Chapter 4

Don't own Rorouni Kenshin

Kenshin looked at Kaoru, waiting for her answer. She looked around and thought about it for a moment. "So if you take this jab I'll die but you'll have a safe ticket out of things. But if you run and take me with you they'll hunt you down and kill you and they'll send someone else after me and kill me anyway.

Kenshin laughed and rolled his eyes at how blunt she was. "Yeah, that's pretty much the gist of it. But if we're extra lucky we'll just hide somewhere they won't think to look and they won't be able to find us."

Kaoru sat down and started thinking rationally. She was confused. Kaoru wasn't sure what it was she felt the other day when she met him but she could tell they had a connection.

She finally decided what she wanted to happen. "No. We're not going to run." She said purposefully.

Kenshin looked up at her incredulous. "We're not?" He asked, surprised.

"No, we're not." She replied. "You are going to turn me in." She sighed. "I've not had a happy life anyway and it would only become worse if I was the reason you had to run for your life."

"I don't think I could let you do that, Princess," he said back to his separated demeanor. He closed his eyes. He knew what they did; how they killed the peopled assigned to be killed. Knowing his emotions and thoughts were in his eyes he kept his eyes closed and leaned against the wall, to the entire world looking nonchalant.

"I should be able to decide what I do with my life." She told him, putting doubts to rest.

"That's true but I have to let you know that these people are not fast killers. They enjoy torturing and beating and sometimes even raping you before they kill you and even they kill very slowly so they know you're in excruciating pain." Kenshin explained. All the while thinking that it was her choice but he could at least let her know, how it's going to be and try and talk her out of it.

"I don't care." I don't want you to die, she thought.

A hard look settled on Kenshin's face. "Fine, we'll move out tomorrow." Then he made a paint of trying to ignore her.