A Day at the Festival

Since it was still early afternoon, Kiriko wanted to see the shops so she convinced Shio to come with her. Once she got him to agree she went a take a long hot bath.

"Okay, I'm ready." Kiriko came out from her side of the room.

Shio was looking out the window daydreaming. He turned around. "It took you long enou-" His mouth dropped open when he saw her. Kiriko was wearing the kimono that he saw her in the first time. However, the last time she had her hair in a French braid down her back. This time she had it up in a bun with a couple of small strands hanging loosely around her face. Her hair was a slightly brighter red since they first met and her skin was faintly darker. The combination between her hair, skin and beautiful kimono totally stripped away her tomboy image. She looked like royalty. He remembered seeing her dressed up before but for some reason, now that he knew her, she seemed to look different. It was like…………Whoa!

"What's wrong? You better not say I look like a boy in a dress." Kiriko crossed her arms.

"Huh?" He shut his mouth and turned his gaze. "Uhh ….no but what was wrong with your other clothes? Weren't they dry?"

"Yes but they were still dirty so I decided to wash them and this is the only other clothing I have…..Why? Would you like me to wash your stuff?"

Shio turned his face towards the window in the room. He didn't want her to see him blush, for his perverted mind was taking the meaning of her question the wrong way. "Uumm….no. I don't need you to wash my stuff. I mean clothes!"

Kiriko shrugged. "Oh ok…..well, come on lets get going while we still have light outside." She grabbed Laplatina.

"You're not taking that are you?" Shio asked. "I mean…I don't think that really goes with your kimono."

"Well, I take it with me everywhere. A girl has to protect herself, you know." She walked towards the door but Shio gently grabbed her hand. Kiriko turned around with a confused expression on her face.

Shio walked up close to her and gazed down into her eyes. "Don't worry. I'm here to protect you now."

Kiriko stared up into his crimson eyes. One part of her was screaming for her to tell him that she could protect herself but another part of her kept thinking about an argument she had with her father…

(…"I want to be able to protect myself! You can't protect me forever!" Kiriko yelled. "Of course not forever, Miss Kiriko," Kenshin said calmly, " just until you get a husband. Then he can protect you for me."…)

She was really mad when her father said that but now as she looked in Shio's eyes. She didn't mind it if her protector was him.

Kiriko smiled and handed Laplatina to him. "Okay…um…Thank you, Shio." He smiled, placed her sword down and they walked out of the room together.

As they walked through the market place, Shio noticed how almost every guy seemed to be staring at Kiriko. Of course this wasn't true, he only noticed the guys that did look at her. The few guys that were looking would ogle her when she would look at the merchandise. He kept getting angry because the fools acted like he wasn't even standing right next to her. Then Shio figured that maybe it was because he looked kind of scruffy while she looked like a princess. Shio had always been told he was a good looking guy no matter what he had on. So he didn't really care about his appearance until now. For the first time in his life he felt unworthy to be in a female's presence especially Kiriko. He was starting to think that maybe he should have took her up on that offer to clean his clothes.

While she was busy looking at some wind chimes, Shio started to dust off his hakama then he straightened up his gi and tried to smooth down his wild bangs. He was so busy trying to get a stubborn strand of hair back that he didn't notice that Kiriko was watching him.

"What are doing?" Kiriko looked at him suspiciously.

"Huh?" Shio guiltily folded his arms across his chest and blushed a little. "Um…nothing."

"Is there something in your hair?" Kiriko started looking at his blue-black mane.

"No. No it's nothing. Um….did you see something that you like?" He asked quickly changing the subject.

"No not really." Kiriko grabbed his arm. "Come on. Let's go over there." She pointed to a pastry stand.

When they approached the stand, Shio didn't like the way the young man behind the counter looked at Kiriko. She smiled hhmm that guy's kind of cute, she thought, but he's got nothing on Shio. The young man smiled back.

"Hello pretty lady. How can I help you?"

"Hello. We just came to see what kind of goodies you have." Kiriko smiled sweetly. Shio stood to the side with his arms folded over his chest.

"Oh….I have plenty of goodies that you would enjoy." The young man said with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

Shio raised his eyebrow, what the fuck does that mean?

Kiriko just smiled, not getting his innuendo, and went about looking at the different sweets. When she bent down to get a better look; the young man was obviously straining to see down her kimono. Shio had to stop the urge to growl and pull out his sword to slice the little punk's eyes right out of their sockets.

"Oh that looks good….may I have two of those please." She pointed to two giant candied apples.

The young man placed the apples into a bag.

"How much do I owe you?" Kiriko dug into her sash for her money but the young man grabbed her arm and placed the bag in her hand.

"Please it's no charge for a beautiful girl like you." He smiled warmly while he held on to her hand a little longer then Shio liked.

He narrowed his eyes. If he doesn't let go of her hand, I swear I'll cut his off.

Kiriko blushed. "Um…no please let me pay for it."

"No I wouldn't think of it. It's my pleasure. Please take them." He kissed her hand.

Shio had enough. "Let's go!" He grabbed her arm and yanked her down the street with him.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?" Kiriko yelped. He practically dragged her into small alleyway.

"Can't you tell when someone is fondling you!" He yelled in her face.

