Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin isn't mine. There.
"Oro?"
-Himura Kenshin
XXXXX
Day 5
"Ah . . ." Aoshi groaned. Where was he? What happened last night?
Oh. Right. Misao found me unconscious on the forest floor. She was crying.
What was he doing in the middle of the forest?
Of course. Hiko.
Jerk.
Something beside him shifted. Aoshi tensed.
'What the heck?' Aoshi looked over to his right. Misao was curled up beside him.
This was . . . awkward. Misao had never really been "this" close to him. Aoshi stopped himself from moving. Even if Misao was probably exhausted, she was a ninja none the less. She'd feel him moving and wake up.
The door opened and Hiko stepped in. He saw Aoshi awake and grinned.
"What's wrong? Can't get up?" Hiko asked. Aoshi scowled.
"Did you put her here?" he asked.
"Huh? No. Don't you remember? Misao brought you back and let you use her futon. She got tired herself and slept next to you." Hiko said. He looked back to Misao. "Itachi! Wake up! You're heading back into town again today!'
"Hienging flingy?" uttered Misao. Hiko and Aoshi stared at her . . . then to each other.
"I'll . . . let you sleep more," Hiko said, and hurried back outside.
Aoshi scooted away from Misao, who rolled on to the futon.
"Mmph . . . Nice and warm . . . 'knew that would work . . . hehe . . ." Misao chuckled. Kenshin probably would've oroed.
Aoshi watched Misao for a while. His body still ached from the rushed training session the previous day, but, then again . . . He could stand it. It was better to move around than to do nothing at times like these.
He decided to let the girl sleep.
'Misao does look so much more childish when she sleeps,' Aoshi thought. Then again, doesn't everybody? Aoshi suddenly imagined what Saito looked like when he slept. It wasn't too easy, though. Aoshi needed to be so precise in this.
Did he sleep in a western bed or a futon?
Did he keep a light on while he slept?
Did he keep his katana beside him or under his pillow? Maybe he didn't sleep in a bed – maybe he slept against the wall, holding his katana.
How did Aoshi know that Saito actually slept with his katana? Maybe Saito felt more secure in this new era.
. . . Nah.
How big was his bed? Aoshi was fairly certain Saito wasn't married. So he'd probably have one small enough for one. Then again, Saito might've liked to have a large bed all to him.
What if Saito was married?
Aoshi then realized that he had gotten bored again. He got up and winced a bit from his sour muscles. What now? If went outside, where all his things were (except for his kodachis) he would have to face Hiko. If he stayed inside here, he'd die of boredom and strange, random thoughts.
Aoshi stayed there pondering this (sitting back down in the process) when Hiko came back inside --
-- with a bucket of water.
'It's been a good fifteen minutes. Hiko probably went down to the stream. It's morning so the water should be . . .'
"AAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!"
'. . . ice cold.'
"Well, you seemed to be awake now."
Misao fumed. "You got my favorite uniform SOAKED!!!!!"
Hiko shrugged. "What? They all look alike."
"But this one was my favorite!" Misao whined. She tried to dry out her uniform by squeezing out the water.
"Hey, hey! Not inside! Go out and do that!" Hiko exclaimed.
Misao stomped outside, and continued to get the water out of her braid. "It's COLD out!"
"That's nice. Dry up the floor when you get the chance, will you?" Hiko took the futon Misao slept in and took it out to dry.
'Almost half way there . . .'
X
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M GOING BACK DOWN THE MOUNTAIN!?!?" Misao screeched.
"I mean, you're going down the mountain to sell more pottery."
Aoshi watched the argument, slightly disinterested. He looked at the person speaking, and then looked to the other when they spoke.
"Uh-huh! NOT AGAIN!"
"Did you forget why you're up here?"
"I DON'T CARE! I'M NOT GOING!"
"I don't care that you don't care! You're going, like it or not."
"I don't care that you don't care that I don't care!"
" . . . I don't care that you don't care that I don't care that you don't care."
"Well, I don't care that you don't care that I don't . . . care . . . What were we on?" Misao counted with her fingers. "I said it twice so you said it . . . No, that's not right. One, two, three . . ."
Hiko smirked.
"You shut up!"
"Are you done?" Aoshi asked. They both turned to him.
"Yes," Hiko said.
"Nuh-uh! I'm not done yet!" said Misao.
"Well I am. I'll go get the pottery."
"THIS ISN'T OVER YET! YOU HERE ME!?!?"
'Crystal,' Aoshi thought.
"Crystal," said Hiko.
Okay.
