Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Silver Cross ❯ Earthquake ( Chapter 10 )

A/N - So sorry! My second semester of college has been passing so fast that it's taken me a LOT longer than normal to turn out this story. Plus I think I had a little trouble getting past a few scenes. I hope you guys still like this chapter though. I'm feeling the need for a bit more action, but this'll have to do until the next chapter. Thanks to all the reviewers who emailed me and pushed me to turn this chapter out faster! And thanks to you all who also did it the old fashioned way and reviewed! Love ya lots.

JML, Angel81, Koishii Sweet, EEevee, Iram, Rinfirithiel, Black Chiney, Sagitarious Devil, Fanfiction Wanderer, aglaia102, MZ.AMber EYES, Hitokiri-miao miao, stoictimer, Naiya-chan, SkyDancerHawk, Kyia Star, SpaceVixon, marstanuki, Poppy2, Saiya Winters, aNiMePeRfEcT, Silver Eyes Bright, WILD FIRE, pretty Luthien, samurai-swords-maid, Mishorou Mie, Kenshin's Demon, Videl621, Leah Durose, gestoordeann, angelwings1

Disclaimer - I'm tired of making witty disclaimers. I don't own Rurouni Kenshin, okay?

Silver Cross

Chapter 10 - Earthquake

Ahhh-chooo!

Bless you.

You'd think vampires didn't get colds.

The soothing lullaby of his mother's voice beckoned him from sleep, fading away as he felt his awareness float up to consciousness. The sun was setting painfully slow as always. If only he could tear himself from the imprisonment his mind had made since the first and last time he had ventured into the sun as a vampire. Now his sub consciousness protected him from the harmful rays of the day. He would not be able to move until the sun had completely set. He could only breathe in the air of the black bedroom shallowly, as his pulse began to increase achingly slow beat by beat. He searched with his senses for other vampire ki, but of course he felt none. Saitou was not likely to arrive for another hour or two, when Myoujin forced him. There was no love lost in his relationship with that man.

There was Kaoru. She was close, probably sitting on the couch. As his senses returned to him, he could hear the faint sounds of the television. Through their blood connection, he could feel her ki hovering at a normal, relaxed level. Her heart beat was slow and steady. She was calm, serene. He focused on the rush of blood flowing through her veins that he could almost hear in the back of his head, depending on the heady feeling she gave him to bring his self back to consciousness sooner than he would have without her. Suddenly, the waters of his mind turned to quicksand and he was no longer floating on the surface of consciousness. The sand threatened to drag him back down to his dreamland, no doubt his body fighting his mind. And then his head was under the sand and he was having trouble breathing. His senses were fading away again, but he could still hear the harsh gasping of breath struggling to permeate his lungs. Ken fought on. He would conquer his own body. Kaoru was giving him the will to stay awake, to stay aware. Just the thought of her and his mind was flickering in existence between the lightweight buoyancy of water and the heavy weight of the quicksand. He knew that if he could find the strength hidden somewhere deep, the reservoir of hope, he could wake up fully before the sunset. But Kaoru moved farther away in the apartment and his tenuous grip on her ki was broken. The strain was too great. He was not going to win the war this night. He couldn't breathe. His consciousness was buried in the sand.

Kaoru was screaming his name. The world was shaking underneath him. Ken skyrocketed into consciousness. A shuddering breath rocked through his body. Night had fallen. The sun had set without him once again. Sweat was pouring down his body, no doubt a side effect of his lost fight against his body to become fully aware before the sun completely set. Ken was confident that given a few more nights, he would gain progress and ultimately win the war against his mind. His new goal was to wake before the sun set. In the meantime, he pushed himself up on his elbows slowly, feeling the strength of the night flooding back through his body.

Kaoru was no longer screaming, but the world was still shaking. Ken doubted anything was wrong with her. She'd probably never experienced one of the minor earthquakes native to the area. Or perhaps some furniture had fallen or something. The world stilled its trembling as the last of his strength coursed through him. Ken rose swiftly from the bed and drew the door open in one motion, surveying the apartment. A few books and magazines had fallen off tables and the TV and a chair was turned over, but otherwise, the apartment was as it had been the night before. Kaoru was not in evidence. He sensed her in the dining room that doubled as the kitchen and lost no time in seeking her out.

She was crouched underneath the dining room table, a grown woman taking refuge under a piece of furniture kids often used for play forts. The situation would have been funny had she not been staring with wide eyes at a knife embedded directly in front of her in the linoleum of the floor. From the looks of the scene, she had been making her self a sandwich, using the bread knife with its serrated edges to cut a roll, when the earthquake had occurred. He wondered how long he'd been unconscious then if she'd had time to almost finish preparing a sandwich by the time he woke from his lost battle with his subconscious. She must have set the knife down on the counter in surprise when she'd felt the first tremors of the quake. Some elementary school training had no doubt sent her underneath the table. The knife must have fallen down right in front of her at some point, causing her to scream. And that was what had woken him up from his sleep. His sleep in which he had no longer been breathing.

