InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Finding Freedom ❯ chapter one ( Chapter 1 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Finding Freedom


Chapter One




Squeak, squeak….Squeak, squeak….Squeak, squeak….Squeak, squeak



The wipers on her 1989 powder blue Honda civic had definitely seen better days and the squeaking was about to drive her up the wall. Aside from the constant pattering of the rain on the windshield it was the only sound breaking the monotony of the drive.



Oh what she wouldn’t give for just a bit of music, or even some news commentary. Miya cast a forlorn glance at the gaping hole in her dash board where her radio once sat. A few wires stuck out at odd angles, their ends wrapped with black electrical tape. She was afraid she might get zapped one day if she left them bare, knowing her luck she probably still would.



Her stereo hadn’t been stolen, even though that’s the story she told Ms. K, her landlady and friend. No, she had sold it in an act of desperation when she needed some extra cash. She felt bad asking for a raise at work and money was extremely tight so she made the sacrifice. Not that she’d really gotten all that much for it, but hey fifty bucks was fifty bucks.



She tried tapping her steering wheel in time to the song that was currently buzzing around in her head, but it was horribly off beat and she forgot the words after the first chorus and had to hum her way through the second half. Truly pathetic.



The rain continued to mercilessly pelt her car as she drove through the sleepy streets of Holly Ridge, the small town on the cost of North Carolina that Miya had called home for the last five years.


It was a quiet little town north of Wilmington with a populous smaller than her graduating class in high school, or what would have been her graduating class had she been able to stick around to get her diploma. She liked it that way though, small and quiet that is, it was peaceful, safe.



Miya had always loved the ocean. The clean salty air, the warm sand beneath her feet and blue sea as far as the eye could see. It was freedom, or about as much freedom as she could afford for now.


Holly Ridge was full of friendly people who had welcomed her into their community with open arms, well most of them anyways. You’re always bound to find at least one worm in every bushel of bright, shiny apples.


All in all she was happy here, for the most part. She was a little lonely. Her only close friends consisted of a sixty year old woman and a five year old little girl. They made up the extent of her family as well, when she moved to Holly Ridge she left everything behind, including her name.



Something flashed up ahead on the side of the road startling Miya out of her frustration as she tried to remember the words to that song.



“Hello, what do we have here?” She slowed and squinted through her windshield and turned her high beams on. There it was again, only this time something darted out in front of her car. Miya slammed on brakes, her car fish tailing on the slick pavement as it struggled to stop.



By the time Miya’s car came to a full stop she was sideways in the middle of the road and panting heavily, eyes wide with fear. Seeing no other cars on the road she quickly undid her seat belt and bound out of her car.


“Oh, please don’t let me have hit it!” She pleaded quietly, stepping out into the down pour, the only light was coming from her headlights, and they were shining off onto the opposite side of the road. She grimaced looking at the odd angle her car was sitting at, if this was a more populated road she would have to move it, but it was already getting late and there were hardly ever any other cars on this road, even in the middle of the day.



It was hard to see through the deluge and Miya lifted her hand to push her sopping wet bangs out of her eyes. ‘Where did it go?’ She wondered. She was sure she saw something.



“Great, and now I get to ride home all squishy.” She grumped before turning to climb back into her car. Just as she felt the cool metal of the door handle under her clammy fingers she spotted it. “AH HA! There you are!” She said triumphantly turning toward what she could now see was a beautiful, but near drowned calico kitten sitting in the middle of the road just up ahead.



“Here kitty kitty kitty.” She cooed, squatting down and snapping her fingers gently trying to coerce the kitten to come to her. Her tee shirt was now plastered to her like second skin and her jeans were not any better. If she weren’t such a softy for animals, ugh…wet jeans are not fun, but she just couldn’t stand the thought of someone running over the little fella.



“Come on now little one…” She pleaded with the animal who simply cocked its little head to the side and gave her the typical cat look that said ‘If you want me, come and get me’. Miya inched her way toward the kitten, pleased when it didn’t bolt and make her chase after it.



