Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters, nor do I own any songs by Switchfoot.
Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
Everyone's here
Everyone's here
A lazy summer day was finishing up as a Friday night in a normal suburban neighborhood. Houses in rows grew dark in the growing twilight. A golden Oldsmobile surfed through the calm streets, towards a house that was unlike the others around it. Its lights were ablaze and dance music could be heard from three houses down.
The car stopped in front of the house since the whole driveway was full of similar partygoer's modes of transportation. The two people who got out could hear a dull roar of voices talking, laughing, and shouting from the street. Hand in hand they walked up to the door.
"Welcome to my humble abode!" shouted the man who opened the door. "Kagome and Inuyasha, pleased to see you!" Both could hear him fine when he stepped out onto the doorstep and closed the door to the party but he kept shouting anyway. "A rave just isn't a rave without the couple of the rave!" He twirled his fingers in the air in a hoo-rah motion.
"Right, good to know," laughed Inuyasha, taking a hand out of his army jacket and putting it on the shoulder of the drunken host. "It's too bad that you're trashed already, Miroku. You won't get to remember any of the revelry."
"Trashed? What is all this talk of trashed?" Miroku shook Inuyasha's hand off his shoulder impatiently. "No, no, no, no, no trashing tonight, no sir, not a bit of trash to be seen, not at all," he said. His usual northern drawl turned to an English accent as he did an about-face and opened the door. "I am only house-sitting for my dear aunt and uncle, you see, so doing anything irresponsible would be simply... irresponsible! On with the trashing!"Kagome and Inuyasha followed him as he marched in. "Everyone's here, as you can see," said the host, English accent disappearing for a second. "We've got Hojo and Shippo, Sesshoumaru and his ugly fiancé..." Miroku's eyes wandered around the first floor of the small house as he listed off names. "...Kagura, Hikaru, Akiro, Sexy, Skinny, Big Lips, Long Legs, and their friend Hina... Naraku, Kouga, Rin, Kanna, Sakura, Jineni, and our beloved designated sober personages for the evening, Kikyo and Sango. Here to watch the car keys and such. You know the drill." Inuyasha and Kagome nodded to Sango and Kikyo from the foyer. The two didn't seem to notice. "But without further ado, let us, how do you say, get this party started, eh?"
Everybody's watching you now.
Everybody waits for you now.
What happens next, what happens next?
The night blurred into one red plastic cup and the bubbly inside, fizzing and dizzying and making possibilities open everywhere. More than one red plastic cup, in fact. Kagome giggled. Lots and lots and lots of red plastic cups. She snuggled into Inuyasha's arm on the couch. He was watching white lines make their ways onto a coffee table, and the people bending over them. Kagome knew he was thinking of times years ago when he was the one bent over the white lines. All the time, with those white lines. Kagome frowned.
"You need more beer," she said loudly. Inuyasha didn't hear her. "More," she shouted.
Inuyasha looked down, reflecting the frown on Kagome's face. "You want me to get you more beer?"
"No. I," she said slowly, taking his hand and placing it on her chest. "Want you," then placing her hand on his chest. "To cheer up!"
He leaned in and kissed her, taking her frown away. "Then I'll be getting us some more beer." Standing up, he took one last glance at the horrible white lines and walked to the kitchen.
Kagome shook her head. Inuyasha's life had been taking one bad turn after another lately, and even though he took his medication every day, the only thing that could take the real pain away was drinking. Big, big red plastic cups for him. They started drinking together, getting drunk all the time, drunk, drunk, drunk. Sometimes Kagome hated it but at the same time she loved seeing Inuyasha happy. It was their thing, like how some couples had songs or a saying. We drink. She giggled again.
When she saw Inuyasha coming towards her she got up and pulled him to the middle of the family room, where other couples were dancing. He barely had time to set the two cups on a coffee table before she whispered in his ear, "Dance with me."
The dance music had no affect on the other drunken partiers, who danced to their own chosen beat. Kagome wrapped her arms around Inuyasha's neck and swayed back and forth slowly. "I lo-ve you," she singsonged.
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened before
"I love you too," Inuyasha said into her shoulder. He could smell the alcohol in his own breath and wanted that tipsy feeling to deepen. Only when the room started spinning could he completely let go.
He didn't notice when the song ended, since Kagome kept swaying. She kissed him on the cheek and the room swam into focus, landing around him in a messy heap. It was now totally dark outside and the party was the only sign of anyone awake on the block.
Inuyasha checked his watch. It was five minutes past twelve. The blaring bass of the next song made his head pound almost in perfect rhythm with the music. Soon his whole body was pulsing. The sudden claustrophobic feeling of being trapped with bodies around him made him need to leave the room, and fast.
Inuyasha wrapped his arms around Kagome's small stomach and lifted her off the floor, making her giggle like a schoolgirl. Kagome still had her arms around his neck and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He mounted the steps to the dining room with Kagome in tow and crossed through to the back porch, where someone was playing the guitar. It sounded terribly off-key.
