Rurouni Kenshin: Cinderella Story
by: nyllemnev
Standard Disclaimer's Apply: blah, blah, blah...
Chapter 10: A very long night
"You're beautiful as always, Kaoru-san..." Enishi said with a smile. Kaoru felt herself blushing and looked down.
"You don't have to flatter me that much." she said in a soft voice.
"But it's true." he said, lifting her chin to make her look up at him. "Kaoru-megami-sama..."
Kaoru only bit her lip and looked away, feeling a little nervous and uncomfortable all of a sudden, muttering a soft 'arigato'. Enishi leaned back on his seat, though Kaoru could feel that he is still watching her out of the corners of his eyes.
"Anou..." she said, trying to find a way to start up a decent conversation. "Uhm... so, how's things doing in the palace?"
"Well, as usual, I do have a hand full but it's just fine. The prince is out of town, meeting with Consul Kiyosato and Princess Sayo of Yokohama." Enishi started. "Apparently, the king must've planned everything, making the prince go there... I bet he's planning to get his majesty closer to the fair princess."
"Is that so?" Kaoru nodded her head. "So... the king sent Prince Kenshin to Yokohama for him to get to know the princess?"
"Yes." Enishi nodded. "The king is pretty keen on making his son fall in love with a girl... you see, he just wants to see his son get marry to the right girl."
"Oh... I guess every parent would want their children to meet the right one." Kaoru made a small smile.
"Yeah... and I think I've found mine." Enishi said, staring at Kaoru with mixed expression on his face.
"Oh..." Kaoru looked away. "I see... that's great."
"Aren't you going to ask me who is she?" Enishi moved closer to Kaoru, lifting a hand to her chin again to make her face him. "It is you..." he smiled when he saw her blushed slightly. He took the advantage to lean forward trying to kiss her but...
"Anou..." Kaoru said, inching away from Enishi, a nervous smile playing on her pretty face. "I think we're getting a little forward... you still don't know me. You can't tell if I'm the right one or not."
"But I'm willing to get to know you more." Enishi leaned back on his seat. "That is... if you would let me..."
"I don't want to talk about the matter as for now." Kaoru said in a soft voice. "I mean... we could still be friends if you like... it's just that..."
"I'm willing to wait for you..."
Kaoru only looked up to stare at him, watching him for a moment. 'He's not that bad at all, anyway... why can't I give him a chance? He seems pretty sincere and so... but... it's just that he's not really like...'
"Do I have a chance?" he asked, gazing at her with an unreadable expression on his eyes, though Kaoru could see something dark in it.
"I don't know..." Kaoru avoided his gaze, '...still I just don't feel that right when I'm with him...'
"Why can't you give me a chance? Is there another guy or something?" Enishi asked, trying to control a pang of anger building up inside of him. He frowned when he saw her blush hard.
"No... I mean, no..." Kaoru shook her head, though the blush on her face will make anyone believe that she's lying. "It's just that... I'm not sure if I can return everything you have for me, the way you expected me to... I don't want to hurt anybody in the end. We could always be friends."
"But being friends is not enough with me." Enishi said making Kaoru looked at him, wide-eyed. "I want us to be more than friends." he took Kaoru's hand in his and gave it a squeeze.
"But..."
"I'm still going to wait for your answer." Enishi said before letting go of her hand and standing up.
"Yukishiro-san..." Kaoru looked up at him with questioning eyes.
"'Till then." he added before leaving the room. Kaoru only stared at his retreating back with her eyes wide open.
***
"I'm glad the meeting was finally over." Kenshin sighed as he sank on his huge bed. Sano only sat on a chair in front of the fire place.
"Yeah..." Sano said with a nod.
"Good thing that this meeting is finally over. We could go back in Tokyo, first thing in the morning." Kenshin said with a huge smile on his face. "I'm glad."
"That's what you really want in the first place, ne?" Sano smirked, turning his head to his friend. "Missed your little jou-chan?"
Kenshin just blushed while Sano laughed out loud. Kenshin shot him a glare which made him stop laughing.
"I was just kidding... but it's the truth... you missed her, ne?"
"Fine! What if I do?" Kenshin rolled his eyes.
"You're really dead in love with her, ne?"
"I don't know... maybe." Kenshin said in a low voice. "Maybe, this is love."
"Hehe... so, when are you going to tell her everything?" Sano said in a serious voice. "You have to tell her, anyway. It's better if she'll hear it from you than from somebody else."
"I don't know. I'm afraid. What if she doesn't believe me?" Kenshin sighed. "I don't want to lose her. Even if she just sees me as a friend, I can take that... but what if telling her truth will ruin everything? I can't take that."
