All characters, named weapons, and attacks borrowed from Inuyasha are not my own, but belong to Takahashi-dono.

"The Wedding"

Early the next morning, Inuyasha was abruptly awoken by prodding at his abdomen. He had uncharacteristically fallen over from his usual sitting position and now cradled the Tetsusaiga in a crude approximation of the fetal position. Opening a bleary eye, he saw the offending item was a dainty bare foot.

"Move it, or I'll remove it," he growled at the five pink toes, which protruded from beneath a flower-patterned kimono.

"You're the one who needs to move it, Inuyasha. The wedding starts in just two hours!"

"Huh?"

"Shako and Risa are getting married in two hours, so get your lazy butt UP!" Kaede lightly toe-kicked him once more for good measure, then returned to her cushion on the other side of the room and resumed brushing her hair. "What on earth are you so tired for, anyhow?"

"Late night", Inuyasha mumbled. Then he yawned violently and stretched, cracking his neck, back, and fingers simultaneously. Setting the Tetsusaiga aside, he glanced around. Tsubaki and Miatsu were out.

"Mm-hm. I don't suppose I should ask what you were doing out so late. It's not like it's any of my business, is it?" She paused and eyed the surly hanyou meaningfully over her shoulder.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing… nothing at all…" her sing-song voice trailed off.

Inuyasha sat for a moment, listening. But it didn't require super-sharp demon hearing to confirm that the whole village was indeed bustling about making the final preparations for the day's big event. He himself had nothing to do, as he was simply a guest. He had also refused Shako's offer to loan him a more formal kimono for the wedding, so he didn't have to get dressed for it, either. Kaede, on the other hand…

Kaede was happily humming to herself, keeping time with the soft scritch-scritch of the brush through her hair. The soles of her feet slightly flexed every so often as she combed through a tangle. She soon finished, and began carefully pinning her hair up the way Risa had taught her last night. Putting the last pin in place, at last fully exposing her neck, she took several deep, slow breaths. She stood and turned in a single elegant, flowing motion.

Inuyasha wasn't there. The sheathed Tetsusaiga rocked back and forth in the breeze that was probably his air-wake.

Hmph… why should I care how he thinks I look, anyhow? She crinkled her nose, slipped on her sandals, and went to help Risa finish her own preparations.

XXXXX

Where Inuyasha was was two hundred feet away, crouched in a dark and deserted alley, gulping and gasping for breath. His mind was reeling, perplexed at his highly unusual reaction to Kaede's grooming. Come on, get a hold of yourself… she was just brushing her hair, and you run and hide like some scared little kid?

Once the initial shock and self-deprecation had passed, his demeanor returned to something more like its usual nature, and he was able to think a bit more rationally… but just a bit. Why did my heart start racing like that? And why the hell am I sweating like I've been fighting for hours?

So, for quite some time, he attempted both to puzzle through what had happened, and to calm down his edgy nerves. He remained hidden there in the alley, striving in vain to concurrently complete these two mutually exclusive tasks, until the sounding of the village temple bell – signifying the wedding ceremony was beginning – interrupted his ruminations.

XXXXX

Arriving at the ceremony just barely on time, Inuyasha found a perch on a house on the edge of the village commons, facing the temple. To further calm himself, he took an intense interest in the proceedings. Nothing like watching something boring to settle me, he thought wryly, as hazy recollections of some of Myoga's more uninspiring lectures wafted through his memory.

He'd never actually seen a wedding, as most such occasions were attended only by the families of the bride and groom, and his mother had wholly abandoned her human family to care for her son. But despite being absent from human society for some time, he remembered far too well the intricate (and altogether tedious)niceties of human weddings, due to Myoga's constant drilling on this particular subject. He had suspected – for a while – that the flea had an ulterior motive (he always claimed that younglings had the tastiest blood), but his mother flatly denied it, insisting that Myoga was running Inuyasha through the contemporary marital-ceremony wringer at her explicit request. "I never got to have my own wedding," she had told him, "so I'm going to make darn sure that my only son does!"

