T.Anjel: Gomen minna-san! I truly didn't mean to get this chapter out so
late, but as school started and such, I barely had any time to get anything
done. Gomen gomen! But enjoy the chapter, ne? Oh yes! And many many
thanks to everyone who reviewed! You guys certainly make my day! And
special thanks to XenoMark, Kosume-Shizaki, and Kasumi Izukawa!
Standard disclaimers apply.
To Love the Hated - chapter 4.
Kaoru stared blankly at the high, dark ceiling, feet above her. With the hundreds of things that went on that day, she would have thought that sleep would have overcome her in the blink of an eye. Obviously, she was proven wrong.
Kaoru was the first in 'bed'. She took her blankets back to the floor and closed her eyes tightly, and found out an hour later that sleep refused to take over her senses. One by one, she heard the light snores of the other women in the room.
"Mou! They barely did anything today, and somehow they get the most sleep!" Kaoru complained to herself, crossing her arms under her blanket.
After hours of non-stop fidgeting and trying to force herself to sleep, Kaoru bolted upright in the dark. Her night was indefinitely frustrating.
"Maybe a cup of water would do me some good", Kaoru thought, standing up and slipping on a pair of slippers. "Now where was the kitchen again?" She asked herself, gently shutting the large, oak door of the bedroom behind her.
She changed from the light yukata she had worn to sleep in into a loose- fitting pair of gi and hakama she found tucked away in one of the closets. Tightening the gi around her, Kaoru continued her way around the labyrinth of a castle.
Kaoru took a right, not quite sure whether it was the right direction to go to or not. There was only one way to find out. She strolled along the pitch black of the hallways, feeling her way through bye following her right hand against the walls. They were cold to the touch and every time she came upon a door, she would open it gently, identifying the dark silhouette of the furniture with her dark-adjusted eyes.
"Mou! I'm lost again!" Kaoru grumbled to herself, feeling no surprise at the fact. Somehow, she had a tendency to forget how much of a maze the castle was.
After another whole sixty seconds of wandering around, Kaoru scolded herself for not bringing along a candle. She opened up what seemed to have been the sixtieth door. She didn't see any furniture or windows.
"Stairs?" Kaoru thought, staring down at the descending steps. "I knew the first floor was a bit up high," Kaoru thought with a huff, and with her curiosity overwhelming her, she slowly went down; step by step.
After the twelfth step, Kaoru's slippered feet met sturdy ground. "A dojo?" Kaoru thought in amazement as a steady, blue light filtered through a window that went around half of the dojo. A wall was stacked with different sized bokkens, and the rest of the enormous room was nothing but a polished wood floor.
Kaoru took off her slippers and walked over to the neat row of bokkens. She picked on up and swung it around in casual motions. After being satisfied of her pick, she automatically began practicing her swings.
"Just because I'm in some over-spoiled palace doesn't mean I set my practice aside, does it?" Kaoru thought happily as she struck down hard on an invisible opponent.
After the who-knows-how-manyth time Kaoru practiced her swings and attacks, she leaned on the bokken, retying her hair in the process.
"What am I doing here?" Kaoru quietly asked herself, taking a seat on the floor and staring blankly at the opposite wall. She gave a silent chuckle, causing any viewers just to see her shoulders heave up and down in a quick motion. "I don't belong here," Kaoru said to no one in particular in the same, quiet tone.
"Mou!" Kaoru suddenly said aloud, and lightly conked herself on the head with her fist. "Snap out of it, Kaoru! There's no use in feeling all depressed now, is there?" Before she could argue against the question, she stretched for a moment and continued her tiresome practice.
Kaoru wiped the sweat dripping at the side of her face after doing four hundred fifty swings. "Ah! Whose there?" Kaoru asked in surprise as she felt another presence in the room. Kaoru's ki flared at the sight of the man who dared interrupt her practice. The small incident from the library quickly reinforced itself into Kaoru's mind and she mumbled, "Hentai."
"I'm not a hentai!" Kenshin defended with what looked to Kaoru, pouted lips.
"Then why were you touching my leg?" Kaoru challenged.
"I just wanted to see if your burn was getting any better," Kenshin argued honestly.
"Did you have to be so forward?" Kaoru growled.
"Gomen, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin apologized. "I guess I wasn't thinking."
"Of course you weren't," Kaoru agreed and suddenly an idea sparked. "I'm supposing you do kendo, Ouji-sama?" Kaoru changed the subject.
