Tis the Season
by That'sMyFiasco
On the eighth day of Christmas...
He hated the sky. It did nothing but look sorry, grey and spit out wet stuff on the poor saps who lived under it. He hated the trees, too. All grey and brown, just like the dead flowers and dying grass. Actually, he was pretty sure he hated everything.
It was the morning of the second day after Kagome had gone home, and Inuyasha was perfecting his "I'm sulking" expression. He could tell that Kaede was sick of having him underfoot, and so had decided to go pace around the well, on the off-chance that today was the day that Kagome was coming back.
However, as he approached the well, he noticed something lying in the middle of his usual path. Inuyasha's attitude towards his unsolicited presents had turned from anger to astonishment to a morbid curiosity. This one seemed to have come out of nowhere, just like the others, lying there with no trace of the giver.
Finally, he picked it up, holding the box before his eyes before lifting the lid and tossing it aside. On a piece of tissue paper in the box lay a single red rose, soft and real and captured in the perfect moment of full bloom. The scent rising off it was intoxicating, calling forth unbidden memories of his mother and a childhood that had happened too long ago.
Suddenly, as he tucked the bloom inside his haori, a soft calling from the bottom of the well caused him to perk up his ears. "Inuyasha? Are you there?"
He didn't bother to answer, simply sticking his head over the side and smiling his first real smile in days.