Disclaimer: Yeah, I still don't know who owns RK or American Pie, but I do know it's not me!
Chapter 6:
"To Mend The Broken-Hearted"
Kaoru paced back and forth in the middle of her bedroom as Mina worriedly looked on, squatting low on Kaoru's bed with her eyes transfixed on her friend as she continued rambling on and on about something inaudible to Mina's ears. The rug in the middle of her room practically screamed for help as smoke started to rise from the heavy pacing steps Kaoru took, moving left to right without stopping. Growing very tired of Kaoru's emotional state, Mina grabbed hold of her shoulders to halt her in her steps, shaking her, rattling her brain, and turning her thoughts inside out. Kaoru confusedly turned to face Mina with a what-in-the-world-is-wrong-with-you look for interrupting her thoughts.
"Kaoru, what is going on with you?" Mina asked, concern evident on her face. She had come over so they could catch up on old times, good times only, one that did not including prom night.
Mina, to this day, still believed that Kenshin slept with her and ditched her sometime during the night and ever since that night, she refused to hear any kind of mention of the red head's name. It was hard enough that Kenshin just couldn't "remember" what happened between the two of them that night, but hearing about him all the time made all the anger rise up again. Little did Mina know that Kenshin had in no way gotten together with her that night and if he had, he surely would not have left her alone like she believed he did.
"I don't know, Mina," Kaoru said, shaking her hands in frantic spasms to try and push away the shaky nervous system of hers that didn't seem to want to work properly, "I think I'm just nervous because I'm gonna see Kenshin again soon and all that... God, I haven't talked to him since prom. I didn't even get to talk to him at the party... I think I'm just scared that he's changed from when I last knew him... I sure hope not."
"I hope he did!" Mina grumbled and Kaoru stared at her in question, "What? Don't give me that look! That guy was a complete jerk! He left me with a god damn broom for God's sakes! All guys are, I never should've thought he'd be any different! Just look at what men do to you! Look at yourself! Kenshin has like... diseased you! You've been Kenshin-ated! If there actually was a disease, I'd be able to tell people that you had a Kenshin! You used to be so... Okay, let me think of a different example person... Megumi! Yeah! She used to be so independent and now look at her! She sticks to her boyfriend like a bad case of velcro!"
"You say that I have a' Kenshin' like he's some kind of wart or something. Mina, we all know you hate all human beings with a penis between their legs, but that doesn't mean that we all have to hate them too," Kaoru reasoned, but really it was no use. Trying to talk sense into Mina was like trying to convince a brick wall to knock itself over. "What do you have against Kenshin anyway? What'd he ever do to you?"
Mina stiffened at the question and she resisted the urge to smack Kaoru for her density to even dare say his name in front of her. She hated, absolutely despised, the man with every part of her body for leaving her like he did. She had found out that he had later gone to Kaoru that same night, doing heaven knows what, but Mina had a pretty good idea. Kaoru proved that theory to be true the next morning when she told Mina, Megumi, and Tsubame that she had lost her virginity. That right there was a dead giveaway. Although Mina denied it to everyone, even to herself, she had been so much in love with Kenshin Himura, to the point that it drove her senses wild whenever they were in the same room. Now though, she hated him so much it hurt her inside, but there was still that tiny little line that bordered her from falling in love with him all over again.
That little line had a name and it was Kaoru Kamiya. Love and hate had soon proved themselves to be more or less the same thing. Mina loved Kenshin and she hated him, or at least, she wanted to hate him, it went around full circle like the horses on the merry-go-round. Love was the other side of the quarter to hate, therefore, leaving Mina in the middle of it all. The fact that there was someone else out there that could ever possibly love Kenshin more than her was almost laughable, but definitely not impossible. What hurt Mina the most was that Kenshin seemed to return those feelings back to Kaoru, wearing his heart on his sleeve, ready to be torn to pieces whenever Kaoru decided that she was bored of his love. And when that day came, and Kenshin needed someone to lean on and help mend his heart, Mina would surely be there. No more lying to herself, she still loved him just as much as before.
