The Gift of Giving by ToWriteLoveOnAPage

Trees are the best conversationalists

Written for Priestess Skye's Weekly Challenge

Theme: Ribbon

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"Crap," Kagome swore under her breath as she gazed up into the god tree as though it had done her some personal offense. "Stupid wind."

She had just managed to clamber out of the bone eater's well, laden with her usual burden she called a backpack and a little something extra, when the stupid wind had interfered with her plans. It had been exactly one year since she fell into the feudal ear, one year since she had first met Inuyasha, and one year since her fifteenth birthday.

And Kagome had brought presents.

Now, Kagome knew that on your birthday you were supposed to receive presents, but her life had never been traditional so, why bother sticking to tradition at all? She liked giving presents better than getting them anyway, after years of her grandfather's...unique...gifts, she had really sort of lost her excitement over the whole prospect.

And so, it was this realization that had prompted Kagome into wrapping up a bunch of futuristic trinkets in bright, futuristic papers and embellishments and carting them into the past for her friends. It was also the reason she was currently glaring at the huge tree before her.

Stupid, stupid wind! She thought petulantly. Of course it had to blow the ribbon right off one of my presents, and of course that ribbon had to get stuck in the tallest tree in the whole entire forest!

She huffed and narrowed her eyes, she was pretty sure the tree was laughing at her.

I can't just leave it there, she groaned to herself. But how am I supposed to get it down?

She had chosen the most interesting ribbon she could find, it was covered in tiny, silk-screened skyscrapers that took on the look of the Tokyo skyline. If any one else found the stupid ribbon it might mess up the future! Well, more likely whoever found it would probably just pass the strange pictures off as witchcraft and burn it, but then again, did she really want to take the chance that it could alter the future? She certainly didn't want to go home for a visit and find the planet was ruled by giant cockroaches or something.

Nope, bugs were creepy, they definitely should not be ruling the earth.

"Alright, you don't like me, and I don't like you so, just give me my ribbon back and we won't have a problem," she leveled with the tree. 

The stubborn, overgrown plant just stood there and did nothing.

She sighed. "Okay, let me try this again...you're a tree so you can't technically care about anything, and I'm apparently insane because I'm talking to you, but I need that ribbon dang it!"

"Miko, it cannot hear you," a deep baritone voice drawled from somewhere behind her. She gasped and nearly fell in her haste to turn and face the danger she knew was lurking just out of her sight.

"S-Sesshoumaru?" She stuttered as he emerged from the trees just on the other side of the clearing. "What are you doing here?"

He lifted a brow. "You were quite loud," he pointed out.

"So?" She questioned.

He looked down to examine his claws in the most bored expression she had possibly ever seen and spoke, "I did not sense another in your presence, though you were clearly having a conversation, but now I just see that you have gone mad."

Kagome blinked at him stupidly before the indignation of what he had just said hit her. "Hey! I have not gone mad!"

"You are conversing with trees," he said, raising a brow and glancing at her.

Her face flashed five different shades of red. "Y-yeah, w-well...it took something from me!"

"It is a tree," he scoffed. "It is incapable of taking anything."

Kagome stared at him angrily before realizing that she had probably just let the matter drop before he decided to slice her in half. She really enjoyed being in one piece and she didn't think she wanted to change that any time soon.

"Fine, I'm crazy, I'm sorry my insanity distracted you from your very important...whatever it is you do," she sighed, waving her hand dismissively as she turned back to the tree and gave the ribbon caught in its branches a sour look. "But it's my birthday and I really just want to get this stupid ribbon out of this stupid tree and go find my friends."

Kagome reached up and tried jumping for the ribbon in vain, it was at least ten feet up, but she decided that she should at least look productive even if she knew it would do her no good. She stomped her foot in frustration and huffed miserably, things were not going her way.

But just then a blur of white and a rustle of silk caught her attention as it flew by her, she barely had time to comprehend what was going on before Sesshoumaru landed beside her and thrust the ribbon into her hands.

"Happy Birthday, miko," he said softly, making her shiver and stare at him in awe. He smirked and then was gone, disappearing into the trees and leaving one very stunned miko in his wake.

Wow...I sure do have the weirdest birthdays.