Finally becoming aware of his presence, she drew her gaze away from the bread knife and up to his eyes. He saw the last vestiges of panic fading away, although her heart was still racing. "I-I was just making a sandwich when-when…" Her eyes went back to the knife.

She was obviously still shaken. Suddenly Ken was angry. Fear had driven her to cower underneath the table like some animal. Didn't she know how angry that was making him at Nature that had caused this fear in her soul? She shouldn't have to be wary of anything. And the very idea of a kitchen knife, a bread knife almost landing on her hand!

"Get out from under there," he seethed.

Kaoru ignored his command and kept her eyes on the knife, spellbound as Ken walked forward and bent down in front of her. He placed a hand on the hilt of the knife. "Get out," he practically hissed, yanking the knife up in one violent, fluent motion. Kaoru was startled from her daze and lost no time in scrambling out from under the table, standing with her back against the table and keeping a wary eye on his back as he replaced the knife in the rack. He turned around and met her eyes. His steely expression turned to shock and then pain. How had he managed to hurt her yet again, in less than five minutes? Wordlessly, he came forward and swept her body against his in a tight embrace. At first she tensed, but then she relaxed against him and slid her arms around him in a loose hug, saying nothing for a long moment, letting him hold her.

"You scare me sometimes." She spoke quietly, her tone half admonishing, half filled with another emotion he couldn't discern because he couldn't see her eyes. He pulled back and held her at arms length, seeking her gaze, but her eyes were downcast, to the ground. Something else was troubling her.

"What is it?" he asked harshly, knowing he would not like the news that was going to come from her mouth. Something must have happened during the day.

She withdrew her arms from around him at his tone. He felt the loss acutely. "Yesterday I called Sou to reassure him that I was okay so he wouldn't alert my parents." She stopped.

So far nothing sounded amiss. "Go on," he prompted, still holding her arms.

She looked up at him. "I wanted someone to confide in, so I told him where I was. I told him about you." Her voice had trailed off to a whisper and she looked down at the ground once again.

Ken was pissed that she'd blabbered her whereabouts, but at least it had been to a human with likely no connections to the vampire world. He kept his grip on her upper arms light and remained silent. She looked up and met his gaze once again. Kaoru had more to tell.

"His uncle in Japanis a vampire hunter. Sou told him what I'd said. He's here in LA with Sou and the two hunters from Pennsylvania."

It had obviously cost Kaoru great courage to say all that steadily to his face. Still, he couldn't help but swear. He dismissed the woman before him and thought about this new complication in his life. A not so simple mission to kill the dark one had changed to one where his objective was to kill Tomoe Yukishiro, deal with Hajime Saitou, avoid three hunters and a jealous boyfriend, and somehow kill the dark one in the middle of all the chaos. He should never have brought Kaoru with him. Damn her for dragging him into this mess.

"Ken? Ken please let go."

He didn't know how long she had been pleading with him to release her, but his grip on her arms must have been growing painful from the note of suppressed urgency in her voice. Turning his coldest glare on her, he released her arms and watched as she shrank back against the table. They were both breathing hard. He glanced down at the faint bruises blotching her fair skin, then back into her eyes.

"How do you know they're here?"

"I-I called Japanbecause I promised Sou I would call today and I got his mother and sister on the phone. They told me his uncle had come for him with those two hunters. He left with them to catch a plane to LA," Kaoru explained, emotional pain evident in the timbers of her voice.

"Who is his uncle?" Ken asked, ignoring her struggle for composure.

"Um," Kaoru stalled, willing the name to come to her brain. "I remember Sou mentioning him at one point…"

"Kaoru."

The tone in which he'd said her name made her shiver. "Makoto Shishio! That was it." Kaoru was relieved she'd remembered.

"And what's your boyfriend's full name?"

"Soujiro Seta," she answered miserably.

"Go in the bedroom and get dressed while I call the Juppongatana," Ken ordered. "Wear a bathing suit underneath your clothes. We may be headed to the beach."

Kaoru nodded and rushed past him and out the door. That had gone horribly. She didn't even care about that appalling suit Kamatari had made her buy, well made Ken buy. It felt as if every bond she had managed to form with Ken had been broken. It had been bad enough that Ken was blackmailed into killing the Yukishiro woman because of her; at least that had been inadvertent on her part. But this fiasco was entirely her responsibility, and it could get Ken killed. She just couldn't keep a secret. Looking back on her misguided phone call to Sou, she should have simply lied to him and told him that yes, she was with her parents, or at least a family friend. Ken's story was not hers to tell. Now she had betrayed his trust. It had been so long since Ken had confided in anyone, that she didn't dare hope he would forgive her anytime soon. In fact, for a moment there it had seemed as if he'd forgotten about her completely. She'd been afraid he would hurt her. She'd been staring into his eyes in horror and it had looked as if the swirls of amber that swam in the violet depths had almost taken over. What did that mean? Was she close to driving Ken over the edge with her dumb behavior?

