Reignashii: Sure I'll write more, here you go!
Mori'quessir: Glad you liked the spiders. I have the biggest fear of spiders in the world. I'm really happy that you love my story too, so here's the update.
Shenyu: Thanks! Someone mentioned that they thought Kenshin and Kaoru were getting along a little too nicely, so I saw a spider and came up with the idea and wrote it.
Kimberlyann: I know, but I can't help agreeing with you. It is adorable.
Disclaimer: I don't own Rurouni Kenshin.
Warnings: If you hate shopping, then this chapter might not be for you.
Enemies Till The End
Chapter 10
The mall. It was a crowded, large, three story building with more stores than Kaoru cared to count. The place where everyone, especially high school students, gathered to socialize in the after school hours. Students were all over the place, in groups, talking on cell phones, listening to music. All the voices speaking at once caused a hum of noise throughout the building as people moved this way and that.
Kaoru sighed. She was hopeless when it came to the mall. She barely knew where to start, whereas Megumi and Misao immediately headed off in the direction of the clothing stores. She quickly jogged to catch up before she was left behind.
"So where are we starting?" She asked her two friends. They wordlessly headed towards a large department store, once again leaving Kaoru to hurry after them. They disappeared inside and Kaoru followed.
Inside there was a myriad of clothing, on shelves, racks and displays. There was also a burst of color and the walls were a shocking white that didn't seem to effect anyone else's eyes the way they did Kaoru's. The music was slightly loud and it was starting to grate on her nerves.
By the time she found Misao and Megumi among the racks, Megumi had an armful of clothing that was rapidly growing as they both hunted and found clothes for Megumi to try on.
"Kaoru, go with Megumi to the dressing room and tell her what you think about each outfit." Misao ordered. "You won't be any help to me out here." With that she dove away into another section of the store to look for more clothes. Kaoru followed Megumi into the dressing room.
The first thing that Megumi came out in was a long, pink skirt and a white tank top. She looked at herself critically in the mirror. "No this won't work unless I can find some kind of sweater. It makes me look so short. What do you think Kaoru?" She asked, turning.
Truthfully Kaoru couldn't see a problem with the outfit, so what if she looked a little short? "Um, it doesn't look bad. I don't see what's wrong with it." Megumi just stared at her.
"Never mind. It's too plain for me anyway." She went back into the changing room. This continued for about twenty minutes. Megumi coming out, looking into the mirror and declaring something unsatisfactory about the outfit and returning to try something else on. Then Misao showed up. She had another armload of clothing.
"I searched the shelves, but this is the best. Try these on now and I'll stay to help out." Megumi happily grabbed the clothing and vanished once more. Kaoru groaned mentally. She couldn't see how she had completely forgotten what Misao and Megumi could be like when shopping. She had to admit though, this was the worst she had ever seen them.
Kaoru tuned out the critiques of every outfit and leaned against the doorframe of the entrance to the dressing room. In the front of the store she could see out to the multitudes of people milling around, looking in windows and talking. There were so many different kinds of people out there and they all seemed to enjoy being here.
"Okay, let's go pay for this stuff and then on to the next store!" Misao said enthusiastically. Megumi had ended up with the pink skirt, a silky, light purple camisole top and a small sundress which she had insisted on buying even though summer was over two months away.
They walked over to the register where there was a line. 'Oh no.' Was Kaoru's only thought. She cringed when her two friends looked at her.
"Kaoru? Can you stay and pay while me and Misao go look in the next store. Just come and find us there." Megumi asked.
"Alright." Kaoru said, slightly annoyed. She absolutely hated standing on lines. She was bored very easily. Not even watching the traffic in the hallways of the mall was enough to interest her for more than ten minutes and from the looks of it she might be standing there for longer. She only agreed because of the looks her two friends were giving her and the fact that she was their friend after all.
"Okay, we'll see you! Thanks!" Megumi said brightly.
"Yeah! Don't get into any trouble!" Misao added as she bounced away with Megumi.
'Oh joy. Just how I want to spend my afternoon. On a line.' Kaoru thought sarcastically as she watched them cross into another store.
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"So, now that we have Kaoru in the mall with us I think that we should help her out a little with her wardrobe." Megumi commented as she and Misao hunted through the racks and shelves of the clothing store.
