An Idea came to Sano that night. Granted he'd drunk a lot, and that might be the cause of it, but he'd always been able to sober up at a seconds thought. The drunken act was just for the fun of it.
But the idea, well, it stemmed off the girl leaning on him. She had held her own, he had to admit, for someone who had never drank before. She'd drank three of the bars regulars under the table. An amusing site to see the quiet girl so energetic. It had been like that when they were gambling too. You'd think she never had a day of fun in her life.
His mind was straying. Maybe the drink had addled him more than he'd previously supposed. She was an appropriately nice little girl. Not the sort Megumi was, scheming and mischievous. Megumi had never made Kaoru much jealous, Sano supposed, for that very reason. Maybe it would be different with a girl that would be so hard to hate.
It wasn't right that Kaoru and Kenshin shouldn't get together. He'd just remember when he asked the girl to go along with the plan, not to fall in love with Kenshin herself.
Aneka sighed as she leaned into Sano's side. She wasn't drunk, just a little warm from the effects of all that sake. Of course she'd never tell anyone that, or she wouldn't be able to get away with leaning against someone like this without damaging her pride.
Of course to a lot of people that wouldn't make much sense, there were girls who could easily cuddle up to someone who was practically a stranger and not be judged because that's just the way they were. She wasn't one of those girls, and although it got awfully lonely not even being able to let yourself use someone as a pillow unless you ment something by it, It was important that when she finally found someone, that they know it meant something when she trusted them enough to hand them her pride. Until then, as most people said, pride is a lonely bedfellow
It was strange that she felt like she could trust Sano after just a day of knowing him. She had a feeling most guys would take advantage of a drunk, cute young girl. Aneka almost giggled. Describing herself that way seemed a little, well she didn't know, but it wasn't normal she was sure.
Then they arrived at Sano's house and the warm glow the alcohol left shot away as fast as if someone had poured snow over her. This was the part she'd been dreading, although she still wasn't sure why. Sano slid open the door and she flinched. She hoped Sano hadn't noticed.
Overall, the size of the small abode was pretty much what she had expected. A room with a closet. Of course there was also a small room in the back that she assumed was the ah, bathroom. It was a lot cleaner than she'd expected, but it was also pretty bare. It would probably be safe to assume he didn't spend much time here.
Sano shoed the girl into the door. She was acting a little strange. He hoped she wasn't going to throw up or anything, or if she was, she would be smart enough to go outside and do it. He sighed as he set up the two beds. He was glad he even had a spare, although he was used to it, he didn't much feel like sleeping on the floor. The girl, Aneka, as he'd learned her name when he was introducing her and realized he hadn't known it, was watching him sleepy eyed. If she wasn't drunk he would have mistaken the look for a wary, or nervous one.
"Here" he said, handing her the Kimono a friend gave him to sleep in. "I never use it anyway, and I'm sure it wouldn't be comfortable to sleep in those" he indicated what she was wearing then.
"You can take a bath too if you want. I'll just heat up some water and haul it in." he looked at her waiting for some indication. She nodded. He headed towards the stove that was at the far side of the room.
Aneka relaxed when Sano started laying down two beds and not just one. As if she should have worried in the first place. When he went to light the stove, she tried to inconspicuously nudge the beds further apart from each other than they were. After that she eyed the kimono. It was way to big for her. Not surprising considering the fact that Sano was almost a foot taller than her, if not more.
Sanosuke filled the bath for her and closed the door of the small room that encompassed the tub. Aneka stared at the door and sighed, wishing for the locks that she remembered on the doors in Europe, when she was a child. Luckily that was the only thing she missed. She slipped into the water after disrobing and sighed. She hadn't had a hot bath in years.
* * * *
Kaoru sat in the kitchen waiting for the water to boil as she moodily brooded. Why had she been so scared to hear what Kenshin had to say? It had been what she was wanting to hear for quite some time now wasn't it? She sighed. Well it wasn't important now, as it was in the past. If it was, Kenshin would say something again, and maybe this time she wouldn't feel like she had to run or she wouldn't be able to breathe.
She glanced over at Enishi, only to find him looking at her. Had it been because of him? She looked away. She didn't know. But it was there, that feeling that had her so afraid of herself. Would she have run from him too? She winced. What had made her such a coward.
She was brooding. That did not bode well. She was almost tempted t smack herself out of it. She giggled. That image worked. Enishi, she noticed, was looking at her with his eyebrow raised. She laughed outright. Kenshin turned to look at her from outside as she kept laughing. She sighed and shook her head at both of them, smiling. Even when the dojo was peaceful, there was still troubles, and that she was the cause of them was just too funny.
What could happen next. She almost had a feeling everything would spiral downhill from here, in someway or another. Well, on the plus side, when they hit rock bottom, the only way to look was up.----------------------------------------------------------
O.o Sano's scheming sounds painful. I have the feeling it isn't going to go quite the way he expects... heheheehehehehehe hohohohoh..... BWAHAHAHAHAHA
damn they're fun to mess with.
Sorry for how short the chapter is. I had to rush this one because I wanna get it up the same time as the two others I'm posting. Welll... I had most of it done anyway. Next chapter will be longer, I swear. There's a lot just waiting to go wrong ^__^