"You sure do have a slight headache." Sano sighed too. "Things always turned out too complicated for you.
"I wish I just told her everything in the first place." Kenshin said more to himself. "At least... if she laughs at me and wouldn't believe me... I won't have to feel this way..."
"Don't worry... if you're really for meant for each other. You'll gonna pass this one." Sano said with a grin. "Don't worry... and I know you two are really meant for each other the time I saw you two dancing by the moonlight."
Kenshin gave Sano a grin. He sure does have a pretty good best friend. A soft knock on his door made them turn to the door. Sano got up and opened the door.
"Hey..." Sano smirked at the beautiful young lady in front of him.
"Is Prince Kenshin there?" Princess Sayo asked in a soft voice. Sano opened the door wider for her to enter.
"Prince Kenshin..." the fair princess smiled sweetly at the red-haired prince.
"It's late... why would a princess like you walk around the palace at this time of the night." Kenshin asked in his polite manner.
"I was just... I just wanna make sure if you are comfortable here." Sayo said, giving another smile to Kenshin. "I guessed that you are."
"Hai. Thanks for worrying." Kenshin bowed his head, returning her smile.
"Then, I think I better get back to my own room." Sayo said before leaving the room.
"Pretty..." Sano muttered watching the young princess leave. Kenshin, however heard his words and grinned.
"You like her, ne?" Kenshin said to Sano who just blushed a little.
"I can appreciate a girl's beauty, you know? I'm not like any prince out there that I know who wouldn't even appreciate some girl's chamrs." Sano rolled his eyes.
"Fine!" Kenshin said.
"I better get back to my room too." Sano yawned. "See you tomorrow."
"Yeah... tomorrow." Kenshin went back to his bed and laid there awake.
***
"How does it go?" Megumi asked seeing Enishi walked out of the waiting room.
"She doesn't seem that interested on me, though." Enishi said and Megumi gasped, muttering something like 'that stupid girl!'.
"I apologize for her behavior if she did something wrong." Megumi said, silently making a point to talk to Kaoru after this.
"Can you do something about this?" Enishi said. "I mean... I really like her and she doesn't seem to like me too. I can feel that she already have someone... but... you do can help me, ne?"
Megumi looked at Enishi, quite confused. "I can help you in any way, but how?"
"You are her guardian, ne?" Enishi asked and Megumi quietly nodded. "You can prepare a party and announced my engagement with her to everybody. That way, she'll be mine whether she likes it or not."
"Engagement?" Megumi said the words before a small smile appeared on her face. "That sounds nice. Tell me what day."
"Any day would do." Enishi said with a smile. "The sooner, the better."
"Fine... we'll have it on the dragon festival... about two months from now." Megumi said and Enishi nodded in agreement.
"Just... don't tell anything about this plan to her... I don't want her to know that I'm a part of the plan. Make it looks like that you want me for her." he said and Megumi nodded. He gave a smile before walking out of the house.
***
The time Enishi left Kaoru alone, she have quickly went back to her room in the attic and changed back to her usual rag clothes. She sighed and sat on the old mattress she used as a bed. A small frown on her pretty face.
'I can't understand him...' she thought. '...and I can't just make myself like him... specially after my conversation with him. He seems pretty persistent and he never wants to hear from me. It's just that he wants us to be closer... even more than that, but he wouldn't care whether I like it or not.'
'...Kenshin was never like that to me. He will always respect what I'll have to say. He always listens to me. He always made me feel special...' a smile came playing on her face. 'He's always like that... he made me feel right, and cared for. I don't know what I'm feeling. Heck! I can't even understand what I have to feel for him... but... this is so weird, that's an understatement... I feel so weird...'
'Maybe I do like him, after all... maybe Yahiko was right thinking that he was my boyfriend... HEY! Where did that COME from?' she felt a blush creep out of her face. 'Nothing like that... he just sees me as a friend, nothing more!'
Her thoughts was cut-off when the attic door burst open, revealing Tomoe and Kamatari. She sighed and readied herself to be interrogated.
"Kaoru!" Kamatari called and Kaoru gave her a small smile.
"Hai?"
"So, how does it go?" Tomoe asked while Kamatari was smiling at Kaoru widely.
"I don't know if you two will like it," Kaoru sighed. "He told me that the prince was out in Yokohama to meet the consul and the princess there. He also told me that..."
"A Princess?!? Are they going to get married?!? No... My dreams... my dreams..." Kamatari looked broken-hearted, saying those words in a melodramatic voice.
