Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Curl ❯ Chapter 28

For a while after, all the way until dinner, it seemed as though some normality had found its way back under the Shinomori penthouse rooftop. The dog was not named "Okina" for it suggested that those under said roof were embittered towards the old man, and of course - they *were*… they just didn't want to be that blatant about it. He was still their grandfather, for whatever it was worth, and they couldn't go and name a dog after him. "… The son of a bitch he is," Sano made sure to add. Aoshi would never voice the fact that he agreed. Their grandfather was easy to blame as he had a hand in manipulating the circumstances where had led Aoshi into this whole situation (and Sano for that matter)… and since he was conveniently not present. They still had to have some respect for the old fart. So it was settled that the puppy be named "Pochi"… as it's just a common dog name, and it was well… a pretty common dog. (Think "poochie" but the Japanese equivalent.)

The three occupants went their separate ways: The puppy moving into Misao's room along with her school things, Sanosuke warning the pup with death glares as he tried to make his room dog-proof and Aoshi went about with business. Now, Aoshi had a couple things on his To Do list. First, he had to organize dinner, which had to be delivered in a handful of hours… Then he had to do some actual work, because yes, he did work.

He didn't *have* to, but he did.

In any case, it was around half past three when Aoshi jacked in his laptop. The lonely device had been sitting in its briefcase beneath the desk, untouched. He wasn't exactly the 'web-connoisseur' to any great lengths, but he had gotten accustomed to the regular email check and those minor tasks. Anything else, he could just have his secretaries deal with it.

Like now, for example. He needed information, and he knew his secretaries were good at getting such information. Specifically, Okon. Between Omasu and Okon, he could've had most of Japan under his thumb. Omasu could get her hands on most anything he asked for, and Okon could find anything he could possibly be looking for. Today's adventure left him with one too many questions about one too many people… If Daddy's business was good for nothing else, it was good for this.

As his laptop booted up, Aoshi leaned back into his desk chair. The ceiling offered no answers for him, that was for sure. Several names circled in his mind, 'Seijurou… Gorou… Sanjou… Honjou…' All of these dossiers made their way into his mind, in order of priority. He had to find out how they got here, from where after they found themselves entangled in his life. '…and Misao's.'

He really didn't like to remember that smug look on Seijurou's face, not one bit. Thank goodness Misao wasn't in his class at least.

*-*-*-*

'I gotta switch to Physics…' sighing as she dropped her head into the pillows, Misao tucked her arms snuggly beneath them. The grin that was playing on her lips widened, remembering his very manly features… and he was a pretty big man, but his hands had been so gentle…

She threw a pillow over her face, kicking her legs up and down as she stifled a squeal. The pleats in her skirt had apparently gone to her head.

*-*-*-*

Sanosuke fiddled with his cell phone a bit. He'd had one before, so getting the hang of this one wasn't as large of a production as it had been for Misao. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, hunching over the little gadget, as though it were his salvation. It wasn't, but it might be some day.

A soft beep came from the thing each time he pressed a button, and now he was busy scrolling through the numbers already installed. '…Misao?' He looked left, then right, and finally back down to the glowing LCD screen. 'Guess the weasel got hers, too, huh… hm.' The boy that was Sanosuke, buried not too deep below the surface, decided to let his mischief out for a lil' spin.

Well, he *had* to test it out some time.

Although before he could dial Misao's cell and prank call, his vibrated madly around in his palm. Sano looked like a circus monkey as he juggled the blasted thing from one hand to the other as if it were going to burn him alive. Finally, he got it under control, and answered.

"WHO THE FUCK--!"

"Sanosuke."

"…Aoooshi. My favoritest brother in the whole wide world…" He loudly smacked his forehead, the sound reverberating across the invisible microwaves in the air over to the other end of the apartment.

"You *are* going to be at dinner tonight?" It wasn't a question so much as an order with a question mark at the end. There was a soft tapping noise, like fingertips on a keyboard. Aoshi was busying himself with two tasks at once, half of him at the office, and half at home. The true blue white-collar make-shift dad.

"Well fuck yeah, what makes ya ask something stupid like that?" … there was a pause. Aoshi waited for Sanosuke to answer his own question, so he wouldn't have to waste his breath. "… oh, that. Right, well, I'll be here, count on it, *oniiichan*…"

Aoshi couldn't help but wince. Even though Aoshi had accepted the role long ago, he couldn't stand that whiny drawn out 'oniichan' crap. Not when they were kids, and sure as hell not now.

"Good." … there was a long pause, with only the noises of the keys on Aoshi's laptop as he punched in the last bullets on his memo. They kind of went something like this : 'Please find as much up to date information on the following people… Relay appropriate phone numbers to the following…' The man jerked his head to the screen in mid-type. He had been typing off the top of his head, and he just didn't realize it, but he was typing… a joke? And there, staring him in the face was the final bullet, 'Cancel Starbucks account.' He smirked… kinda.

