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

Possession

Donna8157

Chapter 15 : A Smile

BRRRING

Kaoru turned over on her side to turn off her alarm. She steadily got up as she made her way to the bathroom. The young woman wasn't able to get much sleep the other night because she had had too many thoughts running in her mind. As she reached the sink, she splashed some cold water on her face to wash away the sleep in her eyes and then took a shower. She winced when she felt some of the steaming droplets touch her wounds.

After she finished, she went over to the medicine cabinet and took out the ointment. Carefully she began applying the medicine to her wounds. As she was treating her scars, she looked up at the mirror. Her blue eyes seemed to grow hazy as she saw all the cuts and bruises on her entire body. They were scars that stuck to her ever since she started her new life. It almost seemed as if they were mocking her. Kaoru stared at herself absent-mindedly for a long time before knocking herself out of her thoughts.

Be strong, she chanted to herself as she put the ointment back on the counter.

Kaoru hurried out of the bathroom to escape the reflection of herself in the mirror and went to the closet. As she opened the door to pick out a suit to wear for the day, her eyes grew wide. She stood there in daze as she lightly reached out and touched the clothes that were hanging inside the closet.

CLICK

Kaoru turned her head around in shock when she heard someone enter her room. Kenshin walked into the room with an expressionless face. He looked at the clothes that the girl was touching.

"Put it on. You'll go to school as a Three Willows High School student starting today," Kenshin said curtly as he turned back to go to his room.

Kaoru stood there confused, she wasn't sure if she had heard him correctly. A . . a high school student? The young woman came back to her senses and carefully took out the uniform. She lightly traced her fingers on the lines of the jacket of the uniform. Her vision began to become cloudy as her eyes became watery.

Does that mean . . . I get to go to school again?

KNOCK, KNOCK

"Come in," Kenshin said as he slid one arm through the white collared shirt. When he heard the door click, he looked over at the person who had come inside the room. It was Kaoru, but she was wearing the school uniform instead of the business suits that she would usually be forced to wear. The knee-length black pleated skirt and the white-collared short-sleeved shirt looked surprisingly good on her. He quickly too his eyes off of her when he realized he had been staring and instead shifted his concentration on finishing dressing himself.

Kaoru watched Kenshin as he started buttoning his shirt and a ghost of a smile flitted by her face. She went towards him with her face blushing.

"Thank you, sir." She twined her fingers in front of her when she thanked him.

Kenshin heard her say her gratitude and stiffened. "Don't be," he answered shortly as he turned around to put on his necktie and coat.

"I . . I . ." Kaoru looked up at him as he was putting on his jacket.

Kenshin interrupted her when he heard her stutter and glanced at her with his lavender eyes. "And . . there's no need for you to follow me around when we're at school."

The girl's mouth was half-open in confusion. "Ano . . what do . ."

"Just do what I said," Kenshin answered shortly as he took a look over of himself in the mirror before walking out the room. Kaoru still stood there as she saw him leave. For the second time that day, she was awestruck by what he had said.

"Starting today, Kamiya Kaoru will be a part of our class," the teacher announced as he motioned towards Kaoru who was standing in front of the class. The young woman bowed slightly towards the other students as a way of introducing herself. "Well, I'm sure all of you know her even though she didn't come to school as a student in the beginning, but I hope you all will help her out."

The teacher then turned towards the girl. "All right, Kamiya-san, why don't you go sit next to Himura-san in the back of the room?" he suggested.

Kaoru nodded her response as she bowed her head towards the teacher. She then started heading towards her seat.

As she walked by, she heard students whispering and felt their eyes looking at her with suspicion.

"Isn't that the girl that follows Himura around all the time?"

"She's a student now?"

Kaoru ignored their comments as she arrived at the back of the room and sat down in the seat next to Kenshin. It was awkward. She couldn't believe that she was sitting as a student and not standing behind him throughout the entire class like she had been doing for so long. Kaoru turned her head around to catch a glimpse of the red-haired man.

