Mr. Taisho! You have to put on the big red suit! by MontiK

Relearning the Christmas Spirit

Sesshoumaru stood in the lobby area of the first floor. He was surrounded by the quiet hum of the cosmetics department. He checked his watch a little nervously again. She wasn't late but he hated waiting. 
 After his swift departure from the housewares department earlier in the day, Kagome had cornered him in the break room. She profusely apologized for Ayame's words, stating they were untrue and spoken with out any regards as to their consequences. 

 The apology was unnecessary. He remembered how she defended him. He ran away because he just didn't want to deal with the awkwardness of speaking to the two girls after what was said, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, the words hurt. 

 Wanting to redeem himself after his cowardice in slipping away from them, he had asked her to accompany him Christmas shopping. The bright smile when she readily agreed warmed his heart. Kagome only asked that he help her search for gifts for her family as well, as she hated shopping alone. 

Finally, he spotted her weaving through the displays of makeup and hair products. Once again, she was adorned in her white coat with her elf uniform, and he had to wonder if she ever took it off unless she was home. 

He met her halfway and said polite greetings. He was only slightly surprised when she hugged him in greeting and breathed an airy kiss onto his cheek. They were seeing quite a bit of each other out of work so it wasn't completely baffling that she would feel comfortable doing such a thing. 

She must have jogged a bit to get there faster because he cheeks were a bit flushed. The rosy blush looked fitting on her. Inky black hair curled around her jaw and framed her face, the bells on her skirt and hat jingled merrily when she shifted, and she was the perfect image of Christmas spirit. Her happiness was contagious and Sesshoumaru found he couldn't wipe the smile from his face if he had tried, not that he did so very actively. 

Kagome took the proffered arm as they started to walk out of the store, out of the mall. They were chatting amicably just about to go through the doors when a small errant thought slipped past Sesshoumaru's lips. 

"Why is it...," he paused uncertainly, "that I've never seen you wear makeup?" Being in the cosmetics department it was easy to see how such a thing had slipped into his mind. Kagome always had a childish cuteness about her, which could be attributed to her lack of dark eyes shadows, thick mascaras, and thick layers of foundation. 

The off hand comment gave her pause, not because she was offended but because it a strange sort of question, and a strange thing for him to notice. "Are you implying something Mr. Taisho?" She asked in a mock offended tone. 

A small smirk flitted across his features. Kagome had started only calling him Mr. Taisho when she was being jovial shortly after she started watching Rin, and now preferred to use his first name in casual situations. 

"Of course not, "he answered in the same tone of mock severity. He leaned in closer to her ear, "You look fine without it, it was just an observation.., " His voice trailed off as he turned his eyes back to the path ahead of them. After he had let the comment slip the intimacy of his position and statement registered in his mind. The light blush on pale cheeks would be attributed to the cold rush of air as they passed the opening sliding doors to an exit, if his companion would have looked up from the floor to see it. Kagome's blush was far to dark to explain away, and thus she stared at the floor in an attempt to hide it. 

The doors of the main exit to the mall opened, letting past a heavy gust of wind and bustling long manes of black and silver hair into a candy cane twist. They walked out onto the sidewalk, unconsciously standing closer together to ward off the chill. Sesshoumaru allowed Kagome to lead the way; she told him earlier that she knew the perfect place to find a gift for Rin.

Not blocks away from their workplace she stopped in front of a large store, the illuminated windows revealed a dreamy display of toys that could put the whimsy of Neverland to shame. Stuffed animals of every shape and size adorned the windows, mechanical toys and devices twisted and spun in a dazzling fashion. Looking on in slight awe, as he had never paid much attention to store fronts before so this was quite the shock, he noticed the large bold letters above the door. F.A.O. Schwartz. The store every child dreamed to have free run in. A giggle from his side brought him from his gaped-mouth-ogling.

"Rin and I detoured past here a few times on the way back to my house. She pointed out a few things that caught her attention." Kagome tugged his arm to pull him into the store, "Uhmm..., "she started uncertainly while backing towards the door. "It's really busy around this time of year... so you might want to... stay close... or just hold onto my hand the whole time...," she trailed off again. 

Looking up to the doors he hadn't previously noticed he nearly froze in place but the insistent tug of the little female on his arm kept him moving. His expression as he looked at the throng on the other side of the door could only be described as trepidatious. 

Not trusting her small hands to hold the grip on his arm he quickly shifted to holding her hand... Very tightly. He may work in a department store but this wasn't a department store, or a department store crowd. This was a crowd of mothers, fathers, and rabid children 2 weeks before Christmas ready to punch, kick, and bite their way to the coveted toys and this store was some kind of insane hybrid children's playground. 

