Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Second Chances ( for now...) ❯ The day after! (part I) ( Chapter 6 )
A/N: Tadaaaaaa!!!! Look!!! I managed to squeeze another chapter out of my hyperstimulated brain. Trying to keep up with school and everything is not one of my hobbies, but hey, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, ne??
Anyway, I'm dedicating this bit to my boyfriend, `cause he needs to be comforted, or maybe it's just that I feel the need to comfort him...Annywaay, I hope it does make you feel a little bit better!
Love you! (And to everyone else who reads this, don't worry. you're all really important to me too!! n,n)
Disclaimer: I don't own this, well I do own this, just not the people, er, characters it's about...(Kami, it's getting hard to stay creative with these things!)
~@#The day after#@~
The next morning, though you'd sooner call it night, Kaoru woke up before the alarmclock had the chance to start. Yawning as silently as possible she leaned up on her elbows and watched Kenshin sleeping blissfully beside her. Smiling, she slinked out of bed and pulled on some of the clothes she had layed out in a corner of the room as she walked towards the kitchen.
`The poor guy deserves some extra attention after what I put him through yesterday!'
After she had dragged him out of the house, they'd gone to several department stores and bought Kenshin several new outfits, all in dark blues and greys, a nice new navy winter coat and some bags and suitcases for their impending trip. Kaoru was still impressed with the way she had managed to talk him into actually trying al these new clothes on for size without having to use her cutest smile.
When they finally made it back `home' they had just collapsed onto the sofa, Kenshin insisted on her staying right there while he towed their new belongings to their rightful places, and got her a pot of tea and something to snack on. Eventually they just fell asleep right there. Kaoru figured he must have waken up again and carried her to bed, but she didn't remember. `I really was exhausted...I just want to give him the attention he keeps insisting on giving me... I know...!'
Some time later Kenshin awoke with the feeling he was being watched. He opened his eyes and found out... he was.
At his feet, Kaoru sat, radiant as ever, with a large bowl of fresh fruit.
"Ohayou, anata!"
Leisurely he stretched and yawned before he sat up against the headboard and Kaoru settled herself beside him. With a mischievous glint in her eyes she held out a piece of pineapple to him.
`Oh...it's like that, is it?' Kenshin grinned to himself and opened his mouth to take in the bit of sweet fruit. Kaoru smiled and carefully retracted her fingers before she lost them, licking them clean and trying her hardest to look innocent.
He swallowed audibly as she sat there, wearing nothing but one of his old shirts...and a smile, sensually sucking the sticky pineapple juice off her hands.
Pretending she hadn't noticed, she picked a cluster of grapes from the bowl and carefully picked one off it, casually dropping it into her mouth.
"Mmm, sweet..."
That was it for Kenshin, he sprang, well crawled into action, grabbing her by her jaw and crushing her to him. Grinning into his kiss, she immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and let him guide her back down to the mattress.
When he finally gave her time to breath, she sighed contentedly, but pointed at the alarmclock.
"We haven't packed yet, anata..." He could clearly hear the disappointment in her voice, even though she was the one who started all this in the first place. He leaned over and kissed her forehead in reassurance.
"I know, koishii..."
He sat back up and let her feed him the sweet fruit, unable to help himself and still playfully nipping at her fingers now and then enjoying the delighted squeal she would produce.
When the bowl was empty, Kenshin finally got up, got dressed and with one last kiss, took the bowl back to the kitchen. Thinking that since he didn't know how long they'd have to stay in Kyoto, it would probably be wise to clean the dishes and empty the refrigerator, Kenshin sighed as he ran some hot water. Grabbing a cloth to clean an annoying spot of paint from the tap, he remembered, `Kami, the painting! Should I show Kaoru? But I don't want to cause her any more pain...Then again, if I were to hide it, I'd only be in more trouble...' He straightened himself and turned off the hot water.
"Koishii?"
Kenshin entered the bedroom, but she wasn't there.
"Kaoru?" He strained his ears and just barely caught the reply from somewhere to his left. So he turned to find her and realised, `That came from the studio...Oh no!'
His heart sinking rapidly, he followed the sound and went into the adjacent room.
Then he saw her, a hand clasped over her chest, the other fisted in the hemline of the old pinkish shirt she was wearing, her expression mirroring that of the woman in his painting. The likeness struck him in the heart and he gasped audibly.
"K-Kaoru..."
A heart wrenching sob echoed through the small room. Kenshin couldn't take anymore, he walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her from behind, burying his face in her ebony locks.
