A/N: You guys totally deserve this chapter. Also, I hope everyone is doing well and you're not stressed. I've been trying to write more in between classes and am searching for some form of stress relief as my praxis test is this week and financial aid is taking their sweet time.

Disclaimer: I own nothing and am not making profit off of this. I just think Kyoya and Kagome are a decent couple.

It was funny how an odd assortment of materials could create something so unique. It was a band of wood reddened from the dye in the thread of the fire rat and a light sheen coating that only magma from a magical volcano could possibly give it. The thread from the robe of the fire rat was somewhere in the heart of the wood protecting the ring from any element of nature ever destroying it. To prove his point that the ring was indestructible, Totosai had asked both brothers to try and destroy the ring. Inuyasha's sword had bounced off the ring. Sesshomaru's acid hadn't even left a blemish. It had all flaked and dissolved away around the ring as if being repelled by its power.

A translucent gem the shape and perfection of a smooth circle sat atop the ring. To any eye from afar it was like a pearl in its shape and texture. Upon closer inspection the jewel was anything but a pearl. It seemed to reflect all the colors of the spectrum when hitting the right light.

Its mate ring, the smooth wooden male counterpart, sat within its own matching small box that Totosai had provided on the house. The duo ring holders weren't actually boxes, more of a pair of shiny black rocks that opened up. The old wrinkled man had stated that such a ring deserved a unique box to be carried in. "Just be good to the wench," Inuyasha had stated when Totosai had handed him his robe back after the creation of the jewel.

The light of the setting sun hit him and Kyoya felt a twinge of sadness that such a day had to end. Anticipation had his hands sweating as he placed the box back in his pocket. From where he stood at the top of the shrine, peering down the steps at the city below, it all looked separate from this shrine. This ancient piece of time that stood a testament to tradition that wouldn't allow the city below to eclipse it as it stood high on the hill. Inside the house Sota and Shippo were running around making the kitchen as colorful as possible. Grandpa Higurashi was keeping an eye out for Kagome to send her to the back without going through the house. And Mrs. Higurashi was preparing a feast to be reckoned with. The tantalizing smell of roasted meats had his stomach growling in anticipation.

He would ask them. Not yet. Later.

Asking her first was more important. He needed her to know that he valued her opinion above all else.

Kyoya leaned against the walls to the well house, waiting on the stone pavement that came before the wooden porch steps. Waiting for Kagome to come home. Waiting for her answer. And most of all, waiting to see if a miracle would happen before the day was over. She was already making a believer of him in regards to miracles happening. It wasn't a matter of luck that everything happened the way it had. Hell, he was beginning to believe, despite the strong rational mind he'd been nurtured with, that it had been fate that had led him to that grocery store that day. Fate had led to that angry mute stomping on his foot and incurring his avid interest. It'd all been sealed before his foot had even bruised.

Supposedly, Inuyasha and Sesshomaru had alerted Sango to what was going on, who in turn would bring Kagome home soon. Their word was gold, so he knew she'd be back before the sunset. Why the sunset? Why not immediately when the ring was made? "Every moment deserves a right setting," replied Totosai to his impatience.

It would be fitting, wouldn't it? He accepted his past. The memories of another. The life of another. And his life separate from Miroku's. He accepted her past, her life, who she was, and knew that who she was becoming would be a woman unlike any she'd ever been in this life or the past ones. The sky tinged a beautiful orange and red as he glanced down at his false glasses that Sesshomaru had bought to replace the ones in the ring now. It had felt odd without them.

Light footsteps grabbed his attention as he hooked the glasses in the pocket of his shirt. Kagome waved at him as she came through around the house, much to her grandfather's cajoling, and headed towards the well house. The shrine priestess paused as she caught sight of him. The wind tousled his onyx hair and her heart paused. For a moment, Kyoya had looked like without the glasses… he had appeared like… but he wasn't and she could clearly see that with the light cast down on him. Shadows of Miroku. The hair, the way they both stood, and those eyes could real a girl in. But those eyes were more cold silver than laughing violet. More troubles than lighthearted. He was no ghost of the past love and was only the man that was Kyoya.

