Thursday had an almost entirely different feel for Kaoru than Tuesday had.
On Tuesday she dreaded Mr. B's arrival and wished it would never come.
Thursday she found that she was almost looking forward to it. He had acted
so strangely on Tuesday and she was hoping that maybe she might be able to
find out why today.
Customers came and went all through her shift, keeping her busy enough that she wouldn't start peeling the paint off the wall out of boredom. That was never a good sign. Usually Kaoru was able to find something that would be at least somewhat productive when she was that bored, but she wasn't against resorting to peeling paint. A sad truth, really.
By the time he came, she had been sitting primly on the stool, patiently waited for his arrival. As she went out to greet him she realized that she hadn't thought of what she was going to say today. 'Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wing it. Besides, my best performances are the ones that aren't premeditated.'
When she came around the separating wall she saw him standing there, looking at hot as ever. He was wearing black leather pants and a plain white t-shirt. 'He looks like he's dangerous . . . it's pretty attractive. But by the looks of him I doubt he could really hurt anyone, let alone a fly.'
"Good afternoon, Mr. B," she said, almost with a happy enthusiasm. Almost.
When she turned to go his clothes off the racks, she heard something fall to the ground, but she didn't really think anything of it. Pens fell off the counters all the time and she didn't really feel like picking it up at the moment.
"And today your total is $20," she said with a smile. In response he simply handed her a $50. When she pulled out the $20 (along with a $10 of course) for his change she noticed that it was the one he had used on Tuesday, the one she had marked on with the drug detecting pen. She endeavored to keep a straight or casual expression on her face, and hoped to death that he wouldn't notice or ask anything about it.
Mr. B grabbed the bills, checked them, most likely to see that he got the right change, and said, "Thank you." Then he turned and left.
'And here you were worrying over nothing!' she berated herself.
It wasn't too long before she needed to start closing up. As she was about to get up to go lock the door, she heard someone come in. She was about to turn and see who was there when she felt a painful pinch on her neck, then everything went black.
~@~
Kenshin rifled through the unfamiliar purse, searching for a key or set of keys. He was in luck, 'Ah! There they are. Now we can leave.'
He turned to the prone form on the floor. She kinda looked graceful, even though he left her the way she had fallen. He guessed it must just be natural poise or something like that. Reaching behind her knees with one arm and behind her neck with the other he hefted her up.
"How much do you weigh?" he muttered to the passed out girl. "You're so light you'd probably blow away with the wind!" It was probably better that way. She'd be easier to carry if she was lighter rather than heavier.
Carrying her out the back door of the store he opened the passenger side door of his nondescript black car and carefully placed her inside. Having accomplished that he went back to lock the front door, turn off all the lights, get her stuff, and lock the back door. If the morning worker came to find the door unlocked it would look suspicious.
His upper lip curled in annoyance. He'd only seen the girl who worked in the morning once. That was more than enough. Her bubbly personality was in direct conflict with the darkness of his personality. 'People that happy should just be shot,' he thought bitterly to himself. Well, she was kinda cute, but in a little kid type of way. But not all that cute.
Having locked the back door he climbed into his car. He glanced over at his new acquisition and wondered if he was doing the right thing. Of course he was. After pausing to think about it for a second or two he decided that it was the only thing he could do in the situation.
~~~~
~~~~
She blinked rapidly as she woke up. Her vision was blurry and slowly began to clear. "Where am I?" she asked groggily, to no one in particular.
A blob from across the room got up and came toward her. As it got closer it started resembling a man.
"You're awake," the blob said in a masculine voice. "Here. Take these," it said, putting two small objects in one hand and what felt like a glass in the other.
Holding the two objects close to her face in order to get a better look at them (aka she had them about 2" from her face) she decided that they looked like pain reliever, and that was enough for her. Popping them in her mouth she chugged them down with what turned out to be water. That being done she turned her blurry, yet slowly focusing vision on the Blob.
He appeared to be fairly young, pretty tall, and had some of the strangest brown hair she had ever seen.
"How does it do that?" she asked, sounding out of it.