"He made me love him," Mina whispered so softly that Kaoru scarcely heard her. Mina didn't actually want her to hear anyway because it would only cause her to worry more, but this time because of brutal competition. Mina snickered at the thought of fighting Kaoru for Kenshin, but she knew that she would never do it. Kaoru was too true of a friend to kick into oblivion. And if she was what Kenshin wanted, so be it. Mina wasn't about to stand in the way, but she was most definitely going to try her best to hate him, even if it was the hardest thing she ever had to do. It was what was best; for her and Kaoru's sake. In fact, pretending to loathe him became like routine for her and the cruel biting words came out like a broken record. It hurt him, yes, but it hurt her more.
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Kaoru asked, leaning forward to hear Mina better, "I could have sworn you just said that you love him! Hahaha! Imagine that! YOU loving KENSHIN!" Kaoru burst out laughing at the thought and Mina played along, laughing with her.
"Eheh... Well, imagine that... It's nothing, Kaoru, just forget about it," Mina said, brushing off Kaoru's questioning with a wave of her hand, "I don't think you have to worry about Kenshin at this point. I mean, it's not like Kenshin's some kind of sex crazed maniac! He's probably not even had sex since you! And look at you! You had sex with.... How many people did you sleep with this year?"
"None..." Kaoru sighed, her shoulders sagging at the thought of Kenshin being with ten or so women when she hadn't even had sex with any other man besides him. To say she lost the rat race was an understatement.
"Oh.... well, that's not bad though! So now both of you haven't gotten any since each other! That's great! That means that you are one hundred percent of his sexual experience and he's one hundred percent of yours! This is perfect!" Mina exclaimed excitedly. She truly was happy for her friend because if there was anyone that deserved to have Kenshin, besides herself, it was Kaoru. "Coincidence?! I think not!" Mina announced, making Kaoru smile at the idea, "Come on! It's obvious that he hasn't stopped thinking about you! He almost got himself killed by your brother just so he could visit you at your house at the party, remember?"
"Mina, I think he just went to the party to hang out with his friends," Kaoru replied calmly, as usual only seeing the pessimistic things in the situation and Mina rolled her eyes at her unwise thinking.
"Bullshit! He wanted to see you!" Mina said, reassuring her even more, "Come on, are you just gonna sit there and sulk all day or are we going to figure out what you're going to wear when you go to meet Kenshin?"
Kaoru smiled at her, the kind of smile that enables you from keeping your eyes open and the apples of your cheeks from pumping up like a water balloon. Mina grinned back, glad that Kaoru was finally going back to her old self and she pulled her over to her closet and began throwing all of the clothes out all over the room. In no time at all, the room appeared to look like there was an explosion at the Gap.
The beach's sand was warm and rough under Yahiko's feet, perfect for playing a little football. Saito had a pretty good arm for the game and after persistent pestering from Yahiko, he had reluctantly agreed to join in a little throw-and-catch game. The ball ripped through the sky in a perfect spiral and Yahiko caught it easily in between his palms. In celebration to his quick reflexes, Yahiko slammed the football down into the sand and lifted his arms up in the air.
"Touch down for Team Yahiko!" Yahiko shouted as he ran around in circles, hooting and hollering as he ran around the "Superbowl stadium." Saito rolled his eyes and looked away from Yahiko, shoving his hands in his pockets in an effort to pretend like he didn't know the man that was now doing a little happy dance in the middle of the beach. But in doing so, his eyes caught a glimpse of Kenshin's red hair as he sat on the porch doing his Tantra exercises.
