#- Merry Christmas, Inuyasha! -#
An Inuyasha Fanfic by Tobu Ishi
-Part 2- In Which Our Hero Receives A Most Unusual Christmas Present
__________________
"Hand me the blue, will you, dear?"
Kagome leaned across the kitchen table, handing the plastic tube of icing to her mother. "There you go, 'Kaasan."
"Thank you, dear," her mother said, smiling. She drew a series of small dots on the tray of sugar cookies in front of her, and reached for the yellow. "Shouldn't you go get ready? Your friends will be here in an hour or so."
Kagome glanced down at the icing, flour, and powdered sugar smearing her apron and hands. "Good point," she said, smiling sheepishly. "I'd better take a shower. See you in a bit," she called over her shoulder, already on her way to the bathroom.
As she went down the hallway, she saw a few flakes of snow drift past the window and grinned. Her little brother pushed past her, something green in his hand. Kagome frowned, catching him by the arm.
"Whatcha got there, Sato?"
He yelped in alarm. "Nothing...bye, Kagome!" Twisting out of her grasp, he ran off to his room. Kagome shrugged.
"Whatever..."
It didn't take long to shower. As she dried her hair, Kagome looked critically at herself in the mirror.
"Hunh..." she murmured, giving her face a once-over. "Not bad...a little makeup, maybe some eyeliner? I haven't gotten a chance to dress up in ages..." She laughed. "I was starting to worry I would turn into an old battleaxe like Kaede, with all that running around and shooting at things." Setting down the hairdryer, she headed into her room, unconsciously rubbing at the little bowstring callus developing on the inside of her index finger...
"Does she know we're here?" Miroku asked as he climbed out of the well, glancing around cautiously. It was snowing steadily by now, and the white powder was already a good inch and a half thick on the ground outside. Inuyasha followed him, muttering grumpily to himself about the damn soap in his ears, his long black hair surprisingly glossy now that the dirt and pine needles which it tended to collect had been forcibly scrubbed out of it by Kaede.
Sato shook his head, grinning. "Nope, no idea. She's in the shower right now, so I can smuggle Shippo in. You guys better stay out here until the party starts. You're too big to hide real well."
"Are there cookies?" Shippo asked anxiously. He was perched on Miroku's shoulder.
"Mom made three batches," Sato said with a grin. "And fudge."
"Fudge?" Shippo said, his eyes already glazing over at the thought of all that sugar. "What's that?"
"Trust me, you'll like it," Sato assured him. Starting to head back to the house, he paused, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. Squashing the expression, he turned back to the waiting hanyou and priest. "Here," he said, holding out a scrap of greenery. "You need this to get in. It's...um...traditional."
"This?" Inuyasha said, taking the sprig of leaves and turning it over curiously. "What's it for?"
"Well, you have to hold it over your head when you come in the door," Sato explained seriously. "It's an old ritual, from...um...the days when people used to bring each other pieces of plants as gifts. Long after your time, of course; I'm sure you haven't started that tradition yet where you come from."
"Over my head, huh?" Inuyasha said. "Weird. You're sure I need to do that?"
"Positive," Sato said, nodding firmly. Miroku cleared his throat.
"What about me?" he asked.
"Oh, you don't need one," Sato said. "You guys can both get in with just one. But Inuyasha had better hold on to it. His, um, hair is longer than yours...yeah." With that last bit of tangled 'explanation', Sato hurried off back to the house with Shippo at his heels, grinning proudly at the thought of his 'creative' Christmas present...
"Hair?" Miroku muttered, a frown on his face. "Hunh...well, you learn something new every day, I guess."
Inuyasha examined the bit of greenery, sniffing at it slightly. "Ever seen this before?" he asked Miroku, holding it out.
"Hm. Well, it's got white berries...but the leaves don't look familiar. Sorry," he said. "Probably foreign, anyway. We'd better find a place we can watch the door from." He walked off, with Inuyasha trailing after him.
"Cookies!" Shippo jubilated, the minute Sato came back into the room, laden with loot.
"And punch," he added, holding up the tray. Two glasses sat on it, as well as a small heap of fudge and several stacks of...yes...cookies. "Mom's going to wonder where all of this went," he commented as he set the tray on the floor. Shippo attacked it immediately.
The two kids were holed up in Sato's room, out of the way of the partygoers. Several teenagers had already arrived, and the house was filling with people. In the growing pandemonium, it had been easy for Sato to swipe enough food to hold them over all night.
"Thish ish weawwy goob!" the kitsune exclaimed through a mouthful of fudge. He was sitting on Sato's bed, a cookie in each hand. Sato laughed.
"Told you you'd like it. Hey, we ought to do something Christmas-y. Uh...want to hear a Christmas carol?"
"A what?" the kitsune asked, swallowing.
"You know, a song for Christmas," Sato explained. "Like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, or Joy to the World."
