December Drabbles

AN: A little late for Christmas, but just in time for New Year's! Here's my response to the five December prompts on The Deadliest Sin forum. I saw numbers and couldn't resist playing a little game, purely for my own enjoyment (although some may notice that two prompts are switched around). These are not chronological, in the same universe as each other, etc. They're just the first thing that popped into my head after reading each prompt. Enjoy!

Ribbon (100 words)

The female obsession with ribbon this time of year mystified Hiei. He'd never been the type of demon who would consider something as frivolous as ribbon to be a worthy subject of his thoughts. But when he stepped into the bedroom and looked upon his mate, he was speechless. His first logical thought was, "That's a big ribbon." There wasn't any logical thinking after that.

He did what any hot-blooded demon would do upon finding his mate clothed in nothing but a huge ribbon wrapped around her, tied off in a perfect bow at her breasts: he unwrapped his present.

Icicles (200 words)

"Thank you so much for tonight, Hiei," Kagome said as she smiled, leaning closer to him. "I'll never forget it."

He let loose his signature smirk before he closed the gap and kissed her, letting loose his youki, sending a relaxing wave of heat through her body, and relaxing her further against him. She stopped the kiss, smiling against his lips.

"But no matter what you do, or however much I wish this night would never end, I have my last final tomorrow, and I'd really like to graduate."

He let loose a sigh of frustration. "Fine, onna. But tomorrow…"

"Yes," she smiled, giving him one last peck, "Tomorrow."

Then she turned, walking into one of the support poles on the house's porch, prompting one of the many icicles to fall directly onto her head. "Ow! Ugh, I'll just sleep it off." She missed Hiei's angry look.

When she woke up the next morning, her mother was sitting in the kitchen, a bemused expression on her face.

"Mama?"

"The roof."

Kagome walked outside, turning around after a short distance, and couldn't help but smile. All of the icicles were gone, sliced off cleanly, as if by a blade.

"Thanks, Hiei."

Naughty & Nice (300 words)

"Come on, Hiei. Please?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"It's stupid."

"No, it's Christmassy."

"Hn. If that's your argument, then I'll use it as well."

"But red is so much better. And it matches your eyes."

"White is just fine with me."

Kagome let out a sigh of frustration, holding the length of red cloth tightly in her fist. She took a couple deep breaths, trying to return to her calm center. Sometimes being Hiei's mate was just too exasperating. The least he could do for a Christmas party was change the bandana covering his jagan to a more festive color! Especially since she'd already given up changing the rest of his monochrome attire. "Fine, then. We'll negotiate. If you agree to wear this, we can leave early, and do whatever you want," she whispered with a placating smile and suggestive tone.

"Hn," he smirked, "I'm not falling for that again, mate. We will spend no longer than two hours at this party."

"Deal."

He took the red bandana.

**

When the door opened, they were met with Yusuke's cheerful face. "Hey, whaddaya know," he said, looking at their attire. "It's a regular naughty and nice." This comment brought a round of agreement and laughs from everyone else. Hiei tuned it out, much like he did the next hour and fifty-eight minutes, watching Kagome around the males, taunting him with each sway of her hips, making him wish he insisted on a longer skirt for her. When the time was up, he promptly picked her up and raced back to their apartment.

"You know, Hiei," she said, slowly undoing her dress. "Yusuke wasn't completely wrong this evening." The dress dropped, revealing the sexy lingerie that was hidden under the innocent dress. "But you are much too straightforward to be the naughty one."

Snowball Fight (400 words)

If there was ever a time Kagome was quite happy to be one of the girls, sitting quietly and drinking her tea while the men went off and…fought, it was now.

"Oh, my," Yukina gasped beside her, "They're so intense!"

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet," Shizuru said before turning back to the action. "Come on, Kazuma! Are you gonna let that shrimp beat you like that in front of your girlfriend?! You just have to get him once, then Yukina's yours! Be a man!"

