Disclaimer: You can squeeze a rock, but you can't get any water out of it. You can sue me, but you can't get any money out of me. ...Because I don't have any. ...So please don't sue me! ^^; Rurouni Kenshin is not mine!
Please notice that TWO NEW SCENES were places at the end of Chapter 10. If you have not read them, please do so before continuing on with this chapter. Thank-you.
Chapter Eleven
After Yuiishi and Asuka departed, a certain routine followed for Nikko and the children. This routine consisted of the kids sticking to quiet games while she took an afternoon nap. While "routine" is still an idea foreign to the minds of an elementary level, the kids actually did a fairly good job of keeping the volume down. Nikko found she only needed two pillows to block out the noise instead of the ordinary five. And thus was how she slept soundly each day (A/N: Sound-ly, get it? It's a pun and….um, nevermind).
Except for today. Today, Nikko couldn't sleep at all.
And that was totally messing up her groove.
Her reason for being unable to catch some Z's had nothing to do with the fear of the red-headed stranger outside trying to take advantage of her. After all, he didn't have a spine to break, let alone the guts to even try something like that on her.
Her reason for being unable to saw logs had nothing to do with any occasional annoyance like indigestion or as trifle as a stomachache. (After expecting child, she was convinced that everyone who hadn't been pregnant before had no idea what stomach pains were! She had the stretch marks to prove it.) Besides, if all of the odd food combos she'd been craving these past few months hadn't made her sick by now, nothing would.
And lastly, her reason for being unable to catch a wink of sleep hadn't anything to do with the teeth-rattling, ground-quaking roar outside.
…Because frankly, there wasn't any.
It was quiet outside. For once it was actually, truly, pillows-not-included quiet outside.
…Which of course made it too quiet, which of course meant something funny was going on, which of course meant that she'd have to be awake to catch it, which of course led right back around to why she couldn't sleep. Follow?
Nikko's first thought to the cause of the quiet had been, I guess they finally killed him. ("Him" being Himura of course.) Then she decided that the children would still be making some sort of noise, corpse or no. So she concluded that she'd have to get up and take a look for herself.
Fifteen minutes later she'd finally accomplished the daunting task of climbing to her feet (hard to do when you feel like you've got a whole toh of rice attached to your hips), and promptly felt like getting back off them. Gingerly she stepped past the sleeping form of her brother who had passed out after eating his lunch. She glared at him enviously, momentarily considering "accidentally" waking him just to get rid of her jealousy, but in the end found her sisterly love (which is not an oxymoron contrary to popular belief) wouldn't allow her to do it. With a small sigh she continued towards the door and then completely ruined the effect she had just built by slamming open the door and bellowing at the top of her lungs, fully expecting to catch everyone "in the middle of the act."
She got as far as slamming the door open anyway. Any harsh or commanding tones however died on her lips at the sight before her.
"Oro?"
For a moment Nikko wondered if she had said that, but soon realized it had come from the man sitting on the porch in front of her. Surrounding him in the shade of the veranda roof (the part of it that hadn't come down), were all six children, each curled up or sprawled out in the spot where they each lay. The thought of her theory of the children having killed Himura being vise versa flickered through her mind before she took a closer look to find them all…
Nikko blinked. Sleeping?! They're actually sleeping?! After the shock wore off she couldn't help but to stare at them all tiredly. Great. Everyone in this house is taking a nap except for me.
"Aa, you're awake now Nikko-dono?" Himura asked her quietly so as not to disturb them. She cast him a wary look.
"What did you do to them?" she question suspiciously.
"Oro," he complained. "Out of all the tricks they've played on me and you wonder what I've done to them de gozaru ka?"
"Yup."
"…Figures." He sighed and told her, "They just tired themselves out, that's all. Most of them just chased me until they got tired, came over here to rest and ended up taking a nap."
Nikko raised an eyebrow accusingly. "And you mean to tell me that you're not tired?"
"Er… I've got great stamina de gozaru," he sheepishly answered. Then his stomach growled loudly. Nikko stared at him wryly as he blushed ever so slightly. "…But it has made me pretty hungry. Would it be too much to ask if any lunch was left for me at all?"