"Aa," Kenshin responded. "But I'm not all that good, Kaoru-dono!"
"I'll be the judge of that," Kaoru said, flinging a bokken over to Kenshin. "Let's fight!"
"Demo.Kaoru-dono!" Kenshin barely managed to sputter before blocking a downward swing from Kaoru. "I don't want to fight with you, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin said, pushing her back.
"Sure you do! Think of it as a sorry gift for me," Kaoru said and let out a battle cry as she attacked Kenshin in a various motions and swings. "Mou!" She complained as she jumped feet away from him again. "Won't you ever attack?"
"I doubt it," Kenshin replied with his melting smile. "I have no intention of hurting you, Kaoru-dono."
"Who said you would hurt me?" Kaoru mocked, sliding deeper into her stance.
"I probably would!" Kenshin argued stubbornly, but was quickly cut off by Kaoru's sudden array of attacks. "She's quicker than before," Kenshin noted, quickly blocking off foreseen attacks right and left. "She's speeding up with every attack," Kenshin re-noted as it began to take him more and more effort to fend off her attacks.
"Attack me," she growled as she mercilessly attacked Kenshin. With a frustrated grunt, Kaoru unexpectedly swiped her leg under Kenshin's, causing him to stumble. Kaoru took the tight opportunity to pound the end of her bokken into Kenshin's chest and pin him to the wall.
Kenshin almost didn't see that coming and would have shielded against the latter of the attacks quite sloppily if he made any move to do it at all. "I guess you got me, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin said good-heartedly and dropping his bokken to the ground and raising his hands midway into the air.
Kaoru frowned. "Is he just toying with me?" She thought, keeping her bokken slammed against his chest. "Why weren't you attacking?" Kaoru asked, sounding more or less as if she were complaining.
"I said I didn't want to hurt you, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin said, repeating his previous answer.
"Did you not think I couldn't have blocked your attacks?" Kaoru inquired in an aggravated tone.
"Iie!" Kenshin argued. "You probably could have, but I didn't want to take the chance."
"Baka," Kaoru murmured before dropping her bokken and plopping onto the floor. Her exhaustion of the entire day seemed to have finally caught up with her. "Ouji-sama," Kaoru said, tilting her head so she could look at the man who seated himself on the floor near her.
"Hai?"
"What are you doing here in the middle of the night?" Kaoru asked.
"I wasn't able to sleep," Kenshin replied. "And you?"
"Same thing."
And there was a warm silence in the room.
"Is there really going to be a ball soon?" Kaoru asked staring sleepily into Kenshin's purple orbs.
"Aa," he replied simply, beginning to feel slightly sleepy himself. Kaoru crawled on all fours to the wall, where she sat down again and leaned against it.
"Who's going to be there?" Kaoru asked.
"Nobles and such," Kenshin replied vaguely, feeling his eyelids beginning to droop over his eyes.
"Sou ka," Kaoru commented and yawned loudly, causing Kenshin to yawn as well. "I think I'm going to sleep just for a second before finding my way back," Kaoru drawled out, closing her eyes slowly. And she immediately fell into a deep sleep. Her head lolled to the side and nestled Kenshin's shoulder.
Kenshin closed his own eyes and gently rested his head against her's. I'll sleep for just a minute. he assured himself. Just.one.minute..
~*~*~*~*~*~
"HENTAI!!!"
Kenshin awoke the following morning by a nice hard slap on the cheek. It stung immediately after the sudden impact. "ORoOOOROOOo!"
Kenshin was sprawled on the dojo floor, and looked up to see a raging and most flustered Kaoru.
"What happened, Kaoru-dono?" Kenshin asked most too innocently. "Oro? It's morning," he noted. "Ohayo gozaimasu, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin said, smiling even through the slap he received just moments ago.
"Don't 'ohayo' me," Kaoru growled, steam emitting from her ears.
"Oro?"
"Mou!!" Kaoru yelled, stomping her foot and thundering up the stairs with the most noise possible.
Kenshin was left in the dojo, feeling more confused and perplexed than ever. He had an urge to follow the woman and demand to know what happened. But he believed that that would just make her even more infuriated with him: something she had been for the short amount of time she was at the palace.
~*~*~*~*~
Kaoru on the other hand, was stomping down the now-lit hallways of the castle, mumbling incoherent things about a certain prince being a most perverse hentai. She had somehow managed to make it to her room after getting lost just once, and stormed with rage into one of the bathrooms, ignoring the other women's surprised stares as they had just begun to wake and Misao's beginning of a ramble of how worried she was about Kaoru.
