Prompt: Role Reversal

Fandom: Rurouni Kenshin

Setting: Modern AU, CURSED CAT verse 2 (continues "That damn cat")

Characters: Kenshin Himura, Kaoru Kamiya

Word count: 991


"…and from now on, one will live a respectable life, this one said." A man known as Kenshin Himura muttered amidst his desperate panting. Gods, every breath he took hurt! However, if he stopped now, there was no way he could muster the strength to shoulder the dead body in the fireman's carry again.

He had been faced with unlikely situations many times before, but today topped the list of bizarre. And to think that everything had begun only this afternoon, when had stumbled across the dead cat on the street. Its body had been still warm and seemingly unharmed, so of course he had done what any responsible person would have.

The next thing he could recall was waking up to the sight of paramedics taking away his body, covering it with sheet and declaring it dead… while he was left trapped in the black furred substitute. Given what was usually done in morgue in case of a mysterious death, he hadn't been left with many options and in all honestly, he could have never saved himself without the unwitting help of that young lady…

Well, at least the worst was over now and he was back at the apartment complex where he had left his only chance of fixing this mess. The elevator pinged and he stepped out, pausing briefly to orient himself better. While he had been in a hurry when he had left, this did seem like the right place.

"Kamiya Kaoru, huh?" he noted the door sign and tried to ignore the pang of regret. "Hopefully she will listen to a reason…"

Laying the body on the living room floor, Kenshin straightened and slipped longer strands of black hair behind his ear. Stripping off his wet overcoat and hanging it to dry, he determinately avoided looking down at his perky breasts. Given how he hadn't even tried to figure out the bras earlier, he was now painfully aware that his sweaty t-shirt wouldn't hide a thing.

Then all the reasonable delays of the inevitable gone, he hesitantly knocked the bathroom door, "Miss Kamiya, this unworthy one has returned, that he has."

The hissing behind the door was his only answer, and he swallowed. Well, she certainly doesn't sound happy…

However, he had already done her a great injustice and holding her captive longer would be despicable. So, he opened the door and in the blink of an eye the slippery beast was out and – "Aaaaaah!"

Her claws dug into his flesh painfully as she climbed him like a tree, but her mad spitting face was worse, hissing at him like a demon spawn from hell. Kenshin gasped, tears he would have never thought himself even capable of shedding, stinging in his eyes. "This one is sorry, that he is! Please, Miss, just listen – "

Her hiss deepened to a low, primal growl. However, it was progress of a sort, and not about to waste his chance, Kenshin glanced to the dead body lying on the carpet. "This one has wronged against you, that's true – but right now it would be best for both of us to return to our own bodies, that it would. "

Her yellow eyes couldn't have seemed more distrustful is she had tried, but she fell silent and finally glanced at the body too.

After an eternity, the death grip she had on his skin eased and with a relieved sigh, he took the cat carefully into his arms. Then he knelt and set it free to investigate, while he covertly rubbed the slightly bleeding scratches it had left on his skin. He would have to make sure to clean the wounds properly, but later.

Right now nothing was more urgent than figuring out how to return them both to their rightful bodies. The cat seemed to agree, as it had already climbed on top of the body's chest and was staring intently into its face. Sighing tiredly, Kenshin knelt next to the body as well and remarked softly, "this one doesn't know why the change happens. However, the last thing one remembers was trying to resuscitate that cat."

"Meowr…?"

If the cat had eyebrows, both of them would be raised in disbelief and Kenshin couldn't help the smile that tugged his lips. Scoffing, he shook his head, "It was rather stupid, one admits. But if there is something to be done to help, this one won't ever step aside, that's so."

The cat tilted its head in consideration, narrowed its eyes… and Kenshin blushed brightly and looked aside. Rubbing his neck, he admitted, "kissing always works in movies and such. It was only logical to try it, that it was. Please be assured that this one found no pleasure whatsoever kissing his own body, that one didn't."

He didn't know what he expected this woman turned into a cat to do, but the strange sound that followed his embarrassing confession definitely wasn't in the list. Blinking in surprise, he raised his gaze to meet a cat that was… err, laughing?

"Oro…?"

She shook her head, covering her face with a paw and he didn't think he had ever seen anything as bizarrely charming. But then the moment was over and she sobered, resolutely walked closer to the body's face and leaned forward.

A desperate hope churning in his gut, Kenshin watched the cat's muzzle touch the body's chilled lips, and then it's violet eyes blinked open.

"Thank god, it worked! Miss Kaoru -" He leaned forward. But of sudden her eyes locked into his, and she grabbed the front of his shirt and locked her lips onto his.

"Mnnnn!"

His weak protest went unheard, and frowning, she let go and grumbled in his voice. "Why the fuck didn't it work?"

"The body has to be unoccupied!"Kenshin wheezed and a raging blush on his cheeks, looked to the side, where the feline's body had fallen, but –

"The cat is gone?!"