Disclaimer : Rurouni Kenshin is the property of Nobuhiro Watsuki, Shonen Jump, and Sony Productions.

Warning : Characters are OOC.

Possession

Donna8157

Chapter 5 : Rose Petals

Kaoru was sitting inside the limo looking out the window when the car had stopped in front of the Armani clothing store. She looked at the expensive shop without getting out. I don't need such expensive clothes, she thought. Making a decision, she turned towards the chauffeur.

"I'm sorry, but can you turn the car around and go to a nearby mall?"

The man made a disgruntled sound as he looked at her, "Excuse me? But young master had said . ."

"Please," Kaoru requested politely and the chauffeur nodded as he drove by to the nearest mall.

When they arrived, the girl got out and quickly made her way towards Macy's, one of the largest department stores in the shopping area. While she was looking at the clothes, an employee came over with a smile and recommended a few outfits. Kaoru took the three pairs of suits that the employee had hand-picked out and headed towards the counter without trying them on.

"The total comes out to be $453.45. Will you be paying by check or credit?"

"By cash," Kaoru said as she took out a few of the bills. The employee's eyes widened at seeing the amount of cash the girl had on her and gave her the most flattering smile possible. She put the items in a bag and gave it to Kaoru. The same thing happened to her whenever she would hand people money. The attitudes and expressions on people's faces visibly changed she noted with bitterness. It saddened and angered her that people could change so quickly when money was at play. Were people ruled by money that easily?

When she finished, she walked back to the limo and left for school again. By the time she arrived, the students had already finished their second class and were staring to have their break time. Kaoru walked to Kenshin's classroom and noticed that many people's eyes were on her. She shook it off and continued walking. As she opened the door to the class, she noticed that Kenshin was sitting in the very back of the room by the window with his eyes closed, arms crossed, and legs on the desk. Kaoru went towards the boy and stood next to him without saying a word.

The other students quickly noticed her presence and did not hesitate to look behind to gawk at her. There were whispers here and there about the girl. Kaoru pushed back those whispers and stood still and held whatever pride she had left. It was at that moment that Kenshin opened his eyes and glanced at the girl next to him.

"You're back earlier than I thought."

Kaoru looked back at him uneasily. "Yes, sir."

"Well, go to the cafeteria and buy me a drink," he ordered as he closed his eyes again.

"What kind of . ."

"Anything!"

His rough voice interrupted her before she could finish her question. Everyone had become still when they heard how upset Kenshin sounded. Kaoru nodded and left to go to the cafeteria. She came back a few minutes later with a can of coke. The young man looked at the soda that she had brought back and spoke impudently.

"I don't drink Coke! Get something else!"

Kaoru furrowed her brows. "Yes, sir." She went to the cafeteria again and this time she brought back orange juice. He glanced at the drink in her hand and scowled.

"I don't want orange juice either!"

The girl grimaced as she threw the drink out angrily as she went back to the cafeteria. This time she brought various types of drinks and went back to Kenshin's class. At that moment, the bell, that announced that classes were to be resumed, rang. The boy smiled when he saw her come back.

"Looks like you're using your head now. I don't want any of these. Go back and buy me a bottle of water!"

The students looked back at Kaoru and felt compassion for her. The guy was behaving like a spoiled brat, an asshole even. But no one had the courage to voice their thoughts aloud. No one could touch him at school. Even the teachers couldn't lay a finger on him. The power and influence that Himura Kenshin and his family had was known throughout the school and throughout their city, possibly even the entire country. So they just remained quiet and watched.

Meanwhile, Kaoru who was at the ends of her nerves had balled her hands into a tight fist. She took a deep breath as she tried to calm herself. Be strong, Kaoru. Stay calm. When she came back to the classroom, class had already started and the teacher was at the front lecturing. The male teacher looked at Kaoru with surprise when she came inside.

"Excuse me, are you in my class? I'm in the middle of teaching right . ."

COUGH, COUGH

The teacher looked over towards the back and saw that Kenshin was "coughing" and the girl that had just come in begin to walk towards him. He didn't bother finishing his sentence and continued his lecture again, completely ignoring what had happened.

"Now, class. Where were we?"

Kaoru handed Kenshin the bottle of water. He drank of gulp of it and then opened the window and threw the bottle out into the field. He crossed his arms again and closed his eyes as he ignored the girl's presence. Kaoru stood behind him feeling miserable. All throughout the next two classes, she continued to stand behind the young man. Once the fourth class ended, Kenshin went to the cafeteria to have lunch with the girl following a few feet behind him.

"Himura-san!" Soujiro waved as he saw him come into the cafeteria. He then noticed Kaoru. "Ara? Kamiya-san is here, too?" He smiled brightly with his eyes shut as he mentioned her name. He had felt saddened and upset when he had heard about what had happened to Kaoru that night at the club.

"Is what Takeda-san told me true?" Soujiro asked in a low voice making sure that the girl wouldn't hear him.

"Yeah," the other said nonchalantly.

The blue-eyed boy widened his eyes when he saw how quickly he answered the question without any hesitation. How could Himura-san act so indifferent to her situation? He then glanced at the girl who was behind him. His eyes glossed over as he looked back at her. They had definitely trampled on her pride. How could they do that to someone?

