Finally an update. As usual I don't own any of these characters…I just shamelessly play with their lives and feelings.
Chapter 4
It was like hitting a stone wall. Nothing in Kenshin's body was soft or yielding as she slammed into it. His immediate grip on her upper arms was as unforgiving as steel. In that moment all her anger deserted her, leaving only cold thoughtless fear. She stared blankly at the pale V of flesh showing past his gi as, after a moment of tense silence, she heard his cold hard voice ring through the night air.
"Leave us."
She felt more then saw Sanosuke turn and walk away. Another moment passed in tense silence.
"Look at me."
Too terrified to meet his eyes and too terrified to defy him, she hung in limbo for a breathless moment. Finally, gathering her frayed courage she lifted determined blue eyes to meet glowing amber...and dropped them immediately.
Demon.
She couldn't help the thought as it flittered across her mind.
He shook her slightly and she raised her eyes back up to meet his, anger at her own weakness giving her the strength to maintain the contact.
"Do you have any idea what you have done?" He asked, voice deadly calm.
She shook her head slightly fearing her voice would betray her. His eyes softened at her confused denial. Those eyes, not like anything she had ever encountered....not like anything human. Curiosity or stupidity gave her courage to ask:
"What are you?"
He dropped her like fire. One moment he was standing there all cold anger and deadly intent and the next he was passing through the shoji door into her room.
"It is late." The mixture of emotions in his voice was more then she was capable of interpreting. One thing was clear though, she had hurt him, and she hadn't meant to hurt him. Slowly, she followed his retreating back through the doorway and into the dark interior.
Without any clear idea what to do, Kaoru returned to the futon she had so recently abandoned. She watched warily as the ex-hikitori knelt beside her and removed the jar of salve from Megumi. Stiffly, he bent and began unwrapping the bandages around her ankles. The tense set of his shoulder belaying the gentle movements of his hands. As the pain in her ankles receded so did her hold on consciousness. It had been a long day.
*************
She woke the next morning to the sound of a soft thump. Blinking several times to clear her head, she let out a contented sigh as the sight of a fuzzy green bath towel swam into view. Following her line of sight upwards from the heavenly piece of cloth to the redhead who had recently deposited it beside her head she noticed the set of his shoulders. He held himself straight and tall. Still mad at her then.
"I promised you a bath. Please hurry and gather your things."
Not willing to look a gift horse…or well bath towel… in the mouth…assuming of course bath towels had mouths…she gathered up the green towel, a clean set of clothing and other necessaries from the bundle Tae had provided her and hurried out of the room after the assassin.
The bathhouse proved to be just as wonderful as she knew it would be. Of course, at this stage a bucket of left over laundry water would have been welcome as long as she could use it to clean some of the grime out of her hair. She scrubbed herself raw and washed her hair until the water stopped running gray with filth then languished in the warm water until the discreet knock told her of Kenshin's growing impatience. She dressed quickly and followed Kenshin back to their room in a contented daze.
The doctor and the man from the previous night were already waiting outside impatiently, at least on the doctor's part, for their return. Kaoru couldn't detect anything like an emotion from the man's cold visage. Kenshin sent a brief nod in Aoshi's direction before leading Kaoru and Megumi inside. Once inside he turned to Kaoru and shot her a meaningful look.
"I will return shortly. Aoshi's men are posted outside." He turned on his heels and left.
Kaoru grumbled at Megumi's measuring look. The doctor's eyes went hard.
"Foolish, selfish child! It would do you good, Kamiya Kaoru, to realize that you are not the only one here who has a painful past. Do not take your issues out on us." She paused to catch her breath then continued in just as angry a tone, "Do you have any idea how much trouble you've gotten Sanosuke in? He could lose his job thanks to you!"
Guilt immediately flooded Kaoru's system. She hadn't meant to hurt Sanosuke or Kenshin. Besides following orders they had been nothing but nice to her. She would have to apologize, to both of them.
Kaoru felt the lady doctor was rougher then absolutely necessary as she re-cleaned her wounds and applied a stinging salve, however her guilty conscious wouldn't allow her to protest the harsh treatment. The doctor finished bandaging her ankles and swept out of the small room without glancing back in Kaoru's direction. Without a sound, the man Kenshin had called Aoshi slipped into the room.
"Come."
She followed Aoshi's foreboding figure silently across the courtyard and into the smaller meeting hall from the day before. Kenshin and Sanosuke were already present standing before their master as Aoshi steered Kaoru to Kenshin's side and bowed low. For the second time in two days, Kaoru found herself in the presence of her new Master, the amused expression from the day before gone from his features and in its place a hardness that sent a shiver down her spine. Katsura cleared his throat and Kaoru felt a hand place firm pressure on her shoulder. Glancing over to the red-haired man beside her she saw his eyes flicker to Aoshi who remained in a low bow and she experienced a brief thought of rebellion before she slowly bent at the waist.
