What Happened?
Epilogue
How many cups of tea had he had?
Imonoyama Nokoru could not help it. It was milk tea just the way he had always loved it done. Ayuza Nagisa could have made them better.
Yudaiji Idomu watched his Director from his desk as Vice Chair. The redhead could not resist smiling. It's been quite a while since his best friend had fun; the campus had been so busy recently. It was amusing to see him laugh apologetically as Nagisa offered him more cookies.
"Idomu? Would you like some?"
Ohkawa Utako sweetly held up a cup of steaming tea to her boyfriend. Idomu blushed and took it with an awkward thanks. The president of the University Student Council giggled adorably.
Idomu got up from his seat and joined his friends eating afternoon tea by the large coffee table. Takamura Suoh, the Executive Secretary of the campus, stopped a bit in the middle of filing to look at the jovial party across him.
Many years ago, though it felt like yesterday, the Department of Differential Reality had said that homunculi resembled the humans they were modeled after, but had totally different action and could only remember their pasts with the help of stimuli.
Suoh begged to differ. Even after his transmutation, Nokoru remained the same, remembered everything that happened in his life and was not psychotic and blood-thirsty. The gaping hole and trauma Ijuyn Akira left was still quite fresh in all of them.
But everyone coped, and were still coping.
"Suoh!"
Speaking of the perky blonde, the said person bounced up to the bluenette with a small plate of freshly-made pastry.
"Nagisa made cookies!"
"I can see that, rijichou…" replied his best friend, blinking at the closeness of the food.
"It's made just the way you like it! You're really lucky to find a girl who can cook and play music at the same time, you know." Suoh reddened at Nokoru's taunting. "Stop filing and come eat with us! It isn't everyday the girls get to visit like this!"
Suoh laughed and gave in. "Alright Nokoru! Just make sure you finish your paperwork by today or I'm not letting you eat any afternoon teas in the next three weeks."
The director cast a lazy glance at the towering stacks of paper and nonchalantly waved his hand. "I'll get it done."
Little did they know, a small fire had begun in one of the smaller stacks.
"ACK! RIJICHOU! YOU WON'T GET ANYWHERE WITH SETTING THE PAPERWORK ON FIRE!!!"
The party laughed as there was a small chase between the blonde and the bluenette. It took tackling the former to the ground and having him in some sort of power-grip.
"Iie! Iie! Gomenasai Suoh! I'll get it done! I'll get it done!"
"And you'll replaced the damaged paperwork?!"
"Hai! Hai!"
The ninja let go of his captive and the other inhabitants of the room doubled over in more laughs.
"Now, let's eat!" declared Idomu.
"Hayaku, Suoh!" called his soft spoken girlfriend. "You tea will get cold."
Suoh momentarily noted the mark of the homunculi on Nokoru's stomach, just visible beneath the rumpled cloth of his polo.
"After this we could plan a party!" the determined exclamation snapped the bluenette out of his thoughts.
"That sounds like a great idea," smiled the pianist and they all…again…laughed.
Whatever happened, some things never changed.
END