"The pain reliever? To be perfectly honest I-"
"No, no," Kaoru said, waving a hand as if to get rid of the idea. "I meant your hair."
"What about my hair?" the Blob-man asked, his pitch rising a little in irritation. His brown hair appeared to be sticking straight up from his head. If he used gel or some sort of styling agent, he probably went through something like three bottles a week!
"How is it able to defy gravity like that?"
Her vision had cleared enough that she could make out the expression on the young man's face. He seemed a little peeved. He opened his mouth as if to say something when someone interrupted him.
"It grows that way," a female said, walking into the room.
"Oh yeah," the man said, "She woke up, Megumi."
"I can see that," Megumi replied, raising an eyebrow. The woman turned to Kaoru. "How do you feel?"
When Kaoru turned to look at the woman she was shocked to see the snotty woman who had tried to pick up Mr. B's clothes. Her eyebrows knit in confusion. "But-"
"Oh, so you remember me. Then again I *am* pretty memorable," Megumi said with a flip of her long hair over her shoulder.
"You could say that again," Kaoru muttered to herself.
"What was that?"
"I said that I feel ok. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, I have quite a bit of medical knowledge and I basically serve as the doctor around here when I'm not doing my other work."
"Other work?" Kaoru asked.
"Oh, that's not important. Anyway, we'll let you rest now, you've had a long day. Oh! I almost forgot, how rude of me! My name is Megumi and the dimwit over there is Sanosuke."
"Pleased to meet you Miss- HEY! I'm not a dimwit!"
Grabbing the collar of his shirt Megumi pulled Sanosuke to the door and said, "Anyway, well, we'll let you sleep now," and softly shut the door.
Kaoru could still hear Sanosuke loudly complaining in the hallway about what Megumi had called him. The only reaction she could really come up with was a raised eyebrow. 'Oh well," she thought, "I might as well get some sleep like they said. I'll figure out what's going on tomorrow.'
~
Review Replies:
Aryana1~ Um, yeah, it's kinda interesting how I came up with the idea. I was at work (I'll bet you never guess where I worked) and I was really bored. The idea just came to me, so yeah. I decided to post it. But the dry cleaners isn't the only setting for the story, it was just a starting point.
StratusNight~ I thought it was funny. Not to mention fairly accurate (I really loved the whole "Amon-That was...you need glasses" thing). Looks like I took you up on your offer to kick back for a little bit. I did watch some anime, but I skipped on the pecan pie and kit kats (apparently they're fattening and we don't want that for poor Van-Chan!).
Gypsy-chan~ ::blushes:: Oh, stop! You're embarrassing me! I never could take praise all that well, but thank you. I'm glad you like it. As you can see, I introduced that rooster head that you seem to be fond of. I couldn't help myself, it wouldn't be a Rurouni Kenshin fic without Sanosuke in it!
wouldn't you like to know?~ Uh, nice sn there. A little aggressive, wouldn't you say? Anyway, I hope I didn't change the pattern of the story getting better and better with this last chapter. That would be kinda sad.
Boomerang-chan~ ::sweat drops:: As far as I know, the whole drug detector pen is simply a figment of my imagination. I loosely based it on markers they have to see if money is counterfeit or not. If the money is real the ink looks like an amber/ochre (I must be a girl, using "ochre" to describe a color; oh man!) color. I know what it's like to have a crazy cousin. Just ask StratusNight about it if you don't believe me. ;)
Caitlin~ Two reviews? I'm flattered! Sorry about taking so long for this update. I've hit a semi-writer's block, but it isn't too serious. I know what I want to happen in the end (sort of) so I just need to keep heading in that direction. Besides, I'm fairly confident that ideas will come to me as I go along. They usually do.
Moonlight's sorrow~ Hmm, I probably should have given a little more explanation of the drug detector pen. In my head I saw it as reacting to residue on the currency. I realize there's somewhat of a flaw in this, but let's not get all nit-picky. Sorry about the confusion. I promise that wasn't my intent (I get confused all the time and it drives me nuts; it isn't because I'm ditzy, either! I don't know why it happens . . . ). Anyway, I hope you like this chapter!