"Freebird!" someone sitting in a lawn chair shouted. In the backyard, a fire was growing in the wood burner, and Inuyasha saw someone aiming a can of hair spray at the flames. The heat of the small explosion warmed his face as he set Kagome down on the grass. He took two more beers from a nearby cooler before laying down next to her.
"I was feeling it too, you know," she said, propping herself up on her side and twisting the cap off the bottle.
"So now my claustrophobia's rubbing off on you, huh?" He took a sip and looked up at the stars. "I really hope you don't mind. Soon you might get my manic depression. Or," he laughed but it sounded more like a harsh bark. "if you're lucky, my obsessive compulsive disorder. And you are a lucky one."
She frowned. "I wasn't talking about any of your disorders, Inu." The crowd on the porch broke into a bad version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow."
"Then what--"
"Ah! Just the couple I wanted to see! Miss Kagome, may I mention you are looking absolutely smashing and very edible this evening--"
"Hey, Miroku," growled Inuyasha, "We're kind of busy right now."
"Not too busy to help a friend out, are we? Didn't think so! Because you know I've always been such a good friend, remember that, all the times I've helped you?"
"No, can't seem to remember one." Inuyasha's reply made Kagome giggle.
"Well here's the deal." Miroku's speech was slurring badly and he had to keep a hand on the porch railing for support. "My usually faithful supplier for alcoholic beverages didn't do so well, and we're out of, you know, alcoholic beverages." There was no accent in his voice this time. He pointed to the two beers in their hands. "Those were the last two in the whole house inside and out, I'm afraid. We're plain out and most everyone's too trashed, smashed and hammered to go out and get some."
"What about, you know, Sango and Kikyo? The 'designated sober personages of the evening' or some shit."
"See for yourself." Miroku pointed to the wood burner, where the two girls were making out almost violently. Several guys around the fire were not subtle about their watching and one shouted, "Take your tops off!"
Miroku shook his head. "They're much too preoccupied."
Inuyasha sat up on his elbows. "So you want us to do a beer run even though we're as hammered as everyone else."
"That's where my logic comes in! You two are drunk all the time, so it must be easier for you to function... or something... right?"
"Your logic never fails to amaze me," Kagome said, getting up and brushing the grass off of her back.
"Come on, it'll be fast, and hey, I'll make it fun." Miroku's eyes almost glinted behind the bloodshot glaze. "I dare you to come back before twelve thirty. Eh? Eh?"
"Whatever. We can make it way before then." Inuyasha's watch said it was twelve ten now. "Just tell me what to get..."
Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
The tension is here
The tension is here
Between who you are and who you could be
Between how it is and how it should be
Four minutes later, Inuyasha slammed the door to his car, mumbling obscenities about Miroku. "Stupid shit. 'I dare you to be back by twelve thirty, I've got a small dick and testosterone levels that are too high, waaaah,'" he said in a mocking tone. He put the key in the ignition and turned it.
Kagome hopped in the passenger's seat. "Hey, you. Could you just be happy, for once?"
"I dare you to say please." His hands gripped the wheel too tightly as they wheeled out of the neighborhood.
"Be happy, please. You're killing me here."
"Sorry." Inuyasha took a deep breath and the car slowed down considerably. He could tell his bad mood was already bringing her down.
Inuyasha drove in silence until they came to a red light. He was so wrapped up in thought he almost didn't notice when Kagome put her hand on his arm.
"I dare you to kiss me," she said, smiling.
She was still smiling when his lips met hers in a deep kiss, and they were still kissing as the light turned green. There was no one behind them to make them want to rush. Inuyasha felt like it was just the two of them and that green light that never turned back to red. There was no party, no beer run, no race against the clock and midnight traffic.
"Inuyasha…" Kagome said, sitting up too fast. Her head hit the ceiling of the small car and she burst into giggles. "The light, Inuyasha."
He was busy kissing her neck. "What about it?"
She giggled again and tugged on his shirt. "It's green," she whispered in his ear.
"Green, right." He kissed her a few more times before turning back to the wheel. "We have got a deadline to beat!"
Kagome peered into the darkness ahead of them. "I hope we won't come to too many red lights."
"Don't worry about them," Inuyasha said. He stepped on the pedal harder, preparing to run a red light. He heard himself say for the second time that night, "We can make it."
Kagome's head turned slowly as she looked out the window, bored. She was used to Inuyasha's sudden NASCAR roleplays. "I dare you to…"
She never finished the sentence. They were approaching a three-way intersection, running the red light. Her eyes widened as she saw the fourteen-wheeler too late, coming at them too fast. "Stop!"
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened
Officer Morioka was pulling out of a local fast food joint when he got the call.
It had been an exceptionally slow day and his shift on patrol duty was almost over. He was almost eager to change out of his uniform and sit in front of the TV at home, listening to his wife's nit-picking voice instead of the scratchy 911 dispatcher coming from over the radio.
He thought of pulling over his police car and saying something to the teenage couple making out behind the fast food restaurant, but his train of thought was interrupted by the crackling radio. "Morioka, we have an accident, need you to cover, over."
Morioka's eyes stayed on the couple a second longer. "Copy that."
