I never thought that I would be making any story for this pairing, but once the plot bunny waggled its precious nose at me, I couldn't resist. This is a total AU/one-shot in which both Kagome and Sesshomaru are human, in a relationship, and a situation arises that I found extremely adorable.

This is dedicated towards a beloved friend of mine who earnestly enjoys this couple. Thank you, The Silent Black Violin, for your friendship, and for your own spontaneity.

I own nothing.

In the firmest expression of the phrase, it was a golden summer. Welcome warmth from the mid-morning sunlight basked the shoppers and early-risers in its golden gleam, matched equally by a breeze from the shoreline that cooled the sweat from slick brows. It was early enough in the day where the true heat of the afternoon could not soak through clothing, or disturb the thriving activity of the marketplace. All was peaceful, and even the sounds of the laughing children, the metal clinging of cash-register keys, and the strumming notes from the far-off band were all in accordance, in unity.

The day was also highlighted by the thrumming elation from his beloved Kagome. She had wanted an early start, but her excited talk about what the day would hold kept them up well past midnight. Despite any inkling of fatigue she might have surmised from the well-warranted pillow-talk, she had risen refreshed with the alarm, showered, dressed, and made them an omelette each within an hour and a half. When he attempted to do the dishes, or something for her that morning, she gently shoved him aside and said that today she would treat him, for he deserved a break. Though he hardly thought that taking her out to dinner last night counted, he did not attempt to dissuade her.

Besides, there was never a time when she looked more beautiful than when she was deep in concentration with whatever manner of task she allotted to herself. Glossy hair whipped around her shoulders with her subtle or lengthy movements, and every so often, a smile turned her rose-bud pink lips skyward, framing her oval-shaped face with the black of her hair. Dark-hazel eyes narrowed when an especially stubborn piece of egg refused to come off the pan, and with the way she scrubbed, putting her entire shoulder into the gesture, it was all he could do to not laugh outright at the way her brow was furrowed, at the little vein that pulsated with a life of its own on her forehead. She appeared to him like some sort of avenging goddess, bent to rid the world of unyielding oil stains and egg remnants.

Afterwards, she made a cry of victory and left the pan on the drying rack, the smile that pursed her lips revealing her triumph over the dish. She grabbed her small red handbag, made sure that her wallet and sunglass case were where they should be, and she quite literally pranced over to him in her excitement, her grin akin to a child being told that they were about to visit their favorite confectory.

He had no idea what was so exciting about an outdoor market, but he was more than willing to find out. With Kagome, adventures followed her like the mystified familiars of the Pied Piper, and she was never quick to shy away from them. Besides, it was as much her vacation as it was his, and he was determined to do everything he could for her, even if it was in the little gestures.

"Come on, Sesshomaru, let's go!" He chuckled and grabbed the door-key, his own wallet, and sunglasses, patting his pockets out of habit for his cell-phone. He then remembered the promise he made to her at the beginning of the vacation, how he would leave his phone untouched and behind, a promise he had no intention of breaking after a full two weeks of traveling through the United States.

On the short walk to the event, Kagome continued to enlighten him on the events that would occur in the marketplace. It was set up for two days only, and in those two days there would be a flurry of activity: fireworks on the beach that night, alongside a barbecue where live bands would sing to their hearts' content. Sesshomaru imagined children darting to and fro, wading into the water and shrieking when their ankles and toes froze with the water's temperature.

It was a place, that had he been on a single vacation, he would have surely shied away from. Sesshomaru did not like social gatherings, for they tended to become a spotlight for activities that he had no interest in, and further more, could not control. This was not his office where he could scrutinize, analyze, and fix every mistake that came his way with the precision that came from a steady dose of personal experience of management and economics. This was a situation that was ungoverned by the rules and regulations he worshiped, something far out of his area of expertise.

That being said, all of those self-made volitions were cast away the moment Kagome entered his life. He was never one for long, fluid metaphors that did nothing but cloy said person into a barely recognizable costume, for all that served to do was cover the one he wished to accurately describe with endless arrays of pretty words. He also did not like it when others used up cliches to come up with ways to express love, and the act of courtship; it was an overkill that twisted his stomach, souring his expression and filling his mouth with bitter gall every time he even considered such acts.

As if love could be controlled.