"Well, Yuiishi-sama did leave some behind for you. It's probably a little cold by now, but if you don't mind…"
"Hai, hai, anything is fine," Himura assured her, confident that he would eat a dead rat if it were served in a bento and provided chopsticks. Kami he was starving! Fixing a roof, falling from it three times in a row, and baby-sitting this mob of minors was enough to famish an army! …Luckily he had often been a one-man army himself in the war, so he was only famished and not dead.
Coming back with his slightly cold and stale meal, he took if thankfully and began to eat with a little more vigor than he normally allowed himself. As he did so, he caught Nikko gazing at the children with an amused sense of awe.
"I still can't believe you were able to tired them out. I've never seen anyone tire them out before." She cast her eyes back to him. "Exactly what kind of man are you, Himura-san?"
He tried a casual grin but from her reaction decided that it either wasn't as casual as he would've liked it, or it wasn't even a grin. "Didn't you and the others come to any conclusion about that yet? It seemed an interesting topic after all."
"I'd rather hear it directly from you," she replied, not allowing him to dodge the question. "Besides, one shouldn't jump to conclusions about other people, ne? You'd find that I of all people know that."
You really could've fool me on that one! he thought, recalling how she'd already labeled him a idiot… Not that he wasn't trying to be one, but still…
Instead of answering with that same thought however, he merely inquired, "And why is that, Nikko-dono?"
She blinked at that, obviously not having been ready for that kind of reply. It was a response that required an explanation from her, and by reading her face, it was an explanation she wasn't willing to give. "Nevermind why," she said crossly, jumping off his topic and coming back around to hers. "Answer me. Who are you? Where do you come from?" Her eyes darted to his left cheek. "And how did you get that scar?"
"I'm merely a rurouni de gozaru. I've no place to call my own," he replied after a brief pause, the interrogation having caught him by surprise. Reaching up he lightly brushed his fingers against the cross scar upon his face. "And as for my scar…" She moved in closer as his voice grew heavy and soft. His bangs left a shadow across his face. "As for that…" All at once he looked back up at her, beaming carelessly in a way that Nuhiro would've been proud to see. "Sore wa himitsu de gozaru!" he said lightly.
(*Whack*)
If only her fist had been as light. Funny, that tactic had seemed to work for Obaga…
No, wait… No, he had felt like pounding the old man then too. Nevermind.
"Don't hand me that!" she growled. "Saying things like that only makes you more suspicious!"
"Hey, I'm still injured here!" he wailed miserably, her reprimand having only reminded him that he was still sporting some cranial bruises.
"Then why don't you try answering my questions seriously?!"
"Maa maa!" he said on an impulse, waving his hands in surrender as he did so.
Then he abruptly paused and wondered where on earth that had come from.
However, finding that it seemed to work in temporarily subduing her anger, he hastily continued on. "I wasn't lying when I told you that I am a wanderer. However, I'm afraid that the story behind this scar is a rather personal one, Nikko-dono. I hope you respect my privacy as I have respected yours."
The young woman opened her mouth as though to protest and push the matter further, but a certain thought must've crossed her mind to persuade her otherwise, for she then leaned back with a stubborn cross of her arms.
"Humph," was all she had to add to that.
-----------
Himura's eyes narrowed dangerously. The situation was not shaping up well at all.
He had spent far too much time on this battle than first expected. He should have had this done with by now. He should already be victorious and moving on to the next task at hand, but as luck would have it, his agenda was going to be going through some rescheduling.
Staring down his opposition with a glare that would have terrified the souls of other men, he carefully mapped out his next course of action before performing it. With silent precision and a single smooth motion, he moved in for the execution…
…And once again missed the eye of the needle completely.
Sting: 100+ - Battousai: 0.
"Oro. Why am I always doing the women's chores?"
"Something wrong with earning your keep, rurouni?" Nikko asked him in coy yet venom-lined tones.
"Er, no, not at all!" Himura answered hastily, turning back to his current task. "It's just that… well…" He tried threading the needle again, failing just as miserably as before. "I'm not very good at sewing de gozaru!" he confessed.
