Chapter 13

Summer314 – Thank you for asking about my dad. He's home now, thankfully. I think I'm gonna have some fun writing Sano's character more later. He's hilarious to write about. You have some really good guesses in your review, let me tell ya! Not saying another word…

Kenkoa4ever – Shoot, I'd be confused too! But what a happy confused place that would be! More Soujiro to come!

Thanks again, guys!

A little lime in this chapter... :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Kenshin.

He was in a warehouse, only a few blocks from my apartment. Food forgotten, we left quickly. Once the car stopped, I burst through the door with Shinta calling after me.

I screeched to a halt, but not for him. Spinning, I caught Yahiko by the arms. He stared back at me with eyes so filled with anger that I was momentarily speechless. "Yahiko, I think Kenshin is hurt," I started.

"Let me go with you!" He exclaimed, hands balling into tight fists at his sides. "I can fight if I have to."

That brought tears to my eyes. "But you don't have your bokken."

His anger faltered for just a moment. "I'll use something else."

Instead of responding, I pulled him in for a tight hug. "I promise I'll be okay." I glanced up at Megumi and she nodded, letting me know she'd watch him. "I've just gotta make sure you're safe, bud."

"I can take care of myself." He glared at me. "And you."

I shook my head. "You already do that more than you know. But that's not supposed to be how this works yet. Please stay with Megumi."

Yahiko stood very still, but then he gave me a quick jerky nod, and I knew I would be paying for this later. Before he could protest, I pressed a kiss to his heated cheek. He swiped his palm down his face as if I had slobbered all over him.

Quickly, I bounded up the front steps and jerked open the door, but suddenly it was slammed back into the jam, and Shinta's palm was flat against the heavy metal. His eyes were penetrating when they stared down at me. "This building is not secure yet, Kaoru!" he hissed lowly so the others couldn't hear.

My nose flared as I glanced down at Yahiko. He was right. "Kenshin is hurt."

His eyes flicked down to Sano, who paced the sidewalk and mumbled curse words impatiently. Megumi held Yahiko's shoulders, looking concerned, while the angry expression on Yahiko's face remained, now mixed with a little worry.

"Yes," Shinta said, turning back to me. "Kenshin is hurt. But it won't do anyone any good if you're in the same position. That it will not."

My eyebrows drew up with worry and surrender. "I'm sorry," I breathed. "I'm being stupid. But I have to help him."

Shinta shut his eyes and took in a steadying breath before suddenly producing a small bullet-proof vest from his side. I didn't have time to wonder where it had come from before I was shrugging it on. "I know you do, Kaoru." He glanced down to Yahiko. "I will not let anything happen to her."

Yahiko's mouth pressed together in a firm line. "You'd better not."

I wanted to tell Shinta that I would be doing the same thing if he and Kenshin had switched places, but then his hand pushed me behind him, and his long fingers grasped mine tightly as he pulled me inside. It was dimly lit, and Shinta's eyes snapped to every dark corner, inspecting carefully as we made our way to the stairwell. Shinta opened the door and lead me through. He kept his hand in mine, maneuvering me this way and that so that I was positioned behind him at every turn. My heart was pounding so loud I swore I could hear the echo of it leading us up the stairs.

Saito's head then popped out from above us. "It's safe," he stated, unconventionally protective. When his eyes met mine, his lips curved into a knowing smirk. "You just had to come, didn't you Kaoru Kamiya?"

I growled at him, as we quickly made our way to the third floor to join him. Although the danger was gone, I was acutely aware that Shinta hadn't let go of my hand.

"Is Kenshin okay?" I asked.

Saito grunted as we followed him through a long corridor, leading to a single door at the very end. He turned to us before opening it. "He's… unresponsive, and we can't move him."

Can't move him?

"Open it!" I practically shouted in my impatience, and Shinta's grip tightened on mine.

Saito's eyes narrowed dangerously as he stepped forward. The tips of his shoes touched mine. "You don't call the shots here, little girl," he scolded.

Beside me, Shinta bared his teeth, but kept quiet. I wasn't so smart. "Then why am I here?" I asked slowly, staring up at him, unblinking.

