"Inuyasha! Sango-San, Miroku-San, Shippou-Chan!" The cheery, delighted voice of Kagome's voice called out as she climbed up the Bone-Eater's well in the Forest of Musashi, wincing slightly while cold, white flakes fell softly onto her face. It was winter, she had just been let out of school for the winter holidays, and she might as well bring Christmas to her friends! After all, it was a time of giving, not of greed! And, they could take a break just this once, couldn't they?
"Took you long enough to get back," Inuyasha grumbled, standing a few metres away from the well with his amber gaze on her, "Why'd you come when it's snowing though? This ain't no time for you to be getting sick or somethin'."
"I'm fine," Kagome responded in what she thought to be a calm matter, and as irritating as Inuyasha's comment was, it showed that he cared about her welfare. Smiling, she zipped up her new winter coat and stepped into the snow, wearing boots that protected her feet and lower legs from the deepening snow, and began to trudge towards Inuyasha. Still, the teenager couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that Shippou, Sango and Miroku hadn't come to greet her as well, but they were probably in Kaede's hut to warm up, so she wouldn't worry herself too much about it, "Let's get to the village then, I want to share something with all of you!"
"It'll take forever for us to get back at the rate you're going," Inuyasha grumbled before moving forward, picking up Kagome rather promptly in a way that caused a surprised noise to dislodge itself from her throat, "Come on, I'll carry you there. It'll go faster if I'm the only one on foot."
Normally, Kagome would have objected to being transported like this, but then her legs began to feel numb. She listened to the voice of reason and instead of using the sit command on her companion, she nodded in agreement a second before he took off. It only took a minute or two to reach the village while she was riding on his back, and despite the fact that there was no winter wind to chill the air, she got cold from the rushes of snow they went past. It was a relieving sight, the little village with each rooftop covered in white, and smoke coming from all of them to show fires burning in order for them to keep warm, it was almost like a Christmas Card!
Soon enough they reached the desired hut, Kagome could feel her face breaking into a smile the moment she saw the group of familiar faces around the fire, greeting each one in turn, "Guys, I have something to show you! They're a whole bunch of Christmas gifts for all of you!"
"Kr-is-t-mas?" Shippou blinked at the term, Miroku and Sango seemed just as puzzled as the young kitsune while Inuyasha frowned at the term, Kaede blinked a couple of times at Kagome before Shippou spoke up again, "What's that?"
"Christmas is a holiday that comes at winter time, I guess you wouldn't have heard of it yet," Kagome smiled gently at everyone as she took a seat between Sango and Shippou, and soon enough she launched into the explanation of the story of Chris Kringle and how he eventually became Santa Clause, not to mention having a holiday named after him that was all about giving to others and not thinking about yourself, "Do you think you get it now, Shippou-Chan?"
"Yeah, this Santa guy sounds great!" Shippou got to his feet with a big grin on his face, it almost made Kagome laugh but she restrained herself, "I'm gonna go get gifts for all of you guys, I wanna take part in this holly-day, too!"
"What's the point, Shippou? Greed's everywhere, even a fat guy in a red suit can't stop it," Inuyasha spat, and turning to him, Kagome glared at the hanyou. He was being such a scrooge, why couldn't he do something nice for someone else for once? "Besides, we don't have time for a stupid thing like Christmas, we've still got to defeat Naraku and get the rest of the shards of the Shikon no Tama."
"Osuwari."
A little bit of cruel satisfaction welled up inside of her as Inuyasha was crushed into the ground, but what made her feel even better about it was the warm laughter it brought to everyone else in the room. Then, Miroku decided to speak up, "I think Kagome-Sama's right, we should take a day to celebrate giving to others. Otherwise, we might end up consumed with Greed, like Naraku. Do you really want to be like that, Inuyasha?"
Inuyasha glared at Miroku before storming out of the hut, and that in turn caused a little guilt to swell in Kagome's chest. Then she turned to Miroku, who smiled sheepishly and was about to speak again before Sango interrupted, "Houshi-Sama, you shouldn't have compared him to Naraku, especially since we're supposed to be taking a break. Kagome-Chan, this 'Christmas' is tomorrow, right?"
"Right," Kagome nodded before getting to her feet once more, doing her best to keep a smile on her face and to suppress a small lump in her throat, "I've already got gifts for all of you, I hope you'll be able to enjoy them. But...I think I know where Inuyasha went, I'm going to go after him."
"Be sure to come back as soon as you can," Shippou pleaded, and Kagome felt a little better as she nodded. They all cared so much about her, and Christmas was all about being with those you cared about after all. She'd have Christmas Dinner with her own family the next day, but on Christmas Eve, she'd spend it with her friends in the Feudal Era.
