Disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha or any of the anime/manga characters. I just enjoy making them play with each other.

View to a Chill

"InuYasha! Are you ready?" Miroku called from outside the hut the hanyou shared with Kagome.

InuYasha had brought in a load of firewood and was stacking it in its place. "Just a minute! I have to get the fire going good for Kagome."

"Well, hurry! We don't want to miss the start! There was a good snow last night - the first of the season," the monk informed him.

"What is it, InuYasha? Do you and Miroku have to go out after a youkai?" Kagome sleepily asked, peeping up at him from the futon. "In this weather?" She burrowed back under the covers, refusing to move until the hut was a little warmer.

"No, not exactly." InuYasha chuckled as he finished his chore and began to strip out of his clothing.

Puzzled, the miko sat up, clutching the blankets to her chest. "Did you get your clothes wet? Why don't you hang them by the fire to dry and come back to bed?"

The hanyou knelt down in front of his wife and kissed her on the cheek. "Why don't you stay there and keep warm? I'll be back in a little while."

He stood back up and finished stripping - completely.

"InuYasha! You can't go out like that! Don't make me put those beads back on you!" she threatened.

"Hurry up, InuYasha! They're waiting on us to get started!" Miroku shouted. "Come on, I'm getting cold just standing around!"

"Oh, my word," Kagome whispered as she realized her beautiful hanyou was going out into the freezing cold in his birthday suit, "is Miroku...?" She gestured vaguely at his bare body.

"Naked as the day he was born," the hanyou quipped with a feral grin as he went to join the monk.

Unable to believe it, Kagome hesitantly climbed off of the futon, though she kept her blankets wrapped around her. She moved to the door and pushed the covering aside, only to stumble back as she hastily let it fall in place. However, curiosity won out, and she cautiously stepped outside to see the backsides of all of the healthy men of the village jogging away from her. While a few wore a fundoshi, the vast majority had on nothing at all.

Not certain whether to laugh or cry that Inuyasha was out streaking with the village men in the snow, the miko returned to the warmth of her fire to dress and start a pot of stew. One thing she was certain of, when her husband returned he'd be cold and want something to warm him up.

Her body flushed, and she realized it had nothing to do with the heat of the fire. She laughed softly to herself when she realized she'd turned into as bad a hentai as the monk - at least when it came to her husband. Just thinking about his well-toned body and what it could do to hers made her burn with her passion for him. Warm him up? She knew how she'd like to warm him up once he returned.

When the hanyou reappeared an hour or so later, he wasn't just cold, he was soaking wet. And he seemed inordinately pleased about it.

Worried that he might catch a chill even if he was half youkai, Kagome hurriedly wrapped him in a blanket and then found a towel to dry his hair. "Don't come whining to me if you get sick," she fussed as she worried over him.

"I haven't before, and I didn't have you here to take care of me when I got back," he stated.

Kagome stopped what she was doing. "What! You mean you've done this before?"

"Every year since we defeated Naraku," he informed her, "though I didn't spend as much time in the river purifying myself as I did this year."

"InuYasha! Why would you try to purify yourself? You don't want to be human - do you?" the miko worriedly asked.

The hanyou shook his head. "It's not that kind of purification. It's more like the purification trough that you had at the shrine - except that we use the river. It's kind of a test of manhood, and we also pray for good health, good luck and good fortune for our families and ourselves for the upcoming year. I never was much of a believer in that stuff, but I figured it couldn't hurt. I mean, it took a while, but you finally came back to me. So if running naked in the snow is good luck, I can manage. Besides, I'm not a puny human. You should see what the cold does to Miroku's-" He abruptly stopped himself, blushing.

"Miroku's what?" Kagome asked and then suddenly giggled. "Oh!"

"So you don't have anything like this in your era?" InuYasha asked, looking away from her with his ears slightly flattened.

"Well, we do-"

"Then what did you throw such a fuss about?" he interrupted.

The miko snickered. "You didn't let me finish. They have a number of what they call "Naked Man Festivals" in the winter, but the men aren't really naked. At least they wear their fundoshi when they go running through the streets!"

"Bunch of wimps," the hanyou commented snidely.

"So running naked in the snow and jumping in the river makes you a real man?" she questioned, though she was trying not to laugh and he caught her dubious expression.

"In their eyes it does," he responded quietly.

"But you did it for me," she commented, beginning a slow, warm smile.

The hanyou nodded.

"To keep me safe and healthy and happy," she pressed, walking toward him.

"Keh." The hanyou held her gaze but his cheeks tinged slightly pink.

"Do you know what would really make me happy right now?" Kagome asked, whispering in his ear and almost giggling as goosebumps appeared on his bare shoulders.

InuYasha looked at her hungrily but shook his head.

The miko sauntered over to the futon and dropped her yukata. Quickly climbing under the pile of blankets, she shivered a bit and allowed him to see her body's reaction to the cold air. "Come back to bed. I'm chilly."

The hanyou grinned. "See, I'm being blessed already."