Title: Broken Angel

Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin is not mine, I am just borrowing them for a little while.

Pairing: This is an Aoshi/Kaoru fan fiction with other pairings as well.

Premise: A person can only take so much before they break. A/K set in AU. Kaoru's mother left when she was just a young girl and her father raised Kaoru. He dies saving a child, leaving her alone with no other relatives. Kaoru is sent to foster in her mother's care and meets her bratty sisters and their rich, spoiled friends. But are they all as spoiled, as they seem?

A/N: Kaoru is depicted as nice and sweet, self-sacrificing and understanding. She will also retain all these qualities in this fic but she will also be slightly OOC. People aren't perfect and we all have our dark side, it's all about conquering out pain and rising about the darkness that makes us truly special human beings.

Summary: Kaoru comes to live with her rich mom and meets her snobby, spoiled half-sisters and their friends. Kaoru doesn't really fit into the life of such leisure and doesn't know which fork to use, the difference between red and white wine…so on. It's obvious her mom doesn't want her around and her sisters seem to hate her. She wants to go away but has nowhere else to go.

Aoshi is one of her sisters' friends and he's gorgeous and snobby, the epitome of everything she hates…but is he really?

Chapter One:

/Kaoru/

It was weird.

You'd think that learning that your father had just died would be this big, huge, momentous event that would turn everything around.

It wasn't.

Someone took me from class and told me that I had a phone call. Of course I was a little curious but I didn't think it was any big deal or anything. I certainly didn't think it would be about my father dying.

So then when I arrived at the principal's office and picked up the phone I heard this eerie silence from the other end of the line, I was worried. "Hello?"

"K-Kaoru…"

It was Dr. Genzai. My brow furrowed in concern at his tone. "What's wrong?"

"I'm very sorry Kaoru…your father…your father is…"

My father was dead.

Seconds ticked by and I waited but nothing happened.

Nothing.

No tears.

No screams.

No pain.

I was just numb.

Sano kept on shooting inquisitive glances over at Kaoru. He'd met up with her during dismissal so they could walk home together since he didn't have basketball practice that day. He had noticed her unusual behavior then but when questioned, Kaoru had remained silent.

Something was wrong with Kaoru. She was walking like a robot and no amount of ribbing seemed to get a rise out of her.

"Kaoru…daijoubu?" he hedged, walking in front of her and turning around so that he faced her.

"I'm fine," she said tonelessly.

Sano frowned. She was obviously not fine and he wondered what could have happened to make her behave this way. They weren't in the same class and he knew some of the girls liked to make fun of her because she was a sort of tomboy. He hated it when people made fun of Kaoru just because she didn't have a mother and she wasn't as well off financially as everyone else at school were.

Could that be it?

Nah…Kaoru had never been one to let mean words affect her. She usually just let it slide.

Sano on his part; had made it known to everyone that if they bullied Kaoru, they would also have to contend with him.

People at school did not want to cross Sanosuke Sagara. He was rich, popular and the captain of the basketball team.

But he couldn't always be there to protect her…

Is that what was wrong?

When he found out who hurt his friend…

They walked in silence.

Sano was wrapped up in plans for revenge and Kaoru carried her own personal black cloud above her head.

It was Sanosuke who first noticed the car parked in front of Kaoru's house. He frowned as he grabbed her wrist and dragged her forward.

"What's going on?" he asked the police officer, keeping a firm grip on Kaoru to let her know he was there for her, whatever happened. "My name is Sano, I'm a family friend. What are you doing here?"

The policeman looked solemn. This was the part of his job he hated the most.

Talking to the victim's families.

No matter how long he stayed on the force, he would never get used to the look in their eyes when they first learn of their beloved's deaths. "Kaoru Kamiya?" he asked the dark haired girl whose bangs were covering her eyes.

"What do you want with her?" Sano demanded, stepping protectively in front of Kaoru.

