A/N: (Using the house that Kanryu Takeda owns in the live action movie), and I so totally used both American Horror Story kinda plot and its soundtrack. Some chapters will be long, like this one, and some will be short (drabble length). I do not own Rurouni Kenshin, although like many others I wish I did.
This fic is totally experimental, I hope you enjoy reading it as I have enjoyed planning it and writing it.
The house had an eerie feel to it, but it was gorgeous. She could not believe at what price Misao had found it, yet she was infinitely glad she had. Still, she hated moving. It was such a hassle, all the mess and the lost items and then the ones you had thought you lost but you found out you had just "misplaced" them.
Misao, as always, had been a great asset for everything Kaoru needed to do. Especially willing after she had heard what had happened that made her want to move out of her city apartment and go live in the middle of nowhere as Misao had eloquently put it.
The house had been built in the late 1840's, as the real estate agent had informed them, and had survived the wars without a scratch. Yet it was in prime condition because the previous owners had been compulsive about keeping it in tip top shape, and not because time had kept it that way.
Both she and Misao had been curious at the price, and the agent had regaled the horrifying news of the deaths that had occurred in the house. The last people who had lived in the house, a young married couple had died tragically, murder-suicide. The man had gone insane while in the house and had shot his wife to death, later on committing suicide by throwing himself into the fireplace and burning himself to death.
Misao had been speechless for probably the first time in her life, and Kaoru could only nod with her heart in her throat.
Yet, no matter what had happened before in the house, the only danger for her was her own cooking. Kaoru knew a good deal when it slapped her on the face, and she could protect herself from the crazies. That was a danger that was present everywhere, and especially for a woman living alone.
With only a slight shudder of apprehension but full of resolve she accepted the contract for the house. She was about to become an independent woman once more, and she couldn't wait to fully regain the confidence she'd lost.
The agent had taken them both on a tour around the grand manor, explaining fixtures and the architecture. She explained the story behind each added object, and regaled little stories of the family that had constructed the house. Nothing personal, just stories that where almost legend in the small town she was now going to live in.
She explained how the couple before her had remodeled the kitchen (not that she cared; she was staying as far away from the kitchen as she could). Kaoru didn't mind the small fixes she would have to do; like how the stair was rickety on the top two steps or the wallpaper covering the hall walls that the couple before had installed was peeling in some corners, how the first floor's bathroom sink faucet was dripping or the dilapidated dojo that took up most of the far off land property. She needed the work she would have to put into the house, something to keep her mind from over thinking.
By the time both the real estate agent and Misao had left, Kaoru already had an almost complete inventory of everything she needed to do to make the house hers.
Carrying a few boxes around the hall and into the kitchen she started at the figure bent over the oven. Her heart racing she dropped the box (nothing fragile in there) and grabbed the closest thing to her to use as a weapon (unfortunately it happened to be a duster, she could work it).
"Who are you?" Her voice was deceptively calm, inside she was shrieking. The red headed slender figure stood up suddenly banging his head against the counter, and muttering something she couldn't understand turned to face her. It was a man, a very delicate and pretty looking one at that. But no matter how pretty he was, he was still an intruder in a supposedly vacant house, which now belonged to her.
He eyed the duster warily. For some reason Kaoru found that humorous.
"Ah! You must be Miss Kaoru! Forgive this one, he was only trying to fix the oven, but it is being particularly difficult this time, that it is." He told her cheerily.
"That still does not answer my question, and you're trespassing into private property, if you don't have a valid reason as to why you are in my home which I doubt you do, I will beat you to an inch of your life and then hand you over to the police."
By the end of her tirade her eyebrow was twitching and the man laughed scratching the top of his head in a nervous gesture.
"Forgive me Miss Kaoru, I am so accustomed to just being part of the house that it slips my mind that the new owners of the house have no clue as to who I am.
I am Kenshin, the caretaker of the manor; my family has been working for the families that have owned this house for as long as I can remember. There is a contract signed by myself and the real estate agency, if you'd like to know more. I guess you could say I come as part of the furniture."
