Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Rurouni Kenshin, though I
think these people should check their copyrights. If anyone has ever seen
the show Sorcerous Stabber Orphen, I think Orphen and Sanosuke are long
lost brothers. Huh.
An: Okay, considering that I'm going to camp tomorrow this will defiantly not be finished before camp. Whatever. I'll make the last chapter really good. How cruel am I? Leaving you with four weeks to find out what happens in the last chapter. (Flees from angry reviewers.)
The second to last chapter. The penultimate chapter, if you want to use good vocab. (Sniff.) Ah, it's been a good run.
It's kind of funny, because for the first scene I had this whole diologue and I was looking at it and trying to figure out why I didn't like it. Then I figured it out: it was out of character! Sano is the kind of guy who punches first and asks questions later. He sounds much more like a gangster in this version.
The Second Night
LATER THAT NIGHT
It was in the bathroom that Sanosuke finally found Kanryuu alone, without the entourage of guys that usually surrounded him. Sanosuke's hand had been aching all night. The look on Megumi's face still bothered him.
He wasn't really worried about the consequences of what he was about to do. Kanryu wouldn't tell anyone. If the things that Aoshi sometimes told Sanosuke about where true, Kanryu was involved in more than a little illegal activity. The trouble that Sanosuke could get into for doing this was nothing compared to the trouble that Kanryu could get into: drug dealing got punished just a little more harshly than beating up someone.
Kanryu looked up as Sanosuke entered the bathroom.
"What do you want?" He asked the approaching Sanosuke. Sanosuke grinned.
"Just to give you something for a friend." With that he punched him in the face: almost as hard as he had punched the face of the metal elevator, and with the same anger behind the blow. Kanryu fell to the ground.
"Look, I'm going easy on you pal. Next time I might not be so charitable. I suggest you stay away from Megumi from now on if you value your personal safety at all. Got it?" Kanryu said nothing. Sanosuke nudged him in the stomach. The guy at his feet winced.
"I asked you a question." Sanosuke growled. Kanryu nodded weakly.
"Good. I expect you'll be better behaved from now on, huh? Oh, and you might want to see the nurse about that. You took a pretty bad fall on the wet ground." Sanouske shook out his throbbing hand. With this statement Sanosuke left the room, feeling remarkably better than before.
BACKSTAGE, BEFORE THE SECOND PERFORMANCE
The air of the back room, though remarkable more relaxed than it had been the night before, was an odd mix of nervousness and nostalgia. There were only two performances of the play: the thought that the thing they had put some much work into something that was almost over was strange.
The buzz in the room grew quiet as Mr. Malprin entered. He plopped a stack of papers down on the table in the middle of the room.
"Everyone take a copy of the notes I made and try to read them before the play. Sanosuke, Megumi, talk to me outside." Solemnly Sanosuke and Megumi filed out of the room.
"Sit down." Mir. Malprin says. The two sat on opposite sides of the hallway.
"Look, your performances yesterday were very good, but not great." He said, looking down at his notes. "But the passion in the love scenes was kind of lacking. Especially during the kisses. There was nothing there. Both of you seemed like you were holding back a lot, most of all you, Sanosuke. I don't know what's going on between you two, and I don't want to know. Just remember not to restrict yourself while acting. No one is judging you." Both of the teens were silent, eyes cast towards the floor.
"I'm going to go backstage, I need to deal with some tech things. Just think about that." He patted them both on the backs.
More passion thought Sanosuke, amused. Little does the guy know what he's asking for...
"Saints do not move, though prayers' sake." Megumi said, looking up at Sanosuke. The first kiss- this scene always made her nervous.
"Then move not while my prayer's affect I take." Did his voice really have to be that attractive, Megumi wondered. "Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged." He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips. The kiss wasn't really longer or more passionate than the kisses last night, but something in it made her shiver. Sanosuke wasn't going to hold back.
"Then have my lips the sin that they have took." She gazes up into chocolate brown eyes. He did, certainly, have nice eyes. She stopped. There it was again! Those strange thoughts just kept popping into her head.
"Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again." He reached behind her neck and drew her closer to him, so that their bodies were barely inches away. This kiss was noticeably deeper than the first. Very softly he broke the kiss, leaving Megumi breathless.
"You by th'book." Megumi gasped, not meaning it at all. He was a damn good kisser. Kaoru rushed onto stage. She had watched the exchange from offstage was repressing a girlish giggle. Megumi turned to face her.
"Madam, your mother craves a word with you." Kaoru said. Megumi walked a little upstage to Kaoru, then turned to look at Sanosuke.
With his back turned to the audience, he winked at her, a devilish smile on his face. A mixed feeling of annoyance and affection rose in her chest. How the hell could he kiss her like that and then just wink at her, like nothing had happened?
"Who is her mother?" Sanosuke said, his voice grave despite the fact that he was still grinning. She hated him, her pride reminded her. Megumi knew her pride was deceiving her.
Megumi bowed her head a little bit as the nurse and Romeo exchanged words, hoping nobody could see the bright pink color that now stained her cheeks.
Megumi walked onto stage, dressed in a white gown. The scene directly before the marriage. Kenshin spoke a line, introducing her. Sanosuke watched her approach him, a slight smile haunting his face.
"Good even to my ghostly confessor." Megumi said to both of them.
"Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both." Kenshin said and stepped back, smiling.
Sanosuke kissed her on the lips for the third time in the play, hands holding her around the waist. She pulled away from the kiss quickly, a little bit breathless.
"As much to him, else is his thanks too much." She kissed him sweetly on the lips, a teasing kiss. He turned pink. Now it was her turn to wink at him.
Romeo and Juliet both exchanged verses, than looked to Frair Lawrence.
"Come, come with me, and we will make short work, for by your leaves, you shall not stay alone till holy church incorporate two into one." They all left the stage. It had always struck Megumi as a kind of funny to act that scene out with Sanosuke. It seemed kind of ridiculous, the idea of them getting married to each other. Though he would probably look really good in a tux. Actually, the idea of marrying him wasn't really that bad at all-
At this point, her pride shook her hard. What the hell was that? It wasn't like she did actually return his feelings. He was just a punk. Even if he was an exceptionally good looking punk, she-
Oh crap.
She did have feelings for him, didn't she?
But that much she knew. There had always been an attraction between the two of them. The feelings probably weren't any more than just a physical attraction, just a crush. That was it. And he probably just felt that way to. He couldn't actually be in love with her. It was ridiculous!
Yet some part of her, however small and quiet, knew that she was lying.
Mr. Malprin had made something very clear in his notes: that if something happened like last night, that they should just improvise and try to go with the flow. No one had really needed to use this, up until the scene that Sanosuke got the crap beaten out of him by Saito. Misao already lay on the ground, a sword stuck under her arm. She was feigning death and quite badly: in fact, one of here eyes was wide open and trained on the two other actors on stage.
"That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio's soul is but a little way above out heads, staying for thine to keep him company; either thou or I, or both, must go with him." Sanosuke growled. Saito scowled back at him.
Silence.
Sanosuke looked at Saito, a little desperately. Saito was still scowling, but his eyes were full of panic.
'Improvise.' Sanosuke mouthed.
"It's sure as hell gonna be you, you bastard!" Saito shouted. Sanosuke immediately wished that Saito had just rushed him. The idiot. The current audience, having heard of last night's disaster, finally had their expectations fulfilled and started to laugh. Sanosuke struck the final blow to Saito and he fell backwards. Sanosuke made sure to give him an annoyed kick as he strutted out.
The next scene, in which Sanosuke had to weep like a girl in front of Sanouske, exacted much the same reaction that it had the night before: some of the more raunchy members of the crowd started howling and mock weeping. Sanosuke bit down on his bottom lip hard to avoid reacting.
Megumi had regained her composure during the next scene, and got through it well enough. About five more scenes passed without any major incidents. The audience was somewhat disappointed: the less mature members had fallen asleep. Finally it drew to the time that Megumi had to meet with Kanryuu.
