Kimberlyann: I might be able to write and sound like I have a good sense of fashion, but I really don't. I just about live in jeans and t-shirts in the winter and shorts and t-shirts in the summer. But thanks anyway!
Animelover11368: Thanks a lot! Um, you'll see what Kenshin wanted to talk to Kaoru about soon I think.
Mori'quessir: I started working on this chapter right after I posted the last one. There's no shopping in this one, so you don't have to worry.
PunKrocKergrl: I have some other stuff going on before we get to everything with Kaoru and Kenshin, but I am so glad that you liked it! Thanks for reviewing!
Enemies Till The End Chapter 11
Kaoru was watching Misao closely. Her friend was do something funny with her hands, trying to make Kaoru understand something. She shaped them into undistinguishable forms and shapes, possibly bearing resemblance to letters. Kaoru frowned. Now Misao was mouthing words at her. That was no good. She had never been able to read lips very well. The motions she was making now took on a slight bit of familiarity. 'The way she's moving her fingers seems like it could be someone walking.' Kaoru thought, absently. She tapped her fingers along the edge of her jaw as she glanced at her friends hands once more. 'Hmm.'
She gave up and looked down at the finished test before her. An annoyed hiss came from the seat ahead. Why Misao needed to talk to her so badly in the middle of a test was confusing her. What couldn't wait until after class? Misao knew that Kaoru would never help her to cheat. Besides from the looks of it, Misao was done with the test as well. Actually, knowing Misao and her current problem, it was probably about Aoshi.
"Is there a problem girls?" The teacher asked forbiddingly from the front of the room. He was sitting at his desk, eyeing them over the top of his large newspaper. He didn't fold it over like she had often seen her father do. It seemed inconvenient to her, really. Who wanted to hold their hands that far apart and it had also caused him to come close to spilling his coffee on numerous occasions. Maybe he did it more for the effect than anything else. It was a little ominous to look up and see a wide expanse of black and white print with a pair of eyes, hidden behind severe looking glasses just visible above the top. Then again, most of the other students saw it as an opportunity to quickly compare answers before subsiding back to their tests. Why he had to look up just now, when Misao just had to be acting weird, was anybody's guess.
"There's no problem." She replied hoping that that would get her butt off the line. He harrumphed and turned back to the paper, shaking it threateningly. As soon as his nose was buried within its folds again, Misao turned back to Kaoru. Really, couldn't she get the hint? Mr. Kodama had even caught her and she still insisted on trying to communicate in a strange form of sign language. Amusing as it was to watch her, it was getting a little frustrating. Kaoru seemed to be that a lot these days. That's what you get though when you have friends like Megumi and Misao and then had to deal with two immature brothers and their annoying friends.
'Oh good. It looks like Misao has finally given up.' Kaoru thought to herself when Misao turned back to her own desk, but she was wrong. 'Oh brilliant. Now she wants to pass notes like we're still in middle school or something.' The note caught her between the eyes as Misao punted it to her, across her desk. Kaoru glared at Misao, who smiled innocently back and then, after a long suffering sigh she unfolded the small note.
When she read it's contents she glared even harder at her little weasel friend. She rolled her eyes, of course that was what the note would be about, scratched back her reply and tapped her friend on the head with her pencil and handed the note back. Misao read it and let out a small, muffled squeal of happiness and took a long time in replying. When it was tossed back to her, Kaoru opened the note to see THANKS in huge capital, bold letters with small decorations all around it. Kaoru started giggling at the silliness of her friend, before she remembered herself and clapped a hand over her mouth and quickly slid the note into her book bag.
"Once more, is there something wrong Ms. Kamiya?" The hostile voice rang out once more from the front of the room.
"Ah, no, no. There's nothing wrong. I umm… got the hiccups. I just need something to drink and I'll be fine." Kaoru quickly said, knowing how ridiculous it sounded, even to her own ears. She bent over and reached into her bag for the water bottle she kept tucked in there. She shuddered delicately at the remembrance of the huge spider from yesterday and then pushed that thought out of the way.
Water bottles had proved to be very useful to carry around. It worked well for any sudden prank ideas, like the simple one she had pulled the other week. She had opened up the bottle and walked by Kenshin's desk. She tripped and landed right on top of him, making sure the water spilled completely down his entire front.
She had gotten damp as well, but the look on his face was worth it. He had been so surprised and she had been laughing so hard that neither of them had noticed that Kaoru was still in his lap. Water was one of the top tools when it came to pranking. Too bad that he and Sano had gotten them back with the water balloons. She had gotten much more wet from that then he had from her small sprinkling of water.
