Across the Hallway
A/N: No lemon yet, but coming! Beginning of the End, second to the last chapter, if you can believe it. Thanks again to azuma_ninja, my faithful reader. The lemon comes on swiftly running feet, never fear. Sorry for the delay again, had to come to grips with major writer's block while I was in China. There simply is no space for additonal writer's inspiration when faced with the fantastic buildings of Shanghai. My architect's soul came first *wink*, sorry, but at least these last two chapters, well, they just sort of poured out of me right after i came home. Took me three nights, but I did it!!!! Anway,
Don't forget to R&R! :)
PS. Rated for topics and a little swearing. Some Angst and Confusion, but not much.
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Chapter 11
Frustration Over Coffee
Kenshin put down his glass at Chef D' Angelo's, watching Kaoru tenderly while she told him all about her day. The past three weeks went by in a happy blur for him, except for the main fact, that, alas, he still wasn't laid. He simply couldn't put aside the gentleman in him and let his baser Battousai self take over, telling himself that Kaoru would give him a clear go ahead signal when she wanted to do more than what they had been doing nearly every night since that long ago kiss on the roof deck, which amounted to hardly second base.
The problem was, it seemed that Kaoru wasn't used to putting out.
What was more, it was his fault for saying they could take it slow.
It was damned frustrating.
So frustrating, in fact, that he was starting to get in an edgy mood and it took about 2 cold baths to feel normal instead of rock hard before and after every time he went to see her. The people around him didn't escape his tetchy mood either. He even snapped at Sano the other day for chewing on a pencil. A pencil!
Hell, we really do need to get laid.
I can do this. I can wait forever until she's ready.
What if she doesn't know that SHE IS?!
Die trying, I suppose. She's so pure and perfect, how the fuck can I let her know that every time she touches me, even by accident, I turn into a huge container of aching, raging hormones?
Dude, that kiss in the dojo last night wasn't innocent. And you managed to actually feel her up a bit that time. What do you think that means? Don't you think you're being unfair to her by letting her hang as well?
Oh, no you don't. Don't you dare give me that psychobabble. I'm not in the mood for it.
"Ken-kun?" Kaoru asked. He was doing it again! All that purple and gold swirling thing in his eyes! I really don't know what he thinks half the time and the other half he seems to get this faraway look. MOU!!!!!!!!!!
"Excuse me, AM I BORING YOU?!" A vein perilously near her temple started throbbing in anger.
"Huh? Uhh—uhm… No, of course not, why would you think that? I just have a lot of things on my mind, that I was…" Kenshin tried for the innocent look and prayed that she would fall for it.
And Buddha just happens to be my personal friend, Battousai sarcastically replied.
"Hmmph." Kaoru wasn't yet appeased. She was frustrated because even though she knew in her heart that the past three weeks were the happiest she had ever been with someone, there was something missing. Something Kenshin was holding back. And she didn't know how to get it out of him, because she never took any initiative of any sort. In her relationship before, Enishi always initiated it, then when things got rocky told her that she was frigid as a fish that's why he had that stupid pink haired booby named Bambi or Fifi or whatever hell her name was on the side. Physical intimacy was a sore issue with her, and even though she desired Kenshin so much she thought she would burn up all the time with it, her moves were timid and inexperienced.
He has to do something and fast! God knows I love him, I fell for him big time, but shit, it's not fair that he makes me drown in his wonderful violet eyes and not do something about it!!! And how do I know if he truly loves me?! Has he told me?! I'll be old and creaky by the time he gets around to it if he moves at this pace! Shit, shit, SHIT!!!!!
Kenshin watched worriedly as her face grew alarmingly scrunched up as she got even angrier.
What the hell did I do?
Battousai started laughing hard again. I told you so. You're not the only one frustrated over there. So go and bang the night away, champ!
WHAT??!!
"MOUUUUU!!!!!" Kaoru cried simultaneously with Kenshin's thoughts. "I've had it!" She threw down her table napkin on the plate and stalked out of the restaurant angrily.
Kenshin was frozen in shock. What had brought that on? He absolutely didn't have a clue, and now he was left sitting alone while the woman held his heart in her hands went off into the autumn night alone and to God knows where.
