Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin, hence why I am writing fanfic…

> > > > > > Time/scene/ POV change

Chapter 1:

Kaoru quickly made her way up the stairs of the building to her dorm. She kept her eyes on the steps beneath her feet as she ran up the steps as fast as she could. Her best friend Sanosuke Sagara had called her while she was driving home from school registration and asked her to come home quickly because his new roommate was moving in today. At first Kaoru wondered why she needed to come home if his new roommate was moving in with him, but then she realized that Sano probably needed help getting his dorm cleaned up and reorganizing everything now that he wasn't going to be living on his own anymore.

So now Kaoru was bounding up the stairs, not watching where she was going, until she ran smack dab into someone's back, and not just anyone, but a college student trying to carry a little too many boxes up the stairs. Kaoru quickly grabbed onto the handrail with one hand to keep from falling and the kid grunted and dropped a big box that was perched precariously on top of two other boxes in his arms.

"I'm so sorry Miss," said Kaoru as she saw the long red hair falling from a high ponytail over the student's back. "I was in a rush and didn't watch where I was going. Let me help you with that box."

As Kaoru was about to pick up the dropped box, the girl with red hair turned her head to look over her shoulder, eyebrows twitching in annoyance, and Kaoru's eyes widened in surprise. She turned bright red as she realized that the girl was actually a guy. The boy was wearing cargo shorts that went below his knees and chains sticking out of his pockets. He had a navy blue t-shirt that was slightly baggy on him and he seemed to have a small build for a man, making it easy for people from behind to mistake him for a girl, especially with such long hair.

As Kaoru's eyes met his eyes, Kaoru was stunned to find them a deep violet color that didn't show any emotion whatsoever. The boy raised an eyebrow snapping Kaoru out of her present daze of staring at the strange kid in front of her.

"I...I just saw your hair…and then I just figured…that…that," she stuttered looking down at her shoes in embarrassment.

"Oi Ken! What's taking you so long? I told you not to take so many boxes," yelled a familiar voice from above. Kaoru looked up as Sano rounded the corner of the staircase and a smile broke out on his face. He was tall and had a skinny, yet muscular build that shouted "Don't mess with me or you'll be sorry!" to the whole world. His brown hair was always spiked up and he had a carefree aura around him that always seemed to help people relax.

"Hey Jou-chan! I see you've met my new roommate," he said with a grin. "Kaoru, this is Kenshin Himura. Kenshin this is my best friend Kaoru Kamiya. She's the one that was going to help us with our dorm."

Kenshin looked over his shoulder again and nodded in acknowledgement before carefully setting his boxes down to pick up the mess of clothes that had fallen out of the third box. Kaoru finally snapped out of her trance and squatted down beside the small man. She began helping him place the clothes into the box, mumbling apologies throughout the entire time. As they closed up the box, Kenshin stacked it on top of his other two boxes and lifted them up a little shakily. Kaoru grabbed the top box and smiled at him when he turned his confused eyes at her.

"I said I would help you with this box." Kaoru said beginning to climb up the stairs again. She saw Kenshin shrug and then follow her up the last flight of stairs to the 4th floor where their dorm was. Sano led the way as the three of them headed to a room with the door slightly ajar. Sano opened the door and Kaoru stepped inside followed by Kenshin and Sano. Sano closed the door behind him and headed for Kenshin's new room.

The dorm room was exactly like all the other dorms in the building. Upon entering, they were greeted with a decent sized living room, which was usually where the college students put their sofas, and TVs. Sano's was no different. His living room consisted of a comfortable black sofa and love seat with a big screen TV sitting in front of them. To the right of the living room was the kitchen with a small dining table between kitchen and living room. To the left, was a hallway leading to two rooms and a bathroom in between. There were three doors, and the one furthest in the hallway was half-way open revealing several boxes inside. The first door was Sano's room and at the end of the hall was a small closet filled with shelves.

They followed Sano to the bedroom and allowed Kenshin to go in first, since it was his room. Kaoru followed afterward and set the box on the floor next to the other boxes. Kenshin placed his boxes on the floor beside the closet and straightened up. Kaoru looked around. There was a desk beside the door and a bed frame without a mattress. There was a closet in the corner and a window looking over the front of the building.

"So…You want me to help you unpack and get settled?" Kaoru asked politely.

"I'll unpack later," Kenshin responded simply.

"Ok" Kaoru said. "….Now what?"

