COLLISION
Full Summary: Outgoing Kamiya Kaoru was best friends with shy Himura Kenshin who, unknowingly, was in love with her. As they grew older, Kaoru gows to love Kenshin as well, just to lose him to the war (no, I don't mean he dies, I mean he goes to war…heh, I didn't know how to phrase it right…heh. --;;) and then believes him dead afterwards. In 1873, a delirious Kaoru who is mourning (and also doing lots and lots of reminiscing she's mostly reminiscing) Kenshin's 10th year gone, runs right into an oncoming train, but is saved right before she gets hit. She loses consciousness, and the only thing she can remember about her savior are the burning amber eyes full of grief and anger. She then meets someone who looks so startling like Kenshin, and when she finds out it is Kenshin, she couldn't be happier, though all she can think about are those amber eyes…
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin at all.
A/N: Ahem! Welcome to my fanfic, Collision. Funny, I had this idea written awhile back (in March/April) and just found it again like a week or two ago. It sounded interesting enough of an idea, though I don't really remember much about it, so I decided to write more to it. And the final result was this! Yep. That's the history of this fic! Ages, right? Kenshin is 24, Kaoru 20, Sano 21, Megumi 22, and Yahiko will be 17. Please enjoy!
PROLOGUE
Kamiya Kaoru had just woken up from yet another nightmare. This one had been more vivid than most and was far more terrifying. It must have been because today was the day Kenshin had left her ten years ago when she had been only a child of ten. She got up from her futon to walk out of her room. Maybe the night air would calm her down.
She sat at the edge of the porch, feet dangling in the air, head pointed towards the night sky, and eyes closed. She knew that she probably wouldn't get much more sleep tonight; the nightmare had been so frightening. Although she tried not to think about it, images of the nightmare flashed through her mind.
Like her other nightmares, this nightmare started as a good dream…
Kaoru walked along the river, cherry blossom trees aligned next to it. She had just gotten important news. Kenshin was coming home!
Himura Kenshin had been Kaoru's best friend whom she had not seen now for ten long years. He had gone to war at fourteen and had gone missing after the Bakumatsu.
She smiled to herself. She was so happy he finally was returning. She had just gone food shopping so that she could make a big meal for him. She started whistling happily.
She just about skipped the rest of the way home, face turned towards the clear, blue sky. She stopped after awhile to breathe in the fragrant air, a smile present throughout.
"Kaoru," she heard a deep, familiar voice call out. She turned around, knowing immediately who it must be.
"Kenshin!" she cried happily. She dropped her basket and ran to give him a bear hug, so glad that he'd finally return after a decade gone missing.
"Kaoru," he repeated huskily into her billowing, raven hair, "How I have missed you."
"Me too, Kenshin," Kaoru agreed, "Me too." She brought her head up to look into the beautiful violet eyes that she remembered so clearly, only to find bright amber eyes glowing brightly against his pale skin.
She blinked once and when she looked into his eyes again, they were the lavender she remembered. She dismissed the odd coloring that occurred, believing it to be just an illusion made by the bright sun hovering overhead.
Kenshin smiled down at her and brought his head down to hers, lips inches away. Kaoru's eyes closed with anticipation, unconsciously licking her lips. When she felt nothing touch her lips a few seconds later, she raised her head a little when suddenly she heard a sharp gasp from Kenshin.
She immediately opened her eyes to see a painful grimace cross Kenshin's face. She looked at him in bewilderment. What was happening? She looked down at his lower body to find the end of a katana poking through his abdomen and quickly stepped away from him. An inaudible gasp passed her lips, her whole body trembling.
"K-Kaoru," he gurgled, blood dripping from the corners of his lips. He lifted a bloody right hand, trying to reach for her, but it seemed he didn't have enough strength so the hand dropped.
The sword was withdrawn slowly and Kenshin fell onto the ground with a thud, blood spilling forth from his form like the mouth of a river, the metallic scent of blood quickly covering the vicinity. Behind him stood a tall man with amber eyes that resembled wolf's eyes.
"Battousai," the deep voice said. He raised his left arm holding the katana, ready to give the killing blow—
Kaoru opened her eyes quickly, her whole body drenched in cold sweat. She was panting lightly.
"Damn," she whispered to herself. This replay of the nightmare scared her much. She could feel a headache approaching and decided she'd go to the medicine cabinet for medicine to relieve it. Afterwards, she was going to try to sleep and forget this horrifying and so realistic nightmare.
Hopefully.
…………………...
"Where you going, missy?" Sanosuke asked later that morning. Kaoru turned to face the tall, brown-haired man that was like a brother to her.
"Just going to get some tofu, rooster head," Kaoru answered with a small, strained smile. Well, she couldn't muster up the strength to make a more genuine smile. Damn, her head hurt like hell. Her whole body felt like it was on fire. She must have caught something.
"Okay then, missy. Don't be gone long," he warned.
"Yes, yes," Kaoru agreed, nodding slightly, walking out of the dojo doors.
………………….
"Hello, Kamiya-san! Would you like to purchase a new ribbon today? We have a lavender ribbon that would look simply beautiful on you!" Kaoru heard someone shout out on her right. She fixed her gaze in the direction of the shout to look at this ribbon.
Her eyes widened at she almost dropped the bucket of tofu she was carrying. The color lavender. Like his eyes. The ribbon was the exact shade of his eyes and she almost burst into tears, memories of his beautiful violet eyes filling her head.
She turned away from the dreadful ribbon and stumbled down the street, away from the vendor and the ribbon that brought many memories to Kaoru of her beloved friend.
