FIRST PLACE
Title: Passion Leaves A Trace
Author: MissGoalie75
Theme: Passion
Rating: T
Words: 4,743 (I know, WTF, right?)
Summary: "Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen for you, to you, and because of you." – T. Alan Armstrong
A/N: The title is the same one for an LP by the band Black Lab. Also, this was really inspired James Franco's short story "April." This story is definitely probably a hot mess…
Kenshin stares at his probation officer, Saito, with a blank expression on his face, not bothering to glance at the list of places where he can do his community service hours.
"Let's see…which is a place that will make it very hard for you to set on fire and will be extremely difficult for you to fuck up…" Saito mutters under his breath, twirling a pen expertly between his fingers.
Kenshin rolls his eyes toward the ceiling and thinks about how he needs to get cigarettes – he has three left at the moment. He also has to cook dinner for his bitch of a mother and actually write his research paper for school if he doesn't want to fail English.
"Himura? Pay attention."
Kenshin lowers his gaze to glare at the old man across from him.
After twenty minutes of vehemently debating about working in a nursing home (Saito pushed for it while Kenshin fought against it with quite a bit more emotion that he usually lets on), Saito ultimately decides on the public library.
Kenshin walks home with his hands in his pockets, feeling emptier with each step closer to his house.
/
Three librarians, two of whom are identical twins, Tae and Sae, which make things really annoying, greet him. The third one is really old man named Oibore, who Kenshin's pretty sure will kick the bucket within the next few months. Despite his decrepit nature, he manages to catch Kenshin in the act of swiping a paperclip.
For forty minutes he's shown all the sections of the library and is directed on how he's supposed to put all the returned books back in their original places. He's not to disturb anyone.
"What if I finish early?" he quips.
"Then you come back to the desk and you'll sit there until we get more books," Tae or Sae (he really doesn't give a fuck who it is) retorts.
He grimaces at them and they continue the tour.
/
He finds his bike in the garage that he all but threw away once he got a car over a year ago.
He brings it to a repair shop to get it fixed – the walk to the library and back home takes too much time and he can't drive again until he's eighteen anyway.
/
His mom complains that the pasta he made has a crunch to it. He tries to explain that it's the point of al dente pasta – it's not supposed to be limp. But she's too tipsy at this point in the evening.
He doesn't know why he even bothers anymore.
/
First day of work. He moves slowly, taking his time slipping books in the right sections.
After three hours, he goes to the front desk to get his hours signed off. Instead of the twins or that old geezer behind the desk, there's Kaoru Kamiya, that quiet, goody-goody girl who's always in at least one or two of his classes.
He taps his fingers on the wood to get her attention. She looks up and stares at him for a second before exclaiming, "Right! Your hours. About that…"
He raises an eyebrow at her.
"You barely put away half the books in your cart," she points out.
He shrugs. "Too many books, too little time."
She purses her lips. "It doesn't take more than three hours to put away all those books. Trust me – I've been working here for three years."
"I'm new. I'm unfamiliar with the territory."
She rolls her eyes. "You're lucky. The only one who saw you come in was Oibore and he's gone home early. I'm letting Tae know that you came in an hour ago, but you unfortunately have to leave now because you need to work on a paper for history that's due tomorrow."
He narrows his eyes at her. "I was here for three hours, therefore, I would like to be acknowledged for doing those three hours for my community service."
"See, here's the thing," she starts, shifting in her chair so she's sitting up straighter to gaze directly into his eyes, "You didn't actually do three hours worth of service for the community, which is the whole point of this. You're lucky I'm even counting an hour at all."
He was indifferent towards this girl five minutes ago and now he hates everything about her.
"See you Wednesday?" she says, smiling pleasantly. "And hurry home!" she adds after he walks away from her, "You need to work on that paper!"
He realizes as he's riding his bike home that he has to write a paper that's actually fucking decentif his probation officer is going to accept his only working an hour today.
Fuck. That. Bitch.
/
It takes him about two hours to write the paper, minutes a few minutes here or there to get something to eat.
He can't believe that girl whom he's never even talked to before played him.
As he's falling asleep, he doesn't know whether to be impressed with her, or to just go on hating her existence.
/
Before he walks into the classroom, it suddenly hits him that Kaoru is in his history class.
He drops his paper on the teacher's desk and ignores Kaoru's smile.
Yeah, he despises her.
/
"You must be very pleased with yourself," he drawls as he and Kaoru are shelving books in the same stack.
"Not going to lie, I do think of myself as rather clever at times. Although those moments are usually far and few between. I'm actually quite dense when it matters," she answers as she gets on her tiptoes to push a book in.
