Chapter Twelve
Saitoh stiffened slightly with annoyance. The Battousai had been on his property. He was gone now, but that didn't matter. If he was here once then he would be back. Which wasn't the true problem at all. The problem was that he had dared to come in the first place.
"Did you have any troubles?" Tokio inquired emerging from around back. There was blood on her shirt, but she didn't look injured or perturbed even.
"No." He stepped forward and grabbed the front of her shirt loosely, "Did you?"
She looked down and wrinkled her nose. "I didn't even think about that. Oh well, maybe I can get it out with some bleach."
"I think you should explain." He left for fifteen minutes and came back to the smell of blood. For the first time he actually wondered just what he had been ordered into. Before it was just that he would finish his mission. It was proving much more difficult that he had expected.
He didn't see how this was going to work. He was a trained and disciplined man, one of incredible patience in fact. However, this woman already was pushing buttons he didn't even know he had. It made sense, considering the child and all the trouble she had been. Like mother like daughter.
"Oh, it's not mine." Tokio said suddenly and she looked down. "Meg found a dog and it was hurt pretty bad."
"And so the Battousai raced right over to save it." Saitoh said sarcastically reaching for his pack of cigarettes. If she thought she could circumvent him like she did to the people in her organization then she was in for an unpleasant surprise.
She looked slightly shocked; whether at the fact he knew that the Battousai had been there or how bluntly sarcastic he was, he wasn't sure. Not that it mattered. His retort had gotten the desired result.
"Well excuse me for forgetting!" She growled and he smirked. "Oh, and he's coming back so no fighting. One of Shishio's men was over here snooping, but I suppose you know that too."
He did, but at the moment he was dealing with the larger threat. His partner. It was odd to think of it that way. He had always been solo on his missions. He didn't usually enjoying sharing or partaking on some of the activities that other people reveled in. He didn't want to be stuck with some slacker who couldn't or wouldn't pull their weight, or that would fall behind.
A grim twitch in his smirk he reflected that while he thought the rest of humanity weak, they probably found him insane. Which was fine. Fewer morons for him to deal with whether it was directly or indirectly.
Sanosuke had been bad enough. Saitoh wouldn't admit, even in his head, that the young man had done well. Now he was saddled with a woman who was not only on the enemy side, but had a serious attitude problem as well. Was she going to fight him every step of the way?
"So you chased him off." Saitoh asked with a raised eyebrow and stuck a cigarette in his mouth.
"Megumi did."
What?
"You let a child do your work." He said scornfully. What had the woman been thinking?
She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. "I don't have super-senses. Apparently God graced me with manners and social skills instead. It must run shallow in your gene pool."
"Apparently." He replied letting the insult slide. She wasn't going to get to him with petty words. Especially when she said them only to cover herself and shift the subject. Wasn't that a lawyer's job after all?
She looked at him. "Can't we at least pretend to get along? Some married couple we make. We are partners after all. Unless you want to play some serious trust games, which I don't feel should be necessary."
"Does one hold on to a drowning man when going to shore?" He asked turning to go inside. This was ridicules. What reasons did he have to trust her?
"Then maybe we should lay our pet peeves about each other on the table. And don't you dare go into the house smoking."
He paused and flicked his golden gaze over her gauging what she was saying. With an inaudible sigh he leaned up against the doorframe.
"Fine, I'll go first, but I'm sure you've heard them all before. You're cold and cruel. You expect things to fall into place just because you say so and it irritates you when people don't possess ESP. You won't slow down for anyone, least of all a woman you find annoying and pointless. You're so focused you can't bother to get close to someone even for a short time." He looked at her sharply. This most certainly wasn't what he was expecting. And she was right, he had heard plenty and it had never bothered him. In fact, it amused him.
"Are you finished?" He asked flicking some ash off the end of his cancer stick.
"No, I'm not. I can live with those faults, but can you?" He snorted, what a ridicules question. Apparently he could. He'd spent twenty some years living that way after being disowned by his family. "I only have to put up with you until this is over. You have to put up with yourself until you die. Tiring. Not to mention lonely I'd imagine. Have you ever wanted a wife or a family?"
"I have one right now." He pointed out and continued, "I fail to see the domestic charm of such a situation."
"I give up! Fine, you win. You win this stupid, invisible contest of who can be the bitchiest. Satisfied? But before you tell me about myself let me at least say for all your faults you have good parts too." What sort of game was she playing now? He didn't need a moral boost.
She grabbed his hand when he tried to go inside again. It would be so easy to break the grip she had on his arm, but he felt his body reacting in a completely opposite way to his mind.
