Disclaimer : I don't own Rurouni Kenshin.
Enemies Till The End
Chapter 12
Earlier…
Kaoru watched her friend run towards the main entrance. She sighed and hoped for the best before turning to walk in the other direction. She and Kenshin still had their project to finish and if they could get a good hour and a half in of work they would be halfway done. That was, if he got there on time, which she hoped that he could manage this time even though she knew better.
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"Sano, this had better be good." Kenshin stated as he and his tall friend rounded the back corner of the school. "I was supposed to meet with your sister in the library and she is going to murder me if I'm later than I already am." He stopped. They had come face to face with the woods behind the school. Kenshin now knew exactly what Sano wanted him to do.
"Come on Kenshin. I really need some help with this." Sano said plaintively.
"Sano, no. I already got in trouble for this, in school and out, which is going to happen to you. I'm not about to start it up again." Kenshin said stubbornly. "Anyway, I really don't want to die at such an early age and your sister is really going to hurt me for being late, at the least."
"You were the best Kenshin. If you could just help me out a little." Sano tried to wheedle his friend into helping him.
"I'm sorry Sano. You know that if you needed help with just about anything else, I would help you. You should see if Aoshi will help you. I don't know if he has any qualms about gambling." Kenshin replied. "Now I have to get going or I'm a dead man. I'll see you later." Kenshin walked off towards the school building.
"Yeah." Sano answered, looking at the woods before heading off in another direction. Maybe he would try some other time. When he could find Aoshi or anybody else.
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Karou was tapping her foot impatiently. Five minutes and counting. The clock ticked, counting the seconds, and the hand moving the minutes along slowly. 'He is dead when he gets here.' Six minutes. 'He should definitely know better by now.' Six minutes and thirty seconds. 'Definite-'
"Hey Kaoru!" came a voice from right beside her ear. Kaoru squeaked a the unexpected sound and jumped. She fell right out of her seat from fright, landing on the thin carpeting of the hard library floor. Loud laughter rang out at Kaoru's reaction, but was quickly stifled to giggles as the librarian sent a glare in their direction. Kaoru looked up at the person who had surprised her, knowing who it was from the laughter before she had even seen the person.
"That wasn't funny Megumi." She stated calmly, taking her friend's proffered hand and allowed herself to be pulled up into a standing position. She swiped at her pants, dusting herself off.
"You have to admit that it was slightly amusing." Megumi replied. She was carrying a bag and holding a piece of paper in her hand. This was unusual for her, seeing as she followed the recent trend of carrying her schoolbooks around instead of putting them in a bag like any other sensible person would do.
"Why are you in the library?" Kaoru asked. You didn't often see her in the school library. She typically went to the public one where people wouldn't recognize her as easily. When asked about her behavior she only muttered something about maintaining an image. Oh well. Kaoru knew that Megumi's studies were important to her because she needed good grades for the medical school she planned on attending after high school.
"You know the English project? I'm here for that too. It's just, your stupid idiotic brother told me that I could do the whole thing on my own because there was no way that I could rope him into going to the library and that he didn't have the brains to do it. Not that I don't believe it, but he would have been useful for looking for these books that we're going to need." Megumi explained.
"How did you end up working with him? I thought that you two were in different classes." Kaoru asked, slightly confused.
"Well, I wasn't assigned a partner in class. When I went up to ask about it the teacher told me that your brother currently has just below a failing average. She thought I might be able to help him. She's been doing that with a few of her students; having the smarter ones help out the failing kids so they can pull their averages up. I wonder if she thought the situation out. I mean, she had to know that things would end up like this, only one person doing the work."
"Yeah, I know. Kenshin's always late, but at least he does do some of the work and it's actually pretty good too, which I will never tell him, but I have no idea why he's doing poorly in that class. Anyway, wait until I tell my dad that little bit of info about Sano. I'm almost positive he hasn't heard about this little development yet. Actually, scratch that, this material is good enough for blackmail." Kaoru mused aloud.
"I knew that you would appreciate it." Megumi smiled. She may be going out with Sano tomorrow night, but she could still torture him if she wanted to. "Now, since you're waiting, do you want to give me a hand with finding some of these books? It's a pain to have to do on my own." Megumi asked.
"Yeah, sure. I've got nothing better to do till Kenshin gets here. Then I'll be able to yell at him. It's fun. That's the only good thing about him coming late. His facial expressions can be so amusing when he's nervous or scared." Kaoru told Megumi who had a look of amusement on her face.
"You know," She started shrewdly, "sometimes you two remind me of an old, married couple. The way you two carry on sometimes, I mean really. I know for a fact that a lot of other people think so too, despite the fact that you are constantly at each other's throats." Kaoru looked at her horrified at the thought.
"That was cruel. You shouldn't tell me things like that. It's not good for my health. I think I almost had a heart attack when you said that." Kaoru told her friend, dramatically putting a hand over her heart. "I fail to see how that could even be possible. How you could even come up with a concept like that astounds me."
