Stepping Off the Street by Hanoi

What's the worst that could happen?

Author's notes: Alright, this is my first Inuyasha fic so be nice!

Disclaimer: Inuyasha wa watashi no desu! Watashi no! watashi no! Okay, maybe not. Inuyasha is not mine! *Sniffles Pitifully*

Stepping Off the Street

Chapter One: What's the worst that could happen?

My whole life, I've never had anything the easy way. My mother used to joke that when I was born, the gods forgot to give me any sense of coordination. It was very hard to dispute when I was by far, one of the clumsiest people ever to have graced the planet. Surprisingly, I always excelled at archery. Still can't figure that one out. But despite my ongoing grudge with gravity, as my body sometimes refuses to acknowledge its existence, I made my way through high school, graduating top of my class and landed a great job in one of the world's leading scientific companies; Taisho Industries. But every now and then, my bad luck comes back to bite me in the ass; like today for instance. Not only did my alarm clock become senile, my shower refuse to grace me with hot water, and the increasing snag running up my panty-hose, but I was absurdly late. And would have to face the rants of my temperamental boss/best friend. Un-enthusiastically I might add. So as this day continues to spiral steadily down, I wonder...What else could go wrong?

Kagome Higurashi glanced down at her watch and swore mildly. 'How is it I'm always late?' she asked herself. She bit into the strawberry jelly doughnut she held in her hand as she waited for her crossing light to change. She sighed a long suffering sigh, her posture drooping slightly. 'Inuyasha is going to kill me'.

Sesshoumaru rubbed the bridge of his nose, attempting in vain to ward off the inevitable headache. "I need those reports on my desk by the time I get there...No, I don't care how you do it just do it Jaken." That said, he quickly snapped his phone shut and stuffed into the pocket of his pressed slacks. He turned to the young girl diligently following behind him, "Rin."

The girl quickly snapped her attention to the tall, stoic man standing before her and gave him a big toothy grin while falling in step behind him, "Yes Sesshoumaru-sama."

No sooner had Rin spoken the words when the tiny pink hat she had been wearing was caught by the wind and went innocently tumbling into the busy street, Rin blindly chasing after it into oncoming traffic.

As Kagome was walking along, she noticed a pink blob out of the corner of her eye. Curious, she turned to see what it was that caught her attention. Her eyes widened as she saw a little girl leap into the middle of the street to retrieve her fallen hat, a car speeding ahead unaware. Without thinking, Kagome bolted towards the child screaming, "LOOK OUT!"

Sesshoumaru turned, startled by the desperate cry. His eyes widened in horror as he watched helplessly as Rin stood in the middle of the street, a car rushing towards her. His body was paralyzed, his cell phone slipping from his unfeeling fingers. He watched as a young woman came dashing from across the road and flung herself towards Rin.

Kagome jumped towards the child, flinging her arms around the girl's body while shielding her from the impact. She closed her eyes waiting for it. She heard the car swerve desperately to the side as she hit the pavement with a pained OMPF. The wind left her lungs as the little girl's elbow jarred into her side, breaking a few ribs she was sure. She sat there for a minute, trying to regain her bearings as concerned people crowded around her and the child stirred within her arms.

Sesshoumaru snapped out of his daze as he say the young woman painfully hit the ground. He pushed people aside as he went to see Rin's condition. As he pushed aside the last insignificant person he stepped into the circle that surrounded the two girls. He released a breath he hadn't realized he had been holding as he saw Rin pop up as if nothing had happened, a slightly confused look on her face. He stepped up to Rin and squatted down to get a better look, his critical eye scanning for injuries. She had a few scrapes on her legs and arms but other than that, she was fine. Which was more than he could say for the woman still laying on the ground.

Kagome groaned as she tried to sit up, the blinding pain shooting through her side having other ideas. 'Instead of sitting there, why don't one of these people help me up?' She thought cynically to herself. To make matters worse, the man that had rushed to the child was starting to creep her out with the way he was just staring at her, his face blank. She had to admit, he was quite striking with his long silver hair and piercing golden eyes. Now that she thought about it, he bore an eerie resemblance to...

RING! RING! RING!

Kagome moaned again, reaching into her purse for her cell phone while mumbling, "Now how could this day get any worse?"

Sesshoumaru watched impassively as the woman stuck the cell phone to her ear. He eyed the woman from head to toe. She didn't seem too bad. He had, however, seen the way she gingerly pressed her hands to her side when she attempted to get up. His attention was brought back to her face as pieces of her conversation reached his ears.

"No, Inuyasha, I'm not trying to 'tick you off'. If you have to know, I had the sudden urge to fill out my childhood fantasies of being Wonder Woman...Yes it was joke you idiot!"

Sesshoumaru paid more attention after he realized she was talking to his idiot half-brother. His eyes twinkled with amusement at her obvious sarcasm and even more so when she called Inuyasha the idiot he was. He watched as she struggled more earnestly to get to her feet, biting down on her lip as the pain surged through her tiny body.

Rin quickly stepped to the nice lady's side to help her. If she knew uncle Inu then she had to be nice. She was also worried that the lady had hurt herself when they fell. The lady looked down at her as Rin circled her arms around her legs, smiling gratefully before returning to her conversation.

