A/N: Okay, if you haven't seen the movie "From Hell" (which I also don't own) or you're planning on seeing it, this chapter spoils the ending. Hey! Don't look at me! It's Yahiko's fault!
Chapter 8:
"Another Disruption"
"Hey Yahiko!" Misao exclaimed from the doorway, practically causing Yahiko to double over in surprise to well... her in his beach house. It was funny, he didn't remember giving her the address... Misao kept her hands in check, gently gripping a small bag in front of her with a huge grin on her face, but that was suddenly replaced with a worried expression as she remembered the reason she had come over to the beach house in the first place. "I heard about your little uh... accident and all. Are you feeling any better? How're the twig and dingle berries?"
Everyone sat in the living room, all either on the couches or the floor, but it didn't really matter where they sat since either way, all their attentions were on Yahiko and his little guest at the door. Yahiko scratched his head in embarrassment at her acknowledging his super glue charade, which he always told everyone to refer to as 'the unfortunate incident.' Still, even if he was mortified, he was very flattered that Misao had been worried about him and he thought it to was very nice of her to stop by and see how he was doing.
"Uh... they're... I mean! I'm fine now, thanks," Yahiko said nervously, but he forgot all about that when he saw what was in her hand, "What's that you got there? You go to Blockbuster or something?"
"Huh? Oh, this! Yeah, I thought if you were feeling better then we can watch 'From Hell' if you want," Misao suggested as she held up the video tape for him to see, "You haven't seen it yet, have you?"
"I don't think so...," Yahiko replied and he sidestepped to allow her to come inside, "But then I do have really bad memory... Just pop it into the VCR in the living room over there. Misao, this is everybody. Everybody, this is Misao."
"Hi! Do you guys want to watch the movie too?" Misao asked, turning to face them all, a friendly smile on her face, "I don't think I've seen it, but then sometimes in the middle of the movie, I realize that I have. Kind of like this one time at band camp..."
Yahiko, Sanosuke, and Kenshin all sweat dropped as Misao started on one of her ongoing band camp stories and Yahiko quickly laughed before she could finish her story, interrupting her right in the middle of it. Misao turned to face him with a confused expression, but he only laughed harder and shrugged his shoulders.
"Good story, Misao!" Yahiko exclaimed nervously. "Hey! I know! Why don't we watch the movie now?" he hinted and everyone in the room, besides Misao of course, breathed a sigh of relief that he had changed the subject. Surprisingly, Misao smiled and put the movie into the VCR with no objections and then plopped down next to Yahiko on the couch. Somewhere in the room, someone's stomach grumbled... really loud.
"I'm gonna get some popcorn then," Kaoru proposed with a sigh and she got up from her seat next to Kenshin, making him pout at her absence, even if it was only for a few seconds. Without even thinking, Kenshin jumped up from his seat and simply insisted that he go to help her, after all popcorn was a little "dangerous." He didn't even catch the glare he received from Mina, who sat in front of him on the floor as he hurried past to catch up with Kaoru.
"Is popcorn really that hard to control these days?!" Saito grumbled as he took in a breath from his cigarette, blowing it out in a big "O" shape just to show off, "You stay the hell away from the popcorn, Shit-Break! That's jizz-free popcorn!" At no response, Saito got up from his seat and stalked over to the kitchen with every intention of decapitating the red headed rurouni. "Hey! I was talking to you!"
Aoshi frowned at the man and turned over to Megumi on his right to whisper into her ear.
"Is your friend always like that?" he asked and Megumi laughed out loud, startling Sano from the sudden outburst and rousing suspicions that Saito had earlier confirmed.
He had no idea what Aoshi had told his girlfriend that made her laugh so hard, but he did know that he didn't like it. Not one bit. He didn't even realize that he was grinding his teeth together until Yahiko nudged him and whispered, "Yeah, I don't like him either." Sanosuke smiled at his friend and gave him an appreciative nod before both spiky heads turned to glare at Aoshi as Megumi tried to control her laughter.
"Yes, he's always like that, but I wouldn't exactly call Hajime my friend," Megumi tried to explain, completely unaware of the invisible daggers that Yahiko and Sanosuke were throwing at her uninvited friend, Aoshi, "He's just uh... an acquaintance, I guess. I think you can already tell that he and Kenshin don't get along very well. Kaoru over there is Hajime's sister and Kenshin's current love interest. Kinda funny how this place didn't turn into some kind of famous soap opera, huh?"
"Don't call me Hajime!" Saito protested from the doorway as he headed back to his seat on the couch, a little iffed about the sound of his real name, and he grumbled under his breath as he handed Sanosuke the bowl of popcorn, "Here, it's jizz-free. Enjoy." When Sano didn't answer, Saito waved a hand in front of his face, checking if his senses were still working correctly, but Sanosuke still didn't even flinch.
