Disclaimer: I forgot to put one of these in my last chapter... no one seemed to notice though; I guess you all automatically assumed that I wasn't the owner of Inuyasha. What was the point of me writing them again, then? I mean if you already know...

A/N Yay! Snow day! Heh heh, I'm glad you liked Miroku's 'dress', Fiery Love. It came to me in a brilliant flash of insight... Miroku's purple robe from the anime... a nice purple night gown that's completely plausible and realistic... Bingo! (My dad wears a night gown...he says it's warmer... Don't ask me, though, he can be a little odd when it comes to certain things.) If you notice, Inuyasha's P.J's kinda matched his outfit from the show, too. But unless I wanted Kouga in a miniskirt (I know, a toga, loincloth, whatever...), I couldn't really work as brilliantly with him. Oh, and sorry, but yeah, the two main snowboarders were Hiten and Yura. I was just trying to get as many fairly main characters in as I could for at least a brief cameo, and since they're evil in the show anyway, I figured... But they're not too bad in this... I mean, this whole fic is just good, clean, wholesome fun! (With some fluff later on of course.)

Alrightly, on with the fic! What lies in store for our heros, heroines and villains in this new and fun-filled chapter? Read on...


"Hey! Kagome!!!" Ayame cried in unison with Kouga as Kagome pushed them down the hill. As she sped up, she turned in her skis somewhat to attempt to slow her descent.

Kouga skied up next to her as they were still rocketing down the run. "Don't snowplow!" he shouted. "There's a couple snowboarders coming after us so you're gonna need all the momentum you can get!"

"Momentum?!" Ayame asked nervously. "I don't get along with momentum very well! Our arguments usually result in my face greeting a tree or the nice, cold, snowy ground!"

"Well, then I may have another idea!" Kouga shouted back. "See that bend in the run up ahead?!" When Ayame nodded, he continued, "When we go around that, follow my lead!"

He crouched down a bit, enough to pull him ahead of Ayame. As they approached the turn, Ayame glued her eyes to the back of Kouga in order to imitate whatever action he might take.

Rounding the curve, Kouga cut sharply to the side, heading straight for the trees at the side of the run. He came to a complete stop as soon as his skis lodged into the thick snow banks at the edge of the hill, and he quickly popped out of them and picked them up. Ayame did her best to copy him, and did so successfully if not smoothly. As soon as she had grabbed her vacant skis, Kouga pulled her into the coverage of the trees and shoved her to the ground next to him, his arm across her shoulders, as they observed the hill.

Not two seconds later, two snowboarders shot past their hiding place and further on down the hill. The pair in the trees let out a sigh of relief simultaneously and relaxed. Standing up, Kouga held out a hand to Ayame to help her up, too. Ayame gladly accepted, realising now why Kagome had shoved her and Kouga down a hill together in the first place.

"Ready to keep going?" Kouga asked her, picking his way back to the groomed hill to put his skis back on.

"Sure am," Ayame said, grinning at him and making a mental note to thank Kagome later. "As long as we don't run into any more homicidal snowboarders out in search of our heads on a platter."

Kouga shrugged. "It's unlikely. I mean, they've probably already gone into the chalet for their between-runs resting period. Their damaged lungs probably can't take more than one run at a time," he added, snorting in laughter at his own joke.

Ayame gave him an odd look. "Right..."

Kouga stopped laughing to look at her. "It's true!" he protested.

"Uh huh..." Ayame said disbelievingly.

"Oh, come on, you found that funny, right?"

"Uh..."

"I can't believe you!" Kouga said, throwing his hands up in the air. "You're impossible! I mean, now I'll have to spend probably the rest of the afternoon alone with a girl who has no sense of humour! If only this mountain weren't so big, it'd be a sinch to find the others..." he trailed off, muttering.

Ayame frantically tried to change his initial impression of her so as not to get off on the wrong foot. "No, no, no! I actually found that joke absolutely and incredibly hilarious! I mean, hahahahahhahahaha! That was so funny!" she said, attempting to make her laughs as realistic as possible.

Kouga eyed her speculatively. "Sure..." he said in an unconvincing tone.

"Oh, forget it," Ayame said darkly.

Kouga shrugged. "Let's go, then."

They skied down to the first chairlift they found, since they didn't feel like going completely down the mountain. There was no line-up and so they were able to share the quad* chairlift alone together.

"So..." Ayame began once they had boarded. "What are some of your favourite things, Kouga?"

Kouga adopted a thoughtful expression.

"Don't hurt yourself or anything," Ayame joked.