Slowly gathering his wits, he signaled for the check as he looked around him uneasily, and saw that the people in the other tables were quickly averting their heads from him. Great, now I'm an idiot public spectacle too. Like its not enough that Buddha loves to give me his funniest karmic jokes of all time. Years of being in the detective business really didn't prepare him for this, he thought wearily. Loving Kaoru was great, but it kept him on his toes so much he no longer knew what to do or what move to take… all his half-assed plans about wooing her melted away the minute he told her all about his sordid past and saw her crying for him. What people close to him didn't know was, for the past three weeks, he had been winging it.
It just wasn't like him. He decided to go visit his most level headed friend when it came to matters of the heart. For this kind of serious issue, he needed a cool, professional opinion. A woman's opinion. He knew he had to ask for Megumi's help.
-o-
The General State Hospital at the corner of 6th Avenue was a busy, crowded and noisy place, with gurneys moving back and forth, doctors hurrying with patients from all walks of life, staff running all over the place and the general bustle of a busy hospital. It smelled of stale coffee and antiseptic, and Kenshin always marveled at the dedication of his friend that she could stand working in such a place, considering her background. Doctors of Megumi's status could command exorbitant fees and private offices from other hospitals, but she chose to work on a tiny government's salary, shared office space and cubicles like everyone else and often did most of her consultation and house visits in the most dangerous parts of New York for free.
"Ha! Ken-kun, thanks for waiting, I just had a 20 hour shift done, and an emergency came in with a cut up guy from a gang fight, so I really couldn't pull myself away until now… Well, you know how it goes…" Megumi sank onto the chair beside Kenshin wearily, still wearing her white doctor's coat and peeling a gauzy mouth covering from her face.
"Megumi-san, you never fail to amaze me, you know that? I was just thinking how a lady who wears Lacoste running shoes to match the designer suit she's wearing underneath that coat and lives in the East Village could give service to those who can't even afford new clothes." Kenshin said in greeting. "You have a heart of gold, that you do, my friend." He added for good measure, just in case she might think he was criticizing her.
Megumi looked at him oddly and said "That's weird, I never thought you felt that way cause you inspired me, you know… if you hadn't pulled me off the path of smoking drugs to death and running my trust fund to the ground when you worked for my father, and taught me that helping other people before myself would give a much higher high, I wouldn't be here. I'd probably have a dozen abortions and an injection spotted arm if I wasn't already dead in a few years if I went that way." Megumi looked pained for a moment in her reminiscing.
Kenshin looked fondly at his friend. She was his first Secret Service assignment when he first joined the agency at 20. Then, Megumi was a troubled 17 year old daughter of a Japanese-American diplomat who was extremely bright, top of her class and accelerated several levels so that at her age, she was in the 3rd year of premed. She was also a cocaine junkie who was about to drop out from her course due to her absences and deeper addiction. At the time, Kenshin had saved her from almost OD'ng, but in return, gave her a blunt blow-by-blow description of what would happen if she didn't stop her habit, and commandeered her into a self-detoxification, which saved her life--- in the year that he was her guardian, she slowly turned back to her studies, lived cleanly and became very good friends with him. It never occurred to him that she considered him to be her inspiration; after all, back then, he was just the bodyguard. Later, after he had quit the SS, he had introduced her to Sano when she was in final year of residency and the two hit it off quite well, and the rest just fell into place. His lips curved into a smile at the memories.
Megumi was studying Kenshin quizzically, trying to guess what the smile meant. "You didn't come here to reminisce on the past and comment on my fashion sense, did you? Because if you did, you must be getting older than I thought… reminiscing about the good old days is the first sign of middle age, you know… oh-ho-ho-ho!" Megumi teased, and nudged him good naturedly.
"I could never hide much from you, could I? Anyway, I need help. Advice, if you will. I didn't ask Sano-san because he might get all of you up at Aoshi's again, and for this kind of thing, I wanted an opinion from a girl's point of view, and the closest and best I knew to ask was… you…" Kenshin finished lamely, knowing he was babbling, and running out of courage to ask the advice that he needed.
Megumi's eyes widened in surprise. "Well, that's a first! You asking my opinion? I always run to you when I get screwed up! Say, let's not talk here… I got 24 hours off, and there's a Starbucks down the road, so why don't you hold it while I change to my regular clothes and I meet you there in ten? I know they close at 3am or something like that, so they should still be open."
"Arigatou, Megumi-dono. I really appreciate it."
"Argh! Kenshin, you know I hate that stupid honorific! Drop it for someone more deserving, will you?!" Megumi's teasing voice floated back to him as she made her way down the hallway when she walked away.
