A/N: Kind of inspired by the movie 27 Dresses.
Standard disclaimers apply.
025: Strangers
Kaoru planned on getting absolutely wasted during her best friend Tomoe's wedding. Of course, she couldn't until after she made her speech, ranting about how happy she was for Tomoe meeting Akira and how he was the perfect guy for her, even though she was dying inside.
But there was no reason why she couldn't start off with two drinks.
So she went straight to the bar after comingling with everyone, ordering a dry martini.
"Bless you," she said to the bartender when he put her drink on the counter.
But then the drink was whisked out of her sight. She whipped her head to find the person responsible for taking away the one good thing about this situation and was surprised to find the guy from the back row of Akira's side of the family.
Actually, she wasn't sure if he was part of the family. He certainly didn't look it with his shocking red hair and amber eyes. But it was hard to believe that he was Akira's friend because why would anyone attend a wedding that he didn't want to go to, especially if the person getting married wasn't family?
Well, she shouldn't be asking that question, because she was in that position as well.
"You're the maid of honor. You shouldn't be trying to get trashed within the first hour of the reception," he said, staring into her drink.
"I wasn't trying to get trashed now…I just wanted to warm up."
He smiled a little. "Right." He put the glass down on the counter, out of her reach, making her scowl at him.
She had actually been wondering during the ceremony who the hell he was. Every time she couldn't stand to look at the couple anymore, she looked out into the rows of family and friends. But her eyes would always be drawn to the back row of Akira's side of the room to the redhead guy that had a strange air about him, so different from everyone else's. It was as if he didn't really want to be here, and that he was bored out of his mind.
"Who are you?" she asked rather bluntly, making him smirk.
"Kenshin."
"Okay, Kenshin, what's up with your attitude?"
"What attitude?"
"You look like you'd rather be anywhere else but here."
"Really? You look the same way."
That was a harsh blow. She thought she was putting up a convincing front.
"It takes one to know one, or however that saying goes," he continued.
She turned away from him and was about to walk away, but he smoothly looped his arm through hers and walked alongside her.
"What are you –?"
"So, word in the room is that you planned this whole shindig," he said, cutting her off completely.
She sighed loudly. "Yeah. I worked on this for months." She paused for a moment, looking down at her plum dress. "Except for the bride's maids dresses."
"What?" he asked amusedly.
"She was insistent on dark purple…plum specifically. Even though I look horrific in it. It makes my skin look grey. But hey, it's her wedding, not mine."
"You seem bitter about that."
She swallowed and didn't say anything.
"You know the reason why she wanted to choose the color of the dress, right?"
She gave him a dumbfounded look. "Gee, I don't know, maybe because it's her wedding and she wanted it to be exactly as she imagined?"
"Because if it were to be any other color, like blue, especially blue, you would outshine her."
Kaoru stopped walking, ripped her arm away from his and crossed her arms. "Are you trying to hit on me or something? Because I'm so not in the mood for this."
"Not really, I'm being honest. And trying to maybe put a real smile on your face."
She sighed. "You're sweet…I guess…but just leave me alone, okay?"
He complied, to her relief. She had to prepare a speech for the bride and groom, and she had to not only make sure that she was completely in control of her emotions, but she had forcefully express ones that she didn't feel in the slightest.
"You want to know why I'm not as chipper as everyone else?" Kenshin asked lowly by her ear, making her jump in her chair and nearly spill her martini.
"Could you not do that?" she exclaimed, flinching a little.
He stared at her expectantly, making her sigh.
"Sure, why not?"
He pulled a vacant chair closer to Kaoru and sat down. "I knew Akira in high school."
"Really? How come I've never seen you before? Or better yet, how come Akira has never mentioned you? I've known him since freshman year of college and I've seen or at least heard of all of his friends."
"Do you want to hear the story or not?"
"Fine," she grumbled.
"We were close…since preschool. And we were kind of similar at the time, we both played sports, both into math and science. Two peas in a pod."
Strangely enough, she could picture the two of them together. But they didn't really seem compatible beyond that. Akira was systematic, fast-paced. Kenshin seemed lax, easygoing.
"So it wasn't a big surprise when we both wanted to go to the same college. It had everything we wanted…and we were like brothers anyway. Why not, right?"
Kaoru immediately figured out that this story had multiple possible endings. Either Kenshin got rejected and ended up going to a school on the other end of the country, or he got accepted, but there was a falling out, or possibly something else entirely.
"I wrote Akira a peer recommendation for him, and he was going to write one for me. We helped each other out in school – I tutored him in physics while he helped me find tricks to memorizing formulas in calculus. But Akira got accepted while I got rejected."
