"AHA! I GOT IT!" He shouted with gratitude. Hearing footsteps coming down the hall, he hurried back under the covers. He heard the sliding door open with a shadow casting over him.
"Yahiko? Is everything ok?" Kenshin asked in a groggy voice.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Yahiko responded from under the covers.
"Then what was all the 'AHA, I got it!' about?" Kenshin asked, his voice becoming more clear.
"Oh that..." He hesitated, trying to come up with an acceptable lie. "I just thought of betters way to help me with my training. That's all." Yahiko smiled coming out from under his covers.
"Ok, well just keep it down." Kenshin said before sliding the door shut. "Ok." Yahiko called after him. He got back under the cover's and began revising his plan in his head with a big evil smile on his face.
Yahiko woke up to the sound of the sliding door opening. "Wake up Yahiko, it's time to begin your traing." Kaoru said shaking up. He rolled away from her pulling the covers over his head.
"Go away, it's to early." He moaned. "Get up, or I'm going to beat you awake." She chided, leaving the room
"Alright, fine. I'm up." He didn't really want to get beat over the head this early in the morning. Throwing the covers away from him, he put on his practice gi, then went to go eat some breakfast.
Sitting at the table silently, Kenshin spoke. "So Yahiko, what are your new idea's to improve your training?" He was looking at Yahiko with his same Ruroni smile.
"Um..." He started, swallowing his food. He tried to think of something at the top of his head. "I was thinking I could use a standing dummy to practice my thousand swings on instaed an invisible opponent, and I was thinking I could practice a little bit more." He took a bite of his food.
"Thats a good idea, Yahiko." Koaru approved of his idea. "Thank you." Yahiko smiled sweetly.
"Yahiko are you ready to go practice?" Kaoru asked, finishing her last bite of food. "Yes. Did you make the food because it is delicious. " He took a large but exaggerating his statement. Sano and Kenshin looked at him with side eyes, and mouths hung open. Kaoru looked suprised as well.
"Yes, I did. Thank you!" Kaoru said with appreciation filling her voice. "Your welcome." He said, standing up and heading to the dojo.
"I'll be with you once I wash the dishes." She started to pick up evreyone's bowls. "Kaoru let me do it, I'll meet you at the dojo when I'm done." Kaoru stared at him with suspicion. "What?" Yahiko asked.
"Nothing, why are you being nice all of a sudden?" Her tone was filled with suspicion.
"I'm just repaying you for all the hard work you do training me." He answered, adding a smile to his face. She seemed to be thinking about his statement for a minute or to before leaving him to do the dishes.
"Yahiko why don't you let me help you. I'll dry the dishes for you." He walked over beside Yahiko grabbing a towel.
"Ok." He started adding some soap into the bucket. "What are you planning?" Kenshin asked drying a bowl.
"What are you talking about?" Yahiko asked innocently. "Don't play dumb, we know what your doing." Sano said with a smirk.
"I still don't know what your talking about."
"Yahiko, you know you can't get anything by me." He stared at Yahiko for a few minutes until the eleven year old had to look away. "I'm still not sure what your talking about." He started to scrub intently at the bowl.
"Yahiko, your not giving Kaoru a hard time, you commented on her food when we all know you hate it, and your haven't said one smart remark to her since you woke up. This all adds up to an evil skeam your planning." Kenshin concluded.
"We've figured it out, when your done being nice to her, your planning on doing something to her at the end of the day." Sano added. Yahiko dropped his dish in the bucket of saop water and stood up.
"Fine, you've figured it out. I'm just getting her back for her evil plot. Remember with the bucket of ice cold water, and chasing me to trap me in her stupid net?...So I'm getting her back and don't either of you tell her." He said with a grim expression on his face and his hands on his hips.
"Fine, we won't tell her. What are you planning to do to her?" Kenshin asked. "You'll find out once she wakes up." Yahiko responded.
"I hope she won't hurt you." Sano said walking away from them. "Me too." Kenshin voted.
"She won't. Trust me." They finsished the dishes and he went to meet Kaoru at the dojo.
"Hi Kaoru." Yahiko walked in with a pleasant smile on his face. Kaoru looked up and smiled back. "Shall we get started?" She positioned herself in a fighting stance. "Yeah, sure." He did the same.
