Los Suenos by Essa-§teph™

Welcome To Los Suenos, A City Built On Dreams

Not my first time writing a fan-fiction, I just haven't been active in over a year and forgot the password to myold account on here.

As for the usual: Flames will be used to stoke the fire, praise is welcome as well, and suggestions may be taken into account.

Anybody with expectations to this story will be hung. Anybody who bugs me about updates or expects them regularly will be shot as I go to school, have a social like and work a part-time job. Those of you who just take it as it comes and puts up with the random posting of chapters will have my gratitude, maybe more.

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The city lights were burning in the sky like a million torches if one were to look upon Los Suenos from the outside. The city was innocently settled in the cradle of a valley, like a well kept secret. Los Suenos had a mysterious charm about it, much like a Venus Flytrap. Intriguing from what you've heard about it, and surprising once you decide to land yourself inside of it. You get sucked into what goes on or you simply escape if time is on your side.

Kagome Higurashi lazily steered her car down the eastside valley slope that propagated the view of the metropolis ahead of her. She has been driving almost all day with her belongings packed in he car and was happy to see that her destination was in view. A couple of weeks prior Kagome had received a letter from her older brother, Souta, telling her of all that the city had to offer and how his life had been taking a massive turn for the better ever since he has moved to Los Suenos. This appealed to Kagome due to the fact that making minimum wage could hardly pay the bills as well as rent and because of the fact that she had not seen her only sibling in years. Both her and Souta had decided that her living alone so far away was not a good idea and that it would make it easier on both of them if she came to live with him.

Every minute she drove closer to the city, it had seemed to grow and her shrinking until she finally passed a sign that read, "Welcome to Los Suenos, A City Built On Dreams". It was then, she decided, to pull out the street directions that Souta had given her over the phone. Riding past regal looking buildings that turned into rundown neighborhoods on the winding roads, the directions had been starting to appear in a foreign language and sighed in frustration. Souta had never been much of a navigator. He could know where he was going, but he couldn't remember street names to save his life. Losing faith quickly in her brother's directions, Kagome decided to pull over to a convenient store and ask for directions.

Stepping out onto the well-worn asphalt, a warm spring breeze slightly blew through. Kagome wasn't the tallest of women, but was always praised for her sleek raven locks and captivating crystal-blue eyes. Kagome entered the store in a sluggish manner with fatigue on her shoulders. Traveling was fun and all, but being on the road for so long took a lot out of a person.

The man at the counter appeared friendly and greeted her with a confident, "Howdy, what can I do for you tonight?"

The man had light brown hair and dark chocolate eyes with an athletic body. He stood about average height for a man. Quite attractive.

She smiled sweetly back as she approached the counter and answered, "Pretty good. I was wondering if you could give me some directions?"

"Sure thing. Where is it you need to go?"

Kagome looked at the paper and read off the name, "Suroeste Avenue".

"That's not too far from here. All you need to do is take a left exiting the parking lot. You'll be going for a while until you hit 57th Avenue. You'll want to take another left, and after about four blocks it'll be on your right. If you pass Sunset Boulevard then you've gone to far."

"Alright, thank you sir.", She responded politely.

"I take it you're from out of town? The name is Hojo by the way. I live over on Suroeste myself."

"Yeah, I'm from out of town, I'm going to live with my older brother. He can't give directions worth a damn. Looks like we'll be running into each other from time to time then." She answered.

Hojo wrote down something on a piece of paper and handed it to Kagome.

"Here's my number and address if you need help with anything. My partner Jakotsu and I will be happy to help you out."

"Okay, sounds good. Guess I'll be seeing you around then." She said graciously as she turned to exit the building.

After exchanging goodbyes, Kagome got back into her car.

'Of course, the cute and friendly ones are always gay.' She thought in her head, and then laughed at herself.

Just as Kagome had turned her key on to start her car, she felt her car jostle from behind along with a loud CRUNCH! that followed. Whipping around, she saw a red corvette, driven by who appeared to be a silver-haired man, starting to speed away.

She heard a brief, "Watch where the hell you're parking!" followed by the screech of tires as the corvette sped off.

Kagome let out a growl in frustration as she got out of the car to assess the damage. Walking around to the back end of her car, she saw bits of plastic on the ground that had belonged to her rear-view light and a dent that extended into her trunk hatch.

"Jerk. Could be worse I guess." She mumbled to herself as she walked back to the front and slipped back into the car.