"It was just a little accident...No, I'm fine Inuyasha. I'll be there shortly." Kagome clicked her phone off before returning her attention to the little girl. She bent down and ran her hand along the girls little chubby cheek, wiping away a smudge of dirt. "Now sweetie, don't you know you're not supposed to walk into the middle of the street? It's very dangerous."

"Rin is sorry Miss. Rin promises to never do it again."

Rin looked up at Kagome with teary eyes, and Kagome smiled gently. This little girl was too cute! "Just so long as you promise." Kagome looked up from Rin as she saw two feet step up behind her. She straightened to fix the man before her with a disapproving stare. "I assume you are Rin's father," keeping the malice out of her voice she continued, "You should pay better attention to Rin. This could have ended a lot worse than it did." Giving the man one last icy stare, she smiled at Rin before continuing her walk to work.

Sesshoumaru watched her slightly limp away from the dispersing crowd with a contemplative look. He felt Rin tugging at his sleeve and looked down. "Rin liked her Sesshoumaru-sama. Will Rin get to see her again?"

Sesshoumaru looked back at Kagome's disappearing figure, "We shall see Rin."

'I have a feeling it will be sooner rather than later,' he silently continued to himself.

Kagome slouched against her chair, reaching into her purse for some Tylenol. She shook three into her hand and downed them all.

"Jeez, Kagome. Isn't a little early for pain killers?" Sango leaned against Kagome's desk, a faint smile on her lips.

Kagome gave her a blank look and lifted the edge of her blouse. As Sango gasped at the rapidly spreading bruise reaching across the length of the left side of her rib cage Kagome said, "Not when you have recently acquired a few broken ribs from madly dashing across 4th Street only to hurl yourself at a little girl about to get run over." She winced as her hand brushed over a particularly tender spot.

"Have you gone to the hospital?" Sango glanced worriedly at Kagome's side.

"What for? They'll tell me that they're broken, which I already know, give me some painkillers, which I already have, and tell me that's all they can do for me." Kagome gave a noncommittal shrug. "Besides, I think I hear Inuyasha bellowing for me." She grinned wickedly at Sango, alleviating her worries.

Sango returned the gesture, "Just take care of yourself Kags. It wouldn't do to have our star assistant out of commission, now would it?" She teased lightly.

Catching on to the game Kagome replied, "Oh heavens no! What would Inuyasha do without me?" She grasped her heart in fake astonishment as Inuyasha called out for her again. "Well, 'duty' calls. I'll see soon Sango." Kagome waved to her friend before heading off to her boss's office.

Sango waved her off as she turned to continue on with her own tasks. Kagome knocked on the door with the name "Inuyasha Taisho" engrained on a golden plate, as she distinctly heard the word 'HENTAI' shouted followed be a resounding slap. She chuckled as Miroku tried to sly his way out of his perversions. Kagome heard a muffled "Come in" as she opened the door and walked in.

Inuyasha had papers pilled around the room in various places, some leaning precariously while he was conversing on the phone with a disgruntled look on his face. Kagome sighed. Great. More work for her. Honestly, couldn't he do anything without someone holding his hand?

"No, that's not fair. He does his share of work, as lazy as he is." Kagome berated herself for her unjust insult to her boss and best friend.

She walked over to the his desk and leaned against the edge, waiting patiently for him to get off the phone with whomever was pissing him off so completely. She picked up his stapler, examining it meticulously while listening half heartedly to the conversation.

"I told you once before. The company is not for sale Naraku. And if you have a problem with it take it up with Sesshoumaru...No, I don't give a shit who the hell you know. You ain't getting your filthy hands on this company!" With an angry flourish, Inuyasha slammed the phone on its receiver. He huffed to himself for a minute before trusting himself to address Kagome in a civilized manner.

"You're late."

"Thank you captain obvious."

"Mind explaining why?"

"Ran into some traffic on 4th (literally). No big deal." She gave him an uninterested wave as she returned her attention to the gold plated stapler in her hands. Really, couldn't he find something else to waste his money on? Say, oh I don't know, a charity that would benefit mankind?

"Well, while you were gallivanting around, my father fired 120 employees to get ready for the merger with Takamura Inc. Meaning more work for me, meaning more work for you."

Kagome heaved another sigh. She shouldn't have even bothered getting up today. Reality be dammed. "Okay, well give it here and I'll get started. What is it now, by the way?" She rifled through a few papers on the top of the stack Inuyasha had just dumped on her lap.

"A few are issues down in lab 5. Something about needing new facilities to properly explore a new strain of hypoclorathaine. Oh, and pop wants you to skim over the merger proposal and tell him what you think. I don't know what else."

Kagome hefted the heavy burden in her arms, "Alright, I'll go get started then." She paused at the door, twisting to look at Inuyasha over her shoulder, "We still going to eat at Kasasoba?"

"Yeah, you know I can't live without my ramen." The grin tilting his lips was absolutely childish with glee. "By the way, we have a meeting at eleven."

Happy with his answer, she twisted the knob to his door expertly while staggering back to her desk. As she slapped the pile on her desk, she looked over what would be hours of linguistic bore. Goody.

So here it was, only...9:05 and all ready I have been frozen, bedraggled and nearly run over. And as I sat down at my now cramped desk, I wonder, "Why did I ask".

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