A/N: OMGITSVACATIONFINALLY!

Okay this week was MURDER. Absolute murder. Thank GOD it's over. But there was something wonderful that happened this week: the title of Harry Potter 7 was revealed! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!! I'M SO EXCITED.

This chapter is dedicated to Neverforget99 for being the first to R&R my Harry Potter oneshot (which is on my pf!)

Disclaimer: I have absolutely nothing in common with Nobuhiro Watsuki. We don't share a name, we're not the same sex, and we don't share ownership of the Rurouni Kenshin manga, either.


Chapter Seven

Kaoru loved her ring tone for her cell phone. It was an up-beat techno song that came with the phone. She never felt the need to purchase any fancy ring tones that played nearly half a song.

However, she didn't like waking up to it at eight in the morning. Kaoru groaned as she reached over blindly to answer her phone.

"Hullo?" Kaoru mumbled.

"I'm so sorry for waking you! I'm really sorry, but…" It was Kenshin. He was stuttering which slightly irked her.

"Spit it out, Kenshin!" Kaoru said a bit more clearly.

"Could-you-drive-me-to-soccer-because-my-car-just-died-and-my-uncle-already-left-for-work-and-we-don't-have-another-car-and –" Kenshin said quickly until Kaoru interrupted him.

"What the hell just came out of your mouth? Just ask me slowly."

"Could you drive me to soccer? My car just died and…"

"Sure. Let me get changed," Kaoru said shortly as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She was somewhat excited at the aspect of being in such a close proximity of Kenshin for a half hour.

"Thank you! I'll make you a week's worth of tofu and I'll bake cookies for you and –" She started laughing at him.

"It's nothing! Just give me a moment to get ready." Kaoru said before hanging up on him.

After she put her journal, iPod, and book into a bag, she ran down the stairs to find Kenshin standing in her kitchen.

"Is it hot out? Because if it is, I won't wear my black ones." Kaoru asked, holding back the immediate question that entered her mind.

"Yeah, it's pretty hot already." She groaned and eventually put on her pink ones.

"Who let you in?" Kaoru eventually asked as she grabbed a water bottle from the refrigerator.

"Your mother did. I told her what you're doing and she says 'bye'." Kenshin explained.

"Okay then, let's hit the road." Kaoru exclaimed as she walked out of the house with her car keys at hand. When she reached her car she looked behind her and saw Kenshin struggling to put on his cleats.

"You took your shoes off? Why?" Kaoru asked quizzically, getting into the driver's seat. She noticed the box of CDs she transferred into her father's car and merely placed it on the floor. After a minute of continuous struggle, Kenshin managed to successfully get his cleats back on his feet and stumble into the passenger seat.

"I think that was the least graceful I've ever seen you." Kaoru stated as she pulled out of the driveway. Kenshin scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Yeah, this hasn't been a very good morning." He replied as he pushed his bag into the back seat.

"So where are we going?"

"Oh, just get onto the highway and get off of exit thirty."

"Okay. So your car died on you? That sucks."

"Yeah. I would've asked Hiko to get me, but he has a business meeting."

"And God forbid you come to practice late."

"Yeah, Coach Saitoh shows no mercy. If you show up five minutes late, we sprint around the field for five minutes. I don't want to know what he would do if I were to miss a practice."

"Well, you did miss one two days ago." Kaoru said carefully, referring to the anniversary of the death of Kenshin's parents.

"That's different – I told him the summer going into sophomore year that I was always going to miss that day."

"Did you tell him why?"

"Hiko actually talked with him about it because Saitoh got suspicious at the specificity. But otherwise, he would slaughter us if we missed a practice for no good reason."

"That's evil!" Kenshin laughed out loud.

"Yeah, we all hate him, but we can't deny that he's a great coach."

"It'll be a thrill seeing this guy."

"You're staying?" Kenshin obviously didn't take notice of the messenger bag Kaoru brought in the car.

"Why, of course. I'm not going to waste all that gas going back and forth! I'm not your chauffer!" Kaoru's heart rate sped seeing a smile slowly blossom on Kenshin's face. Focus on the road Kaoru! She mentally screamed at herself.

They were silent for a few minutes until Kaoru asked if he wanted to listen to music.

"Yeah, sure." Kaoru vaguely pointed to the small box by Kenshin's feet. "Pick anything you want."

Kenshin's eyebrows disappeared underneath his red bangs as he stared at the amount of CDs.

