DISCLAIMER: Inuyasha belongs to Rumiko Takahashi / the television series are produced by Sunrise.
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"I want her to be there too Sessh, she's part of your family." the miko chided the daiyōkai who seemed to have no intent on talking to his mother.
The daiyōkai scrunched his nose, "Even if this Sesshōmaru desired to speak with his mother, he has no idea where she even resides these days. She has not made any appearance since the last time this Sesshōmaru saw her, before the hanyō Naraku was defeated."
"Isn't there anything you could try? It would mean a lot to me to have her there, even if only for a short time." she pleaded.
The daiyōkai sighed, rubbing his temples, "There is one place this Sesshōmaru can think of, she used to have a castle in the skies. If it still stands and if she still resides there, this Sesshōmaru will attempt to persuade her into making an appearance at the ceremony."
"Wooah! A castle in the sky? That's pretty cool! Thank you Sessh for trying for me." she got up from her seat across the table, walking over to him and pressing her lips against his.
Wrapping his arms around her waist, the daiyōkai pulled his mate into his lap and covered her face with soft kisses. He was trying to make amends for being difficult, he knew she was staying strong. The last few days since their visit at her family shrine had been stressful with decision making for the wedding. The miko's mother kept firing question after question to make sure the couple were on top of things.
Asking things like what kind of theme they wanted, were they going for a traditional shinto wedding or a western kind of wedding where she would have a white gown instead of a kimono. Would they prefer to say vows or go for the traditional San san ku do, did they want to have a yuino or not. The subject of the traditional yuino was what had brought up the subject of the daiyōkai's mother being invited. Being curious by nature, the miko, who had never met his mother before, jumped at the opportunity. Whether or not she would agree to a yuino didn't matter, what would matter was being able to meet her if she did attend the wedding.
Later today, the miko would be going with her mother for dress shopping. The couple had settled on doing something in the middle of a traditional and western wedding. Instead of vows, they wanted to stir things up and do a traditional San san ku do. Though the miko wanted to wear a dress instead of a kimono, she was unsure if she wanted to go traditional white or go for a different color. While the miko would be going dress shopping, the daiyōkai planned on sending out invitations to the guests they had settled on inviting.
Obviously, her family was already invited, so the invitations he had to send out were to her trio of friends as well as a few yōkai whom lived in the building. The wolf yōkai and his mate, as well as their children and their pack, the kitsune, Shiori, and Myōga were the only yōkai that also had human forms that could attend the wedding. With the exception of Myōga, as he is a flea, he can still attend and be out of sight. They both wished that Jinenji would be able to attend, but they knew that he would not be able to unless by stroke of luck it was the time of month he turned human for a day. Even then, they knew he was very self conscious about it and only his mother had ever seen his human form.
The miko's phone sounded off with a light chime, and she looked at the time flashing on the screen, "Oh man! I'm gonna be late if I don't leave now!"
Scrambling off of his lap, the miko disappeared into their shared closet to throw on a change of clothes. She emerged a few moments later, wearing a light blue halter top dress that dropped to her knees and holding a pair of matching flats in one hand while she fingered through her hair with the other. The daiyōkai smiled at his mate as he took in her natural beauty, before standing and closing the distance between the couple.
"The kit offered to be your chauffeur for the day should you accept his offer, my beautiful mate. This Sesshōmaru will work on a few preparation items while you are out and about so you do not have to stress so much. Do not hesitate to call should you need anything." he placed a soft kiss on her lips, before ushering her towards the door.
She smiled, "Thank you Sessh, you're the best. I'll see you later today love."
"Anything for you, my mate. Enjoy your day"
Closing the door behind her, the daiyōkai locked it and sit back down at the table where there were papers and pens strewed across the surface. The daiyōkai set about writing elegantly on the wedding invitations, they had both agreed he had the better handwriting of the two considering he had hundreds of years of writing under his belt. They had settled for a wedding in late summer, after the school year was over and before the next one was to start. That way it wouldn't interfere with anyone's schedules since she said her friends didn't really do much over the summer, and all the yōkai invited worked under him so there was nothing to worry about as far as their ability to attend was concerned.
He would have to remember that when he dropped off invitations, he would need to ask for any food allergies to help with the catering decisions for the reception. He would hate to ruin the day for someone by them having an allergic reaction if it could have been easily prevented.
~~~~ Kagome and Mrs. Higurashi ~~~~
The miko had taken the kitsune's offer to drive her and her mother around, it would give her mother a chance to meet her adopted grandson and spend some time with him. The three were currently on their way to the closest mall, as it had a huge bridal store and it would be a great place to start. The miko was still unsure what style of dress she wanted, let alone a color that she would want it in. Little did she know, that her mother had been preparing for this day for years and already had ideas.
It took them a good few minutes to find a parking spot, considering it was the weekend which is usually the most popular time people hang out at the mall or go shopping. Once they were finally parked, the trio made their way towards the doors leading into the mall. When they got inside, the miko's mother pulled her by the arm and made a bee-line for the bridal store. The kitsune chuckled, opting to hang out at the gaming shop next to the bridal store instead of follow them.
As the chime went off when they entered, a woman seemed to pop out of nowhere to greet them. She had dirty blonde tresses that were pulled out of her face and held up in a high pony tail. The welcoming smile on her lips didn't quite make it to her emerald green eyes, but that didn't damper the cheery tone of her voice.