Yahiko and Saito were now caught up in watching Kenshin shift around in different sitting and standing positions as directed in the book he was holding. Little did Saito know that Kenshin was actually building up his temperance for the arrival of Kaoru in a few days time. Kenshin knew he looked stupid, but the reward afterwards was well worth the embarrassment. And who knows, maybe he'd get to see Kaoru in a bikini? Okay, Kenshin, ease down on the drool.
"What the hell is that fucker doing?" Saito said to himself as he watched Kenshin doing squats on the front lawn. Yahiko was also in deep concentration in what Kenshin was doing and he threw the football to Saito, not really noticing for where he was aiming and the football came right in contact with Saito's crotch, sending him to his knees in pain. "Aw, man!" Saito yelped as he fell to the ground with his hands on his throbbing privates.
"Shit!" Yahiko shouted, looking nervously from Saito's fallen body to the open beach area for a place to hide, "Uh... he was like that before I got there!" Immediately, Yahiko ran inside the house, jumping over Saito's fallen body, who was still in too much pain to do anything more than moan in pain and Yahiko slammed the door to his room shut. "Oh my God, Saito's gonna kill me!" Yahiko said to himself, panicking and hyperventilating all at the same time, "Well, if he goes in here. I'll give him a Hyah! And a HYAH!"
Yahiko punched into the air, imagining a very bruised up Saito falling down to the ground all bruised and beaten and Yahiko kicked his foot behind him to stop the invisible reinforcements from attacking him as well. In the process of his imaginary fight scene, Yahiko knocked over the lamp on his dresser and shattering it into a dozen pieces all over the room.
"Oh crap!" Yahiko exclaimed and he bent down to pick up the pieces in his bare hands, getting a scrape on his fingers in the process, "OW! Mother of! Jesus!.... Okay, I need to fix this... Super glue... super glue.... Ahah!" Yahiko grabbed the small tube of glue in his hands and worked a few drops onto the broken pieces, gently placing them back where they belonged. When that was all finished, Yahiko smiled in satisfaction to his work, even if the broken pieces were a little jumbled up, the lamp looked just as good to him.
Lifting the lamp up by it's base, Yahiko tugged, but the lamp wouldn't move. 'What the hell?!' he thought as he struggled again to pry the lamp away from the dresser, but it didn't even budge. Finally, Yahiko threw his arms up in the air in defeat and stalked off out of his room, leaving the lamp glued on it's side to the top of his drawers.
Downstairs, Saito and Sanosuke were sitting on the couch watching a football game on TV, Saito with a nice cold ice pack to his crotch area. Sanosuke yawned, putting his hand to his mouth to cover up the noise and he shook his head to try and wake himself up. Clicking the TV off, Sanosuke got up from his seat and headed towards the stairs, not even bothering to say bye to Saito. Saito watched him walk away, knowing exactly what he planned to do once he got to his room and he stopped him before Sanosuke could even put one foot on the bottom step of the stairs.
"I wouldn't call that girlfriend of yours if I were you," Saito called over his shoulder, making Sanosuke pause in mid-step at Saito's psychic ability of knowing that he was about to pick up the phone and dial her number. Turning around slowly, Sanosuke looked back at the injured man on the couch with a quizzical expression.
"How did you know...?" Sanosuke started, but decided that that question wasn't the most important thing at the moment and he shifted from his left foot to his right, trying to find a more comfortable position to stand, "Wait, why wouldn't I want to call Megumi?"
Saito snickered at Sanosuke's obliviousness. The man obviously didn't learn anything about women throughout his entire life or else he wouldn't be asking him what he was. Saito sat up, but winced at the sudden jolt of pain that tore through him at even the slightest pressured movement and he laid back down to ease the pain.
"Didn't you learn anything at college, you moron? That girl of yours is over in America right now with some white dude bangin' her around like a hungry monkey yearning for some coconut!" Saito explained, making Sanosuke's mouth drop at the unexpected assumption, "Hell! If not one white guy, there's gotta be at least..." Saito paused to count the fingers on his hands. "There's gotta be at least like six blonde haired dudes having some massive orgy with her or somethin'! I can just see it now! Saito imitates Megumi's voice; not very well, I might add 'Oh, wow! American culture is sooooo interesting! Tell me, do Americans do it standing up or lying down?' or she'd be like, 'Oooooh! I just love these American-made homes, bet the bedrooms are big...'"
