Everything Purple
violetjewelz

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Rurouni Kenshin or any of the characters associated with the great manga/anime. Wish I did, though ...

Chapter 3: First Meeting

Kaoru was up right as the sun came up. Why? She had no clue, but she just couldn't get back to bed. So she had crawlen out of bed and tried to find an outfit for the day. She had found a sundress that she had received as a present for her birthday two months ago. It had an A-line front and it was all white with purple butterflies. She had tied her hair up in a high ponytail with a matching purple butterfly hair tie. After applying a light layer of purple eyeshadow, she slipped on a pair of purple flip-flops and covered her eyes with her purple contact lenses.

Now, she was standing at her door, purse in hand, deciding if she should wait a few hours before leaving. She wasn't sure when everyone else got up in this place and she didn't want to wake someone up.

She carefully opened her door and stepped out. She briefly glanced around to make sure nobody was up yet, and, after finding her way to the tavern's main entrance and exit, she stepped out into the warm, morning sunshine.

Having a gig at Hajami's tavern would get her food and a place to stay, but she knew that she would need extra money to buy things that she would want. After all, she only had about a week or two's worth of clothing. If she had to stay here the rest of her life, she would be needing more clothing. Preferably clothing that made her fit in better. Not that she could buy her type of clothing here, but whatever.

Kaoru strolled down the street which her tavern was on, looking for any place that might hire a girl of such strange origins as herself.

After walking for about an hour, she still had no luck. She had tried three different places: a tea store, a clothing store, and a painting store, but none of them would hire her.

Finally, a florist caught Kaoru's eyes and she almost jumped in excitement. Her Nana on her mother's side owned a florist back home and she had worked there numerous times. She knew a lot about flowers and was great at arranging them. Hopefully her attire wouldn't effect her potential employer's decision on whether or not to hire her.

Holding her breath, she entered the florist and went up to where a lady was sitting. "Umm ... hello," Kaoru began, a tad nervous, "I was wondering ... if you needed an extra hand around here, if you could ... ermm ... hire me .. possibly?"

The old woman whom she was speaking to rushed over to Kaoru's side and, going op on her tippy-toes (as she was very short), she pinched Kaoru's cheeks. "My, my! You are a very pretty one, aren't you? Of course you can work here! Would you like to start now?"

"Thank you, you're very kind. I would love that." Kaoru smiled, "But you're just going to hire me like that? You're not going to interview me or ask of my experiences or anything?"

"What's the need to? I'm sure you'll be a great worker. I'll have you just working here. Here's a list of the prices of the different kinds of flowers. Tulips are buy three get one free for this week," the old woman instructed.

'Guess they had sales back in the olden days too. Who woulda' thunk?' Kaoru mentally thought. "Okay. That sounds good. But I have two questions: what are my hours and what should I call you. After all, you are my employer." Quickly, Kaoru added, "Oh, and my name is Kamiya Kaoru."

The old woman ignored the fact that she didn't know what Kaoru meant by employer and answered her. "You can work however long you want. I'll give you 5 yen for every hour you do work and you can just call me Shigeta."

"Awesome! I really do appreciate you hiring me, Shigeta. No one else seemed to want me." Kaoru thanked her employer.

"Oh it's nothing really. A young woman such as yourself does need money these days for all the beautiful kimono that have recently came out. Though by what you're wearing, it seems you don't like kimonos," Shigeta chuckled lightly.

"Actually, I've never worn one," Kaoru mentioned. "Anyways, may I work from 8:00am to 3:00pm? That's seven hours." Kaoru asked Shigeta.

"Sounds good to me. That would be ..." Shigeta tried to think, scrunching her face together as if that would help her come up with an answer. "I'm sorry I'm not that great at math. Do you know?"

"35 yen," Kaoru supplied easily. "Do you think that you could pay me at the end of each day, because I'll need that money for like .. anything except food and board."

"That can be done! Now, I'm going to go arrange some flowers and wreaths. You're good at math as you just showed, so I have no doubt that you'll do great. We can eat lunch around 12:30pm. I'll come and get you then." With that, Shigeta went into the back and worked on some flower arrangement.

'Well this sure did work out well,' Kaoru thought, 'I think I'll be able to do this!'

