Rurouni Kenshin Fan Fiction ❯ Winter Fire ❯ Unanticipated Guest ( Chapter 1 )

Winter Fire

 

All-inclusive disclaimer: I hereby deny ownership of any of the characters presented in this story for the entirety of the story. I am merely a fan exploring a `what-if' possibility.

 

 

Author's Forward: Hello friends. I just wanted to state that, no, I have not quit working on Wake Me Up Inside. I am still working diligently whenever possible to complete further chapters and will continue to do so until its ultimate completion. This story is something that began as a mere idea stewing in my head. I decided to write down the opening scene that my mind kept replaying and see where it went. The result is a quickly aspiring tale of modern suspense. Wake will remain my primary focus. I just needed something else to work on when my muse takes a holiday on Inuyasha stuff. I've been wanting to write a Kenshin story for over half a year now, so this is my answer to that. I will admit that I already have four chapters of this story completed, three are merely waiting to be beta-read.

 

If anyone wishes to be a beta-reader for this story, please email me. My address is listed in my profile.

 

That said, on with the story!

 

 

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Chapter One - Unanticipated Guest

 

 

Beta-read by: b00kperson.

 

 

 

 

 

Kaoru Kamiya groaned at the fat flakes of snow starting to spiral down in greater numbers, now making visibility start to dwindle. It looked like she'd be making it home just in time. She'd heard of the fast approach of a winter storm yesterday evening on the radio, so today she'd headed out to town to do all her errand running and shopping. There would be no telling when the next chance to go to town would come.

 

As it was, it had started raining when she was finishing up in the last store. It continued to do so most of her tedious drive home before turning over fully to quarter size snowflakes. The roads would be hell for anyone attempting to drive on them by morning with all the ice that would have built up from the freezing rain beneath all the snow that was due to fall.

 

Kaoru was suddenly jolted alert when her eyes spied something dark and resembling a body laying sprawled in the middle of the road. She let out a gasp as her foot automatically hit the brake causing the pickup truck to skid a ways on the road already covered in a thin layer of ice, “What the heck..?”

 

Once the truck had come to a full stop, she threw it into park and scrambled out the door. A few sprinting steps brought her to the body's side. There, she knelt to assess the situation. The first thing she noticed was the person was short with blood red hair pulled back into a ponytail but matted and full of twigs, leaves, and pine needles. The second thing she noticed was that this person had apparently been involved in some kind of crash and was bleeding into the freshly fallen snow. Dropping to her knees, she checked for a pulse. As she did so, she found the person's skin deathly cold to the touch but a faint pulse throbbing through the arteries in their wrist.

 

“Uhh.. Excuse me…” Kaoru spoke uncertainly as she shook the person's shoulders. She carefully rolled the body over onto its back. It was then that she noticed the mystery person was not only male, albeit short and rather feminine framed, but also incredibly hansom. She was willing to bet he was drop dead gorgeous when he wasn't looking like he'd been blown up and tossed through a meat grinder.

 

“Sir? Can you hear me?” she spoke again as she shook his shoulders. He failed to respond and so she immediately set to figuring out what needed a temporary bandage. Taking off her jacket, she peeled off the button up cotton pink plaid shirt she was wearing over a black long sleeve shirt. Putting her coat back on, she tore the blouse into strips and used it to bandage the wounds in his side, thigh, and arm.

 

Just as Kaoru was standing to go move the truck closer, the man came to with a jolt as he sat up partway. Dark indigo eyes stared at her sharply for only a moment before taking on a dazed look. She set her hands on his shoulders, “It's okay, sir. I'm going to help you. But I'm by myself, so if you are capable of standing, it would be helpful.”

 

It took a moment for a response to come from the injured man, but he showed vague understanding as he struggled to get up. She stood and carefully helped him up, throwing his arm over her shoulder and letting him lean against her for support as he found difficulty using the one leg at all. It was a chore, but eventually she managed to get the hobbling semi-conscious male over to the truck and hoisted into the passenger seat. The moment he was seated, energy left him to pass out against her as she buckled his seat belt. Leaning the seatback back, she shifted him back into the seat then shut the door.

 

Snow was falling heavy now as Kaoru climbed into the driver's side of the cab and slammed the door shut. She quickly buckled her belt then threw the truck back into drive to continue her journey home with her new guest. After all, the way the snow was falling now, there wasn't time for a trip to the hospital. Plus, her little brother Yahiko was still waiting back at the cabin for her imminent return. She couldn't leave him to sit out a storm like this.

 

The twenty minutes it took her to get home seemed like an eternity, but finally she pulled up in the front drive. Almost immediately, Yahiko was dashing out into the storm that was starting to pick up power to help her bring the groceries in. Seeing the unfamiliar person in the passenger seat produced a puzzled expression as Kaoru jumped out.

 

“Forget the groceries for now. I found a man out on the road. He's hurt and freezing to death. Help me get him inside!” she ordered as she dashed around to the passenger side. She threw open the door and popped the safety belt.

