I have never written anything other than school paper assignment crap in my entire life. Therefore I do not claim to have any writing talents or abilities whatsoever. (I can't write worth shit.) You have been forewarned.
Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin. I make no money off of this story.
One
She had always hated the rain.
Childishly, she believed that everything bad in her life happened because of the rain.
It had been raining the night her Jiya passed away.
It had been raining the day he had announced he was leaving.
Though she couldn't remember it, she swore it had been raining that long ago night her parents had died.
And it had rained every day since she arrived in that god-forsaken city of Tokyo.
She sneezed, and huddled into her rain drenched jacket for what little extra warmth it could offer.
'A change of scenery will do you good.'They had said.
Tokyo She snorted. What in the hell had possessed her to actually come here?
This city had nothing for her.
She had no job. No money. No place to stay except a shabby run down motel, and she couldn't even afford to stay there anymore. Once the managers had realised that, they had cut their losses and thrown her out on the street.
'Cheer up! You can't spend forever moping around like this.' Hah. Spending weeks walking the streets of Tokyo in the pouring rain, searching – no, begging -- for a job had done wonders for her disposition.
Of course, she wasn't stupid. She knew that the restaurant was being foreclosed. She knew that it had been going under ever since Jiya had left them with the damn place. And she knew that there was absolutely no place else for her to go. She had lived in that restaurant her entire life. It was the only home she knew. Jiya had been the only family she had. And while the rest of the staff had been like family, they weren't. They all had their own homes, their own families to go to. Though they tried to make room for her, there simply wasn't any room to be found. Besides, she had always hated sleeping on couches.
It had seemed like a good idea, at the time. She had naively believed that a change of scenery would magically make her forget her troubles.
It would be a new start in a new city, full of new people. A new life. And while she didn't want to forget her old life - not in a million years - she had hoped that maybe, just maybe she could find just a little bit of the happiness that she had lost.
Happiness. That was a joke. She wasn't sure if she even remembered what real happiness was. The only happiness she knew was that cheerful façade she put up to keep people out, to keep them from realising how un-happy she was. And even that had been crumbling down as of late. They had noticed it, she was sure. Otherwise they would never have let her leave. They too had gotten caught up in the fantasy that a change of scenery would cheer her up and bring back the old Misao, the really truly happy one that only lived in dreams and memories.
She leaned against the wall of a shop, the overhang of the roof providing a little shelter from the incessant rain.
What was it like to be really, truly happy?
It was like the sun.
"You're my sunshine." he had told her once. Or had he said it every day? She couldn't - no, didn't want to remember.
Something wet slid down her cheek. Whether it was a tear or the rain, she could never tell.
She bowed her head against the cold wind, and that's when she saw it. The rain drenched paper plastered to the concrete. She bent down and carefully scooped it up. Most of the bold black type had been washed away. But she could still read the heading.
ROOM FOR RENT
REASONABLY PRICED
The phone number had been completely washed out, but she could make out enough of the address to figure out what street it was on. She had wandered this part of town long enough to know that the street was only a couple miles away. Clutching the battered paper, the sole ray of light in her dark dreary world, she made her way towards the road.
----------------------------------------------------
Misao carefully surveyed the old, poor looking buildings she passed, trying to figure out which one offered the room for rent. Most of them were small shops, and none of them looked like they had any rooms to rent.
The road was longer than she had thought it would be. Just when she was about to give up and assume she had read the smeared ink wrong, she noticed a large building a little ways up the road.
She raced towards it, hoping it was the right one. When she reached it, she noted that there was an identical rain drenched paper tacked up to the gate. She pulled her own paper out of her bag, hugged it, and forced herself to calmly walk up to the front door. She took a deep breath, and tapped on it.
When no one answered her light, polite taps on the door, she tried pounding on it.
A startled looking young woman threw open the door. "Can I help you, miss?"
Misao put on her brightest smile. "Yes. I saw this flyer, and came to find out about the room." she said, thrusting the beaten paper into the woman's hand.
