Standard disclaimers apply.

Author's Note: This one-shot is inspired by Inuyasha's little "speech" in The Final Act. :) This is my first Inuyasha fanfic by the way, I hope you like it!

THE ONE LEFT BEHIND

"Kagome taught me how to smile...how to believe in other people!"

It was a wintry December eve the first time he saw her.

She was wearing a pale blue coat and a bright pink scarf that seemed to overwhelm her tiny frame. He smirked as a sudden gust of wind flew by, shrouding her face in a tangled mess of curls, her chubby little fingers valiantly trying to keep her hair in place. His smirk turned into a full-blown snicker as he saw her fall butt-first into the ground, apparently losing her balance as she tried to evade a speeding passerby, her vision obscured by the yet to be tamed curls. She must have heard him snicker, for the moment she regained her bearings she glared at him and crossed her arms with an indignant huff, a challenge clearly written on her features.

He raised a brow at the girl who now stared at him with an annoyed expression on her face. It was kind of cute, really, seeing how riled up she was, her brown eyes filled with such intensity that made his ten year old heart beat faster than it normally did. They both remained rooted on the spot, staring at each other for what seemed like eternity before he finally resolved to approach her. He really didn't know what made him do so (since he most certainly was not apologizing for his behavior, stubborn as he was), but his feet seemed to move on their own accord. Before he could reach the girl, however, his arm was tugged none too lightly by a frowning and clearly annoyed young man.

"You brat, didn't I tell you to stay put while I bought some pizza? If I remember correctly, you were the one who kept on whining about how hungry and tired you were from walking!" The young man then lowered his eyes to meet that of the boy and without warning, pulled him into a headlock. "Didn't you know that your mom would most definitely castrate me if anything happens to you? For a moment there I thought I would be unable to father children for the rest of my life!"

"What the—T-Takeshi! Can't. Breathe!"

After a few more seconds of trapping the boy in his death grip, the young man finally let go. "Where'd the high and mighty kendo master go, eh? I can't believe I actually got you trapped, kiddo. You must be losing your touch!"

The young man snickered as he ruffled the boy's messy, dark hair. "Well, now that I've gotten my revenge, I think it's about time for us to get back. The pizzas are still with that cute brown-haired girl by the counter, what was her name again? Shigeru or something? Yeah, Shigeru. I saw her checking me out a while ago! I swear, that babe's got the hots for me!"

The boy merely rolled his eyes at his womanizing cousin's behavior. The young man was turning twenty in a couple of days yet he still acted like an immature, lovesick fool every time a girl gives him as much as a glance. "No wonder he hasn't gotten himself a girlfriend yet…"

Keeping his thoughts to himself lest he suffer another headlock from his easily provoked cousin, the boy momentarily glanced at the direction of the young, brown-eyed girl who earlier caught his interest.

She was gone.

※

"Kagome was the reason I could make friends and rely on those friends!"

As he was quietly taking in his surroundings one fine spring morn, a speeding figure bumped into him, almost toppling him over if not for his quick kendo-trained reflexes. Instinctively, he muttered a string of curses that would make even the most profane of persons blush. The mass of dark hair buried snuggly into his chest suddenly looked up to reveal wide brown eyes, reddened cheeks and an unmistakably familiar, embarrassed face.

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to! It's all my fault, I'm sorry! I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going! Gahhh…this is embarrassing!"

He tilted his head sideways and gave the flustered girl an amused glance. As he was sizing her up, a wave of recognition suddenly hit him. Five years have passed since the last time he saw that girl, yet the image of her, bundled up in that cute little coat and scarf, was still vividly etched in his mind. It was ridiculous, really, to have been so fascinated with a mere child who did nothing but trip and glare and disappear on him, never to be seen again.

Or so he thought.

The surprise must have been apparent in his face when the girl, finally noticing his stare, regarded him questioningly.

"Umm, is something the matter? You look perfectly fine to me, but…well, I couldn't have bumped into you that hard…did I?"

The perplexed expression on her face and the worried manner by which she questioned him made him chuckle despite himself. His strange reaction, however, made the girl mumble a few annoyed words under her breath. Seeing her exasperation increase by the minute only made him chuckle harder, and just when she was about to stomp away, he grabbed her arm with a panicked "Wait!" to prevent her from going any further.

A few apologies and introductions later, he learned that her name was Kagome and that she was celebrating her fifteenth birthday in two days. It was strange how easily the conversation flowed between them, and how comfortable he was around her, seeing how rare it was for him to converse with strangers, much more a girl his age. "Takeshi's ways must be rubbing off on me…"

In the course of their conversation, he never once mentioned how the image of her in the blue coat and pink scarf remained in his memory after all these years. The bizarre connection he felt with the girl was unnerving to say the least, and he would rather not bring it up, considering how creepy it might sound.

