I'm sooooo sorry! My internet has been down and it wouldn't let me upload anything. Please accept this very late chapter as my apology.
……………………………………..
InuYasha lay perfectly asleep until a small weight hit his middle. Kagome was practically sitting on top of him, trying to make him wake up.
"InuYasha! Time to get up! It's time to get dressed and get on the plane, sleepyhead." She called. He feigned sleep, hoping to make her give up, but Kagome wasn't a quitter. "Fine, be like that." She got out of the bed, leaving him to rest. He listened and heard the shower run; Kagome had begun taking morning showers in his room, on the condition that he didn't come in without permission. He rolled over onto his side and listened to her take her bath. He had healed properly, but his arm was still stiff, so he kept it in the sling. The bandage still rested on his nose since Kagome said she'd take it off today. He was half asleep when Kagome came back into the room, washed and dressed for the day.
"Up now!" She yelled and wrung out her long black hair onto his face. InuYasha sputtered and sat up the second the icy water hit him. He rolled out of bed and grumbled off to get dressed. Kagome pulled her wet hair up into her usual double buns and flopped onto the bed. They'd sent the luggage out earlier so there wouldn't be such a huge hassle. All they would have to carry was their backpacks. InuYasha came back into the bed room, fully dressed in jeans and a black t shirt, and sat down on the stool.
"Debandage me, doc." He jiggled his foot with the excitement of finally being freed of his wrappings as Kagome got out of the bed for the second time that morning. She unwrapped his arm first, then his nose.
"Your...your nose..." She gasped, her face the epitome of horror.
"What? What's wrong with it?" InuYasha began to worry. Hadn't it healed right?
"It's so...so...I just can't describe it..."
"What's wrong with it? Where's a mirror?" InuYasha threw his arms around Kagome and buried his face in her neck. "Please don't let me be ugly! I don't want to be screwed up this young!"
"Oh come off it, your nose is fine! I was just playing with you! You're so vain, InuYasha." Kagome pat his back awkwardly as he heaved a sigh of relief.
"Really? It's fine? You really had me going there for a while, wench." InuYasha let go of her and stalked over to his mirror, admiring his perfect nose.
"Get your pack and let's go; Miroku and Sango are waiting in the front hall." Kagome heaved her black bag onto her shoulder and waited for InuYasha. "We have to be at the airport in fifteen minutes so that we can check in. Why are we traveling in a regular plane? I know we have a private jet."
"Yeah, but it costs fifteen times as much to run that thing than it does to go first class. We only use the jet for over seas stuff." InuYasha followed Kagome down to the front door where, sure enough, Sango and Miroku were waiting.
……………………………………..
The group had already checked in and was in line to get their bags scanned. Security checks were always a hassle and today wasn't any different. InuYasha plunked his bag down on the scanner and stepped through the little archway when the buzzer sounded. Two guards confiscated his bag and were in the process of shoving him off to the side table before the rest of them knew it. One guard searched his bag; the other waved the wand over him.
"Sir, did you accidentally leave anything in your pockets that would set it off?" The man with the wand asked as he scanned it over InuYasha's legs.
"No damn it! I don't carry change or keys in my pocket. And be careful over there!" InuYasha yelled as he watched his CD player get carelessly tossed onto the table. Meanwhile Kagome, Sango and Miroku made it through the check without a hitch. They stood behind him and waited for the guards to find whatever they were looking for.
"Sir, could you please take off your bandana?" InuYasha's face flared with anger.
"No, I can't."
"Sir, you need to remove it."
"Do you know who I am?" He seethed.
"No and quite frankly I don't care to."
"I could have more lawyers on your ass than you could count!"
"Yeah, right. And who are you exactly, InuYasha of the Tamas?"
"Very good, you can recognize a face! Now let me through!"
"If you're InuYasha then prove it."
"Fine, whatever you want." InuYasha slipped his drivers license out of his pocket and showed it to the guard. "Now get the fuck out of my way."
"Sorry, we have to make sure you don't have any weapons on you first." InuYasha sighed, partly in rage, partly in exasperation.