His figure overlapped the blue sky outside the window. The bright sunlight highlighted his short crimson red hair and was contrasted against his white skin. Kenshin's eyes were softly closed and his apricot colored lips were firmly set as he listened to the music coming out from his headphones. For some reason, he looked different than he did the other times she had seen him. As Kaoru was looking at Kenshin, the students in the class found their attention being focused on her. Different from the usual stiff face she had before, the way she was smiling faintly was enough to pull the eyes of the students towards her.

" . . and that will end our discussion of the Mongol Empire. Let's have our break now class," the teacher said as he adjusted his glasses and closed the history book he held in his hands. The old man gathered his things as he left the classroom.

Seeing that it was break time, Kenshin took off his headphones and put them in his pocket as he slowly got up. He then started walking towards the door. As usual, Kaoru got up from out of her seat and started to follow him.

Kenshin turned around when he recognized her footsteps behind him. "Don't follow me," he ordered in a low tone. The young woman's body stiffened and then remembered what he had said that morning. She lowered her head towards the ground. Kenshin tightened his lips into a firm line as he walked out of the classroom. As she heard the door close, she hesitated on whether or not to follow him.

"Hey . ."

Kaoru looked around when she heard someone call out to her with a perplexed expression on her face. She saw that it was a tall boy with black hair and brown eyes.

The male student smiled as he looked at her. "Hi. I'm Higashiyama Ryuzaburo. I welcome you to our class."

"Ah . . yes. Thank you, sir," she replied. Ryuzaburo shook his head when he heard her talk with such formalities.

"That's uncomfortable to hear. Just talk normally." The boy's smile faltered as his tone of voice grew more serious. "I . . I should have thanked you earlier . ."

Kaoru furrowed her brows as she tried to think of what he was referring to, but could not come up with an answer.

"That day, if it weren't for you . . I might have been unable to meet you like this," he said in a low, monotone voice.

Kaoru squinted her eyes as she studied his face and then suddenly remembered. It was the young man that Kenshin had beaten up a week or so ago at school. She almost didn't recognize him without all the scars and bruises.

"I didn't have a chance to say thank you last time so I'm telling you now . . thanks." His words became a bit slurred as he laughed uneasily with embarrassment and scratched his head.

Kaoru's face reddened as she heard him thank her like that. "No . . I just . ."

Ryuzaburo looked up shocked at the unexpected reaction she had towards him. In the beginning, he had thought it would be hard to talk to her because she had always had such a stiff, expressionless face. But after talking to her, he realized just how wrong he was.

"Let's be good friends," he declared as he stuck out his hand in a friendly manner and smiled.

"All . . all right," Kaoru stuttered and her face grew redder. Then another student came towards the two of them and started to introduce herself. Kaoru noticed that she had dark green hair with reddish-brown eyes.

"I'm Shura. I wanted to talk to you before, but I couldn't. I'm happy that I can now though. I'm glad that you're in our class." She also held out her hand for her to shake.

"Thanks." Kaoru smiled brightly as she felt warmed by all the nice greetings. Ryuzaburo and Shura saw her smile and stared at her.

When Kaoru realized that they were looking at her for a long time, she glanced back and forth between the both of them wondering if she had done something wrong. "What . . what . .why are you staring at me like that?"

"No. I was just thinking how pretty you looked when you smile," Ryuzaburo answered with an absent-minded face.

"It's the first time we saw you smiling . ." Shura injected.

". . . . ." Kaoru lowered her head in embarrassment and scratched the back of her head awkwardly. A couple of other students started to gather around her and introduce themselves. In the beginning, the students held a slight feeling of animosity towards Kaoru because she was always with Kenshin, but as they started to talk to her and got to know her better that feeling quickly dissipated and was replaced with a sense of friendship.

As Kaoru looked around her and listened to the animated conversations the other students were having, a feeling of happiness surged in her heart. It was almost as if she had gone back to her old life.

Kenshin looked down at his watch as he took a gulp of water. The break was almost over. He started walking towards class when he stopped himself at the front of the door. Through the thick window pane of the door, he could see Kaoru smiling when she was surrounded by the other students.

A bright smile that had never been shown to him.

The bright smile that he thought could only be seen through a picture was now being shown to other people.

Kenshin grit his jaw as he roughly turned around and walked away.