Sanosuke made his excuses and left the hall, shooting Kaoru a crooked grin on his way out.
"I am very disappointed in you Kaoru." The voice rang across the hall.
Kaoru took this as a cue to rise and glare up at the man on the dais.
"Still as defiant as ever, I see." Katsura sighed, releasing some of the tension building in the room as he redirected his attention to Kenshin. "Himura, I'm holding you responsible. She is to be under your supervision at all times or is to be properly restrained. You are dismissed." Kenshin bowed in acknowledgment and directed a pale Kaoru from the room.
Kaoru followed the tense set of shoulders in front of her half way to the dinning hall before she worked up the courage to speak.
"I'm sorry."
She wasn't sure but she thought she saw the shoulders in front of her tense further as he came to a stop in front of her without turning around.
"For what?" he asked cautiously.
"For upsetting you last night. I...it wasn't fare of me...I just..." she trailed off in awkward silence without knowing what else to say…so much for an eloquent apology.
He didn't respond as she continued, "is....did Sanosuke get in much trouble?"
At the mention of the rouges name the shoulders in front of her relaxed as he let out a sigh and finally turned around to face her.
"Sano will not be allowed to go gambling for several weeks and is heartbroken but will survive."
Kaoru couldn't help but let out a small chuckle at the exasperated tone and flustered look that crossed Kenshin's face.
The dinning hall was in the same state of jovial chaos Kaoru remembered from the previous day. Grabbing a plate of food and a bowl of rice, Kaoru followed Kenshin to the table where Sanosuke sat fully engaged in devouring every morsel that came within reach. Kaoru sat next to Kenshin and examined her plate for a moment, gathering her thoughts.
"Ano…Sano, I'm sorry if I got you into any trouble." Kaoru glanced up shyly at the rogue across from her.
Sano blinked, staring blankly for a moment before murmuring around a mouthful of food.
"ou say somthng, Jou-chan?"
"I'm trying to apologize you…you…BAKA TORI-ATAMA!" Kaoru yelled at Sano's stunned form.
Noticing the confused stares from the nearest diners, Kaoru quickly sank back down in her seat, face flaming with heat.
Sano, the bastard, simply took her moment of public humiliation as an opportunity to procure her bowl of rice.
"Aww, no hard feelings jou-chan."
Kaoru watched as her hapless bowl feel victim to a bottomless rooster.
"I should have hit you harder." Kaoru grumbled as she settled in to eat the surviving remnants of her breakfast.
*****
The addition was impossible to miss. It was, in fact, the first thing Kaoru noticed upon entering the row house room following breakfast. Determined to ignore the chains secured ominously to the far wall, Kaoru quickly changed into her practice gi and hurried to meet Kenshin.
*****
Yahiko had just finished polishing the floors when Kenshin and Kaoru entered the dojo. The girl, Kaoru, looked to be brooding but Kenshin plastered on a smile and chirped a greeting, "Good morning, Yahiko-kun." Kaoru, noticing Yahiko for the first time also muttered a greeting.
"Morning, Kenshin. Morning, Busu." Yahiko quipped in return.
That got her attention and Yahiko tried, but failed, to dodge the fist aimed at his face. Rubbing his head, Yahiko glared at the offending female. He didn't understand what was so special about her. Why, out of all the slaves at Katsu's disposal, did Kenshin end up as the one shackled to this girl. He might not understand whatever game Katsu was playing, but he did understand one thing. He, Yahiko Myojin, proud descendent of Tokyo Samurai was not going to be beat up by a girl. It was past time that he asked Katsu about starting martial training. Before he could continue through his thought process a worried looking Kenshin interrupted him.
"Maybe Yahiko-kun should go see Megumi-dono, that he should."
The two adults watched as the boy gathered buckets and supplies and disappeared from the room. When Kaoru glanced back over at her companion she noticed he had allowed his hair to slip forward covering his expression. Silently, he walked over to the rack of weapons along the far wall and removed a sheathed katana. Walking deliberately back toward the spot where Kaoru remained he offered her the sword.
Determined, Kaoru raised her chin and turned slightly away from the proffered weapon.
Placing the sheathed sword on the ground, Kenshin retreated and assumed an attack position. A breathless moment passed as he waited for the petite females response.
Kaoru glanced down at the sheathed weapon and up at her opponent. Her resolution was firm, she would not waver.
He attacked lightening quick.
The blade paused a hairs breath from her throat and their eyes met for a breathless moment.
Kaoru stood her ground, blue eyes staring defiantly, daring him to strike her. The moment ended and it was the sword master of legend that stepped back and bowed, admitting defeat. It was then that she noticed what she hadn't the previous morning in the weak predawn light. The sword he sheathed was a Sakabato.
