Rise Above

By: Hitokiri Musei

Rated: T

Summary: Kenshin and Kaoru are good friends. Then the unthinkable happens and Kaoru is forced to care for Kenshin after he is in an accident. Will this time that they are together start something new between the two of them? Will Kenshin be able to overcome his new disability and let Kaoru know how he feels?

This unworthy one doesn't own Rurouni Kenshin, but I do own Karou's adopted parents. I also don't own Hideaway by Dean Koontz. Enjoy, and please review!

Chapter 1

(Kaoru)

I rolled over in my bed, my mind wide awake while my body refused to get up. I pulled the blanket up over my head, hoping that the stuffy darkness under it would help me fall asleep again. It's too early…

"Kaaaaaaaaaaaoooooorrruuuuuu…"

'Ugh… Who could that be?' I thought groggily. Whoever it was, they were male, and they were pretty close to me. The first thing that popped into my head was my younger brother, Yahiko. I growled slightly, ready to get up and knock him around for making me get out of bed.

I sat up, throwing the cover back. "WHY YOU…" My angry entourage was cut off as I met a pair of laughing violet eyes framed by crimson bangs. I 'eeped', suddenly very aware of the fact that I was only wearing a flimsy spaghetti strap tank top and a pair of boy cut panties that looked like shorts. Very short shorts.

I pulled the covers back up to my throat, red racing across my face. "KENSHIN!" I howled, narrowing my eyes at the handsome redhead standing in front of me.

He merely grinned, straightening back up and walking towards the door. "Well, I think I should let you get dressed." With that he left, leaving me in a fuming rage.

I leapt from the bed, running to the door and locking it behind him. I stormed back over to my closet, rummaging through it for a moment. "That stupid, immature, privacy invading…Oooo!"

I located a pair of capris and a t-shirt that were suitable to wear on this rainy day, and then pulled my navy bathrobe around my body, tightening the rope around my slender waist. I then wrenched open the door, walking towards the bathroom. I saw Kenshin lounging on the couch, a silly grin on his face. I glared at him as I passed. "If I weren't in the mood for a shower, I would so beat you into a pulp Kenshin Himura!"

I left him with that grin on his face, going into the bathroom to take a relaxing shower. As the warm water pounded onto my body I found the anger that I had built up against my friend cooling.

Kenshin Himura was probably one of my best friends in the world. We had gotten to know each other in our early high school years, and had been basically inseparable since. Now, with me nearing my 21st birthday and Kenshin having celebrated his 24th about 2 months ago, we had moved in together. This caused quite a bit of confusion on my family's part, and most people. We weren't even together, yet we were sharing an apartment. We were going to the same college, so we had decided to share a place to split the costs. It was easier on both of our wallets, and we found that we got along pretty well.

Kenshin was a strange person, on more than one level. He was kind, but he also had a fiery temper when he was worked up. He wasn't very tall, not much more than me, but he had the personality and heart to make up for it. He was very smart as well; he was pulling As and Bs. He was also quite a sight for most people, being as he looked nothing like a Japanese person. With his long fire red hair he was easily mistaken for a foreigner, and sometimes a woman, which was a lot funnier. His hair reached nearly to his butt, and he loved that long mane. His sparkling amethyst eyes were enough to make any person, man or woman, think twice about him.

There was more reason than his hair and his eyes that Kenshin was mistaken for a woman. He had delicate features, a heart-shaped face, and a small slender build. Even so, he was still a big target for women. His feminine features got him teased and laughed at, especially beat up during his high school years, but Kenshin dealt well with it. And he made up with it plenty with being able to take plenty care of himself.

Kenshin had been trained from a young age in swordsmanship. He was an accomplished swordsman, and along with that training he had gained self-defense skills and a muscular build. He also had the cunning mind to go along with it, so all together he was quite hard to deal with.

I was quite plain, by Japanese standards. I had long black hair, the same length as Kenshin's, and my eyes were sapphire blue. I was pulling As and Bs too, but I didn't get as much attention as Kenshin did. I was a tomboy, I had no beauty whatsoever, but my foster family insisted I did.

My parents died when I was young, both in a car accident. I had been adopted at about 12, and had grown up with a younger brother and my two foster parents. They were currently here for a visit, and were staying in the extra room in the apartment. Scratch that, they were in Kenshin's room while he slept on the couch.