"The room?" the woman asked confusedly, gazing down at the wet paper in her hand.
"Yes. It…it hasn't been taken already, has it?" Misao asked crestfallenly. That possibility had never even occurred to her.
"OH! No! No, it's not taken." the woman said, noticing her guest's apparent disappointment. "I'd just given up on anyone renting the room. I put it up for rent months ago, and never heard anything about it. Come in! Come in, you're soaked!" she gushed, pulling her guest inside and shutting out the cold and the rain.
The woman took her wet coat and her bag, and before Misao knew what was going on, she found herself seated at a table.
"Would you like something to eat?" the woman offered generously.
"No thank you, I don't want to impose." Misao declined, but at the mention of food her stomach growled loudly.
"It's no trouble. Besides, you look half starved!" the young woman declared before disappearing into the kitchen.
Misao tried to protest, but before she could finish, the woman had returned with a bowl of soup and a cup of tea.
She set them in front of Misao, who just stared at her, dumbfounded. "Go ahead, eat." she said, gesturing at the food.
Misao gave her a genuine smile before muttering a soft "Thank you."
The woman waited patiently while Misao ate her meal.
"OH!" She cried suddenly. "I never introduced myself. You must think I'm crazy." she said, slapping her forehead.
"Not at all." Misao said as she finished the last of the soup.
"I'm Kamiya Kaoru." the woman said, leaning over the table to extend her hand.
"Makimachi Misao." Misao replied, shaking her hand. "Pleased to meet you."
"Likewise." Kaoru said, smiling pleasantly as Misao finished the last of her tea.
"Umm…about the room…" Misao began.
"Ah, yes!" Kaoru said excitedly. "The room is completely furnished. It has one bedroom, and one bath. Unfortunately, it doesn't have kitchen. We all have to share this one. But if you'd like, I could get you a refrigerator...What am I telling you this for? You want to see the room!" Kaoru declared, jumping up and dragging a spluttering Misao from the kitchen and down the hall, all the while spouting off all the little details about the room. "….it has a color TV….cable….utilities are included in the bill….And here we are!" she proclaimed, unlocking the door and pushing it open, grinning triumphantly.
Misao had been trying to interrupt Kaoru's sales monologue all the way down the hall. "…yeah, it's a nice room but about the rent…"
"The rent is reasonably negotiable. I'm sure we can reach an agreement." Kaoru said with a bright, hopeful expression.
"About that…" Misao began nervously; afraid she'd end up tossed back out on to the street. "I'm new to the area, and I don't exactly have a job yet…"
"That's alright!" Kaoru assured, afraid she'd lose her only potential tenant. "Rent's not due to the end of the month. All I need now is the deposit and…."
"Eh- about that, too…I don't exactly have any money right now either." Misao said apologetically.
Kaoru stared at her blankly.
"Sorry for wasting you time." Misao muttered as she turned to leave.
"Where will you stay?" Kaoru asked, feeling genuinely sorry for her.
Misao shrugged. "I'll find something. Thanks for the meal." She said as she walked back towards the front door.
"WAIT!" Kaoru called back after her. Misao stopped and turned to look at her. "You could stay here while you look for a job. You can pay me what you owe when you have the money."
"Really?" Misao asked, disbelievingly.
"Yeah." Kaoru said with a smile. "I can't just throw you out with no place to go. And I've got the extra room."
"Thank you, Kaoru!" Misao cried with a delighted smile. "I'll pay you everything I owe and then some!"
"I'll go get your things." Kaoru said as she handed over the door key.
Misao surveyed her little room happily. "Maybe things will work out after all." she said as she collapsed onto her new couch.
I wanted to write something good. I really, really did. Guess I'm worse at writing than I thought. I really honestly don't know where this is going. In case you couldn't tell, I just sat down and wrote for an hour. About halfway through, my depression (which was my inspiration) died.
Feel free to leave your flaming bags of dog shit on my porch.
(click the review button, and drop me a flame, ja?)