"Here you go," Hiko said as he handed Misao some different things. They were quite small, considering Misao couldn't carry too much at once. "Make sure you sell them in a different place than yesterday."
Misao stared at the bundle in her hands.
'She's not going to start crying is she?'
At that moment, Misao glared at Hiko. "I hate you!" She stuck out her tongue and ran to the edge of the clearing. "You big, stupid, hermit loser! Hey, Aoshi-sama, if you don't want to spend the rest of the day with the BIG, STUPID, HERMIT LOSER, you can come with me if you want!"
"Sure," Aoshi replied.
"We can go and buy you something more casual, too! Come on!" Misao said happily. Aoshi got up and volunteered to help Misao carry some of the "merchandise". They left, leaving Hiko alone in front of the kiln.
'Hermit loser?'
X
Aoshi and Misao had reached the city and went to set up. (They got Aoshi a shirt thingy. Like the one Yahiko wore when he got older. Yes, with the shirt underneath. And some pants. Don't ask questions, I don't feel like getting into detail.)
"Now what?" Aoshi asked. Misao sighed and sat down.
"We wait."
After a good twenty minutes of people window shopping – which came to be incredibly annoying – a young woman with dark brown hair came up and looked at some of the pottery.
"Can I help you, ma'am?" Misao asked, very business like.
The woman smiled and nodded. "Yes, you see, my husband saw some of your pottery yesterday. He said the quality was quite good so I went over to see. You weren't there, though. I was actually on my way home when I spotted you."
"Well, take your time, ma'am." Misao was confused. No guy really came up to Misao, yesterday. He had too be good looking, the dark haired woman was beautiful; she wouldn't go for some average man. She certainly wasn't Saikuu's wife, Azusa . . .
The woman laughed. "Please, call me Tokio."
Holy crap.
"P-pardon?"
"Tokio. Gorou Tokio. My husband is a police officer. An Inspector (or lieutenant?) in fact. Have you . . . met him?"
Crap, crap, double crap, and crap again.
"Yes, I believe I remember him," Misao said uneasily. Aoshi, sitting behind her, watched Misao strangely. What was her problem? Who was Tokio Gorou? Wait . . . "Gorou". The name was awfully familiar . . .
Yay. Flashbackness. It's getting annoying, ne?
"The Oniwabanshuu Okashira . . . Shinomori Aoshi." Megum's legs gave out and she fell to her knees.
"Where is the Battousai?" Aoshi asked.
"I . . . I . . ."
Aoshi kneeled in front of a trembling Megumi.
"Where is he? Answer me," he demanded.
"I . . . I don't know," Megumi lied.
Aoshi moved his right hand to her cheek. (or if you favor the manga, ALMOST to her cheek)
"If you don't answer, I'll kill you."
"The Battosai . . . went to Kyoto," said a voice from behind Megumi.
Aoshi removed his hand from Megumi's hand and stood up. "Who are you?" he asked.
"I am Gorou Fujita. As you can see, I'm a police officer," said Saito.
So Saito WAS married . . .
"He looked over some of the items. In fact, he mentioned how his wife might like them!" Misao lied. She wanted to kick herself. She had thought that SAITO was . . . handsome? How did that willow-head get a wife like THIS!?
Tokio smiled again. "I see . . . I love this tea cup set! How much is it?"
"Um . . . I, uh . . ." Misao was still trying to figure out the whole "The dumb cop marrying this beautiful woman" thing.
"Five yen," said Aoshi.
(A/N In no way am I familiar with Japenese currency. I guessed. If this is to much or two little for a few tea cups, then please accept my apologies.)
"Oh, I didn't see you there before," Tokio said. "You're with this young girl?"
Aoshi nodded.
Tokio then whispered something to Misao, which made her blush and start stammering all over again.
Obviously, Tokio hadn't meant for Aoshi to hear, but with his super-cool sensitive hearing, he heard every word.
"Is this your boyfriend? He's quite handsome; you're a very lucky girl."
Tokio bought the tea cups and left. Misao stopped stammering, but she was still blushing, looking back at Aoshi every few seconds. One, because of what Tokio had said. Two, because Misao knew Aoshi heard what she said.
Aoshi just hoped he wasn't blushing himself. No – If he was blushing, Misao would've been staring, not glancing. That's good.
Another half hour passed without much incident. Evedentally, this part of Kyoto was more "pottery inclined", and the pottery went relatively quickly. Either that, or Hiko had given them items that people would actually buy.
"Well, well, well. If it ain't that little itachi musume from the Aoiya."
Misao and Aoshi looked over to a man with tall blond hair, red and purple clothes, and a hell lot of swords on him.
