Well this chapter came out much faster than what I thought it was going to be! I hope that everyone enjoys it as much as the last one! Once again I have quite a bit of information added in here! Remember folks this is an AU so most of the timeline during the Kyoto Arc is going to be mixed around to my liking. So if the past is confusing you then don't worry, it will be explain.
But like I promised some Battousai/Kaoru action in this chapter! Just enough to wet your whistle for the future chapters!
Ravyn
Kenshin Gumi does not belong to me. But I here he makes great birthday presents.
Amber.
Frozen fire imprisoned in a gaze that was searing a claim on her soul. It burned brighter than any flame Kaoru had ever seen before.
But it was so familiar.
Kaoru attempted to jerk her eyes away but the stranger would not let her. Kaoru liked her dry lips and wondered if it was possible to be trapped in time and space by the mere gaze of someone you had never seen before.
"Don't go, please don't go."
"Promise me you will come back. Promise me!"
"I...am...sorry. Tell Ken...shin..."
Kaoru gave a strangled half squeak, half choke as she felt his reaction to whatever it was the whispered through her mind.
Pure uncensored amusement.
Kaoru shifted backwards and crept closer to the window.
"Don't." The word was simply purred at her, and Kaoru found her muscles tensing to stop. Shifting from one foot to the other she glared at him.
The best way to hide fear was to simple ignore it or to cover it with anger.
"Don't order me around." Her tone was tightly controlled.
He moved so fast she could not see him, and in between one heart beat and the next she was pressed up against the wall with his eyes not a hands breath from her face.
"My Lady, it is not wise to taunt the forces you know so little about." His voice was low and a soft croon against her face. Kaoru forced herself to suppress her reaction to him being so close.
Kaoru felt the anger that had been banking earlier begin to rise. Anger and something entirely different, something was giving her muscles a sweet weakness. She knew this man was dangerous, his Ki was a level that should have been impossible, and in no way should she attempt to play on his field.
Licking her lips in a nervous habit she blinked at the hungry way he took in the motion.
"Let me go." Kaoru's tone was nothing short of an order but she was running out of time. Her internal clock was ticking a strong warning that something was coming, something that was as dangerous as the man who stood in front of her.
"No." His tone was amused.
Kaoru felt her eyebrow itch upwards. "Yes." Kaoru almost groaned at the golden flame that leapt in his eyes at her words wanted to groan because this golden eyed man seemed to take away any inhibitions of her mouth.
The man smiled then and Kaoru felt her temper flare. She did not know what was more annoying, the fact that he was amused by the situation, or the fact that he looked damn good with that cocky on his face.
He raised her hand to his mouth and lavished each knuckle with lips, teeth, and tongue. Kaoru felt her knees go boneless and her eyes widened. If he was attempting to make her go completely boneless then it was working.
He let go, then, and moved backwards giving her a flourishing bow. "As my Lady wishes."
Kaoru blinked once and spun on her heel. Heading towards the window she moved as quickly as her shaky knees would allow.
"Kaoru."
Halfway out the window she turned at looked. He held his sword in his hand and gave her another bone melting grin. "Not all shadows are darkness, some are simply gray."
Kaoru blinked at him before dropping back down and moving down the stairs as quickly as possible. She had no idea how far Misao could be ahead of her, but with the little girl with her it should have slowed her partner down long enough to leave a trail.
But one thing stood clear in her mind.
How had he known her name?
~*~
"Dear Kami," Misao hissed to herself as she ducked into another alleyway. "How many are there?"
The little girl looked up at her and tugged on Misao's sleeve. "Wolves."
Misao bit her lip hard so not to curse in front of the child. Being reminded that her speech patterns where not exactly Lady like by a child was embarrassing enough on a good day.
Today was a really bad day.
When the lone call of a Werewolf on the hunt echoed through the dark alleys registered, Misao groaned again.
It was a very bad day. And it was going to get worse.
"Little one, just how fast are you?"
Misao stiffened when she felt the presence of several high powered Ki's moving towards them. Misao closed her eyes and pulled out the emergency Kunai and pushed the child behind her.
