Title: 3: The Finale
AN: the long awaited conclusion to 3! Can be read alone, or as the continuation.
Disclaimer: I own no rights.
Twelve years; that's how long they were together.
Twelve years; and then she came back and Koga left.
She died fifteen years later, not by demons but by her own kin.
He was devastated, but he was able to move on. They always knew she would die before him. They always knew they couldn't always be together.
Almost a century had past before he saw Koga again; and it was like he never left.
"Most of the half-breeds and full-bloods are going into hiding," Koga mentioned one day while the two of them were walking through a forest.
"The humans are beginning to out number us, they're advancing and they now have weapons that we can't heal from. Those of us who can't fit in will be killed."
"Like us? Ones who have traits that scream demon."
"Yes."
"So, what are you going to do? Are you going into hiding?"
"I've lost Ayame and her pack to the humans. You're the only one I have left."
His two companions vanished one night when they came across a human party. It's unknown if they're dead or in hiding. But it's been fifty years since Koga last saw them, he wasn't holding his breath. Losing Ayame was a bitter blow. He wasn't there when her pack was attacked, he had come across their bodies a fortnight later. The shock had never left his system.
"You could pass as a human. Just dress as they do, and-" he stopped talking with Koga shook his head.
"This tail isn't a decoration. It's real. I can't take it off, it's a part of me like your ears are a part of you."
"Where are you thinking of going? Not underground I hope. Is that where we're all going? We might as well call it digging our graves." He muttered.
"There's an island. Mostly volcanic. Humans wouldn't dare set foot on it."
"Because it's that dangerous?"
They stopped their walk once they reached the edge of a cliff, in the distance he could see a tiny island just peaking over the horizon.
"Is that it," he asked pointing off into the distance. From a far it didn't seem like much. It hardly looked safe. Secluded, yes, but safe?
Koga nodded and glanced to the side at his companion. "Would you consider coming with me?"
He looked over at the wolf and then back out at the ocean. How long would they be safe there? Soon enough the human would reach them and then what? They'd be sitting ducks.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"The main land is a death trap for demons. Here isn't much better. That may be our only hope." He knew Koga had ventured over there a unknown years ago, he was adamant that he didn't go; but Koga wanted to see it for himself. He came back changed. Scared.
"If I say no?"
"I'm hoping you don't."
He didn't say anything, but just continued to look over at the island.
"I couldn't live with myself knowing you were in danger. Those years we spent apart; killed me. I can't lose you to humans again. I can't."
"That island won't always be safe."
"Safer than here."
He sighed.
"When you went to the future. Did you see any demons? Could you sense any?" Koga pushed, trying get his point across. But he knew it wasn't safe here, he had a few incidents with humans and barely got away.
He turned away from Koga and the ocean to look at the trees, the sky. His home. "No. But there was so much stimulation, I could hardly sense her half the time."
"So it could be possible for our kind to survive for centuries."
"Or we could be wiped out in fifty years." He turned to glance back at Koga.
Koga sighed, "could you at least think about it?"
He agreed with a nod, "I will."
He didn't want to leave, but he didn't want Koga to live in fear. He would do anything for the wolf.
...
When he set foot on the island a few years after their chat on the cliff side, he knew this was it. It somehow felt protected. Like the earth itself was trying to protect their species.
He turned to Koga and returned the smile he was receiving, "Well? Ready for a new adventure?"
"With you? Always."
He smiled at his wolf and knew he could face anything the world threw his way as long as Koga was at his back.
During the sunset a month after they arrived on the island, he finally understood that feeling that kept growing in the pit of his stomach every time Koga was with him. He swore he felt it with her, but that was just the tip of the ice burg of what he felt for his wolf. It was so vast and intense that he honestly could not put a word to the feeling.
"You feeling okay? You've been oddly quite."
He was suddenly thrown back a few centuries ago, back when she left the first time. He uttered three words to him them. Three words that changed his life.
He smiled and took Koga's clawed hand in his.
"I love you."
Koga smiled, "Took you long enough you silly mutt."
Koga had pulled him close before he could remark, and claimed his lips with his own. He melted into his wolf's embrace, into his kiss.
It was sensual, like finally coming home. There was no battle, the fight in them had long gone out. There was exploration, new ground for them to cover, new things to explore. A new way to get extreme reactions.
Unknown to him, for now, but Koga had been in love with him since before he was asked to stay.
Koga was just waiting for him to utter their last three words.
...
Unknown centuries have passed since he said those three words, and Koga still smiles fondly when they hold hands as they walk down the side walk of present day Tokyo.
There are demons walking amongst humans, but they are very careful and very sneaky; and there are two in particular that defied the odds. Love never really ends. It just grows.