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Momo had the flu. Every muscle ached and her body felt so weak and shaky from fever. She was wrapped up in her comforter, sheets, and fitted sheet that had come undone from her restlessness of trying to get comfortable.
She heard a knock at the door. “Yaoyorozu?” Iida’s voice sounded on the other side of the door.
“MMMmmmm?” Momo managed as loud as she could to answer him without having to move. Her throat flared with even more soreness from the noise she made. She hoped that was adequate enough for him to hear. She didn’t want to speak or move any more than was absolutely necessary.
“The class is leaving now for the planetarium. I wanted to let you know so you could come to the common area. Maybe you’d be more comfortable down there. Satou left some bread and soup for you on the counter.”
Momo mumbled a “Thank you,” she doubted Iida could hear. There would be a solar eclipse later that day and many of the students of UA, including their class, were headed to the local planetarium. The rest of the student body was going to gather on the other end of the campus with the Science faculty who were setting up telescopes to view the eclipse safely.
“The dorm will be empty so you don’t have to worry about making anyone sick.”
Iida left and Momo decided she was tired of looking at just the inside of her room for the last twenty hours or so. She had fallen ill the day before and immediately isolated herself after she returned from the infirmary with the flu diagnosis.
She slowly rolled off her bed and grabbed the fleece throw blanket that had fallen on the floor from off the foot of her bed. Momo wrapped it around her shoulders, grabbed a tote from her closet, sluggishly moved to her desk, and grabbed the box of Kleenex and medicines and placed them in her tote.
She then slowly walked down the hall, feeling like she was in a daze, her head stuffy from congestion although her nose was no longer running. Momo took the elevator instead of the stairs. The door immediately opened when she pushed the down button. The simple movement made her arm ache. She stepped into the cabin, having to practice great restraint not to lie on the floor of the elevator as it slowly descended.
It dinged as the doors opened on the first floor and Momo shuffled out. As she walked down the hall and into the living area, it felt like a foreign place to her. Like Iida said, it was completely empty. She stood in the middle of the living area as she glanced over the dining area, study area, and kitchen. It was a spacious, open floor plan devoid of any movement which was rarely ever the case with a class of 20 students living there.
Momo felt quite small, especially since all the lights had been turned off and the space was only being illuminated by the morning sunlight coming in through the windows. It made her feel like an animal coming out of its safe burrow. And now she would return to the warm confines of her blanket and the couch as she plopped herself onto the plush cushions and covered herself with her blanket. She realized she was probably due for her medicine, but she didn’t want to move any more than was absolutely necessary.
From under her blanket, she pulled the tote off her shoulder and did her best to toss it on the coffee table. She heard the contents spill out but she didn’t care to see where they had fallen. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Momo heard noises in her dreams. No matter what scenario was playing out while she slumbered she kept hearing the dorm doors open and shut. Open and shut. Open and shut. She knew it was a dream because her whole class had left for the planetarium. The front dorm doors were metal and heavy and even though they had a mechanism to keep them from slamming shut, they were still quite loud when someone entered or exited.
It was a weird thing to dream about. And then she had a dream about Bakugou of all people. He had asked her a question. She knew it was him because no one else sounded even remotely close to Bakugou. Loud, grating, bellows of ill-humor.
He asked her again and then he pulled back her blankets, laid a hand on her forehead, and then asked her when was the last time she took her meds. Since it was a dream, she didn’t remember what she had said, but she had taken her medicine very late the night before.
Then she had a dream he had helped her sit up, had given her her meds, and as she burrowed back into her blankets he said something along the lines of ‘For being the smartest in the class you sure have shit-for-brains when it comes to taking care of yourself.’
Momo smiled to herself, pleased that her subconscious had painted the perfect example of Bakugou. She then remembered Bakugou saying something about setting a timer on his phone, but it was a dream so it didn’t matter, she didn’t hear him clearly or understand. And she heard the dorm door open and close a couple more times.
