It seems i was not completely out of ideas... this one just sort of...
jumped out at me when my sister was talking about birthdays... it seems
kinda happy at first, but i couldn't let poor Kenshin be...
History Behind the History, chapter five
Akitaka sat in the center of a crowd of his family members gathered in his living room. He was being handed his first present of his sixteenth birthday. He took the small package and, knowing what was inside, shook it anyway. It made no sound, since it was a DVD, but that didn't matter. He tore it open and saw that it was a good old classic. He loved older movies, and his family knew it. They always seemed to think that this should mean he liked history, but he didn't see why. The nineteen fifties were vastly different from the boring old eighteen hundreds.
He was handed another package, and this one was quite large. He shook it and it made a dull, soft noise, like the thing inside was large but light. He looked inside and saw, of all things, a blanket. How strange. He unfolded the blanket to look at it and something small and shiny fell out onto the floor. Everybody gasped, smiled, and pointed, and Akitaka bent down to see what all the excitement was about. He himself began smiling and gasping when he realized he was holding car keys.
"Come on, try it out!" His aunt was suggesting, waving him toward the door. He went outside and everyone followed to see the bright red vehicle awaiting him there. To further encouragement from his family, he crossed to the driver's door and got in. Several people crammed themselves into the back and front passenger seats, but not everyone could fit.
He started it up and began to drive. He just went around a couple of blocks, but it was exhilarating all the same. Really, what was a sixteenth birthday without cars? This must've been a depressing time before cars were invented. Imagine going through life never driving. What a boring life.
* *
*
Man, this was boring. A vibrant, young sixteen year old boy was alone in his room and it was, among other things, boring.
"My first day of being sixteen and I don't even get the night off," he muttered to no one in particular, since there was no one there to hear anyway. He was turning sixteen today and no one even knew it, not that there was anyone he would really care to celebrate it with at this point. His date of birth was on file somewhere serving no purpose he could discern, but that was the extent of anyone else's knowledge on the subject. When he got up later to go eat lunch, no one would congratulate him when they saw him. He wouldn't get any presents. He wouldn't receive any enthusiastic letters from distant relatives telling him how big he was getting, though 'big' had never been an appropriate word where he was concerned. This was just one big reminder of how isolated he was from the outside world, not that he needed it.
There was a soft tap on the door, and he looked up expectantly as he gave permission to enter. The young man who had recently been hired to deliver messages came in and held out an envelope. He stood up to go retrieve his message and the still-new messenger looked taken aback. He was about a foot taller than Kenshin was.
"You are the hitokiri Battousai, right?" The young man asked, pulling the envelope back a fraction.
"I am Himura," he answered. The boy gave him his letter, but still looked at him strangely.
"How old are you, anyway?"
"As of today, sixteen."
"Really?" The man smiled, "Congratulations!" Then he left, simple as that. I stand corrected, the young assassin thought, beginning to feel a good mood coming on. He didn't want to ruin it by reading his orders just yet, and he was beginning to get hungry, so he went out of the room to find something to eat. As he approached a large group sitting around laughing and eating, one of them shouted and pointed.
"Hey, Himura! I can't believe to day you're sixteen and you never even told us! How could you do that to us?" One very brave soul joked.
"You, uh... never asked," he answered cautiously, confused by the other's strange behavior. Since when did people ever talk to him and not about him?
"What are you so serious for? You're sixteen, have some sake! You're a man now!"
Kenshin was even more surprised by this comment, and just stared at the older man. The group's smiles faded as they saw Kenshin not laughing and not drinking. It became increasingly evident that these were the same people who hushed their whispering when he walked by on a normal day.
"Not that... not that you weren't a man before, it's just, uh... now it's official!" The man recovered nervously and Kenshin laughed this time just to calm them all down. Apparently the new messenger boy had delivered an extra message along with the mail that morning. He took the bottle that was being thrust at him and calmly lay it aside, trying not to be rude about refusing it.
This was an odd feeling, being in the middle of a flurry of people wishing him well and patting him on the back. They were quite bold today, but he didn't mind. It was like they were trying to be nice for once, not just stay out of his way. Were they really this happy for him, or were they just trying to get on his good side? He didn't know, and really wanted to believe they cared, so he told himself that was what it was, pushing away any part of him that thought otherwise. Someone was offering him that same sake bottle again.
"No thanks, I don't drink," he declined politely, which elicited groans and urges from the rest of those sitting close by. "I have to, um, work tonight, and if I get drunk-" He began, not really preferring work over a vomiting stupor, but knowing he really shouldn't anyway. It didn't matter, for he was being interrupted yet again.
"You're only sixteen, you shouldn't have to worry about all that!"
