Disclaimer- I do not own Rurouni Kenshin nor am I making a profit by writing this story. RK is the creation of Nobuhiro Watsuki.
Summary- AU. Tokyo's Underground is becoming increasingly dangerous as its prominent figures become more and more powerful. Kenshin must work undercover to help bring down the biggest criminal minds in the country, as lives all around him that are intricately connected are affected. Ensemble fic, all major characters the focus. Canon pairings.
A/N- Rated 'T' for now because of language but it will most likely go up later. Also let me know if I completely fail at honorifics. I tried.
Chapter One
Kenshin eyed the sign over the building, wondering at his superior's purpose in exchanging information in such a public place. Releasing a tired sigh, he pushed the door open, a gush of warm air fluttering the shorter strands of his red hair slightly as his skin warmed from the crisp night air outside. It was currently snowing, the snowflakes immediately melting on anything they landed on and leaving everything in a state of chilly dampness.
A kind looking, if a little plain-faced, woman with dark hair greeted him, seating him immediately. She gave him a menu before telling him his server would be with him momentarily. Kenshin thanked her, catching the name pinned to the front of her blouse; it read 'Tae'.
Kenshin gazed at the menu, suddenly feeling ravenous. He quickly decided on the dumplings, figuring that he may as well eat while he was in a restaurant; he was originally only going to order something to drink but his rumbling stomach reminded him that he hadn't eaten anything since the early afternoon. It was after seven.
Folding his menu, he spent the time waiting for his server to observe his surroundings. There was a side exit on the east side of the building, and several booths down from his sat a black haired man. The hair that fell into the man's eyes shifted slightly, as though giving it a slight shake, his gaze still intent on what he was reading. Kenshin directed his gaze elsewhere and paid him no further mind.
"Welcome!" a cheerful voice interrupted his observations and he jumped, his lavender-colored eyes landing on a pretty young woman who stood with her hands folded in front of her. She had poured him a glass of water already. "Can I get you anything to drink?"
"Uh, just tea please—Kaoru-dono," he said, using the name displayed over her heart to address her. For some reason her cheeks pinked and she nodded, hurrying to the room behind the counter; he assumed to make it for him.
When the waitress came back with his tea, he ordered the dumplings, noticing how efficient of a server this Kaoru was. It may be just because he was her only customer, since she didn't seem to be serving the man sitting further down, but he had a feeling that she always worked hard.
As he ate his food when it came, his eyes kept flitting to her from where she stood behind the counter, rearranging various things and wiping off the counter's surface. Her long black hair swished from its ponytail, interestingly tied in a deep indigo colored ribbon. Her eyes were enormous and blue and…well…they were quite pretty.
She must have been at least ten years younger than he, but still, he didn't much notice or, rather, take an interest in many women these days. The girl wasn't breathtakingly gorgeous like the sister of an old acquaintance he knew (he thought the man had become a doctor—it ran in the family, after all), but something about her strongly drew him. He couldn't quite place it.
She returned to collect his dishes, smiling pleasantly with her glowing cheeks as he thanked her and told her that the food was delicious. Moments later she brought him the bill and his receipt.
"Please come back soon," she told him, sounding quite earnest, taking the money he handed to her.
He smiled kindly at her, "I would be happy to. The food was delicious...and the service wonderful." It really was cute how her entire face blushed. "Would you kindly loan me a pen, Kaoru-dono?" He waited politely as she reached immediately into her apron pocket to pull out a black pen, holding it out to him. Their fingers brushed as he grabbed it from her, causing her to jump, startled, and scurry away with a squeaked out "Good-night!"
He watched her as she put the money in the cash register before disappearing once again in the back, looking adorably flustered. Kenshin figured she could afford to stay in the back since there seemed to be very few customers this late at night anyway.
He took his receipt and flipped it over, scribbling something on the back before folding it and standing from his booth, leaving the pen lying on the table. He nodded to the woman who had seated him earlier and, seeing that her attention seemed to be drawn to a log book, walked in the direction of the side exit he had spotted earlier.
As he neared the table where the black-haired man sat he dropped the receipt inconspicuously on the table top, noticing out of the corner of his eye as the man reached and slid it towards him without even flickering his eyes in Kenshin's direction. Without a pause Kenshin continued walking straight and out the exit. Nobody would have noticed any such exchange unless they were trained to.
Kaoru was still trying to get over her wretched blush and fluster when Misao burst through the back door, hurriedly stamping her timecard and tying on one of the aprons hanging on the hooks. She apologized profusely for her lateness, while Kaoru just waved her apologies aside.
"Don't worry about it," Kaoru said reassuringly, "I'm doing a double today anyway. Tae-san sent Akiko home anyway. By the way, your Sexy-san is here, he refused Akiko's service."
Misao squealed and clapped her hands over her suddenly burning cheeks. "Ahhhh!" Kaoru observed her as she skipped around the kitchen in complete giddiness, nearly knocking over Tsubame who was loading the dishwasher, and the cook, who was stirring a pot looking extremely disgruntled.
After letting out her excitement, Misao scurried to the door to wait on him, pausing for a moment to shoot Kaoru a very stern look.
"Kaoru-chan, don't be disrespectful," she said firmly, "he is called Sexy-sama."
And with that she flounced out the back, presumably to do anything within her power to draw out more than five words from the frequent customer who rarely spoke.
Kaoru shook her head at her best friend's hopelessness, wondering when Misao would ever take the plunge and just ask the guy out. He had been coming to the restaurant frequently for the past six months and always sat at the same table, which happened to be in the area that Misao always served. There had to be something appealing about Misao to him if he continued to do that.
Misao came bustling back in the kitchen, hurriedly setting up a pot of green tea, which happened to be the man's regular order.
"I can't believe he's been sitting there and refused another waitress to wait for me and he still won't say more than six words," Misao grumbled in frustration, her movements made with much more force than usual. "Ugh, he's so annoying!"
With that she brought the finished tea out to the waiting Sexy-san, and Kaoru had no doubt that Misao would still try to wring some words out of him. He really didn't seem—well, he proved he wasn't—one for small talk in all the instances he had been in the Akabeko.
Misao came back in five minutes later, her face now forlorn instead of frustrated. "Well, drawing conversation out of that man is about as easy as getting Sano to foot the bill for anything. Which means it's fucking impossible."
Kaoru grinned, glimpsing at Tsubame to gauge her reaction. The fifteen year old girl hardly blushed, which only confirmed Kaoru's suspicions that she had been spending a lot more time with Kaoru's cousin Yahiko lately. His language was positively vulgar. Kaoru scowled at the thought that he wouldn't curb his tongue in front of a shy young lady.
'Uncouth brat,' she thought darkly.
"Sexy-san will come around, Misao-chan," Kaoru spoke with much wisdom. "You can wear anybody down."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Misao said dryly, leaning against the table Kaoru sat at with a sigh and crossing her arms. "He doesn't even want food. All he wants is green tea. What's the point?"
Kaoru shrugged. "Men are strange creatures."
Her thoughts inevitably drifted to the red-head that left moments before Misao made it to work. He had been positively nice and wonderfully polite and fantastically handsome—
Feeling her cheeks warm again, Kaoru forced herself to focus on what Misao was telling her about her day.
But she couldn't help thinking that it would be nice if he came by again…
A/N- I am taking a risk by posting this while I only have the next few chapters planned. I think response would give me the motivation to continue. First few chapters are going to establish characters, so they'll be rather short.