That ended of course, the moment he met her. All of those rules that he relied so heavily on were completely useless now, and he was a novice when it came to matters of the heart. She understood this, and her patience for him was also endless. That armor that he used as both a defense mechanism and his life's strength was stripped away by her general disposition, by her boundless ability to adore him even when he had no idea why.

She simply gave him a gentle smile, brushed her fingertips over his cheek, and any form of logic crumbled to pieces before his eyes.

It was good to not know for a change.

And now, after two years of official courtship, moving in, and carrying on a life with one another, he had proposed. This was something that he researched with a diligence and a meticulous array of timing that would have made any onlooker assume him a madman, delirious and obsessed with something that he should steer clear from, for it was making him look panicked in public. It was hardly the time for personal airs, and he could care less how the general public saw him.

What mattered was the proposal, in making the evening right, paved from the tools that fashioned perfection into an evening where he made her dinner and at the right moment, pulled out the ring and asked for her to be his for the remainder of their lives.

In hindsight, that was both an optimistic wish and too much to ask all at once.

The plan had deviated the moment Kagome called him from her office, explaining to him that her car had, for whatever reason, simply stopped working. Her voice was threaded with panic, for though her natural proclivity was to remain independent, she had never favored the dark. It was her one fear, the fear she confided in him late one night when the power had shut off to their apartment, an hour and a half she clung to him like a mollusk, reassured only by his voice telling her that the light would return, that she would see the sun, and that he was above all, there for her.

That had not been a night where he could break his word; he would find her.

He instructed her as calmly as possible to stay in the lobby of her building, where people were, and said he would come get her right then, halfway through with shutting off the oven and making sure every candle in the apartment was out, tripping twice on his own shoe-laces and the little spot on the carpet that always stuck up.

He would be many things that evening and perfection and graceful were not the terms he would become.

He must have broke every speeding law there was, and as a result, he was pulled over by an unforgiving officer of the law. Him, the man who owned an advertising company and traded overseas with the best of men, a man who donated a large sum of his money to charities around the world, was now being asked if he had been drinking that evening. A mild sense of chagrin filled his mouth, the flavor speaking of how he deserved this for driving in such an ungainly and frantic way, but he still considered it ridiculous. Sesshomaru Taishou did not drive under the influence.

A light was shone into his eyes, and after a few minutes of revealing the proper paperwork to his car and insurance, he was asked to follow through on a demeaning act to prove his sobriety which involved touching his nose on the side of the road, reciting select phrases and terms backwards, beginning with the American alphabet.

After what he mentally noted as being the "monkey-act" of the night, he asked politely if he could just get his ticket and be on his way, because the love of his life was scared, alone, and more than likely wondering what the hell had happened to him. His ticket was bestowed and he spent the ten minute drive muttering about how in a past life, he would have been the one giving orders, especially on lands that he was deemed worthy enough to govern and patrol.

Eleven minutes later he found himself greeting Kagome - who had been wringing her hands raw - and spent a good half hour seeking under the hood for anything unseemly that happened to her car. He surmised that, despite his best and genuine efforts and intimations, the evening was partially ruined. Only partially, for any time with Kagome was time that would never be wasted.

On the ride home, he shared with her his little adventure with the officer and her laughter filled the car, drowning out the instruments and vocals of the band on the radio.

"You, drunk?" She giggled twice and before long, clutched her sides with the hiccups and mirth that wracked her petite frame. "Never in a thousand years." She laughed some more, and despite how unruffled it had made him, the end result was infectious, filled with tender eyes and strange looks when they pulled up to the traffic lights. They found themselves in hysterics and his past mantra rang true about not caring how he appeared in public.
They arrived miraculously without incident, sharing a moment of intimacy, soft lips against his mouth before thunder sliced the sky overhead, a torrent of needle-thin rain drenching the good twenty meters they had to traverse through to get to the apartment entrance.

Almost did he curse the fates that evening, for nothing had gone as planned, nothing at all. Did that mean that planning things in such a way was pointless in every form, that he should just let life happen? Yes, that was exactly what it meant. There was more to life than chiseling out details; life happened when you ran with a delightfully screaming woman through the pouring rain not knowing what to expect or when.

The ludicrous fever that dipped his bones in shades that he had never known bid him to seize impulse, to wrap his arms around her drenched to the bone frame, nuzzling her hair and neck with his nose, all warmth and near-petrichor staining the skin he reveled in mapping with his fingers.

She twisted gently in his grip, spinning around to face him, all moisture droplets and parted lips, awaiting the kiss that was inevitable for the both of them.

