High School Crushes are for Wimps

Kenshin sat on his lounge, facing Kaoru as he waited for her to begin the story of Aoshi Shinomori. To think someone like Aoshi was an abused child was quite strange, but when Kenshin looked back on the way Aoshi was so stubborn and private, not wishing for anyone to interfere with his life, he now knew why. He may be a young adult of 18 years, but inside he was still very much a young troubled boy in front of a father that loathed who he was. Kenshin eyed Kaoru as she got up to walk around for a moment. It seemed that the information she was about to tell him was truly worrying her…especially since she had no idea what he would do with it all. As Kaoru drifted passed him Kenshin clasped her hand, Kaoru's eyes boring into his intently.

"All I want is to help him Kaoru…onegai?" Her eyes had softened at his calm voice. His facial expression had changed as well which Kaoru finally sat down again and was ready to spill all she knew.

Kenshin had to visibly calm down in the past ten minutes, apologising to Kaoru in doing so as she had never seen such an expression cast over his face before. The look of surprise in her eyes, dashed with some fear made him calm down his rage immediately. His rebellious youth wanted to be set free, to lash out at all the people, who had mocked and tormented him and yet as he stared into Kaoru's blue eyes Kenshin knew he could not. He was no longer that rebellious youth thanks to the man that took him into his home and cared for his well being. That was the first time Kenshin had opened his eyes when he did not feel a slap across his face for wetting the futon. He had stared into calm eyes that night, the man not speaking any words of detest and instead all he did was change him into dry clothes and tucked Kenshin into his own futon watching over him for that night. From that night onwards Kenshin vowed to be someone different, someone this man could be proud of.

"I was 5 years old when I first saw Aoshi. He sat out in the warm sun reading a book while other children ran around him happily. Our class had gone on an outing to the park that day and yet he was unfazed by the amount of noise the other children made and just went on reading his book. I at the time was actually sitting with a bunch of girls, arranging some flowers we had picked earlier, but my eyes cast over the park and stuck on the strange dark haired boy sitting all on his lonesome. I was up in a second, the flowers being dumped to the ground and I started heading towards him, silently wanting to know why he was by himself and not playing like the others. I never did get close enough to voice my question since Aoshi had closed his book and those innocent bright green-grey eyes of his were gazing at a punch of elderly citizens practicing a kata. They wouldn't have been over 30 but to us at that age it was old." Kenshin sat back against the lounge, watching silently as Kaoru lay on the other half, her head resting on his right thigh.

"I had walked over to his forgotten book, picking it up as Aoshi had walked off to get a better look at all the interesting moves that were being performed in front of our eyes. Of course I being the curious little girl, had to follow and watched in utter amazement when Aoshi tried to follow exactly what the 'master' was teaching his students. His moves weren't fluent, but his eyes read exactly what the teacher was doing. He never knew what the moves were, neither did I in fact, but his arms followed precisely what was being displayed, but instead of staying upright like the elder men he fell over in the lush grass having tangled his legs up together. It was so funny…and by now he had received the attention of three students and the teacher. I watched him stand up and brush his hands over his butt wiping it of grass stains, his head jerking up in surprise when a hand reached out to take his and the teacher brought him into the class, helping him to learn the first moves of the kata. From that day on I noticed the change in Aoshi, which inevitable got me curious in wanting to know more about him."

"Kaoru, tell me about the beatings. Do you know how they started?" Kenshin questioned softly.

"They would have started just after Mrs Shinomori passed away. There was always this mystery about the marriage between Mr Shinomori and his wife. People speculated that it was forced or that he had raped her and since she was with child it was only right that he marry her. There were speculations that he beat her up as well, but it wasn't true. In all honesty Mr Shinomori loved his wife dearly and when you love someone you cannot help but give your heart to him or her. My mum works at the hospital and she had seen Mrs Shinomori make a couple of visits more frequently then anyone would have check ups and that's when she found out that she was dying. How can you tell the people you love that you're going to die? My mum said it started just after Aoshi was born and that his birth seemed to trigger the downfall of her immune system, her organs started collapsing having to be hospitalised several times. Not only did Mr Shinomori have a slight mental problem, which he was being treated for he now had to cope with his wife not being beside him now."

"The beatings Kaoru…" Kenshin persisted and watched as she tensed her shoulders slightly. He placed his hand on her bare right one and she sighed lightly knowing she shouldn't be bypassing it all the time.