Kagome giggled with glee as she saw the throng, as if she reveled in the competitive sport that was shopping in this environment. And Sesshoumaru knew... a three hundred pound linebacker would nothing on a five foot tall mother of three on the day after Thanksgiving, and women had frightening plethora competitive sports all their own. 

He lost sight of Kagome once they breeched the crowd but her hand was still held tight in his and he followed he insistent pull like a lost puppy, loath to be left alone amongst the rabid shoppers. They passed a sea of reds and browns where he was sure every possible size and shape of Clifford the Big Red Dog was included in the barrels and shelves of toys. 

There was some kind of display that flitted past. He gathered it was something about Kermit the frog... and What Nots? What is a what not? Was that even a properly worded question? Was what not a noun? He didn't know but this strange child's play place was quickly sending him into a dizzying spiral of questions about who zits and what zits that would surely make him faint. 

Thankfully, he was pulled away and onto another display where they paused. Before him were varieties of dolls, well they were something like dolls. They were all shaped in the funniest of ways, colored in horrendously clashing shades of brightness and neon. They all didn't even have a similar number of eyes in common! Not being able to fathom what the toy store behemoth would come up for a title for such a line of toys, he looked at the top of the display.

UglyDolls.

How... strangely fitting, he thought. And the most disturbing thought: the longer Sesshoumaru stared at the little buggers (with a flabbergasted expression firmly stuck on his face) the more he thought they looked cute. 

Kagome picked up a pair of strangely colored one. One was a strange shade of green that was reminiscent of sherbet and the other hot pink, one had two eyes in a horizontal line while the other had only one that was an X-shape, and one had fangs while the other's tongue lolled out. Their tags were labeled Beep and Bop... apparently they were some how a matched pair? Like twins maybe?

Sesshoumaru looks up into her flushed face, it was obvious Kagome was making a poor attempt at holding back a laugh. Eventually she failed and bent at the middle holding her stomach while positively roaring with laughter. 

She gasped through broken snickers, "You... you look like someone dropped you in the twilight zone!"

Well he felt like it... "Are we done here?" He didn't care if those UglyDolls cost three hundred dollars he wanted out before he was brainwashed and used as a model for some silly toy. 

Kagome straightened, nodded, and took his hand again. "Rin saw these two in the display case one day and thought they were adorable, though she said the didn't look like a 'Beep and a Bop'", she snickered again at the odd sounding words. 

He held her elbow as they pushed through trying to figure the difference between the groups of people the checkout line while distractedly listening to her, "Did she have a name she preferred for them?" Knowing his little girl she probably had something equally strange but cute in mind to call the little critters. 

Kagome's smile brightened, "She said they looked like an Ah and an Un.'Un being the pink one naturally'," she stated the last part in a child like voice. 

Sesshoumaru flashed a surprisingly bright smile in return, his mood much improved now that he knew he would be allowed to leave this place. He plucked a Clifford stuffed animal from a shelf on their way to the check out since he knew Rin liked him as well. The efficiency of the check out system was notably remarkable and they left the store only half an hour afterwards. 

Shopping for the older members of Kagome's family was much less eventful, for which Sesshoumaru was grateful. A soccer ball for her younger brother, some odds and ends from a Japanese curio shop for her grandfather, and a comfy robe and a new silk shirt for her mother. They had worked their way back to the mall where their workplace was located and now sat at a table near their favorite coffee shop. 

Taking another sip of his caramel apple cider Sesshoumaru sighed, he looked absolutely exhausted. "As enjoyable as it was to shop with you... I am glad that endeavor is finished. All that's left is to have the presents wrapped." He had every intention of going to the booth the mall kept open for the holidays and having the gifts wrapped for him for a small fee and bypassing the hassle all together.

Kagome had other ideas. She peeks up at him over her three inch tall whipped cream tower she had instructed the clerk to put on her hot cocoa and asked curiously, "You don't mean you're not going to wrap them yourself do you?"

Wide-eyed and confused he answered, "Well of course I do..."

She shook her head emphatically before rising from her seat and gathering her bags in her hands. "No no, no. That won't do. C'mon we'll go back to my place and I'll show you how to properly wrap presents with love and care... not pay someone else to do it."

He was much too tired to argue with her stubborn streak, especially since she was somehow completely unfazed by their shopping adventures. So he took the bags from her hands and they took the subway back to her home.

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Look at all the madness on this website!! ZOMG! http://www.fao.com/home.jsp (F.A.O. Schwartz own all the mind boggling toys mentioned in this chapter)