The two most important emotions in life are love and hate.
Everything else is just a detail.
The sun shimmered impatiently through the thin paper doors, bathing the shivering form with its impassive warmth.
Kaoru had not slept well.
She had barely even slept, lying awake late into the night, her eyes wide and unseeing.
The door snapped open, forcing her to bolt upright into a sitting position, tugging uselessly at the sheets to keep a presence of propriety. Her side wound burned in protest, but she forced herself to ignore it. Who in the seven hells could keep a sense of modesty at such an ungodly hour? Her mouth was open, ready with hot words to be fired at the hapless man who dared enter her room…
And then he smiled, his blood bangs falling into his unusual eyes, and she was shaken.
"Good morning, Kaoru- dono."
"Ah…" She gulped and raised a vain hand to her tousled hair. "Good morning."
He knelt at the edge of her futon and began to empty the basket that he held. "I trust that you slept…" He looked at her and his smile widened. "That you slept?"
She had caught his grin and resented it. "Hai. I slept"
He had slept as well, he mused, spreading the bandages and medicinal cream out on the floor. Less than satisfactory, as thoughts of the girl slumbering in the next room had had him tossing and turning well into the night.
He snipped a length of bandage. That was to be expected, after all.
"I think that these will suit your wound better, Kaoru-dono."
"Why?"
He merely smiled. Her fingers itched to trace his curved lips.
Or to break his pretty nose.
"Because these, Kaoru-dono, are bandages. What you have on your wound is a torn gi."
"No." She wanted to smack him. She wasn't talking about the stupid dressings. "Why are you taking care of me?"
He thought it over for a second before shrugging. "Because."
"Because why?"
"My, you seem talkative this morning."
Kaoru bit down the scathing words that had leapt onto her tongue. "Because why?"
He tightened her dressings, clucking softly with his tongue as she gasped with the sting of the alcohol. "Because, Kaoru.-dono, you belong to me."
She sputtered with indignation. "I beg your---"
"And I take care of what is mine," he continued, bowling over her protests. "Best keep that in mind, hime-chan."
She fought down the urge to scream.
"Of all the sick, delusional—"
He laughed softly, cutting her off. "Don't get too excited, hime-chan. You might rip your bandages. And that wouldn't do."
A calloused finger trailed gently across her exposed shoulder, and she sucked in a gasp. Blue eyes watched in frozen fascination as he leaned forward, his warm breath fanning against her neck, his hair brushing against her flesh. Her eyes fluttered shut. She found herself leaning closer, feeling his other hand travel up the side of her neck.
Oh, kami…
"Then I'd be here all morning, reapplying them…" Kenshin's voice was low enough to send a chill down her spine. Her eyes snapped open, and she stiffened with a small cry of distress.
What am I doing?
Kaoru attempted to mask her trembling for a shudder of disgust. The wide grin that split his face as he sat back showed her that he didn't quite believe it.
They sat in silence for a moment, the only sound the quiet snip of his scissors and his quiet humming.
"Why don't you kill me?" Kaoru asked him quietly.
The snipping ceased, and she clenched her fist in the quiet.
"Why do you let me live?"
He smoothed her bandages and sat back on his heels, smiling gently. "All done. Don't try to kill anyone else for a week or so, though. It was a pretty deep wound."
"Answer me!" she screamed in agitation. She slammed her hand on the smooth wood of the floor. "What could you possibly have to gain, keeping me here?"
He looked up at her, his odd eyes unreadable. "Those reasons, Kaoru—dono, are my own."
Shocked, she watched as he rose a gentle palm to her cheek. "Did I put those there, hime-chan?" His lips twisted in a wry movement, and his gaze shone with an emotion she didn't know if she wanted to identify.
Could that be… regret?
She tried to smile, could only stare. "I…"
He stood, gathering his materials and walking towards the door. "Be ready in about a half an hour—breakfast will be served then."
She watched the door close in silence.
Kenshin grunted as he crashed into a smirking, spiky haired boy.
"Those reasons, Kaoru-dono, are my own," the teenager mimicked, amusement clear in his voice. "How lame! You should have said: you're really pretty, even though you tried to slaughter me last night, and I'm really lonely here with only the kitsune and the weasel girl to look at--"
He barely flinched as a frying pan bounced off of his head.
"Sagara Sanosuke, I heard that!"
"Eh, so what," Sanosuke turned his attention back to the bemused older man. "So are you going to keep her?"
"Sanosuke, you know that this is a human being, and thus not a thing to be kept or discarded," Kenshin shrugged and turned to walk towards the kitchen. "And, yes, I'm going to keep her."
A pillow flew out of Kaoru's room and struck Kenshin full in the face. He fell to the ground, eyes swirling.
"Oro!"
Sanosuke watched his friend flutter to the ground and smirked again. "I think she heard you."
Kaoru lifted a self conscious hand to her hair, blinking at her reflection in the mirror.
Is that me?
She grimaced in distaste, cautiously touching a finger to the purple smudges that marred her skin. She briefly recalled the dull pain that had bloomed under the skin when she had fallen during her scuffle with Battousai.
"Did I put those there, hime-chan?"
Could it have really been regret shining in those odd eyes? Sadness?
