A/N: Oh, wow, I feel so LOVED! 12 reviews (last I checked)! I LOVE you
people! *gives anyone who reviewed a cookie* I'm eternally grateful for the
constructive critism (I'm making a few brush-ups for this chapter and doing
a few suggestions from reviewers). Thank you all again! Part 3 will be up
really soon, too, and will include the actual Christmas madness and the
return to the Sengoku Jidai. Thanks for reading this, and don't forget to
review!
Inuyasha: A Christmas Catastrophe Part Two
It was Christmas Eve morning, and a dull greyish glow was filling the Higurashi household. A heavy silence hung in the air, only the soft sound of snow falling outside occupying it. Kagome vaguely remembered being grateful for the peace when she awoke at six a.m. for a whole of five minutes, since last night had been so....chaotic.
When they had finally returned home, she had hurriedly explained to Shippou and Inuyasha that people were even less knowledgeable about demonic traits in her time than they were in the Sengoku Jidai. Neither of them seemed to understand this, but solemnly swore not to do anything like jump 15 feet into the air in public anymore.
Then there was dinner, which probably could have made a decent horror movie if Kagome ever wanted a career in movie directing. Inuyasha had flat-out eaten like the dog he half was, shovelling handful after handful of steaming hot rice into his mouth, slurping noisily at his ramen at the same time. Miroku had marvelled at this, dropping a sweet dumpling from his chopsticks and right onto his worn-out blue jeans (they still hadn't changed out of their "normal" clothes). Shippou had taken full advantage and stolen it from him, then proceeded to eat in almost the exact same fashion as Inuyasha...but at least he had an excuse: he was a FULL demon, and was still a child at that. Sango had just tried her best to ignore them all, sipping quietly at her tea.
After the dinner fiasco, Kagome's mother sorted out where everyone was going to be staying that night. Miroku, Inuyasha, and Shippou were to sleep in the living room (despite Souta's pleading to let her let Inuyasha sleep in his room), while Sango could stay in Kagome's room. Just as the girls were heading up to Kagome's room, her mother shouted out a "HOLD IT!"
"What is it, Mom?" Kagome had asked, turning around curiously, expecting to see Miroku sneaking up the stairs after them. Instead, all she saw was an amber blur as Shippou shot behind her ankles to hide.
"Sorry, little one, but you should stay with the men," her mother had said matter-of-factly, and started up the staircase after the kitsune, who scrambled up to Kagome's shoulder.
"Aw, Mom, let him stay with us," Kagome had grinned. "He always sleeps next to me."
"She's warm! And her scent's really comforting!" Shippou had continued for her. Kagome turned slightly red. Unnoticed by anyone was Inuyasha muttering, "Feh. Don't I know it."
"Well...ok, then. Run along before I change my mind."
And thus, Kagome had lent Sango some spare pajamas; namely, a pair of plaid boxers and an oversized white t-shirt that was practically transparent from all its years of use. This made no difference, however, since she was staying in a room with only another female and a fox child who was too young to know what he was seeing, anyway.
That was probably what had made it so that neither Shippou or Kagome mentioned the shirt's slightly-see-through status to the demon exterminator, and therefore what caused Kagome's rude awakening the next morning.
"This thing is so strange... what does Kagome-sama call it again?"
"A Tee-vee. Dunno what the hell that means, but it makes pictures and sounds. Here, check it out."
"Holy...! Wow! How'd it DO that?"
"Probably magic again..."
Inuyasha and Miroku were awake before everyone else the next morning, and amusing themselves with the television set... or more accurately, the remote control. They had changed back into their comfortable, loose, everyday clothing the night before and felt rather at home by then. Both kept snatching the little black box from each other and flipping through the channels, forming bizarre sentences from the snippets they got from passing shows.
"...and if you look really closely, you'll see a..."
"...brand new vaccuum cleaner! And if you call in the next ten minutes, you'll recieve this..."
"....Crocodile Hunter! Next on..."
"....this wall, and you'll put the darker red on the other one..."
"Hey, what're they doing to that wall?!" Miroku asked, amazed at what was onscreen.
"Looks like they're spreading blood all over it!" Inuyasha said, blinking in confusion.
The two were quickly engrossed in what turned out to be "Trading Spaces", where two teams switch houses for two days and give one room a complete make-over... whatever that meant. Neither moved a muscle for the whole of an hour and a half, and were well into their second episode before a creak on the stairs and a yawn caught Inuyasha's attention.
Tearing his golden eyes away from the soft, mesmerizing glow of the television screen, his glanced at the stairs, hoping that it was Kagome coming down. This "show" was amazing, he had to tell her about it...
