Random sequel time! -.-' But really, it was a sudden idea that ran with me (yes, it took me, not the other way around). I know some one was asking if there was going to be another, and here it is!
I hope you all enjoy it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin.
Tears
Kaoru, shifting through a glassware-filled box riddled with scratches and holes, scrunched her face, nose wrinkling. A soft, deep chuckle answered her.
She lifted a plate from the box, covered in old newspapers that had somehow gotten the ink smeared. With an incredulous look and a twist of the lips, she showed her wares to her watcher.
"Look at this," she whispered, casting a quick glance at the door. "I've never seen dishes so dirty. Are you sure she's related to Tae? I mean, Tae's so meticulous. I don't know how a restaurant is going to be built from all this."
Her silent observer wandered closer, hands behind his back, his bright eyes a color that would shame a flower, or any purple flower that she'd see thus far. Kenshin shifted his bangs over his face, but she could feel his mischievousness and waved the plate at him threateningly.
"Sae may not be her sister," he remarked. "But she has the talent for it, most certainly."
"I can't believe I signed on to this," Kaoru huffed, her disgusted expression drawing the laughter to Kenshin's lightening face. "Sae can't possibly think that this'll do. Aren't there some sort of regulations, something? Sanitation laws?"
"You've worked in a restaurant before. You tell me."
Rolling her eyes, she laughed. "Right, and I actually paid attention to what happened in the kitchen. Kenshin, don't you not remember that they never even let me set foot near food? It was bad enough that I had to walk into the kitchen sometimes!"
Peeling some of the newspaper back, some of it wanting to really stay attached to the glass, Kaoru reviled stains. Stains. How did one stain a plate? Surely scorching food to a pot was easier. At least there was some sort of food preparation disaster she'd yet to accomplish. Made her feel a bit better at least.
Kenshin pushed a couple chipped cups aside, reaching down to uncover more plates and the first of a troop of bowls, all of which held the same odd smell. A thin brow lifted as he gestured with one towards Kaoru. She backed away.
"Keep that mess away from me. Kenshin. Kenshin, I said get that away from me!" she shrieked, spinning as he stalked closer, holding a particularly nasty specimen out. She huffed at his loud chuckles, tossing her pony-tail over her shoulder.
Placing the dirtied bowl back inside its box, he wiped his hand on the leg of his dark blue jeans, watching as Kaoru peered woefully into the mess of another box she opened.
"Now," he said mockingly to himself; he was leaning over Kaoru's shoulder as she continued her drudgery work. "What was it that Sae said to me…?"
Kaoru sighed, almost folding her arms, but thought better of it.
"Oh, right," Kenshin smiled impishly, his eyes gaining back more of their color with his mirth. "It wasn't theses boxes, it was those." He pointed to a larger pile of boxes, shaped much better and without any strange marks and stains bleeding down the sides.
Kenshin laughed while easily evading Kaoru's seeking fists and ignoring her sharpened tongue. He loved teasing her like so. He caught her wrist, grinning. Scowling, Kaoru wrenched free and huffed.
"We're wasting time," she argued as she flicked open the pair of scissors and moved past him, "with all your little games. Sae wanted us back at the building in half an hour."
Kaoru grunted approvingly when she sliced the tape on the first box and saw the glistening white and blue painted plates. She dug wordlessly held out her palm towards Kenshin, who placed one of the towels they'd brought in her palm.
"This is more like it," she hefted one into the air and smiled after thoroughly wiping her hands off as best she could. "These look cheaper…and newer." She glanced at Kenshin standing by another box around the pile. "Why is she keeping those?"
He shrugged slightly. "Heirlooms, probably. You have to remember that the twins have been alive for a long time, and that the rest of Tae's clan has long been extinct." He waved his arms across the storage room. "These are all artifacts from over the ages, collected by Tae and Sae's family. No matter how old or how much it smells, it's all kept."
"Did you know any of Tae's family"? Kaoru asked, replacing the plate and moving to the next box.
"I met the founder of her clan."
Kaoru stopped mid-motion, and looked at him. His eyes, as pale as they'd become, were far away in a place that Kaoru had never seen, except maybe in a brief summary in history books in school, or in small plastic displays in museums.
"We…didn't like each other very much, but I tolerated him and he tolerated me. Mutual feeling up until the very day he died." Kenshin smiled waningly. "Ancient history."
Just how ancient, Kaoru wanted to know, but held her tongue. Some things ran deep within her redhead and were harder for him to bring to the surface for her to see. Given time, she hoped that would change.
"Alright," she announced when the last box was open, tucking her scissors away in her back pocket, the sharper ends sticking downward. Kenshin had been elsewhere, thoughtful, and wherever he had returned to had stolen the laughter from his eyes, his face. His guard was set, and his eyes were even paler than they'd been not a few minutes before.
Kaoru took his fingers in her hand and squeezed gently, smiling. "We need to get these boxes into the van."
Together, they worked their way around the largest box: an oblong thing that had the cooking pots and utensils all crammed inside. It was heavy and nearly toppled from Kaoru's grip. She curtly screamed each time, and giggled, which didn't help at all. Contagious as it was, Kenshin held his chuckles until they had the box pushed inside the van, against the red-carpeted side for room.
The rest were easy enough, but they all wouldn't fit. Four medium to large boxes were left for a second trip.
Kaoru, chin was in her palm, stared out the window when Kenshin turned into the deserted parking lot of the small building Sae had bought for her restaurant, the Shirobeko, sister restaurant to the Akabeko. Around the back, where the twin doors leading to the back were wide open, sat another car beside Sae's. Kaoru didn't recognize it, but Kenshin didn't seem to have a problem with it.
He motioned for them to go inside first when she went to open the back, so she followed, taking his hand for no other reason than because she was walking near to him. He squeezed her hand this time, assuring her nothing was amiss. Kenshin probably knew who this person was.
"He should be back soon," Sae was saying from the front as Kenshin lead the way through the empty kitchen area scattered with tall metal racks and a sink that needed installing.
A grunt was her reply.
Kaoru didn't expect her face to suddenly pale when she stepped into the seating area, but it did. The cause: a tall, relaxing brunette. His hair was particularly wild, tamed back from covering his face by a red and dirty band tied over his forehead. Lean almost to the point of being scrawny, he emitted a strange sense of power, and when he shifted in his seat to face them, Kaoru understood when the tight and hard muscles stretched and shifted under his skin with the motion that skinny, for this man, didn't matter. Brown eyes took them in, normal enough, but only just barely. Kaoru was reminded of the moment when Kenshin's spirit had watched her through the bars of her father's Demon Tent, recalling the intensity of those eyes. This man, rather clearly another demon, was much the same with the extra light that seemed to shine behind his eyes and the way that, for a second, his eyelashes reflected that light, casting tiny sparks.
They sparked again when his gaze meandered to their linked hands, and a slow smile lit his face in a subtle but wholly unnatural glow.
"I was beginning to wonder what was taking you so long to come back," he said gleefully, eyes and rumbling voice screaming his good humor. Kaoru had time to blink before he was standing over her, a hand politely extended towards her. It was far enough away that he wouldn't have frightened her had she been afraid. Kenshin seemed completely at ease.
"Sanosuke," he declared. "Or Sano, preferably."
She took his hand. It was shockingly warm, very warm. "Kaoru."
Sano was still smirking when he clapped Kenshin on the shoulder hard enough that Kaoru felt the jolt through Kenshin's hand.
"Only one thing would keep you so long," Sano began again, clapping Kenshin again. When he finally really looked into his friend's face, Sanosuke grew very still. Kenshin let her hand go as the bright glitter in Sano's light brown eyes turned darkly sparkling, dancing sharply through his irises.
Were all demon's emotions so strong and clearly expressed?
Kaoru turned to Sae, seeing Tae's face in her quieter sister's, and frowned. Neither of them seemed that willing to be so open, but they did spend a great deal time around the people who would love to detain them to flaunt and cage.