Caught off guard, his lips curled into a dangerous smile. "Touché."

I needed to find out why I had this power.

Without another word, he turned and opened the door. I don't think I quite expected what I saw. There were other agents in the room, some on their cells phones, others staring at the center of the metal room with confused expressions as if they were trying to figure out a puzzle.

That's where I looked.

Kenshin was on a metal chair. His head slumped forward, and his hair was tangled and caked with blood. To my horror, I realized the blood was his, and it was from a wound at his temple. "Kenshin!" I shrieked, pushing forward. Shinta's hand fell from mine, and I dropped to my knees in front of him.

Kenshin looked slightly different than he did in Tomoe's office. His hair was held back at the nape of his neck, and his clothes were neater, his kimono red and well kept. If I looked closely enough I could barely make out very faint lines beneath his eyes that hadn't been there a week ago. And the cross-shaped scar on his cheek had faded to a pale pink against his soft skin.

Kenshin looked even more like Shinta, I realized with some shock. It was as if he were transported from a later time. But even in his sleep, I could see his sadness over his lost love, marked by the purplish bruising beneath his eyes.

Once again, his pain made a footprint on my heart, and I instinctively reached out my hand to touch his knee… and fell completely through it.

It was as if he were a hologram. Frowning and frantic, I tried again, this time reaching for his hands which hung limply at his side. It was cold like before, a flesh-colored mist puffed into the air as I tried and tried again.

That was why they couldn't move him. Kenshin wasn't responsive and therefore he couldn't concentrate to make himself solid in our time.

I whipped back around to Saito. "What do we do?"

What if he's dying? My mind screamed.

He shrugged, looking maddeningly composed as he leaned back against the wall. "We wait."

"For what?" I was surprised when Shinta and I asked the question at the same time. His eyes found mine, and it shocked me a little to find that he was just as disconcerted as I was.

Saito rolled his eyes and spoke insultingly slowly. "For him to wake up so we can move him."

I stood, stomping over until I was looking straight up into his big-headed face. "And what if he dies in the meantime?"

Saito's broad shoulders shrugged. "My men are working on it, Miss Kamiya. Is she always like this?" He directed that at Shinta, who was watching me with wary precision. I could tell he expected me to do something drastic, and possibly stupid. He was probably right.

Which was why he did it first…

I moved towards Kenshin, and suddenly Shinta was whipping me back by the arm so forcefully that when I hit his chest it momentarily knocked the wind out of me. "Lift us out of here as fast as you can, and get him to a hospital," he said, resolutely, speaking to Saito while watching me.

His narrowed eyes flicked to Saito, and without a word, the taller man grabbed ahold of me. My eyes went wide and I tried desperately to jerk away. "Wait!" I grabbed Shinta's arm and he effortlessly disentangled my fingers with a quick tilt of his shoulder, pressing forward to Kenshin. "You don't know what it'll do to you!" Suddenly, I worried that I'd lose both of them, and that Shinta would be trapped in the same comatose-like state as Kenshin. "Shinta! Please!"

"Better me than you. That it is." He turned back to me and gave me a soft smile that crinkled his eyes kindly. "I'll be alright, Kaoru."

And with that, I watched in disbelief as he touched Kenshin's shoulder and hissed in a sharp breath from the shocking cold. Kenshin jerked once and went still. And then it was like a magnet to steel, as Shinta's body simply slipped into place with Kenshin's, solidifying them both to our time.

The room went completely silent.

At first it looked like Kenshin was there alone, and that nothing had changed. But then his eyes cracked open into tiny slits, staring at the floor, and a soft breath moved his long bangs. Suddenly he bared his teeth, slamming his eyes shut and leaning forward to suck in a long, deep breath… and shouted my name. "Kaoru!" Not a moment later, his entire body went completely limp again.

I gasped, just as Saito ordered, "Move him!" The activity was instant. When I bolted forward, Saito roughly slammed me back into the wall, and hissed, "Do you want him to die?! He needs to be moved now!"

With one agent at his arms and one at his feet, Kenshin- and Shinta- were quickly carried away.

…

They didn't take him to a hospital, but rather some underground, back alley clinic.