"Yes," Kaoru answered the policeman, pushing Sano aside, knowing what the policeman had come here for.

She wondered why she felt nothing.

There was just an ever expanding void of emptiness in her.

"I'm very sorry to inform you Miss Kamiya…your father is dead," Officer Kudou said somberly. There was no easy way to say the words and he'd learned that being quick and to the point was actually more merciful to the relatives.

Kudou braced himself for the girl's reaction and was surprised when she continued to stand there, unmoving, as she hadn't heard his news. "He died saving a boy's life. He pushed the boy out of the way of a speeding car and got hit…"

Kaoru already knew that. Dr. Genzai had told her.

Still, there was nothing in her heart that reacted to the news being relayed again.

She remained motionless as she stared down at the ground and wondered when it was going to open up and swallow her whole.

And then it came like a hot thick rush of blood.

Rage.

Sano stood quietly beside her his expression more appropriate for the news that had just been delivered. His eyes widened as liquid tears began to gather at the bottom ready to fall at the slightest movement, "Oh no…" he whispered his eyes quickly going to study Kaoru's face.

"He died on the way to the hospital…" the police officer said his eyes averted. "The little boy is still in the hospital but he's only got a mild concussion."

Sano took a step towards Kaoru whose face was hidden behind a waterfall of her black hair. "Kaoru…" he softly uttered concern and heartbreak evident in his voice.

"How could he?" she asked softly.

"What?" Sano asked moving closer, closing his arms around her still form. She was starting to scare him.

"How could he?" she asked him finally looking up.

Sano's breath caught at the sheer rage emanating from behind her royal blue eyes.

"Kaoru…"

"How could leave me like this, the selfish bastard!"

The policeman's eyes widened a little at her outburst.

Sano's arms tightened around Kaoru holding her close. He closed his eyes and endured the blows of her fist against his chest as she tried to struggle free. "Please Kaoru, it's okay…"

"How can you say its okay you moron! My father is dead! I'm all alone!"

Kaoru had always loved her father and she'd never found reason to be angry with him but she hated him just then.

She hated him with all her heart.

He had died saving a little boy from getting hit by a car. In the end the boy had lived and her father had paid for it with his own life. He was always doing stuff like that and she had loved him for it. Felt so proud that her father was so helpful, so selfless.

"You're selfish…you know that?" she murmured, "How can you save a strangers child and not think of what would happen to me when you're gone?"

The funeral had been blur, faceless nameless people lamenting her father's death telling her how sorry they were about her loss. She didn't even know half of them. The parents of the child her father had saved, had come and they had taken their little boy to meet her. She hadn't been able to go see them. She hadn't been able to trust herself to handle it well enough.

She couldn't even talk to Sano.

He didn't understand how she could be so bitter over something so heroic as her father dying to save another life.

"Maybe I'm the selfish one but…can you really blame me daddy?" she asked quietly as she watched the number of people calling on her dwindle.

She didn't want to see them, not anyone.

She was grateful to Dr. Genzai and Mrs. Sagara for taking care of things like the funeral and everything else. Kaoru knew her father had no funeral plan and she wondered if the money he'd saved up for her college education would be enough to pay Sano's mother and Dr. Genzai for all their trouble. She knew Mrs. Sagara and Dr. Genzai wouldn't ask for the money but it was a matter of principle for Kaoru.

"Kaoru…"

She turned from the window of her room to look at Sano's mother. Tall and beautiful, Sayuri Sagara looked every bit an heiress in her expensive black designer dress.

"Everyone's left."

Kaoru nodded.

"The boy is still here with his parents. They've been here for the past few days."

"I don't want to talk to them. Please make them go away."

Sayuri nodded but hesitated at the doorway, "I think it would benefit both of you if you could communicate. He says he wanted to tell you something."

"Probably 'thank you'. I really don't want to hear it."

Sayuri sighed and nodded, "If you're sure that's what you want."

"Yes."

