Tofu of Change
Chapter 5: Morning People
Disclaimer: Not in my wildest dreams do I own Rurouni Kenshin. Well, maybe in some of the REALLY wild ones…but sadly, they're still only dreams.
Lexi: EH! DON'T KILL ME! I HAVE AN EXCUSE! IT'S…
Sano: Writer's block?
Lexi:Sweatdrop: NO! Um…yes…
Sano: Baka kitsune…
Lexi:Hangs head: Well anyway…after too long…here it is!
Aoshi blinked open his eyes and for a moment couldn't remember where he was. Then it hit him like a ton of bricks.
Kuso kuso kuso kuso kuso kuso kuso and a little bit of extra kuso. When I get back to my body and have my kodachi back, that priestess…He toyed with mental images of stabbing, slitting, slicing, and otherwise destroying the blond woman.
"SANOSUKE GET YOUR LAZY BUTT OUT OF BED! KENSHIN'S WRIST IS STILL BAD AND I'M TIRED SO COOK IT, BUSTER!"
Cook it…cook WHAT? "What are you TALKING about!"
She stuck her head in, and she did NOT look happy. "Breakfast, baka! Now get moving!"
He groaned and rolled over. "Just a few more minutes, MOTHER."
Kaoru exploded.
Saito listened to a large BOOM come from somewhere near by. He was unconcerned, being not exactly what you'd call a morning person.
"SAGARA (BOOM!) SANOSUKE (BOOM!)! GET UP (BOOM!) AND (BOOM!) GET TO (BOOM!) WORK (BOOM!)!"
But then again, Kaoru had never been much of a morning person, either.
Not that he had WATCHED her in the morning pre-switch, or anything.
Of COURSE he didn't know that from personal experience.
He had…er…found out about it from his good buddy Kenshin!
It sounded lame even in his head.
Sighing, he freshly spiked his annoyingly bright bangs and pulled his hair back into the also annoyingly long and annoyingly bright ponytail. Walking out into the annoyingly bright sunshine, he glared at an annoyingly happy bird and an annoyingly pretty flower, which immediately turned gray and shriveled up.
"Oh THERE you are, Kenshin! Thank Kami SOMEONE around here's a morning person!"
He whipped around, attempting to get rid of his death glare at her annoyingly happy voice accusing him of being an annoyingly freakish morning person.
"Hello, Kaoru-dono, simply WONDERFUL morning, that it is!" He said in a strained voice with more then a hint of sarcasm
Kaoru appeared not to notice. "No, mornings are awful…but it's a perfect day for some serious practice! How's your wrist, by the way?"
Swollen, painful, aching, annoyingly white-wrapped, but FINE! "It's doing fine." Saito forced out through clenched teeth.
She beamed at him. "Good!"
The beam was worth it.
Kenshin opened his eyes. Wonderful day, that it is!
Tokio rolled over and smiled at him. "Isn't it a beautiful day, Hajime!"
He grinned back. "Yes, it's simply gorgeous! Would you like me to cook breakfast, Tokio darling!"
"That would be lovely, Hajime dear! Thank you very much!" She smiled happily again and kissed him on the cheek.
Grinning and humming, he set off for the kitchen. Sessha absolutely LOVES mornings…
Aoshi grumbled as he set at the food. Washing, he could handle, but NOT cooking. When he was back in his body and had his kodachis…he amused himself with images of killing Saito in especially nasty and painful ways involving lots of blood. Let him try to gatotsu with…well anyway.
Something smelled…good. Surely that couldn't be HIS cooking! He frowned and looked closely at it. Yep, it was his food. How was that POSSIBLE! He couldn't cook! Or rather, hadn't really cooked in a while.
He USED to be a fairly good cook.
But he didn't really like to think about that.
Sighing, he picked up the dishes and brought them into the main room. "Breakfast…"
Yahiko sped in as always, eager for a meal. "Alright! Hey bird-head, didn't know you could make food that smelled good!"
"Mmm, Sano, it does smell good, that it does…but will it taste that way?" Saito asked with a sly grin.