**********
By the time Kenshin called a halt, Kaoru's arms and legs where shaking and threatening to give way. Again Kenshin had managed to draw her to the peak of her abilities without her consciously realizing it. He increased the intensity of the practice so subtly that her body responded unconsciously to his demands. She wiped the sweat from her eyes as she cleaned and put away her practice bokuto and winced as a bead of salt laden sweat slid under the bandages around her ankles to assault her wounds. Her duty to her weapon done Kaoru collapsed to the floor in a graceless pile of sprawled limbs.
"Maaaaaaah."
She couldn't remember a time in her life when she had been this tired, her mind shying away the memory of her hellish trip in Moji's caravan. A slightly blurry hand entered her field of vision. She followed the vision upward to the arm and face of the male who had inflicted this on her. Evil Bastard. He smiled slightly at her glare.
"You will feel better after some lunch, Kaoru-dono." With that said his hand clasped hers as he helped haul her to her feet. They walked to the dining hall in companionable silence.
He was right, damn him, she did feel better with a warm lunch in her belly as she followed him across the courtyard to an area of the compound she was unfamiliar with. Rounding the corner of a building they spied the young Tsumbe struggling under a basket loaded with sopping laundry. Despite her burden Tsumbe bowed slightly at the sight of Kenshin.
"Himura-san! Tae-san said to ask if you would help with the linens today."
"It would be my pleasure, that it would." Kenshin said cheerily as he headed off in the direction of the laundry area.
Baffled by the exchange, Kaoru continued to follow Kenshin as he drew a bucket of warm water from a vat and added soap. When the most feared assassin in Japan knelt down and began washing bed sheets Kaoru had to stomp firmly on the bubble of hysterical laughter threatening to burst her throat. As it was she only partially succeeded, a strangled "Eeep" escaping her traitorous throat. At the noise Kenshin looked up questioningly. Her control slipped another notch at his confused expression, and a sort of distressed "Eeep, eeeeeee, ahhk," emerged, quickly dissolving into a panicked sort of sputtering half choke. The perplexed man-slayer shook his head slightly and returned to scrubbing sheets.
Regaining control of herself, Kaoru glanced around the yard. A pair of children played with a ball on the other side of the yard and she took a minute to observe their game. However after several minutes she grew restless and when no new commands were forth coming from the engrossed redhead, drew her own bucket of warm soapy water and attacked the nearest sheet. She would be damned if she just stood by doing nothing while everyone else worked. After several minutes Kaoru began to fall into the peaceful rhythm of cloth and soap as the warm water dissolved some of the ache from her hands and the steady thoughtless rhythm soothed her restless mind. She imagined she might be able to understand why Japan's most feared assassin enjoyed doing laundry.
Mid afternoon saw the last of the linen hung on the line. Rising and stretching the kinks out of her muscles, she considered her companion. The tension from the morning seemed to have been washed away with the laundry water.
"Where to now?" she asked genuinely interested in what other surprises the Hikitori might have in store for her.
He glanced at her as if realizing her presence for the first time in hours.
"Back to the Dojo."
Her expressive groan of horror brought a mischievous sparkle to his eye as he led her back toward the most dreaded dojo.
*************
Even at her most dedicated Kaoru couldn't remember practicing this hard for this long. She dragged the remains of her body and her dignity slowly along after the still fresh Kenshin as they headed toward the dinning hall and what would hopefully be a large dinner. Kaoru's hopes for a peaceful dinner were smashed to pieces, however, when they were intercepted by Yahiko.
"Kenshin, the delegation from Tokyo has arrived for dinner and Katsu requests your presence in the banquette hall."
Kenshin nodded solemnly and sent the boy on his way. Studying his companion, who was dead on her feet and swaying slightly from exhaustion, Kenshin made a decision.
In the commotion of the day Kaoru had completely forgotten about the delegation. She chided herself silently for letting such an important fact slip her mind. The revived questions from the previously evening swam around her head as she turned to follow Kenshin on his revised course toward to row-house. Briefly, she considered asking Kenshin if he had learned anything last night but between her reluctance to resurrect the events of the previous evening and the tense set of Kenshin's shoulders she decided to keep her peace. Exhaustion quickly muted any attempts to think as she put her remaining energy into trudging behind Kenshin as he entered the row house and slid the shoji shut. More then half asleep, she followed Kenshin into the room and watched as he arranged her futon against the far wall, patting the surface of the futon when he was finished.
"You should get some rest."
If she hadn't been so drained she would have figured out what was going to happen. As it was, her mind finally caught up to the location of the futon…by the far wall…where the new chains were securely bolted into the wall. Katsu's words from that morning rang through her head, "or is to be properly restrained."
