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Angle brackets denote italics, which denote thoughts, narration, or emphasis according to context.
Hi everyone! This is to be the second installment in the second installment of my RK role-reversal fics. Please enjoy, and feel free to send C&C to lechuza@herzeleid.net .
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[ADULT ROMANCE] Role Reversal, Version 2 Part 2 (Kenshin x Kaoru)
Although the afternoon went by peacefully, things got progressively weirder as evening set in.
Kaoru had elected to cook dinner that night, leading to much cringing and complaining from Yahiko. To his rapt astonishment, she had merely ignored his taunts and went right on seasoning the wok.
As Sanosuke walked up the front pathway leading through the dojo's garden, he sniffed the air. Savory smells were emanating from the kitchen, making his stomach rumble mightily.
Must be Kenshin's night to cook.
Striding in to the dojo, he poked his head around the corner of the kitchen doorway and promptly face-faulted. Kaoru was the one standing near the fire, poking at the bits of tofu and vegetables with a pair of porcealin cooking chopsticks. Wincing, he wandered off to find Kenshin. Smells could be deceiving.
The rurouni was out in the courtyard, chasing around a stunned Yahiko.
"BAKA!" The usually soft voice was raised, and he was brandishing a shinai. It was probably lucky for Yahiko that his sakabatou wasn't around, because he was being chased furiously. But there was none of the Hiten Misturugi Ryu god-speed here. Kenshin even tripped over a rock!
"Kami-sama," Yahiko panted. "You're acting just like busu."
Kenshin stood up and sniffed derisively at the boy, wrinkling his cute nose. "I'm sure she doesn't like being called that. You're always so insensitive!" Provoked, Yahiko pulled his mouth at Kenshin and got chased off with the shinai once more. This left a gaping Sano staring at Kenshin's purple-clad form as he ran off after the boy.
This is creepy.
Shaking his head slowly, Sano went back to the kitchen. Kaoru hummed a sunny melody to herself as she tossed the delicious-smelling composition onto a wooden platter. Then she turned, noticing him for the first time.
"Oh, hello Sano! You're just in time for dinner!"
"Um…your cooking doesn't suck tonight, does it?" Sano only halfway expected to be clobbered for his remark; and indeed, Kaoru barely seemed to notice. She smiled brightly at him and set the platter of food down.
"I suppose that depends on who you ask." Wiping her hands on a rag, she wandered out to the back doorway.
"KENSHIN! YAHIKO! DINNER IS READY!"
A disheveled pair of swordsman wandered back in, huffing and puffing. Yahiko was decorated with scuff marks and knots on the head from the shinai Kenshin had been brandishing. The redhead plopped himself down in front of the low table to eat.
Snagging a piece of tofu with his chopsticks, Sano bit in tentatively.
This is unreal.
It was delicious!
The fact didn't go unnoticed by Yahiko, either. He was looking oddly at Kaoru. But neither she nor Kenshin seemed to think anything was out of the ordinary. Pleasantly surprised, Yahiko began scarfing down his dinner. Kenshin looked up from his own rice bowl to berate him.
"Baka, you always eat too quickly. You're going to make yourself sick."
Yahiko ignored him and continued gobbling his food, earning him a smack over the head.
"Maa, maa…" In a gentle voice, Kaoru tried to soothe rapidly flaring tempers, but it didn't do any good. The two fell upon each other in a dust cloud of scratching and kicking. Luckily, Kenshin seemed to have lost his legendary hitokiri abilities, and both emerged unscathed, albeit panting.
Sano left much earlier than usual that night, thoroughly freaked out. Kenshin sent Yahiko off to bed with a thwack from the shinai, seemingly ignoring the sakabatou in his room. Unlike usual, Kaoru was content merely to stare into the fire, while Kenshin found himself fiddling with a shinai. And he couldn't keep his eyes off Kaoru.
I wonder if she can feel my love for her.
The out-of-place thought didn't disturb Kenshin as it should have. His feelings for her had simmered closer to the surface than ever since he'd put on her hair ribbon, even if she was acting weird. Of course, it never occurred to him that he was acting just as oddly.
Standing up with a stretch and a sigh, Kaoru smiled down at the handsome swordsman.
"Oyasumi, Kenshin…I need to get some sleep so I can do the laundry early in the morning."
"Oyasumi."
Watching her float down the hallway to her bedroom, Kenshin could only stare. What was it about her gentle smile and quiet blue eyes that made him burn so much inside?
Despite the lack of company, Kenshin found himself unable to sleep. Sighing, he stepped outside to look at the moon and stars, hugging a blanket tightly around his thin shoulders. Their light had never been so painfully beautiful, or so compelling. His thoughts quickly wandered back to Kaoru, sleeping peacefully on her futon.
"Kenshin…"
A startled squeak escaped Kenshin as he heard the soft voice behind him. Turning, he saw her standing there behind him, wrapped in a dark blue robe over her light sleeping yukata.
"Kaoru, you startled me." No sessha wa. Just "me." As though he were finally coming to realize that he was not merely an object to be used in fighting battles and laundry.
"Gomen nasai." Her gentle smile made him ache with longing. Placing her hands on his shoulders, she adjusted the blanket to cover him more fully. The sudden tingling warmth came from a lot more than the thickly woven cotton. Before Kenshin could restrain himself and his suddenly reckless, slippery mind, he had lowered his mouth and was kissing her with all these months of frustrating, pent-up passion.
And she leaned into his kiss, her response more eager and loving than he had ever dared to hope for. Their warmth became intertwined, exchanging and flowing through every pore of their closely pressed bodies, ignoring clothing and cold alike in favor of the sweetness of newfound pleasure. The chill at his back made Kenshin tighten his hold around the delicate flower in his embrace, warrior skills suddenly screaming at him to protect her.
Finally, he was able to open his eyes and break the kiss. Kaoru remained nuzzled close to him, looking up into his starry violet eyes. He looked confused and flushed, disoriented and desirable.
"Kaoru-dono?"
The old, familiar feelings of guilt and unworthiness were settling themselves in his stomach like boulders tumbling down a mountainside, irreversably drawn by the gravity emanating from years of pain. But he could already see that it didn't matter now.
"Aishiteru." He had ached to hear the words for months, seemingly years, since the day he had come to the Kamiya Dojo. And now they reverbrated in his ears, crystallizing into a dripping sweetness that his love-starved soul lapped up like a starving animal. Holding her even more tightly, he slid down to the floor, burying his face in her chest.
"Kaoru…"
Smoothing her fingers over his flame-bright hair, Kaoru smiled. The serenity of the odd day was gone, filling her once more with the worries of her everyday existence. But it didn't matter now. The barriers had been broken, no, destroyed.
The sakaba had finally been sheathed by the blue ribbon, a deeper, brighter blue than the sash Tomoe had worn and been. And in the embrace of the young woman he had dreamed of for so long, Kenshin finally knew the beginnings of a glorious peace.