Disclaimer:  The cast of Rurouni Kenshin don't belong to me. 

Author's note:  Right, down to business.  *flexes fingers and cackles wildly*  Ooh, you guys just won't see this one coming…  *grin*  I hope to surprise and maybe even gratify some people now…  (and didn't I update in good time this week?  Yes I did!  *proud smile* ^_^ )

  Onwards!  Enjoy!

Ice and Chaos

 Twelfth

  Memory is a strange thing.  You can completely forget something ever happened, but then something you see or hear can trigger it in your mind, and you remember it as if it happened only yesterday.  You can't control the moments when your memories choose to leap to the front of your thoughts.

  Sometimes I think my life would be easier if I could have my memory erased.  Or most of it, anyway.

  But then I remember the people I smile or cry with, or the people I no longer have with me, and I know I would never, ever want to forget them.  Now and then, just stopping to remember a person's face, or something they once said to me, or something we used to laugh about, is what keeps me going.

  I hate and love my memories.

  Misao could see nothing but the young man's face moving with easy certainty down to hers, his lips ready to meet her own.

  Aoshi…  Where are you?

  Misao barely had time to wonder where the sudden thought came from before a gasp nearby sent her and the young man holding her springing apart.

  A boy and two girls of about Misao's age stood a little way down the hall, their gazes fixed, scandalised, on the couple before them.  One of the girls had her mouth in a silent 'O', while the other just stared.  The boy winked at the young man stood by Misao approvingly.

  Misao was saved when Sou suddenly appeared out of nowhere at her elbow.

  "You should probably get back to the dance now," he suggested smilingly, tugging her carefully from the other young man's lingering touch on her waist.

  "I think your father was looking for you, Angel," he added to the blond-haired man, who nodded, and walked stiffly away, an unreadable expression on his face.  As he reached the doorway to the ballroom, he turned long enough to send Misao an apologetic look, followed by a belying grin.  Misao was still trying to figure out what exactly had been happening.

  Sou led her gently away, past the trio who still stood and stared, the word 'gossip' hanging in the air like a vengeful ghost.

  Misao soon found herself seated in a far corner of the ballroom, Sou sat by her with his hand as a warm, secure touch on her arm.

  Whispers had reached a group of girls nearby, who looked from Misao to Angel, stood on the other side of the vast hall. 

  Misao suddenly couldn't even summon the energy to make her anger reach her face.

  "Are we staying?"  Maree's question seemed too quiet, but Ven heard her perfectly.  Almost as if he were expecting her to ask such a question.

  "Yes."

  Maree stepped closer to her brother, falling in beside and slightly behind him, positioned like a shoulder angel, dressed in black and looking small and pale-faced in the misty air of the rock bar.  Her eyes fell on Ven's face, though he was not looking at her.  Maree's hands pressed restlessly together in a nervous gesture that Aoshi had not seen the like of from her before.  Her deep red top seemed suddenly flimsy and pointlessly aesthetic, her plaits an occupation for anxious hands, her eyes too old in a face suddenly too young.

  Aoshi finally began to understand Maree.

  Matt looked decidedly aggravated as he stood stolidly on the other side of Ven. The taller youth's deep brown hair reflected the flickering lights from the stage, which played over his dark head with alternating gleams of chestnut-tinted light, now white, now blue, now red.

  Ven's eyes remained strangely passive, while something about his mouth tightened just a fraction.

  "We'll ignore it."

  Matt looked ready to protest, but one unruffled, though somehow needing, look from Ven silenced him.

  The group moved into the crowded dimness of the Cartoon.

  The hour had grown later and the gossip bored and dormant when Sou suggested they leave.  Trust occasions and people like these to snatch at the first hint of a rumour they came across.  At least they were easily tired of something that was, really, so petty as what had almost happened with Misao and Angel.  Still.  Misao had wanted to lift her chin defiantly to the room for what had been speculated about her, but she felt too… tired.  Why did she have to be her father's daughter?

  She was just allowing Sou to lead her to the main entrance of the building when her father appeared.

  "Please allow me to take my daughter home, Soujiro."  The man barely glanced at Sou as he spoke.