"Joy to the World? Never heard of it. Can I try the punch?"
Sato handed him a glass. "It goes like, 'Joy to the world, the Lord is come, and, um, something something something!' I don't know the words very well..."
"Sounds dumb," Shippo snorted. Taking a sip, his eyes lit up. "Hey, this punch stuff is great!"
"Well, that's about fifteen people," Miroku observed as two more teenagers hurried through the door of the Higurashi residence. "I doubt there are many more coming. Feel like going inside yet?"
Inuyasha swallowed. "Might as well," he said, carefully nonchalant. He would never have admitted it, but he was nervous. He'd never really been to a festival before, especially not one he'd never heard of, with a bunch of humans around...
He looked up and realized that Miroku was halfway to the front door.
"Hey! What the hell!" Leaping to his feet, he ran after him, crunching through the deepening snow. They'd been staking out the place from a bush near the shrine, within easy sight range of the house. Miroku stopped, frowning at him.
"Inuyasha, this is a festival. At least try not to be coarse. And please don't attract any more attention than you have to. Best behavior, got it?"
Inuyasha growled, harboring thoughts of what he'd like to do to a certain goddamn priest who suddenly thought he was his nursemaid...but he nodded grudgingly, and they walked up to the door with no further mishaps, ringing the doorbell as they'd seen the other guests do.
"Oh, hey, I almost forgot the plant thing," Inuyasha grumbled, fishing it out of his pocket. Kaede had gotten them both clean tunics and pants, without much ornamentation; they weren't quite modern, but they were everyday enough not to look too out of place. "I still don't get this," he muttered, glancing at the greenery.
"When in Kyoto, do as the locals do," Miroku volunteered.
"Huh?"
"Use the branch," Miroku translated dryly. Inuyasha shrugged, shook the snowflakes from his hair, and held the bit of mistletoe unsuspectingly over his head...
"...so then they run into this room, except there's no doors leading out, and when they turn around, the door they came through is gone, and-"
*ding-dong*
"Doorbell!" Kagome exclaimed, glad for the chance to escape her friend's long-winded narrative of last week's X-Files episode. "Gotta go, Miyo!" Without pausing to hear Miyo's protest that she hadn't gotten to the good part yet, she hurried to the door, flinging it open. "Merry Chris-Inuyasha?!!"
"Evening, Kagome-sama," Miroku volunteered from behind the hanyou. "Just thought we'd drop by..."
"Oh, lord help me," Kagome muttered, rubbing her temples. "I don't-" Glancing up at them for a second, she noticed a spot of green in Inuyasha's hand. "Uh...Inuyasha? What's that?"
"This?" the clueless hanyou asked, looking up at the bit of shrubbery he held. "Just part of the season."
Kagome's eyebrow twitched. "Inuyasha, what are you doing with mistletoe? Do you, um, know what it's for?"
He grinned, still obliviously waiting to be let in. "Oh, yeah, your brother told me all about it."
"Oh, he did, did he?" Kagome muttered darkly.
Behind her, Miyo and another girl from her class, Akemi, had noticed the 'commotion'. They hurried over, spotted the mistletoe and began to giggle.
Inuyasha frowned at them, confused, then turned back to Kagome, who was still blocking the door. "Well? C'mon, wench, what are you waiting for?"
"Yeah, Kagome," Akemi agreed wickedly. "You going to keep him waiting until he freezes out there? Where's your Christmas spirit?"
"I don't see what she's upset about," Miyo whispered to her friend. "He's cute...even with the screwy hairdo."
Kagome overheard and grinned in spite of herself. "Oh, my Christmas spirit's just fine," she said cheerfully.
"Prove it," Akemi teased. "I dare you. Give it to him!"
Kagome's eyes flashed. "Fine," she snapped, and turned to Inuyasha.
"Uh...give what to me?" Inuyasha said, suddenly wary. "Kagome..."
His answer came in the form of Kagome grabbing him and kissing him until his knees turned to water. The poor hanyou was too shocked to react as the seconds ticked by. Finally letting go of him, Kagome grinned.
"There. Merry Christmas, Inuyasha," she said, and turned, strolling off in the direction of the punch bowl.
Miroku carefully stepped over Inuyasha, who had fallen flat on the welcome mat the second Kagome let go. About to walk off, he paused, and turned back to the dazed hanyou. "Gimme that," he said, snatching the mistletoe from Inuyasha's twitching hand and making off into the thick of the crowd with it.
Akemi and Miyo glanced at each other. "What was in *her* punch?" Akemi wondered aloud, her mouth twitching into a smile.
"Wow," was all Miyo had to say. With twin shrugs, both girls headed off into the crowd.
_________________
-Part 3- In Which There is an Unfortunate Misunderstanding (and Miroku Discovers Miniskirts)
Coming Soon!