He was supremely shocked when it was Sango who appeared, in what seemed to be a semi-transparent t-shirt. Blushing, he shot to his feet and ran out of the room, wanting to banish the image from his mind forever. Miroku's response couldn't have been more different.
Even though Frank's newest creation WAS attention-grabbing, Inuyasha's sudden disappearence was moreso. He looked up at his friend's retreating back and flying silvery hair, then back at the stairs when he heard Sango's voice.
"What's gotten into him?" she asked.
His jaw dropped, drool instantly forming a small river down his chin, stormy blue eyes going almost as wide as dinner plates. She blinked at him and walked forward to wave a hand before his eyes.
"Hell-oooo? Houshi-sama? Are you alive in there?"
'Shirt....too revealing.... must...not...grope...' Miroku thought, not wanting to have a migraine forced on him so early in the morning. Something in the back of his head (probably that usually-ignored voice of reason) started screaming at him to shut his mouth and stop drooling. But, it was inevitable. One hand reached out as if it had a mind of its own...
Before it was even halfway to its destination of Sango's chest, she had smacked it away from her with a furious, "Ecchi!" And she stormed back upstairs. Miroku couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief... she'd let him off easy that time. His relaxation didn't last long, however, because when Sango slammed Kagome's door shut with a bang, Kagome's surprised shriek followed immediately afterward.
He knew he was going to be blamed for this.
Thinking fast, he abandoned the television and tore after Inuyasha, finding the hanyou in the kitchen and searching for ramen, sniffing cautiously. He looked up at Miroku when he blew into the room like a tornado.
"What is it, bouzou?" he asked lazily.
"I think Kagome-sama and Sango-san are going to be in here in a second trying to kill me... don't tell them where I am, ok?" he asked, ducking outside and behind a thick bush. Inuyasha just nodded.
"Will do."
Just as Miroku had predicted, Sango and Kagome came tearing in seconds later, Sango in her usual kimono and armed with her boomerang. He blinked, surprised at the speed with which the exterminator had changed, and just shrugged, continuing his search for ramen with a disinterested "feh".
Sango's voice, almost creepily quiet, broke his concentration. "Inuyasha."
"What?" he asked, glancing up at her. She was moving forwards with the same deliberate slowness with which she spoke next.
"Have you seen Miroku?"
Gulping, Inuyasha pointed at the back door and said, "Outside, hiding behind a bush."
"Good boy," Kagome said, patting him on the head as she walked past. He didn't even bother to growl, since the look in her eyes told him plainly that he'd be sat until his back broke if he did. The girls walked out into the snowy backyard in their slippered feet. He winced when Sango threw the Hiraikotsu into the bush with a shout of rage.
He almost felt bad when he heard Miroku's wail of "TRAITOR!".
A few hours later, Kagome had somehow convinced everyone to come with her outside for a snowball fight. Souta had pounced on the idea, wanting Inuyasha to be on his side because he could surely out-throw Kagome anyday. Kagome had replied that it would be every man and woman for themselves, and so, everyone was out in the snow and freezing cold, forming snowballs and hurling them at one another.
Miroku and Sango were having a bit too much fun with the game and kept tricking each other into going beneath a low treebranch just so that one could dump a pile of snow on the other. Shippou was having a hard time throwing the snowballs and was just settling for cheering on Kagome from the sidelines and booing Inuyasha until he was barraged with a flurry of snowballs from a hysterically laughing hanyou. Kagome nailed Inuyasha with a particularly large snowball as Shippou's revenge, and had gotten one in the face from Souta in return. When she'd turned to pummel her little brother, a wad of snow hit her between the shoulderblades, making her stop and turn slowly.
Inuyasha grinned innocently at her, holding another snowball behind his back. She just grinned right back.
"Sssssiiiiiiiiiiiiiii....."
"NONONO! I'M SORRY!"
"iiiiiiiiii....."
"KAGOME! REALLY! DON'T SAY IT!"
"iiiiiii...."
"I'm gonna die...."
"..........ir, you are gonna pay," Kagome finally finished, rather pleased with the way Inuyasha was cringing in horror.
The game continued well into the afternoon, but finally stopped when Sango pounced on Miroku and decided that tickling made a better torture device than snowballs. Kagome dragged her friend off of the houshi, then helped him up as well. They all headed inside to warm up.
Inuyasha was quickly learning that this "fruitcake" stuff was incredibly vile.
