Disclaimer: Still don't own Rorouni Kenshin or its yummy characters. And alas Aoshi still hasn't let me get in his trench coat. I do own some wax candle bunnies though, and there might be some cheese in my fridge. J

The Wildcat

Chapter 2

Wet Velvet

"What the hell are you doing?" the blur repeated. Aoshi thought this was the dumbest question he'd ever heard in his life. Obviously he was sitting on the ground. He still hadn't bothered even looking up at her. "I'm sitting on the ground." was his dry reply.

"Well think you captain obvious, what I mean is what the hell are you doing sitting on the ground in front of MY door." she said acidly. She was just spoiling for a fight and she didn't care with who. She really didn't stop to even think about the reasoning behind it. She did that a lot.

"Oh well excuse me. But said door so graciously knocked me in the face and on to my ass. Well no actually you knocked me in the face and on my ass." He finally looked up at her then his icy blue eyes meeting with the brightest aquamarine eyes he had ever seen. The weren't cold looking like the stone though, no those eyes were very warm, and very pissed off. "They look like wet velvet." he mused. Well hell where had that thought come from? Oh shit he had said that out loud! He quickly looked back down holding his still bleeding nose.

Well that brought Misao up short. She wasn't sure wither that was a good thing or not. Wet velvet? That sounded kind of gross. And what exactly was he saying looked like wet velvet. This only served to piss her off further. "Wet velvet? What are you some kind of loon. Did you escape from a metal institution. Do I need to call the cops? You still haven't answered me. Are you drunk? The bar doesn't open for a few hours and I don't need your weirdo type coming in disturbing my customers with insane ramblings about wet fabric. Are you a mute? You gonna answer my question? Do I need to beat the answer out of ya?" She rambled off.

Aoshi wasn't sure what he was supposed to be answering. She had asked about ten questions in her little spill all without taking a breath. Who was the loon here? He looked back up at her, actually looking this time. Long black hair, shiny and soft looking plaited tight landing clean past her ass. Tiny nose and a delicately boned face, stubborn chin, thin black brows arching high over her eyes. Those damn eyes about swallowed her face. And the ugliest scrowl he had ever seen. All in all she was adorable. And young. He continued studying her, remaining silent as usual, though he realized he had said more to her in the past two minutes then most people could get out of him in an hour.

"Well?" Misao asked again studying him in return. Kami-sama he was a hottie. Long black bangs shielding his ice chipped eyes, cold eyes at that. His face was absolutely gorgeous! Strong chin, sculpted cheek bones, and beautiful lips. Well except for the blood dripping out of his nose and the swiftly purpling eye he was hot. Wait she was supposed to be pissed here not drooling over this nutcase who was just sitting there blocking her door. Even if he was a gorgeous nutcase.

"Listen little girl, I already told you, you knocked me over when you went tearing down the side walk like a bat out off hell. God, the least you could do is apologize, hell maybe get me something to stop the bleeding. Besides, how could you possibly own this bar. You don't even look old enough to go to a bar." Dammit all there he was doing that talking thing again. How did this girl do that? It made his throat hurt just thinking about stringing that many words together. He was becoming desperate for tea. An I V drip of tea was sounding very promising at the moment.

Huh? She had done that to him? How had she missed him telling her that? Must have been somewhere in between the drooling and that wet velvet nonsense. Wait did he little girl?!?!

"Little girl? Little girl! I'll have you know I'm twenty two years old you bastard, and how is it any business of yours how I own this bar anyways. Oh and look at that you got blood on my damn door. Just another thing to add to my mountain of problems. Geez what the hell am I supposed to do now, huh? Enishi left, Kaoru's going to be late."

She had started out yelling at him but somewhere in her tirade she had started mumbling to herself ignoring him, again. The last thing he could decipher was something about stupid drunks and groping. He was starting to feel a little sorry for her. A very anti-Aoshi feeling. He didn't like it one bit. Oh shit! Now she was half in tears. A crying female was something he couldn't handle, he was at a loss at what to do now. He decided he was going to have to do that dreaded talking thing again.

"Hey its alright. Cheer up its not the end of the world. I'm alright, and I'm sure whoever he was he wasn't worth you crying over anyways." Ok he never said it would he would be good at the talking thing.

Misao blinked dumbly at him. "That was absolutely pathetic. Was that supposed to make me feel better?" But contrary to that statement all of her anger and frustration had worked its way out of her and she found herself smiling brightly at him eyes quickly drying. "Hey ummm sorry about the door thing." She said sheepishly blushing now feeling very embarrassed. "Oh and sorry about the yelling I've not had the best of days." she trailed off at a loss for words. A completely foreign concept to her. So instead of continuing she merely stuck her hand out to him offering to help him up off the ground.

God, at least the tears stopped he thought accepting her hand and pulling himself slowly up off of the ground. His ass was really throbbing now. Tea, tea, tea, my love, where are you in my time of need? he groaned mentally.

Wow. Had she thought hottie? He was down right beautiful. He was at least a good foot taller then her. Broad shoulders, narrow waist, she could see the muscle rippling in his chest and stomach as he pulled himself completely up. He was wearing a white and orange trench coat, kinda weird she thought, but it seemed to suit him perfectly. Was it hot out here or was it just her? Oh wait she lived in Florida, of course it was hot out here. Why the hell was he wearing a trench coat in this weather, anyways? Comprehensive thought patterns were completely eluding her. So she just continued to look up at him, his hand still clasped lightly in hers.

This girl was starting to weird him out. She just stood there holding on to his hand staring up at him mouth open slightly, eyes slightly glazed. What weird shit was SHE thinking about? " Well, no harm done," he said uncomfortably pulling his hand away from her grasp, one that had tightened considerably. "Watch where you swing that door from now on. Or rather who you swing it into." And with that he moved away preparing to walk back to Kenshin's apartment and doctor himself up.

Misao snapped back to reality. "Wait a sec, you really think I'm going to let you go walking off down the street bleeding all over everything, do ya? God you could scare children with the way your face looks right now." Way to win him over Misao she said mentally berating herself. "Come inside, let me at least give you some ice for your eye and get that bleeding stopped."

He had stopped when she had started talking but resumed his gait down the block when she had paused for breath. Yeah like he was going to willing go anywhere with that little powder keg. She was more likely to bite his head off again or for all he knew chop him up into little bits for fun. No thank you.

Dammit he was still walking. Kaoru would laugh herself to tears when Misao told her that she had let Mr. tall, dark, and gorgeous just walk away from her. "Hey where are you going?" she shouted again. "I just made tea. Come in and have some and at least let me help you. Geez you ungrateful asshole!"

Aoshi stopped. Kami-sama had she just said tea? He was saved. He wanted to do a little dance. He didn't though, he did have angsty bastard syndrome after all. He walked slowly back to her. "Alright then. Oh the names Aoshi Shinomori, by the way." he said sticking out his hand for her to shake. The non-bloody one.

"Misao," she said her eyes lighting up, giving him a mega-watt smile as she reached for the front door. "Misao Makimachi. Welcome to the Wildcat, Aoshi Shinomori."

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Hooray chappie two is finished!!!! Kchan is not slacking!!!!!! Chappie three is almost done and will be up within the next 2 days….

Thanks so much for the sweet reviews Wolvenheart, Moondust-angel, and Spiritdemon hope you liked chapter 2 as well. And thanks always Ukchan (lunar wolf) my faithful beta reader and partner in crime, for once I'm not slacking or procrastinating.

So click that review button and tell me what ya think!!!

K-chan