It was amazingly ironic, how an enemy always failed to catch him off guard while his body could betray him so easily. It made him think of the proverb about oneself being their worst enemy.
"Will you at least listen? I can probably talk myself blue and you won't change an iota, not if you don't listen to me. I'm not saying, hey jump in my bed or you have to take me seriously, although that would be nice."
"Which?"
She took a second to mentally review what she had just said and turned red. "I thought you'd at least be above your male hormones. You know what I meant."
It was interesting to find out that her body was reacting along the same lines as his. Why else would she make such an embarrassing slip? Not unless her mind was on other things. Things he did and didn't want to consider at the moment.
"You're arrogant and self-assured. You're a typical modern woman with steel and grit to spare. You're also incredibly proud of your independence. You don't want to give an inch lest you appear weak and incompetent and you're indignant when it is suggested you would be better suited to another task. You balk at being led because you don't want to be taken advantage of and you don't respect authority because it isn't always right."
"Wow," She said softly, "You make me sound like such a nice person to be around. I think you just basically called me a hard-ass bitch from corporate Hell."
"If you perceive it that way. You started this little game." He reminded her.
"It's not a game. Life is not a game. You can wage little, petty wars all you want and maybe I'll fight back for awhile, but it's just a waste of time and energy. If you detest my company so much then you should use that energy to finish this case up." She spat, looking a bit hurt.
"You have good points too; I'm sure. However, I don't generally assess people by their strong points." He conceded while wondering what on earth he was doing. Making people feel better wasn't something he did. Especially not after he was the one who shot them down. "Perhaps we may reach an… understanding with time."
"I think it's possible if we work at not pissing each other off." She replied and he gave a hooded look. There was no promise there. She was asking him to set aside years of ingrained habit and reflex. Besides, did she just say pissing? Sano's human contact should be severely limited.
A/N: ^^;; I don't have much to say except I'm dead in the water on this (let me get Transgender and BSR out of the way). But not to worry! I still have five pre-made chapters ^^
Wistful-Eyes: *starts laughing* People think I'm peaceful as a lamb until I get plopped down in front of a video game (Crazy taxi: move it you @#%@# or I'll ramp right up your bumper! @#$@#, take that and get out of the way!/FF10: *crazy evil laugh* I just got drop kicked off. Too bad Wakka can't fly! KILL./LoTR: I wanna be the elf! Die orc die! Diediediediedie! Eat arrows and double sword!). Actually, I'm pretty violent with tv shows too X__X Ah yes, the man himself. Poor Kenshin, he has to break the news.
And Tokio has quite a few caustic insults for several people O__O
MissBehavin: Yes, a foreign concept for the man. But I think the green-eyed monster has come out to play as well. As for Meg: brave or naive? Ah yes, that was rather mean of Soujirou to do such a thing, wasn't it? Moving the furniture, tsk tsk. Who said he was going to die? *whistles* As for Sano, intelligence does NOT equal common sense. My brother is genius level and he has the sense of a goldfish -__-' I think I have all of my siblings' common sense, and they my share of the intelligence. Scottish terriers' teeth in comparasion to their mouths make them the dog I would least like to be bitten by. *twitch* As for 15, I'm on #8 O.O My eyes hurt from watch three hours straight @__@
eriesalia: Back I am :) And still rolling. You know, when I read this I had this absurd picture of S, T, & M in the mall.
Meg: Daddy, I want some candy
Sai: -__- What did your mother say?
Meg: She said to ask you. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease? I'll be good!
T: *rejoins them* you gave her sugar?
Sai: -___- *thinking, the little punk tricked me!*
Fyyrrose: You shouldn't lurk in people's profiles *does it all the time*. DSL is evil, so is cable. The funny thing? Dial up is by far the most reliable of the three. T1 :) It wasn't a dare and I'm sure Angrybee will love your reviews (she and I were discussing Soujirou's intelligence). Well, #23 is out and you've watched it. Now you're going to whine about the last eppy, aren't you?!! I was browsing some PMK sites. Looking at screencaps and character sketches ^__^ Lyrics, song titles. I want to know the title of that song at the very begining of the first eppy when they raid the Inn! So I can go download it. Nice battle music. I know you spoke with the minion; I read the IM. So your better hurry on that alt ending (*scoffs* like I'm blazing along?). And remember, you said as soon as I finish BSR you'd have the spring one in consideration. I wanna see what you do it with ^_________________^ I don't even remember most of it. Just Kamatari pushing Yumi in, the s/s *chokes* please don't make that fluffy, and Hiko's new slave LMAO. All the highlights!