Kaoru was surprised at how busy the florist was. It was 2:00pm and so far they had made 200 yen. Shigeta had closed the shop temporarily at 12:30pm and they had shared Shigeta's lunch. Kaoru had at first refused because she didn't want to take her food, since she was already so generous to give her her much needed job. It turned that Shigeta was just as stubburn and bull-headed as Kaoru and finally, Kaoru's grumbling stomach was enough to solve that problem. She had never had Japanese food and she found out that it wasn't all that bad.

The next hour passed by rather rapidly and soon Shigeta had paid Kaoru her her 1,750 yen and sent her out the door before Kaoru could protest about staying to help clean up. "I don't close for hours, there's no need for clean up, silly girl. I'll see you tomorrow at eight. Now go, for Kami's sake!" was exactly what Shigeta had told her.

Once she got outside, Kaoru put her money in her wallet and then put her wallet back in her purse, zipping it up. Kaoru closed her eyes and started to skip down the empty street, singing as she went.

That didn't last long, though, as she soon bumped into something and fell flat on her back. Kaoru sat up and cracked her neck before looking at what she had bumped into. When she saw what, or rather, who she had run into, she felt completely embarrassed.

'Dammit, Kaoru. You're sooo stupid. You're not supposed to skip down the street with your eyes closed,' she inwardly cursed to herself and looked back up at the man. 'And to bump into such a sexy man, too!' Now this guy was definitely worthy of being a YM 'aww yeah!' guy. Actually, he was even hotter than any of the other past 'aww yeah!' guys. The man was probably in his late teens, possibly a few years older than her. He had long, flame-red hair pulled back in a high ponytail and a x-shaped slash across his left cheek. His eyes were what shocked her the most; they were a deep golden-amber color. Her eyes trailed farther down and she couldn't help thinking what a nice body the man had. His dark blue gi was open a little, showing his golden-tanned chest. She could see some muscles underneath that shirt of his and for a split second almost wanted to tear it off of him, but she didn't want to think of the consequences of that.

A deep voice brought Kaoru's eyes back to his face. "Aren't you going to apologize for carelessly bumping into me?"

Kaoru averted her eyes from the man's face. She had forgotten, in her viewing of the sexy man, to say sorry. But did the man have to act so cocky, demanding that she apologize? Heck she wasn't going to apologize now. Not after him saying such a rude statement.

"I don't have to apologize to you! Maybe you should have watched where I was going as well. You can't expect everyone to just immediatly stop what they're doing and get out of your way. It's not like your Supreme Ruler of the Universe!" Kaoru chewed the man out, foolishly not thinking of the consequences her words might provoke.

Kaoru was suddenly against the wall of a nearby building, her head making a hard impact, causing a pounding headache to start. "Dammit! That fuckin' hurt!" she cried out.

"Look, wench. For all you know, or don't know, I could very well be Supreme Ruler of the Universe. I'd suggest that in the future you find out who you're talking to before speaking. That is if you want to have a future," the man harshly threatened.

She tried her best to pry the man's hand from her throat, but she couldn't even move one of his fingers. "Get off of me, asshole," she spat at him.

The red-haired man wasted no time in reaching towards his hakama, drawing something out. Suddenly, Kaoru wished she had never bumped into this man. She could feel the cold steel where the man's hand had been less than a few seconds ago. "Do you know who I am?" he asked her, his voice dangerously low.

Kaoru snorted rather unladylike. "Hmph! I try my best not to get involved with and know bastards like you, so of course I don't."

She gasped as the sword's blade cut into her skin, causing a thin, red line of blood to appear. "Maybe you should ask who I am before you proceed to talk again." He sneered at her.

Even though she was in a very dangerous situation, Kaoru's infamous danger-alert still hadn't gone off. "But if I asked you that, I would be talking, wouldn't I?"

The man scowled, clearly not happy with having to be in Kaoru's prescence. He sheathed his sword and turned her around, having her in the center of the road now. As the man brought his hand back, Kaoru only had time to squeeze her eyes shut as his slap sent her wheeling into a wall of a bulding on the other side of the street.

By the time she was able to collect herself and started to rub her puffy, red cheek, he had already been standing by here for awhile. "Don't you ever learn?"

Still, Kaoru didn't give into this man, too pissed to be conscious of the fact that she could be so easily killed by him. "Yeah, but only in school, and it's currently the summer. I have a whole month before my brain can start to learn."

"Battousai," was the only thing the man had to say to her.