Five figures formed out of the rain and Misao blinked rapidly. Among them was the most gorgeous man Misao had ever seen. She positioned herself in front of Rei and shifted her stance.
"Misao?"
The young man with dark chocolate eyes and spiky hair demanded, his tone was not only surprised it was close to shell shocked. But it was the man with the gorgeous blue eyes that had her attention.
Those frozen eyes lit like twin flames and Misao knew that if she did not find something to distract herself with then she was going be burnt from the insides out.
A Werewolf attempting to take her head off seemed better than nothing else at the time.
Misao shifted to the side, taking Rei with her, the last Kunai seeming to leap from her fingertips, Rei ending flat against the wall.
Werewolves where dangerous because of there salvia, not because it turned you into one of them, but because it was a slow rotting poison that had to be treated quickly.
Getting bit was not something Misao enjoyed, especially when it was going to take a series of shots that where as painful as having fire running through your veins to stop the freezing of your blood; making the whole experience something she hated.
Another wolf jumped at her and Misao winced, this is going to hurt, and about that time a Kodachi embedded it into a wall. Apparently one of the Vampires, their Ki practically screaming they where of the night, had tossed it like a knife with inhuman strength behind it. Making on Werewolf shishkabob.
Misao heard the sound of a familiar engine approaching and she grasped Rei and tossed her into her arms and took off down the other end of the Alley. Hopefully the Wolves would keep those Vampires busy long enough to give her time to escape, because otherwise she would never outrun them.
The vehicle spun to a stop next to her and Kaoru offered her a tense grin. "Need a lift?"
Misao opened the door and threw herself and Rei into it. In one quick move Misao was halfway into the back buckling the child in, while Kaoru gunned it. Misao then twisted and buckled herself in.
Kaoru is driving.
"Rei, I don't know if you know any really good prayers, but start praying now." Misao hissed at the child, who hid her giggles behind her hand.
"Misao, we are not being followed, so there is not need for you to be worried about my driving."
Misao looked at the speed Kaoru was currently driving, well over a hundred, and paled. "Where are we going?"
"We better not head back to report right away incase its being watched. I think we should head to the Greenhouse until things settle some time tomorrow Besides we need to go over some files and try to locate a place for our charge here."
Kaoru jerked the wheel violently and moved into the incoming traffic lane and then jerked back into the ongoing traffic, never pausing just so she could avoid a vehicle moving at the speed limit.
Misao looked at Kaoru, blinking at her friend. Kaoru's lips where pulled into a straight line and her cheeks where flushed with anger.
"Kaoru?"
"Later."
Misao turned around front and blanched at the moving landscape as Kaoru moved them to the edges of Tokyo. Sometimes this job simply did not come with a high enough life insurance policy.
~*~
Kenshin slide silently through the shadows and allowed himself a brief smile as he saw the rest of his group arguing over something. Around them was a pile of dead Werewolves.
" I see you guys ran into some trouble." Kenshin commented dryly as he approached them. They all turned at his voice and shook their heads.
"Some nasty Werewolves and one Weasel girl." Yahiko said with a grin. Tsubame smacked him slightly on the shoulder.
"And there was a little girl." Megumi said softly. She was quickly checking to see if anyone had been injured and relieved to find no one had even been scratched. "Do you suppose it's the little girl everyone is after? We just followed your Ki signal to get here."
Kenshin nodded. He turned his eyes to the surroundings. There were traces of Ki here that he had not felt in close to twenty years.
"Aoshi, do you recognize any of those Ki traces." Kenshin questioned. Aoshi and he where by far the best at reading residue and Ki phases, but Yahiko was slowly beginning to find himself on par with the two he admired the most.
"Yes." His tone was curt and dark. "Why is broom head alive, much less running with a pack of now dead werewolves?"
Yahiko blinked repeatedly, first the fact that Aoshi had called someone broom head -which was out of character enough- but that fact that it brought back some very old memories was disturbing.
"Are you two talking about that Cho fellow that worked for Shishio during the Meiji?" Yahiko's brow knitted together. He could quite distinctly remember that man being in several different pieces.
