Author's note : Ok, here is chapter two people. I'm posting this with chapter one, so that a little more is explained about what is happening in this fic. Chapter three should hopefully be up by the end of the week. After that I'll be preparing for exams so the chapters may flow slower until the summer holidays in July. Enjoy and don't forget to review with your comments!
Chapter two
Misao bounced down the corridor, following in the wake of the tall, godlike man ahead of her. People scurried up and down the hallways, shouting with a panic that fed her hyperactivity and made her fairly vibrate with energy. Yet Aoshi was like a bubble of calm, walking at a swift, business-like pace amidst the frenzy of the guards.
'Aoshi-sama, please let me go to her,' Misao cried determinedly. 'She's alone and probably scared. She needs me.'
This debate happened each and every time they were forced to move safe houses, and Aoshi could almost have mouthed along to the arguments Misao used to try to persuade him, if, of course, his pride had not prevented him from looking like an idiot.
'Misao, we have been over this, no one gets to know Kaoru's exact location but me. It's better that way.'
Aoshi stopped and turned to look at her.
'That's not true,' she cried. 'Hannya knows where she is, I know he does.'
Aoshi would have winced if he wasn't so stoical. He hadn't been lying. No one was supposed to know where Kaoru was but him. He had taken every precaution his training had taught him to prevent anyone following him when he delivered her food. Yet, somehow Hannya, in his infinite and maddening wisdom, always knew exactly where he was when he needed to see him.
'Misao, the answer is no. End of story. No one is to go and see Kaoru.'
The angry young woman let out an unladylike snort.
'Don't treat me like I'm stupid, Aoshi-sama. I know that the only reason we're not allowed to see her is because of what happened, isn't it? You think I'm too weak to protect Kaoru but you don't want to hurt my feelings so you're not letting anyone else see her either to cover it up. You think I'm not good enough to be in the Oniwabanshu, don't you?'
Her words were thrown at him in one long stream and when it was over she was left panting lightly. Aoshi stared at her a moment, shocked at how near and yet how far she was from the truth. He still maintained his emotionless mask, however, and perhaps the only sign of his distress was an almost imperceptible tightening of his jaw. Her words had brought it all back to him, that horrible night.
'Get ready to move,' Aoshi told the two young women in the darkened room before turning to leave.
He didn't wait for the affirmative reply he knew was coming.
'Hai, Aoshi-sama,' was the immediate chirpy response and he heard the rustling of bedclothes as one girl bounded from the bed and commenced bouncing energetically on it to rouse the other.
He left in silence but as he walked down the corridor he could hear the sounds of Misao giggling maniacally while Kaoru made use of her extensive selection of curses, learnt from years of training kendo to rowdy boys.
He was just rounding the corner in search of Okon to begin preparations for the departure when the tone of the shouting in the room changed. It no longer sounded like playful bantering anger and more like screaming. He was moving back down the corridor before his mind had even caught up with his instincts and he burst through the door in time to catch the way the blood splattered across the wall, creating a disgustingly mesmerising pattern in the dim light.
The scar she had received spanned her abdomen and if it had been any deeper it would have gutted her. Instead it had caused major blood loss, required immediate, lifesaving surgery and months of painful physical therapy while on the move with the convoy. He would never admit it even in the deepest self-reflective meditation, but he had been jarred to the core. He had almost lost the petite, spitfire that day and the thought was excruciating, unbearable. He was a man who learnt his lessons and he refused point blank to take that chance again. It was brutal, but there was no way in hell he was going to let Misao near the death trap that was Kaoru until this was over. He was not an imbecile, he saw how the isolation was affecting Misao's friend, the way she faltered further out of reach with each passing day, but he wouldn't, simply couldn't, let Misao be hurt again, even if he had to sacrifice Kaoru for it, even if he had to watch the solitude eat away at her soul and drive her slowly insane.
He dragged himself from these thoughts, looking down at Misao's pretty, innocent face.
He used his best authoritative tone.
'No, Misao, and that is final.'
0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000
Kaoru couldn't move, could barely breathe, so thought was definitely impossible. She sat stiffly in her chair as she waited for him to make the next move in their sick little game.
