Part 2

AN: See? I'm back! Yay! I still don't own Inuyasha. I really think it's strange that you'd actually think that. No actually, it's just so I don't get sued for all of the money I don't have, but still... Anyway, just because it's something I started doing recently, it's reviewer response time!!!

Lil Dev G- I'm glad you like it! I hope you're not mad, though... (looks around for any glowing embers, lol)

Blackcat8610- Yay! Thanks!

Kato Shingetsu: Santa, eh? Hm... It'd be kind of hard for him to time travel, but... (thinks about it)

She had never really realized how much fun decorating for Christmas was until she started putting things up in Kaede's house. She made sure that none of the others, especially Inuyasha, were in there with her as she did it, otherwise it probably would have taken much longer since they had no idea about anything that she was showing them. She had finally finished managing to hang the greenery up on the higher areas inside, and cheerfully called to the others.

"It's ready!" she exclaimed. "There are a few more thing we need to do, but that all comes later!"

Inuyasha, Shippo, and Miroku carefully made their way through the woven curtain in front of the door one by one and looked at Kagome's handiwork.

"What the hell is all of this for?!" Inuyasha exclaimed, looking a little disgusted.

"Yes, exactly what spirits are you trying to appease with these plants hanging everywhere?" Miroku asked, looking carefully at the different items that hung around them.

"Uh..." Kagome started, wondering what words she should use, "we're not trying to appease a spirit! It's just how people have always celebrated this holiday for years and years!"

"I think it's neat!" Shippo said with a huge smile. "Did you bring back any more of those 'candy cane' things?!"

"Yes, actually, I..."

"But look at all of this!" Inuyasha interrupted, not looking very happy. "You got all of this green stuff everywhere and in all different shapes, and some of them have berries that really don't look like something I'd wanna eat, and you still say there's more?!"

"Well, yeah," she answered, wondering how he couldn't know this for some reason. "We still haven't put up the tree or put one of the wreaths on the door!"

"What's a wreath?" Shippo asked.

"Is it some kind of spell to keep the spirits from becoming angry?" Miroku added.

"No, it's one of these circular things," she answered, gesturing toward one she had hung inside. "Look, I know you've never even heard of Christmas, but trust me on this. If you want to know what it's like in my time, we need to do all of this."

"When do we get the presents?!" Shippo exclaimed. "I've all ready found mine!"

"We do that on Christmas morning, unless you're from a German family and then you do it on Christmas Eve," Kagome replied. (AN: I had to say that, my family opens them the night before and I couldn't deny myself my tradition)

"Well, when's that?"

"Uh," Kagome thought for a moment. Her sense of time always seemed to get thrown off when she was in the Feudal Era, which sort of makes sense, I guess. "Well, actually, we don't HAVE to open them Christmas morning. We can do it whenever!"

"You don't know when it is, do you," Inuyasha muttered. "You probably just made this whole thing up as an excuse to not look for jewel shards!"

"Well, Inuyasha, if you had any sense of telling time in this era, maybe I could tell you when Christmas is, but as things are now, I can't remember what day it is in my world!"

"Whatever stupid stuff you need to do outside, you'd better do it soon," Inuyasha grumbled, not wanted to get sat again. "The snow's really coming down."

Miroku went to the doorway and leaned his head outside. "He's right. It's all ready beginning to get rather deep."

Just then, Miroku's eyes widened with interest and surprise. A few moments later, a snow-covered Sango and Kilala made their way inside. Kilala darted in and got as close to the fire as she could, but Sango stopped the second she had her feet inside.

"What's all of this?" she asked, looking around.

"These are the decorations for Christmas," Kagome said, digging through her bag for another wreath. "Would one of you mind..."

At that moment, Kagome looked up and noticed something very interesting about where Sango was standing. She stared for a moment and then burst out into giggles.

"What?" Sango asked, eyeing the monk standing next to her to make sure he wasn't up to anything.

Kagome seemed too lost in her laughs and merely pointed up.

