A/N: Today, my favorite person in the world told me to write. When I'm stressed, tired or just exhausted, she tells me to either nap or write. Naps didn't work, so here I am. So I told her, "starting new stories when others need updates is upsetting." And her sassy wisdom was, "so update them all."
Forgive me?
He was furious.
This company quite literally was shit.
The 'Contact us now' button all but toyed with his anger.
Unable to control his rage, he clicked it, ready to make whomever would connect his chat miserable.
'Kagome has joined the chat.'
"My pack can't eat you peice of—"
Nope. Change that.
Holding down delete, he tried again.
"My family is without food. There is a fucking pandemic going on. Where in the actual fuck is my shit?!"
Sure, he knew the poor user on the other line more than likely was not responsible, but if nothing else, they would be the one to confront his anger.
His frustration.
'Kagome is typing...'
For a moment, those words gave him pause.
Why was he hesitating?
For a brief second, he allowed memories from long ago to flicker through.
Kagome?
Kagome.
Oh.
Kagome!
Suddenly, memories of raven black hair and piercing blue eyes much like his own danced in his vision.
Shaking his head, he quickly tried to disperse of such thoughts.
That had been so long ago.
His pup years nearly.
Such a time had felt like another life.
It was another life.
"I'm so sorry to hear that your order hasn't arrived. No worries, if you can provide me the confirmation number I'd be more than happy to look into this and see how we can best assist towards a resolution!"
Koga rolled his eyes.
Such a generic customer service response.
Yet, somehow, he couldn't let the past go, and for a brief moment, he gathered what little memories he had of the priestess from the past and imaged her speaking such words.
He snorted.
As if.
Typing the confirmation number in the chat, he wondered if anyone had ever found her.
The Miko with ocean grey eyes.
She had been passionate, kind and strikingly beautiful.
Honestly, even now he couldn't blame himself or his beast for being so smitten.
She had been a rare gem in the feudal era.
One that deserved better than the mutt she had fallen head over heels for.
Well, at leas the universe provided him some justice. He vaguely remembered the pain he felt at his first official heartbreak.
How his beast had whined, clawed at the surface and threatened to rage.
Yet, even now, hundreds of years later, he had to admit it had probably hurt less than if she had actually gotten together with the half-breed.
What *had* happened to her?
Naraku had been defeated, and then, almost instantly she was gone.
Strangely enough, he seemed to have been the one most affected by her departure at that time.
"She's back with her family now"
That had been what her entire pack had told him time and time again.
For the life of him he couldn't understand.
Back with her family?
Had she died? If so, why were they not mourning?
So that had left departure as the only option.
Except, there was no scent. Instead, it had ended at a Well. When he had inquired about such a thing, they had all gone quiet.
A ding interrupted his thoughts once more.
"Koga, are you still with me? No rush, just want to make sure we didn't get disconnected."
Shit.
Scrolling up in the chat, he caught up with the conversation that had occurred while he was daydreaming.
His order had been expedited, and a coupon was given.
He huffed.
"Thanks. I need to make sure the order arrives by tomorrow. My entire family is here and we have members that can't go out in the pandemic. We order groceries from you guys and haven't had a problem until now."
He wanted to explain just why he had been so angry.
Yet, it was difficult to explain that half his pack now resided in his domain since the whole world had seemed to shut down. Normally, he would have gone and gotten groceries but as more of his pack came back home for security, the more food he needed. That had been why trips to the grocery store was no longer a viable option but instead he had turned to delivery.
Enough food to feed 20 people a week.
Talk about a hell of a grocery bill.
His orders were always on time, and biweekly. It had been perfect and convenient. Except, something had happened and his regular schedule day came and went...without groceries.
Normally, he wouldn't have panicked.
But then, three more days passed and the chat support went offline and phone calls weren't going through.
Fast forward a week, running low on food, and finally the delivery service let everyone know that there had been a delay in production and a strike.
Something about livable wages.
He rolled his eyes.
If only this generation knew what it was like to like in the feudal era.
He let out a laugh.
"I understand completely. No problem, I've actually gotten a delivery set up for today and doubled some of the items we have in stock free of charge. Sorry about this again!"
His eyes lit up.
Now that was customer service.
If nothing else, feeding his pack wasn't cheap. In fact, it was probably his most expensive bill.
But he was Alpha.
"Thanks! Sorry about before."
Even he shocked himself. Apologizing? Apparently the thoughts of long ago made him soft. For now, he would blame the fact that the customer service agent had her name.
Sighing, he allowed himself some truth.
He really had fallen hard for her—the woman that had all but ghosted him before it even became a thing. Rubbing his temple, he sighed in relief for fixing the food shortage problem.
"You don't have to apologize, you're ensuring your family is taken care of. We apologize that this caused an inconvenience to you and you're family. Did you have any other questions or concerns I could assist with today?"
He nodded in mild approval at her response.
Okay, so maybe he had been a little too aggressive, but yet, the person seemed to understand.
How very her like.
"You don't have to apologize."
"I understand."
How many times had she said that in the past to others?Those words sounded like something that would roll off her tongue without a second thought.
She had never placed blame.
Always understanding.
Always kind.
"Nope; that's it. Thank you."
With those words typed up and sent, he disconnected the chat.
Closing his eyes in thought, he cursed at himself.
How had one chat brought memories from hundreds of years back? If his past was any indication, she would be stuck in his mind for a while now.
He had done so well before.
He had promised himself he would forget her.
For a few hundreds of years, he had.
Only to have a customer service representative bring back her memory as if it was a fresh wound.
Groaning, he ran his fingers through his hair.
No, she was more like a scar than anything else.
Healed, but never the same.
And he had, hadn't he?
Healed?