Kaoru bopped him. "Of COURSE it'll taste good! If it smells good it'll taste good!"
Aoshi could do nothing but sweatdrop.
The meal was perfectly silent. Aoshi picked nervously at his food, not really tasting anything, too worried that he might poison someone to eat. However, he needn't have worried.
Yahiko was the first to finish. "That was REALLY GOOD! Much better then BUSU'S cooking!"
Kaoru was too busy getting every last crumb out of her bowl to whack Yahiko. "This really IS good, Sano…where'd you learn to cook like this? Never mind; I don't even care. You, sir, are going to cook a LOT more often around here!"
Aoshi opened his mouth to make a nervous reply, but Saito spoke first.
"I bet it was one of Sanosuke's many talents that he chose to hide from us."
Grinning, Kaoru shrugged. "Yeah."
"What a beautiful morning, Tokio!"
"Mornings are so lovely!"
-Morning people. Soku. Zan.-
You've been in Saito's head too much.
-AT LEAST HE'S NOT A MORNING PERSON-
This one LOVES mornings!
-…-
You're bashing your head on the wall.
-…-
You're going to get a concuss—
-…………………………………-
In the words of Saito: baka Battosai.
Aoshi pondered how he would spend the day. Being in the freeloader's body had its downsides—there was nothing to do. Ah well, he might as well meditate to pass the time.
Settling himself in a corner of the yard, he closed his eyes. Instead of the usual and welcome darkness, images of Misao crowded his mind.
Was she all right?
She had always loved trains, but she got motion sickness easily!
That Sagara better not do anything to her…
Disturbed by his own worry, he shook his head and tried to empty his mind.
Misao again.
This was hopeless.
-HELP! Morningpersonmorningpersonmorningpersonmorningperson…-
…WHAT!
-Kenshin…morning person…aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah-
…
-You can roll your eyes as much as you want, but it's SCARY-
Baka Battosai.
Saito grumbled and fiddled with the sakabato. He needed to kill something, and he needed to do it soon.
Unfortunately, Kenshin's weapon was hardly up to the task.
He could always bash a squirrel to death with the sheath…
Stupid sprained wrist. Stupid priestess. Stupid non-katana.
Sighing, he went off to his room. Maybe he could at least get some sleep…and make the morning go AWAY.
"Oh, Hajime my love, can you imagine a more perfect morning!"
"No morning could be better then this one!"
"I just LOVE mornings!"
"Me too, Tokio beloved!"
Battosai ran screaming from Kenshin's head.
"What shall we do this superior morning, Hajime precious!"
"I don't know! Perhaps a jaunt in the park would be magnificent on such a lovely morning!"
"I agree! But Hajime sweetheart, why do you adore mornings all of a sudden!"
"My change of attitude was quite a large one, bigger than this morning is perfect!"
"Well, it's WONDERFUL! Just like mornings!"
Fortunately for all—er, most—involved, the morning passed quickly, leading into an afternoon that was, in the words of Kenshin, "No where near as superb as a morning". However, with later afternoon came a slight complication of things, involving a ring, a couple of mean black things on horses, and a dark lord—er, that is, involving the arrival of two unusual guests.
"Yahiko, could you go see who that is? Kenshin and I are…training in here!" Kaoru hurriedly ran a hand through her hair to smooth it out, and Saito reluctantly sat back.
"HEY! IT'S MISAO-SAN AND AOSHI-SAN!"
Kaoru gasped. "Misao and Aoshi! Oooh, what a pleasant surprise!" She ran outside to great her friends.
Saito sighed and followed her. Too bad their…training…had been interrupted. Ah well. At least he would be able to talk with Sagara.
"Hi, Kaoru-san! Aoshi-sama here had the great idea to visit you guys!"
Inwardly nodding with satisfaction, Saito politely greeted his guests. "Hello, Misao-dono, Aoshi-san, it is nice to see you two, that it is."
Aoshi's usually stoic expression was grinning slightly, a further sign to Saito that the switch had indeed been complete.
