What's Wrong With Poetry
Kaoru was awake before Sanosuke got back to the dojo the next day, sobbing her eyes out. Yahiko watched on, a mournful expression on his face.
Sanosuke was annoyed. He'd intended to get back to the Kamiya Dojo before Kaoru woke up and could start bawling again. That would have made his day's work easier. Now he was going to have to get her out of her despondency again. "Woman? You're still at this? I thought you got over this silly crying fit yesterday!"
"I didn't!" Kaoru shook her head spraying tears everywhere. "Kenshin is still gone, isn't he?! I'll never get over him until he comes back to me!"
"That's just stupid," Sanosuke knelt down beside Kaoru. "If you keep this up then by the time Kenshin comes back you'll have premature wrinkles, sagging skin, and bad teeth. That's what crying does to you, you know."
"No it doesn't!" Kaoru slapped at Sanosuke.
He caught her hand. "Of course it does. That's the only way to explain how you gotten so much uglier since the last time I saw you. You stayed up crying like a baby, didn't you?"
"No I didn't," Kaoru's anger cut through her misery at the meamory of the fighting cats from the night before.
"What did you do then? Eat some more of your nasty cooking? That'll strip the years away from you too, you know. You're a really lousy cook."
"What are you complaining for?! You get to eat here free and you're not even one of my students!"
"I wouldn't want to be. Yahiko's not getting any training. He's going to end up picking pockets again if you don't give him some real training."
""He is not!" Kaoru jumped to her feet at that remark. "The only good thing about not having lots of students is that I can focus my attention on the few that I have! Yahiko has made more progress than any of my other students ever have!"
"He won't continue to if you don't teach him," Sanosuke remained seated. "Are you going to let him fall back to the last level he was at while you weep your life away?"
"I'm not weeping my life away!" Kaoru proclaimed indignantly.
"Funny. When I came in it looked like that was exactly what you were doing," Sanosuke remarked.
"I was just about to get up and give him some pre-breakfast training! Then you came in here and got me talking!" Kaoru stormed over to a chest where she kept her training clothes. "Now get out while I change!"
"Then you'll teach Yahiko?" Sanosuke asked.
"Yes!"
"Just don't teach him to cook," Sanosuke advised.
Kaoru was kept raving mad all day that day, as well as all of the next. Sanosuke and Yahiko made sure that she had absolutely no opportunities to cry and sink into self pity. When Sanosuke arrived on the fourth day, Kaoru was already up and cooking breakfast. Kaoru was getting better, Sanosuke decided, since she'd had free time for herself and hadn't spent it crying over Kenshin. Now he could afford to be a little nicer to her, and encourage her, without having to worry about indulging her with pity.
"You're not looking quite so ugly this morning, Kaoru," he said, making her jump. She hadn't heard him come up behind her. "Though I'm sure that whatever you're cooking will be just as disgusting as usual."
"Jerk," Kaoru scowled at him.
"I've never denied being a jerk," Sanosuke sat beside her. "Where's the kid?"
"Yahiko's weeding the garden. The eggplants are being over-run by weeds."
"I see."
"I miss him, Sanosuke," Kaoru said suddenly.
"Why? He's only weeding the garden. Surely you can stand to be parted from your favorite student for an hour-"
"Not Yahiko! Kenshin!" Kaoru threw a punch at Sanosuke. "I miss him."
Sanosuke blocked Kaoru's punch with his open palm. "It's understandable that you miss him, Kaoru. I'm sure that Kenshin misses you too. It's alright to miss someone- I've lost so many people that I've cared about, so I should know. What's wrong is when you think that you can't go on without someone. There is no one in the world that you can't go on without."
"That's not true," Kaoru argued. "When you love someone and they leave you, they're all you can think about! Without them with you, you know that nothing will ever be right again!"
"And I've never loved anyone, so I wouldn't know," Sanosuke said coldly, perhaps sarcastically. "I do know this, though: It's because you did love the one who left you that you do go on, Kaoru. If someone really loves you, they wouldn't want you sobbing away the rest of your life because they're gone. And just because they're gone doesn't mean that nothing will ever be right again. You keep on going so that someday everything will be alright."
Kaoru sniffled. "I never took you for a poet, Sanosuke."
"I'm not a poet," Sanosuke looked down at the hand he'd used to block Kaoru's punch, still open, palm facing Kaoru, fingers pointed skyward. Kaoru had not withdrawn her punch and her knuckles still rested against his palm. "In fact I hate poetry. You know what's wrong with poetry? Poets."
