Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Curl ❯ Chapter 29

Sanosuke leered over the bathroom sink as he brushed his teeth. Now dressed down for bed, in a pair of mesh shorts, he found solace in his handsome reflection and in cursing his brother. 'Stupid Aoshi, making me wash the fuc -' He spat into the sink. '-king dishes.' Running his toothbrush under the running water, the tall twenty-year old boy (heh) awkwardly bent down and flushed out the last of the minty freshness from his mouth. Straightening up, and spitting once more for good measure, he turned off the taps. However, there was still a tap. A tap tap tapping on the chamber floor.

He looked down. His foot was tapping, in the general direction of Misao's door. It was like it was telling him something. There was something he was supposed to do, something he was waiting to say. Right. Looking left, and then right again, as if to make sure there was no one else around that could do this for him, Sanosuke slowly approached the door.

And quickly retreated back to his room, tossing several articles from the floor around the room. Fishing into the pockets of the pants he'd been wearing that day, he pulled out a small velvet box. 'Right, gift. Right. Good.' He looked back at the door he'd left open in his wake, which allowed him to see straight through to the face of Misao's door. Sanosuke took one step forward… and two steps back. He had to prepare.

*-*-*-*

Totally oblivious to the pacing idiot in the next room who was rattling off one speech after the other to himself, Misao reached for her phone again. She'd spent all the rest of the time before dinner referring to the manual and installing all the numbers of anyone she ever knew into it. Honestly, there had been no intention to program so many phone numbers in, nor was there any intention to call half of those people. It was just that after the first three numbers were in, Misao was so psyched having figured out how to do it right, that she simply couldn't stop herself.

For crying out loud, her fourth grade teacher was in there. But this toy was a good distraction… from things. She would have to check with Aoshi if she could call Kyoto on her new fangled doo-hickey.

Luckily enough, the puppy, allowed to run ramped around her room, did little damage. No broken glass, or bones, so this was a good start to a beautiful friendship. Well, okay, there's a sock that's gone missing in action, but that was bound to happen eventually, Misao reasoned.

*-*-*-*

"YOSH!" Sanosuke smacked his fist into the palm of his other hand. Okay, he had it ready. His spiel that would get him off. Wait, no, that was a different spiel… but the one that was going to make him and Misao okay. Or so he hoped.

The last couple of days had been weird. It was like his right hand was cut off when he wasn't looking. Everywhere he went it was like there was a weasel shaped cutout standing beside him. A little dotted frame of where a girl should be, laughing, yelling, kicking… but at least she would be there. He positioned himself in front of her bathroom door, curling his hands over his hips. Pursing his lips, he discovered that his hands can't be on his hips to open the door.

'Strategy, Sagara. If you knock on this door, she'll *know* it's you... and she ain't happy with ya right now. But if you use the *other* door…' There was a thundering that rumbled through the innocent tiled floor as Sano ran out and skidded back into his room, then out the other door and positioned himself in a ready stance in front of Misao's door. This wasn't going to be easy like when they were kids.

It seemed like more problems just seemed to be trying to sever their ties. He couldn't wrestle and tousle her like he used to. There were certain things he knew not to say around her. Sagara Sanosuke may be a crass playboy run by his nether regions (either his dangling parts or he's just being an ass)… but there was a sensitive lout somewhere in there. On some level Misao had to know that if she ever needed anybody to do anything under this blue sky, on this green earth - Sano would do it for her if he possibly could.

It wasn't easy like before. You can't kiss heartache better. You can't just invite your seventeen-year old practically-your-sister into bed with you after every fight.

Well, he could, but.

Sano quickly decked himself , 'FOCUS… gift? Check.' He patted his pocket, and the small velvet box fumbled about. 'Speech?... check.' Going over his lines one more time in his head, he mentally proofread what he was going to say and exactly the way he was going to say it. 'Is that it?'

Before his brain could answer, his body was working ahead of him, and knocked on the door. His hand snatched the wrist of the knocking one and he brought it close to mutter curses at it.

*-*-*-*

There was a knocking on her chamber door. Misao blinked from her place on the floor. Idly petting the puppy, she got up and walked towards the door. Her presumption, as Sano has thought, was that it was Aoshi and he needed to tell her something or talk about school. So, she didn't even give it a second thought when she got up and opened the door.