"Oh for goodness sake… Here, give it to me."
With his lunch break over, the children still sleeping, and his official banishment from the roof, Nikko had decided that he still needed something productive to do. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending if you were Nikko or Himura), a small pile of the children's clothing needed some mending done. Having set him to work, Nikko herself had been gracious enough to assist him.
Apparently "assist" meant "do all the work," because that's exactly what Nikko found herself doing.
The pile was done save for one or two articles the young mother-to-be had purposely left for him, determined that he end up doing some of the mending. Himura himself felt a bit embarrassed that he wasn't much help, although inwardly a part of him decided that was a perfectly normal thing since men usually didn't have to do these things. …Then again, most men probably didn't have to do the laundry, but he found he was okay with that. Besides, being the Hiten Mitsurugi specialist that he was, you would think that all that training on speed, precision, and accuracy would help in threading a freakin' needle, but noooooo.
"Aren't you supposed to be a swordsman?" Nikko asked as though reading his thoughts. "Asuka told me you and Obaga-san were swordsmen." She licked the end of the thread.
"Er, hai, we are de gozaru," he confirmed.
"I guess swordsmanship would have nothing to offer in helping do housework then, nee." In one easy fluid motion she had the needle strung and to ensure he was on the right path, started the first few stitches for him before giving him the small yukata for his handling. "Here."
"I suppose not," Himura admitted, a drop of sweat hanging down his brow as he accepted the material. "Arigatou Nikko-dono," he added as he began to follow the pattern she set.
"Nikko-dono," she echoed, scoffing loudly at the title. "There's a name that I'm anything but. I can't decided if I'd be flattered or suspicious of you mocking me if I didn't know you said every woman's name with 'dono.'"
"Knowing you, you'd probably think I was mocking," he said under his breath.
"True," she replied casually, yet he jumped to attention all the same in embarrassment since it wasn't his intention for her to have heard that comment. "But don't take it personally. I just have a grudge against the male population in general. Especially the ones that wield swords." She cast him a stony look from the corner of her eye. "And even more especially the swordsmen who keep secrets."
Himura promptly began to sweat. Well gee, aren't I the lucky poster boy of all you despise and hate, he thought, because he dare not mutter that and risk her hearing again. Still feeling he should respond, he opted for a blunt question but asked it with feigned ignorance.
"Why do you hold such a grudge, Nikko-dono?" He waved her off again when her glare began reaching the Death levels. "I'm just curious to know what it is that would have you angry against such a generic collection of people de gozaru! …Especially since I'm one of them."
"Not that it's any of your business," she retorted, "but past experience has just given me a little lesson about the short-comings of men. They want you for one thing only, and after they get it, they couldn't care less about you. Take it and then leave it; a man's motto."
Her harsh words left Himura caught in-between sympathy and anger. Sympathy for her rough past, but anger because it unexplainably provoked memories of his late-wife. He was going to honor and cherish Tomoe for the rest of his life; he knew he would have if things had turned out differently. Nikko was making an unfair assessment of him and others merely because she happed to chose a bad character. A bad career for that matter.
And unwittingly he said as much.
"Shouldn't you expect that from the men who find interest in your line of work?" he asked before thinking. Immediately he regretted it, unable to fathom how he'd let such a careless remark escape his lips.
Nikko tensed sharply at his words, and the room was completely silent for an entire minute. Then, coldly and without looking at him, her answer hung accusingly in the air.
"Did it ever occur to you Himura-san… that not all the women here are whores?"
And somehow he knew that she was talking about herself.
Ouch. And just when he was beginning to think he couldn't embarrass himself any further… Bam! Somehow his foot finds its way to his mouth and before he knows anything he's chewing on his own tabi.
He wanted to apologize, and he meekly attempted one, but it seemed lost in the weight of the atmosphere. Soon his plea for forgiveness turned into a prayer for something to happen. Anything to happen to bring an end to this awkward situation.
Just then the children woke up.
Repentance must be at hand, he thought. I'm obviously suffering enough for it.