She got quite a shock when he came onto stage: his left eye was black and blue and badly swollen. What the hell? It hadn't been that way the night before, and Kanryuu wasn't really one to get into brawls with his peers. Usually he hired a thug to do it for him.
"Happily met, my lady and my wife!" He said, voice devoid of his normal scary enthusiasm.
"That may be, sir, when I may be a wife." She says, a little confused. What had happened to him that had made him this way?
"That 'may be' must be, love, on Thursday next."
"What must be shall be."
"That's a certain text." Kenshin said.
Okay, now she defiantly knew that something was wrong with him. At this point usually he would be trying to corner her on the stage and smiling very creepily. Instead, he just slumped and rushed his lines, looking like he was hurting.
"Come you to make confession to this father?"
"To answer that, I should confess to you."
"Do not deny to him that you love me." This usually very scary line was said with no emotion at all, flat and cold.
"I will confess to you that I love him."
"So will ye, I am sure, that you love me."
"If I do so, it will be of more price, being spoken behind your back, than to your face." Megumi was a naturally curious person, and she was just itching to know what happened to Kanryuu. And if by any chance the bruise on his face had anything to do with the way that he was acting.
"Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears." At this point, her curiosity got the better of her.
"Thou art one to speak. What misfortune has happened to your own face?" She asked, hoping that would pass well enough for Shakespeare.
"Not but a Montigue rogue. He threatened me with violence, but I fought him off. It is of no matter. Your face is mine, and thou has slandered it."
The two actors got back to the scene as it was written, getting to the end without any big mistakes. Megumi, though, couldn't help but wonder what his words had meant. A Montigue rogue. It could have just been made up to go along with it, but no: he sounded way to bitter when he said it. He had to mean something by it.
A Montigue rogue. Huh. Who played a Montigue in the play?
Kenshin moved on to a long monologue. Megumi glanced around the stage quickly. Chocolate brown eyes that had previously watched her from backstage vanished suddenly as she meet their gaze.
It couldn't possibly be...
Sanosuke?
It made perfect sense. He probably saw how Kanryuu had been acting towards Megumi. He would probably have told him to back off, and that would explain why Kanryuu hadn't been his normal stalker self. It was something that Sanosuke would do, too.
Stupid Sanosuke. Sanosuke the thug. Sanosuke the sensitive punk. Stupid, sweet Sanosuke.
Both Kenshin and her exited the stage, the scene being completed. Sanosuke sat slouched in the corner, watching her silently. He smiled a little bit at her as she looked towards him.
Despite herself, she smiled back. He looked back down at the open play that was sitting in his lap. He had fought for her. It was a strangely noble thing to do. No guy had ever really done that for her before, had cared enough to defend her like that. In spite of her pride, a strange feeling that she didn't want to think was affection welled up in her chest.
She had to go back on stage soon, but she couldn't help but be pensive. A fierce battle was going on between her normally stronger pride and her emotions. And currently, the emotions were fighting their way to the top.
Megumi went on and off stage several times that act, but Sanosuke remained at the same spot, trying to hide the fact that he was watching her. The way that he looked down quickly at his script was devastatingly adorable.
He finally left as the next act started. Megumi slumped down, trying to sort out that chaos in her head. What the heck did she exactly feel for Sanosuke? The loosing side of her screamed that she felt nothing. The winning side, well...
It was telling her that she loved him, and that scared her more than she could see.
She sat listening to the exchange outside of the curtain. At the moment what Mr. Malprin said came to mind. It wasn't them kissing each other, it was their characters. But it hadn't been Romeo that kissed her back there. Sanosuke had made that painfully obvious. Juliet really only initiated one kiss in the play: when she tried to get the poison from Romeo's lips and then killed herself.
She could kiss him then and then try to figure out if the winning side was in fact right. If she didn't have any feelings for him, she could always just say that it was good acting. She could do a better job than Sanosuke at making it seem like that was the case, at least.
Megumi's mind was resolved. This kiss, this final kiss, would let her know. She had an ominous suspicion that she knew already, though...
AN: Hey, at least I got this chapter up. Now for the four weeks wait. PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! And if you must hurt me, please do it via reviews. And tell me what you thought, too. Thank ya!
