Who loves a two-shot? I will shamelessly say that I actually loved writing this. True to form, sticking with drama is hard.

Pretty sure this fandom is basically dead but I still love Enishi/Kaoru. Due to shortness it will probably feel incomplete, but I think I told the story I wanted to tell about them. More people need to add some EK love out there.

Disclaimer: see part 1

Before school Kaoru was reassuring Misao that whatever happened yesterday was just an aberration. She was not losing it, she was not secretly meeting up with Enishi, she was not in a self-destructive spiral, and she certainly was not going to keep things from Misao until she heard them from Taki. The idea that Misao would be the last to know anything about her best friend was just killing her, and Kaoru allowed herself to be cheered up by her perky friend. It was hard to feel sad when Misao was spazzing out next to her.

"You think I should get a haircut?" Kaoru poked at her bangs while she looked at herself in the mirror in her locker. Near it were pictures from the tennis team, (mostly ones that had Kenshin in them though they looked innocent enough) and others of Misao and Kaoru making silly faces. Tape strips showed where family pictures had been until recently because Kaoru had found it was too hard to stare her happy family in the face every day when it felt like a lie. She lived enough lies at the moment that one more would have been the last straw.

"Nooooooo, don't do it!" Misao tugged at her braid and played with the tuft at the end before tossing it behind her again. "You look so good with long hair!"

"Yumi cut her hair short and dyed it red, and she looks amazing," Kaoru countered.

"Yumi would look amazing no matter what," Misao said with clear envy. "Even if she does wear too much makeup."

Kaoru felt someone tap her shoulder and she turned around to look into the long ugly face of Gein. Misao made a face like she had just bit into a lemon as she noticed the tall scrawny junior. His stick thin body was covered with the usual oversized black clothing, a huge skull standing out on his shirt. Gein didn't talk to people in the halls so lots of curious and nosy stares were suddenly directed their way while simultaneously pretending like they weren't looking. Gein seemed to be sweating, as if he wanted to be there about as much as Kaoru wanted him to be there: not at all.

"He said, find him at lunch or he'll find you after school. Same place. Whatever that means." Gein's adam's apple bobbed in his stork-like neck as he spoke to Kaoru but he spared a special scowl for Misao who stuck her tongue out at him before he walked away again.

"What the heck was that about?" Misao asked, and Kaoru saw people whisper and laugh to one another. It seemed she was going to top the rumor mill this month same as last month. Maybe she should stay home for a week and pretend like nothing else existed, just like her mom was doing.

"Enishi." Kaoru said darkly, definitively.

"Omg, I'll go get Kenshin and he—"

"NO!" Kaoru yelled, adrenaline surging through her. She didn't want Kenshin involved in this, she was going to solve her own problems without him. "No, don't tell Kenshin."

Misao bit her lip hard and looked completely unconvinced. The bell rang and Kaoru grabbed her lit book. She'd have three whole periods of class before she went to find Enishi. No amount of promises to Tomoe or Kenshin were going to stop her. Finally having a tangible issue she could tackle was a relief. Enishi was like the answer to a prayer she had no words for, even if everyone else saw it as a disaster.

It had taken most of lunch to give everyone the slip. Misao was going to stick to her like glue, come hell or highwater, and Kaoru had to choke down her soggy PBJ sandwich while Misao talked a mile a minute about how if Enishi touched a hair on her head she would call school security. One cafeteria table over she could see Yumi and Shishio, who would normally never pay her any attention, stare at her in a way that made her think she was going to catch fire. Shishio was just as scary as Enishi, if not more so, and if he was taking notice then there was something about this meeting that Kaoru wasn't totally understanding yet. Yumi was in their year but she looked a lot older than most girls their age with her exaggerated curves and overly made up face. When they were in middle school and Yumi was just spotty and miserable with a twenty year old body and a fourteen year old face, she and Kaoru had been friends. Freshman year had been so different for both of them, with Yumi falling in with a "bad" crowd and Kaoru spending her every waking moment with the tennis team. Misao would bop around between the tennis courts and the soccer field and talk to everyone, but Yumi practically disappeared. Kaoru felt that twinge of loss she often felt as Yumi leveled a knowing stare in her direction.