  The younger man glanced with concern at Misao, who stood staring straight back at her father.  Through his gentle touch on her back, Sou could feel Misao straighten her spine and saw her lift her head with staunch pride.  Sou felt a wave of pride himself in his dear, hapless, unwavering friend.  He released her, receiving her unspoken message that told him only so much: I can handle this by myself.

  Misao walked away with her father, and Sou leaned against the wall near the doors, wondering if he would get the chance to speak to someone in particular that night.

  Someone whom he didn't want making moves on Misao.

  Aoshi found himself stood by Ethan, who leaned against a wall at a slight distance from the blaring speakers on the stage, tall and indifferent, separated from the thrumming intensity of the crowd of dancers.

  "Hey, Aoshi."

  The ice-blue-eyed stare turned to watch the speaker, but Ethan didn't seem inclined to say any more without prompting.

  "You prefer distance, Ethan?" he observed at last.

  Ethan spared Aoshi a glance.  "I don't generally like crowds.  Not ones as tense as this, anyway.  I'm half waiting for someone to burst into a rendition of bloody 'S Club Party'."

  Aoshi felt himself approach the edge of a smirk.  "Those the guys Ven told me about, then?"

  "I'll assume that much: there aren't any other guys I know about who can piss Ven off the way they do."

  Aoshi let the pause lengthen, dwelling for a moment on the information in Ethan's statement.

  "Why do they cause so much trouble to Ven?"

  Ethan's glance was a split second longer that time.  He raised a hand as if lifting a cigarette, but hesitated and pushed his hair back instead.  "If he hasn't gone into it, I won't."

  "I see."

  "Don't get me wrong," another glance, "It isn't because of some big conspiracy.  I just can't be bothered to go into it- hell knows most of us have forgotten where it all began.  It's one of those 'old grudges die hard' things."

  "I thought it was 'old habits die hard'."

  Ethan made his hand into a shape that would normally hold a cigarette, flashing a half-grin, before dropping his arm back to his side.  "They are one and the same, my friend.  They are one and the same."

  "You never told me you knew a girl like that, Sou," came a voice from behind the brown-haired boy, as he made his way out to his car.

  The gravel crunched under his feet as he turned to level his grey-blue gaze on the speaker.

  "Angel.  Why did you do that?" he said carefully.

  "I thought she was beautiful.  I wanted her near me.  Is that hard to understand?" he replied genially.

  "You only just met her, Angel."

  The blond-haired boy cocked his head to one side, watching Sou.  "Some people believe in love in first sight."  He smiled.

  Sou pushed back a frown.  "How have you been?" he asked suddenly, changing the subject.

  "Fine, fine.  My dad's company is richer than ever, I'm still minding my manners like a dutiful son and I've just met Misao.  Couldn't be better, really."  He seemed happy enough as he ticked off his list of reasons to smile.

  Something about his words didn't fit right.  Something in them didn't stick, and hung aimlessly in the air between them.  Sou had some idea what it could be, but this was hardly the time or place to discuss it.  Besides, Angel seemed to want to pretend it didn't exist.  Fine, Sou could respect that.

  "It's strange that we haven't really spoken in so long," he observed without thinking.  The words came out sounding as if they'd been spoken by a mourning ghost from the past.  Neither young man really felt that way. 

  The words joined Angel's in the empty air.

  Finally, Angel reached out to place a hand on Sou's shoulder, and Sou looked up in surprise to come face to face with glassy green eyes.  Those eyes…  They flashed with some questionable intent, but something shifted uneasily further down in their emerald depths.

  Something wasn't right about Angel.

  Sou wondered what to say.

  Angel saved him the trouble.  "We should talk again soon, then."

  "Oh…" Sou smiled in a reflexive action, while searching for an appropriate reply.  He didn't even notice his left foot tap against the ground, as if preparing him for a fast getaway.

  Angel suddenly released the shorter boy, and sauntered off.  He flashed a grin back over his shoulder, and called, "You should bring Misao again, too!" before vanishing into the darkness of the far side of the car park.

  Sou stood, unmoving, a moment longer, before heading for his car.

  "Why do they have to keep turning up like that?  They know they shouldn't be there!  They think they can stick their prattish group right in my face, and get away with it?  No way in hell is that going to happen!"

