InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ An InuYasha Christmas ❯ An InuYasha Christmas ( Chapter 1 )

An InuYasha Christmas

By Majicman55

Disclaimer: No, I certainly do not own any of the characters in InuYasha. I do enjoy playing with `em, though.

It was winter in Japan and this particular winter was turning out to be particularly cold and blustery. It was the type of night you wouldn't leave your dog outside.

Kagome's ears perked up as the wind howled and shook the walls. She pulled the mat that hung over their door aside and peered out into the night. “InuYasha!” There was a pause, and then the familiar red figure of her mate bounded out of the darkness and onto the roof above her.

The smiling hanyou looked down from his perch. “Whatcha want, Kagome?”

“Shhhh!” Kagome winced as she heard the stirrings of their pups (as her husband liked to call them). Once again, the boyish enthusiasm of her mate had awakened one, no two…no, all three of them. Why did they always have to wake when their father showed up? “Osuwari!”

There came a loud thud as the hanyou slammed to earth in mid-leap.

“Awww, Kagome! Why'd ya have to do that?”

“You woke `em. You help get `em get back to sleep.”

The hanyou struggled to his feet as the charm wore off and dusted his red haori. “You're the mom. You do it.”

“Osu—“

“Okay! Okay!” InuYasha entered their home and bent down on one knee as his “pups” rushed him.

“Papa!”

“Papa!”

The third pup still stood, rubbing his eyes to remove the sleep dirt. “I was sleeping,” he whined.

“Come to Papa.”

The third pup toddled into InuYasha's arms and the four of them were soon play-wrestling in the middle of the floor.

“They're all pups,” thought Kagome. “It's just that one of them's bigger.” But as she watched them play, the miko thought back to her own time and something she missed about this time of year. “Come to think of it, it's only a few weeks away.”

******************

“Oh, come on, InuYasha!”

“I ain't doin' it! It's stupid!”

“It's a harmless, little tradition,” answered the now-irritated miko.

“Look. Just `cause you think I resemble this Santa no ojisan, it doesn't mean you're gonna get me to go jumpin' down a chimney.” The hanyou looked puzzled for a moment. “And what's a chimney, anyway?”

Kagome realized that neither their house nor anyone else's house in this era had chimneys…at least not in the Santa sense. “Nevermind about that, InuYasha. Think of the kids and how much they'll enjoy it.”

InuYasha drew back. “You haven't been talkin' to them about this, have you?”

“Well…umm…as to that…”

The hanyou rolled his eyes. It was a lost cause and he knew it. “Just tell me what to do.”

******************

InuYasha sat, cross-legged, on the floor in front of their “Christmas tree.” Why Kagome had insisted on bringing a small pine tree into their home, he didn't know; but it seemed very important to her, so he had done it.

Sesshoumaru hadn't liked it much when he went to cut one on his property. Although they were on better terms, they couldn't resist throwing jabs at each other.

“You say you are going to set this tree up inside your home, InuYasha?” the Great Lord of the Western Lands had asked.

“I didn't say it was my idea.”

“Do what you wish,” declared Sesshoumaru as he turned and strode off. He had a grudging respect for his brother's mate even if some of her ways seemed outlandish, and this had to be something the miko had come up with. Yet he couldn't resist the opportunity for a well-placed insult - and, given that they were dog demons…

“It is indeed cold, InuYasha; however, this Sesshoumaru does not believe this tree is the best idea for indoor plumbing. “

“Bastard,” mumbled InuYasha as he slung the tree Tetsusaiga had just cut over his shoulder and went bounding off for home.

It had taken him some time to figure out how to set the thing up. There certainly weren't any “tree stands,” as Kagome had called them, to be had, although one of the carpenters from the human village had scratched his head and come up with an idea that involved nailing a couple of boards together and nailing that to the base of the tree.

Now one of the pups was asleep in his lap as the other two wrestled, threatening to topple the precious “Christmas tree” at any moment. But his mate looked pleased. She was busy making little decorations which she hung on the tree as she finished.

“Oi. Kagome.”

“Yes, InuYasha?”

“Your dad did this for you when you were a pup?”

The miko looked up from the ornament she was making out of small strips of paper. “Yes, InuYasha.” Kagome was deep in thought. “He died when I was very young, but I remember him doing this for us. It's another tradition borrowed from the west, although it's practiced in Japan a little differently than they do there.”

The “pups” had finally exhausted themselves and even the two wrestlers had fallen asleep. InuYasha helped his mate gather the pups and take them into their room where they laid them on their mat and covered them, careful not to wake them.