"They're all staring at you." Misao said in a stage whisper.

Kaoru tried not to bang her head on the table in frustration. "I know Misao, thanks."

"Sano texted me earlier, and so did Megumi, they said you weren't responding to them at all. Did you turn your phone off?"

"It's in my locker. And why are you texting during class?" Kaoru had long ago given up trying to scold her friend. She had her phone confiscated every other month anyway, so she had to know she had a problem.

Misao ignored the question and surged forward with her own. "Do you have any idea what Enishi wants from you? You're being pretty cagey about the whole thing." Picking up a potato chip, she crushed it and watched the pieces fall back into the bag before tipping the whole bag against her lips. Misao's eating habits always grossed Kaoru out, but she knew she had her own issues and her friend stuck by her anyway so weird quirks were easily forgiven.

"It's complicated."

"OMG what if he likes you. Wouldn't that be the worst?"

Kaoru shockingly was less disturbed by that prospect than she should have been. "Yeah, I guess, but I'm pretty sure that isn't what this is about."

"I still can't believe you hit him."

"Please stop saying that." Kaoru felt miserable: miserable that she lost control of herself, miserable that she had lashed out at someone, miserable that that someone probably wanted revenge.

Misao, naturally, ignored her friend's anguish. "I don't really think he'd hit a girl though. I mean… he's evil, but he's not barbaric."

"I'm glad you have so much faith in him, really, sets my mind at ease." Kaoru's sarcasm didn't even touch Misao who was busy ripping her sandwich into bite sized pieces.

Kaoru stared at the last part of her lunch with disgust. She had been losing weight she couldn't afford to lose recently. Everyone said she should eat more because she was starting to look frail. They all used the same word too, as if they had all decided together that she needed to know she was wasting away. Maybe if they had just said she looked sick, or weak, then it would have gotten her to think about eating a little more. Cooking was what her dad loved, that could have been part of it, and sometimes she just didn't want to feel full. Kaoru's stomach turned over despite her willing it not to, and she decided that there was an element of nerves to it today too.

"Hey Kaoru," Yumi's dusky voice derailed her thought train neatly. "Can I borrow her a moment, Misao?"

Misao nodded dumbly as Kaoru got up and followed her old friend over to Shishio who was practically holding court at his cafeteria table. His little brother Soujiro, a freshman, was talking with some of Shishio's senior friends with a cheerful grin but no one else looked familiar. Mostly surrounded by his student council, they politely ignored Kaoru. When he had been elected class president last year Kaoru had vaguely remembered the weird impassioned speech he gave, but now that she wasn't encountering him in a gym full of people she felt decidedly uncomfortable with his intensity. Yumi sat down next to Shishio and met her eyes with something like pity. Kaoru thought about turning on her heel and marching right back to Misao.

"Kaoru Kamiya?" Shishio directed the question at Yumi, who nodded. What a jerk, he couldn't just ask her himself?

"Well, I'm here, what do you want?" Kaoru folded her arms over her chest defensively.

Shishio tented his fingers and Kaoru wanted to laugh, but kept that to herself. "I was just curious. I'd never even heard your name until a month ago and now it's all I ever hear, especially the past couple of days."

"And I suppose you're going to warn me about Enishi, too. Kenshin and Tomoe beat you to it, but it's nice to know our student body president is so concerned about the little people." Despite herself, she was hurt that Yumi had never mentioned her when she still considered her a friend. Kaoru's loyalty was easy to win and hard to lose, but Yumi was on the cusp.

Shishio seemed to be amused at her sass. "I admire Enishi in some respects, he's very effective when he has a goal in mind. He's not everyone's enemy, though, he wouldn't spread himself so thin."

"Just Kenshin's." Kaoru said it out loud instead of thinking it, and she saw Shishio's grin spread wider on his face. He reminded Kaoru of a snake and she wondered why Yumi was so infatuated with the guy.

She looked back at Misao to see that her whole group of friends had crowded around Misao and Kaoru's abandoned lunch. Even Aoshi had showed up, and Misao was practically in heaven telling them everything she knew. Megumi and Sano were making large gestures at one another, clearly arguing, and Kenshin was in the center of it all trying to organize everyone. This was the best chance she was going to get to slip away.