"Wait, your holding the bokken wrong." Kaoru said.
"What's wrong with the way I'm holding my bokken?" Yahiko asked. He always hated the way she would correct him on the small stuff. He tried not to get mad, if he did, his plan wouldn't work.
"Your holding your hands to close together." She corrected. He spread his farther apart. "That good?" He showed her how far he put them.
"A little bit closer." He put them closer together. "How about that?" He asked. "No, their to close again."
"Okayyy..." He parted his hands again.
"Perfect." She said with an accomplished smile. "Ok. can we spar now?" He kept the annoyance out of his tone.
"Yes." Yahiko got a smile on his face.
"You attack first." Kaoru said. Yahiko began with an attack to the head but in a few seconds he found himself on the floor, flat on his face.
"You let your guard down. You can't do that." Kaoru said, standing over him.
"I know." He tried to chase the dizziness away from his head. He got up to spar again.
The sparred for an hour before they were finished with their training for the day. "Do a thousand swings before you leave and sweep the dojo when your done." Yahiko wanted to fume but didn't. He didn't mind the thousand swings but he absolutely hated sweeping the dojo. But he didn't say anything except, "Ok, this dojo won't have a speck of dust next time you see it." He added a sweet smile hiding his mischeviousness. Kaoru got a quizzical look on her face for a second then was gone as soon as it came.
"Alright, remember to close the doors once you leave." She said before leaving.
"Ok, I will." He smiled and waved when she left. Once he heard the door close, he threw his bokken on the wooden floor and moaned. He began cursing under his breath as he went to pick up his bokken and put it back on the wall along with Kaoru's. Then he began sweeping the dojo. After he was done, he scrubbed every spot on the walls and floor. He even washed all the bokkens, and dusted the sliding door.
He looked when he heard the door slide open and saw it was Kaoru. "Are you done? It on-" She paused once the she the dojo room. "Wow! Did you scrub all this?" She asked with suprise and appreciation filling her tone. "Yes, I figured the room was a dusty and dirty so I scrubbed the room. I even dusted the door." He said simply.
Kenshin walked in. "The food is ready." He stopped once he saw the Dojo. "Wow, yahiko did you do all this?" Kenshin asked with suprised face. "Yeah, I did." Yahiko began picking up the bucket of dirty water and leaving the room. "I'm hungry let's go eat." He said over his shoulder. Kenshin and Kaoru followed. Kenshin caught up with him and whispered, "This all better be worth the revenge." Yahiko just smiled and said, "It will be." Then walked ahead of Kensin to dump the water out.
After dinner, they all went to bed. Yahiko waited for an hour or so to make sure that everyone was asleep. He could hear Sano snoring, and he wasn't sure about Kenshin but he knew that Kaoru always fell asleep once her head hit the pillow.
He pulled the cover's away from him, then walking over to his cabinet and getting his brush out and his ink. Opening his sliding door, he began to walk stealthily down the hall to Kaoru's room. Once he got to the door, he opened it slowly inch by inch, making sure it didn't make a sound once it was fully opened. He began walking in on his tip-toes until he got to her futon. Kaoru was snoring, giving a sign that she was in a deep sleep.
'I didn't know she snored.' He thought to himself. Yahiko kneeled down beside her, then putting the little cup of ink on the floor beside him. Positioning the small paint brush in his other hand, he dipped it carefully twice and positioned the black tip abover her lip. dragging the brush down, he drew a curling french mustache on one side then did the other side. He stiffled a laugh by covering a hand over his mouth. When he was sure he wouldn't laugh, he began to draw a thick, straight line from the bottom of her lip to her chin.
'She's sleeping through this, I should do the more often.' He thought. Continuing with his work, he drew two sideburns that went down her jaw line to meet the gotique. "Hehehe." He laughed. Kaoru repositioned herself at the sound. He covered his hand over his mouth, hoping she wouldn't wake up yet. Uncovering his mouth, he sighed. He backed up away from his work and studied it.