But before inevitability, there begged the question.

"Will you marry me?" Her eyes lit up, and for the briefest moment, he thought that she was going to deny his request. The doubt was obliterated and replaced fully by a euphoria that remained unmatched when she nodded, choking on her words and when her tongue failed to articulate, her head bobbing signaled the answer, as if her very survival depended on the gesture.

She was still unable to speak, for she was consumed by a half-giggle half-sob, his lips covering her tongue-tied state, affirmation sought and created with the steady tremble of their unified mouths.

He slipped the ring on her finger much later as they lay tangled in their bed, her eyes as luminescent and multi-faceted as the princess cut diamond upon a silver band that conformed elegantly with her skin. His perusal of endless jewelery stores and web sites had led him to this ring, prompted by his brother's push that Kagome would love anything he came up with, because he was Sesshomaru and what he touched became gold.

The princess cut diamond held precedence over all else, and as he selected the ring he checked her size not once but give times, requesting that the four pointed corners of the stone be mounted, lest it scratch easily. To his relief his request was fulfilled.

And with the way his fiance nuzzled his chest, falling asleep in mid-sentence about how happy she was, he shunted away any definition of the word perfection. Perfection hadn't forged this.

The moment they stepped foot outside of the hotel room, Kagome donned her pair of sunglasses, the act in itself remaining unspectacular and ordinary, aside from the diamond flash in the winking light. It was a reminder of next spring, when she would walk down a flower-strewn aisle and grant him sublimity, a normal moment becoming a precursor to the joy that would come. He gripped her hand and pressed her palms against his lips, murmuring against her skin lover's nonsense that never ceased to color her cheeks, the blush remaining all through the short walk to the marketplace.

Within minutes of reaching the threshold of the entertainment, his senses were gently assaulted by the many natural phenomena that came from the food vendors, awash in colored tassels and grins that spread from ear-to-ear. Cheerful men grilled shish-kabobs, children shrieked when they tried and succeeded in winning prizes and women held out seashell-spun necklaces, hoping to tempt and delight any female that strolled past them.

"We're here!" Kagome said this with such enthusiasm, he could not repress the smile that tugged his lips, the natural ease that came with being in her presence.

"We're here indeed. What would you like to do?" Her eyes sparkled with a merriment that she wouldn't have been able to deny had she attempted to, as well as a coasting of gratitude for coming her. She knew how much he didn't enjoy such noisy, chaotic places like this where outside forces controlled him and could wrest him into situations he'd rather avoid in general. He much rather preferred sleeping in with her, making a giant breakfast and talking through their favorite movies nestled beside one another.

Never had she joked that he was boring; but she was the opposite, content with idleness to a point, her energy seeking colors and light that he would be damned if he hid her from.

In this respect, the butterfly would ease him from his own self-made cocoon.

She looked around the vicinity, her gaze lingering on the tendrils that came from the grills. "I kind of want to try some of the food..." She blushed then, biting her lip out of old habit, and never had he seen anything lovelier. She loved to eat and enjoy her meals, and with the way her figure remained a healthy hourglass shape, what she ingested would ever compliment her.

"Food it is then." Kagome smiled and gently released his hand, only to bound through the crowd with the fervor of a child, returning with two long sticks filled with meat of some sort, vegetables, and even more meat.

She bit into what looked like grilled steak first, her eyes expressing the food-borne relish before her mouth could form words. "It's so delicious! Try it!" He tried it no matter if he was still rather full from the omelette she made him, reveling in the flavors that touched his tongue.

Kagome nibbled on her own stick, awaiting his reaction with her ever-present smile. "Good, huh?" He nodded, struck more intensely at her innocence than the meat between his teeth, her tireless capacity for enjoying the ordinary tasks of life, such as eating.

"Delicious. You are right, once again." She laughed and devoured the food as if she had not eaten in weeks, and when he made a comment about her habits she shoved him gently, reminding him of their third date.

They behaved as if they were still courting, a thought that filled him with immeasurable peace; theirs would never be a stagnant love.

Onwards they wandered, drifting from vendor to vendor with all the wonder of children, of teenagers who had never been to this part of the country before. A woman was selling hand-carved animals and she showed Kagome how she made all of them with tireless patience, a carving knife, and an imaginative eye.

While his back was turned, she bought him three figurines: a tiger, a falcon, and at the last, a wolf. She smiled when she gave him the gifts, the slight brush of her fingers over the palm of his hand igniting the embers that burned her name deeper into the fibers of his heart.

