“Is he here yet?” Sango who was already dressed up in her white wedding kimono, asked me as she sat inside the cottage while waiting for the wedding ceremony to start.

Sliding the cottage curtain, I took a quick glance around the field where the wedding was held but there were no sign of any red-garbed half-demon amongst the crowd of guests. I turned back to Sango with a slight shake of the head and she slumped down on her chair a little.

“I guess he really isn’t coming, huh?”

“Don’t worry about him, Sango. If he really thinks of us as his friends, he would come down for your wedding for sure.” I assured Sango as I jumped up on her lap while she pats me a little on my head.

“And if he didn’t?”

I looked up to see Sango beautifully made-up face, only to see her frown. “Sango, I thought you had promised Kagome that you will be happy, especially on your wedding day, and today is your wedding day.”

Sango let out a sigh as she turned towards the curtained window. After some silence, someone silently stepped in the hut, shocking both Sango and me as he spoke. “Come on Ane-ue, the wedding ceremony is starting and the groom is already waiting for you outside.”

 “Kohaku! You’re here? I thought you were out for a mission!” Sango who was finally smiling, quickly got up despite of her heavy wedding kimono and (if I dare say) waddled towards Kohaku to pull him for a hug.

“Ane-ue, how could I ever miss your wedding? You’re the only family I have left, I could never do that.” Kohaku beamed at her as he returned Sango’s hug. “Now, I think we better not keep everyone else waiting. Shall we go now?”

With a silent nod, Kohaku took his sister’s hand and slowly lead her out with me following closely behind. The moment we reached at the field that was in front of Kagome Shrine, the guest that was already there immediately silent down and turned their heads towards us. Miroku, who was already there in his black haori, beckoned Sango over with a wide smile as she sheepishly went over to his side.

“Look who we have here,” Miroku whispered, enough for both Sango and me to hear as he tilted his head to his right.

To our surprise, not far from us, stood under a tree, was Inuyasha, staring right back at us.

“Inuyasha.” Sango muttered under her breath.

Judging from the flick of his ear, it seems that he had heard Sango as he nodded, with his lips trembling into a smile. Sango immediately smiled back, then with more life, turned towards Kaede who would be the one conducting the ceremony and started to walk up the aisle with Miroku.

*~*~*~*~*~*

“We really didn’t think that you would come. For making this wedding even more perfect, thank you, Inuyasha.” I handed him a plate of food as I settled down beside him.

He silently nodded as he started to pick on the food that was just given to him.

“Both Sango and Miroku was extremely grateful, you know. They were moping right before the ceremony when they thought that you wouldn’t show up and to think that today is actually their wedding day when it was supposed to be a joyous event.” I continued to talk casually as I scooped in food inside my mouth in between my sentences.

“I.. I’m sorry,” Inuyasha muttered.

I almost choked on the food when I heard Inuyasha talked. Ever since Kagome’s death eight months ago, Inuyasha had completely shut himself off and so we had never heard him utter a word since and now to hear him say an actual word from his mouth, I thought I was dreaming.

I turned towards him with my mouth opened in shock slowly. I was very sure I wasn’t dreaming that he spoke but when I looked at him, his eyes still looked dead and his face all void of emotions. Come to think of it, I was sure he had actually smiled at us earlier. Everyone saw it!

“Inuyasha, d-did you say something just now?”

Slowly, Inuyasha turned his head towards me. His eyes still looked dead but the moment I saw his lips moved, I felt some of the weight that I didn’t realize that was on my shoulder lighten up. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have shut you guys out.”

My eyes began to blur and my lips began to tremble. I just couldn’t believe my ears. I just couldn’t believe that after eight full months of Inuyasha losing himself, he’s finally coming back to us. With an undignified sniffle, the tears began to flow out freely and I cried out loudly like the little child that I truly am. As more tears spilled and I successfully gained the attention of everyone around us including the bride and groom, I jumped up and hugged Inuyasha. I didn’t even care how awkward it actually was to think back to how we used to treat each other. I just feel the strong need to hug him.

“S-Shippo? Is everything okay?” Sango’s voice pulled me out from my cries as I held on Inuyasha tighter.

“Sango!” I cried. “Sango, Miroku! Inuyasha, he—, he— He is finally returning back to himself! He actually spoke to me!”

Sango was just about to speak but then Inuyasha jerked me off him, and my cries stopped. For a moment, everyone exchanged their looks and when their eyes were on me again, I couldn’t help but cry out even louder.

“You see? Did you see that? He had actually pushed me off him! He’s no longer unresponsive!”

Just like that, Sango whimpered and Miroku’s frown turned into a smile. When Inuyasha just lifted up his chin to look at the bride and groom, both of them, as if on cue, pulled Inuyasha up to embrace him in their arms.

“Inuyasha.” Miroku acknowledged.

“Welcome back!” Sango began sobbing, this time clearly of happiness.

While the three of us were crying with a slightly uncomfortable Inuyasha surrounded by us, the wind suddenly blew and it began ringing the bells that were at the entrance of Kagome’s shrine. It was like as though Kagome was whispering to us, it was like as though Kagome was telling us how happy she was to see us like this. For the first time after what we thought was a very long time, the group that I had once journeyed with was finally regaining our joy.

A/N: Hey Guys! Aki here. Firstly, I really would like to apologize to the all those who had waited for so long for me to update this. I will really try my best to update as often as I should. I'm currently writing the next chapter now so once it's done, I will post it straight away. Please forgive my tardiness. I hope you like my story so far. Please do review as your comment means a lot to me and would also drive me to write more. Thanks for reading!