'I like my work, it's my masterpiece.' He thought with satisfaction. 'Now for one more thing to add...' He dipped the the brush into the black ink and put it to her forehead. In his best writting, he wrote 'UGLY'. 'Now that finishes it.' He thought. Putting the cap back on the ink bottle, he stood up grabbing her mirror. Walking to the door, he hung it on the paper door.
'She'll get a lovely suprise once she wakes up.' He smiled and opened the door to go back to his room. After putting his ink and brush away, he went under the covers satisfied with himself. 'I can't wait until morning' he thought with a smirk before falling asleep.
Kaoru woke up at her usual time. Getting out from under her cover's, she stretched her tight muscles and yawned. After getting dressed, she walked to her door only to stop at the mirror hanging on the door. 'What's the mirror doing on the door?' She asked herself. SHe went to take it down but stopped once she saw her face. Gasping loudly, she slapped her hands on the sides of her cheeks only to smear the ink on her face. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" She screamed at the top of her lungs. Birds flew from the tree's, and the butterflies flew away at the scary sound.
"I'm gonna kill him once I see that brat!" She yelled slamming open her door and stomping to Yahiko's room. He wasn't there so she went to the kitchen and found him eating with Sano and Kenshin.
"Kenshin, Sano, how do you like my artwork?" Yahiko asked pointing to Kaoru with a big grin on her face. "I am going to kill you, you brat!" She yelled across the room again. Kenshin and Sano's mouth hung open at the sight of her face. "Good job Yahiko." Sano said giving him a high-five.
"You think this is funny?" She pointed to her face for emphasis. Stomping over to Yahiko, she picked him up by the front of his gi, yanking him to his face. "Yes, yes I do." He smiled. "I second that." She whipped around at Sano. "You think this is funny too?" She asked through gritted teeth. "Yes." He answered simply. Grabbing his rice bowl, she dumped it on his head than look to Kenshin. "Do you think it's funny too?" She stared at Kenshin intently with her jaw clenched. He shook his quickly. "Good." She looked at Yahiko again. "You better sleep with one eye open tonight." She threw him back down.
"I thought you would like my artwork." He said pretending to be hurt. At the remark she grabbed Kenshin's bowl and his and dumped them on Yahiko's head. "Hey!" He stood up with an angry expression.
"You two need to get along." Kenshin said out of the blue. They both stared at him. "She started it with her stupid pranks." Yahiko accused. "Yes, she did and you got your revenge so now you both are even." Kenshin added.
"I am not letting him get away with this."
"Yes you are, you guys are going to make up." Kenshin said calmly. "You have got to be kidding me!" She said unbielievably. "Nope. Now Yahiko say you are sorry."
"Do I have too?" Yahiko groaned. "Yes." Yahiko sighed and looked towards Kaoru face. He began to chuckle. Kaoru growled at the sound. "Sorry, Sorry." He apologized with a the humor still on his face.
"Yahiko." Kenshin warned.
"Fine. I'm sorry Kaoru." He apologized.
"Now Kaoru, you apologize." Kenshin ordered.
"What for? That little brat drew on my face. I don't even know if the ink will come off!." She bellowed.
"You started the revenge, now you have to stop it." Kenshin explained inhis calm tone. Making a fustrated sound, she said, "Fine." She said, than turned turned towards Yahiko. "I'm sorry Yahiko."
"It's ok." Yahiko accepted the apology and Kaoru accepted Yahiko's apology.
"Good, now hug." Kenshin added. "WHAT?!" They both yelled in unison. "It's the only way to make it permanenant." Kenshin implied. The made fustrated sounds than walked slowly towards each other. Keeping space between them, they wrapped their arms around each other's backs and hugged.
"Do it like you don't hate each other." Kenshin said. Making fustrated sounds again, they hugged each other but were closer together. he began to say something else but Kaoru stopped him. "Don't push it."
"Eh, ok." He didn't say anything after that. Kaoru went to wash off the ink and luckily for Yahiko, it came off. Looks like he wasn't going to get hurt.
"You washed my artwork off." Yahiko joked. Kaoru glared at him in return. "Get ready for practice." She said flatly. 'I ahve a feeling I'm going to have a hard practice.' He thought. He went to get ready.
Please R&R. Tell me what you think.