"I agree. She doesn't dress badly, her clothes are just a little worn. She saves all of the money she makes and barely spends any of it. She keeps talking about saving money for college and books and stuff." Misao added.
"Well, she only has a summer job at the library and she doesn't make that much. She does babysit though, right? Regularly on the weekends for that one family? The mother owns a restaurant and she has two adorable little girls I think." Megumi said.
"Yeah." Answered Misao. "Ooo, look at this!" She exclaimed holding up the item.
"Oh, that is nice. You know who would look even better in it? Kaoru. That shade of blue would match her eyes exactly." Megumi told Misao.
"Hmm. Yeah and if we could find the right top to go with it, she would look really great and I bet that Himura would really appreciate the way she would look in it too." The two girls looked at each other and began hunting once more, this time for something to go with the skirt Misao had just discovered.
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'Oh man. Seriously how long can one line be?' Kaoru groaned to herself. 'Seriously, it's a school night. What is everyone doing at the mall? What about homework and all that kind of stuff?' 'Well, you are at the mall yourself.' She countered. 'Oh butt out.' She told the more sensible part of her mind. 'It's not as if I want to be here.' 'But isn't it better than doing homework?' She argued back. Kaoru shook her head. 'I'm going crazy, arguing with myself.'
"I can help the next person on line." Kaoru looked up at the voice to see how many people were left in front of her. She found the sales woman looking straight at her.
"Oh, sorry about that." She walked up to the counter and laid the clothes on the top. She pulled them off the hangers and folded them as the lady rang them up and then she paid.
She walked out of the store. Hopefully Megumi and Misao would still be in the store she had seen them enter earlier. If not, there was no way she was going to hunt them down.
She spotted them near the back of the store. Surprisingly they didn't have armloads of clothes either.
"Hey guys." She said, walking up to them. "That line was never ending. The people in front of me just had to have conversations with the saleslady that took forever. I thought that they would never stop talking."
"Okay, in you go." It was Misao who shoved her in the direction of the changing rooms.
"What are you doing?" Kaoru yelped as she was pulled along.
"You're going to try something on." Megumi said as she tugged the shopping bag out of Kaoru's hand. "And you're not allowed to argue with us. Just do it."
Kaoru found herself in one of the small changing rooms with a few items of clothing in her arms. She looked at them and saw that they were her style clothing. Thank goodness they weren't trying to force her into something that she would never have picked off the shelves herself. 'I might as well get this over with.' She thought to herself and pulled the first thing off the top of the pile.
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Misao and Megumi were waiting outside the changing room door for Kaoru to emerge.
"Are you coming out of there?" Misao asked loudly.
"Yeah, yeah." They both heard Kaoru mutter.
"Well, hurry up. I'm getting bored out here."
"Now you know how it feels." They heard Kaoru counter as she opened up the door. She was wearing the blue skirt that Misao had found and it was perfect.
"Oh wow Kaoru." Megumi said. "That looks great on you!" And it did. The fabric was the same sapphire color of Kaoru's eyes. It swirled around to just above her knees and flared outward, making her legs look longer than they actually were. The material clung to her hips, accentuating the small curves she had. A pure white ribbon was also wrapped around and tied in a delicate bow, the ends trailing down to swirl with the skirt. Misao had found the perfect shirt to go with it. A plain white boat neck, with three quarter sleeves. Although the outfit was quite simple, it made Kaoru look quite elegant.
"Yeah, Megumi's right Kaoru. You look amazing!" Misao added.
"Thanks guys. But I have one question. What happened to finding an outfit for Megumi?" She asked them quizzically.
"Oh that, we have loads of time." Megumi said casually.
"Really?" Kaoru asked. "Well I don't know about you guys, but I seriously don't want to spend the rest of the day here. Sorry, but I'm starting to think that I might be a little claustrophobic and I wanted to make dinner for my family tonight." She told them.
"Kaoru, first of all, you can't be claustrophobic in a mall, especially this one. It's so open and when you're claustrophobic that means you don't like small spaces." Kaoru sniffed at that, but didn't say anything. "And second, I think that Yahiko, Sano and your dad will thank us if we stopped you from making dinner." Misao told her.
"Come on! What is so bad about my cooking? Really?" Kaoru asked indignantly as she threw her arms in the air.
"Nothing, nothing, it's fine." Megumi soothed and ushered Kaoru back into the changing room. "Change and come back out, okay?" She pushed her in.
