Sweet Mistake

Protect

A/N: Yes, yes, on with the story!

Disclaimer: The plot, not the characters, belongs to me.

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Tomoe tucked the thick strand of hair behind her ear and sighed: work at a law firm where the air conditioning had broken two weeks ago was far from fun. She picked up the file she had spent the past two hours researching and organizing dejectedly, making the decision to double check her work. She may not have been the fastest worker, but her boss loved her because no one had ever found a single mistake in her work. "Thorough" was practically her middle name.

Picking at her blouse to cool the skin on her shoulders, Tomoe re-read the basic information of the case. Typos were never an issue with her, but no one was perfect, so she had to check. So absorbed in her meticulous work was she that she failed to notice the coworker leaning on her desk and staring at her expectantly. When she looked to grab a pen to make a note, his presence surprised her. She gasped, and the man stepped back from her desk, looking sheepish.

"Forgive me, Tomoe-san. I didn't mean to frighten you. My name is Akira." He smiled politely, gentle eyes kind, and Tomoe calmed herself.

"Of course I know your name, Akira-san," she said. "Can I help you with something?" Akira looked pleased that she remembered him, and fiddled with the paper in his hand before saying quickly;

"Tomoe-san, I was wondering if you would go out to dinner with me this evening." He bowed as he spoke, which told her that he was nervous and also that he was giving her the utmost respect. She felt her cheeks flush.

"Akira-san… I'm flattered, but I'm engaged to be married in a few months." She felt terrible turning him down – she had never met anyone so sincere and polite. He stood, an awkward smile on his face.

"I ask you only as a friend and coworker," he assured her. Tomoe cursed herself internally: how rude to assume that he had been asking her out!

"Then I would love to," she replied, hoping that the blood in her cheeks was not visible to him. With a grin, Akira bowed once more.

"Wonderful. Is 6:30 alright with you?"

"Yes, that works."

"Good. I'll see you at 6:30, Tomoe."

As he walked away, Tomoe sank into her chair, relieved for some reason. Before she could fully return to her work, another of her coworkers, a woman named Hitomi, tapped her on the shoulder.

"Tomoe, what was that all about?" she asked slyly. Tomoe did not look at her but continued to check her papers.

"Nothing, Hitomi, just dinner with a friend." She replied, as if this were the most boring conversation she'd ever had. Hitomi grinned devilishly.

"Not if the rumors around the office are true," she sang, going back to her own desk.

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At around 1:30 in the morning, Kenshin's eyes flew open and he found himself to be totally awake. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. He threw his covers off his legs and stood immediately, not bothering to change into his day clothes or put on his sandals. Then it hit him:

Kaoru.

It was the only possibility: the dojo was naturally quiet, with only the sounds of crickets from outside and his own movements to break the silence. But he knew something was wrong, and that meant that something was wrong with Kaoru. Without hesitating, he grabbed his sakabato and hurried across his yard to the small house where Kaoru slept. As he approached the door, his suspicions were confirmed, and it made his blood run cold: the door was wide open, and he could hear voices inside. One was Kaoru's; she sounded scared and angry and upset, and the other belonged to a man. He wasted not another moment before barging into his apprentice's shack. The sight inside did not shock him – it filled him with a deadly sort of calm. Unbeknownst to him, his eyes turned a sickening shade of amber.

Kaoru was pinned to the wall by a large man. The straps of her tank top were dangling off her shoulders; Kenshin saw instantly that the man had been trying to undress her. Her chest heaved as she glared at the man, angry tears filling her blue eyes. The large man had not noticed Kenshin come in, and neither had Kaoru – both were preoccupied with fighting tensely in quiet voices. Kenshin had had enough.

The sound of the sakabato being unsheathed with a flick of his thumb cut into the arguing.

The shock of suddenly finding someone else in the room made the large man drop Kaoru. She sank to the floor, staring at Kenshin with a mix of gratefulness, fear, and shame. Kenshin saw, once the man had turned to face him, that Kaoru had done quite a job protecting herself – the man had blood running from under his hair somewhere on his skull, his arms were scratched, and it looked like she had tried to bite his ear. His cheek and forearm were bruised. Kenshin looked over the man's wounds and let out a snort.

"I suggest you run as fast as you can. If the student can give you that many injuries, think of what the teacher can do." His voice was unlike Kaoru had ever heard it before – cold, sneering, vicious. Merciless. For some reason she felt like she would be seeing her attacker's blood very, very soon. The large man assessed Kenshin, looking him up and down, and then laughed.

