Accidental Time Traveler-InutaishoxOC

38. Happily Ever After and Pancake Batter

Five Years Later....

Pancake batter spattered in the skillet, sizzling in the cooking oil. Sitting on a tall stool by the stove, Toga's daughter Sakura organized her ingredients with military precision. A tuft of white hair was pulled back with a unicorn scrunchie and she wore a pastel-colored tutu and unicorn leggings below her Christmas sweater. Kilala perched on her lap studying the array of bottles curiously.

Toga noticed with some bemusement; she had lost one of her sneakers since getting dressed this morning. He flipped the pancake over. "Do you have everything you need, Sakura?"

His daughter had volunteered to help him make breakfast. Toga couldn't deny that like Layla, Sakura had him wrapped around her finger. There's nothing he wouldn't do for either of them.

Pondering her father's question seriously, Sakura's green eyes narrowed in concentration as she studied the various bottles in front of her. "I need sprinkles." She declared, squirting chocolate syrup over a pile of silver-dollar pancakes shaped like maple leaves. She smeared the syrup all over the plate with her hands.

"Clean your hands." He ordered, staring at the sticky mess dripping all over the counter.

"Okay." Sakura wiped them down the front of her sweater.

Toga suppressed an exasperated sigh and added a fresh pancake to his growing stack. The four-year-old regularly misinterpreted his commands, seeing how far she could push the boundaries. He wished he could blame her contrariness on her faerie blood, but the child had inherited her mother's stubborn streak.

Toga scooped Sakura off the stool and set her down carefully. Kilala hopped down beside her.

Sakura kicked off her other shoe, the tiny sneaker bouncing off the dishwasher. He sighed and wiped up the syrup mess. "Why don't you wake your mother up and tell her breakfast is ready?"

"Alright, Daddy!" Sakura chirped and scampered away.

Shaking his head, Toga smiled and set everything out on the dining room table. Snow drifted lazily outside the window and the morning sky had lightened to a dull gray as he gazed over the rugged Irish landscape.

A few skeletal trees stood sentry on the hill overlooking the eight-hundred-year-old cottage, their skinny branches coated with white powder. He still remembered the day they moved in here five years ago.

Cardboard boxes stacked all over the place. The sharp scent of the freshly painted white walls. Watery sunlight spilling in through the living room windows, gilding Layla's red hair with a fiery glow, the collar of her baggy sweater falling off one shoulder as she smiled at him, her pregnancy just beginning to show.

Shortly after reuniting with Layla, Toga purchased the cottage from Layla's grandmother and obtained ownership of the family bar. Fiona had been greatly relieved her father's legacy remained in the family instead of being sold to a stranger who wouldn't appreciate the history.

After the business of the estate was settled, Layla and Toga remarried in a small ceremony in Dublin with her grandmother, mother, and her faerie uncle Liam present. Sesshomaru chose to absent himself from the proceedings entirely, citing business as an excuse. On their marriage certificate, she kept her maiden name Callahan in lieu of taking his surname Inutaisho.

Once Layla gave birth, Toga hired someone to run the bar as he spent most of his time at home taking care of Sakura while Layla worked at the university.

There had been an argument of course. Layla said she did not spend nearly a decade in college to earn her PhD to give up her career to be a stay-at-home mom. She gave him the silent treatment for a whole week before he grudgingly acknowledged his thinking was outdated. Spending the nights on the couch instead of their bed contributed to his swift change of heart.