Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Second Chances ( for now...) ❯ The day before... ( Chapter 2 )

A/NÂ : Second instalment, hope you'll like it. Of course, I'm still nervous ^_^.

I wrote this all a while back so I'm pretty sure it's not too OOC. Please warn me if Kaoru starts acting like Kagome and Kenshin starts `keh!'-ing like Inuyasha?

Disclaimer: I'm not the owner of the Kenshin-gumi, I just want them to have happy lives!

And maybe borrow Hiko-sama sometime…? Onegai? *batting eyelashes* No?

~@#*#@~

"Oi! Jou-chan!"

Kaoru blinked and slowly saw the hand, then face, of her just-about-brother-in-law, Sano, come into focus.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Jou-chan?"

She had been staring into oblivion for nearly a month now, it was becoming increasingly hard to get an intelligible answer from her, and Sano was getting fed up.

Kaoru followed his gaze and found her self looking at an extremely shiny teacup.

"You've been drying that for fifteen minutes, tanuki! Heh, I've never seen a teacup as thoroughly polished as that!"

Kaoru smiled apologetically and hoped he would drop it.

He didn't.

"What's going on with you?"

`Ano…I keep thinking of the face of a man that I nearly killed. I think I'm in love with him? Think again…'

"I just miss Misao, that's all…"

She looked down at the dishes praying to Kami that he would believe her.

"Yeah, I'm gonna miss the itachi-musume…" Sano grinned.

Kaoru swiped at him with the towel.

"You hate her! You two are constantly fighting!"

"Aa…But have you ever wondered why? She is unbelievably cute when she gets angry!" He smirked and pulled on her ponytail.

"Ano…tori-atama? I really think you should start running right about now…"

She pushed him to face her sister, and barely managed to dodge a notebook that came flying in his general direction.

Sano just shrugged it off.

"I'm sorry babe, but it's true…"

Kaoru's respect for the chicken-head grew instantly. Nobody got away, or even tried to for that matter, with playing with Tae. Let's just say she had a somewhat explosive temper?

Right before her eyes, the empty restaurant turned into a Tom and Jerry-scene. But it didn't take Sano too long to wrestle Tae to the ground.

"You know, *you* look even better when you're angry!" He laughed and pressed a kiss to her lips before she could retaliate .

Kaoru watched them from behind the counter, picking up a new teacup to dry.

`I'm lucky really, I'm glad Tae chose him to fall in love with. Sure, he can be a pain in the rear sometimes, but he definitely knows how to make you feel better. I am glad he bought the Misao-story…'

Of course, it still felt awkward that Misao had left for Kyoto two weeks ago, but that wasn't the reason for her absence of mind. The day after the crash, about which she still hadn't told anyone, Misao had come to the Akabeko to talk.

She had realized herself that leaving for Kyoto meant leaving Kaoru behind. They had talked, laughed, cried and discussed ways to keep in touch.

Kaoru realized now that had she been given the opportunity to stand on her own like that she would have been happy too. And she was now, for Misao, who deserved her chance.

But what, or who, was really bothering her, still, was him. The fact that she didn't knowing who him was, made it all the worse.

Somehow she just couldn't shake the feeling of knowing him.

"Jou-chan? I give up…"

She blinked and smiled at Sano and quickly returned to the business of dishwashing

~@#*#@~

Kenshin wiped his forehead.

`Maaaaa…Finally!'

For almost a month he had been working non-stop on this painting. And now he was finished.

Thankfully.

`I need sleep! I need food!'

He stumbled into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. It was stocked up pretty nicely, which was rather new to him.

To have money…

His meeting at the art-gallery had gone relatively well, but he suspected the owner, a very wealthy lady, had some sort of eye-condition. He couldn't think of another reason why she would continually wink and blink at him.

What's more important, she had bought two of his works at that moment and three others over the last weeks.

Kenshin felt like he was rich! But then he hadn't actually been out of his apartment enough to actually use his money…

He grabbed a carton of milk and some vegetables to make himself a sandwich and made his way back into his studio.

But soon they were forgotten.

Kenshin looked up at his latest accomplishment in awe.