It was getting kind of late, and Kagome had appeared with a plate of cookies (which he found incredibly tasty) and this....fruitcake. Curious, since it smelled pretty good, the hanyou had taken a slice and bitten a huge piece off of it.
And instantly regretted doing so.
He swallowed hard and snatched four cookies off the plate and stuffed them all in his mouth at the same time to try and wash the taste out of his mouth. Kagome's surprised look turned to one of amusement and she just turned to offer some sugary food to Sango and Shippou, who were stretched lazily on the couch.
Inuyasha, having recovered from his temporary fruitcake-paralysis, offered the rest to Miroku, who accepted it like the fool he was and took a small bite from the opposite side Inuyasha had bitten off of. He too made a face and swallowed, then chugged down half of his glass of egg-nog (which everyone thought was quite possibly the greatest drink ever invented).
"What IS this stuff?" Miroku asked thickly, holding out the offending piece of fruitcake so that Kagome could see it.
"Fruitcake," she replied simply, and shrugged. "Look, if you don't like it, don't eat it..."
Sango gingerly took a piece from the plate and tore it in half, handing the other half to Shippou. Both of them took a test-nibble from their pieces and grinned brightly.
"Ish gud, Ka-ome!" Shippou cried enthusiastically, ignoring the fact that he was spewing little chunks of fruitcake all over the place.
Sango swallowed. "It really is good."
"Nice to know someone likes it," Kagome laughed.
The group of friends stayed in the living room for a while longer, just talking quietly about whatever came to mind, until Sango stretched and yawned.
"Oh... sorry, everyone, but I think I'll be going to bed now," she said. "G'night."
"Goodnight, Sango," they all chimed.
"I'll be up in a minute, ok?" Kagome called.
"Sure thing," Sango said with an absent wave of her hand, and she headed up the stairs to Kagome's room again. Miroku started to stand up, but Inuyasha pushed him back down again. The monk heaved a frustrated sigh, but stayed put when the half-breed took his hand away from his shoulder.
It wasn't much longer until Kagome was on the brink of collapse, so she said goodnight to Inuyasha and Miroku, picked up Shippou (who was already asleep), and headed upstairs.
She lay there for only a few minutes before falling asleep, but all she could think about was giving everybody their gifts the next day... she drifted off, not even hearing Inuyasha's enraged bellow for Miroku to get back into the living room before he broke both of the monk's legs.
End Part Two
A/N: Thanks for reading! And sorry this part's so much shorter than the first one, but the next one will make up for it all. Next time: Christmas day, presents, and Miroku's new obsession with mistletoe!
Inuyasha: A Christmas Catastrophe Part Two
It was Christmas Eve morning, and a dull greyish glow was filling the Higurashi household. A heavy silence hung in the air, only the soft sound of snow falling outside occupying it. Kagome vaguely remembered being grateful for the peace when she awoke at six a.m. for a whole of five minutes, since last night had been so....chaotic.
When they had finally returned home, she had hurriedly explained to Shippou and Inuyasha that people were even less knowledgeable about demonic traits in her time than they were in the Sengoku Jidai. Neither of them seemed to understand this, but solemnly swore not to do anything like jump 15 feet into the air in public anymore.
Then there was dinner, which probably could have made a decent horror movie if Kagome ever wanted a career in movie directing. Inuyasha had flat-out eaten like the dog he half was, shovelling handful after handful of steaming hot rice into his mouth, slurping noisily at his ramen at the same time. Miroku had marvelled at this, dropping a sweet dumpling from his chopsticks and right onto his worn-out blue jeans (they still hadn't changed out of their "normal" clothes). Shippou had taken full advantage and stolen it from him, then proceeded to eat in almost the exact same fashion as Inuyasha...but at least he had an excuse: he was a FULL demon, and was still a child at that. Sango had just tried her best to ignore them all, sipping quietly at her tea.
After the dinner fiasco, Kagome's mother sorted out where everyone was going to be staying that night. Miroku, Inuyasha, and Shippou were to sleep in the living room (despite Souta's pleading to let her let Inuyasha sleep in his room), while Sango could stay in Kagome's room. Just as the girls were heading up to Kagome's room, her mother shouted out a "HOLD IT!"
"What is it, Mom?" Kagome had asked, turning around curiously, expecting to see Miroku sneaking up the stairs after them. Instead, all she saw was an amber blur as Shippou shot behind her ankles to hide.
"Sorry, little one, but you should stay with the men," her mother had said matter-of-factly, and started up the staircase after the kitsune, who scrambled up to Kagome's shoulder.
"Aw, Mom, let him stay with us," Kagome had grinned. "He always sleeps next to me."
