Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Curl ❯ Chapter 19

Author's Note:

This post is mostly cleaning up previous chapters. For future reference, or just for those who forgot that I mentioned this about a dozen chapters back, I do not post new chapters until I get reviews on the old ones.

I have to thank Amanda for her beta-reading of a whole mess of chapters for me, and for putting up with me. ^_^; I suppose I should thank my teachers as well… for if they're classes could keep my attention for the entire period, then I wouldn't have time to think up new chapters. Heh.

Things I'd like to know in reviews to come:

Did people like or dislike the recap of Sanosuke's and Aoshi's first experiences?

What do you people think of the ASCII? (Those would be the text based images that I slapped in for no real reason whatsoever, regardless of how I can rationalize it.) Should I just take them out or what? (It's not like they're hard to make, since I have a program that does it for me and all… but I was just curious to whether people actually cared if they're there or not.)

===

Back at the home-front, Sanosuke paced. He also cursed, swore, spat, kicked, punched, hit, broke… at or to various items of the apartment. It wasn't enough that he had to suffer, but that he had to do it alone. Worst of all, everything he was going through right now was totally self-inflicted.

Things were not supposed to go this way. They'd practically spent their whole fucking lives together, and now they're under one roof, and they can't even look each other in the face? … Well, okay, so the theory had yet to be tested since both were avoiding one another like the plague. Unfortunately, Sano's chosen method of medicating the situation had only fanned the flames.

'She actually left a number…' he rolled his eyes as he count the crumpled piece of paper in the corner of his eye. That shouldn't have happened. He shouldn't have done it. It was what he came here for, granted, but not like this…

Sanosuke could see her face. Not the face of the woman he had been with last night, but Misao's delicate face. He could see the tears streaming down her cheeks, and the way her body shivered as it raked with bitter sobs. Everything was his fault, and he couldn't look at her without knowing it. He couldn't think of her and try to deny it… What had possessed him to -…

Well, first of, what possessed him to let Misao come along. He knew damn well what he would do when he got here. Sano was just shagadelic like that. So the obvious question, why would he want his imouto-chan there with him when he was chasin' a piece of tail? This was one fucked up situation right here. He should have *never* let her come.

'Like it was my fucking choice… stupid old fart…' Jiya had sold him with the "all girls school" trick, 'Dammit.' He cursed that man to the high heavens. His grandfather constantly managed to hold all his grandchildren by puppet strings… making them do and see whatever he damn well pleased. He was a conniving smelly old bastard, he was. Sano loved him all the same, but that didn't change the fact that he was a conniving smelly old bastard.

"Plenty of ladies for the pickin', m'boy! You'll have to tell me *all* about the pretty girlies! Ohohoho!!!!!"… Sano fell over, as the cackling perverted banter of his grandfather swam in his head. That part of it had been only part of the reason Sano had agreed to whole thing.

Misao would be at an all girls' school. This, of course, meant no boys. In turn, less work for Sano to do, and more time to go chasing skirts.

Some part of him felt guilty about the daily marauding he did at their high school, breaking jaws left and right… In his mind, it simply had to be done. Misao was his….

'Imouto-chan.' It sounded foreign now. As if a voice from a far away place was calling, and he happened to be around to hear it. She was "Weasel." She was …

Doing a pretty brilliant job of driving him out of his fucking mind.

*-*-*-*

The school infirmary was the only peace they found on the whole campus. Everyone was buzzing, or gossiping, or doing that annoying squealing that girls think guys think is cute. Misao wondered how many hours they practiced their shrill high pitches, and facial expressions just for the sake of knowing someone else was watching. It was rather detestable, she found.

However, right now, she was in little if any a position to criticize. She had spent some good part of the morning trying to look good in front of Aoshi. Of course, Misao would never stoop to squealing. She was a weasel, not a pig, after all.

There was an elderly old man with coke bottle glasses who seemed to perfecting the hospital creases on the beds. The infirmary was a little small, but almost homey. There were photographs of students past, and of two little girls - one with pigtails, the other with her hair down, looking absolutely adorable. The linens were virgin white, which Misao thought was probably contrary to most of the student body… but she held her tongue about such opinions. Everybody knew what catholic school girls were like… right? Misao dreaded her initiation to becoming one.