She slept. And then another dream with Bakugou waking her up, giving her meds, and her burrowing back in her blanket just wanting to be left alone.
Momo slept. She slept deeply and dreamlessly. So much so, that when she woke up she was disoriented. As she sat up on the couch, it took her several moments to remember she was downstairs in the living area. That she had the flu and that she was alone in the dorm.
Stretching her arms over her head, Momo noticed her body was less achy than before and her head felt much clearer than it had since she started feeling sick. She lowered her arms from the long stretch and glanced at the coffee table in front of her. Her tote, medicines, and her box of Kleenex were there. And now there was an index card with small, precise writing on it, that hadn’t been there before.
7:22 – Tylenol
10:22 – Ibuprofen
She didn’t remember writing the times she had taken her medicine or even taking the meds in the first place. The writing didn’t even look like hers. Was she that ill, drifting inside such an intense fever dream she had not remembered taking her meds and writing the times down? Although Momo did notice that her fever was possibly gone or at least no longer raging so hot.
She untangled herself from her blanket and walked to the kitchen. On the bar, there was some bread, soup, and rice, she vaguely remembered Iida saying something about how they had left her the meal. She added the rice to the soup, heated up the bowl in the microwave, and realized she was still a little chilled. A small touch of a fever still lingered she realized, but she did feel much better.
Momo walked over to the couches and nestled back in her blankets with her bowl and slowly ate her meal. She glanced out the window, noticing how much the lighting in the common area had changed, bright rays of sun streaming in but not quite reaching the sofa she sat on. She watched the airy specks of dust float in the sunshine.
The solar eclipse.
Now that she felt better, the sense of loss began to rise up inside her with the knowledge she was missing the event. Musutafu was in the path of totality; they would experience a total solar eclipse, the moon would cross in front of the sun and it would block out all direct sunlight. At the planetarium and at UA, they would have telescopes fitted with solar lenses so the sun and moon could be safely viewed during the event.
Momo knew she could do the research to figure out how to make the lens needed. She already knew how to make simple refractor and reflector telescopes, so she would need to just research the lens and then could make them with her quirk. But she knew she needed to rest since she was still sick and that meant minimal quirk usage. And even though she was feeling better, her mind still felt a little muddled. Not to mention the idea of doing research sounded awful to her which was very unlike her but told her she was still not feeling 100 percent.
She had made several dozen pairs of simple solar eclipse glasses with her quirk the week before that were heavily tinted so one could gaze up at the sun with them in safety. She noticed a pair had been left on the couch across from her, so she placed her empty bowl on the coffee table, grabbed the glasses, wrapped her blanket around her, and decided to head outside to check out the eclipse since she was feeling better.
Momo slipped her feet into her loafers at the front door and leaned into the heavy dorm door. As she stepped outside she squinted as her eyes adjusted to the brightness. She took a few steps not bothering to go down the stairs, her plan to just check out the sun and see if the eclipse had started.
She wore the glasses, looked up, and saw the tiniest little sliver of black pushing into the reddish-orange circle through the extremely dark film. It had started, this almost once-in-a-lifetime event was happening and she was alone with no one to share in the excitement with. Momo pushed away the negative feelings, she was very logical after all and knew people got sick, and these things happened.
Momo took off the glasses and decided to go back inside and rest. If she felt up to it later, she would check on the eclipse’s progress again.
“Ponytail.”
Momo turned toward the voice, already knowing who it was since only one person called her that.
“Bakugou?”
He was a few meters away, down the steps, standing next to a telescope. He had a tray table set up with a laptop and two folding chairs set up behind him.
“Why are you here?” Momo asked.
He dropped his gaze from her and turned his attention back to the telescope. “Like I want to be around all those fucking extras at the planetarium or even worse down at Ground Beta.” He bent down, gazing through the eyepiece of the telescope.
Momo stood for several seconds watching Bakugou, still caught off guard seeing him. She blamed the longer reaction to her sickened status.