Kaoru stripped herself of her yukata and slipped into the steaming tub, allowing her muscles to relax in the hot water.
"Who does he think he is?!" Kaoru growled inwardly to herself. She tensed up again at the reminder of what happened once she woke up that morning.
The dojo was cold, as most mornings were, and Kaoru had woken up shivering. Only to find that she was wrapped securely around a certain man's arms, and she was leaning into his chest. Worst of all, one of his lifeless hands was gently resting on her thin hip. She had woken up fully at that exact moment; realizing the how loving the position was and whom she was with.
Kaoru blew merciless bubbles into the tub, causing them to grow and pop in her face. "That hentai.," she frowned.
Breakfast came by in a jiffy, and Kaoru found herself sitting in her usual seat in the same ripped dress she wore the other day. Of course, the mighty Hiko Seijuro had unsurprisingly left his snide comment on the worn- out dress.
Only with Kaoru to haughtily reply that she wore what she was comfortable in.
Hiko quickly argued back that she should make herself look viewable and the best that she can be.
"Be thankful that I actually wash myself everyday," Kaoru snarled, gobbling up her foreign breakfast before her most 'beloved' Ou-sama had his first bite.
Kaoru forcefully kept her gaze on her plate and in the opposite direction of the prince. She had no patience at the moment to deal with such a hentai.
Kenshin on the other hand had been and still was totally confounded with what had happened earlier that morning. And understanding that she was only being stubborn, Kenshin made no unnecessary move in front of 'public' to get her undivided attention.
Everyone finished their meal quietly as usual, still nervous around the buff king and the debonair prince.
"I would like to announce that in two weeks, there will be a ball."
That sent a hushed wave of giggles and gasps across the long table.
"There will be nobles and men of high class attending," Hiko continued in a grave voice, making him sound of high authority. "I expect all of you to dress accordingly," he added, running his eyes on Kaoru's shaggy dress. "And I want all of you on your best behavior," he scanned Kaoru once again. Kaoru scoffed at the observation.
"You are dismissed," Kaoru echoed along with Hiko as he made his usual dramatic exit.
~*~*~*~*~*~ T.Anjel: ^^; I think this chapter could have been much longer, don't you? I am hoping to have a longer chapter for the ball scene, but here's to wishful thinking. Review onegai!
Standard disclaimers apply.
To Love the Hated - chapter 4.
Kaoru stared blankly at the high, dark ceiling, feet above her. With the hundreds of things that went on that day, she would have thought that sleep would have overcome her in the blink of an eye. Obviously, she was proven wrong.
Kaoru was the first in 'bed'. She took her blankets back to the floor and closed her eyes tightly, and found out an hour later that sleep refused to take over her senses. One by one, she heard the light snores of the other women in the room.
"Mou! They barely did anything today, and somehow they get the most sleep!" Kaoru complained to herself, crossing her arms under her blanket.
After hours of non-stop fidgeting and trying to force herself to sleep, Kaoru bolted upright in the dark. Her night was indefinitely frustrating.
"Maybe a cup of water would do me some good", Kaoru thought, standing up and slipping on a pair of slippers. "Now where was the kitchen again?" She asked herself, gently shutting the large, oak door of the bedroom behind her.
She changed from the light yukata she had worn to sleep in into a loose- fitting pair of gi and hakama she found tucked away in one of the closets. Tightening the gi around her, Kaoru continued her way around the labyrinth of a castle.
Kaoru took a right, not quite sure whether it was the right direction to go to or not. There was only one way to find out. She strolled along the pitch black of the hallways, feeling her way through bye following her right hand against the walls. They were cold to the touch and every time she came upon a door, she would open it gently, identifying the dark silhouette of the furniture with her dark-adjusted eyes.
"Mou! I'm lost again!" Kaoru grumbled to herself, feeling no surprise at the fact. Somehow, she had a tendency to forget how much of a maze the castle was.
After another whole sixty seconds of wandering around, Kaoru scolded herself for not bringing along a candle. She opened up what seemed to have been the sixtieth door. She didn't see any furniture or windows.
"Stairs?" Kaoru thought, staring down at the descending steps. "I knew the first floor was a bit up high," Kaoru thought with a huff, and with her curiosity overwhelming her, she slowly went down; step by step.