"Don't worry Shippou-Chan, I'll take care of myself," Stepping out into the cold once more, Kagome immediately spotted some footprints, and knowing they belonged to Inuyasha she followed them into the forest of Musashi. It seemed like her assumption was correct, for the teenager was heading in the general direction of the Sacred Tree, and sure enough she reached the clearing where Inuyasha was standing in front of it, looking at the bare mark. He must have missed Kikyou so much...
"Why'd you follow me, Kagome?"
Kagome blinked before she could feel a smile tugging at her lips, her feet dragging her through the heavy snow to approach the hanyou before her, "I wanted to make sure that you were okay. You seemed a bit upset when you left the hut."
"I'm not upset, just leave me alone," Hearing Inuyasha grumble this, Kagome let a sigh pass through her lips before turning to leave. After all, Inuyasha probably wanted some time to think things over before coming back, not to mention he probably needed to cool off from the comment Miroku had made earlier. However, what caught Kagome by surprise was the feeling of arms wrapped around her from behind, arms adorned in red fabric, "Wait...I wanna know more about this 'Christmas' business."
Although the fact that he was bothering to come this close to her made her blush, Kagome smiled and nodded before she turned to face Inuyasha again, allowing speech to pass through her numbing lips, "It's a time of the year when everything stops, just so that family and friends who care about each other can really spend some time together. People even give presents to each other to show their appreciation, but that part isn't exactly-"
"Presents, huh?" Inuyasha mumbled distractedly, right before nodding and dashing off into the woods, leaving Kagome standing there and feeling stunned.
"Inuyasha, come back!" She called out, although by then it was too late and he was already out of sight in the snowy forest. Even if he had heard her, he probably wouldn't have listened anyway, Kagome tacked on as an afterthought, and with a sigh did she begin to head back to the village. Maybe she had offended him in some way? ...no, she couldn't think of anything she said that would hurt Inuyasha's feelings, or make him angry...
"Kagome-Sama, you're turning blue! Get in here, you need to warm up!" Miroku had been on waiting duty for Kagome to return when she re-entered the village, and with her escort was Kagome led back to Kaede's hut and forced to sit down in front of the fire, a blanket being wrapped around her shoulders, "You'll get sick if you stay out too long, but...did you find Inuyasha?"
"I did," Kagome nodded, although she sighed and that provoked everyone else to take a glance at her, "But he ran off. I don't know why, I didn't do anything..."
"Don't worry about it. Inuyasha might have gotten some of that 'Christmas Spirit' you were talking about earlier, child," Kaede reassured, and that made Kagome feel a little better as she nodded and allowed a smile to show on her face, "Now, have some stew, it will warm you up, if only a little."
Later on that evening, Kagome had shared her gifts with everyone, those gifts being a variety of baked goods. She was returned with smiles and with everyone else saying how badly they felt that they couldn't give her anything in return, but the teenager continually insisted that their thanks was more than enough and that she was grateful they could spend some time together, "Now, Christmas is actually tomorrow, but having it tonight with you guys means that I can spend the holidays with my family tomorrow, too. Being with you here is enough, after all, you're my friends!"
However, everyone in the room jumped when Inuyasha came back, holding something wrapped in a strange brown paper while his shoulders were draped in snow, "What're you all staring at? You act like you've never seen me before," Grumbling, Inuyasha stuffed the package in the corner and sat around the fire, warming himself up.
It was nightfall, and everyone but Kagome and Inuyasha had fallen asleep. Kagome's eyes drifted over to Inuyasha, who was dozing in the corner, but rather than making conversation, she turned her gaze back to the dwindling fire in the centre of the hut. The sound of movement made Kagome jump slightly, and the next thing she knew, the mysterious package Inuyasha had brought back in was being held in front of her, "What? Fine, Merry Christmas. Will you open the thing now?"
Surprise overtook her, for his harsh tone was expected but the fact that he was actually giving her something was overwhelming. Slowly and numbly did Kagome take the present, carefully tearing the paper so that she wouldn't wake anyone else up, but when she opened the paper, the girl felt like she wanted to cry. It was...it was a beautiful necklace he seemed to have made himself, with a wooden pendant shaped like the Tetsusaiga hanging off of the centre, "It's beautiful..."
"It's a charm, meant to protect you when I'm not around," Inuyasha mumbled, looking away, although Kagome saw that he was blushing a bit, "I thought you'd like it."
"Inuyasha, I have something for you too," She felt her lips pull into a smile as Inuyasha turned back to her, blinking a couple of times before she pulled his present out of her bag, "I hope you'll like it, it took me a while to make it."
Inuyasha also carefully took off the wrappings of the gift, for the last thing he wanted was for everyone else to notice him going soft and being nice, at least that's what Kagome thought. However, she felt warm as he smiled, it looked so warm and honest, that was the first time she'd seen him smile like that, "Thank you...I'll treasure it."
Kagome trod over to him and gave the hanyou a hug, and she could feel him returning it with the wooden rose statue in his right hand pressing against her back, "Merry Christmas, Inuyasha."