Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Prisoner of War ❯ Tears ( Chapter 12 )

Here we go!!!

Disclaimer: Um, I have nothing.

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Kenshin lay naked on the floor of his tent, shaking. His young body ached. Every day it was the same. Kill all day. Serve women all night. His captain loved him. He had earned more money for him in three weeks than the government paid him for risking his life in the army all year. It wasn't like he was doing anything wrong. He was just using a slave. That's what slaves were for. He soon found that if he didn't let the much desired fourteen-year-old red head sleep, then he could send in at least five more women a night. They were only looking for their own fulfillment, not his. And though he was right, Kenshin was suffering. His body had reached its limits. He couldn't move. He couldn't think. All he wanted to do was close his eyes, but the woman in his tent prevented it. She was trying to get him ready to please her. She ran her course hard working hands over the open cuts he had obtained from the battles he was in where fatigue had dulled his senses. She touched an overly abused part of him that was rubbed nearly raw. She had hoped to excite him, but instead sent pain shooting through him. He couldn't protest though. His mouth wouldn't obey his orders. Neither would the rest of his body. It was so heavy from lack of rest that his limbs may as well have been made of lead.

"I said kiss me, you lazy slave! I paid good money for you!" Kenshin looked at her. She was really undistinguished. Her long black hair was dirty and her hands were callused. She was missing more than a few teeth. She had to have been thirty or forty years his senior. Apparently, she worked very hard for the money she paid the captain to spend an hour using him. Her body definitely showed it. All at once, he felt disgusted. Had he been able to turn his head, he would have gagged for the smell and the sight of her. For the feeling of her fingers violating his small young body. She looked him straight in the face. Most of the other women had mistaken his heavy bedroom eyes as lust and ignored the bags under them. This woman saw them though. She recognized his exhaustion, and she didn't care. She wanted him to perform. He put all of his will into lifting his head, into giving the disgusting woman what she wanted. After he all the way to her face, though, he did not even touch her chapped lips. He just fell backwards and slammed his head into the ground. The woman with her unremarkable black hair and angry brown eyes punched him in the face. When he did not cry out or even move at all, she stormed out of the tent leaving him with his right cheek on the ground and his face toward the wall. He closed his eyes. He just wanted to rest for a moment. He knew what was coming. His face was still sore from two nights previous. The wound had really just barely begun to scab. The guard would storm in after having to relinquish the woman's money and hold a mirror to Kenshin's face. He would make him watch as he reopened the brand to remind him of his place. He knew the pain all too well. But it was worth it if he could just sleep for a little while. He heard the footfalls of someone running toward him. He braced himself. He hated watching his flesh be opened, but if he didn't struggle, it would be over sooner. It seemed his whole life revolved around learning when and when not to struggle. He felt a pressure at the top of his scar. He tried not to, but he couldn't help it. A cry escaped his lips, and his eyes flew open. Kaoru stood before him clutching her offending hand to her breast.

"Miss Kaoru?" He gazed at her and then out the small window on the back wall of the hospital. It was very dark out. Dawn wouldn't come for a few hours yet. He looked back at her.

"I had to see something, Kenshin." He watched as she moved slowly toward him. She placed her hands on him and separated his gi. He winced at the cold, but said nothing. Her hands danced across his chest, fingering all his scars and scabs. The ones caused by the arrows. The ones from falling during training as a child. They even slid across the same scar as that awful woman's dirty fingers did. As many other awful women did. She closed his gi and moved her ministrations to his neck. She traced a line from one ear to the next. He watched her lips quiver as she did so. No blood, no cut, not even a faint scar. His breath caught as she suddenly dropped her head onto him. She gripped the opening in his material and nestled her face against his white neck. He could feel the warm wetness of her tears dripping on his skin. She shook against him. He desperately wanted to comfort her. He wanted to hold her, to stroke her hair, to kiss her face. But even if he felt himself worthy enough to treat her that way, he couldn't. His hands were bound and resting against the silk of her kimono, under her breasts. Her breath was hot against his collarbone. She kept whimpering his name over and over.

"Kenshin. Kenshin. Oh, I was so scared. My Kenshin." He stared down at the top of her head. Her hair was a bit mussed and not up in its usual high ponytail. He thought it was beautiful anyway, spread out about him like a black blanket of silk. She didn't notice that his breathing sped up. She had claimed him without realizing it. Her Kenshin. It made his heart race. He didn't understand why she was crying on him. He didn't know what had scared her, or why she suddenly felt it was okay to touch him so blatantly without the excuse of changing his bandages or cleaning his wounds. But he didn't care. He pushed his chin down and inhaled the scent of her hair. The cherry-blossom aroma was so much stronger and more lovely coming from her than the remnants from him. It made him heady. He nuzzled into her hair and lightly kissed the top of her head. He couldn't help it. He just wanted to help her. He didn't want to feel her tears.

"Miss Kaoru, it's all right. Please, Miss Kaoru." He stretched his fingers against her stomach. She looked up at him red-faced and wet-cheeked. His violet eyes were pleading.

"Please, Miss Kaoru." She sat up and wiped her face on her sleeve. She pulled the key to his irons from the chain around her neck. She leaned forward and fumbled for the lock in the dimly lit room. In an instant his arms were around her, holding her tightly to his chest. He buried his face in her hair.

"I had the most horrible dream, Kenshin."

"I know, Miss Kaoru."

"I thought I'd lost you."

"I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere." He gently tilted her chin toward him and dried the remainders of her tears with the sleeve of his gi. He ran his fingers lightly over her cheeks. She stared up at him.

"I would never leave you, Miss Kaoru. Never." In that moment, nothing else mattered. It was only her and Kenshin. She leaned forward and caught his lips with her own. They were softer than her husband's and more inviting. His tongue slipped into her mouth when she opened it to let him in. She loved the taste of him. It was so unique, just like the rest of him. Unique and wonderful. She got lost there that night in his arms. She noticed nothing else but him. Not the howling of the cold wind. Not the steady snoring of the other patients. Not even the guard that stood by the door staring at them with his mouth hanging open.

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A/N: Uh-oh! Okay, this is the English teacher coming out in me. Keep an eye on Kaoru's continued frustration with Kenshin's "acceptance" as opposed to her own life. Okay, please review!