Kaoru looked at the clock in the front of the classroom and saw that the break was almost over and Kenshin had not come back. She found herself looking at the door whenever she heard some other person walk inside the room, but it was never him. She knew that he had ordered her not to follow him around, but she decided that it would be okay to disregard what he said for right now. After all, class was about to start soon.

"Ano . . excuse me, but I'm going to find Himura-san," she said as she broke away from the crowd that had gathered around her.

Kaoru then left the classroom to search for him. It was then that she remembered the rooftop where Soujiro had taken her. Picking up her pace, she quickly made her way towards the stairwell and rushed up the steps. As she was running up the stairs, her head suddenly grew dizzy from the intense exercise. After all, she had just gotten out of the hospital the other day. Her eyes widened and her heart started pounding faster as she felt herself lose her balance. It was then that she felt someone wrap their arms around her waist as she was about to fall. Kaoru started breathing heavily and shut her eyes to calm herself while she was still being held.

"Thank you very much," she said between labored breaths.

When she felt as though she had completely gained control of herself once again, she tried to walk up the stairs again. But the stranger would not seem to let go of his hold on her.

"Ano . . please let go of me."

There was a harsh laugh from behind her and strength seemed to go into the arms that were around her waist. Kaoru winced from the sudden pressure. She then felt his hot breath tickle her ears.

"I warned you." Blue eyes widened when she immediately recognized the voice. "Did you forget already? You'll get hurt if you think I'm joking around. Remember that . . . doll." Kaoru's face paled when she heard Kanryuu's threat and she felt as though her nerves had become stiff. A chill ran down her back as he slowly took his hands away from her.

Kanryuu smiled in satisfaction when he saw her reaction. "Next time . . be more careful." He let out another malicious laugh as he shoved his hands into his pockets and strolled down the stairs.

Kaoru shuddered at his laugh. Even after his menacing laughter disappeared, she didn't seem to show much movement. Finally, gaining a hold of her frayed nerves, the young woman slowly turned her body around and started to walk up the remaining steps towards the roof. As she opened the door, she saw Kenshin lying on the floor with his arms behind his head and listening to the music that was coming out of his headphones.

The blue-eyed woman inhaled a deep breath of fresh air as she walked towards him. She felt a sense of calmness and relief when she found him.

When Kaoru was next to him, she bent down on one knee and looked at his visage. Unlike the peaceful look he had donned earlier that day, he now looked a bit . . sad. For a second, Kaoru didn't think of waking him. But then the breeze picked up and a shiver passed through her body. Kenshin could get sick if he were to stay like this out here.

"You'll catch a cold like this, sir."

There was no reaction from him as she talked to him. The girl sighed as she took off her coat and placed it gently on top of him making sure not to wake him up. At that moment, Kenshin opened his purple orbs and looked at her. She quickly turned away from him when she saw that he was looking at her so intently with his eyes. It almost felt as though they were piercing her. Even though she avoided his gaze, she could still feel him looking at her. Her heart began to beat faster as an indescribable nervous feeling developed at the pit of her stomach.

Kenshin continued to watch her and got up when he saw her turn her head away from him. For some reason, it hurt when she did that. He took the coat that was on top of him and handed it back to her. "I don't need it."

Kaoru looked back at him and slowly reached for the jacket. As she did, Kenshin found himself staring fixedly at her face . . at her lips. Those lips that had once bore such a bright smile in the classroom amongst the other classmates. As he watched her, a feeling of sadness enveloped him. You probably wouldn't want to show me that smile of yours, he thought.

CLANG

The door opened with a large sound and Kenshin and Kaoru quickly turned towards that direction.

"Kamiya-san!"

"Hey jou-chan!"

Apparently, Soujiro and Sanosuke were on their break and when they had heard that Kaoru was on the rooftop, they wanted to see if she was okay after the accident from the other day.

"Hello," she replied as she looked at the two of them surround her. Kaoru looked over at Sanosuke and remembered that his foot had been injured by the piece of glass the other day. She knit her brows in worry. "Is your foot okay now, sir?" She looked down at his foot.

"Of course, jou-chan." He paused as he looked her up and down with one of his hands on his chin. "Wow. You look good in that uniform," Sanosuke complimented with a flirtatious grin. Kaoru instantly felt heat rise up in her cheeks.