"Kami-sama…" he gasped.

The image was perfect. It pictured a young woman with raven-black hair, dressed in an ocean-blue kimono with a sakura-print. She was standing a dock staring out over the sea, seemingly past the horizon, pressing her hand to her heart.

`How strange, all this time I've been standing so close I never saw her. I can't believe *I* did this!'

He let his eyes wander on until he met her eyes. They were filled with love and sadness in equal measures.

Kenshin let the carton of milk and plate of food slide to the floor.

"KAORU!"

The cry tore through him as he remembered.

`She was waiting for me… I left her behind… Why did I leave her?!'

"I need her!"

As more memories slipped into his mind he collapsed to the floor.

"I-I remember…" He barely remembered how to use his voice. But his life was clear to him, now.

He remembered. He remembered how he had hurt her when he had left for Kyoto so long ago, he remembered how hurt he himself had been when Enishi took her and finally he remembered how he couldn't live with the idea of his presence causing her so much grief and danger.

He had packed up and left.

Although he felt it was the only way to save her life, he couldn't save his own now. Why would he even want to?

Nobody could ever hurt him the way he had himself.

For a while he had kept himself going, telling himself that Kaoru would have a happy life now, but it wasn't enough.

It wasn't enough to get him to drag himself out of that blizzard. That's when he died, with her name still on his lips.

Kenshin opened his eyes and watched in horror as his tears mingled with the puddle of milk.

"No! She wasn't supposed to wait. She was supposed to move on and be happy, without me, safe!

Did I ever even tell her how much I loved, no, love her?!

How could I have done that to us?!!!"

He cried out and buried his face in his hair. He sat in silence like that for a moment.

"No. Not this time."

He got up and grabbed his coat and hat, his otherwise radiant violet eyes, narrow and darkening with resolution.

"Koaru! I'm coming!"

Disregarding the violent rain he threw himself out the door and started running.

`I'm coming…'

Desperately he searched every corner of the district of Tokyo she had run into, asking every person he passed of they knew her, but no-one seemed to know.

Perhaps it had something to do with his appearance, perhaps being covered in paint and rain and milk didn't leave such a good impression on people, but it seemed to Kenshin that people had never been this uncooperative in his life.

`I need to get out of this rain. I *can't* die on Kaoru again!'

He dove into the first restaurant he saw and dragged himself into the corner that was furthest away from the door and the cold.

~@#*#@~

Tae left the dishes in the sink to check on that worn looking old man she had seen scrambling into the corner.

Her Samaritan-instinct had immediately kicked in. `Even that poor hobo deserves some hot tea and shelter from this weather, Kami knows I can spare it.'

Apparently none of her regular costumers were stupid enough to venture out in this storm.

"O-ji-sama, would you like me to make you a nice cup of tea?" she asked as polite as she could.

"Oro!?"

Tae jumped back, the man at the table looked up at her with shocking blue eyes and although he still looked worn, he was *definitely* not old.

"Ah! Gomen nasai! I-I didn't mean to…to…"

He blinked at the young woman who was now bowing profusely and was still muttering apologies.

"It's perfectly allright! I probably look like I was dragged trough a storm for hours on end. Chotto matte! I was!" Kenshin chuckled, smiling at Tae.

Thoroughly comforted she grinned.

"My offer still stands though. Can I get you anything?"

"Aa, I'll just have some green tea, please. Also I would like to ask you a question.

"Of course, what can I do for you?" she asked as she scribbled his order on her notepad.

"Well, you see, I'm looking for a girl. Her name is K---"

Right smack in the middle of his sentence, an argument arose at a table on the other side of the restaurant.

"Would you please excuse me?" Her voice dripping with anger, she pivoted on her heels and walked away.

Kenshin crossed his arms over the table and rested his head as he heard Tae bellowing several insults at her unruly customers as she waved a menu over their heads in a very threatening gesture.

`Please let me find you, Kaoru. I'm nothing without you…'

Finally he gave in to the lack of sleep and the day's exhaustions, letting his eyes slip closed.

A/N: Yatta!

Love and Peace!