Sweet Mistake
Complication
By Seabreeze
A/N: Wow, my first three reviewers got back to me within 10 minutes of posting! That's a first, and a happy one, at that. Thanks, guys! This is gonna be a short chapter, just fyi. Had to sneak another one in here to balance things out.
Disclaimer: me own nothing.
Magdaria clung to the man in front of her on the motorcycle for all her life was worth, though at this point she really didn't want to. The date had been possibly the worst evening of her life. She knew that perhaps she was being too moody and judgemental, but it had all just been too much- the motorcycle, Sano's attention, his roudy and terribly rude friends who had just happened to show up at the same restaurant they were dining at. She had been miffed, and Sano in turn had been rude, and she had been waspish back and so on and on. Why on earth did I agree to this? She wondered, tightening her grip on his waist nonetheless. I knew it could only go badly.
Despite her anger and frustration with the man in front of her, she felt a pang of sadness in her somewhere- something that she did not understand at all, and thus ignored. For a moment, her eyes had even filled briefly with tears- she blinked them back, knowing that the wind in her face wasn't helping. Uggg, she thought. Men. Muto had been right, she should've stayed away from men. As they neared her house, she felt her heart lighten. When they finally pulled up to her curb, she immediately removed her helmet and steadied her hands on his back as she swung off the motorcycle.
"Well," she said dryly. Sano snorted, eyes narrowed as he surveyed her.
"Well. Its too bad we couldn't manage to get along for an evening." He replied evenly. Magdaria glared back at him.
"At least it was… interesting." She retorted. With another snort, Sano kicked the engine back into life and drove off. "Hey!" she called, though there was no way he'd heard her. She looked at the helmet still held in her hands.
"Fine, then." She said to herself quietly, heading back inside to her house.
Tomoe ran fingers through her already silken hair and sighed before ringing the doorbell in front of her. Her heart beat a little faster when the door was pulled open, and her friend Akira smiled genuinely down at her.
"Tomoe-san!" he said, motioning her inwards. "You brought cake! How kind." Tomoe smiled and held it out for him to take.
"It is only polite to offer food to my host," she replied with a smile. "Plus, I don't mind baking once and again." Akira smiled down at her in a way that made her heart skip a beat before he turned to put the cake in the kitchen.
"Make yourself comfortable," he called. "We'll be in the living room."
"Alright," Tomoe called back, making her way through the hall to the comfortable living room. White walls and carpet surrounded plum colored furniture with red accents. In Tomoe's opinion, it was quite nice. She sat herself on the loveseat and crossed her legs, waiting patiently for her friend to return. For a few moments nothing happened. Tomoe wrinkled her nose at the oddness of feeling alone in a friend's house.
"What're we watching?" she called to him to ease the silence. She heard the noise of a pan being set on the counter before he replied.
"I was thinking something classic, like Seven Samurai. Or we could watch Ringu, if you like." His voice had turned sly at the mention of the acclaimed horror film, and Tomoe smiled. He was implying that she would be scared. He would see.
"I haven't seen Ringu yet, I've heard it was good," she said lightly, as if she hadn't noticed his teasing.
"Ringu it is, then." He said, enterting the room with two plates of Tomoe's cake and two glasses of what looked like strawberry wine on a tray.
"Wine and cake and a horror movie," Tomoe noted with a half smile, and Akira shrugged while sitting carefully beside her, so as not to spill the wine on the tray.
"I never said I'm conventional," he said cheerfully. Handing her the tray, he stood once more. "I'm just going to pop the movie in," he explained. Tomoe took a sip of the wine and nodded.
"Sure," she replied. "This wine is good! Its so light."
"Well, I'm quite picky about the wine I drink." Akira replied easily, turning on the monitor. "All set." He flicked off the lights as he returned to sit next to Tomoe. She set the tray on the table in front of them and handed him his glass of wine.
"Thanks," he replied, inching unnoticeably nearer to his guest.
Ten minutes into the movie, Tomoe was questioning whether it had been wise to act brave for Akira. She had nearly screamed twice, and was trying terribly hard not to shake like a leaf. As the music tensed and the images on the screen grew darker, she felt her heart race in fear. The music hits its climax as the screen was filled with the grotesque image of a dead girl, her face and body looking so dead that it seemed she had been dead for months, not minutes. With a gasp, Tomoe hid her face in Akira's shoulder, grasping his arm tightly with both hands. He stiffened before arranging a careful arm around her shoulder.
"Don't be frightened, its just a movie." He said softly.
"I'm not watching any more of that," Tomoe declared into his shirt, not moving from Akira's grasp.
"And here I thought you weren't going to be scared." He teased, running a finger down her cheek. This, more than anything else, brought her to lift her face to look at him.
"Akira?" she whispered, as the music in the movie began tensing once again.
"You know you don't have to be scared of anything with me," he said, speaking so intimately that she felt herself blush. Their faces were inches apart.
"I know," she said, so quietly that he barely heard it. In a moment, even the shrieking from the movie was tuned out as they stared at each other. As the movie quieted down, Akira slid his finger down to her chin and lifted it so that her lips were raised, mere breaths away from his.
"Can I kiss you, Miss Tomoe?" he asked, in barely a whisper. There was no need for volume, they were so close. She felt herself nod, and he was kissing her, and it was the most wonderful feeling in the world. She removed both hands from his arm, wrapping one around his neck and moving the other to his cheek. In turn, he wrapped both arms around her waist, pulling her even closer.
It wasn't until several minutes later that they broke the kiss, and Tomoe inhaled heavily.
"Oh, Akira," she whispered against his lips. She felt a tear roll down her cheek, and wiped it away before he could see it. Lying her head on his shoulder, they resumed watching the movie.