He had been so close…
She shook her head slowly, dispelling those troubling thoughts. She could not afford to let her guard down, she reminded herself. She had to get back to her village.
Kaoru defiantly rubbed at the goose bumps that had blossomed on her skin.
Insufferable imbecile.
She turned warily when the knock came at her shoji.
Green eyes cautiously peered through the crack between the paper and the wall. Kaoru tensed, silently reaching for a blade she belatedly realized wasn't there.
The shoji was thrown open, revealing a petite beauty with jade eyes and a large grin.
"HI! I'm Misao, you must be the girl Kenshin brought home last night!" The girl chattered, tossing her long braid behind her shoulder. "Wow, you're pretty—can you tell me how to put my hair up like yours was last night? I know that Kenshin didn't want us to disturb him, but I couldn't help but notice you being led in and I saw your hair and I thought it was pretty and--"
Kaoru felt slightly faint as she struggled to keep up.
"—and I thought, wow, that must be hard to do--"
"Misao-chan, do not frighten the girl," a smooth voice chided. Kaoru, slightly overwhelmed, looked up and met the gaze of a lovely woman with cinnamon eyes and a wicked smile on her crimson mouth. "She looks like she's going to fall over any minute."
Kaoru flushed hotly and reached to nervously tuck a stray piece of hair behind her ear. "Oh," she murmured, "It's quite all right."
The woman arched an elegant eyebrow and bowed slightly. "My name is Takani Megumi. I do hope that the weasel girl hasn't scared you."
Kaoru returned the gesture, envying the woman's poise. "Kamiya Kaoru."
The youngest girl childishly stuck out her tongue at the older woman. "Kitsune, you have no right to call me names! Just because your tori-atama of a boyfriend calls me that doesn't mean that you can!"
"No one gave you any right to be so annoying so early in the morning, but you don't see me complaining, do you?"
"You're complaining right now!"
"Misao, use your head. How can I be complaining if I just said that I wasn't?"
The smaller girl let out a scream of frustration that caused Kaoru to feel slightly afraid for her life. "MEGUMI, I SWEAR--"
There was a polite cough that somehow managed to cut through the din. Three heads swiveled to regard the tall, handsome man who leaned comfortably against the door frame.
"Misao."
Ice blue eyes were subtly—very subtly—laced with humor. His voice was quiet and reserved, but Kaoru recognized a sort of power that lay quietly beneath the tranquility.
Just like papa…
Her rueful musing was interrupted by Misao's shriek of joy. Megumi and Kaoru winced as they watched the girl latch onto the taller man's frame.
"Aoshi-sama, I didn't know when you would get back, and I was so worried and you really should start taking assignments closer to home and--"
Megumi smiled apologetically at the shell shocked Kaoru, patting the younger girl on the shoulder. "She's not always like that, Kaoru-san."
Kaoru nodded, dumb struck. The older man managed to bow politely towards her while still listening to Misao's chatter as she threaded a slim arm through his.
Something that looked suspiciously like fox ears popped up on Megumi's head, and she cackled, making Kaoru's hair stand on end.
"No, Kaoru-san. Sometimes she's worse."
The man's name, Kaoru discovered at breakfast, was Shinomori Aoshi. He, like Battousai, was an assassin. Unlike Kenshin, however, he made sure that he was not well known.
"It's bad for business," he explained, his lips forming what Kaoru was already beginning to identify as his almost-smile.
Misao simply adored him, and refused to leave his side the entire morning. Aoshi-sama, she explained, had been sent on a mission to Hokkaido.
Sanosuke and Megumi bantered affectionately at the other end of the table. Kaoru couldn't help but smile a little at the mismatched couple. Sanosuke, with his unruly hair, rough exterior, ready laugh and warm heart, seemed out of place next to Megumi's polished elegance and cynical barbs. But, Kaoru mused, the woman had been kind to her.
"Oi, jou-chan," Sanosuke called, immediately deciding to adopt the nickname for the girl. "Your rice is getting cold."
She blushed, and immediately picked up her chopsticks, pausing for a second as a chill of apprehension raced up her spine. Narrowing her eyes, she looked up to see Kenshin watching her, an odd little smile upon his lips. He nodded in her direction, his eyes challenging as he raised his cup in a small salute. She nearly smiled.
"Papa?"
His body. On the floor. She clamped her small hands over her ears as if to keep the sanity from slipping out. She fell to her knees and gagged as something soaked into her yukata. There was so much blood.
He was gone. She was alone.
So much blood.
A sound in the corner. A man. He wasn't facing her. She turned, a scream bubbling in her throat as she reached belatedly for her weapon.
"No, hime-chan." The voice wasyoung, and almost apologetic. She moaned in grief and lashed out, heard his grunt of surprise.
He turned, his face betraying his shock even in the dim light.
Golden eyes.
No. No, you can't.
Kaoru looked away. The brightness of the dining hall seemed to fade into black.
How could you forget? This man…this monster killed the only man you loved.
And eventually...eventually he would go on to kill Soujiro as well.
No matter how hard I try, I cannot deny the truth.
There is never an escape.
Author's Note: Oooooh, who's Soujiro? Her brother? Her fiancée? Hmmmmm…