Kagome shook her head as she thought of how this all started. Just a few months ago, under her urging—after all, she wanted her babies and their aunt to know each other as true family—Hiei had revealed his identity as Yukina's brother to his sister. However, almost immediately, he began to use his authority to remove Kuwabara from Yukina's presence, despite both halves of the couple protesting adamantly, and their friends'—paritcularly Kagome's—best efforts.

So finally, a playful snowball fight had become a war when Kuwabara had accused Hiei of being a coward for not participating, saying he was scared of a little snow hitting him. Hiei responded with a challenge that if anyone was able to hit him with a snowball, he would allow Kuwabara to continue with his suit.

"And that was two hours ago."

Hiei could easily generate enough heat to immediately vaporize the snowballs before impact.

"Huh? What was that, Kagome?" Shizuru asked, now that there was another lull in the fight.

"Oh, nothing, just thinking out loud. Yukina, why don't we go inside and fix something up? I bet the boys are getting hungry." Yukina agreed, helping the very pregnant Kagome up and grabbing the empty teacups. Just a short while later, they returned with a plate stacked with onigiri.

"Come on, boys," she said sternly, making her way towards her mate, "You guys take a break now. There'll be plenty of time to continue your battle."

Hiei met her halfway, obviously upset that she would "strain" herself, but knowing better than to say anything right now. And while he was distracted feeling for their active children, she took the snowball she made and hid with her ki in the front of the shrine and hit him squarely over the head with it.

Slam dunk.

He glared.

"What? You spend way too much time on their relationship."

Stockings (500 words)

'The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that Hoteiosho soon would be there.'

"Onna, stop humming that stupid tune."

She slapped him playfully on the shoulder. "Really, Hiei," she laughed, "Stop being such a Scrooge."

He glared back at her, clearly expressing his opinion.

"Okay," she said with a roll of her eyes, "Why are you so against me getting into the Christmas spirit?"

"There is no logical reason behind your celebration of a Christian holiday." He continued smugly, "And it shouldn't even be celebrated in December. Humans are so foolish."

Before he could continue, Kagome rushed in front of the youkai and hugged him. "Oh, Hiei, it's times like this that I know you really care about me!"

"Wha--?"

She loosened her grip to give him a peck on the cheek. "You did your research! Or rather, you put aside your pride and asked Kurama."

Not wanting to admit that she was right—that finding out what this "Christmas" thing was to her was worth the humiliation of going to the kitsune—Hiei put his hands in his pockets, turned his head aside and let out a simple, "Whatever."

Kagome just smiled and continued walking. "It may not be a Shinto holiday, but it is a time when friends and family are brought together. And it's a great excuse to have a party." She paused, smirking, before adding on more thoughtfully, "Besides, it's less a question of religious identity and more an allowance due to grandpa's…eccentricity."

By this time, they had reached the shrine grounds and he could clearly see the strange old man sweeping the grounds white in an equally ridiculous pointed red hat decorated with some white fluff ball and antlers.

"In any case, Hiei, you are gonna come here tomorrow morning, right?" She said, drawing his attention to her. "Please?"

"Fine."

**

She hadn't said when he wanted him to arrive at her house that morning, but Hiei had decided the earlier the better. He really had no desire to celebrate "Christmas cheer" with her entire family. It was early, the sun just now rising, so he was surprised when, arriving through her window, she wasn't in her bed. He quickly found her energy signal downstairs, where she was fast asleep, a needle and thread and some cloth…thing in her hand.

As exhausted as she felt to him, he knew he wouldn't be able to wake her up, so he slowly extracted the thing from her grip. He was surprised to see it was something in the shape of one of the socks—no, the stockings—that hung by their fireplace. But this one, rather than the holiday emblems on those of her family, was a black dragon and fire, and across the top was his name.

As he was looking at the stocking, feeling the inner warmth only his Kagome could bring him, Kagome, sensing him close to her, opened her eyes and smiled. "Merry Christmas, Hiei."

"Hn. Merry Christmas."