"So they did catch you," Sano breathed a hiss, running a hand briskly through his hair
"They did," Kenshin agreed softly, his voice, compared to Sano's, a frightful contrast. Kaoru's hand acted on its own, catching his arm tightly. "But the Tent's wards were nowhere near the strength that could hold me. I escaped, but my spirit remains."
"Why the hell haven't you gotten it back, Kenshin?" Sano snarled, his fist curling into a dangerously strung fist, the tension reaching up his arm. "Don't you realize what this is doing to you?"
Alarm shot through Kaoru, shorting her prior thoughts about Sae, and focusing solely on the quiet redhead beside her.
Kenshin's bangs concealed his face and expression.
Sano snarled again. "Let me see." Kenshin didn't move except to clench his shoulders taunt. "Let me see!" Gripping Kenshin's shoulder until his knuckles turned white, Sano waited until Kenshin looked up into his face and pure horror crossed the brunette's features. He swore colorfully when he let go, shoving Kenshin away from him, bringing his fingers to his face.
Kaoru immediately stepped up. "Watch it!"
Hard brown eyes fell on her, flicked to Kenshin, and found her again. She flinched under that gaze, but held her own with effort.
"It's her isn't it?" he asked Kenshin. "She's the one who has your spirit locked up, and you're following her around like a goddamn love-sick puppy?"
Kaoru stumbled backwards when Sano stepped towards her, eyes wide as unwitting fear pumped through her, but for naught. Kenshin had already leapt for the taller man, the two tumbled away when what Kaoru hit behind her made a sharp clang as her foot bumped it.
"Keep a hold of your temper!" Kenshin roared into Sano's face as he stared over Kenshin's head at her, a deep hate filling his brown eyes to the brim, spilling over as his lashes splashed with a dark light. "There's no place for it here," Kenshin continued, softer, calmer. Sano glanced down at him. "She isn't the reason, Sano. Would she be here with me otherwise?"
To Kaoru, that statement wasn't all too reassuring, but her nerves were running high. Her fingers trembled. Something was writhing in the air, she could feel it, coming from Sano, a part of Sano, she knew. It was the same flavor, though her tongue had nothing to taste. Sae was beginning to become upset, which floated around also, but very much weaker, more subdued and controlled.
"Kenshin, there's trouble," Sano said slowly as the fists in his clothes loosened. "At the Castle in the Forest, the Ruling Prince…"
Kenshin fell to his knees, his hands following slowly to be tucked at his stomach. Kaoru stepped forward quickly, but stopped at a glance from Sano. The tall demon closed his eyes and sank to the floor, elbows resting on his raised knees, head held low as he quickly blinked. The air was suddenly empty and still, nothing unseen wriggling like mad. This time she wasn't stopped, and dropped down next to Kenshin. His eyes were open and unseeing; his jaw was slack, mouth slightly agape, breathing very quiet and very shallow.
"Kenshin?" she asked as tenderly she could, brushing his bangs from his face. He stirred at her touch, tilting his head to follow her fingers. She felt Sano's eyes on them, but didn't care. Pulling him towards her, Kaoru rested Kenshin's head to her chest.
A weight Kaoru didn't understand crushed the already heavy silence, while the three nonhumans stirred the thickness and cultivated it, blossoming more until Kaoru could hardly stand it. From one face to the next, Kaoru could tell something wasn't right.
"We have to get your spirit back, Kenshin," Sano said after a short while. "We have to. We need you back at the Castle. Now."
"It's not so simple," Kenshin whispered as he sat upright and grouped for Kaoru's hand, which she placed in his own. He brought her knuckles to his cheek, eyes closing. His skin was cold. "You know it's not simple. Why do you think I haven't done so already?"
Sanosuke sighed, cynical. "You can't walk away from this. Even if you could, you'd eventually die. There's nothing else for you to do."
"Oh God," Kenshin's voice was still so soft. His eyes found Kaoru's face, her gasp strangling in her throat when she saw the utter terror and sadness permeating his once beautifully colored eyes. "My spirit cries while I cannot, but not for the same reasons.
"I have business here," he protested, looking to Sano. "With Sae. I was asked to help, and I will. I won't walk away from helping."
Sae quietly knelt on the other side of Kenshin, drawing his attention to her. Her face was pale, but her eyes and voice were strong. "You should leave, Kenshin. Do what you must. I relinquish your promise. It's only a small restaurant anyway. I can always find some others to help, willing or no."
Sae may have been less outspoken than Tae, but they both shared an uncanny ability to get things done, and done quickly whether by encouragement or a silent terror. Kaoru understood that she'd be fine, as did Kenshin, who smiled and nodded.
"Now," Sae said, back in a business mode that was all-too familiar for Kaoru after she tenderly took Kenshin's free hand and patted it. "If you all don't mind, I've some recruiting to do." She glanced at Sano, then Kenshin and bowed her head solemnly. "I wish you all the best of luck."
"Sano," Kenshin asked once Sae had gone. "Would you mind bringing those boxes inside for Sae?"
One glance and he stood. "Sure, Kenshin."
The redhead waited before leaning toward Kaoru again, a strange fatigue overcoming him again. Worry shot her, her body hummed with it. He placed a hand over her trembling one.
"There are things you don't know, Kaoru," he began softly. "That I never knew how to tell you, and I was a fool thinking that I never would." He laughed cruelly at himself. "I was so overcome by the look in your blue, blue eyes and by the feeling that overcomes me every time you're near. I thought that would be enough. But it's not, Kaoru."
A box dropped down in the other room, dishes clattering together.
"What are you talking about?" she breathed.
"You asked why we haven't gone back to your home, and replaced my spirit. The reason is very simple, Kaoru. I will kill you…when I do."
Another box set down, forcefully. Sano could hear just fine, it seemed, and something wasn't to his liking.
Kaoru shook her head to keep from trembling all over, and stumbled over her words. "What do you mean, you'll…kill me. Kenshin. What do you mean?"
"It's a violent process to loose your spirit. Gaining it back is no less. If my spirit returns….it will call for blood and revenge. Since your father is locked away, that, Kaoru, will be you."
His voice held so much pain, but Kaoru could not respond to it in her numbness. Mind blank, she reeled from what he told her. His words resonated, deep, dark, and weighty on her slender shoulders. For a moment, his cold skin seemed a bit warm against her fingers wrapped up in his hand.
He and Sano conversed, Sano loud and surly, Kenshin quiet and calm. Kenshin gave Sano instructions to retrieve the rest of the boxes as a last thing that he could do for Sae, and told him where to find the storage yard and gave him the keys for the lock and the van.
Kaoru missed the whole conversation, drowning in sudden shock. Strokes of Kenshin's knuckle on her cheek and the steady circle his thumb pad ran on the back of her hand brought her back with a clear, unsuppressed shudder of fear.
Kenshin's heart fell and a violent twist knotted his stomach. Jaw tight, he brought her into his lap, her head resting under his chin as shivers wracked her body and silent tears wet his shirt. He cursed to himself. He cursed loosing his spirit, and cursed not being able to warm her while trapped in this state of chill himself as tremors of cold terror overtook her small frame.
At that moment, she cried tears for both of them, since he himself could not. All of his tears, as he'd said, were being shed in anger by his lost spirit trapped within the spelled walls of her father's Demon Tent. Unworthy tears, cursed tears as he silent swore.
They sat on the floor, tucked within the frame of an empty booth, she in his arms, him wrapped around her, wearily possessively and protectively, until the van stopped outside, chasing away the silence. Kenshin wished he could only protect her from himself, everything else would seem like kitten-play.
"So what are you going to do?"
Waited long enough—Kenshin was mildly surprised somewhere in the back of his mind that Sano's waited so long to speak—Sano prodded Kenshin from his trance-like state. He glanced down at Kaoru. She must have cried herself to sleep. The shivering had stopped.
"The risk for her…is too great," Kenshin replied. "I cannot help you."
Sano swore harshly, hand raking through his hair violently. "That's abandoning, Kenshin. Abandoning everything. How can you leave it all to go to hell? 'Cause that's where it's going! Straight to hell!"
"I'm no help like this," he glared. "If dying keeps me from harming her, fine. I accept that."
