Chapter 10
Travel

When Kenshin asked Kaoru where she wanted to go, She had tilted her head, and asked where most dragons lived. Kenshin had shrugged, and explained how through the years they had spread out, because too many dragons in one area tended to cause problems. Clans of less than twenty dragons were the most common, and every five years they would have a festival where the dragons would meet and show off and bring any problems before the council. Kaoru seemed curious by all of that, but Kenshin reminded her they needed to go someplace else. Right then they were just driving in the direction of town. It was quite late in the evening and it would be getting dark soon.

"Why don't we fly to where ever?" Kaoru asked him.

"Well, it wouldn't be very comfortable for you, I don't think. Not really anyplace for you to sit, and..."

"I meant a plane." Kaoru said, looking uncomfortable at the thought of riding on Kenshin's back as if he was some sort of horse.

"Oh, Of course." He looked a bit sheepish, but before he could say anything else, Kaoru sat up with an idea.

"So that was your uncle's house, right?"

"Yes."

"Do you have a house that's just yours?"

"I have a few in different areas. I stay at different ones depending on where I need to go and what I need to do."

"You have several houses?" Kaoru asked, mouth hanging open. She realized she was looking at him in shock and closed her mouth. "Well, I was just going to say I'd like to see what your house looks like, I guess I'll just say I'd like to see what one of your houses looks like..."

"Big city? Town? Middle of no where?" Kenshin asked, thinking about which one he'd like to show her.

"Um, I'm not really in the mood for a ton of people." She looked thoughtful then just sighed. "I don't know. Just which ever is your favorite, and which ever is the easiest to get to. I promise I'm really not too picky." She leaned back in her chair and stared out the window. The deepening colors of the clear sky were beautiful to watch.

"Do you want to stay in America?"

Managing not to look completely shocked, Kaoru nodded. Then she realized he was driving and might not be looking at her. "Yes, that would be preferable. I'm not sure how much longer my visa has on it. Probably not much longer if I don't hurry up and get an actual job."

"Yeah, Misao might have mentioned something like that when she was doing research on you and trying to figure out who you were." He caught a look at her face and he added, "so we could help you and find out what dragons you had been in contact with."

"So you already know?" Kaoru huffed, looking dangerous.

Kenshin was nonplussed and a bit scared by her look.

"Know? What do I know?"

"From the sound of it you know all about me! Research?!"

"No, no, Miss Kaoru! We weren't researching you like that, we just needed to know who you were and what your connection to dragons was. You know how Misao gets with things. She can't help but soak everything she finds up and she has no filter. It was mostly stuff that was public on facebook anyway. Except for the visa thing and then she was just trying to figure out where you'd been to see which clans you had been near since facebook hadn't been updated. I am quite sorry about it all Kaoru, but we were only trying to help you."

Kaoru had gone still as was just staring out the window, though she wasn't looking at anything in particular. Finally, after Kenshin was sure she wasn't going to say anything she spoke.

"I do understand. It's just so frustrating because I wanted to keep it all secret and you lot already know!"

"I really don't know what you are talking about Miss Kaoru. There's nothing bad in your records at all. Nothing that would show up on any background check or..."

"But you know that I don't have a job or a home, and I don't belong here at all. And after buying that coat for me, you have to know I literally have no money left in my account. I don't know, I was just trying to keep from everyone that for all intents and purposes I'm penny less and homeless."

Kenshin took his eyes off the road for a second to look at her. She still looked slightly angry, but there was something else in her eyes too. She was worried.

"Why are you worried about that? You're young and right out of school." He turned back towards the road as she answered.

"Because you're treated differently if you don't have money or a way to get it. Or a career or a plan." Kaoru took out her phone and began to take pictures with it. It was then Kenshin noticed just how the clouds almost seemed to be glowing with the last bit of sunlight against the dark purple sky. "I can't even afford a phone plan. I just use this thing as a camera."

"But no one thinks of you badly because of a lack of money. We like you because you are Kaoru. It may worry you that you don't have money or a way to get it right now, but you don't focus on money, but on value and beauty. We like you for that reason. And, honestly, dragons don't think about money the same way you humans do."

"How do we think about money?" Kaoru went back to taking photos. She had already taken at least twenty of the same view, and was continuing, making slight changes. Kenshin silently remembered scrolling through pages of photos in her camera that looked almost identical.