"I'll have to catch you later, Yumi. It's been too long." Kaoru practically ignoring Shishio to run from the room would probably cost her later, but she didn't have time to think of anything but the moment. Her sneakers squeaked as they hit the linoleum and before she knew it she was out the door and facing the base of the cement stairs that led up to the only other boy she knew other than Kenshin that got her heart pounding even if it was for all the wrong reasons.

Kaoru winced as the end of lunch bells went off and not too much later Gein wandered down past Kaoru, who he looked at with some combination of disdain and surprise. She wrinkled her nose in his direction and rubbed her arms to get rid of the goose bumps that had popped up on her arms while she stood there and let her blood cool after her run. When she finally got herself together she took the stairs two at a time to find Enishi in his spot.

"You're late." He was staring at the sky, and she wondered how he even knew it was her.

"But I'm here."

"Don't you have class?" Enishi sat up and she noted smugly that she couldn't see his roots today. Proof that the gangster had vanity made him less scary already.

"Don't you?" Kaoru countered swiftly.

Enishi shrugged and this time she noticed how his muscles shifted, for pretending to be so lazy he had to work terribly hard for that body. "Special schedule."

Kaoru rolled her eyes. Even if the teachers called her home about skipping class, her mom probably wouldn't pick up the phone. Everyone had been expecting her to crack anyway so her father's death would instantly excuse her lapse and in a way that's why she was here right now anyway so it wouldn't be a real lie. Brick by brick she had walled off her heart to thoughts of her father, but Enishi bypassed her defenses and set her back at square one. He didn't pity her, he didn't care about hurting her feelings, being around him felt like freedom and she hated herself for what she realized was a silent criticism of all the people who cared for her.

"So?" She should have taken a sweatshirt with her today because it was too cold and she was rubbing her arms to find some warmth.

"So?" Enishi stood up, unfolding with his feline grace as he took a step towards her. "Everyone built a bubble around you once I so much as looked at you, maybe I want to know why you're so special."

"I'm not special," she said quickly, fiercely.

Enishi snorted, clearly disbelieving her. He stood in front of her and reached behind her to slide her hair band down until it released all her hair around her. Through it all she didn't so much as blink until he twirled it on the edge of his finger in front of her and shot it out over her head towards the gym.

"I have more in my locker." Kaoru informed him flatly, not allowing herself to be intimidated by him today. She said she could take care of herself and now was her chance to prove it.

"You look better with it down." Once her hair had settled down her back, flowing almost to her waist, his glare had become less amused and more considering. He cleared his throat and pushed his glasses up his nose before he reached into his pocket for a cigarette.

Kaoru straightened her spine to gain every bit of height she had as she said, "Don't smoke around me, it's disgusting."

Having just lit it, he took one puff which he blew above the both of them and then flicked it off the side. "Better?"

"What's your problem?!"

"I could ask you the same thing. Here I am, enjoying a life without any people in it when you run up here crying, assault me, dare me to do the same to you, run off, and practically repeat the whole process a few hours later." Enishi sneered at her. "My sister," he said the word mournfully before he resumed his acidic tone "Drove you home personally and Shishio had the nerve to ask me about you this morning which tells me that while everyone is in love with that ginger asshole you're some sacred cow in all this."

Kaoru did not like being compared to a cow. "And what about you, walling yourself off like you're the only person who has a hard life. Maybe you should be telling me why you're so damn special!" Her temper was getting the better of her. She thought about the first time she had met Sano, when he was trying to pick a fight with Kenshin and she had stopped them both by standing red-faced between them and yelling at Sano like a drill sergeant. He had just stopped and laughed out of shock, but it had given everyone enough time to work out that Sano had not been hit by that tennis ball on purpose and as they all got a bite later they realized the hot-head was just a big teddy bear at heart. Somehow her trademark brashness probably wasn't the best move.

She saw him tense up and she wondered what it would take before he did lash out at her. Every one of her father's police friends would be on his ass if he so much as left one bruise on her but she knew that wouldn't mean much to Enishi.

"I'm smarter, faster, and stronger than everyone I know."

"I've seen who you hang out with, that can't be hard." She said it without thinking and he actually laughed. He didn't break eye contact with her as he stalked around her and continued.