"It's a bit symbolic. Also, I know how you like hand-made animals." She went on to tell him that the tiger was how he was so willing to protect those who threatened his friends and family, as well as the resolute fashion in which he became the driving force behind his life. The falcon was how he held himself with grace and soared skyward, but he never forgot where his home was. With the wolf, she explained his loyalty, and afterwards, she blushed a shade of red so deep, he thought that she had become the grilled tomato she had recently eaten.

"I get carried away, I'm sorry." She laughed, but he shook his head.

"You are not fishing for compliments, beloved. You told me this in earnest." He brushed back her bangs and gently placed a kiss on forehead, her skin tasting of vanilla and subtle but very present heat. "Thank you." Kagome's smile was so wide, he thought her teeth had become the different sets of diamonds akin to her ring.

"You're very welcome!" She then noticed the package in his hand. "Oh, you got something!" He nodded, revealing the package that he figured he wouldn't be able to have kept hidden for very long.

It was a cherry-wood jewelry box, the inside lined with a glass mirror, a velvet setting the case for her rings, complete with a small drawer to put any personal belongings. He wound the back, a merry tune playing, revealing the identity of the music box with its ethereal tune.

If possible, her eyes reflected more happiness than he had seen in her all day, trumping the food. "Oh Sesshomaru...it's so beautiful, thank you so much!" She held the box not only in her hands but to her chest as if it were a precious thing, a child that needed to be held to her breast lest it begin whimpering.

Children...they were everywhere here, and the thought of raising a family with her was enough to send his spirit soaring on the wings of the falcon she compared him to.

He stepped closer and lightly kissed her lips, shoving aside his propensity to lean towards discretion with being so intimate with her in public. He had never been especially good with public displays of affection, but he would always hold her hand, winding their fingers together as they walked, or kiss her forehead or mouth if the situation called for it. It was a baby step into an infantile frame of security that had been both his shelter and prison for many years, knowing that the walls would crash eventually, but it would not be an instantaneous turn of events. Kagome accepted this early on and with the way she subconsciously leaned into every caress and kiss, her appreciation reflected back into her eyes.

"You are very welcome." He looked over her head, and couldn't help the laugh that split his face into a grin. "Don't look now, but I think I have spotted something that pales in comparison to your jewelry box." Her eyes clouded with inquiry and gently, she turned around to where his line of vision was directed.

She squealed with delight, but restrained herself from running towards the vendor. A moral dilemma etched itself onto her pretty features, but he resolved it for her. Sesshomaru took the jewelery box from her, and she gave a loud, "harah!" and bolted for the booth.

He shook his head in wonder at the way she lit up around the stuffed animals. For some reason, whenever she saw them, she turned into a cheerful young girl once more, the one that once had hundreds of the critters around her room. They were all either donated now, but the occasional plush wound up on their shelves, or on the couches. Once, she told him, she had a massive tea-party with them, and begged her brother to play as the male animals, consulting with them for every question she had in her life from sugar cubes to the rotted well at the back of her house.

A few children were around her, and they pointed excitedly at the animals, both big and small. Parents willingly forked over some money to satisfy their little ones, and once their chubby fingers touched the soft fur, they gave little squeals, running off to dunk them in the ocean or carry them around like baby dolls.

The plush animals were in their own personal compartments, ranging from big animals - the giant panda in the back of the booth - to the wise frog in the front that was no bigger than his clenched fist. She gripped each one and gave it a long look, then proceeded to cuddle the material to her face, not caring about the hands that touched it, or where it might have been; she surrendered herself fully to the innocence of the plush.

She gave a little bounce once he came to her side, and she showed him her new friends.

"I named them already!" Despite the popular belief, once Kagome named a stuffed animal, she didn't yearn for the cotton-filled creature or become immediately attached. She tended to remember them by the titles she fashioned them with, even if she didn't purchase them. "The panda is Mr. Bamboo, the frog is Freckles, the two little puppies are Toby and Richie..." she named them all, and then looked up to him, all teeth and elation. He was chuckling silently to himself, for he found this to be the strangest and cutest situation he had ever been in with her.

"You are very creative. Now, which ones shall we adopt?" Kagome looked up at him, and her eyes sparkled with options. Though physically there was something intense going on behind her eyes, Sesshomaru knew this to be a mental tabulation and removal of names within a few minutes, sizing and weighing her options for their newest little friend.

