The Devil's Workshop
MysticShadowWanderer
Disclaimer: Screw you, hippie.
*****
Chapter Seven: Unexpected
Small clouds of dust rose from their feet with every step; Kaoru coughed quietly into the sleeve of her kimono, feeling cold, tired and utterly unclean. It wasn't as if she'd wanted to follow Battousai to the gods knew where, that was far from the case, but the fact remained that, at heart, she was terrified of him. Sure, there was that peculiar attraction that she felt towards him, but it wasn't enough to dispel the growing fear of what he might do to her. He was a spiteful, cruel man, she reminded herself, thinking back on their departure...
"Please Battousai, please don't make me leave," she had begged. But he hadn't listened. "Battousai, please, this is my home, it always has been. My mother and father... all my memories... oh gods Battousai you can't do this to me."
He had grabbed her arm, but not as forcibly as he did earlier. Had she detected a hint of sympathy in his distant amber eyes? Impossible. His grip had loosened slightly as he picked up the bag she'd packed and slung it over his shoulder, fairly dragging her out the dojo gate and down the road.
"You're wrong, lovely, I can do this to you. Who is to stop me? You? Your family, perhaps?" he had said, but the last part was very quiet, as if he had regretted saying it.
...Tears flowed down her cheeks as she recalled his last words. He was such a bastard, how could someone like that even be alive? Wiping the tears away quickly, she stuck to her resolve to be stronger. After following Battousai for so many miles in the dark and cold, she should have been complaining, especially with the cramp she was developing in her left calf, but she walked on, head held high.
"What's wrong?" Battousai's question startled her and she stopped. Hearing this, he halted and turned to face her. "What's wrong?" he asked again, gentler.
"Nothing," Kaoru replied.
"You're lying," he said. "You were limping, I could hear the difference in the pattern of your steps. Your left leg hurts, doesn't it?"
Biting her lip, Kaoru nodded. Battousai put his hands on her shoulders and marched her off the road into the forest a ways. Sitting her down on a fallen tree, he began to build a fire and unroll the blankets that would have to do for their bed that night.
"If you were tired, you should have said something," he admonished while he busily went about cooking them some rice. "I wouldn't push you that hard."
A quizzical look passed Kaoru's eyes, but she remembered what he'd said about being emotionless and swiftly arranged her face to be blank. He smiled approvingly; at least she was a fast learner. Leaving the rice to simmer, he sat cross-legged in front of her and grabbed her left ankle lightly. Watching her face carefully from beneath his blood-red bangs, he slipped a hand inside her kimono and began to knead at her calf easily. A small and lazy smile snuck onto her face as he increased the pressure, working out the knots in the muscle skillfully. Kaoru sighed deeply, sinking to the ground and leaning against the tree.
"Better?" he asked simply.
"Mmm," she affirmed.
"Good," he murmured and knelt forward to take her head in his hands. She strained upward slightly to press her lips against his. In moments like these she thought she might be able to love him, or might already be in love with him. He had his soft side too, but thoughts of this were scattered as he deepened the kiss, snaking an arm behind her back and pulling her into his chest. She didn't quite believe her ears when she heard a purr rumble from her own throat, but Battousai obviously believed his by his response. He pressed himself fully against her, bending her against the tree in a way that was amazingly painful to her. When he moved his mouth from her lips and began working his way down her neck, she took the opportunity to complain.
"Battousai, that hurts," she whimpered. He paused and seemed to consider her words for a moment. "Please," she whispered. "It hurts."
Nodding, her moved to pull her into his lap and lean against the tree himself. It was shocking how considerate he was being tonight, which would have made her wonder if he hadn't swept her hair over he shoulder and begun kissing and licking the back of her neck. She shuddered and let her head fall back at the damp caress of his tongue; it was astonishing how this man could set her whole body on fire so easily. He didn't even have to try. She brought her hands up to his head and twisted to be able to drag him to her lips for another kiss. His eyes flashed as he ran a hand up and down her side, their tongues twining roughly. They broke to catch their breaths, and Kaoru sniffed the air delicately, brow furrowed in confusion.
"Is something... burning?"
Battousai's eyes widened and he pushed her off his lap, leaping toward the fire. "Well. I suppose we're not going to be having rice tonight," he said as he poked a stick at the charred remains of what would have been their dinner. "I'm afraid that's all we had. I'd planned on that holding us over until tomorrow when we'd reach a small town. Damn."
