A Rurouni Kenshin fanfiction by Heather Logan
(Disclaimer: This was written for fun, not profit. The characters belong to Nobuhiro Watsuki and various media conglomerates.)
(Warning: Contains mild spoilers for the last story of the first TV season.)
Kaoru set down the brush beside her on the porch and smoothed back her hair, gathering it up into a ponytail. She knotted the blue ribbon expertly behind her head and pulled loose two narrow locks to hang down in front of her ears. There.
She looked up again at Kenshin. It was too beautiful a day to waste indoors, so she'd come outside to brush her hair and watch him while he scrubbed the laundry. Now he was standing with his back toward her, reaching up with a forked stick to hook the laden bamboo cross-bar of the drying rack onto its support. The warm spring sunshine shone bright on his fiery hair.
His hair. It was more of a mess than usual. He'd washed the salt water out of it as soon as they'd returned from the islands, but it seemed he hadn't bothered to comb it at all. The tangles had become obvious.
She picked up her brush again and toyed with it, speculatively. She'd wanted to get her hands on his hair for a long time.
"Kenshin," she called.
He'd been straightening the laundry, snapping out the wrinkles. He turned towards her with a smile. "What is it, Kaoru-dono?"
She was nervous all of a sudden, not wanting to seem too forward. Don't freeze up, she told herself, it's only a little brushing!
"Your hair's all tangly. You can't go to the Akabeko looking like that."
His smile faltered. "If you want me to stay here..."
Oh, no, she thought, exasperated, he thinks I'm trying to get rid of him! Arrgh!
"No, no! I'm just saying it needs brushing, that's all."
He reached up and untied his ponytail, watching her uncertainly. His hair tumbled down, loose around his shoulders. He started combing it hesitantly with his fingers.
"No, no, that's not going to do any good. Come over here and let me." She patted the wooden floorboards.
"Ah!" Kenshin brightened. Finally, he gets it, Kaoru thought. He came over and settled down cross-legged on the porch in front of her.
Faced with a cascade of red tangles, Kaoru wasn't sure where to start. She brushed tentatively at the ends of his hair. The world didn't end. With more confidence, she set in on the tangles.
His hair was in bad shape -- not just tangled but frizzy and dry. The salt water had stripped out the natural oils. He couldn't have picked up that much salt just from spray. He must have dunked his head in the sea. Or fallen in. There'd been salt residue on his clothing as well. She tugged at an especially stubborn knot.
She remembered the time he'd carried Yutaro back from the boy's near-drowning. He'd been soaked with seawater, dead tired and badly scraped up from the rocks. Swimming in the ocean could be very dangerous. She was glad he hadn't hurt himself this time.
"Kaoru-dono..."
She'd been terrified for him when he'd leapt into the pirates' skiff to take her place, terrified that she'd never see him again. Terrified that Shura would kill him, out of anger at having been beaten so easily. She needn't have worried. This was Kenshin, after all. By the time she'd shown up to rescue him, he'd already won Shura's allegiance, unraveled the pirates' smuggling scheme, and saved the day several times.
"Kaoru-dono?"
And yet... Shura had sidled up next to her for a quiet word, just before the girl had seen them off. There'd been something odd in her expression -- jealousy? Grudging admiration? Kaoru still wasn't sure.
'He would die for you,' she'd said, pointing toward Kenshin with her eyes. 'Make sure you're worth it.'
That had terrified her all over again. What had he tried to do? Kaoru clenched her teeth, yanking at a tangle. Dammit, she thought, I don't want you to die for me, Kenshin! I want you--
"Itai de gozaru!"
Kaoru blinked. Kenshin had ducked his head, his shoulders hunched, pulling back against her tugging. She hastily let go of a fistful of red hair.
"Oh! Gomen! I was just... thinking about something else. I'll be more gentle." She reached hesitantly for his hair again. He cringed a little, but didn't stop her. Relieved, she started on the tangle again, working upward from the bottom with short careful strokes and holding onto the hair above it to keep from pulling. Kenshin started to relax.
How was it that he could be so strong, and yet so fragile? She kept forgetting, whacking him around without thinking and hurting him by accident. She'd spent her childhood in the rough-and-tumble of the dojo, but she was an adult now. She had to be more careful. She had to start paying more attention.
The tangle had finally surrendered. She ran the brush down his hair a couple of times, experimentally. No more snags. Good.
She kept brushing. Getting the tangles out was a start, but this was the important part. Brushing distributed the natural oils and kept the hair in good condition. After a few minutes, Kenshin's was starting to look less frizzy, more glossy and smooth, and a deeper red than usual. The warm breeze lifted its gently curling ends.
That color! She drank it in as she brushed. And it looked so soft. She touched it gently, her hand following the brushstroke. Smooth as silk, all the way down its length. Well, almost all the way. She held up a handful of split and ragged ends.
"Y'know Kenshin, if you took proper care of your hair it would be really gorgeous."
"Hmm," he replied.
Was he even listening? She frowned, leaning forward to get a look at his face. Her eyes widened at what she saw.
Kenshin was gazing into the middle distance, his lips slightly parted, a look of bliss on his face. So, she wasn't the only one enjoying this. She smiled impishly, gathering up his hair in one hand, and ran the brush up from the back of his neck and down the underside of his hair. He took a quick breath and let it out slowly, a hint of a smile appearing on his lips. His eyes had drifted closed.
There was something different about the line of his shoulders. Even in their most carefree moments, there was always some tension there, some alertness in the way he held himself. She'd never seen him this relaxed. She savored the implied trust.
Kaoru kept brushing, reaching forward to take care of Kenshin's bangs and the shaggy masses of hair on the sides of his head that were too short to make it into his ponytail. She was fond of that shorter hair on the sides. It framed his face nicely. She wondered idly how it had wound up shorter than the rest like that. Maybe he'd cut it at some point.
Kenshin tensed almost imperceptibly, the familiar line of alertness reappearing in the set of his shoulders. They'd been through enough together that she'd started reading him subconsciously, taking advantage of his sharper senses. She leaned forward to glance sidelong at his expression. He hadn't opened his eyes. It must be Yahiko, coming back from Gensai-sensei's place.
"Yahiko's back?" she asked, her voice quiet.
He nodded slightly.
Time to finish up, then. No way did she want the kid seeing her like this; the teasing would be merciless. She slid the brush through his hair one more time, following it with the fingers of her other hand.
"Okay," she said, and sat back on her heels.
Kenshin stirred and took a deep breath, reaching up tentatively to lay his hands on the top of his head. He ran them down to the back of his neck, then turned toward Kaoru.
He blinked at her, his eyes still wide with wonder. "That was... really nice."
Kaoru smiled. "I'll do it again, any time you like."
Kenshin smiled warmly back, and gave a single nod.
"Here," she said, handing him his hair tie. "I'll just go put the brush away." She got up and hurried into the house.
She had a small chest in her room, where she kept her ribbons and trinkets and things, next to the wall below her calendar. The page caught her eye as she went to put her brush away. Hard to believe it was May already! The last few months had flown by, yet at the same time it seemed like forever since her life had changed that foggy morning in early spring. The fireflies would be coming out soon, down by the riverbank. She'd have to take Kenshin to see them.
She paused, her eyes caught by the brush. By the few strands of red there, mingled among the black. She hugged it to her chest, joy bubbling inside her. Yes. She would do it again, any time he liked.
"Kao-RU! Let's go already! What's taking you so long?" Yahiko's voice drifted into the house.
Kaoru would have yelled some insult back at him but she was in too good a mood. She left the brush on top of the chest and hurried back out, a grin on her face. Life was wonderful.
What could go wrong?