Kouga's look vanished as he smirked at her. "Ha ha. But... hmmm... I don't know... I like skiing, obviously, uh... video games... movies-comedy and action mostly... um, animals are cool; especially wolves..."

Ayame's face lit up. "Really? Wolves are my favourite animal, too! They're so neat; I have a ton of books on them."

"Seriously?" Kouga asked with interest. "Did you bring them up with you? I might like to look at them."

"I didn't bring them all up, but I did bring one or two," Ayame offered. "You're welcome to come over sometime and see them."

"That'd be cool," Kouga agreed. "What interests you?"

"Hmmm, well skiing, too, but I'm not nearly as good as you, obviously... I like romantic comedy movies... Oh! I love swimming! I'm actually on my school race team," Ayame said proudly.

"Awesome," Kouga said. "Ever win?"

"But, of course," Ayame responded with false arrogance. She and Kouga shared a laugh. "Well, every now and then," she added afterwards.

Riding a little further up on the chairlift, they spotted the snowboarders who had chased them before once again sitting in the middle of the hill below them.

"See?" Kouga said to Ayame, gesturing towards the snowboarders. "That's what happens to them when they don't go back into the lodge for their in-between-runs rest. They can't quite make it down the hill and they feel the overwhelming urge to clutter up the middle of it while they catch their breath."

This time, Ayame snorted with true laughter and watched as Kouga turned back towards the hill.

"Hey! What'd we tell you about filling up the run with your fat asses?!" Kouga yelled down to the snowboarders.

Ayame tugged on his arm. "Uh, I don't think..."

"Hey!!" cried one of them, who was slightly chubby. He had a dark braid trailing down his back like the snowboarder they had talked to the day before. "I'll tell my brother what you said, and then you'll be in for it!"

Kouga rolled his eyes. "Oh, no! Not your brother! What ever shall I do?! Ayame, save me from the big bad brother!" he said, looking at her imploringly.

Ayame fought hard to keep back her giggles. "Um, you probably shouldn't have done that," she scolded him, but the effect was somewhat lost by the fact she couldn't help but laugh at the expression on his face.

"Come on," the snowboarder beside the whiny boy, a girl with a low brown ponytail, said. "Let's go down. We can't catch them by staying here."

"Like you could catch us at all!" Kouga yelled sarcastically as they started down the hill.

"Man, they're going to want to kill us even more, now," Ayame said, slumping back in her seat.

"Well, as I said, they're not going to catch up with us, so there's no reason to worry. I mean, even if they do manage to by mysterious means, they're going to have to get through me to get to you," Kouga offered.

Ayame gave him a small smile. "Thanks, Kouga." Then, with a serious expression, she added, "I'll be sure to give you a proper burial."

"That's all I ask," Kouga said in an equally sober tone. Then, laughing, he said, "This afternoon might not be so bad after all!"

~*~

"This afternoon is going to be the worst of my entire life!" wailed Sango as she eyed Miroku who looked like his birthday had come early. They had escaped the snowboarders by branching off onto another run and had now arrived at the top of the mountain via the gondola.

"Isn't this great, dear sweet Sango?" Miroku said. "We finally get to spend some quality time alone together!"

Sango groaned. "I'm going to kill Kagome when I get my hands on her! I knew she was going to get me back somehow, but this is just cruel and unusual punishment!"

"May I ask what you did to Kagome?" Miroku asked curiously.

Sango shrugged. "I shoved her down a black diamond as a warm-up run. I mean, that was just a little joke, and it wasn't that bad, but this...! This couldn't get any more horrible!"

Miroku curious expression turned to one of hurt. "Am I really that bad, Sango?"

Sango felt a pang of guilt. "Uh... well, what I meant to say was-" she cut off abruptly when she Miroku's hand found its way to her butt. "Pervert!" she screeched, jumping away. "And, yes, you really are that bad when you do things like that!"

Miroku looked at her suggestively. "So what you're saying is that when I don't do those 'things', I'm not that bad."

Once again, Sango was left speechless. "Uh... I didn't..."

"I knew it!" Miroku crowed. "You do love me!"

"That's not what I said!" Sango snapped.

"It's what you implied," Miroku pressed.

"It's what your perverted mind interpreted," Sango gritted. "Now let's keep skiing before your imagination runs wild."

"Don't think you lost us!" came an angry shout suddenly from behind them.

Turning around, Sango and Miroku spotted the two snowboarders they had thought they had shaken earlier coming quickly towards them. One of them was the initial boy Inuyasha and Kouga had insulted, with the long dark braid, and the other was a girl with long, wavy black hair, and an exotic look about her.