Kaoru doodled on the margin of the test while waiting and then erased them, knowing that Mr. Kodama always looked or any excuse to take off points. When the bell rang, she, along with the rest of the class got up and filed past the teachers desk, dropping off their test papers. She caught up with Misao and pulled on the back of her shirt.
"I cannot believe that you had to ask me that in the middle of class." She spoke. Misao blushed.
"I didn't want to forget to ask you. You know me. I need to do something before I burst. I'm really nervous, but I have to talk to him. Anyway, thanks for doing this for me."
"No problem. I'm going to find Sano now and then I'll talk to you after next period or after school, okay?" Kaoru walked down the hallway towards the spiky hair she could see above the rest of the heads at the other end.
"SANO!" She called. He was standing with a bunch of other guys. They did not look like good news, but her brother had always been one to get into trouble. She would just yank him away for a chat. "I need to talk to you." She grabbed a fistful of his shirt and dragged him away.
"HEY! What is wrong with you?" He protested as he was pulled away from the group, the other boys sniggering behind their hands. Good, he needed to be humiliated a little. It was even better that it was being done by her, a girl, a whole lot shorter, who just happened to be his sister.
"Nothing. I thought you promised to stay away from that crowd, Sano." She started. At his mouth opening, she waved her hand and broke in. "Whatever. It's your fault if you get into trouble. I need to ask you something about Aoshi."
"I thought that weasel girl had the hots for him. What kind off friend are you, taking him away like that?" Sano joked earning a smack across the back of the head.
"Shut up. I need to know where he's going to be after school. Just tell me alright. It's for Misao. She has no idea what Aoshi wants from her and she doesn't know what to do either." Kaoru spoke. Sano just looked confused. He knew that there was something missing, but didn't bother to ask. It wasn't a good idea to get involved.
"Whatever. I think he's staying after for some newspaper thing. He's not hanging out with me after school or Kenshin that I know of. Then he normally walks home." He scratched the back of his head.
"Thanks." She pushed by him. "Don't be late for class, roosterhead!" She called over her shoulder.
"Yeah, yeah." He muttered as the bell rang and he jogged towards his classroom.
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"Okay, Misao. Sano told me that Aoshi will be walking home after going to a meeting for the school newspaper. I don't think that he was entirely sure, but that's the best I can do. Unless you want me to ask Himura. I will suffer through talking to him just for you, you know." Kaoru told her friend as they met quickly in the hallway before the last period. "I have him in my next class anyway, so it wouldn't be inconvenient for me, well, not too inconvenient. Just talking to him is an inconvenience, but that doesn't matter that much."
"Would you really?" Misao was almost jumping from happiness.
"Yeah, sure. What are friends for anyway?" Kaoru said. Then, "Are you sure that you want to talk to him? I mean it's only been a day. Maybe he still needs time to think." She said hesitantly. She wanted to add that she thought Misao might not like Aoshi's answers, but stopped herself. Her friend would be fine and hopefully she could handle anything. She didn't need to mother her.
"I want to though. He clearly avoided me today in class, well, not really clearly, it was more subtle, then again sitting all the way across the room isn't exactly that subtle is it? I mean only a really dense person wouldn't have realized, but I'm not that stupid. You don't think that he thinks that I'm dumb, do you? I mean, I'm not exactly the brightest in the class, but I'm pretty smart, I can get by-"
"Misao, calm down, you're rambling. Everything will be fine. Go to class and meet me by my locker after school okay? And remember to breath and don't hyperventilate or anything on me okay? Okay. Now go." Kaoru shoved Misao in the direction of her next class, before turning to go to her own.
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"Himura." Kaoru said before she sat down.
"What?" He asked, just as shortly, looking up at her.
"Do you know where Aoshi's going to be after school?" She questioned, her voice slightly cold. There was no way he would be forgiven for the spider incident from yesterday. At least, not until she got him back and gave him exactly what he deserved for that.
"Why?" He matched her tone. Neither one was going to give up.
"You don't need to know. Don't worry nothing's going to happen to him." She said.
"Whatever. I think he's got something going on with the newspaper. I think he writes a small article or something. He'll probably walk home." Kenshin replied, leaning back in his chair and looking up to the front of the classroom.
"Don't be late to the library after school today." Were Kaoru's parting words as she made her way to her desk and sat down just before the teacher entered the room.