'You have caused me a lot of trouble, Koneko,' he rumbled against her hair, his voice fire and silk.
She felt him bend forwards to inhale her scent, his mouth brushing against the shell of her ear before lowering to the skin just below it. The shudder that slid through her body, part fear and, horrifyingly, part desire, seemed to reanimate her and she opened her mouth to scream, a hand instantly clamping over it.
'Now, now, Koneko, we don't want to ruin our reunion, do we? Some of us have been waiting so very long for it.'
She gasped as she felt his teeth graze over that one sensitive spot only Kenshin knew about. Instinct took over and, although part of her insisted that this was quite definitely a welcome sensation, she threw her weight back with all her force using her head as a weapon. He, however, had other plans and steadied her chair, dodging her attempt easily by leaning a little sideways.
'You're quite right, Koneko,' he purred softly. 'What was I thinking? This is not the time or the place, we might be interrupted at any moment and we most certainly don't want that, do we?'
With that said, he wrapped one arm firmly around her torso and arms, preventing movement in her upper body, and proceeded to lift her as though she weighed nothing.
Kaoru's mind was in turmoil. What could she do? She had no weapon and no one was going to come in until Aoshi came to get her, unless she gave them cause, and how in Kami's name could she do that with nothing in reach? Her eyes scanned the room frantically before falling on the table in front of her. She could have kicked herself. Her father had drilled into her two vital rules for survival. The most important was never to panic under any circumstances and she was already failing at that one pretty spectacularly, her heart beating as though it would burst free of her ribs. The second was to pick your location carefully and, if that wasn't possible, to make the best use you could of anything around you. Even in this moment of peril, it stung to think of how incredibly disappointed with her he would have been in that instant because here she was ignoring the most perfect noise-making tool she was ever going to find.
She allowed him to drag her to her feet, knocking the chair to the side in order to get a better grip on her body, and during the millisecond her feet were lifted from the ground she used everything she had and his firm chest as leverage to topple the heavy table. There was a split second where everything seemed to freeze, the table with two legs on the ground tipped at a precarious angle and all it held remaining exactly where it should be.
Everything on it fell with it. The metal tray covered in cutlery, plates of food, glass and her reading material of the moment, a book of at least six hundred pages on traditional Japanese kendo techniques. The echoes resounded through the room, rebounding off the walls and ringing in both their heads. Then there was utter silence for so long she began to give up hope that anyone had heard her. That was it, her last desperate bid for attention and she had nothing left to use. Lowering her head in defeat, she felt the sudden tension seep from her captor's body and then it came. The sound of feet thundering down the corridor at great speed filled her ears and it was like heaven. Her heart soared and she dug her bare feet into the carpet, ignoring the friction burns she was receiving for her efforts, anything to slow down his attempts to drag her towards the open window. She had a chance, damn it, and there was no way in hell she was going to make this easy on the asshole now. Then there was nothing, only black.
0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000
Misao stood silently in front of her beloved Aoshi-sama. She had been desperate for him to explain his reasons why she couldn't see Kaoru, for him to deny her accusations of his deception, but he hadn't. Instead he had just stood there, motionless and expressionless, before telling her firmly once again that no one was to go to see Kaoru. Her heart ached. Her deepest doubts had been confirmed, her hero, the Okashira she had not so secretly adored since the age of two, did think she was too weak for the Oniwabanshu. He did think she wasn't good enough to be by his side and in her mind this conclusion could lead to only one heart-breaking reason for his keeping her with him. He pitied her. He let her stay because he knew she had nowhere else and no one else to go to but he would not trust her.
Anger suddenly turned her vision red. She would prove it to him, she would prove that she was strong, that he could be proud of her, and when she did maybe he would notice that she wasn't just the weak little girl he had taken in any more, but a powerful woman. Then, with this realization, he would sweep her off her feet and proclaim passionate love to her. She sighed wistfully, this fantasy serving both to lighten her spirits considerably and strengthen her determination. Aoshi-sama would notice her if it was the last thing she did.
Just as this decision had been made, a huge crash reverberated down the corridor making everyone turn towards its source.
