Chapter One
Disclaimer: None of the Rurouni Kenshin's characters belong to me. (No matter how much I may want them to ^-^)
Author's Note: I decided to post this fic once again after some cajoling by my friend. But I did decide to change just a few things here and there. Hope you guys like it. ^-^
Kamiya Kaoru sang lustily as she tore a brush through her black hair. How could hair always manage to get itself into such tangles overnight? she wondered. It wasn't like she tossed and turned in her sleep.
The tangles gave way to a final tug, and Kaoru shook out her hair, the way a dog shakes itself off after coming out of the water. Drops of water spattered the mirror. She wiped them off with her towel, and then gave herself a reassuring smile as she turned on the blow dryer.
Not a bad-looking face she thought - cute little chin, long lashes. If only she was a little bit less pale. They made her look so dead.
Were her complexion the reason she couldn't get any Tokyo guy interested in her? She knew she wasn't any worse-looking than girls she passed in the street or saw in the bars and clubs.
Yet men seemed to look through her as if she wasn't there. It made her almost wish that she was safely back home where everyone called out her name as she drove past.... No, she decided, hanging her head down to blow dry the underside of her hair. I will not start feeling sorry for myself. Good things are about to happen to Kamiya Kaoru, I just know it!
She continued singing loudly, over the hum of the hair dryer.
She finished drying her hair so that it cascaded over her shoulders. Then she put on the long tan denim skirt and green turtleneck that seemed to have become her fall uniform for work. The trouble with coming from a farming community was that none of her clothes were fashionable in the big city, she thought. Kaoru felt like a total hick when she walked along Abiko Street in her jeans and plaid shirts. Since her job only paid enough to cover the rent, food, and a very occasional outing, building a new wardrobe had been a slow process. It had been slowed even more because Kaoru was not yet sure what kind of look she was going for.
She watched those frightening career women sweep into the Tokyo Tribune office in their long black boots and wondered if she would ever look like that. She has seen the students at the Art Institute of Tokyo and admired their ponchos, caftans and torn jeans, but she couldn't ever see herself having enough flair and confidence to wear something unique like that. Misao wore really interesting clothes, she decided. She wore exactly what she wanted, whether it was bright colors or checks or whatever, and she always looked good. She always seemed to know exactly what style was in. Misao had been wearing a velvet hat for a couple of months, yet Kaoru has just seen the first velvet hats appear in the department stores only a few days ago.
And Megumi has flair, Kaoru thought. Megumi always looked good. Not trendy, like Misao - you'd never catch Megumi wearing a velvet hat with jeans - but she'd wear classic black pants that cost a hundred dollars with a real silk shirt and a strand of pearls. Of course Megumi worked at her flawless appearance. She always pressed creases into her pants and spent at least half an hour putting on her make-up in the morning - which resulted in her roommates pounding in vain on the bathroom door.
"I'd better get a move on," Kaoru told herself. Of all the roommates, she was always the quickest in the bathroom. She had tried hard to be the least trouble when she moved in, knowing that she had the smallest room and was paying the lowest rent. She grabbed her robe and slippers and came out into the cold hallway.
The delicious smell of baking mingled with the smell of fresh pot of tea. Kaoru almost ran down the hall.
"Something smells great," she said, as she poured herself a cup of tea.
Misao was standing at the sink, dressed in purple stretched pants and a black tie-dyed shirt, washing a mixing bowl. "It's cookies," she said. "I got the urge to make cookies so I got up early."
"I thought you swore last night that you were going to stick to the grapefruit diet," Kaoru observed.
"I did." Misao said, calmly rinsing out the bowl.
"But cookies contain a zillion calories. Or are they special grapefruit cookies?"
"I wish," Misao said with a sigh. "If anyone ever invented diet cookies with the same number of calories as a grapefruit, I'd be their sale for life. If it was a man, I'd marry him."
"You'd marry Aoshi if he asked you, whether he'd invented anything or not," Megumi drawled from the doorway. She stood, draped against the doorframe, looking sleepy but elegant in her paisley silk robe, her long, silky black hair draped over her shoulder.
"True enough," Misao retorted. "Still, I'm not desperate."
"So what are you making those cookies for?" Megumi asked.
"Well, yes, the cookies," Misao said, a little frustrated. "I couldn't help but think about poor Yahiko. Living across the hall, never eating. And that tiny Tsubane probably never feeds him a thing.
"Good Lord, Misao," Megumi said. "For one thing, now that you're with Aoshi, you shouldn't be doing anything for Yahiko. For another, your roommates could starve, and you wouldn't even care. Fork 'em over - now!"
