Sango Ikeda raced down the halls of the building frantically. She was late; she was really, really late.

She turned the corner just in time to see the elevator door closing. "Stop!" She cried and with the last of her strength, sprinted into the old elevator.

Her chest panting and heaving, she leaned against the wall gasping for air. Slowly, she slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor of the elevator. A moment later she realized just where she was, and jumped right back up.

Dusting off her skirt, she heaved a sigh and stood up, choosing to lean against the wall of the elevator again. Her breathing slowed down until it was regulated and normal once again, as it had been before her frantic running.

She shuffled back and forth on her feet anxious to get to the bottom floor. She'd come to the old hospital to visit her mom, who was sick with some unknown disease. The reason she was in such an old building was because they couldn't afford anything better, and to Sango, it totally sucked.

She hated visiting her mom. It wasn't that she hated her mom; on the contrary, she loved her mother. What she hated was seeing her mother in so much pain. Sango remembered the day the doctor had diagnosed her mother with Cancer, it was one of the most horrible memories of her life. But now was not the time to think of such things.

She cringed in disgust when she realized how dusty and grimy the mirror she was leaning on was, and carefully stood up as far away from any of the walls as she could be. The floor was covered in dirt, and if she could, she would have hovered just to get away from this unclean place. More than anything, she hated this hospital.

It wasn't their families fault. But when her mother had been diagnosed with Cancer, it had been a huge blow to everyone. Sango's family wasn't rich, but they weren't dirt poor either. They were somewhere between debt and middle class living. And here in America, hospital bills for living in and chemotherapy were much too expensive.

This hospital had been the family's only option, and even then Sango and her brother Kohaku were still forced to take on jobs to support the bills for their mother's stay here. During the week, from three until nine, Sango worked in a dusty, old, used bookstore. The work was boring, but the pay was pretty decent, and Sango was allowed to read the books while she waited for customers. The store was fairly quiet, but it seemed to make enough of an income to stay in business. Sango was sure to be on her toes when customers came in and she'd seen some of the most unlikely customers leave, trying to sneak books out in places books shouldn't and couldn't be hidden. It made Sango laugh at how obvious these people could be sometimes.

Sango's other job was at a fast food restaurant on the weekends from 9-5. It made you wonder, with so much time used for jobs, where was the time for homework, let alone things like friends and boyfriends.

But still Sango somehow managed to work her jobs during the week, finish her homework, get good grades, AND even squeeze in time for outings with her friends and dates.

Although… Sango hadn't been on a date in a while. No one wanted to ask out a girl like her. She wore all black all the time and was really skinny from the many times she'd skipped meals. It was always easier, she'd say, not bothering to buy food for herself. Kohaku wasn't nearly as old as her and he needed the food more than she did, and along with taking care of her cat Kirara and her mother's hospital bills, there was no real time for eating, not to mention the cost of food for herself!

Not only that, but Sango never made time for meals. Breaks and lunches were used to finish assignments and papers that she didn't have any other time to work on, not with her jobs.

While Sango had her work, Kohaku had his own. Each and every morning, Kohaku would wake up at the crack of dawn. He was quiet as he possibly could be, what with Sango staying up until midnight or later just to finish her homework, because of her late working hours. Sometimes he would wake her up, no matter how quiet he was, and other times Sango would be just so tired, nothing could wake her up, not even the alarm. On those days, Kohaku would have to come in and bounce around on her bed to try to wake her.

Kohaku may have been a growing boy, but he wasn't blind. He noticed that Sango almost never ate, and made sure to save at least a third of whatever he'd had for dinner. He'd sit at the table doing his homework, and when his sister came in, he'd keep one eye glued to her to make sure she ate the entire contents of the plate.

Baggy T-Shirts and long black skirts became a favorite clothing style to wear. Black eye-shadow was inexpensive and so she bought some and made sure to apply it as lightly as possible. She had to make sure she used as little as possible, seeing as she didn't have a lot of money to spend on accessories like that. Sometimes, she'd splurge on a tube of black lipstick, but those times were far and few between, and even further now then they'd been before.

Right now, Sango was on her way to her job from three till nine. School ran from eight till two day in and day out, and each day from two till three, Sango could always be found at the hospital by her mother's bedside. She'd stayed too long this time without realizing it and she was late for work.

All of a sudden, Sango looked at her watch. The digital numbers looked back at her proclaiming it was exactly 3:10. That couldn't be right… She thought. The numbers had read 3:05 when she had been rushing to get in the elevator.
Sango raised her gaze from her black leather like boots she'd bought from a used clothing store, and looked around the elevator for a second look. There was a man sitting on the floor in the corner.

"Is something wrong?" He asked after a moment, not very fond of her gaze protruding him. It felt like he was being watched by a dozen pairs of eyes.

"No, it's just I got on the elevator five minutes ago and…" Sango trailed off as she saw his gaze slide from her face to the floor. That couldn't be good, was the first thing that came to mind when she noticed his reaction.

"Has this happened before?" She finally spoke aloud; figuring talking would ease the silence.

"No. I know the elevator is old, but it's always been old and reliable." The man heaved a sigh and sunk down on the floor.

Sango sat on the floor on the opposite side of the elevator. The fact hadn't changed that it was still old and grimy, but they were stuck after all. At least the lights were on, but the elevator was so old, it didn't have any air conditioning, and it was starting to get pretty warm in there. Warm for mid-September, but, it was still an enclosed space and that guaranteed it'd be a lot warmer than it would be outdoors.

"Is something wrong?" The man asked, when she didn't respond to him.