'Kaoru,' Aoshi breathed, not meaning Misao to hear, but the instant her friend's name slipped from his lips, Misao was alert and moving in the direction of the general flow of guards.
'They've breached the building through the West room!'
She heard one guard call frantically to another, and she picked up her pace with an actual destination in mind.
The chance to prove herself to Aoshi had come a lot quicker than she had expected but she wasn't the type to let the opportunity pass. Her energy and agility had its uses, making her responses and reflexes to surprising changes quicker than most and allowing her to slip rapidly through the jostling, frightened crowd. She danced away from him through the throngs of armed and dangerous men who scared her not the tiniest bit. They were just hired muscle, there only to slow the evil creature down, but they would never manage to stop him. She doubted they had the skill to take her on in a fight so they didn't have a prayer against that monster.
She could hear Aoshi calling from behind her but his voice was drowned beneath the sounds of the guards shouting and panicking around her. He was angry, though she could only tell this because of the years spent carefully observing and adoring, from slight inflections in his voice and twitches of his face. Though incredibly fast, he was too tall and broad to be able to slide through the crowd with the swiftness that she did and although he created an instant path before him by the sheer power of his ki, she was still soon far ahead of him.
She could see the door to the West room up ahead and picked up her already impossibly quick pace. Throwing herself against the door to the room, it burst open in time for her to catch sight of Kaoru's limp body being lifted out of the window and a flash of red hair as the man who carried her dropped into the darkness beyond.
Misao was at the window before anyone else had even entered the room. Perching precariously on the windowsill, she leaned out to watch the figure disappear into the distance with the slumped form of her best friend in his arms. An agonized scream of fury bubbled up in her throat and she immediately made to follow when the unmistakably dominant aura of her Okashira entered the room.
'Don't even think about it, Misao,' he thundered as he fought his way through the worried guards milling around.
Yet, instead of having the desired quelling effect, the command only served to strengthen the petite woman's resolve. She would save her friend and she would show her Aoshi-sama that she wasn't a waste of air.
Turning to look at him as he battled his way towards her, she waited until he was just near enough to hear.
'I will prove to you that I'm good enough to be at your side, Aoshi-sama.'
With that she dropped into the abyss.
0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000
The throbbing in Kaoru's temples was a counterpoint to the steady beat of her heart as she slowly came to. She groaned softly, trying desperately to burrow into the warmth and oblivion of unconsciousness. However, sleep was not forthcoming and the sudden flood of memories chased the last remnants of it from her aching head. Dear Kami have mercy, he had finally caught up to her and now she was Kami only knew where with a psychopath. She forced herself to sit up and open her eyes.
'I'm blind,' was her first frantic conclusion as nothing but blackness assaulted her eyes, but it soon became apparent that this was not the case when they slowly adjusted and she could make out slightly darker shadows of objects around the room.
'Pull yourself together, Kamiya. This is no time to lose it,' she ordered herself vehemently.
Unfortunately a small voice at the back of her mind chose this moment to point out that it was a little too late for that. She was already an unstable nervous wreck. Forcing this revelation to one side in favour of more pressing matters, like how exactly she was supposed to get herself out of the clutches of a mass murdering sociopath with a clear obsession for one Kamiya Kaoru, she decided to scope out her surroundings. She had no idea what he wanted from her but there was no way she was sticking around to find out.
She slid off the bed, intent on finding an exit out of her own personal hell, when she was jerked back by her wrist. Now that her eyes had adjusted to the darkness she could see, as she lifted her hand to her face, that her wrist was chained to the headboard of the bed.
'Oh Kami.'
Panic spread within her like fire through dry wood.
'It's just another obstacle, Kamiya,' she told herself aloud, taking a deep, steadying breath before proceeding with an examination of the metal links of the chain.
When she could find no weaknesses she could exploit there she turned her attention to the headboard and it was here that she discovered hope. Although it was beautifully carved with flowers and cherubim, and must at some point have been a very sturdy bed, it was now weakened by rot through years of disuse and damp. Her heart jumped. If she could just pull hard enough she could use the chain and her body weight to splinter the bar of wood round which the chain was fastened and then she'd be free. Of course, she'd still have the chain attached to her wrist but there was no use worrying about that until she'd managed to escape the bed.
