Snow Day- (Late at Night) The reason I feel I should write down the good times instead of the bad, is so that I can look back on this journal and smile. I want to remember the good old days, not the bad old days. Those I can remember on my own, but it is the good times I want to focus on. So I will write this silly event in for it brought a smile to mostly everyone's face. November 14, and Kagome can't remember what day of the week it is. Oh well, such is life.

There's nothing quite like the first day of snow. I remember some of my happiest memories were recorded into my memory with the gentle fall of snow. Small little still frames of my life, perched on my father's shoulders, outside the shrine, making snow angels. Laughing, catching snowflakes in our mouths, heads thrown back trying to taste them until our necks hurt from trying to make sense of the gray sky. Paintings of us watching the snow fall from our safe porch, warm tea cupped in our hands while we were both shivering, trying to get feeling back into our toes and laughing all the same. And sometimes, sometimes if I dig deep into my memories, jagged and black as they are, I can remember my mother.

Same wide smile, same complexion, same love for life. I think… she was named for the snow too. Perhaps that's why father would look so sad sometimes, staring out the window and watching the snow dance around. You missed her, didn't you? I was too young to remember, too young to understand, and now that I'm grown, how well I understand. That fate will befall me too, one day, if I'm not quick to spread my seed or defeat Naraku.

Memories… this is what I hope this journal will be full of. Good ones. I apologize for clogging it up with such morbid thoughts, but I can't help but feel a bit sad. Days go by, and yet I can truly say today is one of the days I will hold forever and close to my heart.

Today was the first day that the heavens opened their arms and sent forth sprinkles of snow drifting lazily down to earth.

Snow… it's been a long time, old friend. It's been a while since this white blanket has been warm cover to me.

I awoke early that morning by the sound of Inuyasha sneezing, which in itself is a bit strange, mostly because he hardly ever sneezes. At least, he never sneezes around us. He sees it as a sign of weakness, though I can't really say why. I had heard him earlier come in, shivering by the sound of his clacking fangs, and his desperate attempts to warm himself. Now that I thought about it, I had been cold when going to tend the fire, but in my sleep clogged mind, I had failed to notice the puffs of smoke coming out of my mouth, all too ready to accept they were somehow made by the fire and not me. Cold does that to me, dulls my senses which might have been fatal had we not been in the protective vicinity of Kaede's hut. There isn't a beast alive who can get past Kaede.

Anyway, I awoke with a start, me being a light sleeper, and rose to see Inuyasha dusting his usually bright red robes off. They were coated with cold snowflakes, which continued to assault me as Inuyasha was flecking them in my general direction. And then it hit me, making me leap to my feet. I resisted the urge to yelp at the sudden change from a toasty warm temperature to an icy cold one, but instead ran like a child to peep out the window. And there, on the already frosted windowsill, danced snowflakes.

"It's snowing!" I cried, forgetting that I was of course, an adult now and shouldn't be so affected by the snow, but suddenly the majesty of it came back to me, full force. I loved the snow. It held dear memories for me, and it wiped clean all the ugly things that had happened to me. Without a second thought, I slipped on my sandals and had dashed under the flap of a door and was out in the snow, smiling widely. It felt nice.

I head Shippou and Kirara come out after me, both yelping happily and dancing around in the snow, singing some childish song about it. And I couldn't help but join in. I saw Kaede shaking her head and smiling at the foolishness of it all, Kagome's head peeking over her shoulder to see what all the commotion was about. And then her eyes widened, and she ducked behind the old woman and soon appeared, sporting her school uniform even though it wasn't going to be much protection against the snow.

She joined us, laughing and trying to sing even though she didn't know the song, while Inuyasha poked his head out. He looked about to snap something about shutting up, like he usually did when such silliness occurred, but seeing Kagome's happiness, his face softened.

A moment later, Sango was out with us, her arms outstretched, her eyes closed. She was smiling, a true smile as pure and beautiful as the snow. Kirara ran circles around her mistress, crying out in happiness, even though the demon was one of fire.

And then she ran over to Shippou and Kagome, who were trying to erect a snowman who looked like a certain half demon. Inuyasha, not missing this, let out a small 'feh', but posed none the less. Even if it was unwilling. The expression between both snow demon and half demon was almost close enough as to be scary. The snow demon even sported the same annoyed expression that Inuyasha currently had formed on his features.