At six in the morning, Kaoru rose and showered before heading out to do the laundry. She never used to get up this early, but lately she had been so depressed – with Kenshin ignoring her, she went to bed early, and thus began rising before the sun had. Flicking her bangs from her face, she went to the task of gathering the clothes from the clothes line, starting with the smaller items (I.e. her underclothes), and moving her way up. It was relaxing, she thought, folding one of Kenshin's undershirts and setting it carefully in his basket. She picked her skirt off the line and folded it as well, tossing it in her own basket as her mind began to wander.
She was certainly not happy lately. Kenshin was her whole world, and he was acting like he couldn't stand the sight of her. She had gotten over the initial shock of being upset and crying, and was now seriously considering leaving. Where she would go, she had no idea, but living with Kenshin was becoming unbearable. Then there was the fact of the wedding coming up soon… What would she tell him? 'Thanks for your hospitality, but now that you'd rather I fall off the face of the planet, I think I'm gonna leave'? She shook her head, shaking a t-shirt in the wind to rid it of any leaves before folding it and setting it in Kenshin's basket. No matter what happened, things would not be fun from now on. As she moved on to the big, white, billowing sheets, she heard the sound of running footsteps coming towards the dojo.
"Huh?" she wondered aloud, trying to wrestle the sheet out of her line of vision. As the noise came nearer and nearer, Kaoru finally gave up fighting the wind-controlled bed-draping and stepped out-
Only to walk smack into a sweaty, running Kenshin. With an "oof", Kaoru was knocked backwards, the momentum of Kenshin's pace throwing him forwards with her. She landed with a very painful and very wet thud into the giant tub of clothes and warm, sudsy water, Kenshin on top of her. Despite herself, her first thought came to surface something like,
'Oh, not this again,' but this time was much more painful than the last. Her back had landed most excruciatingly on the edge of the wooden tub, the crooks of her knees over the over edge. Kenshin had been lucky. His hands were on either side of her waist at the bottom of the tub of soapy clothes, and his knees had landed heavily on the outside of the tub so that his kneecaps had smacked the tub painfully.
Kaoru groaned and Kenshin scurried to get up and help her out of the tub.
"Miss Kaoru! I'm terribly sorry, I didn't see you at all!" he offered a wet hand to her and she took it, grateful for some assistance out of the tub.
"I think my back is broken," she whined as Kenshin's strength practically lifted her up. She rubbed it vigorously once she was standing, wincing at what she knew would be some serious bruising. "What were your doing, anyway?"
Concerned by the looks of pain on Kaoru's face, Kenshin frowned.
"Going for a morning run. What are you doing up so early, doing laundry of all things?" he asked.
"I couldn't sleep," she retorted, still grimacing and rubbing her back.
"Are you alright?" he asked in concern. Kaoru nodded.
"I'll have a bruise, if that's what you mean," she said, scowling at the dull pain. "It feels like it got cut, too, she added thoughtfully. Kenshin frowned again.
"Cut? It might be infected, can I take a look at it?"
With a slow nod, Kaoru removed her sweatshirt, glad she had decided to wear a tank top today. If not, there would've been an awkward stripping scene, she thought grimly. As Kenshin gently pulled down the back of her tank top, Kaoru's eyes grew huge. They had their first semi-normal conversation just now! He hadn't cut out with some excuse, and she hadn't stared blankly at him. Happiness bubbled in her chest, but she sat silently as Kenshin surveyed the damage.
"You'll have a pretty big bruise there, that you will." He said. "Its not cut, though, luckily."
"It sure feels like it."
"Not surprising, with the force you hit the tub with. I'm sorry," he said, cringing as he once again offered a hand to help her up. She took it, shrugging as she turned to face him.
"Accidents happen," she said cheerfully, more than happy that they were talking like normal people again. Kenshin noticed her smile, and with a shock realized he hadn't seen her smile in weeks. It was a welcome sight. And he wondered why he had been so keen to keep her from smiling before. He felt his insides twist weirdly.
"You have a beautiful smile, Miss Kaoru, you should not hide it from anyone." With that, he dropped her hand and walked away, leaving a stunned and confused Kaoru behind.
A/N: Did... did I just give Tomoe a waff-y moment? Whoa.
5 Reviews- I love you guys!
Thank you's:
Royal blueKitsune – don't worry, I'm not forgetting about Kenshin and Kaoru (how could I?), but I like to have more than one thing going on at once. Spice things up a bit. Plus, I like Sano and Magdaria. Thanks for the review!
GreenEyedFloozy – I wasn't sure what the C2 thing was so I asked a friend and she hazarded a guess that it's some sort of contest? So hopefully I don't sound conceited by saying that I'd be flattered, and I'm glad you think so highly of this story (unless the C2 thing is like "Kenshin stories that suck really bad"), and also, is there a link? I have another story in progress that I'm really proud of that I might be interested in submitting. Wow, now that my ego has grown a few sizes… thanks for the review!
Lynn-Minmay – thank you! I updated faster than usual, so hopefully it is soon enough for you, lol. Thanks so much for leaving a review.
Shikaku zetsumei – no, Sano's not having the most luck courting Magdaria currently. But he's a tough dude. Just ask his shirt lol. When I said that I wanted to change pov's, I didn't mean it quite literally… the pov stays the same, but the setting or the time changes, you know? Like when I went from Magdaria at the end of her terrible date with Sano to Tomoe on Akira's doorstep. So I just bolded new... scenery changes. Hopefully that will be enough, but thank you for the advice nonetheless!
SparklingEmeralds – lol, thanks! You rock also for leaving a review! Don't worry, I'm not dropping this baby anytime soon. Thanks for reading!