She took the chain between both hands and gave it a testing tug. The wood gave a vague creak but didn't budge even slightly. She sighed resignedly, knowing the pain to come, and, twisting her body round so she was facing the headboard, she braced both feet on it and pulled. Her wrist protested at the odd angle it was held across her body and the way she was leaning her weight against the chain but she refused to stop, especially when the bar gave a deep groan and shuddered in its slot. Her hands began to sweat where they gripped the chain and she cried out incoherently with the effort to force the bar to break.
'Come on, damn it.'
She bent so far back that her body was flat against the bed and yet it still held. Tears of frustration welled in her eyes before making watery tracks down her cheeks.
'I refuse to be helpless again,' she shouted fruitlessly at the headboard. 'I refuse to let some pansy ass rotting piece of wood prevent me from getting out of this hellhole.'
The cherub carved on the surface smiled mockingly down at her and she kicked it hard in the face. Her resolve hardened. She stood up on the bed and leaned backwards, her entire weight braced against that one bar of rotting wood. It creaked viciously and leaned towards her weight but still it didn't break.
Her face wet with crying and sweat, she scrunched it up in concentration as her wrist screamed for her to stop, the tightly wound chain cutting into it, causing spots of blood to bloom from the red raw skin, but she couldn't, wouldn't stop now. She was so close she could almost taste the freedom. Leaning back so far she was almost bent double, she heard a sickening crack, the bar giving way under the pressure.
Splinters of wood flew everywhere and her own momentum catapulted her backwards into a somersault off the bed. She landed with a loud crash and lay sprawled there for a moment as her head swam with the impact against the floor. Luckily for her a plush carpet covered the ground or she could have had a nice concussion to match the wounds on her wrist. Pulling at the chain carefully, she hoped it hadn't constricted enough to cut off circulation. It would be pretty hard to practice kendo with only one hand.
Her addled brain caught the sound of running feet outside her room and she realized belatedly that with the noise she had been making it was surprising her captors had not come to check on her sooner. The footsteps were still a distance away and she followed the screeched directions of her mind as she dashed to the darker shadow of what she assumed was the door. Her assumption was confirmed when she burst out onto a long semi-lit corridor. Now which way to go?
'Eeny, meeny, miny…'
'Hey, Missy, what do you think you're doing out of your room?' came a shout from the left as she considered her options.
'Well, I guess it's to the right then.'
She turned to flee in the opposite direction to the voice, but she hadn't gone two steps before she was grasped firmly by the shoulders and spun round. She found herself faced with a broad, muscled chest clad in an open white judo jacket and when she looked up discovered the owner of this splendid display of masculinity wasn't too hard on the eyes either. Wild brown hair flew in all directions, held back from his eyes by a red headband, and the eyes themselves were a deep, melting brown. He wasn't really her type, too boyish around the face, but she could see the objective appeal and couldn't help staring at him. Then somehow the longer she looked the more she found everything about him oddly familiar. Frustratingly, she couldn't quite place him, but all she knew was that the serious expression he was sporting at the moment didn't suit him and she was quite certain that a cocky grin should really be in its place.
'You're gonna get me in a hell of a lot of trouble if you don't get back in that room right now, little Missy,' he said sternly.
There was a slight pause before the guy apparently gave in to temptation.
'I mean, come on, do you really want to see this handsome face all mashed up?'
Immediately the exact roguish grin she'd been picturing in her head spread across his face and she realized where she'd seen him before. She had met him only once in passing when she and Kenshin had been out to lunch at their favourite café. Kenshin had not been pleased, she remembered. He'd hidden it well but the set of his shoulders and slightly forced smile had made it clear to her. At the time she had assumed it was an acquaintance he didn't really like but now it dawned on her that it must be one of his murderous associates. Perhaps they worked together to extinguish human life and Kenshin had been worried he would give his true identity away. Any good feelings she might have felt towards this man instantly dissipated as this thought was processed.
'Don't mind seeing your face mashed as long as I'm the one to do it, pretty boy,' she snarled as she threw a punch at his head with her good hand. He caught it deftly in his own and his forehead creased in a frown.
'Now, that's not very nice, is it?'
