Disclaimer: I do not own Rurouni Kenshin or any of the characters.
Author's note: Okay, that took a long time to update. But I finally got around to typing the story out! Hopefully I'll find a way to update more frequently soon. Thank you everyone for the reviews! I loved each and every one all of them! Anonymous but very interested, hopefully this clears some stuff up (thanks for the suggestions by the way).
Chapter 11:
Kaoru was stunned, scared, and a little mad at the boy who stood in front of her.
'Why in the world is he here? What will happen when he tells the people who I am? Will I be sent back? How dare he ruin my adventure! What will Kenshin think? Wait! Why do I care what Kenshin thinks? Why am I wondering about Kenshin when I should be worrying about keeping the little punk quiet? Damn that kid!'
As if he was reading her mind Yahiko started to smirk. "Well if it isn't…"
Before she knew what she was doing, Kaoru jumped up and slammed her hand over the boy's mouth. "Could we talk in private, child?" She said through gritted teeth.
Kaoru heard a muffled, "I am not a child!"
She then asked a very shocked Misao where she might have a word with the boy and Misao pointed to her left which was a very dusty looking room. Kaoru yanked the boy along and shoved him into the room with her while the rest of the group just stared in wonder.
They all looked at each other in silence until Ochika broke it. "Well Tsubame, lets have some tea before you give the rest of your tour?" She signaled for Kenshin to follow her into the kitchen as they left a very frightened looking Tsubame staring at the door in which Yahiko had just been forced through.
As Ochika was preparing the tea she whispered to Kenshin, "Why did Tsubame have to show you the Akabeko? You already knew where it was."
Kenshin grinned, "I didn't want to hurt Miss Tsubame's feelings. She's finally coming out of her shell a bit and I just wanted to make sure that it continued that way."
Ochika grinned and nodded.
888
Meanwhile Misao wasn't as polite as everyone else and was listening intently on what was happening inside the door:
"…I guess I'll just have to tell everyone who you are." Yahiko snickered.
Kaoru gasped, "You wouldn't dare!"
"What's stopping me? Oh! I should tell the castle guards that it was my pleasure to return their beloved princess to the kingdom. Then maybe I could get a bucket load of money."
Misao's eyes went wide. Kaoru was the princess that who had run away!
Kaoru was starting to sound frantic, "Please don't tell anyone! I'll do anything!"
There was silence as Yahiko considered. Then in sly voice he asked, "Will you do all my chores?'
"Yes."
"Will you be my personal slave for as long as I want?"
There was a bit of hesitation but Kaoru soon answered, "Yes."
"Will you bow down and call me master every time I walk into the room?"
Misao couldn't stand it anymore and barged into the room.
"Yahiko, you little brat! How dare you do this to a princess?"
Kaoru's face had gone pail and Yahiko looked like someone had poured cold water on him unexpectedly.
Kaoru didn't know whether to scream or start weeping. There was no way she would get away with this now.
Misao saw Kaoru's expression and she walked over and gave Kaoru a little squeeze on the shoulder. "I heard the whole thing, but don't worry, I won't tell."
Even though previous evidence didn't point to this, Kaoru had the feeling that this wasn't information that Misao would blab and she smiled at Misao and gave her a big hug.
888
Hiko sat on a chair in King Kamiya's room and saw the old man writhe in pain every so often in his sleep. Kamiya's once gentle face was now contorted from the battle inside of him. He was fighting valiantly but Hiko knew that in the end, he wouldn't win unless something major happened.
Hiko glared at the opposite wall and stalked out of the room. He had just walked around the corner when he heard footsteps going into Kamiya's room. It was odd because no one besides the nurses and him where aloud in his room and these footsteps were too heavy to belong to one of the nurses. He carefully looked around the bend to see Kamiya's financial adviser, Shishio, walk into the room.
'What the hell is he doing? Kamiya's in now place right now to make any kind of decision right now!' Hiko knew that he should step out and get the man out of there, but his curios side got the better of him and he listened intently to what was happening in the room.
He heard Kamiya moan in pain when Shishio picked him up off the bed. He was about to charge into the room when he saw Soujiro running down the hallway. The boy looked pale and he wasn't smiling for once. Hiko knew something was wrong, but at least his servant could stop Shishio without Hiko himself having to do anything.
Soujiro glanced into the room and quickly walked in.
"Mr. Shishio, please don't do this! The country is in enough panic. A war at this time would tear the country completely apart!"
'What the hell is Soujiro talking about?' Hiko pondered as he flattened himself against the wall and continued to listen.
"But don't you realize that this is the perfect time Soujiro? We'll easily be able to take over the kingdoms at this point. Isn't this what you wanted when you were younger?"