"Hmm...those two!" She picked up an owl plush, and the happiest kitten he had ever seen. Quickly, she paid the amused vendor and cradled her new babies to her chest, looking for all the world like a happy new mother.
"That is the grumpiest owl I have ever seen." Kagome chuckled, and proceeded to shield her owl's ears - if he had any that were visible, it was news to him.

"Simon is going through a rough patch right now. His forest was destroyed by horrible creatures...and then this little kitten came along and saved him! Pudgy taught him how to fly, and chase butterflies!" To any untrained ear, or rather, any ear that thought that the woman in the white sundress who was going on about imaginary animals and their layer of persona she came up with on the spot was strange, they must have thought that she was desperately trying to revert back to her childhood.

To those people, Sesshomaru would call them out on their lack of imagination and wind his arms around her waist. Kagome worked for a children's publishing agency, and she specialized in both the illustrations, and in filing down ideas. Many a happy hour was spent with her when she had a blank storyboard, and she gained inspiration through his mere presence. Or, so she told him.

Regardless of how it sounded, he didn't care or find it puerile. Hers was a rare soul of such a free-spirited nature, enabling her to be utterly herself in a crowd of strangers, a facet about her he loved. He found himself wishing that such ingenuity would rub off on him, and when he spoke to her about this wish, she granted him a smile that made him feel as if he was a gift to her by simply breathing, and pulled him in for an embrace.

He took one look at the plush, clearing his throat afterwards. "Well, Simon, I formerly apologize on behalf of my ignorance. If you need help in finding a good lawyer to file your lawsuit for the forestry damage, my brother specializes in just that." She busted into laughter, and the sound was music to his ears, music the likes of which he would never bore of.

"He likes you!" Before he knew it, he was toting around the most enraged snowy-owl he had ever laid eyes on, and he knew that had Simon been alive, he would have certainly been pecked many times.

They proceeded to walk everywhere, and it seemed that no matter where they went, they acquired a new purchase. Kagome found the largest floppy beach hat he had ever seen, but with the way she placed it on her head, removing her sunglasses, spinning in her white summer dress and matching sandals, he had never seen anything more soul-stirring. The vendor seemed to appreciate her service a little too much, but he was granted with a small spiel on Kagome's part on how, "she was promised to someone else and no one would ever change her mind." She walked off with a small "humph!", but she told the man to keep the change.

Afterwards, they sat on one of the park benches and sampled a lot of the other food that the vendors had to offer. There was ice cream, and Kagome gave little sighs of pleasure every now and then. She leaned against him and devoured the treat, and afterwards, she kissed his cheek, blushed, and proclaimed she had gotten his face sticky.

In a move that would have astounded any of his coworkers, or anyone that knew him back in Japan, he quickly swiped his mouth over the remains of his treat, and kissed her cheek, proclaiming that they were now "even." She shrieked with delight, and fended him off with the stick, albeit playfully.

"Pudgy, save me!" He told her that the cat would not be able to save her, and parried her attempts at battle.

Several minutes later, both man and woman were reasonably calm and Kagome proclaimed that there was much more to see. He nodded to her, took her hand, and they were off, Simon and all.

The steady pounding of feet thundered the earth close to the beach, and melodic voices hummed with the help of stereos and equipment. There was a stage complete with five men with instruments, microphones, and enough singing fans to count.

Kagome began to hum along with the song, and then eyed him curiously. He knew that she longed to join the crowd, but that something was restraining her for some reason. Moments later, he knew what that reason was, and that no amount of reassuring her would make her coalesce with the moving fans. He did not care much for the cloistering of bodies, nor did he appreciate being close enough to strangers to count their hair follicles. He would join the crowd, if only she voiced it herself.

She spoke, but it was not what he wanted to hear. "Come on. I think I saw a caricature artist." Amusement filled her eyes, but he knew that she yearned for nothing more than to join that crowd. He did not wish to be a hindrance to her own well-bring or happiness, for it was as much her vacation as it was his.

The moment he opened his mouth however, the music changed. Instead of it being a lyrical ballad that proclaimed devotion for the singer's intended, there was only the melody of instruments. The crowd cheered, everyone grabbed a partner, and the area that had once been a mosh of bodies was now a dance floor.

Instead of marveling at the traditions of the beach-folk or how he had never seen such a quick synchronization of bodies, he made his decision, despite everything else restraining him.