Kaoru dressed quickly. Who could have known Kamatari would be right to make her buy that suit? She hesitantly made her way back to the kitchen, reasoning that Ken would be even more pissed if she left him to clean up the ingredients of her forgotten sandwich. Ken was just flipping his cell phone closed when she entered through the doorway. She picked up the loaf of wheat bread from where it had fallen and retrieved the turkey slices from where they had slid across the counter. She could feel his stare burning through her with every move she made. After placing the meat in the refrigerator, she decided she couldn't stand the silence any longer.

"It was a dumb thing to do."

"Damn right it was." His words bit at the tail end of her sentence.

Kaoru winced. "I've learned my lesson. I'm sorry."

"I don't think you have. Do you know what you did? You brought two of the most powerful and successful vampire hunters to LA: the town most heavily populated with both vampires and contacts. These men won't stop until they find us. This very moment they're probably filling your jealous little boyfriend's head with hate against the vampire race, so pretty soon, he'll be just like them. And then when we inevitably run into them, it'll come down to me or him. I don't mean who wins. Either they will all die, or I will. And I am not about to die before I kill the dark one. By making that call and telling him what you did, you just condemned him never to live out his life as an ordinary human again. As soon as one vampire who is not a member of the Juppongatana sees him with those hunters, they'll spread the word that there are four hunters in the city, and hunters are fair game, not like regular humans. You just had to drag him down too didn't you? Couldn't handle it alone, could you?"

Kaoru blinked tears from her eyes as she stood and let the force of Ken's anger and frustration wash over her. His controlled tone conveyed much more emotion than shouts and frustration would have. He was telling her the facts. And now she had another life resting on her shoulders. If Sou died, then it would all be because of her. Her fault and hers alone. She stared down at the hand that still rested on the refrigerator handle. There was nothing she could say to that. Nothing she could deny. Ken had no reason to lie to her. Sou would not last long once the vampires started hunting him. She could only hope that his uncle was skilled enough to protect the both of them and that he cared enough to want to protect both his nephew. Even so, how would four humans last against a city of vampires?

A series of heavy knocks rapped on the door in the living room. It was the landlord, Mr. Rodriguez calling out to ask if they were alright.

"Get yourself together," Ken ordered before moving away to answer the door. Kaoru noticed that he put special emphasis on his footsteps. She could plainly hear them. Usually his tread was as light as the rustle of cloth against skin, and even quieter if that was possible. Then Ken must have opened the door because she could hear the murmur of their voices, the deep Spanish lisps of the landlord, complimented by the slightly higher but rougher tone of Ken's. She knew both Ken and the landlord would be expecting her to make an appearance; it was custom after all.

How much easier it was to think only about propriety and manners than why she was masquerading as a married woman, why she had to hold herself together. She could only be thankful that Ken's diatribe and not reduced her to tears. The strength of her willpower must have increased. At the beginning of the summer she could imagine herself not cracking under the stress that was upon her. But all that was behind her. The important thing was focusing on the now and moving ever forward. And forward meant into the living room. She took her hand from where it still rested on the refrigerator handle. The Lord would help her get through this. She did not need physical support. She pasted what she hoped was a polite smile on her face and quickened her steps through the doorway and into the kitchen.

Ken evaluated the landlord's expression as he saw the man's gaze travel from his face to a point behind him and felt Kaoru's tread enter the living room from the kitchen. Nothing showed but normal interest. There were no signs of concern after he initially saw that Kaoru was unharmed. Ken allowed himself to release the small breath he'd been holding. Kaoru could pull this off. He turned an empty smile to her as he probed her face for signs of breaking. He saw nothing but strength and determination hidden behind the careful expression written on her face. She had allowed a little worry to come through and for that he applauded her. It was, after all, her first earthquake as far as he knew.

"Mrs. Sato! Your husband tells me you were a little disturbed by the tremor. It was a little higher on the Richter scale than normal. Is everything in the apartment still functioning alright?"

"Just fine as far as I know. I was just looking over the kitchen. Thanks for coming all the way up here to inquire though," Kaoru said, coming to stand beside Ken and taking hold of his hand.

"Don't thank me. It's all part of the job description. Glad everything's okay. Now I'd say you just got a more intimate taste of life in California."

They all laughed politely.

"Well I have to go and check on the other tenants. I don't want to take up too much of your time at any rate."

"We enjoy having you. Thanks again for coming," Kaoru said, releasing Ken's hand and moving to open the door for him.

"No problem. And I'd have to say I'm with you on the Clippers issue, Sato," the landlord said back to Ken as he followed Kaoru to the door.

"I knew you'd see it my way."

Mr. Rodriguez merely laughed as he exited the room. "See you both around."

