For Life: For Love: Epilogue[1/2]

[Hitomi Lei]

Disclaimer: I still don?t own Inuyasha.



Epilogue 1: For Life

Don?t promise me happy endings,
Just give me forever,
I?ll gladly live through the bad times.
As long as this never ends



?And they all lived Happily Ever After?


As a child I dreamed of my happy ending. I dreamed of a white knight, or a prince, or a savior?and a tender love that never ever questioned its own existence. It was just supposed to spontaneously combust in my heart as soon as my eyes met his.

That?s where the fairy tales normally stop. Happy endings get passed out like candy and the princess fades into contented nothingness. There aren?t any complications.

The princess never has to worry about dishwater hands, or stretch marks, or marriage counseling. Or raising a son who wasn?t even in the same species as his adopted mother.

The princess doesn?t have to lock her prince out of their bedroom for two days because he wants to name their first born daughter after?the other woman?.the one who got away?the one who will always appear young in his memory, untainted by gravity and baby weight.

The princess in the fairytale doesn?t get to wake up every morning and cook breakfast for her family, or steal kisses from her husband when her children aren?t looking, and sometimes when they are, just so that they can see that mommy and daddy love each other.

She doesn?t get to watch all the first, but more importantly she misses all the seconds too.

Like the second step her baby takes after he?s just fallen down for the first time.

Like the second time her husband kisses her on their wedding night.

Like the second house, the second school, the second scraped knee, the second first birthday, the second anniversary, the second fight, the second round of make-up sex...

Because the first time is simply an instinctual reaction to the circumstances at the time, but the second?you can simply enjoy the second time for what it is. Survive the first times, experience the seconds.

My life after Inuyasha came back into it, for the second time, was far from perfect. And I surly didn?t fall in love with him on first sight. No, it took years and years for the feelings in my heart to grow into what they are now. Years of imperfect, wonderful moments that all equal up to a life lived to the fullest.

I left Inuyasha both times because I didn?t think his life had room for me, and I went out to make a life for myself where there was plenty of room to grow. But I found that life without Inuyasha was no life at all. In fact, I found that he was my life.

So I came back.

I was released from the hospital on the condition that we seek council with a trans-species mating expert. Inuyasha was the one who left his life behind for me this time. He moved to Kyoto and started working at the local branch office of the company. We saw that therapist, and I?m not too proud to admit that she probably saved our relationship. Love will only get you so far?and Inuyasha and I had a lot of muddy water under our bridge.

We lived there for a year before he took me to see my parents like he promised. Not that I blame him. It was never the right time before that. Every time we planed to go something came up. Like Sango having her second child, or some holy day that the temple had to be prepared for, or Kouga winning the Olympics. But it was wonderful when we finally did get to go. I got to see my little brother graduate from college. I got to get married with my father beside me.

The moment was bittersweet because Sango and Miroku weren?t able to make it to the ceremony.

After that we came back home to Tokyo. Aunt Kaede signed the shrine over to a historical society and moved to Hawaii. Inuyasha and I bought a house in the suburbs with a yard and a long commute into work. After that I got pregnant and got pregnant and got pregnant, and in the end looked around and realized that I?d never lose that extra thirty pounds I?d gained with Sae. I cried for a week before Inuyasha finally convinced me that it didn?t matter to him. Just more to love, he said. As far as I?m concerned, after giving him four children (although I can?t blame Shippou for any of the extra weight) that was the only thing he could say and still expect to sleep in our room.

The rest of the story is boring. We lived too deeply to be happy all the time. There was the year Kikyou finally passed and I had to explain to my children why their daddy was crying.

There was my miscarriage and the knowledge that I couldn?t have anymore children after Keiko, our baby boy.

There was the letter that came to inform us that Kaede had died peacefully in her little hut by the ocean. We scattered her ashes a month later.

But there were good times too. So many good times that it?s hard to count them all.

Like when the judge told us that Shippou was officially our son.

Or the day Sango and Miroku moved in next door so that our children could grow up playing together.

And the time Inuyasha surprised me with a trip to Paris. He literally kidnapped me from work. I never will know how he got Sesshomaru to watch our brood for a week.

I left for life, I came back for love. It?s as simple as that.

Oh, and did I mention that our middle child is named Kikyou? I thought about naming her Forgiveness, but Kikyou just seemed easier to remember.





-



So?one more Epilogue to go. This one will be from Inuyasha?s point of view and will fill in all the holes. Like in the first set of these, Kagome tends to gloss over the finer points and Inuyasha has a clearer memory for exactness.

Hitomi Lei

[takisha16]

Grrrr...Kikyo!
I hate her still!!
I guess its good Kagome forgave her!
I love this point of view, this is like what we all wonder could happen in the end.
I loved this part!

Like the second house, the second school, the second scraped knee, the second first birthday, the second anniversary, the second fight, the second round of make-up sex...

Because the first time is simply an instinctual reaction to the circumstances at the time, but the second?you can simply enjoy the second time for what it is. Survive the first times, experience the seconds.

As for Kagome's after baby fat....that'll teach her not to get pregnant that much! jajaja

[Hitomi Lei]

I'm glad you liked it. I, of course, do not hate Kikyou...but she'd dying and/or dead in every story I write (-_-);;


But still...anyway! Thanks for reading!