However, she did not want to be facing who was on the other side. Here stood her roosterhead - No. Sanosuke. What the hell was he doing? 'He's arguing with his own fist? Knucklehead.' She wanted to laugh at him, but seeing his topless chiseled form poised out in front of her (in the comical stance it was in) just brought her back to what she was trying to forget. Quickly, she put both hands and all her weight behind the door in order to slam it in his face.

However she wasn't quick enough. "OH NO! No ya don't!" Misao knew she couldn't win tug-o-war with Sano any day of the year, but her pride didn't let her not put up a good fight. He was braced against the other side of the door, already half way in the room. One of his larger hands had happened to close over one of hers in the struggle, and he said in a quieter voice, "… dammit Misao, we need to talk." Reviewing briefly in his head, he noted that his originally opening had not been planned. Preparing ahead of time was seeming to be a useless venture when put up against real life.

"We… have… not--…nothing to ….talk… ABOUT!" She was speaking through her aerobic efforts to get the door closed. It was pointless now, since he was already in the room, but she was still fighting it. Misao was still fighting him. She heard a deep sigh from overhead, and suddenly the door became a helluva lot lighter. Sanosuke tried not to laugh when she rammed her head smack into the door. The pressure she had been putting behind it caused her to crash into the door, shutting it to the point where it almost shook off its hinges.

Misao looked like she was going to explode. Her face was red, and her knuckles were white. She could absently feel the pain of her nails digging crescent moons into her skin. Her head was bowed down, as she stood with her back against the wall. 'Out of sight, out of mind, out of sight out of mind…' Somehow, she reasoned that if she didn't look at him he'd just go away and she wouldn't have to think about it.

Already she felt the tears stinging in her eyelids. She didn't know why she felt this way, this strongly about it. She knew how he was about women, and his little flings. And she knew she was always going to be a boyish underdeveloped violent girl in his eyes… Even with knowing all of these things, she couldn't bring herself to stop hurting. Misao tried to figure out what the feeling was the hollow thudding of her heart as there was a pang somewhere around where her stomach should be. Then, he did the first thing she didn't want him to do. He spoke.

"Wea…" No, bad time to call her names. "Misao. Look, there's something… here. And like, uhm…" That whole speech he had prepared, remember the one? The entire thing went out of the window. He hadn't rehearsed this. There was nothing he could do to prepare for the pain that would overtake her features. It was this uneasy feeling that just shivered through his chest, and he tried to swallow down the lump in his throat, but couldn't manage to shake that feeling. Was he always going to be a fuck up?

'Not now,' he reprimanded himself letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding. This was about Misao. Sanosuke did what he usually did in situations like this, whether he realized it or not. He stopped listening to both heads on his body, and just went with his big lunkhead heart.

"Misao." His hands rested palms down on the door, cornering her to it. Dammit, if she would just look at him, she'd know he was sorry. But she wouldn't do it. No matter how hard he stared down at the ebony head of hair, it was not enough to will the girl to look at him. His heels ground into the carpet, and he tried to call to her again. "You're pissed at me."

Her hands flew up to cover her face, and her fingers dug into the delicate skin of her forehead and raked their way down. 'No fucking shit, Sherlock!' she wanted to scream. He was just too close to her. Being much smaller than Sano, she probably could have easily slipped out from under his arms or something, but she felt pinned. It was like his gaze was drilling a hole into her skull, and nailed her to the floor. There was a shaky feeling starting to happen around her knees, and she then saw her hands were shaking. From fear, anger… or a little mix of the two.

Then Sano asked the impossibly stupid question. "Why?"

*-*-*-*

There was a loud slamming of the door, which Aoshi could hear all the way from inside his bathroom. He'd taken the precaution of using a brand new toothbrush, one of his spares, having known that Sanosuke had been in his bathroom. Having awfully vibrant memories of what Sano could pull, he thought it safer this way. Sighing, Aoshi glanced up at the ceiling searching it for answers. Should he go over there and do something? Was it even any of his business?

Was that puppy a serious mistake? He unconsciously crossed his pinky and ring fingers on his left hand hoping that loud noise had nothing to do with the new addition to their haphazardly thrown together family.

He stood there for some time, contemplating what course of action he would take. 'Misao…' and worse, '… Sano.' Returning his gaze to his reflection, he saw the imprint of a frown on his lips. He didn't have all the facts of the rift that went on between those two, but something happened, and it was having negative reverberations.

Why did he always sound like he was doing an autopsy on life when he thought silently to himself?

