Love Is A Twisted Road
By Anime no Miko
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Follow the RK cast in their way through the twisted road of love ...
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-- And just who's this sexy icicle? --
(~ two weeks later ~)
"Yes, Jiya. I miss you the most." Misao spoke wearily into the phone as she opened the fridge looking for a drink. "Hai, he's in my room. Alright, hold on."
"Niisan!" she called out. "Jiya wants to speak to you."
"Coming!" Kenshin replied emerging from Misao's room with a basket piled high with dirty clothes. He was wearing worn out jeans, a plain white sleeveless shirt, and his sneakers. Placing the basket on the sofa for a while, he took the phone from Misao's outstreched hand.
"Iie, Jiya. What?! Forget it, man. I said NO. But nothing. I'm not mean! It's you and not me who has white hair yet pretends to be an adolescent. Gomen, Jiya. Alright. Take care too. Yes? Kami-sama, I said NO for the thousanth time!"
Misao lowered the manga she was reading. "What did he tell you?" she asked interested by her niisan's sudden outburst. Kenshin rubbed the back of his head and laughed nervously. "Nothing, imouto-chan." he said embarrased. "C'mon, niisan. Do tell." Misao pleaded. "Nothing important." She leaned forward so that she was now facing him and gave him the look. "Really, Misao." the red head assured her. This time Misao noticed his pink flushed cheeks. So that was it: another of Jiya's lecherous ideas. She gave him a disgusted look before sitting back on the couch. Kenshin opened his mouth to say something but Misao cut him off. "Save it. I'm sick of you men." she snapped out.
"So soon, Misao-chan?" Kenshin said with faked seriousness just to receive a glare from his sister. "You haven't even had a boyfriend, that you haven't had." Misao's face turned red like a tomato and she growled. "I haven't had because I haven't wanted to!!!"
And it was true. Well, half true. Since boys at her school in Kyoto started to get interested in the opposite sex, they had classify Misao into the group of 'beauties,' but everytime they asked her out, she would stubbornly decline. Boy, she even turned down the hottest guy in school, not to mention he was a senior and she a junior, and in front of the whole school! That was two years ago, during winter ...
(~ Flashback - Naruda High School, Kyoto ~)
Misao was sitting on the school roof waiting for her best friend. The roof was her favorite place, hers and her friend's. They would go there and have lunch and small talks, and she would make him smile now and then. It was their refuge from the grumpy teachers and the sex-crazy-driven student community ... even in winter.
She had start eating her dumpling, her friend not showing up yet. Then she heard someone turn the doorknob. Without turning around, she spoke. "What took you so long? It was getting too cold up here, you know."
"I know, but I can arrange that, babe."
Misao jumped on her feet, turning around. There stood Yamamoto Shouji running his hand through his ebony hair, smiling his perfectly white teeth smile, looking at her in his usual lascivious manner ...
"Ah! It's only you, Yamamoto." she said with a scorn. "Please leave, would you?" she said, shovering him out with one hand.
"This is a public place, babe." He grinned moving closer.
"Alright, you stay then." she said tiredly, and Shouji smiled in a satisfied manner. Rolling her eyes, Misao brushed the dust off her skirt and picked up her things. "But I'm leaving." she stated walking pass him, but he quickly grabbed her by the wrist. "This is your lucky day, Misao. I want you to be my girlfriend. What do you say, babe?" he said arrogantly. "Among every girl in school dying for me, I'm choosing you."
Misao laughed heartily. "Your girlfriend? And you think I'll say yes because you've got great looks and every single girl's drooling for you?" she said sarcastilly. "NO, thanks. I'm not that stupid." He gave her a quizzical look, and Misao sighed. Not only an asshole but also stupid; he's got those looks in vain! "I said I don't go out with jackasses like you!" Misao spatted. Shouji's face turned red with rage. "You little bitch!" he yelled and with a snap of his fingers, his faithful dogs came out. "Show her who's the boss." The two oversized boys grinned dumbly and encircled her. They grabbed her by the shoulders, tying her hands in the back with their stronger ones, inmobilizing her. "Let me go, you bastards!" she demanded fiercely. At this point everyone down at the playground was staring. Shouji laughed triumphantly. "Well, Misao dear, what do you say now?" he said lifting her chin and leaning closer. Misao kicked her right leg up, aiming for his ...
"Take your hands off her!"
None moved for a moment, even Misao's leg stood still without connecting her target. Shouji was the first to speak. "We'll deal with that little bitch later. This boy wants to play first." he said approaching Misao's friend, but stopped on his tracks as he noticed the glare in his eyes, almost as a tiger's. "He's not worth my time. You take care of him." he told her friends and walked towards Misao, grabbing her wrist again, forcefully. Coward.
"I said take your dirty hands off her!"
The other two blocked his way and attacked him. Blocking a fist with his hand, he pushed one back. He easily dodged the coming karate-like puches and kicks with clean moves, and in a blink of the eye he had them lying still on the floor like a sack of potatoes, with two swift kicks. They might know karate, but he knew kung-fu. He walked toward Shouji threatingly, cracking his knuckles. Misao grinned and tore herself apart from Shouji's grip. Shouji stood there open-mouthed, trembling, watching his two friends standing up with quite an effort, rubbing their beaten up bodies.
"I--I'd better go." he stuttered and fled like a chicken, his friends following hurriedly.
