A/N: Here is the ninth chapter! Hope it isn't boring… Thank you for reading! (also I tried to delete ooc-ness, but I'm sorry if it's still around here)

: Thank you! *cries tears of joy*

~meowmeow814

Curls of clouds choked the moon, its moonlight and shadow flooding the house in cinder and ink. Kagura watched Okita lean against the single tree, all color seeming to drain away from his being. The night was so still, even the crickets were hesitant to sing, and the darkness so thick, the shadows oozed and pooled like a nest of vipers. The dried shrubs and prickly bushes were thin and badly kept, like gnarled nails.

At last, Kagura cleared her throat. "What did you do to make someone hate you that much?" she asked quietly.

Okita stared ahead, unblinking. "Something castle-bound and ignorant little girls would faint upon hearing," he replied emotionlessly.

"Castle-bound and ignorant little girls don't get branded, whipped, and cut," Kagura retorted.

"You don't act like you've just been tortured."

The words and insults disintegrated in Kagura's mouth. She turned away to stare down at her hands, clenching and unclenching them, wringing away the blanket. Okita tilted his head slightly towards her, only barely, to see the metallic silvery-red hair from the corner of his eye.

At last she murmured, half to herself, "There's no more harm left to be done… At least not like there. I can't hurt anyone as easily."

"What do you mean," Okita said curtly.

By now Kagura was aware of how he had shifted the conversation away from himself. She gave a wry smile. "And why should I answer you when you won't answer me?" she asked.

"Because you and I are completely different." Okita waved his hand in dismissal. He began tracing the ridges of the tree bark listlessly. "There's no point in trying to explain to a girl who's blissfully ignorant with no cares or worries. You couldn't possibly understand anything about someone like-"

He flinched as Kagura shot outside and slammed him into the tree. For a second, Okita saw spots dotting his vision.

"What do you know about me?" Kagura hissed, nose to nose with him. Her voice rose into a shout, "You don't know anything but you act like you know everything about me! How do you know that I haven't seen hell, huh?! I've lived in it!"

Disgusted, Kagura let go and took a shaky step back.

After a brief pause: "... And? Are we done here?" Okita said, his voice and expression chillingly unchanging.

Kagura gritted her teeth and clenched her jaw at the bored eyes.

"... You're a waste of breath," Kagura whispered. Okita said nothing again, neither in denial nor clambered back inside and smashed the slides shut.

After a long, long silence, Okita slid downward, collapsing into a mess of limbs. He stared at the slides. Was what I said so wrong? he wondered vacantly. It was what I thought honestly…? Okita groaned and leaned back, glaring at the starless sky. God, I hate emotions.

~o~

Dawn found Kagura and Okita stuffed in the bottom of a carriage.

"Now, you two need to stay here since the pursuers know what you both look like," Kyuubei ordered. Kyuubei glanced at Kagura in concern, almost completely sure she hadn't heard the the introductions earlier from Kagura's glazed eyes and bruise-like bags. "We'll be disguising as silk traders between Okabe and Honjo, but, well… we won't have silk since it'll be you two in the storage compartment. It should… it should be fine though… We'll get through," Kyuubei said, with some conviction. Okita nodded while Kagura nodded off to sleep.

With that, Kyuubei shut the trapdoor and a scratchy sound dragged across the top, to which Okita could only guess was a rug.

Okita felt a cramp in his folded legs already, and sharp pain in the balls of his feet as they fell asleep. The floorboards above creaked, and two pairs of feet shuffled in. Soon after, the wooden spokes gave a concerning screech as the cart began rolling forward, mud sucking all of the wheels. A snotty snort revealed the oxen dragging the carriage.

Finished with his observations, Okita blinked in the darkness. He closed his eyes but the black didn't change a cinch. Is this what being blind is like?

"Why do I need to be stuck with you…" Kagura muttered beside him. "You're the last person I'd ever want to be in this kind of super-cliche-shoujo-manga situation in."

"Yeah, who'd want to with a chihuahua?" Okita said in agreement.

"Shut up, Sadi-! Mmgfh!" Kagura flinched as Okita guessed where her cheeks were and squashed them. He leaned forward, snickering, "We need to be quiet, China, or else they'll find us~"

Kagura roughly shook his hands away. Amusement fading, Okita sighed. After a long silence partially filled in with creaking below and shuffling above, Okita said flatly, "Yesterday, did I say something wrong."

Kagura didn't reply.

"... Oi, Chi-"

Kagura snorted. "What kind of Ooc crap are you pulling, Sadist."

Okita rolled his eyes and irritably growled, "Just tell me so that I can calm the tiny piece of conscious I have."

"Humph. No way. Go suffer." She returned to her silence.

How ironic, Okita thought. "Well-"

"Oi, stop your cart!"

Okita froze as the cart jerked to a halt. Shiiiit… Shivering in anticipation, Okita clenched the sword hilts at his side. He strained his ears, but could only catch snippets of the conversation.

"Traders… heading to sell… no… well, yes, but… No! Wait, stop please!"

Almost immediately after, the latch was flung open and sunlight shot into Okita's eyes, blinding him.

"What?! These are fugitives! Not to mention… the ones who are wante-! Blugh!" A loud thud accompanied by scrabbling sounds shuffled outside.

What? What's happening?! Okita frantically thought, but his thoughts stopped cold when something warm splattered across his face.

When the spots cleared from his vision a few seconds later, the cart was absolutely demolished in the middle of a long wooden bridge. Debris floated down the sluggish river beneath. Okita blinked, and stepped forward when an arm shot out and blocked him.

"Don't… don't leave," Kagura choked, and Okita thought for a moment, Excuse me, were we like this? when he heard a (rather pleasant) laugh.

"Ahaha, *imouto-chan, since when did you have a lover?"

*imouto: younger sister

A/N: Lol, no hints needed for who this will be… Though I completely ditched my whole plot plan. Yay, ahaha, hope this story can keep on going… oh gosh.

Thank you so much for reading!