I turned off the shower, methodically drying my hair with a towel after dressing in my capris and t-shirt. While I combed out my hair I felt my anger at Kenshin building up again. 'Of all the silly things to do!' I thought venomously. At first I had suspected Yahiko, my 13 year old brother. He tended to do things like that, and he'd seen me in that garb many times before. Kenshin, on the other hand, was a full grown man, and my best friend at that. He'd never seen me in anything less than a swimsuit, and a full-body one at that.

I opened the door to see Kenshin standing there, that big silly grin still on his face. I glared at him with all the strength I could muster and he laughed. "Oh come on Kaoru, are you still mad about that?"

I snorted, walking past him. "Of course. Why did you do that Kenshin? You knew that I was still asleep, why did you have to wake me up?" I demanded, turning back to face him.

He grinned sheepishly. "I was getting bored. It's almost noon you know. I just thought that you should get up eventually. Your family went out shopping a while ago."

That made me madder. "Mou! They went shopping without me?" I turned abruptly, heading back into my room to dry my hair in the peace of my own personal space. Unfortunately, that thought was interrupted by a certain redheaded man.

"Oh come on Kaoru, I didn't mean to catch you like that! I didn't know that you would fling back the covers to give me a view!" he protested.

I spun around just inside the safety of my room. "Oh, sure you didn't Kenshin. I thought that you were Yahiko, and he's done that plenty of times to have seen me in a similar state of dress before! I want to know what you were doing in my room in the first place, and don't you dare tell me that you were just going to wake me up. You could have done that by knocking on my door."

He pouted. "Oh, but that takes all the fun out of it. I wanted to wake you up with a bit of fun along with it, alright? That's all there is to it."

I smiled slightly. "Well then, I forgive you." I tightened my grip on my bedroom door. "DON'T DO IT AGAIN!"

(Kenshin)

I yelped as she slammed the door directly in my face, catching me with a sharp smack. Unfortunately my foot was in the door, but thankfully I was wearing shoes, so it didn't hurt all that much. Blood poured from my nose, and I swore thickly as I ran for the bathroom.

I heard Kaoru's worried voice as she followed me from her bedroom. "Kenshin? Kenshin, I'm sorry! I didn't mean too…"

I sighed, tilting my head back while holding a few tissues to my bleeding nose. "It's alright Kaoru, it was an accident. I shouldn't have been so far in the door anyway." My voice was slightly nasally due to the bloody nose, but I was easy to understand.

She looked down. "I still shouldn't have slammed it in your face."

I grinned slightly around the tissues. "You were trying to make a point, and I must say, you succeeded quite well. I got your point."

She giggled at that, and I sensed that I had broken the ice. "Well, I suppose so. Are you alright?"

I nodded. "Nothing serious done, it's only a bloody nose. Nothing I haven't experienced before."

She nodded. "Well, I'm going to go finish getting ready."

I tilted my head back again, still battling with the flowing blood. "Alright Kaoru."

I heard her footsteps as she walked away, and I checked my 'injury' again. It was no longer spewing blood so I could safely take away the tissue and clean up my face a bit. I washed the blood streaking my upper lip and my fingers, and then returned to the living room area of the apartment. I could hear Kaoru's hair dryer from her room, and I sat on my makeshift bed. I had happily given up my room for her family while they were here for a few days, but it was a little weird to be out on the couch.

I put my feet on the coffee table, kicking off my shoes after a moment's thought. I had put them on this morning while I had done my morning run, and hadn't taken them off. I had originally expected Kaoru to be awake by then, but she must have been a little more tired than I had thought. When I had returned her family had been gone, a note telling me that they had gone shopping for a few hours.

I picked up my book, Hideaway by Dean Koontz, from the table next to the couch, slipping on my glasses as I did so. I only had to wear them while I read; I had a lazy left eye. It took my left 7 seconds longer to focus then it did my right, so I got headaches whenever I read. Unfortunately I loved to read, so this hadn't made me very happy. The doctor had found the problem, and prescribed that I get reading glasses. I had had them now for about 3 years, and my problem wasn't simply fixing itself like it did with many other people. So I kept the glasses, always having them handy.