"Excuse me?" she asked, very confused.

"That's what people call me," the man informed her. "Hitokiri Battousai."

Kaoru tried to place who this man was, to see if she knew him. Then it dawned on her. He was the one who was supposedly going to kill Hajami.

She looked up at him, suspiciously. "You're the assassin? You can't be any older than twenty. I'm sure you're not much older than me. How old are you, exactly?"

"Nineteen."

"Pfft. You can't be an assassin at that age."

"I've been one since I was fourteen."

Kaoru was dumbfounded, to say the least. "A-and how many people have you killed?"

"Hundreds," came the emotionless reply.

Kaoru turned from being completely pissed at this man to feeling sorry for him. She moved a step closer to him so that they were even closer. She tentatively reached out and hugged him as she said, "I-I'm so sorry that you had to go through all of this." She paused, releasing him from her makeshift hug. "Ever since you were fourteen? That must have been real shitty."

For like the millionth time in the past few minutes, Kaoru felt more pain. Battousai had her pinned against a wall, but this time his hands were so tight around her neck that she couldn't breathe. "DON'T pity me. You got that, bitch?! Nobody pities me!" Without waiting for a reply from her, the Battousai was gone. She didn't even have time to comprehend what he had said to her. "Dick," she muttered, picking up her purse that had slipped off her arm through her ... ordeal.

She wasted no time at all in getting back to Hajami's tavern.

Unfortunately, Kaoru didn't have time to even relax for a minute before Hajami was in a chair next to her. "Where were you, Kaoru? I went in to wake you up and you weren't there!"

"Geez. Sorry, Dad. I didn't know I had to tell you where and when I was going out," Kaoru grumbled, a little annoyed.

"Hey! I was worried! I don't want you to get hurt! You are, after all, my lead singer. So don't go out without telling me," Hajami chided her.

"I'm your only singer," Kaoru corrected him.

"Exactly!" Hajami grinned. "Even more reason to worry."

Kaoru playfully smacked Hajami on the head. She dropped her hand as soon as his expression changed, though.

His hand went to her left cheek where Battousai had smacked her, and to her neck, where her wound had healed over, leaving a very thin, red line. "What happened here and there?"

Kaoru brushed his hand aside. "Nothing. I just fell. And I drew a red line from my pen because I was bored," Kaoru explained, giving him a very lame excuse for her brusies. "You know, you really do worry too much. Just forget it."

"Kaoru. If someone--"

"I said forget it. Can't you just leave it alone?" Kaoru asked angrily.

"Fine, fine." Hajami reluctantly let the subject dropped. "Would you like something to drink?"

"Sure. Do you have a strawberry daiquiri?"

"A strawberry what?"

Kaoru sighed. Did they have anything good here? "Never mind. Any juice?"

"Fruit nectar okay?"

"Yeah, sure. You got Guava nectar?"

"No, sorry."

"Then what the heck do you have?"

"Avocado nectar."

"Fine. Why not?"

"Okay. I'll be right back. Stay here. Don't go wandering off and get yourself hurt again," Hajami instructed, leaving to get her drink.

Hajami came back soon after, two glasses of Avocado nectar in his hands.

As she took a sip from her glass, she looked at him. "You know you can have beer if you want. Or sake. Or whatever you call it. I'm not exactly a 'lady' or whatnot."

"Yeah, I can tell that." Hajami wasted no time in agreeing.

Kaoru once again lightly smacked him on the head. "Ex-CUSE me?!"

"I said I agree with you on the fac--"

"I know! I heard you."

"Well, then why did you ask?" he asked, tilting his head to the side, puzzled.

She only rolled her eyes at him, laughing at the picture he made, with his head tilted like a confused dog.

"I never did ask you. How old are you?" he asked her.

"Sixteen, you?" she answered simply.

"That young? Really?"

Kaoru only nodded. "And you...?"

"Twenty-two."

"You're younger than I thought you were."

"That makes two of us," Hajami noted. "Well, I have a business to run. It's 4:30pm now, when do you want to start?"

"I dunno. It would be nice if I could start like at 7:30pm and go until 10:30pm. Does that sound good?"

"Sounds fine to me. I'll get you dinner in an hour or two, 'kay?"

"Sure thing. What's for dinner?" Kaoru asked, intrigued.

"The house special."

"And that would be...?" Kaoru once again asked, hoping for a specific answer.