An: Okay, considering that I'm going to camp tomorrow this will defiantly not be finished before camp. Whatever. I'll make the last chapter really good. How cruel am I? Leaving you with four weeks to find out what happens in the last chapter. (Flees from angry reviewers.)
The second to last chapter. The penultimate chapter, if you want to use good vocab. (Sniff.) Ah, it's been a good run.
It's kind of funny, because for the first scene I had this whole diologue and I was looking at it and trying to figure out why I didn't like it. Then I figured it out: it was out of character! Sano is the kind of guy who punches first and asks questions later. He sounds much more like a gangster in this version.
The Second Night
LATER THAT NIGHT
It was in the bathroom that Sanosuke finally found Kanryuu alone, without the entourage of guys that usually surrounded him. Sanosuke's hand had been aching all night. The look on Megumi's face still bothered him.
He wasn't really worried about the consequences of what he was about to do. Kanryu wouldn't tell anyone. If the things that Aoshi sometimes told Sanosuke about where true, Kanryu was involved in more than a little illegal activity. The trouble that Sanosuke could get into for doing this was nothing compared to the trouble that Kanryu could get into: drug dealing got punished just a little more harshly than beating up someone.
Kanryu looked up as Sanosuke entered the bathroom.
"What do you want?" He asked the approaching Sanosuke. Sanosuke grinned.
"Just to give you something for a friend." With that he punched him in the face: almost as hard as he had punched the face of the metal elevator, and with the same anger behind the blow. Kanryu fell to the ground.
"Look, I'm going easy on you pal. Next time I might not be so charitable. I suggest you stay away from Megumi from now on if you value your personal safety at all. Got it?" Kanryu said nothing. Sanosuke nudged him in the stomach. The guy at his feet winced.
"I asked you a question." Sanosuke growled. Kanryu nodded weakly.
"Good. I expect you'll be better behaved from now on, huh? Oh, and you might want to see the nurse about that. You took a pretty bad fall on the wet ground." Sanouske shook out his throbbing hand. With this statement Sanosuke left the room, feeling remarkably better than before.
BACKSTAGE, BEFORE THE SECOND PERFORMANCE
The air of the back room, though remarkable more relaxed than it had been the night before, was an odd mix of nervousness and nostalgia. There were only two performances of the play: the thought that the thing they had put some much work into something that was almost over was strange.
The buzz in the room grew quiet as Mr. Malprin entered. He plopped a stack of papers down on the table in the middle of the room.
"Everyone take a copy of the notes I made and try to read them before the play. Sanosuke, Megumi, talk to me outside." Solemnly Sanosuke and Megumi filed out of the room.
"Sit down." Mir. Malprin says. The two sat on opposite sides of the hallway.
"Look, your performances yesterday were very good, but not great." He said, looking down at his notes. "But the passion in the love scenes was kind of lacking. Especially during the kisses. There was nothing there. Both of you seemed like you were holding back a lot, most of all you, Sanosuke. I don't know what's going on between you two, and I don't want to know. Just remember not to restrict yourself while acting. No one is judging you." Both of the teens were silent, eyes cast towards the floor.
"I'm going to go backstage, I need to deal with some tech things. Just think about that." He patted them both on the backs.
More passion thought Sanosuke, amused. Little does the guy know what he's asking for...
"Saints do not move, though prayers' sake." Megumi said, looking up at Sanosuke. The first kiss- this scene always made her nervous.
"Then move not while my prayer's affect I take." Did his voice really have to be that attractive, Megumi wondered. "Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged." He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips. The kiss wasn't really longer or more passionate than the kisses last night, but something in it made her shiver. Sanosuke wasn't going to hold back.
"Then have my lips the sin that they have took." She gazes up into chocolate brown eyes. He did, certainly, have nice eyes. She stopped. There it was again! Those strange thoughts just kept popping into her head.
"Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again." He reached behind her neck and drew her closer to him, so that their bodies were barely inches away. This kiss was noticeably deeper than the first. Very softly he broke the kiss, leaving Megumi breathless.