 

“Who is he? Where'd you find him? What happened to him?” Natural question after question poured out of the kid's mouth as he rushed over to provide assistance.

 

“I don't know anything except that I found him in the middle of the road just past Jeffery's Creek,” she answered as she tugged the deadweight of the unconscious male out of the truck. Yahiko was there to shoulder some of the weight as they struggled to get him into the little log cabin that served as home.

 

“He's awful short for a guy. He kinda looks like a girl too,” the boy commented.

 

“I pray that he makes it through the night,” she returned as they laid the man out on the couch.

 

“Hey, check out the scar!” Yahiko shouted with awe as he pointed. “Totally wicked. I wonder where he got it.” Kaoru followed his gaze to the cross-shaped scar that covered the majority of the man's left cheek.

 

“It looks old. Don't judge a book by it's cover,” she told him.

 

“I wasn't. I was just wondering where he got it. It makes him look kinda cool.”

 

“Whatever. Go bring the groceries in while I work at patching him up,” she commanded as she laid the three available blankets over their new guest. Discarding her coat, she then left his side briefly to pull the first aid kit out of the kitchen. Kaoru knew those classes she'd taken could prove useful living out here, but she'd never imagined it like this. She knew his wounds had to be tended to, but the obvious first task was to get the wet, torn clothes off him as quickly as possible. There was no doubt he'd gone hypothermic already.

 

“I'm really sorry about this, sir, but obviously it's quite necessary if you're going to have any chance at all of surviving this,” she told the unconscious man, ignoring the bold ache in her heart at the thought her words had conjured. Grabbing some scissors, Kaoru winced and started cutting the fabric from his form so as not to disturb the wounds any more than possible.

 

Twelve year-old Yahiko paused in the middle of one of his many trips to bring in the supplies to watch his sister tend to the stranger. A knot of worry formed in his stomach, not just for the young man, but for Kaoru should he happen to pass on while they were stuck here. The boy knew, after losing their parents in a brutal convenience store robbery homicide just a few years ago, the girl couldn't handle the emotional strain of losing an injured someone entrusted to her care.

 

“What are you just standing there for? Hurry up!” Kaoru barked, startling Yahiko back into completing his task as quickly as possible.

 

It took some time but the girl managed to cut the clothes from the man down to the make-shift bandages and boxers. Those, she was quite adamantly leaving. As she was no doctor and those seemed to be dry with no sign of injury, there was no cause for her to go any further. Blushing, she forced herself to quit letting her mind travel down that path of thought any further. Shaking her head, she rewrapped the man in the blankets in a valiant attempt to raise his body temperature back up to a healthy level.

 

Just then Yahiko arrived next to her ready to receive his next task, “Okay, what next? Man, he really ate it. I wonder what happened to him all the way out here in the middle of nowhere.”

 

“That's a very good question, Yahiko. It looks to me like he was in some sort of crash. But I didn't see any wreckage at all when I found him. So apparently, he'd managed to wander back to a place where someone would find him before collapsing,” she replied. “Go into the storage room and pull out some of Dad's old clothes. They may not fit but at least they'll be something for him to wear while he's stuck here with us.”

 

“Sure thing,” the boy replied, rushing off to complete his next task.

 

Carefully, Kaoru formed a hole in the blankets to work through and unbound the bandage on the man's torso. The good news was that the bleeding to this particular wound had stopped. The bad news was, she hand no idea how deep it ran. Kaoru again mentally prayed that the damage his body had sustained was not so severe that he would die before she was able to get him to a doctor. Judging from the several inches of snow that had fallen since she'd first found him, she was guessing that would be a few days at the very least. Giving her head another shake, the twenty-two year old refocused her attention on what she was doing.

 

Rising, she went to the kitchen to prepare a bowl of hot water. Once ready, she carefully carried it over to the couch and set it on the floor beside the first aid box. Turning back to her guest, Kaoru gently cleansed the wound in the man's right side with the cloth full of water just cool enough that it wouldn't scald his already abused flesh. Despite the hotness of the cloth, the man didn't stir from his unconscious oblivion. Kaoru took that as a semi-good thing since what she was doing would have hurt like hell had he been awake enough to feel it. Once that task was done, she dropped the cloth into the bowl and picked up the needle and thread she'd sterilized in a Dixie cup of rubbing alcohol.

 

 

Next, Kaoru focused on stitching up the wound in the man's side as best as she could. Glancing up at his face, she could see he was starting to warm up. The frightening blue that had tinged his chapped and bruised lips had faded away. Though his skin was still pale and cold to the touch, it was starting to look better than it had.

 

“Wow, you're actually doing a decent job at that, Sis. And to think you normally screw up any major sewing project you attempt!” came a familiar boyish teasing from behind her. Kaoru started with a short scream and spun to smack her brother.

 

“Shut up, rug rat! Quit distracting me! This is delicate work! Go put the groceries away,” she scolded irritably. Yahiko snickered as he headed to the kitchen to complete the next task given to him.