"Aw, fuck off, Saito!" Sanosuke half-shouted at him, "You don't know shit so don't start talking about her like that! Megumi wouldn't do that!" Although his words were strong, one had to admit, his mind wasn't exactly backing him up here.
There was always gonna be that tiny little feeling of doubt nagging him in the back of his brain that maybe, just maybe, Megumi wasn't as into their relationship as he was, but still, Sanosuke would like to think that she wouldn't do something like that to him. She was definitely capable of going off and doing just what Saito had said, and Sanosuke was sure that whoever she was doing it with was more than happy to oblige. At times, he didn't even know what the hell a guy like himself was doing with a woman like Megumi, but he never thought to dwell on it too much. She was capable of ditching him at anytime she wanted and be able to get another boyfriend with a snap of her fingers, but Sanosuke didn't want to concentrate on all the 'what-if's' and 'could-have's' when he could be thinking all about what he and his girlfriend already had.
"Hah! You know she is, dude! You know it! I can tell by the way your face looks! You know that chick of yours can get any guy out there that she wants and somehow she picked you... This should be on one of those 'Mysteries of the Unexplained' shows!" Saito said, knowing that he had just passed a threshold and that he was definitely pushing some wrong buttons. Saito only grinned in utter contentment when he saw the red color rise up in Sanosuke's face and he turned to face him.
"Shut the hell up, Saito!" Sanosuke spat, and he made his way up the stairs, closing the door to his bedroom behind him, but not before he let out one last insult, "Go fist yourself!"
"Believe me, I would if it weren't for that damn friend of yours that can't throw a damn football!" Saito yelled back, but shut up once he realized that he had just yelled at nothing. Looking around to see if anyone had heard his "really cool" comeback and finding no one, Saito kicked the table in frustration. "OW!"
'I trust her, don't I?' Sanosuke thought to himself as he collapsed on his bed, his hands behind his head and his body stretched out over the blankets, 'I do, I do trust her... I think... Man, Megumi, I really hope you're not doing what Saito says you are...'
Megumi flipped through the English-Japanese dictionary in front of her, turning it right to left like how books are usually read in Japan, only to be stared at by a bunch of American guys at a nearby table. She smiled nervously at them and tried to figure out the complexity of the book's pages. It was more than obvious that she wasn't from around there, all she needed was a camera around her neck and a loud shirt and that would complete her whole tourist image.
But, she was soon startled out of her concentration on the book when Aoshi arrived and plopped down in the seat across from her in the café. He looked exhausted from their four hour long shopping trip that Megumi had insisted they go on, but Megumi didn't even seem to be breaking out a sweat. If Aoshi had known the malls in America were so big, he would have worn exercise gear. He was able to force a slight smile in her direction, or what he hoped turned out to be a smile.
Honestly, Aoshi never smiled, didn't even bother to try, but being with Megumi was different. He couldn't help but at least try to give her a little special treatment; after all, she was like a princess to him.
Yes, he was well aware of her boyfriend back in Tokyo, but still that didn't mean that he couldn't at least try for it. He knew for a fact, or what he believed was a fact anyway, that long distance relationships didn't work out and when it didn't work, he would be first in line to pick up the leftovers. He would be there when she needed to cry over the break up and he would be there through it all. Aoshi was sure to let Megumi know that. He treated her with utter most respect, acted like everything a girl could ever want in a man; gentleman manners, did sweet favors for her for no particular reason, treated her like a queen, did whatever she asked without a moment's hesitation and did I forget to mention his gorgeous good looks? Aoshi was the most wanted guy on their entire school campus with his piercing ice blue eyes, tall figure, muscular body, dark bangs, chiseled facial features, and killer style. Yes, Aoshi had some definite hottie potential, ranking number one in 'perfect guy to end up with' on almost every girl in Tokyo University's list of Prince Charmings.
