A/N: What am I doing here again? Uh...oh yeah! I remember now. I changed the name of the story cuz the earlier one didn't fit too well. I might end up changing it again...I don't know. I'm very fickle and hate to stick with one thing. Anyway, so yeah. Thank you to my two reviewers and you both get special pancakes. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Well, last time I checked, I still own Inuyasha. However, the last time I checked, I was also still in a straight jacket locked up in a small white padded room conveniently located at a local mental institute. Yup yup. Fun stuff.

Love Lost, Love Found

Chapter Three: Car Accidents and The End of the World

The wind stung at Karina's face and her hair flew up around her, stray locks sticking in the wet liquid that fell silently from her milky brown eyes. Even though the CD player in her car was blasting with the hardest music she owned, she could hear nothing but the repeated words of, "I hate my life" and "I wish I could just die" echoing in her mind. All the windows were rolled down in hopes that the spring breeze would clear her head of those awful thoughts, but it did nothing except make the tears falls faster.

She had just spent the whole day reminiscing about all the good times in the past with Shina and Keiji and, for a short while, she was able to let go of and accept her father's sudden death. But always, in the back of her mind, the image of Hojo's funeral and Kagome's stoic demeanor throughout stuck with her and refused to leave her be. She simply could not find peace confined within a stuffy dorm-room, although she was with her two best friends.

So, she opted for the open roads.

In truth though, even the open roads weren't really quite open. When you lived in as busy a city as Los Angeles, nothing is ever open. It was frustrating and more than annoying, especially with all the wolf whistles and car horn honks she received from passing idiots, but it was all she had to make do with.

One would think that since her father was just killed in a car accident, she would have developed an understandable phobia of driving. However, it seemed just the opposite was true.

Karina, for some odd reason, had always found peace while driving. It seemed to be her method of relieving stress and escaping the hectic schedule of a college student.

But today it just wouldn't work for her.

Nothing seemed to be able to eradicate the words from Kagome's, her mother's, diary from Karina's mind. Most likely because they were words that she herself had spoken not too long ago.

Nobody knew, partly because she didn't let anyone close enough to know. Shina was too far away, since she lived in Japan and Karina lived in California, to be of any immediate comfort and it would feel awkward if she ever told her parents--or rather, parent now.

So, she had kept those little suicidal thoughts buried deep inside her mind for many years until they were brought to a breaking point. She often wondered if she should go see a psychiatrist or something of the like, but then she figured that if she did that, she would have to tell her parents and that just plain wouldn't be good.

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a loud, decidedly masculine yell and she snapped her attention back to the roads in front of her. She barely had time to react when a tall figure barely leaped out of the way in time to prevent himself from an untimely end. She slammed on the brakes and the car screeched to a halt.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shitty shit shit, she kept repeating in her mind. Out loud, she was a bit more conservative and settled for, "Oh crap, oh crap, oh crappity-crap crap," as she nearly kicked down her car door in an effort to see if she had killed anyone.

A young man with his long black hair--how odd for a guy to have such long hair, she thought--pulled into a low pony-tail and his face obscured stood slightly hunched over, scant inches away from the side of her car. Even in the night--it wasn't too dark, though, since there were so many street-lights and the like--Karina could make out a dark liquid-like substance covering all of the young man's side and running down his left leg in streams of blood.

It looked awfully terrible but she assumed it must have looked worst than it felt because the man--with barely a limp in his stride--made his way to the hood of her car and sat down heavily.

"Oh my God! Are you okay? I'm so sorry! I just...I...ugh...um...uh," was the intelligent stream of syllables that spilled out of her mouth before she could stop them. "Oh gosh. I am so sorry! I should call 9-1-1. You look terrible."

"You damn right you should be sorry. God, woman. Look where you're driving. Jeez. You're lucky I got quick reflexes or you'd be doing time in jail for manslaughter," he grumbled viciously, his head still turned away to examine the extent of his injuries.

Karina flinched but a part of her sparked. She was expecting something like that from someone she almost ran over, and she knew she was at fault. But that didn't mean that she would take a verbal thrashing without retaliating. "Well, maybe you should look for cars with inattentive drivers before crossing the freakin' street! This is L.A. you know."

His head snapped up and he looked at her incredulously with swirling depths of pure black eyes and she got a good look at his face for the first time. A hint of recognition flashed within her but was quickly suppressed in favor of arguing. "You're crazy. Do you even hear what you're saying? God, I've never heard anything so frickin' dumb in my life! Just 'cause you live in L.A. don't mean you gotta drive like a damn lunatic." He threw his hands up in the air and mimicked her voice mockingly. "Oh yeah, I live in L.A. so that gives me the right to run over people and not give a damn about it. God, and people think I'm crazy."