"Kami, I-I'm so sorry, Kaoru...I-I caused all this, you...-"
Suddenly she turned around in his arms, firmly taking his face into her hands.
"Yamero, Kenshin! I love this painting...It's beautiful..." Kenshin opened his mouth to protest, but she silenced him with a pleading look, "I know why you did what you did in the past, and I understand. Maybe if I had told you I love you back then, things would have been different. But that didn't happen. And whatever did happen, got us here, together, right at this moment." She kissed him gently and continued, "The painting comforts me...If anything, it tells me that whatever will happen, we will be together eventually. Kenshin, I'm happy now, with you, and I want you to be to...Don't let the past spoil this for you, anata..."
Kenshin was perplexed at her wise words. He never actually thought of things that way, but she was right...He swept her up in a possessive embrace and rejoiced when she giggled at his action. She kissed the space under his ear and reached up to whisper something to him.
"Has anyone ever told you you're a brilliant artist?"
Kenshin blushed profusely and stammered somewhat before he actually came up with an adequate reply.
"Well, I think in this case, it probably had more to do with my divine inspiration," he gently squeezed her for emphasis, "than with my actual skills..."
Kaoru giggled again and playfully swatted his arm.
"Come on, we have stuff to do!"
While she set about gathering their clothes and necessities, Kenshin got back to his dishwashing.
Kaoru successfully folded her and Kenshin's new clothes and laid them out on the bed. She knew her sister would offer to bring her clothes as soon as she'd call her to let her and Sano know they would be gone for some time, but somehow she felt the need for new outfits to match her new identity. Suddenly she noticed the small black bag she had shoved under the bed the evening before, and started giggling uncontrollably. `I can't believe I actually did that! I mean, sure, I'd been to that shop before, but never for this reason...!' She pulled the bag out from under the bed and folded it so she could hide it in one of her new sweaters.
Kaoru picked up another of Kenshin's new shirts to fold just as the rising sun crested the Tokyo skyline and bathed the city in its warm orange and red glow. She turned towards the source of the light and sighed contentedly. The coloured light reflecting in one of the buildings across the street reminded her of the colour of Kenshin's hair and she couldn't stop a happy smile to stick itself on her face.
`Kami, I hope those genes of his are dominant, I would love for our children to have that same haircolour! Of course, they'd be beautiful inside and out if they even resemble him in the slightest, but still...Mou! Nani!? I'm thinking about kids?! Our kids?! Oh Kami...!'
A sudden gush of redness covered her face, but the smile stayed in place.
As Kenshin walked into his room, carrying their new bags, courtesy of Kaoru's shopping skills, he caught sight of her. Soon after that, Kaoru heard the dull thud of the bags falling to the floor and felt his arms wrap around her from behind. Thoroughly un-spooked and happy she, just let herself sink back against him and sighed, yet again.
"What are you thinking, koishii?" He murmured into her hair.
"Just how beautiful everything is..."
Kenshin grinned and kissed the top of her head.
"Too bad you can't see it from where I'm standing, it's even better..."
She playfully nudged him in the ribs only to pull his arms closer around her not even a thought later.
"Anata?-"
"Aa. I'll pack our things and you can take a shower."
She stared at him disbelieving to some extent. `He didn't just…read my thoughts, did he? I love him! Especially when he smiles a me like that, with his entire soul…' It sent shivers through her spine, `Maybe a shower, a cold one that is, would do me some good…'
She handed him the bundle of clothes and kissed him gently.
"Arigato!"
Sometime later Kenshin caught himself staring at the bathroom door, where she he had last seen her. `Himura? Packing? Remember?'
He snapped out of it and gathered his and Kaoru's new clothes. He had a small `Aha!'-moment when he saw a corner of the small black giftbag sticking out of the bundle of clothes. `So that is what she was up to when she thought I didn't notice! I wonder what...' He was still arguing with himself over whether or not he should open it to see what she was being so secretive about all evening yesterday when he heard the bathroom door open.
Kenshin sank to the floor. It wasn't so much that she was wearing one of his recently declared old shirts, but the pretty blush she wore with it made him ponder the various ways to make her blush like that. That and somehow she just looked right in it, and much more...er...interesting that he ever could..
`Not helping! But…'
Kaoru looked at him, her eyes widening considerably as she looked down at her attire. The shirt was definitely not her size, though it didn't really reach halfway down her thighs, but worst of all, she hadn't bothered to button it all the way up.
"Ano...I forgot to take some clothes into the bathroom with me...and," she sighed and dropped the distressed act, " and it smells like you..."