"Let's get the living room cleaned up," said Sano pulling Kaoru out the door followed by Kenshin.

Kaoru sighed as she really looked at the mess in his living room and kitchen. The sink was filled with unwashed dishes, and the trash was full. The living room was littered with old magazines and newspapers, DVDs, crumpled up paper, as well as some clothes, and books that he had picked up for his classes. The small coffee table in front of the sofa was covered in old chips, cookie crumbs, popcorn, cups of old soda, and anything else that you could think of.

"You're such a slob Sano!" cried out Kaoru as she grabbed several big plastic bags from their small pantry in the kitchen. She threw one to Sano who was munching on a bag of Doritos creating more crumbs to fall on the carpet.

"How can you live like this Sano?" she said throwing papers and candy wrappers into the bag.

"Well…it's really easy. You just leave things laying around when you're done with them and then ignore them until you have to clean it up, like now since my roomy here will have to sleep on the couch until we get him a bed," he said happily throwing more chips into his mouth.

"You don't mind do you Kenny?" said Sano throwing his arm around his shoulder and leaning on the smaller man.

Kenshin shook his head and said, "I don't mind." Kenshin pulled Sano's arm off and grabbed a bag that Kaoru had thrown on the ground. He began helping her pick up the mess.

"Oh Kenshin you don't have to do that. This is Sano's mess and he should be the one cleaning up," Kaoru said shooting Sano a glare.

Kenshin shrugged. "I don't mind," he said again.

"Sano! Get down here and help us or else I'm going home!" yelled Kaoru as Sano ignored her glare and continued to eat his bag of chips.

"Yeah, yeah," mumbled Sano as he dropped down to his knees and began gathering the trash into a pile and scooping them up into his arms.

Kaoru rolled her eyes and continued to clean up. After a while, she began glancing at Kenshin when he was facing the other way or not looking towards her direction. His hair seemed to gleam in the sunlight that was pouring from the window. It was such an unusual hair color for an Asian. Maybe he dyed it. If he did, he did a very good and detailed job of it. His eyes were also unusual. They were violet. Kaoru had never met anyone with purple eyes before. To say the least, they were a beautiful shade. He seemed to have a band aid covering his left check. Kaoru began wondering what had happened, but decided against asking him until they got to know him more. Besides, it could just be a cut, a really big cut, caused by an accident or something.

> > > > > > >

Kenshin continued to clean the room trying to ignore the looks that the girl was giving him. He could feel her eyes on him every time he turned around or looked away from her general direction and frankly, he was beginning to feel irritated. He was dead tired from the plane trip and his patience was beginning to run thin.

Kenshin sighed inwardly as he realized, after a few more minutes of secret glances, that the girl had questions and wouldn't ask them herself not wanting to seem rude or nosy, and that is why she kept shooting him curious glances.

"What is it?" asked Kenshin keeping the irritation out of his voice and bringing his eyes up to meet Kaoru's bright sapphire ones as she sent him another glance.

"W…What?" she stuttered surprised and embarrassed at getting caught staring at him again.

"You want to ask me something," he stated simply refocusing his attention back on the cleaning up the mess that was still apparent all over the room.

Kaoru just gawked at him until she seemed to snap out of her gaze and look down at the carpet in thought.

"Your name is, Himura Kenshin?" she seemed to ask. Kenshin nodded not bothering to look up, knowing that Kaoru was watching him.

"So that makes you Japanese?" she said. Kenshin nodded again.

"You don't look it," she murmured a bit hesitantly not wanting to offend him.

"That's what I've heard," Kenshin shrugged.

"If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?" she asked.

"…20," he murmured remembering that for once he was allowed to use his actual name and age.

"Really! You look really young for your age," said Sano finally bringing himself into the conversation.

"That's what I've heard," muttered Kenshin again.

"Well… I'm 19," said Sano thinking that it was only fair to give the quiet man some information about himself.

"And I'm 17," responded Kaoru suddenly full of energy.

"So Kenshin…where did you come from?" asked Kaoru trying to get an actual conversation going.

"…Well, at your age, I figured you would know," said Kenshin with a slight smirk, not being able to resist.

Kaoru's eyes furrowed in confusion for a second before her cheeks were tinted with a bright red blush. Sano burst out laughing. "That was a good one!" he laughed slapping Kenshin on the back.

"Sano…" growled Kaoru in embarrassment causing Sano to laugh harder at the look on her face.

Kaoru brought her fist down on Sano's unsuspecting head as he continued to laugh at her expense.

