Alright, I have to credit NekoYuff16 with an Idea I got from her review. Sorry I couldn't use it in DYHWIH!
And the SM in this chapter is all for MadiSano.
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Look Me in the Eyes
Chapter 4: Promises
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Kaoru looked over the feast laid in front of her in awe.
"Kenshin, is this all your work?" She asked. Kenshin nodded happily, surveying the table.
"Every grain of rice."
"Yeah," Yahiko grumbled, "Any time one of us came close, he ran us over." Kenshin turned back to the unhappy Tokyo Samurai.
"Sessha said I was sorry, that I did. I didn't see you." Kaoru stared at Kenshin in disbelief.
"You really…" She shook her head. "Forget it. Let's eat!" The others shook their heads and backed away.
"It's all yours," Kenshin said lightly. Kaoru looked at the table again. There was way too much food for just one person, but not, perhaps, for two…
"Kenshin, would you join me? I couldn't possibly eat this much food by myself, and it really shouldn't go to waste…" He smiled and nodded.
"Oi, everyone else! There's sake in the dojo!" Sano shouted. The group filed out amiably and Kenshin and Kaoru took a seat. Kaoru reached for her chopsticks, but Kenshin cleared his throat.
"Before we dig in, sessha has something for you." Kenshin pulled out a small, paper-wrapped package. Kaoru took it.
"Kenshin, you didn't have to…" She began.
"I know, but sessha wanted to. Open it?" She did as told. The paper gave way to blue silk. Gently she lifted out a midnight blue hair ribbon. Embroidered in the top left and bottom right corners were silver sakura. Kaoru's eyes narrowed. Things fell into place.
"It was YOU!"
"Oro?" Kenshin asked, not so innocently. "What was?"
"E- Everything! The… The kimono!" He nodded.
"Megumi!" He nodded.
"Yahiko!" He nodded.
"Sano!" He nodded.
"You… you got everyone to conspire against me, didn't you, you sneak?" She continued weakly. He nodded happily.
"I sure did!" Kaoru blew her hair out of her eyes exasperatedly.
"No wonder you couldn't look at me. You were running a mafia behind my back!" Kenshin chuckled.
"Aren't you glad I'm on your side?" Kaoru passed that off as being too silly to comment on and took up her chopsticks. Kenshin did likewise.
"Itadakimasu." Kaoru lifted the first bite into her mouth. The flavor exploded across her tongue. "Oh, wow!"
"You like it?" Kenshin asked unnecessarily.
"Like it? Kenshin this is fantastic! I knew you were a good cook, but this, this is… wow." Kenshin laughed.
"That's good. It's a bit too much to do every day, though, sessha started right after you left with Megumi-dono."
Kaoru dropped her chopsticks. "Kenshin, that was almost six hours ago!" He nodded blissfully. She looked over the food with a new appreciation. "All… for me?" Kenshin smiled.
"Who else would sessha spend so much time on?" Kaoru blushed.
"B- But…"
"The food will cool, that it will." He said pointedly. Then he changed the subject. "Did you have fun with Megumi-dono today?" She started eating again, savoring every bite.
"It was so much fun!" And she told him all about shopping. He listened with half an ear, happy she was happy, when he noticed a little green lizard go skittering across the floor. He held back a smile. Kaoru hated anything small and scaly with a passion, and never allowed them in the house. Just this once, though, he decided to let it go.
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"Ne, Kenshin?" He stopped with his food halfway to his mouth.
"Yeah?"
"You said I could ask you anything, didn't you?" Kenshin's eyes grew wide and the food dropped from his chopsticks right into his lap.
I can't believe I promised that! How, how could I? She could ask ANYTHING!
"H- Hai, Kaoru-dono, sessha did…" He said in a small voice. He set down his chopsticks. Suddenly he wasn't hungry. He looked up through his bangs at Kaoru and saw she had done the same, a small smile flickering in the corners of her mouth. They stood.
"Kenshin, the food was divine. I haven't had that good a meal… ever!" She laughed and Kenshin walked over to the shoji.
"If you are going to be asking sessha questions, I suggest we go somewhere a bit more… private." He opened the shoji and Sano, Megumi, Tae and Tsubame fell into the room in a heap. Kaoru's anger simmered and surfaced alarmingly fast.
"How DARE you spy on Kenshin and me! Can't we just have some time alone!" She then blushed furiously, realizing what she had asked. Kenshin, also blushing, ushered her toward the door.
"Might sessha suggest the roof? It would be easy enough to prevent them from following." Kaoru nodded, and they walked past the eavesdroppers. Then Kaoru looked up at the roof in dismay.
"Wait, the ladder broke last week! Remember, Sano was using it and… oh, now what are we going to do?" Kenshin raised an eyebrow.
"What do you mean? We're going to sit on the roof."
"B- But the ladder…" She protested weakly. Kenshin gave her a big smile.
"We don't need it." He took a step closer to her. "If you will allow it, sessha can get us both up there quite easily. Alright?" Kaoru looked at him worriedly for a moment, but his eyes revealed nothing. She smiled.
"Alright." Kenshin reached over and picked her up bridal-style. Kaoru gasped and clutched at his gi, hiding her face. She hadn't thought he meant that way up!