Kenshin smiled and continued to be mesmerized.
It took some time for him to realize she was actually talking to him again.
"Ne, Kenshin? Could I use your phone?"
`Yare yare, she knows how to knock me out of stupor as well as into it, it seems…'
He shot up.
"Kaoru-chan! How can you even *think* to ask me such a thing?!!---" He slowly walked towards her, reaching out to her face. "---Don't you know? As far as I'm concerned this is as much your home as it is mine, I want you to think of it as such. Please…"
Kaoru finally blinked and felt her knees turning to jelly at the love in his voice, she really had no choice but to embrace him.
"I think I'm not quite used to you yet."
"Well, we'll work on that then," Kenshin chuckled as he rested his head against hers.
He squeezed her lovingly before he let go.
"Now you can go and make that phone-call."
He watched her turn to do as he suggested and swallowed.
"Do you even realize the risks you take in walking around like that?"
Kaoru looked down at her shirt and giggled.
"Nani? Oh…Yes, yes I think I'm aware of that!"
She turned around and walked into the living room with small steps to make sure nothing got terribly out of place.
The last thing she heard was him whining at her retreating back.
"But there's no timeeeeee!!!!"
Kenshin muttered something under his breath and returned to his packing as she dialled the number she knew by heart now. And then tried again.
Chewing her bottom lip, she walked back to Kenshin.
"That's odd.."
"Hmm?"
"Misao isn't answering her phone. I wanted to call her to tell her I was coming her way, but she's not answering. By all accounts she should be in her bed, dreaming of some guy she's been talking about for ages, whose name I just can't seem to remember…Anyway, whenever I called her at this time before, she's be half asleep but still accusing me of not calling for way too long… It's just weird…"
Kenshin got up and smiled at her. "I'm sure she's alright, love, besides, we can go see her in a few hours."
Kaoru nodded and looked around, everything looked ready to go, so apparently Kenshin was one of few men who can pack efficiently, but that she'd seen coming for miles.
He himself it seemed, was checking their bags one last time, before slinging one of them over his shoulder and reaching out for her hand.
"Ready to go?"
~@#$#@~
Thirty minutes later Kaoru and Kenshin were crammed into a single seat on the bullet-train to Kyoto, full as it was of commuting yuppies. An elderly couple sitting across from them smiled at Kaoru when she gently pushed some hair out of Kenshin's face. A few minutes he had fallen asleep, leaning against the window with Kaoru draped partly over him and wrapped in his arms like a great big teddybear.
She herself was feeling rather sleepy too, but had way too much fun observing the people around her to actually let herself fall asleep, as so many people she was watching had chosen to do. The elderly couple especially caught her attention. Something about the way they sat, holding hands, seemed to radiate love for eachother and general acceptance of the world around them. Somehow in all this hectic bustling of passengers and conductors they seemed to her as a calm in the storm. `I hope we'll be like that someday...' She took a deep breath of what she had come to know as just Kenshin and snuggled deeper into his embrace.
A pair of wise and kind eyes were what she opened her eyes to roughly two-and-a-half hours later. She sat up and tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes before addressing the lady.
"What's wrong baa-san?"
"Nothing is wrong, child, I just thought I ought to let you no we're almost at Kyoto Station.' The woman smiled and nodded towards Kenshin, who was still scrunched up in a corner of the seat, and sleeping like a baby.
Kaoru grinned and thanked her, as the woman sat back beside her husband.
Then she turned to her own other half.
"Anata? Kenshin, wake up? We're almost there..." ` Mou, he absolutely never used to be able to sleep this deeply...' She sat up straight and re-did her ponytail, seeing as it had become pretty ruffled during her nap and glanced over to Kenshin, sure she had seen a tiny glimmer of blue shining from beneath his eyelids. `Ah, so that's it, ne?'
She leaned in and moved to stroke his hair, watching closely as his face relaxed even more and a small sigh escaped from him...
`Awww, isn't that cute...really...' Kenshin would have been glad to know he missed the evil gleam over her eyes, because he might just have screamed like a little girl and run out of the compartment.
She tangled her fingers in one of the locks by the side of his face and pulled it taut. "Anata, if you wish to avoid losing a considerable lock of your gorgeous hair, I suggest you stop acting as if you're asleep!"
Slowly, his eyes opened to narrow slits and eventually to their usual almond-shape.
"Maa, maa..."
Kaoru giggled and leaned forward to kiss his adorable little pout.
"I'm glad you didn't make me do it, anata. I really really love your hair..."
He couldn't help but grin sleepily at her, which made her smile grow even wider, because he was just extremely adorable in that instant.