She's making it very hard for him to hate her because she's always been one of those few people he didn't have an opinion on until now.
They work in silence for the rest of the time they're in the same stack. But when she's struggling to place a book on the top shelf again, he rolls his eyes and drags over a footstool for her before getting back to work.
Some people are just so stubborn.
/
A few days later, he's told to stay after class. If this is another lecture about how he can get better grades if he actually put in effort, then he may have to bring back the cursing at teachers in a foreign language – that did such wonders in his freshman year.
After the last student leaves, she tells him to shut the door.
Fine, all the better for him to curse in Italian.
"Did you write this paper that you handed in?"
…Totally not what he was expecting?
"Let me double check," he states flatly, "Don't want you mixing up your students' papers."
She frowns at him. "I'm serious, Mr. Himura."
He rolls his eyes. "Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"Am I sure that I actually sat down in front of my computer and typed out that waste of an assignment? Yes, I'm sure."
"Because there are ways of confirming that."
There's a beat of silence.
"You don't think I wrote it," he concludes, almost wanting to laugh.
"I find it hard to believe that the same student who came in with half a page of writing for a three page assignment managed to sit down and write a respectable paper that actually goes beyond the minimum page requirement."
For some inexplicable reason, this really pisses him off. He's not stupid – everyone who has ever taught him is well aware of this. The fact that this idiot of an educator is questioning that sets his admittedly short patience on edge.
"Fine. Test it. I have nothing to hide."
He storms out of the room before his teacher can call him back in.
/
He's in the children's section of the library still faintly annoyed with his teacher when he looks at the book in his hand, recognizing it as Corduroy.
It was one of his favorite books.
He glances around, making sure no one can see him before he opens the book. A wave of nostalgia hits him that almost hurts, but he flips through the pages until he gets to beginning.
He only gets to the third page before he realizes how fucking stupid this is. He slams it shut and stuffs it in between two random books and then rolls the cart away.
/
His history teacher is handing back papers and when she places his paper facedown, he doesn't want to feel anything, but he does.
He's just not sure what it is.
He lifts the corner of it and quickly glances at the grade, rather surprised at the grade and the note under it:
A –
Next time you hand in anything that's lower quality than this, I'm automatically giving it an F.
He smirks.
/
He's back in the children's section of the library and goes straight to the authors whose last names begin with "F."
Corduroywas taken out.
Well, at least kids these days still have some taste.
/
"Hey, Kenshin, I heard about your efforts in school."
Kenshin grimaces on the phone.
"It's good – it'll show the judge that you're really trying to turn your life around. I don't know if this is a load of bullshit or not, but it better not be."
He rolls his eyes. "Can I go now? I have better things than to talk to you."
"You're lucky I put up with you."
"Oh yes, very fortunate."
"Keep getting your community service hours done and stay out of trouble. I'll see you at the end of the month at the library."
He hangs up and with a dramatic sigh, he falls back onto his bed. After a few minutes, he realizes he has a lab report he has to complete for Physics.
What the fuck? Why does he care?
"Kenshin! Get down here!" his mother shrieks.
He gets out of his bed and goes to his computer. "Can't, doing work," he yells back.
/
Corduroyis back.
He waits until Kaoru leaves before he picks the book out and finishes reading it.
He keeps trying to straighten his face for the next half hour, but it doesn't really work.
/
Kaoru's rushing with her shelving books, so he wordlessly takes her book cart and rolls away with it.
"Kenshin! What're you –?"
"Just get the hell out, Kamiya."
Before he goes to the elevator, he hears her stage-whisper, "Thank you!"
He ignores her and avoids thinking about why he's doing these things for her.
/
"Kenshin is very efficient and doesn't slack off. He may continue to finish his community service here," Sae rattles on, showing Saito the log of hours.
Kenshin doesn't pay attention; he focuses on Kaoru trying to reach for a book on the top shelf, her top inching up to reveal pale skin.
/
Enishi texts Kenshin about a party. Kenshin almost chucks his phone at the wall.
Fuckthat guy.
He blasts his stereo and tries not to think about how that asshole should be doing these hours.
/
He's holding a worn copy of Nine Storiesin his hands.
One of the few books he actually read for school is The Catcher in the Rye, just so he could really understand why pretentious adults would call him Holden.
After finishing, the first person that called him Holden Caulfield got an earful.
He's not a psycho, whack-job who wears stupid hats, thank you very much.
But he didn't mind reading it, so he opens the book and starts to read and work.