"I could hurt you, badly, and not one of your little friends or your dad's buddies could touch me for it."

She was tired of his empty threats. "So what? We both know that already." Grasping at straws before this turned ugly as she could see his mood spinning in a dangerous direction she blurted out, "But what about something useful? Can you fix a roof, or build a deck? You might go home to a mansion every night and stalk around like you're hot shit but I have to deal with more real life than you ever did."

"You don't know anything." He was actually angry now and she thought he was going to punch her as his arm flew wide, but instead she felt the puff of wind from his movement as he lunged for the wall next to the door by the stairs instead. The plaster only suffered a bloody dent but his knuckles looked shredded. He took a deep shuddering breath and looked at her murderously.

It wasn't precisely true, she knew the facts and her father's suspicions. The Yukishiro's mother had died from a nasty fall down some stairs almost a decade ago and their father had remarried the same year that Tomoe got together with Kenshin, when Enishi was a freshman. The thing she couldn't speak of, something she had overheard her father say to her mother, the fall down the stairs didn't explain some of the bruising on the Yukishiro woman. Abuse wasn't an accusation you could throw at a man like Enishi's father, but Kaoru wondered how else someone like Enishi could end up so twisted.

"Come home with me tonight." She thought she hadn't said the words out loud but as his murderous intent faded to confusion she realized they had actually escaped. In for a penny… "Come home with me tonight. There's this rotten part of the back deck and I just can't figure out for the life of me if it's the one spot or the whole thing. Dad," her throat tried to close but she forced herself to keep going. "Dad was going to fix it this fall, but now I guess it's up to me. And if you're such a flaming genius with all these connections I'm sure you can figure it out."

The invitation hung heavy between them, while blood ran down between his fingers and dripped on the cement below. He gave her a perfectly blank look for a long moment.

"Get one of your friends to help you."

"I don't want them to help me," Kaoru said it emphatically because it was true. Like she wanted to see their sad faces as they pitied her even more, or hear those empty sad words that things would get better soon. "Here, you must have a pen, I need a pen."

Mechanically, watching her like she had grown a second head, Enishi took a black sharpee out of his pocket and held it out. Kaoru took it and when he didn't offer any paper, picked up the limp hand that was not bleeding and wrote her address out on his palm. As she touched his calloused hand she noticed her goose bumps smoothed out and she felt suddenly warm.

"I'll get off the bus around 5:30, 6 at the latest. Don't ring the doorbell, it doesn't work. Come by or not, but either way I'm not coming up here again." She dropped his hand and watched him push his glasses up the bridge of his nose while tracking her progress as she moved away from him and towards the stairs. Maybe if she went to the school nurse first and claimed cramps or something she could get a note to go back to class without any trouble resulting.

Kaoru turned to him, determined to say something clever before she left, but nothing came to mind. Feeling like an idiot, wondering if her instincts had led her wrong here, she closed her mouth and retreated down the stairs feeling like she had stuck a hand into a tiger's mouth only to come away unscathed. No one was that lucky, especially her.

The longer she left her phone off the more likely Misao would explode tomorrow, but Kaoru literally could not cope with explaining anything to Misao. It would be Friday, she could always just pretend to be sick. Getting her mother to call would be the hard part, as getting her mother to do anything these days was hard. The bus jostled her gently and she wondered at how easy it had been just skipping out the side door after class and bypassing her locker entirely. They would all be waiting for her there, her concerned friends, and all that she had really left behind was her phone, books, and homework. Homework could wait another day; her grades weren't exactly stellar anyway even though she worked hard for her B's and C's. Crap, if her phone was in her locker then she had to go to school tomorrow.

Her stop came up faster than expected, but what was even more unexpected was as she rounded the corner to her block she saw an expensive car with a white haired figure sitting on its hood smoking furiously near the curb in front of her house. In her heart she hadn't really expected him to show up, or if he had showed up she would have thought him the type to be late and make her wait a bit.

She knew he could see her and as she got closer she was amazed at how still he was sitting. Before she got within speaking distance he put out his cigarette and climbed off his car, some European sports thing with a logo she didn't recognize. Both he and the car looked totally out of place in her rambling neighborhood of fixer-uppers and minivans. One of his hands was partially wrapped in gauze and he had a thick looking olive jacket on.