Kaoru turned around, almost expecting the same neutral and attentive expression to have remained on his face, that same empty smile. Almost. But his expression was cold. He was pushing her away. He had pushed her away, almost completely.

She supposed she deserved it. Calling Sou without consulting Ken had only added to their complications, but beating herself up about it was not going to do anything. Allowing Ken to beat her up about it wasn't doing anything either. If she couldn't call Sou, she would just have to seek him out before the vampire culture mistook him for a hunter and condemned him along with the men whom he was traveling. The problem with that reasoning was of course that she doubted she could find Sou without Ken's help and influence and he obviously was not going to contribute anything to that particular endeavor. Well then she would just have to watch and wait for the opportunity to get Ken to help her save Sou, even if it meant employing a few manipulation tactics, as if that was going to be easy, with the way Ken was looking at her.

Yes, she supposed she deserved it. But Sou didn't deserve it. Ken didn't deserve it. If he pushed her away completely now, she doubted he'd ever come out from the shell in which he'd encased himself since he had become a vampire. From what Kaoru had gathered, Sano's presence had worn away some of the layers of emotional defense that suffocated Ken, allowing her to dissolve the rest. But now those layers were starting to harden once more, forming the basis of a wall that would take centuries to crumble. And Kaoru did not have centuries. She only had today.

They stared, she at the wall he'd erected. Kaoru didn't know if Ken was challenging her or simply observing her observation of him. She broke the silence.

"If you wanted me to leave, I would," she stated clearly.

The vibrations of her voice carried through the air to his ears and penetrated his soul. He could not accept that. She was trying something. It had been a mistake to let down his guard around her in the first place. He couldn't read her as well as he could other people. Still, he was lying. If she left LA, she would die. "No. You value your own life too much."

"If you wanted me to leave, I would," she stated again in the same tone.

From tip to toe, from top to bottom, she was utterly completely wholly entirely frustrating. "Then go." The words grated from his mouth in long cadences, as if his body was in betrayal of his mind when he told her to leave, when he told her to go and die, and see if he cared, see that he didn't care.

Instead, she took a step towards him. He was relieved. He was livid. He was exultant. He was furious. But she was there.

"I know you don't want me to leave. Just admit it to yourself. Let me come back to you."

She was drawing him in again. He somehow knew that if he succumbed, this would be the final time, the last few seconds of time that he was apart from the world. It had gotten harder and harder to maintain the distance between them. When he'd kissed her last night he had felt the barriers he'd erected so painstakingly during his whole life as a vampire tremble and shudder under the impact she was had on him. If he went to her, she would be his. Kaoru would give him her soul. Perhaps she already had. She was already speaking of her young boyfriend as a duty, as a friend to be protected. Ken supposed his problem was that she herself was so young and naive in years, so utterly unlike him, that it caused an ache in a place he could not name. His soul? It had been so long since he'd felt he had a soul. If he pushed her away, sent her from him, then his soul would never ache in this manner again. That was a deliciously appealing prospect. But she would break, and he could never stand to see her broken. If Kaoru broke, he would shatter.

"I can't." He couldn't manage more words without showing emotion and conveying to Kaoru that he didn't mean what he was saying. He couldn't let her know. It would be better for him if he wasn't tied down by her limits wherever he went, better for her if she lived in a safer environment, one where her life wasn't under constant threat, where her strength was equal to that of the people she had to contend with. In this society, she was outnumbered and weak. It was inevitable: she would be killed or turned.

As he watched her face for signs that she was breaking, cracking, rending apart, he saw none. He had severely misjudged her, underestimated her, and by doing that, he had let her down. He'd turned her away, but he could see already that someday soon she would get over it. She would get over him. But he could never get over her. What was broken could be fixed, but when glass shattered, even if it was somehow glued back together by the mortar of time, it was never the same vase or glass or statue. And why were either of them forced to shatter in the first place, he thought, suddenly rebellious of the world? All of a sudden his need to touch her was so intense that he could feel his barriers start to erode, and emotion invade his expression.

"Why?" she asked, her tone heavy with sorrow, though she tried to conceal it. She had almost given up, then.

Ken wondered why he had been angry at her. Now his rage was focused entirely at himself, the Juppongatana, Myojin, Saitou, everything and everyone but her. A peculiar feeling invaded the back of his throat, a pulling that tugged on his conscience, made him desperately want to confess to her that he loved her, and yet choked him into silence.

"You might get hurt."

She scoffed and anger flared in her eyes, darkening them to midnight blue. "I might die in a car crash on the way to the airport if you send me away. My plane might go down. Someone might botch a robbery at the Akabeko and shoot me. There are a lot of ways I might get hurt." The sarcasm in her voice was thick and heavy. "I admit there's an added risk by my association with you, but it's also reducing some of the risk. I doubt you'd let me die in a car crash or get shot by some random human. It's a risk that's no risk compared to what it would be like if I left. I know you don't want me to. Do you know how much it's costing me to say this? But it's worth it, for you," she finished heatedly, looking like she wanted to say more, but refraining.