"I can't accept that. Do you think everyone else is going to accept that?"
"I don't expect the Wildling Prince to accept it," Kenshin said, lifting his brow. "I don't expect the Ruling Prince, or the Advisory Prince to understand. None of you can."
Sano snorted. "This is so stupid. I didn't think you could be so stupid, Kenshin. Listen to yourself. You can't just stop doing your job. This is treason. Not only that, but you're also a Prince."
"Don't quote the laws to me," his tone darkened. "I helped make them as you did."
"Then you get it," Sano was shaking his head, completely lost. "This doesn't make any sense, Kenshin. How the hell can you do this over a human woman?"
"Of course it doesn't," Kenshin bristled. "You've never experienced the feeling."
"Kenshin," Kaoru whispered, and Sano growled as he was immediately forgotten. "I want to go home."
Without a word, Kenshin lifted her up. "I have an extra room," he offered Sano.
Shrugging, Sano complied.
Kaoru trudged up the drive of the small duplex that belonged to Sae, the other side owned by another demon-kind, and was currently vacant. She barely left Kenshin any time to catch up with her as he fended off the somewhat nosy elderly lady that lived across the street. Her little pooch was out as well, barking and snarling at Kenshin as usual. Sano stood, hands in pockets, and alternated between watching Kenshin smooth-talk the old woman, and Kaoru fumble with the house key at the front door.
When she kicked it suddenly, Kenshin swiftly and a bit harshly ended his conversation, hurrying to Kaoru with Sano not far behind. A scowl drew lines on Sano's face as Kenshin gently pulled the keys from Kaoru's hand and flinched when she did at his touch. Then Sano frowned, a cat-like curiosity replacing the anger.
He decided to wait outside for a bit after the door shut, let them settle before he intruded in on them and their refrigerator.
Kenshin peeked out the curtains for Sano when he didn't follow, and silently thanked his long-time friend for having some measure of understanding. Later he would have to as where Sano'd picked up that particular trait, but guessed that he'd been having to deal with the rest of the Princely Council more than normal.
Sae's duplex she so willing lent them, hardly accepting any measure of rent from Kenshin, had three bedrooms. One was his, and the other was Kaoru's, though they'd made a habit of falling asleep in the third room where the small TV rested and the comfortable Lay-Z-Boy couch waited. Kenshin's plans to take Kaoru out to pick her ring originally landed for the following day, one step closer to the wedding that Kaoru blushed, embarrassed, and admitted that she really wanted. Until then, the couch was fine.
But, now, it seemed even further away, at a distance that he'd never be able to reach.
He followed dolefully behind Kaoru, wanting to reassure her, do something as she made her way into her room. When he reached her door, her hand was on the knob, back to him, voice quiet.
"Please leave me alone, Kenshin."
And the door shut.
Backtracking, Kenshin bumped into the wall and turned for the living room in the same motion, automatic. He went into the garage and shut the door, flicking the light on since he'd obviously lost his nocturnal vision. When that happened, he couldn't remember. Possibly today, earlier. Has he dwindled so much without realizing it? Kenshin always knew this would eventually happen, that the separation between him and his life-force would kill him, but he thought that would be years away. Long enough for him and Kaoru to spend the better part of a human lifetime together. But not this short, not only a couple months.
The light of the setting sun trickled red around the edges of the garage door, lighting some of the covered squares in the far corners. They were paintings, his paintings. Though he had no real talent with the brush.
When they'd finally settled in after fleeing Kaoru's hometown, Kenshin refused her a job, saying that someone would spot her easier that way, which he would have nothing of, and that he had plenty of funds to keep them both happy for a very long time. With that, she grew bored and, nearly on a whim, asked to become part of an art class to try and find if that talent her grandfather had was in her blood. And for something else to do besides stare at the TV screen that had no cable, clean, and practice what she could remember of that old martial art she took when she was a child.
Kenshin had watched that with interest, and wondered if she wanted to maybe take lessons again. Her talent for that, unlike art, was very clear.
Kaoru had drug him to a couple of her art classes, introducing him in his alias while happily being called her own fake name by every member of the small afternoon class.
Like with his horrible penmanship, Kenshin was quickly giggled at by Kaoru and a few of the bolder friends she'd made. Pictures were hell for him, and he couldn't even copy one correctly like Kaoru could, and easily at that. Instead, he took to a simple way of using paints to slap down swirls of colors to make a blurry image; his own take on old Impressionism as he called it with a dry smile.
Normally, he stuck with color patterns instead of trying to recreate something he'd seen. One attempt at Kaoru's visage had cleanly wiped away his want to try pictures other than an array of colors that expressed his feeling at that moment.
There were quite a few canvases in the garage, which, at first, had been strictly off-limits to Kaoru. A couple attempts landed her at his mercies as she howled with fits of laughter from his tickling. He knew her weak spots, and greatly enjoyed exploiting those spots. He eventually let her take a look, when the curiosity grew enough for him to cave in at her pleas and sometimes huffy and irate looks.
Most of the paintings were of varying shades of blue that swirled and locked around each other, all looking very close to the color of her eyes. Some were browns and greens and sky blues of memories of a simpler time, but the pictures on canvas were so obscure that only he could tell which ones were exactly where. A few were angry marks of black with smears of red strokes made by his own hands dipped in the paint; one was nearly all red with black spots thrown across the sides and a grey swab streaking sideways in the middle. Those he wouldn't let Kaoru see, and were the ones hidden by sheets in the far corners.
He glanced from one painting to the next, eyes at last falling on the latest creation brushed with blue surrounded by a friendly black drawn out in strand-like lines. The rest was left in white. Those blue marks, dabbed in spots of black as shadows, screamed at him. They screamed at him like her own real eyes had when she turned him away, the noises in his chest racing to his mind so loudly that he couldn't think to discern what that horrible look turned on him meant.
And it burned; it burned awfully so.
"Kenshin!" he heard, and growled at the arms that locked around his upper body, trapping his destroying arms and dangerous hands. He wrestled Sano, pulling and pushing against the iron bars of arm keeping him in place.
After a short spell, Kenshin was drained. Completely. That same constraining grip turned helpful as Sano held Kenshin's suddenly weak body upright.
Sano maneuvered Kenshin until the shorter man was braced over his shoulder, Sano's other hand keeping a grip on Kenshin's wrist. He steered the redhead from the garage, flicking the light off as they passed, muttering a curse.
On the couch, blank television staring at the two, Sano sat turned away, studying the wall and out the small window leading to the skimpy backyard with a hole in the chain-link fence. Kenshin's head was in his hands, elbows resting on his knees.
Sano broke the silence; he had too. All this quiet boiled his blood even further.
"We've been looking for you," he began. Kenshin's head lifted slightly, inching towards facing him. Sano shrugged heavily and resituated himself on the couch, tucking a long leg up and close on the cushion. "I mean, you never up and leave like that without telling someone, and no one thought you'd ever get caught."
Kenshin watched him from behind a curtain of red bangs, his eyes only showing the slightest interest in their foggy depths.
Sano bobbed his head from side to side in rhythm with his biting, sarcastic words. "Then you never come back," he continued like it was nothing, carrying a normal conversation. "And once they found out the Guardian was missing, well, it all went straight to hell. So, I'm going to ask you again: what are you going to do?"
A mutter.
"What?" he leaned forward. "What'd you say?"
"I said I don't know!" Kenshin roared.
It lasted a second, but long enough for Sano to have reeled in surprise, a deeper, more driven instinct forcing him away from the man he knew, and what the man was once capable of. It took a moment, but he remembered that Kenshin wasn't that man anymore, not even close. He could have snickered, and with anyone else he would have, but not here. This was all to messed up to chuckle or laugh at. Instead, he growled, shifting again, and ran hands through his hair.
He would have told Kenshin that wasn't a good answer; in fact, it was a shitty answer that needed a good smacking or two to fix. But he didn't. Sano may not have been able to understand in the least bit this painfully obvious connection between his friend and the human, but he knew enough to let it go. For now.