“Well…good luck with the eclipse viewing. Have fun,” Momo said.
As she turned away, Bakugou said, “Sit.”
Momo froze and then a couple of seconds later she turned around and glanced back at him. He was still looking through the eyepiece. She watched the expression on his face. He looked very serious like he often did in class. And when he studied. Actually, he looked that way a lot, when he wasn’t looking surly or pissed off or aggressively arrogant.
“I…I would, thank you for the invitation, but I don’t want to pass on the virus and make you sick.”
“You won’t,” he pivoted carefully away from the telescope and then looked down at the laptop and started moving his finger on the touchpad. “I already had the flu.”
“When? I don’t remember you missing class.”
Bakugou typed a few things on the keyboard, not looking up at her, his eyes on the laptop display. “It was during the end-of-term break we had two weeks ago.”
“Oh,” Momo said. She did want to join him, but there was still a risk of making him sick. “There are several strains of the flu, if your strain was different than mine-“
“Goddammit, Ponytail. Just sit down,” he interrupted still not meeting her gaze. He took a couple of careful steps back to the telescope and peered down into the eyepiece again. There was no real heat behind his words, just a tiny bit of irritation.
“Sure,” Momo said, happy to finally give in, as she walked down the steps and sat on one of the folding chairs. She glanced over at the laptop and saw a very detailed, blown-up picture of the sun. Even in the sunlight, she could make out details of the surface of the sun, swirls and tiny darkened spots, on the laptop display screen.
“Look,” Bakugou said as he stepped away from the telescope.
Momo nodded at him and stood up carefully stepping toward the instrument. She noticed additional apparatus he had on the telescope, a piece that looked like it could have been a camera of some sort and she noticed the huge mount the telescope sat on. The mount most likely had tracking capabilities; Due to her quirk and her own thirst for knowledge, Momo had researched telescopes and their paraphernalia before so she was a little familiar with the equipment.
She held her breath, closed her left eye, and peered through the eyepiece with her dominant eye. Momo saw the sun in such magnificent detail, swirls and flares danced on the surface of the star. She saw sun spots and glowing arcs she knew were called solar filaments from her research. She had seen pictures in books and online but seeing the features in such detail live was amazing to witness.
And at the edge of the fiery orb, the shadowed moon was slowly encroaching upon the sun, covering up a small portion of the star.
“Oh, wow!” Momo said as she gazed through the eyepiece in awe and then she felt her face heat up at her silly exclamation, but she couldn’t help herself.
Several moments later, she backed away, noticing she felt a little dizzy. Momo felt like the blanket was probably making her overheated now so she slipped out of her blanket, folded it, and draped it over the back of the chair. She then sat, noticing how nice the gentle breeze felt as it swirled around her. It was a beautiful day, the sky free of any clouds so they would have a perfect eclipse-viewing experience.
Momo and Bakugou took turns looking through the telescope, Bakugou making tiny adjustments to knobs on the telescope and fiddling with his laptop. Momo had asked him if he was taking digital pictures and he had told her he was, that was what the laptop setup was mainly for. She then asked him if it was all his personal equipment.
“Yeah,” he replied curtly as he clicked between tabs on his laptop.
Momo smiled, a feeling of pleasantness running through her, pleased about gaining a rare nugget of information about Bakugou who seemed to guard his personal life like the most intimidating and hoard-defending dragon. It was nice to know he had hobbies unrelated to being a hero that he was passionate about.
A phone alarm went off and Bakugou, who was already standing, dug his phone out of his deep cargo pant’s pocket. He turned off the alarm and went back into Alliance Heights. Momo, who was curled up in the chair, her legs curled under her, rubbed her neck realizing she was feeling more achy now. She wondered where Bakugou had run off to, but she figured he’d be back.
A minute later he came through the dorm doors holding a glass of water and medicine. The alarm Bakugou set was for me Momo thought to herself trying to fight off the prickling feeling on her cheeks that she knew would color her pale, sickly face with a deep blush.
