, it was as if the pain was real… he head throbbed and she could feel a goose egg.

"Bad dream that's all…" Shika told him.

It was early morning and the sun was just rising, the birds were chirping and she could see the sleeping forms of Rin and Jaken. She looked at Sesshomaru and then fell asleep again.

Shika felt someone kick her so she opened one eye to see whom it was.

"It's kinda hard to eat breakfast when you're taking up all the room!" Inuyasha explained.

By that time Sesshomaru was up.

"That's no way to treat a women, Inuyasha. Do you kick Kagome too?" Sesshomaru sneered.

Inuyasha growled at Sesshomaru and started digging through Kagome's backpack looking for left over food. Shika got up and rolled up her sleeping bag and stuffed it in Ah-Un's saddlebag. By this time Rin and Jaken had woken up too. They began doing the same as Shika.

Inuyasha by this time had pulled out a bunch of leftover food that was never opened. Shika was intrigued so she started looking at the food the dog hanyou had brought out.

"Want to share a bag of potato chips?" Shika asked, smiling.

"Sure," Inuyasha replied.

"Oooh, Can I have some, Lady Shika?" Rin asked.

Shika nodded and Jaken started picking through the other food that Inuyasha had brought out. Sesshomaru joined the group eating chips and they were all sitting in a circle by the backpack passing chips to one another, it was a comical sight.

"What are you all doing?" Miroku asked as he came out of the cabin.

"Eaeshn potasha shicks," replied Shika.

"Hey can I have some?" Miroku asked.

Sesshomaru nodded and Miroku joined the circle of potato chip eaters. Jaken had pulled out some melted ice cream, (why Kagome brought that I have no idea… I'm just the author) opened the lid and began chugging it down. All the chip eaters began chanting:

"Chug! Chug! Chug!"

Kagome came running out of the cabin and it took awhile for her to process the information she was seeing here.

"What in the world are all of you doing?" Kagome asked in disbelief.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at Kagome. Sango came running after Kagome with Kirara and Shippo behind them.

"Having… fun?" Inuyasha replied.

Everyone who was eating junk food nodded and began eating again. Kagome sighed… if you can't beat em' join em'! She looked over at Jaken in disgust as he was wiping away the melted ice cream from his face onto his robes. She pulled out another bag of potato chips and began eating those. Sango and Shippo joined her; Kirara looked at everyone in disgust and went off to join Ah-Un in eating fruit off the trees. Disgusting…

After the sun had risen high in the sky Inuyasha and Kagome had slipped away while everyone was eating lunch. Inuyasha had brought her to the meadow, which was a short walk away from the cabin. He didn't tell her why he had just asked her to come. Kagome had obeyed and now they were enjoying a peaceful afternoon together staring at the clouds.

After debating about what he should say Inuyasha stood up and faced Kagome.

"I want to tell you something Kagome, but I don't know how to word it. I really don't know what your reaction will be."

Author's Note: Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing in so far. I really hope you think my story is good. I wish more people will review but hey I can't complain. I've been getting a lot of hits and devoted reviewers. Once more: Please review and have a happy day/night/afternoon whatever the time it is when you read my story.