When she finally drew up even with it and extended her hand, it gave her a little look with its nose upturned as if to say ‘What? You mean you want to touch me?’ Miya giggled at the little creature when it finally fell to its primal urges and pushed its little head under her gently scratching fingers and began to purr.


The cat wasn’t exactly soft, being soaked through, nor was it really all that cute. It just looked so pathetic with its little baby fur plastered to its tiny body and its ears sticking out, looking like they were three sizes too big for its body. Miya couldn’t resist. She scooped up the little kitten and scratched behind his little ears.



“You are just too cute.” She chided gently when the cat mewed softly and nudged the hand that had ceased its gentle ministrations. She giggled and scratched his ears again as she headed for her car.


Lights shone around her, illuminating the path to her car. The car that was still horizontal in the road. Kagome stiffened and turned slowly only to see a set of bright halogens speeding toward her, making no inclination of stopping any time soon.



It was too late to run, too futile to cry out, so she did the only thing left in her options box. She closed her eyes and cringed waiting for the impact.



***********



Pissed was not even the tip of the proverbial iceberg. He passed the pissed off mark about two minutes after his father told him he had to pack as much stuff as would fit in his suitcases and get in his car, traveling halfway down the coast to spend a year in some little hick town in the middle of nowhere.



A whole year in this hole, and so far the closest thing he’d seen to a night club was a twenty-four hour gas station/ diner. What the hell did he do to deserve this kind of torture? Wasn’t he a good son?



Ok, so maybe he had a little affinity for clubbing and wild parties, and maybe he’d had some bad publicity that kicked back on the company once or twice, but that’s no reason to do…this! This was just unacceptable.



He knew about places like this, it was like an extended version of an old folks home with bingo on Wednesdays and bridge clubs every other night of the week. A real life Mayberry. There probably wouldn’t be any people his age and he was almost positive there wouldn’t be any hot chicks with in a hundred mile radius, which was probably the reason his father chose this god forsaken town to begin with. This was going to suck.



‘It will build character Inuyasha.’ He could hear his father’s voice ringing in his ears. Just thinking about it made his blood boil. ‘It will prepare you to take your proper place in the company, son.’ Bah! ‘You need to act your age Inuyasha, It’s time to grow up.’ He did act his age. Twenty-five year olds are supposed to enjoy life.



Tai Taishou, self made entrepreneur and multi-billion dollar conglomerate owner of Taishou Western Industries, was a brilliant business man. His oldest son Sesshoumaru Taishou had no trouble settling into the business world and taking over his half of the company.



Of course Inuyasha considered his older brother to be a prissy stick in the mud with no sense of fun. Anyone who could graduate top in their class at Yale with an MBA and a law degree obviously had no life what so ever.



Inuyasha Taishou, younger of the famed Taishou brothers, was notoriously known as the black sheep of the family. An avid partier and playboy, he fully immersed himself into the wild world of New York’s high society night life and enjoyed every minute of it.



Unfortunately for him Tai was ready to retire and enjoy life and his grand daughter Rin ( and hopefully more to come ) and in order for him to do that Inuyasha had to take over the other half of the company.



‘Yash’, as he was so affectionately dubbed by his friends, despite his adequate schooling, was in no way ready to settle into such an important position with so much responsibility so his father came up with his ‘brilliant’ little plan.



He bought some crap piece of property in some little dead town in the middle of nowhere. Inuyasha had a set allowance and he had to spend a year in this hole and become a 'productive member of society' or he had to forfeit his half of the corporation over to his bastard brother. Half the corporation, half the money, bye bye good life.



To be honest, he didn’t even really want to run the stupid Tetsusaiga division, but there was no way he was just going to turn it over to Sesshoumaru. Call him petty if you will, but that’s just the way he felt about it.