An Inuyasha Fanfic by Tobu Ishi
-Part 2- In Which Our Hero Receives A Most Unusual Christmas Present
__________________
"Hand me the blue, will you, dear?"
Kagome leaned across the kitchen table, handing the plastic tube of icing to her mother. "There you go, 'Kaasan."
"Thank you, dear," her mother said, smiling. She drew a series of small dots on the tray of sugar cookies in front of her, and reached for the yellow. "Shouldn't you go get ready? Your friends will be here in an hour or so."
Kagome glanced down at the icing, flour, and powdered sugar smearing her apron and hands. "Good point," she said, smiling sheepishly. "I'd better take a shower. See you in a bit," she called over her shoulder, already on her way to the bathroom.
As she went down the hallway, she saw a few flakes of snow drift past the window and grinned. Her little brother pushed past her, something green in his hand. Kagome frowned, catching him by the arm.
"Whatcha got there, Sato?"
He yelped in alarm. "Nothing...bye, Kagome!" Twisting out of her grasp, he ran off to his room. Kagome shrugged.
"Whatever..."
It didn't take long to shower. As she dried her hair, Kagome looked critically at herself in the mirror.
"Hunh..." she murmured, giving her face a once-over. "Not bad...a little makeup, maybe some eyeliner? I haven't gotten a chance to dress up in ages..." She laughed. "I was starting to worry I would turn into an old battleaxe like Kaede, with all that running around and shooting at things." Setting down the hairdryer, she headed into her room, unconsciously rubbing at the little bowstring callus developing on the inside of her index finger...
"Does she know we're here?" Miroku asked as he climbed out of the well, glancing around cautiously. It was snowing steadily by now, and the white powder was already a good inch and a half thick on the ground outside. Inuyasha followed him, muttering grumpily to himself about the damn soap in his ears, his long black hair surprisingly glossy now that the dirt and pine needles which it tended to collect had been forcibly scrubbed out of it by Kaede.
Sato shook his head, grinning. "Nope, no idea. She's in the shower right now, so I can smuggle Shippo in. You guys better stay out here until the party starts. You're too big to hide real well."
"Are there cookies?" Shippo asked anxiously. He was perched on Miroku's shoulder.
"Mom made three batches," Sato said with a grin. "And fudge."
"Fudge?" Shippo said, his eyes already glazing over at the thought of all that sugar. "What's that?"
"Trust me, you'll like it," Sato assured him. Starting to head back to the house, he paused, a mischievous grin spreading across his face. Squashing the expression, he turned back to the waiting hanyou and priest. "Here," he said, holding out a scrap of greenery. "You need this to get in. It's...um...traditional."
"This?" Inuyasha said, taking the sprig of leaves and turning it over curiously. "What's it for?"
"Well, you have to hold it over your head when you come in the door," Sato explained seriously. "It's an old ritual, from...um...the days when people used to bring each other pieces of plants as gifts. Long after your time, of course; I'm sure you haven't started that tradition yet where you come from."
"Over my head, huh?" Inuyasha said. "Weird. You're sure I need to do that?"
"Positive," Sato said, nodding firmly. Miroku cleared his throat.
"What about me?" he asked.
"Oh, you don't need one," Sato said. "You guys can both get in with just one. But Inuyasha had better hold on to it. His, um, hair is longer than yours...yeah." With that last bit of tangled 'explanation', Sato hurried off back to the house with Shippo at his heels, grinning proudly at the thought of his 'creative' Christmas present...
"Hair?" Miroku muttered, a frown on his face. "Hunh...well, you learn something new every day, I guess."
Inuyasha examined the bit of greenery, sniffing at it slightly. "Ever seen this before?" he asked Miroku, holding it out.
"Hm. Well, it's got white berries...but the leaves don't look familiar. Sorry," he said. "Probably foreign, anyway. We'd better find a place we can watch the door from." He walked off, with Inuyasha trailing after him.
"Cookies!" Shippo jubilated, the minute Sato came back into the room, laden with loot.
"And punch," he added, holding up the tray. Two glasses sat on it, as well as a small heap of fudge and several stacks of...yes...cookies. "Mom's going to wonder where all of this went," he commented as he set the tray on the floor. Shippo attacked it immediately.
The two kids were holed up in Sato's room, out of the way of the partygoers. Several teenagers had already arrived, and the house was filling with people. In the growing pandemonium, it had been easy for Sato to swipe enough food to hold them over all night.
"Thish ish weawwy goob!" the kitsune exclaimed through a mouthful of fudge. He was sitting on Sato's bed, a cookie in each hand. Sato laughed.
"Told you you'd like it. Hey, we ought to do something Christmas-y. Uh...want to hear a Christmas carol?"
"A what?" the kitsune asked, swallowing.
"You know, a song for Christmas," Sato explained. "Like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, or Joy to the World."
