Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Standing Tall ❯ Breakfast Ramblings ( Chapter 4 )

A/N: Guys, you are really making me one happy writer! The last time I checked, I had 31 reviews! That's the most I've ever gotten! Thank you SO much! I do hope you'll continue to review, though! You guys really motivate me too! Arrigatou, Ja ne, and Review, onegai!

Disclaimer: *cowers from the sakabatou hovering above her* *Squeek* Not mine.

Kaoru awoke to the beautiful rays of the sun shining through the window. She sat up and yawned, stretching her tired limbs. As she looked around, however, she noticed two things: One, she was still wearing her kimono from the previous day, and two, she wasn't in her room. She looked down next to her and bit back a scream when she saw a certain red-haired rurouni sleeping next to her.

I slept...in Kenshin's room?! She mentally panicked, quickly yet quietly jumping to her feet and heading for the shouji. With a quick peek around the hallway Kaoru bolted for her room and slammed the shouji shut behind her. If anyone saw her coming out in the way she did, who knows what kind of rumors would start to circulate!

Sanosuke grinned from his position at the stairs, his arms folded losely in front of him. Looks like Jou-chan's making progress with Kenshin... The rooster-haired fighter thought as he decended the stairs. As he reached the bottom, he decided that the scene he just witness would become the breakfast discussion for that morning.

Kaoru took a deep breath when she stepped off the stairs, the memory of this morning still very fresh in her mind. I can't believe I fell asleep in his room...why didn't Kenshin wake me up! She mused, sitting down next to Okon (A/N: Thanks again, Prudence-chan! ^^). The older Oniwabanshuu female member looked at her out of the corner of her eye and smirked. "Ohayou, Kaoru-chan."

"Ohayou, Okon-san." Kaoru replied, noticing a weird tone to her voice.

Misao sat down next to her, a huge grin pastered on her face. "Did you sleep well, Kaoru-san?"

That same tone...I wonder what's going on? "Hai, I did. Did you?"

"Oh, probably not as good as you did." Misao replied, covering her mouth to stiffle a giggle.

The next person to sit down was Omasu, who unlike her fellow members, didn't greet Kaoru with a weird tone to her voice. "Ohayou, Kaoru-chan." "Ohayou, Omasu-san." Kaoru replied, smiling for the missing tone. Must be my imagination. Kaoru thought as she looked up to Megumi, who was just joining the table. She had a slight scowl on her face, and when she met Kaoru's gaze her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Uh oh. "Ohayou, Megumi-san."

"It must have been a better night for you." Megumi replied harshly, taking a sip of her tea.

"What?" The young shihondai asked, raising an eyebrow.

Now she was confused. What was with everyone? Did she do something wrong? Break something? Say something she shouldn't have? Kaoru awaited an answer when Megumi finished her tea. When she didn't get an answer, Kaoru sighed and began sipping her soup. Now I know I didn't do anything wrong...how could I have done something? I've only been helping at the Aoiya and taking care of Kenshin!

The men sat down at their table, each glancing over to Kaoru. Shiro and Kuro simply watched her, unreadable expressions on their faces. But as for Yahiko and Sanosuke, they had sly grins on their faces that gave Kaoru an uneasy feeling in her stomach.

Breakfast was a bit too quiet for her liking as well. Except for whispering between Okon and Megumi and Yahiko and Sanosuke, it was completely quiet. WAY too quiet. Finally, the poor shihondai couldn't take it anymore and slammed her bowl against the table, her eyebrows furrowing in anger. "Alright, what's going on?!"

"Do you even have to ask?" Misao answered, that same grin on her face.

"Ask? What are you talking about?" Kaoru replied.

"We heard about you and Ken-san last night." Megumi spat, her glare focusing directly on Kaoru.

Shimatta! Kaoru blushed, but her anger didn't faulter. "Me and Kenshin?"

"Yeah, Kaoru. We heard you and Kenshin 'spent the night together'." Yahiko said with a mouth full of food.

"So Jou-chan, did ya get anywhere?" Sanosuke asked, trying to pick up something with the chopsticks in his left hand. If Kenshin were down there, the color of his hair would have paled in comparison with the color on her face, which was a mix between anger and embarrassment. "WHADDYA MEAN, GET ANYWHERE? I DIDN'T DO ANYHING WITH KENSHIN!" Kaoru bellowed, her fist shaking angrily.

"That's not what we heard." Okon said, and Kaoru could have sworn she saw a small set of fox-ears pop on the omnitsu's head.

"And what exactly did you hear?" The young shihondai said through clenched teeth.

"We heard you and Kenshin spent the WHOLE night together." Yahiko answered, and immediately regretted it.

A well thrown bowl hit him square in the face, KO'ing him instantly. "We did spend the whole night together, but not in the way you're thinking! Pervert!"

"So you guys didn't..." Misao asked slowly.

"So you and Ken-san didn't..." Megumi asked.

"You and Himura-san didn't..." Omasu and Okon asked together.