"It could just be me, dear Sango, but now might be an opportune time to flee," Miroku said calmly.

"You know, Miroku?" Sango said conversationally. "I was thinking the same thing."

With that, she pushed off and propelled herself down the nearest hill, Miroku following close behind. About halfway down the hill, Sango caught an edge** in the uneven snow and she soon skidded to a halt. Concerned, Miroku stopped abruptly beside her.

"You alright?" he asked. When she nodded, he continued, "Because we should probably keep going or else they'll catch up to us."

Looking over his shoulder, Sango said, "Too late." The two snowboarders stopped a little below them so as to block their escape path.

Glaring at them with his bright blue eyes, the boy spoke up. "Don't feel so confident now, do ya?"

"I beg to differ," Miroku said. "I'm feeling very confident."

Sango turned to look at him in disbelief. "You are? About what?"

Miroku shrugged. "Lots of things. Like how the sun will rise in the east tomorrow, how the world is round, how Inuyasha and Kouga will win top places in the competition next week, and how these losers couldn't trap or harm us even if our feet were chained to the ground."

"Real funny, smart ass," the girl said in a voice devoid of emotion as she flipped some of her hair over her shoulder.

"I thought so," Miroku responded.

"How exactly do you expect to get away from us?" growled the boy.

"I think they're bluffing, Hiten," his female companion said neutrally.

"Oh, but are we?" Miroku asked rhetorically. "Because it seems to me that you'd have a hard time stopping us if we decided to leave. What do you say, Sango? Have you had enough of this?"

Sango nodded and started to push off after Miroku who had already begun speeding down past the snowboarders. As she began to pass them as well, the girl reached out and grabbed one of her poles, effectively halting her descent. Frantically, Sango lashed out and whacked the girl's arm with her other pole. Letting go of the pole she had been grasping with a cry, the girl sunk to the ground, cradling her arm. Tears welling up in her eyes, she turned and looked imploringly at Hiten.

As Hiten went to see if she was alright, Sango rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on, I didn't hit you that hard. You are so faking it to get his attention."

Without Hiten seeing, the girl shot Sango a dark glare that sent shivers down her spine. Regardless, Sango was never one to be intimated and so stood her ground.

"Well, you are! You're so obvious; I can read you like a book," she continued, not noticing how furious the girl was becoming. "It's not like it's even original. I mean, hundreds of girls have used the same trick!"

"Rrrgh, I'll get you!" the girl screeched, getting up and starting to come down the hill at Sango, leaving a confused Hiten behind.

Sango, finally noticing the effect of her words, let out a brief yell before tucking and racing after Miroku. "Mirokuuuu! Heeeeelp!"

Skidding to a halt at the bottom of the run and flinging snow up at a waiting Miroku, Sango panted heavily. Grabbing a snowy Miroku's arm, she pulled him to the boarding area, babbling her head off. "They're coming, oooh, they're coming, and she is so pissed! Help me, Miroku, she wants to kill me! Gotta get away!" she kept mumbling as they hopped on a scant chairlift ahead of the girl and her companion, Hiten.

"I will of course help you, my sweet Sango," Miroku replied gallantly as he draped his arm across her shoulders. "In any way, shape or form," he finished, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

Snapping out of her frantic state, Sango pushed Miroku abruptly away from her, muttering, "Pervert. You're never serious, are you?"

"Being serious all the time makes you miss out on all the fun things in life," Miroku said wisely. "I mean, would you rather live serious and miserable or carefree and happy?"

"Um, option B?" Sango answered hesitantly.

"Exactly!" Miroku exclaimed. "That way you have no worries and you're infinitely happier."

"I guess so..." Sango said. "But you do need to be serious some times. Some situations demand it."

"Undoubtably," Miroku agreed. "But now is not one of them. They're only snowboarders, not the apocalypse."

"Hmmm, I guess you're right..." Sango said thoughtfully. "So this is actually more like a game; a not-entirely-friendly game."

"If it pleases my Sango to think of it as such," Miroku said. "I know you're probably worried about being caught, but if it makes you feel better, Inuyasha, Kouga and I have never been caught before."

Sango nodded for a moment before the meaning of his words sunk in. "Wait a minute. You've done this to snowboarders before?!"

Miroku suddenly assumed a nervous expression. "Uh, maybe once or twice... What's it to ya?"

"Is that how you get your kicks?" Sango demanded. "Do you do it at every hill?"

