Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ To Love You Again ❯ To See you again ( Chapter 2 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

Hello, Minna-san! I know some of you thought it was weird when I made Yahiko be Kenshin's son... I was thinking about karma when I wrote that... It's sorta like a little revenge for all those times Yahiko called Kaoru names and Kenshin just kept quiet. A lot of events on this fic are 'karma based' (weird expression).

Disclaimer: Hana-chan doesn't own Rurouni Kenshin... She is just a poor girl with a sick sense of humor that loves to torture Kenshin a bit (you should read her funny fics to see how sick she can be).

To love you again

2. To see you again

It was nighttime. Two men were hovering around the shadows of a not too friendly neighborhood. When they were sure no one was watching, they jumped the fence of a small house.

One of the men stayed on the yard, while the other made his way inside the house. Everything inside was a completely mess. The man jumped over some scattered furniture before stopping to look at the holes of bullets on the wall. Then he went down the hall and entered a girl's room. It was trashed. The man started searching through the wreckage.

'Kuso!' The man thought. 'She must have an address book somewhere! Don't tell me she doesn't have any friends!?'

"Nothing yet?" The man that had stayed behind entered the room.

"No, but I don't think they had enough time to find it. The police came shortly after the shooting started."

"What will we do, Sano?"

"Lay low for the time being." Sano kept searching for something. "I'm sure Jou-chan must have kept an address book, or a phone book..."

"Maybe it was in her backpack."

"The backpack was empty, Tsunan. I just threw some of her clothes inside of it, along with some money. Dirty money, that I'm sure she wouldn't accept on any other circumstance. She is still too righteous."

"Maybe she went to the police, then..." Tsunan said.

"No. She wouldn't do that after what she did. And she knows she would be in trouble if she went to the police. There are too many corrupt police officers around here. They would get her and she would be dead. If she gets caught, we are as good as dead. That's why we must find her quick, before they do." Sano was worried. 'Please be okay, Jou-chan. Please don't do anything dumb.'

"So, our best guess is that she is with one of her friends. What about that girl that goes to school with her?" Tsunan asked.

"The weasel girl... I don't know where she lives. But that is better than nothing."

"We can follow her after school." Tsunan suggested.

"Let's get out of here before someone finds us."

They soon were back on the street. No one would ever known they had been there. No one, except the man with wolf eyes that watched them leave, before lighting his cigarette.

***

'Sleep never comes easy. At least, not as easy as it would come when I was a child. When I was a teenager, I used to have nightmares. Bloody nightmares. But they are all long gone. The only thing left from them is the strange feeling of uneasiness, like someone would try to harm me while I was sleeping.

Tomoe had me going to a Psychiatrist. She just thought sleep sitting against a wall wouldn't do me any good. But the only thing the good doctor would do was to give me sleeping pills. I took those for a couple of months, but they didn't make go away my anxiety. Instead, they made me drowsy through most of the day. At night, I would still fear that someone would come for me. And my reflexes were slow because of the pills. So, I stopped taking them.

I would force myself to sleep like a normal person, lying on a bed, just to not make my family worry about me. If I were Tomoe, I'd go crazy for the amount of time I left the TV on at night. I just couldn't sleep. That's why I never was a morning person. I'm just grumpy and dark on the mornings, but I seldom oversleep.

I'm usually late for everything. Time never really bothered me that much. Perhaps this have to do with the way I grew up. I was never expected to be on time. People would always wait for me. My mother was also late for everything. In fact, she was even late for my father's funeral. I don't blame her. She was traveling when he died. There were complications on her return. She took more sedatives than she could handle and ended up on a hospital for five days. I buried father alone.

Shortly after father's death, mother's affair with her body guard became public. I already knew about them. I had known for years. When you live under the same roof with someone for seventeen years, you notice these things. And mother was never good at hiding. She always had a special smile for him. The kind of smile she never gave my father. Once again, I wasn't angry about that. I couldn't. She was my mother. And her lover was a man I deeply respected for the things he taught me.

After that, mother and Seijuro Hiko went to Switzerland and never got back. She didn't want to face the media once more. She calls me once in a while. I called her only three times. The first one was when Tomoe and I decided we would get married. The second one was when Yahiko was born. The third call was to tell her I was getting divorced.

Father's death had a big impact on me. I was all alone all of a sudden. I had to take over the company. It's strange how I can't keep track of time for everyday things, but I was always on time for every meeting I had on my business life. I don't really care about the company. I think the only reason I work so hard is to make my father proud and keep his legacy alive, until it's time for me to pass it on to my son.