"Really? It wasn't that hard." Before Kaoru could say anything else though, Megumi continued. "Okay, then. Help me find these books." Kaoru had failed to hear the sarcasm in Megumi's first comment and happily set off into the shelves to hunt down the needed books.
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"I'll see you later Kaoru. I have to do one last thing before I go home." Megumi said. She had just finished checking out a sizeable amount of books and was trying to fit most of them into the book bag that she had bought along.
"What do you have to do?" Kaoru asked absently, somewhat curious.
"I'm doing our favorite weasel a favor." Megumi replied. "I'm just going to go check in on that newspaper meeting and see how it's going." She hefted the bag onto her shoulder. "She's waiting out on the front steps, right?"
"Yup. Hopefully she'll still be there. We both know that she's not the most patient person, but Aoshi, she would wait for him for a long time." Kaoru said. Megumi sighed as she caught the double meaning behind the other girl's words.
"Yes, well, hopefully that can be remedied today. I have to go, but I'll talk to you tonight. I'll remind weasel girl to give you a call." With that, Megumi pushed open the library door. She was halfway out when she looked back. "And here comes your favorite person, Kaoru. You should go easy on him." And she was out the door and walking down the hallway.
"Be careful. She's only a little infuriated. Try not to provoke her any further. Oh and a warning, she's also still upset about yesterday's events too. You should be expecting retribution for that sometime in the near future." Megumi spoke casually as she passed Kenshin in the hallway outside the library, not even making eye contact with him.
"Thanks for the advice." He muttered in reply, peering through the library windows cautiously. "But I know that she's more than infuriated right now." He kept talking even though he knew that Megumi had left. "She's probably enraged. That's not exactly the best thing. I should really try to get on her good side if I ever want her to talk to me without yelling. It's starting to become a bad habit. But it's better that she doesn't know that." He pushed the door open as slowly and as quietly as possible. He practically tiptoed into the room, trying to hide himself and his conspicuous flaming hair behind a bookshelf before looking into the rest of the room. Strangely, she wasn't anywhere in sight.
'Where would she be.' He thought to himself. 'I see her things on that table over in the corner. She's probably somewhere looking for some sort of book.' He moved further into the room, as cautiously as possible, when he felt a sudden yank on his hair from behind.
"Looking for me?" Came the voice he dreaded hearing. Kaoru stood behind him, with a firm grasp on his hair. Kenshin gulped. She didn't usually look this dangerous. "Because I am right here. I can't believe that you were scared enough to sneak in here. What can I do to you?" She asked with some humor. Kenshin decided that it would be best not to answer her question. He thought that it had been rhetorical anyway. "I was standing at the desk the whole time watching you make a fool of yourself, trying to get in here quietly. It was most amusing. It has, to some extent, put me in the slightest bit of a better mood. I'll feel even better when I've had an explanation." She yanked on his hair again.
"Geeze. Calm down. You're ripping my hair out of my scalp." He complained loudly. She only pulled it again, but loosened her grip slightly, afterwards.
"So? Do you have any kind of explanation to give me?" She demanded, now pulling him towards the table that she had spread their things out on, much to the disproval of the librarian because of Kaoru's grasp on Kenshin's hair.
"Umm. I lost track of the time?" It was said cautiously as a question.
"Not good enough. Try something else." Kaoru shoved him into a seat and sat down next to him. She folded her arms and did, what Kenshin thought, was a very good impression of Mr. Kodama at his most intimidating.
"I had to talk to a teacher?" Kaoru didn't even deem the words worthy enough for an answer and only gave him a withering glare that proclaimed 'tell me another one.' So he complied.
"It was your brother's fault." He had decided to lay the blame entirely on Sano. That got her attention.
"What did he do?" She asked.
"I can't say. Sorry, but he's more important and I think I know how to handle a temper tantrum from you by now. I'm used to them." 'Uh oh. Maybe that hadn't been the best thing to say out loud. Thoughts should stay thoughts.' He berated himself as Kaoru's face started to get extremely red. "But then again I have a headache right now and I don't know if I can handle the yelling, so I guess I could tell you a little bit." He added quickly, trying to save himself from certain death.
"Hmm. I know a way to make that headache go away." Kaoru said thoughtfully. She reached over and smacked him across the top of his head. Rather hard too he had to say, at least for a girl. Then again, he already knew that. "Now explain yourself or you can do the project on your own." She threatened.
"First of all," Kenshin said. "Hitting me was completely unnecessary. Second of all, you won't make me do it on my own because if you did you would end up with a grade that will be less than satisfactory and you wouldn't be able to handle a grade like that bringing down your average. Lastly, your brother wanted me to do something for him. All you need to know is that I said no to him and that I told him that he shouldn't do it either. Then I walked away because I knew that I had to be here, even if I wasn't on time and I know that he followed my advice and went home too." Kenshin rushed through the last part of his explanation. Kaoru glared back, knowing that what he said was true, but also wanting to demand a better explanation. She knew that Kenshin wasn't going to give in though. It was time to accept defeat without letting the enemy think that he had won.
