Hey guys! Here's a new story for you all to read! I hope you like it. Let me know so I know whether to keep going or not.
I decided to spare everyone their emotions since my last one was a bit of a gut-twister. This one shouldn't turn into anything too emotional (except for possibly the last chapter)
I don't own Rurouni Kenshin :(
Megumi went and locked the door at the end of the day. With a sigh, she pulled off her bandana that she wore during surgery and slowly trudged to her room.
She just finished fixing a man's broken leg. He had been working on a boat when something fell on him and snapped his leg in three places. She didn't know how it happened and she didn't particularly care.
At this moment, all she wanted was sleep.
Megumi had now been in Aizu for five years after leaving the Kamiya Dojo. It had taken most of the first year to set up her clinic and convince people to come to a lady-doctor. Now everything was running smoothly and she had a consistent number of patients walking in the door, even if there were some who were still prejudice over her gender. She'd met several of those radicals. There had been quite a few who'd broken her windows, a handful tried to rob her, and recently someone tried to light her clinic on fire. However, these were things Megumi was now used to. She was perfectly capable of brushing off the nonsense of those idiot men.
Over the past few weeks though, a new sort of idiot man had started to show up. These men came with flowers, a pretty face, and words promising her everything from happiness to the stars in the sky. It was a shock to these egotistical men that she didn't fall, swooning, straight into their arms. It was even more of a shock when they discovered she'd put a woman sick with a skin-eating disease before them every day, every time.
Megumi had come to accept that she'd probably never get married. Men were too easily intimidated by an intelligent, beautiful woman. She was sad about it—she had wanted children—but not so much that she would go out of her way to find a husband for. She felt complete enough with just her clinic.
A brown, spiky-headed rooster pushed its way to the front of her brain. She shoved back at it and it receded to the recesses of her mind. There was no reason for her to visit memory lane. The past was the past and it was better left there.
Megumi had just reached the door to her personal quarters when she heard someone knock on the front door. She turned and gave it a dirty look.
Didn't people know doctors needed sleep too?
She slowly plodded back to the front of the building and opened the door just enough to peek outside. A large man was standing in front of her.
He was about seven or eight inches taller than her and was wearing a dark green cloak tied completely over his body, obscuring the clothes underneath. He had long brown hair that hung in front of his eyes but didn't touch them due to a red bandana wrapped around his forehead. He looked like he hadn't shaved in days and had the aura of a man who traveled a lot. He had very broad shoulders and a prominent jaw line. He also had some of the deepest brown eyes Megumi had ever seen. His lips were chapped and his skin had a pinkish hue. It looked like he was recovering from a sunburn.
"Can I help you with something?" she asked, nervous of the man's appearance.
The man stared at her. His eyes were wide and he seemed to be tracing her face with his gaze. He looked completely absorbed and didn't appear too willing to respond.
"Sir," she repeated. "Can I help you with something?" If this was another one of those wanna-be lovers, she planned on having his head bashed into the wall.
He blinked twice rapidly. "Is this the clinic owned by the lady-doctor?"
"Yes it is," Why else would a woman answer the door you stupid man? she thought. She wasn't too pleased for having her sleep delayed. "However, I'm closed right now and am not taking anything except the most serious of cases. Come back tomorrow please." She began to shut the door but was stopped when he stuck his foot out to catch the door.
She glared at this man. "Sir, I suggest you let me close this door."
He ignored her. "It'll only take a few seconds. I just need some help with my hands. " He held them both up. They were a mess. The bandages had dirt and grass stuck in them. They had gotten so worn that it was a miracle they were still on his hand. His fingernails were dirty and it seemed that his fingers had popped out of their sockets, but no one put them back correctly. They must be causing him a great deal of pain. That was what decided it for her. She couldn't stand to see someone in physical pain.
With a sigh she beckoned him inside. She led him into a room and pointed to where he was to sit. "I'll be right back," she said.
She walked out of the room and into the supply closet. She grabbed a couple rolls of bandages and a bottle of alcohol. Looking around on the shelf, she noticed she only had one more bottle left. Her eyebrows furrowed as she thought of her meager money supply. She had inherited Dr. Genzai's generosity and never made a person pay more than their means allowed. A lot of the time, people paid with chickens or other farm animals.
She slowly walked back to the room thinking about what to do. Rubbing alcohol was very important in medicine. Without it, she couldn't clean wounds effectively and would run the risk of giving the patient an infection. She didn't want to have to set a price for her patients. That wasn't fair when many of them were farmers or worked a simple booth in the marketplace.
She entered the room to find that the man had taken off his cloak. He was wearing a dark brown gi that was cut low revealing his muscular chest. His arms were muscled as well leaving no doubt in her mind that this man was a fighter. He'd rolled his sleeves up past his elbows revealing toned forearms.
"Is something the matter, Lady Doctor?" he asked, smirking slightly.
She realized she had stopped in the doorway to stare at him. She flipped her hair over her shoulder dismissively. "No. I thought I'd forgotten something in the supply closet but I have everything." She gracefully walked across the room and sat in front of him. She could feel him smirking at her but she refused to look at him.
She reached out and gently picked up his left hand. Scrunching up her nose, she peeled away the offensive bandages and threw them in the trash next to her legs. She held it up in front of her face and scrutinized it. She ran her hands over his knuckles and joints. Proving her previous assessment correct, she discovered he had three fingers out of their sockets and four completely broken fingers.
She looked up at him in shock. "How on earth can did you even manage to knock on the door? You should be in extreme pain right now."
He shrugged, almost looking embarrassed. "S'not that bad," he grumbled.
"Of course it's bad! Are you an idiot or something?" she demanded.