After the twelfth step, Kaoru's slippered feet met sturdy ground. "A dojo?" Kaoru thought in amazement as a steady, blue light filtered through a window that went around half of the dojo. A wall was stacked with different sized bokkens, and the rest of the enormous room was nothing but a polished wood floor.
Kaoru took off her slippers and walked over to the neat row of bokkens. She picked on up and swung it around in casual motions. After being satisfied of her pick, she automatically began practicing her swings.
"Just because I'm in some over-spoiled palace doesn't mean I set my practice aside, does it?" Kaoru thought happily as she struck down hard on an invisible opponent.
After the who-knows-how-manyth time Kaoru practiced her swings and attacks, she leaned on the bokken, retying her hair in the process.
"What am I doing here?" Kaoru quietly asked herself, taking a seat on the floor and staring blankly at the opposite wall. She gave a silent chuckle, causing any viewers just to see her shoulders heave up and down in a quick motion. "I don't belong here," Kaoru said to no one in particular in the same, quiet tone.
"Mou!" Kaoru suddenly said aloud, and lightly conked herself on the head with her fist. "Snap out of it, Kaoru! There's no use in feeling all depressed now, is there?" Before she could argue against the question, she stretched for a moment and continued her tiresome practice.
Kaoru wiped the sweat dripping at the side of her face after doing four hundred fifty swings. "Ah! Whose there?" Kaoru asked in surprise as she felt another presence in the room. Kaoru's ki flared at the sight of the man who dared interrupt her practice. The small incident from the library quickly reinforced itself into Kaoru's mind and she mumbled, "Hentai."
"I'm not a hentai!" Kenshin defended with what looked to Kaoru, pouted lips.
"Then why were you touching my leg?" Kaoru challenged.
"I just wanted to see if your burn was getting any better," Kenshin argued honestly.
"Did you have to be so forward?" Kaoru growled.
"Gomen, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin apologized. "I guess I wasn't thinking."
"Of course you weren't," Kaoru agreed and suddenly an idea sparked. "I'm supposing you do kendo, Ouji-sama?" Kaoru changed the subject.
"Aa," Kenshin responded. "But I'm not all that good, Kaoru-dono!"
"I'll be the judge of that," Kaoru said, flinging a bokken over to Kenshin. "Let's fight!"
"Demo.Kaoru-dono!" Kenshin barely managed to sputter before blocking a downward swing from Kaoru. "I don't want to fight with you, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin said, pushing her back.
"Sure you do! Think of it as a sorry gift for me," Kaoru said and let out a battle cry as she attacked Kenshin in a various motions and swings. "Mou!" She complained as she jumped feet away from him again. "Won't you ever attack?"
"I doubt it," Kenshin replied with his melting smile. "I have no intention of hurting you, Kaoru-dono."
"Who said you would hurt me?" Kaoru mocked, sliding deeper into her stance.
"I probably would!" Kenshin argued stubbornly, but was quickly cut off by Kaoru's sudden array of attacks. "She's quicker than before," Kenshin noted, quickly blocking off foreseen attacks right and left. "She's speeding up with every attack," Kenshin re-noted as it began to take him more and more effort to fend off her attacks.
"Attack me," she growled as she mercilessly attacked Kenshin. With a frustrated grunt, Kaoru unexpectedly swiped her leg under Kenshin's, causing him to stumble. Kaoru took the tight opportunity to pound the end of her bokken into Kenshin's chest and pin him to the wall.
Kenshin almost didn't see that coming and would have shielded against the latter of the attacks quite sloppily if he made any move to do it at all. "I guess you got me, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin said good-heartedly and dropping his bokken to the ground and raising his hands midway into the air.
Kaoru frowned. "Is he just toying with me?" She thought, keeping her bokken slammed against his chest. "Why weren't you attacking?" Kaoru asked, sounding more or less as if she were complaining.
"I said I didn't want to hurt you, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin said, repeating his previous answer.
"Did you not think I couldn't have blocked your attacks?" Kaoru inquired in an aggravated tone.
"Iie!" Kenshin argued. "You probably could have, but I didn't want to take the chance."
"Baka," Kaoru murmured before dropping her bokken and plopping onto the floor. Her exhaustion of the entire day seemed to have finally caught up with her. "Ouji-sama," Kaoru said, tilting her head so she could look at the man who seated himself on the floor near her.
"Hai?"
"What are you doing here in the middle of the night?" Kaoru asked.
"I wasn't able to sleep," Kenshin replied. "And you?"
"Same thing."