Enishi met her eyes and while she wouldn't say he looked unsure he did look less confident than earlier today. That made two of them, only Kaoru knew she couldn't mask any of her own misgivings. It would be fully dark soon, she knew, so and somehow that lent a note of urgency to all of this. Enishi being here during the daylight was totally different than having a boy over at night. If her father had been alive she would have taken him in the front door and if he was home he would have met Enishi with a handshake and a smile. Then the interrogation would have followed, along with refreshments. If he hadn't been home then her mother would have stalled him with polite questions until he could come home and vet Kaoru's new friend. All of her friends had gotten this treatment before they could freely come and go at the Kamiya household. Would Enishi have passed muster?

With all those memories playing in the back of her mind, Kaoru took Enishi around the side of the house and straight to the back deck. It felt oddly illicit. They hadn't said a word to one another, but Enishi followed as Kaoru led and then pointed to the problem spot in her back deck. She hadn't lied to him, she really did need to fix the deck and didn't know where to start. Hiring a contractor seemed like a monumental task and she didn't want any strangers wandering in and out of her house at odd times. Where would she find the money?

The hole in the far corner of the deck brought a smile to her face as Enishi crouched over by it, prodding at the wood. "Last summer we were having a barbeque and Aoshi was standing there eating a hot dog when Sano jumped on his back. They crashed through together, just too heavy. Aoshi had to have a doctor pick all the splinters out of his legs." Her dad had driven them both to the hospital, yelling at them the whole way.

"From there to there," Enishi finally spoke when a few minutes had passed and he had walked the deck slowly and even crawled under the hole. "Your deck is fine. The rest of it has water damage. You must have used a cheap sealant or didn't weatherproof it recently. I can show you where you can see the rot underneath, but you'll want to change clothes first."

Kaoru stared at him, impressed in spite of herself.

"Do you know everything about everything? I honestly didn't think you'd be any help with this."

Enishi rolled his eyes. "Then why in the hell did you even ask me over?" He sounded exasperated as he dusted leaves and dirt off of his shirt and pants. The army surplus store must have loved his business.

"You want some milk and cookies? I know it sounds kind of dumb, but everyone who didn't bring a casserole brought us desserts and I just can't get through them all." She completely avoided answering his question by changing the subject.

"Why the hell would I want some—"

"And while you wait if you could move some of the deck furniture to safe spots since you know where they are would be super helpful." It was a trick she had learned from her mom. Promise a man food and give him a specific task while you get it. She had seen it work time and again. Enishi was grumbling but also walking up the deck stairs so it seemed even an evil genius was not immune.

Once she was through the back porch and into the kitchen she flipped on the light and called to her mother that she was home. It didn't feel right, coming in the back door of her own home like she was sneaking in. As expected, there was no noise from the front room besides the TV. Kaoru looked daggers at the plate of cookies saran wrapped on the counter and thought about throwing the whole plate on the floor just to see if that woke her mom up. What if she destroyed the whole kitchen? What would she do then?

In the end she dropped her bag on the kitchen table and poured two glasses of milk. Balancing the two glasses and the plate of cookies she pushed out of the back door to find Enishi sitting on one of the deck chairs and impatiently tapping his fingers on the arm rest. She put the plate on the wide deck railing and handed him the glass of milk which he took with a suspicious look in her direction.

"You want me to take a drink first? I promise you it's not drugged." Kaoru tried to make a joke but for a second she thought he would seriously make her drink first when he put it down next to him instead.

"Why am I here, Kamiya?"

Her empty stomach rumbled so Kaoru took a cookie for herself and munched down on it. Speaking with a mouth full of cookie she answered honestly. "I invited you. The rest is all in your own head."

We're both hurting and misery loves company, is what her brain supplied. It was unusually peaceful to have him here while she ate a cookie and watched the sky get dark. He pulled out his phone and texted furiously before making a disgusted noise and putting it away again. Maybe he had broken plans to come here, and she felt happy at the thought, but there was no proof of it.

"Kamiya,"

"Can't you call me Kaoru?"

"No," he snapped "Coming here was a mistake. I don't know what game you're playing but I don't want to be part of any of your manipulations!"