She would have replied with something nasty if she hadn't noticed the way his face looked unnaturally pale in the fluorescent streetlights and the way a steady stream of blood flowed from the place on her car on which he sat to form a small puddle on the concrete sidewalk.

Either this guy has can't feel anything 'cause his nervous system has been damaged or he's just really, really dumb not to notice how much and how quickly he's losing blood. I'm kinda leaning toward the latter but I'll be in deep crap if it's the former...she thought.

"Oh, hey you know...I'd really love to finish our conversation, but you seem to be losing a lot of blood and loosing it quickly, so maybe you'd like to stop bleeding before we continue. It's kinda hard arguing with a dead guy," she said sarcastically.

The guy's reaction wasn't quite what she expected.

"Aww...I'm touched. You're worried," he replied with a growing smirk.

She blinked her eyes once. Then twice.

She expected him to be screaming for a hospital or passing out by now but he didn't give any indication that he would do either.

Finally, she answered, "No, actually. Sorry to disappoint but I just don't want you to stain my car with your blood."

He took in a sharp breath of air and the smirk faded. It seemed that her words had struck a nerve. With clenched teeth, he gritted out, "Glad to know that you know your priorities."

Considering he was almost run over by an SUV, Benji had been in a relatively good mood. He hated to admit it, but he was actually kind of having fun arguing with the human girl. He recognized her from a couple days ago as the girl from the cemetery but decided not to say anything just to see how long it would take for her to figure out he was the same guy or if she even remembered him at all.

It was refreshing to have human contact that didn't stutter and suddenly have somewhere to go or someone to see the moment they saw him. But then again, most times people had his dog ears to worry about, not to mention his claws and fangs.

Still, even in his human form, he was still a formidable looking feller. Or at least he liked to think so.

It was just easier to cope with being isolated when people shun you even when you look half-way normal. At least then he wouldn't have to blame his heritage or something he couldn't change like that.

But, the moment the girl said that she didn't want her car stained by his blood...it hurt. Although she had left out that one word, just her tone of voice was enough to remind him of his bloodline. His tainted blood.

She probably had no idea what she was implicating, but God...why did she have to say it like that?

Damn it. It must be all these dumb human emotions getting to me. I don't give a shit what she thinks about me. I don't even know the damn bitch. Why should I care?

"You're a bitch," he suddenly remarked out the blue.

Her mouth dropped open in surprise and her eyes narrowed indignantly. "Well, you're an ass. God, I said I should call 9-1-1, but no, you had to start an argument with me. It's not my fault you're dirtying everything with your blood."

And there it was again. Dirtying everything. His blood. His dirty blood.

He was tired of talking with her and being constantly reminded of his impure heritage. Yeah, he had had fun earlier but the girl was just pushing her luck, although there was no way she could have known it. "Whatever. I'm outta here."

He got off the hood of her car and tried to walk away, but she suddenly stopped him and pushed him back down. He scowled at her and was met by commanding eyes that held an uncanny resemblance of a mother rebuking her child.

"Oh, no you don't. You are going to stay right here until an ambulance comes and takes you to the hospital. I don't your want your life on my head."

"I ain't gonna die from these measly injuries. If I thought I was gonna be in any serious trouble, be assured that I wouldn't be sitting here right now, okay? Now leave me alone, you stupid little bitch."

"Will you stop calling me that?! Jeez. Where did you go to school? You obviously don't have a plethora of words to choose from your vocabulary bank. And I don't care how well you think you are. I'm not going to take any chances of getting sued or charged for manslaughter just because you were too stubborn to go to the hospital."

Benji growled, more than irritated by now, and bit out, "Well, sorry for being uneducated, Miss-Know-It-All! Dammit woman! Why won't you just leave me the hell alone? I don't want or need your money so I ain't gonna sue you and I don't need a damn hospital, got it? I'm fine."

Once again, he stood and tried to walk away, but surprisingly, the girl held him pressed firmly against the door of her car. I must be weaker than I thought if this scrawny little girl could push me back like this. Maybe going to the hospital isn't such a bad idea after all. Like hell I'll let her know that though.

"And I said that I don't give how well you think you are! You are NOT moving from this spot until you get medical treatment. And don't argue with me because you don't want to see me angry."

That surprised him a little bit. If this wasn't what she considered angry, he would hate to be around when she really got mad.

She fished a flame-cased Motorola flip-phone from her back pocket with one hand while the other remained firmly planted on his chest, holding him still against the car. In all actuality, it probably wouldn't have been too hard for him to get away, but something prevented him from doing so. And he did not think it was her hand.

Sighing in mock defeat, he sagged into a more comfortable standing position against the door and propped his elbows up on the window. He turned his head to the side, feigning disinterest in the girl, but kept his the corner of his eyes trained on her.