When Kaoru finally stopped running, she noticed that she was on the road next to the river with the cherry blossom trees that aligned it. The place where her nightmare had taken place.
She set her bucket of tofu on the ground and sat next to it. She leaned back onto a tree, inhaling the fragrant scent that surrounded her. She loved this place, though she now also hated it for it was the place where the nightmare had taken place.
She brought her knees up under her chin, arms wrapping around them. She looked out onto the river, eyes mesmerized by the flow of the river.
She thought of the lavender ribbon. Why did she have such a reaction to such a simple thing as a ribbon? Yes, today was the day Kenshin had left ten years ago, but this had never occurred before to her. Was there something special about this day that was different from the others, besides the fact that she had a splitting headache?
"The nightmare," Kaoru concluded out loud. Yes. It was the nightmare's fault that the ribbon brought back painful memories of her childhood love. It had been one of the most vivid ones she ever had, so it must have had a harder impact on her than the other nightmares.
"Kaoru," she heard a familiar, masculine voice call out. Her hands started trembling as she turned to face the person. Her heart pounded wildly. Visions from her nightmare swam in her eyes.
"Kenshin…?" she whispered quietly.
"Kaoru?" Kenshin asked, worry etched in the beautiful face that she hadn't seen in years, "Are you okay?"
"Ken…" Kaoru began, when suddenly she recalled her nightmare even more. The katana thrust into his body, blood seeping from his small body.
"K-Kaoru," he gurgled.
"Kenshin, don't…" she began again, "he might be nearby. K-keep away from here!"
Tears leapt into her eyes as she stood up and ran away from the worried man that she hadn't seen in ten years.
She could hear him yelling after her, but she ignored it. She didn't want to see anything bad happen to him. Not like in her nightmare. To see his death in real life would traumatize her, she knew.
…………………
"KAORU!" Sanosuke shouted loudly, chasing after the teary-eyed twenty-year old that had just run away from him.
She had him worried. She called him Kenshin. What had caused her to do that? She must be having terrible reminisces or something for her to mistake him as Kenshin. He hadn't even seen the red head in a decade, why would she just out of the blue mistake him as the smaller man?
True, today was the ten-year anniversary to Kenshin's going away to war, but still. Nothing like this had ever happened in the past decade. Why now?
Was there something different about this year?
He didn't have time to think this through though. His first priority now was to find the delirious Kaoru that may be mistaking many others as Kenshin.
…………………
"KAORU!" she heard her name behind her. She didn't stop running however. The man with the katana would probably be close to Kenshin, ready to strike and she knew that if she saw him kill Kenshin, like in the nightmare, she'd lose it.
Her tears were finally free, flowing like rivers down her pale, porcelain skin. She couldn't handle this. Why was Kenshin chasing her? Did he want her see him dying? Again?
She stumbled past a group of people, the scent of sandalwood and cinnamon (a/n: aah…I love the smell of cinnamon…) drifting to her nose. Kenshin's scent! She looked at the group and realized that everyone in the crowd was Kenshin.
Why were there so many Kenshins? Her head felt so lightheaded. Was he playing with her?
"KAORU!" she heard again, closer this time. She took a mad dash to her left, away from all the Kenshins that surrounded her. Her tears clouded her vision, so she hadn't a clue where she was running, but she continued onward, anywhere but where all these Kenshin were haunting and taunting her.
She stumbled and tripped on fallen branches, rocks, and litter. She felt scraps and bruises forming, but she didn't care. She just had to get away from Kenshin before that man came. She knew that doing this was selfish, but she knew she'd never be able to handle seeing Kenshin's death if it was as gruesome as it was in her nightmare.
Finally, she stumbled onto a platform of sorts, but that, of course, did not deter her. She continued running still, a loud noise overcoming the loud pounding of her head and heart.
"Kaoru?" she heard a voice ask uncertainly. She ignored this person and continued forward when she felt her fall off the platform she had landed on. She heard many people screaming and shouting, but she cut them off.
The loud noise was even louder now and closer. Kaoru's tears decided to subside a bit then, her vision a bit clearer. She looked to her right to see what the noise was and saw a train coming towards her at an alarming speed.
Maybe, if I die, I'll be able to reunite with Kenshin. That man probably has killed Kenshin already.
Kaoru closed her heavy eyelids when she heard—
"KAORU-DONO!" and felt strong, warm arms wrap around her waist and she was quickly taken off the tracks seconds before the train would have hit her.
Kaoru's eyes flew open to see bright amber eyes. She saw them only for a second before her heavy eyelids decided to close again, but in that second, she had seen a deep grievance and slight anger in them.
Kaoru…dono? Kaoru thought as she slipped into the inky darkness.
A/N: Did you guys like it? Hate it? Review please! And this chapter will be like the first chapter of one of my other fics, Seven Days, where I'm just putting the first chapter up, but won't post the rest of the fic till I'm all done writing the entire thing! Oh, and it might be kinda bad since I just quickly scrounged this up at like one in the morning with me having had like 4 hours of sleep only last night. So, please forgive anything that sounds dumb. I'll have to go back and fix this chapter when I'm more aware and stuff. And uh…I'm not really good at writing delirious people, so that's like one huge thing I'll have to go back and fix…ahaha.
Wow, this was my longest prologue yet. Just wanted to write that…
Oh, and I was wondering if anyone would want to beta this fic. Yeah, I probably won't update in awhile, but still, I will eventually need a beta for this fic. So, if you would like to offer, e-mail me!
Thanks for reading! Don't forget to review!