"Yahiko, go get Sanosuke! He has to at least be polite!"
"I'm not your messenger boy!" He glared at her.
Kaoru glared back. "Well you stay here for free, so the LEAST you could do is help out a little once in a while!"
"I don't even know why I stay around such an ugly girl!"
"WHY YOU LITTLE—"
Misao giggled nervously. "Well, it's good to see that some things haven't changed…"
Aoshi came out of his stupor at the sound of voices. Were they…so soon? He glanced at the sun. Not that soon, then. Unfolding his legs from their crossed position, he walked over to the small congregation by the gate. Almost bowled over by a streak of yellow and green, he put out a hand to steady himself, which landed on a small shoulder.
"Hi, Sanosuke-san!" Misao said brightly. "Need a hand?"
"Er…yes, thank you, Misao." He fought down a blush at the touch of her hand on his arm. Even in this body he still loved her.
Wait…did I just think what I think I thought? I…love Misao? I…I do love her. I love Misao. I love her.
She smiled up at him. "No problem!"
The group of friends was about to adjourn to a more comfortable location when a familiar laugh was heard.
"Uh-huhuhuhu! I have a few busy days at work, and I seem to miss everything! Hello, Ken-san, Kaoru-kun, Misao-chan, Yahiko-chan, Aoshi-san…Sanosuke."
The way she said "Sanosuke"…She must really love that freeloader… Realizing he was expected to reply, Aoshi hastily scrabbled for something to say. "Oh, hello, Megumi."
"Hi Megumi!" Misao squealed. "Now everyone's here!"
"Not quite everyone." Sano said, speaking for the first time. Everyone stared at him.
"Who ISN'T here, ice man?" Yahiko asked rudely.
"Saito-san and Tokio-dono." Kenshin answered simply.
"Who needs Saito and Tokio? We can have plenty of fun, just us…" Megumi said with a meaningful glance at "Sano". Aoshi fought down another blush. He loved MISAO. MISAO. And he wished he could just tell the conniving kitsune so.
"How 'bout we go to the Akabeko for dinner? My treat." Sano said, realizing that a) he really didn't want Kaoru's cooking, and b) that he actually had MONEY.
The others chirped various replies of "great!" "sure!" and "long as I'm not paying…". Before the sun could even begin to think about leaving for good, the lot of them were off to the restaurant.
"Tokio, what do you want for dinner?" Kenshin asked, stroking his "wife's" hair.
"Oh, whatever you feel like cooking…I'm not up to it tonight…"
"How about we go to the Akabeko? You deserve a treat."
"It's no where near as gorgeous as mornings, but that will be nice."
About twenty-three minutes and fourteen seconds later (Tokio's idea of a "quick" freshen-up), they were headed for the Akabeko.
Both parties had quite a shock when the others were sighted.
"Hello, Tokio-san!" Kaoru said brightly. "This is Misao-san, our friend from Kyoto!"
"Very nice to meet you, Misao-dono!"
"And nice to meet you, Tokio-dono!"
"And you know Megumi-san."
"Yes, I remember, from the picnic! Wonderful to see you!"
"My pleasure as well." Megumi said pleasantly.
The four girls set off into the restaurant, gossiping like a bunch of old friends. Yahiko was long gone, as often happened at the Akabeko. No surprises there.
The men hung behind, talking in low voices.
"So what exactly is going ON?" Sano asked with a hint of danger in his voice.
"It's a long story…but Kenshin and I got switched by this priestess lady, and because we hate each other so much, you and Aoshi got switched, too."
Sano did a double take. "What does your hatred have to do with it!"
Kenshin glared. "Ask the PRIESTESS!"
Aoshi sweat dropped. This was going to be a LONG evening…
Lexi: FINALLY! I finish another chapter!
Sano:Emotionlessly: Praise Kami.
Lexi: Well, SOME people were waiting for me to update…
Sano: "Some"?
Lexi:Raises chin: At LEAST…two…ANYWAY! Reviews me happy. Me happy no writer's block. No writer's block faster updates. So REVIEW! YAY!