::Silk Asylum: Milky Chocolate::

Bright lights and city flights
Cars roam and smoke combs
Throughout the dark in the parks
Snow falls near the malls
Dark nights seem bright
In the heart not too far apart
A pretty small but tall
Sweet chocolate for some…
At the Silk Asylum…

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"Good evening, Silk Asylum, this is Misao, how can I help you?"

A long silky black braid whipped around to the front of a blithe college girl as she pirouetted around behind the velvety crimson counter. Her eyes of ocean blue sparkled in the dark atmosphere of the Silk Asylum, Kyoto's most famed chocolate factory around. Being opened for over four generations, there was much to live up to. From the grand service, to the world-renounced tea, to the seductive shrine like paradox of architecture built for everyone's deepest and darkest guilty pleasure… chocolate. In every shape, color, flavor, and size imaginable, the Asylum had it in stock, every day!

And the man behind it all was already in his late sixties…

"Ahhhhh! JIYA, you friggin' PERV!!!!"

Yet possessed the heart of a twenty-year old… and it seems as though his hormones are that way too.

None the less, he had still raised a beautiful and elated group of women with the help of his fellow partners to be respected and well-liked citizens in the society. It's a shame that he never got a chance to marry but he felt that in his life, his beloved was only the warm and sweet smell of this sanctuary; his sanctuary.

Slowly walking over the front counter, he ran his hands over the scarlet velvet and silk coverings and couldn't help but get a bit misty-eyed. 'So long… I have had you for so long…'

"Jiya, are you alright?" A song of a nightingale fluttered in the air as he turned his head towards the melodious voice.

Soulful pools of deep blue and hints of green stared back at him with nothing but complete worry and confusion. Her eyes told legends. Misao always did wear her feelings on her sleeves… as she does.

A large bokken smashed down on his head, as he was about to answer Misao. And as he fell to the ground, revealed behind him was the utterly gorgeous and very much pissed at the moment, Kaoru Kamiya. She had been living here at the Asylum for almost a year and a half now but that didn't make her any less violent as the second she stepped foot into the small haven.

Wearing a very revealing dark mandarin red kimono with a slit that ran all the way up her silky thighs almost to the string of a thong she was donning underneath this so-called uniform, she nearly raged as she spoke with deadly precision…

"Jiya? What part of this is 'formal uniform'?"

Picking himself up tentatively off the well-polished hard wood floor, he raised a cautious hand and spoke softly at the fuming twenty-five-year old, "Kaoru, dear-"

"DON'T you 'Kaoru, dear' me, you old PERV!"

"B-but, my dear, it is formal-"

"Of course it is… FOR A PROSTITUTE!"

As Kaoru continued her bashing, Misao merely shrugged and walked towards the front door and was about to turn the 'Open' sign around when the rain caught her eyes. 'So beautiful.' She thought to herself as she gazed out into the distance. She watched in utter amazement as the lighting rolled around in the clouds like electric currents in a large gray cotton ball. Unlike Kaoru, Misao is absolutely in love with thunderstorms.

"Misao? What are you staring at?"

"Huh? Oh nothing… just admiring the storm…"

Kaoru gave a small shudder and then merely nodded as she made her way up the cherry oak stairway to her bedroom.

She had been her for a little over a year and a half and yet it seems as though it was only yesterday that she had moved in… she was still not use to her room that over looked the city lights and hustle and bustle of the town. Sure it's not Tokyo, her home town, but it still has so much about it that is rich in history and culture.

As she fell back onto her bed, she grabbed her fluffy pillow and covered her face in exhaustion. It had been such a long day. What with school and then going to the dojo for daily training in kempo and then coming here and working for her rent, it can be so tiring on her young body…

She had to giggle at her own humor. Nothing had been the same since she left Tokyo… ever since her dad passed away…

That was one of the main reasons why she didn't partially like storms much… it was a stormy night, like this, that he had went out to save her from the river. She had fell in when she was playing near the bend and was suppose to come inside the second the rain started to fall but she wanted so badly to play with the beautiful koi fishes that that were swimming so haphazardly. It was then that she was about to depart from her koi adventure when she slipped on a very mossy rock and fell in. Kamiya-sensei had saw the whole thing play out when he was about to go and collect his daughter. Immediately jumping in after her small form because he knew she couldn't swim, he fought the sharp rocks and bitter cold waters as her young teenage body came into view. He swam even harder against the currents as he crept closer to her struggling form and finally reached her. Pulling her to shore proved to be more difficult but was managed after a few struggling minutes.

Yet seconds after they reached shore, her father was holding onto a thick branch to catch his breath but was soon again swept down into the water as a large lightening struck that exact tree… his body was founded downstream later that week-

A rapping on her window startled Kaoru as she swung her head towards the window. It was all dark in the room that she was in so the silhouette was easily made out, especially when the lightening flashed brightly in the background. She was about to scream at the sight when she saw the dark form's head turn towards her door. In respond, she too turned to see the door swinging open to reveal a very worried Misao.

"Kaoru! I called you, like, ten times! Why didn't you say something? I thought the worst… I mean I didn't mean to barge into your room-"

Misao's voice seem to fade into the distant as she turned her head slowly back to her window, but saw no one there. "That's to be expected…" She softly muttered to herself.

"Nani? Did you say something, Ru-san?" Misao asked eyeing her than the window.

"Huh? Wha-ano… it's nothing, Misao-chan?" Shaking her head softly and then covered up quickly, "Hey! Who said that you can call me 'Ru-chan'? We're not 12 anymore!"

Misao giggled and then responded with a small smirk, "You sure act like still."

"Why I ougta'-" Kauro grabbed her fluffy pillow and started to chase Misao down the corridor. Even though she wasn't really stating it, she still wasn't completely settled about what she had saw in her window. Who was that man… or was it even a man?

What man has demon like golden eyes?

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AN: Alright, alright… I know… I have started yet another story… BUT I promise to finish this one!!! … It's the first of 3 parts. The Silk Asylum series is going to be an on going Rurouni Kenshin Romance series, featuring all of the couples but at different times, that's all. The first story is going to be Kaoru's story… but that's all I'm going to tell you…

If any of you have any questions, concerns, or comments on this story just let me know, kay?! I'm open to all!

Till next time… Ja!