  Aoshi had wandered out for a drink before bed when he heard words spoken in a raised voice.  He almost didn't recognise quiet, collected Ven's voice.  Aoshi caught the low sound of a quiet reply to Ven's angry words.

  Ven spoke again.

  "It's them asking for war, here.  I'm sick of it, Maree, and I'm surprised that you aren't."

  Another low murmur for a while.

  Ven's voice quietened a little by the time Maree had finished speaking.  She seemed to have had a little more to say that time.

  "Yes, I know, I know…"  A heavy sigh.  "God knows I don't want to go through that- or any of you lot, either.  You and the others are more important to me than that, I wouldn't risk it...  I don't know how Aoshi does it, to be honest."  Ven sounded tired more than anything then.

  Aoshi's feet took a couple of subconscious steps closer to the door to the yard out back, where it had become apparent that Ven and Maree were talking.  His heart seemed to have stopped, skipped along a couple of beats, stopped again.

  He could just catch Maree's response.  "They were all killed, weren't they?"

  Ven must have nodded, because there was a pause as Maree's question hung in the air.  She spoke again.

  "I guessed it must be something like that, he wouldn't have travelled without them…" Her voice held a level of sorrow that Aoshi had not expected from her, though he hardly knew why.

  "He's been through our worst nightmare, basically," said Ven wearily.

  "So walk away from it.  Forget about this.  Or the same thing will happen to us, eventually.  Matt.  Kieran.  Ethan.  You and me.  Just leave it alone: it isn't worth the risk," said Maree flatly.  Aoshi wondered what kind of look was on her face right then.

  Ven just sighed heavily again.

  Aoshi forced his feet to take him to his room.  He didn't need reminders.

  He sat down heavily on the end of his bed.  Depression can be a sudden and unbeatable force at times.

  I don't need reminders, he repeated to himself.

  I need Misao.

  The thought turned up as a wild card in his mind.  But it stuck.  God, how it stuck.

  It was like a revelation from the past, a memory suddenly becoming the future.  Visions of shining black hair and sparkling blue-green eyes whispered with the fluidity of silk at the fringes of Aoshi's mind, and he couldn't shy away from them.  A sweet voice, long silent, woke in his thoughts, and asked him why we can't just forget it all for while.  She told him he didn't need a reason.

  Aoshi reached for the slip of paper on his bedside table.

Author's note:  *gasp*  What a cliffhanger!  What an evil writer!  Wait… that's me…  ^_^  (I'm assuming you remember what the slip of paper is, by the way)  But don't worry, everyone!  I've already written the next chapter, so there is no risk at all of having to wait forever and a day to find out what happens next.  ^_^  I've had such a burst of the 'Ice and Chaos mood', I wrote this chapter, the next and started the one after that all in the space of about four days.  Very unlike me!

  *jumps up and punches the air*  I have defeated the exam blues!  Yeah!

  Hope you liked this chapter, anyhoo!  And before anyone asks:

  THIS IS NOT THE END.  Or not very NEAR the end, I mean.  What, you think I'd leave out the rest of Aoshi's past, sweep aside the photography teacher, conveniently brush away Angel?  NO!  'Tis not to be, Barnabas!  We SHAll go to the ball!  *capers about*  Okay, I'm losing it now…

  Leave a review!  Please!  ^_^

Notes to reviewers:

Thank you to ceres17 (well Maree wasn't around much this chapter, really…  So I hope you aren't annoyed at her for now.  ^_^), sarah (Thank you for leaving a review, and for your thoughts (I'm really lazy too, so no worries!).  ^_^  I'm glad to find someone who doesn't hate Maree- and I'm very glad you think she's oniony.  ^_^  And thanks for the note on the living room scene- I enjoy indulging in pensive non-dialogue moments now and then.  Hope to see you again ^_^), koala4u (*glomp*  Thank you for the support!  I've picked up speed on my writing now, for a while at least, so it's okay, but it's great to know you aren't annoyed at the long pauses before.  ^_^  *giggles at the 'go Misao!' comment*  Ah, but that blond shouldn't count his chickens…  *grin*  You have summer school?  That sucks.  *offers chocolate*  Chocolate relieves the pain.  Oh yes it does.  *munches on her own bar* ^_^ I hope the work doesn't get you down too much), Falling rain (Thanks!  Oh- *hands over a hankie*  Here.  What with another cliffie, I thought you might want it…), len (Ah, and you didn't have to wait long!  ^_^  As for all your questions…  No spoilers!  *grin*  Sorry, but I'm adopting a strict no-spoiler policy.  You'll just have to wait and see!), Cat H (The green-eyed man, yes…  *rubs hands together gleefully*  Wait and see, my friend, wait and see…  *grin*  As for Aoshi and Misao…  Next chapter *should* bring something, shouldn't it?  ^_^ ), Kmye-chan (Thank you for the note on pacing.  ^_^  It's quite nice to use a style that is slower like this- I haven't even attempted it before, so I'm glad you like it.  Yes, Misao isn't much of a one for the kind of party her dad's dragged her to, but then she has Sou's company and her clothing diversion, so she's made an exception.  That was how I reasoned.  Ah yes, the reunion scene should be fun between Aoshi and Misao…  ^_^  Watch this space is all I can say, really.  ^_^  You know, you're right about the spacing thing- it's a general rule to leave only one space, but apparently you can leave two.  It's just not normal.  But then I'm not normal.  ^_^  I actually tried to type this chapter with only one space, and I kept forgetting so often that in the end I said 'screw it' and went back to two spaces.  *sheepish grin*  But you are right, so I'll just apologise for my weakness for two spaces and hope it doesn't annoy you too much. *munches cookies gratefully* ), battousai rk8520 (No spoilers, wait and see!  Though I don't think Aoshi will let things stay the way they are with Misao without a fight.  ^_^  Glad you like it, anyway!), Misao Mei Mei (You'll have to wait and see, sorry!  Thanks, though! ^_^), FlameSolo (*grin* glad you liked the cliffie, mean as it was.  Does that mean you liked this chapter's cliffie, too?  *chuckle*  I'm getting way too fond of cliffhangers.  *shakes head at self*  very bad.  But very fun!  ^_^  As for that man…  More ahead, that much is guaranteed.), Crystallis* Chandalline (Laziness excused: I'm incredibly lazy myself, so I'm not gonna tell you off for it!  ^_^  Thanks for the compliments *blushing smile*  I love descriptions, I tend to get a little carried away with things like the elements- I love turning on the rain machine- and descriptions of light and dark and textures…  I can't help myself!  But you like it, so I'm glad.  ^_^  Yes, look forward to an Aoshi/Misao reunion!), bee (Yes, things started dragging, hence why I'm determinedly moving forward into the next phase of the story…  Sorry for it feeling slow, but I'm not putting in anything that doesn't matter, even if it seems that way.  I just prefer not to give the game away at first glance (as you may have already noticed… *sheepish grin*).  But rest assured, all characters do indeed have a part to play.), EK (Just as it should be then!  ^_^), lebleuphenix (*big smile*  Thank you very much for your review, you said so many things that made me really happy to be writing this story.  ^_^  Sensing action…  I don't know, different people have different ideas of action, so I'll leave it up to you to decide if your premonition was on target.  Don't worry, I won't hold off the Aoshi/Misao reunion much longer, promise.  ^_^), nekonomiko (*grin*  Don't worry, whatever mischief I get up to, I won't try and get Aoshi and Maree to do anything naughty.  ^_^  I'm not THAT horrible!  I won't forget the working parents- my own mum and dad remind me often enough that I'm a lazy student when they come in from work and I've done pretty much nothing all day except maybe write some fanfiction… *guilty*  I'll work harder!!  ^_^) and imaninz (No, he doesn't know does he?  But he's still unforgivable, and if there isn't such a word as madder, there jolly well should be.  *nods decisively*  ^_^  But as you see, Sou didn't leave Misao to the wolves.  He's too nice to do that.  ^_^  Good old Sou!).

  Thank you all for your reviews, I felt so motivated when I read them!  That and the final demise of my exams made writing more a lot easier than it has been recently.  Thanks for all your support.  ^_^

  Onwards, then!  Until next time…  *wink*