"Of course his medication stopped, all time stopped for Mr Shinomori the day his wife died. Still rumours floated around that Mr Shinomori had killed his wife, but in truth he wasn't even in the house at the time. The one day Aoshi had finally invited me over to have cookies and milk with him I came along enthusiastically and chatting a mile a minute. We walked into his home and straight for the kitchen where we could smell the scent of burning cookies. Mrs Shinomori was lying…in a pool of her own blood. Aoshi and I were about 6 years old then…and being children we just stood there not knowing what to do the entire time. I swear an hour must have passed until we heard the dropping of mail, papers and a brief case. Mr Shinomori was home and that's how he found all of us. Ambulance was called, but she was already long gone. In a last attempt to end her suffering Mrs Shinomori had ended it all. Actually the worst part about everything was the fact that my mum said Mr Shinomori didn't even know and neither did Aoshi. When he found out that her entire body began to shut down after the birth of their son he lost it completely. After that, with no more medication, everything became Aoshi's fault."

"So the beatings started?" Kenshin retorted and Kaoru nodded her head on his lap.

"Aoshi didn't come to school for an entire week, so instead I went to see him and that's when I saw his first ever bruise. It was so huge, so awful that it didn't suit his cute features and tears wield up in my eyes when I saw him. I remember him voicing he fell over in the backyard but I knew Aoshi wasn't that clumsy and raced home to tell my mum. Of course she never believed me, so one day I finally dragged her over to Aoshi's place…but the bruise was gone and all he did was give me a blank stare as though I had been hallucinating. I observed when we went or lunch to the park that he'd end up faking he was sick, or he would hide amongst the toys, the teachers thinking he'd already left with the other children, but mainly because outside he'd have to take of his school jumper. He'd be doomed then since bruises always covered his arms everyday. It was as though as soon as one went away, he'd have two more to worry over."

"Did you think about telling your teacher?"

"Of course, but one day Aoshi confronted me and scared me into crying my eyes out that if I told, he'd come and hurt me instead. I never told a soul…until now. Even now that we aren't friends I still feel like I've betrayed him since I'm telling you. Kenshin…is it…still happening even now?" Kaoru spoke as she sat up on her knees facing him. When Kenshin nodded affirmatively, Kaoru instantly bit her lip to try and stop it from trembling.

"Do you know why he lets it happen Kaoru? He's 18 now and yet he decided to come back to school…and still he is abused. For someone so headstrong like Aoshi, it seems strange that he'd take such abuse from his father like this."

"No, not at all Kenshin. In Aoshi's mind he will commit himself to being abused for when he finally finishes his high school certificate he can get back his sisters and leave all his bad memories behind."

"Sisters? But I thought you said…"

"Of course they aren't his real ones, but he had received a letter from the orphanage just around the corner from our place about two little girls needing a loving home. His mother had placed her name down on the list of waiting for any little girls needing homes and when Aoshi was 12 he had come across the letter in the mailbox before his father had found it. They were but small girls, just born and so it wasn't time for them to be given up for adoption, but when Aoshi was 16 he headed straight for the orphanage and instantly fell in love with the four year olds. He signed papers and said all he needed was two years and then he'd be here to get them. He'd met them many times and they loved him instantly, already calling him 'Aoshi-niichan'. However…" Kaoru hiccupped lightly as her eyes misted over with tears.

"His plans were found out by his father and…and his true beating had happened. Aoshi was hospitalised for months…an entire year in fact. Although my attraction and infatuation for Aoshi had lessened over the years when I met you, I still cared and wanted to know of his well being. I had come to his home, dressed nicely and held a plate of biscuits I baked myself and was just about to knock on the door when I heard the loudest crash. Instantly I ran inside, the door never being locked and all I saw was a crippled body and blood. Aoshi's father was nowhere to be found and I screamed loudly at the sight of Aoshi. He was…beaten to a bloody pulp that I don't even know to this day how he survived. I guess the love and protection he felt for Ayame and Suzume-chan fearlessly kept him live. He was in a comma for three months…"

"Why was this not spoken about to the police?" Kenshin spoke in utter horror at what Kaoru was describing to him.