Inuyasha snorted. As if. At any rate, due to his protracted (though now slightly outdated) training, he expected the usual lengthy formalities recognizing the union of the two families, which were traditionally of far more importance than acknowledging the marriage of the two individuals themselves. But he was pleasantly surprised, though he really shouldn't have been: as both the bride and groom had no living family present, these rituals had no meaningful place, and were therefore completely omitted.

Instead, the ceremony began without preamble. Shako and Risa appeared at opposite ends of the rear of the plaza and approached one another, both in traditional garb. Shako was dressed to the nines in his dark, formal kimono and hakama, while Risa looked every bit the submissive, dutiful wife in her pure white shiro and wataboshi. Appearances can be so deceiving, thought Inuyasha, knowing her personality to be somewhat more aggressive. I can understand why she didn't wear the tsunokakushi, though… she has no mother-in-law to hide her "horns of jealously" from. He allowed himself a momentary grin. If only humans knew that that particular tradition actually comes from the demon world…

Indeed, many demon brides (among the more civilized segments of demon society where marriage actually existed) intentionally hid their horns – and various other killing appendages – before and during the ceremony, only to display (and use) them to great effect in slaying their new mothers-in-law not long after the wedding. Demon women were not well-known for keeping their tempers in check where their husbands were concerned.

My father's wife… widow, now, I guess… must be quite self-possessed to have not killed me on the spot when she brought me Tetsusaiga's sheath. Either that, or she's gotten over it by now… or, maybe she didn't particularly care that he cheated on her with another woman, but it was simply the fact that the "other woman" was a human that rankled her. He shook his head and sighed. Romance, marriage, love… it's all way too complicated for me. I'd rather fight a million demons than ever have to deal with such things.

Having met in the center, the bride and groom began proceeding down an open path between two columns of demon slayers, who saluted the couple with their myriad weapons in respectful silence. On the outer side of each row of armed warriors massed the remaining villagers. Hmm…this ceremony is somewhat different from the usual, but that's understandable. An isolated village like this, especially one that specializes in a rare trade, is bound to develop its own unique traditions. The amalgamation of the familiar and the foreign was peculiar, but nonetheless pleasant. But when Inuyasha beheld the figures standing at the top of the short flight of steps, his brain went more than a little fuzzy.

Kaede stood off to one side, looking strikingly feminine and demure in her flower-patterned kimono and magnificently done-up hair. Even at such a distance, Inuyasha's heart began thumping loudly again. A thought something akin to, "She sure doesn't look only twelve years old…" flitted through his mind, and his mouth went dry. Oh my god… I shouldn't be… no, I can't be attracted to her! That's just… wrong! In way too many ways!

Evading her (mentally, at least) once more, his eyes quickly darted to the opposite end of the platform, where Niban nervously shuffled his feet beneath his dark hakama. The slayer lieutenant didn't have very long to wait. As the nuptial couple climbed the steps, Kaede and Niban progressed towards the center to join them. Ah…thought Inuyasha, calming down a bit as he focused. They must be serving as some sort of escort.

The newly formed quartet now advanced to the pair of robed clergy before them, then knelt before them. Inuyasha quickly identified this final pair as Tsubaki and Miatsu. Miatsu simply looked his usual grinning-idiotic self, plus some unusual cranial adornment. But as Inuyasha's gaze lingered and then came to a complete halt, resting on Tsubaki, his eyes widened and his mouth hung agape. She looked…

Wow…

XXXXX

"Stop scratching your nose, monk," Tsubaki murmured out the corner of her mouth as the soon-to-be-married couple came together at the back of the central aisle.

"I can't help it… it itches!" Miatsu whispered back.

"Deal with it. We promised Shako and Risa that we'd do this… together."