"Only sixteen?" He asked. Sixteen was a big deal, at least to him. Heck, it was the oldest he'd ever been. There were nervously wavering smiles and some gulps around the table. They were afraid again. They were obviously just trying to placate him by being nice. Couldn't they see that all he wanted from them was some genuine feeling?
"Well, uh, you're young and you... um... should be able to do what you want and uh... not that you can't do what you want, I mean, you just seem..."
"Don't patronize me," the suddenly cold voice of the true assassin that lurked within him commanded. His now-amber eyes were slits as he smashed the sake bottle and stalked off to his room without having eaten anything.
***************************************************** i don't know what the driving age is in Japan, so i just stuck with sixteen. sorry if it's inaccurate.
well, you guys knew there couldn't be a happy chapter in an angst fic... sorry, Ken, you understand...
Kenshin: It's all right, that it is. If it makes you happy to punish me...
the sacred night: No, no, Ken-san, it's not that at all! I want you to be happy, I just... couldn't pass up that inspiration when it came.
Kenshin: I see. The inspiration is all-important.
sacred: stop it! that's just how the story goes, ok? please don't be upset...
Kenshin: Well... i see you are very sorry, and I have done many things to be punished for, that Sessha has.
sacred: don't do that, you know we can't stand to see you torture yourself...
Kenshin: but-
sacred: no buts! you will be happy and i refuse to let you be otherwise.
Kenshin: You're going to write a happy chapter?
sacred: well... we'll see how that goes.
Hitokiri-san: yeah, teachers can totally kill a subject if they're bad... but lucky me i have a GREAT math teacher... she's very smart and explains things perfectly. actually my computer at school has a program like that for lots of languages but not the one at home. thank you for the compliments, and have no worries about your story, it is excellent. i really don't want this to turn out cheesy, so i'm not even going to attempt time travel.
PraiseDivineMercy: thanks. it was not my idea to give him 'true' multiple personalities, but i like to write it. i realize this is au, because i know very little about the Bakumatsu era, but it is such fun to write about. thank you for telling me about the long paragraphs... i've noticed this in other stories and it never occurred to me that i was doing it. i'll try to do better.
Amaya: thank you!
Rarity88: thank you! profusely! i have the urge to give you presents!
Ginger 1280: thank you, and don't feel bad for not reviewing. you don't have to, but i appreciate it.
Lucretia LeVrai: thanks! i do try to make Akitaka interesting, but you're right, ken is much more important! i really like that part, too, but i can't put my finger on why...
History Behind the History, chapter five
Akitaka sat in the center of a crowd of his family members gathered in his living room. He was being handed his first present of his sixteenth birthday. He took the small package and, knowing what was inside, shook it anyway. It made no sound, since it was a DVD, but that didn't matter. He tore it open and saw that it was a good old classic. He loved older movies, and his family knew it. They always seemed to think that this should mean he liked history, but he didn't see why. The nineteen fifties were vastly different from the boring old eighteen hundreds.
He was handed another package, and this one was quite large. He shook it and it made a dull, soft noise, like the thing inside was large but light. He looked inside and saw, of all things, a blanket. How strange. He unfolded the blanket to look at it and something small and shiny fell out onto the floor. Everybody gasped, smiled, and pointed, and Akitaka bent down to see what all the excitement was about. He himself began smiling and gasping when he realized he was holding car keys.
"Come on, try it out!" His aunt was suggesting, waving him toward the door. He went outside and everyone followed to see the bright red vehicle awaiting him there. To further encouragement from his family, he crossed to the driver's door and got in. Several people crammed themselves into the back and front passenger seats, but not everyone could fit.
He started it up and began to drive. He just went around a couple of blocks, but it was exhilarating all the same. Really, what was a sixteenth birthday without cars? This must've been a depressing time before cars were invented. Imagine going through life never driving. What a boring life.
* *
*
Man, this was boring. A vibrant, young sixteen year old boy was alone in his room and it was, among other things, boring.
"My first day of being sixteen and I don't even get the night off," he muttered to no one in particular, since there was no one there to hear anyway. He was turning sixteen today and no one even knew it, not that there was anyone he would really care to celebrate it with at this point. His date of birth was on file somewhere serving no purpose he could discern, but that was the extent of anyone else's knowledge on the subject. When he got up later to go eat lunch, no one would congratulate him when they saw him. He wouldn't get any presents. He wouldn't receive any enthusiastic letters from distant relatives telling him how big he was getting, though 'big' had never been an appropriate word where he was concerned. This was just one big reminder of how isolated he was from the outside world, not that he needed it.
There was a soft tap on the door, and he looked up expectantly as he gave permission to enter. The young man who had recently been hired to deliver messages came in and held out an envelope. He stood up to go retrieve his message and the still-new messenger looked taken aback. He was about a foot taller than Kenshin was.