He strove to maintain control.

"Are you still mad at me, then?" she asked. "I won't ever do something that dumb again, I promise." She felt suddenly wretched, her emotional high plummeting into a kamikaze dive when he didn't respond to even the slightest degree. But she couldn't let him detect that desperation. He would regard it as weak, and she knew Ken admired her most in the moments where she exhibited strength.

"I'm not angry at you," he snapped.

His tone contradicted his words. He was dangerous now, wired with tension, his eyes strikingly fearsome amber clouds. Did she want this caged creature, this man with no ties to the world, who drifted from place to place, town to town like a dandelion seed caught in an updraft? He was wild when agitated, and as with a stray dog, one's instinct forbade drawing too close. He looked as if he was barely restraining himself from lashing out at something, anything within his reach.

Kaoru knew then that she wanted him to the clichéd state of 'always and forever', even if 'always and forever' didn't last through the end of the week for them. She forced herself to draw closer to him, feeling nausea in the pit of her stomach. There in his eyes was also death, and her body made her natural aversion to that death known to her mind.

Time stretched for millennia as she drew close to him until she stood with a slight tremor directly in front of him. She forced her chin up to establish eye contact. His restlessness was unsettling as he watched her warily. Lifting and brushing aside the weight of doubt, fear, confusion, and loneliness along with her arm, she brought her right hand up to touch his cheek gingerly. He didn't flinch, simply gazed down at her, not comprehending, with those tawny eyes. She took back the stray-dog-ready-to-bite analogy and replaced it with a feral cat. It suited him. She could better compare her fear of this moment to that of a lion than a dog. She traced her finger down his cheek as he remained still, letting her touch him. She knew there were questions in her eyes, but he didn't bother to comprehend then, much less answer them, too preoccupied with holding onto his self, it seemed. How she longed for him to snap out of this haze and into his self once more, and enfold her in an embrace that would send electric signals up to her brain that tingled across her whole body. But he was immobile, still and silent. Almost unintentionally, she tilted his head slightly, hers as well, and stood on her toes. A last kiss then. She knew this action could send him off the edge into whatever abyss at which he was toddling on the brink, not good, or bring him back.

So she kissed him, because she couldn't leave him on that edge, to eventually lose his balance and fall in, and because she needed him. No doubt from the death that shown in his gaze she would face the consequences if this was the wrong decision, but she knew she could not live knowing he was out there somewhere and that she had given him up.

So she kissed him. She closed her eyes and pressed slightly open lips to his. She needn't have worried that he would still fall into the chasm even when she tried to rescue him after all. He opened his mouth to her immediately as if all he'd needed was this contact. His tongue invaded her mouth, invoking new sensations, before retreating, leaving behind a sense of profound loss. She knew he was inviting her in, so she came and he let her guide the dance with her hand still touching his face, but now it was cupping his chin gently so she could guide his tongue. Their bodies weren't touching, but she didn't notice until he wrapped an arm around her almost too tightly and she was pressed against his legs and his chest. He grew impatient and she relinquished her control as he pillaged her mouth until her breaths grew frantic and she was suffocating from his kisses, but she couldn't find the strength to break away. His other hand was at the back of her neck, holding her to him. Her tongue touched the tip of a fang and he hissed sharply in pain, drawing back and allowing her to gulp in a few breaths.

"What's wrong?" she managed to ask through her rapid fire breathing.

"It hurts."

Kaoru would have felt as if she was talking to a three year old if it wasn't for the intensity in which he'd said those words, or what he had just done to her.

"I can never have enough of you. It hurts," he stated simply, still not all himself again.

Kaoru smiled into his eyes, watching as the amber that dominated his eyes slowly faded until they settled into a mesmerizing swirl of violet and amber. "I guess this means you don't want me to go."

"No. You're mine," he stated flatly. "And I am yours." He touched his tongue to the tip of her nose briefly, lightly.

"So we've established property rights then," Kaoru said, attempting a nonchalant attitude, feeling the need to slow down the pace. What were they careening towards at this rate? She had serious doubts that she was ready to find out.

He did not take to her attempt to lighten the mood. "What about Sou?" He was determined that she should be his and no one else's. The boy was constantly getting in the way.

"What about him?" she asked, a little defensively.

"What are you going to do about him?"

Kaoru saw his meaning now. "I don't think this is the time to tell him, if I could even find him," Kaoru said, a bit exasperated. Did he have to change the topic to such a troubled subject? The warm feeling of satisfaction was fast fading with Ken's words.

"Do you love him?" he asked, curious.

Kaoru bit her lip lightly for a second, thinking. She forced herself not to look away from Ken's eyes. He had to know that she meant what she was going to say. "I thought I did, but not anymore. This is more than what I felt for him."

