Disclaimer : I don't own Rurouni Kenshin
Enemies Till The End
Chapter 13
Kaoru watched her friend run away for the second time that day. She hoped that this time her friend would have more success in her endeavors. Misao disappeared around the far corner and Kaoru turned back to the school.
Kenshin was waiting impatiently for Kaoru to come back from wherever she had run off to. He had done some work, but his curiosity was getting the better of him. He wanted to know what was going on and what it had to do with his good friend. Knowing Kaoru as well as he did, he wouldn't put it past her to be staging some gigantic prank. Misao would be the perfect candidate for pulling one over on him. He knew that Aoshi harbored a weak spot for her ever since that day at the water park.
Kaoru entered the library. Kenshin was in a chair, leaning back against one of the bookshelves. The plastic chair looked like it was straining under the pressure being applied to it. 'It would be funny if that chair just happened to break from the pressure or at least pop out from under him.' She thought to herself and started to form a plan. 'The least that'll happen is he hits his head and that only leaves a bump. He can deal with that.'
She stealthily moved forward, from the side and saw that his eyes were closed. Kaoru glanced over her shoulder. The librarian was nowhere in sight. Hopefully she was in one of the back rooms, busy with something for the next few minutes because she would be sure to kick them out of the library for this.
Kaoru reached out and prepared to kick the legs out from under the chair, when Kenshin's eyes suddenly opened and he grabbed her wrist. It was too late though. The chair slid down and Kenshin went with it, but so did Kaoru. She landed right on his chest, pushing the breath right out of him. Kaoru was the one who wound up hitting her head on the hard library floor. She looked up, slightly disorientated from the fall.
"Oh man." She groaned and reached up to feel her head. That was definitely going to leave a bump. She closed her eyes. The floor was moving at a funny angle underneath her and she attempted to clear her head.
"Get off." Came a voice from under her. Apparently Kenshin had gotten his breath back. "Your brother is so right. You weigh a ton." Kaoru gasped. 'That jerk!'
"You know I think that I'm comfortable where I am right now." She told him. "I don't know if I can get up at the moment anyway, so you'll just have to endure my weight for a little while longer." She shifted, digging her elbow into his stomach, causing him to let out a groan of pain.
"Damn it. What was that for? And if you don't want us to get in trouble you'll get up and off me right now. The librarian only left for a few minutes and she's going to be back soon." He told her, trying to push her up and off him. His hand slipped, hitting her on the forehead, where her bump had decided to grow. Kaoru hissed in pain and grabbed her head, as if pushing against the spot would help prevent the pain. Kenshin pushed himself up all the way and grabbed Kaoru before she could fall and hit the ground again. "What'd you do to yourself anyway? This is all your fault. Stupid. Did you really think that I was asleep?" He asked.
"Well, it didn't matter if you were asleep or not. It still would have been funny to see you fall." Kaoru muttered, holding her hand to her forehead.
"Oh well. Get off me, alright?" Kaoru got up and brushed herself off. She pointedly turned away from Kenshin and the fallen chair. 'How is it that I keep ending up on the library floor?' She thought to herself and shook her head. Kenshin picked up the chair and they were reseating themselves just as the librarian walked in, a folder of papers in her hand.
"I told you." Kenshin mumbled to her.
"So?" Kaoru whispered back.
"So, we probably would have been kicked out for disturbing her. I mean there's barely anyone else in here." Kenshin said. "We wouldn't have been able to finish our work and it would have been all your fault."
"Whatever." Kaoru responded. She looked down at the mess of papers in front of her. "What did you do anyway?"
"What did I do?"
"It's a mess. This isn't what I left these piles of papers looking like. What did you do, what did you touch?" Kaoru asked again.
"I only tried to do some of the stuff you asked me to do before you ran off." Kenshin answered. "And you have yet to tell me why you ran off."
"What did I ask you to do? I only had you looking for books and then organizing half of the information into outlines!" Kaoru said, ignoring the second half of Kenshin's question.
"Well, I think that most of it got disorganized when you knocked me over." Kenshin told her. Kaoru let out a frustrated huff and began collecting papers. Some had landed on the floor and she bent to pick those up as well. She began sorting through the papers in front of her. She was annoyed because it was partially her fault that the papers had become a mess. The other half of the blame lay with Kenshin for being so irresistible to prank.
"Well, I'm going to take this home and organize it. You just have to be here tomorrow after school so that we can work some more. I want this done and out of the way. I have a lot of other schoolwork that I need to get done." Kaoru told him, pushing the papers into neater piles and placing them into a folder, before putting that into her bookbag.
"Fine. I'll be here."
"You better be on time." Kaoru added.
"Yeah, yeah. You still haven't answered my question about where you ran off to." He told her.
"I know. I don't know what to tell you. It's something to do with Aoshi and Misao, which you might have already figured out. I don't know if Aoshi told you anything either. If he didn't than he probably had a reason for not telling you." Kaoru explained.
"Tell me anyway. What would I say to Aoshi anyway? Guys don't do the whole giggly gossipy thing you girls do." Kenshin informed Kaoru. She looked back at him skeptically, gathering her bag up into her arms and swinging it over her shoulder.