And there was a warm silence in the room.
"Is there really going to be a ball soon?" Kaoru asked staring sleepily into Kenshin's purple orbs.
"Aa," he replied simply, beginning to feel slightly sleepy himself. Kaoru crawled on all fours to the wall, where she sat down again and leaned against it.
"Who's going to be there?" Kaoru asked.
"Nobles and such," Kenshin replied vaguely, feeling his eyelids beginning to droop over his eyes.
"Sou ka," Kaoru commented and yawned loudly, causing Kenshin to yawn as well. "I think I'm going to sleep just for a second before finding my way back," Kaoru drawled out, closing her eyes slowly. And she immediately fell into a deep sleep. Her head lolled to the side and nestled Kenshin's shoulder.
Kenshin closed his own eyes and gently rested his head against her's. I'll sleep for just a minute. he assured himself. Just.one.minute..
~*~*~*~*~*~
"HENTAI!!!"
Kenshin awoke the following morning by a nice hard slap on the cheek. It stung immediately after the sudden impact. "ORoOOOROOOo!"
Kenshin was sprawled on the dojo floor, and looked up to see a raging and most flustered Kaoru.
"What happened, Kaoru-dono?" Kenshin asked most too innocently. "Oro? It's morning," he noted. "Ohayo gozaimasu, Kaoru-dono," Kenshin said, smiling even through the slap he received just moments ago.
"Don't 'ohayo' me," Kaoru growled, steam emitting from her ears.
"Oro?"
"Mou!!" Kaoru yelled, stomping her foot and thundering up the stairs with the most noise possible.
Kenshin was left in the dojo, feeling more confused and perplexed than ever. He had an urge to follow the woman and demand to know what happened. But he believed that that would just make her even more infuriated with him: something she had been for the short amount of time she was at the palace.
~*~*~*~*~
Kaoru on the other hand, was stomping down the now-lit hallways of the castle, mumbling incoherent things about a certain prince being a most perverse hentai. She had somehow managed to make it to her room after getting lost just once, and stormed with rage into one of the bathrooms, ignoring the other women's surprised stares as they had just begun to wake and Misao's beginning of a ramble of how worried she was about Kaoru.
Kaoru stripped herself of her yukata and slipped into the steaming tub, allowing her muscles to relax in the hot water.
"Who does he think he is?!" Kaoru growled inwardly to herself. She tensed up again at the reminder of what happened once she woke up that morning.
The dojo was cold, as most mornings were, and Kaoru had woken up shivering. Only to find that she was wrapped securely around a certain man's arms, and she was leaning into his chest. Worst of all, one of his lifeless hands was gently resting on her thin hip. She had woken up fully at that exact moment; realizing the how loving the position was and whom she was with.
Kaoru blew merciless bubbles into the tub, causing them to grow and pop in her face. "That hentai.," she frowned.
Breakfast came by in a jiffy, and Kaoru found herself sitting in her usual seat in the same ripped dress she wore the other day. Of course, the mighty Hiko Seijuro had unsurprisingly left his snide comment on the worn- out dress.
Only with Kaoru to haughtily reply that she wore what she was comfortable in.
Hiko quickly argued back that she should make herself look viewable and the best that she can be.
"Be thankful that I actually wash myself everyday," Kaoru snarled, gobbling up her foreign breakfast before her most 'beloved' Ou-sama had his first bite.
Kaoru forcefully kept her gaze on her plate and in the opposite direction of the prince. She had no patience at the moment to deal with such a hentai.
Kenshin on the other hand had been and still was totally confounded with what had happened earlier that morning. And understanding that she was only being stubborn, Kenshin made no unnecessary move in front of 'public' to get her undivided attention.
Everyone finished their meal quietly as usual, still nervous around the buff king and the debonair prince.
"I would like to announce that in two weeks, there will be a ball."
That sent a hushed wave of giggles and gasps across the long table.
"There will be nobles and men of high class attending," Hiko continued in a grave voice, making him sound of high authority. "I expect all of you to dress accordingly," he added, running his eyes on Kaoru's shaggy dress. "And I want all of you on your best behavior," he scanned Kaoru once again. Kaoru scoffed at the observation.
"You are dismissed," Kaoru echoed along with Hiko as he made his usual dramatic exit.
~*~*~*~*~*~ T.Anjel: ^^; I think this chapter could have been much longer, don't you? I am hoping to have a longer chapter for the ball scene, but here's to wishful thinking. Review onegai!
