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The Tale of A Proper Marriage : Chapter 8

by white seraph

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Just for safety, this chapter is rated R

Kaoru squatted, with her kimono climbing up her knees very unladylike-ly as she hovered around the hot stove at the back of the house-yard. It wasn't a particularly good weather, but it wasn't often that her father was out of town, and her mother, strangely disappearing off to somewhere. And Kaoru, with her brother had terribly missed the winter evenings they spent years ago, when their parents were out, sitting around a stove while cooking dried fish. But ever since the incident where they burnt the yard down, their parents forbade them to 'play' with the stove.

Unfortunately for the parents, their kids are too rebellious.

Sanosuke had himself seated on a small bambooed stool as he fanned the frying fish with a fan, letting the smoke float the other way. Watching his sister laze around while he did the cooking, he felt somewhat jealous and used. "Eh, Jou-chan, come help me with the fanning, my arms getting tired!" He whined like a little kid.

Kaoru half responded by giving him an allusive nod, and extended her hand to collect the fan. Feeling a little malicious today, she tried to suppress a smile as the fan reached her hand. Then, totally unexpectedly, she flapped it from the opposite side of where Sano was sitting, causing all the smoke to rush into his face.

His immediate reaction was to choke, and then when he finally got the think dust out of his throat, he roared mercilessly at the girl. "Just what the hell do you think you are doing?!"

Kaoru gave me a very sweet, innocent smile "Oh, I'm sorry, did the smoke get into your eye?"

The now black faced Sano sulked like a little girl, he threw the stick he was holding on the ground and stalked away, back into the house, mad.

And he didn't even get to eat half of the fishes! He was too busy lamenting himself of the loss, he hardly heard the voice coming from the other end of the corridor. "Sano! Where is Kaoru?"

Sano looked across, and very surprisingly, saw his mother, with a woman and another young man, who was certainly very, very familiar. But then, his attention quickly returning to his mother, he asked "Mother, why are you back so soon? I thought you were out town with father!"

Now Lady Kamiya looked a bit worried. "Son, your father left two days ago, and I was still talking to you yesterday." She didn't wait for him to respond "Anyway, have you seen Kaoru around?"

And now, Sano felt a strong urge to take his revenge. Knowing how furious his mother would be if she found out they were once again cooking dried fished behind the yard, he gave her a very truthful reply. "Yes, I saw Kaoru at the backyard of the house." He said allusively, as he wanted her to see for it herself rather than him telling her.

However, very unfortunately, things did not go the way he wanted.

"Alright then, Kenshin why don't you go find her, I have much to speak of with Lady Kamiya." Apparently, the woman had a belief that her son's relationship with his fiancé could be enhanced if they spent more time together, and thus, always found any possible chance to force them together.

Kenshin only shrugged, and complied very smoothly, without any fuss or protest. His mother had thought it odd, but kept quiet, knowing if she asked, he'd just protest just for the sake of it.

* * * * * *

It wouldn't be hard to imagine Kenshin's reaction when he saw a certain young girl squatting like a beggar, fanning an odd stove in the middle of nowhere, giving off a strong, pungent smell of salted fish that dispersed miles around.

Kaoru smiled, feeling the presence of her brother. Hah! And she knew he couldn't have resisted for long. Not when the nice smell of the roasted fish filled the air that surrounded the whole house. "They're nearly done" She turned the last fishes over. "And if you want one, you'd better apologize to me right now." She told him in a haughty, snobbish voice.

She spun on her heels, still holding on to the large stick that forked the fishes, and very surprisingly, embarrassly, and disgustedly found that it was a certain redheaded jerk standing there instead of her brother. She growled to herself, and immediately put herself on full defense. "What do you want?" She asked coldly, a said totally different from the friendly one he had just seen before.

Kenshin was rather disappointed that she was acting so cold, for it meant it be more difficult to seduce her, but it didn't matter. He'd just act friendly. "I was just wondering if I could have some fish too." He tried with all his charm and efforts to give her the best smile he could. The one every other girl used to swoon over.

