InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ The day I saved him ❯ I saved him..... ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters of InuYasha, except those I make up along the way.

CHAPTER - I

Kagome suppressed a deeply frustrated sigh as she strolled across the busy parking lot of Ousi's supermarket, dodging parents and vehicles as she ran to catch her evening bus home. The holidays always took its toll on her nerves. It just seemed that she had so much to do in so little time, especially now that her mother had passed away.

She sighed again thinking about the previous holidays and how happy and carefree she had been then. She had had no thoughts about the future then, caring only about whether she was going to see her long time boyfriend Hojo again. She shook her head thinking how one year had changed a lot of stuff in her life. Last year, she had spent Christmas day with her mother and ten-year-old brother, going to church and praying for the new semester of her junior year in Hongo College. Last year she hadn't had to lift a single finger to pay the bills, safe in the knowledge that the money her father had left for her would take care of her college tuition, safe in the knowledge that her mother would always be there to take care of her every little problem.

Her naïve illusions had come to a startling standstill one January morning, when a drunk driver had slammed into her mother's car at an isolated intersection, injuring her mother's hip and sending her into a coma for three months. Kagome remembered the pain and anguish she had felt as she stood in the hospital wing, listening to the details of the accident from the police officer reporting the incident. She shook thinking about the utter look of pain she had witnessed in her brother's face as he stood looking up at their mother, lying battered and bruised under a mound of bedclothes and bandages. He had looked at her, tears streaming down his young, ashen face and had asked her,” will mom be alright?”

He had repeated that question just once more, on the day that their mother had passed away. They had stood beside their mother's bed, one last deathbed visit as they listened to the doctor tell them that it was impossible for their mother to ever wake up. Kagome had understood the doctor's words, knowing that this was the end. She turned towards her brother to tell him the news gently, to make him understand that their mother would be forever leaving them when he had asked the question again. Kagome hadn't been sure what Sota had meant, but when she had gazed into her brother's clear-eyed gaze she knew that he had understood what the doctor had said and was asking her if their mother would be alright on the other side. She had nodded, burying her face in her brother's neck, hugging him while she wept out her anguish on his tiny shoulders.

Her torture hadn't ended there. It was to begin only then it would seem, for all hell had come to visit her in the months following her mother's death. She had thought they could live on her father's money and the money her mother had saved up for them. But after the accident, the hospital bills had sucked up whatever had been left of her father's money and the rest of the money had been used to pay for keeping up the house and putting food on the table for her and her brother. But it was not enough to sustain them beyond a few months. Kagome had then made the grave decision of leaving college and finding some kind of work. And she had found employment in a travel agency, working as the agent's assistant. The pay was not much but it was enough to pay the bills and keep Sota in school.

She shook her head to clear away the memories of the past few months and ran to join the crowd at the curb waiting for the light to turn red. A gentle breeze ruffled her long dark hair, lifting the hem of her burgundy coat and playing with the coat straps. She lifted one hand to manage her hair, when a man standing before her caught her eye. He wore a dark leather jacket and sun glasses that shielded his eyes. The reason Kagome noticed him in the crowd was his long silver hair that flowed past the normal length acceptable for guys. She was sure she had never seen such beautiful hair and was undeniably intrigued by him. He looked separate from the crowd as if he didn't really belong in such civil surroundings. In fact he looked as if he had just stepped off a fashion magazine. He looked somewhat lost, as if he was not used to such normal milieu.

Kagome did not know why, but she had a sudden urge to get closer to him. She pushed her way through the crowd until she was standing so close she could smell the rich intoxicating scent of his cologne. It made her head dizzy and she felt a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. She tentatively lifted a hand to tap him on the shoulder when the pedestrian crossing light went green. The crowd surged against her, almost making her stumble over her feet. To right herself she grasped the closest coat she could get her hands on. She was about to mumble an apology when she found herself staring straight into a pair of bright golden eyes. They mesmerized her, held her captive within their fiery golden depths. She couldn't breathe. Everything else, the crowd, the noise, everything faded into insignificance.

“Are you alright?” he asked her, flashing her a concerned smile. He cupped her head, gently stroking her raven hair as if he were making sure she wasn't hurt in the head. Of course, he thought something was wrong with her head, the way she was staring at him with that drooling face. Get it together, Kagome! she mentally chided herself.

“I…” she began but found that her throat had cut off all supply of oxygen. She found she couldn't still breathe and tried desperately to form a suitable reply. “I'm….” she trailed off again, taking quick gulping breaths to tamp down some of the nervousness his closeness wrought. Her heart was beating a million beats a minute and her face was flushed.

“o….k.” He drew out the word as if he had given up on trying to get some semblance of a normal reply from her. He shook his head and walked off.

Kagome closed her eyes, berating herself for acting like such an idiot in front of him. Oh why couldn't she get it together? What was wrong with her? It was true she had been out of the dating scene for some time now, ever since her mother had passed away, but this mooning over a complete stranger was utterly beyond her. She had much more sophistication than that.

She started walking again when suddenly she saw the pedestrian crossing going red. She picked up her pace when suddenly some quick movement to her right caught her eye. She turned to see a large red van with `Wedding makers' printed across its side heading straight towards the intersection. She stopped in the middle of the road, knowing the van would hit her if she tried to cross over to the other side now. But when she looked ahead, she saw that the silver haired guy had stopped and was looking at the ground, searching for something. Alarm lights went off in her head. He was going to get hit if he didn't move! Without thinking about what she was doing she ran towards him. She caught him around the middle and shoved him off the road a millisecond before the van zoomed past them. She hit the curb hard, her head going back like a ping pong ball. Dark images floated in front of her eyes, threatening to pull her into their oblivion. She felt noises intruding upon her, and found herself looking up at a million faces. They were all speaking at once, their discordant voices grating against her vertiginous head.

“Are you alright, missy? Looks like you took one bad fall there,” a man in the crowd asked, holding out a hand to help her up.

Kagome took it, trying to lift herself off the pavement.

“I'm fine.”

She brushed dirt off her clothes and patted herself to make sure she had no broken bones. It was then that she remembered the stranger she had pushed out of the way. “How is the man?” she asked, looking around her to locate him.

“He's over there,” the man replied, pointing to another crowd that had gathered over the prone form of her stranger.

She hurried forward, pushing through the crowd to get to the man. He was lying on the ground, one leg twisted at an odd angle. Except for a cut on his high forehead he looked none the worse for wear. She knelt down beside him and shook his arm, trying to wake him up.

“Mister. Mister, are you alright? Can you hear me?”

“We'll take it from here, miss. Please stand aside,” A voice said behind, its hard masculine tones carrying the authoritative command at ease. A man in a paramedic suit knelt beside her, checking the man for his pulse and any other broken bones.

“But..but…I…. I'm…” Her protests were lost in the wind as she was pushed aside into the crowd by another paramedic. She stood watching as the paramedics lifted him onto a stretcher and loaded him into the ambulance. She prayed the man was going to be alright. Head wounds could be quite serious. She knew how serious her mother's had been and there had been nothing, not even a scratch on her mother's face to show for it. She closed her eyes, sending up a silent prayer for him to be alright.

A man in a long dark coat stood watching her, his eyes shadowed by dark sun glasses. He looked at the frail looking woman, and knew that she was the one his client had mentioned. The woman with the raven hair.