When Dreams Come True

NOTE: What does my pen name mean? I've received a few emails on this one, but no one will ever know! If you can guess though, well…that's pretty freaky. It also means you know more about me than I probably know about myself. But trust me, my name does mean something. But I'll never tell… WAH!

…Because medicine doesn't heal

And doctors can't tell

If better I' to feel

And when I'm to get well.

Chapter ten - Always

…It's something…it keeps us real, makes us bleed. But what is it? We know it's something but truly, what is it that makes us cry? But as long as it keeps going, there will always be the remedy. Smile for me Sou, smile 'till the pain inside fades with the rain clouds overhead…

He sat up in bed. He had just thought of something, but forgot it rather quickly. Maybe it had been a dream, maybe it had been a mindless thought. All he knew was that it was enough to wake him from a deep sleep.

He noticed the sun was about all the way up. He could hear the crickets beginning to cease their songs while the birds were staring to pick up the tune left off.

He recalled what he and Misao had talked about the night before. He wondered a little if he would ever find that certain special person out there. He remembered Ms. Yumi would tell him that there was someone out there for everybody. Then, he didn't care. But strangely, he worried about it.

You see, what Soujiro was most afraid of was nothingness, and he thought that if he couldn't find someone to share all of his memories with for years to come, he would die alone.

It was weird actually, he had just realized he had been alone for his entire life until that point.

Alone…nothingness…

Maybe that's why he feared it…just because he never wanted to go back to the life he had.

He glanced up to the ceiling and partially regretted what he had just said. Mr. Shishio and Mr. Yumi had taken him in and he was ungrateful. How shameful. But seriously, he could think if the way they 'raised' him was either for his own good or worse than he thought they had…

Misao stirred, which made him shift his attention. When he looked down at her, he smiled. Spending this much time with her was getting to him. Funny thing was, he liked it. He adored every moment he spent with her. He took every word she said preciously. He…he really was getting attached. And it was weird too. It was the first time he had been attached to someone, which totally went up against what he thought he had. And since he had never truly cared for someone the way he did now, he felt entirely clueless.

He needed help.

He also needed to take a walk.

He wrote a note that read:

Dear Misao,

Don't worry, this time I'm not leaving on my own but, I am going for a walk by myself. I will return around 9:00 am so if you would, could you wait for me? If you don't, then I'll have to use my Shukuchi to find you!

Just kidding,

Sou

He really wasn't funny.

He set the letter on hit pillow and sat up and walked out the door while sliding the door quietly behind him. Misao stirred a final time while she began to wake up.

But Soujiro was now walking outside to wherever he pleased.

The day was new and fresh. It smelled wonderful, as if the flowers had just released their sweet scents. He inhaled deeply and sighed. He felt odd. He didn't feel good, but he didn't feel bad. He guessed he was smack dab in the middle.

He was feeling quite peaceful until he heard it.

"Sou-kun!"

No way…

"Sou-kun! It's been such a long time, hasn't it?"

Soujiro turned around only to find…

"So how's life?"

…Kamatari.

Misao yawned as she stretched a final time. She observed her surroundings and noticed Soujiro wasn't there. It took a moment for things to get to her head, but once it did, it wasn't a pretty scene.

"HEY!"

After a few moments of panicking, she noticed the note.

"…Oh."

She picked it up and read Soujiro's writing. She gave off a blank look when she finished it and complained, "Sou! I hate you!"

She fell back onto her mattress, "Now what am I supposed to do?"

But then she had a brilliant idea, 'Well I'll just take a walk for myself too. I have a couple hours until 9:00. I'll just come back a few minutes early!'

She dabbled a note just in case and scooted out the door.

Dear Sou,

I'm out. Hope I'll get back before you. Anywho, I'll be back around nine too.

Misao!

And that was that.

But Soujiro on the other hand, was facing his old friend, Kamatari, "Kama-sama! What are you doing here in Yokohama?"

Kamatari smiled, "I'm undercover on a super secret mission! So don't tell anybody that. Also, don't call me that, or I'll seriously have to kill you. Kama-sama…that makes me sound too old. How about…try Ka-chan! That's cute!"

Soujiro smacked his head but soon he lifted it, "Wait, you're on a 'super secret' mission?"

Ka-chan nodded vigorously. But something sounded weird.

"Ka-chan…" Soujiro began.

His face was confused at first but soon he slumped, "Aw Sou-kun. You found me out!"

Soujiro grew exasperated, "You don't even have a super secret mission, do you! And I believed you completely too! Kamatari!"

Kamatari wiggled a little before taunting him yet again, "Wow Sou-kun, you're so lively now. What happened? All you used to do was give off that smile and annoy the crap out of Yumi-san. That journey thing of yours must be really helping, no? Maybe I should try that sort of thing. Maybe it'll mend my broken heart," he finished while holding his chest in a sad way.