"You by th'book." Megumi gasped, not meaning it at all. He was a damn good kisser. Kaoru rushed onto stage. She had watched the exchange from offstage was repressing a girlish giggle. Megumi turned to face her.
"Madam, your mother craves a word with you." Kaoru said. Megumi walked a little upstage to Kaoru, then turned to look at Sanosuke.
With his back turned to the audience, he winked at her, a devilish smile on his face. A mixed feeling of annoyance and affection rose in her chest. How the hell could he kiss her like that and then just wink at her, like nothing had happened?
"Who is her mother?" Sanosuke said, his voice grave despite the fact that he was still grinning. She hated him, her pride reminded her. Megumi knew her pride was deceiving her.
Megumi bowed her head a little bit as the nurse and Romeo exchanged words, hoping nobody could see the bright pink color that now stained her cheeks.
Megumi walked onto stage, dressed in a white gown. The scene directly before the marriage. Kenshin spoke a line, introducing her. Sanosuke watched her approach him, a slight smile haunting his face.
"Good even to my ghostly confessor." Megumi said to both of them.
"Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both." Kenshin said and stepped back, smiling.
Sanosuke kissed her on the lips for the third time in the play, hands holding her around the waist. She pulled away from the kiss quickly, a little bit breathless.
"As much to him, else is his thanks too much." She kissed him sweetly on the lips, a teasing kiss. He turned pink. Now it was her turn to wink at him.
Romeo and Juliet both exchanged verses, than looked to Frair Lawrence.
"Come, come with me, and we will make short work, for by your leaves, you shall not stay alone till holy church incorporate two into one." They all left the stage. It had always struck Megumi as a kind of funny to act that scene out with Sanosuke. It seemed kind of ridiculous, the idea of them getting married to each other. Though he would probably look really good in a tux. Actually, the idea of marrying him wasn't really that bad at all-
At this point, her pride shook her hard. What the hell was that? It wasn't like she did actually return his feelings. He was just a punk. Even if he was an exceptionally good looking punk, she-
Oh crap.
She did have feelings for him, didn't she?
But that much she knew. There had always been an attraction between the two of them. The feelings probably weren't any more than just a physical attraction, just a crush. That was it. And he probably just felt that way to. He couldn't actually be in love with her. It was ridiculous!
Yet some part of her, however small and quiet, knew that she was lying.
Mr. Malprin had made something very clear in his notes: that if something happened like last night, that they should just improvise and try to go with the flow. No one had really needed to use this, up until the scene that Sanosuke got the crap beaten out of him by Saito. Misao already lay on the ground, a sword stuck under her arm. She was feigning death and quite badly: in fact, one of here eyes was wide open and trained on the two other actors on stage.
"That late thou gavest me, for Mercutio's soul is but a little way above out heads, staying for thine to keep him company; either thou or I, or both, must go with him." Sanosuke growled. Saito scowled back at him.
Silence.
Sanosuke looked at Saito, a little desperately. Saito was still scowling, but his eyes were full of panic.
'Improvise.' Sanosuke mouthed.
"It's sure as hell gonna be you, you bastard!" Saito shouted. Sanosuke immediately wished that Saito had just rushed him. The idiot. The current audience, having heard of last night's disaster, finally had their expectations fulfilled and started to laugh. Sanosuke struck the final blow to Saito and he fell backwards. Sanosuke made sure to give him an annoyed kick as he strutted out.
The next scene, in which Sanosuke had to weep like a girl in front of Sanouske, exacted much the same reaction that it had the night before: some of the more raunchy members of the crowd started howling and mock weeping. Sanosuke bit down on his bottom lip hard to avoid reacting.
Megumi had regained her composure during the next scene, and got through it well enough. About five more scenes passed without any major incidents. The audience was somewhat disappointed: the less mature members had fallen asleep. Finally it drew to the time that Megumi had to meet with Kanryuu.
She got quite a shock when he came onto stage: his left eye was black and blue and badly swollen. What the hell? It hadn't been that way the night before, and Kanryuu wasn't really one to get into brawls with his peers. Usually he hired a thug to do it for him.