He handed her the water and two pills, his face devoid of any emotions other than serious. The little pinch between his brows, his lips a thin, tight line. Momo took the proffered items and said, “Thank you.”
Bakugou took a few steps toward the telescope and then pulled the index card from the coffee table out of his pocket along with a pen and wrote down the time he garnered with a glance at his laptop. Momo’s face erupted with a flush of embarrassment that made her feel a little faint on top of the fever. She had not dreamt of Bakugou giving her her meds. It had actually happened. She took the medicine and slowly drank the glass of water until it was empty.
Bakugou then took the empty glass from her and set it on the folding table next to his laptop.
“Notice anything?” Bakugou asked as he fiddled with the laptop.
Momo’s eyes went wide with a small panic not sure what Bakugou meant. All she could think of was he had written the times she had taken her meds on the index card and set an alarm on his phone to alternate between both the fever-reducing meds, the most efficient way to keep a high fever down. Surely he wasn’t asking about that?
“Pardon?” Momo asked and then swallowed.
“Look around. The sunlight’s changed.”
Momo gazed around their environs, the campus was empty on their end, Momo had only seen a couple of wayward students go into the adjacent dorms since she had come outside. But she noticed the light had lessened, like it was nearing evening. Yet the light source came from above them, not from the horizon at the west where the sun set at the end of every day. The area was illuminated in a way she had never seen before due to the cosmic happenings of the day.
It was getting closer and closer to the moment of a total eclipse, the moon now covering up more than half of the sun. They took turns looking through the telescope, at times both Momo and Bakugou looking through the heavily tinted glasses to give their neck and eyes a break.
As the time passed it continued to get darker and darker on campus. The sun was now just a thin crescent of orange when they viewed it through the telescope and the glasses. Momo noticed the street lamps had switched on, their sensors indicating it was getting dark. She had noticed how the shadow cast by the street lamp closest to them a few meters away had lightened over time with the diminishing sunlight.
She was going to mention the interesting effect to Bakugou but before she could say anything he spoke. “Momo. Look.”
Momo turned toward him and he was kneeling next to her, his hands in front of him. His left hand lay on top of his right to where he was making a grid with his fingers. “Look at the shadow from my hands on the pavement.”
Momo leaned forward a bit where she was sitting and looked at several small spots of light that were breaking through the grid of Bakugou’s hands.
Momo gasped. “The light breaking through, it’s crescent-shaped! Like the sun!”
Now Momo had to do the same; She scooted to the edge of the seat and mimicked Bakugou bringing her hands in front of her and making a grid with them so small portions of light broke through. Then she peered at the pavement underneath her, the light breaking through the shadow of her hands were several tiny crescents.
It was an otherworldly thing to experience, Momo had no idea this would happen as the eclipse progressed. “I didn’t know this was a possibility!” Momo beamed and she glanced at Bakugou. He was looking at the shadow and light cast by their hands and he had a lopsided grin on his face. The first smile he had given that day. The smile wasn’t arrogant or coy like Bakugou’s often were. He looked pleased with himself but it was without an ounce of pride. It was soft and childlike and Momo realized she was staring at him so she had to look away.
A short time later, Bakugou told her totality was only a couple of minutes away. The campus had grown so dark, it was hard to believe it was mid-day.
Momo remembered a solar eclipse she had seen with her parents when she was very young. They just had the glasses, but they had gone to the planetarium in Minako Ward near her home to watch the event. There had been a ring of fire, part of the sun still visible around the moon when the moon had passed in front of it. She didn’t remember much of the event, but it still had been amazing.
But the eclipse happening at that moment was complete totality which was a much more rare event.
“Hurry up and look,” Bakugou said quickly as he backed away from the telescope a huge grin on his face. Momo stood up and peered into the eyepiece. The sun was completely covered, a blacked out circle obscuring the star with only a faint ring of ambient glow showing around it. Or the sun was almost completely covered except for a tiny sliver of its edge. That very edge of the sun glared at her brightly and there was a large sunlight-filled orb that shone brightly. It reminded Momo of a diamond ring.