On the other end of the line, Sano was tapping his foot on the floor. "Was that ALL?! You fucking coulda WALKED over here!" Aoshi could almost feel the spit on his face as Sano cursed, and rolled his eyes.

"Behave."

"BEHAVE?! WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!!!"… just because he was right, didn't mean he could boss Sagara Sanosuke around, oh no. The other of the line was already dead in mid-curse, and Sano lost his taste for cell phones at that very moment. He threw his down onto the bed and pouted at it, with folded arms. Of course, this would be because it would sprout legs to kneel on to beg forgiveness… Right.

Sano then went to stuff his hands in his pockets and realized that one didn't quite have the room. He'd forgotten the 'let bygones be bygones, Misao' gift. Rocking back and forth on his heels, as if to procrastinate just a lil' longer… he looked around for a clock. His alarm clocks didn't have long life spans, considering he had this odd tendency to crash his fist onto the snooze button every so often. However, the clock on the wall - which probably only had another day or two - and he had a couple of hours to kill before dinner. You know, that dinner he *will* be attending. Sano snorted, trying not to pout further, in case someone was to catch him.

*-*-*-*

In Misao's room, the female occupant was watching the four-legged male occupant sleep. 'The poor lil' guy must've tuckered himself out a thousand times over runnin' from that evil dog catcher…' she involuntarily shuddered. His face had been wolfish, his hair had been spiderish, and his breath stank.

All of these facts coming together to why she decided to rescue this poor puppy, and nothing Sanosuke could say would make her give it up.

'Dammit,' she cursed silently to herself. She just *knew* his name would pop up again. Misao didn't know she'd be squatting on the balls of her heels hovering over a slumbering yellow Labrador, but she did know she'd be thinking about *him*. The memory of *her* - the *her* that *he* had been with - were slowly… too slowly disappearing. Not because the woman hadn't been loud, oh no. What stuck in Misao's mind now was he sound of him… his groaning, and moaning, and grunting.

It was one thing for him to bust in through the door and accuse her of being a slut, when all he did was turn around and pulled a red light special. Her fingernails began to dig into her knees and she forced herself up and began to clumsily pace around the room. She wished she wasn't alone just then. There was no one to talk about this to…

Misao fingered a circular picture frame that she'd unpacked at some point. She really couldn't remember anything other than what happened with Sano… or Aoshi. It was as if her whole life was suddenly centered on her newly founded roommates. Nothing before ever seemed so hard, and no one else seemed to make her feel so…

"Kaoru what should I do?" she pouted at the photo of her and her old classmate. Her confidante. Her numera una amiga. She glanced at her book bag, remembering her cell phone. 'Hm.'

*-*-*-*

Looking down at the table setting, Aoshi thought that now might be a good time to schedule the chore duties around the apartment. This had never previously been an issue, but due to the fact he saw himself drowning in domesticity any second now… He'd have to lessen the probability that he'd be wearing an apron anytime soon. For crying out loud, he was already dropping the kids to school…

Turning back towards the kitchen, he swiped his hand over his face quickly. Tae had arrived, prompt and on time to cater for the evening's meal. And now all that had to happen was that it had to go smoothly. Sanosuke wouldn't stain this house with any high-heeled filth, Misao wouldn't be throwing punches, and Aoshi would… well, be his old self again. The one who lived in the comfortable cold and isolation of his own being, what happened to that man? His life had slowly collapsed, stair for stair, and everything he was accustomed to was gradually changing. Or, in some cases, not so gradually.

He was living with a female. He was living with his half-brother. Both of which were quickly approaching, or had already arrived at, their sexual prime. Here he was… babysitting. For the thousandth time since his mother's phone call, he asked himself how and why he ended up where he was.

With any luck, these two will be his biggest problems. He could avoid Sanjou, Kamatari, … all of them. St. Catharine's was now Aoshi-less territory, that's all. He'll just have to avoid it, and that was done easily enough if Misao would stay out of trouble.

Yeah, right.

Taking a deep cleansing breath, Aoshi stalked over to the bedrooms and knocked on both of their doors. Maybe he should get a bell to jingle, and pronounce, 'Dinner is served' in some phony British accent. That would be just dahling.

Making his way to the head of the table, he stood there, awaiting for his two latest projects to accompany him.

*-*-*-*

The knock on his bedroom door was made one with the grumble in his stomach. Sanosuke petted his friend, el estomago, and soothed it with the soft whisper to himself, "… chow time."