"Welcome to Plexus Bridal Boutique, my name is Emiko and I will be assisting you lovely ladies today. Who is the lucky lady we're outfitting today?" she inquired, flashing them her pearly white smile.
The miko's mother wasted no time in responding, "My daughter here, she has no idea what style she wants just yet. I had a couple of ideas of possible ones she might like."
With the help of Emiko, in about an hour her mother had gone through and picked out several dresses ranging in styles and color. There was a princess looking ball gown of a wedding dress, there was a strapless mermaid wedding dress, a mermaid wedding dress with off the shoulder sleeves, a halter top wedding dress, a laced long sleeve wedding dress, a spaghetti-strap with an open back wedding dress, and another strapless wedding dress.
When they were given a dressing room, her mother quickly set about helping the miko get into each dress, starting with the ball gown wedding dress. It was a silky, burgundy colored dress with a sweetheart neckline that hugged her chest and sides, before flowing out in effortless ruffles to the ground. There was intricate floral embroidery across the torso and along the edges of the layered ruffles. After zipping up the back of the dress, her mother stepped back and had the miko twirl around in the dress.
"What do you think dear?" her mother asked, gazing at her through her reflection in the middle mirror in front of them.
The miko gave herself a once over in the different angled mirrors, "It's pretty and all, but I feel like it's too poofy and maybe a little heavy? But I do like the color and the embroidery."
After helping her daughter get out of the ball gown dress, the miko's mother helped her into the halter top dress. It was a wine colored dress that hugged her curves and dropped just before reaching the floor. The skirt portion of the dress was made of a few layers of tulle fabric, keeping the dress a light weight feeling in comparison with the ball gown dress. A plum colored ribbon sat where the tulle met the satin torso, neatly gathered in a bow in the back of the dress. There was a little bit of floral embroidery on the torso along the front, not too much and not too little.
"I like the style of this one better than the ball gown for sure, but I still want to try on the other dresses if that's okay with you?" the miko said as she looked herself over in the mirrors again.
Simply nodding, her mother went back to helping her in and out of the dresses that she had picked out for her. It seemed like forever went by, and when they finally finished and she saw the time, they had spent about five hours trying on dresses. Needless to say, her feet were aching from standing for five hours straight. She had stuck with her decision of the halter top dress, but asked for it in the cherry red color instead of the wine color and a scarlet ribbon instead of a plum ribbon.
The miko texted the kitsune, as she was unsure where he had gone off to while they were looking for dresses, and let him know that they were done and headed towards the food court. They bought bento boxes with rice, teriyaki chicken, and some steamed vegetables, before finding a table to sit and eat at. The miko tried not to scarf down her food, though she was practically starving, as she didn't want to be chastised for lack of manners by her mother.
"What have you been up to Shippo?" the miko inquired after swallowing her food.
The kitsune shrugged, "There was a gaming store next door, I was looking at consoles and new games that had come out. There were some consoles that were already hooked up and some demo games inside them so I tried a few of the single player games since nobody else was really there to play the other games with."
"I'm glad you found some entertainment, I was wondering where you had been since I didn't see you come in with us." she replied.
He gave a small smile, "I figured you two didn't want me getting in the way, but I also didn't want to be too far. It was just convenient enough that there happened to be a gaming store next door. It makes me wonder if they did that on purpose."
"It's possible, but normally the grooms don't come with the brides when looking for gowns since its superstitiously bad luck for a groom to see his bride in her wedding dress before the wedding." she chuckled.
The kitsune shook his head, "People actually believe in that? That sounds absolutely ridiculous."
A/N: Annnnnnd that is where I'm going to leave this chapter off on!
-----SIDE NOTE-----
HAPPY HALLOWEEN MY LOVELY READERS! Honestly, when I planned on updating on Wednesdays, I didn't even look at dates. It just so happens this week's update is on Halloween! You guys go out there and have fun, live a little. Just don't do anything I wouldn't do(;
-----END NOTE-----
I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter, I had to do quite a bit of research looking into this kind of stuff since I wanted to integrate a bit of the culture into the wedding so it wasn't a stereotypical 'western' wedding. I still have more researching to go for the upcoming chapters though lol!
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In case you were wondering, San san ku do translates literally to "three, three, nine times" and is a tradition where there are 'cups' of sake that are stacked on top of each other. The 'cups' are called sakazuki but look more like shallow dipping bowls, and are stacked with the small size on top, the medium in the middle, and the large one on the bottom.
The top cup represents heaven, the middle one earth, and the bottom one represents humankind. The bride and the groom take turns sipping three times from each cup. (sometimes the parents of the groom and the parents of the bride participate in this as well) By the time that they are finished, they have sipped sake three times from each of the three cups, with the total being nine times. (This is why it is called three, three, nine times)
Sake may not be the best drink out there to sip but this represents the couple's marriage life not always being delightful. They will have to overcome life's challenges with the joint spirit of the san san kudo. By exchanging the nuptial sake sips –three times three- , husband and wife are a union.
~ I don't like to plagiarize, the website I got this information from was http://aproposcreations.com/uncategorized/san-san-kudo/ ~
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As always, thank you for taking the time to read my weekly updates! It really does mean a lot to me. I hope you enjoy the rest of your morning/afternoon/evening wherever you are! Until next week my lovely readers!
xoxoxoxo