Chapter 4
More at Home

"Jaan" Misoa had said, "Term of endearment. Something akin to heart or soul or life. Depending on where it comes from..."

"What do you mean?" Kenshin had asked as she flipped open an atlas to look at a map.

"Well, I've got it narrowed down to a smaller area than we had." And she held out the book to him, tapping the page quickly as he took it.

"Um, this is a map of the whole greater Middle East, including India. And parts of North Africa." He had said, frowning.

"I narrowed it down based on the languages she was writing in, so I was able to count out most of Africa and Eastern Europe, I did a chart of her friends on facebook, her friends on google, her friends on LiveMocha, her friends on CouchSurfing, her friends on..." Misao kept rattling off sites as she took the large back from him and began marking cities and whole countries. "I've gone through her phone contacts but all her text and calls were deleted by an outside source. Someone wanted to hide their connection to her." She said hurriedly as Kenshin opened up his mouth to ask why someone would do that.

He shut his mouth and crossed his arms, looking over her shoulder at the places she was marking. The groups of dragons in most of the places falling under her markings were very private and very territorial. They trusted no one, dragon or human, outside of their small family tribes, and bonds with other tribes involved a series of protocol that was almost impossible to navigate if you had been born outside the area. If Kaoru had been with a dragon from one of these families, without the family blessing, he was sure that the family would have no trouble killing off a traitor. At least, as far as he knew. It would make sense why he would not have heard of a dragon's death. Dragons from most of those areas no longer reported deaths and births to the council, and had not for a long time.

"It seems strange she would have gotten involved with one of these families."

"Or that a member would find her. I've got to narrow this down more for Megumi, and then find the information on the magic and energy patterns she needs so that there is a chance your plans will work." She smiled mischievously, "I'm glad she's a she. It would have been quite awkward had you found a guy... So..." Her eyes danced and her smile widened, "How's your part of the plan going? Are you working on winning her over? Wooing her?"

"Oro?" His eyes widened and he held up his hands and shock, "No, no, no! That's not, I mean..." He was stuttering as Misao laughed and playfully punched him in the shoulder.

"Megumi is so right! You haven't thought this through at all!" And she laughed again at his stuttering, holding her sides, "You can't just go up to her and say, 'Yeah, we're dying, if we bond it will be all hunky dory!' The magic is not going to work like that."

"What am I supposed to do, bring her flowers and chocolate?" he bit out, hoping the young dragon would stop laughing at him.

"Seriously, baka, just pay a bit of attention. Now go away, I only have an hour until she wakes up and I want to be there to get a bit more information out of her. You should bring us snacks and lunch..." and she shoed him out into the hall where he had thought about what she said and then headed to the kitchen.

Kenshin smiled to himself. He couldn't have imagined things going this well at first. In the week since he had brought Kaoru to his home, she had gotten much stronger. Also, she had slowly begun to trust them. He had Megumi and Misao to thank for that. Megumi was not going to leave her patient, and Misao had taken to coming in and hanging out with both of them when Kaoru was awake. She brought movies and books, but mostly they talked and laughed. One day Aoshi had come in and brought with him Kaoru's bag she had left on the plane and he had managed to track down through security and lost and found, and she was thrilled to have it back.

Kenshin would sometimes sit with the three women when he brought in the food Megumi had suggested, and quickly found out she loved the little animals and scenes he'd create with rice balls and food trays. While she was playing with and eating a little rice rabbit, Misao had given him a thumbs up behind her back, and he had managed not to blush. When Kaoru would ask questions, all of them would be as open as possible, without mentioning dragons. She seemed mostly interested in places they had been and seen, and different stories. She was still not talking about her life, but she'd let little things slip, and he could see Misao taking mental notes to try and figure out what dragon, and what type of magic they were dealing with. It should have been easy but Misao had only managed to cross out a few places she had marked, and Megumi had just started reading what she could on the places that were still left.

Megumi finally announced her able to get out of bed, something her and Kaoru had been arguing about for the last couple of days. Besides short trips to the bathroom she had not left her bed, and had not left the room at all, and she was getting really antsy despite her how tired she was, and Misoa's attempts to distract her with movies.

That was how Kenshin found himself giving her a tour, after she had bathed, and changed into some clothes Misao had brought her.