That made Kaoru smile. Her first smile since Kenshin had left. And she still hadn't moved her fist out of Sanosuke's palm. Kaoru looked into Sanosuke's dark eyes with her crystal blue ones, and for the first time Sanosuke could understand why Kenshin had loved Kaoru. She wasn't just beautiful. There was something more behind her eyes that only showed when she stared directly into yours. . .
"Kaoru?" Sanosuke asked, not sure what he wanted to say.
"Yes?"
"Uh. . . You're burning our breakfast!"
"What?!" Kaoru jerked her hand away from his as if Sanosuke's palm was a hot iron. "Oh no!" she wailed, grabbing two towels and pulling her pan off of the fire.
Sanosuke slowly closed the hand that he'd caught Kaoru's in, then opened it and rubbed it onto his pants leg. What was that all about? he wondered as he stood up. "Shall I get Yahiko and let him know that breakfast is served?"
"Yes," Kaoru frantically waved a hand over the burning. . . whatever it was that she'd been cooking. "Sanosuke!" she called as her companion started to leave, "Just make sure to tell Yahiko that breakfast is singed!"
She made a joke, Sanosuke smiled. Not a very good one, but a joke nonetheless. At the expense of our breakfast, but oh well. There are worse things than eating Kaoru's burnt cooking. Like eating Kaoru's unburnt cooking.
The next day Sanosuke treated Kaoru and Yahiko to lunch at the beef stew restaurant. He'd gotten lucky and won money at the dice the night before before, so he could afford to pay for once. Tae was satisfied that Kaoru was getting better, and as the three from the Kamiya Dojo began to leave, the three Democratic Crusaders entered.
"Nah ah," Sanosuke told them. "Turn right back around and leave. Now." He cracked his knuckles and the three Cowardly Democratic Crusaders ran out of the restaurant as fast as their drunk legs could carry them.
"Sanosuke, they didn't do anything this time," Kaoru protested.
"Yet," Sanosuke pointed out. "Besides, their fear of me is a healthy thing. If more people were afraid of me, then I wouldn't have to beat up so many people."
"Sanosuke," Kaoru said, shaking her head.
"Hey! Kaoru, look at this!" Yahiko called, pointing to a poster on a lamp post. "There's a kendo and karate tournament! Can we enter?"
"A tournament? Let me see!" Kaoru flew over to look at the poster Yahiko had seen with her old enthusiasm. "Attention all kendo and karate schools, the Miyamaru Dojo is sponsoring a tournament. Divisions are open for children eleven and under, youths ages twelve to nineteen, and adults, ages twenty and over, for the events of katas, weapon forms, weapon sparring, and open hand sparring. All martial arts schools are welcome to attend provided that three or more students compete. No schoolless competitors allow. Damn it!"
"It says that?" Sanosuke asked coming over.
"What are you cursing for, Kaoru?" Yahiko asked.
"Because we don't have enough people to compete!" Kaoru kicked the lamp post. "We'd need another student to be able to attend! Isn't this just wonderful? We have the chance to show the city how great the Kamiya Kashin style is and attract more students, but we don't have enough students to compete!"
"Oh. Damn," Yahiko spat. "Damn. Damn."
Sanosuke moved to stand beside Kaoru and read the poster. "You want to compete in this tournament?"
"Obviously!" Kaoru kicked the lamp post again.
"But you need someone else to compete for your school," Sanosuke stared at the poster.
"You don't have to rub it in!" Kaoru screamed, kicking the lamp post once more, then turning to kick Sanosuke in the shins.
"Stop that. You're being annoying again."
"I'M being annoying?" Kaoru screamed, getting in Sanosuke's face. "I'M being annoying?! You're the one who-"
"I'll compete with you," Sanosuke offered.
"-is being such a. . . WHAT?!" Kaoru grabbed the front of Sanosuke's jacket.
"I'll compete with you and the punk kid. That will make three of us and we can compete."
"But you don't study the Kamiya Kashin style," Kaoru protested.
"Do you think any of them really know or care? Besides, I spend so much time at your school I practically live there. No one will really be able to dispute me fighting for you- and if they do, they'll regret it," Sanosuke grinned and cracked his knuckles.
"You really mean it? You'll compete for the Kamiya Dojo with us?" Kaoru tugged on Sanosuke's jacket harder. "You'd do that for us?"
"Not for you," Sanosuke smirked. "I just want an excuse to beat people up. Maybe there'll actually be some strong people there I can pound on."
"Thank you Sanosuke!" Kaoru suddenly lept up and hugged Sanosuke. "Thank you! Thank you!"
