Still thinking about what tangLaw said in a review about what an E/K fic would be like without Kaoru pining for Kenshin or Enishi destroyed from sister death. I think a lot of the good tension comes from their struggles to deal with themselves while also encountering one another but I do see how the trope can get tired and you'd want to know what it was like if they met while healthy and past any possible trauma. I will continue to think about this, and it's certainly informing some of the developments here.

Hiei's Cute Girl: Thinking about your bunnies. Need to let them percolate and reform, but thanks for the creative shot in the arm!

Looks like there's a third part. Flow of it made more sense to chop it up like that.

Disclaimer: see part 1

"It's not that funny." Kaoru watched Megumi clutch her sides as her laughter faded enough for the woman to talk again. People in the break room were openly staring and Kaoru felt deeply uncomfortable with their attention while Megumi, as usual, didn't care a whit. Two people waiting by the microwave whispered to one another and Kaoru did not relish the office gossip that would probably follow her shortly.

"So, let me get this straight," She had already clarified it once but rubbing salt in a wound was one of her finer qualities. "You went alone to Chinatown in the middle of the night, almost got shot, and then picked up a stranger? Classic!"

Misao would have been sympathetic, not mocking, and Kaoru wished her friend worked in her building downtown. "You make it sound worse than it is."

Calming down, wiping tears of mirth from the corners of her eyes, Megumi stabbed her chicken salad with a fork before responding. "Let's run this down, shall we, never mind that you're probably emotionally vulnerable and possibly self-destructive since your dinner with Kenshin,"

"Hey now!"

"You placed yourself in an obviously dangerous place in the middle of a tong neighborhood, proceeded to get drunk by yourself, made what is no doubt a gangster angry and then proceeded to pick up his friend." When she said it like that it sounded pretty bad, admittedly.

Kaoru found she didn't want to eat any of her sandwich, instead poking at where the tuna was starting to make the bread soggy in the middle. "He might not be a gangster…" Megumi was right, he probably was, but she didn't want to admit it out loud yet.

"And I have to laugh because otherwise I would be deeply concerned that you not only gave him your home address, but also admitted you live alone and work all day." Megumi brushed a strand of her long hair behind her back and poked Kaoru somewhat sharply with her fork. Kaoru yelped and rubbed her arm. "If your apartment isn't cleaned out when you get home then count yourself lucky."

Chewing absently on a nail, a bad habit from childhood she never truly kicked, Kaoru wondered how much of that was Megumi trying to scare her and how much of it was real risk. Her building was secure, but then she had seen plenty of people get in because their friend 'wasn't answering the buzzer.' Until now she hadn't thought much about it.

"So this guy must have been hotter than the sun if he distracted you from Kenshin."

"Megumi!" Kaoru tried to sound scandalized.

"So tell me, what is the description you'll give to the police when all your stuff is gone?"

"Ugh, come on, stop it." Kaoru saw her friend's sly smile and wondered just how much she was loving this, in a way. When they had both first met Kenshin years ago, Megumi had made it no secret she thought he was attractive and made her usual aggressive play to date him. Kaoru with her bumbling shyness had somehow gotten her foot in the door, though significantly she couldn't say it ever got much farther than that, and Megumi had been occasionally projecting doom for the two of them since. Now that it had happened and Kaoru's weird tentative relationship with Kenshin was in tatters, she was the first one wanting to be there for Kaoru in her own way, and it made up for a lot of those annoying jealous comments.

"No really, at least let me know what he looks like." Megumi pushed Kaoru's sandwich closer to her as well, wordlessly telling her to eat something. "He like Kenshin? Short, cute, gentle, likeable? That's your type, after all."

Kaoru wondered if this was like being mothered. She had no basis for comparison on that front. "I don't have a type."

That was greeted with a snort. "Oh please, your track record would say otherwise. In college—"

"Let's not talk about that!" Kaoru did not want to revisit her mistakes when the current one was dire enough. "Besides you're one to talk, you're still stringing Sano along. He's a nice guy, and plenty cute and likeable."

"And forgetful, and bad with money, with a spotty employment history. He needs to shape up a little more before I promise him anything." Megumi chewed some more chicken before admonishing Kaoru. "Now enough with the misdirection, what's he look like?"