He has to do something else to keep from getting bored.
/
He slips the small paperback into his back pocket when Oibore walks by.
The old man winks at him, which just creeps him out.
When he's gone, Kenshin takes it out and goes back to reading.
/
Since this book wasn't for school, he can easily admit to himself that he enjoyed it.
/
"Hey, Kenshin…" Kaoru calls from the desk, indicating with her finger for him to come to her.
He stops what he's doing and walks over.
"Yeah?"
She glances to her left and right. "Sae, Tae, and Oibore want to offer you a deal," she explains so quietly that he has to lean in close to hear.
"Okay…"
"We will give you two hours without work if you get a library card."
He narrows his eyes in confusion. "What?"
She shrugs. "The only catch is that you have to stay here for the two hours, but…it's better than working, right?"
"I just have to pay for a library card?"
She smiles. "You don't pay for a library card, you sign upfor one. But yeah, that's it. As long as it's a secret."
He smirks. "I feel like this is illegal."
"Well, you'd technically be making up the two hours you lost on the first day," she responds in his ear.
His eyes widen and his breath gets stuck in his throat. She really shouldn't be affecting him like this.
"Okay, fine," he finally says a tad breathlessly.
She beams up at him and adjusts herself in front of the computer. "Alright, I just need some info…"
/
He realizes as he's hanging out in the children's section that maybe trying to hide Pride and Prejudicein his back pocket was not the smartest idea; it's not the thinnest book in the world and it very clearly sticks out.
/
At some point, he doesn't bother hiding his reading anymore. And at some point, Kaoru began handing him books without saying a word.
And at some point, he begins to realize that he's actually bookworm and that he actually likesthis girl.
Who the hellis he?
/
"I'm sorry, Mr. Himura? Do you have something to say?"
Kenshin freezes in his chair and gazes at his teacher, who is staring at him with a hard expression; she caught him scoffing at a comment that Akira made about the book they're currently reading.
"Yeah," he says, surprising everyone in the room (including himself).
His teacher raises an eyebrow at him, gesturing him to continue.
He crosses his arms and sighs. "How could you possibly compare Darnay's supposed lovefor Lucie to Carton's? There's no comparison."
His teacher is clearly surprised that Kenshin is willingly and intelligently participating in a literature discussion.
"What are you talking about, Kenshin, did you even read this book?"
Kenshin whips his head around to glare at Akira. "There isn't because Darnay doesn't feel one iota of emotion like Carton does. 'For you, and for any dear to you, I would do anything. I would embrace any sacrifice for you and for those dear to you. And when you see your own bright beauty springing up anew at your feet, think now and then that there is a man who would give his life, to keep a life you love beside you.' Did Darnay say anything remotely passionate like that? I think not. Your traditional and narrow-minded view totally warps your judgment and proves how incapable you are of analyzing anything meaningful."
The class is eerily silent after his outburst.
"Detention, Mr. Himura," his teacher says in a quiet voice.
He turns back around. "Why?" he demands. "Worse things have been said in this class – last week Takani practically ripped Sagara apart and you just idly stood by!"
"Enough, Mr. Himura. Report to detention after school. And next time keep your thoughts in check. Yes, Kaoru?"
Kenshin looks over to his left to find Kaoru primly holding her hand up. When she's called on, she lowers her hand and crosses her legs gracefully. "Yes, I would just like to say that your giving detention to Mr. Himura is completely uncalled for and I agree with everything he said," she states strongly, looking at their teacher directly in the eye.
"Then I guess you can join Mr. Himura in detention?"
"I would be absolutely delighted."
"Kaoru –" he starts.
She shoots him a look to get him to shut up.
Normally he'd take pride in ruining something pure, but right now he's beyond pissed and maybe just a little upset.
/
"You really didn't have to do that," Kenshin tells Kaoru in detention.
"Yeah, I did. It was wrong and horrible and…" she takes a breath, "You deserved someone to stand by you. Because you were right. Akira's a moron."
He smiles a little. "My pride or dignity or whatever doesn't deserve your getting detention."
"That's right, it doesn't."
They crane their heads to find Kashiwazaki (nicknamed "Okina" for some mysterious reason), the teacher who usually supervises detentions, standing over them.
"Okina," Kenshin greets. They're very familiar with the amount of time Kenshin has spent in detention, but it's been a while.
"Get out of here – I'll make sure this doesn't show up on any records."
Kaoru's jaw drops. "Won't you get in trouble for that?" she squeaks.
Okina smirks rather maliciously. "Tenure."
Kenshin rolls his eyes. "The downfall of public education. Let's go."
