Standard disclaimers apply. I'm just borrowing the characters. I don't get anything out of this…I'm still a very broke college student.

A Date With A Senpai

Chapter 4

I'm more determined

To capture your fragile heart

The more you push me away

Kenshin was preparing their breakfast. He didn't get much of a sleep last night, but he was used to it. Twice he had gone to Kaoru's room. First he checked up on her if she was still awake. After arranging the blanket that she had kicked off during her sleep, he had vowed to stay in his room for the rest of the night.

And the second time…he just wanted to watch her. He was trying to ignore the fact that his nightly visits to her room were becoming more frequent. He was starting to get used to being with her in the lonely hours of the night and sometimes even until dawn. Just there, watching her sleep.

Yahiko stood in the kitchen doorway rubbing his eyes. "Ohayou Kenshin. What's for breakfast?"

Kenshin turned towards him and smiled, "The usual. Miso soup and sashimi with daikons."

Yahiko cringed and made a face. "Well, at least that's a whole lotta better than one of Busu's poisonous concoctions"

"You're up earlier Yahiko. This is the first time you had woken up before Kaoru-dono. Must be excited with your practice today then."

"Heh, Kaoru's gonna get it this time. I've perfected the moved she was teaching me last week. It'll be a nice little revenge for the bump in my head." He announced plopping himself on the floor and drinking the tea on the table, not much caring that it was Kenshin's and for the fact that he hadn't even asked if he could drink, not that Kenshin would actually mind.

"Oro!" Kenshin said and smiled at Yahiko. He was indeed getting better these past few days and he had personally seen his improvement. Kaoru is certainly a good teacher, one of the things about her that he admired. "Yahiko would you mind if you go and wake Kaoru-dono up. It's already past her waking time. She has an early class at Yaminobu-san's dojo. I'd hate it if she missed breakfast."

Yahiko grumbled but stood up from his position. "Busu sleeps like a log. What a great sensei! She makes me wake up even before dawn and she gets to snooze off until what time she pleases!" His face suddenly light up and an impish smile started to grow out of his face.

Kenshin knew that look. "And Yahiko, try not to douse her with water this time. She might get a cold or something."

Yahiko was already half way out of the dojo when he turned and smiled at Kenshin, "I wouldn't do that. I'd hate it if you worry about her too much. I'll try to think of something else, ne Kenshin?" with that he hastily left the room, conjuring up ideas on how to annoy Kaoru.

"Oro!"

Kaoru glared at Yahiko.

Yahiko smiled back benevolently.

They had started eating breakfast and were almost done. All throughout breakfast Kenshin had thought of what Yahiko could have done to Kaoru to get her up and get her mad. The brawl that ensured after Kenshin asked Yahiko to wake Kaoru was enough to get the attention of some of their neighbors. One even suggested of getting the police, which of course Kenshin had politely declined. By the time the fight had ended both Kaoru and Yahiko were swearing like lunatics. He mentally cringed at that. Maybe it wasn't good for Kaoru and Yahiko to hang out with Sanosuke, they both tend to pick up some of Sano's favorite words. "Ok you two. Tell me what happened so we can work this out."

"Nah, I'll wait for Sano. He'll absolutely die after he hears this." Yahiko said with a wave of his hand.

Die? Had he heard Yahiko right? He turned towards Kaoru who had a permanent scowl etched on her face. "Kaoru-dono?"

"Like she'll tell you about this one!" Yahiko said through three balls of onigiri stuffed in his mouth.

Kaoru clenched her teeth. The stupid boy had read Ichiro's love letter. Her face flamed as she remembered waking up only to find Yahiko peering over her a big smile plastered on his face and started reciting Ichiro's letter to her word per word. 'Oooooh that stupid, stupid idiot!'

"Jou-chan! Kenshin! Hey anybody home!"

"In here Sano!" Kenshin called out.

"Baka! Of course he knows where we are. The first place he'd ever enter here in the dojo is the kitchen." Kaoru mumbled.

"Hiya minna!" Sano said sitting down beside Kaoru. He received a greeting form everyone but Kaoru. "Ignoring me again ne Jou-chan?"

"Hmmph!" Kaoru said crossing her arms.

"Ah! This is about the teasing last night. C'mon Jou-chan don't get too upset. You are kawaii and you know that. So, am I forgiven now?"