Kaoru couldn't help but giggle, for a hitokiri, he looked rather adorable poking at his burned dinner with a stick. He glared at her and she bit back a laugh.
"I'm glad you find it amusing, because we're not going to be eating tonight," he huffed, taking the cooking pot away from the fire and dumping the failed attempt at rice at the edge of the clearing. "We might as well go to bed, we're only going to get hungrier." It seemed that his mood had been ruined along with their food.
With a sigh, he tucked himself under a blanket, using the other as a makeshift futon of sorts. Kaoru hesitated for a second, shivered, and then crawled in beside him. The air was already frigid, and she wasn't going to freeze to death because of her stubborn pride. Besides, he hadn't been so bad that night, maybe she could get him to open up more.
"Battousai," she said softly.
"What?"
"Will you tell me what it's like to be semi-mortal?" she asked quietly, not wanting to evoke his anger.
"I suppose if you're going to be traveling with me you might as well know," he sighed. Kaoru nestled closer to his warm body. "You live for what feels like forever. I've rarely had any type of serious accident, because I have some purpose on the earth and the gods won't let me leave until it's complete. I don't know what it is. I will eventually. Even if I don't die from an accident, it's very rare, I can be killed, also very hard to achieve. Every hundred years or so, I have the choice of being reborn, to better fit in with my surroundings. I would retain all my memories and knowledge, but I've never chosen rebirth. I happen to like my form the way it is."
"That's not what I really meant, Battousai," Kaoru said. "Though it's fascinating, what I really want to know is how you feel. You can't be emotionless."
He was inclined to tell her, it made so much sense at the moment. "It's hell, lovely. I don't trust anyone, I don't become attached to anyone."
"What am I to you then?" she asked in a whisper.
"I don't know." It seemed that he was talking more to himself than her now. "You're beautiful, you have spirit. I don't know why I want you so badly. But I do. Don't ask questions."
"Yes, Battousai," she yawned, smiling. She'd gotten more out of him than she'd hoped to. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. A shiver ran from her head to her toes, and she pushed her body as far as possible against his, feeling the cold of the night. He wrapped his arms around her protectively and tucked her head under his chin; she sighed in content. Perhaps being his woman wouldn't be the torturous hell she'd thought it would be.
'It might be hard to deal with his violent mood swings, though,' she thought.
***
"Cold, Kaoru?" Was the first thing she heard the next morning. She discovered that she was shaking hard, even though Battousai was holding her close and she was underneath a relatively thick blanket.
"I'm surprised you didn't shake yourself awake during the night. I know I didn't get any sleep," he continued. "...I was worried about you."
Kaoru's eyes grew large. "Y-you w-were?" she stuttered. He put a slender finger to her lips and sat her up, carefully wrapping her in both blankets and drawing her closer to the dying fire. Moving rapidly, he built it up to a small blaze, and sat her back in his lap, tucking her in his arms again.
'This is insane,' Kaoru thought. 'Yesterday afternoon he was harsh and rude, and today he's caring and concerned? What goes on in this man's mind?'
Battousai buried his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply. "You smell good," he said simply. "Hmm... I can think of one good way to warm you up," he commented as he tugged at her earlobe with his teeth.
"N-no," Kaoru managed to work out through her chattering teeth.
"Ah, I see. I'll be kind to you today, as it's your first day as my woman, and you're so goddamned cold. It's very disconcerting trying to sleep next to someone who's shaking so hard. We should be moving on," he added as an afterthought.
Taken completely off-guard, Kaoru couldn't do anything but stare at him as he set her on the ground. Dousing the fire, he began digging through the bag she'd packed. A disgruntled look passed his face as he rummaged through her things.
"Don't you have anything warmer?" he asked.
"No," she replied. "This is my warmest winter kimono."
Battousai sighed, obviously displeased.
'Dammit, it's cold, too,' he thought with a scowl.
After peeling the blankets from her body and rolling them up to be more travel-efficient, he slowly removed his gi and draped it over her shoulders. Kaoru quickly wrapped it around herself, quietly breathing in his scent. She smiled; she like the way he smelled. This fact didn't slip past Battousai's notice, and he grinned at her.
"I'm all yours, darling," he said in a low voice, sexual tension spiking between them. His tone dropped to a dark whisper. "You don't have to wait."
'Damn,' she swore mentally at her stupidity. 'I should have known better.'