"I still have more in my room, ya know." Kaoru said, smiling at his expression. Kenshin eventually managed to start searching through CDs – many of them were bands he'd never heard of. Eventually, he found a CD that had no name on it that he decided to put in.

"Oh, just make a left off here and keep going straight for a long time until you see 'Wakeman Field'." Kenshin directed as he put in the CD.

"I don't know what that CD is…I wonder if it's just a blank." Kaoru pondered out loud. They waited for a few seconds until a few guitar riffs started to fill the car.

"…Is this 'The Anthem' by Good Charlotte?" Kenshin asked amusement etched on his face. When Joel Madden started singing, Kenshin's guess was confirmed.

"Oh, my God. I haven't heard this song in forever!" Kaoru exclaimed, laughing. Kenshin reached over and blasted the music.

"Are you kidding? People are going to think we're so weird!" Kaoru retorted, lowering the volume immediately.

"Who cares!" Kenshin laughed, his face was jubilant. Kaoru thought for a moment before lowering all the back windows and putting the volume back up.

"Oh, what the hell."

Kenshin and Kaoru banged their heads and began yelling the lyrics that they managed to remember after three years of neglecting.

When Kaoru parked by the field, they were singing the final verse. They didn't notice that half the team was walking toward them lead by a tall spiky-haired boy.

"Another loser anthem!" They sung together until the song ended. Both of them started laughing until a sharp knock was heard against the car.

"Kenshin! Stop shitting around, we have a minute until Saitoh comes on the field!" The spiky-haired guy said roughly.

"Sano? What?" Kaoru blurted, recognizing him at once. She knew that he was best friends with Kenshin and he was known for being a slacker and a lazy bum.

"Kamiya? Kaoru Kamiya? What the hell?" Sano looked at her quizzically before shaking his head and ushering Kenshin out of the car.

"I'm coming! God." Kenshin exclaimed as he got his bag out the car and ran toward the field without looking back.

"Yeah, thanks." Kaoru muttered, rolling her eyes as she turned the car off. She nearly choked it was so humid out. She wanted to jump back into the car and blast the air, but she knew that wouldn't be smart.

Kaoru slowly trudged with her bag up to the field and plopped herself under a large tree. She looked straight and saw the team and a man who was crossing the field with a sort of arrogance that bothered her.

"Alright, boys! Give me five laps!" She heard the man who she assumed to be Coach Saitoh order to the group. Like a unit of an army, they immediately stuck together in a tight group and began running.

Kaoru sighed as she took out her iPod and started to listen to State Radio, a band that Aoshi recommended to her a couple of weeks before school ended. As expected, they were an extremely mellow band, since that was all Aoshi truly liked.

"Excuse me? Who are you?" Kaoru jumped at the voice that was unexpectedly close. She looked up and saw Saitoh staring at her with hard eyes.

"I'm with Kenshin. I drove him here." Kaoru stumbled, not really enjoying the way Saitoh's gaze seemed to pin her down.

"So you're not from Morley?" He asked finally.

"Uh…no…" Kaoru wondered where Morley was. Saitoh stood back up and gave her another look before walking away. Kaoru shook her head for a moment before shuddering.

Strange guy…

Kaoru spent two hours writing a poem about weather that was completely opposite of today. She kept getting distracted by the sweat that would trickle down the back of her neck or the desire for water.

She wished her pen could control the weather because it only got hotter. She vaguely wondered why she decided to stay.

"We have a ninety minute break." A voice said in her ear.

"What is with people sneaking up on me?" Kaoru exclaimed, trying to calm her racing heart for the second time that day. Kenshin smiled.

"Sorry." He paused for a moment. "Are you getting hot in those?" He pointed to her shoes.

"Yes," She said simply before taking off her shoes and socks and wiggling her toes, "much better."

"What did Saitoh say to you?" He asked curiously.

"Oh, he just wanted to know who I was and whether or not I was from Morley, whatever town that is." Kaoru shrugged before asking, "Where is Morley anyway?"

Kenshin surprised Kaoru by furrowing his brow.

"They're another town that's about…thirty minutes away from home. We play them all the time in regionals and states. They're our…nemesis of sorts."

"And he actually believed I would actually waste my time trying to steal plays from you?" Kaoru asked amusedly. Kenshin didn't share her amusement.

"It's actually not funny – it's happened before." Kaoru's smiled dropped.

"You guys are so intense it's not healthy." She muttered. Kenshin gave her a small smile.