"You mean: Can I eat now?" Kaoru said rolling her eyes a faint smile on her lips.

"Kenshin, your woman is bright!" Sano said as he leaned towards the rurouni giving Kenshin a mighty slap on the back.

"Oro!" Kenshin said noticing Kaoru blush. She does look kawaii, especially when she does that. He relished the encouraging look on Kaoru's lowered eyes.

"Ah, rooster head, your timing is impeccable!" Yahiko said using the word he had heard from Dr. Genzai the other day.

Sano looked at him disdainfully. "Nice use of words brat." He turned towards the meal. "Hmmm not exactly food at the Akabeko, but this'll do." He began to reach out for the tray of sashimi when Yahiko promptly snatched it way. "Oi! What d'ya think you're doing?"

"Listen up Punk. I got into too much trouble just to get…" he noticed the quizzical look on Kenshin and Kaoru's face. "Uh, I mean…we'll talk about this later." He let go of the tray and watched as Sano wolfed down the food. He couldn't believe Sano would forget the plan rooster boy himself had thought of.

Yahiko really didn't just read Ichiro's letter to annoy busu, he had, or rather, they had far better intentions as to why he had read and memorized the sappy mushy love letter. Then again, Sano was just probably pretending that he did not have any idea to what he's saying. He smiled as realization hit him, 'of course! We're supposed to pretend everything is just as it was yesterday. Or else Busu might get an impression that we're up to something.' Which of course wasn't true! He turned back at Sano to give him a sign that he understood his approach on keeping their plan a secret but ended up gawking at the man in front of him.

They were all busy watching Sano with fascination as he gulped down one food from the other with a blink of the eye, asking themselves if what he was doing was indeed humanly possible that they didn't notice their new early visitor.

"My! You left your manners at the street Rooster Boy. But I'm afraid it ran away." Megumi announced.

"It's too early for this Fox. But it's obvious that you missed me already that you came all the way here just to see me. Was last night not enough?" Sano asked her coyly his eyes following her as she squeezed herself in between him and Kenshin.

"I should've asked that question. I mean, you were practically bawling like a baby last night when you left the clinic. What's the matter?" Megumi asked innocently at the wide-eyed Sanosuke.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Sano grumbled, his comment wasn't supposed to be used against him!

"Can we please have a normal, peaceful breakfast today?" Kaoru asked.

Sano nodded in approval. "Jou-chan is right. We were having a pretty normal meal until you came." He accused childishly puffing his chest rather proudly.

'Men!' Kaoru and Megumi both thought as they shook their heads and rolled their eyes.

"Normal? When did this dojo ever become normal? Starting with the tanuki owner and her adoptee, aside of course from Kenshin here," Megumi said finding her way into Kenshin's arms. "this place is everything but normal."

"Uh…Megumi-dono…" Kenshin began as he tried to untangle Megumi from her embrace, he notice the color rising to Kaoru's face. She was no longer blushing. She was mad.

"Megumi! Get your hands off Kenshin! Now!" Kaoru said through clenched teeth.

"I don't see why I should. You don't see him complaining now do you?" Megumi retorted.

"Oi, Megumi foxes aren't know for being this sociable." Sano muttered somewhat darkly.

Megumi gave him a condensing smile but took off her arms around the red head. "You guys are so on the old age. Hmmph! Well, I didn't come here just to see three squabbling adults." She said eyeing Yahiko.

The child approved, at least one of them is treating him like an adult.

"I dropped by to say that someone came to my clinic." She continued mysteriously.

"So? We don't have to keep weekly tabs on who went to your clinic, now do we?" Sano said mimicking her, he raised his eyebrows challenging her with his eyes.

"Oh! You're such a baby Sanosuke! This won't interest you at all as it this has got nothing to do with sake or gambling…or whatever that perks up your mind…but this will greatly be of interest for Tanuki-chan here."

All was waiting for Megumi to continue. Kenshin was silent as ever. Kaoru crossed her arms and impatiently said, "Well, the suspense is killing me."

"Your Ichiro-san dropped by today. It seems that you have mentioned my medical skills to Tomizawa-sensei and he had sent his number one student to fetch me and have him examined."

Kaoru narrowed her eyes "Is Tomizawa-sensei alright?"

"Yup, sure is. He just wanted to ask me for some medicinal herbs for his back ache."