He took her silence as a negative response, but was unruffled by it. At least now he knew just how badly she wanted him. Was she in love with him? He couldn't help but wonder. The more pertinent question was, was he in love with her? He couldn't be sure at the moment.
"Come," he directed. "It's time to move on. Walk with me."
She obeyed, she didn't really mind the way he was acting. After all, he was a man, and most of them were like that, with varying levels of stupidity. Besides, it was warmer being gathered under his arm and held to his body. And she knew he had to be freezing, what with having given her his gi. The action was so sweet and thoughtful that she couldn't possibly deny his order, especially when it might afford some warmth for him.
As they traveled on, she let her thoughts wander. He'd said that being semi-mortal was like being in hell. 'How sad that he doesn't trust anyone. He wants me. I've never been wanted before. Not like this. Is this what love feels like?' Her speculation was random and rapid-fire, whatever came into her head was given at least passing attention, until she noticed that Battousai was staring at her.
"What are you thinking, lovely?"
"Nothing," she lied quickly.
"Hmm, alright then," he said with a grin. "Keep your secrets for now."
Kaoru almost smiled. He sometimes could seem like a person, as if he had a heart somewhere. But she knew that she'd just barely scratched the surface of his personality. Battousai was quite possibly the most complex and confusing creature to walk the earth, with the greatest capacity for evil. Did that also mean he had the greatest capacity for passion?
*****
A/N: AH! I'M FREEZING! That's where the idea for this chapter came from. It's about five degrees below zero in my room, so my despair is coming out through my writing. Seriously. I'm cold. I'm wrapped in a quilt, a blanket, and a comforter, and I STILL can't feel my toes!! Plus it's snowing outside, so that makes me feel even colder. Anyhow, I should explain a bit about this chapter. It may seem that Battousai just randomly changed to a nice guy. Wrong. Semi-mortals are prone to some very violent and insane mood swings, more so than the average bi-polar person sometimes. It's that bad. Ask my friends. Or ask my locker, which is the brunt of my mood swings quite often. Poor girl that has the locker under mine, stuff is always hitting her in the head because of that... YES! BACK ON TRACK! Any questions? This story is getting rather more involved than I thought it would be. I like it ^_^ Ja ne, minna-san!
MysticShadowWanderer
Disclaimer: Screw you, hippie.
*****
Chapter Seven: Unexpected
Small clouds of dust rose from their feet with every step; Kaoru coughed quietly into the sleeve of her kimono, feeling cold, tired and utterly unclean. It wasn't as if she'd wanted to follow Battousai to the gods knew where, that was far from the case, but the fact remained that, at heart, she was terrified of him. Sure, there was that peculiar attraction that she felt towards him, but it wasn't enough to dispel the growing fear of what he might do to her. He was a spiteful, cruel man, she reminded herself, thinking back on their departure...
"Please Battousai, please don't make me leave," she had begged. But he hadn't listened. "Battousai, please, this is my home, it always has been. My mother and father... all my memories... oh gods Battousai you can't do this to me."
He had grabbed her arm, but not as forcibly as he did earlier. Had she detected a hint of sympathy in his distant amber eyes? Impossible. His grip had loosened slightly as he picked up the bag she'd packed and slung it over his shoulder, fairly dragging her out the dojo gate and down the road.
"You're wrong, lovely, I can do this to you. Who is to stop me? You? Your family, perhaps?" he had said, but the last part was very quiet, as if he had regretted saying it.
...Tears flowed down her cheeks as she recalled his last words. He was such a bastard, how could someone like that even be alive? Wiping the tears away quickly, she stuck to her resolve to be stronger. After following Battousai for so many miles in the dark and cold, she should have been complaining, especially with the cramp she was developing in her left calf, but she walked on, head held high.
"What's wrong?" Battousai's question startled her and she stopped. Hearing this, he halted and turned to face her. "What's wrong?" he asked again, gentler.
"Nothing," Kaoru replied.
"You're lying," he said. "You were limping, I could hear the difference in the pattern of your steps. Your left leg hurts, doesn't it?"
Biting her lip, Kaoru nodded. Battousai put his hands on her shoulders and marched her off the road into the forest a ways. Sitting her down on a fallen tree, he began to build a fire and unroll the blankets that would have to do for their bed that night.
"If you were tired, you should have said something," he admonished while he busily went about cooking them some rice. "I wouldn't push you that hard."