"Er... Well, it's not like that... but Yukishiro-san told me that the king must've been planning on getting the princess closer to his son... But maybe it's not really like that..." Kaoru added trying to make Kamatari stop crying.
"How can he be so unfair?" Kamatari ran out of Kaoru's 'room' while Tomoe only rolled her eyes.
"The childish brat." she muttuered. "Of course that's not true... besides, the prince have met many princesses from different places and he gave none of them his attention... so, I still got my chance... I mean I always have my chance..." she said before stalking off. Kaoru sighed and closed the door of her 'room'.
"They really want to marry the prince..." Kaoru said to herself.
***
'I can't sleep...' Kenshin rolled and tossed but he just couldn't get himself to sleep. 'Arghhhh! How come I can't sleep!' With a sigh, he drew something out of his pocket. A ribbon... Kaoru's ribbon... He still kept it and it's always with him.
'Maybe I do miss her.' Kenshin sighed as he put the ribbon on his face. A faint scent of Jasmine is still there, he smiled. 'Oh... I really loved her sweet Jasmine scent... how I loved her beautiful smile, her expressive eyes... her soft hair, everything about her... Kami-sama... I do love her...' as he closed his eyes, a small smile creep out of his face as Kaoru's smiling face came in his mind's eye.
'If only I could love you... if only I could make you show how I truly felt for you... My Kaoru...' Kenshin sighed again sadly, this time. 'If only I could tell it you... if only I have that courage to tell you everything... but I'm still afraid of the possibility of losing you... Kami-sama why does it have to be always so complicated for me...'
He opened his eyes and stared blankly at nowhere. "Come to think of it... I still have Yukishiro as a rival for her... Not that I feel threatened by him... It's just that, at least Kaoru already knew that he's really from the palace."
He smiled sadly. 'If only I could come to you and tell you everything... it wouldn't be like this... everything would be fine... If only I could...' and with that, he felt his eyes closing as he fell to asleep.
TBC...
A/N: Not as long as my other chapters but it's alright, ne? Give me your reviews minna-san... don't get tired of reading my stories and reviewing, ne? And also, I thank you for always being there and staying with me, even though sometimes, I find it so hard to update as quickly as I want. I give you a huge MWAH! And HUGZZZ as a sign of my appreciation. Again, til next chappies! Ja!
Standard Disclaimer's Apply: blah, blah, blah...
Chapter 10: A very long night
"You're beautiful as always, Kaoru-san..." Enishi said with a smile. Kaoru felt herself blushing and looked down.
"You don't have to flatter me that much." she said in a soft voice.
"But it's true." he said, lifting her chin to make her look up at him. "Kaoru-megami-sama..."
Kaoru only bit her lip and looked away, feeling a little nervous and uncomfortable all of a sudden, muttering a soft 'arigato'. Enishi leaned back on his seat, though Kaoru could feel that he is still watching her out of the corners of his eyes.
"Anou..." she said, trying to find a way to start up a decent conversation. "Uhm... so, how's things doing in the palace?"
"Well, as usual, I do have a hand full but it's just fine. The prince is out of town, meeting with Consul Kiyosato and Princess Sayo of Yokohama." Enishi started. "Apparently, the king must've planned everything, making the prince go there... I bet he's planning to get his majesty closer to the fair princess."
"Is that so?" Kaoru nodded her head. "So... the king sent Prince Kenshin to Yokohama for him to get to know the princess?"
"Yes." Enishi nodded. "The king is pretty keen on making his son fall in love with a girl... you see, he just wants to see his son get marry to the right girl."
"Oh... I guess every parent would want their children to meet the right one." Kaoru made a small smile.
"Yeah... and I think I've found mine." Enishi said, staring at Kaoru with mixed expression on his face.
"Oh..." Kaoru looked away. "I see... that's great."
"Aren't you going to ask me who is she?" Enishi moved closer to Kaoru, lifting a hand to her chin again to make her face him. "It is you..." he smiled when he saw her blushed slightly. He took the advantage to lean forward trying to kiss her but...
"Anou..." Kaoru said, inching away from Enishi, a nervous smile playing on her pretty face. "I think we're getting a little forward... you still don't know me. You can't tell if I'm the right one or not."
"But I'm willing to get to know you more." Enishi leaned back on his seat. "That is... if you would let me..."
"I don't want to talk about the matter as for now." Kaoru said in a soft voice. "I mean... we could still be friends if you like... it's just that..."
"I'm willing to wait for you..."
