Eden-

Okay, I decided that there are not enough Thanksgiving fics out there, so I decided to make one. And, I am fully aware that they do not celebrate Thanksgiving in Japan. Maybe one of my loyal reviewers can tell me a holiday that they do celebrate. Anyway, this is a fic about the things in life that really matter... and, I don't think that it will be an average Inu/Kag. Anyway, I hope you enjoy chapter one of The Things I am Thankful For.

Love,

Earth Priestess Eden

Chapter One

Kagome sighed loudly. "Sit boy." She stated with a bored look on her face. Somewhere in the distance, you heard a loud thump followed by a long string of colorful words that are not appropriate even for a pg13 fic.

Kagome looked at Sango, her dear friend, and continued to explain about thanksgiving.

"In this holiday, we all think about what we are thankful for. That's why it's called thanksgiving." Kagome explained.

Sango looked confused. "Why is there a day devoted to that?"

Kagome laughed. "In the future, but the past for me, actually around this time, their as a group of people who landed on the coast of America after being lost on the sea for months. When they landed, they were greeted by the natives who accepted them as gods. I guess that's how it started."

Sango nodded understandingly before asking one last question. "Oh Kagome."

Kagome nodded. "Yes Sango?"

"What's America?"

Kagome smiled. 'This may take some time.'

Despite the distance that he was, Inuyasha still heard every word that was spoken. He snorted. "I guess that Kagome is going to want to go home for that stupid holiday." Inuyasha told Miroku.

"What holiday? There is no holiday coming up. Obon (pretty much the Japanese version of halloween, but it is in August, I don't know how you spell it so sorry if I spelt it wrong.) just passed." Miroku asked as he sipped the ramen, deciding that it was almost done.

Inuyasha sighed. "There is a holiday in Kagome's time that her mom asked me if I would come to. It's called thanksgiving. It's supposed to be a holiday that we all think about what we are grateful for."

Miroku stood to go and get the girls from the hot springs. "And just what are you grateful for, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha stared off in the distance. "Nothing has ever gone my way. What do I have to be grateful for?"

Miroku was about to leave when he saw the girl's walking towards the hut. "I can think of one thing."

Inuyasha followed Miroku's gaze to the girls and smiled as he saw Kagome laughing happily. Then she saw him and waved. He blushed slightly and looked away.

"I guess that I am grateful that I am going to get the shards." Inuyasha said with a smirk.

Miroku sighed. "That's not what I meant."

Inuyasha glared at Miroku. "If you mean what I think you mean you will be sadly disappointed. I have no feelings for Kagome."

Miroku sighed. "You know what, Inuyasha?"

Inuyasha looked at Miroku curiously. "What?"

"I think that you have only ever fooled one person with that lie."

And with that Miroku walked away with a huge smile plastered on his face. The girls didn't notice and Miroku gave them a 'special' hug. A loud thump could be heard as Sango adjusted her ungodly sized boomerang on her shoulders.

"Pervert." Inuyasha said, not even needing to look up to know what had happened. He smiled to himself when he felt Kagome enter the room. She took a seat besides him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"What?" Inuyasha asked in his usual voice though he really wasn't feeling up to putting on the act so soon after he learned that Miroku knew his secret.

"Inuyasha, are you sure that you don't want to come to our house for thanksgiving?" Kagome asked politely as she watched him hopefully."It's really fun. We eat lots of food and it's like a feast..."

Inuyasha stood. "I am not going and neither are you."

"What!?!" Kagome screamed in his ears as he turned away from her, glad to get a rise out of her. He actually liked to push his buttons because it was one of the few times she would touch him without feeling ashamed of touching him.

Inuyasha sighed. 'Why would she want to touch a filthy half-breed like me?' Actually he couldn't be farther from the truth. She was ashamed of touching him because she thought that he was still in love with Kikyo, who had recently passed on after the finally battle with Naraku, who had died pretty easily, and was ashamed that she was in love with him during the grieving process. But the real reason he was grieving was because Kagome would be leaving him forever soon. They only had a few more shards to collect.

"You heard me, I don't want you to leave." Inuyasha said as he continued to look away from Kagome's angry face. He may like the contact, but he couldn't stand to see her upset. It was an extreme dramatic irony.

Kagome didn't know whether to be touched or angry at this statement, but she did know that she was going home.

"Inuyasha, I don't care what you do, but I am going home!" Kagome screamed as she clasped on to Inuyasha's arm. Inuyasha looked at Kagome's hand and smirked.

"Is that a challenge?"

Kagome looked at him. "What?"

Inuyasha turned to face her and grabbed her hand to make sure that she couldn't get away. "Is that a challenge to my position?"

"Position?" Kagome asked looking at Sango and Miroku as if they could give her the answer.

Inuyasha pulled her arm closer to him. He placed it against his face. "My position as the alpha male in this group."