"Gak! Hey, stop that! Get down! I mean it!" Sanosuke tried to back away from Kaoru but ended up backing into the light post. "Kaoru, get off me already!" Sanosuke tried to pry Kaoru's hands away from the back of his neck.
"You two might not know this, but what you're doing doesn't look good," Yahiko teased. "People are looking at you two strangely. Next they'll be telling you to get a room."
Kaoru released Sanosuke and jumped back quickly. "Sorry Sanosuke. I just got excited." She blushed. "I didn't mean to get emotional on you."
"Women," Sanosuke put as much scorn into the word as he could- which he was afraid wasn't much. He was distracted because he was hoping that he wasn't blushing. "Crazy, dangerous creatures. And ugly too."
"Hey! That was an appology I just gave you!" Kaoru roared, getting in his face once more. "You don't have to be rude about it!"
"There is a fine line between being rude and being honest," Sanosuke patted Kaoru on the shoulder, "But I was being honest."
"You!"
Sanosuke had to duck Kaoru's punch. "I certainly hope you're entering in the open hand sparring division, Missy." He jumped back again. "You're sure to clean house in your division."
Kaoru stopped punching. "My division? Or our division? I'm not entering any of the same events as you, you know."
"How old are you?" Sanosuke asked.
"Seventeen," Kaoru responded promptly. "And you?"
"I think I'm around nineteen," Sanosuke told her.
"You think? What do you mean 'you think'?" Kaoru asked.
"Yeah, shouldn't you know how old you are, Sanosuke?" Yahiko wanted to know.
Sanosuke gave an apathetic shrug.
"Well when's your birthday?" Kaoru inquired.
"I don't know. Am I supposed to remember? I was a newborn on that day."
"Didn't your parents ever tell you?" Yahiko asked.
Sanosuke frowned. "I barely remember my mother and I don't remember my father at all, but that's not the point. I think I'm close to nineteen, but for now I'll be close to twenty. That way we can have one person representing our school in each age category and I won't have to worry about Kaoru beating me up."
"You're not worried about me beating you up, you oaf!" Kaoru snapped, punching at Sanosuke again.
"Says you," Sanosuke shuddered as he caught her hand. "I still haven't gotten all the blood out of my spare jacket from the last time you made me bleed."
"Oh. Sorry about that," Kaoru blushed again.
"Don't worry about it," Sanosuke told her. "Let's go back to your place and start training for the tournament."
Kaoru was awake before Sanosuke got back to the dojo the next day, sobbing her eyes out. Yahiko watched on, a mournful expression on his face.
Sanosuke was annoyed. He'd intended to get back to the Kamiya Dojo before Kaoru woke up and could start bawling again. That would have made his day's work easier. Now he was going to have to get her out of her despondency again. "Woman? You're still at this? I thought you got over this silly crying fit yesterday!"
"I didn't!" Kaoru shook her head spraying tears everywhere. "Kenshin is still gone, isn't he?! I'll never get over him until he comes back to me!"
"That's just stupid," Sanosuke knelt down beside Kaoru. "If you keep this up then by the time Kenshin comes back you'll have premature wrinkles, sagging skin, and bad teeth. That's what crying does to you, you know."
"No it doesn't!" Kaoru slapped at Sanosuke.
He caught her hand. "Of course it does. That's the only way to explain how you gotten so much uglier since the last time I saw you. You stayed up crying like a baby, didn't you?"
"No I didn't," Kaoru's anger cut through her misery at the meamory of the fighting cats from the night before.
"What did you do then? Eat some more of your nasty cooking? That'll strip the years away from you too, you know. You're a really lousy cook."
"What are you complaining for?! You get to eat here free and you're not even one of my students!"
"I wouldn't want to be. Yahiko's not getting any training. He's going to end up picking pockets again if you don't give him some real training."
""He is not!" Kaoru jumped to her feet at that remark. "The only good thing about not having lots of students is that I can focus my attention on the few that I have! Yahiko has made more progress than any of my other students ever have!"
"He won't continue to if you don't teach him," Sanosuke remained seated. "Are you going to let him fall back to the last level he was at while you weep your life away?"
"I'm not weeping my life away!" Kaoru proclaimed indignantly.
"Funny. When I came in it looked like that was exactly what you were doing," Sanosuke remarked.
"I was just about to get up and give him some pre-breakfast training! Then you came in here and got me talking!" Kaoru stormed over to a chest where she kept her training clothes. "Now get out while I change!"
"Then you'll teach Yahiko?" Sanosuke asked.
"Yes!"
"Just don't teach him to cook," Sanosuke advised.