“That is amazing,” she said as she backed away so Bakugou could see it. “Why is there the small orb of sunlight?”
“It’s called Baily’s Beads. It’s because the surface of the moon is fucked with all the craters so you get the sunlight peeking through, where the surface is dented ‘n shit.”
Momo nodded, fascinated at everything she was learning that day. From the most unlikely of teachers.
Thirty seconds later, Bakugou’s phone alarm went off. He dismissed it and looked skyward. “Totality,” he said, a small smile on his face, as he looked at the moon-covered sun with his naked eyes.
“Wait! Is that safe?” Momo asked, concern lacing her words with worry. “Your retinas, Bakugou!”
He glanced at her and smirked. “It’s completely safe, Ponytail.”
Momo still hesitated as she looked at Bakugou, both of them standing side-by-side.
“The sun is completely covered now. Just the corona’s visible, it’s like the same brightness of the full moon.” Bakugou dropped his smirk, his face turning serious. “I’d never tell you to do somethin’ that would hurt you, Momo.”
Momo knew it was true. She looked skyward at the sun.
It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime cosmic event Momo thought to herself. The sky was so dark like twilight had fallen upon them. The corona of the sun blazed dimly around the sharply shadowed moon. The rays were grayish-white and extended out in wispy beams.
“Listen,” Bakugou said.
Momo looked around her, out at the campus and she didn’t see a single soul. The campus was swathed in darkness. Everything was so still and now with what Bakugou had asked her, she noticed it was extremely quiet. Their dorm was near the forest and Momo couldn’t hear any birds or other animal noises. It was almost as if all the creatures were confused about why it was so dark in the middle of the day.
She glanced at Bakugou and as they looked at each other, she smiled. It was magical, it felt like both of them had just discovered something truly amazing. Just the two of them.
Momo looked over at the ground by the lamppost and of course, it had no shadow now.
Her gaze went skyward again. “How much longer do we have in full totality?”
She noticed Bakugou’s gaze drift downward for a moment like he was looking at his phone on the folding table from her periphery. “About a minute.”
Momo gazed at the total eclipse and she felt a tear stream down her face being overcome by the enormity of the event. How incredible it was that their region of the world was participating en masse for this momentous occasion.
“Isn’t it amazing!” Momo said with excitement as she bounced on the balls of her feet not able to contain her excitement. She quickly glanced at Bakugou, to share in the moment, with the intent to quickly look right back at the sun because she didn’t want to miss a moment. But before she could look away from him, she slowed herself down and gazed at him. Bakugou wasn’t looking up at the sun as her eyes fell on him.
He was looking at her.
She felt her grin lessen to a soft smile and then he said, “Yeah, it’s pretty cool,” and then he looked up at the sun. Momo joined him, a strange flutter she never felt before blossoming in her stomach.
Moments later, Bakugou’s phone alarm went off. “Okay, Ponytail. Totality ends in 5 seconds.”
Momo reluctantly looked away, her heart racing for two reasons now.
She realized she suddenly felt tired. She was sick after all. Momo was also shivering. Before she moved to get her blanket, it was suddenly being draped over her shoulders.
“It’s several degrees colder now due to the eclipse. It will start getting warmer as the sun comes out,” Bakugou said.
Momo nodded at him as she pulled the blanket tighter around her and sat down.
They now switched back to the glasses and the telescope, every now and then Momo asking Bakugou an eclipse-related question that he would answer.
After a half-hour, Momo was feeling a bit peaked, all the excitement catching up to her sickened state. The moon was still moving across the surface of the sun, but Bakugou said he was done for the day, too. He was going to start taking his stuff down anyhow since the class would be back any minute and he didn’t want them ‘touching his shit.’