Which meant that he had been reborn and been converted. "If Enishi is tracking down all the members that have been killed, which Cho's appearance makes me believe, then who else is.... Undead."
Megumi gave a faint laugh at that. "Yahiko-Kun, what a observation. Here I thought all you could concentrate on where Tsubame's large brown eyes." Her smile was highly amused.
Tsubame blushed as red as Kenshin's hair. Even after as many years of being around Megumi and married to Yahiko as she had, she still found herself blushing easily.
"Megumi!" Tsubame cried burying her head in her hands.
Sano pulled the fishbone out of his mouth and looked thoughtful. "Anji is off the list, but Kamatari, Soujiro, and a few others are not. I can get some of my old connections to start tracking some names down if you want Kenshin."
Kenshin nodded but smiled at his friend. "Soujiro is off the list. I know where he is."
Sano looked at his friend closely before sitting back with a smirk. There was only one thing that caused his friends eyes to burn that brightly. "You met Jou-Chan tonight didn't you?"
Kenshin shot his friend a rather irritated look. "Yes."
Yahiko looked rather irritated, as did Megumi, at not being told. "You saw the Busu and you did not tell us?"
Megumi had little fox ears popping into place. "I take it you wanted some private time, or do those blood stains on your sleeves say that you where cutting down on the Vampire population."
Kenshin smiled a rather feral grin, his lips twisting into a dark look that had his friends shivering. "A little of both. But Yahiko, who did you think was driving that car?"
The all blinked repeatedly. Only Yahiko and Aoshi seemed to understand what was going through Kenshin's mind as they nodded once at him.
"So Kenshin did you have fun with the Raccoon?" Megumi questioned sweetly, her foxy nature coming to for.
Kenshin opted for the silent treatment.
You don't need to know how good she still taste's Megumi. Even after all this time and all I have done, all you barring Yahiko and Aoshi still see me as a Rurouni that would not harm a fly.
Enishi will die. Kaoru will be mine. Yahiko and Aoshi are perhaps the only two who see this, and they do not interfere.
You will do best to remember me as what I am, Fox Lady, not what I appear to be.
Kenshin shook his bangs forward and headed back into the shadows. "I will meet all of you in front of that Agency you were supposed to be checking out for me tomorrow. We have an appointment for 8:00 tomorrow morning."
Aoshi followed Kenshin into the shadows and Yahiko turned to Sano. "Do you get the feeling that they are planning something and we really are not invited."
Sano shrugged. "No need to worry about it. The rain has stopped so it's best that we head back home now. We have to get up rather early tomorrow." He tuned to Megumi and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "I must say Fox, you look rather edible wet."
Tsubame turned red again and Yahiko slung his arms around her shoulders in a way that was almost a perfect imitation of his long time friend. " Tea Tsubame?"
Aoshi moved in silent companionship with Kenshin, both thinking of the women they had for a brief moment seen. The shadows moved easily across both faces and forms blending in their choices of clothing into the dark.
"There involved with Saitou and Soujiro's organization somehow." Kenshin whispered almost to himself.
"Yes." Aoshi agreed. "They will be in danger for it."
Kenshin nodded hoping against hope that Aoshi would keep the Zen out of this particular conversation. He would rather concentrate of the lingering taste of Kaoru's skin than anything else.
But Aoshi was quite and it did not have to be said that both would be there tomorrow.
~*~
Kaoru parked the car in front of the place that had been converted into a make shift office for the woman some years past. Misao had the idea, and so when the large piece of property with a rundown house and old greenhouse came up for sale, they had bought it.
It had taken some work but have managed to by it privately and through a mutely friend who had been able to keep it from coming up that both women owned it. Once they retired from the Agency both had planned on building a house here.
Neither really counted on large amounts of time to spend husband shopping, and neither really spent any amount of time with the opposite sex anyway.
Misao looked at her watch and groaned. It was well past three, which meant they would have to report back in soon, close to five hours left to find the information they needed. That meant that if they where going to find a place to put this little girl, or a place to hide themselves with her, they where going to be up all night.
Kaoru picked up the sleeping child easily and moved around back where the Greenhouse was. There was a cot in there that they could put her on.