"Well, for the most part, a lot of humans think of money as the end. If you have a lot of money, then everything is good. But for dragons, money is only as useful as what we can get with it. I do not think I've ever known a dragon who has hoarded money. And never raw gold or precious stones."

"Are you kidding? That seems so different than what one would normally think..."

"Yes. Dragons love things that are well made, or that have a history, or have a use. A fair few dragons do horde jewelry made from gold, but those collections are more about the artistry in the creation of the piece or the history of the owners. There might be dragons that collect bullion that has a history of a certain mine or refinery, but it's fairly rare. You'll find a lot of the great museums and collections of the world were actually started by dragons. Their favorite pieces they'll hide away, but a good bit of their horde is usually out on display. They would have no use for gold in its raw form, except for trading it for something they really want."

"What do you collect?"

"Collections change over time." he paused a bit, wondering just how far back he should go. Kaoru looked over at him, frowning at the slight darkening of his eyes. "Right now, I'm continuing several collections started by members of my clan. For awhile I was dealing in information."

"You mean, spy things?" Kaoru asked, a bit intrigued.

"They were useful in that capacity, yes."

"That's not what I thought you would say." Kaoru turned her phone off and put it away, ignoring Kenshin's quick glance. "I was sure you were going to say swords or weapons or something."

"Why would you think that?" Kenshin kept his tone perfectly level, but he couldn't stop his hands from gripping the steering wheel a little tighter.

"Well, you are helping me with swordsmanship, and you're a dragon, and I've seen you get angry. It's just where my mind went. Are you going to get all angry again?"

"What?"

"Before we left you seemed angry. You had seemed happier up till now. I'm sorry if you having to leave was... not in your plans. Or if my ex was rude or something. I just wanted to apologize if it was something I did."

"No!" Kenshin said, a bit loudly, and then brought his voice down to a whisper again. "I promise Kaoru, I'm not mad at anything you did. I am just mad at myself. For something I did."

"So you are still mad then?" Kaoru asked, tilting her eyes to glance up at him. His eyes were focused on the road ahead and he was frowning.

"Yes, well, no, Well... " He paused and sighed, his body relaxing slightly. "Have you ever been angry with someone, and the later realized that you are doing the exact same thing that made you angry with the other person? I found all the anger I was feeling towards the other person was suddenly directed towards myself. I didn't mean to seem angry towards you. I just had to takes steps to correct my thoughts and actions so I wouldn't be doing the exact same thing the other person had done to make me angry."

"Your... your thoughts and actions?" Kaoru asked, once again glancing up at him. This time he was looking at her with a strange expression, that made Kaoru drop her gaze and stare down at Kenshin's knees.

"I'll be able to explain that later too. I hope." He added softly under his breath.

Kaoru did not say much more the rest of the drive. Kenshin thought she might have been sleeping, but every time he would check, she would just be staring ahead, propping her chin in her hand. She had tucked her legs under her and was leaning ever so slightly toward him. It was getting quite late, and finally Kenshin suggested she might want to sleep in the back seat for the rest of the drive.

"I can't sleep while in a car."

"You don't want to try?"

"I've been trying to sleep for the last hour. I can't sleep in cars or planes. It's fine. I'll make it to where ever we're going."

"Oh, we can stop. I thought you would just sleep through. But you need sleep. Megumi would kill me if I drove us both straight through without stopping. Especially if you couldn't sleep during the drive. I'll stop over the next town."

The next town was farther than Kenshin remembered and they arrived late enough that it seemed every place was full. They finally found a rather run down motel with double beds and all but collapsed the moment they entered. Kaoru folded the musty smelling comforter of the bed down and crawled in to bed without even changing. She felt horrible.

"It's going to be cold tonight. I'm turning up the heater." Kenshin said, before messing with the window unit and grabbing his bag and heading for the bathroom. Kaoru was completely asleep.

It was still dark when she woke up, freezing. It took her a minute to realize where she was, and another to realize that she was shivering uncontrollably with a raging headache. She was pretty sure in the light from the cracks in the window she could see her breath. She lay in bed for a few minutes, wondering if she should touch the nasty blanket that had probably never been washed at the end of the bed. She made a face as she continued shivering. And went through her options. She could touch the cover at the foot of the bed, but it was gross, and she doubted even that bit of fabric would help much anyway. The heater had probably gone out, she decided, because she remembered Kenshin turning it to high before they went to sleep and he...