"This?" He was determined to make her say it. If she didn't verify it for herself, he could never be sure she had pushed the boy away in her heart and truly felt only for him.

Did he have to make her spell it out for him? It was so embarrassing. "Us," she said deciding to keep it simple.

"Oh." Ken hadn't thought she could sum it up with a simple word, but Kaoru had surprised him again.

And then he replied with something like 'oh'! Of all the stupidest, most meaningless words to say, he had to say 'oh'. Kaoru sighed inwardly, well at the least, it wasn't as bad as 'um'.

"If you don't tell him, I will," Ken informed her simply. He couldn't let her clarity throw him off the point he was trying to prove.

"Why?" she asked, angrily, trying to push away from him, but he only held her loosely in his embrace.

"It's fair. Don't try to shield his emotions. It'll only hurt him more."

"If he lives to be hurt! I'd rather not tell him until after this is over. If I don't make it, then at least he will live on happier, believing I loved him."

Ken was taken aback. She couldn't really think he would let anything happen to her to prevent her from living, could she? He would die a thousand times before he'd let her soul fade away to that other world. "You won't die any time soon," he promised simply.

Kaoru let her eyes stray down from his eyes to the collar of his shirt. That was much easier to look at then the intense gaze of his eyes. "Only if you're there," she informed him softly. "I'll tell him then. But how do you expect me to?" Already, the guilt was settling in. Sou would be hurt, so hurt by this. And she wouldn't even be able to provide him with an explanation as to why she was leaving him. They were comfortable with each other, had fallen into a routine of love, of living with one another. The fact that each one loved the other had gone without saying. She still loved Sou, but that love paled in comparison with what she felt when she was with Ken. Was it wrong to like one person more than another? And to think that she was insulting Sou even more by dumping him for another man. Would he ever forgive her? Ever talk to her again? Ever look at her without betrayal showing in his eyes? But all that was worth Ken, because when she thought only of him, the world was new and good and she couldn't imagine her existence without him now that they'd met.

"After Saitou arrives, we'll be heading to a teahouse before the beach. We'll detour to a payphone in the middle of town and you can call him then. Keep it brief, only one minute tops."

Kaoru swallowed nervously. This was not something she was looking forward to. She mentally asked the Lord for a reservoir of strength before looking back up into Ken's eyes. Here was her strength. The Lord had pulled them together. He had given her this person to care for and watch over. She didn't have much of choice in the matter. What kind of person would she be if she continued to string Sou along as if things were okay, as if they were still the same? Even if she hated Ken, things wouldn't have been the same. This experience had changed her radically. She could never go back to the person she was a few weeks ago, naïve and oblivious of the depth of the world around her, secure in a world where nothing was more dangerous or heart-stopping than failing an exam or being late for work.

"I'll do it." She promised herself that she wasn't doing this to curb Ken's jealousy, for surely that was what it must be. No, this was for Sou. And suddenly, irrationally, she almost resented Ken for putting her in this situation. If only he didn't force her to love him and put him above other people. If only she wasn't attracted to him, or he wasn't attracted to her. Things would be so much simpler. But she was, and she wasn't going to deny that fact. She'd be miserable without him. No doubt he would be just as miserable without her, although he was loath to admit it. That was something they were going to have to work on, the pushing away when he needed her, or when it worked to his advantage. Ken's solitary nature did not work in favor of a lasting relationship, and this relationship had damn well better be lasting, with everything it was costing both of them. Her heart tightened just thinking of the way Ken had looked when he'd been toddling on the brink of sanity then. How had she been able to bring him back? What if it happened again when she wasn't around? Who would bring him back then? She wondered what was going on behind those eyes as he stared down at her, demanding something more. Had he seen the resentment flicker through her eyes just then? What if he hadn't understood that it was not for him anymore, but for the world in general?

The 'Mission Impossible' ring tone invaded the tension in the room. Ken's cell phone was ringing. He reluctantly released her and reached into his pocket, drawing out the phone.

"Hello."

None of the pleasantries intoned when a person answered the phone were evident in his voice.

There was silence in the apartment while Ken listened to whoever was on the other line. Kaoru could hear nothing but her breathing, still slightly heavy from the kisses they'd shared.

"How did you get this number?"

Ken's tone was not pleased. Kaoru wondered who the person on the other end of the line was. Stilling her breaths, she faintly heard the loud tones of the male on the other end of the line.

"Battousai, if you don't get your sorry ass down here in the next five minutes-"

"Are you threatening me?" Ken's voice, a deeper pitch now, held the foreshadowing imagery of a knife pressed against a gulping throat.

Kaoru didn't hear the other man's reply. Ken covered the mouth piece to speak to her. "We're leaving. Get what ever you need. I'll be waiting for you in the hallway." And then he was moving away rapidly toward the door, grabbing the house keys along the way.