An agent escorted Megumi, Sano and Yahiko back to my place because Saito only allowed me clearance. I supposed I should be grateful that he didn't kick me out as much as I knew he wanted to.

Even so, once Kenshin… and Shinta… were tested and hooked up to the monitors I sat my butt down in the room and refused to leave. He had a moderate concussion with some bleeding in his brain that they were able to get under control. He had been cleaned up, but he still hadn't woken, or even moved since leaving the warehouse six hours earlier.

I dozed on and off, waking fitfully in my worry, only to get up and make sure he was still breathing. The steady beep, beep, beep of the machine was maddening but it kept me oddly centered as I waited. Doctors filtered in and out periodically, and one of them was kind enough to bring me a deck of cards. A couple dozen or so games of solitaire later, and I decided I wanted to throw them out the window. I spent my time now trying to figure out what to call him while he was both Kenshin and Shinta. Now that I literally couldn't separate them, it seemed strange that he would have two names.

"Shinta's foster father called him "Kenshin." Did he tell you that?"

My head snapped over to find Tomoe standing at the door, with her arms crossed in front of her and a large envelope in her hands. I had been throwing cards into the bowl of an empty metal toilet across the room, and they littered the white tile with numbers and royalty. "No, he didn't." That should've been one of my questions during our videogames, but I couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't offered that information willingly.

She gave me a small smile and walked inside. "He will." Her shoes clicked lightly on the tiled floor as she came over and stopped at my side. "May I?"

"Please." I moved my bag so she could sit, and held up the cards. "Wanna try?"

To my surprise, she nodded and took them from me. "Yes, thank you." It surprised me even more when the first three she threw made it directly into the bowl. She was good at everything. When she ran out, I clapped, thoroughly impressed, and her cheeks turned pink.

"So why did Hiko call Shinta, Kenshin?"

Tomoe glanced down at her hands, lightly resting on the envelope in her lap. "Because Shinta was too feminine a name for a fighter."

My brows shot up. "A fighter?" I knew Hiko taught Shinta to fight, but labeling him a fighter was a bit of a stretch.

Tomoe nodded. "You haven't seen what Shinta is capable of yet, Kaoru. It's quite impressive."

She was right. I'd only caught glimpses of Shinta's skills, but to be fair I had been a little preoccupied with not breathing. "I suppose you're right." I glanced at the bed and the mass of red hair that spilled over the white pillow. His coloring was better, I thought, but I was aching for them to separate and wake up. Those eyes, I wanted to see those eyes. The stone-feeling in my stomach grew bigger and I swallowed, attempting to distract myself from how scared it made me to think I'd never see them again. "Why did Shinta keep his name?"

"That I'm not sure about."

I thought back to Kenshin's reaction when I told him I'd met his doppelganger with the name, Shinta. His reaction spoke louder than words. It didn't take a detective to figure out that was Kenshin's real name.

"That's strange though, isn't it? Hiko calling Shinta, Kenshin?"

"Not as strange as you might think." Tomoe's fingers grasped onto the envelope a little tighter, which caught my eye. She seemed a little nervous.

"Are you okay, Tomoe?" I tilted my head, trying to catch her eye.

She reluctantly handed me the envelope. "Saito didn't want me to show you this yet, but I think you deserve to see it."

As much as I longed to rip it open, that comment made me suddenly nervous, and my fingers gripped it tight to my chest. "Why didn't he want me to see it?"

Finally, her eyes met mine, somehow looking both kind and indifferent at the same time. Sometimes her stoic facial expressions really threw me. "I think because we, at least vaguely, understand what we're dealing with when it comes to Shinta and Kenshin, but right now you're a bit of a mystery, Kaoru."

My brows shot up to my hairline and a sharp laugh bubbled from my lips. "Did you just call me a mystery?"

Tomoe's mouth curled slightly, and she nodded at the envelope. "Open it and see."

Hesitantly, my finger slid across the sealed paper, and I lifted the sheet from inside. It was a photograph of a young man with short dark hair and kind brown eyes, staring directly at the camera. I frowned at it. "I don't understand."

"Look closely, Kaoru. Does he look familiar?"