There was a reason Megumi worked in the legal department, she was absolutely tenacious. "Not like Kenshin, for one: tall, white hair, glasses, muscular."

"That doesn't sound too bad, but is he that much older?"

"Not old, he just had white hair. That can happen to people when they're young, or maybe he bleaches it." Kaoru finally took a bite of her lunch, feeling it move down her dry throat slowly. Nothing was appetizing after that dinner with Kenshin. "He didn't talk much."

During the lull in conversation that followed Megumi efficiently ate while Kaoru thought about how confusing her life had become. Last night she was sure that she was headed for maybe a couple of kids and a house in the suburbs where Kenshin could establish himself with his speech therapy business. Even if it had been far away in the future it had at least seemed possible, and maybe even desirable. Today all she saw stretching in front of her was six more months of her lease, a job she just felt ok about, and a date with a probable criminal.

Oh god, she was going to be that friend. The one with dramatic life issues. She had never been that friend before, she had always been the one comforting that friend.

"You know, not once have you said you're not going on this weird date." Megumi sealed her Tupperware container and slid it to the side. "You can't seriously be considering going somewhere with this man, can you?" There was no scorn in her voice, just concern.

"Well…" There was no guarantee he'd show up anyway. She hadn't exactly made the best impression and he probably thought she was a silly woman and promptly forgot all about her. "No..maybe…I don't know." Some interns walked in as a gaggle, laughing, and Kaoru seriously wanted to throw her uneaten sandwich at them for being so happy and carefree.

Megumi didn't respond, but the thin line of her lips clearly expressed her disapproval with Kaoru's indecision.

In retrospect it was the comment about her dressing conservatively that lingered in her mind. Kaoru couldn't even look at her blush dress from that night without a tinge of hurt so she did everything opposite of how she had prepared before. Curler was abandoned for a straight iron and after every hair was tamed she wound it all into a bun at the back of her head with the shorter strands that framed her face loose to soften the severity. Tighter and shorter was the name of the game this time around, so she opted for a loose dark purple blouse on top and one of her black skirts to complement it.

Distinctly, she remembered buying this skirt a few years ago to wear to the office but then on second thought felt like it exposed too much thigh to be work appropriate. This would not have passed dress code at her high school and she smiled at the memory of her strict homeroom teacher holding up a ruler to their hems to see if they had to be sent home or not. It was always easier to roll it up after inspection, so it hadn't prevented much of anything.

Dark lipstick and a touch of liner and blush and she was ready for anything, or so she thought. No sensible flats tonight, she pulled out the shoes she had bought with Misao weeks ago. Misao, who was terminally short in her own words, only wore heels so that she could meet people's eyes. Normally Kaoru didn't buy anything that guaranteed blisters but if she was going to do something out of character than she might as well go all the way with it. So dark red they might be confused for black, she first put a dab of petroleum jelly on the back of each heel then slipped into the shoes while noting how different everything looked already at this height.

With almost twenty minutes to spare, Kaoru sat down on the edge of her bed and tried unsuccessfully not to brood. Would it be worse if he didn't show up or if he did? Was she dressed too formally? She could always pretend she wasn't home if she didn't want to go through with it. Had she charged her phone? Her friends had all told her to check in with them tonight at some point, but how could she naturally excuse herself to the bathroom just to text Tai, Misao, and Megumi multiple times in an evening? What if Kenshin called? Did she even want him to call? Three days had been enough time to go from mad to sad and back into mad again.

When the buzzer went off, against all odds, promptly at 8 Kaoru leapt to her feet powered by adrenaline and pure worry and made her way to the intercom by her door. Despite the fact that she didn't plan on letting him come up to her apartment, let alone enter it, she looked around at the messy state of things in dismay and wondered why she had a mental block against cooking and cleaning. It wasn't like she was hoarding filth, but it was no model home either. Messy on the inside, just like her right now.

"Hello?"

"It's Yukishiro." His voice was neutral, giving nothing away.

"I'll be right down." Kaoru was afraid the tremor in her body had escaped into her words as she wrapped herself in a coat and scarf. Time to see what tonight would bring.