"Hup!" He leapt to the rooftop with pantherine grace and set her down carefully. Gingerly placing her feet to avoid sliding off the end, she parked herself cautiously. Kenshin did likewise.
Silence.
Kenshin looked over at Kaoru. She was admiring the view without an apparent care in the world.
"Er, were you going to ask sessha something?" She smiled mischievously.
"Ah, why not. It's not likely you'll ever promise something that stupid again, ne?" Kenshin nodded glumly. "Alright, first things first. It was all about the party, wasn't it? Avoiding me, not looking at me?"
"Yes."
"Not planning on leaving me or killing anyone anytime soon?" She joked. Kenshin snorted softly.
"Hardly. Things like that have been the last things on my mind." Kaoru relaxed completely.
"That's good, then. Hmm… What's your father like?"
"Oro?" Kenshin blurted out. "Goodness that was random." Kaoru tilted her head to the side.
"Well, to raise you he must've been one heck of a man. Was he a great swordsman, too?" Kenshin sniggered, as if at a private joke.
"Nope. Never held a sword in his life." That puzzled Kaoru to no end.
"Was he a daimyo so powerful he didn't need a sword?" Kenshin laughed outright.
"Yeah, right. Ever see a daimyo with red hair?" He tugged on one of his own locks. She sighed.
"I guess not. Then what was he?" She asked, a little impatient. Kenshin stared off into the moon.
"Sessha's father was the head farmer in the mountain village just north of Kyoto." Kaoru's face went blank.
"He was a farmer?" Kenshin thumped his chest dramatically.
"Not a farmer, he was the best darn farmer on all of Honshu!" He proclaimed proudly. Kaoru giggled. She leaned forward, getting into her questioning.
"You ran away to find swordsmanship?" She guessed.
"Nah. Swords kind of found me. You see…" And he gave her a brief explanation of cholera, bandits, and Hiko.
"…So he gave me the name Kenshin and took me in as his apprentice." Kaoru's eyes were the size of plates.
"Wow. Farmer, slave, apprentice, assassin, rurouni, you're certainly well rounded, aren't you?" Kenshin looked at her indignantly.
"Did you just call sessha fat?" Kaoru laughed.
"No, baka, it's a western term that means you've been a lot in you life." Kenshin nodded.
"And hopefully sessha will be more before my time's up." He added softly, so softly Kaoru almost didn't hear it.
Almost.
"Oooh, what?" She asked, interest piqued. Kenshin blushed.
"Ah, well, you know, this and that, nothing of major…" He glanced at her, turned redder, and quickly turned back to the moon. Kaoru glared evilly at him.
"You have to answer me. You said you answer any question." Kenshin shifted guiltily, and a sharp pain lanced through his buttock. He looked down to see the little green lizard from earlier had bitten him.
"Well, that sure came back to bite me in the butt," He commented thoughtfully. He glanced back over at Kaoru, but she was still waiting.
"Sessha hopes that someday… someday I might be a husband, and maybe a father." He whispered softly. "A man can't wander forever, after all." He laughed ruefully. "Ah, well, one can dream, anyway."
"Say…"
"Yeah?"
"You said Hiko gave you the name Kenshin."
"He did."
"Then, what's your real name? Or do you not want to tell me?"
"I don't mind. It's-"
"Oi! Lovebirds on the roof! You gonna stay up there forever!" Came a call from below. "Some of us do have presents to give Jou-chan, ya know!"
"Grr, tori-atama, can't you leave them alone for a bit? They never get ant time to themselves."
"I do give them time alone! How about when I… Or when we… ah, whadda you know, fox?" Kaoru cringed. Big mistake. SLAP!
"Oh, yes, what DO I know?" Kenshin peered over the edge to see Megumi storming away from a red-cheeked Sanosuke.
"Oi, Megitsune! Wait! I didn't mean it like that!"
Kaoru giggled. "Quite a pair, don't you think?" Kenshin stared at her in shock.
"Like pair pair? Megumi-dono and Sano? No way! Seriously?"
"You can't see it? It's so obvious!"
"But Megumi-dono is always slapping Sano and fighting with him!" Kaoru giggled and decided a little teasing wouldn't hurt.
"Well, if the man wasn't being such an idiot all the time, maybe the woman wouldn't have to hit him, ne?" She fluttered her eyelashes playfully. Kenshin gulped.
"Maybe," He replied evasively. Quickly he grasped for a new subject. "He's right, though, it's not fair for me to have you all to myself all night." He turned crimson. "I- I mean…"
Kaoru couldn't help giggling. "I know, I know. Shall we go?" Kenshin nodded and picked her up again. One gravity-bending jump later, they were on the ground. Kaoru couldn't help but notice that Kenshin let go of her with extreme reluctance. She took a step toward the dojo and the rest of her friends, (minus Megumi and Sano) then stopped and turned back.
"Hey, Kenshin! When's your birthday?" Kenshin cringed. He had hoped this wouldn't come up.
"Er, well, actually it's… tomorrow." He muttered.
"TOMORROW! And you didn't tell me! Ack! I've got to go shopping!" She raced to the dojo. Kenshin shook his head. Women.
And he followed after her.
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The lizard idea came to me in the middle of my Physics test, believe it or not, I actually wrote part of it on my test! Maybe my teacher's a fan? Er, probably not. Sorry for making you read this babbling, I must go back to writing!
Ja, minna-san!