I understand many people were confused by the last chapter. However, because none of your questions were precise, I can't give any straight answers. I probably made Inuyasha too introspective, but I said what I wanted to say - just consider him possessed for the duration of that last chapter ^.^

The timeline for *this* chapter starts right around the same time Kagome awakens to find Inuyasha in bed with her. Only it's in the Sengoku Jidai. So...enjoyment must abound!

Oh, and P.S. - I really *am* done now ^.^ This fic is OVAH! -Thank you, reviewers, one and all!

***

"Merry Christmas." Miroku smiled and pulled a handful of green from behind his back. His eyes sparkled as Sango recognized what he held. And, surprisingly enough, she started to laugh.

Her gift for the houshii proved just as meaningful when she let him hold it above her head and kiss her, though she blushed. Somehow kissing him in broad daylight was more frightening than under the cover of night, where there was no chance they could be seen. She felt watched, even though Shippou had taken Kirara to see if Inuyasha had gotten back, and Kaede had yet to return from the sick villager's home. It had to be the sun.

And yet, even under awkward circumstances, against her better judgement, despite the mild contempt she still had for him, kissing Miroku was wonderful. She pulled away to breathe, and his eyes opened, gauging her reaction. His arm dropped slowly, setting the makeshift mistletoe down and leaving his hand free. She caught both of them in hers, preventing him from what she knew would have come.

He grinned endearingly, waggling his fingers at her. "Okay, caught me. Thanks for the present, Sango."

She bit her lip. "Is that all?" she asked, surprised at how hurt she sounded. Sango hadn't meant to sound offended by his glib words, because she wasn't supposed to -care- so much.

His caught hands wrapped themselves around hers as best as he could. His smile grew taught, forced. "Do you want it to be all?"

Sango found herself at her most eloquent as she murmured, "Nuh uh."

"Nuh uh?" Miroku's grin became playful again. He kissed her and she let him.

"Uh huh." She smiled into his mouth. His hands started to move up her arms and she caught his wrists. "Slow," she murmured, and he whimpered. She smiled again, rubbing the insides of his wrists with her thumbs.

"Sango?" Miroku asked softly against her cheek. "Would you..."

"Bear your children?" she cut him off.

"I was going to ask if I could have my hands back, but that works too!" He laughed as she shoved him, pleased with his little verbal trap. She dove on him, muttering curses and punching at his arms, embarrassed for having walked right into it. He shut her up with another kiss, wrapping his arms up and around her shoulders, squeezing his fingers.

She had to pull away to laugh. "You can even grope my arms. I don't know how you do it."

"Want to learn?"

"Ooh!" Sango shoved him again for his heinous pun and was rewarded with reciprocation in the form of a bear hug and another kiss. Somehow, it was so easy just playing with Miroku, just messing around and treating everything so casually. Like he treated love. There would be agreements later, Sango promised herself, but the here and now made her feel special enough.

She jumped as a megawatt blush lit the hut and a familiar voice said, "Um..."

*

Miroku hadn't stopped laughing in the minutes it took Sango to gather her wits.

"So, how was Kagome?" she asked, punching Miroku in the gut. He coughed, but still chuckled as he clutched his stomach.

Inuyasha shrugged, looking everywhere but directly at Sango. "Fine. She'll be back soon."

"I'm surprised you didn't drag her..." Miroku stopped at a shout.

"Miroku! Sango! Inuyasha's...oh." Shippou peeked between Inuyasha's legs and had the grace to look sheepish. "Here. Eh, I couldn't catch him to stop him."

"Why would you know about..." Sango turned to glare at Miroku. "He -knew-?"

Miroku held up his hands in a placating gesture. "I just said I was wondering when Kagome would be back and he jumped at the chance to go!"

"But I'm not stupid. I remember what Kagome said about miss...the green stuff, and you smelled like you'd been up a tree." Shippou walked through Inuyasha's legs and took his place by his crayons. "Kagome's not back yet, by the way."

Inuyasha muttered, "Knew that." He glanced over to Sango and was mildly amused to see her battling with herself over whether to bash Miroku's face in for his audacity or kiss him for his sweetness. Then again, a similar mental war had been waged as soon as he'd pulled his gift from behind his back. She settled on slapping him, though half-heartedly. He noticed the nuance and grinned like a jackal.

Shippou, meanwhile, was putting the finishing touches on a drawing, one that he had been working on since Kagome had left the Sengoku Jidai, of her hugging him. There were little red hearts in the background, and he had taken the time to painstakingly color in between the lines. Inuyasha watched over his shoulder until the kitsune threw a crayon at him. "Stoppit!"

"Hey! It's not a crime to look, you know!"

Shippou pouted. "I want Kagome back."

Inuyasha patted his head a little more forcefully than was really necessary. "She'll be here soon, so quit whining. I hear it enough when you -don't- know she's coming back."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Inuyasha grinned uneasily. "What, uh, do you -think- it means?"

Shippou studied his face in that manner of his that often made Inuyasha suspect the kid was smarter than he was pretending to let on. "If you're going back later today, give this to her. Say it's from me."

Inuyasha took the picture before realizing what his agreement meant to Shippou. And he didn't feel like arguing. "Fine. I'll go and get her this evening," he said, passing the paper back down to the smiling kitsune. And, without another look at anyone, left the hut.

*

Kagome surprised them all by returning by midday. Shippou got to give her his drawing, and she hugged him tightly. "It's wonderful! Thank you, Shippou," she said, ruffling his hair. "Speaking of, I also got you something." She pulled a box from her backpack and presented it to him with a smile. "More crayons, and some paper." She winked, adding, "You're a promising artist." Shippou beamed with the force of her compliment as well as the gift.