"Because although I saw Aoshi lying in a bloody heap I never saw the so called "hoodlum" as the cops put it as. His father miraculously rang the cops saying his home had been ran sacked and that there was blood and that's when he ran into the hospital room Aoshi was in. It made me sick that he could place on such an act in front of people that I ran out of the room and threw up in the bathroom. He's a rotten man, but Aoshi has no way of paying for his tuition, his books, his extra tutoring he would need for schooling…and his father is all he has. If Aoshi pulled the plug on his dad, just where would he go?"

"A better place that's for sure!" Kenshin stood up as he paced the lounge room deciding on what o do with Mr Shinomori.

"Kenshin stop! What wrong with you? Why are you angry all of a sudden?" Kaoru stood up her hands clasped at her chest, her eyes frowning in worry as she stared into Kenshin's. She watched as he bowed his head, his red bangs blocking off his violet eyes from her.

"I was 4 when I had first been beaten up myself. It was only a verbal beating at the time, but it struck me hard, ripping my already broken heart apart. All I received was 'you're a mistake, such a burden to us'. I was never apart of their family and was tossed away during the night to the outskirts of a small village I'd never even heard of. That night I had my first beating…I remember it as though it happened yesterday. A first beating will always be remembered…I shall carry the scar with me wherever I go." Kaoru's eyes sparkled with tears, as she knew he just wasn't talking about the pain in his heart, but the scar that crossed his left cheek. She stepped forward, her hand cupping his scar, his eyes jerking towards hers in surprise.

"Yes, it will always be there to remind you of what you went through, but I am glad in a way that it is there. It was but a stepping stone that helped you become the person you are now…the man that I love with all my heart…the man I wish to help even though the darkest of moments." Kaoru placed a light kiss on his crossed scar and then closed her eyes pressing her lips to his. For just a moment the two of them held each other for dear life as they forgot everything that had happened and lived in their special moment.

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(The next morning…)

As Kenshin sat at his desk in the classroom he looked over his students. Some were chatting quietly; while others read their books and took notes. The two main ones he was worried about were doing neither. Misao stared out the window, while Aoshi had his head down on his desk. This would not do, Kenshin needed to come up with an idea to get the two of them together. Of course it was a one in a million chance that the two would actually cooperate if he asked them nicely, so instead he'd have to force the issue upon them.

"Class, I have decided the topic for your first science oral essay." Of course the usual groans and annoyed sighs were voiced and as his students looked at him, his mind began turning over ideas of how in the hell he was going to pair Aoshi and Misao together without it looking obvious. As Kenshin turned his back to his students to write up what the topic was going to be, his mind finally snapped out a way to pair his students up. His hand lifted up as he stopped students from picking out their partners for the project and instead he voiced his brilliant plan aloud.

"I have decided that the students in rows two and four must turn to their left and who ever is sitting beside them in row one and three is going to be their partner. Just to make it fair the person sitting in row one and three get to pick the organ to do a discussion on as I shall now write them down and place them in a hat." Kenshin finally did just that and Sano started off as he picked out a piece of paper and opened it up to voice it aloud.

"The brain…well that's easy, she's sitting right beside me." Sano spoke as he waved at Megumi who had got him as her partner. In return he was smacked over the head and laughs erupted throughout the classroom.

"The heart…" Misao spoke as she scrunched the piece of paper up and dumped it back into the hat. Kenshin was literally dancing on the inside at the organ Aoshi and Misao had to talk about. Although the heart was a relatively easy organ to discuss, he'd make sure that any "personal" comments made about the heart would have to be backed up with reasons as to why his students think the way they do.

"Okay, now you may head to the library now because I want this to be finished in one week. I'll decide then who shall start first when the time comes." As Kenshin followed his students out of the classroom he noticed that although they weren't speaking Aoshi and Misao were actually walking together! Kenshin could not help the small smile that spread across his lips. Oh how he hoped that these two lost souls might just be able to confide in each other. If his plan failed Kenshin had no choice but to confront Aoshi about his abusive father himself and bring it up at the teachers board when they held meetings. He seriously doubted Aoshi would be happy about that.

"So…you wanna check the net while I check the reference books?" Kenshin heard Aoshi question as they stood in the library doorway watching their classmates busy themselves with grabbing organ books from each other. Misao shrugged her shoulders in answer and headed off to the computers' while Aoshi headed off in the other direction towards the reference books. So far…so good…

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To be continued…

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