He used his grip on her fist to pull her closer to him and she attempted to knee him in the groin but he blocked it with his leg.
'I really would like to be able to populate the world with equally beautiful people, so if you wouldn't mind not kneeing me there it would be much appreciated,' he smirked arrogantly.
She growled low in her throat and while his own showing off distracted him she brought her heel down hard on his foot. He let out a yell and released her fist from his iron grip. She didn't waste any time since she doubted he would let her get the upper hand again and swung the chain she still had firmly wrapped around her wrist at his face. It made contact with a sickening smack of metal on flesh and he went down like a ton of bricks.
Eyes tearing up with the way the chain sliced further into her, she didn't give herself time to stop and take care of it. Instead, she left him in his semi-conscious state on the floor as she flew down the corridor with adrenaline-induced speed.
As she rounded the corner she heard the man groan and curse colourfully behind her, coming to. Her heart raced so hard in her chest she was afraid it might burst right out as she fled down corridor after corridor until she was utterly lost. She could still faintly hear the man behind her but it was a great distance away and that gave her the small sliver of hope she needed to keep going.
Just when that slight hope was fading and panic was winning the battle within her mind she caught sight of a long flight of stairs up ahead, at the bottom of which stood a huge entrance hall. She didn't take the time to admire the scenery, however, as she threw herself down them, her frantic footfalls drowned by the plush red carpet.
Once she was at the bottom she made a dash across the hall, her steps now echoing on the white marble floor. She could have screamed in terrified frustration as she slid to a stop in front of the door. It was covered in at least ten locks and there was no way she was going to be able to pick them all in time even with her immense experience from years of forgetting her keys.
'Breathe, Kamiya,' she told herself sternly.
This was not as easy as it was to think. Her breath came in ragged gasps, clouding her mind, and she suddenly grasped how despite her attempts to keep her conditioning while on the move she had failed. She finally forced herself to take in her surroundings and found several doors around the room. Her body howled at her to run, to run anywhere just as long as it was far away from where she was now. But she restrained the urge to dash around like a headless chicken and instead assessed the situation. Where do most people keep their keys? Well, personally, though she knew it wasn't very safe, she remembered having a nice rack of hooks in her kitchen where she hung all the keys for the various rooms of her house and she knew Misao did too.
Target acquired, she examined the doors and made her way to the most promising of them. It was to the left of the staircase and slightly in its shadow so as not to be overly visible from the entrance and, as opposed to the rest of the doors which were beautifully carved; this one was a simple swinging door, painted a demure white to match the wall. Her observant nature was rewarded when the second she swung it open her eyes fell on a rack of keys hanging on the wall by the stove.
She grabbed the bunch of keys from the hook handily labeled 'Front door' and was back at said front door before the kitchen one managed to swing shut. The task of discovering which key fit which lock was arduous and it was made even worse by the involuntary shaking of her hands as they fumbled the locks. Frustration made her want to scream, but she resisted, afraid she would draw even more attention to her flight. She was terrified that the shaggy haired man would catch up to her and pull her away from her escape, from the freedom beckoning to her just beyond the door.
Finally, she reached the last lock and she nearly cried in relief as it slid back with a delicious thunk. She reached for the door handle and, just as she swung the door open, she was grabbed roughly from behind and thrown hard up against the wall beside the door. She prepared herself mentally for her head to make impact with the wall. If the contact with the floor hadn't given her concussion this certainly would, but instead she felt only the softness of yielding flesh. Opening her eyes, she realized that he had placed his hand behind her head to protect it in a deceptively tender gesture that sent her reeling.
'Do you really give me so little credit as to believe that I would let you escape so easily, Koneko?' he hissed by her ear, and she trembled as the silken steel of his voice rolled over her.
'Do you have any idea what I have been through, Koneko? I tore Tokyo apart to find you and, every time I got close, I would find an empty house filled with your lingering scent, but never you. It drove me insane.'
He leaned in even closer so that his chest was pressed more firmly against hers and his nose skimmed the skin of her neck as he inhaled.