Footsteps resumed. The nearer she came the more sure Kyoya was of his question. Kagome she reached out upon nearing him, unhooking the glasses, and placing them back over his eyes. Completely unaware was she that her very actions had helped settled his nerves. The glasses were as much a part of him as any limb on his body. The light caught the luster of her black hair curling around her shoulders and he knew even before the wind chime hung up on the well house blew as if sending luck his way...

This was it.

The time was now.

"Kagome, I have something to ask you." A question she'd been asked before. Why did he suddenly feel as if he was being sent into a test he hadn't prepared for? He'd practiced enough in front of Shippo and Sota to earn a lifetime of teasing. "I don't care that we're still in school." Technically she wouldn't either. She'd married before, much younger, and they were soon to graduate. "We're both geniuses. We're both more than capable of a future." Facts. He was good with facts and numbers. "I've talked it over with Sesshomaru and he agreed to allow me a sort of internship after school. I know I can obtain a high position by the time we graduate." He pushed his glasses up on his nose before taking her hands in his. "We can work together…" For once, Kyoya lost his words as she stared up blankly at him with cerulean eyes.

He needed more. Something she'd understand: his heart.

And so, Kyoya knelt down in a timeless tradition that made her mouth open up and eyes shine with a sudden knowledge at what he was attempting to say and having a fool's time doing it. "From the moment I met you, you stomped on my foot, you beat me with flowers, you opposed every single thing I did when no one else would." The only woman to see him for the real man he was behind the façade. The only woman to stand up to him. "And I fell in love with you for it." The smile washing over her face was a sure sign he was doing well.

Kyoya fumbled for the case in his pocket. "Kagome, marry me." He poured his heart out to her in the most selfish sentence he had ever allowed himself to utter. "My life without you would be unbearable." Vulnerability was not something Kyoya was used to, but Kagome already knew his chinks and flaws. There was no one in the universe he would rather be exposed to, rather be at the mercy of.

Everything he'd done for her. Everything he was still trying to do. It wasn't a matter of him doing things for Kagome. There was no reason to ever prove his love, but it was a matter of how he went about protecting her and likewise how she did so for him. Their equal standing and care for each other. Kagome didn't want to be separated from this man. Ever again. In this life or the next should it come to that.

And it happened.

The long awaited admittance happened.

She was unconditionally in love with this stubborn man.

She was ready to start a new life with him.

And like that, Kagome thought she heard the strings of her shamisen play even though it was nowhere near her. And she knew. She just knew.

Kyoya was wondering if she was ever going to mercifully answer him as these thoughts passed through Kagome's mind.

When those peachy lips began to move he watched them adamantly waiting. It was the longest seconds of his life. And yet the ones he would remember for as long as he lived. That precipice moment before the world began to burst forth with waves of hope and optimism. The moment Kyoya truly felt was the greatest milestone in the history of the world.

The moment Kagome spoke.

And it wasn't the continued plea for an old lover she shouted out or revenge or desperate cries of agony or mantras of a spell. The first word out of her mouth was a feeble, "Yes." Then once more as her voice gathered strength, "Yes, Kyoya, yes!" Hands clapped over her mouth in astonished glee before she threw them away rejoicing this long lost ability. She couldn't stop. "Kyoya, yes! I'll marry you!" Once the name tumbled freely off her mouth she wanted to keep saying it without the hesitation she'd been so used to having from speaking broken words. "Kyoya!" She relished this ability to speak again as she flew into his arms. The ring case clattered to the ground, but it didn't matter as he held her in his arms on the stones. And Kagome was finally able to voice the very thing she'd had to keep to her heart for lack of a voice. Now she could say it forever out loud and not with meager hand gestures. "Kyoya! I love you! I love you! I love you!" Lips sought his and a flurry of kisses spread across his face. The taste of tears mixed with love and there was no knowing whose tears they were.

"The curse is broken," he whispered. "Tell me it's broken, Kagome." More words. He couldn't get enough hearing them.

That meek little quick nod speared to his heart. "It is!" Finally, every bit of her throat worked and she could hear the tinkling of her voice once more. That which was lost was reclaimed in its full glory. What had broken it? The only thing that had been going on in her mind was the overwhelming sense of joy and love she'd had for Kyoya. Kyoya leaned back laughing and watching as Kagome touched her throat, tracing it in awe as she said his name once more and felt the vibrations against her hand. No stuttering, no pauses, no straining or pain, and no hard gasps of breath. It was all fixed. All because she'd found a new song to sing. A new reason for life. Her soul mate.