She turned to Sango. "I was going to get you a can of mace, but I worried it'd be grossly misused." Sango's expression was, to say the least, hinting at her confusion. Kagome waved a hand. "Pepper spray to keep unwanted people away."

Miroku glowered for a second before Sango shot him a smile.

Kagome raised an eyebrow. "Well, I wanted to be practical," she continued as Miroku visibly brightened. "So I got you these." She passed a bag to Sango, and upon opening it, she found a handful of cloth-covered elastic bands. "For your hair," Kagome supplemented. "You always complain about the string catching in your ponytail."

Sango smiled. "Thanks." She laughed at the oddity of it. "Certainly thoughtful," she added, testing one between her fingers. It snapped off her hand and smacked Miroku between the eyes. "Very thoughtful indeed." Sango grinned.

Kagome laughed. "For Miroku, just because I saw it and was reminded of him," Kagome paused as Miroku raised an eyebrow. She pulled a small parcel from her backpack and handed it to him. He opened it and held the thing up. It appeared to be two nails, each bent around the other. "It's a puzzle. You've got to get the two nails apart without breaking them or bending them back."

Miroku was already busy messing with the thing, his tongue poking out of the side of his mouth in concentration. "In-teresting," he murmured.

"Who'd have thought?" Sango remarked, watching him.

Kagome shrugged. "He has his genius moments. I figured it was a more positive outlet."

"More positive than what?" Miroku asked. The girls exchanged a glance and grinned.

"Anyway, Merry Christmas, you guys. I just came back for now to drop these off, because I've got to go back and help mom put some things away. I'll be back in a few days, though." She turned to go.

"Wait!" Shippou cried. "What about Inuyasha?"

Kagome shrugged. "I'll find him, he'll find me. I've got his present with me, in any case. See you guys in a little while."

Miroku glanced up from his puzzle to share a look with Sango. Kagome's light words were saturated with an emotion neither of them knew how to correctly interpret.

*

"Kagome?" Inuyasha poked his head through her window and found her just coming into her room. She jumped.

"We do have a door, you know."

Inuyasha shrugged. "Feh." He climbed the rest of the way inside, hand on his hip. "The fox wants you back."

"Do you?" Kagome asked, half in jest. She made a show of hanging up the folded laundry on her bed. He stood there for a moment. She smiled a little. "I know the answer. But if you say it, it's really true."

"Yeah." Inuyasha looked down and wasn't prepared when she put her arms around him.

"Thank you." She released him and returned to the laundry. "But I've got to stay a few more days to help out around here. Grandpa's sick, for one, and..." She trailed off, her eyes darting nervously to the box still on her desk. She'd completely forgotten about Hojo once Inuyasha had come to her that morning.

Inuyasha caught the movement. "Smells like another guy. A guy I know."

"Hojo," she said softly. "He gave me a ring for Christmas."

Inuyasha stared at the box for a moment, before tilting his head up to meet her eyes. "Are you going to keep it?"

Kagome took a step toward him, as if to defend the innocuous box now behind her. "Yes, because it would be rude to give it back. It's just a gift."

"That's not what you said before." Inuyasha glared down at her, hurt flickering for just an instant on his face. "You said they were symbols of love."

Kagome quailed inside at the tone of his voice. Possessive, accusatory. "You," she said, her voice wavering only in the slightest, "should know. Of all people, you would understand, after what you said this morning." She took a deep breath and fisted her hands by her side. "I love a lot of people, so a lot of people are going to love me."

Inuyasha haltingly nodded, then bobbed his head again, bringing his forehead down to touch hers. "I just love you more."

Oh, was that ever good to hear. One could almost forget how stupid, how immature, how painful he was in the face of his admittance. As it was, Kagome smiled, blinking the tears out of her eyes, saying, "I know that. But I still promised Hojo I'd go to a movie with him."

Inuyasha snarled. "If he tries anything, I'll..."

"I can take care of myself," Kagome replied, almost laughing. "It'll only be this once."

"Once?" Inuyasha backed away to be sure he saw her nod. "Well, then." He blushed suddenly.

Kagome cocked her head. "What?" She watched him shift on his feet, uneasy and lacking any of his usual bravado. "What? Inuyasha..."

He cut her off with a quick, awkward kiss that painfully smashed her lips against her teeth. He pulled away, looking at the wall to his left, muttering, "Merry Christmas."

Kagome stood there in shock, words frozen in their tracks. Inuyasha hadn't stopped blushing, and she was sure she echoed his coloration. He turned to leave, when she reached out and grabbed his sleeve.

She held up a card, a little sheet of colored paper with symbols on it Inuyasha had no hope of reading. "It says, 'Present this coupon in Kagome's kitchen for all the ramen you can eat.' My mom thought it up," Kagome said softly, not releasing his sleeve.

Inuyasha took the slip and smiled a little. "Good idea."

"I told her she might not be able to find enough ramen in stores." Kagome turned her face to him and he saw she was smiling. "Merry Christmas, Inuyasha." And she reached up, tugged on his hair, and kissed the corner of his mouth. "I'll be back in a few days."

He looked down and realized he'd crushed the slip of paper in surprise. "Kagome," he murmured, glancing out to the evening sky. "How early can I use this?"

"Give her a few days' head start, at least," Kagome replied, looking rather bemused. "Before then, and Souta gets to pet your ears while you eat."

Said appendages flattened against his head, and Kagome laughed. "That's one way to make you patient," she remarked. Inuyasha rolled his eyes, shrugged, and went out the window. But before he dropped from sight, he repeated the foreign phrase that was somehow so good to say. "Merry Christmas, Kagome. See you soon."