Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Voix ❯ Black ( Chapter 6 )

"And then I'm with you, no longer alone. When I'm with you, it feels like I'm home. And you are with me, no longer alone. How could it be? It feels like I'm home."

-Duncan Sheik,`Home'

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Tears streamed down Kaoru's cheeks, but she didn't, couldn't, pull away. This closeness, this comfort, this bond, was right. Perhaps it was the only thing that was right in a world that had turned upside down and become terribly wrong so very quickly. Kenshin tightened his hold on her, reassuring himself that she was safe and with him. He couldn't lose her, not now or ever.

Gentle fingertips brushed at her cheeks, wiping away tears before the path traced by his fingers was traversed by his lips. Softness, kindness... love. She felt so warm, and strangely safe, even though they both were wanted. The thought was slipping away with the rest of the world.

"Just for now," she whispered, unaware that she was speaking. "Just this moment..."

Shifting to rest his forehead against hers and gaze intently into her eyes, Kenshin agreed silently. The storm could crash and destroy, but he could not tear his heart from hers in that moment. There were things that were simply meant to be, even when life wasn't so simple.

"Hold me, Kenshin," she murmured, needing his reassuring and soothing touch.

"Forever," he breathed as he crushed her body to his, tucking his nose in her hair. "I want to learn you, etch you into my heart." The words fell short of what he felt, what he wanted to say. He already knew her, his heart already bled from the etching. What he wanted was to be scarred, engraved, to be cut more deeply so that he could be healed more completely.

They sat that way, clutching each other, ignoring the world, enfolded in the protection of his wings. Kaoru rested her head on Kenshin's shoulder, hiding her face in the crook of his neck as she allowed herself more tears; it seemed that all the tears that she could cry would never be enough to properly mourn for her parents. The stroke of Kenshin's hands on her back slowly comforted her, teaching her to pray, to love and let go.

"I know," he sighed into her hair. "I know..."

His skin was warm, she thought, suddenly distracted. Everything about him was warm in a way that calmed her, completed her, and she wanted more. Cautiously, as if afraid she would be denied, she began to press soft kisses to his neck. Unable to help himself, he shivered slightly at the feeling of her soft lips and hot breath on his neck. The pleasure was tempered by the sensation of her tears dropping at his shoulder. Still she cried.

Raising a hand from her back to her chin, he lifted her mouth to his. The kiss was tender and light, if not slightly restrained. Kaoru responded slowly, never wanting this moment to end. When Kenshin was kissing her, she could set aside some of her pain temporarily, even though she was well aware of the fact that she would have to pick it back up later. It was times like these that reminded her that he would be there when she did pick it up, and he would help her bear the burden.

A little more pressure, and the kiss became more insistent, less restrained. Their tongues tangled as Kenshin's thumb stroked over her cheek soothingly. Always so considerate, Kaoru thought, always so gentle. When they broke apart, gasping for air, Kenshin tilted back slightly to be able to thoroughly read her face.

"What do you want, Kaoru?"

"Everything." She leaned forward to kiss the base of his throat, smiling slightly when he jumped just a bit. "I want all of you. I want you to heal me."

Though propriety told him that it was wrong, his heart told him that it was right. His heart whispered to him words of how they needed each other to be complete and to stop her tears, to stop the tears he was crying on the inside. They both hurt too much for him to deny her. Slowly, he nodded.

Kaoru smiled, and hugged him close to her. With a glance that begged for permission, Kenshin reached down to tug at the knot of her obi. Smaller hands joined his as he struggled briefly, and together they worked the knot free. He took her hand in his and brought her fingers to his lips, caressing them softly.

A slow fire stoked within Kaoru, urging her to run her lips, tongue, and teeth along Kenshin's shoulder, pushing his gi aside almost carelessly. The same fire bid that she trace her hands over his chest and back, memorizing scars and the outlines of muscles, learning what touch made him start and what made him flinch, where he was ticklish.

Kenshin took her hand in his again, and pressed it to his now-bare chest, over his heart. She could feel his heartbeat, strong and steady, and they needed no words.

Shifting to unfurl his wings, he lowered her to the ground, her kimono falling open. He traced a line down the middle of her body, watching as she blushed slightly. Her hand stretched out to touch one of his wings almost reverently, fingertips trailing softly down the feathers. He smiled down at her before he bent to kiss her again.

"So precious," he whispered to her, causing her blush to deepen even as she slid her hands down his chest to fumble with the ties to his hakama. He helped her silently. Whatever she wanted from him was hers.

"Kenshin," she murmured, her voice breaking on a moan as he trailed open mouth kisses down her neck to her breast.

"Hmm?" was his answer as his mouth was occupied.

Threading her fingers through his hair, which she freed from its tie, she tried to remember what she had wanted to say before his coaxing lips and tongue had made her forget. It suddenly didn't seem so important.

It was so illicit to be lying naked with Kenshin atop her, but Kaoru didn't care anymore. Whether right or wrong in the minds of society and their rules, to her this was right. His touches and kisses were smoothing down the edges of the jagged pieces of her heart, disentangling the threads of her soul.

She whimpered as he pressed his hand to her belly, and pulled him up by the hair for another kiss. For a moment, they lay still, his cheek against hers as he held her tightly. Their tears mingled now, and were shed for sorrow and joy both, misery and delight at once.

Kaoru's hands were at the waistline of Kenshin's hakama, tugging it down. He propped himself up to stare down into her eyes and she nodded. Now and forever, she was his. Thunder and lightning went unheeded for the time being as Kenshin slowly joined them.

Kaoru gasped, in both pain and amazement. The bond they'd had before felt complete, and for once she felt whole. She wrapped her arms around Kenshin as he carefully began to move.

There was nothing but each other, no other sensations but skin on skin and the intense emotions that flooded them both, no sounds but low moans and whispered names. Kaoru clutched at Kenshin as she slid into ecstasy, with him following her shortly.

Collapsed on Kaoru's trembling body, Kenshin tried to catch his breath. Her fingers ran through his hair, again and again, and he kissed her neck softly.

"Just hold me Kenshin," she whispered. "I love you."

He couldn't find the words to respond, didn't know how to voice the magnitude of the things he felt, but she knew. As they lay, spent and tired but safe and content, each understood the other.

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