"Hello . . . Chou the Sword Hunter," Misao greeted threw clenched teeth. "WHAT THE HECK DO YOU WANT!?!?"
Chou smirked. "Well, I couldn't help but overhear mah boss talking 'bout a certain little itachi sellin pots. I came over to see if this was true. And, it is."
Misao glared at him. Where was her kunai when she needed them? Chou scowled at Misao's glare.
"Now, you'd better not be trying anything funny. I'm with the police, or did you forget? I have authority over you!" he said.
"Oh YEAH??" Misao and Chou glared at each other for ten seconds. The sword hunter looked to Aoshi, who had been sitting back, enjoying the argument.
"And who're you? You're with the itachi from what I can see." Chou grinned. "And from the look of your eyes I can tell you're a pretty decent swordsman yourself."
"Aoshi-sama doesn't have to answer to you!" Misao yelled.
"And you don't have to answer for him," Chou snapped. "Well, my name's Chou Sawagejou," he continued. "And like I said, you've the eyes of a warrior. So, what's yer name?"
"Shinomori Aoshi."
"Hmm . . . name sounds familiar. Ah, well," Chou said.
"Are you gonna buy something or not?" Misao asked angrily.
"'Buy'? I just came here to laugh at you. Welp, now that that's over with, I better get goin." Chou then left a fuming Misao with Aoshi.
"That jerk!"
Aoshi was having different thoughts: 'That broom-head is working for Saito? Pitiful.'
Across the street, a man and a woman watched Misao fume.
"Shiro," the woman said. "Isn't that Misao?"
The man, obviously Shiro, nodded. "It looks like it. Why?"
The woman grinned. "Why don't we say hello?"
"O-Okon!"
Okon walked across the street to Misao.
"Misao-chan! How are you doing?" Okon watched in amusement as Misao cringed, and slowly looked up to her and Shiro.
"Okon-san? What – what . . . What are you doing here?" Misao asked.
"Grocery shopping," Okon replied. "What are you doing here?"
"Err . . . Hiko told me to."
"HIKO!?" Okon's eyes lit up. "Did he get the sake bottle? Did he like it? How has he been? You better not have been causing him trouble!"
Misao reviewed the words in her mind. "Um . . . Yes, yes, fine, and NO."
Shiro grinned. "So, he had you come down the mountain to sell his pottery?"
"Yeah . . . Yesterday, too," Misao grumbled.
Shiro chuckled. "So, Aoshi . . . Did Misao bring you down here? Or did you just want to get away from the sake hermit?"
"Who're you calling a 'Sake hermit', Shiro!? Wait until we get back home!" Okon said threateningly.
Shiro laughed at Okon's reaction. "Speaking of sake . . . Did . . . he give you any, Misao?"
"Huh?"
"He gave you sake, didn't he?"
"Of course not! Why would he do that?" Misao asked defensively.
"He gave you sake." It was a statement.
"Well . . . yeah. It wasn't that much! It's not like I got drunk or anything! I didn't even like it! Please, oh, please don't tell Jiya! He'll kill me!" Misao pleaded.
Shiro sighed. "Fine. You've been suffering enough, I guess. We won't tell him."
"What do you mean, 'suffering'!? She's been with Hiko! There's no suffering in that!" Okon yelled. The other three ninjas ignored her.
"Promise!" Misao said.
"Fine, fine. I promise." Shiro grinned again. "Have fun. You still have today and about three more days."
"Why you . . . !" Shiro and Okon laughed. They left after Okon bought a good number of the pottery, considering that 'Hiko-sama' made it.
"See ya."
Misao sighed. This day was messed up. She then killed her time by naming other people that could possibly show up to ruin her day. "Kuro, Omasu-san, Jiya . . ."
After Okon and Shiro left, nothing much happened. People came and left, some buying things, others just 'window shopping'.
It was about two o'clock when everything was sold. Aoshi and Misao debated whether to have lunch in town or not; they decided to just go back up the mountain. They got their surprisingly early, around five. Aoshi went and meditated, granted that Hiko would leave him alone. And Misao . . .
"AHAHAHAHAHAHA –hic-"
Misao was drunk, Hiko (with the slightest touch up pink on his cheeks) was suppressing his laughter, and Aoshi had just returned from meditation. He had changed back into his gi, saying that it was more "comfortable."
Aoshi took one look at Misao and glared at Hiko. "You gave her sake again."
Hiko waved his hand in dismissal. "It's all right. So she'll get a little drunk . . . and then'll have a hangover . . . this can't be too good to her health either . . . But that's okay!"