"Huh! W-what in the world are you talking about? What's wrong with you?" This confused Kiriko greatly because Shio wasn't one to lose his cool.

"That guy had his hands and eyes all over you!" He barked.

"What! No he didn't. He was just holding my hand…" Kiriko looked him strangely; "….why are you acting like this?"

"…" Kiriko had caught him off guard. He didn't say any thing. Why am I acting like this? He asked himself.

Kiriko started to giggle.

"What the hell is so funny?"

"You're jealous." She stated.

"HA! I don't get jealous." He said arrogantly.

Kiriko decided not to go into. She was just taken aback from his actions. Ever since their journey together, he had been very flirty but she tried to ignore it because he was flirty with all the females they met along the way but this was the first time he showed real interest towards her. She had to admit she was more then flattered.

"Okay, okay what ever you say. Come on. Let's go see where that music is coming from." She playfully tugged his gi then walked out of the alley.

Shio followed behind her quietly. He was glad she didn't tease him about him being jealous. He had to admit. He'd never been jealous before. It was definitely an embarrassing act that he didn't want to show again.

Ironically, while Shio thought that every male specimen in the market place was looking at Kiriko, she thought every female was looking at him. They stared at him like they'd never seen a man before. Granted that he was extremely handsome, there was no need for them to start drooling when he walked by. Kiriko want to gag. She liked the fact that Shio didn't seem to notice that she was walking really close to him. She wanted to get it through their heads that he was with her. When she caught him trying to straighten himself up, she thought he had spotted some hot girl and was trying to look good for her. Kiriko had looked around angrily trying to catch the little hussy looking at her MAN….ahem…friend. That was the main reason why she grabbed on to his arm.

When they got further into the market place, they came into a small festival. The music was loud and people were dancing in the street. As they got closer, Kiriko noticed a group of young girls around her age, dressed in gorgeous kimono's were giggling and waving at Shio. He smiled and nodded. Kiriko tried her best to ignore the bunch of dim-witted twits. She decided to turn her full attention to the music and dancing. Just as she was starting to tap her toes to the music, three of the girls came over and surrounded Shio.

"Are you from around her?" One of them asked in a sweet honey voice.

Shio gave them a cocky smile. Kiriko almost slapped him. "No. I'm not from around here. Just passing through." He answered.

"Oh but you must stay for the festival. It lasts for three days. You'll miss all the fun." The other girl pouted while batting her thick eyelashes and smiling sweetly at him.

Do I look like THAT when I do that, Kiriko thought. UGH! I'll never do that again. She rolled her eyes and turned back to the dancing but her ears were still tuned in on the conversation.

"Sorry ladies. I have to leave first thing tomorrow morning." Shio grinned slightly. He caught Kiriko's little reaction to his admirers. She was trying not to care.

"Well then you have to dance with me before you leave?" Another girl asked. Her voice was sweeter than the other girls who were standing around Shio. Kiriko turned around to see who had spoken. It was another girl from the group. She was a little taller than Kiriko with long thick ebony hair, a curvy body, beautiful big blood red lips and electric blue eyes. Kiriko thought she must be the leader of their little clique because she was beyond gorgeous.

Shio's smile broadened immensely. Kiriko wanted pop him in the back of his lecherous head. Just as he was about to answer-

"I want you to dance with me." A deep sultry voice spoke from behind her.

Both Kiriko and Shio turned to see who had spoken. She nearly gasped when an extremely tall, muscular, and all around beautiful God stood in front of her smiling brightly. He was about the same age and height as Shio with short light brown hair that was smoothed back very neatly. A thin trimmed moustache, incredible white teeth and dazzling chrome eyes. As far as looks, Shio and this guy could run neck-in-neck. They only differences were Shio was leaner and slightly shabby. While this guy was bigger and very clean cut, he truly looked like a prince.

"Come on." His smile brightened and he took her hand.

Kiriko shook her head to wake up out of her daydream. "Excuse me?"

"Dance with me." He said it more as a sweet command rather then a question.

Kiriko took a quick glance at Shio. His eyes were redder than usual. Kiriko was about to decline until she saw the girl again. This time she was pulling on Shio's arm for his attention.

"Yes, I would love to dance." She let go of his hand and took his arm instead. He led her into the crowd.

Shio was about to grab Kiriko's arm but he felt a tug at his gi.

"Wait handsome, you didn't answer my question. Aren't you gonna give little ol' me a quick dance?" The girl pouted and batted her eyes.

Shio looked at her. There was no doubt that this girl could give Kiriko a run for her money as far as looks were concern. However, the girl was too forward. She was throwing herself at him and it was really getting on his nerves. Nonetheless, he still wanted to keep a close eye on Kiriko and the 'pretty-boy'. He didn't like the look in the guy's eyes.

"Um…sure let's go." He took her hand and led her into the crowd.

The streets were starting to really fill up as the sun was starting to set. Shio was having a hard time locating Kiriko whereabouts but he quickly calmed down when he saw her cherry hair bobbing amongst the crowd of mostly black manes. He took the girl closer to where Kiriko was dancing. He didn't want to be too far away from her.

"So are we going to dance or stand here in the middle of a dancing crowd?" The girl asked impatiently. Shio had forgotten he was with her.