Alright, alright… this is it! I tried to keep it short and sweet. Thank you for all of your patience and kind words; I am unbelievably sorry it took me this long to conclude this story.

Disclaimer: For the last time, I don't own Inuyasha and am making no profit from this.

Epilogue: Because We Can

Kagome plunked the paper bags she was carrying onto the kitchen counter. A loud clunk announced the sheer amount of cans she had crammed into them. "Hey, guys! Help me unload the groceries!" From deep within the house, she could hear signs of life. Like ghosts, several members of the household drifted into the room; everyone who answered her order was a little gloomy and sullen.

"Do we have to?" Inuyasha whined, grabbing Rin by the waist and lifting her, shrieking, onto the kitchen table. She sat at the edge and kicked her dangling feet. Her wide grin and scattered giggles made Kagome smile despite the bad vibe she was getting from the rest.

"Kagome was kind enough to do the shopping," Kagura admonished, slipping past the others with more bags in her arms. She dropped them down next to Kagome's and reached in, pulling out a few items at a time and piling them nearby.

Inuyasha grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest. "You don't even live here; why the hell are you here all the time?"

The red-eyed woman turned on him, her hands on her hips with the talons digging into her own flesh. "Want to know why? Really? It's because I love your company that much, that's why."

With a frown, Inuyasha came to stand between the two women and started to put away things that needed to go on higher shelves. "Don't have to be such a bitch about it," he muttered under his breath.

Kagome shot him a dirty look, and then tilted her head in Rin's direction.

"She's heard worse."

"You're so stubborn," she grumbled. He could hear the smile in her voice, so he figured he wasn't in too much trouble.

"I'm stubborn? I'm pretty sure hell would've frozen over before we ever got together if I hadn't taken the first step," he countered anyway, unable to let a fight go.

"You took the first step? I told you I loved you days before you told me!"

Inuyasha snorted. "Yeah, and I was unconscious."

"Still," Kagome retorted sourly, ignoring the amused glances Rin and Kagura were sending their way. This had to be the fourth time they'd had this conversation since Inuyasha had returned from the hospital three weeks ago.

"I'd been trying to tell you for months," he pushed.

"Ha!" she snorted, shoving another bag in his arms. "We all know you were incapable of feeling feelings until recently."

"Whoever said," Miroku stated wisely as he and Sango entered the already cramped kitchen with grocery bags of their own, "that the bickering would stop once you two were finally together must have never met you guys. I think you argue more now than you did when you were still pretending it wasn't obvious you wanted to be all over each other."

Inuyasha turned his bag upside down over the counter, letting everything tumble out and hit the hard surface with an array of noises. Everyone in the room was glad Kagome hadn't been dumb enough to give him the bag with eggs or jam jars. "Why does everyone come to my house?"

"It's the biggest," Sango answered reasonably, methodically unloading her own bag and putting the rice and cereal boxes into the cupboard. "And you'll never admit it, but you love having us over all the time."

"Feh."

"Eloquent as always," Sesshoumaru said, sticking his head into the room. "Kouga and Ayame are here. Must she cling to him like that?"

"Ayame's in love," Kagome explained. Sesshoumaru stared back at her blankly. "Granted, Kouga still seems… a little… unconvinced, but Ayame seems like the kind of girl that gets her man."

"You call that a man? Why would anyone want him?"

"Inuyasha!"

"I hate having him in this house almost as much as I hate having you," Inuyasha indicated Kagura with a sharp jab of his finger, "in my kitchen. I thought you got your own apartment."

"I did. It's just not furnished yet. You're lucky I found anything at all in just three weeks; I can't believe you made me move into a hotel until I could settle in," Kagura argued bitterly.

"The police and everyone are being so detail oriented on the kidnapping case, checking into everything… which is good, don't get me wrong, we don't want them to make a mistake and let anyone go free… it was for the best to get you out of the way." Miroku slipped between the two before an all-out brawl could start. He placed a hand on each of their chests as if they were about to lunge at each others' throats, despite this being a very mild argument for the two. Kagura quickly smacked his hand away, not even given it a chance to grab a squeeze. "We should just be happy that they finally gave up on Detective Yagi; I still can't believe there was such a public outcry when the defense started attacking his character."

"I didn't know that many people actually liked him."

"Inuyasha!"

"What?"

"Again with the bickering…"

"Miroku!"

"Yes, my dearest fiancée?" Miroku responded, drifting to Sango as though wings were attached to his ankles.

"Stop making unnecessary comments," she ordered, grabbing his sleeve and tugging him out the door towards the living room where everyone else was gathered, waiting for Kagome to return with the snacks from her quick grocery store outing. Now that all the bags were inside and most were unpacked, the brunette figured the couple could get away with backing out of the crowded kitchen. "And technically a woman has to say yes to a proposal before she can be called the man's fiancée. And if it really comes down to it, the man has to actually propose."

"But dearest, I thought putting the ring on your finger while you were asleep was a proposal! Very romantic, if I do say so myself."

"All I thought when I woke up was that we'd done something I'd regret while we were drunk and I just didn't remember it. You're lucky I like the ring," Sango grumbled good-naturedly, a smile taking the edge away from her words. Kagome spotted her eyeing the ring fondly as the two lovebirds disappeared down the hall.

"Can you imagine them married?" Inuyasha asked, shifting through the jumbled contents of the three bags he'd emptied into one big pile on the counter. Everyone else was nearly done. "I hope they have all daughters and the pervert has to deal with boys chasing after them all the time."

