A Note From Sedjet: Okie doke. This is the revised version of this chapter.
Rent
Chapter Three:
Who Do You Think You Are?
Kenshin just stared at the girl hoping she would go away, but she didn't even squirm. She stood there, meeting his gaze with sapphire eyes that held a tender expression. Who the hell did this girl think she was barging into his sanctuary, thinking she knew his pain?! What did he have to do to make this girl go away?! A girl that reminded him too painfully of another girl. The girl reminded him of Tomoe with her caring smile and her unwanted concern. But that wasn't why she looked so familiar. There was something else. He had seen her before. But where? He should remember a body like that. He groaned inwardly—and those eyes!
"Why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?" She asked lightly.
"You look familiar, like I've seen you somewhere before," he mumbled, still studying her intently.
"I work at the Sex Kitten," she offered, jamming her thumbs into the belt loops on her skirt. Her very short skirt that revealed very long legs.
His face lit up in recognition, "You do bondage!" He used to love watching her show, and he totally got off on it. What guy wouldn't, seeing a woman who looked like that dressed in paten leather, with thigh-high boots being tied up by another girl? She was a total sex kitten.
"Yeah, well, it pays the bills," she muttered wryly.
"I almost didn't recognize you without the whips, chains, handcuffs—"
"I get the picture," she muttered.
"You look like a baby. You can't be more than sixteen years-old. How in the hell did you get a job at the Sex Kitten?"
"I'm nineteen, thank you very much! And I'm only dancing at the club so I can go back to college," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and cocking her hip to the side.
They stood in awkward silence for a few moments before Kaoru reached out and captured his wrist between both of her tiny hands. "C'mon! We should go out. You'll feel better."
Kenshin wrenched his arm free from her grasp and glared at her, "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
Kaoru yanked her hands back like she'd been burned, a wounded look in her jewel-like eyes. She crossed her arms in front of her, self-consciously. "You seem lonely. I thought—"
"What? That you could come in here and just barge in on me like you know about me and my problems?!" Kaoru opened her mouth to speak, but Kenshin cut her off, "Well, you don't know me, and I don't want to know you! So why don't you take your happy ass back to wherever the hell it is that you came from?" He bit out acidly.
Kaoru's eyes narrowed in enmity, "You know, for someone with such passion and incredible talent, you are an incredible asshole."
"What would you know about talent, anyway? You sell your body for a living," he said snidely. He didn't know why he said it. She was making him feel like he hadn't felt in years. He desired her physically, and it pissed him off. He had to lash out at her, needed to hurt her for making him feel like that. He didn't want anything to do with anyone. He just wanted everything and everyone to leave him alone and let him wallow in self-pity while he wasted away to a husk of his former self.
Kaoru straightened as if she had been slapped, "I dance for a living!"
"You rub your tits in the faces of men you don't know for money," he said scornfully.
Kaoru's eyes narrowed into dangerous blue slits. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, and Kenshin had the premonition that he just might die sooner than he thought. "You fucking hypocrite," she said dangerously, and Kenshin found it odd for such language to be coming from such a sweet mouth. "You have no room to condemn me for my actions. You recognized me from the Sex Kitten, which means that you are one of the sorry asses that pays for a woman to rub her tits in your face." For the moment, Kenshin was struck dumb. The girl was smart enough to turn his argument around on him. "I may dance nude, but I do have self-respect. And I don't have to use total strangers as my emotional punching bag."
At that moment, Sanosuke was walking up to the door of the apartment. He looked up at the two combatants, checking Kaoru out from head to toe. Kaoru gave him a measuring look from his spiky, brown, to the tips of his Chuck Taylor All-Stars and back up, "Good luck with that one. He's a total fuck." And with a backward glance, she turned on her heel and left the two men in awkward silence.
"I know," Sano grinned, checking her out from top to bottom. Sanosuke was the one to finally break the tension, "Shit, Kenshin! She was HOT! What did you do to piss her off?"
"I put her in her fucking place, that's what." He grumped.
"That's not what it sounded like to me. It sounded like you insulted her profession when she was trying to help your sorry ass." He leaned back slightly to check her out as she walked away, "And man, it looks like she could really help you out if you know what I mean. Damn! Bitch is hot…looks familiar…"
Kenshin sank into his favorite overstuffed chair and put his head in his hands, "I know," he moaned.
"So, why were such a dick?"
"I don't know. She was just being nice. She reminded me of Tomoe, and I kinda lost it. She kept touching me like she gave a shit. It was unnerving. I just needed her to leave. 'Cause I wanted to fuck her in the middle of the floor with the door open." He tugged at his hair and whimpered. "I wanted her, and I can't have her. I would have to tell her I have AIDS, and she would get the fuck away as quickly as she could. She's too young to have to deal with that shit."
Sanosuke shrugged, "It's your funeral, man. You know, we, the living dead, have a motto: There's no day but today. Man, you gotta live while you can. 'Cause after it's all over, there ain't nothin' else."
"Sano, I don't need your lovey-dovey-group therapy bullshit right now."
Sanosuke just ignored the pessimistic bastardness that his best friend had adopted over the past year, "I'm just sayin', Kenshin. Who knows, maybe you and the boot camp reject have something in common. Carpe diem, man! Seize the fuckin' day!" He shot his fist into the air. Sano cleared his throat and casually straightened out his T-shirt. There was another awkward silence after Sanosuke's strange outburst. Finally, "So, you comin' to dinner or not? Misao is doing her protest show, tonight."
"I don't know, Sano. I just…I want to stay here."
"Fuck that, Kenshin. You're going out with us. You've been holed up in here too long. Someone would think you were fuckin' Osama bin Laden, or something. Before you know it, you're going to be all grisly and skanky lookin'. Your hair is already way too mountain-manish."
Kenshin's eye twitched, "I've always had long hair, Sano."
Sanosuke chuckled, "I know. I was just trying to get a reaction out of you. So get your shit. You're comin' with me. Don't forget your Azt. You know what happens when you don't take it."
"You sound just like Sou," Kenshin mutter.
Kenshin regarded the spiky haired man for a moment. Sanosuke Sagara was one of Kenshin's oldest and best friends. He used to be part of Kenshin's band before Tomoe's tragic death. It had affected everybody. Eventually, Sano went his own way to continue his music career. Kenshin was proud and jealous of him. Kenshin wished he had the drive to do…anything, really. He just couldn't find a passion for anything but the memories of a woman long since dead. A woman that had escaped this world without taking him with her. Kenshin made up his mind then and there that he would try to be better about, well, everything. The first thing he was going to do was apologize to the blue-eyed angel that he had been so unkind to…if he could find her. He supposed she lived on the bottom level of the old building that had been turned into make-shift apartments. Perhaps he would run into her soon, and he would have the chance to apologize.
TBC…