It had been a week since the incident with Enishi.
He had apologized and things had gone back to normal.
But she was still concerned about him.
Kaoru was starting to get suspicious of his behavior. Normally Enishi came home half an hour after she got there on the days that she went to the coffee house, which were Monday thru Saturday. But nowadays, he came home about three to four hours after she did, and that worried her. However, when she asked him about it, he said that work had held him back.
She'd heard of this scenario occurring with several of her college classmates: boyfriend comes home late from work saying work held him back, when he was actually being a two-timing bastard fulfilling his manly needs.
Since she was unsure of the situation and didn't have enough information to confirm this scenario true, she asked him to call her on her cell, and let her know he was going to be late coming home so that she could plan her evening accordingly.
And he did.
What he didn't know was that being alone gave her time to dwell on the past-the past she particularly wasn't interested in dwelling on. Of course, she would always push it to the back of her mind when it came up by occupying herself with something else. It was said that dwelling on past events isn't healthy, and she would much rather keep herself healthy.
~*~
"Oi Kaoru!"
A tall man in his mid-twenties walked into the cheerful coffee house, his spiky brown hair going every which way and his brown eyes laughing as he walked over to help her with the karaoke equipment.
"Arigatou, Sano," Kaoru replied, wiping the sweat off of her brow. Lugging heavy equipment was tough!
Not that she minded, of course. She looked around at her treasure-her coffee house. This was her haven, where music, coffee, and good food mixed with cheerful smiles and glowing eyes of contented customers. At the moment, DJ Sammy's Heaven played over the speakers, as the clang of chopsticks and china filled the air. While you could get coffee here at anytime from seven in the morning to nine in the evening on most days, the place really came alive during the afternoon and evening.
Music Planet was small, set in a two floor circular building near the sea at the Tokyo Decks Beach in the Odaiba district of Tokyo, giving the coffee house/music store a nice waterfront view and lots of customers. Kaoru had made sure to pick a place with lots of windows and she found that this building suited her perfectly. One would enter from the main entrance downstairs, and take a spiral staircase near the back of the music shop up to the restaurant. The restaurant had a good sized stage which was surrounded by tables with a free space in between for a dance floor.
Kaoru came in everyday that the place was open except Sunday because Music Planet was closed. She sought comfort here, and enjoyed spending her time with her customers. She met so many of her friends on a regular basis this way as well because they would just drop by to say hello or help out (even though there was a fully working staff). Her dream was that one day, she would be able to form her own band and perform on this very stage, and go to the top from there. It was a big dream, and perhaps something to be dreamt by high school students, but so what? She was only two years out of college, but no one said she couldn't continue dreaming.
"Oi, Kaoru! What do you want me to do with this?" Sano called to her.
Coming back to her senses, she directed him to set the piece of equipment on the right side of the stage. Setting it down, he began to fiddle with wires and plugs and make sense of the technology in front of him to make sure it would work correctly late.
That was how Sagara Sanosuke was. He openly admitted to be a 'techie', considering he had a degree in computer science. It was quite funny actually; he had a degree but had no job and still managed to pay the rent for his small studio apartment. His girlfriend, Megumi, was always yelling at him to get a job instead of drinking and gambling his nights away.
Of course, his retort was, "I have a job. My job is doing odd jobs. Why else do you think I roam between your clinic and jou-chan's coffee shop?"
And it was quite true-he did several odd jobs that dealt with fixing things. Most of the time, he was fixing his neighbors' computers, and most of his neighbors were college students.
"Kaoru, the equipment's done and ready to go. I'm gonna head off and go see Megitsune; I promised her I'd take her out to dinner tonight, and we're planning to come here since it's a karaoke night. But first, I have to get her away from that clinic," he said.
"Good luck with that one," she replied with a slight chuckle.
"Ja ne, jou-chan!" he yelled, starting down the stairs.
"Ja ne, Sano, and arigatou gozaimasu!" she called in reply.
"No problem!" he yelled back and disappeared from view.
~*~
Things went well that evening at the coffee shop.
Several people decided to participate in the madness known as karaoke, and Sano and his girlfriend, Sensei Takani Megumi, actually managed to make it back. Kaoru said hello to them and chatted with them for about a half hour, then got ready to leave. After instructing the general manager to lock up when everyone had left, she headed home, hoping that Enishi would be home that night.
After all, he hadn't called her and let her know that he was going to be late.
Stepping into the house, she could smell something delicious cooking in the kitchen.
"Tadaima!" she replied.
"Okaeri nasai, Kaoru!" Enishi's voice called from the kitchen.
"What are you making? Whatever it is smells really good, and I'm starving!" she said, walking into the room.
"Nothing much. Just some ramen and chicken teriyaki."
