Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Revised 2-10-17.

words: 3,281; prompt: Warm Hands, Warm Heart, Christmas Challenge Dokuga_contest; rating: T

December 25—Forever United

(Merry Christmas!)

Kagome stepped outside, eager for some solitude after a full day of pretending to be happy in front of her family. She knew her mother didn't buy it for a second, but she had played along for the sake of her brother Souta and her grandfather. Kagome was certain that once Christmas was officially over, though, she would have to explain everything , for her mother had been more than patient.

Kagome hadn't slept a wink the night before. She had played that kiss over and over in her head, trying to focus on an answer for Sesshoumaru, but instead only able to remember the feel of his lips against hers, his harsh words of determination breathed against her hair.

"What on earth am I going to do?" she moaned into her hands, shivering against the cold winter night. She stared up at the stars, her breath puffing in long clouds out of her mouth and into the sky like smoke. The stars took her back to her first date with Sesshoumaru; she remembered the way he had slipped her key into his pocket, the way his fingers had toyed with her own on the drive to the restaurant, the way he stared with rapt fascination while she talked about everything and nothing as they ate.

Back then, it had been so simple, he had been so simple. Was it only two weeks ago? He hadn't been a millionaire, an investor in her company, a man with interests or designs on her besides getting her to go out with him. There had been no bet, no lies, and certainly no conflict of interest. Well… maybe there had been a small conflict of interest, but it had been on her part, not his. What was it to her if she dated her underling, for back then, she had been the boss. It was like a punch in the gut to realize the entire time their roles were really reversed, except it was worse than all that, because he wasn't just her boss, he owned her.

Truly, Kagome should have been able to separate the idea of Sesshoumaru technically sharing ownership of her business from the concept of owning her as if she were property. But to Kagome, her business contained parts of her soul. She had poured her sweat, blood, and tears into that business, and now that she knew the man she loved had held it in the palm of his hand the entire time, with no one the wiser, it hurt more than it probably had a right to.

I'm such a hypocrite, Kagome thought, a tear escaping unbidden and tracing its way down her cheek. She turned to go back into the house, perhaps to hide in the bathroom for a proper cry, and was startled to see her mother standing behind her, watching Kagome with a compassionate, pitying look in her eyes.

"I came out to see if you wanted some Christmas cake," her mother explained, not moving to comfort Kagome despite the tears tracking down her cheeks. "I didn't want to interrupt when you seemed so deep in thought. I know you've been avoiding talking about whatever it is that happened, and I just assumed you'd tell me when you were ready. But I'm always here for you, Kagome. Whether you're eight or eighty, I'll always be here for you."

It was then that Kagome broke. All the feelings she had been trying to keep locked inside, the regret, the self-loathing, poured out of her at the look of pure acceptance and love on her mother's face.

"Oh, mama!" she sobbed, throwing herself into her mother's arms and crying out her soul right there under the shrine gate. "I'm such a fool!"

"What happened, Kagome?" her mother asked, rubbing her back comfortingly and leading her daughter to sit down on the shrine steps overlooking the busy street below.

Kagome poured out the whole story, starting from the moment she had hired Sesshoumaru almost two months ago. She explained her inappropriate infatuation with the man who worked for her, the passion with which she threw herself into their relationship, her heartbreak at discovering he had been lying to her the entire time, finally tearfully relaying their conversation from the night before.

"I just don't know what to do," Kagome lamented, sniffling unattractively. "I feel like my life's been turned upside down, and while I'm sure that I still love him, I don't know if I can trust him. How can you have a relationship without any trust?"

Her mother was silent for several moments, staring at the lights of the city laid out below them.

"When I first began seeing your father," her mother began, "I had no idea that he was the son of a shrine priest. Our relationship became serious, and we began making plans to be married. At the time, I was finishing university and planned to go to another college for a second degree. The school I had my heart set on attending was in Hokkaido, and your father knew this when we started dating. He also knew that his responsibility lay in Tokyo, at his family shrine. As an only child, he could not in good conscience move to Hokkaido when grandfather was expecting him to take over as priest within the year.

"But your father waited until we had plans to be married before telling me about his family. He had led me to believe that he was willing to move with me, and that his job wouldn't be an issue."

"What did you do?" Kagome gasped, never having heard this story about her parents, or indeed, never even having known that her mother attended university.

"Oh, I was mad at first," her mother confessed, smiling fondly at the memory. "But a few nights later your father came over to my house and camped outside the window, claiming that he wouldn't leave until I took him back. I realized then that his love for me was what drove him to keep his secret for long. Actually, I felt guilty that I had spent all my time focusing on my plans for the future, never giving your father a chance to talk about his own. He wanted so badly not to lose me that he kept his own responsibilities a secret until he no longer had a choice.

"Don't get me wrong," her mother explained as Kagome opened her mouth to protest. "Your father should have said something sooner. And I'm not saying the situations are exactly the same. I won't lie and say it wasn't difficult to resolve that part of our relationship, and it was a hard decision for me to choose to stay in Tokyo with your father. But I never regretted it."

