Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Dawning Emotions ❯ Joys ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter Four

So he lay there thinking, about thinking. He couldn't think anything but thinking. It seemed slightly ridiculous to Soujirou. Hey! That wasn't about thinking… Damn! He just kept thinking thoughts about thinking. It irritated him. His nose irritated him. It was itchy. So Soujirou scratched it. It was no longer itchy. Which was good. Soujirou didn't like itchy noses. They irritated him. So many irritations. What was he to do?

Soujirou was now feeling rather glum. All these irritations couldn't be good for a person. He wasn't having the best start to his journey. Maybe if he actually started to wander then he would have better thoughts. Maybe staying in one place clouded your thoughts. But he had only been here one day and his thoughts couldn't be that clouded already, could they?

So very confusing. His nose itched again. He frowned. Was he nose trying to provoke him into doing something bad by driving him inane with an itchy nose? It did sound rather silly, but… his nose was still itchy.

And his eyes were feeling heavy too. Was he tired so quickly? It must be so for Soujirou was feeling sleepy. He needed to rest. It was amazing how much sleep he seemed to need. He had never seemed to need this much sleep when he was with Shishio. Was it because he had never kept tract of time? Which had irritated Yumi to no end. He had kept tract of time when he had missions to do. But that had been for Shishio, which made it better. Had he slept longer than he had thought? He didn't think so. He would have been told if he had slept for any great lengths.

Sleep was nice, he realized. Restful even. Good then. Sleep was nice and warm and comforting and pleasant… his thoughts trailed off as he drifted into the dream world and the barriers of his own mind lifted.

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Soujirou was half awake, half asleep. Encased in warmth. He was in no mood to move, at all. Everything was lovely. He snuggled in deeper.

But noises could be irritating too. He tried to ignore it, but. Just concentrate on sleeping, Soujirou chanted over and over again internally. His mind was waging a war against his ears. The casualties were high and no hostages were to be taken. It was incredibly brutal. But in the end the ears were triumphant.

Soujirou opened his eyes and his eyes nearly popped out in shock! There in front of him was a man. While not that surprising it was the expression on his face. Soujirou didn't particularly like that look that much. It wasn't a nice expression.

The man gave a mad little crackle. Soujirou was used to this. Shishio often liked to laugh. But even he didn't look this insane. What was a former assassin of a mad man to do? It was mystery.

The old, the man appeared to be in his later years, man with drew his face so quickly form his own that Soujirou had some difficulty seeing his features for a moment. But then the face came into sharp focus. Deep scars lay across each cheek. And another disappeared into his light gray kimono. Vivid black eyes drew attention. White hair adorned his head.

He wasn't that old actually, Soujirou realized. It was the white or rather grayish hair that confused you.

The man straightened and pulled back slightly, he then proceeded to smile. Almost immediately his facial expression and whole demeanor changed. He seemed more refined and far less deranged. He was staring calmly down at Soujirou and somehow Soujirou felt that he was the one doing something wrong even through he didn't have any clues in what he had done or hadn't done. All so confusing…

"Hello," the man said rather pointedly, but when Soujirou didn't answer he continued, but with a slightly irritated tone. "My name is Doctor Endo. I have treated your wounds earlier. I did a good job. I am now here to check on them," so this was Doctor Endo.

"Oh! Um… Thank you for treating my wounds. Uh… Is there anything I can do to repay you?" that should do it, Soujirou thought, that was very polite.

"No! I did this for free. I am a man of honor," he exclaimed this while puffing his chest out and smiling condescendingly at Soujirou. Soujirou didn't know what to say. He was speechless.

"Well boy-o," Soujirou cringed at that reference, "Get undressed," Soujirou blinked and reddened. "To check your wounds. I want to see if they are healed up. I didn't think they needed bandages but I did put a salve on. The wounds should be healing nicely." Soujirou understood. It was less embarrassing than he thought. Lately it seemed that he seemed to be hearing thing differently from everything else. It was quite strange. Soujirou had never felt this way before. But it was also confusing. Confusing was a word that he was using a lot since his fight with Kenshin Himura.

As he was thinking this Soujirou was gingerly getting undressed. It was not the most pleasant feeling having those probing eyes stare at you for long periods of time, especially hen you are getting undressed. Because he was unnerved he was making some mistakes with his ties and was fumbling things.

Those eyes… They were the eyes of a samurai. Soujirou had fought many battles and survived them. The man had also fought battles and would know he was a fighter too. As if it wasn't obvious with his wounds and the calluses on his hands. No wonder he hadn't heard his footsteps. The man was trained to be silent. An assassin maybe. Some skills are to embedded to truly go away.

Wait a moment, footsteps… He was hearing footsteps. An another visitor perhaps? This could be exciting, Soujirou thought. Soujirou liked visiting and being visited. It was an unusual feeling. One you wouldn't expect an assassin to have. It was unfortunate that people didn't like being visited by him.

Soujirou was by now mostly undressed and was in the littlest of clothing. But Soujirou was still getting used to emotions and when the shoji door opened to reveal a smiling Chieko to a shocked Chieko to an embarrassed Chieko he was unprepared for the onslaught of emotions.

Emotions might be handy but when you are undressed in a room with the opposite sex this was not the case.

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Disclaimer: You're giving me RK? Wakes up… Sorry just a dream. I don't own RK. Who would have guessed?

AN: Thanks to all the people who have read this so far. Please review