Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ The Sharpest Lives ❯ Chapter 7

The Sharpest Lives 7 / ??
Written by Jezz-Ra
Warnings - Not all warnings apply to all chapters. Yaoi, Lemon, Violence, Language, Angst
Disclaimer - I don't own Rurouni Kenshin, don't make money off it. Wish I did.

Archived at - anime. adultfanfiction. net, fanfiction. net, and mediaminer. org ::: Anywhere else, ask!
Questions or Comments? - Email me at megami _ no _ remon @ hotmail. com ((remove spaces))

// blah // indicates thoughts.

A/N - Time to turn things up a notch. Mwehehehe.
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Sano woke up a couple hours later with a low mumble. He had somehow lost both his pillow and his blanket while sleeping, and now had a major kink in his neck.

Despite it being mid-morning, the cabin was mostly dark. Only a few fingers of light trailed in over the top of the door, which was slightly too short for the frame. Sano smirked slightly as he looked at it. The door was a makeshift replacement, after the original was broken in a fight with some drunk and unruly passengers. The merchant vessel never took many passengers at any given time, preferring to devote their ship to hauling goods...but when they were loaded the captain would take a few depending on how much room they had.

These passengers, however, had no knowledge of Sano's prowess as the regular crew did. Sanosuke had never been shy about gambling or taking other people's money...and when he had gleefully cleaned out these men, thy had come after him in a rage.

Sano had, to his credit, attempted to walk away. // Kenshin would have been proud, seein' me walk away from a fight. And surprised. // The men had come after him...and ended up flying head-first through Sano's door. And so, the captain had given him a temporary replacement which Sano had never pressed to fix further. The extra light that it let filter in was actually convenient in the morning and early in the evening, giving him just enough to see by without having to light a lamp in the windowless cabin.

The fighter sat up and stretched out, careful to be quiet. To his surprise, neither the motion or the slight sounds he was making disturbed Kenshin in the slightest. // Hm. Either he knows its just me or this is all takin' a much bigger toll on him than he wants to let on. I'm willing to bet it's the latter. I should probably let him sleep. I guess I'll go see how things are up on deck and then come back to check up on him...change bandages and stuff. //

Sanosuke eyed Kenshin for a long moment. The samurai had curled up on one side, sakabatou clutched in a death-grip in his fingers. Sano barely refrained from sighing. // Meh...he doesn't even relax when he's asleep, does he? I guess it would be pretty nerve-wracking to be in that kind of position, though... knowing you're a wanted man with enemies all over and suddenly be unable to protect yourself very well. Poor guy. //

Sano gently brushed a few errant strands of hair from Kenshin's face. // Heh. Hard to believe someone that looks as sweet and innocent as you would even know the first thing about swordplay. // Lost in thought, Sano's thumb lightly drifted across one of the lines of Kenshin's cross-shaped scar.

Sano froze when Kenshin let out a soft breath and shifted slightly, unconsciously leaning into the touch. The fighter swallowed convulsively, eyes widening, not daring to move. Sano's mind finally caught up with his wandering fingers. // What in the fuck am I doing?! This is... it... it's Kenshin, not some girl. // He stalwartly ignored the little voice that whispered in the back of his mind that Kenshin was prettier than most all of the women he had ever known. // But...shit. Guys don't sit around and...and... //

"Sano?"

Sano jerked his fingers back as if he had been scalded, eyes huge. He had been caught! // Not that...that there was anything to catch me doing! // "Y...Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

"I..." Sano swallowed. "I was just seeing if your fever had gone down any." // Of course I was. It's not that I'm...getting peculiar or anything. I'm just feeling... I don't know, maternal or protective or something... because he's hurt and vulnerable and I'm watching over him. // "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"It's alright."

"Well, since you're awake anyways, I probably should change your bandages." Sano got up and busied himself preparing the supplies the doctor had given him. "I'll be right back, I have to go get some water."

When Sano returned, Kenshin had unwound his bandages. Sano couldn't help but chuckle slightly. "Ugh. I have to say, these herbs look pretty disgusting....but as long as they work, right? Your face is half green."

Kenshin made a face. "Oro...green really is not my color."

Sano snickered and sat down on the edge of the bed to wipe away the remains of the old poultice. When he'd finished, Kenshin hesitantly allowed his eyelashes to flutter open. Sano winced, glad that Kenshin couldn't see his expression. The redhead's eyes were blank, vacant and bloodshot. He had always hated the look of blind eyes - something about it really creeped him out. The fact that THESE were Kenshin's beautiful amethyst eyes with that horrible flat look in them just made it worse.

// Beautiful? Well...yeah, alright. I guess there's nothing wrong with me admitting Kenshin's easy on the eyes. // Sano's thoughts had turned defensive. // Yeah. I mean, pretty is pretty, and there is nothing wrong with me accepting that a guy can be aesthetically pleasing. // Sano was pleased with himself, feeling somewhat better now that he had ascertained this. As if to defy the squirming unease in his mind, he gave Kenshin a good solid once-over with his eyes. // Yeah. When his eyes aren't all screwed up, they're real pretty. I don't think I've ever met anyone else with purple eyes. And I like the hair, too. Everything about Kenshin is...completely different from any other person I've ever met. Wildly different. Not just in appearance. //

"Oro... Sano... is something wrong?"