Kaoru was kept raving mad all day that day, as well as all of the next. Sanosuke and Yahiko made sure that she had absolutely no opportunities to cry and sink into self pity. When Sanosuke arrived on the fourth day, Kaoru was already up and cooking breakfast. Kaoru was getting better, Sanosuke decided, since she'd had free time for herself and hadn't spent it crying over Kenshin. Now he could afford to be a little nicer to her, and encourage her, without having to worry about indulging her with pity.
"You're not looking quite so ugly this morning, Kaoru," he said, making her jump. She hadn't heard him come up behind her. "Though I'm sure that whatever you're cooking will be just as disgusting as usual."
"Jerk," Kaoru scowled at him.
"I've never denied being a jerk," Sanosuke sat beside her. "Where's the kid?"
"Yahiko's weeding the garden. The eggplants are being over-run by weeds."
"I see."
"I miss him, Sanosuke," Kaoru said suddenly.
"Why? He's only weeding the garden. Surely you can stand to be parted from your favorite student for an hour-"
"Not Yahiko! Kenshin!" Kaoru threw a punch at Sanosuke. "I miss him."
Sanosuke blocked Kaoru's punch with his open palm. "It's understandable that you miss him, Kaoru. I'm sure that Kenshin misses you too. It's alright to miss someone- I've lost so many people that I've cared about, so I should know. What's wrong is when you think that you can't go on without someone. There is no one in the world that you can't go on without."
"That's not true," Kaoru argued. "When you love someone and they leave you, they're all you can think about! Without them with you, you know that nothing will ever be right again!"
"And I've never loved anyone, so I wouldn't know," Sanosuke said coldly, perhaps sarcastically. "I do know this, though: It's because you did love the one who left you that you do go on, Kaoru. If someone really loves you, they wouldn't want you sobbing away the rest of your life because they're gone. And just because they're gone doesn't mean that nothing will ever be right again. You keep on going so that someday everything will be alright."
Kaoru sniffled. "I never took you for a poet, Sanosuke."
"I'm not a poet," Sanosuke looked down at the hand he'd used to block Kaoru's punch, still open, palm facing Kaoru, fingers pointed skyward. Kaoru had not withdrawn her punch and her knuckles still rested against his palm. "In fact I hate poetry. You know what's wrong with poetry? Poets."
That made Kaoru smile. Her first smile since Kenshin had left. And she still hadn't moved her fist out of Sanosuke's palm. Kaoru looked into Sanosuke's dark eyes with her crystal blue ones, and for the first time Sanosuke could understand why Kenshin had loved Kaoru. She wasn't just beautiful. There was something more behind her eyes that only showed when she stared directly into yours. . .
"Kaoru?" Sanosuke asked, not sure what he wanted to say.
"Yes?"
"Uh. . . You're burning our breakfast!"
"What?!" Kaoru jerked her hand away from his as if Sanosuke's palm was a hot iron. "Oh no!" she wailed, grabbing two towels and pulling her pan off of the fire.
Sanosuke slowly closed the hand that he'd caught Kaoru's in, then opened it and rubbed it onto his pants leg. What was that all about? he wondered as he stood up. "Shall I get Yahiko and let him know that breakfast is served?"
"Yes," Kaoru frantically waved a hand over the burning. . . whatever it was that she'd been cooking. "Sanosuke!" she called as her companion started to leave, "Just make sure to tell Yahiko that breakfast is singed!"
She made a joke, Sanosuke smiled. Not a very good one, but a joke nonetheless. At the expense of our breakfast, but oh well. There are worse things than eating Kaoru's burnt cooking. Like eating Kaoru's unburnt cooking.
The next day Sanosuke treated Kaoru and Yahiko to lunch at the beef stew restaurant. He'd gotten lucky and won money at the dice the night before before, so he could afford to pay for once. Tae was satisfied that Kaoru was getting better, and as the three from the Kamiya Dojo began to leave, the three Democratic Crusaders entered.
"Nah ah," Sanosuke told them. "Turn right back around and leave. Now." He cracked his knuckles and the three Cowardly Democratic Crusaders ran out of the restaurant as fast as their drunk legs could carry them.
"Sanosuke, they didn't do anything this time," Kaoru protested.
"Yet," Sanosuke pointed out. "Besides, their fear of me is a healthy thing. If more people were afraid of me, then I wouldn't have to beat up so many people."
"Sanosuke," Kaoru said, shaking her head.
"Hey! Kaoru, look at this!" Yahiko called, pointing to a poster on a lamp post. "There's a kendo and karate tournament! Can we enter?"