Very curious, Saito leaned over and followed Sanosuke's glare to the man on Megumi's left, Aoshi Shinimori, and he snickered. Nudging Sanosuke in the ribs, Saito nodded toward the two, making a suggestive gesture about them, indicating some kind of major humping session, and Sanosuke shot him an icy glare.
"I told you that girlfriend of yours was getting banged," Saito whispered, "but who would've thought it was that guy. I thought it'd probably be some white shit or something. Oh well, whatever floats your boat! Hahaha!"
"Shut up, HAJIME!" Sanosuke growled, still not able to turn away the icy stare he had placed on Aoshi's back as he and Megumi continued to talk, much to his disappointment, "He's just her friend and that's all."
"Yeah, riiiiiight! And I'm Puff Daddy! Jesus, moron! Wake up and smell Shit-Break's jizz! In case you didn't notice, your girlfriend's hot! Girls like that can get with whoever they want, whenever they want and you're probably already in the fucking dog house," Saito mocked him, still not loud enough for anyone else to hear, but loud enough that it rang in Sanosuke's ears, "If that girlfriend of yours hasn't already cheated on you, she's gonna. 'Cause I'm telling you right now, that Aoshi guy, has his eye on her. The question is, what are you gonna do about it?"
At that, Saito slunk away, leaving Sanosuke with his thoughts and he settled down on the floor next to Mina, who was rolling her eyes at Kenshin and Kaoru on the couch together, grumbling under her breath.
"So Mina, how many girls did you fuck this year?" Saito asked her and her head whipped around so fast that her hair slapped him in the face, "OW! What the hell?!"
"Humph! Wouldn't you like to know..." Mina replied with a huff, ignoring the fact that she had just whacked him in the face with her ponytail, "Probably more than you did, Hajime." She would've said more due to her horrible mood at the time, but Mina was soon cut off by Yahiko who leaned forward in his seat, his index finger to his lips as he shushed her and pointed at the TV screen to indicate that he was trying to watch. Mina rolled her eyes, but obeyed him none the less.
The movie had just started and the main characters were being introduced, unfortunately, Yahiko and Misao happened to be quite the talkers during movies (if you remember from the earlier story you know what I'm talking about) so everyone else watching couldn't really hear what was being said over their chatter. When Heather Graham made her first appearance on the screen, Yahiko stood up and walked over to the television screen and kissed her image on the TV.
"Yahiko, cut it out!" Kaoru shouted, throwing a pillow at him from her place on the couch, "Leave Heather Graham alone! What did she ever do to deserve that?!" Everyone burst out laughing, much to Yahiko embarrassment and he shook his fist at her, blocking the screen as he stood up and yelled at her.
"Hey! This movie wasn't brought here for you, Ugly!" Yahiko objected, shaking his fist at her as if he held her neck in his hand and he stuck his tongue out to mock her, "You're just jealous 'cause no one would ever wanna kiss YOUR picture!"
"Why you little...!" Kaoru started, but Kenshin grabbed a hold of her around the waist, holding her back from strangling the breath out of his friend. Amazingly, Kaoru was a lot stronger than he first suspected and he had a little trouble keeping her back.
"Ug-ly! Ug-ly! Nah nah nah nah nah nah!" Yahiko teased and he started dancing around the room in all his glory, shaking his butt in front of her, "Can't touch this! Duh nuh nuh nuh! Duh nuh duh nuh! Can't touch this!"
"I love that song!" Misao exclaimed, jumping up and down from her seat and she started to sing along with him, "Can't touch this! Duh nuh nuh nuh! Duh nuh duh nuh! Can't touch this!"
"Aw shit, now he's got the weasel girl singing too! That's it!" Saito muttered, finally fed up with Yahiko's interrupting the movie and he picked him up by his shirt to bring him up to his eye level, "Quit dancin' around! I'm trying to...!"
"Shhh!" Yahiko said, putting a finger to his lips and he pointed at the movie playing on the TV behind him. Saito grumbled something about annoying morons that didn't know when to shut up and he set Yahiko back down on the ground. With Saito's back turned, Yahiko held up a certain finger at his back, and seeing this in the picture frame in front of him, Saito whirled back around. Yahiko immediately put his hand down and behind his back, whistling a soft tune as he "innocently" walked past him to his seat back on the couch next to Misao. Saito watched his every movement, just in case.
Meanwhile, Kenshin and Kaoru sat on their own little couch on the left side of the room, a little secluded from everyone else, something that Mina acknowledged a lot more than anyone else did. She turned away with a gruff mumble, trying her best to concentrate on the movie in front of her, but because she had been watching Kenshin and Kaoru most of the time, she didn't have the slightest idea of what was going on. She was startled out of her thoughts when Yahiko jumped up from his seat to point at the screen.