Enishi knew he would have to put up with Gein whining at him the next day, and was totally unsurprised when he started first thing on seeing him the next day. They had a meeting to attend to discuss some business with a gang in the adjoining territory where new construction of a park had blurred boundaries of who could operate in what space. The inevitable violence was escalating to the point where just passing money to the right cop to look away a few minutes wasn't going to cut it. Life was tense and he didn't need Gein's bullshit making him angry.

When the car pulled up with Gein as the driver Enishi knew he was not in for the quiet ride he'd earlier anticipated. This must be a subtle dig from his lieutenant Heishin who could easily have arranged for Otowa to drive him instead. Why Heishin would continue to try to rattle his cage made Enishi thoughtful about the future of their organization.

"…you never get involved, I don't know why I had to walk my ass out when—"

"Just forget it."

"And you saw how she was dressed, she wanted it. She would have come around and I could have had a good night if not for you."

Gein was a rat, but a useful rat, so Enishi did not immediately think of disposing him. "You can spot an undercover cop a block away but you still can't read a woman, it seems."

"I get lots of women!"

Enishi wasn't listening anymore as Gein continued to prattle, partly because Gein didn't have anything to say that Enishi wanted to hear but primarily he didn't want to think about Gein's lapse in judgment and near assault on that woman because it honestly upset him. Those migraines that came on and drove him near crazy only sparked when he thought of his family, but that girl reminded him of his sister enough that the idea of Gein pulling a gun on her was sparking the same pain.

"Shut up." He didn't say it loudly this time, but he didn't have to. Gein might have been an idiot with women but he had been around Enishi long enough to know when his boss was slipping into a dangerous mood. Music flickered into life and Gein concentrated on the road.

Completely distracted from the important meeting he would shortly be attending, Enishi reflected on just how disruptive Valentine's Day was to his organization as a whole. Built into the sworn oaths of the tong were promises to respect the women and families of the members and he hadn't thought much on it before, but even some of the most hardened men he worked with had wives or girlfriends that they attended to on this holiday. No one ever asked for time off, they weren't that sort of business, but people suddenly became unavailable or unreachable for a day or two surrounding the 14th. It seemed a useless, gaudy day to Enishi but he knew himself well enough that he was not ruling out participating in it because of that Kamiya woman.

Wanting to please her reeked of weakness, and with Heishin sniffing around he wasn't sure he could afford a crack in his armor like that woman. Picturing her face, pretty more so than beautiful, and her laughably clumsy attempts to get his attention (leaning over a pool table, please) Enishi found he was having a hard time finding fault with seeing her just once more. Maybe the resemblance to his sister was just a product of the liquor and that innocent interaction with him another manipulative illusion.

"We're here, sir." Gein was always more polite when he thought Enishi's mood was unstable. Standing in the cold as if weather couldn't touch him, the brick wall of a man known as Kujiranami was there to walk in with the boss. A woman in an undoubtedly real fur coat stood an arm length's away—Yumi no doubt, he had seen pictures of her in the past.

"Phone Heishin and tell him I expect to see him when negotiations have concluded."

"Yes, sir."

Wasting no time, he stepped out into the freezing temperatures and straightened himself out before walking over. Shishio wasn't a man that was to be kept waiting, even by Enishi.

It had been a number of years since he had gone on anything that could be classified as a date. Despite being relatively young to be in charge of his own organization, it had been a goal he pursued ruthlessly and single-mindedly. Not a lot of time or energy had been left for anything as pedestrian as romancing women when, if sex was the goal, that could be procured at a transactional cost much cheaper than the sum total of dinners and other sundry gifts. When he had been in his late teens, up and coming like a superstar of larcenous ability, some of the older set had thought to put their daughters in his path. In a world like his you married your own kind and kept it in the family as much as possible. Those few times he had to take them to dinner and pretend to be interested in whatever their newest expensive acquisition was had seemed such a colossal waste of time that he had only doubled his efforts in being involved with the organization. If you had no time, then you couldn't be asked to set aside any for someone else.