'I do not give up what is mine, Koneko, remember that,' he growled furiously as he ran a hand down her side, ghosting a moment by her breast, before finishing the route down to her waist, where he splayed his hand possessively against her hip. His words rang through her head, dislodging one of the memories she had pushed so far into the depths of her mind that she had hoped it would be lost forever.
The music beat in time to her heart as she swayed to its rhythm. The intimate press of bodies and the lazy grace with which her lover moved against her made her every limb tingle with anticipation.
Kenshin's fingers traced intricate patterns on the skin exposed by her tight top and she leaned even further back against his chest, letting a small sigh escape her lips. She felt rather than heard his growl of approval at this innately submissive gesture and his hands stopped their travels to wrap more securely around her slim waist in an utterly possessive response.
While they were dancing this change in her usually docile Kenshin didn't register under the overload of arousing sensations she was feeling, but as they made their way back towards their table, where Misao was still fending off her would-be-suitor, she couldn't help but frown.
The conversation she had had earlier that day flashed through her mind but she pushed it away, shaking her head. No, she refused to think that about Kenshin, it was not true. These thoughts were confirmed when Kenshin helped her into her seat with a courtly bow, the goofy smile she loved so much plastered across his face.
'Sessha will go find us some drinks, that he will.'
She watched him walk to the bar, her eyes trained on his delicious behind, before the gyrating crowd swallowed him. Then she turned her attention to Misao, who had finally brushed off her admirer and was now sipping her 'Kiss me quick' with a satisfied smile on her face.
Unfortunately for Kaoru, although Misao's admirer seemed to have given up hope on her, it was clear he was all too happy to turn his slightly drunk attentions to Kaoru instead.
'Hello beautiful, you must be exhausted.'
Kaoru frowned slightly in confusion. Was this some lame way to ask her to go to bed with him? He continued, apparently undaunted by her lack of response.
'´Cause baby, you've been running through my mind all day.'
Kaoru caught Misao looking at her over his shoulder and they rolled their eyes. Had this guy not noticed the fact that she had come over with her boyfriend? Apparently not, since he leaned in so close she could smell the alcohol on his breath and appeared to be about to kiss her. Revulsion made her nauseous and she tensed in preparation to give him a beating he wouldn't soon forget, even in his alcohol-induced haze. However, someone else had the same idea, since the man was lifted unceremoniously from his chair and dangled a little off the ground by a firm grip on his throat.
'How dare you touch my woman,' Kenshin hissed furiously at the gargling man in front of him. 'If you even think of touching her again with those filthy hands, I'll gut you so fast you won't have time to scream.'
Kaoru could only sit, dumbfounded, as she watched her gentle Kenshin throttle the man hanging from his grasp before throwing him with almost inhuman strength across the room. The poor drunk crashed hard into a nearby table, knocking the empty glasses on it flying as he did so.
'Ken…shin,' she gasped as he made to follow the man, who was now whimpering and attempting to crawl into the crowd. She grasped his arm tightly and suddenly found herself enveloped in an equally tight embrace.
'I do not give up what is mine, Koneko, remember that,' he growled by her ear, before leaning back to capture her lips with his own in an almost desperate kiss.
His eyes glowed a terrifying amber colour and, as she looked into them, there was no doubt in her mind in that moment that the poor man now disappearing at great speed into the crowd, would be dead if she hadn't intervened.
Those same amber eyes she remembered so vividly from that night now stared into her own blue gaze and she had to force herself not to look away in submission. It was like dealing with a wild animal, show any signs of weakness and they would tear you apart.
However, their silent battle of wills was brought to an end when an odd dripping noise caught both their attentions. Looking down, she saw that blood was trickling from beneath the chain on her wrist down to her hands and onto the pristine whiteness of the marble floor. She was surprised. She hadn't noticed how much it hurt until now. The chain had dug so deeply into her that it had left the tips of her fingers tingling and cut into her flesh. She jumped as a strangled noise slipped from his lips, for a split second something childlike and terrified flashing through his eyes, but it was so rapid she couldn't truly be sure of what she'd seen.
Without warning, she was lifted, bridal style, and carried back through the kitchen door. For a moment she froze, too shocked to do anything, but then she began to struggle viciously, practically doing a headstand off his arm onto the floor, the only thing stopping her from falling the iron grip with which she was held, hard and unyielding.