Kenshin. She frowned a bit. He was a dragon. A fire breathing dragon. He was warm. She made a face as she thought about how that questions would go, "Hey, wake up, I'm freezing, breath fire or something..." Still, it was so cold. She tucked her knees against her body and put her head under the covers she did have. She would suck it up. She wasn't going to go ask for a hug from a dragon because it would be all wrong with him as a human man. Especially in a seedy motel room. From where she was she could hear Kenshin breathing peacefully. Stupid warm dragon, she thought to herself.

She stayed like that for as long as she could, willing herself to fall back to sleep so she could forget about the cold.

It didn't work, finally she sat up with a sigh.

"Ken-sh-shin," She said almost quietly.

"Hmm?" He muttered sleepily.

"It's cold" she bit out between her shivering, managing not to shake her second words.

Kenshin sat up groggily and looked around. Kaoru knew her eyes weren't playing tricks on her. Their breath, especially Kenshin's was visible in the air.

"It's freezing," Kenshin corrected, rolling over to mess with the buttons on the heater. "Dead, I think I saw a breaker box, let me see..." He got up and Kaoru watched as he checked electrical, and even called down to the main office, but didn't get anyone who could help. She didn't see how he could walk barefoot on the thin, cold carpet in just a t-shirt and long pajama pants and just sort of watched him in a cold daze as she tried not to shiver.

"I don't think much can be done about it now. We need sleep and... are you all right?" Kenshin noticed Kaoru hadn't moved, but he did see the slight shaking of her shoulders.

"J-just so c-old. Head h-hurts."

Kenshin came over to her and felt her head with the back of his hand. "Kaoru, you're freezing. You weren't even sleeping under that... Oh, come here," And he sat down and with ease, maneuvered her against him. He was hot, and Kaoru couldn't stop herself from trying to tuck her feet between his thighs as he grabbed her hands and rubbed them gently. "You are a ball of ice. I think I hear the steam from your toes..." Kaoru laughed a bit, happy to be less cold, and trying to keep herself from tucking further against him to be even warmer.

"I was g-going to ask-k you to st-art a fire... Acciden-ntally burn the place down..." Kaoru was still shaking after a minute, but at this point she thought it might be in pure relief.

"I might still do that for you.." He said while moving them effortlessly, so he was sitting in a more comfortable position against the head board and she could curl closer, her earlier thoughts of hugging men in hotel rooms forgotten. Kaoru thought he might have said something else to her, but for the moment, she was perfectly content and warm even and did not feel like extending the effort to listen. She thought it might make her head start hurting again. She wondered when it had stopped, and decided not to think about anything any more. Later she would never be able to pinpoint when she had fallen asleep.

Kenshin had only continued talking for a minute before realizing she had passed out. He could feel that she had slipped into a deep sleep, and he could feel his inner dragon was very pleased that she was so close to him. Her head was tucked up on his shoulder, right under his jaw and he could feel her breath on his collar. When he had first touched her he had been shocked just how cold she was. He almost never thought about the cold, and had she not woken him up, he might have slept through the night just fine without ever thinking of it. He wondered how long she had slept, and figured she probably had woken up and tried to ignore it. He rolled his eyes as he shifted again and Kaoru, in her sleep, settled herself closer. Kenshin just closed his eyes and held her close, deciding to move as little as possible. This was the deepest sleep he had ever felt from her, and he didn't want to disturb her at all, especially as he could sleep comfortably in just about any position.

A/N - I have the hardest time writing Kenshin Kaoru scenes! And that is sad because I love those scenes /so much/! Guess that just means I have to write them more. For practice. Yes, nothing to do with liking the fluffy, waffy stuff. Not at all.

But that isn't the main reason this is late. I've been all over the country since the last update and I haven't had much time to write at all. I also moved in with a relative to take care of them because they have cancer and while there I had no way to get online to update (plus a lot of other things on my mind). Plus, I had this chapter mostly written and then I realized I had made a giant mistake and had to redo the whole chapter. And then my boyfriend went off and got married to someone else. So, life and writing since my last update has been so not fun and I really didn't like this chapter much. Updates may continue to be sporadic. I am very sorry about that and will try to write more, as I know this story is almost complete! I'd like to thank all the new and old readers, and all the people who had added this to their story alert and favorites!