"Mmm. Sounds and smells like heaven on earth," she said, her mouth watering at the mere mention of chicken teriyaki.
"When will it be ready?" she asked.
"It'll still be another fifteen. Why don't you take a quick shower? By the time you're done, dinner should be ready," he suggested, turning to her with a sweet smile.
"Okay. I'll be back soon," she said, going upstairs to change.
Twenty minutes later, Kaoru headed downstairs to the kitchen and dining area to see the table set and Enishi bringing food to the table. Walking over to him quickly, she took the plate of chicken from him and set it on the table. Taking their seats across from each other, the couple began serving food to themselves.
"Itadakimasu!"
Kaoru dug in to her food, savoring the taste of the chicken and the rice. After finishing a bowl of the wonderful meal, she reached to serve herself a second when Enishi stopped her. She looked at him confused; she wanted to eat, since she had very little that day at the coffee house.
"You're still hungry?" he asked disbelievingly.
"Yea. I didn't eat much at the coffee shop today," she explained.
"But you just had a huge bowl of chicken and rice. You should be full," he said, his eyes boring into her own.
"What are you implying?" she asked, her tone taking on an icy edge, and her eyes swirling with anger and annoyance.
"Well.um.you're not exactly the slimmest person in the world." he muttered quietly.
"Are you calling me FAT?!" she cried, her fists clenching and her eyes flashing with unreleased fury.
"No! I'm just saying that it wouldn't hurt to lose a little weight," he said, trying to save himself.
"Enishi, I already exercise every morning with my students. Are you telling me that you think I'm not exercising enough? Besides that, I don't normally eat anything unhealthy, and you know that! Sure I like chocolate, and I'm addicted to it, but you know that I have self-control on the matter. So don't you dare tell me I should lose some weight!" she yelled at him, jumping up from her seat with such force that the seat scraped back on the tile of the floor.
Kaoru wasn't going to let anyone tell her how to eat or how much she should exercise. Storming off to her bedroom, she slammed the door and locked it after throwing a blanket and pillow into the hallway. 'He should get the hint when he sees that,' she thought to herself.
'I'm not fat or even chunky. Megumi has been a firm witness to that. Heck, she made sure I wasn't skin and bones after.whoa, hold on! Going WAY off topic! But really, she made sure I was slim but not a stick. And Kenshin was there to help too.Gah! Stop going off topic, Kaoru!' she screamed at herself as she slid into bed.
'I'm glad I can fight off his words. But I don't know if I can hold out much against his actions.' she thought to herself. 'Who am I kidding? I've been trying to hold off his actions forever. He's just too strong,' she turned over.
'He seems less aggressive, though. He's called me and let me know when he was going to be late, and he came before me today and made dinner,' she turned over again, trying to find a comfortable position.
'Even though the meal led to our little spat, he still came home early to be with me. I'm thankful for that. Who knows? Maybe rehab really did do the trick,' her eyes were getting heavy.
'Hmm.I'm going to go to the library to do some research tomorrow. I wanna find out some more about his aggressive behavior. There should be some information there.' she thought to herself, finally drifting off to the abyss of the subconscious.
~Dream Sequence~
"Kaoru! We need to go!"
Flashes of broken glass and drops of blood flitted through her mind.
"Kuso! Who snitched?"
A group of people was running into a dark alley.
"Chikuso, CHIKUSO! I knew this was stupid!"
Shadowed faces and glowing eyes added to her hazy visions.
"I want this to end!"
A voice was screaming in fury.
"Make it stop!"
The sound of fighting rose over the loud chaos.
"Please make it stop!"
And then. she saw him.
In that single beam of light.
In all the chaos.
She saw her savior.
~End Dream Sequence~
Kaoru sat up abruptly, her breathing ragged, and her eyes shedding tears. She had dreamed of memories past, memories she wanted to get rid of. The end of it all, however, was what got her so emotional.
Her best friend had pulled her from her insane world of gang violence and anorexia. He'd brought her back to life.
He was her savior, her companion; they knew each other like the back of their hand. She was eternally grateful to him.
She couldn't wait to see him.
Arigatou gozaimasu.
.Kenshin.
~*~
A/N: Well, there's the second chapter. Kaoru's past should be pretty obvious now. I'm not entirely sure how I got her mixed up in something sad again.
Eh, who cares? As long as it's dark, wholesome, angsty goodness, life is good!
We'll get a glimpse of Kenshin's past soon enough!
Arigatou gozaimasu for the reviews, minna-san! I'm glad this story hit it off so well.
I'm not planning to focus on a lot of other couples, but I'll try to fit them in somewhere.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! R&R!
Ja ne!
--Ice Angel Kaoru [Signing out-Sunday, February 08, 2004 10:46 PM PST]