After a few minutes of chatting and standing awkwardly in the middle of the street, they bid each other goodbye; she, on her way to meet her friends at a quaint little café a couple of blocks away, and he, on his way home. He suddenly stopped in his tracks as the thought of home jolted him back to reality and reminded him, quite bitterly, of the fact that he was to fly back home to Fukuoka tomorrow, back to where no one gave a damn about him, especially after the death of his parents. At least in Tokyo he had Takeshi.

His thoughts drifted back to Kagome, her wide brown eyes and cheerful smile.

He would never even get to greet her on her birthday.

※

"To shed tears for others, to understand true strength and kindness...They're all the things I learned from Kagome!

Whenever he had the chance, he visited Tokyo to see Takeshi, and despite his vehement denial to himself, Kagome as well. It was stupid how hung up he was on the girl, considering the fact that he knew nothing about her except her name, her birthday and how easily her cheeks redden when mad. During his several visits, however, not once did he ever come across her again. And as much as he hated to admit it, he doubted if he ever will.

After finishing high school, he left Fukuoka behind to start anew in Tokyo. He got accepted into Todai, much to the excitement of Takeshi who is now happily married to a soft-spoken girl named Akane.

It was purely by accident when one summer afternoon, he overheard a couple of girls talk about their plans after graduation—which, according to his sharp senses, happened two days before—and how they intend to drop by the Higurashi shrine in a while to visit their friend Kagome. At the mention of the name, his eyes suddenly widened in recognition. There were probably a thousand Kagomes in Tokyo, but his instincts told him that the particular Higurashi girl was his Kagome. It was strange, really, how possessive he felt of the girl he's only ever met twice his life. Yet despite the strangeness of his feelings, he just knew that they felt right.

With that thought in mind, and with a renewed sense of hope at the fact that he might have just found that stupid girl after all these years, he resolved to drop by the shrine tomorrow. She might not have remembered him, and she might not really want to associate with him (not a lot of people do, actually), but that can be remedied.

It had to be.

※

"Kagome was born to meet me!"

It has been two years since the day he first visited the Higurashi shrine, shoes neatly polished, shirt properly tucked, with a bouquet of roses in one hand and his heart in another. He never really expected anything to come out of his visit. The night before, he realized just how foolish he was for deciding to show up at Kagome's doorstep years later, presuming she'd entertain his advances or even remember him, at the very least.

But he did it anyway.

He still remembered, quite clearly, the tear-stained face of Mrs. Higurashi the moment she saw him.

"Kagome just left", she said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "You missed her by a couple of minutes."

He really didn't understand what the older woman meant when she said that, why she looked so broken when she did, or why, after properly taking a look at him, her eyes widened in shock. He remembered, though, how he insisted to wait for her daughter despite her dissuasion, how the sky darkened into a starless night without him noticing and how she looked at him with pity and told him that Kagome was never coming back.

He never asked for any explanations for what happened; after all, they owed him none. After that day, he visited the shrine regularly to offer prayers, although both he and Kagome's mother knew that such was not really his true intention. There were times when he felt that Mrs. Higurashi was on the verge of telling him everything, of filling in the missing piece of the puzzle that is Kagome, but she would always hold back the last minute. Sometimes, too, he wonders why the whole family feels so attached to him, so welcoming and so trusting despite the fact that he'd never really known any of them personally before the day he came barging into the shrine.

Lost as he was in his own thoughts, he never noticed the arrival of Souta until the younger Higurashi plopped down beside him. He could feel the teenage boy's eyes on him before the latter finally decided to break the silence.

"Why do you still visit the shrine? She's never coming back."

Deep down, he knows she never will. They never really told him why, but he thinks it's better for him not to know anyway. Yet he still hopes. There's nothing wrong with hoping, is there?

"Do you love her?"

He doesn't. He never did. Because she never really gave him the chance to.

"For what it's worth, I really think she could've liked you, loved you, even. I guess fate just had other plans."

He never once doubted that she could have. Not because he's the most good-looking or most gentlemanly guy there is - in fact, Takeshi thinks he's too obnoxious for his own good - but because the moment their eyes met that December eve, he just knew that they were connected somehow. He knew, the moment she introduced herself years later, that she felt it, too. And he knew, had things gone differently, that she could have been an important part of his life as much as he could have been hers.

Well leave it to fate to be so fucking cruel.

"But she's happy now. At least I hope she is, or else I'll hunt Inuyasha down. And I'm sure you would, too, ne Ichiro?"

She is. He just knows she is. He can feel it. And if that Inuyasha person (he cringed at the ugly name the first time he heard it), that lucky bastard, dares hurt her in any way, he really will hunt him down, time and space be damned.

"Keh, whatever."

He shifts his intense, amber-brown gaze towards Souta, and for a moment, the teenage boy sees the image of one silver-haired hanyou clad in red, an arrogant smirk on his face.

"...And I was born for her!"

Author's Note: I'm not really sure if I successfully conveyed the idea here, since one of my friends who read the story didn't quite get it at first. :| Thoughts? :)