Yahiko. I look down at him. He fell asleep on the couch. Now here is someone that doesn't have trouble sleeping. I picked him up and took him to bed. We were watching a police movie. Lot's of explosions and gun firing. He not even wakes up. No noise bothers him. That's another problem... His alarm clock. He doesn't wake up with it either.'

Kenshin opened his eyes. Now, there was that dream again. Why he was dreaming he was a swordsman, he wouldn't know. But those dreams were good, that he knew for sure. This time the dream was different. There was no cleaning. He simply had gone with the girl to buy tofu on a strange looking market. She was a sweet girl. Always smiling at him, when she thought he couldn't see it. 'I'd give anything to meet a girl like her. But I'd probably scare her away anyway.'

Waking from his reverie, Kenshin saw that something was definitely wrong. The way the light hit the room was wrong. He promptly jumped to his feet and ran full speed to the room his son was sleeping.

"WAKE UP! WE OVERSLEPT!" Kenshin yelled, knowing that that little screaming wouldn't wake up the kid, so he shook the boy awake. "Get dressed, quick!"

Kenshin ran back into his room, striping along the way to the bathroom, almost hitting the shower with his socks still on. Five minutes later, father and son stood on the living room, fully dressed and ready to go. Except:

"It's too soon." Yahiko said.

"It's not." Kenshin stated.

"Of course it is." Yahiko said, picking a clock. "It's five to seven."

"No way."

Yahiko showed him the clock.

"You woke me up for nothing." Yahiko mumbled. He didn't want to know that he would have to wake up soon anyway. All the did know was that he was ready to go to school and it wasn't even seven o'clock yet.

'I definitely screwed up. I could swear it was too late... Why?'

"So, what do you want to do on your free time?" Kenshin asked.

"It's too soon for everything... Though, I'm hungry. And I don't want home made breakfast."

"The Akabeko?"

"Hai. The Akabeko." Yahiko agreed, walking towards the door.

***

"Let's try this one more time..." Tae said to her.

'I don't know why she is so nice to me... It's the second glass I break in five minutes.' Kaoru thought. She had a tray on her hands, but the glasses just seemed to slip out of it.

"I'll pay for the damage..." Kaoru said.

"You not even have started working yet. I said I would teach you. And these glasses were so old I would have thrown them away anyway. You see?" Tae picked up a glass and threw it to the floor.

Kaoru giggled.

"Now, that's the spirit! I want to see you always smiling. There is no room for sad faces around here." Tae said. "I'm going to pick up a broom to wipe away this mess."

"Let me do that!" Kaoru said, putting the tray down and running to the back to fetch the cleaning material. She was still feeling guilty for the broken glasses.

'When she is not thinking about the bad things that happened to her, she is really cheerful. I like that about her.' Tae thought, while picking from the floor the larger pieces of the broken glasses. 'Well, she never said the she could be a waitress.'

She heard the door open and looked up to see a boy walk in.

"What a mess! Ohayou, Tae-san. What happened here?"

"Ohayou, Yahiko-kun. This was nothing much. I'm just training a new helper." Tae answered with a smile.

"She really must be clumsy."

They heard a loud noise of buckets and brooms falling and a feminine voice yelling:

"Ouch! That hurts!"

"She is." Tae agreed. "But I think she'll be just fine."

Kaoru came, carrying a broom.

"Sorry, Tae-san. I dropped a few things but nothing is broken!" She said and then eyed the little boy.

"Kaoru-chan, this is Yahiko-kun. His father is a regular customer of ours. Speaking of which, isn't Himura-san with you?"

"Don't even get me started on that guy!" Yahiko mumbled. "He woke me up this morning, like the world was coming to an end. It turns out we weren't late for a change."

"But that is a good thing, isn't it?" Kaoru asked.

"What? You have nothing to do with this... Busu."

"What?! Who are you calling busu?! You little... Little..." Kaoru didn't have time to come up with a good answer.

"Don't call me little! You ugly old woman!"

"I'm not old! Nor ugly for that matter!" Kaoru answered to him.

"Yes, you are!"

"Maa maa... Stop it already, Yahiko." Kenshin had entered the café, carrying a newspaper, just when Kaoru and Yahiko were on the verge of jumping onto each other. "Tell the lady you are sorry."

"No way!" Yahiko said.

Kenshin felt like hitting Yahiko on the head with the newspaper he had just bought.