"I know, I know." Shako didn't want to talk to me about that village girl who came on to me after all… he wanted to ask me to help preside over their wedding instead of their village priest. He glanced at the priest, who was out in the audience. He looks quite glad to have the day off; heavy is the head that bears his burden.

His brow wrinkled once more as he tried to understand the situation. I know Risa was raised Buddhist, but trying to merge two faiths together just for a ceremony like this is awkward enough! I wonder how they'll manage to work this situation out in daily life, which is much more complicated...

His eyes slid sideways to gaze at Tsubaki, and he grinned. The priestess looked absolutely stunning in her ornate borrowed vestments, and her dark hair was woven into thick, glossy black braids that hung down her back and across her shoulders, perfectly complementing her white-powdered face and neck. I must admit, though, this job has some definite perks… I get a front-row view of one pretty priestess! When the view isn't blocked, that is.

The infuriating, tickling yellow fluff swished by again.

XXXXX

As Risa and Shako passed under the tunnel of weapons held out by the slayers, Tsubaki looked up again and saw that Inuyasha had finally arrived. She could tell by slight movements of his head as he sat atop one of the structures adjoining the square that he was taking everything in from his advantageous perspective. He's looking every which way but at me, she noted with a slight pouting frown.

She became suddenly aware of someone else feigning casual observation. Not again… I really wish Miatsu would stop staring at me admiringly… the bride is supposed to be the most beautiful woman at her wedding! The priestess finally submitted to her mounting annoyance with men. With furrowed disapproving brows, she glanced at the monk, who promptly winked at her and returned his own gaze to the audience. Still, it is flattering.

She looked up at Inuyasha, who was presently unmistakably making a point of not looking at something – or someone. Tsubaki was only vaguely aware of herself releasing a slight wistful sigh. I kind of wish he would look at me the way Miatsu does… wait, what on earth am I thinking? She lightly tossed her head, undulating her braids.

And then she noticed that Inuyasha was indeed – finally – looking directly at her. But he wasn't just looking, he was looking. He was looking at her like Miatsu sometimes looked at her, but not in the monk's usual half-joking yet slightly uncomfortable manner. This was a kind of looking that made her want to be looked at. It made her feel beautiful… desired… treasured, even.

At this sudden realization, every autonomic reaction in her body began conspiring against her, raising her core temperature and making her facial capillaries swell. Stay calm, stay calm… This is their day, I can't disrupt the ceremony just because Inuyasha is making eyes at me! Her hands started to shake from the conscious effort of restraining them from covering her flushing face for the sake of sheer shyness. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, too flustered for the moment to employ one of her various more effective calming techniques. I hope he stops looking at me soon… don't I?

XXXXX

For some time past, a cache of vulnerable, raw emotions that his mother had encouraged him to express freely in his youth had lain deep in Inuyasha's heart, tamped down by the cruel hands of fate, chance, and spiteful prejudice. This same trove, which had recently been exhumed only to be put to rest again by the same hands and heart which unveiled it, had been once more gradually exposed to his awareness by the slow, gentle erosion of time and trials spent with his new, loyal companions.

Thus it was that, contrary to Tsubaki's half-hearted wishes, Inuyasha really couldn't keep his eyes off her. Kaede looked simply beautiful – yes, the ludicrously dense hanyou had finally figured out why he had made an instinctive hasty escape from her presence earlier that morning. But Tsubaki's appearance was something else entirely.

It wasn't as though he hadn't seen her dressed up before, for she had been when they first met; but seeing her here, now, after the experiences they had gone through together, he saw her in an altogether different light. It was like comparing the pretty but still pale early budding of the sakura upon the thaw of winter's last snowfall to its fullest radiant flowering in mid-spring.

And it took his breath away.

XXXXX

Is he still looking at me? Tsubaki cautiously opened her eyes and looked up at the hanyou. His eyes were indeed still fixated on her; what's more, he was slowly leaning further and further forward, inexorably drawn by her beauty.