However, her reaction, to his disappointment was nothing like he had expected. Nothing like he expected. Narrowing her eyes cautiously, she stared at him skeptically, then she rolled her eyes at his pathetic attempt. "I don't think this food it good enough for pampered precious mama's baby like you!" She replied, every word dripping with sarcasm.

Now her reply did hurt his pride deeply. WHAT? pampered? Mama's baby?! Did he hear her correctly? How dare she speak of him in such a way! Who does she think she is?! Kenshin was on the verge of exploding from anger, but bit his lip and tried hard to refrain loosing control. It could very well ruin his well planned scheme, and it wasn't an easy job for him in first place anyway. No, not at all.

Defying all his loathe and anger, he walked to the girl and knelt, eye level to her. You have to do it, he reminded himself silently, for the sake of your future and happiness. He took a deep breath, and took Kaoru's hand as gently and lovingly as he could.

To his surprise, it wasn't that difficult anymore when he pushed away his cynical thoughts about her, and tried to focus on his little mission.

He maneuvered her soft, smooth hand away from the stove so the stick she was holding rested on the netted stove. If only he had seen her shocked, angered and terrified expression, he would have stopped immediately, and it would certainly have saved him some face.

But, he did not.

Or maybe because he was too focused, he didn't seem to realize what was going on in the girl's mind. He pushed himself closer, so their faces were only inches away.

Kaoru in a quick attempt to jerk away, tried to slide backwards, but only ended up stumbling and falling, with her bottom on the ground. Realizing how defenseless she was, Kaoru for the first time, felt apprehensive, not knowing what the man would do next. This wasn't the man she knew of; the weak, arrogant, stuck up jerk she so despised. Instead, it was replaced by a mature, controlling man with the coldest amber eyes that sent shivers down her spine when she made contact with them.

This was all getting strange, why was he suddenly acting so weird? Was is part of his revenge? At that thought, Kaoru became even more afraid. "What…What do you want?" She managed to sputter as she tried to draw her head backwards, as far away from him as possible. He was making her uneasy. No mad had ever done such a thing to as he is doing now to her before, and to be honest, she was rather sickened by it.

It was no use, her pleas were deaf to his ears. He immediately closed the distance between them by pushing himself toward Kaoru, until his face was, but a few inches away from hers again. But what was to come next was unexpected and horrific for her.

Slowly, he bent so his lips scrapped across his earlobe and whispered as seductively as he could "I want you" It was simple, and with that low husky voice, he knew no girls can resist. It was weird; was he so into the 'play' that he no longer felt it strange or revolting to seduce the girl against his own will? Or was he…. No Kenshin didn't allow himself to finish his own line of thought.

For one moment, he really thought Kaoru would fall for his magic. However, the sudden pain, the sudden stinging main on his cheek sent a discrepant message from what he expected to his brain. Shocked and disappointed himself pulled back and held his still painful cheek. How dare she slap him! How dare she! It was strange that he felt disappointed more than angered. Maybe it was because for the first time, his charm and magic did not work on a woman, that it had lost its once complete supremacy, or was it because it meant he would have to think of new plans to get himself out of the engagement.?

But for whatever reason she had slapped him. She had no right to do that!

Kenshin grabbed hem of the girl's kimono just above her obi fiercely, and glared at her angrily. "What was that for!" He hissed to her dangerously, quite contrastingly from the character he portrayed before. Completely loosing it, he pulled her roughly again, little aware of the sliding fabric that once covered her skin conservatively and shook her violently.

But so much for resorting to violence on a mere girl, he only received nothing, but an afraid whimper from her. All her courage, all her dignified, insulting comebacks, the entire Kaoru he had known, was gone. Instead, here he was looking into the fearful, horrified eyes of a weak girl.

At seeing the dark blue eyes that were silently pleading for him to stop, a wave of guilt swept through him and dampened any initial attempts to hurt the girl. What have I done? He thought to himself, as he looked at her again. She had finally found her voice. "S..Stop." was all she managed to sputter out under his murderous amber eyes.

He was about to release her, when suddenly, another voice came intruding the scene. Sano gasped, a little too loudly at the scene displayed in front of him. He had only decided to come back and reconcile with his little sister when he sees this!