Misao laughed and pulled the cookies out of the oven. "Did you really think these are for Yahiko? Here, dig in."
Megumi gingerly began to devour the hot cookies.
"Gee, Misao," Kaoru began, "ever since you met Aoshi, we get to eat a whole lot better around here."
"I think Aoshi's just happy 'cause he gets to eat, too. What do you do, leave a trail of crumbs from the front door to your bed?"
"Please. Not in front of Kaoru. She's led a sheltered life."
"I have not," Kaoru insisted. "I know about life too, you know. And I've had my share of m-e-n."
"Oh, yeah, Kaoru, sure," Megumi said. "You must have been the femme fatale of Atami."
Kaoru tossed back her hair and pretended to laugh along with the other two. "You might just be surprised one day," she said.
Megumi looked immediately interested. "Oh, so there's a guy you've been meeting secretly these past few evenings? We've been wondering why you never seem to be in for dinner these days. Haven't we, Misao?"
"Actually, we've been pretty worried about you. We don't like you walking home alone late at night," Misao said. "Have you really been meeting a guy?"
Kaoru was furious at herself for blushing. "Nothing like that," she said. "I told you, I've had to work late at the newspaper. We've been swamped with ads."
"Must be mating season," Megumi said with a wink to Misao. "You and I might try one of those personal ads one day, don't you think, Misao? Kaoru can let us know if anyone calls with a really sexy voice, or places an ad to say he drives a Porsche and is looking for a woman to go to Paris with him."
"Megumi," Kaoru said, horrified, "I couldn't do that. We have to respect the privacy of our callers. Besides, you two have boyfriends."
"And I wouldn't want to mess with anyone who put an ad in a paper like Tokyo Now," Misao said, coming to join the others at the table. She perched on the kitchen stool.
"Oh they're not all that bad," Kaoru said. "In fact, some of them sound really nice. I bet they're just lonely people trying to find someone special - like the rest of us.
"We worry about you sometimes," Misao said. "I don't think it's sunk in that you're in the big city now. Not everybody is honest, friendly and trustworthy. So don't get any ideas about answering any of those ads yourself. Talk it over with your wiser roommates, okay?"
"Don't worry!" Kaoru said. "I'd be fired if I got involved with any of our clients." She popped another cookie out of the pan.
"Good Lord, I spent my whole life watching what I eat, and you stuff your faces with doughnuts, cookies and everything fattening under the sun, and you never gain a pound!" Misao said huffily.
"I suppose it was all the fresh air as a kid," Kaoru said. "Everyone in Atami ate hearty."
"And got up at the crack of dawn, too," Megumi teased. "And sang at the top of their lungs in the bathroom."
Kaoru laughed. "I'm sorry. Did I wake you up?"
"Me and the whole neighborhood."
"Oh, God, I didn't think. I'm so used to getting up early."
"And leaping up to milk the chickens," Megumi finished for her.
"We didn't have chickens to milk," Kaoru said. "But the neighbors had the loudest rooster and he always crowed at 4:00 a.m. sharp. Anyway, I have to get out of here or I'll be late." Kaoru sucked down her tea and grabbed her coat.
"Do you think you'll be working late?" Megumi asked.
"I...er…might," Kaoru said, "I don't know yet."
"Ah-ha!" Megumi said with a triumphant grin to Misao. "I think we might have to spy on her and see if anything juicy is going on."
"Hey, that's not fair!" Kaoru said. "I don't every spy on you two."
"Ah, but we have to keep an eye on you."
"I keep telling you that I'm able to take care of myself. Just because I look young doesn't mean I'm a total idiot. You should have seen me wrestling Shishio Makoto in his truck after the town picnic. He had other things than square dancing on his mind! I set him straight, and he couldn't stand up straight for a week."
They all laughed. "Okay," Misao said, "we believe you. But we worry - some guys aren't as easy to shake off as ole Shishio."
"Well, don't worry about me," Kaoru replied. "But do wish me luck."
"What for?" Misao asked.
Kaoru shrugged. "I don't know. I just feel like I need luck today."
Kaoru left her roommates looking at each other questioningly as she went down the hall to get her purse and jacket. Maybe I'm being stupid not to tell them, she thought as she slipped her arms through the sleeves. After all, they always share all the secrets of their love life with me.... But when she thought about telling them, she knew that she couldn't. Not just yet anyway. They would definitely laugh or tell her she was naïve for falling in love with a man she didn't even know and had never met.
TBC
Author's Note: So what do you think guys? Did I make the right decision in listening to my friends? Can't wait to hear what you guys think.