"No, it isn't." Aoshi walked to Misao and pried the sake bottle out of her hand.
"Buh Aoshi-sammaaaaaaaaaaa . . ." Misao slurred. Aoshi grabbed her wrist and began to lead her to the hut. Then, out of nowhere, Misao opened her hand, twisted, threw Aoshi down, and got him into a lock.
Aoshi had not been expecting this. He had thought that, one, she was too darn drunk, and two, she wouldn't DARE try that on Aoshi.
Then again, if you mixed those two reasons it made sense. Misao was too drunk for good reasoning. She had taken her sake bottle back and . . . hesitated. Almost as if she was debating what to do with an Aoshi in her lock.
Wait.
Kuso.
Misao grinned like an evil weasel.
Kami-sama . . .
She tightened her grip on the sake bottle.
Craaaap . . .
"Aoshi-sama . . ."
NO, PLEASE NO.
". . . I think that you should loosen up . . ."
Aoshi was mentally . . . chibi sobbing . . . I dunno.
" . . . with some . . ."
GET ON WITH IT.
". . . sake."
THERE. Aoshi's fate was sealed. Of course, Aoshi could've easily thrown Misao off. Yet, even if he held back, he could've 'hurt' her. Besides, Hiko was . . . almost drunk. He might jump in if Aoshi struggled. THEN, it would've been painful.
-Four minutes later-
By then, about one and a half jugs of sake were forced on Aoshi. Poor, poor, Aoshi, you might say. After the first half of a bottle, Aoshi was basically thinking: screw the sake. Misao's holding you.
Maybe he was drunk.
Anyway, AFTER the one and a half bottles of sake, Misao let Aoshi go; she wanted some more sake for herself.
So Hiko, Aoshi, and Misao were sitting on logs in front of a fire, the first and last holding sake bottles.
It was at this time Aoshi began wondering . . .
How does one know when they're drunk?
Do you seem to black out and do stupid things while your body's still moving or is it just a lack of good judgment when you're drunk?
But – More importantly . . . How did you know when you're drunk?
Hiko was right . . . Sake doesn't taste as bad once you get used to it.
How did Aoshi know if he was drunk or not?
What the hell was Hiko looking at him for!?
"What?"
"If you're worried about it, you're not drunk."
Aoshi looked at Hiko, he looked sober . . . "How would you know?"
Hiko shrugged. He held up a sake bottle. "If you want to know what it's like to be drunk, all you have to do is drink a little more . . ."
"What about Misao?" Aoshi asked, watching the giggling itachi musume.
"Heh, she's so drunk she'll convince herself that this was all a dream," Hiko said in amusement.
"So, want another drink or what?"
". . . If I start saying anything idiotic, hit me."
"You mean like right now?"
"Just give me the freaking sake."
-Five Minutes Later-
Hiko was gawking. Well, as close to "gawking" as Hiko could possibly get.
Aoshi drank another cup, (He'd refused to "chug" out of the bottle) and shook the bottle upside down to get a few more drops.
"Four and a half . . ." Misao muttered. "This is getting boring . . ."
Hiko handed another bottle to Aoshi, who didn't appear to have any signs of being drunk whatsoever. He poured another cup, drank it in one big sip, and poured another one. After the fifth and a half bottle, Aoshi got up.
"What? Bored out of your mind already?" Hiko asked.
". . . I thank too much sake . . ."
After Aoshi came back his from his "business", Misao was asleep, and Hiko looked – this was new – bored.
"Done?" he asked. Hiko picked up back the eighth bottle, he paused, and put it back down. "That's all. You drank enough of my sake for one night."
"Too bad," Aoshi remarked sarcastically.
XXXXX
I'm SORRY I took so long to update. Here are my excuses:
One, school has been HECK.
Two, writing a chapter where the ending involved Aoshi drinking sake wasn't easy. It didn't come out the way I wanted either. Hiko and Aoshi were OOC at the ending, too, I think.
Three, similar to above, IT WASN'T easy. There were about two other versions of this chapter, one in which Hiko forced the sake, which sucked completely, thus causing MAJOR Hiko OOC ness. And the other involved Aoshi pissing Chou off and Chou challenging Aoshi to a fight, where Aoshi one, but that wouldn't work out, and it also involved a Saito-ish, WAY over OOC Aoshi.
Four has to do with the chapter ending's crappiness. I realized how long it was taking to update and sort of rushed it. It probably would've taken me days to find a more proper ending. ;
So, sorry again.
"Oro?"
-Himura Kenshin
DUH.