A few minutes later, the train came to a screeching halt in Kyoto and within an instant hundreds of people were trying to get through a single door laden with bags and suitcases. Kenshin and Kaoru had just barely had the opportunity to grab their own before the stream of people dragged them along.
They found themselves again, minutes later, standing on the pavement outside the station, still trying to remember how the had gotten here in the first place.
Kaoru gaped at Kenshin.
"Was Kyoto Central always like this, anata?"
Kenshin chuckled and shook his head.
"Iie, shikashi, I haven't been here in years. So things will have changed."
He heaved the backpack onto his shoulders more firmly and grabbed Kaoru's hand.
"Were does Misao-dono live? I'm supposed to meet Aoshi at 10 so we've got about an hour of spare time."
The smile on her face made the risk of ending up with an extremely pissed off Aoshi seem unimportant.
After digging around in her bag for the small piece of paper on which she had scribbled Misao's address and showing it to Kenshin, she was instantly dragged halfway across the town after Kenshin had laughed in recognition.
"The Aoiya! That's were Aoshi and I used to hang out. It's not too far from here! Let's go, koishii!"
Kenshin marvelled at his memory. Had it not been for Kaoru, he would have thought he was a little boy again, looking for Aoshi after the other boy had run away from their little `family' again.
`I'm almost worried about him again...He's always made such an issue of not asking anyone for help, what can possibly have happened to make him change like this?'
Watching his face intently, Kaoru was mystified by what was going on in his mind. `Kami, I really need to teach him to talk to me!' But in this case, standing in the middle of a street in a city that she didn't know, she settled for yanking his arm and forcing him to look at her.
"Mou, anata! What happened? You completely zoned out on me!"
Kenshin mouthed an `oro' at her and was already starting to raise his hands in defence, when he noticed where they were. His hands kept moving in the same direction, but landed on her shoulders. After spinning her around pointed to the front of an archaic-looking building across the street.
"Look! We're here!" `Oroo... saved by the...ano...building?'
Smiling widely again, she grabbed his hand and dragged him into the restaurant, of course after kissing him on the cheek.
~@#$#@~
Upon entering, the first thing she noticed was how everything truly reflected the early Meiji period, because now that she saw it, she remembered. Nudging her lover in the side, she pointed at opposite wall, which had a beautiful painting of a river, bordered with reeds and birds, and an old fisherman who seemed to be sleeping.
Kenshin smiled too and nodded at her. He scanned the environment and was happy to find everything he had remembered still in place, even the old man behind the counter. He pointed him out to Kaoru.
"That man, Okina as we know him, has owned this place for ages, he will probably know were to find Misao-dono."
Kaoru nodded and set her bags down at his feet.
"I'll be right back then, ne?"
It took her quite some fake-couching to pry the old man's attention away from the waitress' behind and to her own, which wasn't what she had in mind, but at least it was progress.
"Sumimasen, Okina-sama, I'm Kamiya Kaoru, could you tell me where I can find Makimachi Misao at this time of day."
From the bulging eyes, the hyperactive nodding and the licking of lips, she concluded the old pervert hadn't listened to a word she said. So she took matters into her own hands, literally.
"Look here buddy! I'm a waitress' myself, so I know your type. And let me tell you right now that it is NOT EVER going to happen!!! So just tell me were to find Misao and---"
She shook her head and let go of the man's collar, leaving him to collapse on the floor. She was just about to help the man up, when Kenshin reappeared and dragged the man to his feet himself.
"Okina-san, I've warned you before..."
Kaoru was preoccupied by a rush of guilt for treating the old man so horribly, so she missed the look that clearly read `how-dare-you-touch-her-she-is-mine', but Kenshin managed to make sure the old geezer didn't miss it.
"A-aah! Himura-kun! It's so good to see you again!!" His eyes flew from Kaoru to Kenshin with another look that in its turn clearly read `gomen-gomen-gomen-gomen-etc.'
Shook Okina's hand and smiled.
"It's very good to see you too. Now, could you tell us were to find Misao-dono?"
This time, neither Kaoru nor Kenshin missed the clear look of dismay on the old man's face.
"A-ah..." The look on his face was lost when the man turned his face too the floor. Kaoru's heart began to sink with something she couldn't really identify.
"Himura..."
A/N: this may be a bit shorter than the other chapters I did, but I got to this point, and I really could have gone on, but it just seemed like a fun place to stop for a second... ( once again, I'm going to say here that I hope the second I'm talking about isn't gonna turn into another month ne?)