She thanked him and went back to her room. She fell asleep shortly after curling up in her blankets, her mind filled with all the wonders she had witnessed that day. Bakugou might have been the most surprising wonder she thought to herself for a moment. Then her logical side told her that was the fever talking moments before she fell asleep.
A knock sounded at the door, waking Momo from her sleep. She wasn’t surprised when she opened the door and saw Bakugou standing there, two red pills in his hand, a glass of water in his other hand.
“You suck at self-care.”
“Thank you, Bakugou-san,” Momo said mirroring his smile.
As he turned to leave, Momo spoke before she lost her nerve as she stared at the back of his blond-tufted head as he walked down the hallway. “When will there be another total solar eclipse? I would like to repay the favor for today. Perhaps I could make dinner for the both of us and we could watch it from my house.” Momo’s neck and face flared up with heat from her words.
He glanced back at her as he answered. “In our neck of the woods? 15 years, 4 months, 23 days.”
“Oh,” Momo said. Bakugou shrugged and continued to walk down the hall and through the door.
The next day Momo’s fever finally broke, but she still had to wait twenty-four hours until she returned to class. She changed into casual clothes and waited in her dorm room until the class had left for homeroom. Momo then went downstairs and ate breakfast by herself.
After she cleaned up her dish, she went to one of the tables in the dining area and readied her laptop. Aizawa-sensei had set up his laptop so she could ‘attend class’ via Zoom. She felt much better so she hoped she would be able to sit through all her classes.
Just as homeroom class ended, Momo noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked over just in time to see a figure draped in a large blanket plop itself on the couch. She saw tufts of blond hair peeking out from the blanket as the person adjusted themselves comfortably on the couch.
Momo walked over to the blanketed figure during the break between classes and peeled back the blanket so she could see his face. “You had the flu earlier, you say,” Momo said as Bakugou squinted up at her. She raised an eyebrow at him.
He grumbled and flipped the blanket back over his head.
Momo hummed to herself. She left him, got a pen and an index card out of her backpack, and walked back over to him. “So when was the last time you took your medicine?”
Bakugou didn’t uncover himself, so a “Last night,” sounded from the blanketed mound.
“You suck at self-care,” Momo said with a smile as she checked her phone, wrote down the time, and hoped Bakugou wouldn’t fight her to take the meds he needed.
That day and the next Momo stayed on top of Bakugou’s meds and he started feeling better. She told Aizawa-sensei she would resume her classes on Zoom, Bakugou joining her the next day for some of the classes.
By the end of the week, they were both back in class. Things had seemingly gone back to normal as she sat at her desk in Class 3A’s room. Except Momo felt at times Bakugou was staring at her. She would turn to look at him, to catch him in the act, but he would be looking down at his schoolwork.
But Momo knew he was looking at her, even if she could never catch him. She now knew, without a doubt, what the touch of his stare felt like.
15 years, 4 months, and 19 days later
“Hurry! We’re gonna miss it!” Mizuki bellowed over her shoulder as she ran into the field.
Katsuki had only parked the car seconds before and Mizuki had fled from it like it was on fire.
A weary sigh came from Katsuki as he looked over at Momo and shook his head.
“She is very excited,” Momo said matter-of-factly.
“I swear if she would have asked one more time if we were ‘there yet,’ I would have left her at the side of the road,” Katsuki grumbled.
“No you wouldn’t, Dad,” Taiyo said calmly, his head popping up from the back seat between Katsuki and Momo. “You always say stuff like that but you never do it.”
“’Tch, my own son calling me a liar,” Katsuki said with a grin as he exited the car.
Momo smiled at Taiyo, his red eyes glistening with good humor, his fiery gaze one of the very few traits he had gained from his father. “Let’s help him unload and carry the equipment,” Momo said.
Katsuki, Momo, and Taiyo were able to gather everything and as they walked into the field, Mizuki ran toward them. “I found a perfect spot!” she said excitedly.
