Theme: Relocate
Theme: Relocate
Setting: Reverse Arc
Pairing: KK
Warnings: None
Notes: Dedicated to kokoronagomu, who first gave me the idea and got me thinking.
Words: 2,171
66. Relocate
"You're very lucky, Kaoru." Sae murmured as she pressed a packet of food into Kaoru's arms. "Are you sure you won't stay the night for once? Even if you can defend yourself, there are plenty of risks for a woman wandering alone at night in such terrible times. Your father certainly would have agreed with me."
"I'll be fine. It's a short walk home. Thank you for the food, Sae-san. I really appreciate all you've done for me. Giving me a job and all..."
"It's nothing, Kaoru. Just be careful, all right? I don't want anything to happen to you."
"I will. Good night, Sae-san." Kaoru left the restaurant, clutching her bundle of food in one hand and holding onto her bokken with the other. She probably wouldn't need it, but still. Walking the war torn streets of Kyoto was a frightening prospect.
It made her long for her real home; a dojo in Tokyo. She had thought it would be her home forever, but after war had claimed her father's life, she had had no choice but to flee. After spending some time with a family friend, Tae, she'd been forced to leave again. The Akabeko had been attacked and in the wake of the disaster Tae couldn't shelter her. The older woman was kind, and sent her to stay her twin sister, Sae.
Now she lived in a shack tucked behind an inn. It was very small, but once she got a fire going in her little pit, it was warm and h could sleep, curled up in ball. It didn't really matter; what had made her old home special was her father, and his work. Her only prized possessions, a few silk hair ribbons and her bokken, were with her.
It was a rainy night, with dark clouds that matched her mood. Business had been slower today, which meant her paycheck would be lower. Sae did her best. But Kaoru understood that she was an extra employee, hired for pity. She needed the money, so she never complained. One day, she might be able to reopen the dojo and earn her own way; until then, she'd make the best of what she had.
Her father would definitely have done the same.
"Hmm?" She heard voices, soft ones from up ahead. She had to turn that corner to reach her home., or risk wandering into a bad part of town. Summoning all her courage, she slipped as quietly as possible to the corner, and slid around it, staying near the wall.
There was a blur and a wet, hard sound. Like someone was hacking a chunk of fresh meat. The rain was suddenly harder, for a brief second. Big, fat droplets splashed across her face, her body...why was the rain so warm?
Blood. Dripping off of a sleek silver blade. She followed that blade to the face of it's owner, and froze. There were too many rumors of him for her to not know who he really was. Oh, God.
"So it's true." Kaoru whispered, reaching up to touch her cheek and feeling the blood splashed across it. "You really do make it rain blood."
Surprise, and then turmoil danced across his features, but she couldn't register any of it. Her hands were shaking, and the night seemed to be closing in on her.
And then everything went dead.
--
"Are you awake? Trying to fake sleep won't do you any good; some swordsman is bound to come in and try and show off by detecting that you're awake. Best get up if you can. Of course, if you're injured, that's quite another story..."
The loud, bossy voice of a woman penetrated her still hazy mind. Numbly, she listened to the speech and then stared blankly at the ceiling, ignoring her. She knew that in a second or so, memories would click and she would know why and how she was here.
It had been raining blood.
Kaoru jerked wildly upright, covering her mouth with her hand. Why wasn't she dead? She'd witnessed the Hitokiri Battousai kill someone!
"Where...where am I?" She asked the other woman, trying her best to not seem panicky. It wasn't working.
"At my inn. Can you stand, girl?"
"Ye-Yes." She struggled for a moment, then stood up shakily. Come to think of it, she was hungry. She was also in clean clothes that didn't quite fit, and her bokken was gone.
"Well, since you bothered to donate food to my inn, you can stay, and work here. I always do need more help." The innkeeper busied herself with straightening the room. It was a small, dim one, with dark wall lined with numerous shelves and a tiny table with a flower vase. It seemed to be a storage room for dishes.
"Donate...?" So that was what had happened to Sae's present. "Right. And my bokken?"
"You don't need it to work at an inn, girl." The innkeeper responded. "G into the kitchen and help serve lunch, then you can get breakfast."
"It was my father's." Kaoru insisted. She stood her ground. The innkeeper looked at her for the first time, apparently not expecting anything but meek obedience.
"I won't destroy it; whenever you leave you can take it with you. Off with you, now." She made a shooing motion with her hand.
"I need it. How am I supposed to defend myself otherwise?"
"Defend yourself? It takes years of training to properly use one of those. Just watching your father mess with it won't do you much good."
"I was the assistant master until he died. Then I fled to a family friend's home because most of our students were already gone to war. I can handle it well enough."
The innkeeper scowled. She understood that she had lost this battle, and it displeased her. "I'm Minako. You call me Innlady. Do you understand, girl?"
"Yes, ma'am." Kaoru replied. "Where is my bokken?"
"Himura has it. You can find him and get it later."
--
"Is it true?"
"Is what true?" Kenshin snapped. He was in no mood to deal with Iizuka, especially since he was fairly certain this was going to be painfully idiotic or humiliating. Or both.
"That you came home with a real, live woman last night." The field agent said with satisfaction, putting emphasis on the words 'real, live woman.' The assassin closed his eyes briefly and then replied.
"No, Iizuka. I came home with a dead one." Leaving him to ponder that response, Kenshin picked up his pace and headed into lunch. Maybe if he was lucky, he could sit between two people and Iizuka couldn't follow him in.