"I think this is what you're looking for." Kagome reached into InuYasha's pocket and pulled out his emergency spoon. The security guard nodded and waved them on. "You and your spoons." Kagome huffed as the left the security check. InuYasha blushed, but puffed himself up.
"That security stuff is the biggest load of shit I've ever had to put up with." He stalked down the hallways of the airport, searching for their gate. He found the right area and flopped down in a chair. Sango and Kagome sat away from the guys and began to chat about a pair of shoes Sango had seen. Kagome finally turned the conversation to a different topic.
"So how's it going with Miroku?" She whispered.
"It's...okay, I guess. We do normal couple-ly things, like talk and go out to do stuff, but otherwise it's getting pretty repetitive. He hasn't kissed me since that first time and I'm worried."
"He kissed you at the breakfast table the other day."
"Yeah, but that was on the cheek. He hasn't actually given me any...well, lip action." Sango tried to find how to describe her problem.
"You need to make the move because I think he's afraid you'll pound on him if he tries anything new. Just an idea." Kagome said in an off handed way. Sango looked as if that was the best idea ever.
"Thanks! I'll bet you're right. Now tell me how it is with you and InuYasha? That was one hell of a hickey you had." Sango gave Kagome a superior smirk, making her blush.
"Really good. We talk all the time and have lots of fun." Kagome drifted off into her own world while Sango made a comment that brought her down to earth.
"And what about that mark, hmm? What could you two have been doing for him to make that?"
"Sango, you're awful! Miroku is rubbing off on you! Well, I was...napping and he decided to kiss my neck as hard as he could to wake me up. An interesting wake up call if you ask me." Kagome didn't want to let anyone know that she had been sleeping in InuYasha's room, much less his bed. She couldn't even imagine the ideas that could give people even when all they did was sleep and occasionally cuddle.
"Hey, I noticed you haven't been in your room when I go to bed lately. What have you been up to that late at night?" Sango asked curiously. Kagome paled; she was going to have to tell her or lie, which she really didn't want to do.
"Can I tell you later? I'll tell you as soon as we get there, I promise." There, she had neatly side stepped the question for now. Sango seemed to accept that as an answer. "This morning I pulled a really dirty trick on InuYasha..." She began to tell Sango about the nose prank until they were called to board.
……………………………………..
InuYasha and Kagome sat together in one row, Miroku and Sango right behind them. After much debate it was determined that InuYasha got the window seat, much to Kagome's disappointment. It was first class, so the seats were extra squishy and a meal would be served on board near the middle of the two hour flight. InuYasha had somehow put on a pair of head phones underneath his bandana and was listening quietly to his CD player. Miroku and Sango had decided to flip up their arm rest and take a nap together, leaving Kagome alone for the trip. She peered around the cabin, trying to find something to do. If all else failed she could annoy InuYasha, but that was a last resort. A little boy walked by her down the aisle, stopped, turned around and tapped her on the arm.
"Yes?" Kagome looked at the kid, who was staring in awe at the pair.
"Hi, I'm Sotoru. You're Kagome Higurashi aren't you?" He whispered.
"Yeah. Can you keep a secret?" Kagome leaned over conspiratorially. The boy nodded furiously. "The boy next to me is InuYasha." Now Sotoru's eyes widened to the width of saucers.
"Really? Could I… could I...could I get your autographs?" He chewed his lip nervously while Kagome laughed.
"Sure. Let me get him for because I think he's in la la land. He gets like that when he puts his headphones on." Kagome squeezed InuYasha's arm lightly and poked him in the side.
"Eh?" He blinked a few times before fully coming around.
"You got a pen? This kid knows who I am and wants our autographs." Kagome was grinning from ear to ear at the idea of someone knowing her name.
"Sure. Let me get one out here..." InuYasha dug around in his pocket before pulling out a pen. He found a sheet of paper in his backpack. "Name?"
"S-sotoru, sir."
"Don't bother with the sir thing. I'm only eighteen, you know. Here you go." InuYasha scribbled down a note and handed the paper to Kagome, who added her own message.