"A car hit by a fourteen-wheeler flipped. Witnesses report two people in the car." Morioka flipped a switch on his dashboard and the blue lights on top of the car started flashing. The 911 dispatcher doled out route and intersection numbers and in three minutes he was out of the car.
The Oldsmobile was completely flipped, laying upside-down on the pavement. The passenger's side was crushed and he could see blood on the glass and dripping down from the car. The fourteen-wheeler was stopped close by, and the driver was pacing in front of the small car. When he saw the police officer a look of relief crossed his face. "They're not moving." His hands were moving worriedly across the stubble on his chin. "Neither of them, they aren't moving. Hey, shouldn't an ambulance be coming? When is the ambulance coming?"
"It will get here in a few minutes. Sir, I need you to stand back, this car could explode any second."
"Explode?! Waddya mean, explode?" The driver kept pacing and didn't get any farther from the overturned car. "I didn't meant to hit them, you know, it was a green light, I swear it was a green light. They came at me so fast…"
"Do you see that?" Morioka pointed to the gasoline leaking from the tank of the Oldsmobile. It had pooled underneath the trunk. "The slightest spark--from anything--could set that off." He was circling the car as he was talking. It was impossible to open the passenger door. "I really do suggest that you step back."
The driver finally started walking back to his truck, muttering to himself. Morioka got on his hands and knees in front of the driver door. It opened with a hard yank and a hand of the young man in the driver's seat fell out of the open door, dangling awkwardly.
Morioka reached across him and tried to get the seat belt undone. "Sir, I need to know if you can hear me. If you can hear me, say something. Say something!" The young man was strapped into his seat and was hanging upside-down in the overturned vehicle, as was the situation with the young woman in the passenger's seat. If Morioka had any hope of getting either of them out of the car before it ignited he needed cooperation from the both of them. Unfortunately both weren't responding. Damn EMTs. They always took forever to get to the scene.
"What…" The young man was moving. Morioka was still leaning over him, trying to unfasten the seatbelt. It wasn't budging. "Oh God, my arm…"
The belt finally let go.
Morioka dragged the man out onto the pavement, a safe distance away from the car. He was slowly realizing the wholeness of the situation. "What're you doing… Stop it! Kagome's in there! Stop touching me and get her! Idiot," he shouted, throwing a punch at the officer with his good arm.
"You can't move," said Morioka. "Your arm is broken--in several places, by the look of it. Stay here and wait for the ambulance."
Talking to him was useless. He was already halfway to the overturned car before he finished his sentence.
Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here
Inuyasha remembered seeing the flashing lights of the ambulance but not hearing them. He remembered hearing people telling him what happened to his arm but he didn't remember seeing them. Worst of all, he remembered pulling Kagome out of the car, but he didn't remember what happened to her afterwards. Looking at the bright lights above him, he tried to remember. But nothing came.
I need a drink.
He got out of the hospital bed too fast and his head started swimming. He almost lost his balance while blinking, trying to get the black dots out of his head. The cast on his arm felt unfamiliar and heavy. He didn't know how long he had had it on.
His clothes that he was wearing the day of the accident were on a chair by the bed. They were washed, all traces of blood gone. Even the pack of cigarettes he had in his front pocket was gone. After he changed out of his hospital gown he walked out into the hallway, knowing full well an army of nurses would soon come and hunt him down.
They never came. Or if they did, he didn't see them. He was too focused on trying to find Kagome. It was no use trying to look in the hospital. He knew she wasn't there anyway. He walked out of the building, past the parking lot. He couldn't stop walking until he got to the cemetery. Then he started to remember.
He remembered seeing her casket being lowered into the ground, and hearing the preacher saying a prayer. He was there, in his hospital gown and surrounded by Kagome's family but no friends. Words buzzed around him, and they were all saying it was his fault, but he couldn't say anything back. He couldn't tell them he didn't mean to. He couldn't tell them he loved her as much as they do.
But the funeral congregation wasn't there anymore. He wasn't in his hospital gown and he couldn't see her casket. Just a lonely gravestone, between people she didn't know. She always wanted to be buried next to people she knew, he thought. And she would never have had a preacher at her funeral.
The cemetery got farther away as he kept walking. Staying at her grave wouldn't do anything. His legs brought him to a busy city street, strangers everywhere, and all of a sudden he saw the police officer from that night. He wasn't in his uniform, and he had a black eye from where Inuyasha had punched him. Inuyasha stopped walking. "H-hey…" His whisper couldn't be heard over the noise of the city. "I…" the officer kept walking.
"The Lord is our savior!"
Inuyasha turned. A man in a black robe was standing on a box in the middle of the sidewalk, holding a Bible up for all of the passersby to see. "Repent to God and your sins shall be forgiven!"
He considered turning back around. Walking away from God like he had all his life. But what the priest said next made Inuyasha stay and listen, talk and, eventually, confess.
"Salvation is here!"
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
Like today never happened
Today never happened
Today never happened
Today never happened before
So, there it is, my first fanfic. I didn't mean for it to have a religious ending, me being an agnostic and everything, but I guess it turned out okay.