Soujiro had to tell him. It wasn't only the journey that was helping him, "Ka-sama, it's not only the journey that's helping me, I met someone along the way too that knows a lot about life…"

Kamatari's ears perked a little, "Eh? Someone? Would this someone be a female?"

Soujiro nodded not knowing where the conversation was leading to.

"Well," Kamatari added, "maybe Sou-kun has a little crush on this certain young lady. She is your age, right?"

Soujiro's face shot up, "What do you mean, 'crush!'"

Kamatari giggled, "Aw come now Sou-kun, I can sense it. Now who's the lucky young lady who has stolen your precious, dear heart?" Kamatari smirked as Soujiro began to redden in the cheeks, which felt somewhat different.

"M-misao."

"Hm," Kamatari set his finger against his chin, "Not that name seems familiar…where have I heard it before?"

Soujiro sighed, "She was one of the people who protected the Aoiya when you and the others attacked it. The one with the braid."

Ka-sama gasped, "No way! The one that looked like a weasel! With…with the black hair and-and sharp, sharp kunai!"

Soujiro nodded, a little proud, "The very same."

He laughed, "WOW! You have a crush her!"

Soujiro sighed, "I don't have a crush on her. I'm just her friend. She's very nice and that's all! I swear…please believe me Kama-san?"

Kamatari took a step back, "Fine…But please allow me to add, if I still liked men and I were you, I would kind of rethink my choices…"

Something clicked in Soujiro's head. Maybe it was his primal instaicts… so Soujiro defended his friend, "Misao isn't ugly! She pretty and she's smart! She's helped me out so much and…and…"

Soujiro drifted off while Kamatari sat back and smirked at his long-time friend, "That's so sweet Sou."

Soujiro looked down in defeat and mumbled, "I don't…!" in one last attempt.

Kamatari felt a little guilty though. Since Soujiro lacked in the 'romance' department, how could he know how to feel? He must be so confused right now. Lost in his own mind…that must suck.

"Oh, I'm just kidding Sou!" Kamatari tried to undo what he had done, "I was just playing around with you! I bet you guys are just really tight friends, no?"

Soujiro looked up, not knowing what Kamatari was planning but smiled, "Thanks Kama-sama."

"I said don't call me that!"

Soujiro just laughed.

With Misao…

Misao walked through the streets of Yokohama while the wind swayed gently around her slightly lifting her braid here and there. The people around her seemed so carefree as she passed them. That's the kind of thing she missed. Even though the reign of Shishio was over, something still seemed off.

She shivered at the thought and wrapped her arms around herself.

She thought for a moment, and realized she was alone. It felt weird, you know? I mean, she used to do this kind of thing all the time, just walking along the pathway by herself. But this time…this time she was without the one person who she had been with constantly for the past month. That's when she realized, she didn't like being all by herself.

She walked a little more and took a deep breath, 'It really isn't right of me to be thinking of him this much…I should be keeping my mind on Aoshi-sama."

A quiet wind blew by, 'He's so cute when he smiles…'

And then the clouds rolled out of the way of the sun. Things were starting to warm up and Misao released her arms from around herself. Then she began to look around for Soujiro.

"Ka-chan, I don't understand!"

"Understand what?"

Oh, back with Soujiro…

Kamatari was busy trying to explain 'love' to Soujiro. Obviously, Soujiro was still confused as hell. He just didn't get emotions. All he knew he could to was smile. He didn't really have a problem with it, but he knew he had to fix it so that's why he as on his rurouni journey.

Especially Misao, she helped him out a lot.

He had to admit, he had a funny feeling whenever he smiled at Misao and Misao smiled back at him. It was a feeling in the bottom of his stomach. Sometimes he didn't even know how to act around her.

That's another reason why he smiled around her, because he was scared of what she'd think of him if he didn't.

"Ok, lemme try to explain again," Kamatari added, "love is…love is love is love is love!"

Kamatari started talking about something about Shishio while Soujiro began to drift off. Why couldn't he stop thinking about Misao? Misao, Misao, Misao. That's it. That's all he could picture in his mind.

"So do you kind of get it Sou-kun?"

"Huh?"

He obviously wasn't listening. He was busy thinking of something else…or more like someone.

"Geez Sou-kun. I didn't know love was so hard to describe. I guess the only way you can actually know how to describe it is to actually be in it," Soujiro simled. He wasn't exactly the happiest person around because he actially did want Kamatari to describe the feeling to him. But Kamari said something that made Soujiro understand it just that much more…

"But if you are looking, don't look for it. Walk in a straight line, and take every path possible so you make sure you don't miss anything. But you will miss stuff so just get over it and get on with your life."