"Please." Kenshin's voice was soft, but it didn't sound like it would take a 'no' for an answer. It took Yahiko only one glance at him to notice that he didn't have any other choice but apologize.

"Sorry for calling you an old hag." Yahiko said.

"You didn't call me 'old hag'" Kaoru retorted.

"Now I did." And he quickly turned his back and walked to a table, before anyone could say a thing.

"Sorry, miss. He's been upset lately. I'm sure it's nothing personal." Kenshin apologized for his son's misbehavior.

"You really shouldn't let him get away with that! That was just rude! He can't treat people like that! What does he thing he is?!" Kaoru blurted at Kenshin.

"I'll talk to him. I apologize."

"Only talking won't do him any good! He needs to be punished!" Kaoru snapped.

"Sessha... Will do what he thinks is right." Kenshin said, then thought: 'Why am I calling myself sessha?!'

"You better do something about your son, mister. Otherwise, he'll grow up like a spoiled little brat and when you know it, he'll start hanging around with people he shouldn't. Then you'll regret!"

'Geez... I'm overdoing it! What right do I have to speak to him like this? It's just that boy! I feel like... I just couldn't just stand and do nothing for his bad behavior.' Kaoru thought.

"I'm very sorry, miss... Miss?"

"Kaoru. My name's Kaoru."

"You don't have a name tag on your apron." Kenshin noticed.

"I'm new here. And after what I just told you, I think I'll be long gone too." Kaoru said, staring at her shoes.

"Tae-san won't fire you for telling this old man the truth, right, Tae-san?" Kenshin felt sorry for the girl. She shouldn't have to put up with Yahiko's bad temper.

"I won't fire her, Himura-san." Tae assured.

"Kaoru-san, would you mind bringing us some coffee?"

"I'll be right there, Himura-san."

Kenshin walked towards the table like he had all the weight of the world upon his shoulders. He knew he had to be hard on Yahiko, but that was something he simply could not do naturally. He hated having to lecture his son.

Kenshin sat in silence, in front of his kid. Yahiko didn't seem to mind him.

"I'll talk to your mother." Kenshin said.

"So?" Yahiko answered, like he really didn't care.

"I'll get her to confiscate your Playstation."

"I have other video games..."

"I'll get her to confiscate all of it. And your computer. And your television... No TV for you for a month."

"Like mom will ever do that." Yahiko whispered.

"Try her." Kenshin stated, smirking.

Yahiko looked down. Now he was feeling the consequences of his actions.

"Even if that young woman was... A 'busu', like you called her, you had no right to say that to her. I think I'll take you to have your eyes checked. There is nothing of busu on Kaoru-san."

Kenshin looked at the girl pouring coffee on a cup. 'She could model, if she wanted to. She's beautiful. A fresh and sweet kind of beauty. She must really draw attention when she walks by. I wouldn't say much about her temper, though. But I guess Yahiko could make Buddha loose his temper.'

Kaoru brought their food.

"I... Just wanted to say I'm sorry for what I said to you." Kaoru said, embarrassed.

"It's okay. It doesn't hurt me to hear the truth, Kaoru-san." Kenshin smiled politely and kicked Yahiko under the table.

"Huh? Oh! I'm sorry." Yahiko said simply and looked to the other direction.

Kaoru smiled softly. She knew the kid didn't mean his apologizes. She was actually smiling at the redheaded man for making his son apologize.

"If you need anything, Himura-san, call me. I'll be over there." Kaoru meant to leave, but then turned back. "Ano... Himura-san, could I borrow your newspaper for a couple of minutes?"

"Sure."

Kaoru took the newspaper and sat by a table afar from them.

'It should be here somewhere. I took a look at yesterday's newspaper and of the day before that... There was nothing. Nothing on the obituaries, nothing on the police session. It was as if nothing happened. What is wrong? Why isn't there any information on the newspaper? Am I crazy? What if nothing happened at all? Maybe I was dreaming. I should just go home.'

Kaoru folded the newspaper, before taking it back to Kenshin. He looked up to her.

"Are you okay, Kaoru-san?" He asked.

"Yes..."

"You don't look well."

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Kenshin insisted. It was weird for him to feel that concerned for a stranger. Besides, she looked fine. But for some reason, he felt like... She was lost and in emotional pain. 'Maybe I'm just crazy.'

"My father is a freak." Yahiko mumbled.

"I am sure, I'm fine, Himura-san. Thank you for your concern." She answered politely. "Can I get you anything?"