Saitoh stiffened slightly with annoyance. The Battousai had been on his property. He was gone now, but that didn't matter. If he was here once then he would be back. Which wasn't the true problem at all. The problem was that he had dared to come in the first place.
"Did you have any troubles?" Tokio inquired emerging from around back. There was blood on her shirt, but she didn't look injured or perturbed even.
"No." He stepped forward and grabbed the front of her shirt loosely, "Did you?"
She looked down and wrinkled her nose. "I didn't even think about that. Oh well, maybe I can get it out with some bleach."
"I think you should explain." He left for fifteen minutes and came back to the smell of blood. For the first time he actually wondered just what he had been ordered into. Before it was just that he would finish his mission. It was proving much more difficult that he had expected.
He didn't see how this was going to work. He was a trained and disciplined man, one of incredible patience in fact. However, this woman already was pushing buttons he didn't even know he had. It made sense, considering the child and all the trouble she had been. Like mother like daughter.
"Oh, it's not mine." Tokio said suddenly and she looked down. "Meg found a dog and it was hurt pretty bad."
"And so the Battousai raced right over to save it." Saitoh said sarcastically reaching for his pack of cigarettes. If she thought she could circumvent him like she did to the people in her organization then she was in for an unpleasant surprise.
She looked slightly shocked; whether at the fact he knew that the Battousai had been there or how bluntly sarcastic he was, he wasn't sure. Not that it mattered. His retort had gotten the desired result.
"Well excuse me for forgetting!" She growled and he smirked. "Oh, and he's coming back so no fighting. One of Shishio's men was over here snooping, but I suppose you know that too."
He did, but at the moment he was dealing with the larger threat. His partner. It was odd to think of it that way. He had always been solo on his missions. He didn't usually enjoying sharing or partaking on some of the activities that other people reveled in. He didn't want to be stuck with some slacker who couldn't or wouldn't pull their weight, or that would fall behind.
A grim twitch in his smirk he reflected that while he thought the rest of humanity weak, they probably found him insane. Which was fine. Fewer morons for him to deal with whether it was directly or indirectly.
Sanosuke had been bad enough. Saitoh wouldn't admit, even in his head, that the young man had done well. Now he was saddled with a woman who was not only on the enemy side, but had a serious attitude problem as well. Was she going to fight him every step of the way?
"So you chased him off." Saitoh asked with a raised eyebrow and stuck a cigarette in his mouth.
"Megumi did."
What?
"You let a child do your work." He said scornfully. What had the woman been thinking?
She narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips. "I don't have super-senses. Apparently God graced me with manners and social skills instead. It must run shallow in your gene pool."
"Apparently." He replied letting the insult slide. She wasn't going to get to him with petty words. Especially when she said them only to cover herself and shift the subject. Wasn't that a lawyer's job after all?
She looked at him. "Can't we at least pretend to get along? Some married couple we make. We are partners after all. Unless you want to play some serious trust games, which I don't feel should be necessary."
"Does one hold on to a drowning man when going to shore?" He asked turning to go inside. This was ridicules. What reasons did he have to trust her?
"Then maybe we should lay our pet peeves about each other on the table. And don't you dare go into the house smoking."
He paused and flicked his golden gaze over her gauging what she was saying. With an inaudible sigh he leaned up against the doorframe.
"Fine, I'll go first, but I'm sure you've heard them all before. You're cold and cruel. You expect things to fall into place just because you say so and it irritates you when people don't possess ESP. You won't slow down for anyone, least of all a woman you find annoying and pointless. You're so focused you can't bother to get close to someone even for a short time." He looked at her sharply. This most certainly wasn't what he was expecting. And she was right, he had heard plenty and it had never bothered him. In fact, it amused him.
"Are you finished?" He asked flicking some ash off the end of his cancer stick.
"No, I'm not. I can live with those faults, but can you?" He snorted, what a ridicules question. Apparently he could. He'd spent twenty some years living that way after being disowned by his family. "I only have to put up with you until this is over. You have to put up with yourself until you die. Tiring. Not to mention lonely I'd imagine. Have you ever wanted a wife or a family?"
"I have one right now." He pointed out and continued, "I fail to see the domestic charm of such a situation."
"I give up! Fine, you win. You win this stupid, invisible contest of who can be the bitchiest. Satisfied? But before you tell me about myself let me at least say for all your faults you have good parts too." What sort of game was she playing now? He didn't need a moral boost.
She grabbed his hand when he tried to go inside again. It would be so easy to break the grip she had on his arm, but he felt his body reacting in a completely opposite way to his mind.