It took but a moment for the doctor to note that they were there, and he turned around with a large smile on his face. One stubby finger pushed his glasses up his nose, where they promptly slipped back down.

"My, you two are going to be late for today's festivities… how may I help you?" He tucked his hands behind his back as he approached, looking the two over. It hadn't taken long to notice the red bump that had made a home on Misao's forehead. "Oh, I see… well, well, come this way then..."

A sheet that hung from the ceiling shrouded a small examination table… Misao took the hint and hopped up onto it, and as such things are, it was cold. Her knees knocked together a bit, as she tried to sit still on the block of upholstered ice.

"She hit her head." Wow, Aoshi, way to state the obvious. Although he had that brief bout of sarcasm earlier, it looked like he was tapped out of cool things to say. Misao rolled her eyes, and pointed a foot at Aoshi.

"You could've stopped me, you know!" An anger raced through her blood, it was nothing vengeful or thirsting for violence, but just out of sheer annoyance for the older man. He could've well stopped her; he has before, after all.

"You should've stopped yourself." At this, Misao blushed and looked down into her lap. She was a martial artist, too, after all. She always blamed the nearest man around when she clutzed out… Well, it was their fault for sending her hormones awry. 'Bastards. All of 'em. 'specially the good lookin' ones.' Her teeth ground together, as her hands curled over the edge of the examining table, coming in contact with its cold steel frame. "And now, we are late."

"Maa, maa… you two…" The old man had quite a pleasant disposition, and watched the back and forth antagonism. He was holding a cup, which was out of the small freezer that was off in the corner of the little indoor sheeted gazebo. It felt as though they were in an entirely different room, but the sheet couldn't be much thicker than those classic paper shoji.

*-*-*-*

"ITAI!!!!" Misao recoiled, and almost fell over backwards off the examining table when the cold compress touched her forehead. Even wrapped up in paper towel, the ice pack was cold, very *VERY* cold. The old man's laughter echoed through the small room.

"It's to take down the swelling and reduce the redness… unless you want to go around with a crimson softball sticking out of your forehead…" This time, the old doctor offered her the ice pack to put it on herself. When she took it, with a shivering hand, she saw the glint of light flash off of the doctor's metal name tag. He jumped in his place, and bowed his head to the two. When he straightened he angled his nameplate with two fingers and smiled, "I am Doctor Genzai… the head of the infirmary here at St. Catharine's."

Misao was too busy cursing under her breath at the compress that was chilling her hand to the bone, not to mention threatening to give her brain freeze, so Aoshi introduced them both. "This… is Makimachi Misao. I am Shinomori Aoshi." Aoshi's eyebrow went up after he saw that the doctor had lifted his. Dr. Genzai glanced at Misao and chuckled.

"I hope my granddaughters have as much spunk as her when they reach that age…" He took off his glasses and rubbed the lens with his shirt between two fingers. After sliding them back on, he smiled at the taller man, "They do nothing but run around in circles pretending to be airplanes all day, I'm afraid they'll wear themselves out before they're waist-high."

"I *loved* that game!!" Misao beamed, straightening up with a goofy grin, then realized how silly she looked. Her face flushed bright red, regardless of the cooling sensations that radiated from the ice against her forehead. Aoshi almost smirked. Almost.

"You two youngin's better run along now…" He paused, looking from Aoshi to Misao, obviously silently questioning their relation. Misao's mouth moved but failed to work, as she didn't quite know what to say.

'He's my brother's brother. - no no… He's that guy I live with - definitely not… He's a hottie! Need I say more?'… the ice was apparently going to her brain.

"She's my aunt."

*-*-*-*

Aoshi nearly smiled again, when Misao sputtered various curses, and promptly fell off the examination table. The aged doctor laughed, but helped her up.

"MOU AOSHI-SAMA!" she cursed, waggling a finger at him. He stared blankly at her, because it was true. Jiya was his grandfather, and for all intensive purposes, she was his daughter. So, therefore, the daughter of his grandfather would be his aunt. Misao realized this long before, as she used to tease Sano about it all the time way back in the day. However, it was blatantly obvious Aoshi was teasing her, *again*.