"I suppose. So, what were you writing? I saw you with a very serious look on your face." Kenshin asked in a teasing manner. Kaoru flushed.

"I'm not sharing." She said rather childishly.

"Why not? Your serious face was rather cute actually." If it was possible, Kaoru blushed to an even higher degree.

"Kenshin!" Sano called a couple yards away. Kenshin sighed, pushing back his sweaty bangs. He shook his head at Sano, surprising Kaoru again.

"You really don't have to hang out with me." Kaoru said as Sano shrugged his shoulders and turned away.

"You drove me here and are waiting for me, the least I can do is talk to you during my break." Kaoru smiled, looking down at her jean shorts.

"So is like…the whole varsity team does this?" Kaoru asked after Kenshin started to peel an orange. Kaoru realized suddenly that she was ravenous – she didn't eat anything in the morning.

"Here, you can have my apple. Yeah, we all decided that we should start our preseason a season earlier." He offered, handing her a Macintosh. Kaoru took it gratefully.

"Thanks." She took a large bite and chewed for a while.

"How many pairs do you have?" Kenshin asked. Kaoru immediately knew what he was referring to.

"Eight…"

"Wow."

"…high tops."

"Are you serious? How many in total?"

"Eleven."

"I thought I had a lot with six."

"Six? I'm quite impressed."

"I'm quite surprised with you owning eleven."

"Why?"

"It's just so many shoes!"

"Hey, it's a universal need; girls wanting a million pairs of shoes."

"But I guess wanting a bunch of cheap sneakers isn't as bad as wanting super expensive heels." Kaoru nodded, agreeing with him.

"Okay, I'm quite curious about this sport you're playing." Kaoru admitted.

"How could you be? You didn't even watch us?" Kenshin asked as he laughed.

"Yeah, but since players at high school level have the urge to spy on one another, I suppose I'm curious as what the hype is all about." Kenshin looked over at the field for a moment as he tried to think of a way to explain the game without making Kaoru's head spin.

"Okay…"

Kenshin tried to explain as best he could the basis of the game and the basic rules for a half hour.

"I don't get off-sides."

"It's honestly not that difficult."

"I still don't understand it! It's ridiculous, so what if you have an extra player on the other half of the field."

"Hey, Kenshin." Kenshin and Kaoru looked up to see Sano standing above them.

"Missy." He added, nodding toward Kaoru who looked at him questioningly.

"What have you been doing these past two weeks?" Sano asked as he plopped himself next to Kenshin.

"Hello? We have practice everyday together!" Kenshin exclaimed as he rolled his eyes. Kaoru snorted.

"Still, when have you become close with little missy here?" Kaoru wasn't sure if she liked being called "Missy".

"…since we started working together?" Kaoru could tell Kenshin wasn't feeling comfortable being interrogated at that moment.

"Hm," Sano mumbled before shrugging his shoulders, "So missy, do you have a summer house here or something?"

"I live across the street from Kenshin." Kaoru answered.

"No! You're serious? How weird!"

"I guess so."

"Hey, do you have any more food you wanna spare? 'Cause I'm starving." Kenshin rolled his eyes as he gave Sano half his bagel.

"Thanks, man!" Sano took a huge bite out of the bagel and chewed with a serene look on his face. Kenshin looked at Kaoru and they both started to laugh.

"Free-loader. Why don't you pack your own food?"

"Kenshin, Kenshin. We've gone through this plenty of times – I forget!"

"How can you manage to forget every day?" Kaoru asked. She never expected Sano to be like this. She always assumed he was a player and a slacker with no manners.

"I just do. It manages to slip my mind when I wake up. Besides, it's like a gentlemen's agreement."

"You actually know what that is?" Kaoru blurted. Kenshin laughed while Sano scowled.

"Of course I do! You belittle me." Sano said with a fake expression of hurt on his face.

"Stop flirting boys and get your asses over here!" A yell was heard from across the field. Sano and Kenshin immediately jumped up from the ground and sprinted over.

"Bye!" They both said at the same time as they were running. Kaoru smiled and waved.


A/N: Longest chapter? Yeah, I think so. By the way, remember the town that was mentioned above, because it's rather important.

- State Radio is an actual band for those who didn't know and they are very good. -

I can't believe it's VACATION. Of course this is like the shortest break ever – it's only 8 days long! Stupid school system…

I saw Trust & Betrayal and Reflection this week for the first time! T&B was very good I must say, Reflection...kinda sucked majorly (in my opinion).

You know what to do ;)

MissGoalie