Sterile - an Inuyasha Fanfiction

Epilogue

~ 3 years later ~

Kagome sat at the cafe table, anxiously watching beads of condensation roll down her glass of water. Her tongue darted out to lick her dry lips before she lifted the glass and took a small sip of the cool liquid.

She closed her eyes and breathed.

The cafe was the same as it had been years ago when she had sat there with Daichi.

It was all the same.

But, Daichi and herself... They were very different from who they used to be.

Her nose wrinkled up as the smell of freshly brewed coffee twisted her stomach. Her hand slid from the surface of the smooth, wooden table as she clenched her fist.

Breathe through it... She reminded herself again and again until the queasy feeling in her stomach slowed down to a manageable level.

The door to the cafe dinged and her head quickly spun to see who was coming in.

There, for the first time in three years, was Daichi.

Her breath hitched when she saw him. Her heart stuttered and a nervous sweat dotted her collarbone. He hadn't changed at all... He smiled at her and, for a moment, she felt like it was the first time that she had ever seen him...

He quickly made his way over to her and slid into the seat across from her. He gulped before his lips twisted up into a playful smirk. "Guess you finally beat me here, huh?"

Kagome blinked once, then twice, before realization dawned upon her.

He had always beaten her here.

She had always been late.

A slow smile spread across her face and the slight tension between them evaporated.

"How have you been, Daichi?"

His smile slipped before he quickly rightened it. "I've been okay, considering... Not sure how I like being back in the city though."

Memories from the day that they had defeated the Monto washed over her, re-awakening the sadness that laid dormant within her heart. She had been trying her best not to think about that day over the last few months. She hadn't wanted to be sad. She had wanted to be happy, just this once, just for a while...

The waitress came and took Daichi's order, giving her a moment to let her sadness slide over her.

She couldn't let him see how the memories of the past still hurt her, not when he had been hurt so much more by the events of that day.

Daichi had chosen to stay in Okinawa to help his father. Chokichi was a completely different man... Zombie-like, and completely absent from everything that happened around him. Kagome had watched him with tearful eyes on the days before she had returned to the city. She had seen how Hana's death had completely devastated him, how it had turned a great and mighty demon into something that barely resembled a living, breathing creature.

Daichi had told her that he couldn't leave him... Not when he was like that, not when it looked like he could hardly breathe.

Had Daichi even had the chance to process his mother's murder before he began to care for his heartbroken father?

"Kagome?" Daichi's concerned voice broke into her barrage of memories and she flinched. His face softened as he looked at her. "What are you thinking about?"

Her eyes darted to the side and she heard him sigh.

"You don't need to try to avoid the topic, ya know... It's okay, to ask me about it..."