Soujiro stared blankly at Kamatati who was now standing proudly with his hands on his hips, "Hey, it's about 3:00 right? I gotta get going now, we'll meet up sometime and hang out, ok?"

Soujiro still just stood there. He lifted his hand in attempt to wave, but he was still trying to figure out exactly what Kamatari was talking about.

Kamatari gave one last smile, and brought his pointer finger to his lips as if telling Soujiro to be quiet about something.

The he walked off.

It seemed kind of weird, you know? To see Kamatari just out of the blue like that, it was refreshing. It was kind of odd though, but no matter. He couldn't wait until the next time he would see his friend.

He was also glad that Kamatari had been doing so much better. He remembered when Kamatari was so down, all he could do was sit in bed, just wasting away the hours of the day, searching outside for something that wasn't there. It was nice to see his friend looking so much better.

But what he had said, it was interesting.

'Walk in a straight line, but take every road possible so make sure you don't miss anything.'

But…it was contradictory. He had been taught that all roads possible were curved and crooked, with bumps and bruises. It wasn't straight. It was anything but straight. And to make sure that he didn't miss anything, how could he know that? How could he make sure he hadn't missed out on any of the wonders of life?

'But you will miss stuff so get over it and get on with life.'

So, he had to make sure he didn't miss anything, but he was going to miss it anyways so he should just move on anyways.

So was that supposed to relate to his journey?

"Kama…-!" But he was already long gone.

Soujiro stood there and contemplated for a moment until he realized something, "Wait…3:00 pm!"

Soujiro made an awkward face and then sprinted off back to the inn, which Misao and he stayed at the night before.

"Misao! Misao! I'm sorry! Misao!"

Right when he was about to turn into the building, someone else did as well. The two collided and hit the ground at the same time, "Oof!" Soujiro heard, the voice sounded quite feminine.

He opened his eyes and saw Misao sitting on her rear while rubbing her forehead, "Ow…"

"Misao!" Soujiro called. For some reason, he was really, really happy to see her.

"What?"

Soujiro just stared for a moment before he realized what he was doing, "What?" Soujiro caught what he was doing and finally was brought back to reality.

"Oh, nothing. I'm sorry for not being here at 9:00 like I said I would be in my note."

Misao laughed a little while scratching the back of her head, "Um, well you see…I wasn't exactly here the entire day either! I went for a walk…" Misao stopped and looked up to meet Soujiro's face, who had closed his eyes.

"Kamatari was here."

Misao tilted her head, "So that's where you were?"

He nodded, but Misao suinted as if she didn't know what he was talking about, "Wait a sec, Chou told Shiro and Okon that Kamatari went to China on an undercover mission a month ago and hasn't returned since."

Soujiro's smile dropped and Misao continued, "It was only supposed to be a week-long mission," what remained of Soujiro's smile was completely gone now, "I'm sorry Soujiro, but if you saw him, I'm not denying it!"

Soujiro looked down. Maybe eh really was losing it. Seeing Kamatari when he was still in China; he might even be dead for all Soujiro knew. But, the words he said still rung in his head.

But this was just probably one of the bumps in the road that he had to get over and get on with in his life.

"You're probably right Misao, it was probably somebody who had the same looking hair or something."

Misao had kind of a sad face while Soujiro helped her up. She hadn't seen him sad in a while. I guess it was just you forget after you see him smile so much. But you always have to remember that Soujiro's smile was fake and that he actually did have emotions on the inside. But…were the smiles really all that fake lately? I mean, he actually, truly, really did seem happy. She was beginning to wonder, how did Soujiro work? What went on inside of his head that she wasn't catching? That no one was catching? What was he thinking of at this very moment? Why was he smiling anyways? There was so much about him that she didn't know. She knew all the basics of him but what was the deeper stuff going on deep down inside.

There wasn't any other way to put it but it was so complex. It was hard to explain even that.

But in all the confusion that was going on in her mind then, the one, single thing that stuck out the most was just:

'Sad…'

That was basically it.

But, even with all of the things that went on with Soujiro, he still managed to smile his way through anything. It was quite amazing really. Maybe even attractive to Misao, which was weird because previously Misao had had the fattest crush on Aoshi who like, never smiles. But anyways…she didn't even know she found Soujiro attractive at the time.

All she knew was that she couldn't stop thinking about Soujiro.

He was always on her mind.

And she was always on his.

No matter what.

Always.

But, …why?

End.

That's the end of chapter ten. Sorry about the other chapter ten, you know the one with all the complaints, but seriously, I was in a bad mood. It's not that this internet site made me feel this way, I was already feeling pretty shitty even before I started this chapter. So wuteva…anywho, I just wasn't feeling up to speed, but now I do!

Ok so, sorry.

Peace up!

NaiLAUG!