But poor Inuyasha had entirely forgotten about the laws of physics; his center of gravity extended just a mite too far beyond his balance point, and gravity obligingly took him for a spin.

As he landed, his head applied a rather sizable force to the ground, creating a minor crater; the ground, of course, applied an equal and opposite force to his head, knocking the luckless already-short-of-breath hanyou completely out cold. His right leg, stuck out at an odd angle, seemed a broken self-propelled wind-up toy as it commenced reflexively kicking the air at random intervals.

Immediately, a multitude of thoughts began jostling about in Tsubaki's head, each seeking top priority.

Did anybody see him fall? Why was he looking at me like that? Will this ruin the ceremony? Is he all right? What should I do?

"…baki!"

I mean, it's not like I minded him looking at me… it was really quite flattering… I wonder if he would like to do more than just look… What the hell am I thinking?

"Tsubaki!" she finally heard Miatsu hiss. "You've got the first line!"

Miatsu had waited patiently for Tsubaki to speak, since the hastily-constructed interfaith ceremony began with a Shinto invocation, but his patience had limits. We do need to get on with this, Miatsu mused, stifling a jealous sigh. I'm sure Shako and Risa have been waiting patiently for some time alone for quite a while now… He felt a few tiny droplets strike his forehead. Oh, great.

"Oh! Umm… Ahem!" Tsubaki shook her head, cleared her throat, and then announced to the clear blue sky, "The marriage ceremony of Shako and Risa will now begin." She raised her arms out, palms down. "Please be seated!" When the crowd – who she gratefully noted was utterly oblivious to the unconscious but still twitching red-clad guest eating dirt at the back – had done so (most in the traditional seiza position, some of the elderly men cross-legged), she began reciting the ancient opening prayer.

XXXXX

SNERK… SNORK…

"Mew!"

"That was… so beautiful…" Myoga paused to wipe his drippy nose on Kilala's furry face (on which he also sat) before sniveling some more.

Kilala just purred contentedly and swished her tails again, snug in her perch atop Miatsu's head. She could finally rest easy, certain that she would have other, new masters to serve and protect; for the ceremony had just concluded… and Shako and Risa had just shared an exceptionally lengthy (and equally passionate) kiss. And she had a front-row seat.

A/N: First off, I am quite well aware that "undulate" is not a transitive verb, but then again, neither is "google", and yet we use it as such. A word is what you make of it, after all.

By the way, "google" is in fact a real word; it is actually a noun, but not a proper one. A "google" is another name for a particular special number, just like a "dozen". But whereas a "dozen" is a 1 followed by a 2, a "google" is a 1 followed by a hundred 0's. A "googleplex", by extension, is a google to the power of a google. Now, that's a big number!

Next, a few words about some of the Japanese terms I used here. I actually did a fair bit of research on Japanese marriage customs while writing this chapter. If you didn't know already, hakama are the same sort of pants as Inuyasha wears (I may have used the term before, but I figured I'd clarify it anyway). Risa's shiro is a bridal kimono, while her wataboshi is a hood. The tsunokakushi is the alternative headgear of a traditional Japanese bride, meant to hide (as Inuyasha noted) her "horns of jealousy" from her mother-in-law, as well as to display her complete submission and obedience to her husband. I hope I made it abundantly clear in the preceding chapters that Risa is not the type of woman who would choose to wear something like that! (this is Sango's grandmother we're talking about…)

Seiza is basically translated "proper sitting". This position is what you see most often in anime set prior to World War II: sitting on the thighs. Women typically sit in seiza with their knees together, while men can spread them apart without being considered uncouth. I've tried both variations; the women have it slightly easier, but without practice both quickly result in your feet falling asleep due to poor circulation.

Finally, I must admit that this chapter took entirely too long. It took several days (and countless revisions, with a great deal of help from my wife) to get both the content and the timing just right for where I want to the story to lead next. I think this chapter has ended up infinitely better than it could possibly have been if I was to attempt it solo. Domo arigato, my love!