"He's gonna kill you! He's gonna kill you! Behind you! Behind you!" Yahiko shouted at the girl on screen, not like she would hear him or anything, but Yahiko felt it was necessary to yell at her anyway, "NO! That's poison, you idiot! Don't drink it! Don't drink it!"
"Turn around! Turn around!" Misao shouted with him as she got up from her seat as well for the second time throughout the movie, "OH MY GOD! He's got a knife! It's the killer!"
"RUN, YOU SORRY ASS! Run your ass off!" Yahiko yelled again, this time joined by Misao as they both jumped up and down and shouted, "RUN! RUN! RUN!"
"Whoa! That chick is so hot!" Yahiko exclaimed as he pointed at one of the girls in the movie, "AND she's got huge ass tities! She can like smother you! Hahahahaha! She's got to be the killer then! She's gonna crush you with her jugs!"
"Yahiko! She's not even a main character! How can you think that she's..!" Sanosuke protested, but Yahiko only put a finger to his lips to shush him and pointed again at the movie in front of them. Reluctantly, Sanosuke settled back down next to Megumi, who's conversation with Aoshi was now over and she was now happily eating some popcorn.
Out of nowhere, Megumi started coughing as a tiny popcorn went down the wrong tube and she coughed again to clear her throat. Putting an arm around her in concern, Sanosuke patted his hand on her back.
"You okay?" he asked her and she nodded, clearing her throat again to try and dilute the small kernel, and she swallowed back to ease her parched throat.
"I'm gonna get you some water," Aoshi said voluntarily and he got up to go to the kitchen without even a moment's hesitation. But as soon as Aoshi was out of the room and Sanosuke had made sure that Megumi was alright, Saito coughed to cover up his next phrase that he meant for only Sanosuke to hear, but Yahiko and Kenshin heard it as well.
"cough Wants your girlfriend cough, cough" Saito wheezed, hitting his chest with his fist in an effort to clear his throat too even if there really was nothing there, "Gee, I wish I had a secret admirer to get ME a glass of water..." Saito made sure that he said that part out loud, just as Aoshi walked back into the room with a glass of water and handed it to Megumi.
"What'd you say, Hajime?" Megumi asked curiously, turning her attention away from the screen to look at the former captain of the lacrosse team at Jinchuu, unsure if she had heard him correctly.
"Me?" Saito asked innocently and he smirked, "I didn't say anything."
"Here you go," Aoshi said with a smile as he handed Megumi the glass and he gently put a hand on her shoulder, "You sure you're okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it, Aoshi, I wasn't choking or anything," Megumi replied with a reassuring smile and she took a sip of the water, "Thanks anyway for being concerned and for the water."
Aoshi nodded and took his seat next to her again, this time about an inch closer to her than before. Sanosuke was about to yell at the man and ask him just who the hell he thought he was trying to get all cozy with his fox when Yahiko unexpectedly interrupted the movie yet again.
"Hey! I have seen this movie before!" Yahiko exclaimed and he pointed at a man on the screen, "Yeah! I remember now! I saw this in the theaters a while ago! That old guy's the killer! Yeah! I remember everything now! Hahahahaha! Jeez! I have such bad memory... By the way you guys, this is a horrible movie! The red headed girl escapes the killer guy and goes to Ireland or whatever and she adopts her friend's kid! And then the Johnny Depp dude commits suicide! It has a sucky ass ending!"
"What the hell, Yahiko?!"
"Shut up, you moron! They put your diaper on too tight?!"
"You just spoiled the movie!"
"Why can't you just be quiet for ten minutes?!"
"Duuuuuuude! That's two movies you've ruined already!"
"ORO?!"
"You sure are really noisy for such a little guy..."
"I guess we don't have to watch the rest then!" Misao exclaimed and everyone turned to stare at her, "Oh, well... I guess you guys already know the ending so might as well just turn it off... That would've been fun! It would be just like this one time at band camp, where we all had a camp fire and we weren't supposed to have a camp fire and I ate these funny mushrooms! I had no idea what they were, so I just kept eating and eating and nobody knew what I was doing and it was so funny! Oh and this one time...!"
"Oh dear God, kill me now!" Saito shouted and he ran up the stairs, slamming the door to his room shut and the entire house shook from the loud collision. Downstairs, everyone stayed silent, all quietly praying that Misao wouldn't continue with her stories and to prove that there really was a heaven after all, Misao shrugged her shoulders.