Which gave me an idea… Sneaking away from the group, I started to assemble my own snowman. Or should I say snow woman? It was simple enough, since I had often gazed upon my muse, as artists would say, and knew her features so well. Should I have her dressed as a simple village girl? Perhaps the fiery demon slayer I knew her to be? In the end, I couldn't resist putting her in such a tight suit, and was just finishing her luscious bottom when I heard footfalls behind me. Too enraptured with my own creation, and still finishing the round derriere when I felt Sango's prized weapon slam into the side of my head, sending me flying.

I heard several choice words for me, even though my head was currently buried in the snow.

When I emerged, no worse for wear though a bit chilled, I saw that Kagome and Shippou had completed their snow Inuyasha and were giggling about it. Shippou was pointing out some of the finer traits that the snow Inuyasha had compared to the real thing, when a snowball hit his head. Shippou whipped around angrily, only to spot Inuyasha, whistling innocently, even though Inuyasha never whistles, nor does he do anything very innocently.

Scraping together his own snowball, Shippou launched one at the half demon, who was busy trying to destroy the snow Inuyasha, and it hit him right in the rear. Quite a funny thing to see, actually. Red as his clothes, Inuyasha slowly turned around, pinning Shippou with what had to be one of the most deadly glares he's ever pinned.

However, everyone but Inuyasha was trying hard not to burst out laughing, but when he fixed his glare on one of us, they would burst out laughing, and would thus trigger the rest of us into a hysterical bout of laugher. And then he started flinging snow at everyone, making everyone duck behind Kaede's hut. Within minutes, we had assembled a snow army, with a snow fort and everything.

Poor Inuyasha was left to fling snow (like a dog would dirt) at us while our wall held. Some how, we had managed to build a wall that hid Shippou, Kagome, Sango, Kirara, and I, and from there, we assembled an impressive amount of snowballs.

Both Shippou and Kirara would make the snowballs while the rest of us would cautiously peek over the edge and throw them at Inuyasha. I must admit, that I am glad that I was never against Sango, for she had formidable aim. When everyone tired of hitting only Inuyasha (who had dug right down to the dirt in his search for snow), that Sango threw a snow ball at me. And then erupting into shrieks and giggles, the whole snow match turned into a free for all. I know Shippou and Kagome had gotten me once or twice, but I was aiming for Sango. Following her while she darted, I pelted snow balls at her, once getting her on the arm. But that was only once.

The rest of the time, Sango would hit me in the face, behind, chest, legs, and anything else that happened not to be hiding behind a formable shield. But it was worth it. Sango was flushed a quite fetching color of red, and her laughter was floating around me like the snow. It was beautiful.

Later, we all crafted what Kagome called a sled, and soon took turns riding it. Mostly it was Inuyasha and Kagome, Shippou with one of the girls, and Kirara with Sango, though once or twice Sango allowed me to sit with her as we slid down the hill, whooping and laughing until we hit a rock or something and were flung out of it. Laughing, I would help Sango up, who was often not able to get up because she was laughing so hard. And when she took my hand, we would only double over helplessly and fall down. To my surprise, Sango didn't immediately kick me off of her when I landed on a compromising position on top of her. We just gazed at each other, her hair spread out like black ink across the snow, her lips as red as her eye shadow and her cheeks.

And then I would stand up and help her up, breaking the moment. Not yet Sango, not yet…

After we were done playing around in the snow, shivering, we all headed back to Kaede's hut where, dripping, we sat around the fire she had built and sipped hot tea. We laughed and joked, recounting the best hits (Sango of course), the Inuyasha and Sango snow people, how far Shippou had flown off the sled when he and Kagome had hit a bump, and countless other little things that were so much warmer around a fire, drinking in laugher like warm tea.

Author's Notes I told myself that I wouldn't leave these here, because this is supposed to be Miroku's journal, and his alone, but I just want to let all of you who review and like to read this story know how much I appreciate your feedback. When I first posted it up, I was deterred because hardly anyone seemed to like it. I continued, but at a much slower pace than I would have if I had positive feedback. I figured no one was reading it, so what was the point in updating? Many times I just thought about dropping the project, but I thank all of you who stuck with it for reviewing and letting me know how much you enjoy the story because I love writing it. I love Miroku as a character because I know he has depth yet no one wants to even go there. Kagome and Inuyasha are just ick. Sorry to say. And I want to give special thanks to sangofan89, Miako, and AnimeMiko15 for never failing to review! You guys are the best! And FavouriteKitten, your review totally made my day. I was on the verge of just deleting the story when I read your input and wouldn't want to disappoint someone as awesome as you. So enjoy. Sorry for taking up space in the diary. Er, journal.