He stood and tossed the glass of the milk onto the lawn where it didn't break but did create a messy arc of milk over part of the deck as it flew. She would have to go search for it in the tall grass tomorrow, and who knows what gross thing would make a home in it overnight.

"Friendship is not manipulation!" Kaoru yelled back, almost toe to toe with him and craning her neck up, annoyed at his dismissal of her hospitality.

"I don't want your friendship." He ground out.

Her chest pumped like a bellows as she practically screamed at him "What do you want then?!"

In retrospect she shouldn't have been so surprised when he kissed her. Honestly, when she would think about it later after she knew more about him, she would wonder how he managed to wait that long in the first place. He leaned forward, curving her spine back and forcing her to press her chest against him. Their bodies melded together deliciously and Kaoru knew without a doubt she had thrown herself straight into the deep end without learning how to swim first.

Once they broke away he paused only long enough to tear off his heavy jacket and then lock her in an embrace that stole her breath before he eased his grip and met her lips again. Enishi made her forget everything except how messy her room was and how there was no way they could make it up there without having to answer some uncomfortable questions to her mother who would be rising from the couch to eat something soon. It was too soon for her room, at any rate, but he still made her think those delicious feverish thoughts and she might have caved in to the same impulses that were making his body noticeably react to their connection when a shriek broke through the veil of lust between them.

"Kaoruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" The yell was followed by pounding on the front door.

"What the hell is that?" Enishi's eyes were heavy lidded and he pulled her closer, possessively, as he crankily came back to earth as well.

"That," Kaoru said, pulling back from his embrace and realizing it was actually cold out here. "Is Misao, and if she knows that's your car out front then this is going to take a while. Everyone else will probably be here before too long, so unless you want to watch everyone lecture me about life choices you'd better go."

"Or you could come with me." He said it like it was the obvious choice, and she almost said yes right there to his bedroom eyes and hypnotic voice but before she could say anything Misao burst through the back door like a petite rocket. The front door wasn't locked, how could she ever forget that?

"You!" Misao looked like she was about to hyperventilate as she leveled a finger at Kaoru and Enishi in turn. "And you!"

Enishi cracked his knuckles and moved forward like he was going to throw Misao over the deck as easily as the glass of milk, an insane smile on his face, as Kaoru got between them.

"Kenshin will be here soon, and he'll fix all this. Kaoru, don't worry about this stalker!" Misao was as brave as Kaoru had ever seen in the face of a man practically twice her size.

"Fantastic, I've been waiting for this a long time, I'll fix Himura." He moved swiftly over to Kaoru and gave her the kind of kiss that felt like he took a piece of her soul with him as he withdrew. Misao looked scandalized. "And then I'll be back for you." He moved past Misao, brushing her away like a gnat, into the house. Kaoru stamped a foot on the deck, feeling her world spin out of control.

Picking up the cookies and her own empty milk glass she took a deep breath as she heard the front door slam. "Misao, get out your phone. I'm not letting this get out of hand. I just hope Sano and Aoshi get here before Kenshin because I can't hold both Kenshin and Enishi back for long."

"What should I do? How can I help?"

Kaoru only thought about it for a split second. "Get Tomoe's number from Megumi and get her here ASAP. If anyone can get them to calm down it would be her." She darted into the kitchen and dropped everything in her hands into the sink before purposefully rejoining Misao in back.

Watching Kaoru rip her hairband off and fluff her silky mass out curiously Misao then saw Kaoru rifle through things on the back porch as she asked, "What are you going to do?" while she texted Megumi furiously.

Feeling more alive and more herself than she had been in more than a month, Kaoru triumphantly lifted up the kitchen broom with the wooden handle and twirled it around to test its weight. It wouldn't stop an angry teenage boy but it might make him pause just long enough if she wielded it with enough force. Thinking about it just a little more she put the broom under her arm and grabbed the collar of her shirt. It was her yellow shirt with the cool chrysanthemum pattern running down the sides, and as she ripped a 'v' in it all the way down to the top of her bra she mentally consigned it to the dust bin.

"I'm going to distract Enishi." Kaoru answered gleefully. Life felt joyously out of control, and nothing could have seemed more normal.