"I'm hungry," the youngest kid, a tiny girl with bright ebony pupils, whined.
"You just ate 4 hours ago," Nikko chided, any hint of her previous hostility gone in the face of the children. Now she was just back to her usual crabby self. "Dinner won't be for another two."
"I'm bored," another complained, this was the boy Himura recognized as Hiroshi. "Play with us Nikko-neechan!"
"I'm too tired to play games," she said pointedly. "Play with Himura again."
"Oro," the young man yipped, beads of sweat rolling down his face as he was put ont eh spot. "Shi-shikashi…" He looked around for an excuse before realizing he was holding one in his hands. "I'm mending de gozaru!" he explained.
And what a manly excuse it was too.
One of the older girls took a close look at his handiwork. "You sewed the sleeve shut."
"Oro?" He eyed the small gi in his hands, finding that he had indeed forgotten to separate the material as he had absently sewed during the conversation. "Er… oops."
Sighing irritably, the mother-to-be snatched the cloth away from him. "Useless," he heard her mutter under her breath. He would have said something back to that, but his attention was slightly more occupied by the expectant stares of the little ones.
"Himura-niichan!" the youngest squealed merrily. Or ominously. In his current mind-set, which was pretty panicky by now, Himura couldn't tell which one it was. "Play with us!"
"Play with us, play with us!" the others joined in much the similar way he remembered them chanting, "Torture, torture!"
Kenshin fitfully began to beg for Salvation again, preferring its insults to physical pain.
And for once Luck decided to shine on him.
"Gomen kudasai!" a familiar voice called from somewhere outside. "Is anybody here de gozaru ka? Himura-dono? Nikko-dono?"
The children momentarily blinked in confusion, wondering where the sound was coming from and from whom. Himura on the other hand, didn't waste any time.
"Stranger!" he announced, pointing outside and towards the gate. These two simple words seemed to provoke the desired reaction, which was basically turning their attention away from him.
"Stranger! Stranger!" they all began hollering together, nearly crawling on top of one another as they stampeded out of the door and into the yard.
Himura listened to the commotion that followed with a bit of relief, amusement, and wonder at when he had become so cruel.
"Stranger, stranger!"
"Oro? Oh hello! You must be the kids Yuiishi-dono told me abouuuuuOWWWW!!!"
"No strange me allowed back here!"
"B-but I'm not a stammmphm!"
"Good, keep him down!"
"Onto the torture!"
"YAY!"
"Mmmfnffmm?!?!?!"
Nikko cast a glance at Himura from the corner of her eye.
"And you call me heartless."
He winced and confessed, "I've been corrupted de gozaru."
"Welcome to the club," she smirked.
End of chapter eleven.
Author's Notes:
Well, this chapter took so long because I kinda took the hiatus during the entire FF.net down time. ^^; Gomen, but I hate to admit that I'm almost burning down on this fic. That's why I posted another one despite this one not being finished. Only the prologue though. I won't be continuing that fic until this one is done. Still, if you like this humor, go ahead and read The Akabeko Crisis and see what's to come after this.
Gah. I'm also losing focus on this fic. I know where to take it, but I'm no longer sure of how to get there. *sighs* I'll figure something out soon. Promise! The fic WILL be completed!
As you may have noticed, the chapters have been compiled and had some small revisions done (but I still didn't catch everything). Everything's still here, just moved around due to the compiling.
I forgot to mention any "birthday goodness" last Notes, so here they are! ...Um... I got my favorite ice cream. ^_^; Well, other stuff happened and my brother's got me nice gifts (anything anime is a nice gift), but I actually didn't do much. It was just a small family affair which was cool with me. But thanks to everyone who wished me a happy one! *sniffles* I felt special.
Um... yup, that's it for now I guess. I'll try to pump out the next chapter soon. ...And gosh, I can't believe I'm gonna ask for this, but please review! I never realized exactly how much that motivates me until I go about 2 weeks straight without new reviews.
Gah! Sorry, sorry, sorry! I hate sounding like that because that's pathetic but... just... suggesting. =P Well anyway. Later minna!