"And how the hell do you know my name?" Kaoru asked him, slightly calmer than before knowing he wasn't a thief or worse, a rapist.
"Ah, yes. I overheard you and your friend talking with the agent. Forgive me for intruding in your privacy; I was just curious as to who had bought the house this time, despite knowing what happened here."
Kenshin smiled at her gently and explained why he had been so silent.
"I did not introduce myself earlier because I was not sure if the house would be bought this time. I was the one who found the last couple after the incident, and I believed after it was known to the new potential buyers they would decide to not pick the house, opting for something less macabre."
He looked slightly uncomfortable as he explained his experience, and Kaoru felt equally as uncomfortable hearing him talk about it. It made her feel sympathetic for this man, who must have come in one day not expecting to find two dead bodies to clean up after.
Both stood facing each other, but Kaoru tried to look everywhere but at him. He seemed to sense the awkwardness and changed the subject, which prompted her to finally look at him, and in the process study his admittedly beautiful and delicate features.
"Anyways, as you can see I have been trying to fix the oven but I am not making much headway. I can help you get settled in, unpack and give you a complete tour to let you know where everything is if you have need of it?"
He turned around as he offered, closing the oven door and in the process giving Kaoru a glimpse of the cross shaped scar on his left cheek. She winced, wondering how one could get such a particular looking mark as an accident. Shaking herself from her wandering thought process, she settled the duster on the kitchen table and cleared her throat.
"Yes, please. I'd like that, and since you work here I guess I should ask you how much it is the previous owners paid you for your work?"
Kenshin smiled and shook his head "Nothing, just room and board. I don't require more than that."
Kaoru sighed in relief and nodded, then gestured to the door.
"I have more boxes in the foyer, and some are pretty heavy." She eyed his frame. "Think you can handle it?"
Kenshin seemed to smirk, but it was gone in an instant so she wasn't sure and played it off as a trick of the lighting, and nodded a goofy grin suddenly crossing his mouth as he replied.
"I can try!"
Kaoru looked almost incredulous as he walked past her and out of the kitchen. Huffing in amusement at his now apparent goofy and happy-go-lucky nature, she smiled and picked up the box she had dropped earlier settling alongside the duster on the counter. She headed to the door, but decided to grab something to drink before she left to help her new caretaker. Turning she stopped dead on her tracks when she saw the duster that she had left on the counter was no longer in its place, but on the other side of the kitchen near the sink.
She forgot the water, and rapidly scurried out of the kitchen at the same time chastising her running away, mentally reassuring herself she was just tired, and that Kenshin had probably moved it when she had to been paying attention before leaving to carry the boxes she had asked him to help with.
Later on, as the sun set and a chill fell over the house hidden by the trees and Kenshin had helped her settle in, Kaoru stood behind the glass wall that faced the huge backyard. Music played from the player in the living room. It was music reminiscing of the oldies, music she could picture the people who had built this house used to dance to at the grand parties they must have held, if the grand ballroom in the back of the manor was any indication.
Dusk played with the colors of the landscape and made the place seem straight out of a fairy tale, and Kaoru sighed finally content with her choice.
She trailed her fingers on the walls as she descended the stairs to the first floor, she had no idea where Kenshin had disappeared to, but she hoped it was nowhere near the kitchen because she was about to venture into the forbidden. Cooking. Her stomach growled at the thought of food, and she chuckled mentally imagining Kenshin's face if only he knew of her talents, or lack of.
Bare feet tiptoed on the beautiful hardwood floors, and absently she thought that for such a pipsqueak Kenshin was actually very reliable, the place might need a few touch ups but Kenshin was already getting right to them. The bathroom's faucet was no longer leaking and the stair was no longer rickety. She wondered when he had been able to fix all that and if he had been able to fix the oven as well.
In the kitchen she started to rummage on the fridge and decided on just microwaving some ramen.
'Ah, instant food!'
When she finished entering the minutes for the soup, she walked to the windows above the steel sink and looked out towards the dilapidated dojo.
A clatter startled her and she turned to greet her missing caretaker only to shriek in shock when she came face to face with a woman who was definitely not her caretaker.