"She's warm! And her scent's really comforting!" Shippou had continued for her. Kagome turned slightly red. Unnoticed by anyone was Inuyasha muttering, "Feh. Don't I know it."
"Well...ok, then. Run along before I change my mind."
And thus, Kagome had lent Sango some spare pajamas; namely, a pair of plaid boxers and an oversized white t-shirt that was practically transparent from all its years of use. This made no difference, however, since she was staying in a room with only another female and a fox child who was too young to know what he was seeing, anyway.
That was probably what had made it so that neither Shippou or Kagome mentioned the shirt's slightly-see-through status to the demon exterminator, and therefore what caused Kagome's rude awakening the next morning.
"This thing is so strange... what does Kagome-sama call it again?"
"A Tee-vee. Dunno what the hell that means, but it makes pictures and sounds. Here, check it out."
"Holy...! Wow! How'd it DO that?"
"Probably magic again..."
Inuyasha and Miroku were awake before everyone else the next morning, and amusing themselves with the television set... or more accurately, the remote control. They had changed back into their comfortable, loose, everyday clothing the night before and felt rather at home by then. Both kept snatching the little black box from each other and flipping through the channels, forming bizarre sentences from the snippets they got from passing shows.
"...and if you look really closely, you'll see a..."
"...brand new vaccuum cleaner! And if you call in the next ten minutes, you'll recieve this..."
"....Crocodile Hunter! Next on..."
"....this wall, and you'll put the darker red on the other one..."
"Hey, what're they doing to that wall?!" Miroku asked, amazed at what was onscreen.
"Looks like they're spreading blood all over it!" Inuyasha said, blinking in confusion.
The two were quickly engrossed in what turned out to be "Trading Spaces", where two teams switch houses for two days and give one room a complete make-over... whatever that meant. Neither moved a muscle for the whole of an hour and a half, and were well into their second episode before a creak on the stairs and a yawn caught Inuyasha's attention.
Tearing his golden eyes away from the soft, mesmerizing glow of the television screen, his glanced at the stairs, hoping that it was Kagome coming down. This "show" was amazing, he had to tell her about it...
He was supremely shocked when it was Sango who appeared, in what seemed to be a semi-transparent t-shirt. Blushing, he shot to his feet and ran out of the room, wanting to banish the image from his mind forever. Miroku's response couldn't have been more different.
Even though Frank's newest creation WAS attention-grabbing, Inuyasha's sudden disappearence was moreso. He looked up at his friend's retreating back and flying silvery hair, then back at the stairs when he heard Sango's voice.
"What's gotten into him?" she asked.
His jaw dropped, drool instantly forming a small river down his chin, stormy blue eyes going almost as wide as dinner plates. She blinked at him and walked forward to wave a hand before his eyes.
"Hell-oooo? Houshi-sama? Are you alive in there?"
'Shirt....too revealing.... must...not...grope...' Miroku thought, not wanting to have a migraine forced on him so early in the morning. Something in the back of his head (probably that usually-ignored voice of reason) started screaming at him to shut his mouth and stop drooling. But, it was inevitable. One hand reached out as if it had a mind of its own...
Before it was even halfway to its destination of Sango's chest, she had smacked it away from her with a furious, "Ecchi!" And she stormed back upstairs. Miroku couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief... she'd let him off easy that time. His relaxation didn't last long, however, because when Sango slammed Kagome's door shut with a bang, Kagome's surprised shriek followed immediately afterward.
He knew he was going to be blamed for this.
Thinking fast, he abandoned the television and tore after Inuyasha, finding the hanyou in the kitchen and searching for ramen, sniffing cautiously. He looked up at Miroku when he blew into the room like a tornado.
"What is it, bouzou?" he asked lazily.
"I think Kagome-sama and Sango-san are going to be in here in a second trying to kill me... don't tell them where I am, ok?" he asked, ducking outside and behind a thick bush. Inuyasha just nodded.
"Will do."
Just as Miroku had predicted, Sango and Kagome came tearing in seconds later, Sango in her usual kimono and armed with her boomerang. He blinked, surprised at the speed with which the exterminator had changed, and just shrugged, continuing his search for ramen with a disinterested "feh".
Sango's voice, almost creepily quiet, broke his concentration. "Inuyasha."
"What?" he asked, glancing up at her. She was moving forwards with the same deliberate slowness with which she spoke next.
"Have you seen Miroku?"
Gulping, Inuyasha pointed at the back door and said, "Outside, hiding behind a bush."