"Here Sotoru. Have a nice trip!" She ruffled the boy's hair before he took off to show his mother his new souvenir. "Do you get that a lot?"
"More than I'd like. Mostly it's girls wanting hugs and stuff. There was this one chick who flashed me a few months back though. When we get back we'll go through our fan mail and write some letters, which usually takes a few weeks." He shrugged and looked out to the aisle. "Food!"
The stewardess sat down trays in front of each of them before turning to leave. InuYasha grinned until he looked down at his meal. The steak was fried to a crisp, the mashed potatoes looked like glue, and he didn't even want to think about the carrots and peas.
"What is this?" He asked and took out his plastic knife and fork to attempt to cut the steak. He sawed away at the little hunk of meat, with no avail. No matter how hard he cut it just wouldn't give! "Fine, be like that!" InuYasha took one claw and tried to cut the steak. His nail broke off near the skin. "Fuck!" He yelled, getting some odd looks from the other passengers. InuYasha cradled his crippled finger and ripped off the broken part of the nail. "Kagome, you try cutting the damn thing, cause I can't get the piece of shoe leather to even crack."
"All right, just calm down. You can cuss all you want when we get to the room, just don't scar any small children while we're on the plane." Kagome reached over, tried to cut the meat, and promptly broke her plastic silverware. "Piece of shit!"
"And you said I was going to scar kids. I guess I'll just have to get out the rations." InuYasha bent over and pulled a jar of jam from his back pack. Kagome gaped as he pulled out a spoon and unscrewed the lid. "Oo unt um?" He'd already rammed a heap of it into his mouth. Kagome sighed and looked for another spoon. "Ere." He handed her a second utensil and she dug in.
……………………………………..
They left the airport and entered a world of snow and ice. A limo picked them up at the gate and sped down the road to a large ski lodge. They got out of the car and walked into the hotel to pick up their keys. The lodge was decorated in the usual alpine fashion, complete with a huge moose head on the wall. Sango took the keys from the clerk and lead the way back out the door to a stone path. After a few minutes they came upon a cabin in the woods. It was large and looked extremely cozy. They trooped inside to find that it was decorated in the same manner as the lodge. A huge fireplace sat on one wall with a bear skin rug in front of it. Most of the furnishings were wooden, as were the floors.
"Come on, Kagome! The bedrooms are up here!" Sango lead her up the stairs to a small hallway. "There's four bedrooms and bathrooms. We could take the adjoining ones if you want." Kagome nodded and allowed Sango to show her the room she would be living in for the next few days. It was small, but cozy.
"I wish I could stay here forever. It's so...romantic almost." Kagome dropped her things on the bed and opened the doors to check out the closet. It already had her things inside. "Perfect."
"Kagome, come on!" Sango poked her head through the adjoining door and motioned for her to come in. Kagome went into Sango's bedroom, which was basically the duplicate of her own. Sango sat down on the bed and leaned back. "Where have you been going at night? You promised!"
"Okay, I'll tell you, but," Kagome flopped down next to her. "You must swear on your Mark Hoppus signature series shell pink bass guitar that you never ever tell anyone what I am about to tell you. I trust you because you are my very best friend and would never betray me."
"This must be big. I swear on my precious though. Now spill! I'm going crazy!"
"Don't squeal, all right?" Sango nodded as Kagome took a deep breath. "You know exactly how me and InuYasha kissed, right? Well, I wouldn't leave him alone that night since I was worried that he would get hurt. We stayed up all night talking and watching tv. He has a tv that comes out of his foot board! Anyways, it kind of developed into a thing. At night we watch movies and talk until we fall asleep. And no, we don't do anything else but share the bed. I think I'll stay here in my bed most of the time though so we can stay up and do girl stuff." Kagome finished her tale while Sango sat in complete silence.
"Lucky ass. If I stayed with Miroku like that he'd grope me. All you really do is sleep?" Sango sounded skeptical.
