"She asked me to."

The sentence turned itself over in her mind; over and over again until she had anaylzed every single part down to it's basic form. With a steady look set across her rather red face, she slapped him…hard. Misao closed her eyes, already despising the next words that would exit her mouth, but they were the only words she could think of. Inhaling quietly, she paused a moment, opened her eyes and bellowed, "I HATE YOU!" before storming away quickly in search for a hotel. She was so furious that she couldn't seem find some semblance of satisfaction at the sight of his stunned face.

"She ASKED me to? What the fuck! So if I asked you to jump off a fucking cliff right now…would you?" she muttered out loud to herself. Normally Misao would never swear, but the extent of her anger would not permit her to speak as she 'normally' would. She soon came upon a motel and entered the lobby. The greeter gave her an odd look, that Misao unconsciencely ignored as she headed to the counter.

"Are you alright miss?" the receptionist asked, concern lacing through her voice as Misao stepped up.

"Fine, why?" Misao questioned indignantly.

"You're crying." The woman pointed out and bit her lip a little. Misao for her part looked shocked and moved a hand up to feel her soaked cheeks. Had she been so mad that she didn't even NOTICE that she was CRYING!

Misao looked back to the receptionist, "I'll be okay." she assured the woman, though Misao wasn't sure the words were true. After that, it didn't take long to book a room. Misao got her key and headed to the number assigned on her key-card. She got into the room and sat down on the bed.

"What now?" she asked no one in particular.

Minutes rolled by and Misao just sat there. She was tired, but didn't feel like sleeping, she was hungry from all the 'excitement', but didn't really feel like eating. Everything was catching up to her. She'd been so hurt, and then insulted, and it had all happened so fast that she hadn't had time to think about it all…and now that she did have time, she wasn't sure THAT was what she wanted to think on. The pain in her chest wouldn't go away. She moved one hand up to cover her heart.

One minute later, she was bawling into a pillow on the bed, spending her remaining energy crying her frustrations out. Crying so she wouldn't have to think about how passionate Aoshi had been kissing that woman. The thought made her cry that much harder.

A minute after that, Misao was completely out on the bed, still crying even in her fitful sleep. She'd never thought that Aoshi would have it end like this.

Aoshi stood in that one spot frozen as he watched Misao run away from him. What had he said to her? It had been just a little while ago but he was having a rather hard time focusing. She had slapped him, his cheek still stung. He put a hand to his head and murmured one word, "Fuck." Suddenly everything came back in a flash and he sat down, burying his face in his hands. He was so mad he wanted to hit something, punch it in until it was no longer in anyway the shape it had once been. He felt something vibrating on his hip and it took him a second to realize that it was his phone. Shifting he pulled it out of his pocket and answered. It was Kenshin.

"Kaoru just called me saying she had just talked to Misao, are you alright?" he asked. Aoshi shook his head, much like Misao had done when speaking to Kaoru.

"I am fine." Aoshi gritted out. He felt tense, though Kenshin was his friend, he wasn't sure he was ready to admit that he had fucked up. However, the need to confess was much stronger than his pride at the moment and he sighed, almost as if in defeat. He'd already lost what was most important; did he really need pride after what he'd done?

"I made a mistake." Aoshi said, running a hand through his hair. He heard Kenshin sigh, but he didn't say anything, just giving Aoshi the time he needed to try to explain a few things.

"I had a nightmare. So I got up and went for a walk." Aoshi said slowly. There was no need to explain what kind of nightmare; Aoshi had been having them since his parents died when he was a child. A part of him didn't want Kenshin to judge him on this, but he was still confused. Should he be saying any of this when he still felt like everything was spinning? He got up and began to walk back to the tent, trying to remain as rational as he could.

"I met this girl on the beach, she looked a bit like Misao. But she was apparently willing to just drink her life away and when I walked up, she just started to talk to me." Aoshi was trying to recall everything as it happened. "And I indulged in a few drinks with her." He said carefully. That was when Kenshin spoke up again.

"Did you think you were kissing Misao, Aoshi?" he asked in a rather gentle tone that threw Aoshi off slightly as he moved down the beach, but he had hit the nail on the head.

"Aa." He sighed. It was true though. He had just attacked the drinks, they helped him when his nightmare kept resurfacing, and the more he drank, the more he forgot and the more the girl in front of him looked like Misao. And when the young woman had stood shakily, sauntered over to him and asked for him to kiss her, he had fully indulged. He loved Misao, but sometimes he felt he might scare her off if he were to show her how much he loved her. He poured his heart into that kiss, only to realize too late that he was pouring his heart to the wrong woman. And Aoshi felt like the worlds biggest ass. Kenshin didn't say anything for a long while; Aoshi figured that everything was sinking in.