"No." She shook her head violently, trying to shake her brain back into functioning, stepping back toward the shoji.
"Please. No." She repeated dumbly.
"Kaoru, come here." There was steel in his voice.
Panic fought with exhaustion.
Exhaustion won.
Haltingly, Kaoru advanced, taking a seat on the edge of the futon. Kenshin retrieved Megumi's salve and set about the task of treating her ankles. Kaoru gazed at her ankles as if they had somehow betrayed her as Kenshin finished her right ankle and moved on to her left, carefully adding layer upon layer of extra bandages. When he finished to his satisfaction, he gently clasped the manacle around her padded left ankle and rose.
"I will have Tae-dono send someone with dinner." And with no more pomp then that he left her alone in the room.
Alone. For the first time since her capture by Gohei, she was truly alone. Abandoned, chained to a wall in a place she had never heard of, in a world far removed from everything she had ever known. All the emotions held in check over the past week came flooding back to drown her. A hopeless wail tore itself from her throat as the anger and hate and hopelessness consumed her and the tears she had been avoiding racked her body. She had truly lost everything, her family, her dojo, her pride, her future, her freedom. In her panic she grabbed at the chains that bound her and pulled. Yanking with all her strength against the metal bound to the wall. When neither the wall nor the chain gave way, her strength abandoned her as she collapsed bonelessly onto the futon. Absently she strained her ankle against the pressure of the chain, again and again, her frenzied mind finding comfort in the repetitive motion, oblivious to the red stain that spread slowly across her well-padded ankle. She remembered the pride on her father's face on the day she attained the rank of Master of Kamiya Kashin Ryu shortly after her 18th birthday, a hundred years ago, in a different life. The father was dead, his daughter sold into slavery. A fresh fountain of tears cascaded down her cheeks. Kaoru cried until she had no more tears to cry and then feeling dizzy and somehow lighter she fell into an exhausted slumber.
It was well past midnight when the banquet guests finally dispersed to the carriages that would take them back to town and Kenshin was released to return to his room. Another pointless meeting, the delegates dancing circles around whatever topic they had come here to discuss. Something important was going on, it had to be important for them to willingly involve a demon lord, never mind that the demon lord in question had been one of their most powerful supporters during the restoration. One could almost smell their terrified desperation under the enforced cheer. Still they were stalling, waiting for something.
A sound interrupted his thought process as he drew closer to his room. Hand instinctually grasping the hilt of his sakabato, Kenshin froze, considering the noise. The noise came again, a soft gasping sob, and the grip on his sword hilt relaxed. Kaoru. Kaoru was crying. Something in his chest constricted painfully.
Silently, he settled against the outside wall, intent on allowing her privacy. Slowly the sounds emanating from the room quieted and died, replaced by the deep rhythmic sounds of sleep. After several undisturbed minutes Kenshin rose and moved quietly into the room, past the untouched dinner tray, to the corner where Kaoru lay unconscious, a dark red stain blooming against the white fabric of her bandages like some macabre flower. He knelt by her side and carefully removed the manacle from her ankle. He had made a mistake in leaving Kaoru alone, a mistake, he promised himself silently, that he would not make again.
*******
Kaoru awoke the next day confused, disoriented and with a troop of psychotic monkeys rampaging around her skull. She was sore. Oh Kami, was she sore. Muscles she didn't know she had ached and protested at the slightest movement and…and… it shouldn't hurt to breath, damnit! Every breath sent aching shivers through her fatigued muscles. Sitting up carefully, it took Kaoru a moment to realize what had been bothering her since she first awoke. Something was off about the quality of light coming into the room. Groggily she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and a sharp stab of pain from her head reminded her that her first priority was getting rid of this head…
"This will make your head feel better, that it will." As if summoned by the psychotic monkeys, Kenshin's hand, which was becoming a familiar sight, slid into view bearing a cup of green tea. Glancing up at the smiling redhead, Kaoru choked back a snarl and grudgingly accepted the cup of tea, tentatively taking a sip. The tea was warm and soothing, some mix of herbs Kaoru couldn't identify.
He wasn't just summoned by the psychotic monkeys he is obviously in league with them. Possibly the leader of some sort of psychotic monkey conspiracy.
Kaoru sighed in defeat as the tea melted away the pain in her head.
"If we hurry, we can still make it in time for lunch." Kenshin's voice cut through her daze.
"Lunch?" Suddenly the weird angle of the sun made sense and the traitorous rumbling from her abdomen confirmed the lateness of the hour.
Rising carefully and groaning in disgust at the way her muscles trembled and her vision swam in and out, Kaoru slipped on her practice clothes and shuffled out the door after Kenshin.
Thank you everyone who has reviewed this story, your input is much appreciated! The next update will be posted in a timely manner. Promise.