"It too cold to wear those summer clothes you have!" the young dragon had said, pressing some heavier clothes into her arms.

"Misao! I can't begin to wear your size..." Koaru held up her hands as if to ward Misao off, but the young ball of energy just plopped them over, and Kaoru's hands went around them automatically.

"These aren't mine! These should be okay, perhaps slightly big. But the key here is warmer. It's cold outside. Kenshin will be here to give you a tour soon, go change!"

And when Kenshin walked in a short time later, that's how he found out Misao had stolen his cloths. Kenshin himself wasn't too happy when he realized what must have happened, but his dragon was quite pleased. Kaoru looked absolutely adorable in his large over shirt, belted in such away that the garment had a feminine look about it. His dragon liked her in his clothes. The shirt was long sleeved and dark blue with a bit of embroidery around the Chinese collar, and the end came down below her knees, a bit long for even dragon fashion. It might have looked frumpy at first, but she had it cinched at her waist with what looked like a light blue scarf tied behind her in a bow, and the end of the shirt flared a bit over her own leggings. Bright yellow ballerina flats completed the look. Megumi was reading at her desk, and Kaoru turned to face her.

"The shoes don't match, but they're all I had."

"Don't worry about the shoes, you look fine." He had managed to say, and she jumped, not having seen him enter. He wanted to say she looked perfect, adorable, and a whole host of other adjectives, but he swallowed that down as Kaoru smiled a bit. He saw Megumi roll her eyes, and decided to make a hasty get away.

He walked up to her and offered her his arm,

"Lady Kaoru, if you please?" His eyes sparkled, belying his serious demeanor.

Kaoru laughed a bit, and gave a small curtsy before straightening and looping her hand through his arm. "Lead on, good sir!"

And they were off.

"Don't go too far!" Megumi warned as they left, "She hasn't been out much. If you bring her back worn out, I will have your head!"

Kenshin gulped and then gave a smile, "I will do my best to honor her, Lady Megumi," and with another fluid bow, they both left, Kaoru giggling a bit.

Kaoru wasn't sure when she had decided to start trusting everyone. She'd only been here a week and had slept through most of it, but for the most part everything seemed right. She had met the hyper Misao, who was doing her best to keep her occupied when she was awake, and was actually quite fun to be around. Even Megumi seemed a lot less uptight when the young lady was in the room. Kenshin was quiet, not saying much when he brought the food, but was polite and courteous when he did speak. At first she wasn't sure what to make of him, because it seemed like he would just glance at her, and then ignore her. But when he started bringing in the elaborately built food trays after she had shown delight at the small rabbit rice balls he had made her, she knew that he had been paying attention.

Kaoru had thought about how much she was trusting these people around her as she was getting dressed. In the back of her mind, she thought this might be her chance to escape, but she frowned when she thought that. She had access to her phone now that her bag was back, she had access to internet, as Misao had brought a computer filled with movies and netflix and hulu. She was even left alone with it. When she asked about leaving, Megumi would do her best to answer, saying that the medicine wasn't working quite right, which was why she was still so tired all the time, and had been fighting with dehydration. Megumi had told her earlier that she thought she had hit upon the right medication schedule for her, and if it worked out, she would be free to go in a few more weeks, with just occasional checkups needed.

Strength was returning to Kaoru, and she was standing and walking more frequently, but she was still inordinately tired after doing simple tasks such as bathing. Megumi had been against her first bath, but Kaoru knew she smelled and she wasn't going to sit in filth any longer. Kaoru stubbornly demanded a bath, and Megumi had to relent, grumbling about wasted energy.

And it had been true, after her first bath Kaoru had been so tired she slept for twelve hours straight, according to her clock, but it had been worth it.

Her second bath, before the tour of the house had been much less tiring. But she had insisted upon it as well. Megumi just commented that it was pure stubbornness that had kept her alive and let her have her way.

The door to the bathroom was behind a place in the stone colored wall that stuck out slightly, creating the illusion of a flat wall from Kaoru's place on the futon. In fact, to see the opening, one had to be on almost the other side of the room if they didn't know it was there. Inside the bathroom was a large bathtub and shower, which ran some of the hottest water that Kaoru had ever felt. She loved it, especially since the rooms had a tendency to be fairly cold sometimes.