She was carefully set down on one of the high stools at the grey marble counter in the center of the room before he began to rummage through drawers in search of something. Eyeing the door, she knew with a sad certainty that there was no way in hell she was going to manage to get back to the front before him, so instead she contented herself with looking for a weapon to defend herself with.
Her eyes fell on a knife block handily placed within her reach and she slowly grasped one of the smaller knives, stuffing it in the pouch on the front of her sweater. She praised Kami that she was a tomboy who hardly ever wore tight clothing since it would have been impossible to conceal anything then. She steadied the blade handle carefully with her good hand as he turned towards her, a white box in his grip.
Coming to sit beside her, he removed a thin gold necklace from beneath his black shirt, using the key hung on it to unlock the chain on her wrist. It dropped to the floor with a resounding thwack, but neither of them paid any attention to it. Her skin was marred by raw indents from the chain's links and despite its blunt edges there must have been some sharp areas because in places it had sliced straight through. He opened the box and she was startled to find it contained, not some kind of torture device as the irrational part of her brain kept informing her it must, but a very complete medical kit. Taking an ointment from the box, he carefully grasped her arm above her wrist and began rubbing it into the deep gashes she had managed to inflict on herself.
'I should have known a chain would not keep you contained, Koneko,' he chuckled, and she couldn't help noting the hint of pride that entered his voice. 'You always were stubborn.'
She ignored him and his deep voice, preferring instead to concentrate on the slight stinging sensation of the cream as he made sure it was all absorbed. He then took a roll of clean white bandages from the box and began to wrap the wounds tightly. She winced and he gentled his touch in a way that made her frown. Why was he so gentle with her, damn it? The way he'd stalked her told her she obviously fascinated him, but she also knew that she was just a toy to him, that once he had got whatever it was out of his system, he'd get bored and she didn't want to think about what would happen then, so he shouldn't act like this, shouldn't care.
While she was absorbed by her confusing thoughts he finished dressing her injury and put away the box. She was so distracted she completely forgot her plan to stab him and run for the door. The knife lay in her pouch as she stared at him, her hands limp at her sides.
'Megumi will take a better look at this when she comes over later,' he informed her as he grabbed her elbow and half helped, half lifted her from her seat. 'Time to go back to your room, I think.'
Once again to her surprise, he did not bring the chain to reattach her to the bed. Instead he simply ignored it and tried to lead her to the door. When the attempt failed and she stood firm, a look of mulishness on her face, he commenced dragging her back through to the entrance hall and up the stairs. She dug her feet in, trying and failing to make his efforts harder. He didn't seem to find her struggles even a tiny hindrance to his progress and this just made her temper flare even further.
She opened her mouth to swear at him but at that moment the red head-banded man came hurtling down towards them, a large bruise already spoiling one side of his face and split lip trickling blood down his chin.
'You're a bit late, Sano,' he said in a cold voice that belied the hint of amusement hidden beneath. 'You appear to have come across my Koneko before me, however.'
Sano scowled and winced as his lip gave a painful twinge when he pouted.
'Do you see what she did to my face, man? Now Megumi's never gonna fall for me.'
He snorted as he led Kaoru the rest of the way upstairs.
'Perhaps this will teach you not to underestimate your opponent, Sanosuke,' he informed Sano, no longer hiding the amusement in his voice.
With that said, he dragged Kaoru around the corner, ignoring the childish cursing that followed them.
The walk to her room was done in silence after that. She was so caught up in her own self-pity and anger at being so close and yet so far from freedom that she paid no attention to their journey until she was pushed rather unceremoniously into her room.
His eyes scanned the damage to it as he stood in the doorway, taking in the splintered wood on the floor and the mutilated headboard, before he closed the door behind her.
The clicking of the lock as it slid into place rang through her head with a tone of finality. Kaoru was once again trapped in her dark bedroom, her morbid thoughts her only company as his footsteps faded away.
'Why are you doing this to me, Kenshin?' She choked out to the empty room.
Author's note: Review please
Japanese terms:
Kami- God
Koneko- Kitten
Sama- Very polite honorific
Sessha- Unworthy one