"Really! Okay, we've kissed once or twice, but we're so worn out from watching tv until three in the morning that we just lay down and we're asleep in seconds. Now your objective for tonight is to kiss Miroku. Can you do that since I told you my big secret?"
"I'll try." Sango sighed as Miroku poked his head in the door.
"Anyone up for some snow?" He asked. Sango and Kagome leapt up to get dressed in some warmer clothes. They were there, so why not have some fun?
……………………………………..
"What do we do first? There's skiing, sledding, snowboarding, ice skating, even tubing." Sango named off their options as they stood in the lobby of the lodge. All of them were dressed in heavy winter clothes and couldn't wait to get outside.
"Let's snowboard. We usually do that first every time we come up here anyways." Miroku walked off to rent some snowboards while the rest stayed behind.
"Umm, there's a small problem with that..." Kagome had blanched slightly.
"What?" InuYasha looked over at her, still fingering his nose. He'd been rubbing it constantly for the past day, admiring how well it had healed.
"I don't know how to snowboard."
"It's easy! We'll teach you." Sango pat her shoulder reassuringly as Miroku came back loaded with equipment. They headed out for the slopes. Everyone climbed into a ski lift that began to take them high up the slope. Kagome was worried. Why were they going so high? After a few moments they were getting off at the top of the mountain. Kagome could barely see the lodge below them. InuYasha walked over beside her and hooked his boots into the straps on the board.
"Why are we so high up?" Kagome asked as he showed her how to hook her boots in.
"Because this is what you'd most fear going down. If you can get down this hill, then you won't be scared to do the others. It'll be a breeze. Now to get going you do a little hop like this and to stop just swing the board out like so. It's like a riding a skateboard to turn." InuYasha wiggled around to demonstrate.
"Don't worry if you fall or swerve off course. InuYasha will get you before anything bad happens. He had to catch me several times before I could go down all by myself." Sango was clipped in and waiting to go. Miroku snuck one hand up behind her and was smacked immediately. "Hentai!"
"Yeah, Sango fell down every three seconds. She couldn't even stay on the rope tow right!" InuYasha laughed as he pulled a pair of goggles over his eyes. He'd already put on a hat to keep the cold out of his ears and hide his hair at the some time. The people here knew the group fairly well, but you never knew when an obsessed fan would show up. "Let's go." Kagome kicked off successfully and raced down the hill at a blistering speed. The wind whipped through her hair as she flew down the icy slope, making her grin with exhilaration. The ride was over all too soon as she met up with the rest of the group at the bottom.
"Good job; you didn't even slow down." Miroku congratulated Kagome on her skill. She'd taken to the sport easily and enjoyed every minute of it.
"Let's do it again!" She cried and raced for the lift.
They took the run a few more times until they were frozen to the bone and could hardly move. Miroku wisely suggested a cocoa break in front of the huge fireplace before the annual snowball fight. It was guys against girls, as always. Sango informed Kagome that the guys won every year and they really needed to beat them so they could take their egos down a notch or two. They returned the snowboards and bought some hot chocolate before retiring in front of the fire. Other guests seemed to have had the same idea and the lodge was packed.
"Okay! The rules are as follows:" Miroku officiated once they were back out in the snow. "One: You have ten minutes to build the best fort possible. Two: No snowballs containg anything like rocks or ice. Three: You can only win if the other side gives up or their fort has been leveled. Now let's have a snowball fight!" Sango and Kagome immediately set to work, Sango building the fort as large as possible, Kagome making as many snowballs as she could. The boys were using the same technique and their fort looked very impressive. After a while Miroku's watch sounded the ten minute mark, announcing the real beginning of the fight. "Ready? Set? GO!" Sango and Kagome hurled snow at the boys, who returned fire with their own artillery. The girls were getting creamed.
"What do we do?" Kagome yelled at Sango, who was hurtling snowballs as fast and as hard as she could.
"I don't know! We're being pummeled and I don't know how to stop them!" She grunted in reply. The wheels in Kagome's mind began to turn as a plan formed in her head.
"All right! I got it! Miroku didn't say anything about storming the fort, did he?"