The basement "house" was huge. Kaoru was not even sure she could call it a house. Everywhere she turned was a new hallway or room.

"Why is it so dark here? Where is all the furniture?" she asked, as her and Kenshin slowly walked through what he told her was the main hallway.

"Well, it's dark here because we don't really use lights. Even though this is the basement area, we have the walls built to let in light from outside, but keep things out like rain and curious animals. There are a couple of large entrances, direct from the basement to outside, which most everyone uses, but we do have a stairwell to the main house upstairs. Most of us prefer downstairs though, it's easier to heat in the winter. We don't use a lot of furniture, and most of what we do have is antique. We keep it upstairs for show."

"How do you heat down here?" Kaoru asked, looking around for vents or fireplaces. "It seems like it would be harder to."

"Well, we have this system built that I don't quite understand myself. Our architect designed it as we were hoping for a system to keep ourselves off the grid. We wanted to save money and energy if we could, and let someone from the university build this place to test his ideas, it actually works really well for us though for others it might be a bit too cool. We're all a bit warm blooded." He smiled, "Ready for upstairs?"

Kaoru nodded, and followed him, "I don't think it's been too cold on this tour. Some times though, I do find it colder at night."

"I will make sure you have more blankets then, and a heater," He said in a matter of fact way as he led her forward. "I wish you would have told us sooner, we sometimes don't think about the cold. I am very sorry."

"It is okay, I don't find it too bad." But later that night several large comforters had been taken to her room, and a propane heater set up in the room.

The upstairs house was nothing like the one below.

"Oh my goodness, Why don't you live up here?" Kaoru asked, as they looked through another large room filled with antique furniture, books, lace, curtains, carpets and large open windows that looked out on the most beautiful scenery Kaoru had ever seen. There were bedrooms and sitting rooms and every other sort of room. "It looks like a museum!"

"I actually inherited this house and this land, and most of the stuff is so old, and so delicate, that I don't feel quite right living up here. Kaoru was too busy admiring a large grouping of miniature paintings framed on one wall and did not notice the look of sadness, or perhaps uncomfortableness on his face.

"Well, it's quite a horde," Kaoru said, turning her attention to a bookshelf filled with books she knew were all old and rare. She didn't notice him start at her word. He followed her around, and let her lead, answering questions she had about everything, and directing her attention to other small details she may have missed. After awhile, she found a room with a small sofa and sat down, catching her breath.

"I'm afraid Megumi is going to be onto be for wearing myself out, but it's so amazing here," She said, facing a window, she tilted her head when she felt Kenshin sit down beside her. He smiled at her and she glanced back out the window.

"Then we should wait here until you feel stronger." He suggested smiling, "A fainting couch is a good choice for that, I believe."

Kaoru couldn't help but laugh a bit at him and blurted out, "You remind me of him in some ways, you just act a whole lot older I think," And then she clapped her hand over her mouth. "Oh my God, I'm sorry, I didn't think about how bad that sounded. Not that you're old! Just more mature!" She was babbling trying to make up for her slip. She was blushing, and all Kenshin could think of was how adorable she looked.

He couldn't help tease her a bit, "Aww, you think I'm just an old stick in the mud then? I know I'm not as hip as Misao..." he turned his expression into a pout and looked at her with the saddest face he could muster.

She shook her head, "Oh! No, not at all, I think you are fun to hang out with! I was just comparing..."

In embarrassment, she turned and looked once again out the window, so she didn't have to see his expression. He had been picking on her.

That was when she saw it.

"What is that?!" she yelled, jumping up and nearly knocking Kenshin off his seat, and pointing at a large shape descending through the trees.

A/N - So Kaoru is becoming more comfortable with her surroundings, I did a little doodle for my story cover (Didja notice?) and I think next time will have more plot. Characters appear, things are found out, We'll get more of Kaoru's story. I think. Maybe in the chapter after next. Depends on what I get to write. I'm looking for a beta, as I think I could use a second set of eyes. I have the story in my head all worked out, but I think I should make sure it's coming out in a way that can be followed. Anyway, thank you for reading this far, let me know what you think! I hope you enjoy!