"It was then, but I feel differently now! There are people here who care about me! I'm not bitter enough to want to take over the country anymore! The country may have its problems, but His Majesty is doing the best he can!"
Hiko heard Shishio snort in amusement. "These 'friends' of yours haven't even noticed that you're gone right now. They're all too busy worrying about the prince and princess. Not to mention the girl you're in love with, Sayo, is pining after the Icico knight and could care less about you."
Soujiro did not reply but Hiko had a feeling that he was glaring at Shishio. "Let's go and take over the world now, my boy! Now that we've taken the King of Icico hostage, we have enough time to gather our troops and have them overtake the kingdom before the kingdom has any time to gather troops. With everyone searching for the prince and princess there will be no way that they can overtake us. Soujiro, get the troops ready, we'll attack in two days."
Hiko was about to jump out and confront the men but when he stepped out he noticed that Shishio was holding Kamiya and had a sword pressed up against his neck. Hiko decided not to do anything rash and went back to his hiding place as both men turned and walked in the opposite direction of them. Once they were gone Hiko started to run as fast as he could. He had to get ready. Both countries were about to be heading towards the war of the century.
888
After the Aoiya closed everyone was exhausted. Even though Kenshin and Kaoru had just arrived and Tsubame didn't work there, they all ended up helping out because later on that afternoon the traffic level at the restaurant went way up.
They all gathered around the biggest table and they all munched on the leftovers after the last customer had left.
Kaoru was happy because her secret was safe for the time being. Of course she didn't expect Misao to keep it for TOO long but it seemed that Misao was finally starting to learn how to keep her mouth shut and it gained her more time.
When everyone was about done they all heard loud angry voices coming towards the restaurant.
"Listen, Rooster-head, I am NOT going to marry you and that's final! I'm not going to want to marry someone as idiotic as you!'
Kaoru saw Tsubame sigh and put her face in her hands. Two people came storming into the room. One of them was a woman with long ebony hair and dark red lipstick that contrasted with her ivory skin marvelously. The other person was a tall man with hair similar to Yahiko's and he had a fishbone in his mouth.
"Fox, if you don't get married to me, who are you going to marry? You're already almost an old maid!"
The woman's face turned red in anger and she slapped him. "Just because I'm selective in who I want to marry, it doesn't mean that I'm going to be an old maid!"
Kaoru looked around the table to see everyone's reactions to the words that were being spoken, but it seemed as if no one but her and Kenshin seemed to mind except for Tsubame who looked extremely embarrassed.
'So this must be a regular occurrence,' Kaoru mused
The woman continued to rant, "Anyway, it seems that no one would marry you so that's probably why you insist on asking me to marry you all the time!"
"There are tons of women out there who would love to marry me!" He glanced at the table and saw Kaoru and smirked. "Hey, Missy! Would you have a problem marrying me?"
Kaoru flushed but before she could answer the woman snorted. "I highly doubt that even this child would agree to marrying you!'
Kaoru was deeply offended! She was not a child in the slightest! In fact if she was at home right now, she would probably be married and she would be queen and this woman would be sent to jail for saying such things.
"Well at least she has a chance of getting married! Seeing her youthful face every morning would be wonderful compared to seeing a woman whose 22 going on 50 all the time!" Sanosuke sneered.
The woman was about to reply when Tsubame spoke up. "Please Sanosuke! Miss Megumi! Don't fight! Sir Kenshin and Miss Kaoru have just come in and I'm sure that they don't want this kind of a welcome!"
Kaoru was shocked. This girl had spoken less than three words to her and yet she had to guts to stop the argument that no one else did!
Another surprise was that Megumi stopped glaring at Sanosuke and she smiled at the little girl. "Sure thing, Tsubame. I know your life is difficult already having to deal with the rooster head all day, so I'll stop."
Sanosuke snorted but didn't say anything. He looked around the table and his eye's landed on Kenshin. "Hey! It's nice to see you again! So you're working at our restaurant right? Tsubame hasn't stopped talking about you!"
Kaoru looked over at Yahiko who looked like he wanted to hit Kenshin but he was holding it back as well as he could. 'He really does like her!' Kaoru thought and she smirked slightly but she decided to listen back into the conversation.
"I really want to work there, that is if the person who runs the restaurant will let me," Kenshin smiled.
"Don't worry; I'm sorry that Sae won't have a problem with letting you work there. But I don't actually work there so I wouldn't know," Sanosuke took the fishbone out of his mouth and tossed it into the street.
Kaoru grimaced as Megumi started to chew out Sanosuke again, "That's because you're just a freeloader! You let your little sister do all the work for the family!"