Misao crossed her arms. "You didn't have to intervene. I could have handled them easily." she pouted.
"You're welcome, Misao." he said, taking a dumpling.
From that day on, never did Shouji or any other bastard mess with Misao ... at least not when her friend was near.
(~ End of Flashbak ~)
"Oh really?" Kenshin asked mockingly as he picked up the basket, walking away slowly. Misao fumed. "Niisan?" she said, not making him stop yet. "Niisan!!" she said louder. "Hai, imouto-chan?" Kenshin said turning his head. "Take this!" Misao said smirking, and threw the hard-cover manga (A/N: There are hard-cover manga, right? I'm not sure ... but anyways! ^-^;;) she had been reading directly to his head. "Ororoo?" When Kenshin tried dodging it, it was already too late.
(~ The next day ~)
"Misao, wake up! It's first day of school." Kenshin said knocking on the door. No answer. He opened the door and gently shook her awake. Misao mid-opened one eye, yawned, and closed it again.
"No school today. Teachers meeting." she said before dozing off again.
"Ah, teachers meeting! I forgot." he exclaimed and bent down giving Misao a kiss on her forehead. "Sleep then, but not all day, O.K.? I'm leaving now. We don't have 'professors meeting day.' " Misao chuckled in her dreams.
She woke up three hours later, almost at noon, and found a note pinned to the fridge. Kenshin had left her breakfast on the stove, and had folded the clean clothes, mostly her pile of clothes. It was just a matter of putting them into the drawers. She uncovered the plate and the sweet aroma of home-made pancakes filled the room. "Yummy!" she exclaimed, putting a piece of pancake in her mouth. She didn't have to add butter or honey or syrup to the pancakes because the pancakes' mixture was already tasty by itself. After all, Kenshin attended Kyoto's Culinary Institute for nearly four years, and was now going to attend Tokyo's International Culinary Institute (T.I.C.I.) for one semester in order to strenghten his knowledge in foregin cuisine. So it was Kenshin who did the cooking for the two of them, and what a cooking! It was almost like having your own restaurant in home.
Misao smiled, such a nice brother she had. After having breakfast, she put the clothes in their respective drawers and made her bed, Kenshin having made his in the morning, as he always did. Drawing open the curtains, she looked at the sky. Clusters of grayish clouds carpeted the sky, hiding the sun and foreshadowing rain. Then she remembered Kenshin didn't take an umbrella with him and probably neither a coat. The two pink umbrellas were still in the bin in the corridor leading to their apartment's door. "Guess I'll go visit Tokyo's International Culinary Institute." she said cheerfully and walked to her room. "Hmm... wonder if niisan made any nice friend ..."
Kenshin had told her that T.I.C.I. was not far away from their apartment, in fact that was one of the reasons they had rented that apartment, so Misao chose to walk ...
"Excuse me, is this Osori's Street?"
"Hai, Osori's Street."
"Hmm ... then where's T.I.C.I.? I've been walking hours (A/N: Actually, she had been walking just for a few minutes.) and haven't found it yet!"
"Just turning the corner two blocks away from here, right after the park."
"After the park, ne? Arigatou-gozaimasu!"
After walking a few minutes more, she saw the park, across the street, and not far away, the culinary institute, as the man told her. The park with its trees and flowers, and wooden benches looked beautiful even under the stormy sky. It was like a secluded area for students, a private park. There were many students around the area; some were in pairs chatting, others were in bigger groups. Then she noticed him, a solitary figure sitting on a bench, next to the small fountain. She couldn't help but stare at him. She felt ... drawn to him.
Misao saw a group of women walking towards him, waving as they did so, saying 'hello' perhaps. The one wearing a really short skirt and tight sleeveless sweater sat next to him, crossing her legs, showing her legs to the world. She leaned closer to him and said something in his ear, the other two giggling. Then Misao watched him slowly put down his book and when he turn around she saw ... nothing. She couldn't see his face because precisely in that moment did a bus have to pass and block her view. When she looked back at the bench where he had been sitting, it was empty. She sighed. She had wanted to see his face, his eyes ... but she only got to see his back, and not his entirely back, just his upper body.
"Sexy ..." she murmured. Crazy? Silly? No, she wasn't. There was something in the way his hair fell down his neck at the perfect lenght, something in the way the black of his silky-looking hair contrasted with the tan of his skin, something that moved her when she first saw him sitting there alone when everyone else was in groups, like an icicle. There was something in his overall self that attracted her intensely, almost foolishly. Brushing the thoughts out her petite head, she resumed walking. She had to find her brother before the rain did. Yet she couldn't, she had been so close to seeing his face! And that all-too-forward woman, where did she go? What did he do when he turned around and faced her? She was beautiful ... Had he kiss her? Shoved her away? By now she had already walked pass the small fountain, deep in her thoughts, daydreaming of a complete stranger.
"He's an icicle." she thought. "... sexy though." she heard herself say aloud, and blushed. "Hmm ... yeah...he's a sexy icicle!"
"And just who's this sexy icicle?" a deep voice spoke from behind, sending delicious shivers down her spine ...
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Another A/M first meeting cliffhanger chappie for me! yay! ^-^ Hope you liked it!
Thanks for R&R. Ah, do R&R again, ne? ^_~
P.S. Any clues on who's Misao's friend? : P