"Hello Aoshi," Megumi said, returning the smile he had given her. She couldn't think of another person that he had ever actually tried to smile at, but she shrugged the thought away as she tried again to understand how exactly she was supposed to read the American-made book. Megumi frowned at the confusing pages and finally with an exasperated huff of breath, she slammed the book down on the table in defeat. "That book is impossible!" she complained, slumping low in her chair and she glared at it with so much hate, it could have set itself on fire, "These white people have absolutely no idea how to make a book! I want to just go home already..."
"Already?" Aoshi asked, disappointed that she was so eager to get back into the open arms of her boyfriend at home in Japan, "But we haven't even seen all the landmarks that the college planned on yet. I thought you wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge."
"I do, but I'm getting a little homesick. This school trip was supposed to help us with our studies, but I don't think I'll be learning anything about American medicine if I can't even read the stupid books!" Megumi huffed, taking her anger out on the book as she flung it into the nearby trash can, making it inside with one throw, "Haha! That's a three pointer right there! I think I can go pro!"
"Nice shot," Aoshi commented and Megumi grinned. She loved receiving compliments, no matter who it was from and it seemed that Aoshi always had one to give her. Forgetting about her once in a lifetime sport ability, she decided to concentrate more on the map he had displayed in front of them, pointing at all sorts of landmarks and cities they were going to visit next. "What do you say we go to the Grand Canyon next?" Aoshi suggested, but Megumi stuck out her tongue in disgust. The idea of seeing a big desert didn't seem to be the best choice for entertainment for her, she'd rather watch a seed grow into a tree rather than visit a scorching hot canyon and die of boredom. "No? Okay, you choose then," Aoshi said, handing the map over to Megumi so she could choose their next destination.
"Hm... well, we can always go to an amusement park or something," Megumi said, a small smile creeping over her red lips, "I've heard some great things about Disneyland!"
Aoshi smiled at that. It didn't really matter where they went, children's amusement park, pet cemetery, the next world war, anywhere; Aoshi could have cared less. All he wanted was to make the most of the time he had with Megumi before they had to return to Japan and she would no longer be with him. Aoshi knew that she cared for Sanosuke, he could tell by the way her eyes sparkled whenever she spoke of him, but the real question was, how much she cared about him.
Aoshi knew all about his high rankings in the perfect guy column in Tokyo University's paper and he considered himself a pretty good catch. Putting all that in mind, he thought he had a pretty good chance with the aspiring lady doctor. The only little thing in the way was her boyfriend, but he was about a thousand miles away from where he and Megumi now sat, and that gave him, Aoshi, the upper hand in the situation. 'Sanosuke is a lucky guy, very lucky indeed,' Aoshi thought to himself, 'he's just lucky that he got to her first...'
Megumi stood up from her seat, completely unaware of Aoshi's thoughts and feelings for her as she ushered him to follow her so they could continue with their tour around San Francisco. Aoshi stood up and followed her, only a few steps behind her, close enough to smell the flower scents in her hair. For now, this was all he had of her, only precious moments which she didn't even know he cherished, but as limited as he had, Aoshi was going to take all he could get from Megumi Takani. For now, he'd keep his feelings hidden, but there comes a time when the butterfly has to break out of the cocoon and test out it's wings. 'Sanosuke Sagara,' Aoshi thought, 'prepare yourself for some serious competition...'
A/N: HI! Okay, sorry for the slow updating. Well, this chapter wasn't very funny, sorry about that too, but it builds up more of the drama I added in this story. As you can tell, most of this chapter wasn't in the movie so it's original. Anyway, reviews, as always, are very very welcome!