"Good boy," Kagome said, patting him on the head as she walked past. He didn't even bother to growl, since the look in her eyes told him plainly that he'd be sat until his back broke if he did. The girls walked out into the snowy backyard in their slippered feet. He winced when Sango threw the Hiraikotsu into the bush with a shout of rage.
He almost felt bad when he heard Miroku's wail of "TRAITOR!".
A few hours later, Kagome had somehow convinced everyone to come with her outside for a snowball fight. Souta had pounced on the idea, wanting Inuyasha to be on his side because he could surely out-throw Kagome anyday. Kagome had replied that it would be every man and woman for themselves, and so, everyone was out in the snow and freezing cold, forming snowballs and hurling them at one another.
Miroku and Sango were having a bit too much fun with the game and kept tricking each other into going beneath a low treebranch just so that one could dump a pile of snow on the other. Shippou was having a hard time throwing the snowballs and was just settling for cheering on Kagome from the sidelines and booing Inuyasha until he was barraged with a flurry of snowballs from a hysterically laughing hanyou. Kagome nailed Inuyasha with a particularly large snowball as Shippou's revenge, and had gotten one in the face from Souta in return. When she'd turned to pummel her little brother, a wad of snow hit her between the shoulderblades, making her stop and turn slowly.
Inuyasha grinned innocently at her, holding another snowball behind his back. She just grinned right back.
"Sssssiiiiiiiiiiiiiii....."
"NONONO! I'M SORRY!"
"iiiiiiiiii....."
"KAGOME! REALLY! DON'T SAY IT!"
"iiiiiii...."
"I'm gonna die...."
"..........ir, you are gonna pay," Kagome finally finished, rather pleased with the way Inuyasha was cringing in horror.
The game continued well into the afternoon, but finally stopped when Sango pounced on Miroku and decided that tickling made a better torture device than snowballs. Kagome dragged her friend off of the houshi, then helped him up as well. They all headed inside to warm up.
Inuyasha was quickly learning that this "fruitcake" stuff was incredibly vile.
It was getting kind of late, and Kagome had appeared with a plate of cookies (which he found incredibly tasty) and this....fruitcake. Curious, since it smelled pretty good, the hanyou had taken a slice and bitten a huge piece off of it.
And instantly regretted doing so.
He swallowed hard and snatched four cookies off the plate and stuffed them all in his mouth at the same time to try and wash the taste out of his mouth. Kagome's surprised look turned to one of amusement and she just turned to offer some sugary food to Sango and Shippou, who were stretched lazily on the couch.
Inuyasha, having recovered from his temporary fruitcake-paralysis, offered the rest to Miroku, who accepted it like the fool he was and took a small bite from the opposite side Inuyasha had bitten off of. He too made a face and swallowed, then chugged down half of his glass of egg-nog (which everyone thought was quite possibly the greatest drink ever invented).
"What IS this stuff?" Miroku asked thickly, holding out the offending piece of fruitcake so that Kagome could see it.
"Fruitcake," she replied simply, and shrugged. "Look, if you don't like it, don't eat it..."
Sango gingerly took a piece from the plate and tore it in half, handing the other half to Shippou. Both of them took a test-nibble from their pieces and grinned brightly.
"Ish gud, Ka-ome!" Shippou cried enthusiastically, ignoring the fact that he was spewing little chunks of fruitcake all over the place.
Sango swallowed. "It really is good."
"Nice to know someone likes it," Kagome laughed.
The group of friends stayed in the living room for a while longer, just talking quietly about whatever came to mind, until Sango stretched and yawned.
"Oh... sorry, everyone, but I think I'll be going to bed now," she said. "G'night."
"Goodnight, Sango," they all chimed.
"I'll be up in a minute, ok?" Kagome called.
"Sure thing," Sango said with an absent wave of her hand, and she headed up the stairs to Kagome's room again. Miroku started to stand up, but Inuyasha pushed him back down again. The monk heaved a frustrated sigh, but stayed put when the half-breed took his hand away from his shoulder.
It wasn't much longer until Kagome was on the brink of collapse, so she said goodnight to Inuyasha and Miroku, picked up Shippou (who was already asleep), and headed upstairs.
She lay there for only a few minutes before falling asleep, but all she could think about was giving everybody their gifts the next day... she drifted off, not even hearing Inuyasha's enraged bellow for Miroku to get back into the living room before he broke both of the monk's legs.
End Part Two
A/N: Thanks for reading! And sorry this part's so much shorter than the first one, but the next one will make up for it all. Next time: Christmas day, presents, and Miroku's new obsession with mistletoe!