Kaoru only looked up to stare at him, watching him for a moment. 'He's not that bad at all, anyway... why can't I give him a chance? He seems pretty sincere and so... but... it's just that he's not really like...'
"Do I have a chance?" he asked, gazing at her with an unreadable expression on his eyes, though Kaoru could see something dark in it.
"I don't know..." Kaoru avoided his gaze, '...still I just don't feel that right when I'm with him...'
"Why can't you give me a chance? Is there another guy or something?" Enishi asked, trying to control a pang of anger building up inside of him. He frowned when he saw her blush hard.
"No... I mean, no..." Kaoru shook her head, though the blush on her face will make anyone believe that she's lying. "It's just that... I'm not sure if I can return everything you have for me, the way you expected me to... I don't want to hurt anybody in the end. We could always be friends."
"But being friends is not enough with me." Enishi said making Kaoru looked at him, wide-eyed. "I want us to be more than friends." he took Kaoru's hand in his and gave it a squeeze.
"But..."
"I'm still going to wait for your answer." Enishi said before letting go of her hand and standing up.
"Yukishiro-san..." Kaoru looked up at him with questioning eyes.
"'Till then." he added before leaving the room. Kaoru only stared at his retreating back with her eyes wide open.
***
"I'm glad the meeting was finally over." Kenshin sighed as he sank on his huge bed. Sano only sat on a chair in front of the fire place.
"Yeah..." Sano said with a nod.
"Good thing that this meeting is finally over. We could go back in Tokyo, first thing in the morning." Kenshin said with a huge smile on his face. "I'm glad."
"That's what you really want in the first place, ne?" Sano smirked, turning his head to his friend. "Missed your little jou-chan?"
Kenshin just blushed while Sano laughed out loud. Kenshin shot him a glare which made him stop laughing.
"I was just kidding... but it's the truth... you missed her, ne?"
"Fine! What if I do?" Kenshin rolled his eyes.
"You're really dead in love with her, ne?"
"I don't know... maybe." Kenshin said in a low voice. "Maybe, this is love."
"Hehe... so, when are you going to tell her everything?" Sano said in a serious voice. "You have to tell her, anyway. It's better if she'll hear it from you than from somebody else."
"I don't know. I'm afraid. What if she doesn't believe me?" Kenshin sighed. "I don't want to lose her. Even if she just sees me as a friend, I can take that... but what if telling her truth will ruin everything? I can't take that."
"You sure do have a slight headache." Sano sighed too. "Things always turned out too complicated for you.
"I wish I just told her everything in the first place." Kenshin said more to himself. "At least... if she laughs at me and wouldn't believe me... I won't have to feel this way..."
"Don't worry... if you're really for meant for each other. You'll gonna pass this one." Sano said with a grin. "Don't worry... and I know you two are really meant for each other the time I saw you two dancing by the moonlight."
Kenshin gave Sano a grin. He sure does have a pretty good best friend. A soft knock on his door made them turn to the door. Sano got up and opened the door.
"Hey..." Sano smirked at the beautiful young lady in front of him.
"Is Prince Kenshin there?" Princess Sayo asked in a soft voice. Sano opened the door wider for her to enter.
"Prince Kenshin..." the fair princess smiled sweetly at the red-haired prince.
"It's late... why would a princess like you walk around the palace at this time of the night." Kenshin asked in his polite manner.
"I was just... I just wanna make sure if you are comfortable here." Sayo said, giving another smile to Kenshin. "I guessed that you are."
"Hai. Thanks for worrying." Kenshin bowed his head, returning her smile.
"Then, I think I better get back to my own room." Sayo said before leaving the room.
"Pretty..." Sano muttered watching the young princess leave. Kenshin, however heard his words and grinned.
"You like her, ne?" Kenshin said to Sano who just blushed a little.
"I can appreciate a girl's beauty, you know? I'm not like any prince out there that I know who wouldn't even appreciate some girl's chamrs." Sano rolled his eyes.
"Fine!" Kenshin said.
"I better get back to my room too." Sano yawned. "See you tomorrow."
"Yeah... tomorrow." Kenshin went back to his bed and laid there awake.
***
"How does it go?" Megumi asked seeing Enishi walked out of the waiting room.
"She doesn't seem that interested on me, though." Enishi said and Megumi gasped, muttering something like 'that stupid girl!'.
"I apologize for her behavior if she did something wrong." Megumi said, silently making a point to talk to Kaoru after this.
"Can you do something about this?" Enishi said. "I mean... I really like her and she doesn't seem to like me too. I can feel that she already have someone... but... you do can help me, ne?"