"Ow! What'd you do that for? You're the one that asked the question and he's the one that answered. I didn't do anything!" said Sano cradling his head in his arms.

"Yeah well, you deserved it," grumbled Kaoru. "And that's not what I meant."

"Japan."

"Huh?" Kaoru said snapping her head up.

"I just moved here from Japan," Kenshin clarified.

"You mean you just came from the airport?"

"Hai," he replied.

"Really? Sano and I are also from Japan. We just moved here about two years ago," said Kaoru.

"What brings you all the way to UCLA from Japan?" asked Sano.

"My…Uncle wanted me to get an education in America," replied Kenshin remembering his cover story.

"What are you majoring in?" asked Kaoru.

Kenshin shrugged.

"You don't know?" said Kaoru in confusion.

"My uncle arranged everything for me," he replied with a shrug. "All he told me was that I had to go to some office and pickup a schedule and my books tomorrow."

"Oh…and you don't care?"

"I don't have much of a choice really." Kenshin merely shrugged again. "He has high expectations of me," Kenshin added to build up the image he was supposed to have while he stayed there.

A silence fell as the three continued to clean, each in their own thoughts. After about an hour and a half of cleaning up and talking and arguing from Kaoru and Sano, they were finished. Kaoru flopped down on the couch beside Sano tiredly. "I'm tired. I think I'll get my books from my car and head to my dorm. Care to help me Sano?" she sighed.

"Ehh…I'm beat. You're a strong girl, do you really need my help to carry a couple books?" complained Sano.

"But Sanoooo," whined Kaoru. "I have to carry my books and other supplies up four flights of stairs."

"But…" began Sano.

"I'll help," Kenshin interrupted before more whining and arguing could ensue to worsen the beginnings of a migraine.

Kaoru smiled widely. "At least some guys can be chivalrous, unlike someone I know. Let's go Kenshin," she said looping her arm through Kenshin's arm and pulling him through the door.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. You know I love you Kaoru," he said waving his arm at the two to leave him to his …lying down in peace.

Kenshin allowed Kaoru to pull him towards the staircase where she let of his arm and began descending the stairs.

"Thanks for helping me Kenshin. I swear, that rooster-head is so lazy," said Kaoru as Kenshin followed from behind.

"No problem," murmured Kenshin. They continued down quickly in silence until they reached the parking lot filled with cars of college students.

"My car is the blue Honda Civic," said Kaoru pulling her keys out of her pockets.

Kenshin scanned the parking lot and spotted a sapphire blue Honda Civic that matched perfectly with Kaoru's eyes. It was a common car for a college student.

"I'll open the trunk," said Kaoru as she opened her front door. Kenshin rounded to the trunk and as he got there, it popped open. He pulled up the lid and saw a couple bags of what looked like notebooks and binders and a stack of books in the corner. As Kaoru came around with a stack of papers in hand, Kenshin grabbed the heavy stack of books and stepped back. Kaoru pulled the bags of supplies out and set them on the floor. She shut the trunk and locked it with her key. She then turned to Kenshin.

"Here, let me carry some of those books," said Kaoru reaching out to grab them.

"I got it," said Kenshin. "You carry those bags."

"But, those are heavy and you're supposed to be helping me, not the other way around," she said.

"You would make Sano carry all of the books wouldn't you?" Kenshin said.

"Well, yeah but that's different. I…"

"I may be smaller than him, but that doesn't mean I'm weaker," he replied turning towards the building.

"Yeah, but…hey wait up!" she said quickly grabbing the bags and jogging to catch up. They entered the building and began climbing the stairs.

Kaoru sighed. "Stupid elevator had to break down," she grumbled as they climbed up step after step.

Finally, they reached the fourth floor and began walking down the hall.

As they passed Kenshin's dorm and stopped at the door next to it, something that Kenshin hadn't said in a long time slipped out.

"Oro," muttered Kenshin in surprise causing Kaoru to giggle.

"Did you say oro?" she giggled.

"…You live next door?" he said deciding to ignore Kaoru's question.

"Yeah, I guess I never told you huh?" she smiled.

Kenshin nodded as Kaoru turned around and kicked the door with the back of her heel.

A few seconds later, a woman opened the door with a look of irritation on her face.

She was pretty tall, at least taller than Kenshin and Kaoru. The woman had long black hair that came down passed her shoulder blades and sharp brown eyes. She was wearing a simple red tank top and jeans.