"Maybe..."

Sango gave him a flat look. "I can't believe you."

"You still love me, right?" he asked innocently.

"In order for me to still love you, there would have had to be some love present in the first place," Sango said.

"Ouch," Miroku said, clutching at his heart. "You wound me, Sango. You truly wound me."

Sango rolled her eyes. "Get over yourself. Meanwhile, the snowboarders are on the chairlift directly behind us. We're going to have to think of someway to get away from them."

"Never fear, dear Sango," Miroku said. "For they will have to take time to buckle themselves into their boards before they can come after us, which will give us a chance to escape."

"Hope it's enough time," Sango muttered.

When they reached the end of the chairlift ride, they skied as fast as they could to and down the closest hill. Not looking back, they trusted their head start would be enough.

~*~

"Faster!"

"I can't!" shouted Kagome at Inuyasha who was urging her to quicken her pace. "I just can't ski any faster!"

"Man, you really need some lessons!" Inuyasha called back.

"Excuse me?!" cried Kagome. "Are you saying I can't ski?!"

"Not very well!"

"Why you-!"

"Hurry up, slow ass!"

"Inuyasha, you get back here right now!" Kagome screeched, crouching down and finding a sudden burst of speed.

As Kagome came in line with the arrogant racer, he flashed her a grin. "Much better!" he called.

He insulted her just to get her to go faster? "You jerk!" Kagome yelled back, though only half-heartedly.

"As long as I'm keeping up my reputation!" Inuyasha shouted casually, as if they weren't in the middle of a high-speed chase. He chanced a look back at the three snowboarders on their tail. "They're gaining on us! Follow me!"

Inuyasha turned into a little trail at the side of the run, Kagome and the snowboarders following. Inuyasha and Kagome took all the twists and turns through the trail, but it was clearly not designed for snowboarders and their pursuers soon either were stopped by tree roots or the thick snow banks they ran into when they weren't fast enough to turn. Emerging from the trail, Inuyasha and Kagome branched off onto yet another run in the hopes that the snowboarders wouldn't know which way they had gone.

Still desperately skiing, Kagome lost control of her movements and her skis shot out from under her. She rolled and flipped a few times down the hill until she stopped by landing upside down at the base of a tree.

When she was finally able to open and focus her eyes, she saw a laughing Inuyasha who had stopped directly in front of her.

Kagome growled. "Yeah, you're laughing now," she said as she whacked the backs of his knees with one of her poles. His knees automatically bent and he landed on the backs of his skis. With his weight further back, he began to gain momentum and slide down the hill.

"Kagome!" he yelled in irritation.

Picking herself back up and gathering her strewn equipment as Inuyasha brought himself to a halt, Kagome called, "That's what you get, jerk!"

As Kagome skied down to where an impatient Inuyasha waited, he said, "If it wasn't for me, you would have been caught by those snowboarders. And this is the thanks I get."

"If it wasn't for you," Kagome said, poking him in the chest with her pole, "They wouldn't have been coming after us in the first place!" With that, she pushed off with her poles and skied down the rest of the hill.

Inuyasha grumbled and followed her down to the double*** chairlift. Once there, he said, "But life would be awfully boring if there's was no excitement to spice things up."

Kagome glared at him. "I hardly think that irritating snowboarders is a good way to find la joie de vie. You can ride this chairlift by yourself, pal."

"Fine, then," Inuyasha shot back. "Maybe I will."

"You do that," Kagome said, turning back around to await her turn to board.

Looking around, Inuyasha spotted the three snowboarders from earlier, the girl who had spoken to them yesterday and two other boys, coming down the hill towards their chairlift. Seeing there was no line up behind them and that their nemeses were fast approaching, Inuyasha skied up to Kagome who was preparing to get on the next chairlift.

He grabbed Kagome around the waist, resulting with a squeak from her, and pulled her more quickly towards the chairlift. They boarded it, Kagome shooting Inuyasha a glare. "I thought you were taking a separate chair."

In response, Inuyasha shoved his thumb behind them indicating the snowboarders who were following them up the chairlift.

"Oh," Kagome mumbled. "Great..."

"Hey, pretty boy!" called the girl with the red headband securing her short black hair. "Why don't you let us catch up with you? Then we could have some real fun; especially with that pretty silver hair of yours," she said, grinning malevolently.

Inuyasha lifted his goggles off of his face to rest them atop his head and turned to face them. "Hmmm, let me think about it... uh, no."

"Oh, my god!" cried the boy sitting beside her, looking as if he were about to faint. "It's Inuyasha! I'm like your biggest fan!"