"Joy to the World? Never heard of it. Can I try the punch?"
Sato handed him a glass. "It goes like, 'Joy to the world, the Lord is come, and, um, something something something!' I don't know the words very well..."
"Sounds dumb," Shippo snorted. Taking a sip, his eyes lit up. "Hey, this punch stuff is great!"
"Well, that's about fifteen people," Miroku observed as two more teenagers hurried through the door of the Higurashi residence. "I doubt there are many more coming. Feel like going inside yet?"
Inuyasha swallowed. "Might as well," he said, carefully nonchalant. He would never have admitted it, but he was nervous. He'd never really been to a festival before, especially not one he'd never heard of, with a bunch of humans around...
He looked up and realized that Miroku was halfway to the front door.
"Hey! What the hell!" Leaping to his feet, he ran after him, crunching through the deepening snow. They'd been staking out the place from a bush near the shrine, within easy sight range of the house. Miroku stopped, frowning at him.
"Inuyasha, this is a festival. At least try not to be coarse. And please don't attract any more attention than you have to. Best behavior, got it?"
Inuyasha growled, harboring thoughts of what he'd like to do to a certain goddamn priest who suddenly thought he was his nursemaid...but he nodded grudgingly, and they walked up to the door with no further mishaps, ringing the doorbell as they'd seen the other guests do.
"Oh, hey, I almost forgot the plant thing," Inuyasha grumbled, fishing it out of his pocket. Kaede had gotten them both clean tunics and pants, without much ornamentation; they weren't quite modern, but they were everyday enough not to look too out of place. "I still don't get this," he muttered, glancing at the greenery.
"When in Kyoto, do as the locals do," Miroku volunteered.
"Huh?"
"Use the branch," Miroku translated dryly. Inuyasha shrugged, shook the snowflakes from his hair, and held the bit of mistletoe unsuspectingly over his head...
"...so then they run into this room, except there's no doors leading out, and when they turn around, the door they came through is gone, and-"
*ding-dong*
"Doorbell!" Kagome exclaimed, glad for the chance to escape her friend's long-winded narrative of last week's X-Files episode. "Gotta go, Miyo!" Without pausing to hear Miyo's protest that she hadn't gotten to the good part yet, she hurried to the door, flinging it open. "Merry Chris-Inuyasha?!!"
"Evening, Kagome-sama," Miroku volunteered from behind the hanyou. "Just thought we'd drop by..."
"Oh, lord help me," Kagome muttered, rubbing her temples. "I don't-" Glancing up at them for a second, she noticed a spot of green in Inuyasha's hand. "Uh...Inuyasha? What's that?"
"This?" the clueless hanyou asked, looking up at the bit of shrubbery he held. "Just part of the season."
Kagome's eyebrow twitched. "Inuyasha, what are you doing with mistletoe? Do you, um, know what it's for?"
He grinned, still obliviously waiting to be let in. "Oh, yeah, your brother told me all about it."
"Oh, he did, did he?" Kagome muttered darkly.
Behind her, Miyo and another girl from her class, Akemi, had noticed the 'commotion'. They hurried over, spotted the mistletoe and began to giggle.
Inuyasha frowned at them, confused, then turned back to Kagome, who was still blocking the door. "Well? C'mon, wench, what are you waiting for?"
"Yeah, Kagome," Akemi agreed wickedly. "You going to keep him waiting until he freezes out there? Where's your Christmas spirit?"
"I don't see what she's upset about," Miyo whispered to her friend. "He's cute...even with the screwy hairdo."
Kagome overheard and grinned in spite of herself. "Oh, my Christmas spirit's just fine," she said cheerfully.
"Prove it," Akemi teased. "I dare you. Give it to him!"
Kagome's eyes flashed. "Fine," she snapped, and turned to Inuyasha.
"Uh...give what to me?" Inuyasha said, suddenly wary. "Kagome..."
His answer came in the form of Kagome grabbing him and kissing him until his knees turned to water. The poor hanyou was too shocked to react as the seconds ticked by. Finally letting go of him, Kagome grinned.
"There. Merry Christmas, Inuyasha," she said, and turned, strolling off in the direction of the punch bowl.
Miroku carefully stepped over Inuyasha, who had fallen flat on the welcome mat the second Kagome let go. About to walk off, he paused, and turned back to the dazed hanyou. "Gimme that," he said, snatching the mistletoe from Inuyasha's twitching hand and making off into the thick of the crowd with it.
Akemi and Miyo glanced at each other. "What was in *her* punch?" Akemi wondered aloud, her mouth twitching into a smile.
"Wow," was all Miyo had to say. With twin shrugs, both girls headed off into the crowd.
_________________
-Part 3- In Which There is an Unfortunate Misunderstanding (and Miroku Discovers Miniskirts)
Coming Soon!