It had taken him almost seventeen hours to get here, Holly Ridge, North Carolina, or his own personal hell as he’d so affectionately dubbed it. His baby, a fire engine red 1969 Shelby Mustang convertible, was filthy, not to mention that it was now dark outside and pouring.



It was too late to try to find the ‘property’, which had been described as a ‘fixer upper’. Great, in real estate terms that means ‘dump’.



No sense in worrying about it tonight, he would just find a hotel and crash for the night and worrying about finding his ‘fixer upper’ in the morning. That, of course, was providing that this hole in the wall even had a hotel.



Yash sighed and turned up the radio, strumming his fingers on the steering wheel in time with the beat.


Visibility sucked with the rain pelting his windshield mercilessly, and the muted pitter patter of the rain hitting his ragtop was drowned out by the noise level coming from his custom Pioneer system.



Taking a curve at a little higher speed than he should have, Inuyasha's eyes widened when he saw what was unmistakably a person standing in the middle of the road.



“OH Shit!” He yelled jerking the steering wheel and slamming on his brakes trying to avoid hitting the body standing out in the down pour. His Shelby spun and skidded to a halt mere inches away from another car that was situated sideways in the road.



He sat panting and gripping the steering wheel tightly for a few moments trying to get his jumbled nerves back under control before getting out of the car to beat the hell out of the idiot who almost screwed up his baby.



“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” He shouted as he jumped out of his car and strode purposefully toward the person still standing in the middle of the road.



*******************


Miya was in shock, the car had missed her by a fraction of an inch. If she had been standing just half a step to the right she’d be dead now.
She was shaking as the man jumped out of his car and started yelling at her. She wasn’t sure exactly what he was saying, only that about every other word was not appropriate for use in front of small children and people with heart conditions.



Taking it like a trooper, Miya said nothing. She figured she deserved to be cussed at a little after nearly getting herself killed like that.



Inuyasha was shocked, he had been yelling at this fool for about five straight minutes now, he was completely soaked and the idiot had yet to say something back to him. ‘What’s wrong with this guy?’ He wondered as he walked up closer.



Boy did he get the shock of his life when the most startling pair of blue eyes he’d ever seen in his life blinked up at him with the most pitifully frightened expression. Rivulets of water were running down the girls porcelain face from her soaked hair. She was gorgeous, and very, very freaked out.



His angry tirade died on the tip of his tongue. He almost ran over this beautiful creature. No matter how angry he was, he knew he’d never be able to forgive himself if he had actually hurt her.




“H-hey, are you ok?” He asked the shaking girl, unable to tear his eyes away from a drop of water that made its way over her soft pink lips. It was dark, but he had a slight advantage, his eyesight was better due to his heritage and the headlights were coming from behind him so as not to blind him.



Miya nodded numbly, still in shock over what had happened. “Y-yeah…I’m really sorry. Are you ok? You- your car didn’t get messed up did it?” She asked concerned.



“Keh. Its fine." she was lucky at that. No pair of pretty eyes could have saved her from his wrath if she'd scratched his baby. "What the hell are you doing standing in the middle of the road anyway?”


Miya snapped out of her trance. It was dark, but the illumination from their combined headlights gave her a little bit of a view of the man that almost killed her and technically saved her life all at once. A shock of , now soaked, nearly white hair was plastered to his forehead standing in stark contrast to his tanned skin. He was very handsome. It was a little distracting.




Why was she out in the middle of the road again? Suddenly the little kitten buried in her arms meowed pitifully drawing both their attention to him.



“Oh, I …uh…”She gestured to the little cat as a means of explanation, kind of embarrassed that she almost got herself killed over a cat.




“You mean to tell me...but you're soaked...you could have been killed…all over a cat…?” He asked incredulously.



She cringed, expecting him to start yelling at her again. She didn’t expect him to start laughing though, and that’s just what the little jerk did. Miya felt her eyebrow tick at his hearty chuckle and pushed away the warm little pull in her chest at the warm sound.

