Mocha Latte

-Kitty

Chapter 18: As the world flashes by

The loud, clanking machine jostled his body side to side as it moved him along. It was a din all around him, full of clankings and screechings, murmurs and shuffling. There were discomforts all around him, the hardness of his seat, the stagnant smells of previous occupants, the occasional woosh of the cabin doors as people shuffled from car to car, locating seats or searching for the lounge. The other passengers, the press of their daily worries and stresses felt close beside him yet did not disturb him. He was insulated, somehow, cocooned in a mental shield of his own creation, so naturally erected that he hardly noticed it, failed to wonder at the astonishing fact that he could comfortably ride the train, surrounded by strangers, and not be bothered at all.

Instead, his eyes gazed out the window, unfocused, sleepy almost, watching the fields and roads and buildings flash past as the locomotive propelled him onwards. Occasionally, the pupils set in his golden irises would sharpen, adjusting his point of focus closer, towards the droplets of rain that streamed horizontally across the window, the dirt in the frame, or the careful lettering in the emergency escape lever. His own reflection, dark haired and dark eyed, gazing neutrally back at him. When he breathed, the air that rushed in was wet and cool, bracing as it settled in his lungs, gradually warming as it was absorbed into his body. And it was energizing, reaching into his veins and muscles and reinvigorating him after the long day.

His mind drifted, clear, yet aimless, ambling easily from thought to thought. The schoolkids across from him that giggled quietly amongst themselves and drew his attention. The mother at the end of the cabin trying to shush her fussing infant, the cry of young life no longer so annoying as he once thought. Briefly, he wondered where the anxious business man beside him was going, his weary face tense and gaunt as he rapidly typed into the little black phone in his hand. This brought Inuyasha's attention to his own recently acquired digital device, its hard, plastic case pressing firmly into his thigh. It wasn't much, but it was his. There were very few items in the world he could claim as his own. And sure, it had been subsidized since work required easy and convenient communication with him but the device was his. A phone for work. And suddenly, where he would ordinarily feel disconnected and isolated from the world, he now felt integrated with the fabric of life that surrounded him. Now, he, too, had a purpose. No longer an aimless drifter but a resident, with work and connections. And it was that comforting sense of belonging that created the strange sense of peace he felt as he sat in that noisy, smelly train, surrounded by strangers yet holding kinship with them. Each of them traveling to a distant destination as part of their everyday existence. Where once he'd been an outsider merely peering in, he felt it now, the pulse, the daily rhythm, the grunt and grind of life.

Weary, yet at peace.

A/N: Hey folks! Short one this time :P

Missing normal life where you can get on a bus or a train or go to a cafe and feel like you're part of a larger community even if you're there on your own among strangers. Anyone else miss that feeling of getting lost in a crowd and feel both alone and not alone at the same time?