"Well, I guess. Just don't mention this to Aoshi unless her says something to you." Kenshin nodded impatiently. Kaoru turned and headed towards the library doors. Kenshin jumped up to follow her. "First I want to ask you this, do you have any idea what Aoshi really feels for Misao?" Kaoru implored.
"You know him. He never says much, but I've always had the impression that he's liked her a bit more than everyone else." Kenshin answered as he held the door open for her.
"Thanks." She said, moving through. "Well, the other day Misao told Megumi and I that he kissed her." At Kenshin's look, she added, "Only on the cheek. Misao's a little confused because he didn't say a word. She doesn't know what it was supposed to be because Aoshi doesn't do that kind of thing at all. There's a lot of possibilities, and Misao wants to know the answer. She was going to waylay Aoshi after his newspaper meeting today to talk to him. She told me that she was going to wait out front for him, but he wasn't heading that way, so I went out to tell her and sent her off in the right direction."
"Oh. So, that's it?" Kenshin asked.
"Yeah. I know, you're probably thinking that girls are so overdramatic about everything and what's all the fuss about and couldn't Misao just wait and a whole bunch of other stuff. Well, whatever. Girls see this kind of thing differently than guys and that's just the way it is." Kaoru told him.
"Um, yeah. I was thinking more along the lines that I don't understand girls at all." Kenshin said. "You are really confusing at times."
"You know, I would think that having a sister would at least give you some idea on how to deal with girls, but she obviously hasn't rubbed off on you at all. How is school for Tomoe anyway? I haven't talked to her since the beginning of the school year." Kaoru changed the topic to one that Kenshin had been thinking about for a few days now. Right now would be the perfect time to talk about it.
"She's actually not doing very well, health-wise I mean. School-wise she's doing great, you know her. Perfect grades. Anyway, she can't really rub off on me if she's in the next state over, can she?" Kenshin said.
"True. What's wrong with her? I she sick?" Kaoru asked. She was concerned for the girl who was a good friend, although she hadn't seen her in almost a year.
"Well, the doctors are worried because she's been showing signs of having the same cancer that our mother had." Kenshin told her. "It's nothing definite, but something that we need to be careful about and she told me that she would feel more comfortable coming home and staying near our doctor here than having a doctor we're not familiar with near her. My aunt and uncle agree with her and she's going to be coming home for the end of the year next month."
"Oh no! That's horrible! I hope that she's going to be okay." Kaoru exclaimed.
This was not something that needed to be added to Kenshin's already tragic past. His parent's had died in a major car accident, that killed nearly everyone who had been involved in it and it had gotten a lot of publicity. Kenshin's mother had found out a year before the accident that she had a type of cancer that was untreatable at the time. A week before the accident the family had gotten a call from one of the doctors to ask if Mrs. Himura wanted to undergo an experimental treatment, that at the very least would increase her chances of living a longer life. Kenshin's parents had been going to the hospital to talk to the doctor's the day they died.
Kenshin didn't respond to her statement, just kicked at a rock in his path. After a moment he repiled. "She's going to be okay." The silence ensued once more.
"Okay, well, next time you talk to her tell her hi for me, okay?" Kenshin nodded. "We have to stay after school again tomorrow. This time you have to be on time." Kaoru said, changing the subject.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Kenshin waved his hand carelessly in her direction.
"No. It's not whatever. It's 'yes, I'm going to be on time tomorrow.' You got that. Is it processing in your tiny brain?" Kaoru asked, tapping Kenshin on the head.
"Get off." He brushed her hands away.
"Be on time. I'll remind you tomorrow every time I see you." Kaoru informed him. He just snorted and walked off in the direction of his home.
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Misao ran around a corner. Aoshi was nowhere in sight. Kaoru had come too late and all that waiting had been for nothing. She swallowed her disappointment and ran a little further before turning in the direction of home.
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Blooded wings: Okay, now I get it about the romance. You have a good idea about what it actually is. I don't really mind other pairings, unless it's Kenshin or Kaoru paired with someone else. That I don't like. I just prefer AM and I don't think that I would be capable of writing a pairing other than that.
Seashell: Thanks for reviewing!
punKrocKergrl: You're right about the love hate thing going on. That's what I mean for there to be happening. In a way I kind of have them being friends when it's convenient for them, like when they help each other out. I actually like the way Blooded wings puts romance, as chaos.
Eruza: Thanks for reviewing and I'm glad that you like the pairings. Um, you actually got you're wish. I talked about Kenshin's family in this chapter. I was originally not going to, but the opportunity came up, so I did.
Mori'quessir: Thanks, but my friend doesn't like anime at all and she doesn't like cartoons in general, But we've got a lot of other things in common so it's all good and I had a great time with her.
I know it's a short, but I've had a lot going on lately. My other problem is that my laptop went and broke on me and I lost all my files and stuff. It was a pretty new computer too, so I'm a little upset. I've been using my family's computer, but it's kind of hard when there's five kids all trying to use it at the same time. I hope that you liked this chapter and my explanation of Kenshin's past. As for Tomoe, I didn't want to add an original character so she got the job. She's going to be coming into the story later. I'm thinking that the next chapter is going to be the day of Sano and Megumi's date, just to give you a head's up. So, enjoy the chapter and I'll try to get the next chapter up soon and hopefully my laptop will be back in working order soon as well.
Konzert