"NO! ALL WE DID WAS WATCH THE FIREFLIES! THAT'S IT! AND AS FOR WALKING OUT OF KENSHIN'S ROOM THIS MORNING, I FELL ASLEEP IN THERE! WHERE WOULD YOU GET THE IDEA ME AND KENSHIN..." Kaoru yelled. All the women's fingers pointed to the guys' table, and Shiro and Kuro immediately dove out of the way, leaving Sanosuke. The ex-fighter-for-hire grinned nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I jus' thought since you were walkin' out of his room this morning, that maybe you and Kenshin were making some progress."

And it was times like these everyone present wondered where Kaoru pulled her bokken from as it slammed into the top of Sanosuke's head, knocking him out. He fell next to a still unconscious Yahiko, mumbling something about 'asking before figuring things out on his own'. Everyone was pretty sure she didn't carry it with her.

Kaoru quickly finished off her miso soup and tea, before standing up and stomping into the kitchen. Sae was there already preparing something for Kenshin. Kaoru sighed and leaned against the wall nearby, a mushroom cloud floating from her mouth as she did. "Stupid Sanosuke!"

"Don't worry Kaoru-chan." Sae said sweetly, handing her the tray of food for the rurouni.

"He just wants to see you and Kenshin get togeher."

Kaoru blinked and looked at her, taking the tray slowly. Sae giggled and motioned to the dining room. "I was the first person he told."

Kaoru stomped through the dining room grumbling a select number of curses before ascending the stairs to Kenshin's room. When she felt a few people following her, she turned around and glared at them coldly, causing those select few (Ie: Misao, Okon, Omasu, Megumi, and a newly awoken Yahiko and Sanosuke) to slink back down the stairs.

"Idiots." Kaoru scoffed as she slid open the shouji to Kenshin's room.

She was happy to see that Kenshin was already awake, taking his position outside on the porch. He looked over his shoulder at Kaoru and smiled. "Ohayou, Kaoru-dono. Did you sleep well?" Kaoru's eye twitched, but she managed a smile and sat down next to him. "Ohayou Kenshin, and yes I did."

"You looked so peaceful...Sessha didn't want to wake you." Kenshin continued, taking the bowl Kaoru offered him.

Kaoru sighed and rested her head in her hands. This was NOT a good morning.

"Are you alright, Kaoru-dono?" Kenshin asked, tilting his head to look into her eyes.

Kaoru straightened and smiled at him, trying to hide the newly burning anger raging inside of her. "I had an interesting breakfast."

"Oh? Would you like to tell Sessha about it?" Kenshin asked, taking a sip of his soup.

Twitch. I don't know how he's going to react, but here goes nothing... "Well, when I woke up this morning, Sanosuke saw me coming out of here. He kind of got the wrong idea and told everyone that we spent the night togeher." Kaoru said, her cheeks tinting a lovely shade of red.

"But we did spend the night together, right? We watched the fireflies." Kenshin replied, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

Is he dense or what? "We did, but everyone thought we spent the night...doing...something else..." Kaoru trailed off, her cheeks now matching the color of his hair.

Kenshin pondered this explaination, and when nothing came to mind Kaoru sighed and whispered into his ear, too embarrassed to say the words aloud. When she finished, Kenshin's cheeks brightened quite rapidly (2.4 seconds exactly), and he almost dropped his soup.

"That's what everyone was thinking." Kaoru finished, folding her hands in her lap.

I have to remember to speak with Sano later. Kenshin thought, putting his bowl down shakily. "G-Gomen, Kaoru-dono...Sessha should have woken you up. Then you wouldn't have had to put up with that this morning, de gozaru yo."

"Oh, it's alright. I explained to everyone what really happened." And I gave Sanosuke a lovely new bruise on his head. Kaoru added mentally. Kenshin played what he believed what went on that morning, and couldn't help but laugh. He could see Kaoru beating the Tori-atama to a bloody pulp.

"Kenshin, it's not funny!" Kaoru said, blushing again.

"I'm sorry Kaoru-dono. Sessha just thought of something funny, de gozaru." Kenshin said, waving his hand.

Kenshin returned to his soup, but couldn't help but ponder. If it bothers her that much, perhaps she...may have feelings for me?

And at the same time, Kaoru was pondering as well. Kenshin blushed an aweful lot when I told him about this morning...maybe...he likes me? More than a friend?

The two looked at each other, and with a smile, they turned away, Kaoru gazing out into the courtyard lit with the still beautiful morning sun, and Kenshin working on his breakfasat.

A/N: A figured a little humor was needed... Thanks to Prudence-chan for giving me this idea! Of course Sanosuke, being the guy he is, would get the wrong idea! I know if I saw someone walking out of some guy's room early in the morning with the clothes they were wearing the day before on, I'd get some ideas of my own. *Grin* But anyway, I hope you enjoy it! I think in the next chapter I'm going to skip ahead a few days...dunno yet. I gotta do a little calculating to figure out how many days they are going to be until they return to Tokyo. The equation I have right now is:

Day they leave for Tokyo = 2 weeks - 30 days to a month / number of expected chapters

Doesn't make any sense, right? I stink at math. Anyway, please leave a review and lemme know what you think! Ja!