Forgotten, December

By: Kelli St. Pierre…………………………sadly I do not own Rurouni kenshin

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Misao's pov.

Thing only thing she could feel or comprehend at the moment, was the pounding and pain in her head. It appeared Cole knocked her out again; he really needs to find a new tactic or something….cause she was tired of getting knocked out. She slowly opened her eyelids as they felt like bricks. She again must of not have been out long since it was still dark out, but the moon was far off to the other side so it must be early morning or something. She slowly rubbed her eyelids to get all of the sleepy dust out of them, as stared up at the ceiling. She sat up slowly and observed how wonderful it looked outside as the moon beamed over everywhere, including a lake that was not to far off from her window.

As she could see, there were no life forms at all there since it was late in December. She could recall memories way back to when she was just a child, a time when she had no problems in her life and was innocent. She could remember that her and Hanyaa would always sit at a certain lake and would talk for hours about it. She would ask Hanyaa questions about if there were really monsters down there or if mermaids exist. But that's not all the memories she remembered, not at all. She could remember how Hanyaa also taught her how to swim, which she did not learn well.

She wondered though what Aoshi was doing now, if he was even thinking of her now. She was hoping he would get her out of here soon, since she was sick of this place already.

"Aoshi..", Misao said to herself.

Yea, she would have gotten smacked for saying that again. She really didn't see the point in the 'don't say his name' thing, to her it was pretty stupid……it was probably used for her to forget about Aoshi. Yea like that's ever going to happen , she would never forget about him…never. Whether Cole beat it out of her or killed her, she still wouldn't regret it nor forget him.

But the more she looked outside of the window, the more she got bored. There was completely nothing to do here except rot away in this room, or fantasize about Aoshi. Even if her second choice was fun, all fun things get boring after a while. So she paced around the room, thinking on how to entertain herself since it was probably four o'clock in the morning…..she guessed. She looked to the door and she probably knew it was locked, since Cole caught her opening her door last time. But just with the heck of it, she decided to check to see if it was locked. She walked over there, trying not to make any noises, as she carefully grabbed the doorknob with her hand. She turned the knob just a little and was surprised to see that it was actually open.

'Wow', Misao thought, 'these people just don't learn do they, it's either that or their just plain dumb.'

She carefully opened the door, though little squeaks were heard, and opened it just enough for her body to enter threw; which didn't take enough to open for her size. When she finally got threw her door and was now in the hallway, she silently closed her door, along with the squeaks, and she stopped to think were to go.

'Hmm, well, I am pretty hungry considering that I didn't get to eat much at dinner thanks to Cole so I could always go to the kitchen. But one problem, I don't have the slightest clue where the hell it is. So the kitchen idea is out, besides I'll probably be spotted by maids or something. So…hmm…, where else could I go? Maybe I could see Raff, though it might be a little too early. But he's a body guard right, so he should be up at this time. So that's it then, off to Raff's room.'

So she went off to Raff's room, which she knew where at least that room was since she saw him going in it before. And lucky for her, the dinning room was right next to it (Which meant the kitchen was next to it too) so he could possibly get food for her. Just the thought of food made her stomach grumble, and loudly too. She continued walking, while making sure there were no guards around the area as she hid in the shadows. She now approached the stairs were there were guards at the front doors. She had to think hard now, if she didn't do this right…..then she was dead meat…literally. They would obviously see her if she came down the stairs, so she had to avoid going down the stairs. But she saw to her left that the dark wall there had a big drape on it that went all the way down.

'Man is it me, or does it look like they actually made an escape route for the victim here?"

So she carefully jumped on the railing, while still hiding in the shadows, and she grabbed hold of the drape as she slid down silently. The guards apparently didn't see her as they still stood there on the look. She could actually hear some of there conversations, but couldn't make out the faces since they were too far away.

"Yea, I got lucky last night though with some hot chick, and boy was she hot."

"Really, I only got a hold on some cute girl down the street. She put up a good fight, but really wasn't that good as my other one's."

Misao rolled her eyes at their stupidity and noticed that Pack and Rack were there as well, talking with the others.

"Well, it so happens that me and Pack went to a club and got ourselves some firecrackers there", Rack slyly, as he licked his lips," And you wouldn't wanna know were these hands have been."

She could have sworn her eye twitched when he said about the firecracker thing. But when he said about his hands, then she knew her eye twitched as she could feel it twitch. And it was a twitch in anger since those hands touched her on her arms when they carried her. She didn't even want to think of were those hands have been.

'That's it from this day on, I will never stop washing my hands', she declared in her head as she continued on as she left the guards to their perverted conversations. She was now down the hallway that reached the dinning room and knew that Raff's room was on her right, which was directionally across from the dinning room. When she stood in front of his door, she couldn't help but wanting to go in the dinning room as her stomach was aching to…..literally. But she was soon pulled out of her thoughts when she heard……

"Misao", a deep voice said behind her.

She was surprised and whirled around to meet a hard chest, which had two surprised brown eyes above.

"Raff, do you always have to act so suspicious", Misao said breathlessly as she just had a heart attack from him.

"Well I'm sorry, it's just that I didn't expect to see nor sense anyone at four o'clock in the morning", Raff replied, with his same deep voice.

"Oh, so it is four. Wow I'm pretty good." He raised an eyebrow in question since he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Oh never mind."

That's when she actually took notice of what he was wearing, or half wearing anyways. He had a pair of what look like black pants, but were too soft to be out day pants. And that was pretty much it since he wasn't wearing a shirt and that goes with the 'half wearing' thing. She guessed that was all he wore…. since she couldn't tell if he was wearing underwear or not, which she hoped he was.