Kenshin and Soujiro walked over to a table and everyone around the area moved out of their way. Before they sat down, Kenshin looked over at the girl behind him.

"Go get me some fried rice and get Soujiro some curry and rice."

Kaoru nodded and started to walk towards the line when Soujiro suddenly placed a hand on her shoulder. "No, it's all right. I'll get my own, Kamiya-san."

Kenshin narrowed his eyes. He didn't like how the other boy had his hand on her. "Just sit down, Soujiro!"

Soujiro looked over at the girl and she nodded her head, indicating for him to sit down. The boy sighed as he complied. He felt terrible as he watched her walk towards the line for food. A few minutes later, Kaoru brought over a tray and placed the plates of food in front of the both of them. Then she took her place and stood next to Kenshin.

"Kamiya-san, aren't you going to eat?" Soujiro asked with concern.

"I . ."

"Go get your food and eat!" Kenshin spat out in an annoyed tone. Kaoru agreed and quietly went to get her food. Soujiro leered at Kenshin. He did not like how his friend was behaving. What was wrong with him anyway? He had never acted like this before.

After getting her food, Kaoru sat down at the table next to theirs and started eating. Soujiro then took the opportunity to speak to Kenshin.

"I don't like how you're behaving, Himura," he said in a low tone so that she wouldn't overhear them.

"What?" Kenshin said loudly. He could tell that the boy was upset because he had addressed him without a –san, but shook it off and ignored him.

Soujiro's eyes widened. "No! I mean .. forget it." The boy said the words vehemently as he saw how his friend was acting. He then looked over at Kaoru and saw another person coming towards her.

"Ha. Look .. the doll is eating," Kanryuu said with pleasure.

"Of course. She'll need the strength to do everything she's told," Kaede added.

Kanryuu smirked as he watched her eating quietly with her head down. He smiled mischievously when he saw some roses off to the side. He picked the petals off of a few of them and sprinkled them onto Kaoru's food. She looked at it dumbfounded and stopped eating.

"What? You don't eat rose petals? If you're a doll, you should be able to digest this stuff," Kanryuu said with a repulsive smile decorating his face. Without saying a word, the girl picked up the fork and continued to eat the rice and rose petals with an expressionless face.

"Ohoho . . it looks like our doll enjoys it," Kaede laughed.

"Haha."

Kaoru continued to eat even though the two continued to mock her. Soujiro, who had been watching, felt anger well up in the pits of his stomach. He slammed his eating utensil down on the table loudly and got up. His dark blue eyes were narrowed and he looked at the two of them intensely. Kanryuu and Kaede swallowed hard when they saw how upset Soujiro was. In fact, they had never seen Soujiro show any other expression other than a smile. Seeing this scared them no doubt.

Soujiro walked over to Kaoru's table and took the fork from out of her hand and threw it on the ground.

"Takeda-san, what are you doing? How can you treat Kamiya-san like this?"

Trying to gain some semblance of courage, Kanryuu laughed. "Well, she's just a doll."

That was quite possibly to worst thing to say in light of the situation and only served to fuel Soujiro's anger more. "What? I would apologize right now if I were you." An undeniably strong ki started to flow from off of the boy as he kept his eyes locked onto the two of them.

"Hey Soujiro . . come on, we were just fooling around."

"You call this fooling around?" he asked and then looked at Kaoru. "You should say something too, Kamiya-san. Don't let them treat you like this!"

"I'm . .okay," she said in an almost inaudible voice.

Soujiro just looked at the girl wide-eyed. He didn't know what to say. How could she let them do that to her? He looked back up at the two and then to his surprise, noticed that they had already left. He then turned his attention back to Kaoru.

"Hey Soujiro, aren't you gonna eat?" Kenshin called out. Soujiro who had been staring at Kaoru absent-mindedly was brought back to his senses with Kenshin's voice. He took a deep breath to control the anger and frustration that had been bubbling off of him and went back to his seat. Once he sat down, Soujiro watched as Kaoru started to eat again. Both the rice and the fallen petals. A deep frown etched onto his face as he watched her.

He had lost his appetite.

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- To be continued

Author's Notes :

Please leave a review and tell me what you think of this so far. Expect to see an important RK character show up in the later chapters! =D As for the pairings in this, you'll just have to wait and see. I don't like giving anything away. hehe . . I'm evil like that. Also .. no, Kaoru has not finished high school.

Special thanks to rkfan246, Mz. Amber Eyez, cyjj, Erica, Ochanoko, Ryoga, Kairi7, Lendra-chan, Spike-Faye, Oni Tokage, Chibi Kiki, S3R3nity, Ice Angel Kaoru, Battousai-Lover, super, nobody, Reignashii, Babo, kenshin's-angel, saotome, chibi frog, xxsilentxdreamerxx, and cattleaya for reviewing!

I recognized many of you as reviewers from my other fics and I just wanted to thank you again for reading and reviewing this one too =D I hope you'll like this story as it delves deeper into the storyline. Lol. I know that this Kenshin is quite different from the other ones I've portrayed. It's just that I wanted to write an angst fic instead of the usual.