"Fine. We have work to get done and it needs to be ready for tomorrow's class. She's going to be checking the progress we've made so far." Kaoru tugged out a book, that was stuck between the rest of the snuggly packed books, that she had checked out the library the other day and held it out to him.
Kenshin took the book and flipped it open to the page that she had marked. He looked at her bookmark with amusement. It was an old photograph. "That was the party that Sano had for your tenth birthday." He said quietly to Kaoru. "If I remember correctly that was where we met Aoshi for the first time." He added. She leaned over his arm to get a closer to look at the picture.
"Mm hm. I've had that picture lying around on my desk for awhile. I needed it for something, but I forget what. Anyway, that's one of the only pictures I could find that had everyone in it looking happy and smiling and not fighting with each other. It makes a good bookmark though." Kaoru answered. "That's also the first time that Misao ever saw Aoshi, so that day is historic in her books as well as everyone else's. You do remember how she acted when she saw him."
"Yup. That's clear as a bell. We were standing on the line for that water slide and he was in front of us."
"Yeah. Megumi wasn't too happy about that ride." Kaoru added, remembering Megumi's sick looking face. She had thought that only rollercoasters affected people that way.
"Yeah. Then he turned around and Misao couldn't stop staring at him. She didn't even notice that he was looking right back at her. Then she introduced herself and didn't stop talking to him for the rest of the day." Kenshin remembered the funny memory.
"Yeah she dragged him onto every single ride in the place. That is certainly a day that everyone will never forget. But I also remember you boys thought that it would be amusing to push us all of us girls into the pool as well. With all of our clothes still on too." Kaoru added.
"Yeah, well what did you expect us to do? It wouldn't have been funny if you had had your bathing suits on. And did it matter that much anyway? No. We were at a water park. Everyone walks around in their bathing suits there." Kenshin said, explaining his ten year old self's motives.
"Whatever. Get to work." Kaoru responded, taking the picture out of his hands and pushing the book under his nose.
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They did not work for long, however. It had only been about fifteen minutes before Kaoru, who had been thinking something over and staring idly out of the library windows at some sort of poster on the hall wall, saw a person walk past. This person was a person who should have been walking in a different direction.
'That can't be good.' Kaoru thought as she stood up without a thought and moved towards the library doors. She peered out in time to see Aoshi walking towards one of the many side doors in the school building. 'Really not good.'
"What're you doing?" Kenshin asked from behind her, startling her into letting the door shut with a bang. The librarian must really hate her by now.
"Nothing." Kaoru said, but before she could elaborate, Kenshin spoke.
"Then why were you staring at Aoshi? This has something to do with why you wanted to know where he was going to be after school before, doesn't it?"
"Yes, but I don't have time for explanations right now. I have to go and tell Misao. If you really need to know I'll tell you when I get back. I'll be back in a few minutes." Kaoru spoke and ran off towards the front of the school.
Kenshin was left with an annoyed look on his face as he raked a hand through his hair. She was really annoying, confusing, irritating and a whole other bunch of disconcerting things that he did not need to think about right now. That stuff only got in the way and he needed to concentrate on the project. She wouldn't be happy if he didn't get some of it done while she was gone. It was better for both of them if she just stayed happy.
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Blooded wyngs : Sorry, but I like the whole AM romance, which is what will most likely going to be occurring. Here is some more KK interaction, though. It's going to be going a little slowly because of their current relationship, I mean they're barely friends. I don't want them to all of a sudden fall in love. It's going to take a little more time. I hope that you'll still read and enjoy the story though and thanks for the honest opinion.
Microburst#16 : Thanks for reviewing! You seem to be the only one who thought that Complicated Love would be a good idea, but I'm working on writing The Day Care Center. I want it to be more organized than this story is.
Kitty-jinxx : Yeah I agree about the millipede. Thanks for reviewing and it makes me happy to know that you love the story.
Mori'quessir : Okay, thank you. Here is some KK interaction.
PunKrocKergrl : You'll see. Thanks for understanding. There are going to be chapters where things will go a little slow. I hope I'll make up for that this chapter.
Miharu Kawashi : Thanks for reviewing. I'm glad that you like it a lot because that makes me happy.
Okey dokey. I'm done. I hope that it wasn't too confusing because I changed the viewpoints around without really telling anyone. Next chapter Kaoru will explain things and we'll see what happens with Misao. I don't think that my next update will be out until the end of next week. I have a friend coming to visit, so I'll be spending a lot of time with her and I won't have that much time to work on the next chapter. So, leave a review and enjoy!
Konzert