D/C: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin…or any anime, to be exact.

Hi! I'm back! Thank you so much for your reviews and support! Glad you liked chapter three, and now I present to you, chapter 4, which I hope you will equally like!

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 4:

Silver moonlight poured in from the open window and fell across her face. A gentle breeze rippled the curtains, and they began to slightly flap around.

Megumi woke up at the flapping sound; she was such a light sleeper. She opened her eyes and cast wary look around. She was in her room, and was sleeping on her bed. She breathed out in relief and sat up in her bed, pushing her bed sheets away from her; for a moment she actually thought she was sitting in her car while a handsome guy drove her back home from a horrible incident at a fast-food restaurant, but now she realized it had just been a dream…or at least, that's what she wanted to believe.

She didn't want to believe that an angel under the name of Sanosuke Sagara had come to her house, packed away her groceries, got her into a fabulous gown with a snap of his fingers, taken her to a fast-food restaurant and…

She paused as she heard a knock on her door. She gripped the edge of her sheets tightly as she looked apprehensively at the door. 'Who's there?' she asked, sounding rather timid.

The door opened and the handsome guy she had thought was a dream popped his head inside. 'Oh, good! You're awake!' he exclaimed, sounding happy.

It wasn't a dream after all. 'How did I get here?' she asked him, massaging her temples.

'I offered to drive the car, remember?' he said, opening the door a bit wider so he could step inside. 'And then you fell asleep when we stopped at that traffic light at intersection 23…I didn't want to wake you up so I carried you up here.'

He carried me? 'Yeah…yeah, right,' she said, absently. 'I guess I must've been tired.'

'And hungry,' Sano said, grinning. 'You left the restaurant before we could eat…so I packed a couple of take-away's and brought them along…wanna eat?'

Megumi nodded. 'You're right, I do feel hungry,' she admitted. 'What time is it now?'

'It's seven p.m.,' he answered. 'You slept three hours straight…go freshen up a bit and meet me downstairs in the kitchen.'

He gave her another cheerful grin before leaving the room. Megumi watched the door through which he had disappeared a moment ago for a while, before finally pushing her bed sheets away and scrambling off the bed. She slipped her feet in her slippers and shuffled to the bathroom.

She turned on the tap and let the cold water flow over her hands for a moment, before she scooped some in her hands and splashed the liquid against her face. She glanced at her reflection in the mirror, and realized for the first time how disheveled and tired she looked. Feeling embarrassed at the thought that Sano actually saw her like this; she quickly dried up her face and fixed her hair, before heading down the stairs to the kitchen.

She found that Sano had already started wolfing down his burger, and scowled at him in distaste. 'Thank you for doing me the courtesy of waiting for me,' she snapped, sitting on the stool across from him.

Sano quickly swallowed his bite and wiped his mouth with a napkin. 'Sorry,' he apologized, sounding rather sheepish. 'I was rather hungry…I hadn't eaten anything today and those cookies I ate before don't count as food, if you ask me.'

Megumi just continued to scowl at him as she reached for her paper bag. 'It's your fault you hadn't eaten anything, you know,' she said sharply. 'If you hadn't taken us to that fast-food restaurant, we would've had lunch ages ago.'

'Excuse me? My fault?' he said, incredulously. 'May I remind you that you're the one who walked out of the restaurant?'

Megumi chose not to respond, and pulled out her burger. She examined it through narrowed eyes. 'Are you sure this is edible?' she asked after a moment.

'I'm eating, aren't I? And I haven't dropped dead of poisoning yet, so I guess you could take that as a good sign,' he said, mockingly.

'Thank you, I think that will do,' she muttered, as she unwrapped the burger. She took a dainty bite out of it. 'Mmm, you're right, this is really good.'

'Thanks for sharing the obvious truth,' he muttered. 'But you're changing the subject…why did you walk out of the restaurant like that?'

'What are you? Deaf? Dumb? Maybe both?' she snapped. 'Didn't you hear what the people around you were saying?'

Sano seemed totally unfazed by her insults. 'No, I heard them just fine,' he told her. 'What I meant was, why did you let them get to you?'

'What the hell do you mean?' she demanded. 'Those people were laughing at me, they were insulting me! Did you think I'd just sit there and listen to all that crap from them?'

'No, of course not,' he said quietly, and took a swig from his coke. 'But I'd rather you stood up and told them to stop laughing at you.'

Megumi stared at him. 'Are you insane?' she said. 'I can't do that!'

'Why not? Are you scared of them?' he sneered.