I studied him again, and suddenly my eyes were drawn to the soft curve of his jaw, his full lips… the tilt of his eyes. "It's Shinta!"

From the corner of my eye I saw Tomoe nod. "Yes."

My brows drew together anxiously. "Why does he look like this?"

"He's undercover." Tomoe glanced over at the bed and tilted her head fractionally. "Shinta was following you, Kaoru."

My mouth fell open. "Excuse me?"

"Saito ordered Shinta to keep an eye on you nearly three years ago."

I gulped, my mouth feeling suddenly dry. Three years? "Why?" I breathed out the question, undecided if I should be unbearably angry or not.

Her head tilted to my fingers, grasping the envelope tightly. "There's more."

I quickly dug through and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper. There was handwritten scribble, done quickly and messily as if written by someone who was in a mad rush. "There's evidence that Kimiya Kaoru and Himura Kenshin married on July 17th 1882."

I stared at the paper until my eyes glossed over and the words became foggy black lines. "What is this?" I whispered, not entirely sure how I should feel. "Who wrote it?"

Tomoe put her hand gently on my shoulder. "We received that three years ago, Kaoru, right when this time-travel debacle started, so we couldn't leave you unprotected. You told me that you feel a connection to Kenshin and Shinta, and this might be the reason." She paused, thinking, and removed her hand from my shoulder. "The question is, how soon after meeting Kenshin did you know you loved him? Because I think there might be more to this than a past life. This focuses on you, but, unlike the others, you haven't time traveled, and you aren't a threat. So why focus on you?"

For a second I couldn't breathe. That was far too much information to handle all at once. Shinta had told me I was in this deeper than I realized, but I never thought it was like this. Did Kenshin marry another me from his time? Or did I go back?

But I didn't love Kenshin. I barely knew Kenshin.

Think, Kaoru… a voice drifted through my subconscious… you know him. You know them both.

I blinked, and slowly shook my head. "This must be a joke. I don't love him," I insisted, feeling that odd panic bubbling up that made my words rush out like a wave. "Has Shinta seen this?"

Tomoe nodded. "Only just before going to stay with you and Yahiko. He didn't know about it before that."

So that's why he looked like he wanted to throw up in the interrogation room? I pressed my lips together. "Well, this means nothing! Where's the proof? Kenshin saved my life, and he's handsome. Maybe I have a little crush on him, but that's it."

"And Shinta?"

"The same."

"Do you really believe it's just a crush?"

"No," I blurted out the word before her question even registered in my head. "I-I mean… I…"

There was a low groan from the bed, and before I could even comprehend what was going on, I was on my feet and rushing to him. His cheek pressed to the pillow roughly, knuckles white from clinching the bedsheets. He looked like he was trying to wake up from a nightmare. My hands hovered over him uncertainly. "Kenshin?" His head flipped to the other side, groaning louder, and I bit down on my lip. "Shinta?!"

Those golden eyes snapped wide open, staring unfocusedly, but directly at me. He frowned first, clearly confused, and whispered uncertainly, "Kaoru?" Suddenly, his brows pulled up as if he were on the verge of tears, and swirls of violet blended in his irises until they were a solid deep purple. He sat up swiftly, head bobbing unsteadily and cupped my face in his hands. At first his eyes were wild, staring at me as if I were a ghost. My entire body instantly lit on fire when he touched me, watching his panic-stricken face transform into a look of pure relief. "You're alive."

My eyes drifted back and forth across his face. There was no chance that I could be mad at him at this moment. "Of course, I'm alive, Ken—Shin—" I wasn't entirely sure who I was speaking to, but I pressed my hands to his, still cupping my face. "Are you okay?"

And that's when I glanced down at the bed. Kenshin still lay there, asleep and unmoving, as Shinta pulled away from him. My eyes went wide, and I grasped ahold of his arm as he stumbled off the bed. We both fell to our knees on the cold floor. Distantly I heard Tomoe's footfalls clicking away, but Shinta's eyes were locked on mine with such fierce intensity that I was completely trapped by them. His thumbs trailed up and down my cheeks over and over, as if he couldn't seem to believe I was real. But then he blinked, and his eyes sluggishly cleared.