Customers came and went all through her shift, keeping her busy enough that she wouldn't start peeling the paint off the wall out of boredom. That was never a good sign. Usually Kaoru was able to find something that would be at least somewhat productive when she was that bored, but she wasn't against resorting to peeling paint. A sad truth, really.
By the time he came, she had been sitting primly on the stool, patiently waited for his arrival. As she went out to greet him she realized that she hadn't thought of what she was going to say today. 'Oh well, I guess I'll just have to wing it. Besides, my best performances are the ones that aren't premeditated.'
When she came around the separating wall she saw him standing there, looking at hot as ever. He was wearing black leather pants and a plain white t-shirt. 'He looks like he's dangerous . . . it's pretty attractive. But by the looks of him I doubt he could really hurt anyone, let alone a fly.'
"Good afternoon, Mr. B," she said, almost with a happy enthusiasm. Almost.
When she turned to go his clothes off the racks, she heard something fall to the ground, but she didn't really think anything of it. Pens fell off the counters all the time and she didn't really feel like picking it up at the moment.
"And today your total is $20," she said with a smile. In response he simply handed her a $50. When she pulled out the $20 (along with a $10 of course) for his change she noticed that it was the one he had used on Tuesday, the one she had marked on with the drug detecting pen. She endeavored to keep a straight or casual expression on her face, and hoped to death that he wouldn't notice or ask anything about it.
Mr. B grabbed the bills, checked them, most likely to see that he got the right change, and said, "Thank you." Then he turned and left.
'And here you were worrying over nothing!' she berated herself.
It wasn't too long before she needed to start closing up. As she was about to get up to go lock the door, she heard someone come in. She was about to turn and see who was there when she felt a painful pinch on her neck, then everything went black.
~@~
Kenshin rifled through the unfamiliar purse, searching for a key or set of keys. He was in luck, 'Ah! There they are. Now we can leave.'
He turned to the prone form on the floor. She kinda looked graceful, even though he left her the way she had fallen. He guessed it must just be natural poise or something like that. Reaching behind her knees with one arm and behind her neck with the other he hefted her up.
"How much do you weigh?" he muttered to the passed out girl. "You're so light you'd probably blow away with the wind!" It was probably better that way. She'd be easier to carry if she was lighter rather than heavier.
Carrying her out the back door of the store he opened the passenger side door of his nondescript black car and carefully placed her inside. Having accomplished that he went back to lock the front door, turn off all the lights, get her stuff, and lock the back door. If the morning worker came to find the door unlocked it would look suspicious.
His upper lip curled in annoyance. He'd only seen the girl who worked in the morning once. That was more than enough. Her bubbly personality was in direct conflict with the darkness of his personality. 'People that happy should just be shot,' he thought bitterly to himself. Well, she was kinda cute, but in a little kid type of way. But not all that cute.
Having locked the back door he climbed into his car. He glanced over at his new acquisition and wondered if he was doing the right thing. Of course he was. After pausing to think about it for a second or two he decided that it was the only thing he could do in the situation.
~~~~
~~~~
She blinked rapidly as she woke up. Her vision was blurry and slowly began to clear. "Where am I?" she asked groggily, to no one in particular.
A blob from across the room got up and came toward her. As it got closer it started resembling a man.
"You're awake," the blob said in a masculine voice. "Here. Take these," it said, putting two small objects in one hand and what felt like a glass in the other.
Holding the two objects close to her face in order to get a better look at them (aka she had them about 2" from her face) she decided that they looked like pain reliever, and that was enough for her. Popping them in her mouth she chugged them down with what turned out to be water. That being done she turned her blurry, yet slowly focusing vision on the Blob.
He appeared to be fairly young, pretty tall, and had some of the strangest brown hair she had ever seen.
"How does it do that?" she asked, sounding out of it.
"The pain reliever? To be perfectly honest I-"
"No, no," Kaoru said, waving a hand as if to get rid of the idea. "I meant your hair."