"I'm not an idi—SHIT!" he yelled. While he was distracted Megumi had popped all three fingers back into place simultaneously.
He wrenched his hand away from her and glared at her. "What the hell was that for?"
"Your hand needed to be relaxed if I was going to fix it," she said calmly. "People tend to tense up when they know pain is coming."
"Well I ain't like most people," he growled at her. He turned and looked at his hand. "Damn fox, that really hurt," he mumbled.
Megumi was busy cutting bandages when he said it. She dropped them. "What did you call me?" she glared at him.
His eyes widened. "I—,"
"Don't ever call me that again," she whispered violently.
The barriers of Megumi's mind crumpled. Memories of nights spent with the rooster spilled into her head. Staying up late every night because she knew he would come in sooner or later with a busted hand. Once he'd get there, telling him to stop getting in fights and being ignored by him every time. Teasing each other constantly and occasionally teaming up against Kaoru. The time he saved her from herself.
The moments when he became serious; when it seemed like he was heartbeats away from telling her how he felt.
"My name is Takani and that is the only name which you may call me," she said angrily.
She found that she'd risen to her feet and was glaring down at him. He stared back calmly. "I apologize," he said quietly. "I won't call you that again, Takani-sensai."
Her anger left her in a whoosh. She felt embarrassed at her yelling at a complete stranger and sat down quickly. To keep herself from looking at him, she poured alcohol on his hand to get rid of the dirt on all the cuts. Next she bound his fingers on his left hand and took up his right hand. This hand only two fingers out of the socket but had all five fingers either broken or sprained. It was obvious which hand he favored.
She looked up at him. "You have two fingers out of their sockets."
He cringed. "Thanks for the heads-up," he rolled his shoulders. "Just do it."
She felt his hand relax in hers and in that instant popped them back in place. He let his breath in a hiss.
"Sorry," she said, actually feeling sorry for his pain.
"No problem," he said gruffly. "I've endured worse."
"What caused these wounds?" she asked as she cleaned his hand.
He shrugged again. "I got in a couple of fights," he grinned like a teenager. "I won every one."
His response was so much like Sanosuke she almost thought it was him. Don't be foolish she thought angrily. He's been out of Japan for five years. He's probably in America or something. Kami forbid he stay where he was born.
It wasn't so much that he was gone that infuriated Megumi. It's that he didn't say good-bye. It's that he didn't even say when he was coming back.
You're a fool she said to herself.
"Yo, Takani-sensai?" the man asked, leaning forward in concern.
She looked up quickly. "You shouldn't get in fights," she said, repeating what she told Sano years ago. "You'll lose the use of your hand."
A grin slowly spread across the stranger's face. "Don't worry about it, Takani-sensai. With the great job you did I should be up and fighting in a matter of days, right?" he asked, wiggling his re-bandaged fingers in the air.
She raised an eyebrow. "Don't be a fool," she said, cleaning up her supplies. "You should try to use your hands as little as possible for about two weeks." She gave him a pointed look, "That includes fighting."
He placed his head in his hand and pouted. "You're no fun."
Megumi giggled. The man grinned.
What am I doing? She immediately stopped her laughter.
She was giggling. Giggling. What on earth was she doing? How long had it been since she giggled with a man?
Megumi turned her gaze toward the traveler. He had stopped grinning too and was looking at her with his eyebrows together.
What is it with this man? Why was it he was so familiar feeling she could giggle like a teenager around him. Megumi didn't like this feeling in the slightest.
"You should probably go now," she said, rudely.
His eyes widened in surprise. "Did I do something wrong?"
She struggled to think of an excuse for her sudden rudeness. "Doctors have to sleep just like everybody else."
"Oh, I see," he rose from his seat, grabbed his cloak, and walked past her to the hallway.
As he walked past her his scent washed over her. He smelled like the woods. He smelled like sun and sweat and masculine power. She turned around and watched him turn the corner, out of her line of sight. If it were possible, he smelled like freedom.
She followed him to the door. He was half-way out the door when he turned around and said, "I have nothing to pay you."
She looked him up and down, pointedly looking at his very dirty clothes. "I figured," she said.
"I," he searched for an answer, "I could work for you."
Megumi was about to flat out refuse him until she thought of the benefits of having a man around. It would be helpful to have someone who was kind of like a body-guard. It was annoying when someone tried to rob her and ended up succeeding simply because she couldn't fight him. It would also be nice to have someone chop her wood for her. Winter was fast approaching and she didn't like having to spend her already low sums on someone who could chop wood.
She focused back in on the man and saw what a hopeful expression he had on. He obviously really wanted this job.
"What is your name?" she asked.
His face pinched up. "My name?" he asked quietly.
"Yes," she said impatiently.
"It's—my name is," he paused and looked at her. Confusion, fear, and regret flew across his face. He seemed to be having an internal battle.
Suddenly, words from Kaoru crept through her mind. Everyone has one or two things about their past they don't want to talk about
Megumi waved her hand dismissively, "Never mind," she said calmly. "I'll just think of something else to call you by your first day of work."
His eyes brightened and he grinned. He bowed to her and said, "Thank you very much, Takani-sensai," he said humbly.
He raised himself as she said, "Yeah, yeah, just make sure you're here tomorrow bright and early. It'll be a busy day." With that she shooed him off her porch.
He was halfway to the road when he turned back. He looked her in the eye, winked, and raised his hand in farewell.
Megumi's heart stuttered as she watched the man go down the street. When he was gone from her view she entered her home and shut the door behind her. Leaning against it, she put her hand up to her cheek.
She walked to her room. I really hope this is a good idea she thought as she climbed into her futon. Within moments, she was gone from the world.