"Maa, maa…" Dr. Genzai rolled his eyes, and gently held the girl back by her shoulders, "You'll hurt yourself again and never leave this place… and as much as I love the company, I think you two should get going… it's already almost nine o'clock." Misao's eyes bugged out, and Aoshi found himself dragged out of the door at lightning speeds towards the front desk.

'Quick recovery,' he quipped silently.

*-*-*-*

They reached the front desk, where they were supposed to pick up today's special schedule. Aoshi would get to meet each of Misao's teachers, as well as get to see the school grounds and ask questions. However, they were missing the big introduction ceremony in the main hall because of an incident with a lamppost.

As stealthily as possible, they snuck into the main hall, into the back row, in order not to interrupt the speakers in the front. It looked like the entire faculty was lined up on the stage, sitting in a grand line of educators. The dean was apparently in the closing of her speech as they had entered. Aoshi tuned this out to look over the schedule in his hands.

Misao, on the other hand, was surveying the scene. First of all, she wanted to make sure no one noticed their entrance. Second of all, she wanted to make sure no one was giving her funny looks for the bump on her head. Third of all, she wanted to make sure no one else was gossiping. She was wound up tighter than a fishing reel, that's for sure.

'History… English…Chemistry…' Aoshi paused at what else he saw there. He whispered softly to the girl next to him, "Anno, Misao-chan… have you seen your schedule yet?" His guess was the answer was no, because otherwise she would've had a lot more to say about her first day of school had she known…

"Doushite?..." Her eyebrows knitted, and her lips pressed together thinly. The bump was just about gone, from the looks of it, and Misao had rested the ice pack in the empty seat beside her. She leaned closer to Aoshi, till her shoulder pressed into his arm, looking over the paper in his strong hands.

*-*-*-*

"JIYAAA!!" The fires of hell emanated from the small weasel girl in the back row. Luckily, though, the speech was over, and most people were already filing out of the room. The ones who had been around to witness however, sneered at the girl's uncouth outburst. The sneer was promptly turned into speculative glances at her male companion, but they said nothing, at least not while they were still in earshot.

"Misao-chan… calm down… I'm sure it won't be that bad…" Aoshi was actually entirely amused by the turn of events, but was hiding it well.

"BALLET?! HE PUT ME IN BALLET?!" The older man bit his tongue. The temptation to laugh grew stronger the more he was with her. He would have that discussion with his subconscious later.

"For balance, I'm sure," He noted calmly, if for no other reason than to get her to lower her voice a handful of decibels. It was also painfully obvious to her that her coordination had been off for the past week or so, and she needed to get back intro training.

"… but BALLET?!... and Etiquette?! What the hell is that?!" She had shot up from her seat a while ago, and was waving the poor defenseless piece of paper like a banner into war. Sticking her nose up in the air, she made her voice sound terribly rigid and stuffy, " 'Eastern and Western Etiquette for Young Ladies' - that doesn't sound like a CLASS… it sounds like elementary brain washing!"

"I'm sure they're not trying to brainwash you, Misao-chan." However, it couldn't hurt to try. Jiya had masterfully arranged all of this ahead of time, knowing exactly what he was doing. That old coot had one too many tricks up his sleeve, but Aoshi excused them when they served to amuse him.

"Okay… fine. *FINE*. But Home Economics?! They're not shoving me in the kitchen THAT easy!!" She shot back at him, twirling around and glaring at him. Not that it was his fault, but he was a man, he was here, and he was e-v-i-l. When he spoke, it was then she noticed their noses were less than a handful of inches away from one another, and the bridge of her nose shaded a nice light pink.

"You were in the kitchen this morning, and seemed quite comfortable." He'd been *watching* the whole time?! Misao fell back into her seat beside him, with a little rustle of the pleats of her skirt as they were crushed into the steel folding chair. Her face was red once more, as it had turned so many times that day… Aoshi reached over her and offered her ice pack back.

"When the redness goes down, I'll see you at your first class." He left the schedule with her, as he had already installed most of the information into his brain. It looked like history was first up to bat, and this school had quite the firecracker on their hands.