Hajami thought about it for a moment until he made and face and spoke, "You don't want to know. Trust me."

"With a face like that I suppose I don't," Kaoru concluded as Hajami left the table, leaving Kaoru with two empty glasses.

A waitress had come by later to pick up the empty glasses and Kaoru was still sitting at the table. She really didn't know what to do. She was in a totally different place and she had thought at first that there would be so much that she could do, but she had been wrong.

She kept thinking about the belligerent man she had ... met a little earlier. He sure was arrogant and surely spiteful, but he was drop-dead gorgeous! 'Bad Kaoru! Bad, bad! He was a horrible man and you should be hoping that you never see him again!' Her inner conscience commanded her. "Shut up conscience!" Kaoru said quietly.

'Why I never--' her conscience began.

"I said SHUT UP!" Kaoru all but yelled, causing a few heads to turn her way. She shyly smiled back at the people and they all turned their attention back to whatever it was they were doing.

Whatever the 'house special' was, it turned out to be very delicious. Kaoru had mastered the chopsticks in only two days, though she had eaten only two meals during then, and she was already able to scarf down any food that she desired in the same amount of time used to eat with a fork or spoon.

She dropped her chopsticks onto her plate and sighed contently, all filled up. "Now that was good. I thought you said that was going to be bad."

Hajami chortled. "I never said it would be bad. All I said was that you didn't want to know what it was."

"Well I've eaten it already. It can't hurt to know what it is now," Kaoru reasoned.

"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you." Hajami delayed for a brief second before continuing, "It was escargot. I know it seems odd to have such a fancy entree at a tavern, but--"

Kaoru wasted no time in drinking her Avocado nectar and reaching for Hajami's sake, downing all the contents.

"Oh no. This ain't gonna be good." Hajami emitted a sigh, shaking his head.

"Whaddya talkin' bout' ol' buddy, ol' pal? Everathin's great!" Kaoru slurred, obviously her first time being drunk since she got drunk so soon.

"It won't be when you wake up with a monstrous headache," he argued with her.

"Headache-schmedache!" Kaour gleefully said, pulling Hajami out of his chair. "Come on! Let's dance!"

"Kaoru, there's no music," Hajami tried once more to reason with her.

"Well ah can sang then!"

"You sure are a terrible drunk," Hajami resolved. "You're taking a nap. You'll regret this come time to wake up and perform."

Kaoru didn't obey and so Hajami had to drag her all the way up the stairs and into her room, where he promptly dropped her onto her bed, shutting the door on his way out very loudly.

When Kaoru had awoken, she had a headache, but it was amazingly a dull one.

"Are you sure you're okay? Your head should be pounding." Hajami checked, placing a hand on her forehead.

"I'm fine, I tell you! Just give me an Ibu-profin or Aspirin and I'll be fine," she assured Hajami.

"This isn't your time period, remember? We don't have whatever that stuff is," he reminded her.

"How can you guys live without those god-given necessities?" Kaoru couldn't believe a time when there was no Advil or Apsirin or Ibu-profin. "That's okay, though. I assure you, I don't need anything. I'll be up and at 'em right when I need to sing."

"That's in twenty minutes."

Kaoru bolted up from her bed. "Well I better get going, then!"

When Hajami didn't move a muscle, she tried to shove him out the door. "Hey! I said I need to get going! I can't go out looking like I just woke up!"

"Huh? Oh yeah! Sorry! I'm leaving now."

"Good!" she exclaimed, closing the door after he was gone.

Looking at the mirror, she rationalized that she could just wear what she had been wearing, as long as she reapplied her makeup and readjusted her hair. So, with a little less than twenty minutes before she was on stage, she set about the task of doing just that.

Kaoru was now on stage, booting up her trusty laptop once again. 'Good thing I brought plenty of batteries!' Kaoru thought, looking through her playlist to find what song she should sing.

She turned toward the audience, which was much larger than that of yesterday's performance.

"Do you guys want to hear a slow song or an upbeat one?"

"Something not boring!" a voice in the crowd said.

"Something with a beat!" said another.

"Hmm .. good idea. We need to get this party started, don't we?" Kaoru's face then lit up. "Awesome! How about 'Get The Party Started' by Pink?"

No shouts of disapproval were made from the crowd, so Kaoru started to play Pink's song after she found it on her playlist.