A quizzical look passed Kaoru's eyes, but she remembered what he'd said about being emotionless and swiftly arranged her face to be blank. He smiled approvingly; at least she was a fast learner. Leaving the rice to simmer, he sat cross-legged in front of her and grabbed her left ankle lightly. Watching her face carefully from beneath his blood-red bangs, he slipped a hand inside her kimono and began to knead at her calf easily. A small and lazy smile snuck onto her face as he increased the pressure, working out the knots in the muscle skillfully. Kaoru sighed deeply, sinking to the ground and leaning against the tree.
"Better?" he asked simply.
"Mmm," she affirmed.
"Good," he murmured and knelt forward to take her head in his hands. She strained upward slightly to press her lips against his. In moments like these she thought she might be able to love him, or might already be in love with him. He had his soft side too, but thoughts of this were scattered as he deepened the kiss, snaking an arm behind her back and pulling her into his chest. She didn't quite believe her ears when she heard a purr rumble from her own throat, but Battousai obviously believed his by his response. He pressed himself fully against her, bending her against the tree in a way that was amazingly painful to her. When he moved his mouth from her lips and began working his way down her neck, she took the opportunity to complain.
"Battousai, that hurts," she whimpered. He paused and seemed to consider her words for a moment. "Please," she whispered. "It hurts."
Nodding, her moved to pull her into his lap and lean against the tree himself. It was shocking how considerate he was being tonight, which would have made her wonder if he hadn't swept her hair over he shoulder and begun kissing and licking the back of her neck. She shuddered and let her head fall back at the damp caress of his tongue; it was astonishing how this man could set her whole body on fire so easily. He didn't even have to try. She brought her hands up to his head and twisted to be able to drag him to her lips for another kiss. His eyes flashed as he ran a hand up and down her side, their tongues twining roughly. They broke to catch their breaths, and Kaoru sniffed the air delicately, brow furrowed in confusion.
"Is something... burning?"
Battousai's eyes widened and he pushed her off his lap, leaping toward the fire. "Well. I suppose we're not going to be having rice tonight," he said as he poked a stick at the charred remains of what would have been their dinner. "I'm afraid that's all we had. I'd planned on that holding us over until tomorrow when we'd reach a small town. Damn."
Kaoru couldn't help but giggle, for a hitokiri, he looked rather adorable poking at his burned dinner with a stick. He glared at her and she bit back a laugh.
"I'm glad you find it amusing, because we're not going to be eating tonight," he huffed, taking the cooking pot away from the fire and dumping the failed attempt at rice at the edge of the clearing. "We might as well go to bed, we're only going to get hungrier." It seemed that his mood had been ruined along with their food.
With a sigh, he tucked himself under a blanket, using the other as a makeshift futon of sorts. Kaoru hesitated for a second, shivered, and then crawled in beside him. The air was already frigid, and she wasn't going to freeze to death because of her stubborn pride. Besides, he hadn't been so bad that night, maybe she could get him to open up more.
"Battousai," she said softly.
"What?"
"Will you tell me what it's like to be semi-mortal?" she asked quietly, not wanting to evoke his anger.
"I suppose if you're going to be traveling with me you might as well know," he sighed. Kaoru nestled closer to his warm body. "You live for what feels like forever. I've rarely had any type of serious accident, because I have some purpose on the earth and the gods won't let me leave until it's complete. I don't know what it is. I will eventually. Even if I don't die from an accident, it's very rare, I can be killed, also very hard to achieve. Every hundred years or so, I have the choice of being reborn, to better fit in with my surroundings. I would retain all my memories and knowledge, but I've never chosen rebirth. I happen to like my form the way it is."
"That's not what I really meant, Battousai," Kaoru said. "Though it's fascinating, what I really want to know is how you feel. You can't be emotionless."
He was inclined to tell her, it made so much sense at the moment. "It's hell, lovely. I don't trust anyone, I don't become attached to anyone."
"What am I to you then?" she asked in a whisper.
"I don't know." It seemed that he was talking more to himself than her now. "You're beautiful, you have spirit. I don't know why I want you so badly. But I do. Don't ask questions."
"Yes, Battousai," she yawned, smiling. She'd gotten more out of him than she'd hoped to. Maybe he wasn't so bad after all. A shiver ran from her head to her toes, and she pushed her body as far as possible against his, feeling the cold of the night. He wrapped his arms around her protectively and tucked her head under his chin; she sighed in content. Perhaps being his woman wouldn't be the torturous hell she'd thought it would be.