Absent mindedly she thought that today she had been pretty shrieky, with Kenshin she had managed to hold it in, but this woman had actually appeared from nowhere.
The elegant woman raised a well formed brow and pursed red lips as she took her in arrogantly with almond shaped brown eyes.
Kaoru sputtered "Just how many people are going to enter my house without announcing themselves first?"
The woman, who Kaoru swore gained fox ears for a moment, laughed huskily and to Kaoru it sounded almost mocking. The woman backed away from where Kaoru had flattened herself against because of the scare and sat down on the chairs by the marble top island.
"I am Megumi; you must be the new owner of the house. Sir Ken seemed to forget about mentioning you."
Kaoru, incredulous, watched as the woman checked her blood red nails and then how she placed them on the table top. The woman, Megumi, looked calculating and Kaoru could feel her temper rising.
"Yes, I am the new owner of the house, and Kenshin seemed to forget mentioning you as well. Just what are you doing inside my house?"
Megumi smiled cattily "I am a doctor, and like Sir Ken, my family and I have served this house for as long as we can remember." She drawled. "In any case, I just came to visit and see what poor fool had decided to buy this god forsaken manor."
The poorly concealed dislike had Kaoru clenching her fists, she liked her house dammit, and it was hers.
"Well, I believe you've already met me and now you should be on your way, it is past normal visiting hours anyway."
Megumi only smiled, and turned expectantly as the kitchen door gently swung open. Kenshin stood there his hands full of vegetables from the garden outside. The smile he wore on his face dimmed somewhat with the appearance of Megumi.
"Miss Megumi, what a surprise, I did not think you would be stopping by today."
Her almost dangerous smile turned flirtatious as she took in the redhead making something inside Kaoru clench in dislike.
"Sir Ken, what a delight to see you again! Maybe we should go into another room to talk. Strangers make me nervous."
Kaoru clenched her teeth at the obvious dismissal in her own home. But Kenshin only smiled brightly and shook his head.
"I'm sorry Miss Megumi; I promised Miss Kaoru that I would help her get settled in. It seems that one of those duties is helping her around the kitchen." He then gestured to the smoking microwave. "It seems she will need quite a lot of help with that, so my time is quite limited."
Kaoru turned to the microwave just as the Styrofoam cup inside exploded. 'Can that even happen?' Promptly turning red in both embarrassment and anger at hearing Megumi's annoying laughter.
"Oh well, it seems she can use all the help she can get. Goodnight then." She left just as silently as she had appeared.
Kenshin looked sheepish as Kaoru huffed and reached inside the microwave to throw out the now inedible food.
"Forgive Miss Megumi, she's just…"
Kaoru growled at the mess and muttered under her breath a pretty offensive word.
"…yes, something like that." Kenshin finished an amused lilt to his smooth tenor.
"Does she do that a lot?" Kaoru asked him.
"Sneak in, and scare people out of their wits? Yes, all the time." He replied smiling and putting down his load on the sink, and then looked at her from beneath his bangs.
"Great. But I meant, you know, come on to you? Does she do that all the time? She seems intense." She seemed almost embarrassed to ask but equally amused, and Kenshin seemed to take pity on her when he just chuckled and nodded.
"It is almost a game to her now, but believe me when I say Miss Kaoru, I've never been interested. You do not see what I see."
His comment confused her and made her pause in the cleaning of the mess she had made. Looking at him from the corner of her eyes she watched as he washed the vegetables and cut them meticulously.
He seemed to sense her scrutiny and glanced her way making her start, and he smiled.
"I can cook too. I haven't had to do it before, but it seems my talents will come in handy this time around." He said in that gently amused tone of his, and blushing at being caught staring she nodded her assent, and gave off cooking duties to her mysterious yet adorable (yes, adorable, she could admit it now) caretaker.
She had a feeling about the house.
When I say kinda plot, is just some lines that I want to go with, but it has nothing to do with it. By the way, I'll probably update this sporadically but the outline is complete. The most important parts of the story have been written and the ending is already thought out. I will most definitely complete this story. Soon.
P.s. Please let me know if you find any errors, so I can fix them as fast as I can.