Soon, she began to sing along with the background music, dancing just like Pink. These people wouldn't know that her dance moves weren't her own. They probably wouldn't care even if they did, though.

I'm comin' up so you better you better get this party started
I'm comin' up so you better you better get this party started
Get this party started on a Saturday night
Everybody's waitin' for me to arrive

Sendin' out the message to all of my friends
We'll be lookin' flashy in my Mercedes Benz
I got lotsa style, got my gold diamond rings
I can go for miles if you know what I mean

I'm comin' up so you better you better get this party started
I'm comin' up so you better you better get this party started

Pumpin up the volume, breakin down' to the beat
Cruisin' through the west side
We'll be checkin' the scene

Boulevard is freakin' as I'm comin' up fast
I'll be burnin' rubber, you'll be kissin' my ass
Pull up to the bumper, get out of the car
License plate says Stunner #1 Superstar

I'm comin' up so you better you better get this party started
I'm comin' up so you better you better get this party started
Get this party started

Makin' my connection as I enter the room
Everybody's chillin' as I set up the groove
Pumpin' up the volume with this brand new beat
Everybody's dancin' and their dancin' for me
I'm your operator, you can call anytime
I'll be your connection to the party line

I'm comin' up so you better you better get this party started
I'm comin' up so you better you better get this party started
I'm comin' up so you better you better get this party started
I'm comin' up so you better you better get this party started

Get this party started
Get this party started right now

Get this party started
Get this party started
Get this party started right now.

For roughly the next three hours, Kaoru sang to the background music to many other songs. After every song, she would get a standing ovation. 'When nobody has ever heard of this great music I suppose that they would love it,' Kaoru believed.

As Kaoru moved to a table to have her third Avocado nectar of the day, many people complimented her on her performance.

"Great job!"

"That was amazing!"

"You did even better than yesterday!"

"Hope you sing tomorrow to! I'll definitely come!"

Kaoru was soon in her room, standing in front of her mirror. Kaoru couldn't believe that she had received so many praises. 'I could get used to this.' Kaoru smiled as she got into her lavender silk lingerie. She slipped comfortably into her bed and fell asleep, very content.

Author's Note: That's the third chapter! I can't believe I wrote this in only one day. It took me all of my free time today, but I did it. Please don't expect an update everyday, though. If you do, you'll be disappointed. Sorry.

Anyways, Battousai finally met Kaoru! Sure wasn't a great expeirence for either of them, but they did meet. I promsie that not all of their meetings will be like that. Battousai is very violent if you think about it, though. I mean he did kill so many people, so he does have to do things like he did with Kaoru. Heck if he was a real person he probably would've killed her. That would not of been a very good story, however.

I had something I was going to say, but I forgot. Don't you hate when that happens? Oh wait! I remember! I'm a very indecisive person and so I need help deciding what songs Kaoru will sing next. If you have any suggestions, please suggest them in your review! The only requirement is that the song is song by a female (or females).

Thanks for all the reviews, guys! I can't believe you have written me so many!

Review Responses:

Brittanie Love: Thank you for reviewing again!

Uenki: Thank you! I'm not quite sure where this plot will lead. I guess wherever it takes me! I hope you continue to read!

kenshin's-angel: Good guess, but that man who Kaoru was singing to wasn't him. I'm pretty sure you know who he is now because of this chapter, I bet. That man who was in Chapter 2 won't be of any importance at all any more.

KenKao4eva: Are you happy? Battousai appeared! I'm not sure if you're too happy of how he treated her, though. I wasn't! Mean, MEAN Battousai! -smacks Battousai and gets thrown into a wall- Ouch! Anyways, I'll respond to your reviews as long as you review every chapter! (:

Crazed T.V. Girl 18: I love Jessica, too. She may be a ditz, but she is still a good singer. In my opinion, at least.If you have any other favorite singers, feel free in your next review to say who and I could let Kaoru sing one of their songs!

Bloody Akiko Nagi the Insane: K and B met! Are you disappointed with how they met? I was afraid B&K lovers would be upset. But never fear; by the end of the story they will end up together and love each other. It will happen gradually, though, because real love doesn't happen overnight. :)

I DO NOT OWN DBZ: I wrote more! Yay! I'm not sure if it was as long as your review, though! You sure did type a lot of "write more"s! LMAO! :P

- violetjewelz