Long Rides by Oroyukae

Space Is Limited

Author's note; Okay, so I came up with this little piece a while back when I went to visit someone in another town many miles away. BUs rides can be so very long and beneficial to the creative process. Anyway, I wanted to share it and will post it as time allows because it is a finished work.

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Bored, that what she was; bored out of her ever loving mind. How long had she been on this cursed damned bus; two, no three whole days? Ugh! How she hated traveling like this, but her limited funds prevented her from taking any other method of transportation. Planes were so expensive and a train had unfortunately been above her budget as well; so, the only way that she had to get to her destination was by bus. Many long and painful hours had already been spent enduring screaming children that refused to be pacified by anything that their parental figure did to try to calm them, ill-mannered passengers who deemed it fitting to converse on their cell phones loud enough for every last person on the damned thing to know their business, and an oblivious driver who tended to hit every last imperfection in the cursed road that would cause her to be jostled this way and that. It was not the most pleasant of experiences to say the least.

If it weren't for her intense desire to see her friend with whom she had conducted a year long acquaintanceship, via the internet, the girl would have just opted to stay the hell home where she belonged. That or she would have accepted his offer to send her the money for a plane ticket...curse her insufferable pride. As far as she knew, she still had at least an entire day before she would reach her destination, and it made her cringe internally. Gods how she could not wait to get to their next scheduled stop to stretch her legs and maybe use a bathroom that wasn't a smelly cesspool. Speaking of which...great, now she had to pee.

Upon returning, the girl found that her seat had been confiscated by another passenger. Mentally she bitched and moaned about having to search out another one, certain that no such seat even existed since it appeared as though everyone was crammed in there like sardines. Of course, her soured mood could be attributed to the fact that she was just so very tired but that was irrelevant at this point in time. As she scanned the rows, the girl felt her mood darken more and more.

Finally, she spied a somewhat unoccupied seat at the very back of the bus; in that no one was sitting in said seat, but it was occupied. A passenger she had not noticed before sat with his legs stretched out, his head resting against the side of the bus as if he were napping, and a rather nice stetson pulled down over his eyes only accentuated that image. Even with his legs stretched out across the seat as they were, the girl got the impression that he was a very tall man due to his knees being bent upward. At first she hesitated, unsure if she really wanted to disturb the guy; something about him indicated that he was not one to particularly enjoy the company of others, but as the driver took his seat in preparation to pull out of the lot, it occurred to her that she really had no choice in the matter. Nearly falling as she made her way up the aisle, her apprehension only intensified when the man shifted, almost as if he could sense her coming toward him.

Um...e-excuse me...could you move your legs so I can sit down?”she asked politely, but somewhat loudly in order to compensate for the steady hum of the engine. Her own hands began to shake the exact second that a large hand reached up to slowly remove the hat from his face. Why, for the love of gods, did her heart deem it necessary to skip a few beats as it did? Perhaps it had something to do with those incredible deep amber eyes that had fallen upon her that were the cause? It felt like an eternity had passed while she waited for any sort of response from the guy, and the girl shifted her weight from one foot to the other in that seemingly endless wait.

The man stared at her as if she had spoken a foreign language and she felt her ire rise ever so slightly. Surely he had heard her; was it really necessary to try to make her repeat herself? The guy had to have realized that the very seat those legs were resting in was the very last damned one on the entire bus. “There's no other seat available, so I have to sit here.”

She felt kind of awkward as she watched the guy slowly lower his long, jean - clad legs from the seat, turning himself toward the front of the bus.

Thank you,” she replied but received no answer. “I hope that a few passengers get off at the next stop; I hate large crowds.” Again, he said nothing to her – merely placed his hat in his lap, leaned his head against the side of the bus once more and closed his eyes. The jerk.