"Like you're going to stop me getting what I want from this girl." He swung a large fist at Kenshin's head – Kaoru almost felt bad for him. It was a stupid move. Too fast to be seen, Kenshin had drawn the sakabato and used it to block the man's blow. While its reversed blade protected the man from slicing his hand in half, the force of his own punch upon a metal blade shattered the bones in that hand. As he howled in pain, Kenshin eyed him.

"Yes, that's exactly what's going to happen." He said, sheathing the sakabato. "Get out."

Stumbling towards the wall which Kaoru was currently sitting against, the man noted the lack of the presence of the sword and grinned. Reaching over, he grabbed Kaoru around the waist with his good hand and pulled.

"I think I'll take this with me, for some – " he gave Kenshin a knowing look " – fun." But before he could make even the slightest move towards the door, Kenshin had unsheathed the sakabato once more and attacked. Kaoru saw his pupils dilate and shrink in extreme pain, felt the rapists' body convulge at the strike to his right side. She watched in horror as he fell, expecting blood and gore but only seeing the most brutal red welt she had ever seen along his skin. Whining in pain, the man dragged himself along the floor. Kenshin stepped easily over his large body and put himself between the attacker and Kaoru.

"No one, " he said, in a possessive hiss that made Kaoru feel oddly warm, "touches my student."

"Alright! Alright…" the man whimpered, dragging himself towards the door. Kenshin spit at him coldly.

"Get up." He ordered. The man only continued whimpering, and Kenshin raised the sakabato so the man could see it. "Get. Up." He repeated. With what looked like excruciating work, the man dragged himself into a standing position. Kaoru watched the back of Kenshin's form for any hint of forgiveness or mercy, and found none. "Now here's what you're going to do." Kenshin said, voice like ice. "You're going to walk yourself out of Miss Kaoru's home. You're going to walk yourself off my property and down to the police station. You're going to turn yourself in for break-in and attempted rape. And while you're sitting in your jail cell, you're going to remember that if you – or anyone else – tries to harm my apprentice, they will have to deal with me and my sword. Is that understood?"

"Y-yes," the man said shakily, grasping the wound that was now beginning to bleed. Kenshin's eyes narrowed.

"Go."

Together, Kenshin and Kaoru watched the large, fowl man drag himself outside of her door and around the corner of her house. They listened quietly as the sounds of his moans and dragging feet went quieter and quieter. However, the quieter it got, the more Kaoru was filled with feelings and emotions she couldn't handle. She retracted into herself, pulling her knees to her chest as tightly as possible and wrapping her arms around them. She stared straight ahead, wanting nothing more than for Kenshin to leave. Or yell and kick her out. Or maybe he could use the sakabato on her, like he had on the man… she felt tears well in her eyes, but refused to let herself cry them. That would mean she wanted Kenshin's pity. And she didn't. She wanted his rage, she wanted punishment. It was all her fault. Everything. She had brought a dangerous man to Kenshin's home.

While she felt herself growing heavy with self-loathing, Kenshin, back still to her, shook his head violently, and when his red strands ceased flying, his eyes were as large and violet as ever. He turned to see his student and noticed for the first time since entering her home that she, too, had injuries. They were the sort of injuries that made him swell with anger, and he nearly ran out to beat the man once more, but Kaoru was clearly in need of some assistance – now. Her lower lip had been split, and they were red and swollen. The man had hit her, and then kissed her aggressively. An angry shiver ran down Kenshin's spine. What were unmistakably 5 fingerprints bruised themselves into the skin of her chest – two near her neck, and the other three on her left breast, which had nearly been exposed. Kenshin knelt beside her for closer inspection, and saw something that frightened him – her eyes. They were hollow and red-rimmed, but she wasn't crying.

"Kaoru-dono?" he asked gently. Her head twitched slightly away, but otherwise she gave no impression of hearing him. Feeling it necessary, Kenshin brought the straps of her tank top back onto her shoulders, and breathed now that she wasn't so virtually exposed. He took one of her hands in his. "Kaoru, answer me." No response. He thought for a moment, running his thumb over the back of her hand. "Kaoru, who was that man?" To his surprise, she gave a shuddering breath and replied,

"A former client. I was his favorite. He was angry I quit working. He came to get me." Her eyes remained dull. Kenshin frowned. He had expected her to be upset, but this was strange. She should've been crying, but she was silent. He stood slowly and tugged at the hand he held.