"Did you forget your keys again Tanuki?" she said.

Kaoru glared at her and said, "No! As you can see our hands are a little full."

The woman looked confused when she noticed a boy with red hair behind Kaoru. She stepped aside and Kaoru walked passed her to get in. "Come in," she mumbled to Kenshin. Kenshin followed her in and noticed that the dorm was exactly like Sano's except for the different furniture.

Kaoru placed the bags on the floor and took the books from Kenshin's arms, putting them on the coffee table. She turned around and smiled.

"Kenshin, this is my roommate Megumi Takani. She's a med student. Megumi this is Sano's new roommate Kenshin Himura."

Megumi smiled as she looked at Kenshin from head to toe. "It's nice to meet you Himura-san," she said politely bowing slightly.

Kenshin nodded in acknowledgement. "By the sound of your name, I'm gonna assume that you're Japanese."

Kenshin nodded again and an uncomfortable silence fell across the room.

"Umm…I think I'll go," said Kenshin uncertainly.

"Oh! Yeah, you must be tired. Go kick Sano off the couch and get some rest. I'll see ya tomorrow!" exclaimed Kaoru happily. She opened the door to let Kenshin out as Megumi said a quick farewell.

"Ja ne," said Kenshin as he stepped out and opened the door to his dorm. Upon entering, he noticed that Sano had already placed pillows and blankets on the couch.

Tiredly, Kenshin sprawled out on the couch, not bothering to change. He closed his eyes and reflected on the people he had met. He was glad that he was able to room with a Japanese. It made him feel somewhat closer to home. The people seemed pretty nice as well. Though Sano was an easy-going and carefree guy, Kenshin kept a mental note to stay on his good side. Sanosuke Sagara was strong, probably not strong enough to pose too big a threat to him, but nonetheless strong and very protective of his friends from what he could sense from him.

Kaoru seemed like the cheerful, happy-go-lucky type of girl. She also had an aura of confidence and strength that girls rarely had. She must have had some type of self-defense lessons before. She had a quick temper and her eyes revealed her every feeling which made her the easiest to read of the three.

Now Megumi was a bit different. From his brief meeting with Megumi, he was able to gather that she was a witty and sharp woman. Not much of a fighter like the other two, but the calculating look in her eyes revealed her to be an intelligent and cunning person.

Kenshin was exhausted. During the plane ride here, he was barely able to get any sleep due to being seated between two very …husky people. The two men were big and took up the entire arm rests. They continually talked to each other and when they finally fell asleep, Kenshin was wide awake trying to keep them from leaning onto him in their sleep. Finally, after a horrendously long plane trip and a long day finding his dorm and moving in, Kenshin was able to drift off into a dreamless sleep.

> > > > > > > > > >

Kaoru watched as Kenshin entered his dorm room before closing her door and turning back to Megumi. She had a knowing look on her face and a smirk on her lips.

Kaoru eyed her nervously. "What?"

"You like him," she said simply.

"What! I don't even know him!" Kaoru cried out.

"Admit it Tanuki. You like him. I saw that look on your face."

"I don't know him," she said stubbornly.

"Come on Kaoru. Even though he has delicate features like a girl, doesn't change the fact that he is hot! And this coming from a girl that already has a boyfriend!" said Megumi.

"Well, yeah he's hot, but for all I know he could be a mass murderer," argued Kaoru.

"Are we talking about the same guy here? He's looks as harmless as a kitten," she said.

"Yeah well, I'm just saying you never know."

"Sure Kaoru, whatever you say," she said heading to her room with a smirk on her face.

"I don't like him!" Kaoru yelled with a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Of course you don't," said Megumi as she closed her bedroom door.

Kaoru sighed. Yeah Kenshin was a nice and polite guy, not to mention incredibly handsome, but that didn't mean that she liked him. For Goodness sake, she just met the man a few hours ago! What Megumi said was ridiculous. Besides, in order to really have a crush on a guy, Kaoru really had to get to know the guy. She wasn't just looking for a hot guy like a lot of girls are. She actually cared about the personality. He had to have morals for one thing. He also had to be caring and understanding.

While Kaoru didn't like Kenshin now, she was going to keep an open mind and get to know Kenshin before judging him.

AN: Hey I really shouldn't be starting up with another fanfic, but I couldn't help myself. This story will not be my first priority, though I will continue to update when I can. Please let me know what you thought of it! If nobody likes the first few chapters, then I will not continue this story.