Miroku and Sango both looked up and noticed a small plant with white berries hanging in the door way. They stared at it for a few minutes, looking confused. "What is that?" Sango finally asked, reaching her hand up to touch it.

"Are we supposed to eat it?" Miroku added, looking like he was going to pluck one of them off.

"NO!" Kagome exclaimed. "Don't eat it!" She laughed a little again. "That's mistletoe!"

"What's that?!" Shippo exclaimed, seeming very excited about the newest concept to this holiday.

"Well," Kagome began, grinning, "it's a berry, that's poisonous I might add, and people like to hang it up in doorways during Christmas because..."

At this point, she was smiling slightly menacingly and walked over toward her two friends. "...if two people, or at least a boy and a girl, are caught standing under it at the same time..." at this, she leaned toward them, seeming way too happy for comfort, "...they have to kiss!"

"What?!" Sango exclaimed, looking from the berry, to Kagome, to Miroku, and then back to Kagome. "You're joking, right?"

"Nope!" Kagome answered, sounding very pleased. "It's a tradition! You have to do it!"

Miroku was now smiling from ear to ear, while Sango's face was giving the red in Inuyasha's outfit a run for it's money. Miroku looked down at her, still grinning, although she kept looking at Kagome, seeming desperate to find some way not to do this.

"Go ahead!" Kagome exclaimed cheerfully. Shippo and Kilala peered around her legs, looking confused, while Inuyasha snorted a little and started looking at the decorations again.

Sango finally realized that there was no way anybody was going to let her get out of this. She slowly turned her head to look at the incredibly excited monk and said, "I don't want you taking this the wrong way, Houshi-sama. I'm only doing this because Kagome-chan's making me!"

Miroku appeared to be smiling too much to answer her. He leaned his face closer to her, although she seemed to tense up and somehow turned redder than she was before. She didn't move as he brought his hands to her arms and kept on coming closer to her. Finally, Sango took a deep breath and shut her eyes as tightly as she possibly could and hesitantly brought her face slightly forward. Miroku had stopped for a moment to see what she was going to do, and finally continued to draw his face toward hers until their lips finally touched.

Kagome brought her hands together in a strange sort of clap and left them under her face, beaming proudly as though this were her intention all along for the berry. Shippo still looked confused, and Inuyasha snorted again while rolling his eyes toward the scene and then immediately back to the decorations.

Sango had appeared to loosen up a little bit, and she and Miroku still had their lips together. After a few moments, Kagome smile slowly faded to a look of slight confusion. "Uh, guys, that's enough..."

They keep their pose for a few more seconds, and finally they both pulled their faces back. They looked at each other for another awkward moment. Suddenly, Sango blinked and her face regained the red color it had earlier and Miroku's excited grin had returned as well.

"L-like I said," Sango suddenly stuttered out, turning away and walking briskly to the other side of the room, "K-Kagome-chan said I h-had to..."

Miroku watched her walk away, his face seeming much calmer, and it suddenly reverted back to the smile. "Well, is there anything else I should know about this celebration?" he asked Kagome, seeming exciting.

"Well," Kagome began, realizing what he was getting at and looking rather annoyed and disgusted at the same time, "there are a few other things, but nothing else that involves people kissing."

"Oh," he replied, looking slightly disappointed.

"What else is there?" Shippo asked, looking up at Kagome with excitement.

Kagome thought for a moment. "Here, let me get out some of the food so you guys can at least try that before we have the full celebration! We could probably do that tonight. With the snow and everything, it's a great day for a Christmas party! Then we can set up the tree and hand out presents!"

"Presents?" Sango asked, petting Kilala and still looking a little flushed. "But what if we haven't found anything?"

"That's fine!" Kagome replied with a smile. "It's your first time with this holiday, so I don't expect you have anything!"

"Well, I really like this 'Christmas,'" Miroku said, still smiling. Everyone glared at him for a moment.

Finally, Kagome went over to her bags and dug around for a bit. "There we go!" she exclaimed, pulling out several boxes. "Now, I believe you've all seen these candy canes..." she began, holding up a box of them.

