Disclaimer: I am neither Watsuki-sensei nor a member of CLAMP so I own no rights to what I base my story off of.
A/N: Well well... I have to say this is the second hardest chapter I have written for this story yet... and I am so sorry for not updating sooner, but this is crunch time (the last week of high school forever!) Today was my last day and then graduation on Friday :cries: I will hopefully be able to update one of my other stories by then, and if I'm not you have my permission to feed me to the bears.
Please forgive me again for my atrocious punctuation.
Kaoru stayed in front of her door for a long time, not daring to move. She feared her world would fall apart if she did.
Finally, she had thought she could exist alone, she was finally doing it, and then like an avalanche it all fell around her.
Kenshin had followed her.
Stupidly he sought her, and like some idiot she wanted to run to him, let him hold her. She shook the thought from her head. That was impossible. To keep him from turmoil she would stay away from him, even if the pain that it caused her was many times greater than death. Although on some days death had looked tempting, it looked like the perfect way to end this starving need for love.
'When have I become so dependent? What happened to Kamiya Kaoru? The one that used to be able to handle everything life threw at her?' Kaoru growled, frustrated with her thoughts.
She could feel the sunset over the distance. She had finally abandoned her refuge from in front of her door, and left to retrieve some vegetables from her garden. It was stupid to think that he would have followed her out this far and not done anything about it yet.
She started to hum trying to distract her mind as she forced a stubborn dikon to up root. "You are going to be very good in my miso soup tonight." She told the vegetable, though the radish doubted her ability to make any kind of food good.
0-0-0
Kenshin, after searching through the village, gave up on his search for the night. He sauntered to the Inn where Misao and Aoshi were supposed to be waiting. Kenshin entered the room to only be greeted by a bored looking Misao.
"Where's Aoshi?" He asked unable to sense the Okashira anywhere.
"He said something about finding something for us to eat." Misao said idly as she looked out the window, she still blamed herself for letting Kaoru run away from her.
"It isn't your fault." Kenshin reassured the downtrodden girl. "She didn't want to be found, I don't blame her either, but that doesn't mean that I am not gonna stop looking."
Yahiko was sitting on a western style bed. "Do you think we will be able to convince her to come home?" he wondered looking down at the village knowing his sensei would not be down there.
"If it kills me."
"Don't let those be your last words Battousai." Aoshi cut into the conversation as he carried what looked like three bento boxes into the room.
Kenshin scoffed but paid no heed to Aoshi.
The rest of the night was a silent one as all were caught in there own contemplation (or eating in Yahiko's case), even Misao did not utter another word that night.
0-0-0
Morning had come all too soon for Kaoru, the sun peaked through her window. Groaning she tried to ignore the burning sensation that disturbed her eyelids, but it was to no avail. She crept lazily out of bed and went to make a pot of tea. Her life had become a mechanical one, it was always wake up make some tea, and then finish her menial chores, (sometimes her chores were put on hold for lessons) but today she had no students, and no reasons to go into the village. For that she was grateful. She had less of a chance of running into certain people that way.
After a small breakfast of rice and pickled vegetables, Kaoru went outside to see that the state of her wood pile was lax to say the least. She sighed, 'time to chop some more I see...' It wasn't her favorite chore but it needed to be done, she had yet to take a bath and it was kind of hard to stoke the furrow when you had no wood to fuel it.
Sighing to herself Kaoru went to work on her tedious task.
It had taken her half of the day to find and chop the wood, by the time she was finished she was more than ready for a nice long bath to soak her aching muscles.
0-0-0
Kenshin had left before the sun had even touched the sky, he was hell bent on finding Kaoru.
He silently made his way through the sleepy village, and beyond on the dirt road searching for her. He could feel her, she was so close, and she wasn't going to get away from him this time.
He stopped for a moment and looked at his surroundings. When had he left the main road? He hadn't even noticed that he was traveling down a small side road that took him deep within the forest. 'I am losing myself. I should have been paying attention to where I was...' He heard the snapping of a twig and the rustling in the bushes not to far away from him.
Instinct took over and Kenshin jumped into the nearest tree hiding in its natural covering. 'Great I feel like I am back in the Bakumatsu, the great Himura Battousai on the prowl.' He rolled his eyes at his own thoughts as he watched as Kaoru walk right where he had been moments before. 'Kaoru...' To him she looked so much more grown up, though it had barely been a season sense he had last seen her.
His eyes never left her as she collected wood in the forest, then he silently followed her as she headed to her home, and what an ideal one it was, so beautiful and peaceful, like her. He made himself comfortable on a particularly thick branch as she spent the rest of the time chopping the wood she had collected before she carried some of it off to the bath house to stoke the furrow. Soon she disappeared into the bath-house.
He waited for what seemed like an eternity, he soon noticed that the fire was dying down in the furrow, stealthily he went over... ((Kenshin no hentai!)) and put some wood into the fire, a little quirk of his that he should be shot for. He would soon regret this when he heard her stir, she must have been napping until that moment.
0-0-0 ((don't you just love the jumping between POV in this chap))
"Chopping wood is too tedious..." She whispered to herself as she let the warm water massage her tired body. Groaning softly she closed her eyes, relaxing only for a while, but her mind seemed unsettled. She tried to ignore it for a while but soon she couldn't ignore her instinct as her senses picked up something wrong. Snapping her eyes open instantly she quickly dressed into a gi and hakama lying on her little ceder stool before she exited the bath-house careful, and vary wary of her surroundings.
'Someone's here.' She snuck back to her house; she cursed herself for leaving her bokken there. It was a stupid move, she had always brought it with her before, why did this time have to be different?
"I know you're here come out of hiding!" She demanded, waiting in her defensive stance for the intruder's presence.
"Kaoru-dono."
The voice made her heart drop 'No...'
To be continued...
A/N: Gawds talk about stalker Kenshin mode... someone seems to have woken up on the battousai side of the bed this morning... :sighs: oh well not to many chappies to go! A warning the next chapter is pure KK Fluff so if you don't like syrupy sweet, and cavity creating goodness I suggest you stop now and run away... far, far away!