Megumi was now squeezing her burger so tightly Ketchup sauce was starting to drip from it and onto the table. 'How dare you?' she hissed. 'You, who don't know a thing about anything, how can you speak to me like that? Who do you think you are?'

'I'm your guardian, that's who,' Sano said.

'So what if you are?' she exploded. 'You don't understand! You think that standing up and shouting at those people will solve anything? You're wrong! Do you know what would've happened if I had done that?'

'No, I don't,' he replied. 'Why don't you tell me?'

'Fine! I will!' she snapped, now on her feet. She didn't know why he managed to get on her nerves so much, he just did. 'Rumors would've started! People would have more reason to start insulting me! They'd got publish all those nasty stuff about me in the tabloids and magazines! That would give the people more chance to talk about me! And right now, I'd rather keep a low profile, thank you very much! Do you understand now? Or do I have to use more simple words or retort to using crude sign language?'

While she threw her fit of rage, Sano sat quietly and calmly, folding the napkin he was holding. 'No, it's okay, I perfectly understand what you're saying,' he assured her.

'Good!' she fumed, slumping down on her stool and taking a furious bite out of her burger.

'So, what you mainly mean is that you care about what the public think of you, right? You care about others' opinions, isn't that what you were saying?' he asked.

'W-what?' she sputtered.

'That's not good, Megumi,' he told her. 'I understand that you want people to respect you, but what you're doing will never earn you any respect from anyone.'

'What do you mean?' she asked sharply.

'When you don't reply to any of their abuse, people will start to think that they were right about you all along, that they were right about you being the cause of the kid's death, why else wouldn't you respond when they called you murderer on the street?' he said in a reasonable tone. 'They will think you are weak, and that you don't deserve any respect or sympathy.'

'Oh, come off it, you're exaggerating,' she huffed.

'I'm not exaggerating, Megumi, I know what people say about you behind your back, and trust me, it's not pretty,' he told her. 'Now, if you went and gave them a piece of your mind, I'm positive it'll ease off their bitterness a bit.'

'You're not serious, are you?' she said, her eyebrows raised. 'They'll hate me even more if that's possible.'

'No, they won't,' Sano assured her. 'Let me give it to you this way…you and the Yamachis are in a battlefield, and all around you, the public are watching…now, the Yamachis are the ones who are putting up the good fight, they're strong, and you're just standing there and allowing them to hit you…who do you think the public will cheer?'

'The Yamachis?' she said quietly.

'Precisely,' he replied. 'Are you getting my point here?'

'Yeah, I guess so,' she said, slowly. She smiled. 'So the next time somebody insults me, I take off my shoe and throw it at him?'

'No, no shoes! That's the sort of thing I would do! And it doesn't turn out pretty, I can tell you!' he said, sounding frantic.

Megumi laughed. 'Relax, I was just kidding,' she assured him. 'I will try as much as I can to stick to civil conversations.'

'No shoes?' he said.

'No shoes and no fists, I promise,' she replied, and he grinned. Megumi smiled at him. 'Thank you, Sano, seriously.'

'For what?' he asked her.

'For helping me out like this,' she answered. 'I really don't know what I would've done without you.'

'It's okay, no big deal, no pressure,' he replied. 'I like to help every chance I get…besides, it's my job, isn't it?'

'Yeah, it is your job,' she muttered.

So this is what all this is about, wasn't it? He was just doing his job, he didn't care about her or her happiness, he just cared about performing a good job. She felt stupid for thinking that there was an inkling of a chance for Sano to like her. And once again, she thought about the possibility of her being to horrible to be liked anyway.

Sano seemed to notice that she had become rather subdued. 'Hey,' he said gently, resting his hand on her hand. Megumi nearly jumped at his touch. 'I know I sounded selfish when I said it's my job to help, but I really do care about what happens to you, Megumi…I really do.'

Megumi didn't say anything. A smile tugged at her lips but she didn't want him to see how happy his words made her, so she took a bite out of the burger.

'You know, this is really tasty, I liked it,' she said, after she had swallowed.

Sano grinned. 'See? What did I tell you?' he teased her. He didn't need her to tell him what she felt about him, her unspoken words were completely understood by him. 'So, where should we go for dinner?'

A/N: Okay, how was that? Bit shorter than the usual, I know, and I'm sorry, but I hope you liked it just the same. Let's see, I think I might let Megumi test out Sano's theory in the next chappie, what do you think? Anyway, plz review! And wait for chapter 5!

-ZEN.