"Hurry up," Kagome commanded, almost patiently but not quite. Beside her, Kagura collected the brown bags and piled them under the sink. Afterwards, she picked Rin up and swung her to the ground. The two females exited as well, leaving Inuyasha and Kagome as the only two in the room. "Who's all here?" Kagome asked, leaning her hip against the counter and folding her arms over her chest. The result was a lot less aggressive as it was when Inuyasha did it.

"Everyone we wanted, and some we didn't… like Kouga and Kagura."

"Humor me."

"Fine. Sesshoumaru, Rin, Kagura, Kanna, Miroku, Sango, Kohaku, Souta, Shippou, your mom, Kouga, Ayame, Keade, Myouga…"

"Kikyou didn't come?"

"She phoned; thanked us for our hospitality, but told me that she had to work."

"The others?"

"Anyone I didn't name couldn't make it. We are having a random, late party for Christmas, which is celebrated by a religion that most of the people here aren't even a part of."

"Well, Mr. Sour-Puss, it's the spirit of the thing! You know, fun decorations and gift giving… the commercial aspects. I thought it'd be nice and light-hearted. I know we missed Christmas, but not by much," she said, arranging some snacks on a plate.

"I guess we could all use some fun," he conceded, scratching at his ear with an annoyed expression. "But did Kouga really have to come? And I noticed you didn't buy any ice cream. You still owe me!"

Suddenly, a high-pitched squeal reached the couple in the kitchen. Inuyasha, melodramatic as always, clamped his hands over his ears and pulled a face at his (finally) girlfriend. She glanced back and forth between the doorway and his expression, blinking. The blank look she'd adopted proved how clueless she could be, since Inuyasha had figured out exactly what was going on even before it had started up.

"What is that?" Kagome finally asked when Inuyasha refused to answer her unspoken question.

"KAGOME!" three someones shrieked in unison, and then three heads appeared in the doorway, stacked in a verticle collumn as if the three women peeking around the corner were really three heads connected to one body hidden in the hallway. The one at the top, Ayumi, wore the mildest expression, her heart-shaped face framed by medium brown waves. In the middle, Eri and her yellow bandana accented black hair grinned widely. Yuka, her short dark brown hair in a frenzy, launched immediately into a lecture.

"Can't you ever stay out of trouble, Kagome? Geeze, it's like you go out looking for it! Next, you'll get sick and be in the hospital all the time because of endless illnesses or whatever. I'm starting to think you do it all for the attention. And, even though we're all glad you finally got together with this selfish jerk (even if he is hot) over here, but couldn't you have given Hojo another chance? I mean, he's so cute!"

As soon as she paused for breath, and before Eri could jump in with her own argument, Kagome waved her hands in front of her face to ward off anything else. "Hey, hey, hey! What happened to all the "I miss you!"s and "oh, my god"s I usually get from you guys? And when did you ever meet Hojo?" This was, of course, a valid point seeing as her three old friends and her co-worker Hojo didn't even live in the same city, but the girls ignored the question.

All three looked between each other, took a deep breath, and screamed together, "Oh, MY GOD! KAGOME! WE MISSED YOU!" in their loudest, highest-pitched voices yet. In a flurry of movement, arms and legs swinging, they tumbled into the room and rushed Kagome. Kagome sighed before finally subcumbing to her old habits and started screaming and jumping around with them. Three or four group hugs later, they finally disentangled themselves.

"Don't worry, we'll find the living room ourselves," Yuka assured the couple.

"After taking a look around, of course," Eri agreed, winking openly at Inuyasha (who was still covering his ears).

Ayumi grabbed her two friends by the wrist and looked apologetically at Kagome. "I'll make sure they behave, promise," she said, smiling sweetly. She led the others out of the room, keeping a firm grip on their arms in case they tried to free themselves and run.

Kagome turned back to the counter and put the finishing touches on the food with a smile on her face. Satisfied, she spun on her heel and faced Inuyasha, staring up into his face with a look she reserved just for him. " 'Love you," she said, lifting onto her toes so that she could steal a kiss, trying to butter him up after her friends' dramatic entrance. He leaned into her, enjoying the feeling of her palms pressed flat to his chest, fingers holding on for dear life. Taking advantage of her closed eyes, one arm snaked around her back while the other reached for the plate on the counter behind her. Silently, quickly, Inuyasha stole a cookie and snuck it into his pocket.

"I saw that," Kagome mumbled against his lips, which pulled into a smirk under her own. "Those are for our guests," she reminded him after pulling away. Still encircled by his arm, she jabbed a finger accusingly in his face. Deftly slipping from his hold, she snagged the plate of treats and led the way to the kitchen doorway.

"You look good in my house," he let slip suddenly. When she turned to look at him, he pointed his chin stubbornly in another direction, still unused to their displays of affection after so many months of holding back.

"Yeah?" Kagome prompted, smiling softly.

"… Yeah," he said, glancing at her from the corner of his eye while keeping his head turned. "You… you know what you said in the hospital? Well, I don't plan on ever asking you to leave."

A beat passed between them as they eyed each other openly, gauging one another's devotion to, and belief in, their relationship.

"Because I like paying a smaller portion of the bills," Inuyasha continued, adopting a disdainful expression.

"Just couldn't let us have a moment, could you?" Kagome asked with a sigh, her eyes closed in amusement and frustration.

He grunted.

"Don't worry, we'll get there," she promised before walking over the threshold. His heavy footsteps followed her out into the hallway as she knew they would.

Inuyasha, she was sure, would follow her anywhere.

The End

However, their story continues (and concludes) in the oneshot: So This is How it Happens?