The entire layer of the Greenhouse was covered with boxes, filing cases, and folders. This place was rather remote and fairly hidden, and most of the information was written in Misao and Kaoru's rather cryptic codes.
Even if it was found, anyone who did not know Kaoru or Misao would have a hard time figuring it out, if they could.
Kaoru place Rei on the cot and covered her with a blanket as Misao started dragging out files and swearing to herself, and pulling out more.
Kaoru had the mentality to fix some coffee (which in her terms was her muttering about the amount, and then turning it on) and then heading to the files of hidden vampires and what they had on Shishio and Enishi. And to see if there where any footnotes of a vampire with Golden eyes.
Most of what Kaoru and Misao had collected over the years were lists of Vampires who had been killed, there family's left behind, which factions they had served and so on.
They had information on close to 2/3 of the currant population of the Vampires that had souls. They had not necessarily helped that many, but they also kept the information they had gathered about any faction.
They also had years of notes, taped conversations, files, police reports, FBI clippings, news clippings, agency reports and emails on anything having to do with the Underworld. They had there own cataloging system and always kept their eyes and ears open.
Everything that was in this room in the form of loose papers also had a computer back up on one or many computer. But handwritten information sometimes gave more clues than computer documented. The inclination of the word, the emphasis they had placed on spelling, something that was lost in translation where all things that where taken into consideration. Which was why there was so much.
It had all been all Misao's idea and in Kaoru's personal opinion the girl should have been born as either a ninja or a spy.
"Kaoru, I don't think any of our safe houses are going to work for this child." Misao hissed as she reached for the coffee several hours later. Looking at her watch she sighed. "Where going to have to take her with us soon, we are running out of time here."
Kaoru nodded and kept running her hands through her now loose hair; she had accidentally snapped her hair elastic hours earlier and did not have a replacement.
Misao sipped the coffee and started to violently choke. "Kaoru! This is all syrup and no coffee! I think my tongue is dissolving." Misao grabbed a napkin and tried to rub the aftertaste off her tongue.
Kaoru offered a shrug.
"Last time you make coffee ever Kaoru. I mean it this time." Misao grumbled, her tone taking on a whining note.
Kaoru looked up from tired blue eyes. "You awake now aren't you?"
Misao groaned. "It was like having my heart jumpstarted with a adrenaline shot. I do not need to be awake that badly!"
Kaoru sighed and rubbed her eyes. For once she was glad that neither she nor Misao wore makeup often, and the fact that rain would have washed it all away had nothing to do with it. "We are just going to have to keep her with us and deal with whatever crawls out of the wood work."
Misao groaned. "I can think of lot of stuff crawling out of it."
Kaoru leveled her with a look. "You have no idea." Amber eyes filled with a series of emotions, starting with desire, longing, want, and need those being only a scratch on the surface; flashed through her mind.
Misao fixed her friend with a look. She had wrung it out of Kaoru that she had had an encounter with a Vampire but besides that could get nothing out of her friend.
Kaoru looked at her watch and bit back another curse. "Its time to move again, Misao-Chan. We have roughly an hour to get back to headquarters and we are going to need to stop and get coffee. We are simply going to have to keep Rei with us."
Misao grabbed a couple of files they had copies of and had been needing at the office, and scowled at her friend. "You may be needing coffee but I will never need it again in my life. I will be lucky if I blink ever blink again."
Kaoru snickered tiredly and picked Rei back up. The little girl had slept through most of the ride there and then all of there time searching through the files. Rei woke up sleepily and grasped a handful of Kaoru's hair and snuggled into her neck.
They trudged back to the car, sighing tiredly as they dodged holes and other foreign objects in an attempt to make it to the car without killing themselves. Rei, in Kaoru's opinion, had gained ten pounds from the Greenhouse to the car.
Kaoru smiled slightly and gently removed her hair from the child's grip and buckled her in. "I wish we had a car seat for you angel. This isn't very safe, but we don't have time for much else. I will make sure we get you one however."
Rei smiled at her and tucked her hands around the belt, her eyes wide with delight. "Kao!" Kaoru laughed at that variation of her name and brushed her finger down the little girl's nose.