"You are the hitokiri Battousai, right?" The young man asked, pulling the envelope back a fraction.
"I am Himura," he answered. The boy gave him his letter, but still looked at him strangely.
"How old are you, anyway?"
"As of today, sixteen."
"Really?" The man smiled, "Congratulations!" Then he left, simple as that. I stand corrected, the young assassin thought, beginning to feel a good mood coming on. He didn't want to ruin it by reading his orders just yet, and he was beginning to get hungry, so he went out of the room to find something to eat. As he approached a large group sitting around laughing and eating, one of them shouted and pointed.
"Hey, Himura! I can't believe to day you're sixteen and you never even told us! How could you do that to us?" One very brave soul joked.
"You, uh... never asked," he answered cautiously, confused by the other's strange behavior. Since when did people ever talk to him and not about him?
"What are you so serious for? You're sixteen, have some sake! You're a man now!"
Kenshin was even more surprised by this comment, and just stared at the older man. The group's smiles faded as they saw Kenshin not laughing and not drinking. It became increasingly evident that these were the same people who hushed their whispering when he walked by on a normal day.
"Not that... not that you weren't a man before, it's just, uh... now it's official!" The man recovered nervously and Kenshin laughed this time just to calm them all down. Apparently the new messenger boy had delivered an extra message along with the mail that morning. He took the bottle that was being thrust at him and calmly lay it aside, trying not to be rude about refusing it.
This was an odd feeling, being in the middle of a flurry of people wishing him well and patting him on the back. They were quite bold today, but he didn't mind. It was like they were trying to be nice for once, not just stay out of his way. Were they really this happy for him, or were they just trying to get on his good side? He didn't know, and really wanted to believe they cared, so he told himself that was what it was, pushing away any part of him that thought otherwise. Someone was offering him that same sake bottle again.
"No thanks, I don't drink," he declined politely, which elicited groans and urges from the rest of those sitting close by. "I have to, um, work tonight, and if I get drunk-" He began, not really preferring work over a vomiting stupor, but knowing he really shouldn't anyway. It didn't matter, for he was being interrupted yet again.
"You're only sixteen, you shouldn't have to worry about all that!"
"Only sixteen?" He asked. Sixteen was a big deal, at least to him. Heck, it was the oldest he'd ever been. There were nervously wavering smiles and some gulps around the table. They were afraid again. They were obviously just trying to placate him by being nice. Couldn't they see that all he wanted from them was some genuine feeling?
"Well, uh, you're young and you... um... should be able to do what you want and uh... not that you can't do what you want, I mean, you just seem..."
"Don't patronize me," the suddenly cold voice of the true assassin that lurked within him commanded. His now-amber eyes were slits as he smashed the sake bottle and stalked off to his room without having eaten anything.
***************************************************** i don't know what the driving age is in Japan, so i just stuck with sixteen. sorry if it's inaccurate.
well, you guys knew there couldn't be a happy chapter in an angst fic... sorry, Ken, you understand...
Kenshin: It's all right, that it is. If it makes you happy to punish me...
the sacred night: No, no, Ken-san, it's not that at all! I want you to be happy, I just... couldn't pass up that inspiration when it came.
Kenshin: I see. The inspiration is all-important.
sacred: stop it! that's just how the story goes, ok? please don't be upset...
Kenshin: Well... i see you are very sorry, and I have done many things to be punished for, that Sessha has.
sacred: don't do that, you know we can't stand to see you torture yourself...
Kenshin: but-
sacred: no buts! you will be happy and i refuse to let you be otherwise.
Kenshin: You're going to write a happy chapter?
sacred: well... we'll see how that goes.
Hitokiri-san: yeah, teachers can totally kill a subject if they're bad... but lucky me i have a GREAT math teacher... she's very smart and explains things perfectly. actually my computer at school has a program like that for lots of languages but not the one at home. thank you for the compliments, and have no worries about your story, it is excellent. i really don't want this to turn out cheesy, so i'm not even going to attempt time travel.
PraiseDivineMercy: thanks. it was not my idea to give him 'true' multiple personalities, but i like to write it. i realize this is au, because i know very little about the Bakumatsu era, but it is such fun to write about. thank you for telling me about the long paragraphs... i've noticed this in other stories and it never occurred to me that i was doing it. i'll try to do better.
Amaya: thank you!
Rarity88: thank you! profusely! i have the urge to give you presents!
Ginger 1280: thank you, and don't feel bad for not reviewing. you don't have to, but i appreciate it.
Lucretia LeVrai: thanks! i do try to make Akitaka interesting, but you're right, ken is much more important! i really like that part, too, but i can't put my finger on why...