"Kaoru," he breathed a sigh of pure relief. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, but his hands stayed on my face, and his forehead bent to mine. "Kenshin has been through hell the past few days, that he has." His voice was barely a whisper, and he kept his eyes closed. This close I could see them moving frantically behind his faintly bruised lids as if he were trying to shift through a vast amount of thoughts.

My fingers gripped his. "Are you okay, Shinta?" I asked again, heart pounding so hard I was sure he could hear it.

His lips curled ever so slightly at my question, but when he opened his eyes they were glazed as they stared into mine. "I don't…" He didn't finish. Instead, he lifted his forehead from mine and let out a long breath through his nose that ruffled his hair. I let go of his hand to push his hair back so I could see his face better, stopping to press my hand to his cheek, and was taken aback to find the faint cross-shaped scar was now trailing across his previously unmarred skin.

But I didn't have time to question that, because when I touched him, his eyes instantly altered into a solid, burning gold.

Everything stopped in that moment. A torrent of emotions flooded through me, from anger, to lust, to sadness, and something akin to a heartbreakingly powerful adoration.

Shinta gently tugged me closer, until we were nose to nose, his breath warm on my face. His thumb found my lower lip, gliding softly across it. My breathing all but stopped when his eyes trailed down to follow the touch. Still he was too far away from me. My knees parted and I found myself straddling Shinta's right leg before my brain even gave my body permission to do so. His breath caught at my movement, and his lips barely brushed mine, causing a shiver to run through my entire body. We stayed that way for a long moment, just breathing on one another, both waiting for the other to back away. When neither of us did, Shinta brushed a feather-light kiss across my lips, and my eyes slowly slid shut. My heart pounded in my chest, unable to take how much I wanted him. With upmost tenderness, he tilted his head and delicately kissed me again. It was the sweetest moment of my life. When our lips parted with a soft suckling, Shinta's eyes slid open, glazed and burning, as they trailed over my face in a sort of new-found wonder. He stopped to press a kiss to the tip of my nose as his fingers traveled to the back of my head, and tangled pleasurably in my hair. I was breathing embarrassingly fast but I didn't care. His nose brushed softly against mine, back and forth, and then his mouth came back to kiss me again. I gripped his shoulders and pressed closer, and when his mouth opened against mine, deepening the kiss, I felt a fire ignite in my body so intensely I completely forgot where we were. Desire spread like liquid fire when I realized his breath was as fast as mine was, and his lips opened to kiss me again. The intensity build swiftly, and soon I was melting into him, completely and utterly lost in his lips. My arms wound around his neck and I pressed closer to him, moaning softly into his mouth when his hands grasped my waist and tugged my body flush against his.

A clear chuckle rang through the room.

Our kissing paused, and Shinta's eyes flashed open. His head snapped over to see Saito standing at the door. Unable to catch my lost breath, my head fell to the crook of his shoulder, and pressed the tips of my fingers to my lips in stunned disbelief. I inhaled his scent, trying to calm my pounding heart, because I was on fire, I just knew it, burning from the inside out.

"Can't say I'm not honored to witness the beginning of the iconic Himura/Kamiya love affair." Saito smirked, and Shinta's eyes narrowed at him as he pulled me even tighter to his body. "Although the filthy floor of a clinic is less than ideal for romance," Saito commented dryly, grimacing at the floor.

I didn't care what Saito said, because in that moment I knew that kiss was going to happen no matter where we were, or who was watching. My body responded to Shinta's so powerfully that it almost scared me, and all I wanted to do was experience that completely unexpected moment again.

It had changed absolutely everything.

Guiltily, I glanced over at where Tomoe had been sitting, and hoped I hadn't offended her. She'd certainly been right. Whatever I was feeling was more than a little crush.

"What do you want, Saito?" Shinta's voice was rough, but his hands cradled me to him, gently trailing circles across my back with his fingertips. Something made me think that he was afraid to stop touching me.

Saito's brow raised. "We need to record what happened when you became Kenshin," he said, leaning back against the wall and watching us with humored scrutiny in his cat-like eyes. "We need his memories."

To be continued…

Dun dun duuuuuuun!