He was telling himself, on the drive over, that this was solely motivated by curiosity. Her requested chocolates sat in the passenger seat, purchased on the way over in a crush of bewildered and worried looking men at the store. They all had a hunted look in their eye, as if the chocolates were the answer to a riddle they desperately needed to solve. It was just empty calories to Enishi, and he wasn't precisely sure why chocolates were the thing to purchase when something like steak would be more expensive and more useful. He shrugged it off as part of the insanity of the day.

Early.

All of that: the indecision, the reservations, the chocolate, the parking… and he was still early. Being nervous for this was unthinkable. He could walk into any situation and command it, and the evening had been engineered to be efficient—pick the girl up, eat a meal, deliver her back home—but radical notions he had absorbed from overhearing frantic men in the chocolate shop played back in his mind. What if she was allergic to the chocolate? What if she didn't like it? What if she was emotionally unstable and he'd have comfort her? He wasn't prepared for that scenario. Enishi liked his world to be predicable, and by extension controllable, but this Kamiya woman was an unknown.

Clearing his throat, Enishi emerged from his car and made his way to the stoop of the small apartment complex she lived in. This was neither a bad nor a good neighborhood, and not one he would have ever visited on his own professionally or personally. Nothing but residences, shops, and restaurants proclaimed this a commuter community to downtown. All you got in this part of town were kids playing at being in a gang and the occasional mugging.

He found her apartment number on the list of buttons and pressed it twice at short intervals. It was possible she wasn't at home. She could, and probably should, regret interacting with him in a seedy bar several days ago. It was fortunate no one in his organization knew where he was or what he was doing because, should she not answer the door, he would have quite a lot of face to save otherwise.

"Hello?" Her voice was a squeak and it could either be the bad connection or her own nerves.

"It's Yukishiro."

"I'll be right down."

While he waited a couple came crashing out the door, laughing and hugging. They stopped short when they saw him, and he had to remind himself not to scowl at people. Tonight that sort of behavior was expected of people. Their laughter resumed once they were well past him and Enishi fought the urge to sigh at all the foolishness he was part of in this moment.

"I didn't really think you'd show up." He looked over as the girl emerged and he mentally compared how different she seemed tonight. Everything about her presentation seemed like an invitation. Those legs, the flare of her hips, the v of her blouse just low enough, and all that hair piled on her head. All he got was a glimpse as she buttoned up her coat. He wanted to tell her to leave her hair loose, the way it had been when he met her, but instead he just nodded in her direction to acknowledge her.

"I parked across the street. Unless you'd rather take a cab." He only suggested the second option because she looked ready to bolt, not that she'd make it far in those shoes.

She hesitated before she answered. "I don't know where we're eating. Would a cab be very expensive?"

"Don't worry about that." The idea of her paying for things rankled with him in such a traditional way he was a little surprised at his own attitude. His sister used to say he needed to be nice to ladies, but he had never felt the pull of that so strongly before.

Pulling out his phone, he almost remembered the chocolate as an afterthought since he needed to free up a hand to dial. He handed it to her, and when she didn't take it immediately he got impatient.

"Well? You asked for chocolate, didn't you?" He tried to keep it emotionless, but he knew some of his exasperation had leaked through.

"Thank you." Her eyes got wide as she accepted the gift and she examined it with pleasure as he talked to the cab company. Before she had seemed a little scared, maybe even closer to terrified, but now she was all smiles and softness as she ran her fingers over the gold stickers that sealed the package shut. Was it that easy?

They stood in the cold near the curb and he watched their breath make white clouds in the frigid air. It might freeze tonight, and with the recent damp weather than meant ice on the roads. Those shoes of hers might not have good traction, he'd keep an eye on her progress. A voice in the back of his head said he could offer her his arm, but he dismissed it as sentimental.

"You look pretty somber."

"What?" He turned to her, seeing a spark of something in her eyes that hadn't been there when he'd greeted her at the door.

"Black shoes, black suit, black shirt… "

He grunted. "Hm. It's what I have. It's either that or an orange track suit."

That gruff response was greeted with an amused smile from the girl. Enishi got the uneasy feeling that she might have the date figured out better than he did, and he didn't like it one bit.