An Off-White Christmas by UnknownRandomness

The Problems Continue

Prompt: Lights

Word Count: 511

Sesshoumaru growled under his breath, valiantly trying to reign in his frustration as the sixth bulb in the last five minutes turned into miniscule shards of dust inside his hand. Why didn't companies make youkai-proof fairy lights?! At this rate there would be none left to go on the tree! Not to mention the irritating wires which had spun themselves into impossible knots within the packaging and nicked on his sharp claws as he'd attempted to untangle them.

Pausing in his struggle to wind the electronic decorations around the prickly, fragrant, over-sized bush that Kagome had insisted was necessary for an "authentic Christmas celebration", the inuyoukai released a loud snarl. He was the head of an extremely profitable company! He should not be wasting precious time on these ridiculous foreign customs with gaudy trinkets that could not even withstand the tiniest amount of pressure!

The sound of a key sliding into the lock brought a welcoming sense of relief to the frazzled demon. Kagome was back. She would know what to do.

Emerging from the living room, Sesshoumaru caught his mate in a hug before she had a chance to start unbuttoning her coat. Smelling her calming scent immediately soothed his annoyance, but the unexpectedly over-powering odour of pure manufactured sugar caused him to pull back quickly. The sight that greeted him had a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.

Kagome had two candy canes protruding from her lips and a third firmly gripped in one clenched fist. It was quite endearing and surprisingly hilarious. She crunched the ends with a lop-sided grin and Sesshoumaru found that he couldn't stop himself from leaning down and plucking one of the sweet striped treats from her mouth with his own. Her annoyed 'meep' caused a chuckle to rumble in his chest.

Quickly demolishing the candy cane, the woman gave her husband a proper hug before asking,

"So how's the tree preparation going?"

The youkai felt his scowl return in full force. "See for yourself." He muttered darkly.

Walking into the 'tree room' ahead of her, Sesshoumaru felt more than saw Kagome stop dead at the sight of the mangled fairy lights wound haphazardly around the slightly battered fir tree. She clapped her hands over her mouth to stifle the giggles that threatened to escape.

"Oh, Angel-sama, you suck at this!"

His answering growl caused her to laugh uproariously whilst he did nothing but glare at her shaking form. After quite a few minutes of constant laughing, the miko sobered up enough to try and mollify the wounded inu.

"I'm sorry, that was mean of me... I'm sure it looks nicer when the power's on. Let's see how it looks lit up!"

Before he could stop her, Kagome flipped the switch and the house was plunged into complete darkness.

"Oh. That wasn't supposed to happen."

Kagome's snort quickly escalated into another fit of the giggles. Clearly his mate had eaten more than one of those miniature sugar sticks- she would be like this for hours before the effect wore off.

Sesshoumaru sighed.