"Do you think I should just forgive Sesshoumaru and forget any of this happened?" Kagome asked, somewhat bitterly.

"I think that's a decision you have to make on your own, Kagome," her mother said gently. "I just know that if I hadn't given your father a second chance, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life. And that in spite of all his bad decisions, in the end your father was truly motivated to do what he did out of love. His intentions were pretty misguided, and of course he made a lot of mistakes, but he was only human. I know Sesshoumaru is a demon," she said quickly, "but I think they're just as capable as making mistakes as the rest of us."

Kagome sat in silence for several minutes, contemplating. Her mother stood after a bit, stretching and rubbing her hands together to warm them against the cold. "Whatever you decide is fine, Kagome. Just make sure that you won't regret whatever decision you make."

She left Kagome alone, and though she continued to ponder her options, Kagome already knew what she was going to do. She stood suddenly and ran into the house, clattering into the closet to collect her coat and purse.

"I'm going, mama," she yelled into the kitchen, where the rest of her family were gathered, eating cake and drinking tea. "Merry Christmas Souta, Gramps!"

She didn't wait for them to answer as she sprinted back out the door, running down the shrine steps as fast as her legs would carry her.

"What was that all about?" Souta wondered, before taking an enormous bite of cake.

"More for us, anyway," Gramps shrugged, cutting himself another slice.

Kagome's mother smiled softly, but didn't answer, instead going to the front door to stare out after her daughter. "Good luck, Kagome," she whispered.

#

Sesshoumaru was brooding. His apartment was dark and he was sitting shirtless on his couch, staring into space, feeling sorry for himself. He supposed it was a rather pathetic way to be spending Christmas, but it wasn't as if he really cared about the holiday in the first place. It would have been one thing to have Kagome over, celebrating with her, but it was altogether another thing when he was a recently-single man who just wanted to forget everything that was currently happening in his life.

He had relented and untied Inuyasha two mornings ago, tired of listening to him whine and curse throughout the night. As soon as he was free, Inuyasha had catapulted into the bathroom and spent a disturbingly long time locked in there. Before Sesshoumaru could comment when he finally emerged, Inuyasha was out the door and down the driveway in his ridiculously expensive car.

Inuyasha had left all the presents Kagome had bought in Sesshoumaru's living room, reasoning that she would come to get them sooner or later and if Sesshoumaru had them, at least then she would be forced to see him. While it was a small step toward repairing the damage he had done, Sesshoumaru figured Inuyasha had quite a lot of repenting ahead of him to make up for his slip, regardless of whether Kagome took him back. It went without saying that if Kagome didn't take Sesshoumaru back, he would make Inuyasha's life a living hell for the rest of his natural born days, but truthfully, Sesshoumaru was angrier at himself than anyone else. At the time, it had seemed like such a good idea. Now he realized it was a colossal mistake, and while Inuyasha had been the one to spill the beans, Sesshoumaru really had no one to blame but himself.

Sesshoumaru fingered the box in his pocket for the umpteenth time, running his fingers along the soft velvet covering and slipping a claw inside the seam. If Kagome took him back, he promised himself that he would more than make it up to her. If he could just see her smile one more time, he would turn the world upside down to make it happen. He was brought out of his reverie by a knock on the door.

Sesshoumaru didn't bother to get up, instead sinking further into the black leather of his couch and shooting the door a death glare. "Inuyasha, if that's you," Sesshoumaru called, "I suggest you turn around and leave. Because if I have to get up and open the door to your hideous face, I swear to you you'll wish you'd never been born."

It was silent for several minutes, and Sesshoumaru assumed Inuyasha had just taken the hint and left, when a soft, embarrassed cough sounded from the entryway. Sesshoumaru bolted up on the couch. That was not Inuyasha.

He was at the door in seconds, throwing it open and staring out at Kagome, who was shivering on his doorstep with lips that were starting to look quite blue.

"Ka-Kagome!" he gasped, so startled to see her that he forgot to invite her in.

Kagome just looked up at him, a steady flush creeping up her face and tinting the tips of her ears. She averted her eyes and mumbled awkwardly, "Um…"

Sesshoumaru looked down at himself and realized he had greeted her in a comfortably faded pair of jeans and nothing else. Fighting his own blush, he pulled her in the door and steered her to the couch. "Stay," he commanded, holding his hands up as if that would prevent her from moving. He changed into something more appropriate, straining his senses from the bedroom to make sure she hadn't moved. When he returned, Kagome was examining his apartment, looking distinctly uncomfortable at how much more opulent it was than her own. Sesshoumaru realized with a start that she had never been here, and his heart ached at how right it felt to have her sitting on his couch, despite her obvious uneasiness.

"Kagome, I…" Sesshoumaru began, sitting beside her on the couch. Kagome held a finger to his lips and he stopped cold, eyes widening slightly at the contact. It felt so good to have her touch him, and, embarrassingly, he wanted to lean into her hand and whimper in relief.

"Let me talk first," she said softly, slowly removing her finger from his mouth. His lips tingled where she had touched.

