Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ The Samurai Wives ❯ Storm ( Chapter 10 )

Chapter Ten- Storm

Kaoru stumbled, tripping on her own feet, combined with the rough terrain of the dirt road. A warm hand caught her, keeping her from falling, but pulled her along gently instead of waiting for her.

"We shouldn't take too much time. They could still track us." Dusk was falling around them, and Kaoru could already see the stars burning above them.

"When will we be in Kyoto?" She asked quietly, picking up her pace to match his.

"Soon." Was his only reply, eyes not even looking at her, but all around them to see the entire landscape, for the possibility that they could be attacked.

She nodded as they came over a hill that had hidden the dim lights of the city from them. "Is that it?"

He nodded once, very slowly.

"Do you know where everyone will be waiting?"

"I have a general idea."

She sighed, withdrawing back into herself. "I see." She murmured. The feeling rushing over her was one not understood. She wanted to bring him back to reality; to what had happened to them, and how they should be reacting, as opposed to his indifference that had her confused and hurting worse than she had been when they left the house that morning.

Within moments, they were only a few minutes stride from the outskirts of the city. Kenshin slowed down to a stop.

"Kaoru..." He had turned to stare at her.

She turned slowly. "Yes?"

He looked out to the city, and then stared at the ground. "Katsura probably didn't know that Iizuka was the spy... That will be the first thing I will have to tell him."

"Yes, I figured that would be the case. What are you saying?"

He looked up at her, his stare piercing. "It was decided that you would be going to your family around this time. Just about this week, because we knew we would somehow manage to make things safe by then. It was decided long ago, before we even went to retrieve you."

The words left a smarting sting inside her, which ignited into a hot anger. "And you never told me? What if something had happened where it wouldn't have happened? Where this entire plan of yours would go up in flames? What would you have done then? Didn't you think I needed to know?"

He looked unnaturally uncomfortable, but stared back at her clearly. "It isn't something I planned. I was only told to bring you back, then to protect you from any harm that may have threatened you. The plans were made by Katsura himself, and nothing I would have done or said would change them."

The anger inside her exploded. "And you never told me!"

"You knew you were going back. It was never a secret."

Unable to find a comeback, she looked away, pain rapidly replacing the anger. She had always known that she was going back to her `family', though she had never met them, but had never thought that it would happen so soon... Or perhaps not even at all. Moreover, the feeling of betrayal stung worse than the idea of going to dwell with strangers. Somehow, during the short months living alone with him, Kaoru had grown accustomed to Kenshin and their silent life. A life where they never had to speak to let their feelings be known. She then felt deceived in his silence, in that he never told her how things were going to end.

"Let's go." He announced coolly, turning away from her and starting toward the city.

Unmoving, she watched him as he paced back down the other side of the hill. He didn't turn, nor stop, but called back in a flat monotone.

"Don't stand there. I said, let's go."

Kaoru turned her face up the sky, which was darkening slowly, the threat of a storm on the horizon. The dark clouds rolled ominously, flashing occasionally with the sharp lightning. A single drop of rain fell to her face, and then rolled down like an icy teardrop. "No... more..." She whispered to the advancing silence, which smothered her in her own anguish.

ooooooooo

Kenshin slid the shoji open furiously, dropping his swords on the floor unceremoniously before wringing out his soaked hair. Already, not even a moment inside the new inn, Katsura had sent a summons for him to come. A summons that he had known was coming since the beginning of the winter, through the start of spring, and then, just five weeks until the start of summer. Lifting his wakizashi gently from the floor, in an almost apologetic manner, he slid it into his belt again, followed quickly by the katana.

Even at that moment, he didn't understand his own anger. He didn't understand the frustration that pounded at him, insistently screaming that he listen and wake up to his own emotion. Ignoring it, he stepped into the room where Katsura waited, a stranger kneeling across from him.

"Himura-san."

Kaoru was there, he noted, and would not look at him. "Yes?" The syllable slid out, a frozen sound.

"Kaoru-dono... She tells me that Iizuka was the spy that deceived us all."

"It is true."

Katsura nodded once, then again to the man kneeling across from him. "Umeki-san is here to take her to her family..." He paused, then pressed on. "I... presume that the two of you have farewells to say?"

"You presume too much." Kenshin hissed quietly; politely. "I have business to attend to. Thank you." He bowed shallowly once to both men, turned, then left the three alone again.

His consciousness was still pounding on him.