"Hey! I used to be a fighter-for-hire but…"
He was cut off when an old man walked into the room and said, "It sounds like Mr. Sagara and Miss Takani are back," they both stopped their bickering and sat back down looking slightly agitated. The man looked around the table and his eyes stopped on Kenshin and Kaoru. "You must be Sir Kenshin and Miss Kaoru. It's nice to meet you two."
"How did you…?" They both asked at the same time.
"I have my ways," his eyes twinkled. "But I think it's time for everyone to head off to bed. It's passed 11:00. Everyone can stay here overnight so that way Miss Sae will not be bothered."
Megumi stood up and shook her head, "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that I will have to go to the clinic soon. One of the healers has been sick for the past few days so I have to work during her time. It's busier than you think at this time of night. Most people get into their big 'fight-to-the-death' battles' and then they end up coming to the clinic to clean up their stabs and cuts. Good-night everyone!"
Sanosuke followed her, "I'll walk her there."
Megumi glared at him, but didn't protest.
"Well I guess that means that we'll only have three guests tonight. Misao show Miss Kaoru and Tsubame to our spare room. Shuro, you will share your room with Sir Kenshin. Good night…"
Kaoru cut him off, "Excuse me but, who are you?"
The old man gazed at her for a little while then replied "It's Okina." He then headed up the stairs and left the rest of them to get ready.
888
Kaoru stared up at the ceiling in her room a few hours later. Even though she was exhausted, she couldn't fall asleep. So many new things had happened to her. She had finally stopped traveling, she had made new friends, and two people had found out who she really was (although she had a feeling Okina knew something that the others didn't). She turned her head to the side and looked over at Tsubame and saw that she was trembling.
Kaoru got up and walked slowly over to her. She saw that Tsubame was awake and she was crying. "Tsubame, are you okay?'
Tsubame sat up slowly and shook her head.
"What's wrong?"
"I-i-it's my mother's necklace. I al-always need it when I go to sl-sleep." She shakily managed the words out.
Kaoru nodded. Misao had told her while they were working that Tsubame's mother had passed away when she was a baby. She knew what Tsubame was going through and she hugged the small girl until she had ceased her crying for a bit.
"Tsubame, where is the necklace?"
"In the Akabeko, in my room."
"I'll go and get it for you. I can sneak in without disturbing anybody easily."
"On no! Don't do that!" Tsubame pleaded.
Kaoru had a feeling that it was making Tsubame feel like a nuisance so Kaoru simply said, "Oh it's no problem! In fact I'm not really tired and I wanted to stretch my legs!" She grinned at Tsubame and slowly crept out of the room.
She was walking down the stairs when she stepped on a loose floorboard and it creaked. She winced and checked behind her, only to see that a certain short ninja girl was standing behind her in her bedclothes and was looking very sleepy.
Kaoru told her the story and Misao nodded but she looked a lot more awake now. "I'll go with you!" She whispered excitedly.
Kaoru was too tired to argue and they both crept out of the restaurant.
Luckily there wasn't a door on the Akabeko, but just a flap so they both stealthily walked in when they got there.
"Where's Tsubame's room?" Kaoru whispered as quietly as she could.
"Up the stairs, it's the first door on the right. I'll stand guard." Misao replied.
Trying hard not to make any noise Kaoru tip-toed up the stairs and turned the corner. It was lucky that her father had taught her to be light on her feet because other-wise there would have been no way that she would have been able to succeed with this.
She quietly opened the door and stepped in. Once she was inside she remembered her error. She had no source of light with her. She opened the window was lucky that the moon was bright because it let her see everything in the room.
It was small with only a bed and a small table with the necklace on it. Kaoru's heart lunged in her chest. It wasn't fair that she was able to grow up with so much and yet this child had to live with so little. Not to mention she had to work at such a small age.
Kaoru stuffed the necklace in her pocket. She heard the floorboards behind her creak and she swiftly turned around. She recognized the person at the door and her face went pale.
A/N: Yeah, horrible place to stop, but I promise that I'll try to get the next chapter out as soon as possible! I'd like to give a shout-out to my dear friend The Ultimate Baka Neko who completed her first fanfiction story! If any of you enjoy Fruits Basket and the Kyo/Tohru pairing this fic is the one to read! It's called 'Hanging on to Hope'.
Anyway, please review! The more reviews I get the sooner I update! Thanks a lot everyone for reading my little story! Hopefully I'll see you all soon! Oh and if you're an anonymous review please go to my livejournal review response page. As soon as I get your review I'll post a reply on there! It's at http/ rm- bo. livejournal. com/ (without the spaces) Thank you!