Kenshin left him in a very tight spot. Since the redhead clearly had no intentions of going back to the Castle, Sano'd have to at least spread rumor that Kenshin was alive, leaving out the fact that he wasn't well.
Thinking of how to explain this gave him a field day from hell that was being rained on, snowed on, and iced over while, of course, still burning all at the same time, making it very difficult ground to cross. Try as they might, he and the rest of the Reign wouldn't ever figure this one out, not even stiff-necked Aoshi, self-declared wise man and the Advisory Prince. What grated Sano's nerves, almost as much as this, was the straightforward fact that Aoshi had full rights to such a claim. The man was flat-out genius. The shoe fit perfectly with him, as well as the rest of the whole damn outfit.
Graciously leaving Kenshin to his barrage of thoughts, Sano slipped from the room, and found Kenshin's room across the hall from the scent of tears and the sound of a heavy silence behind a closed door. He could wait a day or so, see what would happen, and when, exactly, Kenshin decided to give up this foolhardy little vow he placed over himself for this woman.
Honestly, it was a strange emotion, and one that Sano'd rather not ever come in contact with.
Eerie quiet enveloped the house when Kaoru woke with a face sticky from dried tears, and still exhausted. Her light sleep didn't help, nor did the range of confusion-filled emotions that battered her all during the night, wake or asleep in dreams.
She tread softly over the imitation carpet to the bathroom—Kenshin had given her the master bedroom, taking one of the smaller ones without complaint—and scrubbed her face, splashing away the remnants of tears and redness.
Kaoru wanted to take a shower, but knew that would wake the house's other occupant, whom she had extremely mixed feelings towards seeing. For the moment, at least. It was a shock, that's all. It wasn't everyday that the man who took her heart from her chest and given her a fresh taste of breath told her that he'd kill her without so much as a blink or a change in thick, bland tone…
Shaking her reverie, Kaoru made for her door, intent on getting breakfast, and maybe grabbing lunch as well, before retreating into her room again to think and dwell on what she now knew. First, she needed a strong and forceful centering and calming before another thought of Kenshin's words crossed her mind.
No distractions, she told herself as she snuck to the kitchen, taking a glance at the garage door and that it stood open slightly.
So much for distractions, but the garage had been a focal point for her curiosity for some time now, and she wasn't about to ignore it yet. She pushed the door open with a finger, glancing behind her, knowing that she'd flick the light on then off to see if he had any new paintings he hadn't shown her yet.
But, when she turned the light on after pulling the door slightly closed again, she froze. A mess rested in place of the semi-neat pack of easels and rough paintings. None of them appeared torn, she found as she reverently brushed her fingers over the first few tossed out of their place by the door, staring in awe at this particular piece of work. Was it Kenshin's doing? Would he purposefully wreck his work that he'd so shyly been proud of?
She moved further, recognizing that piece, and that one, all the while the message running over and over in her mind: she was to blame. She had to be. Either that or Sano's very presence tore havoc on Kenshin's nerves. That didn't seem to be the case.
Finding a favorite of hers lying halfway unattached to the wooden frame, she slowly picked up the canvas, the wood in two pieces and a small spear sticking out from the corner of the material, running through that patch of blue and white swirls of the captured sky. Her fingers touched the rough paint, catching her skin with slight tugs. This was obviously a house; it was brown. That was the sky filled with fluffy clouds hanging over brilliant fields of green grasses while a small huddle of wavy trees stood watch at the curve the light brown, twisted road took. He remembered this place from a long time ago, but couldn't quiet capture it, as he'd told her when she first saw it. It was his home, when he was nothing but a small child living with his parents, maybe a sibling or two. He said he would have painted them as well, but could not remember either of their faces, or if those siblings were real or not. Time had consumed them, he said with a small smile. Time consumed them as time consumes us all, no matter how slowly or quickly.
Jumping nearly from her skin, Kaoru frantically wiped the small teardrop that had escaped onto the painting, and whirled around to leave. She noticed a canvas a decent two sizes larger than the rest lying facedown on the floor. It had jagged puncture wounds through the middle, blue showing on the upturned strips. Setting the previous work down, Kaoru lifted the new one, a sad damper suffocating her curiosity. She mended the pieces, pulling them forward until they formed a ragged imitation of what the picture had been. She frowned, and slowly gasped. Blue, black, white, swirls of colors that had an interesting depiction of her own face stared back at her broken and torn. It had obviously been unfinished, and now never would be completed.
She had no tears, none were left, as she stood, picking up her first painting, clutching to her heart as she turned for the kitchen. But stopped, the canvas slipping from her hands.
He blocked the doorway, still and silent. The fire of his bangs covered the mere simmering coals that had become his eyes. Ragged, Kenshin still wore the same thing he had on last night. His face seemed thinner, gaunt, but the shadows could play tricks with the dim garage lighting.
He was waiting for something, and for what Kaoru wasn't sure. Limp hands hung at his sides, but his finger twitched slightly, wanting to curl, to fist.
Kaoru swallowed without thinking, and that brought his face up.
His eyes, it was his eyes, she could so clearly see. There was an overnight change, a drastic and unwholesome change, a withering of the body and, what it seemed like, of also what little of his spirit he had left. His eyes, if he stood in the right light or at a good angle, looked almost completely white, void of all color. For once, Kaoru didn't have the urge to run to him, comfort him, or be comforted by him. She just didn't have it, or she was doing a heartbreakingly excellent job at burying the feeling away.
Truthfully, she was still afraid.
Kenshin began to speak, mouth moving but nothing uttered. He closed his mouth and started again.
"Sano has…given us time…to talk."
"I-I don't want to talk," she said hastily, wondering as she said it if she really meant it. Not yet, she added, thinking she'd said it aloud.
It took a second or two, but he eventually nodded.
Kaoru shifted on her feet, wishing she was in her room. Her appetite disappeared, and instead she felt nauseous.
When, at length, she finally found herself and looked up at him, mouth ready to speak, he was gone. All words vanished as she quickly took full advantage and scurried to her room, not noticing Sanosuke sitting cross-legged on the floor in the small living room by the empty gas fireplace. His eyes followed her.
Witnessing this, for him, truly was an interest yet terrifying experience. Worse, he hadn't the capability to even imagine how it would feel since he had never before been opened to such emotion as this specific kind, this controlling breed that had both of them in such a mess. He hadn't even a name for it. Fear he knew; anger was real to him, as certain manners of joy and a few levels of happiness. This was something he wanted to stray from, and only wished he had some way of knowing how it crept upon someone. It apparently could touch Kenshin, the feared and greatly respected Battousai, a demon whose touch with emotions was slim to none in the face of opposition and only slight in the company of trusted friends. If this could take the Battousai and lead him as such…Sano knew the rest of them could quiet possibly be doomed.
While Sano contemplated his own seemingly death and how to possibly avoid it, and the destruction of his redhead friend, Kaoru likewise curled inward and thought. Thought through the shock, and wondered why this had such a large impact on her.
Kenshin's kind was different, though she hadn't seen too much of that. He'd always been open with her concerning himself and his people. Perhaps she never asked questions, and stayed too content with her purple-eyed man and never, after a short time, wondered what else lay missing from him, and what all else he had been. Wrapped up in a happiness and, dare she so easily now, love that she'd never dreamed of, Kaoru had lost all sense. His kind, as Sano so neatly demonstrated, was so different, and she wanted to know more.
Just…not now. She needed a bit more time to digest and think, maybe rethink some things, but nothing concerning anything in any way possible about Kenshin leaving her life, or she leaving his. She didn't think she could bear a separation.
She would settle what of this fear she could on her own, then speak with Kenshin on the rest.
It was shock, she told herself, at being told that the man you love would easily kill you so bluntly. Goodness, couldn't he have chosen a better way of telling me?
"You've not a goddamn clue of what's going on, do you?" Sano said from the door she'd forgotten to shut.
Somehow, Kaoru mustered a glare, turning her head from where it rested on her folded arms while lying on her stomach on her bed. In the doorway he leaned against the frame, scrutinizing her, his dark brown eyes well guarded and sharp. They almost seemed to sparkle, but Kaoru couldn't really focus on the flicker for long.