"I can speak, Kyoya." The tears were ever present as the sun set behind them. Quick foot patters were heard followed by a sudden burst of bright confetti streamers shot around the couple coming from the firework poppers her family had been waiting to unleash. Shippo had notified them when it was appropriate timing to bother the couple with his acute hearing waiting for the moment. He almost hadn't been able to hold himself back. They laughed and it was cheer all around for everyone to hear Kagome's voice.

"The ring, show us the ring," goaded her mother. Faces crowded around them while Grandpa Higurashi lolled on in his long winded manner about how he'd always known the curse would break at the shrine because it had been blessed for centuries yada yada.

Kagome looked sheepishly back at Kyoya. Dimples dotted her cheeks at her admittance, "We didn't even get a chance." With peals of laughter, Kagome reached out for the box and handed it to Kyoya. It was his honors to present to her. To the future Mrs. Ootori.

"Oh my." Mrs. Higurashi had to dotted at her eyes with the bottom of her apron for the tears springing forth. She only wished her husband could be alive to see this.

"Wait til you see it," puffed Sota, happy at his own hand in the ring making. Totosai had found an avid learner in Sota. He'd given the boy metallic mitts made from the underside scaling of a dragon so he could lift the ladle of hot magma to coat the wooden ring giving it that special glossy sheen.

Kyoya finally managed to open the box and slid the ring along Kagome's offered finger. He helped her up as the family "oooh'd" and "ahh'd" before turning to make their way back towards the house. But Kyoya didn't follow them. He stood his ground and called to them, "Wait. There's something I have to do." He knew it was the right thing to do. Not just that Miroku would've done it, but that he had to do it. Never had he been so quickly accepted in a family. Never had he viewed such love from such kind people as if he were already one of their own.

And Sota witnessed what he'd always hoped one person in the entire world would do for his sister. The proudest man he knew got down on his knees, in the dirty earth next to his mother's vegetable garden, and kowtowed before his family with Kagome watching rapt with wide shining blue eyes. "I'm not worthy of your daughter, Mrs. Higurashi. But I humbly ask that you give me permission to try and make her happy for the rest of her days." His heart was in his eyes as Kyoya looked from one family member to the next.

It didn't matter that they all knew what the answer would be. It just mattered that he'd asked. That he wanted them to know that he would do everything he could to make sure they would have a happy life together. This time around their Kagome wouldn't be on the run from anything. She'd be able to settle down and have a family without worrying what the future would bring.

Mrs. Higurashi's face glowed with joy. Only one other man had ever come seeking her daughter's hand and she'd agreed then just as she knew she would now. Neither man had a hope to earn a cent. With Miroku, a traveling monk, and now Kyoya, a disinherited son. One man had been without a family and this man might as well have been. The only difference between the man before and the one now was that this man would have the chance to be with their family and so would Mrs. Higurashi's daughter. She hadn't been angry knowing that Miroku and Kagome had planned to stay in the past, but Mrs. Higurashi wasn't exactly displeased that Kyoya could give Kagome a future in the present with them. If anything she was overjoyed how the turns and trials life brought could bring things right side up again.

"I can only agree to your terms on the condition that you give her one thing."

Whatever it is he would give it. He didn't care for the price. He'd find a way. "I'll do it."

"Love."

And there it was. A real smile lit Kyoya's face that transformed the cool Shadow King of the Host Club into another being entirely. A trusting young man who didn't need to hide anything from these people. It seemed the more time he spent with this family the more Kyoya was able to present a real smile, not one of pretense to guile a customer or any of his father's associates. "Kagome will not lack for it."

Arms opened wide for him in a mother's embrace. It had been a long time since anyone had welcomed him so familiarly to a place he could call home. Kyoya willingly went into those arms and was held by a mother not his own. A mother who'd already treated him warmer than his ever had. "Then welcome to the family, Kyoya." And he finally had something he'd never realized he'd wanted. The complete and utter love and admiration of a family. He'd never believed it could be more important than anything wealth or privilege could have ever brought him.

For once, Kyoya was happy to be proven wrong.

A/N: The wind chime bit is in some parts of Asia it is seen as good luck, also a way to ward off evil spirits. This story is totally almost done. Also, just wondering, random question... anyone a fan of video games?