Author's Notes:

Okay… another chapter. Uhm… hope you all like it!

Ah, thankies to all the author-readers and readers who took their time to read my li'l silly fic and leave a review. It really inspired me especially the last one which, after so many weeks of not having a new review, encouraged me to continue and to make a lemon too! But not to worry for any of you who get offended with graphic scenes --- not that I'll be good at it anyway, it's just my first time to write one ---, I won't be posting it here. So now, all I have to worry about after I do post the chapter, is that you getting offended by my lame shot at a lemon… ^^:

*ponders* Why am I being so pessimistic?

Disclaimer: RK's not mine. =^.^= It belongs to Nobuhiro Watsuki.

S t a y F o r e v e r

By: g3ozLizh

Chapter Three

"Make love to me. Onegai…"

Sanosuke Sagara stared at the woman whose smoldering gaze glazed with desire bore into him. He wasn't sure he heard her right. This woman is Megumi Takani who had nearly sworn off getting intimate with any man thus the reason for her flirtatious personality.

Megumi was shaking all over but certainly not from the constant gentle breeze brushing against their frame. She could not believe that she had declared that to the man in front of her, to the man that just arrived and isn't even sure if he's staying permanently or not. But when Sano's hand caressed the side of her neck in an absorbed manner --- something that she wasn't aware of since her eyes were nearly closing due to the tingling sensations his action were making her feel --- she knew then and there that she could not last another moment of not being able to make him hers. Maybe then, he will decide to stay once and for all, be with her forever.

His fingers continued to graze the side of her neck; he debating whether to heed her plea. If it were all up to him, he would certainly not be hesitating. But he have to consider her reputation; the government had been after him five years before though for the crime he did not commit.

Of course they (the people) don't know that, he thought bitterly. Those bastards made sure I took the crime for them.

He gazed into her eyes, a small loving smile playing on his lips. She deserves someone better… She went through so much and I've hurt her…

So why did you come back, ask her to meet you alone, and kissed her the way only lovers do with a promise of yet to come if you're not going be with her till the end? A voice admonished from the recesses of his brain. How right it was… Megumi would have been proud of him because for once, his half-witted brain was right.

Sano leaned her head on the tree over her shoulder, and finding himself wanting to bang his head against it instead.

Megumi thought he was going to start kissing and touching her so when he just leaned there and didn't do anything, she murmured breathlessly, "Sano?" It was so hard not to expect so much when he was pressing his immense warmth against her quavering body.

He pulled back enough to look into her; he had nearly forgotten that she was still waiting for him --- and that's speaking not only for this time.

What he saw in the depths of her eyes erased any thoughts that might have crossed or stayed on his mind: fire and passion, desire and… something he still isn't sure if true. So when she crossed the border of his quiet reason by capturing his mouth in an amorous kiss and pushed out any air that stood in their way, all restraints broke. He retaliated with a passionate one of his own.

It was like a kiss no other she'd ever received (or was made to forget due to his extensive absence) --- fiery and tingling, gentle and demanding all at the same time --- and soon she forgot any linger of his kisses from before. Only this mouth making love to her own was the only thing she could make out at the very moment, the only thing her mind was able to welcome… aside from the feel of the hard muscle of his thighs pressing against her.

Tentatively her hand crept up to his bare chest and felt the rippling muscles there as it countered to her touch. Her heart pounding, he brought them closer still as he redirected his hands from both sides of her face to the small of her back, making her weak at the knees thereby effectively making her tend toward him. She never knew that that part of the body, doctor as she was, could make such an effect on her already heightened senses.

No, she silently disagreed. It is just that no man had ever given me this much… this kind of pleasure before…

His head tilted to do more with her mouth and his hand unconsciously going down to rest on her buttock, then after a fleeting moment, lower still to her thigh and then finally, he hoisted it up against him. It wasn't such a comfortable position what with her kimono impeding her flexibility.

He grunted in complaint, making Megumi chuckle in the kiss.

So just when she thought he was going for the kimono --- it just have to go --- he suddenly pulled away.

Her head had been tilting to the kiss so it came out as quite a surprise and puzzling when she wasn't meeting his anymore. And the air that she had purposely pushed out was back between them again. She straightened up to look bewilderingly at him.

"No. I can't do this…"

Color rose to Megumi's face but it was hard to tell if it was from humiliation or hurt.

She staggered back, clutching a hand to cover half of her face; she could feel a burning sensation in her eyes.

Sano took a step forward, meaning to explain himself and probably comfort her but Megumi have had enough.

A tear slipped as she lowered her lashes. Without another word or even a glance, she turned tail and ran.

Sano shot down the stone stairs after her. Amazing how Megumi could run fast enough to put a good distance between them with her wooden sandals. He didn't want to get too close in case she will feel the need to run faster still.