"It's just the fact that we're stuck in this elevator until someone realizes we're here… And, on top of that, I'm late for my job, and my boss won't know! I'm going to lose one of my jobs…" Sango felt even more miserable saying this out loud then just thinking it.

Silence fell and she began to draw patterns with her fingertip on the dirt caked floor.

Finally the man spoke again. "What's your name?"

Sango paused halfway through writing the second letter of her name in kanji. She kept her back to him and lowered her voice just enough so that he could hear. "It's a bit rude to ask for someone's name if you're not going to state your own."

There was a moment of awkward silence, and Sango chose this opportune moment to run her hand over the patterns and kanji she'd written in the dirt, rubbing them out. "I'm Miroku. Sato, Miroku." He said.

"I'm Sango Ikeda." She said, turning to face him.

The silence was almost stifling and Sango turned to face this 'Miroku' pulling her knees up to her chest. She picked at a stray thread on her long black skirt and before she knew it, the tears were coming.

It wasn't bad enough that she had to work two jobs to support her mother, her brother and her got less than they deserved, she worked as hard as she could at her homework, she was starving all the time.

All she'd ever wanted to do was be like every other teenage girl, complaining about her homework to all her friends. Holding the cordless phone up to her ear and gossiping into it while she painted her toenails pink. Going to the Spring Fling or some other dance of the sort with this really cute guy who'd asked her out. Being able to be the dumper instead of the dumpee.

But no, Sango was stuck like this. In this elevator with a guy she didn't even know. Right then and there, if she was going to wish for anything in her life, no matter how selfish it was, she wanted to be normal.

She didn't want to have to worry about her mother in the hospital of Cancer, or her brother not getting enough to eat, or her father being an alcoholic.

But, that wish was selfish. The most important thing she could and would wish for was her mother to get better. But people with Cancer didn't just get better. Cancer was a death wish and whether she liked it or not, her mother would die of it before she even graduated high school, probably.

That wasn't what she wanted though. It was selfish for her number one wish to not be for her mother to get better and instead be that she could have a normal life.

The tears were stronger than ever now and her sobs were louder than before. Her shoulders were shaking and her nose was dripping, but she didn't care. It didn't matter anyways.

Miroku looked at her from across the room. He couldn't just sit there and watch her cry, it wasn't something he could do. In fact, it would be crueler to just ignore her then ask her what was wrong. Even if Sango would have just preferred he ignore her.

"Ms. Ikeda?" He asked cautiously, moving a bit closer towards her.

Sango lifted her head and pulled her collar up to wipe the tears and runny make up off her face, revealing a bit of her flat stomach. Miroku gulped, she was really pretty. "Yeah?" She asked quietly, looking right at him. Her eyes showed unshed tears, and she looked even sadder than she did when she was crying.

"Is something wrong?" He asked, not sure of what else to say.

"No, I'm crying because I'm happy." She said dryly.

"Do you… Want to talk about it?" He asked. Man, this wasn't him! Normally, he'd have her wrapped around his little finger with all of his charms. But this girl was different. For the first time in a long time, Miroku Sato did not know what to say to a girl.

"I told you I was late for my job, didn't I? What else do you want, my life story? Are you a psychiatrist or something?" She practically attacked him with questions.

Not sure of what else to do, Miroku pulled out his cell phone. "If you know the number of your employer, you can call him and tell him why you can't make it."

Sango's face brightened a bit at the fact that he was offering to help her and reached out her hand to accept the offer of his cell phone. She stared at the screen for a moment, assuming the sign in the corner was telling her there was a signal and began to punch in the number.

When she got no ringing sounds, she turned to face him. "You… Press send to send the call after you put the number in." He said, trying to be as nice as possible. The girl probably didn't own a cell phone and from the looks of it, had never even used one before!

"Oh…" Sango said, her face reddening a bit, she pushed the send button in with her index finger and held the tiny phone up to her ear. Each ring sounded like a death wish but she waited until the owner picked up the phone.

"Misashi's Used Books, how may I help you?" The gruff voice of her employer rang in her ears.

"Mr. Misashi?" Sango asked a bit nervously, biting her lip.

"Is that you, Sango? Where on earth are you, you're more than a half hour late!" The man snapped. He was normally nice, but Sango knew how he could be when she was late.

"I'm sorry Mr. Misashi. I'm stuck in the elevator at this old hospital. I came to visit my mother like I do everyday and it got stuck today. I'm terribly sorry, I'll be there as soon as I can get ou-"

Miroku didn't mean to eavesdrop really he didn't. But when she was paused he was surprised to.

Their surprise didn't last long though, when they finally realized what had happened.

"Sango?" Her employer called her name through the phone, worried when the girl had stopped mid-sentence.

The hospital had gone dead quiet and the lights had been turned off. It was closing time and the end of visiting hours. Aside from the nurses working on their respective floors, everyone had gone home. The lighting had been dimmed to what was just necessary. Not only were they stuck, they were trapped too.

"Mr. Misashi, I'll see you tomorrow alright?"

"Sango… Sango, what's wrong?" The man asked, worry apparent in his tone.

"I'll explain it tomorrow, the batteries are almost dead. Good-"

And that's when the phone died.

Inu Kaiba: Is this worth continuing? Because if it is, I will. It'll only be about five parts though, each one around 2000 words or so. I just want to try to make this story 10,000 words or so. And I'm sorry for slacking off on my work, inspiration and my own approval of my work has been really dead lately. I hope to try to get back on track, but there's an unlikely chance I'll ever really get back on track…. At least I'm trying?