AN: This entry is a translation of the previous chapter titled Kawa from Polish to English. As such it's a part of kalcia's B-day gift.
Apologies in advance, I'm not very skilled with this AU.
Beta: FawnEyed Girl

Coffee

Kagome sighed as she walked down Miodowa Street. The day was certainly not one of those sigh-inspiring days. Not only was the weather nice, but also on WU they had announced free hours after noon and Kagome didn't have to go back to campus for a boring lecture at 7 pm. Alas, Kagome wasn't her usual perky and cheerful self because she hadn't had enough sleep the night before. The reason for it was because she had remembered the previous evening about an essay due that day . Now she was tired and, on top of that, she couldn't go back to her apartment to sleep it off; she was supposed to meet with her cousin Miroku for a coffee and to meet his new girlfriend.

Miroku wasn't famous for long-lasting relationships, but this time Kagome's cousin swore he found the love of his life. So, Kagome decided to sacrifice some of her sleep time to meet the girl who made such an impact on her cousin. Besides, this morning, when Miroku had called to specify the details of their meeting, he had sounded suspiciously innocent. Which meant that he had some hidden plans in mind.

The main hall of the academy which had accepted Miroku as a student, was empty—nothing unusual, since it was around 6 pm on a Friday. Any self-respecting student was long gone from the walls of their Alma Mater. As she walked in, Kagome noticed that even the man at the reception table was gone, leaving behind his newspaper.

Kagome sat down on one of the benches encircling the big, heavy table covered by pizzeria flyers. In the corner, beside the huge window opening to the interior garden, stood an ancient coffee machine. Kagome took out her phone to check the time—it was a few minutes before the time she'd agreed with Miroku on. She closed her eyes and shifted to sit more comfortably on her hard bench. She guessed she could start reading the article for Monday's class, but a few minutes to rest her eyes after the all-nighter would be more appealing.

The small building of the academy—small especially to someone studying in at a multi-building, big university, like WU—was quiet and pleasantly cool. Miroku's academy, to Kagome, was always a bit serene, even when there were a a bunch of students sitting around the tables, exchanging opinions on professors, homework and plans for the weekend.

In this silence Kagome had no trouble hearing footsteps coming down the staircase next to where her bench was. For a moment Kagome thought it might be Miroku, who had managed to flee the lecture earlier than predicted, but the footsteps were too quiet. And there was no accompanying sound of chiming buckles of always unbuckled book bag Miroku always carried on his shoulder.

"Oh fuck me, I need coffee..." murmured a voice, which made it perfectly clear that it wasn't Miroku who left the staircase and made his way towards the coffee machine. This voice was too grumpy and low, besides, Miroku wasn't one to curse.

Kagome opened her eyes when the young man walked around the table and the benches to get to the coffee machine on the other side of the room. The first thing she noticed about him was the thick braid of silvery white hair that contrasted with his black t-shirt with the Witcher logo on the back. The boy stopped in front of the machine and started to dig in his bag for change, inadvertently giving Kagome more time to watch him unnoticed. The handsome stranger—she had glimpsed his profile as he'd passed by—was wearing a bag quite similar to Miroku's, adorned with a ton of pins and other accoutrements. Kagome didn't pay them much attention, because her gaze was drawn by something way more exotic—on top of his head, nestled in his hair, sat a pair of canine ears, which seemed to quiver in annoyance when the man muttered curses under his breath while digging for pennies on the bottom of his bag.

"Ha!" Kagome quickly looked down to her phone when the boy straightened up and started putting the coins gathered in his hand into the slot on the front of the machine. A rattling sound accompanied each coin falling in. A moment after the last coin was put in, there was the familiar chime of choosing the drink. Then, in a cacophony of pennies hitting each other, all the change put in the machine fell into the change pocket. The stranger, rightfully annoyed, collected the coins and put them back in again—just to get the same result.

"Bloody whoore put together by foul dick, eat my money and give me that barf that only fuck-ups call cappucino!"

A tiny smile appeared on Kagome's lips at the kind of high regards shown the ancient machine; she totally understood the feelings that pushed the boy to use such a creative vocabulary. After all, she wanted nothing more than a cup of coffee too. Even as bad a one as this machine served.

"Oi!" Kagome jumped in her seat because the boy turned towards her with a huge scowl on his face. A part of her marveled at the golden hue of his eyes as he looked at her. It was just as exotic as the rest of his looks; he even had cat-like pupils. "Do you have some new coins on you? Can we exchange? This metal can sometimes can't read the coins when they are a bit worn out."

"Uh." Kagome started to look for change in her pockets, but all she found was a handful of used bus and store tickets. The inspection of her wallet showed she had no coins at all on her, only paper bills. "Sorry, no luck."

"So, no fucking coffee," he sighed in resignation as he sat on the bench opposite to Kagome's. His elbows landed on the table top and he rubbed his face in a tired manner. His cute ears drooped and Kagome felt a wave of sympathy wash over her at the sight of a deprived fellow coffee addict.

"Um, if it can help any... I have coffee candy," she suggested shyly. "It doesn't compare to real coffee but it's better than nothing..."

"Nah, thanks," he glanced at her, his scowl lessened. "In ten minutes my friend ends his class and we're going to Starbucks... I will survive."

Kagome nodded her understanding.

"It will sound like a blasphemy but sometimes I like to drink that shit." The boy pointed at the coffee machine with his ear cocking to where it stood. Kagome barely kept inside the shriek of adoration at that little gesture.

"Sometimes I drink that stuff too," she confessed. She was about to add that she also planned to go to Starbucks with a friend, but at that moment her phone chimed. When she went to check the new message, the stranger pulled out his own phone to check it.

'Hey, Kagome, I have to go to my professor's office,' was the message sent by Miroku. 'Wait for me half an hour?'

"What?" she moaned. At the same time she heard a sound suspiciously similar to a growl coming from the other side of the table. Her phone chimed again, and a second message appeared under the first.

'If you meet a dude with dog ears, can you make sure he comes up here to drag me out of my professor's office? He answers to Inuyasha and don't tell him I worded it this way."

Kagome spent a moment contemplating the message.

"Oi," she looked up to the boy, who was watching her closely, a frown on his face. "Are you Monk's cousin? Kogome?"

"Ka-go-me," she corrected. He smirked and showed her his message app, with a message from Miroku.

'I'm running half an hour late, My cousin Kogome should be waiting for me in the hall. Can you make sure no one bothers her?'

Wordlessly she tilted her phone, so he could read the message she got from Miroku.

"Asshole," Inuyasha muttered and shook his head. Then he stood up with renewed energy. "OK, here's the deal, Ka-go-me. I was supposed to meet up with Monk for coffee and to finally meet his girlfriend."

"Me too," she cut in, looking at his determined face.

"...Exactly. If Monk wants to play the 'I'm late' card, he's welcome to do that. I need coffee or I'll lose my remaining sanity points. So, either you go with me to Starbucks to wait for him there and we get our drinks like civilized people, or wait here and we meet again in an hour or so."

"I'll go with you," Kagome smiled and stood up from her bench. "Miroku will have to find his own way to Starbucks."

"Keh, it's his fault."

Two minutes after they left the academy, something rattled within the coffee machine and boiling water poured down its front to make a small puddle on the floor.