Once again she turned the key in the ignition and the engine purred as she backed out of the parking lot, and went forth onto the road. What a wonderful way to begin a new life... make a new friend, then have some pompous jerk. Kagome shook it off and decided to worry about it later. After all, shit happens and it could have been worse.

Making her way down the roads, taking the directions that her new friend had given her, she had finally come across her destination, Suroeste Avenue. Kagome looked down at the end of the directions for the address. It read, '221 Suroeste Avenue, Apartment 4'. The only part of the directions that she trusted.

She carefully scanned the house numbers in the dark to her left, as the odd numbered places were to her left, and spotted a dreary apartment complex. She turned into the parking lot and searched for apartment 4. It did not take all too long since it was in the lower numbers and Souta's old car that she barely recognized was parked outside. She pulled up next to his car and switched the car off.

'So this is home', she thought to herself as she stepped out of the car and locked it.

Apartment 4 was located up a flight of stairs above apartment 3. Kagome tiredly walked up the steps and rang the door bell once she made it to the door only to find that it did not work. She then knocked on the door a few times, then heard some footsteps approach the doorway from within.

The door opened to reveal not Souta, but a tall man, almost un-human like, with piercing blue eyes staring down at her.

Kagome's cheeks blushed a bit, afraid that Souta had even given the wrong address, and asked in a shy voice, "Does Souta live here?"

The man and responded with a shout into the apartment, "Souta, some woman is here for you."

Kagome let out a little breath of relief, as this must have been one of Souta's friends. As she saw her brother approach the doorway, the tall man had loudly whispered to Souta, "Damn, why do all the good looking ones come for you?"

"Kouga, this is my younger sister Kagome. I told you I'd be expecting her." Souta said to the man he had revealed as Kouga.

Souta then turned and embraced his sister. They had not seen each other in years ever since Souta had gotten kicked out of the Higurashi household as a teenager. Kagome held him like they'd been long-lost siblings all of their lives. After separating, Souta put his arm around her shoulder and led her into the apartment.

"It's been so long... you've really grown up a lot!" Souta said excitedly.

"I can say the same about you." She responded.

Kagome immediately went over and plopped down onto the worn-in sofa and threw her keys on an old coffee table like she was already at home.

The apartment was a bit messy and rough around the edges, but nothing too bad. It was better than what Kagome had been living in the last year.

"Not talkative tonight, are you?" Souta joked around.

"No, I'm just tired. Been on the road all day. You know how it is."

He let out a small laugh.

"Guess so. Feel free to pass out, we'll move all of your stuff into the spare bedroom tonight." He said, motioning over toward Kouga.

"Thanks." She yawned appreciatively.

At that, Souta grabbed her keys and motioned for Kouga to follow him outside.

Once they were down in the parking lot, Kouga had spilled his mind out to Souta.

"Holy crap! You didn't tell me your sister was such a looker! I might have to make my move before anybody else before she's taken!"

Souta laughed at his friend's comments, but then got serious.

"Kouga, I love you, you're my best friend, but try not to get involved with her. I don't want her to get sucked into our world. I'd rather she live a different life."

"Tch', alright." Kouga responded.

Souta know his friend all too well. Kouga would heed his words, but if Kagome were to show interest then it would all go out the window. Kouga was not like most people. He was loyal, but dominant and territorial, so Souta would have to keep an eye on things.

It didn't take too many trips to get all of Kagome's things up into the apartment, and it took even less time before she was passed out on the old couch.

Kouga had gone home to his own place, and Souta was up watching Kagome sleeping for a while, amazed at how time had snuck up on them both. It seemed like just yesterday that she had been that ten-year-old brat that he remembered fighting with all of the time. Souta couldn't help but laugh at the memories from their childhood. In particular wsa the time he had set her hair on fire when she was asleep, just to see if she'd wake up. Not any noticable damage was done to her hair, but boy was Kagome mad at him for the longest time.

Souta brought out a blanket and laid it out over Kagome's resting body. It felt good to have her here with him. Bringing his hand up to his mouth and yawning, he realized it was a little late for going to bed since he had to be somewhere early in the morning. With that, Souta headed off to his bedroom and was crashed for the night.

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I know there are a few errors, but I forgot where they were so if somebody could please tell me where they are I'd be happy to fix them : ] I was tired when I wrote this, lol.

Well, let me know how I'm doing so far!

3 Essa-Steph