Chapter Four

First day at the Aoiya

I'm stuck…holding a freakish looking fighting pose and hissing slightly. Oooh… I'm sure I must look SO threatening! Ages go by before the man puts his hand back at his side. A muffled call from the back seat of the limo can be heard as I slowly lower my own arms, and my one lifted leg, back into position. Mr. Creepy walks to the door and opens it, revealing none other than Aoshi-sama himself. "Hello Ms. Misao" I stare in utter disbelief.

"What are you doing here? I know I'm running a little late but COME on its not even three yet!" I point vehemently at my watch, and then look down at it to realize that it is, in fact, quarter past three. "Err…never mind, I suppose you're here to pick me up? Or…fire me?" I wince slightly at the thought. If we really are having money troubles, then I REALLY need this job.

"I'm here to pick you up, but let this be a warning, you have three more tries to get things right, after that, you'll have to find another job." I sigh in relief and get into the limo. My Aunt had better appreciate what I'm doing for her, I note as I stare at the strange man driving.

"OK who's that? And why is he evil?" I receive an odd look from Aoshi-sama, one that for some weird WEIRD reason makes me blush. Get a hold of yourself; he's like 27 years old for Pete's sake! That's a TEN YEAR difference ... or…maybe he just looks that old…I don't really know… "Um…Aoshi-sama? How old are you? I mean I know it doesn't really matter but I …just want to know…I guess and...Yea…?"

"Your right it doesn't matter, but I'll tell you anyway, I'm 18" Che, you didn't have to be such a jerk about it ::mentally sticks out her tongue at him:: I huff slightly and stare out the window.

"No wonder you look so much older than you are, you never smile" He stares at me for a while then, slowly the corners of his mouth edge up and he flashes his pearly whites…unfortunately it is the SCARIEST attempt at a smile I've ever seen! His mouth is overly curved and opens showing all of his teeth and most of his gums. Not to mention his eyes are little slits now and his eyebrows are so far up they're almost gone. "…Aahh!!!!" I scream and manage to hit him on the head…hard. He slumps over and pins me to my seat. "AAAHHHH!!!! I'VE KNOCKED HIM OUT!!!! GET HIM OFF GET HIM OFF!!!"

"Shut-up or they'll know we're here!" He hisses at me. I stare up at him in shock. "Just keep quiet and they won't shoot at us." I stare back at him as what he says sinks into my brain.

"WHAT WHAT WHAT?! Shoot at us!?" He clamps a hand over my mouth as I hear a distant 'He's over there! In that black Mercedes! And he's with someone!' I clench my eyes shut as I hear…cameras going off? I open my eyes to see that Aoshi-sama is no longer on top of me and is dragging me out of the now parked car. I glance behind us as various reporters and photographers scramble to try and get a picture of him. Once we are inside I wrench my arm from his grasp. "Why didn't you tell me you meant the paparazzi?! You nearly gave me a heart attack!" He shrugged nonchalantly and handed me a pretty box. "What's this?"

"It's your uniform." He says, like it's the most OBVIOUS thing ever. I slipped off the lid and pulled out THE ugliest blue jumper you have EVER see. Ever. My face must have shown my disgust because he quirked his eyebrow at me and stuck his hands into his pant-pockets. I look up at him and sweat drop. Not noticing how close I was to a wall, I backed up, instinctively, he leaned toward me until his nose was about a hair's width away from mine, and I was PAINFULLY aware of that

"What?" He whispered, his warm breath tickling my cheeks, my knees just about turned to jell-o, such a sexy voice. "Did you expect me to have you wear one of those French maid costumes?" I blushed so hard my ears turn the color of roses. "N-no Aoshi-sama…its just…em…. nevermindI'llgochangenowberightback!"