It was amazingly ironic, how an enemy always failed to catch him off guard while his body could betray him so easily. It made him think of the proverb about oneself being their worst enemy.
"Will you at least listen? I can probably talk myself blue and you won't change an iota, not if you don't listen to me. I'm not saying, hey jump in my bed or you have to take me seriously, although that would be nice."
"Which?"
She took a second to mentally review what she had just said and turned red. "I thought you'd at least be above your male hormones. You know what I meant."
It was interesting to find out that her body was reacting along the same lines as his. Why else would she make such an embarrassing slip? Not unless her mind was on other things. Things he did and didn't want to consider at the moment.
"You're arrogant and self-assured. You're a typical modern woman with steel and grit to spare. You're also incredibly proud of your independence. You don't want to give an inch lest you appear weak and incompetent and you're indignant when it is suggested you would be better suited to another task. You balk at being led because you don't want to be taken advantage of and you don't respect authority because it isn't always right."
"Wow," She said softly, "You make me sound like such a nice person to be around. I think you just basically called me a hard-ass bitch from corporate Hell."
"If you perceive it that way. You started this little game." He reminded her.
"It's not a game. Life is not a game. You can wage little, petty wars all you want and maybe I'll fight back for awhile, but it's just a waste of time and energy. If you detest my company so much then you should use that energy to finish this case up." She spat, looking a bit hurt.
"You have good points too; I'm sure. However, I don't generally assess people by their strong points." He conceded while wondering what on earth he was doing. Making people feel better wasn't something he did. Especially not after he was the one who shot them down. "Perhaps we may reach an… understanding with time."
"I think it's possible if we work at not pissing each other off." She replied and he gave a hooded look. There was no promise there. She was asking him to set aside years of ingrained habit and reflex. Besides, did she just say pissing? Sano's human contact should be severely limited.
A/N: ^^;; I don't have much to say except I'm dead in the water on this (let me get Transgender and BSR out of the way). But not to worry! I still have five pre-made chapters ^^
Wistful-Eyes: *starts laughing* People think I'm peaceful as a lamb until I get plopped down in front of a video game (Crazy taxi: move it you @#%@# or I'll ramp right up your bumper! @#$@#, take that and get out of the way!/FF10: *crazy evil laugh* I just got drop kicked off. Too bad Wakka can't fly! KILL./LoTR: I wanna be the elf! Die orc die! Diediediediedie! Eat arrows and double sword!). Actually, I'm pretty violent with tv shows too X__X Ah yes, the man himself. Poor Kenshin, he has to break the news.
And Tokio has quite a few caustic insults for several people O__O
MissBehavin: Yes, a foreign concept for the man. But I think the green-eyed monster has come out to play as well. As for Meg: brave or naive? Ah yes, that was rather mean of Soujirou to do such a thing, wasn't it? Moving the furniture, tsk tsk. Who said he was going to die? *whistles* As for Sano, intelligence does NOT equal common sense. My brother is genius level and he has the sense of a goldfish -__-' I think I have all of my siblings' common sense, and they my share of the intelligence. Scottish terriers' teeth in comparasion to their mouths make them the dog I would least like to be bitten by. *twitch* As for 15, I'm on #8 O.O My eyes hurt from watch three hours straight @__@
eriesalia: Back I am :) And still rolling. You know, when I read this I had this absurd picture of S, T, & M in the mall.
Meg: Daddy, I want some candy
Sai: -__- What did your mother say?
Meg: She said to ask you. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease? I'll be good!
T: *rejoins them* you gave her sugar?
Sai: -___- *thinking, the little punk tricked me!*
Fyyrrose: You shouldn't lurk in people's profiles *does it all the time*. DSL is evil, so is cable. The funny thing? Dial up is by far the most reliable of the three. T1 :) It wasn't a dare and I'm sure Angrybee will love your reviews (she and I were discussing Soujirou's intelligence). Well, #23 is out and you've watched it. Now you're going to whine about the last eppy, aren't you?!! I was browsing some PMK sites. Looking at screencaps and character sketches ^__^ Lyrics, song titles. I want to know the title of that song at the very begining of the first eppy when they raid the Inn! So I can go download it. Nice battle music. I know you spoke with the minion; I read the IM. So your better hurry on that alt ending (*scoffs* like I'm blazing along?). And remember, you said as soon as I finish BSR you'd have the spring one in consideration. I wanna see what you do it with ^_________________^ I don't even remember most of it. Just Kamatari pushing Yumi in, the s/s *chokes* please don't make that fluffy, and Hiko's new slave LMAO. All the highlights!