"I thought a lot about what you said. I wasn't sure I was ready to forgive you, if I would ever be able to trust you again," Kagome explained sadly, refusing to meet his eyes. "Then I talked to my mama, and… well, I realized some things. I know that the only reason we were able to get the break with the Takahashi party was because of you. I mean," she amended quickly, "I know that he was just doing it all to try and rub everything in your face, but the fact remains that without it, my company wouldn't be getting the attention it is."

Kagome took a deep breath and finally looked at Sesshoumaru. He could see tears prickling at the corners of her eyes as she continued, "I also know that without you I wouldn't have met Ayame or Kouga or Inuyasha…" she choked a bit, fighting back a sob. "I wouldn't have those friendships or connections without your generosity and determination to help small companies in need."

The tears did fall then, and while Sesshoumaru longed to reach out and brush them from her cheeks, to comfort her and hold her close, he let her finish, waiting with baited breath for the conclusion of her realizations.

"I know that without you, we never would be where we are right now, where we'll certainly be going in the next year," Kagome sniffed. "I still think you should have told me from the beginning, or at least when we got together, but I also think that you only had my company's best interests in mind from the start. And that means you had my best interests in mind, so… That is… if you can promise to never lie to me about something like this again, I think we can give us another chance."

She finished shyly, a blush stealing up her cheeks as she looked him in the eyes once more. Before she could so much as blink, Sesshoumaru was on her, crushing her to him a soul-wrenching hug.

"I love you, Kagome," he whispered fervently, before tilting her chin and meeting her lips in a breathtaking kiss.

Kagome melted, sighing into his embrace and gasping when his tongue teased her lips before sweeping in and thoroughly overwhelming her. She broke the kiss, resting her forehead against his and panting, enjoying the way Sesshoumaru didn't break contact with her skin for even one moment, brushing light, passionate kisses over her face and neck.

"Sesshoumaru," she breathed, tilting her head to give him better access. "Don't you think we should take this a little slower?"

"Slower?" he growled, not stopping his ministrations. "When has anything about our relationship ever been slow, Kagome?"

He didn't give her a chance to answer, snatching her lips again and driving every coherent thought from Kagome's mind. Sesshoumaru lowered her to the couch, settling in comfortably next to her, snaking his hand to the nearest piece of exposed skin.

They stayed that way for long minutes, intimately reacquainting with one another. Clothes dropped to the floor piece by piece, and Sesshoumaru honestly had no inclination to stop before dawn, thinking that this was the most perfect Christmas present anyone could ever give him. But there was something he had to do first.

He pulled away, and Kagome whimpered at the loss of contact. Sesshoumaru smirked and kissed her lightly on the lips one more time before leaning down to where his jeans were laying haphazardly on the floor and reaching into the pocket. He pulled out the box he had been fiddling with earlier, noting the way Kagome's eyes widened when she saw it. He rested it between them on her chest and looked deeply into her eyes.

"I know we just made up, but I've known you were the one for me almost from the moment I met you," Sesshoumaru confessed. "I've loved you for so long, and I've had this since before we even started dating. You knew when I asked you out that it was with the intention of courting you to make you mine, permanently."

Sesshoumaru's eyes glowed with intensity, and Kagome was half afraid, half excited about what she knew was coming next. She smiled tentatively and grabbed his hand, twining her fingers with his to encourage him to continue.

"I want you to know how serious I am about you, and how sorry I am for almost ruining our chances with my foolishness. I'm in this for the long haul, Kagome, no matter what happens with my business or with yours. I want to be with you forever. Will you do me the honor of becoming my mate?"

At this, Sesshoumaru opened the jewelry box, and winking out at Kagome was the most brilliant, beautiful diamond she had ever seen. It was large, but tastefully so, and simple enough to suit her modest tastes.

"Sesshoumaru," she breathed, taking the ring reverently out of the box and feeling tears welling yet again. Her heart was so full and warm with love she thought it might burst. "It's beautiful!"

He looked at her expectantly and she laughed, tears squeezing out of the corners of her eyes. "Of course I'll be your mate!" she cried, throwing her arms around him. Sesshoumaru responded with another bruising kiss, pulling away before they became so lost in each other that Kagome dropped the ring. He took it gently from her hand and slipped in on her finger, elated that she was finally marked as his in some tangible way, albeit not a permanent one.

He would rectify that soon enough.

Kagome squealed when he stood suddenly with her cradled securely in his arms. She flushed and tried to save her modesty, glaring when he only chuckled and leaned in for another kiss.

"Beautiful," he murmured in her ear, pleased when she gasped and shivered, the flush stealing its way down to her chest. Sesshoumaru carted her to the entrance of his bedroom, striding inside and kicking the door closed. He set her gently on the bed before leaning over her and once again covering her lips with his. He went slowly, savoring each breath he caught with his tongue and relishing the nuances in her scent each time he touched a particularly sensitive spot. He was certainly in no hurry to leave the bedroom anytime soon.

And if they didn't come out for several more days, well, Kagome didn't need to be at the shrine again until New Year's. They had all the time in the world.

Fin