"Umm . . thank you, sir."

Soujiro smiled. "Are you feeling better, Kamiya-san?" he asked with his voice a bit tinged with worry.

Kaoru nodded. "Yes. I'm fine now, sir."

"Maa maa . . didn't I tell you to stop calling me sir, Kamiya-san? We're both students now," Soujiro teased with a bright smile.

"But . ." Kaoru glanced at Kenshin sideways feeling a bit flustered.

Kenshin grimaced when he felt her nervous gaze on him and stood up. "I have to be going." He ignored her as she was about to say something and left. An awkward silence seemed to shroud the three of them at Kenshin's cold words.

Kaoru watched him as he walked away from her and shut the heavy metal door. She slowly pushed herself up from the floor and dusted off her skirt as she was about to follow him back to the classroom. She turned towards Soujiro and Sanosuke and looked apologetically to them before leaving. "I'll be going now als . ."

She wasn't able to finish her sentence for Sanosuke interrupted her. "We're not letting you go now, jou-chan. Not until you fix something." He crossed his arms in front of his chest as he looked at her seriously.

Kaoru widened her eyes in surprise. Fix something? She looked at him and saw that he was upset and then she turned over to look at Soujiro. He was, of course, smiling.

Sanosuke laughed as he saw the confused expression on her face. "C'mon jou-chan. Lighten up! We need to fix your problem of saying 'sir' all the time. We're all students anyway." He linked arms with her and gave her a cocky smile.

Soujiro nodded. "You promised me too, Kamiya-san." He looked intently at her as he waited for a response.

A feeling of uneasiness came over her as she felt their eyes on her. "I'm in the habit of it . . I'll fix it slowl . . ." Kaoru looked up and noticed them narrow their eyes at her. She sighed as she shook her head. Mou! These guys . ., she thought helplessly as she opened her mouth.

"Soujiro-san," Kaoru whispered. Her face turned red when she noticed the wide grin plastered on Soujiro's face. The young man then laughed and put his arms around her shoulder.

Sanosuke watched Kaoru and 'hmphed' in dissatisfaction. "What? How come you can say Soujiro's name but not mine? Che. I see how it is, jou-chan."

"Sanosuke-san," she said in a quiet voice. A grin of victory appeared on Sano's face and he slowly looked at her.

"Just call me Sano and don't add –san at the end of it. It just doesn't sound right." His lips turned up into a smile as he looked at her. He liked hearing his name come out from her lips. "All right, since we all feel good, let's go to the cafeteria and pig out."

Soujiro's smile faltered as he let go of his hold of Kaoru and looked at his friend. "Sagara-san," he stated calmly. "You always pig out."

"Oi Soujiro. Let's keep this in a happy mood." He walked over to the young woman and gently placed an arm over her shoulder. "You hungry, jou-chan? I'll treat you to lunch this time," he said with a softness playing in his brown orbs. He patted his "wallet" that was in his pocket when he realized that he had forgotten it at home. A perturbed frown appeared on his face, but then he quickly replaced it with a mischievous smile.

He looked over at Soujiro with his puppy dog eyes.

The other boy stepped back, disturbed.

"Can I borrow some money, Soujiro?" he asked.

The blue-eyed young man narrowed his eyes when he realized that again he had to lend money to the rooster head, but he had not the heart to tell him no. After all, he didn't want to see those puppy dog eyes on his face. It might give him nightmares. He shook his head to get the evil image out.

"Fine, Sagara-san," he said with a helpless sigh as he reached into his back pocket and forked out some cash from his wallet.

It was late at night when Kaoru had finished all her duties and went back to her room.

With a feeling of eagerness, Kaoru flipped through the pages of her Calculus textbook. It had been so long since she had had a homework assignment. It was odd because most other people would dread the fact that they had schoolwork to do, but Kaoru found it as a type of relief. As if things were going to be normal once more.

As she looked at the logarithm and derivative problems, her brows seemed to knit together with frustration. She had missed a lot and didn't know where to start.

CLICK

Kaoru turned around in her chair at the desk and saw Kenshin come inside. Her eyes widened and she quickly got up out of the chair and bowed.