Sano blinked and flinched, realizing he had stopped moving and was sitting in complete silence. "Oh... no, I was just thinking."

"Oh, dear. Did you hurt yourself? Would you like to lie down?"

"Aren't you the funny one..." Sano smirked and began the process of applying the new poultices after making sure they were mixed properly. "I should just leave you here to fend for yourself if you're going to treat me like that..."

Kenshin frowned. "I'm sorry, Sano. Please don't do that. I need you."

Sano froze for a moment before he was able to convince his hands to start working again, although he wasn't sure how to respond. He was torn between the urge to assure Kenshin he was just teasing and wouldn't leave him as well as a sudden surge of...of what? Even though the thought had danced briefly through his mind, it was strange to think of Kenshin needing HIM for a change, really needing and depending on him enough to admit it and flat out say it. "You know I wouldn't ever abandon you, Kenshin. Especially not when you need me."

Kenshin's soft smile returned. "I didn't think you would, Sanosuke."

Sanosuke finished tying off the bandages. His handiwork wasn't quite as neat as the doctor's had been, but it was passable. "Y'know what, Kenshin?"

"What's that?"

"I think you were on to something with this whole wandering thing."

"What makes you say that?"

"At first, I didn't really know where I was going to go or what I was going to do. I just...felt restless. I couldn't stand just sitting around at the dojo or back at my place. So I figured I'd just...go. No destination in mind."

// That's probably just as well. With your sense of direction, you never would have gotten where you wanted to be. // Kenshin kept his thoughts to himself, although he couldn't entirely hide the grin that was twitching at his lips. Despite his injuries...his spirits hadn't been this high in a very long time. Sano was making him feel damn near...playful. He hadn't had anyone he could tease or relax around since he had left the dojo...and teasing Kaoru was generally more painful than it was worth...and Yahiko was worse. Love them he might, but they hadn't been the friend to him that Sanosuke was.

"Really, it was...I don't know. Refreshing. It really gave me some time to think and put everything into perspective...y'know? To really sort out my life and learn how to be at peace with myself."

Kenshin was silent for a moment, a smile on his lips, but it wasn't clear if it was happy or sorrowful. His tone was likewise unrevealing. "Did you find what it was that you were looking for, Sano?"

"I can't say I found the one big answer...I still feel like there's something I'm missing. I don't even know if there IS an answer. But it was still a really refreshing experience."

Kenshin nodded, briefly allowing his mind to examine his own wandering experiences. His ten years on the road the first time had been damned frightening at first as he struggled to subdue his hitokiri nature, fought to lay the Battousai to rest and regain something of himself. At times it had almost felt as though he had an entirely separate entity within him, threatening to pull him down with shadowy, blood-stained claws and consume him. But slowly, slowly...the relative peace of the open countryside had allowed him to bury his dark nature. You learned much of yourself when you had no one else for company. Kenshin had far, far too many ghosts to lay them to rest as Sano obviously had...but he could easily understand what Sano meant. "It sounds as if a few years have allowed you to grow in more ways than just the physical, that it does."

"Keh...are you sayin' I was immature before?"

"Of course not. Well...not exactly. Maybe a little. Sometimes."

"Well, lucky for you, I DID mature enough to admit that I had my moments in days gone by. I HAVE changed a lot in the past four years. Heh, I even look a bit different. You don't, though. You look exactly like you did the day I left. Hell, on a bad morning I probably will look older than you if I don't shave and whatnot."

Kenshin had to chuckle a bit at that. "I'm a good deal older than you, Sano."

"You sure as hell don't look it. At all."

"And my Shishou, last I saw him, looked exactly as he had the last time I saw him when I was fifteen. I'm beginning to suspect that the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu has a great power to preserve."

"Really?"

Kenshin laughed softly. "Oh, I don't know. I doubt it. But who knows...after some of the things I have seen, not much has the ability to surprise me anymore."

"Eh, that's for damn sure."

Kenshin appeared lost in thought for a long moment. "I do wish I could see you. I have yet to be able to do so since we have been reunited."

Sanosuke blinked as he felt a slight flush in his cheeks. "Eh...something to look forward to, right?"

"Hopefully. But if not, I must prepare myself for the possibility my eyes will not heal and learn to rely more heavily on my other senses. Blindness is something I have dealt with previously..."

Sano frowned. "You'll heal. It'll just take a while."

"May I touch you again?"

"Yeah, if you want to..." // No reason to get all jumpy about it, jeez...the guy can't see so he's compensating. That's all. //

But somehow, that thought fizzled and evaporated as Kenshin's slender fingers slowly slid up his chest, along his throat and through his hair, lightly along his cheeks... // Oh fuck. I can't... this... // All of Sanosuke's comforting denial was going up in smoke as a sudden powerful, painful coil of want spiraled up through him and made his heart thud. // Shit, shit, shit... //

"Your hair is a lot longer..." Kenshin murmured. Indeed, he had a fairly accurate mental picture of Sanosuke by this point, simply editing the one in his head with the details his fingers were relaying to his brain. // He HAS gotten much broader, at least. //

"Yeah..." Sano silently thanked the powers that be that he was able to see without being seen. He took one more long, defiant look at Kenshin, the faint lighting doing nothing to conceal the samurai's slender, sensual grace and too-pretty features. // Sensual? Fuck me... I think I've got the hots for Kenshin. Now what do I do?... This is terrible. //