Misao practically flipped over the car she in such a hurry to drive. Kaoru was to tired to argue and leaned her head back tiredly. "Please stop somewhere so we can at least grab a granola bar."
Misao nodded and drove back towards the city with the happy chatter and a tired Kaoru, her mind all the time trying to work around why the tall man with the Kodachi and gorgeous eyes where so familiar.
And why in hell did he have Kodachi?
~*~
Kenshin stood waiting outside the office building which he had found out, thanks to Megumi's late night phone call, one of the best agencies out there for the Underworld.
Kenshin really had to hand it to them, they reminded Kenshin of a sick combination of the Shinsengumi and the Oniwabanshu groups. Megumi had told him that anyone, who found himself or herself without a mate, or protection, was contacted by one of the Search and Rescue agents and where hidden until they could protect themselves again.
Apparently Soujiro's last lifetime had left some marks on the boy. His being abandoned by his family after his parents died and then taken in by Shishio must have had a hand in the fact that the boy was running the most well known agency for making sure that Vampires who where hunted could find safety.
Kaoru and Misao where just as reasonably understood for there helping such a cause, but what had Kenshin was HOW they had gotten involved in such a thing. Both had strong Ki's and Kenshin was very much aware of there skills in fighting (he had been the one to add to the already large pile of dead bodies) but knowing Soujiro there was another reason why they where dragged into this.
Kenshin raised his eyes from his bangs when he noticed the group was there. His eye color was lavender with only a hint of molten gold to them, there was no need to scare the people here too badly.
Aoshi walked up exactly at 8:00 so they all followed Kenshin and Megumi as they walked in. Tsubame had a tight grip on Yahiko's arm her face flushed. The girl could deal with the gang teasing her, but individuals she did not know, staring at her; it was just too much.
"Can I help you?" A gentle female voice questioned them. Behind them was a girl who looked barely out of high school with a bright smile and large eyes.
Megumi sighed. "We are looking for Soujiro Seta." She smiled slightly. "We have an appointment."
The girl positively beamed at them. And her answer was to chirp a "follow me please". Megumi had a hard time not smacking the girl. Apparently working here had the requirement to be all Misao like in the perkiness factor.
Kenshin walked into Soujiro's office first and the others followed, there weren't enough chairs, and barely enough room but Tsubame, Megumi, Sano and Yahiko got the chairs while Kenshin and Aoshi stood.
Soujiro walked in with a smile and blinked at the number of people in his office. All of them were Vampires with extraordinary amounts of Ki, and his smile almost faltered.
There was something about the people in this room that should have set him on edge, and there was something about the red haired one that set him really on edge, something about the amber glint just hiding in his eyes.
"How may I help you?" Soujiro questioned in his cheerful voice. His eyes and voice told one story, he was willing to help. His brain on the other hand was screaming at him because so far he had heard nothing from Kaoru and Misao.
"We would like to talk to you about some activities your organization has been up to lately." Megumi said silkily.
Soujiro just kept smiling. "If you could be more specific there is the chance that I could answer you questions."
Megumi leaned forward, her expression amused. "It has to do with a child."
Soujiro kept his smile, but barely. The only person so far who had made him loose his smile was Misao, well Kaoru had once, and now this Lady who had Fox ears was in here was making him almost blanch.
It was then that Soujiro felt an unfamiliar Ki tempered with two Ki's he knew far to well. He watched as the one with the amber/violet gaze sat up with his eyes flashing to solid amber.
Just then the door burst open and he was met with the site he had been praying for all night. He suddenly realized that not all prayers where good ones.
Kaoru looked around the room and let out a growl. Her long dark hair was still unbound and she was still running on no sleep. She had to put up with Misao complaining about the loss of her Kunai's the entire way back.
The little girl had giggled and only encouraged Misao's behavior. She wanted a bath and she needed to brush her teeth.
"Soujiro, sorry to interrupt..."Her eyes met dark amber for the second time into twenty-four hours. "YOU!"
Kenshin leaned against the wall and let a feral grin cross his lips. "Hello my pretty Kaoru."
You're mine.