Crystal of Love

RK and YYH don't belong to me.

Author's Notes: Thank you Leigh, your idea was inspiration for this chapter, so I hope you like it! ^.^

Chapter 8: It's more or less, the same

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The fog rose quickly in the sleepy sea port town at night, the excitement from having the royal family of their country spending time there had finally ended and everyone was back to their normal routines. Maybe if that wasn't so, they would've had seen the endless fleeting shadows of Nark warriors traveling the streets and surrounding forest while spreading the mist that would put everyone into a deep slumber and make them forget anything that happened during the night by morning.

It was a good plain, Tisha noted, but with no real interest, he wasn't involved in that any more, his job was now to watch over his younger sister with a close eye. And he would do so, she was a disgrace from his family, the way she acted years ago was unforgivable.

He remembered it all too clearly, with a sigh, he allowed himself to do so.

~FLASHBACK~

"Father! I can't sit back and watch you control my life!" Tsuki yelled out, her eyes full of rage as she glared at her father, her hands clenched into tight fists as she tried to hold her rage. "I will not marry that man! He already has 14 wives! Why does he need one more? Let alone he's old enough—!"

"You will do as I say child! A woman's life means nothing here, and you know that! You've know it sense your were little and no one can change it, not even the fucking spawn that is coming to save us all!" He said—more like he hissed actually—his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Don't you dare talk about something that's important to me like that!" Tsuki responded, her voice raising above normal levels, and closer to a screeching cry.

"She's going to come with the tent to destroy the upper world, not 'join our two world's together' like you and all those other psychos are preaching. You need to get your selves away from those kinds of people if you want to bring yourself honor from your husband!"

"You have it all wrong, father, it will never marry to a man you and this damned family choose for me! Understand? I am living, and I will love and marry the man I want! None of you are stopping me!"

Tsuki left the room, heading to her room, where she started to pack her things into a bag. Tisha came, looking at his sister worried before asking her if she thought she was making the right decision.

"You aren't going to make me change my mind by reverse psychology, nii-san, no one is, not in a hundred years."

"But you'll be leaving us, it'll be like I lost a part of me…"

"Same for me, Tisha, but we'll just have to live with it."

"I guess this means you don't love us any more…"

"I'd hate to tell you this, but I've never loved you in the first place, nii-san, in no way what so ever."

~END FLASHBACK~

Tisha shook him self out of haunting memories of a past that never was after Tsuki left. She never loved her family, now they never loved her any more, didn't even want her, but someone—other then him—wanted her back. To stay in their hearts forever.

Kaoru hadn't had a more troubled sleep sense she was in the world below, but today—or more so, that night—she had one once more, but it was different from the ones that made her feast for blood in the middle of the night, and the servants rushing about immediately in work of finding her a drink that would stop the cravings.

Instead, she was running after the fleeting figure of a man she couldn't place, of some one she wanted to hold her and have her in late night passion—but, wasn't it Kenshin she loved? Yes, but this was Kenshin, wasn't it? No one else had ever made her feel this way, no one.

She paused in the thick fog, gasping for breath from her constant running as she chased the figure through the unclear forests that surrounded her home. She was just about to continue when some one started her with four little words, "What you doing, Jou-chan?"

They startled her so much she doubled over, and found her self looking into Sano's brown, smirking eyes. "You know Kenshin would have a fit if he found you out here in only a yukata. I certainly would if I was your husband, and being jealous and stuff, I would be ready to beat in any guy that dare look at you… which means I should be running at this very moment because Kenshin's going to come a looking soon enough…"

Kaoru should've realized that Sano was stalling for time as he started to ramble on and on about this and that until she felt like every single word he was speaking was simply, 'blah blah blah.' She couldn't stand it any more, and finally burst out with, "Will you shut up!" And all the narks fled the scene from the raging ki that Kaoru was giving off.

That was how Kenshin found the two, and what he found… well Sano was looking quite dazed at the base of tree which now held an imprint of his body in the trunk, and Kaoru asking him if he was alright.

"Are you two alright…?" Kenshin asked slowly, eyeing Kaoru with an angry eye for a moment, as she hadn't even bothered to dress fully before going off. Then Sano, as it seemed his friend would get a nasty bump on the head by morning, if not sooner!

"I don't really know… I think—though—I was following you for, but then he came along and started to talk about something that just doesn't come to mind at the moment. I then got so mad over something, and the next thing I knew, he was against this tree," Kaoru explained, to the best of her ability as she and Kenshin helped to lift the taller man.

"Ahh, you two care, but I'm alright, but, I've got to say this before anything else. Any of you spot a Nark with the crest of a scorpion on 'em, they're mine." The man passed out unconscious under the confused gazes between the two lovers.

Sano woke that morning in the spare room of Kenshin and Kaoru's home by morning, his head hurt yes, but a glass of water and some pain killer pills next to it on a small tray lay by his head. He took it gratefully before traveling to the kitchen, where he found the two lovers, eating breakfast a plate set out for him.

"Thank you! You two really love me!" Sano cried out, and he dug in before any once else could say anything, with in a few minuets, he asked for seconds, which Kaoru served him. By the fifth serving, Sano started to suspect something. "What's the matter you two? Why so glum?"

"Sano, you said something last night, about Narks with a scorpion mark on them… what exactly did you mean by that?" Kenshin asked, Kaoru agreeing with a shake of her head, silently encouraging him to speak.

"You guys aren't going to let me leave until I speak, huh?" A pair of shaking heads answered that question. "It happened a long time ago, in the first few generations of my family. We were trades, who lived off the land by selling the crops we made. But one day, a family of Narks came to town, and no one expected anything from them because of the peace treaty—which shows how much has changed after all these years. Well one day, one of the teen-age boys belonging to that family, came and kidnapped the girl he loved from our family. Some say that he loved her, and that she didn't so she refused him, and he raped then killed her, committing suicide after words. Our two families were at each other's necks after that, and we have hated each other sense that time. And the only way to know who is from that family or not, was by the tattoo of a scorpion on their body some where…"

"I'm sorry that happened," whispered Kaoru, trying her best to remember if she had seen a scorpion mark on any of the Narks she had seen before, but coming up with nothing.

"Its okay, even with your so called history, which, trust me, I know. And don't ask any questions, just, could I have another serving?"

"When was the last time you ate?"

"Last week…" Almost immediately he realized his mistake on saying that.

"YOU BAKA! Why haven't you been taking better care of your self?!"

"No job…?" Sano's answer proved fatal as Kaoru hit him beside the head, Kenshin just muttered an 'oro' as he watched his friend fly.

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AN: Um… yeah, I had to make it some what of the same in the character's personalities… hope I did a good job.

Thank you to all who reviewed, I can't make this very long, the computers freaking out so I've got to update fast. Hope I get the next chapter up soon!