Shippo suddenly raced forward and snapped them out of her grasp. "I'll take those!" he exclaimed, rushing to the corner and digging in.

Kagome watched him with surprise for a moment and then picked up another box filled with what looked like coins.

"You give out money for this celebration, too?" Miroku asked, walking toward her with renewed interest.

"Actually, these aren't real," she answered, opening the container. "They've got chocolate inside! Actually, these tend to be used for another holiday around this time that didn't become completely commercial, but they're used for this, too!" She pulled out a few and handed them to Miroku and Sango, Shippo being too interested in the candy canes and Inuyasha not trustworthy enough to take off the wrappers.

"I've also got..." she began, searching through another bag, "these!" she claimed, holding up a strange round item in a box. "This is called a chocolate orange. They took some chocolate and gave it a little bit of the flavor of that orange fruit I brought a few weeks ago. They even make it look like one! It sounds strange, but it's really very good." She took it out and slammed it against the ground. "There, you should be able to try it now!"

She opened the wrapper and left it there on the floor for whenever one of her friends decided to gain the nerve to try it.

Kagome took another bag and held it upside down, round red and white things with strange coverings falling out. "These are peppermints," she explained, unwrapping one so they hopefully wouldn't become confused by it. "They more or less taste just like candy canes, but they're smaller as you can see..."

Shippo, with his newest cane sticking out of his mouth, ran over and grabbed an armful, and then ran back to his corner. The other stared at him for a moment before Kagome reached into the last bag she had in her reach. She pulled out a few cups and a strange looking container of some kind. "This is egg nog," she said, starting to open up the container and pour a liquid into the glasses. "It's actually a very good drink. Sometimes people will put things similar to sake into it, but this doesn't...."

Inuyasha suddenly grabbed a glass and downed it all in one gulp. Every stared at him as he slammed the cup down. "What?" he asked, frowning back at them. "I was thirsty! And that stuff isn't too bad... Give me some more!"

Kagome blinked a few times and reached over and refilled his glass. Inuyasha kept guzzling it down, and the others managed to get in a few sips while watching him manage to finish off the rest of the carton.

"You really were thirsty," Kagome said, looking at the empty container. "Wow, I'll have to go home and get some more for later..."

"You don' need to ge' aemore," Inuyasha slurred, looking like he was going to fall over. "I thin' I've had enaf..." With a slight hiccup, he feel over, seemingly asleep. The others kept staring at him.

"Do you think he heard you say there wasn't anything else in it?" Sango finally asked, looking at Kagome.

She shrugged. "At least it will keep him from complaining while we finish with these things."

"Yeah..." Sango said, looking toward where Miroku had been sitting. "Wait a minute, where's Houshi-sama?"

Kagome looked around. "Uh, I don't know... He must have left while Inuyasha kept drinking the egg nog."

Just then Shippo, who had been busy with the candy canes and not really paying attention, decided to look around. "Hey guys, what happened to those berries that were hanging above the doorway?"

Kagome and Sango looked at each other a moment, and then sighed.

AN: Another weird place to stop? Yes. But I still have one chapter left and it'll probably be really long with the tree and what happened to the mistletoe and the party and the fluff. ...Well... That's the first time I've ever done a kissing scene XD! Well, unless you count that thing in "Only You," but that was different. Curse you, Rachel! Actually, those two are related. Before I started Only You, I wanted a good idea for a plot, and that's the scene she said, to which I replied, "That's more like 'A Very Inuyasha Christmas!' ...Hm..." Hee hee hee. She also said she wanted Inuyasha to get drunk on egg nog, and I didn't want Kagome to have alcohol, so I had him think he was drunk. Yeah. So stay tuned for part three, which I plan to have up on the 23rd or 24th for a nice Christmas present, as well as (hopeful) updates on my three main fics... I hope. We'll have to wait and see. I'll get working on those as you read this (since I'm posting this later than I finished it due to the dial up connection at my home). Please review so I know to keep writing!