 

With her brother once again occupied, Kaoru returned to her own work of stitching up the wound in the man's side. Once finished, she tied it off and snipped the thread. Setting the needle back into the cup of alcohol, she turned to gently apply ointment to the mended wound.

 

“Yahiko, could you come here a moment and help me sit him up so that I can get the bandage wrapped around his middle?”

 

A second later, the boy was there at her side. Together, they carefully raised the man up and leaned him against the couch back. With Yahiko standing there to provide stability, Kaoru placed large bandage pads along the wound then began wrapping gauze around the man's mid-section. Once done, she snipped and secured the end. Together, they carefully laid him back down and resituated the blankets around him.

 

“Okay, now I need you to take this bowl and refill it with hot water. Make it just cool enough that it doesn't burn,” Kaoru instructed.

 

“All right,” Yahiko nodded and picked up the bowl to go fill it. Meanwhile, Kaoru worked at carefully removing the make shift bandage from the laceration on the man's thigh. Yahiko was setting the bowl back down where he'd found it when she was done.

 

“Thanks. You can go back to the groceries now,” came her response.

 

Yahiko nodded but stooped to pick up what was left of the stranger's pants along the way. While his sister was busy tending to the man's wounds, Yahiko fished through the pockets of the tattered jeans. Eventually, he search paid off, yielding a well worn black leather wallet. Dropping the scrap of denim, he searched the wallet. In all, the wallet held $17 plus a few coins, a Subway Club card, a Blockbuster card, a Citi Bank card with the fancy chip in it, and a drivers license. According to the license, the man on their couch was twenty-eight year-old Kenshin Himura. It listed him as 5'5 and 162 lbs with red hair and blue eyes.

 

Yahiko grinned and stuck the wallet in his pocket before going on to quickly finish putting the supplies away. Once done, he wandered back over to check on his sister and their new guest, Mr. Himura. He blinked as he saw she was already near done stitching up the cut in Mr. Himura's leg. He waited until she was done and putting the needle back into the cup of rubbing alcohol before saying anything.

 

“Is your homework done?” she asked, beating him to the punch while letting him know she'd known he'd been there all along.

 

“Yep. Guess what.”

 

“You're growing a wart on your nose?”

 

“What? No! Fine. I won't tell you then!” the boy shot back as he stomped over to sit and look out the window at the storm that was now swinging into a full scale blizzard. The cabin rattled and the windows howled slightly as the wind blew through the forest their cabin sat in.

 

Kaoru smirked as she applied ointment to the newly stitched leg wound. Grabbing the bolt of gauze, she carefully began wrapping it. After finishing with that, she cut and secured the end before tossing the gauze aside and starting on the last major wound she'd seen. Yahiko turned to watch her work. That lasted a total of thirty seconds.

 

“Find a paper bag and toss this ruined clothing into it,” Kaoru told him.

 

“But-“

 

“Don't give me `but'! Just do it,” she glared. Yahiko shuddered, seeing a bit of their later mother in Kaoru as she found things to keep him busy. “When you're done, set it over by the hearth. Then you can start pulling out the ingredients to make chicken soup for dinner tonight.”

 

Grumbling, the boy left the window to do as he was told. By the time he'd picked up and set the soup on to cook, Kaoru was finally finished mending Mr. Himura as much as she was capable of. She picked up her supplies and set the first aid kit to the side. She then used the warm wash rag to wipe the mud, blood, and other gunk from the man's face. Then she rose and took the bowl to the sink to wash it out. She pulled out a clean wash rag and wet it with warm water. After ringing it out, she returned to fold it and place it on the slumber's man's forehead.

 

Stepping back, Kaoru heaved a great sigh, “That's the best I can do for now. It's up to him from here. We'll just have to wait and see.”

 

“His name's Kenshin,” Yahiko informed her as he stirred the soup.

 

“What?” Kaoru frowned as she looked back at him with a slightly confused expression as she hadn't been paying enough attention.

 

“I said his name is Kenshin,” Yahiko repeated, rolling his eyes.

 

“I take it you found some ID?”

 

“Yeah,” the boy pulled out the wallet and passed it to his sister. She took it and rummaged through it same as he'd done. Pulling out the drivers license, she read it over carefully.

 

“Kenshin Himura. Santa Monica, California. Wow, he's a long way from home, isn't he?”

 

“He sure is. I bet he's freezing his tail off up here in the North Woods.”

 

“Well, he's warmer now what he was when we brought him in. I think he'll be okay on that aspect. It's that wound on his right side and infection that I'm worried about. And what about the rest of him? What if he suffered some sort of head injury that we can't see? I know he woke up for a minute when I first found him. Else I would have really had a problem getting him into the truck by myself. But that's still not saying very much. On top of that, he probably lost a whole lot of blood before I found him too, so… the poor guy has a lot stacked up against him.”

 

“Wow, I'll say. What happened when he woke up? Did he say anything to you?”

 

“No. I'm pretty sure he was barely conscious at the time. It took me a couple of tries to get him to understand what I was trying to get him to help me do.”

 

“Oh, bummer.”