He gasped when Megumi slipped through a puddle of water on the last step, sending her flying to the cold hard ground. She landed on her side and pain shot through her hip and arm.

"Megumi!"

She cursed herself. It certainly wasn't the time to show her frailty. Sano was beside her before she could even begin to push herself in a sitting position.

He tried helping her up but she brushed his hand on her uninjured arm off like pestering fly.

"Dammit, Fox! Why'd do you have to run like hell?"

Megumi, who with most efforts from Sano finally achieved on helping herself in a sitting position, struggled to free herself from his arms.

"And for someone who can't even stand judging by the position of that ankle there, you sure have a lot of pride to not want my help."

"I'll be fine, thank you. I don't need you and I think five years of surviving without you is enough proof." She glanced at the ankle he was referring to and decided that it didn't feel quite bad as it looked. "I'm the doctor here so I'll be the judge of my ankle's condition."

"Well, think of it this way. You always pester me with my hand --- "

Megumi scoffed. "I do not pester you! I was helping you, you ungrateful moron!"

"Right, so now I'm helping you with your arm and ankle."

"And you're wrong, Sanosuke. My ankle is fine." With that she forcefully pushed him away which he let her then tried to push herself up from her sitting position.

She was able to stand. "See?" But when she took her first step, she fell forward but a good thing Sano caught her in time.

"Fox, you know as well as I do that you've sprained your ankle."

"So why didn't you try to stop me, eh?" Lame comeback. God, she can be so irrational when she's with him. Must be his stupidity rubbing off.

Sano just cast him an amused grin, cradling her in his arms. As seconds ticked by without any verbal assault and plainly glaring at each other --- on her part anyway --- they were both reminded of the situation they were in before her falling incident.

So tense atmosphere reigned and not being able to stay lying in his arms where she felt affection towards him when she should be angry, she started pulling herself away.

"Oh no, you don't."

"What? You can't be meaning to carry me around like this!"

"Yes, I mean to." Then as if an afterthought, "I want to."

"No you don't," she said in a quieter tone. "Look, I can manage to just lean on you while hopping on one foot."

"Why do it when I could get you to the clinic faster and save us both the trouble?"

"Where's your proper sense of decency --- "

"I don't have one remember?" he teased.

"Still, I'll thrash my legs wildly around if you don't put me down right now." Even if it was pretty obvious that he knew she really wouldn't do what she had said, he put her down nonetheless, if only to speed things up to the clinic. Not that he wasn't enjoying his time being alone with her --- and being able to feel her close to him --- but it was a matter of tending to her injuries.

"Okay." But it was pretty obvious that it was really against his will.

Just when they reached the entrance outside the temple, it started to rain. And not just any normal pit-pattering spray of rain but that coming down in sheets of icy shower.

"Great, just great."

"You could just leave me here you know and take shelter in your apartment."

"You can't be serious, Fox?"

"What? Even if I'm not, you don't have to feel oblige to make sure that I'll be okay. You don't really have to concern yourself with what will happen to me."

Sano had a good comeback at the tip of his tongue but stopped himself. She didn't sound like as if she was in one of her teasing, bickering moods. "But I do." He stared down at her. "I do care."

Megumi didn't dare look at his face or even make a reply.

The rain continued to come down at them and it helped matters that she was pressed so close to him or she could have shivered uncontrollably from the rain.

Sano stopped and so did Megumi, staring up at him in question. When she saw that he was trying to take his jacket off to put around her (like that would really help plenty), she stubbornly refused and told him to keep it on.

"No, I don't want your jacket if it means that I'll have to treat another patient with my arm and ankle disabled. I don't really want to spend the night with a big Rooster-Head like you."

"You don't have too." And with that, he wrapped it around her anyway.

Of course, she was half-teasing but he must have taken it the wrong way. Besides, he was the one who pulled away so why was he sulking now? Too tired to explain herself and even analyze what she meant by it, she didn't say anything more.

In silence and in torrents of rain and disconcerted emotions, they finally reached the clinic.

To be continued…

Author's Notes:

Hmmm… Drenching wet, tension in the air, pain that goes beyond the physical and maybe alone in the clinic (let's just presume Dr. Genzai knew who she was with upon letting her have a break and comforted by the fact that she will be safe), what do you think will happen? Will they take care of each other in more ways than one? *innocent expression, whistling* 9.9

If I do include a lemon in the next chapter, it would probably be posted on another site or I'll post it here but it will be less descriptive. So anticipate not only that for the next chapter but also some serious talk between the two. Hopefully, they will sort things out so they could just "get on with it" or will that come first? ^^

Well, hoping for some suggestions, encouragement and comments! The next chapter will be the ending chapter and it will be longer!