"Not really," she admitted, forcing her teeth to unclench.
He heaved a short sigh that sounded more like a snort and moved into the room. Kaoru sat up, moving to the side of her bed where her feet could reach the floor quickly. Hands in his pockets, Sano leaned back against the medium-height dresser closest to the door. He hadn't turned the light on and Kaoru wasn't about to turn around to click on the lamp.
"Kenshin's a real piece of work," Sano said, rolling his shoulder, letting his head drop to the side for a moment as if working out a kink in his neck. "You should know at least that by now."
Kaoru's eyes narrowed, and did well in not speaking.
"Here he is, missing his spirit energy for some time now with a way of getting it back, but not doing it. And all because it's you," he said accusingly, his eyes flickering with his feelings on the matter of her. Kaoru didn't flinch. "Because he has some unnamed emotion he's letting himself die for you."
Shaking his head, Sano missed Kaoru's face drain whiter than a sheet.
"He snubs his spirit and won't go back to defend his own because of you. I'm sorry if this is a bit rough, but what the hell did you do to him?"
A bit of angry pink returned to her face as she glared again, standing to her feet. "I can't control his feelings; they're his own. Just like mine are, and just like yours. Whatever feelings you do have."
He didn't believe her; it glowed from his eyes.
"What's wrong with you?" she demanded. "How can you look at someone with hatred when you don't even know them?"
"It's not hate," he said. "Just distrust. I don't understand any of this."
"What's not to understand? I love him, and I'm sure he loves me too. Where's the problem in that?"
Now confusion flowed into his eyes. "Love? That's what it's called?"
Kaoru was about to answer, loudly, but stopped short, letting her mouth hang open. "What'd you mean, that's what it's called?"
He shrugged lightly. "I've never known love before. Unless I feel it myself, then I never will. And right now, it doesn't seem all that appealing to me. I've never seen Kenshin so uptight and weary. I've never seen him with so many emotions."
Shaking her head, Kaoru closed her eyes. "What are you talking about?"
His eyebrows lifted. "He really hasn't told you much." He sighed, shifting a bit. "We don't feel emotions unless they're presented to us. And until then, we can't understand them either. We don't know what being mad is until someone does something that suddenly pisses us off. How mad is a different story. We don't know irritation until someone gets on our nerves; we don't get happiness or peace or anything. I've never known love, so I don't know.
"Example: people-person, or not a people-person. It's not determined until we're faced with a crowd. Then it hits us if we enjoy that or not. Most things like that are determined in childhood. And we can't hide our traits and emotions while we're kids. Guarding emotion is a talent that's gotten over a long-ass time, and some never even really master it, like me. Others, like Kenshin, are good at it. I think it comes from being around human too much," he concluded gruffly.
"Oh," was all she could think of to say.
Sano rubbed his head thoughtfully. "People we like are the same. We either don't like you on sight, or we do. I liked you. You'd've known if I didn't-"
And he vanished.
Kaoru blinked, and she'd barely seen his blur as it shot through the doorway.
A door ripped, it sounded, from its hinges, falling to the floor in more than one piece in the front of the house. A cold, low snarl leapt down the hall like the babble of a brook, wavering, and a second, straighter rumble echoed the first.
Little hairs on her neck stood on end as she toed her way down the hall to the front door open to the morning. Pressed up against the wall and peeking around the corner, she could see Kenshin slowly standing to his feet, covered in shards of the door, the doorknob itself rolling from a spot on his chest that he placed his hand over. His hair had fallen from its tie loosely about his shoulders. Sano made himself known with a sharp yell, a thick crack resounding, and the body of another man tumbled past Kenshin, skidding out of sight into the kitchen through the wall.
Dust fell over Kenshin, crouched and clearly in pain, as he clenched his jaw together, breath hissing between his teeth. Even Kaoru could see every muscle in his body tremble as if ready to burst. When his eyes found her, they were white, screaming of something feral as they moved from her to look at the man shuffling to his feet in the next room.
"Kenshin!" Sano shouted, stepping into her view. His hair had grown longer, falling easily over the side of the band that wrapped around his head and kept the locks from falling into his face. Muscles hard as stone rippled under his skin as Sano helped the redhead to his feet. Sano turned to her briefly as well, showing the short stubble that brushed over his now more ruggedly handsome face. Deep, fiercely lit eyes stunned her with their glow, but he moved on as well, passing his anger to the man lurching his way from the kitchen, grouping for something to catch in his large hands. Blood oozed down his face, over an eye. Sano shoved Kenshin away, who stumbled over himself in a display that frightened Kaoru more than the unfamiliar villains, and met the man head-on, screaming in rage as his curled fists sliced through the air.
While watching, Kaoru missed Kenshin's approach until he had her shoulders tightly, fingers trembling, his eerie white eyes searching her terrified face.
"Kenshin!" Sano yelled again. "Don't!"
"You have to leave," he said softly for all his trouble breathing. "Leave and live as I can't."
Kaoru, heart pounding wildly, asked frantically, "Why are you doing this?"
Sano felt the arm under his fingers break from the force of his blow, but was more focused on what was happening behind him, letting himself open for the swing that landed across his face. Ignoring the blood in his mouth, Sano screamed, "Kenshin!"
Kenshin walked Kaoru backwards, pushing her back down the hall, almost making her trip. His short nails bit into her skin. Anxious, he shoved her towards the door to the other side of the duplex, the one put in by his own kind in case of events like this.
"If I live then you die," he explained. "I won't let that happen. So I die instead. Now leave, Kaoru."
Kaoru frowned, getting to her feet, never letting her eyes from his weary face. "Don't be so noble, Kenshin. I'm not going anywhere, and no one here is going to die."
He smiled, a dead motion, and nothing in his eyes reflected it. "I've explained this already, Kaoru. You understand."
Sano barreled down the hallway, a stumbling opponent, bloodied and beaten, slowly following, with intent on his face that sent shivers down Kaoru's spine. Mutters and growls snapped in the living room as the firsts that fell to Sano's fists woke. The tall man scooped Kenshin up and over his shoulder, fisting his iron-hard hand on the shoulder of Kaoru's shirt. He pulled her forward until she looked him in the eye as he bent over. Nice of him not to pick her up to talk.
"Stay still."
She couldn't very well argue. Kaoru watched Sano with one eye down the hall growing shorter and smaller by the second as their bright- and wild-eyed attackers scrambled for them as he closed his eyes for a moment, opening them suddenly. Kaoru had time to notice a strange flare lighted in sharp sparkles burst from his brown eyes until he scooped her up as well, and ran.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," she heard him mutter.
Kaoru couldn't help but ask, "Doing what?"
"Helping," he grunted. "I'm not quite sure which one of you two pain in the asses it is. But we're finding that Tent with his soul."
Fear shivered out across her arms, spreading tightly in her chest. "What?"
"You want to help him, don't you?" Sano asked, clearly agitated.
"He—he's dying, isn't he?" she whispered, not daring to look up from Sano's broadened shoulder. His longer hair swayed against her face and tickled.
"He's been dying. But yeah, he is. You want to keep him alive, you need to tell me where this Tent of yours is."
"It wasn't mine," Kaoru snarled indignantly. "It was my dad's. And it's…do you know where Sea's sister lives?"
Sano swore, stopping and placing Kaoru on her feet, glancing over his shoulder. He glared at her. "That far? Why didn't you say so? We've got to find someone who can drive us that far." He started looking over head, searching. "I'm not running all that way."
Kaoru narrowed her eyes in disbelief, wondering if this was his way of trying some funny joke. Well, it wasn't funny, or the right time, though those pursuers hadn't caught up yet. Kaoru didn't think they would. Sano'd run nearly across town in that short of time. Why would he need a car anyway if he could move so fast? "You can't drive?"
"No, I can't drive. I don't live in the city. I'm a forest-dweller. The Wildling Prince of my kind."
"A prince?" That was hard to believe.
"Yeah. No time for chit-chat, Missy. We've got to get moving if we want to make it."