"Happily met, my lady and my wife!" He said, voice devoid of his normal scary enthusiasm.
"That may be, sir, when I may be a wife." She says, a little confused. What had happened to him that had made him this way?
"That 'may be' must be, love, on Thursday next."
"What must be shall be."
"That's a certain text." Kenshin said.
Okay, now she defiantly knew that something was wrong with him. At this point usually he would be trying to corner her on the stage and smiling very creepily. Instead, he just slumped and rushed his lines, looking like he was hurting.
"Come you to make confession to this father?"
"To answer that, I should confess to you."
"Do not deny to him that you love me." This usually very scary line was said with no emotion at all, flat and cold.
"I will confess to you that I love him."
"So will ye, I am sure, that you love me."
"If I do so, it will be of more price, being spoken behind your back, than to your face." Megumi was a naturally curious person, and she was just itching to know what happened to Kanryuu. And if by any chance the bruise on his face had anything to do with the way that he was acting.
"Poor soul, thy face is much abused with tears." At this point, her curiosity got the better of her.
"Thou art one to speak. What misfortune has happened to your own face?" She asked, hoping that would pass well enough for Shakespeare.
"Not but a Montigue rogue. He threatened me with violence, but I fought him off. It is of no matter. Your face is mine, and thou has slandered it."
The two actors got back to the scene as it was written, getting to the end without any big mistakes. Megumi, though, couldn't help but wonder what his words had meant. A Montigue rogue. It could have just been made up to go along with it, but no: he sounded way to bitter when he said it. He had to mean something by it.
A Montigue rogue. Huh. Who played a Montigue in the play?
Kenshin moved on to a long monologue. Megumi glanced around the stage quickly. Chocolate brown eyes that had previously watched her from backstage vanished suddenly as she meet their gaze.
It couldn't possibly be...
Sanosuke?
It made perfect sense. He probably saw how Kanryuu had been acting towards Megumi. He would probably have told him to back off, and that would explain why Kanryuu hadn't been his normal stalker self. It was something that Sanosuke would do, too.
Stupid Sanosuke. Sanosuke the thug. Sanosuke the sensitive punk. Stupid, sweet Sanosuke.
Both Kenshin and her exited the stage, the scene being completed. Sanosuke sat slouched in the corner, watching her silently. He smiled a little bit at her as she looked towards him.
Despite herself, she smiled back. He looked back down at the open play that was sitting in his lap. He had fought for her. It was a strangely noble thing to do. No guy had ever really done that for her before, had cared enough to defend her like that. In spite of her pride, a strange feeling that she didn't want to think was affection welled up in her chest.
She had to go back on stage soon, but she couldn't help but be pensive. A fierce battle was going on between her normally stronger pride and her emotions. And currently, the emotions were fighting their way to the top.
Megumi went on and off stage several times that act, but Sanosuke remained at the same spot, trying to hide the fact that he was watching her. The way that he looked down quickly at his script was devastatingly adorable.
He finally left as the next act started. Megumi slumped down, trying to sort out that chaos in her head. What the heck did she exactly feel for Sanosuke? The loosing side of her screamed that she felt nothing. The winning side, well...
It was telling her that she loved him, and that scared her more than she could see.
She sat listening to the exchange outside of the curtain. At the moment what Mr. Malprin said came to mind. It wasn't them kissing each other, it was their characters. But it hadn't been Romeo that kissed her back there. Sanosuke had made that painfully obvious. Juliet really only initiated one kiss in the play: when she tried to get the poison from Romeo's lips and then killed herself.
She could kiss him then and then try to figure out if the winning side was in fact right. If she didn't have any feelings for him, she could always just say that it was good acting. She could do a better job than Sanosuke at making it seem like that was the case, at least.
Megumi's mind was resolved. This kiss, this final kiss, would let her know. She had an ominous suspicion that she knew already, though...
AN: Hey, at least I got this chapter up. Now for the four weeks wait. PLEASE DON'T KILL ME! And if you must hurt me, please do it via reviews. And tell me what you thought, too. Thank ya!