"Nice ah, ah…."

"There jogging pants", Raff answered calmly," There from the western world".

"Well, that's no surprise……practically everything here is western for crying out loud". When she said that, she could have sworn she saw him smile, must be her eyes playing tricks on her since it's so late.

"Well we could chat out here if we wanted, but since I'm guessing your not allowed to be out her….it's best if we head in my room….wouldn't you agree".

"Totally"

With that said, she followed him to his room which wasn't really that big as her's was……but was still nice. It had all the same designs that her room had, the drapes, the colors, the bed, everything. The only thing different was again the size of it, but it seemed he didn't care all that much which was like Aoshi since he always was a big fan of small rooms. But what she did notice on the wall was two big whips.

'Probably his, no doubt.'

She saw him sit on the bed and followed as well, as she sat on the right side of him. The moon shined perfectly on his face as he closed his eyes, as if he was trying to remember something. Seeing the moon, shining so perfectly, on his face made him look gentler, instead of that rough interior look on his face. This made her think that this man also had traits like Aoshi, since he looked that way also. A chilly wind blew form the window as Misao froze and chattered her teeth, since she was only wearing the dress that a maid put on her.

"Cold", came the reply from Raff. It seemed that one breath from his lips could warm her up so easily, which she liked since she was cold.

"Kind of, since I only have this raggy thing on", Misao said, with her teeth still chattering. Raff nodded and then got up, he went to his desk and pulled out which looked like a big black shirt. He came over and handed it to her as he sat back down on the bed saying….

"Here, put this on. It's called a sweatshirt, it's from the western world, which you weren't surprised to hear".

"You can say that again". Misao put it on, which was huge (since it was his probably) and it came down to her knees. It most definitely warmed her up, she said softly…..

"Thank you".

"Again, no 'thank you's' are necessary. Being considerate is what you're supposed to be, not something to be rewarded for."

They both then sat in silence, but it wasn't a bad silence….it was actually a relaxing silence that both enjoyed. But Misao being Misao, was getting bored and said……

"I wanted to ask you something".

"Direct is best"

"Well, how connected to Cole are you. I mean, are you just his working buddy or something else……since you call him lord and all."

"Me and Lord Cole, were once friends when we were little."

"What!"

"Yes, so were Pack and Rack as well, though those weren't there real names but there nicknames. When we were all but children we used to play all the time at Lord Coles house, which is here. We would spend hours at the pond, and try to see who could throw a rock in it the farthest.

"But when his father died ,when he was only eighteen, he was then parent-less. His mother died way back from a disease, which Lord Cole was then nine at the time. But when he was parent-less, that's when the trouble started. He started to care only about money then, nothing else mattered to him from then on. Of course for us, we were all poor boys from the start and did not have any parents. We all thought that he would accept us in his house since we were like family, but we were wrong. He told us that if we wanted to keep our stay here we had to work to earn it, and that's when I noticed something was wrong."

"So you mean to tell me he's just practically using you guys, as if you all never existed in his life."

"That's right, he practically erased us from his memories and treated us as if he never saw us before….as if we were just rats. And he still does, to this day."

"But we got used to it though later on, we worked hard and kept our stay as promised. I watched as my ex-best friend would bring girls here for his own pleasure, and would then dump them out on their own by morning. Every single day I would see his face, though all I would see would be a mask. A false mask pretending as though it is something when it's not. All I ever saw in him then was a monster, and I still do till this day."

He sat there with his head down, since that was hard for him to relive his past. She carefully put a hand on his bare shoulder, and patted it to help him. He didn't move at first, but then she saw his shoulders shaking slightly.

'No he couldn't be….', Misao thought, 'Is he……crying?'

She leaned closer and she could definitely see lines of water down his face, which only meant tears….which only meant crying.

"Oh there, there, come here", Misao said softly as she hugged him. He started slow at first, but then crushed her as he hugged her back; as he dug his head in between her shoulder and neck. His once quiet tears were now hoarse, as they still held each other. For Misao she was completely surprised, for a man so huge and tough looking….she never expected him to be so open; so gentle. Surely when she first saw him, she didn't expect this guy to be like this.

'That just proves you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.'

"It's okay Raff, I'm here, and if you want, I'll stay with you here".

His sobs softened a little, but he didn't say anything. She slowly moved back towards the pillow side of the bed, as she held Raff's head and laid it on her stomach….the rest of his body followed as well. He curled up at Misao's left side as his head was still on her stomach. She sighed as she felt his sobs disappear and was placed by soft breathing. She looked at him and noticed he looked so much gentler when he was sleeping, he actually looked like a little boy. She played with his hair a bit, but then she stopped and said softly…..

"Goodnight Raff…"

Her response was only a mumble that was too incoherent for her to know. She kissed the top of his head and found herself slowly slipping to sleep-ville as well. She looked up at the ceiling as her eyes slowly closed, never to be opened again for the night. The two slept peacefully , unaware of tomorrow's, or should it be, today's early morning visitors. What will become of not only Misao, but also Raff…….

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Well, that was chapter 11 and whew…that took awhile. As you can see, I wanted Misao and Raff to have a real close relationship. And don't worry, I don't mean the lovey-dovey relationship, I mean the best friend/brotherly type thing. Also want them to be close for a certain reason, but won't say it now since it will spoil some parts of the ending. But thank you all who are reviewing, I so gladly appreciate it and keep on reviewing as were winding down to the final chappies! Tear….so sad that it's almost ova… but oh well. C you till the next chappie then!