"Why'd you tell her that?" Misao asked Megumi when she knew that Kaoru wouldn't come out of the small room. "I know that you complain the most whenever she cooks." They both laughed quietly when they heard the annoyed huff coming from behind the door.
"Let's pick up the pace Kaoru!" Megumi called. "You're the one who wants to get out of here!" She had to skip back quickly when the door popped open rather violently. Before Kaoru could do anything she was yanked to the front of the store where Misao scooped up the clothes and deposited them on the counter to pay. Then they exited the store and headed for the escalators.
"Hey Misao! Why'd you do that?" Kaoru asked as Misao shoved the bag into her arms. "I don't know if I can afford it." She started.
"It's a gift from Meg and me. Wear it wisely, you'll know when the time comes to wear it." Misao replied cryptically before she and Megumi burst out laughing. Kaoru looked at the two of them.
"Why do I feel like I'm missing something?" She asked plaintively.
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Kaoru was dragged into a few more stores where Misao put her to use running back and forth from the shelves to get the correct sizes or grab something that she remembered that she thought would go perfect with this or that.
"Hey, guys?" She knew that Megumi had found the perfect outfit a while ago. "Don't you think it's about time that we leave, I mean, how many things can you buy in one trip to the mall? Personally I think that you're doing this just to torture me."
"Well," Megumi drew out the word. "Yeah, I guess we could go, but I think that we should stop and get dinner on the way home.
"That's a good idea! I'm starving!" Misao agreed. Kaoru opened her mouth to speak, but Megumi cut her off.
"I know you wanted to make dinner, but we can just pick something up for them and take it back to your place, how about that?" Kaoru couldn't argue. Instead she only sighed.
"For that we're going to need to get pizza." She told them.
"Oh, yum! I haven't had pizza in a while! We can get the chicken fries and zeppilies too!" Misao was in heaven and she took off running for the parking lot.
"Yeah, well I've been having pizza way too much lately." Kaoru muttered glancing down at her stomach as she started after Misao, hoping that the hyper weasel hadn't hurt herself.
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"Hey, I'm home!" Kaoru called out the ritual greeting that everbody in her family used to announce their presence.
"In here!" She heard her dad call from the living room. There she found Yahiko and her father watching an old movie on tv.
"I got dinner," She started apologetically, "I know I said I would make something but-" Geez people seemed to love to cut her off today.
"It's no problem, you can do it another time." Koshijirou said standing up to help relieve the girls of the food. "We might actually have leftovers tonight. Sano's out with the boys. At least we know there'll be enough for everyone." He laughed.
"I don't know about that. Yahiko is definitely on his way to out-eating Sano one of these days." Misao joked.
"Hey, weasel girl you could out-eat both me and Sano you know!" Yahiko said indignantly.
"That was mean, shortie." Misao said, smacking him on the top of his head as she walked by. The humorous thing about this comment was the fact that Yahiko was nearly the same height as Misao. Kaoru knew to stay away from the shortie comments when she was arguing with Yahiko seeing as she was barely taller than Misao.
"Come and eat you two!" That was all it took and they both dashed for the table, Yahiko's similarity to Sano was obvious, but Misao's?
As they were eating, Koshijirou asked the fatal question. "So, how did the shopping go?" To say he immediately regretted his decision was an understatement. As Kaoru listened to her two friends go over every little detail of their day, all she could think was, 'Poor Dad.'
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Hey everyone! School is now officially over for me and it's vacation time! Sorry I didn't update, but I was having trouble with this chapter and then finals came up and my mom banned me from the computer until I was done with them. Of the four finals I had to take, three of them were regents. Dumb New York. We're the only state that has tests like that.
This chapter was giving me a lot of trouble for some strange reason and I apologize for any glaring mistakes in advance. Maybe the fact that I don't spend that much time in the mall made it trickier to write. Geeky as it sounds, I love the library and bookstores. But when I got going, I just kept adding more and more random stuff to it and it turned out to be longer than I expected so I also apologize if it seems a little mismatched to you. I also didn't think that I was actually going to make it to my tenth chapter either once I started having trouble writing it. Oh well, enjoy!
Just to let everyone know for next time I'm going to be writing under my new penname, Konzert, so it'll be different for chapter eleven.
Keta Himura