Megumi looked at Enishi, quite confused. "I can help you in any way, but how?"
"You are her guardian, ne?" Enishi asked and Megumi quietly nodded. "You can prepare a party and announced my engagement with her to everybody. That way, she'll be mine whether she likes it or not."
"Engagement?" Megumi said the words before a small smile appeared on her face. "That sounds nice. Tell me what day."
"Any day would do." Enishi said with a smile. "The sooner, the better."
"Fine... we'll have it on the dragon festival... about two months from now." Megumi said and Enishi nodded in agreement.
"Just... don't tell anything about this plan to her... I don't want her to know that I'm a part of the plan. Make it looks like that you want me for her." he said and Megumi nodded. He gave a smile before walking out of the house.
***
The time Enishi left Kaoru alone, she have quickly went back to her room in the attic and changed back to her usual rag clothes. She sighed and sat on the old mattress she used as a bed. A small frown on her pretty face.
'I can't understand him...' she thought. '...and I can't just make myself like him... specially after my conversation with him. He seems pretty persistent and he never wants to hear from me. It's just that he wants us to be closer... even more than that, but he wouldn't care whether I like it or not.'
'...Kenshin was never like that to me. He will always respect what I'll have to say. He always listens to me. He always made me feel special...' a smile came playing on her face. 'He's always like that... he made me feel right, and cared for. I don't know what I'm feeling. Heck! I can't even understand what I have to feel for him... but... this is so weird, that's an understatement... I feel so weird...'
'Maybe I do like him, after all... maybe Yahiko was right thinking that he was my boyfriend... HEY! Where did that COME from?' she felt a blush creep out of her face. 'Nothing like that... he just sees me as a friend, nothing more!'
Her thoughts was cut-off when the attic door burst open, revealing Tomoe and Kamatari. She sighed and readied herself to be interrogated.
"Kaoru!" Kamatari called and Kaoru gave her a small smile.
"Hai?"
"So, how does it go?" Tomoe asked while Kamatari was smiling at Kaoru widely.
"I don't know if you two will like it," Kaoru sighed. "He told me that the prince was out in Yokohama to meet the consul and the princess there. He also told me that..."
"A Princess?!? Are they going to get married?!? No... My dreams... my dreams..." Kamatari looked broken-hearted, saying those words in a melodramatic voice.
"Er... Well, it's not like that... but Yukishiro-san told me that the king must've been planning on getting the princess closer to his son... But maybe it's not really like that..." Kaoru added trying to make Kamatari stop crying.
"How can he be so unfair?" Kamatari ran out of Kaoru's 'room' while Tomoe only rolled her eyes.
"The childish brat." she muttuered. "Of course that's not true... besides, the prince have met many princesses from different places and he gave none of them his attention... so, I still got my chance... I mean I always have my chance..." she said before stalking off. Kaoru sighed and closed the door of her 'room'.
"They really want to marry the prince..." Kaoru said to herself.
***
'I can't sleep...' Kenshin rolled and tossed but he just couldn't get himself to sleep. 'Arghhhh! How come I can't sleep!' With a sigh, he drew something out of his pocket. A ribbon... Kaoru's ribbon... He still kept it and it's always with him.
'Maybe I do miss her.' Kenshin sighed as he put the ribbon on his face. A faint scent of Jasmine is still there, he smiled. 'Oh... I really loved her sweet Jasmine scent... how I loved her beautiful smile, her expressive eyes... her soft hair, everything about her... Kami-sama... I do love her...' as he closed his eyes, a small smile creep out of his face as Kaoru's smiling face came in his mind's eye.
'If only I could love you... if only I could make you show how I truly felt for you... My Kaoru...' Kenshin sighed again sadly, this time. 'If only I could tell it you... if only I have that courage to tell you everything... but I'm still afraid of the possibility of losing you... Kami-sama why does it have to be always so complicated for me...'
He opened his eyes and stared blankly at nowhere. "Come to think of it... I still have Yukishiro as a rival for her... Not that I feel threatened by him... It's just that, at least Kaoru already knew that he's really from the palace."
He smiled sadly. 'If only I could come to you and tell you everything... it wouldn't be like this... everything would be fine... If only I could...' and with that, he felt his eyes closing as he fell to asleep.
TBC...
A/N: Not as long as my other chapters but it's alright, ne? Give me your reviews minna-san... don't get tired of reading my stories and reviewing, ne? And also, I thank you for always being there and staying with me, even though sometimes, I find it so hard to update as quickly as I want. I give you a huge MWAH! And HUGZZZ as a sign of my appreciation. Again, til next chappies! Ja!