"Is there something I can help you with, sir?" she asked.

"Here," he said as he took out a notebook from behind him. "Use this."

The girl nodded and took the book from out of his hands. "Thank you . . sir," she whispered. She wasn't sure what else she would say to him. He didn't respond and turned around to leave the room. When she heard him close the door behind her, she sat down and flipped through the loose leaf notebook.

It was all of Kenshin's Calculus notes.

She was surprised at how neat his handwriting actually was. As Kaoru studied the notes, she found that they were easy to understand and pretty soon she was able to solve some of the homework problems. A small, almost unnoticeable smile appeared on her face as she did her work.

"Kaoru-san!!"

As Kaoru stepped into the classroom, Ryuzaburo called out to her with his hands waving frantically in the air. It had only been a few days since she had started attending the school as a student, but she had quickly become good friends with him.

Ryuzaburo ran up to her when he found that he had caught her attention. "Do you know that there's a sports and arts camp next week?"

"Sports and arts camp?" she repeated unsure of what he was saying.

"You didn't know? Usually during this time, the seniors go camping for three days and two nights. There are all kinds of events. You can see my artwork too, Kaoru-san. Maybe you can even model for me!" he added in excitement as he looked at her with bright eyes. But when he saw how quiet she was, his mood deflated.

Himura-san, he reminded himself as he looked down on the ground.

Shura walked over to the both of them and sighed when she heard their conversation. "Do you think Himura will want to go on that trip? He has never attended any school activities, but is there a possibility that he will go?" She looked at Kaoru with a worried face. In those past few days, Shura had also formed a bond of friendship with the new girl.

Kaoru remained quiet for she didn't want to disappoint her friends and tell them that she couldn't go.

Shura sighed as she shook her head sadly. "It would be great if you could come, Kaoru. It's our last year of high school and when we go camping, the teachers usually don't bother the students. It's one of the main things we look forward to this year. And it's really a lot of fun." The green-haired woman looked over at Kaoru with pity when she realized what her answer was going to be.

Kaoru smiled. "It's okay. You can just tell me about it when you come back."

Right then, Kenshin walked into the classroom. Seeing the other man come inside, Ryuzaburo and Shura gave a nod and smile towards the blue-eyed young woman and they went back to their seats. Kenshin plopped down in his chair as he dropped his book bag next to his desk and put on his headphones. He turned his head towards the window and looked outside. Through the glass of the window, he could see a faint reflection of Kaoru looking at him. As Kenshin was looking through the window, he didn't even realize that there was a soft smile playing about his lips.

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- To be continued

Author's Notes :

Hi! Please leave a review! Thanks very much!! =D I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I was able to finish it up much sooner now. Hehe. Here are a few notes about the chapter:

Higashiyama Ryuzaburo

He appeared in the later episodes of Rurouni Kenshin. He was the artist that wanted to find "beauty" and found "beauty" in Kaoru. He fell in love with her in the episode and used all types of antics to try to hit Kenshin.

Shura

The pirate captain that fell in love with Kenshin right before the Kyoto Arc. She had green hair and burnt ember-colored eyes. However, she will not fall in love with Kenshin in this fic. Keke.

Also, if you have time check out deleria's website: It has a variety of fanfics, fanart, manga scans, and screenshots of various anime. =) If you have a work you would like to submit to her, you can email her. It's a great site and I have my fanfics posted up there also.

Special thanks to Vic'chonn, Kokuei, sonia, Kirie-kun, Brittanie Love, Himura-chan, super, Katana Midori, InuLimbo, Kiichi Dazai, stranger, Ochanoko, cutie-chan-XD3, Jouchan, Eternal-Senshi-S, cyjj, tintin-chan, Piper, Oni Tokage, Sugar-Crazy-Fox, Naiyuki, Kitsune Kenshin, Just aboy, Chibi Kiki, Coodle, Minsada, rain angst, canitan-queen, HitokiriSky, nobody, Ryoga, OroMou, Falconess106, Spike-Faye, saotome, KKfan4ever, anna, kithana, and chibi frog for reviewing! Thanks so much =D