Kagome processed this thought for a few seconds before she remembered something that she had heard in science class a few years ago.

Flashback

"When a male dog is challenged, he immediately takes this as a threat or a game depending on who is is challenged by. If he is challenged by a desired female, he will accept the challenge and if he beats her in a fight, he will take her as his mate. However, if it is a male who is challenging him to his position or for his mate, the male will get extremely overprotective and fend off the male. If a male should challenge the alpha before the alpha has taken the female as his mate, he will protect her until she realizes what is going on. Then she will challenge the male and if he can give her a bite on the neck, she will have lost and will be his mate. The male would never hurt the female, so she would feel very comfortable around him. Once they are mates, they will do everything together. They will never be more than fifty yards from one another. The only way to break this life long mating ritual is to kill the male and claim the female as the prize."

End flashback

Kagome blushed furiously. "No! That's not what I meant at all! I am just..." Kagome froze up when she saw Inuyasha staring longingly at her neck. Suddenly Sango and Miroku knew what was going on and left the room. Shippo, however, was angry at Inuyasha.

"Hey! Leave Kagome alone!" Inuyasha snapped his head at Shippo and growled fiercely. Shippo stepped back slightly but still for the most part held his ground. He growled back, but nowhere near as fiercely.

Inuyasha let go of Kagome. "I always knew that you would challenge me to my claim..." Inuyasha slowly stalked towards Shippo almost happily. "You sleep with her every night. You bathe with her everyday. Don't think that I haven't noticed."

Shippo shook hard. "No Inuyasha! I don't like Kagome like that! She should just know what's going on before you try to claim her!"

Kagome stepped back. "Inuyasha... It's true?"

Inuyasha looked at her longingly and then snapped his head back at Shippo.

"She doesn't know Inuyasha. Don't just do this to her without her knowing!"

Inuyasha began to understand what Shippo meant. But that didn't matter. He had sat by for to long watching her leave him and go back to her time. He was sick of her leaving his side. He had already staked his claim and had fought for her for almost a year without her realizing. She kept challenging him without realizing it and he was sick of it. He wanted her. He needed her to never leave him again. He was going to make her his mate today. (A/N: Not perversely. He just wants to make it so that she can't leave him.)

"No, Shippo. I think that poor precious Kagome knows exactly what she does to me. I think she knows what a challenge is, and I am ready to take her up on it."

Shippo looked to Kagome for confirmation. Kagome knew that if she didn't agree to challenge Inuyasha (not that she would mind) Shippo would defend her and get his head ripped off. She nodded silently.

"I may know... something about the challenge." Kagome looked down shamefully.

Inuyasha grinned. "See Shippo? I knew that she couldn't have possibly challenged me so many times without realizing it."

Shippo let his head rise up. "Yeah! Kagome finally realized it!" (A/N: Wow, big mood change.) Shippo ran out of the hut happily. "Don't hurt her, Inuyasha! Just give her the bite and be done with it!"

Inuyasha turned to Kagome with a seductive smirk on his face. His eyes were almost completely red. Kagome took one look at him before she forced her head down.

"I can feel that you want me to win. You always have, haven't you?" Inuyasha didn't give her time to answer his question before he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her towards him. "This is going to hurt for a few seconds. Then it will be all over, Kagome."

Part of Kagome screamed to run and part of her couldn't stand the wait. It was a battle that she was having a hard time with, but she closed her eyes and whispered one word. "Sit."

Inuyasha ate the dirt as Kagome leaned down to him. "I am sorry Inuyasha but I don't think you know what you are doing. I think that you may be in heat and I am going to go home for thanksgiving and be back on friday. (A/N: In the fic it is Sunday.)" Kagome sighed quietly as she walked towards the door. "I wish that this could have been for real, but I think that your demon side is in lust. I am sorry, Inuyasha." Kagome grabbed her backpack and ran towards the well crying.

Inuyasha was regaining control of himself. "She... said that she wished..." Inuyasha would have been doing flips in his head if he wasn't so depressed that he had just been turned down by the girl that both sides of him craved. 'But she didn't turn me down. She just thought that I was in heat. She didn't want to take advantage of me.' Inuyasha chuckled at the irony of this and pried himself off of the ground. Slowly he stood, just as Sango and Miroku walked in the door.

"I take it you didn't win?" Miroku asked as Inuyasha stormed out of the house.

"Where are you going?" Sango asked as she saw Inuyasha's retreating figure.

"I have a feast to attend." Inuyasha yelled as he took off towards the well to Kagome's time. 'And I will be leaving with more than a full stomach.'

Eden-

Okay, that's it. I will update after my thanksgiving break. Sorry, but I only have computer access at school. Okay, sorry again. I will see you next chapter!

Love,

Earth Priestess Eden