-o-
Megumi was laughing so hard, she cried tears of mirth over her cappuccino after Kenshin's one and a half hour confession of how he really wanted to make love to Kaoru but felt that he was inadequate because she was perfect, how good she made him feel, how he really fell for her and how he had no idea why she was angry with him this time when all he did was treat her like a princess.
"I'm happy if my situation amuses you, Megumi-dono" Kenshin said stiffly.
Megumi wiped the tears from her eyes and didn't mind his tone. She knew Kenshin wasn't really pissed. Just annoyed, and knowing his eternally long patience, it didn't count. "I'm not trying to make light of it, but seriously, Ken-san, the answer is staring you right in the face! I'm surprised that you don't see it--- you never struck me as the dense type!" Megumi started, still giggling occasionally, her laughter slowly coming under control.
Kenshin stared incredulously at her for a minute, then asked. "What is it then? I feel like I'm in the Matrix or something and Morpheus is about to give me the red pill…"
Megumi rolled her eyes. She never got men and their particular analogies to movies. She liked the Matrix, but for the life of her, she never would have compared an aspect of her life to it!
"Look, you love Kaoru, right?"
"Yes. I don't deserve her, but Buddha knows, I can't deny what I feel."
"And she's crazy about you too, right?"
"Ummm… I know she cares for me…"
"Baka Kenshin. Everyone knows she's just as in love with you as you are with her."
"You do?!" Kenshin felt his dark mood lighten slowly. Kaoru loves him!
"Then probably, she's wondering why the hell you won't touch her other more than--- what exactly is it? Just kissing? If I were her, I'd think that there was something inadequate in me if the man I love won't make love to me when I really, really want him to… I wouldn't think that he thought I was too perfect to be touched. Sweet thought, but really, action, especially when it's done well, is so much better. Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!!!"
"Orororo?!" Kenshin blushed. Megumi was just as basic as Sano sometimes.
"There you go again. You can't hide yourself behind that 'oro' forever, you know. I suggest… You go home, and since its Sunday tomorrow and both of you don't have work, go and place flowers at her doorstep with little sorry notes, you know the drill… Spend the rest of the day with her on a date, if she forgives you, and then at night… make love to her! Get laid! Get her laid! And then call me in the morning! Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!!!" Megumi couldn't stop laughing, and her fox ears were in appearance.
Kenshin sweat dropped and he gulped.
"Awww, come on, is she that bad? Is that it? She didn't seem deformed to me… to add, it would also help if you told her your feelings for her. You have to be upfront with that, she doesn't strike me as the type of girl who would like to be lead around on a string. She has her pride, just like you do. Besides, it would be the right thing to say."
"It's not that, Megumi-san. I'm just afraid she won't forgive me. I really had been an idiot, baka-deshi redhead and all. You don't want to get on her bad side, that you don't. Have you seen how she swings a bokken?"
"Ken-kun, the main thing is, she's a person, just like the rest of us. She's got feelings too… and you hurt them big time, and that's why she's mad. But I know she will forgive you, so don't worry about it. You just don't give up on the one you love, and after getting to know her these past weeks, it seems that she's got a hell of a lot more optimism than anyone I ever know. She'll see the brighter side of it tomorrow, you'll see."
Kenshin looked at her over the rim of his black coffee of the day. How do women get to be so insightful about things like that and men can't?
Don't look at me, bud, I had the opinion you should've banged Blue Eyes up a long time ago.
You're crude.
I tell it like it is, up to you to like it or not.
"Okay Megumi. I'll do what you say. But tonight. I can't wait until tomorrow. No more waiting, hiding, whatever it was I was doing. Am I right, ne?" Kenshin asked, the old twinkle Megumi knew back in his eyes and rurouni smile in place.
Megumi's eyes widened in surprise. "You go, Kenshin! For a moment there, I thought you had changed! And before I forget…" She dug her hand in her medical bag and produced several packets that she dropped in Kenshin's hand.
"Oro?!" Kenshin couldn't believe she just gave him several condoms!
"Practice safely!
Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!!!"
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Additonal A/N: Chef D'
Angelo's is a real restaurant with the best pizza/pasta/anything fast
food italian in Manila! :)
In case there are any
questions about Megumi's part, I had to give (in other words,
FABRICATE) a brief background since i noticed everyone except her has
little tidbits. Anyway, on to the NEXT!!!