"Oh well! I guess that's over then! Come on, Yahiko, we've got to get started on those lessons of yours!" Misao said and she practically skipped her way to the stairs, but Yahiko remained where he was, rooted tot he spot by the curious stares from all his friends. Finally realizing that she was not being followed, Misao turned around and frowned at him and his disobedience. "Get over here, Bitch!" Misao shrieked, startling everyone with her harsh tone, but her face stayed as sweet as an angel as she continued happily skipping up the stairs with Yahiko close behind.
"Well... I better get going," Aoshi said as he grabbed his coat off the couch, "I'll see you later then. Thanks for the movie."
"No problem!" Megumi called after him, a bright smile on her face, "Come by and visit anytime you like!" Megumi walked over and gave her friend a hug, making Sanosuke cringe at the sight and he began to turn his head away when something in Aoshi's gaze caught his attention.
Turning back, Aoshi gave Sano a coy smirk, but it was gone in an instant when Megumi pulled away from what she thought was a friendly good-bye hug. Obviously, Aoshi had other ideas.
"Bye then!" She walked him to the door, much to Sanosuke's dismay, and he tried to keep his anger in, letting out a yelp when he realized that he had been clenching his fist so tight that he had made indents of his nails on his palm.
"I'm gonna go to our room now, Megumi," Kaoru said with a yawn and she began walking towards the stairs, "I'll see you up there."
Kaoru and Megumi were required to share a room for lack of space and since Saito was not at all fond of the idea of Kaoru sharing a room with Kenshin, he had made sure that his sister room with Sanosuke's girlfriend. He didn't trust the red head and his weird tantra exercises.
"I'll walk you!" Kenshin exclaimed, a little overly excited to finally have some alone time with the girl that had conquered his every thought for the past year and a half, more than overjoyed that her over-protective older brother wasn't around to shove something in his face.
Kenshin followed her up and talked to her about old times, carefully avoiding the mention of any particular bar room game, such as pool. It was a sensitive subject that Kenshin was very shy about. Even the mention of the word pool, whether it involved Kaoru or not, made his face turn as red as his hair.
Kaoru was the exact opposite. In fact, ever since that night at prom, she had insisted that she learn how to play pool; just for future reference. She made sure to make this a point to Kenshin as they made their way down the hall.
"So, Kenshin, do you know how to play pool?" Kaoru asked as casually as she could, her hands clasped in front of her as she steadily walked ahead of him with a slight bounce in her step.
The next thing Sanosuke and Megumi heard coming from upstairs was an overly loud exclaimed, "Oro?!" that could have only been Kenshin Himura himself. They both shook their heads at their friend in dismay and Megumi started to make her way upstairs, but Sanosuke caught her arm.
"I don't really like that Aoshi guy," Sanosuke blurted out. He knew he was being ridiculous, but he couldn't help it. That look Aoshi gave him earlier was definitely bothering him, that 'She's mine now' kind of look, and Sanosuke knew for a fact that Aoshi had wanted him to see it. Besides, a strong point in a relationship was honesty, right? So he thought it was best to just let her know how he honestly felt about her friend.
"Aoshi? Why not?" Megumi asked, puzzled by her boyfriend's opinion. She sure didn't see anything wrong with Aoshi, so what was Sanosuke's problem? "He's a perfectly nice guy."
"Well, yeah, sure, but you should've seen the way he gave me this look when he hugged you good-bye and all...," Sanosuke added, putting his hand behind his head at the awkward situation, "and then he like practically jumped outta his seat to go get you that water... I think he has a little crush on you or something..."
"Aoshi? Having a crush on me? He only thinks of me as a friend. Why would you think that he likes me?" Megumi asked, putting her hands on her hips, and suddenly the tiny corners of her ever-present fox ears appeared on the sides of her head, "Sanosuke, are you getting jealous?"
"Who? Me?! Jealous?! No, I'm not... uh... Well, you see..." Sanosuke stuttered. 'Damn! I'm not good at this crap,' he thought to himself, 'I can't even finish one measly little sentence!'
"That's it, you're just jealous! Hah! You've really outdone yourself this time, Rooster-Head! I'll tell you this now, Aoshi doesn't like me like that and even if he does, I don't like him that way. We're just friends!" Megumi tried to explain and she sighed, "I have no clue why you would think otherwise, but whatever your sources are, they're wrong. Aoshi and I are just friends. Period. You really shouldn't talk to Hajime so much, Sano, stupidity is contagious."
"But Fox, I....!" Sanosuke started to protest, but Megumi was already half-way up the stairs and in a matter of seconds, she closed the door to her room, obviously upset, "Damn it!!!"
A/N: So how was it? Sorry for not updating in a while but I was writing the "All I See Is Black And White" story of mine instead. Leave a review and I'll hopefully update faster!