A Story a Day Until Christmas Day by kaoruhana

Stargazing

A/N: I dislcaim any and all references to real life stores, places, and people in my story.  Not beta'ed or proofread thoroughly.  

Prompt: Star (Sesskag Blog Monthly Prompt for December)

Word Count: 602 (according to Word)

* * * * * 

Kagome huddled into her coat for warmth, her scarf acting as a secondary mask on top of the one she now wore whenever she had to go outside.  Besides her stood Sesshomaru who was the only person she was around constantly in the Covid Bubble.  

It had been almost a spur of the moment decision on both their parts.  As the lockdowns started, and they both realized that work from home and COVID-19 bubbles were a thing, they had come to a decision.  Sesshomaru’s townhouse with its three bedrooms and ample space was much too large for him to live in by himself.  And Kagome’s nice one-bedroom apartment, while simple for her, was too claustrophobic and noisy.  Especially so, when she realized just how many of her neighbors were staying at home, with their kids who now went to online school, and the sounds proved to be a bit too much for the author(ess). 

After her third complaint, Sesshomaru had calmly told her he had two extra bedrooms that were going to be devoid of guests for the foreseeable future, and that it might not be a bad idea for the two to share living quarters for a while.  It seemed such an odd thing to live with her editor, but as the months went by, and late summer afternoons on the patio turned into evenings in front of the living room fireplace, Kagome found it much harder to say that the decision had been a bad one.  

As she shivered again, she heard Sesshomaru sigh and pull her closer to him with an arm around her shoulder.  Shocked, she turned her eyes to him, but his eyes were trained on the sky.  Shrugging, she huddled into him, eagerly seeking the warmth.  

“There it is!  Look, in the Western Sky.”  

Kagome craned her neck to where the voice indicated eager to get her first glimpse of the Saturn and Jupiter conjunction that she had heard so much news about.  She and Sesshomaru, in a bid to stave off boredom, had come to his neighborhood’s socially distanced star viewing party.  Excluding streetlights, most of the neighbors had turned off their house and garage lights and met up in the small grassy hill area adjacent to one of the large cul-de-sacs.  

As she followed the line of sight, she gasped when she saw the bright lights—too bright to be stars.  Smiling, she then allowed her eyes to roam around, trying to spot the Constellations her father had taught her when she was a child: Orion’s belt, the winter triangles, etc.

 “Should we go home and stargaze in the backyard?”  

Kagome turned her attention to Sesshomaru.  She was a little startled when she noticed how close their faces were.  Well, a little startled, and a little fluttery.  Months of living with Sesshomaru had made her realize she had more than just platonic feelings for the man.  

But this kind of invitation was new.  

Trying to move a little backwards, only done by craning her head back, she answered him.  “Um, sure?  But we can always just go inside you know?  I’m kind of cold, so I wouldn’t mind just relaxing and watching the Baking Competition or something.” 

“Hn.”  Sesshomaru's arm tightened around her shoulders, and he pulled her closer.  “Very well.  Let’s go inside then.” 

His arm fell from around her.  Waving a goodbye to the leader of the home-owner’s association, the one who had created this event, he led Kagome away from the cul-de-sac to his house.  

Neither realized that the entire time, both of them thought of Sesshomaru’s house as their home.