She laughs into her hand when he leads her out of detention.
Huh, who'd of thought he'd actually have people on his side?
/
He kind of wants to take Kaoru out or somethingto thank her for what she did in class (he hasn't figured out how he'd take her out without a car yet), but he gets a call from his probation officer, ordering him to meet him at his house.
He manages to thank her with an awkward smile before riding home.
He kind of needs to work on his social skills.
/
"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Saito yells at Kenshin in the latter's too small kitchen.
"I was participating in a class discussion – my teacher is a bitchand took it the wrong way. Besides, it's not going to count anyway!"
"Yes it is! Your teacher has been very thorough and notified the appropriate people, so the court will see it. And of courseyou had to make it ten times worse by involving an innocent girl –"
"Hey, I didn't forceher to stand up for me. I didn't want her to get detention," Kenshin retorts sharply.
"Well, it's too fucking late now! Honestly, what the fuck is wrong with you? I don't get kids like you – you know what you're doing is stupid, and yet you continue down this path that gets you nowhere."
Kenshin's never heard his probation officer talk like this before; sure, he's harsh, but he's never lost his cool like this. He curls his hands into fists and tries to breathe properly through his nose. "Tell me what you really think," he hisses sarcastically.
"You're making my job fucking difficult."
"Well at least from all this I know who actually gives a shit about me now!" Kenshin snaps, getting to his feet, ready to hit the man in front of him. "If you really only just care about adding another tally mark under your victory heading then don't fucking bother trying to help me."
Saito gazes at him coolly. "Fine. Then I'll have to let the court know that youwere being so out of control that I refused to work for you –"
"You mean I refused you to work for me."
"And then the courts would most likely come to the conclusion that you have regressed and you'll be immediately thrown into juvie. While you may act all tough, you'd be eaten alivein there."
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"I'm saying that it's no good for either of us if we part ways. I'll continue to supervise and try to contain this mess you made and maybeif you keep your head down like you're supposed to, we could salvage this."
After Saito leaves, Kenshin clenches his jaw and tries hard to ignore the stinging in his eyes.
/
"Hey, Kenshin?"
"Hm?"
"What…exactly got you into this?"
Kenshin stops shelving and looks up from Crime and Punishment. Kaoru's playing with the hem of her shirt, her eyes shifting from the floor to her car to the shelves to him and then back again.
He exhales through his nose and shuts his book. "It's probably better if you sit."
She drops to the floor and sits cross-legged. He smiles at her fondly before taking a seat on the ground. Crossing his legs is very uncomfortable for him and she giggles at his attempt.
He shoots her a mock glare before scraping his bottom lip with his teeth.
He tells her about Enishi and the drinking and Enishi driving his truck, how it's a blur and he doesn't remember anything except suddenly waking up in the driver's seat with the worst headache ever while Enishi managed to get away.
"I'm not innocent in the whole thing, but…I just thought…"
"That your friend wouldn't leave you out to dry," she finishes for him.
He shrugs. "Yeah, I guess."
She shakes her head. "I don't get it – did they just assume you took his keys or something? I just…I don't get how they could've automatically –"
"Because I'm not a first time offender," he admits, not looking at her. "It wasn't so hard to believe."
When he risks a glance at her, she's staring at him with a strange shine in her eyes. He wants to inch closer to her but he can't move.
/
At nine at night, the doors are shut and locked and they're blasting R.E.M. from Kaoru's iPod.
"I can't believe Tae and Sae actually trust me to help you and Oibore close up," Kenshin states as he locks up drawers.
Kaoru is jumping to put away two books at once. "Yeah, well," jump, "They really," jump, "Grew," jump, "To like you," jump again.
"Talk About the Passion" starts playing in the background.
He rolls his eyes at her. "You know there are plentyof footstools in this establishment, yes?" he tells her as he stands up and walks over to her.
"I can reach, I've done it before," she says, continue to reach up and jump.
He stands next to her and lifts his arm up and pushes the book into the shelf for her. She drops her arm and glances up at him. "Thanks," she says, smiling a little and curling a piece of hair behind her ear.
When he's this close to her, he can easily breathe in her fading scent of jasmine.
His eyes drop to her mouth.
"Kenshin?" she inquires softly, but inhales when his head drops so his forehead is touching hers.
"Um, may I?" he asks, feeling his face heat up a little.
He's pretty sure this is the most he's ever felt in a long time, maybe even ever.
"How polite," she responds before turning bright red. "Crap, that was stupid to say. I meant yes, please. Do so."