Kaoru sighed and did as he asked, or rather ordered, she thought with a pang of annoyance. She was going to have to set a few things straight with him after they got out of LA. Her irritation soon faded however, as she rode down to the ground level with Ken in the elevator. He was bickering vigorously with the person on the other end of the line. From what she could piece together from this one end of the conversation, the person they were about to meet up with and Ken shared a dislike for each other, but also a grudging admiration. She couldn't imagine bickering with Ken to such a high extent as this mysterious man dared. A scowl of irritation permanently fixed itself upon Ken's face, which only deepened when they reached the ground floor and the elevator doors opened. Apparently the person on the other line had hung up on him. Annoyed, he flipped his phone shut and practically growled out at the night.

Kaoru couldn't help but laugh.

Ken's scowl lightened as he turned to her. She was a giant gasp of fresh air, enough to keep his mind off the annoyance that man invoked in him. "What?" he asked, not bothering to conceal the frustration from his tone.

"It's just funny to see you annoyed so easily. I didn't know anyone had that effect on you."

The mirth shining in her eyes was amusing. Why did her moods have such a strong effect on his? He couldn't help but send her a brief smile as he held the door open for her to pass through. She stopped in the doorway to drop a fleeting kiss on his cheek and then she was gone into the night. Ken sighed and followed her. He only hoped they would survive the night unscathed.

Kaoru waited for Ken at the bottom of the stairs, searching the well lit street for the vampire Ken had been talking to on the phone. And then she saw him. He was coming towards her from the left, tall and casual in blue jeans and a collared blue shirt. Her vampire from yesterday, looking just as annoyed as Ken had before she'd made light of the situation, smoking a cigarette and flicking the ashes into the street, he met her eyes. Wolf-like, he stopped in his tracks by the curb.

It seemed to Kaoru that the air thickened with tension. He'd glanced behind her at Ken, but then once again, his eyes had fallen to hers. Here was the man who had saved her from that Takeda vampire. Thinking fast, she supposed that Ken must think she felt threatened by him, which probably only magnified the friction level. Since they were going to be together until they met up with Tomoe Yukishiro, Kaoru reasoned that they had all better get along. So before she could think about it too much and lose her nerve, she walked quickly forward until she stood directly in front of him and held out her right hand.

He smirked and placed his cigarette between his lips before grasping her hand in his, accepting the offer to shake.

"Kamiya Kaoru," she introduced herself.

"Saitou Hajime," he replied, his voice as sharp and predatory as she remembered.

"Thanks for saving me yesterday," Kaoru managed as their hands fell apart. The man still spooked her out. "And I'm sorry about kicking you in the crotch," she added matter-of-factly.

Ken let out a snort of laughter behind them.

Saitou's eyes flashed as he looked beyond her. "Shut up, Battousai. I'm not going to enjoy this anymore than you, especially not with your little mistress following us around and getting in the way. If I had it my way I would have been the one to kill Yukishiro, but my boss seems intent on forcing you to, so now I have to deal with it. Now come on, we're taking cabs tonight."

Kaoru narrowed her eyes up at the man. He had just had the audacity to call her Ken's mistress and then order them both around like he was the one in charge. No one likes to be insulted, and she was no exception.

"What, little raccoon?" he asked in a mocking tone.

"What did you just call me?"

His only reply was a smirk and a puff of smoke in her face.

Any retort Kaoru might have dreamed up was swallowed in a fit of coughing. She squeezed her eyes shut to hold in the tears that threatened to jump from her eyes. Needless to say, Kaoru did not do well with cigarette smoke.

"Watch your self around Kaoru," Ken said, between the two in less than a second. He was furious that Saitou had insulted the only person he treasured in this world. "I won't tolerate you insulting her. You've been warned, Saitou."

Saitou lowered his voice so Kaoru couldn't hear over her coughing. "Has the Battousai really weakened so much that his existence revolves around one scrawny human bitch? I could crush her in two seconds. You'd be wise to rid yourself of her after this is over, that or convert her into a vampire."

"What I do is none of your business," Ken replied in a voice just as low. "Kaoru is none of your business. If you ever touch her again or so much as look at her wrong, I swear to you I will cut your head off and bring it to Tokio on a stake."

"Darn vampires with over-inflated egos," Kaoru mumbled after she finally stopped coughing and opened her eyes once again. Ken was watching Saitou with narrowed eyes as the man tried to catch a taxi. The drivers all seemed wary of him and sped past, careful to avert their gazes from the man's yellow eyes.

"Feeling better?" Ken asked in a tight voice.

Kaoru figured he was still angry at Saitou or something. Ken really needed to let the little things go. It wasn't like Saitou had hurt her, and he may not have blown the smoke in her face on purpose. Well, that probably wasn't the case, but the vampire seemed to be getting his just deserts chasing futilely after cabs. Kaoru couldn't help but let out a watery giggle as Saitou tripped over the curb and almost fell on his face. "I'm fine, Ken," she assured him, fumbling around in her purse for a tissue to wipe her eyes. "aside from the fact that I can feel my lungs turning black. Ugh. Did I have to be breathing in when he did that?" She'd decided to make light of the issue so Ken wouldn't be so tense around Saitou, which was definitely not making for a pleasant evening. But when it was time for Saitou to leave…the man would feel her wrath.