“Grab the bag from your Mom, Mimi. She doesn’t need to be carrying it in the first place,” Katsuki said, his voice loud but the tone ever-patient. It had taken their second child to finally test his patience and luckily he had handled it with more grace than Momo had. Mizuki was a spitfire and the apple of Katsuki's eye.
“Fine,” she said her dark eyes rolling, but she ran up to Momo and grabbed one of the telescope bags from her. Momo wasn’t showing yet, but baby number three was on the way. Momo had to take care because her quirk had proven to make her pregnancies quite difficult.
The path of totality for the solar eclipse didn’t move through Tokyo where they lived so they had to travel a couple of prefectures over to the west. They had made a mini-vacation out of it, Taiyo not minding to miss a couple of days of sixth grade and Mizuki equally as enthused to miss out on a couple of days of fifth grade.
Mizuki led them to the spot she had scouted, a large cherry blossom tree in full bloom nearby. Most of the area was free of trees, a grand field to ensure them a perfect view. The bright blue sky was cloudless. Katsuki set up a folding chair for Momo, the same one she had sat in fifteen years before.
Katsuki and Taiyo set up the telescope and other equipment. Their oldest son was always eager to help in every way. He was a reserved and contemplative young man, but he was still inquisitive and observant. His hair was long, black, and silky like Momo’s and hung past his shoulders. Taiyo admired his Uncle Eijirou and wanted to have long hair like him.
Mizuki did handstands, cartwheels, and backbends, Momo watching her always marveling at how much energy she had. She was the spitting image of Katsuki except she kept her blonde, thick tufted hair in a pixie cut.
As Katsuki finished setting up the telescope, he sat back on his heels and rasped out a “Fuck.”
“Language,” Taiyo said disapprovingly at his dad and Momo thought about Tenya Iida who she hadn’t thought about in ages. It made her smile.
“I forgot one of the lenses.”
“I can make one-“ Momo said reflexively.
“No you won’t,” Katsuki said, cutting her off. She then remembered she wasn’t supposed to use her quirk. Not until the third trimester.
“It’s fine, it wasn’t one we would use today. It was one to see deeper space sh-I mean stuff tonight when it gets dark.”
“AWWW,” Mizuki said with disappointment.
“I’m sorry, Princess. It will still be fun though. I promise.”
Mizuki smiled at him.
As the eclipse started both Taiyo and Mizuki were so immersed in the experience. Taiyo would ask Katsuki questions and he would answer, a lop-sided smile on his face, his one dimple cutting deeply into his cheek. Momo smiled to herself as she watched them.
Mizuki on the other hand was a blur of movement, barely able to stand still at the telescope. Her voice boomed loudly with amazement as she commented on how cool everything was.
The crescent shadows had been a huge hit with the kids, the nearby cherry blossom tree creating the perfect cast of shadows.
As totality neared Momo spread out a large blanket and the four of them sat on it.
When Katsuki told them totality had started and they could look up at the sun, Mizuki’s eyes shot up immediately and she bounced happily where she sat.
Taiyo hesitated for a moment but then looked up. He grinned, silently enjoying the celestial event.
And then Momo watched Katsuki. His face was sheer joy as he shared in the precious moments with his family. Momo felt a warm, yet heavy feeling settle in her chest and she knew it wasn’t heartburn due to first-trimester woes.
How was it possible she could still feel this way after fifteen years? That gazing at her husband’s face could still send her into a tizzy. It was like she was falling in love with him for the first time, every day since that day out in front of Alliance Heights their third year.
She couldn’t take her eyes off of him as he gazed up at the sun. Half a minute later he glanced over at her and it seemed like he was about to look over at Mizuki, but he stopped and stared at Momo. The fire in his eyes swirled like filaments on the surface of the sun as he smiled softly at her.
“You’re missing the eclipse, Princess,” Katsuki whispered as he reached out toward her.
She placed her hand in his and smiled serenely at him. “No, I am not. I am enjoying every minute of it.”