"Come on, lets get you cleaned up. I'll warm up the bath for you." He said softly. She yanked her hand away from him.

"It will take more than a bath to clean me," she said harshly. Ah, Kenshin thought. So that was it. He knelt again, this time taking her forearms firmly in her hands and using his strength to pull her up. She had no choice but to stand, and glared away from him. He knew she was not angry with him, but with herself. For who she had been, and who she thought she was. In a sudden movement, Kenshin pulled her into a tight hug. She struggled, surprised.

"Get away!" she said, a touch of panic in her voice. "Don't touch me!" but he only hugged her tighter. Eventually she quit fighting and relaxed into his hold. He was glad when, a few minutes later, he felt hot tears soaking the shirt material over his left shoulder.

"Don't blame yourself." He said quietly. She let out a muffled sob and clung to him.

"I brought him here, b-because-"

"He brought himself here because he was a sick man. That is the truth, and you have no choice but to accept it, that you don't." His voice was gentle but firm. He rubbed her back and she broke into another gale of sobs.

"I'm so s-s-sorry, Kenshin," she choked out between sobs. He felt her words tug at his heart a little.

"Don't apologize. Just agree you'll come up to the house and take a bath." She pulled away enough to wipe the tears off her face.

"Why don't I just take one here?" she asked, eyes swollen and lower lip still trembling. Kenshin's eyes grew dark as he rubbed her upper arms.

"I don't think you should live down here anymore. I can protect you better in my home." With a guiding arm around her shoulders, Kenshin led her to the dojo.

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A/N: I can't get over how dramatic I am when I write. I've abandoned all my responsibilities to make this story very realistic. Hellooo, soap opera. Oh well. Well, it would be boring if nothing happened to spur the romance! Originally the rapist was supposed to have more character, but I got bored with him and just made him your standard, stupid, hulking villain. This was kinda designed after the Jin-eh fight, a little, and also from this one movie, but that's totally unrelated. Anyway. I love when he gets all possessive like that. Not that he ever really does in the series, much, but promotional art… yeeah. Sweet. Come on, is he NOT the perfect hero?

I'm proud of myself for writing about Tomoe and not making her, like… cry or be pathetic. I tried to be nice and understand her. Think I did ok?

Thank you's:

Mini-Moonstar – I'm going with my original plan for this story, so it will move pretty quickly. I have a short attention span, and can't be expected to stick around writing about the same thing for very long. But hopefully the groundwork for emotions will be properly set. Thanks for the review :D

Crazed T.V. Girl – well, before I started writing it I didn't expect it to reach two pages, so what I did write was an achievement Kaoru and Tomoe's friendship will not be monumental, but it will certainly be helpful, in the future. That is all I will say on that. Thank you so much for being a devoted reader, it means a lot that you stick by my ragged and well-beaten story.

shikaku zetsumei – I'm a big fan of Magdaria, so I like to keep her story pretty much the same as it is in the series- she chose the name "Magdaria", and only her brother knows her real name is Sayo. I actually find it odd that people in other fics call her "Sayo" right off the bat. Both names are beautiful, but I like that she keeps her real name a secret. It says a lot about her, that she's a pretty private and reserved person, and also that she's really devout and faithful. Both "Sayo" and "Magdaria" are integral parts of her character, and both, I find, are necessary for keeping her in-character. Though I usually write AU fics, I think its fun to find ways to mirror the characters and series into my own chosen setting. So for me, at least, Magdaria stays. But to each his own. Thanks for reading :D

ASKinfinity – are you kidding? The longer the review, the better! I love hearing from you guys (especially when it's positive and/or well-meaning) and getting to know you. And I absolutely love to talk about dance. Thanks for complimenting me on Kaoru's third place. I'd originally slated for her to win, but that's a little unbelievable. She's still just beginning to learn, and third still isn't bad for such a beginner. Also, its too bad that you can't dance outside of school! Do you dance with your school, like on the team? My friend (writer here, RK128) is the captain of our school's dance team, so from her experiences I definitely get that school stuff takes up a lot of time. I actually auditioned to make my studio's company for jazz and ballet, and I made it! I'm so excited, I've never made any sort of team before and I've never gotten to compete! I'm pretty pumped. Petit allegro is like a combination of tiny steps… I'll try to remember the one I botched…glissade, jette to the right, glissade, jette to the left… yeah, there was a lot more, but its all done quickly and with little movements. Anyway, thanks so very much for the lovely review, and I hope to hear from you next time around, too :D