"Yes. The check, please."

***

Kenshin stood by his office's window. 'Best view in town.' Kenshin smiled sadly. He couldn't quite remember who had said that. He had a strange feeling that afternoon. 'What is this? Emptiness? Great! Getting depressed over the ex-wife... No, it's not it. Maybe I'm just going crazy. First it was that girl on the cafe... I just kept asking her if she was okay. I wonder if she really had a problem or not. She probably must think I was some kind of freak like Yahiko said.'

The secretary buzzed him.

"Shinomori-san is here to see you."

"Let him in."

'Great! Another freak just like me. Thank Kami-sama he is out of that I want to be better than you phase that he was in when we were in college.'

The door opened and the tall man with ice blue eyes got in.

"Himura." He said, politely, without properly bowing.

"Aoshi. What is it now?"

"I have some information for you." Aoshi said, taking from inside his coat a large dossier and placing it over the table. "I advice you to read this as soon as you can."

"What is it about?" Kenshin asked, amazed by the amount of pages it had.

"You asked me to find out whatever I could about that software company you were intending to buy."

'What is he? Crazy? Since when does a small firm needs such an extensive research? Maybe he's got into that I'll show you how good I am phase again. It's different than he wanting to be better than me. This one is more like I know you are good at what you do, but you'll never be as good as I am on my job. This one I kinda agree, because no one can be as effective as Aoshi when it comes to information.'

"I'll read it when I have the time." Kenshin said.

"Tonight."

"I can't do it tonight. I have my kid over. He never lets me do business stuff on the weekend." 'I don't have to explain myself to him. He is not my boss... It's quite the opposite.'

"Do as you want. I'm off." Aoshi said and left, without saying good-bye.

'Really... This guy is crazier than me... But now he got me curious about reading this stuff. Maybe it's important.'

Kenshin took the dossier and decided that it was time to pick up Yahiko at school. 'I won't be late today.'

***

Tae looked at the girl. She couldn't believe how fast she could learn. By that moment, Seiji - the other attendant at the café - was trying to teach Kaoru how to make a cappuccino. 'She is trying so hard. It's almost like her life depended on it. She doesn't give up if she doesn't get it at the first time. She tries until she gets it right. She reminds of Eiko...'

"It looks good, Kaoru-san." Seiji said.

"It doesn't matter how it looks. It's the taste that worries me. I need to get this right." Kaoru replied.

"It's only your first day. You are not supposed to know everything just now."

'I have to do this. For Tae. She is helping me. I don't want to be a burden.'

"I need to learn as much as I can." Kaoru stated.

"Seiji-kun is right. You don't have to push yourself so hard, Kaoru-chan." Tae smiled at her.

"You see, Tae-san... The faster I learn, the sooner you can go home at night. You'll be safer."

'As considerate as Eiko...' Tae thought.

"Just don't get too tired, or you'll get sick." Tae said.

Seiji looked at Kaoru. No one could be spontaneously that nice. Maybe she was pretending. He stared at her beautiful blue eyes, as Kaoru smiled back at Tae. 'This isn't an act. She really is what she shows.' Seiji liked her for that.

"Okay, Kaoru-san. I'll show you my secret." Seiji said, smiling.

"Cool! A secret 'coffee making technique'!" Kaoru was excited. "And please call me Kaoru. I have the feeling we are going to be friends!"

Seiji blinked. She sure was energetic and overly friendly. 'Why is he staring at me like that? He must think I'm a freak...' Kaoru tried her best to not to giggle at her new friend's face.

"So, aren't you going to teach me how to make my coffee doesn't taste like toilet water?"

Seiji woke from his amazement.

"Oh! You are being too hard on yourself, Kaoru. Your coffee doesn't taste that bad..."

"Not that bad... You mean, it's still bad."

"No! That's not what I meant!" Seiji's face got red.

"Don't worry, Seiji-kun. I know my coffee is bad. But you and Tae-san will teach me how to make it better, ne?"

"Sure, Kaoru-san. We will..."

"Kaoru." She said, with a displeased look on her face.

"Kaoru." Seiji repeated.

"So, are you going to teach me or not?" Kaoru said, resting her hands on her hips and pretending to be annoyed.

============
Hi, Minna-san. Sorry if you found bad spelling or grammar mistakes or weird expressions. My brother is too busy for me to be sending him the chapters to correct it for me. So, what you see is what you get, my baaaaad English (but you can't hold that against me... English is not my first language!). Anyway, please review and be nice. ^x^