Sayuri turned to go.

"Mrs. Sagara…"

"Yes dear?"

"Thank you…for taking care of everything…I don't know what I would have done without you…"

In a few steps Sayuri was in front of Kaoru gathering the girl up in a tight embrace. "It's okay dear, you've been like a daughter to me all these years…there's no need to thank me."

For a few moments Kaoru allowed her guard down and closed her eyes. She wondered if this was what if felt like to have a mother.

"I don't understand you," Sano said crossing his arms across his chest. Kaoru noticed he didn't even bother knocking. Then she realized he was angry and in a moment, she knew why. "My mom said you wouldn't talk to them. To the little boy and his family."

"Yeah, so?" she asked him a little angry that he seemed to be taking their side instead of hers.

"So that's it? You're not going to do anything?" he asked incredulously. "That's being cruel Kaoru! That little boy feels guilty enough as it is!"

Good, the mean little thought sneaked up on her before she got a chance to hack it.

"Aren't you going to do anything about it?"

She seriously disliked the censorious tone that had crept up into his voice. She squared her shoulders and gazed at him straight on not letting him see how much it was hurting her to see him mad "What business is it if yours what I do and don't do?"

Sano's anger flared. "Well I'm your best friend and right now I'm the only family you've got! What's going on with you? You aren't like this! It's normal to grieve but to be like this…!"

"I don't have to be anything I don't want to be!" Kaoru hissed out at him. "Listen Sano I'm sorry if how I'm handling things is bothering you, but I can't help the way I feel! I can't talk to that little boy because I don't trust myself enough to be around him and not be angry!"

"You're father did a great thing Kaoru…" Sano said softly, the confused look in his eyes like a knife digging at her chest. He really didn't understand and she wondered briefly if she was being cruel to deny that boy closure. But he'd denied her a father and some streak of coldness and animosity she didn't know she possessed, sprung to life inside of her. "In your opinion, but I'm sorry if I don't share the same view as you!" she snarled, "My father left me! He didn't even think of me when he saved that boy!"

"That's it, isn't it? You're angry at your father for dying on you." Surprise and shock and a little bit of disgust crept into his face and into his eyes as he stared at her.

Please don't look at me like that Sano, don't judge me…Kaoru thought, but she held on to her anger and to her coldness because it was what was getting her though the pain. "I need him…he's all I've got Sano. The only real family I had and I'm angry at him because he didn't even think of how this would affect me!" Please understand Sano…please…

Sano stared at her, "Why are you being so selfish?" it was so totally unlike the Kaoru he knew. The Kaoru who would give away her lunch money to a beggar on the street, the Kaoru that cried when she saw dead animals run over on the road side, the Kaoru who was always there to help everyone and who didn't even hate her mother for running out on her.

"You don't understand." Kaoru said turning away feeling her strength seeping away. She didn't want to talk to him anymore. She didn't want to talk at all. All she wanted to do now was sink to the floor and hold herself and try to convince her mind that it was all a bad dream.

Everything was going to be okay.

Sano didn't seem to sense that or if he did, he didn't care, because he pushed right on with their conversation. "You're right. I don't. All my life I've known that my father was a jerk who got my mom pregnant and beat her until she had to divorce him for fear of a miscarriage. I've always admired your father because he's a decent man with strong morals and good character. How can you be angry with him for doing something so wonderful? Why can't you stop thinking about how it would affect you and be thankful…?"

"Be thankful? My father is dead Sano. It may look heroic to you because it doesn't really affect your life, but it isn't to me! It's tragic Sano. It's not wonderful it's tragic… "

My father is dead!

And I'm all alone…

A/N: Kaoru is kind of mean here isn't she? Please tell me what you think about this chapter. It's kind of dark and brooding, isn't it? Anyway, please review and tell me what you think.

Aoshi and the others will make an appearance in the next chapters.

And nope, Sano isn't interested in Kaoru, they're just best friends.