Like the time he saw her before, the girl kept most of her skin covered wearing a loose-fitting light blue t-shirt without any extraneous writings on it, indigo sweat bands on each arm with the initials K.M. stitched into them with gold thread, dark jeans with a holes ripped at the knees, and gray converses marked with black words he couldn't quite make out in the dark with his lesser human vision. Her long hair fluttered about wildly when a small gust of wind breathed life into the stifling L.A. streets but she could do nothing to restrain it since both hands were busy. The addition of her recalcitrant tresses added a somewhat exotic quality to her presence. She was restrained and simple but also mysterious and unpredictable; a deadly combination.

Benji was brought back to attention by the soft snapping shut of her phone. "Kay, well the cops are on their way as well as an ambulance so sit tight for a while."

He rolled his eyes dramatically but only responded with a rude, "Keh."

Karina couldn't understand why the stranger was being so rude. She was just trying to help and here he was, bent on making everything harder than it needed to be. Yeah, she had almost run the guy over but that didn't give him the right to rail her all the time.

Well, okay, maybe a little. But just a little.

But now that they were waiting for the ambulance and sitting in silence, she couldn't help but notice how incredibly perfect the muscles in his arms were sculpted and couldn't help but wonder if the muscles beneath his black sleeveless shirt were equally impressive. She had only looked to down to his arms because it was getting harder and harder to fight the eminent blush that rushed to her face just by looking at his impossibly stunning face but now she was starting to question that decision. Yeah, those gorgeous dark violet eyes were hard to look into without swooning but it wasn't easy trying to keep a clear head with his body in her vision either.

It didn't help that he had just removed his shirt to see just how bad he was bleeding, which wasn't as bad as Karina had first assumed. It was all Karina could do to prevent herself from gasping aloud at the flawless body that stood before her. It was night, but the streetlights cast more than enough light for her to see every detail.

Well, I wanted to know if the muscles under his shirt were as impressive as his arms...And man, are they!

Karina wasn't normally one that was easily taken in by good looks, especially good looks that came with an ass of an attitude--speaking of asses...ah wait! stop!--but this guy wasn't just good looks. He was more than that. As a matter of fact, she wasn't quite sure what he was.

No human can look that good. It's gotta be illegal or something, right? Ah, stop it girl. Pull yourself together. He's hot, but that doesn't mean you gotta go fawning all over him like some teenage school girl going through puberty! Right, control. Breathe in. Breathe out. Okay, I'm good.

She looked up to his indifferent eyes and nearly panicked. Not good, not good! Code good-looking-guy-save-me-from-embarrassing-myself-more-than-I-already-have! Oh, what the heck is wrong with me? I don't normally act this way.

A small voice in the back of her head reminded her that she didn't normally see people like him.

Yeah, jerks like him. Hey...

She suddenly realized that as long as she kept reminding herself that he was the biggest jerk on the face of the planet, it was easier to cope with the fact that he was also the most gorgeous creature in human existence. Not a lot, but a little.

"Hey!" His voice brought her out of her little daze and forced her to look into his eyes. Those beautiful, beautiful eyes.

Why do you torment me like this? she silently cried.

However, out loud, she kept her voice steady and, harsher than she meant to sound, snapped, "What?"

He held his hands up in surrender, giving her a full look at how his muscles worked, and replied, "Jeez, chill out. I was just gonna ask you what your name is. Don't gotta get all snappy on me."

She raised a questioning brow at him. "You're actually being half-way nice? I don't see any asteroids coming and if I'm not mistaken, we're not at war at anyone that would blow us all to smithereens with nuclear warfare."

"Dude, that's it. I give. I try being the nice guy and suddenly it's the end of the world.

Karina suddenly laughed aloud, relaxed now. It was so much easier to talk to the guy when they were trading insults. "I'm sorry. It was just too tempting. And my name is Karina Makoto by the way. And you are?"

He smirked as if it was beneath him to give his name to her but he would do it from the kindness of his heart.

Arrogant little bastard...

"Benji Toshiro."

Toshiro. That name rung a bell but Karina wasn't sure from what. She looked at Benji quizzically but he just kept that stupid smirk planted on his pretty face.

Oh shit! It can't be that Toshiro. He is about the right age, though...If he's who I think he is, he's got reason to be arrogant. Oh crap, what did I get myself into?

Gulping visibly, she gave a nervous laugh before asking, "Um...you're not related to the multi-billionaire and the guy that pretty much owns California, Inuyasha Toshiro by any chance, are you?"

A/N: Dunh, dunh, dunh. Oh no, whatever will happen next? I want my mommy...

Okay, I'm officially freaking myself out as well now. Gosh, I really gotta learn when to shut up and quit being melodramatic.