A/N: I am belting out Green Tambourine right now. That has about nothing to do with anything, but I thought I'd share. ;) Also, I'm switching my general update time around to earlier in the evening rather than past midnight, as has been my usual wont. (I'm a night owl, what can I say...) I'm not sure anyone cares about that, but I'm little out of my head muscle on relaxers (stupid muscle spasms YOU SUCK), and I feel like sharing things. Thank you to everyone who is reading, and my eternal gratitude to everyone who has reviewed.
Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin.
"Excuse me," Kaoru wishes, not for the first and surely not the last on this long day, that she hadn't worn woman's kimono out. If she had been less rattled and more thoughtful she would have dressed in her practice clothing, in her loose hakama and keikogi. If she was as clever as she tends to think she is, she would have brought her bokken, as well. "I'm looking for Zanza, the fighter for hire. I was told I could find him here."
"You?" A gangly youth asks, disbelief painted across his thin face, voice cracking mightly. "Um, I don't - I don't think a lady like you ought to - I mean, what's someone like you want with Zanza?"
"I just need to speak with him, alright?" Kaoru half grits out, too tired and frustrated to smile and lower her eyes, ask nicely and coyly hide her reasons. "I wouldn't be in this dump if I didn't have a reason, would I?"
"N-No, ojou-san. But I don't - I still don't think -"
"You really looking for me?" Kaoru peers up - and has to keep craning her neck back - to take in all of the long, leanly muscled man that slips close to her side. He's handsome, she supposes, in a very rough way.
"I don't know," Kaoru grits out, "You Zanza?"
"Depends on who's askin', don't it?" He smirks. Kaoru glares.
"Himura Kaoru," every time she says it, she trips over it a little less - she thinks in a few years it will be completely natural. "Of the Kamiya dojo." The man eyes her up and down for a long moment, before he shifts the fish bone he's sucking on into the very corner of his mouth, stuffing his hands deep into the pockets of his trousers.
"Come on back," he jerks his head to the left, "I guess we'll need some privacy.
"So," he asks once they're in a small back room, tightly woven mat blocking them from the rest of the small gambling hall. "You're Kenshin's wife?"
Kaoru notes that he does not call her husband Battousai, as he was named even during their wedding, and Kaoru is rather awed by how much trust her husband places in this rough young man.
"Yes," Kaoru answers, twisting the strings of her purse between tight fingers, her spine beginning to ache from how rigidly she's holding herself. "I am."
"I guess this ain't no social visit to say hey to his buddies, eh?"
"I need to send him a message," Kaoru pauses, not quite sure how to explain the rest of her situation. "And I need...I need some help. From you. He said that you could help me, I mean, if something happened."
"Oh, man," Zanza rubs his hand across the back of his neck, looking put upon but resigned. "He said I might have to help you put a new roof on the kitchen, but I didn't think you were really that bad of a cook."
"He said what?" Kaoru's voice rises too high and shrill for her liking, her hands balling into fists she plants on her hips. Her eyes narrow into a glare so quickly it almost hurts. "I'm not that bad of a cook! He doesn't complain when I cook!"
"With a look like that, I wouldn't complain either." Zanza mutters, shifting backwards. "Um, listen, just let me know how much damage was done, and I can -"
"It's not about that," Kaoru flaps one hand at the man, though she is still scowling (she is going to have a very long talk with her new husband about talking to other men about her cooking - when he comes home again, at least). "I was attacked this morning."
"At-attacked?" Zanza's voice breaks and cracks like the youth's at the front of the hall, and Kaoru has to smirk at him. He gapes at her, hands reaching out, hovering worriedly over her arms. "Are you alright? Were you hurt?"
"I'm fine," Kaoru doesn't know him well enough to hike her kimono up and show off the stitches Dr. Gensai put in her thigh that morning, or show him the bruising that is making her back ache as though she took the blunt edge of a sword to the spine. Which she had. "But I've got three guys tied up and locked in my shed. I don't know what to do with them, and like I said, my -" Kaoru pauses, tongue curling inside her mouth before continues speaking.
"Kenshin," it's rather thrilling to speak his true name to someone else, she has to admit it. "Told me you would help me."
"Sure I will, jou-chan," Zanza gives her a sudden smile, big hand clapping her warmly on the shoulder. "Kenshin's a real good buddy of mine, you know? So, first things first, you need to get a message to him in Kyoto, right?"
"Right," Kaoru agrees thankfully, feeling the tension in her shoulders loosen. She pulls a folded letter from her purse, passing it to Zanza. "Here."
"You give me a few minutes to get one of my boys here to take this to Kyoto for me," Zanza holds the letter up between two fingers, "And then I'll go check out those attackers of yours, alright, jou-chan?"
"Thank you." Kaoru bows as deeply as she can against the pain in her back and her stiff, thickly bandaged thigh.
Word Count: 950