It wasn't easy for her, sitting next to him- even though she had not a damned clue as to why that even was. This guy exuded such arrogance that it could choke her if it wanted to; everything about him positively screamed that he held a very high opinion of himself, while housing a very low opinion of the world around him. Still though, there was something about him that enthralled her, for her eyes seemed rather intent on venturing his way despite her efforts to stop them.

He was built, but not overly so; something that she could not help but notice due to his light blue button down shirt being wide open like it was, a form fitting wife beater of a significantly darker shade staring back at her from underneath. Flat abdominals had always held a certain fascination for her, and his absolutely mesmerized her whenever she dared glance at them. How grateful she was that he was not aware of the deep blush that stained her face. Speaking of faces...what she had seen of his was definitely pleasing; he had a refined visage that made her mentally sigh in ridiculous admiration like some stupid school girl. If ever any man could be 'pretty', this guy was definitely that man.

As it was, she could now understand just why he had deemed it appropriate to occupy two seats...the back seats were not all that accommodating to even one of her diminutive size. If someone as tiny as her could feel so cramped she could only imagine how someone of his size had to feel. It could not be helped though. The steel behemoth in which they rode, rumbled on down the long highway in its journey to their next destination where they could only hope and pray that someone would get off and free up another seat at least.

She paid not an ounce of attention to the movie the driver had started just before they resumed their ride, her mind had become curiously distracted by the sleeping man to her immediate left. His jeans were weathered, though not well worn by any means, and she dared to imagine that he was a man of manual means, in that he engaged in physical labor in which to make his way in the world. This assessment had come about simply because they had not engaged in conversation in which to determine if he was a man of average or above intelligence; it was quite presumptuous of her, but he had offered her no other means to draw any other conclusion. She could see it, him working with his body rather than his mind; his physique definitely seemed to substantiate her theory and, so she decided to just go with it.

She kind of liked the images of him toiling away, his masculine form working ever so hard as he earned his wages; maybe getting a bit overheated due to his activities as well. Perhaps he worked in heavy construction? That was pleasing, she had to admit. Oh, the mental pictures that popped into her head then...his shirtless body glistening in the mid-day sun, muscles rippling; those thoughts caused her to shift uncomfortably in her seat quite a few times, yes they did. Before she knew it, her head was resting against the headrest while she indulged in visions of him drinking ever so deeply from an ice cold bottle of water...then pouring it over his face and upper chest to cool his scorching flesh. Oh yes...this was more entertaining than some stupid movie that she didn't even know the title of.

Just how long she sat there, watching her mental picture show, she had no damned idea and she really did not care to either. She was not harming anyone doing what she was doing; her thoughts were her own and she was entitled to them. Besides, it wasn't wrong to appreciate beauty when she came across it...and damn if this guy wasn't all that and more. And so, when her mind had decided to allow her the honor of picturing the guy, his work done for the day, taking his dusty, dirty self home to shower...she had no objection whatsoever.

While she indulged in a little harmless fantasizing, the girl remained oblivious to how twilight had faded and darkness assumed it place outside that monstrous contraption that rolled along the asphalt. Also, the very body of which she dared to envision lathering up while hot steamy water rolled down his impressive physique inched closer to her tormented form – his eyes watching her with avid interest. The occasional flash of headlights illuminated his face to reveal a markedly devious smirk, but the girl did not see it; she was completely unaware that she, herself, was under watch. Only when his hard muscled arm crossed her slightly shaking frame and a massive hand rested upon the remaining spanse of seat next to her, did she even realize he was so close to her at all.

Suddenly, her eyes snapped open as she repressed the gasp that tried to escape her mouth. The intense heat from his bulky frame enveloped her, raising both her internal and external thermostat by a good twenty or so degrees. That was when she knew. This exquisite example of male beauty was youkai. It all made sense now; at least, to her it did any way, but that epiphany did very little to ease the sudden uprising of both apprehension and mild panic that came over her.

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INUYASHA © Rumiko Takahashi/Shogakukan • Yomiuri TV • Sunrise 2000
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