He was never one to just blindly lose control, or completely surrender his persona on a fanciful whim. Sometimes however, it was good to let go, to let those walls tumble at his feet with a resonating crash of the future before him. This was one of those times.

The physical yearning to join the crowd heightened ten fold, and Sesshomaru knew that she would have given anything to dance with them, to share the moment with him. However, he knew that she had figured that with who he was and what he did not feel comfortable with, she did not want to forcefully change him. Sometimes, her altruism was her biggest downfall.

Quickly, he turned to a vendor and asked if they would please hold their purchases. The old woman nodded, and in the eye that was not covered in a black eye-patch, she showed him how she knew what he was about to do, and how she loved it.

"Sesshomaru?" Her eyes lit up with an inquiry, and he was quick to answer her.

"Kagome, would you care to dance?" He bowed, and then held his hand out to her. Her mouth opened in her delight, but no sound came out. She furiously nodded, and before he knew it, they were racing towards the makeshift dance floor.

The music was based on the clashing of a saxophone, a steady drum beat, as well as the hypnotic chords of a guitar. Somewhere, a violin crashed into the harmony, sparking the crowd with life. They merged with the group easily, as if they had always belonged there. He spun her around, and the folds of her dress bloomed like a white lily stretching towards the sunlight. Their footwork matched one another's, and never had he felt more in synch with her than at that moment. They had danced before, but never in such a public eye, never on such a whim.

The other couples eyed them with approval, and then they focused on their partners. Sesshomaru knew that he was a good dancer, and when matched with Kagome, they became an entity that operated in perfect coordination.

Their eyes met, and in Kagome's, he saw how happy she was that he had asked her to dance. For, it was not just a simple dance, but something beyond that, something deeper. By conquering his slight phobia of people, of acting out of the character his austerity carved out of him, those walls had begun to shift, if not break in their entirety.

Whoops of delight filled the air, and the instruments played on for several more dances. Kagome twirled around him, caught his eye, and busted into laughter, laughter that served as a declaration of how happy she was. She once told him that sometimes, when she felt so happy she could just burst, she began to laugh almost uncontrollably, for it was her way of showing the person that she was with that they had gauged such a reaction in her. The laughter was for him, and it was more punctuated, more lovely than any note the man-made instruments created. This was the mirth of the seraphs, bursting forth from the vocal cords of an earth-bound angel.

Gently, the music reached a final decrescendo and the crowd gave a loud round of applause towards the band. Sesshomaru had been gripping Kagome in a final dip, and afterwards, he wished he did not have to release her.

She panted against him, and without a word, their mouths met in perfect harmonization.

"Thank you! That was so fun!" They were walking back to their hotel room, for Kagome expressed that she wished to shower before they returned for the fireworks later. He planned on making her dinner, and he knew that he would cherish creating a meal for her. If this was the syndrome known as the "honeymoon phase" he wished not for there to be an anti-venom.

"You are very welcome. I enjoyed myself." He smiled at her, and their eyes met at the same time.

"For not only that...but you danced with me. In public." She ran her thumb over their entwined fingers, and it sent little shivers over his spine, the same way that it had when they were first dating. "That was so kind of you, really." Her smile melted the last of the ice-carved walls, and they fell in thick sheets, crashing at his feet with the intensity of the ocean waves.

With the part of the road they were on, there was no one around. They stopped walking and he gently embraced her, gripping her lower back to where he could still see her face, but their torsos welded together, by will and longing alone.

"It was for you. There is nothing wrong with a little spontaneity." Mischief flared to life in her amber eyes, and he knew what she was thinking. "In any form."

Their lips met, and it sealed the end to his ceaseless desire for control in his life. The summer was golden, vibrant, and it was theirs. Nothing would be hidden from her, or denied to Kagome, any longer.

After the dinner and a very impassioned speech on why Pudgy wanted to go see the fireworks, Sesshomaru found himself watching the night turn into multi-colored fire. Smoke filled the air, children gave out little shrieks of glee, and Pudgy was on their laps, grinning like he had just eaten the infamous canary.

"Thank you," she whispered against his chest. She was drowsing off amidst the boom of the pyrotechnics, and in the brilliant flare, her wedding wing glittered with promises of life, of light, and endless acts of spontaneity.

"No," he told her "thank you." She was fast asleep, but with her smile, he knew she heard him.

The End