"Missy?" she said as Sano picked her up again, and moved through the streets, eventually taking leap up into the rooftops in downtown. She could tell right away that he spent no time in cities. He just ran around, glancing this way and that looking for something. At length, Kaoru pulled herself up, turned only enough to see the side of his face at an angle.
"There a train or something that we can ride that'll be fast?" He took the next leap very casually and slowly, causing Kaoru to scream. "Ow! Not in my ear! Damn it!"
"I'm sorry," she spat sarcastically. "It's not like we almost missed the ledge!"
"Miss? We didn't miss it. Not by a long shot. Be quiet some. Hey, that thing down there," he pointed to a silver, black-streaked sports car of some kind. Kaoru wasn't sure what it was. "Is that fast?"
"I guess so. Why?"
"I kinda like it."
"Oh, no! You are not stealing that car!"
He snorted, placing Kaoru on the ledge of the building to readjust his hold on Kenshin. She squealed unhappily and lurched forward to grasp his shoulder.
"What are you doing?! Don't put me here! I might fall!"
"Then I'll catch you," he said conversationally. "If it's fast then that's exactly what we need. You'll have to drive."
"I'm not driving a stolen car!"
Fine," he said easily with a shrug. "Show me what to do and I'll drive."
"Sano! This isn't some wild forest. You can't steal that car."
Looking her in the eye, his brow quirked a bit. "Not my forest, but it's definitely a jungle of its own. So pipe down, will you? I need to check this out."
Ten minutes later, Kaoru stood at a corner three blocks away from Sano's target, scowling, arms crossed when Sano drove up, brakes squealing against the pavement. Kaoru scrunched her face even more when he opened the passenger door.
"Take it or leave it, Missy, but we can't leave you here," he motioned to Kenshin lying in the nonexistent backseat, "so get in. It's not so hard," he said when she hesitantly ducked into the car, buckling her seatbelt before she even shut her door. "I'll get the hang of it."
His hair was back to normal, though the ends of his brown strands were a bit faded, and the scruff on his face was gone. He looked younger without it.
"Here's the plan," he began, waving his hand in front of her face as the highway sped by at over one hundred miles and hour. "We're leaving the car once we get there, without damage, if that makes you feel any better."
She glared from the corner of her eye. "Keep your eyes on the road."
Laying one arm nonchalantly across the back of her seat, he faced the road but glanced at her and out his window, ignoring her completely. She grit her teeth, fingers digging into the leather upholstery.
"I'm not going to crash. Stop worrying. We've got to get a hold of Aoshi or someone when we get there and let them know what's going on." Kaoru almost smacked his face when he turned around to look at Kenshin. "He should be ok for a couple more days after this nap, but that won't be enough. There's something you need to do."
Frowning, Kaoru wasn't sure about accepting anymore of his schemes anytime soon, but he'd leave her without a choice no matter what her opinion was.
"What can I do?"
"Well drop him off with Tae while we head over to the Tent, wait a while for his spirit to seep a bit into you-"
"This isn't sounding too great on my end." As usual, she added crossly to herself. Always the shorter end with these people.
"Not for long. I don't want to drag a raving screaming lunatic around. No, just a little bit for Kenshin to drain from you while we wait for Aoshi or someone to show up. A little bit'll go for a few more days, maybe even give some color back into his eyes 'cause, damn, that is creepy having him look at you right now."
"That's it?"
Sanosuke nodded once, swerving around a mini van whose horn blared angrily as they blew by. "That's it."
"Unless you and your maniac driving gets us killed first," Kaoru groaned.
Laughing, Sano winked an eye at her. "C'mon, Missy. Give me some credit here. Besides, my reflexes are better."
Radio playing pleasantly in the background, Kaoru had long sense moved into the back with Kenshin, his head resting in her lap as the darkened landscape of late night rushed past. Sano hadn't said much, and Kenshin was frighteningly cold. He hadn't woken up at all.
"Sano, we need gas," Kaoru informed into the silence.
He glanced down at the glowing dashboard, looking at her puzzled. "Again? Which one was it?"
"That dial there. No, that's the speedometer. No, no, yes, that one. Look. It's almost on empty."
Sanosuke sighed. "How long until we really need to get some more?"
"Uh, now."
"We're almost there, aren't we?"
"Slow down so I can see. Slow down."
Sano let off the gas, and everything slowed to a reasonable blur. Kaoru leaned over the front seat, ducking to peer out the windshield at the signs above the road.
"Yeah. Take the exit right here. Or not-"
"Whoops," he muttered, whipping the wheel hard to the right, tires screaming, cars behind them complaining loudly.
"There's another exit further down the road, Sano!" Kaoru shouted, shielding Kenshin as she slammed against the side.
"You said to turn here!" he answered. "So I turned here! Now tell me where to find Tae so we can get this over with."
Tae was more-or-less happy to see them, dampened by Kenshin's grave condition. She readily took Kenshin in, placing him inside the room where Kaoru'd found out about the two of them. It was late and she'd been on her way home, but agreed to watch him while Sano took Kaoru out. Sano didn't explain what his plan was, and shooed Kaoru along, not wanting to spend a lot of time in the Akabeko. He did, however, have plenty of time to ask Tae for a meal to take.
"I got a phone call from my sister," Tae said as she gathered a to-go box for Sano, "about what's going on."
"How long ago was that?" Sano asked from his seat, arm resting on the back of a chair in the kitchen.
"Right after you three left her restaurant. She said it was serious. I had no idea that Kenshin never got his spirit back when he and Kaoru visited a couple months ago. They didn't stop by before they left." Kaoru looked to the floor when Tae glanced at her, but the woman smiled. "Now, I believe I know why."
"Yeah, well, he should have known to come back to the Palace once he found Missy," Sano said gruffly. "But he didn't. Did you get a hold of anyone at the Palace?"
"I didn't, but Sae did."
"She get a hold of anybody?"
"She was right on time, actually," a large, barrel-chested man said as he stepped into the kitchen. Long, jet-black hair cascaded down his broad back, and arms as large around as Kaoru's head crossed. Head held high, the dark-eyed man scrutinized the thinner man as Sano stood slowly to face him. "Before you tried to pull something, that is."
Sano sneered, unfazed by the size of the man before him. Kaoru, on the other hand, scooted closer to Tae, who seemed more concerned than surprised or anything.
"That's Hiko," she explained with a smile. "Of the four Princes, he's the biggest. Not only in size, mind you," she chuckled.
Someone had mentioned more princes or something, Kaoru remembered. "Which one is he?"
"Ruling Prince. He makes the rules, but he's more of a figurehead than anything. We're such a thin race that keeping everyone in line's been easier. Sano here," Tae continued, "he's the Wildling Prince, dealing with all the demon's who only live outside civilization. Ah," she said with a relieved expression as another man walked in behind Hiko, who was still arrogantly smirking down at Sano. Equally black hair fell over the newcomer's forehead, and had the shortest cut of all the demon men Kaoru'd seen, but it was still decently long. His cool blue-green eyes glanced her over, and she had the strange feeling he'd just gleaned more information in that glance than she'd like.
"And that," Tae finished, "is Aoshi. I wouldn't worry much now. It seems Sae called all the right people for this one."
"Aoshi?" Kaoru whispered, and he glanced at her once more. "Which one is he? And…and which one is Kenshin?"
"Oh, he's the Advisory Prince. Kenshin, or more commonly known as Battousai, as I told you, is Guardian Prince. All of them have their own areas, but they work together."
Aoshi spoke, his voice as cool and calm as his eyes. "Sano, what were you planning on doing had we not arrived in time?"
If the dark expression on Sano's face said anything, that man just made a very derisive comment. And with such a straight face.
"I was going to have you come, I just wanted to get here first, have Missy here take in some of Kenshin's spirit and give it back to him for some more time."
Hiko snorted. "Fool. That would have only sped his death."
"It's not your fault," Aoshi said, and even Kaoru could feel that burn. "This is a very precarious situation that he's placed us and himself in."
"Even more of a fool," Hiko growled. "He doesn't realize just how much trouble he's in."
"Where is he?" Aoshi asked.