'It might be hard to deal with his violent mood swings, though,' she thought.
***
"Cold, Kaoru?" Was the first thing she heard the next morning. She discovered that she was shaking hard, even though Battousai was holding her close and she was underneath a relatively thick blanket.
"I'm surprised you didn't shake yourself awake during the night. I know I didn't get any sleep," he continued. "...I was worried about you."
Kaoru's eyes grew large. "Y-you w-were?" she stuttered. He put a slender finger to her lips and sat her up, carefully wrapping her in both blankets and drawing her closer to the dying fire. Moving rapidly, he built it up to a small blaze, and sat her back in his lap, tucking her in his arms again.
'This is insane,' Kaoru thought. 'Yesterday afternoon he was harsh and rude, and today he's caring and concerned? What goes on in this man's mind?'
Battousai buried his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply. "You smell good," he said simply. "Hmm... I can think of one good way to warm you up," he commented as he tugged at her earlobe with his teeth.
"N-no," Kaoru managed to work out through her chattering teeth.
"Ah, I see. I'll be kind to you today, as it's your first day as my woman, and you're so goddamned cold. It's very disconcerting trying to sleep next to someone who's shaking so hard. We should be moving on," he added as an afterthought.
Taken completely off-guard, Kaoru couldn't do anything but stare at him as he set her on the ground. Dousing the fire, he began digging through the bag she'd packed. A disgruntled look passed his face as he rummaged through her things.
"Don't you have anything warmer?" he asked.
"No," she replied. "This is my warmest winter kimono."
Battousai sighed, obviously displeased.
'Dammit, it's cold, too,' he thought with a scowl.
After peeling the blankets from her body and rolling them up to be more travel-efficient, he slowly removed his gi and draped it over her shoulders. Kaoru quickly wrapped it around herself, quietly breathing in his scent. She smiled; she like the way he smelled. This fact didn't slip past Battousai's notice, and he grinned at her.
"I'm all yours, darling," he said in a low voice, sexual tension spiking between them. His tone dropped to a dark whisper. "You don't have to wait."
'Damn,' she swore mentally at her stupidity. 'I should have known better.'
He took her silence as a negative response, but was unruffled by it. At least now he knew just how badly she wanted him. Was she in love with him? He couldn't help but wonder. The more pertinent question was, was he in love with her? He couldn't be sure at the moment.
"Come," he directed. "It's time to move on. Walk with me."
She obeyed, she didn't really mind the way he was acting. After all, he was a man, and most of them were like that, with varying levels of stupidity. Besides, it was warmer being gathered under his arm and held to his body. And she knew he had to be freezing, what with having given her his gi. The action was so sweet and thoughtful that she couldn't possibly deny his order, especially when it might afford some warmth for him.
As they traveled on, she let her thoughts wander. He'd said that being semi-mortal was like being in hell. 'How sad that he doesn't trust anyone. He wants me. I've never been wanted before. Not like this. Is this what love feels like?' Her speculation was random and rapid-fire, whatever came into her head was given at least passing attention, until she noticed that Battousai was staring at her.
"What are you thinking, lovely?"
"Nothing," she lied quickly.
"Hmm, alright then," he said with a grin. "Keep your secrets for now."
Kaoru almost smiled. He sometimes could seem like a person, as if he had a heart somewhere. But she knew that she'd just barely scratched the surface of his personality. Battousai was quite possibly the most complex and confusing creature to walk the earth, with the greatest capacity for evil. Did that also mean he had the greatest capacity for passion?
*****
A/N: AH! I'M FREEZING! That's where the idea for this chapter came from. It's about five degrees below zero in my room, so my despair is coming out through my writing. Seriously. I'm cold. I'm wrapped in a quilt, a blanket, and a comforter, and I STILL can't feel my toes!! Plus it's snowing outside, so that makes me feel even colder. Anyhow, I should explain a bit about this chapter. It may seem that Battousai just randomly changed to a nice guy. Wrong. Semi-mortals are prone to some very violent and insane mood swings, more so than the average bi-polar person sometimes. It's that bad. Ask my friends. Or ask my locker, which is the brunt of my mood swings quite often. Poor girl that has the locker under mine, stuff is always hitting her in the head because of that... YES! BACK ON TRACK! Any questions? This story is getting rather more involved than I thought it would be. I like it ^_^ Ja ne, minna-san!