Red-san: Next chapter that will answer half of what Kenshin is thinking off. Yes, I said half… you'll see what I mean. ^_~ Enjoy! *hands you many cookies to munch on while reading *
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of Rurouni Kenshin's characters. All of them are © Watsuki Nobuhiro. Still very sad… *sniff, sniff *
Chapter 2~
The inside of the dojo appeared quiet. When the smallest inside found his voice, he ran forward, "Close the door Sano!" Sanosuke stood confused. He watched as Yahiko ran little past him and closed the door to the dojo quickly, yet quietly. He cleared his throat, "Hey, if you guys need some alone time I can just leave - "
"NO!" Miss Kaoru stood up marching toward him, annoyed and frustrated, "It's not what you think! Yahiko was just telling me about how Kenshin has been acting odd lately."
"Kenshin? Odd?" Sanosuke looked down at her confused and dumbstruck as he usually was with a new subject, "No, not Kenshin… he's not the weird sort."
"Are you sure?" Yahiko opened the dojo door very slightly, just peeking at Kenshin, sitting in front of the cooking pot. Sanosuke turned around and peeked through the crack as well.
In front of the door sat an emotionless man. He stared down into the boiling water with no sign of happiness, sadness, pain or joy. His eyes were empty, he had no straight smile, nor frown. He looked very content, as if thinking very hard.
"So what? He's thinking!" Sanosuke turned away from the door. Yahiko closed it and looked up at the disbelieving man in front of him, "But he's troubled Sano."
"What do you expect us to do?" Sanosuke looked down at the small boy. The room went silent for a moment. Miss Kaoru and Yahiko both stared at Sanosuke with a pleading emotion. He shook his head with displeasure, "No way! I am not going to talk to him."
"But you have to Sanosuke!" Miss Kaoru stood up and looked into his eyes, "You are the only one Kenshin likes to talk to when it comes to this sort of stuff!" She brought her hands up to her neck in fists, one holding another, "Please Sanosuke. Find out what's wrong with him." With a sigh, Sanosuke shifted his eyes from Miss Kaoru to Yahiko. The two looked just awful, as if something inside of them were eating their happiness away. Kenshin played a big role in all of their lives, if he felt sad or angered, the others felt worried or upset. You could probably say it was a side effect…
Finally, Sano gave in and took a deep breath, "Fine, I'll go talk to Kenshin." Yahiko smiled and Miss Kaoru jumped up a little. Sanosuke looked at the two now joyful, "But…" The smiles on the two joyous ones now faded and showed a frown in progress. Yahiko's mouth lay a bit open, as Miss Kaoru's eyes grew dim. Sanosuke raised up a finger, "If he starts to get angry with me. It's all your fault." And he turned around and opened the door, exiting the dojo, leaving two very confused people behind. Yahiko and Miss Kaoru exchanged glances and quickly crawled toward the window, which Yahiko looked out before.
The two saw Sanosuke standing up behind an emotionless Kenshin.
"So…" Sanosuke had started, sitting down beside Kenshin, "How've yah been? Haven't talked to you in a while. The last time we talked was…"
"When you came back here from your little meandering…" Kenshin interrupted. He talked with a calm voice, yet it also had a cold feeling. Now Sanosuke knew what Yahiko was talking about. Although it was a bit odd he hadn't noticed this before…
"Yeah." Sanosuke went along, "that's right. Um…" He was thinking of how to bring up a good conversation that would eventually lead to the answer he was looking for. Too bad he didn't have the chance…
"Sano…" Kenshin started off. He remained to look at the cooking pot, which the water was boiling as if it were fresh lava and the vegetables and meat moving around roughly, "Have you ever thought that, you did something for a good reason. But, it turned out completely wrong?" At this moment, Kenshin was laying his chin against his hands, clasped together and brought upward against his knee. Sanosuke gave a short and light laugh. Was that it? That was all that was on Kenshin's mind?
"Why, yeah." Sanosuke started, "That has happened to me before. This one time I was trying to help these old people out by cutting their wood right? - So that they wouldn't have to, and that I'd feel good about myself. When I started to cut the wood I found out that I accidentally cut one of the people's statues…" he gave off another small laugh, "It wasn't pretty after that." He smiled at the thought he might of made Kenshin feel better, but he hadn't. Kenshin was staring off into the rapid bubbling of the soup, a small frown on his face. His eyes weren't all the way open as if he were happy, as they usually were, but a bit in a squinting way, as if to find an answer from the water in front of him.
Sanosuke frowned. He hadn't made Kenshin feel better at all, if anything he made him feel worse.
"No Sano, I mean… have you hurt someone in order to protect some one else in the meaning of doing good, but in the end… making a huge mistake and hurting people for no reason at all?" This drove Sanosuke off track. What was he talking about? Kenshin never did a single bad thing for the entire time Sanosuke has known him! Unless…
"Kenshin, this doesn't happen to be about your past now, does it?" Sanosuke lost his playful smile a while back while Kenshin had lost it for the time when Sanosuke sat down near him. Sanosuke just didn't know how to help Kenshin now. He was waiting for a reply.
"Yes," Kenshin nodded his head, his read hair moving slightly in a graceful way, "Yes it does…"
Red-san: And that be all for this chapter as well! Oooh, thought what was troubling Kenshin was what the story line just said? Hm… then I'm guessing you're probably bored and don't want to read anymore. ;_; That's sad… because you don't know what's coming up now. ^_^" I am aware that I'm weird… *gets hit with a rock *
Oh, and BTW. THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE STORY. Sanosuke and Kenshin are just talking to each other as friends. Now, please! I'm not that type of person to match em up… please think about what you're going to say when you review a bit more carefully. Please?