Tae piped in, "He's in here. Follow me, gentlemen." She gently moved past Kaoru, the food forgotten.
"Thank you," Aoshi inclined his head.
He headed after Tae immediately, unlike Sano. He stood slightly in the big man's way, that dark scowling look in his eyes as Hiko's smirk twisted his lips up again. Kaoru watched, fascinated, as they both merely stood for a second, then both began moving forward, Sano, being slimmer and bent on some odd competition, slipped from the kitchen first. Hiko chuckled deeply.
Turning around, he placed his gaze on her and Kaoru could clearly see his arrogance in them. She wondered if he had the ability to back up such a large ego. From the look of him, he probably could.
"Are you coming?" he asked.
"Oh," she breathed, embarrassed, and quickly moved past him. He loomed over her as he followed her. She kept her pace quick and refused to glance over her shoulder to stare some more.
Aoshi knelt beside a sweaty and pale Kenshin, pulling his hand away from Kenshin's forehead. He wiped his palm on his white coat before standing.
"We haven't much time left," he said gravely. "Do we have the girl?"
"Right here," Hiko grumbled, indicating toward Kaoru dismissively.
"Good. Where is the Tent?"
"At Missy's old house," Sano replied quickly, business-like. "She can show us the way."
"Will any of you need something to eat before you go?" Leave it to Tae to think of something like that.
Aoshi answered after glancing at Sano and Hiko. "No. Time is of essence here. Kenshin's faded far too quickly."
"His will?" Hiko questioned, a dark frown pulling his brows.
"It has to be," Sano snorted, waving towards Kaoru. "The whole reason he never got his spirit back was because of her."
Suddenly, Kaoru felt very much like an odd specimen with all their confused yet conductively thinking eyes on her.
"He never said it outright, but he loves her," Sano continued, frowning.
"Explain," Hiko demanded.
Kaoru blanched. None of them understood?
"He's willing to die for her."
That drew a silence Kaoru could breathe easier for. At least they could understand that much.
"Interesting," Aoshi mused, taking in Kaoru, then running his calculating gaze over Kenshin. "That complicates things."
"Damn straight it does. And Kenshin never really decided what he wanted to do about it either."
"Well, now he's not getting the chance," Hiko added. "We decide, and we decide now. We're running out of time."
"Fine," Aoshi's tone, after a moment of thought, pulled everyone's attention to him. "We need blood to open the spells, which we have. Kenshin's spirit will not waste time returning to his body once we bring him into the perimeter of the Tent. Once we get what we need from her, she needs to be gone."
Kaoru, forgotten, never took well to being talked about like she wasn't there. Couldn't really blame them outright, but someone was getting ready to get an earful.
"Long gone," Hiko agreed, rubbing his chin with a finger before flipping up his bangs from his face. "Who stays?"
"You will," Aoshi said. "This will need immense force if we are to get her as far away as possible."
"I'll stay too," Sano raised his hand for a moment from where it was tucked under his folded arms. "You're faster than I am anyway." He snarled at Hiko's slight snort.
"Agreed," Aoshi nodded. "Let's go." He glanced at her and bowed his head, the essence of politeness, though cold, and Kaoru almost forgot her irritation. "Will you direct us to the Tent?"
Ready to agree, Kaoru backtracked, and closed her mouth with a scowl. "Not until I know just what is going on in here. And you stop talking about me like I'm not here."
"Better you're not here," Hiko rumbled above her. She turned her glare up to him.
"He's right, Missy," Sano said, stepping forward from the wall he was leaning on. "You're in deep shit 'cause we aren't letting him go."
"It's better if you leave him," Aoshi said. "He won't harm you then."
"Who are you to make my decisions for me?" she snapped.
"It's no wonder he was so interested in this girl," Hiko said dryly, lifting her up with one hand effortlessly, unaffected by her startled shriek and her kicks as she once again flopped onto another shoulder.
While Sano gathered Kenshin, Aoshi turned to Tae outside the doorway, a hand over her heart. He bowed.
"Thank you for your help, but we have this from here. It would be best if you remain here."
"Of course," she consented gratefully. "Take care of Kaoru. She means so much to him, and she's a dear friend of mine."
The Prince nodded silently, and followed his waiting companions.
"By the gods, woman," Hiko growled at Kaoru and her pounding fists on his back and shoulder. "Settle down. We aren't harming you."
"Calm down," Aoshi assured her in a less threatening manner. "If Kenshin is to live, we need your assistance. Now, tell us were to go."
Stilling, Kaoru looked at each of their grim faces in turn, the anger falling away when she saw Kenshin. Fear gripped her in the chest and she swallowed. "Alright. But you have to put me down first."
She wasn't sure what she expected going back to her old house. Would someone have moved in, or maybe it would be demolished? She wasn't sure, but she wasn't all that surprised when she saw its dark and vacant windows staring out at her, the grass overgrown, branches scattering the yard from the bushel of trees that stood untrimmed at the edge of the property. The gate was shut and locked with a chain.
Aoshi surveyed the grounds while Hiko hovered over Kaoru like a mountain on the sidewalk, and Sano held onto a stirring Kenshin in the backseat of one of the cars that the two had brought.
With a nod from Aoshi, Hiko moved Kaoru forward, more or less gentlemanly. The closer she got to those green-blue eyes staring distantly at her, the more Kaoru felt dread, until she paused wearily in front of him. Hiko had his fingers poised perfectly to wrap around her arm, but Aoshi slightly shook his head. Hiko moved away, but stayed close enough.
Kaoru swallowed and almost asked what they were up to, when a silver flash darted close to her, across her arm. Her yelp of surprise turned into a stunned grunt when a sting spread from her upper arm and blood welled from a fresh, clean wound.
Hiko had her arm, holding it so her blood dripped into a small wooden bowl as she slowly turned her shocked, agape look at Aoshi cleaning a small blade on a white cloth.
"You cut me!" she stammered.
Hiko chuckled without too much humor. Aoshi didn't blink.
"I did," he replied calmly, quickly tucking the knife away. Where, Kaoru couldn't see. He turned to the cars and nodded. A door opened and Sano's swears sounded in the early, early morning silence.
"Damn pesky…what the hell?" Kaoru looked over her shoulder to find Kenshin writhing in Sano's hold, his wide, white eyes on her, nostrils flared as a slow snarled exposed his teeth.
"Get him away from her!" Hiko hollered without looking. "He can smell her blood!"
"Right," Sano muttered, shifting Kenshin around. "So where the hell do I take him? I can see the Tent in the backyard, and I can't very well go back there."
"That's fine," Aoshi told Hiko as he stepped forward, another cloth in his hands to wrap her arm with. Hiko stalked toward the back gate, Sano hot on his heels as Kenshin began to growl. A far-away wail rose hauntingly from the backyard. The cloth, Kaoru noticed as she watched Aoshi's quick and expert hands wrap the wound, had a strange smell, and almost immediately when the cloth touched the wound the sting began to fade.
"Healing herbs soaked into the cloth," Aoshi explained. "More potent for your kind."
The gate shattered, and Kaoru jumped, looking just in time to see Sano straighten from his swing, Kenshin clawing at the arm wrapped around his waist. Blood flung from his fingertips, but Sano doggedly ignored it and followed behind Hiko.
"They know what they are doing," Aoshi said, gripping her other arm. "You must leave now."
"Wait," she wavered, her voice cracking as she watched Sano lay Kenshin's writhing, bucking form at the base of the steel wall, and back away as Hiko began walking a circle around the Tent, dribbling a line of her blood beside him.
"I have to see this."
Aoshi was confused. "You're not safe here, you understand."
Sano glanced up and frowned at them for a moment before casting his eyes on Kenshin, looking back pointedly, repeating his pattern a few more times.
"We need to go."
Kaoru jerked her arm to escape, but couldn't. She glared. "You don't even know my name. Who are you to toss me around? I won't leave him."