Misao jumped as if caught red-handed, and her cell phone clattered out of her hand onto the floor. Double checking herself in the mirror, for whose benefit - who knows, and then remembered her furry friend. "Ne, you're going to need some din din, too, huh? Yes you are…" she hoisted the pup up and dangled him over head. Cradling him under one arm she opened her bedroom door, letting herself out and right into Sano.

"Look, I couldn't get ya to evict the damn mutt, but I sure as hell ain't eatin' wit'em," and before she could protest, Sano had already snatched the dog up by the cuff and redeposited Pochi into Misao's bedroom, closing the door. Her mouth was working as if to start yelling at him, but he just motioned her onward and pressed forward towards the smell of food. 'Let's see if that dog'll do some damage so Misao'll get rid of the blasted thing…'

Aoshi didn't like the way Sanosuke was grinning as he entered the room. It was his 'I've just done something someone else won't like, but I sure as hell feel big-balled havin' done it' grin. He had a feeling that if he was just able to get through dinner, than everything else will just fall into place.

He also had a feeling hell was going to freeze over.

Once Misao had seated herself, Aoshi sat himself, and gave Sanosuke the go ahead glance to seat himself. Of course, his brother scowled at this, practically screaming through his eyeballs, "I'm not a kid dammit!" A statement, which when said, just by thinking it implied the opposite. And then it happened.

Silence. It was deafening in the way it said nothing, told nothing, and made nothing better. Aoshi wondered which one of them - meaning the other two people sitting with him - would last.

In the minds of the other two people at the table (save the half of Sanosuke which was currently dominated by the demands of his stomach), there were questions. Yes, questions. The kind of questions that you never said out loud, either because you knew you'd get slapped or you knew you didn't want to know the answer to.

'Did that pansy Soujirou lay a fucking finger on you?' …

'Why did you have to bring that woman home?... oh wait, *hey*! I asked that already!' Misao straightened up in her seat, as though this conversation were being held outside of the confines of her skull.

"Where do you get off bringing a girl home?"

Nodding to herself, this time in her head, she took a drink from her glass of water. Blinking a bit, she realized she had a glass of water. Then she began to pay attention to the fact that the table was set. Part of her then also decided to take into account that dishes do not have legs, contrary to Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and the table does not set itself. And Aoshi took this moment, as Misao seemed so terribly enraptured in the table setting *anyway* to bring up his earlier consideration of chores.

"Sano. You're night to do the dishes." Aoshi could have possibly have put it another way, one less conflict-begging. But he saw no reason to fend off the havoc any longer, it was bound to return in its blaze of glory, so why not now?

Glaring from his plate at his older brother, Sanosuke had the instinct to retort. However, to everybody's surprise, he hadn't. Aoshi didn't look like he really needed to be fucked with today, for some odd reason. So rather than give Aoshi a piece of his mind, he chose to ask what was on his mind instead.

"Rough day at school, Aoshi-nii?" The skidding of Aoshi's fork across his plate was enough to cause a triumphant grin to pass Sano's lips.

===

Author's Note:

Hah! Thought you got away from me, didya? Well anyway, someone reviewed saying that this fic just seems to be going nowhere. Which… well, is true, but isn't. It's true because it *seems* that way. It just kind of seems that all of these things are coming but nothing is actually happening. But I really do have it planned out, please believe me. ;_;* I'm just a long-winded writer. What I'm afraid of is that maybe I have too much planned to happen, and that it'll all happen all at once. u.u;

On another note… proofreading, grammatical errors, and the like… such things fall under the realm of constructive criticism. ^_^; If you see anything ('specially if it's driving you crazy or something) please feel free to email me about it. Keep in mind, a lot of these chapters were *not* beta-read before posting. At best they were just re-read by me, and I have this odd tendency to read what I want to read. ^_^;;

I'm not suggesting anyone MST (Mystery Science Theatre, for those who aren't familiar)… for two reasons: a) for a fanfic this long, I *really* wouldn't want anyone to waste that much of their lives attempting it, and b) because MST's are … generally negative and not constructive at all. Rather they pick apart *everything* to the point where it can almost be obnoxious - which is why, for those who are not aware, they are against FF.net rules. (So are posting lone previews and prologues and the like… who knew? ^_^; I just re-read the rules the other day, it's a good thing to keep up to date with.) I think people who post MST's on FF.net are just doing it to be cruel anyway - those are issues that are either personal opinion or should be taken up with the author directly for style/grammar/spelling issues and the like.

I was thinking of breaking up the story into volumes or something… I dunno. Any suggestions on how to deal with the length are welcome. Sorry again for the lateness of the update, I have finals, papers, and on top of that I went and got sick. >.< Best wishes to all my readers.

(That was a long note huh. O.o; That's why I'm trying to put my ANs at the end of chapters so they're easier to well… skim/ignore, as I often do when I read. >.>;;;…)