Accidental Time Traveler-InutaishoxOC

34. Saying Goodbye

After three days of crying Layla felt empty. Her insides hollowed out until she was nothing but a gaping void. She dressed on autopilot, gazing around the sparsely furnished living room of her apartment. Her bills had been deducted automatically from her account during her three-month absence in the Feudal Era, so she hadn't returned with no phone service. A small blessing.

She combed her hair, tying it up in a sloppy knot on top of her head. Her fingers darted over her makeup case on the bathroom counter and withdrew.

Let her boss see the dark circles under her eyes, her colorless complexion.

The presence of iron in Tokyo gave Layla a chronic low-grade headache though it didn't burn her like a full-blooded faerie. She also suspected the iron was the reason she hadn't glowed once, though her emotions fluctuated all over the place.

Layla stared at her reflection, unsmiling. She wore a black blazer over violet shell and black slacks.

As an adult Layla wasn't allowed the luxury of grief. Halfway around the world she had no one to lean on. Other than Kagome and her family no one would be sympathetic to her plight.

Her heart was in tatters and the bond a highway to nowhere. Toga was out of her reach in another time. Its true what they say, the world doesn't care. Even as you're falling apart, its business as usual.

So, today she was going to meet with the head of her department to try and salvage her career. She wasn't optimistic.

Layla didn't know what else to do. Faeries can conjure portals from the mortal word with extreme difficulty. As a half-blood she didn't know if she possessed the same skill.

Shouldering her purse, Layla slipped out of her apartment and locked the door. She took the elevator to the ground floor and emerged onto a crowded sidewalk. A sea of people surrounded her causing a spike of anxiety. Electronic billboards on the sides of buildings scrolled advertisements in lines of kanji: beauty products, j-pop concerts, food. Cars honked as they navigated the early morning traffic.

She joined the queue to cross the street, noticing she wasn't the only foreigner in the crowd. Tokyo was loud and chaotic. So different from the beautiful quiet she left behind, where she could go off into the woods and make love to Toga without having to worry about cameras, cellphones, and drones.

Layla entered the underground, scanning her train pass. The train cut through the city efficiently, depositing her on the street to the university. She stopped at a kiosk for coffee and darted across the lawn to her building.

A group of students were outside smoking. They nodded in greeting as she slipped through the glass doors and dashed up the stairs to the second floor.

Naomi rose from behind her desk to greet Layla, brown eyes wide with worry. "Dr. Callahan. I heard about your family emergency. I'm so glad you're back!"

"Thank you, Naomi. I'm supposed to meet with Dr. Yamamoto in thirty minutes." Layla said, spying her overflowing mail cubby.

"I'm sure he'll be understanding. An emergency is an emergency." Naomi said, trying to cheer her up.

Layla flashed a wan smile. They both knew it was unlikely she'd receive mercy. She gathered the thick pile of mail and deposited it on her desk. She was relieved to see her office hadn't been cleared out during her absence.

She logged into her computer and checked her email, the experience of using modern technology surreal. Thousands of digital flyers for campus events, meetings, and message from students filled her inbox. She sifted through what she could in twenty minutes then took the elevator up to the third floor.