*-*-*-*

'WHY?!' She wanted to scream back at him. She wanted to hit him. She wanted to breakdown into tears crying if for no other reason than she didn't have an answer for him. Her heel pressed into the door, and her slight frame trembled as it was pent up with rage and frustration. Wasn't it enough that she was upset?

Wasn't it enough that she was there when they…

From where Sano stood, things weren't looking good. He wasn't planning on this. His practice had gone cut and dry - find the problem, solve it, and go back to normal. An Aoshi-gical way of though. There was silence, except for the noise of Misao's ragged breathing through choked back sobs.

Pochi started barking at his owner's distress, and growled at the oversized giant that was making her upset. No, this was not how Sano had planned it at all.

"Geez, Misao, what do you want me to do? Stop dating altogether just because you're here?" It took him a couple fractions of a second to realize he said that outloud. "Wa-wai-wait…." He made the mistake of taking his hand off the door to gesture apologetically, but that just gave Misao an easy opening to escape his piercing gaze.

"Oh nonono, don't let me get in the way of your social calendar!" She spat back, her hands on her hips. Misao's back was to him, and she sniffled once or twice, fighting the urge to cry. If those women came first, than fine, so be it. It wasn't any of her business anyway, right? Forcing her chin up, her nose pointed to the ceiling, as if to keep the tears from running down her cheeks.

"Don't you start on me with that!" Sano ripped away from the door waving a finger at her. "You know you come before any of those chicks! They're just for -"

"For what?! Screwing? Fucking? Sucking? Blowing?!" Sano paled at Misao's sudden outburst. The last thing he planned for was to be reintroduced to the blaze in her eyes. It didn't help his shock that she was speaking in… well, Sano-talk. "I heard it *all*!..." She choked on her own voice and swallowed hard to recover, her voice trailing off to just over a whisper. "… I heard it all…" (Even if it had not occurred precisely in that order)

How is it that none of her kunai had found their way to the light and Sano felt like thousands were stabbing him in the heart at that very moment? So he hadn't imagined it, and it wasn't just some part of his mind fabricating it. He heard her. It was Misao. She was on the other side of the door, while he was… Something was climbing up his throat, and he bit his lip hard to prevent it from lurching onto the carpet. He suddenly had a flashback of the horribly traumatizing moment when he'd walked in on his parents doing some… consummating.

But even that wasn't as bad as this. That had been for love. Sweet, sensual. Not like his… which were often romps that were alcoholic and honestly? Hazy. And this was Misao. *Misao*… his kid sister, his side kick, his swift kick in the rear. His hand reached for her shoulder, and she jerked away as if he were the fires of hell itself, and turned her back on him.

"… Misao…" he ventured in a softer voice than he could imagine. She just shook her head furiously, her braid whipping from side to side. "… I'll make it better. I always do, Misao, just please…" Thankfully she was still within arms' reach and he could gently curl his hands over his shoulders. His voice had been almost shaky, and he was still clinging to his inner alpha male to not reveal any weakness. He wasn't quite ready to turn her around yet, not sure what kind of a look he'd have to face.

Lulling her head to the side, her eyes still cast downward; she could only give him a sidelong glance. Misao was met with the sight of the top of Sano's head, bowing towards her back. Those heavy hands were on her shoulders, they were the same strong hands that had lifted her as a baby and held her as a child. And they were trembling, in their very tips.

Those words… When she was little, Sano-nii' could always make it better. He was always there, when she was scared, and needed someone to talk to… Whenever she got in over her head, he would just reach in there and fish her out like it was nobody's business. As she couldn't bear to ever see him hurt, it was the same for him. They had always needed each other this way, as if the other made them a whole. Grown so dependent in youth, it was just this partnership and true friendship that had steered them to where they were now.

And the forecast was cloudy.

===

Author's Note:

Uhm, it's been pointed out to me that my chapters are short. O.o I personally never noted this, because I've been trying to make them all … about the same length if possible. The reason they may seem short is that oftentimes when I type them, I use 14-16 pt. font because I sit a ways from my computer. (The pros and cons of the cordless keyboard. ^_^;) Is this a general consensus? 'cause if it's true then I could start consolidating chapters to make the fic… well, at least *seem* shorter. ^_^;

Still looking for any fanart, omake… anything at all that was inspired by this fic. ^_^

And on a totally random note, you know you've been writing a lot of Kenshin fanfiction when the entire cast has their names added to your dictionary for spell check. O.o;;;