I rush down one of the halls. Oh CRAP I forgot I've never been here before! I jog back and sheepishly ask for directions. He just turns me around and gives me a light shove toward a dark mahogany door. I change in there and tie up my hair in a hanker-chief so my braid doesn't get dirty. I come out and an old man with a bow in his beard scuttles over to me. "I'm Okina, and just who are you?"

At this point, as he waggled his grey eye-brows at me, I resisted the urge to gag. "I'm Misao Makima-" "OOOHHH WHAT A PRETTY NA-" WHAM. "No sense in bothering the pretty miss with your perverted mind, old man." HOLY FUDGE-SICLES!! It was the boy that gave me that (very powerful) ex-lax! "Wh-what are you doing here?!" He grinned at me. "Me? I live here. Aoshi and I are cousins" …OO…how is that POSSIBLE?! They're so different! Aoshi-sama stepped up to us, "Distant cousins."

Wrapping an arm around my shoulder, cousin-of-Aoshi-sama continued, "Yeah yeah, anyway, I'm Sano, what say you and me blow this popsicle stand and take in a movie" He ended that cheese fest of a pick up line with a cocky grin and a wink. Aoshi plucked Sano's arm off of me and placed both hands, to my pink-cheeked surprise, on my shoulders and pulled me toward himself. "She has a lot of work to do."

Okay…not exactly the super romantic rescue me from a perv speech but hey, I was just happy to feel how he gently squeezed my shoulders as he told me to go with the woman named Tae. I nodded, I was all tingly inside and it was making my head spin. My face felt like it had been permanently stained red.

"Got you a likin' to Shinomori-san do ya?" I turned to Tae as she said this. She had a southern twang to her voice that made you want her to be your friend. I coughed hesitantly. "Well…I wouldn't be any sort a friend if I didn't give ya a little advice, be careful around that one, he's a heartbreaker" She nodded, as if affirming her own statement. After that we went to work, scrubbing and polishing everything in sight.

It was around seven o'clock when I trudged into my apartment, totally beat. I flopped down onto my bed. Strange…I could have sworn I made my bed this morning… "Geddoffame" If there was a land speed record for getting out of bed, I shattered it. Turning on the lights and holding up my baseball bat, ready to swing. "Who's there?!"

"It's ok Misao its just me" said the lump under my covers. What? Who's 'me'… "and me..." mumbled the lump under my covers. "Uhm…?" Then it dawned on me. When Kaoru and Jae wanted to play with me when we were little, they would hide under my covers and that's what they always said 'It's ok Misao-chan, its just me…and me' I set the bat down and, with a running start, jumped and landed, hard, on my lumpy siblings. Jae got up first…but only because I was still squashing Kaoru.

"HIIII!!!!" She sang with a huge smile, holding up one of our favorite sappy, girl movies. We laughed as Kaoru rolled over, causing me to tumble onto Jae. My eyes suddenly filled with tears, and the laughter stopped. Kaoru placed a hand on my shoulder, "Misao! What's the matter? Are you hurt or something?" I shook my head 'no' but the tears still fell, splashing onto my lap. "I guess I just missed you guys more than I had realized."

"AWWWW!!! Wittle Misow missed hew sistews!!" They both cooed at the same time. I grinned wickedly as I threw a pillow at them. "Yeah yeah, just don't let it go to your heads". We spent the night talking about how our lives had changed, but as soon as I brought up Aoshi they both knew I was 'totally crushin' on him' as Jae would say. In the morning Kaoru cooked (cough heh) us pancakes and spilled about a certain red haired rocker who she had fallen for, but she told us he was still in love with his ex-girlfriend, a woman named Tomoe, I decided right then and there, that this Kenshin guy was just going to have to forget about that girl and get with the one that loved him. My inner matchmaker is out of her year long coma.

YAY!!!! I finally finished the fourth chapter! It's all thanks to my wonderful reviewers who I love so much! (dramatic sniffle) Hopefully my next update will be longer and come sooner ;; oh And I PROMISE more AoshixMisao fluff in the next chapter