Strawberries, Cherries and an Angel's Kiss in Spring

(Epilogue)

5 years later…

“Hi, honey. I’m home,” I yelled, as I walked into my house.

“Welcome home, my love,” my beloved wife called out from the kitchen.

Wife? You guys must be wondering what happened right? Oops, sorry. Let me start from the beginning, we left off with our families finally reuniting. Our Dads went back to being friends and slowly that friendship turned into a partnership once again.

Ichigo and I had told our Dads that they should combine the Cherry and Strawberry flavours and create a wine that has the best of both worlds, and surprisingly they took our advice and I’m relieved.

Our mothers have adopted each other’s children, meaning my mother dotes on Ichigo and her Mum dotes on me. I loved the look on Ichigo’s face when her mother took my side over hers for the first time, it was priceless! Now she knows how it felt when my mother turned on me and went on her side.

My brother is on tour with his family, he finally got married to Aneko-chan and they have a 3-year-old boy. Yes, Dad let him pursue his music career, his responsibility has been taken over by, yours truly.

I went and studied business and helped the business quite a bit if I do say so myself. Ichigo went and studied literature and is a Primary school teacher. We both live in a beautiful countryside house with our 1-year-old daughter; Harumi.

“Papa!” A small voice called out.

Ahh speaking of the little devil.

Harumi came running up to me, wearing a cute dress most likely made by her mother. She had her arms stretched out in front of her, I chuckled bending down and easily picking her up, before walking over to the dining table and sitting down on a chair.

“Hello, sweetheart,” I kissed my daughter’s cheek.

She wrapped her arms around my neck and nuzzled her face in my shoulder, her hair was the same shade of brown as mine, but her eyes resembled her mother’s, the brightest green I’ve ever seen. She was the perfect combination of both Ichigo and me.

“Ichigo,” I called out.

“Coming,” came a reply from the kitchen.

A few seconds later, she walked into the living room and I swear I felt the same butterflies I did the first time I saw her. Everything about her is the same, picture perfect, the only difference is the small bump on her stomach, she was glowing.

“Stop looking at me like that,” she blushed.

“What? Is it bad to look at my wife like she’s an angel on earth?” I asked, placing my hand on my heart.

“Stop!” she blushed a deeper shade of red.

“How are you?” I asked, smiling, stretching my arm out.

She came and sat on my knee, wrapping her arms around my neck, “Good, we had fun today didn’t we, Princess?” she asked, Harumi, who giggled in response.

“I have an idea,” I smiled.

“What?” Ichigo asked.

“How about we go to the meadow? It’s been a while since we went out the four of us,” I smiled.

“Perfect,” Ichigo smiled.

The meadow was this beautiful garden that had a cottage core aesthetic. There was a lake and flowers, it looked like it came out of a fairy story, or a place where fairies would live. My point is, it’s like Heaven on Earth.

“Want to go see some pretty flowers, Princess?” I asked, Harumi who smiled nodding.

“Let’s go!” I announced.

I helped Ichigo pack a few things to take with us, before strapping Harumi in her little car seat. I helped Ichigo get the in car before going around myself and getting in. I carefully drove us to the meadow which was only 20 minutes away.

“Kyo, you can drive a little faster,” Ichigo chuckled.

“I’m going the speed limit,” I told her, keeping my eyes on the road.

“No, you’re going 10mph below the speed limit, we’re being passed by people on bicycles, are you sure you don’t want me to drive?” she asked.

“Uh, no! Nope!” I shook my head.

“Okay, but at this rate, we’ll reach the beach by Christmas,” she joked.

“Ha! Ha! Very funny,” I huffed.

Okay maybe I’m going overboard, but I have my 1-year-old and pregnant wife in the car with me, and the road is full of idiots these days, you can never be too careful while driving, which reminds me; stay safe on the road, kids!

“And we’re here, we made it before Christmas,” I say, proudly.

“Good job,” Ichigo yawned.

Once again, I helped my wife out of the car, before getting my daughter out. I picked her up, holding her in my arm while holding my free hand to hold Ichigo’s. We found a nice sunny spot, not too close but not too far away from the stream.

I lay a blanket out on the sand and got a few toys out for Harumi to play with, while Ichigo and I sat down. Ichigo was sitting in front of me and leaning back slightly, so her back was touching my chest, and my hand was resting protectively on her stomach, feeling our son kick under my hand.

“Your son’s kicking you a lot,” Ichigo chuckled.

“What do you mean?” I asked, confused.

“I mean, he kicks, but not as much as he is now. Might be because of you resting your hand on my tummy,” she giggled.

“Hey! Before she was your Mum, she was MY wife,” I argued with my unborn child.

“Oh lord,” Ichigo face palmed, “Is this going to be a daily occurrence once he’s born?”

I laughed before wrapping my arms tighter around her, watching as our daughter played with her doll, this is great. This is perfect. This is exactly how I wanted my life to be. This is exactly what I wanted, and I won’t change my life and my small family for all the riches of the world.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Ichigo asked.

“Yes,” I nodded, smiling.

“How did we get so lucky?” I asked.

“I guess we have to thank the Goddess of Destiny for that.”

“Definitely. Destiny played a huge part in our love story,” Ichigo nodded.

“I wonder what Destiny has planned for us next,” I looked up.

“Perhaps she’s busy planning another story,” she followed my gaze.

“Hmm, hopefully their love story doesn’t have the ‘Romeo and Juliet’ effect that our one does’ I joked.

“True,” she laughed.

“Ichigo,”

“Hmm?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

“I love you,” our daughter announced making us laugh.

~The End~