"Are you stupid?" he asked between chuckles.


“Hey, I didn’t want to hit it !” She yelled, a little miffed that he found her near death experience so funny. “and you shouldn’t have been driving so fast anyways!” She felt her hackles rise, though it was somewhat buffered when she noticed a drop of water flick of the tip of one of his canine like ears. Youkai?


“Sorry… sorry, its just….” He continued chuckling, waving his hand dismissively as he gathered his composure. “ I’m Inuyasha Taishou.” He said thrusting his hand out. Luckily the rain had slowed to a light drizzle, not that they weren’t both already soaked.


"Are you drunk?" Miya asked suspiciously. The guy was acting weird. Strangers didn't turn up in Holly Ridge often, especially not strangers in expensive sports cars. He couldn't be...no. She couldn't be afraid of everyone new that crossed her path, it would make her crazy. Crazier than she already was at any rate.

The man, Inuyasha, merely raised an eyebrow in reference to her unexpected question and continued to wait for her hand and name. By the look on his face he wasn't used to waiting for things.


“Miya, and yes I live here.” She replied, eyeing him warily before accepting his hand.



“Hmmm.” He seemed to ponder something, before examining her other hand that was securely wrapped around the kitten. “No wedding ring, how fortunate for me.” He said with a sexy smirk making Miya blush. “I’ll be in town for a while. Do you have a last name Miya, and maybe a phone number?”



Miya was blushing despite herself. She knew this kind of guy, she had absolutely no desire for a fling and guys like him had absolutely no desire for anything long term. Especially not with women with … responsibility.



“I do have a last name and a phone number, but I can tell you right now you wouldn’t be interested.” She told him gently pulling her hand back.



“And what makes you say that?” He asked, his smirk widening. No woman could resist his charms. And this was probably about the only woman in a hundred mile radius worth looking at. “I promise I could show you a good time.” He added a wink just to seal the deal.



She couldn’t believe him. He was really hitting on her after almost running her over with his car, then cussing her out, now he was asking her on a date and insinuating on much more! “As nice as that sounds I’m afraid I’ll have to pass.” She said edging away toward her car.



Inuyasha frowned, was he losing his touch? Naw, that couldn’t be it. “Oh, I get it you’re a dyke.” He said plainly, as if he were commenting on the weather.



Miya’s patience and her expression flat lined. “I most certainly am not.” She stated, affronted. “I’m just not interested in a fly by night fling with some slick play boy, thanks very much.” Her free hand was now balled at her hip, her eyes flaring with indignant fire.



‘Good god she’s sexy.’ Inuyasha thought watching her getting angry at him. “Hey, hey now. Who said I wanted a fling baby? Maybe I’m looking for Miss right? You ever think about that?” He asked with an arrogant smile as he stepped closer to her.



“I promise you I’m not your type.” She snapped still edging away. “And don’t call me baby. My name is Miya. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m very sorry for the trouble I’ve caused, but I really have to be going.” She turned to climb in her car.



“Now how do you know your not my type?” He asked a little irritated at her blatant dismissal. “You don’t even know me.”



“And you don’t know me either, Mr. Taishou was it?” She opened her door and got ready to climb in when a hand on her door stopped her from closing it.



“Well can you at least point me in the direction of a hotel, or does this little dump even have one?” He asked gruffly.



Miya wrinkled her nose at the change in his tone, but it only served to prove her original opinion of him. “If you follow this road straight it’ll take you to the center of town. Turn right on Ruthurford Street and there’s a motel down there, The Cross Roads.”



He nodded, then smirked again. “Hey, it’s a small town, right? I guess I’ll be seeing you.”



“Joy.” Miya commented dryly before pulling her door shut and driving off.



Inuyasha stared after her fading taillights for a minute dumbfounded before giving a little smile and skipping back to his car. Maybe Holly Ridge wouldn’t be completely unbearable after all.