The girl smacked the boy upside the head. "Idiot! You're not supposed to worship him! We're trying to make him pay for what he said yesterday, not devising ways of licking his boots!"

"B-but it's true!" the boy protested. "He's so amazing! Hey, Inuyasha, can I get your autograph?!"

"Shut up!" the other boy, who was alone on the chairlift behind them, shouted.

Inuyasha blinked. "Uhhh... This is unexpected..."

He turned back around when he heard a giggle beside him. "Something funny, Kagome?"

Kagome shook her head as she tried desperately to suppress her giggles.

"Really? I suppose you're shaking from the cold, then?" Inuyasha asked in a playful tone.

Kagome looked up only to be trapped by Inuyasha's intense golden gaze. As if his eyes compelled her, she burst out laughing. She laughed so hard, she clutched at her sides and leaned on the surprised boy for support. "You-you've got a-a fanboy!" She managed to get out between giggles.

"A what?!" Inuyasha squeaked.

"A-a fanboy!" Kagome repeated, tears of mirth forming in her eyes.

"H-hey, stop it! I do not!" Inuyasha protested.

But Kagome found the concept so funny, she continued laughing her head off until they reached the end of their ride. Inuyasha had to drag her up and away from the lift, supporting her all the way to next hill. "Oi, Kagome, they're going to catch us if you don't snap out of it!"

"Oookay, I'm good now," Kagome said, a few giggles escaping her here and there.

"Then let's go!" he said, diving down the run.

"H-hey! Wait up!" Kagome called, making sure the snowboarders were delayed by buckling themselves into their boards before shooting down after him.

Inuyasha immediately led Kagome through a path to the next hill so the snowboarders would be unable to see where they had gone. He then slowed down in the middle of it and waited for Kagome. When she stopped beside him, he said, "Okay, I've decided you desperately need some ski lessons so I'm going to instruct you myself."

"How generous of you," Kagome said in a dry voice.

"Isn't it? Now, the first thing we're going to do is something I mentioned earlier; rolling your ankles." When Kagome nodded, he continued. "We'll just do it on this gentle slope here. Just go straight and then try to roll your ankles back and forth," he instructed before pushing a little ways ahead of her to demonstrate. Stopping a bit further down, he turned and said, "Now your turn."

Kagome pushed off gently and tried to imitate Inuyasha as best she could. She felt off balance and she could do it better on one side than the other. Finally stopping near Inuyasha, she winced, expecting him to berate her.

"Pretty good," Inuyasha said slowly. "I think you'll just have to practice that a bit more before we try anything else. You'll know when you've got it perfected; it'll feel natural and you'll be in complete control. Practice on every gentle incline we come across and when you feel confident with it, tell me, okay? We'll advance from there."

Kagome nodded, struck dumb at his sudden kindness. It surprised her, but it also made her want to perfect the technique in order to gain his approval.

"Okay, keep that in mind, and let's continue on," Inuyasha said, looking up the next hill to make sure no skiers or snowboarders were coming down before pushing off and practically flowing down it.

Kagome watched in awe as all his movements seemed to meld together in a flawless pattern as he swayed back and forth down the run. He was amazing in his ability to ski and he had just demonstrated some kindness towards her a moment ago. Maybe he wasn't such a bad guy after all...maybe.


*A quad chairlift is a chairlift built for four people. Makes sense, doesn't it?

**Catching an edge refers to your ski edge catching in the snow and usually resulting with you falling or losing control.

***A double chairlift is...dun, dun, dun... a chairlift built for two people! Didn't see that coming, did ya?


A/N Yay, this seven and a half page chapter is finished! I meant to get it out yesterday, but it wasn't quite done.

Okay, now it's time to play a little guessing game! The snowboarders are all characters from the anime, so it's up to you to figure out who they are before I post the next chapter. There's seven in all and I've named Hiten and Yura. The two unnamed girls aren't really bad guys (you don't really know whether the second one is evil or not), but the rest are. I didn't really describe the second boy who was with Yura, but let's just say he's associated with the first. Alright, that's enough clues, time to cast your bids!

Oh, and Beautiful-Stranger01, thankies muchos for you know what! It's crazy how some people can think so alike and I think miraculous coincidences are ingrained into my schedule... yep, I've got one scheduled for 10:00 tomorrow morning! ^_~

Anyways, hope you guys liked this chapter, and there'll be more adventures with the couples next chapter (this one was getting too long)! I'll try to get it out as soon as possible! Talk to ya later!