It was indeed a rather erotic site, with Kaoru's kimono hiked up to above her knees, her obi loosely wrapped around the tattered cloth, and Kenshin kneeling on top of her, like a predator. "I…I'm sorry!" He apologized at the inappropriate interruption, and scurried off quickly, back into the house.

Sano's sudden interruption had very effectively washed away all of Kaoru's fear, and as if snapped by the revelation, she pushed away the redhead, who was very shocked himself too, and adjusted her kimono so it covered her skin to the neck again, and ran after her brother, leaving her fiancé behind. "It's not like what you saw!" she yelled, wanting to enlighten her brother that it was nothing, but a mere threat the jerk had tried on her.

But it was too late. He was too far away to hear her explanation. She stomp her feet with frustration and sighed. Turning back, she realized he was still there. Kaoru was still immensely angry at him, but she refrained from jumping on to him and kick his butt, now knowing what he'd do to her next time. So she just went back into the house. Anywhere away from that arrogant, stuck up, violent jerk.

The only reason why Sanosuke had ran away so quickly wasn't because he felt bad for intruding, but rather, he wanted to tell his mother of the good news; that the two were finally expressing their love for each other.

* * * * * *

"Mother! Mother!" Sanosuke slid the door open roughly, without any greetings or manners. "Mother!" He gasped for air.

Lady Kamiya was aghast by her son's ill manners, she furrowed her eyebrows with discontent. She was serving a guest here, and he had no decency to at least greet them? "Sano, I have taught you well, how dare you come in without asking! How indecent of you!" His mother chastised him, whilst the other lady smiled at his actions.

"I…" He was still breathing hard, "I saw… I saw them…together…" He finally managed to spill out very elusively.

"What them? What together?" His mother asked, perplexed, and eager to hear him say "Kaoru and Kenshin."

Sano gulped before answering. "Kaoru and the red haired dude, I..they were about to kiss when I accidentally interrupted."

"What?! They were about to kiss and you interrupted them!" His mother was not pleased. "what does that mean?!" She demanded "So did they kiss or not?"

The other woman spoke up in defense to the lad. "Spare the kid." She told Lady Kamiya.

"I don't know what happened next. But I'm sure if I did not intrude they would have kissed." Sanosuke gave her the answer she wanted to hear, not caring if it were the truth or not, just so she'd let him off. And he thought she would be happy over the news! What a mistake.

His answer certainly worked effectively, as it confirmed all the doubts that his mother had before. "Alright, thank you Sano, for telling us the news." She smiled happily, appreciating his efforts for reporting to them the news immediately. "Go tell the cook that I told him to cook you anything you want." She shooed him away "To thank you."

Sano did as she said and left happily, off to the kitchen.

After making sure her son was way out of sight, Lady Kamiya quickly slid the door shut and pegged the door lock. [I don't know how locks worked then..oh well]

She took a large rice paper out that very neatly mapped a probability tree diagram, and smiled happily at the other lady. "Oh I've been wanting to cross 'first stage' for ages!" She told her as she took a brush and slashed the top, and circled the left stem that was labeled "Stage two."

"It's about time the two should move on." The other lady said as she stared at the branch that wrote "Stage two: Operation one".

NEXT TIME: what are the two women up to again?! Stage two? But they're not even on stage two yet! What horrid things lie ahead for the two? Tune in on the next episode of "The Tale of a Proper Marriage"! mwahahaha omg I sound like the gundam wing man that always says something like hat after each episode lol

A/N: oooh none of you got the proof to god thing? Hm lemme explain again:

Alright, lets just ask. How did the universe come to existence? The Big bang? Alright, but what caused the big bang? Was it an accident? But ah hah, but was it not assumed that the universe came out of nothing? How can nothing make something? No, it can't be an accident as the laws of nature did not exist before the existence of the universe. Lets just say something caused the big bang. But what caused the something? And what caused the cause of something? You see, the chain goes back and back, until we hit an uncaused cause. What being can be uncaused? Only a being that transcends the universe, only one being that has always existed can possibly so it. And so there must have been a creator of the universe! Got it?