Aoshi flicked his gaze from her fierce eyes to Hiko now completing the circle, beginning a soft, rumbling chant that reverberated through the air. Sano soon joined him, the different flavors of their auras mixing in their words as Kenshin screamed. Kaoru paled when he stood suddenly, throwing himself at the wall over and over violently, trying to get inside somehow. His spirit's wails were harsh, starting at a low moan and reaching a note of a screaming banshee. Shivers coursed her body in waves until it hurt, hair rippling on her neck.
Sano's fists clenched, ready to spring if Kenshin chanced at harming himself beyond repair. A glance at Hiko told him that the larger man likewise focused on watching and waiting.
Tears sliding down her face, Kaoru asked softly, "What—what is he doing?"
"Trying to reach his spirit."
"Why won't one of them do something to help him?" Her teeth grit tight as she stretched past the exhaustion tugging at her.
"They cannot. Only he can. I cannot tell you—we must leave, woman. You're in danger here. I strongly believe he would not want to harm you."
"I'm not leaving."
Finally, to Kaoru's relief, the wall began to crumble under Kenshin's bloodied fists, Hiko's and Sano's chanting rising strong into the air until the wall fell beneath the redhead's hands, and all, the chants, the screams, fell into an eerie silence. A slight chill wrapped around them for a moment as the hindering spells broke and wafted free to linger and dissipate on the wind. Aoshi's hold on her arm tightened, Sano and Hiko took a number of steps away from the Demon Tent.
Breath held, Kaoru waited in the quiet ringing in her ears until her mind screamed that she needed air. But when she did breathe, the world dipped to the side sharply. She blinked, shook her head, looked back and froze.
Kenshin stood outside the wall's debris, eyes closed, face upturned as if enjoying the early morning air. She gasped when they opened and a wave of gold rushed from his eyes, burning bright, lighting his face in a frighteningly gorgeous glow. Sano grinned when Kenshin looked at them with a dark smirk, as if laughing at some joke Kaoru'd rather not know about.
When he spoke, it would have sent a welcomed heat rushing through her veins, but instead turned her blood icy cold.
"Is this the blood of the one who caged me?"
Fear turned her limp, and Aoshi took full advantage by tossing her up into his arms, dashing in a blur for the car. He was inside, car started, in a neat flash before Kaoru came to her senses, but not fully. The world was tilting again, this way and that. Grey grew into dark at the edge of her vision as the purr of the car's engine rose in pitch. They were going extremely fast.
"What else was in those healing herbs?"
Aoshi didn't answer right away, and his voice, like her own, was very far away. "Masking herbs, to keep him from finding you by your blood and your aura. They are much more potent on your kind. Rest, you're much safer now."
She didn't feel safe, she felt angry and upset as they drove further and further from him, but was overtaken by the powerful darkness before the tears suddenly in her eyes could spill.
Kaoru looked out the window of her tall apartment, hand in her palm as her elbow rested on the windowsill. The papers on the desk in front of her were forgotten as the sun dipped lower for the horizon, splashing the sky in such a red that sent a sharp pang through her chest.
Three weeks. It'd been three weeks since she'd last seen him, or the others for that matter. Not even Tae. Three weeks, but it seemed like an eternity.
She'd gone back, would be damned if she hadn't tried something. But no one was there. Her house was empty, as it should. Why would they have bothered staying in it? Kenshin wouldn't have even wanted to be around the place where he'd almost been lost. The debris from the wall had been cleared, the gate fixed. When she asked the neighbors, they told her a group of adolescents had broken the gate with baseball bats, and taken those bats to the Tent. Why everything was cleared away, they weren't sure about, but who wouldn't have wanted a token from a Demon Tent? The folks only hoped that whatever had been inside it hadn't gotten out to wreck havoc on the neighborhood.
Kaoru knew that wasn't the case. He was only after her, or her father, but the chance in getting him hardly existed.
She could remember the dark sky when Aoshi finally stopped and gathered her limp form in his powerful arms. Conversation passed between him and a woman, then the tall, dark man left without another word.
The next morning, on the couch of a complete stranger, Kaoru learned that the woman, Misao Makimachi, was an old friend of Aoshi's, though they hardly ever saw each other anymore, she pointed to make known. He left strict instructions to not take her to the hospital, that she'd wake in a while, and that she wouldn't be in such a good mood once she did. Truthful to the very end—for which Kaoru wanted to smack his head around—Aoshi was right, but Kaoru's less than friendly attitude didn't damper Misao's spirits at all. She was a bouncy thing, chatty, and open. Where Kaoru found her completely annoying the first day, she grew to like the wiry little thing. It was another reason Kaoru agreed to room with her.
That and the constant noise and being drug around by her new-found friend kept Kaoru from falling off the edge into a very deep slump that still, in the dead of night, gripped her chest and tore at her heart while she unsuccessfully held back tears. She couldn't believe that he'd forget about her so easily, spirit back and a blood thirst for her or not.
But he did because he never came.
That brought mixed feelings. One, she was safe and didn't have to worry about any repercussions for his regain of golden eyes and a silent power running under his skin that she'd glimpsed at in the short second she had. Two, she missed him, his touch, his looks both intentional and when he thought he was being secretive, his soft smile and sometimes goofy grin, the warmth that his kisses sent shivering over her skin and pooling in her stomach. She missed him so much it hurt.
She wondered woefully if that would ever change, or if for the rest of her life she would wish for him.
"Don't forget those applications, Kaoru!" Misao, in a sing-sung tone, called from the kitchen from making a snack for the movie they decided to treat themselves with.
Glancing down at the papers, Kaoru sighed heavily. "I think I'll do them later," she called, getting up.
"You said that yesterday!"
"Yeah, I know, but it's Saturday night."
Misao poked her head through the kitchen doorway, playfully frowning. "Fine. Monday!"
Rolling her eyes, Kaoru sat herself on the couch, grabbing the only pillow to her chest protectively, lowering her head to rest on its downy face. "I got it, I got it. Hurry up, will you?"
Misao stepped into the doorway instead of leaning over to peer through it. "What wrong?"
Smile flashing, Kaoru shook her head. "Nothing. Just thinking about something, but, hey, Saturday remember? Let's get this started, shall we?"
Watching her a bit longer, Misao finally nodded. "Alright!" She bound into the living room with a large bowl of homemade popcorn smothered in warmed caramel she found in the back of her fridge. "Let movie night officially commence!"
The lights went out as the screen for the selection menu of Ocean's Eleven ran though scenes.
"I can't believe you haven't seen this one," Misao chirp as she pressed play and dug into her candy-coated popcorn. "I think you'll like it. Plenty of eye-candy. It has a good story-line, too. That's a bonus."
"Yeah," Kaoru half-heartedly agreed. Misao better get used to watching things without much romance. Kaoru didn't want to see that, or hear it. She'd probably just burst into tears. She hadn't explained her situation to Misao yet, and didn't plan on it either. Better to be left behind her, and telling someone would just bring it forward, make it even more true and painful.
So she invented the strictly no romantic anything diet for herself. Any slip would surly bring her out of her carefully constructed shell and slowly kill her like way too much chocolate and other sweets did for a person. Then she wouldn't be very much good for anyone. Besides, if she died, she'd much rather have the last thing she saw a face surrounded in strands of fire and eyes that glowed gold.
It was a wonderfully horrible dream, and most definitely one to be left alone, not giving any room for it to bloom. Aoshi made it clear that Kenshin wouldn't ever be able to find her. He seemed a man strict to his word. They'd make sure Kenshin never had the time to find her again, not with the chance of him leaving like he did before. More likely, Kaoru scolded herself, he would come for her in the name of revenge, not love. Better to leave things alone, as is.
"Kaoru?" Misao had paused the movie, her green eyes wide and filled with concern. "Are you sure you're alright? You look like you're about to burst into tears."
"Thinking about something again," Kaoru replied offhandedly, not fooling Misao or herself with a grin this time. "Let's just watch the movie."
A/N: Ok…now, question: will there be another one because of the nature of the ending? At this point, no. But, before anyone complains, I will be skimming my brain for any ideas, see what comes up. It seems that yet another oneshot just won't stay a oneshot. –Sigh- I guess that's good for some of you. Heh.
Thanks for those who read. Until next time!