The Night Life – Round 15

Misao sighed unhappily as she continued to stare out the broken window.

Everything was happening so quickly.

And to think this chaotic mess had all started by just being dragged out to a bar one night.

She wasn't sure if that was incentive to stay in and never leave the house again or if she should go out more often.

Absently, she wondered where Kaoru was, she kind of felt like talking about it and the last person she usually wanted to see was Megumi.

She made a sour face.

Aoshi was asleep on the bed in the room behind her. Well, actually she didn't know if he was asleep. But since he was lying there on his stomach, stretched out and not moving with his eyes closed, she assumed he was asleep.

Although she liked being near him and being held by him, completely overwhelmed by the very being that was -him-, she needed a moment of space.

Remembering events of a lifetime before had been a blissful rush in his arms. But now, away from his fiery touch, she wasn't so sure how she felt about it.

She almost couldn't quite believe meeting one man at a bar had led to this. Her life, however boring and completely lackluster it had been, was now gone from her. She wasn't sure she regretted that in as much as she would -miss- it, she wasn't sure how she felt about turning the dynamics of her life suddenly upside down.

What of Kaoru and Megumi? What of her friends? Her life?

Even if she had been reborn as her memories told her and that she loved that beautiful man in the other room... It simply didn't perfectly mesh with the life she was currently leading.

Or... had been leading as the case may be.

It felt like trying to shove a square puzzle piece in a circular hole.

Yet at the same time, she felt no ties to the life led in daylight. Maybe it was just confusion, one big, swelling mass of it...with Enishi and Hannya and that weird guy Saitou.

She was stumbling along in the dark, grasping the coat tails of knowledge and only succeeding in getting tiny pieces.

She looked up suddenly, some awareness settling over her. The sun was burgeoning on the horizon, ready to spring up another notch and spill sunlight over the landscape and straight through the windows onto her.

The feeling was completely foreign. Was it dread or danger or excitement?

She turned quickly, she didn't want to find out. She stopped mid-step to stare at the doorway across the room.

There he stood, watching her in perfect stillness. His eyes might've glowed had it been darker, but there was no mistaking what she saw.

He was the most breath-taking person she'd ever laid eyes upon and the fact that she felt such love and devotion for this man, who reason might have otherwise told her was a perfect stranger, was almost frightening in its intensity.

Despite that, there was a bone-deep sense that he'd never hurt her and that was reassuring enough. So what if she was just fumbling blindly as far as this whole situation went?

She smiled, feeling her optimism re-emerge. After all, things were bound to unravel themselves at some point. Someone had told her it was the way of the universe, always heading in the direction of unravelling, or... had she just mutilated that? Ah, well, she didn't really care, she brushed it off.

She stepped forward, mindful of the creeping sun that was just waiting to catch her unawares.

Her mind turned back to Aoshi's gaze and the question she could see lingering there.

"Do you regret it, Misao?"

It was unspoken but she understood it all the same.

She didn't say anything as she approached. His arms opened for her and she slid against him, into him, headlong into what promised to be even more confusion ahead.

As his arms closed around her and they retreated to his inner sanctum to sleep away the day hours Misao wondered...

Maybe she was looking at this all wrong. Maybe this hum-drum boring existence of hers had been nothing but a waiting game.

There was no denying the overall pull and hold this man had on her. Her body trembled slightly and he pulled her closer in response.

Maybe she'd simply found where she belonged.

XxxxxxxxxxxX

In the bowels of the building below a thin woman slipped through the outer doors. She made her way along the semi-chilled corridors and approached a painted green door that read "basement". Snapping the lock, she pulled it open and descended the stairs into a darkened cavern below.

The hum and hiss of building machinery filled her ears and she frowned. It wouldn't be pleasant, but it would do well enough until nightfall.

Memories of her brother burned vividly in her mind, his body burning, turning, falling in a mist of beautiful gray ash...

She smiled thinly.

XxxxxxxxxxxX

Elsewhere, stumbling in from their abbreviated group outing, Kaoru and Kenshin fumbled along an apartment corridor. Her movements were slackened, her mind hazed by alcohol, her giggles startlingly loud in the narrow hall.

She turned, her smile wide, to bid her boyfriend a goodnight when she caught her finger on the damaged frame of the door, slicing it open.

She jumped, yanking her hand back. The injury was minor, little more than an enthusiastic splinter with a tiny droplet of blood.

Dazedly, she didn't protest as Kenshin took her finger and slid it between his lips, suckling softly. She smiled when she felt the press of his teeth, an expression that quickly drained as they tightened upon her digit, dislodging the tiny sliver of wood and causing a tiny upward droplet of blood to the surface.

He licked at the tiny wound and turned his eyes up to a surprised Kaoru. His tender gaze turned dark and gold - an eerie sort of color. They burned deep and she felt herself drawing backward.

He neared, and leaned, his hair brushing against her neck as he hid his eyes from her. She trembled as his lips touched her skin and the flick of his tongue made her knees weak.

She brought her hands up to his shoulders, intent upon bidding him a goodnight, her good mood dampened by the stirring's of fear. As she began to press trying to push him away, his mouth, his jaw tightened and she felt his teeth sink into her flesh.

She gasped, a sickly sound full of pain and tried, desperately, to push him away from her.

It seemed only a moment before he drew back from her - her vision darkened, she felt faint.

With her last steady, conscious moment, she heard him speak.

"Tomoe..."

Author's Notes: I'm fairly confused as to the actual timeline of events, as in what day they're on in comparison with the first chapter... So the last part with Kenshin & Kaoru might be a bit off...

Xxxxx Chibijem – Your Turn xxxxX