Ken turned to ask her what that last inflection of her voice had meant, but the words never left his mouth. There she was, his own perfect picture of life. There was no way in Hell he deserved her, but there she was, fumbling around in another one of those purses Kamatari had made him buy for her that matched her outfit. And through her thin white shirt, he could see the top of the bathing suit Kamatari had bought for her. Kamatari had had enough foresight to make it relatively revealing. Ken found himself looking forward to the beach party on the coast. He wondered what the bottom of the suit looked like. It wasn't like he hadn't memorized her shape. The clingy clothes she wore left nothing to the imagination, but Kaoru in a bathing suit was a sight he'd only dreamed of. To see all that skin with his own eyes and run his hand along the smooth lines of her body was certainly an event to look forward to.

She finished dabbing her eyes with the tissue and looked up at that moment, meeting his gaze. An electric thrill pulsed through Kaoru's body. He was practically stripping her with his eyes. If it had been any other man, she would have screamed out 'hentai' and hit him over the head with her purse, but it was different with Ken. She was powerless to do more than gaze, blushing, back at him. Screaming 'hentai', and whacking him over the head with her purse may have aroused suspicion in any case since they were supposed to be married, Kaoru reflected, watching him with widened eyes as he came towards her.

Ken stared down at her, his expression slightly more tender, as he stood in front of her. Kaoru stared back.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Kaoru was disappointed. She'd been expecting him to kiss her or something. "I'm fine," she replied softly, still not daring to break the spell. The world had gone silent around them.

"We've already fought and it's only been an hour since sunset." His voice held an undertone of regret.

"It's because you're so stubborn," she joked softly.

"It's been a week now, Kaoru, since you got stuck with me."

"And I'm not sorry for one minute of it. I'm going to help you find the dark one, Ken. I haven't forgotten what it did to Sanosuke."

He enveloped her in a hug, breathing in the smell of her shampoo from the top of her head. He'd had to rely on his own inner strength for so long. Here was a new source of intensity for him to focus on and draw from. Even the harsh tones of Saitou swearing at every cab driver in the city were muted when he was around Kaoru. It was hard to believe that it had only been one week since he had known her. Relationships seldom developed this fast in his life. One week and he knew he would risk his life for her, die for her, fall apart without her. Could he go over that truth enough times to satisfy his wondering mind? Half the time he refused to believe he would make such sacrifices for her, but then his soul cut in to his denial and set him straight again. She was changing him.

"What were you thinking?" Her voice came muffled from where she had buried her head in his shoulder.

"What was I thinking?" Ken repeated her question in surprise. Had he done something wrong? 'Again,' a voice inside his head accused.

"When you were looking at me just now," Kaoru said slowly. "I never saw you at me like that before."

"Battousai!" The bark of Saitou's voice was sharp. "Hurry up, I finally caught a cab."

Ken sighed at the vampire's interruption. So she'd seen something different in the way he looked at her. Kaoru was a perceptive person, well at least when it came to his feelings she was. He only wished they were back in the apartment, secluded from the world, and not standing on the sidewalk of LA. "I'll tell you tonight. I promise."

"Okay."

She didn't seem too happy at having to wait, but they both knew there was nothing else to do. Besides, he wasn't sure she would be all that happy with what he had to say in the first place. He slid his arms from around her, but kept one of her hands in his as he led her towards the cab.

I'm never going on that ride again! I swear I almost fell out of it!

Sano, calm down. It's just the swinging ship.

I don't care! I swear I almost fell out and squished the people in front of us.

Sano, you didn't, and even if you had I would have stopped you from falling.

Would you? How can I be so sure?

Sano, shut up. People are starting to stare, you don't want to break our cover, do you?

I don't care! That ship is worse than trains! It's worse than roller coasters! At least they strap you in properly for them! I'm going to sue the amusement park!

"Keep your cell phone on in case your girl contacts you, but don't expect her to. Now make sure you have your wallet. You and I are going out, kid."

"What?" Soujiro asked sleepily from under the covers where he had been napping.

"I am not here to baby-sit you, kid. Enishi and Jineh are already gone. If you expect to find your girl, then get your ass up out of bed. I'll be waiting in the hallway."

"I'm sorry, Oji," Soujiro called halfheartedly after him. With a sigh he disentangled himself from the sheets and hurriedly slipped on his shoes. He was in no hurry to become a burden to his uncle.

A/N - And that's that. I hope you liked this chapter. Again, I'm sorry I made you all wait. Leave me a review if the chapter was ok and you forgive me enough. Thanks! ~Aryanne