They returned to sit by the fire.

“Different, how?” asked the hanyou.

“Well,” answered the miko, “in the west, the holiday grew out of their religious traditions. But it's such a nice holiday, we couldn't resist borrowing some of its best features…although in our own way, I guess.” Kagome smiled.

“Like?”

“The kids get gifts, like they do in the west - and that's where the tradition of Santa no ojisan comes in - but for adults like us, the tradition is more romantic.”

“You mean, like when you want me to bring you flowers, and stuff like that.”

Kagome winced, but then smiled again. It had taken her a long time to get InuYasha to understand that even his mate might want to be romanced now and then, and exactly what romance was for that matter, but she gave him credit for trying.

“That's right, InuYasha. It's like that. Only adults like us would give each other something like a stuffed bear.”

InuYasha thought about that. The only bear he had run into in his travels was a moon bear youkai who had not been very friendly at all. Why anyone would want one of those things, stuffed or not…

Kagome saw the puzzlement on her mate's face. “It's a toy, InuYasha. Children sleep with them as a sort of play-friend. With adults, they've become something mates might give each other to show affection.

“Keh.”

******************

InuYasha checked his bag. All the gifts for their pups were there. In the past couple of weeks, he had watched and listened as Kagome filled the pups' heads with stories of Chtistmas and Santa no ojisan and how the jolly man in red would come to good little pups and leave them gifts for Christmas morning.

He had also not failed to observe how Kagome used the story to keep the pups in line. After all, bad pups wouldn't get their gifts.

The three had dutifully turned into Mama's little helpers and had even managed to avoid the daily fights that usually resulted in at least one broken item per week.

InuYasha noted the light going out in the pups' room. This was the first sign from Kagome that the pups were going to sleep. They had been told that Papa had been summoned to go with Miroku to drive out a bothersome youkai in the next village, and that their Papa wouldn't be back until late.

It helped that he had his hanyou senses and could hear the pups' breathing even from here. He grumbled when he realized that the excitement might keep them up for hours, but smiled when he heard his mate singing a lullaby. She could put power into those words. It was one of the few ways she used her miko power for “selfish” reasons. They would be asleep soon.

Sure enough, he heard their smooth, regular breathing only a few minutes later. It was time for “Santa no ojisan” to make his appearance.

Quietly, this time, InuYasha returned to his house in great leaps. When he reached the doorway, Kagome pulled the mat aside, giving him an unnecessary shush sign with her finger to her lips.

“I heard you singing,” he said. “I can hear they're asleep, you know.”

Kagome smiled. “I wanted to make things easier on you, InuYasha. I didn't want to leave you stuck out there on a cold night like this.”

“Feh! Been out in colder.”

“Well, come in where it's warm!” Kagome pulled her mate inside and let the mat over the door swing shut. “Got the toys?”

“What do you think?” The hanyou set the heavy sack down by the tree and began unloading the pups' gifts. “We're gonna have to be careful not to spoil `em, you know.”

Kagome giggled. “I know.”

Finished unloading the pups' presents, InuYasha reached into the bag one last time. “Oi, Kagome. There seems to be one last gift in here.”

“Really?”

Kagome accepted the crudely-wrapped parcel from her mate. It looked rather like a chicken that had gotten wrapped by paper blowing in a windstorm, but it was a gift, and it had her name on it. “For me, InuYasha?”

“Keh.”

She slowly unwrapped the strange-looking item. What emerged resembled a bear, but not really a Teddy Bear. It was more ferocious than that. In fact, it looked like it might eat you at any moment.

“Like it?”

Kagome realized that he had done his best. He had never seen a real Teddy Bear, so this was what he had come up with. “But I have no gift for you, InuYasha.”

“You're the best gift I could ever have, Kagome.”

Kagome looked at the bear again. Suddenly, it had become the most beautiful Teddy Bear any girl had ever received.

“I…I love it, InuYasha.”

******************

InuYasha looked up at his mate above him. An hour before, he had found himself on the floor at the base of the Christmas tree with his clothes being stripped from him. By his side, the “Teddy Bear” he had fashioned lay, rolled on its side. He looked up at his mate, again.

If this kept up, next year they were going to need a bigger tree.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

I have to apologize for not writing in a long time. It turned out that I have type 2 diabetes and that was making me ill for a long time before I emerged from denial and went to the doctor. Now I have it under much better control, although I also have a second condition which causes tremor and can make it difficult to type sometimes.

I hope you liked this story and I look forward to getting some reviews.