Who was he kidding? No one would want to sit near him; he was lucky they let him eat with the men. He wasn't exactly good for morale.
"Hey, Kenshin! I didn't realize you had a sense of humor!"
"I don't." It seemed he'd learned something besides swordsmanship from Shishou after all. Like how to lie baldly with no change in expression. He could recall a certain discussion about...no. He wasn't ever going to relive that painful moment again. Babies came from trees? Yeah, right.
The two sat down and took up their bowls of rice. As they ate, Iizuka decided to attempt to wrest some details of last night out of him.
"Is that her?" The woman he'd brought back was right there, helping serve. She kept throwing him dirty looks. This surprised him, but didn't bother him- he'd been preparing for a nervous breakdown. Hatred he could deal with. "She's as mean as you are. What was she like- don't scare me like that! There's no need to give me the death glare!"
"What death-glare? Iizuka, are you drunk?"
"You're in a bad mood today. Was she that bad?" Iizuka pointed conspiratorially at Kaoru, who noticed the motion and blushed slightly. Were they talking about her? "Hey, you're the new girl, right? Did you really sleep with Himura?"
"What?" She dropped the ladle she was carrying. Kenshin put down his bowl and stood up, trying to limit the damage Iizuka could do. But it was too late.
"Ow!" Iizuka yelled. "She threw her ladle at me!"
"You deserved it, you- you- I don't even know words for how completely AWFUL you are!"
--
"Your woman is crazy, Himura." Iizuka complained, rubbing his bruised head sadly. "Damn."
"It's your own fault for embarrassing her." Kenshin replied idly. "Do I have an assignment tonight?"
"No, but you will tomorrow."
"Alright." Kenshin headed back to his own room, inwardly mulling over all that had happened since he'd dragged her out of the rain. A part of him was insisting this was a very, very bad situation, and another was saying he ought to have left her and another was wondering if sleeping with her was a bad idea after all.
The latter part of his brain was promptly silenced.
As if the fates were feeling particularly cruel today, there she was, sweeping up his room.
"I'll be out of your way in a moment." She said hurriedly, refusing to look him in the eye. He wasn't surprised.
"Take as much time as you need." He answered.
"Oh- thank you. Not just now but...you did save me so...I suppose you are nice, even if you are an assassin."
--
Warily, he ducked into his room. It was quiet- too quiet, some stupidly morbid and overdramatic part of his mind hissed- and that usually meant that Kaoru was either working or changing. She was hardly likely to be changing in the middle o f the afternoon, so hopefully he could get into his room and avoid her beating on him... He hoped.
"EEK!" Blushing, he ducked out of the room just as quickly. Why was she changing her clothes at this time, anyways? Now he was really going to get it. He braced himself for the screaming and beating he was going to get in just seconds. Why hadn't he burned that damn bokken of hers when he'd had the chance? Her aim was downright uncanny...
"This is the third time this month you've walked in on me dressing! What is your stupid problem?"
"There's a screaming woman who keeps dressing at odd hours and trying to bludgeon me to death living in my room, that's what the problem is. DO you think I'm doing this on purpose?"
"Oh, so now I'm ugly, am I? Get back here so I can beat you, you pervert!"
--
"Did you and Battousai have a lover's spat, Kaoru?" One of the men asked during dinner that evening. The assassin in question was on an assignment, and Kaoru was doing her best to shake the heavy feeling that always accompanied his absence. Their room felt oddly quiet, and the place where he slept seemed foreboding- as if he guarded some gate that leaked evil into the room without his presence to dissipate it.
"Lover's spat? Oh...oh no...Nothing happened." She was aware of the fact that she was babbling, but right now her mind was dwelling on something else. A stranger- am an with a generic face and voice- backing into a wall, as a figure advanced on him, wielding his blade with deadly intent...
A slash, a splash, blood pouring out across the ground like the wind sweeping up leaves.
Her hands, clutching at the serving spoon, shook. The men gave her curious glances but said nothing. What had that been? Never before had she imagined anything so clearly...and the daydream came again, except now it was her cowering before him...her body crumpling across the bloody streets...his face, with a long slit down one side, bleeding freely...
She dropped the spoon with a clang and jumped at the noise. God, she must be going mad, shut up in this inn. Someone asked her if she was alright, and she blindly replied yes, she was fine, even though suddenly she wanted nothing more than to scream.
Kaoru rose, leaving the serving to the other girl, and ignored the dirty look she received from her fellow worker. Instead, she walked slowly to his- it was suddenly difficult to think of it as theirs- room. It was neat, and clean, with her futon folded in one corner. She laid it out and crawled, after changing, into it. The warmth she sought wouldn't come, and every shadow seemed to flicker as thought alive...
"Kaoru?" Silently, he was back, stepping through the door as though from thin air. She sat up, lightly. If her robe was a little farther open than she would have liked, or her face was uncharacteristically flushed, she took no notice of it. "I heard you were sick at dinner."
"I'm fine." She said, and he knelt down at her side. Kaoru looked closely at him and couldn't suppress a sharp gasp.
"What is it, Kaoru?" Running down the side of his face was a long, thin cut...identical to the one she had imagined earlier...
--
Well, while being without internet thanks to Linksys (die, die, DIE!) I wrote. Thus, the Reverse Arc, where you subtract Tomoe, add Kaoru, and let it go. Hopefully this makes some sense.
Review! ...from the ever-Linksys-hating chickentyrant5.