"Nooo..."
"Then that's what we do! Grab as many snowballs as possible and charge on my count. One, two, Three!" The girls raced over to the boys' fort, throwing snow like mad women. The plowed through the fort and jumped on the guys, giving amazon screams. "Looks like we win!"
"No fair! You stormed us!" InuYasha said from beneath Kagome.
"All's fair in love and war. I believe we just covered war and passed with flying colors." Sango quoted smartly. Kagome nodded in agreement.
"Let's go in. It's almost sundown and I'm numb where no man should be." Miroku muttered from his position on the ground. Sango let him up and they took off for the lodge.
……………………………………..
Review Replies!
Okay, I'm doing this a bit different. If you only said a sentence or just something about update soon, I'll put your name here as thanks. So very, very, big thanks to: karite, kool-kcc, Demonica Angelicus, pUmkInPiE , SesshysKitty, Sesshomarugrl, Shippo-can5532, kai/rei4ever, Tester, shyn, someone, unknown, Inuyasha-my-lover, DraGonMistress704. So much thanks to you guys!
Foxshadow: You now carry spoons? Cool! I'm an influence! (which may or may not be a bad thing…) And you idolize me? I…I feel so loved! I understand about the depression, if I don't have the computer on you know something's wrong. I love the fluff too! You always crack me up. I got the pics developed so I'll attempt ot remember to send them sometime. Ja!
Shrilyon: I'm not amazing. And I'm writing, I just haven't been able to post lately. Don't worry! I always will find a way to update if I get really desperate.
Shippochan17- You play? I play a bit, but I suck. Enough to know how to write this fic. I'm so glad you like it!
Joe: I'll take that as a compliment I guess…
Kagome's Reincarnation: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you like it and I'm always up for suggestions.
Serinitay: My internet's been a bitch, but it's all fixed and I'm ready to post!
Krystal-Jade: Yeah, there's a plot. Before I get to it, I'm just solidifying relationships. Things are brewing beneath the surface and there's some foreshadowing to pick up on. Mostly about the media. The major plot will hit home soon though.
B.rouge: Yes, bengay and heat pads DO NOT mix. At all. Wait, you went and did it? Not cause you read this, did you? Now I feel bad! Jam is good!
Animepeep: Thanks! And yes, I like that song. Ta Ta For Now.
Tainted-miko: ho, god I gotta write 8 soon! Crap! Must gather thoughts…and if hot water doesn't work, nail polish remover gets out superglue every time! Lol! See ya later, prolly!
VIkiLei: Yes! Blink rocks! I feel awesome now!
Inuyashasgalpal: Don't go crazy! It's my computer's fault!
Xio the Dog Demoness: That's a tough one, but the second (?) movie does have some kinda relation to that.
Kaity: I never get tired of reviews! Ever! So don't quit!
Bana: Well, that should have cleared your question up. Next chapter: The tour bus! Jam is gooood…..
Jonathold: I laughed so hard! I do not take any classes. I didn't know there were classes for this. It just kinda happens. Half the time I don't even have a clue as to what I wrote until I go and read it since I get going so fast. I love having my time taken by reviews; it's a great use. It is hard to think of hippie endings now that I think about it. The sequel isn't even half done but it's pretty damn long already! Woohoo!
Babybunny01: It is funny isn't it? Dunno why either….
Crazy-kitsune: I don't think you'll wanna hit this person with a car. Maybe Kikyo…(hands you a Kikyo clone) Have fun!
BlackCat92: Kikyo, gods, I dunno when. This is 11 so no. 12, I don't think so. Maybe 13. I have no clue. Can't wait to read yours! (I'm one of the best? wipes off tear of joy I feel loved!)
SilentSlayer: Lotsa fun, oh yes…(looks evil)
Bloodbunny: Kag really does rock, doesn't she? I love her! Don't worry, there will be some more jam for InuYasha….
Quote of the Day!
"You sheep-fucker!" –My gran. It's her latest insult since she read the red tent. If she calls you that, beware.