InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Unacceptable ❯ Christmas Drabble ( Chapter 11 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha. That privilege belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and various holding companies.

Author's Note: This was written for InuGrrrl's 12 Days of Christmas Drabble series. She didn't like my insufficiently fluffy ending, so I had to change it to brazen fan-service. It's sappy and schmaltzy and I'm putting it here because I put all my stuff here, but no tears will be shed if you continue on.

You can find the entire series at her site Absolution. She did lovely narration for all of it.

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There was snow on the ground at the Higurashi Shrine, but it didn't make for a beautiful white Christmas. Thousands of visitors cramming the grounds for tours during the preceding week had ground the snow into a grayish, slushy pulp that made the overcast December skies look pleasant by comparison.

Kagome set her stuffed yellow backpack on a relatively clear patch on one of the top steps, chest heaving as she gripped a knee with one hand and her side with another. She'd been wishing all day that Inuyasha was around to help her with the bag, or just around at all. The place where the jewel had been reinserted after its completion ached. She figured it was from the cold.

She replaced the pack on her shoulders, and worked her way up the past few steps with a look of determination as she slowly made her way through the soggy mess towards a shed at a corner of the grounds.

Her brother bounded out of the house with a soccer ball, sliding a bit on a patch of ice but managing to stay upright as he came to a stop near her.

“I thought you'd be used to carrying that thing around by now?” he said in note of her awkward gait.

Any vestige of Kagome's smile was immediately erased as she responded, “I didn't have to walk much with it.” Any further exploration of those memories was set to the side as she approached the middle-aged woman shoveling snow away from the shed door.

“Ah, Kagome, thank you so much for getting those decorations for me,” the woman said, leaning the implement against the wall to open the door.

“No trouble. It was nice to finally get out for awhile,” Kagome responded with a brightness that didn't reach her eyes. Once again, she wished Inuyasha was with her, and once again gripped her side, grimacing a bit at the suddenly empty feeling.

Her mother had an inexplicable expression of mirth at the forced-smile on her daughter's face, understanding full well why her healthy daughter had not felt like wandering around since returning from the Feudal Era.

“Well, just clear a space for them in the shed, dear, and be careful. There are some things in there that are precious to all of us.”

Kagome nodded and stepped inside the shed, dragging the bag behind her. She slowly twisted it around in front of her in time to be confronted with a sight she'd been prepared to never see again.

At her current eye level, placed around a misshapen blanket-covered lump was a set of black beads interspersed with fang-shaped stones. Kagome's breath hitched as recognition of the object slowly set in, and she reached out slowly to rub the beads as recognition fully set in. She grasped it lightly in her hands, slowly lifting it off the cloth as her mother stepped into the shed behind her. Kagome turned to look incredulously at the older woman, tears now brimming in both of their eyes.

“When did you get this? Did you know he wouldn't make it back?” Kagome intoned quietly, her mother strangely unaffected by the look of accusation directed her way. Instead, the woman smiled at her daughter and said, “You got your wish. Merry Christmas, Kagome.”

“Merry Christmas?” Kagome's eyes blazed with confused fury. “I can't believe you wommmph.” She heard the sound of falling cloth behind her moments before she was suddenly dragged backwards into the place the rosary had been by a clawed hand over her mouth and an arm wrapped around her waist.