"And…"

"And I found out that Ichiro is quite a famous senpai at his dojo. Good looking too. Charming indeed." Megumi said examining the ends of her hair folded on her fingers. "From what I heard and from what I have personally seen, he seems to be a good guy. Sure, a year younger than you, but maybe a date won't hurt. Ne Kenshin?"

Asking Kenshin about that one was probably uncalled for, but Megumi wasn't known for being Ms. Tact. Everyone was expectantly looking at the silent rurouni.

Everyone except Kaoru that is.

She was slightly miffed at Megumi's lack of sensitivity and made it known by giving the young doctor one of the iciest looks she could muster which was answered by a defiant toss of Megumi's hair. Holding her breath she stared at her folded hands, she really didn't want Kenshin to answer at all. Deep in her, she knew what the answer would be; she just didn't know how she'd take it.

"Hai." Kenshin finally answered after what seemed like an eternity. "It would be nice for Kaoru-dono to go out once in a while. If Megumi-dono trusts this guy, I don't know why we shouldn't." he said in the most normal voice he could muster. He looked up to find the mixed reactions from his friend. Sano was giving him the wide-eyed 'you-fucking-idiot!' glare. Yahiko's 'couldn't-care-what-busu-would-do-for-kicks-just-don't-let-her-near-my-food' look was obvious even at a distance of ten feet. Megumi was somewhere between disappointment and surprise and a slight 'I-know-he'd-say-that!' look.

Kenshin however can't bring himself to look straight at Kaoru, knowing the hurt he'd find in her ocean-blue eyes.

He wouldn't look at her. 'Well, then, fine!' Kaoru thought curling her small hands into tight ball of fists. 'He doesn't care. He made that clear.' She straightened her back and let out a small sniff, just enough to show a fraction of how she truly felt. What she in fact wanted was to shake Kenshin's head and scream: "Kenshin no baka! I don't want to go out with Ichiro! But you're making me!'

With a haughty toss of her raven hair Megumi looked at the silent supposed to be but still non-couple, "Well, anyway Ichiro had asked me to pass a message to you. He said he'd like to meet with you at the Akabeko this lunch. So if I were you I'd finish breakfast and then go to Yaminobu-sensei's dojo, come back before lunch and get Tae-san to help you dress up and look your best. Kami knows how hard that'll be for Tae-san." she paused and looked straight into Kaoru's blue eyes. "That is if you are going to accept Ichiro-san's date." She said a challenge in her voice.

"Fine. I'll do just that." Kaoru announced ignoring Megumi's insult.

Sano's jaw dropped. He never thought that the tanuki would actually go out with this guy. "Aw, but Jou-cahn, he's just a kid! It'll be like dating…" he looked around and forced himself not give Kenshin another dirty look, "It'll be like dating Yahiko-chan here!" he said hoping Kenshin would take the hint and discourage Kaoru.

It was Yahiko who had violently reacted and not the wanderer. "Don't you CHAN me you Punk!"

Kenshin remained silent, innocently picking up the empty dishes. Sano rolled his eyes and cursed.

"Age doesn't matter Sano." Kaoru said, her eyes speaking volumes.

'Yatta! Right on target Jou-chan!' Sano thought nodding in agreement. "Well, that's a good point."

Megumi stood up, "I guess it's decided now. You're going on your first date. Though you annoy me most of the time, drop by at the clinic, we have a few things to discuss about."

"Like what?" Kaoru asked confused. What was there to discuss with a date. You just eat dinner and before you know it, all is over and you go home. What's the catch?

"Like stuff you do on a date." Megumi said in an impatient voice.

"What exactly do you do on a date that I should have to discuss with you, of all people?" Kaoru asked standing up as well facing Megumi.

Brown met blue.

"Oh, lot's of things Kaoru. There's flirting, holding each other's hand, staring deeply into each other's eyes, using terms of endearments and…" she said pausing for effect, anxiously awaiting the reaction her little speech would generate.

"And…"

With a particularly wicked smile Megumi provided the last thing included on her list.

"And of course, kissing!"

Both Kenshin and Kaoru visibly paled.

Prompting the ringing laughter that erupted from the three very willing very amused audience.

End Note: Part 4 is finished. I apologize for any spelling and grammar errors that I might've missed. Again comments and suggestions are essentially needed and openly accepted.