"What about my hair?" the Blob-man asked, his pitch rising a little in irritation. His brown hair appeared to be sticking straight up from his head. If he used gel or some sort of styling agent, he probably went through something like three bottles a week!
"How is it able to defy gravity like that?"
Her vision had cleared enough that she could make out the expression on the young man's face. He seemed a little peeved. He opened his mouth as if to say something when someone interrupted him.
"It grows that way," a female said, walking into the room.
"Oh yeah," the man said, "She woke up, Megumi."
"I can see that," Megumi replied, raising an eyebrow. The woman turned to Kaoru. "How do you feel?"
When Kaoru turned to look at the woman she was shocked to see the snotty woman who had tried to pick up Mr. B's clothes. Her eyebrows knit in confusion. "But-"
"Oh, so you remember me. Then again I *am* pretty memorable," Megumi said with a flip of her long hair over her shoulder.
"You could say that again," Kaoru muttered to herself.
"What was that?"
"I said that I feel ok. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, I have quite a bit of medical knowledge and I basically serve as the doctor around here when I'm not doing my other work."
"Other work?" Kaoru asked.
"Oh, that's not important. Anyway, we'll let you rest now, you've had a long day. Oh! I almost forgot, how rude of me! My name is Megumi and the dimwit over there is Sanosuke."
"Pleased to meet you Miss- HEY! I'm not a dimwit!"
Grabbing the collar of his shirt Megumi pulled Sanosuke to the door and said, "Anyway, well, we'll let you sleep now," and softly shut the door.
Kaoru could still hear Sanosuke loudly complaining in the hallway about what Megumi had called him. The only reaction she could really come up with was a raised eyebrow. 'Oh well," she thought, "I might as well get some sleep like they said. I'll figure out what's going on tomorrow.'
~
Review Replies:
Aryana1~ Um, yeah, it's kinda interesting how I came up with the idea. I was at work (I'll bet you never guess where I worked) and I was really bored. The idea just came to me, so yeah. I decided to post it. But the dry cleaners isn't the only setting for the story, it was just a starting point.
StratusNight~ I thought it was funny. Not to mention fairly accurate (I really loved the whole "Amon-That was...you need glasses" thing). Looks like I took you up on your offer to kick back for a little bit. I did watch some anime, but I skipped on the pecan pie and kit kats (apparently they're fattening and we don't want that for poor Van-Chan!).
Gypsy-chan~ ::blushes:: Oh, stop! You're embarrassing me! I never could take praise all that well, but thank you. I'm glad you like it. As you can see, I introduced that rooster head that you seem to be fond of. I couldn't help myself, it wouldn't be a Rurouni Kenshin fic without Sanosuke in it!
wouldn't you like to know?~ Uh, nice sn there. A little aggressive, wouldn't you say? Anyway, I hope I didn't change the pattern of the story getting better and better with this last chapter. That would be kinda sad.
Boomerang-chan~ ::sweat drops:: As far as I know, the whole drug detector pen is simply a figment of my imagination. I loosely based it on markers they have to see if money is counterfeit or not. If the money is real the ink looks like an amber/ochre (I must be a girl, using "ochre" to describe a color; oh man!) color. I know what it's like to have a crazy cousin. Just ask StratusNight about it if you don't believe me. ;)
Caitlin~ Two reviews? I'm flattered! Sorry about taking so long for this update. I've hit a semi-writer's block, but it isn't too serious. I know what I want to happen in the end (sort of) so I just need to keep heading in that direction. Besides, I'm fairly confident that ideas will come to me as I go along. They usually do.
Moonlight's sorrow~ Hmm, I probably should have given a little more explanation of the drug detector pen. In my head I saw it as reacting to residue on the currency. I realize there's somewhat of a flaw in this, but let's not get all nit-picky. Sorry about the confusion. I promise that wasn't my intent (I get confused all the time and it drives me nuts; it isn't because I'm ditzy, either! I don't know why it happens . . . ). Anyway, I hope you like this chapter!