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"So?"
"I'm almost positive that he'll be at the newspaper thing." Kaoru paused. "What are you going to do, ambush him on the way home?"
"I don't know. Probably." Misao looked worried. Apparently she hadn't thought anything out besides the fact that she wanted to talk to Aoshi as soon as possible.
"Well, good luck. I hope that everything goes okay for you." Kaoru told Misao earnestly. She hoped for her friend's sake that everything would go well.
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Misao sat idly on the school steps. She was apprehensive, but that had never stopped her before. She could also feel the trickle of nervousness that found its way to the pit of her stomach. But she was determined to do this. She wanted to find out really badly.
She couldn't sit still. She had been waiting twenty minutes, but she knew that it could take much longer. She just wanted to make sure that she didn't miss him. Students were still trickling out of the building and she hadn't seen him leave, so she assumed that he was still in the building. She tapped her feet to an unheard beat and bobbed her head to the tune that fluttered through her head.
"Hey Misao." Megumi had walked up to her friend. She was carrying some books.
"Hi Megumi." Misao looked up at her friend. "Were you in the library?" She glanced at the books.
"Yes, actually. I had Kaoru's help because Kenshin hadn't shown up and she was starting to get ticked off with him. I took her mind off the annoyance and had her use her time usefully." Megumi replied. "Then I did you a favor." She paused. Megumi could be dramatic when she wanted to be.
"What?" Misao asked after a few seconds, knowing that Megumi wanted her to ask.
"I went by the room that the newspaper meeting was being held in. Aoshi's there so you have nothing to worry about. I slipped in there and asked one of the other students how long that he thought the meeting was going to be. He thought that it would be forty-five minutes to an hour." She told Misao.
"Oh man. I don't know how much longer I can sit here for. I guess I could work on some homework, but that just stinks." Misao pouted.
"Well, you have about fifteen minutes to a half an hour." Megumi replied. "I know you were talking about a short story for Creative Writing. Didn't you like that class? I thought you were excited about that assignment."
"You have a point." Misao said. "I guess I could work on a few ideas for that." She pulled a notebook and pen out. "Thanks for the help." She squinted upwards.
"No problem. Just call and let me know how everything goes. I know that Kaoru's going to want to know too." Megumi started walking don the sidewalk. "Good luck!" She called over her shoulder. Misao gave a half-hearted wave in thanks.
'Now, let's get to work on some ideas.' She thought to herself and glanced down at the empty notebook page. 'I should be able to come up with something good.'
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About twenty minutes later…
Misao was on a roll. She had brainstormed a few ideas and decided on one of her favorites. She had started working on the characters when she was knocked out of her concentration by running footsteps and a voice.
"Misao!" Kaoru called as she nearly fell down the front steps in her haste to get to her friend. "Misao!"
"Yeah, yeah. I heard you the first time Kaoru. You practically stampeded down the hallway." Misao said, irritably.
"There's no time! You wanted to talk to Aoshi today, right?" Kaoru grabbed a hold of Misao's hand and began tugging her around the school. Misao snatched up her notebook and bag just in time.
"Yeah. What's the big idea?" Misao asked.
"He just left through one of the side doors. You're going to have to run if you want to catch up with him." Kaoru exclaimed.
Suddenly Misao wasn't so sure. To waylay him on the school steps didn't seem so bad, but to chase after him… She just didn't know. "Is this a good idea?" She suddenly questioned. "I mean I could always do this tomorrow."
"NO!" Kaoru yelled once more. "You can't procrastinate with something like this! You'll never do it. You have the conviction to do it now, so you will. You might not be so brave tomorrow if you've had more time to think and you're already not sure about it. You have to do it today!"
"OKAY!" Misao shouted. "Do you know which way he went?"
"He went down that path. Hurry up!" Kaoru pushed her friend in the right direction.
"Thanks Kaoru!" With that, Misao took off running.
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Okay, I know, I know. There was barely any KK action. Sorry, but I wanted to get this out first. I promise that the next chapter will have them in it more. This chapter was easier for me to write and I've already started on the next chapter, so unless I have some unexpected problems that one should follow this one fairly quickly. I know that Misao is one year younger than Kaoru, but some classes mix the grades together, so it's just one of those classes. Just in case anyone noticed. I hope that everyone is having a nice summer. I know I am and my proof is the sunburn I've got all over my shoulders and legs. Leave a review and enjoy!
Konzert