A/N: Prompt: HS party: InuYasha throws it and Kagome hooks up with Sesshomaru, only for Toga to find them together later, as requested by effinsusie. AU.

Kagome never did like parties but she had a hard time telling her best friend no, which is why she was here at his party while his parents were away. InuYasha had proclaimed that it was his last big party of senior year since they were graduating next week and he wanted to go out with a bang.

But she desperately didn't want to be in the throng of people dancing and playing drinking games so she took her obligatory drink that he'd insisted she have and then, as soon as he was distracted by his crush Kikyo's arrival, she fled.

Which is what led her to what she was doing now: hunting through a room in the humongous manor that she could successfully hide in for the rest of the night without being too bored. Prior parties had taught her that the garden, bedrooms, and closets were all out, as was the large manor library. She did not want to become an accidental voyeur to anyone's trysting.

As she explored, she found the glass domed observatory and slipped inside. It would be romantic enough for a tryst, she supposed, but it was so far removed from the party, with plenty of bedrooms and closets along the way, that she hoped that no one would bother to make it that far.

To her surprise, there was already a man inside the starlit room who looked surprisingly like InuYasha.

She stared, realizing this man could only be one person: Sesshomaru, InuYasha's half-brother.

Kagome had heard of him before but they'd never met since Sesshomaru was currently away from home in college and, before that, had lived with his mother rather than InuYasha, InuYasha's mother Izayoi, and their father.

"You should not be here," he said, his voice low. "The party is back that way."

She ignored him as he pointed towards the door. "I know," she said simply. "That's kind of what I'm trying to avoid."

He turned, his eyes flashing in the moonlight. "Are you now?" he asked, his voice low. "I was under the impression that this was to be quite the party."

Kagome shrugged, not bothering to explain herself. "What are you doing here?" she asked instead.

For a moment, he was silent, and then he admitted, "The stars. I am studying astrophysics and this is the best view in all of Tokyo. Father built this room and even had a large telescope set up in the hopes of luring me back home." He ran a hand through a long strand of hair. "It worked."

"I've always liked looking at the stars," she confessed, looking up at the stars above him. "They're beautiful."

He snorted. "That is a human notion," he said dismissively.

She glowered at her companion. "Says the yokai studying stars."

He straightened. "Astrophysics," he corrected, but there was a slight smile tugging at his lips.

"Same difference." She shrugged as she stepped forward, closer to him so she could get a better view of the stars all around them.

"You are the hanyo's priestess," he observed, studying her.

She waved a dismissive hand. "Not that one. I'm Kagome." She smiled faintly. "You're thinking of Kikyo; he's had a crush on her forever. Even though Kikyo and I kind of look alike, we aren't related."

He considered that. "I see."

She wondered if he did but as the seconds stretched into minutes, she began to get nervous. "Do you mind if I stay here? I really, really don't want to go back to the party."

"Do as you wish." He turned his attention back to the telescope, reaching for headphones she only just noticed.

She figured being ignored by him would be even worse than going back to the party so she blurted, "Show me."

His hand froze on the headphones.

"The stars," she clarified, sensing his confusion. "Show me how you see the stars."

He eyed her for a moment and then nodded. "Very well."

And he did, showing her the stars he was studying for one of his classes and what it was that he hoped to discover about the properties of certain types of stars. His dream, she learned, was to identify how different star formations impacted the development of planets and later, life, in the systems they inhabited.

At some point, he asked her about her dream and she admitted she wanted to run a nonprofit to help orphans after a chance encounter with a young kitsune who'd been found hiding in a cardboard box on the streets after his parents had tragically been killed. Unlike InuYasha, he hadn't laughed or scoffed at the idea of her building a nonprofit on her own.

Instead, he'd offered a few suggestions of his own of how she could start one even before she graduated college—the same college, she learned, that he intended to pursue his masters in the fall, after he graduated with his bachelors next month.

The more they talked, the more they both relaxed. As the hours wore on, they found themselves sitting on one of the futons in the observatory. She hadn't known what possessed her, but she'd shifted, moving to kiss him.

It had been a gentle kiss, one to thank him for the help he'd offered on helping her realize her dream.

It had quickly become more. She clung to him, needing the quiet tenderness he offered so freely, and evidently he'd found something worth pursuing in her as well. The kisses deepened as he leaned her back against the futon couch, deftly setting it up to expand into a bed without even jarring her.

And then she'd pleaded for him not to stop and Sesshomaru, chuckling, hadn't.

.

.

As sunlight shifted overhead, burning through her eyelids, she stirred, finding that Sesshomaru had draped himself around her.

They were both naked.

She stared at her naked body and his, flushing as she realized one or both of them had kicked off the sheets into the night.

And then the door suddenly flung open. "Sesshomaru, my son!" a voice boomed through the observatory. "How did you enjoy your new telescope—"

Kagome grabbed for the blankets to the side of her just in time to protect her own modesty as Sesshomaru's father came around the futon.

He stopped and stared.

She stared back. She hadn't realized Sesshomaru's father would be back from his business trip so soon, let alone would go in search of Sesshomaru.

Sesshomaru, who was sleeping naked next to her, his modesty preserved only thanks to his long, silvery hair.

She mentally willed herself not to blush.

"Ah." Sesshomaru's father coughed. "I can see that I am interrupting—"

"You are." Sesshomaru brushed his hair from his face and Kagome inhaled to hide her scream. She hadn't even realized he was awake. "And if you stay, you will be interrupting far more than our slumber."

Kagome turned bright red at the innuendo she couldn't miss. "Sesshomaru—" she hissed, only to be interrupted as Sesshomaru's father began chuckling.

"I hope she likes blueberry pancakes." Sesshomaru's father winked. "I'll let Izayoi know to expect another for breakfast."

"Lunch," Sesshomaru corrected, his arm tightening around Kagome when she would have pulled away.

Sesshomaru's father continued to laugh as he left the room.

And Sesshomaru, to her astonishment, turned her to him and then, as he'd promised, began all over again as he breathed in her ear, "There is nothing more enticing in this world than a woman with a dream like yours, though it is your kindness that I find most entrancing."

Kagome was as seduced by those words as she had been, she realized, the first time he'd said them the night before.

True to his word, they didn't make it downstairs for breakfast.