"A tournament? Let me see!" Kaoru flew over to look at the poster Yahiko had seen with her old enthusiasm. "Attention all kendo and karate schools, the Miyamaru Dojo is sponsoring a tournament. Divisions are open for children eleven and under, youths ages twelve to nineteen, and adults, ages twenty and over, for the events of katas, weapon forms, weapon sparring, and open hand sparring. All martial arts schools are welcome to attend provided that three or more students compete. No schoolless competitors allow. Damn it!"
"It says that?" Sanosuke asked coming over.
"What are you cursing for, Kaoru?" Yahiko asked.
"Because we don't have enough people to compete!" Kaoru kicked the lamp post. "We'd need another student to be able to attend! Isn't this just wonderful? We have the chance to show the city how great the Kamiya Kashin style is and attract more students, but we don't have enough students to compete!"
"Oh. Damn," Yahiko spat. "Damn. Damn."
Sanosuke moved to stand beside Kaoru and read the poster. "You want to compete in this tournament?"
"Obviously!" Kaoru kicked the lamp post again.
"But you need someone else to compete for your school," Sanosuke stared at the poster.
"You don't have to rub it in!" Kaoru screamed, kicking the lamp post once more, then turning to kick Sanosuke in the shins.
"Stop that. You're being annoying again."
"I'M being annoying?" Kaoru screamed, getting in Sanosuke's face. "I'M being annoying?! You're the one who-"
"I'll compete with you," Sanosuke offered.
"-is being such a. . . WHAT?!" Kaoru grabbed the front of Sanosuke's jacket.
"I'll compete with you and the punk kid. That will make three of us and we can compete."
"But you don't study the Kamiya Kashin style," Kaoru protested.
"Do you think any of them really know or care? Besides, I spend so much time at your school I practically live there. No one will really be able to dispute me fighting for you- and if they do, they'll regret it," Sanosuke grinned and cracked his knuckles.
"You really mean it? You'll compete for the Kamiya Dojo with us?" Kaoru tugged on Sanosuke's jacket harder. "You'd do that for us?"
"Not for you," Sanosuke smirked. "I just want an excuse to beat people up. Maybe there'll actually be some strong people there I can pound on."
"Thank you Sanosuke!" Kaoru suddenly lept up and hugged Sanosuke. "Thank you! Thank you!"
"Gak! Hey, stop that! Get down! I mean it!" Sanosuke tried to back away from Kaoru but ended up backing into the light post. "Kaoru, get off me already!" Sanosuke tried to pry Kaoru's hands away from the back of his neck.
"You two might not know this, but what you're doing doesn't look good," Yahiko teased. "People are looking at you two strangely. Next they'll be telling you to get a room."
Kaoru released Sanosuke and jumped back quickly. "Sorry Sanosuke. I just got excited." She blushed. "I didn't mean to get emotional on you."
"Women," Sanosuke put as much scorn into the word as he could- which he was afraid wasn't much. He was distracted because he was hoping that he wasn't blushing. "Crazy, dangerous creatures. And ugly too."
"Hey! That was an appology I just gave you!" Kaoru roared, getting in his face once more. "You don't have to be rude about it!"
"There is a fine line between being rude and being honest," Sanosuke patted Kaoru on the shoulder, "But I was being honest."
"You!"
Sanosuke had to duck Kaoru's punch. "I certainly hope you're entering in the open hand sparring division, Missy." He jumped back again. "You're sure to clean house in your division."
Kaoru stopped punching. "My division? Or our division? I'm not entering any of the same events as you, you know."
"How old are you?" Sanosuke asked.
"Seventeen," Kaoru responded promptly. "And you?"
"I think I'm around nineteen," Sanosuke told her.
"You think? What do you mean 'you think'?" Kaoru asked.
"Yeah, shouldn't you know how old you are, Sanosuke?" Yahiko wanted to know.
Sanosuke gave an apathetic shrug.
"Well when's your birthday?" Kaoru inquired.
"I don't know. Am I supposed to remember? I was a newborn on that day."
"Didn't your parents ever tell you?" Yahiko asked.
Sanosuke frowned. "I barely remember my mother and I don't remember my father at all, but that's not the point. I think I'm close to nineteen, but for now I'll be close to twenty. That way we can have one person representing our school in each age category and I won't have to worry about Kaoru beating me up."
"You're not worried about me beating you up, you oaf!" Kaoru snapped, punching at Sanosuke again.
"Says you," Sanosuke shuddered as he caught her hand. "I still haven't gotten all the blood out of my spare jacket from the last time you made me bleed."
"Oh. Sorry about that," Kaoru blushed again.
"Don't worry about it," Sanosuke told her. "Let's go back to your place and start training for the tournament."