At first he's rather chaste and sweet, keeping his mouth closed, but she surprises him bring pulling him closer, pressing a little harder.
"Combien, combien, combien de temps? Talk about the passion…"
So this is how it feels kissing someone you actually like, he vaguely ponders, cradling her head in his hands. Everything feels sharper and he can taste the peppermint in her mouth, which seems so unfamiliar in this context.
When the song ends and another begins, she pulls away and grabs his wrist, dragging him. "Come on! I love this song."
He grimaces – he'd rather go back to making out, really.
With a huge grin that's rather mischievous, she steps onto a chair and then hops onto the table. His eyes widen at her.
"Come on, don't tell me you neverwanted to jump onto a table in the library."
Her lips are quite swollen and he can't look away from how beautiful she is.
"In the school library more than anything," he admits.
"Well, we can't do that, so this is the next best thing."
He sighs with a shrug before climbing onto the table as soon as the second playing of the violins comes on.
"Here we go!" she sings before dancing in a ridiculous manner.
He laughs.
/
He's in his kitchen staring at his report card for the third marking period with shock etched on his features.
As and Bs. Even his English teacher gave him a B even though she never quite forgave him for the first and last time he participated in class.
Of course, come the end of the year, all these grades will go plummeting down with his first and second marking periods (although his second marking period was marginally better), but this is rather telling.
He leaves a message with his probation officer's secretary since Kenshin knows he'll be receiving a copy of his report card:
Suck. On. That.
/
"Hey Kenshin? What are we doing, exactly?"
He pauses, his hands freezing on the lock to his bike.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean we kissed. Like, two weeks ago. And I don't know…I really felt something. And I thought…"
He drops the lock and straightens himself out. He stuffs his hands into his pockets. "Do you actually want something?" he asks her, tilting his head to the side, "I'm not exactly a winning pickfor potentially…anything serious."
She takes a few steps closer to him. "I don't care. And neither should you."
He looks away from her and after a few moments, she starts laughing. He glares at her. "What?"
"Is this about my reputationor something?"
"I doubt a lot of people in your life would approve," he mutters.
She brings him in for a tight hug. "You're sweet."
"I'm really not. I'm a punk."
She laughs. "You're a big softie who would marry Dickens if he lived in this century."
"Hey, the guy knew how to write, okay? Nothing wrong with admiring him."
"Nothing wrong at all."
/
Everyone notices Kenshin Himura, who never gave a damn about school, is now carrying books in his back pocket.
He's still not paying attention in half his classes, but at least he's doing his homework. More often than naught.
/
"You're done!" Oibore exclaims cheerfully, signing Kenshin's community service log.
"Wait…what?"
Oibore looks up and cocks his head. "You've completed all your hours. You're free."
Kenshin knew he was finishing his community service, but he didn't think today was the last day.
"Oh. Okay. Thanks…" he says, trying to wrap his head around the idea that he won't be coming in to the library every other day; he came to rather enjoy his time here.
"There's just one thing you have to do before we let you go…" Oibore adds, opening a drawer. "Ah, here." He slaps a paper down in front of Kenshin.
Kenshin grins. "Seriously?"
Oibore winks. "We'll put you at the top of the pile. There's just the pesky interview."
Kenshin picks up the paper and exhales a bit shakily. "Thank you," he tells him, embarrassingly overcome with emotion.
"You're a good kid. Good luck."
Kenshin folds up the application and sticks it into his pocket.
As he's walking out the door he hears, "WAIT!"
Everyone in the library stops what he or she is doing to glare at Kaoru, who's on the second level, almost hanging over the ledge.
He smirks in amusement as he waits patiently by the exit.
She's panting by the time she reaches him. "Good luck," she says in between breaths.
He laughs a little, wanting to kiss her a lot, but he says, "I'll talk to you later."
Maybe he'll actually take her out when this is all over – he's really into the idea of being with her, despite his reservations on being right for her.
/
Saito's fixing Kenshin's tie outside the courtroom. Kenshin didn't sleep the night before and his hands have been trembling for the past hour.
"Stop futzing. It's going to be fine," Saito orders.
"Can't help it," Kenshin mutters, sticking his hands into dark slacks.
Saito eyes Kenshin hard before smirking. "That library gig was the best decision I've ever made. You're damn lucky you have me."
Kenshin shakes his head in disbelief.
A woman in a dress suit opens the door to the courtroom and says, "She's ready for you."
Saito slaps Kenshin on the back. "Come on, let's go."
Kenshin inhales and exhales slowly before walking in.
He wants to fight for this, her, everything.