"Kaoru is on her way to pick Misao up." Kenshin said, apparently having no apologetic words for Aoshi. It made sense though, Aoshi didn't want to hear any 'Oh I'm soooo sorry Aoshi' or 'Everything will be alright in the end.' It didn't matter if someone said that, they were empty words, and Kenshin knew that. Kenshin was basically telling him in a round about way that Misao was going to be all right and had a safe mode of transportation home. Kenshin spoke again, which surprised Aoshi somewhat as he almost thought Kenshin had hung up already.

"Aoshi, couldn't you just tell Misao what happened?" he asked. Aoshi thought about the words for a long time.

"I'm afraid the damage has already been done. She hates me." Aoshi sighed. Kenshin seemed to recognize this as the end of the conversation and gave Aoshi his best wishes before getting off the phone. Aoshi hung up and stopped in front of the tent. He had thought that this might have been a great weekend where he could sleep with Misao against him. He could watch her play in the sand, acting like a kid. Aoshi didn't mind her child-like behaviors; in a way it countered his habit for being unbearingly serious. He never did understand what she saw in him that made her want to date him. Suddenly her words flashed through his mind, 'Please don't touch me.'

The words had burned him more than the 'I hate you'. Sitting down on the sand he felt more torn than ever. He wanted to go to Misao and confess to her as he had to Kenshin, but the other part of him wanted to obey her wishes, he didn't want to hurt her more, and he didn't want to hear any more harsh words from her small mouth. He bent his knees up, crossed his arms over the top and buried his face into his elbow…he missed her already.

THREE HOURS LATER

Misao awoke to the sound of her cell phone ringing and answered it groggily.

"Hi little one, I'm in the lobby. Just come down when you're ready." Kaoru said softly. Misao was so happy to hear her friend's voice and grabbed her things quickly before rushing down to the lobby. When she saw Kaoru she dropped everything and slammed into her best friend, giving her a mighty hug.

"I'm so happy you are here Kaoru." Misao cried, her emotions in total control. Her friend returned the hug.

"Are you alright?" she asked as she pulled away from Misao. Kaoru picked up the dropped items as Misao nodded her head, though the streaks down her cheeks said otherwise, but Kaoru said nothing. Giving Misao a smile she said, "Go check yourself out while I put these in the car." She said and moved towards the door.

Misao did as Kaoru advised and then headed outside to the car.

"Thank you for doing this Kaoru." Misao said as she buckled her seatbelt. Kaoru laughed a little at her.

"Misao, this is what best friends are for! I know you'd do the same for me if you had a car." She said and started on home. "So are we going to my house or yours?" she asked.

Sighing Misao mumbled, "Whichever has less people." She paused for a moment as if thinking up any other requirements. "Oh, and whichever is further from Aoshi. So I guess your house." She concluded.

During the ride, Misao told Kaoru everything that had happened, not even leaving out the 'she asked me to' comment, to which even Kaoru looked furious.

"I never would have guessed that Aoshi would sink so low as to cheat. I always thought of him as respectable enough to at least break it off first. Apparently I was way off." Kaoru frowned. It took nearly three hours for Misao to explain everything because she was still so shaken by the entire occourance; she had to pause to calm herself down every now and then.

"I love him Kaoru. Even now I do, even as I hate him for what he did." She admitted. Kaoru gave her a sympathetic look before pulling into her driveway.

"I'll take good care of you Misao, lets just get some rest and hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day. We can go get our hair done or a massage." Kaoru offered. Misao's face lit up for the first time all night.

"I would LOVE that." Misao said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. Both girls decided on what they would do the following day as they headed upstairs to Kaoru room and got ready for bed.

Around 8:30 or 9 am, Misao finally was able to fall into a dreamless sleep. Her mind and nerves were spent, and she swore as she was falling into her temporary coma that it would be one of the best sleeps she had ever had.

Sorry that this chapter was a little short. Once again, I had a lot of problems with this chapter because I knew I was going to have to write a lot of dialogue and I just don't really get jazzed about dialogue.

Though even if this chapter was short, at least it was a rather speedy update! GO ME! Or perhaps I should take more time, write longer and probably better. Personally I'm not very satisfied with this chapter; I just sort of wanted to get it over with because it's sort of at an in-between stage. I mean Aoshi and Misao broke up, and really all this is about is how and why it happened. And Misao crying because I can't have her just get over Aoshi, she has to cry before she can suck it up and be strong again. So…we'll see. I'm not sure how this is going to end though. AoshiXMisao 4evar, but I'm a bit of a fan of dramatic endings so I'm still thinking on what to do.

LOL, so if you found this chapter a bit on the boring side, no worries, I found it a little tedious to write as well, but don't worry, the next chapter will just be getting better! (I was more excited to write the next chapter than this one and so I've actually already started on Chapter 6.

HEARTS,

Jackson