"I'm sorry."
He shrugged. "It wasn't a huge deal. I wasn't too down about it. And I was happy for Akira, at least for a while."
He looked over at the happy couple and she followed his gaze, feeling a pang of hurt watching him slip an arm around her waist.
"You know how he makes pro-con lists for everything?" he asked arbitrarily.
She smiled lovingly. That was a quirky quality that she loved about him. He told Tomoe before asking her to marry him that he tried to make a pro-con list for proposing, but he could only come up with pro consequences. "Yeah."
"Well back in high school he used to keep them all in a folder. And I used to read through them because some of the things he made lists for were hilarious. Like whether or not to study for this test, stupid things like that."
Kenshin started to glare at Akira. "But one day I was looking through it and I found one that was labeled: Should I write Kenshin's peer rec?"
Kaoru's eyes widened and jaw slacked in slow motion. "No…"
"The con ruled out. He didn't even write one even though he said he did."
"Oh my God." She couldn't believe this. There was no way that Akira, that man that she loved was capable of such cruelty.
"I stopped talking to him after that. I thought our friendship was more than that, but he must've felt threatened by me so he stooped down to everyone else's level and fell into competition."
"If he did do that…why are you here? How come I never saw you, and how come he never mentioned you?"
"I went to college in California, completely figured out who I was, and I didn't talk to him until after we graduated."
"So what do you do now?"
"I'm a psychologist. But I kind of specialize in adolescents."
"Huh, well that explains some of your comments."
He smiled. "So do you want to tell me why you're so in love with Akira?"
Kaoru felt herself flush. "I don't –"
"I've seen those looks a million times." He paused. "Does Tomoe know?"
"Know about…?" she trailed off, not wanting to admit her feelings.
"Yeah."
"No. I mean…well…I don't know." It felt strangely liberating confiding in a complete stranger.
"Explain…" he said, a smile growing on his face.
"Well…after she told me about her engagement, we did a girl's night out kind of thing and I think I drank a bit too much. I don't know if I actually said anything or not since that night remains a little fuzzy to this day." She sighed. "But I tend to be very truthful when drunk."
"Ah. And you haven't told Akira?"
"No!"
"So let me get this straight. Your best friend marries the guy you love, you admit your love for him to her face, and she completely disregarded it by asking you to plan the entire wedding?" He shook his head. "She really is meant for that bastard."
She looked over at the two of them and suddenly, she felt rage at Tomoe for making her suffer these past years, throwing Akira in her face and not being a perceptive friend. Although she never did sit Tomoe down and tell her the feelings she had, Tomoe, being Kaoru's best friend, should have noticed some indication that Kaoru harbored feelings beyond friendship for her boyfriend. And Tomoe was so difficult about the whole wedding! There were all-nighters pulled because of it!
Then her gaze slipped to Akira, who suddenly lost a lot of his appeal. That smile that used to send her weak in the knees just made her sick to her stomach. The thought of what he did to Kenshin was so horrific that she couldn't stare into his face without having a scowl plastered on hers. And those pro-con lists were no longer adorable – they just showed what an indecisive and insensitive prick he was.
"Wow."
"What?"
"I think I just had an epiphany."
"Really."
"Yeah. I hate them both."
He laughed a little but then he collected himself and frowned. "That wasn't really my intention, to make you hate them."
"No, but you made me realize what a total sucker I am."
He sighed. "Yeah, that makes two. So! Here we are, two people that have been fucked royally by newly weds…maybe now we should fuck?" he said so casually as if he was asking her to pass the salt.
The comment was so unexpected that she burst out hysterical laughing. "Great line. Just…great. You deserve a gold star."
He laughed. "Thanks. I've never said anything like that to another human being before."
"That's because it's fucking horrible." She continued laughing, wiping tears from under her eyes. "But it was perfect."
"Thanks."
They sat in an amused silence for a while before she asked, "Do you want to get out of here? I want to ditch."
He raised an eyebrow with shocked amusement. "Seriously? What will the people think? The maid of honor leaving the wedding early? To hang out with a nobody from the groom's invitation list?"
"I don't care."
"Okay. But I want a dance with you," he said as soon as a slow song came on.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah!" He stood up and held out his arm gallantly. "My lady…"
She laughed a little before standing up and reaching for his hand, throwing him off for a second. But he laced his fingers through hers as they walked to the dance floor where other couples were already dancing.
A/N: Did anyone see Watchmen yet? It was quite good in my opinion - and the soundtrack kicked ass. But I love anything involving masked heroes, as many of you know ;)
Please review!
MissGoalie