Kaoru came out of her room about 15 minutes later, her hair up in a pony and wadded up with another in it, a style that she seemed to like. She smiled at me, sitting on the chair that was next to my couch/bed. "Are you okay now Kenshin?"

I smiled back, putting down my book and taking off my glasses, putting them on the table. "Hai Kaoru. I told you, no harm done." I sat forward, taking my feet off the coffee table. "Listen, I'm sorry about this morning…"

She cut me off with the wave of a slender hand. "It's alright. I suppose I overreacted a bit, but you still need to just knock before you come in, okay?"

I nodded with a smile. "Agreed. Now, your parents and Yahiko are supposed to be any minute now, so they'll probably want to go out to lunch."

She rolled her eyes slightly. "Yea, that's them, always wanting to do that. Yahiko probably had the time of his life in our manga store."

I chuckled, knowing that her little brother had an obsession for those. "Hai, he probably did."

At that moment Kaoru's foster parents and her brother walked through the door, her mother carrying a few shopping bags, as was her father, and Yahiko with a bag hooked around his wrist and his nose buried in a manga.

Mrs. Kochou smiled at me. "Hello again Kenshin. Kaoru, you're awake finally!"

Kaoru grinned. "Yea, Kenshin had the pleasure of helping me with that one. So Mom, I can't believe you went shopping without me!"

Mr. Kochou laughed lightly. "Well, we figured we should let you sleep when we tried to wake you and all we got was a glare of death."

This set me off laughing. "I didn't hear about that!"

Yahiko grinned, looking up from his manga. "You were still on your run. We tried to wake her up about 10 minutes after you'd left."

Still chuckling slightly, I stood with a grin on my face. "Well, what do you all say to going out to eat?"

Her mother looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "I was just about to suggest that, good thinking. Come on, let's go everyone!"

Everyone went downstairs, piling into the forest green Toyota 4Runner that Kaoru's parents had driven to Yokohama in from Tokyo. I smiled as Kaoru moved over to make room for me. "Gomen, but I need to go to work in about an hour, so I'll need to take my own car."

Kaoru smiled. "I'll go with you then, don't want you to be alone."

We agreed on a place to eat, and then Kaoru and I got into my deep crimson colored Nissan 350Z, which I had gotten as a graduation present from my Uncle, who had raised me since I was young. As we drove through the rain I was quiet, as was Kaoru. There was nothing but the softly playing radio to keep us company. I looked over at Kaoru as we reached a stoplight. "You know what Kaoru? I like having your family here. I really like them."

She grinned. "You wouldn't be saying that if you had lived with them."

Once again, the awkward silence was broken, and the rest of the car ride passed fairly quickly.

(Kaoru)

Lunch was a lot of fun, despite Yahiko's constant teasing. Kenshin had to eat and run, and I smiled as my friend apologized profusely for doing so. He was so proper; Kenshin was, with all of the things that he did.

Once he had left my Mom smiled at me. "He's such a nice man Kaoru, I keep wondering when you two are going to get together."

I felt a blush burn on my cheeks. "Mom!"

My Dad laughed. "Your mother is right Kaoru. Kenshin is a good match for you; it would be wonderful to have him in the family."

I looked down at my lap, fighting the blush that was threatening to consume all of my face and neck. I returned to my food quietly, ignoring the laughing of my family. Even Yahiko had decided to take part in this conversation, when usually he sat out of things like this.

Dad handed the waiter his credit card about a half an hour later, and then my cell phone began to ring. I reached down to where I kept it in my purse, pulling it out and flipping it open. "Moshi moshi!"

"Is this Kaoru Kamiya?"

I blinked, gesturing for my family to be quiet. This sounded serious. "Hai, this is she. What can I do for you?"

(Kaoru's mother)

I watched as Kaoru's face drained of color, and she stuttered into the phone. "E-Excuse me?" She listened a moment more and then drew in a shuddering breath. "Alright. Arigatou, I'll be there soon."

She closed the phone silently, slipping it back into her purse. I reached out, putting a hand on her knee. "Kaoru, what's wrong honey?"
She looked up at me with teary blue eyes. "That was the hospital Mom. They called to say that Kenshin was in a serious car accident. He's in critical condition, and he's in the ER right now. They're trying to save his life."